Philippa

ON BL. PHILIPPA, VIRGIN, CALLED DE CAMPO-MILANO, AT VIENNE IN GAUL,

In the year 1451.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Philippa de Campo-Limano, V., at Vienne of the Allobroges. (Bl.)

BY M. S.

§ I. This Virgin is known to few Martyrologists: her two Lives: one of these to be published.

Although the Virgin Philippa is very well known to almost all the writers who have woven a history of the affairs of Vienne, [This Virgin, to few, namely the Universal one of Castellanus, Saussay's and Arthur's and two] and followed her times, it is not so with the Martyrologists: for she is found inscribed in only three printed Martyrologies, namely Saussay's, the Universal one of Castellanus, and Arthur's: Saussay indeed exhibits the following elogium of her today in the supplement: At Vienne, the passing of Blessed Philippa de Campteliman, who, after the course of a most holy life, entombed at St. Maurice in the cloister at the altar of Holy Mary, raised sixteen dead within ten years. So Saussay, but inserting this Virgin only in the Order of the Pious: while Castellanus, numbering her among the Blessed, has in French the following, which I render into Latin: At Vienne, moreover (he had placed first St. Deodatus, of whom we have treated above), of Blessed Philippa de Campo-Telimano, Virgin. And Arthur celebrates her in the Gynaeceum Sacrum in these words: At Vienne of the Allobroges, the deposition of Blessed Philippa, glorious in life and miracles. In the Notes, however, with certain names wrongly expressed, he writes things consonant with Rinaldo, to be cited below. To these are added two MS. Martyrologies in our possession; the first indeed, whose title is Martyrology of the Holy church of Vienne, etc., announces our Blessed in these words: At Vienne in Gaul, the blessed virgin Philippa, called de Campo-Milano, famous for miracles, departed to her Spouse in the year 1451, in the 50th year of her age, while John de Nory, the 86th archbishop, sat at Vienne; who, entombed before the doors of the chapel of B. Mary, long flashed with miracles.

[2] in MSS., she is found inscribed in the martyrologies, as also And the other, whose Title is this: Order and series of the Saints of the holy and ancient church of Vienne, etc., has the following, and more prolix, encomium: On the Ides of October there died at Vienne Bl. Virgin Philippa, called de Campo-Milano, a Burgundian, in the year 1451, in the 50th year of her age, Nicholas the fifth sitting as Pope. Who, begotten of illustrious parents, lived at Vienne a long time in the service of the noble lady Anne de Nory, sister of the most reverend Fr. John de Nory, then the eighty-sixth archbishop of Vienne. She, given daily with her lady to divine worship, and devoted to works of piety, came to such holiness that she was a pattern to all of living rightly and piously. And when she had been at Rome for the sacred jubilee with her lady, on her own feet, in the year 1450 under the aforesaid supreme Pontiff, returning home, full of works of piety and of miracles before and after death, she happily departed to the Lord, entombed in the sacred building of the Major church of Vienne, before the doors of the Major chapel of the B. Virgin Mary, whose innumerable miracles after death, excerpted by the clerics, remained shut and guarded in the archives of that church. To be numbered among the Martyrologists is Jacques Rinaldo, who in his Lilies or Flowers of Holy Gaul, printed at Dijon in the year 1643, gives a compendious History of Bl. Philippa, second part, chapter 1 p. 337., of this kind.

[3] in Rinaldo's Lilies Blessed Philippa de Chamteliman, a lady's attendant. Philippa does in this little book after death what she did in life; she follows the noble, herself noble, but a handmaid and attendant of a most noble woman, sister of the archbishop of Vienne. If indeed she is to be called handmaid and not mistress, who so commanded death that within a mere decade, dead, she raised sixteen dead: alas, what could she not do living, who could do so much dead, as to have dominion over that which has dominion even over all the most powerful kings! And would anyone be amazed if she gave eyes to two blind men, and opened the doors of a prison to three captives? With no trouble he opens doors and windows who restores the buildings themselves. If she assisted eight women in danger in childbirth, and saved their fruit; easily does he bring in those set on the threshold of life who brings back to life those who have passed the boundary. But that she restored to their former health four maddened with rage, reconciled a woman with her husband, at variance with deadly hatred; freed a man from the deceptions of demons; and wrought other miracles of that kind; she proved that in dying she had ascended in place and power, and from handmaid had been made mistress far and wide, and not without justice: for she ought to go before in power and miracles, who, although she followed her mistress with bodily steps, went far before her in virtues. Of which, if the author who wrote the Life of Philippa concealed them, we can conjecture enough from so many and so great miracles.

[4] or Flowers For if she had not been of the highest humility of spirit, she would not have been raised to such glory by Him who, most high, regards the low and despises the high: she would by no means have raised the dead, unless she had nourished a living faith in her breast: nor would she give light to the blind, unless while living she had loved her own darkness: finally she would not be presented by heaven with such rewards, or wages of labours, unless, an excellent handmaid, she had served the divine Godhead well. To these the same Rinaldo further subjoins a fourfold note, the first indeed contains, in conformity with both biographers and others, that our Blessed came from the place Changy, the second that she rendered the service of a maid to the lady de Norry, the third asserts that sixteen dead raised by the patronage of Bl. Philippa are proved from the records of the church of St. Maurice of Vienne, in whose cloister she was buried: but in the fourth Rinaldo, although almost consonant with the French Compendium of the Life, departs rather far from the others; for although, like the other writers too, he notes that our Blessed died in the year 1451, on the 15th of October, yet, differing from all the others, together with the French Compendium of the Life, whose error, however, as we shall say below, is more probably to be attributed to an amanuensis, he noted, wrongly, as we shall see afterwards, that it happened in the 39th year of the age of Bl. Philippa.

[5] of Holy Gaul: Further, whatever we have already brought forward from Rinaldo, he himself hints that he drew from Jacques Gaultier: for Rinaldo subjoins the following to the aforesaid notes: From Jacques Gaultier in the Chronological Tables, 15th century, p. 754, in the latest editions. But I have in hand

the Chronographic Table of the state of the Catholic Church from the birth of Christ to the year 1614, by the author Jacques Gaultier, published at Lyon at the expense of Horace Cardon in the year 1616, as also another printed at Cologne at the expense of Peter Henning in the same year, in whose fifteenth century, however, not even a word about Bl. Philippa, Virgin of Vienne, is to be found; hence there is no reason why we should doubt that Gaultier's lucubrations appeared enlarged in the later editions, which it is not now possible to inspect: for Rinaldo seems to have added these words, in the latest editions, deliberately for this reason. However the matter stands, if you set aside the 39th year of age in which he writes Bl. Philippa died, Rinaldo asserted things sufficiently consonant with both biographers, the Prologue of the Miracles, and others; and the miracles which he adds generally we shall subjoin below to the Acts. I now turn to the biographers and Lives of our Blessed, to investigate the things which pertain here.

