ON BL. WILLIAM OF TOULOUSE, OF THE ORDER OF HERMITS OF S. AUGUSTINE,
AT TOULOUSE IN AQUITAINE.
A.D. MCCCLXVIIII.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
On the Life in the Deeds of the Toulousans described by Nicolaus Bertrandi, & the Elevation of the body.
William of Toulouse, of the Order of Hermits of S. Augustine, at Toulouse in Aquitaine (Bl.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
[1] The Deeds of the Toulousans from the founding of the city, at the end of the XV century wrote Nicolaus Bertrandi, Professor of both Laws & Parliamentary Advocate of Toulouse, printed then in the year MDXV, of which at this time difficult to be found a most desired copy at last we received, Nicolaus Bertrandi in the Deeds of the Toulousans, by the benefit of the very R. P. Janinus, Prior of the Hermits of S. Augustine at Toulouse & of the same throughout Aquitaine Provincial. A most celebrated & most rich work he calls it, who to be printed took care Master John Magnus-Joannes, & the Author, then still living, with the titles of Professor most excellent & Advocate most eloquent he adorns. William of Catel, who that very copy now ours at one time possessed, book 3 of the History of Languedoc page 519 praises the same, as a man diligent & curious, unless somewhat more of faith he had given to fables; those namely which about the origin of the city older than the Roman, of Emperors, of Kings, even to the time of the Gospel preached among the Toulousans through S. Saturninus, the simplicity of the elders feigned & through the mouths of the common people transmitted to posterity: the rest which by surer documents from him could be known, of ages to his age nearest done, sufficiently prove the curious diligence of the man, chiefly what about the last eight Bishops & the fourteen first after them Archbishops, & about the men meanwhile in doctrine & sanctity more excellent, he narrates from the year MCC.
[2] This therefore author at fol. 50 having begun a treatise on the deeds of the Doctors of Toulouse, the Life he describes, after the Professors of both Laws more celebrated, the Doctors also in Theology he commemorates of various Orders, namely of S. Dominic, of S. Francis, of S. Mary of mount Carmel; treating finally of the Brothers of the Hermits of the Order of S. Augustine, who at Toulouse took their origin, & in science & sanctity of life shone, in the fourteenth & the same last place subjoins the history of the memory to be cultivated Fr. William of Natholosa, from hearing & the faithful testimony of many … who with him conversed twenty years & more … & him frequently of Confession heard, as in the Prologue he speaks. Under this then title the promised History he begins: from the relation of his familiars: On William of Natholosa, a holy indeed man, upon his laudable & austere life, a compendious recollection. From this it is established, that in the year of his age XIX he entered the Order, in the same his life he prolonged until the LXXII year, but died on the XVIII, of May on the Friday before Pentecost of the year MCCCLXVIIII, & thus born in the year MCCLXXXXVII, the habit assumed in the year MCCCXVI, accordingly much younger to be than the Venerable Master G. of Toulouse, whom Herrera found in the year MCCCXVIII in the General Chapter of Rimini designated, for the year thence the third, Examiner of the students in some Studium of Italy.
[3] The aforesaid Life adorned, & into the Gallican tongue turned Fr. Simplicianus of S. Martin, an Augustinian Hermit, among the Lives of the Saints & Blessed of his Order, after the Life of S. Augustine collected & published in the year MDCXLI at Toulouse: & it remains about the elevation of the Body but nothing of new light he added to the old Latin context, which here faithfully transcribed we give. Nicolaus Bertrandi now Blessed, now Saint absolutely calls him; & the explained of the body, after the fiftieth day still whole, exhumation & elevation into a marble tomb; with how many there, he says, miracles it shines, & how great benefits of healings are furnished, to recall I would scarcely suffice: then what kind was his life on earth, & with miracles formerly frequent. to be discerned he says in the prodigies & miracles, which now works God by that holy Father's merits: namely through a space of a hundred twenty years & more, as many as from the Saint's death to Nicolaus's writing had flowed: for whose cause very many at the sepulcher hung up votive offerings at one time to have been, nothing is to be doubted. Saussay in the Supplement of the Gallican Martyrology, without scruple Saint calling him, thus writes on this day: At Toulouse the deposition of S. William of Natholosa the Confessor, of the Order of Hermits of S. Augustine, in piety, humility, & zeal of God renowned, who in the praise of Christ, as he had wished failing, in the jubilation of love expired. I omit to recount the writers of the Order, who him to the Blessed ascribed, Alphonsus de Orosco, Blessed & Saint everywhere is he called. Joseph Pamphilus, Thomas de Herrera, Aloysius Torellus, of whom one another successively describing, one to the other nothing of new light or authority add. Only Simplicianus, at Toulouse living & the Deeds of the Toulousans of Bertrandi before his eyes having, & S. William absolutely calling, even he himself makes faith, that the same appellation & veneration in this also century among the Toulousans flourishes: but the above-praised Prior Janinus about the vows publicly nuncupated to his memory makes faith, nothing explaining in particular of those things which I required.
