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Singles Chat Live Talk Discussion
Harlan's Single Talkshop chat room "Talk It Out Therapy" is open 24/7. Use as needed. No appointment necessary, No waiting, No cost.
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| Just Wondering |
| I come to this site and read the topics and if I can offer a tidbit of advice I do. I see so many views but not a lot of responses. So I wonder what these viewers are going through and would it be helpful to write about it and I would hope someone would respond. About me? Divorce survivor of a 20 yr marriage. I was devastated and it has taken me 2 yrs to come out of chaos. There are times I am a little sad as I never thought that I would be in this position. I worked hard to get over the feelings and emotions and finally feel ready to move on. It took time and a lot of work-yeah I get lonely at times like now :) but I will work through this too. So anyone share your thoughts it may help you. |
| By : Macie : Female |
| Date/time : 03/02/11 10:07:34 |
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1 |
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Lillieanna |
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Female |
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Well it's been almost a year since we have been separated and he is the one that filed for the divorce and said he wanted out he no longer loved me and he thinks he never did it was all a mistake. Our first anniversary since the separation is Monday and I feel so overwhelmed and a ball of emotions. Is that normal? |
| Date/Time |
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09/02/11 20:54:27 |
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2 |
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Macie |
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Female |
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What you are feeling is quite normal some days you wiil feel great and other days you will feel as you do now-roller coaster feelings. I separated 2007 divorced 2008 and I am finally feeling normal again and ready to move on. My issue now is that i am afraid to become involved as I never want to go through the pain and devastation that i felt. I willed myself to go on and heal as I have a child that depends on me. It is not easy but neither is it insurmountable you can and will start to feel better as time goes on. Just go with the flow with your emotions and you will start to feel better 1 day at a time. |
| Date/Time |
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10/02/11 21:23:21 |
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3 |
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Male |
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04/03/11 12:29:36 |
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4 |
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Rose |
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Female |
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rosehakam@hotmail.com
My name is Rose i saw your profile at www.singlestalkshop.com and became interested in you,i will also like to know you the more and i want you to send an email to my privet email address so i can give you my picture for you to know whom i am. Here is my email address(rosehakam@hotmail.com) I believe we can move from here!and remember distance of color doesn't matter but love matters allot in life.
I am waiting for your mail soonest
Rose. |
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29/05/11 01:05:38 |
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5 |
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Becky beck |
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Female |
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hello friend,
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| Date/Time |
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18/07/11 04:12:57 |
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6 |
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Hasson |
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Male |
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| Date/Time |
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24/09/11 03:32:10 |
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7 |
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Wify |
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Male |
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Cut calla blooms and take them inside for vases as they bloom to encourage continued flower production. Always remove wasted blooms to keep them from going to seed. Feed calla lilies with bulb specific fertilizer and compost in spring to encourage drainage and nutrition for growing and blooming. Thanks a lot.
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| Date/Time |
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07/11/11 03:58:30 |
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9 |
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wify |
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Male |
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Leaves fall into several categories, the two most important being their forms: simple or compound. Whereas a simple leaf is simply a single leaf on its stem attached to a twig or a branch, a compound leaf is a cluster made up of anywhere from three to several dozen leaflets attached by its stalk to a twig. Thanks for sharing information.
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11/11/11 06:44:13 |
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10 |
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jaffa |
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Male |
| Reply |
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Once broken, there is no way to repair that particular stem. Unlike the limbs of trees and woody shrubs that continue to grow outward for the life of the plant, canna stalks grow and die in a single season. You can cut back the damaged area to improve appearances without affecting the rest of the plant. Thanks a lot.
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| Date/Time |
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13/11/11 04:54:43 |
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11 |
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wify |
| Gender |
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Female |
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Spinach is prized for its use as a raw salad vegetable and in cooked dishes. Saving spinach seed means you save money by not buying seeds from year to year and. You can also rest assured your favorite variety will always be available. Save seeds from only non hybrid spinach and plant a single variety if you plan to harvest the spinach seeds, otherwise they may cross-pollinate and produce an undesirable plant. Thanks a lot.
Regards,
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| Date/Time |
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15/11/11 03:25:24 |
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12 |
| Name |
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wify |
| Gender |
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Male |
| Reply |
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Spinach is prized for its use as a raw salad vegetable and in cooked dishes. Saving spinach seed means you save money by not buying seeds from year to year and. You can also rest assured your favorite variety will always be available. Save seeds from only non hybrid spinach and plant a single variety if you plan to harvest the spinach seeds, otherwise they may cross-pollinate and produce an undesirable plant. Thanks a lot.
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| Date/Time |
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15/11/11 05:33:42 |
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13 |
| Name |
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wify |
| Gender |
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Male |
| Reply |
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Spinach is prized for its use as a raw salad vegetable and in cooked dishes. Saving spinach seed means you save money by not buying seeds from year to year and. You can also rest assured your favorite variety will always be available. Save seeds from only non hybrid spinach and plant a single variety if you plan to harvest the spinach seeds, otherwise they may cross-pollinate and produce an undesirable plant. Thanks a lot.
Regards,
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| Date/Time |
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15/11/11 05:33:45 |
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14 |
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Coach Outlet Online |
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Male |
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Sun dresses are fun to shop for and wear, making them perfect for warm weather. Be careful in selecting the fabric for your warm weather, sun dress. Great clothes in cotton are cooling and quick drying summer fabrics. Cotton is great for not only being able to soak up sweat but lightweight as well. Many popular name brands and styles today, contain a blend called Jersey cotton. Nylon is not the best material for your summer outfit because it does not let you breath naturally. Linen blend dresses are classic summer apparel. Linen is great when the weather heats up since it completes any outfit by adding some delicacy. Best of all, the materials are lightweight and washable reducing trips to the cleaner in warmer months. One of the nicest things about going to shop for summer dresses is bringing back color in your clothes. Pack away the dark, scratchy wool of winter and embrace the bold, colorful, stripes, prints and solids of summer. Have fun while you shop for your sun dresses, taking special care in picking colors and styles that tell people a little bit about your personali ty. If you want every day to seem like a holiday, you should go on a shopping trip for some sundresses that you really love.Buy the correct style of sun dress to best suit your specific needs. The warmer part of the year is the time to wear a sundress and knowing where and when you are going somewhere is important in when to where the dress. Realize that what you wear to a social event is not always appropriate to wear to work. When you go shopping for clothing you should be sure to purchase different style sleeves and also different length sleeves. With this in mind, you can go to your close and pull out a great summer outfit that's just right for any time or place. It is not necessary for you to store your summer sun dresses when autumn arrives. The summer sun dress is still as hot as ever, especially with today's fashionable leggings, tights, and turtlenecks. |
| Date/Time |
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16/11/11 21:30:36 |
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15 |
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wify |
| Gender |
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Male |
| Reply |
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Freesias bloom in late spring and early summer, providing a delicate, soft-colored flower to the early season garden. Often lumped together with spring bulbs such as daffodils, freesias actually grow from a modified bulb structure called a corm and are more closely related to the iris. After the flowers fade, the foliage remains to collect nutrients for the following year's show. Thanks a lot.
Regards,
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| Date/Time |
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18/11/11 03:35:25 |
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16 |
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Andrew123 |
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Male |
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| Date/Time |
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20/11/11 19:02:22 |
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17 |
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Gianni Cristino |
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Male |
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Favorite post having such an fantastic and useful informative content.describing good blogging concepts as well as basics that are very much useful in skilled content writing as well.
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21/11/11 09:42:47 |
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18 |
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Petrucelli Filippa |
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Male |
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I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made while writing this post. I am hoping for the best work of the same from you in future.
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| Date/Time |
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22/11/11 04:28:20 |
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19 |
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Coach Outlet Online |
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Male |
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| Date/Time |
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29/11/11 17:56:40 |
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20 |
| Name |
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wify |
| Gender |
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Female |
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Water the gladiolus plants thoroughly once every week throughout summer whenever rainfall is less than 1 inch. Spread mulch on the ground around the gladiolus plants to keep weeds at bay and regulate the soil moisture. Also, dig up and store the gladiolus corms over the winter if you live in a region that has severe freezes and frosts. You can plant the corms again the following year in spring. Thanks a lot.
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| Date/Time |
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30/11/11 02:19:29 |
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21 |
| Name |
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Sree |
| Gender |
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Male |
| Reply |
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Nursing professionals face continuous health-care challenges, which require organization, leadership, management and communication. To become a nursing leader you must acquire, improve and exercise important competencies that will support you across the responsibility of looking after patients' lives. As a nursing leader, you have to inspire your peers in order to achieve common objectives in health care. Thanks for sharing information.
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| Date/Time |
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07/12/11 06:47:43 |
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22 |
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moncler louis vuitton shop |
| Gender |
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Male |
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Sacs Louis Vuitton GM n'a jamais pleinement votre équipe est restée inachevée. Dans des conditions de la bourse ont échangé le niveau des prestations. obtenir une fissure du temps moderne même si ne sont pas seulement un instrument, il est au sein de vos facteurs de planète particulière, comme un ordinateur portable ou un ordinateur, sac à main, trousses de niveau métabolique, etc.
Manteaux Moncler point de vente de cette année dont l'inclusion spécifique liée avec des couleurs ainsi que des styles qui ont l'air fantastique à l'intérieur du scénario, l'avantage spécifique de vêtements Moncler Gilets mens et de réduire ainsi de cet élément que le revêtement peut éventuellement éventuellement éventuellement avoir gentiment apparaît. Moncler avant-garde se révèle avoir tant de gens bien-aimé vous proposer des offres pour son / sa très chers copains ainsi que les membres domicile.
Acheter Doudoune Moncler simplement en raison de l'actualité savez, il est irréprochable pour que l'intention du Forum à proximité de potes plus grande par rapport au week-end précédent, arrivent dans le placard d'acquérir un préambule ou d'autres applications, et quand il ya généralement un vêtement moncler Moncler n'est en aucun cas en dehors du temps dans les jours par an ainsi que vous pourrez éventuellement être dans votre élément casier exclusive de colère des éléments.
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| Date/Time |
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12/12/11 01:58:30 |
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23 |
| Name |
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Sree |
| Gender |
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Male |
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These interactive games challenge learners of all ages on their knowledge of history. Some sites also provide reading for the student to complete before playing the games. Use online history games to add to your body of knowledge in a way that is more enjoyable than memorizing information from flash cards. Thanks a lot.
Regards.
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| Date/Time |
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14/12/11 03:54:13 |
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24 |
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Coach Outlet |
| Gender |
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Male |
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At first glance, it might seem as if only a struggling business would hire the services of a professional business . But a business can do a great deal for even a successful business or individual seeking the skills with which to meet their . If you're the owner of a business and you've found yourself wondering how to expand your business or make it more profitable, hiring a business is a step toward identifying and achieving your business goals.Think of a business coach as a mentor-for-hire they're in the traditional sense, because they have no interest in firing employees, cutting costs and improving your bottom line. is an advisor who'll work with you to identify your strengths and weaknesses, help you set achievable goals and teach you how to track your progress, and motivate you to of your business based on your own needs.If you were a professional athlete who already had the skills needed to play your sport but wanted to get better at your game, you'd hire a . He'd work with you behind the scenes to help you become stronger and more focused, making you a better player. A business will do the same thing for your business, using their experience and knowledge to help you find solutions that will help you fulfill your potential. They act as a , looking at your business with an unbiased eye and guiding you in everything from time management to employee . You may be surprised to discover that business can be surprisingly affordable, particularly when weighed against the financial benefits of their expert advice. For as little as a few hundred dollars per month, a professional businesscan help you to increase your business's , profitability, customer service satisfaction, employee morale and management turnover. With many operating via e-mail and fax, you may not even have to be in the same city as your but they're just a phone call away with advice when you need it.A business can be your secret weapon in expanding your business or making your, whether you need advice on web sire design, create marketing strategies or help in learning the skills to set effective goals. Consider hiring a business as a positive step towards reaching your full business potential. As a behind-the-scenes advisor, your business can help you earn more money, operate your business more smoothly, or become a more effective leader. |
| Date/Time |
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18/12/11 19:52:19 |
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25 |
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Male |
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I thinks the main Benefit of Exercise is your health is good and your body will remain fit and you looks good,..
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| Date/Time |
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20/12/11 23:01:39 |
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26 |
| Name |
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Male |
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The cycling is a best way to reduce weight.it makes your body active and fat free.Cycling in a regular manner will give immense healthy benefits to many organs or systems of our body
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| Date/Time |
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20/12/11 23:03:00 |
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27 |
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coach factory outlet |
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Male |
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There certainly are a amount of methods to acquire affordable coach products at coach factory outlet,it could possibly the most effective options.the most vital cause may be the reality that you simply can purchase genuine coach products at there.coach factory outlet online is one of the four playable survivors in Left 4 Dead 2. He was a high school health teacher and coordinator for the freshman football team before the Infection hit his hometown of Savannah.products of coach factory store as well as can easily hand bags, mens totes, internet business bags, luggage, wallets, and also regularly produce unique set increased coach clutches model effect. |
| Date/Time |
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05/01/12 20:01:42 |
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28 |
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coach factory online |
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Male |
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coach factory online is one of the most popular and successful leather brands in the U.S. market.Coach stands for the most-admired innovative style and conventions in American fashion.The coach factory outlet has been in business for many years. You can log in to find more information about its products and services.My friends bought a lot of coach items from the coach factory outlet online, including handbags, shoulder bags, sling bags and so on. |
| Date/Time |
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05/01/12 20:07:18 |
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29 |
| Name |
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coach factory |
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Male |
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My coworkers often buy handbags, jewelry and other accessories at coach factory outlets. They also visit the front page of Coach outlet online.Planning to buy a new Coach handbag for your lover while worrying about the high prices? Here is your way out-the coach factory store.This summer,?coach factory stores combined with Chinese style, the international trend of the subversive elements in bold, the idea of ?weaving in elements in the interpretation of low-carbon fashion casual. |
| Date/Time |
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05/01/12 20:13:45 |
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30 |
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christian louboutin uk |
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Male |
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You will easily notice the unfold zippers of this christian louboutin uk. That is the decoration. There are some inside pockets for you as well. They are easy to match your clothes and to carry.Look at this golden christianbag in the? christian louboutin.Those new bags with classic and fashionable design are more and more popular now!I ordered a charming christian louboutin sale from the christianonline store. It's really satisfactory. You should make an attempt,too.Shop these christianes and the latest design wallet christian Handbags 2011 christian Patchwork Handbags here. |
| Date/Time |
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05/01/12 20:20:04 |
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31 |
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Laicee |
| Gender |
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Male |
| Reply |
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What an awesome way to expilan this-now I know everything! |
| Date/Time |
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07/01/12 00:14:54 |
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32 |
| Name |
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eeicza |
| Gender |
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Male |
| Reply |
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| Date/Time |
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07/01/12 09:22:42 |
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125 |
| Name |
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hosting |
| Gender |
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Male |
| Reply |
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hosting
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| Date/Time |
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11/07/12 03:08:15 |
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33 |
| Name |
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Android developer |
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Female |
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Android is a mobile operating system that has been highly successful because of its incredible features. Most of the smart phones in the market run on Android OS. Since the success of Android, lot of Android Development Companies has spurred up everywhereandroid developer |
| Date/Time |
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12/01/12 01:03:59 |
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34 |
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ibiza |
| Gender |
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Male |
| Reply |
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| Date/Time |
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26/01/12 09:29:43 |
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36 |
| Name |
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Mack |
| Gender |
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Male |
| Reply |
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| Date/Time |
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08/02/12 11:18:55 |
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37 |
| Name |
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Michael Kors Bags |
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Male |
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Many people are familiar with the , but many of them do not know the stpory behind the desinger . This article is a little understanding of the background of in an attempt to help people assess their collections liittle more. It is much more than just sunglasses or what on the shelves of high fashion in all. was born with the name of Charles Anderon Jr. He was born in the qiuet town of Merrick, New York, which is located on Long Island. His mother, Joan Hamburger Anderson Kors Krystosek was a moel. She also was Jerwish and that is how was raised. Common misspellings of his name incclude Kopors Michael, , Michael Cors, and even . |
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16/02/12 23:53:36 |
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38 |
| Name |
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rocks2010 |
| Gender |
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Male |
| Reply |
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You can also rest assured your favorite variety will always be available. Save seeds from only non hybrid spinach and plant a single variety if you plan to harvest the spinach seeds, otherwise they may cross-pollinate
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| Date/Time |
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17/02/12 11:37:28 |
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| ID |
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39 |
| Name |
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trophies |
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Male |
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| Date/Time |
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18/02/12 04:36:57 |
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| ID |
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40 |
| Name |
: |
flyer printing |
| Gender |
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Male |
| Reply |
: |
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| Date/Time |
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20/02/12 23:59:57 |
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| ID |
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41 |
| Name |
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Coach Outlet |
| Gender |
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Male |
| Reply |
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A recent study revealed that the average
and its are worth a whopping
nine hundred dollars! That is 120 billion
women are carrying around in nationwide.
And can you us, really,
when there is such an abundance of variety in the market?
It could well be argued thathave overtaken
shoes as the luxury collectable accessory of
for celebrities and ordinary alike.
But in fact may have had as long
and controversial a history as the high heel,
and according to historians
they were used in a way - to show the
status of the wearer. In the fourteenth
the richer and powerful the person was,
the more jewels and embroidery festooned the.
Not much has changed in the world,
then. Over the centuries have gone
through manyand fashions,
but the word was only coined in the 1900s.
The start of the twentieth also heralded
the type of we would recognise today - with bags getting
increasingly smaller and the introduction of fasteners,
inner compartments and . But that is enough history:
clearly the most important time period inof
handbags was the fifties, which saw the rise of the
handbag designer houses; including Chanel, Louis and Hermes.
Like Chanels Number 5 perfume, some of these
have become instantly fashion icons;
signifiers of theand the famous. Sadly, though,
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| Date/Time |
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21/02/12 01:23:12 |
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42 |
| Name |
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Spokane Boot Camp |
| Gender |
: |
Male |
| Reply |
: |
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| Date/Time |
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26/02/12 23:34:13 |
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| ID |
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43 |
| Name |
: |
Spokane Boot Camp |
| Gender |
: |
Male |
| Reply |
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This is my first visit on this site. I like this article. This information is very important for everyone. All comments are nice
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| Date/Time |
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26/02/12 23:35:17 |
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| ID |
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44 |
| Name |
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rocks2010 |
| Gender |
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Male |
| Reply |
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45 |
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13/03/12 23:20:14 |
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15/03/12 04:31:53 |
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48 |
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49 |
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coach outlet online |
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24/03/12 00:40:14 |
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50 |
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Coach Factory Online |
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Male |
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51 |
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28/03/12 22:56:11 |
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52 |
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31/03/12 22:45:44 |
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53 |
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Brisbane Kitchens |
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Male |
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02/04/12 00:42:47 |
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54 |
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Garden Sheds |
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Male |
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03/04/12 02:29:37 |
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Garages and Sheds |
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03/04/12 03:07:44 |
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56 |
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Cheap Blinds Brisbane |
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Male |
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03/04/12 03:56:39 |
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Blinds Brisbane |
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Male |
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03/04/12 04:45:28 |
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cheap printing |
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Male |
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03/04/12 07:11:54 |
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59 |
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03/04/12 21:24:01 |
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04/04/12 02:52:32 |
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Property Managers Sydney |
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Male |
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04/04/12 03:38:45 |
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04/04/12 05:08:45 |
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63 |
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Family law Sydney |
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Male |
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04/04/12 05:20:43 |
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04/04/12 23:24:25 |
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65 |
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Real Estate Ingleburn |
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Female |
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04/04/12 23:40:56 |
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Kitchen Designs Brisbane |
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Male |
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05/04/12 00:36:43 |
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67 |
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Tax Brisbane |
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Male |
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05/04/12 00:53:03 |
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05/04/12 11:02:16 |
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69 |
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Louis Vuitton Handbags |
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Male |
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06/04/12 00:54:12 |
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70 |
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Tax Brisbane |
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Male |
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06/04/12 22:53:11 |
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71 |
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Garden sheds sale |
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06/04/12 23:04:09 |
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07/04/12 03:17:44 |
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73 |
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louis vuitton |
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07/04/12 03:19:01 |
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10/04/12 23:02:33 |
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10/04/12 23:58:18 |
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81 |
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12/04/12 22:56:59 |
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Tutor Gold Coast |
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17/04/12 04:49:11 |
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21/04/12 04:06:13 |
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88 |
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Coach Outlet |
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22/04/12 19:49:33 |
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Tile Cleaners Brisbane |
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22/04/12 22:32:25 |
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SEO Brisbane |
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22/04/12 23:12:24 |
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SEO Brisbane |
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22/04/12 23:13:32 |
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Gift Baskets |
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23/04/12 04:19:15 |
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Gourmet Hampers |
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23/04/12 05:53:34 |
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Real Estate Adelaide |
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24/04/12 03:04:11 |
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Real Estate Altona |
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Male |
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24/04/12 03:50:26 |
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26/04/12 03:29:44 |
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100 |
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Corporate Gifts |
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Male |
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03/05/12 00:14:33 |
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101 |
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Coach Bags |
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Male |
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04/05/12 19:58:49 |
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102 |
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Jonny Bridges |
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09/05/12 06:54:55 |
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103 |
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chanel uk |
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14/05/12 01:12:49 |
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104 |
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20/05/12 12:13:58 |
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105 |
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Casque Beats |
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Male |
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22/05/12 00:15:49 |
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106 |
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Coach Factory |
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Male |
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27/05/12 18:36:53 |
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107 |
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tiffany jewellery |
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30/05/12 20:26:52 |
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109 |
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barbour |
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Male |
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20/06/12 18:07:08 |
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110 |
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clarks |
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Male |
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Since their humble beginning back in 1825 clarks shoes has built upon their reputation for quality by continuously revolutionizing the comfort footwear industry.From their inception,the clarks brand has been synonymous with comfort,quality and style.Utilizing a wide range of high quality leathers and a surprisingly fresh approach to shoe design,Clarks continues to offer a broad range of fashionable shoe styles for both clarks boots and clarks shoes sale.Whether your looking for a casual leather flip flop,a unique slide,or comfortable casual dress shoe Clarks is sure to have the right style for you.
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20/06/12 18:26:49 |
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111 |
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sale_007 |
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20/06/12 18:38:40 |
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112 |
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barbour |
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20/06/12 19:01:20 |
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113 |
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Baby |
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Male |
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Since their humble beginning back in 1825 Clarks shoes has built upon their reputation for quality by continuously revolutionizing the comfort footwear industry.From their inception,the Clarks brand has been synonymous with comfort,quality and style.Utilizing a wide range of high quality leathers and a surprisingly fresh approach to shoe design,Clarks continues to offer a broad range of fashionable shoe styles for both clarks mens shoes and clarks women shoes.Whether your looking for a casual leather flip flop,a unique slide,or comfortable casual dress shoe Clarks is sure to have the right style for you.
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26/06/12 20:15:42 |
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115 |
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Michael Kors Handbags |
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Male |
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28/06/12 23:29:35 |
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117 |
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Apple |
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Male |
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30/06/12 23:02:16 |
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118 |
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Apple |
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30/06/12 23:03:05 |
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119 |
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Nike Air Max |
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This, ladies and gentlemen, is the man to beat at the London Olympics. In a result that can no longer be considered a surprise, Blake beat Usain Bolt in the 200 meters at Jamaican Olympic trials Sunday, finishing in 19.80 seconds to edge the world-record holder by 0.03. When it was over, Bolt was the first one to approach his training partner and buddy and give him a big bear hug.
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Moments later, Bolt was down on the ground, getting his right hamstring stretched out, while Blake was celebrating — rather modestly — in front of the grandstand. "A lot of people gave me encouragement, said, 'Yohan Blake, you can do it,'" Blake said. "I just wanted to keep performing and keep going." The win came two days after Blake, the reigning world 100 champion, beat Bolt in the 100 by running a personal-best 9.75. That was a shocker, but there were explanations — most notably the terrible starts Bolt got off to throughout the 100 heats and in the final. Bolt has always considered the 200, which better suits his lanky 6-foot-5 frame, his real work. And indeed, he has work to do there, as well.
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| Date/Time |
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02/07/12 01:02:39 |
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120 |
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rocks |
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02/07/12 11:29:53 |
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121 |
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05/07/12 04:09:45 |
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122 |
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zhouliqing |
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Male |
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05/07/12 18:38:20 |
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124 |
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Louis Vuitton Outlet Online |
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Male |
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09/07/12 23:30:49 |
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126 |
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professional press release |
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13/07/12 03:15:22 |
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127 |
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129 |
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Louis Vuitton Australia |
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Female |
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3 November 2012 Last updated at 02:43 GMT As Americans vote, the BBC reports. For decades, we have been covering how the US picks its president.This year, we trawled our archive for highlights from our election coverage of days gone by. The five antique gems below are snapshots of politicians and correspondents' evolving attitudes throughout the broadcast TV era. To the modern viewer, those featured in these clips may seem over the top, crass and politically incorrect - and that's just the presenters. In 1948, the Democrats adopted a civil rights plank as part of their party platform. At the time 35 Democratic leaders walked out. They later established their own short-lived party, the Dixiecrats. But even after the Dixiecrats disbanded, animosity over civil rights remained among southern Democrats. Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett was famous for his segregationist views, and opposed the civil rights workers from the north who travelled to his state to register voters and agitate for fair treatment for African Americans. At the 1960 convention, the BBC's Robin Day questioned Barnett over the rights of African Americans. Barnett was unequivocal about his distaste for the equal rights movement. As Americans vote, the BBC reports. For decades, we have been covering how the US picks its president. This year, we trawled our archive for highlights from our election coverage of days gone by. The five antique gems below are snapshots of politicians and correspondents' evolving attitudes throughout the broadcast TV era. |
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06/11/12 17:59:42 |
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08/11/12 00:45:37 |
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Olivier Grillo Review |
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It's somewhat of an irony, this thing called grace. As Christians, we proclaim that we are saved by grace. Yet in my experience, if I ask folks who go to church to tell me what that means, they can't explain it. They search for words but struggle to find them. Some mention love but but can't expound on it. Some only know grace as a short prayer before mealtime. Is it then any wonder that we find ourselves struggling when it come to dealing with the "stuff" in our lives?
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10/11/12 00:38:02 |
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10/11/12 04:30:04 |
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12/11/12 05:55:09 |
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13/11/12 00:59:57 |
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13/11/12 03:48:03 |
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15/11/12 05:06:28 |
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I think the things you covered through the post are quiet impressive, good job and great efforts. I found it very interesting and enjoyed reading all of it...keep it up, lovely job.Vocabulary Workshop Answers |
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16/11/12 06:23:00 |
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Zara |
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21/11/12 08:11:47 |
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21/11/12 08:33:28 |
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22/11/12 20:14:58 |
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19/11/12 23:55:23 |
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27/11/12 12:55:14 |
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snapshots of politicians and correspondents' evolving attitudes throughout the broadcast TV era.Virtual university |
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28/11/12 20:36:42 |
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06/12/12 01:31:01 |
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08/12/12 02:18:36 |
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10/12/12 21:08:48 |
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11/12/12 01:47:46 |
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11/12/12 02:11:07 |
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12/12/12 20:13:27 |
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19/12/12 00:59:14 |
