John Columbinus

ON BLESSED JOHN COLUMBINUS, FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF THE JESUATI.

NEAR SIENA IN TUSCANY.

In the Year 1367.

PREVIOUS COMMENTARY.

John Columbinus, institutor of the Jesuati, at Siena in Italy (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. C.

§ I. The ancient cult of the Blessed one from various monuments.

How great is the utility in perusing the deeds

of the Saints, how great the efficacy for changing

minds, this

day two eminent founders of religious

Orders teach us, namely

blessed John Columbinus and

St. Ignatius of Loyola, [The sanctity of this Blessed one, who had been converted to God by pious reading,] whom the fortuitous reading of similar histories

roused to imitation, and the examples of the Saints, deeply

impressed on the heart, led to an eminent sanctity of life.

The first of these, of whom we here must treat,

converted to good fruit by pious reading of this kind, afterward

was famous for so many virtues and so great a fame of holiness,

that a little after his death the common consent of the people

conferred on him the accustomed honors of the Saints, and

followed him with public veneration, as through the course of this commentary

and of the Acts will appear.

[2] Paul Morigia in his Italian History of the Jesuati,

published at Venice in the year 1604, he was acknowledged by Pope Pius II, book 1, chapter 66,

page 109 and following, asserts that John Columbinus

was to have been solemnly inscribed in the catalogue of the Saints

by Pope Pius II, had not death, following shortly, impeded

the good will of this Pontiff. This assertion

can be confirmed from the singular affection of Pius II

toward blessed John Columbinus, whose holy relics

in the convent of Saints Abundius and Abundantius

near the city of Siena in the year 1464 he venerated,

as is clear from the inscription carved there on a marble tablet,

which Joseph Bonafede after Morigia in

the Life of blessed John Columbinus, book 2, chapter 22, more correctly

exhibits in this manner: "Pius II, Supreme Pontiff,

sprung from Siena, when he was

preparing an expedition against the Turks, on the Kalends of May 1464,

having entered both churches of this place,

and having kissed the relics of the most blessed John Columbinus,

commended the life of the nuns standing by

with most ample words, and to them, in life and at the article of death, most full

pardon of their sins; but to all

and each visiting this church

on the same day, and on the feast of Saints Abundius and Abundantius,

he bestowed in perpetuity an indulgence of seven years

and as many quarantines."

[3] Hence our John Baptist Rossi in the Triumph

of blessed John Columbinus, part 3, chapter 3, §2,

concerning the public cult of the same Blessed one thus writes: while he venerated his holy relics, "Meanwhile,

while Columbinus goes on to deserve well of the human race in heaven,

as he had begun on earth, men go on

to repay the reciprocation of honor and veneration,

to whom his frequent miracles in life and after death

had persuaded that he was to be most holily venerated.

Nor had this opinion prevailed only in the minds of the common people

and of private persons, but it had settled also

in the breasts of the great, and, what was to be most greatly desired,

it moved the supreme Pontiff himself,

that by his example he might foster and confirm the piety of the faithful:

for Pius the Second (I bring forth the words

from the marble tablet inserted in the wall of the temple of holy Abundius),

sprung from Siena, when he was preparing expeditions

against the Turks, on the Kalends of May 1464,

having entered both churches of this place, and kissed the relics of the most blessed

John Columbinus,

commended the life of the nuns standing by with most ample

words," etc.

[4] Further, how great an increase the honor of blessed John

took from this piety of the Roman Pontiff, and he greatly increased it the same

writer of our Society in the work just cited,

part 4, chapter 15, §7, sets forth in these words: "I do not indeed

think that so sublime a sanctity and glory of Columbinus could be equaled either by our style,

or by a more elegant and cultivated one: yet what we have said

show him such a one, to whom are owed temples

and altars, and the honor of the Saints, and that this, deservedly

conferred on him by the Pontiffs and the other faithful,

is bestowed, is greatly to be rejoiced at. The beginning

of a most excellent action was of his own accord given by him,

from whom the rest were not wont to receive except by earnest

prayers after an accurate discussion: namely,

Pius the Second, Supreme Pontiff, not without a divine

nod, was not afraid to pour out a prayer on bended knee for the tomb of Columbinus,

and to venerate the holy remains

laid away in it."

[5] Imitating the example of the Shepherd, the troops of the peoples

ran thither in throngs from the neighboring villages and

castles; honor by his example, then, the fame of the miracles increasing, they hastened even

from distant cities, nor departed except

increased by benefits, who procured remedies for the evils of body

and mind. Hence votive

tablets were hung up, witnesses of impetrations, and heaped-up

offerings, monuments of help received by the Saint's patronage.

Further, God going on to propagate the glory of his Servant,

altars began to be erected, radiant images

to be struck, relics to be exposed for veneration,

lamps to be kindled, his birthday to be celebrated yearly,

his name to be inscribed in the sacred calendars of the Church,

and whatever other things are wont to be exhibited by our mortality

to the immortals, whom by the Apostolic reckoning

it is established can be venerated, as enjoying a blessed age and

reigning with Christ in the palace of the heavens.

[6] Now indeed, who of the succeeding Pontiffs would not have subscribed

to Urban the Fifth, that it was wont to be shown to him from immemorial time. who held Columbinus for a saint while still

surviving? Who would not have praised the piety of Pius the Second

venerating the holy bones?

Who would not have adhered to the numerous suffrages of the other Pastors of the Church?

All indeed, however many

reigning in the Vatican see the centuries saw after Urban,

either loved John, as a most ardent

lover of Jesus; or adorned him with encomiums, as a defender

of the Church; or admired him, as a doer of great things

and even of miracles. Which

was the cause of their propense will toward the Jesuati

and their facility in the largess of privileges, by which

the fortified society defends itself wholly by its own strength and forces,

and shines, if not by multitude, by splendor,

among the religious families.

[7] From the collect, The above-praised Morigia in his History of the Jesuati,

book 1, chapter 67, page 117 and following, exhibits to us

the commemoration of blessed John Columbinus

wont to be made in this manner: ANTIPHON. "Farewell therefore,

glorious John, ever making memory of us with God,

that by your most pious intercession we may be able

both in the present to be protected from all dangers,

and in the future to obtain the joys which you already possess.

V. Pray for us, most blessed John Columbinus.

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ."

COLLECT. "O God, the exaltation of the humble, who didst inflame the most blessed

John Columbinus, your most beloved confessor,

with the ardor of so great charity toward you,

that he deserved always to have the most desired name of Jesus your Son

in his living heart and mouth:

grant, we beseech, that by his merits and

prayers we may so be kindled in your name and love,

that with mind and heart we may love you alone above all things,

and obtain the rewards promised to the humble. Through

our Lord," etc.

[8] by an epigram, To this commemoration he there subjoins the following

epigram:

This Columbinus, though he could lead a soft life,

And enjoy the nobility he had received;

Yet he set all these advantages behind God, our

Order's founder and chief, wishing to be.

Nay, even Christ (learn hence how holy he was),

Rotten with ulcers, he took upon himself, a sweet burden.

I do not know what antiquity these have, and whether

that commemoration was common and public in the diocese of Siena,

or rather was used only in the Order of the Jesuati,

and perhaps composed out of the private affection of someone

toward the Blessed one.

[9] in the Martyrology Let us therefore proceed to the more certain arguments of legitimate cult,

which the same Morigia furnishes us,

while in the already-cited History, book 1, chapter 66,

page 110, he affirms, that Pope Gregory XIII inserted the name

of blessed John Columbinus into the Roman Martyrology,

and that Pope Sixtus V granted plenary indulgences

to all and each of the faithful

who should visit the church of the Jesuati of Siena on the festal day of the same Blessed one. In the same place he adds, that his festivity

is devoutly celebrated yearly by the city of Siena, the workshops being closed,

and that on that day, in honor of the Blessed one, many alms

are distributed to the poor by the noble descendants of the Columbinus family.

[10] the Roman one, Certainly in the Roman Martyrology on the day before the Kalends

of August we read even today thus: "At Siena in

Tuscany, the birthday of blessed John Columbinus, institutor

of the Order of the Jesuati, illustrious for his sanctity and miracles."

To these add what our Rossi, part 4, chapter

15, §7, thus relates: "Finally in our age the last

honor befell the Saint, not destined to be the last

for those to come, when by an ample diploma of the congregation of Rites,

that is, of Paul the Fifth, faculty was made

to the city and diocese of Siena of reciting the divine Office

of blessed Columbinus, as is the custom for the other confessors;

and there is a hope not vain

that it will one day be extended throughout the whole world,

as far as the Church of God widely extends." But

that hope, which then shone upon our Rossi, has now

nearly vanished, since the Order of the Jesuati is extinct,

which by the lapse of time would probably have obtained this ampler glory of its Founder.

[11] and by other monuments After such manifest testimonies of legitimate cult

I do not think that the announcements

of the more recent Martyrologists should here be accumulated, among whom

Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy at this day,

after a fairly accurate synopsis of the Acts, subjoins this annotation:

"Gregory XIII judged that he should be described in the

Roman Martyrology; but Paul V,

Supreme Pontiff, granted to the church of Siena and the religion

of the Jesuati (which without the permission of the Apostolic See,

long before, celebrated the birthday of its Father)

that on this day they should venerate him with an ecclesiastical Office."

[12] While Ferrari here says, that the festivity of blessed

John Columbinus was celebrated by the Jesuatic Order without

the permission of the Apostolic See long before, his legitimate cult is proved.

I so understand him, that he only wishes

that the express permission of the Apostolic See was lacking: for

I do not doubt that in the ancient manner the public fame of sanctity,

the common voice of the people, the tacit consent of the Church,

and especially the example of Pope Pius II, impelled the Jesuati

to do this. Nay rather, that John

Columbinus, before the times of Pius II the Pontiff,

was adorned with the titles and honors of the Saints,

I gather from Feo Belcari, who in the year of Christ 1449

published his Acts in Italian, in which everywhere he calls him

blessed or holy. These things I think suffice to assert the immemorial

and legitimate cult of our Blessed one. Now I shall enumerate the various writers of the Acts,

that their authority may be known, and

what I shall say hereafter may be more easily understood.

§ II. The various writers of the Acts, and their authority.

The first Jesuati, who had lived with blessed John Columbinus,

were more solicitous to follow the humble

footsteps of their Master, The Life of the Blessed one was written in passing by Christopher Ganus, than to commit

his illustrious deeds to writing. Yet

Christopher Ganus, whom Bartholomew of Siena,

the Carthusian, in his annotations to the Life of blessed Peter

Petroni, page 185, shows to have been contemporary with, or at least near in time to,

blessed John Columbinus, wrote

a commentary concerning the conversion and manners of the same Columbinus, of which Feo Belcari in his prologue

to the Italian Acts of that Blessed one thus testifies: "I saw

the Life of the same holy Man written by Master Christopher

Ganus, an excellent citizen of Siena, and extended

to forty chapters, in which he assigns rather useful

documents than sets forth his memorable deeds,

whereas in the autograph epistles of blessed John

and the authentic instruments of public notaries

I have read many testimonies of his great sanctity,

which he passed over."

[14] In the order of time this writer seems to be followed next

by blessed John of Tossignano, and blessed John of Tossignano, whose Acts in our work at the 24th day of July were illustrated:

for he, taken up from the Order of the Jesuati to the see of Ferrara,

according to the same Feo Belcari, composed

a certain little work in which he briefly narrated the conversion

and death of blessed John Columbinus,

to demonstrate the origin of his congregation.

Bartholomew the Carthusian of Siena in the praised annotations

to the Life of blessed Peter Petroni, on the page

just cited, thus makes mention of this writing: "Blessed

John of Tossignano, bishop of Ferrara, composed a history of the same

institute and discipline at the persuasion

of blessed Nicholas Albergati the Carthusian, of the holy Roman

Church Cardinal of Bologna, which afterward

also, several things being collected here and there and

excerpted especially from the epistles of the same Columbinus,

Feo Belcari the Florentine augmented and enriched,

a man of good name, and a poet in the Tuscan language

not common, and inscribed and dedicated it to John, son of Cosimo

de' Medici." Concerning Feo Belcari,

who collected the Acts of blessed John Columbinus about the middle of the fifteenth

century from various ancient instruments,

I shall soon indicate more.

[15] whose latter lucubration was seen by our Rossi, Our Rossi saw this lucubration of blessed John of Tossignano

or Tossignani, and concerning it in the above-

mentioned work, page 2, bears this judgment: "Its

autograph written by his own hand, kept in the treasures

of the monastery of Saints John and Paul at Rome among

the holy relics, lent to me to peruse by

the Reverend Father Aloysius Renzoli, definitor of the Order (namely the Jesuatic,

which then still subsisted),

seems the fountain of the rivulets which the later

writers drew into the little plots of their books;

except that he restricted in a compendium what in

Morigia is more widely diffused, because he expressly professes that he was not so much

weaving a history, as handing down the beginnings of the nascent

congregation. But there is weight in the brevity,

that a Saint is praised by a Saint."

[16] who concerning the other fragments of the Acts Nevertheless these imperfect monuments of the ancient writers

brought some light to curious posterity,

and sharpened their diligence, that

from everywhere they collected other fragments of the same Acts,

as the praised Rossi in the same place, page 5 and following,

hints in these words: "Yet it is not to be imputed as a fault to antiquity,

that, content to have tasted a few things from the most abundant harvest

of excellent deeds, it omitted to note the circumstances of times

and places: for, more a lover of holy simplicity

than of labor in writing, it preferred to imitate

the examples of the blessed Founder's life and manners, than

to refer the same, with skillful observation, into diaries,

careless meanwhile as to what posterity would one day wish

to know in detail, which through succeeding ages

fame would have gone on to make common."

[17] prudently discourses. The diligence of the few is indeed to be praised,

who, having received from their elders a tradition by no means doubtful,

noted in monuments as best they could, strove to reduce it into a better

order; but the things which have been passed over and

buried by the long oblivion of times, that they may be recalled to light

and memory, is to be expected from no one's

industry; but of those of which some traces have

remained, they can, by the benefit of narration, be brought back into a clearer

and more explicit notice by a sagacious

investigator, who separates the certain from the probable,

and distinguishes the contingent from the necessary, that the truth, expressed in its own

colors, may come forth into public, a little

indeed more polished, but by no means painted, and, as far as was permitted,

augmented in its numbers, not

perfected in all (which could not be done). By this clause

Rossi indicates the method which he himself used in weaving

the Life of blessed John Columbinus, and of which

we shall treat a little later more fully.

[18] Feo Belcari wrote These two were succeeded by Feo Belcari, a citizen

of Florence, who by good right can be enumerated among the chief writers of the Columbinian

Life, in that

he collected the dispersed monuments of the ancient authors,

and illustrated them from the tradition nearest to his age,

and published ampler Acts of blessed John Columbinus in the year 1449

in Italian, which year is noted at the end of the Acts.

For the rest, what sort of man that Feo Belcari was can be drawn

from Michael Poccianti, who in the Catalogue of the writers

of Florence, in our copy page 55, has this about him:

"Feo Belcari, most illustrious for Tuscan and almost divine

song, endowed with most holy manners and a most upright life,

published several odes,

among which stands out that one, admired by all,

whose beginning is: 'DA CHE TU M'HAI, DIO,

IL COR FERITO.' Besides, the Life of blessed Columbinus,

institutor of the Jesuatic Order. He departed this life on the

16th day of August, in the year of Christian Redemption 1484."

[19] Certainly those things which Feo Belcari wrote concerning blessed John

Columbinus and the illustrious Jesuati, that same Life in Italian with a pious and simple style, breathe sincere

simplicity and great piety,

so that the most eminent Baronius, on the occasion of blessed Columbinus

on this day, in his notes to the Roman Martyrology,

concerning this little work of the author rightly thus pronounced:

"The deeds of him and his companions were written by Feo

Belcari, which are read printed, and

are redolent of great piety." Whether the most eminent Cardinal

did not know the already-mentioned older writers of the Columbinian

Life, or rather wished to name Feo Belcari alone,

as the chief collector of those Acts,

we do not know. We have a double copy of this little work: one

was printed at Siena in the year 1541, and runs without any distinction of chapters

or pages; the other

was reprinted at Rome in the year 1558 and is distinguished into chapters and

pages. Wherefore, for the sake of clarity,

I shall cite this latter edition, when anything from

these Acts is to be adduced.

[20] I had indeed at first resolved to render faithfully into Latin the deeds

and miracles of blessed John Columbinus from the ancient Italian

idiom of Feo Belcari; which we had first resolved to render into Latin from it; but,

all things being maturely weighed, I changed my mind, both

because that labor would be gloomy and difficult to me, and

because it might seem useless, since our Rossi

had already published the Acts of the same Blessed one in Latin, and drew his narration

for the most part from Feo Belcari and Morigia. And so what only detained me

from our institute was the method of Rossi, alien to it, by which longer

digressions he inserts into the Acts, and divides the Life into

various and discrepant parts, in order in both places

to introduce blessed John Columbinus as triumphing,

and fully to satisfy the title of his book; but at last

I saw that these difficulties too could somehow be overcome,

as I shall note afterward.

[21] After him Paul Morigia the Jesuat copiously illustrated the Acts

and miracles of blessed John Columbinus, but since after him and Paul Morigia,

concerning whose work our already-praised Rossi,

page 1, judges thus: "No single one of those who

undertook to write the Life of blessed John Columbinus

labored more happily than the Reverend Father Paul

Morigia of Milan, illustrious in blood and virtue,

and celebrated for the fame of the books published.

For to none did it fall to obtain so many aids

for the completion of his work, as to this man,

besides the common ones of each and those of public right for all,

the domestic and private archives furnished:

for to the whole Order of the Jesuati, presided over by him

with supreme command, it was free and convenient

to search the shelves of any chief monastery,

and to unroll the ancient records hidden in them,

and to insert into his history whatever recorded deeds of the Blessed one

they contained, and to vindicate from the darkness of ignorance

things unknown to the rest and omitted."

[22] There were added the singular piety of upright and religious men

toward their Founder and Parent, instructed with copious documents, the ardor of propagating his honor

and cult, the desire of aiding and adorning the whole family

committed to his care,

which added spurs to the runner,

that he might go on alertly and investigate all

monuments, lest he be ignorant of anything which he deemed worthy to be

known by the human race. In which study

and exertion he seemed to experience the help of divine favor

by no means common: for the sincerity

of the narration, which is reckoned the first praise of a historian,

adorned with the candor of the simplicity familiar to him,

he so tempered with the richness of an easy and plain elocution,

that he extorts assent even from a peevish reader,

and suffuses the mind with a sense of devout

delight."

[23] Joseph Bonafede, a clerk Regular of the congregation

of Lucca of the Mother of God, and another Italian biographer in the year 1642 at Rome

published an Italian work, which he distributed into four books:

in the first two he sets forth the deeds and miracles of blessed John

Columbinus; in the third he relates the spiritual documents of the same

Blessed one and some of his epistles;

in the fourth, finally, he narrates the virtues of certain illustrious

Jesuati. But in the proem he gives the reason

of his new writing, and there at the

end warns the reader that he faithfully took the pious exhortations of the Blessed one and

some of his epistles at Rome from an old manuscript of the Altemps

library.

Afterward, in the appendix which we shall append to the Acts and miracles,

and in the Notes to the Acts, this third

book will be of use to us.

[24] and our Rossi published the Acts of the same Blessed one in Latin, Finally John Baptist Rossi, priest of our Society,

at Rome in the year 1648 by the press of Manelphus

Manelphi issued a book, to which this title is prefixed:

"The Triumph of divine grace through blessed John

Columbinus, or the triumph of blessed John Columbinus,

founder of the Jesuati, through divine grace."

The fivefold division of that book plainly

corresponds to this title: for he himself, page 9, exhibits such an index of the individual

parts: FIRST PART.

The triumph of blessed John Columbinus over the three concupiscences,

which are deplored in the world by St. John

the Evangelist. Second part. The triumph

of blessed John Columbinus over the lovers of the world,

men, and demons. THIRD PART. The glory of the triumph

of blessed John Columbinus through heavenly gifts

and miracles. Fourth part. The ornament of the triumph

of blessed John Columbinus through the infused virtues

and heroic acts. Fifth part. The pomp of the triumph

of blessed John Columbinus, his companions

enrolled, and taught by him.

[25] this author, with due reservations, we shall transcribe, But this partition, as I hinted above,

did not much please me, both because it interrupted the thread of the history

with frequent digressions, and because it inverted the order

of the deeds, contrary to our custom, with those various

classes of triumphs. But at last

I judged that I had found a remedy for these inconveniences,

if I omitted the longer digressions,

and reduced the other things placed out of order to the historical

series, as I shall signify by dots in the text of the Acts,

and, where it shall be worth while, I shall observe in the Notes.

Further, this author wrote the deeds of the Blessed one most amply

and ornately; but very many typographical faults

disfigured his elegant narration,

so that I have been compelled to correct them partly from the errata placed at the end,

partly by conjecture. You have

here a sufficient account of the Acts to be published:

now hear also with what aids that writer was instructed

for composing that work,

that you may know the authority of the writing.

[26] both because he saw various ancient monuments, First of all Rossi, after enumerating the ancient

and more recent authors who wrote the Life of blessed John Columbinus,

or at least made mention of the things piously and prodigiously done by him,

page 3, subjoins this: "It was moreover our care, concerning certain

doubtful matters, to consult by letters those

from whom some light seemed it could be hoped: and although we had answers

about few things, which we shall not conceal,

yet more things remain wrapped in the darkness of antiquity,

and to be opened only then, when

the day of the Lord shall come, which by its immense light will make manifest

the hidden things, and will draw back the veil of the goods and

evils long lying hidden." You see here the candid

simplicity of the writer; but now note also his prudent

diligence.

[27] both because he took care that the archives of the Jesuati In the preface, page 6 and following, he thus sets forth the pious cause

of his writing and its various aids:

"I indeed, by the persuasion of friends and at the request of the counselor men

among the Jesuati, not unwillingly

allowed myself to be led to the undertaking of a most honorable work,

that I might write in Latin the life led among mortals by Columbinus,

hitherto not given in Latinity: yet on this condition I bound

my faith, that they too should not be reluctant to lend their own

effort, and should again unroll the domestic archives and records of the Order,

unrolled by Morigia, if

perhaps to those searching there might be given to find some

hidden parchments in the little chests or wrappings

of writings, by which a new adornment might accrue to the history and

richness for amplifying the old, trite description of others."

[28] Relying on the promise of these and aided by their help,

I shall perhaps bring no little profit to the labor of another and

to the commentaries, he took care that they be discussed again, though otherwise I should not

repent of the effort, and should think I had done something worthwhile, if

the volume came forth increased with briefer scholia and little notes,

where things worthy of singular attention

seem, and which will be able to bring some fruit of doctrine or of morals

to the reader. Besides that

it will redound to the Saint's glory, if, borne as it were on the wings

of Latin oration, the fame of his wondrous sanctity should fly through the regions

of the widely-extending world, and, going out beyond the confines of Italy,

defined by the Italian writing, may proclaim to every nation which is under

heaven the greatness of the virtues and miracles of the Man enrolled

among the heavenly ones and most worthy of cult,

and bring in his veneration. Which, to one striving to accomplish it,

it is so in mind to adhere to the testimony of the former writers

named a little above,

that yet, to express in its proper colors the image of the divine Hero,

I shall direct my finger and style,

and under the figure of one triumphing shall introduce him to be contemplated on the

stage of the ascetics.

[29] Although therefore that writer, solicitous of adorning the triumph

of the Blessed one, [and in the substance of the history faithfully adhered to the traces of the ancients.] more often interrupted the historical

thread of his narration, and somewhat changed the common

order of the Acts, yet from what has already been said it is clear

that he had the venerable monuments of antiquity

before his eyes, and faithfully adhered to them,

as can also be perceived from the Italian Acts of Feo Belcari and Morigia.

But if anywhere in the substance of things

he disagrees with the other historians, I shall not be reluctant

to warn the reader in the Notes or elsewhere of that discrepancy.

I have not wished here to enumerate among the biographers our Peter

Ribadeneira, Silvanus Razzi,

and others, who drew the life of blessed John Columbinus

from others, or made mention of his deeds only

in passing. Yet receive a sufficiently neat synopsis

of the Columbinian Life, until we reprint the ampler Acts of John

Baptist Rossi, disposed in the manner in which I said above,

after this previous Commentary.

§ III. An elegant eulogy of the Blessed one, or a compendium of his Life, from the Sienese calendars.

The city of Siena in Etruria had many citizens

and foster-sons endowed with eminent sanctity of manners,

concerning whose virtues and miracles the Academy

of the Intronati published at Siena in the year of Christ 1669 fuller calendars

in Latin. The Sienese calendars narrate, In these, from page 361, among other

venerable and holy men, blessed John Columbinus is adorned with a notable

eulogy, which it seemed good to transcribe here, both

because it contains certain singular things, and

because, from the previous reading of it, clearer light will be received

by those things which will hereafter in this commentary

be said. Now it runs thus: "I would call John illustrious,

because the blood of illustrious ancestors, drawn down in a series,

flowed together at his birth; unless indeed, by no means needing

another's splendor, he had so shone not only with the lights of his mind,

but with the wondrous light of his countenance,

that at Siena in his domestic chamber, and at Arezzo in

the public lodging of travelers, he rendered the night enviable to the day.

But see, I pray, whence a man,

long wrapped in the darkness of earthly affections,

suddenly drank so much of heavenly brightness.

[31] how blessed John Columbinus wonderfully, When John was once indignant that his household had prepared

dinner later than usual, Blasia his wife,

a woman noble by the lineage of the Cerretani and by her own virtue,

had offered him a book containing the notable deeds of the Saints,

for piously beguiling the time. That book

Columbinus, revolving in his mind gains other than those of piety,

when in the first impulse of anger he had cast it to the ground,

being more sharply angry with his wife; soon, that tumultuous

heat cooling, reverently took it up from the ground:

for the contempt of the sacred volume had now begun to disquiet his mind with a certain

heavier anguish. And when

he had begun to unroll the codex lifted from the ground, by divine

counsel it came about that he fell upon the history of Mary

of Egypt, whose name is celebrated among the

women praised for long penance.

[32] the Life of St. Mary of Egypt having been read, And behold, Columbinus began gradually to blush at his own expiations in her offenses,

to see himself lamentable at her tears;

and that she for six years above

forty had washed away with lamentations, among the wild beasts, whatever

she had sinned among men, he seriously perceived,

he too, now better, a true dove indeed, groaned more bitterly,

and kindled himself to join, not so much outside the cities, as outside

the world, by a religious norm of living, days

and nights to weepings. By the goads

therefore of a far different hunger, nauseating all earthly things,

John, driven, began most greedily to seek the hatred of himself and the love

of God.

[33] and embraced a more austere manner of living, Hence, when by an irrevocable vow he bound himself to avoid all the allurements

of the flesh, by the vileness of his garments

and the squalor of his whole body he eminently avenged himself upon the urbane elegances

and adornment, of which he had before been more zealous.

Moreover with most severe fastings,

with set prayers frequently interrupting his sleep,

with scourges inflicted more sharply, and with other afflictions of the body,

he expended his mind and strength: meanwhile most lovingly rendering

assiduous services to God in his needy and sick ones,

so much so that his wife, who

herself had once provoked him to piety,

now, wearied of the same as excessive, did not hesitate

thereupon to repeat from a common saying, that she had prayed for rain

for herself, not a deluge. But she was plainly, imprudently, accusing

a golden deluge and a precious tempest.

[34] and took to himself companions of a more severe life, Certainly of imprudence she herself could not

fail to condemn herself, when, under the appearance of a leprous little beggar,

whom John, carrying him on his shoulders from the doors of the chief temple, before which

he lay, had brought home, that he might be revived,

she had shuddered at, she perceived that Christ

or one of the heavenly ones lay hidden, from the most sweet

odor with which he, straightway flying up from the bed, left the chamber

suffused. But John, his lips being affected with an even more divine sweetness,

which through a thousand

kisses he had drawn from the flesh of the sick man, eminently salutary to his physician,

from that time had Christ alone in

his mouth in private and public conversations. The praises of Jesus

through the crowded streets, thronged with people, he sang more sweetly

together with the companions enlisted for a more perfect life,

who from that most auspicious name deserved to hear themselves called Jesuati.

[35] and burned with great love of Christ And they report that he was wont to say

that he led a perpetual death in living, because

the praises of men did not everywhere resound Christ,

the cold frost of a tongue by no means returning love to its most loving

Repairer of the heart accusing it by the torpor of silence.

Nay, that he might expunge the oblivion of the desired name

also with his pen, as far as he could,

in the hundred epistles which survived,

though almost all very brief, a thousand and

four hundred times he expressed the name of Christ. He dared,

I think, happily to emulate the illustrious and most celebrated

love of the great Paul, redoubling the saving name in his epistles

very often, namely that the most sweet

voice, which, although assiduously repeated, could not yet

but die in the being born on the lips, he might eternize

on paper.

[36] And by this means John somehow exhaled

the ardor of divine heat, which he could not contain in the straits

of his breast, he blazed, so pre-fervid by the very experience of the senses,

that sometimes a friend, expostulating with him

how he could in the depth of winter, almost naked, sustain the assault

of the cold, when he had placed his hand upon the breast

of Columbinus so bidding it,

could not bear the flaming force there any longer. So great

fires containing within himself, you would call the snowy breast

of the most chaste Man a breathing Etna, save that that

blazed with infernal, this with heavenly, flames.

[37] For the rest, in the manner of lovers, John had to prove himself

to his Love through adversities: whom he proved by the tolerance of adversities. and he proved himself

strenuously, when, that he might not further stir the people to

a life of a new kind, he endured with steadfast mind

to be banished from his native city and district; and afterward

most modestly he bore, before the supreme Prelate of the sacred rites

Urban, the fifth of that name, that his own

and his followers' innocence was detracted, as though under the appearance

of false piety they really concealed heretical pravity.

But both the sagacious prudence of the graver ones among

the Purple-clad, and the very mind of the Pontiff, illumined from heaven,

not only absolved the integrity of their life,

but honored it also with unusual praises, the very infants especially

patronizing them in a wonderful manner,

who admonished their parents to do good to the Jesuati,

surely in persuading a most just cause

the least infants as orators. But the error of those

who had proscribed so eminent a citizen from Siena,

heaven immediately after his departure with dire whirlwinds

and redoubled thunderbolts, and various diseases sent upon them,

so strongly chastised, that through public

legates the whole city humbly begged of John both pardon and his return.

[38] But far more frequently, by the light of kindness than of thunderbolts,

did the admirable power of Columbinus with God

flash: Finally the Blessed one, by miracles for those laboring under grievous malady,

either by the touch of his little cloak or by herbs which

the earth, provoked to unusual beneficence by the breath of his wondrous charity,

suddenly gave, he often restored to their former health. He could also

bring it about, that through the course of a whole

night a burning lamp should consume no aliment at all;

and most truly he did not lose oil and labor: for by a prodigy,

clearer than the very light which

he nourished, he at last moved his cousin

Catharine to a manner of more severe life, which

he had longer urged upon her.

[39] But this indeed is plainly to be wondered at: to one of his companions,

by divine admonition, he prescribed and illustrious for the obedience of his disciples that what by his tongue he had sinned in familiar

conversation, he should expiate by placing his whole head in the fire.

He obeyed, animated by the very severity, not

of a judge, but of his parent, and fell forward with his whole

head into the flames. But John's virtue restraining

the fiery force, after a certain delay,

being recalled, not even one of his hairs being scorched, more lively

from the pyre arose the phoenix of obedience, but

not after ashes, the flames of the darting tongues meanwhile

applauding the power of Columbinus with a murmur.

By these and other wonders John rendered more illustrious the virtue of obedience,

which, proved through all the harshest exercises especially of public

contempt, he required from his followers: and that indeed,

as the fruitful parent of all virtues, in a short time rendered them conspicuous by such

illustrious endowments, that

many peoples eagerly demanded them for the incitement of public piety.

[40] dies piously, But Columbinus, the twelve-year period of his life having been completed,

led with most holy examples and continually expended on the love of God and the salvation of souls,

while he sought Siena again from Viterbo,

was called away to a better fatherland.

He left the earth in the year from the virgin's childbearing 1367,

after he had foretold many things far from witnesses to the priest performing the last

offices of piety upon him,

and, amid the dear embraces of his sons, with tears more tenderly poured out,

mingled the streams of an inundating heavenly gladness.

His last words, taken down by the faith of a public document

and transmitted to posterity, he wished to be witnesses

of the eminent probity of the sacred Sienese

virgins, called after Saints Abundius and Abundantius,

addressing them as second in honesty to the virgins of no Orders

of the whole Christian world, and

most truly conspicuous in holiness. Too great indeed

was this inheritance of yours, most happy virgins,

to be so illustriously praised by a most praised Man, and indeed

in that article of life in which, since the tribunal of the eternal Judge

impends, truth alone expresses the words

of a dying man!

[41] and is honorably buried But you triumphed further, having obtained a richer

treasure of hereditary right, namely the very sacred remains of mortality

left by the columbine spirit,

which afterward through very many prodigies illustrated themselves and their people at once.

Certainly if to the living John there was notable

command over the minds that were fugitives to heaven, where would he more worthily

rest from death, than in that house

from which he himself the same had said, some years before, that he had noticed

them, long proscribed, fleeing with a groan?

By this testimony also not lightly confirming

the rightly-spread fame, that pleasing houses to heaven

were once built by better spirits, which namely

were not only impervious to the more wicked, but formidable,

so that now Siena may exhibit to Christian truth this

edifice of the heavenly ones, in which it may triumph over fabulous

antiquity, boasting its Troy built by architect-gods.

[42] in the convent of Saints Abundius and Abundantius, Of the holy body buried in so noble a place

an integrity utterly free of all stain long augmented the veneration;

until, an hostile army once impending,

when those religious virgins were compelled to retire within the city,

a rain-drip having been let in (whether by chance or by craft,

uncertain) into the Saint's tomb,

those holy limbs gave way to decay, except the foot, which

even today is shown undefiled. You would believe this

to be, by which especially John shows himself to the earth, an inviolable

glory, that he trod under foot the world and glory itself.

What the author of the eulogy above, num. 35, has

concerning the name of Jesus so often repeated in his epistles,

can be confirmed from Feo Belcari, who in the Italian Life,

chapter 57, thus writes: "In the hundred epistles of his

which I read, and of which the greater part is completed in few words,

I found the name of Christ written about

a thousand four hundred times, besides the words

by which mention is made of the same."

[43] which is said to have been built by angels. To the text of num. 41, in which the author of the eulogy

hints that that convent of nuns was built by angels,

with an asterisk the following are noted: "In the year

758 under King Pepin, in the convent

called after Saints Abundius and Abundantius, eminently beneficent,

the heavenly ones are said to have expended their labor in building its wall."

Bartholomew the Carthusian of Siena in the Life of blessed Peter Petroni, chapter 8, obscurely indicates the prodigious

building of the same convent. We leave this angelic building

of the Benedictine monastery, of which Mabillon in the Annals

of his Order makes no mention, to the faith of the Sienese

relators, and with our elders, volume VII of May, page 211, we wish

that there be suggested to us whatever concerning the foundation of that monastery

and the relics of the Saints there, which gave occasion to its name,

can be had. For the rest, those things

which in this epitome of the Life and miracles are briefly

touched, will be more clearly understood from the longer

Acts, whose omissions and controversies we shall now

examine.

§ IV. Some things omitted in the longer Acts, and controverted.

In the Acts to be subjoined to this commentary, num.

81, we read that blessed Peter the Carthusian was consulted by our Columbinus

concerning a more perfect method of life, From the Acts of blessed Peter Petroni we gather, which he was to choose; but in the same

our Acts there is profound silence concerning the mutual familiarity between them

and the other proofs of intimate friendship,

which we draw from the above-mentioned Life of blessed Peter

Petroni the Carthusian, which blessed John

Columbinus himself wrote in Italian, and Bartholomew

the Carthusian of Siena interpolated in Latin, as

our Henschen in the previous commentary to those

Acts on the 29th day of May, in volume VII of the same month, page

188, noted. And so this defect of our Acts

from the Latin Life of blessed Peter Petroni, which

the praised Bartholomew published at Siena in the year 1619 together with

his annotations, we shall here try to supply.

[45] In that Life, book 2, chapter 8, after a long exhortation

by which blessed Peter rouses John Columbinus

to embrace poverty, that there was to him so great these things are related:

"Columbinus therefore, captivated by the holiness and

converse of so great a man, seemed to have obtained that

understanding of divine things, with the same

Peter as leader and moderator, that to the other works of piety

and voluntary inconveniences, which he himself

had of his own accord undertaken for expiating the luxury of his former life,

these he willingly and gladly added; namely that in the exercise of praying

and meditating he should lean with his whole breast:

which zeal of soul indeed, lest it should grow cold in him,

he was wont frequently to come to the Charterhouse,

where, with Peter together with other men of eminent piety,

not only to hold spiritual meetings, and

frequent conversations with him about divine things,

but also to bring thither others and thereupon others whom

he found propense to Christian piety. …"

[46] This course of living Columbinus held

up to the death of Peter; whom, taken from human affairs,

so far was he with blessed John Columbinus from remitting anything of the manner of life he had entered upon,

that even for undergoing all the harshest things

for Christ's cause he felt a certain fresh

alacrity in a moment diffused within himself. Nay

then afterward, as has been demonstrated above and elsewhere

we shall demonstrate much more clearly, by the visions

of that blessed man he was both again and again refreshed and to all sanctity

instructed: so that through these, as through certain heavenly

admonitions, he clearly conjectured, that Peter

in heaven was present also to his undertakings, and bore his patronage

and care, clothed about with blessed immortality.

[47] Meanwhile, while, aided by these divine helps,

Columbinus hastened his step to the summit of perfection, familiarity and friendship,

Peter his son, not yet in full puberty,

not long after the death of our Peter himself

departs from life, by whose bereavement the excellent

parent showed such firmness of mind, that he displayed no sign

of grief or sadness; nay

rather he gave the greatest thanks to God, that through the death

of his dearest son he saw removed from him that obstacle,

which up to that time had stood in his way, so that

the less he had given himself wholly to God, stripped of all the helps of life,

as had been his desire.

[48] so that blessed John observed his chief actions, Nay rather, so great was the converse of our John Columbinus

with blessed Peter Petroni, that he observed his chief

actions, left in writing to posterity the things piously and prodigiously

done by him, and was

an eye-witness of very many miracles, as could be proved by many

examples. But it will suffice to have related a few

things, before one of which Bartholomew of Siena,

book 2 of the Petronian Life, chapter 10, page 90, thus

prefaces: "I think it will not seem absurd to subjoin to these

that which our Columbinus committed to writing as having happened to him,

namely in that very year

and month in which our blessed Peter departed from human affairs.

I narrate the event in brief."

[49] and saw several of his miracles. Then on the following page he thus narrates the matter itself:

"When on a certain day Peter was held by a great

desire of truffles, turning to Columbinus, he said:

'Ah, John, bring me, I beseech

you, a few truffles: for I am carried away by a sharp desire of them.'

To whom Columbinus soon said: 'You know, father,

that nowhere, especially in the month of May,

which is now current, are truffles found.' To which soon

Peter, relying on the paternal providence of the heavenly Godhead,

said, 'Go, in a good hour.' But on the following

day, when Columbinus was taking the road together with

Joachim toward the Charterhouse, for the sake of visiting Peter, both

passed by the cloth-shop of the same Columbinus,

and there they meet a certain young man,

steward of the same shop, holding in his hand a great paper

wrapping full of truffles: who

immediately offered that very thing as a gift to Columbinus.

Then he, astonished at the miracle, and at once suffused with joy,

took the truffles to be soon carried to Peter."

[50] From the same Life it is clear that blessed John practiced trade, From the narration of this miracle it is at the same time clearly

confirmed that blessed John Columbinus practiced trade,

although some of his descendants studiously dissembled that

profession of life, as Bartholomew

the Carthusian in the annotations to the Life of blessed

Peter Petroni, pages 187 and 188, on the occasion of this

history complains in this manner: "Here I would wish that they be present in mind

who, nearly ten years ago now, gave their effort,

that the Life of blessed John Columbinus, which,

as we said, Christopher first Ganus, then

Feo Belcari the Florentine consecrated to the letters of posterity,

should again be printed: since,

led by I know not what spirit, they took care that from it

should altogether be expunged and deleted the places which testify

that Columbinus, though sprung of a noble stock,

yet practiced trade and did banking business.

[51] which some, however, wished to wrap in silence, But how far they have wandered from the truth,

let them learn, if not from those authors of unshaken faith;

certainly from Columbinus himself, who, writing of himself,

confesses that he together with Joachim passed by his cloth-shop,

when he took the road toward the Charterhouse,

for the sake of visiting our Peter. But what need is there to use

the writings of the ancients, when everywhere in his native city

little two-year-old infants sing that very thing? This

I would wish said, not that I might rise up against the dead,

I mean against Julius Caesar Columbinus, by whose labor

and zeal these same deeds of John Columbinus

were lately published in print, as Paul Morigia

testifies, but that the prudent and sensible reader

may understand that I have reaped no small fruit from these

both for building up and for illustrating the truth of our history."

[52] I think that here Morigia is noted, who in the edition

of the year 1604 changed the words or wished to call into doubt, indicating a certain profession of trade,

and in book 1 of the History of the Jesuati, chapter 2, thus introduces

Columbinus answering his wife: "I must at once return

to business," in Italian "alle facende." But Feo Belcari

in the Italian Life of the same Blessed one, chapter 2, writes

that John Columbinus answered his wife

that he must at once return to the shop: for in place

of Morigia's ambiguous word "alle facende," that is

"to business," he himself put in Italian "al fondaco," which

word signifies a shop or store of wares,

as in the Dictionary of the Cruscan academy, and other

lexicons, may be seen.

[53] I suspect that the noble descendants of the Columbinus family

induced Morigia although there at that time trade to suppress the ancient trade of blessed

John, as repugnant to their nobility.

