Angelus Clarenus

ON B. ANGELUS CLARENUS, FROM THE ORDER OF MINORS OF S. FRANCIS

PREFECT OF THE POOR HERMITS OTHERWISE OF THE CLARENI IN ITALY.

A. MCCCXXXVII ℣ XLVIII

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Angelus Clarenus, Prefect of the Poor Hermits otherwise of the Clareni in Italy (B.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

§. I. Miracles, written shortly after death: his day, year, place: veneration of the body.

Having lustrated the Roman Libraries, having proceeded to Florence P. Henschen & I in the year MDCLX; while we awaited license to approach the Laurentian; we placed the first days there in that, which the Most Illustrious Senator Charles Strozzius, From a Florentine Ms. a most learned old man, had collected privately for himself, with various Manuscript codices, numerously furnished above the condition of a private man, & not few & not contemptible fruits we brought back from it. But before the rest is to be mentioned here one to us, signed num. 12, containing Epistles of B. Brother Angelus de Clarino of the Order of Minors, after which on fol. 88 was read thus; The undersigned were sent by D. Robert of Mileto to Brother Gentilis of Foligno, a modest time after the death of Fr. Angelus de Clarino; Miracles to be given here: but the matter itself was declared by this title Some miracles, which could come to me, of many hitherto performed, from faithful relation, which omnipotent & merciful God deigns to work, for the merits of his servant our Father, holy Old man, Fr. Angelus. There was not leisure to describe the Epistles themselves, because signed on no day & place, & nearly about things pertaining to the spirit, they promised nothing greatly looking to history; yet with letters written to Rome to R. P. Francis Harold, successor of Wadding, I indicated to him the treasure found;

& persuaded that he should take care to transcribe the codex: which he also did: but I had enough to transcribe the aforesaid Miracles.

[2] For least could I doubt about any singular cult of his of old, whence is established about the great concourse to the dying man, & perhaps even now, when in num. 7 I read these things. When the unknown man, namely Angelus, a pilgrim & segregated from the congregations & tumults of the world, was making the passage in a place of desert, removed from all habitation, for a space of three days; before the going out of his soul from the body, was made such a concourse of men coming to see him: when the fame from there had flown;

In the place of S. Mary of Asprum a certain Saint migrates; which was of necessity for us to place guards at the door of the cell, lest men could enter except in turn: & on the day of his passage, which was on the fifteenth of the month of June, so many were running together, from different places & castles with processions, that according to the estimation of many, more than two thousand persons were there gathered. Follow many miracles at the sepulchre, but mutilated at the end; so that of wondrous felicity for our matter is, that those things were found written, & the veneration of the sepulchre, so far as was needed, that the name of the writer might be known, familiar & tent-companion of the Blessed; & the year in which Angelus died; for they finish with these precisely words. I Fr. Philip, assistant to the holy old man Fr. Angelus, on the VI feria within the Octave of Pentecost, namely on the feast of S. Anthony.

[3] That it concerns the last year of life, is established from what precedes: But that Feast, Death in the year 1337 or 1348. as all know, falls on XIII June; the Feast therefore of Pentecost, within whose Octave that concurred with the VI feria, was celebrated on VIII June, & Easter on the XX day of April. It is established furthermore that Fr. Angelus in the year MCCCXVII, before the Pontiff then residing in Gaul, underwent a second judgment, about which below, & after this year in the whole XIV century no year had Easter on the XX day of April, except MCCCXXXVII & XLVIII: one or the other therefore year was the last for Angelus. To me the prior year pleases more: for although it is necessary to conceive him as quite old, who by antonomasia is called Holy old man, yet Angelus who in the year MCCXC, in which among the zealots of Franciscan poverty he was one chief, & therefore sent into Armenia, (For which is badly noted 1249, in Possevinus, we cannot conceive less than a forty-year-old, & thus close to ninety in the year MCCCXXXVII. But if anyone shall wish to have prolonged his life to about the hundredth year, he will easily find that the year of death noted by Possevinus 1249, can be reduced, if not to the true, at least near the true, by changing one cipher manifestly erroneous, & substituting 1349. For although the title of the Apparatus sacer, reprinted at Cologne in the year 1608, bears that the work was recognized by the Author, yet it does not excuse typographical errors about ciphers, which committed in the first edition either could be left, or new ones made; as we ourselves experience in our work, although it be printed with us present, & less than Possevinus distracted to other things. And let this be taken said to them through the lattice, who took it ill, that at the name of Joseph of Antioch, who in Possevinus is read to have lived in the year 130, a cipher was added by us, by which it would be understood, that he lived 1300. For although in this the error was not of the Typographer, but of Possevinus himself: who from that error says, that that Joseph was reported to have been a very ancient writer; yet Possevinus deserves to be excused in such a work, where most things he had to say from the writings of others, & those only hurriedly perused; by typographical error probably) in which one o could easily have fallen out, with the defect not observed by Possevinus, hastening in a brief time a great volume & to be divided into three tomes.

[4] Wadding, in the book on the Writers of his Order, coming to Angelus, confesses that to himself it remains uncertain, on day 15 June, in what place or year he died. About the Year I think I have done enough; & defined two, one of which or the next following (that the number of Possevinus may be somewhat saved) must be elected. About the day no doubt can be, after such authentic testimony of Fr. Philip, probably present. Nor however should Arturus of the monastery be vehemently censured, that by his discretion he defined the day XXVI April; but together at the same time he should be pardoned, that he judged it lawful to himself, to those whom for saints or Blesseds he believed to be held each in his place, nor however found any affixed to any certain day, to define some suitable for filling his Ephemerides: yet we ask, that thus doing, he should not be thought a suitable author against us, as if more certainly & better ascertained he wrote. The place where Angelus died, not 26 April, in the Basilicata province formerly Lucania to be found, Philip teaches num. 10, & also the often named Marsicum-novum, & other neighboring castles or towns of Saponara, Murro, Marsicum-vetus, with which surrounded the mount, called of S. Mary, the tables express, & which from the harshness of the situation surnamed de Aspro, you would not without foundation believe. There is indeed no mention of that place under such surname among the writers of the Order or in the descriptions of Provinces & Convents: near Marsicum-novum. but this you will not wonder, if you consider, that the Hermits commonly Clareni, from the time of S. Peter Celestine, that is from the end of the XIII century, until Sixtus IV, were of their own right, just as now are the Capuchins; of whom similarly no reason will be found, in the descriptions of Provinces & minoritical Convents.

[5] The name to them, not from Clermont in Gaul (as Peter Rodulphius Tossinianensis wrote) or some perhaps similar name in Italy, they received; but, as Wadding on the year 1302 num. 8 defines, from the river Clarenus, between Ascoli & the Alps of Norcia, to which returned from the Orient, in that year MCCC, Fr. Angelus Asculanus, acquired a dwelling, in which with some of his disciples he lived peacefully until the year MCCCXVII: Surname from the river Clarenus between Ascoli & Norcia. but the last years of life he spent in the hermitage of S. Mary of his profession which I said, about VI miles distant from Marsicum-novum, an Episcopal city in Lucania; near which the new Order of Celestines, at the first stone from the city, had founded a monastery under the title of S. James, which now suppressed & attributed to the Seminary of Clerics writes Ughellus tom. 7, col. 679. Of this monastery the Prior Fr. Thomas, a holy man himself also, & to Angelus while he lived very familiar, when for some days after the passage of the man of God, for the cause of devotion, Old Antiphons & Collect of Angelus as Blessed came to visit his holy tomb; & placed himself above the sepulchre, prostrate in prayer, immediately after the hour of Compline; & there as if through the whole night passed the night, not without no small consolation & the profusion of many tears; while the Poor Friars came together for performing the Matutinal office, he asked for a writing tablet, & wrote, as the Spirit of the Lord had taught him, in that pious & compassive meditation, Antiphons & a Prayer, in this manner. At Magnificat.

Hail, humble Father of fervid charity, Wondrous Lover of holy poverty; Kindly Father Angelus, by the prayer of piety, Pray God continually for our sins.

At Benedictus.

Worshipper of Christ, light of penance, Angelus supported by the edge of manners. After labors & wearinesses of the world, Rejoices in the rest of paradise.

℣. Pray for us B. Angelus.

℞. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray. God who hast tried B. Angelus, thy servant, with many tribulations, & hast imbued his heart with the heavenly understanding of the holy Scriptures; grant, we beseech, that by his merits & prayers our mind may be separated from depraved thoughts, & may continually contemplate those things which are pleasing to thee.

