ON VENERABLE DOMINIC LEONESIUS, OF THE ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR, AT URBINO IN ITALY.
PrefaceVenerable Dominic Leonesius, of the Order of Friars Minor, at Urbino in Italy (Ven.)
By D. P.
[1] Urbino, the ancient and noble city of Umbria, once the seat of the Dukes of Montefeltro, then subject to the Ecclesiastical dominion, has had in every age distinguished men, both in arms and in letters, in civil and ecclesiastical matters. Among the ornaments of its sanctity is numbered Venerable Dominic Leonesius, of the Order of Friars Minor, who is commemorated on April 20.
[2] His origin and entry into the Order Dominic was born in a small town called Leonessa, whence his surname, in the province of the Kingdom of Naples. From his early youth he was drawn to divine things, and renouncing the world entered the Order of Friars Minor, of the Observant branch. There he distinguished himself by humility, obedience, and austerity of life; and was found worthy of the priesthood, which he exercised with much fruit for souls.
[3] His life and miracles He was a man of constant prayer, severe fasting, and great charity toward his neighbor. He served the sick with tenderness, consoled the afflicted, and preached the word of God with fervor. Many who heard him were moved to penance, and many came to him for spiritual direction. By his prayers also, various graces and miracles are said to have been obtained: the sick were healed, the demons were driven out, the troubled were comforted. He was especially famous for his gift of prophecy, by which he foretold many future things, which came to pass as he had said.
[4] His death and burial at Urbino At Urbino, at length, he ended his pious life on April 20, in a year whose exact date is uncertain, but is reckoned to the sixteenth century. His body was buried in the church of the Friars Minor at Urbino, where it is honored by the faithful; and on the anniversary of his death his memory is celebrated in the Order with devout remembrance. Although he has not been formally canonized by the Holy See, his cult, handed down by immemorial tradition, is respected both in the Order and in the city; and his name is inscribed in the catalogues of the saints and blessed of the Seraphic Order.
this sacred Virgin granted to a woman of Clancianum, and to two men who had become wholly blind. Another woman obtained a similar grace: having vowed to visit the sacred relics of the virgin Agnes barefoot, she was at once given light. i
[91] k I do not wish to extend myself in narrating the many miracles done for various cripples and lame persons, a cripple is made to stand which can easily be known if one examines the tablets and wax images hanging near her venerable body. We shall insert one however more wondrous and better known: that in the castle of Monticelli a certain well-known cripple named Peter, on account of a great contraction of bones and nerves, was so deprived of natural strength that he could walk only with great difficulty, and then with wooden crutches. When the fame of the wonders which the Lord was working through this kind Virgin had reached his ears, he resolved with firm faith to visit her sacred body. So as soon as he had entered the church in which the body of this sacred Virgin rested, so great was the virtue of this holy Virgin, that feeling every contracted bone and weakened nerve in himself raised up and strengthened, stupefied he knew himself perfectly healed: raising himself on high, and for joy and for so astonishing a miracle casting away his useless crutches, running and leaping he praised God and the holy Virgin continually.
[92] A certain man, an inhabitant of Cursignanum, l who had been deaf and mute from birth, learning through external signs of the wonders speech is restored to a man and a woman which the Lord was working through his bride, devoutly commending himself to her with firm faith, at once received the use of speech and hearing together. Wherefore, presenting himself before his own Priest, he confessed all his sins wholly, and with that same Priest visiting the sacred Relics of the Virgin, before a Notary and witnesses related so astonishing a miracle. m A certain woman, through a grave infirmity, lost the use of speech, so that on account of it she remained mute for fifteen years: who humbly commending herself to the Blessed Virgin, was at once restored to her former lost speech, giving thanks to God and the holy Virgin. n
[93] the same is taken away from one blaspheming Agnes's miracles No small argument of the most ample merit of this sacred Virgin is the following miracle: for in the castle of Montepulciano there was one o who not only did not believe the frequently recited miracles of this kind Virgin, but mocked them with a certain derision. Wherefore once passing near the church in which the body of the holy Virgin rests, and hearing the miracles that were occurring being told, he mocked them bitingly. After this, entering the church, with very loose laughter and cachinnation and with most vain words, he was most impudently detracting from the divine effects. and is restored to the penitent Wherefore the most just Lord, wishing to show how greatly such shameless mockery and rash contempt had displeased him, this wretched unbeliever, entering his own house, was suddenly by God's judgment deprived of speech. Wherefore compunct in himself, recognizing the committed fault, he devoutly and humbly implored the help of the holy Virgin herself, whom before he had proudly contemned irreverently. Frequenting then his prayers for three continuous days, and promising that he would never again loose his tongue to such nefarious uses, at length the most clement Virgin, bent by the divine vengeance made manifest, obtained his lost speech for him: whence it came to pass that he who had been a mocker of this kind Virgin became forthwith a most efficacious preacher of her glory.
[94] A certain man, an inhabitant of Monte-Alto, the possessed are freed had a son whom from tender age malign spirits so agitated that in no way could he look at the image of any Saint, nor remain in church when divine things were being celebrated. Hearing about this, his parents, learning of the wondrous virtues which the Lord was working through this sacred Virgin, led the son thus vexed to the church of the aforesaid Virgin, and suddenly the malign spirit left the body it had so long possessed. [p] A certain woman [q] was so troubled by infernal spirits that unless she had been prevented, she would have killed herself many times: whence many times the demons, constrained by the sacred exorcisms, clamored that they could not go out of the body except by visiting the church of the Blessed virgin Agnes. and a possessed woman Wherefore her husband and kinsmen, awaiting the accustomed interval in which she was not vexed by the malign spirits, persuaded the said possessed woman to commend herself devoutly to the virgin Agnes, and to promise to visit her Relics. They carrying this out together, when they drew near the castle of Montepulciano, the malign spirits, foreseeing their expulsion, tried to impede the undertaking by monstrous acts; crying out with execrable voice that they could go no farther. Wherefore the accompanying kinsmen, further strengthened, brought her violently into the church, and she was at once fully freed from the vexation of the malign spirits.
[95] Not less worthy of memory and of imitable example for most honest women is what I intend to narrate. A spell cast on a pure woman is dissolved There was in the county of Perugia a certain most chaste young woman, of whose beauty and graceful aspect a certain wicked and nefarious Priest, captured by love, seeing every attempted effort ineffectual to overcome her constant purpose, and wishing wholly to satisfy his unbridled desire, by such diabolical art, through the mediation of a certain other sacrilegious Priest, so afflicted the said young woman, that through bestial and impudent acts presented to her imagination, she was reckoned by almost all as insane and crazed because of her unaccustomed acts: wherefore her husband, [r] sorrowing for her infirmity, sought opportune remedies from every side. He therefore vowed a vow to Blessed virgin Agnes, that if she by her most holy prayer would free his most sweet consort from so miserable a case, magnifying the divine miracle, they would together devoutly visit her Relics, reckoning this above all as the chief and singular remedy. The vow being made, little by little the infernal wickedness began to fail, and in a brief space of time she was wholly freed by the merits of Blessed Agnes.
[96] A certain man, [s] an inhabitant of the city called Grosseto, captured in war by the Counts of [t] Santa Fiora, under a ransom of one hundred fifty florins, condemned to a dire prison and the harshest torments, finding no other refuge in such anguish than with tears to implore the most clement Lord, a Grosseto citizen is released from prison through the mediation of this sacred Virgin; since her most holy name was unknown to him, he most fervently besought God that he would deign to reveal to him the said name, fearing because of this not to be heard. On the following night, while he was resting in sleep, Blessed Agnes appeared to him, all splendid, and made her name known to him, sweetly admonishing him that if he would promise to visit her Relics, he would at once be freed. Waking the devout man, a vow suddenly sent forth, every harsh chain was miraculously broken, and the door opened, and free he escaped safe from the hands of his enemies: wherefore, according to the faith promised, visiting the sacred body of the Virgin, without doubt he recognized that she was truly the holy Agnes who had appeared to him placed in prison, and who had led him miraculously out of that dark prison.
[97] Another, [u] on account of a homicide committed, being led to Arezzo to be punished with death, devoutly commended himself to the virgin Agnes. On the following night, before he came to the aforesaid city, and a certain man guilty of death from his chains the blessed Virgin appearing to him said: "After, son, you have commended yourself to me, in no way fear death: but as soon as with the armed guards you shall be near the castle called [x] Plebs, all the chains by which you are bound being broken by divine virtue, you shall flee to a nearby ruined house: in which the guards, blinded, not finding you, shall return empty home." All which things, as had been shown to him, were fulfilled. A similar thing also happened to a certain Perugian, who when he was enclosed in a dark prison and at the bottom of a certain tower, likewise another imprisoned man because of a certain crime committed by him, and was soon to undergo a capital sentence, devoutly invoked the blessed Mother of God for his help. The blessed Mother of God Mary appeared to him the following night, admonishing that he should invoke the help of blessed Agnes, because the Lord had arranged to adorn her with multiple miracles. But the captive, waking, at once promised to this sacred Virgin (whose name he had known only in the vision), if by her merits he should be freed from such danger, he would serve her church forever. The vow made, suddenly he found himself outside the prison, freed from the hard chains and fetters. [y]
[98] God almighty, wishing in every degree to adorn this his handmaid, cured: an insane woman manifested his powerful virtue through her in a certain incurable and desperate insanity. For a certain woman of Arezzo, [z] who, except for a certain lucid interval, was utterly deprived of the use of reason, devoutly commending herself to Blessed Agnes, with her interior senses strengthened, was fully healed. Among others also through the merits of this kind Virgin, ten persons were freed from the horrible disease of epilepsy. ten epileptics A certain woman, vehemently afflicted with the pains of pleurisy, imploring the help of Blessed Agnes and of Christina the Virgins, a pleuritic woman whom she venerated with the highest devotion, both appearing to her in a vision, Blessed Christina, as it seemed to her, after a long contention, said that she had obtained from the Lord that she should obtain help from Agnes. Whence to the sick woman's breast gently uncovered, on the place of pain the holy Agnes placed her hand, saying: "Be strengthened, daughter; for you shall be fully whole." A wondrous thing. With such a vision disappearing, that devout woman was fully healed, so that thereafter she felt no pain in that place. [w]
NOTES.
ANALECTA
Chiefly from the Italian of Brother Laurence.
Agnes of Montepulciano, of the Order of Saint Dominic, in Etruria (St.)
BY D. P.
