Elizabeth

ON ST. ELIZABETH,

QUEEN OF PORTUGAL, WIDOW,

OF THE THIRD ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS.

At Coimbra in the same Portugal.

IN THE YEAR 1336.

A PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR C. J.

§ I. The beginning and increase of the public cult. The Acts, lawfully collected at Coimbra, sent to Rome for the canonization.

Obscure, outside Portugal and the rest of Spain, was the memory of the holiness of Queen Elizabeth, as she is now everywhere called (the Spaniards everywhere say Isabella) up to the sixteenth century of Christ: at the beginning of which the Supreme Pontiff Leo X, when it had come to his ears that the blessed Queen Elizabeth shone with very many miracles; at the instance of Emmanuel, King of Portugal, A public cult of Elizabeth, permitted by Pope Leo X, by a particular Brief granted; that in the churches and monasteries of the city and diocese of Coimbra a commemoration or office of this blessed Queen might be recited once in the year, and in the churches and houses of those places, according to the devotion of the pious faithful, her image might be caused to be depicted, and that she be held among the other images of the Saints, and be venerated and reputed as Blessed; and that the faithful of Christ might pour out prayers to her, and ask of her that she would be willing to entreat for those same faithful before the Most High. Which concession afterward Pope Paul IV extended to the whole kingdom of Portugal. These are the words of the illustrious men, the Auditors of the Roman Rota, Giovanni Battista Coccino, Alfonso Manzanedo de Quinones, and Giacomo Cavalieri, in the Relation which, for the canonization of St. Elizabeth, from the processes duly examined, they collected in compendium.

[2] Yet an error crept into the said Brief of Leo concerning the name of the Queen; propagated by Paul IV. where it was written "Queen Blanca," for "Queen Elizabeth or Isabella." Which the same Auditors soon note in these words: "Because in the said Brief of beatification of Leo X there was an error (for, where the name of Queen Elizabeth was to be written, there was written 'of Blanca'); therefore, when this was signified to Paul IV on the part of John, King of Portugal; through another Brief of the sacred Penitentiary he commanded the Cardinal Grand Penitentiary, by the oracle of the living voice, that the aforesaid error be corrected, and in the place of 'Blanca' there be written 'of Elizabeth'; and that that Brief be extended to the royal chapel and to the whole kingdom of Portugal; as is established from the said Briefs." The process of the cult I ought not here to append, after Pope Urban VIII solemnly enrolled her in the album of the Saints.

[3] There flourished, under Pope Paul IV, in the Carthusian house of Cologne, Laurentius Surius, Surius in 1576 rouses Sebastian, King of Portugal, who died there in the year 1578, most well-known for the lives of the Saints collected by him and published throughout the whole course of the year, and for other works. He, as he desired to collect the Saints of all regions and to make their deeds public, applied also by letters on that matter to Sebastian, King of Portugal; who declared that those letters were pleasing to him, in the year 1576 by his mandate, in which he enjoined the Lord Emmanuel, Bishop of Coimbra, Count of Arganil, as follows: "The Father of the Carthusian Order dear to me, [that he take care to have the lives of the Saints of his kingdom communicated to him,] named Surius, residing in Germany, has newly written lives of the Saints: and because, according to the information which I have, there is lacking to him only the volume of the extraordinary Saints; I likewise much desire that this Father write also the lives of the Saints who formerly existed in these kingdoms, and who now have almost come into oblivion; whereas otherwise, for their works, holiness, and example, and also on account of the miracles which God has wrought for their merits, they ought to be kept green in the memory and recollection of all.

[4] And that this business may have effect; it is needful which he held pleasing that there be sent from this kingdom, to the said Father, authentic summaries of the aforesaid Saints according to the form required by law. Therefore I shall greatly congratulate you, if you cause lives of this kind to be sought with all diligence in the archives of your bishopric, and will ordain that summaries of this kind be made from ancient writings, if they be there found; but if not, by the inquisition of witnesses or by any other manner whatever seeming good to you; yet by those manners and forms which are more authentic. Which summaries you will send me immediately with your letter, directed to Father Surius, rendering in it to the said Father a brief relation of the things which are contained in the summaries; and it will greatly please me that such diligence be employed in it as may show the zeal which you have for the service of the Lord and the spiritual fruit of souls. Given at Lisbon on the fifth day of August, of the year one thousand five hundred and seventy-six. The King, Martinus Consalves de Camera."

[5] and ordered [it to be immediately committed to execution.] In execution of this royal mandate, the aforesaid Bishop of Coimbra, in the same year and month, on its nineteenth day, committed to the Licentiate Francisco de Magalhães, his Expeditor, the business, to be performed by his own and the royal authority; commanding besides that, with an Apostolic notary, he should approach the churches and monasteries of that city, and thence extract the instruments of the lives and miracles of the Saints, male and female, born in the kingdom of Portugal. Likewise he gives him the faculty of examining trustworthy witnesses concerning the miracles. Finally he commands that whatever of instruments he should find, pertaining hither, he should take care to have described and put into acts by the notary in manner and form that they may make faith; and shown to himself.

[6] Collected in Portugal, they were sent to Rome in one codex The Licentiate Magalhães, with his Apostolic Notary, diligently executed the commission of the Bishop and the mandate of the King in that same year 1576, and all things being duly performed, offered to his Bishop his collectanea, from the ancient monuments, in the Portuguese tongue as they were, notarially described. These, bound in one codex and authenticated, were then sent to Rome for instituting the cause of the canonization chiefly of Queen Elizabeth; whose Acts in the codex are read in the last place; the Acts preceding of the five Martyrs of the Order of St. Francis, suffered at Marrakesh in Africa, and thence translated to Coimbra; likewise of blessed Theotonius, first Prior of the monastery of the Holy Cross of Coimbra; and of the holy Martyr Columba: all which at Rome by Apostolic mandate were translated from the ancient vulgar Portuguese idiom, in simple style, into Latin. Opportunely I in the year 1698 obtained there a copy of that codex and interpretation, by the gift of my friend there, Stephen Estiennot, of the Benedictine Order, of the Congregation of St. Maur, Procurator at Rome.

[7] and there rendered into Latin The testimony of the interpreter there is such: "I, Rodrigo Gomes, residing in the Curia, translated these Acts of the miracles from the ancient vulgar Portuguese to the Latin idiom, adding nothing or diminishing; but, as suits so arduous a business, namely of the canonization of the Saints." And soon there is subjoined in the same place a testimony of the concordance of our Latin apograph with the Roman autograph, which also contains some things making to the present matter, as follows.

[8] and authenticated. "The present copy of the life and miracles of the holy Martyrs of Marrakesh, and of Bl. Theotonius, most holy Prior of the Holy Cross of Coimbra; and of Bl. Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal, was extracted from the interpretation of the transcript, transmitted by the remissorial and compulsorial judges to the Roman Curia, with the remissorial and compulsorial process; and made from the vulgar Portuguese into the Latin speech by the above-said deputed interpreter. Which copy, by the mandate of the Most Reverend Lords, Francesco Sacrati, Archbishop of Damascus, and locum-tenens of one of the Auditors of the Rota; and Giovanni Battista Coccino, Dean; and Alfonso Manzanedo, Auditors of the Rota; and, of the present cause of the Coimbra canonization of that same Bl. Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal, commissary judges specially deputed by our most holy Lord the Pope, by me heard and collated; agrees with the aforesaid interpretation, existing in my keeping: which I the undersigned notary attest; and in faith, I have subscribed and published the present copy or exemplar, on this 19th day of the month of September 1614. Vincentius Remerius, notary of the Rota, and deputed scribe of this cause."

[9] Let us digress for a while from the primary argument here. The Acts of the five Martyrs of Marrakesh our Elders amply illustrated at the 16th of January; A digression which can hence be augmented in their time, when posterity shall have to reprint January and February in more volumes than they now are; because after the edition of those months, the Acts of very many Saints, gathered from the long journey undertaken, at the invitation of Pope Alexander VII, through Germany, Italy, [and] France, Henschen and Papebroch collected, both pertaining to the first two months and to the rest: but those which pertained to March and the rest of the months of the year, are already printed each in their places, and will further be printed. But those which pertain to January and February are reserved, until, the whole year being finished, the Saints helping, those months be reprinted with very much accession. I return to the codex. In the second place are had the Acts of St. Theotonius, of whom enough has been said by our Fathers on the 18th of February: in the third, the Acts, or rather the miracles, of St. Columba, to be illustrated in this very month of July on the 20th day.

[10] Queen Elizabeth at length in the year 1625 was by Pope Urban VIII enrolled by solemn canonization in the album of the Saints, The canonization of Elizabeth in 1625, and the elogia in the Martyrologies, the whole Catholic world applauding. And about the same time and after, the more recent Martyrologists inscribed her in their works; Philip Ferrarius in the General Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology; printed in the year 1625, thus notes her under the name of Isabella on the 4th day of July, her birthday: "At Coimbra in Spain, of holy Isabella the Queen." Arthur du Monstier in his Gynaeceum ranges more widely: "At Coimbra in Portugal, of St. Elizabeth the widow, Queen of Portugal; who, by piety and prayer, patience and charity, and

chastity distinguished; and moreover, under the habit of the Third Order of blessed Francis, continually intent on the works of humility and mercy and penance, shone with miracles in life and after death." Castellanus in his Martyrology, published in French at Paris in the year 1709, simply renders the text of the Roman Martyrology, at the 4th day of July, on which she was formerly signed; no mention being made of the change, made by Pope Innocent XII, to the 8th day of the same month inserted in the Roman Martyrology, of which presently.

[11] The memory of the Saint was first ascribed to the Roman Martyrology after the solemn canonization, also to the Roman [Martyrology, now in two places, the 4th and 8th of July.] by the same Pope who had canonized her, Urban VIII, at the aforesaid 4th day of July with this elogium, but in the last place: "At Lisbon, of holy Elizabeth the widow, Queen of Portugal, whom, famous for virtues and miracles, Urban the eighth enrolled in the number of the Saints." Thus the Plantinian editions of the years 1635 and 1657. In just as many words the edition of the year 1678 has it, but raised from the last place to the first. The last edition of the year 1701 recalls the memory of the Queen in two places, namely on the 4th and 8th of July: it also indicates the cause of the change on the 4th, in the penultimate place: "At Lisbon, of holy Elizabeth the widow, Queen of Portugal, whose celebrity, by the disposition of Innocent the Twelfth, is recalled on the eighth of the Ides of July": that is, on the very eighth day of that month: on which the same elogium, which we gave above, is now read in the first place without any change, only the birthplace Lisbon being omitted; perhaps in favor of the people of Coimbra, who would rather have it read, "At Coimbra," where the body of the holy Queen, laid down from her death, is up to now honored with singular religion.

[12] The change of the Martyrology proceeded from the change of the divine Office of St. Elizabeth, In the year 1695 an office of precept is granted. which up to the year 1695 was read ad libitum; but then, by the concession of Innocent XII, it began to be read of precept under the rite of a Semidouble throughout the whole Church. The Roman Decree on that matter is this: "A supplicatory petition being referred to the Congregation of Sacred Rites, in the name of the most serene King of Portugal, presented to our most holy Lord by the Lord Benedetto de Fonseca, resident of the same in the City: in which he besought his Holiness that the Office of St. Elizabeth, Queen of the aforesaid kingdom, hitherto recited in the universal Church ad libitum under the semidouble rite, he would benignly grant to be recited hereafter under the double rite of precept. The same Sacred Congregation, at the relation of the most Eminent and most Reverend Lord Cardinal de Adda, judged that the Office of the aforesaid Saint could hereafter be recited each year by the universal Church under the semidouble rite of precept, and that the fixed day of the eighth of July could be assigned to her, on the 18th day of December 1694." And the Pope assented on the 9th day of the following year.

§ II. An indication of the many writers concerning the Queen, and an explanation of the things which are here published.

Ancient Lives, written in the Portuguese tongue, We have already said some things in general concerning the codex, sent from Portugal to Rome, containing the Acts of the Saints, of the five Martyrs of the Order of Minors, suffered at Marrakesh in Africa; likewise of St. Theotonius the Confessor; St. Columba the Martyr, and St. Elizabeth the Queen. Now more specially it must be said of the Acts of this holy Queen. Her legend, venerable for antiquity, autograph, collected in the vulgar Portuguese tongue by an anonymous writer of nearly the same age, is preserved in the archive of the Nuns of the monastery of St. Clare at Coimbra; which the Queen herself, while she lived, took care to have built and endowed opulently; and in it she wished to be buried after death, and up to now she rests and is honored, illustrated by many signs of miracles by God.

[14] two copies in our keeping Of that primary Life, written in the vernacular Portuguese tongue, an exemplar was taken care to be described for us, in the year 1678, by Father Antonio Macedo of our Society, then rector of the College and Academy of Évora; testifying, by the subscription of his name and the impression of his seal, that the exemplar had been sincerely and faithfully transcribed from the ancient autograph. We have another exemplar of the same Portuguese autograph, printed by Doctor Francisco Brandão, in the sixth Part of the Portuguese Monarchy, toward the end. Brandão prefixes to that Life this observation of his: "The author of the Life nowhere declares himself; but from it itself it is gathered that he was very ancient and near to the death of the holy Queen. At the head of the book is discerned depicted the image of the Saint with the habit, cord, mantle, and veil of the Order of St. Clare. She holds in her right hand a crucifix and on her head a crown of thorns. At her feet lie cast down a crown and royal scepter, with this Latin epigraph: 'The cross and thorny crown of my Lord, the scepter and crown mine.' The prologue of the writer to the life, in this printed codex is lacking, [but] in our Ms. is prefixed. From which (although neither there is the name of the author indicated) it is known more clearly that the writer lived very near to the death of the Queen, when he says that the deeds done by her are still known by recent recollection, and that many survive who saw them and were present."

[15] Those two Portuguese lives, our Ms. and the printed one of Brandão, by an anonymous author, are known to have been described from the same autograph: for they agree from head to foot among themselves; unless perchance, that somewhere the less attentive copyists, one has expressed some things wrongly or even skipped over them, which the other more correctly caught. It has been said that the author of the history nowhere declares who or of what sort he is. perhaps a Nun; If there be place for conjecture, I shall be of the opinion that it was a nun. For the feminine style everywhere betrays itself, without art; without due transitions; joining almost everything by the particle "and." He mixes deeds of diverse times, repeats other things said elsewhere, even in a neighboring place, and what could be said in few words, he pursues verbosely; and repeats again and again the names of illustrious persons with the addition, "Don" or "Donna," "King" or "Queen," even if in the line above they were already so named. Which plainly savor of something feminine. Yet not on that account shall I deny that that history in its simplicity is most veracious; to which nothing, as the Prologue says, has been added foreign to the truth.

[16] I have also a double Latin translation of the said Portuguese autograph: and just as many rendered into Latin. of which one was formerly sent to us from Portugal by the praised Father Antonio Macedo. The other I found at Rome, made by command of the Congregation of Sacred Rites, as I have already said. Neither pleases, as it is. For the first, while it wished to avoid the verbosity of the autograph codex, so contracted its contents that it seems rather a compendium of the life than the life itself. The other, the Roman, is most simple, and on that account the more praiseworthy; but in many places scarcely Latin; and sins again and again against the grammatical laws; and while it insists too scrupulously on rendering the Portuguese terms and locutions into Latin, it often becomes more obscure than that it can be conveniently understood by anyone. For which reason, lest by so unworthy a style the glory and illustrious deeds of the holy Queen be rather stained than illustrated; I have resolved, to the greater glory of God and of the Saint herself, to revise that Latin version, and to confer [it] with the Portuguese text, and whatever was wrongly, or less in Latin, and even barbarously interpreted, to amend according to my measure; that the deeds of the most holy Queen, as they were once written in Portuguese, now at last rendered into Latin, may in this greater work endure with more decorum, and be read without disgust. Yet I would not have you think that I make all things of the said Roman interpreter new. By no means. Various things, which are read expressed simply indeed but intelligently, I shall leave as they are: more, which [are] otherwise, I shall change from the Portuguese codex into the legitimate sense and a somewhat better latinity; for the rest adding nothing to the history or taking anything therefrom.

[17] It is read in number 3 of the life concerning Frederick, Elizabeth's own brother, When the life was written. deceased in the year of Christ 1337; who is now called King in Sicily. Which indeed notes the time present to the writer. But since the chief collector of the life indicates in his prologue that he writes the deeds of the Queen while they are still known by recent recollection; and many survive who saw them: he indeed signifies that he did not see them; and after the death of the Queen collected and composed his work: among which there were some things, noted by the contemporaries of the Queen; which the collector of the life used not prudently enough. He himself will have written his work about the year 1370; when many could survive who had seen the deeds of the living Queen. Yet the last two miracles, related in numbers 130 and 131, done in a later time, namely in the Caesarean Era 1420 and 1436, that is of Christ 1382 and 1398, whether they were afterward added by the same author, or by another; it is not easy to say. If the author, when he wrote the life about the year 1370, was about 30 years old, he can easily have survived to the year 1400. Certainly that those two miracles were added after the life was written is indicated by the Era expressed at the beginning of both: which in the preceding miracles is not everywhere done. The reason of the difference can be, that the author caught the former from the writings or relation of others; but the latter he himself saw, and therefore, for the sake of greater faith, expressed also the time in which they happened.

[18] Other lives, Several lives, or compendia of lives, of the same holy Queen are extant everywhere in print, which ought not to detain us much, as being all deduced from our sources. A Latin printed Life first, so far as I know, Fr. Thomas de Trugillo, of the Order of Preachers, published in his Thesaurus of Preachers, volume 2, at Barcelona in the year 1583; which narrates in brief compendium certain chief deeds of the Queen. Another, likewise Latin, more verbosely and in a style rather oratorical than historical, our Pedro Perpiñán wrote, printed at Cologne 1609. A more historical [one] gave, printed at Antwerp in the year 1621, among the other Kings of Portugal, Antonio Vasconcellos, himself too of our Society; so written that it would have deserved to be joined to these Acts of the Saints, if we had not a more ancient Ms. life.

[19] From the year 1625, after the solemn canonization, there came forth in various places and languages several compendia of the deeds, of which, the ones which are in our keeping, published in various languages. it will suffice here to have briefly indicated the names of the writers, the places of the editions, and the languages. There published lives of the Saint therefore, in the year 1625, Antonio Gerardi at Rome, in the Italian tongue; in the same place the Lord Juan Antonio de Vera y Zúñiga, in Spanish; likewise in Spanish at Madrid, Fr. Hortensio Félix Paravicino. In the year 1626, Fr. Hilarion de Coste, of the Order of Minims, at Paris in Latin. In the following year, Fr. Francisco Paludanus, of the Order of Minors, at Louvain in French; likewise in Flemish.

[20] What order we here keep of the things to be published, receive. We give in the first place the Life, The order here of the [things to be published.] which is the most ancient, preserved among the nuns of St. Clare at Coimbra: we give [it] moreover as it exists in our Ms. codex and the printed [one] of Brandão in Portuguese, rendered into Latin; as we have already said above. There will follow in the second place, as an appendix, other miracles, which the commissary of the Bishop of Coimbra in the year 1586 collected from sworn witnesses. After these there will be present the Relation of Cardinal del Monte, Bishop of Ostia, delivered

before our holy Lord Pope Urban VIII, in the year 1625, on the 18th of January. Finally there will crown this work another Relation, made earlier by other Auditors of the Rota under Pope Paul V, in that part in which it contains an exact narration of the sarcophagus of the holy Queen opened in the year 1612, and of her body found, on every side most whole.

[21] Therefore, to keep to our codex; there follows (and it will be §3 of this Commentary) the Institution of the Process, by force of the commission of the Bishop of Coimbra and the letters of the King, made through the Commissary Francisco de Magalhães, Licentiate; as will presently follow: after I have here set the title which is prefixed in the ancient Portuguese codex of the life, and is such: "The book, which treats of the good life which the Queen of Portugal, the Lady Isabella, led, and of her well-done deeds and miracles, both in life and after death."

§ III. The institution of the process concerning the deeds of the holy Queen, made at Coimbra by the Commissary of the Bishop.

In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand five hundred and six sic, 1576, in this city of Coimbra, in the monastery of St. Clare outside the walls, In the year of the Lord 1576, the Abbess of St. Clare being summoned, where present in the gratings of the house of the parlor was the most Illustrious Lady Helena de Menese, Abbess of the said monastery, called at the instance of the said Licentiate Francisco de Magalhães, who before me the notary showed to the said Abbess the letter and commission of the King our Lord, and of the Bishop, for the execution of the business contained in it: and asked of her that she would command to be shown to him the life of St. Elizabeth the Queen, which was in the said monastery; and her miracles, which were written in authentic form, which God our Lord had done for her merits; that they might be transcribed and authenticated.

[23] And the said Lady Abbess, the letter and holy zeal of his Majesty being seen, brings forth the life of St. Elizabeth, commanded immediately that there be brought from the archive of the said monastery a certain book written on parchment in ancient manuscript characters, bound, and covered with black leather, which is entitled thus: "The book which treats of the good life which the Queen of Portugal, Donna Elizabeth, led; and of her well-done deeds and miracles, as long as she lived, and after her death."

[24] Which book the said Licentiate asked that I the notary should have transcribed; which is ordered by the notary to be described. and that afterward he ought to proceed, to make a summary of some miracles out of the very many which were said to have been done by the said Queen: and he enjoined the said Lady Abbess, that if in the archive of the said monastery there were any more writings, pertaining to the life of this holy Queen, and her miracles; they should be given to him: and the said Lady Abbess responded to him, that diligence ought to be made in it. And I the Notary carried with me the said book, whose copy is such, as follows. Diogo Coutinho wrote this.

LIFE

By an Anonymous Author nearly contemporary.

From the ancient Codex of the monastery of St. Clare at Coimbra, written in the Portuguese tongue, here translated into Latin.

Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal (S.)

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

THE PROLOGUE OF THE AUTHOR AND [ITS] FAITH.

Lest by the lapse of time there fall out of the memory of men, both the life which she led in this world, the most noble Lady Elizabeth, by the grace of God Queen of Portugal and of the Algarves; and the end which she had: and also, that there be preserved the memory of the things which our Lord Jesus Christ wrought through her intercession, both in life and after death; I shall describe the things done by her, while she was among the living, while they are still known by recent recollection, and many survive, men of either sex, worthy of faith, who saw them and were present; and which are notorious to the whole kingdom of Portugal, as below we shall narrate her deeds, works, and life, adding nothing, varying nothing, that is foreign to the truth.

CHAPTER I.

The forebears, brothers, [and] education of Elizabeth.

The forebears of Elizabeth, This Queen drew her origin from the House of Aragon, daughter of King Peter and Queen Constance. This King Peter was the son of King James and Queen Yolande; daughter of the King of Hungary ^a. That King James snatched from the Moors the islands, Majorca and Minorca and Iviza and Formentera ^b and the whole kingdom of Valencia; and made those places of his own right; and obtained Murcia by aiding the King of Castile ^c.

[3] brothers and sisters, Queen Constance was the daughter of King Manfred, which Manfred was the son of the Emperor Frederick ^d. But while King Peter was still an Infante, he had from Constance Infantes, sons and daughters; and they were, Alfonso, who reigned after King Peter, and died without children ^e; and James, who reigned in Sicily, and after the death of Alfonso, reigned in the kingdom of Aragon ^f. And Frederick, who is now called King in Sicily ^g; and Peter, who died in the Kingdom of Castile, at the time when the Infantes, Alfonso and Ferdinand ^h de la Cerda, were waging war against King Ferdinand of Castile ⁱ; wishing to be named Kings, Alfonso indeed King of Castile; but Ferdinand King of León. He had also daughters, Yolande, who was the wife of King Robert ^k, son of King Charles ^l, brother of St. Louis, who was Bishop of Toulouse, and this our Queen Elizabeth.

[4] But this Elizabeth, at the time of her nativity, came forth from the womb wrapped in a covering of skin, so that no member of her appeared; an unusual birth, which skin the Queen her mother took care to have enclosed in a silver casket, which she laid up among her treasures. But this Queen Elizabeth was born when the year of the Caesarean Era one thousand three hundred and nine ^m was running, [and] because the mother of King Peter had been the daughter of the King of Hungary ⁿ, and had been the sister of St. Elizabeth; on this Queen of Portugal was imposed the name of Elizabeth.

[5] peace at her nativity conciliated between father and grandfather. But at the time of her nativity great wars had been stirred up between King James and his son the Infante Peter, father of this Elizabeth, so that the King would not see the Infante Peter his son, nor any of his sons, who were now all already born; as long as King James lived; and he chose this Elizabeth, whom he held greatly beloved by himself, many times saying of her, that his granddaughter, and foster-child of this kind, ought to be a better woman than all who drew their origin from the house of Aragon; and at that time was the Infante Peter reconciled with the said King his father.

[6] But King James being translated from this life ^o, King Peter reigned: and in the islands of Majorca reigned James, Of the obsequies of the grandfather and the funeral pomp. own brother of King Peter; and this King James the Father in his lifetime gave to his son James, who was born after Peter, the kingdom of Majorca and the county of Roussillon, and the lordship of Montpellier. And this Queen Elizabeth used to say that she remembered that, while King James her grandfather, deceased, was being carried to Poblet [p], where he himself had chosen his burial, she had seen going after him two Kings, his sons [q], and three Queens, who were, the mother of this Elizabeth [r], and Queen Yolande [s], who was the wife of King Alfonso, son of King Ferdinand, who by war recovered Seville from the power of the Moors; and another Queen [t], was the wife of King James, to whom pertained the kingdom of Majorca.