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| He displays a wonderful knowledge of the versions and contents of the Bible. | His allegory is excessive at times | and his teaching on grace is Semipelagian. | A censorious spirit against authority | sympathy for the poor which reaches the point of hostility against the rich, lack of good taste, inferiority of style, and misquotation, such are the most glaring defects of these sermons. | Evidently they are notes taken down by his hearers | and it is a question whether they were reviewed by the preacher. | correspondence of St. Jerome is one of the best known parts of his literary output | It comprises about one hundred and twenty letters from him, and several from his correspondents. | Many of these letters were written with a view to publication | and some of them the author even edited himself; hence they show evidence of great care and skill in their composition, and in them St. Jerome reveals himself a master of style. | | | which had already met with great success with his contemporaries | have been, with the "Confessions" of St. Augustine, one of the works most appreciated by the humanists of the Renaissance. | Aside from their literary interest | they have great historical value. | Relating to a period covering half a century they touch upon most varied subjects | hence their division into letters dealing with theology, polemics, criticism, conduct, and biography. | In spite of their turgid diction they are full of the man's personality. | It is in this correspondence that the temperament of St. Jerome is most clearly seen: his waywardness, his love of extremes, his exceeding sensitiveness; how he was in turn exquisitely dainty and bitterly satirical, unsparingly outspoken concerning others and equally frank about himself. | The theological writings | of St. Jerome are mainly controversial works, one might almost say composed for the occasion. | by not applying himself in a consecutive and personal manner to doctrinal questions | In his controversies he was simply the interpreter of the accepted ecclesiastical doctrine. | Compared with St. Augustine his inferiority in breadth and originality of view | is most evident. | His "Dialogue" against the Luciferians | deals with a schismatic sect whose founder was Lucifer, Bishop of Cagliari in Sardinia. | refused to approve of the measure of clemency by which the Church, | since the Council of Alexandria, in 362, had allowed bishops, who had adhered to Arianism, to continue to discharge their duties on condition of professing the Nicene Creed. | This rigorist sect had adherents almost everywhere | and even in Rome it was very troublesome. | Against it Jerome wrote his "Dialogue", scathing in sarcasm | but not always accurate in doctrine, particularly as to the Sacrament of Confirmation. | book "Adversus Helvidium" | belongs to about the same period. Helvidius held the two following tenets: | Earnest entreaty decided Jerome to answer. | In doing so he discusses the various texts of the Gospel which, it was claimed, contained the objections to the perpetual virginity of Mary. | If he did not find positive answers on all points | his work, nevertheless, holds a very creditable place in the history of Catholic exegesis upon these questions. | relative dignity of virginity and marriage | discussed in the book against Helvidius, was taken up again in the book "Adversus Jovinianum" written about ten years later. | | | Jerome recognizes the legitimacy of marriage | but he uses concerning it certain disparaging expressions which were criticized by contemporaries and for which he has given no satisfactory explanation. | Jovinian was more dangerous than Helvidius. | Although he did not exactly teach salvation by faith alone, and the uselessness of good works, he made far too easy the road to salvation and slighted a life of asceticism. Every one of these points St. Jerome took up. | dealt with the Origenistic controversies. | St. Jerome was involved in one of the most violent episodes of that struggle, which agitated the Church from Origen's lifetime until the Fifth Ecumenical Council (553). | question at issue was to determine | if certain doctrines professed by Origen and others taught by certain pagan followers of Origen could be accepted. | In the present case the doctrinal difficulties were embittered | by personalities between St. Jerome and his former friend, Rufinus. | To understand St. Jerome's position | we must remember that the works of Origen were by far the most complete exegetical collection then in existence, and the one most accessible to students. | Hence a very natural tendency | to make use of them, and it is evident that St. Jerome did so, as well as many others. | But we must carefully distinguish between writers |who made use of Origen and those who adhered to his doctrines. | This distinction is particularly necessary | with St. Jerome, whose method of work was very rapid, and consisted in transcribing the interpretations of former exegetes without passing criticism on them. | Nevertheless, it is certain that | St. Jerome greatly praised and made use of Origen, that he even transcribed some erroneous passages without due reservation. | But it is also evident |that he never adhered thinkingly and systematically to the Origenistic doctrines. | Under these circumstances it came about | that when Rufinus, who was a genuine Origenist, called on him to justify his use of Origen, the explanations he gave were not free from embarrassment. | At this distance of time it would require a very subtle and detailed study | of the question to decide the real basis of the quarrel. | However that may be | Jerome may be accused of imprudence of language and blamed for a too hasty method of work. | With a temperament such as his | and confident of his undoubted orthodoxy in the matter of Origenism, he must naturally have been tempted to justify anything. | This brought about a most bitter controversy |with his wily adversary, Rufinus. | But on the whole |Jerome's position is by far the stronger of the two, even in the eyes of his contemporaries. | | | generally conceded that in this controversy Rufinus was to blame | It was he who brought about the conflict in which he proved himself to be narrow-minded, perplexed, ambitious, even timorous. | whose attitude is not always above reproach | is far superior to him. | Vigilantius, the Gascon priest | against whom Jerome wrote a treatise, quarrelled with ecclesiastical usages rather than matters of doctrine. | What he principally rejected was the monastic life | and the veneration of saints and of relics. | In short, Helvidius, Jovinian, and Vigilantius were the mouthpieces of a reaction | against asceticism which had developed so largely in the fourth century. | Perhaps the influence of that same reaction | is to be seen in the doctrine of the monk Pelagius, who gave his name to the principal heresy on grace: Pelagianism. | Accurate as to the doctrine of original sin | the author is much less so when he determines the part of God and of man in the act of justification. | main his ideas are Semipelagian: man merits first grace | a formula which endangers the absolute freedom of the gift of grace. | book "De situ et nominibus locorum hebraicorum" is a translation of the "Onomasticon" of Eusebius, | to which the translator has joined additions and corrections. | vary in character according to the time in which they were written | As time went on, Jerome became more expert in the art of translating, and he outgrew the tendency to palliate, as he came across them, certain errors of Origen. | We must make special mention of the translation of the homilies "In Canticum Canticorum" | the Greek original of which has been lost. | Here followeth the Life of Jerome, and first of his name. | Jeronimus is said of gerar, that is holy, and of nemus, that is to say a wood. | is as much to say as a holy wood | Or it is said of norma, that is to say law, whereof is said in his legend that Jerome is interpreted a holy law. | was farforth holy, that is to say firm or clean or dyed of blood | or deputed to holy usage, like as vessels of the temple be said holy for they be ordained to holy usage. | that is to say steadfast, in holy work by long perseverance | he was clean in mind by purity, he was dyed in blood by thinking of the passion of our Lord Jesu Christ, he was deputed to holy usage by the exposition of holy Scripture, he was said a holy wood by the conversation that he sometimes did and abode in the wood. | | | And he was said law for the rules of his discipline | which he taught to his monks, or because he expounded and interpreted the holy law and Scripture. | also is interpreted the vision of beauty or judging words | There is beauty manifold. | First is spiritual, | which is in the soul. | Second, moral, which is in honesty of manners. | The third is intellectual, which is in the angels. | The fourth is substantial, which is divine. | The fifth is heavenly, which is in the country of saints. | five-fold beauty had S. Jerome in himself. | For he had spiritual in diversity of virtues; the moral had he in the honesty of his life; he had intellectual in the excellence of purity; he had the substantial in burning charity; he had the celestial in the perdurable and excellent clearness or clarte. | He judged the speeches and words | his own well examined in clearly pronouncing, the others being true in confirming, the false condemning and confusing, and the doubtful in expounding. | was the son of a noble man named Eusebius, born of the town Stridon |which is in the utter end of Dalmatia and of Pannonia. | being yet a child | went to Rome and was there taught in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. | had for his teacher in grammar Donatus, | in rhetoric Victorinus, the orator, and he was day and night occupied, and exercised himself in divine Scriptures, which he drew covetously, and after shed it out abundantly. | as he writeth in an epistle to Eustochius | that on a time as he read on a day Plato, and in the night Tully desirously, because that the book of the prophets pleased him not, he was about mid-Lent taken with a sudden and burning fever, that all his body was cold, in such wise that there was no vital heat save a little which he felt in his breast. | exequies for his death were making ready | he was suddenly brought to the judgment of God, and there he was demanded of what condition he was, and he answered boldly that he was a christian man. | judge said: Thou liest, thou art a Ciceronian | and no christian man, whereas thy treasure is, there is thy heart. | was still and said nothing | and anon then the judge commended that he should be sore beaten. | Have mercy on me, Lord, have mercy on me | Then they that were assisting our Lord prayed him that he would forgive this young man his trespass. | | | began to swear and say: Lord, if ever I read or hear more secular books, I shall forsake thee |And with the words of this promise and oath he was let go, and anon he revived. | then he saw himself all bewept | And of the strokes of the beatings that he received tofore the throne of our Lord, the tokens of the strokes and lashes were seen on his shoulders right horrible and great. | from then forthon he became good | and read divine books with as great study as ever he had read the books of poetry and of paynims. | when he was nine-and-twenty years old | he was ordained cardinal priest in the church of Rome. | when Liberius was dead all the people cried | to have S. Jerome sovereign priest. | when he began to blame the jollity and lavish life of some clerks and monks | they had indignation and despite of him, and lay in a wait to hurt and slander him. | John Beleth saith | They scorned and mocked him by the clothing of a woman. | For on a night when he arose to matins |as he was accustomed, he found a woman's clothing lying by his bed which his enemies had laid there. | weeping that they had been his own | did them on, and so clothed came in to the church, and this did they that had envy at him because others should ween that he had a woman in his chamber. | he eschewed their woodness and went unto Gregory Nazianzen, bishop of Constantinople | And when he had learned of him the holy Scripture and holy letters, he went into desert, where, what, and how much he suffered for Christ's sake, he recounted to Eustochium, and said that when he was in that great desert and waste wilderness, which is so burnt by the sun that it gave to the monks a right dry habitacle, I supposed me then to be at Rome among the delices, and my members scalded, burnt, made dry and black like to the skin of a Morian or an Ethiopian, and I was always in tears and weepings. | when the very sleep came and oppressed me against which I oft repugned | then I laid my dried bones on the bare earth. | Of meats and drink I speak not | for they that were sick used only cold water, and for to take any thing boiled or roasted, it was to them lechery. | And yet nevertheless I was oft fellow unto scorpions and wild beasts | and yet the carols of maidens and the embracements of lechery grew in my cold body and in my flesh, wherefore I wept continually, and for to adaunt and subdue my proud flesh I rose at midnight all the week long, joining oft the night with the day, and I ceased not to beat my breast, praying our Lord to render to me the peaceable peace of my flesh. | And I also doubted my proper cell as fearing my conceits and thoughts |wherefore I went and departed wroth, and revenging myself, passed alone through the sharp and thick deserts. | And as our Lord is witness, | after many weepings and tears, it seemed to me that I was among the company of angels, this during four years. | | | Then his penance thus done, he returned to the town of Bethlehem | where as a wise and a prudent beast he offered himself to abide by the crib of our Lord. | his holy Bible, which with study he had translated | and other books he read, and led the day forth with fasting unto even. | there he assembled many disciples unto him | for to Iabour there in his holy purpose, and abode there in the translation of holy Scripture fifty-five years and six months, and remained a pure virgin unto the end of his life. | how well that it be said in his legend |that he was ever a virgin, yet nevertheless he wrote of himself to Palmatian: I bear virginity into heaven, not for that I have virginity, but for I marvel more that I have it not. | Then at the last he being weary for to travail, | lay down in his bed wherover hung a cord on a beam, whereon he laid and held his hands for to lift up himself that he might do the service of God as much as he might. | On a day towards even Jerome sat with his brethren for to hear the holy lesson | and a lion came halting suddenly in to the monastery, and when the brethren saw him, anon they fled, and Jerome came against him as he should come against his guest, and then the lion showed to him his foot being hurt. | Then he called his brethren | and commanded them to wash his feet and diligently to seek and search for the wound. | And that done, the plant of the foot of the lion was sore hurt and pricked with a thorn |Then this holy man put thereto diligent cure, and healed him, and he abode ever after as a tame beast with them. | saw that God had sent him to them, not only for the health of his foot, but also for their profit | and joined to the lion an office, by the accord of his brethren, and that was that he should conduct and lead an ass to his pasture which brought home wood, and should keep him going and coming, and so he did. | For he did that which he was commanded | and led the ass thus as a herdsman, and kept him wisely going and coming, and was to him a right sure keeper and defender, and always at the hour accustomed he and the ass came for to have their refection and for to make the ass to do the work accustomed. | On a time it happed that the ass was in his pasture | and the lion slept fast, and certain merchants passed by with camels and saw the ass alone, and stole him and led him away. | lion awoke and when he found not his fellow | he ran groaning hither and thither, and when he saw that he could not find him he was much sorrowful and durst not come in, but abode at the gate of the church of the monastery, and was ashamed that he came without the ass. | when the brethren saw that he was come more late than he was wont | and without the ass, they supposed that by constraint of hunger he had eaten the ass, and would not give to him his portion accustomed, and said to him: Go and eat that other part of the ass that thou hast devoured, and fill thy gluttony. | because they doubted, | and they would wit if he had so eaten, they went to the pastures of the town to see if they could have any demonstrance of the death of the ass, and they found nothing, and returned and told it to Jerome, and then he commanded them to enjoin him to do the office of the ass. | they hewed down bushes and boughs and laid upon him | and he suffered it peaceably. | | | on a day when he had done his office | he went out to the fields and began to run hither and thither desiring to know what was done to his fellow, and saw from far merchants that came with camels charged and laden, and the ass going tofore them. | It was the manner of that region | that when the people went far with camels, they had an ass or a horse going tofore with a cord about his neck for to conduct the better the camels. | when the lion knew the ass, with a great roaring he ran on them so terribly | that all the merchants fled, and he so feared the camels with beating the earth with his tail that, he constrained them to go straight unto the cell with all their charge and lading. | | | And when the brethren saw this they told it to Jerome | and he said: Brethren, wash the feet of our guests and give them meat, abide ye the will of our Lord hereupon. | began to run joyously throughout all the monastery | as he was wont to do, and kneeled down to every brother and fawned them with his tail, like as he had demanded pardon of the trespass that he had done. | And S. Jerome, which knew well what was to come, said to his brethren: Go and make ye ready all things necessary for guests that be coming to us. | And as he thus said, there came to him a messenger, saying to him that there were guests at the gate that would speak with the abbot. | as soon as they were come they kneeled to the abbot, and required of him pardon | And he raised and made them to stand up goodly, and commanded them to take their own good, and not to take away other men's. | then they prayed the holy saint that he would take the half of their oil | and he refused it. | at the last he commanded to take a measure of oil, | and then they promised that they should bring every year a measure of oil to that church, and their heirs after them. | It was anciently the custom that whosomever would might sing in the church | so that Theodosius the emperor, as John Beleth saith, required and prayed Damasus the pope that he would commit to some wise man of the church to ordain the office and ordinal of the church. | was a man that knew the languages of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew | and in all science, and committed to him the said sovereign office. | divided the psalter by ferias, and to every feria a nocturn proper be assigned | and established in the end of every psalm to be said: Gloria petri. | he ordained reasonably to be sung the epistles and gospels, | and all other things appertaining, save the song which he sent from Bethlehem unto the pope. | Which all was approved and ratified of him and of the cardinals | for to be used perpetually and so confirmed. | in the mouth of the spelunke or cave in which our Lord lay | he did do make his monument or sepulture. | when he had accomplished eighty-eight years and six months | he was there buried. | In what reverence S. Austin had him in |it appeareth in his epistles that he sent to him, in one of the which he wrote in this manner: To his right dear friend; most best beloved and most clean in observing and embracing of chastity, unto Jerome, Austin, etc. | And in another place he writeth thus of him | S. Jerome, priest, learned in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, and in holy writings approved unto his last age, of whom the nobleness of his fair eloquence hath resplended from the east unto the west, like unto the clearness of the sun. | | | and with high and noble study served the universal church | He said also of himself to Albigen: I never enforced me so much from mine infancy as for to eschew a swelling courage and enhanced head, and calling against him the hate of God. | And ever I have dreaded the sure things | and have entended with all my heart to the monastery and to hospitality and have received gladly all comers save heretics, and have washed their feet. | Isidore saith thus in the book of Etymology | Jerome was wise in three languages, whose interpretation is taken tofore other, for it is more holding and clear by words and it is interpreted of a very christian. | dialogue of Severus, disciple of S. Martin | which was in his time: Jerome without the merit of the faith and dowry of virtues is not only instruct in letters of Latin, but in Greek and Hebrew, so that none ought to be compared to him in every science, the which had war perpetual against the wicked men. | The heretics hated him for he left never to impugn against them | the clerks hated him, for he reproved their sins and their life. | But plainly good men loved him and marvelled of him, for they that deemed him a heretic were mad. | He was all in lessons, all in books, he never rested day ne night but always read or wrote. Hæc Severus. | like as it appeareth by these words, | and also he witnesseth himself, he suffered many persecutors and detractors, which persecutions he suffered patiently and goodly, as it appeared in an epistle that he sent to Assela: I give thankings to our Lord God that I am worthy that the world hate me, and that wicked men and janglers hold me for evil. | For I know well that men come to heaven by the defaming of wicked men more than by good renomee | and I would that the company of miscreants should pursue and persecute me for the name and right of our Lord. | My will is that the reproof of the world arise more fervently against me so that I might deserve to be praised of our Lord | and that I may hope the reward of his promise. | Temptation is desirous and agreeable whose merit in resisting is to be hoped reward of Christ in heaven | Ne the cursing ne malediction is not grievous which is changed into divine laud and praising. | | are far inferior to those of Judaism and even more inferior to those of the New Testament. | Furthermore, we cannot agree with Noldeke when he maintains that | although in many respects the ethics of Islam are not to be compared even with such Christianity as prevailed, and still prevails, in the East, nevertheless, in other points, the new faith — simple, robust, in the vigour of its youth — far surpassed the religion of the Syrian and Egyptian Christians, which was in a stagnating condition, and steadily sinking lower and lower into the depths of barbarism (op. cit., Wollaston, 71, 72). | The history and the development, | as well as the past and present religious, social, and ethical condition of all the Christian nations and countries, no matter of what sect or school they may be, as compared with these of the various Mohammedan countries, in all ages, is a sufficient refutation of Noldeke's assertion. | That in the ethics of Islam | but of originality or superiority, there is none. | | | What is really good in Mohammedan ethics | That His distinct personality was fully recognized is shown by many passages. | Church's ministers | "As they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Ghost said to them: Separate me Saul and Barnabas . . ." (Acts 13:2). | missionary journey | of the Apostles: "They attempted to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not" (Acts 16:7; cf. Acts 5:3; 15:28; Romans 15:30). | Divine attributes are affirmed of Him. | He possesses omniscience and reveals to the Church mysteries known only to God (1 Corinthians 2:10); | charismata (1 Corinthians 12:11) | Like the Royal Society, of which a large and most influential proportion of the first Freemasons were members [36], Masonry professes the empiric or "positivist" geometrical method of reason and deduction in the investigation of truth. [37] | the founders | of Masonry intended to follow the same methods for their social purposes which were chosen by the Royal Society for its scientific researches. [38] | Geometry as a method | is particularly recommended to the attention of Masons." | In this light | Geometry may very properly be considered as a natural logic; for as truth is ever consistent, invariable and uniform, all truths may be investigated in the same manner. | Moral and religious | definitions, axioms and propositions have as regular and certain dependence upon each other as any in physics or mathematics." | pursue such knowledge | and cultivate such dispositions as will secure you the Brotherly respect of this society and the honour of your further advancement in it". [39] | North America | insist on belief in the Divine inspiration of the Bible as a necessary qualification and that not a few Masons in America and Germany declare Masonry an essentially "Christian institution". | German Grand Lodges | Christ is only "the wise and virtuous pure man" par excellence, the principal model and teacher of "Humanity". [40] | Swedish system | practised by the German Country Grand Lodge, Christ is said to have taught besides the exoteric Christian doctrine, destined for the people and the duller mass of his disciples, an esoteric doctrine for his chosen disciples, such as St. John, in which He denied that He was God. [41] | descendant of the Christian secret society | in which this esoteric doctrine was propagated. | is not a Christian institution | as it acknowledges many pre-Christian models and teachers of "Humanity". | | | belief in dogmas | Among the nations of antiquity, as well as most peoples of today, no inferior would think of approaching his superior without bringing a gift. | man from the earliest times | in doing homage to the Deity, came into His presence with a gift. | Besides being a visible proof | of man's respect, the gift also signified that all things were God's. | it was passed over to | the Deity by a total or partial destruction. | Liquid offerings were poured out on the ground. | Food offerings were generally burned. | Others were cast into rivers or the sea. | Very frequently, in the food offerings, only part was destroyed by fire, the rest being eaten by the worshippers. | In this way was symbolized | the friendly union of the Deity and the worshippers. | the underlying idea was that man | was the privileged guest at the Divine banquet, partaking of the sacred food consecrated to the Deity. | It thus had a quasi-sacramental significance. | In every sinful act two things must be considered, | the substance of the act | and the want of rectitude or conformity (St. Thomas, I-II:72:1). | The sinner intends | here and now to act in some determined matter, | inordinately electing | that particular good in defiance of God's law and the dictates of right reason. | deformity | but in the act as coming from the will | which has power over its acts | and is capable of choosing this or that | contained within the scope | of its object, | | | is the cause of the physical act as such | the free-will of the deformity (St. Thomas I-II:89:2; "De malo", 3:2). | adequately considered | has for its cause the free-will defectively electing some mutable good in place of the eternal good, God, | and thus deviating from its true last end. | In every sin a privation of due order or conformity to the moral law is found, | is not a pure | It is doubtful whether he revised the entire version of the Old Testament according to the Greek of the Septuagint. | commentaries on the Epistles to Philemon | to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to Titus; and in 389-390, on Ecclesiastes. | Between 390 and 405 | St. Jerome gave all his attention to the translation of the Old Testament according to the Hebrew, but this work alternated with many others. | he translated the Books of Samuel and of Kings | Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Canticle of Canticles, Esdras, and Paralipomena. | "De Spiritu Sancto" of Didymus of Alexandria | in 389-90, he drew up his "Quaestiones hebraicae in Genesim" and "De interpretatione nominum hebraicorum." | "Vita Malchi, monachi captivi" | and commentaries on Nahum, Micheas, Sophonias, Aggeus, Habacuc. | commentaries on Jonas and Abdias | in 398, revision of the remainder of the Latin version of the New Testament, and about that time commentaries on chapters 13-23 of Isaias; in 398, an unfinished work "Contra Joannem Hierosolymitanum"; in 401, "Apologeticum adversus Rufinum"; between 403-406, "Contra Vigilantium"; finally from 398 to 405, completion of the version of the Old Testament according to the Hebrew. | In the last period of his life, from 405 to 420, | St. Jerome took up the series of his commentaries interrupted for seven years. | he commented on Osee, Joel, Amos, Zacharias, Malachias; | in 408, on Daniel; from 408 to 410, on the remainder of Isaias; from 410 to 415, on Ezechiel; from 415-420, on Jeremias. | what is left of his sermons | treatises on St. Mark, homilies on the Psalms, on various subjects, and on the Gospels; in 415, "Dialogi contra Pelagianos". | St. Jerome owes his place in the history of exegetical studies | chiefly to his revisions and translations of the Bible. | he considered the Septuagint translation as inspired. | But the progress of his Hebraistic studies and his intercourse with the rabbis made him give up that idea, and he recognized as inspired the original text only. | | | It was about this period that he undertook the translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew | But he went too far in his reaction against the ideas of his time, and is open to reproach for not having sufficiently appreciated the Septuagint. | This latter version | was made from a much older, and at times much purer, Hebrew text than the one in use at the end of the fourth century. | Hence the necessity of taking the Septuagint into consideration | in any attempt to restore the text of the Old Testament. | With this exception we must admit the excellence of the translation made by St. Jerome. | His commentaries represent a vast amount of work but of very unequal value. | Very often he worked exceedingly rapidly | besides, he considered a commentary a work of compilation, and his chief care was to accumulate the interpretations of his predecessors, rather than to pass judgment on them. | "Quaestiones hebraicae in Genesim" | is one of his best works. | It is a philological inquiry concerning the original text. |It is to be regretted that he was unable to continue, as had been his intention, a style of work entirely new at the time. | Although he often asserted his desire to avoid excessive allegory, | his efforts in that respect were far from successful, and in later years he was ashamed of some of his earlier allegorical explanations. | He himself says that he had recourse to the allegorical meaning only when unable to discover the literal meaning | His treatise, "De Interpretatione nominum hebraicorum", is but a collection of mystical and symbolical meanings. | Excepting the "Commentarius in ep. ad Galatas", | which is one of his best, his explanations of the New Testament have no great value. | Among his commentaries on the Old Testament must be mentioned those on Amos, Isaias, and Jeremias. | There are some that are frankly bad, for instance those on Zacharias, Osee, and Joel. | To sum up, the Biblical knowledge of St. Jerome | makes him rank first among ancient exegetes. | In the first place, he was very careful as to the sources of his information. | He required of the exegete a very extensive knowledge of sacred and profane history, and also of the linguistics and geography of Palestine. | He never either categorically acknowledged | or rejected the deuterocanonical books as part of the Canon of Scripture, and he repeatedly made use of them. | On the inspiration, the existence of a spiritual meaning | and the freedom of the Bible from error, he holds the traditional doctrine. | Possibly he has insisted more than others on the share which belongs to the sacred writer in his collaboration in the inspired work. | His criticism is not without originality. | controversy with the Jews and with the Pagans | had long since called the attention of the Christians to certain difficulties in the Bible. | St. Jerome answers in various ways | Not to mention his answers to this or that difficulty, he appeals above all to the principle, that the original text of the Scriptures is the only one inspired and free from error. | Therefore one must determine if the text | in which the difficulties arise, has not been altered by the copyist. | Moreover, when the writers of the New Testament quoted the Old Testament | they did so not according to the letter but according to the spirit. | There are many subtleties and even contradictions in the explanations Jerome offers | but we must bear in mind his evident sincerity. | He does not try to cloak over his ignorance | he admits that there are many difficulties in the Bible; at times he seems quite embarrassed. | Finally, he proclaims a principle, which, if recognized as legitimate | might serve to adjust the insufficiencies of his criticism. | asserts that in the Bible there is no material error due to the ignorance or the heedlessness of the sacred writer | but he adds: "It is usual for the sacred historian to conform himself to the generally accepted opinion of the masses in his time" (P.L., XXVI, 98; XXIV, 855). | Among the historical works | of St. Jerome must be noted the translation and the continuation of the "Chronicon Eusebii Caesariensis", as the continuation written by him, which extends from 325 to 378, served as a model for the annals of the chroniclers of the Middle Ages; hence the defects in such works: dryness, superabundance of data of every description, lack of proportion and of historical sense. | "Vita S. Pauli Eremitae" | is not a very reliable document. | is a eulogy of chastity woven through a number of legendary episodes. |As to the "Vita S. Hilarionis", it has suffered from contact with the preceding ones. | It has been asserted that the journeys | of St. Hilarion are a plagiarism of some old tales of travel. | But these objections are altogether misplaced, as it is really a reliable work. | The treatise "De Viris illustribus" is a very excellent literary history. | an apologetic work to prove that the Church had produced learned men | For the first three centuries Jerome depends to a great extent on Eusebius, whose statements he borrows, often distorting them, owing to the rapidity with which he worked. | His accounts of the authors of the fourth century however are of great value. | The oratorical consist of about one hundred homilies or short treatises, and in these the Solitary of Bethlehem appears in a new light. | He is a monk addressing monks |not without making very obvious allusions to contemporary events. | orator is lengthy and apologizes for it. He died about the year of our Lord three hundred and eighty-eight. | Cofoundress of the Order of Poor Ladies, or Clares, and first Abbess of San Damiano; born at Assisi, 16 July, 1194; died there 11 August, 1253. | She was the eldest daughter of Favorino Scifi |Count of Sasso-Rosso, the wealthy representative of an ancient Roman family, who owned a large palace in Assisi and a castle on the slope of Mount Subasio. | Such at least is the traditional account | Her mother, Bl. Ortolana, belonged to the noble family of Fiumi and was conspicuous for her zeal and piety. | From her earliest years Clare seems to have been endowed with the rarest virtues. | As a child she was most devoted to prayer and to practices of mortification, and as she passed into girlhood her distaste for the world and her yearning for a more spiritual life increased. | She was eighteen years of age when St. Francis came to preach the Lenten course | in the church of San Giorgio at Assisi. | | | inspired words of the Poverello kindled a flame in the heart of Clare | she sought him out secretly and begged him to help her that she too might live "after the manner of the holy Gospel". | St. Francis, who at once recognized in | Clare one of those chosen souls destined by God for great things, and who also, doubtless, foresaw that many would follow her example, promised to assist her. | On Palm Sunday Clare, arrayed in all her finery, | attended high Mass at the cathedral, but when the others pressed forward to the altar-rail to receive a branch of palm, she remained in her place as if rapt in a dream. | All eyes were upon the young girl |as the bishop descended from the sanctuary and placed the palm in her hand. | That was the last time the world beheld Clare | On the night of the same day she secretly left her father's house, by St. Francis's advice and, accompanied by her aunt Bianca and another companion, proceeded to the humble chapel of the Porziuncula, where St. Francis and his disciples met her with lights in their hands. | then laid aside her rich dress | and St. Francis, having cut off her hair, clothed her in a rough tunic and a thick veil, and in this way the young heroine vowed herself to the service of Jesus Christ. | This was 20 March, 1212. | Clare was placed by St. Francis provisionally with the Benedictine nuns of San Paolo, near Bastia, but her father, who had expected her to make a splendid marriage, and who was furious at her secret flight, on discovering her retreat, did his utmost to dissuade Clare from her heroic proposals, and even tried to drag her home by force. | held her own with a firmness above her years | and Count Favorino was finally obliged to leave her in peace. | A few days later | St. Francis, in order to secure Clare the greater solitude she desired, transferred her to Sant' Angelo in Panzo, another monastery of the Benedictine nuns on one of the flanks of Subasio. | Here some sixteen days | after her own flight, Clare was joined by her younger sister Agnes, whom she was instrumental in delivering from the persecution of their infuriated relatives. | her sister remained with the nuns at Sant' Angelo | until they and the other fugitives from the world who had followed them were established by St. Francis in a rude dwelling adjoining the poor chapel of San Damiano, situated outside the town which he had to a great extent rebuilt with his own hands, and which he now obtained from the Benedictines as a permanent abode for his spiritual daughters. | Thus was founded the first community of the Order of Poor Ladies |or of Poor Clares, as this second order of St. Francis came to be called. | history of the Poor Clares will be dealt with in a separate article |Here it suffices to note that we may distinguish, during the lifetime of St. Clare, three stages in the complicated early history of the new order. | In the beginning St. Clare and her companions had no written rule to follow beyond a very short formula vitae given them by St. Francis | and which may be found among his works. Some years later, apparently in 1219, during St. Francis's absence in the East, Cardinal Ugolino, then protector of the order, afterwards Gregory IX, drew up a written rule for the Clares at Monticelli, taking as a basis the Rule of St. Benedict, retaining the fundamental points of the latter and adding some special constitutions. | This new rule, which, in effect if not in intention, | took away from the Clares the Franciscan character of absolute poverty so dear to the heart of St. Francis and made them for all practical purposes a congregation of Benedictines, was approved by Honorius III (Bull, "Sacrosancta", 9 Dec., 1219). | | | When Clare found that the new rule, though strict enough in other respects | allowed the holding of property in common, she courageously and successfully resisted the innovations of Ugolino as being entirely opposed to the intentions of St. Francis. | latter had forbidden the Poor Ladies, just as he had forbidden his friars to possess any worldly goods even in common | Owning nothing, they were to depend entirety upon what the Friars Minor could beg for them. | complete renunciation of all property | was however regarded by Ugolino as unpractical for cloistered women. | When, therefore, in 1228, he came to Assisi | for the canonization of St. Francis (having meanwhile ascended the pontifical throne as Gregory IX), he visited St. Clare at San Damiano and pressed her to so far deviate from the practice of poverty which had up to this time obtained at San Damiano, as to accept some provision for the unforeseen wants of the community. | Gregory, thinking that her refusal might be due to fear | of violating the vow of strict poverty she had taken, offered to absolve her from it. | "Holy Father, I crave for absolution from my sins", | replied Clare, "but I desire not to be absolved from the obligation of following Jesus Christ". | The heroic unworldliness | of Clare filled the pope with admiration, as his letters to her, still extant, bear eloquent witness, and he so far gave way to her views as to grant her on 17 September, 1228, the celebrated Privilegium Paupertatis which some regard in the light of a corrective of the Rule of 1219. | original autograph copy of this unique "privilege" | --the first one of its kind ever sought for, or ever issued by the Holy See--is preserved in the archive at Santa Chiara in Assisi. | Gregory Bishop Servant of the Servants of God | To our beloved daughters in Christ Clare and the other handmaids of Christ dwelling together at the Church of San Damiano in the Diocese of Assisi. | Health and Apostolic benediction. | It is evident that the desire of consecrating yourselves to God alone has led you to abandon every wish for temporal things. | Wherefore, after having sold all your goods and having distributed them among the poor | you propose to have absolutely no possessions, in order to follow in all things the example of Him Who became poor and Who is the way, the truth, and the life. | Neither does the want of necessary things deter you from such a proposal | for the left arm of your Celestial Spouse is beneath your head to sustain the infirmity of your body, which, according to the order of charity, you have subjected to the law of the spirit. | He who feeds the birds of the air and who gives the lilies of the field | their raiment and their nourishment, will not leave you in want of clothing or of food until He shall come Himself to minister to you in eternity when, namely, the right hand of His consolations shall embrace you in the plenitude of the Beatific Vision. | Since, therefore, you have asked for it | we confirm by Apostolic favour your resolution of the loftiest poverty and by the authority of these present letters grant that you may not be constrained by anyone to receive possessions. | To no one, therefore, be it allowed to infringe upon this page | of our concession or to oppose it with rash temerity. | But if anyone shall presume to attempt this | be it known to him that he shall incur the wrath of Almighty God and his Blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul. Given at Perugia on the fifteenth of the Kalends of October in the second year of our Pontificate." | That St. Clare may have solicited a "privilege" | similar to the foregoing at an earlier date and obtained it vivâ voce, is not improbable. | Certain it is that after the death of Gregory IX | Clare had once more to contend for the principle of absolute poverty prescribed by St. Francis, for Innocent IV would fain have given the Clares a new and mitigated rule, and the firmness with which she held to her way won over the pope. | two days before her death | Innocent, no doubt at the reiterated request of the dying abbess, solemnly confirmed the definitive Rule of the Clares (Bull, "Solet Annuere", 9 August, 1253), and thus secured to them the precious treasure of poverty which Clare, in imitation of St. Francis, had taken for her portion from the beginning of her conversion. | author of this latter rule | which is largely an adaptation mutatis mutandis, of the rule which St. Francis composed for the Friars Minor in 1223, seems to have been Cardinal Rainaldo, Bishop of Ostia, and protector of the order, afterwards Alexander IV, though it is most likely that St. Clare herself had a hand in its compilation. | religious life the brief formula vivendi already mentioned. | St. Clare, who in 1215 had, much against her will been made superior at San Damiano by St. Francis, continued to rule there as abbess until her death, in 1253, nearly forty years later. | There is no good reason to believe that she ever once went beyond the boundaries | of San Damiano during all that time. | It need not, therefore, be wondered | at if so comparatively few details of St. Clare's life in the cloister "hidden with Christ in God", have come down to us. | We know that she became a living copy of the poverty |the humility, and the mortification of St. Francis; that she had a special devotion to the Holy Eucharist, and that in order to increase her love for Christ crucified she learned by heart the Office of the Passion composed by St. Francis, and that during the time that remained to her after her devotional exercises she engaged in manual labour. | Needless to add | that under St. Clare's guidance the community of San Damiano became the sanctuary of every virtue, a very nursery of saints. | had the consolation not only of seeing her younger sister Beatrix | her mother Ortolana, and her faithful aunt Bianca follow Agnes into the order, but also of witnessing the foundation of monasteries of Clares far and wide throughout Europe. | It would be difficult | moreover, to estimate how much the silent influence of the gentle abbess did towards guiding the women of medieval Italy to higher aims. | In particular, Clare threw around poverty that irresistible charm which only women can communicate to religious or civic heroism | and she became a most efficacious coadjutrix of St. Francis in promoting that spirit of unworldliness which in the counsels of God, "was to bring about a restoration of discipline in the Church and of morals and civilization in the peoples of Western Europe". | Not the least important part | of Clare's work was the aid and encouragement she gave St. Francis. | was to her he turned when in doubt | and it was she who urged him to continue his mission to the people at a time when he thought his vocation lay rather in a life of contemplation. | When in an attack of blindness and illness | St. Francis came for the last time to visit San Damiano, Clare erected a little wattle hut for him in an olive grove close to the monastery, and it was here that he composed his glorious "Canticle of the Sun". | After St. Francis's death the procession which accompanied his remains |from the Porziuncula to the town stopped on the way at San Damiano in order that Clare and her daughters might venerate the pierced hands and feet of him who had formed them to the love of Christ crucified--a pathetic scene which Giotto has commemorated in one of his loveliest frescoes. | was always living, and nothing is, perhaps, more striking in her after-life | than her unswerving loyalty to the ideals of the Poverello, and the jealous care with which she clung to his rule and teaching. | When, in 1234, the army of Frederick II was devastating the valley of Spoleto | the soldiers, preparatory to an assault upon Assisi, scaled the walls of San Damiano by night, spreading terror among the community. | calmly rising from her sick bed, and taking the ciborium from the little chapel adjoining her cell, | proceeded to face the invaders at an open window against which they had already placed a ladder. | as she raised the Blessed Sacrament on high | the soldiers who were about to enter the monastery fell backward as if dazzled, and the others who were ready to follow them took flight. | It is with reference to this incident | that St. Clare is generally represented in art bearing a ciborium. | some time later, a larger force returned to storm Assisi | headed by the General Vitale di Aversa who had not been present at the first attack, Clare, gathering her daughters about her, knelt with them in earnest prayer that the town might be spared. | | | Presently a furious storm arose | scattering the tents of the soldiers in every direction, and causing such a panic that they again took refuge in flight. | gratitude of the Assisians | who with one accord attributed their deliverance to Clare's intercession, increased their love for the "Seraphic Mother". | had long been enshrined in the hearts of the people | and their veneration became more apparent as, wasted by illness and austerities, she drew towards her end. | Brave and cheerful to the last | in spite of her long and painful infirmities, Clare caused herself to be raised in bed and, thus reclining, says her contemporary biographer "she spun the finest thread for the purpose of having it woven into the most delicate material from which she afterwards made more than one hundred corporals, and, enclosing them in a silken burse, ordered them to be given to the churches in the plain and on the mountains of Assisi". | When at length she felt the day of her death approaching | Clare, calling her sorrowing religious around her, reminded them of the many benefits they had received from God and exhorted them to persevere faithfully in the observance of evangelical poverty. | Pope Innocent IV came from Perugia to visit the dying saint | who had already received the last sacraments from the hands of Cardinal Rainaldo. | Her own sister, St. Agnes | had returned from Florence to console Clare in her last illness; Leo, Angelo, and Juniper, three of the early companions of St. Francis, were also present at the saint's death-bed, and at St. Clare's request read aloud the Passion of Our Lord according to St. John, even as they had done twenty-seven years before, when Francis lay dying at the Porziuncula. | At length before dawn on 11 August, 1253 | the holy foundress of the Poor Ladies passed peacefully away amid scenes which her contemporary biographer has recorded with touching simplicity. | pope, with his court, came to San Damiano | for the saint's funeral, which partook rather of the nature of a triumphal procession. | The Clares desired to retain the body of their foundress among them | at San Damiano, but the magistrates of Assisi interfered and took measures to secure for the town the venerated remains of her whose prayers, as they all believed, had on two occasions saved it from destruction. | miracles too were talked of far and wide | It was not safe, the Assisians urged, to leave Clare's body in a lonely spot without the walls; it was only right, too, that Clare, "the chief rival of the Blessed Francis in the observance of Gospel perfection", should also have a church in Assisi built in her honour. | remains were placed in the chapel of San Giorgio | where St. Francis's preaching had first touched her young heart, and where his own body had likewise been interred pending the erection of the Basilica of San Francesco. | Two years later, 26 September | 1255, Clare was solemnly canonized by Alexander IV, and not long afterwards the building of the church of Santa Chiara, in honour of Assisi's second great saint, was begun under the direction of Filippo Campello, one of the foremost architects of the time. | buried deep down in the earth | under the high altar in the new church, far out of sight and reach. | After having remained hidden for six centuries | --like the remains of St. Francis--and after much search had been made, Clare's tomb was found in 1850, to the great joy of the Assisians. | | | was unearthed and opened, the flesh and clothing of the saint had been reduced to dust | but the skeleton was in a perfect state of preservation. | Finally, on the 29th of September, 1872, the saint's bones were transferred, with much pomp | by Archbishop Pecci, afterwards Leo XIII, to the shrine, in the crypt at Santa Chiara, erected to receive them, and where they may now be seen. | is celebrated throughout the Church on 12 August | the feast of her first translation is kept in the order on 3 October, and that of the finding of her body on 23 September. | There was a marvellous holy woman in the city of Assisi |which was named Clare. First ye shall understand that her nativity was much worthy and noble. | It is read that as touching the world | she was of right noble lineage, and as touching the spirit to the regard of the estate of virtues and noble manners towards God, she was of right noble reputation. | Then for to show that after her nativity | she was a devout espouse of God, she is worthy to be of great recommendation. | when her mother was enceinted or great with child of her | on a time as she was before the crucifix, weeping and praying that of his grace he would grant to her the deliverance of her fruit with joy and gladness, she heard a voice suddenly saying to her: Woman, have thou no doubt, for without peril thou shalt be delivered of a daughter which shall by her doctrine enlumine all the world. | as soon as she was born | she did do name her at the font, Clare. | Secondly, is found in her life and known | great plenty of virtues. | holy virgin, after the time of her infancy | was so composed in all good manners, in port, in maintenance, and in continuance, that all others might take of her fair and good ensample for to nsaintain and govern them. | And in especial she had so great pity of the poor people | that ofttimes she spared her own mouth and sent by secret messengers such as she should herself have been sustained by. | Also in making devout prayer | she had so great pleasure that ofttimes it seemed to her, being in orisons, that her spirit was refreshed with the sweetness of heaven. | She was in her array like others, but by penance | she chastised her body, for how well that for the honour of her friends she was nobly apparelled, yet nevertheless she ware always the hair on her bare body, and from her infancy her heart had determined that for to die she would never have other espouse than Jesu Christ. | many other and plenty of virtues shone in her | the which were overlong to recount. | Thirdly, how S. Francis showed to her the way of truth; | it is read that as soon as S. Clare heard the renomee of S. Francis, it was spread over all the world as it were a new man sent into the world, showing how we ought to follow the new way of Jesu Christ, she never might have rest in her heart till she was come to him, and that to him she had opened her heart. | after she had sweetly understood him | and had received of him many a holy, sweet, and angelic word, S. Francis exhorted her above all other things to flee the world both with heart and her body. | to this he enjoined her that on Palm Sunday | she should hallow the feast with the other people, but the night following, in remembrance of the passion of Jesu Christ, she should turn her joy into weeping and afflictions, for in such wise to weep the passion of Jesu Christ, finally she might come to heaven as virgin and espouse of God, well eurous and happy. | | | Fourthly, how she had no quietness in her heart | till she had accomplished her thought and purpose; it is read that S. Clare, thus informed of S. Francis, could have no rest in her heart till that, the night assigned and the hour, she issued out of the city of Assisi, in which she dwelled, and came to the church of our Lady of Portiuncula. | friars received her | which awoke in the said church, and abode for her tofore the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary. | her hair was cut off, | and after, they led her into an abbey of nuns and there left her. | Fifthly, how her friends despised this work ordained by our Lord; | it is read when this lady was thus ordained, she laboured and did so much that she drew her sister named Agnes into her company, wherefore as well for that one as for that other, the carnal friends of S. Clare had her in indignation out of measure, wherefore S. Francis translated them into the church of S. Damian, which church by the commandment of the crucifix he had repaired. | this lady began the religion that was called of poor sisters | and there she was inclosed in a little cell which S. Francis had edified. | Sixthly, how she had humility in her heart | it is read that S. Clare glorified herself sovereignly in humility, like as the wise man saith: Of so much that a creature is promoted, of so much ought he to be the more humble. | assembled a great convent of holy virgins
| In the scandalous lives led by too many of the clergy, the heretics found a ready retort to the exhortations addressed to them. | Begin by reforming your own clerks," they would say, " | and when that is done you may preach to us." | Moreover, the secular rulers of the country showed themselves once more to be the firm friends |and protectors of the heretics. | Raymund V., whom we have seen ranging himself | at the close of his life on the side of the Church, | | | had been succeeded in his dominions by his son Raymund VI., | the child of an Albi- gensian mother, and himself deeply infected with the doctrines as well as with the contaminating practices of the sect. | All the weight of his authority was put forth | to favour and protect it, and it found its chief seat in his capital of Toulouse. | Baffled and confounded in all their efforts, the Legates | at length met at Montpelier to deliberate on what course to pursue. | We are assured that they were unanimously of opinion | that after drawing up a faithful report of their mission, | and despatching it to the Sovereign Pontiff | they should renew their petition to be released from labours so painful and fruitless. | But there is a well-known proverb that the moments of man's despair | are the moments of God's Providence. | In those days," writes William de Puylaurens |in his chronicle, " God had laid up in His Divine quiver two choice arrows. | They were the Spaniards, Diego77 |Bishop of Osma, and a religious named Dominic, canon of the same Church, whose name was afterwards inscribed in the catalogue of the saints." | The two Spanish pilgrims arrived at Montpelier | at the very time when the Legates were assembled there in consultation. | This unforeseen com- bination of events | brought about in the decrees of God's Providence a change in the whole aspect of affairs ; in that moment Languedoc received her true Apostle, fresh courage was infused into the hearts of the Catholic leaders, and a new chapter opened in the religious history of the country, which for a full century previously had been overcast by so dark a cloud. | spot which had been chosen by the Legates for their conference | was the village of Castelnau, which stood not from the gates of Montpelier, on the road leading thence to the Spanish frontier. | Peter of Castelnau was himself a member of the family | to whom the territory belonged, and of whose protection they were therefore secure, whilst close at hand, on a hill overlooking the river Lez, which separates Castelnau from Montpelier, was the residence of the Bishop of Magnelone, whose see was some centuries later transferred to the latter city. | Here, then, the Legates and other ecclesiastics were assembled | and had already begun their deliberations, when the arrival of the Spanish travellers was announced to them ; and the news spread joy through- out the whole company present. | reputation of the Bishop of Osma and of his Subprior | and the interest taken by both in the unhappy state of the country | on the occasion of their previous visit, secured for them a hearty welcome from the Papal Legates | and an invitation to take part in their conference. | | | Diego's episcopal character claimed for him special respect | and the Legates received him with every mark of honour, and asked his counsel, well knowing, says Blessed Jordan, " that he was a wise and holy man, and full of zeal for the faith." | He began by inquiring into the customs of the Albigenses | and was informed that their teachers attracted disciples by their persuasive arts, and by a great exterior display of poverty and austerity. | Moreover, as the Legates declared, one of | the greatest difficulties in dealing with the heretics was the impossibility of convincing them that the truth of the Christian faith | rested not on the example of individuals, but on the sure and infallible Word of God | as made known by the teaching of the Church. | Diego glanced around him, and was satisfied that one cause of the bad success | of the Legates lay in the manner of life which they adopted. | He took notice that they were attended by a numerous suite of followers, | and were well equipped with horses and costly apparel. | He did not, therefore, hesitate to declare | to them that the neglect of Evangelical poverty had in all probability been at the root of their failure. | It is not thus, my brethren," | he said, " that you must act. | heretics seduce simple souls by the pretence of poverty | and morti- fication ; by presenting the contrary spectacle you will scarcely edify them. | You will destroy their confidence | but you will never touch their hearts. | Rather set one example against the other; |oppose their feigned sanctity by true religion ; nothing but humility will ever triumph over falsehood." | " Most excellent Father," | said the Legates, "what would you have us do?" | " Do as I am about to do," replied Diego | and, filled with the Spirit of God, he called together his followers and commanded them to return to Spain with all his equipage. | retaining Dominic as his sole com- panion, he declared his intention | of remaining in the country and devoting himself to the preaching of the faith. | Struck by the words and still more by the example of the Bishop | | | | the Legates at once resolved to follow in the same track. | They dismissed their attendants and their baggage | and reserving only the books necessary for the recital of the Divine Office and for controversy | they henceforth travelled on foot. | More than this, feeling the power of Diego's character, | they unanimously chose him to be their chief, | and declared their resolution in future to carry on their labours under his direction. | These proceedings were at once made known to the Pope | who, on hearing what had taken place, did not hesitate to confirm their choice, | and to grant Diego the permission he had formerly refused him in the case of the Cumans | authorizing him to remain for two years in the French provinces | and devote himself to the preaching of the faith. | A new impulse was thus given to the enterprise on which the Catholics of Languedoc | had embarked ; with the apostolic life came a daily increase of the apostolic spirit. | It was a very different thing to set about evangelizing | a country encumbered with the pomp of a feudal retinue | villages to preach the faith | Arnold of Citeaux had been obliged to return | to his monas- tery, to attend the Chapter General of the Order | whence he promised to send fresh labourers to take part in the good work. | There remained, therefore, together with Diego and Dominic |only the two other Legates, Rodolph and Peter of Castelnau | after the conference at Mont- pelier, all set out together towards Toulouse | stopping at different places on the road to preach and hold disputations with the heretics, as they were moved by the Spirit of God. | We are assured that they made the journey barefoot | and trusted to God's Providence alone for their daily wants ; and the effect of this new way of proceeding was soon evident in the success which attended their labours. | Servian, 1 near Beziers, was the scene of their first success. | Here, on a steep rock rising in the midst of a fertile plain, stood the ancient castle of Stephen, feudal lord of Servian, a vassal of the Viscount of Beziers, and like him, a zealous partisan of | two of whose principal leaders, Baldwin and Thierry | dwelt there under his protection, and in this secure refuge were able to propagate their pestilential doctrines throughout the surrounding country. | | | Servian had, in conse- quence, become one of the citadels of the Albigenses | and in presenting themselves before its walls and challenging a disputation with two such renowned heresiarchs, the Catholic missioners were venturing on a step the very bold- ness of which was an augury of success. | To refuse such a challenge would have been an acknowledgment of weakness | that would have exposed the Albigensian teachers to contempt. | A public conference was therefore agreed upon, and the discussion | which lasted eight days, resulted in so marked a success on the part of the Catholics, | that the greater number of those who assisted at it declared them- selves on the side of the truth, and insisted on expelling | '''Baldwin and Thierry from their territory; nor' was the authority of the castellan, Stephen, strong enough to prevent them from carrying their purpose into effect. | taking the road to Beziers, |two thousand persons accompanied them out of the town, escorting them on their way with every mark of respect. | Fours years later the Castle of Servian surren- dered | to the arms of Simon de Montfort, and Stephen, abjuring his errors | solemnly engaged to hold no further communication with the Albigensian leaders | who had so long enjoyed his protection. | made their next station | they gained but little fruit, for this unhappy city was the head-quarters of the sect, whose leaders exercised great power over the Catholic inhabitants; but at Carcassonne they were more successful, preaching daily during a week, and reconciling great numbers to the Church. | Hitherto, Dominic's part in these transactions has seemed to be a .secondary one | he has appeared before us rather as the | follower and companion of the Bishop of Osma, than as the man whose name was to be for ever remembered in future histories | of the time as the chief champion of the | faith. Few, probably, | of those who witnessed these first openings of the campaign against the Albigenses, would have believed that the award of a deathless fame was to fall, not to the prelate whose prompt and commanding spirit had moved the Catholic missioners unanimously to choose him for their chief, but to one who followed in his train, known only as Brother Dominic, for he had laid aside even the title of Subprior, and took on him only an inferior part, as the subject and attendant of his bishop. | As soon, however, as the disputes with the heretics of which we have spoken | began to be held, his power and value were felt. | They were best evidenced by the bitter hatred which the heretics conceived against him. | The same sentiments had been so unequivo- cally evinced towards the Legate, Peter de Castelnau, that the others had persuaded him to withdraw for a time from the enterprise, in order not to exasperate those whom it was their object to conciliate. | masterly eloquence and con- vincing arguments of Dominic, | who time after time silenced his adversaries and conquered the obstinacy of vast numbers whom he won to the obedience of the Church | but would never yield | They spoke of him as their most dangerous enemy, and did not even conceal their resolve to take his life, whenever chance should give them the opportunity. | He treated such threats with abso- lute indifference. | The service of God was the only thing that he saw before him | and whilst his days were spent in public disputations | his nights were consumed in interviews with those who secretly sought his counsel; or more frequently in those prayers, and tears, and strong intercessions with God for the souls of the people, | which were more powerful arms in fighting the battles of the faith | than were even the wisdom and eloquence of his words. | In the course pursued by the missionaries | they were not unmindful of the principle laid down by Pope Innocent | error can only be driven out by solid instruction in the truth. | For this purpose, besides daily preaching in the churches | they held frequent conferences in private houses, to which | they invited the heretics, and engaged them in disputation on the chief articles of the faith. | One of these conferences was held at Verfeil | a place which then, as in the days of St. Bernard, was one of the chief strongholds of heresy, and the inhabitants of which turned a deaf ear to the exhortations of the Catholic preachers. | Shaking the dust off their feet | there- fore, they proceeded to the territory of Arzens, not far from Montreal, | where an incident took place which is related by William of Puy-Laurens, | and the memory of which is still carefully cherished. | It was the feast of St. John the Baptist | a day then observed in France as a feast of obligation. | But, as will be remembered, the heretics were accustomed to regard the Precursor |of our Lord with peculiar detestation, and by way of marking their sentiments regarding him | reaping their corn | When Dominic beheld them thus engaged, he quitted his companions | wrath of God | Far from heeding his words, they laughed him to scorn, and one man, more violent than the rest, attacked the saint, and would have driven him out of the field with violence. | But as he let fall his sickle | he beheld fhe ears of corn, as it were, filled with blood. | Supposing himself to be wounded | he cried aloud to his comrades, but they, too, beheld their sheaves and their own hands also stained with blood. | Struck by so strange a prodigy, |they fell at the feet of the saint, confessed their fault, and implored him to make their peace with God. | And following him to his companions at Montreal | they there, in his hands, abjured their heresy and were reconciled to the Church. | their labours. So thoroughly had the heretics established their power in this place | that the Catholic church was entirely deserted | and several communities of the perfect, both men and women | lived there, having in their charge a number of young girls whom they were preparing for initiation. | These communities were frequented indiscrimi- nately | by men and women, who practised the mysterious rites of adoration, | and among whom, we are assured by the testimony of many who had taken part therein, |the worst disorders charged to the account of the heretics reigned checked, and were encouraged by the example of the astellan, Aymeric, and his too famous sister, Guirande. | Many of the most distinguished members of the sect | assembled on hearing of the arrival of the Legates | and among others was Guilabert de Castres, | who held high rank among his fellows, and whose ordinary residence was at Fanjeaux. | | | Unceasing disputes between the Catholics and heretics | were held for the space of fifteen days, the con- troversy turning chiefly on the sanctity of the Church and the doctrine of the Mass, | which the Albigenses denied to have been instituted by Jesus Christ | The disputations were held in the presence of four judges | two knights, and two citizens, who were accepted by the Albigenses | as being in no way biassed in favour of the Catholic cause. | In fact, as Peter de Vaulx-Cernay observes | so deplorable was the condition to which religion had been reduced | that to vindicate the articles of the Catholic faith it became necessary to | submit to the arbitration of judges, themselves laymen, who were too often weak in the faith, if not themselves suspected of heresy. | dispute was carried on at great length | but at its close the umpires, who perceived that the heretics would in all probability be convicted of error | refused to pass any judgment. | Nevertheless, the conference resulted in the conversion of many who were present at it. | Nor was this all. | In the course of the disputation Dominic had written down various quotations from the New Testament in proof of his arguments, and giving the paper to one of the heretics, prayed him to consider its contents attentively, and | not to shut his eyes to the truth if its perusal should bring conviction. | That same evening, as the man sat over the fire with his companions, discussing the subjects of the day's disputation | which was read and re-read by all present | They found themselves unable to call in question testimonies drawn from those Scriptures which they themselves owned to be canonical, while at the same time they felt no disposition to accept the conclusions of their opponent. | In this perplexity | one of their number proposed a new kind of test. | Let them cast the writing into the fire | if the flames respected it, they would believe its contents | if it were consumed, they would take this as a triumphant proof in favour of their own opinions. | The experiment was tried, and to the amazement of those who had proposed and consented to such a trial, the manuscript was cast forth from the flames, and remained altogether uninjured. | One might have expected such a result to have been followed | by the conversion of those who witnessed it, but this was far from being the case. | | | we are told, beheld and wondered | but agreed to keep the matter secret, lest, if it reached the ears of the Catholics, they should claim it as a token of victory. | One man only, more noble-minded than the rest | was converted by what he saw, and made it known publicly. | narrative is inserted by Peter de Vaulx-Cernay, |in his History of the Albigenses, on no less an authority than that of St. Dominic himself. | " This event," he says, " took place at Montreal, | as I heard from the lips of the holy man who gave the writing into the hands of the heretics." 