CHAPTER I.
Certain other miracles.
[1] Ambrogio Taegius here making an end, and probably because he found nothing further in the Montepulciano manuscript (as neither does Laurence of Surdini Mariani appear to have found, keeping the same order of miracles as is here preserved), was preparing to add a conclusion about a certain astonishing miracle, unheard-of in our times; beginning thus: "Now putting an end to the ancient miracles, A miracle of the year 1500 is wanting I intend to narrate only one wondrous thing, which Christ Jesus, Spouse of Virgins, that he might kindle the cold hearts of mortals in devotion to his most beloved Bride, willed to show to our times many times, in the year of the Lord 1510, and singularly on the last day of January and on February 27 for those present." Thus far Taegius: to him wishing to write the rest, some unforeseen impediment then happened to object itself; afterwards it escaped memory to continue the interrupted narrative, to the greater damage of history, because of those things he was preparing to narrate no Instruments seem to have been drawn up, by whose benefit Surdini could have recalled them. It pleased however not to hide this initial fragment, lest by chance sometime from such an indication the rest be found, to be given in Supplement. Now we here collect a few other ancient miracles, which either Brother Raymond did not touch or Taegius in transcribing passed over, as they are recited by Laurence of Surdini in Italian.
[2] Various lame are healed A certain woman of Montepulciano named Rosa, so weak in her feet that she could not walk without crutches, by invoking Blessed Agnes obtained the grace of free walking, and before she went out of the church handed her crutches to Brother Bartholomew, Prior and Confessor of the convent, and returned home free with thanksgiving. Another, also a Montepulciano citizen, named Milia, with oath affirmed that her son, for many years maimed in feet, by a vow made by her to Saint Agnes, suddenly obtained health. In the same way was healed another woman, to whom a certain infirmity of the shin had taken away the faculty of walking. A certain Cortona smith, called Brucciarellus, with similar success made a vow to offer a waxen image at the body of Blessed Agnes for his little son, contracted in the nerves of his feet and shins. Angelus of Montepulciano, reduced by contraction of nerves to such a state that he could not even help his step by crutches, and finding himself for a whole month deprived of speech, vowed some pounds of wax, and was at once restored to former health: who soon, as also a certain Mendus from the neighborhood of Montepulciano, freed from a similar trouble of the shins by vowing a twisted wax candle, gave witness by public instrument before Notary and witnesses of the miracle done in their persons.
[3] likewise a mute woman A certain Mancuccia, mute for the eighteenth month, coming with great faith to Montepulciano to visit the body of Blessed Agnes, suddenly obtained the grace of ready speech; and she made it public by an instrument drawn up about it. Hither also pertains the testimony of Father Robert Bellarmine of the Society of Jesus, afterwards Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, and a preacher made mute by sorcery writing thus in a certain letter to Dominicus Danesius: "I can be a witness to a notable miracle, which happened in my childhood in our city (for Bellarmine was a native of Montepulciano) which I do not know whether it has been committed to writing by anyone. The sum is this. A certain very pious man of the Order of Preachers was preaching in the cathedral church through Lent: but certain nefarious men by magic incantations brought it about that when he mounted the pulpit, immediately his voice failed him. At length, a vow having been made to Saint Agnes, the incantations were detected, and his voice restored. I myself saw him in the pulpit once and again, when he could speak in no way; and a little after I heard the same, when in the church of Saint Agnes with clearest voice he gave a most splendid sermon on the praises of the same Blessed Virgin to the people, and at the same time narrated the miracle and fulfilled his vows." Bellarmine was born in the year of the Christian Era 1543, entered our Society in the 18th year of his age; in the year 1576 returning from Belgium to Italy, at length in 1599 sic: 1599 he was created Cardinal: from which the time both of the miracle done and of the testimony written can easily be judged.
[4] to a friend's vow A certain native of the Aretine county, from the castle called Laterina, named Blancuccius, captured by Count Aginolfus, was enclosed within a deep tower, with guards placed in addition. There being much doubt among his kinsmen about his safety, a certain one of them named Cambius vowed, if he should recover his friend safe, to lead him to Montepulciano. the absent captive is freed At that same instant he felt his chains loosed by an invisible hand, and saw the lesser gate of the said tower opened to him of itself, through which going out, most swiftly he hastened to his house, about to narrate the miracle that had happened to him: when Cambius met him, and with great stupor embracing his friend asked at what hour he had left the tower. And when he had learned that it was at the same hour at which he had made his vow, many other graces are obtained both together went to the church of Saint Agnes, and there with their oath before witnesses attested the miracle they were narrating. It is found besides that Blessed Agnes freed various from dropsy, acute fevers, and diverse diseases: likewise from fires, floods, and other such cases, which it has not seemed good to enumerate one by one, both lest prolixity about things not very great, if compared with the earlier ones, cause tedium, and because they are not, like these, attested and strengthened by authentic writings.
CHAPTER II.
The honor shown to the sacred body and variously augmented.
[5] In the year 1354, since the Italian peoples feared for themselves from the excessive power of the Visconti of Milan, the confederates of Lombardy entered with the cities of Etruria into a society of arms; to which were added the Venetians, Paduans, Veronese, Mantuans, and Ferrarese; and they persuaded Charles IV the Emperor to come with an army into Italy, which he did on October 14 of the above-mentioned year. Then the following year, making his journey through Etruria toward Rome, on April 20 he took dinner at Montepulciano, with Jacob and Nicholas Cavalieri then holding affairs there, and he granted various privileges to the place, as even now may be read in the book called "Copparum." But since that very day, by now established custom, was very festive to the citizens, celebrating the passing of Blessed Agnes from this world, and her body ought to be shown to the people, it was judged expedient to inform the Emperor of this matter. The body being viewed, she herself opens her eyes It was most pleasing to the pious Emperor; who therefore with his whole retinue wished to be present at so solemn an action, and was present to his great benefit. For as soon as the coffer was opened, the Blessed also opened her own eyes and directed them to the Emperor: as is found extensively written in the appendix to the Life of the Blessed, written on parchment by the hand of Brother Raymond himself, as some will have it; others to whom the same character seems to be of both the Life and the appendix make the writer of both Vincent Marotta of Giffoni, Doctor of Laws, who described the Life of Blessed Agnes in hexameter and pentameter verses; the Appendix he begins thus: "As I read in certain very ancient chronicles, word for word, it is said," etc. This we could wish also were thus had.
[6] and wins him over to the Order of Preachers What the sacred Virgin then said interiorly in her heart to the Emperor, who so lovingly beheld him exteriorly, he knows who experienced it. If anyone wishes to consider with what affection thence he followed the Order of Preachers—from which some tried to make him more alien, importunately reviving the calumny about the poison which a rumor had spread as having been given to his grandfather Henry of Luxembourg under the sacred Host by his Confessor, a Religious of the said Order; a vain and most false rumor, yet so widely spread that the Cardinals had to write a letter to the Prelates of Germany on the assertion of the innocence of Brother Bernard of Montepulciano (whom some wrongly call of Montpellier)
have written), he who will consider these things will not without reason suspect that by that look the Blessed wished to excuse and at the same time commend her Order, and he is honored with gifts or to strengthen the constancy in loving and protecting it. The Emperor recognized the excellence of the favor done to him, and in turn gave various precious gifts to the church; among which were certain most beautiful arms, placed in a prominent spot near the altar of the Blessed, of which Brother Modestus Billiotti, Prior of the Montepulciano convent in 1562, testifies that he was told by Brother Peter of Pistoia, a very old man, that he remembered that discussion had often been had by those who had still seen the said arms there: but that they had been alienated because of the extreme want of the convent, with wars burning all around. To this visitation of the earthly Emperor may be added another, far more attested and more famous and more illustrious in miracles, about twenty-five years later, through Saint Catherine of Siena: but because it is fully described in the Life of the said Saint, by the same Raymond of Capua who wrote Agnes's Life as a young man, we refer the reader to it in number 195 on April 30.
[7] Indulgences are granted So great celebrity accrued to the church of Saint Agnes through the grace shown to the Emperor, as has been said, that Brother Augustine Bishop of Narni in 1357, by a bull beginning "Splendor paternae gloriae," with the consent of the diocesan Bishop, established forty days' Indulgences for all visiting the church of Saint Agnes. Then in the year 1380 Cardinal Galeotto Tarlati de Petramala, in the time of Urban VI, granted fuller indulgences of one hundred days for the feasts of Blessed Agnes, the Paschal days, the Marian and Apostolic solemnities, and also for Saint John the Baptist, Saint Lawrence, Saint Stephen, and every Sunday of Lent. Afterwards in an age closer to us, in 1531, Pope Paul III by word of mouth, through Cardinal Cervinus (afterwards Pope Marcellus), granted Plenary Indulgence to all who on the Kalends of May having duly confessed their sins and been refreshed by holy Communion devoutly poured prayers in the said church: even Plenary which Pope Pius IV renewed in similar manner through Cardinal John de Riccis in 1561. When in 1568 the Fathers of the Roman Province celebrated their Provincial Chapter at Montepulciano, Pius V granted that during that Chapter those going to the church would gain, as often as they went, seven years' and seven Lenten-period indulgences. Finally when I unworthy was established Prior of that convent in 1602, at the request of our Most Reverend Bishop Salustius Taurusius, Cardinal Taurusius obtained similar indulgences for April 20, to last for five years.
[8] The monastery which had been of Virgins This monastery of Saint Maria Novella, as it had been instituted by Saint Agnes for virgins consecrated to God, so it persevered until the times of Eugene IV; when on account of the continual wars through Tuscany, and the diminished piety of the people and the small number of nuns, it was judged that suitable discipline could not be kept in such a small number, nor the same conveniently augmented in those circumstances of the times. So through the Procurator General of the Order, Brother Jacob, the calamitous state of the monastery was laid before the Pope, it becomes a convent of Brothers in 1435 who on June 20 of the year 1435 ordered that the few who remained should be transferred to the convent of Saint Paul of Orvieto, and that the name of monastery being suppressed, it should become a convent of the Friars Preachers: to whom moreover in the following year the same Pope attributed the Hospital of Saint Peter with all its resources. A little before, the same Fathers had obtained from Pope Martin V the monastery of Saint Luke which had belonged to the Sacchitae nuns, in which Blessed Agnes had first been received, and had migrated into it; but because they found this place not very convenient for their uses, they obtained that they might cede it to the Confraternity of Saint Sebastian, which under that title in each year testifies the grateful memory of the benefit received.