[6] the Life of the same Virgin is twofold in our possession, one French, the other We have already hinted above that there are in our possession two Lives of Bl. Philippa: of these one is written in the French idiom, the other in Latin, which we shall also subjoin to this Commentary; the latter was sent to us, as is noted in the margin, by one well deserving of our Museum, the Rev. Fr. Chifflet, S. J., priest, and it is copied from an old Codex: for, when Chifflet's MS. begins to treat of the Miracles, it has the following on this matter: That same old manuscript Codex, from which the Life was drawn, reviews very many miracles most fully: this Life indeed is anonymous; but it was written by a contemporary, who knew Bl. Philippa well from the twentieth year of her age, and whom she deigned to honour with benevolence and familiar conversation, as the biographer clearly testifies at no. 5 in these words: Thus far, he says, although from hearsay, yet ascertained from sure authors, we have spoken of what the upbringing and virtue of Philippa were up to the twentieth year of her age. The history of the remaining thirty, of which the holy city of Vienne was the spectator, as of a great theatre, of such great virtues placed in it, I shall write the more willingly because I am about to say things which I myself have drunk in with my eyes, and which are very well known to very many others, whom she, as well as me, deigned to honour with her benevolence, familiar conversation and frequent patronage with God.

[7] Latin, anonymous, but written by a contemporary, The biographer therefore without doubt merits entire credit; but it is greatly to be lamented that he generally for the most part touches too briefly on the things which pertain to our Blessed: and who or of what kind the Latin biographer was he nowhere hints: but nevertheless he asserts, as we have just seen, that he was familiar with Bl. Philippa when she was staying at Vienne, from which it is permitted to gather that he was of Vienne, and perhaps a presbyter; perhaps, I say, a presbyter: for to the prologue of the miracles, which is as it were a compendium of the Latin Life, and differs from it only in a few things, the following beginning is prefixed: Prelude to the Miracles of the Virgin Philippa, anciently published by a certain presbyter of the church of Vienne. From the MS. of M. Jean le Lièvre. Hence it seems that it can be not imprudently conjectured that perhaps the miracles too (since all, except the six later ones, happened before a decade had elapsed from the death of this Blessed one) were collected by the same biographer; for, as we said in the preceding number, the same old codex contained the life and the miracles. However the matter stands, the biographer is contemporary, and himself familiar with Bl. Philippa, and was an eye-witness of the things gloriously done by her through the last thirty years, all of which things go very far to winning credit.

[8] differing in few things, indeed As for what now concerns the author of the French Compendium of the Life, he is even more unknown to me, for he does not give the least indication of himself from which he can in any way be recognized: there is indeed subjoined to our apograph this note in French, which (as I wish the Reader forewarned, whenever I speak of it) I render into Latin: J. L., a nobleman of the same place as the Virgin, whose name is hidden, asserted that for the space of eighteen years he had conversed familiarly with this Virgin, had drunk and eaten with her; he himself, in the old French tongue proper to that time, committed to writing her life, manners and conversation. But that Compendium which I have in hand was written neither in the old French tongue, at least one which smacks of the fifteenth century, nor by one who knew the Blessed Virgin by face: for the author of the Compendium says not a word of this matter, unlike the Latin biographer. Further, about this Life written in the old French idiom nothing further has become known to me, except that the same, as I shall presently say, existed enlarged with citations of the Fathers, or perhaps still exists without my knowledge: and the difference between the French Compendium and the biographer, considering what we shall say below about the year of age when our Blessed succumbed to death, is slight, and the beginning of each almost similar; in the rest the order is sometimes wrongly inverted, and here and there certain discrepancies occur; these, if they seem to bear on the matter, we shall set forth in this Commentary, keeping the chronological order, whence I by no means think it necessary to publish this Life in print, although now rendered into Latin by me.

[9] and a certain third Life, enlarged with citations of the Fathers, Now let us discourse somewhat about that Life which came out enlarged with citations of the Fathers, as we have just seen: that it existed, or perhaps still exists, is noted clearly enough beneath the French Life which I have before me; for when the author of the apograph, or perhaps he who kindly sent it to us, had indicated that the nobleman of whom above committed to writing the Life and manners of Bl. Philippa, he subjoins the following: Using this, namely the Life written in the old French idiom, J. L. (Jean le Lièvre?) wove a somewhat more prolix Life, and enlarged it with citations of the Holy Fathers, but as to substance it contains nothing else than what is recited here. Whence indeed, our lacking it is a loss plainly slight, since those ornaments and phraseologies for the most part conduce little or nothing to the matter. Moreover, perhaps that very French Life which we have is a compendium of this more prolix one, translated from Latin into French, which the following move me to think: the author who published this French Life sufficiently openly hints that a more prolix Latin one lighted his way, and that it was different from that which is in our possession, written in that idiom, as we shall presently say. For that a more prolix one lighted the way is proved by the title of our Life, which has thus: Compendium of the Life of the blessed Virgin Philippa de Campomilano, who died at Vienne in the year 1451, on the fifteenth of October, in the year of her age 39. Extracted from a manuscript. If, then, the Compendium which I have in hand was extracted from a MS. which I lack, it must necessarily follow that the MS. was without doubt more prolix.

[10] which perhaps lighted the way for the author of our French one, Further, that the Life which the author of the Compendium contracted was written in Latin seems to be proved by the epilogue of the same Compendium, which the writer of the French Life subjoins to it in Latin in this way: And as a coronis of her virtues this is the end of the life. And he proceeds, but in the Latin idiom: Precious of countenance, winning of aspect, placid of mouth, strong in patience, a friend of peace from the cradle, she is known to have loved God with her whole heart, eagerly hearing His word above gold and topaz; in this her soul was wonderfully refreshed, and that she might some time attain to the love of her Spouse, she exercised her life in fasts, vigils and prayers; she was present at all the canonical hours, except sometimes None on account of the meal; amid her doings her mind never ceased from contemplation, her tongue from prayer, her hands from good work. She was strong in modesty of speaking, caution in acting, the reticence of silence, and although all good things flourished in her, she lived as one useless, the lowest of all, and unworthy of every good, and to conclude, she was given as an example not only to young girls, but also to men and women established in the active life. It follows hence that that French Compendium was more probably translated into French by Le Lièvre from a more prolix Latin one, that idiom being preserved in the epilogue; for this, as regards the miracles, of which we have the greatest part only in French, he who sent these to us either noted, or transcribed it, noted by another, with these words subjoined to these miracles: The Conclusion of Jean le Lièvre, as it seems, who also perhaps rendered these, that is the miracles, into French.

[11] it is proved from the same that it was different from our Latin one. That this Latin Life was different from ours the epilogue which we saw in the preceding number clearly accomplishes: for besides the fact that not a word of it is found in our apograph, there is a remarkable discrepancy, unless it happened through the ignorance of the amanuensis, in the age to be assigned when our Blessed succumbed to death: the French Compendium of the Life, yet in Latin, settles the matter thus: At length, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1451, in the month of October, held by an epidemic disease, at the age of 40 or about, so that by her own nourishments for Spiritual things she appeared altogether younger, that she might the more happily pass her last day in the Lord, carried before the doors of the upper chamber of B. Mary of the chapel within the cloister of St. Maurice by the lords of the said church, she was honourably entombed. On the contrary, the Life to be published relates that Bl. Philippa died not in about the fortieth year of her age, but the fiftieth, in these words: She flew away to the blessed embraces of her Spouse in the year 1451, on the Ides of October, about fifty years of age, although from the lively temperament of her features anyone would have pronounced her far younger. It must therefore follow hence that some other Life, and perhaps that which we said above was enlarged with citations of the Fathers, which he cut away, lighted the way for the author of the French Compendium. These things having now been premised which properly concern the biographers of Bl. Philippa, let us hasten to the matter itself, and undertake to discuss the series of the Acts.