[7] But now while Peter himself reigned, the King of England [u] sent messengers to him, The singular love of the father toward this daughter. asking his daughter Elizabeth as wife for his son, the first heir. She was asked also by Charles, King of Sicily, to be bestowed on his son Robert; with whom afterward Yolande, own sister of Elizabeth, contracted matrimony. But so much was this daughter Elizabeth beloved by her Father, and held by him in so great esteem, that he would say that it would be grievous to him to send away a daughter of this kind from his house, through whom he knew his affairs at home and abroad to prosper in a wonderful manner: that she was unlike other girls of that age, on account of the disposition and virtue of her exceeding goodness.

[8] But the already said Yolande passed from this life [x], Yolande the sister, married to Robert before King Robert reigned: and they had sons, named Peter, and Charles Duke of Calabria, who afterward passed from this life, their father still living and reigning. Moreover the subjects of the said King Peter were of the opinion that the King did not follow good counsel, in that he wished to retain in his house his said daughter Elizabeth, and refused to give her to any of the men so noble who asked her, in matrimony.

ANNOTATA.

p. A famous monastery in Catalonia, founded by King James himself, for the burial of himself and the succeeding Kings. Commonly, Poblet.

q. Namely Peter and James; the former King of Aragon, the latter of Majorca, named by their living father.

r. The wife of the aforesaid Peter, King of Aragon, Constance.

s. Daughter of James and sister of Peter, Kings of Aragon; but wife of Alfonso X, King of Castile.

t. By name Esclaramunda, daughter of Roger Bernard, Count of Foix, and through her husband Queen of Majorca.

u. Namely Edward, the fourth of his name i.e. Edward I, who reigned from the year 1273; and dying in the year 1307, had as his successor his son Edward the fifth i.e. Edward II.

x. In the year 1302, after a five-year marriage, contracted with Robert in the year 1297. But her father-in-law King Charles survived up to the year 1309; in which Robert, another wife being now taken, began to reign.

CHAPTER II.

Sought in marriage by many, she is betrothed to Denis, King of Portugal, and to him conducted, with the greatest feeling of her father, on account of the love with which he followed that daughter.

When therefore the said Elizabeth was thus being educated in the house of her father, after the death of her grandfather King James; Elizabeth sought in marriage by several, and had now reached the age of nine years, there passed from this life in Portugal King Alfonso on the sixteenth day ^a of the month of February, in the Era one thousand three hundred and seventeen, and there began to reign Denis his son, who, hearing that Peter, King of Aragon, who at that time, on account of warlike exploits and illustriously done deeds, was excelling, divulged by fame everywhere in the lands; had two legitimate daughters, of whom one was the said Elizabeth; sent to him his legates and procurators, who should ask his said daughter as wife for himself. But these legates arrived at the house of Aragon at the time when likewise there had come thither the messengers of the King of England ^b, and of the son of King Charles ^c, who all pretended that the same Elizabeth be given them as wife.

[10] Meanwhile the said King Peter, considering that one of those who wished to contract matrimony with his daughter a Rege patre was already a King; and that his daughter could depart from his house with the title of Queen of Portugal; considering likewise that between himself and the said King of Portugal Denis there intervened no impediment of blood, or of another kind; and that for that cause matrimony of this sort could be contracted without the dispensation of the Roman Pontiff; which would have been needful, had he betrothed his daughter to the sons of the King of England, or of King Charles, on account of the consanguinity which intervened. Considering finally Peter, she is betrothed to the King of Portugal. that (although he would grievously send away that daughter from himself) yet that would be done, God disposing, in favor of that same daughter (for she even then in tender age was serving God by prayers, fastings, and alms; and consoled the legates, who had been sent so speedily to her father by the King, with whom a dispensation for contracting was not necessary), he consented to her matrimony, to be entered upon with Denis, King of Portugal: and soon the espousals were contracted through procurators, Knights deputed for that by the King of Portugal ^d, subjects of that same King, sprung from Portugal.

[11] The feeling of the father at the departure of the daughter. A certain day, on which the King of Aragon ought to send his daughter to the King of Portugal, was appointed: and the father sent with her the bishop of Valencia, and other knights of the nobler of his kingdom; also very many matrons and virgins and other women: great gifts also and silver furniture the King and Queen, her parents, gave her. But to King Peter, her father, it was grievous, and it seemed strange to him, that his aforesaid daughter, whom he so greatly loved, should depart from his house, and he esteemed that, she abiding in his house, he received from God great benefits. And this he many times repeated.

[12] A sea journey is advised. Therefore the Legates of the King of Portugal, fearing lest the King should at last permit the departure of his daughter, gave him counsel that, on account of the hostile wars which at that time were waged between the King of Castile Alfonso ^e, and the Infante Sancho his son, who reigned after him; the said Elizabeth should make her journey by sea to the kingdom of Portugal. For King Peter himself also feared lest, on account of the aids which he brought to the said Infante Sancho against the King of Castile his father; the said King of Castile should impede the journey of his daughter. Wherefore it was also determined that she should make her journey by sea.

[13] It is changed by the father to a land journey, Nevertheless the King, his counsel being changed, said to his daughter: "God who has called you to this matrimony, and has guarded you, that you should go forth from my house, named a Queen; may he himself deign to guard you without impediment on this journey." And then they entered on the journey toward Portugal through the kingdom of Valencia, and the King accompanied his daughter, and embraced her with tears, and prays a last blessing on his daughter. saying: "Have you seen a man so ill-advised as I am, who sends away from himself a thing most dear and most beloved in the whole world?" And many times he gave her his blessing, saying: "Daughter, you seek foreign lands: I have educated and taught you; I have nothing more that I may advise you. I have indeed seen no creature that can be compared with you, as regards the understanding and good morals with which you are endowed." And so the King departed from his daughter; and very many knights, both of Aragon and of Catalonia, further accompanied her up to the kingdom and dominion of Castile.

[14] She is received honorably by her cousin Sancho As soon as she arrived there, she met the Infante Sancho her cousin, who showed great honors both to the Queen and to all the knights accompanying her, and said: "My sister, King Peter your father has greatly bound me to himself, by the auxiliary troops which he sent me in this war: nor do I know another to whom I owe more in the whole world than to him. and is conducted into Portugal; Wherefore I indeed would greatly wish to accompany and conduct you up into Portugal: but I cannot; because I am here again occupied with great wars, which do not permit me to yield my place. Nevertheless I will send with you the Infante James, my brother and your cousin, who will accompany you, and lead you safe into Portugal." Then the Infante James conducted the royal bride up to the land of Bragança ^f of the kingdom of Portugal.

[15] But when they were conveyed thither, they found there the Infante Alfonso, where she is consigned to those sent to meet her by the King her bridegroom. own brother of King Denis; and the Count of Portugal, who is called Gonzalo, with very many other Portuguese Prelates and Knights, who there awaited to serve the Queen. Then indeed the said Infante James, the Queen being consigned to the said Portuguese, returned into Castile: but these further led her to the town of Trancoso ^g, where King Denis came to meet her, and there the nuptials were celebrated ^h: and the King designated for her officials for her service, and domains for her use ⁱ.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER III.

The occupations of the Queen at court. Her daughter Constance, married to the King of Castile, dies. She frees her soul from purgatory and sees [it].

The occupations of the Queen, now married. This Queen, after she was married, began to occupy herself in the service of God, giving alms to the poor according to her resources, fasting, having compassion on the erring and oppressed, and reciting the Canonical hours of the breviary: she also strung pearls on a thread; and did other manual labors, and commanded such things to be done by her whole household of women, matrons and virgins; and governed her house so providently and solicitously as if she had already reached the age of twenty-five or thirty years. In this manner the Queen began to pass her time and to dispose of the revenues of her lands: but those which were given her by the King, she distributed in great part among the poor, the needy, and monasteries, and women of modesty and set in necessities.

[17] In the 17th year of her age she bears a daughter Constance, When the Queen had reached the age of seventeen years ^a, she bore a daughter Constance, who afterward was the wife of Ferdinand, King of Castile ^b, and from that Constance the said King Ferdinand had sons, Alfonso King of Castile ^c, and Eleanor, who was Queen of Aragon and wife of King Alfonso ^d; son of King James, brother of the said Queen Elizabeth; and Queen Constance passed from this life in her youthful age ^e. But it happened that a little after the said Queen Constance passed from this life, while she was making a journey, Elizabeth with King Denis her husband, from the town of Santarém ^f to the city of Lisbon; when she had reached a town called Azambuja ^g; a certain hermit ran to meet the Queen, crying out and saying: "By God, I beseech you, Lady, hear me, for I have something which I have to tell you; but I was prevented by your servants accompanying [you] round about, from speaking with you, and coming to you."

[18] and suffering the penalties of purgatory, The Queen, hearing this, commanded that the hermit be led to her; who with a loud voice, so that the bystanders could hear, thus spoke: "Lady Queen of Castile, your daughter, Constance, has passed from this life, she implores the aid of her mother; and in dreams has appeared to me several times in the hermitage in which I live, saying to me that I should announce to you how she was bearing the penalties of purgatory; and begging that you would succor her; and the manner of succoring should be such. Namely, that you should take care to have Mass celebrated for her on each day for the space of a year by a chaste presbyter, who should offer the sacrifice upon the altar, as is ordained by holy Mother Church."

[19] and the divine sacrifices being performed through a year The message of the hermit being heard, the bystanders began to laugh, saying: "If Queen Constance were suffering penalties in purgatory, ought she to appear in dreams to you? Or rather to her father, or mother, or her brother?" But the Queen asked whether anyone knew the said hermit; who responded that no one of them knew him, nor knew the place of his dwelling, and after they had rested in the said place of Azambuja, by command of the hermit the Queen caused and commanded the said hermit to be sought for speaking with him, whom they did not find; nor did they know the place where he dwelt, or the road which he had taken. And the Queen related the above-said to King Denis, how the aforesaid hermit had appeared to her; and that afterward she had commanded him to be sought; but he was not found.

[20] But the King responded that it was fitting to do that which the hermit asserted: and by the will of the King; and the Queen commanded a certain priest to be sought, Ferdinand Mendes, who, as everywhere men believed, remained in the state of virginity from his birth, and was an honorable and chaste man: to whom the Queen enjoined that from that day he should celebrate Mass for the soul of her daughter Constance, Queen of Castile, on each following day, for one whole year and up to its completion. Which the said Ferdinand Mendes did thus.

[21] But the year being finished, while the King and Queen resided in the city of Coimbra, the daughter appeared to the mother, giving thanks, and departing into heaven: the said Constance appeared in a vision on a certain night to her said mother Elizabeth, and according to those things which the said Elizabeth related, she appeared to her clothed in white garments, and said: "My Lady mother, I am now free from the penalty with which I was tormented, and I go to the place where I shall suffer no penalty forever: praised be God to eternity." But the Queen, roused from sleep in the said vision, announced this to the King; how her daughter had appeared to her amid dreaming.

[22] But at dawn, while the Queen was in her place, wherefore the mother solemnly gave thanks to God. to hear Mass, there came the said cleric Ferdinand Mendes to her, saying: "Lady, for whom does it now please you that I henceforth celebrate Masses, since now the year is finished, from which you commanded me to celebrate for the Queen your daughter?" But the Queen said that in that hour, and when she saw that vision, she had not remembered the said Masses which she had commanded to be celebrated for her; but then recognizing this, she gave thanks to God, and in his honor caused other solemn Masses to be celebrated by religious presbyters; and bestowed other alms.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER IV.

A son is born to Elizabeth, the successor Alfonso. With equanimity she bears the wanton loves of her husband. She conciliates peace between the Kings of Castile and Aragon.

Elizabeth, in the 20th year of her age, bears a son, successor in the kingdom. When moreover Queen Elizabeth had reached the age of twenty years, she bore a son, King Alfonso of Portugal, the fourth of that name, who was born in the city of Coimbra on the eighth day of February of the year one thousand three hundred and twenty-nine ^a, who reigned after King Denis, his father ^b, and while he was an Infante, took as wife Beatrice, daughter of King Sancho ^c of Castile, and of Queen Maria, wife of the said King Sancho; whom, while she was still a girl ^d, they brought to the kingdom of Portugal, and King Denis and Queen Elizabeth educated her, as befitted the daughter of a King.

[24] She gently bears the wanton loves of her husband, And when the aforesaid King Denis and Elizabeth lived maritally, observing the obligations of matrimony, as it behooves between spouses; there were not lacking those who allured the King to sin with other hostile women and concubines, and moved him away from his wife, and the King began to have concubines; and begot sons from them. But the Queen, although at that time she was in youthful age, and knew whatever the King did, nonetheless dissembled before men, as if it were nothing to her. But when they reported to her; now the King has admitted such a concubine, now such another; then she, showing that this was no care to her, began to pray and read her books, and to attend to some things pertaining to the service and praise of God with her matrons and virgins.

[25] and thereby leads him back to sounder counsels, On account of this disposition of the Queen and composure of mind, which the King was not ignorant of; and conscious how, by being silent, she concealed her grief and disgust, nor complained to anyone; he was recalled from his error and the injury which he did to his wife; and he feared the wrath of God, because he did not observe the laws of matrimony, as they are established by God and holy Church. On account of these considerations, the King began to desist from the depraved custom of sinning. And if at any time thereafter he fell into a like sin, he did it so secretly that it became known to no one.

[26] Meanwhile the King had sons and daughters from the said women: whom the Queen benignly bore, and commanded to be brought to her; her subjects wondering that she bore it so patiently. to whom she supplied both garments and food: nay, she even educated them, and conferred very many goods both on their nurses and on the foster-children. Hence especially her familiars and subjects wondered that, though she was so great a Queen, set in so youthful an age, endowed by God with so great understanding and composure of mind,

she conceived in herself no grief or rancor from such acts, from which women are wont to be tormented with no moderate grief.

[27] After the Queen came into Portugal, there arose discord between King Denis She reconciles his brother to the King, and the Infante Alfonso his brother. Which the Queen considering, and now seeing the King besiege some castles which were the Infante's, lest the discord should grow strong, she treated, by herself and by her counsel, both of Prelates and of other upright men, in what manner peace could be composed between the King and his brother the Infante. Then, to make concord and peace, she herself handed over to the King the town of Sintra, which she possessed by the gift of the King, and the King gave other places to the Infante, whereby he might sustain himself by their revenues: and she brought it about that the Infante remained the King's client, and rendered him fealty, as often as there should be need.

[28] If ever she noticed that the King was more moved in mind against any of his subjects, and, as far as she can, removes the hatreds of others. not for a just cause, from the depraved suggestion of the malevolent; she dexterously appeased his wrath, by explaining the truth of the matter, as it was. Yet she never wished to entreat the King, where it was a question of justice, to remit just penalties to evildoers. But if perchance hatreds and discords arose among the subjects of her kingdom on account of damages inflicted or homicides; she immediately, by herself and by others, gave effort that the minds of the disagreeing might be reconciled; and peace grow together. And if those who had inflicted the damages had not wherewith to make satisfaction; the Queen herself made satisfaction to the injured party from her own goods, whereby concord might be restored. And truly she took a wondrous pleasure from this, that she saw among her own, dissensions and hatreds being removed, concord reign.

[29] When a great discord had been stirred up between Ferdinand, King of Castile, Discord having arisen between the Kings of Castile and Aragon, son-in-law of this Queen, and King James of Aragon, brother of the same Queen, on account of certain places and towns which the King of Aragon held, snatched from the Moors by force of arms; and which the King of Castile said pertained to his own property; but the King of Aragon asserted the contrary: and also over other matters and pretensions existing between them: this Queen Elizabeth, considering how irreparable a damage would follow from such a war in Spain; whence also very many deaths of subjects and innocent men, and very many ruins of places and cities would necessarily come to pass.

[30] Understanding also and fearing that, if this war should endure for a long time between the said Kings; foreseeing from which grave damages about to come to the Christians, the Moors and infidels, enemies of the Catholic faith, might be united among themselves, and bring their arms against the Christians: in order that a war and discord of this kind, which had arisen between the said Kings and was growing, might be avoided, this Queen labored so greatly by herself and others, [she takes care that the dispute be placed in the arbitration of the King of Portugal;] that the said Kings of Castile and Aragon agreed and compromised in this, that Denis, King of Portugal, should be judge over a business of this kind. Hence they bound themselves under certain penalties, that they would stand by the judgment which the King of Portugal should determine between them, and would obey whatever sentence, pronounced by him.

[31] with whom she goes to Tarazona, the place of meeting, Wherefore King Denis and this Queen Elizabeth came to the city of Tarazona ^e, of the dominion of the King of Aragon, passing through the kingdoms of León and Castile; and in the said city there were gathered together King Ferdinand of Castile and Queen Constance, his wife, and the Queen, mother of King Ferdinand, Maria, and very many Infantes and very rich men of Castile and León, and very many and noble matrons: in the same city also were present King James of Aragon, own brother of this Queen, and Queen Blanche, his wife ^f, and very many noble men and women of Aragon and Catalonia.

[32] where the King of Portugal composes the dispute between the disagreeing; But the said King Denis stood forth among them, to compose them in peace, and to administer justice, as should be fitting according to law. Who first heard the reasons of the King of Castile, which he adduced and alleged to confirm his right: and afterward heard the reasons of the King of Aragon, which he alleged on the opposite side: and the reasons of each party being seen, he judged between them, as he recognized according to law: and so he led the said Kings to concord, so as utterly to extinguish all the evil and discord, stirred up between them, on account of the said pretensions.

[33] But the aforesaid Kings departed from that place, wholly reconciled among themselves, and all return glad to their own [homes.] and even pledged new bonds of friendship, that one should aid the other against his enemies: and each betook himself to his own kingdom. But King Denis and this Queen Elizabeth tarried outside their own kingdom of Portugal, These things were done, not in the year of Christ 1312, but 1304. for the said peace to be composed, from the first week of July, when they departed from their kingdom, up to the festivity of St. Mary in September, at which festivity they returned to the kingdom of Portugal, which year at that time was reckoned the one thousand three hundred and forty-second of the Caesarean Era ^g.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER V.

The Queen prudently composes the repeated discords between her husband and her son. She herself, dismissed from the court and despoiled of her goods, is restored.

After King Denis and Queen Elizabeth returned from the kingdom of Aragon, they made the nuptials of the betrothed Infantes, King Alfonso their son, The nuptials of the son Alfonso and Beatrice of Castile. and Beatrice ^a. And they were made most solemnly in the noble city of Lisbon: but when the already said King Alfonso, while he was an Infante, came into [his] part of the kingdom with his wife, and by his father's command tarried at Coimbra, he wished, for piety's sake, to visit the church of St. Vincent of Lisbon, and, leaving his Infanta his wife and his son, already then born, the Infante Peter, at Coimbra, he entered on the journey ^b: but after he had there sufficiently given his effort to his piety, he came to the town which is called Sintra ^c. Meanwhile the King and Queen, his parents, were departing from Santarém, seeking Lisbon.

[35] When the King had arrived there, it was persuaded to him by some, as was said, to reduce his son into his power ^d. King Denis persecutes his son Alfonso, Which matter was so secretly done that no single person knew anything except the counselors themselves. At that time the Infante still tarried at Sintra: and the King the father proceeded to the place called Lumiar, distant one league from Lisbon; and he sent that night various troops of soldiery toward the place where the Infante was, commanding that they should beset all the roads which lead to Sintra; nor should they suffer anyone to pass thither; lest anyone perchance should betray the King's counsel to the son.

[36] The King slept that night with the Queen, and thus secretly took care to have all things prepared that were necessary for the journey, who by the aid of his mother escapes; so that nothing of his counsels or of the things to be done became known to the Queen before the King departed. But then, reconsidering that he had departed secretly from her, with an armed band; she began to suspect, that which was the case, that the King wished to subdue to himself the son the Infante; and immediately she sent out certain men by various roads, who should make the Infante more certain and persuade flight, before the King should arrive at that place. The matter succeeded according to the wish of the Queen. For the Infante, before the King with his men arrived at Sintra, being already made more certain of his secret counsel, immediately departed from the town, and came to that place where his mother, whom he had not seen for a long time, was tarrying.

[37] and he is admonished by her. But meanwhile, while these things were being done with doubtful outcome, the Queen with her household of women gave effort to continual prayers, and took care to have many Masses celebrated and divine offices recited: and through these prayers and pious works of the Queen, it was believed that God averted a great evil and most grievous damages from the kingdom of Portugal, which were impending over it, if the King had seized his son in the said city. For there had come to the said town with the King some rivals, that he might obey the King. to whom (as was said) it would have been pleasing that the son the Infante should be chastised by the King. And therefore what by themselves they could not do; they wished to be accomplished that night by the instigated King against the Infante. But the Queen, dismissing her son, maternally and powerfully admonished [him] that he should be obedient to the King; should return into favor with him; should follow him with due honor and obedience.

[38] By the suggestion of the malignant But after some time, while the King tarried in the town of Santarém, again certain [men] persuaded him to dismiss the Queen, and to deprive her of the villages and towns and revenues which she had; signifying to him that he could establish nothing in his house, though hidden, against the Infante; which did not come to the ears of the Queen, who would make the Infante more certain of it; as in the said town of Sintra

it had happened; where the King had thought that he could be reduced under his power, and that, if the Queen had her places and towns, and received her revenues, she could always from them succor the Infante to sustain him.

[39] [The Queen is ordered to withdraw from the court and to be despoiled of her goods;] The King, moved by such counsel, resolved that the Queen should depart to the town of Alenquer ^e: and they deprived her of the places, towns, and revenues which she had. And when the Queen, bearing this obediently, arrived at the said town, and tarried in it, there came to her noble men, clients of the Queen, who held her citadels and fortified places by sworn fealty; insinuating that, if the Queen were deprived of the towns and places, and the goods which she had, or were to be dismissed by the King, they themselves could wage war on the King from the said citadels, if the Queen would be received in them. There came also to that place others, who told the Queen that they had heard that the King had ejected her from his house, and deprived [her] of the goods which she had; and that they had come thither to know whether the above-said things which had been told them were true: and when they found that they were certain, they offered her their castles, in which she could safely tarry, if only she would; and from them war be waged to avenge the injury inflicted on her.

[40] which she bore with equanimity: To this the Queen responded that whatever the King disposed and commanded concerning her was pleasing to her; and that (since it was from the service of the King or his good pleasure that she should keep herself in the said town) she herself felt and approved wholly the same: but when it should please the King, he would send to lead her back for herself, and would restore to her whatever she possessed in the kingdom. For although she was deprived by the King of her lands and towns, she ought nonetheless to be sustained by him. And all these things she responded with incredible courtesy.

[41] But when this discourse displeased very many who were fed from the revenues of the Queen, and to those advising war to avenge herself, namely that the Queen would not consent or command war to be waged; and that she even held for nothing the injury done to her; it being observed and considered that those machinating the said injury against the Queen obtained thence no honor or advantage. It was also counseled to the Queen that, if from the said castles she should wage war, she would in a shorter time be restored to her goods, of which the King had deprived her. But the Queen responded to all those who gave her similar counsel; that it was better that she herself should bear poverty and tolerate all the injuries inflicted on her, than consent to war being waged for the aforesaid causes.

[42] "For war," she said, "would involve very many she firmly resists; who are wholly without any fault, and are innocent of the injuries wrought on me; and to those, if wars were waged, damages must necessarily be inflicted, both in their goods and in their persons: and so she expressly forbade the said prefects of the citadels to wage any war from them. But as long as the Queen tarried in the said town, she caused very many women to come to her whom she understood to lead a holy life; and she herself, in that place, practiced great abstinence, and she is recalled to the court. fasting on certain days of the week without meat; and spent her time praying and reciting the divine offices. And when she had thus tarried there for some time; the King, the so great humility and composure of mind with which she was endowed being known, sent those who should lead her back to him.

[43] Nevertheless, the discord growing daily greater between the King and the Infante his son, The King besieging his son at Coimbra, stirred up again, the King came to besiege the city of Coimbra ^f, which the Infante his son had already occupied, applied to his sustenance and to the sustenance of his servants: and although there existed there the whole court of Portugal, yet divided; for some followed the King, others the Infante; that land suffered great ruin. the Queen comes thither, At that time the Queen arrived there, grieving over so great a discord, which she saw growing between the King and the son aforesaid; she raises the siege bearing grievously so great a ruin as she saw being made in her kingdom. And as soon as she arrived at the said, or near the said city of Coimbra; she immediately treated between the King and the son, and brought it about that the city was freed from the siege; and the King betook himself to the city of Leiria ^g. She also brought it about and reconciles the son to the father; that the Infante should come to the said city of Leiria to salute his father, and acknowledge him as his King and lord and father; which, as a vassal and son, he was bound to do; and that the King should give the Infante his son revenues by which he might sustain himself, as befitted his estate.

[44] This agreement being made, the King departed; being so persuaded by the Queen, on account of her illustrious works which she did; and she herself is restored by the King into the possession of her goods. the irreparable damages and calamities being avoided which were threatening the whole kingdom if the discords had endured. But the King, when he saw the so great virtues of the Queen, and the works so excellent in which she occupied herself, restored to her the places, towns, and revenues of which she had been deprived, as was said above.