[9] Since then the Preachers were already dwelling there, they began more solicitously to think about treating the body of Blessed Agnes more honorably; and to persuade the Community to decree some special ornament to be made for her. under them a new coffer is fabricated A great chest was made of walnut, more elegantly worked in the form of a tomb and gilded, within which the sacred body was placed; and above it a statue of the holy Virgin in Dominican habit: three keys also were made for the coffer, of which one remains with the Friars, the other two with the Community: the body is translated and so the translation was made from one side, where hitherto had lain so great a treasure, to the head of the church beneath the principal altar. Then in 1539 Cardinal Gaddus, by I know not what benefit owing to Blessed Agnes, sent through D. Francesco Bartoli several times a good sum of money the altar is adorned for the adornment of the aforesaid altar, of artificially carved wood, which he wished to be illuminated with gold: but death coming prematurely envied the completion of the illustrious work, which that it might rise more magnificently, also the community of Montepulciano for its part contributed no light sum for the stone bases to be placed under the work about to rise, as is seen even today.
[10] It happened that when on one occasion the aforesaid coffer was opened before the chief men of the town and many others assisting, the sacred body sweated blood: the body sweats blood which when some would not believe those reporting, again on the very day of Easter a bloody sweat broke out more copiously; nor was it doubted that it portended the warlike movements by which all Tuscany was about to be stirred. Don Dominic Danesi also affirms that he often heard Don Spinelli, the Bishop of the city, that his grandfather publicly narrated how in former times Montepulciano rebelled against the Sienese: on which account Charles VIII King of France, hastening to Naples (it was in the year 1494), stopped at Monte-fullonica, intending to send part of his army to investigate the cause of the rebellion and to punish the fault. Therefore the townsfolk, terrified with grave fear of the impending destruction, had the body of Blessed Agnes, which was remaining in its church outside the town, brought with fitting company of lights to the greater church: which lights being seen at the nearby castle of Monte-fullonica, the city is freed from danger of destruction seemed to the eyes of the King and the royal ministers almost innumerable, and gave the suspicion of great forces led to the defense of the place: wherefore the King, changing his plan, ordered the camps moved, with no trouble inflicted on the people of Montepulciano. Many other similar things are reported, which, since they rest on common tradition alone, I thought should be passed over; lest the authority of things hitherto said, which are had either from authentic writings or from witnesses above all exception, should be detracted from by the admixture of such less certain narratives.
CHAPTER III.
The proper Feast and Office of Blessed Agnes obtained from the Apostolic See.
[11] There persevered in this way among the Montepulciano people a great esteem for the sanctity of Blessed Agnes, and on the Kalends of May each year an innumerable multitude of men gathered to behold and venerate the incorrupt body: yet among the divine offices of that day, to which she gave the chief celebrity, her name was not heard. Therefore Brother Angelo of Diaccetto, then Roman Provincial, afterwards Bishop of Fiesole, as he was most devoutly affected toward Blessed Agnes, obtained from the Pope the following Brief:
"To the beloved sons the Prior and Brothers of the House of the Order of Friars Preachers, Clement VII indulges the Montepulciano people and to the University and men of Montepulciano, of no diocese. Pope Clement VII, greeting and Apostolic benediction. The Roman Pontiff, Vicar of our Savior Lord Jesus Christ, is disposed to celebrate with distinguished praises and venerate with spiritual honors the elect of the same Lord, whom the purity of life and excellence of merits commend: that Christ's faithful, invoking them and aided by their prayers and merits, may more easily merit to become partakers of the heavenly kingdom. You have recently caused it to be explained to us, that since Blessed (as is piously believed) Agnes of Montepulciano, a nun of the Order of Saint Augustine under the care of the Friars Preachers, while she lived in human affairs, shone greatly by exemplary life, by the odor of good fame and holiness, and also even now in the house of the Order of the same Friars of the town of Montepulciano, of no diocese, in which she is buried, the Most High cooperating, shines with very many miracles: and therefore you desire, that they may make a feast and office of Saint Agnes for the praise and glory of the divine name, to honor and venerate the same Blessed Agnes, for whom you have a singular affection of devotion, although she has not yet been reckoned among the Saints and canonized. We therefore, who willingly incite individual faithful to acts of devotion, inclined to your supplications in this part, concede and indulge to you, by Apostolic authority, by the tenor of these presents, that you may freely and lawfully venerate and honor the said Blessed Agnes, although not canonized, privately and publicly and solemnly, in the church of the house of the said Order and in the other churches of the said town, and in the said town only, and celebrate a proper Office of her and make a solemn feast; notwithstanding Apostolic ordinances and other contrary matters whatsoever. Given at Rome, at Saint Peter's, under the ring of the Fisherman, on the 28th day of May, 1532, in the 9th year of our Pontificate."
[12] By virtue of such an indulgence the proper feast of Blessed Agnes began to be celebrated with the office of the Common of Virgins, and this was done until the year 1593, in 1593 proper Lessons were composed when it seemed more convenient that proper Lessons of the Blessed should be composed from her Life: which when they were proposed to the sacred Congregation of Rites by the Reverend Father Brother Augustine of Montalcino, Master of Theology, on behalf of the Order; and on behalf of the Montepulciano Clergy, by Don Dominic Danesi, Apostolic Protonotary; and had been read in the Congregation on October 24, the care of examining them more accurately was committed to the Reverend Father Robert Bellarmine, then still a Priest of the Society of Jesus, who faithfully discharged the task imposed on him, and reported his opinion in these words: "I Robert Bellarmine testify that I have examined these Lessons and found them true in every part." Nonetheless the aforesaid Congregation, deliberating again on these, on November 14 committed to Cardinal Gesualdo that he should write to the very Illustrious and Reverend Don Spinelli, Bishop of Montepulciano, that he should compare the said Lessons with the Life of the Blessed existing on parchment with the Dominican Fathers, and if he should find them in all things conformed to it, he should take care to report this to the sacred Congregation: which when he had done in the year 1594 on May 17, and also added his own supplication for the approval of the same; in 1594 they are shortened once they were read again by the Congregation, and when the aforesaid Robert Bellarmine had shortened them (having been judged too prolix), he said: "I testify that these Lessons, previously examined diligently by me, have now also been made briefer, a third part at least having been removed."
[13] At length, since even so they seemed too prolix, Don Antonio Viperano, a most eloquent man, and again then by chance at Rome to visit the Apostolic thresholds, at the request of Cardinal Gesualdo, shortened them further, and in this form on August 30 the Congregation of Sacred Rites judged that it could be granted to the Canons and Clergy
of the Cathedral Church of the city of Montepulciano, that on the feast of Blessed Agnes the Virgin, which by the indulgence of Pope Clement VII of happy memory is celebrated on April 20 under the rite of a Double office, they might recite the three Lessons inscribed above, taken from the History of the same Blessed Agnes the Virgin, examined and approved by the sacred Congregation. In similar tenor the Congregation judged that the Fathers Preachers of the said city might be permitted the nine Lessons and are approved by the Congregation of Rites which they had composed for themselves privately according to the rite of their own Breviary; and consequently a Brief of Clement VIII was drawn up on October 18 of the year 1594 concerning this concession. But the Pro-secretary of the said Congregation, Rutilio Gallicinus Familiarius, often asked by Bellarmine and Danesi, gathered the whole progress of the business, and from the authentic writings preserved with Cardinal Gesualdo, described it with his own hand, and concluded in this way:
[14] "There is therefore for you, citizens of Montepulciano, something over which you may wonderfully rejoice; not indeed over other goods in which you abound, earthly indeed and about to pass away in a short time; but on account of this most blessed Virgin, your citizen and patroness, with whose precious body you are enriched. The people of Montepulciano, distinguished by the fame of sanctity Your city will indeed have on the last day (to use the words of Saint John Chrysostom) a rose to send to Christ: yet not this rose alone, but many others—namely Blessed John and Bartholomew, both from the Martinotia family, renowned Martyrs of Christ; and another Bartholomew Pucci Francesco, Franciscus Petrigorius, Jerome Paganuccius, and Angelinus Danesius, all from the most illustrious family of Saint Francis. It will also send other roses, namely Brother Philip the Augustinian Martyr, Brother Jacob once Bishop of Diatagora in the city of Persia of the Order of Preachers, Brother Nicholas the Jesuate, and Bartholomew Taurusius a secular; by whose exceptional sanctity your city is most illustrated. O happy you! to whom by the highest benefit of God it has happened to have so many athletes of Christ, so many leaders, so many illustrious witnesses of your piety and religion. We know that many other men, conspicuous in innocence and holiness of life, whose names are written in the book of life, have come forth from your same city; but it is not our purpose here to enumerate all, being especially engaged in another matter. You, I say, blessed and happy! But you will be much happier if, as you are strenuously doing, you shall model your manners on the most distinguished life of your citizens whom we have enumerated: so that following their footsteps, you may deserve at last to enjoy their fellowship in heaven. Amen."
[15] This conclusion of the said process (though not making much to the point of what we are about here) it has pleased us to produce entire; so that if the citizens of Montepulciano, after they shall have read what we have written, could and would supply something concerning the life, miracles, and cult of those whom the Pro-secretary of the Congregation of Rites (who ought best to have known whether and how the title of Blessed can be given to anyone before the judgment of the Roman church) thus full-mouthed calls Blessed, they may take care to supply it to us, to be inserted in this work. John de Martinotiis is reported to have suffered martyrdom at Cairo in 1545, referred to April 15 in the Franciscan Martyrology, of whom some are inscribed in the Franciscan Martyrology and Brother Laurence in chapter 1 of his work on Blessed Agnes writes that his effigy as a Martyr is seen among the people of Montepulciano in the church of Saint Francis, and another in Santa Maria at the fountain of the castle; and there also he gives some notice of most of those here recalled. Bartholomew, of the same family as the aforesaid John, about a hundred years before preceded him to the crown, namely in 1353, and is named in the said Martyrology on April 30. Another Bartholomew, referred in the same to May 6, is said to have shone with miracles about the year 1320. Franciscus Petrigorius, an apostolic man, labored for thirty-eight years in Mexico, and died in 1578, named on July 29. Jerome went from the Observants to the Capuchins, and flourished at Ferrara about 1546, to whom is ascribed January 23: as also June 16 to Angelinus as a Tertiary, whose image set up in the public hall at public expense is inscribed with an elogium saying that he received as his guest Don Francesco, often coming to Montepulciano. We justly fear that Arturus, the author of the Franciscan Martyrology, may have chosen the day for all these at his own discretion, and therefore we have referred them among the Omitted and shall refer them further, unless we be more certainly informed of some ecclesiastical cult passing beyond the bounds of private veneration, and of the day of that cult.