THE LIFE
By the Author Nicolaus Bertrandi, Doctor of Canon Law.
In the Deeds of the Toulousans published in the year 1515.
William of Toulouse, of the Order of Hermits of S. Augustine, at Toulouse in Aquitaine (Bl.)
BY NICOL. BERTR.
PROLOGUE.
Now it remains the deeds & history of the memory to be cultivated of Brother William of Nathalosa, of the Order of Brothers Hermits of Divine Aurelius Augustine, to write: in which Order he for a long time at Toulouse laudably conversed, All things from authors of certain faith received he protests. with great & various, as much before as after his death, of his sanctity of life shone miracles. Of whose indeed life & sanctity the order to pursue deliberating, in few indeed words to bring forth I shall take care: & his deeds describing, not so much from the narration of the people of the city of Toulouse, where his life for long times laudably to its very end he brought of his life, as also from the public fame & common of the whole country I shall prove: but also from hearing & the faithful testimony of many laudable men & devout & religious, who not only Fr. William himself living & dead saw, but indeed with him conversed twenty years & more, & with him ate & drank, who from his sanctity's norm an example of sanctity received, & to him in Masses & in the cell served; & moreover of them some of the Order Brothers him frequently of Confession heard.
CHAPTER I.
The beginnings of the religious life & eximious virtues.
[1] This of recollection & holy memory Brother William of a Natholosa, of the Order of Brothers Hermits of S. Augustine, from noble parents & of legitimate matrimony procreated was. This Fr. William, in his life a Saint reputed, In the year of age 19 he becomes an Augustinian. after baptism a legitimate & faithful Christian among faithful Catholics conversed & for such held, from boyhood taught his first letters & instructed in Grammaticals, a Brother Hermit to be made he resolved: which afterward devout he fulfilled. For in his juvenile age, about the ninth & tenth year, he entered the aforesaid order of S. Augustine; & suddenly by the grace of the right hand of the Most High marvelously wholly into a man another changed, he began as a youth of good disposition to act, on account of which well to him it was. For at that time he was in conversation humble & benign, obedient to the Prior & Brothers in lawful & honest things, & not only in those days, but also as long as he lived among men. He began also then to study books, not only in the books of humanity, or logical & natural, but also in the divine. And having advanced to the due age, ordained presbyter, & then Lector of Theology. & sent through the order to Paris for the sake of study, there as much in science as in morals he advanced. And hence made & proven a sufficient Lector in Theology, he returned to his country: & from then so much he advanced in divine doctrine, that sufficient for the dignity of the Mastership he was decreed. But he the dignities & worldly honors as a poison fled: & thus the world spurning, only he was delighted in meditations & divine eloquies, & the Lives of the Saints he read, & the manner of living of them more deeply retained; & what of perfection in them he found, as much as he could, to imitate he strove.
