ON BLESSED ARNOLD CATANEO, ABBOT AT PADUA IN ITALY
In the year of Christ 1255.
Preliminary commentary.
Arnold Cataneo, Abbot at Padua in Italy (Blessed)
G. H.
[1] Through internal hatreds and wars under the Emperor Frederick II, Italy in the thirteenth century of Christ was divided into two factions: to the one, which favored the Roman Pontiffs, the name of Guelfs was afterwards given; that of Ghibellines to the other, which adhered to the Emperor. The chief Leader of this party in the regions beyond the Po was Ezzelino, The Life of Blessed Arnold a man of tyrannical and almost bestial character, by whose order Blessed Arnold, by a Paduan Monk, his disciple, as author. Abbot of the Paduan monastery of Saint Justina, was extinguished in the filth of prison on 10 February. We give his Life collected from the Chronicle of an anonymous but contemporary Paduan monk, brought up under the discipline of Arnold himself: who testifies this of himself in the Prologue: "Imitating," he says, "according to our small measure the footsteps of the historiographers, we have resolved to set forth in letters, in summary, in the present little work, certain things which have been done in our times in the parts of the March, or of Lombardy, or even beyond the bounds of Italy." And below, when he says that "our dormitory" was made by Arnold, he shows himself a monk of that monastery. He narrates his death in prison, "as," he says, "the Friars Minor, most devout men, faithfully related to us." Lorenzo de Monacis, secretary to the Venetian Senate and great Chancellor of the kingdom of Crete, in book 13 of the History which he was writing in the year of Christ 1414, enumerates the crimes of Ezzelino, whom he calls Ezerinus, in the words of the Paduan Monk, with this preface: "Of the said Ezerinus a certain trustworthy historiographer of the said time writes." by a trustworthy historian: These we give below at numbers 6 and 7, but few out of many; so that some things may be set before the reader about those, very many of whom fell on account of their loyalty toward the Apostolic See, and the ferocious tyranny of Ezzelino may be understood.
[2] Rolandino, himself also a Paduan, pursued both at greater length, describing the affairs of his own time in twelve books, namely from the year 1200, in which he was born, to the sixtieth following, in which he states in his preface that he is writing these things. He asserts, book 4, chapter 9, that Arnold, Abbot of Saint Justina of Padua, was a man noble by nation, of the lineage of the Cataneo, his family, from the house of Cataneo, of Limena in the district of Padua. Hence Bernardino Scardeone, who was a Canon of Padua a hundred years ago, book 2 of the Antiquity of the city of Padua, class 6, relates that Blessed Arnold was illustrious from the noble family of Cataneo, and from the royal stock of the Counts of Limena. "Now to the North of Padua," from the Counts of Limena: says the same writer, book 1, class 1, "is Limena, in recent years fortified with a citadel, a river, walls, ditches, and very high and thick ramparts, now destroyed, except the stone bridge, which the Venetian Senate forbade to be demolished for the public convenience of those crossing."
[3] holiness of life; The Author below proclaims Arnold a Martyr and a Virgin, his soul holy and beloved of God, the body of the blessed man incorrupt: and on account of this miracle he praises God glorious in His Saints. Lorenzo de Monacis, following the earlier author, calls him a just man, honest, and revered by the attestation of the Clergy and the people. Giacomo Cavacci of Padua, who described the history of the monastery of Saint Justina in six books, wrote more amply of the most holy life of the same Arnold; he is cited by Luke Wadding, volume 2 of the Annals of the Minors, at the year 1255, number 19, and by Angelo Portenari of Padua, book 9 of the Felicity of Padua, chapter 14; and the former describes Arnold as renowned for miracles and holiness of life, on account of the remains of the venerable holy man deposited among his Minors. Scardeone ascribes him to the class of the Saints and Blessed, with this title prefixed to him: "On Blessed Arnold Cataneo, Abbot." Odorico Raynaldi, in the Annals at the same year 1255, number 13, pronounces him a most holy man, and a most holy Abbot. Abraham Bzovius too, at number 13, writes Blessed Arnold.
[4] his name in the Martyrologies. Benedictus Dorganius in the Benedictine Calendar at 10 February commemorates him thus: "Of Saint Arnold the Abbot." Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints: "At Padua, of Saint Arnold, Abbot and Martyr." At greater length Arnold Wion and Hugo Menardus in the monastic Martyrologies: "At Padua, of Saint Arnold, Abbot of Saint Justina, and Martyr," etc., the rest of the eulogy being drawn from the Acts presently to be given: which has also been done by the other authors mentioned before.