* propter (on account of)

* spiritualia (spiritual things)

§ II. The Blessed one's birthplace: illustrious parents: a pious childhood: with her mother she has charge of the castle of Changy.

This Virgin was born in the place called Changy near Crozet The Bl. Virgin Philippa was born in the district of Forez, which is divided into Upper and Lower; but whether she was born in the Upper or the Lower none of those who treat of her has expressly stated; that she was born in the Lower (which is called absolutely Forez, commonly le Forez) no slight arguments persuade: for besides the fact that no one mentions the Upper, the biographer, the French compendium of the Life, the Prologue of the Miracles, and others unanimously affirm that Bl. Philippa was born in the castle of Changy near Crozet, a town of the tract of Forez; and that place, namely Crozet, in the Blaeu Geography, volume seven, is distant from Roanne, the metropolis of Lower Forez, about five common miles towards the North, and about as many by the same road from Palicia, or Palissa, as the biographer has it, a town of the Bourbonnais tract: but the castle of Changy

near Crozet I do not find there; yet on page 209, where the map of the Lyonnais and Forez is exhibited, a twofold village called Changy lies adjacent to the same Crozet, at almost equal distance, one towards the North, the other towards the East, from one of which our Philippa without doubt sprang: for the said writers have indicated that Changy is near Crozet, perhaps that it may be distinguished from namesakes; but which of the two they have left to be guessed. I likewise found a castle or village of Changy (in the vernacular bourg) in the Dictionary of Vosgien, in the generality of Lyon, which comprises both Forez, and in its fourth Election (go to the Dictionary of La Martinière at the word Changy) Roanne, as I said, the metropolis of the same Lower Forez. [Changy, the homeland of Bl. Philippa, seems to be that village which lies midway between Roanne (Roanne) and Crozet; it is indeed said to be reckoned in the Province of Lyon in Expilly, Dict. Geogr. de la Fr., but the whole tract of Forez was assigned to the Lyonnais. Today that place belongs to the diocese of Lyon, under the parish church of La Pacaudière, within the prefecture of the Loire (Dépt. de la Loire): the Changy in the Bourbonnais tract is too distant, namely thirty French leagues, from the province of Forez, to be attributed to it; cf. the Cassini map. It will help to note that the village of Changy indicated above belongs to the church of Clermont, as Maupertuy, cited at no. 18, says, the Changy of the Bourbonnais is reckoned in the bishopric of Bourges.]

[13] of the tract of Forez, which is part of the duchy Bl. Philippa, therefore, was born in the district of Forez and the castle of Changy; but the biographer, the Prologue of the Miracles, and the above-cited MS. Martyrologies seem to raise a certain dispute: for they are divided three ways; for the Martyrologies call her a Burgundian; but I do not doubt that the martyrologists wrote this not because she sprang strictly from the duchy of Burgundy, but because Forez was formerly (go to La Martinière at the word Forez) subject to the Burgundian princes: on the contrary, the Prologue of the miracles has her born from the duchy of Bourbon, and the biographer has her born among the Boii: but for what reason the Prologue of the miracles says she was born from Bourbon, hear from Baudrand, who relates the following at the words Bourbonnais province on this matter: The Bourbonnais province … distinguished, he says, with the title of duchy, where formerly the Boii peoples were: its boundaries on the North the province of Nivernais, on the East Burgundy, on the West the province of Berry with the Marche, and on the South Auvergne, between which Forez lies; Corneille settles it even more clearly in this way in his Universal Dictionary; here are his words: Roanne, a city of France situated in the diocese of Clermont on the river Loire, and in the county of Forez, which is part of the duchy of Bourbon. So Corneille in French at the word Roanne; rightly, therefore, did the author of the Prologue affirm that our Blessed was born from Bourbon; and it becomes almost manifest why the biographer asserts that Bl. Philippa was born among the Boii; for what the author of the Prologue wished expressed by the duchy of Bourbon, the biographer wished expressed more briefly by the Boii.

[14] of Bourbon, a town, For the things which we have just seen from Baudrand persuade this, and Adrien de Valois confirms it, discoursing at length about the Boii, a Celtic nation, and in the Notitia Galliarum at the word Boji places them, with Pliny, in Lugdunensian or Celtic Gaul between the Carnutes and the Senones, and, as he says, readily agrees with Coquille, who asserts in the Hist. of the Nivernais Hist. du Nivernois, p. 302.: That part of the district of Bourbon, but only that which the Loire and the Allier enclose… was of the Boii of the ancients. Coquille adds that of the district of Bourbon there were at first only Bourbon, Murat and Chantelle: that afterwards that district gradually grew, and from the Bituriges, the Arverni, the people of Forez (note) or Segusiavi, and the Nivernais joined many places to itself. To these is added d'Abbeville in the Little Work which he entitled Animadversions on the maps of ancient Gaul, and he has the following at no. 44: Boii, the Bourbonnais province, and perhaps certain places from the neighbouring ones. There agree also most recently our Elders in Vol. III of Oct., in the Notes to the Acts of St. Leopardinus At the 7th day of October, p. 917, note oo., where these are the words: The province and city of Gaul (namely the district of Nevers) has the Bituriges to the west, the Bourbonnais or Boii to the south. Whoever desires more about Forez may go to the universal History of it by La Mure, printed at Lyon in the year 1674, in whose Stella Sancta, however, or ecclesiastical History, no mention is had of Bl. Philippa, since it treats only of ecclesiastical or religious persons.

[15] to be written with the z, that it may be distinguished from a synonym. But there is not yet full agreement between the biographer and the others; for the biographer expressed Crozetum with the S in the middle, the rest with the S; a slight difference indeed, and an error accustomed to be easily committed; but since in Lower Forez itself too (see Blaeu's Geog., vol. 7, the map of the Lyonnais and Forez) there is found a village called Crosetz, towards the South of Roanne, about a mile and a half distant on the right of the Loire, I have thought it should be indicated to the Reader, although I judge that it must be concluded for Crozet (since I sought Changy near Crosetz with vain labour), and that the aforesaid error must be attributed to our apograph. Moreover the biographer, with whom the others agree, calls Crozet by the name of town; and yet, in whatever way you express it, neither one nor the other is found marked with the character or sign proper to towns in the map just cited; although this sign proper to small towns seems to be added to Crozet in Blaeu's Geog., vol. VII, which establishes what has just been said. I judge, therefore, that Bl. Philippa sprang from one or the other of the places neighbouring Crozet of which at no. 13, saving the opinion of those who think otherwise; although perhaps La Martinière thought it should be expressed with the S (see him at the word Roanne). Let these things about the birthplace of Bl. Philippa suffice; let us step to her illustrious parents.