[2] Him all as a Father venerated: for he was (as of a certain one is said) a true worshiper: devout in the recitation of the Hours. for it was fitting, that he, whom God with so great grace had filled, by all should be loved. But he devoutly Mass celebrated, & the divine Office always discharged. Who that more attentively to devotion & contemplation given at the altar he might be; the door of the chapel closed he wished to be; & alone with his servitor, the tumult of the people fleeing for the sake of spiritual consolation, sometimes & often in the psalmodies & canonical Hours to be chanted, he remained. He was indeed solicitous: for attentively & devoutly & distinctly above measure, as if God being present, those Hours to God always with joined hands he discharged: & this was by God specially to him given, that attentively, intelligibly, & distinctly, without wandering of thoughts, the debt of psalmody to God he rendered; &, as from a certain his companion I learned, when they went from Pamiers toward Toulouse, on the way when there was at hand the hour of Prime, he fixed his steps; even on a journey, & immovably standing with his companion, to God the office of Prime most devoutly he discharged, he on one part & the companion on the other being, & as if they were in a church: & thus until the hour of the Third Hours they said the Office, not walking, but resting, one standing & the other sitting, as in a choir is done: & thus they did at all the other canonical Hours.
[3] Fervent therefore with divine love, contemning the world, & in it all things contained discerning to vanity to be subjected, nothing to have he desired; but to soldier for Christ desiring, all things as fleeting deservedly he spurned, & only with food most sparing & clothing most poor content he was. Whence great wars
against the malign spirit taking up, for seven years continuous on bread & water he fasted, proposing as long as among men he lived this to do. But prohibited by the General of the Order, given to fasting, from obedience he embraced the common life of the refectory, with one in the day only refection content. Which indeed manner of living even to his exit he prolonged, never the fasts of the Church & Order omitting: & he fasted frequently three days in the week, namely of Wednesday, Friday & Saturday: but continually on Friday & Saturday, in which specially he lamented, & bewailed his sins & those of the people. Among which lamentations the resounding of his voice was heard: O Mary, how long in this misery of the world shall I remain? what here more useless do I? in clothing humble, I desire to be dissolved & with thee to be I wish. But what kind of habit he the lover of poverty wore? A cap indeed & other garments, for the use of his body, broken & patched he wore: never new to receive wishing, as long as those could serve. For twenty years continuous one cap he used: which to change he was unwilling, although there were presented other caps new. And when his parents & the faithful brought to him one cap new in his chamber, he with great sadness spurned it. But they this seeing, secretly & with great caution put it in his little cell, & afterward he gave the old cap to his servitor. But a gown b he wore willingly clean, honestly washed: garments precious to him offered he spurned, coarse sometimes by necessity compelled he received. A humble bed he kept, & thus noble garments he fled & thus with c hard he had, & instead of linens coverlets coarse: & thus in such a state, both sound & infirm his weary limbs he refreshed.
[4] Moneys never or rarely he received, except for the use of oil for the lamp, which always by night & day kindled in his cell he kept, studious of poverty; to the honor of B. Mary of Le Puy: whose light on a certain night a crowd of demons, in the figure of crows about it flying (as he himself of holy memory William to his companion Augustine said) to extinguish wished: but our Lady prohibited. Upon a table also of five palms & a half alone with his companion in common with great silence he ate, except sometimes a discourse about God or about the Saints occurred. As much in chairs as in movable things always superfluity he avoided; whence neither even to indigence the necessaries to have, but rather to lack he wished. Indeed if anything indeed often for his body's sustentation had been to him transmitted, of the morrow not thinking, that he did not eat, but to other poor, especially the infirm, both Brothers & strangers he gave. For he the lover of poverty greatly the poor loved, & with them conversed, & in the law of the Lord meditated; voluntary in heart & body poverty he bore, & it preached, & riches contemned. Whomsoever to him coming of either sex in superfluous apparel sharply he reprehended, & them to the love & pity of the poor he induced & animated. And not only in his cell & garments of body poverty to be observed he wished, but also in the chapel & altar: for the paraments of the altar & garments not too precious to be he wished, but only honest & clean to be he desired: & buildings he did not praise sumptuous, indeed to the Brothers to build some sumptuous work wishing he said, this to be vain, & useless, because in a place fitting & congruous, he said, for God's service the Brothers professors of poverty content ought to be.
