John of Tossignano

ON BLESSED JOHN OF TOSSIGNANO,

BISHOP OF FERRARA IN ITALY.

IN THE YEAR 1446.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

John of Tossignano, bishop and confessor, of the Order of the Jesuati, at Ferrara. (Blessed)

BY FATHER B.

§ I. The Blessed one's cult established, both elsewhere and especially at Ferrara.

Concerning Blessed John, who received the surname of Tossignano, Taussinianus, and Tausignanus from his native castle, situated in the Romagna and the diocese of Imola between the rivers Senio and Santerno, it was treated in passing among the Omitted on the 4th day of July, page 4. He is venerated at Ferrara not on the 4th of July, For on that day his memory had been consigned in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy by Philip Ferrari, whom in it our Nadasi in the Heavenly Year, Braut in the Poetic Martyrology, and Castellan in the Universal Martyrology followed; although the latter added his own to the Ferrarian error, when he took from our John the title of Blessed, constantly attributed by all authors, noting only this: "At Ferrara, the venerable Ravellus, bishop, of the Order of the Jesuati": but this very statement makes plain how little blessed John was known to Castellan; as will appear in the course. Ferrari had been led astray by an author whom he cites rather obscurely, Timothy da Bagno, a Camaldolese; who made the Flower of the Saints of Alfonso de Villegas from Spanish into Italian, and published it at Venice in the year 1598; yet in such a way that he inserted into his Legendary some Lives, unknown to Alfonso, from elsewhere; among which is that which he gave in abridgment concerning Blessed John of Tossignano, page 1136, subjoining these words to the very title: "Whose feast is celebrated in the city of Ferrara on the fourth day of July." Whether this be a slip of the author or of the typographer, I know not: certainly in the very Life he writes that the Blessed one died not on the fourth, but on the twenty-fourth of July: nor does it appear that any other day was ever consecrated by the people of Ferrara to his memory than that which was truly his birthday into heaven, which was the 24th of this month, as both our Acts and the epitaph, older than the Acts themselves, to be shown below, testify. And so Ferrari corrected himself afterward, the matter being more diligently examined, when in the new Catalogue of the Saints at the 24th of July he thus has it: "At Ferrara, of Blessed John, bishop, of the Order of the Jesuati."

[2] but on the 24th of the same month; And it is certain that at this time that day is celebrated at Ferrara as sacred to Blessed John and his birthday into heaven; as, among many other things, Hippolytus Palmerius, priest of the Society of Jesus at Ferrara, lately consulted, informed me; to which man indeed, as also to his most distinguished helpers, the most reverend lord Jerome Baruffaldi, vicar in the tribunal and in the Ferrarian causes pertaining to the archbishop of Ravenna, and the reverend lord Joseph Antenori Scalabrini, rector of the basilica of St. Mary de Bucca at Ferrara, and also Notary of the holy Apostolic See and enrolled among the writers of the Roman curia, how much we owe in all this matter, will easily shine forth from what will follow. With Palmerius agrees the testimony of Scalabrini, written back in Italian, which we thus render into Latin: "The Blessed one is honored with the cult of a confessor pontiff, and has in the church of St. Jerome at Ferrara his own chapel with an altar, in which lies an urn with his bones, at which a Mass is celebrated daily, although the place is underground. But his feast is there kept on the 24th of July under a double rite, with a Mass from the Common of a confessor pontiff. This cult has always been kept, a multitude of the faithful flocking together on the several days to pray on the stone of his sepulcher, and conferring votive gifts at his altar. Nay rather, from when the solemn translation of his body was made in the year 1712, the cult and veneration have constantly increased: and on the day of his feast the most illustrious magistracy keeps holiday, and the courts and tribunals are closed." Of which thing we received from the same place, as a witness, a tablet of the holidays of the most illustrious magistracy of Ferrara, quite recently printed, and fortified with the seals, on the one side of the city, on the other of the supreme magistrate, whom they call the Judge of the wise, Melchior Sigismund Gavassini, in which in the month of July, among five other holidays, on the 24th is noted the feast of blessed John of Tossignano.

[3] and indeed very solemnly: The same is attested by a picture most elegantly engraved on copper by the notable artist Andrea Bulzoni, and printed in large folio at Ferrara in the year 1720, referring that miracle which is narrated in the Life, chapter 6, number 56 and the following: for beneath it, after a brief explanation of the image, these words are engraved in Italian: "The feast of the Blessed one is celebrated on the 24th of July in the church of St. Jerome of the Discalced Carmelite Fathers, where his body is honorably venerated." The same is affirmed in the compendium of his Life, which, duly approved, Nicholas Baruffaldi of Ferrara published at Ferrara in the year 1712 on the occasion of the translation of the body: the same elsewhere often. But that it may be known to everyone with how great zeal and how great preparation that day is celebrated even today in the place already mentioned, it will be well to add here what the praised Scalabrini bids be observed among the annotations to our Life, after a brief history of the translation, of which it will be treated later, having it thus in Latin: "The sacred body was placed in an underground chapel, then (in the year 1712) adorned with paintings, now with marble columns and statues, with two stairways for the convenience of those descending. At the altar of this chapel, before the body of the Blessed one, the sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated; and every year his festive day is kept at Ferrara on the 24th day of July, his birthday into heaven; for which feast the most eminent lord Thomas, Cardinal-priest of the Holy Roman Church Ruffo, bishop of the holy church of Ferrara, and also legate a latere of Bologna, gives to the (Carmelite) Fathers fourteen gold pieces." These things, I think, suffice abundantly for proving the cult with which Ferrara follows our Blessed one; yet to the same may also be referred those things which will be said in their place to have happened in the translation of the year 1712.

[4] Nor does it matter that the things we bring forward are recent, and indeed testimonies of almost only modern veneration: from which the antiquity of his cult is to be gathered, for these very things offer a most valid argument for vindicating the antiquity of the cult from time immemorial before the well-known decrees of Pope Urban VIII. For who could bring his mind to believe, nay to suspect, that a cult was either introduced or continued which the oracles of the supreme Pontiff had proscribed; and that at Ferrara, that is, in the very domain and almost before the very eyes of the Pontiff, and of the legate a latere; the Ordinaries, of whom in the meantime several were Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, not only in no way contradicting, but moreover favoring, and seeking the chief parts in illustrating and promoting it? Surely, even if there were nothing else by which the lawful antiquity of the cult were established, yet this alone ought to seem to suffice, that with John Rossi in the Life of St. John Colombini, approved and published at Rome in the year 1648, page 318, anyone should affirm that "with the assent of the supreme See, John is venerated as Blessed": which we transcribe from the Year of John (so the little book is called, composed by one of our men and published at Prague in the year 1664), page 301; for the Rossian Life itself is not here at hand.

[5] Yet there are not wanting other, and indeed clear, indications of the most ancient and public veneration of the people of Ferrara toward this blessed Bishop of theirs, which yet other ancient monuments too prove, sought even from the very year 1446 in which he went to heaven: for in the same year there was erected to his memory by the commune, as they call it, of the city of Ferrara, in the greater hospital of St. Anne, built by himself, that statue whose likeness we shall set forth below in the supplement to the Life, with a little laurel on its head, as Scalabrini asserts in the monuments lately submitted hither (although he did not express it in either delineation of the same image) and Nicholas Baruffaldi in the Italian compendium of the Life, page 29. But if perhaps (which we do not know)

that little laurel be not of the same material as the statue; nor consequently seem sufficiently certain whether both are of the same age and hand; this certainly no one will be able to deny of the other likeness of the Blessed one, which we shall exhibit in the same place from a medal of the same year: since both the image and the rays issuing from the crown of the head are cast from the same bronze. Less ancient, but yet confirming the ancient and public cult not a little, is another image, engraved on boxwood, and impressed in public type on the front of the Sermons of St. Bernard the abbot, translated by our Blessed one into the vernacular (that is, the Italian) idiom, at Venice in the year 1528, the same Scalabrini being witness: for it represents Blessed John in full habit (if you except the miter, the episcopal staff, the gloves, and the linen garment which they call a rochet) as a Jesuato, and darting rays from his whole head: on the right a religious of the same Order, fallen upon his knees, either offers a book to the Bishop, as it seems to me, or receives it from him; the other on the left, himself too, both knees bent, a suppliant and like one venerating, crosses his arms before his breast in the manner of a cross: above is read an Italian epigraph of this kind: "Blessed John of Tossignano, bishop of Ferrara, of the Order of the Jesuati Brothers of the convent of St. Jerome."

[6] and indeed the very Acts which will here be given: What more? Whatever miracles of the Blessed one are recounted by our author, all these were not only wrought, but even written, before the year of Christ 1505, and so from time immemorial before Urban's decrees; as will be said in the following paragraph. But in them are commemorated evident indications of this public cult: they do not therefore allow one prudently to doubt of its lawful antiquity. Read both chapters, and observe the wretched flocking to his sepulcher, and there publicly discharging their vows; and especially the use, already then introduced there, of his relics, for sealing suppliants; nay even the sacrosanct sacrifice of the Mass celebrated in his honor, as is had at number 15. And how constantly these all were afterward both continued and frequented, you will understand from the Supplement of the Acts and miracles. And as regards the Mass just mentioned, since no mention is made of it there as of a thing unwonted before that time, it argues a custom already then introduced of celebrating at his altar: otherwise it is incredible, as I warned before, that those whose interest it was would have permitted it, even not very many years after the death of Urban, namely in the year of Christ 1661, when on the 19th of April the Prior and vicar of the Jesuati, then indeed subsisting at Ferrara, at the end of the Life which we shall give, thus testified: "Moreover in the said church (of St. Jerome) on the feast-day of the same Blessed John a sacred Office and Mass is celebrated under the common rite: which is also done throughout the whole year in his honor. In faith of which, etc."

[7] although it has not yet been approved by a positive Roman decree. We confess meanwhile that no positive decree, so far as we know, has hitherto been issued at Rome concerning the case excepted from Urban's bull; however much that matter has been treated more than once, Gregory Ferrari being witness in the Italian Life of the Blessed one, part 4, chapter 10; where he thus has it: "It is related that Ercole, duke of Ferrara (concerning whom in the Prologue of the Acts below), was so devoted to this Blessed one, that, out of the highest desire with which he wished to see him enrolled with the other Saints of the Church through a solemn canonization, he expended much labor: but death... which intercepted for him his life, for us the outcome of so illustrious a will. The most illustrious and most reverend lord Fontana too, bishop of Ferrara, what did he not attempt, that both in his own church and elsewhere a Mass concerning this great Prelate might be celebrated? He ordered processes to be instituted concerning his graces and miracles: he set forth his desire, and the merits of the Blessed one, to the sacred Congregation of Rites; and reported (as he himself writes in the year 1596 to our chapter of Vicenza) most humane replies, not without hope of obtaining what he desired, if our Religion would confer common labor with him to that end." And so John seems hitherto to enjoy only that cult which several others more ancient, whom the Church venerates here and there, enjoy.

[8] And this indeed he obtains not only at Ferrara, but also in other places. On the same day he is venerated also in other places. Masini attests it in his Bologna Surveyed, at the 24th day of July, on which he says the feast of our Blessed one is celebrated at Bologna at St. Mary Mascarella; likewise at St. Eustace outside the gate of St. Mamolo, at altars erected to him; and throughout the whole Order of the Jesuati Brothers. Concerning Tossignano too, which is the birthplace of the Blessed one, Palmerius submitted to us an instrument, which we render from Italian into Latin thus: "In the name of the Lord. I the undersigned bear witness that there are found here at Tossignano the following concerning blessed John Tavelli: namely, in the church of St. Jerome an erected altar, at which the feast of the same Blessed one is celebrated every year on the 24th day of July; and there is exposed to public veneration a certain Office of the Blessed Virgin, which Blessed John used while he lived: which Office, when it is opened, gives out a most sweet odor: it is printed in Gothic letters. In the convent of the Franciscan Fathers are two cases of relics, in which are kept two fragments of the undershirt of the said Blessed John; as also a Breviary which the same used for reciting the canonical Hours. It is said too that there is in the same place his house, nay even his testament; but antiquity has made it so that it is not known determinately in what place these are. In faith of which I, Bartholomew Sabbatani, archpriest and rural vicar of Tossignano, affirm as above, sealing the present with the seal of the church of St. Mary, now St. Michael, at Tossignano." The seal appended represented the Virgin Mother assumed into heaven, and another smaller seal below was enclosed, in which was represented the archangel Michael.

[9] But since mention has here been made of the relics at Tossignano, Various relics of the Blessed one. it pleases also to note what things, besides the Blessed one's body itself, are said to be religiously preserved at Ferrara. Concerning these our Papebroch thus left it written in his Italian Itinerary, in manuscript, of the year 1660, at the 12th day of November, on which he beheld them present at Ferrara: "Among the Jesuati, in a small chapel, beneath white marble, fenced around with wooden lattices, rests the body of Blessed John of Tossignano: whose Breviary, Missal, miter, fur gloves, straw traveling hat, spurs, woolen shirt spotted with some bloody drops, cloak or episcopal mozzetta, square white cap, are preserved in the sacristy of the same." Whether these several things have remained there thus hitherto, so that nothing has been drawn off elsewhere; whether the same Breviary, or another, be that of Tossignano, is not clear to me: for in the Italian compendium of the Life of the year 1712, page 30, Baruffaldi has only this: "His pontifical garments with the spurs and other furnishings of the same are preserved in the convent of St. Jerome." But Scalabrini in the annotations to the Life sent hither recounts them a little more distinctly in these words: "His pontifical vestments, as precious relics, enclosed in a cupboard, are shown with great caution: over which appears a most ancient inscription in gilded letters: 'The precious furnishings of our most blessed Father John of Tossignano, once bishop of Ferrara.' Among which a white cope decorated with gold, likewise two chasubles with maniples, a violet birretum with a hood of woolen cloth, a green hat made of straw, two spurs, white gloves, a biretta of violet cloth, an ancient miter without lappets, and some other precious monuments of the holy Man." Concerning the episcopal ring, in the Miracles chapter 2, numbers 13, 15, and elsewhere; concerning another ring of the same, in the History of the translation; concerning the scourge or discipline of the Blessed one, in the Miracles chapter 2, number 14. Of the same, as also of his hair-shirt and other things, it will be treated in the Supplement of the Life: concerning the authentic letter of Blessed John it will be said in the following paragraph.

* I understand "written."

§ II. His Acts, and the other things pertaining to it.

Of the authors who wrote the Blessed one's Acts, The authors who have written in any manner concerning Blessed John are enumerated by Baruffaldi in the Italian compendium of the Life, already often mentioned, page 25 and following: the chief of these, and those who gave his Acts professedly, besides our author, are reckoned John Peregrinus of the Order of the Jesuati, who is said to have been a contemporary of the Blessed one, and to have composed his Life (as it is said to be read at the end of it) in the year 1448, that is, only two years after his happy death; although this is said to have been first printed at Venice either in the year 1515, as the cited Baruffaldi has it, or 1512, as Scalabrini notes, adding both the month of the edition and the day, the 21st of January, and the name of the typographer, Simon de Luere, and the idiom in which it appeared, Italian, and the semi-Gothic characters in which it was printed. John Peregrinus was followed, at a long interval, by Paul Morigi, or Morigia (for he expresses the name in both ways), a writer of the same Order, by no means obscure, first indeed in the Paradise of the Jesuati published at Venice in the year 1582, then in the History of the Illustrious Men among the Jesuati published in the same place in the year 1604; where he sets forth the Life in Italian nearly agreeing with our Latin Acts, except that he weaves in at the end some more recent miracles. From his former edition Timothy da Bagno the Camaldolese, concerning whom above at number 1, made an epitome of the Blessed one's Life, and inserted it into his Italian Legendary in the year 1598. There came at length the most reverend father Gregory Ferrari of Cremona, at one time General of the Jesuatic religion, who set forth in Italian at Ferrara in the year 1659 the Life of Blessed John, elaborated in a new order, with an elegant and florid style, and not without some additions worthy of note.

[11] this ours seems the most ancient Here without doubt the lucubration of Peregrinus would be preferable to all the rest, if either he was truly a contemporary of the Blessed one, or the work which is circulated under his name was composed in the year 1448. But neither seems to me credible; first, because the author of the Life which we shall give, in the preface number 2 manifestly supposes that no one before him had written the Acts of our Blessed one; and signifies that he is the first of all who by his office of writing recalled to the light and restored to the world John, whom the human condition had taken away from the people of Ferrara, and that at the beginning of the sixteenth century, as will soon be seen. Then because the same author, though he not rarely cites witnesses of the things narrated by him, never mentions Peregrinus; whom yet an Italian could not have been ignorant of an Italian, a Jesuato of a Jesuato, nor passed over, being a most copious witness and a contemporary of the Blessed one. Finally because concerning the Life which is attributed to Peregrinus, my Scalabrini, who, as I gather, diligently inspected it, thus pronounces in the annotations to our Latin Life: "That it was drawn out from this Latin and translated into Italian, must easily be believed by one reading and comparing. And without doubt I suspect it was translated from this Latin into Italian in that very year 1512, in which namely it was subjected to the Venetian press; this Latin of ours is not therefore earlier, but

somewhat later, yet not unlike it in the series of the history and the narration of the miracles, Scalabrini being witness in the same place: neither, therefore, is Peregrinus, if he himself translated it, a contemporary of the Blessed one, but younger by about as much as our author. Wherefore we shall bring forward into the midst only this Latin Life, as the most ancient of all and the fountain of the rest.

[12] Its author is, as I was just saying, a Jesuato; which he himself plainly indicates about himself at once in the very preface, number 2. an anonymous Jesuato: who wrote at the beginning of the 16th century: His name he nowhere betrays, nor could it hitherto be found out from elsewhere. His age he intimates in various places, as at numbers 38, 53, 57, where he calls "old men," then, when he was writing his work, surviving, those who had once dealt familiarly with the Blessed one; but the time of the writing is defined much more precisely from the preface of the work: for it is inscribed to Ercole the First, duke of Ferrara, who, as Scalabrini too observes with others, ceased to live on the 23rd day of January, in the year 1505: and he mentions at number 6 the marriage contracted by Alfonso, son of Ercole, with Lucrezia, daughter of Alexander VI, in the year 1501, according to Guicciardini, Italian History, book 5, or rather in the year 1502, as it pleases Scalabrini. Our Life was therefore composed after the year of Christ 1501 and before 1505; that is, nearly sixty years after the death of the blessed Bishop. Of the writer's credibility there must be no doubt: he establishes it both in the preface, number 3, and elsewhere often, where he produces witnesses of his matters.

[13] These Acts were never published in type in the Latin idiom in which they were written. of whose autograph, never printed, two Our Papebroch first saw them at Ferrara in the year 1660 in the sacristy of the Jesuati Fathers, and indeed shut up together with the aforesaid relics, and held in so high a price, and written, as he says, in Latin on parchment, in an ancient character; and he adds: "And, an Italian Life of Blessed John being given, we obtained the Latin autograph itself to be transcribed by Father Lazarus." In the transcript sent hither these testimonies are read subscribed: "Likewise I, Brother Thomas Justaninus, Prior of the said convent at Ferrara, attest that I have extracted the Life of blessed John of Tossignano from the original of the Life of the same word for word, just as it lies in it; whose original is preserved in our archive. And here I have subscribed myself on this nineteenth day of the month of April of the current year 1661." And a little below: "Likewise I too, Brother Felix de Flaminiis of Montefalco, vicar of the same convent of St. Jerome at Ferrara, attest." To these the next day added his own name also he by whose good offices we received that gift: "I, Andrew Lazarus, priest of the Society of Jesus, testify and bear witness that the aforesaid Life of Blessed John of Tossignano wholly agrees with the original preserved in the sacristy of the reverend Jesuati Fathers at Ferrara. On the 20th day of April 1661."

[14] Our most obliging Palmerius had not known that these were already among us, we received two transcripts, when he had the same again transcribed for us through his Scalabrini from that very same codex, as becomes manifest both from the faults occurring in each transcript and plainly agreeing, and from the notice added at the end of the book, by which it is signified to pertain to the Jesuati, Scalabrini being witness. Nor yet was this labor useless, both because the latter copy is much more elegant and less ambiguously written than the former, and especially on account of the learned observations which Scalabrini added in various places, and an appendix; to all which he affixed the public seal of his office, attesting that "the above-written memoirs, pertaining to Blessed John of Tossignano..., were collected by him from original documents, bulls, privileges, and papers redolent of antiquity, and also from annals": which it will be well to remember, as often as the authority and name of this most distinguished man occurs here. But he observes that on the first face of the codex, whence he transcribed the Life, there is expressed in red the image of duke Ercole, standing with a staff in his hands, in clothing and biretta of black color of damask... Before the image of Ercole are present two Jesuati brothers, clothed in a white habit, with a cloak of ash-color put over it..., one of whom most humbly holds out a little book to the duke. From which it seems to be gathered that that very exemplar is this, which, according to the preface, was either offered or destined to duke Ercole. Certainly we believe that this one alone exists and has existed hitherto, which indeed is held for authentic: so that consequently its very rarity increases the worth of the work.

[15] which, collated, we here give, The author divides the Life into eleven chapters, to which is prefixed the dedication of the little work. To the several chapters their own titles correspond, which we shall exhibit all separately at the end of the Commentary; for the chapters we have reduced, after our manner, to a smaller and more even number, the old division being indicated in the margin. The miracles are not distributed into chapters (although they have been by us), but only into titles; which we too shall subjoin here to the titles of the chapters. These miracles that same man described who wrote the Life, as you will gather from their prologue. But in the text itself we change nothing: we warn, however, if ever the transcripts differ; which happens sometimes either from a fault of the codex itself, or its antiquity, or the frequent abbreviation of words, most usual in ancient manuscripts; or from the ignorance of the amanuenses. But since in the Scalabrinian copy we have found some things emended by second efforts, which had by the amanuensis's first hand been so written as they are read in our older transcript, we have not wished to follow those emendations rather than the authentic text, however faulty; in expressing which both amanuenses have agreed. Finally, whatever is different from the text, such as the numbers, and their marginal titles, and the annotations, this we ourselves have added after our manner.

[16] with a supplement compiled from elsewhere. But because this writer both omitted very many things, as he warns in the preface, number 3, and many things happened after his age; lest we seem to have neglected anything here, we subjoin no small supplement of his history, in which we pursue those things which pertain to the Life, miracles, and relics of the sacred body of the Blessed one; briefly however, and, as far as the matter will bear, in the order of the time in which they happened. There will follow at length three monuments, most lately obtained through the notable kindness of those men whom I praised above, along with the rest. The first is a Prayer against the floods of the Po composed by the Blessed one; the second is his apologetic letter, written in Italian to the Marquis of Ferrara, and faithfully translated by us into Latin: which instrument indeed everyone who reads it will confess to be of very great worth. And so the authentic exemplar of it, as we learned from Scalabrini, the most illustrious and most reverend lord Jerome Crispi, archbishop of Ravenna, who received it as a gift from Pope Clement XI, holds in the highest honor, enclosed in an elegant case, fortified on both sides with crystal, and placed in his archiepiscopal chapel. The third finally will be the testament, made by the blessed Bishop toward the end of his life, and written in the Latin idiom in which it will be exhibited. It remains now that I recount in order the inscriptions of the chapters (for nothing is prefixed to the preface except the image, concerning which above) and of the miracles, which are noted in the transcript of our Acts: they are thus:

The old division of the Life.

Chapter one. The Life of Blessed John of Tossignano, bishop of Ferrara, happily begins in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The distribution of the autograph.

II. How John entered the humble Order of the Jesuati.

III. How John was set over the Ferrarian monastery of the Jesuati as rector.

IV. How John, when he was proceeding into the Romagna with a companion for alms, was captured with his companion by the household of the podestà of Forlì through error.

V. How he was miraculously created bishop of the city of Ferrara.

VI. How blessed John refused the bishopric.

VII. How, obedient to the Apostolic precept and to the counsel of his Fathers, he accepted the bishopric, and received the sacred orders and the episcopal consecration.

VIII. Of the liberality and mercy of John toward the poor.

IX. How he patiently endured the infamy brought upon him before the marquis of Ferrara by his chaplain, and the persecutions of the envious.

X. How Christ appeared to John the bishop in the guise of a poor man: and of certain miracles wrought by him while he was in life.

XI. Of the happy passage of blessed John the bishop from this life.

MIRACLES

They bore these titles.

Of brother Andrew of the Order of Preachers, laboring with a grave infirmity for twenty-five years, straightway healed.

Of Bertold the German, suddenly freed from an incurable scab of the head.

Of John of Albano freed from the plague.

Of the daughter of Jacob of Argenta, who was withered in hands and feet.

Of Joanna, daughter of master Dominic Corlesi, freed from a most grave and atrocious pain.

Of the son of the aforesaid Joanna, freed from a pain of the stomach.

Of Lucia, wife of Ercole Rigoni the baker; who, blinded by a pain of the eyes, received her sight.

Of Jacob the clerk, stepson of master George the tailor, freed from a scab of the head.