But they could have learned that that profession

does not detract from nobility, where it is practiced according to the custom of the country,

as Andrew Tiraqueau in his book on Nobility,

chapter 33, num. 21, teaches in these words: "Nevertheless

what we say, that trade is a hindrance to nobility, so proceeds,

unless the custom of the region, which without

doubt is to be observed, brings in something else, as among the Venetians

and Genoese even nobles practice trade

without reproach and detriment to nobility."

The same our Rossi judges, as below from the Acts,

num. 7, will be clear.

[54] Certainly Bartholomew the Carthusian does not deny the illustrious

nobility of blessed John Columbinus, although he maintains

the trade practiced by him, would not exclude his nobility. while after the long

exhortation of blessed Peter Petroni concerning his conversion,

book 2, chapter 8, page 78, he relates the following:

"By which words indeed, and by sentences so ardent,

as soon as the blessed Father made an end of speaking,

Columbinus felt himself so affected and impelled to

embrace Evangelical poverty, that, then illumined

by a new abundance of divine light, he no longer

so eagerly and ardently gaped after the gains of money as before,

so that afterward he despised those very things from his heart.

For, detesting, as a most foul pest of the soul,

that depraved desire of having, by which

in making profit he was daily more and more carried away,

he began gradually to call away his mind from contracting new

commerce, which either the NOBLE MERCHANT

handled in trading, or the banker conducted in occupying

and exchanging money."

[55] Now from this digression let us return to the way,

and let us go on to enumerate the deeds of blessed John

omitted in our Acts, with Bartholomew of Siena, From a certain narration of the same Life we draw,

who, book 2, chapter 10, page 92, thus continues: "We have just now

heard Columbinus writing of himself: let us hear

also the same relating of his son Peter something no less

wonderful than of himself, when at

nearly the same time in which our blessed Peter exchanged life

for death, we learn from him that the thing happened.

There had come together into Peter's chamber

at once some of the Fathers of the house, at once also other men

noble in piety, to hear the blessed Man discoursing about

heavenly things; when suddenly, about to make an end

of his discourse, he subjoined, saying: 'Wait,

I pray, a little, brethren: for it will not be long

before Joachim comes to us together

with the boy Peter, son of John Columbinus, who

brings me certain little gifts, namely, almonds, poppies,

and a single onion; nay rather,

our house now standing near at hand, one

of the poppies the boy himself at this point of time is chewing.'

When those standing by heard this, they immediately

began to smile.

[56] For the rest, scarcely had Peter said these and other things to the same effect,

when at once it is announced that at the

doors of the convent Joachim and the boy Peter stood: the son of blessed John Columbinus

whom when the monks behold, and learn, having inquired, that the boy

had eaten a poppy on the way, as the blessed

Father a little before had foretold, they are straightway

affected with great admiration. And when soon they had entered Peter's chamber,

Peter, turning to the boy,

who out of respect bent his knee before him,

said: 'Sing, son, that little song, whose

beginning is O DIVA NOBILIS MAGDALENA: for

before you finish it, there will come to us here

the priest of the Marian church, parish-priest at Marmoraria.'

Nor were the words of the blessed Father cast to the wind:

for the thing so entirely came to pass."

[57] was in life up to the year 1361. These things concerning the little son of blessed John Columbinus I wished to record,

that against the erroneous opinion of some it might be established

that that boy survived up

to the year 1361, in which blessed Peter Petroni died,

as Bartholomew in his annotations,

page 194, observes in these words: "Concerning the boy Peter,

son of blessed John Columbinus, there is nothing that

I should add at present: for concerning him in the History

we treated more fully, pages 79, 81, to settle the altercations

of certain who rashly asserted that the boy

departed from human affairs a few months after

Columbinus his parent converted himself to God, that

is in the year 1356; whereas otherwise we see him living up

to the year 1361 with our blessed Peter."

[58] Blessed John most familiar with blessed Peter Petroni, There are in the same Acts many other things which pertain to

blessed John Columbinus: for the praised

collector of them relates that our Blessed one was joined with so great

intimacy to blessed Peter Petroni,

that he understood his hidden thoughts, observed his various

predictions, saw many of his miracles,

and once was suffused with heavenly delight from the most gleaming rays

which he beheld flashing from the body of blessed

Peter. Besides this he narrates that Columbinus

steadfastly stood by him as he died, and from that poor

furniture of his, which he had kept in place of holy relics,

perceived a most fragrant odor. Finally he shows that blessed Peter Petroni

often after death appeared to our blessed John,

and communicated to him various spiritual counsels. But

we forbear from describing these more fully, because in

the same Acts of blessed Peter Petroni, which on the 29th day

of May we inserted into our work, in volume VII of the same

month, from page 189, they can be read.

[59] he is said to have been endowed with a delicate bodily habit and small stature, Feo Belcari in the Italian Life, chapter 57, hands down

that blessed John Columbinus had a noble and delicate

bodily habit and a small stature.

Hence also in the proem of his little work he

compares him with John de' Medici, whom he there thus

addresses: "Since blessed John abounded in wealth and kinsmen,

was illustrious in honors among his chief

fellow-citizens, distributed great alms,

and was similar to you in bodily stature and constitution,

as you will clearly perceive, it seemed to me most fitting

that I should consecrate this small labor of mine to you.

… But if love arises from

likeness, as the Philosopher will have it,

I do not doubt that you will love blessed John,

and receive many benefits from him: for he

is great in the divine sight, and toward all

his clients kind." Paul Morigia in the History

of the Jesuati, book 1, chapter 64, described the same bodily

habit from Feo Belcari, as I think.

But since our Rossi in the longer Acts, as far as

I know, did not expressly mention that bodily constitution,

I thought the reader should be warned of it in this place.

But now concerning the birth and age of our Blessed

one I shall examine a certain doubtful conjecture of the same Rossi.

[60] and that he died in the sixty-third year of his age, That writer already often praised, in the Triumph

of blessed John Columbinus, part 2, chapter 22, §3, after

adorning his blessed Triumpher with an epitaph,

thus computes the times of his life: "The obsequies, further, were performed

on the 11th day of August in the year of salvation 1367,

the 12th of his conversion, of his age, by probable calculation,

the 63rd: for a constant opinion among his kinsmen

remains even today, that in this climacteric year he died,

and therefore was born about the year 1304, and gave the beginning

of his life to a better one, when he was in his 51st, on the second day of July."

I do not sufficiently grasp how here he determinately assigns to the conversion of blessed

John the second day of July,

when before, in our Acts, num. 13, he begins to narrate

his conversion thus: "The fifty-fifth year above

the thousand three hundredth

from Christ's birth was flowing, when on a certain day (what day

of the month they did not express, because not even the month

did the ancient writers care to record) returning

early from the banking-table, John, exceedingly hungry,

wished to feast, at once to recline, and

to dine," etc. Whence therefore does the same author draw that blessed

John gave the beginning of his life to a better one, when he was in his fifty-

first year of age, on the second day

of July, since the ancient writers did not express the day

and month of the conversion?

[61] But what is handed down about the climacteric year of his age

is equally uncertain: [which latter, however, is uncertain, since the year of his birth is not established.] for Rossi in the same

Acts, num. 4, had already confessed the following: "For the rest,

his birthday and month, nay rather even the year itself,

is uncertain and obscure; nor did any light shine from the monuments

of the Columbinus family or of the religion of the Jesuati

upon those studiously searching, that a way

might be opened to them of finding those things which, by the laws of history,

it were not permitted to pass over in silence. Yet, the years of

the conversion to God and of the death being compared with each other,

to be mentioned below, it is an easy conjecture that about

the three hundredth and some years above the thousandth

of repaired salvation, the most fortunate birth of John

happened." How therefore, by a probable calculation,

is the sixty-third year of his age determined?

If about the birth-year of the Blessed one no light shone from the monuments

of the Columbinus family, on what foundation

rests the constant opinion among his kinsmen, that he died in the climacteric year?

That whole determination of years,

months, and days, which our Rossi

proposes, seems to arise only from a certain uncertain tradition of the Columbinus family.

§ V. Miracles wrought by the intercession of the Blessed one.

John Baptist Rossi in his already several times mentioned

Triumph, part 3, chapter 1, §1, concerning the miracles

which by the intercession of blessed John Columbinus,

both in life and after death, happened, Rossi, from many miracles, after other things

thus discourses: "At the beginning indeed, where unbelief was to be overcome,

and the hard necks of the Jews

to be broken, it was contended by a multitude of signs;

but these being triumphed over; when faith brought the whole world

under its jurisdiction, there was indeed a cessation from the frequent

working of miracles, yet not so, that any

age from that most happy one of the Apostles ran barren,

as would easily be known to one surveying each. But most fruitful

did our elders see that one which

bore blessed Columbinus to Christ, and gave his numerous

offspring to the Church: for not he alone was chosen

to do wonders in his life and after his death; but also

almost all his disciples he deserved to have partakers of his wondrous

operations, whom he had companions of the tolerance of sufferings,

that is, rigid chastisers of their bodies, poor, humble,

crucified to the world and affixed to heaven.

[63] selects a few, For those whom heavenly grace so finds, or rather makes,

it also greatly marks with ornaments of that kind,

and through them demonstrates the force of its power with this purpose,

that faith may be nourished, piety fed,

the truth of religion strengthened. To this it looked, when it granted Columbinus

to be famous by miracles;

of which many, recorded in monuments, came to

the notice of posterity, more, suppressed in silence, lay hidden:

and the number of all these, by the accession of more,

which happen at the Saint's altars daily, is greater than that they can be comprehended in a part of a volume,

or that it is worth the labor to comprehend them.

For it will be better and enough to have tasted a few of the more notable

and more ancient, by which the Saint's fame was ennobled,

and the veneration of the peoples toward him augmented." Then he subjoins some prodigies wrought by

John Columbinus while still living, which

we, according to the historical series, as far as could be done,

inserted into his Acts.

[64] among which he relates how a possessed woman, In the same Triumph, part 3, chapter 2, §1, he selected

some miracles which happened after the death of the Blessed one,

and of these touches on some briefly, and records a few

others in this manner: "Not far

from the monastery of holy Abundius a wicked demon was permitted

to choose for himself, for a temporary lodging, the body

of an upright young girl, and exercised

in it a part of the hatreds by which he is stirred up against the human race.

He grievously vexed the poor little one in insane ways,

mocked her to the derision of her parents and to a contempt full

of grief. Nor was there any force or means at hand

for restraining his wickedness and malignity,

whether he wished to distort her limbs, to invert them with violent motions,

to dash her against walls or pavements, or

to stir up vociferations and discordant clamors.

[65] when she touched the tomb of blessed John Columbinus, It happened once, that, having slipped from the house and running

through a nearby court, her parents pursued her,

that they might stop her and guard her from the precipice: but she,

swifter, while she tries to cast herself into the neighboring temple,

trod with her foot, near the doors, the tomb of Columbinus,

and suddenly fell down lifeless. To reach

her lying on the ground was easy for those pursuing, who,

suspecting the faint to be caused by the evil inhabitant,

hasten diligently to help the languishing one with fomentations and every aid.

But she needs now no, or no such, medicine. She lies for some while placed out of herself;

a little after, as if emerging from sleep, she raises herself

on her feet, and confesses herself free of the iniquitous besieger.

[66] she was immediately freed, The parents wonder vehemently and joyfully ask

whence the unhoped-for safety and peaceful quiet

had returned in a moment, or how from the tyranny of the dire tormentor

she had been asserted into liberty. She answered that the manner

she could neither explain nor grasp;

but that she had noticed, as soon as she had pressed with her soles the sepulchral

ground, the impure spirit sent away from her,

and that it was not to be doubted that this was by the hidden

power and command of the Saint, whose remains were there laid.

The fame of this event, pervading the whole neighborhood,

penetrated into the city itself with a favorable

murmur, and augmented the veneration of the citizens

toward John and his body, which they began to hold in great price.

[67] where also others were snatched from the tyranny of the demon. And this one indeed, no help implored, and thinking nothing

of the benefit, obtained a benefit: two others besides,

beset and most wickedly held by the Stygian spirits, being led to the same tomb,

departed thence free of their calamitous

siege by prayers and evocations. To one of them, when there was lacking a supply of a priest

to perform the exorcisms, the lady Paula,

superioress of the nuns, tried to bring help with prosperous

success. First indeed she commended her to the prayers of her own,

which she hoped would greatly avail with God;

then, armed with faith, through the virtue of Christ and

the merits of his Servant Columbinus, she boldly commands the rebels

to go out of the body, and to give a manifest and certain sign

of their departure. To whom the treacherous one, with a

discordant howl: 'And what sign do you bid be given?' 'That,'

she said, 'you shake the lamp shining before the most venerable Sacrament.'

'By no means am I worthy,'

the proud one answers, 'to approach thither; but I will leave no

doubtful traces of my departure somewhere in the monastery,'

and quicker than the word he went out, departed, and breathed into

the wine-cellar, the most filthy one, so foul a stench and reek of sulphur,

that for three whole

weeks one could not set foot there unharmed."

[68] Another celebrated miracle in the same place, part 3,

chapter 3, §2, he thus narrates: A nun, imploring the help of blessed John, "One of the nuns of those who

are admitted to external ministries, in the ascetery

of holy Abundius, was tormented by a vehement pain of the right thumb.

There had flowed into it an acrid and

malignant humor in such quantity, that, deformed by inflation and tumor,

it miserably ulcerated it. Various medicaments

applied brought rather shame to the art than help to the sick woman;

and it came at last to this, that by amputation of the finger,

for the safety of the arm and the other members,

it was by the judgment of the physicians resolved that provision must be made.

[69] The night before the appointed butchery the poor woman

passed sleepless in prayer, her thumb, now to be amputated, and to blessed Columbinus,

whose help so many experienced at his tomb,

she persevered in commending her thumb with inmost heart

and tears. Toward dawn, roused by a certain inner

impulse, she cannot contain herself

from unrolling the poultice placed around the ulcer: and behold,

no sign now of tumor or

decay, all pain is gone, whole health

is present, only the nail on the tip is wanting,

that the miracle may be doubled. Again she gives herself to prayers,

and hopes that he who does perfect works will by no means leave this

imperfect through the merits of blessed Columbinus.

As she hoped, so it came to pass; the nail was restored,

and wiped away was whatever was deformed in the finger.

[70] When the morning was now clear, the surgeon is at hand,

having ready the razor, ointments, suddenly he keeps sound. bandages, and whatever was necessary for the sad

ministry. But the sick woman, meeting him, asserts that all

that apparatus is superfluous, and gives credence to her word

by showing the finger, in which not even a trace

of the driven-away ulcer was found to have remained.

The outcome of which miracle the whole choir of the sisters,

and even the secular attendants themselves, and the physicians, eyewitnesses

and heralds, published among outsiders:

which was the cause that from the city several ran to the convent,

and, piously curious, took in with their eyes

what they had perceived with their ears."

testifying to health recovered, had been the care

of those healed, they would perhaps be seen assimilated to as many

forms as there are species of diseases which

rage against the human members. They would besides have added votive gifts,

whole little bodies wrapped in bands, the barren parents

who, leaning on their knees before the tomb, so long persisted in asking

the benefit of fruitfulness, until, full of hope,

departing thence, they deserved afterward to exult with the gladness of the offspring

sought for." The miracles which

Rossi here at the end mentions in general, and which perhaps

he had read in Feo Belcari and Paul Morigia, and other

authors, we shall afterward from them

relate one by one.

[72] Moreover blessed John Columbinus conferred on his clients

many other benefits, and others which happened in the city of Lucca, which our Rossi

indicates were passed over by him, while, part 2,

chapter 9, §5, concerning the nuns of the Jesuatic Order at Lucca

he writes thus: "It is not the least praise of the virgins devoted

to God, that they cultivate the memory of blessed Columbinus, whom

they acknowledge as founder, with pious veneration,

try to imitate his virtues, defend his institute,

strive to augment his cult, dedicate altars,

hang up lamps, take care that his festal

day be adorned with panegyrics, expose his relics, kept in precious

reliquaries, to be adored: and that all

these things are pleasing to God and to the Saint, frequent miracles testify,

by which his image, and the oil burning in the lamps,

and a particle of bone, and the invocation of his name

are ennobled daily.

[73] he wholly omits. A catalogue of these and a prolix narration

I received from eyewitnesses, in case perhaps they should seem to be inserted

into the volume. But since we abound in the abundance

of others, to which lawful right gave credence, and

conciliated authority, we more willingly withhold our hand

and pen from those for a while, until, with equal

censure and judgment, courage be added to writers

to publish them." Since we have found those benefits of Lucca

not yet hitherto published, it will suffice for us,

after our Acts, from Feo Belcari and Paul Morigia,

to exhibit in Latin those miracles to which the venerable

antiquity and legitimate testimonies conciliated sure

credence.

§ VI. The body of the Blessed one, long incorrupt

and whole, is at last dissolved, and part of the head and bones once carried off by theft is still found in the diocese of Rimini.

Since the body of blessed John, on account of the frequent miracles, From the preceding paragraph and the end of the Acts it is clear,

that on account of the manifest miracles wrought not long after

the death of blessed John Columbinus, the veneration of the faithful

toward his holy relics was augmented,

whose honorable elevation, prodigious

integrity, and finally studiously procured

corruption our Rossi, part 3, chapter 3, §

1, sets forth in these words: "The number of miracles increasing daily,

and the concourse of the people to the tomb,

it came into the mind of the nuns of holy Abundius

that it was their part to transfer the bones, as they thought,

bare, fleshless, to a more honorable place, and to lay them in a nobler

reliquary.

[75] was to be placed in a more honorable place, The pious virgins sought counsel from prudent

men, of whom none was found who

did not greatly approve and exhort to the work

to be undertaken as quickly as possible. Deliberation being made,

they judged that before all, Blasia, his former wife,

should be admonished as was just, who conceived in mind incredible

delight, and demanded for herself the charge of the expenses

to be made, and in particular of the chest to be fabricated for receiving the holy relics.

This was constructed with elegant

and highly polished workmanship: in the middle of the outermost surface

it pleased that an image of Christ the Lord Savior be depicted,

to whom, as if attending, should be added at the right

side another of blessed Columbinus, at the left

another of St. Francis the Seraphic.

[76] it is found incorrupt and whole, The fame being spread through Siena, the day of the translation

was appointed; and there came together from the secular clergy very many priests

and ministers, who, robed in linen, should assist and perform the sacred

ministry. When they came

to the tomb, they exhumed the sarcophagus, and

indeed both the flowers cast in when it was buried, the humidity of the earth

had turned into slime and putrefaction;

but the body covered by them they found wholly whole and incorrupt,

like a fresh amaranth,

as if a little before it had been buried, or rather

lulled in a sweet sleep: the flesh soft and tender,

the color vivid, the countenance akin to a smiling one, so that

more clearly than the noonday light there might be plain,

that pledge of innocence and vessel of honor, divinely

asserted from the injuries of death, which does not cease to avenge

the old fault even in the dead sons of Adam, and, having fed upon their limbs,

turns them into decay and dust.

[77] They acknowledged the miracle, as many as fed their eyes

on that living and pleasant spectacle, and by the sedulous care of the nuns and praised

God the Most High, who did it, and at last

to the inner part of the temple, accessible only

to the nuns, they transferred the precious treasure, enclosed in a new chest,

where it could more conveniently rest placidly and be devoutly

venerated by the concourse of the throng.

But if at any time, in war-time, the virgins had to migrate

into the city, and to escape the license of soldiery

raving without; then indeed the most inward care and solicitude

vexed them, both of protecting the whole sacred

furniture, and of carrying away that heavenly

deposit with them, which they held dearer than their own

eyes, nor by any reason could they be induced

to entrust it to the custody of others.

[78] Whence it came about that they commonly said everywhere

that it would be more advisable that a certain seat within the walls

in some nobler temple be designated, it was carefully preserved amid warlike tumults. than to be left in the country,

whence the impending calamities from time to time compelled it

to be carried and brought back, not without inconvenience and peril:

which rumor, when it had reached the ears

of the nuns, otherwise already touched with suspicion

and fear lest this desire also should invade

the minds of the chief kinsmen of the city, by secret deliberation

they resolved to prepare a little vault

in a hidden part of the church, and there, by a secret

transportation, to guard the thing set aside from the curious inquiry of scouts,

which was feared.

[79] The business was accomplished with the utmost taciturnity,

until a certain simple guardian, and for about four lustra the quiet held

and silence about the concealment: after which, again

unlocked (uncertain on what occasion), the little coffin

exhibited to the beholders no member even lightly violated, but

whole on every side, as it had received it in its embrace.

Nor could the continuance of divine indulgence in guarding that body

long be concealed; but soon, celebrated by the discourses of many through

that whole region, it augmented both the veneration

of the Saint and the concourse to his tomb

so much, that it bred weariness and trouble

to John, son of Ambrose, then acting there as chaplain-servant

(that is, I being interpreter), performing some external service

pertaining to the chaplain:

for a layman, and beneath the dignity of the levitical order,

he proved his servitude to the Lord in holy simplicity,

and abstained from the more sacred mysteries.

[80] He therefore, whether wearied of the daily concourse growing greater by the day

and disturbing his quiet, wearied of the constant concourse, placed it under a drip, or

fearing lest the religious discipline of the convent should gradually

be hindered, preposterously provident, of set purpose

is said to have fitted the coffin to a crack in the tiled roof,

whence the rainy shower, by frequent dripping, the boards being hollowed out,

at last loosened the frame of the body, and

stripped that tabernacle, the trophy of grace, snatched from death,

of its comeliness and beauty, and at the same time extinguished

the thirst of seeing it in the throngs running up:

only a single foot remained unharmed, which, gathered from the rest

of the mass, laid in a silver case among the relics

of that temple, is said to breathe a most sweet odor

even to the present day, as testify

very many, to whom it is a religious duty and consolation

to visit, to smell, to venerate it."

[81] that it should be dissolved, as was done. I would have preferred to sail past this rock, and not

to accuse the disciple, most loving of his Master, of either

fault or ignorance by an unsavory invention; but

the friendly writers did not excuse it, who handed down the truth of the deed and non-deed by no means painted, lest,

which was easy to suppose, the dissolution voluntarily procured

should be ascribed to the chance of the falling

rain, or even to time destroying marbles. I judge

that by Rossi here by "friendly writers" are indicated Belcari

and Morigia, or perhaps even the more ancient

biographers, whom I was not permitted to see. At least

Feo Belcari in the Italian Life of the Blessed one, chapter 58, page

101, and Paul Morigia in the History of the Jesuati,

book 1, chapter 66, page 107, narrate the prodigious

integrity of the holy body and the voluntarily procured

corruption of the same.

[82] Notable relics of blessed John Columbinus, But I wonder that Morigia and other more recent

writers of the Acts made no mention of the notable relics of blessed

John Columbinus, which in the year of Christ

1554 were translated to the parish church of St. Lawrence

of Gatteo, as we shall soon relate from the Italian manuscript

instruments. Now that place, commonly

called Gatteo, lies in Romagna between the river

Pisciatello and the torrent Rubicon, not far from the town

of Savignano, as I gather from the geographical maps of Italy

which John Anthony Magini adorned.

But how that holy treasure came to the church of St. Lawrence of Gatteo,

we shall now

briefly narrate from an Italian manuscript which our elders

received in the year of Christ 1636.

[83] [after the middle of the sixteenth century carried off from the monastery of St. Abundius,] When Cosimo de' Medici, duke of Florence,

in the year 1554 waged war against the Sienese, and invaded

their dominion, it happened, that among other

ruins and plunderings the monastery of St. Abundius

near Siena was pillaged by military license. There served

in the army of duke Cosimo John Baptist

Antonelli of Gatteo, who at the same time discharged the office of secretary

with the most noble Count John Francis of Bagno.

He, for the sake of curiosity,

having entered the church of the said monastery, there found

holy relics, either neglected by other soldiers or

not noticed (namely the head and the shin-bone of blessed John

Columbinus), which he immediately carried off with him to his lodging.

Soon he admonished his fellow-citizens of Gatteo

to send some faithful man, to whom

he might deliver this sacred treasure, with which he desired to enrich his own country.

There was sent to him a certain

Matthew of Gatteo, who carried the said relics of the Blessed one,

enclosed in a wooden chest, into his country, where

they were placed in the parish church of St. Lawrence.

[84] were translated to the church of St. Lawrence of Gatteo, After some years the aforesaid John Baptist

Antonelli wrote to his cousin Antony Antonelli

that his conscience was burdened by the Spanish theologians

(for he was then dwelling in Spain), and that he

was especially urged by his confessor, to take care that those relics,

stealthily carried off, be restored to the monastery of St. Abundius.

Wherefore he begged his cousin to try with all

zeal to obtain them, and to send them back to the aforesaid

monastery of St. Abundius. But the bishops

of Rimini, to whom the church of Gatteo is subject,

always opposed this restitution, lest their diocese

be deprived of such precious remains. To Antony, indicating this obstacle,

John Baptist answered

that, by the judgment of the same Spanish theologians, those holy

relics could be secretly carried off, and thus restored,

because they had been taken by theft. Hence, he urging this stealthy

restitution, Antony bought

two houses near the church of St. Lawrence, that

secretly by night he might more easily carry off those relics. But

God willed this purpose to lack success, that the church of St. Lawrence

of Gatteo might always be honored

with so notable a treasure, which there up to the present

day is honorably preserved.

which Fabius Sergardi, doctor of laws,

a noble of Siena, apostolic prothonotary, and

vicar general in spirituals and temporals of the most illustrious and most reverend lord Lord Ascanius

Piccolomini of Aragon, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See

archbishop of Siena, in the year 1635 published,

and which, rendered by us from the Italian idiom into Latin,

thus runs: "To all who shall see the present letters,

greeting in the Lord. The most noble marquis

Nicholas of Bagno, with the aforesaid most illustrious

and most reverend lord archbishop of Siena,

by letters on the 14th day of the past month, urged

that it be examined in the monastery of Saints Abundius and Abundantius,

in which the body of blessed John Columbinus

rests, whether there his head and the bones of his shins be found,

because these parts of the holy body are said to exist

in a certain place, pertaining to the aforesaid marquis,

and on the occasion of the war of Siena

are said to have been carried from that monastery by soldiers and to have come to that

place.

[86] But since the aforesaid Lord Marquis, to that

end asked that inquiry be made, who saw that those parts were lacking in the monastery of St. Abundius, that those holy relics might be more certainly known

and affected with due honor, we give full

and undoubted faith, that by the command

of the aforesaid most illustrious and most reverend Lord archbishop

we went, together with our chancellor undersigned,

and Ludovic Ugoni, surgeon of Siena, to

the said monastery of St. Abundius, and there,

having entered the church, in the presence of Lord Sergius Neri,

confessor of the said nuns, and other witnesses

specially chosen for this, inspected the chest

in which the body of blessed John Columbinus is preserved,

and after attentive consideration found

that the head was lacking there, except the lower jaw.

We also saw that the two bones of the shins were wanting there,

and in a certain book of the aforesaid monastery, folio

20, it is noted, that when the nuns for the cause of war fled to the city of Siena,

the head of the most glorious John

with certain other relics was carried off.

The same also assert the reverend mothers Virginia

Placidi the abbess, and Abundia Landi, who testify

that they had always heard that those relics were

translated into the diocese of Rimini. In faith of all which,

we have taken care that the present, written by our chancellor,

be fortified with the greater seal, and for greater

validity have subscribed with our own hand. Done

in the palace of the archbishop of Siena on the 22nd day of December

1635.

Fabius Sergardi, vicar general.

In place of the ✠ seal ┈┈┈┈ Francis Barcius, notary

and chancellor."

[87] Then follows another authentic instrument,

which, turned from the Italian into Latin, thus runs: which the surgeon of Gatteo saw to be in the church of St. Lawrence

"On the 26th day of February, in the year 1636, I, Hannibal

Godenti, surgeon of Gatteo, give faith,

that I was requested by the very Reverend Lord Leonard Fanantius, rector

of the church of St. Lawrence of Gatteo,

to visit certain relics which are said

to be of blessed John Columbinus, founder of the Jesuati,

and which rest in the aforesaid church of St. Lawrence,

and that they were by me, in the presence of the aforesaid Lord

Rector, and also of Francis Rinalducci, steward

of the most illustrious Lord Marquis of Bagno, and

Francis Fabri, diligently inspected. But all things

being attentively considered, I found, that there

was there the bone of the left shin and the head, to which only is lacking

the lower jaw together with the chin. Wherefore, being requested,

I drew up the present instrument on the day and year abovesaid,

and for greater faith I, Hannibal

abovesaid, subscribed with my own hand."

[88] he testifies by an authentic instrument and by oath; To this instrument is subjoined the testimony

of a public notary, who writes thus: "In the name of God,

amen. On the 28th day of February in the year 1636 at

Gatteo, in the presence of me the notary and the witnesses undersigned,

the abovesaid Hannibal Godenti, present, testifies

and affirms that the preceding instrument was drawn up by him

and written by his own hand, and acknowledges it under oath

to be his, and in every better

manner in which he can, asked that it be strengthened by my testimony.

Done in the house of the very Reverend Lord Leonard

Fanantius, rector of the parish church of St. Lawrence

of Gatteo, within the said place, according to his petitions,

in the presence there of the abovesaid Lord Rector, and

John Baptist Baro of Gatteo, witnesses employed for the aforesaid.

And I, Philip Dichius, public notary

of the said place, being requested concerning the aforesaid,

wrote, and signed with my accustomed sign, as in the margin

requested.

In place of the ✠ sign."

From all these instruments, compared with each other, I judge

that it is in no way to be doubted, that the church of St. Lawrence

of Gatteo possesses the true relics of our Blessed one.

[89] but of the other distribution of the remains we know little. Charles Bartholomew Piazza in the Sanctuary

or Roman Menology at the 31st day of July notes,

that a part of the haircloth and garment of blessed John Columbinus is

kept in the monastery of St. Martha near the Roman college.

I suspect that similar remains of the blessed Man were communicated to other

churches and monasteries in Italy,

although a certain notice of them has not

come to us. At least I do not doubt that some

particles of the holy bones or other relics of their blessed

Founder were obtained by very many convents of the Jesuati

and Jesuatesses, whose institute, privileges,

and other things pertaining to that Order I shall set forth in the following

paragraphs.

§ VII. The origin, nomenclature, exercises, and dress of the Jesuati.

Blessed John Columbinus, converted to God From the Acts to be given below it will be easily understood how

several, by the example of blessed John Columbinus,

embraced an austere manner of living, subjected themselves

to his discipline, and thus gradually

there coalesced a company of disciples, which afterward grew into an Order

approved by the Church. Our Philip Bonanni

in the Catalogue of the religious Orders,

part 1, num. 82, thus exhibits to us a historical synopsis of this religious

congregation: "In the year 1354

in the city of Siena was begun the order which was called of the Jesuati,

because in their mouth was frequent

the sweet name of Jesus. Its author was

blessed John Columbinus of Siena, whose wonderful

conversion to God is related to have happened on account of the reading

of the Life of St. Mary of Egypt, upon which by chance

he had fallen.

[91] He therefore, suddenly changed, exercised himself in good works:

instituted an Order. whence, moved by his example, certain men

joined themselves to him, all of whom Urban V,

benignly embracing them as a new offspring of Christ,

adorned with many privileges. They obtained the dress and the approbation

of their institute in the year 1367, which

afterward eighteen Roman Pontiffs are said to have confirmed.

It served under the rule of St. Augustine;

yet it had constitutions composed by one of them,

afterward elected bishop. It was also called

the Order of apostolic clerics, or of St. Jerome

of the Jesuati, because that Saint by unanimous

consent they chose for themselves as patron, by the decree

of Alexander VI, in the year 1499. But in the year

1668 Clement IX, by the constitution ROMANUS

PONTIFEX, for just causes suppressed and abolished them."

[92] Concerning these Antony Corsetti wrote, who in

question concerning whom Antony Corsetti, 4 says, that they received for a habit a white tunic and a square hood,

which was let down from the neck to

the shoulders, from Urban V, in the year 1367,

and that by their protector a gray cloak

to be worn over it was conferred on them. Outside

the house, in the primitive institution, in place of the hood

they wore a certain kind of white covering like a sleeve,

by which they demonstrated the contempt of the world.

But Urban VIII, by the constitution ONEROSA, granted

the faculty of wearing a hood of the color of the cloak, the white one being cast off,

which they had before been wont to wear over the shoulders,

and in that form which the other mendicants use.

This epitome must be explained a little more distinctly and fully.

[93] First of all, our Bonanni errs from the true chronology,

Philip Bonanni, Polydore Vergil, while he attaches the origin of this Order to the year

1354: for blessed John Columbinus was only in the year

1355 converted to a better life,

as Feo Belcari in the Italian Life, chapter 2, and our Acts,

num. 13, testify. Nor less does Polydore Vergil hallucinate,

book 7 On the Inventors

of Things, chapter 4, in the Strasbourg edition of the year 1606,

where, page 434, he has this: "In the fifth year of the same Urban,

which was of human salvation 1368, the sect

of the Jesuati (he had better called it a congregation or company)

arose at Siena." But our Blessed one in the year 1368

had already migrated from this life. Moreover the fifth year of Urban

the Pontiff does not agree with the year of Christ 1368,

as in Raynaldus and other chronologists

can everywhere be seen. I do not wish here to refute other

writers who fell into the same or a similar error of time.

[94] Nearer to the chronological origin of the Jesuatic Order

came Marcus Antonius Coccius Sabellicus,

Marcus Antonius Coccius Sabellicus, while in Ennead 9 of his Historical Rhapsody, book 9,

volume 2 of the Basel edition, page 822, concerning this congregation

he writes thus: "In the fifth year of the pontificate of this Urban

(it was the sixty-sixth above the three-hundredth

and thousandth of human salvation) the devotion of the Jesuati arose at Siena.

They were gathered from

the beginning in households, clad in a simple habit, men of much

innocence and piety, seeking their livelihood by labor and

work. These Urban the Pontiff, called to him at

Rome (Feo Belcari and our Acts narrate that this was done at Viterbo), questioned concerning their ceremony and manner of life;

he learned the whole matter and approved it,

and granted that they should use a white tunic, with a white covering

of the head, with a square lappet let down from the neck

to the shoulders.

[95] They are girded besides with a leathern girdle, and, their feet otherwise bare,

they protect them on the lower part with a wooden clog: and other writers made mention,

it was granted thereupon that they should wear a cloak of Canusian wool

thrown over the tunic, called from the beginning apostolic clerics.

These are neither initiated into the sacred orders, nor

celebrate the solemnities of the Masses; they only

give themselves to prayer. They are called Jesuati, because the name of Jesus,

the supreme king, is frequent in their mouth. There were

authors of so pious a thing (as some write)

John Columbinus and Francis Vincent, both Sienese,

both referred into the number of the Blessed. There followed

thereupon John of Tossignano and Antony of Siena;

the latter prelate of Foligno, the former of Ferrara, both

of notable sanctity. Most of the convents of the Jesuati

are in Italy in number." Whether Francis Vincent, who

is here said to be referred into the number of the Blessed, obtains anywhere

a legitimate cult, we desire to learn from the Sienese.

[96] and from which Jacobus Philippus of Bergamo saw two illustrious prelates. For the rest, concerning blessed John of Tossignano, bishop

of Ferrara, whose Acts on the 24th day of July

we illustrated, and concerning Antony Bettini, bishop of Foligno,

of whose cult we also doubt, Jacobus

Philippus of Bergamo, a contemporary author, book

14 of the Supplement of the Chronicles in the Paris edition

of the year 1535, after similar things said about the beginnings of the Jesuati,

folio 330 verso, adds this: "But now, wonderfully

multiplied, and marvelously diffused through all Italy,

since they are men of the best life, they are held

in great price everywhere, and although they say only

the Lord's Prayers for the canonical hours under silence,

nor is any promoted in any way to the sacred Orders,

nevertheless very many most learned men have emerged,

who were famous by a singular privilege of erudition and holiness;

for which grace

several were raised by the Roman Pontiffs to the dignities of episcopate,

of whom I in former years

saw a bishop of Ferrara, and another at Foligno,

a city of the duchy of Spoleto."

[97] Our Rossi teaches, The authors praised in this paragraph hand down

that the disciples of blessed John Columbinus were called

Jesuati, because they frequently pronounced

the most holy name of Jesus. But our Acts, num. 284, assign a more wonderful origin

of this appellation,

and attribute it to the prodigious speech of infants. Whence

our Rossi in his Triumph, part 4, chapter 15,

§2, concerning this matter thus discourses: "To this so frequent

address of the holy name and fervid

preaching it pleased some to refer the origin

of the splendid nomenclature of the Jesuati, which began to be heard

at Viterbo, and thence to grow frequent through the whole world.

[98] whence the name of the Jesuati arose, But that had its beginning higher up, as above,

from the truer narration of the historians, we showed,

which to repeat again it is superfluous

to insist upon. From it only is it to be recalled, that not

by men, but by God, moving the tongues of infants through

the angels, it was given and adhered thereafter to the Order,

while the others imposed from elsewhere by disuse

grew obsolete: for they were sometimes named Apostolic

clerics and Brothers of St. Jerome,

because they were lovers of solitude and penance,

which that eminent doctor testifies more than once was loved by him amid the pleasant things

of sacred studies. Then he subjoins other things on the same

subject, which here for the sake of brevity I pass over. But as to what pertains to the appellation

of Brothers of St. Jerome, concerning that

title the constitution of Alexander VI, volume 1 of the Bullarium, from

page 398, may be seen.

[99] and concerning their exercises Moreover the same Rossi, part 2 of the Triumph, chapter

3, thus describes the first form and exercises of that nascent

congregation: "And because, as we noted above,

Columbinus did not look to this, that he should institute a religious

Order, which should be governed after the manner of the others approved by

the Church; therefore at that time he had taken no form of dress

as a badge which should indicate the state of religion,

or display a profession: nor was there a convent

distinguished with its own cells, or arranged with workshops;

but a poor house afforded a dwelling,

near the monastery of St. Abundius, to which

after the day's labors they came together, and spent most of the night

in prayer, penance, pious conversations, and thence

on the following day returned to their accustomed exercises the more alertly,

as the quiet and tranquil sleep and savor of those vigils

had more richly ministered fuel to the flame swelling in their breasts."

The other exercises of the first Jesuati

and their vile garments from the Acts to be given after

this Commentary will easily be gathered.

[100] The praised Rossi, part 2, chapter 19, §3, concerning

their garments, garments which Pope Urban V reduced to a common

and religious form, thus discourses:

"The habit therefore (that it may be noted in passing for the sake of those

inquiring its origin) is venerable even by this name,

that by the vicar of Christ, held for holy

in life and after death, it was prescribed and

given as a gift to blessed Columbinus and his fellows:

such, namely, as befitted their condition, and

the excellence of the nascent company, gathered from the flower of nobility and

of holiness, and about to rise to that number,

to which that nakedness of a few would seem little congruous

and by no means becoming, unless garments consonant to their state

and religious profession should be provided

for the future.

[101] Such were a full-length garment of snowy color,

an index of interior candor and sincerity, and he discourses on the cowl, which it befits to proceed outwardly from the heart

of those wearing it, and to accompany their words and deeds

and in a manner to clothe them. There is added likewise

a white cowl, not that simple and short one,

which, attached to the collar of the garment, is wont to be drawn

up and down to cover the head, but one which terminates the exomis,

gradually tightening its looseness upward,

and serves for wrapping the head at will or as occasion requires;

yet this was not worn expanded,

as it is wont by travelers and certain cenobites,

let down over the arms and breast, but narrower

and tighter, flowing from the neck down through the throat, moderately

covered the shoulders, nor extended itself to the front

part, which manner of covering the head, brought into custom,

was preserved up to the year 1606." That

these things may be more easily understood, we exhibit

an engraved image of blessed John Columbinus,

such as we received it from Italy, and to which for the sake of clarity

we added only the cowl from another effigy of the same

Blessed one.

BLESSED JOHN COLUMBINUS OF SIENA.

I do not know whether this is the true effigy of our Blessed one;

but at least from it appears what was the form of the Jesuatic

habit, which up to the year 1606 persevered.

[102] in which covering of the head, Our Rossi in the same place thus continues: "Then, faculty

being given by Paul the Fifth of promoting a certain number

to the sacred Orders, and of celebrating the divine Office by the common

ecclesiastical rite in the choir,

it seemed good to the fathers in the general chapter of the 30th of March

to decree, that thereafter over the left

shoulder should be worn that white epomium, not

unlike the almuces which the canons, coming into the choir,

place on the arm or the left shoulder."

Hippolytus Helyot in the French History of the monastic, religious,

and military Orders, volume 3,

page 407, represents a Jesuat clothed in that manner, and wearing his cowl

on the left shoulder.

[103] with the consent of Pope Urban VIII "At last, Urban the Eighth consenting," says

Rossi in the same place, "the form of that thing was changed,

and turned into a hood of the same color as the cloak,

such as are in use among the cowled religious; because this kind of garment

seemed more to befit clerics and priests,

than that old singular one,

which antiquity loved in laymen, perhaps not destined to displease in clerics,

both for other reasons, which, brought

into counsel and diligently examined, prevailed over those

condemning the novelty, and indeed especially for

this, that to those about to go forth from the shade of private life and abject

exercises into the light of pulpits and

chairs, that recent dress seemed more convenient

and far more becoming."

[104] some change was made. Urban VIII, the Pontiff, volume 4 of the Bullarium,

page 291, granted to the Jesuati this change of the cowl, after

other things, in these words: "By the counsel of our venerable

brethren the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church set over the sacred rites,

to the same Brethren (the Jesuati),

that, casting off the hood of white color, which they have hitherto worn over their shoulders,

they may freely and lawfully wear another on the head, of the color

similar to their cloak, and in that form which the other

mendicants use, by apostolic authority by the tenor of the present

we grant and indulge, and impart license and

faculty." Our Bonanni in the Catalogue

of the religious Orders, before chapter or number 82,

exhibits an image of a Jesuat, who bears in his right hand a book,

in his left a basket. What those signs mean,

I do not know. Moreover I do not grasp how the covering of the head,

which is there depicted, can be called a cowl

or hood endowed with that form which the other

mendicants use, since it comes nearest

to the form of the biretta or square cap, which clerics

use even today.