[5] an altar erected. Wion adds in the Notes that the Body was afterwards carried to Padua to his convent of Saint Justina; and that in the year 1542, on 14 March, at the solemn translation of the Saints of that monastery, it was laid up in the altar dedicated to his name, on the left side of the Choir.
LIFE
from the Chronicle of the Paduan Monk.
Arnold Cataneo, Abbot at Padua in Italy (Blessed)
By the Paduan Monk.
CHAPTER I
The monastery administered by Blessed Arnold. Gifts offered to the Emperor. Exile. Prison.
[1] [In the year 1209, under Otto IV, Emperor, with Ezzelino his counsellor, and Innocent III, Pope,] In the year of the Lord 1209. About these times Otto, Duke of Saxony, elected King of Germany, came down from Germany and came into Lombardy with a copious army… He used the counsel of Ezzelino and Salinguerra… He went on to Rome and was crowned by Pope Innocent at Saint Peter's. Which done, his heart was exalted, and he spurned alike the admonition and the command of the Supreme Pontiff. And Pope Innocent at once publicly bound him with the bond of anathema… In the same year the Lord a Stephen, Abbot of Saint Justina, in the month of May, from desire of a stricter life, resigned the Abbacy, and led the hermit's life at b Venda, and there c rested in peace. To whom succeeded Abbot Arnold, d laudable in religion, and compunct in discretion, Blessed Arnold is created Abbot of Saint Justina: and laudable in all honesty of morals.
In the year of the Lord 1210 the Emperor Otto returned into Germany, bound by the bond of excommunication…
[2] In the year of the Lord 1211. In those times Frederick, the young King of Sicily, Frederick II son of the late Emperor Henry and of Queen Constance, who was the daughter of Roger, King of Sicily, at the command of the magnificent Pope Innocent, went up confidently through Lombardy into Germany with the help of the Marquis of Este: made King of Germany, whom the Prelates and Princes of Germany received so most graciously that few of the Princes remained with Otto. At length they elected him with one accord King of Germany and future Emperor… and Emperor,
In the year of the Lord 1220, Frederick II, King of Sicily and Apulia, and Duke of Swabia, coming down from Germany, went to Rome, and there received the crown of the Empire from Pope Honorius on the day of Blessed Cecilia…
In the year of the Lord 1228, the venerable Abbot Arnold had e a ditch made, and brought in the waters of the river, Blessed Arnold restores the monastery with new buildings: which is Saint Justina's, and there he had excellent f mills made. This was an outstanding work, and one to be diligently committed to memory by the Brothers of the monastery…
In the year of the Lord 1236, the honorable Abbot Arnold had our dormitory made, with the chapter house and the chambers placed below and adjoining, and at the same time he had the chambers of the palace with the hall excellently restored…
[3] In the year of the Lord 1237, when the city of Padua was enjoying a peaceful state, and, strong in abundance of people and in soldiery, Padua being occupied by Ezzelino, was also very greatly adorned with riches and glory, the father of treacheries and crimes, namely the enemy of the human race, put it into the hearts of certain magistrates to hand it over to the Envoys of the Emperor and to Ezzelino g da Romano, whom the Paduans were accustomed to detest and to pursue like a wolf. The evil, therefore, which they had conceived in their heart, they carried out in deed, suddenly making the wolf the shepherd of the sheep, to their own ruin and harm and that of their country. For they caused Ezzelino, the enemy of Padua, to come in the month of February, and h handed over the city and the people into his most cruel hands… And after Ezzelino, under the pretext of the Empire, obtained the lordship of Padua, and the nobles being harassed with exile and prisons, i he at once sent the Nobles of the city with their sons into exile: all of whom he afterwards handed over to the most wicked Prince Frederick, who, sending them into Apulia, had them kept in harsh prisons and underground cages, where for the most part they perished miserably. The perfidious Ezzelino also bound in prison the Lord k Jordan, whom the Paduans called, as it were, the Father of the country. At the same time too the Tyrant, seeing the Abbot of Saint Justina, Blessed Arnold escapes: supported both by the nobility of his origin and by the power of his kindness, adorned with learning and character, pleasing to God and men, tried to contrive his capture. Which the Abbot foreseeing, fled first to Ferrara, afterwards to l Monselice, and lay hidden until the coming of Augustus. And so in the month of September the Emperor Frederick came down with an army from Germany into Lombardy, he deals with the Emperor Frederick: whom the venerable Abbot met near Verona, and was received by him with a cheerful countenance, and for two months, with a fitting company, followed the camp of Caesar…