[6] some doubts about the place & body, These are read among the aforesaid Miracles num. 11: & the Antiphons with the Collect, indicated there, are transcribed whole at the end of the Codex. But whether these were so publicly daily recited among the Divine offices, with Commemorations usual after Lauds & Vespers; or only hung at the sepulchre for the devotion of those running there, & how long, I shall not divine. I doubt also, whether that place, in which B. Angelus died, the Hermits held until the end, that is until the times of Sixtus IV, in which the peculiar Congregation & name of the Clareni ceased. The reason of doubting is, that the same Sixtus IV, in the year MCCCCLXXIII the Society of the Poor Hermits, formerly called of Brother Angelus Chiarini, about to subject them to the General Minister of the Franciscan Order at their own petition, remembered them only, as dwelling in the Firmana & some other dioceses: & that Wadding enumerating those dioceses in num. 11, only names the Asculan, Foligno, Spoletan, Amerine, Norcian, Aquilan & Reatine; but is silent about the Marsican & other dioceses of the Neapolitan Kingdom. I doubt finally, whether in that place remained the body of B. Angelus; for in the Distribution of Provinces of the year MDXVI, under the Province of S. Angelus, which embraces the Basilicata, the fifth Convent is reckoned, of S. Mary of Valle-Aspera (which does not much differ from Asprum; nor however there is said to lie Angelus of Cingulus or Clarenus; but Bessamius the German, of much less note compared with him. Wherefore if before the aforesaid union the Hermits departed from that place, perhaps from the whole Neapolitan Kingdom going out; it will be permitted to suspect, that they themselves transferred the body of their Father with them, to one of the aforesaid dioceses, in which they had their hermitages.

[7] To know more certain things I have not spared the labor of writing letters there; to which a reply is still desired. but neither the Bishop of the place, nor the Provincial of the Franciscans there, the Author, as is written to me, of three tomes on the Saints & Blesseds of his Order, digested in the manner of a Diary in Italian, answered anything apt to the following articles; only the places of Authors writing about the Blessed are indicated, exposed to all, & from Arturus on the day XXVI April, which in his work not yet seen here the Provincial followed. The articles themselves therefore it pleases to subjoin here, if perhaps another more diligent & curious shall deign us with a more accurate response, which may serve for the Supplement of June. I had asked the following points.

§. II. The beginnings of the Reformation attempted by the Zealots of poverty, interwoven with the acts of B. Angelus.

[8] Lucas Wadding, after he had narrated on the year MCCLXXXIX num. 24, In the year 1289 three zealots of poverty, how under Fr. Matthew of Aquasparta, two years before made General & then Cardinal, the discipline of the Order had been loosened; All pious men, he says num. 24, zealots of their institute, of whom a copious series never was lacking in the Order, by so many manifest transgressions of the Rule were vehemently afflicted, especially in the province of the Marches. Therefore very many went forth into public, whose column was being led by those three champions of poverty, Fr. Raymond, Fr. Thomas of Tolentino, & Fr. Peter of Macerata, & withstood in the face the masters of the laxer discipline. The rumor of contrary zeal & dissension came to other Provinces; & it was judged among the Ministers, that the great danger of a schism rising, must be prevented by a swift & efficacious remedy. That was applied, are condemned to perpetual prison, that into the same Marches Province should be sent five or six Ministers, who should take up the cause of contention, & rebuke those tumultuating; & them, as authors of schism & disturbers of religious peace, should adjudge to perpetual prisons. They first cast into chains the three, whom we have said, leaders of the others; & lest a tumult arise in the Order, by another law it was provided, that none of them should dare to defend their causes, or to say them unjustly condemned. While these things

were being read, Fr. Thomas of castro-Mirini, kindled with zeal, in the fervor of spirit rising up in the assembly: I, he said, do not make my life more precious, than the protection of justice; nor can I assent to this law as equitable, which I judge altogether iniquitous. He did not say it with impunity; for from that time he was cast into prison, for the terror of others: where after a few months, rejoicing & exulting, he gave forth his spirit.

[9] In the following year MCCCXC, with Cardinal Aquaspartano abdicating the rule of the Order, whence freed in the year 1290, Raymundus Gaufridi was elected general minister, & nothing so immediately did he take care of, as is referred on this year num. 10, as to put to sleep the disturbances of the Order & especially of the Picene Province. And so with Provincial Comitia indicted, he reproached the Fathers of that tract, that so gradually & easily they had permitted most abuses, from excessive carelessness & extinguished zeal, to creep into the subjects. Then he examined the cause, on account of which those religious men, whom we have said above, had been cast into chains: nor could those Fathers render any other solid one, than that their zeal was excessive & superstitious, about the observance of poverty. And would, he said, that I & the whole Order labored with this sin; & he ordered them to be brought to him. Approaching with open arms he received them, speaking to them affable & placid things; are destined to Armenia, & with them Fr. Angelus: he persuaded them to forgive their persecutors from the heart, to persist firmly in their pious purpose, & to know that they would have a diligent helper in promoting the observance of holy poverty. But that they might escape the persecutions of others, he judged they should be destined, with three other men of the same spirit, Angelus de Clarenus, Marcus de Lupo, & a certain Peter to Hayton King of Armenia; from whom a little before he had received letters, by which he was asking, that some men of this institute be sent to him, both for the solace of his soul & of his own, & for instructing his people very many, who were daily coming to the faith of the Christians.

[10] Hence arose a murmur against the General, & a conspiracy of some, who said, that he was a favorer of fantastic & superstitious men: nor did they desist from conceived hatred, where with the King defamed as schismatics, until under Boniface VIII they cast him down from the Prefecture: but the aforesaid Brothers sent by him, & received by the King of the Armenians as Angels of heaven, they did not cease to vex. For then Guardian of Ptolemais was Fr. Paul of the Marches, Companion of the Picene Minister, who was present when they were cast into chains; & he accused them with Fr. James Minister of the Province of Syria; in whom he instilled such opinion about them, that he compelled him to write sinister things to the Armenian, & to admonish him, that he should beware of them, as of schismatic men & cut off from the Order. The King, having received the letters, applied his intimate counsellors, & at their persuasion, having called to himself the Fathers questioned them about many things; & admonished them that they should exhibit to him obediential letters of their Prelates. As he read, & saw them greatly commended by the Primicerius of the Order, exhibiting the obediential letters of their General: he exhorted them to be of good cheer, & expanded to them the letters of the Minister of Syria. They, to dissolve the calumny, narrated the whole matter in order: which understood, the King conceived a better opinion about them; & wrote to the Minister General, rendering innumerable thanks, that not vulgar, but perfect men, whom he would always venerate as disciples of Christ, it had pleased to destine to him.

[11] In the year MCCXCIV wondrously created Pontiff Peter of Murrone the Hermit, are received by S. Peter Celestine; & called Celestine, was crowned at Aquila in Abruzzo on XXIX August. Then some Fathers, to whom excessive desire of stricter life & purer observance had crept in, (the Annals say num. 9) counsel taken among themselves, & opportunity seized from the propensity of the new Pontiff toward Eremites, & those living in austere places; determined to promote their affairs skillfully with him. Of these the chief were Conrad Offidanus, Jacobus Tudertinus, Peter de Monticulo, Thomas de Trevio, & Conrad Spoletanus. They decreed however that, in their own name & of those adhering to them, to the Pontiff should be sent Fr. Liberatus & Fr. Peter of Macerata, who had recently returned from Armenia, & to Celestine before the Pontificate had been known & familiar; & they should ask, that to them by Pontifical authority, which no one would dare to contradict, it might be permitted to live according to the purity of the Rule & the intention of S. Francis. absolved from the Order, they receive their own Prefect Fr. Liberatus: These departed industriously; from the Pontiff, still dwelling at Aquila, what they sought under the color of piety & greater observance, they easily obtained; & they obtained also an ampler, but dangerous faculty, wherever it should please them, according to the prescript of the Rule & rigor intended by them, to cohabit. The Pontiff also gave them as Prefect F. Liberatus, the greatest zealot of poverty; to whom that he might forewarn from the molestations of the Superiors of Religion, he constituted thus at their petition, that in the future they should not be called Friars Minor, but Poor Hermits of Lord Celestine. Beyond these he sent through them commendatory letters to D. Napoleon Orsini, Cardinal of S. Adrian, a liberal & benign man, promoter of pious causes.