§ VIII. The progress of the Jesuatic Order, its rules, statutes, customs, and privileges.

The virtues of the first Jesuati Blessed John Columbinus, taken from the living, left many

heirs of his virtues, who with joined

minds resolved to follow the manner of life begun,

says Rossi, part 3 of the Triumph, chapter 4, §

2, and to repeat their former labors, and to institute the exercises

of piety. No domestic discipline was indeed established

at that time by any law; but charity

diffused in the hearts of all, and ardent vows of serving

and pleasing God, the sole law constituting their manners,

restraining the motions of appetites, begetting obedience,

humility, chastity, and making them the golden

dwellings of the beginning of the Order, that is, the habitations of virtues,

of all the angels, and even of the Holy

Spirit, which afterward widely

through Italy, according to the prediction of John prophesying among the living,

were propagated. Further, how illustrious propagators

the blessed Founder had of his Order,

may be seen in Feo Belcari, part

2, Paul Morigia in the History of the Jesuati, book

2, and John Baptist Rossi, part 5, who

with deserved praises extol the chief disciples of blessed John Columbinus, and other

notable men of the Jesuatic Order.

[106] For us it will here suffice to transcribe their general

eulogy, they are praised by various men, composed by blessed John of Tossignano,

who, a witness greater than all exception, in our Rossi,

part 2, chapter 22, §4, thus exhorts his fellow

Jesuati: "Come now, brethren, we have with a brief narration

touched on those long beginnings of our fraternity.

By these few at least, revolving with a most watchful mind how great

was in our elders the contempt of the world and the things that

are the world's, the hatred of self, the zeal of fervid charity,

the love of heavenly things, the despising of earthly ones,

the elimination of allurements, the embrace of penal things, the flight

of honors, the desire of reproaches, and of the other things

of this kind, roused salubriously by these so great examples of the fathers

from the inertia of our body, let us rise to imitate those things,

and, looking up to the heights of the fathers' virtues, blushing at least

at the depths of our lukewarmness, let us leap up.

Snatched from the power of darkness and translated into the candor of the true light

through Jesus Christ our redeemer,

let us firmly lean, more than fully, upon his cross and reproaches, his pains and

sorrows, and to his

exemplar let us compose the dissipated and relaxed manners of our conscience."

[107] Then the same blessed writer, concerning the approbation

and privileges of his Order, adds this in the same place: their institute is approved by the Roman Pontiffs,

"Lastly, to all these we superadd this one thing,

that when Urban V of most blessed memory

had departed this mortal life, this very fraternity of the poor,

going to the Roman court, presented itself in the presence of

his successor Gregory XI;

which being admitted to the kissing of his feet, a certain

notable man and decurion assisting there, once a courtier of the aforesaid

Urban, directing his words to the Apostolic one,

said: 'These are, most blessed Father,

those whom your predecessor Urban ordered to be clothed.' To

whose words the Pontiff, answering, said: 'And I

confirm it.' Again after him the other Roman Pontiffs

presiding over the Apostolic See, gratuitously indulging to this same fraternity

some benefits and privileges,

always showed themselves propitious and favorable,

God working. To the praise and glory

of our redeemer Jesus Christ," etc.

[108] Although for the first disciples of blessed John Columbinus

no domestic laws were established, and the Order gradually grows, as

we saw above, yet afterward blessed John of Tossignano

prescribed certain fixed rules to the Jesuati,

as we learn from John Baptist Rossi, whom here

again we safely follow as guide, since he diligently surveyed the ancient

monuments of the Jesuati. He therefore,

part 4 of the Triumph, chapter 15, §3 and following, praises the pious

followers of the Jesuatic Order, and concerning their

institute thus discourses: "This their most fortunate

lot yields indeed to the glory of God, the author of all goods,

who bestowed the grace and gave the increase;

but it pleased to derive a part of it also upon his

familiar Columbinus, who

planted the vine and watered it, surviving in the wave of salutary counsels

and operations, and, discharging

a pious intercession with the Godhead, went on to foster and

promote his cultivators, whom he left after himself like himself.

[109] By their examples and the sanctity of their manners moved

and by their discourses instructed, many, whom the following

age gave to the young Order, treading in the fresh footsteps of the elders,

came together into that form of life which follows the pious norm of living,

which was an admiration to the inhabitants of the places

through which their dwellings were propagated, and them not as

men, but as angels, under a human figure

covering something greater than humanity, they looked up to and

venerated. For, removed from the cares of the world and all its

vanity, one care alone urged them, that in the law

of the Lord they should meditate day and night, and that the times

which distinguished the contemplation of the mind from the action of the hands

should never interrupt them from attention to heavenly things:

for as scarcely any time was excepted from them for leisure,

so neither was an end imposed on meditation,

as Cassian testifies of the Egyptian monks: for at the same time exercising

the virtues of body and soul, they equaled the wages of the exterior man

with the emoluments of the interior.

[110] and observes domestic discipline, To the slippery motions of the heart and the unstable fluctuation of thoughts

fixing beforehand the weights of works, as a certain

tenacious and immovable anchor,

to which the volubility and wandering of the heart being fastened,

within the cloisters of the monastery, as in a most faithful port,

it might be contained; and thus, intent only on spiritual meditation

and the custody of thoughts,

it not only would not suffer the ever-watchful mind to fall

to the consent of any depraved suggestion,

but would also guard it from all superfluous and idle thought;

so that it could not easily be discerned

whether for the sake of spiritual meditation they unceasingly

exercised the work of their hands, or for the sake of the dignity of the work

they acquired so illustrious an advancement of the spirit

and the light of knowledge," etc. The glory of which both

active and contemplative life penance guarded,

constant in the vileness of food, dress, bed,

and the rest of the affliction of the body, especially by the scourging

which no day did not see redoubled,

for recollecting and impressing on

their hearts the memory of the scourges and

stripes of Christ, which it was fitting to have indicated in general, that

we may argue the sanctity and glory of the root from the branches, according to the Apostle's

reasoning.

[111] prescribed by blessed John of Tossignano, For the rest, the domestic discipline and singular deeds of the Jesuati

living in his time were handed down more fully

by John of Tossignano in a little work published on that subject,

which, as it happened to me to peruse,

I seemed to be reading a certain Basil or Jerome

prescribing rules to monks, except

that he prescribed not so much a rule as a custom

and manner of living. Indeed I have called blessed

those who under such a standard, and under the standard-bearing Triumpher,

served, and were heirs of that spirit,

which, transmitted into the breasts of his athletes,

went on to grow warm.

[112] and suitable to lay brothers, By which spirit, diffused through the whole body, the Jesuatic

Order was governed, and thus depended on the nod of its superiors

by common confederation,

yet so that it was not immune from the external command of the ecclesiastical pastors.

For that little flock

and holy nation and royal priesthood, rejoicing to offer among the profane

victims of seculars those of humility to the Creator,

since it abstained from the sacred Orders,

needed the help of priests, by whom both

the sacraments should be administered, and other

services of offices rendered, to be expected from no other source than from hands

anointed with chrism and holy.

[113] to whom afterward the Roman Pontiffs Every convent was indeed furnished

with a domestic chapel destined for prayer; but

neither were altars erected for immolation, nor

were there any Eucharistic reservatories, nor furniture

due to a sanctuary, nor any other ornament similar

to that familiar to the temples dedicated to God: therefore they had to go outside

both to hear the sacred rite and to receive the holy communion.

Nay, even the very funerals

had to be carried outside the houses, and a priest to be called,

who should prepare the dying by the last mysteries for them;

and, what by blessed John of Tossignano was not

dissembled, if in any matter, for instance a fast, a vow, or

similar things, there was need of a dispensation, it was sought from an external

superior. All which things, although at the beginning,

in the fewness of the fellows, were tolerated without perturbation;

yet with the progress of time, the number being increased,

carried with them those inconveniences, which

it seemed good to the Apostolic See to meet.

[114] And so by Eugene the Fourth it was promptly and willingly granted,

granted various privileges, that in their private chapels

the holy sacrifice of the Mass should be made and the venerable Host

be kept for the singular consolation and fruit

of the adoring families: then that there should be a free

election of a suitable confessor, no previous license of the bishops

being required, and whatever other things seemed conducive and necessary

to the quiet and decorum of the Order: and other Pontiffs,

not fewer than twenty, confirmed and augmented the privileges,

among whom Julius II, that they should use the Augustinian form

of solemn vows in their inauguration after

the novitiate; and, that all handle for controversies

might be cut off, Leo the Tenth declared that

the supreme superior of the Augustinians had no right over the Jesuati.

[115] Of all which the very diplomas give faith, recorded on ancient

and recent parchments, laid up in the archives, and

for the most part printed among writers and

exposed to public reading: [which are partly published in the Roman Bullarium, partly preserved in the archives.]

which to enumerate one by one might perhaps be the care of him

who should undertake to write a universal history of the Religion,

not ours, unless we should wish to digress,

we who taste these things by snatches, aiming at this,

that we may show to redound to the glory of the blessed Founder

whatever of honor and benefit upon his sons

so many and so illustrious names of the successors of Peter

conferred. Various privileges of this Order

can be read in Laërtius Cherubinus in the Bullarium.

[116] The Jesuati up to the year of Christ 1606 remained in

the lay state, Pope Paul V forbade the Jesuati the art of distilling liquors and before that time they exercised various

offices not abhorrent from this their institute.

Whence Bernardinus Scardeonius in his Paduan Antiquity,

book 2, class 6, page 113, concerning the Jesuati

of his time writes thus: "These indeed, gathered into one

under the norm of obedience, as pure

and simple laymen, both by begging, and by carrying tapers

in the funerals of the dead, and by distilling

medicinal waters, procure for themselves a livelihood sufficient enough."

On account of this last exercise of distillation,

in certain parts of Italy they were commonly by the people

called "gli padri dell' aqua vita" (the fathers of the water of life). But when

Paul V, the Pontiff, by constitution 16, otherwise 13, permitted

some of them to be promoted to the sacred Orders,

then at the same time, in volume 3 of the Bullarium, page 196, §10, he decreed,

that the brothers themselves, initiated into some sacred Order,

mindful of their dignity, should in no way give themselves to the exercise of distilling waters,

nor mix themselves in the sales

of them.

[117] But to the laymen the same Pontiff, in the following paragraph,

prescribes, that the other regulars of the same Order, or rather restricted it,

who have not been promoted to Orders,

and from whom that exercise is not taken away, should thenceforth by no pretext

sell or otherwise deliver such distilled waters, which they have hitherto made, to women,

nor have them for sale or

expose them; but only that they may sell them separately from others

to apothecaries or other particular persons.

Since Paul V in this same constitution of the year

1606 had restricted the number of those to be initiated into the sacred Orders

to a hundred, afterward in the year 1611 he granted,

that not only a hundred, but all

the brothers of the aforesaid congregation, otherwise fit and capable

for this, might be promoted to the same sacred Orders,

as in the volume of the Bullarium just cited,

page 198, is related.

[118] when some of them to the sacred Orders Concerning this chief privilege of the Jesuatic congregation

the praised Rossi, part 4, chapter 15, §5, thus

makes mention: "But indeed among the first things is to be reckoned

what we see conferred on the Order in our age as an honor

and ornament, that from the obscure state of laymen

it should migrate to the honesty and light of clerics,

and, the darkness of ignorance being deserted, transfer itself to the light

of knowledge. For Paul the Fifth,

not ignorant that men learned and upright are far more useful

to the Church of God, than those who are occupied

in the shadowy labors of external things by their institute,

opened the way to the priesthood, which gaped at the cloisters of the Jesuati,

and to its entrance the doors were unlocked

to the good muses and to wisdom, lest it remain unlettered

and rude: to which indulgence of munificence not

prayers only or supplications induced the mind of the most prudent

Pontiff, but the weight of reasons

which persuaded that a transition of this kind would be salutary to the Church,

and honorable to religion."

[119] and permitted the studies of letters to be promoted, Then by various arguments he proves that knowledge

does not hinder sanctity; nay rather he contends

that chastity and other virtues are strengthened by the assiduous study of letters,

and at last thus concludes: "The counsels of the more recent wise men

are therefore to be approved, which

added so much of adornment to the pristine humility of the old Jesuati,

that they introduced an ascent to literature

and the reception of the sacred Orders,

and substituted priests for laymen, learned and erudite men for the unskilled,

when they resolved that the youths, removed from the workshops of servile arts,

should not act as distillers or weavers,

but should give their effort to holy Scripture and theology

for the future, and traverse the courses of the sciences accustomed to the other

Orders, formed by which, a riper age would go forth from the shade

of private exercise into the sun of the most honorable

offices: for part ascend the pulpits in

the temples, part the chairs in the palaestras of letters;

some lean upon writing books;

all expend themselves for their own and their neighbor's salvation according to the measure of each one's talent

received from God: and thus both the prefectures were ennobled,

and the religious discipline confirmed, and the offices and functions of each,

from laborious and abject, were rendered more tranquil and more comely."

[120] to which change certain elder Jesuati had before opposed themselves. But Rossi does not dissemble, that certain Jesuati

first opposed this change, while in

the part and chapter just cited, §8, toward the end, he records this:

"Columbinus's boat, enjoying placid tranquillity in this port,

certain lighter waves of domestic troubles began again to agitate,

which, however, a breeze of prudence and charity, gently

breathing, was able in a short time to still. For some, whether

wearied of the humility of the lay life, whether allured

by the dignity of the priesthood, said that it did not befit the Jesuati

to be any longer kept from it. Others, especially

the elders, asserted that the old institute was altogether to be adhered to,

both bringing strong reasons for their part,

and subjecting them to the arbitration of prudent and holy men,

by whose counsels and answers

the contention was lulled, and quiet restored to the society,

held a long course of years: and, lest it be broken

for the future, the wheel of voluble inconstancy

had to be stopped by the brake of Apostolic decrees, and

the entrance to the priesthood opened to breasts of the purest ambition:

whose most salutary change the causes and

advantages numbered above it would be superfluous to bring in again." Perhaps

those elders feared, lest the priestly

honor, and knowledge, which according to the Apostle puffs up,

should bring some harm to the pristine humility and religious simplicity.

[121] But the already often-praised Rossi shows that this fear was vain,

Rossi sets forth the pious manners of the Jesuati, since he asserts that the old observance

of the rules flourished after these things, and thus describes

the domestic discipline of the Jesuati in the same place, §6:

"And provision was made against the perils of arrogance and

vanity, which sometimes sprout from the good root of the sciences

as unhappy germs; and remedies were applied

to foster the charity which builds up:

of which the most efficacious is the frequent

use of the Sacraments; namely, never intermitted

on any Lord's Day through the whole year by those who lack

the priesthood, and repeated on several other feasts, whether common to the Church

or proper to the Order.

A fitting preparation indeed for the lofty and holy mystery

is the institution of life and the tenor of actions

dedicated to the worship of the Godhead: for all the hours of day

and night are so divided, that to prayer the chief,

to action the rest, are designated.

[122] Morning and evening they come together to meditate.

Twice a day to the examination of conscience, the domestic discipline, as a thing

opportune for the interior worship, they sedulously apply themselves.

The canonical hours by the Roman rite are performed at set

times; and in winter indeed they anticipate the sun's rising by a long space;

but in summer they never follow it.

But how piously and devoutly they are preluded!

When the last stroke of the bell has called the family to the oratory,

all, prostrate on their knees, five times

run through in a low voice the Lord's Prayer and the Angelic salutation,

and the Salve Regina,

to which an ample remission of offenses was granted by the supreme

Pontiffs. Then with little iron chains

they beat their bodies, while they pronounce the fiftieth psalm

MISERERE and the hundred and twenty-ninth

DE PROFUNDIS, and a prayer for the dead: which kind of prelude, on the same

order and tenor exactly, they repeat toward evening,

except that to the morning scourging they subjoin the litanies of the Saints,

but to the evening one those of the most blessed Virgin.

[123] By this concert of stripes and mournful prayers,

being tempered, their minds being roused, the accustomed prayers, the Matin

hours are begun, and these being finished, the priest goes forth

first to perform the sacred rite, at which the rest are present

and offer the sacrifice by prayer. To which if you add the horary prayers

of the Virgin, the daily exercise, the Office

of the dead, and private formulas of praying according to each one's disposition,

a more precious portion of the years

is assigned to heavenly conversation and intimacy with God;

the rest is expended on the studies of letters and honorable

occupations, undertaken out of obedience or charity;

a small part is reserved for rest and relaxation.

[124] Nor is to be omitted the notable piety and cult toward the blessed

Virgin, love toward the Mother of God, with which the minds of the novices are imbued,

and toward which the zeal of the veterans spontaneously inclines.

For guarding it, besides the singular exercises

left to the arbitration of each, the Saturday

light of all the weeks is chosen, on which a litanic

invocation of her a little more solemn than that

daily one of which we spoke is instituted. There is no

house in the whole Order which does not rejoice in this custom

and pious rite; no one of the household

who does not esteem it as akin to a sin to be absent at the set time from this

solemnity.

[125] For the rest, all their external things, consonant with these,

breathe honesty and religion. and the good governance of the Order, Modesty adorns their dress;

temperance ministers their food, and

penance moderates it with frequent fasts. Poverty dispenses

all things common and necessary for the use of life;

it permits to none the possession or free disposition of his own.

Silence demands its own hours for itself.

To peace and concord no time is circumscribed. From the custody

of the laws and rules no one is exempt, although these are

milder, and can be kept by lovers without the guilt

of fault: on violators those who preside impose a penalty;

and over all presides one man,

elected by the suffrages of the chapter every six years,

in which four assessors are given to him,

whom they call definitors, because with them lies the right

and power of defining the business pertaining to the Order;

and to each of these the care of governing one province

is committed, yet so that the supreme

command is with the general superior. And so

the whole government is so aristocratic that

it is akin to the monarchic, and therefore the best.

[126] which was propagated even into France, These are the chief things which in the present paragraph

I had undertaken to set forth. Hippolytus Helyot

in the History of the monastic, religious, and

military Orders, volume 3, chapter 55, records certain other statutes

of the Jesuatic Order and peculiar customs of fasting,

where also toward the end of the same

chapter you will find cited the Annals of the city of Toulouse,

in which it is narrated how five Jesuati in the year

1425 came to Toulouse, and there in little

cells, distant by a certain space from one another, after the manner

of the Camaldolese, dwelt. And this is the only

family of Jesuati which we know to have dwelt

outside Italy.

§ IX. The institute of the Jesuati long assailed in vain, and at last extinguished by Pontifical authority.

Since, according to the Apostle, all who

wish to live piously in Christ Jesus the Order of the Jesuati, shall suffer persecution,

the same lot of the elect befell the Jesuati:

for about the year 1425 under Martin V

the Pontiff a grievous storm arose against them at Bologna.

The Jesuati were brought to the tribunal of the bishop of Bologna,

as those who claimed for themselves the rights of Regulars,

whereas they had neither a rule nor a religion approved by the Apostolic

See. Grave men and illustrious for a great fame of doctrine

favored the parts of the accusers.

But blessed John of Tossignano solidly refuted the arguments of the adversaries,

and won the cause, as in

his Life, volume V of July, from page 805, has been said more fully.

[128] according to Rossi, Of this vexation, unless I am mistaken, our Rossi treats,

part 4 of the Triumph, chapter 15, §8, while there,

after other things, he writes that certain ill-occupied men

began first to gnaw with a canine tooth the innocent

company of the gentle men, as

idle, and useful in nothing to the Christian commonwealth;

but then even by writings they tried to accuse them and to persuade

that it should be utterly dissolved, and that there should not be fostered

in the Church a monster conflated of a people neither secular

or lay, nor religious or clerical,

and following, by a rite unusual to the other congregations,

a new kind of life, dissonant from the sacred canons.

Which injuries indeed the disciples of Christ

rejoiced to bear patiently in silence and hope;

but the Lord roused the spirit of upright

and wise men, who took up the patronage

of innocence, and spoke sharply for the silent,

and wrote learnedly for those meriting praise.

[129] More troublesome seemed the vexation of certain cenobites,

of whom some in jest, some in earnest, objected the same things,

and this especially, that, no profession

being emitted, assailed by various men they were not to be reckoned among the religious;

nor again to be numbered among the clerics,

because by their institute they lacked Orders. And to confute these

there had been enough and more than enough both the approbations of the supreme

Pontiffs, and the very manner of

living most like the Apostolic, and the sanctity of those professing it,

declared by so many and manifest indications. But God

willed to act as patron of the cause,

who had given the Founder of the Order, that, miracles being produced,

the mouths of those speaking should be stopped. To these

he subjoins a witty example of this matter, which

we shall a little below relate from him.

[130] Meanwhile the Roman Pontiff seems to have taken up the patronage

of the Jesuati, Pope Martin V and on that occasion

in the year 1428 to have published a constitution, which, in volume 1

of the Bullarium, page 262, is read to this tenor: "Martin,

bishop, servant of the servants of God. To the future memory

of the matter. The petition of a pious will, by which certain beloved

sons, poor men of Christ, commonly called Jesuati,

leading voluntary poverty,

devoted to the zeal of a pious life, in diverse

oratories, houses, or places of Italy, the worldly allurements being cast off,

serve the Lord with the adoption of the voluntary poverty

of the virtues, not undeservedly

deserves that the Apostolic See should foster them, their houses,

oratories, and places, with benign favors,

and follow them with special graces, especially in those things

which regard the state and quiet of their souls.

[131] Indeed on the part of the said poor men there was lately

exhibited to us a petition containing, seems to protect them, that although they,

desiring to place their treasures in the heavens,

and that from their laudable actions they might draw others by example

to living well and rightly,

in diverse places or houses, which for their perpetual use

and habitation they built by the pious alms

and suffrages of the faithful of Christ, render devout

and sedulous service to the Lord,

toward whom very many, on account of their laudable life and virtuous works,

bear an affection of special devotion,

yet it sometimes happens that the poor men themselves

are unduly molested by the inquisitors of heretical pravity residing at that time in those parts,

and by those deputed by them, under

diverse pretended occasions and feigned colors.

Wherefore on the part of the same poor men

it was humbly supplicated to us, that for their

peace and tranquillity we would deign, out of Apostolic benignity,

to provide with paternal charity concerning these things.

[132] We therefore, desiring that the said poor men

may the more quietly and devoutly serve the Most High in the spirit

of humility, and to receive them into his protection, the more they know themselves

fortified by the richer grace of the same See, inclined to supplications

of this kind, the aforesaid poor men, present

and future, and their oratories, houses, and places

built and to be built, wherever they shall be

constituted, with their persons, rights, appurtenances,

and also their possessions, lands, things, and goods,

which in any places they at present lawfully

possess, and in the future, the Lord giving,

by similar suffrages of the faithful, or otherwise by just

titles, shall be able to obtain, under the protection of blessed Peter and of this

See, and also of the Ordinaries of the places, in whose

cities and dioceses the aforesaid houses, oratories,

and places stand, up to the good pleasure of the same See,

by Apostolic authority, by the tenor of the present, we receive and take as our own."

Then the accustomed clauses follow.

[133] Nay rather it pleased the divine goodness to protect his faithful

servants, and God himself and to confound their detractors or mockers

by a manifest prodigy, which Bernardinus

Scardeonius, canon of Padua, book 2 of the Paduan Antiquities,

class 6, our Martin Delrio, book

2 of the Magical Disquisitions, question 10, in the Mainz edition of the year

1603, volume 1, page 118, and finally Paul

Morigia in the History of the Jesuati, book 2, chapter 51,

committed to writing and left to the memory of posterity.

Our most often praised and to-be-praised Rossi,

from these three writers whom he cites in the margin,

wove an elegant narration of the same miracle,

which we shall now describe from him.

[134] defended the obedience of the Jesuati, exploded by others, Therefore, part 4 of the Triumph, chapter 15, §8, he thus

narrates this prodigious history: "The superior of the convent

of the Jesuati at Padua at Holy Spirit's, Jacobinus

by name, a man exceedingly pious and prudent, had invited to dine with him,

for the sake of fostering charity, a certain preacher

of the Augustinian family, and at that time the moderator of the monastery;

and after the meal, exhibited with religious liberality,

he was striving to refresh him with pleasant conversation; whom, however,

that one would have disturbed with untimely contention, had not

the prudence of the host, by a device thought out not so much by his own genius,

as sent from heaven, met the prelude of the strife.

For, having said many things magnificently about the subject of the merit of obedience,

he turned thither, that he boldly asserted the Jesuati destitute of it,

because their vow lacked solemnity, without which,

in his judgment, the word of obedience is to be reckoned an empty title,

and not to be esteemed the sacrifice of a devout will,

such as is immolated by religious profession.

[135] by a prodigious event To whom Jacobinus: 'Since the Apostle forbids

Christians to contend with words; if you please,

let us settle the strife by deeds, and by them peacefully

and sedately investigate the truth. Let your paternity bid your disciple

exhibit some specimen of your obedience: and I likewise will bid mine,

to exhibit some of ours; and to him who shall conquer by obeying, let the palm

be given.' 'It quite pleases me,' the churchman replies; 'but it befits

you, the inventor of the amicable method, to go before with the experiment,

and to command some one of your subjects

what shall please you.' 'Not unwillingly,' says Jacobinus,

'do I comply,' and, turning to a fellow:

'Brother Mark, come here, and forthwith from the kitchen bring me

in the hollows of your hands as many coals

as you can hold: for I am exceedingly cold, and desire to be warmed.'

[136] he defends, He, hesitating not at all, made by the ardor of obeying

stronger than fear, flies to the hearth, presents to his master

the fiery coals placed in his palms,

and, as if he were handling soft roses, perseveres

in holding them harmlessly, until he had sated the eyes of the bystanders

with the sight of the prodigy, to which they could not deny

credence: and, being bidden to carry the victory back to the kitchen,

the obedient man spoke without a fight: for indeed

the Augustinian's companion, dismayed at the miracle and

anxious with fear, lest he should be bidden to attempt something similar,

anticipating the command with a specious excuse,

said: 'Far be it, reverend father, that we should tempt God with attempts

of this kind. If you command fire to be brought,

I will carry it in a little brazier; cease to bid me

grasp it with my hands.' The anxious

forestalling could have raised a laugh, if the minds fixed in deep admiration

could have laughed. By which success the learned

preacher understood that hither too falls the sacred eulogy:

'Better is obedience than victims'; if

namely simplicity, promptitude, cheerfulness accompany it,

and not the solemnity of the vow alone

clothe it with comeliness."

[137] by which, however, the envy of some did not cease. Here too pertains the horrid example of obedience

which below in the Acts, num. 265, will be related;

namely when a certain disciple, at the command of blessed John

Columbinus, harmlessly put his head to fiery coals.

Yet with all these things the pertinacious envy of certain men did not acquiesce,

who did not cease to contradict the Order of the Jesuati.

This I gather from the Treatise

on thirty questions in praise of the religion of the Jesuati,

whose writer died in the year 1503, and

of whom Rossi, among the authors prefixed to his Triumph,

page 3, thus makes mention: "Antony Corsetti, a Sicilian,

doctor of both laws, and in the academy of Padua

primary professor of Pontifical law, who wrote an apology

against the assailants of the Order of the Jesuati,

and in it inserted various questions pertaining to their foundation

and their state. This was printed at Venice in the year of the Lord 1495,

on the 22nd of September, and is kept in the same

monastery of Saints John and Paul at Rome among the Jesuati."

[138] Amid these storms the Order of the Jesuati stood

unshaken up to the year of Christ 1668, Pope Clement IX in the year 1668

in which Pope Clement IX extinguished it by his

thirtieth constitution, which in volume VI of the Roman Bullarium, pages 299

and 300, thus runs: "Pope Clement IX, to the perpetual

memory of the matter. The Roman Pontiff, ever watching, in the manner of a sedulous father

of a family, over the care of the Lord's field,

for uprooting thence the plants of religious Orders

and congregations, which, the primitive vigor and spirit of religiousness

failing, render no or very little

utility in the Church of God, is sometimes led,

as he judges in the Lord conducive to the public

good of the same Church.

[139] Led by this consideration and by other most grave and

reasonable causes known to us, suppressed the Order of the Jesuati with other congregations, by our own

motion and out of certain knowledge and mature deliberation,

and out of the plenitude of Apostolic power,

the congregations of the canons of St. George

in Alga of Venice, and of the brothers Jesuati of St.

Jerome, and of the brothers of the same St. Jerome

of Fiesole under the rule of St. Augustine, together

with all their respective dignities, offices,

and ministries, and every conventuality,

collegiality, title, essence, and denomination,

by the tenor of the present, we perpetually extinguish, suppress,

and abolish: and all the respective goods of the same

congregations thus suppressed, movable and immovable, both sacred and profane, convents,

colleges, monasteries, houses, vineyards,

estates, canons, responsions, fruits, revenues,

and rights whatsoever, wherever they exist,

to the disposition of us and of the Apostolic See

we reserve, to be converted to pious uses and works by those to whom this shall be committed by us and the aforesaid See.

[140] Moreover to the canons and brothers of the said

suppressed congregations, and a maintenance assigned to the survivors, who now live,

and in the same congregations respectively emitted their profession,

the faculty of passing to any other

religion approved by the same See,

in which they shall find willing receivers, or

of remaining in the world in the habit of a secular cleric under

the jurisdiction and obedience of the Ordinaries of the places

where they shall happen to dwell, with a provision

for each of them for their sustenance: to the clerics indeed in

the sum of forty scudi of Roman money;

but to the laymen or lay-brothers in the sum of twenty scudi

each per year, as long as they shall live, or

until sufficient provision be otherwise made for them, upon certain

goods or revenues of the suppressed congregations

of this kind respectively, to be assigned by the same Ordinaries,

we grant and impart.

[141] Lastly, lest the churches of the same suppressed congregations be destitute of due service,

but be kept in repair, to the aforesaid Ordinaries

of the places in which those churches are situated,

by the present we commit and command, he granted their houses and churches to others,

that they depute chaplains with a competent stipend,

also to be assigned upon a certain thing of the aforesaid goods,

by whom the Masses and other burdens may be satisfied, and

to those churches due worship and veneration be preserved:

and that the aforesaid Ordinaries accurately make and provide an inventory both

of the sacred and profane furniture pertaining to the

suppressed congregations of this kind respectively, lest it

by anyone be concealed, occupied, or thence removed in any way,

unless and until by us or the aforesaid See it be otherwise

provided." Then follow the confirmative formulas,

and other clauses wont to be employed in similar constitutions of the Roman

Pontiffs.

[142] they being meanwhile bidden to live privately, Thus was extinguished the Order of the Jesuati, and their faculties

were expended on the Cretan war,

which the Venetians at that time waged against the Turks;

but their temples and convents were granted to secular priests

and to religious of other Orders; but the

Jesuati themselves at their own arbitration dwelt privately,

of whom two at Ferrara survived up to the year 1726,

as the Reverend Lord Joseph Antenor Scalabrini,

rector of the basilica of St. Mary of Bocca at Ferrara,

on the occasion of the Acts of blessed John of Tossignano

signified to us in these words: "In the year 1726

there entered the way of all flesh the Reverend Lords George

Posati and Innocent Casa-nova, doctors of both laws,

Ferrarese, longevous in age, once professed in the Order of the Jesuati,

no other survivors of the abolished religion

being left in this city."

[143] concerning whose state a certain heretic Rodolph Hospinian, a heterodox, in his

work On Monks, book 6, chapter 40, betrays gross

ignorance: for when there he had related the origin, dress,

and certain customs of the Jesuati from

other authors, at the end of the chapter he thus ignorantly

writes: "Concerning this Order (as far as I know) in our

age nothing is established; whether it gradually failed,

is in doubt. Yet some affirm that the Jesuits,

who emerged under Pope Paul III, borrowed their name

from these, or rather restored

the old collapsed Order of the Jesuati."

[144] betrays his gross ignorance. But that I may liberally pardon this stupid calumniator of Catholics,

and especially of monks, his other errors,

could he not know that the Order

of the Jesuati survived up to his own age?

Or did he at least not know that the Jesuati are distinguished from the Jesuits

or the Society of Jesus, and that both Orders, with diverse

houses, constitutions, and privileges, flourished at the same time

in the Roman Church? For thus indeed the heretics

grow blind, while they rashly wish to meddle in our sacred things.

But that wretched work, which Hospinian

viciously and malignantly scraped together against the Catholics from various writers,

deserves commiseration rather than

refutation.

§ X. The institute of the Jesuatess nuns still persevering, the origin of the Order, its laws, and the chief deeds of the first assistant.

[145] Bonanni of the Jesuatess nuns, who persevere up to now, By the constitution of Clement IX above-mentioned

the Jesuatess nuns were not comprehended,

who up to now in certain cities of Italy laudably

persevere, and concerning whose origin and institute

our Bonanni in the Catalogue of the religious Orders,

part 2, chapter 67, summarily hands down the following:

"The Order of the Jesuatess nuns

St. John Columbinus instituted. He, when he desired

under the standard of poverty to gather also feminine cohorts,

strove to persuade Catharine his cousin

to follow poverty: and when he went on to urge

with examples and arguments, the splendor of God penetrating into her heart,

overcome by an unexpected prodigy,

she most readily gave herself to the will of her exhorter,

and confirmed her purpose of virginity and Evangelical poverty."

These same things in our Acts will afterward

be narrated more clearly and fully.

[146] Bonanni in the same place thus continues: "That a beginning

might be given to the fair work, he hands down briefly the origin she exchanged her whole secular

habit for a vile and dark tunic,

covered her head with a linen veil, left her feet uncovered,

distributed her means to the poor; her food she begged

from door to door, and the time which remained from prolix prayer

she expended on the works of Martha. By her

example other honorable women, with Catharine,

coalesced into a new company, which afterward through Italy

was propagated. Before the rest went Joan Marescotti,

afterward called Petra by father Peter of Peter,

Frances, sister of John de Ambrosio, and Andrea,

who founded the monastery at Florence."

[147] All these Catharine had gathered in her house,

where, as in a palaestra, they were exercised in various virtues. and the rules,

Thence rare was their going out, except when the occasion of going out,

or the necessity of asking alms, compelled them to go out;

rare their speech, their fasting nearly perpetual. Twice on each night

they beat their limbs with scourges; the use of haircloth was familiar,

they placed the delights of their bed in mattresses of straw.

At last, a convent being built,

in the year 1367 they chose in it a strict enclosure.

They are called the poor Jesuatesses of the Visitation

of the Blessed Virgin: they live under the rule of St. Augustine, and

have the name of Jesus for their family badge. The garment

which blessed John prescribed for them is a white tunic

and a scapular of dark color, upon which in the sacred actions

a cape of the same color is placed."

[148] But it will be of use to know these things more fully and distinctly

from our Rossi, and Rossi fully narrates how Catharine Columbina who, besides those things which below

in the Acts, from num. 257, will be said concerning the prodigious conversion of Catharine

Columbina, adorns the first example of that same

leader and the remaining course of the religious life,

part 2, chapter 14, §1 and 2, with this eulogy:

"But Catharine, at Columbinus's persuasion, confirmed and adorned

her purpose of virginity, with the society besides of Evangelical

poverty: that from her a beginning

might be given to the fair work, without hesitation her whole

secular habit is exchanged for a vile and dark tunic;

her head is veiled with a linen veil; her feet are left uncovered;

her means are distributed to the poor,

her food is begged from door to door; the time

which remains from prolix prayer is expended on the works

of Martha.

[149] And behold, the Order of the Jesuatess nuns

formed in the first rose: by her example, to an austere manner of living for, drawn by its odor,

other honorable women, to run after the Spouse

with manly fortitude, by no means hesitating with Catharine,

coalesced into a new company of virgins devoted

to God, which afterward through Italy was propagated.

It fell to Joan Marescotti to have gone before those to follow,

who, the lily of virginity blooming amid the rose-beds of youth

and nobility, preferred to dedicate it to Christ,

than to yield it to the power or delights of the marriage-bed:

and, lest chastity should walk unaccompanied, poverty was called in,

which should temper food and dress to

the form prescribed by John for Catharine.

[150] To the noble and splendid pair of handmaids

of Christ there flew with incredible zeal of imitation

Petra, called by father Peter of Peter, Frances, sister of John

de Ambrosio, Andrea, roused other women, to whom let it be for a surname,

that, sent to Florence for the foundation

of a monastery, with the highest reputation of sanctity

and prudence she administered it. The number

Simona Gallerana augmented, daughter of Ristori, a woman of illustrious

charity and humility, on whom God conferred

so great a grace in conversation, gave so great an efficacy in words,

that she drew very many to the same

institute of life, and was held worthy

to be set, after Catharine's departure, over the newly-begun society of sisters.

And since this is certain, it is to be asserted as probable either

that from Florence, where they write she was admitted, she migrated to Siena,

or that she always lived at Siena,

and died there, which by others has been unambiguously handed down in writing.

[151] and gathered them in her house, All these Catharine had gathered in her house,

where, as in a spiritual palaestra, they were exercised in various virtues.

Thence rare was their going out, except

where necessity either of collecting alms or of some good

to be done compelled them to go out, and that with such caution,

that to the younger were given the elder as companions, and

they always went two by two, their faces for the most part veiled:

and their composure and gait was so grave,

that it seemed a teaching of morals, a specimen of piety,

a form of virtue. Those going out modesty and

prayer accompanied; those returning the same received; and that

house was made a house of prayer, of fasting, and of mortification.

[152] Rare was their speech, which necessity demanded,

not the desire of speaking induced, where they gave themselves to pious and arduous exercises, except where

by some pious reading amid the work of their hands they were lifted to heavenly thoughts;

for by these they divided their times of praying,

knowing it written by the Apostle: "He who

does not labor, let him not eat." They were fed by an almost perpetual fasting,

and at certain times of the year they stretched the sails

of their vessel. Twice on each night

they had learned from their Master to beat their limbs with scourges,

they had made the use of haircloth familiar, the delights of their bed

they had placed in small mattresses of straw. Peace

among them, as of one heart and one soul, save in so far as

each one, striving to choose the worse things among the offices of life and domestic labors,

contended with her sisters in humility,

patience, charity.

[153] Further, Catharine's example, as more illustrious than that of the rest,

in the performing of which she herself went before. so also more powerful for fostering and augmenting

fervor, especially with the addition of exhortation,

by which both the light of knowledge might grow and

the peril of weariness in so great exertion might be met.

Further, she was of so great and so subject a humility,

which Jerome proclaims in Læta, that, being the head of the monasteries

and mother of virgins, she was thought the handmaid

of all, and, forgetful of her own things, served the conveniences

of others. Uncultivated dress, vile food,

a neglected head, were the tokens of a condemned world:

prolixity of prayer, sleepless nights, the sack wearing away her little body

sent before the fruit of the beloved heaven, and the price

for eternal felicity.

[154] Her ecstasies, And that the foundations of the new edifice might be laid more firmly,

and consolation prepared for the posterity that would inhabit,

it pleased the God of all consolation to give signs from heaven above,

by which the sanctity of his handmaid might become known

below, and the greatest possible authority be conciliated

to her words and deeds. On the most solemn night therefore,

instituted for recollecting the nativity of Christ,

while she was insisting on prayer with the other sisters,

caught out of herself she began to be lifted on high, and

about two ells from the pavement for two hours

she hung immovable, walled about on every side with a wondrous light,

until, returning to herself and to her place, she carried around her heart, suffused with unwonted

joy, her countenance with a seraphic ruddiness,

the whole following day: and she was heard by her fellows

to speak so profoundly and so lucidly of the mystery

of the Incarnation and of the Lord's Nativity, that

it was quite clear from what fountain she had drunk and whence these

streams flowed.

[155] Toward the divine Catharine, virgin and

martyr, devotion toward St. Catharine the martyr inasmuch as she was of the same name as herself, she was borne with singular

affection and piety, which through all the days of the year indeed she was wont to show by some cult and veneration

and to testify as by a tribute; but especially

on the recurring of her anniversary feast, more ardently

she renewed her pious zeal: on the vigil, besides an exiguous ration of bread

and water, to taste no other food;

to draw out most of the night in contemplation,

on the morrow in the morning to approach the sacred communion,

the whole day to abstain from all food and drink whatsoever;

although this was already familiar to her, that whenever

she was refreshed by the Angelic bread, she took not even a crumb

of common food or any other kind of eatable.

[156] Therefore on one such day, from the Eucharist received, absorbed in the sea

of divinity, she stood immovable in the manner of a statue:

and other divine favors, then little by little, by the hidden force of the Godhead,

she is raised upward, and from the third hour of the day to Vespers

she is held in the air in blessed suspension,

and, a ray gliding down from above, through all that space, she is wondrously

illumined. Nor was it lawful for her, suffering these divine things,

either to withdraw herself from the sight of the others, or to conceal

what the Spirit, breathing when and where it wills,

willed to be of public light, which humility, covered

with darkness, would greatly have wished; and therefore, when

frequently, the household beholding and being amazed,

they happened, she, ashamed, could neither speak nor bear to hear

those speaking of them.

[157] What should the parent of pride do here, when he saw himself

conquered by a woman, who by certain temptations of the demons he who through a woman had ruined the human

race? The dark one assails her, attentive to her nocturnal prayers,

and, titillating her senses, tries to kindle them with unwonted

goads of pleasure. The handmaid of Christ was compelled to think

what she knew not, and to admit phantasms of pleasure,

whose experiments she had not known. Angered, therefore, she seizes a scourge

woven of little iron chains, insists on reciting the seven

penitential Psalms, and did not cease to beat her innocent members with a savage flogging, until

she had run through all those, and had quenched the ardor with a copious

effusion of blood. Then the nocturnal

plunderer betrayed himself and cried out: "You have conquered me, Catharine,

you have conquered." To whom she: "Not I,

but my Lord Jesus Christ has conquered you." And she spent

the whole night praying.