3 | Montreal preserves many memorials of the presence of the blessed Dominic | who often returned thither to confirm its inhabitants in the faith ; the pulpit in which he preached being still preserved as a precious relic. | Yet more closely associated with this period of his life | is the spot which was next visited by the missioners, and which was the scene of an occurrence very similar in its character to the one just narrated, though the two events must not be confounded | town of Fanjeaux stands on the very summit of a high conical hill | overlooking a plain which stretches to the foot of the Pyrenees. | Its present appearance probably differs but little | from that which it bore on the day when Dominic and his companions first entered within its walls, passing under that ancient gateway, above which is now to be seen a gilded statue of the Blessed Virgin. | At the very summit of the street stands | the venerable parish church of grand proportions, which so often echoed with the voice of the saint ; and near it may be seen the pool of water, the Fanum Jovis, which gives its name to the town, a temple of Jupiter having stood there in pagan times. | missioners preached for some days | with considerable fruit. | place was a stronghold of the heretics | whose leaders challenged the Catholics to another public disputa- tion. | The challenge was accepted | and it was agreed that each party should commit to writing the chief arguments in support of their respective creeds. | Among the writings of the Catholics |that drawn up by Brother Dominic was unanimously selected as the best ; and on the day appointed an unusual number of persons assembled to assist at the disputation and witness the result. | In fact this conference appears to have been by far the most important | and the most numerously attended of any that had yet taken place. | We have the names of a considerable number | both men and women, who took part in it ; among whom were William de Durfort, the territorial lord of Fanjeaux, and many noble ladies. | Indeed, it is said that of all the ladies of Montreal | one only had escaped the infection of heresy, namely, the chatelaine Na-Cavaers, who shared with Durfort the seigneurship of Fanjeaux. | Guilabert de Castres had also hastened his return to Fanjeaux, in order to assist his dis- ciples and partisans, | who were all of them distinguished by their rank and influence. | | | judges were chosen equally from both parties | and the conference was held in the house of Raymund de Durfort, brother to William, and himself an adherent of the Albigenses. | sectaries, finding them- selves unable to answer the arguments of their opponents, | proposed to appeal to the judgment of God by the trial by fire. | Some writers say that this was ordered by the arbiters. | It does not appear whether or no they were aware of what had occurred at Montreal ; but the proposal, which was fully in harmony with the customs of an age wherein the trial by -ordeal had not yet become obsolete, was received with applause by .all present, and a large fire was accordingly kindled on the stone hearth of the hall where they were assembled. | The writings of the heretics were first cast into the flames | and entirely consumed. | book contain- ing Brother Dominic's defence of the Catholic faith was in like manner | thrown into the fire and was cast forth imme : - diately on touching the burning logs. | tossed out of the flames to a considerable distance | A second and third time it was thrown in, and each time sprang out as before, thus showing the truth of the orthodox faith and the sanctity of the writer." | ancient MS. Breviary of Prouille | relates this event in words which are transcribed by Father Percin in his History of the Province of Toulouse. | stated that the book when tossed out of the fire | rested each time on a beam of wood, in which three deep holes may still be seen as a per- petual memorial of the miracle." | This beam was formerly kept in the very hall where the incident took place | and where, in the following century, a church was erected by Charles le Bel | and attached to a convent of Friars Preachers. | Pere Jean de Rechac speaks of seeing it in this chapel | and describes the three holes as distinctly visible. |On the sup- pression of the convent the beam was removed to the parish church of Fanjeaux | where it is still carefully preserved | hearth-stone on which the fire was kindled was also kept under the altar | at the First Vespers | instead of the Responsary, O spem miram, that for the third Lesson at Matins, in which allusion is made to the well-attested miracle : Verbum vita dum palam promitur, | conference at Fanjeaux, and the wonderful event | with which it closed, brought conviction to the minds of many of those who assisted at it | but by far the greater number remained obstinate in their unbelief. | Nevertheless, from this time Brother Dominic came to be regarded both by friends and enemies as foremost among the champions of the Catholic faith. | | | Touron remarks that whereas the other missioners, | whose number had now considerably increased | wherever charity might guide him | In the course of these missionary journeys he made himself perfectly well acquainted with the condition of the country and of the evils which cried aloud for remedy. | In particular he became aware of the special danger | to which the daughters of the Catholics were exposed, through the artifices of the Albigenses and the culpable indifference of their own parents. | Many of the Catholic gentry, reduced to ruin by the spolia- tion of their lands | did not hesitate for the bribe of a promised dowry to deliver their daughters | into the hands of the sectaries to be by them nurtured and educated in heresy. | leaders of the Albigenses understood only too well| what powerful instruments might then be fashioned | for the propa- gation of their false doctrines. | Indeed, it is remarkable how important a part | was played by these proselytes. | They found entrance into all families and exercised | a powerful influence over many a Catholic household. | From none indeed did the Albigenses receive more powerful support | than from their female disciples, whom they were careful to recruit after the manner above described. | This abuse and its dangers, | as insidious as they were alarming, did not escape the notice of the saint, and he rested not till he had provided a remedy. | The plan suggested itself to him of founding a monastery | for the express purpose of furnishing a retreat where young girls in danger of this kind of perversion might find a safe refuge, and where other women reclaimed from heresy might also be admitted and fully instructed in the faith. | He conferred with Diego on this plan | and received from him such warm encouragement, that both Blessed Jordan and Theodoric of Apoldia write as though the bishop had himself been the author of the scheme. | This, however, is to be understood only as signifying | that the proceedings of the missioners were naturally submitted to the approval of Diego as their recognized head, for the foundation of Prouille must be regarded as strictly the work of St. Dominic. | Vim's convent was in fact to become the ; real nursery | of his Order, and the narrative of a foundation | IN the plain that stretches from the foot of the hills | on which Fanjeaux is situated, lies the village of Prouille, where in the thirteenth century stood a church dedicated to St. Martin, together with an ancient chapel of our Lady, long the resort of pilgrims, which Brother Dominic often visited in his apostolic journeys, and wherein he loved to offer the Holy Sacrifice. | | | On the night of the 22nd of July, 1206 | the saint, according to his custom, had retired to a spot among the hills overlooking the plain, in order that, after spending the day in labouring for souls, | he might devote the night hours to communing with God | No doubt his heart was full to overflowing with solicitude for the perishing souls among whom he laboured, and the design with which God had recently inspired him. | establishment of a monastery | such as he had in contemplation was no easy task for one a stranger in the land, and wholly destitute of temporal means. | a country surrounded on all sides |by those hostile to the faith, where should he find a site on which to erect his ark of refuge ? | Looking down on the plain below | he suddenly beheld a spectacle which seemed to give the answer to his doubts. | A globe of fire appeared in the air | and, after making several circuits, descended, and rested on the roof of bur Lady's chapel. | same prodigy was exhibited on the two following nights | and Dominic understood it to signify that the spot thus pointed out was the one chosen for his proposed foundation. | convent, which was to receive into its shelter | souls rescued from the snares of the enemy, was then, to be placed under the patronage of Our Lady of Prouille. | On inquiry he found that the land on which the chapel stood | belonged to a noble dame whose family name was De Cavaers, the same who has been before mentioned as chatelaine of Fanjeaux | and enjoying the honourable dis- tinction | of being the solitary lady of that neighbourhood who remained loyal to the Catholic faith. | To her the saint made known what he had seen | and invited her to consecrate her territory to the service of God | by consenting to the foundation on it of a monastery for women. | She yielded a joyful consent to the proposal, which received the hearty approval of Fulk | Bishop of Toulouse, to whom the co- patronage of the chapel belonged. | He not only gave his sanction to the undertaking | furnished the foundation with such liberal alms | that in a short time the requisite buildings were erected, and the monastery sufficiently endowed for the support of a certain number of subjects. | While the work was in progress | Dominic continued to reside at Fanjeaux in a house which is still religiously preserved, and is called in the patois of the country the Bourguet Sant Domenge. | | | may still be seen the chamber | which gave him shelter, with its brick floor and ancient stone hearth. | Near this house rises a high rock | in a cavity of which is a deep pool that is never stagnant, being fed from some secret source. | It bears the title of the water-stoup | of St. Dominic, and, according to the poetical tradition | of the place, sprang up on the spot so often watered by the tears and sanctified |by the prayers of the saint. | Not far off a little monument, | surmounted by a cross, marks the spot known as the Segnadou, or " the place where the saint saw the sign," | being that, whence as above related | he beheld the flame descend from heaven upon the roof of our Lady's chapel. | This spot, as well as others | which local tradition associates with his name | is still visited by pilgrims who love to pray on the scenes | hallowed by his memory among these mountain solitudes. | A steep cleft in the rocks shows the path | he so often trod leading from Fanjeaux to Montreal, and here it is said he once narrowly escaped falling into the hands of assassins. | forest where he was wont to retire for prayer and penance | with the old oaks under which he loved to sit, are still pointed out; and half way between Fanjeaux and Carcassonne is to be seen a fountain now surmounted by his statue, where according to tradition he often rested and took his scanty meal of dry bread, dipping it in the waters of the fountain. | But perhaps the most interesting of the localities asso- ciated | with his memory is the parish church of Fanjeaux which even claims to have been served for a time by the saint as parish priest | pulpit in which he preached almost daily | during the time that he made his home in the village is still reverently shown. | Out of respect the floor of this pulpit is now covered with boards | but we are assured it is the same from which he so often announced the Word of God. | On one such occasion, after he had eloquently | defended the faith against the blasphemies of the Albigenses, an incident occurred which we will relate almost in the words of Blessed Humbert. | As the saint remained in the church to pray | according to his custom, he was accosted by nine women who threw them- selves at his feet, saying, " Servant of God, come to our help. | | | . If what you preached to-day be true | our souls have long been blinded with error ; for those whom you style heretics, but whom we call Bons Hommesf are the guides whom we have hitherto trusted with our whole hearts. | But now we know not what to think. | Have pity on us and pray to the Lord your God | that He may make known to us | in what faith we must live and die if we would be saved everlastingly. | We cannot reply to your arguments | yet we dare not lightly condemn the teaching of our ministers. | Resolve our doubts then, but we entreat you | let it be in a way which may bring certain conviction to our souls." | Dominic recollected himself for a few moments in silent prayer | then he replied, " Have patience and fear nothing ; I believe that our Lord, Who wills not that any should perish, will show you manifestly who is the master whom you have hitherto served." | and as they did so there appeared in the midst of them | a monstrous and most hideous beast whose flaming eyes and frightful aspect filled them with terror. | Springing into the air, it disappeared through the belfry of the church, | leavirig behind it a horrible stench. " | This is the master you have served," said Dominic | "and whose likeness God has per- mitted you to behold that you might see and understand in what manner of slavery you have engaged by joining yourselves to these heretics." | Moved by the appalling sight | and with hearts already touched by Divine grace, the nine women entreated Dominic not to abandon them, but to receive them to some safe shelter, and direct them in the way of truth. | The saint gave up to them the house he himself occupied | and spent that night, as was his frequent habit | in prayer among the hills. | After carefully testing the sincerity of his new disciples | he not only received their abjuration, but agreed to admit them among the first members of the new community. | has carefully preserved their names | | | they were Alai'de, Berengaria, Barberienne Jordan, Curtslana, Raymundine, Paperin, Riccarda, Guillelmine de Beaupuys, Raymundine Clarette, and Gentiana. | Twenty-seven years later, Beren- garia gave her testimony to the sanctity of St. Dominic, making oath before the commissioners of Toulouse as to the things she had seen and heard ; and in this attestation she affirms having with her own eyes beheld the terrible spectacle above described as seen in the church of Fanjeaux. | Another " of the little company, whose name is not given | appears to have been possessed of considerable personal attractions, and in particular of a remarkably well-formed nose, which proved a source of temptation to her, and disposed her to return to the world. | A grotesque accident, however, which befell the favourite feature | and somewhat spoiled her beauty, seems to have cured her vanity and brought her to her senses. | Confessing her f ault to Brother Dominic, | he confirmed her in her vocation, so that she never afterwards showed any signs of instability. | To these nine were soon afterwards added two others | Catholics by birth and by education, of whom Guillemette de Fanjeaux, though the last comer, was chosen by Dominic to be the Prioress, an office she continued to fill for the space of nineteen years. | modest habitation which had been begun in the month of August | and which, poor as it was, was yet carefully adapted to the requirements of religious life, was completed early in November ; and on the ^ 22nd of this month, being the feast of St. Cecilia, 1206, the nuns took possession of their new abode. | They were formally enclosed on the following feast of St. John the Evangelist | and thus was completed the foundation of the first convent of the Order. | community soon received a fresh increase by the admission of fifteen young girls | all rescued from the hands of the heretics, to whose instruction and guidance the saint devoted no small portion of his time. | An exact description of the spot so dear and sacred to every child | of St. Dominic will not be unacceptable. | It shall be given in the words | of one to whom the scenes described have long been a familiar home. | Prouille is | situated in the department of Aude, between the Medi- j^ierranean | and the Pyrenees. | lies in a vast and richly cultivated plain | through which flow many crystal streams | their banks fringed with trees, specialty willows. | On the south it is shut in by a range of hills, | still covered with the remains of vast forests, which once clothed them to the summit. | Dotted here and there on its expanse appear farms and villages | with many a church tower rising to heaven through the clear and azure sky. | | | Towards the east and west | this plain stretches to a great extent, but it is bounded on the north by what are called the Black Mountains, the slopes of which in the time of St. Dominic were covered with thick forests." | A little village, the houses of which were poor enough | and were for the most part built of mud, then clustered round the Church of St. Martin, long the resort of pilgrims ; and the first abode of the nuns consisted of a few such mud cottages, which they continued to occupy until by gift or purchase they came into possession of larger territories. | this humble dwelling it was, then, that St. Dominic | gathered his first religious, whom by the authority of the Bishop of Toulouse he clothed in the habit he had (chosen for them, namely, a white tunic with a black mantle I and veil. | He gave them the Rule of St. Augustine | to which were added certain Constitutions drawn up by his own pen, in which was enjoined a strict observance of silence. | Besides the hours devoted to prayer and the recital of the Divine Office | it was provided that a certain time should every day be given to manual work. | articles of a visitation of the convent held in 1340 | by the Provincial of Toulouse show how much importance was attached by the saint to this salutary ordinance. | procurators of the convent (we read) being asked how the sisters | were provided with clothing, and if they had sufficient garments, | and those of good and suitable materials | answered that every year there is delivered to them fifteen cwt. of clean, washed, and well-chosen wool | which wool they themselves spin and make up according | to the ancient custom of the monastery, and the express command of our Father St. Dominic, who ordered that the nuns should | spin and sew in those hours | when they were not employed in the recitation of the Divine Office, in order the better to avoid idleness, the cause of so many evils." | Besides this manual work it was ordered that those who had the capacity | should carefully apply themselves to the study of psalmody | and a passage in the primitive Constitu- tion names also " the study of letters " | as fitly occupying a certain portion of their time. | An idea has very commonly prevailed that the Convent of Prouille was founded as a place of education | for young girls, and considerable pains has been taken by several learned writers to disprove this error. | religious of Prouille, like all other communities | of the Second Order established later, were strictly contem- plative | and never undertook the work of education. | Never- theless, it is evident that being founded to receive those rescued from heresy | means were provided for the careful instruction of the inmates in the truths of faith | and as amply appears from the annals of the monastery, the religious who took no part in that work of teaching which so manifestly belongs to the Order of Preachers | were trained to co-operate in the salvation of souls | by their penances and their prayers. | So singular an interest attaches to this nursery | of the Order of Preachers, and its foundation forms such an important epoch in the life of our saint, | that we shall make no apology for tracing its history somewhat fully | the rather that the documents we have to quote throw considerable light on the actual position then held by St. Dominic, | and the nature of his work in Languedoc. | So much of his history has been presented to us in what is regarded by many as a purely legendary form | that it is a satisfaction to turn over the pages of formal documents indisputable | in their authenticity, and gather from them evidence corro- borating many of the events above recorded. | church had been granted to the use of the nuns from their first foundation | but it was not until 1211 that they became its actual proprietors. | Fulk, Bishop of Toulouse | with the consent of his Chapter, and at the request of Master Dominic of Osma, gives and assigns the chapel of Our Lady of Prouille to the religious women who shall be converted by the preaching of those appointed to drive away heresy out of the country. | He releases them from all pecuniary obligations | that might be claimed by the Chapter, and grants them thirty paces of land surrounding the chapel. | Earlier than this is the document by which Beranger | Archbishop of Narbonne, endows the monastery with lands situated in his archdiocese. | In the April of 1207, only four months | after this foundation, he grants to the Prioress and other religious women who have been recently converted to the faith by the exhortations and example of Brother Dominic, | Canon of Osma, and of his companions abiding at Fanjeaux in the Church, of | Our Lady of Prouille, the Church of St. Martin of Limoux, 7 and the territory of Tax, contiguous to it | as a perpetual possession which is accepted in their name by the Brothers Dominic | and William de Claret. | document we have the first notice of the companions of St. Dominic | and of their establishment at Prouille as a residence. | William de Claret here mentioned was a native | of Pamiers, and offered his services to the Bishop of Osma at the very commence- ment of the mission. | Diego appointed him procurator to the little company | and St. Dominic chose him to discharge the same office for the community of Prouille, and to act as their chaplain, though their spiritual care was afterwards confided to Brother Noel of Prouille. | Brethren of Prouille | are also named in another act dated in the same year 1207, in which Ermingarde de Godeline and her husband, Sancho Gasc, dedicated not only their goods, but their persons also, to God, | Blessed Mary | and all the saints, to the holy work of preaching, | to Master Dominic of Osma, and the brethren and sisters living at Prouille | How many of these brethren were established at Prouille in its early days | we do not know ; it is probable that their numbers | at first were small, possibly not exceeding the two whose names have been already given. | But as time went on their ranks increased | and at a later date we find the community of the brethren amounting to as many as twenty-five priests besides lay-brothers. | Meanwhile the records of the monastery | bear witness to its steady growth. | A few years pass by, years of tumult and of bloodshed | but Prouille remains unaffected by the storm that rages round her walls. | | | ark of refuge floats securely | on the surface of the troubled waters. | con- struction and enlargement of the monastery are carried on | without intermission, while all the surrounding country is plunged in civil war ; and in 1212 | n armies are marching and counter-marching in the close neighbourhood | fresh acts of donation make mention of the "newly-erected abbey" and the "monastery recently constructed." | The antique forms of some of these documents | help us to realize the age to which they belong. | Thus in 1212 Bernard de Barna | makes over to Our Lady of Prouille and to the brethren and sisters living there, not only his goods moveable and immoveable, but his own person and that of his son. | Needless to say this is to be understood | in the feudal sense. | He holds his lands henceforth, not as an independent proprietor | but as " the man " of the monastery. " | Kneeling before you, Dominic, Canon of Osma," he continues, | " with my hands in yours and receiving the kiss of peace, I pledge you my homage." | Again, in another of these charters Peter, Castellan de Saissac | contracts a different kind of tie with the community. | He disposes of his lands in favour of the brethren and sisters | adding, " and I, Peter de Saissac, make myself your brother, and if he so will, | my heir shall do the same." | donation is accepted by the two brethren | Noel and William, in the name of the joint community. | "We hereby receive you as a brother," | they write at the foot of the contract, " | and admit you to participation in all the prayers and good works that are here performed." | That is to say, | that the donor becomes affiliated to the monastery not precisely as a religious, | but as a kind of auxiliary, one of what were technically called the freres donas | whose numbers gradually increased with the increase of the lands and possessions of the monastery which were committed to their charge. | | | It will be seen, then, | that two distinct communities were settled at Prouille, one of religious women and the other of brethren. | latter had for their use the Church of St. Martin, | which separated the two divisions of the monas- tery. | Pere Rechac has given us an exact description of the building | as it existed in the seventeenth century, and tells us of the quadrangle of the nuns with its central fountain, the stone cloisters with watch-towers at each of the four corners of the battlemented walls, | with which, as time went on, the convent was surrounded | having fifteen other towers, their numbers corresponding to the mysteries of the holy Rosary. | He describes how over the great gate of the monastery there stood an image of St. Dominic, | stick in hand, while beneath it were engraved in antique Gothic | characters the following lines | annals of the monastery record many instances of its singular preservation | from perils of all kinds, due as was believed to his fatherly protection | Then, in 1309, fire broke out in the dormitory of the religious, who having invoked the aid of their holy patriarch, beheld a number of young children dressed in white, who extinguished the flames with their hands. | This happened on the feast of St. Michael | and the grace was so generally attributed to angelic assist- ance that Pere Adaubert, Provincial of Toulouse, ordained a daily commemoration of the Holy Angels to be made henceforth at Lauds and Vespers by way of perpetual thanksgiving. | Needless to say that a very special devotion | was always cherished by the religious of Prouille to their | holy founder himself, | whose chasuble, mantle, and scapular they preserved as precious relics, as well as a crucifix carved by his direction, which was kept in the chapel of the Rosary and w r as regarded as miraculous. | This chapel was a place of great devotion. | It was here that the novices used to assemble to recite our Lady's Office | and here it was said two of the sisters who were wont to resort hither to pray | were accustomed to see and converse with their guardian angels. | community seems specially to have excelled | in their admirable discharge of the duties of the choir. | They recited it, says Pere Rechac | in a manner suitable to the majesty of the place, without haste or precipitation, without the omission of a note or a syllable, the pauses carefully observed, and the chant kept up with perfect regularity. | " Of this," he says, " I have myself been both an eye and ear witness | nor is it to be doubted that this perfect fidelity in the duties of the choir has been one of the special benedic- tions left by St. Dominic on these his eldest daughters." | We will only add that to fervour in prayer | they added an unbounded charity, as was shown by their daily distribution at the gate of the monastery of food, clothes, and medicine. | But it is time to close this subject | over which we have lingered out of loving reverence to the memory of a place sanctified by the labours and tears of our great saint, and so dear to his fatherly heart. | | | exists no longer. | The ancient monastery was entirely burnt down in 1715, and in 1790 the new convent raised upon its ruins was seized by the Revolutionary Government, | the religious dispersed, and the convent itself sold to a speculator | who levelled it to the ground and sold its stones as building materials. For | more than fifty years nothing remained to mark the site but a few feet of crumbling wall | a portion of the ancient cloister. | But in our own days a new Prouille has arisen out of the ashes of the old | and on this very site a monastery of magnificent dimensions, raised through the munificence of a noble lady, has received within its walls a colony of Dominican nuns who can trace their religious | descent from the parent stock of the | Prouille of St. Dominic. | Thus the lily garden of the Order has been planted afresh. | Pndia, or Pruralilia, as some old writers love to call it | still lives to lift up holy hands for her unhappy country. | May her prayers be abundantly heard as expressed in those words | which so often in old times resounded within her walls : | As soon as the community was happily settled | Arnold of Citeaux soon after arrived | bringing with him twelve other abbots of his Order. | Thus powerfully reinforced, the missioners prosecuted their labours with fresh vigour | At Montreal five hundred heretics abjured their errors, and the same success attended the preaching of the Catholics in other towns. | Diego, therefore, thought the time a suitable | one for revisiting his own diocese, from which he had now been absent for nearly three years. | Before doing so, however, he agreed to return | L'épouse doit aussi faire la volonté de son époux. | Quelle est ma volonté, si ce n'est que vous m'aimiez | par-dessus toutes choses et ne désiriez autre chose que moi ? | J'ai créé toutes choses pour l'amour de l'homme, | et je les lui ai toutes assujetties : mais lui, il aime toutes choses, excepté moi, et il ne hait que moi. | J'ai de nouveau racheté l'héritage qu'il avait perdu | mais l'homme est tellement aliéné de sens et de raison qu'il aime mieux cet honneur passager, qui n'est qu'écume de mer, qui monte en un moment comme une montagne, et est soudain réduit à rien, que l'honneur éternel, où est le bien sans fin. | | | Or, vous, mon épouse | si vous ne désirez que moi, si vous méprisez tout pour l'amour de moi, non seulement je vous donnerai en douce et précieuse récompense | des enfants et des parents, mais aussi des richesses et des honneurs, non pas l'or et l'argent | mais moi-même, moi qui suis Roi de gloire, je me donnerai à vous en époux et en prix. | Si vous avez honte d'être pauvre et d'être méprisée, | considérez que moi, votre Dieu, vous ai précédée en cela, | car mes serviteurs et mes amis m'ont laissé en terre, d'autant que je n'ai pas recherché les amis de la terre, mais du ciel. | Que si vous craignez le fait du labeur et de l'infirmité, considérez combien il est douloureux de brûler dans le feu. | Que mériteriez-vous, si vous aviez offensé quelque seigneur temporel | comme vous m'avez offensé ? | Car bien que je vous aime de tout mon coeur, néanmoins je ne porte pas le moindre amendement à ma justice | comme vous m'avez offensé en tous vos membres, en tous vous y satisferez. | Cependant, pour la bonne volonté et pour les propos qu'on fait de s'amender, | je change ma justice en ma miséricorde, remettant, pour un petit amendement, les plus cuisantes erreurs. | Embrassez donc franchement un petit labeur, afin qu'étant purifiée | vous obteniez plus tôt une grande récompense ; car il est raisonnable que l'épouse souffre et travaille avec l'époux, afin que plus fidèlement elle se repose avec lui. | Seigneur que vous honorez | Je suis celui qui, par sa puissance, soutient le ciel et la terre, et qui n'est soutenu par aucun appui ni par aucune colonne. | sous les espèces du pain et du vin | vrai Dieu et vrai homme, est offert en sacrifice tous les jours. | le même qui vous ai choisie | Honorez mon Père ; aimez-moi ; obéissez à mon Esprit ; déférez à ma Mère un grand honneur comme à votre Dame. | Honorez tous mes saints | gardez la foi droite que vous enseignera celui qui a éprouvé en soi le conflit de la vérité et de la fausseté, | et qui a vaincu par mon secours. | Gardez mon humilité vraie. | Quelle est l'humilité vraie, si ce n'est se manifester | tel qu'on est, et louer Dieu des biens qu'il nous a donnés ? | Mais maintenant, nombreux sont ceux qui me haïssent | et donnent à mes oeuvres et mes paroles réputation de douleur et de vanité, et ils embrassent et aiment l'adultère, le diable ; car tout ce qu'ils font pour moi, ils le font avec murmure et amertume, et ils ne confesseraient pas mon nom s'ils étaient confondus par la crainte des hommes. | | | Or, ils aiment si sincèrement le monde que le labeur et les peines | qu'il leur donne ne les lassent jamais, et qu'ils sont toujours plus fervents en son amour. Leur service ne me plaît pas plus que si quelqu'un donnait de l'argent à son ennemi pour faire tuer son propre fils. | Ceux-ci font la même chose, car ils donnent une petite aumône | et m'honorent seulement de leurs lèvres, afin que la prospérité mondaine leur soit favorable, et qu'ils jouissent des honneurs et des voluptés. | De là vient que leur esprit est mort | pour cause de profit, à l'avancement du vrai bien. | Or, si vous voulez m'aimer de tout votre coeur | et ne désirer rien que moi, je vous attirerai à moi par la charité, comme l'aimant attire le fer ; et je vous placerai en la force de mon bras, qui est si puissant qu'aucun ne peut l'étendre, si ferme que quand il est étendu, aucun ne peut le plier ni courber ; il est encore si doux qu'il surpasse toutes les senteurs aromatiques, et n'entre en comparaison avec aucune des délectations du monde ; parce qu'il les surpasse toutes. | Pourquoi avez-vous eu crainte de mes paroles | per esserti di riposo, così niente ti potrà riscaldare più delle nostre viscere. | Il cuor nostro è il più fresco fra tutti i viventi e volentieri lo spezziamo | per dartelo in cibo; entra dunque e tutto ti è dolce al palato e appetibile al gusto. | Gli abitatori delle cinque case sono i cinque stati degli uomini nel mondo | I Primi sono i cristiani infedeli, che dicono ingiusti i giudizi del Figlio mio e false le sue promesse e impossibili i suoi precetti. | Costoro col pensiero nella mente e con la bestemmia | sono contro i predicatori del Figlio mio. | L'Onnipotente è lunghissimo e non può essere | raggiunto. | È larghissimo e altissimo e non può essere vestito | È insaziabile e non può essere nutrito. È | impazientissimo, in modo da non poter coabitare con loro | Lo dicono lontanissimo, perché piccoli d'opere e di carità | non si sforzano d'innalzarsi alla sua bontà. | Lo dicono larghissimo perché la loro cupidigia non conosce misura. | Cercano il pelo nell'uovo, sospettano il male prima che accada | Lo ritengono anche insaziabile, perché non gli bastano né il cielo né la terra | dagli uomini esige i doni migliori e di dare tutto per la salvezza dell'anima: | un comando pazzesco per loro che stimano grave danno riservare poche cose al corpo. | Impazientissimo lo dicono anche perché odia | il vizio e va contro la loro volontà; infatti essi non stimano bello e utile se non quello che è suggerito loro dal piacere sensibile. | Ma il Figlio mio davvero è Onnipotente | in cielo e in terra, Creatore di tutte le cose, da nessuno creato, a tutti anteriore e, dopo di Lui, | non ci saranno altri in futuro. | Egli è davvero lunghissimo, altissimo | | | larghissimo fra tutte le cose e fuori e sopra a tutte le cose. | E tuttavia, sebbene tanto potente, vuol essere vestito dal servizio caritatevole dell'uomo | lui che di vestirsi non ha bisogno | ma tutti riveste, ed è eternamente e immutabilmente vestito di onore e di gloria. | Desidera essere rifocillato dalla carità dell'uomo | lui che è il pane degli Angeli e degli uomini, che tutti rifocilla e non ha bisogno di nessuno. | Chiede la pace all'uomo, colui che della pace è il costruttore | e il fondamento. | Chi dunque vorrà accoglierlo gioiosamente | potrà saziarlo anche con un briciolo di pane, se avrà buona volontà. | Basterà un filo a vestirlo | se avrà ardente carità. | Potrà dissetarlo con una goccia | se avrà buoni sentimenti. | | | Sarà in grado di riceverlo in cuore e parlar | con lui, se sarà fervente e stabile nella devozione. | Dio infatti è Spirito e volle perciò mutare in spirituali le cose | carnali ed in eterne le cose caduche. | Reputa fatto e dato a se stesso | quel che è fatto e dato alle sue membra. | Né guarda l'operato o il semplice sentimento ma la fervorosa volontà e l'intenzione con cui si compie l'opera. | Veramente costoro quanto più ricevono | segrete inspirazioni dal Figlio mio e quanto più vengono ammoniti | da lui per mezzo dei suoi predicatori | tanto più si ostinano contro di lui, | né l'odono, né gli aprono la porta della volontà | né l'introducono con le buone opere. | Perciò quando sarà giunto il loro tempo, sarà annientata la menzogna su cui si fondano e sarà esaltata la verità e resa manifesta la gloria di Dio. | I secondi sono i Giudei ostinati | Questi credono d'essere del tutto ragionevoli e ritengono la loro ragione come giustizia legale. | | | Esaltano le proprie azioni e le magnificano più di quelle degli altri. | Se odono le cose fatte dal Figlio mio, le stimano degne di disprezzo. | Se odono le parole e i comandi del Figlio mio | li disdegnano e, anzi, se le ascoltassero e le praticassero, si riterrebbero peccatori e impuri | e, per ciò che riguarda il Figlio mio, più infelici | e miserabili se lo imitassero. | Finché il mondo è loro favorevole, si sentono felicissimi; finché | sono in buona salute, si sentono fortissimi. | Perciò la loro speranza cadrà nel nulla e la loro gloria in confusione | Terzi sono i Pagani, dei quali alcuni, irridendo, chiedono ogni giorno: Chi è questo Cristo? | Se è dolce, con la sua presenza, l'accoglieremo | Se mite nel perdonare i peccati, l'onoreremo volentieri. | questi chiudono gli occhi della loro intelligenza | per non capire la giustizia e la misericordia di Dio. | Otturano le orecchie per non udire quel che il Figlio mio ha fatto per essi e per tutti. | Si tappano la bocca e non indagano cos'accadrà loro e cos'è loro utile. | Incrociano le braccia e rifiutano la fatica di cercar | la via come evitare la menzogna e trovare la verità. | Perciò, siccome non vogliono capire e guardarsi come possono e fin quando ne hanno il tempo | cadranno con la loro casa, travolti dalla tempesta. | I quarti sono quei Giudei e Pagani | che sarebbero volentieri cristiani, se ne conoscessero il modo e cosa è gradito al Figlio mio e se avessero un interlocutore. | Essi arguiscono dalle circostanze e capiscono dalla voce interna dell'amore e dai segni, | Ja mu odkupiłem dziedzictwo, które stracił, ale tak oddalony jest i odwrócony od rozumu, | że więcej pragnie honoru przemijającego | (który niczym innym nie jest jak pianą morską podnoszącą się jak góra | a w mgnieniu oka wniwecz się obraca) | aniżeli godności wiecznej, w której jest wiekuiste dobro. | Ty tedy, Oblubienico moja, jeśli nic tylko mnie będziesz pragnęła | i wszystkimi rzeczami dla mnie pogardzisz, nie tylko synami i rodzicami, ale też honorami i bogactwem, ja tobie dam żołd kosztowny i wdzięczny | | | nie złoto ani srebro, ale samego siebie za Oblubieńca i za zapłatę, | który jestem Królem Chwały. | A jeśli się wstydzisz być ubogą i wzgardzoną | zważ, jak Bóg twój uprzedził cię, którego słudzy i przyjaciele opuścili na ziemi, bo nie szukałem przyjaciół ziemskich, ale Niebieskich. | A jeżeli się obawiasz i boisz ciężaru i pracy | i słabości, zważ sobie, jak ciężko jest płonąć w ogniu wiecznym. | | | Na co byś zasłużyła, gdybyś tak ziemskiego pana obraziła jak mnie? | Ja bowiem, chociaż zupełnym sercem cię miłuję | jednak ni w jednym punkciku nie czynię nic przeciwko sprawiedliwości. | Zatem jeśliś we wszystkich członkach zgrzeszyła | tak też wszystkimi pokutuj i zadość czyń. | Jednak za dobrą wolę i przedsięwzięcie poprawy sprawiedliwość w miłosierdzie | przemieniam, odpuszczając cięższe karanie za malusieńką poprawę. | Dlatego oddaj się chętnie na małą pracę | abyś oczyszczona prędzej mogła przyjść do Niebieskiej zapłaty. | Przystoi bowiem Oblubienicy wraz z Oblubieńcem | fatygować się pracami, aby z tym większą ufnością z Nim odpoczywała.” | “Jam jest Bóg i Pan twój, którego chwalisz | Jam jest, który Niebo i ziemię władzą moją | trzymam, a nie czym innym są wsparte. | Jam jest, który pod osobą Chleba na Ołtarzu każdego dnia prawdziwy Bóg | i Człowiek jestem ofiarowany. | jestem tenże, który cię wybrałem | Czcij Ojca mego, miłuj mnie, bądź posłuszna Duchowi memu, oddawaj cześć Matce mojej jako Pani twojej. | Czcij wszystkich Świętych moich. | Zachowaj wiarę prawdziwą, której cię nauczył ten, który dwojakich duchów | – fałszu i prawdy – na sobie doznał, których z moim ratunkiem i pomocą zwyciężył. | Strzeż pokory mojej prawdziwej, którą jest ta: | taką się pokazywać, jaką się jest, a chwałę Bogu za dobrodziejstwa dane oddawać. | Lecz teraz wielu ich mnie nienawidzi, a sprawy moje i słowa poczytują | sobie za ciężar i pustotę, a za cudzołożnikiem, to jest za czartem idą i jego miłują. | Cokolwiek bowiem czynią dla mnie, to z szemraniem, i gorzkością jest im to, i nie wyznawaliby Imienia mego, gdyby nie byli opinią ludzi zawstydzeni. | Świat zaś tak szczerze miłują, że we dnie i w nocy w pracy dla niego nigdy się nie zmordują, | ale miłością do niego zawsze goreją. Ich posługa tak mi się podoba, jak gdyby ktoś zapłacił nieprzyjacielowi swemu, aby był zabity syn jego. | Tak czynią ci, którzy dają wielką jałmużnę | i ustami mnie chwalą dlatego, | aby się im według świata powodziło i szczęściło, | a przy tym żeby się przy godności ostali i żeby trwali w grzechach swoich. | W tym celu tłumią dobrego swojego ducha od postępowania w dobrych rzeczach. | A ciebie, jeśli mnie chcesz miłować całym i zupełnym sercem i nic innego nie pragnąć tylko mnie, pociągnę miłością tak, jak magnes ciągnie żelazo, i dam ci miejsce w ramieniu moim, które tak jest potężne, że nikt go wyciągnąć nie może, jest tak srogie, że wyciągniętego nikt by nie mógł zgiąć, tak też słodkie jest, że wszystkie wonności i zioła przewyższa i zwycięża, i żadnego porównania z rozkoszami i uciechami świata tego nie ma.” | Ten, który miał uczyć Oblubienicę Chrystusową | był niejaki święty mąż, Mistrz Teologii, którego zwano Magister Matthias ze Szwecji, Kanonik z Linköping, który opisał przezacnie całą Biblię. | A ten był bardzo subtelnie kuszony przez czarta | wieloma herezjami przeciw Wierze Katolickiej. | To wszystko zwyciężył z pomocą Chrystusa | a nie mógł przez szatana być pokonany, jak się w spisanym Żywocie Świętej Brygidy jasno pokazuje i zawiera. | Ten to Mistrz Matthias ułożył Przedmowę do tych Ksiąg | która się zaczyna: „Stupor et mirabilia”, to jest „zdumienie (albo podziwienie) i cudowne rzeczy”. | On kiedy umarł w Szwecji, Oblubienica Chrystusowa, to jest Brygida Święta, natenczas przemieszkiwująca w Rzymie, | modląc się, usłyszała w duchu ten głos mówiący: „O szczęśliwyś ty, Mistrzu Matthiaszu, dla korony, którać w Niebie zgotowana jest. | Pójdź tedy już do Mądrości, | która się nigdy nie skończy”. | O nim też jest w Pierwszej Księdze, w Rozdziale 52. | Do tego w Księdze Piątej, w odpowiedzi na pytanie trzecie z ostatniego dialogu. | Do tego jeszcze w Księdze Szóstej, w Rozdziale 75 i 89. | “Jam jest Stworzyciel twój, Odkupiciel. | Czemuś się bała słów moich i czemuś myślała | od którego by ducha były: czy od dobrego, czy od złego? | | | Powiedz mi, coś znalazła w słowach moich, | co by tobie sumienie twoje zabraniało czynić i czy ci co rozkazałem przeciwko rozumowi?” | Na co Święta Brygida odpowiedziała | „Żadnym sposobem! | Ale wszystkie słowa Twoje są prawdziwe, a ja zbłądziłam | Odpowiedział duch albo Oblubieniec: | „Ja rozkazałem tobie trzy rzeczy | po których ty możesz poznać ducha dobrego: przykazałem ci czcić Pana Boga | twojego, który cię stworzył i dał ci wiele dobrego | – tego cię sam twój rozum uczy i pokazuje, że nad wszystkie rzeczy | masz Go czcić; rozkazałem ci mieć wiarę prawą | flagelaram seu puríssimo corpo, limpo de toda mancha e pecado. | Na primeira chicotada eu, que estava por perto | caí quase morta, e ao voltar a mim, vi em meu espírito seu corpo chicoteado e chagado até as costelas. | O mais horrível foi que quando lhe retiraram as amarras | as correias grossas haviam sulcado sua carne. | Estando aí meu Filho | tão ensanguentado e lacerado que não lhe restou nenhuma área sã sem ser chicoteada | alguém ali presente perguntou: “Vão matá-lo sem estar sentenciado?” | e imediatamente lhe cortou as amarras. | Então, meu Filho vestiu suas roupas e vi como ficou cheio de sangue o lugar onde havia estado. | E, por suas pegadas, pude ver por onde andava, | pois o solo ficava empapado de sangue por onde Ele ia. |Não tiveram paciência quando se vestia, empurram-no e o arrastaram com pressa. | Sendo tratado como um ladrão, meu Filho secou o sangue de seus olhos | Quando ele foi sentenciado à morte, lhe impuseram a cruz para que a carregasse. | Levou-a um pouco, mas depois veio um que | a pegou e o ajudou a carregá-la. | Enquanto meu Filho ia até o lugar de sua paixão | alguns o golpearam no pescoço e outros lhe esbofetearam a face. | Batiam com tanta força que embora não visse | quem lhe batia, ouvia claramente o som da bofetada. | | | Quando cheguei com Ele ao lugar da paixão, vi todos os instrumentos | de sua morte ali preparados. | Ao chegar ali Ele só se desnudou enquanto os carrascos diziam | entre si: “Estas roupas são nossas e ele não as recuperará porque está condenado à morte”. Meu | Filho estava ali, nu como quando nasceu | e nisto alguém veio correndo e lhe ofereceu um pano com o qual Ele | contente pode cobrir sua intimidade. | Depois seus cruéis executores o agarraram e o estenderam na cruz, | pregando primeiro sua mão direita na ponta da cruz | onde tinha feito o buraco para o cravo. | Perfuraram sua mão no ponto em que o osso era mais sólido | Com uma corda lhe estenderam a outra | mão e a pregaram no outro extremo da cruz, do mesmo modo. | Continuando, cruzaram seu pé direito com o esquerdo por cima usando dois cravos de forma que seus nervos e veias se estenderam e se romperam. | Depois lhe puseram a coroa de espinhos | e a apertaram tanto que o sangue que saia de sua venerável cabeça lhe tapava os olhos, lhe obstruía os ouvidos e lhe empapava a barba ao cair. | Estando assim na cruz, ferido e sangrando, | sentiu compaixão de mim, que estava ali soluçando e, olhando com seus olhos ensanguentados em direção a João, | meu sobrinho, me encomendou a ele | Nesse momento pude ouvir alguns dizendo que meu Filho era um ladrão, | outros que era um mentiroso, | e ainda outros dizendo que ninguém merecia a morte mais do que Ele. | Ao ouvir tudo isto se renovava minha dor. | Como disse antes, quando lhe fincaram o primeiro cravo, esse primeiro sangue me impressionou tanto que cai como morta, meus olhos cegos na escuridão, minhas mãos tremendo, meus pés instáveis. | No impacto de tanta dor não pude olhá-Lo até que terminaram de crucificá-Lo | Quando pude levantar-me, vi meu Filho arfando ali miseravelmente e, consternada de dor, eu sua Mãe tão triste, apenas podia manter-me em pé. | Vendo-me a mim e seus amigos chorando desconsoladamente | meu Filho gritou em voz alta e pesarosa dizendo: “Pai porque me abandonaste”? | Era como dizer: “Ninguém se compadece de mim senão tu, Pai”. | Então seus olhos pareciam meio mortos suas faces estavam afundadas, seu rosto lúgubre, sua boca aberta, e sua língua ensanguentada. | Seu ventre estava pressionado na direção das costas | porque todos os líquidos tinham sido perdidos. Era como se não tivesse órgãos. | | | Todo o seu corpo estava pálido e lânguido devido à perda de sangue. | Suas mãos e pés estavam muito rígidos e estirados ao terem sido forçados para adaptá-los a cruz. | Sua barba e seu cabelo estavam completamente empapados de sangue. | Estando assim, lacerado e lívido, sua mente e seu coração se mantinham vigorosos, pois tinha uma boa e forte constituição. | De minha carne, Ele recebeu um corpo puríssimo e bem proporcionado. | Sua pele era tão fina e macia que ao menor arranhão imediatamente lhe saia sangue, | | | que sobressaia sobre sua pele tão pura. | Precisamente por sua boa constituição, a vida lutou contra a morte em seu corpo chagado | Em certos momentos, a dor nas extremidades e fibras de seu corpo | lacerado lhe subia até o coração, ainda vigoroso e integro e isto trazia um incrível sofrimento. | Em outros momentos, a dor baixava de seu coração | para seus membros feridos e, ao suceder isto, se prolongava a amargura de sua morte. | Submerso na agonia, meu Filho olhou ao redor e viu seus amigos | que choravam e que teriam preferido suportar eles mesmos a dor com seu auxilio e ter ardido para sempre no inferno em lugar de vê-Lo tão torturado. | Sua dor pela dor dos seus amigos excedia toda a amargura e tribulações | que havia suportado em seu corpo e em seu coração pelo amor que lhes tinha. | Então, na excessiva angustia corporal de sua natureza | humana, clamou a seu Pai: “Pai, em tuas mãos entrego meu espírito”. | Quando eu, sua triste Mãe, ouvi essas palavras | todo o meu corpo se comoveu com a dor amarga de meu coração, | e todas as vezes que as recordo choro desde então, pois elas permaneceram presentes e recentes em meus ouvidos. | Quando se lhe aproximava a morte e seu coração se rompeu com a violência das dores | todo seu corpo se convulsionou e sua cabeça se levantou um pouco para depois cair outra vez. Sua | boca ficou aberta e sua língua podia ser vista sangrando. | Suas mãos se retraíram um pouco do lugar da perfuração | e seus pés suportaram mais com o peso de seu corpo. Seus dedos e braços pareceram estender-se e seus ombros ficaram rígidos contra a cruz. | “Maria, teu Filho está morto”. | ”Está morto, mas ressuscitará”. | À medida que tudo seguia veio um homem | e lhe cravou uma lança no lado com tanta força que quase saiu pelo outro lado. | Quando tiraram a lança, sua ponta estava tingida de sangue vermelho | e me pareceu como se me tivessem perfurado o meu próprio coração, quando vi meu querido | Filho transpassado. | Depois o retiraram da cruz e eu tomei seu corpo sobre meu regaço. | Parecia um leproso, completamente lívido | Seus olhos estavam mortos e cheios de sangue, sua boca tão fria como gelo, sua barba eriçada e sua face contraída. | | | Suas mãos estavam tão desconjuntadas que não se sustentavam | sequer sobre seu ventre. | Recebi-o sobre meus joelhos como havia estado na cruz | como um homem contraído em todos os seus membros. | Depois disso, o estenderam sobre | um tecido limpo de linho e com meu próprio lenço | lhe sequei as feridas e seus membros | e fechei seus olhos e sua boca que havia ficado aberta quando morreu. | Assim o colocaram no sepulcro | De boa vontade me teria colocado ali viva com meu Filho | se essa tivesse sido sua vontade! | Terminado tudo isto veio o bondoso João e me levou à sua casa. | Vê, Filha minha, quanto suportou meu Filho por ti! | O Filho de Deus se dirigiu a sua esposa, dizendo | “Sou o Criador do Céu e da terra | e o que se consagra no altar é meu verdadeiro corpo". | Ama-me com todo teu coração, | porque eu te amei e me entreguei a meus amigos por minha própria | e livre vontade, enquanto meus amigos e minha Mãe caiam | em amarga dor e pranto. | Quando vi a lança, os cravos | as correias e todos os demais instrumentos de minha paixão ali preparados, ainda assim fiquei a sofrer com alegria. | Quando minha cabeça sangrava por todas as partes a partir | da coroa de espinhos, mesmo que meus inimigos se apoderassem de meu coração, desejaria que o ferissem e o desprezassem, ao invés de perder-te. | Portanto serias muito ingrata se, em correspondência a tanta caridade | não me amasses. | Se minha cabeça foi perfurada e se inclinou na cruz por ti, | também tua cabeça deveria inclinar-se até a humildade. | Já que meus olhos estavam ensanguentados e cheios de lagrimas, | teus olhos deveriam abster-se de visões agradáveis a teus olhos. | | | Se meus ouvidos se cobriram de sangue e ouvi palavras | de zombaria contra mim, teus ouvidos teriam que abster-se das conversas frívolas e inoportunas. | e negado uma doce, preserve a tua boca do mal e deixa que se abra para o bem. | Posto que