Of the aforesaid Lucia freed from a swelling of the leg and an ulceration of the hands.

Of the noble Ludovico Gualengo freed from a diabolical illusion.

Of the son of Blasia, once wife of Francis Brusantini, freed from blindness.

Of the son of Humilitas, freed from a continual fever.

Of John Avanzo freed from the plague.

Of Bernardina freed from a flux of blood.

Of the illustrious lord Rainald of Este freed from a most grave pain.

Of several possessed by unclean spirits, freed by the merits of blessed John. And even to this day, in testimony of his sanctity, he does not cease wonderfully to free such; as daily experience attests.

Augustine Villa, son of Lancillotto Villa, judge of the Twelve Wise Men of Ferrara, who first, on account of his many merits toward his fatherland, was deservedly called Father of the fatherland.

THE LIFE

By an anonymous author of the Order of the Jesuati.

From a Ferrarian manuscript.

John of Tossignano, bishop and confessor, of the Order of the Jesuati, at Ferrara. (Blessed)

FROM THE MANUSCRIPT.

PREFACE AND DEDICATION OF THE WORK.

The author, unwilling to write profane things, Very many mortals, vainly given over to zeal and worldly glory, most illustrious duke a, have thought thence to seek an immortal glory for their name, if they should undertake to write the Lives of famous men. Which thing indeed brought not a lasting, but a temporary fruit of the hope conceived: because although through the passing times they propagated their memory, and by the examples set forth of great men not a little emulation was stirred up in readers; yet these labors, these vigils, and lucubrations pertained nothing to the immortal memory of the name, to be seized in eternal life. For what profited them the glory of their writings, about to set with the age? What profit did posterity gain by reading of Achilles fighting, or Socrates philosophizing: since not only to imitate them is folly, but not most sharply also to oppose them is madness? Inasmuch as they, esteeming human life only by present acts, gave their hopes to fables, their souls to sepulchers; believing only this, that they were to be perpetuated by the mere memory of men: whereas it is man's duty to seek rather a lasting life than the passing and fleeting memory of mortals, not by writing or fighting, or philosophizing, but by living piously, holily, and gloriously. Which human error indeed, handed down in letters, so prevailed that it found plainly many emulators of this vain philosophy and foolish virtue.

[2] Whence we think we shall do a work worth the labor, if we write out the Life of the most holy man John of Tossignano, he undertakes the Life of Blessed John the bishop, prelate of your most celebrated city, which will be an example to the whole world, and an ornament to our humble congregation and to your city. For very many, reading it, will be incited to true wisdom and heavenly warfare and divine virtue, and, as by an example of Christian life, will perceive from it a likeness and form. From which too we draw a reckoning of our own advantage, that we may expect not an empty memory from men, but an eternal reward from God: for although we ourselves have not so lived as to be able to be an example to others; yet we have taken pains that he should not be hidden in darkness who was to be imitated: inasmuch as in the house of the Lord there is a burning lamp, not extinguished, but removed. Not justly, therefore, can anyone be angry with us, if we have laid open the life of this most blessed Man to your highness, and to the whole city, and to all the people. Nay rather, the men of our age ought not to be ungrateful to us, nor every generation henceforth to come; if him whom the human condition took away, we recall by our office of writing to this light, and restore to the world, of whom it was not worthy to have him.

[3] Since therefore we have undertaken to write the Life of this most holy Man; with the greatest fidelity and selection of matters; it was our zeal to write only those things which, before the bishopric, and afterward in the bishopric, this excellent Pastor of ours did: since we could by no means come to all those things in which he was conscious to himself alone; being one who sought no praise from men, but rather longed for all his virtues to lie hidden. Very many things too, of those which have been found by us most true, we have omitted: both because we believe it suffices if only the more excellent things be noted; and also lest a heaped-up abundance should breed weariness in the readers. But those who are about to read, let them give credit to the things said; since we have written nothing except what has been found out and proved: for if it were otherwise, we would have preferred to be silent rather than to say false things.

[4] Therefore, renowned duke, singular dwelling-place of piety, religion, and charity, offering it to Ercole I, duke of Ferrara, receive the Life of the most holy John, prelate of your city, written by us, which we dedicate especially to the devotion of your highness, as his true and lawful spiritual son; since he himself regenerated you in the Lord with the water of the sacred font b; as we have had by living voice from very many trustworthy men who are subject to your rule. Wherefore we, the humble and devout of your highness, do not doubt to exhort, entreat, and even beseech you, that you take care to render due honor to so great a Father of yours. And what honor is this? That, we say, which mother Church is wont to confer on holy men who led a heavenly life on earth. By your devotion, therefore, care, aid, and expense you ought altogether to strive that this your most holy Prelate, a most illustrious example of humility and of the angelic life, be solemnly numbered among the holy Pontiffs of the Church militant, and that every year, by Apostolic decree, the due ceremonies of divine honors be publicly expended by the faithful, to the perpetual glory of this holy Man.

[5] To the doing of which our address ought not much to exhort you; that he may urge the canonization of John; since your highness flourishes with such discipline, shines with such piety, excels with such prudence, that in human affairs you desire nothing more vehemently, and reckon nothing more illustrious, than to carry out with all zeal, vigilance, and solicitude that which you see to accrue to the amplitude, honor, and glory of the Christian religion, and judge to be an ornament and splendor to your fatherland and city: in which indeed you alone of all the princes of Italy most watch and strive c. This same, to which we now exhort your highness, magnanimous and most wise duke, we easily believe, nay we trust, that you have long since felt and desired: but we have seen that the times and occasion were wanting to your wish.

[6] for which business there was then an opportune occasion. Now, since the illustrious Alfonso, your firstborn son, is joined to Alexander VI, the supreme Pontiff, by a close affinity d; and the most reverend Ippolito, your second-born son e, has been added to the number of the Cardinalatial summit f, and no chance, but your greatest and admirable virtue, has advanced you to that dignity, authority, and place; so that you are adorned and heaped with honors, power, and wealth greater than any recollection: undertake, and accomplish, under a prosperous star, and with our benefactor Jesus Christ favoring, these our prayers, which we suppliants pour out with all our heart to your piety and devotion. That you may be able to effect this, we shall all ardently pray for your life and safety. Farewell, splendor of the glory of Italy, father of the fatherland, food and life of the poor; and hear us your suppliants.

ANNOTATIONS.

* Scalabrini reads "not a little"

* Scal. "your"

* Scal. "as from a mirror"

* Scal. "your"

* Scal. adds "servant"

CHAPTER I.

The stock, fatherland, pious education of Blessed John, his skill in civil law; his calling to the Order of the Jesuati, the expectation of his parents being frustrated.

The blessed servant of God John was born at Tossignano, a most celebrated town of the territory of Imola, Baldassare Cossa being legate of the holy Roman See in the province of the Romagna a, The Blessed one's fatherland, parents, education, study of civil law, of Antonio Tavelli b and Joanna c, his parents, most illustrious in stock and in the sanctity of life and in morals. Who, although they were not famous in the riches of this fleeting age, yet were conspicuous to all in hospitality toward the poor; whereby they were rendered so much the more pleasing to the divine sight, that they merited to have this most holy Man in the number of their children. Who, after he had been religiously educated by his mother, and instructed in good morals, since he flourished with sharpness of wit and a docile nature, was sent by his father to Bologna to the general school; that there he might acquire for himself skill in the liberal arts by the exercise of study. Where the boy of holy disposition, exercising not the vain sports of boys, but the serious and grave things of old men, began diligently to attend to the erudition for the sake of which he had been sent to Bologna. And, the pleasures with which the age of youth is wont to boil being laid aside, he gave himself wholly over to studies; and, that he might more fully transfer his mind to wisdom, he shunned dissolute companies of men with all diligence; and so diligently applied himself to letters that in a short space of time he began marvelously to shine forth among all in the studies of civil law.

[8] In food he was sober; in gait composed; in words mature; joined with signal piety; in conversation humble and meek. He devoutly visited and frequented the sacred temples of God. In fasts, prayers, vigils, and other spiritual exercises he was sedulous and diligent. But his parents, when they beheld that he had turned out so devout and learned, were affected with unspeakable joy, and for vast gladness their whole heart exulted, seeing in their son the most holy morals and signal learning of their forefathers rise again and grow together, just as they themselves expected. But this man of God John, when he went to the schools for the sake of the lesson, or when he returned from them, was wont, with pious and devout affection, to pour out prayers, supplications, and vows before a certain image of the most holy Mother of God Mary.

[9] A desire of the religious life. Which indeed the kind and merciful Lord, looking upon with the eye of his piety d, was pleased liberally and copiously to confer the gifts of his immense bounty upon this beloved Son of his, whose mind boiled on every side with most holy desires. Whence, that he might advance him to the state of perfection, illuminating John's heart with the ray of the Holy Spirit, he led him to the contempt of the whole world, and disposed him to submit his neck to the most sweet yoke of Religion. The man of God was then in his twenty-second year, and, on account of his assiduous exercise in study and the excellence of his wit, was said by all the doctors to be fit to seize the insignia of the doctorate in civil law: which he himself, esteeming little along with the rest of the world's glory, intended only to fulfill the divine inspiration of his holy purpose: this he cared for, this he ardently demanded, this he strove to fulfill as swiftly as possible. Finally his mind could think of nothing else: so inwardly was he allured by the touch of divine sweetness, which the Lord does not cease to pour into those whom he knows to approach faithfully to the observance of his love.

[10] Now about to be endowed with the laurel of the doctorate, But lest his parents should be utterly defrauded of the joy which they expected daily to receive and obtain through John, he made them more certain by his letters how he had been held worthy by the doctors to be adorned with the insignia of the doctorate of civil law: which affected his parents, nay

and also his whole household and friends, with the highest joy. Wherefore John's parents, that they might do enough for his glory and the honor of the whole family, sold a vineyard, which the man of God, having been assumed to the bishopric and returning from the baths, visiting his former family and friends, afterward bought back, and restored to the family of his Tavelli, and joined to their former possessions.

II.

[11] And so John's father, when he had come to Bologna, he opens his mind to his father about going to the Jesuati, to provide opportunely the things necessary for his doctorate; and when they had discoursed much with one another about this, John said: "I think it not worthy, most loving father, that it should be hidden from you what must next be done by me. There is a certain place here not far off, to which I am compelled to go, and there to stay, and to live together with certain men conspicuous for probity and virtue, who observe, esteem, and love me." The father, hearing this, began to marvel greatly, and to press upon John with many prayers why he said these things; and that he would declare to him what this was. Then John, lest he should seem to neglect his father's prayers, answered: "They are excellent men, those with whom I wish to stay, and an honorable and fitting place. Be at rest, most loving father: I judge it now enough to do this for you."

[12] and, he being absent, carries out the matter, Antonio, who was by nature humble, kind, and meek, would not exasperate his son too vehemently; knowing that, on account of his probity and most chaste life, he would do nothing but what would be worthy of all commendation: whence, leaving him at Bologna, he returned home, with this mind and firm purpose, that, a short interval of time being interposed, he would return, together with his kinsmen and friends, to honor his son John at the coronation of his doctorate. But John, wholly inwardly aflame with the divine fire, resolved to despise the world and all study of human letters with its glory, and to devote himself wholly to the zeal for his own salvation. Wherefore, the Holy Spirit being his guide, he decreed with immovable mind to enter the humble Order of the poor Jesuati: which neither the affection of his parents then, nor the sweet glory of the whole Tavelli family could hold back, nor the austerity of the Jesuati life, nor the very abjectness of mendicity could terrify; but, placing all his hope in God, bearing in his heart the words of the Savior, in which he says: "He who loves father or mother, brother, wife, or sisters more than me, is not worthy of me"; all things being trodden underfoot, he betook himself to the Jesuati: with whom before, for a long time, he had held a most devout intercourse.

[13] Spinello a, a man of God, redolent of the highest goodness, received into the Order at Bologna in the year 1408. was then rector of the monastery of Bologna; to whom John, and to the other brothers, laying open the holy purpose of his mind, mature deliberation being had upon this, was received into the Order with great joy of all, in the year of our salvation 1408, on the fifth of the Kalends of August b. Who then, in a short time, being thoroughly imbued with the institutes of Religion and with virtuous morals, bore himself in the monastery so laudably, with the commendation of all, that in Religion he seemed not new, but old; not a disciple, but rather a master. But when he had stayed for some days at Bologna in the Order, it seemed good to Father Spinello, that he might provide for John's advancement and salvation, to send him to Venice.

[14] Therefore, when John had gone to Venice, Antonio Tavelli, his father, returned to Bologna; His father, when he learned this, first grieved, that he might expedite what was to be done about the doctorate to be received by John; but when he had not found John, worn out with grief and sadness, he began to seek him among his kinsfolk and friends: but especially he betook himself to the house of the Canedoli c, that there at least he might learn whither John had gone; for there John had been wont to associate very much. But not even there could he satisfy his desire. At length, as it pleased God, he learned that he had entered that Order of the poor Jesuati: which heard, affected with the greatest perturbation and grief, he returned home; and as soon as he arrived, John's mother, greedy with hope to learn welcome news of her son, ran to meet him: but seeing her husband mournful and sad, she anxiously began to inquire the cause of the sad fountain. To whom the husband: "Dearest wife, all our hope has vanished; the glory of our family extinguished, and the expected advantage of the whole house destroyed; our son John has left us bereaved, mournful, and old; and has entered the humble and most abject Order of the Jesuati." The mother, hearing this, began to be wholly moved within, and to utter the words of her conceived grief with a lamentable voice.

[15] And while these things were being done by John's parents, one of their kinsmen, then, with a kinsman, began to rage against his Son; Francis by name, was present; who began sharply to detest what John had done; and, stirred by excessive fury, uttered such words from his mouth: "Oh, if I had him in my hands! surely I would kill him." Then John's father, yielding to the great grief which sat upon his mind, forgetful of paternal charity, said to Francis: "Go freely; and intrepidly cut, burn, and kill him: I yield to you all authority and power over him." Francis, hearing this, like a truculent tiger, vomiting rabid foam from his jaws on every side, wholly stripped of all humanity, most savagely roaring within himself, began to threaten John with many things, and, boldly and tumultuously asserting that he would exercise upon him all cruel things, came to Bologna. And when he had approached the monastery, he began to cry out with most violent clamors that he wished John to be given to him; who if he were not given, he promised to consume the monastery with fire, to kill all the brothers, and to do whatever atrocious and monstrous things were possible to him, in vengeance of his fury. But Father Spinello, who was rector of the monastery, with honeyed and sweet words flowing on every side with the sweetness of the Holy Spirit, rendered the heart of Francis, filled with fury, gentle and placable, saying that John had gone to Venice by the command of holy obedience. Which heard, Francis, who before had come like a most ferocious lion, now like a lamb departed from the monastery.

ANNOTATIONS.

* or "to his son"?

* or "taste"?

* Scalabrini "boiling"

* Scalabrini "author"

* Scal. "to bear," less rightly.

CHAPTER II.

His excellent virtues in Religion; the prefecture of the Ferrarian monastery imposed on him, reluctant; his tolerance of injuries.

Meanwhile John dwelt at Venice, removed from his parents, and unknown to the other men of the world: who meanwhile advanced excellently at Venice in his institute, who, being there free for God alone, marvelously advanced; so that he lay open to all everywhere as a mirror of holy virtues and best examples a. But among all things he shunned idleness, dispensing his time usefully: solicitous for prayer, prompt in obedience, humble to all, in conversation courteous. The baser things of the monastery, which lofty minds shudder at, he himself alone took care to perform. Laborious exercises, although he was of delicate constitution, he by no means fled, but showed himself about them with marvelous readiness; nor for their sake did he ever interpose the exercises of holy meditations. To go too for the alms of bread (which, as it was not hidden from him, would be most pleasing to God) he very often extorted the grace, as from one unwilling, prostrate on the ground before the father rector. The care too of his own body he had not for the desire of the flesh, but only for necessity. To the sick brothers, wholly kindled in the charity of his neighbor, with diligent solicitude, watchful care, and the highest

zeal, he served with all humility and reverence: but in conversation he was so sweet, courteous, and pleasing that he seemed not a man, but an angel dwelling on earth.

[17] until thence he came to Rimini, afterward to Bologna; Our Alexius, a most devout man, who had long conversed with John, testified again and again that he could never be stirred to wrath or trouble by any injuries or any contradictions; but that with all reverence, humility, and patience toward all he had always shown himself peaceable, clement, and meek: for which he was cherished by all with a singular and especial love. The time of prayer being performed, and the common exercises of the monastery being completed, lest the enemy of the human race should at any time find him idle, he betook himself to the studies of the holy Scriptures, expounding some things for the profit of the brothers in the mother tongue; but composing others, not only for the profit of the same fathers, but of all besides b. But if he ever found himself in the common conversation of the brothers, he strove to his utmost to refute idle and worldly things, and to talk of divine and heavenly things. These were the studies of the man of God John, these the morals, this the life, while he stayed at Venice. At which time it happened that he departed thence, that together with an innumerable multitude of religious, the schism still flourishing c, he might accompany Gregory the eleventh d to the city of Rimini e; so the supreme Pontiff had ordered them: among whom this man of God too was present f. Which being performed g, the blessing of the supreme Pontiff being received, since he burned wholly with the desire of seeing Spinello, his spiritual father, he seized the road toward Bologna; and was received into the embraces of his father with the highest joy of all the brothers.

III.

[18] As therefore the most blessed John grew in holy virtues and spiritual graces, a little after he is elected rector of the Ferrarian monastery, unwilling: with humble and meek conversation he drew the hearts of all the brothers to himself: and since in conducting affairs he was strong in perspicacious wit, and overflowed wholly on every side with heavenly riches, he was held worthy by all of the office of rector. Wherefore a synod of the fathers h unanimously elected him rector of the Ferrarian monastery. Which John understanding, with humble refusal strove to resist the will of the fathers, asserting that he was by no means fit for so great a burden, and merited least of any of the congregation to be set over a greater office. Yet after much struggle on his part, recognizing the constant will of the fathers, lest perhaps he should resist the divine will, he humbly submitted his neck to the yoke of holy obedience, which he had promised to observe perpetually until death for the love of Christ.

[19] When therefore he had come to Ferrara to his monastery, over which he was set as rector, which office he discharged excellently, he was graciously and reverently received by his spiritual sons. Who all, with great humility and observance of love, with cheerful brow and glad heart, submitted themselves to his subjection; whose commands were to them most welcome, his orders most pleasant, his conversation most sweet. From the mouth of John indeed distilled nothing but the manna of divine words: for he was a chosen vessel of the Lord, full of the liquor of divine grace, with which he inflamed the hearts of the poor subject brothers, sharply excited them to spiritual studies, lifted their minds from earthly things, and himself raised them to heavenly things.

[20] Although before he was established in the office of rector, in all offices excelling his subjects; he was always watchful, alert, and prompt in holy and virtuous exercises, nor ever from weariness desisted from what he had begun; yet then he showed himself in all these things with greater zeal, more watchful care, and increased solicitude; thinking within himself that he was bound no less to instruct his subjects by work than by word. Therefore from any work, even the vilest, he never withdrew himself. And although he was set over the rest, he went very often to ask the alms of bread; and did not disdain to work in the kitchen according to the custom of the Order.

[21] To keep the brothers solicitous for the study of prayer he took the greatest care with diligence; he especially commends the study of prayer, and the flight from idleness. as being the beginning and whole sum of the religious life. After prayer, he strove to occupy them with works of charity or useful exercises; lest they should both grow torpid with idleness, and time, given by God to mortals for working, should slip empty and void from their hands. Nor do we judge another singular and excellent virtue of the most blessed John to be passed over in silence: for toward the mournful, and those whom he perceived to be afflicted with spiritual tribulations, he compassionated with a paternal affection; whom he strove to succor now with exhortations, now with counsels, now to console with all his strength, as he was able; and to their necessities he was most liberal in relieving them with temporal substance.

[22] Considering, moreover, how grave a burden it is to have the care of others, Out of humility he begs to be removed from office; with all his strength, yet with all humility, he strove to renounce the office of governance i. As that letter k attests, which he wrote in the mother tongue to Father Spinello; in which, accusing the smallness of his virtue, the tepidity of his spirit, and the weakness of his wit, he judges himself not at all fit for the office of governance: therefore, a suppliant in heart and mind, falling before the feet of the fathers, he mercifully asks liberation and absolution from the governance, and begs with the prayers which he can and is able that he be a subject. Which indeed the man of God procured to obtain, not that he might lay down the burden of the load, as one yielding to labor; but because so great a humility flourished in him, that he thought himself unworthy not only for this, but for all things.

IV.

[23] And so when John could by no means obtain absolution from the governance from the fathers but in vain. Seeking alms to build an oratory, (for the Lord was known by all to have chosen him for the burden of this office; since, like a city set upon a mountain, he appeared daily more glorious in merits before God and men: for, as we shall say more at length below, he was to everyone a norm and rule of all virtues and of goodness), lest he should displease God, he humbly submitted himself to the will of the fathers, and with all zeal, solicitude, and care, as a most diligent shepherd over the flock of the Lord, gave all his labor to procuring the salvation of souls. To whom, when a great necessity had arisen of building an oratory for the brothers to keep watch at the divine praises; and the things necessary for the building were not at hand for him; committing all the hope of his mind to the divine providence, he resolved, content with one companion, to proceed into the Romagna to ask alms from friends: which being supplied, he might buy for himself timbers, lime, and bricks.

[24] he is captured as a robber; giving thanks for the injury. And when he had now come to Forlì l, and was betaking himself toward the hospital m; that that night he might there be lodged together with his companion, he met the household of the podestà, which had gone out to seek certain notable thieves: whom, when it did not find, and perceived that John and his companion were foreigners, it held them, asserting to itself that from them perhaps knowledge of the thieves could be had. But when John and his companion simply asserted that they had no knowledge of the thieves, it led them to the podestà as robbers. Whom, as soon as the podestà beheld them, he knew them to be men of the highest simplicity and integrity: whom he restored to their liberty with all veneration. But John neither set forth the injury brought upon him to the podestà, nor to his household, nor made the least complaint of it; but glad, enduring all things for the Lord, he departed from the podestà with thanksgiving, and betook himself with his companion to his friends; from whom, competent alms being received, he returned to Ferrara; and happily built, dedicated, and set up the oratory, in which his body now venerably rests, to the honor of God and the praise of blessed Jerome n.

ANNOTATIONS.

his predecessor in the see of Ferrara; from whom he obtained it clearly in the year 1429, on the 30th day of April; as is plain from the very instrument, which Ughelli recites whole, Italia Sacra, volume 2, column 588 and the following.

* Scal. "bright"

* that is, "he interrupted"

* read "peaceable," etc.

* read "the whole sum"

* for "to console"

CHAPTER III.

His election, absent and unaware, to the bishopric of Ferrara, made not without a miracle.

When John had now for several years stood as father rector in the Ferrarian monastery, and was much filled with the Holy Spirit, The bishop of Ferrara having died, in the year 1431, lest the lamp set upon a candlestick should lie hidden beneath a bushel, but should give light to all; and that he who had put on the sweetness of piety and mercy toward his neighbor, and gave the best doctrine to the people to drink, and showed forth the sanctity of his life to the greatest profit of all, might lie open more openly in the Church of God for the salvation of souls, the most high God permitting, in the year of grace one thousand four hundred thirty-one the church of Ferrara was left without a pastor a: at which time Nicholas of Este b, marquis of Ferrara, happily reigned: who, that it might be best provided with a pastor, himself, Nicholas, besought Eugene the Fourth, the supreme Pontiff, with such supplications as he could and was able. To satisfy whose most holy wish the supreme Pontiff resolved with all zeal and diligence.

[26] John, unaware, is offered to the Roman Pontiff, by whom he is at first rejected, And when the supreme Pontiff pondered within himself whom he should set over so great a burden as fit c, the most high God, wishing to exercise John with greater care for the salvation of souls, and to consult salutarily for the church of Ferrara and the people, illuminated the mind and spirit of the most reverend father Fantino Dandolo, legate of the Roman See in the city of Bologna d, with the light of the Holy Spirit, to propose by his letters to the Pontiff, the consent of the marquis Nicholas favoring, three men fit for this burden by doctrine, virtue, and sanctity of life: of whom one was this most blessed John. The letters of the most reverend father Fantino being read, therefore, the Pontiff seemed to reject John: since he said he would do an unwonted thing, if he should assume an abject and poor man, distinguished by no ecclesiastical order e, as bishop of so great a city. Wherefore, that he might more maturely deliberate this arduous matter, he transferred to the next day the consistory of his Brothers, in which the supreme Pontiff had resolved to provide the church of Ferrara with a fit pastor.

[27] and is postponed to another; But the mind, intention, and will of the Pontiff was to pronounce Jacob f, archpriest of the church of Modena, an excellent man, who himself too had been named in the letters of the most reverend Fantino, as pastor of Ferrara; to whom, on account of his singular virtue and doctrine, and the commendatory letters of the marquis Nicholas interceding for him with the Pontiff, all the Cardinals favored. But since the Lord had not chosen him to exercise the administration of this pastoral care, the wish of the Pontiff and Cardinals vanished. Wherefore the divine providence, which is the highest wisdom, by this wonderful and stupendous order compelled the supreme Pontiff to elect, create, and pronounce John, the blessed man of God, as pastor of the city of Ferrara, the rest being postponed.