[16] Her parents That this Virgin was born of illustrious forebears is the common opinion, asserted by the biographer at the beginning; let us hear him: Philippa was born among the Boii in the castle whose name is Changy, near Crozet, a town of the tract of Forez, on the way to Palissa. Of illustrious stock on both her parents' side; for her father, John de Campotemilano, and her mother, Joanna de Verniaco, had ennobled the splendour of their birth with Christian virtue. Similar things the biographer has at nos. 2 and 3, praising her for nobility and the brightness of her stock, with whom the French Compendium of the Life, the Prologue of the miracles, and others, Maupertuy excepted, agree: but few things are known about her father John; For he, as the biographer proceeds, dies a few days after the birth of his daughter. Yet that he, whom the author of the Compendium calls devout and wholly religious, rendered the service of a household member to the archbishop of Vienne, at least in the principal offices, the same author of the Compendium, as also the biographer, asserted: here are the biographer's words at no. 4: Having gone out of the borders of the Boii, at twenty years of age she was summoned to Vienne of the Allobroges, to render the service of a household member to a matron of illustrious station, the lady du Châtel, in the company of noble girls: because her brother's wife, Margaret by name, was already employed in the same ministry, and because Philippa's father, John de Champslemilan, had elsewhere had his liberal services engaged in the domestic household of the brother of the lady du Châtel, John de Norry, who then sat at the helm of the church of Vienne.

[17] illustrious in her secular nobility, although And as for her mother Joanna de Verniaco (in the vernacular de Vernay), whom the biographer rightly calls a religious matron, who and of what kind she was the same biographer likewise explains at the very beginning: for, having narrated the death of her husband, he proceeds in this way: She, namely the mother, when she had undertaken to bring her up and to educate her in domestic discipline, easily imbued her tender character with the rudiment of true piety: among the other endowments of the religious matron there is said to have shone forth an outstanding cult towards the Mother of God, whom she strove to merit by various afflictions of the body, by prayers, and by frequent pilgrimage to her image at Le Puy, and by every kind of veneration. Nor did the charge imposed on her of administering the whole palace of Changy, which she discharged with incorrupt fidelity, prevent her from forming her dear offspring with great increments of heroic virtue to the perfect praise of holiness. The daughter Philippa was by no means degenerate from such illustrious parents; but before I discourse more explicitly about these, it must be investigated in a few words whether this Virgin and her forebears were truly illustrious with secular nobility; for although the biographer, the French Compendium of the Life, the prologue of the miracles, Rinaldo, and others indiscriminately attribute this to them as undoubted, it is nevertheless opposed by Maupertuy, a writer of this century, in the History which he wrote of the church of Vienne, and he affirms that she was of a family honourable indeed, but by no means noble.

[18] although Maupertuy denies it, Hear Maupertuy's French words on this matter Hist. de l'Egl. de Vienne, p. 267., which I put into Latin: We shall here celebrate, he says, together with the church of Vienne, the memory of a certain holy Virgin, who, although of mediocre condition (commonly peu relevée), was sublime in virtues: she was called Philippa de Chante-Milan (Cante-Liman, or Champ de Milan, as he notes in the margin); she was born at the beginning of the fifteenth century, in the place called Changy, and in Forez and the diocese of Clermont. Her father's name was John de Chante-Milan, her mother's Joanna de Vernay, each of an honourable family indeed, but modestly endowed with the goods of fortune; wherefore her mother, a little time having elapsed from the death of her husband and the birth of her daughter, was compelled to devote herself to the service of the sister of our archbishop, the lady of the village which she inhabited, and widow of a nobleman of Forez called de l'Espinace. So Maupertuy: but besides the fact that he brings forward no testimony for this singular opinion of his, and all the others whom I have inspected commend Bl. Philippa for nobility and most for riches, nothing at all seems to stand in the way of nobles, however rich, serving more noble persons in principal offices: and that the mother of the Blessed one served in principal offices the biographer, a contemporary writer, expressly testifies: For she had the charge of administering the whole palace of Changy: this service, therefore, on which Maupertuy chiefly relies, proves nothing here against the brightness of the family of the Virgin or her parents, nor do I think this needs to be confirmed by examples, since they are obvious.

[19] were illustrious, and their daughter Philippa, at the beginning The biographer himself settles the whole matter, and explains what kind of service both Bl. Philippa and her sister-in-law and her father rendered, in the words adduced above at no. 16, and asserts that this Blessed one, as also her sister-in-law, rendered the service of household members in the company of noble girls, and that her father had his liberal services engaged in the domestic household of the bishop of Vienne: it is clear, therefore, that these services by no means misbecame a freeborn and noble girl, and since all the others commend her for nobility, I judge that one should by all means adhere to these rather than to Maupertuy, a historiographer of this age. The brightness of the family of the parents and of Bl. Philippa herself being established, the year of her birth on earth must now be inquired: it depends partly on the year in which she died, partly on the time for which she was living; and although further, about the former, among authors,

which they determine as 1451, there is sufficient agreement, yet about the other the same think differently, as we shall see; for Rinaldo (go above to no. 4) in his Lilies of Holy Gaul asserts that Bl. Philippa ceased to be among the number of the living in the 39th year of her age, of Christ 1451, and consequently contends that her birth on earth is to be tied to the year 1412; but, as I shall presently say, Rinaldo deferred the year of this Blessed one's birth more than was just, as did also Gaultier in the newest editions, as Rinaldo, who perhaps copied him, attests: the French Compendium of the Life which I have in hand, little removed from their opinion, could have lighted the way for both.

[20] in the fifteenth century Here are the Latin words of its epilogue: At length, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1451, in the month of October, on the 15th day, held by an epidemic disease, at the age of 40 years or about, she fell asleep in the Lord. But the Title prefixed to the same Compendium relates that our Blessed died at Vienne in the year 1451 on the 15th day of October, being 39 years old; but, besides the fact that, as I shall say at the end of this Commentary, I suspect these words of the Compendium are corrupted by the fault of the amanuensis, the authority of the contemporary biographer surely prevails greatly over them, who asserted and proved clearly enough that Bl. Philippa came forth into the world at the beginning of the fifteenth century, and about the year 1401 (although he does not expressly state this); he asserted it in these words towards the end: She flew away to the blessed embraces of her Spouse in the year 1451, on the Ides of October, about fifty years of age. And he proved it when he professes that he knew Bl. Philippa well, from when she was passing the twentieth year of her age, for another thirty years; let us hear the biographer himself speaking at no. 3: Thus far, he says, although from hearsay, yet ascertained from sure authors, we have spoken of what the upbringing and virtue of Philippa were up to the twentieth year of her age: the history of the remaining thirty, of which the holy city of Vienne was the spectator, as of a great theatre, of such great virtues placed in it, I shall write the more willingly because I am about to say things which I myself (that is, through thirty years) have drunk in with my eyes. The consequence therefore hence is that this Blessed one's birth is to be tied to the year 1401; further, that the same came to the city of Vienne in the twentieth year of her age is confirmed by the French Compendium of the Life itself.