minhas mãos foram estendidas e cravadas, que as obras simbolizadas por tuas mãos se estendam aos pobres e aos meus mandamentos. | Que teus pés, ou sejam, teus atos | com os quais deves caminhar até mim, sejam crucificados aos deleites de maneira que, | da mesma forma que sofri em todos meus membros, também todos os teus membros estejam dispostos a obedecer-me. | Peço mais serviços para ti do que para outros porque te dei uma maior graça”. | Um anjo bom, o guardião da esposa, apareceu rogando a Cristo por ela | O Senhor lhe respondeu e disse: “Uma pessoa que reza por outra deve rogar pela salvação dela. | Tu és como um fogo que nunca se extingue | incessantemente ardendo com meu amor. | vês e conheces tudo quando me vês e não | queres nada mais do que o que eu quero. | Portanto, diz-me o que é que convém a esta minha esposa? | Ele respondeu: “Senhor, tu sabes tudo”. | O Senhor lhe disse | “Tudo o que se criou ou se criará existe eternamente em mim.” | Mas, para que minha esposa possa reconhecer minha vontade | diz-me o que é bom para ela, agora que está escutando”. | “Ela tem um coração orgulhoso | e arrogante. | Portanto, necessita uma vara com que possa ser domada | Então, o Senhor disse: ”Que pedes para ela meu amigo"? | Senhor, peço-te que lhe garanta a misericórdia com a vara | E o Senhor acrescentou: “Pelo seu bem o farei, pois nunca emprego a justiça sem misericórdia". | Então, a esposa deve amar-me com | todo seu coração e com boa vontade. | Meu inimigo tem três demônios em seu interior | O primeiro reside em seus genitais, o segundo em seu coração, o terceiro em sua boca. | | | é como um barqueiro que deixa que a água lhe chegue aos joelhos | e a água, ao aumentar gradativamente, termina enchendo o barco. | produz uma inundação e o barco se afunda | Esse barco representa seu corpo, que é assaltado pelas tentações de demônios, e por suas próprias concupiscências, como se fossem tempestades. | através do desejo demoníaco com o qual se deleitou com pensamentos impuros | E como ele não resistiu pelo arrependimento e penitencia, e não reparou o barco do seu corpo, mediante os apertos da abstinência, a água da luxuria cresceu diariamente enquanto ele deu seu consentimento ao mal. | | | o barco repleto, ou seja, cheio pela concupiscência do ventre | se inundou e afundou na luxuria, de forma que não pôde chegar ao porto da salvação. | O segundo demônio, que residia em seu coração | é como um verme dentro de uma maçã, que primeiro come o pé da maçã e depois deixa seus excrementos, se espalha pelo interior da maçã até que todo o fruto se decompõe. | Isto é o que faz o demônio. | Primeiro destrói a vontade da pessoa e seus bons desejos, que são como a polpa, onde se encontra toda a força da alma e reside toda bondade, e quando o coração se esvazia desses bens, põem em seu lugar, dentro do coração, os pensamentos mundanos e os desejos que os dominam mais. | Assim, impele o corpo ao seu próprio prazer | e por essa razão, o valor e entendimento do homem diminuem e ele odeia a sua vida. | Esse homem é sem duvida uma maçã sem polpa | ou seja, é um homem sem coração, que entra em minha igreja pois já não tem o amor de Deus. | O terceiro demônio é como um arqueiro que olha pela janela | e dispara nos descuidados. | Como não vai estar o demônio dentro de um homem | que sempre o inclui em sua conversação? Aquele a quem amamos mais é quem mais mencionamos. | As palavras amargas com que ele fere a outros são como flechas disparadas | por tantas janelas quantas vezes o demônio é mencionado e pessoas inocentes sejam ofendidas por suas palavras. | Eu, que Sou a verdade, juro pela minha verdade | que os condenarei como uma prostituta, ao fogo e enxofre; como a um traidor insidioso, à mutilação de seus membros; como a um zombador do Senhor, à vergonha eterna. | Entretanto, enquanto sua alma e seu corpo permaneçam | unidos, minha misericórdia está ainda aberta para ele. | O que exijo dele é que participe com maior frequência dos divinos ofícios | e orações, que não tenha medo de nenhuma humilhação nem deseje qualquer honra e que o inferno ou más palavras não sejam mencionados pela sua boca. | Este homem, um abade da ordem cisterciense | enterrou uma pessoa que havia estado excomungada. | Quando ele rezou a oração de encomenda de corpo sobre ele | Santa Brígida ouviu em êxtase espiritual as seguintes palavras do Senhor: “Ele utilizou seu poder e o enterrou. | Podes estar segura de que o próximo enterro depois deste será | o seu, pois pecou contra o Pai, que nos disse que não mostremos parcialidade nem honremos injustamente aos ricos. | Para benefício próprio, este homem honrou uma pessoa indigna e a colocou entre os dignos | coisa que não devia fazer. | | | Pecou contra mim também, o Filho | porque Eu disse: “Aquele que me rejeita será rejeitado. | Este homem honrou e exaltou alguém que minha Igreja e meu vigário | haviam rejeitado”. | | | | | O abade se arrependeu quando ouviu essas palavras e morreu ao quarto dia. | Sou teu Deus, o que foi pregado na cruz, verdadeiro Deus e homem em uma pessoa, e que está presente todos os dias nas mãos do sacerdote. | Quando me ofereces uma oração, | termine-a sempre com o desejo de que se faça minha vontade e não a tua. | Quando rezas por alguém que já está condenado não te escuto | Algumas vezes não te ouço se desejas algo que possa ir contra tua salvação | É por isso, necessário que | submetas tua vontade à minha, porque como Eu sei todas as coisas, não te permito nada mais do que te seja benéfico. | Há muitos que não rezam com a intenção correta e | é por isso que não merecem ser atendidos. | Há três tipos de pessoas que me servem neste mundo. | Os primeiros são os que creem que sou Deus e o provedor de todas as coisas, que tem poder sobre tudo. | Estes me servem com a intenção de conseguir bens e honras temporais | mas as coisas do Céu não lhes importam e estão até dispostos a perdê-las para obter bens presentes. | O êxito mundano se ajusta completamente à sua medida | segundo seus desejos. | Já que perderam os bens eternos | Eu lhes compenso com consolos temporais por qualquer bom serviço que me façam, pagando-lhes até o ultimo centavo e até o ultimo ponto. | Os segundos são os que creem que sou Deus onipotente | e Juiz severo, mas que me servem por medo do castigo e não por amor à gloria celestial. | Se não me temessem não me serviriam. | Os terceiros são os que creem que sou o Criador de todas as coisas e Deus verdadeiro e que creem que sou justo e misericordioso. | | | Estes não me servem por medo do castigo | mas por amor divino e caridade. | Prefeririam suportar qualquer castigo, por duro que fosse, | a não me ofender. | Estes merecem verdadeiramente ser escutados | quando rezam, pois sua vontade coincide com minha vontade. | tipo de servos nunca sairá do castigo nem chegará a ver meu rosto | con gran amor. | Así como el Padre estuvo en Mí junto al Hijo | que tenía mi cuerpo y alma en Sí mismo, y así como el Espíritu Santo que está en el Padre y el Hijo estaba en todo lugar conmigo y tuvo a mi Hijo dentro de Él, así también mi sirviente se unirá al mismo Espíritu. | Si él ama los sufrimientos de Dios y tiene Su | precioso Cuerpo en su corazón, entonces tendrá la naturaleza humana de Dios, la cual tiene la naturaleza divina dentro de Él y sin ella. | Dios estará en él y él en Dios, | así como Dios está en Mí y Yo en Él. | Como mi sirviente y yo compartimos el mismo Dios | también compartiremos un vínculo de amor y un Espíritu Santo que es un Dios con el Padre y el Hijo. | Una cosa más: si este obispo mantiene su promesa conmigo | le ayudaré durante su vida. | Al final de su vida le ayudaré y asistiré y traeré su alma ante Dios | diciendo: “¡Mi Dios, este hombre Te sirvió y me obedeció, y por tanto, presento su alma ante Ti!' | Oh, hija, ¿en qué está pensando una persona | cuando desprecia su propia alma? | ¿Hubiese acaso Dios Padre, en su inconmensurable divinidad | dejado que su propio e inocente Hijo sufriera tanto en su naturaleza humana, si no tuviera un honesto deseo y anhelo de almas y por la gloria eterna que ha preparado para ellas?” | Esta revelación fue sobre el obispo de Linköping | quien después fue nombrado arzobispo. Hay más sobre el mismo obispo en el Libro 6, capítulo 22, que comienza: “Este prelado.” | “El obispo por el que lloras vino a un purgatorio fácil | Has de tener la certeza que, aunque en el mundo tuvo muchos que bloquearon su camino, ellos ahora han recibido sus sentencias, y él será glorificado debido a su fe y pureza.” | La Madre habla a la novia de su Hijo, diciendo | “Tú eres una vasija que el propietario llena y el profesor vacía. | | | Sin embargo, es una y la misma persona quien te llena y te vacía | Una persona que puede verter vino y leche y agua juntos en una vasija, sería llamado | un profesor experto si pudiera separar cada | uno de estos líquidos mezclados y restaurar cada uno a su propia naturaleza original. | Es esto lo que Yo, la Madre y Maestra de toda la humanidad | he hecho y estoy haciéndote. | | | Hace un año y medio, se te dijeron todo tipo de asuntos y ahora todos ellos parecen | estar mezclados juntos en tu alma, y resultaría desagradable si fueran vertidos juntos hacia afuera, pues no se entendería su propósito. | Es por esto que gradualmente los distingo según veo que conviene hacerlo. | ¿Recuerdas que te envié a un cierto obispo a quien llamé mi sirviente? | Vamos a compararlo con una mariposa que posee | dos amplias alas salpicadas de color blanco, rojo y azul. | Cuando la tocas | el pigmento se pega a tus dedos como cenizas. | Este insecto tiene un cuerpo endeble pero una gran boca | dos antenas en su frente, y un lugar oculto en su barriga a través del cual emite la suciedad de su vientre. | Las alas de este insecto | es decir, las alas del obispo, son su humildad y orgullo | Por fuera semeja ser humilde en sus palabras y gestos | humilde en sus vestimentas y acciones | pero por dentro hay un orgullo que le hace grande a sus propios ojos | tornándolo henchido de su propia reputación, ambicioso por tener el aprecio de la gente, crítico hacia los demás, y arrogante al preferirse a sí mismo antes que a los demás. | Con estas dos alas vuela ante las personas con la humildad aparente | que pretende complacer a individuos y estar en boca de todos, así como con el orgullo que le hace considerarse más santo que los demás. | Los tres colores de las alas representan | las tres fachadas que cubren sus vicios. | El color rojo significa que continuamente adoctrina sobre los sufrimientos | de Cristo y los milagros de los santos para ser llamado santo, pero en realidad están lejos de su corazón, pues no tiene mucho gusto por ellos. | El color azul significa que | por fuera, no parece preocuparse por los bienes temporales, pareciendo haber muerto al mundo y estar totalmente por las cosas celestiales bajo su fachada de azul celestial. | Pero este segundo color no le hace ante Dios más estable o fructífero que el primero | El color blanco implica que es un religioso en su vestimenta y loable en sus maneras. | Sin embargo, su tercer color tiene tanto encanto | y perfección como los dos primeros. | Así como el pigmento de una mariposa es denso | y se pega a tus dedos, no dejando tras de sí sino una especie de sustancia cenicienta, | del mismo modo sus actos parecen ser | admirables, por cuanto desea soledad, pero son vacíos e inefectivos en cuanto a la utilidad de los mismo para sí, pues no anhela ni ama sinceramente lo que es digno de ser amado. | Las dos antenas representan su voluntad dúplice | Verás, quiere llevar una vida de confort en este mundo y obtener la vida eterna tras la muerte. | Él no quiere ser defraudado de ser considerado | de gran estima en la tierra y luego recibir una corona incluso más perfecta en el cielo. | Este obispo es precisamente como una mariposa, | pensando que puede llevar el cielo en una antena y la tierra en la otra, aunque no puede aguantar la menor dificultad por la gloria de Dios. | confía en la iglesia de Dios y cree que puede beneficiarla | mediante sus palabras y ejemplo, como si la iglesia no pudiera prosperar sin él. | Supone que sus propias buenas obras harán que la gente | mundana dé fruto espiritual. | De ahí que razone como un soldado que ya ha combatido | en la lucha. | | | 'Pues,' dice, 'yo ya soy llamado devoto y humilde | ¿por qué debería esforzarme por alcanzar una vida de mayor austeridad? | A pesar de que puedo pecar | en unos pocos placeres sin los cuales mi vida sería infeliz, mis mayores méritos y buenos obras serán mi excusa. Si el cielo puede ganarse por un vaso de agua fría, ¿qué necesidad hay de luchar por encima de nuestras fuerzas?' | Una mariposa tiene también una gran boca, | pero su ambición es todavía mayor, tanta que, si pudiera devorar a todas las moscas excepto una, querría devorar a aquélla también. | Del mismo modo, si este hombre pudiera añadir un céntimo | a los muchos que ya tiene, de modo que no fuera percibido y fuese en secreto, lo tomaría, aunque ni así se calmaría el hambre de su avaricia. | Una mariposa también tiene una salida oculta para sus impurezas | Este hombre, también, le da un desahogo impropio a su ira e impaciencia, | mostrando sus impurezas secretas a los demás. | Y como una mariposa tiene un cuerpo pequeño, este hombre tiene una pequeña caridad, mientras que su falta de caridad es compensada sólo por la amplitud y anchura de sus alas.” | La novia respondió: “Si tiene tan solo una chispa | de caridad, hay siempre algo de esperanza de vida y caridad y de salvación para él.” | La Madre dijo: “¿Acaso no tuvo Judas también algo de caridad cuando dijo | después de que haber traicionado a su Señor: 'He pecado al traicionar sangre inocente?´. | Quería hacer que pareciera que tenía caridad, pero no tenía ninguna.” | La Madre habla de Nuevo a la novia, diciendo: “Te he mostrado otro obispo al cual llamé el pastor del rebaño. | Vamos a compararlo a un tábano de un color terroso que vuela ruidosamente | En cualquier lugar en que él se posa, su picadura es terrible y dolorosa | Este pastor tiene un color terroso | pues, aunque fue llamado a la pobreza, preferiría ser rico que pobre, preferiría estar a cargo que someterse, preferiría tener su propia voluntad que ser disciplinado mediante la obediencia a otros. | Vuela ruidosamente en el sentido de que está lleno | de elocuencia verbal en su prédica piadosa, y sermonea sobre las vanidades mundanas en vez de sobre la doctrina espiritual, elogiando y siguiendo las vanidades mundanas en vez de la santa simplicidad de su orden. | También tiene dos alas, es decir, dos ideas: la primera es que quiere ofrecerle | a la gente un discurso encantador y tranquilizador para ganarse su estima. | El segundo es que quiere que todos se rindan a él y le obedezcan | La picadura de un tábano es insoportable. Del mismo modo, este hombre aguijonea | las almas hacia la condenación. | A pesar que debería ser un médico de almas, no les habla a las personas que acuden a él sobre el peligro que tienen ni sobre su enfermedad y tampoco usa un escalpelo afilado, sino que les habla tranquilizadoramente para ser llamado manso y para no provocar que nadie le evite. Estos dos obispos son sencillamente asombrosos. | | | Uno de ellos finge ser pobre | solitario y humilde para ser llamado espiritual. | El otro quiere poseer el mundo para ser llamado misericordioso y generoso | Aquél quiere aparentar que no posee nada y sin embargo clama por poseer todo secretamente. | El otro abiertamente quiere tener muchas posesiones para tener mucho que regalar | y así ganarse la estima de los demás. | Del mismo modo, como dice el proverbio, | puesto que me sirven de una manera que no puedo ver (porque no la acepto), les recompensaré de una manera que no verán. | ¿Te preguntas por qué tales hombres son elogiados por su prédica? | Te lo diré: a veces un mal hombre habla a buenas personas y el buen Espíritu de Dios es vertido en ellos, no a causa de la bondad del maestro sino a través de las palabras del maestro en las cuales se encuentra el buen Espíritu de Dios | para el bien de los que escuchan. | A veces un buen hombre habla a gente mala que está volviéndose buena de tanto oírlo, por el buen Espíritu de Dios como por la bondad del maestro. | A veces un hombre frío habla | a gente fría de tal manera que esos fríos oyentes recuentan, lo que han oído, a gente ferviente que no ha estado allí, volviendo a sus oyentes más fervientes. | Así que, no te preocupes por la clase de gente a la que eres enviado | ¡Maravilloso es Dios que pisotea con huellas doradas y coloca barro entre los rayos del sol!” | El Hijo habla a la novia, diciendo: “¿Por qué piensas que | se te muestran estos dos hombres? ¿Es porque Dios disfruta censurarlos y condenarlos? | Desde luego que no. | No, esto se hace con objeto de revelar mejor la paciencia y la gloria de Dios y también para que aquellos que lo oigan puedan temer el juicio de Dios. | Pero ahora, ven y escucha una conversación sorprendente. | Mira allí, el obispo más joven le ha hecho una pregunta al mayor, diciendo: 'Hermano, oye y respóndeme. | Cuando ya habías sido vinculado al yugo de la obediencia | ¿por qué lo abandonaste? | Cuando ya habías elegido la pobreza y el estado religioso | ¿por qué los abandonaste? | Cuando ya habías asumido el estado religioso y te habías declarado muerto al mundo | ¿por qué buscaste el episcopado?' | El hombre más viejo respondió: 'La obediencia que me enseñó | a ser un inferior era una carga para mí. Es por esto que preferí mi libertad. | | | El yugo que Dios dice que es agradable era amargo para mí. | Es por esto que busqué y escogí el confort corporal. | Mi humildad era fingida. | Es por esto que anhelé honores. | Y, puesto que es mejor empujar que halar | en consecuencia deseé el episcopado.' | | | El hombre más joven preguntó de nuevo | '¿Por qué no honraste tu sede episcopal dándole honor del mundo? | ¿Por qué no adquiriste riquezas mediante | la sabiduría del mundo? | ¿Por qué no gastaste tus posesiones de acuerdo a las demandas del honor mundano? | ¿Por qué te humillaste a ti mismo exteriormente en vez de actuar de acuerdo a la ambición del mundo?' | 'La razón por la que no esparcí honores mundanos | sobre mi sede fue que estaba esperando ser honrado mucho más al aparentar ser humilde y espiritual antes que preocupado por las cosas del mundo. | Por eso, con objeto de ser elogiado por la gente mundana | hice exhibición de que tenía todo en desprecio; parecí humilde y | devoto para ser tenido en estima por los hombres espirituales | La razón por la cual no adquirí riquezas mediante sabiduría mundana fue para que los hombres espirituales no lo notaran y me despreciaran a causa de mi seglaridad. | La razón por la que no fui generoso en dar regalos fue que preferí tener pocos compañeros | en vez de muchos para mi propia paz y calma. | Preferí tener mi arca llena de dinero que repartir regalos.' | De nuevo el hombre más joven preguntó: | 'Dime, ¿por qué diste una bebida agradable y dulce en una vasija sucia a un asno? | ¿Por qué diste al obispo las farfollas de maíz del chiquero? ¿Por qué arrojaste tu corona bajo tus pies? | Por qué escupiste el trigo pero masticaste hierbajos | ¿Por qué liberaste a otros de sus cadenas pero te ataste a ti mismo con grilletes? | medicinas a las heridas de otros y veneno | a las tuyas?' | 'Di a mi asno una dulce bebida | de una vasija asquerosa y sucia en el sentido de que | a pesar de ser erudito, preferí administrar los | divinos sacramentos del altar por el bien de mi reputación mundana en vez de dedicarme a quehaceres diarios. | Dado que mis secretos eran desconocidos | a los hombres pero conocidos por Dios, crecí mucho en presunción y de esa manera añadí gravedad a la severa justicia de mi| terrible condenación. | A la segunda pregunta, respondo que di al obispo las farfollas de maíz | | | del chiquero en el sentido | de que seguí las incitaciones de la naturaleza por autoindulgencia y no | permanecí firme en autocontención. | | En cuanto a la tercera pregunta, | tire mi corona episcopal bajo los pies en el sentido de que preferí realizar actos de | misericordia por el bien | del favor humano en vez de actos de justicia para la gloria y el amor de Dios. | En lo que respecta | a la cuarta pregunta, escupí el trigo pero mastiqué paja en el sentido de que no | prediqué las palabras | de Dios por amor a Dios ni me gustó hacer las cosas que a otros les recomendaba hacer. | En cuanto a la quinta pregunta, | iberé a otros pero me até a mí mismo en el sentido de que | absolví a las personas | que venían a mí con contrición, pero a mí me gustaba hacer las cosas que ellos | lamentaban mediante su | penitencia y rechazaban a través de sus lágrimas. | En cuanto a la sexta | pregunta, ungí a otros con ungüento curativo pero a mí | mismo con veneno en el sentido | de que mientras predicaba sobre la pureza de vida e hice mejores a los demás, me hice a mí mismo peor. | Establecí Códigos de Disciplina | para los demás pero yo mismo estaba poco deseoso de levantar un dedo para hacer aquellas mismas cosas. | Donde veía a otros progresando, | aquí es donde yo fallaba y menguaba, pues prefería añadir una carga a mis ya | cometidos pecados | que aligerar mi carga de pecados haciendo reparación.' | Después de esto una voz se oyó, diciendo: | 'Da gracias a Dios de que tú no estás entre esas vasijas venenosas, que, cuando se rompen, vuelven al mismo veneno.' | | | Inmediatamente, se anunció la muerte de uno de los dos.” | Las palabras de la Virgen a su hija elogiando la vida y orden de Santo Domingo, y sobre cómo éste se volvió a Ella | en la hora de su muerte, | y sobre cómo en los tiempos modernos pocos de sus frailes viven por el signo de la | Pasión de Cristo | que les dio Domingo ellos, en vez, muchos de ellos viven por la marca de incisión que les | dio el demonio. | De nuevo la Madre habla a la novia, diciendo: “Ayer te hablé sobre dos hombres que | pertenecían a los Códigos | de Disciplina de Santo Domingo. Domingo mantuvo a mi Hijo como su amadísimo Señor y me amó a mí, su Madre, | más que a su propio corazón. | Mi Hijo le dio a este santo hombre el inspirado pensamiento de que hay tres cosas en el mundo | que desagradan a mi Hijo: | orgullo, avaricia, y deseo carnal. Por sus suspiros y súplicas, Santo Domingo procuró ayuda y | medicina para combatir | a estas tres maldades. Dios tuvo compasión de sus lágrimas y le inspiró que estableciese un Código de | Disciplina codificado | de vida en el cual el santo hombre opuso tres virtudes a las tres maldades del mundo. | Contra el vicio | de la avaricia él estableció que uno no debe poseer nada sin el permiso de | su superior. | Contra el orgullo prescribió vestir un hábito humilde y simple. | Contra la voracidad | sin fondo de la carne, prescribió abstinencia y tiempo para practicar la autodisciplina. | Colocó a un superior | sobre sus frailes para preservar la paz y proteger la unidad. | En su deseo de dar a sus frailes | un signo espiritual, simbólicamente imprimió una cruz roja en sus brazos izquierdos cerca del corazón, | quiero decir a través | de sus enseñanzas y fructífero ejemplo, cuando les enseñaba y advertía continuamente que recordasen el sufrimiento de Dios, que predicasen la palabra de Dios más fervientemente, no por el bien del mundo sino por amor a Dios y a las almas. |
| unnethe and with great pain, if it had not been for the obedience of S. Francis, she had never received the sovereignty of them. | after that she had received the domination over them and governance | she was tofore all other ready to serve them that were sick, as she had been a handmaid or servant, and was so humble that she would wash the feet of her hand-maidens and servants when they came from without from their work, and dried them and kissed them. | Seventhly, how S. Clare kept poverty | it is read that for to keep and to follow poverty after the gospel of Jesu Christ, S. Clare put thereto all her entent, wherefore sith the beginning of her holy life, all that ever that came to her of father and mother, she sold and gave it for God's sake, insomuch that for her ne for her sisters she had but simple feeding and clothing, ne would have none other. | notwithstanding that she was assoiled of the pope of the vow of poverty | and thereupon had received letters of the pope, much suddenly weeping, she wrote again saying. | | | I will well be assoiled of my sins | but the vow of poverty I shall keep unto the death. | how in necessity Jesu Christ visited her; | it is read that, on a time that at the hour of dinner in the college of S. Clare was but one loaf of bread, ne there might no more be had. | Then S. Clare took this loaf of the hand of the dispenser | and made then her prayer, and after, of that loaf made as many loaves and parts as there were sisters. | as soon as every each had received her part | how well it was but little, the divine grace multiplied it so much that every each left some and had enough. | Item semblably it is read that that God did for her when in her college | the pots were failed. | Ninthly, how in straitness S. Clare was ruled | this holy lady was content with one poor coat lined with a mantlet; she used never pendants ne furs of skins, but dispensed all her time in keeping her body in servage of the spirit. | herewith thrice in the week she fasted in this manner | that she never tasted thing that was sodden. | Item, every year she fasted two lentens to bread and water only | save the Sunday she took a little wine. | she lived so straitly that she became so feeble that S. Francis commanded her by virtue of obedience | that she should fail no day but that she should take for her refection an ounce and a half of bread. | She was never without hair next her flesh, and for a pillow, | she took a block or a great stone; she lay always on the bare ground, or for to take the better her rest she lay otherwhile upon the cuttings of vines, unto the time that S. Francis had commanded her, because that it was over foul, that she should use to lie on a sack full of straw. | how she hath despised the iniquity of the fiend our enemy | it is read that in especial she had a custom that from midday she was in prayers and remembering the passion and sufferance of Jesu Christ, two hours during, and after the eventide she was always a long while in orisons. | ofttimes the fiend appeared to her by night saying | If so be that ye abstain you not from waking and weeping, ye shall for certain be blind. | He shall not be blind that shall see our Lord in his glory. | when the fiend heard this answer, anon he departed all confused, ne durst never after tempt her ne let her of her prayers. | for to dispend amorously the time that God had lent her, | in especial she was determined that from the hour of mid-day unto evensong time, she would dispend all that time in thinking and beweeping the passion of Jesu Christ, and say prayers and orisons according thereto, after unto the five wounds of the precious body of Jesu Christ, as smitten and pierced to the heart with the dart of the love divine. | that from the time on a shere thursday | the hour of the maundy, unto Easter even the Saturday, she was remembering and thinking on the sufferance of our Lord Jesu Christ so burningly, that she was ravished as all drunken in the love of God, that she knew not what was said ne done about her, but as unmovable or as all insensible, in standing she held her eyes fixed in one place. | | | how in her disease and pain she was of God comforted | it is said that she was by the space of eight and twenty days in continual languor and sickness, nevertheless was never seen in her sign of impatience, but always sweet words and amiable in praising and thanking God of all. | she was seventeen days without meat or drink | nevertheless she was so sweetly visited of God that it seemed unto all them that saw her that she had no pain ne disease, | but yet more every creature that came to her was comforted in God | And in especial it is read that, when the hour of death approached, she, which long time had lost her speech, began to speak and say: Go out surely, thou hast a good safeconduct. | when one of her sisters, being there present | heard that, she demanded her to whom she spake. | To my soul, whom I see abashed to depart from my body | for he ought not for to doubt, for I see the holy Virgin Mary which abideth for me. | our Blessed Lady entered into the chamber where S. Clare lay | And she was crowned with a crown right clear shining, that the obscurity of the night was changed into clearness of mid-day. | she brought with her a right great multitude | of other virgins all nobly crowned, among whom there was one that bare a rich mantle, to whom she said: Give hither the mantle. | when she had sweetly embraced her she clad her with the mantle. | And at that same time was weeping about her the college of sisters, and in especial Agnes the sister of S. Clare, making great moan and sorrow. | My sisters, discomfort you not, | for ye shall have unto God of me a good and a true advocate. | thou Agnes shalt soon after follow me | into glory. | Now it is well reason and right that we say and show of the great marvels | that God showed for S. Clare by her holy prayers, for she was veritable, true, and worthy of all honour. | That great tempest that was in the time of Frederick the emperor, | whereof holy church had so much to suffer, that in divers parts of the world was much war, so that by the commandment of the emperor were battles established of knights, and with that so many archers of Saracens as they had been hills of 'dies for to destroy the people, castles and cities. | Saracens ran as wood men | till they came to the gates of Assisi. | that be full of all cruelty and falsehood | and seek nothing but for to slay and destroy christian men's blood, and they came unto the cloister of the poor ladies of S. Damian, and the holy ladies had so great fear that their hearts melted in their bodies, and ran weeping to their mother S. Clare. | she that was sick, without fear of heart | made her to be led tofore her enemies unto the door, and did do bear tofore the body of our Lord, the which was in a pix much richly garnished and devoutly. | | | this holy lady was on her knees | saying with weeping tears unto our Lord: Ah! fair Lord God, please it you then that they that serve you, and be disarmed, whom I nourish for your love, be brought into the hands and power of the paynims? | Fair sweet Lord, | I beseech thee that thou keep thy handmaidens and servants, for I may not keep them in this point. | our Lord anon sent of his special grace a voice as it had been a child | which said to her: I shall keep you always. | keep this city if it please you | which hath given to us such things as hath been needful to us, for the love of you. | city shall have some grievance, but nevertheless I shall keep and defend it. | Then this holy virgin S. Clare arose from her prayer, which had yet her visage all bewept, and comforted much sweetly her sisters that wept, and said to them: I command you fair daughters that ye comfort you in good faith, and trust ye only in our Lord, for the Saracens shall never do you harm. | had so great dread and fear | that over the walls, and by those places that they had entered, they fled hastily, and were in this wise by the orison and prayer of S. Clare destroubled and put from their emprise. | commanded she to all them that heard the voice that in no manner | they should discover ne tell it to any that lived. | On another time it happed that an old squire | full of vain glory, the which was much hardy in battle and was captain of a great host, which Frederick had delivered to him, and came with all his host for to take the city of Assisi, he did do hew down the trees, and destroy the country all about, and besieged the city, and sware that he would not depart thence till he had taken the city, and thus was the city besieged for to have been taken. | handmaid of Jesu Christ, heard the tidings | she had great pity and did do call her sisters and said to them: Right sweet daughters, we receive daily many benefits of this city, and it should be a great unkindness in us if we succoured it not in this great need as much as we may. | Then commanded she to bring ashes | and said to her sisters that they should discover their heads, and she herself first cast great plenty of ashes upon her head, and after, upon the heads of all the others, and said to them: Now go, fair daughters, and with all your hearts require and pray ye to our Lord that he will deliver this city. | every each by themselves | in great weepings and tears, made their orisons and prayers devoutly to our Lord, in such wise that he kept and defended the city, that on the morn the host departed out of the country, and it was not long after that they all were dead and slain. | should not be according that we should hele and keep secret the marvellous virtue of her prayer | by the which at the beginning of her conversion she converted a soul to God. | For she had a sister younger than herself was, | whose conversation she much desired, and in all her prayers that she made, she prayed at the beginning with all her heart to our Lord that like as she and her sister had been in the world of one heart and of one will, that it might please the Father of mercy that Agnes, her sister, whom she had left in the world, might despise the world, and savour the sweetness of God, so that she might have no will to marry her, save only to God her true friend, in such wise that between them both they might espouse their virginity to our Lord. | and were much sorrowful of their departing |and that one more than that other. | But our Lord granted unto S. Clare the first gift that she demanded | for it was a thing that much pleased him. | | | After the seventh day | that S. Clare was converted, Agnes, her sister, came to her and discovered her secretness to her and will, and said utterly that she would serve God. | anon she embraced her, and said for joy that she had | My sister, ye be right welcome, I thank God that hath heard me for thee, for whom I was in great sorrow. | Howbeit that this conversion was marvellous | and yet more to be wondered how Clare defended her sister by her prayers. | At that time were the good blessed sisters at S. Michael of Pambo |which were joined to God, and they followed the life and works of Jesu Christ. | which felt more of God than the other | and she informed her sister, her nurse, how she should rule her. | parents and kinsmen | of S. Clare began a new battle and strife against the virgins. | For when they heard say that Agnes was gone to dwell | with her sister S. Clare, there came on the morn to the place where S. Clare dwelled, twelve of her kinsmen and friends all from themselves, all araged, and showed not withoutforth the malice that they had in their hearts, but gave them to understand that they came for good. | And when they came within they made no force of S. Clare for to draw her out | for they knew well that they should nothing exploit of their intent, but they turned to Agnes and said to her: What makest thou here? Come out with us home to thy house. | that she would never depart from the company | of S. Clare. | And a tyrant, a knight, took and drew her by the hair, | and the other took her by the arms, and carried her forth afar. | which seemed that she was among the hands of a lion | and taken from the hands of God, began to cry and said: Fair dear sister! help me, and suffer not that I be taken from the holy company of Jesu Christ. | But the felons drew this virgin against her will over the mountain | and rent her clothes and drew and rased out her hair. | holy sweet virgin | S. Clare kneeled down, and put herself to prayer, and prayed our Lord to give her sister a strong heart and a stable, and that she might by the puissance of God overcome and surmount the puissance of the people. | anon the Holy Ghost made her so pesant and heavy |that it seemed that her body were fixed to the ground, in such wise that for all the force and power that they could do they might not bear her over a little brook. | that were in the fields and river came for to help them | but they might never remove her from the earth. | then one of them said in mocking | It is no wonder though she be heavy, for she hath eaten much lead. | lord Mouvalt, her uncle | lift up his arm for to beat her cruelly, but an ache and pain took him suddenly, and tormented him a long time right cruelly. | After that this said S. Agnes had suffered this long wrestling | of her kinsmen and friends, came S. Clare and prayed them for God's sake they should leave this battle with her sister, and go their way and take heed of themselves. | received the cure and charge of Agnes | her sister, which lay there on the ground in great disease, and finally her kinsmen departed in great anguish and sorrow of heart. | she arose up much gladly, | and had much great joy of that first battle that she had suffered for the love of Jesu Christ, and from this time forward she ordained herself to serve God perdurably. | S. Francis cut off her hair with his own hands | and induced and taught her to serve God, and so did S. Clare her sister. | because we may not shortly account with few words the great perfection | of the life of Agnes, therefore we shall entend unto the life of S. Clare the virgin. | Was it not great marvel of the orisons and prayers | of S. Clare, which were so strong, and so much availed against the malice of the people, when they fled and were puissant to burn the devils? | It happed on a time that a much devout woman |of the bishopric of Pisa, came to one of the ladies for to yield thankings to God and S. Clare which had delivered her from the hands of five devils. | For they fled, and wailed | that the orisons of S. Clare burnt them all, and therefore they might no longer dwell in that place. | pope Gregory had much great faith | and great devotion in the prayers of that holy virgin, and not without cause, for he had proved and felt certain virtue thereof, which had holpen many and divers that had necessity and need. | was bishop of Hostence and after when he was pope | he sent his letters to her by which he required her to pray for him, and anon he felt eased and alleged by her prayers. | certainly if he which was vicar of Jesu Christ | by his humility, as we may see, had so great devotion to S. Clare, of whom he required her aid, and recommended him to the virtue of her orisons, as well ought we then to ensue with all our power the devotion of such a man. | For he knew well how much love is mighty and how the pure virgins have delivered entry | into the door of the heart of our Lord. | give himself to them that love him firmly | who may he deny to them for whom they require him devoutly? | Always seen that they require of him that is needful and behoveful. | The holy work showeth well the great faith and the great devotion that she had in the holy sacrament of the altar. | For in that great malady | which had so vexed her that she lay in her bed, she arose and did her to be borne from one place to another, and did spin a fine small cloth of which she made more than fifty corporas, and sent them in fair towels of silk into divers churches in divers places of Assisi. | When she should receive the body of our Lord | it was marvel to see the tears that she wept, of which she was all wet. | she had so great fear | when she approached nigh unto her Saviour, that she ne doubted him no less which is in semblance very God in the form of bread, the sacrament, than him that governeth heaven and earth, which is all one. | Thus as she had always souvenance | and mind of Jesu Christ in her malady, so God comforted her and visited her in her infirmity and languor. In the hour of the nativity of Jesu Christ at Christmas, when the angels and the world made feast and sung and enjoyed of little Jesus that was born, all the poor ladies went to matins into their monastery, and left alone their poor mother sore grieved in her malady. | began to think on little Jesus | and was sorrowful that she might not be at the service, and praise our Lord, and said in sighing: Fair Lord God, I wake here alone. | And anon she began to hear the friars that sang | and S. Francis, and heard well the jubilation, the psalmody, and the great melody of the song, howbeit her bed was not so nigh that the voice of a man ne of a woman might not be heard, ne understood if God did it not by his courtesy, or if God had not given to her, above all nature of man, force and power to hear it, but this passed all, for she was worthy to see in her oratory the joy of our Lord. | On the morning | when the ladies, her daughters, came to her, she said to them: Blessed be our Lord Jesu Christ, for when ye left me, he left me not truly, and I say to you that I have heard this night all the service and solemnity that hath been done in the church by S. Francis, through the grace of Jesu Christ. | | | At the pains of her death our Lord comforted her always | For she drew out of the holy wounds of Jesu Christ a bitterness, of which her heart, her will, and her thought were full of anguish, marvellously bitter, and often as she had been drunken of the sorrow and tears that she wept for the love of Jesu Christ. | For ofttimes the love of God | which she had imprinted in her heart withinforth she made to appear by signs outward. | She informed and taught the novices, | and admonished them that they have in their mind the sorrow and pain of the death of Jesu Christ. | said with her mouth, she did it in her heart | and gave ensample. | When she was secretly alone | tofore she might say anything she was all bedewed with tears. | most devout and had more fervour of devotion | between undern and noon than any other time, because she would that in the hour that Jesu Christ was crucified in the altar of the cross, that her heart should be sacrificed to God our Lord. | On a time it happed at the hour of noon | that she prayed to God in her cell, and the devil gave to her such a stroke under the ear, that her eyes and her visage were all covered with blood. | learned an orison of the five wounds of Jesu Christ | which she oft recorded and remembered because her heart and thought were nourished therein, and might feel the delights that be in Jesu Christ. | office of the Cross of S. Francis | which loved her truly, and she said it as gladly, to her power, as he did. She girded to her flesh a cord whereon were thirteen knots which were full of brochets of small needles, and thereon small rings, and this did she in remembrance of the wounds of our Lord. | on a time on the holy Sherethursday | which is the day when our Lord made his maundy or supper, whereas is remembered how God loved unto the end his disciples, about the hour of even, when God began the wrestling of his passion, then S. Clare being heavy and sorrowful, enclosed her in the chamber of her cell. | prayed God long | and was sorrowful unto the death, and in that sorrow and heaviness she drew a fervent love full of desire, for she remembered how Jesus in that hour was taken, estrained, haled forth and mocked, insomuch that of this remembrance she was all drunken, and sat in her bed. | All that night she was so ravished and on the morn | that she wist not where her body was. | head looked steadfastly in one place | without moving or looking aside, and the eye of her heart was so fixed in Jesu Christ that she felt nothing. | One of her daughters, more familiar and secret with her than other | went oft to her for to see her, and always she found her in one point. | night of the Saturday, | this good devout daughter brought a candle burning, and without speaking made a sign to her blessed mother Clare that she should remember the commandments of S. Francis, for he had commanded that every day she should eat somewhat. | | | as she stood tofore her with a candle burning | S. Clare came again to her estate, and her seemed she was come from another world. | what need is of a candle, is it not yet day? | And she answered: Right, dear fair mother, the night is passed and the day is gone, and that other night is come. | this sleep that I have made be blessed | for I have much desired it, and God hath given it to me, but beware that thou say it never to creature as long as I live. | When our Lord knew and apperceived | how well and how much this holy Clare loved him, and the right great love that she had to the very cross for the love of him, he so illumined and privileged her in such manner that she had power to make tokens and miracles by the cross. | For when she made the sign of the very cross | upon them that were sick, anon the malady fled away. | And so many miracles God showed for her | of which I shall tell you some. | of a friar that was out of his wit | On a time it happed that S. Francis sent to S. Clare a friar named Steven, and was all mad from himself, that she should make upon him the sign of the cross. | For he knew well that she was a woman of great perfection | and he honoured her much for the virtue that was in her. | that was obeissant and good daughter of obedience, | blessed the friar by the commandment of S. Francis, and made him to sleep a little, and after, she took him by the hand and he arose all whole, and went to S. Francis clean delivered of all his malady. | This blessed S. Clare was a good mistress and true for to inform young people | that knew but little of religion, and she was president and upperest of the maidens of our Lord, and informed them in good customs and taught them right well to do penance. | She nourished them by so great love that unnethe any tongue may express | she taught them privily to flee all noise of the world, because they should join to our Lord, and also she exhorted them that they should put from them all carnal affection and fleshly love of their friends, and that they should not be over tender over them ne love them over much, ne houses, ne land, but make them strong to please and serve God. | counselled them and warned them | that they should hate to do the will of the body, and that the delights and fleshly desires of the flesh they should with all their heart and good reason go thereagainst. | fiend of hell lieth in await | and layeth his hooks and grinnes subtilly for to take and bind the holy souls, and yet they tempt more the good people than them of the world. | that they should work and labour with their proper hands | in such works as she had established to them. | would that when they had done their bodily travail | they should go to prayer, for prayer is a thing that pleaseth much God. | in praying they should rechaufe their bodies | and that they should leave and depress negligence and all coldness of heart, and be kindled and lighted in the holy love of God, so that instead of coldness they should be hot in devotion. | In no place ne in no cloister was silence better kept ne holden | there was no lavas in their speech ne evil, but they were sober and so good that they showed well that in their hearts was none evil but all goodness. | | | spake so little | that she restrained them and thought marvellously on their words, howbeit that in her heart ne in her thought was but all holiness. | good lady purveyed to her daughters the Word of God by devout preachings | and had so much joy and gladness profoundly in her heart in hearing the words of the holy predication, that all her delight was in our Lord Jesu Christ her spouse. | For on a time as friar Philip Adrian preached | a right fair child was tofore S. Clare and abode there a great part of the sermon, and beheld marvellously and graciously S. Clare, whereof it happed that he was worthy to know and see so high things, of S. Clare received in that sight, and beholding so great a sweetness in his heart and so great comfort, that it might not be said ne expressed. | howbeit that she was not lettered | yet heard she more gladly the sermons in Latin than in her vulgar tongue. | She knew well that within the shell was the kernel, | she heard the sermons ententively and assavoured them more sweetly. | She could much well draw to her that was most profitable for her soul. | And well knew she that it was no less cunning to gather fair flowers among the sharp thorns, than to eat the fruit of a fair tree, that is to say that she loved better a rude sermon well edifying than a fair polished, little profiting. | On a time it happed that the pope Gregory | defended that no friar should go to the house of the ladies without his leave. | she had much sorrow in her heart, | because she saw well she might not have that which was needful, which was the nurture of Holy Scripture, and said to her sisters with a sorrowful heart; Now forthon well may the pope Gregory take from us all the friars, when he hath taken from us them that nourished our souls with the Word of God. | sent again all the friars of her house | to the master or minister, for she said she had nothing to do to have friars to get them bodily bread, when they failed them that nourished her and her sisters with the Word of God. | Anon as the pope Gregory heard this tiding | he repealed that which he had defended, and set all at the will of God. | This holy and good abbess | loved not only the souls of her good daughters, but thought well in her heart oft-times how she might serve their bodies most charitably. | when it was right cold | she covered by night them that were feeble, and visited them much sweetly. | And if she saw any trouble by any temptation or any anger, which happeth sometimes, | she would call them secretly and comforted them, all weeping. | would fall down to the feet of her daughters that were mat and heavy | and kneeled tofore them, so that by the sweetness and debonairly that the ladies saw in their good mother, that she alleged and took away their sorrow, whereof the ladies, her daughters, couthe her much thanks. | they to do well by devotion and to love their good mother more sweetly | and followed by the right way the works of their good abbess. | | | marvelled much of the great abundance of holiness | that God had given to his spouse. | When she had been forty years | in the state of right holy poverty it pleased to our Lord to call her to be rewarded in heaven, and sent to her a great malady, and multiplied her languor and sickness. | sometime done so sharp penance | that her body ne her flesh had no strength. | over sick and much more | than she was wont to be, for as our Lord had given to her in her health, riches of merits, of good virtues and of good are works, right so would God enrich her in her sickness, to the end that she should suffer for him right great pain and torments, for in suffering of sickness is virtue perfect. | How and in what wise | she was virtuous in her malady and perfect, ye may hear. | been eight and twenty years in languor and malady | yet never she grudged, ne murmured, ne plained, but always said holy words and rendered thankings to our Lord, howbeit that she was marvellously aggrieved and sick, so that it seemed that she hasted much to draw to her end. | It pleased nevertheless to our Lord | that he respited her from the death unto the time that her end might be honoured, and enhanced her by the presence of the pope and of the cardinals, to whom she was especial daughter. | pope and the cardinals | had abode a great while at Lyons, S. Clare was then marvellously destrained by sickness, so that her daughters had great sorrow at their hearts that them seemed that a glaive had pierced them, or that they had been riven with a sword. | But our Lord showed anon a vision to one | his handmaid, which dwelled at S. Paul's, for it seemed to her that she and her sisters were at S. Damian's tofore S. Clare, which was right sick. | lay in a much fair bed and much precious | and her seemed that her daughters wept when the soul should pass out of the body. | a right fair lady at the head of the bed | and said to them that wept: Fair daughters, weep no more, for this lady shall overcome all. | shall not die till that our Lord and his disciples shall come | And she shall not abide long after that the pope and the court of Rome shall come to Perugia. | Bishop of Hostence heard say that this holy woman was sick | anon in great haste he went to see and visit the spouse of Jesu Christ, for he was her ghostly father, and had the cure of her soul, and nourished her with pure heart and will, for he had always devoutly loved the holy virgin. | very feeding of the soul | and he comforted the other daughters by his sermons and holy words. | weeping, prayed him much sweetly that he would take heed of her daughters | there being, and of all the others, and that for the love of our Lord he would remember her. | | | above all other things | she prayed him that he would do so much that her privilege of poverty might be confirmed of the pope and of the cardinals. | And he that loved verily her and the religion | and that had always truly aided her, promised that he should do, and did it. | came the pope and the cardinals to Assisi for to see the departing of the holy virgin | and to put to effect the vision that had been seen and signified of her. | For the pope is the highest man in earth under God | and that best representeth the person of Jesu Christ, for like as our Lord had his disciples which were joined to him in earth, in like wise the pope hath his cardinals, the which be joined to him in the holy church. | Our Lord God hasted him as he that knew the firm purpose of his spouse | S. Clare, and hasted for to honour her, and to set in the palace of the king of paradise his poor pilgrim, and the good lady also coveted and wished with all her heart that she might be delivered of her mortal body, and that she might see in heaven Jesu Christ as she that had ensued him in the earth with all her heart in very poverty. | members were bruised and troubled by great sickness | that the body might not endure, for it was over much enfeebled, so that our Lord called her from this world, and ordained for her health perdurable. | Innocent the fourth | and the cardinals came with him for to visit the handmaid of God, of whom he had better proved the holy life than of any woman that was in his time. | therefore he knew certainly that it was reason that he should come and honour her with his presence | And when he came into the house of the ladies, he went thither whereas this holy saint lay, and took to her his hand for to kiss. | which was courteous, stood upon a tree | and took to her his foot to kiss by great humility. | And she took it and kissed it much sweetly | and after inclined herself to the pope much humbly, and required him with a sweet cheer that he would assoil her of all her sins. | that we had no more need of absolution of sins | that we have done than ye have. | he assoiled her of all her sins and gave to her largely his benediction | And when they were all departed, forasmuch as she had received that day, by the hands of the minister provincial, the very body of our Lord, she lift up her eyes to our Lord to heaven, and joined her hands together and said then: Ah! my right sweet and fair daughters, our Lord Jesu Christ by his debonairly hath done to me so great good, and given to me so great a gift that heaven ne earth may not know, for I have received this day a much high Lord and also have seen his vicar. | which wept and abode for the orphans | whereof they had great sorrow in their hearts, for the death of their mother pierced their hearts like as it were a sword. | departed not from her ne for hunger, ne for thirst, ne for no sleep | ne they thought neither of bed ne of table. | delights that they had was for to cry, to weep and to make sorrow. | And among all the others her sister, which was a much devout virgin, wept many tears and said to S. Clare her sister: Fair and right sweet sister, depart not away from me and leave me not here alone. | | | answered to her much sweetly: | Fair sweet sister, it pleaseth to God that I depart from this world, but weep no more, fair sister, for ye shall come hastily to our Lord after me. | also I say unto you | that our Lord shall do to you great comfort and consolation tofore or ye die. | this holy and good Clare drew fast to her end | And the folk and people had to her great devotion and the prelates and cardinals came oft to see her, and honoured her as a very saint. | But there was a marvellous thing to hear, | for she was by the space of twelve days that never entered into her body no corporal meat, and she was so strong by the suffrance and grace of God that she comforted in the service of God all them that came tofore her, and desired and charged them to do well. | when Friar Reynald, which was debonair, | came for to see her and beheld the great sickness that she had long time suffered, he preached to her, and prayed her much to have patience. | anon she answered to him freely and debonairly | Sith that the holy man S. Francis, the servant of Jesu Christ hath showed to me the way of truth, and that I have felt and known the will and grace of Jesu Christ by the advertisement of S. Francis, know ye, right dear brother, that no pains displease me, ne no penance grieveth me, ne no sicknesses be to me hard ne displeasing. | then answered she to the friar, | when she felt our Lord knock at her gate for to take her soul out of this world, and required that good folk and spiritual should be with her, that she might hear of them the holy words of God, and specially the words of the death and passion of Jesu Christ. | And among all others came a friar named Vinberes | which was one of the noblest preachers that was in earth, and that ofttimes spake and said noble and holy words, ardent and good. | Of whose coming she was much glad | and prayed him that if he had made ready any new thing that he should say it. | opened his mouth and began to say so sweet words | that they were like sparkles of fire and of ardent fervour, or heat, whereof the holy virgin had much great consolation. | I recommend to you the holy poverty of our Lord, | and give ye to him thankings for that he hath done to you. | Then she blessed all them that had devotion to her and to her order | and gave largely and wisely her blessing to all the poor ladies of her order that were tofore her there. | two fellows of S. Francis that were there | of whom that one was named Angel, comforted them that were full of sorrow, and that other friar kissed devoutly and holily the bed of her that should pass to our Lord. | holy ladies sorrowed much the loss of their mother, | and as much more as they cried and wept withoutforth, so much more were they ardently grieved within forth. | began to speak to her soul all softly | Go, said she, go surely, for thou hast a good guide and conductor in the way whereas thou shalt go, which shall lead thee well the right way. | | | Go, said she hardily | for he that made thee and sanctified thee shall keep thee, for he loveth thee also tenderly as the mother doth her child. | blessed be thou that madest me | And then one of her sisters demanded her to whom she spake. | spoken to my blessed soul | and without fail her glorious conductor is not far from her. | | | king of glory whom I see | But the daughter saw him not, for the will of God was that one should see that another saw not, for there was a