[28] until the Pontiff, seized with sudden pains, For on the preceding night, which was bringing on the day appointed for the consistory, when the supreme Pontiff, glad and unharmed, had given himself to slumber; awakened, he soon began to be sharply vexed by an unwonted and unexpected pain; and was so strictly pressed that he could neither find any rest, nor could any remedies of the physicians avail him. When therefore the Pontiff, on account of the grave straits of this unwonted pain, had passed nearly the whole night sleepless: and the light of the day appointed for the consistory had now as it were come, he began to be vexed also more in mind, thinking that by this unexpected hindrance the pronouncement of the bishop of Ferrara in the coming consistory was not possible.

[29] while re-reading the letter of commendation for John, And while he was engaged amid the thought of this matter and the bitterness of the pain which he suffered, the letters of the most reverend Fantino, written to his Holiness, came to his mind; which he soon ordered to be brought to him. And when he read them, he recognized that John was commended more than the other two who were proposed by Fantino to the Pontiff. To the doing of which nothing carnal induced the most reverend Fantino, but the singular doctrine and the especial sanctity of the life of John himself, which with this most approved man was already most well known: since the most reverend Fantino had already long greatly praised John's doctrine and the excellence of his life before the Pontiff, when he himself was requested by Eugene, at the regard and prayers of a certain most devout sister of his, to translate certain most devout little books into the mother tongue: to accomplish which work perfectly he proposed the most blessed John, and to him committed it; especially since he had already seen the Sermons of Bernard, the greater part of the Bible, and of the Morals of Gregory translated by him into the mother tongue in an elegant style g. There exist also other devout little works and letters of this Man, which display his doctrine and sanctity h.

[30] Yet the supreme Pontiff cast them into the copious multitude of letters, and again casting them away, is tortured more grievously, which he had not far from him, making little of the commendation of the most reverend Fantino for this Man. Which when he had done, he soon began to be tortured with a sharper and more bitter pain than before. And when he sought the cause of this most atrocious pain from himself, again those things which the most reverend Fantino had written to his Holiness concerning John returned to his memory: which, revolving with himself in his mind, he began to think that perhaps by divine judgment he was afflicted and tortured with these most atrocious pains; because he had not resolved to provide the church of Ferrara with a pastor according to the divine will.

[31] Thinking these things with himself in mind, he called the bishop of Treviso k, the cause of the pains being detected, he changed his mind, a religious man, once regular abbot of St. Justina of Padua; and ordered him to seek the letters of the most reverend Fantino, thrown by himself into that great multitude, and, being found, to bring them to him. Then the bishop of Treviso, obeying the Pontiff, went to that great multitude of letters; where, as soon as he arrived, straightway the letters of the most reverend Fantino came to his hands; which, being brought to the Pontiff, he ordered to be read; and, they being read, he straightway changed his mind, and firmly resolved to elect John of Tossignano the Jesuato as bishop of Ferrara, and to confirm him elected. Wonderful to say! This deliberation being made by the Pontiff, suddenly he was freed from that vast and unwonted pain.

[32] By which wonderful effect the Pontiff, understanding it to be the divine will that John should be created pastor and prelate of the church of Ferrara; and decreed John bishop of the church of Ferrara, the following day, the Cardinals being present in consistory, beyond the expectation of all, pronounced John of Tossignano the Jesuato bishop of Ferrara. Which was a great wonder to the Cardinals; since already on the preceding evening, together with the Pontiff, they had resolved to pronounce the archpriest of Modena bishop of Ferrara. But the Pontiff said to the Cardinals: "Let your lordships not wonder: for it is not hidden from you that human things cannot resist divine ones: for by a divine and most profound judgment upon us we have elected John of Tossignano the Jesuato bishop of Ferrara, and we will him to be elected.

[33] Indeed by an unwonted pain, beyond every cause of nature, we were sharply and atrociously tortured the past night, the Cardinals applauding. by which neither was any rest given, nor could any remedies of the physicians succor us; but as soon as we firmly deliberated to elect John of Tossignano bishop of Ferrara, suddenly we were free from all pain. Taught by which wonderful prodigy of the divine will, we changed our will, adhering to the divine will; and pronounced John the Jesuato bishop of Ferrara, as you have heard." Then the Cardinals, these things heard, together with the Pontiff, with one accord completed John's election. From which it is permitted anyone to see how faithful and pleasing to God that most holy Man was, to whose fidelity and care and solicitude God willed the great treasure of the people of Ferrara to be committed by so wonderful a prodigy.

ANNOTATIONS.

was advanced to the bishopric, almost reluctant, by Eugene IV in the year 1437. But how could he be called bishop of Treviso in the year 1431, and once abbot of St. Justina? It seems, therefore, that our author here used prolepsis, and attended to the time in which he was writing these things, not that of which he was writing.

* nay rather "that," or "when"

* Scal. corrects "to him"

* perhaps "to see"

* or "although"?

CHAPTER IV.

Blessed John's humility in declining the bishopric, his obedience in accepting it, his sedulity in administering it, and his mercy toward the poor.

VI.

The supreme Pontiff wrote a letter a to Nicholas, marquis of Ferrara, by which he might make him more certain that John of Tossignano the Jesuato had been created by him, the divine will commanding, bishop and pastor of his city: The Saint, recognized, with all his might refuses the dignity; which as soon as the marquis Nicholas understood, he ordered John to be summoned to him; to whom, when he had come before him, he said: "Most reverend Father, you have been divinely given to us by the supreme Pontiff as bishop and pastor and father: therefore I receive you, as my father and bishop and that of this our city, with all reverence and devotion." Which John, hearing, began to marvel vehemently, and to tremble wholly; then with such strength and reasons as he could and was able, before the marquis he refused the bishopric: for this most holy Man was held by a greater solicitude to preserve for himself the virtue of humility, which he had acquired with so great zeal and labor, than to attain the passing glory of the episcopal summit.

[35] But the marquis Nicholas then intimated to the supreme Pontiff by his letters this refusal of John concerning the bishopric. but compelled by a severe precept of the Pontiff, Which the Pontiff would not accept, nay by apostolic decree he commanded John, in the virtue of holy obedience, to accept the bishopric to which he had elected him. Then John, understanding the will of the Pontiff, not knowing what to do, was inwardly vexed with a great tumult of cares. On the one hand he was terrified by the burden of the episcopal care; on the other hand he was greatly urged by the sting of his inner conscience to obey the apostolic precept. Wherefore, being doubtful and hanging, and not knowing to which side he should yield b, he committed himself wholly to God; and began to seek, by his letters, the judgments and counsels upon this business of his father Spinello and of the other brothers who were at Bologna, and of some who flourished in doctrine and sanctity of life; asserting that the funeral rites of his death, if they were celebrated, would be more pleasant to him than that solemn consecration of his episcopal dignity. For he said that, when he beheld himself the more inwardly, he was confounded with so much the greater shame, vexed with fear, and consumed with grief. Whence again and again he repeated in his heart that which is written: "O how terrible is God in his counsels over the sons of men!"

VII.

[36] And so father Spinello, when he had read John's letters before the brothers, together with them most devoutly gave himself to prayer, [and finding no way of declining it, at length admits it; and receives the sacred orders:] that, inwardly illuminated and taught by the divine light, they might be able to counsel John more rightly. Which being performed, the chapter of brothers being gathered, when each had said what the Holy Spirit had suggested to his mind, all with unanimous concord wrote back to John that the will of the Pontiff must altogether be obeyed: which indeed they not only counseled him, but also commanded in the virtue of holy obedience; especially since the divine will of God had thus decreed concerning him. Then John, this counsel being had from his father and brothers and those other most approved men, lest he should seem to fight against the divine will, knowing that all power proceeds from God, humbly submitted the shoulders of his littleness to so great a burden: having all trust in the Lord, by whom in so great a necessity and peril of manifold matters he hoped not to be forsaken: which, though not by his own merits, yet by the supplications of very many servants of his acceding, whom he knew to intercede most ardently for him, he did not doubt that God would do. But since the man of God did not have the sacred orders, he came to Mantua to the most reverend man and father Matthew, of the Order of Preachers, bishop of Mantua, by the command of the most reverend Fantino the apostolic legate: from whom he most devoutly received all the sacred orders; and by him, together with two other bishops, was solemnly consecrated c.

[37] Who afterward, when he had returned to his fold, and straightway proves himself a strenuous pastor to his flock, began diligently to exercise the office of the imposed burden for the salvation and profit of souls: and with how great zeal, skilled care, assiduous labor, continual vigils, now with counsels, now with exhortations both public and private, he watched over the flock of the Lord committed to him, by rooting out the vices of clerks living disorderly and of the people, by reforming undisciplined monasteries, by visiting the parishes of the city and of his whole diocese, very many were witnesses; some of whom still now lead their life among men; whom the public letters d of the most reverend Fantino, the apostolic legate, corroborate; by the tenor of which, on account of his supreme vigilance and sleepless solicitude and unwearied care over the sheep of the Lord, the full authority of his legation is committed to John: for that most approved man knew what a faithful colleague he made for himself in so great a rule; whose greatest virtue was already most well known to the whole world.

VIII.

[38] All virtues indeed shone forth in this Man of God; but a most kind father to the poor, but especially an immense piety toward the poor; whose necessities that he might provide for, he expended all care: to which work he was so intent and ready that he did not refuse to strip himself of his own garments: for so kind, pious, merciful, clement, and liberal was he toward the poor, that he esteemed himself about to receive the greatest loss, if he did not render aid to a poor man asking and supplicating. Whence it came about that no needy person could ever go away empty from John's charity. Of whose most holy works of piety and clemency, if we should wish to recount all, there would be need of a prolix and most long treatise: but serving brevity, we shall recount only the worthier, and those which have been authenticated by ancient men, most illustrious in life, who long conversed with John.

[39] For they, among other most illustrious deeds of this most holy Man toward the poor, narrated when he unstitched his own coverlet, to give a part to them, that once, when a certain poor man asked alms from John for hose, of which he was in great need, wholly moved toward him with an affection of piety, he called to himself the procurator of the house: to whom, committing that he should provide for the poor man's need, the latter answered: "There is nothing with me; since I have consumed all things in alms and other necessary expenses, as you ordered me." This the pious Father understanding, reckoned it harsh and cruel if he should dismiss this poor man empty from him. Whence, moved with the greatest affection of inner piety, entering his chamber, a sword being lent him by a servant e, he unstitched the coverlet of white cloth, sewn of two parts, with which he covered his bed, and gave the middle part of the coverlet to the poor man: but the other part he reserved for himself for his bed, with this mind perhaps, that if a need should arise, with that part he could provide for another poor man; which that servant too, who had lent him the sword to unstitch the coverlet, and had beheld this thing with his own eyes, narrated.

[40] Another time too, when a certain poor priest, half-naked, asked alms from him for clothing, and stripped himself of his garments, to clothe them. and when he beheld this minister of God half-naked, moved with the sweetness of inner piety, he could not restrain his tears: wherefore he commanded the procurator of the house to provide as soon as possible for this needy and half-naked priest. But he answered that he had nothing: for so frequent and continual was the bestowal of alms, that he could not long reserve anything. But the pious Father did not suffer the needy priest to depart from him without alms. Whence, stripping himself of the cloak with which he was clothed, he gave it to the poor priest for the love of God. A like work too, not long after, this most clement Father of the poor did: for our Antonio f, who was rector in our monastery at Venice, having sent a new mantle to John for his necessary use; behold, straightway a certain most poor hermit, fallen before John's feet, demanded that alms be granted him: who, since he had nothing with which to succor the asking poor man, soon gave him this mantle.

ANNOTATIONS.

* read "coverlet"

* for "unstitched"

* read "cloak"

* nay rather "this"

CHAPTER V.

Other examples of his mercy: his stupendous patience under accusations.

The Saint's headlong effusion toward the poor proved by a pleasant occurrence. Another time too, when a certain poor man had asked alms from John, and he did not have at hand what he might give him; hastily entering the house, he took hose from his chamber, which he secretly gave to the poor man: in which there was so great an eagerness for conferring alms, that improvidently he snatched both hose fitting only one leg: but when the next night his chaplain held out the hose to him, he found that both fitted only one leg: which indeed he thought could not otherwise have happened, unless the Bishop the day before, hasty and improvident, had given the hose to some poor man asking alms. And the matter being thus found out, the chaplain began sharply to be disturbed against the Bishop, and to accuse, reprove, and detest this profuse bestowal of his toward the poor, as foolish and unreasonable. But the Bishop, with all humility and meekness, took care to soothe the chaplain and render him quiet; and besought him never to say this to anyone, while there was life to him: for he promised that he would most swiftly provide for this business.

[42] It happened too that a certain man, who had rented the garden of the bishopric, when he had brought money in copper coin to the Bishop's procurator for the renting of the garden, the procurator rejected it; asserting that he wished silver money, and not copper. Then the gardener, who was also poor, was filled with sadness:

for he was affected with a grave loss, if he should be compelled to exchange this copper money for silver. And while he, sad and mournful in mind, was turning this over, he met a certain friend of his: to whom, when he had disclosed the cause of his sadness, that friend of his said: "If you would follow my counsel, hasten to the Bishop; and disclose to him your need and poverty, and beseech him to accept this copper money, which his procurator refused to accept: for I in no way doubt that he will comply with you. Truly he himself is pious toward the poor, kind, and merciful. But beware of his procurator: for if he should see you approach the Bishop, he would not admit you."

[43] The gardener, silently observing his friend's suggestion, he gives part to the gardener himself, part to the poor: craftily, the procurator being unaware, came to the Bishop with great trust, and reverently, the whole matter being narrated which a little before he had had with his procurator, the Bishop answered him: "Have you the money here?" To whom he said: "I have." Then the Bishop said: "Of that money take for yourself only as much as you can take with your hand, and hide it in your bosom; and come with me." But when the Bishop had gone down into the court of the bishopric, he found a crowd of the poor demanding alms, to whom he straightway distributed the remainder of the money with his own hand; and sent the gardener, a receipt being given him for the money paid, home glad, cheerful, and joyful. Which the Bishop's procurator afterward understanding, began greatly to grieve with the Bishop: but the Bishop strove to render him peaceable and appeased; saying that to give the things that are the poor's to them accorded with right and reason.

[44] With these and similar works of piety this most holy Pastor strove daily to exercise himself: himself poor and a lover of rigor. to whom it was troublesome and most grievous to abound, and to see Christ's poor in want; whose goods he said were the things which he himself possessed. Therefore in food he was sparing, in dress moderate: who, although he was set in the episcopal summit, never forsook the austerity of life, the starvation of fasts, the harshness of disciplines, the hardness of his couch, as if he were in the Order of the Jesuati a.

IX.

[45] The Lord, wishing to crown this most faithful servant of his John, like a most valiant athlete, with the precious laurel of manifold gems, By a chaplain, whom he strove to recall to amendment, permitted strong waves to rage against him. For this most holy Man, watching over the flock committed to him, whatever he perceived to be diseased, that he soon gave labor to cure; despising the exasperation of the diseased sheep, he strove to induce spiritual health. He had a certain chaplain, an undisciplined man, savage in morals, and foul with a base life. This man he did not cease many times with paternal admonitions to admonish and exhort to seize virtue and to put vices to flight from him: which the chaplain, by no means providing for his own cure, was not ashamed to make little of: and against his pious Father and physician he began wholly to rage with an insane spirit. Wherefore, stirred by a diabolical spirit, like Judas, this wicked man did not fear before all to say, affirm, and attest by oath false things about his Bishop, father, and most holy pastor: and especially this most wicked tare he strove to sow before the marquis of Ferrara, and to thrust it with the most powerful mattocks of iniquity into the mind of the marquis, some courtiers, who continually attended the marquis, being taken with him.

[46] Of so great boldness and impudence was this wretch, he is denounced as seditious before the marquis of Ferrara, that he was not at all ashamed with a lying mouth, a wicked mind, and a false tongue to put into the ears of the prince, that John (a meek, pure, and humble man, wont to bless, and not to curse) was sowing throughout the city of Ferrara in the hearts of his citizens infinite curses against him the prince and marquis, that the goodwill of the whole city might be taken from him, and might render all the citizens hostile to him. Which the marquis, hearing (for this minister of the devil had covered all things over with a certain color of truth by sagacious cunning), easily believed: whence then strong waves of tribulations and persecutions rose up against the Bishop.

[47] But the Man of God, who gloried in the testimony of his conscience, patiently bearing the wicked accusation; bore all things with even mind, foreseeing that this was the path of Christ Jesus our Savior and the road of the Saints: whose glory, jubilation, and joy it was, for the love of Christ, to do well and to suffer evils; and the more he perceived the strong tempest of persecutions rising against him, with so much the greater trust was he comforted in the Lord, with whom he did not doubt that the copious reward of his labors was laid up. But against the iniquity of those detracting from him he rose up with no other arms than devout prayer: to which, as the refreshment, solace, and gladness of his mind, he had recourse frequently every day. He rejoiced too in a wondrous manner to lead his life in the way of punishments and of the cross; by which alone, he asserted, he was conformed to his Savior, and coupled, united, and joined into one with him.

[48] When therefore this savage tempest of tribulations had lasted a long time against him, yet he composes his apology, found after his death; by which the divine honor was neglected, and the heap of manifold evils was increased daily more; he resolved to write a letter b to the marquis of Ferrara, in which he described his whole life and the especial and singular spiritual gifts divinely conferred upon him by God: which he did not to catch human praise and the favor of men, but to defend the truth: and to procure the salvation of the flock of the Lord committed to him. Nor do we think that the most clement Lord willed this savage storm of tribulations to come upon his most faithful Servant, that it might avail only to him for a crown; but that to us who come after the virtues of this Man might lie open; which were to profit much for our edification.

[49] Yet the Man of God changed his purpose: [for he preferred to go into voluntary exile to the Pontiff, than to send it to the marquis.] for he would not send that letter to the marquis, but hid it in the straw of his little bed; which our Paulinus c, a man full of God, after the Bishop's death, found hidden in the inner parts of the straw of the bed. Whence, having trust in the Lord, he committed himself wholly to that divine disposition which deceives no one. Tribulations therefore growing frequent on every side, this most holy Man, God inspiring him, according to the doctrine of the Apostle Paul, disposed to give place to wrath, and, lest others should suffer scandal on his account, chose voluntary exile. Wherefore he betook himself to Eugene the Fourth, who was then at Florence d; with whom he was most welcome.

[50] And so when the holy Bishop had been for some while absent from his episcopal see, The marquis, repenting, demands him back as a suppliant through an envoy; the marquis of Ferrara began to recognize the grave fault of his error committed against the Bishop, and much to detest that he had given the holy Bishop occasion of absenting himself, to the grave loss of the souls of his people. Whence he sent an envoy to Eugene the Fourth, a suppliant to his Holiness, that he would not regard those things which the marquis himself had done against his Bishop. But that he would kindly accept him, a suppliant, groaning over the fault of his guilt and asking pardon; and would restore to him and to his city their own Pastor, by the special gift of the grace of his Holiness.

[51] The Pontiff, bearing grievously the injuries and persecutions unjustly brought upon the Bishop, sent back the marquis's envoy to him, writing in these words: but he does not obtain it, being gravely rebuked by the Pontiff, "Beloved son, since you have by no means known the sanctity, doctrine, and goodness of John of Tossignano, or rather have refused to know it; it was fitting, your merits and those of your people demanding it, that it should be most evidently shown to the whole world that you and your people are unworthy of so great a Man, the most radiant mirror of the Church militant. By whose deprivation, in punishment of your iniquities and those of your people, we condemn you together with your people, and refuse to send him back to you. Nay, we resolve to retain this holy Man with us, as a precious jewel, in the sacred cabinet of the holy Church."

[52] The marquis, the Pontiff's letter being read, was worn out with inmost grief: until through himself he supplicated before Eugene IV. and, made wholly uncertain, he knew not what to do, or whither to turn himself. At length he resolved to show himself personally before the Pontiff, humbled and pricked for the error committed. Whence he went to Florence, and humbly prostrating himself before the Pontiff, begged pardon for his error, and with the highest prayers entreated the restitution of his Pastor. For the Lord had wonderfully kindled the marquis's heart into love of the Bishop. Which the Pontiff himself beholding, opened the bosom of mercy to the marquis and his supplications: and, a paternal admonition being first given to the marquis, holding the Bishop by the hand, he restored him to the marquis: whom with all his strength he commended to him, namely to the marquis. Very greatly indeed was the Pontiff affected toward John the bishop, on account of his singular sanctity. The marquis, his pastor received from the Pontiff, came glad to Ferrara. To whom afterward, on account of the Man's innocence and integrity, he always showed reverence, obedience, and honor in all things, while he lived.

ANNOTATIONS.

* Scal. "would permit"

* read "receipt"

* or "exasperation"?

* read "wicked tare"

* "would catch"

* read "guilt"

CHAPTER VI.

He clothes Christ under the form of a poor man; he restrains the overflowing Po; he assigns an unknown house by a miracle; he dies most holily, of a most bitter disease.

Certain priests, gray in morals and age, religious men, were wont to narrate to us; to whom, on account of the probity of their life and the familiar intimacy which they had with blessed John the bishop, credit must altogether be given; sworn witnesses narrate but especially to one of these priests, whose name was Octavian: for he strove utterly, with all solicitude, zeal, care, and vigilance, to imitate the most holy life of the Bishop: who, as often as it fell to him to recount the virtues of John the bishop, could not narrate them to his hearers without tears: but among other stupendous things which he himself and his companions were wont to narrate concerning the Bishop, they attested this to us several times, by the sacrament of the truth as their medium:

[54] For it happened that a certain poor man, half-naked, worn out with manifold wounds, that under the form of a poor man Christ was clothed by him. came to John the bishop into the inner parts of the episcopal house, and with a tearful voice demanded that he take pity on him: whom, as soon as the Bishop beheld, he was wholly turned to compassion of the poor man. Whence without delay he turned himself to certain cloths fit for clothing the poor man: but, in clothing him for the love of Christ Jesus, the Bishop's heart exulted inwardly with no other gladness than if

he were clothing Christ personally with his own hands: which afterward the truth of the matter demonstrated. For the Bishop, while he was engaged about this act of piety, the chamberlain of the city of Ferrara and Peter Bracius, who held the office of the bell, having entered the episcopal house, and approaching the Bishop's chamber, saw the Bishop clothing this poor man with the greatest alacrity; who, not being seen by the Bishop, holding back their step, would not proceed further, until this work of piety had been accomplished by him. But the poor man being clothed, the Bishop dismissed him: and turning his back, he betook himself to other things. Soon the poor man, leaving on the ground the cloths with which he had been clothed by the Bishop, vanished.

[55] Which the chamberlain of the city, together with his companion, beholding, struck with astonishment, entered the Bishop's chamber; as far as could be conjectured from the outcome: and the chamberlain, the Bishop being saluted, said: "Most reverend Father, whither went the poor man who was just now with you?" But the Bishop, thinking that he had been seen neither by the chamberlain nor by the chamberlain's companion nor by any of his household, began to marvel greatly at the chamberlain's words. And turning to the chamberlain and his companion, he beheld nothing else than the cloths, with which a little before he had clothed the poor man, lying on the ground. Which indeed was a most true indication that that poor man had been Christ; who wished to show to this most chosen Servant of his how pleasing and welcome to him were his pious works toward the poor; since he had deigned to be clothed by him in the form of a poor man. Which since John the bishop could by no means hide from the chamberlain and his companion, he constrained them with such prayers and commands as he could, that, as long as he himself was in this life, they should never reveal the aforesaid to anyone: which the chamberlain, who was called Martin de Schiveto, together with his companion, most faithfully observed until the death of John the bishop; which afterward occurring, before many they both manifested this wonderful and stupendous miracle with most effective words.

[56] The overflowing Po Another time too, when the Po, which flows past near the walls of Ferrara, had swelled with a vast increase of waters; so that it flooded the fields far and wide and nearly the whole city; (which indeed was so great a terror to the marquis of Ferrara and the people, that they utterly knew not what to do, or whither to turn themselves) the Man of God, full of faith, white with purity of life, humble before God and men, called forth a certain priest of his; to whom he handed a short slip inscribed with these words: "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you, O river, that you hastily return to your accustomed place," and enjoined him to throw it into the Po, uttering the aforesaid words, the sign of the cross being applied. Which that priest, smiling and making little of it, refused to carry out and to obey the Bishop's command.