[45] But after some time there arose another discord between the aforesaid King the father, and the son the Infante: In another contention of the son and the King for it did not please them to persevere in the concord and agreement in which the Queen had composed them, and so great tares were sown between them, that at the time when the Infante wished to approach Lisbon, where the King resided; the King came to meet [him] two leagues from that city, unwilling to consent that the Infante should approach thither, while he himself was in a place near the said city, called Loures; and when the soldiers of the Infante wished to approach the city of Lisbon, the armed soldiers of the King prohibited them the way: a battle was begun between the soldiers of the King and of the Infante ^h. On either side battle-lines were formed and many were struck by blows of stones and by darts, and on both sides very many fell wounded and slain between the lines.

[46] she herself riding through the lines and darts, Amid these things the Queen, seeing the King her lord and husband, and his son the Infante, brought into so great peril, to prevent a greater damage and the deaths of the very many who were there, each ready to serve his lord whom they followed; was affected with so great grief, and inflammation of love, that she did not hesitate to burst through the midst of the lines, sitting on a mule without a guide, and without a servant to hold the rein of the mule; and on account of the blows of stones and darts, which were hurled from either side, no man or woman dared to accompany her or follow behind.

[47] again she leads both to peace. Meanwhile, while the said Queen thus proceeded among the lines, stones and darts did not cease to fly, hurled from either side. Yet God, to whose service the Queen was intent, permitted her to be delivered from every chance mishap; and she herself arrived at the place where the King was; and from that place she returned to the Infante; and, several times conferring with one and the other party; she so led them to concord, that she persuaded the Infante to submit himself to the King his father, and to kiss his hand; but the King she persuaded to impart his blessing to his son, and so from that place they departed reconciled: and God willed on that day, through the intercession and entreaty of the Queen, to deliver very many men of the kingdom of Portugal from death and other irreparable evils.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER VI.

The manifold exercises of piety of the Queen.

The exercises of the Queen, her husband living, were of this kind. Each day she recited the canonical hours, The exercises of piety of the Queen; and the office of the blessed Virgin and of the dead; and made commemorations of very many saints, men and women; and frequented the chapel which she carried with her, very rich and abounding in ornaments, with her chaplains and clerics, well knowing how to celebrate the divine offices and to sing the solemnities of the Masses according to the rite of holy Mother Church; by whom Masses were celebrated on each day of the year. To hear the daily Mass the Queen approached, with great humility on bended knees before the priest who celebrated the Mass; kissing his hands, and offering her gift before the altar, wont to be offered by her on each day; which oblation she augmented according to the quality of the festivity.

the Queen too came to hear them: and in her presence they sang Vespers according to the quality of the day and festivity, of nine or of three lessons, according to the custom of the precept of the Church. At that time the Queen fasted three days in the week, in fastings, and on all the vigils of the saints, in Advent and Lent; so that she fasted; and made abstinences for the greater part, nay more than through three parts of the year. But she would have fasted more, had she not been impeded by the King, who was unwilling to consent in it; and forbade the Queen to fast. But her fast proceeded in this manner.

[50] She fasted from the vigil of the festivity of St. John the Baptist up to the day of St. Mary of the month of August the Assumption; even on bread and water; and the Lent which is called "of the Angels"; which is kept from the day of St. Mary of August; up to the day of St. Michael of the month of September; also Advent and Lent, and the ferias and Saturdays, and the vigils of the Apostles, and of St. Mary, she fasted on bread and water; and the days which are called "of St. Mary" through the whole year likewise on bread and water; and on very many vigils of the festivities of the saints whom the Queen venerated with singular devotion, and then she herself kept vigils and fasted.

[51] in pilgrimages; She also frequented, when making a journey, for her devotion, whatever pious places and churches, in which she knew religious men or women to dwell, leading a holy life; and she many times visited very many churches, making the journey on her own feet, although they were situated in far-off parts; providing the churches which she approached with all necessaries. No poor man approached who did not receive alms from her. Hence, on account of the alms which she bestowed, the poor awaited where the Queen would make her way; and they came from one place to another and sat in the ways and at the entrance of villages and towns, men and women, to receive alms: and although the number of the poor was great, yet no one lacked alms. For this the Queen commanded her almoners, that they should give alms to all the poor without diminution.

[52] in distributing alms, Very many also, both men and women, to whom alms were not needful, sat there with the poor to receive alms from the hand of the Queen, on account of the opinion of her holiness. To very many poor, whom she saw coming along the way, garments were given by her command in her house. She frequently visited the sick, laying her hands upon them without any sense of horror, and commanded to be given to them medicines apt against the pains or diseases with which they labored. In each Lent she made wondrous alms to the poor of either sex who were more modest. On the day of the Lord's Supper she washed the feet of poor little women, although they had feet infected with contagious infirmities, which she also kissed; and gave them clothing and shoes for the love of God.

[53] in Holy Week; Likewise on that day she had Mass sung for herself according to the rite of the Church by a poor presbyter: and to the poor sick, set in greater misery, she gave garments: and on the following Friday of Parasceve Good Friday she clothed herself in mourning garments according to the quality of her person: and she heard the canonical hours, the Passion, and the Mandatum; feeling and showing great sorrow and grief; remembering the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he suffered for us sinners; commanding on such a day many alms to be distributed.

[54] in the use of the Sacraments; The same aforesaid Queen many times confessed to her confessors, and never omitted to receive, on the festivities of the Nativity, Easter, and Pentecost, the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist with great humility and reverence. In each year she gave certain bushels of wheat from her granaries to the monasteries of the Friars Preachers existing in the kingdom of Portugal, and of the Friars Minor, Carmelites, and others, as she saw there was need and according to the quality of the places.

[55] in feeding Religious, These alms likewise she made to the nuns of some Orders, to whom she understood them to be necessary. When she passed through the villages and other places, she bestowed her alms on their monasteries, as was fitting, and gave them her dinners. To very many monks and nuns of monasteries outside the kingdom of Portugal, who came to her for the sake of alms, she likewise gave them. There were also very many religious, men and women, dwelling within and outside the kingdom of Portugal, to whom in each year the Queen gave alms to clothe themselves.

[56] Nor did she only distribute her goods among the poor, but also liberally among others, in succoring modest families both men and women, saying that many who did not seem to be in need were more needy than the poor themselves, and that to them ought to be given more liberally for the greater service of God: and those such persons confessed that their affairs, through such gifts of the Queen, had been turned into a better state and multiplied. When she passed through some places of the kingdom of Portugal and understood that there were there women of honorable family, and young girls so poor that they had not wherewith to buy themselves garments, and it was to be feared lest they should expose their bodies to sin; and to girls imperiled by want, the Queen commanded cloth to be bought and garments made; then she called some faithful woman of that place, and gave her in charge that she should distribute the said garments among such girls and women as she judged them to be most necessary to. And all these things the Queen did secretly, as some of her household and privy to her secrets testify. To other imperiled girls likewise she distributed dowries for entering matrimony, and to public buildings. lest for want of things they should use their bodies ill. When finally the Queen, on a journey, saw somewhere public works being built, for instance, churches, hospitals, bridges, or fountains; she gave from her treasures, whereby the said works might be promoted, and she herself might have a part in all things which are rightly done.

CHAPTER VII.

Various pious places, begun to be founded and built by others, she undertakes to complete.

A certain pious woman, called Beringueira Ayras, founded a certain monastery of nuns of the Cistercian order, near the town of Santarém, A monastery, begun to be built by another, which is there called Almoster: and before that monastery was completed, she passed from this life. Yet before she died, well knowing how prone this Queen was to multiply her pious works in the service of God; and that she aided those wishing to do works of this kind, she conceived a hope that the said Queen would some day complete the work founded by her and begun to be built, and would add from her possessions, whereby the nuns already there gathered might be more honorably sustained and grow in number. The Queen completes [it,] And the Queen answered her wishes. For after the death of the said good woman, foundress of the said monastery, she took upon herself the whole monastery: and from her goods built the cloister and the house of the sick and other houses and works: and receives [it under her protection.] and to those nuns she bestowed many alms, and visited them, and provided for all necessaries, as there was need: and, being asked to be willing to receive the said monastery under her protection, she received [it].

[58] Another likewise, In a similar manner also a certain pious woman, called Major Dias, founded a certain monastery of nuns of the Order of St. Clare, in which houses and the monastery had already been erected. But it happened that this pious woman died, and the Prior of the monastery of the Holy Cross, who was at that time, of the city of Coimbra, alleged that the aforesaid Major Dias was professed of his monastery: and that the place of the said monastery of St. Clare pertained which had been disturbed by lawsuits, to the monastery where she had made profession. And it was so litigated before the judges, and before the Pope, that the small number of nuns who resided in the said place were ejected from it: and the houses with their territory were emptied by the Prior of the monastery of the Holy Cross, and thereafter the said houses remained depopulated, and the said place, in which a monastery had been begun in the service of God, remained a receptacle of sinners, male and female, wholly lacking all modesty.

[59] she herself undertakes to build [it anew,] When the Queen saw the said place reduced to such a state: grieving over it; she determined to found near it and erect a church and monastery of the Order of St. Clare, that God might be served there. She therefore recovered the said place from those who possessed [it]: and bought the possessions situated near it: and by the license and special mandate of his Holiness caused a church to be founded there in honor of God and of the Virgin his most glorious Mother. At the laying of that foundation and the building there were present very many Prelates and very many other persons ecclesiastical and secular.

[60] But the Queen with her own hands, together with the Bishops, and lays the first stone thereof laid the first stones of the foundation of the monastery, which she was erecting for the habitation of nuns of upright life, and well versed in the Order of St. Clare, and of others who should for the time as nuns enter that same monastery, following the life of the former nuns, in no moderate degree prudent. To obtain these, the Queen sent those who should summon from the city of Zamora ^a eleven nuns of that same Order, of which nuns the manner of life excelled in all Spain; nor were others found who so observed the rule of their Orders.

[61] and summons from elsewhere nuns of the Order of St. Clare, But these nuns were sent from their said monastery by the license of their superiors; with whom came also Friars Minor, up to the city of Coimbra, and there joined them the Father, at that time the minister, in the province of St. James. Moreover, when it was announced to the Queen that the nuns were coming, personally she herself and her son the Infante went out about one league to receive these poor nuns, and to honor them. For so great was the humility of the Queen, that she always accompanied them, until they arrived at that place in which she had begun to build the said monastery.

[62] whom she herself leads thither. But when the nuns entered the first houses of the monastery, already built; the Queen accompanied them to that point, and commanded houses to be built for the church, and their foundations to be laid, as she saw there was need. And afterward there were received there very many daughters of noble knights: and she brought thither honorable men to fulfill the office of chaplains. The Queen also began to buy very many possessions, and to apply them to the sustenance of the said nuns: of whom she took for herself, for her spiritual exercise, two, more advanced in age, who had not promised enclosure.

[63] At the time of this Queen there was a Bishop of Idanha ^b, She undertakes likewise the care of an orphanage, named Don Martin, who began to found a hospital of Innocents foundlings in the town of Santarém, where exposed children might be educated: and when the aforesaid Bishop saw that the time of his life was next expiring, he besought this Queen to be willing to undertake upon herself the protection of the said hospital, and that this

she should do for the love of God, lest the works which he had already done in it should perish, or be converted to profane uses. The Queen assented to the Bishop's supplication, saying that she would have the care of the place to the service of God.

[64] But after the Bishop passed from this life, which the Bishop of Idanha had begun to construct; she undertook the protection of the said hospital and of its goods, and commanded them to be rightly administered. But although the Bishop had established that certain women should be married from the said hospital; the Queen after the Bishop's death ordered all who were placed in the said place to migrate elsewhere. She enlarged its possessions and revenues and dwellings: and endows it and commanded children to be educated there, and certain poor to be sustained, to whom food and clothing were given. But when the Queen approached the said place, she took care to have brought to her the boys, girls, and foundlings who were nourished there; as also their nurses; and commanded all to sit at table, and ministered to them food and drink.

[65] But after the boys already had a sufficient age, and establishes it with good laws. they were applied to the practice of certain arts; which when they had sufficiently learned to gain a living, they were no longer provided for from the goods of the said hospital: yet the Queen commanded that, if perchance any of them should be weighed down by pains or infirmity, and had not wherewith to be sustained; the hospital should have their care and the said hospital, in which they had been educated, should receive the sick, and provide for them, as necessity urged. For the Queen said that she commanded the care of the said boys to be had thus, because their fathers were unknown, and they lacked parents and mothers; and therefore that it was consonant to reason that the place in which they had been educated should succor them in their necessities; since the said place had been given them in the place of a mother.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER VIII.

Other pious works. The death of her husband. A pilgrimage to St. James, and the liberality shown there.

Other pious works of the Queen. Wherever the Queen saw any woman, daughter of a noble man, or another, who was pressed by poverty; but before had been rich; she quietly took care to have them provided for from her goods to sustain them. In the Queen's house also were nourished the daughters of very many noble knights, and of other men of honorable estate: and after they came to marriageable age, and found husbands equal to themselves, she married them; and to others she provided for the manner and estate of life, as they were inspired by God; and made them donations from her goods according to the quality of each, and according to the estate which they chose: and to very many others, who were educated outside her house, who had no dowries, she gave assistance to marry themselves, and for the other necessities with which they labored; saying that to some, who seemed to have the necessaries, there was yet need of assistance to sustain themselves; more than to others, who at first sight seemed poor and forsaken. So also throughout the places which the Queen traversed, there was no poor man, or sick man, or prisoner, who was not a partaker of the charity and alms of the Queen.

[67] The King dies. In all her deeds she always had before her eyes the service of God; spending, while she was married, very much time in hearing the ecclesiastical offices, praying and contemplating. But when the time came in which King Don Denis fell into a grave disease, with which he labored a long time; the Queen served him, as far as she could, and the King permitted that she should occupy herself in his service: and she served him like a domestic handmaid and a simple woman, having the care of her husband. From that disease, God permitting, the King passed from this life in the citadel of the town of Santarém, on the eighth day of January of the year one thousand three hundred and sixty-three ^a.

[68] But immediately in that hour in which the King died, the Queen separated her bedchamber, Soon the Queen puts on the habit of St. Clare, and put on the habit of St. Clare from the hand of a certain secular woman; and made her journey with the body of the King to the monastery of Odivelas ^b of the Cistercian order of nuns, which the King had founded, and there had his burial prepared; and the Queen remained the executrix of the King her husband; and there she tarried for a time, and for the soul of the King caused very many Masses to be celebrated by religious and clerics, and bestowed very many alms.

[69] But before the year from the day of the King's death was completed, and makes a pilgrimage to St. James of Compostela, the Queen began to make a journey, without signifying to anyone whither she went; directing her way to visit the church where lies the body of St. James the Apostle; and so she concealed the said pilgrimage, that for some days those accompanying the Queen were ignorant to what part she intended to go; until she arrived at a place, distant one league from the church of St. James; whence that church itself was seen. But then she made her journey on her own feet with great devotion, from the said place up to the aforesaid church of St. James, the month of July now running before the feast of St. James, and there she saw his feast celebrated.

[70] But on that very feast day, the Archbishop celebrating Mass, and offers there most precious gifts, the Queen offered to the Apostle the more precious crown which she had, adorned with most precious gems; and also rich wrought cloths, distinguished with very many pearls and quite precious gems, which she herself, while her husband lived, was wont to wear; among which gifts she offered also a robe of exceeding beauty and price, wholly covered with exquisite pearls; so that the inhabitants of that place openly said that never up to that time had either a Queen, or another princess-woman, offered more precious gifts.

[71] She offered besides a mule with a bridle, gleaming with gold and silver, also a mule with a golden bridle, and most precious gems: likewise she offered cloths interwoven with golden threads in the manner of waves with great labor, in which were wrought the arms of Portugal and of Aragon, and to them adhered a great abundance of pearls. She offered also most noble and most excellently wrought vessels, in which the Queen, while the King lived, and priestly vestments. drank. Likewise she offered garments and robes with a dalmatic for the use of the Deacon, and the other most noble and quite rich sacred paraments. All which the Queen offered to the Apostle St. James; and from her goods made very many other oblations and alms, so that the Clerics and Canons of the church of St. James said that, up to then, within the memory of men, never had similar oblations and gifts been offered by anyone to the said church of St. James.

[72] Her pilgrimage completed, the Archbishop of St. James gave the Queen a staff and her return is honored by the peoples, and a scrip; that by them she might appear to be a pilgrim of St. James; and so she returned to the kingdom of Portugal. But the peoples of the neighboring regions went out of their own accord, and ran together to the ways and villages by which the Queen was to pass, that they might see her, on account of the report of her virtues which they heard published concerning her; and that they might serve the Queen. At that time the King of Castile and León was already Alfonso ^c her grandson, son of King Ferdinand and Queen Constance, daughter of this Queen: and the inhabitants of the villages and places of the dominion of the King of Castile received the Queen round about, through which she passed. accompanying her: and although she led with her a great retinue of persons, yet they did not fear to receive all, on account of the goodness of the Queen, and because she was the grandmother of the King, their Lord.

[73] She magnificently celebrates the first anniversary of her husband. The first year from the death of King Denis being elapsed, on the very anniversary day the Queen betook herself to the monastery of Odivelas, to make the anniversary for his soul. Thither likewise came King Alfonso her son, with very many Prelates and chief men, on whom King Denis had conferred many benefits: and there, very many clerics and religious being gathered, the office was performed with great solemnity, as befitted so great a King: and it being finished, the Queen returned to the city of Coimbra, to impose the finishing touch on the monastery which she had begun to build there.

[74] Her precious garments and gold She also commanded to be undone all the garments and silken cloths which she had, interwoven with gold, rich and most noble, for her use while her husband lived; and appointed that from them should be made garments and ornaments for the service of the churches. But after the said garments were made, she had them blessed; and after they were blessed, she distributed them all among the churches of Portugal, giving to each church according to the quality of the place and its need.

[75] she converts into ecclesiastical ornaments. The greater part also of her gold she commanded to be forged into chalices, crosses, thuribles, and lamps. But these ornaments she gave partly to her said monastery; partly distributed to other churches, as she judged it fitting according to the quality of the places, as I said above. Finally she divided some crowns and her more precious necklaces among Queen Beatrice, wife of the King her son Alfonso, and her granddaughters, Queen Maria of Castile ^d and Queen Eleanor of Aragon ^e; and her other kinswomen.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER IX.

She founds other pious places, also poorhouses; she gathers pious women and with them familiarly performs the divine offices.

And so the Queen called stonecutters and carpenters, and commanded to be completed by them in the said monastery of St. Clare the church, She orders various new works to be made already begun to be built. She also commanded a sepulchral chest to be prepared for herself; likewise, certain most noble houses to be built for herself near the monastery, for the dwelling of herself and her own; that she might the more frequently approach the monastery and visit the nuns, and inspect the works which were done by her command; how they were built, and whether all things were rightly committed to execution according to her idea and design. according to her own design. For the Queen was so understanding of architecture that her builders admired her ingenuity, and corrected, at her suggestion, the things which they had done less correctly. A similar skill of hers she showed also at other times, while the King yet lived, in ordering the buildings, both those which were prepared for the King himself and his family, and those which the Queen herself took care to have built for herself in the towns which she possessed.

[77] Meanwhile the Queen was unwilling to depart from Coimbra to other places, She gathers pious women, and places her niece in the monastery, that she might see with her own eyes her buildings brought to an end, and might enlarge and endow them from her goods in favor of the monastery. She also gathered in the said place women who by their own will desired to serve God and enter the monastery: and the Queen herself chose in that place her dwelling. But she had there a certain niece of hers ^a, who wished to enter matrimony, and was very rich. But afterward, her purpose being changed, she said that with her other virgins, both opulent and noble, she wished to enter the monastery.

[78] The Queen, this being understood, always had them with her and led them to the said monastery, recently built by her. to try whether they could in fact carry out the new purpose which they had said they had. But they, in nothing changing their purpose, entered, to be nuns, the said monastery on Palm Sunday, in the presence of King Alfonso, son of our Elizabeth, and his wife Queen Beatrice; from whom the aforesaid niece of Elizabeth, who had been educated in her palace, received much honor. She afterward was the second Abbess of the said monastery; and was called Elizabeth de Cardona, because she was the daughter of Raymond de Cardona and Beatrice, sister of this Queen; which Beatrice King Peter of Aragon, father of Queen Elizabeth, had from a certain Infanta of Aragon.

[79] Moreover, before the vestibule of the houses which the Queen had commanded to be built for the dwelling of herself and her servants, she took care also to have built a chapel with its cemetery; She founds a poorhouse for either sex separately and hospital houses, in which she placed fifteen poor men and fifteen poor women also; each sex in separate buildings, and in the middle she set the chapel. But to these poor was given to each his allotment of bread and wine and meat, or fish, according to the quality of the days: and beds were furnished them for sleeping, and garments each year: on this condition, that daily they should frequent the said chapel, and be present at the sacrifice of the Mass and the canonical Hours, which were there performed by a certain chaplain appointed for this and a minister joined to him, dwelling there. The Queen also took care that the said chapel with its cemetery be consecrated: and she herself many times approached thither to visit the sick lying in the aforesaid hospital, and she herself personally presented to the said sick the food which they were to eat.

[80] She sets up a sepulchral monument for herself The church of the monastery being now finished with its vault, the Queen ordered her sepulchral monument, which was then also made, to be placed in the middle of the new church. But because that monument was very large, and surrounded round about with a lattice; and, on account of an inundation of waters the better part of the church was occupied by them: and because at that time in which the said monument was placed in the church, so great an inundation of waters came upon the city of Coimbra on the eighteenth day of February, Era one thousand three hundred and sixty-nine ^b, arising from the overflow of the river Mondego, which flows round the aforesaid city; that it not only filled the aforesaid church, but even exceeded the height of the sepulchral monument: such a prodigy had not happened within the memory of men.

[81] she transfers it elsewhere. For these causes the Queen, considering how high the waters had risen, and how the church was impeded by the great mass of her tomb; resolved to transfer it elsewhere. Wherefore she immediately ordered to be built in that same church, which was high, a chapel raised above arches, in the middle of the church, after the manner of a choir, where the women might reside; leaving an ample space between the choir and the chapel; and there she ordered to be placed her sepulchral monument, which was in the lower church; as also the monument of the Infanta Elizabeth, her niece, whom she herself had educated in her house. She ordered to be placed there an altar, images, and seats for the clerics and others who should come thither, to celebrate the divine offices, or to assist at them. And so the aforesaid overflowing of the waters was the cause that now there are there two churches and two choirs. But it was esteemed that God permitted so high and unusual an inundation for this reason, that these new works might be made. Moreover the Bishop of Coimbra, Raymond, consecrated the said church and chapel and the altars placed in them, with the cemetery which is near.

[82] She deliberates concerning the state of life. After this church too was finished, she applied her mind to other things; and first of all had the cloister vaulted; then magnificent buildings raised for the use of the refectory, dormitory, infirmary, and kitchen; then the offices necessary for such a place; finally the whole monastery surrounded with high walls. These works being likewise finished, the Queen, solicitous for the salvation of her soul, consulted some learned and pious men whether it was lawful for her (which she ardently desired) to enter her said monastery, whether it is not expedient to be enclosed in the monastery, and to be enclosed in it, like the other nuns, and to leave all her temporal goods. They responded to the Queen that, if she entered the monastery and were enclosed in the aforesaid manner, she would not obtain so much merit as she obtained through the works of charity, by sustaining very many persons of either sex outside her house, by her alms; which is dissuaded. which would remain wholly forsaken, and be reduced to extreme poverty, if she chose such a state, in which she could not succor their miseries, if she gave up the temporal goods which she had. These counsels being heard, the Queen gave infinite thanks to God for all the benefits which he had conferred on her in this world, and because he had deigned to bring to an end the works which she herself had begun to build in her life, to his praise and honor.

[83] After the refectory was in every part prepared, She serves the nuns in the refectory, so that in it the nuns could eat; on the first day on which they determined to eat in it, the Queens, Elizabeth and Beatrice, wife of King Alfonso, son of Elizabeth, came to eat in the said new refectory: the faculty for this being obtained from the supreme Pontiff, that it might be lawful for her, with the nuns of the said monastery of St. Clare, to enter the refectory and sit. But the aforesaid Queens, after the nuns had sat at table in the said refectory, went and returned to the kitchen, seeking and carrying foods, and set them before the nuns. And this service the said Lady Queens did with great humility; thinking that in it they rendered service to God, while they served the nuns, who for the love of God had left the world, and had chosen to lead there the monastic life under the enclosure of the said monastery. And now the number of the nuns had reached fifty, and even more.

[84] Moreover the Queen Elizabeth entered the monastery, and with them she is frequently conversant. and conversed among the nuns, when she wished, with full faculty, given her by an Apostolic Brief. And on that matter she took care to have built for herself, near the gate of the monastery, a dwelling, to which she came from her royal houses, and there often tarried for some days at her pleasure, and recited the canonical Hours with the said nuns; wont to say that, as long as she was conversant among them, she was refreshed with great joy of mind. She also encouraged the nuns, and exhorted them to perseverance in the service of God, whose brides they were: and mingled with them other discourses of this kind, full of piety. For she was powerful in word.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER X.

Her daily exercises in widowhood. The nobility of her blood and her kinship with nearly all the Christian Kings.