[158] At another time, as she was recollecting most piously

and devoutly in her mind the mysteries of the Lord's passion, the envious enemy,

trying to disturb her, and are tempered by vexations. made huge noises,

cried out horribly, nay, even extinguished the lamp of the one praying.

She recognizes these to be the mockeries of Satan,

and, undaunted, her trust cast upon God,

traces the sign of the holy cross, and says: "O

spirits of Tartarus, in the name of the Lord depart, depart

hence; the Lord is my salvation and my helper. Which

of you shall I fear?" The gnashings ceased, the tumults

subsided, the importunate disturbers departed: for she indeed

persevered in praying, until the day should dawn.

Nor did she dissemble to open to the sisters what had been done,

when, concerning the noise of the past night, heard by them,

speech had fallen.

[159] This course and rigor of life held for two and twenty years,

Finally she died piously, after which the desire of her heart,

namely of seeing her cousin reigning with Christ,

the Lord granted her, and by his nod, by the divine Catharine

her tutelary, forewarned in sickness of the impending hour of her death,

that, if the voice were made,

"Behold the Bridegroom comes," she had adorned and lit lamps full of oil,

about to go forth to meet him as he came. With the holy

viaticum and the reception of the last mysteries she fortified

her soul about to migrate, and when the crown of her companions

surrounded the little bed of the one hastening, having exhorted them for a while

to perseverance in the institute of a more severe life, to charity, and

to love and hope, she rested. Soon she began to murmur

prayers, whose sound, dying in the straits of her mouth,

did not reach the ears of the bystanders; to sigh,

to pant toward heaven; after these, with open eyes

and cheered countenance, to pronounce clearly: "Lord,

I have loved the beauty of your house," and: "O blessed Catharine

and father John, my protectors, behold, to

you I come." And amid holy desires and pious invocations

she departed, and her soul flew back to its Author, on the 20th day of October in the year 1387.

[160] (whether she enjoys the title or cult of blessed, we doubt) The Sienese calendars address her with the title of blessed;

but Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, and other

Martyrologists, made no mention of her. Whence

I suspect that public veneration is not shown to this Catharine,

and that she is to be placed on the 20th of October among the Passed-Over,

after our manner. Therefore on this

occasion I wished here to transcribe her chief deeds,

since perhaps never elsewhere in our work concerning

them is mention to be made. If, however, the Sienese find some

indications of ancient cult, let them deign to warn us

in good time, that her Acts on the 20th of October

may be more copiously illustrated.

[161] [and girded with an iron chain and haircloth that first leader of the Jesuatesses is found,] Finally Rossi in the same place thus concludes his narration:

"Afterward, when the sisters compose that virginal body,

adorn it with tears, and prepare it for burial, lo, the breast

wrapped in rough haircloth, and, clinging to her juiceless sides, an iron chain so

tenaciously adhering, that it could scarcely be torn away. Amid

these thorns bloomed the lily, and the first

plant of the Jesuatesses, from which shoots were plucked to be sown to rose-beds

through the gardens of Italy, and the flowers of honor and

honesty to be gathered: for that house,

by Catharine reduced into the form of a monastery, was the first

of the Jesuatess nuns, which afterward,

established by the laws of religious discipline, furnished colonies

to other cities of Italy, in which even today

flourishes the most holy Order of virgins dedicated to God serving under the standard of blessed Columbinus."

[162] by whose example in the city of Lucca For us it will here be enough to have assigned a single shoot of that first

plant from the same Rossi, who,

part 2 of the Triumph, chapter 9, §5, of the Lucca convent of the Jesuatic

Order thus makes mention: "When Bartholomew

Piccolomini, whom we said in his place was gained for Christ

by Columbinus (his conversion below in the Acts is related in detail),

governed the house recently erected for the Jesuati,

and greatly helped outsiders by the example and discourse of his most holy life,

when occasion offered itself, was wont, with men, about the virtue and sanctity

of his Master, with women, about blessed Catharine

his cousin, and about the company of virgins

gathered by her at Siena, to make mention and to commend them,

he was willingly and thirstily heard.

The words of God's servant were like flowers, by whose odor,

being allured, they were first gently struck to imitation;

at other times like arrows, which, piercing the hearts,

goaded them to a generous resolve.

[163] some women coalesced into a new company of the same institute, At last, when they had conferred among themselves some thoughts

hovering in their minds, it was resolved

to embrace a more severe discipline after the manner of the Sienese,

and, counsel being taken about the manner of overcoming the difficulties,

magnanimity overcoming their sex,

having undertaken the work, they happily advanced and coalesced into a college

not far from the temple of holy Regulus, which

had a little before been given to the Jesuati. There a beginning

for the course of Evangelical perfection with great ardor

was given by a few, which afterward the calamities of the times,

compelling them several times to change their dwellings,

could indeed retard, but by no means

break off, until, after various migrations here and there,

established by the help and largess of the pious, their seat is at St.

Joseph's, at which the primitive tenor of discipline,

recalled by postliminy by the nun-inhabitants,

perseveres even today to guard its glory,

so that that house can be called an enclosed garden,

in which the lilies of chastity gleam white, the roses of divine love

grow purple, the violets of humility grow pale,

and the flowers of all virtues bloom.

[164] In it Magdalene assigns her parts to prayer, contemplation,

psalmody, which their successors up to now laudably observe. reading; her own also to action and the labor

of the hands Martha defines;

and each works for Jesus the Savior, whether she sit at his feet,

hearing his words; or be solicitous about

frequent ministry without disturbance. Jesus

in their heart, as the angels know; Jesus in their mouth,

as is manifest to men, whom they

are wont to impart with the salutation, transmitted by inheritance from blessed Columbinus,

'Let Jesus Christ be praised,'

with which they both receive those coming to them, and dismiss

those departing from them. Now it only remains

that we submit to the press the very Life of blessed John Columbinus,

which our Rossi laboriously collected from various monuments of the Jesuati,

as above, §2,

we noted. To this we shall append some miracles

wrought after the death of the same Blessed one, and rendered by us from

the Italian idiom into Latin, which to his posthumous

glory pertain. Finally in an appendix

we shall exhibit some fragments of his epistles or pious exhortations,

in which the divine light of infused

doctrine and the vehement ardor of perfect sanctity

sparkle.

THE LIFE

By the author John Baptist Rossi of the Society of Jesus.

We excerpted it from the Roman edition of the year 1648, and reduced it to the historical order, the longer digressions being cut away.

John Columbinus, institutor of the Jesuati, at Siena in Italy (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR John Baptist Rossi.

CHAPTER I.

The country, stock, surname, parents, first studies, marriage, offspring, business, and offices of blessed John administered before his conversion.

The sanctity of citizens is the glory of cities, and the magnificence

of peoples, and by it those other goods placed outside

the soul are either illustrated or absorbed. Our Blessed one, of noble stock at Siena,

Let this be granted to the Columbinus family, that it is the illustrious germ

of a most noble city, that it shines with the continued

propagation and renown of ancestors and descendants ^a;

yet it is of greater felicity to have intensified the splendor received

from one's country by the accession of so great a light,

as by the rays of eminent sanctity and by the celebrity of his own

name blessed John Columbinus diffused through the world,

and illustrated the honors of his country and birth: for although the city of Siena,

that illustrious gem of Etruria, and flower of Italy, had already grown

famous to the lands by a manifold offspring of holy men,

yet by the rising of the new star Columbinus it deserved to add this

above its former ornaments, that it should be called the fruitful

parent of founders of religious Orders, and by the colonies of its citizens

should amplify and adorn the most blessed abundance of the heavenly city.

[2] which had changed the ancestral surname of Strozzavacca In this place is not to be passed over the deep counsel

of divine providence, which shone in the imposition

of Columbinus's surname, when

this recent star shone forth for the ornament and support of the city.

For, according to the custom and license of the ancients,

the ancestors of that house more than once changed their arms and surnames,

and at last, about a hundred years before John was born,

James, commonly called Minus, was the first

who set up the device conflated of four doves and a golden

cross gleaming in an azure field,

and changed the ancestral surname of Strozza-vacca into the more brilliant

Columbinus.

[3] into the more brilliant Columbinus, This it pleased his descendants to retain, and

to render glorious at home and abroad by the excellence of eminent

deeds, until to it, from the new offspring, a cult

and honor superior to human came, and to posterity

it came more venerably: for what once, amid

the quiet helms of the commonwealth, resounded illustrious with the praise of prudence and wisdom,

and, amid the turbid motions of arms and the din of war,

displayed the titles of fortitude inscribed on the standards, as it obtained its glory

from John's holiness, began to resound

among the altars and solemn rites of the sacred things,

and passed from an earthly into a heavenly dignity…

[4] he is born in an uncertain year, month, and day And indeed the things said thus far concerning his country, family, and

surname are not ambiguous; but confirmed by the weighty

testimony of writers. But his birthday

and month, nay even the year itself, is uncertain

and obscure: nor did any light shine from the monuments of the Columbinus

family or of the religion of the Jesuati

upon those studiously searching, that a way might be opened for finding them,

which by the laws of history it were not permitted to pass over in silence. Yet, the years of the conversion

to God and of the death being compared with each other,

to be mentioned below, it is an easy conjecture, that about the three hundredth

and some years above the thousandth of repaired salvation,

the most fortunate birth of John happened…

[5] his father being Peter Columbinus, and his mother Angela, Of the boyhood and youth of the Blessed one we have received

nothing from antiquity which, inserted here, might be handed to the reader.

Only his parents are indicated,

of whom the one was called Peter Columbini; the other Angela,

or, as the common people called her, Angelina, and

she was called without an expressed surname or family. It is probable

that he spent his tender years in the schools

of letters, until, imbued with the rudiments of grammar, he had drunk in as much of literature

as the custom of his country and the condition of the age demanded

for administering the private business of his family and the public business of the commonwealth.

[6] by whom he is assigned to trade, For at that time the city of Siena obeyed the command

of no prince or dynast; but, the peoples being subjected to itself,

it gave laws, and preserved the form of aristocracy,

disdaining monarchy. To

train its youth gradually to receive its ordinances and laws,

and to move them suitably to the magistracies when fit, it deemed it of common

good and dignity to assign them to the exercise of trade,

both because that was a way most convenient for declining leisure, the fountain

of all vices; and

because from it arose the greatest opportunity of sharpening the wits and industry

in acting, this was the whetstone of dexterity

and prudence, to be brought to the senate in a more advanced age.

[7] And moreover that occupation, common to the whole nobility,

was far from sordidness and illiberal gain, which there at that time did not conflict with nobility.

and was more honorable than that it should hinder the splendor of birth,

or obscure it, even in the opinion of foreign ^b

wise men, whom to relate here is superfluous. This palaestra therefore,

trodden by his coevals, John enters; and while

he sedulously exercises himself in it, he so applies himself

to learning the accounts of wares, that he gives a specimen of an ingenuous disposition,

and by his own candor and sincerity himself begets honor

for the business.

[8] Meanwhile (in what year of his age is narrated

by no one) his parents, in desire of grandchildren, their son not yet fully

grown, Then he married a noble wife, inasmuch as he was an only child, urged

to seek a spouse, and, easily found in the illustrious

house of the Cerretani, joined him in matrimony. She was

Blasia by name, daughter of John, in appearance beautiful

and in virtue comely, to which, when an opulent dowry was added,

there was no difficulty in the contracting,

no delay in celebrating the nuptials. All things proceeded

favorably and prosperously, inasmuch as between the spouses,

by lineage, riches, age, disposition, by no means unequal,

and obsequious to the pleasure of the parents transacting on either side.

[9] Fruitfulness augmented their joys: for the offspring

received from the marriage is twin; from which he received two offspring, who died in boyhood, namely a male,

to whom the name of Peter ^c, and a female, to whom that of Angela at the lustral

waters, on account of the memory and respect of the ancestors so

named, was imposed. Both the mother's womb seemed

to bring forth for heaven, for the little soul of the male, scarcely

twelve years old, swiftly snatched to better things,

lest it should some day be changed by malice, and the little sister, dedicated in St.

Abundius's convent to the heavenly Spouse, from the very

novitiate was called to the eternal nuptials of the heavenly Lamb:

which untimely death of the children, as it could not

but be bitter to the parents, so to John himself, by the order of the divine

disposition directing all things to its ends,

happened salutary. For, about to be the father

of a numerous offspring soon to be begotten through the Gospel,

he had to be freed from the bonds of flesh and blood,

and to be taken out from the cares of earthly things which the love

and education of children draw with them, he who soon

was about to invite mortals to penance and the contempt of the world

by preaching and example.

[10] John's youth was held by the straits of private occupations,

while his riper age was moved to public ones. and he is promoted to bearing a magistracy; This drawing near, by the common

suffrages of the fathers he was chosen into the senate, where,

persevering to give an eminent exemplar of the best senator,

he so proved his prudence and vigilance to his colleagues,

that first they by no means hesitated to entrust to him all the greater

business, then more than once to create him leader of the commonwealth

(they commonly called it "confaloniere" ^d).

For the first administration happily discharged

was an invitation to the second,

and this prepared the way to the third: for there concurred

to these both the ready pleasure of the nobility and the prone

approbation of the people, admitting with most willing minds

his command and rule, whose providence

it had often at other times experienced, and his singular charity toward

the citizens.

[11] But, which is the unhappiness of our humanity,

to this star too its own spots adhered;

those especially but while at the same time he practiced trade, by which are defiled those who

wish to become rich, and therefore fall into the temptations

and snares of the devil, as the Apostle complained.

John from youth, given to making gain from merchandise,

while he gaped too greedily, avarice gradually

creeping in and besieging his heart,

on this side relaxes his hands to seize what

is another's; on that tightens them to retain what

should have been given out of justice or equity: and although

from open violence and injury a certain ingenuity implanted in his mind

deterred him, and he cautiously guarded

lest he incur the mark of rapine and usury, or

beget suspicion; yet the investigation of hidden gains

could not lie hidden from the household, and from

outsiders a little more curious, or even then especially, when

therefore the desire of having impelled him even to the capture of sordid things.

[12] he gapes too greedily after gain. For to keep the old grain carefully shut in the barns,

until, the year declining, the price of the failing

provision should increase, and then to sell off

the wares when greater gain from scarcity should accrue.

But if meanwhile it happened that the grain was corrupted

and the barley rotted, to distribute the moldy stuff to the peasants

and other needy on this condition, that at

the collection of the new fruits whole and sound stuff

should be returned by the same measure. To sell his own wares

dearer, to buy others' cheaper (which common

desire of mortals, or vice of nature, even the witty mimic

in St. Augustine ^e acknowledged),

he deemed a matter of economic prudence, and, what was more

iniquitous, either reputed it lawful to withhold something from the sum owed to creditors,

or, if unlawful, by no means

shrank from it; and to dare other things of that kind, which

neither money-changers nor common bankers think lawful

for themselves or for an ingenuous citizen ^f…

NOTES.

CHAPTER II.

His wonderful and sudden conversion to good fruit from the reading of the Acts of St. Mary of Egypt.

The fifty-fifth year above

the thousand three hundredth from Christ's birth was flowing ^a,

when on a certain day (what day of the month they did not express, Ill bearing the delay of dinner,

because not even the month did the ancient writers care to record) returning early from the banking-table

John, exceedingly hungry, wished to feast, at once

to recline, and to dine. But, the food not yet

well cooked, because he had come before the accustomed hour,

somewhat angry he orders it prepared as quickly as possible,

and urges the maidservant and his wife, and admonishes them of speed more imperiously

than he was wont before: who, although

they executed his commands diligently, yet it was not permitted

to those hastening to finish all in a moment,

its own time being to be given to the cooking, its own also to the seasoning,

unless he wished half-raw or unseasoned viands to be served.

He, whether by his barking stomach, and the bile gnawing his

inward parts, or by the solicitude of business recalling him to

the interrupted reckonings, impatient of the little delay, grows hot with anger and fills the hall with complaints and curses.

[14] Then his wife, upright and prudent, opposing gentleness

to her husband's madness, beseeches him to bear it a little while,

and, adding a few words she casts down the spiritual book offered to her; to still that intemperance,

sets before him a codex containing the Lives of the Saints,

and gently asks that he not be reluctant to read a little while;

that thus a small time might be pleasantly beguiled

and the weariness relieved. But his palate being irritated, these things by no means

pleased, and therefore, abusing the office of the wise woman,

he seizes the book, casts it down, and dashes it to the pavement;

then, akin to one raving, he begins to vociferate and to blurt out things

unworthy of a well-mannered and grave man. At which

Blasia, lest by the sprinkling of cold water the flame should grow,

withdraws sad in silence, and, anxious, hastens

to prepare the meal quickly.

[15] Meanwhile John, his anger subsiding,

begins to return to himself, [but repenting of the deed, and taking it up again, he falls upon the Life of St. Mary of Egypt,] to recognize his error, to be ashamed, to lift the thrown-down

book into his hands, to open it, to read

whatever subject chance first offered: this was

the wondrous conversion of St. Mary of Egypt ^b,

her penance, sanctity, which were fully narrated in those pages,

and flowed savorily into his mind now milder.

She had once lived so freely and so licentiously,

that from the greatness of her crimes she was by antonomasia

called the sinner, that is, the disgrace of the flesh,

the scandal of the world, the fodder of Erebus.

[16] But, by the help of the Virgin Mother of God, having obtained mercy from

the Lord, from a most filthy cauldron she was turned into a crystalline

and purer phial than that: which he read with so great a relish, for

when she knew how sordid and how deformed

she was, about to expiate the filth of a life basely spent, she withdrew into the wilderness, and there for the space of forty-five years,

unseen by all mortals, she lay hidden,

by fasting, prayer, affliction, tears she wiped away

her old stains; and so far did she render herself amiable to the angels and to the King

of the angels, that she was admitted to their

familiarity and converse, and frequently caught up

to hear the heavenly melodies.

[17] While John runs over with his eyes these and such wonders,

so that he unrolled it all, his heart is affected with delight, he lays aside all anger,

turns the tumult of indignation into pious thoughts.

Here to stop a while and to wonder,

then to give his eyes back to the page, as to a table,

another hunger goading, insisting on a more salutary meal,

he refreshes his mind, and is kindled with the desire of imitation,

at last enters upon a resolve of changing his life. Meanwhile

his sedulous wife prepares, and announces that the food is prepared

and the table set, and invites

to eat. To whom John: "You too bear it a little,

and repay the turn of the delay, while

I shall have finished the history which I have begun to read."

[18] his wife meanwhile rejoicing and praying, "And gladly," she says, "we shall wait;

let my lord go on further at his pleasure, while we

meanwhile provide the food, lest any loss come from the delay."

Further the pious woman rejoiced, like

those who rejoice in the harvest, and said silently to herself:

"Whence to him so sudden a change?" And thence,

withdrawing to a nearby room, she falls upon her

knees, and, thanks being rendered to God the creator,

suppliantly prays, that the good work which he has begun he himself

may perfect, may open the eyes of the blind man, may tear his mind

from the desire of riches, may deign to create a heart docile

and ready for divine services.

[19] and, during his reading, resolved to amend his manners, Nor were the prayers in vain; John was changed into another

man: for straightway a spark gliding down from above into his cold breast

began indeed at first to creep with a slow

heat, but nevertheless, lively and life-giving, to rouse

a vow of a better life and gradually thereafter

to migrate into a flame, which consumed all the dross of the old

man… And as those who have lain afflicted

with a grievous and long disease, not at once,

when they have emerged, are able to run or to perform those things

which sound and robust limbs demand; but gradually

recover, and by the experiments of their strength learn

what their wearied members refuse to sustain, what to bear;

so John by no means at once attempted the extreme things,

to which he afterward opportunely came;

but gently and by degrees he began to decline from evil,

to put reins on avarice, and

to rest from the anxious solicitude of acquiring; then

to do good, and to seek and pursue peace, according to

the admonition of the most holy Psalmist: to grant a part of the time, withdrawn from business,

to prayers, to have mercy on the poor, to relieve the needy, and

to help a little more largely with alms, to visit the temples, and to afford

whatever other tokens of restored health of that kind ^c:

which, that they might be more solidly confirmed, day and night

Blasia asked from the Lord, and indeed also,

occasion being given or sought, with pious addresses and every

kind of service she strove to retain him in his purpose…

[20] which purpose But who would doubt that the beginning [of the conversion

d] is to be drawn from penance, and indeed

a confession being premised, even of the whole life, if he

wishes seriously to weep for his past sins and to expiate them with tears and grief,

who recognizes their foulness and harms.

Nor do I think it to be doubted, that toward this

plank John, emerging from the midst of the waves of the world,

stretched out his hand, when, carried into the port of a holier

life, he strove to repair by this amulet of salvation

the losses of his former tossing and frequent running upon

the shoals. But the writers were silent, perhaps because

they esteemed it superfluous to record a matter known,

and which no one would not know. For the rest, what

is customary to those who draw back their foot from the way of perdition

and return to the Lord, and desire to adhere to him with the whole affection

of the heart, that they wipe away the filth of the soul by salutary confession,

and by its frequent use guard the brightness of purity attained;

who would say that it was omitted by him whom divine

decrees had made great among the Saints and founders of religions,

and had reckoned among the eminent penitents?…

[21] Let the same judgment be concerning the frequency, cult,

and veneration of the sacred Communion: by the frequent use of the Sacraments for although

here too antiquity was silent, and suffered the pen to dry up,

where it was to be filled with golden liquor; yet to anyone

it is easy to believe, that he who was about to renew the custom

first introduced in the Church and then obsolete

of the frequent communion of the faithful,

went before by his own example, and performed the mysteries of the Eucharist

more frequently than men of that age

commonly did; that by the reception of the life-giving bread

he might augment the strength of his soul and cherish the first-fruits of his spirit

with heavenly food. Fortified with this protection,

diligently and bravely he persevered to climb to the mountain of God Horeb,

that is, to the summit of perfection,

and, lest he look back or turn back,

provided with all vigilance.

[22] But because the greatest part of the harms had once

flowed from avarice, and by the extirpation of his avarice he leaned especially to this,

that all the fibers of preposterous desire might be torn out,

and the seeds of Christian liberality cast in

might be fostered by the warmth of charity, that, watered by the wave of

liberal distribution, they might bear the fruitfulness of merits.

Therefore he diligently discussed with himself

whether he had harmed anyone by giving less or by receiving more than was due,

resolved without hesitation to pour back

whatever had once been heaped into his coffers beyond right;

nay even to render fourfold, if it should be needful.

To one wishing to sell, to withhold nothing of the price asked,

sometimes even to add a little more, that he might buy dearer;

conversely, to one asking to buy from him, to remit something

of the legitimate price and to sell for less

than the wares were valued by common estimation.

[23] By which facility, published through the mouths of the citizens,

so great a concourse to him was made, he carried out, his fellow-citizens wondering, that you would not know

whether more sellers or buyers hastened to contract

with John. This was found, that the good-will of both was bought;

the admiration of the rest was excited, some saying:

"Is not this the man who yesterday and the day before

wrangled over a farthing; who bestowed nothing, even when asked,

nor kept his hands altogether from others' goods?

How have the chains fallen from his hands, and

been loosed to bestow even on those not asking,

which a little before were inexorably bound against the very needy

and those asking alms?"

[24] And various were the judgments about this profusion:

some conjectured he was brought back to better fruit

by the counsel of some friend, and judging diversely of that change of manners, who, setting before him on this side the disgrace of avarice,

on that the beauty of liberality,

and the splendor conciliating honor to the family, had engendered

hatred of the one and love of the other… Others,

comparing his present effusion with his former greediness,

thought it an untimely prodigality, the raving of a diminished

brain… There had settled in the minds

of the wiser (who are very rare) a certain

divination about John, that he would one day be reckoned in the catalogue of those

whose deeds he would follow with a close footstep,

that he might lay the deepest foundations of a spiritual edifice,

which were to rise to the lofty summit of dignity and glory. For the rest, he himself, joined with his whole soul

to the Savior, as he passed by the accusations of those objurgating him

with a deaf ear, so the presentiments of those praising him,

being now an eminent despiser of himself, placed among trifles.

[25] Meanwhile, initiated into the sacred soldiery, promoting daily

the beginnings of a holier discipline which he had taken up, while he himself meanwhile aspired to greater perfection.

not content with mediocre things, he strove for the highest;

nor did he now repute it something great in himself

to abstain from things unlawful, unless by continual self-denial

and the mastery of his appetites he also tempered himself from things

lawful. You would have said he flew, not ran, because,

solicitous to add to the wing of mortification the other of prayer,

to expend more hours of day and night on the contemplation of divine things,

frequently to be present at the sacred sermons,

to read pious books, to visit the hospitals,

to be at hand to the sick, he had made familiar to himself

the exercises of his new life; and lest, in performing them,

time should fail, to avoid the assemblies of nobles and

the conversation of citizens, to decline the concourse of the people,

and the mass of business partly to lessen, partly

to divide; and by this industry he himself had time to spare,

and, a lover of eternity, redeemed the time, for which

grace was preparing its athlete now honorably triumphing over avarice,

while it should also war down other savage

enemies, the concupiscence of the flesh and the pride of life…

NOTES.

CHAPTER III.

His wife consenting, the vow of chastity emitted by him, and other exercises of piety undertaken.

The Blessed one, having tasted the sweetness of divine consolation, Columbinus had tasted from the marrow and experienced

how sweet the Lord is, and, having drunk of

this most limpid fountain, not only did he not desire

that rib loving his body, but

he was anguished in mind, on this side recollecting the muddy cisterns

of the conjugal duty, then the sound of the Apostolic trumpet

sounding against it: "Let the husband render the debt to the wife." What

should he do amid straits more bitter than death, or what

counsel should he take, when the counsels of the virginal Master set before

and hold out lilies, and, short of the violation of a command,

do not permit them to be freely grasped with the hand, except by another's

consent?

[27] after various difficulties proposed to himself Should he seek the loosing of the bed? But Paul

cries out: "You are bound to a wife, do not seek loosing";

nay, the Lord too by edict forbids: "What

God has joined, let not man separate." That marriage is honorable

and the bed undefiled; that continence is of great virtue and a special gift,

which, although it had befallen him from heaven to attain,

what should be done with a wife not yet an old woman, nor to celibacy

propense or called? That most of the kinship would be disturbed,

and the whole city would thunder against the insolent

attempt, and, as though about the violated right of nature,

and about the breaking of marital faith, would earnestly

complain.

[28] he resolves thereafter to keep chastity, In this surge of fluctuating thoughts, to

the accustomed help of prayers hope and trust in God impel the ardent

lover of chastity, whom, while he piously and solicitously consults,

and insists on propitiating with prolix supplication,

he feels himself animated and inwardly strengthened to attempt the arduous work,

and to procure gently and amicably the consent to separation from his wife:

for, this being obtained, he by no means

doubted that the wedge was applied for loosing the knot,

and that the other obstacles which he foresaw would emerge

were to be overcome by the help of God disposing and by strong

patience…

[29] And so at last he resolved with himself to cast a net,

and to lead the dove into the toils of conjugal abstinence,

and his wife and, a fitting hour being observed, which seemed more opportune

for serious conversation, he addressed her thus, almost not unwillingly

listening: "There is a secret of mine, Blasia,

which by prudence it is permitted to reveal to you alone and to my father, the arbiter of my conscience.

It is not hidden from you, from that time

when the same house and the same bed joined us,

how I have conducted myself before God and men;

namely in much care of temporal things, and

almost none of eternal.

[30] I was wandering through the tortuous ways of the perishing world,

gaping after honors and riches, with various arguments which sink

their lovers into the deep and ruin; and I had perished

like a sheep straying from the fold and ill-guarded from the wolves, had not

the merciful God, who had given you to me as a partner of the bed,

given you as mistress and guide. Now, the same being propitious,

it has been permitted me to come to my senses toward better fruit,

and, stripped of the birdlime of desire, by which I clung tenaciously

to the earth, I enter the way of salvation, that I may see

if in any way I may lay hold and receive the prize promised to those running:

but grievous fetters

hitherto retard my course, to be loosed by no other hand

than yours, which I do not despair to experience benign,

and earnestly ask.

[31] The power of my body, which I willingly gave, I beseech you,

most beloved wife, he exhorts to the same virtue, give back to me,

and, conversely, that which you had transferred to me,

receive not reluctantly from the one restoring it. From a wife you will become

a sister, and I from a husband a brother, and we shall be

two, no longer one in flesh, but one spirit

in no flesh, unless perhaps in the side of the Savior. If for the future

you assent to this, our little bed will be flowering:

this a most pleasing station and shelter from the ardor

of the bloods. Nor is there much to be feared

by us from the domestic enemy of the restless tinder; for,

sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb piously immolated for us, as with

the warmest dew of hyssop, we shall boil away all the phlegm of noxious

pleasure, and shall present our members

to serve justice unto sanctification.

[32] The fight, if any is to be entered, will be brief;

a certain victory is promised: his consent being obtained, a reward is prepared in the heavens,

eternal, with those who kept chastity,

whether inviolate in virginity, or

asserted from marriage; which most pleasing victim, if we wish,

by equal consent we can offer to God. Although

we do not abound in offspring, yet we are not without it;

and if none were surviving, our heir will be Christ,

who will make us his co-heirs in the kingdom of the Father.

Meanwhile our life, incorrupt, will be an angelic life,

and our abstinence the joy of the angels ^a."

While John spoke these things, Blasia's inward parts

were moved, and her heart was dissolved into the dew of sweet tears;

but the Lord opening her heart to attend to the

eloquence of comeliness and beauty which the spirit poured through the mouth of her husband,

with most ready vows she assented to his petitions, and,

the faculty of divorce being made, each yielded the right

which they had mutually given in the Sacrament of their bodies, and

from the silver state of matrimony they migrated into the golden one of celibacy.

[33] Here John, bathed with the most limpid joy,

immediately bending his knees to the ground, he emits the vow of chastity, and his mind and

prayer, full of reverence and love, being turned to God,

conceived a vow almost in this formula:

"Almighty and merciful God, since

Blasia (and she herself present heard and consented),

whom you had joined to me in marriage and love as a most faithful wife,

has not disdained to obey me,

and has granted to me asking the dominion of her body, which she possessed,

I acknowledge this recent gift from your clemency and love,

and in thanksgiving I, an unworthy sinner and wretched little man,

before your divine and immense majesty, propose to keep chastity

as long as I live, and, that the purpose may be firmer,

I bind myself by a vow. Deign,

O most benign God and father of my life, to admit my holocaust

into an odor of sweetness, and to bestow abundant grace of fulfilling it ^b."

With what sense of piety these things were uttered by John, with what tenderness

of heart heard by Blasia, the tears flowing on either side

can indicate, but by no means could words plainly

express…

[34] and although after this he suffered lesser goads of the flesh, The first blessing, therefore, bestowed on John after

the emitted vow of chastity, was an infusion of divine grace more abundant than usual,

not only sanctifying his soul,

which is its first gift, granted to all the just

without distinction, but so raising him

on high that he seemed to have been changed into a spirit devoid of flesh.

For that fruit which is of a peculiar benevolence

shown to few accompanied this affluence of grace, a comely gift, by which

the tinder of the nature vitiated in Adam, the root of intemperance,

was so repressed and weakened, that it emitted no further

sparks of lust, or, gently arising, straightway

with no difficulty repressed them: and

thus its own place being left to the tranquillity of mind and the quiet of conscience,

free from all contagion, it afforded to the Holy Spirit

a pleasant and clean habitation in its purity…

[35] yet by various afflictions Nor yet, fortified with so firm a protection,

did he think himself safe from the snares and assaults,

by which the conspired soldiery of the pit strives to steal away

the eminent treasure hidden in earthen vessels;

but he applied the sharpest diligence, that he might guard it

unharmed and inviolate. Therefore at first indeed

in fastings he held that moderation which

his strength could bear, and which would not bring in a violence

hostile to constancy, lest health, shaken at once,

should succumb to unwonted burdens, and there should be a return to the former delights.

But the wheel of fervor running,

it came to this, that only so much food was indulged to the body

as seemed scarcely necessary for retaining the spirit within

the members. His bed either hard planks or

the bare ground afforded; his sleep short

and sparing, but no less sweet than once

soft mattresses and silken couches would have conciliated. The other

most of the night hours he gave to prayer and contemplation…

[36] he tamed his body, To his daily works he was accustomed to premise the hearing of the Mass

in the morning every day, and thereafter to permit no

part to go by empty of the duties of a Christian man. Now to visit hospitals and minister to the sick,

at other times to reconcile those at variance among themselves,

to be present to and help widows and orphans; to sow

pious sermons everywhere, to invite these to the amendment of their manners,

to console those in tribulation, to do good to all

both by counsel and by largess, because he deemed beneficence

toward men of every condition the most excellent kind of divine imitation.

[37] he resolved to add poverty to conjugal abstinence. But to him gathering fruits of this kind from the vow of chastity

the Father of lights showed a still more excellent way, which

his only-begotten Son, made master of our race,

indicated to the one asserting that he had kept the commandments

from his youth and yet desiring something more,

by doing which he might possess eternal life; for he heard:

"If you wish to be perfect, go and sell all that you have, and give to the poor."

Which John, weighing carefully,

asserted that less would be done to satisfy himself and his conscience,

until, all that he possessed being left,

naked he should follow the naked Savior, and to the vow of chastity,

by which he had already bound himself, should join another,

of poverty, by which he should both be despoiled of things had and abdicate the faculty of having

for the future; how prettily this succeeded for him,

I shall relate a little later…

NOTES.

CHAPTER IV.

The election of a companion, and his introduction to a similar norm of the Apostolic life.

Close was the intimacy of Columbinus with Francis Vincent

^a, commonly called Mini,

and the sincere communication of the secrets of the heart, Blessed John, his friend such as

is found among friends, only the few and true.

He therefore occurs first, upon whom he might cast his eyes

and hope, because he hoped that the greatest

profit from his conversion would flow out upon the peoples.

For sprung from the primary nobility of Siena,

he flourished in numerous kinship and riches,

besides other implanted goods of judgment, prudence,

and dexterity in conducting affairs, which had begotten for him great

authority among the citizens. Having therefore first earnestly

and humbly consulted God with prayers,

he resolved candidly to open to him his recent deliberation of instituting

his life according to the Apostolic form, and to endeavor with all

his power and zeal to lead his friend also to the same.

[39] Wherefore he repeated to him again and again, in season

and out of season, rouses him with various reasonings the things which he thought would avail to storm

the citadel of his mind, wandering by desire and care through

earthly things, and procuring wealth and honors with anxious solicitude.

"What, I ask you," he was wont to say,

"from all the labors and sweats by which we labor

upon the earth, what, I say, do we think

we shall at last obtain? Can our hope

be greater than that our wealth be increased, or that the conveniences and delights

of dignity and of a fleeting life be procured?

And yet these are fragile, and are borne by the uncertain

breath of fortune, they flow in and slip away, and

meanwhile, while they are possessed, they are snares impeding the course to the kingdoms

of heaven; thorns which tear the conscience,

and make it guilty of Gehenna,

while they are too greedily sought, or too avariciously kept;

which perils and harms scarcely ever

are absent from them, and if they were absent, they are a vapor appearing

for a little, and at last, with life, are deserted and

desert us.

[40] Of how great prudence, therefore, would it be to follow the counsels of Christ

inviting to the contempt of them and

crying out: 'Everyone who has not renounced all

that he possesses cannot be my disciple?'

Of how great felicity to enter and tread the royal way of divine servitude

and Evangelical perfection, to despise riches,

to imitate the Apostles and their followers, to bid farewell to the world

and to all its vanity, to fix one's foot in eternity,

and, supported on the wings of poverty, to tend

toward it? These things indeed rightly weighed, as you yourself

could note from the change of my manners, had so much

weight with me, that I have altogether resolved to carry out what I urge,

and, all things being despised

which hitherto I possess, to follow the Savior, to put his cross

on my shoulders, to cling to the footsteps of the Saints who reign

with Christ.

[41] and exhorts him, One thing there is which can fulfill the sum of my desires

in this endeavor, if, as

you have experienced me faithful and a lover of you, not cold,

through many years, so it may befall me

for the rest of my life to have you as companion in those things

which are of eternal salvation, and, together with me, submitting your neck

to the sweet yoke of Christ. Well I see, labor, poverty,

mortification, the judgments of men, can terrify,

and draw the hand away from taking hold of the plow;

but faith opposes to these terrors the coming glory and the crown

prepared for pains. Hope gives courage

and strengthens by the certitude of promises for overcoming all arduous things.

Charity, moreover, lessens all difficulties,

and sprinkles all bitter things with a sweet savor.

And Jesus Christ will be present in our midst,

that Son of God and God, not only master and

friend; but also brother and mother, destined to be so, of those

who do the will of the eternal Father; how much more

of those who, hearing his voice, seek nothing else

in this pilgrimage, desire nothing more ardently,

than, as he himself walked, to walk

themselves ^b?"

[42] and at last leads him, With the strokes of this golden mallet John quite often

beat the ears of his friend and sought the citadel of his breast,

and so long insisted on soliciting the one not unwillingly listening,

until he bent and drew him to his own opinion.

Those words, sounding the Gospel, flowed into Vincent's inmost parts,

and their truth was distilled into a heart not depraved and gradually to be healed:

for at the beginning indeed a slight warmth, gently

affecting, permeated his veins, but then, as the persuasions

and sacred sayings were repeated, it gradually migrated

into a heat of affection for cleaving to Christ and, for his

love, of reckoning riches and whatever the world promises as mud.

At last he yielded to the exhortations, and

resolved to join himself to John, now clad in humility

fitting to Christian profession, and a strong subduer

of his own body: nor, using any tardiness, did he open his own deliberation

to him, to entering upon which the frequent persuasions availed much,

but still more the supernal light

and interior calling…

[43] that he might lead an austere life with him, Increased therefore by this companion, John, and with a new

spirit, thanks being earnestly rendered to God, began more freely

to profess openly the Gospel which he bore in his breast,

and to open a way to the enclosed flame eager to burst forth.

For, laying aside the garments

which hitherto he had worn for adornment and elegance in the manner of nobles,

he puts on viler ones such as the common people wear,

and places a cloak consonant with them on his shoulders;…

nor, thus clad, did he blush to go forth into the public

sight of the city, and to declare in the Evangelical poor man

a new soldier of Christ. The money before this scraped together

with great efforts and savings, and shut in inexorable coffers, he began largely

to distribute to the poor, both those he met and those he sought out,

and, if he happened to find any sick in the crossroads,

these he benignly gathered and brought into some

dwelling, and provided the expenses by which

the limbs consumed by languors and abstinence might be cherished.

[44] When his friends admonished him and sang the old song,

in which manner of living that he must act more cautiously, lest he be reduced to want

and mendicancy, he answered freely

that excessive caution is a kind of infidelity,

that nothing was dearer to him than, his whole substance being distributed to the poor,

to be reduced to the utmost destitution and

to live by begging, nor would he procrastinate, unless

by the laws of charity and justice he were forbidden, ordering that

regard be had for his household in the distribution;

that he placed it in great felicity to have the Lord of the world

as his possession, and to sing with the Prophet:

"The Lord is my portion."

for although besides Vincent no one, at that

time indeed, followed his example,

yet he attained this, that he stopped the mouth of troublesome interrupters,

and they ceased to disapprove

what they before calumniated; nay rather it seemed a kind of approbation,

that they commended themselves to the prayers

of him and his Companion: for this one constantly

adhered to Columbinus, using the same manner of living

with him, largely pouring out alms,

strenuous in self-denial, generous in the contempt of the world,

fervent in the acquisition of virtues,

constant in divine service, so that already then in the two,

still living among seculars, a certain more illustrious form

of perfect religious shone forth,

and drew to itself the eye and mouths of the whole city.

[46] And although most of the kinship of both was struck by the strangeness

of their deeds, they despise the various judgments of men. reckoning it a disgrace

that two of the more illustrious heads of their families should lower their family nobility

to abject ministries, and

exhaust their houses with profuse largesses, yet they themselves,

esteeming the judgments of men as nothing, passed by their complaints

and detractions with a deaf ear,

and, fixed in heart in heaven, did not depart from their step;

but rather solidified their footsteps upon the rock,

which is Christ, in whom to stand still is to advance,

and to hasten with a favorable course to the goal of those contending

in the Christian contest…

NOTES.

CHAPTER V.

The Blessed one's illness, his secret flight to the hospital, and his vexation on the part of his wife on account of his poor and vile manner of living.

Blessed John, laboring under a fever, Amid the assiduous labors of his new life and the continual

mortification of body and soul, as Columbinus offered the sacrifice of penance,

a fever invades him and fastens him to his bed.

But his mind, ready to suffer, with great

submission and joy, recognizing in his sickness the gift of God

scourging every son whom he receives,

deems it little to render thanks to him for the

gift, unless he make the disease besides a goad to himself

of augmenting his love, and of declaring it by some magnificent

endeavor. Therefore the troubles of the disease

and the febrile ardors he not only tolerates with an equal mind,

but esteems as delights, and vehemently desires

that graver paroxysms recur daily.

[48] on account of the excessive care of his household for him, By a token by no means obscure of a thing not so

easy of belief is the ingenious and pious theft of himself,

while sick, made from his household, to whom, thinking nothing such,

by a secret flight he withdraws himself and seeks a place

where he may hide, and experience the inconveniences common

to the needy lying sick. "Do you then," he cried out to himself,

"go on snoring in the embrace of a most soft couch,

and blush not to grow slack in idle feathers,

a delicate soldier of that Leader who

had not where to lay his head, nor

where to lie, except on the hard wood of the cross? Will you then

refresh with exquisite viands and little broths and dainties

your body soon to pass into decay and gore,

falsely feigning yourself a disciple of the Master, who with gall

and vinegar was given to drink? And will you endure, a wicked servant of a Lord

not having in his tribulation one to console

or help him, that the cares of Blasia's and the household service

should never take rest from serving you? Better things,

O God! It does not befit delicate limbs to live under a thorny head,

nor the poverty of its lover to feel

languors and want, to whom, dying, there stood as beloved companions

nakedness, extreme thirst,

the want of all solace and help.