[57] But the kind Pastor, patiently bearing the unworthy recalcitrance of his subject, he restrains it into its channel by a signal miracle. himself in processional order most devoutly proceeded with the clergy to the Po: and standing upon the bank, his eyes first raised to heaven, uttering the aforesaid words in the name of Christ, threw that slip, the sign of the cross being made, into the water. Soon the water (wonderful to say!) flowed down with most swift course to its accustomed and old place: and thus all the fields and the city were wonderfully freed from that great inundation of waters by the virtue of the merits of this holy Man. Affected by which singular benefit, the people of Ferrara began, with one voice resounding to heaven, to render praises to God, the immense bestower of all graces. This wonderful thing, and worthy of all astonishment, Zanello, a carpenter, son of Bartholomew the barber, affirmed to us now, with great devotion, that he had beheld with his own eyes, and had stood by in that order of the procession a.

[58] Another time too, when it was announced to John the bishop By another miracle he assigns to his procurator an unknown house, that a most poor woman, utterly destitute of everything necessary for living, was lying in childbed upon bare straw, at this word the most pious Father was soon inwardly pierced with the arrow of compassion: who, drunk in the commiseration of this most poor woman, not asking the messenger in what house and place of the city this wretched poor woman was staying, hastily called forth the procurator of his house, and commanded him that without delay he cause all things opportune for living to be carried to this needy woman in childbed. But the procurator answered that he could not carry this out, since he himself was ignorant of the lodging of this needy woman in childbed. Then the Bishop, lest that which he had with all piety enjoined upon the procurator should be delayed, said: "Take this handkerchief, and direct your steps toward the church of St. Dominic, and at that place where the handkerchief which I have given you shall fall from your hands, there knock at the nearest house b: for in it you will find this needy woman in childbed." The procurator, giving no credit to the Bishop's words, began to smile and make little of it: but the Bishop said: "Go you, and faithfully carry out what I have ordered."

[59] The procurator went out of the house with porters, loaded with everything necessary for the living of this woman in childbed, to bring alms to the needy woman in childbed. and said within himself: "So strictly will I hold this handkerchief in my hands, that it will not be able to slip from my hands except by divine power." What more? It is manifest that human counsels cannot prevail over the divine disposition. For when the procurator with the porters had approached the house of this needy woman in childbed, he beheld the handkerchief not in his hands, but lying on the ground near the house of the indigent woman in childbed; whereby he knew the sloth of his presumption, and beheld the sanctity of the Bishop. Wherefore he knocked more devoutly at the door of the house, and gave the Bishop's alms to the woman lying in childbed and most greatly needy: whom afterward he always followed with the highest reverence.

[60] He labors most gravely and most patiently under an excoriation of the bladder. Thus the most blessed father John, conspicuous to the whole world for his holy morals, splendid in abstinence, when he shone like the morning star in the Church of God, and had already most holily governed the church of Ferrara for fourteen years and a half c, it pleased the divine goodness to free him from this unhappy prison of our body, and for his merits to bestow on him the crown of immortal felicity, whom he had known to have labored faithfully in the vine committed to him: which, that he might grant it to him with an ampler magnificence of glory, he d, who beholds all things from on high, permitted him to be tortured with a most grave sickness, surrounded with the greatest pains, which by the physicians e is called an excoriation of the bladder f. This the holy Man tolerated most patiently: who, the more grievously he was tortured with pain, with the more alert mind, like an unconquered athlete not yielding to the fight, gave praises and thanksgivings to God.

[61] Seeking the sacred Viaticum, he indulges his pious affections, And so when he beheld his body, which he had before dried up with fasts, vigils, disciplines, and very many other abstinences, now approaching the setting of his life, the impending sickness furnishing the greatest fuel to this; he humbly and devoutly demanded that the sacred body of our Lord Jesus Christ be administered to him, and ordered his body to be buried in the oratory of St. Jerome of the poor Jesuati, whom he was leaving as the imitators and heirs of his humility. For the mind of this holy Man was not wearied by abstinences, not depressed by the bitterness of sickness, but cheerful, pleasant, and glad he lifted his eyes to heaven, and, sighing to God, his face glowing with a certain wonderful light, said: "Most sweet Jesus, father and redeemer of my soul, when will be that hour, awaited by me with so longing a desire, in which, the earthen veil of this body being laid down, you will deign to call forth my spirit to yourself, its father, creator, and receiver? O how glad, how pleasant, how welcome and festive to me, Lord, will that hour be! Since out of your many mercies you have dealt mercifully with me. Receive therefore the spirit which you created, which you redeemed with your blood, which by grace and kindness with its body you mercifully cherished in this present toilsome pilgrimage."

[62] He is fortified with the Sacraments, illuminated by a heavenly ray: When he said these things, a priest, adorned with sacred garments, reverently carried the Sacrament of the Eucharist to the blessed Man; which when he had beheld before him, wholly poured out in tears, he affirmed himself to be guilty, and professed himself unworthy of so great a gift. Certainly no human tongue could express, nor pen write out, the humility of this blessed Man, which he then showed before them; which indeed was for the profit and edification of all the bystanders. And Zanello the carpenter, whom we mentioned above, attested that at that time he saw a most splendid ray descend from heaven upon the roof of the couch on which this Man, tending to death, lay sick, and there shine wonderfully for a notable space of time. Refreshed therefore with the nourishment of the sacred body of Jesus Christ, and anointed with the holy unction, the blessed Man began to render his soul to his creator.

[63] Which our Paulinus g noticing, [he pledges his aid to his people: he dies most holily in 1446, on the 24th of July.] most devoutly commended himself with the sons whom he had begotten in Christ Jesus to the blessed Man passing to the glory of eternal felicity, saying: "Blessed Father, you have never ceased to cherish us by your examples, by your exhortations, by your holy works; so we ask your piety that your spirit may not forsake this poor family of yours, which you have so often refreshed with the milk of your piety, before the sight of the Lord; but that you would deign assiduously to intercede for us before God in the sight of so great a glory, that we too, your children, may be able to come to our creator." This indeed he liberally promised he would do; and, a blessing being granted to Paulinus and the whole poor family who demanded it, uttering the holy name of Jesus, he delivered his blessed spirit to God on the twenty-fourth day of July, at the fifteenth hour h, in the year of salvation one thousand four hundred forty-six: by whom he was happily crowned with the glory of eternal beatitude; as many clear miracles after his death, wrought by him, the divine grace bestowing it, manifestly attest, to the praise of God, to whom alone is the hymn, honor, and glory, world without end. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

This miracle was in the year 1720 most elegantly engraved on copper at Ferrara, of which we received a likeness expressed in large folio; but because, besides the exhibition of the history, nothing in it is redolent of antiquity, we pass it over. Braut in the metrical Martyrology at the 4th of July celebrates that same thing in this distich:

"John saved his wealth, and saved the city, and made the waters of the swelling Eridanus [Po] stand still."

* Scalabr. "would take pity"

* Scal. "being taken"

* perhaps "that" or "when"

* perhaps "the woman in childbed"

* for "was ignorant"

* or "there" or "in that place"?

* or "magnificence"?

* more rightly "call forth"

* or "therefore"?

MIRACLES

By the same author.

John of Tossignano, bishop and confessor, of the Order of the Jesuati, at Ferrara. (Blessed)

PROLOGUE.

The author now undertakes the miracles wrought in his death and after it. Although our Lord Jesus Christ adorned blessed John the bishop, as we have described in his Life, with manifold virtues, that he might shine like a star in the whole world; yet in his death, and after death, he willed to render him remarkable and to be venerated by mortals by very many wonderful works; both that he might sweetly invite them to his love; and that the life of this holy Man might lie open to be imitated by the illustrious faithful. To writing whose wonderful works, Christ Jesus being our guide, we set our hand.

CHAPTER I.

The Blessed one's soul seen to be borne into heaven by angels; various miracles both before and after the funeral rites were performed.

Andrew the Dominican, Christ and the Saints rejoicing, At the time of the most happy departure of blessed John, bishop of Ferrara, there was at Ferrara a certain religious, Andrew by name, of the Order of Preachers, a Mantuan by nation; who now for twenty-five years labored under a grave infirmity: on account of which he was so consumed that he could have power over not even the least part of his body. And when one night he lay in his little bed, oppressed with sleep, this vision was foreshown to him. It seemed to him that he was present in a certain most beautiful meadow, and there he beheld a church constructed of wondrous beauty, in which ministers were spreading a royal throne: and in it a King established, thronged with a crowd of men and women, he beheld a certain priest, magnificently adorned with sacred garments, proceed to the holy altar, and there reverently perform the solemnities of the Mass, the King with that crowd of men and women most devoutly standing by. This Mass being completed, soon he heard aerial songs sweetly resound; and lifting his eyes to heaven, he saw angels singing the antiphon: "This is that disciple who was never ashamed to serve God, whose life was most poor and humble, and gracious to all," descend from heaven.

[3] And when he pondered within himself for what this great solemnity was performed, he sees John's soul led into heaven by angels; he asked one of the bystanders: "Who are these who are here present; and why is this so solemn a feast performed?" It was answered: "He whom you behold standing on the royal throne is our Lord Jesus Christ; but he who celebrated the Mass is Peter, prince of the apostolic senate: the rest, who stand around the King, are the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, and Confessors: but those women are the holy Virgins, whose queen is the Mother of God: whom you behold glittering with greater splendor than the others. And the singing angels, whom you saw descend from heaven, will carry the blessed soul of John, bishop of Ferrara, to the eternal Jerusalem, the homeland of the blessed: on this account this solemnity has been celebrated with so great joy." These things said, that vision disappeared; and straightway he beheld the angels bearing the soul of John the bishop, brighter than the sun, singing that antiphon, to the heavenly homeland a.

[4] Awakened by the sweetness of this song, brother Andrew by whose aid, implored for the confirmation of the vision, began to repeat within himself the vision he had had: and when, not knowing what he should do, after revolving many things with doubtful mind, he resolved to test the truth of the vision. Whence, turned to God with devout heart, he prayed with humble voice thus: "Lord God, who from yourself and in your Saints art glorious, whom, placing them with you in eternal beatitude, your magnificence makes wonderful and glorious, that rational spirits may know how pleasing to you are those who love you; deign, most merciful God, on account of the multitude of your mercies, and by the merits of this blessed man John the bishop, if this vision is true, which you have now made me see, to free me from this long and grave infirmity which I suffer." Then, turned to blessed John, he poured out this humble prayer: "John, blessed Man of God, if, not deceived by a false illusion, but taught by the truth of illumination, I saw you glorious in the vision lately foreshown to me, ascending into heaven with angelic song accompanying; I pray you, that on account of your illustrious merits before God, you would deign to obtain the grace of my health from the most merciful Lord Jesus Christ."

[5] O the supreme power of God! O the fruitful and welcome intercession of the blessed Man! he is freed from an incurable sickness of 25 years. and O the singular patronage of those who piously cry to you! He who for twenty-five years had patiently endured a grave infirmity, and could be healed by no remedy of the physicians, the next morning rose from his bed whole and healthy. The brothers of the monastery ran to the stupendous miracle, worthy of all admiration, and beheld brother Andrew wholly free from so grave an infirmity. They filled heaven with sonorous voices, giving thanksgivings to God and blessed John with hymns and Psalms. And Andrew, mindful of the benefit received, published certain verses in praise of blessed John, who now glorious among the Blessed reigns in heaven.

[6] To a nun scarcely at length reaching the Blessed one's bier While the body of blessed John, placed on a bier, was still in the episcopal palace, the clergy preparing his burial, an innumerable multitude of the people, out of devotion to their lately deceased Pastor and Father, ran frequently: and whoever could kiss the hands or feet of the blessed Man said that he would be happy and blessed. There had come in this frequent throng of the people a certain religious woman of the third Order of St. Francis; that she too with great devotion might touch and kiss the body of the blessed Man. But she was shut out by the frequent multitude of the people, so that she could not approach the bier: for there was present round about a very great crowd of all the wretched about the body of this holy Man, who bewailed with most bitter tears the support of their needy life, snatched from them by death. For these causes, therefore, when this devout woman could not touch the body of the blessed Man, she withdrew into a corner of that place where the body lay; until an opportunity of fulfilling her devotion should be offered to her.

[7] pains of 30 years are removed by the touch of his hand. For this woman had suffered for thirty years a very great pain of the head, with which she was so frequently afflicted that each month for several days it was not possible for her to find rest either sitting, or walking, or lying; but, overcome by the sharpness of the pain, like a frenzied and mad woman, she tossed herself here and there. When therefore she remained in that corner of the episcopal palace thus separated from the multitude of the people, full of singular faith and wholly glowing with devotion, she spoke thus with herself: "O! if the divine goodness should grant me to touch the hand of this blessed Father with my forehead; by his merits before God interceding, I trust that I shall altogether obtain the liberation of this most grave and long-lasting pain." In which faith and devotion she firmly persisting, an opportunity being at length offered her, she approached the holy body: and, the feet of blessed John being kissed, and her forehead placed upon the hands of the blessed body, she was straightway freed from the pain of the head; and thus departed healthy and free, so that in the future she was never vexed by that pain.

[8] At the Saint's funeral rites, a long-lasting scab of the head is removed. On the same day, when the funeral rites of this blessed Man were celebrated by the clergy in the greater church of Ferrara, a circle of religious most devoutly stood about the funeral, celebrating the psalmody: many of whom, with a certain devotion, touched the face of blessed John with their candles; a certain German, Bertold by name, who was there present, resolved that he too with his biretta would touch the face of the blessed Man; having full faith that from this touch he would be freed from the diseased scab of the head under which he labored, from which for twenty years now he had not been able to be healed by any aid of physicians. He approached the coffin, and devoutly with his own biretta touched the face of blessed John; then placed the biretta on his head; and straightway that putrid scab fell from his head, and he came away free and healthy from that disease.

[9] John of Albano b, when he had his neck infested with a pestiferous disease c, approached blessed John: to whom, the disease being disclosed, the Man of God made the sign of the cross over John's neck; Before his death, by the sign of the cross he healed one plague-stricken. and he came away free from the disease: and of this miracle the lord Nicholas and the lord Jerome, sons of the same John of Albano, informed us.

[10] Jacob of Argenta, who dwells at Ferrara in the neighborhood of the vineyard Tarata d, He gives vigor to a girl's hands and feet, invoked by a vow; had a three-year-old daughter, who had become withered in hands and feet, and could be cured by no aid of physicians. On a certain day, when he was hearing Vespers in church, and revolving in his mind his daughter's disease, he remembered the sanctity of blessed John: and wholly dissolved in devotion to the blessed Man

he made a vow to him for his daughter's liberation. And when he afterward returned home after Vespers, he found his daughter, by the merits of blessed John, wholly free from the infirmity. Which he himself beholding, mindful and grateful for the benefit received, glad and devout placed a statue of his daughter with an offering of money at the sepulcher of the Man of God.

[11] The honorable woman Joanna, wife of master Dominic Corlesi, a seller of fruits, narrated to us likewise he frees another from an atrocious pain, appearing to her grandmother. that, when she was in the eighth year of her age, she suffered an atrocious pain for five months: and she was tortured with so continual a torment that it was not possible for her to find or take rest in any way, neither by the rocking of the cradle, nor by being carried here and there in her parents' arms. And she was so attenuated by this pain, and consumed in the strength of her nature, that she could take no food except broth e, and that in a small quantity. When therefore she now seemed near to death; one night blessed John appeared to her grandmother, and testified that her granddaughter would be freed from the infirmity. This vision being received, she called Dominic, her son and Joanna's father; and, the vision being manifested, both most devoutly pouring out prayers to the blessed Man, vowed, if by his merits they should obtain their daughter's liberation and health, to place a statue in the likeness of Joanna at his sepulcher, in memory of the benefit received and in praise of the blessed Man. This vow being uttered, soon Joanna took sleep, and from morning until evening slept most quietly: and afterward, raising herself from sleep, she found herself made free from all pain and unharmed.

[12] A certain son of the aforesaid Joanna was vexed with so atrocious a suffering of the stomach, Pains of the stomach extinguished by the Saint's ring. by which the stomach was inflated with a wonderful swelling, and the eyes seemed to wish to go out from their proper seats. Wherefore many asserted that this youth labored under the epileptic disease. But the mother, who had not long before experienced in herself the virtue of the merits of blessed John, most devoutly commended her own son to the blessed Man; and then caused him to be signed with the pontifical ring of blessed John in the manner of a cross: which done, suddenly, aided by the merits of the blessed Man, he came away free from that grave suffering of the stomach.

ANNOTATIONS.

* Scal. "proceed"

* read "within"

* Scal. "of that woman"

* Scal. "John," less rightly.

CHAPTER II.

The continuation of the miracles.

Pain of the eyes, scab, ulceration of the breasts are healed. Lucia, wife of Ercole Rigoni the baker, who now dwells at Ferrara near the house of God, was atrociously wearied with a grave pain of the eyes; which was so vehement that she was utterly deprived of sight. At length, having recourse to the most devout memory of blessed John, her eyes being signed with his pontifical ring, suddenly by the merits of the Blessed one she received her sight and was freed from the pain.

When a barber had shaved the crown of the head of Jacob the clerk, whom the order of the diaconate adorned, with a razor with which he had shaved the scabby head of another, straightway his head was infected with that scab: with which he was tortured with the greatest pain. And when he was thus wholly anxious in mind at this novelty of the matter, the next morning with the highest devotion he came to the sepulcher of blessed John; and there, a prayer being made, he caused his head to be signed with the episcopal ring; then he placed the biretta of the blessed Man on his head: which done, all the hair with that scab soon fell away, and he came away free and healthy from that disease.

Lucia, wife of Ercole Rigoni, of whom we made mention above, had a leg swollen in a wonderful manner, her breasts too beset with ulcers: with which she was tortured with a vehement pain. And when she could not bring aid to herself with medicines, she ran to blessed John with her accustomed devotion for succor, full of faith; and caused her leg and the wounds of her breasts to be signed with the pontifical ring of the blessed Man: which done, she was soon restored to her former health.

[14] A diabolical illusion driven off by the Saint's discipline: A noble man, Ludovico Gualengo b, when he once labored under a grave infirmity, as often as he beheld his parents before him, so often, deceived by an illusion of the demon, he seemed to himself to see as many malignant spirits standing before him; terrified by whose horrible sight, he covered his sight with linen cloths. This, the parents being ignorant of the cause, was the greatest grief. And so when they knew not what should be done about this, one of the bystanders exhorted them to strive with all diligence to have relics of blessed John; that with them the sign of the holy cross might be made over their son laboring under this grave disease, having all faith that Ludovico himself would be freed from this illusion. The parents assented to the words of the advising friend. And when it was reported to them that the venerable lord Octavian Novello c, canon of the greater church of Ferrara, had some relics of blessed John, straightway they destined their messenger to him: who soon coming to the sick man, brought with him the discipline of the blessed Man: and it being held out in Ludovico's hand, the parents offering themselves to the son's sight, were graciously beheld by the son, and in the future he always beheld them with a glad sight; and thus by the merits of the blessed Man both son and parents were together made glad.

[15] Blasia, once wife of Francis Brusantini, blindness, fever, plague removed; had a son still established in boyish age: who was blind: him the mother with all devotion of mind, full of faith, commended to blessed John, and uttered a vow for the expected benefit, promising to have a Mass celebrated in honor of almighty God and the blessed man John, if by his merits she could obtain light and sight for her son. This vow being performed, her son received his sight. Of which miracle the lord John de Capo, who celebrated the Mass, informed us.

Humilitas de Porto had a son laboring under a continual fever; him the mother, anxious for her son's safety, commended to blessed John and caused to be signed with his episcopal ring, and straightway he came away free from the fever.

John Avanzi of Ferrara, infected with the plague, vowed to blessed John a statue of his own image for the expected liberation; and, the vow being made, he was straightway wonderfully freed from the plague.

[16] Bernardina d suffered a flux of blood: which when she had endured for several years, likewise a flux of blood, the sweat of Blessed John's image being applied. and could provide against this disease by no remedies of the physicians, once when she had come to the sepulcher of blessed John as companion of a certain woman who was vexed by an unclean spirit; she beheld the face of the image of blessed John, sculpted on the upper stone of the sepulcher, emit sweat: absorbed by which astonishment into an affection of devotion toward the blessed Man, full of faith she wiped away a little of the sweat with her own hand from the aforesaid face; and touched the place where she suffered the flux of blood: and straightway she was freed from that long and lasting suffering by the merits of this blessed Man: which afterward she herself disclosed with her own mouth and of her own accord.

[17] The illustrious lord Rainald of Este, son of lord Nicholas of Este marquis of Ferrara e, Deadly pains cease suddenly. once was tortured with a most grave pain; the liberation from which since he could obtain by no aid of physicians, he awaited death alone, which is the one remedy of all pains. Thus therefore, nearer to death than to life, the memory of blessed John came into his mind; whose sanctity revolving with devout mind, he most devoutly poured out prayers to the blessed Man, and by vow dedicated a statue of his own image, for the perpetual memory of the benefit received, at his sepulcher. This done, by the merits of the blessed Man he took sleep. Then, awakened, he found himself free and utterly immune from that most grave pain.

[18] The Man of God John, when he once had come to visit a certain woman of the Malabarbi f; While the Blessed one lived he detected the wiles of a demon, vexed by a demon, and moreover nearly consumed by diabolical spells; as John de Santaria narrated to us; not long after, a priest came to the sick woman with the sacred body of our Lord Jesus Christ, both to communicate her, and to compel the spirit vexing her to go out of that body by conjurations. When the priest had scarcely come within the chamber with the Sacrament of the Lord's body, that woman straightway seemed, turned to vomiting, to vomit up nails, needles, and fragments of bronze. Those who were present at this spectacle all were astonished; and one, who held the vessel of vomiting at the woman's mouth, began to contend with blessed John whether the things which this woman had vomited were real. And he asserted that they were real; but on the contrary the Man of God asserted the truth: for that the nails, needles, and fragments of bronze were not real, but seemed so by a diabolical wile; and this, the devil deceiving the eyes of the bystanders: but that one, resisting the blessed Man with an obstinate brow, putting his hand into the basin, lifted the nails, needles, and fragments of bronze with his hand, and held them out to the Bishop, that he might see; which he also showed to all the bystanders to be beheld.

[19] and expelled him from the possessed woman. But the Man of God, seeing their blindness, commanded the unclean spirit to go out of that woman's body. This being commanded, with the greatest stench the unclean spirit went out of that body: and the things which before were beheld as nails and needles and fragments of bronze, they now behold as nothing but phlegm, as according to the truth it before was. Then the Man of God laid open the devil's wile, and drove away the blindness of the bystanders, asserting that such things were not nails, not needles, nor fragments of bronze, but phlegm; adding: "Most dear sons, I saw the unclean spirit standing at the woman's mouth; that with his wiles and false deceptions he might deceive you. Beware of him, and do not give credit to his works; lest destruction lead you into error: from which it is difficult for a deceived man to rise again."

[20] [Three demons are cast out, the Blessed one's image sweating; likewise several others.] Agnes, wife of Ludovico Denti, vexed by three spirits, soon led to the sepulcher of blessed John, was freed; and as an admirable sign of this liberation granted to her, the face of the image of the blessed Man, sculpted on the stone over the sepulcher, emitted sweat; which with their own eyes the lord Turianus de Ricardo of Ortona, the lord Nicholas of Capua, brother Francis of Germany of the Order of Minors, rector of the church of Sabioncello, and brother

Julianus of Pergamo, prior of the Jesuati in San Girolamo of Ferrara, beheld these things themselves, as did also Ludovicus, husband of the aforesaid Agnes.

Vermia ⁱ, the wife of Sebastianus Poresinus, when she was vexed by eight unclean spirits, was brought to the sepulcher of blessed John; and, an exorcism having been performed by brother Archangelus of the Order of Friars Minor of the Observance, she was freed by the merits of blessed John.

David Borella had a daughter who was vexed by an unclean spirit; and when she had been set upon the sepulcher of blessed John, the spirit, in a certain manner spurning the exorcisms, answered that by the command of blessed John it would never depart from the body of this girl, whom David Borella kept in concubinage, unless David himself should espouse her. And as soon as she was espoused by David, presently that girl was freed from the unclean spirit by the merits of blessed John.

[21] The author's epilogue. The end of this work, to the praise of God and the glory of blessed John of Tossignano, of the Order of the Jesuati and bishop of the city of Ferrara: by whose merits I beseech the most high Father of mercies that he deign to blot out my sins, and to grant that the remainder [*] of my life be free from all sins, and at the end to bestow eternal felicity. Amen ^k.

[22] Augustinus Villa ^l, son of Lancilotus Villa, a man of fifty, having suffered a burning of the urine ^m for eight months (as often happens from sicknesses, Being at the point of death from the burning of the urine, he at once recovers. that sufferers rush headlong into the worse), fell into an ulceration of the kidneys and of the neck of the bladder and of the old ⁿ, passing no small quantity of pus with the pains of a woman in labor in his urination: so that it was judged both by physicians and by others that his life was as good as ended. Seeing which, he, turning to our Lord Jesus, having first made confession of his sins, and having committed prayers to many religious servants of God to obtain his safety and health, vowed this waxen statue of his own measure to God the Father almighty, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, and to blessed John of Tossignano, bishop of Ferrara, buried in this oratory of the poor Jesuati. And straightway, in the night, where before only restlessness and pain were his companions, he began to rest; and day by day, marvelously convalescing beyond the belief of all, he was brought into a better state of health than he had been in before he had thus fallen; and so that, by the divine grace working through the merits of the aforesaid blessed John, he says that he has as it were risen from the dead.