The exercises of piety in widowhood, After this Queen had come to the state of widowhood, she spent her time in this manner. She had with her five nuns of the Order of St. Clare, who well knew how to read and sing the divine offices: with whom she herself rose from bed before the rising of the sun; and they all recited together the Matins office with all devotion, observing in it the custom of the holy Roman mother Church: after Matins they recited Prime; after Prime, the sun now shining, they prepared the altar, which the Queen always had with her, and she had in some chamber an oratory, and there she heard a private Mass with the highest piety: which being finished, she betook herself to her palace, where she had a chapel, and found there her chaplains and clerics ready to celebrate Mass and the divine offices: to which chapel likewise came the virgin nuns and other women who dwelt in the Queen's house.

[86] wont to be performed with her domestics before dinner: All being gathered, the clerics and chaplains

immediately began to celebrate the divine offices, and sang everywhere a Requiem Mass for the soul of King Denis, and, the said Mass being finished, which was said for the soul of the King, all the clerics sang one Responsory for the soul of the same King, and all who were present at the divine offices likewise prayed for his soul: but after the said Responsory, the Clerics began another Mass according to the quality of the current day; which Masses being thus said, and the other Hours, which on such a day were celebrated and recited by the said clerics; the Queen with her household of women began to recite the Hours of that same day, Terce, Sext, and None: and if it were a feast day of some Saint, before she recited the said lesser Hours, she heard the preaching; and when the Masses and canonical Hours were finished, now the time of dinner was at hand, to which the Queen betook herself.

[87] others after dinner. After dinner she commanded to appear before her the ministers set over the works which she took care to have done: and conferring with them, she asked concerning the state of the works; and received the supplicatory petitions which were offered her, and above all heard the prayers of religious persons, and also of seculars both rich and poor, who asked of her some grace and favor: to whom the Queen, according to the quality and necessity of the petitioners, commanded alms to be given from her goods and grain from her granaries, and in these she considered rightly and studiously the quality of each person to whom she made alms and donations. Likewise she considered the qualities of the religious places, and according to the number of the inhabitants, bestowed on each charity and alms.

[88] Singular works of charity, Three works of charity shone forth singularly in this Queen. For she succored the poor and needy by daily alms: if anyone had offended her, she gave no sign of a disturbed mind, nor sought satisfaction, but most easily granted pardon. Nay, she was never seen by anyone to be angry. She also showed charity in this, that she took care to have sinners led to penance; especially those women, public prostitutes, to whom she supplied garments and food, that they might abstain from sin, and be led to a better manner of life, and to the hospital which she had already built for the use of such in the city of Coimbra; unless perchance those public sinners preferred, before they were led into the said hospital, to dwell in the town called Torres Novas, that they might there abstain from their public sins; where also she gave them garments and necessary sustenance, lest they should afterward return to their sins.

[89] The seven works of mercy also she practiced. For she covered the naked; and of mercy. she satisfied the hungry and thirsty; she visited the sick, and caused them to be visited; she commanded the dead to be buried, and ministered the necessaries for burial; for the wretched and oppressed she paid the debts to which they were bound; and she corrected the erring, and exhorted them to persevere in the way of the Lord; she sustained hospitals; she redeemed captives from her own moneys, and to others gave assistance to redeem themselves.

[90] At the accustomed hour of the day she betook herself into her chamber, Evening exercises and with her household of women recited None ^a; and immediately None being said, the chaplains and clerics of her chapel came, and recited before her Vespers, which were sung according to the festivities of the days: and after she had heard those Vespers, she again recited them herself with her nuns. But she was so skilled and versed in the recitation of divine offices of this kind, that if her chaplains in her presence anywhere erred, or read not rightly, or in the manner of the chant did not continue well; the Queen corrected them; and she knew excellently how to read Latin and vernacular words.

[91] Vespers being said and heard, if it were a day on which she did not have to fast, and nocturnal. supper was prepared (for she fasted for the greater part of the days of the week) and immediately after supper she recited Compline and the office of the Dead and remained in her bedchamber, and the nuns betook themselves to theirs. But the Queen (as her handmaids testified, who followed her into the bedchamber) spent the greater part of the night in contemplations and prayers; many times rising from bed to perform spiritual exercises. She also established in two of her towns perpetual chapels, namely in Leiria and Óbidos; and there left goods to the chaplains for their sustenance: and as long as she lived, she sustained in the town of Leiria a hospital of poor and modest women, who had otherwise been rich, but afterward had been reduced to poverty; to whom she supplied food and clothing abundantly.

[92] At length, all these works being founded and finished, She gives thanks to God, she gave thanks to God, recalling his benefits bestowed on her in this world, as long as she had lived; and offered herself ready to go forth from this life, whenever it should please him. Among other things she numbered the benefits conferred on her by God; that she herself saw with her own eyes her offspring, illustrious with so many Kings and Queens, such as no King or Queen ever saw, or perceived by hearing to have been seen by anyone. For she had seen King James her grandfather, by whom she had been educated, while he was King of Aragon: and he being taken from this life, she had seen King Peter her father of Aragon; and James her uncle, King of Majorca, own brother of her father; and Denis her husband, King of Portugal; and Sancho ^b, her cousin, King of Castile. Among the benefits also she placed this, that while she was married to King Denis, she had returned to the kingdom of Aragon, and to the city of Tarazona, as was said above.*

[93] that she had seen a long series of Kings and Queens She had seen besides King James of Aragon, her brother: and after the death of her husband, King Denis, she saw succeed in his place the King of Portugal, her son Alfonso; and after the death of King Sancho of Castile, she saw Ferdinand, her nephew and son-in-law ^c, King of Castile: and after the death of King Ferdinand, she saw Alfonso, her grandson, King of Castile and León, which Alfonso was the son of Constance, her daughter. She said also that she had seen the Queens, Constance her mother; Beatrice ^d her mother-in-law; and the Queen of Castile Violante, wife of King Alfonso of Castile, son of King Ferdinand, who recovered Seville from the power of the Moors; which Queen was her aunt, sister of her father; and she saw Queen Maria of Castile, wife of King Sancho, her cousin, and Queen Blanche of Aragon, wife of King James, her brother.

[94] of her family. She saw also the Queen of Majorca, wife of King James, her uncle; and she saw the said Constance, her daughter, Queen of Castile and León; and she saw Queen Maria ^e, daughter of King Alfonso, her son; and the same Queen of Castile, married by dispensation of the Pontiff ^f, to King Alfonso of Castile, her grandson. She saw Queen Beatrice of Portugal, wife of King Alfonso her son, daughter of her cousin Sancho, King of Castile. She saw Queen Eleanor ^g of Aragon, her granddaughter, while she was still an Infanta, before she contracted matrimony with the King of Aragon Alfonso ^h. Very many other Kings and Queens also existed in the time of this Queen, with whom she had a relationship of kinship and blood, whom nevertheless she did not see, as she had seen the Kings and Queens whom I have already named, who by letters and messengers communicated with her, and she in turn with them.

[95] Other Kings her brothers or kinsmen, After the death of King Peter her father, there were two Kings, brothers of this Queen ⁱ, whom, while they were Kings, she did not see; but when they were infants, she had seen them in the house of her father. There were also Alfonso ^k King in Aragon, and Frederick, who was called King of Sicily. But the said Alfonso, King of Aragon, was the Queen's nephew, son of her brother, King James: but after the death of Alfonso, there succeeded as King of Aragon Peter, his son, who reigned in Aragon at the time when this Queen passed from this life. And so, while Elizabeth lived, six ^l Kings existed in Aragon; of Castile, but in Castile there existed four; Alfonso, who reigned when this Queen came to the kingdom of Portugal; and Sancho, son of that Alfonso; Ferdinand, son of the said Sancho, who from Queen Constance, daughter of this Queen, left King Alfonso, who reigned when this Queen departed from this life.

[96] In Portugal moreover three Kings existed, she living, of Portugal, Alfonso, father of King Denis; Denis himself, husband of this Queen, and Alfonso, her son, who reigned in the kingdom of Portugal when the Queen exchanged life for death. Finally, at the time when this Queen lived; there was among the Christians no King or Queen, descending from royal blood, who was foreign to the conjunction of her blood. of France, Philip, King of France ^m, who reigned in France when the Queen rested in the Lord, was the Queen's cousin, son of her father's cousin. King Robert was her cousin ⁿ: the King of Majorca ^o was the Queen's cousin, of Sicily, son of her father's cousin: of Majorca, the King of England [p] was likewise this Queen's cousin, of England, etc. and other Christian Kings also had with the Queen a commingling of blood.

ANNOTATA.

names his daughter, married to Alfonso of Castile, equally Maria: and others everywhere: so that, unless she had two names, there was an error in our Ms. and its Latin interpretation.

p. In England, when our Queen died, there ruled Edward, the sixth of that name [sic]. It is not here added from what head he was cousin, as in the others above. Nor do I think it worth while to investigate this in this place with loss of time: let the genealogists investigate. I gather some consanguinity, but remote, of Elizabeth with Edward VI [sic], King of the English, from the epistle of Pope Martin IV, given in the year 1283 to Edward IV [sic], King of England, grandfather of the sixth, in which it is explained that the daughter of Edward IV, Eleanor, betrothed to Alfonso, firstborn son of Peter III, King of Aragon, brother of Elizabeth, was related in the fourth degree of consanguinity, namely, the Countess of Provence N, whose daughter Eleanor, married to Henry III, King of England, had borne him that same Edward IV; was the sister of Amadeus, Count of Savoy, whose daughter, married to Manfred of Sicily, bore him Constance. But she, married to Peter of Aragon, bore him the firstborn Alfonso, of whom we treat: and who therefore (as also his sister our Elizabeth) was related to Eleanor, daughter of Edward IV, betrothed to himself, in the fourth degree of blood, as also her brother Edward V: but in the fifth degree Edward VI, who reigned when Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal, was dying.

* chapter 4, number 31.

CHAPTER XI.

The charity of the Queen in a dearth of provisions: her grief from the discord of her son and grandson, the Kings; her zeal to reconcile them; her last illness, [her] death.

While the Queen was dwelling at Coimbra to complete her works and buildings, so great a dearth of provisions came upon the land, The charity of the Queen at the time of famine, that in the said city any small bushel of grain was worth fifteen shillings, and that bushel was so small that it would not suffice for the sustenance of one child for a week. There was then running the year one thousand three hundred and seventy-one ^a. But there flocked to that city very many poor, to whom the Queen from her goods distributed large alms in bread and meat. Nonetheless many perished from want, both men and women, killed by hunger. But those thus dead, as soon as the Queen first learned of them; she took care immediately to have committed to the earth; linens and candles to be supplied; biers and pits to be made for burying. She took care also that in certain places and villages, where anyone thus died, there be present Clerics, who should celebrate the offices for the souls of the dead according to the custom of the Church, and duly bury the bodies.

[98] Moreover so great was at that time the dearth of provisions, as had not been within the memory of men: because men, nothing solicitous for herself for the time to come. driven by hunger, fed on the herbs of the field, like animals; and ate the carrion flesh of beasts, and other things repugnant to human nature. The Queen meanwhile at that same time succored with bread and money many, both those otherwise rich, and the poor she met, and Religious of either sex; and that with so great liberality, that she was rebuked by her domestics, why, out of the so profuse alms which she distributed, she did not keep something for herself for the future. For it was not known what times might come. To whom she responded that she would rather perish from hunger herself than deny support to the needy at such a time; who otherwise would despair: and that she herself, if she did not help, would be in fault of their death: that God would succor her in the future; that she meanwhile would distribute provisions to the needy.

[99] While the Queen dwelt in the houses which she had built round about her monastery of St. Clare at Coimbra, [Grief from the discord of her son and grandson, the Kings of Portugal and Castile,] it was announced to her how the King of Portugal, her son, and the King of Castile, her grandson, were near to dissolving the peace entered into between them; which she greatly grieved, saying that those who inflamed the minds of the Kings to this did not love the Kings so much as she did. She said also at intervals before many that she asked this grace of God, that she might be snatched from this life before she should see the enmities of the Kings burst into war; from which an irreparable damage was necessarily about to follow; and the holy laws of consanguinity, which intervened between each King, to be violated. For if men of any other condition whatever, and not bound by so close a bond of kinship as those Kings, disagreed among themselves; they ought indeed to be reconciled, to lay aside hatreds, to restore their former friendship; and not to believe the whisperers, who strive to sow the tares of discords among them.

[100] She detests the disadvantages about to follow from it. "What therefore" (she said) "ought Kings to do? And Kings, who conspicuous by so noble a lineage; by the right of their blood, are Kings, men endowed with great genius and judgment? What? That they, for the said causes, do not humble themselves to a reconciliation of minds? But if they harden their minds and proceed to war, what will follow? The irreparable calamity of each fatherland: the death of very many of their subjects and of innocents; to whom the disputes and discords of Kings pertain nothing. There will follow likewise the exultation of the proud; but the oppression of the humble. Those who serve God will be afflicted with loathing and fear: but those who serve the devil will rejoice; they will seize riches, and augment their audacity. Add that Kings, while they are at discord among themselves, cannot be so perspicacious and accurate in exercising justice against the wicked, as they are wont in time of peace. From which administration of justice, however, they merit very much before God."

[101] She sets out on a journey to reconcile them among themselves. Therefore, to forestall the evil, lest the Kings, her son and grandson, should foster discords so pernicious, and should proceed to war, she resolved to betake herself to a place from which she could more conveniently meet each King to treat with them of renewing friendship, on account of the conjunction of blood and other reasons. But when some tried to dissuade her from such a journey, both on account of the grave heats of that time; and because her age needed more a placid rest, than that she should undertake the labors of a journey; she nevertheless, thinking that in no matter could she render a more pleasing service to God than if she should compose the minds of those Kings, and impede wars, about to bring so many damages and calamities; entered on the journey, and arrived at the town of Estremoz.

[102] The illness, and the [things done in it.] Here she was ill from a swelling, arisen in one of her arms, and on the second feria Monday she did not go out of her chamber to hear the sacred offices, in the oratory of the palace, as she was wont to do; and the King her son remained with her. There came also his wife, Queen Beatrice, who encouraged the sick woman, served and refreshed her, as she could, in all things thought to be pleasing to her mother-in-law. But when Queen Elizabeth thus lay in her bed, suddenly turning to Queen Beatrice sitting beside her, she said to her: "Lady daughter, give place to that Lady, who is going there." To whom Queen Beatrice: "Which Lady, Lady mother, is there?" She responded to her: "That one, who comes hither, clothed in white garments." Meanwhile Queen Beatrice saw none of these things which the Queen mother said she saw. Wherefore it was esteemed that God and his most holy Mother, to whom the Queen was very devout, had sent such a Lady to comfort the sick woman.

[103] The Queen frequently confessed her sins to her priests, whom she led with her, She receives the sacred Eucharist; and on the fifth feria Thursday after the second feria on which she had begun to be sick, she confessed early in the morning, and heard Mass; which being finished, she went out briskly, no one aiding, from her chamber, and came to the altar at which her confessor was performing the sacred rite, and there on bended knees, with great piety, suffused with tears, received the body of the Lord. On the same day after Vespers she conversed with the King, her son, and, the physicians denying that there was peril of death from such an infirmity, she persuaded the King she suffers a fainting of mind; to go to supper. And the King, saying that he had already supped, went out with the physicians present outside the chamber. But while they stood before the door of that same chamber, the Queen went out of the bed, and reclining on it, began to faint in mind. The bystanders immediately cried out to the King, and he running up, took the hands of the Queen and kissed them.

[104] Meanwhile the Queen, restored to herself, related

to the King her fainting, she dies praying. and spoke of the Infanta Eleanor, her granddaughter, the King's daughter, whom she loved very much; as also of her other granddaughters and grandsons. Amid these discourses the Queen, feeling the end of life to be at hand for her, began thus to pray: "Mary, mother of grace, Mother of mercy, do thou protect me from the enemy, and in the hour of death receive [me]." Then she recited the Apostles' Creed, "I believe in God the Father"; the Lord's Prayer, "Our Father"; and other prayers: and thus praying, she began to languish and fail so much that her words could no longer be understood: and so in prayer she completed the time of life; and her eyes and mouth, the soul having gone forth, were closed by themselves, without anyone's aid. And here God conferred on her what she had often asked in life, that in her death the King her son should be present. But she died in the Castle of the town of Estremoz on the fourth day of the month of July, Era one thousand three hundred and seventy-four ^b.

[105] At the time in which the Queen passed from this life, The grandchildren of the Queen, who lived when she died. she had grandsons, the King of Castile ^c: and the Infante Peter ^d, firstborn son, heir of Portugal, who was present in the said town of Estremoz when the Queen died; and Queen Maria of Castile ^e, whom Queen Elizabeth had educated; and Queen Eleanor ^f of Aragon; and the Infanta Eleanor ^g, daughter of the King of Portugal; but she had great-grandsons ^h, the Infante Peter, firstborn son, heir of the King of Castile; and the Infantes Ferdinand and John, sons of King Alfonso and Queen Eleanor of Aragon.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER XII.

Her body, carried by a seven days' journey to Coimbra in the highest heat, smells sweet; and miracles follow.

Consultation being held concerning the place where the body should be buried, On the very day on which the Queen had died, and in the following night immediately, and the day after, the ecclesiastical offices were performed for the solace of her soul by the Prelates who were then present there. Which being celebrated, and all things prepared for carrying the body to Coimbra, to be laid in the monastery of St. Clare, as had been established by the tables of her testament; there were those who persuaded the King that the body should be committed to the earth in the monastery of St. Francis, which was at Estremoz; or at least be transported to the Cathedral church of Évora, which was distant from Estremoz only six leagues: and afterward thence, the flesh being consumed, the bones be carried to Coimbra. Thus they persuaded the King, because they feared lest the body, over the long way, which was of thirty-two leagues, should so putrefy that for the stench the bearers could not carry it; alleging both the immense heats of that time, and that, the Queen having died of only four or five days' sickness, [she] had left the body not emaciated, but full of humor. Others on the contrary were of opinion that the body ought to be transported to the place which the Queen herself had chosen for her burial.

[107] The King orders it to be carried to Coimbra, The opinions being heard, the King, son and curator of his mother's testament, commanded the body to be transferred to Coimbra. Therefore on the sixth feria Friday, the day after her death, they placed the corpse on the bier, and after midday entered on the journey. Meanwhile those who accompanied the funeral murmured, saying among themselves that, on account of the too burning sun and the long distance of the place to which they went, the dead body would so stink that no single person would dare to approach the bier. It would rather therefore be better to lay it down at Évora, as had been persuaded. Nonetheless the guardians of the funeral went forward, and spent on this translation from Estremoz to Coimbra, through the most burning heats, seven whole days. Meanwhile they had opened the bier on the way, and had seen corruption and gore flowing from the whole corpse, and the more they feared whether it could ever, on account of the corruption and intolerable stench, be brought to the appointed destination.

[108] [to which, when it was brought, with the admiration of all, it exhales a sweet odor.] Yet it pleased the Lord to make known to men in that body how pleasing services the Queen had rendered him in this world, when, while they feared lest, for the heaviness of the stench, they could not follow the funeral; they immediately perceived that from it there breathed an odor which was more fragrant than anything they had ever smelled in this world, or than could be believed: and this confirmed not only those who had accompanied the funeral, but also others who flocked thither, Prelates, and noble men and women, who held it for a great miracle, namely that the lifeless body, of one already so many days dead, not only did not stink, but exhaled a sweetness: and for that they rendered thanks and praises to God, for that which he demonstrated by a miracle in the Queen, who had always been to him a faithful handmaid, when the body, which according to its nature ought to stink, he had imbued, against nature, with a sweet odor. And the miracle appeared to be so much the greater, that, since the bier was loose, the body was thrust and shaken now to this, now to the opposite part, so that it was on every side bruised and the bier itself was in some places broken apart, not without the feeling and grief of many.

[109] In the space therefore of seven days, the translation of the body from Estremoz to Coimbra being made through immense heats in an inconvenient season, Wishing to bury the body by night to avoid the crowds, they laid it down on the very day on which it was brought, in the church of the monastery which she herself had taken care to have built: and it was established by the Bishop of Lamego, who was curator of the testament, and by the others who had accompanied the funeral, that, to avoid the crowds and clamors of the people (for innumerable of every sex and age had flocked to see [it]), it should be buried secretly on the next night, at a set hour, when the guardians should have fallen asleep; and be placed in the monument which the Queen had formerly taken care to have made for herself; and it was now opened, all fall asleep until broad day, the bier in which the body had been brought being left in its place, to dissemble that it had been transferred. This business was given to some faithful friends of the Queen and to the magistrate of the city; who approaching, that they might perform the work at the set hour, were all overwhelmed by so deep a sleep that they did not awake before broad day. Nor then could they transfer the body, because the Ecclesiastics were already present, who were to celebrate the offices for the deceased: and on that same day very many priests, both secular and claustral, flocked together, who performed Mass at the altar for the Queen.

[110] Thereupon some of the more honorable men of the city had been selected, by which it was publicly carried to its place, who, on the same litter on which the body had been brought from Estremoz, should carry it to the greater church, in whose upper chapel the monument of the Queen was placed: and it could not be done otherwise than that some of the humor, dripping from the bier, should stain the hands and garments of those carrying [it], but when the body had been carried to the upper chapel, the nuns further took care to have it carried within the enclosure of the monastery, and a nun long sick, kissing the bier, and there with querulous voices they lamented that they were now, through the death of the Queen, deserted and orphans. Among others there was one, whose name was Constance Agnes, born at Coimbra; who so grievously labored in her whole mouth that she gnashed with her teeth and bit her lips: but when her teeth fell out, she was wont to disturb the whole monastery with excessive clamor and mournful outcry. She, led by the hope that it would come to pass, through that body of the Queen, who had done such illustrious works in her life, that she would obtain from God the grace of health; approached and kissed the bier.

[111] Then the body was taken thence, and carried to the already said chapel, she immediately recovered. to be enclosed in the monument there, the nuns following and Constance herself, who meanwhile felt herself freed from her former torment, and her lips and whole mouth restored to her. Wherefore also all present soon gave thanks to God, that it had pleased him to restore full health to the sick woman, through the intercession of the Queen, on that day, which no arts of the physicians had been able to render for a long time. And these things the Nuns, who had seen the sick Constance tormented in a wretched manner, as has been said, before the Queen's body was brought thither, testified before Fr. Salvator, Bishop of Lamego, who before had been visitor of that monastery of St. Clare: but afterward on the very day of the arrival, they saw [her] wholly cured and sound. There is had of these things an authentic instrument, made by the hand of Martin Alfonso, notary of Coimbra.

[112] All hold the fragrance of the body for a miracle. After the body was laid in its monument, those who had brought it from Estremoz began to wonder among themselves; and to hold for a manifest miracle; that the lifeless body, now nine days lacking spirit, through the heat of the burning fervor, so long a journey variously shaken and flowing with corruption; should smell so sweet. Some said that it had seemed to them on the way that they walked through rose-gardens; others, that they had approached the bier for the sake of smelling, and that from no odor had they ever perceived so great a fragrance: and all who had experienced such things rendered praises and thanks to God, that he had bestowed so great a gift on the corpse of one woman, that what ought horribly to have stunk, should against nature emit so pleasing an odor. And of this matter an instrument is extant, written by command of the Bishop of Lamego by John Domingues, notary of Coimbra; and they subscribed their names, all those who had testified such things, as many as knew how to write.

CHAPTER XIII.

Miracles of various kinds in sudden cures.

A foot pierced by a nail is soon cured, so that not even a scar remains. The body being duly laid in the monument, when the bearers wished to take away the litter on which the funeral had been brought, it struck a good man, a citizen of Coimbra, Ferdinand Esteves by name; who, while he tried, in the crowded throng of men, to make place for the bearers, a certain nail of the litter pierced his foot with the highest pain: which at length being drawn out thence, the man could not move himself from the place, and lying he kept complaining: "Ah! good Lady, I expected another reward for the service

which I wished to render you, than to come hither sound and return lame": and he asked of her with great confidence, that she would obtain for him from God a relief of the pain and a cure. And immediately in that very hour he raised himself and stood on his feet, so cured that neither the wound nor a trace of the wound appeared in his foot. Of this matter also there is had an instrument of John Domingues aforesaid.

[114] Fevers are cured, Faith also made, and by the word of truth testified, Alfonso Martins, cleric of the Bishop of Lamego; and John Macheira, formerly the Queen's architect; that while they accompanied the bier on which the Queen's body was carried to Coimbra, both labored with the pains of fevers: and that, her intercession before God being implored, they recovered health, and thenceforth remained sound. Thus they said and confirmed by oath before the said Bishop of Lamego, as is contained in the tables written by Martin Alfonso, Notary of Coimbra.

[115] There was living at Coimbra in the house of the Queen a certain woman, a long-standing tumor in the hand, called Maria Migueis, sprung from the city of Leiria; nursing there the little daughter of some knight; who from a long time had had on her right hand a certain great tumor. She, when the Queen departed for Estremoz, had remained at Coimbra with the other nurses, who nursed there the other daughters of knights by the Queen's command. While they, after the Queen's body had been brought into the monastery, were talking perhaps of her deeds in life; there came another woman, Maria Domingues by name, who had accompanied the Queen to Estremoz; and she said to Maria Migueis the nurse: "Pray to God, that he may take from your hand that deformed and harmful tumor. Come, I have here for you a linen cloth in which the affected arm of the Queen and the plasters applied to it were wrapped": and when they were now sitting to dine, they placed the said cloth on the nurse's tumor, and bound it round the arm. But the dinner being finished, rising, they inspected, the cloth being loosed from the arm, the tumor, and did not find even the least sign of it. And they all testified how before dinner the said nurse had the said tumor, but immediately after dinner they saw the said tumor had vanished: and this they testified under oath to the holy Gospels of God. And of it a public instrument was made by Martin Alfonso, Notary of Coimbra.