[4] he recovers his monastery, which had been occupied by Ezzelino: In the year of the Lord 1238, Count Gebhard of Saxony, Envoy of the Emperor, came to Padua, and, moved with pity at the just complaints of the Abbot of Saint Justina, restored his monastery to the Abbot, removing from it the guards and procurators whom Ezzelino had placed there…
In the year of the Lord 1239, about the Conversion of Saint Paul, the Emperor came to Padua, and made his residence in the monastery of Saint Justina for two months, from Quinquagesima Sunday until fifteen days after Easter… Meanwhile, while the Emperor resided in the aforesaid monastery, he receives the Emperor in it: and the Empress, daughter of the King of England, had her lodging at Noenta, the said Abbot, a lover of courtesy and largesse, honored Augustus with most welcome gifts. For he offered him two precious carpets, and a throne with its furnishing and a footstool most artfully decorated; two wagonloads of wine so very precious, as if it were from the vineyards of Engaddi; he bestows many gifts on him: thirty measures of barley and twenty-four wagonloads of hay: he also gave him very great sturgeons, which he had brought for himself from the parts of Ferrara. With these and other gifts and presents he very frequently honored both Augustus and the Courtiers…
[5] In the year of the Lord 1242, Pope Innocent the Fourth sought for nearly two years to have peace with the Emperor, wishing to put an end to such great evils. But since the Emperor possessed nearly the whole of Italy, raised up into pride, he spoke indeed soft words; but he busied himself in every way to oppress the Roman Church…
In the year of the Lord 1245, about the feast of Saint John the Baptist, a very great Council was held at Lyons, Frederick being deposed at the Council of Lyons, to which the Emperor, summoned, disdained to go in person. Whence, on account of his contumacy and the innumerable evils which he had done against the Church, Pope Innocent, sitting in the Council, with the assent and counsel of the Prelates and of the whole Council, pronounced against Frederick the sentence of deposition, justly and steadfastly alike… He sent envoys into Germany to admonish the Princes to elect some vigorous man to govern the Empire. Then they, coming together, and Henry of Thuringia elected, elected a Catholic man, vigorous, noble, wise, kind, and steadfast, the Landgrave of Thuringia, pleasing to God and men…
In the year of the Lord 1246.. a lamentable deed took place, full alike of compassion and of grief. For Ezzelino, the minister of Satan, the executioner of the devil, the drinker of human blood, the thirsting enemy of the Church, he is carried off as a captive by Ezzelino, the refuge of heretics, the busy inventor of malice, laid his hand on a most desirable member of the Church, that is, the Abbot of Saint Justina of Padua, to seize him; a man indeed just, honest, formed in good morals, and, as the Clergy and people attest, very greatly revered. On the day of Saint Brice he ordered him to be seized with his brother according to the flesh, and shut him up in a dark prison, causing him to be guarded with diligence as a traitor to the Empire… m
In the year of the Lord 1247. At this time the Landgrave, King of Germany, closed his last day: and is shut up in a dark prison, at whose death the Church was troubled; but Frederick was very greatly lifted up…
In the year of the Lord 1248… about these times the Princes elected William, Count of Holland, as King and future Emperor, a man indeed upright and distinguished with an army and knights…
In the year of the Lord 1250… the most powerful Frederick lost his life in Apulia on the day of Saint Lucy, carrying nothing with him but a little sack of sins…
AnnotataThe family of Ezzelino. and of Camposampiero: and indeed this Ezzelino III was born of his grandfather Ezzelino I of Onara, and his father Ezzelino II, called the Stammerer, the deeds of each of whom he describes. The Tyrant is not therefore to be reckoned of Teutonic stock, as some more recent writers write.
CHAPTER II
The death of Blessed Arnold in prison. The cruelty and death of Ezzelino.