ANNOTATIONS.

* Scal.: he was dwelling.

* read: he had shaved.

* he had shaved.

* read: to those ignorant etc.

* read: neighboring.

* nay, phlegm.

* or, "and through the remainder of life."

SUPPLEMENT

To the Acts of Blessed John Tossignano, bishop of Ferrara.

John Tossignano, bishop and confessor, of the Order of the Jesuati, at Ferrara (Blessed).

BY FATHER B.

§ I. Certain things omitted in the Acts; which the Blessed one did in the Jesuatic state, from the year 1408 up to 1426.

Certain things omitted in the Acts, or less fully explained; Since our author confesses in the preface to the Life above, at number 3, that he omitted very many things even of those which he had found most true, and selected only the more excellent, lest he should breed weariness in the reader; a desire thereupon came upon others of inquiring more curiously into those things which either he himself knowingly and willingly had passed over, or had merely tasted in passing and cursorily; and of gathering together at the same time all things which, after the age of this writer, have occurred down to our own times. In which matter the industry especially of those whose testimonies we shall here bring forward toiled most happily: as men who thought that whatever concerning so excellent a Man could safely and truly be drawn out from any source and affirmed was sufficiently excellent and worthy of the eagerness of pious readers. Lest therefore anyone should feel the lack of what has been so laboriously sought out, we have undertaken to review it here, keeping, as far as could be done, the reckoning of the time at which each several thing that is narrated was done.

[2] And, to begin from the assumed habit of the Jesuati, it is established indeed from our Acts, chapter 1, that the Venetian residence, from the year 1408 to 1426, number 13, that blessed John, after beginning his novitiate for a few days at Bologna, was ordered to go to Venice; and there abode in the assiduous exercise of eminent virtues; until, summoned by the supreme pontiff with other religious, he betook himself to Rimini, and thence, being presently dismissed, to Bologna; as is narrated in chapter 2, numbers 16 and 17; where in the year 1426 he was elected rector of the monastery of the Jesuati at Ferrara; as you have there, number 18. That here something is lacking, both of clarity and of matters, Scalabrinus detected in the annotations to the Life, and before him Gregorius Ferrarius in the Italian Life, part 2, chapters 3, 4, and 5. They say therefore that the Blessed one dwelt at Venice from the year 1408 up to 1426, and indeed in two convents, of which the first was that of St. Justina, the other that of St. Mary at Elizabeth. In the former they hold that he remained until the year 1415, if you except the delay which detained him at Rimini for some time; whence, having returned in the said year to Venice, having only greeted Spinello at Bologna on the way, he inhabited the second convent until the year 1426.

[3] To the first Venetian residence Ferrarius, part 2, and the mortifications of the body there undertaken; chapter 3, refers the exercises of piety which in our Acts are more briefly described; he adds, however, the use of the discipline, or rather of the scourge, to which John already then began to accustom himself. It was, as the same testifies, plaited of little chains; and it is still to be seen, he says, stained with his sacred blood. And he says that his abstinence was there so severe that the skin alone covered the bones of his little body: and that his various portraits, taken of old while he lived, bear witness to this. It was not permitted to us to see any so ancient; yet those which we shall exhibit below do not disagree, which represent him already a bishop and an old man. Besides this, in the second monastery he is said to have added a most harsh hair-shirt, in the same place, chapter 4, which is still preserved. And indeed Ferrarius believes that he can in a certain manner be reckoned the founder of this cloister, since he promoted its construction by begging alms, by counsel, by his hand: he himself carried the timber, he himself the lime and the stones upon his own shoulders.

[4] Meanwhile a grievous tempest arose at Bologna against the Jesuati, and a suit won against the disparagers of the Jesuati Order, which the diligence especially of blessed John shortly abated. Receive the matter from the Italian Life of Ferrarius which I have mentioned, part 2, chapter 5, where he has it thus: About the year 1424, while Martin V held the Roman See, and Gabriele Condulmerio (who afterwards was Pope Eugenius IV) held the Bolognese legation, when Nicolaus Albergatus, a noble of Bologna, of the Carthusian Order, and celebrated for the holiness of his life, was bishop of Bologna, the Jesuati were haled before the episcopal tribunal, as those who claimed for themselves the rights of religious,

although they neither had a rule, nor a religion approved by the Apostolic See, nor accordingly were to be reckoned in any other order than that of laymen, and, after their manner, were to be subjected to those parish priests within whose bounds their monasteries were contained.

[5] The part of the accusers was fostered by various doctors, to whom they denied that the rights of religious were due; and among others by one Paulus Calcari, a Bolognese, and Franciscus Zabarella, public lecturer of Padua, as is openly plain from ancient writings. They fought with much authority as well as reason; yet in vain, as time taught: for beneath the huge masses which they were raising they had laid most feeble foundations. Meanwhile these bore before them an appearance such as, to those first beholding it, seemed august, and so pernicious to the Order. But because God's cause was being pleaded, it fell out best, that it should be referred to a bishop, and a monk, and a most upright man.

[6] which affair stirred up the whole Order, He summons our Fathers; sets before them the heads of the accusations, and prescribes a just space for defense. Father Spinellus, by no means ignorant to what this storm tended, and foreseeing that the inmost vitals of our religion were being aimed at, felt his mind utterly stricken. Yet, that so great an evil might be met, he divided his men in two: those among them who were unlearned and simple he bids apply themselves to assiduous prayers; but the learned and those excelling in doctrine he summons to himself at Bologna, and there exhorts them to studies and to defending the common cause by writings. Obedience is rendered on both sides: they, indeed, like anxious swallows and moaning doves, with meditation and sighs implore divine aid for the present matter; but these, like eagles, with the keenness of their eyes turned upon the mountains of difficulties set against them, penetrated their beginnings, middles, and ends. The leader and head of all was Spinellus, and together with him a certain father Dominicus of Siena, and father Antonius of Venice.

[7] that the public defense should be committed to blessed John, These transferred so arduous a business to Tossignano; who, having perceived the common danger, gladly embraced the whole of it, and accomplished it with such study and labor that all the victory is ascribed to him alone. Besides the authority and arguments drawn from both laws for the defense of the Order and the confutation of the adversaries, he brought forward into the line of battle a remarkable book (which you would say was composed by him not without a miracle); in which, discoursing of our institute, he showed it to be altogether consonant with the pontifical decrees, the canons of councils, and the authority and rules of the holy Fathers. The inscription of the book was then Memoriale; now it is called the Rule and Constitution.

[8] which this writer so undertook that in the year 1425 Father master Gabriel of Spoleto, an Augustinian, one of those who had been chosen to examine the cause, turned and returned this book; and so at length subscribed himself: "I, brother Gabriel of Spoleto, unworthy professor of the Sacred Page, of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, believe, without doubt, that all things which are written above are true and conformable to the sayings of the sacred Scriptures and of the holy Doctors, and were dictated by the Holy Spirit." Tossignano exhibited it to the Fathers just now mentioned in the month of June of the year 1425, who, admiring it as a prodigious work, joyfully consigned it into the hands of the most reverend bishop.

[9] the adversaries lost their cause, He received it, read it, and, when he recognized that it was divinely dictated, praised it, and preferred it to a thousand reasonings which human ingenuity could devise. Therefore he rejects and rescinds the accusations, and decrees against the plaintiffs that the Jesuati are altogether to be held for religious. Thus what the rivals had forged to procure envy for us afterwards became an incitement to the most religious prelate to cultivate our Order with the greatest veneration he could; which shines forth from various and authentic instruments that survive.

[10] At the news of the suit won, the wretched Jesuati, as if recalled from destruction to life, and the Blessed one triumphed with the Jesuati, so all everywhere exulted with common joy, giving thanks to the Lord, who knows how to bring forth most present antidotes from poisons. Moreover they all revered Tossignano as the one bulwark of their religion, as the one shield which should protect the whole, as, finally, an angel destined by God for the welfare of the new congregation. These things Ferrarius, in his usual luxuriant style. Scalabrinus relates the same matter in his annotations, and adds: We have seen, still in the keeping of the Discalced Brothers of Mount Carmel of the convent of St. Jerome of Ferrara, among their chief writings, documents pertaining to this blessed Man. Those very documents, I think, the learned man wished to be understood, which pertained to the suit just mentioned, which he there describes alone. But since the rest, which preceded blessed John's episcopate, are sufficiently explained above in the Acts, we approach his episcopal state: for as to what Ferrarius says, part 3, chapter 13, that the Jesuati at the time of the aforesaid suit obtained by the exertion of Tossignano the cloister of Verona; this neither does he himself prove; nor does Girolamo dalla Corte mention it, History of Verona, book 14, page 314; where he describes the beginnings of the Jesuati of Verona, and fixes them at the year 1429, when our Blessed one was already for a long time acting at Ferrara. It could, however, be that Eugenius IV, entreated by him out of his affection then toward John, confirmed the possession of the Jesuati at Verona, as he did, on the sixth of the Kalends of July in the year 1432; although of this matter we have no witness.

§ II. Certain things omitted pertaining to his episcopate, up to the year 1435.

When blessed John put on the bishop, he by no means put off the Jesuatus, as is plain from the Acts, chapter 5, The dress of the Blessed one now a bishop, number 44; where, however, concerning his dress it is read not explicitly enough: "In his attire he was moderate." Scalabrinus describes him more distinctly, saying that it was Jesuatic, apart from the miter, staff, gloves, ring, which are the proper ornaments of bishops. And so he thinks that our Bishop applied to his bare feet only sandals. Certainly he is thus represented not only in the image of the year 1528, of which we treated in the preliminary Commentary, §1, number 5; but also in the medal of the year 1446, and in the sepulchral stone, of which below. I do not think, however, that this custom was so perpetual with him that he never intermitted it: for it is established from the Acts, chapter 5, number 41, that he used hose.

[12] His shield, expressed by Ughelli, Italia Sacra, tome 2, and his insignia. column 591, is indeed the family arms of John, yet not that which he used as bishop. Hear Scalabrinus in his annotations: The insignia of the family of the Tavelli, he says, are, in a little green shield, three tiles, which among us are called in the vulgar tongue tavelle, two on the upper side and one on the lower part: although I have found another also from an ancient seal, impressed on red wax, of no small size, and of oblong figure, extending itself into a sharp roundness, after the manner of the Goths, which he used in sealing patent letters at the time of his episcopate. In it appears the image of St. George, protector of Ferrara, riding and slaying the dragon, in the upper part; and in the lower a Bishop, in pontifical garments, with miter and staff, standing between two triangular little shields, one on the right and the other on the left: and upon each of these (although the wax was lost in various places) I found a coat of arms which now, and for a long time, the great hospital of St. Anne, erected by the holy Pontiff, is wont to use; that is, upon three mountains stand, on this side and on that, two doves looking into each other's face, and lifting up their wings, as if beginning to fly; but in the middle and at the bottom stands a comet star. Whether this coat of arms be the family arms of the holy Bishop, or taken from the religion of the Jesuati, who bore a dove in their arms beneath the venerable name of Jesus, cannot be said: yet he himself used it in the episcopal dignity, having relinquished and abdicated the secular and family arms proper to himself. Which afterwards was granted to the great hospital. Round about are read these letters, engraved in Lombardic characters: "Seal of John of Tossignano, by the grace of God bishop of Ferrara."

[13] The visitation of the diocese begun 23 January 1432, What in the Acts, chapter 4, number 37, is very briefly said of his visitations and other episcopal functions, these more recent writers set forth severally, each in its own time. Let Scalabrinus, a truly pious and diligent investigator, begin: thus he has in his annotations to the Life: As soon as he received the governance of his church, he undertook the office of visitation, neglected by his predecessors, beginning from the cathedral, on the 23rd day of January in the year 1432; and afterwards from the priorial church of St. Romanus in the city of Ferrara, which had the cure of souls, formerly a monastery of St. Benedict, but then commended by the Apostolic See to Mainardinus Contrario, bishop of Comacchio; whom, after the solemn Mass had been celebrated, and the word of God preached (which he did daily), he visited in person, and asked what goods his said church had: and Mainardinus gave in writing all things, both movable and immovable. He also visited at the same time and place Dominicus of Albano, chaplain of the same bishop Mainardinus. He afterwards prosecuted the office of visitation in some parish churches and pious places of the city of Ferrara in the same year, up to the month of December, as is plain from the acts (so he calls the instruments which are named notarial) of Martinus Schiveti, then his chancellor.

[14] with the authority of the legate acceding in the same year, 19 February. To the beginnings of this visitation pertain the letters of the legate of Bologna, of which the Acts in the same place make mention, and which Ferrarius in the Italian Life, part 3, chapter 6, thus recites: Fantinus, protonotary, a Venetian, for the most holy our lord Eugenius IV, Pope, and of the Holy Roman Church at Bologna, of the exarchate of Ravenna, and of the other lands of Romagna, governor with the power of legate a latere in temporal and spiritual matters. Desiring that the monasteries, both of the regular Friars and monks, and also of the nuns of Ferrara and its diocese, in [] our Lord Jesus Christ, may follow the firm observance of their rules, and that all the churches also, both exempt and non-exempt, of the said city and diocese, even if they should have another or others as visitors, may be reformed; to you, the most reverend father, lord, lord John, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See most worthy bishop of Ferrara, by the apostolic authority which we exercise as a liberty [], we give, grant, and bestow the power and balia (that is, direction, according to Macri's Hierolexicon, at the word bajulus) of visiting or causing to be visited all and singular the monasteries and churches of the said city and diocese, both exempt and non-exempt, even if they should have another or others as visitors; and of examining the life of the regular Friars, monks, and nuns, and of compelling them, both men and women, to live in observance and holy obedience; that they may be devoted by a right path to the services of our Lord Jesus Christ: and moreover, if there be need, of reforming, modifying, correcting the said monasteries, places, and churches, and of doing all and singular things which shall seem to your Paternity honest, useful, and befitting, for the salvation of souls, and for the worship and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and honor through the infinite ages of ages. In faith whereof we have ordered these our letters to be made, and to be fortified by the affixing of our pendent seal,

from Bologna, on the nineteenth day of February, in the palace of our residence, 1432.

[15] Further, as to what Scalabrinus asserted above, that after inspecting the state of the cathedral church, In the same year he inspected certain rural parishes in the month of March. he went to the priorial church of St. Romanus, then a Benedictine monastery, commended to Maynardinus Contrario, bishop of Comacchio; this is not so to be taken, as though from the former place the blessed Bishop had straightway come to visit this second: for that seems incredible; since, according to Ughelli, Italia Sacra, tome 2, column 506, Maynardinus de Contrariis first obtained the see of Comacchio in the year 1432, on the 11th of the Kalends of December. It is therefore necessary that the Blessed one visited many others in the interval between January and the following December, not only in the city, but also outside it; as seems able to be gathered from the fact that by his authority, for the more convenient and prompt administration of divine matters, it was decreed concerning the joining of certain rural parishes, namely St. Blaise of Avezzano and St. James of Ravale, according to Ferrarius in the Life, part 3, chapter 5; and that on the 22nd day of March, in the same year 1432, as Guarino has it in the Compendium of the History of the Diocese of Ferrara, book 6, pages 445 and 451: for it is not likely that this was done by him before he had examined the accounts of those parishes, which are to the west of Ferrara.

[16] To this same year pertains what the same Scalabrinus teaches in his annotations to the Life in these words: In the same year Pope Eugenius solaces his poverty, on the 7th of April. The voluntary poverty of the blessed Bishop, because of the largeness of his almsgiving, came to the ears of the supreme Pontiff (Eugenius IV); who this year graciously remitted to him two hundred and fifty florins out of the four hundred which he had yearly, under the name of a pension, reserved to Petrus Boiardo, his predecessor in the episcopate, so long as he should live: in place of which he assigned to him the archpresbyteral church of St. Mary of Vicovencia, with cure of souls, in the year 1432, on the 7th of the Ides of April. Ferrarius asserts the same diminution of the pension in the Life of the Blessed one, part 3, chapter 7, from an apostolic Brief which was issued on the said day, month, and year, and whose beginning is Romani Pontificis providentia.

[17] To the following year I refer what Scalabrinus has, writing thus: At which time, being summoned to Basel to the general council, blessed John constituted Simon de Valle, professor of the sacred canons, In the year 1433 he sends a proctor to the Council of Basel; his proctor; and enjoined him to present himself in his name in the sacrosanct synod, to make excuse and to beg pardon, if he did not appear in person on account of his notorious poverty and the necessity of his church, which he cannot explain by letter. The tablets of this mandate exist publicly, drawn up by the hand of Martinus de Schivetis, notary of Ferrara and scribe of the lord Bishop, of the year 1433, on the 14th day of May. Ferrarius agrees in the place cited, citing these initial words of the same mandate, Sacrosanctae generali Basileensi synodo. The Blessed one meanwhile, as Scalabrinus testifies in the same place, held synodal constitutions this year: until at last he himself in person, whether by his own counsel, or by the order of the Fathers of Basel, went to the general council: concerning which Scalabrinus thus:

[18] to which he too soon betook himself; vicars being left for the visitation. At length he came in person to the council, leaving as vicars of the visitation the excellent professors of the sacred canons, lord Deus-te-salvi of Foligno and lord Ugolinus of Orvieto; of whom the first bore the office of the Bishop in spirituals and temporals; but the other was archpresbyter of the cathedral church of Ferrara and a most celebrated preacher; who, assiduously following the footsteps of his Bishop, wheresoever he discharged the office of visitation, announced the word of God to the people in so clear and elegant a style that the people gathered in throngs to hear him. From May up to December he stayed in the sacred council of Basel, 1433.

[19] In the year 1434, returned, he prosecutes the visitation, Having returned to his church, he completed what his vicars had not finished: and from the month of January up to April he visited all the churches as well as monasteries and hospitals of the city of Ferrara, and enjoined upon them most salutary decrees. At which time he graciously obtained from the sacrosanct general synod, in consideration of the slenderness of his prosperity, excuse for that occasion from appearing, until and so long as the synod should judge otherwise to be ordained; which, in its license, declares "the venerable John, bishop of Ferrara, a member of this sacred council, united and incorporated, and in it laudably conducting himself for eight months or thereabouts," on the sixth of the Ides of March, in the year 1434. This last Ferrarius also confirms in the same chapter as above; adding that that license was given in writing in parchment letters, whose beginning was Etsi cunctos Christi fideles. In this, however, Scalabrinus and Ferrarius do not agree, that the latter would have the dimissory letters of the council granted to John at Basel before his departure from the synod; whom accordingly he extends by some months; the former, on the contrary, holds that they were sent from Basel to Ferrara to him when absent and already long since returned: and so he continues thus in the same place:

[20] [when he discerns by a miracle the true thorns of Christ's crown from the counterfeits;] These letters having come to him [*], he again undertook the office of visitation, that he might pluck out abuses, eradicate discords, and utterly extirpate depraved morals in the clergy. In the month of June, when he was visiting the chapels of his cathedral church, it is handed down to memory that five of the thorns of the crown of Christ the Lord were shown to him, which the family of the Bagati had brought with them from Palestine, and had given to his church. These the holy Bishop, admiring, disposed to test whether they were genuine; and cast them all among the burning coals in a censer. Of which three were burnt; two were found untouched and unharmed, which had been sprinkled with the precious blood; which he received with great reverence, and placed in a crystal cross supported by silver. This cross, of singular height, while the council was being held at Ferrara in this cathedral church, dedicated to St. George, and disputes had arisen between the Latins and the Greeks over the dignity of place, in order to remove suits and to allay quarrels, by the command of Eugenius the supreme Pontiff, was placed upon the high altar between the glorious heads of the apostles Peter and Paul, and eminent above the open book of the Gospels; as a certain man narrates in his memoirs.

[21] And a little below, In this year 1434, says the same, [traversing the diocese on foot, or borne on a humble beast. He obtains a donation for the Jesuati.] it is wonderful to relate, that he visited his whole diocese either on foot, or sitting on a humble beast, from the 11th day of April up to the 11th day of June, taking with him as fellow-visitors lord Jacobus de Oratoribus, archpresbyter of the parish of St. George of Trecenta, who was afterwards a most worthy bishop of Adria, and Jacobus de Misotis, canon of the church of Ferrara. Afterwards, having returned to Ferrara in the month of June. In this same year he most excellently provided for the Jesuati; as the same relates in the annotations to the Life, saying: Among his other (blessed John's) familiars shone forth the piety of Raynerius de Scarsis, a noble of Pisa, his cupbearer or scalco (that is, steward); whose family, in veneration of the holy Bishop, bestowed their own houses at Pisa upon the religion of the Jesuati in the year 1434. The same Ferrarius relates, part 3, chapter 13.

in* is redundant.

* or, "liberty"?

perhaps perlatis* (delivered).

§ III. Likewise other things omitted, from the year 1435 up to 1444.

Again, in the year 1435, in the month of April, he renewed the visitation of the churches and monastery of the city of Ferrara, He resumes the visitations in the years 1435 and 1436. which he carried through up to the month of September, most excellent rules being given and promulgated for the increase of divine worship. Then he undertook another visitation of the churches of his diocese on the 15th day of April, 1436; and completed it in the month of July of the same year; that he might examine whether the ordinances which he had decreed in the former visitation had been fulfilled: and he ordered to be consigned to himself in writing the goods, both movable and immovable, of all the churches: and he appointed for them stewards and syndics, who should serve the rectors in the administration of the churches. These things Scalabrinus in his annotations. Now a massarius among the Italians is the keeper of the furniture and movable goods; a syndicus indeed is a defender, advocate, patron: consult Du Cange in the Glossary of Middle and Low Latinity.

[23] On the 2nd of February, 1437, says the same, [In the year 1437 he blesses the nuptials of Lucia of Este, and favors the White Battuti of St. Mary.] he blessed the nuptials, and celebrated the espousals, between lord Charles, son of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, lord of Mantua, and lady Lucia, daughter of the marquis Nicholas; who, when she had come to her spouse, died, leaving the bridal chamber untouched. This Antonius Baruffaldus also noted in the Italian compendium of the Life, page 13 and following. Now this Lucia is one of the four daughters whom Parisina, wife of Nicholas of Este, bore at a single birth; as Pigna narrates, On the Princes of Este, book 7, page 539. To our Blessed one and to this year pertains what, after Ferrarius, part 3, chapter 5, Scalabrinus adds in his annotations: Likewise the society of the White Battuti of St. Mary in the upper part of the city was founded by Nicholas of Este, lord of Ferrara, and Nicolaus Perondolo, judge of the wise men, with privileges and exemptions, in regard of bishop John, in the year 1437; and indeed on the 14th day of May; as Guarino is author, On the Churches of Ferrara, book 2, page 60, where concerning this confraternity, which he calls Di santa Maria bianca, many things may be read. Observe, however, that the name of the Battuti is Italian, and properly signifies the beaten, or scourged; because, since scourgings among the Italians are most received in any pious assembly, hence this name seems to have passed over indiscriminately to those who enter into a peculiar society among themselves for works of piety, and openly profess it by the likeness of their dress: whence these were called white, from the white toga of linen which they formerly wore; others were called black, as will be plain below. Consult the Italian lexicons at the word Battuto.

[24] [In the year 1438 he assists at the general council convened in his own cathedral church;] In the year 1438 the general council illustrated the cathedral church of blessed John, which, because in the following year it was translated to Florence, where it had its end, is called the Florentine. To Ferrara came (besides those whom the Acts of the council in Labbe recount, tome 13, columns 877 and 890, and one of whom is our John of Ferrara) the supreme Pontiff Eugenius IV himself, carried into the city on the 27th day of January, as is there said, column 884, and the emperor of the Greeks John Palaeologus with his brother Demetrius, and a great retinue, on the 4th day of March, in the same place, column 11; and at last, with his own, Joseph, patriarch of Constantinople, on the 7th day of the same month, in the same place, column 14. In this theater the charity, hospitality, modesty, and other virtues of our Blessed one were before all especially conspicuous to all, as Ferrarius affirms, part 3, chapter 7, and Scalabrinus in his annotations; until thence, after sixteen

sessions the council, a plague having sprung up, migrated to Florence, in the month of January of the year 1439.

[25] when he seems to have labored for the union of the Ethiopians with the Church; But while the sacred assemblies were being held at Ferrara, says Scalabrinus in the same place, brother Antonius, monk and envoy of Prester John, emperor of Ethiopia, brought to the Pontiff the humble obeisance of his prince: to whom the Pontiff wrote back, while he still tarried at Ferrara, in the month of July of the same year 1438, exhorting him most constantly to retain the firmness of the Christian faith, and to restrain the Saracens. These letters are preserved among the writings of blessed John up to now; although at that time neglected on account of the plague, brother Antonius, who was to carry them, having been taken from life, who was to deliver them to his most glorious prince. Ferrarius, asserting the same in the place above, says: Among the writings of our Tossignano is found written out on parchment, with the pontifical seal, a reply from the same Pontiff, given at Ferrara in the month of July, 1438, to that emperor; with this beginning: "We approach, most glorious prince." From which (the same continues) it is manifestly gathered, either that this blessed Bishop was designated for those parts as an apostolic envoy; or certainly that he labored much in this business. However it be, I would wish it to be observed that this envoy was other than those who afterwards came from the same emperor to Eugenius; as is to be seen in Raynaldus, in the Ecclesiastical Annals, at the year 1441, number 2 and following.