[116] At the same time in which the Queen's body was transported to Coimbra, a blind woman. there dwelt there in the parish of St. Christopher a certain woman, whose name was Maria Martins, blind for a long time, so that she could not distinguish white color from black. But she had a sister Margaret Martins, married to a certain man who was called Paschal Laurence; and they dwelt in the said parish of St. Christopher. These, hearing how God through the invocation of this Queen bestowed great benefits, took care to have the blind woman led to her tomb. And when she had arrived there, and asked of God that he would deign, through the merits of the Queen, to restore to her the light of her eyes; she was seized by sleep: and soon awaking, she saw with one eye, and looked round the chapel where she was, and in it the tomb of the Queen, and thanks being there rendered to God for the benefit received, she returned to the house of her sister, where again both together gave thanks to God, and betook themselves to Fr. Salvator, Bishop of Lamego, and attested upon the holy Gospels of God that all had happened thus, as has been said. And these things others confirmed, who had come together to give testimony to the truth of what they had seen with their own eyes. Nay, it was notorious in the parish where Maria dwelt, that she had been blind for a long time. And all these things, deposed before the Bishop, Martin Alfonso, public Notary, received into his tables.

[117] Not yet had thirty days elapsed from the burial of the Queen, A leech in a human body, ejected through the nostrils. when to her monument came a certain woman, an inhabitant of the place of Sanfins near the town of Condeixa, named Dominica, and she had in her body a leech, wherefore, growing pale, she was wasting away. Many skilled in the medical art tried to expel the beast from somewhere, but profited nothing. But when she had heard that many benefits were bestowed on mortals by God through the patronage of this Queen; she came to her tomb; and while she wept there, many men of either sex, who were fed in that place from the foundation of the Queen, and prayed to God for the refreshment of her soul, turning to them, she explained her infirmity. Meanwhile the leech came to her lips. Which the keeper of the lamps having espied, seizing tongs, tried to draw out the beast, but could not, because it had immediately withdrawn itself into the mouth and throat: nevertheless it, by itself a little after going forth through the nostrils, all looking on, fell headlong to the earth. Wherefore all who were present together gave thanks to God, that in their sight he had wrought so signal a miracle. The attestation of the whole matter was written by Martin Alfonso, often mentioned.

[118] A sudden cure of a disease of the knee, In the said monastery, when the Queen's body was brought thither, there was a Nun who grievously labored in her knees, so that she could not move herself from the place. She, before the Bishop of Lamego and his Visitor, under precept of obedience to speak the truth and mingle nothing foreign to the truth, deposed that she had implored by pious prayers the aid of the Queen, that she might obtain for her from God a freedom from pains and the use of her knees and feet, whereby she might frequent the choir, and assist at the divine offices: and that God, through the patronage of the Queen, had conferred on her the desired grace, all infirmity being driven away; which neither returned thereafter. The other Nuns, who had seen the said deponent long sick and then suddenly cured, attested that the matter was so: and Martin Alfonso, Notary of Coimbra, related all in the public tables.

[119] and of blindness, At Santarém in the parish of St. Nicholas dwelt a woman, whose name was Teresa Rodrigues, blind in both eyes, so that she saw nothing at all. She heard many things said of the munificence of God toward wretched mortals through the intercession of the Queen: whom she herself also importuned by her vows, that she might recover the light of her eyes, and immediately recovered [it]. Hence she came from Santarém barefoot to Coimbra, and directly betook herself to the tomb of the Queen: and swore by the holy Gospels of God that it had happened thus, as is above related; adding also that at Santarém, her fatherland, through the same Queen several sick obtained from God benefits of cures. All which under oath of the said Teresa, Martin Alfonso, Notary, received.

[120] and of a wounded arm. The Lord Stephen Gonsalves Leitão, master of the Knights of the Order of Christ in Portugal, having received a wound in one arm, could not move it, nor grasp anything with his hand. He, reflecting on the life of the Queen, whose minister he had been; how faithfully and holily she had served God; turned himself to her, asking the grace of a cure for his arm. And behold, what he asked, he immediately obtained, the soundness and use of the injured arm, nor did he thenceforth feel any pain, being wholly cured. And this he thus related at Coimbra, on the first day of November, Era 1375, and swore that it had been done thus, in the presence of the Prefect of the city, and many Clerics and Knights.

[121] Not far from Lisbon is a monastery which is called Chelas; and of an abscess and in it a certain Nun served God, by name Margaret, who met the Queen then dwelling in the said city; but she was tormented with a vehement pain, wholly pale. The Queen, as she approached, asked what she suffered, that she was so pale. She responded that an ulcer had grown above her stomach; that from this she was tormented. And the Queen, the sign of the cross being made, laid her hand on the affected part. And the nun, returning to her monastery, found herself without ulcer, without pain, and swore upon the holy Gospels of God that it had been done thus; which is also attested by Michael Martins, notary of the town of Santarém. The same affirmed Urraca Vasques, herself too of Santarém, a woman of holy life, and dedicated to God by a vow of virginity; with whom the Queen, while she lived, was joined by intimate familiarity; and was wont to communicate the secrets of her heart with confidence. The same the other Nuns of the said monastery of Chelas also testified.

[122] The Queen was wont, as was said above, and of a foul cancer every year on the Lord's Supper to wash the feet of some women. But it happened, while the King her husband still lived, that among them appeared one whose one foot a cancer disease was consuming, and had already eaten away nearly her toes. When the Queen came to her, she washed the other, sound foot: but the other the woman hid, and was unwilling to put it into the basin. To whom the Queen: "Come now, friend, bring forth the other foot too." And the poor little woman said: "There is no need, Lady, for that to be washed." Then the Queen, turning to the already mentioned Urraca Vasques, her secretary, commanded her to draw forth the foot and place it in the basin: which she did thus, as she had been commanded. But they said, both she herself and the other attendants who brought the water for washing, that at the sight of the foot, so eaten away, they shuddered, and turned away their faces: but the Queen without disgust washed it, only solicitous to handle it as gently as possible, lest she should cause pain; then with a towel wiped the washed foot, and on the place where the cancer was creeping, impressed a kiss. Then the woman sat at the prepared table, ate, and returned home briskly, cured in her foot; and she said openly to all that, as soon as the Queen had kissed the wound of her foot, she felt it, the pain being wiped away, restored to her: nor was she ill thereafter. These things confirmed by oath the already said Urraca Vasques and the Lady Catherine, mother of the Lord Laurence, Bishop of Salamanca; that they had seen the said woman both laboring with cancer, and delivered, as has been said.

[123] At Santarém on a certain sixth feria Friday of Holy Week, the Queen, wishing for the love of God to exercise mercy toward lepers, of a man wounded in the head. took care to have many secretly gathered in one chamber of her palace; to whom she both set a dinner, and herself served, and distributed large alms. But they, after they had eaten, went out, one remaining, who, because he was lame and infirm, could not walk so promptly as to accompany the rest. Him the doorkeeper perhaps found, and, ignorant what had been done, struck his head with a staff, saying that it was not for lepers to penetrate into the palace of the Queen. There came up Urraca Vasques, who knew why that man had entered, and seeing the head of the struck man dripping with blood, groaned, and announced the mishap to the Queen: who said to Urraca: "Receive the man into your chamber"; and soon following thither, she laid with her hand on the wound the white of an egg, and gave moneys to the man, that he himself might have the care of his wound; and departed. But on the following day she sent to the wounded man (because the wound seemed to her to be rather deep) [one] who should inquire how he was; and received answer that all was well; that the wounded man, from the time the Queen's hand had bound the wound, had been without a wound, and that no trace of it remained. This too the aforesaid Urraca Vasques, an oath being interposed, in the presence of the Bishop of Lisbon left attested.

[124] Tormented with pains in her whole body, she is suddenly healed, The same, just mentioned Urraca affirmed also of herself under oath, that at the time when King Denis and this Queen visited their daughter Constance, Queen of Castile, after the death of King Ferdinand, her husband, in the city of Ciudad Rodrigo, or Mirobriga; Urraca herself was suffering a grave pain, which at intervals so intensified itself that it took away from the sick woman the appetite for food and the faculty of speech, and she herself, distracted in mind, had to have her hands and feet bound with ropes: nor did the art of the physicians bring any relief to her pains. The Queen came to the sick woman to console her; and she, recalling in mind her constant fervor in serving God, said to her: "Lady, pray to God for me, that either he may mitigate the pains which I suffer; or may deign to call me out of this life, rather than that I should thus suffer longer." But the Queen, pitying her, prayed to the Lord; laid her hands on her head; impressed the signs of the cross on her whole body: and the sick woman immediately was well, nor thereafter did she ever feel such pains, with which otherwise before she was wont frequently to be afflicted.

[125] [A blind girl is enlightened by the Queen, while still living, by the sign of the cross,] The Queen was setting out from Coimbra to the city of Oporto, when there met her on the way a certain woman, in a place which is called Arrifana, asking that on the eyes of her little daughter, whom she said had been blind from birth, she would lay her hands. The Queen did this, and proceeded on her way. But when she returned, the said woman approached her again with her little daughter, to whom God had already granted the use of her eyes, and showed her to the Queen. But she commanded the woman to keep this in silence as a secret, and reveal it to no one; and to that end took care that both mother and daughter be given new garments. These things several of the Queen's domestics saw, and held for certain, both that the said little daughter had been blind from her birth; and that with opened eyes she saw, after the Queen had laid her hands on them. Nonetheless the Queen did not permit, as long as she lived, such things to be said by her own people.

[126] Alfonso Fernandes, Canon Regular at St. George at Coimbra, likewise an old woman at her tomb. had a blind mother, whom he took care to have led to the tomb of the Queen. She was led thither by others, [and] returned by herself with opened and seeing eyes. This was notorious to the whole city of Coimbra. Likewise many sick come to the same tomb; some, subject to quartan fevers; some, beset by demons; some, vexed in other ways: and all return thence cured and delivered from their evils. And such benefits of cures, which are there everywhere obtained, are so frequent that it would be long to commemorate them one by one. For all who know the life of the Queen easily understand that, on account of her merits, God works such things.

[127] Taveiro is a town of the Portuguese near Coimbra. The desire of a mother, to see her son, long abroad, is fulfilled. There dwelt in it a woman, having a son who, long departed from his fatherland, was living abroad; and the mother knew not whether he lived or was dead. Wherefore she fled to the tomb of the Queen, beseeching that, if her son still lived, opportunity might be given her of seeing him before she herself should die. Her son was then absent, easily thirty leagues, who afterward confessed that so great a desire of seeing his mother had then been inspired in him that nothing [was] beyond it: and that he had immediately committed himself to the journey: and within the eighth day, from that on which the mother had importuned the Queen, had entered her house. At which the mother wondering, at the very first opportunity with her son approached the body of the Queen, and gave thanks to her and to God, that he had so benignly and promptly heard her entreaties through the patronage of the Queen.

[128] At Évora in the house of Benedict Peres, a merchant, lay a certain servant of his, A dying man revives. and was vehemently tormented from this, that he had swallowed a leech, which now for fifteen days had adhered to his throat, nor could be expelled or vomited up. Whence his throat was so swollen that now for the last two days he could neither take food nor speak in any way. Wherefore all feared lest on that day he should pass from this life, and they had already prepared for carrying out the funeral, the necessary cloths and wax tapers. On that very day there came thither John Anes de Corruche, prefect of the Royal wardrobe, to salute the Lord Lupus Esteves Gaya, dwelling in the house of Benedict Peres, of whom above, in which the aforesaid sick man was also lying. But when he saw there a great throng of men, he inquired what the matter was: and understanding that a man lay there dying, he said: if time permit, that the sick man commend himself to Queen Elizabeth, and vow that he will visit her tomb; without doubt he would obtain, through the intercession of the Queen, a longer life. Meanwhile the sick man lay with his eyes fixed on heaven, so that it was believed by all that he was now on the point of expiring. When the women who stood near addressed him by his name, and said, if he would commend himself to Queen Elizabeth, it would come to pass that through her he would receive relief from God. And the sick man not without a sense of piety lifted his hands to heaven, and immediately began to cough and vomit blood. Wherefore the bystanders lifted a little his head; and he began again to vomit blood, and with the blood the leech: and immediately on that day he spoke and was well. But Stephen Martins, otherwise de Gaya, father of the said Lupus Esteves, gathered the leech and wrapped it in linen.

[129] It happened that the Abbot of Alcobaça held shut up in a dark tower a certain monk of his, now for four years. This monk had a certain cousin from the town of Santarém, A man captive for four years is freed; Ruy Martins by name, who had long labored in vain, through the intercessions of the Magnates, to free the monk from the said prison. Meanwhile he heard that God through the patronage of this Queen wrought many marvels; he turned himself to her by prayer; and admonished also the monk that he too should importune her for his liberation. Prayer being made on the 17th day of March, in the year of the Caesarean Era 1373 ^a, the Lord freed him from prison: who through that same cousin of his visited the tomb of the Queen, and offered gifts to her. And of this matter, proved by oath, there is extant a public testimony, made by Martin Esteves, notary of Coimbra.

[130] likewise a woman possessed by even seven demons, at the tomb of the Queen, In the year of the Caesarean Era one thousand four hundred and twenty ^b, on the eighteenth day of April, there came to the monastery of St. Clare at Coimbra a certain woman, born, as she said, in the city of Lamego, beset by demons; and she affirmed that she had had in her as many demons as a year numbers days: and that through several pilgrimages which she had made to various relics of the Saints, both in the kingdoms of Portugal and of Castile, she had been freed from all those hostile guests, except seven, which had declared that they would not go out, except in the chapel where the body of the holy Queen Elizabeth rests. Two Friars of the Order of St. Francis accompanied her, her kinsmen; both own brothers, of the fatherland of Santarém, the one named Francis, the other Stephen. These, when they arrived at the chapel of the Queen, held vigils there the following night with many others, both men and women, which could not be expelled elsewhere. who dwelt in the said monastery and the palaces of the Queen built round about: among whom were a certain John de Porto with his wife Margaret Alfonso; a certain Marina de Penella with her daughter: Gonzalo Laurence, procurator of the said monastery; likewise another minister of the same monastery, Dominic Ames, and Michael Domingues, the hospitaller, and many others who, pitying the possessed woman, for the love of God kept watch there. In the morning, when it dawned, the demons tormented the woman, after their manner, most vehemently: and soon they gave to the said Friars the signs which they had promised of their departure, in the presence of all the already named witnesses with several others not named; and immediately was summoned the Abbess of the monastery, Beatrice Pimentel, with her Nuns, that they might see the great miracle which God through the merits of the Queen wrought in the liberation of that possessed woman. To God thanks, praise, and glory.

[131] Another miracle also the blessed Queen wrought in the year of the Era ^c one thousand four hundred and thirty-eight, on the 15th day of September, A tumor in the palm of the hand is cured. in a young Religious woman, in the palm of whose right hand had grown a tumor, which they call a "espunge," of the size of half a bean, which created for her a sharp pain and impeded the use of her hand: she fled to the holy Queen, and offered her a hand of wax; and was cured. The matter is most attested both by the abbess of the monastery, the Lady Catherine, and by the other Nuns, who assert that the tumor, for about twenty days, in the palm of the hand, had taken on a black color like pitch; and then had by itself fallen off without the nun's knowledge, without a sense of pain. Thanks and praises be rendered to God for this and several other miracles, which God has done, and daily does, through the merits of this holy and blessed Queen ^d.

ANNOTATA.

SUMMARY

Of the more recent miracles,

Collected at Coimbra by episcopal authority, from the depositions of witnesses, cited and sworn, in the year 1576.

From the interpretation of the above-said Rodrigo Gomes, here less freely altered by the editor than in the foregoing Acts.

Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal (S.)

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

The ancient codex concerning the life and miracles of the Queen, done before and after death, being described up to here, there is subjoined a Summary of some miracles of the same Queen; and the reader is warned that in our codex of the processes it is thus noted: "The extraction of the said ancient book being finished, the aforesaid Commissary, by force of the Commission of the Bishop and the letters of the King, admonished the Abbess and Nuns of St. Clare to submit themselves to examination concerning other miracles of the blessed Queen, and proceeded to the examination, as below." It is to be noted

also that the witnesses examined below, or rather the examined women (for all are women, whether nuns or seculars), everywhere give oath to speak the truth, either by the habit of their profession, namely the nuns; or by the holy Gospels of God, namely the seculars. Likewise, that after the Depositions there are everywhere subscribed the names, both of the deposing witness; and of the Commissary, de Magalhães; and of the Secretary, Coutinho. Which seem to us here to be passed over, lest the repeated recurrence of the same formulas again and again should breed nausea in the reader. It will suffice here to have warned him that the said formulas are read at the beginning and end of each deposition nearly thus, as we have ascribed them in the first deposition of Helena the Abbess, numbers 3 and 6.

THE INSTITUTION OF THIS PROCESS.

This process at Coimbra in the year 1576 In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand five hundred and seventy-six, in this city of Coimbra and monastery of St. Clare, at the gratings of its parlor, the most Illustrious Lady Helena de Menese, the Abbess, being present in the inner part, the aforesaid licentiate Francisco de Magalhães said to her that the life of this holy Queen had already been transcribed and copied, and that, to the greater praise and glory of God and of this holy Queen, it behooved to examine witnesses concerning some modern miracles, which, as is said, God our Lord works each day through the merits of this Queen, from the faith of those imploring her aid; and thus to put an end to the examination according to the mandate of the King, our Lord, as his holy zeal had desired.

[2] instituted by the same commissary de Magalhães. Wherefore the Abbess ought, for greater authority, and some of her Religious, to testify whatever they knew of the miracles of the Queen: and that likewise the sacristan and lay persons should be interrogated, who had knowledge of miracles of this kind. And the Abbess said that she was ready to testify: and she commanded to be summoned the religious and lay persons, dwelling outside the monastery, in whom God through the merits of this holy glorious Elizabeth had wrought works quite miraculous: and those witnesses the said Licentiate immediately examined summarily; and administered to them the oath on the holy Gospels of God, as to the laity; but to the religious under the oath of the habit of their profession, enjoining on them that they should say neither more nor less, beyond what they knew, and as the matters had been in truth; which they promised to do thus; and deposed the following.

CHAPTER I. Various miracles, nearly sudden.

The Mother Lady Helena de Menese, Abbess of the said Monastery of St. Clare, The deposition of the Abbess herself sworn under the habit of her profession of the said monastery of St. Clare, declared that it was true; that this holy Queen Elizabeth, who founded this monastery, lies buried in it; whose bodily relics have done and do very many, and those most evident and continual, miracles. For, she said, a little time ago a certain nun, called Euphrasia, when for a long time she had been crippled in one part of her body, so that she could not rise, concerning the cure of her paralytic nun nor move her arm or leg; nor did she feel anything in that part, though she were pricked strongly with a needle. Because moreover the said Religious had great devotion to the said holy Queen, she asked to be carried to the lattices which gird the tomb of the Queen; and anointed herself with the oil of her lamp. But when there, amid pains, she had been seized by sleep; as soon as she awoke, she found herself wholly restored to her former health. Hence for so great a miracle a solemn procession was immediately made to give praises to our Lord, inasmuch as it had been obtained by the merits of this holy Queen. And the Abbess said that the Bishop, the Lord João Soares, of this city of Coimbra, commanded a summary to be drawn up for the verification of this miracle by his provisor.

[4] The holy Queen wrought also another miracle in the person of Simonissa Botelha, a professed Religious of the same monastery, and of others ill affected. in whose hand had grown a certain little tumor, from which she received great pain, impediment, and sadness: who, as soon as she anointed herself with the oil of the Queen's lamp, recovered health and the little tumor disappeared; and her hand was freed from the impediment, and restored to its former state. Another handmaid also of this monastery had another little tumor, much greater, in her hand, who, as soon as she commended herself to the Queen, anointing herself with the oil of her lamp, recovered health and the little tumor disappeared. Another nun also, called the Lady Maria de Silva, while she was still a novice, was greatly sickened from I know not what sudden malady, which she had held now eleven days, in which she neither ate nor put anything into her stomach. She at length was led to the burial of this holy Queen; and immediately was well, and drank hen's broth, and recovered perfect health.

[5] Besides these miracles, there are others quite particular, which God has wrought, even of those dwelling far off, through the oil of the lamp, through the merits of this holy Queen, in very many persons, coming to visit her tomb, and offering themselves to her with devotion: and she said that now letters had been brought to her of a certain nun of the monastery of the town of Torres Novas, who had been educated in this monastery of St. Clare, and had in her knee a great infirmity, from which she suffered great pains and troubles now for very many months; who, as soon as she anointed herself with the oil of the lamp of this holy Queen, which had been sent her from this monastery, immediately was better and recovered health. At which event the Physicians and Religious wondered, and with great faith and devotion believed that it was a miracle which God had wrought through the merits of the holy Queen, because through natural remedies and medicines the said sick woman could not in so short a time recover health. But that miracle being known, two Religious, who each had a tumor under the arms, approached the aforesaid nun, and on bended knees asking for the said oil, anointed their sick parts with it, and immediately the tumors disappeared, and health was recovered. These letters (say the Examiners) the Abbess showed us, in which the said miracles are more copiously contained and declared, with great praises and thanks given to God, on account of the miracles which he has wrought.

[6] The Abbess said also that Maria de Beja, finally sick women too led to the tomb. a widow, wife of Jorge Barbosa, a citizen, whose soul may rest, when she was quite sick and crippled in her limbs, had herself carried in a litter; and offered herself with great devotion to this holy Queen, and near her tomb slept one night; and on the following day at dawn was found whole, and walked on her own feet through the church, visiting its altars. There are also, besides those already said, very many miracles, of which the lay sacristan outside the enclosure of the monastery, having the care of the chapel of this holy Queen, can testify, things which she saw. For she saw many, laboring with various infirmities, who offered themselves there to the Queen, and recovered health. And she deposed nothing more: and subscribed herself here; Diogo Coutinho, notary, wrote this. Francisco de Magalhães. Sister Helena, Abbess.

[7] An ulcer in the private parts, to be cut on the following day with iron, The Mother sister Ambrosia Regum, Vicaress of the said monastery, sworn, said that all things contained in this testimony, just written above, which the said Lady Abbess deposed, were true; at all which she herself too was present, and saw all done with her own eyes in the said Religious and the handmaid. Besides she said that she knew that, while there was in this monastery a certain Religious, called Vereita, now deceased, no moderately sick, and brought into great peril, from a certain tumor which she had in the private part of her body, from which she received great disquiet. But on the following day a surgeon was awaited to open by fire and iron the said tumor; it opens of itself and is cured: when the nun with great confidence offered herself to the holy Queen and was anointed with her oil; and when in the morning she was roused from her first sleep, she found the tumor opened with a great abundance of pus, which had flowed out, and she was made whole without the incision and work of surgeon or physician.

[8] She said likewise that in another Religious, now deceased, called Francisca da Silva, likewise a carbuncle in the mouth, impeding speech: there had grown within the mouth a certain carbuncle, which went out beyond the tongue, and brought her a great impediment to speaking and eating. And when she offered herself to the said Queen and performed some daily task of piety in her honor for eleven days (for such exercises of piety are wont here to be performed in memory of the eleven days in which the Queen's body was transported from the town of Estremoz, where she passed from this life, to this monastery and was enclosed in the tomb), on the last of the said days she ascended by the stairs to the lattices which surround the tomb, where exercises of this kind are wont to be performed; suddenly the said carbuncle fell to the earth; and the nun remained free and whole.

[9] The aforesaid Witness said besides that another nun, formerly Abbess of the said monastery, and also an intestinal disease called sister Henebra of St. Anthony, labored with an intestinal disease, with which she was wretchedly tormented not without peril of life, when the nuns with solemn rite brought the habit of this holy Queen, and placed [it] over the said sick woman, who immediately was seized by sleep, and made whole. The witness added that, besides the already said miracles, and several others very many other things were done daily at the invocation of this holy Queen: on account of which with great faith and devotion men frequently flocked to her from very many and far-off parts to implore her aid.

[10] The Mother Euphrasia, a professed nun of this monastery, being interrogated, said that when she herself was for three months quite sick, and crippled in the right part of her body, [A paralytic for three months, anointed at the place of the lamp, is suddenly cured:] and suffered most bitter torments, nor could be moved or turned to the other side; with great faith and devotion she besought the Religious to lead her to the lattices near the tomb of this holy Queen on the day of the Assumption of the most blessed Virgin Mary; where she anointed herself with the oil, and took sleep: but awaking, she was whole from all her infirmity; and praising God our Lord for so great a grace and miracle; she was led back by the Religious in a solemn procession with canticles and hymns, fully and perfectly healed. She said also that she both saw and heard very many other miracles, and also those which are related in the foregoing testimonies: and that very great faith and devotion of the people is shown toward this holy Queen.

[11] The Mother sister Simonissa da Prisão, a professed Religious of this monastery of St. Clare, affirmed that in her left hand there had grown a certain little tumor in the greater week of Lent Holy Week; likewise another, long afflicted;

and that for the space of six months she applied to it in vain several medicines, prescribed by physicians and surgeons; when at length they resolved, as the last remedy, to cut the tumor: when she herself, greatly afflicted, devoted herself with great feeling of mind and confidence to the Queen, and anointed herself for some days with the oil of her lamp; and the tumor, gradually softened, subsided and wholly disappeared in the month of September; and she remained free and whole. Likewise that a certain handmaid of the same monastery, and a third; called Maria Cordeira, who herself also had a little tumor, as soon as she anointed it with the oil of the lamp of the said holy Queen, was healed, as the Witness heard from her; and the other Religious of this monastery heard from her: and likewise the Witness saw the miracle which happened in the person of the Mother Euphrasia, and related it, as is related and testified above.