[6] In the year of the Lord 1252, in the month of May, the sons and grandsons of the noble William of Carturo, very many are killed by order of Ezzelino, after many kinds of torments, were killed at Padua by order of Ezzelino. In this year, about the end of August, a Ezzelino, the enemy of the human race, at the suggestion of demons and of malignant men… drew the deadly sword irrevocably from its sheath, and, beginning with Carnarolo, a Knight of Verona, whom he declared to be the head of a conspiracy against him, he perpetrated an unheard-of slaughter and b killing of men, both at Verona and at Padua, Vicenza, and in the whole March… Knights and elders were killed in troops with swords in the market place, their limbs were cut off piece by piece, and again gathered and laid on pyres, and burned with fire set beneath. Brother handed over brother, cousin cousin, friend friend to death, and slaughtered them with their own hands. By these crimes each one believed that he was rendering service to the Tyrant. And yet those who did this fell after a few days into a like sword or noose of death. The sons of nobles and of other citizens were deprived of their eyes, and, their genitals being cut off, having suffered cruel torments, they were shut up in dark prisons, where they died in the horrible torture of hunger. Noble and delicate matrons and beautiful Virgins wasted away in custody from hunger, pestilence, injuries, and unheard-of afflictions… even matrons, There remained no stock, noble or even common, which was not cruelly torn by him, either wholly or for the greatest part. Almost all the knights were killed by the sword and other punishments: diligent merchants, wise Judges, reverend Prelates, Judges, Priests, etc. devout cloistered religious, honored Canons, handsome and vigorous young men, were destroyed root and branch, their substance being taken away and disposed of according to tyrannical command… He himself consumed the goods of the Bishoprics, Abbeys, Canonries, and of almost all the Churches in his wicked works. In his days preaching ceased, the confession of sins was silent, and the devotion of the faith was extinguished.
[7] In the year of the Lord 1253, Ezzelino — rejoicing in having no pathways except those stained with blood — both at Verona and throughout the entire March once again violently extended his hand to imprison and kill, they die of hunger and the squalor of prisons and he filled the cities and fortresses with a multitude of captives whom he afflicted with horrible hunger. And from the anguish of hunger and thirst (alas!), the wretches ate whatever was unclean, and were compelled to drink urine with incredible eagerness. And it was considered no small act of kindness for one who deigned to share with his companions the drink of his own urine. Moreover, the intolerable stench and the corrupted air, the excessive heat, and the darkness were so horrible in the prisons of Ezzelino that the captives could scarcely breathe, and many expired from these causes. Furthermore, so great was the multitude of wretched people in these prisons that one pressed upon another to such a degree that no one could lie down or sit; yet the weakness of the body by no means permitted them to stand on their feet. The cry of those lamenting and saying "Woe! Woe!" and the clapping of hands resounded so horribly that they were rightly thought to be not man-made prisons but infernal dungeons and punishments inflicted by demons — because there was no rest, no consolation, no prospect of redemption from the evils inflicted and impending. Death was sought there with the greatest desire, that it might put an end to such great evils. For one dying in such a state was believed to be happier than one living. And those placed at the point of death could by no means obtain permission to confess with Priests or to dispose of their affairs...
[8] In the year of the Lord 1255, on February 10, when the most devout man, Abbot Arnold — the pattern of virtue, the mirror and exemplar of monastic religion — as also Blessed Arnold in the year 1255, on February 10 had spent eight years and three months in a dark prison and in chains, around the seventieth year of his life, on the tenth day of February — which was then the first day of Lent — at Asolo, he happily departed to the Lord. When the hour of his passing was approaching — which was around dawn (as the Friars Minor, most devout men, faithfully reported to us) — many who were stationed in the nearby camps saw clearly fiery signs descending from heaven, in the likeness of two burning torches, the prison illuminated by fiery torches which stood above his prison for as long as that holy soul, beloved of God, was being loosed from the bond of the flesh. Truly significant, as we firmly believe, those two signs were of the double crown with which the blessed man was crowned by the Lord in the heavenly court among the Martyrs and Virgins. For he was a Virgin in both body and soul, as the Priests to whom he confessed clearly profess. For never by word or deed did he ever dishonor the purity of his soul by the vice of lasciviousness. He can rightly be called a Martyr, because he patiently and innocently endured the long passion of imprisonment. And placed in that very straitness of the prison, he so drew the affection both of the guards and of those who visited him by a certain gentleness of meekness that he was deservedly loved by all. For although in that same year in which he was to depart from this life he had no servant of his own (for he had been abandoned by all on account of the monstrous rage of the raging Tyrant, who had commanded that no one should offer him anything to eat except black bread and a little water), nevertheless at length the guards of the prison, moved by pity, secretly showed him all the services of humanity.