[12] The Rectors of the Order bore gravely such separation from the Order, With Celestine abdicating they are vexed by the Minorites, yet they did not dare to attempt anything against them, until Celestine abdicated the Pontificate; (which was done in the same year still on XXII December, with Boniface VIII soon succeeding) at which time the aforesaid Hermits, to decline the wraths & molestations of those Rectors, went into Greece & the parts of Achaia, where in a certain island they decreed to dwell. But Angelus Clarenus went with them; he too having returned from Armenia, they depart into Greece: & there in Achaia divinely was taught the Greek idiom, on the night of the Lord's nativity in the year MCCC; & thus instructed, several lucubrations of others he gave in Latin; especially a certain Dialogue of B. Macarius, a devout little book of S. John Chrysostom, one & another little work of John Climacus, in which (Rudolphius says) he wondrously showed the eminence of his understanding. Thus Wadding on the year 1289 num. 30, where he also indicates that he has various writings of his, of all which he gives a fuller account in the book on the Writers, & which we wish that sometime; collected into one volume, may come to public light. Especially the History of the seven tribulations of the Order, whence many things are found inserted in the Annals, some also below here to be transcribed, as there are found contracted into an epitome, when the original text is not at hand. Rudolphius pg. 155 treating of the Clareni, when he had said that they, under Fr. Angelus Clarenus of Cingoli, had obtained from Celestine V the faculty of living apart; into another error again he ran, where Angelus learns the language divinely. when as if speaking of another he says: There flourished among the Clareni Fr. John Cingulanus, the chief institutor, who without any master learned Greek letters: & without any word interposed adds: Fr. Angelus died in the kingdom of Naples, which Arturus wishing to reconcile, called him Joannes Angelus.

[13] In the year 1302 In the year MCCCII, by the new General Minister John, of Maurus, were celebrated at Genoa the General Comitia of the Order, in which he, excited by the cries & complaints of the zealots of poverty, by encyclical letter sent rigorously commanded, both certain other things in favor of observance, & that all annual proceeds be renounced … It was also acted with the general Minister through the Brothers of the province of Romania, & concluded in full assembly, by Boniface 8, by calumny deceived, that absolutely the schism of the Order must be precaved; & every art must be labored, that they be recalled to union, those who under the appellation of Hermits Celestines, but in the habit of the Order, had separated themselves from the same. It seemed should be acted about this matter with the Pontiff, from whom while they sought that they should be aggregated to the Order, & the Celestine privileges revoked, [on account of which, & a good opinion conceived about them, in the boundaries of Achaia, they could not be recalled by the Superiors of the Province of Romania to union) the Pontiff is reported to have answered, that they ought to be permitted in their purpose of stricter life. But what dost thou think these excogitated, to bend the mind of the Pontiff? They suggested these, as a germ of Celestine, altogether always to have adhered to Celestine, & to excogitate a Celestine faction; nor was his Holiness with them reputed a true Pontiff, whom they were saying deceitfully to have come to the sacred dignity.

[14] Boniface heard nothing more grievously, than that his authority & canonical election should even most lightly be doubted; especially at that time, are ordered to return to the obedience of the Order: in which the King of the Gauls Philip the Fair, on account of grave quarrels, harshly & rashly too much rubbed this wound, with a Council convoked against Boniface of the Gallican Clergy. But if this dangerous altercation should have its favorers also in the Orient; it was greatly to be feared, lest it should assume greater forces, than those which then could be overcome. He acceded therefore that they should be recalled to the obedience of Religion, with letters given to Peter Patriarch of Constantinople, & the Archbishops of Athens & of Patras, that they should solicitously inquire about these things, & correct the erring. driven from the island granted to them, The Constantinopolitan then was stuck at Venice; letters therefore were sent

to the Archbishops. The Athenian, while he was exploring some apostatizing from various Provinces, & declining the regular discipline, who had associated themselves with these, having sometime so pronounced; commanded Thomas de Sola, Lord of the island in which they were dwelling, that he should expel them altogether from the same. So he did, in the time of great hunger & famine; which the expelled felt the greater, because by the Latins, through whose dominions they were passing, as schismatics they were repelled. They passed therefore to the dominion of the Greeks, in which after two years dwelling, afterwards they felt the molestations of the Patriarch of Constantinople, after he came thither from Venice; who twice at Negroponto, are excommunicated by the Patriarch of CP., at the request of the Brothers of Romania, brought excommunication upon them, unless they should come to the obedience of the Order. Hence no small disturbance between the Brothers of the Vicarate of the Orient & these Hermits: for these had many, who against the molestations of those defended them, especially the Archbishop of Patras, who conceived no small indignation against their persecutors.

[15] At the beginning of these disturbances, wishing to yield to their adversaries Fr. James de Monte & Thomas of Tolentino, after Armenia traversed crossed into Italy; & with obedience rendered to the Master General, induced by their companions permitted to return to Armenia, together with Conrad Offidanus asked permission, to go to the Orient to the parts of the infidels with twelve companions; alleging that they, while they were conversing in those parts, had perceived the harvest to be most copious, & the crops now white, nor was anything lacking except workers. Easily the Primicerius assented to the pious desire; & permitted that they themselves, whom he recognized to be upright & perfect men, should elect those twelve companions, putting over them as Vicar & Father, Fr. James de Monte, a venerable man eminent in piety & purity. With the companions elected, while they wished to depart, Offidanus is divinely admonished to remain; but the rest crossing applied at Negroponto, then at Thebes. They perceived here tumults excited, between those Hermits & the Brothers of the Province of Romania;

& asked interposed their effort, that they might conciliate the dissenters. Fr. James the Prefect took all the labor upon himself, & went to that place where the Hermits were hiding. They, at his sight greatly rejoiced, then moved by his authority & counsel, admitted that temperament, that under his obedience united to the Order, with it together they should go to the parts of the infidels.

[16] But lest by his own authority James should seem to have done this, are reconciled to the Order, & with them depart. he wrote to the Master general, now assumed to the Cardinalate, & to the Minister of Romania, that to him it might be permitted to admit Fr. Liberatus, Prefect of the Hermits as we have said, & his companions into society & to gather them with his own, especially because from this seemed to depend the peace of the Province of Romania, & it would yield to the greatest edification of the People & Clergy & the increment of the Order. The Cardinal was unwilling to subscribe to the petition, however much Conrad Offidanus urged the same, of great estimation with him; & Fr. Thaddaeus, his companion & from the secrets, whom he greatly loved: for he was desiring that they should return to Italy, & under the discipline of the Prelates remove all opinion of division, & fear of schism. Nonetheless Fr. Thaddaeus took to himself the license of writing to Fr. James, that, however much the Cardinal had opposed, he should not omit this occasion of reconciling the Hermits, Returning then into Italy Fr. Liberatus especially since it would also yield to the gain of souls, & the increment of Evangelical preaching, to aggregate more workers to himself. Yet more safely Fr. Liberatus judged, with the Cardinal Primicerius of the Order opposing, to return to Italy, before the supreme Pontiff to wipe away the calumnies imposed on himself & his, & before the Pope to prove; that all his followers were true sons of the Church, & most devoted to his Sanctity.

[17] receives a place in Apulia: They therefore arrived; in the following year MCCCIII, at a certain port of Apulia; while those horrendous & execrable movements were excited by the Gauls & Colonna at Anagni, in the capture of Boniface. Therefore drawing delay there, from a certain hero Andrew de Segna they obtained a poor little place, in a certain desert; in which stuck with his own Fr. Liberatus; but Angelus de Cingulus, whom from this number we said above had been, went into the Marches; where near the river Clarenus, between Ascoli & the Alps of Norcia, acquired another dwelling, in which with some of his disciples he lived peacefully: from whom afterwards arose the Congregation of the Clareni, with the surname taken from the river flowing by. Angelus withdraws into the Marches: To both after these things there was some rest, under Benedict X, who had succeeded Boniface, until the II year of Clement V, of Christ MCCCVII; when Gondisalvus, the General Minister, bearing badly the rupture of the Order, acted with Charles the Lame, progenitor of S. Louis Bishop of Toulouse, King of Naples, that schismatic & heretic men (for so they were heard among the Brothers, adversaries of stricter observance) he should expel from his kingdom.

[18] The Prior vexed by the Neapolitan Inquisitor at the order of the King, The King gave letters to Fr. Thomas of Aversa, Inquisitor of heretical pravity, that he should diligently inquire into them, & punish the harmful. He called Fr. Liberatus to the castle of Solonus, of the diocese of Trivento, in the County of Molisus of the Afflicta family, & examined their life & manners: whom when he had found in nothing adverse to the faith, he exhorted that they should follow him going out, lest they should suffer greater molestations from adversaries. They had to pass through their little convent, given & constructed, as we have said, by D. Andrew de Segna: but while in sight they were passing, with the air suddenly disturbed lightnings flashed, thunders roared, here & there bolts were hurled; & one, near the horse, on which the Inquisitor was sitting, vibrated with great crash, with oblique course dug up the earth. Terrified by the present & sudden danger, he said to Fr. Liberatus, I think nothing further should be performed in your business; nor is there anything subsisting whence I should conceive a sinister opinion of you. then by the same divinely terrified he is protected for some time, Go in peace to your hermitage: for I fear lest God from on high thunder for you. To whom Fr. Liberatus: We give thanks to your benignity toward us, & we desire to follow thee, with whatever examination thou wishest to be purged from calumnies; lest daily adversaries insult us & traduce the innocent before Princes. Prove us, ask our kinsmen & acquaintances, & see whether iniquity is found in us: but if not, bear testimony to the truth. To the just petition the Inquisitor subscribed, & led them in his company to Ancianus.