[5] & by macerating the body indeed The cleanness of chastity always he loved, who him for long times knew, always in virginity to have remained asserted. Whence on account of the love of chastity, the concupiscences of the flesh to refrain & tame wishing, he chastised his body with fastings, vigils, prayers, & hard chastisements. For he disciplined himself with chains three of electrum d or of e latten, which with himself he had, & beat himself very sharply, macerating the flesh four times in the day, first for himself, secondly for his dear ones & friends, thirdly for all who were in the world, fourthly for those who were in purgatory, attending the word of the Prophet saying, Attend to discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry &c; Psal. 2, 12 attending also the example of B. Dominic: for it is read about Blessed Dominic in his f Life, that three on single nights he received with his own proper hand by a certain iron chain disciplines, namely for himself one, for sinners who dwell in the world another, the third indeed for the souls which are tortured in purgatory. But he the Father of pious memory, when he heard those things read, much joy had, & to provoke his companion, who this was reading, said: And I without offense some would add a fourth discipline; namely one for myself, another for sinners who in the world dwell, the third for those who in purgatory are tortured, the fourth for my dear friends for whom specially I am bound: & thus that upright William, his strict, clean, & chaste produced life.
[6] In prayers besides he was very assiduous: for not only the canonical Hours (which very attentively, with a pure heart & clean mind, & to frequent & attentive prayer given without wandering of thoughts, & with joined hands always he discharged) but also other special prayers to God & especially to His Mother B. Mary very devoutly with knees bent, with great continuation to them he transmitted; even so far that sometimes to prayer & contemplation given, of himself forgetful & totally above the human world into God rapt, not taking food nor drink, a whole day with the night preceding he led sleepless: & this was seen by his companion on a certain occasion, who saw that both on that day & the following he did not eat nor drink, nor heard him speaking, but only the canonical Hours saying. He also before his prayer, the demon vainly tempting to distract it, always to God of single benefits which to him He had conferred thanksgivings gave, & thus his prayer he began. In the beginning of his devotion, when by night he wished to sleep, he heard sometimes a great thunder in his little cell which did not allow him to rest. But when on a certain day to his prayer & devotion most attentively he was insisting, the devil envying, by hard words & terrible apparitions him molested, in the air also a great thunder making; sometimes indeed singing in the manner of a young woman near his bed, & by sweet words him to sin to allure he tried: & this he himself narrated to some secular persons, & also to his companion this he said, on account of the counsel which the seculars asked of him. But the holy man, intrepid & constant such ravings as nothing spurned. Another besides night appeared to him in the species of the Blessed Virgin, her son in her arms carrying, suggesting that him as the mother of the Lord he ought to adore. But the prudent man, the deceitful cunning of the enemy understanding, with the sign of the Cross intrepid stood: & the devil vanished.
[7] What more? His life's sanctity & the assiduity of contemplation to bear unable the enemy of the human race, the lamp, & many therefore molestations inflicting, which always in his cell he kept kindled, he broke, & this he himself to his companion said. But when not on account of that the Saint from the place of prayer departed, the malign spirit omitting hard or sweet words as he was wont, comes to blows; & rushing upon him vehemently, him so wounded & beat, that traces or signs always remained even to the day of his death. It happened also, as it is said, in the time when he was Prior at Pamiers, made by the Order, that on one night, the first signal being rung for Matins, from his cell going out he proceeded to the church: but entering the choir, by the illusion of the malign spirit, it seemed to him all the seats to be full of Brothers, & praising God he went to his place; & the Our Father said, & the sign made, as the Hebdomadarius he began. And then those demons, in the effigy of Brothers rushing upon him, sharply him beat, & him half-alive left & fled. On another certain day at the same hour high upon one beam of the church him beaten they put, which patiently he tolerated. & him the Brothers at the Matinal hour found, & thence him took down. Another time the lantern, g which at the hour Matinal kindled he carried, upon his head they broke. But how great patience in all these he had, scarcely could be expressed: for never did he complain, but rather he rejoiced & was glad, & patiently all things tolerated, & those secrets as much as he could kept & concealed, to no one them bringing forth, except & few things he revealed: & the more by the demon with blows & insults he was agitated, the more by signs & prodigies & prayers Christ he invoked.
NOTES.
CHAPTER II.
The miracles of S. William living.
[8] When at a certain time at Toulouse in the church of B. Antony a of Vienne the devil a certain young woman held possessed, at last this Father of pious recollection asked by the friends of that possessed woman, He frees an energumen, that he would deign to come & visit that possessed one; from obedience & by license of the Prior he came to the church of B.