[9] To celebrate the venerable obsequies of so great a man there came together on the day of his death no small multitude of people of both sexes, he is buried at the church of the Friars Minor: and, carrying his most holy body with reverence and honor to the church of the g Friars Minor, they committed it most devoutly to burial. Many, both men and women, shed pious tears, remembering the compassion and sweetness and gentleness of mind of the man of God: and many said that one should rather rejoice with him, that he had been freed from such great straits and was enjoying the joys of Paradise. Fifty days after his death, it seemed good to the Friars Minor that his little body should be transferred to a sepulchre more becomingly prepared. They arranged, in the silence of the night, to employ hired men to carry out this business, incorrupt after 50 days, thinking that the body, putrid and wholly wasted away, would give off an intolerable odor. Opening, then, the coffin in which the holy limbs were held enclosed, and seeing no traces of putrefaction and corruption, except a certain whiteness like down about the eyelids, they were filled with the greatest wonder, and, calling all of the house to this miracle, they praised God with one accord, who is wonderfully glorious in His Saints. After this they laid the body of the blessed man most reverently in a worthy sepulchre prepared for it...
[10] In the year of the Lord 1256, Philip, Archbishop of Ravenna, the Legate, he is translated to a more honorable place. enlightened by the grace of the sevenfold Spirit ... having taken the counsel of wise men, resolved to hasten with the army as far as Padua. At earliest dawn, then, on Monday, the twelfth day of the closing part of h January, the army being roused by the blare of trumpets, and arms manfully taken up by all, In the following year Padua is snatched from Ezzelino: the Legate had the banner of the kindly Cross carried before him; which all followed... Then the Legate quickly, on Tuesday about the ninth hour, had the Cat pushed toward the gate, and fire very speedily applied to burn it. Those within, then, were not a little terrified by the burning of the gate; but those outside, made bolder, setting ladders to the walls on every side, about the hour of vespers manfully climbed upon the walls of the city. Then, the city being taken ... the dark prisons were opened, the bonds and chains were broken: the captives are freed. here came forth crowds of dying men, there came out noble matrons and trembling girls, worn with squalor and leanness. Last of all there came out noble boys, blinded and at the same time castrated, whose pitiable aspect provoked the eyes of the beholders to the shedding of pious tears. Let no one, then, attribute to the strength of men the victory over so very strong a city, but to God alone, who is glorious in His perfect works, by whose power the famished manfully overcame the well-fed, the unarmed the armed. At Verona, when these reports were heard, the Paduans began to lament inconsolably, both for their wives and sons and daughters and goods, of whose state in so great a peril they were uncertain; and because they saw themselves placed in the hands of a most cruel Tyrant. the Paduans found at Verona, to the number of 12000, slain by Ezzelino: Then the insatiable murderer and venomous dragon, adding affliction to the afflicted, except for some wicked men, ordered absolutely all the Paduans to be seized, whose number i reached 12 thousand men, and had them bound with fetters and shut up in dark prisons, all of whom he miserably killed by hunger and other tortures...
[11] In the year of the Lord 1259 .. the people of Cremona and of Mantua and their allies, learning of the most notorious flight of the rash Ezzelino, moving their camp with one accord... attacked him manfully, and, breaking into his very strong battle-line, he himself, wounded in battle, is captured, seized the terrible lion with great impetus... When Ezzelino had fallen into their hands, and was gravely wounded in the battle, he was led by the people of Cremona to k Succinum, and there after a few days, being nearly seventy years old, and having no offspring, he died, failing, in a most evil old age. And he was so worthily punished by this chastisement detesting the Sacraments, he dies, that in death he forgot himself, detesting the Ecclesiastical Sacraments, he who, while he lived, was unmindful of God ... These were the cities over which he exercised an unheard-of tyranny: Verona, Vicenza, Padua, Treviso, Feltre, Trent and Brescia ... For a course of nearly thirty-four years he held Verona by violence ... By his malignant instigation the most powerful Emperor Frederick, to whom this Tyrant furnished entry into Italy through Verona, wished violently, the forces of the whole Empire being shaken, the origin of all the evils then inflicted on the Church. to obtain Lombardy. For which reason an inexorable discord arose between the Roman Church and the Empire: on account of which many thousands of men perished in various parts of the world. Of these evils the perfidious Ezzelino was the head, the middle and the end.
Annotations