[16] About the others Brother Laurence suggests these things. Philip flourished about the year 1359, others are praised elsewhere and performed martyrdom in Spain, in which regard his effigy is seen painted on ancient church banners at Montepulciano and Pisa: but he has no cult in the Augustinian Order, and not even a name among Spanish writers. Jacob the Bishop is praised in the year 1332 by writers of his Order, as famous for miracles: but nothing is added about the year and day of his death, nor about any cult of him. The Life of Brother Nicholas the Jesuate is said to have been written by Paul Morigi, which has not yet come to our hands, and so we can decide nothing about it: he flourished about the year 1479. Finally, Laurence says that among the Bishop of Montepulciano Salustius Taurusius some monuments are extant about the sanctity of Bartholomew, born of the same family: which, if they prove a cult, we will gladly give him a place in this work. To the aforementioned add, if it please, two most distinguished lights of the Roman Purple, once shining on earth, now, as we piously believe, glowing in heaven: Cardinal Robert de Nobilibus, the author of founding a college of the Society in his homeland, in which as it was always his wish to live, so he deserved to die most piously in the year 1559, January 17, adorned with a worthy elogium in our Histories part 2 book 3 number 1 and following; and Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, most distinguished in birth, writings, and virtues, who died in the year 1621 on September 17, whose Life, written in Italian by James Fuligattus and rendered into Latin by Silvester Petrasancta, when our work reaches that month, the ardent zeal of the most Eminent Cardinals for his canonization makes us hope to have inserted into it.
CHAPTER IV.
Extension of the Office to the whole Order of Preachers.
[17] It remained that the grace granted to the Montepulciano people should become common to the whole Order of Preachers: and the particular affection of Clement VIII toward the Order persuaded that this could be obtained not so difficultly, At the intercession of Henry IV King of France by whom he had inscribed Saint Hyacinth and Saint Raymond to the catalogue of the Saints, the latter to be venerated on January 7, the former on August 16. Therefore Eleanor of Bourbon, who had once been Prioress under the rule of the Friars Preachers and was most devoutly affected to Blessed Agnes, the Fathers used as intercessor with her nephew Henry IV King of France; while she herself solicited the Pope, answer was given to the King in favor of the Order, in the following letter, which can in a manner be had as the Bull of Beatification.
"To our dearest son in Christ Henry, most Christian King of the Franks, Pope Clement VIII. Dearest son in Christ, greeting and Apostolic benediction. That most ardent zeal, which (as was signified to us and to the Apostolic See by the Ambassador destined by your name, and in view of Eleanor of Bourbon, it is obtained and as was explained by our beloved son Cardinal Arnaldus Dossatus, his vicegerent in his absence) is vigorous in our beloved daughter in Christ Eleanor of Bourbon, General Abbess of the whole Order of Fontevraud of the Order of Saint Benedict, and your aunt, and once Prioress of the house or monastery of Prouilhe of the Order of Saint Dominic under the care of the Friars Preachers, for lauding Blessed (as is piously believed) Agnes of Montepulciano, professed of the same Order, as though by her own right demands that the admirable life of Blessed Agnes herself should be celebrated by all the Preaching professors of the said Order, in the whole Order, with the same feeling of soul and with a certain special cult.
[18] that as the faculty was conceded to the Montepulciano people When therefore of happy memory Pope Clement VII, our predecessor, had conceded and indulged to the Prior and Friars of the house of the said Order of Preachers and to the Community and men of the city of Montepulciano, then of the town of Montepulciano of no diocese, that they might venerate and honor the same Blessed Agnes, in the church of the said house in which she is buried and where with the Most High's cooperation she shone with many miracles, and in the other churches of the said city, and in that city only, privately and publicly and solemnly, of celebrating a feast and also celebrate a proper Office of her and make a solemn feast, freely and lawfully, by certain letters drawn up about this on the 28th day of May in the ninth year of his Pontificate; and most recently We, to the Prior and Friars whatsoever of the said Order of Preachers and of reciting the Office of Blessed Agnes dwelling in the said city of Montepulciano, that in the Office which they celebrate on April 20 under double rite, they might read and recite, freely and lawfully, nine Lessons in that same office, drawn from the Life of the said Blessed Agnes, and by our order proposed to our venerable brothers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, of the Congregation of Sacred Rites, examined and by us approved, according to their rite, have also perpetually conceded and indulged—as is more fully contained in the said letters of our Predecessor, and in ours drawn up about this on October 18 of the year of the Lord 1594 in the third year of our Pontificate, in which the tenor of the said Lessons was inserted.
[19] We, who willingly invite each of Christ's faithful to acts of devotion, holding the tenor of the said individual letters, let the same be lawful to the whole Order as if they were inserted word for word in the present, as expressed, and by look and contemplation of our beloved Sons Francis Mary Taurusius and Caesar Baronius and Robert Bellarmine, called Presbyter Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, humbly supplicating us about this, from the opinion of the Cardinals placed over the said Congregation of Sacred Rites, the indulgence and concession of the said Predecessor, and his and our aforesaid letters, to all and individual houses of the said Order of Preachers of both sexes, existing in whatever parts of the world, by Apostolic authority, by the tenor of these presents, we perpetually extend and amplify; so that in all and individual churches of the houses of the said Order of Preachers, both of men and of women, existing in the universal world, publicly, solemnly, and privately, they may freely and lawfully venerate and honor the said Blessed Agnes, and celebrate a proper office of her on the said April 20, and make a solemn feast each year, also in Litanies, Masses, and other divine offices, with the said nine Lessons." by the indulgence of Clement VIII in 1601 Then after the Pope forbade anyone to presume to molest the Brothers or Nuns about these things; and ordered that copies of his letters legitimately subscribed should have the same trust as the original; he describes the Lessons word for word (which, because they are found printed in the Annals of Abraham Bzovius and in the Breviary of the Preachers,
it seems not at all necessary here to append), and so the Brief ends: "Given at Rome at Saint Peter's, under the ring of the Fisherman, on the 23rd of February 1601, in the 10th year of the Pontificate."
[20] "But that in the City, head of the world, where the sanctity of Blessed Agnes had been proved by such solemn testimony," says Brother Laurence pursuing these things, "the Pontifical indulgence might first be committed to execution, and this done most ornately, and this was done at Rome most solemnly on June 5 the Reverend Father Master Paul Picus of the Order of Preachers and Secretary in the Congregation of the Index took care that for the same time at which the General Chapter of the Order was to be celebrated at Rome for the election of the Master General, all things were prepared: and so on June 5 of the year already noted a most solemn festivity was instituted, at which were present the Cardinals Veronensis, Camerinus, Asculanus, Taurusius, Baronius, Dossatus, Antonianus, Bellarminus, Mantica, and Bonvisius, with the Mass being sung by Father Master Stephen Merius, Provincial of Languedoc and also Inquisitor of Avignon and Vicar General of the whole Order. The Latin oration was delivered by Father Bernardinus Stephonius of the Society of Jesus, which was not only given to the public for the memory of those present and the consolation of those absent, but was also augmented with very suitable commentaries by Brother Jerome de Cavaleriis, that fuller material might be furnished to those composing in succession other and other panegyric sermons of the same Saint. Finally Brother Angelo Crimilianensis proposed Theses directed to the honor of that Saint, at the defense of which the Cardinals Bellarmine and Taurusius were present."
[21] The joy of the new feast was then diffused throughout all Europe, and celebrated solemnly everywhere, but especially at Florence in the church of Saint Maria Novella, and at Florence for which, just as for our Montepulciano convent, I had obtained the indulgence proper to the feast, at the request of the Prior Thomas Philippi of Prato: where in a most elaborate procession the statue of the Blessed was carried around, together with particles of her viscera received from Montepulciano. At Montepulciano itself it was arranged, by the magnificent generosity of Don Guido de Nobilibus and at my suggestion, that the sacred body, whose soul, placed in heaven, we henceforth intended to invoke with more festivity, might also be seen on earth in greater glory, to be clothed in new silk garments, in which however the colors of the Order of Preachers, black and white, should be preserved, The body is clothed in new garments yet grace was added to them by gold worked through the garments by a skillful hand. These things were done by Don Salustius Taurusius our Bishop clothed in pontificals, on April 30, after he had consecrated the same habit with the ceremonies instituted for this: at which same action the chief Fathers of the convent, together with the said Bishop and me, put hand before a great multitude of people: which was present much more numerous on the following day, when we celebrated the feast of the Blessed.
[22] I also took care about the same time that on each part of our cloister, under the arched vault of the same, the life of the Blessed might be painted, The Life is painted around the cloister the assent having been previously obtained of those who were asked to contribute the expenses: in which, since the Cardinals of Montepulciano Taurusius and Bellarmine were conspicuous for special liberality, the first three arches, representing the infancy of the Blessed, were dedicated to Cardinal Taurusius; three others to Bellarmine, and in these were seen the Entry of Agnes into the monastery, the Apparition of the Mother of God handing her three little stones, and the Angel bringing Relics from the Holy Land: the remaining three, inscribed to Bishop Taurusius, renewed the memory of the heavenly manna falling upon the Blessed; of the Mother of God offering her son to be embraced, when she Agnes took the little cross from his neck; and of the meats changed into fish. Finally the twin frontispieces of that same side, adorned at the expense of Don Guido de Nobilibus and Don Julius Riccius, had, one the vision of the three ships, the other the miracle of the foot raising itself of its own accord to the kiss of Blessed Catherine of Siena. The other part of the cloister was similarly described under the vaults, but in such a way that individual arches were attributed to individual nobles: the first of which, after that which we said was Don Guido's, represents Agnes about to be clothed in the habit of the Dominican Order, and is Don Marcello Lorenzini's, because through his mother he refers his lineage to the Segni family, from which the Blessed herself is believed to have been born: the second of Don Monaldo Bellarmine exhibits the construction of the Montepulciano monastery with the vision of that prophetic ladder: the third of Don Asdrubale Aegidius represents the multiplication of loaves: the fourth of Don Ascanio Cervinus the raising of the infant suffocated in the bath: the fifth of Don Ascanio Mattioli, the conversion of water into wine; the sixth finally the liberation of the raging possessed man, which was of Don Francesco Fanti; as also that which is above the entrance of the Sacristy, where are seen flowers grown by divine virtue in the place where Agnes had knelt. And all these things were completed with the great approval of the whole city in the year 1603, by the hand of Ulysses Giocchi of Monte San Savino.