[12] Silvestra Pires, formerly wife of Emmanuel Pires, and also a fourth, laboring from a breast. whose soul may rest; an inhabitant in the borough near the palaces of the holy Queen and the monastery of St. Clare, where she was born and educated, a witness sworn on the holy Gospels of God, promised to speak the truth. But being interrogated concerning the things contained in the deposition above; she said that she was quite sick, with great pain in one breast, which greatly swelled and cast forth milk; and it came to this, that the physicians wished to open it with iron: when she herself offered herself to the Queen, and had a Mass said in her praise, and soothed herself with the oil of her lamp; which as soon as she did, the swelling of her breast was opened by itself, and she remained whole without any other human remedy.

[13] Then she said that her grandson was born lame of foot, which defect the Witness herself detected in him four days after he was born; A lame [child is cured;] wherefore, when the mother was greatly afflicted with grief for the infant, the Witness exhorted her to devote the infant to the holy Queen; to whom she also offered a Mass; which being celebrated, the defect of the lame foot was cured in the boy. The same boy, when he was already of advanced age, the same, having drunk a leech with water, vomits it up without harm. drank a leech with water; from which he was tormented with bitter pains and vomited copious blood. Hence the same Witness and her granddaughter, touched with compassion, prayed to the holy Queen on bended knees with great confidence: and immediately the leech went out through the boy's mouth, and he remained free from so great an evil and trouble through the merits of the holy Queen. She added that of miracles of this kind she had heard several others narrated, quite wonderful, of which she does not now distinctly remember.

CHAPTER II. The continuation of miracles of this kind.

[14] Pelonia Roiz, a widow, formerly wife of Francisco João, a stonecutter, An ulcer in the head is healed, dwelling in these palaces of the holy Queen, a sworn witness, responded to the questions asked, that she had had in her head a great tumor, like a chestnut, not without a grave sense of pain. But seeing, and also understanding from others, the marvels which were done at the invocation of the holy Queen; how she restored to health any persons whatever, weighed down with any diseases whatever; commending and devoting herself to her, she came to her chapel and tomb; and performed there certain works of piety for eleven days; and amid praying she laid her head upon the very tomb of the holy Queen; and on the last day the said tumor fell from her head, which she took in her hand, and gave the greatest thanks to God, that he had deigned to work so great a grace and miracle in her person.

[15] Besides she deposed that a similar tumor had grown in the breast of her virgin daughter, likewise, in the breast, bringing her great pains, to whom she herself advised that she should apply no medicines to her evil except the invocation of the name of the holy Queen; in whom she should have great faith, and without doubt would recover health; and the daughter on a certain day very early invoked the Queen, as she had been commanded; and immediately after, cried out to her mother to bring her aid, because the tumor which she had in her breast had burst. And thenceforth she was whole. She said besides that another daughter of hers, and in the feet. having warts or corns on her feet, vowed to the holy Queen an obeisance of eleven days, and was restored to health by passing under her tomb. Likewise that the Witness herself had a loaf, A vomiting of blood is stopped, which had been offered at the tomb of the holy Queen by vow, which she took thence and carried with her for religion's sake; and that she kept it a whole year, nor did it contract mold. But it happened that a certain woman came from the town of Carvalhais of this district of Coimbra on pilgrimage to this holy Queen, with great pain and anguish, emitting a great quantity of blood on the way; the Witness called her, and gave her a part of the said loaf, which the sick woman soaked in water, drank that water, and immediately vomited up a leech, on account of which she was suffering the flux of blood, and recovered health.

[16] A hand, long unable to work, is restored: Maria Cordeira, a handmaid of the said monastery ^a, a sworn witness, said that it was true that she had had in her right hand a certain great tumor for some years, when at length she commended herself with great confidence to the holy Queen; and when on a certain day she was greatly afflicted with pain, toward evening she soothed the said tumor with the oil of the lamp of the said Queen; and immediately the tumor subsided and disappeared: and she herself remained whole and free; which she holds for a miracle, wrought through the holy Queen. She also saw with her own eyes the religious Euphrasia, of whom above, crippled in her limbs; and carried her with others to the lattices of the tomb of the holy Queen from the bed where she lay; who on that same day recovered health.

[17] Guiomara Cordeira, daughter of Anna Pires, a sworn witness, likewise another. said to the questions asked that it was true that she had had a tumor in her left hand, of the size of one nut, which brought her great disgust and impediment, so that she could not do any service: and that she had vowed for eleven days to render some particular obeisance to the holy Queen; when on the third day she anointed her hand with the oil of her lamp, which thence was swollen not without pain: but on the other day it was free from pain and fully healed, no trace of the tumor being left. She confirmed that her sister, Maria Cordeira, the witness named above, had had a similar tumor, and had likewise been cured through the holy Queen.

[18] Catharina Gil, a widow, formerly wife of João Locis, whose soul may rest; an inhabitant in this borough of St. Clare and the palaces of the holy Queen, Sciatica and warts are driven away. a sworn witness, said that she was greatly sick with sciatica, and daily suffered fifteen or sixteen various paroxysms, by which she was cast down from the state of her mind for a time: and that she commended herself with great feeling of piety to the holy Queen; and recovered health. But thenceforth, now for nine years up to the present time, on nearly each day the Witness visits the burial of the Saint, and gives her thanks for so signal a benefit, knowing that no remedies of the physicians profited her infirmity; but that only the oil of the lamp of the holy Queen profited her, with which as soon as she soothed her leg, immediately she herself was restored to health. The Witness said also that a certain daughter of hers, who had quite warty hands, as soon as she offered herself to the holy Queen, was cured, the warts immediately disappearing.

[19] Maria Paes, a widow, wife left by Francisco Vos, Three, deprived of the use of their limbs, are restored to themselves. whose soul may rest, a stonecutter; dwelling in the already said borough of St. Clare and the palaces of the holy Queen near this monastery, said that when, by the violence of a certain most grievous disease, weakened in body and mind, destitute of the use of her tongue and of nearly all her other limbs; and also wholly blind; so that she could see nothing, nor open her eyes, she soothed them with the oil of the lamp of this holy Queen, and commending herself to her most religiously, she received a total freedom from her pains and infirmities, as also the free use of her eyes. She said also that in the past week, Dominica Martins, her neighbor, while she was crippled in the limbs of her body and deprived of speech, was anointed with the oil of the lamp of the said holy Queen; and on the following day appeared free, whole, and sound entirely. Likewise she said that while Elizabeth, wife of Antonio dal Poe, a citizen of this city, likewise crippled in the limbs of her body, lay in bed for a long time; she offered herself and invoked with great piety the holy Queen, and was healed. The Witness saw her, as sick as she said above, lying in bed; and afterward whole in this church of this monastery; to which she came like one making a pilgrimage to the holy Queen.

[20] Drusiana de Medeiros, sacristan ^b of the chapel of the holy Queen, Several cures, obtained nearly always through the oil of the lamp, dwelling round about this monastery of St. Clare, a sworn witness, said that fourteen years ago she began to serve the chapel of this holy Queen; and that in that time she saw quite notable miracles, done in the blind, lame, deaf, crippled in limbs, and laboring with kinds of infirmities. Among these are, of a man crushed under a loaded cart, that a certain man of the town of Dalonsa was crushed under the wheels of a loaded cart, his bones broken; whose wife devoted him to the holy Queen, and anointed [him] with the oil of her lamp, and he was wholly restored to himself. Who also was wont thereafter each year to make a pilgrimage hither with his wife to the tomb of the holy Queen, and paid her an obeisance of eleven days. Besides the Witness affirmed of those having a hand and arm swollen with poison; that a certain man from the town of Aveiro came to the said chapel, bearing a hand greatly swollen, and in part already eaten away by a poisoned thorn on which he had struck; nor could the surgeons and physicians heal him. He therefore anointed his hand with the oil of the lamp of the said Queen so often mentioned, went to his home, and inspecting his hand on the way, found the thorn adhering to the cloth, drawn out of his hand; and so was freed from all peril.

[21] Likewise she said that a woman, sprung from the place called Montemor, came to the said chapel, having an arm greatly swollen from the bite of a viper: who, as soon as she anointed the arm with the oil at the point of the bite, suddenly recovered health. Likewise that another inhabitant of the town of Aveiro came to this holy Queen, on pilgrimage, ill from a dislocated foot with grave pain; who in the Witness's presence anointed it with the oil of the lamp: and on the following day showed her the restored foot and walked rightly. Likewise the Witness saw of a paralytic woman how a certain Maria de Beja ^c, wife of Jorge Barbosa, of this city, was carried to this chapel by others on pilgrimage; nearly wholly crippled in all her limbs; and passed the night in the chapel: anointing herself with the oil of the lamp; and on the following

day appeared cured in her whole body. She said likewise: "Two years ago there came hither a certain woman from the town of Dança, mute, and a mute woman and deprived of all faculty of speaking whatever, and crippled in her limbs: who being placed before the tomb of the Queen, cried out, as she could, with a mute outcry, looking at and pointing to the lamp, when the Witness anointed with the oil of the lamp the mouth and throat of the sick woman, who immediately began to speak, and was free and whole from all her infirmity."

[22] She said also that another [man] from the town of Aveiro came thither on pilgrimage about the feast of St. Bartholomew in the past year, of a man having a tumor in the belly. having a great tumor in his belly, to whom the physicians could not give a remedy of health, and he anointed himself with the said oil; and on the following day was roused from sleep without any tumor or any evil. Likewise a certain child ^d, born in the country, and leprosy in the head; was brought hither, leprous in the whole head, and was anointed with the aforesaid oil: and after a few days his whole head was cleansed. Moreover the Witness affirmed by the Witness herself, gravely injured in the back by a fall; that three weeks ago she herself fell from a height and broke her back, whence she perceived a great foul smell, and could not walk; nor did the physicians bring relief. When at length, as best she could, she came to clean the chapel of the holy Queen, and found upon her image dried flowers, which she reduced to powder, and anointed herself with the oil of the lamp, and put the said powders over [it], and recovered health. Finally she said that, besides these miracles, she saw and heard very many others, of which at present she does not remember. Moreover she affirmed and by her son, injured in the eyes. that when she had her son, one year of age, quite sick in the eyes, which he had as it were turned back, from which blood also flowed with blindness, the Witness placed her son upon the burial of this holy Queen, and his eyes were set right on the day of the same holy Queen, and he was whole ^e.

ANNOTATA.

A COMPENDIUM OF THE LIFE,

Collected by the Auditors of the Roman Rota from the processes.

Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal (S.)

From the foregoing, the ancient Life of the holy Queen; the miracles; the depositions of the sworn witnesses; and other legitimate monuments, brought from Portugal to Rome, and there by the Consultors and Theologians and Auditors of the Rota deputed for this, as is done, discussed and rigidly examined; approved also by the most Eminent Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church; there was at length collected a compendium of the chief and proved matters, by three Auditors of the Rota, Giovanni Battista Coccino, Alfonso Manzanedo, and Giacomo Cavalieri. Which compendium, besides the matters themselves, has also the citations of the places where in the Processes they were proved. Thence moreover another briefer compendium was extracted: which, the citations being omitted, and some other things; sets forth the whole matter lucidly in continuous discourse. Each compendium I have before my eyes, the one manuscript, the other published in print at Rome, recited before Pope Urban VIII by Francesco Maria del Monte, Bishop of Ostia, Dean of the College of the most Eminent Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, on the 3rd of January in the year 1625, not long before the solemn canonization of our Elizabeth. This, before that, we judge to be published by us here for the memory of posterity, as it was printed at Rome, yet the titles, which there are inserted in the text, being rejected to the margin. Here is the preliminary title.

A RELATION MADE IN THE SECRET CONSISTORY BEFORE OUR HOLY LORD POPE URBAN VIII.

BY FRANCESCO MARIA, BISHOP OF OSTIA, CARDINAL DEL MONTE OF THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH, ON THE 13TH OF JANUARY 1625.

Concerning the life, Holiness, acts of Canonization, and miracles of the blessed Elizabeth of pious memory, Queen of Portugal.

Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal (S.)

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

THE INTRODUCTION OF THE RELATION.

Holiness in a kingdom, like a gem in gold, Most Blessed Father, wise appraisers of things rightly look up to; who well know that a fellowship of this kind is as illustrious as it is rare. For, as the voice of eternal Truth is, surer than any oracle; difficult and narrow is the entrance into heaven for those who possess too widely the earth. But if to the pomp and display of Royal Majesty there be added the nature of the feminine sex, more than enough prone to a vain pursuit of beauty and a light ambition of comeliness; scarcely any place will be left for holiness. And so if there be any woman, conspicuous by royal splendor, who shines also with the brightness of virtues; she can deservedly be called a heavenly prodigy. For it must be given from heaven, what is found so difficult on earth. Nor can or ought anyone else impose holiness on Kings, like a new crown; save that King of Kings, in whose hand is the heart of the King, and through whom Kings reign. He, among other women, more noble by virtue than by birth; in whom he willed to give the world a spectacle of his patience, chose the blessed Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal: that he might teach the human race by his example that one head can be ennobled by a double crown; the one of majesty on earth, the other of holiness in heaven. Which twin honor in Elizabeth he will at once recognize, who shall wish to behold the deeds illustriously and holily done by her in her whole life.

[2] This Queen indeed stood, if not at the right hand, at least before the sight of God in a gilded garment, surrounded with variety. For what else was her whole age, passed with the highest integrity of morals and the praise of innocence; than a certain gilded garment, which not only snatched the eyes and minds of mortals to its contemplation and admiration; but even invited the very citizens of heaven, God himself the parent and moderator of all things, to so singular a spectacle? What were so many, so various, and so signal endowments of mind and virtues, with which that most pure soul was from tender years adorned; what, I say, were they else but transparent gems and precious little stones, surrounded with whose variety, she gave to the heavenly King a most beautiful specimen of herself? Shining forth with these conspicuous ornaments before heaven and earth, she was set forth not only for Portugal, in which she reigned with so great praise of holiness; not only for Spain; from whose most noble province of Aragon she obtained the happy enjoyment of this light; but for any Christian kingdom whatever, by the supreme Prince of things, God, as a model of Kings absolute in all points. From her will learn, those who wield scepters; how much more must be attributed to religion and to God, than to private or public advantages; with how great zeal must be procured, among Princes, peace and concord; how piously the Royal family also must be governed; how great liberality must be shown to the needy; how humanely and benignly the peoples must be embraced. No royal praise, in short, or virtue is lacking in this idea of Christian Princes.

[3] One thing only seems to be lacking, not so much to the completion of this image, which by the strokes of the divine right hand, with the various colors of the virtues, was long ago expressed; but to the most religious petition of the Catholic King, to the common desire of all Portugal, to the public advantage of princes, to the glory and splendor of the Christian name: that thou, Most Blessed Father, who bearest the place of God among men, and pleadest the causes of men before God; mayest not hesitate to enroll this blessed Queen in the number of the Saints, by the usual ceremonies of the Church. To which end, concerning the life, holiness, and miracles of this blessed Queen, according to the sacred canons, thy Holiness of thy benignity commanded inquiry to be made. Wherefore, the necessary processes being fabricated according to custom, and discussed maturely by deputed suitable men; this cause is now judged to be in that state, that it seems legitimately instructed. By command therefore of thy Holiness, about to relate most briefly before the most ample sacred Senate its state, in a tripartite order I shall thus set it forth.

[4] In the first place I shall explain the most upright life and most holy death of the blessed Queen. Secondly, her illustrious virtues. Thirdly, the signal miracles wrought by her, both living and dead; and the matters done in the cause. Which three heads, if they be sufficiently approved to thy Holiness; and if it be resolved that the last head be reviewed; it will remain, the opinions of each of my most Reverend Lords being asked according to custom; to deliberate and determine what more expedient for the glory of God, and the exaltation of the Catholic Faith.

THE FIRST PART OF THE RELATION. CONCERNING THE LIFE OF THE QUEEN.

The lineage of Elizabeth, A royal lineage from either parent Elizabeth drew. Her father was Peter, King of Aragon, born of King James, and of Yolande, daughter of the King of Hungary. Her mother [was] Constance, daughter of Manfred, King of Sicily, granddaughter of the Emperor Frederick the Second. Elizabeth was born in the year from the Virgin's childbearing 1271. But she came forth from her mother's womb (contrary to custom) wrapped on every side in those membranes which they call the afterbirth; which perhaps was a prodigy given from heaven, as it were a presage of her future modesty and shamefastness. Newly born from the birth, she was brought to King James her grandfather, and by him up to the sixth year of her age was imbued with Christian morals: of whom he was wont to proclaim, and almost to foretell: that that granddaughter, and his foster-child, would be the best and most illustrious of all the women who had ever been born of the stock of the Kings of Aragon. King James being snatched from human affairs, her education, the six-year-old girl is led back into her father's house. There she pursued the manner of most upright life which she had learned from her grandfather. Childish games,

adornment of the body, the delights of pleasures she fled. To divine prayers, to abstinence from food, to works of charity she gave herself intensely: so that her Father himself was wont to affirm that the felicity of his affairs and of his kingdom must be reckoned as owed to the virtues and merits of Elizabeth before God. But when she was now of full marriageable age, on account of the excellent report of so great virtue wandering far and wide, she was sought in matrimony by several sons of Christian Princes through frequent embassies and letters. marriage, One out of all prevailed, Denis, King of Portugal, son of Alfonso the Third; to whom by royal and Christian rites Elizabeth was married in the year of obtained salvation 1282. Her departure her Parent bore most grievously, saying, tearful; that there was being torn from him a thing most dear and most precious of all.

[6] her zeal of piety toward God The nuptials being celebrated with the greatest apparatus, and, as befitted Kings, pomp; Elizabeth in the seventeenth year of her age bore Constance: but in the twentieth, the heir of the kingdom, Alfonso. Meanwhile she gave no less effort to cultivating virtues than to educating her children; studying to please her husband, but more to please God. Assiduous in sacred prayers, she was frequent at the divine service; wherever she was, she had a chapel religiously and magnificently adorned, furnished with priests, singers, and other sacred ministers. and her husband, otherwise injurious to her; There was her rest; there she almost always dwelt. But by the praise of her humanity, meekness, and providence she won to herself the minds of all. But when King Denis had lived some years with her conjointly and uprightly; whether by the bending of age, or by the counsels of the wicked, and bewitched by certain as it were sorceries of unjust pleasure; he began to turn his mind and will away from her, by no fault of hers: and transferred his love to other little women, from each of whom he had a single child, namely seven in all. These things receiving from various messengers, Elizabeth bore so palpable an injury so patiently and moderately that she was an object of admiration to all, nay she even educated the very boys, born to the King from elsewhere, as her own, and diligently took care that they be trained to every praise. By which tokens of a most lofty and God-filled mind Denis was overcome, and changed to a better manner of life, and passed the remaining time with his wife chastely and holily.

[7] Meanwhile in composing the dissensions of Princes, joined to her by some affinity, her love of conciliating peace as Elizabeth put much effort, so she carried off very much glory. And first indeed the grave discord, or rather open war, that had arisen between King Denis and his brother Alfonso, troops being gathered on both sides, and nearly all Portugal armed for the different parties; the Queen, most loving of peace, calmed and settled, prayers being poured out to God, and assiduous vows; Bishops and princely men being employed; her own exhortations and entreaties toward each finally being often interposed. Then indeed with no less industry she toiled that the arms already moved by King Denis against the boy Ferdinand, King of Castile, and his guardians, should cease. Then the most grave dissensions of other kindred Princes were pacified, which seemed to draw with them the ruin of all Spain: but no peace conciliated by Elizabeth was more glorious and more necessary than when Denis the father, and his son Alfonso, had undertaken among themselves more than civil wars.

[8] For Denis, angered at the arrogance of his son, between those at discord; who, surrounded by wicked men, despised his father's authority and commands, and seemed to wish to cast him from the kingdom, resolved to overwhelm him unexpectedly. He set guards at all the roads, lest any messenger of the peril should reach Alfonso: then he ordered his soldiers to be armed, and to set out expeditiously with him against his son; that he might take a just, but bitter, punishment of him. But Elizabeth, made more certain of the matter, secretly sent out many messengers by various roads, who should signify to her son the highest peril in which he was; and warn him to escape his father's wrath. She herself meanwhile, several sacred Masses being ordered to be performed for that matter, with prayers and tears besought of God that he would avert so great an evil from her husband, from her son, from the kingdom. By her diligence therefore and piety it came to pass that her son, consulting his own safety, departed from that place where he was to be overwhelmed by his father. But betaking himself to his mother, he gave the greatest thanks for so great a benefit. She by words, admonitions, prayers undertook to break the contumacious mind of Alfonso: but in vain; for by these made no better, or calmer, he began to prepare a wicked war against his father. The father, both moved by the indignity of the deed, and stimulated by others, sought every way to avenge the impiety of his son. These things exulcerated the mind of Elizabeth; who greatly desired, and asked of God, a gentler mind for her husband, a saner one for her son.

[9] exile. Yet there were not lacking those who accused her before Denis of excessive love toward her son, and of womanly indulgence: and even said that she must be segregated, and, her castles being taken away, be handed over into free custody, lest she should aid her son by any help. Denis assents to them; sends Elizabeth away; nearly all her goods being taken, forbids her to go out of the appointed place. Not even a word did she say against her husband's bitter command: and immediately obeyed; and, others protesting, was moderate. Meanwhile Alfonso in storming, and reducing into his power, cities; Denis in demolishing and overthrowing those which had defected from his power; each was setting all his resources and effort on the wretched devastation of Portugal. At which time the blessed Queen, with all the most religious women, called together to her from every side, was wholly with them in fastings, prayers, tears, and other pious works, to entreat God that he would by some heavenly aid remove the impending ruin. But when she heard her husband and son rebelling against her that the war was inflamed daily more by vehement hatreds on both sides, nor could in any way be extinguished, except by the blood either of her husband or her son, by the slaughter of citizens, by the destruction of cities; she could not contain herself, but, her own safety, the safety of her own being postponed, flew from custody to the camp; besought her husband, adjured her son, dealt with each through princely men, moved every stone, that the son might be reconciled into his father's favor. It was at length granted, more by a divine gift than by human means, what the pious sedulity of Elizabeth merited, but that concord was not long-lasting.

[10] she pacifies with peril of her own life. For when, against his father's will, Alfonso tried to approach the city of Santarém (commonly Sanctarenum) with a drawn-up column, Denis went forth to meet him with an army. The father therefore had directed armed lines against his son: the signal of war had been given on both sides: from either part the soldiers rushed together with kindred arms: it had come to blows: when Elizabeth, warned of so novel an indignity, without the company of her handmaids, without adornment, hastily ran up: she interposes herself between her husband and son; not deterred by the darts thrown to and fro, not retarded by the peril of her own life; she renders her son by exhortations obedient to the father, her husband by entreaties appeased toward the son: to each she restores life, to each safety, nearly despaired of.

[11] The soul of her deceased daughter Elizabeth had a daughter, as was said at the beginning, Constance. Her, to console her for the death of her husband Ferdinand, King of Castile, Denis with his wife visited. There followed the Queen Urraca Vaschia, her familiar; who, when she was tormented with sudden and most sharp pains, asked Elizabeth to obtain from God, prayers being poured out, a cessation of that evil. She prayed: she obtained [it]. But when, Constance being snatched from the living, the Queen went to Lisbon with Denis; she was warned by a certain unknown Anchorite to take care, for her daughter, she expiates with sacrifices and prayers, who was tormented by the purging fire, that a sacred Mass be performed daily for the space of one year by a whole intact and chaste priest. For this, he said, he had learned in dreams from Constance herself. It seemed a fable to others. But the Queen, by her husband's counsel, complied with her daughter's will: who, the year now completed, offered herself to be seen by her mother in her sleep, passing from her torments into eternal felicity.

[12] But now Denis, heavy with age, and afflicted with feeble health, The death of her husband and the change of habit. fell into a disease. In which the conjugal charity, assiduity, and diligence of Elizabeth shone most of all: she showed herself not a wife, but a handmaid: so humbly and assiduously did she minister in all things. Therefore, in his sixty-fourth year, all things being duly performed which befitted either a Christian man or a prudent King, he departed from the living in the year from Christ born 1325, in the month of January; when he had reigned six and forty years. From this death, Elizabeth, now become her own mistress, in her fifty-fourth year, immediately after her husband died, betook herself into her chamber with one of her dearer handmaids: and there received from her, with an exceeding feeling of mind, a garment, prepared some years before, proper to religious Virgins: then, girt with a rough cord, she veiled her head with a white linen: in this habit she went forth in public before her husband's corpse. She then followed the solemn funeral with equal praise of conjugal love and of more than womanly fortitude, up to the village of Odivelas near Lisbon, into the temple of the Cistercian Virgins, dedicated to St. Denis, and built by King Denis; where the body of the same King, by his own testament, was buried with a splendid apparatus of funeral.