[19] & finally persuaded to go to the Pope. While they were living there in a hospice apart, under the protection of the Inquisitor; the Minorites who were dwelling in that town, were claiming Fr. Liberatus as their own, inasmuch as he had withdrawn from the community, with no license of the Prelates obtained; & to him by no means did the indults of Celestine V patronize, whose acts Boniface the successor had rescinded. The Inquisitor seeing them excited, admonished Fr. Liberatus, that he should consult for himself by any reason, lest he fall into the hands of adversaries; & that the safer way was, that he should proceed straight to the Pontiff; nor should he return, dies on the way. without his or some noble Cardinals' diplomas, directed to him or to the Prelates

of the Churches; That I may free, he said, thee from the molestation of thy Confreres. The Inquisitor's counsel seemed good to him: wherefore with a companion taken hastily he was hastening into Gaul; until at Viterbo oppressed with grave infirmity, he had to fix his steps, & to lie for some months in the place of the Hermineans secretly. Thence sickly he went to the town of S. Angelus della Vena, where after one or another year of his infirmity, on this very [day] he withdrew from the world.

[20] But his companions, with no autograph of their purgation obtained or testimony of innocence, wished to withdraw from the kingdom of Naples; in which it was no longer safe to dwell, with their Prefect dead, the King opposing, the Inquisitor renews the persecution, & the sodality of the Minors continually following. There came however the precept of the Inquisitor, either admonished by the King, or instigated by the Brothers, that they should not depart; then another, that they should appear before him a second time in the castle of Frisalonis, where he himself was about to come. Especially he wished to proceed against Fr. Liberatus. Whom when he heard had died, he acted against the companions; whom promiscuously he joined with other Religious of stained fame, called of S. Onofrius & heretics, of the sect of the Apostles. He then brought judgment without distinction of persons, also against the favorers of the Hermits. & involving all in one sentence condemned them; as schismatics & heretics; inveighing also against those, who favored them or retained them in their dominions, as favorers & protectors of heretics. This evilly affected D. Andrew de Segna, patron of these Brothers; & he seriously admonished the Inquisitor of the innocence of the Brothers & of his office, & that more maturely & weightily, without any passion, in such a great business it ought to be proceeded.

[21] By these letters the Inquisitor was more excited against the Brothers; & commanded the inhabitants of Frisalonis, under a great fine of money, that cautiously guarded they should lead them to the city of Trivento: where shut up for five days in a horrid & dark prison, against these truly cruelly & unjustly he rages, while he wished to afflict with torments, & understood that this displeased greatly the Bishop & Nobles of the city, bound he led them into the citadel of Mainardi. Here with a certain wondrous ferocity with unheard punishments he did not cease to torture; them most constantly denying that they had ever done or believed anything against the faith; until at length in the torments two adolescents vacillated, who said themselves & the rest to be heretics, which yet when compos of themselves they retracted. Nonetheless after five months of various afflictions, & the hardships of prison, borne from the feast of Pentecost until the Nativity of the Virgin, sentence was brought, no guilt brought forth: They are stripped; led through the streets of Naples; beaten with rods; from the whole kingdom expelled. But the just Lord, who loves justice, & whose face sees equity, did not omit to avenge such great injury brought upon the wretched ones. For a little after the Inquisitor died, having confessed with raised voice, not with impunity. that he had iniquitously oppressed, & unjustly condemned men, whom he could not juridically convict of any guilt, nor argue of injury to his institute or faith. Charles too the King quickly paid, what through the Inquisitor he had sinned against them, dying in the year MCCCIX on the IV day of May. Before death however persuaded by his Physician, lest by so many persecutions those few Brothers who had survived should be worn down, not only did he write to the General that he should be propitious to them, but also to Pope Clement in Gaul: for thither they had proceeded, that they might present themselves to the Pontiff, to render an account of their life & of the injury endured. Hitherto Wadding, from Angelus especially (as he professes) book in Tribul. 6. But since to Angelus himself, until his return to Italy, all things were in common with Fr. Liberatus, those, although more prolix, it seemed to describe.

§. III. Among the disturbances stirred for Reformation through Tuscany & Gaul, by the Papal judgment Angelus absolved, with peace is dismissed.

[22] While in this manner, which we have explained, was failing in its beginning the new, With those tumultuating in Gaul who called themselves Spirituals, under Fr. Liberatus in the kingdom of Naples reformation (for those who had crossed into Gaul, & had aggregated themselves to other Spirituals there called, brought forth no good fruit) in the Province of Etruria arose a true & damnable schism, with those who there also called themselves Spirituals without any authority seceding, & creating for themselves a General Minister & other inferior Prelates; who by their temerity turned away many previously favorable, not only from themselves, but also universally from those whom they saw more tenacious of stricter purpose, as on the year 1310 num. 7 Wadding explains. He then in the year 1317 continues, how Pope John XXII, ordered to be proceeded against the rebel Brothers of the Narbonne Convent: also Angelus called into judgment by John 22. whom when Wadding had said called to the Curia at Avignon; Called also then into judgment, he says, was Angelus de Cingulus, called Clarenus, who was heard most holily in Religion. Interrogated about life & disciples (as the author of this history himself recounts) he answered, that that Congregation, namely of the Poor Hermits, living under his discipline in the Marches, renders an account of himself & his. under Celestine V, with Fr. Liberatus as leader had begun, & by the same Pontiff had been segregated from the body of the Order; but he had undertaken the care of it after the death of Liberatus willingly, on account of the perfect observance of the Rule which flourished in it; yet prompt & prepared was he to obey the Pontifical precepts.

[23] These things from Angelus himself Wadding says, who then on the year 1318 num. 16 more deeply repeats the acts under Clement V to that very time, from the writings of the same Angelus, but contracted to fewer, The same in writing narrates that Clement V. in this manner. When it pleased Clement, inclined at the prayers of Charles King of Sicily, to hear the complaints of those Brothers, who aspired to stricter observance; he ordered to be called to his presence Fr. Raymond Gaufredi, & Fr. Guido of Mirapice, Fr. Ubertinus of Casale, Fr. Bartholomeus

Sicardi, & the rest of their companions; men of holy life & distinguished knowledge, by the testimony even of their emulators; & he commanded them strictly through obedience, to reduce into writing whatever they recognized, in the common state of the Order, as worthy of correction or reformation. They did according to the Pontiff's precept: which the rest of the Brothers bearing molested, began to afflict them in various ways, to defame, & to make inquisitions about them & those adhering to them: to propose various articles against them; before the Auditors of the controversy & before the supreme Pontiff, animatedly rather than reasonably, proceeding against them. the probity of the petitioners for reformation recognized, Hence the Pontiff began to hold them suspect; especially since about the fame of the Brothers whom he had called, & about their conditions & life, on purpose, he had interrogated the Minister General & all assisting him, before he called them; but peculiarly he wished to be informed about Fr. Ubertinus, because he was Italian; & from the aforesaid Minister General he received good testimony; namely, that they were men,

solid in religion; in manners & knowledge distinguished, especially Fr. Ubertinus, about whom singularly he was interrogated.

[24] The Pontiff therefore determined, to admit no complaint against them, he began to favor them; whom so imperiously the graver Fathers of the Order had commended. For which cause the rest of the Brothers persecuted them more, calling them destroyers & defamers of the Order, & vexed even to death, Raymundus Gaufredi, Guido of Mirapice, Bartholomeus Sicardi, & another companion, who within a brief time died. The Pontiff bore badly the disobedience of the Brothers & irreverence toward his precepts; for he often commanded that they should bring no molestation to them: but especially he condemned the noxious attempts of Fr. Bonagratia of Bergamo against Fr. Ubertinus, & forbade them to be vexed, & made him exile from the Curia, as long as he himself lived in the Pontificate. But while in the Council of Vienne (in the year MCCCXI) he constituted several Bishops, skilled in Canon Law & learned Masters in sacred Theology, for hearing & examining those things, which for the reformation of the whole Religion they were proposing, & solicitously proceeded in the business; an implacable hatred conceived the rest of the Brothers against them, & vexed those adhering to them in the Province of Tuscany & of S. Francis in many ways. Therefore succumbing to the burdens, they decreed to flee from the face of those persecuting, & for some time to give place to the wrath of the adversaries.