[49] he secretly flees to the hospital I will rise therefore and go about the city, and the poverty which

within I do not find, without in her dwellings I will seek, if perhaps

she receive me as one of her little beggars,

and admit me to her slender

and sparing table, to be envied by the banquets of the rich."

Amid which thoughts and kindled vows of suffering, at a less observable hour (perhaps in the morning),

when after the vigils of the night all the household

are more sweetly lulled in sleep, he snatches himself from bed, and, wrapping his shoulders

with a coverlet in place of garments, goes out from the house,

and gradually, with faltering step, to the hospital,

none accompanying, he creeps along, which, the lowest among

the other more celebrated ones of the city, and meanly furnished,

he thought, that he might more holily labor for poverty. Here

earnest prayers obtained entrance from the rectors, and

got a little bed in the throng of poor wretches lying there.

He lay hidden among these for two days, like one from the crossroads,

the moderators being ignorant of what land and

how great a man he was, and treating him no more honorably than the other

lying sick.

[50] At this he himself greatly rejoiced, so cautious

lest by any sign he should betray himself, in which he lay hidden for some days, and lose these his delights,

notice arising from somewhere, and be compelled to depart.

But this joy was brief: for when a little

after he had set foot out of the house, Blasia and

Vincent, having entered the chamber, the bed empty of the sick man

they beheld, struck at once with fear and amazement,

are agitated by various thoughts, nor can they divine what

has been done with John; yet they suspect the flight

of the man who had carried off the coverlet, and

conjecture that he has hidden himself in some cavern,

that he may be more miserably sick, and consumed by want.

[51] They interrogate the servants, they seek among kinsmen

and friends, and sought in vain through the city, they go to the hospitals, and omit no

corner unexplored in which they by probable conjecture suppose

the fugitive lies hidden. But they hunt the winds;

nowhere does the sick man appear. At last, driven by despair

rather than hope, they enter the little hospital placed in a secluded

corner of the city, attentively survey the individual pallets,

John meanwhile keeping silent

and covering himself; but in vain, because by the very

covering with which he hid himself he was detected: for to the curious

searchers was set the shape and color of the coverlet

with which he had wrapped himself, and, at once recognized by Blasia,

to whom the whole furniture of the house was known, it made the fugitive

manifest.

[52] Running thither together with Vincent, with an amicable

complaint she testified her grief and asks, at last he is found, what cause

there is why, his own home and bed being left, he has fled to a strange

hovel, and cast himself into the straits of another's dwelling

and provision? Whether some offense had given

occasion for flight, or whether a domestic fault or

error at home had displeased him, which he judged should be chastised by desertion?

Let him see and weigh, according to his

prudence, whether it befits a senatorial man to lie among the

refuse of the commons, and to expose the nobility of his family

to accusations and the gibes of the crowd.

[53] To which John: "Why are you disturbed, or

why are you troublesome to me? and rejoicing in poverty and inconveniences One cause only impelled me

to come hither; namely your excessive indulgence

and superfluous care in treating this wretched body,

the flattering enemy, that is, of the spirit, to be tamed even in infirmity

by the rein of penance. Best is it

for me on this little bed. Permit, I pray

you, this poor little woman to approach me:

for she brings a dish of savory pennyroyal ^a to satisfy

my hunger, to which your broths have nothing similar

in sweetness. But of my return

cease to hope…"

[54] Here Blasia and Vincent insist with prayers and

many reasonings, he scarcely suffers himself to be led home. drawn from decorum, from the equitable and just,

that that hospitable shrine stands for beggars laboring in extremity,

that against right and religion

it is occupied by a noble rich man, that in vain and unwisely

the title of poverty is put forward, which displeases God and the heavenly ones,

and raises laughter among men… By tears

besides and by adjurations added to the arguments

his softened heart at last yielded, and than he had come

more becomingly he was led home. This fever held

for some while, and shook his already wearied limbs with fasting

and various affliction; but his mind, rising to heaven,

kept its vigor… This one thing

grieved him, that he was treated too delicately:

for the rest, always intent on God, he fed his mind

with divine thoughts; but his tongue, when he was alone,

he loosed into the praises of that Majesty. When

friends visited him, he proclaimed his charity poured out toward the human race

and his most benevolent providence,

so that, sick in body, he brought some medicine to the minds of the ailing,

consolation to those in good health,

and no one departed from the chamber of the sick man not

better than when he entered.

[55] The febrile affliction was succeeded by another vexation from his wife

Blasia, so much the graver as it was less expected. His wife, to blessed John,

Into whose mind, I beseech, would it have come; that Blasia,

otherwise a woman of placid manners and pacified disposition,

who in recalling her Husband to good fruit

had labored with the utmost zeal and all exertion,

as I mentioned above, then, her will being reversed,

was an obstacle to him pursuing the way of perfection,

and, like one of the foolish women, tried by most wicked

address to recall him from what he had begun?

And that temptation was, by its importunity and pertinacity, almost

fatal: for eight years ^b it exercised

John's patience, in all which time each played

their part, now craftiness armed with allurement,

now anger with fickle levity accusing, and carping at

his manners and the institute of life to which John

had devoted himself.

[56] with objurgations, For sometimes, indignant at the vileness of the foods

on which he was wont to feed, and of the garments which he put on,

she cried out: "How long at last

shall I bear these sordid and unclean things? Or did I come hither,

bearing the name of wife, but in the very fact an unhappy handmaid

of an unhappier lord, to lead my days in squalor and mourning?

What kind of appearance of holiness is this, to walk in rustic habit

in the company of the nobility, and among the wedges of kinsmen

to represent a hermit? To turn the family

estate upside down, to put off altogether all care of the household,

to act the executioner of himself by immoderate maceration?"

… Although he by no means omitted to still the wranglings

by the weight of reasonings, according to the opportunity of place and time,

yet for the most part he dissembled that he heard,

and consoled his grief with silence…

[57] with flatteries, Nor yet did Blasia despond in mind;

but when she saw harsh things succeed less, she applied her mind

to gentle ones, and made for herself a hope from blandishments

which anger and expostulations had rendered vain.

She fled to the allurements of words

which testified honeyed love and conjugal affection.

Counsels were given thence, set forth full of prudence and moderation.

That immoderate fervor should be checked with reins,

lest it stray from reason and the law of God; that a part of the night indeed

could be granted to prayer, but that its own share was owed also

to the quiet necessary for life; that fasts are laudable

which afflict the flesh, not which oppress and kill it;

that singularity in dress, which strikes the eyes of the crowd

and moves admiration or laughter,

is exposed to the peril of pride and the reprehension

of men, and gives a handle to detraction, and therefore

pleases neither God nor the heavenly ones; that more pleasing

are the several things which are done privately and secretly,

than those which are done openly before the crowd; that the prayer

which is made in secret, the door being shut, is praised, and the alms

held out by the right hand, the left being ignorant.

[58] with prayers and tears Nor were prayers lacking, that if any spark of affection toward his wretched

wife still remained in the marital

breast, he would remit a little of

his intolerable harshness, which, being violent, would be

of brief and to-be-repented duration. "By whatever

rights and sacraments joined us, beloved John, I

pray and adjure you, do not wish to be before my eyes

the murderer of yourself and me. But if the holy

fellowships of the spirit no longer hold either the names or the offices

of nuptials, yet the faith by which we joined right hands compels me,

piety, religion, the worship

by which we venerate God, to ask you to put on a little milder

thoughts and to rage more remissly against your flesh,

which, while you dreadfully consume, you consume

mine also." And she went on to beseech, had not sobs and

a shower of tears rolled up her wavering words.

[59] But the strong Athlete of Christ, although by nature

humane and benign, is no more softened by this sweet speech

strives in vain to persuade, than if he were hard flint, or the Marpesian

crag stood… Yet lest to the afflicted he should add affliction

by taciturnity, which might smell of contempt,

he answered in few words which could lessen her grief,

and teach the one ignorant of divine secrets to be more salutarily wise.

He wondered, first of all, vehemently, that she

who had been so solicitous about his salvation, when he himself,

forgetful of it, wandered through the empty appearances of desires and

lying madnesses, now, having obtained her wish,

was sad, and complained tearfully that she had found

the drachma which she had lost, and that to the folds

of the Savior had returned the sheep which had perished: that they contradicted the Gospel,

which persuaded to come down from the housetop

and again to put on the old tunic which he had put off.

That she had once been pious and clement, who to him plunged

in the deep darkness of vices had held out a benevolent hand;

now turned into a cruel one, who groaned at one placed

in a place of pasture and serenity,

and persuaded him to return to the thorn-brakes.

[60] To whom she: "Far be it from me to persuade evils,

I who always wished good things; that he should desert the austere and abject norm of life: but as those who wish rain

in time of drought for fruitfulness,

would not wish a flood for submersion and sterility,

so I desired for your once-parched breast

a shower by which devotion might be watered,

not a deluge by which soundness would be choked, urbanity submerged,

humanity buried." To whom far more wisely John: "Believe me, Blasia,

the whole world is placed in wickedness and lies

in darkness: it feigns dreams for itself in the uncertainty of riches and

pursues shadows in the slipperiness of desires, and yet

is so greatly loved, as if the highest good were placed

in it… Blessed are those whom the Lord rouses from the sleep of torpor

and ignorance, and teaches the way of truth: more blessed those whom he draws to Christ,

that they may walk as he himself walked. And

I indeed confess to you frankly, my sister, from

that day on which the divine sun illumined my darkness

and led me out of the prison of infirmity, in which lying

I was running to death, bound with the chains of avarice,

as you well know, I have been so inflamed with love of the cross

and of Christ crucified, that sweetness and honey seem

to me the things which the world reputes bitter and horrid…

[61] But if this new song be unpleasant in the ears of my sister

and the yoke seem heavy which to me is light and sweet, for he himself, going on bravely in the seized way of perfection it will be easy to free herself from this

trouble: for we loosed the bond of the bed by mutual

consent; what hinders that we should also dissolve that of habitation?

For thus, freed from all worldly bonds,

we shall more firmly cleave to God;

you indeed, as befits an honorable woman, at home

intent on prayer and good works; but I outside

through the streets and squares, preaching the name of Jesus Christ to men."

[62] Here she, growing hot: "Would," she said,

"that I had never consented to your absurd petition! he patiently tolerates the frequent wranglings of his wife. For

I am not ignorant of the precept of the Apostle, forbidding one bound

to a wife to seek loosing, so that to me

now they seem the voices of a howling wolf, demanding

further another loosing and a separation of habitation;

although more horrible than any divorce

is that continual familiar spectre of a ragged and squalid man,

such as scarcely the wilderness would bear and remote deserts

would suffer, much less the homes of nobles

and the concourse of kinsmen, who with a blush are compelled to hear

what by others, beheld, is received not without laughter or

indignation, approved by none, condemned as folly

by many. Therefore let my deserter return to his mind, if he loves domestic quiet,

and wishes his good name, which to neglect according to the sacred

Oracles is a crime, to be safe among outsiders":

with which and other similar answers to the same effect

the ears of the most gentle John were very often beaten, who very rarely had

reproofs in his mouth; and his heart was struck with goads,

grieving at the blindness and the womanly boldness ^c

verging almost into petulance. But the Lord looked upon and consoled

the grief of his Servant.

NOTES.

CHAPTER VI.

The wondrous splendor of the Blessed one praying, the benign reception of Christ under the form of a leper, divine consolation, and at last the hardness of his wife softened by these miracles.

[63] The Blessed one, radiating with heavenly light in the darkness God is called the Ocean of consolation. Who

spread the sails of hope through him, and has not experienced

breezes sweetly breathing? In him hoped

the heart of John, when the waters entered even to his soul,

and he was helped; first indeed by the affluence

of internal consolation, which overcame the bitterness of affliction;

then by the wondrousness of signs,

by which at last all mist and bitterness

was wiped from the mind of Blasia. Of these this

was the first. On a certain untimely night, which,

by custom, John spent in vigil amid prayers, he felt his soul filled with so great

a splendor, that his body

also outwardly radiated, and the chamber gleamed as with the noonday sun.

[64] a certain woman beholds, There was kept in those days in that house a noble

woman, Alexia Bandinella, a kinswoman of Blasia, inasmuch

as she was married to a Cerretano, invited thither to relieve

the mourning of her kinswoman which John's life and manners

had brought, as has been mentioned. She, amid the nocturnal

darkness, saw the walls of the nearby chamber,

in which he abode, shine with a most bright light,

and, thinking it flowed from no other source than from the candle of the watching

John, was in no way moved. But when

she noticed the brightness lasted long, and, greater

than could be emitted from a candle, thought not without reason

that that unwonted light was something,

she did not hesitate to explore it more closely.

[65] With slow step, therefore, having entered thither, she beholds the Servant of God

fixed on the ground and on every side surrounded with rays, who summons the wife of blessed John to see that splendor.

and, astonished at the miracle, withdraws,

and, having met Blasia, narrates what she saw, and

invites her to see it. This one complies, not so much

from a desire of seeing, as from a will of gratifying her inviting kinswoman,

lest she seem to delay. She approaches,

beholds him prostrate, is dazzled by the rays,

stands in wonder, and yet utters not a little word,

nor gives a sign of a pacified mind and confessing her error:

so gross clouds, that is, had overspread the void

of the feminine breast, that they could not be dispelled even by the splendor of the supernal

light ^a.

[66] There followed another miracle so bright,

that, its force overcoming her obstinacy, she ceased to bark

any further, At another time the same Man a poor leper and passed into admiration and reverence

of the Husband long hated. Thus the matter was.

John and Francis were going together to the chief

temple of the city, to be present at the sacrifice of the Mass.

Before the doors, beset with a herd of little beggars,

a certain one lay half-naked, save that

by leprosy he was foully covered from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head.

Columbinus stopped at the pitiable sight,

and, turning to his companion: "Behold," he said,

"my Francis, with how great misery and torment

that poor little man, oppressed, lies on the ground, and although

his necessity and pain be so great, yet he is destitute of all human

help… How opportunely would it be done,

if, lifted upon our shoulders, we should carry him to our house

and comfortably tend him?"

[67] Francis approved the counsel, and also offered his

help to carry it out. carries home upon his own shoulders, his wife being indignant on that account, Then

Columbinus goes to the leper, gently raised places him on his shoulders,

and, they carrying him, brings him into his house:

as they went, now his right hand,

now his left he brings to his mouth to be kissed, and

completes that short journey so pleasantly, that he affirmed that he had felt

no trouble or nausea at all,

and those believed him affirming it who beheld the flashing flame

of love and cheerfulness from his eyes and whole countenance. When he brought his foot within the threshold,

Blasia, beholding the fetid spectacle, cries out:

"Away, away with this decay and pestilence! Truly

this misfortune too was wanting to my calamity,

that our roofs should grow foul with stench and gore,

and be turned into receptacles of the decayed. But I

will change my dwelling, nay even my soil: I will go away

expelled from the house, and, having suffered the extremes of tolerance, I shall not

be accused of impatience or petulance, for consulting my safety

and my soundness, and leaving a free dwelling to your

pities."

[68] To whom gently and tranquilly Columbinus: "I pray you,

with what gentle words lady, bear it a little, spare your anger,

spare your fury; cease to be indignant against this poor little man

and against us. This man equally, like us, is the creature

of God, and by the precious blood of his Son, like us,

redeemed. Therefore suffer yourself, by the love of Jesus Christ, to be asked,

not to disdain to make available the use of your bed,

in which the poor wretch may rest a little while,

until I procure the necessaries for refreshing him."

For he sought another's bed, who had abdicated his own,

and had long been accustomed to lie on bare planks. But here indeed she began to rave like a drunken woman

and to fill the neighborhood with clamors, to deny,

to call heaven and earth to witness, that she would never make available

her bed to that cancer.

[69] and with pious admonitions tries in vain to appease her; To whom John: "Ah, my Blasia, let us recall

our sins, by which we incur the anger of the divine majesty;

and it will seem less grievous, nor intolerable,

to redeem the penalties due to us for them by this, however small,

price of mercy. Under this deformity of a mask lies hidden the appearance of Christ suffering,

who asserted that whatever we do to one such

in his name would be done to himself. Assuredly,

if again Christ the Lord himself should descend from heaven,

and offer himself to our sight such

as he was foreseen by Isaiah many ages before,

having neither appearance nor comeliness, foully marred with leprosy

and wounds and the last of men, we should reckon it good fortune

and favor to receive him with hospitality and bed,

to cherish, to refresh him. And yet he himself confessed:

'He who receives one of these, such as this is, whom

we behold, receives me.' In what, therefore, will our faith show itself,

if we turn away Christ in his poor man,

or by what reasoning will our charity be safe and sound,

if we do not show the bowels of piety toward him?"

Nor yet did he appease with his words the woman who could have

soothed monsters. She still swells with anger and fury,

and protests that she will not thereafter touch

nor approach the bed which that gore had befouled and infected.

[70] wherefore, caring nothing for her wranglings, he washes the leper Then John, noticing that he sang to the deaf: "Come," he said, "Vincent, let us prepare a bath as quickly as possible,

and wash the ulcers and filth of this our brother."

Which prepared, both apply their hands to the ulcerous man,

cleanse, wipe, and, with an unwonted affection of charity,

kiss him. Nay even (which

the ears can scarcely bear to hear without the indignation of a nauseating stomach)

with such joys in that work

was John bathed, that he devised a new kind of mortification,

which he might pay to the Lord in thanksgiving;

namely he filled a cup from the filth of that very basin,

and, intrepid, did not shrink from drinking it off,

no otherwise than if with a most delightfully sweet cup

he pleasantly refreshed himself.

[71] and places him on a soft bed, Thereupon, the leper being wiped and refreshed,

he composes him, according to his liberty, on Blasia's bed, as being

softer with linens and feathers, whatever she,

grinning, might snarl. Certainly indeed she could not justly complain of injustice

as the mother of the family,

or accuse her husband of usurpation of her bed, she unwilling,

with whom there remained still

the entire dominion over the whole estate; and that he had used his right

laudably a wondrous event declared…

[72] [and while he is compelled to be a little absent, he commends the care of him to his wife,] John, the assiduous and provident guardian of the sick man, that he might not be left alone for even a point of time,

about to go out from the house with Francis for the sake of hearing the Mass,

asks Blasia, until after a short space

he return, to take care of him, lest perhaps he suffer something graver

through that little delay. But she, still

boiling with bile, gnashing something rude and savage

with her teeth, turns her back, and turns aside elsewhere to cook

her rage and grief. There, the witnesses removed, gradually

she begins to grow quiet and to admit better thoughts into her mind,

to look up to the Man's notable charity and self-denial,

and to compare it with her own obstinacy:

that, unless she put off her stubbornness and put on the bowels of mercy,

she feared lest she provoke God's anger against herself, that it did not befit

a well-mannered wife arrogantly to wrangle with her husband,

that it was a crime for a Christian woman to turn away the poor,

to be unkind to those needing her help, and

things akin to these, which by the benign Spirit were sent into the feminine heart

to be softened.

[73] Thus affected, with straight step she betakes herself to the chamber

of the lying leper, and, while she opens the door, is breathed upon by so

sweet an odor, who, about to enter the chamber of the leper, perceives a most fragrant odor. that a like one, to be expected from flowery gardens

or precious perfume-boxes, she held for certain was nowhere

on earth. And it was an opportune poultice for the inveterate

wound, and what the medicines of Columbinus's examples and discourses

had not been able to heal to that day, the heavenly fragrance

in a moment overspread and wholly healed: for, on this side fixed by amazement,

on that struck back by shame, she did not dare

to penetrate into the chamber; but immediately goes backward,

judging what was the case, that under the foulness of that figure

lay hidden something most beautiful and divine,

which, as a pledge of the eminent benevolence of her Husband, was set forth from heaven

to his mercy: by which goad she, pricked,

and by the consciousness of her past petulance,

suffused with shame, loosens the reins to tears, and from flint

is suddenly changed into a fountain.

[74] Meanwhile John and Francis return from the temple,

Meanwhile the Husband, returned home with his companion and bring with them certain sweetmeats bought

for the solace of their sick man: Blasia meets them entering,

drenched with weeping and struck with grief,

which she could scarcely dissemble. John asks

the cause of her groans, and, suspecting perhaps that it was some misfortune

of his sick man; "How does our leper fare?"

he says. She answered: "Go and

see." And when she had whispered a few words about the odor which she had drawn in,

she turned aside to another part,

that she might more securely lament.

[75] They, with a desire of seeing and consoling their beloved sick man,

does not find the sick man, who had disappeared, by the unexpected report of the breathing odor

augmented, hasten forthwith to meet him, and

are indeed suffused with the admirable sweetness of the fragrance left in the chamber;

but the sick man had flown away from the bed,

nor did they behold in it anything but the linens,

the pillows, and all the furniture composed so rightly

and elegantly, as if a sedulous hand of servants had composed it for the service

of a lord ^b. Further, they acknowledged the heavenly condescension, and, admiring the greatness

of the benefit from Christ in the hospitality to be admitted,

their knees cast to the ground,

poured themselves out into thanksgivings and divine praises;

but with what feeling and ardor of soul, who could explain by speech,

or comprehend by mind, except

he who has experienced it? … And lest the fame of the miracle should go abroad,

and thence some honor redound upon his own

head, John severely charges Blasia,

that, while he survived, she should make not a little word

to any mortal about it: if she do otherwise, let her know and fear

the divine vengeance, prepared for her who dared

to violate her husband's precept.

[76] Two other benefits followed this which has been narrated,

and afterward he learns by divine revelation, both equal in usefulness and not

unequal in splendor. The one is the illustrious apparition of Christ the Lord

^c, and familiar address, as of friend to friend:

for on the following night, while Columbinus revolved with himself

in mind the series of the fair event,

and was carried away by the vehemence of his love toward Jesus Christ, who,

under the likeness of a leper, had prettily and amicably mocked him,

behold, again the unforeseen guest, not,

as yesterday, displaying the horror of leprosy, but conspicuous with clear

light, presents himself to be seen by the one praying, and most gently

addressing him: "I have come to give you thanks,

my John, that yesterday on your shoulders you brought me into

your house, washed me in a bath, refreshed me with food,

laid me on a soft bed.

[77] Since therefore you received me on earth and cherished me,

I too will receive you in heaven, that Christ had lain hidden under this form of a leper, and with my elect

I will feed you with the bread of angels, and refresh you with the food

of immortality. Meanwhile be strong and act constantly,

as my servant and athlete, and doubt not that I shall be

with you always." Which having spoken, he ceased to appear

to his eyes, and stuck in his heart firmly and sweetly:

but it pleased him to leave traces of his presence, a splendor

wonderfully illuminating the whole chamber, and

in the breast of John a heavenly flame of most limpid

joy, such as the blessed minds taste, who by the torrent

of delight are given drink in the heavens…

[78] and thus from his wife, overcome by this prodigy, he obtained free faculty, The other benefit from the aforesaid mercy toward the leper

was common to both spouses: for Blasia,

struck with admiration of the unexpected prodigy, and wholly overcome,

openly knew that she

had hitherto resisted the Spirit of the Lord, by which her Husband was impelled,

and, led by penance, all indignation

being laid aside, not only was willingly and gladly

reconciled to her Husband; but besides, which she knew

would be most pleasing to him, all the rights of matrimony

which were with her, she cast into his arbitration,

and made free power for him of keeping the vow of chastity,

of distributing to the poor, of tending

the sick at home or abroad at his pleasure; finally

that it was permitted him, as far as she was concerned, to do whatever he willed, he who was led by the Spirit of God,

and had been taught to do the things pleasing to it:

but that he should treat her as one of his handmaids;

that she would never thereafter be forgetful of the duty and reverence

owed to a lord and a brother, provided

he go on to love her too as a sister, and forget not

to commend her to the supreme Creator with prayers.

[79] that he might, according to his own arbitration, institute a poor and hard life. Columbinus acknowledged in the most desired gift of her spontaneous cession

the hand of the Lord, and accepted it at once

from her ceding, lest the faculty of drawing back should remain

for the future, and that the mutually-entered irrevocable pact

might confirm the wills of both in the solidity of the seized purpose

of serving God. He added besides,

from his inmost heart, thanks, and promised a constancy of love more than

conjugal. Further, interpreting the loosing made for him from a most troublesome

obligation as a new goad to love God

daily more, he renews the vows of a more fervent life, and

sings with the sacred Psalmist: "Now I have begun"; hitherto he seemed to himself

to have profited little, unless he should ruin the monster of avarice,

and storm it with the arms of poverty, and

prepare a new crown for his triumph.

NOTES.

CHAPTER VII.

The complete abdication of his goods, the vehement love of poverty, and the prodigious contempt of honor.

[80] All the bonds of marriage being therefore broken, which

Blasia had willingly before loosed, persevering to sing lovingly and devoutly

to the Lord, he took up that Davidic

saying: John Columbinus, together with his companion "You have burst my bonds, to you will I sacrifice

a host of praise, and I will invoke the name of the Lord."

And that the other bonds too, obstructing a most absolute

immolation, might be removed,

he deemed it not enough for beginning to have put off the desire

of human things, unless besides he abdicated their

dominion and possession for advancing:

in which abdication, exposed to the judgments and accusations of the crowd

for its singularity and strangeness, lest anything

be done inconsiderately amiss, he maturely fled to the divine

light and help. For, having taken counsel

with Francis, in whom he desired a companion

and imitator, it was resolved in common,

with much prayer, fasting, alms, for a certain time earnestly to give himself

to propitiating the divine godhead, and

to explore the opinions of men eminent in doctrine and piety…

[81] Among these there was a certain one held by both

as an oracle, he consults blessed Peter Petroni, to whom if they gave credence, they thought

they set their foot in safety, and to refuse him

they shrank from as a crime. This was Master Peter the Carthusian ^a,

by country a Sienese, celebrated for the gift of the contemplation of divine things

and the praise of holiness: whom when they had gone to,

and had opened the manner of life entered upon and the deliberation of that to be entered,

that he himself might prove the spirits,

whether they were of God, he seemed to have borrowed his answer from holy

Gregory, whose doctrine he had drawn from the same

Master as he: namely that there are some

who, amid the opulent things of the world, from the things possessed

minister supports to the needy, defend the oppressed,

and are intent on performing the other duties of charity;

and these are said to offer sacrifices to the Creator;

others who reserve nothing for themselves, but immolate their life,

sense, tongue, faculties to almighty God,

and make a holocaust, or rather

become a holocaust, such as was that of Christ the Lord,

who, though he was rich, became needy for us;

to whom it is granted from heaven to follow poverty going before by the royal way,

these walk securely and attain the kingdom

of heaven: that the perfect servants of Christ

wish to have nothing besides Christ: that this is

the treasure and all the riches, to love and imitate Christ

^b.

[82] Those speaking such things they heard with attentive ears and minds

and assented and approved his sayings as though uttered by the

mouth of the Lord: in whose counsels he acquiesces, and lest they should seem to have received his grace

in vain, thanks being rendered to the best counselor,

they departed glad, resolved to leave all things

which they possessed, to deny themselves, to take up

their cross, and to follow Christ. But,

not ignorant that by the Apostle he is convicted of being worse than an infidel

who has not care of his own, especially his household,

lest they should over-hastily commit to execution

things which needed some delay;

they provide first of all, lest what was necessary for the girls of both

should be lacking to an education worthy of their birth, or lest

they should be left to a doubtful guardianship outside the paternal care.

[83] and, his daughter being placed in the monastery of St. Abundius, Straightway therefore there occurs to his mind the house of the nuns

of St. Abundius, of the Order of St. Benedict,

of great esteem among the Sienese for regular observance

and sanctity of manners, which at that time

certain virgins of eminent probity augmented,

especially Lady Paula Foresi, the superioress of the convent,

held second to none in that place, both in dignity and in virtue and merit.

John therefore consecrated to the Lord his little daughter

Angelina, in her thirteenth year,

of her own accord propense to religion, to be educated under the care

of that mother. And when, as is customary for those admitted to the habit,

the little virgin's name had to be changed,

it pleased that she be called Magdalene, because

with eminent piety and love the penitent Parent himself followed

the Saint who is the mirror and exemplar of penance. But Francis

cast his own five-year-old into the bosom and guardianship of the same mother,

opportunely also, that when her age permitted,

she might be enrolled in the number of the nuns.

[84] he distributed his faculties in three ways. Then followed the abdication of his goods, the distribution being made

in this manner. First John divided his whole

substance into three parts: one was assigned to the greater hospital of Siena;

another was transferred into the rights of the monastery

of St. Abundius; the third was assigned to the society of

the blessed Virgin, which had before been erected in the same city

by pious men. And because the chief regard was to be had of his wife,

both by the mortgage of her dowry and by the law of blood and nature,

the donation to the two last was made on this condition, that

a certain sum of money, and provisions besides, should be paid to Blasia

yearly, as much as should abundantly suffice for the liberal

sustenance of herself and her handmaid,

and that she herself freely and gladly consenting,

nor asking or desiring more. But of Francis

it seemed good to write the convent of St. Abundius sole heir,

on this compact, that each year to six

poor girls, if they should ask that so many be admitted,

a place and religious habit should be granted altogether

gratis…

[85] not even a farthing being retained for his own use. Although neither mediocre nor common

are to be reputed the examples of poverty which John had hitherto

given, yet, because to one striving toward the highest summit

some impediments still made delay,

that he might remove them, he instituted a manner of living, new indeed and arduous, but

not unlike the primitive one of the Apostles: namely,

not even a farthing of his own being retained for himself, he resolved

to live on another's, and that begged and collected from door to door

together with his companion Francis, that the food might be sweeter,

which want should season, mendicancy should prepare,

poverty should serve.

[86] After these things he lives by begging: There were not lacking among his kinsmen and friends several

who, after that voluntary abdication of which we spoke,

would have supplied all things necessary for his food not sparingly;

nay rather some of them, notably

ashamed, would have redeemed this disgrace of the family, as it seemed to them,

and trouble at whatever price,

if by any reason they could have brought him from the vileness of that gain to an honorable

table. But every attempt of theirs was in vain;

for the two disciples of Christ, taught more deeply in the recent school

to be wise, did not even with fair ears admit their thoughts and persuasions,

whose judgments differed exceedingly from the Evangelical

counsels, so that the whole kinship understood

that nothing else could be extorted from them,

who had already condemned the riches and honors of the world in mendicancy,

and panted for heaven and heavenly things with all the greediness

and desire of their mind.

[87] And as the thought suggesting what they should eat

or drink brought little solicitude and no anxiety, and with modest food so not much labor and

diligence was spent in seeking their food: for

it was taken most sparingly by those to whom the measure of eating

was prescribed not by the necessity of preserving life, but by the ardor

of penance. Fasting was held for a game,

abstinence for refreshment; their food, fragments of bread,

such as were given to those begging; their drink, cold water drawn

from the fountain; other victuals scarcely ever any,

nor were any but plebeian and modest ones indulged, which could rather

excite hunger than allay it.

[88] Nor did they suffer their dress to be discordant with their food:

and content with a vile garment, for in the first beginnings of his conversion Columbinus,

content with a ruder cloth, retained the form of garments

then more common: but afterward,

farewell being bidden to faculties and secular business,

clad in a short and tight cloak and, a vile little mantle being placed

over his shoulders, he did not blush to go forth in public

with bare head, and his legs exposed to all the injuries of the roads

and seasons ^d, besides the other afflictions

by which his body was tormented, that vice

might be consumed together with the body.

[89] What a spectacle that was, how wonderful,

to see a senatorial man, the citizens wondering, he becomes daily more robust in body, once, in splendid garment,

sitting at the helm of the commonwealth, hedged about by a troop of nobles,

treading the squares of the city,

surrounded by the frequent salutation and honor of the multitude,

delicately cherishing his body with foods and garments;

now unshod, half-naked,

torn, a beggar to stand in the crossroads, to go about the crossways

of the city, to stretch out his hand for alms and fragments of bread.

Scarcely did the citizens, seized with amazement, believe their own eyes,

how it could be that a man of strength

by no means robust, and once, amid the roses of delights, subject to diseases,

now amid the thorns of penance

and the thickets of want, flowering with cheerfulness, vigorous

in strength, and unbroken by labors. Was it because gladness

fattens the bones, which sadness and care dry up?

Or because a certain flame of the breast cherished the vital spirits,

and the sparks of faith and charity flashing from his eyes

brought serenity?

[90] He was once frequently vexed with anguishes of the stomach,

for whose coldness and weakness a remedy was to be sought from the choice

of foods. and stronger in stomach When his body began to be chastised by hunger and abstinence,

all infirmity was abolished,

his stomach strengthened, his strength augmented:

for, the bilge of the humors hostile to it being drained,

the matter of diseases was withdrawn, and the heat

implanted by nature and diffused through the members consumed

the superfluous and noxious, and thence its own vigor was added

and restored to each part: although in this the many and by no means

light or obscure indications show a cause higher than the powers and operation

of nature.

[91] This especially, that in a raging winter,

when the earth and air grow stiff with snows and winds, and in the very winter, scarcely covered, he burns.

being asked by a friend perhaps met in the square, how he,

almost naked, sustained the intolerable force of the cold,

which the others, well cloaked and tunicked, could scarcely

bear; he answered: "I pray you, stretch out your right hand,"

and, having grasped it, presses it to his open breast,

and asks: "Do I seem to you to be cold?"

"By no means," said that one, and straightway drawing back his hand,

as if it had been cast into coals, "Wonder! What

prodigy is this? Have I touched flesh or glowing iron?"

And he is amazed that he is not consumed by the heat, whom before

he wondered was not stiff with frost and ice…

[92] Columbinus, superior to all mortality,

puts his hand to strong and unwonted things, An eminent despiser of himself namely such as

the spirit working within suggests are to be done or to be borne.

Such especially are to be reckoned the harshest chastisement of the body,

the notable endurance of labors and injuries,

the generous tolerance of adversities, the vehement ardor

of charity toward God, and men, even

enemies and hostile ones, and whatever else in the men of Apostolic

perfection we admire. A widely-extending place

for their narration is a whole volume, because none

is void of admirable events: yet let these two

mortifications be inserted here, publicly performed, because

they are excellent, and rarely among mortals, few excepted,

heard.

[93] he serves the cook, To the one the recollection of the honors and offices gave occasion,

which the nobility and the commons were wont eagerly

to confer on him who bore the chief magistracy in the commonwealth:

for at once a certain indignation arose and a desire

of chastising that pride and applause by a new kind of vengeance:

and that it might be taken there,

where the sin had been, he selected the senatorial

palace, where the nine consuls and the rest of the senate had been wont

to make his coronation. This dwelling therefore of his former domination

and glory, as it were a stage he chooses of the most abject servitude

and humility, devising it, whether from hatred of himself,

or from the love of God, or from both being set before his mind?

The chief cook of the palace, needing the labor of servants

in the culinary ministries, with much prayer he solicits,

and at last extorts consent, that he

should by no means keep him from performing them, holding his admission

as a benefit, which he promises to compensate by diligence, assiduity,

and labor.

[94] and performs all the vile ministries, Having first obtained his wish, he diligently swept the pavements,

carried wood, cleaned the dishes,

washed the platters, turned the spit, in short omitted nothing

of those things which the hired servants of that workshop

are compelled to perform. And because that whole compass

of the building is without water, nor enjoys any aqueduct

or well, this province too the noble porter demands for himself,

that from the public fountain of the greatest square

he might fill the flagons, and openly, the people

looking on, carry them into the kitchen for all opportune uses.

Thence also whatever things are

to be carried out he himself carries out, and what likewise are to be carried in

he carries in, reckoning it a gain, that whatever of work

or labor was to be divided with the other servants he performed

alone, and that with as great alacrity as

not even a courtier, for the sake of catching the prince's favor,

diligent though and swift for executing his commands,

would bring.

[95] wishing to receive no reward for his labor: This servitude held for two months, in all

which time he could never be induced by anyone's exhortation

or prayer to take a morsel of bread or a draught of wine

from the palace store; but he lived by begging,

and so sparingly, that he did not equal even by a rigid fast

a defined ration. Nor in that magnificent house

alone did he make it his custom to cast himself down to those servile

offices, but also

elsewhere, where he sometimes remembered himself to have been anticipated by honors,

as if the place were purified by humility which,

in his own judgment, had been defiled by proud arrogance.

What follows is not without pleasantness, joined to horror.

[96] nay rather, to avenge the past fault of vain little glory It was the custom of the Sienese nobility, on horses caparisoned

and well adorned, to display a fair and pleasant pomp to the people

on set days, and to go in troops about various

places of the city, and that especially

when the festal light imperiously commanded a vacation from the transaction of business.

Recollecting himself once delighted with this

relaxation and sociable riding, Columbinus,

that whole equestrian vanity being condemned through the compunction of his heart,

devised a means by which

he might avenge the light fault of complacency and little glory with a grave penalty.

Giving himself therefore to searching for an ass,

and it being found, he asks its owner, known and familiar to him,

not to be reluctant to lend it for a little time.

[97] He complies promptly; and John, the beast's

back being mounted, sitting on an ass he exposes himself to the mockery of his fellow-citizens, proceeds straight to the public square (which

commonly they call "del Campo"), and, a pretty muleteer

made from a noble citizen, amid the crowded multitude

rides up, and, that the laughter of the beholding crowd may be more prolix

and more relishing, through the whole forum

more than once leads about the Arcadian quadruped ^f:

nor is there doubt that with greater delight he receives the mockeries

and guffaws of the crowd about him,

than once by riding he had received applause and honorable

salutations; but still more delighted him the taunts

and revilings of some, especially

of the merchants, whom it was a pleasure to assail as a vile and insane

head needing hellebore.

[98] But he, with glad and erect mind, and desirous of the salvation

of those mocking, to whose mockery he repays salutary admonitions, his eyes cast into their very faces,

as one having power, "Ho,

you," he said, "I indeed am mocked by you profusely,

nor am I indignant; but I no less mock you:

namely I am reputed foolish, because I follow Christ.

I number you among the unwise, because you are wise in

the things that are the world's, not those of Jesus Christ.

On which side of us stands wisdom, let it be the judgment

of him who said: 'We are fools for Christ.'"

At other times he was wont to say to his familiars: "Be mad,

as much as you can, with the love of Jesus Christ, and you will be wise.

The contempt of worldly things is a sober madness,

and the desire of earthly things a drunken wisdom.

He does not approach divine things who does not recede from human."

He spoke as one experienced: for by the flight of honors

he had ascended to union with God, and

by the reproaches and contempts of men, as if

by steps, he had come to an intimate familiarity with Christ Jesus:

and this he fostered not by prayer

only and assiduous contemplation, but

also kindled it by the ardor of external exercise, as occasion offered itself;

whether another's necessity was to be relieved,

and some work of mercy to be performed,

the love of the cross was present, always ready to inflict some penalty

on his body.

[99] If by rumor or by the sadder sound of the bells the death

of anyone in the city was indicated, and humble services, he ran at once

to the mournful house and promptly washed the corpses,

composed them on biers, carried them on his shoulders to burial,

in short fulfilled all the sad ministries,

as one of the herd of corpse-washers and undertakers,

whom from the refuse of the commons the hope of a little gain and the gain

necessary for passing life compels to it:

with brooms also he cleaned those houses and vestibules and the parts

of the roads lying before them. And because it frequently

happened, that by acquaintances and friends, ill-bearing so great

an abjection in a noble man, he was drawn away by prayers from this

vileness of offices, he humbly

besought, by the love of Jesus Christ, that they would not envy him these emoluments,

the prices of the eternal kingdom,

and truly the fruits of charity.

[100] Amid which occupations and labors of the hands

flashed the sparks of divine ardor, which he mingles with pious sighs. frequent

that is, sighs, fervid conversations with God,

from which he could not, even from himself,

obtain that he abstain; and there was heard thereupon from his mouth

this refrain: "May Jesus Christ alone live

in the hearts of all the living." In which kind of exercise

and of struggle against the world

and themselves John and Francis were engaged for two years,

the beginning being drawn from that day on which they began

openly to beg…

NOTES.

CHAPTER VIII.

His fervent love toward Christ, the choice of some disciples, and their hard probation.

[101] The heart of Columbinus blazed with the ardor of that fire

which the Lord Jesus had come to send upon the earth, The blessed Man, blazing with the love of Christ

nor could it now be contained within the straits of a small breast;

but, eager to go forth, wherever a door

was given, through all his members it cast forth flames…

Wherever his going or his standing had been, the roads,

crossroads, temples resounded with these voices: "May Jesus

Christ live," or "May Jesus Christ be praised

forever"; and with these were consonant

his works, no less fervid, and even more frequent:

for always earnestly devoted to amplifying the glory of God,

and to the utility of his neighbors, he gave all his time

partly to prayers, partly to sacred discourses, partly to helping bodies

and souls with every aid;

and in these many grievous things were everywhere offered

and harsh to endure, which yet he himself with incredible alacrity

overcame; nay even he superadded other things,

by which the penalty might become more intense, or the torment more lasting,

voluntarily undertaken.

[102] by public sermons, and private admonitions But the chief fruit was gathered from his frequent discourses,

held publicly and privately:

for they were ardent and always on those subjects

which most availed to move minds, and were seasoned again and again with the sharp salt

of reproofs, by which both the stupor of the languishing breasts

might be shaken off, and the grief of the crimes committed

excited. He was much occupied in exaggerating the gravity

of the divine offense, and never did not sweat in explaining the atrocity of the penalties

due to them.

[103] For the rest, he aptly and skillfully proposed remedies for the amendment of life

congruous to every state and condition of his hearers: he converts many sinners, but concerning the nobles

like himself, earnestly given to the gains of merchandise,

his chief zeal and care was that they might be led to the contempt

of riches; concerning their vanity,

perils, and inconveniences; concerning the brevity of life

granted for the use of transient goods, concerning

eternal felicity, concerning the rewards of the heavenly kingdom,

prepared for the despisers of wealth, he discoursed with so great

vehemence of spirit, that most, kindled with the desire

of Evangelical perfection, bade farewell to the world and their faculties;

many, the license of their looser life being amended,

composed themselves and their families to the norm of Christian

discipline; very many were recalled from the filth of crimes

to better fruit and the penitence of their errors.