[21] begot: For it has thus on this matter at no. 3: When she was passing the twentieth year of her age, in the hands of a celebrated theologian, the Prior of Rochetum, she made a vow of virginity, which she kept inviolate as long as she lived. At the same time, going out from the place of Changy, she came to the holy city of Vienne. Hence, consequently, to these twenty years being added the thirty during which our Virgin deigned to honour the biographer with familiar conversation, it appears clearly enough that she was fifty when she succumbed to death, and hence was born in the year 1401. With the biographer agree Le Lièvre and Maupertuy; for the former Hist. de l'Antiquité et Saint. de Vienne, p. 405. affirms that Bl. Philippa died in the year 1451, on the 15th of October, in the 50th year of her age. Maupertuy noted that she was born into the world at the beginning of the fifteenth century p. 263., and died on the 15th of October 1451; with whom the two MS. Martyrologies cited at nos. 1 and 2 also agree: wrongly, therefore, did the French Compendium of the Life, Rinaldo, Arthur and perhaps Gaultier contract the time of life of this Blessed Virgin, and defer her birth on earth; yet since neither the biographer nor anyone of those who agree with the biographer ties the birth of Bl. Philippa in express words to the year 1401, I do not think this year should be adhered to so stubbornly that it alone is determined, so that it could not have happened in another, since the biographer, whose credit I chiefly follow, writes that she died not absolutely fifty, but about fifty years of age; hence, since the day of her birth wholly escapes us, if she began to be among mortals in the year 1402, it could truly have been noted by the biographer that she was about fifty years old when she ceased to be among them.

[22] [scarcely born, this Virgin is bereft of her father and left to her mother to be brought up, with whom] The Virgin Philippa had scarcely begun life when, bereft of her father John, she was left to the care of her mother alone, who, however, When she had undertaken to bring her up in domestic discipline, says the biographer at no. 1, easily imbued her tender character with the rudiment of true piety. Further, about the earlier years of her life neither the biographer nor the French Compendium of the Life indicated particular things; the biographer only asserts that she was formed by her mother to the praise of perfect holiness; nor did this diligent care of the mother lack the desired fruit: for the biographer proceeds in this way at the same no. 1: The crop answered the cultivation: the love of right and honourable so kindled Philippa that her probity grew up together with her years, and was confirmed day by day: having scarcely passed the turn of childhood (such was the maturity of disposition beyond her age), co-opted into a share of her mother's stewardship and office, she proved herself to all, never destitute of her mother's care and precepts. With these the French Compendium of the Life agrees sufficiently; for it asserts that she was so taught by her mother the manner of serving God and the Blessed Virgin that, as much as she grew in body and age, so much she advanced in faith, piety, and the exercise of every kind of virtue, so that, having already become rather grown (her mother following her with a watchful eye, if she ever deviated from the right), she bore the care of the house.

[23] [having passed the years of childhood, and wonderfully devoted to piety, she bears the care of the castle of Changy,] Further, having passed the years of childhood, Bl. Philippa showed herself such that you must confess that nothing was left over of the wishes of her pious mother; for she was diligent in discharging those things which pertained to her office, and, these being completed, she gave herself not to idleness, which she well understood to be the cushion of the devil, but to the contemplation of divine things; let us hear the biographer, with whom the French Compendium agrees exceedingly: Already then, he says, at no. 2, when namely she had been co-opted into a share of her mother's stewardship, there was in her a singular sense of divine things. Having discharged her household duties, she would hide herself in the chapel, where, more withdrawn from the crowd, she could devote herself to meditation on the heavenly mysteries. Similar things to these Maupertuy, who himself published a compendium of this Blessed one's Life, has ^c; for he, although, contrary to the biographer and the French Compendium of the Life, he asserts that the charge entrusted to the mother was not the stewardship of the whole castle of Changy, but only that of bringing up and instructing the children, celebrates her beginnings in this way: And the little Philippa, he says in French, which I render into Latin, was numbered in this family, namely of the lord of Changy, whose beginnings were admirable, and such as those of the Saints were. She was bereft of her mother when only fifteen years old. But in what her beginnings were wonderful Maupertuy did not indicate.

[24] [and sometimes recreating those like herself with song, she soon flies back to pious works, as with the biographer] I return therefore to the biographer, who, having begun to commend this Blessed one for piety and love of solitude, adds what she was like in common intercourse and among those like herself; for when, as happens, she was driven by the exhortation of other noble girls (as if by force, the Compendium adds) to sing, she indeed complied; but she returned as quickly as possible to the works of piety; for the Compendium as well as the biographer assert this, and praise her highly for the sweetness of her song: For with an Angelic voice (the words are the Compendium's) she sang; but the biographer settles the matter thus in the following words at the same no. 2: Whence, if ever at the invitation of the noble girls her equals she came forth to delight them with the sweetness of her voice, which she controlled very skilfully, having complied for a little while, at once pleading the weight and multitude of her occupations, she betook herself to domestic labours, or the quiet of divine converse, most sparing of good leisure. It is clear hence how much this Virgin, even in that tender age, was devoted to the contemplation of divine things and to solitude: and yet she was not so passionately in love with solitude as altogether to refuse to take part in human conversations, as I have just said; indeed, to take part in them sometimes nothing was more pleasant to her: but only in those, as the biographer has at the cited number, In which God and the eternal salvation of men were treated. Hence it came about that she let no sermon on Christian matters go by unheard as far as was permitted, and she was never sated with performing divine service and adoring Christ in the hiding-places of the Eucharist.

[25] the French Compendium of the Life has agreeing, which, however, These things narrated, the French Compendium of the Life, which had thus far been sufficiently conformable to the biographer, begins to differ from him; not indeed in that the Compendium relates some things and the biographer others (for these, as I warned at no. 8, I shall weave into this Commentary, taking account of the time as far as is permitted), but in that, despising all order and chronology, as if panting for the end at almost the very beginning, the Compendium places in view as at one glance her principal deeds, and those which happened at Vienne: for a specimen let there be, as I myself divided it after our manner, the latter part of number 2, which contains roughly this in French: Further, among other more celebrated desires and various affections, the first place was held by hearing those who conversed about God, or about the salvation of others; nor was her desire of hearing Mass, and assisting at it, ever satisfied; and when she had heard that vain adornment misbecomes a Christian person, she rejected all of it (for before she went about exceedingly adorned), and gave herself more than usual to prayer. She also resolved always to be present at the office of matins, and to entreat God while others indulged in sleep: for she had devised a way of going out and coming back without noise; she generally took her sleep clothed, and occupied a secret place in the principal temple, so that she might be present at the principal Mass and all the hours on bended knees, and sometimes prostrate.

[26] [having narrated these things, begins to differ from him, chronological order neglected.] And the prayers she poured out were these: the Office of the blessed Virgin, the vigils of the dead with nine lessons, the Office of the holy Cross and of the Holy Spirit, likewise that of the Passion of the Lord, as arranged by St. Bonaventure, and the seven psalms of the penitent David with the litanies, and innumerable other prayers. She was, it proceeds at no. 3, without consolation when she prayed, and felt heavy distress, as she affirmed to those who could be of counsel to her, so that if ever God granted her to enjoy the sweetness of prayer, her shoulders seemed freed from a heavier burden. That the greater part of these things happened after her mother's death, and at Vienne, although the author of the Compendium relates that Bl. Philippa came to this city afterwards, I do not doubt: for this is proved among other things by the principal temple which she is said to have frequented that she might be present at all the hours, which you would most probably seek in vain at Changy, since it was a village or small castle (in the vernacular Bourg), and by the diligent care of her most vigilant mother, who would without doubt have wished that clandestine or nocturnal going out, although undertaken with the best end, forbidden to her younger daughter; we shall follow, therefore, the order of the biographer, who was both familiar with this Virgin from her twentieth year and had the things which she did before ascertained from sure authors, and with him as guide we shall unfold the things which Bl. Philippa further did.