[25] & he ordered the cause to be examined; Many heroes interposed their aid, asking that they should return to unity & peace with the rest. They however answered, that they were prepared for this, provided it pleased the Community, to admit the reformation of the Order. It was also acted about this with many Fathers, who were defending the parts of the Order: who answered the Cardinals & other most grave Prelates, that the Order needed no reformation; & in it was observed perfectly, & beyond what was necessary, the Rule of S. Francis; nor at any time, even in the time of S. Francis, had a purer observance of the same institute flourished. Moved by these dissensions the Pontiff, called to himself the chief favorers of either part; & with a long examination of two years discussed the cause. Meanwhile while these were being treated by Clement, the Brothers of stricter observance perceiving in Tuscany the yoke of the others aggravating upon themselves, & livor increasing; by the counsel of a most grave man, Don Martin, Regular Canon, by country of Siena, a schism made meanwhile in Tuscany, decreed to withdraw from them; & to constitute for themselves a peculiar Superior. They finally elected for themselves a General Prefect & the rest of the Prelates, according to the tenor of the Rule: which redounded to them & to their accomplices in the greatest scandal, & detriment to the proposed reformation. For the supreme Pontiff, the Lords Cardinals, & those who favored this business, hearing these, were disturbed; & more easily thereafter believed what was said about them, & was proposed in judgment.

[26] with a change of habit, Hitherto there had been no change of habit; until with the rest of the Brothers detracting from their life & manners, & asserting with the seculars, that there was no difference between themselves & those who were called Spirituals; that they lived the same life, wore the same habit, ate the same or rather more sumptuous foods, & passed life with more commodious subsidies; they judged it altogether necessary, that the interior & holier norm of living which they pretended, in the exterior habit to show. They assumed therefore viler & stricter habits: which greatly displeased the community of the Order, & more vehemently excited the adversaries to heap hatred upon hatred. The decision of the controversy was deferred. Although indeed the Bishops & Prelates, likewise in Gaul; proposed for receiving doubts & complaints, composed a copious declaration, in which they explained eighty questions, proposed on either side, about the genuine understanding of the Rule & the observance of the Statutes; the Pontiff Clement willed to reserve the final determination of the matter to himself, & to publish it in the Council of Vienne.

[27] Meanwhile the Superiors of the Order could not bear this difference of habits, & with harsh words & deeds these as innovators they pursued: for which cause fearing for themselves, they withdrew to a certain deserted church, near Malensana; near which were caves & a fountain of running water, where, by the license of the patron or lord of that place, they remained, which somehow composed through the Pope. living in the highest poverty & cheerfulness, until the following winter. They then crossed to the shrine of S. Lazarus at Avignon, until the Pontiff determined the cause, with the Clementine, Exivi de paradiso, promulgated; & commanded these, that they should return to the community of the Order; & those, that benignly & fraternally they should act with them, & should be preferred for the rest to the offices of Religion. With these decreed he dismissed all in peace, with many indications of his benignity exhibited. Only Fr. Ubertinus, speaking for all, objected to this judgment of the Pontiff those words of the Psalmist: Render to thy servant; quicken me according to thy word; subjoining himself & his companions called by him, the faith given that they would suffer no molestation from the Superiors; now however to be handed to the will of those, whom he knew to be sharply hostile to himself, on account of the things proposed to his Holiness & the Fathers of the Council. Ps. 18, 17 The Pontiff subjoined, that he would be their protector; & to himself it was sufficiently persuaded & firmly promised by the Superiors, that no molestations would be brought to them. All withdrew from the Curia, & lived in the same society without quarrels & litigations, with the stricter Brothers patiently bearing, if any lighter injuries were brought by the rest.

[28] And these probably done after the last Session of the Council, which held seven months, held on VI May MCCCXII; with him dead it was resuscitated, & in the same state things remained as long as Clement lived, that is until the year XIV of that century, in which he himself died, on the XX day of April; & the See was vacant 11 years, III months, XVII days. With Clement dead, the tribulation revived, with the followers of laxer life impelling, that the stricter, against the declaration of Clement, in all things should agree with themselves. They resisted, especially in those things which seemed contrary to regular observance; & hence new quarrels, molestations, by the rebelling Brothers at Narbonne & Béziers; & graver persecutions. Fearing graver things, counsel taken they went to Narbonne & Béziers; where, on account of reverence for Petrus Joannis Olivi, educated in this city & buried in that, whose disciples they professed themselves, they were amicably received by the citizens; &, with the rest turbulently expelled, monasteries were delivered to them. The Prelates of the Order frequently cited them, called, with censures brought addressed; nor did they wish to leave those places, or to obey the precepts of the Superiors, but in their contumacy persisted. For which cause secondly badly were they heard among foreigners, & vehemently irritated the Superiors, that they should form processes against them, & seek from Philip King of France & the Bishops aid, that as contumacious, rebels, apostates, schismatics they should be seized, whom John 22 intending to restrain: & reduced into order. They however from all these grievances & citations appealed to the future Pontiff. With whom elected, namely John XXII (he was elected however at Lyons

on VII August, & there crowned on V September MCCCXVI) at the petition of the Order was sent the Minister of Aquitaine, that he should appease these disturbances, & urge the aforesaid rebels, that with these convents dismissed they should return to the obedience of the Superiors.

[29] They refused to obey this Delegate, & thought it better to appear before the Pontiff himself & to plead the cause: but before they approached, many crimes others objected to them, especially against the Brothers of Tuscany, Narbonne & Béziers; against Ubertinus of Casale, Francis Sancius, William of S. Amantius; against Fr. Angelus, the author of this change, & companions: & that they might mingle good with evil, instantly asked, that two kinds of opprobrious men, after the Fratricelli & Beghards condemned, namely Fratricelli, & Beghini or Beghards, whose scandalous conversation was redounding to the greatest detriment of the Order, he should wholly extinguish. The Pontiff shuddered at so many & such crimes & heresies, which against the aforesaid in their writings they exhibited: & with the life & manners of the Fratricelli & Beghini examined, as noxious & impious sects, abolished them. Then he proceeded to the cognition of the cause of the Brothers whom they had accused, & took care to cite them to the Curia; & interrogated Fr. Ubertinus about those things which were objected. examines FF. Ubertinus & Gaufridus: To these learnedly & intrepidly answered Ubertinus, showing that for the most part they were mere impostures, & had proceeded from livor & bile. Asked again whether he adhered to the Brothers of Narbonne & Béziers, & whether he wished to defend the doctrine of Petrus Joannis? he answered: I, holy Father, in those things which I formerly did, fulfilled the obedience of your Predecessor, nor did I intrude myself in these except called: whence if it shall please your Paternity to command me, to take up again the cause for the aforesaid Brothers or doctrine, I am prepared in all things to obey your will. The Pontiff subjoined, that he was unwilling that he should intromit himself in these.

[30] these answer, they have nothing to do with the rebels, Similarly he interrogated Fr. Gaudfredus of Cornone, whether he subscribed to the appeal of the Brothers of Narbonne & Béziers? I, he said, stood by Philip the King, when these disturbances were excited: while therefore it has not fully been established to me about their affairs, I am unwilling to intrude myself in them; especially while little or nothing concerns me. A certain Fr. Philip suddenly subjoined, that although he himself did not agree with them in the appeal, yet he agreed with them in the desire & purpose of reformation. From Fr. Angelus the Pontiff asked more severely, as also Fr. Angelus, whether he was a Minorite? & with him answering affirmatively, he subjoined, Why then hast thou withdrawn from the Minorites? I, said Angelus, did not withdraw from them; rather, ask them, holy Father, they themselves repelled me. At these the Pontiff was silent for a little, & a little after subjoined: I command thee to say, whether thou hast received the sacramental Confessions of others? To whom he: Holy Father, I am not a Priest; & the chief reason why I have abstained from the Priesthood, was lest for receiving Confessions I could be compelled by Superiors.