[13] From that time the blessed Queen, offering for her husband's soul her prayers, tears, fastings, other penalties, voluntarily undertaken, frequently and assiduously ordered the entreaties and sacrifices of others to be offered. The Compostellan pilgrimage, Nay, she even betook herself to the Compostellan temple of St. James, in the summer following the King's death; and, seeing it from afar, she descended to the ground, and completed the rest of the journey on foot. She offered on that same day most precious gifts; a crown of heavy weight, illuminated with many and great gems; garments distinguished with most beautiful feathers, pearls, and shining little stones; wavy hangings, embroidered with the needle; very large cups of silver; a mule, splendid with golden, silver, and jeweled harness; finally the pontifical ornament of the sacred rite, perfect in all points. But immense sums of money she offered, partly for the expenses of the temple, partly divided among the needy. All the offices of religion being performed, the Archbishop of Compostella gave her, as she set out, a staff and a scrip; the insignia of a pious pilgrimage, most dear to her by far. Toward the end of the year, for the anniversary obsequies of Denis, she approached his tomb with her son Alfonso, where, with a great throng of priests and monks, the funeral rites were magnificently renewed for the King.

[14] These being duly performed, the Queen either converted all her domestic wealth to sacred uses, or dispensed [it] to others. Her conversation with the nuns of St. Clare. She herself began more intensely to give herself to solitude, fastings, and prayers. She took care with the highest zeal to have built near Coimbra a house of sacred Virgins, of the name of St. Clare: she wished also some buildings to be set for herself beside that place; that the crossing to the convent might be easier and shorter; for the power of which, of entering according to her will, and of enjoying the most sweet familiarity of the handmaids of Christ, she had obtained from the Supreme Pontiff. Public and private exhortations she frequently held to them. Of that number also of the family of St. Clare, she had five women, conspicuous in integrity,

with her continually, with whom she led a religious life outside the enclosure. For although she had had in mind to consecrate herself to God among the sacred Virgins; yet by the prudent appraisers of things counsel was rather given her that, for the greater utility of all, she should retain that public person and dignity. To all therefore she alone was at hand with wealth, counsel, authority, and whatever other thing she could aid with. The building of an old-people's home. In the little buildings near the aforementioned convent, she ordered fifteen needy men, and as many women near her, to be fed perpetually at certain expenses: and she established a Priest nearby with a chapel and a cemetery, who should perform the sacred rite for them daily in their presence, and sing together the solemn prayers of all the hours. Meanwhile hearing that Alfonso, King of Castile, her grandson, was held by the familiarity of a woman other than his wife; she approached him, and extorted from him a pledge to live more honorably thereafter. Very much time and effort she thence expended in completing, enlarging, and adorning that convent of St. Clare; in which she esteemed all her delights to be contained. On the day when for the first time the Nuns reclined in the new refectory, the Queen ministered to them with her daughter-in-law Beatrice, the Queen, by a rare example of Christian humility and charity.

[15] Her munificence in a dearth of provisions But in the year 1333, the Queen dwelling at Coimbra, a great dearth of provisions and famine vexed that city. Then shone forth, as most of all, the charity of Bl. Elizabeth toward every kind of men; and she showed herself so liberal to all that she was admonished by the administrators of her wealth not to be compelled, on account of too assiduous a helping and sustaining of others, afterward to lack for herself and her own; but she, relying on God, rebuked the narrow minds of the others. But when she had now reached her sixty-fourth year; A repeated pilgrimage to St. James. she wished to visit again the temple of St. James: which nevertheless is most wonderful, and seems least credible; she undertook so great a journey, a woman of that age, and a Queen, accompanied by few, of ignoble changed dress, nay heavy with her own burden, begging through villages and houses, both went and returned on foot. But now it was time that, from the earth, where that soul had wandered too long, she should return to heaven, her fatherland.

[16] While she desires to compose peace, Therefore, when, to calm the discords of her son Alfonso with the King of Castile her grandson, she had betaken herself to the town of Évora region, called Estremoz (where the son was then dwelling with his wife); partly by the weakness of age, partly by the fatigue of the journey, she fell into a disease, which was her last: and although by the assiduity of her son and daughter-in-law she was most diligently tended; yet all care proved vain. For now she was called by God, and by the Mother of God; as that seems to have foreshown which happened a little before her last day. For, many being present, and especially her daughter-in-law, and seeing nothing: "Daughter, daughter," she exclaimed, "grant, I pray, place to that woman." "To what woman?" responded her daughter-in-law, wondering. "To her," she said, "who comes to us in a white mantle." But now, understanding herself near to death, with the divine mysteries and the last Sacraments of the Church she most holily fortified herself; that a religious death might best answer to a pious life. she piously dies. But after she had conversed a little with Alfonso about the necessary affairs of the kingdom; turning from her son, whom she was leaving, to the heavenly Mother, whom she was approaching, she addressed her in these last and solemn words:

Mary, Mother of grace, Mother of mercy, Do thou protect me from the enemy, And in the hour of death receive [me].

Then, having professed the Faith from the Apostles' Creed; she recited the prayer handed down by the Lord, and others, her voice and sense gradually failing: until she rendered her soul to its Author; the disposition of her body being so composed that she seemed not so much to have perished as to have fallen asleep in the Lord. In this manner the blessed Queen crowned with a most holy death a life most uprightly passed, on the fourth of the Nones of July, in the year from Christ born 1336, the 65th from the birth of the blessed Elizabeth herself.

THE SECOND PART OF THE RELATION. CONCERNING THE VIRTUES.

Although the whole life of holy men is a certain perpetual exercise of virtues, and so, it being known, these ought to be discerned: yet it is fitting, for more clearly recognizing their holiness, to contemplate the several virtues more diligently. Which therefore chief endowments of an excellent mind flourished in the blessed Queen, confirmed by the Reverend Fathers Auditors of the Rota, and legitimately approved by the Congregation of Sacred Rites, these especially are numbered.

[18] Faith. How much the blessed Queen excelled in this first virtue of the Christian religion, it can be obscure to no one who shall reckon in his mind that she was sprung first from Christian and Catholic Kings; who so often defended our faith most bravely against faithless enemies, against Saracens and Barbarians. Then that she, washed with the sacred waters, and duly fortified with the other mysteries of the Church, retained the faith once received with constant mind up to the last breath of life: and finally, now about to pass from this life, with dying voice recited that perfect compendium of the Faith composed by the Apostles: all which merited that Elizabeth was ever held by all not only a most religious cultivator of the most holy faith, but also its most strenuous defender.

[19] The splendor of this Faith shone forth also from those pious works to which the blessed Queen was so greatly and constantly devoted at all times of her life. For although Faith, by the opinion of the Theologians, is placed chiefly in the mind and thought; yet that it may avail, it has need of works confirming the Faith; without which it is dead, as the Apostle James pronounced. Of what kind therefore, and how vivid, must the Faith be said to have been in her, whose whole life was consecrated to good works? Whole days were passed by her in divine worship, especially after her husband's death. For, waking from deep night with women, companions of pious pursuits, she gave herself to reciting the morning prayers. At dawn she ordered the sacred Mass to be performed in her chamber. Thence in the public chapel with her whole household she was present at a second sacrifice, which was performed with mournful chant for the deceased King and husband. Finally a third sacred Mass, proper to that day, she wished to be celebrated before herself as a suppliant. The remaining Hours of the divine office she afterward performed. Then she applied herself to aiding others, either in deed or in words. Thence, to collect herself, she gave herself either to contemplation or to the reading of some sacred book. Finally, into the late night she pondered the divine things in her mind, with an incredible feeling of pleasure, and an abundance of sweet tears. So that even then she seemed to live whole days not to the earth, but to heaven.

[20] The excellence of the same Faith the blessed Elizabeth exhibited then most of all; when, vexed with the gravest calamities, and tossed by the tempests of adverse affairs; she nevertheless held the right course of piety toward God. And especially when, postponed in love by her husband King Denis to other women after her marriage; when relegated by him into free custody, at a most perilous time; when she saw and bewailed the dissensions of so many of her own throughout all the kingdoms of Spain. By all which most bitter misfortunes, commemorated in the narration of her life, she herself indeed could be shaken and struck; but from the right station of mind and faith she could not be cast down.

[21] Hope. The blessed Queen seemed to set before herself no other goal, toward which all her wishes should aim; save that One who does not confound or forsake those hoping in him. Hence it came to pass that in whatever perils and necessities she held nothing more important than to flee to sacred prayers, to pious sacrifices, to fastings, to voluntary penalties; in one word, to imploring divine aid. And although, placed on a royal summit, and flowing with all those things which human ambition is wont to gape after, she could have placed her hope in them, as most mortals do; she resolved to place all her hope not in princes and principalities, not in an abundance of riches, not in the amplitude of a kingdom, not in a multitude of subject soldiers; but in Him alone, from whom she hoped for everlasting life.

[22] Charity toward God. This charity, the queen of virtues, the perfection of the law, and the bond of perfection, obtained not the last place in the soul, most fruitful of praises, of the blessed Queen. This her whole life attests, which bore before it a perpetual love toward God. For she had both honored her parents, and loved her husband, and embraced her children with maternal benevolence, for the love of the one divine Godhead, which she preferred to all the rest. From the same force of charity arose that contempt of fleeting wealth and mortal things, greater than common opinion. Thence also was the hatred with which she pursued vices and impurities; so that if ever she noticed the divine Majesty to be injured; she esteemed an injury done to herself, herself injured. Finally, the force of this love rendered sweet to her the most bitter penalties which she inflicted on herself of her own accord: pleasant the fasts with which she macerated a body frequently nourished in the delights of kings; the nocturnal vigils, the daily labors, the long pilgrimages, not only easy, but even exceedingly sweet.

[23] But that feeling of religion above the rest, with which she pursued the venerable Sacrament, and its instruments, ministers, celebration, can most abundantly attest this exceptional charity toward God. Bl. Elizabeth was wont to carry with her, wherever she went, for performing the divine service, a fit altar, furnished and adorned with all things; that wherever she was, an altar might be prepared in her chamber for the sacred rite; and that she might frequently use it, as a domestic sanctuary: as if to her love toward God, impatient of delay, and her desire, satisfaction could not be given, unless there were at hand, and near, whatever are wont to be employed for calling forth from heaven the bridegroom of souls. But toward priests she was of so great piety and observance; that, present at the sacrifice, after the Apostles' Creed was chanted, she approached the steps of the altar, after the manner of the ancients; and falling on her knees, and kissing the priest's hands, she offered money now greater, now less, as the reckoning of the day required. For she recognized, namely, in any Priest whatever, the person of the highest Priest and Pontiff Christ; and him she humbly venerated, ardently loved. Whence also arose that holy desire of the divine service, at whose impelling Elizabeth was present each day at three sacred Masses.

[24] Charity toward the Neighbor. The legitimate offspring of Love toward God is Love toward the neighbor: and rightly is the one distinguished from the other; as from the image of the son the parent is generally recognized. But how much Bl. Elizabeth flourished in a virtue of this kind, it would be too much to confirm by all the examples. For of this she exhibited a singular specimen; when she brought her own life and safety into peril, that she might render her husband, fighting with his son, pacified toward him; and might guard the life of each, and the safety and tranquillity of the Portuguese kingdom hanging from it. This she showed, in the want and famine at Coimbra, a liberality most profuse toward every kind of men. The same virtue declares that most celebrated convent of St. Clare, ordered by her to be built for sacred virgins with so great diligence and assiduity, endowed with so many revenues, ennobled with the frequency of so many noble women, illustrated so often by her presence; that there even then

she seemed to have her heart placed, just as she wished her body also to be laid there after her death.

[25] The monastery of Almoster too, near Santarém, begun by Berengaria, a noble woman, Elizabeth completed. Another house, where infants, exposed by their parents, might be educated; which Martin, Bishop of Guarda, prevented by death, could not finish; the blessed queen not only finished, but even enlarged with revenues, and with the number of children to be received. A hospital opposite her own house, near Coimbra, she erected; where thirty poor she not only fed and clothed at certain assigned expenses; but even consoled with her own presence again and again, with address, and also with the office of ministering. In these delights, in these amenities she took her nearest pleasure. No small quantity of grain she gave to religious families which dwelt in any parts whatever of Portugal. To the convents of monks, wherever she made a journey, she assigned each year a certain sum of money for clothing. No poor man came in her way on whom she did not most benignly bestow alms, and out of the infinite multitude by which she saw herself continually surrounded, she suffered no one to depart empty. Those whom she understood to dare not, out of shame, to beg alms, though necessity urged it, she not only relieved with money, but even fed. Finally she was esteemed the common parent and patroness of all. But all these things, which are commemorated, few out of many, what other origin had they, save that perennial and liberal charity toward the neighbor?

[26] Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance. The next place after those virtues which regard God is held by those which, chief among the moral virtues, are called Cardinal. With their splendid adornment also God willed to heap Bl. Elizabeth, who neglected all womanly finery and exquisite adornment of the body, with a mind raised above the womanly condition.

[27] Prudence therefore the blessed Queen bore before her, exceptional; as often as, in the gravest dissensions among princely men, she alone, one woman, intervening, both wished and knew how to impose a measure and an end. Burning wars, nearly civil, not only in all Portugal, but throughout all Spain, Elizabeth more than once extinguished, and disputes concerning power and ambition, most difficult, which the Kings had resolved to decide by the sword, and to terminate with the blood of many men; she, unwarlike, could calm, by the sagacity of her counsel, by her addresses to the Princes. But in disposing domestic affairs, in the administration of her own dominion, it is wonderful how great praise of prudence she carried off from all; which, received by hereditary right from her most wise forebears, she propagated by the skill of her genius, augmented by industry.

[28] But Justice was so much at heart to Elizabeth: that she who was ever most clement, and in aiding the wretched truly a mother; yet in punishing the guilty, that is in protecting justice, seemed to have obtained a certain manly rigor. That proper office also of justice she performed; of giving to each his right. For she rendered the obedience of piety to God, the affection of charity to her husband, the offices of humanity to all the rest: so that she who, as a Queen, was to exact justice from others; might present in herself a specimen of justice, as subject to the eternal King.

[29] Of Fortitude to be declared the blessed Queen had as many arguments as God offered her trials of Patience: for with what mind, and how brave a breast she bore the inconstancy of her young husband in conjugal faith and love; the arrogance, most deadly to herself and the whole kingdom, of her son rebellious to his father, nay warring against his father; the loss of persons most dear to her; and many other adverse and harsh things which befell her; could be sufficiently ascertained from those which have been narrated above.

[30] Temperance finally Elizabeth always most diligently cultivated, with the admiration of all: for in food and drink she was not only moderate, but even sparing; she did not so much cast from herself the superfluous, as subtract the necessary. That fourfold fast she held solemn from adolescence: the forty-day and common fast of all Christians; that with which religious men are wont to prepare themselves for Christ's coming Advent; and what they call the fast of the Angels, from the feast of the Bl. Virgin Assumed to the day of the Archangel Michael; and finally from the vigil of St. John the Baptist to the day sacred to the Virgin Assumed. From wine she was wont to abstain. But in the other pleasures of the body she so restrained herself that she could be esteemed born not from the origin of our mortality, but transmitted to mortals from the choirs of blessed minds.

[31] Certain Other Virtues. That which is wont to be called the base and foundation of the other virtues, lowliness of mind and Christian humility, was so much the more admirable in the blessed Queen, the more it seemed remote from her condition. For rarely do those cast themselves below others whom the summit of dignity exalts above the rest. And yet Elizabeth generally showed herself not a Queen, but a handmaid: although she then the more deserved to be called Queen, that she strenuously ruled the motions of pride rising with royal majesty. She ministered, as was said, to the religious Virgins of St. Clare; she often served the sick poor. But one signification of a humble mind above all necessarily begets the greatest admiration. On all the Fridays of the forty-day fast she ordered thirteen poor men contaminated with elephantiasis or leprosy to be secretly led into her house; there she washed their feet and gave them alms. But on the Thursday of the holier week Holy Week, she washed the feet of some women, afflicted with the same disease, wiped them with a linen, kissed them; finally supplied a new garment and shoes: so that it could be doubted whether in her the charity were higher, or the humility deeper.

[32] To narrate her other virtues would be long. For she flourished with a certain notable meekness, by which she easily won to herself the minds of all; with a Faith toward her husband and marriage constant, and shaken by no injuries of his, or delations of others; with Piety and Religion, which, as was said a little before, claimed for itself whole days in her life; and finally with Perseverance in pious and just things, which, as it were the crown of the other virtues, encircled her royal head in the palace of heaven.

[33] The Report and Estimation of Holiness. From her very rising Bl. Elizabeth seemed to have presented a specimen of holiness, when she came forth wrapped in that afterbirth (as they call it); which indeed her parent Constance (as if even then she foresaw in the girl something holy and divine) ordered to be kept, enclosed in a silver casket, among her treasures. So that scarcely was the body of the blessed Queen brought into the light, when as it were sacred relics, they were laid up in precious little coffers. But her grandfather James can be believed in some way to have presaged her future holiness, when he pronounced her the most excellent of the women of the stock of the Kings of Aragon. A similar judgment concerning her was of Peter her parent; similar of her husband Denis; similar of her son Alfonso: of all finally who had known her, concerning her exceptional holiness there was one opinion. To her not only human aid, but also efficacious prayers to God many mortals of any kind whatever fled, as to a sacred anchor, or altar of safety. Her patronage, when extinct, several implored for their good, as will be seen in the subjoined miracles. Finally, throughout the whole kingdom of Portugal, for so many continuous years, concerning her holiness and merits before God, a public report spread abroad; and God himself proved her to be veracious, so many benefits being conferred through miracle, obtained by her patronage, openly to all.

THE THIRD PART OF THE RELATION. CONCERNING THE MIRACLES, IN LIFE AND AFTER DEATH.

[34] That the holiness of Queen Elizabeth might be more illustrious, God willed also to add to her the light of miracles, which so greatly strikes the eyes and minds of mortals. Some miracles therefore wrought by the merits of this blessed Queen, both drawn from the most certain histories, and confirmed by sworn witnesses, will be brought forth into the midst. And first, those which, while she lived, were performed.

MIRACLE I.

[35] When once Queen Elizabeth was setting out from Coimbra to the city of Oporto, she had her journey through a certain village, by name Arrifana. [A girl blind from birth, by the mere touch of the hand of Bl. Elizabeth, obtains sight.] Here there came to meet her a certain rustic woman, leading with her a little daughter blind from birth. She prayed the Queen as a suppliant, only to touch the girl's eyes with her hands. She, moved at once by the entreaty and by pity, complied with the mother's will. After a few days there came to meet Elizabeth the same woman, exulting and rejoicing with her little daughter; who, as soon as she had been touched, had received the use of her eyes. They give immortal thanks to the Queen. But she, as she was most averse from the ambition of praise and glory, forbade them to say anything of this matter, as long as she herself lived: and that she might the more easily obtain this from them, she ordered a garment to be given to each as a gift; and heaped the miracle with a benefit. All which is both committed to most truthful histories, and confirmed by the oath of many witnesses.

MIRACLE II.

[36] In the house of sacred Virgins, whose name is Chelas, near Lisbon, [A tumor in the stomach of a certain Margaret, by the blessed Queen with the sign of the cross is immediately healed.] there was a noble and religious woman, Margaret Freila. She resolved to visit the Queen, dwelling in the city. By whom, as soon as she was seen pale and wasted with leanness, she is asked the cause of so great a tenuity. "A tumor," she said, "which has grown upon my stomach, is the cause of this countenance, and of great torment to me." She imposed the sign of the cross on the sick part; which done, all the swelling subsided, the pain departed. Margaret, freed from a grave disease, could not contain herself for joy, but immediately made [it] openly to all, that by the aid of the Queen she had obtained health. When this had come to the ears of Elizabeth, it brought her no little trouble; she summons the woman to her, gravely accuses [her], commands silence on that matter for the future. For she said that this benefit was not to be attributed to her own virtue, but to God the author of all good things, whose was all praise and glory.

MIRACLE III.

[38] Bl. Elizabeth was wont, on the Friday of the holier week, to summon to her some suffering from elephantiasis, or lepers, [A leper gravely wounded in the head, by the hands of the blessed Queen with the white of an egg imposed, is at once freed from the wound.] and to wash their feet, and bestow alms, with equal praise of lowliness of mind and of charity. When once she had performed this in a certain town, called Santarém, one of those to whom she had rendered that office, slower than the rest, on account of the more vehement force of his disease, remained a while in the royal palace. When a certain doorkeeper, fierce and harsh, and ignorant of the deed done, noticed this, he assailed him with the sharpest reproaches. And when he protested, seizing a cudgel, he struck with the highest force the head of the man, who could scarcely move himself for his disease, and gravely wounded [him]. The unhappy man fell to the earth, that blow being received, and began, wailing, to lament his calamity. There was present, at the cries and the pitiable spectacle, Urraca Vaschia, most familiar to the Queen for [her] zeal of piety; she ran to Elizabeth; narrates what had been done. She, moved by the calamity of the wretched and innocent man, orders him to be carried into her chamber; then, the white of an egg being taken up with tow, she with her own hands imposes it on the wound, and, money being added for the remaining expenses, dismisses the man. On the following day,

after these things had been done, she sends [one] to inquire how the sick man is. "Excellently," was the answer; "and the scar, after the medicine applied by the Queen, was immediately closed over." Thus the holiness and clemency of the blessed Queen compensated the injury of the royal servant.

MIRACLE IV.

[38] On the Thursday of the holier week Bl. Elizabeth washed, according to custom, the feet of twelve women laboring with elephantiasis or leprosy. [An incurable cancer, by the sign of the cross and the kiss of the blessed Queen, is healed.] To whom also she was wont to bestow money and garments; and to minister to them, splendidly received, at table. One of them had a foot affected with cancer so badly that it was little short but that two toes would fall off. One foot therefore being washed; the Queen asked that she put the other into the basin. She, conscious of the hidden evil and horrible deformity, judged it most unworthy that that foot be either touched by the Queen's hands, or seen by her eyes; and therefore hid it the more. The Queen bids Urraca Vaschia, who was present at this deed, to put into the basin herself the foot of the refusing woman. When this was done, immediately so grave and pestilent an odor was breathed forth that all the royal attendants, when they could not bear it for disgust, rushed out. Elizabeth alone remained, who, burning with Christian magnanimity and memorable charity; not only did not shudder at the ulcer, but handled it with her own hands, and strove to apply some medicine. She approaches therefore, full of mercy, full of humanity; she falls down before the wretched woman, warms the foot with hot water, and gently and softly cleanses the ulcer. Finally, for the crown of a most holy and most glorious work; she kisses the very cancer, whose very odor was intolerable, and imposes the saving sign of the cross: wonderful to say; but most worthy of so great a virtue: no delay being interposed, both by the sign of the cross and the kiss, and at the same time by the immense merit of the holy Queen, the incurable ulcer was made whole.

MIRACLE V.

[39] The blessed Queen lay once, laboring with a grave disease of the stomach, in the town of Alenquer. Water changed into wine by Bl. Elizabeth. The physicians prescribed for her what they saw the kind of disease required; that she should use a little wine. She, who was wont to abstain from wine, since she did not judge it necessary for the cure of her health, denied that she would do it. She therefore ordered water to be brought to her; which, twice brought, was twice changed into wine: so that in some way God seemed by that miracle to wish to satisfy both the religious purpose of the blessed Woman, and the prescription of those healing.

MIRACLE VI.

[40] As Bl. Elizabeth was most liberal toward the needy, she often carried in her bosom things [Wealth, to be distributed to the poor, by the blessed Queen, in mid-winter is turned into roses.] which she might most benignly dispense to them. It happened that the King her husband Denis observed her, as she carried these secretly in her bosom, who perhaps had come to meet her. And easily suspecting what the matter was; not to recall her from doing good, but to use the power of a King and husband; he asked what she carried in her bosom. Elizabeth, either dissembling the glory of the good work, or fearing lest she be prohibited from doing it in the future; "Roses," she responded; and at Denis's command, her bosom being opened, that wealth to be distributed to the poor is seen changed into fresh roses, by a manifest miracle; since that part of the year was being passed which is unseasonable for producing roses, namely winter. From this illustrious deed took origin that custom of painters, of everywhere portraying the image of this holy Queen with roses in her bosom.

MIRACLES AFTER DEATH. MIRACLE I.

[41] That highest Author of all good things, who is wonderful in his Saints, illustrated the blessed Elizabeth not only when acting among human affairs, with divine virtues and miracles; The incorruption of the body, and a sweet odor, but even, when translated to the kingdoms of eternal felicity, ennobled [her] with admirable events on earth. And first indeed he showed her body free from corruption and whole in this manner. The blessed Queen had commanded by testament to her son King Alfonso that he should take care to have her body carried from the town of Estremoz, where she was about to close her last day, to Coimbra, into the house of the nuns of St. Clare. But since Coimbra was distant one hundred and twenty-eight thousand paces from Estremoz; and the most vehement heats of the month of July, in which she had died, hindered the body from being carried so far without the greatest stench of the putrefying corpse, and intolerable trouble both of those carrying and of those accompanying the funeral; most thought it would be more opportune if the body were entombed either in the temple of St. Francis in the same town, or in the great church of Évora, not so far distant; and then the eaten i.e. defleshed bones be transferred to Coimbra. Nonetheless Alfonso refused to depart from his mother's last will, and ordered the funeral to be led to Coimbra. The summer season; the frequency of the people surrounding, following her extinct, by whom, living, he had been adorned with so many benefits; the jolting of the coffin in which the corpse had been enclosed, had struck a just fear into all, lest a little after, on account of the intolerable stench, they should be compelled to abandon the begun work. Yet divine Providence did not abandon her body, whose soul it blessed with its sight in heaven. The corpse, carried over the space of seven days, not only breathed forth nothing of a grave odor; not only some days after death, but rather inspired the surrounding multitude with such sweet odors that in that coffin, in place of a putrefying corpse, all kinds of aromatics seemed to be enclosed. Which when all openly knew, and approaching nearer proved by experience; they turned themselves wholly to profuse gladness, to the praise of God, to the veneration of the sacred body.