happy widow and comfortable, which saw him with the eyes of her head among the tears that she wept, and yet nevertheless she was wounded to the heart with a dart full of sweetness and of sorrow. | toward the door of the house | and saw a great company of virgins enter into the house all clad with white clothes, and each of them bare a crown of gold on her head. | among all other, there was one much more clear and fairer than the others which bare a crown of gold windowed | out whereof issued a right great clearness, that all the house was so clearly light, that it seemed the night to be clear day. | this lady that was so clear, | approached to the bed whereas the spouse of her son lay, and she inclined upon her and embraced her much sweetly. | brought a mantle of right great beauty | and the virgins enforced them to serve and to cover the body of S. Clare and well to make ready the house. | was the feast of S. Laurence | and then died and departed out of this mortal life the holy lady and friend of our Lord, and anon the soul of her was crowned in everlasting joy. | The spirit of her was much benignly and joyously | loosed and delivered from the flesh, and when the body abode in the earth the soul went with God which was her life. | blessed be the holy company of God that from the valley of this world | conducted the holy soul of this lady into the mountain of heaven where the blessed life is. | Now is the blessed virgin in the company of them | that be in the court of heaven, now hath she changed her poor little life, which hath brought her for to sit at the table where the great delights be. | for the little life of humility and of sharpness | the blessed reign of heaven, whereas she is clad and arrayed with the robe of perdurable glory. | the tidings were spread abroad | that the blessed virgin was departed, and when the people of Assisi heard thereof, they came to the place, both men and women, by so great companies, that it seemed that in the city abode neither man ne woman. | all crying: O, dear lady, and friend of God, | and therewith they praised her, and wept much tenderly. | potestate and the provost of the city | ran much hastily thither, and with them many companies of knights and of people armed, which all that day and all night kept the body of the holy virgin much honourably. | For they would in no wise that the town should not have | by any adventure, damage or hurt in taking away the treasure that lay there. | On the morn came the vicar of Jesu Christ | and all the cardinals with him, with all the city of Assisi, unto the church of S. Damian. | | | when it came there to that they should begin the mass | for the blessed S. Clare, it happed that he that began would have begun the office of them that were dead. | said that they ought better do the office of virgins than the office of dead folk | so that it seemed that he would canonise her tofore ere she was buried. | Then answered the wise man | the bishop of Hostence, and said it was more accustomed to say of them that be dead in this case, and then they said the mass of requiem, and all the prelates and the bishop of Hostence began to preach, and took their matter how all the world is vanity, and began to praise much greatly this sweet saint, S. Clare, and how she had despised the world and all that was therein. | that were there went first and did holily the service about the holy body | and the office, like as it is accustomed. | because that them seemed neither right ne reason | that the precious body should not be far from the city, they bare it to S. George's with so right great feast, singing and praising God in hymns and lauds, and in so great melody, that there was honour enough. | in the same place was first buried | the body of S. Francis. | And from this time forthon came much people every day to the tomb | of S. Clare, and giving praisings and laud to our Lord God. | veritably this is a right very saint | and glorious virgin, reigning with the company of angels to whom God hath given so much honour in earth. | Ah! sweet virgin, pray thou to Jesu Christ for us | for thou wert the first flower of the holy poor ladies which hast drawn to penance without number, and that thou mayst conduct us to the life permanable. Amen. | was not long after greatly, that Agnes, sister | of S. Clare, was summoned and called to wedding of the very lamb Jesu Christ, and also S. Clare led her sister unto the joy perdurable, full of delices. | There be now the two daughters of Sion | which were sisters germane of grace and of nature and be now heritors of the joy of heaven, there where they feel the sweetness of God and enjoy with him. | Now is Agnes in the joy and in the consolation | that Clare, her sister, had promised to her tofore that she died, for like as Clare brought her out of the world, so brought she herself in the cross of penance by which she is shining in heaven. | Thus went Agnes after her sister right soon | out of this mortal life full of weeping and of sorrow unto our Lord, which is lite of the soul in heaven, which reigneth with the Father and the Holy Ghost. Amen. | tokens and miracles of saints ought to be showed | praised, and honoured and also witnessed, when the works in the life were holy and full of perfection. | We find not many signs ne miracles that S. John the Baptist did | nevertheless he is a much holy saint, and greater than such ones as have been showed for many miracles. | | | I say that the right holy life | and the great perfection of S. Clare, which she used and demened here in earth, ought well to suffice and witness that she is a very saint, if it were not for the people, which have the more great devotion and more greater faith unto the saints when they see the signs and miracles that God showeth for them. | I know well that S. Clare was in the way full of merits | and that she was ravished in the profoundness of the great clearness and light of heaven, nevertheless though she were resplendissant, well savorous, and right full of great miracles as is well declared by the cardinals of Rome, mine oath of truth that I have made and my conscience, constraineth me that I write to my power the life truly and the miracles of her, how well I pass over many fair things. | There was a child named Jaquemin of Perugia, | which had in his body the devil, in such wise that this Jaquemin fell in the fire as he that could not keep him. | Sometime he hurtled strongly against the ground, | sometime he bit the stones so that he brake his teeth, and otherwhile brake his head, that all his body was bloody, and fouled his mouth and put out his tongue. | And sometimes he lay and wallowed | and was round, so that oft he laid his thigh in his neck. | every day twice this malady came to him, | and two persons might not keep him ne hold him but that he would despoil and unclothe him maugre them both. | There could no physician ne wise man that was in all the country find any remedy | ne give counsel to ease him. | But the father, which was named Quindelor, | when he saw that he could find no counsel nor remedy for this malady, began to cry and call on S. Clare the holy virgin, and said: To thee that art worthy of all honours, I avow my child which is meschant and caitiff, and pray thee, right sweet saint, that thou wilt send to my child health. | forthwith went to her tomb full of belief to have his request, | and laid the child upon the tomb of the virgin and made his prayers. | delivered of the malady | ne never was sick after of that sickness, ne never hurt him after by reason of that malady. | Alexandrine of Perugia had in her body a right felonous devil | which had so utterly power over her that he made her descend from a rock that stood upon a river of water, and made her to flee over the water as she had been a bird, and made her to light upon a little bough of a tree which hung over the river, and ceased not to play there. | Also for her sin it happed that she lost her left side | and was lame of that one hand. | she assayed much if she might be healed by any medicine, | but alI the medicines that she took availed her not. | then she came to the tomb | of S. Clare with great repentance of heart, and began to require S. Clare that she would help her, and anon she was healed and redressed in all health. | hand also, and delivered of the possession of the devil | which was in her, and of many other sicknesses and maladies tofore the sepulchre of S. Clare. | | | A man born in France | came on a time from the court and fell in a malady, that he was out of his wit and might not speak, and so demeaned his body that he might have no rest, and was much over strange and hideous to look on. | No man might so hold him | but that he brake from them maugre them that held him, and broke asunder cords or any thing that they bound him with, and they of his country brought him to S. Clare and anon he was healed and well delivered of his malady. | a man named Valentine Despole | which had a horrible malady, that he fell of the foul evil well six times in a day. | therewith he was lame of one thigh so that he might not go | but was set upon an ass, which brought him whereas S. Clare lieth, and he was set tofore her tomb three nights and two days, and on the third day, without touching of anybody, his thigh began rumble, and made so great a noise that it seemed that the bone brake, and forthwith he was whole of both diseases. | Jacob, the son of Spoletine, had been two years blind | so that he must be led, for when he had no leader he went here and there. | on a time the child that led him let him go alone | and he fell so that he brake his arm, and a great wound in his head. | happed on a night as he slept by the bridge of Margue | there appeared to him in his sleep a lady, and said to him: Jacobel, wherefore comest thou not to me for to be whole? | on the morn he recounted his dream | unto two other blind men, all trembling. | blind men told to him that there was newly dead a lady | in the city of Assisi, for whom God showed many miracles to them that came to her tomb sick and diseased, and when they should depart were all whole. | as he heard that he was not slow | but hasted him and came first to Spoleto, and that night he saw the same vision that he had first seen that other night tofore. | On a time he went and ran by the way | and for the desire to have his sight he went that night to Assisi. | when he came thither he found so much people in the monastery | and Iying tofore the tomb of the holy virgin, that he might not enter ne come into the monastery ne to the tomb where the virgin lay. | he laid a stone under his head, and abode there with great devotion | sorrowing and angry that he might not enter. | same night, as he slept, he heard a voice that said to him | Jacobel, if thou mayst come and enter herein, God shall do well to thee. | when he was awaked, he began to pray | with great tears that the people would give and make to him way for the love of God, and besought the people, crying them mercy, that they would bring him in. And the people began to make him way. | he did off his hosen and shoon and despoiled him by great devotion | and he put his girdle about his neck, and so went to the tomb, and there being in great devotion, fell asleep a little. | appeared to him and said to him | Arise up, for thou art all whole, and anon he arose and saw clearly. | when he saw that he was enlumined | and saw the clearness of the day by the merit of S. Clare, he praised and glorified our Lord that had done to him so much bounty, and prayed the good people to give praisings and thankings to God. | which was named Good John | the son of Martin. and went for to fight against them of Foligno, and that one part and that other began the strife, and began to cast stones so great and fast that this John had his one hand all to-frushed and broken of a stone. | because he had great desire to be healed | he dispensed much money on masters and surgeons, but he could find none that could heal him, but that he abode always lame on his hand, ne might do nothing ne work therewith, whereof he had so great sorrow that he hasted him for to have it smitten off many times. | But when he heard the great marvels that our Lord had done | for S. Clare, he avowed that he should visit her. | came to the sepulchre | of S. Clare, the holy virgin, and bare thither an image of wax in his hand, and laid him down upon the tomb, and anon he was perfectly healed of his hand. | There was a man named Petrius of the castle of Byconne | which had been three years sick, and was so enfeebled that by the strength of his malady that he was all dried up, and had so much pain in his reins that he was become so crooked that he went like a beast. | For which cause his father led him to the best masters and medicines | that he might find and know, and also to such as entremeted of broken bones, and the father would well have spent all his goods on the condition to have his son whole. | he heard say of the masters that no physic nor no man might heal him of his malady | then he thought to go to S. Clare, and led his son thither. | so he did, and laid him tofore the sepulchre of the holy virgin. | And he had not been long there, but by the grace of God, and by the merits of the holy virgin he was all whole, and arose up guerished of all his malady, and gave laud, thankings, and praisings to our Lord God, and to S. Clare, and prayed the people to do in like wise because of his health. | was also a child of the age of two years in the town of S. Quirito | in the bishopric of Assisi, which was born crooked in the back and lame, which his thighs and feet turned athwart, and went in such wise that it was all out of order, and when he was fallen he could not arise. | His mother had ofttimes vowed him to S. Francis | and was not thereby holpen, and when she heard that God showed new miracles for S. Clare, she bare her child to her sepulchre and abode there certain days. | But within a few days his legs began to grow | and his thighs within the skin were redressed naturally, and he went upright and was all guerished and made whole. | thus he that had been divers times | at S. Francis was healed by the merits of his good disciple S. Clare, by the virtue of our Lord Jesu. | A burgess of Augulum | named Jacques de Franque had a child of five years of age which had no feet for to bear him, ne had never gone ne might go. | Wherefore his father oft wept and sorrowed much at his heart for his deformity | and thought it a reproach to him to have such one disfigured born of his blood. | For he lay on the earth and in the ashes, | wallowing and addressing him against the wall, desiring by nature to help him, but might and power failed him. | Then his father and mother vowed him to S Clare | that he should be her servant if by her prayers and merits he might be healed. | as soon as the father and mother had made their vow | the holy virgin healed her servant, so that he had his right limbs and went upright. | and mother led him | to S. Clare, which went leaping and running, praising our Lord and thanking him, and then the father and mother offered him to our Lord. | a woman of the castle of Bruane named Pleniere | which had been long sick in her reins, in such wise that she might not go without help, ne address her but with great pain, and was all crooked. | It happed that on a Friday she did her to be borne | to the tomb of S. Clare and prayed her right devoutly that she would help her. | | | And it happed as she prayed she was suddenly made all whole. | And on the morn that was Saturday, she went upright all whole on her feet home to her house, whereas the day tofore she was borne for feebleness. | There was a maid of the land of Perugia | which had her throat greatly swollen of a malady called escroceles, which she had long, and had about her neck and throat a twenty botches called glanders, so that her neck seemed greater than her head. | oft she had been led to S. Clare, and the father and mother of the maid had prayed her devoutly to heal their daughter. | And it happed on a night as the maid lay tofore the tomb she began to sweat, and the escroceles and the malady began to mollify, and to remove, and anon after, the malady vanished away all clean, and so net that, by the merits of S. Clare there nas seen sign ne token thereof. | One of the sisters of the order | of S. Clare, in the time that she lived, had such a malady in her throat, which sister was named Andrea, but it was of one thing marvel, how that among the sisters which were as precious stones, all full of the fervent love of the Holy Ghost, that such one that was so cold might dwell among them as was this Andrea, so foolish, that dishonoureth the other virgins. | Then it happed on a night that she distrained herself by the throat | that she was almost estrangled, which thing S. Clare saw and knew by the Holy Ghost, and said to one of her sisters: Now go hastily and take a soft egg and bear it to sister Andrea of Ferrara for to rume her throat, and come again and bring her with thee hither to me. | found the same Andrea | that she might not speak, for she had almost strangled her with her own hands. | she relieved her as well as she might, | and brought her to her good mother. | Thou caitiff, go and confess thee of thine evil thoughts | and I wot well that our Lord will heal thee, but amend thy life that thou mayest die of some other malady than this which thou hast suffered so long. | anon as S. Clare had said these words she began to repent her with good heart | and amended her life marvellously, and was all healed of the escroceles, by the grace of God, but she died anon after of another malady. | In the land of Assisi there was a wolf over sore cruel | which tormented the country and the people and ran upon them and slew and ate them. | So there was a woman named Gallane of the Mount of Gallum | which had children, and the wolf had ravished and borne away one of them, and had eaten him, wherefore she wept oft. | the wolf came for his prey | as he had done tofore for to devour some child. | this woman was busy in her work which she had in hand | and one of her sons went out, and anon, the wolf caught him by the head and ran with him towards the wood. | a man that was among the vines labouring | heard the child bray otherwise than he had heard any, and came running to the mother of the child, and bade her see if she had all her children, for he said that he had heard the cry of a child otherwise than they be woned to cry. | looked and saw that the wolf had ravished her child | and went towards the wood with him like as he did with that other, and cried also high as she might cry: Ah! glorious virgin S. Clare, save my child and keep him, and if thou do not I shall go drown myself. | | | and a hound beside him licking his wounds | For the wolf had first taken him by the head, and after took him by the reins, for the more easilier to bear him. and the biting of his teeth appeared both in the head and reins. | that had so well holpen her, and brought with her her neighbours | and showed the wounds of the child to all them that would see them, and thanked God and S. Clare that she had her child again rendered to her. | castle Convary | which sat on a time in a field, and another woman had laid her head in her lap. | in the mean while there came a wolf which was accustomed to run on the people | and came to this maid and swallowed the visage and all the mouth and so ran with her toward the wood. | good woman that rested in her lap when she saw it, | was much abashed and began to call on S. Clare and said: Help! help! S. Clare, and succour us, I recommend to thee at this time this maid. | she whom the wolf bare, said unto the wolf | Art not thou afeard to bear me any farther that am recommended to so great and worthy lady? | all confused and shamed | set softly the maid down, and fled away like a thief, and so she was delivered. | Then let us pray unto this glorious virgin S. Clare to be our advocate in all our needs | and by the merits of her we may so amend our life in this world that we may come unto everlasting life and bliss in heaven. Amen | Isidore was the son of Severianus and Theodora. | His elder brother Leander was his immediate predecessor in the Metropolitan See of Seville; whilst a younger brother St. Fulgentius presided over the Bishopric of Astigi. | His sister Florentina was a nun, | and is said to have ruled over forty convents and one thousand religious. | Isidore received his elementary education in the Cathedral school of Seville | In this institution, which was the first of its kind in Spain, the trivium and quadrivium were taught by a body of learned men, among whom was the archbishop, Leander. | With such diligence did he apply himself to study that in a remarkably short time | mastered Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. | Whether Isidore ever embraced monastic life or not is still an open question, | but though he himself may never have been affiliated with any of the religious orders, he esteemed them highly. | On his elevation to the episcopate | he immediately constituted himself protector of the monks. | In 619 he pronounced anathema against any ecclesiastic who should in any way molest the monasteries. | On the death of Leander, Isidore succeeded to the See of Seville. | His long incumbency to this office | was spent in a period of disintegration and transition. | ancient institutions and classic learning | of the Roman Empire werefast disappearing. | | | In Spain a new civilization was beginning to evolve itself from the blending racial elements | that made up its population. | For almost two centuries the Goths had been in full control of Spain | and their barbarous manners and contempt of learning threatened greatly to put back her progress in civilization. | Realizing that the spiritual as well as the material well-being | of the nation depended on the full assimilation of the foreign elements, St. Isidore set himself to the task of welding into a homogeneous nation the various peoples who made up the Hispano-Gothic kingdom. | To this end he availed himself of all the resources of religion and education. | His efforts were attended with complete success. | Arianism, which had taken deep root among the Visigoths | was eradicated, and the new heresy of Acephales was completely stifled at the very outset; religious discipline was everywhere strengthened. | he took a most prominent part in the Councils of Toledo and Seville | In all justice it may be said that it was in a great measure due to the enlightened statecraft of these two illustrious brothers the Visigothic legislation, which emanated from these councils, is regarded by modern historians as exercising a most important influence on the beginnings of representative government. | begun 13 November, 619, in the reign of Sisebut | But it was the Fourth National Council of Toledo that afforded him the opportunity of being of the greatest service to his county. | At this council, begun 5 December, 633 | all the bishops of Spain were in attendance. | St. Isidore, though far advanced in years, presided over its deliberations, and was the originator of most of its enactments. | It was at thiscouncil and through his influence that a decree was promulgated commanding all bishops to establish seminaries in their Cathedral Cities, along the lines of the school already existing at Seville. | Within his own jurisdiction | he had availed himself of the resources of education to counteract the growing influence of Gothic barbarism. | His was the quickening spirit that animated the educational movement | of which Seville was the centre. | Greek and Hebrew as well as the liberal arts | was prescribed. | Interest in law and medicine was also encouraged. | Through the authority of the fourth council this policy of education was made obligatory upon all the bishops of the kingdom. | Long before the Arabs had awakened | to an appreciation of Greek Philosophy, he had introduced Aristotle to his countrymen. | He was the first Christian writer | to essay the task of compiling for his co-religionists a summa of universal knowledge. | | | This encyclopedia epitomized all learning, | ancient as well as modern. | In it many fragments of classical learning are preserved | which otherwise had been hopelessly lost. | fame of this work imparted a new impetus | to encyclopedic writing, which bore abundant fruit in the subsequent centuries of the Middle Ages. | His style, though simple and lucid, | cannot be said to be classical. | It discloses most of the imperfections peculiar to all ages of transition. | It particularly reveals a growing Visigothic influence. | Arévalo counts in all Isidore's writing 1640 Spanish words | Isidore was the last of the ancient Christian Philosophers, as he was the last of the great Latin Fathers. | He was undoubtedly the most learned man of his age and exercised a far-reaching and immeasurable influence | on the educational life of the Middle Ages. | His contemporary and friend, Braulio, Bishop of Saragossa | regarded him as a man raised up by God to save the Spanish people from the tidal wave of barbarism that threatened to inundate the ancient civilization of Spain, The Eighth Council of Toledo (653) recorded its admiration of his character in these glowing terms: "The extraordinary doctor, the latest ornament of the Catholic Church, the most learned man of the latter ages, always to be named with reverence, Isidore". | This tribute was endorsed by the Fifteenth Council of Toledo | held in 688. | As a writer, Isidore was prolific and versatile to an extraordinary degree | His voluminous writings may be truly said to constitute the firstchapter of Spanish literature. | however, in the capacity of an original and independent | writer, but as an indefatigable compiler of all existing knowledge, that literature is most deeply indebted to him. | most important and by far the best-known of all his writings | is the "Etymologiae", or "Origines", as it is sometimes called. | This work takes its name from the subject-matter of one of its constituent books | It was written shortly before his death, in the full maturity of his wonderful scholarship, at the request. of his friendBraulio, Bishop of Saragossa. | It is a vast storehouse in which is gathered, systematized, and condensed | all the learning possessed by his time. | Throughout the greater part of the Middle Ages it was the textbook | most in use in educational institutions. | | | So highly was it regarded as a depository of classical learning | that in a great measure, it superseded the use of the individual works of the classics themselves. | Not even the Renaissance seemed to diminish the high esteem | in which it was held, and according to Arévalo, it was printed ten times between 1470 and 1529. | Besides these numerous reprints | the popularity of the "Etymologiae" gave rise to many inferior imitations. | furnishes, abundant evidence that the writer possessed a most intimate knowledge of the Greek and Latin poets | In all, he quotes from one hundred and fifty-four authors, Christian and pagan. | Many of these he had read in the originals | and the others he consulted in current compilations. | In style this encyclopedic work is concise and clear | and in order, admirable. | Braulio, to whom Isidore sent it for correction, and to whom he dedicated it, divided it into twenty books. | The first three of these books are taken up with the trivium and quadrivium. | entire first book is devoted to grammar | including metre. | Imitating the example of Cassiodorus and Boethius | he preserves the logical tradition of the schools by reserving the second book for rhetoric and dialectic. | Book four, treats of medicine and libraries; * book five, of law and chronology; | book six, of ecclesiastical books and offices; * book seven, of God and of the heavenly and earthly hierarchies; * book eight, of the Church and of the sects, of which latter he numbers no less than sixty-eight; * book nine, of languages, peoples, kingdoms, and official titles; * book ten, of etymology: * book eleven, of man; * book twelve, of beasts and birds; * book thirteen, of the world and its parts; * book fourteen, of physical geography; * book fifteen, of public buildings and roadmaking; * book sixteen, of stones and metals; * book seventeen, of agriculture; * book eighteen, of the terminology of war, of jurisprudence, and public games; * book nineteen, of ships, houses, and clothes; * book twenty, of victuals, domestic and agricultural tools, and furniture. | dealing with dialectic and rhetoric, Isidore is heavily indebted to translations from the Greek by Boethius | Caelius Aurelianus contributes generously to that part of the fourth book which deals with medicine. | Lactantius is the author most extensively quoted in the eleventh book, concerning man | The twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth books are largely based on the writings of Pliny and Solinus; whilst the lost "Prata" of Suetonius seems to have inspired the general plan of the "Etymologiae", as well as many of its details. | Similar in its general character to the "Etymologiae" is a work entitled "Libri duo differentiarum" | The two books of which it is composed are entitled respectively, "De differentiis verborum" and "De differentiis rerum". | former is a dictionary of synonyms | treating of the differences of words with considerable erudition, and not a little ingenuity; the latter an exposition of theological and ascetical ideas, dealing in particular with the, Trinity and with the Divine and human nature of Christ. | It suggests, and probably was inspired by, a similar work of Cato's, | It is supplementary to the first two books of the "Etymologiae". | | | "Synonyma", or, as it is sometimes called on account of its peculiar treatment, "Liber lamentationum" | is in a manner illustrative of the first book of the "Differentiae". | It is cast in the form of a dialogue between Man and Reason | The general burden of the dialogue is that Man mourns the condition to which he has been reduced through sin, and Reason comforts him with the knowledge of how he may still realize eternal happiness. | second part of this work consists of a dissertation on vice and virtue | The "De natura rerum" a manual of elementary physics, was composed at the request of King Sisebut, to whom it is dedicated. | treats of astronomy, geography, and miscellanea | It is one of Isidore's best known books and enjoyed a wide popularity during the Middle Ages. | authenticity of "De ordine creaturarum" has been questioned by some critics | though apparently without good reason. | Arévalo unhesitatingly attributes it | to Isidore. | deals with various spiritual and physical questions | such as the Trinity, the consequences of sin, eternity, the ocean, the heavens, and the celestial bodies. | subjects of history and biography are represented by three important works | Of these the first, "Chronicon", is a universal chronicle. | preface Isidore acknowledges, his indebtedness to Julius Africanus | to St. Jerome's rendering of Eusebius; and to Victor of Tunnuna. | "Historia de regibus Gothorum, Wandalorum, et Suevorum" | concerns itself chiefly with the Gothic kings whose conquests and government deeply influenced the civilization of Spain. | history of the Vandals and the Suevi is treated in two short appendixes | This work is regarded as the chief authority on Gothic history in the West. | contains the interesting statement that the Goths descended from Gog and Magog | Like the other Historical writings of Isidore, it is largely based on earlier works of history, of which it is a compendium. | in two recensions | one of which ends at the death of Sisebut (621), and the other continues to the fifth year of the reign of Swintila, his successor. | is a work of Christian biography and constitutes a most interesting chapter in the literature of patrology | To the number of illustrious writers mentioned therein Braulio added the name of Isidore himself. | A short appendix containing a list of Spanish theologians | was added by Braulio's disciple, Ildephonsus of Toledo. | | | It is the continuation of the work of Gennadius | a Semipelagian priest of Marseilles, who wrote between 467 and 480. | This work of Gennadius was in turn, but the continuation of the work of St. Jerome | Among the scriptural and theological works of St. Isidore the following are especially worthy of note: | "De ortu et obitu patrum qui in Scriptura laudibus efferuntur" | is a work that treats of the more notable Scriptural characters. | | | contains more than one passage that, in the light of modern scholarship | is naive or fantastic. | question of authenticity has been raised, though quite unreasonably, concerning it | "Allegoriae quaedam Sacrae Scripturae" treats of the allegorical significance that attaches to the more conspicuous characters ofScripture. | all some two hundred and fifty personalities | of the Old and New Testament are thus treated. | is a curious dissertation on the mystical significance | of Scriptural numbers. | as its name implies, is a general introduction to the Scriptures, with special introductions for particular books | in the Old and New Testament. | consists of a series of questions concerning | the Scriptures. | Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy | Josue, Judges, Kings, Esdras, and Machabees. | based on the writings of the early Fathers of the Church | "De fide catholica ex Veteri et Novo Testamento, contra Judaeos" is one of the best known and most meritorious of Isidore's works. | apologetico-polemical character and is dedicated to Florentina, his sister | at whose request it is said to have been written. | popularity was unbounded in the Middle Ages | and it was translated into many of the vernaculars of the period. | treats of the Messianic prophecies | the passing of the Old Law, and of the Christian Dispensation. | first part deals with the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity | and His return for the final judgment. | second part is taken up with the unbelief of the Jews | the calling of the Gentiles, and the passing of the Sabbath. | it is an appeal to the Jews to accept Christianity | "Sententiarum libri tres" is a compendium of moral and dogmatic theology. | Gregory the Great and St. Augustine | are the most generous contributors to its contents. | | | Divine attributes, creation, evil, and miscellanea are the subjects treated in the first book | The second is of a miscellaneous character; whilst the third deals with ecclesiastical orders, the judgment and the chastisement of God. | believed that this work greatly influenced Peter Lombard | in his famous "Book of Sentences", * "De ecclesiasticis officiis" is divided into two books, "De origine officiorum" and "De origine ministrorum". | Isidore treats of Divine worship and particularly the old Spanish Liturgy | It also Contains a lucid explanation of the Holy, Eucharist. | treats of the hierarchy of the Church | and the various states of life. | In it much interesting information is to be found concerning the development of music | in general and its adaptation to the needs of theRitual. | "Regula monachorum" is a manner of life prescribed for monks | and also deals in a general way with the monastic state. | writer furnishes abundant proof of the true Christian democracy | of the religious life by providing for the admission of men of every rank and station of life. | Not even slaves were debarred. | "God", he said, "has made no difference between the soul of the slave and that of the freedman." | He insists that in the monastery all are equal in the sight of God and of the Church | The first edition of the works of Isidore was published in folio by Michael Somnius (Paris, 1580). | Another edition that is quite complete is based upon the manuscripts of Gomez | with notes by Perez and Grial (Madrid, 1599). | Based largely upon the Madrid edition | is that published by Du Breul (Paris, 1601; Cologne, 1617). | all the works of Isidore, which is also regarded as the best | is that ofArévalo (7 vols., Rome, 1797-1803). | It is found in P.L., LXXXI-LXXXIV. | The "De natura rerum" was edited by G. Becker (Berlin, 1857). | Th. Mommsen edited the historical writings of St. Isidore ("Mon. Germ. Hist.: Auct. antiquiss.", Berlin, 1894). | Coste produced a German translation of the "Historia de regibus Gothorum, Wandalorum et Suevorum" (Leipzig, 1887). | Also called St. Elizabeth of Thuringia | born in Hungary, probably at Pressburg, 1207; died at Marburg, Hesse, 17 November (not 19 November), 1231. | | | She was a daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary | (1205-35) and his wife Gertrude, a member of the family of the Counts of Andechs-Meran; Elizabeth's brother succeeded his father on the throne of Hungary as Bela IV; the sister of her mother, Gertrude, was St. Hedwig, wife of Duke Heinrich I, the Bearded, of Silesia, while another saint, St. Elizabeth (Isabel) of Portugal (d. 1336), the wife of the tyrannical King Diniz of that country, was her great-niece. | In 1211 a formal embassy was sent by Landgrave Hermann I | of Thuringia to Hungary to arrange, as was customary in that age, a marriage between his eldest son Hermann and Elizabeth, who was then four years old. | This plan of a marriage was the result of political considerations |and was intended to be the ratification of a great alliance which in the political schemes of the time it was sought to form against the German Emperor Otto IV, a member of the house of Guelph, who had quarrelled with the Church. | Not long after this the little girl | was taken to the Thuringian court to be brought up with her future husband and, in the course of time, to be betrothed to him. | court of Thuringia was at this period famous for its magnificence | Its centre was the stately castle of the Wartburg, splendidly placed on a hill in the Thuringian Forest near Eisenach, where the Landgrave Hermann lived surrounded by poets and minnesingers, to whom he was a generous patron. | Notwithstanding the turbulence and purely secular life | of the court and the pomp of her surroundings, the little girl grew up a very religious child with an evident inclination to prayer and pious observances and small acts of self-mortification. | These religious impulses were undoubtedly strengthened | by the sorrowful experiences of her life. | In 1213 Elizabeth's mother, Gertrude | was murdered by Hungarian nobles, probably out of hatred of the Germans. | On 31 December, 1216, the oldest son of the landgrave | Hermann, who Elizabeth was to marry, died; after this she was betrothed to Ludwig, the second son. | It was probably in these years that Elizabeth had to suffer the hostility |of the more frivolous members of the Thuringian court, to whom the contemplative and pious child was a constant rebuke. | Ludwig, however, must have soon come to her protection | against any ill-treatment. | legend that arose later is incorrect in making Elizabeth's mother-in-law | the Landgravine Sophia, a member of the reigning family of Bavaria, the leader of this court party. | On the contrary, Sophia was a very religious and charitable woman | and a kindly mother to the little Elizabeth. | political plans of the old | Landgrave Hermann involved him in great difficulties and reverses; he was excommunicated, lost his mind towards the end of his life, and died, 25 April, 1217, unreconciled with the Church. | He was succeeded by his son Ludwig IV, who, in 1221, | was also made regent of Meissen and the East Mark. | | | Elizabeth were married, the groom being twenty-one years old | and the bride fourteen. | marriage was in every regard a happy and exemplary one | and the couple were devotedly attached to each other. | proved himself worthy of his wife | He gave his protection to her acts ofcharity, penance, and her vigils, and often held Elizabeth's hands as she knelt praying at night beside his bed. | He was also a capable ruler and brave soldier | The Germans call him St. Ludwig, an appellation given to him as one of the best men of his age and the pious husband of St. Elizabeth. | They had three children | Hermann II (1222-41), who died young; Sophia (1224-84), who married Henry II, Duke of Brabant, and was the ancestress of the Landgraves of Hesse, as in the war of the Thuringian succession she won Hesse for her son Heinrich I, called the Child; Gertrude (1227-97), Elizabeth's third child, was born several weeks after the death of her father; in after-life she became abbess of the convent of Altenberg near Wetzlar. | made a journey to Hungary | Ludwig was often after this employed by the Emperor Frederick II, to whom he was much attached, in the affairs of the empire. | In the spring of 1226, when floods, famine, and the pest wrought havoc | in Thuringia, Ludwig was in Italy attending the Diet at Cremona on behalf of the emperor and the empire. | Under these circumstances Elizabeth assumed control of affairs | distributed alms in all parts of the territory of her husband, giving even state robes and ornaments to the poor. | In order to care personally for the unfortunate she built | below the Wartburg a hospital with twenty-eight beds and visited the inmates daily to attend to their wants; at the same time she aided nine hundred poor daily. | It is this period of her life | that has preserved Elizabeth's fame to posterity as the gentle and charitable chételaine of the Wartburg. | Ludwig on his return confirmed all she had done. | The next year (1227) he started with the Emperor Frederick II on a crusade to Palestine but died, 11 September of the same year at Otranto, from the pest. | news did not reach Elizabeth until October | just after she had given birth to her third child. | The world with all itsjoys is now dead to me | The fact that in 1221 the followers of St. Francis of Assisi (d. 1226) made their first permanent settlement in Germany was one of great importance in the later career of Elizabeth. | Brother Rodeger, one of the first Germans | whom the provincial for Germany, Caesarius of Speier, received into the order, was for a time the spiritual instructor of Elizabeth at the Wartburg; in his teachings he unfolded to her the ideals of St. Francis, and these strongly appealed to her. | With the aid of Elizabeth the Franciscans in 1225 founded a monastery in Eisenach; | Brother Rodeger, as his fellow-companion in the order, Jordanus, reports, instructed Elizabeth, to observe, according to her state of life, chastity, humility, patience, the exercise of prayer, and charity. | Her position prevented the attainment of the other ideal | of St. Francis, voluntary and complete poverty. | Various remarks of Elizabeth to her female attendants | make it clear how ardently she desired the life of poverty. | After a while the post | Brother Rodeger had filled was assumed by Master Conrad of Marburg, who belonged to no order, but was a very ascetic and, it must be acknowledged, a somewhat rough and very severe man. | He was well known as a preacher of the crusade | and also as an inquisitor or judge in cases of heresy. | On account of the latter activity | he has been more severely judged than is just; at the present day, however, the estimate of him is a fairer one. | Pope Gregory IX, who wrote at times to Elizabeth |recommended her himself to the God-fearing preacher. | with inexorable severity | even using corporal means of correction; nevertheless, he brought her with a firm hand by the road of self-mortification to sanctity, and after her death was very active in her canonization. | Although he forbade her to follow St. Francis in complete poverty | as a beggar, yet, on the other hand, by the command to keep her dower she was enabled to perform works of charity and tenderness. | Up to 1888 it was believed | on account of the testimony of one of Elizabeth's servants in the process of canonization, that Elizabeth was driven from the Wartburg in the winter of 1227 by her brother-in-law, Heinrich Raspe, who acted as regent for her son, then only five years old. | various investigators (Börner, Mielke, Wenck, E. Michael, etc.) | asserted that Elizabeth left the Wartburg voluntarily, the only compulsion being a moral one. | She was not able at the castle to follow Conrad's command to eat only food | obtained in a way that was certainly right and proper. | Lately, however, Huyskens (1907) tried to prove that Elizabeth | was driven from the castle at Marburg in Hesse, which was hers by dower right. | Consequently, the Te Deum that she directed the Franciscans to sing | on the night of her expulsion would have been sung in the Franciscan monastery at Marburg. | Accompanied by two female attendants | Elizabeth left the castle that stands on a height commanding Marburg. | next day her children were brought to her | but they were soon taken elsewhere to be cared for. | Elizabeth's aunt, Matilda, Abbess of the Benedictine nunnery of Kitzingen | near Würzburg, took charge of the unfortunate landgravine and sent her to her uncle Eckbert, Bishop of Bamberg. | bishop, however, was intent on arranging another marriage for her | although during the lifetime of her husband Elizabeth had made a vow of continence in case of his death; the same vow had also been taken by her attendants. | was maintaining her position against her uncle | the remains of her husband were brought to Bamberg by his faithful followers who had carried them from Italy. | Weeping bitterly, she buried the body in the family vault | of the landgraves of Thuringia in the monastery of Reinhardsbrunn. | With the aid of Conrad she now received the value of her dower in money | namely two thousand marks; of this sum she divided five hundred marks in one day among the poor. | On Good Friday, 1228, in the Franciscan house | at Eisenach Elizabeth formally renounced the world; then going to Master Conrad at Marburg, she and her maids received from him the dress of the Third Order of St. Francis, thus being among the first tertiaries of Germany. | summer of 1228 she built the Franciscan hospital at Marburg |and on its completion devoted herself entirely to the care of the sick, especially to those afflicted with the most loathsome diseases. | Conrad of Marburg still imposed many self-mortifications | and spiritual renunciations, while at the same time he even took from Elizabeth her devoted domestics. | | | Constant in her devotion to God | Elizabeth's strength was consumed by her charitable labours, and she passed away at the age of twenty-four, a time when life to most human beings is just opening. | Very soon after the death | of Elizabeth miracles began to be worked at her grave in the church of the hospital, especially miracles of healing. | Master Conrad showed great zeal in advancing the process of canonization | By papal command three examinations were held of those who had been healed: namely, in August, 1232, January, 1233, and January, 1235. | Before the process reached its end, | however, Conrad was murdered, 30 July, 1233. | But the Teutonic Knights | in 1233 founded a house at Marburg, and in November, 1234, Conrad, Landgrave of Thuringia, the brother-in-law of Elizabeth, entered the order. | At Pentecost (28 May) of the year 1235, the solemn ceremony of canonization of the "greatest woman of the German Middle Ages" |was celebrated by Gregory IX at Perugia, Landgrave Conrad being present. | In August of the same year | (1235) the corner-stone of the beautiful Gothic church of St. Elizabeth was laid at Marburg; on 1 May, 1236, Emperor Frederick II attended the taking-up of the body of the saint; in 1249 the remains were placed in the choir of the church of St. Elizabeth, which was not consecrated until 1283. | Pilgrimages to the grave soon increased | to such importance that at times they could be compared to those to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela. | Philip the Magnanimous, Landgrave of Hesse, who had become a Protestant | put an end to the pilgrimages by unjustifiable interference with the church that belonged to the Teutonic Order and by forcibly removing the relics and all that was sacred to Elizabeth. | Nevertheless, the entire German people still honour the "dear St. Elizabeth" as she is called | in 1907 a new impulse was given to her veneration in Germany and Austria by the celebration of the seven hundredth anniversary of her birth. | is generally represented as a princess graciously giving alms to the wretched poor | or as holding roses in her lap; in the latter case she is portrayed either alone or as surprised by her husband, who, according to alegend, which is, however, related of other saints as well, met her unexpectedly as she went secretly on an errand of mercy, and, so the story runs, the bread she was trying to conceal was suddenly turned into roses. | Elizabeth is expounded and as much to say as: My God knoweth her | or she is said the seventh of my God, or the filling of my God. | First, God knoweth her, for he knew her good will and proved it | and he gave to her knowledge of himself. | Secondly, she is said seventh of God | for she had seven things in her; she had the seven works of mercy, or because she is now in the seventh age of them that rest, and to come to the eighth of the general resurrection. | Or for the seven estates that were in her | She was in the estate of virginity, in the estate of marriage, in estate of widowhood, in estate of action, in estate of contemplation, in estate of religion, and she is now in estate glorious. | | | be appertly contained in her legend. | So that it may be said of her like as it is said of Nebuchadnezzar, that is to wit seven times be changed in her. | And also she is said the filling of my God | for God hath filled and replenished her with the resplendour of truth, of sweet savour, and of the vigour of the Trinity, whereof S. Austin saith: She woke in the perdurability of God, she shone in the verity of God, and she enjoyed in the bounty of God. | Elizabeth was daughter of the noble king of Hungary | and was of noble lineage, but she was more noble by her faith and religion than by her right noble lineage. | noble by example, she shone by miracle | and she was fair by grace of holiness, for the author of nature enhanced her in a manner above nature. | When this holy maid was nourished in delices royal | she renounced all childishness, and set herself all in the service of God. | Then it appeared clearly as her tender infancy | enforced in simpless, and began to use good customs from then forthon, and to despise the plays of the world, and of vanities, and flee the prosperities of the world, and always to profit in the honour of God. | For when she was yet but five years old | she abode so ententively in the church for to pray, that her fellows or her chamberers might unnethe bring her thence, and when she met any of her chamberers or fellows, she would follow them toward the chapel as it were for to play, for to have cause to enter into the church. | when she was entered, anon she kneeled down and lay down to the earth | howbeit that she knew not yet any letters; and she opened oft the psalter tofore her in the church for to feign that she read, because she should not be let, and that she should be seen occupied. | when she was with other maidens for to play | she considered well the manner of the game for to give always honour to God under occasion, and in play of rings and other games she set all her hope in God. | of all that she won and had of any part profit when she was a young maid | she gave the tenth to poor maidens, and led them ofttimes with her for to say paternoster or for to salute our Lady. | like as she grew in age by time so grew she by devotion | for she choose the blessed Virgin to be her lady and her advocate, and S. John the Evangelist to be warden of her virginity. | a time there were schedules laid on the altar | and in every schedule was written the name of an apostle, and each of the other maidens took, at all adventure, such a schedule as happed to her. | and thrice she took the same that she desired, | in which was written the name of S. Peter, to whom she had so great devotion that she never warned thing to them that demanded it in his name. | good adventures of the world should not flatter her over much, | she withdrew every day something of her prosperities, and when she took in any game any pleasure, anon she left it, and said she would play no more, but she would say: I leave you the remnant for God's sake. | She went not gladly to karols | but withdrew other maidens from them. | She doubted always to wear jolly clothing, but she used always to have them honest. | She had ordained to say every day a certain number of orisons and prayers, and if she were occupied in any manner that she might not perform them, but that she was constrained of her chamberers to go to her bed, she would there say them, waking. | This holy virgin honoured all the solemn feasts of the year | with so great reverence that she would not suffer her sleeves to be laced till the solemnity of the mass was accomplished, and she heard the office of the mass with so great reverence that when the gospel was read or the sacrament was lifted up, she would take off the brooches of gold and the adornments of her head, as circles or chaplets, and lay them down. | | | when she had kept in innocence the degree of virginity | she was constrained to enter into the degree of marriage, for her father constrained her thereto, because she should bring forth fruit. | howbeit that she would not have been married | yet she durst not gainsay the commandment of her father. | she avowed in the hands of Master Conrad | which was a good man and her confessor, and promised that if her husband died and she overlived him, that she would keep perpetual continence. | to the landgrave of Thuringia | like as the divine purveyance had ordained because she should bring much people to the love of our Lord, and teach the rude people. | howbeit she changed her estate | yet she changed not her will in her thought, and she was of great humility and of great devotion to God, and was towards herself of great abstinence and of great mercy. | was of so right ardent desire of prayer | that she oft went sooner to the church than her meiny, to the end that by her prayers secret she might impetre and get grace of God. | She arose oft by night for to make her prayers, | and her husband would pray her that she would lie and rest her a little. | had ordained that one of her women | which was more familiar with her than another, that if peradventure she were overtaken with sleep, that she should take her by the foot, for to awake her, and on a time she supposed to have taken her lady by the foot, and took her husband's foot, which suddenly awoke, and would know wherefore she did so, and then she told to him all the case, and when he knew it, he let it pass and suffered it peaceably. | because she would render good sacrifice to God | of her prayers, she wetted oft her body with abundance of tears, and let them flow out of her eyes gladly without changing of semblance, so that oft she wept with great sorrow, and she yet enjoyed in God. | of so great humility that | for the love of God, she laid in her lap a man horribly sick, which had his visage stinking like carrion, and she share off the ordure and filth of his head, and washed it, whereof her chamberers loathed and laughed her to scorn. | would in rogation time follow the procession barefoot | and without linen smock, and at the preaching she would sit among the poor people. | would not array her with precious stones, as others, | on the day of Purification of our Lady, ne wear rich vesture of gold, but after the ensample of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she bare her son in her arms and a lamb and a candle, and offered it up humbly. | that the pomp and bobance of the world should be eschewed | and that she conformed her unto the Virgin Mary; and when she came home she gave to some poor women the clothes in which she went to church. | She was of so great humility that by the consenting of her husband she submitted herself in the obedience of Master Conrad, | a poor man and a small, but he was of noble science and perfect religion, and she did with joy and reverence that which he commanded, for to have the merit of obedience, like as God was obedient unto the death. | On a time it happed that she was called for to go to his preaching | and the marquis of Messence came upon her by whom she was let, and might not go thither. | | | Wherefore he held him evil apaid | and would not release her obedience till that she was despoiled to her smock, with some of her chamberers which were culpable, and that he had strongly beaten them. | She did so great abstinence |that at the table of her husband, among the divers meats that were there, she would not eat but bread. | great rigour on herself that she waxed lean |For Master Conrad defended her that she should not touch the meats of her husband of which she should not have a whole conscience. | this commandment with so great diligence, | that when others abounded in delices she ate with her chamberers gross meats. | when she had sore travelled in going | there were brought to her and to her husband divers meats, and were supposed not well gotten of good and just labour, wherefore she refused them and took her refection of a hard brown loaf tempered with water, and for this cause her husband assigned a pension to her, by which she and her chamberers consented for to live by, and her husband suffered all in patience, and said he would gladly do so if he doubted not to anger his meiny. | that was in sovereign glory | desired the estate of sovereign poverty, to the end that the world should have nothing in her, and that she should be poor like as Jesu Christ had been. | was alone with her chamberers, she would clothe her with poor vestments and vile, | and set a poor veil upon her head and said: Thus shall I go when I shall come to the estate of poverty. | yet was she liberal to the poor, | so that she might not suffer that any had misease, but gave to them all largely. | She entended with all her power to the seven works of mercy. | She gave on a time to a poor woman a right good vesture, and when this poor woman saw that she had so noble a gift, she had so great joy that she fell down as dead, and when the blessed Elizabeth saw that, she was sorry that she had given to her so noble a gift, and doubted that she was the cause of her death, and prayed for her, and anon she arose all whole. | span oft wool with her chamberers and made thereof cloth | so that of her proper labour that she gave to the church, she received glorious fruit, and gave good ensample unto others. | On a time when her husband the landgrave was gone to the court of the emperor | which was then at Cremona, she assembled in a garner all the wheat of the year, and administered part to every each that came from all parts, and that time was great dearth in the country, and oft when she lacked money she sold off her adornments for to give to the poor people, but for all that she gave, the garners minished not ne lessed. | do make a great house under the castle | where she