[104] And thus, if not the destruction (for who

would have hoped this in a most ample city), certainly a bridle cast

upon the wandering wickedness, and leads some to Evangelical perfection, and the city marveled, not without immense gladness,

that, the filth being cast out which for the great part had corrupted its manners,

it had migrated from an uncultivated and sordid

state into a fair and neat one. But how pleasing

to the heavenly ones, and how joyful to Columbinus, did that fall out?

In this so great abundance of harvest a precious

little handful of a few was found, to whom that whole horror of life

and contempt of the world so smiled,

that they even resolved to embrace it, and, all things

which they had being left, Columbinus as leader and instructor,

to follow Christ, and under the same yoke of the cross

to hasten with him to the heavenly kingdoms. In this, as

in the dawn, the solar rays of the nascent day

began to shine, which was followed by the sun of the religious Order,

shining in the heaven of the Church.

[105] From the ancient and illustrious family of the Piccolomini,

as from a fruitful tree, and among others from the Piccolomini family there went on even then

to come forth splendid fruits of the golden branches,

great souls, by which the ancestral honors

are augmented with new ornaments. Of these Siena at that time numbered

and cherished several survivors,

with whom our institute has no business,

we who describe not the history of the family, but the transition of the men

from their family and kinship to new names and new

kinsmen.

[106] These were the germs of the primitive vine, which

the heavenly Husbandman had destined to plant in his field, Bartholomew the father

Bartholomew ^a the parent, Bindus ^b and Alphonsus

^c, his twin offspring, who carried the torch

and went before by example the not few others,

to whom the imitation of these was of more worth than the invitements

and conveniences of riches and honors,

in which the paternal house abounded, and which the virtue of ancestors surviving in the descendants

and their merits toward the commonwealth persuaded to hope from their country;

for in it Bartholomew,

having already discharged illustrious offices, had gathered the greatest reputation of prudence

and authority among the citizens, and had opened the way to his two

sons, whom nature had furnished with eminent endowments,

education with the best manners, for the same.

[107] But he, salutarily wounded by the darts of Columbinus's ardent

discourses, with his two sons yielded to the calling grace,

and resolved to leave earthly things, which before

with a most greedy thought he licked; which deliberation of counsel

when he had opened to his two far dearest sons,

he had no need of any other more prolix exhortation to

allure them: for, moved at the unexpected

news, Bindus and Alphonsus testified that wherever

their father went, they would promptly follow,

nor would suffer by any reason that he alone

should betake himself to the safe standards of Christ, and leave his sons among

the stormy waves of the world, that they too had

courage to escape, and to place on their shoulders the cross which

he took up; that he should not doubt that one and the same

was the vocation of the three, whose

will of salvation from the Lord is one; to be proved not so much

by delay of time as by the goodness of the cause; that counsels

are not to be reckoned unripe which are sent from heaven,

and invite to hastening; that slow endeavors are not known

to the grace of the Holy Spirit; that therefore they asked,

that he who is a parent in flesh would deign to be a parent

also in spirit, and would place them, companions with himself, before Columbinus,

to be regenerated to Christ with their father.

[108] he adds them to his institute, At which answer, the more joyful, the less

hoped for, wondrously glad Bartholomew, thanks

being rendered to God for the doubled benefit, and a few words being added

to commend constancy, leads both

to Columbinus, and earnestly prays that he be not reluctant

to receive the three heads devoted to heaven into the number of his fellows

and brothers. He assents

willingly and, mindful of the divine counsel: "Go,"

he said, "sell all that you have, and give to the poor:

come, and follow Christ."

[109] who, his faculties being abdicated, Bartholomew complied, and distributed all

his faculties into three parts; the first was distributed to the poor;

the second passed into the dowry of needy girls, some to be given

in marriage, some to be enrolled among the nuns according to each one's pleasure;

the third, that he might divide it among his kinsmen, for just causes

prudent men advised. To his two sons nothing was left,

because they chose the Lord for their inheritance,

to whom they offered themselves and all their things spontaneously and with willing mind, victims

on the altar of the cross: and the holocaust of three

hosts was perfected into an odor of sweetness.

[110] and his dress being changed, And that no discrepancy might appear in the habit,

of whom there was one will of putting on Christ,

all three laid aside their secular garments,

and substituted for them a little tunic and a rude little mantle;

but their heads, legs, and feet they left altogether

uncovered. Their food scanty and vile, nor sought except by begging:

their bed the bare ground: their delights penance, labor, prayer. Daily through the squares of the city

and the open ways they cried out: "May Jesus

Christ live; may Jesus Christ be praised

forever."

[111] the city wondering, they constantly persevered in the arduous kind of life. Who could explain by speaking what were the feelings

of the citizens, what the conversations, what the amazement, whether upon the father,

a little before honored among the chief men, they came, ragged, foul;

or whether they heard the sons, in the very flower

of youth, all pomp of garments and ornament being cast off,

half-naked going about the city, asking alms,

praising with pious vociferation the name of the Lord?

Nor was this ardent flame of love, like one which seizes

straw or hay, and quickly is fed upon, of a few days or of months; but

to the auspicious beginnings there corresponded most fortunate

progress and issues: for all three ^d held their constancy

in what they had begun, and honored a life most holily led

with a like end, so that antiquity

esteemed them worthy of the appellation and honor of the Blessed ^e…

[112] Roused by their example Wherefore Columbinus has whereof to rejoice for himself,

and to congratulate his Piccolomini, whom, victors over the three most foul enemies

of the human race, he beheld running

in the stadium of Evangelical perfection; and his gladness was augmented not

moderately, when the number too was augmented by the accession of others,

whom their example and the odor of holiness drew

to the same institute of life, though most harsh and

exceedingly repugnant to sense and flesh. The chief

among these are named Spinellus Boninsegni ^f,

who by the austerity of his life, the gift of prayer, humility,

and the splendor of the other virtues illustrated the illustriousness of his birth:

concerning whom they thought they had said much,

who by a brief eulogy called him the heir of Columbinus's sanctity.

[113] Not long after there joined itself a noble triad of Florentines,

then dwelling at Siena. some others To whom,

attentive to the daily deeds and words of the recent athletes,

a heavenly light shone, and kindled

the desire of laudable imitation, so that,

by their example, their faculties which they possessed being despised,

and their family estate distributed to the poor,

joined to the nascent company, they descended alertly into the same

hazard of the new soldiery. Their names, written in

the book of life, and inserted in the catalogue of the blessed of Etruria,

are: Antony ^g of the Ubaldini

family, surnamed from Mingello, because

in that region the Ubaldini family possessed some towns and castles,

and ruled with command; Peter

Belfredelli ^h, and Romulus de Nobilibus ⁱ,

who all three under Columbinus's discipline had

such progress that they attained the goal of sanctity,

and were as saints, living and dead, everywhere by all

believed.

[114] These thereupon others followed, whose

names all to relate here is a long and by no means necessary

labor. joined themselves to the same institute, This is certain, that in the last

two years of his life he numbered nearly seventy, and far

more were to be numbered, if he had admitted those coming to him

indifferently and without choice, or had judged it fair to prove the admitted

with milder experiments than that severe

institute suffered: for he was wont to say,

that it was better, at the sight of the turbid and swelling sea,

to keep the shore, than to draw back from the very navigation,

and again return to the mainland of the secular life

from weariness and lassitude…

[115] His simple and fervent sermons to the people

were accompanied by the devices of public mortifications, whose virtue, the mockeries of the people being tolerated,

by which both the constancy of the novices was proved,

and occasion was given to the multitude to flow to the ludicrous spectacles,

that amid them it might learn serious things, and,

the trumpet of divine praise sounding in their ears, their minds

might be struck, whose eyes curiosity had drawn to behold:

for Columbinus, that his candidates

might the more dearly buy the precious pearl of the fellowship

of those already admitted, ordered them now

indeed to mount an ass, and, their face turned toward the beast's

tail, and their forehead bound with branches of leafy olive in the manner

of a crown, he led them for a laughingstock through the city, and meanwhile

he himself and the other fellows following behind, likewise carrying olive branches

in their palms, with strained voice cried out: "May Jesus Christ live, live:

may Jesus Christ be praised forever."

[116] At other times he commanded them, stripped of their garments,

save where modesty forbade to be stripped, and by public mortifications to go about the squares and streets,

and to be unloaded with the wagon-loads of curses and revilings

by the fellows accompanying them, as upon heads

infamous and worthy of the gallows. Sometimes even,

their hands bound behind their backs with ropes and a noose

wrapped about their throats, one was led as a robber to be dashed at the gibbet,

and there were heard meanwhile

the mournful voices of the fellows entreating the crowds,

that for the wretched sinner and most wicked of mortals

they would ask the Lord, and recite the Lord's Prayer

with the angelic salutation, that

he might obtain mercy and be made safe.

[117] But this hard bread was not given to all without distinction;

and by other experiments but to those bringing a strong stomach and manly

vigor of a more ardent purpose to the new and laborious

institute. Regard was had of the weaker,

as the law of prudence and charity prescribed.

Yet no one was initiated without the bitter draught of the cup,

and he who, his palate being indignant, had refused to drink,

professed himself degenerate, and unworthy of that fellowship.

Further, all had to begin from this experiment,

which to the more fervent seemed a light

and sweet rudiment, to the rest tolerable and to be readily

admitted.

[118] the blessed Master proved them. In the open field an image of the most holy Virgin

stood out, whether sculptured or painted? on a wall or a column?

Before it was set the candidate, soon to become a novice,

and, his more honorable garments being cast off, he was clad in worn

and rude tunic and little mantle. The fellows stood around,

their heads crowned with little olive branches, of whom

two went before with the devout hymn;

all the rest with consonant voices filled the choir,

and with simple harmony and cheerful concert

the whole neighborhood resounded. Thus the wise architect

Columbinus hewed the first stones, and

prepared them for the edifice to be erected a little later.

NOTES.

CHAPTER IX.

The notable conversion of two young men, and their constant fervor.

[119] The son of Nicholas de Nardusa ^a, a Sienese patrician

(why did the ancients not express the name worthy of eternal

memory? A noble youth,) of the age of twenty years,

adorned with the laurel of jurisprudence, the flower of his youth

snatched from secular honors, withdrawn from the hope of his parents

and the expectation of his friends ^b, dedicated to the servitude of Christ:

for since he was a frequent hearer of Columbinus's sermons

and an assiduous spectator of his deeds, he felt himself

again and again affected to those things;

then, the desire growing, so to be moved, that

he did not rest until he was enrolled in the new soldiery by

its Leader, and with the same arms as he

descended into the arena to fight against the world.

[120] But his inauguration had to be bought at the same

price as by others before him: desiring to be enrolled among Columbinus's disciples, for Columbinus, being asked about

the admission, and in the prayers and the disposition of the youth recognizing the instinct of God calling,

answered the suppliant: "If you truly desire to be of our company,

suffer your garments to be drawn from you, and

naked to be led to the fountain of the Campo." At which thunder

the undaunted youth answered: "Be it in your power,

Father, to deal with me as with a dead man, and

to treat me as a corpse. Behold me most ready,

and prepared for your commands." At which answer

the Father was wondrously delighted, and held it enough to have explored his will,

and to have afforded a handle of merit to the one asking.

[121] For the rest, clad in his own garments, he led him to the square

of the Campo, he is proved by the accustomed experiment, and there, on the knee, the blessed Virgin

being adored, they proceeded to the fountain flowing not far off,

where he was first unshod by the fellows at John's

command; then, led back to the sacred image,

the splendid and elegant garment being cast off, he is clad in a dark

and worn habit, and with it our Lord

Jesus Christ, as the Apostle admonishes. Meanwhile

with what limpid joys the breasts of the fellows

were suffused, the tears abundantly bedewing their faces testified;

but Columbinus, notably bathed with them above all,

indulged the alacrity of his spirit, and one

of the fellows, whose name was Boccia, being invited to sing,

he loosed his mouth into his solemn song, whose

beginning is: "Beloved Jesus Christ, who

him that loves you," etc.

[122] Thence, when the chief man was led to the temple,

there ran to the spectacle from every side crowds

of every sex and condition, and he is suffused with great shame, and there was a various murmur

among them, some laughing at the order of the band and

pomp, some amazed that a youth of the primary

nobility, in the eyes of his parents and

kinsmen, the course of human felicity broken off,

had fore-condemned himself to that misery, as they thought.

But he, in the whole tract of that journey and the concourse of the people,

however his mind was raised to heaven, confessed himself thereafter suffused with so great

shame and blushing, that, compared with the bitterness of death,

that could seem more tolerable.

[123] But, such is the clemency of the Lord, according to

the greatness of the grief a consolation gladdened

his soul: to whom God repays a sweet consolation, for on the following night so

copious a sweetness of heavenly dew glided into his breast,

that scarcely was mortal infirmity believed equal to receiving it.

Nor was there room left for sleep,

because divine love had occupied his whole soul,

and the inmost enjoyment of the caressing grace. And this was

the beginning of a good to remain in the future: for it brought with it the sublime

gift of contemplation, and so

advanced the youth, that it made him a partaker of an open

revelation of hidden secrets.

[124] and infused so great abundance of grace, Further, not inferior to this loftiness was

the ardor of will by which he was borne toward God, and toward

men for God's sake, and this he thought he could not

conceal even in silence;

but frequently in the very streets of the city through which

his going was, boiling within, he did not fear to cry out to the idle multitude:

"Ah, wretched sinners,

would that you knew and understood what I know

and understand! How cautiously, how solicitously

would you redeem this time happy for you! Believe me, narrating things heard

from Christ: If you do penance for your sins,

and with faith invoke the holy name of the Lord,

not only will you obtain pardon,

but besides so great an abundance of grace, that it will bring

admiration to those weighing it.

[125] that he exhorted all to cry out to Christ, Nay rather, carried away by the impulse of fervor, he did not blush to exhort

even his own master John and the fellows,

that they would go on to cry out to Jesus Christ;

that the time was at hand in which God through them

would bestow great mercy on sinners;

that it was commanded him by Christ Jesus, to invite the nations

to penance and the confession of their crimes,

and not to cease to recall his name into memory;

that they would prove by the effect, if they obeyed,

how illustriously and how abundantly the divine goodness

would compensate their obedience.

[126] It happened once, and, being asked by the abbess of St. Abundius, that, having set out together with Columbinus

to the convent of St. Abundius, he candidly opened

to its superioress, a woman of noted virtue,

what he had hitherto concealed from all mortals,

namely that he had learned by a revelation of the lord Jesus,

that his conversion was to be ascribed to the prayers of the nuns,

and that these, if they persevere to offer them to the supreme Godhead for

sinners, would not be in vain, inasmuch as of virgins who to his divine sight

were acceptable; and he added many other things, which

were attentively and pleasantly received by the superioress,

admiring the ardor of the speaker, and applauding to herself in her own

bosom over the fortunate lot of the Master and the disciple.

[127] that he should prepare himself to undergo a wondrous ignominy, But the piously curious woman asked him: "Since

I understand not obscurely from your discourse that you blaze

with the love of Jesus Christ, tell me, pray, what

would you dare or do for him?" To whom the youth: "Whatever

is arduous or harsh in the world. Try me,

and command whatever you please." Then she: "Descend

into the nearby cellar, and strip yourself, and, naked,

walking about the city, cry out: 'May Jesus

Christ live.'" Said and done; forthwith he descends,

puts off his garments, and covered by obedience alone

was going about Siena, had not John, meeting him on the very threshold,

at the request of her who had feigned the command,

forbidden him to go further, and ordered him to clothe himself

again.

[128] Columbinus himself admiring the fervor of the disciple. Both were amazed at his heroic fortitude,

and compared the generosity of his mind with the promptitude of Isaac.

Columbinus indeed, writing once

to Brother George of the family of the Preachers,

then acting as churchman at Volterra, his most familiar friend:

"Hence," he says, "I pray you, note, reverend father,

how affluently the most benign God pours out the rivers of his mercy

upon those who from the depraved ways of the world

and from sins come to their senses through true penance,

so that even in one day they are raised to the sublime summit of perfection,

and heaped with heavenly gifts."

[129] Clear and illustrious is the conversion of the other

youth, Another youth, mocking blessed John, and perhaps more wonderful in the narration. Thomas

Guelfacci of Siena, as obscure in vices

as he was illustrious in lineage and blood, as he had indulged his gullet and belly,

held it in custom and stupid pleasure

to prick indeed all religious with gibes and goads,

and to expose them to the laughter of the crowd; but more licentiously

to assail the servants of God, the followers of Columbinus, with taunts,

and to seek matter of mockery from the vileness of their habit.

But when on a certain day Columbinus was taking his way to St. Abundius

with some of his own, the intemperate man did not

contain himself, but followed behind,

and loosed his polluted lips into jests and guffaws against them.

[130] He dissembled to hear the revilings of the croaking frog,

until they came to the sign of the health-bringing wood, suddenly and in a wondrous manner

which, fixed in the ground at the side of the road, was raised on high.

In that place Columbinus, turned to Thomas:

"I ask you," he said, "by the love of Christ,

do not disdain to gratify me in a small thing."

He answered that, if he conveniently could, he would gratify him.

"Bend, I beseech, your knee before that cross, and the Lord's

Prayer and the angelic salutation

recite once." "Nay, I am ready to recite it twice," answered

Thomas; and immediately falling down, he performs

his promise.

[131] Columbinus bends together, and ardently insists that the divine

Godhead be propitiated to the mocker. is converted by him, Wondrous

is the force of the prayer of a just man! Suddenly with great impulse

a thought sent from heaven invades the breast of Thomas,

and, roused from the sleep of death, restores him to life. From a light

guffawer he becomes a serious disciple of Columbinus;

he falls at his feet, prays pardon for his madness,

with lowest prayers asks to be received as companion and

servant of all; adjures that he will not thence

depart except having obtained his petition. What more?

The proof of his vocation was the excellence of his conversion;

and by experience Columbinus had learned that such

sudden changes have auspicious beginnings

and happier progressions: for the most divine

Spirit, their author, seems to act as surety

for their admission, and sponsor of the constancy

of the admitted.

[132] Therefore the lost sheep was straightway added to the little

flock, and is admitted into the number of the disciples, and as in a moment he put off the old man

with his acts, so also he hastened to put off the exterior man,

and, like the rest, exchanged his noble garment

for a neglected little vesture. And because events which

are less expected are wont to strike minds more vehemently,

almost the whole astonished city stood, and scarcely

believed its eyes beholding

that a brawny youth from the women's quarters and the camps of the cupids

had migrated to the cohorts of austerity and chastity,

and from a petulant reveler had been made in a moment

modest, sober, continent, as if

he had long been educated within religious cloisters to piety and modesty.

[133] And there were indeed not a few among the graver

Sienese, who by the salutary exhortations of his blessed Master to whom the sudden resolve, no previous consultation being entered,

cast a suspicion of levity and a fear

of perseverance; but Columbinus felt otherwise,

and wished the novice to hope well,

and promoted him to further things with the best counsels,

inculcating the salutary admonition of the Apostle: "As

you exhibited your members to serve uncleanness

and iniquity, so now exhibit your members

to serve justice unto sanctification.

[134] Remember the sins which against God,

your neighbor, was thus confirmed, and yourself you have committed; how prone

to the pleasures of sense, how unbridled in speaking,

how proud and arrogant, how gluttonous

and vain you have been. Now therefore your sins with tears

and penance redeem: fight the good fight,

as a strenuous soldier of Christ, that God may be honored

in your victory; nor doubt that, according to the greatness of your

faith and desire, he will fill your soul with his

goods, since he is rich in mercy.

Take comfort and be strong in the might

of his power: hope in him, and pray him, and he himself

will direct your steps."

[135] that he might endure all injuries With which shower of most salutary exhortation Columbinus watered the new

germ; but God gave the increase,

and made a yield in the contest of virtue: for Thomas

went about with bared head and legs, and to the wounds of his past

life applied the medicine of the patience of excellent

acts, especially in tolerating those things from which sense

and the love of his own reputation shrank: for these

he not only, when to him thinking of nothing else they were objected,

bore with equanimity, but also studiously

sought and of his own accord hunted, cautious lest without

penalty any part of the time should ever slip by. Among

his daily and serious examples of suffering this pleasant one

happened, that when he was mocked by one of the Brothers

set over collecting alms,

he answered nothing more bitter; but with the utmost

humility signified that he received the jests with fair ears

and mind, he who ardently desired to be assailed even with revilings and reproaches.

[136] and patiently tolerate the stinging gibes of men. There somewhat disfigured the head of Thomas

a fleshy little tumor, projecting in the manner of a larger

blackish callus, which, since it was covered neither by the hair

nor by the cap, at once ran into the eyes.

A layman therefore, insipidly facetious, said to him:

"You had once heaped into your stomach and devoured

so many livers, that they climbed into your head, and

made you liverish ^c." Then he, mindful of the mockeries

and petulance with which he had once provoked the servants of God:

"Now indeed," he said, "yours it is

to speak and prate; but mine to be silent, and patiently

to hear and be still. Would that I might one day become an imitator of Christ

not feigned, and be frequently exercised and

mocked, and thus my old scurrility be chastised by the frequent

mockeries of others." Which appetite of mortification

and rigor of mind nowhere in the course of his life

languished, and only by a most holy death could grow slack.

NOTES.

CHAPTER X.

The Sienese convent of the Friars Preachers reduced by the work of blessed John Columbinus to a stricter observance of poverty and discipline.

[137] There had come to Siena a pair of noble Pisans,

legates from their commonwealth. Two noble Pisans These a desire had seized

of seeing and addressing Columbinus, whose

fame of virtue and sanctity had long grown frequent through Etruria.

They came to a conversation with this fruit,

that they augmented the esteem and reverence of the interviewers,

because they saw something more excellent and more divine present,

than, from others' discourses, they had heard when absent.

[138] And although they were not ignorant that they would with difficulty

obtain from him that he should come to a banquet

and refresh the guests with his presence and discourse;

nevertheless, alleging spiritual utility to their most honorable desire,

they invite blessed John to dinner, nay even the example of Christ

the Lord, suffering himself to be invited to the nuptials of Cana,

skillfully objecting, they at last prevailed, and

extorted a promise for the appointed day:

which when it dawned, there were brought to the hospitable palace

himself and two fellows, namely Francis Vincent,

and Cecchus, an excellent lute-player and musician,

skilled beyond few in joining sacred songs to the strings.

They were received most courteously, and, at the set hour,

being asked to recline at the table, a blessing being premised,

they reclined, and, laying aside for a while, in favor of their hosts,

their severity, rendered the foods set before them sweeter

by the savor of their words. The dinner was followed by the concert of Cecchus,

and the harmony tempered by the sound of the strings,

a salubrious and pleasing food for the banqueters, opportune for lifting

their minds to God.

[139] After this, by common consent, they went

for recreation to the convent of the Friars Preachers, who on that occasion goes to the Sienese convent of the Dominicans,

commonly called Camporegio, whither the pleasantness of the place

and religion invited. And to the others indeed it was a pleasure

to survey the garden and the cells and workshops of the dwelling;

but to Columbinus with his fellows to sing the praises of the Lord,

and, with cheerful voice and the modulated sound of the lyre,

to console themselves with a choir, and to be inflamed to divine love.

At this the household, roused, ran up, were delighted,

wondered; and these were in number twelve followers of the Dominican

institute, a great part cultivated with good

disciplines, not ignoble in the praise of preaching or of lecturing in

the schools.

[140] Nor yet did the esteem and authority of their learning

deter the Man of God, where with fervid and simple words but, an end being put to the music,

he made a beginning of a discourse, and

discoursed more loftily of the supreme truth, from which, as

he himself said, a watering vein of solid gladness rains down,

and inundates the minds thinking of it, and waters the tongues

speaking of it. And these things were referred to this,

that it might be established that all created things are only a shadow

of the truth and rather to be compared to a lie,

and therefore that those are vehemently deceived and driven about by the wind

of vanity who by no means fix the feet of their affections

in the firmament of the first truth:

which while he uttered with the ardor and impulse which is proper

to holy preachers, the wisdom and

eloquence which surpassed the genius of the noble Layman,

the religious breasts of the hearers were kindled

with divine love, and gave signs of inmost compunction by sighs

and groans.

[141] he so moves a learned theologian of that Order One of them, Christopher Blasius ^a by name,

whom he numbered among the first of the house,

showed by deed that he sighed not without cause, or transacted his affair

perfunctorily: for straightway he asks Columbinus

to ascend to the upper story and to enter his chamber,

not to be reluctant. There, all his furniture being displayed, "Father,"

he said, "through me and my superiors the right has been made to you

to dispose of this at your arbitration, whether you prefer

to distribute it to the poor, or to transfer it to other uses:

let for me henceforth, for all riches, be that supreme

truth of which you spoke, to which I have resolved to cleave,

esteeming as nothing the rest, which

are subject to vanity and are mere vanity."

[142] that he embraced a stricter poverty, Columbinus complies with the most honorable petition,

and, having entered the cell, permits not only the things which served for adornment,

but also those which served for necessity, to be plundered

by the fervor of a spirit eager to cast them off as superfluous.

And so the books, the linen and woolen cloths, the seats, vessels, images,

and all the other apparatus were carried out thence, and on the following day

distributed to the poor; only so much straw being left

as was enough for lying down, lest his limbs

and bones be dashed against the pavement.

[143] and did not blush to perform abject offices, On the following two days, a wallet placed on his shoulders,

like one of the lay brothers, he did not blush to beg from door to door,

a man known in the whole city and held in honor;

and that not so much with the intent of collecting alms,

as of depressing himself and exposing himself openly to mockery

in imitation of Columbinus: which also

was the cause that he went out into a suburban field, which

by antonomasia the crowd called the Abbey ^b, with an ass,

and there at the little house of a certain brother

Peter loaded it with dung, and carried it back into the city:

and that he might more brightly act the muleteer, a basket

likewise filled with the same he lifted on his shoulders,

and through the crowded multitude, whither he wished,

carried it.

[144] the whole city wondering at the notable humility of a most well-known man. It seems akin to a prodigy, that a veteran theologian,

nourished within the enclosures of religion, illustrious in doctrine,

mature in judgment, should deliver himself to be imbued with the new precepts

of a secular Layman; should despoil himself of things necessary for an honorable

life; embrace the rigor of penance; descend

to the most abject offices of mortification, which he had once judged

not to befit the condition of his state even in the novitiate of his Order.

But in this too God willed Columbinus to be

like his Apostles, that through the foolishness of preaching

he might convert the wise, and so instruct them,

that they should deem it the greatest wisdom to be held and mocked as fools

for the love of Christ.

[145] Other brothers of the same convent Columbinus was not ignorant that the discourse he had held

had been fruitful likewise to the other brothers of the same monastery,

and therefore, that the sparks of salutary thoughts

divinely kindled might be fostered,

he hastened to return thither together with his companion Ambrose, that

by conversation, which he perceived was gladly received, as by

frequent breath, he might rouse the fire. The fruit indeed

of this familiarity was a change of manners, and a certain

conformation to the pristine discipline of the rule,

the use of haircloth, and the renewed custom of fasting,

poverty restored to its brightness: for some

abdicated themselves of things granted for a somewhat milder life,

nor endured to retain them any longer in their chambers;

to cut short their fringed garments, to bind up the flapping ones,

to love solitude and silence, to be delighted with prayer

and mortification: by which and other

similar things that ancient sanctity of the nascent Order seemed to reflourish,

and the splendor of its primitive virtue to revive.

[146] Further, one voice of all was, that more of light

was drawn in the school of love, with Columbinus as teacher and master,

followed the example of this theologian, than from the chairs of the philosophers and theologians

before this worn out; nay rather, if they compared the past

days and months there spent with the recent ones,

those seemed to them dark with the shadows

of ignorance; these serene and splendid with the brightness

of wisdom, which that new star

shed abroad, poured over from a higher sun.

[147] But a certain one of this number, wise beyond measure

in his own eyes, and among them a grave man who had disapproved the unwonted fervor, so far did not approve exercises

of such unwonted fervor and piety,

that he condemned some as of levity, some of absurdity,

saying that they were like the little flame of straw,

whose duration is brief and light impure. But, as

St. Gregory speaks of holy Thomas the apostle,

it was done by divine dispensation that he should doubt,

and that by his doubt the incredulity of the rest should be healed;

so by divine permission it was done, that the grave

man should esteem as nothing things to be valued at a price, that the more clearly

the force of grace, reducing untamed heads under the yoke of the dominating love,

happier, and the victory more glorious.

[148] For when he sometimes heard more curiously

Columbinus, frequently coming thither

and confirming men by his words in the purpose of a holier life, at last he yielded to blessed John's pious admonitions; he too was struck

by the arrows of the Mighty One, sent forth from the mouth of the Servant

of the Lord: he willingly yielded, not so much to the eloquence

or doctrine of the speaker, as to the virtue of the spirit turning his tongue

on this side, and opening his heart on that to understand

that the imitations of notable saints are not to be equaled to trifles,

which lead to the summit of Evangelical

perfection and to the sublime rewards of the heavenly kingdom.

[149] The city of Siena therefore deserved to have in

its bosom an entire company of notable cenobites, which change of manners is wont to be difficult of obtainment.

as a wedge of angels, brought over by the work of Columbinus

from the inveterate custom of a sweeter life to

the rigor of a more severe one; how laborious

and wonderful this is, can be established to those who know

how great a mass it is for religious men, exceedingly

learned, and long accustomed to a milder institute, to subject their wisdom

to the counsels of a single unlettered secular man,

to submit their wills, to turn aside from a way strewn with the roses

of conveniences to the harshness hedged about with the thorn-bush,

and to tread it, until, the flesh being worn down,

the spirit may breathe fully into liberty in the light of the mercies

of the Lord, which alone makes the yoke sweet

and the burden light.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XI.

The exile decreed against blessed John by the Sienese magistracy, the divine vengeance for it, the sudden revocation of the unjust expulsion, and the friendly invitation to return.

and the whole world is his country: therefore Columbinus could not

be an exile: he could suffer persecution

and be driven from Siena, that it might be lawful to glory with the Apostle:

"We suffer persecution, but we are not forsaken";

because, namely, God is with him and for him

in tribulation; which he also willed to declare by a prodigy,

that he might show himself the avenger of the injuries

which the ungrateful country did not fear to inflict, in a blind tumult,

upon innocent heads. For when others upon

others daily strove to be enrolled in the recent society,

first there arose the little rumors of the muttering crowd,

then the indignations of kinsmen and the complaints

of friends ill-bearing that from the inmost bosom of the nobility

youths of the best hope and men destined for the public governance

should be torn away, and coalesce into a society

which consisted wholly of horror and misery,

and trained its foster-sons to insane vociferations.

[151] as a disturber of the commonwealth, Hatreds thence grew among very many, as against pernicious

and turbulent members of the commonwealth, which,

roused by the lust of innovating, gradually might affect the whole body,

and, unless God restrain, ruin it. And when

the Stygian old trickster, most ill-bearing the new plant

to grow up to his own harm,

applied torches to hearts already kindled with anger,

and sharpened tongues prone to curses, by the frequent

gnashing of complaints the ears of the magistracy were roughened,

and their care was turned to applying a remedy to the creeping evil.

[152] exile is decreed by the Sienese senate, A day therefore for consultation was appointed, and to the twelve

senators ^a who then presided over the commonwealth,

announced: a meeting being held among themselves, it was deliberated

in common, that the axe should be applied to the root of the tree,

and that John, as the architect of the machine,

with Francis Vincent, his chief companion

and helper, should be sent far from the city into exile:

for thus, the two columns tottering, the whole edifice

would fall, and its peace and tranquillity would return to the city;

and lest any intercession should make delay

to the execution, a messenger was sent with precipitate legation

to the innocent accused, neither called into judgment,

nor heard, who should decree their departure from the city and

the whole state of the commonwealth, in the name and by the command of the senate,

and that no more space for going away be

granted than what a candle burning before the gate of the city

should designate by its duration: if they do otherwise,

let it be the crime of lese-majesty, to be expiated by capital

penalty.

[153] To have heard the thunderbolt of the deadly sentence and to have girded

themselves for the journey was the same to those who were pilgrims upon earth, by whose decree the Blessed one at once complies;

always dwelling in mind in heaven. The antidote of the blow

drawn from the Evangelical box, the dust being shaken

from their feet, they went rejoicing from the sight

of the city, since they were held worthy to suffer contumely for justice

and the name of Jesus; poverty ministered their viaticum,

hope in the Lord their staff,

joy in the Holy Spirit their company, and in their lassitude and the inconveniences of the roads their refreshment holy conversations,

and the recollection of the Lord's promise: "Blessed

shall you be, when men shall curse you and persecute

you." A great part of the journey prayer

claimed for itself, its own also was given to hymnody

and pious little songs, with which they praised the Godhead,

and consoled themselves; and there were, besides the two expelled,

five and twenty others, to whom it was of more worth,

with their beloved fellows, to leave their soil, than in

their country, by the corruption of an iniquitous judgment hateful to the heavenly ones,

to remain.

[154] Nor indeed were they mistaken in their opinion, fearing greatly the vengeance

which they presaged from heaven: but God the injury inflicted on his Servant

for the most just judge, indignant against the wicked deed,

and God the protector of innocence,

when he could overwhelm by himself and by his ministering

angels the guilty of the crime, preferred to use the compliance

of the elements, that they might bring in sicknesses, and,

as mute executioners, produce clamors and slaughters

in vengeance of the iniquitous: for from the departure

of Columbinus and his companions the sun was overspread with darkness,

the heaven bellowed with thunders, the air roared with clouds and tempests,

flashed with lightnings, dissolved into globes of waters

mixed with hail, so that you would say the age of the celebrated

cataclysm had returned, and you would fear again that the earth

was being swallowed by floods.

[155] But these portents of terrors were the beginnings

of griefs: avenged by such manifest signs, for cohorts of diseases followed and lay heavy upon

the bodies of very many, and frequent deaths

of every condition of citizens filled the city with squalor

and mourning, so that no part of the city,

no private house remained now empty of weeping and funeral

wailing: which, though late and compelled and terrified by disasters, began

to grow wise, and to notice the heavenly wrath

intent upon it, and seriously to deliberate about averting it.

[156] The rectors themselves therefore, upon whom, as of the evils

as authors, so that the Senate honorably invited him to return, the dire and popular execrations

were rolling down, began to confess the fault and to accuse themselves,

openly to detest the penalty of the rash proscription, and

to decree in common concerning his honorable recall.

Vexation gave understanding, and those who by black pebbles ^b

had alleged the public utility, learned by their own harm

that it is a perilous and horrible thing to touch the anointed

of the Lord, and to rage against the undeserving. Led therefore by penitence,

certain citizens being selected from their number,

they prepare a legation and command that as quickly as possible

they meet the exiles, dwelling at Arezzo in Etruria,

that in the name of the senate they beg pardon for the injury,

that they again and again entreat them to return to Siena,

and, if they do not refuse, honorably lead them back with them.

[157] The messengers did as commanded, and were heard with the utmost

benignity by Columbinus; whom he asserts is to be deferred a while, but that they should return at that

time, he said, was by no means permitted, on account of business of great

weight, which needed his presence and work at Arezzo;

let them meanwhile carry to his beloved country, which he from afar entreats a blessing upon from the Lord,

the blessing which not long after he would bring in person;

let them hope well of the divine mercy,

now propitiated to the contrite of heart, and let them not doubt

that the sword of vengeance is laid away in its sheath.

[158] The legates departed, full of gladness and hope from the address

and promise of the Man of God, and meanwhile promises that tranquillity is to be restored to the Sienese. and by their coming

and good news wondrously cheered the city,

overwhelmed with sadness and grief, which afterward

was augmented not moderately, when it experienced the truth

of the prediction and the fruit from the blessing transmitted:

for in a short time tranquillity of air

and serenity of heaven returned, and all that storm

subsided, whence ruin and the destruction of the citizens was feared

^c; and this indulgence was a by no means obscure token

of the appeased Godhead, and of a singular

benevolence toward Columbinus, by whose

prayers that dust, which he had shaken from his feet

going out of the city, about to be an accuser of the impiety of those expelling him

in the common judgment of the world, the scene being changed,

is to be produced as a witness of the penitence performed

and of the merited reconciliation and pardon.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XII.

His stay in the city of Arezzo, the prodigious healing of one of his companions, and other things done there.

The persecution of the faithful which began at Jerusalem from the slaying of holy Stephen,

and the dispersion through the world, Blessed John, having set out for Arezzo,

turned to an occasion of sowing the Evangelical doctrine,

and of propagating the name of Christ far and wide.

For the best God knows how to draw good

out of evil, and to fight against calumniators not only

by power, but also by clemency, whether

he wishes to repay them good for evil, or resolves to turn their wickedness

to the utility of others.

There is no leisure to wander further through the ancient examples with which

sacred history abounds; at hand

is the truly most abundant fruit of Arezzo and the neighboring cities,

which from that ejection at Siena the divine providence set before the diligent reapers to be gathered. For Columbinus, having gained in that place

a field most fit for receiving the heavenly seed,

set about cultivating the minds of the citizens both by public and by

private discourses, among whom he did not hesitate

to blow the silver trumpet of his tongue, and to proclaim

more freely, "May Jesus Christ live," and

to distribute his fellows through the various squares and

crossroads of the city for the same office.

[160] he converts many sinners there, The inhabitants of the region, astonished by the novelty and clamors

before this unheard, were first roused from the sleep of madness,

opened their eyes overspread with the darkness of earthly things,

were raised to the knowledge of eternal things,

stirred to the purposes of a better life. To Columbinus's sermons

ran a frequent crowd, and against

the inveterate diseases of vices willingly admitted a remedy from the skilled

Physician. War was declared against the enemies of souls,

resistance was made to depraved customs,

the use of the Sacraments, long intermitted, was recalled into frequency,

friendships were reconciled, restitutions

were made, the whole city was renewed.

[161] And when through the surrounding towns and municipalities

the fame of these most excellent things spread, who from everywhere flowed to his exhortations.

there were made great concourses to him to hear and consult him,

and they returned to their homes striking their breasts: and there was one

voice of all, that the Lord had visited his people,

and that Columbinus was not so much driven from Siena, as sent thither divinely,

like a star dispersing by its brightness

the darkness of errors, and bringing health to the multitude of the languishing.

The fame of a miracle augmented the esteem

and reverence, which could neither be concealed

by its doer, nor be unknown to the people, nor

ought to be passed over in this place.

[162] Vannus of Monticello ^a by name, one of

Columbinus's followers, A certain disciple of blessed John, falling sick, whom he had left at Siena in the little lodging

not far distant from the convent of St. Abundius,

as we mentioned above, fell into a grievous

disease, and, compelled to lie down, reputed no medicine

fit for relieving his sickness, except

the single sight and embrace of his beloved Father.

And the fellows indeed with all charity and support

were at hand; but no solace or service could heal

the anguish of his mind, arisen from a vehement desire

of seeing Columbinus: nor

did the sick man dissemble the desire which he cooked in his mind,

preposterous in the judgment of others, most opportune in his own vow.

[163] Therefore he pressed with lowest prayers, that in some

way he might be led or drawn to Arezzo: and desiring to die or recover in the presence of his Master, this last thing

he begged of his most loving brothers, that his spirit,

if that were his last sickness, he might send forth in his Father's

hands; or if he were to survive, that at his blessing

he might recover. What should the fellows here do?

Should they indulge the vast and importunate petition?

But the journey is long and arduous, the carrying dangerous

to one with fever; for this money was needed, whose

very name alone is hateful to the rigid cultivators of poverty.

But indeed ingenious charity found a means

without carriages and beasts placidly and conveniently

to convey the sick burden, and to redeem the expenses of another

by their own labor.

[164] They prepare a little bed, not unlike a bier for carrying out funerals,

he is carried to Arezzo by his fellows, and in it they compose

Vannus, and, placed on their shoulders, by the gate which leads to Arezzo

they resolve to carry him out, in the laborious ministry

they succeed one another in turns, the whole of that journey the cheerful

bearers traverse, until, having entered the city,

they ask the citizens they meet about Columbinus's lodging, from

whom being instructed, to find that indeed was easy:

but to approach Columbinus at once, difficult: for

he was in the adjoining temple engaged with the people, nor

was access to him permitted by the crowded throng.

They ask meanwhile to be admitted into his chamber, and there

await, until, the multitude being dismissed, he return.

[165] Meanwhile, when the little rumor of the coming of his fellows

had reached the ears of the one preaching, where the Blessed one, his little mantle being placed upon him, soon heals him. he ordered it to be answered,

that they should patiently bear it for a short time,

the sermon being finished, he would soon be present. Thence

the good Father ran to the newcomers, wearied of the journey and the carrying,

and, after sweet embraces and kisses full of love,

drew off the worn little mantle from his shoulders,

and stretched it over the limbs of Vannus, lying on his little bed.

Wonderful to say! By that touch,

as by a most efficacious amulet, the fever was straightway driven off,

his former soundness restored to his body, his mind

filled with so great cheerfulness, that he cast himself, sound, from his bed,

and immediately fell upon his knees to render thanks to God and to his Liberator…

[166] He himself with a few fellows had come to Arezzo

on the day before Ash-day, on which the faithful begin

the solemn fast. Turning aside, according to his custom, to the hospital;

he was received with less courtesy than was fitting

by one of the ministers, Solicitous about no food to be taken, who measured the condition

of the guest, unknown to him, from the vileness of his habit.

To him about to sup, and now reclining at the table,

though exceedingly wearied, and shaken by the vexation of the journey and the cold,

he sets a single little morsel of beef, softened

with vinegar, and at a time when the whole people indulges in feasting and

merriment, to those few pilgrims, worthy of nectar,

and vehemently needing refreshment, the avaricious

and inhuman hand dispenses an exiguous ration of insipid and unhealthful food.

Which unworthiness of inhospitality being seen, one of the fellows:

"Father," he said, "that meat is noxious to those ill-affected

in the stomach."