§ III. Her mother dead, she vows chastity: she bears with even mind the various injuries inflicted by unworthy suitors.

Her mother, to whom she had always been dutiful, having died, We left Bl. Philippa still subject to the shrewd care of her mother; but when she had reached marriageable age, she was deprived of this care and bereft of her mother; for although the biographer and the French Compendium of the Life are silent here, Maupertuy opportunely indicated this misfortune, exceedingly grievous to our Virgin, in these words: She was bereft, he says, of her mother when not yet fifteen years old: and how painful and grievous that death was to Bl. Philippa is proved, among other things, by her piety and reverence towards her dear mother; the chronological order requires that one specimen, which the biographer as well as the author of the Compendium exhibit at the end of their lucubrations, be set forth here, since it clearly manifests together both the mother's vigilance and the daughter's regard: it runs thus: Of her piety towards her parents, are the words of the biographer, no. 9, this example exists. When as a young girl she was in charge of the storeroom in the castle of Changy, being asked by one of the servants to give him one of the reeds, of which there was a great quantity in a certain chamber whose key she kept, she complied: her mother surprises her as she is unlocking the room, and asks carefully what she is doing; the highest regard for her mother so dismayed the girl that she sprinkled her answer with falsehood: but caught in the lie, sharply rebuked with blows by her angry parent, she never thereafter laid aside the grief contracted from the guilt of truth dissembled and a mother exasperated.

[28] Her virginity to God Now let us resume the biographer's order; after, therefore, he praised Bl. Philippa for her assiduity in divine things and their contemplation, he turns his discourse elsewhere, and begins to explain the assaults which the Virgin, now marriageable, sustained from the demon and the crowd of suitors, and how she triumphed over them; for the most cunning enemy of the human race envied that outstanding progress in every kind of virtue, and set himself to hinder it with every effort; but before I bring these forward, it must first be investigated in what year of her age this Blessed one consecrated her virginity to God; for from this, among other things, the biographer derives the origin of the struggles with the demon and with the enemies of chastity: let us hear him speaking at no. 2: Chastity fortified with these arts, he says, the most impure enemy of virgins did not hesitate to attempt. The ingenuous courtesy of Philippa, the sweetness of her character, her virginal modesty, the great ornament of her innate grace, and finally the brightness of her stock, stirred up a crowd of suitors. Not even by her kinsmen and relatives was marriage greatly disapproved; the virgin alone, inasmuch as she had already come into the hands of the eternal Spouse, was averse to the mortal marriage-bed.

[29] within that time which ran from her fifteenth to her twentieth year But in what year of her age did this Virgin come into the hands of the eternal Spouse? The biographer keeps this year silent; it was expressed, however, by the French Compendium of the Life, as also by Maupertuy: but there is no slight discrepancy between them: here are the words of the Compendium: When she was passing the twentieth year of her age, in the hands of a celebrated theologian, the Prior of Rochetum (in the vernacular Prieur de la Rochette), she made a vow of virginity. Maupertuy, however, who writes that her mother ceased to live when Bl. Philippa had completed only her fifteenth year, immediately subjoins: Then she vowed the vow of virginity in the hands of the Prior of Rochetum: and he hints clearly enough that this very thing happened no notable time having elapsed from her mother's death, and, considering the things which he inserts before he records her going out from Changy to Vienne, the vow must certainly have preceded the twentieth year of her age by some years; which I judge also more likely to the truth, and more conformable to the biographer; for he, when he had said that Bl. Philippa, furnished with such outstanding endowments of body and soul, had imposed on herself the law of preserving virginity, likewise relates various things which she had to suffer from unworthy lovers, besides those who were panting for her marriage, and declares how this Blessed one was vexed by them with reproaches and insults, their love turned to hatred; which without doubt require an interval of some years, and only then does the biographer begin to indicate her going out from Changy (which, by the assent of all, if you perhaps set aside the Prologue of the Miracles, is to be tied to the twentieth year of her age).

[30] she consecrated in the hands of the Prior of Rochetum, unknown to me. Bl. Philippa vowed chastity, therefore, within that time which ran from the fifteenth to the twentieth year of her age, but in what year in particular she performed it I am not going to say, although I judge it should not be removed much from the fifteenth on account of what has just been said. But who was that celebrated theologian and Prior of Rochetum who received our Virgin's vows? That he was the regular Prior of some monastery not far distant from Changy I scarcely doubt, but of which monastery determinately I have not thus far found: Jongelinus indeed exhibits Notit. Abbatiar. Ord. Cist., p. 49. an abbey of the Cistercian Order in the diocese of Auxerre named de Rupibus (commonly de Roches), and founded in the year 1136, and another p. 72. of related name, and in the very diocese of Clermont, called Bouchetum (du Bouchet), erected by Robert, count of Auvergne or Clermont, in the year 1197: but nevertheless, for lack of records, I do not affirm that this celebrated theologian inhabited one of the aforesaid abbeys. Moreover, Baudrand in his Geographical Dictionary at the word Ictodurum assigns another place distinguished by this name in this way: Ictodurum, he says, a place of Narbonese Gaul, is now la Rochette, a castle of the Dauphiné in the tract of Gap, between the town of Chorges and Gap: but whether a monastery existed or still exists in that place I have investigated with vain labour; since, therefore, I cannot teach the Reader who that theologian and Prior was, I return to pursuing the things which pertain to our Blessed.

[31] Variously by the demon and We have already hinted above that the cunning of the demon moved every stone to undermine the constant mind of the Virgin by which she had determined to preserve her chastity unblemished; now, however, order requires that we set forth by what arts he tried to bring this to effect; those faculties of body and soul, therefore, in which the Virgin, now grown and marriageable, excelled, had stirred up a crowd of suitors, and very many panted for her marriage with all their wishes; nor is it to be doubted that among them were some illustrious for nobility and furnished with fitting riches; for although neither the biographer nor the French Compendium of the Life mentions this, Maupertuy nevertheless, although perhaps less consistent with himself (see what we said at no. 18), hints it clearly enough in these words: She many times refused, he says, more illustrious persons (in the vernacular plusieurs partis considérables), whom her grace and virtue had kindled to seek her marriage, and to whom it was not perceived that she was devoted to the eternal Spouse. Moreover, kinsmen and relatives patronized the wishes of the suitors, nor were there lacking among them some who incited the Virgin to admit the marriage of a certain very powerful man; for this seems able to be drawn not obscurely from our biographer's words; for he has the following on this matter at no. 2: Not even by her kinsmen, he says, and relatives was marriage greatly disapproved.