[23] It seemed fitting, moreover, that to the Most Excellent and Most Illustrious Donna Eleanor of Bourbon, A portion of the viscera is sent to Eleanor of Bourbon to whose intercession our whole Order owed this new happiness, we should in turn pay some monument of grateful mind. So since we had in the sacristy the viscera of Blessed Agnes, now dissolved into ashes, within a box whose sole key was in our power, with the permission of my Superiors asked for about this and obtained in writing, I transferred a part of the same sacred ashes into a pyx suitable for this, and directed it to the Most Illustrious and Most Excellent Legate of France: through whom not long after I received the most humane reply of the said Lady, testifying her singular joy in the participation of such a treasure." Thus far Brother Laurence of Surdini Mariani, and with these things he concludes the Life written most faithfully in Italian tongue and more ornate style, Proper Collect and published at Florence in the year 1606; adding on the last page the Collect composed by Raymond of Capua, to be recited on the feast of Blessed Agnes or at any commemoration: which is such.
"O God, who hast made thy beautiful bride Agnes to flourish happily with special sanctity, wondrous virginity, and the grace of miracles, grant us, we beseech thee, in imitation of her always to give forth before thee the fragrance of the fruits of a virtuous life."
It pertains to the same Saint's glory that, as Father Master Nicolas Barberi has written to us, the veneration of this holy Virgin has been propagated even to the New World, the cult propagated to the New World where in the cities of Cusco, Angelopolis, and Santa Fe, on account of the great devotion of those peoples to Saint Agnes, monasteries are established under her name.
ON VENERABLE DOMINIC LEONESIUS, OF THE ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR, AT URBINO IN ITALY.
IN THE YEAR 1497.
CommentaryVenerable Dominic Leonesius, of the Order of Friars Minor, at Urbino in Italy (Ven.)
By D. P.
[1] Francesco Gonzaga, Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, and afterwards Bishop of Mantua, a man as distinguished in family as in virtue and learning, in his work on the origin of the Franciscan Religion, part 2, describing the monastery of Saint Clare of Urbino, which is the 14th in the Province of the March, founded by Clara daughter of Frederick Duke of Urbino, The cult of the body and, after the death of her husband Malatesta and of their only little daughter, ennobled by her own joining herself to the company of the Virgins consecrated to God, subjoins that "in their church, under the high altar, the body of the Blessed Father Dominic Leonesius rests in the Lord: whose sanctity and miracles done, the votive offerings hung around his sepulchre most manifestly indicate." To those wishing to know whether there still remained his honor to that holy Body and the devotion of the Urbino people towards him, Brother Philip of Forum Sempronii of the Order of the Observant Reformed replied, in the church of Saint Clare the Confessor of the said religious women, that the old church having been destroyed, a new one was built in the time of the now ruling Abbess; and the body of Dominic, which up to that time had lain hidden under the altar, in order to excite the eyes of the citizens more, to more devotion, had been translated into a marble coffer; and placed under the window of the cloister with this inscription: "Here lies the body of Blessed Dominic of Leonessa, of the Order of Friars Minor of the Observance." Leonessa is a little town in Abruzzo at the confines of Umbria, distant about six or seven miles from Norcia and Rieti.
[2] The aforesaid Brother Francesco adds in a letter written July 10, 1671, A bone of the arm that on such an occasion it seemed fitting to the Abbess, for the common consolation of those who trusted in the intercession of that Blessed, to separate from the other bones one bone, which placed with fitting adornment in an honored place might be brought to the sick requesting it: and that singular graces had followed and were daily following, obtained by such means. Especially the very Reverend Mother Sister Teresia Zepherini of Forum Sempronii, more than once having performed the governance of that place, when she was tormented with the gravest pains of arthritic disease, salutary to the sick in the presence of the said bone, which she had caused to be brought, and the veneration shown by her to it, ascribed to the Blessed the grace of the greatest consolation, one not to be hoped for except divinely. These things being so, it was permitted to Arturus to insert him with the title of Blessed in the Franciscan Martyrology, under this form: "The 12th day before the Kalends of May, at Urbino, of Blessed Dominic Leonesius Confessor, who on account of his distinguished virtues having been made Provincial Minister of the March seven times, as many times shone with wondrous prudence, charity and sanctity, and admirable signs." The day of death he took from the historians of the Order to be cited presently, Life from Wadding from whom also Brother Luke Wadding in the Annals compiled the Life which we here give, being destitute of more ancient documents, since there are none in the place.
[3] In this year 1497 there died the distinguished man, Dominic
of Leonessa, born at San Severino, a noble town of Picenum among the hills neighboring the Apennines, built from the ruins of the ancient city of Septempeda; having obtained the surname from Leonessa, a village of the Kingdom of Naples, to which the family had been transplanted, and where he laid the first foundations of his childhood and virtue. Compunct in heart at the fiery words of Blessed Nicholas of Osimo preaching, he bade farewell to the world, Excellently instructed in virtue and entered the institute of the Friars Minor. Here instructed in letters, always intent on prayer, with perpetual zeal he subjected the flesh to the law of the spirit. Every night he scourged himself with many lashes: on Fridays he took only bread and water: he frequently slept on the ground, or, kneeling, cheated sleep. to sermons With great fervor and fruit he sowed the word of God everywhere; and it is reported that by his preaching he joined to himself, as excellent companions, Brothers Julian and Venantius, natives of Fabriano. He foretells a plague at Fabriano In that town he was preaching sermons to the people in the year 1466, and foretold that two years later a plague would strongly rage there; but he would not be wanting in so great a necessity. There followed the most dreadful pestilence which he had foretold; and he, according to the promise given, came with his companion, to show all services to all; nor did he depart until the contagion was abolished.
[4] Asked by a young fellow-religious what he should do in the Religion that he might serve God more perfectly, he answered: "Obey simply, pray fervently, study diligently: yet in such order that, for obedience, if necessary, you dismiss prayer and study, and for prayer bid farewell to study." In the monastery of Saint Bernardinus of Urbino, a novice near defection a certain novice was vehemently agitated by the evil spirit to return to the world, the master laboring in vain to drive away the temptations and to make him persevere in his holy vocation; being led to this man venerable for old age, dwelling there, he opened the wound of his mind. The old man, weeping together with the laboring young man, said that temptations are easily put to flight on the first threshold; when further advanced, with difficulty; when invading the inmost parts and as though rooted in, either impossible, or not without the greatest labor. "Therefore, my son," he said, "do not admit them, but at the first touch rout them: so you will happily triumph over Satan. The servants of God when tempted ought to give thanks to God: that being placed in this tribulation, he effectively fortifies him against temptations and afflicted on every side, they will not be drawn by the enticements of sins to unlawful things. But you, new soldier, do not tremble at these troublesome contests and the crafty snares of the enemy: these are his arts and frequent, that those may perish who retire to cloisters for caring for their souls. I myself in my novitiate proved these very troublesome, and in three ways, by God's help, I eluded them. First, by some religious bodily exercise I tried to turn my mind from such suggestions: second, I at once brought all to my preceptor and Confessor, who as from a higher watchtower explored and detected the wiles of the cunning enemy: third, I tamed my body by fastings, scourges, vigils; and with what insistence of prayer I could, I prayed God to direct his help to me. Do likewise, son, and call in your help religious Fathers, who may pray for you: I will add my own prayers, such as they are: and the Lord will put this temptation far from you." He spoke: he prayed: the novice monk overcame the enemy.
[5] Drawn by his prudence, goodness, and discipline, the Fathers of the province of the March of Ancona seven times Provincial wished to have him as perpetual Prefect. Since that was not permitted by the laws and custom of the institute, by common votes they created him Provincial Minister seven times. In his long and so often repeated government great wisdom shone forth. He roused the good to better things by proposing rewards: the bad he confounded by denying the honors which they sought, and by indulgent punishment recalled from vices those whom he feared could not be bent but broken by a harder one. Seized by his last illness, in his last Prefecture, he is magnificently invited to Urbino while he was visiting the convents, the Duke of Urbino sent courtiers and servants who were to lead him into the city, lest he die elsewhere, and they should suffer the loss of a man whom they venerated, and whom, when dead, they knew would be the splendor of their city. Troubled by so great a company, he was exceedingly humbled, and with contrite spirit exclaimed: "Why such a copious train of horsemen, fitting for a Pontiff, for leading a poor little Brother? Permit the wretched one to be led more humbly, or to breathe out his spirit, neglected, wherever it may happen. Through my whole life I have desired to be held the basest: now, when I am inclining to the earth, do you wish to bear me on high and expose me to the breeze of vanity? Go on: I will follow, and with less tumult I will satisfy the wishes of the best Prince."
[6] At Urbino honorably received by the Prince, he prepared himself to undergo death with Christian zeal. Nor were heavenly aids lacking, Angels and the Blessed Virgin are present to him sick with Angels running and the Virgin Mary showing herself. He had as a familiar and conscious of his secrets Brother Nicholas Gallus, a probity man and learned, a most eloquent preacher, a worthy repository even of heavenly secrets. They had struck between themselves a holy compact, each promising to reveal to the other the divine revelations. Nicholas came from dinner on Friday to the cell of him reclining: he saw through the chinks of the door bursting rays of unusual splendor: he stopped: he waited a little: then breaking into the cell, that light immediately utterly vanished. Suspecting something divine, he reminded him of the promise and compact, and compelled him to narrate that there had appeared to him the Divine Virgin shining with Angelic choirs. A little before his death the same Nicholas, noticing many men before the doors of the cell whispering with confused speech and impatient motion, and so the demons are prohibited from approaching asked what they wanted. Compelled from elsewhere, they said: "We are demons, who are waiting until the Virgin Mary leaves this cell, about to play our parts with the languishing Dominic." He drove away, with what authority he could, the evil spirits, and narrated the snares prepared for him to his friend. Thence he, judging death not far off, ordered that none further, except Nicholas and the Prefect of the convent, should come to him, about to plead the cause of his soul with Christ and them. And with devout and serene mind, the offices of a Christian man being first sent forth, on the next following Friday, April 20, he rendered his pious soul to his Creator.