[26] In the same year and month, according to Ferrarius in the Life, part 3, and he settled a dispute of the Jesuati; chapter 13, when a grievous altercation had arisen in the Order of the Jesuati through those who said that the men of the same institute (as there were many) learned in the studies of letters ought to be promoted to the order of priesthood; he too, chosen as judge to decide the matter, together with Antonius Corrario and Nicolaus Albergato, Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and Ludovicus, bishop of Treviso, gave sentence against those attempting new things; which the praised author recites entire in Latin, and which, because it is somewhat long, we have thought fit to omit here, since it may be read there, and pertains more to the institute of the Jesuati (of which there will be occasion to treat at the Acts of St. John Colombini on the 31st of this month) than to the illustration of the affairs of Tossignano.

[27] The confraternity also of St. Louis, king of the Franks, and he favored the confraternity of St. Louis. owes so much to blessed John, Ferrarius being witness, part 3, chapter 5, that it may in a certain manner seem to have been instituted by him: for when he had concurred in its erection in the year 1435, and in the following year had summoned it from the suburb of Ferrara into the city to the church of St. Julian, he did not cease so to foster it; that, with his aid, it laid the foundations of its oratory [in] this year 1438 near the basilica of St. Vitalis the martyr, as Scalabrinus narrates in his annotations: And even now, he says, the confraternity brothers show two chasubles, embroidered with the needle, as relics, a gift given to them by the blessed Bishop, from the labor of the hands of his sister Catharine. Concerning this society, Guarino, so often already praised, deserves to be seen, On the Churches of Ferrara, book 5, page 360; where also he teaches that, among many other high offices of piety, it is a care to those brothers that they contribute a dowry to the marriageable age of poor little maidens. It is also plain from this same author that the building of the said oratory could not have been undertaken in the year 1438 before the month of July.

[28] At the beginning of the year 1439, the same pestilential contagion which was the cause of the council's being transferred to Florence In the year 1439 he assists the plague-stricken; then the Council of Florence, detained this blessed Pastor at Ferrara: for, as Scalabrinus observes with Ferrarius, part 3, chapter 7, and Baruffaldus in the compendium of the Life, page 12, our most holy John the bishop, as soon as the Fathers had withdrawn, alone remained to solace the sick of his city, not so much with heavenly admonitions as with prayers: by which he prevailed so much with the Almighty that the plague vanished, leaving after itself little or no loss of its mournfulness. This tempest was succeeded by that other, as the same affirm, which the Acts relate, chapter 5, from number 45, was stirred up against John by his most impious chaplain; and which at last drove the most patient Man to this, that, having left Ferrara, he took refuge with the supreme Pontiff, then tarrying at the council of Florence; at which John thereafter was present; as is plain from the subscriptions of the Fathers in Labbe, Councils, tome 13, columns 519 and 1168. What he did meanwhile in this year, Scalabrinus thus continues in his annotations:

[29] During the time when he stayed in the Florentine synod, when he had lodging with his retinue at Arezzo. it is established that he had his dwelling in the city of Arezzo, from a letter which, inscribed in his own hand, he directed to his mother, sisters, and sons of the monastery of St. Abunda: for we gather from it how pleasing his conversation was to all, both religious and clerics and laymen: for he was held in great honor together with his companions, twenty-seven, whom he had with him. Often too he betook himself to a certain castle not far from Arezzo, whose name is Monza, on the banks of the Arno; until and so long as, the holy general synod being completed, to which he subscribed, he was again given to his church by the Pontiff, the marquis asking with most humble prayers, the clergy and people demanding.

[30] In the same year he favored the Jesuati of Bologna. In the same year the holy Man followed with signal benevolence the cradle of his religious life, the cloister, I mean, of the Jesuati at Bologna, in which, all things being left behind, he had first begun to serve Christ as a soldier; concerning which Ferrarius thus, part 3, chapter 13: The monastery of Bologna, on account of Tossignano, obtained many benefits of exemptions and other matters from the legate Fantinus; and among the rest, one written with this beginning: "Fantinus, apostolic protonotary etc.," by which he pronounces the monastery of St. Eustachius free from every tax and burden imposed on any things necessary to it. It had been given in the month of February of the year 1439, and confirmed by the magistracy of Bologna itself.

[31] [In the year 1440 he favors the Jesuati of Treviso, and dedicates the church of the Preachers at Ferrara.] About the year 1440, Ferrarius testifying in the same place, the convent of the Jesuati at Treviso may be said to have owed its beginnings to Tossignano: since Ludovicus Barbus, then bishop of Treviso and most loving of blessed John, attributed it, built for nuns, to the Jesuatic Order; the matter being afterwards confirmed by Hermolaus, who succeeded Ludovicus, and by Eugenius IV himself, in the year 1446. In the same year 1440, on the 14th day of July (as with Guarino, book 3, page 151, Scalabrinus noted), he solemnly dedicated, according to the rite of holy Mother Church, the church of St. Mary of the Angels near the palace of Belfiore outside the city (which we now behold within the walls of the Herculean Addition), built by the marquis Nicholas with a monastery, which he attributed to the Friars Preachers of the Observance.

[32] [In the year 1441 he dedicates the church of St. Augustine; and favors the Battuti;] On the 12th day of March (as the same writes in his annotations to the Life), dedicated to St. Gregory the Pope, in the year 1441, he solemnly dedicated the church of St. Augustine in the lower part of Ferrara: and there he received the solemn profession and vows of Elisa, daughter of Johannes a Gallo, a citizen of Ferrara; who with fourteen companions took the habit of St. Augustine, and enclosed herself in a monastery built near the same church by them, by the authority of Pope Martin V, and confirmed by Eugenius IV. Concerning these things, more in Guarino, book 5, page 319 and following; briefly Ferrarius, part 3, chapter 5. To this year also may be referred what the same Scalabrinus narrates, and of which he attributes no small praise to John in his annotations, when he says: There received increase also in his time the societies of St. John the Baptist of the White Battuti, who are different from those of whom above, §3, number 23; and of St. John Beheaded, otherwise della Morte, of the Black Battuti, whose pious exercise, to aid those afflicted by justice with the extreme punishment, was protected by the marquis Nicholas with a privilege, and by donations also from the Commune of Ferrara, in the year 1441.

[33] and he receives Leonello, and pays the last rites to the marquis Nicholas. Likewise this pertains here, which was observed by the same in these words: The marquis Nicholas of Este having died at Milan, Leonello, his son, was chosen by the people, John Col. 810A Walengo, judge of the Twelve Wise Men, proclaiming him; afterwards, in the cathedral church, dedicated to the holy martyrs George and Maurelius, he was received by John the most blessed bishop, after he had offered the sacrifice of the Mass, with the aid of the most reverend lord Thomas Perondolo, archbishop of Ravenna, a noble of Ferrara, then tarrying in his fatherland, … on the 26th day of December, 1441. On the 30th day of December the body of the marquis Nicholas was carried to Ferrara, and was buried at the church of St. Mary of the Angels near the palace of Belfiore; at which blessed John the bishop paid the last rites according to the rite of the Church, before it was committed to the earth.

[34] In the visitation held in the year 1434, when he had found the ancient parish church of St. Donatus of Pedruro deserted and abandoned by all on account of the inundation of the waters, In the year 1443 he establishes chaplaincies in the cathedral. so that only the walls appeared without a roof; from its revenues he founded two mansionariae (commonly, perpetual chaplaincies) in the cathedral church, faculty being had from Eugenius IV in the year 1443: but the souls of the said ruined church he commended to the parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Flesso. Thus Scalabrinus in his annotations to the Life, and almost so Ferrarius, part 3, chapter 5. Guarino indeed proves that this was done in the year 1403 by Petrus Boiardo, John's predecessor; but he confesses, nevertheless, that it was not confirmed before the year 1443, and indeed by the exertion of Tossignano, by Eugenius IV. See his Compendium on the Churches of Ferrara, book 6, pages 427 and 428.

§ IV. The rest, which were passed over by our author, from the year 1444 up to 1446.

In the year 1444 he undertook a huge and magnificent work; which is truly wonderful that it could be passed over in silence in his Acts; In the year 1444 he builds the great hospital of St. Anne, since it was both known to all at Ferrara, and worthy of eternal memory. Scalabrinus noted this, after others, in this manner: It happened meanwhile that the most celebrated doctor of arts and medicine and eminent physician, Peregrinus a Caeca de Arquado, entered the way of all flesh (in the year 1440, which he had noted a little before), having first made his testament, in which he left all his goods to the poor of Christ. Bishop John, wishing to provide for the same a sufficient hospital for the care of the sick (although there were many both in the city and throughout the diocese, but of little or no relief on account of poverty and the carelessness of the administrators), a great plot of ground having been procured near the monastery of St. Anne, wont to be inhabited by the Brothers of St. Basil of Armenia, there laid the foundations, solemnly blessed by him, the first stone being laid, on which he himself marked the name of Jesus. And in no long time was raised up the great hospital of St. Anne, and, furnished with the best rules, he commended it to be governed by the judge of the Twelve Wise Men and the Commune of Ferrara, a pontifical faculty having been obtained; as up to now laudably

it perseveres. These things he, after Ferrarius, Ughelli, and others, but especially Guarino, in whom you will find more about this hospital, or rather infirmary, book 4, page 209 and following. But the year of the beginning of the work, marked by me, the verses to be recited below will confirm.

[36] In the same year 1444 (as is in Nicolaus Baruffaldus in the compendium of the Life, page 15) he instituted a pastoral visitation through the whole city and diocese with much fruit and the greatest zeal, [he visits the diocese, and assists at the nuptials of Leonello and Isotta of Este.] distributing everywhere most bounteous alms into the churches and to the poor subject to them. To the same year Pigna, On the Princes of Este, book 7, page 546, refers the nuptials of which Scalabrinus also, treating in his annotations, says: Borso, brother of the marquis Leonello, on the solemn day of St. George, the 24th of April, entered Ferrara with Maria of Aragon, daughter of the king of Naples, whom Leonello had espoused to himself as wife; John our bishop blessed the nuptials: in which the liberality and magnificence of the house of Este shone forth far and wide for many days. And Oddo Antonio, lord of Urbino, joined to himself in matrimony Isotta, sister of the marquis Leonello, before bishop John; who, after a few days having been slain by his own people, left Isotta a widow. This second marriage, Pigna being witness in the place cited, was celebrated in the same year, in the month of June.

[37] [In the year 1445 he celebrates the funeral rites of Thomas Perondolo, archbishop of Ravenna.] In the year 1445 (we rely on the annotations of Scalabrinus), on the 20th day of October, he was present at the funeral rites celebrated for Thomas Perondolo, a noble of Ferrara, formerly canon of the cathedral, archbishop of Ravenna; whose body was buried in the church of St. Dominic in a marble tomb, on which was read the inscription: "The celebrated prelate" etc. These verses you have in Ughelli, Italia Sacra, tome 2, column 389; where, however, is omitted what is subjoined to the verses in the epitaph, Scalabrinus being witness: "And he died on the 11th of the Kalends of November, 1445." Guarino, book 3, page 107, reads "the 13th of the Kalends of November": whichever you take, it is not credible that his funeral rites were celebrated on the same day on which he died, still less on the 20th of October, if he be supposed to have died two days later, namely on the 11th of the Kalends of November: we think therefore that something has here been erred by the amanuensis; although the matter is a trifle.

[38] A ray illuminates him as he sacrifices. There are also not a few other eulogies of blessed John in Ferrarius, scattered here and there, but neither tied to certain times, nor proved by cited witnesses or documents, which for that reason we let pass. That is illustrious above all which he narrates, part 3, chapter 12, in these words: This holy Bishop celebrated at the altar daily, unless perhaps he lay sick, and clung with so great affection to the sacrifice that he easily seemed himself to be turned into a most burning holocaust of his God. Which indeed so pleased the Lord that he willed even sometimes to indicate it by a miracle: for when this blessed Priest was performing the sacred rites, and had now come to those things which are called the Secrets, behold (you would say another Martin) a fiery ray glides from heaven upon his crown, and there stands immovable, until, the chief part of the sacrifice being performed, it disappeared. All this was beheld, and not without great admiration, by him whom God had chosen as witness of so great a matter. I believe it indeed; but I would rather that either that witness, or another nearer to the deed done, than Ferrarius is, were assigned; which same suppose said of the rest related in this manner.

[39] In the year 1446 he makes his testament, dies, is buried; Finally, in the year 1446, which was the last of his life and labors, when in impaired health he perceived that the time of his dissolution was at hand, on the 8th day of July he made his testament, of which a copy will be given below: and when he had survived only sixteen days, he migrated to the Lord, as is narrated in the Acts. Then, the funeral rites having been duly celebrated in the cathedral church, as you will gather from the Miracles above, chapter 1, number 8, the body was buried (as Scalabrinus with others has it in his annotations) of blessed John the bishop, as he had ordered, in the ground before the altar of St. Jerome of the poor Jesuati of Ferrara, under a white stone, on which was engraved his effigy in pontifical habit, with hands crossed in the manner of a cross before his breast, with staff and miter: at whose feet stands the present inscription in Gothic characters: which the same most illustrious man sent hither, expressed in this manner:

The same epitaph is in Guarino, book 5, page 328, and Ughelli, tome 2, column 592: but for conrogatione it is there read, and it is plain it ought to be read, congregatione.

[40] Scalabrinus continues in the same place: And straightway after his death he began to be venerated as a Blessed one, and soon he began to be venerated as a Blessed one. as public letters attest, given by the congregation of the Jesuati brothers, humbly beseeching Duke Ercole that his body might be raised from the earth: which the most pious prince did not permit, that it might be nearer to the people flocking to him, dwelling in humility. But he ordered the sepulcher to be surrounded with railings; so that it could not be trodden by the feet of those entering.

[41] The Community of Ferrara, in the same year in which he died, In the same year, by the Ferrarese erected to him, in the great hall of the hospital of St. Anne, a statue of natural size, clothed in pontifical habit, beneath whose feet stands this inscription, copied to the letter:

The sense of these verses will be made plain by those things which we gave a little before, number 35.

[42] Further, this statue is of marble, Ferrarius being witness, part 3, a marble statue was erected to him, chapter 5; and placed on the right to those entering the said hall, as Guarino says, book 4, page 211; and, what the same adds, sculpted by the hand of an excellent artificer, it renders the natural effigy of the Blessed one: nay, it is handed down, says Scalabrinus, that the lineaments were taken from the face of the blessed Man as he expired; as indeed the face appears, worn with leanness and with a hooked nose. To the same, each year on the 24th of July, on which he migrated to the Lord, and on the 26th of the same, sacred to St. Anne, throughout the whole day two wax tapers are lighted, and with flowers and other ornaments the signs of veneration are shown to the blessed Bishop. Two delineations of him our Palmerius sent hither, received, as appears to us from the appended character, from Scalabrinus. The one exhibits the statue with its adjoined ornaments, which are two genii, sustaining on both sides the miter hanging over the Blessed one; on the right CHARITY, on the left HUMILITY, the name inscribed in Gothic character: at the peaks of the miter there projects, in half figure, the effigy of Christ, with the right hand blessing the Blessed one, with the left holding a book. But because this whole delineation was of the ruder Minerva, there is joined to this another most elegant one, sketched by a distinguished painter from the marble prototype, omitting, however, those additions which we have just described. Behold this, expressed by our engraver as accurately as he could.

P.B. Bouttats engraved.

[43] and a medal cast in bronze In the same year a medal was cast for him in bronze, whose explanation, lest the images clash, it has pleased us to prefix to the impression, conceived in the very words of the most reverend Baruffaldus, from whose museum it came forth, except that we insert a few of our own in a different character. Thus therefore it has: This medal of the first magnitude, of bronze, of workmanship not so excellent; and which savors somewhat of the rudeness of the age: for it was struck in the year 1446 by Antonio Marescotto, a not unpraiseworthy caster, by whose work we have also other medals, and especially that of St. Bernardino of Siena; and another with the effigy of the same Antonio himself, struck in the year 1448. It is established, moreover, from the Ferrarese Annals, that the same Marescotto, together with Ippolito Bindello of Verona, and other casters, cast in bronze the equestrian statue of Nicholas of Este, marquis of Ferrara, which still stands opposite the cathedral church of that same city in the public square; and also five of no ordinary magnitude, which we behold in the cathedral church itself, of Jesus crucified, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, and of the holy martyr protectors George and Maurelius: a work indeed not unpraiseworthy.

[44] On the front part of this medal is embossed an effigy expressing the face and the whole left side, together with the shoulder and breast, of John, bishop of Ferrara. whose front is described The face is emaciated and wrinkled, the tonsure altogether regular in the manner of a crown, the garment drawn up to the neck and simple and redolent of poverty. Before the breast appears a small gemmed miter with its lappets or fillets hanging variously, as a sign of his ecclesiastical dignity. Chiefly to be noted is the head, surrounded with rays in the manner of a diadem. From which it is clear that even in the year 1446, in which John himself fell asleep in the Lord, signs of sanctity and worship were rendered to him.

[45] With characters of this kind, finally, going round the whole medal on the front part, appears an appended inscription, and is explained Johanes eps etc. Which words can easily be interpreted thus: "John, bishop of the Ferrarese, most devoted of the poor for the Lord." (This interpretation, indeed, does not please enough: better appears the one that follows.) Unless we wish the inscription to begin from that cross ✠, which is not unlikely, and thus to read: "The most devoted father of the poor, lord (or divine) John, bishop of the Ferrarese." But to this inversion that word DOMNUS opposes; which seems to belong by custom to monks and only some regulars; but not to the mendicant Friars, in whose family blessed John was numbered, a professed man, who used only the surname of Friars. Therefore, embracing the first explanation, we judge that the epigraph is to begin from the name…

[46] To us, as I said, the second explanation of the most learned Man is preferred, I. Because in Latin one is not said to be devotus or devotissimus pauperum, the front part; but pauperibus (devoted to the poor). 2. Because our Blessed one, when he lived, was wont to be called antonomastically, not "Most devoted of the poor for the Lord," but "Father of the poor"; as Baruffaldus himself here proves from his Life written by Johannes Peregrinus, chapter 8, where he says, he says: In this Man of God the several virtues shone forth, like stars in the firmament. But among all there eminently stood forth his piety toward the poor and miserable persons; from which it came about that he was called "Father of the poor." 3. Because that letter D, whether it signify divus, or domnus or dominus, does not seem alien either from the dignity or the sanctity of our John, or from the mind of the caster: for why should he here less have dared to call him Divine, than to pour upon his sacred head the rays which it is lawful to paint only on the images of the Divine? Why also could not a Bishop be called domnus or dominus, even though taken up from the family of mendicants? Certainly, to be silent of others, our Blessed one is read to have been called "R. Lord John, bishop of Ferrara," and that in an instrument drawn up by himself and the judges chosen with him in that cause, in Gregorius Ferrarius, part 3, chapter 13, page 96. Finally, Marescotto could, before he formed the medal, have read John's epitaph, and thence taken the letter D, prefixed to his name, as we saw before. But let us hear further the most learned man discoursing about the reverse part of the medal.

[47] as also the face On the reverse part of this medal, he says, appears to be seen the effigy of the same John, with knees bent, brow raised to heaven, hands joined, and clad in a single garment only, the other garments laid behind his back; so that he appears covered with a single undertunic. The feet are bare, and there appear, not far off, wooden clogs, which he used as a poor man, though marked with the episcopal dignity, never departing from the institution of his Order; as is also to be seen from the garments (as we said) laid aside, which are not episcopal vestments, but the regular garments of the poor Jesuati, who were covered with a cottula drawn up to the neck and a broad cloak of a dark-blue color.

[48] the reverse of the same, From the summit of the head of this Blessed one there rises up a tree, pouring itself forth and propagating with branches, which (as the epigraph is to be explained) ought to be held for an olive, though it bears nothing of the image of an olive. And by this symbol, or by this metamorphosis, are to be understood all those virtues which under the sign of the olive are enunciated in the sacred Books, for the explanation of that little verse, Psalm 51, "But I am like a fruitful olive in the house of God": from which place, though this motto be not altogether excerpted, but partly from the Psalter, partly from Ecclesiasticus, where, chapter 24, is read: "I as a vine have brought forth a sweetness of odor"; nevertheless all coalesce into one, so as to signify piety, the unity of concord, the firmness of constancy, sincerity, the purity of conscience, and clarity; which several things in the olive are recounted by the holy Fathers for the explanation of this little verse, thus composed from two books of Scripture: "I as an olive have brought forth a sweetness of odor in the house of the Lord."

[49] by the most illustrious man Hieronymus Baruffaldus. The rays shining out from heaven, which in the upper part of the medal seem to flow to the face of the Blessed one, indicate the light of glory, and the communication of the prayer of so great a Man with the heavenly homeland: whence that which is wont to be said to God by those praying, "Look upon my prayer," seems to be verified in our medal; since the clarity of God shines out upon his face.

Those words, Marescottus F, indicate the author or caster of this medal, of whom enough has been said above… Finally, the marks of the year 1446 demonstrate the year in which this medal was cast, which was the very same in which, as we have related above, the same blessed John fell asleep in the Lord. Whence the worship and veneration rendered to him scarcely dead can easily be drawn out, to the greater glory of God and of his Saints. And these are the things which, concerning the medal of blessed John of Tossignano, bishop of Ferrara, I was giving at Ferrara from my museum, on the Ides of June 1726, I, Hieronymus Baruffaldus, son of Nicholas, Doctor of both Laws, apostolic protonotary, and in the university of studies of Ferrara formerly public lecturer of the Sacred Page; but now of the humane letters, and also consultor of the holy Inquisition. Thus he, who transmitted to us at the same time such an impression of his medal:

§ V. Certain miracles which followed the age of our author are recounted, from Paul Morigi.

Paul Morigi, History of the Jesuati, book 3, chapter 19, after the miracle which we gave last from our Manuscript, After the former miracles, many others occurred a few things being interjected, subjoins these: I, brother Paul Morigi, cannot, since the matter is most certain, but affirm that, after the miracles which by our fathers of that time were related, and wrought by God through his faithful servant blessed John of Tossignano, the most good God never ceased, from the very day on which he introduced him into his eternal palace, up to this very hour, to confer benefits on all those who with humility and faith had recourse to this his beloved Son. Of which matter the great number of images, both sculpted and painted on little tablets, made the faith not at all doubtful, besides the great abundance of wax tapers, cloths, and various silver votive offerings, which, affixed in the oratory of St. Jerome of Ferrara (where his sacred body rests), were preserved and increased up to the year 1573.

[51] At which time, when the prior of the same place was Father Ludovicus de Campis of Castello San Felice in the territory of Modena, up to the year 1573 and beyond; he, moved by the piety and frequency of the people, who, while in the year 1571 terrible earthquakes agitated Ferrara, flocked thither; ordered the said oratory to be enlarged and extended; then to be wholly painted and adorned by brother Benedetto of Brescia. Whence he was compelled to remove all the pictures and statues, lest they should be an impediment to the histories of the Life and miracles of this Saint, as is now seen, to be set round about. Nay, even now there are to be seen there two larger tablets, covered with various silver votive offerings, witnesses of benefits bestowed by God on various persons through the merits of this glorious Saint: whence new prodigies are daily revealed.

[52] but shamefully neglected, except the few which follow. But if the priors who by intervals presided over this monastery had had as great care in fulfilling their office as was their negligence in this matter; there would indeed be read in this work, which we have now reduced to a new form, the miracles, most numerous, which through this Son so dear to him the Lord has wrought. Wherefore I judged them to be admonished; and I at last prevailed, that, some years having passed, they should at least commit to writing the few prodigies which will now be brought forward; that it may clearly be plain that there was no time in which God did not succor the clients of our Saint: which it is also easy to conjecture from the frequent affluence of the sick, of whom, while some ask to be sealed with the episcopal ring of this holy Man, others with the scourge with which he once raged upon himself, not without zeal and confidence, they are restored to health. And so it were to be wished that the priors of the monastery would compose a book, uniquely destined for the receiving of the marvelous things which on any day happen divinely through the merits of the Saint. There now follow certain miracles noted severally.