Antony, & on the way he found many of his Order: to whom he said, Whither go you? And they feared him. And he said to them, either go you, or I will go. And they feigned themselves to return, & went by another way: for he wished that man himself from human praises to abstain & vain glory to avoid. But he found there the whole Studium or a great part: & first he questioned that demoniac, of what feast do I make today? And she answered, Of such a feast. And another more honorable of the whole Studium of Toulouse, questioned of what made he? And the demon answered; You said my Matins, because you in the night past lay with a harlot. And from then for the rest no one was who him questioned. But then the Father of pious recollection said: Go you all out of the church: & he remained alone with the possessed: & prayer made, the demon from the body of the said possessed one, leaving her as if dead, went out: & the said Father, the parents & friends being called, said to them that they should have care of her, who from the demon by the grace of God was freed, nor thereafter she possessed by the demon was vexed.
[9] It happened also that when by the precept of D. the Vicar of Toulouse, namely D. William Bragose, b who afterward was a Cardinal, he went on horseback to a little village called Villaries; there were two daughters virgins, called to suppress a diabolical illusion, their father already dead, who had a certain vision from the illusion of the malign spirit. There appeared indeed to them that they saw their father as if he lived, now in the chamber, now in the garden: of which vision they were, & not undeservedly, in the greatest terror & much desolated. And at the petition of the parents & friends flocking many religious men, namely that they might experience what this was, & nothing yet profiting; & the fame heard of this friend of God, whose sanctity already nearly through the whole was spread country; they sent legates: who came to him asking & supplicating that to come he would deign, since perhaps God would hear him, & the aforesaid illusion would go away, whose terror not only those two daughters, indeed that whole country invaded. And answered the man of God humbly: I am not a Saint, that this to do I can, nor me to go behooves: because my presence could not in this deed profit anything. And thus of himself anything he did not presume, but by the precept of the Lord Vicar to come he prepared: accompanying c with him D. William Sabateni & Fr. John Giliberti. And when the river called d Hercius, in which was no bridge, much had risen, D. William Sabatenus aforesaid with his horse entered the ford: to his companion about to be drowned he succors. who at once by the force of the river seized, by an oblique track headlong about to be drowned went; until the aforesaid Fr. William of pious memory having followed the same, brought him back to the right track. Which miracle the often-said D. William to God & B. Mary & the aforesaid Brother imputed, & often to many divulged.
[10] No wonder besides if to the victor of fluxile delights by waters designated, the Lord upon the waters power gave. Inasmuch as when at another time the river of the Garonne outside its banks so had inundated, that those of Thunino e nothing else expected, except a most miserable from near submersion; the overflowing Garonne he restrains, by the same of pious memory to the aforesaid William, to whom great they had devotion, was sent, that personally with other Brothers he would come. And immediately after his coming a prayer being made, began the Garonne to decrease: which by his merits without doubt all attested to have been done. And so even over the demons He gave him power. For when the infestation of demons had lasted fifteen days continuous, in a certain house of a street, that were heard to throw by night & by day boots, shoes, dishes, platters, & other utensils of the house; the ghosts he drives out nor were seen those by whom such throws were made; & no remedy the inhabitants of the house could find, the just by chance judgment of God acting: they had merited namely to be mocked, who made tolls, by which are exercised base & evil games. At last the aforesaid Father, asked that that diabolical infestation from that house by his presence he would drive away, came devoutly, humbly & benignly, with the sprinkling of holy water, which also others before him had done; he alone from God merited to be heard, so that from then he interdicted them the power in that house of mocking, & the aforesaid mockeries to exercise, unless again to them by God it were granted. a fire he extinguishes, The same also power he received over the elements, especially over fire, which his own concupiscences had extinguished. They narrate therefore those who saw, that once near the Convent there was so much fire, that the scintillating flames entered already the church of the Brothers; who not having other remedy, fearing of the fire of all impending, ran to the cell of the aforesaid Father for refuge, him beseeching: & by the dew of the prayer of the same Father suddenly the fire was extinguished.