[7] the dead face appears more splendid His lifeless body at once wondrously shone, more beautiful and more tractable: which had to be left for two days in the church for the importunate veneration of the people: and it was at length buried, by order of Prince Guidobaldo, at the monastery of Saint Clare, in which he had once held the office of Confessor, near the principal altar, under that grate through which the religious women receive sacred Communion: where he shone with many miracles. From the pulpit and in familiar conversation he was wont to inculcate these words: "You have received one soul; care for it diligently: if you lose this, you are not permitted to substitute another." Those who write his Life call him "Mirror of perfection, trumpet of Italy, prop of the Picene province." Thus far Wadding, Authors from whom these things are received having cited in the margin the writers of the Life: Marianus On distinguished men, whose very words, hitherto hidden in manuscripts, we should have preferred to present for reading in their first simplicity, if we had been able to obtain them; Marcus of Lisbon, who wrote in Portuguese, rendered into Spanish, Italian, and French, part 3 book 7 chapter 31; and Cimarelli book 7 chapter 37, whom we judge to be a recent author and to have written after the renovation of the church; and from whom we think Wadding (whose volume VII was printed only in the year 1648) received that circumstance of the present place of burial, different from that designated by the older Gonzaga.
[8] error in the day or year of death Marcus of Lisbon does not mention the place where Dominic was laid to rest. Yet he has the year of death signed by Wadding, and preceded both him and the others in combining the sixth feria with April 20; which fits not that year, but the following, when with Sunday letter G, the Lord's Day, the same as the octave of Easter, nearest to April 20 falling on the sixth feria, was observed on the 22nd of the same month. It is therefore necessary here to recognize some error, either in the year, or in the feria, or in the day of the month: which ought most to be corrected, it is not ours to guess: and therefore in the title we have kept the year and day noted by Wadding, until we may know more certainly by what argument Dominic's death is said to have fallen on the sixth feria. Guidobaldo, the author of the burial of the body among the religious women, was brother of Clare the foundress, at whose prayers requesting this we believe this was paid, the Brothers dwelling in the monastery of Saint Bernardinus not daring to refuse.
[9] Nicholas, by whose sermons Dominic was moved to enter the Religion, a man indeed most praised both from his writings and from his fervor of preaching, lies buried at Rome in the Ara-coeli, without even the least sign of public veneration. His Life, to be given among the Lives of the Saints and Illustrious men of Osimo, John Baldi promises to give in the last place, the great-nephew of Nicholas himself from his sister Bernardina de Romanis: but he abstains from a title his companions inscribed among the Blessed by Arturus which would denote an ecclesiastical cult. We therefore do not know by what right he is called Blessed by Wadding, much less on what foundation Arturus has inscribed him to February 23 in his Franciscan Martyrology; which he did also with Julian of Fabriano on July 26, and Venantius likewise of Fabriano on May 6; for this license of distributing at his discretion through the fasti the names of those to whom he found any praise of virtue or commendation of a holy death added in the authors, was called by Wadding, not ineptly jesting, "the Great Pope of the Minorite Order": yet useful to us, because, with the authors diligently cited, he furnishes matter and occasion of investigating about many, and by investigating of finding about various: who although they are not found inscribed to the catalogues of Saints, nonetheless obtain some public ecclesiastical cult, neither abrogated nor contrary to any decrees of the Holy See, on account of which we ought to grant them a place in our work. We shall do the same about several others, whom on the testimony of Arturus alone we do not dare to aggregate to the Blessed, or to ascribe to the day designated by him, and whom therefore we now refer among the Omitted; if either the aids of the required instruction are sent to us spontaneously, or something is answered to those asking, by which we may think ourselves and our readers satisfied: as we have done here with Dominic, yet content with the title of Venerable, with which Wadding also was content: since neither did Gonzaga absolutely call him Blessed, but "Blessed Father"; which scarcely sounds otherwise than as we commonly say "of blessed memory" of any who, as we trust, have died in the Lord with pious death.
[10] The aforesaid Arturus in his Annotations wishes Dominic of Leonessa to be believed the same who is praised by Wadding under the year 1452, Is he the same as Dominic of Gonessa? and is called Dominic of Gonessa the Picene, as one who preaching at Aquila at the same time when a great orator among others, Robert of Lecce, a deserter of stricter observance, had begun to give discourses to the people in the church of Saint Francis, turned the greatest part of his hearers, previously attached to him, to rather hear himself, speaking in the area of Santa Maria de Asserico. And again in the year 1463 the aforesaid Dominic of Gonessa was appointed Vicar of Bosnia and Dalmatia.
And this in volume VI of the Annals. Indeed I find no castle or town of Italy or Picenum called Gonessa, whence such a name could have flowed. And I see that an error could have crept into the first letters: yet I think these two names, against Wadding's intention, are conflated into one person: who if he had believed in volume VI there was an error in writing, would doubtless in the following volume, treating of set purpose of the life and death of Blessed Dominic, have corrected the error at least tacitly, by introducing mention of the Dalmatian Vicariate.
ON ALBERT THE BOY, IN POLAND KILLED BY THE JEWS, LAID TO REST AT THE COLLEGE OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS OF LUBLIN.
IN THE YEAR 1598.
PrefaceAlbert, a boy, killed by the Jews in Poland, laid to rest at Lublin in the College of the Society of Jesus (St.)
By D. P.
[1] In the preceding days, namely the 17th and 19th of this month, treating of Saints Rudolph and Werner, we said so many things concerning the unquenchable thirst of Christian blood with which the impious race of the Jews burns, and have heaped up so many examples of like ferocity, that the mind would shrink from augmenting this day again with such horrid narratives; were it not that the very commemoration contributes much, not only to make long the memory of those whose short life the rage of the impious cut short, but also to repair the contempt The body under the altar most wickedly done to Christ our God, through his enemies, in his members. Let there come forth then from Poland the boy Adalbert, or, as the authors preferred to write more contractedly, Albert: but let him come forth without the title of Blessed or Saint, without the title of Blessed because having suffered at the end of the last century, he has not yet obtained that honor from the Apostolic See; while nonetheless under the altar he is honorably kept enshrined by the Ordinary of the place himself, a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, probably with the sacred Congregation of Rites consulted, at any rate not disapproving what, done publicly, could not lie hidden.
[2] The history of the matter in Polish language most extensively was written by Frederick Szembeck, History from public Acts written in Polish a Priest of our Society, in 1614, from the tables of the Castle, of Mielnik, of Lokov, of Krasnystaw; from the Acts of the most ample Tribunal in the Kingdom of Poland, and the criminal cases of the city of Lublin; finally from the accurate inquiry of the two most illustrious Bishops of Luceoria, Bernard Maciejowski (who afterwards was Bishop of Krakow and a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, and not so long after Archbishop of Gniezno and Primate of the whole Kingdom) and his successor Martin Szyszkowski, at Lositze, at Worniki, at Liteuniki, at Sanowietz, instituted at various times: of which Tables, Acts, Cases, and Inquiries exemplars or transcripts, most thoroughly proved by public trust and sealed with seals, are preserved at Krakow in the Archive of the Society of Jesus at Saint Peter's. So it was written from Poland to Heribert Rosweyde, by Frederick Szembeck when he had begun collecting the Lives of the Saints; and at the same time there was signified some thought taken of translating that history into the Latin language. Meanwhile Father Frederick himself sent into Belgium a brief synopsis of the same, composed likewise by Simon Kacorovius, a priest of our Society, which we judged worthy to insert in this work.
[3] This author has a distinguished elogium in the Library of the Society compiled by Philip Alegambe, for his learning, prudence, piety, notable for procuring Relics of Saints and writing lives and namely because he wondrously promoted the cult of the Saints, by procuring the sacred relics of many, which he distributed through diverse places of Poland; lending his labor in this to the Most Serene Kings of Poland Sigismund III and Vladislaus IV: and also because he wrote and published in Polish the Lives of Saint Dorothy the Widow, Patroness of Prussia, and of Saint Jutta of Brunswick, and of her Confessor Blessed John Lobeda, and of other Patrons of Prussia: which would that someone might render into Latin for us for May 5 and October 30, on which days we are persuaded we must treat of them, unless we are taught that other days fit them by those who both understand that language, and can better know on what day and in what manner each is venerated. Further, why there is not reckoned among these books and others elaborated by Frederick the history of the boy Albert, on whose occasion we treat these things, likewise by him who presided over the whole examination of the cause I could think of no other cause than that it itself had not seen the light; into whose hands afterwards it came, the one whom I had previously interpellated about that matter, R.P. Ludovicus Hoffman, when he was Procurator of his Province at Krakow, could not so far attain by searching. The same afterwards transferred to the Lublin college, wrote on January 15, 1674, that he had happened upon a book printed in 1602 in the Polish idiom, with the inquiries and tribunal decree of 1599 around March 25, where the origin and process of the cause is vividly described: and that the author of the book was Simon Alexander Habiki, then Lector of the Bishop of Krakow, most conscious of this cause, because through his hands this business was laid before the Bishop, as Pastor of this diocese.
[4] An epitome of the earlier one is given here Since the Latin version of this so authentic writing had been promised, I was the more cheered the less either, from the archive of Krakow (scattered by invasions) the original Acts of judgments could be had; or, from them, the treatise of Frederick gathered was hoped to be found. But the report since sent, scarcely filling one little page of paper, because it contained not a simple version of the aforesaid book, but a very brief epitome, though most accurate, less satisfied expectation: and because it is not permitted to wait longer for more things, I present the compendium of Szembeck's deduction, as written by a contemporary author, and reviewed by Szembeck himself and corrected here and there by his own hand; for which our posterity, in the review of the whole work, will be able to substitute the entire version of Habiki's or Szembeck's elaboration, if someone should take care to send it here, or from the very words of the original Acts, if perchance they are found anywhere, to compose a new deduction; by the example of those which in more than one place of this month we have collected from similar examinations of sworn witnesses.