[42] But God willed to exhibit a yet greater miracle, to the glory of the blessed Queen, but even 276 years in the integrity of her body. For in the year of the Lord 1612, on the 7th of the Kalends of May,* the most Illustrious and most Reverend Lords Bishops of Coimbra and of Leiria, and Doctor Francisco Vaz Pinto, Commissary Judges of this cause, with other chief Physicians, Masters of Sacred Theology, and Religious men, were present: while the tomb of the blessed Queen was opened, and her sacred body inspected. It was found therefore whole and incorrupt, of white color; with flesh, with reddish hair, the nose, ears, eyes not at all decayed, furnished also with the other parts and members; which, touched, were not broken or dissolved; there flowed from the body a quite sweet and pleasant odor, nor only was it free from corruption, but even the garments cast about, and several linens laid over, remained solid and tenacious. No one finally of those looking on, and admiring a thing so novel and unexpected, but recognized and extolled the force of divine power; which judged that the integrity of life and soul, in which this blessed Queen prevailed, must be remunerated, after her death, by the integrity of her body.

MIRACLE II.

[43] In the monastery of St. Clare a certain part of the buildings was being built, and now the timbers of the roof were being set on. There Dominic Machado, [A carpenter, falling from the roof, the aid of the blessed Queen being implored, is lifted up.] a carpenter, was giving his labor to the timbers, to be fastened by the help of nails. But behold, unexpectedly, some of those timbers, unfixed, slipped down to the earth; and drew with them that carpenter headlong. Then he implored the saving aid of Bl. Elizabeth in so great a peril of life: nor was he heard with deaf ears. Immediately, by a great miracle, he together with the timbers, by a certain hidden force, was borne upward, and restored to the same place from which he had fallen. The timbers also were returned to their seats and fitted [in]. Dominic, free and unharmed from the present peril, with the admiration and stupor of those looking on, testified from his heart so great a benefit of the blessed Queen upon himself.

MIRACLE III.

[44] Anna Azpilcueta was one of the sacred Virgins who near Coimbra, in the village whose name is Cellas, [A nun, ill affected in the legs, impeded from walking, is healed by the imploration of Bl. Elizabeth.] cultivate a convent sacred to Bl. Mary. She, long crippled in the legs and with slackened nerves, was so held that she could in no way walk by herself. No remedy was left untried by the Physicians; but the glory of restoring health was left to the blessed Queen. The solemn day of Bl. Elizabeth was at hand: but on the night which preceded it, Anna's Mistress, setting forth several benefits received by the imploration of that Queen, exhorts her to ask present aid from her: she complied diligently; and was loosed into a most deep sleep. But behold, through her rest she seems to hear [one] commanding her to rise; her health being now restored by Elizabeth's aid. The virgin, awakened, trembled in all her joints: she springs from the bed alone: puts on her garments: comes into the choir; where the rest were singing the morning prayers. All wonder, rejoice, weep for feeling of piety. This whole matter Martin Azpilcueta committed to public writings, he who brought immortal light to the Pontifical law by his books.

MIRACLE IV.

[45] In the town of Sarnache of the Diocese of Coimbra, Maria Antonia, wife of Michael Aloysius, was fifty years old; [A fifty-year-old woman obtains milk abundantly by the aid of the blessed Queen to feed her poor grandchild.] and moreover infertile for twenty-two years: nay even, from a certain disease, of ancient time, she lacked milk in her left breast. She had received a little grandson from her poor daughter to educate: she was also nursing the son of a certain knight of Lisbon. Wherefore she tried to nourish her grandson with sweet foods, which nevertheless he spat out. She came therefore together with him to Coimbra, to the convent of St. Clare; narrated to her friends the nuns the unhappy condition of the boy; received counsel from them: that she should commend the whole matter to the blessed Queen; and early in the morning fasting return thither, to drink wine with saffron: which potion Bl. Elizabeth had prescribed as a remedy for that evil. She follows the counsel: that wine being taken, she approaches the tomb of the blessed Queen as a suppliant; beseeches her with the highest prayers to obtain milk for her from God, to nourish her poor little grandson. The entreaty was heard; she immediately felt milk poured largely into her breasts, so that she could abundantly thereafter instill into her little grandson the nourishment derived from heaven.

MIRACLE V.

[46] Agnes Dalmeida, wife of John de Guerres, a physician, in the seventh week after the birth of her son, [Agnes Dalmeida, freed from quinsy and other diseases, obtains an abundance of milk from the blessed Queen.] fell into the disease of quinsy, with which she was vehemently tormented; she could neither take food nor bring forth a word; the milk also had failed for nourishing the newborn boy. Her husband, as skilled in the medical art, applied to her very many medicines; but in vain: nay so much did the disease grow strong daily that the husband now despaired of his wife's safety. Therefore he betook himself into the country of Beira, to summon a nurse for his son. There, while by night, anxious with cares, he tarried; the holiness of Bl. Elizabeth entered his mind. To her he earnestly and religiously commends his wife. He begs from her present aid in so great a peril of life. Early in the morning, returned home, he found his wife whole, and free from all sickness; he asks of her at what hour she had known herself to be better; his wife exactly

indicated it: then he well perceived that at the same point of time in which he himself, far from home, had prayed to the blessed Queen for his wife, he had been clemently heard by her, [and] had obtained what he asked. Each gives singular thanks to God and to Bl. Elizabeth. The same man afterward approached the temple where the body of the blessed Queen was kept: was present at the sacred Mass, and again suppliantly asked of her milk for his wife, with which the newborn infant might be nourished: returning home, he recognized himself heaped with this benefit also, and venerated the so liberal beneficence of the blessed Queen.

MIRACLE VI.

[47] In the convent of St. Clare, Constance Ania, a citizen of Évora, was now long pressed by an incurable and horrible disease. A certain pestiferous ulcer corroded her lips and gums with the greatest torment; [An inveterate disease is healed by the kiss of the bier where the body of Bl. Elizabeth lay.] and it crept gradually more widely; and it was little short but that she should lose all her teeth. For the force of the pain she cried out assiduously, and disturbed the tranquillity and religious quiet of the rest. No skill of the physicians was sufficient to drive away that plague. When therefore the body of the blessed Queen had been brought from the town of Estremoz to Coimbra into the convent of St. Clare; immediately Constance, with great piety and faith, approached the bier where the body still unburied lay: and so kissed the coffin, that she might apply to it the part of her mouth consumed by the plague: she then withdraws with the rest. But when the sacred body of Bl. Elizabeth began to be carried to the tomb; Constance, recognizing herself freed from the torment, calls her companions; offers her mouth to them to be inspected: no signs of that plague appeared. At which miracle all, stupefied, cry out with one voice that great is the holiness of the Queen; whom God willed to be attested to all and proved by so signal a miracle.

* Nay, the 17th of the Kalends of April.

EPILOGUE.

Concerning the Acts of the cause and their legitimate completion.

Now indeed, as regards the matters done in the cause, and the Acts of the Canonization, to your Holiness I thus report. When the report of the holiness of the blessed Queen, and the frequency of miracles which were performed by her merits before God, grew more and more; and the minds of Christian men were more vehemently incited to her veneration, in the year of Christ 1516, Emmanuel, King of Portugal, through Michael Sylvius, his Legate, both asked and obtained from Leo X, Supreme Pontiff, the predecessor of your Holiness; that the blessed Elizabeth be venerated throughout the whole diocese of Coimbra with solemn rite under the title of Blessed, and that it be lawful publicly and privately to dedicate her images. But in the year 1551, Lucius Andreas Resendius, a man exceedingly learned, composed in her honor the sacred praises which they commonly call the office. And not much after, the King likewise of Portugal, John, son of Emmanuel, obtained from the Supreme Pontiff that in the royal chapel the same might be venerated for him. And Pompeo Zambeccari, Legate of the Supreme Pontiff, in the year 1553; to all reciting the Lord's Prayer and the Angelic Salutation at the tomb of the blessed Queen on her feast day, with the eight following, and the feasts of certain other Saints, granted all the remissions of penalties (they call them Indulgences) which those obtain who on those same days religiously visit the temples at Rome, either within or without the walls.

After some years, the King also of Portugal, Sebastian (who is said to have been obtained from God for the tranquillity and safety of the kingdom by the merits of Bl. Elizabeth) treated with Paul IV, Supreme Pontiff, that he would amplify the diplomas of the former Pontiffs concerning the blessed Queen; and this he obtained, and besides the power of exposing her images, of performing the annual sacred rites, and of pouring out prayers to her throughout the whole dominion of the Kings of Portugal: and her feast day was said to be that on which she migrated to heaven, namely the IV of the Nones of July.

Then in the year 1611, the Catholic King Philip, the third of this name, and Queen Margaret of Austria, asked from Paul V, Supreme Pontiff, the predecessor of your Holiness, that he would deign to canonize and enroll in the catalogue of the Saints the blessed Elizabeth. When therefore the most Holy Father had judged that very much must be granted to the petition of so great Princes, he committed the cognition of her cause to three Auditors of the sacred Rota, Francisco Peña, the Dean, Francesco Sacrati, and Alfonso Manzanedo. These indeed granted their remissorial and compulsorial letters in direct form to the Bishop of Coimbra, of Leiria; and to Doctor Francisco Vaz Pinto, who was of the counsels of the Catholic Majesty; that they should employ the necessary proofs by witnesses and writings; and establish other authentic documents concerning the life, holiness, and miracles of the blessed Queen. All these, with the Procurators of the cause, many witnesses being examined, rights extracted, and juridical processes formed; transmitted them to Rome to the already said Auditors of the Rota. But while they spent time and effort in diligently weighing processes of this kind; it happened that Paul V first; then Gregory XV, Supreme Pontiffs, predecessors of your Holiness, passed from this life; wherefore the begun work could not be finished. But after your Holiness, your merits demanding it, was raised to that summit of the Pontificate; the Catholic King Philip began again to press, through his Agent of the whole Portuguese Kingdom, Michael Suarez Pereira, that this religious duty be brought to its conclusion. It pleased your Holiness to assent to the so equitable demands of so great a Prince. Wherefore by the Auditors of the Rota, Giovanni Battista Coccino, the Dean, Alfonso Manzanedo; and the Locum-tenens of the Rota, Giacomo de Cavaleriis, report was made of the state of the cause; and it was clearly signified that it could be transmitted to our Congregation of Sacred Rites; that when it had seen and weighed those things which in the seeing and weighing of the matter it should judge; it might say its opinion concerning the requested Canonization.

But we, Most Blessed Father, the relation of the life and miracles of the blessed Queen being received, and the will of your Holiness perceived; several sessions being held upon it, in which we accurately and diligently examined the conclusions of the said Auditors; by unanimous consent judged that all the above-said processes were and are valid, legitimate, and legal, and that their proofs concerning the holiness and miracles of the blessed Elizabeth were legitimate and sufficient.

These are, Most Blessed Father, the things which from the legitimate Acts of this cause had to be said concerning the life and morals of the blessed Queen Elizabeth, and concerning the miracles wrought by her benefit. Which being more copiously weighed and discussed in many Congregations, the Cardinals of the Congregation of Sacred Rites came unanimous to this opinion: That your Holiness (if it please you) can proceed to the further steps; and complete the Canonization of the blessed Queen Elizabeth according to the sacred rites of the Roman Church, and solemnly celebrate [it].

APPENDIX

Concerning the visitation of the body of the blessed Queen, instituted at Coimbra in the year 1612.

Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal (S.)

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

In the life set forth above we read in more than one place that the body of the holy Queen deceased was carried from Estremoz through the summer heats by a journey of seven days, The body of the Queen, long whole and odoriferous after death, to Coimbra; and not only breathed no stench, which by the natural course of human things ought to happen; but even, God working, exhaled a most sweet odor of many aromatics; and that this was soon held for a miracle by those who accompanied the funeral on the way, and legitimately attested; as is to be seen in number 112 of the life. But Cardinal Francesco Maria, Bishop of Ostia, in his Relation, here too set forth, recited before Pope Urban VIII, which is a compendium of the Relation of the Auditors of the Rota, mentions in number 42 the visitation and inspection of the sacred body of the Queen, after 276 years thus also found, made 276 years after her death and burial, in 1612, on the seventh, as he himself indeed wrongly says, of the Kalends of May, for the 17th of the Kalends of April. But he mentions [it] in very few words, whereas in the Relation of the Auditors of the Rota that matter is treated more fully and distinctly: and it is worthy to be wholly committed to the memory of posterity, and even to endure in this work. Here therefore is that Relation, as the Auditors of the Rota themselves expressed it, sent to them from Coimbra. After they had spoken of the incorruption of the body in the conveyance from Estremoz to Coimbra, they thus continue.

[2] The truth therefore of that admirable incorruption and wonderful odor is discovered not only from the above-said histories, when in the year 1612 but also from the visitation of the same body, made in the month of March in the year 1612, by our order and commission through the Judges whom we deputed for this effect in those parts, at which were present the most Reverend Lords Bishops of Coimbra and of Leiria with other most grave Ecclesiastical and Religious persons and physicians and surgeons, deputed for this by the Judges, and it was done with all circumspection, diligence, and necessary solemnity, and with the declaration and faith of the said physicians and surgeons, as its tenor shows, which in the present relation it has pleased [us] to insert exactly, that it may be plain to all concerning the truth of that signal miracle, and as follows.

[3] On the 16th day of March of the above-said year 1612, at the first hour after midday, by public authority the most Illustrious and most Reverend Lords Bishops of Coimbra and of Leiria and Doctor Francisco Vaz Pinto, Commissary Judges of the process and inquisition of the life and miracles of the blessed Queen, the Lady Elizabeth, in fulfillment of those things which by the commission of the most Reverend Lords, Auditors of the Rota, were ordained to them; and bringing with them the Doctors, Balthasar de Azevedo, chief physician of his Majesty, primary Professor of medicine in this university; Antonio Sebastiano, also a physician; and also Gonzalo Diaz, Surgeon, specially called and deputed for the act of which below mention is made, in the presence of me the Notary and the undersigned witnesses, and the procurators of this cause being present, namely the father master Francisco Suarez of the Society of Jesus, primary Professor of sacred Theology; and the father master friar Aegidius of the presentation, of the Order of St. Augustine, Professor emeritus in the evening chair of theology; and the father John Carvalho, Professor of the Old Digest; all Professors of that city and its University, being also deputed procurators for this cause by his Majesty.

[4] the tomb was opened and inspected, The said Lord Judges approached the monastery of St. Clare near and outside the walls of the said city beyond the river Mondego, and ascended to the greater chapel of the aforesaid monastery near its high choir, where lies the tomb of the blessed Queen the Lady Elizabeth, formerly of this kingdom of Portugal; and there they saw the said tomb, made of white stone, which is produced in a certain place called Ança, which, carved in white stone which is distant two leagues from this city, made after the manner of a chest hollow on the inner part, of one stone only, having thirteen spans, commonly palms, in length, and six in breadth, and five in height, common measure, placed upon eight lions of the same stone with their heads outward, and on all its circuit surrounded with a structure of images figured in the same stone, of half -relief body in two spans of length.

[5] presents various images round about. That tomb on the right side shows the choir of nuns placed in the order of a procession with their books open in their hands, as if they were commending the soul of the Queen, having departed

from life; and at the beginning of this choir there is a certain Bishop, revested in Pontificals, accompanied by two ministers with surplices: but on the left side there is another choir with the images of Christ our Savior and his twelve Apostles. At the head of the said tomb, which lies toward the West, there is Christ crucified with the images of the Bl. Virgin and St. John on the one and the other part, with two small shields of the arms of Aragon: and at the feet of the said tomb, which lies toward the east, the image of St. Clare and of two Queens, with two gilded crowns on their heads of the same size, and [the] burial, of half -relief body: but in the four angles, four animals, the figures of the four Evangelists.

[6] The adornment of the upper stone various, This chest and coffer is covered with one stone only of the same size; on whose upper part is sculpted the figure of a whole body, and it is the image and figure of the Queen, which is understood to be after her likeness; and it is clothed in the habit of the nuns of St. Clare, with a black veil, and over it, on the head, a certain gilded crown ^a, bound round with a little cord of the same habit and Order; and from it on the left part, a certain hanging purse; and upon it, a certain wrought gilded shell of St. James; and the hands placed one upon the other, above the body; and under the right, one book; and from the left, one staff, of the same workmanship as are the other staff and the purse, which were found within the burial upon the tomb; and at the head of the said Queen are set two Angels, one on the one and the other on the other part with their silvered thuribles in their hands, offering incense to the body of the said Queen; and at the head of the image of the aforesaid Queen one gilded and well-wrought stone pillow, which seems to have been placed after her death, which is shown not to be of the same stone; and on the outer part there is the figure of a certain Angel with open arms and one cloth upon them; and in the cloth a small figure, which denotes the soul of the said Saint; which image of the face of the said Saint is painted and made flesh-colored with oil; and represents in itself great majesty and veneration; and near the said image lie other shields with the arms of Portugal and of Aragon, and of the Emperor.

[7] Moreover, on the upper part of this stone, which is gilded on that part, on which also an epitaph, lies an epitaph of great black letters of the following verses:

Elizabeth the Queen lies in this sacred tomb, who by her merits shines in the citadel of the bright pole. For so, while she lived, she bore herself in the blind world, that she lived out every kind of virtues and morals; whence it came to pass that this holy woman, chosen by the highest Thunderer, reigns in the Angelic choir, [and] evermore may aid us.

And the whole structure of that tomb is surrounded with iron lattices of the height of the burial itself, and in the angles iron pillars ^b, upon which is built a gilded wooden canopy ^c, which covers the whole tomb; and in the void of the canopy another shield of the arms of Portugal and of Aragon separately. But in the wall of the said Chapel, which remains at the part of the head of the said tomb, is inserted a stone with a scroll ^d of ancient gilded Gothic letters, which say the following:

In the Era 1374 [e], on the fourth of the month of July, in the Castle of Estremoz, and on the wall of the chapel another inscription. died the illustrious Lady Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal, and was buried on the 12th day of the said month in this monastery of St. Clare, which she herself commanded to be made and endowed: and she was the wife of the Lord Denis, most Illustrious King of Portugal; and daughter of King the Lord Peter of Aragon and Queen Donna Constance, Queen of Castile ^f; and she was the grandmother of King Alfonso of Castile and of the Queen, the Lady Maria, his wife: these she feared, these she honored, and these she blessed, whose soul may rest in peace.

[8] And when the said Lords were thus present, they commanded to be summoned an architect and stonecutter workmen, The opening of the tomb, who with the instruments which they brought for it, dismembered, divided, and lifted the said stone which covered the said tomb, and within, they found its chest, and immediately was seen a certain coffer of wooden boards, covered on the upper part with a painted cloth of red color, now on the outer part consumed, fixed round about with nails ^g, and under it another covering adhered, of a certain ox-hide with the hairs, which also covered and held together the said coffer, of which in chapter 13 of the Chronicle of King the Lord Alfonso ^h mention is made; and the [things found in it are described;] upon which lay one staff in length, which had six and a half ordinary palms, covered with plates of gilded brass, and wrought with shells of St. James, and at the extremity of the said staff one knob of jasper stone, of red color with faces; and the said knob bound to the staff with fringes of silvered brass; and upon the staff a square purse, which on the outer part seemed to be of tawny silk; but within of leather, in some parts consumed; and within the said purse nothing else was found except one scapular of the breadth of one hand's-breadth square, and there wrought one cross with golden fringe: which staff and purse are understood to be those of which mention is made in the ancient book of the history of her life ⁱ, which staff was given to the Queen by the Archbishop of St. James, when she approached to visit the tomb of the holy Apostle, that she might appear a pilgrim of St. James. And the said chest was whole and entire, and showed that it had in no way been touched from the day on which it was there placed.

[9] and all things, even the body, were The said Lord Judges thereupon took the said staff and purse, and delivered them to the Mother Abbess of the said monastery of St. Clare, that she might keep all things, as relics of the said Saint, with due veneration. And immediately they commanded the said chest to be opened by a certain Religious Priest of the Society of Jesus: and within it was found a certain wrapping ^k of the length of the coffer, wrapped in a white and thick cotton mattress, which is whole and entire without any corruption at all, as if a little time ago it had been placed there. And this wrapping being loosed, there appeared beneath the said mattress a shroud of sewn linen cloth, so whole and entire and white that in like manner it seemed to have been placed there a little before; and it being opened with scissors on the upper part there appeared another mattress more fine and with changed color; and under this mattress lay burial garments ^l of linen cloth, quite fine and delicate, with a color also dusky or changed, which seemed to be by reason of the humor which went out of the body, before it dried, chiefly when it had been carried through the heats, of which the history makes mention ^m. Nevertheless they are whole and strong and without any corruption, which burial linen garments they commanded, by the Lord Judges, to be opened, until the body of the blessed Queen was uncovered up to the breast, which was found quite whole, entire, and without any corruption, nay rather quite odoriferous and white and covered with flesh; so that the head had its hair whole, reddish and sound; and when they had been grasped by hand, they remained fixed.

[10] wholly whole and incorrupt; The forehead and the whole face are covered with the same flesh, quite white and excellently proportioned with the nose, ears, eyes, and mouth, without any corruption, the said head adhering to its body with a most white and whole neck; and thence followed the breasts with their erect nipples, likewise quite white and dry, and the hand being laid on them they remained solid and firm without being broken or dissolved; and the right arm laid upon the breast, whole and consolidated with the body, covered with flesh, the veins and nerves being uncovered in the hand, which was with its fingers and nails quite whole and consolidated.

[11] From all which the bystanders were moved to great devotion and veneration, understanding with the highest admiration of those looking on: that the state of that body so whole, solid, and incorrupt and adhering in all parts, together with the sweetness of the odor flowing from it; and the integrity of the cloths in which the body was wrapped; showed well her holiness: and God willed to manifest it not only from the miracles which he wrought for her, and daily works; but even through this means; when for nearly two hundred and eighty years ⁿ she had lain buried there. After this it did not seem good to the aforesaid Lord Judges that the said body ought to be uncovered in the lower parts, because it is so whole, and out of reverence and decency for the said blessed Queen; and because it seemed to the physicians that, by those things which they had seen, all the rest were in the same conformity and integrity. and the tomb was again closed. And so the said Lord Judges esteemed that satisfaction had been made with the diligence and visitation of the tomb according to the form of the said commission; and they commanded immediately that the said tomb be closed in the state and form existing before; covering the face and breast of the said blessed Queen with new Holland cloth, joining the rest which she had, and covering the coffer with a new cloth of shaggy silk of purple color; and of all the aforesaid the said Lord Judges commanded that this act be made.

[12] All which I affirm to be true from my faith, as they are written in it, at all and each of which there were present as witnesses, The attestation of the witnesses and the Notary; the Rector of the University Don John Coutinho; Father Emmanuel de Lima of the Society of Jesus; the Father Guardian of St. Francis; Doctor Francisco Pereira, Dean of the see of that city; Father John del Hado; Father Andrew Palmeiro, both religious of the Society of Jesus; Father Antonio Monteiro, Prior of the Church of St. John, Assisting for the Notary; and the Licentiate Emmanuel Martinez, servant of the said Bishop; who all subscribed with the Lord Judges. This act I, Thomas Nunez, Notary Actuary of that cause, wrote; Don John Coutinho, Emmanuel de Lima, Francisco Pinto Pereira, John Del Hado, Andrew Palmeiro, Antonio Monteiro, Emmanuel Martinez.

[13] Doctor Balthasar de Azevedo, Professor of the first chair, Likewise a special [attestation, of the Doctor physician.] emeritus in this city of Coimbra, chief Physician of his Majesty in the kingdom of Portugal, I make known; that on the sixteenth day of March of the present year, I was present in the monastery of St. Clare of this

city; and that before the Lords, the Lord Alfonso de Castelbranco, Bishop [and] Count, of the Council of state of his Majesty; the Lord Martin Alfonso Mexia, Bishop of Leiria; and also Doctor Francisco Vaz Pinto, royal Counselor and Judge of the Palace; at the hour after midday the burial was opened, in which the body of the holy Queen, the Lady Elizabeth, rests; and it being opened, her holy body was wrapped in a certain linen, so whole and entire that it could not even easily be broken and torn apart: but a part of it being unrolled, I saw and noted that the holy countenance or face was without injury, and without any deformity, and only dry and quite white and beautiful, together with the neck, breast, arm, and right hand, which also I uncovered, saw, and felt, and the whole was consolidated and joined in its place; and so it seemed to me that the other parts were, which were not uncovered, and outwardly seemed quite conformable and proportioned. Likewise she still had hair on her head and a haired forehead, where it more quickly is lacking, which I drew out, and they were fixed and quite soft, fine, and well colored, which I reckon for an extraordinary thing, and of which I shall render a reason, when it is commanded me, all which I certify under oath of my office and degree. At Coimbra on the third day of April of the year 1612. Doctor Balthasar de Azevedo ^o.

ANNOTATA.

July II: July 5.

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