[53] A farmer recovers his despaired-of health in the year 1566. Not far from Ferrara is a village which they call Lagusello [*]; where a certain farmer dwelt, by name Maurelius Carretta, tormented by a most grievous disease, and therefore destitute of human aid from the physicians, because they saw that so many remedies applied to him had profited nothing. Now the evil had grown so far strong upon the wretched man that on the right side all his members were now useless to him. But he, when he had heard of the frequent miracles of this our blessed father John of Tossignano, and that he grew famous day by day with divine benefits, commended himself to him with much confidence and piety; and ordered himself to be carried from his house to our church; for it was three miles distant from the city. As he reached this place, he bids himself be laid down upon the sepulcher of blessed John; then earnestly demands that the pontifical ring and the other relics of the Blessed one be brought near to him. Brother Hieronymus of Bologna, who presided over the sacristy, a man most fit for this office, applied them willingly and piously. But the sick man, thanks having been given to God and to blessed John, was carried home. Nor did he reach it before he felt himself somewhat better, as he himself asserted of himself. And so, the following day, in the morning, two of our brothers ran to his house to fortify him with the sacred relics; namely brother Sanctius of Piacenza and brother Placitus of Salò. And not long after, having recovered his former health, he returned to our church, to render to the divine majesty thanksgivings for his former health restored to him through the merits of blessed John. This was done in the year 1566, on the 6th day of October.

[54] But in the year 1577, in the monastery of the reverend fathers at St. Mary of Consolation, A ruptured vein of the breast is healed in the year 1577. of the Order of the Servites, there was a younger priest, called brother Prudentius of Mantua; whose vein in the breast was ruptured; whence he emitted copious blood from his mouth. He therefore implores the help of our blessed John, and asks to be signed with those relics with which strangers were wont indiscriminately. This was done for three days by the sacristan, who betook himself to him at the morning hour: and, as it pleased the divine majesty, the sick man was in a short time freed from his ailment. He moreover, out of his singular piety, came hither to the altars about to give thanks, and with his own hand made faith of the miracle in these words: "I, brother Prudentius, affirm that by a vow, the grace of God aiding, I recovered from a grievous infirmity of the blood, which flowed to me from my mouth on account of a ruptured vein of the breast; after I had devoted myself to blessed John of Tossignano here at Ferrara in the convent of the Jesuati fathers.

I, brother Prudentius Carnesali of Mantua, of the Order of the Servants of the Blessed Mary, affirm what is above."

[55] In the district which is called Spinellus, here at Ferrara, master Baptista Finus lay sick, tortured by a grievous pain of the side. Freed from pains of the side and from a demon. And since he could not himself come to the church, the sacristan came to him, and at his house signed him with the relics; when, behold, by the divine grace and the merits of blessed John, the sick man was released from his pains. A certain Coriolanus, whose name was Bigus Campana, had an only daughter, to whom he had given the name Diamante, vexed by a demon: who, when she had been freed through the merits of blessed John, he caused a Mass to be celebrated with music to the honor of blessed John. Likewise another, by name Gaspar Bacelliero, a cobbler, who dwelt at Ferrara in the district called di Bellaria, was for six years already urged by most acute pains of the right side. He made a vow to God and to blessed John, and came to our church, and caused himself to be signed three times with his ring and discipline; and thus by the divine mercy he escaped free from his sickness. He wished thereupon two Masses to be offered, giving thanks to God, for the health he had desired, restored through the merits of his servant blessed John.

[56] Master Obizzo Nigrisolo, who dwells on the main street, Ailments of the feet, knee, head, catarrh driven off. when he so labored in his feet that he could not even set them down on the ground, blessed John being ardently invoked, was altogether healed; and, to the memory of so great a benefit, offered two feet of silver. Julia, daughter of Dominicus Baglioni, dwelling in the district which we call Centoversori, suffered from one knee. After many torments she turned herself to blessed John of Tossignano, and by his merits escaped unharmed. Baptista Gentile, a dyer, dwelling opposite the gate of St. Peter, tormented by a most bitter pain of the head for seven whole continuous years; after he had been signed with the episcopal ring of blessed John, perfectly, as Baptista himself indeed testifies, convalesced. A certain uncle of mine, by name master Alfonsus Falatti, a catarrh had oppressed not without grave discomfort; when, hearing narrated the marvels which through our blessed John God was working, this inspiring, he commended himself to him: and, to the glory of the Lord, this trouble was driven off from him.

[57] Frenzy, and a disease of the legs are cured; When Bartholomaeus dal Bon, an inhabitant of Sammartina (a place near Ferrara, which looks between the South

and the West, commonly called Belvedere because of its pleasant prospect), near the palace of lord Alfonso of Este, was seized with frenzy, and utterly bereft of mind, and left by all the physicians as despaired of, had come to such a pass that nothing seemed to remain for him but death alone; his father, instigated by the Lord God, vowed to the divine majesty and likewise to blessed John that he would bring the said Bartholomaeus to the sepulcher of the Blessed one. Scarcely had he, laid upon his father's arms, been signed with the episcopal ring of the Blessed one, when suddenly he began to be better; and after twenty days he was wholly free of that evil, with which he had been so afflicted for two whole months that there was now nothing in him but the image of death. Moreover, to render thanks to the most kind God and to blessed John, he caused a Mass to be sung at his altar, with musicians singing together.

Bernardino di Campi, who dwells at Casalia (a village on the Po, about five miles distant from Ferrara toward the North), had his legs grievously affected. Being therefore brought hither and received in hospitality in this our monastery of St. Jerome, he committed himself to the patronage of blessed John; and after he had been signed with his pontifical ring, the said misery was wiped away. And he himself hung two silver feet, witnesses of his devoted soul, from the dome.

[58] likewise a fever and a bad affection of the eyes, in the year 1579; It is noted how, through the merits of blessed John of Tossignano, Antonius Maria Finottus of Ferrara, a painter, was freed from a pestilential fever, and at the same time the arthritic pains of his daughter were removed. To wit, his wife had vowed to the Saint of God to bring a wax taper of one pound, and one candle besides; which, when she offered at the sepulcher of blessed John, I signed her with the episcopal ring applied, I who am brother Josephus de Sanctis of Ferrara, now prefect of the sacristy. This was done on the 12th day of January, in the year 1579.

From the son of Bernardino, son of master Hieronymus Cantugi of Ferrara, dwelling at the port of St. Stephen in the same city, was taken away an affection of the eyes, through which he could neither see the light, and wept assiduously. Wherefore his mother bound herself by a vow to blessed John, and fulfilled it by clothing her son in our habit, and by having one Mass said at his altar. And I, brother Josephus of Ferrara, signed her with the ring and discipline, and that on the 30th day of January, in the year 1579.

[59] When a young lady, Romana, daughter of master Peregrinus Sivieri, as also a numbness of the limbs, and an incurable disease, in the year 1581; whose house adjoins the church of St. Stephen here at Ferrara, had grown stiff from the middle of the body down to the feet, there were applied to her in the morning, for three days, the ring and discipline of blessed John, by whose merits she was restored to her former vigor; and she came after eight days to the church; where she gave due thanks, and ordered one Mass to be celebrated at his altar; I, brother Josephus of Ferrara, being present, on the 19th day of May, in the year 1579.

In the year 1581, on the 28th day of April, a woman, Lucia de Bonis of Ferrara (who for two hours daily, and that for fifteen days, was as it were dead, and abandoned by the physicians), when she had learned from a certain neighbor of hers that health had been restored to her by the help of blessed John; she too, having conceived a vow, commended herself to the same Blessed one, and with no different outcome: for, signed with the episcopal ring and other relics in the morning for three days, on the third day she felt herself free from every evil whatsoever; and straightway ordered a Mass to be offered at the altar of the Blessed one. And I, brother Joannes Baptista of Ferrara, applied the relics to her, witnesses being present, Nicolaus the dyer with Claudia his wife, and many neighbors from the district of St. Mary of the Servites. But besides these, new miracles and benefits of this holy Man of God daily shine forth, most well known to the whole of Ferrara. Thus far Morigius.

otherwise l' Aguscello*

§ VI. A signal miracle, unknown to our author and to Morigius; likewise other more recent ones, from the monuments of Scalabrinus and the Life of Ferrarius.

At the close of the Life and Miracles, again, as I have advised, described from the autograph of our author, Scalabrinus subjoins these things in his annotations: Scalabrinus saw very many miracles noted in an ancient booklet, Besides the graces and miracles brought forward, which God deigned to grant to the faithful for the merits of his servant John, there is in the archive of the reverend Discalced Carmelite Brothers an old booklet, in which the ancient religious of the Jesuati family were wont to write the names and surnames of those who, freed by the Almighty through the intercession of blessed John from diseases, or from a demon or from spells, in the oratory of St. Jerome and set upon his sepulcher, merited health and liberty. And, lest I bring weariness to readers, I only attest that I found in the said booklet more than a hundred who attest that by the merits of blessed John they were freed from diseases, demon, and dangers; in faith of which liberation they brought various kinds of votive offerings, both waxen and painted, to the sepulcher of the blessed Man, and also, upon his altar which existed in the ancient oratory, offered a Mass in thanksgiving to God for the merits of the blessed Bishop through the hands of priests.

[61] and one of the most ancient of them on a particular sheet, Among these, the few which seemed to me worthy of being recounted I will note; and one among the rest, more ancient, written on paper of papyrus in ancient characters, agreeing with the beginning of the fifteenth century (doubtless he meant the sixteenth, as is self-evident), to which a subscription is thus noted in the Italian mother tongue: "N. 5. This sheet is placed in the little box in which the belongings of blessed John are stored: and the same which is contained in this I have written in the book of the sacristy, that is, in the book of graces and vows." This was superadded in Italian by the hand of some Jesuatus religious, I believe: but within, these things are written out word for word:

[62] about a boy, by the invocation of blessed John Lady Constantia, wife of Martinus de Prosperis, when she had now borne four little girls, at last, by favoring divine grace, bore a male son, by name Bernardinus; whom, as long desired by her, she intimately loved. It happened that, about the third year of the said boy's age, he fell sick, his father being absent, nor convalesced by any aid of the physicians. On one day at twilight he was so far spent that his said most pious mother, affected with grievous grief, had now placed her hand upon the mouth and eyes of the boy, who was not at all breathing, to close them after the manner of the dead. But while she was doing this, hearing the sign of the Angelic Salutation ringing at the church of St. Mary of the Servites, she remembered the undefiled Virgin and the most blessed bishop John of Tossignano, whom she had many times in the near preceding years seen, and had heard his divine sermons. Whence, devoutly kneeling, and a tearful prayer having been made, she commended her said son from her heart to the same most merciful Virgin, and vowed him to the aforesaid most blessed prelate John, that, if the son were restored to her unharmed, she would carry a waxen statue of the size of the boy to the oratory of the Jesuati, where his most blessed body is deposited.

[63] recalled from death not long after the death of the same Blessed one. These things being performed, although for a rather long space of time the boy himself had remained motionless and without any breath, he continuously began to breathe; and convalesced by the divine compassion and the merits of the most blessed Bishop before God and the ineffable Virgin. All which the said lady Constantia attested to the venerable Fathers of our oratory, and fulfilled her vow: and many times thereafter, and always, while she lived, both she and her son remained devotees of the aforesaid most blessed Bishop. Thus Scalabrinus from the praised sheet. But in the margin he observes these things: Bernardinus was the ornament of the Prosperi family, resident envoy for the most serene Alphonso, first of this name duke of Ferrara, with the most serene republic of the Venetians, and most praised in administering the affairs of his prince, in the year 1514 etc. This ancient miracle therefore preceded the writing of our author; and accordingly it is wonderful that it was passed over by him, and then also by Morigius. Ferrarius, however, also has it, part 4, chapter 6. But let us proceed with the same Scalabrinus in the same place:

[64] A demoniac is freed in the year 1604. On the 13th day of May 1604, Jacobus Marcati, of Lago Maggiore, possessed by demons, was led upon the sepulcher in which the body of the blessed Man is stored. Nor by the exorcisms would they consent to depart, until he himself vowed that he would put on the habit of blessed John. And as a sign that they had departed, he cast from his mouth three horseshoes, which even now, with a painted votive offering, are seen hung up in the oratory. The witnesses were brother Georgius of Ferrara, who signed him with the pontifical ring of the blessed Man, and Fr. Petrus de Luca, Fr. Franciscus Ferri of Ferrara, Fr. Gratiosus, lay brother of Ferrara, Joannes Barozius and Gotardus Prosi of Lago Maggiore, Joannes Dominicus Casanova and Matthaeus Motta of the massa of Fiscaglia. A massa for the Ferrarese is a hamlet or district, as is plain from Pigna, History of Este, book 3, page 171, where he derives the etymology of this word from mansi, which are farmsteads with a certain portion of land.

[65] Gregorius Ferrarius, after he had described many miracles, taken both from our Acts and from Morigius, From the year 1612 up to 1615, 47 miracles noted; and reduced by himself to certain classes, thus continues, part 4, chapter 8, toward the end: Besides those named hitherto, partly signed with the relics, partly commended by prayers to the merits of the Blessed one, I find written down those who up to the year 1611 were relieved of various diseases and other miseries, forty-two; written down, I say; for others are innumerable. But from the year 1612 up to the present time (namely about the year 1655, in which he was printing that Life) besides those who are not noted, there are numbered forty-seven men snatched from divers calamities. But severally, a certain Christophorus Gentilis with his own hand makes faith, in the year 1617, that after a vow made to the Blessed one, he was freed from a deadly erysipelas in the head.

Ludovicus Morelini, in the year 1618, affected with an incurable and mortal evil, a vow being uttered, crept to the sepulcher of the Blessed one, and there caused a Mass to be recited; and soon returned home unharmed, leaving there the crutches upon which he had come leaning.

Maria Porta of Modena, vexed by an evil which afflicted at once her breast and her jaws, and had eluded all the art of the physicians, a vow being sent forth, soon experienced, unharmed, the help of the Blessed one.

We do not read elsewhere also what the same relates, part 4, chapter 6: A girl, he says, only forty-eight days old, when she vomited back up the milk drawn from the breasts, was now about to die, when, through the vow of her father Philippus Joannes, the patronage of the Blessed one being invoked, her little lips being parted, she soon sought the breasts, and eagerly sucking, was in a certain manner recalled to life.

[66] The same, part 4, chapter 10, continues the patronage

of the Blessed one against the infestations of demons, and certain things among them are narrated severally. whose witnesses he calls the very walls of his oratory, covered, as he says, with little tablets and votive offerings of every kind, nay, even with such prestidigitatory things as the malignant spirits had compelled the wretches, whose bodies they possessed, to belch forth, when they had been driven to this sepulcher. Nay, he narrates that there also they were often heard crying out that they were tormented by Tossignano, tormented by John. Then he subjoins a memorable example, which occurred in the year 1652 in this manner: Francisca Alberti, wife of Joannes Ferri, a Lorrainer, occupied by demons, when she had found no help in her fatherland, came with her husband into Italy; went to Rome; visited the temple of Loreto, and ran about to other pious places in hope of finding help; nor even so did she then obtain it. Having at length entered Ferrara, as soon as she heard of the miracles of blessed John, she straightway ran to the sepulcher; and there at last with prayers drove the infernal guests out of her body. And, mindful of this benefit, so long as she stayed at Ferrara, she scarcely suffered herself to be torn from the monument of the Blessed one. But to this matter five witnesses stood by, who confirmed it with their subscribed names.

[67] A woman is freed from spells in the year 1656: I return to Scalabrinus, who added these later things in the place cited: On the 15th of January 1656, in the church of St. Jerome of Ferrara, Cassandra Manegati of the village of the massa of St. James, oppressed by an unclean spirit, and beset by the evil arts of necromancy, so that she labored under a deadly disease, set upon the sepulcher of blessed John, when she felt herself oppressed by a great pain of the stomach, having been blessed by Fr. Hieronymus of Bologna with the episcopal ring, cast iron from her mouth, that is, a horseshoe nail, and vomited it up with great force; and she drew another larger nail from her breast, and straightway escaped unharmed by the merits of the most blessed Bishop. The witnesses of this matter subscribed to the evidence of the prodigy: Franciscus Borsetti and Nicolaus Leccioli.

[68] a deaf man is suddenly healed 1661; On the 9th day of May 1661, Andreas Natali of Carpi in the territory of Modena, came to the church of St. Jerome of the city of Ferrara, and before many witnesses, whose names are written each in his own character, an oath also being interposed, so far as need be, subscribing himself with the sign of the cross, confessed and made public attestation that by the merits of blessed John of Tossignano he was freed from a grave native deafness. As soon as, tarrying at Ferrara about three years, and hearing of the wondrous graces granted by God to the needy through the intercession of blessed John, and having great faith in the said blessed John, he caused his ears to be signed with his pontifical ring upon his sepulcher, and straightway received his hearing. Wherefore he now came to give thanks; since before, involved in domestic business, he had not been able to come. The witnesses were Joannes Gualbertus Lambardi, Paulus Rescio of Venice, Georgius Mattoni, and brother Felix Flaminius of Montefalco, vicar and sacristan, who had already signed him deaf, hearing absolutely nothing, and now sound in hearing, perfectly.

[69] likewise a paralytic 1662; On the 10th day of August 1662, Joannes Anovi of the village of Laguscello near Ferrara at three miles, oppressed by paralysis, so that he could be turned in the least part of his body, vowed himself to blessed John, and was led upon a cart to the church of St. Jerome; and by the help and aid of the men who conducted him, being lifted from the cart, and set upon a seat, he was placed upon the sepulchral stone of blessed John; where, blessed with the episcopal ring of the blessed Man, he was better, and, returned home, renewed his vow by promising a wax taper to blessed John; and straightway rose from the seat in which he had been almost buried, and began to walk at home: and on the aforesaid day, no one at all lending help, he came to fulfill his vow and to give thanks; and made faith of the grace received, witnesses being employed… Bertoldus and Alphonsus Gallo.

[70] as also one deprived of the use of his arms and feet 1663. On the 14th day of September 1663, Joannes Maria Capucius of Lugo in Romagna of the duchy of Ferrara, for eight months already debilitated in his arms and legs, so that he could do nothing, at the persuasion of friends, in the manner he could, caused himself to be led to the church of St. Jerome of Ferrara; and having entered [*] the church, and commending himself to blessed John, all his pains ceased; and he could straightway use his hands. Wherefore he gives the greatest thanks to God the liberator, and to blessed John the intercessor; and this before witnesses Joannes Baptista Callino and Marianus Brutura. These things concerning the miracles, which, since they all preceded the translation of the blessed body, nay, and even the extinction of the Jesuatic Order; it remains that we now subjoin something concerning these matters.

* read: having entered etc.

§ VII. The veneration of the Blessed one at Ferrara among the successors of the Jesuati after the Order was extinguished; the solemn translation of his relics; the lessons, and the proper prayer.

Of the sepulcher of blessed John in the oratory of St. Jerome we spoke above, §4, number 39, as also of the enlargement and new adornment of the same oratory, §5, The Jesuati being extinguished in the year 1668, secular priests first succeed, number 51. Afterwards, the Religion of the Jesuati was suppressed by Pope Clement IX in the year 1668, and their estates dispersed for the Cretan war; but the religious themselves were ordered to migrate elsewhere and to live privately; and at Ferrara indeed, in the year 1726, says Scalabrinus, the reverend lords Georgius Posati and Innocentius Casanova, Doctors of both Laws, of Ferrara, of long age, formerly professed in the Order of the Jesuati, entered the way of all flesh, no other surviving companions of the suppressed Religion being left in this city. But by this overthrow of the Order nothing at all was lost of the worship of the Blessed one: for, as Baruffaldus writes in the compendium of the Life, page 20, the Religion of the Jesuati being disbanded, their church remained with the convent of Ferrara for some time commended to secular priests; who, preserving that sacred body with due veneration, afforded the suppliants approach, with the same frequency as before, flocking to his sepulcher; nor were frequent miracles lacking.

[72] In the year 1671, says Scalabrinus in his annotations after the same author, [then the Discalced Carmelites in the year 1671, by whom a new church was founded in the year 1712,] the church and convent of St. Jerome were granted to the Discalced Carmelite Fathers of St. Teresa; under whom the same devotion and worship were rendered to the holy body: and to bless the sick with his pontifical ring and biretta they were diligently called: and by the merits of the Blessed one many were restored to their former health. Under whom, the worship of the devotees increasing, a new temple was raised to St. Jerome, Joseph, and Teresa, upon the road by which one goes to the temple of St. Francis, the inheritance of the nobles de Consumatis supplying the means: which was opened on the 10th day of April in the year 1712. In which year the most eminent Thaddeus Cardinal de Verme, bishop of Ferrara, fearing that the veneration of the holy body might be neglected, on the 19th day of August, with the aid of the reverend Father Emilius Maria of St. Teresa of Bologna, prior of the same convent, and of lord doctor Franciscus Justinus, anatomical physician, and of Carolus Quercius, his chancellor, drew forth the sacred body from the old sepulcher, dissolved into bones on account of the assault of the waters; and placed it in a leaden casket fortified with seals; which he caused to be enclosed in a noble cypress mausoleum. On the 19th day of October of the same year 1712, a procession of the whole cathedral clergy being appointed, it was carried from the old church into the new temple, with wax lights lit, and deposited in a subterranean chapel. These things there Scalabrinus; who, however, treats of this translation more fully in another Italian writing, which in Latin sounds thus:

[73] to which in the same year In the year 1712, on the 19th day of August, in the morning at the twelfth hour (reckoned from sunset in the Italian manner), the most eminent lord Cardinal de Verme betook himself to the convent of St. Jerome; and entering the gate which led to the old church, all the retinue and household of his nobles being dismissed, and only the monks of the said convent attending, he entered the temple, where he was present at the votive Mass of blessed John. Then, the prayers being finished, he wished all who stood by to depart, except lord Carolus Quercius, the episcopal chancellor, lord doctor Franciscus Justinus, the anatomical physician, lord Joannes Dominicus Tenanus, notary of the convent, Father Emilius Maria of St. Teresa the prior, Father Gervasius of Jesus the subprior, Father Ludovicus Maria of St. Bernard, Father Carolus Franciscus of the Conception, discreets of the convent: and summoning brother Antonius and brother Joannes Maria, he ordered them to break open the pavement near the Blessed one's sepulcher, in the part where a few weeks before, the same lord Cardinal standing by, a small hole had been opened under the sepulchral stone, as much namely as was needful, that there might be inserted a little rod with a wax taper fixed and lit to explore the state of the sacred body: which hole had afterwards been closed and sealed with five seals; which seals, when the said chancellor had examined them in this function, and found them intact, he consigned the matter to the public tablets of his office.

[74] The bones of blessed John, Various masons being thereupon summoned, the lord Cardinal commands all the pavement around the tomb to be dissolved. Which done, and the larger stone removed, the sepulcher was laid open, and in it three small and low walls, composed to sustain the ark of the Blessed one. The floor of the sepulcher was paved with baked stone; and upon it lay stretched the bones of the Blessed one, and round about not much dust, which could be nothing else than the very flesh of the holy Man, the ark, and the garments, dissolved by the length of time. And of the ark indeed some few fragments remained, but thin like little membranes. Father Prior, by the command of the most eminent Cardinal, descended into the sepulcher, and, having received with reverence the head of the Blessed one, offered it to the lord Cardinal, who, having placed it in a leaden casket prepared there, bathed it with the honor of burning incense. Then Father Prior proceeds to draw out the rest of the Blessed one's body, bone by bone separately, and to hand them into the hands of the lord Cardinal, doctor Justinus examining all severally, and calling them by their proper names, and the chancellor entering them into an authentic register.

[75] drawn from the old sepulcher The same Father Prior, diligently searching for all the little bones which could be found in the dust, in the place where the hands had rested found the episcopal ring, cunningly made of gold and remarkable for a ruby, wrought in the manner of a heart. When all the bones had been drawn out, they were placed in order, one by one, by the lord Cardinal and the aforesaid anatomist, in a leaden coffer upon spread cotton, and covered by the aforesaid Cardinal with two cloths, namely one of cotton and one of thin linen; and so at last the leaden receptacle was closed with its lid, fortified with twelve seals. The cypress ark, distinguished with a bronze color, which contained the leaden case, Father Prior locked with two locks and one key. Thereupon four religious, by the command of the most eminent lord Cardinal, carried the ark to the steps of the high altar, a lamp being lit there

up to that day on which the translation from the old church to the new was appointed. This ceremony was protracted from the twelfth hour up to the first hour of the night. And so much honor did the most eminent Cardinal render to Father Prior in it, that he wished the seals to be impressed by his hands; nay, he even granted him that golden ring together with the Blessed one's finger, that he might insert both into the silver arm which was wont to be offered to the suppliant people to be kissed.

[76] On the 19th day of October, in the year 1712, after noon, the translation of the sacred body from the old church to the new, first opened on the 10th day of April of the same year, they were translated on the 19th of October, was accomplished, and indeed solemnly and through the public square, an immense multitude of citizens flocking together with burning wax tapers: the clergy of the cathedral church bore the sacred remains, enclosed in the said ark, of whom some by turns succeeded to others, the most eminent lord Cardinal following, with the chapter, and the parish priests of the city, who were all furnished with lit torches. When it had thus been come into the church, in the midst of it, upon a notable and magnificently adorned altar, the bearers set down the sacred burden for a while, until the hymn Te Deum was chanted by the musicians; which finished, it was placed in the subterranean chapel, constructed for that purpose in the middle of the church together with an altar, at which the divine mysteries were wont to be celebrated. After this, the lord Cardinal assisting with the chapter, Vespers were chanted.