[5] April 18 Kacorovius had prefixed this title to the epitome composed by him: "Illustrious martyrdom of the four-year-old boy Albert or Wojciech Petrenius, killed by the Jews in Poland, about April 20, according to the new Calendar in the year of the Lord 1598, when their Easter was impending to them, as is said in the context, without any mention of the month or day. Nor does it matter that in that year the Christians, according to the recent innovation of the Calendar, celebrated their Easter on March 22. For not only others, still adhering to the Julian calculus, did it on April 16, as they reckoned; but the Jews had their own peculiar, very erratic cycle, without any respect to the astronomical full moon, as we have shown at the end of Exercise 1 of the ancient catalogs of the Roman Pontiffs, treating of the day of Christ's death, around the Jewish Easter when he was apprehended by the Jews at that time when the moon no longer giving any light, and thus having advanced far beyond the full moon, there was need for lanterns and torches, as the Evangelical text expressly teaches. The cycle of Jewish years and consequently of annually recurring feasts, which the Jews say was observed 1100 years ago, Dionysius Petavius our own explains in book 7 On the doctrine of times from chapter 17 to 20, and of which he had disputed all the reasoning, causes, and principles in book 2 of his work; here he hands down its use and method, according to which, in our year 1598, the Jews, then reckoning the year of the world 5358, celebrated their Easter on April 21, the third feria, as the Rabbis of Amsterdam, consulted on this, confirmed with their assent. This reckoning of the Jewish Easter, moreover, it will perhaps be useful to observe also in other cases, so that the cause of a murder perpetrated on some day not much congruent with the calculations of the Christian Easter may be given, at least in the centuries last past: for there are those who say that this computation which the Jews now observe was only received in use a few centuries ago.
HISTORICAL EPITOME
By Simon Kacorovius S. J.
BY KACOROVIUS S. J.
[1] In the kingdom of Poland, in Podlachia, in the province of Drohicen, Born of rustic stock in the diocese of Luck or Luceoria, a mile and more from the royal town of Lositze, lies the village of Swinarzewo, assigned as a dowry among other things to the illustrious man Stephen Pati the Hungarian, afterwards Senator of the kingdom of Hungary; in which all the rustic families followed the Greek rites, except one Latin head of household, Matthias Petrenius, with his wife and children. To this man, among other offspring, was born from his wife Anne, Wojciech or Adalbert, a boy of four years, of distinguished disposition, beautiful face, cheerful countenance, who filled his parents' minds with great hope: and therefore his father continually desired to have him in his sight: and in the year 1598 (which to the boy was the last), on March 25, the day after the Latin Easter holidays, he goes to the field with his father he had taken him out to the field, for the sake of solace, about to plow. Who, about evening wearied of the delay, childishly alone returned to the village; the wretched father secure of the error, because the road was very direct and short, much less fearing the cruelty by which the innocent little one soon perished. But that solace and security cost him dearly. For Wojciech, torn from thence, since, as in that tender age, he did not know how to keep the direct way, and alone returning home turned onto the road which leads to another village, Wozniki; where (as commonly in those borders, by wicked custom) Marcus Sachnowitz the Jew, from the neighboring town of Miendzyrzecz, had the mills and public inn leased.
[2] He becomes prey to the Jews Meanwhile the son of the same Marcus, Aaron Gromek, and the son-in-law Isaac Chaitschyk, returning home to the said town not far from there; seeing the wandering little boy, and all safe on every side (because by Salomon his Rabbi not so long before Aaron had been asked to provide a victim of this kind for the impending Easter), glad at the occasion, without delay lift the infant, drawn by caresses, into the cart; with swiftest horses fly to the paternal inn at Wozniki, and conceal him in a subterranean cellar.
[3] The father of the boy, as he returned from the field and understood that he was absent, at once ran to the road by which he had wandered; the lost boy is sought by his parents cried out, ran, cried out, asked those he met, did all in vain. Intempestuous night drove the man into the house, but did not take away his care. On the following day, both parents went their separate ways, and learned this alone from Adam and Matthias, Boyars Calecian, that they had met on the day before on that road on which the boy had perished the Jews I have said: whence they took the conjecture, which was the fact, that he had been taken by the Jews. But they did not dare to accuse the assassins, both because they had no manifest argument, and because, the lord of those lands Stephen Pati being absent at that time, there was no one to be patron of the orphaned. The father however had gone there, if by chance he might follow any trace to the nest...
itself he might come: but mocked with fallacious answers, and with lying prophecy by the wife of Marcus, he found no solace for his grief.
[4] Held in an underground cave for many days Seized meanwhile in that prison by Anastasia, a woman of the Greek schism and bound to those cruel Jews by debts and services, he was fed and caressed until the time of his slaughter came. Now their most horrid Easter approached, therefore four days before, in the depth of night, from the neighboring places come together the chief among them, Moses and Salomon, by whose admonition the beginning of the illustrious deed had already been made: and what alone was then in the house, the Christian maidservant Margaret, when she brought the light, being ordered to depart to interrupted rest, they themselves carry the boy from the cellar into a more secret cave. There, destitute of all help, He is slaughtered in a horrid manner the sacred victim, they, armed with butcher's knives, stand around, stunned by the novelty of the spectacle horrible even to a beast. Then, fearing to be betrayed by an outcry, fearing that the blood poured out would be contaminated by the flood of entrails, they most barbarously tighten a cord around his throat. Then with a wooden nail they firmly close the passage: they sew up his eyes with the eyelids: then Salomon and Moses before the others drive sacrificial knives beneath his chest between the ribs from the opposite side, and cut the veins beneath the tongue. Isaac in the palms and in the soles, the skin cut away, opens all the veins: his private parts too being amputated, they catch the blood flowing from every part in vessels placed beneath. Thus most cruelly butchered, and thrown into the corner under the beer barrels, the blood, a portion of it having been left to the head of the household, they carry off with themselves, and send to their own, to be poured into the dough of the bread (which they call "Evicomen," as if the sign of God the helper).
[5] The crime is revealed God would not leave such a great crime unavenged: and first it was made manifest to the household, then to the whole world. For because they hold it baneful to themselves that such corpses be buried (as Marcus's wife had freely confessed to Anastasia, urging her to bury it), in the silence of untimely night they cast it into the reeds of a swamp flowing underneath: where a fowler who by chance was hunting ducks, indicated the sight to the steward of the Woznicense court: by whom the sad father, admonished, recognized his dearest son, and with the greatest mourning carried him to the same court of his Lord Peti. All were now sure that the Jews had dared so much, but whom or how they would convict, the counsel did not appear. Until that same Anastasia, when on market day in the neighboring town she had heated her head, although so often warned, by her loquacity (or compelled by God the avenger?) betrayed the authors; and Margaret the maidservant brought thither, gave credence to her speaking, by narrating what she had seen of the blood and of the coming of the Jews and the untimely departure. Fame flies, announcing that the boy had been killed by the Jews: there, the matter so manifest, Abraham Skowieski of the equestrian order, appointed steward of that village by Stephen Peti, casts Marcus and Isaac the son-in-law and Aaron the son (dragged back from flight) The Jews are taken and others from the same house into chains.
[6] I pass over many things for brevity's sake, which the Jews, laboring for their own and for the common cause, attempted: by exceptions of law, by golden reasons, by terrors both human and summoned from poisoning art: how finally by the denial of false witnesses they most powerfully and most cunningly strove to turn the whole matter from themselves upon the head of the prosecutor: and would have won, had not God added as a patron to the innocent blood the most religious foreign man Stephen Peti. When by the formula of law the crime had been proved by witnesses and manifest indications, and all things had been brought into tables, the scrutiny written down by public trust, closed and sealed, they are sent to the supreme tribunal of the realm at Lublin. Led thither with armed hand in chains, with Anastasia the informer, they are handed over to the Judges with the highest entreaties, that by the blood of Christ they should not let the murder of an innocent boy go unpunished. and they are brought to the highest tribunal of the realm In sum, after many labors, with Adam Stadnitzki de Zmigrod striving among those most ample Judges as the Inquisitor (commonly called Marschalcus) and with John Gostoniski de Lenzenitze, brother of his wife, most grave and religious and noble men, concerning the sanguinary authors it was discovered, not only concerning the crime itself, but also concerning the use of the blood, which was diligently sought.
[7] For Isaac confessed, being indeed a Rabbi, and they confessed the crime, and the use of the blood that the Jews used that blood partly in wine, partly in paschal bread: but when he refused to give the reason, he confessed however that therefore they cast such corpses unburied, because they deem it sacrilege for any office of piety to be paid by them to gentiles: nor would he speak more, grieving that this had escaped him: yet from these things it was known that this cruelty is exercised against innocent boys out of hatred of the Christian name. Wherefore by the prescript of the laws, Marcus and his son Aaron were condemned to be torn alive in pieces: with Isaac reserved for fuller cognizance of the cause for which they butchered infants and used the blood. They are condemned Who, distrusting himself, lest he should finally reveal mysteries so inhuman as he had begun, forestalled the hand of the executioner at great prejudice to his cause, and tying a cord around his throat broke it; yet his corpse, which was due to him alive, was cut in pieces publicly. What here did the Jews not attempt again, that, when they could not defend the life of the authors, they might at least defend their fame and their own safety? But these things perhaps on another occasion will be said more fully at some time: let us explain the honor of the divine boy.
[8] Bernard Macejovius, still Bishop of Luceoria, both to soften his own grief, First honorable translation of the blessed boy which so unjust a butchery of his flock had brought him, and judging that the veneration of him whom Christ had honored by the imitation of his wounds owed this, that he should be honored with a more conspicuous sepulchre, begged the father that he would give him the holy little body. When with his Bishop consenting, it was exhumed and brought, distinguished by manifest scars, especially of the left side, first in the domestic chapel, then in the temple of Liteuniki, where at that time he was dwelling, with the utmost solemnity, as reigning in the heavens, he adorned it; and honorably before the altar in a cave he enclosed it with planks, not enduring that it be covered with earth; with the help and praise of Christopher Piasetzki, Theologian and celebrated preacher of the Society of Jesus; awaiting if God should suggest something better. For seventeen months there it lay, not without veneration: until in the year 1600 the same Bernard Macejovius himself, designated Bishop of Krakow, into the temporary chapel of the Lublin College, founded by him and by the most illustrious Nicholas Zebrzydowski, now Senator of the kingdom, Palatine of Krakow, Another more celebrated in the year 1600 in an elegant coffer closed with white lead, with solemn pomp, with very many from the College of the most noble Judges of the tribunal of the realm, and with two Bishops, Stanislaus Gomolinski of Chelm, and Paul Wolurzki of Kamenets, and others of all orders accompanying, he brought in, and having protested that he would leave this to the Fathers of the Society and to his college as a distinguished monument of love (which they held most pleasing), placed it within the altar.