received and nourished great multitude of poor people, and visited them every day, and she left not to visit them for any sickness ne malady that they had, but she washed and wiped them with her own hands, howbeit that her chamberers would not suffer it. | yet moreover then she did do nourish in her house poor women's children so sweetly | that they all called her mother. | sepultures for poor people | and went devoutly unto the death of them, and would bury them with her own hands in the clothes that she had made, and ofttimes brought the sheet wherein she lay for to wind the dead bodies therein, and was at the death of them much devoutly. | And among these things the devotion of her husband | was much to be praised, for how well he was occupied in his other things, nevertheless he was devout in the service of God, and because he might not himself entend personally unto his things, he gave full power to his wife in all that should be to the honour or to the health of their souls. | | | blessed S. Elizabeth had great desire that her husband should employ his puissance to defend the faith of God | and advised him, by debonair admonishments, that he should go visit the holy land and thither he went, and when he was there, this devout and noble prince, full of faith and of devotion rendered his spirit unto Almighty God, and so died, receiving the glorious fruit of his works, and then she received with devotion the state of widowhood. | when the death of her husband was published |and known through all Thuringia, some of the vassals of her husband held her for a fool and wastrels of her goods, and threw her out of her heritage. | because her patience were more clear and that she had the poverty |that she long desired, she went then by night into the house of a taverner in the place where the pots lay, and gave great thankings to God. | hour of matins she came into the house of the friars minor | and prayed them that they would give laud and thankings to God for her tribulation. | day following | she came with her little children to a place and into the house of one her enemy, and then was delivered to her a strait place for to dwell in. | she saw that she was much grieved of the host and hostess | then she saluted the walls and said: I should gladly salute the men, but I find them not. | thus she being constrained by necessity | she sent her small children here and there for to be nourished in divers places, and returned herself into the first place. | there was a strait way upon stones and a deep mire under | and full of filth; and as she passed she met an old woman to whom she had done much good tofore, and this old woman would give her no way, so that she fell in the deep mire and filth, and then she arose and scraped her vesture and laughed. | after this, one, her aunt, had great pity of her | and sent her wisely to her uncle, bishop of Bamberg, which received her much honestly, and retained her in entent to marry her again. | when her chamberers heard thereof | which had vowed continence with her, they were passing wrath and wept, and she comforted them and said: I trust in our Lord, for the love of whom I have vowed continence perdurable, that he shall keep me in my purpose and shall take away all violence and shall corrupt all counsel human; and if mine uncle would marry me to any man I shall withstand it to my power and shall gainsay it with words. | if I may not so escape I shall cut off my nose | so that every man shall hate me for my loathliness. | then the bishop did do lead her in a castle against her will, | for to abide there till that some man should demand to have her in marriage. | she commended to our Lord her chastity | all weeping. | our Lord ordained that the bones of her husband should be brought from over sea | and then the bishop made her to come and go devoutly to meet the bones of her husband. | the bones were received of the bishop with right great honour, | and of her with great devotion, and weepings of tears. | | | Sire, I render to thee graces and thankings of this | that I may receive the bones of my sweet husband, and that thou hast vouchsaufed to comfort me, poor caitiff. | I loved him much which loved thee, and Lord, for the love of thee I suffered well his presence. |And I sent him unto the help of the holy land, and I call thee to witness that howbeit that it were a delectable thing to me to live yet with him, so that he were poor and I also a poor beggar through the world; but that against thy will I would not buy him again with a hair, and I would not return again to temporal life. | Lord, I commend me and him into thy grace. | And then she clad her with habit religious and kept perpetual continence after the death of her husband, and obedience performed. | She took wilful poverty | and her clothing was coarse and vile. | wore a russet mantle | her gown of another foul colour, the sleeves of her coat were broken, and amended with pieces of other colour. | Her father, king of Hungary | when he heard that his daughter was come to the estate of poverty, he sent an earl to her for to bring her to her father, and when the earl saw her sit in such a habit and spinning, he cried for sorrow, and said there was never king's daughter that ware such a habit ne seen spinning wool. | when he had done his message and desired to have brought her to her father | she in no wise would accord to it, but had liefer to be needy among the poor people than to abound in great riches with rich people, to the end that she should not be empeshed, but that her will and mind should be always in our Lord. | she prayed our Lord that he would give to her grace to despise all earthly things | and take away from her heart the love of her children, and to be firm and constant against the persecutions. | accomplished her prayer she heard our Lord saying: Thy prayer is heard | And said she to her chamberers: Our Lord hath heard my voice, for I repute all earthly things as dung and filth, and set no more by mine own children than I do by other men's and my neighbours, ne I love none other thing but our Lord. | Master Conrad did to her oft things contrary and grievous | and such things as he saw that she loved, that removed he and took away from her company. | took from her two maidens | her chamberers, beloved among all others, and had been nourished with her from her childhood. | this holy man did this for to break her will | so that she should set all love in our Lord, and to the end that she should not remember her first glory. | In all these things she was hasty for to obey | and constant to suffer, that by patience she might possess her soul, and by obedience to be made fair and ennobled. | dread so much a man mortal | how much more ought I to dread and doubt the heavenly judge. | Therefore I make obedience to Master Conrad, a poor man and a beggar | and not to a rich bishop, because I would put away from me all occasion of temporal comfort. | | | On a time because she went into a cloister of nuns | which prayed her diligently for to visit them, without licence of her master, he beat her so sore therefor that the strokes appeared in her three weeks after, by which she showed to our Lord that her obedience was more pleasing than the offering of a thousand hosties. | Better is obedience than sacrifice | She was of so great humility that she would suffer in no wise that her chamberers should call her lady, but that they should speak and say to her as to the lowest and least of them. | She washed otherwhile the dishes and the vessel of the kitchen | and she hid her otherwhile that the chamberers should not let her, and she would say: If I could find another life more despised I would have taken it; she chose the best. | | | had a special grace to weep abundantly tears, | for to see celestial visions, and for to inflame the hearts of others to the love of God. | On a day of the holy Lent | she was in the church and she beheld ententively the altar like as she had been in the presence divine, and there she was comforted by revelation divine. | then she returned to her house and prophesied of herself | that she should see Jesu Christ in heaven: and anon as she lay down for feebleness in the lap of her chamberer, she began to look up into heaven, and she was so glad that she began debonairly to laugh, and when she had been long joyful she was suddenly turned into weeping, and then she looked up to heavenward again, and anon she returned into her first joy; and when she closed her eyes she began to weep, and in this manner she abode till compline, and had divine visions, and then she was still a while, and said thus after: Lord, wilt thou be with me, and I with thee, ne I will not depart from thee. | these things the chamberers desired her to tell to them | why she had so laughed and wept, and she said: I have seen heaven open and Jesu Christ which inclined him debonairly to me, and I was glad of the vision and wept for to depart from it, and he said to me: If thou wilt be with me, I shall be with thee, and I answered like as ye heard. | Her prayer was of so great ardour that she drew others to good living. | On a time she saw a young man, and she called him to her, and said to him: Thou livest dissoIutely, and thou oughtest to serve God, wilt thou that I pray for thee? | I will well and require it of you desirously | And then she prayed for him, and the young man also prayed for himself, and anon the young man began to cry: Cease ye, lady, and leave off, but she prayed always more ententively, and he began to cry: Cease! lady, cease! for I begin to fail and am all burnt, and he was esprised with so great heat that he sweat and fled, as he had been from himself, so that many ran, which despoiled him for his great heat, and they themselves might unnethe suffer the heat of him. | had accomplished her prayer the young man left his heat | and came again to himself, and by the grace that was given to him he entered into the order of the friars minor, and when he had taken the habit of religion she prayed for him so affectuously that by her fervent prayers she made him that so burned to be cold, and left his dissolute life and took upon him a ghostly and spiritual life. | blessed Elizabeth received the habit of religion | and put herself diligently to the works of mercy, for she received for her dower two hundred marks, whereof she gave a part to poor people, and of that other part she made a hospital, and therefore she was called a wasteress and a fool, which all she suffered joyously. | when she had made this hospital she became herself as an humble chamberer | in the service of the poor people, and she bare her so humbly in that service, that by night she bare the sick men between her arms for to let them do their necessities, and brought them again, and made clean their clothes and sheets that were foul. | the mesels abed | and washed their sores and did all that longed to a hospitaller. | had no poor man she would spin wool which was sent to her from an abbey | and such as she gat whereof she gave to the poor people, and when she had been in much poverty she received five hundred marks of her dowry, which she gave unto the poor much ordinately. | made an ordinance that whosomever removed his place in prejudice of another | when she gave her alms, should have his hair cut off or shorn. | came a maid named Radegonde | which shone by the beauty of her hair, and passed by, not for to have alms, but for to visit her sister which was sick, and she commanded anon that her hair should be cut off, and she wept and gainsaid it. | there was a man which said that she was innocent | Then S. Elizabeth said: Then at the least, said she, she shall swear that she shall no more, because of her hair, go to dances ne karols, ne haunt such vanities. | demanded of her if ever she was disposed or were in purpose to use the way of health | and she answered that if she had not had that fair hair, she had long since taken the habit of religion. | | | I had liefer that thou shouldest lose thine hair than my son were made emperor | And then anon the maid took habit of religion with S. Elizabeth, and finished her life laudably. | When the time approached that God had ordained | that she which had despised the reign mortal should have the reign of angels, she lay sick of the fevers and turned her to the wall, and they that were there heard her put out a sweet melody; and when one of the chamberers had enquired of her what it was, she answered and said: A bird came between me and the wall and sang so sweetly that it provoked me to sing with it. | She was always in her malady glad and jocund, and ne ceased of prayer | The last day tofore her departing, she said to her chamberers: What will ye do if the devil come to you? | And after a little while she cried with a high voice: Flee ! flee! flee ! | like as she had chased away the devil, and after, she said: The midnight approacheth in which Jesu Christ was born; it is now time that God call his friends to his heavenly weddings. | the year of our Lord twelve hundred and thirty-one | she gave up her spirit and slept in our Lord, and though the body lay four days unburied, yet came there no stench from it, but a sweet odour aromatic came, which refreshed all them that were there. | there was heard and seen a multitude of birds | so many that there hath not been seen the like tofore, over the church, and began a song of right great melody, like as it had been the obsequies of her, and their song was: Regnum mundi, which is sung in the praising of virgins. | There was a great cry of poor people | for her and much devotion of people, so that some took a hair of her head, and some a part of her clothes, which they kept for great relics. | her body was put in a monument | which after was found to redound in oil, and many fair miracles were showed at her tomb after her death. | It was well showed in the dying of S. Elizabeth of what holiness she was | as well in the modulation of the bird as in the expulsion of the devil. | That bird that was between her and the wall | and provoked her to sing, is supposed to be her good angel, which was deputed to her, and brought her tidings that she should go to the everlasting joy, and in like wise is showed to cursed men otherwhile their everlasting damnation. | parts of Saxony there was a monk that hight Henry, | which was fallen in so great a sickness that he cried and would suffer no creature to have rest about him in the house. | On a night appeared to him an honourable lady clad in white | which advised him that he should vow him to S. Elizabeth if he would have his health, and the next night she appeared to him in like wise, and then by the counsel of his abbot he made the vow. | third night she appeared to him again and made the sign of the cross upon him | and he then received anon full health and was perfectly whole. | abbot and the prior came to him | they were greatly amarvelled and doubted much the accomplishment of the avow, and the prior said that, ofttimes under the likeness of good cometh illusion of the fiend, and counselled him to be confessed of his avow. | the night following the same person appeared unto him and said | Thou shalt be always sick till thou hast accomplished and fulfilled thine avow, and anon his infirmity took him again and would not leave him. | | | afterwards, by the licence given of his abbot | he accomplished his avow and was made all whole. | There was a maid demanded drink of a servant of her father's | and she gave her drink and said: The devil mayst thou drink, and she drank, and her seemed that fire entered into her body. | began she to cry and her belly to swell like to a barrel, | so that each man saw that she was demoniac, and she was two years in that estate, and after was brought into the tomb of S. Elizabeth, and was made perfectly whole and was delivered of the fiend. | There was one Herman, a man of the diocese of Cologne | which was holden in prison, and he called with great devotion S. Elizabeth unto his help, and the night following she appeared to him and comforted him. | And on the morn sentence was given against him that he should be hanged | and the judge gave licence to his friends to take him down off the gallows, and they bare him away all dead and began to pray S. Elizabeth for hirn, and anon he arose from death to life tofore them all. | A child of four years old was fallen into a pit and drowned | and a man came for to take water and espied the dead child, and he was drawn out, and then they vowed him to S. Elizabeth, and he was anon re-established to his first life and health. | Frederick, a mariner | which was conning in swimming, and on a time baigned him in a water, and he mocked a poor man which S. Elizabeth had enlumined, and given again to him his sight. | This holy lady which hath healed me will avenge me on thee, | so that thou shalt never come out of the water but dead, and anon the swimmer lost all his strength and might not help himself but sank down to the bottom like a stone, and was drowned, and then was drawn out of the water, and forthwith some of his friends avowed him to S. Elizabeth and she gave to him his life again. | a man named Dietrich which was grievously vexed in his knees | and in his thighs, so that he might not go, and he avowed that he should go to the tomb of S. Elizabeth, and was eight days on going thither, and abode there a month, and had no remedy, and went again to his house, and then he saw in his sleep a woman spring water on him, and awoke withal and was angry, and said to her: Wherefore hast thou awaked me and cast water on me? | I have wet thee, and this wetting shall do to thee profit and ease | and then anon he arose all whole and gave thankings to God and to S. Elizabeth. | Then let us pray to her that she pray for us | for such things as shall be for the most profit of our souls. Amen. | traveller who makes his way from the city of Osma to the neighbouring town of Aranda in Old Castile | after cross- ing a barren and undulating plain of vast extent, finds himself about half-way on his route at the entrance of a little village which clusters at the foot of the mountains, whilst somewhat higher up their slope may be seen a huge pile of buildings easily to be recognized as those of a convent. | Among them, together with other more modern erections | there appears a massive square tower of ancient date, surrounded by a court- yard and a little flower garden. | This is all which now remains of the castle of the Guzmans | lords in the twelfth century of the surrounding territory ; and the village is none | destined to a happy immortality as the birthplace of the great Patriarch St. Dominic. | In the large and handsome church attached to the convent, where a community of his religious daughters guard with their prayers what is now one of the holy places of Spain, is shown in front of the sanctuary a square space surrounded by a balustrade, on which a handsome monument has recently been erected. | | | This, which is supposed to mark the exact site of his birth | is called the Ctma, and a crystal well has sprung up on the spot, the water of which is | Alexander III., was born the most illustrious member of a family | not the least noble among the grandees of Spain. | There appears every probability that the ancestors of the Guzmans were oLjaorthern | not of Latin, extraction ; and whilst some adduce proofs of their being originally Visigoths, others are not wanting who claim for them an Anglo-Saxon descent. | To whatever nation we may trace their remote ancestry | it is certain that the house of Guzman amply justified its claims to nobility both of rank and character. | records of the family preserve the memory of a long line of warriors and statesmen | whose names fill an honourable place in the history of their country. | One of these was the gallant knight, Nugno de Guzman | who took part in the siege of Toledo, when that city was recovered from the Moors by Alphonsus VI. | Of his two grandsons, the youngest was Don Felix Guzman | father to our saint, from whose elder brother, Alvar Diaz, descended the main branch of a family allied to many a noble house, and even to the royal blood of Castile. | These alliances, and the privileges granted to the Guzmans by successive sovereigns | are set forth at length in the pages of more than one historian, and need not be repeated here. | But the immediate ancestors of St. Dominic have a claim to our notice | on other and far higher grounds than the nobility of their pedigree. | He was born of a family of saints. | Guzman took in marriage Joanna of Aza, 2 belonging, according to Castiglio, to a noble Castilian family, though Pere Jean de Rechac asserts her claim to be regarded as a daughter of the ducal house of Brittany. | if authorities differ as to the genealogy of Joanna | they one and all agree in bearing testimony to her sanctity, and in our own time she has been formally enrolled among the Blessed of the Order. | Don Felix was not unworthy to be her husband | and the household over which they ruled was so remarkable for its piety and good order, that it was commonly said rather to resemble that of a monastery than of a knightly castle. | Of their three sons, Antonio, the eldest, became a secular priest | and, enamoured of holy poverty, distributed his patrimony to the poor, and retired to a hospital, supposed to have been that of St. Mary Magdalen, attached to the neighbouring monastery of Silos, where he spent the re- mainder of his days humbly ministering to the sick. | Manes, the second son, also embraced the ecclesiastical state | and is said by the historians of Silos to have taken the Benedictine habit in the monastery of Gumiel d'Izan, a filiation from Silos, which afterwards passed into the hands of the Cister- cians. | At a later period, as we shall see, he became one of the first members of the Order of Preachers | By the dedication of both their sons to the service of the sanctuary, Don Felix and his wife were left without an heir to carry on the succession of their family, and desiring greatly to obtain from heaven the gift of yet another son, Donna Joanna resolved to present her petition to God through the intercession of St. Dominic of Silos, a saint at that time renowned throughout Spain by the fame of his miracles. | The monastery of Silos | which stands in the near vicinity of Calaroga, was, at the time of which we write, a majestic pile, the resort of pilgrims from every part of Spain ; and not only the shrine of the saint, but the very gates of the monastery, were thickly covered with votive offerings, | specially with the chains of captives who had recovered their liberty from slavery amongst the Moors | by invoking the saint of Silos. | Time has respected the ancient abbey | which, though shorn of much of its former magnificence, still contains his holy relics, preserved in a silver urn ; and together with them, are shown the chalice used by the saint when celebrating Mass, his abbatial staff, and the little cell where he breathed his last sigh. | rugged mountain road by which the abbey is approached is probably the same as that traversed by Joanna | and the pilgrim may still kneel on the spot where, seven centuries ago, she offered her fervent prayers. | spending not her days only, but her nights also in the church | the hard pavement of which was her only bed. | On the seventh day of the novena the saint appeared to her | and declared to her that her prayers were heard, and that she would become the mother of a son who should be the light of the Church and the terror of heretics. | In gratitude she offered to the saint the child who was to be given her through his intercession | and promised that in memory of this favour he should bear the name of Dominic. | And it is added that before his birth she beheld her son in a dream or vision | represented under the figure of a black and white dog, holding in his mouth a torch which kindled and illuminated the entire world. | thus obtained by prayer seemed marked even from his cradle as specially chosen for the service of God | The noble lady who held him at the font saw, as the water was poured on his head, a brilliant star shining on his fore- head, a circumstance which has been thought worthy of notice in the Breviary Office for his feast | Nor can we resist connecting this well-attested tradition with the beautiful description of his appearance in after-life | given by his spiritual daughter the Blessed Cecilia of Rome, who tells us that " from his forehead, and between his brows, | We read also that whilst still an infant his father | Don Felix, with others of the household, beheld a swarm of bees settle on those lips, which were hereafter so eloquently to declare the Word of God ; and at the same tender age, he was one day found by his nurse lying on the bare ground, though by what means he had left the cradle remained un- explained. | The fact was remembered in after-years | as a token of that love of poverty and mortification which was to mark his future career, and to which Pope Gregory IX. refers in the Bull of his canonization, when he declares him to have waged a life-long war against all the delights of the flesh. | These and other prodigies disposed his parents to regard him as called to no ordinary destiny | and, as in the days of the Baptist, they said one to another, " W T hat manner of child is this, think you ? for the hand of the Lord is surely with him." | In fact, his conduct in those early years seemed to justify the presages which had been formed regarding him | It was^ his happiness to grow up in tfie atmosphere of a holy house- hold, and to receive his first impressions from the teaching and example of a saintly mother, from whom he received two lessons which in after-years bore precious and abundant fruit. | He learnt from her the habit of prayer | and the habit of charity. | with her to daily Mass | at which he assisted with precocious intelligence, in that parish church which still stands, poor and unpretending in its exterior, in much the same condition which it exhibited seven hundred years ago. | And among the scanty notices preserved of her life | is one which reveals her tender love of the poor, whose wants she relieved with so generous a hand as to deserve a special token of Divine approval. | For having distributed in alms all the wine contained in a certain barrel | it was found miraculously refilled. | These lessons were not thrown away on the heart | of the little Dominic. | Never was he seen to' take part in the trifles common to his years. | His recreation was to be taken to the church, where he would repeat the little prayers he had been taught by his mother, and listen with delight to the sacred psalmody. | At an age when reason had not yet fully dawned | he displayed a certain instinctive love of penance. | action reported of him when yet in his cradle | was again and again repeated during his childhood, and he would often rise from his little bed and pass the night on the bare ground. | In the words of Blessed Jordan, "he seemed at once both young and old | for whilst the fewness of his years proclaimed him to be still a child, the sagacity of his demeanour and the steadiness of his character seemed rather to belong to one who had reached maturity." 5 | | | These dispositions filled the hearts of his parents with joy | and thankfulness, and they considered how best to guard the treasure committed to their care, and to cultivate those seeds of Divine grace that had been so liberally sown in his soul. | In those days it was the custom for the sons of noble families | to receive their education, not in their own homes, but as pages in the household of some baron or ecclesiastic. | This education generally began at the age of seven | and it was, therefore, quite in accordance with the manners of the times that at this age Dominic should leave his parents' roof and be placed under other care. | home which they chose for him, | however, was no baronial castle, where he would have been trained in the hall and the tilt-yard, and taught the accomplishments of a perfect knight. | Apparently by his mother's desire | he was sent to the house of her brother, the Parchpriest of the church of Gumiel d'Izan, a town about ^Twenty miles north-west of Calaroga, and the place of sepulture of the family of Guzman. | Under the care of his uncle, a man of great prudence and piety | Dominic began his first studies, and prosecuted them with characteristic ardour. | His whole time was divided between reading, prayer, and the service of the altar | uncle's company, he followed all the offices of the Church, and took great delight in the ecclesiastical chant, the study of which in those days formed almost as essential a branch of liberal education as that of the Latin tongue or grammar. | was also his duty to serve at Mass, and to attend to the care of the sanctuary | and these duties he discharged as a labour of love, bearing himself with wonderful reverence in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, sweeping the chapels, adorning the altars, and joyfully performing every humble office, whilst from time to time he recreated his soul by singing the hymns of the Church. | As he was endowed with an excellent understanding | he made rapid progress in his studies, but did not on that account relax in his exercises of piety. | "If he prayed," says Rechac, | " it was with ardour ; if he studied it was with attention ; if he sang he did so with fervour, and an angelic modesty ; if he conversed it was with humility." | Specially was he observed to shun all that could tarnish the spotless purity of his soul | and in the words of Theodoric, " as a child of election, he guarded innocence, loved cleanness of heart, and preserved good discipline." | Thus seven more happy years passed away | some portion of which, it appears probable, was spent in the neighbouring monastic school of La Vigne, of the Order of Premontre, governed at that time by another of his uncles, Don Dominic Garcia d'Aza, whose tomb is still shown, and bears an inscription declaring him to have had " the incom- parable honour of being the preceptor of St. Dominic, the founder of the Friars Preachers." | But at the age of fourteen it became necessary to consider what further steps should be taken to complete his education | and fit him for his future career. | That a youth of his dispositions should make choice of the ecclesiastical state | could hardly be matter of surprise, nor, in spite of their desire to perpetuate their family, did his parents place any | obstacle in the way of his vocation. | Desiring on the contrary to further it by every means in their power, they / resolved on sending him to Palencia, the public schools of which city were at that time renowned throughout Spain for their excellence, though they did not obtain the privileges of a University till fifteen years later. | | | followed the usual course of rhetoric and philosophy | not omitting several branches of natural science ; but though he applied himself with diligence and success to the acquisition of humane letters, it was with yet greater eagerness that he entered on the study of theology and the Holy Scriptures. | Thirsting after these streams of living water | says Blessed Jordan, " they became sweeter than honey to his mouth." | For the space of four years he gave himself up w r ith such indefatigable ardour | to the pursuit of sacred science, that he deprived himself of sleep, and spent the greater part of the night as well as of the day in study ; and his memory was so retentive that it became a prodigious storehouse of heavenly maxims. | Nor was he content without reducing them to practice | As Blessed Jordan beautifully remarks, " his was one of those blessed souls of whom the Gospels declare that they not only hear the Word of God, but keep it. | And as there are two ways of keeping the Word of God | and a double sanctuary, whereof one is the memory and the other the heart, so the Blessed Dominic was not satisfied with hearing and retaining the Divine Word, but let it penetrate deeply into his soul, until its fruits shone forth in works worthy of salvation." | He was intimately con- vinced that a knowledge of Divine Truth can never be fully | There is some reason for supposing that Joanna had other children born after St. Dominic. | Flaminius speaks of two of his nephews who entered the Order of Preachers | and of a third who, at the age of fifteen, went to Rome to attend the Jubilee of 1200, and lived to return thither at the next Jubilee of 1300, making oath before the reigning Pontiff Boniface VIII. as to the fact of his former visit. | We also read of two other nephews who were present at the great battle against the Moors of Nava los Tolosas | but it is possible that by the name of nephews is to be understood a more distant kinsmanship. | acquired by those who neglect to subjugate the flesh to the spirit | and with this view, for ten years, he never broke the rule he had imposed on himself, when entering the schools, of abstaining entirely from wine. | he took no part in the amusements of his young companions | that he scrupulously avoided the company of women, and that, faithful to the habits of his childhood, he most often took his scanty slumbers on the ground, or even on the cold stones. | It was a thing most marvellous and lovely to behold | says Theodoric of Apoldia, "this man, a boy in years, but a sage in wisdom ; superior to the pleasures of his age he thirsted only after justice ; and not to lose time, he preferred the bosom of his holy mother the Church, to the aimless and objectless life of the foolish world around him. |
| The sacred repose of her tabernacles was his resting- place, his time was equally divided between prayer and study; and God rewarded the fervent love with which he kept His commandments, by bestowing on him such a spirit of wisdom and understanding, as made it easy for him to resolve the most deep and difficult questions." | But among the virtues which he practised | two shone forth with special lustre, his angelic modesty^and his tender ^j com passion for the_oor. | He had early learnt that secret- of the saints, which teaches them to place their innocence under the protection of the Queen of Virgins. | From his childhood upwards, Dominic had showed himself her faithful client and servant. | Some writers assure us that the devotion of the Rosary | If this statement be held as doubtful, we have more authentic assurance of the singular love which he bore for the Angelic Salutation and the Our Father, "which latter prayer," says Bartholomew of Trent, " he never wearied of repeating." | | | Nor did his application to study in any degree interrupt his practices of | devotion, which he very early reduced to rule, having, according to Flaminius, fixed times for prayer and medita- tion. | He was just finishing his course of theology | when an opportunity occurred for manifesting that singular com- passion for every form of suffering with which his heart ( overflowed. | In the year 1191 the whole of Spain was desolated by a terrible famine | felt with peculiar severity in the provinces of Leon and Old Castile. | city of Palencia shared in the general misery | which the citizens showed but little disposition to relieve. | But their languid charity was shamed by the example of our young student | Not content with giving away every- thing he possessed in alms, Dominic, when his money was exhausted, sold his clothes, his furniture, and more precious than all beside, his very books, which as one writer tells us, were commented by his own hand, manu sud glossatos, and distributed the price to the starving multitudes. | To estimate the cost of such a sacrifice | we must remember the rarity and value of manuscripts in the twelfth century. | Yet when his companions expressed astonishment that he should thus deprive himself of the means of carrying on his studies | he replied in words preserved by one of his own followers, and treasured by after-writers as the first from his lips that have come down to posterity. | Would you have me study off these dead skins, when men were dying of hunger ? | So noble an example seems to have kindled the flame of charity in the hearts of those who witnessed it. | professors and students contributed generous alms | the citizens threw open their granaries ; and their united efforts soon relieved the most urgent needs of the sufferers. | A yet more heroic act of charity is recorded by all his biographers | and appears to belong to about the same date. | Finding a poor woman in great distress on account of her son who had been taken captive by the Moors, Dominic, whose funds had been entirely exhausted during the time of | the famine, desired her to sell him and release her son with the price; but needless to say, the generous proposal was not accepted. | example of such a life could hardly fail to make itself felt among his fellow-students | As those who knew him best assure us Dominic possessed in a very high degree that gift by which certain souls communicate themselves to others. | No one ever spoke with him without being better." | No wonder, therefore, that many of his companions were drawn to God through his influence, and among them we are told was a young German student, Conrad d'Urach, who, touched by the Spirit of God, entered the Cistercian Order, of which he eventually became Abbot General. | He was afterwards created a Cardinal and proved himself | as we shall see, a staunch friend and protector of the Order of Preachers. | Dominic's course of studies at the University | lasted ten years, of which six were devoted to the study of arts and four to theology. | | | During this time he seems to have lost both his parents. | The precise date of their death is not recorded, but we know that the bodies of both were interred in the church of the Cistercian monastery of Gumiel, whence in the year 1318 the remains of Blessed Joanna were trans- ported to Penafiel, where the Infant Don John Emmanuel had founded a convent of Friars Preachers attached to his own castle. | A magnificent monument was erected over her place of burial | with an inscription which bears witness to her reputed sanctity : Hie jacent ossa Sancta Joanna uxoris D.D. Felicis de Guzman Patris B. Patriarchs Dominici. Ejus pice memories dicatum a filiis. | THE city of Osma | which in our own day scarcely exceeds ^ the limits of a village, was in the twelfth century a place of no small importance, and was built upon the site of a yet more ancient Roman city, remains of which may still be seen occupying the summit of the hill on the sides of which the modern Osma stands. | No picturesque beauty of any kind marks the neighbourhood | but rather a desolate severity, fitter to nurture its inhabitants in habits of labour and austerity than to prove a home of luxury or the arts. | At the time to which our history belongs however | Osma, besides its importance as a frontier city, was about to become the centre of a noteworthy ecclesiastical reform. | In 1194 its see was filled by Don Martin de Bazan, a prelate of eminent holiness | and most zealous for the restoration of Church discipline. | Following the plan then adopted in ^most European countries | to which moreover he was strongly urged by the recommendation of Pope Alexander III., he had engaged in the difficult task of converting the canons of his cathedral into Canons Regular, an arrangement by which they became subject to stricter ecclesiastical discipline and community life. | In this labour he was greatly assisted by one whose name will ever have a peculiar interest | to the children of St. Dominic Don Diego de Azevedo, the first prior of the reformed chapter, who afterwards succeeded Don Martin in the episcopal see of Osma. | Noble by birth | he was no less distinguished by the sanctity of his life. | "Loving God above all things," | says Theodoric, " he | counted himself as nothing, and thought only how to gain the greatest number of souls to Christ." | The name of Dominic and the reputation no less of his holiness than of his learning were naturally well known both to the bishop and to Diego, who determined to secure him, if possible, as a member of the new community, not doubting that his influence and example would powerfully assist their efforts ' at reform. | In his twenty-fifth year | therefore, 1 Dominic received the habit of the Canons Regular, the white tunic and linen rochet, over which in choir a black mantle was also worn ; and as he thus outwardly assumed the livery of religion, so did he clothe himself inwardly with the new man in Christ Jesus. | Together with the Rule of St. Augustine | he embraced all the observances of religious life ; and the influence of his character was so soon felt and appreciated by his brethren, that though the youngest among them, he was shortly afterwards elected Subprior, an office which included the duties of archdeacon. | In this position Dominic applied himself without delay to acquire the virtues | proper to his state, that he might himself follow the way of per- fection he was required to teach to others. | It was with this purpose, that choosing for his authority | the pure wells of antiquity, he took for his text-book the Conferences of Cassian; not reading them alone, but entering into their very pith and savour, and learning from them the precious secrets of the spiritual life. | | | The foundations of that life he placed in humility, omitting no means whereby | might ground himself in that queen of virtues. " | In lowliness of heart he esteemed others better than himself: on the canons, his colleagues, he lavished every mark of veneration and respect, and regarding himself as the last of all, he showed himself ever ready to take the lowest place." | J Blessed Jordan of Saxony has left us a beautiful picture of his manner of life at this period. | " Now it was," he says, " that he began to appear among his brethren like a bright burning torch | the first in holiness, the last in humility, spreading about him an odour of life which gave life and a perfume like the sweetness of summer days. | Day and night he was in the church | praying as it were without ceasing. | God gave him the grace to weep for sinners and for the afflicted | he bore their sorrows in an inner sanctuary of holy compassion, and so this loving compassion which pressed on his heart, flowed out and escaped in tears. | It was his custom to spend the night in prayer | and to speak to God with his door shut. | But often there might be heard the voice of his groans | and sighs, which burst from him against his will. | His one constant petition to God was for the gift of a true charity | for he was persuaded that he could not be truly a member of Christ unless he consecrated himself wholly to the work of gaining souls, following the example of Him, Who sacrificed Himself without reserve for our redemption." | Theodoric tells us that these fervent prayers were accompanied by practices of penance so severe | that they had to be moderated by his superiors. " | He macerated his body by fasts and prolonged abstinence | so as hardly to take what sufficed for the support of nature. | He neither ate flesh-meat with the canons his brethren, nor refused it, but was accustomed to hide it in the food. | In compassion for his weakness the venerable Bishop Diego obliged him to resume the use of wine from which he had abstained for ten years ; but though he obeyed, he took it only in small quantities and largely diluted with water." | of holiness over the cloisters of Osma. | The stall he occupied in the choir is still religiously shown, and as a mark of vene- ration is never occupied by any of the canons ; and his cell is likewise preserved, wherein it is said, may yet be discerned traces of the blood shed in his nightly disciplines. | during the period of his life at Osma | Dominic was engaged in a variety of apostolic labours, and preached in many parts of Spain, and even of France. | testimony of his earliest biographers is express | that he was rarely seen outside the walls of his monastery. | Nevertheless as the words above quoted from Blessed Jordan abundantly testify | he was already consumed by that noble passion for souls which was to set its seal and impress on his after-career. " | | | His zeal for perishing souls," says Theodoric, | was a continual and painful wound in his heart, for God had given to him the gift of a perfect charity." | Even at this early period, | we read that he had conceived the project of going one day to preach the faith to the Cuman Tartars, then ravaging the fold of Christ in Hungary and the neighbouring countries. | Diego, to whom in the confidence of friendship he revealed his design | not only encouraged him, but even desired to take part in the glorious enterprise. | In the silence of the cloister | the Subprior of Osma was in fact being trained for his future apostolate. | And in this, as in so many other respects | he resembled his great master and model, St. PatdJ who prepared in the deserts of Arabia to carry the Word of God before the Gentiles, 5 and whose writings and example, we know from certain evidence, he had early made his favourite study. | Theodoric tells us that he was profoundly versed in every part of the Sacred Scriptures | whether of the Old or New Testament, but that his favourite portions were the Gospel of St. Matthew and the Epistles of St. Paul, | which he studied so constantly as to know them almost by heart | Not only the doctrine, but the character of the great Apostle touched a responsive chord within his soul : on that model he seems to have shaped his whole idea of an apostolic life ; and during those nine years of hidden communing with God it cannot be doubted that precious seeds were sown which needed but the Divine call to ripen into action. | immediate circumstances which led the way to his entering on a more active career | did not seem of a kind from which any vast results might have been anticipated. | In 1203, Don Diego, who had succeeded to the bishopric of Osma a few years previously, | was selected by Alphonsus VIII., King of Castile, to negotiate a marriage for his eldest son, as it is commonly said, with a princess of Denmark. | Consider- able doubt, however, hangs over the accuracy of this state- ment | As a fact, neither Blessed Jordan, nor Theodoric of Apoldia, make any mention whatever either of the princess or of Denmark. | former says that the King desired a marriage between his son Ferdinand and a certain noble lady of the Marches | quandam nobilem de M archils. | Theodoric omits all reference to the marriage | and simply says that Diego was sent as ambassador to the Marches on the King's affairs. | precise locality indicated by these words is generally acknowledged to be obscure | Bernard Guidonis, who lived in the beginning of the fourteenth century, seems to have been the first to suggest Denmark as thus signified, and speaks of the travellers as in Marchias, sive in Dacia pro- fixiscens ; and this interpretation has been accepted by several later writers. | A much simpler and more probable explanation | however, is offered by Pere Jean de Rechac, who suggests on the authority of a MS. history in the Convent of St. James, of Paris, that the Marches were those of Limousin ; in other words, the territory of the powerful Hugh de Lusignan, who at that time reigned as Count de la Marche, and whose alliance might suitably have been sought by the Castilian monarch. | Diego chose for his | associate in the embassy thus imposed on him, his Subprior Dominic, between whom and himself there had grown up that perfect friendship which is based on an intimate sympathy, the links of which are made fast by union in God. | They burned with the same zeal for the house of God | and the same ardent desire for the salvation of souls. | And the Holy Spirit having filled both with His grace | He chose them for a ministry in which they suspected nothing of the designs of Divine Providence. | left Spain in the year 1203, and crossing the \ i/ 1 Pyrenees, | entered Languedoc, then governed by the Counts of Toulouse, \vhose feudal sovereignty extended over the greater part of the Narbonnese provinces. | must be borne in mind how entirely the condition of the country differed | politically, from that existing in our own day. | A large portion of the land we now call France, was then divided among a number of petty princedoms, independent in all save their | feudal subjection to the crowns of France or Aragon. | Toulouse, Foix, Beziers | and Cominges, were each governed by their own counts ; the kings of Aragon were feudal sovereigns over considerable dominions at the mouth of the Rhone, whilst an immense territory, stretching from Nor- mandy to the Western Pyrenees, was still subject to the English Crown. | At the particular period to which our history belongs | these southern provinces were, from various causes, in a | state of social disorder, which made a journey through the | midst of them an undertaking of no little danger. | Their rulers were generally engaged in petty wars one against -i another. | " Armagnac, Cominges, Beziers, and Toulouse," says Michelet, "were never in agreement save when there was question of making war upon the Church." | And he goes on to draw a frightful picture of the moral depravation both of princes and people | Moreover, these same provinces had been for many years wasted by the Manichean heretics, | known in these parts by the name of Albigenses | who aimed equally at the overthrow of Christian faith and morals, and of all social order. | Of them and of their history, we shall have more to say in future chapters | but it was on the occasion of this memorable journey that the character and extent of this terrible heresy first came under the notice of Diego and his companion. | With their own eyes they beheld the fair plains of Languedoc | through which they journeyed, reduced to the condition of a desert and covered with the ruins of churches and abbeys. | Nor was the material desola- tion of the country the worst of its afflictions | Throughout many districts the faith had all but disappeared, the sacra- ments of the Church were despised and rejected, and a horrible corruption of manners everywhere prevailed. | zeal for God which filled both their hearts, kindled at the spectacle | and though the business on which they were then engaged, did not permit them at that time to undertake any apostolic labours, yet they received an impression which was never effaced, and which was strengthened by an incident that occurred at Toulouse, where they stopped for a night on their journey. | This city was in fact the stronghold of the heretics | and from its bosom the infection had spread through all the surrounding provinces. | where the travellers lodged | was kept by a man belonging to the 4 sect of the Albigenses ; and when Dominic became aware of the fact, he resolved to attempt the rescue of at least this one soul. | time was short | but their conference was prolonged through the hours of the night ; when morning dawned the winning eloquence of his unknown guest had conquered the obduracy of the heretic, and before they left his house he made his submission and was received back into the bosom of the Church. | A troubadour of Picardy | who in the thirteenth century chose the history of St. Dominic as the subject of a poem, has not failed to seize on this incident as worthy of special record, and describes the conversion of the heretic in spirited words : | "This," says Theodoric | "was the first sheaf which our saint gathered in the field of the Lord," a precious foretaste of the glorious harvest that was to follow, and, according to the historian, Bernard Guidonis, the saint from that moment conceived in his heart the project of founding an Order which should have for its object the salvation of souls by the ministry of preaching. | On reaching the end of their journey | the two envoys were able to bring the negotiations to a happy issue, and returning to Castile, made known to the King the success of their mission. | On the receipt of this intelligence they were once more despatched to the Marches | accompanied this time with a numerous retinue, and charged with the mission of conducting the young bride back with them to Spain. | | | But on reaching her father's court, | they found their embassy brought to an unexpected conclusion by the death of the princess after a short illness. | Death, the enemy of all men, | says the troubadour poet already quoted, " death, who spares no one, neither old nor young, had not spared the young maiden, so young, so rich, and so beautiful." | Thus released from their charge | the two envoys resolved before returning to Spain to make the pilgrimage to Rome. | object of the bishop in undertaking this journey | was two-fold. | He hoped in the first place to obtain leave from the Pope | to resign his bishopric ; and after that to carry out the plan long cherished by himself and his companion of preaching the faith to the heathen nations of the North. | Very few particulars have been preserved of this first visit of our saint to Rome | where the chair of St. Peter was then filled by Pope Innocent III. | We only know that Diego's | earnest entreaty for release was not granted, the Pope being too well aware of his value to deprive the Church of so zealous a pastor. | Nor did he show himself more favourable to the bishop's other request | that he might be sent as a missionary to the Cuman Tartars. | Whilst applauding his generous intentions, Innocent required him to sacrifice the wish that lay so close to his heart, | and once more bow his back to the burden of the episcopate. " | In these events | says Theodoric, "the wisdom of God had so directed all things, that the pious desires of the bishop were granted, not, indeed, in the manner he had sought, but according to the good pleasure of the Lord ; and Diego, by directing his steps to return to Spain, carried with him the grace both of obedience and charity." | In the course of this visit Brother Dominic became for the first time known to the Pontiff | and several of the Cardinals, who quickly discerned the great qualities which lay concealed under his modest exterior. | In particular, it seems certain | that the seeds were at this time laid of the friendship which afterwards so closely united him with the Cardinals Savelli and Ugolino, both of whom were destined, as we shall see, to lend their powerful support to the great work awaiting him in the future. | two pilgrims made but a brief stay in Rome | but before returning to Spain, they agreed to turn out of their road to visit the great abbey of Citeaux, the mother-house of the Cistercian Order, which at that time held the first place in public esteem, and exercised a wide influence throughout the Church. | They arrived at Citeaux in the spring of the year 1205 | and were received with the noble hospitality which formed part of the Cistercian Rule. | Not to speak of the welcome which would naturally be afforded to guests | who bore so plainly the character of servants of God, the apostolic spirit with which both of them were animated, was one which just then found a warm response at Citeaux. | | | At this particular time the Cistercian Order | had been chosen by the Sovereign Pontiff to bear the brunt of the struggle with the Albigenses ; | and Arnold, Abbot of Citeaux, | had been associated with other ecclesiastics whom Innocent appointed as his Legates for the purpose of taking such measures as might be necessary for checking the further spread of that heresy. | Diego and Dominic, therefore, | were received with open arms, not merely as holy religious, but as apostolic men thirsting for a yet wider field in which they might labour for the salvation of souls. | Yet in spite of the strong attraction with which he felt drawn to missionary labours | the sweet odour of monastic discipline which still flourished in full vigour within the walls of Citeaux, powerfully captivated the heart of Diego ; and following the example which had been set some years previously by our own martyred prelate, St. Thomas of Canterbury, he begged and obtained per- mission to assume the Cistercian habit. | Doubtless the failure of his deeply cherished plans had been no little pain to the Bishop of Osma | and his return to his diocese was a hard obedience. | He was suffering under that thirst to strip himself of the world | which sometimes attacks the soul at the very time when it bows to the law that forces it back to the world's duties. | Very willingly would he have remained at Citeaux, | and begun his novitiate in that school of holy living ; but as this could not be, he contented himself with taking the habit of the Order, and soliciting that he might carry some of the religious back with him to Spain, to learn from them their rule and manner of life. | Some authors represent St. Dominic also as having taken the Cistercian habit | by way of devotion, while others affirm that he visited the Grande Chartreuse, and applying to be received there as a monk, was refused admission by the General of the Order, who dismissed him with the words, " Go, for thou art called to greater things." | Of this latter statement we find no trace in any authentic history | but it is certain that the saint always retained a very special tie with the Cistercian brethren, and that his friendship with the Order was continued by his immediate followers. | Their stay at Citeaux does not appear to have been of any long duration | and at its close they set forth once more | on their homeward journey | accompanied by some of the Cistercian brethren. | Taking the route southwards | by the banks of the Rhone, they reached Montpelier some time in the summer of I2o6. | And there, as we shall frequently see | they found the will of God awaiting them in unlooked-for circumstances, which were destined clearly to reveal to our saint his sublime and apostolic vocation. | BEFORE proceeding further in our history | it will be necessary to present the reader with some account of the celebrated heresy, whose followers, under the various titles of Bulgarians, Patarins, Cathari, or Albigenses, waged an unceasing con- flict with the Church, specially throughout the twelfth and """I thirteenth centuries. | One and all, by whatever name they/ were known in popular parlance | were offshoots of that great sect of the Manicheans which from the earliest period of its existence had shown itself the most deadly enemy of the Church of Christ. | Oriental in its origin | it had gradually worked its way from Bulgaria (where great numbers of a branch of the sect known as Paulicians had settled in the ninth century) up the valley of the Danube, into Swabia, whence its doctrines gradually spread into the north of Italy and the south of France. | As a fact, the Manicheans Jiad no claim to be regarded as | Their doctrines, to use the words of Pere Danzas, " were the complete and radical negation of all Christian dogma." | | | This assertion is fully in accordance with the judgment of certain Protestant historians | who, nevertheless, have undertaken to be their apologists. | . Schmidt, Lutheran Professor of the University of