[31] who denies himself excommunicated. The Pontiff objected to him, that by Boniface VIII & the Patriarch of Constantinople, under most grave censures

commanding, that he should return to Religion with his companions, they had been unwilling to obey; & therefore were excommunicated, according to the tenor of the letters, which before all he ordered there to be recited. Angelus said, that he was by no means excommunicated, nor likewise capable of excommunication, since at no time had he wished nor thought to contravene the precepts of Superiors; but firmly with himself had determined, in all things & through all to obey those rightly commanding. But those letters, although surreptitiously obtained, he said had never come to his notice, nor were legitimately intimated to him; but other learned men contended, that they did not at all oblige, because they were impetrated iniquitously & maliciously: which when he wished more openly to prove, the Pontiff ordered him to be silent. He bore this badly, & said, that his Holiness had more fully heard the adversaries, objecting false crimes; but him, narrating the truth, ought to have listened to. It was then the sixth hour after midday, & the Pontiff wished to withdraw himself from business; & ordered Angelus to be detained, until from the excommunication, [& with the Pontiff placated, he is ordered to assume the Habit of the Hermits.] which he thought he had incurred, he should be absolved: but on the following day, all the matter discussed, he peacefully dismissed him, with absolution from censures given for caution. To him departing he commanded, that to the obedience of the Superiors of the Order of Minors he should return, or should decline to another approved Order. To whom he, that he was of an approved Order, inasmuch as he was of the Brothers of Celestine V, into whose hands he made Profession of the Eremitical life. The Pontiff therefore ordered, through Napoleon Orsini the Cardinal, that he should assume the habit of those Hermits.

§. IV. The Society of the Clareni, differing from the Minorites for 155 years, finally is united with them under Sixtus IV, & by Julius II is subjected to the same with the name abolished.

[32] After these things, which above from Wadding we have described, more largely explained (of which the original tenor perhaps sometime it will be permitted to give whole, or to read edited by others) B. Angelus proceeds, as inspector of the whole tragedy & tumult of the Brothers of Narbonne & Béziers, Thus dismissed Angelus. to narrate what about them was done, & how they were accused, & finally condemned & exterminated: To whom, says Wadding, although someone may detract from full faith, inasmuch as he was a companion & favorer of these Brothers; yet his piety claims it for itself, by which he always flourished, & the opinion of sanctity, under which finally he died: & the authority of our other historians agrees with him; nor have I been able in these Brothers to smell out anything, except excessive tenacity, Then ruled his Clareni separately or rather pertinacity in their opinion about the observance of poverty; an excessive commendation also of their Rule, that they would wish it equal to the Gospel & indispensable by the Pontiff; excessive liberty & abundance in their own sense, by which rashly & scandalously they shook off the obedience of the Superiors. Nothing similar will you find in the Hermits of Lord Celestine. From his Privilege they had constituted their own proper Order; ordered to return to the obedience of the Superiors of the Minorites, they had returned, with that temperament, that they should retain their own Prefect, & with him should go into Armenia. Thence returned & not received, they adhered to Angelus, & with Fr. Liberatus dead recognized him as Prefect: this one however proved his cause before John XXII, as we have seen: nor afterwards in the Annals of the Order does anything occur, by which it may be understood that there was any graver controversy with the Clareni.

[33] And so their Religion, cut off from the Order of Minors from this time & wholly sequestered, scattered through several dioceses. & subjected to the Ordinaries of places, acquired many, says Wadding on the year 1473 num. 11, Houses, in the diocese, of Fermo, Ascoli, Foligno, Spoleto, Amerine, Narniensian, Aquilana, & Reatine; a wonder if not also in the kingdom of Naples several; in the Marsican

certainly diocese was, the Hermitage of S. Mary of Asprum; & to me sufficiently probable is, with the disturbances under John XXII composed, that those who favored Fr. Liberatus & his companions, to the hermitages dismissed by them invited the Clareni; & hence it happened that B. Angelus spent the last years of his life there. But a Habit the Brothers wore, distinct from the Franciscan garment, which they called Becha: namely a brief Habit with a hood before & behind, & a cord with pyramidal form, to which from behind a cloth tongue clung as Rudolphius describes it pg. 155. Gonzaga however pg. 3 indicates that this tongue was later assumed, & was only of those, who under Sixtus IV undertook the obedience of the General Minister, & therefore by others they were called Clarenuli. Angelus himself however, what thou shouldst wonder, until that mandate of John XXII, under their proper habit, had retained the Minoritic habit: perhaps, because doubting about the success of the whole matter, he feared, lest with the adversaries prevailing he should be compelled to return to their Order; & judged it more honest, never to dismiss the habit, than dismissed to resume it. Although however they were commonly called Clareni; yet by the first name they everywhere wrote themselves Poor Hermits, & thus in the Bull of the aforementioned Sixtus IV in the year MCCCCLXIII, & under the name of poor Hermits: is produced the exhibited petition, on behalf of all the poor Hermits, Presbyters & Laymen, of the Society formerly called of Brother Angelus Chiarini; where the title of Blessed not added by those who supplicated the Pontiff, I wonder not at all; much less do I wonder it was not rendered by the Pontiff; since that title was never instituted by the Apostolic See, but as at the most by tolerance of long time established.

[34] Meanwhile that Society, however called, after once it was from the obedience of the Order of Minors, as a Special Order, abdicated; on various occasions ran back to the Apostolic See, whose history & monuments lacking, & received from it several Bulls & Briefs, both in general & in particular, in the space of a century & a half, I scarcely doubt; nay I suspect, that some of them lie hidden in the Pontifical Registry, which after the individual Tomes of his Annals Wadding edited; but that they cannot be distinguished from those which are of the Minorites, as long as one does not have a syllabus of the Convents or Hermitages pertaining to the Clareni; nor has any Historian of that Society hitherto come forth. But that this is not wonderful among the Hermits, with whom of virtues the great, of letters the slight cultivation was, I remember to have said elsewhere; because that, although most true, was not read with sufficiently equitable eyes by some, who in the frequency of cities now together with others most occupied, from the present state of their Order measure past times, when their Elders in deserts were hidden as solitaries. Therefore by the defect of certain monuments, which cannot even be hoped for, with the Society itself & even its name extinct, I pass to the last & nearer to us memories; in the Minoritic Annals to be found only so far, as they have remembered the aggregation, in these last centuries made.

[35] To this approaching Wadding in the year MCCCCLXXIII num. 11, only now we know, in the year 1473 A new, he says, at this time grew up in the Order Congregation of the Clareni, anciently protected by Celestine V, & confirmed under the name of Poor Hermits of Fr. Angelus de Clarenus. Where I would wish to be noted the confirmed; & I leave to the reader to estimate, whether that Confirmation ought not to be presumed to have had as author John XXII, who extended his life until the year MCCCXXXIV, with Angelus peacefully ruling his Hermits, & propagating even to Lucania & Apulia. they petitioned themselves to be united to the Minors, But in the aforesaid year MCCCCLXXIII, those who among them were chief, counsel taken decreed to aggregate themselves to the Minors, & to militate under the General Minister: Peter the Spaniard, a sagacious man, in the name of all came to Sixtus; & having assumed from his hands the habit of the Minors, easily impetrated these; & that to them it might be permitted to set over themselves one from their Sodality, to be confirmed by the General Minister.

[36] The Bull given on this matter, & signed V Ides of March, Wadding exhibits; in which is exposed, how they, who hitherto under the Ordinaries of places have lived; attending, that in habit, life, manners, with the right preserved of electing their own Vicars from their own, & rule for the most part they adhere to the regular Institutes of Fr. Minors of regular Observance; & (as is fame) from certain Friars Minor, who anciently kindled with desire of eternal salvation chose the solitary life, had origin; for greater peace & quiet of them, & that to the said Order of Friars Minor they more conform themselves, desire under the care of the General Minister of the said Order henceforth perpetually to serve the Most High. But this according to their petition is granted to them; that those Hermits, one from the Poor of the said Society a Cleric, every three years, in their General Congregation to be celebrated, with participation of privileges, over themselves & of the said Society as Superior, who shall act in place of the aforesaid Minister over them, & be called Vicar, may elect; & the election of the said Vicar made, through the aforesaid Minister, when it shall have been presented to him, may licitly & freely cause to be confirmed. The Pontiff indulges moreover to the poor Hermits of this kind, Clerics & Laymen, & to their houses, which they have & in the future shall canonically happen to have; that of all & singular privileges, exemptions, immunities, favors, graces & indults of the said Order of Friars Minor to the houses & persons, in general in any way granted & for the time to be granted, both spiritual & temporal, they may licitly & freely use & enjoy. Then on the XIV kal. of November, at the petition of the poor Sisters of the aforesaid Society, also extended to the Clarens withdrawn from the Ordinaries, dwelling in the Spoletan & some other dioceses, to them also he extended the aforesaid constitution; insofar as subjected to the care of the aforesaid General Minister, they may elect one suitable Brother of the said Order as their Confessor, who for sins committed by them for the time may provide for them the benefit of absolution. Which Pontiff also the aforesaid Sisters, who now are & for the time shall be, from all dominion, superiority, jurisdiction & power of the Ordinaries wholly exempts & totally frees.