[9] A third in the year 1603 Meanwhile the church of the College was completed, to which all sacred things had to be transferred. Wherefore, since it was so necessary, the chapel and altar being dismantled, in a cave built for the use of the dead under the principal altar, in a higher place excavated in the wall, until both a more convenient place could be prepared, and the Bishop consulted, it was replaced. And thence again in the year 1605, with Bernard Macejovius now Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church conceding and giving power, it was religiously carried privately into a private chapel by the same Fathers, in whose veneration and of others it is held up to this day. Nor were miracles wanting: and I could name those who, having experienced his help against the most pertinacious petitions of the impure spirit, professed this by their handwriting, if they had not forbidden it by name. Wherefore yielding to their modesty and just requests, to another more opportune time, His help not in vain implored by some with many other things, I shall defer it. And let it suffice now to have written these things briefly: for if I should wish to narrate everything as it was done, how often the Jews and by what arts strove to obscure in darkness the matter more clear than midday: how by books published, tables painted, sent to the supreme Pontiff Clement VIII and to other chief men and Prelates, and even brought into churches, the blessed boy was honored: with what faith and diligence all these were investigated and collected: it would be necessary to institute a longer commentary than fits this purpose. I make an end, praying the everlasting God, who is as great in small things as in the greatest, that by the patronage of the blessed infant he may perpetuate and frequent his own glory (as he has begun) and the consolations of mortals: who reigns forever and ever thrice one, alone blessed, immortal, omnipotent. Amen.
NOTES.
APPENDIX.
Of several Innocents tortured by the Jews.
From the Polish printed book of 1602.
Albert, boy, killed by the Jews in Poland, laid to rest at Lublin in the College of the Society of Jesus (St.)
FROM THE POLISH BOOK
[1] The same collector who wrote Albert's Martyrdom Simon Alexander Habiki, who published in Polish the aforementioned book on Albert's martyrdom, also thought it useful to weave to the same a list of several Innocents butchered by the impious Jews, knowledge of whom he had gathered from various authors; and also of horrible sacrileges exercised against the most holy Eucharist. Ludwig Hoffman rendered into Latin and transmitted to us the synopsis of both. The latter, since they do not make to our purpose, we sent to Paris to the Reverend Father Jacob de Machault, a long-celebrated writer from his many books published on the venerable Sacrament, and now having under hand the Eucharistic Annals. From the former we here cull those of whom mention has not been made by us elsewhere, in the very words in which they were indicated but with the order of sequence of years changed, without a more laborious examination of individual cases, since this is not of this place or time.
[2] Among others he relates a girl of 1261 killed at Pforzheim In the year 1261 in the village of Pforzheim, a certain old woman sold a girl of seven years to the Jews; who, binding her neck with a cord, pricked her veins with needles, and thence pressed out the blood. The body of her so killed they threw into the running water, and covered with stones. A fisherman afterwards, intent on catching fish, by divine permission found that body, with the hand raised to heaven. The body having been brought to the city, the whole people, knowing of such butcheries, exclaimed: "Jews, Jews, the impious killers." The Duke of Baden learned this: who after he came to the body, it, though lifeless, arose, stretching out the hand to the Prince, as if seeking justice: and after half an hour lay down again. When a Jew was brought to the body, at once from all the veins blood flowed out. Seeing the prodigy, the Jews confessed the crime, and along with the old woman were put to the wheel, except two who took their own lives with their own hands. Pforzheim is a town of the Margraviate of Baden on the river Enz, between two once celebrated Abbeys, Hirsau and Maulbronn, distant from Baden itself six German miles.
[3] in the year 1401 a boy's blood bought in Swabia In the year 1401, in the city of Diessenhofen in Swabia, the Jews bought Christian blood from a certain peasant for three florins. When he was drawing it from a four-year-old boy, he, terrified and caught, confessed: wherefore he was put to the wheel, the Jews burned. Diessenhofen is a town of Thurgau on the bank of the Rhine, belonging to the Helvetian confederation, a few leagues above Schaffhausen.
[4] In the year 1407, under Jagellon King of Poland, Jews dwelt in the city of Kraków, similar deeds done at Kraków in 1407 who killed one boy. This deed being dissimulated by the Office, the Preachers, especially R. Budek, made much of it to the people from the pulpit. The people stirred were kindled with zeal, and beat any Jews they met, and destroyed and burned their houses. The rest who survived the slaughter were driven beyond Kazimierz: and so Kraków was freed from their dwelling.
[5] in Spain 1454 In the year 1454, in Castile, a Christian boy was taken by the Jews and cut to pieces: whose heart was burned to ashes and used to season the dishes and cups among their feasts; for which deed and other similar the Jews were driven out of all Spain in the year 1459.
[6] In the year 1457 at Turin (I believe the capital of Piedmont is meant), a Jew wishing to slaughter a boy, at Turin in 1453 since he could not, for fear of men coming up that way, cut off a piece of the boy's calf, and wrapping it with the blood in a cloth, fled.
[7] In the year 1480 in the city of Motta in the territory of Venice, at Motta in 1480 (it is a town of the March of Treviso on the river Livenza in the borders of Friuli), the Jews exercised their cruelty upon a boy whom they cruelly butchered on Good Friday: which that year fell for the Christians on the last of March. Three of them taken to Venice, with confession obtained in tortures, were condemned to death.
[8] Tyrnavia 1494 In the year 1494 at Tyrnavia in Hungary, twelve Jews and two Jewesses, a boy being seized, secretly cut his veins and limbs, and pressed out the blood to the last drop. The parents, diligently seeking the boy, sent to the suspected house of the Jews: where, fresh blood being found which could in no way be washed away, all were caught. And first the Jewesses tortured on the rack confessed the crime and betrayed other accomplices: then all together were burned. Tyrnavia is well enough known in the county of Pozsony, today the seat of the Archbishop of Esztergom, distant nearly fifteen Hungarian miles from Vienna: where when in the year 1523 the same Jews had killed another boy; another at Biringa, a town of the same region, thirty were burned, the rest were driven from all Hungary.
[9] and 1513 Two boys sold to the Jews for slaughter, at Waltkirch by the father In the year 1513 a father sold his own four-year-old son to the Jews at Waltkirch for ten Rhenish florins, alas! on this condition that, a little blood being let out, they would restore him alive: but they pricked him to death. The father, the matter thus done having been seized and condemned to death, constantly asserted the fact: with whom was also punished he who, hired by the Jews, was carrying this boy's blood from Waltkirch to Elgasum to other Jews, and openly confessed this to many standing by. And this seems to have been done in Alsace, where Waltkirch is a well-known town, two German miles from Freiburg. and at Kraków by the mother But why do we wonder that the father did this? when also the mother could forget the fruit of her womb, and leave him to the Jews' discretion. Our author writes that this was done at Kraków, before the Jews were driven out thence. There a certain woman with her little son and another companion, on the pretext of some business, went to the Jews, and sold him the boy. On the return, asked by her companion where the boy was, she answered that he had gone ahead home. But when he did not appear at home either, the companion, suspecting what was the case, brought the matter to the judges: but they enjoined silence on the accuser, threatening grave penalties if she stirred anything more.
[10] In the year 1547 at Rawa in Greater Poland, a town at the head of the river of the same name, Finally several in Poland and Lithuania in 1547 fifteen Polish leagues distant from Warsaw, two Jews, Moses and Abraham, took and killed a boy from a certain cobbler, by name Michael. The father brought suit against them, and having them convicted in law, by decree of the Office had them burned: and all the rest were proscribed forever, so that none may dwell there to this day, as the Acts of the cited year testify. For the same reason also no Jew, outside the time of fairs, does Pultovia suffer to pass the night with her, a town of Mazovia, looking towards Warsaw at a distance of six leagues.
[11] In the year 1569 a certain Laurence of Bobrowia, first in torture, in the year 1569 then freely confessed, how he had sold a two-year-old boy, named John, son of the widow Margaret Kozanina, neighbor of Piotrków, for two marks to Jacob of Leizyca, a Jew: whom then, cruelly pierced and slaughtered by the impious ones, the advocate Acts of Piotrków testify. Ludovicus Dycx, Administrator of the Royal of Kraków, and also Advocate of Piotrków, described this martyrdom in his report to the King: adding also that at Bielko and elsewhere Christian blood was copiously shed by the Jews. The memory of the aforesaid cruelty exists in the monastery of Witów where hitherto is shown the sepulchre of the boy killed by the Jews.
[12] The same Joachim Smierlowicz, a Jew, did in the year 1574 in the city of Puni in Lithuania, in the year 1574 which city is twelve miles distant from Vilna, on the river Niemen: where he cruelly cut up a seven-year-old girl, named Elizabeth, daughter of Ursula a widow of Lublin, on Tuesday before Palm Sunday, and collected the blood in a pot. Not long after, at Zglobice upon the river Dunajec, Jews who had stolen a boy brought him to Tarnów. But when from certain grounds suspicion fell on them, and sharp threats of tortures were added, taking counsel for themselves, they cast the boy into a certain deserted house. At Tarnów likewise a Christian boy was found with the Jews, dressed in Jewish garb: and had it not been so quickly noted, it is easy to conjecture what they would have done with him: wherefore they were also condemned to a pecuniary fine.
[13] In the year 1590, near Szydlów in a village, the Jews kidnapped a rustic boy, in the year 1590 and with wondrous torments and cuttings of veins and various prickings, the blood having been pressed out, cast his body into out-of-the-way places. But the innocent blood crying to heaven, and the parents' care approaching, the corpse was found, retaining the traces of so horrid a butchery, that no one could look on it without immense grief of soul.
[14] in the year 1595 In the year 1595 at Gostynin, a certain woman sold a third infant, as was reported, to the Jews for similar torments: of which deed at that time Poland was full, so that by pictures circulated among the people, the cruelty exercised against this boy was illustrated, on account of which two Jews perished under the hands of the torturers.
[15] In the year 1597, not far from the preceding place, near Szydlów, and in the year 1597 at the house of a certain simple rustic the Jews observed an infant: on whom they lay in wait for some time, pretending that they wished to buy from the peasant what was necessary for themselves. And although he excused himself that there was nothing for sale at his house, they continued to frequent his house, insisting that at least bread be sold to them. Until at length, an occasion being found, when by chance the boy alone was at home, they took him, and soon by exquisite torments killed him, the blood being preserved, with which they sprinkled their new Szydlów Synagogue; and the corpse, wholly drained of juice and smoked, they cast beyond the borders of the territory: which when found pierced, in the eyelids, throat, veins, and various limbs, cut also in the genitals and constricted by fire: so that at that most sad spectacle the hearts of all beholding were wasting away.
April II: April 21
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