Strasburg | and the learned author of the History of the Cathari or A Ibi- genses, frankly confesses that their teaching undermined the very foundations of Christianity. | In fact, he says, " Catharism cannot even be called a Christian heresy.” | To this testi- mony we may add that of the very latest writer on the subject, also a Protestant. Mr. Henry Charles Lea, in his | History of the Inquisition (1888) says of the Albigensian heresy that | "it was based on a faith that can scarcely be called Christian," and that " it threatened the permanent existence of Christianity itself." | correctness of these statements will not be called in question | by those who have any real acquaintance with the teaching of the sect. | for the purposes of concealment | made use of formulas in which occur fragments of Catholic terminology, it was only to clothe with them ideas and doctrines utterly subversive of the Christian dogmas. | They denied both the Unity and Trinity of God, | both the Divinity and Humanity of Jesus Christ ; they rejected the sacraments of the Church and her Divine authority. | To the fundamental article of the Christian faith, | which acknowledges one God, the Creator of all things, visible and invisible, they opposed their belief in two co- eternal principles, one, the good principle who was the Creator of spirits, the other the principle of evil, who was the Creator of matter, and whom they blasphemously identi- fied with the God of the Old Testament, the inspiration of which, it is needless to say, they rejected. | If in words they professed to believe in Father, | Son, and Holy Ghost, these terms by no means implied any admission of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. | The Son and the Holy Ghost were | in the Albigensian creed, angelic spirits, of whom the first- named assumed only the appearance of mortal flesh. | Their belief in the essential evil of matter caused them to shrink with abhorrence | from the idea of the union of the Divine and Human Nature in one Person. | equally caused their rejec- tion of all the sacraments | in which the Church makes use of material elements as sensible and efficacious signs of invisible grace. | These, in the eyes of the neo-Manicheans | were diabolic inventions, and in the ceremony of initiation the neophyte was required to renounce his Baptism, using terms of execration in speaking of the baptismal water, or holy chrism ; and at the same time utterly to abjure the faith of the Church of Rome. | By a strictly logical consequence of their theory on the creation of matter | they regarded the Holy Eucharist with sentiments of peculiar horror, which | they manifested by most shocking profanations. | But this was not all. | | | Out of the dualism | which may be regarded as the central doctrine of the sect, they proceeded to draw conclusions which struck at the root of all morality. | Evil of all kind being inherent in matter created by the Evil Principle | the soul of man created by the Good Spirit was not to be held responsible for any deeds committed by the body in which it had become accidentally imprisoned. | freedom of the will to choose between good and evil was altogether denied | those who claimed to inflict punishment for breaches of the laws of God and man, were denounced, therefore, as impostors and tyrants ; and thus all authority, whether civil or ecclesiastical, which aimed at the repression of crime, was systematically set at nought. | Nor were these doctrines held in theory only | they were most rigorously reduced to practice. | Whilst some, to deliver their souls from the evil dominion of matter | held suicide to be not only lawful but even meritorious, the larger number applied the principle in a freer manner by permitting themselves every kind of licence. | Their condemnation of the institution of marriage | which formed a prominent article of their code, struck at the root of all social morality; it destroyed the very existence of the family, while at the same time it imposed no restraint whatever upon the passions. | theoretic contempt of authority issued in the practice of a lawlessness | which made the existence of the sect no less dangerous to the State than it was hostile to the Church. | And inasmuch as nothing material could contribute to the sanctification of the soul, | it followed that churches, altars, and images should be swept away as unworthy of the votaries of a wholly spiritual worship. | In this enumeration of the Albigensian doctrines | we have purposely omitted many blasphemous tenets held by them regarding the Sacred | Humanity, as well as their shocking utterances concerning the Blessed Virgin | and the saints. | All the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Law | were in their judgment lost souls, while they held St. John the Baptist in peculiar horror, and declared him to be one of the chief devils. | To what extent these principles were carried out | and with what success, we may have occasion to show hereafter ; suffice it here to say that the condition of those districts which fell under the power of the Albigenses differed little from that of countries that had been ravaged by heathen barbarians. | None of the externals of Christian worship were left in existence. | " I have seen," wrote Stephen, Abbot of St. Genevieve, who was sent to Toulouse as envoy from the King of France, " I have seen churches burnt and ruined to their foundations ; I have seen the dwellings of men changed into the dens of wild beasts." | But the Albigensian heresy was not merely subversive of existing institutions | it had its positive as well as its negative features. | If all other rites were to be abolished | in their place was substituted the one pseudo-sacrament of the Con- solamentum, which seems to have consisted in the imposition of hands, and recital of the Pater noster by one of the perfect. | | | word requires explanation | and introduces us to an important feature of the sect, its division, namely, into two grades, those of the simple believers, and of the fully initiated or perfect. | first class comprised the great body of members | who were subject to few or no obligations, and for whom it sufficed that in the article of death they should receive the Consolamentum, which secured to the recipient eternal life without the necessity either of repentance or satisfaction. | second and much smaller class | was that of the perfect, or fully initiated. | These formed a kind of religious order, made profession of a rigid asceticism | abjured marriage, 2 and the use, not only of meat, but of eggs, cheese, and anything which had life. | Whilst the supposed austerity of their lives secured for them the adulation of the multitude | there is ample evidence that it was practically but a cloak 2 i Tim. iv. 3. | for licentiousness which from its very turpitude must escape popular exposure | The rigorism of their professions did but precipitate them into a lower depth of infamy. | Nor will this appear surprising to any who are acquainted with that fatal law | which again and again reveals itself in the history of false mysticism, the doom which seems to attach to every system of asceticism not based on Catholic teaching, in virtue of which those who in the spirit of pride would fain be supposed to lead the lives of angels, too commonly fall below the level of brutes. | The influence exercised by the perfect over the rest | of the sect was all but unlimited. | could not be otherwise | when we remember that in their hands was supposed to rest exclusively the power of consoling, or, in other words, of securing the eternal salvation of the believers. | unhappy men | says Stephen of Bourbon, a contemporary writer of great accuracy, "following the example of their master, Manes, who gave himself out to be the Paraclete, claim also for themselves the title of consolers. | They pretend to give the Holy Spirit to a crowd of persons | stained with every crime, on the sole condition that these persons should prostrate and adore them, 3 and receive from them the imposition of hands, exacting from them no kind of reparation either in act or promise, nor any sort of satis- faction." | If the perfect who formally engaged themselves to a life of extravagant austerity | did not thereby escape from the infection of the most shocking disorders, it will not be difficult to conjecture what must have been the result of the Manichean doctrines on the multitude who were bound by no engagements at all, and whose prominent articles of belief effaced the very notions of sin and of moral responsi- bility. | Without staining our pages with repulsive details | it is sufficient to say that the facts of history fully justify a | contemporary writer who was perfectly well informed in the matters | of which he speaks, when he declares the actions perpetrated by the followers of the Albigensian heresy to have been too loathsome and horrible for description. | Nevertheless the utmost difficulty was found in convicting those accused of such crimes | for not only was it the custom of the heretics to make use of evasions and sophisms under examination, but there existed among them what we may call the discipline of the secret, in virtue of which those fully initiated, whether in the doctrine or practices of the sect, were bound even to perjure themselves rather than to reveal these secrets to the uninitiated. | | | question naturally suggests itself how a sect | the tendency of whose doctrines was destructive of all social order, could successfully establish itself in a Christian country, and obtain the support, if not the actual adhesion, of many among its rulers. | chief reason will probably e found in the grievous decay of manners | which prevailed in those provinces which were the principal seat of the heresy. | people of Languedoc and Provence, descended from Gallo-Roman ancestors | had nothing of the robustness either of Franks or Normans. | They boasted, indeed, of their Roman refinement and superior culture | but it is needless to remind the reader what was the character of the later Imperial civilization. | In its more modern form it found expression | in the licentious literature of the troubadours, and in those famous tribunals presided over by noble ladies, themselves adepts in the gaie science, who did not blush to publish decrees in which the most ordinary laws of decency and morality were set at defiance. | a significant fact that the Proven9al troubadours | never found admittance in the Court of St. Louis, and that he permitted none of his family to hold intercourse with them. | Nor was the chivalry of the Narbonnese provinces of better repute than their literature. | There, courage in the field and fidelity | to his plighted word were by no means necessary charac- teristics | of the belted knight, nor did the want of these qualities earn for him any special mark of contempt. | elsewhere an extravagant adherence | to the point of honour led to many grievous excesses, among too many of the nobles of Southern France, the virtue of honour was rather con- spicuous by its absence. | Worse than all and doubly fatal | in its consequences, the prevailing vices of sloth and effeminacy had invaded the ranks of the clergy themselves. | At a time when the northen dioceses of France | were blest with a succession of saintly pastors whose vigilance was ever on the watch against false doctrine and evil customs, prelates like Raymund de Rabastens, Bishop of Toulouse, or Beranger, Archbishop oi Narbonne, were bringing dis- grace on their sacred dignity, and giving an example of every kind of disorder to the inferior clergy. | Among these such laxity prevailed that the mime of cleric | was held in contempt, and ecclesiastics were ashamed to exhibit the tonsure or other marks of their calling. | Again and again do we find the Roman Pontiffs | bitterly complaining of these scandals, which they strove by ail means to chastise and correct. | Beranger, after repeated warnings | was finally deposed from his see by Pope Innocent III., whose tremendous denunciations of the luxury, the avarice, and the culpable negligence of the clergy may be read in his letters. | Full fifty years previously St. Bernard had made the same complaints | and not only lamented that the faith should find among the clergy but few defenders (paucitas defendentium), but that certain priests and bishops should even be bought over to make disgraceful compacts with the heretics. | | | evil had not diminished with time | and at the beginning of the thirteenth century the faithful pastors in these infected provinces were largely outnumbered by those who betrayed their trust. | That a sect which avowedly defied the secular as well as the ecclesiastical authorities | should find favour among the rulers of the country is a paradox to which, however, the political aspect of our own times would furnish a parallel. | Among men addicted to every licence the Manichean code of morals | was acceptable enough, while there was every temptation to take part with the heretics when there was question of the spoliation of the Church. | Whilst some, therefore, did not shrink from openly joining their ranks | a yet greater number contented themselves with secretly en- couraging them, in the seeming persuasion that they could turn the general state of disorder and revolution to their own advantage without absolutely committing themselves as the partisans of heresy. | Hence there arose among them a disloyal system | of double-dealing and hypocrisy. | Many of these Narbonnese nobles | made it their practice, to use a common phrase, to run with the hare and to hunt with the ''""hounds. | Catholic Christianity | was in those days too much the public law of Christendom for it to be altogether safe openly to disown the faith. | When therefore Papal Legates or royal envoys expostulated | with these men for their negli- gence in repressing the disorders of the heretics, their protestations of orthodoxy and their promises to see to the execution of the laws were officiously loud and prompt. | Only when it came to the fulfilment of their pledges | they had recourse to those shifts and evasions which exhibit them as masters in the art of equivocation. | Thus princes like Raymund Roger, | Count de Foix, were able to retain the name of Catholic while forming alliances of marriage with the heretics, and countenancing the heretication, as it was called, of their wives, sisters, and daughters. | Yet their close connection with the sect | did not prevent their withdrawing their protection, or even taking up arms against it whenever this suited their safety or their convenience. | The double- sided bad faith | thus displayed by the noble patrons of the Albigenses makes the task of the historian one of no small difficulty. | very men who appear at one time among their staunch supporters | are to be found at another among the ranks of their opponents. | | | In the case of Raymund V., Count of St. Gilles and Toulouse | for many years a pro- minent champion of the Albigenses, we may however infer that his change of policy was dictated by a sincere though | tardy conviction of the dangerous tendency of the sect | In the year 1177 we find him writing to the Abbot and Chapter- General of Citeaux a letter in which he gives a picture of the condition of affairs which, coming from his pen, may safely be trusted as free from exaggeration. | he writes | " has gained over even priests ; churches are ruined and abandoned ; the creation of man, the resurrection of the flesh, and every sacred mystery is rejected ; Baptism is refused, Penance despised, and the Holy Eucharist held in abomination. | Yet no one dreams of opposing these wretches | For myself I am ready to employ against them the sword that God has given me, but the forces at my command are not sufficient, as many of my nobles are them- selves infected with these errors. | I have recourse, therefore | to you for advice and your prayers. | Spiritual arms are not enough | the temporal sword is also needed, and for this purpose I am resolved to appeal to the King of France that his presence may put an end to these abuses." | In the following year the Kings of France and England | did actually undertake to proceed in person, and drive out the heretics from Toulouse and the surrounding provinces ; but before unsheathing the temporal sword it was agreed at the urgent request of Pope Alexander III. to try the effect of gentler measures, and Papal Legates were appointed to visit the disturbed districts and to bring about, if possible, the return of the population into the bosom of the Church. | narrative of their labours | as given at length by Roger Hovedcn, is sufficiently interesting ; we will only briefly state that Peter Moran, the chief leader of the heretics, was received to penance, and sent to serve the sick at Jerusalem, while two false teachers, who after repeated tergiversations refused to confirm by oath their pretended recantation, were excommunicated and driven into exile; and these judicial sentences, not certainly extreme in their severity, were followed by the submission of great numbers of the heretics. | Meanwhile the Count of Toulouse | and the other feudal nobles solemnly swore in the presence of all the people to lend no support in future to the Albigenses, but to act in | concert with the ecclesiastical authorities | in firmly repressing their encroachments. | How far these engagements were kept | we shall have occasion to show hereafter. | But it is important to notice that throughout the whole of these transactions | it is from secular princes, the Count of Toulouse, and the Kings of England and France, that the proposal comes to oppose the Albigenses with the power of the sword. | They are / roused to the necessity of action by the danger which | threatens society, the very foundations of which are being | Family ties are being destroyed by the condem- nation of marriage | The moral law is set at nought, and the rights of property are abolished. | To carry on their war of spoliation, the Albigensian leaders | do not hesitate to employ the armed bands of infamous brigands known as Cottereaux 5 or Routiers, who lay waste churches, towns, and villages, and commit sacrileges and profanations of the most appalling kind. | | | secular rulers offer to use their armed authority | for the preservation and defence of society from the attacks of these new barbarians, and themselves appeal to the Church for aid and sanction. | action of the Church is to suspend the uplifted sword, | and to substitute for armed repression the labours of her legates and envoys, who succeed in reclaiming a great number of the heretics, whilst the severest punishment decreed against those who remain obstinate seems to have consisted of spiritual censures , and exile. | Throughout this history | it is abundantly manifest that the action of the Church was on the side of mercy and | moderation, and that the appeal to arms proceeded | in the first instance, from the secular rulers. | lawfulness of such an appeal was recognized | by the rulers of the Church. | Third Council of Lateran | which was summoned by Pope Alexander III. in 1179, chiefly directed its canons against many abuses existing among the clergy ; but it did not fail to take notice of the dangers threatened to society by the spread of the heresy which had established its head- quarters in the Narbonnese provinces. | terms in which it does so are worthy of notice | as recognizing the lawfulness and necessity of seeking aid from the temporal power for the repression of a sect dangerous to the safety of society. | Cathari are anathematized together with their abettors and protectors | and with them are associated their sworn allies the Cottereaux, or brigands, who exist under various names, and ravage the unhappy provinces over which they roam. | A terrible picture is drawn of their crimes | and excesses, and the faithful are called on for the remission of their sins valiantly to oppose these monsters, and defend society from their assaults. | Indulgences are granted to those who respond to this appeal | and the Church extends to them her protection "as to those who have taken up arms for the defence of the Holy Sepulchre." | In this concluding canon of the Council, | which recognizes the principle of an appeal to the secular arm, we see the germ of later action on the part of the Holy See ; and the whole narrative throws important light on that great struggle between the Church and the Albigensian heresy which occupies so large a space in the history of the following century. | Admirably as the pacific measures hitherto adopted had _ been intended | they totally failed in their effects. | The 1 apparent submission of the heretics to the Papal Legates | lasted as long as they remained in the country, and no longer ; and the severer decrees of the Council found none to put them into execution. | During the period from the death of Alexander III. | in 1181 to the election of Innocent III. in 1198, no fewer than six Popes filled the chair of St. Peter, their deaths rapidly succeeding one another, and leaving no | time for the prosecution of any vigorous measures of govern | It was, moreover, a season of mourning for the whole Church, for Saladin was making head against the Christians \ in the Holy Land, and in 1187 came the fatal news which \ thrilled the heart of Christendom with anguish, of the defeat _of Tiberias and the capture of Jerusalem. | Pope Urban III. died~oT grief | his successor, Gregory VIII., survived his election but six weeks. | In the universal consternation troubles with the Albigenses claimed less attention | and they took advantage of the truce thus obtained to strengthen their position. | The accession of Innocent III. opened a brighter chapter in the history of the Church, | and in that solicitude, which overlooked no portion of the flock confided to his care, the alarming progress of the heretics both in France and Italy did not escape his vigilant eye. | By this time, Hurter assures us on the authority of Pope Innocent's letters | that the heresy had infected nearly a thousand cities ; it had been openly embraced by the majority of the nobles in the south of France, and even by some abbots and canons ; it was protected and connived at by man}'- great feudal lords, and was spreading rapidly in northern Italy. | Innocent directed his first efforts to the reform of the Narbonnese clergy | whose culpable neglect he never dissimulated. | His letters exhibit him striving by all means to rouse the Bishops | of Languedoc and Provence from their fatal lethargy. | His next thought was to provide for the refutation of heresy | by the preaching of the truth. | " Heresy," he delares, 6 " can only be destroyed by solid instruction | it is by preaching the truth that we sap the foundations of error." | In these words we recognize the lightning glance | which detected the real remedy required. | population sunk in gross ignorance | of the mysteries of faith, needed not merely envoys, but apostles, and it was these that Innocent desired to supply. | His first appeal was to the Order of Citeaux | and in 1198 he confided to certain of their religious full powers for the reform of the clergy and the conversion and reconciliation of heretics by the ministry of preaching. | Their success was | small, and in 1204 they were replaced by Peter of Castelnau and the monk Rodolph, to whom was afterwards added Arnold, Abbot of Citeaux. | A glance over the narrative of their labours | reveals to us the melancholy fact that the chief obstacles which opposed their progress came from the culpable negligence and even the open hostility of prelates, such as the Bishops of Beziers, Toulouse, Auch, and others whom the chronicler hesitates not to designate as execrable and wicked men execvabiles et maligni. | Not a few of these incurred the well-merited sentence of deposition | others resigned to escape similar censures. | But the struggle with laxity and corruption | in every form was a disheartening task, and it needed the strong words of Innocent to dissuade the Legates from retiring from the field. | il a enfreint et profané la foi qu'il m'avait promise au baptême | violé et méprisé les lois que je lui avais données ; il aime sa propre volonté et dédaigne de m'écouter ; en outre, il exalte le diable, ce pernicieux larron, et il lui a donné sa foi. | Il est vraiment larron | étant donné qu'il me vole, par ses suggestions mauvaises et par ses fausses promesses, l'âme que j'avais rachetée de mon sang. | Or, bien que je sois si méprisé maintenant | je suis néanmoins si miséricordieux, que quiconque demandera ma miséricorde et s'humiliera, je lui pardonnerai tout ce qu'il aura commis, et l'affranchirai et le délivrerai de ce larron pernicieux ; mais celui qui persistera à me mépriser, je le visiterai en ma justice, de telle sorte qu'il tremblera de peur à ma voix ; et quiconque l'expérimentera dira : "Malheur! pourquoi ai-je donc provoqué la Majesté divine à la colère et à l'indignation?" | ma fille, que j'ai choisie pour moi, et avec qui je parle de mon Esprit | Je suis le Créateur du ciel, de la terre, et de la mer, et de tout ce qui y est renfermé ; Dieu avec le Père et le Saint-Esprit, non pas comme on disait autrefois, en parlant de dieux de pierre et d'or, mais Dieu un, Père, Fils et Saint-Esprit ; trinitaire en personnes et un en substance ; créant toutes choses et n'étant créé par aucune ; immuable et tout-puissant ; étant sans commencement et sans fin. | sans perdre ma divinité, mais l'associant à l'humanité | afin qu'en une seule personne je sois vrai Fils de la Vierge. | mort et enseveli sans altération de ma divinité | car bien que je sois mort en l'humanité et en la chair que j'avais seul prise, je vivais néanmoins en la Divinité, en laquelle j'étais un avec le Père et le Saint-Esprit. | celui qui est ressuscité des morts | qui est monté au ciel, et qui vous parle maintenant en Esprit. | afin de vous manifester mes secrets, car cela me plaît ainsi. | L'épouse doit donc être prête lorsque l'époux voudra solenniser les noces, afin qu'elle soit décemment magnifiée, ornée et purifiée. | | | Vous vous purifiez, lorsque vous pensez incessamment à vos péchés | lorsque vous pensez comment, dans le baptême, je vous ai purifiée du péché d'Adam ; combien de fois, étant tombée dans le péché, je vous ai supportée et soutenue. | L'épouse doit aussi avoir sur sa poitrine les signes | et les livrées de son époux, c'est-à-dire que vous devez faire attention aux bienfaits dont je vous ai comblée, aux oeuvres que j'ai faites pour vous, à savoir : combien noblement je vous ai créée en vous donnant un corps et une âme ; combien éminemment je vous ai douée, en vous donnant la santé et les choses temporelles ; combien doucement je vous ai ramenée, quand je suis mort pour vous et vous ai ramené l'héritage, si vous voulez l´avoir. | chi mi può assalire? Arrivando alla terza casa, disse | Amico, apri l'orecchio e ascoltami, allunga le tue mani e toccami. Apri la tua bocca e gustami. | Rispose quello che l'abitava | Grida più forte, perché io ti ascolti bene. Se sei leggero ti prendo e se dolce ti ricevo. | Andò quindi alla quarta casa | che aveva la porta socchiusa e disse: Amico, se pensassi a tutto il tempo da te vissuto, tu mi riceveresti. | E se capissi e udissi quel che ho fatto per te | mi compatiresti. | Se pensassi a quanto mi offendesti, gemeresti e chiederesti pietà. | Rispose: Noi fummo quasi morti nell'attesa e nel desiderio della tua venuta; compatisci perciò la nostra miseria. | Molto volentieri noi ci diamo a te. | Guarda alla nostra miseria e considera la fragilità nostra e saremo pronti a tutto quel che vuoi. | Andò allora alla quinta casa, ch'era spalancata e disse | Amico, qui voglio entrare liberamente, ma sappi che desidero un giaciglio più soffice delle piume, un caldo più accogliente della lana, un cibo più fresco che possa fornire una tenera selvaggina. | Ci son qui mantelli coi quali con grande piacere ci scaldiamo | i piedi e le ginocchia e perché tu abbia riposo te ne daremo il calore. | Le nostre viscere e le nostre interiora offriremo di buon | grado a te, perché tu vi entri. | Come infatti niente è più molle del nostro midollo | i rozżarzy się miłością moją. A jak suche drzewo od ognia łatwo się zapala, tak dusza twoja będzie zapalona i napełniona ode mnie, i ja będę w tobie, a tak wszystkie rzeczy doczesne staną się tobie gorzkimi i wszelka rozkosz cielesna stanie się tobie trucizną. | Odpoczniesz na ramieniu Bóstwa mego | gdzie nie masz żadnej rozkoszy cielesnej, ale wesele i radość duchowa, którymi ucieszona dusza od wewnątrz i na wierzchu pełna jest radości i wesela, i nic innego nie myśli ani pragnie, jak tylko radości które ma. | Miłujże tedy mnie, Boga samego | a wszystko otrzymasz, czego pragniesz i będziesz w tym obfitowała. | I czyż nie napisano, że olej u wdowy nie ustał, | aż Pan Bóg dał deszcz na ziemi według słowa proroka? | | | Ja jestem prawdziwy Prorok | jeśli słowom moim wierzyć będziesz i je wypełnisz, olej i wesele, i radość nigdy ci nie ustaną aż na wieki.” | “Jam jest Stworzyciel Nieba i ziemi, i morza, i wszystkich rzeczy | co w nich są. Ja jestem Jeden z Ojcem i z Duchem Świętym. | Nie jako bogowie kamienni albo ze złota urobieni | jak dawniej powiadano, ani też tak liczny, jako natenczas rozumiano, ale Jeden Bóg Ojciec i Syn, i Duch Święty, trojaki w Osobach, jeden w Istocie, wszystko stwarzający, przez nikogo nie stworzony, niezmienny i wszechmocny, trwający bez początku i końca. | który się z Panny narodziłem, nie opuszczając Bóstwa | ale je złączyłem z Człowieczeństwem, abym się mógł stać w jednej osobie Synem Bożym prawdziwym i Synem Dziewicy. | który na Krzyżu zawieszony | umarły i pogrzebany byłem bez naruszenia Bóstwa. | Bo chociaż według Człowieczeństwa , które sam przybrałem, | byłem umarły, to w Bóstwie z Ojcem i z Duchem Świętym Jeden Bóg byłem i żyłem. | tenże jestem, który wstałem z martwych i wstąpiłem do Nieba | który i teraz w Duchu moim mówię z tobą. | Jam cię wybrał i wziąłem sobie ciebie za Oblubienicę | abym ci pokazał tajemnice moje, albowiem tak mi się podoba. | A ty też prawem niejakim stałaś się moją | gdyś przy śmierci małżonka swego wolę twoją w ręce moje oddała, gdyś po jego śmierci myślała i prosiła, abyś uboga dla mnie być mogła i chciałaś wszystko dla mnie opuścić, i dlatego należycie stałaś się moją. | tak potrzeba mi było tego | abym cię za tak wielką chęć i miłość opatrznością otaczał. | Dlatego biorę cię sobie za Oblubienicę i za jedyną uciechę | jak Bogu przystoi z duszą czystą. | Do Oblubienicy należy to, aby była gotowa, | kiedy Oblubieniec będzie chciał wesele sprawić, aby była słusznie i przystojnie ozdobiona, i czysta. | Na ten czas dobrze się oczyścisz | gdy myśleć będziesz o grzechach twoich, jak cię na chrzcie z grzechu Adamowego oczyściłem i ilekroć do grzechów się schylającą odwodziłem i zatrzymywałem cię. | Powinna też mieć Oblubienica znaki Oblubieńca swego na sercu | to jest rozważanie i przypatrywanie się dobrodziejstwom i sprawom, którem dla ciebie uczynił: to jest, jak cię zacnie stworzyłem, dając ci ciało i duszę; jak cię zacnie obdarzyłem, dając zdrowie i doczesne rzeczy; jak cię słodko wyprowadziłem, gdy dla ciebie umarłem i dziedzictwo ci przywróciłem, jeżeli je zechcesz mieć. | Ma się też zgadzać Oblubienica z wolą Oblubieńca swego | A jakaż jest wola moja? | Nie inna tylko abyś mnie miłowała nad wszystkie rzeczy | i nic innego nie chciała tylko mnie. | Jam stworzył dla człowieka wszystkie rzeczy i poddałem je pod nogi jego | a on to wszystko miłuje tylko nie mnie, i nic bardziej nienawidzi jak mnie. | | | Eu sou a Rainha dos Céus | Estás preocupada sobre como tens que louvar-me. | Tenha a certeza de que todo o louvor a meu Filho | é louvor a mim. | E aqueles que o desonram, | desonram a mim, pois meu amor para com Ele e o dele para comigo é tão ardente como se nós dois fossemos um só coração. | Tanto me honrou a mim, que era um vaso de argila, | que me elevou acima de todos os anjos. | Por isso tu me hás de louvar assim: ”Bendito sejas, Senhor Deus | Criador de todas as coisas, que te dignaste descer ao ventre da Virgem Maria. | Bendito sejas Senhor Deus que quiseste habitar nas entranhas da Virgem Maria | sem ser um fardo para Ela e te dignaste receber sua carne imaculada sem pecado. | Bendito sejas, Senhor Deus, que vieste à Virgem | dando-lhe gozo a sua alma e a todos os seus membros e que, com o gozo de todos os membros de seu corpo sem pecado, Dela nasceste. | que depois de tua ascensão alegraste a Virgem Maria com frequentes consolações e com tua consolação |a visitaste. | tua Mãe, aos Céus e a honraste situando-a junto de tua divindade |sobre todos os anjos. | Tem misericórdia de mim, Senhor, por seus rogos e intercessão”. | Sou a Rainha do Céu. | Ama meu Filho, porque ele é o honestíssimo e quando tens a Ele, | tens tudo o que é honesto. | Ele é o mais desejável e quando tens a Ele | tens tudo o que é desejável. | Ama-o também porque Ele é virtuosíssimo | e quando o tens, tens todas as virtudes. | Vou te contar como foi maravilhoso seu amor pelo | meu corpo e minha alma e quanta honra deu ao meu nome. | me amou antes que eu o amasse | pois é meu Criador. | | | uniu meu pai e a minha mãe em um matrimonio tão casto | que não se pode encontrar nenhum casal mais casto. | Nunca desejaram unir-se exceto de acordo com a Lei, só para terem descendência. | Quando o anjo lhes anunciou que teriam uma Virgem pela qual chegaria a salvação do mundo, antes desejariam morrer do que unir-se em um amor carnal, pois a luxuria estava extinta neles. | Asseguro-te que, pela caridade divina e devido | à mensagem do anjo, eles se uniram na carne, não por concupiscência, mas contra sua vontade e por amor a Deus. | Dessa forma, minha carne foi gerada de suas sementes e através do amor divino. | Quando meu corpo se formou, Deus enviou nele a alma criada a partir da sua divindade. | A alma foi imediatamente santificada junto com o corpo | e os anjos a vigiavam e custodiavam dia e noite. | É impossível expressar-te que grandíssimo gozo sentiu minha mãe quando minha alma santificada | se uniu ao meu corpo. | Depois, quando o curso da minha vida se cumpriu | meu Filho primeiro elevou minha alma, por ter sido a dona do corpo, a um lugar mais eminente que os demais, perto da glória de sua divindade, e depois meu corpo, da forma que nenhum outro corpo de criatura esteja tão perto de Deus como o meu. | Veja quanto meu Filho amou a minha alma e meu corpo! | Existem pessoas, entretanto, que maliciosamente negam que eu tenha sido assunta em corpo e alma, e existem outras que simplesmente não tem maior conhecimento. | Mas a verdade disso é certa: Fui elevada até a Gloria de Deus | em corpo e alma! | Escuta agora o muito que meu Filho honrou meu nome! | Meu nome é Maria, como diz o evangelho. | Quando os anjos olham esse nome, se regozijam | em sua consciência e dão graças a Deus pela grandíssima graça que operou em mim e comigo, porque eles veem a humanidade de meu Filho glorificada em sua divindade. | As almas do purgatório se regozijam de maneira especial | como quando um homem enfermo que está na cama escuta alentadoras palavras de outros e isto agrada seu coração fazendo-o sentir-se contente. | Ao ouvir meu nome, os anjos se aproximam imediatamente das almas dos justos | a quem foram dados como guardiões, e se regozijam em seus progressos. | Os anjos bons foram designados a todos como proteção e os anjos maus como provação. | Não é que os anjos estejam separados de Deus, mas assistem a alma sem deixar Deus, e permanecem constantemente em sua presença, enquanto seguem inflamando e incitando a alma a fazer o bem. | Os demônios todos se espantam e temem meu nome | Ao som do nome de Maria, soltam imediatamente a presa que tenham em suas garras. | | | Da mesma forma que uma ave de rapina com a presa em suas garras | a deixa quando escuta um ruído e volta depois quando vê que não era nada, igualmente os demônios deixam a alma, assustados, ao ouvir meu nome, mas voltam de novo rápidos como uma flecha a menos que vejam que depois se produziu uma emenda. | Ninguém está tão frio no amor de Deus – a menos que esteja condenado | - que o demônio não se distancie dele se invoca meu nome com a intenção de não retornar mais aos seus maus hábitos, e o demônio se mantém longe dele a menos que volte a consentir em pecar mortalmente. | Sou a Rainha do Céu, a Mãe de Deus. | Eu te disse que devias levar um broche sobre teu peito. | Agora te mostrarei com mais detalhes como | desde o principio, quando eu primeiro ouvi e entendi que Deus existia, sempre e com temor estive zelosa sobre minha salvação na observância de seus mandamentos. | Quando aprendi mais plenamente que o mesmo Deus era | meu Criador e o Juiz de todas minhas ações, cheguei a amá-Lo profundamente e estive constantemente alerta e atenta para não ofendê-Lo por palavra ou por obra. | Quando soube que Ele havia dado sua Lei e mandamentos a seu povo e fez milagres | através deles, fiz a firme resolução em minha alma de não amar nada mais a não ser Ele, e as coisas mundanas se tornaram muito amargas para mim. | Então, sabendo que o mesmo Deus redimiria o mundo e nasceria de uma Virgem | eu estava tão movida de amor por Ele que não pensava em nada mais a não ser em Deus, nem queria nada fora Dele. | Separei-me, no possível, da conversação e presença de parentes e amigos, | e dei aos necessitados tudo o que havia chegado a ter, ficando somente com um moderado vestuário e alimentação. | Nada me agradava a não ser Deus. | Sempre esperei em meu coração viver até o momento de seu nascimento, e talvez, aspirar a ser uma indigna servidora da Mãe de Deus. | Também fiz em meu coração o voto de preservar minha virgindade | se isso fosse aceitável a Ele, e de não possuir nada no mundo. | quisesse outra coisa, meu desejo era que se cumprisse | em mim seu desejo e não o meu, porque acreditei que Ele era capaz de tudo e que Ele só queria o melhor para mim. | Por Ele, submeti-lhe toda a minha vontade. | Quando chegou o tempo estabelecido para a apresentação das virgens no templo do Senhor, estive presente com elas graças à religiosa obediência de meus pais. | Pensei comigo, que nada era impossível para Deus e que | como Ele sabia que eu não desejava nem queria mais que a Ele, Ele poderia preservar minha virgindade, se isto lhe agradasse, e se não, que se fizesse sua vontade. | Depois de ter escutado todos os mandamentos no templo | voltei a casa ainda ardendo mais que nunca por Deus, sendo inflamada com novos fogos e desejos de amor a cada dia. | me separei ainda mais de tudo e estive só noite e dia | com grande temor de que minha boca falasse e meus ouvidos ouvissem algo contra Deus, ou de que meus olhos olhassem algo em que me deleitasse; em meu silencio senti também temor e ansiedade por estar calando sobre algo que deveria falar. | | | Com essas perturbações em meu coração | e a sós comigo mesma, encomendei todas as minhas esperanças a Deus. | Naquele momento veio ao meu pensamento considerar o grande | poder de Deus; como os anjos e todas as criaturas o servem; e como sua glória é indescritível e eterna. | Enquanto me perguntava tudo isso, tive três visões maravilhosas | Vi uma estrela, mas não como as que brilham no Céu. | Vi uma luz, mas não como a que ilumina o mundo. | Percebi um aroma, mas não de ervas nem de nada disso, mas indescritivelmente suave, que me plenificou tanto que senti como se saltasse de gozo. | Nesse momento, ouvi uma voz, mas não de fala humana. | Tive muito medo quando a ouvi e me perguntei se seria uma ilusão. | uma belíssima forma humana | mas não revestida de carne, e me disse: “Ave, cheia de graça...” | Ao ouvi-lo perguntei-me o que significava aquilo ou porque me | tinha saudado dessa forma, pois sabia e cria que eu era indigna de algo semelhante, ou de algo tão bom, mas também sabia que para Deus não era impossível fazer tudo o que quisesse. | O filho que nascerá de ti é santo e se chamará | Filho de Deus. Se fará como a Deus apraz”. | Ainda não me acreditei digna nem lhe perguntei: | “Por quê?” ou “Quando se fará?”, mas lhe perguntei: “Como é que eu, tão indigna, hei de ser mãe de Deus, se nem sequer conheço varão?" | O anjo me respondeu, como disse, que nada é impossível | para Deus, mas “Tudo o que ele queira se fará”. | Quando ouvi as palavras do anjo | senti o mais fervente desejo de converter-me na mãe de Deus, e minha alma disse com amor: “Aqui estou, faça-se em mim tua vontade!" | nesse momento e lugar, foi concebido meu Filho em meu ventre | com uma inefável exultação da minha alma e dos membros do meu corpo. | Quando Ele estava em meu ventre | o gerei sem dor alguma, sem torpor nem cansaço em meu corpo. | Humilhei-me em tudo | sabendo que levava em mim o Todo-poderoso. Quando | o dei à luz, o fiz sem dor nem pecado, igual a quando o concebi | com tal exultação de alma e corpo que senti como se caminhasse sobre o ar, gozando de tudo. | Ele entrou em meus membros, com gozo de toda minha alma | e dessa forma, com gozo de todos meus membros, saiu de mim, deixando minha alma exultante e minha virgindade intacta. | Quando olhei e contemplei sua beleza | a alegria transbordou de minha alma, sabendo-me indigna de um Filho assim. | Quando observei os lugares nos quais, como sabia através dos profetas, | suas mãos e pés seriam perfurados na crucifixão, meus olhos se encheram de lagrimas e meu coração se partiu de tristeza. | Meu Filho olhou meus olhos lacrimosos | e se entristeceu quase até morrer. | Mas ao contemplar seu divino poder | me consolei de novo, dando-me conta de que isto era o que ele queria, e por ele, como era o correto, conformei toda a minha vontade à sua. | Assim, minha alegria sempre se misturava com a dor. | seus inimigos o arrastaram | Golpearam-no na face e no pescoço e lhe cuspiram | zombando dele. Quando | foi levado à coluna, ele mesmo se desnudou e colocou | suas mãos sobre o pilar, e seus inimigos as ataram sem misericórdia. | Atado à coluna, sem nenhum tipo de roupa | como quando veio ao mundo, se manteve ali sofrendo a vergonha de sua nudez. | Seus inimigos o cercaram e, tendo fugido todos os seus amigos | Lee la primera página una y otra vez con placer, pero lee la segunda sólo de vez en cuando y sin placer en absoluto, mientras que lee la tercera sólo rara vez y lo hace con tristeza. | La primera página representa la riqueza y privilegios | en los que se deleita. | es el miedo al infierno (Gehenna) | y el juicio venidero que le está incomodando. | La tercera es el amor y el temor filial de Dios que él rara vez persigue | Si tomara a corazón todo lo que Dios ha hecho por él o cuánto le ha prodigado, el amor de Dios nunca se extinguiría de su corazón.” | | | “Oh Señora, ruega por él.” | Y entonces la bendita Inés dijo: “¿Cuál es el papel de la justicia sino juzgar y cuál es el papel de la misericordia sino alentar?” | “Al obispo se le dirá esto: aunque Dios puede hacer todo | la cooperación personal de un hombre es también necesaria si pretende evitar el pecado y ganar el amor de Dios. | Hay tres medios de evitar el pecado y tres medios de obtener el amor de Dios | por medio de los cuales se evita el pecado son: perfecta penitencia | segundo, la intención de no querer cometer el pecado otra vez; tercero | mejorar la propia vida de acuerdo al consejo de aquellos que uno sabe han abandonado el mundo. | que funcionan juntos para ganar el amor de Dios son la humildad, la misericordia y el esfuerzo de amar | Quienquiera que reza un solo Padrenuestro por ganar el amor de Dios pronto experimentará el efecto del amor de Dios acercándose a él. | sobre el cual estaba hablando contigo anteriormente | debo decir en conclusión que el abismo parece muy ancho para que él lo salte, los muros demasiado altos para escalar, los barrotes demasiado fuertes para romper. | Yo estoy aquí esperándole, pero él vuelve su cabeza lejos hacia las actividades | de tres grupos de personas que le entretiene ver. El primer grupo es un coro danzante. | 'me gusta escucharos, ¡esperadme!' | El segundo grupo está envuelto en especulación. | 'quiero ver lo que vosotros veis – disfruto mucho esas cosas.' | El tercer grupo está divirtiéndose y relajándose en calma, y él quiere disfrutar el privilegio y relajarse con ellos Ser un coro danzante en el mundo no significa otra cosa sino pasar de un efímero deleite a otro, de un deseo a otro. | Estar y especular no significa otra cosa sino apartar el alma de la divina contemplación | y pensar sobre recoger y distribuir bienes temporales. | Relajarse en calma no significa sino relajar el cuerpo. | Mientras miraba estas tres multitudes, el obispo ha escalado una alta montaña pero él no se preocupa de las palabras que le he mandado, ni hace caso de las condiciones de mi mensaje que son que, si mantiene su promesa, Yo también cumpliré la mía.” | La novia responde: “¡Oh, gentil Madre, no lo abandones!” | La Madre le dice: “No lo abandonaré hasta que el polvo regrese al polvo. | Más aún, si él rompe y atraviesa los barrotes, | vendré a su encuentro como una sirvienta y le ayudaré como una madre.” | “¿Estás tú, hija, pensando cuál habría sido la recompensa del canónigo de Orleans | si su obispo hubiera sido convertido? | Te responderé: ves cómo la tierra da la hierba y las flores | de diferentes especies y clases. | Del mismo modo, también, si cada persona hubiera permanecido | probo en su propia estación desde el principio del mundo, todos habrían recibido una gran recompensa, por cuanto todos los que están en Dios habrían ido de un deleite al siguiente, no por cualquier sentido de tedio en su placer, sino porque su placer se hace cada vez mayor y su indescriptible alegría es renovada continuamente.” | Éste era el obispo de Växjö | Cuando él estaba en Roma, estuvo muy preocupado sobre su regreso | | | Se oía en su espíritu: | “Dile al obispo que su retraso es más útil que su prisa. | Aquellos en su compañía que han ido delante de él le seguirán | Es por esto que cuando regrese a su país, encontrará que mis palabras son ciertas.” | Ésta es la manera en que todo sucedió | A su regreso, encontró al rey capturado y el reino entero en protesta. | habían ido delante de él fueron detenidos en el camino por largo tiempo | y llegaron después que él. | “Has de saber también que la dama que está en compañía del obispo | retornará segura pero no morirá en su país natal.” | Y por eso resultó que, por segunda vez ella fue a Roma | y murió y fue enterrada allí. | Cuando Lady Brígida bajó del Monte Gargano a la ciudad de Mafredonia | en el reino de Sicilia, el mismo obispo estaba en su compañía. | En la montaña sucedió que él tuvo una caída tan mala de su caballo | que se rompió dos costillas. | Cuando la dama estaba a punto de salir hacia San Nicolás de Bari | por la mañana, él la llamó a sí diciendo: “Señora, es tan difícil para mí quedarme aquí sin ti. | Es también una carga que seas retrasada por causa mía | especialmente dados los asaltos que acontecen. | ¡Te pido,” dijo, “por el amor a Jesucristo, que reces a Dios | por mí y toques con tu mano mi costado dolorido! | Confío en que mi dolor será aminorado a través del toque de tus manos.” | Con lágrimas en los ojos, ella respondió con compasión: “Señor, no me considero nada, porque soy una gran pecadora a la vista de Dios. | Pero recémosle todos a Dios y Él responderá | a tu fe.” | Ellos oraron, y cuando ella se levantó tocó el costado | del obispo, diciendo: “Que el Señor Jesucristo te cure.” | Inmediatamente el dolor desapareció. | Y el obispo se levantó y la siguió todo el camino de vuelta a Roma. | | | Madre habla a la novia de su Hijo, diciendo: “Este obispo me reza en su amor, | y, por esa razón, él debería hacer lo que más me agrada. | Hay un tesoro del cual tengo conocimiento que quienquiera que lo posee | nunca será pobre, quienquiera que lo vea nunca conocerá aflicción y muerte, y quienquiera que lo desee alegremente recibirá cualquier cosa que desee. | El tesoro está guardado en un fuerte castillo tras cuatro barrotes | Fuera del castillo se alzan altos muros grandes y anchos. Más allá de los muros hay dos amplios y profundos fosos. | por eso pido al obispo que salte sobre los dos fosos de un solo salto | y escale los muros de un solo brinco, y rompa los barrotes con un solo golpe y entonces me traiga lo que más me agrada. | te diré ahora el significado de todo esto | Cuando tú usas la palabra 'tesoro,' te refieres a algo que es raramente usado o cambiado de sitio. | En este caso, el tesoro son las preciosas palabras de mi muy amado Hijo | y las obras que Él hizo durante y antes de su Pasión, junto a los milagros que llevó a cabo cuando la Palabra | se hizo carne en mi cuerpo y que continúa haciendo cuando, con una palabra | de Dios, el pan sobre el altar se convierte a diario en esa misma carne. | Todas estas cosas son un precioso tesoro que se ha desatendido | y olvidado tanto que pocas personas hay que lo recuerdan o extraen algún provecho de Él. | Sin embargo, el glorioso cuerpo de Dios mi Hijo va a encontrarse | en un castillo fortificado, esto es, en la fortaleza de su divina naturaleza. | Así como un castillo es una defensa contra los enemigos | igualmente la fortaleza de la naturaleza divina de mi Hijo es una defensa para el cuerpo contra | su naturaleza humana, por eso ningún enemigo puede dañarle | Los cuatro barrotes son cuatro pecados que excluyen a muchas personas de la participación en el cuerpo de Cristo y de la bondad de la fortaleza del cuerpo de Cristo. | El primer pecado es el orgullo junto con el deseo de honores mundanos | El segundo es el deseo de posesiones mundanas | es la repulsiva lujuria que llena el cuerpo desmedidamente | y su satisfacción totalmente repulsiva. | El cuarto es la ira y envidia y la negligencia sobre la propia salvación | Muchas personas sienten un amor excesivo hacia estos cuatro pecados y habitualmente los poseen, lo que los aleja mucho de Dios. | Ellos ven y reciben el cuerpo de Dios, | pero sus almas están tan lejos de Dios como los ladrones lo están cuando el camino hacia lo que quieren robar está bloqueado por fuertes barrotes. | | | Es por esto que dije que él debe romper los barrotes con un solo soplido | El soplido simboliza el celo por las almas con el cual un obispo debe destrozar a los pecadores a través de actos de justicia hechos por el amor de Dios, en vistas a que, una vez que los barrotes del vicio hayan sido quebrados, el pecador pueda alcanzar el precioso tesoro. | Aunque él no pueda aniquilar a cada pecador | debe hacer lo que pueda y lo que debe hacer, especialmente por aquellos que están bajo su cuidado, sin exceptuar grandes ni pequeños, vecino ni pariente, amigo ni enemigo. | Esto es lo que hizo Santo Tomás de Inglaterra | Él sufrió mucho en honor a la justicia y se encontró con una amarga muerte al final | y todo porque no se abstuvo de sacudir cuerpos con la justicia de la iglesia para que las almas pudieran soportar menos sufrimiento. | Este obispo debe imitar el modo de vida de Tomás, para que todo el que le oiga pueda entender que él odia sus propios pecados así como los de las otras personas. | El golpe del celo divino será entonces escuchado | por todos los cielos ante Dios y sus ángeles. | Muchas personas serán entonces convertidas y enmendarán sus caminos | diciendo: 'Él no nos odia a nosotros sino a nuestros pecados.' | Ellos dirán: 'Arrepintámonos y nos convertiremos en amigos tanto | de Dios como del obispo.' | Los tres muros que rodean el castillo son tres virtudes | La primera virtud es abandonar los placeres carnales y cumplir la voluntad de Dios. | es preferir sufrir reproches y maldiciones en honor de la verdad | y de la justicia antes que obtener honores y posesiones mundanos mediante el disimulo de la verdad. | listo para renunciar tanto a la vida como a las posesiones en honor | de la salvación de cualquier cristiano. | Sin embargo, mira lo que la gente hace hoy en día. | Ellos creen que estos muros son demasiado altos para ser escalados de alguna manera. | Del mismo modo, ni sus corazones ni sus almas se aproximan al glorioso Cuerpo | con constancia alguna, porque están lejos de Dios. | Por esto le dije a mi amigo que escalase los muros de un solo salto | Un salto es a lo que tú te refieres cuando los pies se mantienen separados para que el cuerpo se mueva rápidamente. | Un salto espiritual es similar | ya que cuando el cuerpo está en la tierra y el amor del corazón está en el cielo, entonces tú trepas los tres muros rápidamente. | Cuando un hombre medita sobre las cosas del cielo, | está listo para dejar su propia voluntad, sufrir rechazo y persecución en honor de la justicia, y morir gustosamente por la gloria de Dios. | | | Los dos fosos afuera del muro representan la belleza del mundo y la compañía | y disfrute de los amigos mundanos. | Hay muchísimas personas que están contentas | de descansar en estos fosos y nunca se preocupan de si verán a Dios en el cielo. | Los fosos son anchos y profundos, anchos porque las voluntades de tales personas | están lejos de Dios, y profundos porque confinan a muchas almas en las profundidades del infierno. | Es por esto que los fosos deben saltarse de un solo brinco | Un salto espiritual no es sino separar el propio corazón completo de las cosas que son vacías y dar un salto desde los bienes mundanos al reino de los cielos. | He mostrado cómo romper los barrotes y saltar los muros | Ahora mostraré cómo este obispo debe traerme la cosa más preciosa que jamás hubo. | naturaleza divina de Dios fue y es desde la eternidad sin principio | pues ni principio ni fin pueden ser hallados en Ella. | Pero su naturaleza humana estuvo en mi cuerpo y tomó carne | y sangre de mí. Por eso, es la cosa más preciosa que jamás hubo o que hay | Igualmente, cuando el alma justa recibe el cuerpo | de Dios con amor y cuando su cuerpo llena el alma, allí está la cosa más preciosa que jamás existió. | Aunque la naturaleza divina existe en tres Personas sin principio ni fin en sí mismo | cuando Dios me mandó a su Hijo con su divina naturaleza y el Espíritu Santo, Él recibió su bendito cuerpo de Mí. | Ahora mostraré al obispo cómo esta cosa preciosa ha de traerse ante el Señor | Dondequiera que el amigo de Dios se cruza con un pecador cuyas palabras demuestran poco amor por Dios | pero mucho amor por el mundo, esa alma está | vacía en lo que respecta a Dios. | De la misma manera, el amigo de Dios debe mostrar su amor por Dios mediante | la pena de que un alma redimida por la sangre del Creador sea enemiga de Dios. | Debe mostrar compasión por el alma desdichada usando algo como dos voces hacia ella | una con la cual ruegue a Dios que se apiade del alma, | y otra con la que muestre al alma su propio peligro | Si puede reconciliar y unir ambas, Dios y el alma, entonces las manos de su amor le ofrecerán a Dios el más precioso regalo | pues la cosa más querida para mí es cuando | el cuerpo de Dios, que estuvo una vez dentro de mí, y el alma humana, que Dios ha creado, se juntan en amistad. | Esto no es sorprendente | Sabes bien que Yo estaba presente cuando mi Hijo, el Gran Caballero, fue desde Jerusalén a luchar en una batalla tan brutal y difícil que todos los tendones de sus brazos fueron violentados. | Su espalda fue ensangrentada y estaba lívida | sus pies atravesado por clavos, sus ojos y oídos llenados de sangre. Su cabeza se inclinó hacia abajo cuando entregó su Espíritu. | Su corazón fue atravesado por la punta | de una lanza. | Ganó almas sufriendo mucho | Aquél que ahora vive en la gloria extiende sus brazos a los hombres, pero pocos son aquellos que le traen su novia. | Consecuentemente, un amigo de Dios no debe escatimar vida ni posesiones | en ayudar a otros mientras él se ayuda a sí mismo trayéndolas a mi Hijo. | Dile al obispo que, dado que él reza por mi amistad | Yo me amarraré a Mí misma a él con un vínculo de fe. | que estuvo una vez dentro de Mí, le dará la bienvenida a su alma