[11] But when, to repeat the begun matter, that man holy, namely William of Natholosa, to the place where the aforesaid virgins were had come, them in secret he heard: the aforesaid illusion he suppresses, then prayer being made he gave them security, saying that no more they should fear. And one night he stood in the place where the vision was seen: & on the day following the same Father of pious recollection caused to be celebrated a Mass by his companion, & he himself preached, & ordered that they should do some things, for devotion's cause, in the church. And from then the illusion disappeared, nor further that vision they had: & thus what before struck now is struck, what before strove to conquer now is conquered. For that ancient enemy by his cunning with many arguments tried the man of God to deceive: but now lest others by tempting he deceive, by the holy man he is cast down.
[12] He was besides patient in adversities, charity keeping toward his neighbors: for patiently he tolerated whatever adversities. patient in diseases, For an infirmity very afflictive he had through nearly his whole life's time: never yet or rarely did he complain, but patiently he bore, knowing that through many tribulations it behooves us to enter into the kingdom of God. He had therefore charity toward his neighbors & especially the infirm. For once it happened that he visited his companion infirm, who so by that infirmity was burdened that he thought himself near to death. Whom affably thus he addresses: he heals his infirm companion. What do you? When he answered, I know not, he said, What have you in a glass or in a vessel? for there was near the bed namely a glass or one cup, in which was wine or liquor. And then the Father aforesaid the glass or vessel having received, & the sign of the Cross made, said to his companion infirm, Hold & drink. And he drank, & at once came to the sufferer so great sweat in his whole body, that it lasted for half a day. And the sweat being passed, it seemed to him all that infirmity to have vanished, as if by that infirmity he had not been invaded.
[13] In the time when outside he followed preachings, once there was a certain boy a Brother of the Order of his: to one thirsting a fountain he elicits, these when they were on the way, the boy complained that he suffered thirst. To whom the holy man said, Endure a little, because soon, God being propitious, we shall be in the place to which we tend, & you shall drink. But after a pause the boy still more complained, that namely by thirst he was imperiled, nor could longer endure. Then the Father by mercy moved said to the boy, Go thither for a little, & put himself in prayer. He rising & the boy called, he lifted one stone which was in the way: & at once began thence to gush a fountain of living water. And the boy drank as much as he wished, & so cured he was.
[14] He preached therefore then the word of God, & not without fruit. For sinners at his preaching were converted, great fruit he makes by preaching, & the good to better were comforted. And especially the world to contemn & to the way of perfection to aspire he taught, that several both by example & by word to perfection he might attract. For men better he made by his holy conversation & inflamed preaching to the way of perfection to come, who left the world receiving the habit of holy religion & poverty by the example of him. For the whole country, & specially the city of Toulouse, by the example of his sanctity & into better reformed, & changed as to life's perfection was, & public fame this attests. But neither less if those, whom the divine Spirit to the preaching & example of so great a man inflamed, to him in the reformation of life obeyed, to a barking dog silence he indicts, since & animals also irrational obeyed him. For on a certain day, while the man (as frequently he was wont) to the people preached; there was present a certain importunate little dog, who as much the preacher as the people hearing by running about & barking perturbed. But he turned to the dog, said: Little beast, be quiet, nor disturb nor disquiet us. And then, all who were present seeing & being astonished, at once the little dog was silent, nor from the place where it was itself moved, until the whole sermon the holy man completed. He was also as another John the Baptist a reprehender of crimes, arguing as much publicly as privately, public vices he corrects. as much the great as the small, as much the Knights as the Barons & other Magnates, the pomps & vanities of the world following; of women besides the ornaments & varieties of furs in the fields wearing: at whose exhortation & preaching many men & women, the ornaments of pride & vanity laid aside, the humble habit & of holy poverty assumed.
[15] Of tribulation also & sorrow a chief consoler he was: for once came to him a certain merchant of Toulouse, Those suffering specters he succors. who from certain visions & illusions was very sad & desolate: for his dead wife appeared to him adorned on a certain night, as to him it appeared, as if she lived: who also stood near him with knees bent: which vision for many nights he had of her, & by the holy man's protection freed & sound made was. On a certain also night a certain Arnald; as it appeared to him, felt near himself in bed some person: which when with his hand he had touched, it seemed to him a human person naked. Knowing no other person to be in the whole lodging, terrified greatly, on the day following he came to the holy man. And when he had narrated to him the cause of his sadness, said to him the holy man: Arnald, do not fear: for the Lord will help you, bend your knees, & say the Confiteor. Which when he had done humbly to him obeying, he imposed his hand upon his head, & said some prayer, & him blessed making the sign of the Cross & said, Go securely. And he went away glad, & from then that vision he did not have.