[37] Those who had not consented to this union, It displeased however many, says Wadding, to withdraw from their pristine life & garment, & with the studies divided in the Congregation into contraries, part remained under the Ordinaries, part the other under the General Minister: but this was contumeliously & derisively called by the other Congregation of Exclareni, as if they had stripped off the garment & institute of the Clareni. But that dissension did not last whole XL years between the Clareni. For in the year MDXI, considering Pontiff Julius II, that from various & diverse denominations in the Order of Friars Minor, of whom others Conventuals & others of the Family, some indeed of Fr. Angelus de Clarino, & some of Fr. Amedeus's Congregations, & others of the Coletani, together with others, with the old name abolished; & others of the Gospel or of the Capuche, were called Brothers, no small scandal was generated in the people; he commanded the Brothers of the Congregations of Fr. Angelus & Fr. Amedeus, & of the Capuche & of the holy Gospel, & those called Coletani, that they should adhere to the Conventuals, or to those called of the Family of the said Order of Brothers, &

their Ministers & Vicars. Which when the Clareni had done spontaneously, to the Brothers of the Family, this

is to the Observants, by joining themselves; & they themselves & their houses & churches & goods to the Vicar General had subjected; they elect under Julius 2 to be counted among the Observants. indeed also had endured & expressly consented, that the possession of those houses & churches the said Brothers of the Family should apprehend; afterwards nonetheless from the same to withdraw they were striving. These quarrels although the Pontiff tried to put to sleep with a new diploma in the year MDXII, by letters given on the V day of March, & in Wadding to be read; yet could the resistance of some have lasted to the year MDXIV; when all at length were aggregated to the family of the Observants, as the same Wadding says; who when elsewhere he says, that the Clareni persevered until the time of Pius V, I fear lest that be a memorial mistake, & Pius V have crept in for Sixtus IV, since Pius was only elected in the year MDLXVI.

MIRACLES OF B. ANGELUS

By the Author Fr. Philip his familiar.

From the Ms. of Charles Strozzius, Florentine Senator.

Angelus Clarenus, Prefect of the Poor Hermits otherwise of the Clareni in Italy (B.)

BHL Number: 0460

a

FROM MS.

[1] Brother Francis of Saponaria, who dwells in the church of S. Nicholas as a solitary, when he was molested by demons for many years, A Brother for four years vexed by demons, as he narrated to me, so much that they did not allow him in the church to pray, nor in his cell to rest, nor outside to walk; but they brought him noises & various gnashings, so much that it seemed to him that they wished to destroy his very cell, & wholly dissipate its roof; & through the same church, while he was standing in the aforesaid prayer, in the choir they made such noises, that they disturbed him in many ways; & when he had so sustained the molestation itself, at length, by the counsel of Brother Daniel, he narrated his molestation seriously to the holy elder, asserting that he could no longer sustain it; & therefore by all means both his cell & the church he had deliberated to leave. And when he was being comforted by him, that for that reason he should not leave the place; but patiently bear, & sustain, because thus the bearing was meritorious; in no way did he deliberate to rest; nor able to bear them further, & he was asserting, the vexation to be very grave, & it had now molested him for four continuous years, so that in no way could he bear it further: whence he supplicated him to provide some remedy for him, that freed from those molestations he might more securely remain. The holy & pious man, moved with compassion by the affliction of the sufferer, cordially thus said: Now b, go to thy cell, & be secure; for henceforth they will not come, nor any further molestation shalt thou feel from them. from these by his command Angelus frees him; He went according to the word of him commanding, securely stood, & peacefully dwelt, nor ever from then any minimal molestation thence felt: & thus it is gathered, that the demons by his prayer were forbidden henceforth not to molest the same Brother.

[2] Master Lawrence, a smith from the castle of Boianus, by his touch he heals fistulous hands; had fistulas in his hands, & had them sufficiently wounded with various wounds, & had sustained for the space of much time, nor could he find remedies from the cure of doctors. He came to the man of God with devotion, in the hermitage of S. Mary of Asprum, where he was then dwelling; & asked that he should touch the aforesaid wounds: & with the greatest contradiction made by him, in the end the importunity of the petitioner conquered, & the requests of those standing by. He touched him with the palm of his hand, signing in the manner of a Cross. In a few days the man returned, to render thanks to God & the holy man for the benefit of health provided to him. Whom I saw both wounded & sound, so that the places of the scars themselves scarcely appeared.

[3] Brother Nicholas of Calabria, his Companion, when he stood in his cell, he knew the secret desire of one. & was praying; thought in his mind to go to the cell of the man of God, & to ask permission from him that he might be able to go to visit the body of B. Francis at Assisi. Who when he entered the cell of that holy man himself, & was ashamed to open his thought to him, & was asked for what he had come, & what he wished; he answered, that nothing. Then the holy man said to him: Return to thy cell, & stand in thy peace: well shalt thou go to Assisi, but not now: after my death shalt thou go, & it happened.

[4] Brother Petruccius of Rocca c Montis-Draconis, when he was with him on one of those days in the hermitage of S. Michael, & another in his [thoughts:] & the holy man wished to bind one quaterno in a Greek book, which had come to his hands d as borrowed; & the needle which he himself had was too subtle, & the said Brother had a thicker one in his needlecase; & he thought in his mind to lend it to the Saint, & on the other side feared lest it should break in the aforesaid work; with him remaining in the aforesaid doubt, the holy man suddenly said to him: Let it not repent thee. And when he asked, of what? the Saint answered, Of the lending of the needle of which thou fearest: I will restore it to thee, immediately I shall have finished this work.

[5] From many other Brothers also I have heard, that he laid bare the thoughts & hearts of each: To the writer he confesses, where & how & when I conferred with him on this material, sufficiently efficaciously & devoutly inquiring, how these things could be done; after many words & long narration, the holy man narrated to me, that when he was in the parts of Romania, where he had fled with his holy companions from the face of those persecuting, & was in a certain ruined & deserted church, that grace was given to him from Christ appearing. under the title of the Blessed Virgin, about the ninth Hour; & was before the image of that Virgin, & after a long prayer with many sighs & groans; Christ familiarly appeared to the Saint, & opened to him many great & high things: & from that apparition & familiar speech remained for him from then, that thus the hearts of each were manifest & naked to him, just as are the exterior faces of men: & he narrated to me of the time, & many other things, which for the sake of brevity I omit.

[6] Brother Thomas Angelicus, of the Order of Blessed Confessor Peter de Murrone, then prior of Marsicus, To a friend he predicts that he will not be revisited by him, had come to visit us in the hermitage of Saint Mary aforesaid: & when he had stayed for two days, & wished to take leave from the holy man; in my presence said to the Saint: Father, I wish to withdraw: dost thou command anything? Who answered: I wish that thou shouldst order, that all thy Priests say Mass for my soul. And when the Prior himself answered; No, Father, unless dead. I shall return, & again shall see you, & shall speak & be consoled with you; he answered: It is true, thou shalt return, & shalt see me, but henceforth I shall not speak with thee: which followed. He returned to the exequies with a multitude miraculously running, saw him, & did not speak with him. The same Prior, who had conceived the greatest devotion toward the man of God, when he returned on the day of the exequies, & saw him so migrated; with a loud voice cried, My Father, behold thy prophecy, which thou hast narrated to me, completed

is: behold I see thee, & thou wilt not speak with me.

[7] To the dying man was a great concourse for three days: And one wonderful thing I shall not be silent of. When the unknown man, a pilgrim, & segregated from the congregations & tumults of the world, was making the passage in a place of desert, removed from all habitation; for the space of three days before the going out of his soul from the body, was made such a concourse of men, coming to see him (when the fame had flown thence; In the place of S. Mary of Asprum a certain Saint migrates) that it was of necessity that guards were placed at the door of the cell, lest men could enter except in turn. but greater on the day of death 25 June: And on the day of his passage, which was on the fifteenth day of the month of June, so many were running together from different places & castles with processions, that, according to the estimation of many, more than two thousand persons were there gathered.

[8] no one approaches the body except creeping on his knees. But what I shall narrate who could think, that not without hidden mystery, according to divine providence, was done? namely, that since there were some who were noting, they saw that no one remained from the greatest to the least, but from the entrance of the church even before the altar where the body lay, with knees bent with the greatest devotion would come, kissing & embracing his feet, & placing the face in them, & saying, Holy blessed one, help me. And although his hands were uncovered, I could not weigh that anyone rushed to kiss his hands, & this only to the kissing of the feet. but only to the feet, as has been said. And in that very hour of his burial, against the custom of that country, which is placed in the mountains (& men there are laborers & gross, & not accustomed in such things) very many came clothed in sacks & f double sacks, with disciplines, beating & striking themselves.