| even crossed the Pyrenees, threatening to stable their horses in St. Peter's at Rome, but were at last defeated by Charles Martel at Tours, in 732, just one hundred years from the death of Mohammed. | Europe | In the eighth and ninth centuries they conquered Persia, Afghanistan, and a large part of India, and in the twelfth century they had already become the absolute masters of all Western Asia, Spain and North Africa, Sicily, etc. | Mongols and Turks | in the thirteenth century, but the new conquerors adopted Mohammed's religion and, in the fifteenth century, overthrew the tottering Byzantine Empire (1453). | Constantinople | they even threatened the German Empire, but were successfully defeated at the gates of Vienna, and driven back across the Danube, in 1683. | | | Mohammedanism | now comprises various theological schools and political factions. | The Orthodox (Sunni) | uphold the legitimacy of the succession of the first three caliphs, Abu Bakr, Omar, and Uthman, while the Schismatics (Shiah) champion the Divine right of Ali as against the successions of these caliphs whom they call "usurpers", and whose names, tombs, and memorials they insult and detest. | The Shiah | number at present about twelve million adherents, or about one-twentieth of the whole Mohammedan world, and are scattered over Persia and India. | The Sunni | are subdivided into four principal theological schools, or sects, viz., the Hanifites, found mostly in Turkey, Central Asia, and Northern India; the Shafites in Southern India and Egypt; the Malikites, in Morocco, Barbary, and parts of Arabia; and the Hanbalites in Central and Eastern Arabia and in some parts of Africa. | The Shiah | are also subdivided into various, but less important, sects. | seventy-three sects of Islam | thirty-two are assigned to the Shiah. | legitimate successors of Mohammed | to another in the Trinity: nor is there anything that has been added as though it once had not existed, but had entered afterwards: therefore the Father has never been without the Son, nor the Son without the Spirit: and this same Trinity is immutable and unalterable forever (P.G., X, 986). | It is manifest that a dogma so mysterious | presupposes a Divine revelation. When the fact of revelation, | understood in its full sense as the speech of God to man | is no longer admitted, the rejection of the doctrine follows as a necessary consequence. | For this reason it has no place in the Liberal Protestantism of today. | The writers of this school contend that the doctrine of the Trinity, as professed by the Church, is not contained in the New Testament, but that it was first formulated in the second century and received final approbation in the fourth, as the result of the Arian and Macedonian controversies. | In view of this assertion it is necessary | to consider in some detail the evidence afforded by Holy Scripture. | Attempts have been made recently to apply the more extreme theories | of comparative religion to the doctrine of the Trinity, and to account for it by an imaginary law of nature compelling men to group the objects of their worship in threes. | It seems needless to give more than a reference to these extravagant views, | which serious thinkers of every school reject as destitute of foundation. | The evidence from the Gospels | culminates in the baptismal commission of Matthew 28:20. | It is manifest from the narratives of the Evangelists | | | that Christ only made the great truth known to the Twelve step by step. | First He taught them to recognize in Himself the Eternal Son of God. | When His ministry was drawing to a close, He promised that the Father would send another Divine Person, the Holy Spirit, in His place. | Finally after His resurrection, He revealed the doctrine | reveal as the real object of the Illuminati the elaboration and propagation of a new popular religion and, in the domain of politics, | the gradual establishment | of a universal democratic republic. | In this society | of the future everything, according to Weishaupt, was to be regulated by reason. | "enlightenment" | men were to be liberated from their silly prejudices, to become "mature" or "moral", and thus to outgrow the religious and political tutelage of Church and State, of "priest and prince". | Morals | was the science which makes man "mature", and renders him conscious of his dignity, his destiny, and his power. | "redemption" | was found in unification, and this was to be brought about by "secret schools of wisdom". | the archives of nature and of the rights of man | through their agency, man will recover from his fall; princes and nations, without violence to force them, will vanish from the earth; | the human race | will become one family, and the world the habitation of rational beings. | Moral science | alone will effect these reforms 'imperceptibly'; every father will become, like Abraham and the patriarchs, the priest and absolute lord of his household, | code of law | This redemption of mankind by the restoration of the original "freedom and equality" through "illumination" and universal charity, | fraternity, and tolerance, | Religion is essentially a personal relation, the relation of the subject and creature, man, to his Lord and Creator, God. | voluntary subjection of oneself to God | that is to the free, supernatural Being (or beings) on whom man is conscious of being dependent, of whose powerful help he feels the need, and in whom he recognizes the source of his perfection and happiness. | voluntary turning | to God. In the last analysis it is an act of the will. | | | an act of the will | inclining man to observe the right order, springing from his dependence on God. | Hence St. Thomas | (II-II, Q. lxxxi, a. 1) defines religion as "virtus per quam homines Deo debitum cultum et reverentiam exhibent" (the virtue which prompts man to render to God the worship and reverence that is His by right). | filial communion with God | in which we honour and revere Him as our supreme Lord, love Him as our Father, and find in that reverent service of filial love our true perfection and happiness. | with the sovereign | Deity is, as has been pointed out, the end of all religions. | Primitive Buddhism | with its aim to secure unconscious repose (Nirvana) through personal effort independently of Divine aid, seems to be an exception. | communion with the gods of India | was retained as an element of lay belief and aspiration, and it was only by substituting the ideal of Divine communion for that of Nirvana that Buddhism became a popular religion. | in its strictest sense | religion on its subjective side is the disposition to acknowledge our dependence on God, and on the objective side it is the voluntary acknowledgement of that dependence through acts of homage. | It calls into play | This explains how, for example, among peoples so highly civilized as the Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans, certain lascivious rites could hold their own in the sacred liturgy, and also how, in the worship of the Aztec god of war, human sacrifices with cannibal feasts could prevail to so shocking a degree. | systems of lower grades of culture | have tended to retard reform and progress towards higher standards of conduct. | ethical principles | It is also an experience sometimes real and sometimes fancied, | need of Divine help | is the conviction that in numerous instances this help has been given in answer to prayer. | tokens of Divine good will | are piously thought to reward the earnest efforts of man to secure bliss bringing communion with the Deity. | alleged instances | It is instinctively felt to be needed | There is scarcely | cannot account for so world-wide a fact as the recognition of nature-deities. | religions of savages | consisting exclusively of ancestor-worship. | | | food-offerings to the dead | we also find recognized, and carefully distinguished from dead heroes, nature deities. | Northern Congo |accounted one of the lowest of races, | ancestor-worship | There is thus no good ground for asserting ancestor-worship to have been the earliest form of religion, nor do we need it to account for religion, strictly speaking, in any of its forms. | parallel growth | that has sprung up and become entwined with | The latter is of independent origin. | This derives religion from the use and veneration of fetishes. | an object | (generally small enough to be easily carried) in which a spirit is thought to reside, | the owner who wears it | and who venerates it because of its indwelling spirit. | medicine-man or wizard | who makes the fetish, and charges it with the spirit. | inefficiency becomes apparent | It will be remembered that even as a young man his chief distress at his breakdown in court was the fear that his mistake might be ascribed to deceit. | question as to what does or does not constitute a lie | is not an easy one, but it is a subject in itself. | Moral Theology | which is not the common teaching of Catholic theologians. | Very few remarks upon his own times | occur in the Saint's letters. | The eighteenth century | was one series of great wars; that of the Spanish, Polish, and Austrian Succession; the Seven Years' War, and the War of American Independence, ending with the still more gigantic struggles in Europe, which arose out of the events of 1789. | Except in '45 | in all of these, down to the first shot fired at Lexington, the English-speaking world was on one side and the Bourbon States, including Naples, on the other. | secular history | about the only reference in the Saint's correspondence which has come down to us is a sentence in a letter of April, 1744, which speaks of the passage of the Spanish troops who had come to defend Naples against the Austrians. | He was more concerned with the spiritual conflict | which was going on at the same time. | The days were indeed evil. | Infidelity and impiety were gaining ground; Voltaire and Rousseau were the idols of society; and the ancien régime, by undermining religion, its one support, was tottering to its fall. | Alphonsus was a devoted friend of the Society of Jesus | and its long persecution by the Bourbon Courts, ending in its suppression in 1773, filled him with grief. | He died on the very eve | of the great Revolution which was to sweep the persecutors away, having seen in vision the woes which the French invasion of 1798 was to bring on Naples. | An interesting series of portraits | might be painted of those who play a part in the Saint's history: Charles III and his minister Tanucci; Charle's son Ferdinand, and Ferdinand's strange and unhappy Queen, Maria Carolina, daughter of Maria Teresa and sister of Marie Antoinette. | Cardinals Spinelli, Sersale, and Orsini | Popes Benedict XIV, Clement XIII, Clement XIV, and Pius VI, to each of whom Alphonsus dedicated a volume of his works. | Even the baleful shadow of Voltaire | falls across the Saint's life, for Alphonsus wrote to congratulate him on a conversion, which alas, never took place! | friendship of thirty years | with the great Venetian publishing house of Remondini, whose letters from the Saint, carefully preserved as became business men, fill a quarto volume. | Other personal friends | of Alphonsus were the Jesuit Fathers de Matteis, Zaccaria, and Nonnotte. | A respected opponent was the redoubtable Dominican controversialist | P. Vincenzo Patuzzi, while to make up for hard blows we have another Dominican, P. Caputo, President of Alphonsus's seminary and a devoted helper in his work of reform. | To come to saints | the great Jesuit missionary St. Francis di Geronimo took the little Alphonsus in his arms, blessed him, and prophesied that he would do great work for God; while a Franciscan, St. John Joseph of the Cross, was well known to Alphonsus in later life. | Both of them were canonized on the same day | as the Holy Doctor, 26 May, 1839. | St. Paul of the Cross (1694-1775) | and St. Alphonsus, who were altogether contemporaries, seem never to have met on earth, though the founder of the Passionists was a great friend of Alphonsus's uncle, Mgr. Cavalieri, himself a great servant of God. | Other saints and servants of God | were those of Alphonsus's own household, the lay brother, St. Gerard Majella, who died in 1755, and Januarius Sarnelli, Cæsar Sportelli, Dominic Blasucci, and Maria Celeste, all of whom have been declared "Venerable" by the Church. | Blessed Clement Hofbauer | joined the Redemptorist congregation in the aged Saint's lifetime, though Alphonsus never saw in the flesh the man whom he knew would be the second founder of his Order. | Except for the chances of European war | England and Naples were then in different worlds, but Alphonsus may have seen at the side of Don Carlos when he conquered Naples in 1734, an English boy of fourteen who had already shown great gallantry under fire and was to play a romantic part in history, Prince Charles Edward Stuart. | But one may easily overcrowd | a narrow canvas and it is better in so slight a sketch to leave the central figure in solitary relief. | If any reader of this article | will go to original sources and study the Saint's life at greater length, he will not find his labour thrown away. | St. Peter's true and original name was Simon, | sometimes occurring in the form Symeon. | son of Jona (Johannes) | and was born in Bethsaida (John 1:42, 44), a town on Lake Genesareth, the position of which cannot be established with certainty, although it is usually sought at the northern end of the lake. | The Apostle Andrew | was his brother, and the Apostle Philip came from the same town. | where he was living with his mother-in-law | in his own house (Matthew 8:14; Luke 4:38) at the beginning of Christ's public ministry (about A.D. 26-28). | Simon was thus married | and, according to Clement of Alexandria (Stromata, III, vi, ed. Dindorf, II, 276), had children. | | | same writer relates | the tradition that Peter's wife suffered martyrdom (ibid., VII, xi ed. cit., III, 306). | Concerning these facts, | adopted by Eusebius (Church History III.31) from Clement, the ancient Christian literature which has come down to us is silent. | Capharnaum the profitable occupation of fisherman | in Lake Genesareth, possessing his own boat (Luke 5:3). | Like so many of his Jewish contemporaries | he was attracted by the Baptist's preaching of penance and was, with his brother Andrew, among John's associates in Bethania on the eastern bank of the Jordan. | after the High Council had sent envoys | for the second time to the Baptist, the latter pointed to Jesus who was passing, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God", Andrew and another disciple followed the Saviour to his residence and remained with Him one day. | Later | meeting his brother Simon, Andrew said "We have found the Messias", and brought him to Jesus, who, looking upon him, said: "Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter". | at this first meeting | the Saviour foretold the change of Simon's name to Cephas (Kephas; Aramaic Kipha, rock), which is translated Petros (Latin, Petrus) a proof that Christ had already special views with regard to Simon. | probably at the time of his definitive call to the Apostolate | with the eleven other Apostles, Jesus actually gave Simon the name of Cephas (Petrus), after which he was usually called Peter, especially by Christ on the solemn occasion after Peter's profession of faith (Matthew 16:18; cf. below). | Evangelists often combine | the two names, while St. Paul uses the name Cephas. | Peter with the other early disciples | remained with Jesus for some time, accompanying Him to Galilee (Marriage at Cana), Judaea, and Jerusalem, and through Samaria back to Galilee (John 2-4). | resumed his occupation | of fisherman for a short time, but soon received the definitive call of the Saviour to become one of His permanent disciples. | Peter and Andrew were engaged at their calling | when Jesus met and addressed them: "Come ye after me, and I will make you to be fishers of men". | On the same occasion the sons of Zebedee | were called (Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20; Luke 5:1-11; it is here assumed that Luke refers to the same occasion as the other Evangelists). | remained always in the immediate neighbourhood | of Our Lord. | After preaching the Sermon on the Mount | and curing the son of the centurion in Capharnaum, Jesus came to Peter's house and cured his wife's mother, who was sick of a fever (Matthew 8:14-15; Mark 1:29-31). | | | A little later Christ chose His Twelve Apostles | as His constant associates in preaching the kingdom of God. | Though of irresolute character, | he clings with the greatest fidelity, firmness of faith, and inward love to the Saviour; rash alike in word and act, he is full of zeal and enthusiasm, though momentarily easily accessible to external influences and intimidated by difficulties. | more prominent the Apostles become in the Evangelical narrative | the more conspicuous does Peter appear as the first among them. | In the list | of the Twelve on the occasion of their solemn call to the Apostolate, not only does Peter stand always at their head, but the surname Petrus given him by Christ is especially emphasized (Matthew 10:2): "Duodecim autem Apostolorum nomina haec: Primus Simon qui dicitur Petrus. . ."; Mark 3:14-16: "Et fecit ut essent duodecim cum illo, et ut mitteret eos praedicare . . . et imposuit Simoni nomen Petrus"; Luke 6:13-14: "Et cum dies factus esset, vocavit discipulos suos, et elegit duodecim ex ipsis (quos et Apostolos nominavit): Simonem, quem cognominavit Petrum . . ." | On various occasions | Peter speaks in the name of the other Apostles (Matthew 15:15; 19:27; Luke 12:41, etc.). | When Christ's words are addressed | to all the Apostles, Peter answers in their name (e.g., Matthew 16:16). | Frequently the Saviour turns specially | to Peter (Matthew 26:40; Luke 22:31, etc.). | Very characteristic is the expression | of true fidelity to Jesus, which Peter addressed to Him in the name of the other Apostles. | Christ | after He had spoken of the mystery of the reception of His Body and Blood (John 6:22 sqq.) and many of His disciples had left Him, asked the Twelve if they too should leave Him; Peter's answer comes immediately: "Lord to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. | have believed and have known | that thou art the Holy One of God" (Vulgate "thou art the Christ, the Son of God"). | Christ Himself unmistakably accords | Peter a special precedence and the first place among the Apostles, and designates him for such on various occasions. | Peter was one of the three Apostles | (with James and John) who were with Christ on certain special occasions the raising of the daughter of Jairus from the dead (Mark 5:37; Luke 8:51); the Transfiguration of Christ (Matthew 17:1; Mark 9:1; Luke 9:28), the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemani (Matthew 26:37; Mark 14:33). | On several occasions | also Christ favoured him above all the others; He enters Peter's boat on Lake Genesareth to preach to the multitude on the shore (Luke 5:3); when He was miraculously walking upon the waters, He called Peter to come to Him across the lake (Matthew 14:28 sqq.); He sent him to the lake to catch the fish in whose mouth Peter found the stater to pay as tribute (Matthew 17:24 sqq.). | In especially solemn fashion | Christ accentuated Peter's precedence among the Apostles, when, after Peter had recognized Him as the Messias, He promised that he would be head of His flock. | Jesus was then dwelling | with His Apostles in the vicinity of Caesarea Philippi, engaged on His work of salvation. | agreed so little in power and glory | with the expectations of the Messias, many different views concerning Him were current. | While journeying along | with His Apostles, Jesus asks them: "Whom do men say that the Son of man is?" | | | John the Baptist | and other some Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets". | "But whom do you say that I am?" | Simon said: "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God". | answering said to him | "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to thee: That thou art Peter [Kipha, a rock], and upon this rock [Kipha] I will build my church [ekklesian], and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. | And I will give to thee the keys | of the kingdom of heaven. | And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, | it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven". | Then he commanded his disciples, | that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ (Matthew 16:13-20; Mark 8:27-30; Luke 9:18-21). | By the word "rock" | the Saviour cannot have meant Himself, but only Peter, as is so much more apparent in Aramaic in which the same word (Kipha) is used for "Peter" and "rock". | His statement then admits | of but one explanation, namely, that He wishes to make Peter the head of the whole community of those who believed in Him as the true Messias; that through this foundation (Peter) the Kingdom of Christ would be unconquerable; that the spiritual guidance of the faithful was placed in the hands of Peter, as the special representative of Christ. | This meaning becomes so much the clearer | when we remember that the words "bind" and "loose" are not metaphorical, but Jewish juridical terms. | It is also clear that the position | of Peter among the other Apostles and in the Christian community was the basis for the Kingdom of God on earth, that is, the Church of Christ. | personally installed as Head | of the Apostles by Christ Himself. | This foundation created for the Church | by its Founder could not disappear with the person of Peter, but was intended to continue and did continue (as actual history shows) in the primacy of the Roman Church and its bishops. | Entirely inconsistent | and in itself untenable is the position of Protestants who (like Schnitzer in recent times) assert that the primacy of the Roman bishops cannot be deduced from the precedence which Peter held among the Apostles. | Just as the essential activity of the Twelve Apostles | in building up and extending the Church did not entirely disappear with their deaths, so surely did the Apostolic Primacy of Peter not completely vanish. | must have continued its existence and development | in a form appropriate to the ecclesiastical organism, just as the office of the Apostles continued in an appropriate form. | | | Objections have been raised | against the genuineness of the wording of the passage, but the unanimous testimony of the manuscripts, the parallel passages in the other Gospels, and the fixed belief of pre-Constantine literature furnish the surest proofs of the genuineness and untampered state of the text of Matthew (cf. "Stimmen aus MariaLaach", I, 1896,129 sqq.; "Theologie und Glaube", II, 1910, 842 sqq.). | In spite of his firm faith | in Jesus, Peter had so far no clear knowledge of the mission and work of the Saviour. | especially, as contradictory to his worldly conception of the Messias | were inconceivable to him, and his erroneous conception occasionally elicited a sharp reproof from Jesus (Matthew 16:21-23, Mark 8:31-33). | which continued notwithstanding his enthusiastic fidelity to his Master | was clearly revealed in connection with the Passion of Christ. The Saviour had already told him that Satan had desired him that he might sift him as wheat. | But Christ had prayed for him | that his faith fail not, and, being once converted, he confirms his brethren (Luke 22:31-32). | ready to accompany his Master to prison and to death | elicited Christ's prediction that Peter should deny Him (Matthew 26:30-35; Mark 14:26-31; Luke 22:31-34; John 13:33-38). | proceeded to wash the feet | of His disciples before the Last Supper, and came first to Peter, the latter at first protested, but, on Christ's declaring that otherwise he should have no part with Him, immediately said: "Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head" (John 13:1-10). | In the Garden of Gethsemani | Peter had to submit to the Saviour's reproach that he had slept like the others, while his Master suffered deadly anguish (Mark 14:37). | At the seizing | of Jesus, Peter in an outburst of anger wished to defend his Master by force, but was forbidden to do so. | He at first took to flight | with the other Apostles (John 18:10-11; Matthew 26:56); then turning he followed his captured Lord to the courtyard of the High Priest, and there denied Christ, asserting explicitly and swearing that he knew Him not (Matthew 26:58-75; Mark 14:54-72; Luke 22:54-62; John 18:15-27). | This denial | was of course due, not to a lapse of interior faith in Christ, but to exterior fear and cowardice. | His sorrow was thus so much the greater, | when, after his Master had turned His gaze towards him, he clearly recognized what he had done. | In spite of this weakness | his position as head of the Apostles was later confirmed by Jesus, and his precedence was not less conspicuous after the Resurrection than before. | The women | who were the first to find Christ's tomb empty, received from the angel a special message for Peter (Mark 16:7). | Christ appear on the first day | after the Resurrection (Luke 24:34; 1 Corinthians 15:5). | | | most important of all, | when He appeared at the Lake of Genesareth, Christ renewed to Peter His special commission to feed and defend His flock, after Peter had thrice affirmed his special love for his Master (John 21:15-17). | In conclusion | Christ foretold the violent death Peter would have to suffer, and thus invited him to follow Him in a special manner (John 21:20-23). | called and trained | for the Apostleship and clothed with the primacy of the Apostles, which he exercised in a most unequivocal manner after Christ's Ascension into Heaven. | Jerusalem and Palestine | Our information concerning the earliest Apostolic activity of St. Peter in Jerusalem, Judaea, and the districts stretching northwards as far as Syria is derived mainly from the first portion of the Acts of the Apostles, and is confirmed by parallel statements incidentally in the Epistles of St. Paul. | Among the crowd | of Apostles and disciples who, after Christ's Ascension into Heaven from Mount Olivet, returned to Jerusalem to await the fulfilment of His promise to send the Holy Ghost, Peter is immediately conspicuous as the leader of all, and is henceforth constantly recognized as the head of the original Christian community in Jerusalem. | He takes the initiative | in the appointment to the Apostolic College of another witness of the life, death and resurrection of Christ to replace Judas (Acts 1:15-26). | After the descent of the Holy Ghost | on the feast of Pentecost, Peter standing at the head of the Apostles delivers the first public sermon to proclaim the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and wins a large number of Jews as converts to the Christian community (Acts 2:14-41). | First of the Apostles | he worked a public miracle, when with John he went up into the temple and cured the lame man at the Beautiful Gate. | people crowding in amazement | about the two Apostles, he preaches a long sermon in the Porch of Solomon, and brings new increase to the flock of believers (Acts 3:1-4:4). | In the subsequent examinations | of the two Apostles before the Jewish High Council, Peter defends in undismayed and impressive fashion the cause of Jesus and the obligation and liberty of the Apostles to preach the Gospel (Acts 4:5-21). | When Ananias and Sapphira | attempt to deceive the Apostles and the people Peter appears as judge of their action, and God executes the sentence of punishment passed by the Apostle by causing the sudden death of the two guilty parties (Acts 5:1-11). | numerous miracles | God confirms the Apostolic activity of Christ's confessors, and here also there is special mention of Peter, since it is recorded that the inhabitants of Jerusalem and neighbouring towns carried their sick in their beds into the streets so that the shadow of Peter might fall on them and they might be thereby healed (Acts 5:12-16). | ever-increasing number of the faithful | caused the Jewish supreme council to adopt new measures against the Apostles, but "Peter and the Apostles" answer that they "ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29 sqq.). | labour in fulfilling the mission | entrusted to him by his Master. | He also retained connection with the other Christian communities | in Palestine, and preached the Gospel both there and in the lands situated farther north. | | | Philip the Deacon | had won a large number of believers in Samaria, Peter and John were deputed to proceed thither from Jerusalem to organize the community and to invoke the Holy Ghost to descend upon the faithful. | Peter appears a second time as judge, | in the case of the magician Simon, who had wished to purchase from the Apostles the power that he also could invoke the Holy Ghost (Acts 8:14-25). | On their way back to Jerusalem | the two Apostles preached the joyous tidings of the Kingdom of God. Subsequently, after Paul's departure from Jerusalem and conversion before Damascus, the Christian communities in Palestine were left at peace by the Jewish council. | now undertook an extensive missionary tour | which brought him to the maritime cities, Lydda, Joppe, and Caesarea. | In Lydda he cured the palsied Eneas | in Joppe he raised Tabitha (Dorcas) from the dead; and at Caesarea, instructed by a vision which he had in Joppe, he baptized and received into the Church the first non-Jewish Christians, the centurion Cornelius and his kinsmen (Acts 9:31-10:48). | a little later, | the strict Jewish Christians, who regarded the complete observance of the Jewish law as binding on all, asked him why he had entered and eaten in the house of the uncircumcised. | tells of his vision and defends his action | which was ratified by the Apostles and the faithful in Jerusalem (Acts 11:1-18). | A confirmation of the position | accorded to Peter by Luke, in the Acts, is afforded by the testimony of St. Paul (Galatians 1:18-20). | After his conversion and three years' residence in Arabia | Paul came to Jerusalem "to see Peter". | Apostle of the Gentiles | clearly designates Peter as the authorized head of the Apostles and of the early Christian Church. | Palestine soon came to an end | Herod Agrippa I began (A.D. 42-44) a new persecution of the Church in Jerusalem; after the execution of James, the son of Zebedee, this ruler had Peter cast into prison, intending to have him also executed after the Jewish Pasch was over. | was freed in a miraculous manner | and, proceeding to the house of the mother of John Mark, where many of the faithful were assembled for prayer, informed them of his liberation from the hands of Herod, commissioned them to communicate the fact to James and the brethren, and then left Jerusalem to go to "another place" (Acts 12:1-18). | subsequent activity | we receive no further connected information from the extant sources, although we possess short notices of certain individual episodes of his later life. | St. Luke does not tell us whither | Peter went after his liberation from the prison in Jerusalem. | From incidental statements we know | that he subsequently made extensive missionary tours in the East, although we are given no clue to the chronology of his journeys. | | | It is certain that he remained for a time at Antioch | he may even have returned thither several times. | The Christian community | of Antioch was founded by Christianized Jews who had been driven from Jerusalem by the persecution (Acts 11:19 sqq.). | residence among them is proved by the episode | concerning the observance of the Jewish ceremonial law even by Christianized pagans, related by St. Paul (Galatians 2:11-21). | | | the "pillars", Peter, James, and John | — had unreservedly approved St. Paul's Apostolate to the Gentiles, while they themselves intended to labour principally among the Jews. | While Paul was dwelling in Antioch | (the date cannot be accurately determined), St. Peter came thither and mingled freely with the non-Jewish Christians of the community, frequenting their houses and sharing their meals. | But when the Christianized Jews | arrived in Jerusalem, Peter, fearing lest these rigid observers of the Jewish ceremonial law should be scandalized thereat, and his influence with the Jewish Christians be imperiled, avoided thenceforth eating with the uncircumcised. | His conduct made a great impression | on the other Jewish Christians at Antioch, so that even Barnabas, St. Paul's companion, now avoided eating with the... | As this action was entirely opposed to the principles | and practice of Paul, and might lead to confusion among the converted pagans, this Apostle addressed a public reproach to St. Peter, because his conduct seemed to indicate a wish to compel the pagan converts to become Jews and accept circumcision and the Jewish law. | whole incident is another proof | of the authoritative position of St. Peter in the early Church, since his example and conduct was regarded as decisive. | who rightly saw the inconsistency in the conduct | of Peter and the Jewish Christians, did not hesitate to defend the immunity of converted pagans from the Jewish Law. | subsequent attitude on this question | St. Paul gives us no explicit information. | ratified the contention of | the Apostle of the Gentiles, and thenceforth conducted himself towards the Christianized pagans as at first. | As the principal opponents of his views in this connexion | Paul names and combats in all his writings only the extreme Jewish Christians coming "from James" (i.e., from Jerusalem). | While the date of this occurrence | whether before or after the Council of the Apostles, cannot be determined, it probably took place after the council (see below). | The later tradition | which existed as early as the end of the second century (Origen, "Hom. vi in Lucam"; Eusebius, Church History III.36), that Peter founded the Church of Antioch, indicates the fact that he laboured a long period there, and also perhaps that he dwelt there towards the end of his life and then appointed Evodrius, the first of the line of Antiochian bishops, head of the community. | This latter view would best explain the tradition | referring the foundation of the Church of Antioch to St. Peter. | It is also probable | that Peter pursued his Apostolic labours in various districts of Asia Minor for it can scarcely be supposed that the entire period between his liberation from prison and the Council of the Apostles was spent uninterruptedly in one city, whether Antioch, Rome, or elsewhere. | addressed the first of his Epistles to the faithful in the Provinces of Pontus | Galatia, Cappadocia, and Asia, one may reasonably assume that he had laboured personally at least in certain cities of these provinces, devoting himself chiefly to the Diaspora. | | | is of a general character | and gives little indication of personal relations with the persons to whom it is addressed. | The tradition related by Bishop Dionysius of Corinth | (in Eusebius, Church History II.25) in his letter to the Roman Church under Pope Soter (165-74), that Peter had (like Paul) dwelt in Corinth and planted the Church there, cannot be entirely rejected. | should receive no support from the existence | of the "party of Cephas", which Paul mentions among the other divisions of the Church of Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:12; 3:22), still Peter's sojourn in Corinth (even in connection with the planting and government of the Church by Paul) is not impossible. | undertook various Apostolic journeys | (doubtless about this time, especially when he was no longer permanently residing in Jerusalem) is clearly established by the general remark of St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:5, concerning the "rest of the apostles, and the brethren [cousins] of the Lord, and Cephas", who were travelling around in the exercise of their Apostleship. | occasionally to the original Christian Church | of Jerusalem, the guidance of which was entrusted to St. James, the relative of Jesus, after the departure of the Prince of the Apostles (A.D. 42-44). | The last mention of | St. Peter in the Acts (15:1-29; cf. Galatians 2:1-10) occurs in the report of the Council of the Apostles on the occasion of such a passing visit. | Paul and Barnabas at Antioch | the Church of this city sent these two Apostles with other envoys to Jerusalem to secure a definitive decision concerning the obligations of the converted pagans (see JUDAIZERS). | (about A.D. 50-51) in Jerusalem | In the discussion and decision of this important question, Peter naturally exercised a decisive influence. | When a great divergence of views had manifested itself | in the assembly, Peter spoke the deciding word. | Long before | in accordance with God's testimony, he had announced the Gospels to the heathen (conversion of Cornelius and his household); why, therefore, attempt to place the Jewish yoke on the necks of converted pagans? | had related how God had wrought among | the Gentiles by them, James, the chief representative of the Jewish Christians, adopted Peter's view and in agreement therewith made proposals which were expressed in an encyclical to the converted pagans. | occurrences in Caesarea and Antioch | and the debate at the Council of Jerusalem show clearly Peter's attitude towards the converts from paganism. | Like the other eleven original Apostles | he regarded himself as called to preach the Faith in Jesus first among the Jews (Acts 10:42), so that the chosen people of God might share in the salvation in Christ, promised to them primarily and issuing from their midst. | vision at Joppe | and the effusion of the Holy Ghost over the converted pagan Cornelius and his kinsmen determined Peter to admit these forthwith into the community of the faithful, | without imposing on them the Jewish Law. | | | | During his Apostolic journeys outside Palestine | he recognized in practice the equality of Gentile and Jewish converts, as his original conduct at Antioch proves. | His aloofness from the Gentile converts, | out of consideration for the Jewish Christians from Jerusalem, was by no means an official recognition of the views of the extreme Judaizers, who were so opposed to St. Paul. | This is established clearly and incontestably by his attitude | at the Council of Jerusalem. | there was no dogmatic difference in their conception of salvation | for Jewish and Gentile Christians. | Apostle of the Gentiles (Galatians 2:1-9) | was entirely sincere, and excludes all question of a fundamental divergence of views. | recognized the converts from paganism as Christian brothers | on an equal footing; Jewish and Gentile Christians formed a single Kingdom of Christ. | devoted the preponderating portion of his Apostolic activity to the Jews | this arose chiefly from practical considerations, and from the position of Israel as the Chosen People. | Baur's hypothesis of opposing currents of "Petrinism" and "Paulinism" | in the early Church is absolutely untenable, and is today entirely rejected by Protestants. | It is an indisputably established historical fact | that St. Peter laboured in Rome during the last portion of his life, and there ended his earthly course by martyrdom. | As to the duration of his | Apostolic activity in the Roman capital, the continuity or otherwise of his residence there, the details and success of his labours, and the chronology of his arrival and death, all these questions are uncertain, and can be solved only on hypotheses more or less well-founded. | essential fact is that | Peter died at Rome: this constitutes the historical foundation of the claim of the Bishops of Rome to the Apostolic Primacy of Peter. | St. Peter's residence and death in Rome | are established beyond contention as historical facts by a series of distinct testimonies extending from the end of the first to the end of the second centuries, and issuing from several lands. | That the manner, and therefore the place of his death, | must have been known in widely extended Christian circles at the end of the first century is clear from the remark introduced into the Gospel of St. John concerning Christ's prophecy that Peter was bound to Him and would be led whither he would not — "And this he said, signifying by what death he should glorify God" (John 21:18-19, see above). | Such a remark presupposes in the readers | of the Fourth Gospel a knowledge of the death of Peter. | was written almost undoubtedly from Rome | since the salutation at the end reads: "The church that is in Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you: and so doth my son Mark" (5:13). | | | Babylon must here be identified with the Roman capital | since Babylon on the Euphrates, which lay in ruins, or New Babylon (Seleucia) on the Tigris, or the Egyptian Babylon near Memphis, or Jerusalem cannot be meant, the reference must be to Rome, the only city which is called Babylon elsewhere in ancient Christian literature (Revelation 17:5; 18:10; "Oracula Sibyl.", V, verses 143 and 159, ed. Geffcken, Leipzig, 1902, 111). | From Bishop Papias of Hierapolis and Clement of Alexandria | who both appeal to the testimony of the old presbyters (i.e., the disciples of the Apostles), we learn that Mark wrote his Gospel in Rome at the request of the Roman Christians, who desired a written memorial of the doctrine preached to them by St. Peter and his disciples (Eusebius, Church History II.15, 3.40, 6.14); this is confirmed by Irenaeus (Against Heresies 3.1). | connection with this information | concerning the Gospel of St. Mark, Eusebius, relying perhaps on an earlier source, says that Peter described Rome figuratively as Babylon in his First Epistle. | Another testimony concerning the martyrdom | of Peter and Paul is supplied by Clement of Rome in his Epistle to the Corinthians (written about A.D. 95-97), wherein he says (chapter 5): "Through zeal and cunning the greatest and most righteous supports [of the Church] have suffered persecution and been warred to death. | Let us place before our eyes | the good Apostles — St. Peter, who in consequence of unjust zeal, suffered not one or two, but numerous miseries, and, having thus given testimony (martyresas), has entered the merited place of glory". | mentions Paul and a number of elect | who were assembled with the others and suffered martyrdom "among us" (en hemin, i.e., among the Romans, the meaning that the expression also bears in chapter 4). | He is speaking undoubtedly, as the whole passage proves | of the Neronian persecution, and thus refers the martyrdom of Peter and Paul to that epoch. | In his letter | written at the beginning of the second century (before 117), while being brought to Rome for martyrdom, the venerable Bishop Ignatius of Antioch endeavours by every means to restrain the Roman Christians from striving for his pardon, remarking: "I issue you no commands, like Peter and Paul: they were Apostles, while I am but a captive" (Epistle to the Romans 4). | The meaning of this remark | must be that the two Apostles laboured personally in Rome, and with Apostolic authority preached the Gospel there. | Bishop Dionysius of Corinth | in his letter to the Roman Church in the time of Pope Soter (165-74), says: "You have therefore by your urgent exhortation bound close together the sowing of Peter and Paul at Rome and Corinth. | For both planted the seed | of the Gospel also in Corinth, and together instructed us, just as they likewise taught in the same place in Italy and at the same time suffered martyrdom" (in Eusebius, Church History II.25). | Irenaeus of Lyons, a native of Asia Minor | and a disciple of Polycarp of Smyrna (a disciple of St. John), passed a considerable time in Rome shortly after the middle of the second century, and then proceeded to Lyons, where he became bishop in 177; he described the Roman Church as the most prominent and chief preserver of the Apostolic tradition, as "the greatest and most ancient church, known by all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul" (Against Heresies 3.3; cf. 3.1). | He thus makes use of the universally known and recognized fact | of the Apostolic activity of Peter and Paul in Rome, to find therein a proof from tradition against the heretics. | In his "Hypotyposes" | (Eusebius, Church History IV.14), Clement of Alexandria, teacher in the catechetical school of that city from about 190, says on the strength of the tradition of the presbyters: "After Peter had announced the Word of God in Rome and preached the Gospel in the spirit of God, the multitude of hearers requested Mark, who had long accompanied Peter on all his journeys, to write down what the Apostles had preached to them" (see above). | Like Irenaeus, Tertullian appeals, in his writings against heretics, | to the proof afforded by the Apostolic labours of Peter and Paul in Rome of the truth of ecclesiastical tradition. | In De Præscriptione 36, he says | "If thou art near Italy, thou hast Rome where authority is ever within reach. How fortunate is this Church for which the Apostles have poured out their whole teaching with their blood, where Peter has emulated the Passion of the Lord, where Paul was crowned with the death of John". | he also speaks of Peter's crucifixion | "The budding faith Nero first made bloody in Rome. | was girded by another | since he was bound to the cross". | As an illustration that it was immaterial | with what water baptism is administered, he states in his book (On Baptism 5) that there is "no difference between that with which John baptized in the Jordan and that with which Peter baptized in the Tiber"; and against Marcion he appeals to the testimony of the Roman Christians, "to whom Peter and Paul have bequeathed the Gospel sealed with their blood" (Against Marcion 4.5). | The Roman, Caius, | who lived in Rome in the time of Pope Zephyrinus (198-217), wrote in his "Dialogue with Proclus" (in Eusebius, Church History II.25) directed against the Montanists: "But I can show the trophies of the Apostles. | If you care to go to the Vatican | or to the road to Ostia, thou shalt find the trophies of those who have founded this Church". | By the trophies (tropaia) | Eusebius understands the graves of the Apostles, but his view is opposed by modern investigators who believe that the place of execution is meant. | For our purpose it is immaterial which opinion is correct, | as the testimony retains its full value in either case. | At any rate the place of execution and burial | of both were close together; St. Peter, who was executed on the Vatican, received also his burial there. | inscription of the names | of Peter and Paul, which have been preserved to the present day on the burial-places there" (i.e. at Rome). | There thus existed in Rome an ancient epigraphic memorial | commemorating the death of the Apostles. | obscure notice in the Muratorian Fragment | ("Lucas optime theofile conprindit quia sub praesentia eius singula gerebantur sicuti et semote passionem petri evidenter declarat", ed. Preuschen, Tübingen, 1910, p. 29) also presupposes an ancient definite tradition concerning Peter's death in Rome. | apocryphal Acts of St. Peter | and the Acts of Sts. Peter and Paul likewise belong to the series of testimonies of the death of the two Apostles in Rome. | opposition to this distinct and unanimous testimony | of early Christendom, some few Protestant historians have attempted in recent times to set aside the residence and death of Peter at Rome as legendary. | attempts have resulted in complete failure | It was asserted that the tradition concerning Peter's residence in Rome first originated in Ebionite circles, and formed part of the Legend of Simon the Magician, in which Paul is opposed by Peter as a false Apostle under Simon; just as this fight was transplanted to Rome, so also sprang up at an early date the legend of Peter's activity in that capital (thus in Baur, "Paulus", 2nd ed., 245 sqq., followed by Hase and especially Lipsius, "Die quellen der römischen Petrussage", Kiel, 1872). | But this hypothesis is proved fundamentally | untenable by the whole character and purely local importance of Ebionitism, and is directly refuted by the above genuine and entirely independent testimonies, which are at least as ancient. | It has moreover been now entirely abandoned by serious Protestant historians | (cf., e.g., Harnack's remarks in "Gesch. der altchristl. Literatur", II, i, 244, n. 2). | A more recent attempt was made by Erbes | (Zeitschr. fur Kirchengesch., 1901, pp. 1 sqq., 161 sqq.) to demonstrate that St. Peter was martyred at Jerusalem. | which two Romans, Albinus and Agrippa | are mentioned as persecutors of the Apostles. | These he identifies with the Albinus, Procurator of Judaea, and successor of Festus and Agrippa II, Prince of Galilee | and thence conciudes that Peter was condemned to death and sacrificed by this procurator at Jerusalem. | untenableness of this hypothesis becomes immediately apparent | from the mere fact that our earliest definite testimony concerning Peter's death in Rome far antedates the apocryphal Acts; besides, never throughout the whole range of Christian antiquity has any city other than Rome been designated the place of martyrdom of Sts. Peter and Paul. | activity and death in Rome is so clearly established | we possess no precise information regarding the details of his Roman sojourn. | narratives contained in the apocryphal literature of the second century | concerning the supposed strife between Peter and Simon Magus belong to the domain of legend. | | | From the already mentioned statements | regarding the origin of the Gospel of St. Mark we may conclude that Peter laboured for a long period in Rome. | This conclusion is confirmed by the unanimous voice of tradition which | as early as the second half of the second century, designates the Prince of the Apostles the founder of the Roman Church. | widely held that Peter paid a first visit to Rome | after he had been miraculously liberated from the prison in Jerusalem; that, by "another place", Luke meant Rome, but omitted the name for special reasons. | It is not impossible | that Peter made a missionary journey to Rome about this time (after 42 A.D.), but such a journey cannot be established with certainty. | At any rate, we cannot appeal in support of this theory to the chronological notices in Eusebius and Jerome | since, although these notices extend back to the chronicles of the third century, they are not old traditions, but the result of calculations on the basis of episcopal lists. | Into the Roman list of bishops dating from the second century | there was introduced in the third century (as we learn from Eusebius and the "Chronograph of 354") the notice of a twenty-five years' pontificate for St. Peter, but we are unable to trace its origin. | entry consequently affords no ground for the hypothesis | of a first visit by St. Peter to Rome after his liberation from prison (about 42). | We can therefore admit only the possibility of such an early visit to the capital. | The task of determining the year of St. Peter's death is attended with similar difficulties. | In the fourth century | and even in the chronicles of the third, we find two different entries. | In the "Chronicle" of Eusebius the thirteenth or fourteenth year of Nero is given as that of the death of Peter and Paul (67-68); | this date, accepted by Jerome, is that generally held. | year 67 | is also supported by the statement, also accepted by Eusebius and Jerome, that Peter came to Rome under the Emperor Claudius (according to Jerome, in 42), and by the above-mentioned tradition of the twenty-five years' episcopate of Peter (cf. Bartolini, "Sopra l'anno 67 se fosse quello del martirio dei gloriosi Apostoli", Rome, 1868). | A different statement is furnished | by the "Chronograph of 354" (ed. Duchesne, "Liber Pontificalis", I, 1 sqq.). | arrival in Rome to the year 30 | and his death and that of St. Paul to 55. | Duchesne has shown that the dates in the "Chronograph" | were inserted in a list of the popes which contains only their names and the duration of their pontificates, and then, on the chronological supposition that the year of Christ's death was 29, the year 30 was inserted as the beginning of Peter's pontificate, and his death referred to 55, on the basis of the twenty-five years' pontificate (op. cit., introd., vi sqq.). | This date has however been recently defended by Kellner | ("Jesus von Nazareth u. seine Apostel im Rahmen der Zeitgeschichte", Ratisbon, 1908; "Tradition geschichtl. Bearbeitung u. Legende in der Chronologie des apostol. Zeitalters", Bonn, 1909). | | | Other historians have accepted the year 65 | (e.g., Bianchini, in his edition of the "Liber Pontificalis" in P.L. CXXVII. 435 sqq.) or 66 (e.g. Foggini, "De romani b. Petri itinere et episcopatu", Florence, 1741; also Tillemont). | Harnack endeavoured to establish the year 64 | (i.e. the beginning of the Neronian persecution) as that of Peter's death ("Gesch. der altchristl. Lit. bis Eusebius", pt. II, "Die Chronologie", I, 240 sqq.). | is thus not yet decided | the period between July, 64 (outbreak of the Neronian persecution), and the beginning of 68 (on 9 July Nero fled from Rome and committed suicide) must be left open for the date of his death. | martyrdom is also unknown; 29 June | the accepted day of his feast since the fourth century, cannot be proved to be the day of his death (see below). | Concerning the manner of Peter's death | we possess a tradition — attested to by Tertullian at the end of the second century (see above) and by Origen (in Eusebius, Church History II.1)—that he suffered crucifixion. | Origen says: | "Peter was crucified at Rome with his head downwards, as he himself had desired to suffer" | As the place of execution may be accepted | with great probability the Neronian Gardens on the Vatican, since there, according to Tacitus, were enacted in general the gruesome scenes of the Neronian persecution; and in this district, in the vicinity of the Via Cornelia and at the foot of the Vatican Hills, the Prince of the Apostles found his burial place. | Of this grave | (since the word tropaion was, as already remarked, rightly understood of the tomb) Caius already speaks in the third century. | in a vault on the Appian Way | at the place ad Catacumbas, where the Church of St. Sebastian (which on its erection in the fourth century was dedicated to the two Apostles) now stands. | remains had probably been brought thither | at the beginning of the Valerian persecution in 258, to protect them from the threatened desecration when the Christian burial-places were confiscated. | They were later restored to their former resting-place | and Constantine the Great had a magnificent basilica erected over the grave of St. Peter at the foot of the Vatican Hill. | basilica was replaced | by the present St. Peter's in the sixteenth century. | The vault | with the altar built above it (confessio) has been since the fourth century the most highly venerated martyr's shrine in the West. | In the substructure of the altar, | over the vault which contained the sarcophagus with the remains of St. Peter, a cavity was made. | This was closed by a small door in front of the altar. | By opening this door the pilgrim could enjoy the great privilege of kneeling directly over the sarcophagus of the Apostle. | Keys of this door | were given as previous souvenirs (cf. Gregory of Tours, "De gloria martyrum", I, xxviii). | memory | of St. Peter is also closely associated with the Catacomb of St. Priscilla on the Via Salaria. | | | current in later Christian antiquity | St. Peter here instructed the faithful and administered baptism. | seems to have been based on still earlier monumental testimonies. | The catacomb is situated under the garden of a villa of the ancient Christian and senatorial family, the Acilii Glabriones, and its foundation extends back to the end of the first century; and since Acilius Glabrio, consul in 91, was condemned to death under Domitian as a Christian, it is quite possible that the Christian faith of the family extended back to Apostolic times, and that the Prince of the Apostles had been given hospitable reception in their house during his residence at Rome. | The relations between | Peter and Pudens whose house stood on the site of the present titular church of Pudens (now Santa Pudentiana) seem to rest rather on alegend. | Concerning the Epistles | of St. Peter, see EPISTLES OF SAINT PETER; concerning the various apocrypha bearing the name of Peter, especially the Apocalypse and the Gospel of St. Peter, see APOCRYPHA. | apocryphal sermon of Peter (kerygma), | dating from the second half of the second century, was probably a collection of supposed sermons by the Apostle; several fragments are preserved by Clement of Alexandria (cf. Dobschuts, "Das Kerygma Petri kritisch untersucht" in "Texte u. Untersuchungen", XI, i, Leipzig, 1893). | As early as the fourth century a feast was celebrated | in memory of Sts. Peter and Paul on the same day, although the day was not the same in the East as in Rome. | Syrian Martyrology of the end | of the fourth century, which is an excerpt from a Greek catalogue of saints from Asia Minor, gives the following feasts in connexion with Christmas (25 Dec.): 26 Dec., St. Stephen; 27 Dec., Sts. James and John; 28 Dec., Sts. Peter and Paul. | St. Gregory of Nyssa's panegyric on St. Basil | we are also informed that these feasts of the Apostles and St. Stephen follow immediately after Christmas. | Armenians celebrated the feast also on 27 Dec | the Nestorians on the second Friday after the Epiphany. | It is evident that 28 (27) Dec. was (like 26 Dec. for St. Stephen) | arbitrarily selected, no tradition concerning the date of the saints' death being forthcoming. | list of feasts of the martyrs | in the Chronograph of Philocalus appends this notice to the date — "III. Kal. Jul. Petri in Catacumbas et Pauli Ostiense Tusco et Basso Cose." (=the year 258) . | in the Berne manuscript | the following notice for 29 June: "Romae via Aurelia natale sanctorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli, Petri in Vaticano, Pauli in via Ostiensi, utrumque in catacumbas, passi sub Nerone, Basso et Tusco consulibus" (ed. de Rossi-Duchesne, 84). | shows that from this year the memory of the two Apostles | was celebrated on 29 June in the Via Appia ad Catacumbas (near San Sebastiano fuori le mura), because on this date the remains of the Apostles were translated thither (see above). | perhaps on the building of the church | over the graves on the Vatican and in the Via Ostiensis, the remains were restored to their former resting-place: Peter's to the Vatican Basilica and Paul's to the church on the Via Ostiensis. | place Ad Catacumbas a church was also built | as early as the fourth century in honour of the two Apostles. | | | their principal feast was kept | on 29 June, on which date solemn Divine Service was held in the above-mentioned three churches from ancient times (Duchesne, "Origines du culte chretien", 5th ed., Paris, 1909, 271 sqq., 283 sqq.; Urbain, "Ein Martyrologium der christl. Gemeinde zu Rom an Anfang des 5. Jahrh.", Leipzig, 1901, 169 sqq.; Kellner, "Heortologie", 3rd ed., Freiburg, 1911, 210 sqq.). | Legend sought to explain the temporary occupation | by the Apostles of the grave Ad Catacumbas by supposing that, shortly after their death, the Oriental Christians wished to steal their bodies and bring them to the East. | This whole story is evidently a product of popular legend. | (Concerning the Feast of the Chair of Peter, see CHAIR OF PETER.) | A third Roman feast | of the Apostles takes place on 1 August: the feast of St. Peter's Chains. | erected on the Esquiline Hill | in the fourth century. | A titular priest | of the church, Philippus, was papal legate at the Council of Ephesus in 431. | Sixtus III (432-40) | at the expense of the Byzantine imperial family. | Either the solemn consecration took place on 1 August | or this was the day of dedication of the earlier church. | Perhaps this day was selected to replace the heathen festivities | which took place on 1 August. | which is still standing | (S. Pietro in Vincoli), were probably preserved from the fourth century St. Peter's chains, which were greatly venerated, small filings from the chains being regarded as precious relics. | thus early received the name in Vinculis, | and the feast of 1 August became the feast of St. Peter's Chains (Duchesne, op. cit., 286 sqq.; Kellner, loc. cit., 216 sqq.). | later associated also with two places of ancient | Rome: the Via Sacra, outside the Forum, where the magician Simon was said to have been hurled down at the prayer of Peter and the prison Tullianum, or Carcer Mamertinus, where the Apostles were supposed to have been kept until their execution. | shrines of the Apostles were erected, | and that of the Mamertine Prison still remains in almost its original form from the early Roman time. | These local commemorations | of the Apostles are based on legends, and no special celebrations are held in the two churches. | were actually confined in the chief prison | in Rome at the fort of the Capitol, of which the present Carcer Mamertinus is a remnant. | | | oldest extant is the bronze medallion | with the heads of the Apostles; this dates from the end of the second or the beginning of the third century, and is preserved in the Christian Museum of the Vatican Library. | has a strong, roundish head, prominent jaw-bones | a receding forehead, thick, curly hair and beard. | (See illustration in CATACOMBS.) | The features are so individual that it partakes of the nature of a portrait. | This type is also found in two representations | of St. Peter in a chamber of the Catacomb of Peter and Marcellinus, dating from the second half of the third century (Wilpert, "Die Malerein der Katakomben Rom", plates 94 and 96). | paintings of the catacombs | Sts. Peter and Paul frequently appear as interceders and advocates for the dead in the representations of the Last Judgment (Wilpert, 390 sqq.), and as introducing an Orante (a praying figure representing the dead) into Paradise. | In the numerous representations of Christ in the midst | of His Apostles, which occur in the paintings of the catacombs and carved on sarcophagi, Peter and Paul always occupy the places of honour on the right and left of the Saviour. | In the mosaics of the Roman basilicas | dating from the fourth to the ninth centuries, Christ appears as the central figure, with Sts. Peter and Paul on His right and left, and besides these the saints especially venerated in the particular church. | | | | |