NOTES.
CHAPTER III.
Other virtues of William, his pious death & the miracles which followed it.
[16] He was also that man very humble & benign; & humbly conversing, Excelling in humility, & humility by gesture words & deeds he showed, & worldly honors he fled, & much it displeased him if at any time anyone him commended. And although worldly honors he spurned, all yet as much Brothers as seculars to him rose, & as a Father him revered, & commonly & publicly a Saint he was called, & on account of the great grace scarcely could men from him be separated. He walked also humbly with head inclined & eyes to the ground cast down, & thus whomsoever to him coming to humility's merit he provoked. And not only by humility he was illustrious, but also he was modest, chaste, modest, he is careful lest to anyone he be troublesome. cheerful, jocund, liberal, fleeing envy, repelling scandals, of cupidity empty, with morals adorned, just, wise, prudent, discreet & of avarice an enemy, of negligence contrary, bashful & quiet. And as he himself was wholly quiet, sometimes even needing the Breviary of his companion, he said to him; Have you a Breviary? And he answered. Father, so. Where have you it? Who, Father, in the cell, but it is distant much. To whom he: Would it not be much grievous to you to go? To whom, Father, no. Therefore go without burden. And thus no one even of the least he wished to burden or disquiet.
[17] He was besides he himself so quiet, that almost always he was in the cell shut, on prayer insisting, except while he went to the church or sometimes a little through the cloister. Never yet idle or slothful was he found: His speech modest, for those coming to him for the most part him found praying or contemplating or speaking about God. He was also himself in speaking most wise: for never did anyone hear from the mouth of him a slippery word, or slanderous or injurious, idle or unhonest leap forth. Nor ever did he swear: but when he wished anything to affirm, he said: Securely, if I say well, or if I understand well, so it is. And sometimes he said. Saving reverence, or, In truth so it is. Little he spoke except of God: words also of salvation to the profit & example of his neighbor always he conversed, nor was he angry in speaking: & edifying, but what he spoke benignly & patiently & cheerfully he said. All to him for visiting's cause coming, to meditation & contemplation of divine things he provoked. In supernatural love fixed, of corporeal & worldly things it did not please him even to speak: & with whole mind to celestial things fortified, to those speaking to him he said: What do they now above in Paradise? Do they stand how the Angels? or how do they praise God? What hour is it now in Paradise above? What do the Saints? & other things besides in the love of the supernal rooted he discharged words: &, just as his words indicated, his heart was fixed in the Lord; & thus, by those words he induced others to the contemplating of celestial things, whence by his example of magnificent sanctity, which by manifest judgments appeared, many men of either sex the worldly life leaving, the contemplative life embraced.
[18] Whence also in his life this B. William, by those who him knew a Saint was reputed, & for such was held: for thus to the holy man many themselves recommended, especially if themselves burdened by some crime or sin or temptation they felt, & to him coming refreshment found. the goads of the flesh he removes, Whence once it happened that a certain man of Toulouse, of good life, chaste & modest, much tempted about a certain young woman, not knowing what to do he ought, came to that holy Father, & indicated to him the cause of his sadness. Then he put his hand upon his head saying some prayers. And he said to him: Go securely, do not fear. And from then he felt himself so freed from the said temptation, as if never he had thought about that young woman. And so many, by his merits & prayers, as much from corporeal infirmities as spiritual were helped. future things he predicts, To this holy man many secrets celestial were revealed & many visions of past & future he had. For the sins of some, which humanly totally had been hidden, for their correction he detected. He of a field at Miramont a fought, who would win or lose long before foreknew. And finally many other things to him divinely were revealed: but for humility's cause, lest human favor him should extol, those hidden to be he wished. Yet his familiars by words often something to him revealed recognized.