[167] [and, discoursing the whole night of divine things, renders his fellows forgetful of hunger,] Then Columbinus, solicitous about no food,

setting about to speak of the excellence and efficacy of divine love,

shows that the true and solid food of souls

and delights are placed in it: and although

the roaring belly does not gladly hear words,

yet the mind of the banqueters, drawn away by the sweetness of the discourse from the thought

of victuals, was fed with a better banquet,

and, forgetful of the necessity of eating, persevered to taste the more relishing viands

held out by the speaker,

until the sun illuminating the lands admonished that the hour of rising was at hand,

and of going to the sacred shrine, where, by the religious rite,

the foreheads of the faithful are sprinkled with ashes to renew the memory of death…

[168] and at another time illumines the chamber with a light arisen from his breast. At another time in the Arezzo journey, turning aside to a hospital

near the convent of the Hermit friars,

he was very benignly received. But when,

late at night, wearied by the labor of the journey, about to take rest

he mounted the little bed, his tunic being parted with his hands,

from his breast a great light suddenly radiated,

which, poured through the whole dormitory,

seemed to equal the solar rays. The crowd of those lying there being awakened,

cast their eyes upon the new guest,

whence that came forth, and wondered,

saying that under a human figure they had afforded lodging to an angel,

to whose dignity and merit

the halls and dwellings of princes and kings were unequal ^b.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XIII.

The journey to Città di Castello, the wonderful conversion of some, the reconciliation of enemies, the reduction of the nuns to a stricter poverty, and the frequent conversation with the bishop of Città di Castello.

How willingly the people of Arezzo would have retained with them that eminent

handful of pilgrims and their collector John, he sets out from Arezzo to Città di Castello, whom, like an angel

fallen from heaven, they looked up to and loved, was made plain

by their grief and tears, with which they followed them as they departed.

But, another Spirit impelling, he did not endure

to be detained there any longer; and further, to those

trying to retain him he set the answer of Christ: "Because

to other cities also I must evangelize the kingdom

of God." Arezzo therefore being left, and their desire and love for him,

straight with his fellows to Città di Castello ^a he sets out upon his journey,

the fame of the marvels which he had wrought following him,

and anticipating his coming.

All that space of the way was traversed amid divine praises and

pious meditations, and rendered memorable

by a notable vocation, which I subjoin.

[170] When they were nearer to Città di Castello, they opportunely

fell upon a rustic plowman, in which journey a rustic, intent on drawing his furrows.

Here Columbinus stops a while,

and, his eyes fixed on him, thus addresses him: "Come,

follow me." And he forthwith, plow-handle and oxen being left,

followed the one calling… The course and end of his life

was consonant with his admirable vocation; never

did he look back, never sought the plow-handle again,

but by the imitation of his Master and assiduous

self-denial from that field ascended to the highest mountain of contemplation,

on which he enjoyed both internal

rays of illuminations, and not rarely external

visitations of angels. If names bore any augury,

the Saint at the lustral waters was called the illustrious herdsman;

but if not, he himself rendered the name august, made from a herdsman

a saint.

[171] Glad at the unhoped-for gain sought with no great labor,

Columbinus enters the city, and a notary of the bishop of Città di Castello and to

the temple of the Godhead to be adored, according to his custom, he hastens.

As he went, there joined themselves from the common people several, to whom

the habit and number of the newcomers, before unseen,

had cast a desire of knowing what

kind of men that was, and why they had come thither.

There ran up besides other honorable citizens, allured by the same

curiosity themselves, and among these Benedict

de Pace ^b, advanced in age, by profession

notary of the episcopal court, who, while in the market,

commonly called Tartarino, he fed his eyes and mind with that

new sight, is regarded himself by Columbinus,

who, his gaze fixed upon his face,

thus addresses him, having imparted a salutation mixed with reproach:

"Inveterate in evil days, come; bid farewell

to the world, and follow Christ."

[172] O prodigy! He at once follows the one calling,

associates himself with the unknown men, wonderfully cooptes him into his society, enters the greatest temple together with

them, as of them suddenly made.

Here, before the venerable Sacrament, on their knees

prostrate, when they had prayed a while, Columbinus sets

all his fellows, and especially that last pair, the living

image of the Apostolic vocation, before the supreme

Majesty, and, as acceptable hosts,

about to immolate themselves by a voluntary sacrifice, reverently offers…

[173] all the impediments which that notary alleged, Benedict, notary of the bishop of Città di Castello,

whom we related above was invited by John to bear the cross of Christ,

alleged excellent impediments,

which persuaded that they could not be accepted without rashness.

Gout hostile to his feet, to which the nakedness of them would be fatal;

the pernicious injuries of cold and rains; the intolerable

labors of journeys. An abscess of the ear, teeming with continual

suppuration, needing coverings and fomentations;

the habitude of his whole body akin to sickness.

His advanced age, and, accustomed to delights, how would he bear the rigor

of the life, and suffer that hard institute of penance,

for which scarcely gigantic strength would be equal?

That it was a crime to tempt God, and to demand a miracle

for removing these things.

[174] being despised and removed. To whom Columbinus: "Let none of these things terrify you;

come with me, follow Christ." What

more? Drawn by the brief invitement, he put off the world and

his secular garments: naked he follows the calling Columbinus,

that he may attain Christ. His nakedness conduces

to the soundness of his feet; the harshness of penance to the vigor

of his strength; his ear, the ulcer being dissipated,

is fitted for hearing the voice of the discourses of the Lord;

his whole body, recovering from infirmity,

becomes strong, and he completed several years spent in labors,

in vigils, in hardships, with a most fortunate end ^c…

[175] Leave to preach the word of God being obtained from the bishop, Then John betakes himself to the prelate of the sacred things

Lord Buccius ^d, and, having saluted him with as great

submission as he could, opens the counsels of his institute,

that, faculty being obtained from him, he might more freely expend his labor and that of his own

in cultivating the vineyard committed to him.

They were received most courteously by the prelate, conspicuous in doctrine

and piety, and Columbinus especially was held in honor,

of whom he had heard long before wonderful and unheard-of things.

[176] he excites wonderful motions in souls, Fortified with this grace, delaying nothing to descend into the arena,

with all exertion he sets about to help the citizens,

and, an exordium being taken from his solemn watchword,

"May Jesus Christ live, live;

may Jesus Christ be praised," as by the blaring clangor of a trumpet, he excited wonderful

motions in the minds of the citizens. Then, with the addition of private

and public sermons, never not breathing the flames of incredible fervor,

hearts were roused

to piety, occupied by the lethargy of crimes,

and were brought from the darkness of ignorance and the torpor of sloth

to the light of justice and the care of a salvation before neglected.

[177] Nor were there lacking those who, mediocrity being despised,

aspiring to the highest summit of Evangelical perfection,

obtained from Columbinus by prayers that they might give their substances to the poor;

their names and lives to that society. And the ancient writers

named some of these; for instance Stephen, a learned

and erudite man, and rich in the goods of fortune, to which

he preferred the poverty of Christ ^e.

Him followed Bartolus or Bartoluccius de Sanctis,

who, converted from the vanity of the world to Christ,

so blazed with his love, that at the mere invocation of the holy

Name he wholly melted, nor could restrain by the command of reason his tears,

and the fiery sparks bursting from his eyes and countenance,

in any way. Nay rather, it is handed down to memory that he was wont

to be carried away with so great an impulse, that once in the temple of St. Florido,

at the time of a sermon which was held there,

tearing himself from the midst of the people into the square below,

without even touching the fore-threshold steps

he was seen to have leapt. No one thus leapt sober;

but well did he whom the illustrious cup of the Lord inebriated.

[178] There followed two unnamed, the one a Perugian,

whom the discourse of the Servant of God, drawn out of the mire of crimes

and cleansed of filth, he joins to his congregation, made worthy of the lot

of the Saints. The other a priest, who, a fat priesthood

being abdicated, with a counsel full of confidence gave himself to Columbinus

to be instructed, and by wondrous harshness of life

and assiduity of prayer came to that height of sanctity,

that he could be sought for the priestly dignity,

of which he had once rendered himself unworthy by his own foulness. But this,

which follows, is to be referred to a notable victory of charity,

subduing a breast armed with the obstinacy of a sinner.

[179] There was a man of Città di Castello long engaged in wickedness,

whom neither a sermon blazing with ardor could bend, and softens an obstinate sinner to penitence. nor

a colloquy of one alone with one soften and draw to sounder

counsels hitherto had availed. Him Columbinus, setting about to storm

with more than usual ardor, with a full invitement of love said: "My brother, if at last

you do not refuse to come to your senses, and make an end of sinning,

all the merits which up to now I have obtained from the Lord

I give you gladly, and for your salvation I pledge them."

And Francis Vincent, who was present,

subjoined: "And I place the whole burden of your sins

on my shoulders, and I undertake to render account of them

to the just Judge. The merciful God will approve the pact

and promise, if, iniquity being deserted, you return to your heart":

by which double battering-ram that rocky crag, being shaken,

yielded, and was so far softened, that it emitted rivers of tears…

[180] I will subjoin from a tragic case the outcome of a pleasant narration,

Two families, which, fuller in others, is here to be touched briefly,

lest, carelessly passed over, it seem to be esteemed of less value. The grave and long-lasting feuds of two Sienese

families, of what magnitude and nobility they were, had involved most of the kinship in enmities and hatreds, in unraveling

and quieting which for a long time and much, but in vain,

the work of several of the chief men of the city had sweated.

[181] The head of one faction, Larinus Tolomei,

although implacably hostile to the opposite party on account of the slaying inflicted upon his uncle; dissenting by long-lasting and implacable hatred, yet, since through these days he was detained at Città di Castello,

he was vehemently delighted with the familiarity and colloquy

of Columbinus, whom, in that expulsion

of which we made mention, he was moved by friendship

and fidelity to accompany as he departed, and to be at hand in

all things, though he did not ask, and trusted in the Lord

alone. How could it be that by that sun

the dense clouds of discords should not be dissipated?

[182] He heard him discoursing of the office and debt

of Christian charity, he reconciles among themselves, and dealing with the examples of Christ

the Lord and of the Saints, who for their slayers,

that they might be saved, as for benefactors,

prayed: by which moved, Larinus at last

gave his hands to the one exhorting, and, the bitterness of his offenses

being laid aside, resolved to forget his disposition ardent for vengeance,

and the injury of which hitherto he had been inexorable in his pardon,

and that a way might be closed to repentance, he wished there to exist a legitimate

testimony of the reconciliation, which was made before

the bishop, and entered into the records; then to Siena,

together with most courteous letters transmitted by Columbinus to the Piccolomini,

guilty of the slaying, it is incredible

to say what an abundant harvest of gladness they brought,

not only to the disputing families, but

also to the whole city, which to be quiet and serene through

this intestine tempest of quarrels had long not been permitted.

For even absent he knew how to profit his country,

which present he had not hesitated to harm.

[183] To the inmost sanctuaries of the sacred virgins likewise

the flame excited from without penetrated, and

so strongly seized one of them, that it turned it into itself.

There was a house of nuns at Città di Castello, called "del Sacco";

where, as the rest of the discipline had collapsed, and the collapsed poverty of certain nuns so

especially the rigor of poverty had plainly languished, because provision

in common was almost none, and to the arbitration and faculty

of each was permitted her food and dress.

To their education and institute Benedict de Pace had entrusted his tender niece,

Columbinus persuading, that he might go more unencumbered on the Evangelical

course, wherever the salvation of souls and

the glory of the Lord demanded that he go.

[184] he restores to its former rigor. Hence occasion was given to Columbinus of dealing a little more frequently

with the nuns; and the familiarity turned

to happiness: for all that time was expended on discourse about

divine things, aiming especially

at this, that poverty, on which the foundation of religion

rests, should be recalled by postliminy, and property

and possession of things to be consumed at pleasure,

as a pestilence, should be eliminated from those cloisters: and

as we mentioned above that the harder breasts of the men suffered themselves to be bent by the repeated

strokes of exhortations;

so the softer ones of the women devoted to God suffered themselves to be drawn thither

whither the frequent discourse of the good Exhorter

impelled. At least six of the

chief went before by example, who, whatever of private property they retained with themselves,

conferred into the common stock, and to the rule to which they had devoted themselves

the observance, they preferred to their own conveniences.

To imitate these was not grievous for the rest: nor

was that cold word thereafter heard, MINE

and YOURS; but all things were Jesus Christ's, and this

was their riches and love.

[185] Columbinus, to the bishop of Città di Castello, his friend, During that time the conversation of the bishop

Buccius with Columbinus was not infrequent, and the sincere

fruit thence of mutual consolation: for he, eminent in doctrine

and piety, esteeming with himself the man of wondrous sanctity,

embraced John with a tender and paternal

affection; and therefore he made it a religious duty to hold his fellows,

as no common servants of God, in the place of sons.

To declare this by many

tokens he did not cease; but this especially,

that he vehemently desired to be reckoned in their number,

thinking that it did not disgrace his dignity,

if, his insignia being safe, and the function of episcopal offices by no means impeded,

not only by purpose and will, but also by imitation, as far as

was permitted, he might be held and be one of that

company: which was the cause that among the prelates whom this Order supplied

to the Church he is numbered, and indeed the first

who adorned the crown-shunning heads

of the congregation with his mitre.

[186] whom, on account of his eminent skill in the sacred canons Conversely Columbinus, as a successor and imitator of the Apostles, especially venerated him;

and since he was not ignorant that he was illustrious in manifold

erudition, and exceedingly instructed in the skill of the sacred canons,

he so depended on his nod and direction

in conducting affairs, that he undertook no business

of any moment, without consulting him:

for although his trust in God was of greater weight,

by whose favor honorable counsels

are fostered, yet he easily suffered himself to be persuaded

by humility and prudence, that recourse should be had to the ready help of a man,

filling the place of God on earth,

because thence a light most useful for the transaction of affairs would arise,

and an authority necessary for supporting them would be had.

[187] in the affairs of his congregation Wherefore, when it had come into his mind to doubt

whether that institute of life, which he went on to profess

with his own, fortified hitherto by no pontifical

diploma, it were expedient to confirm by the approbation of the legate of the apostolic See,

then dwelling at Viterbo, or to bring into examination, that it might be seen whether

in anything it differed from the norm of the ecclesiastical canons,

judging both were to be conferred with the bishop,

he received the answer, that as to what pertains to the discrepancy

of the canons, he should cease to fear, and lay aside all

solicitude; for there is nothing contrary

in all that variety of actions, nothing

in the manner of life, which is alien from rectitude or the decrees of the Pontiffs,

many things which demonstrate a leading and impulse superior

to a human rule are to be permitted to the divine governance.

[188] Moreover that at present the procuring of an Apostolic diploma

seemed to him superfluous: he had often consulted,

let him go on further to keep to that way of simplicity which he had entered,

until some light glide down from heaven,

which may show the will of the Lord, nor let him doubt

that he has care of his affairs, which thereupon he will opportunely show. For he knew,

a prelate of great prudence and experience, that the approbation of a rule and institute is a most grave matter of those

which are wont to be expected from the indulgence of Christ's vicar,

and akin to peril, that it either then be denied, or deferred to

another time, in which the now grown congregation,

subsisting by its own strength, might prove itself

that it was of God, and easily obtain from the Pontiff

what would then with difficulty have been obtained from the legate.

[189] After this the Spirit of the Lord called Columbinus to other cities

and places of Etruria, he bids farewell, and departs to other places of Tuscany. and therefore

with good peace and the blessing of the bishop he departed from Città di Castello,

leaving there the memory and fame of his marvels,

and love and desire of him in the hearts

of the citizens, confessing with one mouth that the city would be rendered golden

by his more prolonged stay, than that brief

sojourn and cultivation had rendered it silver.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XIV.

The great fruit of his sermons in various places of Tuscany, the piety of the Pisans praised by blessed John, the word of God disseminated in other cities, and some disciples gathered.

He goes from Città di Castello Our discourse follows the traveling Columbinus

in exactly that order in which the ancient writers noted the individual places

of his journeys: for their diligence lent to the studies of later men

that they were at least able to name the cities and castles

through which he passed doing good, though thenceforth not solicitous

to note the times to which his good deeds

corresponded. Departing therefore from Città di Castello, to Pisa ^a

he set his course not hastily, but slowly and district by district

to be accomplished, and thereupon to be intermitted,

where the meeting of any village or castle along the way

should invite to casting the seed of the divine word.

[191] Arcidosso, where besides other conversions Arcidosso ^b, a not ignoble town among the mountains

of Siena, first ran into his eyes,

to which it pleased him to turn aside, and to stop a while,

as in a field, cultivated with frequent inhabitants,

through which the fervor of his sermons might run,

and bring a fruit not to be repented of; and it was here

gathered according to his wish: for the inhabitants, hearing

him discoursing of the foulness of sin, of the torments of hell, of

Christ's charity and benefits toward men, and of

similar things, acknowledged the wounds of their conscience, sought remedies,

consulted Columbinus, and conformed their manners to his prescript.

[192] He did not stay long among them, but

as long as seemed enough to rouse the people, he rouses one to embrace Evangelical poverty;

and to kindle it with the torches of divine love. And in several indeed

the desire of a better life was cast and help for coming to their senses afforded;

but by the notable conversion of one Columbinus's gladness

was heaped up, which, if it had even been alone,

he would have esteemed his labor compensated: for he indeed

so grew warm with the ardor of the sermons, that, the wealth in which he abounded

being despised, and the learning in which he excelled,

he preferred the poverty and simplicity of Christ.

Nor content to have offered his goods, he offered himself

also a living victim on the altar of the cross,

and by dire harshness of life, fasting, sleeping on the ground,

and the other continual affliction thenceforth did not cease to be slain,

and deserved to be truly Just, who under

an honorable name imposed by his parents had long concealed a sinner.

[193] The people of Arcidosso being thus moved to piety,

he goes on to hasten to Pisa. But here too

it pleased him to turn aside a little from the way, Thence, the image of the Mother of God at Cingoli being saluted, and at Cingoli

When they came thither, Columbinus anticipated

the common prayers of his fellows by a short exhortation,

by which he especially admonished that they should earnestly

pray God for the nuns of St. Abundius, and pay

for the great merits toward himself this exiguous tribute of a grateful

mind, that would not be unpleasing to the Virgin.

[194] The prayer being made, they direct their steps straight to the most noble

city, [he betakes himself to Pisa, where with his fellows he is shut out of the hospital;] and prosperously arrive.

Here, the Godhead being venerated according to custom in the temple, they ask lodging

in the hospitals; but, an unknown

and numerous people, they are rejected, whether because the house, occupied with the sick,

did not hold so many pilgrims,

or because the harsh bowels of the superintendents knew not how to have mercy

on the poor of Christ, nor suffered themselves to be bent by a humble petition,

that they might refresh the weary,

and bestow mercy on the needy:

whatever at last was the cause of the repulse, shut out of the hospitable roofs,

they rejoiced with no small joy,

that the inhospitality of a few gave matter of merit,

and the divine providence turned it well into humanity.

[195] For when it was learned through the city of their

coming, but is benignly received whom fame, spread through Etruria, had

preceded to Pisa, invited by many,

distributed among some houses of honored citizens, they were to no one so great

an inconvenience, and to all they profited conveniently by the example of their life

and familiar colloquies about God and divine things:

nor indeed did they think it only of great praise and merit with God

to treat kindly and largely pilgrims frugal

and given to abstinence, but besides they distributed alms

in such abundance, that garments, moneys, and gifts of that kind

many were brought; which yet all were rejected

by them, content with food alone and that most slender,

and with worn garments.

[196] This was a token not only of civility,

to which the city educated its citizens, by pious citizens, but also of piety

and religion, which seemed to have placed their seat at Pisa.

And indeed it was reported to him, that no

fewer than two hundred matrons were numbered, who with sack

and haircloth were wont to tame their limbs, and therefore

several men also of the nobility, their husbands

or kinsmen, feigned themselves seculars, and by the harshness of their life

emulated religious: and therefore with attentive ears

and minds the words of the pilgrims were received,

whether apart from the multitude they were poured out to a few,

or openly through the streets and temples, which frequently

was done, they roused to the love of eternal things.

[197] Now it happened once, that to visit

the temple of the Friars Preachers by their hosts

they were led, and by his one-time confessor, over which with command presided

a father, venerable in age and religion, whom Columbinus had once used

as the arbiter of his conscience:

he, having given many signs of courtesy toward his old

client, by the authority in which he was strong,

set about instructing him with the best admonitions looking to this,

that he should be firm in the purpose once seized, that never

in the office of praising and preaching Christ he should grow lukewarm;

that he should attend again and again to the internal

visitations and consolations of God, lest by sloth or

human respect he should suffer them to slip, whenever they were sent

by God, in whose hand and arbitration is their

time and manner: that it was of the greatest folly

to esteem them of less than they are worth; but that

in worth they exceed all mortal things.

[198] He added moreover, from the sense of St. Jerome:

"If the merchants of the world, as most of you

have experienced, sustain such great inconveniences, that they may

arrive at uncertain and perishable riches, and keep

with the peril of their souls what they have sought with many perils;

what must the merchant of Christ do, who spurs him more and more to perfection. who,

all things being sold, seeks the most precious pearl? who, with all the wealth

of his substance, buys the field in which he may find a treasure,

safe on every side from the thefts of

robbers?" Thus that good superior was eager to pour fuel on the fire

and oil on the flames; and the words of salvation from the mouth

of the prudent man were received with no less relish and fruit

by the hearer, than ardor by the one uttering them.

[199] Columbinus in a letter given to the nuns of St. Abundius Worthy to be inserted in this place is the letter which,

written by his own hand at Pisa, Columbinus sent to the nuns of St. Abundius

at Siena: "Mothers most beloved in Jesus Christ

crucified. How vehemently I desire to see you and

to deal with you, I could scarcely explain in words,

although here we have found a great abundance

of men and women, excelling in virtues and burning

with holy desires, so that they could deservedly draw

to see them even those distant a hundred miles,

to whom these things were known.

[200] praises the eminent piety of the Pisans, Certainly indeed without shame we cannot

compare our life with theirs. Here you would find

two hundred who with the harshest haircloth torment

their flesh; whence to us is given occasion

of giving thanks to God and to our most holy Savior,

who keeps for himself more friends devoted to him in the wicked

world than we thought, especially at Pisa,

who do not bend their knees before the idols

of sinners. Besides, there are numbered several noble

women, so casting themselves down for the love of Christ and

despising themselves, that with bare feet and rude

and worn little vestures they do not blush to go about,

unlike our little dainty spiritual Sienese women,

who all together would not equal even a single Pisan.

[201] declares the singular signs of divine protection toward himself, But by letters I cannot sufficiently declare

how great things the most benign God does for the sake

of those who trust in him. Indeed I will set before you matter

of singular gladness, if I set about to speak of his paternal

care over us, which extends so far, that it did not suffer us

to suffer even the least inconvenience: for

all that time of the journey neither the rain,

when it fell from heaven, wetted our cloaks even lightly;

nor the cold, when it most raged,

bit our limbs, or brought trouble. O good Jesus, blessed are those who hope in you,

and trust your providence, never not ready to feed them liberally!

[202] and in it affords a sincere proof of his humility. I confess that to me and my companion Francis some little

fear was cast by the pain which the feet of both

had contracted, so that therefore with some

trepidation I gave myself to the way; but scarcely had each of us

begun to tread the ground with our foot, and we obtained health

from the good Jesus. He who places his trust

in God is freed from all penalty by his gift.

For Francis's feet it was never better before this.

I indeed, to guard against the prickings of thorns, had smeared my soles with pitch;

but I paid the penalty of my rashness: for I was pricked

and lacerated by them, because I, John,

did not trust in Christ, and therefore we both

resolved to carry with us henceforth nothing at all in the midst of our heart

except the one Jesus Christ,

nor to be solicitous about our conveniences.

Would that this be granted to us and to you

and to every kind of men by Christ himself, the blessed one." I pray you, my reader,

love the simplicity, seriously playing in the letter, joined with the ardor of charity,

and venerate the writer, now knowing and speaking

nothing else but Jesus Christ crucified.

[203] Not unlike was the rest of his pilgrimage through the celebrated

cities of Italy, he preaches Christ in other cities of Italy, which the same love of propagating divine

glory and of preaching the name of Christ

impelled him to visit: all, namely, was spent amid hymns,

sacred songs, and prayers, and,

what you may wonder at, unharmed by the injuries of the raging winter.

Lucca, Florence, Pistoia saw the pilgrims on earth and received them

as angels sent down to them from heaven,

in all which the seeds of the divine word were cast,

and abundant crops gathered of conversions

to God, and of wondrous changes from depravity to honesty

of manners, among which are to be recorded

in few words two which the people of Pistoia admired: for in that place Peter and Paulinus ^e,

the vanity of the world being recognized at the new light of the stars there appearing,

resolved to bid it farewell, and to cleave

to Columbinus, roused by whose example

they obtained by prayers to follow his institute.

[204] In which augury indeed the greatness

of his mind shone forth, at Pistoia he admits two disciples, esteeming all human things as nothing, and

in his progression the fervor of his spirit prevailed,

raising each above common probity; but of Paulinus

especially a certain vigor of a generous disposition

is to be commended, who consecrated the flower of his youth, the domestic

conveniences and delights, and all the now-flattering hopes of the world so ardently to the Creator,

as constantly thereafter he vexed his delicate

limbs with abstinence and every kind of affliction, fed his mind

with the sweet food of prayer day and night,

and grew to that height of sanctity, that in

the pleasure-garden of the Jesuati among the cedars, that is, the names

of illustrious virtues, to be related below, he is numbered.

[205] Wherefore Columbinus accomplished these journeys with so great

delight, and gladly performs apostolic journeys of this kind. that he confessed himself unequal to declaring it;

unless perhaps anyone should think he had declared it enough and more,

when he said that a not small part of blessedness through those days

had been communicated to him by the Lord: for a joy

were the health of his feet wonderfully recovered,

the vigor of his strength augmented;

but before all the eminent conversions of souls,

and the working of prodigies in declaring the divine protection,

of which that notable one, mentioned above in the letter

to the nuns, added the sharpest goads to loving and praising God,

no otherwise than once to the Israelites, to whom the streams of the waves

yielded, that with dry foot they might pass through the channels of the sea and river…

NOTES.

CHAPTER XV.

The horrid penance of the Blessed one, his instruction sought by the people of Corsignano, the stubborn hardness of the people of Monticello, yet the conversion of a few obtained, and the sudden healing there of an ulcerous man.

[206] [Columbinus, recollecting his avarice, by which he had once offended the inhabitants of Asso,] That first occurs to the sight, though horrid,

nevertheless more worthy of record than of imitation.

Columbinus was going by chance, with Francis Vincent,

Vannus, and a third as companions, to Monticello ^a,

a celebrated municipality of the Sienese district; and they had to pass

through Asso ^b, where he had once possessed his ancestral estates and lands,

which we related above were given to the monastery of St. Abundius.

When he set foot there,

the recollection of his former avarice and

scandal came into his mind, which by the iniquitous marketing of grain

had offended the inhabitants.

[207] he orders himself to be dragged by a rope and publicly beaten with rods there And, blazing up with a sudden hatred against his fault,

he put off the tunic with which alone he was covered,

put a halter on his neck, and commands one of his fellows

to take hold of the rope and drag him and hale him through all

the little streets; the other, with brooms prepared for it, not

perfunctorily, but seriously with a cudgel to cut all his limbs,

the hauler meanwhile proclaiming: "Behold for you

a usurious miser, a criminal peculator,

who made it a game to oppress you with want and hunger!

Behold him who lent you grain worm-eaten and moth-eaten,

and then at harvest-time demanded a heaped measure back!

This is he who sold a sextary of wheat for a florin!

O cruel, O merciless enemy of the poor

and needy! Beat, flog,

monstrously strike the wicked, impious man, guilty of the gallows

and of death!"

[208] he orders by his disciples, And it was necessary for the good disciples to obey one adjuring by

all rights, and severely commanding as by authority.

The torment was also more bitter, because he went backward

while he was beaten, and the weariness impeded the faculty of breathing,

without doubt about to suffocate him, if they

persevered to prolong the butchery at his pleasure. The multitude of the people

shuddered at the foul and deadly spectacle; nor was there

one who for the great amazement parted his lips; many

who for the tenderness of grief bedewed their faces with tears.

Only John, the tragedy being finished, eloquent in praising

his floggers, gave thanks to those bewailing him, and

entreated a reward from God the remunerator…

[209] [whose obedience is praised; and the Blessed one's hard mortification is compensated by an apparition of Christ.] You would not know to which side the praise and merit of victory

inclines; whether it is to be reckoned to stand for the accused, who, that he might act the severe

avenger of himself, acted the harsh judge; or for the executors of the command,

who could command themselves to perform the parts of an executioner,

lest they should seem contumacious and refractory…

To both indeed the victorious grace on either side had prepared a great reward;

but to Columbinus besides an earnest

of ineffable consolation was granted: for on the night

following, while he insists on prayers, he is visited by Christ the Lord

under a visible form, and is held by his sweet

address, with so great and so inmost delight of soul,

as mortality cannot be suffused with and live,

unless the same which liquefies the heart contain the failing

spirit within the limbs.

[210] Asso being left, they came to Corsignano ^c,

and straightway through the squares the name of the Lord Jesus with praises

they began to raise, When he had passed through Corsignano too hastily, and by their cry to summon the frequent

people to praise him. His passage there was like

a flashing and quickly-slipping lightning: for

on the morrow at earliest dawn they hastened to depart,

the townsmen either not noticing, or trying in vain to delay them,

complaining that he was taken from their eyes

too quickly, who by the savor of his presence

and of the previous day's discourse had made a great hope

of a utility about to flow out to the public from a longer stay.

[211] By common counsel therefore they sent messengers,

who, using speed, is recalled by the inhabitants of that place, when he was now distant several

thousand paces, having overtaken him, earnestly asked that he not be reluctant

to return to them; and indeed also, that they might cast a

religious scruple upon the pious Man and compel him to return, they warned

that to one resting the past night there had been

set a deep and headlong river, in which several were swimming, soon to be swallowed,

unless, snatched by the hands of Columbinus and his fellows,

they were led out to the shore.

[212] Which being heard, he held it better to yield to the prayers,

and to obey those asking, he satisfies their desire; than to weigh the credit of the vision

and to shift about. And that he might nowhere repent of his indulgence,

the alacrity of the townsmen in embracing him on his return,

their eagerness in hearing, their promptitude in performing what

was to be done, and what to be omitted, were persuaded; and thus

was fulfilled the portent of the invented prodigy: for several

emerged from the mire of vices, by the right hand of Columbinus helping,

and returned into the favor of the offended Godhead.

[213] But as not all days flow serene and cheerful,

but among the people of Monticello, not profiting by his sermons, but for the most part turbid and wrapped in clouds

they are carried on by the course of nature; so neither did prosperous

journeys always and everywhere favorable to his wishes befall the Evangelical

Traveler. At Monticello, near the town of Corsignano,

the divine Herald was neither courteously received,

nor gladly or patiently heard.

The people, indeed, in that age more boorish,

and degenerate from the genius of the Etruscan region, showed itself illiberal toward

the servants of God, who even by their sight

alone and habit, breathing piety, could conciliate benevolence,

and whom it behooved to venerate and benignly cherish, dared

to vex with mockeries, and to rend with revilings.

[214] Against which madness and wickedness on this side the shield of tolerance

was opposed, he foretells to them the divine vengeance, on that the efficacious word of God,

fit even for softening stony hearts, unless Satan had stopped their ears.

The one remedy which remained for the desperate

disease, that of prayer, was applied,

by which day and night Columbinus suppliantly asked God,

that he would not close the fountains of his mercy to a people of hard neck.

But as the Lord had not concealed from his Servant

the scourges which were prepared, if they should persist longer in their crimes,

so neither did he himself dissemble or delay to make known

the divine indignation, and to terrify with threats of impending

destruction, if they should procrastinate returning to their heart and

to penance.

[215] But in vain was the threat aimed;

in vain was the terror of eternal judgment inculcated, which afterward also followed. that

the word of the Lord which he had spoken through his Servant might be fulfilled:

for not long after, war having arisen between the Florentines

and the Sienese, Monticello, given over to hostile plundering,

hired out to deadly calamities,

paid immense penalties of its rashness, nor

sooner ceased to experience the martial fury, than

it was utterly plundered and wholly destroyed.

[216] Nevertheless he converts two at Monticello, Nor yet was his labor altogether barren,

or his sermons unfruitful; but as

at Philippi in Macedonia, Paul preaching, the Lord opened

the heart of Lydia the purple-seller, so that from the company of women

she alone was converted to the faith, so

Columbinus preaching, the eyes of two men of Monticello were opened,

that they understood of how great moment is the business of salvation,

which brings with it the eternity of rewards or torments; how

vain and fleeting are all earthly things; how brief

the course of mortals' life. Farewell therefore being bidden to the world and

its deceitful goods, they devoted their minds to heavenly things,

and delivered themselves to Columbinus to be imbued with better

counsels.

by name, exceedingly skilled in civil law, substituted for the prefecture

of Petriolo ^e by the magistracy of the twelve Sienese senators,

when he had discharged it, with the consent of his wife

Antonia, was initiated into the spiritual soldiery,

and made his service under the standard of the cross, of prayer,

austerity, tears, by which he expressed the life and manners of his Master,

who had expressed those of Christ the Lord in himself,

and was a domestic specimen of virtues,

and a powerful goad to the disciples for perfection. This is he

who translated the book of mystical theology (perhaps written by St. Dionysius ^f)

from Latin into Italian, Columbinus assenting,

that to the understanding of the deepest mysteries and sublime affections

the vernacular tongue might open a way to the ruder,

to whom Latinity is unknown: for those hidden things, given in the vernacular idiom,

can bring in feelings of piety, and a notice,

for their capacity, of divinity.

[218] the other Francis, who afterward The other they named Francis ^g, whose

conversion's beginnings the most efficacious force of divine love

made memorable, and also the consequent

course of his life, and his end interwoven with illustrious deeds,

were matter to the writers of proclaiming wonderful things about him:

for the first sparks at Monticello John's discourse

had struck out, which grew into a pyre, as he himself

a little after experienced at Montalcino ^h:

for having set out thither with a desire of seeing Columbinus,

he turned aside to the house of the flagellants, as they called it,

that he might enjoy the converse of the one dwelling there.

[219] then at Montalcino Their custom was on set nights in the temple,

adjoining the lodging, to hold their meetings, and to give part

to prayers, part to scourging their limbs.

It pleased Francis to be present at them, and to beat himself with scourges together with the others.

As many strokes as were inflicted on his body, so many torches seemed to seek his heart,

which through that night gave place neither for resting nor

for keeping silence, John rejoicing

vehemently and wondering. He bedewed his couch with tears, groaning

that too late he had known Christ

and himself; that all whatever he had hitherto done was vanity and a lie.

[220] gave notable proofs of his fervor. But the following night not only did he pass

sleepless in prayer and spiritual songs;

but with so great a heat of gladness he leaped,

that he did not refrain from dancing and leaping, and seemed akin to one raving:

and when he remitted nothing at the coming of the following

light, that Vesuvius, having fed upon his inward parts, hastily

sought Monticello again, and with a most strong cry

redoubling the name of Jesus ran through the streets,

and, as if some madman shamelessly raved,

he raved a sound madness, and through love

was furious…

[221] At Monticello also a sick man, Of the few things which at Monticello, where we are dwelling,

happened, the grace of health granted to a sick man

made faith open even to the incredulous people. Him

those who cared for the narration of the deed, not the appellation of a name,

left unnamed. He lay affected with the grievous

pain of ulcers, which although he bore with equal mind,

yet not so far as to be able to dissemble

his torment. Columbinus visited him,

and consoled him with sweet address, and exhorted him to patience

by sentences and examples drawn from the sacred Books.

[222] Among which, the linen and shirt being drawn back, he beholds his limbs

gnawed with sores and dripping with gore, whose ulcers he had licked, at once frees him from pain, and,

struck with inmost compassion, by a charity mightier than horror and nausea,

he does not hesitate to kiss them and to draw his tongue

by licking through the wounds, which not even another's

hand could handle without disgust.

Then he bids him be of good cheer and departs;

and with him the pains departed, and in their place

quiet was restored to the sick man. There conspired hatred of self and

love of neighbor to bring back a victory worthy of Columbinus:

but grace, intent on furnishing the triumph,

ministered strength and arms to both.

[223] About those days when he had sent to that recovered man as a gift

a young cock, who yet not long after dies piously. brought from the table of his host, John ordered it to be announced

that all that ardor of his torment had cooled;

although it was the divine will to manifest a miracle in the cessation of the penalty,

and to call the sick man, snatched from the bonds of mortality,

to himself not long after, and to show the merit

of his patience by signs, as the report was.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XVI.

The abundant fruits of his sermons gathered at Montalcino, the illness of all the companions of blessed John Columbinus, and the sudden healing of one through his prayers.

Columbinus at Montalcino so profited by his exhortations, If in arid ground the cast seed of the good Sower gave the thirtyfold fruit,

why should not the sixtyfold and hundredfold be hoped for in green ground?

From stony Monticello Columbinus came into the good

and fruitful land of Montalcino ^a, and there, after the Godhead had been adored

in the temple, and his help implored, he began

straightway, the care of lodging being neglected, in a sermon

openly to declaim against crimes, and to incite sinners to penance

with his accustomed ardor, and privately

to imbue the people with salutary admonitions. And

this exertion and pious zeal held for fifteen days,

than which happier ones never before departed for the noble

city.

[225] Several, suffused with shame for their crimes,

detested them, that not only many to the detestation of their sins, exacted penalties from themselves, broke the impending

wrath of God, compensated their misdeeds with good

works. It is difficult to go through the individuals

who in that exiguous space of time began to be other

than they had been before: universally about all there was a constant

opinion that they had changed their evil manners and restrained

their old laxity to the prescripts of the divine law.

The company was led by Faccius, called Beti ^b, to whom it had seemed

too little to keep the divine precepts, unless

he also entered the narrower way of the Evangelical counsels,

which Columbinus trod, and which the experiment of his companions

demonstrated could be trodden by others. When therefore he obtained by prayers to be enrolled

in their number, he proved himself worthy of their fellowship

by the change of his manners and the zeal of virtues, and by their

exercise tried to emulate angelic purity.

[226] Augustine also and Binda, spouses, drawn by the more powerful

allurement of conjugal familiarity, and the contempt of the world, he induced, made their domestic

household as a religious dwelling,

in which most propensely they worshiped the Godhead,

gave themselves to prayer, and unceasingly labored at penance and mercy.

Thus, having advanced beyond the common goal of probity, the secular habit being retained,

they cast off the whole world. To the languid pleasures of marriage

there succeeded spiritual ones, solid and limpid,

joined with so great a love toward Christ, that

even at the mere naming of him both would grow fervent,

and would not refrain from sighs; nay, nor were they to be restrained

from exclamations, to which the fervor of their spirit impelled,

so that they could say with the sacred Psalmist:

"My heart and my flesh have exulted in the living God."

[227] To these it befits to number Barnabas (or by surname

commonly called Barna) who, from a rich man made poor for the love of Christ,

but also many to an ardent that he might draw others also

to love him, using a pious art, soothed the ears with the various

modulation of songs, and through them

thereafter with the more salutary melody of admonitions

flowed into the breasts both of the slothful crowd and of the fastidious nobility.

[228] Add Jacopa, to be equaled to the ancient holy women,

and love of neighbor and of God he raised. and so esteemed by Columbinus,

that he preferred her to all known to him in that time,

if a comparison be instituted from her virtues, especially of humility

and self-denial. Her heart you would have called

a furnace, perpetually burning with the flames of charity,

her eyes like two fountains teeming with streams of tears,

her words and actions as of a woman alienated from her senses

and raised to the highest contemplation: for

by a deadly error she would sometimes dash into a burning fire,

at other times fall into the streams of waters,

nor was she safe from the depths of pits and the precipices of crags,

or immune from continual stumblings,

because, her mind being drawn away to heaven almost

always, she was touched by no care of her body,

nor could in any way guard against harms,

wholly forgetful of herself and living dead.

[229] But while Columbinus and his companions give their effort to cultivating

the minds of outsiders, All the companions of blessed John falling sick and spare not

labors, they are at last compelled to succumb to them,

not one only or another, but to the number of twenty,

that is, all, are seized with fever, John excepted,

to whom health was preserved from heaven for the support and solace

of the rest: for he was at hand to all

with as great sedulity and love as sons not degenerate

could promise themselves from the best parent,

and would not have dared to demand even of diligent services.

[230] The charity of the citizens betrayed itself in relieving the present necessity

and want, and in distributing large alms,

by which the sick were abundantly provided,

and those loving poverty even in their very sickness. Francis besides, the munificent charity of certain persons so benignly succors, of whom a little

before I made mention, as at Monticello the report spread of the misfortune

of his companions, delaying nothing, visited them

and brought provisions with him. It pleased his wife

to accompany him, to whom three other devout

old women being joined brought a ready mind for succoring the sick,

and testified it with gifts each according to her means.

[231] Besides, a youth of Monticello, desirous of seeing

and dealing with Columbinus, and the service of a newly admitted companion obtained from Francis

that he should lead him as companion together with himself to Montalcino;

and he was led by a spirit not of curiosity

but of piety, which easily changed the desire of beholding

into a purpose of imitating: for when it was permitted him to meet him,

and to hear him uttering the words of eternal life,

he went not away sad, like that one of old

who preferred his riches to the doctrine of Christ inviting to perfection;

but glad he cast off whatever he had,

that, light and unencumbered, he might traverse the same stadium with his Master:

for the little bag of money,

brought with him from Monticello, and his elegant garments

he handed over to those three women on this condition,

that they should distribute them to the poor, and, content with a vile tunic

himself, he thereafter sought nothing except the cross and its fruits

in his whole life.