[77] On the following day, Thursday, before the most eminent Cardinal and the most reverend chapter, the votive Mass of the Blessed one was celebrated with solemn chant by lord Horatius Scalabrinus, not without great solemnity, archpresbyter of the cathedral church, and in the same manner in the afternoon Vespers. (Here our author omits what he had noted in the shorter Latin narration, namely: During the solemn matins, through a religious of the Discalced family the praises of the blessed Man were pronounced to the people, and the hearers were kindled to his devotion.) It was also a matter worthy of observation, that, whereas on the preceding days much rain had fallen, and the very day which they had destined for the translation was so cloudy that it had been doubted whether it were expedient to institute that celebration at all, yet as soon as the sacred body, having been taken up, was placed upon the shoulders, the clouds being at once lifted, the air appeared dry and serene, the sun breathing forth, that nothing might be lacking to the splendor of the solemnity, a most delightful light.

[78] By the alms of the suppliants, and the oblations of the citizens, and it was placed in the august subterranean chapel. and especially by the industry of the said father Paulus Franciscus of the Conception, the subterranean chapel which I mentioned was adorned with utterly exquisite ornament of precious marble, with a double descent to it by steps, and four statues, which exhibit as many cardinal virtues, a stone being placed above, which had covered the ancient sepulcher of the Blessed one in the old church; and on which is seen sculpted his effigy as of one lying down, with hands crossed in the manner of a cross upon the breast, in pontifical attire, miter, staff, chasuble, at the shoulders much folded after the ancient manner, which even now the Greeks preserve, furnished with tunicles, gloves, sandals. Beneath the feet is read, in Gothic character, the memorial of his deposition: "Here lies," etc. (as above, §4, number 39). In the oratory which was the ancient church of the Jesuati, in the middle, where the sepulcher of the Blessed one once was, these words are read inscribed on a stone:

D. O. M.

HERE FOR 265 YEARS

LAY THE BODY

OF BLESSED JOHN TAUSIGNANO

BISHOP OF FERRARA

[79] On the occasion of this translation there were composed, but not published Thus far Scalabrinus in the praised Italian writing; but in the Latin annotations to the Life he adds that that ancient oratory is even now adorned with pictures restored from age, and there, besides the inscription of the stone just now exhibited, over the apse of the altar is read this distich:

Those who cross the holy thresholds of thy temple, John, Make them, by thy prayers, cross the heavenly temples.

The same sent us three lessons of the second nocturn proper to the Blessed one, and composed, I think, on the occasion of this translation, of which he thus forewarns: It is ascertained that Cardinal de Verme, of illustrious memory, bishop of Ferrara, ordered three Latin lessons to be composed, to be recited in the Office which he wished to procure for the church of Ferrara. But this his desire, forestalled by an untimely death, he could not put into execution. The lessons, however, such as were found among the said Cardinal's other papers, are here transcribed and sent. Then follows this title: On the 24th of July, on the feast of blessed John of Tausignano, bishop and confessor. Then the lessons themselves in this manner:

[80] [three proper lessons through the most eminent Cardinal de Verme for the Office of blessed John] Lesson IV. John, in the town of Tausignano, of the diocese of Imola, was born of pious and honest parents, and most excellently educated at Bologna in the liberal disciplines. As a youth he was devoted to prayer and abstinence; and chastity most of all shone forth in him, since he shunned even the conversations of honest women. But afterwards, an estate having been sold by his father, that he might be adorned at Bologna with the laurel of doctorate, John, spurning the honors of the world, transferred himself to the Religion of the Jesuati brothers; where, vexed with various and many blows by his uncle (read, however, the Life, chapter 1, number 15), yet he could never be moved from his holy purpose of Religion. And so, having emitted solemn vows, he began so much the more earnestly to cultivate the other virtues, that he was the admiration of all. Sent to Ferrara to construct a monastery of his Order, there he grew famous by many virtues, for which the chief superiors of the Order elected John as Prior. This dignity, which he had accepted under compulsion, he administered with the greatest prudence. I know not whence anything is known that John built at Ferrara before he was there elected Prior.

[81] Lesson V. Illustrious therefore for many merits, when the church of Ferrara, widowed of its pastor, of the second nocturn, sought a successor from Eugenius IV, beyond the expectation of all, and not without a special favor of God, John was elected bishop. Who, when he was discharging the office of Prior in the said monastery of St. Jerome, being summoned by Nicholas III of Este, the letters of his election being disclosed, admiring so great a novelty of the matter, constantly refused the episcopate. But, bound by the command of the supreme Pontiff, yielding to the prayers of the nobles and citizens, unwilling he accepted. And so he governed the church committed to him with the greatest prudence, becoming all things to all, that he might gain the sheep entrusted to him: for he changed nothing of his former manner of living; but rather, becoming more severe upon himself, he used an iron chain to chastise the body, and harsh twigs to refresh his limbs at night. He was so most loving of humility that he visited the churches of his diocese on foot, or sitting on a humble beast: so devoted to the works of charity that he was commonly called the father of the poor, the refuge of widows. He instituted the hospital of St. Anne, and other pious places at Ferrara. When he distributed alms with the poor, he merited to cover Christ the Lord, in the form of a leper, with his own garment.

[82] Lesson VI. He so persecuted vices, to be recited on his feast: that he took care to keep heretics, adulterers, and public usurers from his episcopate as a plague. He was present at the Council of Florence. He tolerated with unconquered constancy many reproaches from his own domestics. Of the church's revenues he so disposed that he turned all to the honor of God. But God attested the sanctity of his Servant also by miracles: for among others that is remarkable, that, when the river Po was invading the whole city, at John's command it returned whence it had flowed. And many other marvels he wrought for his people. Finally, being near to death, having taken the sacred Viaticum of his pilgrimage, and fortified with the Sacrament of extreme unction, amid the choirs of the religious and the tears of all, he most sweetly breathed forth his soul on the 24th day of July, in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred forty-six. St. Catharine, called of Bologna, saw him going into heaven. His body was then buried in the old oratory of St. Jerome, of his Order; but now, in the church newly erected under the same title of St. Jerome of the Discalced Carmelite brothers, it is stored, and on account of many and frequent gifts of graces is honored with the pious veneration of the faithful.

[83] On the occasion of the same translation we have received an antiphon with versicle and prayer, printed at Ferrara in the year 1712, as also the prayer, which is publicly displayed at the sepulcher. which same, Palmerius being witness, is read hung up at the Blessed one's tomb, in these words: Commemoration of blessed John of Taussignano. Before the throne of the most holy Trinity, most blessed father John, be for us a pious advocate, that thou mayest sustain the causes of our frailty before God, and obtain pardon of our sins.

℣. In all our tribulation, infirmity, and temptation succor us, most pious father John.

℞. That through thy intercession the Lord may hear our petitions.

LET US PRAY.

O God, who hast decorated blessed John of Taussignano, thy confessor and pontiff and gem of the Jesuati, with innumerable miracles, grant, we beseech thee, that all who implore his aid may be able to escape the sentence of perpetual damnation, and to abound in good works, and with thy Elect happily to attain to eternal joys, through our Lord etc. Amen.

§ VIII. The prayer of blessed John against the floodings of the Po; his apologetic letter to the marquis of Ferrara; the testament made by the same.

The prayer composed by the Blessed one. There now survive three monuments, of which we advised in the preliminary Commentary, §2, number 16. The first is a prayer composed by blessed John the bishop, to be said when the procession shall have come to the bank of the river Po at the time of flood, as Scalabrinus testifies in the annotations to the Life: where he also adds: In the archive of the cathedral church of Ferrara is preserved an ancient manuscript book on parchment of kidskin in Semigothic character, on the front of which is inscribed: Book of Rogations. And straightway on the first page is had the prayer, which he thus transcribes:

℣. Lay thy hand, O Lord, upon us.

℞. And deliver us from many waters.

With my voice.

Bring ye.—Psalms.

Save me.

PRAYER

Which the bishop says upon the bridge.

Lord God almighty, who hast chosen me thy servant as pastor for this people, hear me, O Lord, hear: thou who didst divide the Red Sea, who didst dry up the streams of the Jordan, to whom nothing is impossible: command this river, that it in no wise cause oppression to thy people: and deliver in the hand of thy power those who cannot defend themselves by their own strength: through our Lord etc. Afterwards (Scalabrinus continues in the same place) are written the prayers of the holy martyrs George and Maurelius, and of the holy Cross; the Gospel of St. Matthew, "Jesus entering into a little ship" etc., up to "For the winds and the sea obey him."

℣. Thy lightnings shone forth to the round world; the earth saw and was moved.

Lay thy hand, O Lord, upon us.

℞. And deliver us from many waters.

PRAYER.

To thee, O Lord, crying out etc.

[85] The second is a letter, as we said in the same place, apologetic, of the Blessed one, written indeed to the marquis Nicholas, but not sent; concerning which the Life, chapter 5, deserves to be seen above, Of his apologetic letter numbers 48 and 49. A compendium of this Gregorius Ferrarius published long ago in Italian in the Life of the Blessed one, part 3, chapter 8; but now it is brought forward entire by the kindness

of Scalabrinus; translated by us into Latin, since it was composed by John, as we received it, in Italian; if you except a few Latin words or phrases which were mingled with the Italian text by the Author himself, and which for that reason we shall here express in capital letters, wherever they occur. But in the version, style and elegance being set utterly aside, we have looked only to this, that, as far as the matter allowed, we should follow not merely the sentiments of the Author, but the phrases and words also. Thus therefore he wrote:

[86] Most illustrious Prince, after humble commendations to your Lordship. Since Satan, the accuser of the brethren and the sower of tares, seems to me through his members to be tending to this, the exordium drawn from the necessity of writing. most illustrious Prince, that, to the detriment of charity, and to our scandal and that of this church, he may dissolve between your Lordship and me, your servant, the bond of peace; I am compelled, at least by letters (although I would perform this by words in person both more willingly and more fully), by the assertion of the truth to satisfy your Lordship itself, confident for certain that, the truth of my innocence and the malignity of the detractors being perceived, your Lordship will restore to me most abundantly your favor, and again unfold toward me that lovable and serene countenance of yours.

[87] They say, AMONG OTHER THINGS, that in public and private discourses I have detracted from the fame of your Lordship. I beseech him [To the first accusation, of calumnies cast upon the prince by the Blessed one, an answer:] to consider the persons who bring such matters, and to search out inwardly the truth. Assuredly it can never truly be affirmed that I have spoken in my sermons of your Lordship save with honesty and reverence: and in the same manner with private persons I take pains to honor thee, and to excuse thee, if anything blameworthy be brought forward. God knows that I desire to your Lordship, to the house of Este, and to your city, all exaltation and glory. And because I can do nothing more, that little which I can, I do in my weak prayers; and most of all in the office of the Mass I always institute a special and intent prayer for the safety and salvation of your Lordship, of your family, and of this your city.

[88] I have then been accused before your Lordship of carnal turpitude: the second, of the carnal vice, is refuted by the horror of all sin, but since a negative proposition (namely, that this is not true) cannot be proved except by contrary works and effects; relying on the divine mercy (by which alone I am refreshed and glory), I altogether think that I can luminously demonstrate that those nefarious workings are not in me. And although my life is most weak; yet I give thanks to God, who has done this mercy with me, that above all horrible things sin should be a horror to me. And God is my witness, conscious of my secrets, that with all readiness I would rather choose every other misery of this life than the misery of sin; and it would rather be for me that fire should descend from heaven to consume me, than that the burning of carnal concupiscence should scorch me.

[89] God knows that I lie not; in whose sight I speak, and to whose tribunal I know for certain that I am to be judged (for I do not blush to confess my weakness after many perils and temptations: and the peculiar gift of chastity granted by God,) when I earnestly prayed God that it might please his goodness to free me from this ignominious passion, even (if so it seemed good to him) through bodily death; I obtained, against all my merit, and I received, now for many years, from the affluence of his goodness, that I no longer feel the carnal goads, and all concupiscence seems lulled and oppressed with sleep, and I am so much affected by the beholding of any bodily comeliness whatsoever, as if I contemplated the head of an ass. I know indeed that this is of the divine protection. When he shall withdraw his hand, I shall be not only not a man, but a beast.

[90] and the constant and harsh afflictions of the body, Let your Lordship pardon me. My detractors force me to open and bring into the light my works, which I desired to hide, and to expose only to the divine sight, to whom alone I desire to please, and whom without feigning I serve, though weakly, in my spirit; giving heed that I may bring forth fruits worthy of penance, in which few days pass, in which through the visitation of the divine mercy I do not bewail in the bitterness of my soul my sins. Many Lents in the year I observe: I abstain three or four times in the week… Always clothed I sleep in a sack stuffed with straw: at night I anxiously rise for prayer, and to recite my Office, and to pray for the people. Twice a day, if I be not hindered by infirmity of body, I chastise and scourge my body, for the most part even to the shedding of blood; as those could testify who wash the cloths which I wear applied next to my flesh: nay, I carry the testimony about with me in my own flesh, bruised and wounded, so that in walking I often sustain grievous pains.

[91] and the love of the cross, and flight from the world. Thanks I render to thee, my Lord, who hast done this mercy with me not on account of the works of my justice, but through thy mere goodness: for thou knowest that I have renounced all the pleasures of this world, nay, and many honest solaces also, that I might conform myself to thy passion; and on account of it I am much more delighted ACCORDING TO THE INNER MAN by troubles and afflictions than by worldly delights and solaces. Thou knowest that I bend my strength to this, that, whether I go by the way, or recline at table, or do anything else whatsoever, I may fill myself with thee, and always have thee in my memory, nor permit any thought or image to dwell in it whereby I understand that the eyes of thy majesty can be offended. No created thing, not honors, not pleasures, not riches do I desire, but thee alone, my Creator. Thou knowest it; for it is thy gift; and so it is true by thy grace; and I shall at once lose it, unless thou preserve it.

[92] Before God and his domestics he professes the innocence of his life. For love of thee (since to this place, most unworthy, I have been raised) I have striven, as far as my slenderness allowed, to admonish, reprove, and correct this clergy and this people, and to draw each one into the way of salvation: nor did I ever propose anything to be done by others, which I did not both before and after study to observe in myself. I am not conscious to myself of any calumny or fraud ever employed against anyone; I never took away from any his own, being pure of all simony and guile. Let the household of my house be questioned, and all my domestics from the greatest to the least, what my manner of acting is. Lord, my God, impute it not to me for a sin, that I speak thus; for I speak not through boasting; but lest thy name be blasphemed in me, and religion be trodden underfoot. Nay rather, I hold all my virtue to be very frivolous (and truly such it is), as one who sees myself to be far distant from the perfection of charity, and from the fervor of spirit, and from the zeal of God, and from prudence and wisdom, and from the perfection of virtues, with which it behooves me to be furnished, especially in this state and grade of dignity, which requires an angelic perfection.

[93] But now a certain man has lifted up his heel against me, he betrays the malice of the accuser, and the occasion of the crime. who was lately my chaplain, whom I had constituted lord of my house. I pray your Lordship to inquire into him, of what sort he is. He, after he had stirred up sects and factions in my house, dividing the household, after many scandals, through his own impatience departed from me. Afterwards, living by his own right, he begged me through friends to receive him again. When he saw that I altogether did not wish this, he broke out into these words: "Receive me: for it is not expedient for thee that I depart scandalized: otherwise I will stir up so much scandal for thee, that woe to thee!" And he took signal pains to keep his promise; (But I will await thy salvation, O Lord.) Of this man's malignity it appears in this, that he speaks not only true things, but things forged through his corrupt suspicions. But he keeps no order of the evangelical or canonical admonition. There he brings forth the evil, not where he could help, but where he may breed scandal, to the subversion and stumbling of all the people. But may God convert him to himself in the truth, and forgive him this fault. I should be longer than is just, if I wished to answer his calumnies by letter: but indeed IN PLACE AND TIME I hope it will come to pass that I will make satisfaction to anyone willing to attend to the truth.

[94] As to what pertains to the dispensation of the goods of the episcopate, The third accusation, of the dissipation of goods, is beaten back. I beseech your Lordship to choose someone at my expense, who may inspect the accounts from the day on which I entered this place up to this present: nor do I doubt that it will be demonstrated with as great clarity as is that of light, that these revenues have not been expended by me except for legitimate uses; as in paying debts, taxes, stipends, repairs of buildings, alms, and daily expenses IN HUMBLE FOOD AND CLOTHING, AND FOR THE HOUSEHOLD. But if the contrary be found, I wish to be corrected utterly harshly.

In Christ the Lord happily fare ye well.

The servant, I commit [*] of your most illustrious Lordship, John, unworthy bishop of Ferrara.

[95] There now follows the Blessed one's testament; which we received very faultily transcribed, I believe, The testament of blessed John. because the exemplar which he had was impervious to the amanuensis: for even in a small fragment of the same, which Ferrarius recites in the Life, part 4, chapter 2, other faults are not lacking. Behold it, as it is:

In the name of Christ, Amen.

Nothing is more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than its hour. What then? At all times it is to be feared; and more strongly to be dreaded, while the human body is agitated by bodily sickness, of whatever provident mind [*]. Therefore let it be thy care to cleave to our Lord Jesus Christ with thy whole heart, and to thy goods, for which I have also lawfully provided… the body languishing, while yet the integrity of mental reason is present to thee; finally, to consider, to dispose; lest the hour of the dreadful judgment intercept thee unawares.

[96] wherein he disposes concerning himself and his goods: Revolving which things in his mind, the most reverend father and lord in Christ John of Tausignano, son of the late excellent man Antonius de Tavellis of Tausignano, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See most worthy bishop of Ferrara, by the grace of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ sound and possessed of mind and intellect, though weighed down with some bodily languor, desiring, before the token of his death should come upon him, to make manifest his last disposition concerning himself and his patrimonial goods (since concerning the goods of the church of Ferrara he knows nothing is owed, nor does he intend to dispose anything, save as below) through this his present nuncupative testament without writings, in this manner took care to dispose, and disposed of himself and his goods,

namely:

[97] he commits his soul to God: First of all indeed his soul, when his body shall come to take up the final journey of all flesh [*], he left in the hands of almighty God his creator, and most humbly commended it to him, beseeching him in most pious prayers that of his mercy he would deign to receive it, and to place it in the fellowship of the other holy souls.

[98] he determines the burial of his body: Likewise the Testator himself ordered, willed, and commanded that after his death his body ought to be stored and buried at the oratory of St. Jerome of the poor Jesuati of the city of Ferrara; concerning the burial of which his body the Testator himself willed and ordered to be expended only that which to his below-written commissaries should seem profitable to the salvation of the soul of the Testator himself.

[99] he assigns the ecclesiastical goods to the poor: Likewise the Testator himself ordered, left, willed, and commanded, through his below-written commissaries, for the soul of the Testator himself, of the goods of the said church of Ferrara, all that which shall seem good and please his said below-written commissaries, to be given and distributed to poor and miserable persons, to be chosen [*] by the said below-written commissaries.

[100] Likewise, by the prayers by which he was able, the Testator himself most greatly commended to any his legitimate successor whatsoever in the episcopate of Ferrara, he commends his poor great-nephews to his successor: Laurentius and Antonius, brothers, sons of Andreas, son of the late Ignatius, once brother of the Testator himself; to whom, being in need, the Testator himself gave the beginning of studying, namely to the said Laurentius in arts and rhetoric, and to the said Antonius in grammar, as they at present study; opportune favor being afforded to the same, that by the aid of the same successor, the Most High granting, they may be able to come to the perfection of their study, and the outcome may consent with the beginnings, than which nothing more grateful can be done to the Testator himself.

[101] Likewise the Testator himself left, by the right of institution and every other manner, he bids his sister be content with what she has received: way, right, and form, by which more and better he could, to the honest lady, lady Catharine, sister of the Testator himself, all and singular the goods, come to the said lady Catharine, both from the paternal and the maternal inheritance, and also which came from the donation made to her by the Testator himself, and howsoever; commanding her [*] to be silent and content with all her part and portion owed to her by our right, and by any other reason or cause; so that she ought to have, or have, nothing else, or be able to seek, in all, of the paternal and maternal goods, and of those of the Testator himself.

[102] Likewise he left to the venerable man, lord Antonius Stevanelli, To his chaplain he bequeaths his Breviary; chaplain of the Testator himself, the Breviary of the Testator himself for part of the remuneration of the services rendered to him the Testator by the same lord Antonius in his present infirmity.

[103] Likewise he left to the venerable and excellent man lord Octavius de Giraldis, and to the same together with Octavius the canon his garments. canon of Ferrara, and to the said lord Antonius, his chaplain, in remuneration and for the remuneration of the services faithfully and assiduously rendered to him the Testator by the same lord Octavius and lord Antonius in his present infirmity, all his cloths, of whatsoever condition existing, from his back, and appointed to the use, and for the use, of the Testator himself howsoever.

[104] But as his commissaries, the executors of this his testament, to execute He designates the executors of the testament, and to carry into execution all and singular things contained in his present testament, he named, chose, left, and willed to be the venerable man the lord archpresbyter of the cardinal's [*] church of Ferrara, who for the time shall be; the honest man the Prior, or principal governor of the said place of the poor Jesuati of the city of Ferrara, who for the time shall be; and the eminent and famous doctor of laws and professor of the sacred canons, lord Angelus of Foligno, his vicar general.

[105] To which his commissaries the Testator himself gave, and instructs them with the necessary authority: conferred, and attributed full and free license and every kind of power and faculty with a full, free, special, and general mandate, arbitration, and other [*]; that by their own authority, without the requisition and contradiction of any person, for the plenary and entire execution of all and singular the above-written things, and those appointed and contained in the present testament, they may be able and have power to take and receive of the goods of the Testator himself, and also of the goods of the aforesaid church of Ferrara, all things severally, referring each congruently to each, of which, and as to the said commissaries it shall seem better and more honest, and shall please; and to sell and alienate those goods, and to receive the prices, to give security for the action, up to the entire satisfaction and execution of all and singular the above-written things, and those contained and appointed in the present testament.

[106] He establishes Andreas his great-nephew as universal heir. But in all his goods, movable and immovable, rights and actions, both present and future, wheresoever they consist and be found to be, patrimonial of the Testator himself, and also come to him the Testator, and pertaining howsoever, from the inheritance of the late excellent lady Margarita, once mother of the Testator himself, and once wife of the said late Antonius de Tavellis, once father of the Testator himself, of which lady Margarita, his mother, the Testator himself was heir by the testament drawn up through Joannes Magrabovi notary, or through another notary; he instituted and willed to be his universal heir the said Andreas, his nephew, and son of the said late Ignatius, once brother of the Testator himself, and once son of the said late Antonius de Tavellis.

[107] A clause for the validity of this testament, And this is his last testament, and his last will; which, and which, the Testator himself willed and ordered to be valid by the right of testament. But if by the right of testament it should not be valid, nor shall be valid in future, at least let it be valid, and he willed and ordered it to be valid, by the right of codicils, or of any other last will whatsoever, by which better and more efficaciously it may be able, firmly, also to hold.

[108] which the Blessed one made on 8 July 1446, before a notary and witnesses. This present testament was read and published by me, Joannes de Fiesso, son of the late master Antonius de Fiesso, notary below-written, by the mandate, order, license, and will of the said Testator, in the year of the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand four hundred forty-six, in the ninth Indiction, on the eighth day of the month of July, at Ferrara in the episcopal palace, in the chamber of the residence of the venerable and excellent man lord Octavianus de Giraldis, canon of Ferrara: at the publication of which testament there were present the below-written witnesses, called, and asked by the proper mouth of the Testator himself: the honest men Brother Andreas, son of the late Antonius de Avercia; Brother Joannes, son of Bonaventura Strazarioli of Bologna; Brother Gregorius, son of the late Andreas de Schavona, and Brother Jacobus, son of the late Hostorius de Papazonis of Bologna, all poor Jesuati of the city of Ferrara: the eminent and famous doctor lord Deus-te-salvet, son of the late excellent doctor of laws lord Angelus of Foligno, vicar of the aforesaid lord Bishop; the excellent doctor of arts and medicine master Guilielmus, son of sier Nicolaus de Bianchinis, notary, of the district of St. Romanus of the city of Ferrara; the honorable man sier Sanctus de Libanoris, notary, son of the late Franciscus de Libanoris of the district of St. Vitalis, of the city of Ferrara, and others; and I, Joannes, son of the late Antonius de Fiesso. And I wrote, public notary of Ferrara; I was present at all and singular the aforesaid; and, asked by the said Testator by his proper mouth to write, I wrote. You have, Reader, both what we could add to the Acts of blessed John Tossignano; and to which helpers chiefly these things ought to be referred as received.

* perhaps "in Christ," or "with him"

* or, "to the mind"?

* Ferrarius reads "shall have happened"?

* or, "to be chosen"?

* or, "not herself"?

* or, "cathedral"?

* read: "other things"

* or "with, however"?