[32] by the enemies of chastity, that she might break this vow, but The biographer exhibits one specimen at no. 8, which, however, whether it happened at Changy or at Vienne, through the work of kinsmen or of strangers, cannot be gathered from his words; it runs thus: Already grown and marriageable, she consecrated her virginity to God by vow. Bereft of both parents, she most constantly spurned a splendid lord who urged her to enter into marriage with someone, and of his own accord offered a great sum of money from his own as a dowry. To these and other assaults the Virgin Philippa nobly resisted, and, faithful to the eternal Spouse, spurned them all; For the Virgin alone, says the biographer, was averse to the mortal marriage-bed. The most crafty enemy of chastity and of all virtues, therefore, having perceived that the Virgin's constancy was in no way shaken by these engines, much less stormed, turned his mind elsewhere, and, leaving means lawful and honourable on the one side, seeks protection from unlawful ones. For he inflamed the more sharply the young men seeking her marriage by their repulse. As the biographer asserts; and Maupertuy at the place just cited settles the matter thus: But that grace did not always stir innocent fires; indeed more than once this Virgin had to resist impure loves with which she was attacked by varied artifice, but the grace of God came off victorious. And the artifices and tricks with which the impure slaves of lust attacked the Blessed Virgin the biographer proceeds to narrate in this way at the same no. 2: Some even dared to plot snares against her undefiled modesty, with prayers and huge gifts offered, and when she was moved by no blandishments, to try to terrify the little Virgin with heavy threats; she meanwhile, by imploring and hoping for heavenly help, eluded the frauds of the evil demons.

[33] is tempted with vain labour, Nor did the demon's craftiness stop here, but with a truly most mighty ram he undertook to shake the outstanding constancy of the Virgin, and determined to prepare her destruction from the very source whence protection was to be hoped for by the Virgin, the more formidable as the less foreseen; let us see the matter itself: Most vehement, are the words of the biographer, no. 3, was that assault, when a woman, covering an impure mind with the appearance of probity, and joined to her by no slight bond of relationship and friendship, entered into a partnership of wicked counsel with the enemies of the virginal flower to storm the Virgin. But from these most grave dangers the Lord, who knows who are His, freed Bl. Philippa, and granted her to carry off a trophy from these unclean assaults of the demon; for the demon did not find her unarmed, but armed against all his wickednesses: let us hear the biographer again explaining this; for he subjoins the following to the words just adduced from him: From which snares Christ freed her, as she continually vexed her body with voluntary pains, and was perpetually intent on the thought of the sacred mysteries. Much also profited that modesty of countenance and eyes of which she was an outstanding specimen, and careful caution in speaking, if there was need, and at other times the deepest silence, and the keenest hatred of sloth and shameful idleness, in which noble girls for the most part languish.

[34] and patiently bears the injuries inflicted by them: Thence the biographer seizes another matter for praising the Virgin; namely her illustrious patience in bearing reproaches and insults; for when all, as many as had sought her marriage, saw themselves frustrated in their wishes, they strive with every effort, with insane obstinacy, to tear apart her public esteem among men; let us set forth the matter in the biographer's words: Then indeed, he says at the same no. 3, when the foul slaves of lust saw themselves shut out from their wishes, their love turned to fury, assailing her esteem with all contention by curses and detractions, they heaped virulent reproaches on her even when present and hearing. Nor without reason did the biographer call these reproaches virulent, although he did not express them in particular; for here are Maupertuy's French words on this matter, which I put into Latin: She incurred danger to her honour, he says; her unworthy suitors trying with all their strength to blacken her with their calumnies, and she being publicly accused of prostituted modesty, that they might take vengeance for the chastity with which she had always been against them. And the French Compendium of the Life, having narrated the outstanding endowments of her body, and the solicitations to undergo the yoke of matrimony which she spurned, asserts that she very often suffered mockeries, calumnies and blows; but always unmindful of evils

the Virgin Philippa, and Well conscious of herself, says the biographer, spurned the insults, and did not hurt with the least sign of anger the enemies who had deserved worst of her.

[35] such was this Virgin before her twentieth year, These are about the virtues which made Bl. Philippa illustrious before she reached the twentieth year of her age and before she came from Changy to Vienne, and which, although the biographer did not have them perceived by sight, were nevertheless, as he says, ascertained by him from sure authors; for there is sufficient agreement among authors that this Blessed one, in the twentieth year of her age, as I have said several times, came to Vienne, although the Prologue of the Miracles, obscure in almost everything, seems discordant with the rest; here are its words at the beginning: She then, under the duchy of Bourbon, indeed of Changy near Crozet, which is in the county of Forez, drawing her origin from the noble house of Champ de Milan, at about forty years of age, faithfully serving the noble Anne de Nory, lady du Châtel, wearing the habits of foolish worldliness, came to this city of Vienne, the most reverend father John de Nory, brother of the same Anne, presiding in this most holy see of Vienne. So, in the year of Christ 1441, if we believe the Prologue, Bl. Philippa came to Vienne, in which year without doubt the prelate John was not among the living, inasmuch as he had died in the year 1437 or the following (see Maupertuy and the Sainte-Marthe brothers Gall. Christ. Antiq., vol. I, p. 808.); and since both the biographer, a contemporary writer, and the French Compendium of the Life, Maupertuy and others expressly have that this happened in her twentieth year, I judge that one should by all means adhere to these rather than to the Prologue of the Miracles, which is also corrupted elsewhere, as may be seen below.

[36] which having passed, to Vienne, to Now, therefore, the things which Bl. Philippa did gloriously at Vienne from her twentieth year, and of which the biographer was an eye-witness, come to be illustrated in this Commentary; beforehand, however, I have thought that some things should be premised about the matrons to whom she rendered the service of a household member, since there is no agreement among those who treat of them; for the French Compendium of the Life contends that, her twentieth year having passed, she served the lady Anne de l'Espinace, in these words: At the same time (namely at twenty years of age), going out from Changy, she came to the Holy city of Vienne, to serve the lady Anne de l'Espinace, sister of John de Norry, archbishop of Vienne. On the contrary, however, the biographer speaks in the following manner at no. 4: Having gone out of the borders of the Boii, at twenty years of age she was summoned to Vienne of the Allobroges, to render the service of a household member to a matron of illustrious station, the lady Castellana (in the vernacular, as he notes, du Châtel), in the company of noble girls. But nevertheless he added in the margin that the same whom he called the lady Castellana was elsewhere called Anne de l'Espinace. But more clearly than the biographer as well as the Compendium is Maupertuy; for he observed that the same archprelate John de Norry had two sisters, and that our Blessed was at one time numbered in the household of each. For he has the following p. 263. on this matter: Wherefore (on account of the slenderness of their fortune, as he himself thinks) her mother, a little time having elapsed from the death of her husband and the birth of her daughter, was compelled to devote herself to the service of the sister of our archbishop, the lady of the village which she inhabited, and widow of a nobleman of Forez called de l'Espinace.

[37] to render the services of a household member to the lady Castellana, Further, Maupertuy subjoins that Bl. Philippa, when she was rather grown, was enrolled in the same household, and we have just seen above that she, together with her mother, had the care of the castle of Changy, the lordship of which belonged to the widow de l'Espinace. These things as regards our Blessed one's former mistress; whose death, since it had made Bl. Philippa her own mistress, as Maupertuy asserts on the following page, she began to lead a life more solitary and austere than usual. About the second, however, the same historiographer observes the following p. 264. at sufficient length: Not being able to lose the memory of the family of Norry (he says in French, which I render into Latin), where she had been brought up so Christianly and holily, she asked to be numbered again in the service of Anne de Norry, sister of the archbishop as well as of her former mistress, the lady de l'Espinace; and she was admitted with joy: and then she laboured vigorously to run the way of perfection with full stride. The lady Castellana, in the vernacular du Châtel (for that was the name of her new mistress), excelled in piety; although some held her for a crafty woman, and of a restless spirit, and one who loved money more than is lawful for a Christian, so much that there was a rumour that she herself sowed discords between the people of Vienne and the archprelate, and at once offered herself to reconcile the subjects (to whom she sold these services more than was just) to their lord; by this art turning into profit both her influence with her brother and the confidence which the people of Vienne had conceived in her intercession.