[232] so opportunely it happened, that they recovered, And the aid of the new companion was indeed

most opportune to John, who alone was scarcely equal to discharging the offices

for the multitude of the sick, and, the help of the robust and fervent youth being added,

the work of two brothers availed more

than the services of ten servants, and thus it was provided for each,

so that all recovered. And although the health bestowed on all

was a common benefit of divine grace,

yet it willed to be seen singular in a certain one,

who was healed by a miracle.

[233] among whom one was suddenly healed by the prayers of blessed John, John, by surname Ambrosii, a noble

of Siena, was nearest to death, and it had already been despaired

of his life, had not for it, by earnest prayers, it obtained Columbinus

as intercessor, to whom the Lord and subduer of death benignly indulged,

and heard him entreating for the safety of one soon to die.

To him languishing on his bed he said once:

"I ask you, my John, which of these two

do you judge preferable, that for God and me,

far from the fellowship of men and the crowds, I should live solitary; or

rather that I should go on to cry out the name of Christ into the minds of mortals,

and to prefer the procuring of their salvation

to my private quiet and constant contemplation?"

[234] To whom promptly John: "Far be from you, father,

the desire of solitude and the longing for idle prayer: to whom his pious Master persuades zeal for souls,

far more excellent is it everywhere among the nations to lift up

the lofty name of the Lord Jesus with high voices, than

to lie hidden in a corner of a house or in some cave of the wilderness,

and to defraud the human race, needing your help.

To me indeed far graver than the disease itself is the necessity

of lying, and the inability publicly to obey

and cry out: 'May Jesus Christ live, live.'"

By which answer all that little cloud of doubt

was dispersed, and his purpose stood, of remaining in the vocation

to which he had been called.

[235] The last actor appeared on the stage of Montalcino,

a certain youth, [by whom there another disciple, after a hard rudiment of his novitiate, is enrolled in the company.] to whom was entrusted the custody

of a little house adjoined to the citadel, to observe the entrances of those wishing

to enter, lest they should freely lie open to all. This one

so long insisted with prayers upon Columbinus, that he should coopt him among his own,

until he was admitted;

but, an experiment being premised to explore the constancy of his fervor,

he was ordered to lay aside his garments except his shirt,

to put a leathern thong on his neck,

to be dragged through the city as a criminal, to be assailed with revilings,

to be lacerated with injuries; which when the candidate had borne

not only with an equal but a cheerful mind, amid the sweet

embraces of his companions he put his shoulders under the cross, and committed

his will to the leading and governance of Columbinus to be formed.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XVII.

The apparition of the absent Columbinus made to another, his knowledge of things far distant, his departure from Montalcino, the miracles wrought on the journey, his arrival at Asciano, and the abundant harvest of the divine word there sown.

The power of prophetic light, which, constrained by no straits of times,

beholds future things as present, A companion, horrid with a prolix beard, uncombed hair, and long nails having also passed the boundaries of places, beholds distant things

from near at hand, was present to Columbinus

both often at other times, and when to Francis Vincent,

dwelling at Siena, he himself, absent, took care to announce

what he had learned by the revelation of the Spirit. For he, indeed,

not content with the accustomed harshnesses, assiduously added something for vexing his body,

by which the contempt might be augmented, on this side of convenience,

on that of honor and his own reputation;

and therefore he displayed unshorn and uncombed hair,

an uncultivated and growing-wild beard, nails

prolixly deformed, so that, as if some rustic or

mountaineer came forth from caves into the light,

he was to be received with the hisses of the cities and the guffaws of the multitude.

[237] In which deformity of a most foul aspect nothing

except the beautiful and upright mind Columbinus approved,

Columbinus, far distant, admonishes in a dream to remove that deformity, who therefore, dwelling at Montalcino,

gave himself to be seen by Francis through the night at Siena

as he rested, and, the rest of his harshness of life being praised,

convicted him of the length of his hair and nails, and straightway

ceased to be seen and heard. Which portent brought so great

delight to his mind, that he even broke off his sleep,

which he did not care to recall; but the rest of the night

he spent amid divine praises, and, day dawning,

he did not delay to cut his hair and nails,

and to restore himself to human form.

[238] And although he opened the vision to no mortal,

or indicated the cause of the cutting, and he, absent, knows and indicates that he obeyed his admonition. yet Columbinus,

divinely instructed, having written on the same

day a little letter to his friend at Siena, asked that greeting be given from him

to Francis, and at the same time announced that

his obedience had been approvable and acceptable to God.

At which announcement he easily understood that by the help and favor of one

and the same Spirit it had been done, that he who on the previous

night had acted as admonisher, should on the following day act as

praiser, so that in each office he showed Columbinus greater

than man.

[239] Departing from Montalcino to Asciano, When the sick companions at Montalcino had recovered

from their infirmities, Columbinus secretly withdrew himself

with them from the citizens, lest he be detained longer

by the violence of their prayers, and set out on his journey toward Asciano

^a, not only because to a man greedy for reproaches

the burden of honor and lavish benevolence was too grievous,

with which at Montalcino he was pressed by his admirers,

but because to one wondrously blazing with the desire of exalting the name of Jesus

the greatest loss seemed a longer

delay, when he had already sufficiently impelled the minds of the inhabitants

to his worship and love;

and therefore he hastened to go out, that he might water the arid fields

of the neighboring people with the saving shower of the Gospel.

[240] and hungering on the journey Fasting therefore and furnished with no viaticum they give themselves

to the way, which, amid chanting and praying, being for the greater

part accomplished, drawing near to the town, wearied

and famished, they turn aside to the cottage of a peasant on the way,

and ask, by the love of Christ, that he be not reluctant

to succor those extremely needing food. To whom the farmer,

a man of ancient probity: "My store is indeed scanty

and my house poor, but however small it be,

it is yours."

[241] in a prodigious manner cabbages Then Columbinus, "O good man," he said,

"you prepare cabbage for us, think you have prepared a fat table."

To whom the host: "If a hundred gold pieces were paid for it,

it would still not be found: for the

band of Anichino, or some other soldiers, driven partly by hunger, partly

by fury, not only the edible herbs, but

even the very trees, tore up by the roots, and scraped bare

the surrounding fields alike." Nevertheless, to the one urging

him to ask, that he go to the garden, perchance to find

what he did not hope for, he complies, otherwise certain

that in all that neighborhood not even a trace

of cabbages remained. Scarcely does he set foot in the garden,

and he beholds cabbages fructifying in it,

and, the prodigy being recognized, amazed and rejoicing, he promptly

plucks them, boils the cleansed ones, and, seasoned, sets them

before the guests.

[242] and obtains leeks for himself and his fellows. But John, not yet content, signifies

that he desires besides a few leeks. He replies

that the same misfortune had happened to the leeks as to the cabbages;

that he would seek them, however, if he bade, by no means

doubtful that in finding them he would be as fortunate as in

those; nor did the outcome teach him mistaken: for, returning to the garden,

he found fresh leeks; the gathered little bundle he cleanses, washes, offers

to the guests, and gladly

exhorts them to enjoy the heavenly gifts…

[243] At Asciano he gathers abundant fruit of preaching, Their strength being therefore refreshed by the wondrous food, the pilgrims entered

Asciano, now known by fame, and, fervent

in spirit, thundered through the squares and crossroads

the name of the Lord, and, the solemn watchword "May Jesus

Christ live" resounding in the air, the people, roused to his sermons,

heard him eagerly making words about the contempt of human

things, about penance, about the kingdom of heaven,

and was salutarily instructed unto salvation.

[244] (the Blessed one himself indicates this in a certain letter, A witness of the most abundant harvest, gathered in the ample municipality,

there survived a letter of Columbinus himself,

in few indeed, but most weighty,

words written thence to the nuns of St. Abundius:

"He," he said, "who by the help of your prayers showed himself

benevolent toward me, kindled Asciano with so great

ardor, that he reputes himself blessed

who is able to exclaim 'May Christ crucified live,'

and so great a change in it, so great charity

has followed, that it is an admiration to those beholding it."

[245] and other eyewitnesses confirmed) And soon: "Here all blaze even to madness

with the love of Christ, so that they are now delighted to hear

nothing except the name of Christ, and doubly

more their faith and charity are augmented,"

etc. ^b That these things were so was found by experiment

by some religious men of the Franciscan family,

who, having set out thither with other seculars, scarcely believed their own

eyes, seeing the grace of the divine Spirit

so affluently diffused in the hearts of those faithful,

that they confessed it not without reason to be equaled to the ancient centuries of the nascent Church.

[246] The memory and fame of the sanctity of one especially

flowed down to posterity: and there he admits a notable disciple into his congregation. Jerome was the man's name,

illustrious for the commendation of his doctrine, which yet

he loved to submit to the simplicity of Columbinus's life:

for committing himself to his discipline, he spread his sails

to attaining Evangelical perfection, and, holding his navigation through

the salt waves of poverty and penance,

brought the precious wares of virtues, especially of contemplation,

into port, and was held worthy

to whom, after Columbinus's death, the helm of the whole Order should be entrusted ^c,

which to have hinted let it be enough

in this place, being about to say more of him below ^d.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The return of blessed Columbinus to the city of Siena, the former rigor of discipline and poverty among the nuns of St. Abundius restored by him, his cousin brought to a severe method of living by his exhortation and a miracle.

The sun rises and sets, and returns to its place,

says Solomon. And our shining sun,

risen at Siena once to the world and again to heaven, The Blessed one, returned to his country, seemed to set

when he was driven into exile, when he completed his circuits,

when, traversing the various shores of Etruria, he illuminated

them with the light of sanctity and preaching; and at last

to his country, carrying his sheaves, with exultation he returns;

with how great good of it, even into the present time

the monuments dedicated to posterity testify, among which the last

in dignity is not that which nearest followed his return:

the beauty of poverty restored to the convent of St. Abundius,

and the ornaments of virtues, which accompany it,

brought in.

[248] Its discipline had not indeed collapsed,

nor did honesty exile itself from the sacred enclosures, or had any license

obscured the fame of probity among outsiders; the nuns of St. Abundius,

but, which is the calamity of the times and the weakness

of our humanity, gradually turning aside from the rigor of the Benedictine

institute, which it professes, to the private conveniences of the nuns in food and dress,

it had indulged to each the possession and use of her own

money. This relaxation grieved Columbinus,

very well knowing how safe and how

unencumbered to religious perfection and to

heaven is the way of poverty; and he set about to think seriously with himself

whether by any means he could cast into the virgins,

dear to God and to himself, a desire of it, and

induce them to abdicate the property of their goods.

[249] counsel being taken with the abbess, There presided at that time over the monastery Lady Paula

^a, notable above common women for prudence, and

of a genius most fit for undertaking the interior discipline.

Which was the cause that Columbinus did not hesitate confidently to open to her his thoughts, and,

the excellence of poverty, which Christ had consecrated on earth,

being quite often inculcated, he easily drew her to his opinion,

and persuaded her to act as intermediary with the nuns,

when he himself had represented the matter, at first sight harsh

and hedged with its difficulties, as sweet and easy,

if perhaps, which he hoped, without tumult and the ill-will of anyone

holy poverty could in some way be recalled by postliminy within the sacred

walls.

[250] he exhorts to perfect poverty, The condition being accepted from the upright superioress, Columbinus undertakes the arduous work,

and both privately with individuals, and publicly before all,

began to discourse of the splendor and merit of religious poverty,

and, authorities being sought from holy Scripture,

and examples of the Saints, especially the Benedictines,

to extol its necessity and to set forth its fruits, with an oration so attempered

to the disposition of the pious women, that not only did they assent to his words;

but also thought it a crime to disparage his counsels.

[251] and persuades them to a more exact observance of that virtue; The wills of the virgins therefore being inclined to the best part,

the matter was at last brought to this,

that all things which each kept with herself were conferred into a common

heap, and left to the arbitration and disposition

of the superioress, who providently and lovingly for the future would succor

the necessities of all, and by her own solicitude would beget for the rest a quiet and tranquillity

free of cares, that

they might more earnestly give themselves to their perfection and to divine service.

[252] which being done, demons were heard to flee, The whole house being composed to the most desired form of a fair community,

the monsters of the pit shuddered, and, a great crash being made,

the Stygian inhabitants were heard, as if driven from their seat, headlong

to depart, no otherwise than the remnants of a defeated army

snatch themselves by a tumultuous flight from the sight and sword of the victor.

Thus Ambrose, one of the companions, was wont to relate,

who, passing the night in a house next to the convent, awake had heard

the noise and gnashing of the fleeing spectres,

and therefore with inmost joys Columbinus went about,

interpreting from a not light conjecture that the wicked inhabitants had been driven thence

by the force and command of the heavenly guardians, and

that the dwelling would thereafter be pleasant to the virgins and to their king

Jesus Christ, into which the most pleasing

poverty had brought the choir of virtues.

[253] and five noble girls consecrated themselves to the same monastery, The most sweet odor of the illustrious deed, straightway

spread through the city, moved the minds of many to the veneration of the place,

and, Columbinus persuading, easily

were the nobles of Siena induced, that their daughters,

into whom a mind of chastity was cast from heaven, to be consecrated to the Lord within

the religious cloisters, they should offer and should prefer

to no other the convent of St. Abundius. In which

kind a spectacle full of pleasantness and pious was exhibited to the city

on the first day of the more sacred week, on which five girls

of the chief nobility, their foreheads bound with olive branches,

carrying palm branches in their hands,

their mothers and other matrons accompanying,

Columbinus going before, were led thither, and, their hair

being cut off, amid musical concerts, clad in the Benedictine

habit, devoted themselves to the divine servitude.

[254] So greatly did Columbinus esteem the sanctity of that place

and the discipline of its manners, which blessed John loved with a most tender affection, that he thought no one of

the convents of virgins which Italy nourishes was to be preferred to it,

and—if envy be absent from the word—that it was to be preferred to all;

and therefore not infrequently

he visited it, not only for the sake of courtesy but also of charity,

that he might add spurs to those running, and bring solace:

and this kind of office was most pleasing to all,

but to Lady Paula especially, who in the administration of the family

esteemed it true prudence to lean more on the counsel and admonitions of the man of God,

than on her own prudence;

although from long familiarity with

him she had imbibed such an opinion of the woman's probity

and excellence of judgment, that he deemed her worthy

to whom he might entrust a great part of his secrets,

and might explore her opinion in many things, in

whose heart, besides the love of Christ (as Jerome says)

which is wisdom, chastity, patience,

justice, and the other virtues, no other love

dwelt.

[255] And as once the rising sun found Benedict and Scholastica

amid divine colloquies, whom the setting sun had left

intent on the same, forgetful of sleep

and wakeful for divine things; and whose abbess he greatly esteemed, so Columbinus

and Paula, conversing of the immense charity of Jesus Christ toward the human race,

of the mysteries of his life and passion,

sometimes passed whole nights sleepless;

and his disciples heard him more than once frankly confessing

that he most greedily gaped after the pleasant things of that place,

as of some paradise,

in which he knew that the angels, and their Emperor, gladly

sojourned.

[256] Nor did he dissemble that, for the sweetness of his affection,

he was wont to accomplish all that space as he himself abundantly indicated by words and deeds. by which the gate of the city is separated from

the monastery, amid sighs and tears;

and there exist bright testimonies of this love and

esteem, the offering of his little daughter, the largess of the third part of his goods,

the designation of his tomb,

and things similar to these, of which it pleased to have said a few,

it will befit to superadd more hereafter.

But instead of all, the treasure of letters ^b,

given to Lady Paula and the nuns, is a living

and clear interpreter of the most strong bond of friendship,

by which the friends of God were mutually bound in Christ…

[257] To Columbinus, desiring under the standard of the highest poverty

to gather also feminine cohorts, it came

into his mind to think of his cousin, His cousin, whom the vigor

of her age, the innocence of her life, and, beyond her sex, the maturity of her judgment

commended, and, as it were, represented fit for laying the first stone

of the building. Her name was Catharine, daughter of Thomas his cousin,

and, as may be conjectured from the series of the events, which

the writers did not betray, bereft of both parents.

[258] From marriage indeed she bore a mind averse;

yet not in any way propense to the religious

state. averse from a more austere kind of life She had resolved within her paternal home to keep her virgin

self chaste for Christ, and, far from the waves

of exercises by which the virgin convents are occupied,

to spend the time of her pilgrimage privately,

as free from another's command as

to be spontaneously devoted to prayer and good works:

from which purpose of life Columbinus often tried

to lead her to the better counsels of poverty; but he beat

the air, the discourse seemed hard, and was received coldly,

nay, even irksomely, until it pleased the Lord

to open her heart, and to fit it for the heavenly infusions.

[259] to embrace Evangelical perfection The houses inhabited by him and by Catharine a party-wall

joined, in which, by the consent of their kinsmen, a window was permitted

for conversations, and for the mutual services of kindred

opportune. Hither, at the first watch of the night, his cousin

is summoned by John, and by a question

akin to an excuse she asks whether he is the untimely interrupter of her meditated

prayer. To whom she: "Candidly

I will confess, I was thinking now not of prayer, but of rest,

to which evening and darkness invite the household;

and behold the lamp which I have prepared

and filled with oil, that it may abundantly suffice for one seeking

to go to bed, and not thinking to keep vigil longer."

[260] with various arguments and examples Here it was ready for John to recall the parable of the prudent virgins,

who took oil with them in their lamps,

and to apply it to those who prepare their lamps, that is, who adorn

their souls with virtues, and, temporal things being despised, seek eternal ones,

placing all their trust in the providence of the Lord,

who feeds the fowls of the heaven and has care of all…

And when he went on to urge with examples and

arguments, the Lord added grace to his words

and force to his ardor, so that the heart of the hearer was bent

to wisdom, and gradually, the vigor and splendor of the word

penetrating to the marrow, was illumined.

[261] he had often exhorted, which at last. And the business was happily accomplished, when,

roused by an unexpected prodigy and wholly overcome, she most readily

gave her hand, and wholly yielded to the arbitration of her exhorter:

for when he perceived from her countenance and eyes

the change of her mind, and noticed that he had usefully

bestowed his effort, he wished to dismiss her,

and sent her away to rest: and she went away indeed unwillingly, but,

thinking that modesty was to be spared, obeyed,

lest by a longer delay she should create trouble for one who had long spoken.

[262] a miracle being seen, But scarcely had she withdrawn her foot, when through the chinks of the windows

she beholds the dawning day, and, marveling:

"Now," she says, "it is not time for sleeping; the day has dawned,

and the sun illumines the lands." To whom John:

"What day is it? Look at your lamp": and, her eyes

turned to it, she sees it swelling with the oil in no way diminished,

and yet during all this time of the conversation

she does not doubt it had burned, and it behooved that credence,

which could not be denied to the eyes of both beholding, be granted to the miracle.

On this side the sun's rays demonstrate that a whole night had passed;

on that the oil floating above testifies a force superior

to nature in its own conservation.

[263] she followed the counsel of her exhorter. Indeed Catharine is amazed, nor does she sufficiently

grasp what she experiences done: how it could be

that that nocturnal space of many hours,

as a moment, without weariness and lassitude,

nay, spent with the highest delight,

should leave her vigorous and alert, as if she had rested very

long and sweetly slept. Then, her mind raised on high,

she recognizes not obscurely the will of the Godhead calling her to itself,

and interprets the marvelous deed as confirming Columbinus's sayings,

which therefore to resist any further would be impious and noxious,

but to assent to them a most salutary counsel and the prudence

of the Saints. Nor did she delay to open this feeling

of her mind and resolve to John,

and to offer herself ready for all things which it might please him to command ^c…

NOTES.

CHAPTER XIX.

The various miracles which happened in the life of blessed John Columbinus.

I begin from a prodigy no less horrid in appearance,

than plainly wonderful in its unexpected outcome.

Columbinus had gathered himself and his own from their daily labor with outsiders

into the little house, A disciple, on account of importunate garrulity, which for a dwelling

we related above was sought, and because it was winter,

and their limbs, ill-covered, grew stiff with cold,

they warmed themselves at the fire; and that to their minds

too their own warmth might not be lacking, with divine colloquies

they rendered that modest indulgence more relishing.

One of them, whether from a lust of contradicting

or an itch of speaking, untimely too clever with quibbles,

impeded the sweetness and fruit of the discourse.

[265] The good Father, ill-bearing this, "To what end,"

he said, ordered to place his head in the fire, keeps from injury, "these preposterous subtleties, except that a friendly

conversation be involved in altercations? Indeed you

are guilty of no light fault, and worthy to be compelled

to press your mouth to these kindled coals: and this

penalty of your levity I impose on you, that the rest

by your example may become more cautious. Straightway therefore

put your insane head to those burning coals,

and do not move it thence unless bidden." Straightway the disciple

obeyed the fatal command, and put his neck under the flaming

wood, and undaunted remained, until

the Master ordered him to withdraw it. Wonderful to say and

difficult to believe, did it not have eyewitnesses, as many as

stood by the fire ^a, and had shuddered at the horrible thunder

of the command, and from horror had passed into ecstasy

and amazement, the miracle being seen ^b…

[266] While our John traversed the villages and castles of the Sienese

dominion, and another sick man one of the companions at Terranera ^c,

not so far from the city of the municipality, fell into a disease,

by whose gravity his strength was shaken and his stomach

so weakened, that it spurned any food,

and indeed exceedingly abhorred it. The sickness

of his languishing son anguished the bowels of the merciful Father,

and, that he might bring some relief, he asked

earnestly and almost compelled him frankly to open,

of all the viands that might be set before his mind,

whether any pleased his palate, or provoked his appetite?

To whom the sick man: "A salad," he said, "of lettuce

I would eat with relish."

[267] Straightway Columbinus runs to the garden;

but of lettuce not even a trace does he find, obtains lettuce from heaven. nor

does any hope shine anywhere of finding it, because

herbs of this kind, in the highest heats of summer, such as

it then was, no peasant of that place had cultivated

or sown. It must be sought therefore from heaven, which earth

denied: and, cast on his knees, he asks lettuce of the Father

of mercies, who produced every green

herb, and, to those asking bread, gives not a stone. Scarcely had he begun his prayer,

and he beholds lettuce curling in the soil, reaps it, prepares

a vinegar-dish, sets it before the sick man, which, pleasantly

chewed, was a present antidote,

and wholly dispelled all the malice of the disease. Not

single was this fruit of prayer: for both the lettuce, by its efficacy, the earth germinated,

and it obtained health for the sick man…

[268] To one dying, health Louis Marescotti ^d, a noble of Siena,

a black fever had so prostrated, that his safety,

despaired of by the reckoning of the physicians, was bewailed by his household.

Him, as a familiar, Columbinus

visited, wont also to strangers and unknown persons not to deny this kind

of office. When he set foot in the sick man's chamber,

he perceived that his strength had ebbed, and that the last

hour of his life was near at hand, nor that the physicians were mistaken

who had pronounced it done with his safety. Nevertheless,

while he himself insists on acting the consoler with pious colloquy,

and persuades him to hope well in the clemency of God and

the merits of Jesus Christ, "What," said Louis,

"should I hope? When I struggle with death, and SCARCELY

now can I speak, should I hope to live?"

[269] and predicts a son to be begotten. But Columbinus answers, from consoler become

a prophet: "Indeed I bid you hope; you shall not die;

you shall recover, nay rather you are reserved for the opportune begetting

of a son, whom the good Lord is to give

you." What more? He who among his last gaspings

was now not for turning his tongue, breathed again,

recovered, saw his wife carrying in her womb and

bringing forth a boy, on whom it pleased to bestow the name of Angelus,

as on offspring coming from heaven. There went through

the mouths and discourses of men both the parent's safety,

obtained by John's prayers, and the son's

begetting foretold by prophecy: and of both Louis was wont

again and again openly and privately to make pleasant

commemoration, both for the benefit received,

and for the sake of proclaiming the benefactor's sanctity.

[270] A certain man gravely wounded, Somewhat more splendid was, in a deadly case,

the assertion of one ^e from the doors of death into life. This man was going

with John to the temple of the Friars Minor in the town

of Columbaio ^f, subject to Siena; and, a stone falling from a lofty

roof, he was lethally wounded in the right temple,

for whom the skilled physicians pronounced that no remedy

remained humanly. Columbinus fled

to the help of the heavenly Physician, and was not frustrated of his hope:

for, the wound being straightway healed,

it was permitted the sick man to rise, and to complete the rest of the journey with

his benefactor.

[271] and another afflicted with pains In the same place, visiting one tormented with sharp pains,

he consoles him with most courteous words, and by the hope of eternal joys

exhorts him to tolerate the momentary tribulation;

then at his departure, having prayed well, he bids him be

certain of God's clemency. Nor did his words go into the wind, as he departed:

for straightway the force of the pains remitted, and a little after the sick man recovered,

which he ordered to be announced to John by a servant,

a gift also being sent to indicate his gratitude to one seeking

or wishing nothing except the honor of God

and the good of his neighbors.

[272] he restored to health, He confessed thereafter that he acknowledged himself affected with a greater

gift, when, the disease recurring, its troubles were tolerated with unusual

patience and equanimity of mind, at which both he himself and his household

wondered, who, comparing his past

peevishness with his present gentleness,

ascribed the benefit to the prayers of Columbinus,

God willing through them to heal at once the sickness of mind, and of body

vexed with pains, and to reserve him unharmed for the wonderful deeds which afterward

were wrought by him.

[273] From the affluence of the interior light of the same,

with which the mind of Columbinus, perpetually illumined, shone,

into the exterior limbs of the body sometimes rays were poured out, [and, in the presence of his companions, having suffered a swoon of soul from the heat of divine love]

which could not but be seen by the eyes of his companions:

having once gone out with them into a field, that

far from the din of the city he might tranquilly meditate on heavenly things

and speak of them more freely and prolixly,

the pleasantness of the flowering meadow inviting and supplying matter

for discourse, he set about to speak of the goodness

and wisdom of the Creator, shining forth even in the very herbs and flowers,

and, the flame of love growing amid his words,

drawn away from his senses he fell prone on the ground,

and ceased to move his tongue.

[274] The companions recognized the divine infusions and a swoon

not unlike that languor, flashes with immense splendor. with which the most chaste spouse

testified that she melted away, and asked to be supported with flowers and

surrounded with apples for the solace of her swoon; and, little flowers being plucked

here and there, they covered on every side the one cast on the ground,

so that not even the least part of his body

lay open to the gaze: then eagerly hastening to take away the same,

because, consecrated by that touch, they were held for relics,

when they uncovered his face, it shone splendid

as the sun, and by its brightness the sharpness

of the eyes, not enduring to fix their gaze, was dazzled,

until it gradually remitted, and his face was restored to its former

form and color: which yet

not at once, but slowly succeeded, a flame-like ruddiness clinging to his cheeks

and bringing comeliness, such as

sometimes, expressed by skilled painters, represented a seraphic

face darting flames ^g.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XX.

The departure of blessed John from the city of Siena to Viterbo, the ingenious industry of a youth on that journey, that he might become the Blessed one's disciple, and other things worthy of record which were done at Viterbo.

While blessed John, with his companions, about to meet the Roman Pontiff, About the year 1367 Urban the Fifth set out from Avignon

^a, and, proceeding by a maritime journey,

with a favorable voyage was at last landed at the port of Corneto

^b. When Columbinus learned this, thinking

that an occasion was offered him of deserving well of the supreme Pontiff,

and of seeking some support for his new congregation from the supreme

authority, he deemed it fair to communicate his counsel to his companions, whom

it concerned, and by the rules of prudence

diligently to discuss it. And these, reasons being weighed

on either side, thought it expedient to go to meet him, not only that to the supreme

Prelate, by the kissing of his feet, they might pay

due veneration and reverence;

but also that they might render an account of their institute and manner

of living, as to the vicar of Christ,

to whom to know it especially pertains, that the little skiff

of their new company, tossing amid the waves of human

judgments and discourses, he might strengthen with the anchor of pontifical

firmness, and by approbation

guard from the incursions of perils.

[276] He sets out from Siena to Viterbo, And so, rejoicing in hope and trusting in the Lord,

they set out on their journey, by which the way is from Siena to Viterbo ^c,

and, softening it, by custom, with the songs of meditations and divine praises,

the broad plains, the depths of valleys, the heights of mountains

thereupon they filled with the sonorous jubilation of their voices:

"May Jesus Christ live; may Jesus Christ be praised."

And the beginning of that journey was fortunate and celebrated by the ingenious

device of one youth, and by an industry

by no means to be passed over in silence.

[277] a youth, who had often sought in vain to be enrolled in Columbinus's company, Blancus de Sanctis ^d (he was sprung from the municipality of Anciolina

sent by his parents while still a boy to Siena, was giving his effort

to learning the art of wool-working, and on account of his long

habitation in the city was everywhere called a Sienese,

although in the region of the Florentine dominion he had

his birth. The ingenuous disposition of his mind, and, in a beautiful

body, a fairer virtue, had rendered him dear to his equals,

acceptable to his elders, lovable to all;

but to Columbinus among few, contemplating the fruit of heavenly

grace in that flower of age:

he was admitted to familiarity and frequent colloquies;

not yet, however, to his fellowship and habit,

although sought by frequent and importunate prayers,

whether because his tender and delicate age seemed unequal to the harshness of that life,

or because, while the constancy of a purpose is proved by delay,

the price also of the ware and its esteem

is augmented, and it avails much

for establishing it.

[278] he anticipates them on the journey, and courteously invites them to dinner, But when his prayers had less succeeded, he fled

to art. On the day when they had to depart, he himself hastened

to go before the travelers, not even thinking of it: and when

to a lodging about three miles distant

(whether a hired one or of some friend?) he had come,

he took care to have a dinner prepared, most convenient for refreshing them,

that is, modestly elegant and liberal,

such as could be offered by a not avaricious host, and

received by religious guests, fairly. These,

when they passed by, were beheld by Blancus with a countenance

rosy between cheerfulness and modesty; bidden farewell

unexpectedly, they are earnestly asked to deign, for the love of God,

to take a morsel of bread in the nearby lodging;

that there a breakfast was prepared, which would not displease them,

because it was furnished by hospitable poverty.

Whom, though hard and boorish, would not the festive courtesy

and youthful candor, shining in the gentle invitement, have bent?

[279] They turned aside therefore, and, received with full congratulation of services,

after a little rest all reclined at the table, which being finished, he urgently repeats his petition, to which with so great alacrity Blancus brought

and ministered the foods, as if to a king

or emperor he had rendered services. After the dinner,

before the journey was resumed, hope giving him courage and

desire impelling him, Blancus appears in that crown of the guests,

and, prostrate on his knees, his face bedewed with tears,

renews his supplication, and adjures Columbinus

by the charity of Christ, no longer to defer his old and ardent

wishes, as he knew them;

that he would not rise before he was received by a benign embrace

as companion and son.

[280] The bowels of the best Father were moved, so that

he assented to the petition so fervid, and obtains his wish. and, having followed him

with the mark of salutation, a kiss in turn, he made from a candidate

a novice of the new soldiery, from a merchant an athlete

of Christ. But Blancus, seeming blessed at the long-desired inauguration,

bidding farewell to wool and flax and all secular

gain, was made a companion of the pilgrimage, which

led to Viterbo, and which led to heaven,

as in its place below I purpose to relate ^g.

[281] Thus, the strength of the body being refreshed with food, and their minds

cheered by the fair accession of Blancus, Thence blessed John and his companions the rest

of the way they accomplished in the same tenor as they were wont, of prayers,

pious colloquies, spiritual songs;

and because the fame of Columbinus's sanctity had grown frequent

through all that region, wherever he went,

it excited a desire of seeing and honoring him, so that it was not

necessary to beg alms, for to those not asking

alms were eagerly supplied: which when it happened everywhere

in the towns and castles wherever there was a passage,

at Viterbo especially the magnificent liberality or mercy toward

the poor of Christ willed itself to be seen.

[282] For the religious company, having entered there,

where it worshiped God with adoration in the chief temple, they come to Viterbo

proceeded to the greatest square, and there, when Columbinus had held

a sermon to the crowded multitude,

he did not blush to use the ground for a table and openly with

his companions to take food, and, simplicity being minister,

to exhibit a specimen of frugality and temperance.

And although there were not lacking those who earnestly

invited him into their houses to eat and

almost compelled him; yet fearing lest with his numerous

company he should incommode his hosts, he preferred the public

square to private halls and fat tables to the food of bread

and cold water.

[283] But the honorable citizens ill-brooked those newcomers

concealing the splendor of their nobility under the obscurity of their garments, where they are benignly received by the citizens, and their sanctity by their habit

and manners testifying it, that after the weariness of their pedestrian journey

they should, in the public light, break their fast with little morsels of dry bread,

and meanly satisfy the necessity of nature,

and therefore not a few hastened to heap up manifold viands

with that promptitude which should be equal to declaring their profuse

benevolence, and superior in number

and to the need of those eating. For each placed part

of his glory in the largess, and the zeal of very many burned in rendering services

and offering gifts, as Columbinus himself

left it testified in letters given to Lady Paula, often mentioned ^h.

[284] And a heavenly prodigy augmented the veneration,

which, at their very entrance, in the eyes of all, for the commendation

and honor of his servants, it pleased the divine goodness to display: and by infants they are wonderfully called Jesuati. for as they went

in troops through the city, when to see them

the multitude of the people poured itself forth, and heard, marveling,

them proclaiming "May Jesus Christ live; may

Jesus Christ be praised," behold,

suddenly the tender infants, their little lips being for a while removed

from the nipples of the breasts, cried out: "Behold the Jesuati:

these are the Jesuati: do good to the Jesuati," the crowd,

which was present around, being amazed, and the miracle,

both in the salutation imparted by the little children,

and in the formation of the name, which through mute

tongues we truly judge was articulated by the angels…

In whatever manner those infants became eloquent

heralds, if anyone doubt or deny that their voices, not by stammering,

but by speaking distinctly, gave the name to the Jesuati,

he indeed is injurious to antiquity, which, celebrated

by the tradition of a miracle from its origin, and by monuments certain,

had hoped for an unhesitating credence

from ages to come ⁱ.

[285] Columbinus visits at Viterbo the abbot of Marseilles, It seemed good to John during those days in which he was dwelling at Viterbo,

to visit some of the chief men, that

with them he might have some fruit, as also with the common people.

He went therefore to Urban's nephew, the abbot of Marseilles,

then dwelling there;

and he was received lovingly by him, and, speaking of divine things,

was very benignly heard. He loved in him

the candor of his mind and Christian simplicity;

but his ardor of charity he so looked up to, that

he did not hesitate to confess that the name of Saint, commonly given to him, was deservedly due.

[286] from whom he refuses to receive money offered: But among the other signs of love and honor

which he had given while they were dwelling in the city, this besides

he added to them departing, namely a little bag full of money,

a necessary viaticum for the journey, as he thought,

which yet Columbinus, thanks being given for his

largess, steadfastly refused, lest by that support a blemish

should be cast over his supreme confidence in the divine providence,

or anything should be detracted from the brightness of a most exact

poverty: which abstinence availed much

for confirming and augmenting the esteem of the sanctity of the man of God.

[287] then he goes to the Count of Nola, What follows has, in a very light matter, a weight

by no means light. There acted at Viterbo as captain,

as they commonly called it, of the patrimony, the Count of Nola,

a man illustrious in birth, powerful in favor and authority

with the prince and the people. Him too Columbinus

had resolved to meet with this counsel,

that to a man engaged in secular business something

of Evangelical salt might be rubbed off from the colloquy,

and, to the memory of one wandering through earthly things, eternal things

might be recalled.

[288] who invites him to supper; The visit succeeded according to his wish: for when the count began to taste

the savor of his words, roused by an appetite of his most sweet familiarity, he invited him

to sup with him, and, that he might not refuse the profane banquet,

affirmed that by his presence and that of his own and by discourse it could be

rendered sacred. Nor did John suffer himself long to be

asked, presaging in spirit that this facility of his

would not moderately profit the inviter.

[289] but when the Count did not dare to eat lettuce, On the appointed day they come to supper, which,

by the custom of the region in the summer time, was begun with lettuce:

this, while the other guests tasted it, the captain

could not endure even to look at except with a twisted gaze;

at which John, feigning to wonder, asks

what the cause is, why he abstains from the most savory viand and delight of the first table,

and invites him at least to taste

it modestly. To whom he: "For fourteen

years I have not even touched lettuce, because my stomach does not tolerate

the coldness of the herb, and,

if it is taken in, it is not digested except after a long night's struggle

and torment, and therefore all appetite

for food is lulled, nor is it roused except by a troublesome fast."

[290] Then John: "Let my lord not fear,

for the love of Christ, to eat one mouthful or two,

John persuades him to eat it, and asserts that it will do no harm, and let him hope it will do no harm." "I will take it,"

he answered, "though certain of the vexation that will disturb my rest

the whole night"; and one leaf, in favor of the one asking,

well chewed, he swallowed. And behold,

a prophecy at the banquet: again he is bidden to be

of good cheer, that from that moment all weakness of his stomach

would pass into vigor, and its strength would strongly digest

all cold things.

[291] The outcome proved the truth of his saying; the count perceived

his inner parts grow warm from the taking of that mouthful;

which prediction the outcome proved to have been true. and they persevered so far in being invigorated thereafter,

that all colder things, and things more difficult of digestion,

were eaten with impunity. And he rejoiced

to relate the deed to all the Prelates, and even to Urban himself,

who all wondered, and said that,

just as Christ the Lord had rendered the nuptials of Cana

of Galilee auspicious by the wonderful conversion of water into wine,

so he had willed to honor by a miracle that supper, salutary

and memorable to the count, that it might become known

in what place he held Columbinus with himself, and how greatly

he wished him to be esteemed by men and the sacred

princes of the Roman court.

NOTES.

CHAPTER XXI.

The journey of blessed John to Corneto, the reception of Pope Urban in the port of Corneto, the departure to Viterbo, his congregation approved by the supreme Pontiff, and a uniform habit prescribed to all his companions.

Columbinus and his companions, having set out for Corneto Urban was daily expected in the port of Corneto,

whose landing Columbinus hastened to anticipate

with some foster-sons of his discipline,

especially Vincent, older than the rest, and, by long

use and experience of affairs, fitter for taking and giving

counsels. But although the city, intent on the apparatus

for receiving the supreme Pontiff,

had not enough leisure or mind for receiving the foreign

newcomers with honor; yet when it beheld men come to it,

raised above mortals by the fame of their virtues and prodigies, it derived even part of its cares

to receiving them lovingly and treating them liberally.

[293] among other things they expend their effort on adorning those things, But they, content with a few things, turning all their zeal to the salvation

of souls, as elsewhere everywhere, to exalt

the name of the Lord, to declaim against vices,

to exhort all to penance, and what remained

of time from those offices was diligently given to furnishing

and adorning the conclaves of the Pontiff and Cardinals,

and to composing the couches;

and this sedulity was not unpleasing to the workmen assigned to it,

who were relieved by another's labor, and redeemed with no price

another's labor spontaneously exhibited;

very acceptable also to the Friars Minor of St. Francis,

whose convent, as sacred and ample,

the magistracy had designated as a fitting lodging for the Vicar of Christ.

[294] which were being prepared to honor the coming of the Pontiff, And when a wooden bridge, of hasty indeed,

but elegant workmanship surpassing the material, was being built on the shore,

that the descent from the sea might be more convenient and honorable,

they conferred part of their diligence too on that substructure, not without the immense approbation mixed with admiration of the superintendents,

not ignorant of what and how great men they were, who

lowered themselves to these humble and laborious works for the love of God.

Things now being composed, and the bridge adorned,

on the 4th of June ^a of the year 1367, the Pontifical trireme

drawing near the port, the crowds are bidden to withdraw,

and to leave a free space for the Pontiff descending;

to John and his companions it was permitted to remain,

as men to be honored above the common.

[295] whom they receive with pious acclamations, These, girding their foreheads with olive garlands, and

carrying olive branches in their hands, thinking that they could

more festively congratulate and applaud his happy arrival in no other way,

than if by a sonorous entreaty

they should indicate the joy arising from piety, falling on their knees

all together persevered to cry out:

"May Jesus Christ live, and may Pope Urban,

the vicar of Christ, live."

[296] and are admitted to the kissing of his feet and other tokens of benevolence; Approaching thence nearer, they were admitted to the kissing of his feet,

the Pontiff himself assenting and flattering with the cheerfulness of his countenance:

and although the crowded nobility of every rank

and order, hemming in his sides, made straits on every side,

nevertheless for the poor of Christ a free access from the pressure was procured;

nay rather, an honor reserved for the chief of the great was granted to two of them,

that with their right hands they should sustain the shafts of the hanging

canopy, which overshadowed Urban, carried on a horse,

while he was led into the city:

which pledge of singular honor was matter of the discourses

which through the mouths of the court and the city were rolled that day,

and matter of the letters

which, concerning the Pontiff's arrival and the magnificence of the pomp,

were written through the various parts of Europe…

[297] Further, so great through these days was the concourse of legates

and Prelates, but since in so great a concourse of nobles so great the throng of magnates and the rest of the nobles

seeking the ears of the Pontiff,

that it was not permitted to lend them at once to Columbinus. Meanwhile,

while he awaits an opportune time for approach, he set about to meet

the chief men, whom he vehemently desired as

patrons and favorers of his cause, and to make them more certain of his affairs, that

is, those proper to the divine glory. First

of all he visited the Cardinal of Avignon,

the brother by blood of Urban himself, to whom, since the man's sanctity had before been known

by fame only, he looked upon him returning with most willing eyes, and, his institute of life

being praised, and his labors so fruitful to the Christian commonwealth, he most courteously promised his help and effort

in aiding the congregation.

[298] It befell him to experience the same courtesy from

Lord Francis Bruno of Florence, they could not conveniently address the Pontiff, to whom notable

wisdom and probity had won a place with the supreme Pontiff

made a place among his secretaries. Nor did the so prompt benignity

of the two chief men bring John a small consolation;

and he was wont thereafter to compare the Cardinal to a white

lamb, whose gentleness is noted among

living things, and its innocent simplicity. It was not

permitted, through the straits of time and the number of occupations and

persons besieging the court, for Columbinus

conveniently to converse with the supreme Pontiff,

and to treat of his affairs. But this difficulty

turned out well, which was less in facility and abundance