[9] Someone from the land of Marsicus-novus, who was sick to death, & was despaired of by all, & even was beginning to make the death-rattle g, & for his burial was being procured; The dying man with a vow made by others is healed. when a Monk of the aforesaid Prior, who was his friend, had come to visit him, & had seen him to be near death, withdrew from grief: & while he was proceeding on the way, he remembered the holy man, & said to his companion; Let us return quickly, & let us say that he should vow himself to the holy man of God, & he will free him from the jaws of death. He returned, & spoke the aforesaid to his ears: & since he did not understand, the said Monk turned to his wife & those standing by, who were there weeping, & said to them: Let us vow him to the holy man, who in these days migrated in the hermitage of S. Mary of Asprum, & he will free him. Which vow with devotion having been emitted, immediately he began to improve, & was restored to pristine health.

[10] To a Brother placed in Calabria The man devoted to God Brother Thomasius, the poor Fraticellus of Christ, hearing in the parts of Calabria, where he was dwelling, doing penance for his salvation, that the holy man had come to the parts of Basilicata, & there was dwelling in the hermitage of S. Mary of Asprum, burning to see him, for which vision he had now labored much, without fruit; when he applied to the said place, he found that he had already crossed

from this life. Angelus appears, with the B. Virgin, attesting his sanctity: And while he so passed the night upon the sepulchre, now weeping bitterly, now lamenting; while the Poor Friars came together to the church for Matins to be said, he went out of the church, & placed himself in prayer sequestered, behind the tribune of the church, behind on his feet, with one h gambetta under his shin. And while he thus stood elevated upon himself, behold he saw the man of God with the blessed Virgin, who was leading him by the hand: & she said to him, Brother Thomas, thou hast come to see me, & much hast labored through many times, I wish not that thou shouldst return desolate: thou shalt say to Robert on my behalf, These & These things: & so that he should believe thee, I shall give him a sign, that I had these words with him in such a place to the letter as it had been; which he could not know, unless he had had it from him or from me. And then the Virgin Mother said to him: Whatever this holy man says to thee, so shalt thou say: because all are true. Which Brother thus narrating depicted him, as if for his whole life he had stood with him.

[11] The same Brother Thomas, Prior of Marsicus, of whom I above made mention to thee, when for some days after the passage of the man of God, for the cause of devotion he came to visit his holy tomb; & placed himself upon the sepulchre prostrate in prayer, immediately after the Hours of Compline; & there as if through the whole night passed the night, not without no small consolation, & profusion of many tears: while the Poor Friars for the Matutinal Office to be performed came together, as such Antiphons & Collect divinely inspired are dictated. he asked for a writing tablet, & wrote as the Spirit of the Lord had taught him in that pious & compassive meditation i, antiphons & a Prayer, in this manner. At Magnificat Antiphona (look at the end of the book) Hail, Father &c. Who therefore of sound mind & piously living in Christ, will be able to think other, than that the words themselves so properly said, by that divine spirit were given, to whom only to have unfolded, was to have taught.

[12] A certain woman from the castle of k Boianus, was so vexed by spirits, that it was horrible to see. The demoniac is freed She was brought to the sepulchre of the holy man, with not little violence; & there when she was held by many, she began to roll herself & to foam, & thus the malign spirit spoke through her mouth: I go out: I cannot stay longer: behold the day on which I am cast out of my habitation: let go me a little: I will go out. And he made her roll in the hands of those holding her like a ball: & opened her mouth. And while he was going out, the terrible things which l he projected long would be to narrate. The woman remained as dead, & slept a little: then she rose & ate, & she who had been led captive violently, sound & free & with thanksgiving, joyful returned to her own.

[13] Blancula, wife of Thomasius of Boianus, when on a certain evening her husband struck her, & gave to her with the fist on the mouth, & by the percussion itself one of the teeth from the upper part was cast to the earth; she wept bitterly & cried out. A knocked-out tooth is restored; But the said husband seeing the affliction of his wife, lit a lamp, & looked at her mouth, & on the ground diligently for the tooth which had fallen searched; & with it found, with much devotion & bitterness of heart, ran to the holy man, vowing his sepulchre together with his wife to visit. He replaced the tooth, which he had violently cast out, in its place, with genuflection & emission of vow. Against all nature thus immediately the tooth was firmed, & solidified & stabilized; that, as I saw & many others, that very woman with her fingers seized it, & showed to all, & said; Behold that in my mouth there is no tooth firmer than this.

[14] A certain boy, from the land of Saturn m, was suffering no small infirmity in one of his eyes, & had lost sight from it, & it was swollen. Are healed, an eye by the worm extracted, He came to the sepulchre of the holy man with devotion, & vowed himself to him: & immediately, in the presence of many, a worm fell from the aforesaid eye; & he began to see, & was perfectly freed. A certain woman from the land of Saponaria n was suffering in her throat, & was as it were in danger of death: vowed herself to the holy man, throat, & was freed. A certain boy, from the same land of Saponaria, was suffering infirmity in his shins from a long

time, & was as it were leprous in them: vowed himself to the holy man, & was perfectly cured. A certain man from the land of Boianus, captured by brigands o, & wounded by them; shin, when he was so held captive & wounded, vowed himself to the holy man; & not only did the holy man free him from captivity, but from the wound perfectly cured him.

[15] A certain woman, from the castle p of Mons-Murrus was wounded with diverse ulcers in her whole person, ulcers; & was afflicted by them not a little, which she had sustained for a great time. Vowed herself to the holy man, & was perfectly cured. Who seeing the cure thus miraculously made through the faithful servant of God, epilepsy, her son who from the falling sickness was afflicted assiduously, vowed himself to the holy man, & was perfectly cured. A certain man from the land of Saponaria was suffering in his throat, & thence had lost speech: throat, mute; vowed himself to the holy man as he could; & he freed him. A certain one from the aforesaid castle of Mons-Murrus, was suffering a savage & old wound in his belly, nor could be cured by any benefit of doctors: various pains, vowed himself to the holy man, & was perfectly freed. A certain woman from the same castle of Mons-Murrus, had various pains in all members & in her whole person: vowed herself to the holy man, & was cured.

[16] A certain man from the aforesaid land q of Marsicus-vetus, was acutely afflicted by continuous fever: vowed himself to the holy man, fevers, & was cured. A certain man from Saponaria was suffering continuous fever; vowed himself most devoutly to the holy man, & immediately was freed. A certain woman from the same land of Saponaria, was suffering pain in the head, cephalalgia of three years, & was afflicted immensely, which she had sustained for three years: vowed herself to the holy man that he should free her, & she would hang the bands of her head in the church; & she was freed from the aforesaid passion. A certain woman from the aforesaid castle of Boianus, had her head shaken, & memory as it were lost: vowed herself to the man of God & was freed. Two men in the aforesaid land of Marsicus-vetus were sick of continuous fever: vowed themselves to the holy man, & were freed. A certain man from the aforesaid castle of Boianus was sick to death, & was despaired of by all, & for burial was being treated: they vowed to the holy man, & he was freed. A certain familiar of Lord Robert of S. Severinus, had a savage & deep wound in the foot, which he had borne for a great time: vowed himself to the holy man, & immediately was cured.

[17] Jacobellus of Philectus was coming with the rest of his companions to seek me, A horse nearly dead suddenly rises. because otherwise he had been with me in the world: & when they were near Marsicus, the horse, which he himself had & was riding, from too much weariness or pain had fallen to the earth, & by no argumentation could they raise him: but it seemed to them that he was as if dead: & they raised the saddle & bridle, while they wished to withdraw on account of doubt of brigands, because it had become evening. Then one of the companions vowed himself, & said; O Blessed Angelus, this Esquire comes to thy place; do not suffer him to come so desolate, & that walking he should go, because he is noble. Immediately scarcely had he completed the speech, the horse sound rose: & they placed themselves on the way, & arrived even to the hospice.

[18] I Brother Philip, assistant to the holy old man brother Angelus, on the Sixth Feria within the octave of Pentecost, namely on the feast of Antony. The rest are wanting, with one or more pages torn out.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

p Mons-Murri is distant from Saponaria, toward the East, p. m. 5, from S. Mary 9.

q Marsicum vetus, is distant from Novum toward Saponara, on either side middle, p. m. 5, & as many from S. Mary: but I do not remember it before here named Marsicum-vetus, so perhaps, the supradicta, through the carelessness of the writer, crept in.