[19] He knew also & predicted the time of his death. For when his familiars asked of him, still he in soundness of life persevering, also the time of his own death, whether they should prepare for him a little garden, which he near the cell had; answered the man of God, with the Holy Spirit full: It is not needful, because near four days I am from this world about to withdraw. And that with mind fixed & a querulous voice he greatly desired: for with Paul continually that in heart & mouth he revolved, I desire to be dissolved, & to be with Christ. Which afterward happened: for after four days, on the Friday before the feast of Pentecost, his glorious soul migrated from the body: & that always he asked from Christ his most pious Redeemer, that on such a day, namely Friday, on which Christ Himself for the human race deigned to die, & he himself devout his soul to his Redeemer would render. Whence on that namely Friday to die securely the just one is heard: how piously he dies on the Friday before Pentecost, for there had come this day, on which he might reap, & on which he ought to be remunerated, because enough he had labored. For on the day already said Friday in the morning began the flesh to decline, he is vexed with pains: besides patiently he asked God, requests from his companion writing-tablets, & commanded that this he should write a prayer: Mercy, piety, sanctity, charity, security infinite, eternal, may it incline the whole twelvefold country, & the twelvefold quadripartite, & the tripartite eternal infinitely, & infinitely twentyfold quincupartite, & quincupartite twelvefold, & twelvefold continuously, trifid perennially, continually triformly into eternity. Which prayer indeed wonderfully confers, & a wonderful sentence b contains. Then the prayer being written by his companion, & often by his precept repeated, he manifests to the Brothers the dissolution of his body to be impending. And the pains growing he cries to God, these penalties for his sin to have merited. The Saint rejoices & is glad, because he sees & knows himself in a short time about to die. He is questioned by the Brothers how thus he suffers. Answers the holy Father: For the custom of human nature is in the body's dissolution somehow to suffer. He bids also the Hours him hearing by two Brothers to be said: because he, namely near to death, could not. And as death gradually ascended, so himself with the sign of the Cross he fortified: & thus on the eighteenth of the month of May, c on the same day namely Friday, the hour after Compline, 18 May 1369. before the feast of Pentecost, all that day before he migrated conversing with the Brothers, in a wonderful manner felicitously & sweetly, no one of those standing around weighing or knowing, in the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred sixty ninth, migrated to the Lord.
[20] Then however the Brothers approach, they do not believe him dead. For a ruddy color & of his face the flesh refulgent was as if he slept. Goes the rumor with grief among the common people, there is a concourse to the exequies; it was sown through the city that the Saint is dead: for thus in life he was called. Flow from everywhere people of either sex both Clerics & laymen, learned equally & unlearned, & others several Religious, & specially his devotees, who were several in the city, to the great spectacle of so great a Father. And thus with great reverence & honor to the church he is transferred, & there in the chapel of B. Mary Magdalen, where commonly he celebrated his Masses, to be buried he is carried: & there is a clamor of the people & of the cap, with which he ought to be buried, desiring from devotion to their own to transport: & thus the cap here & there is torn apart. The Brothers prohibit, but prevail those to rejoice. In a chest he is placed, & thus with hymns & praises in the earth was laid all, because his life's course was seventy-two years.
[21] What more? His fame through the whole earth is divulged, he shines with miracles, vows are made, & by the merits of the holy man they are heard by God: & there gather the devotees, most dear of the holy Father in Christ Jesus, after fifty in prodigies & miracles were divulged & shown, ought not under the earth, nor without a sepulcher decent any more to be left. It is decreed therefore, the body of the holy Father on high to be transferred & translated. And when those digging the earth, believed themselves the body, already fifty-three days in the summer time under the earth left, from human nature's condition to find to be corrupted, they bear aromatic herbs & perfumes in a wonderful manner fragrant. But having continued the diggers came to the chest, which opening they found the holy Father, as if that very hour therein placed, with a wonderful odor fragrant, in no part of his body corrupted, broken, or changed: whose fragrance's odor all the other perfumes there carried in wonderfully exceeded. At last
in a stone sepulcher, artfully constructed, venerably & in the praise of God omnipotent with thanksgiving he is placed, & there with how many miracles it shines, in a marble tomb he is elevated, & how great benefits of healings are furnished, to recall I would scarcely suffice. In miracles also & prodigies e which now works God by that holy Father's merits, on earth is discerned, what kind was his life, when he lived among men.