[38] she came. But, adds Maupertuy, it must be believed that this is nothing but a malicious tradition, to which one should by no means adhere; for it is certain that she gave outstanding signs of piety, instituting various sacred foundations. At least she granted Philippa de Campo-Milano every desirable facility for exercising piety, indulging her to be present at the sacred rites as she pleased. So Maupertuy; and since I too have found nothing which might impair the memory of this matron, I judge that Maupertuy (see him also at page 262) rightly freed her from this calumny. Now let us return to our Blessed, whom we had left for a little while, and whom, before she came to Vienne, Maupertuy commends for holy pilgrimages, accustomed to be undertaken at that time, in these words Ibid.: In the twentieth year of her age, he says, she went out from Changy, and visited the holy places, according to the piety of that time, which consisted almost wholly in sacred pilgrimages. So with bare feet she went to Le Puy, or Anicium among the Velauni, more than twenty leagues distant from Changy, to venerate there the celebrated image of the holy Virgin. At length she came to Vienne, where with a shower of tears she venerated the blood of so many martyrs, with which this city was sprinkled in the various persecutions of the church. So, but in advance, as it seems, Maupertuy discourses of these things; for the biographer, as also the French Compendium of the Life, did not express even a word about these pilgrimages before she came to Vienne.

§ IV. At Vienne she exercises various virtues: she succours the wretched: her assiduity in prayers.

[At Vienne, promptly obedient, the adornment of the body which she had heard reproved in a sermon] When Bl. Philippa had already completed the twentieth year of her age, having entered the city of Vienne, and been numbered in the household of the lady Castellana, she found a most spacious field for exercising virtues, and was given by her lady every facility of serving God, which Bl. Philippa used not sluggishly, as will become evident in the course: the biographer begins to narrate these things at no. 4, and begins to commend her earnestly for the most prompt obedience which she always showed; and he takes the argument from this, that she had been accustomed up to that time to go about in rather ornate adornment of the body, which, when a preacher had blamed it, whatever seemed to her to smack perhaps too much of the world or worldly vanity, Bl. Philippa at once cast away; but let us set forth the whole matter in the biographer's words at the cited number: they run thus: She had just visited the holy city, when in a sacred sermon she heard a more exquisite adornment of the body attacked as a tinder of pride, and an allurement to another's love displeasing to God: until then, after the manner of her companions, she had studied neatness and elegance in dress; as soon as she perceived that it was blamed by the herald of the divine word, she at once cast away whatever was of rather charming adornment, content with slender and modest dress. With these agrees the French Compendium of the Life, having the same matter repeated at nos. 2 and 3, whose words at no. 3 are these: Philippa then was still dressed as the vanity of the nobles of that time urged, not that she set her heart on these things, but that she might show honour to the lady whom she served; but on that very occasion when she had heard from the pulpit that all these things are superfluous, and that God is offended by them, she abandoned all this vanity.

[40] as she was accustomed, Further, that she was accustomed to show in other things too such promptness of obedience as Bl. Philippa displayed in this specimen the biographer asserts in these words: It will not be out of place, he says at the same no. 4, in this place to record this, that she was accustomed to do this in all other things, that she was most obedient to the precepts of men outstanding in probity and learning, especially those to whom she had entrusted her soul to be purged and ruled. And how remarkable this veneration was towards clerics conspicuous for probity, and, what is the chief thing, her obedience, the same biographer proceeds to narrate, and asserts that she earnestly asked to be admonished if she perhaps admitted anything discordant with the right; here are the words: I knew excellently well, he says, a certain one of the clergy very familiar with the holy Virgin, whom she very often asked that, if he had noted anything in her liable to just reproof, he would not be loath to signify it. So the biographer, spectator of her life at Vienne: to whom the Compendium expressed almost similar things in French in this way: It is to be noted here that she immediately abandoned those things which her confessor, or any prudent man, publicly asserted to be evil or sin, showing outstanding promptness of obedience in these; indeed she frequently besought those with whom she was familiar that, if they noticed anything less right, they would not be loath to indicate it, and she received their admonitions with a grateful mind. It is clear hence that she not rarely gave outstanding specimens of most perfect obedience.

[41] although it was certainly not liable at least to grave sin, she abandoned, But whether that adornment of the body, of which above, was in fact liable to sin, neither the biographer nor the French Compendium of the Life nor the Prologue of the Miracles expressly stated; although the biographer calls it rather charming and graceful, and the Compendium asserts that she went about as the vanity of the nobles of that time urged; indeed the Prologue of the Miracles adds something more, designating this adornment by the name of foolish worldliness; for although I do not deny that in this pomp of garments, as we are taught by plainly sad experience, God is very often offended, yet that this had place in Bl. Philippa, whom the love of right and honourable kindled from her very cradle, and who had been formed to every virtue from her earliest age by the diligent care of her mother, seems to me less likely to the truth. However the matter stands, if there was a defect in these things, I judge indeed that it was slight, the more confidently because the Compendium expressly denies that this Blessed one set her heart on these things, and asserts that she imitated the custom of those like herself so as to show honour to her lady, whom most commend for piety, and who would hence have ordered a notable excess to be removed; although, therefore, the herald of the divine word rightly blamed a perhaps slippery and disordered use of garments, and Bl. Philippa applied it rigidly to herself, I think that at most she at some time contracted the small stain of a lighter fault, which she at once expiated by sacred confession.

[42] [which being spurned, she also forbade herself the other delights of court life, intent for the most part on piety:] The biographer further proceeds to narrate her other virtues, and what Bl. Philippa showed herself at Vienne at court and among the household; hear him speaking at no. 5: At the same time, he says, as she spurned more graceful adornment, she likewise forbade herself the other pleasures and trifling delights of court life:

and while, as happens, about supper time people wait for the dishes to be brought in, and that space is consumed by the courtiers in inept chatter, the sport of mutual mockery, and sometimes wanton witticisms, for the sake of beguiling hunger, while after food they indulge in looser jests, she resolved to withdraw into the episcopal little chapel, as formerly into that of Changy, to exercise her mind in the contemplation of the supreme good, so hating sloth that when she reclined at table nothing seemed longer to her than to fly back to working at some task or to turning over divine things in her mind. The Compendium, however, sets these things out somewhat otherwise and more briefly in this way: While the hour of the meal was running on, a time usually spent in vain talk, or in which one was accustomed to hold another in mockery, she applied herself to prayer in the episcopal chapel, from her earliest age greatly abhorring both indulging in dances and passing time uselessly. Then, having interposed the things which we saw from it at no. 40, it proceeds in these words: But if ever she was not seriously occupied with something, from fear of idleness her feet seemed as if put into the fire; for so she dreaded to lose time, indeed when she reclined at table the time seemed to her too much prolonged, and she panted only for the end, that she might apply herself to manual or spiritual work. It is clear hence that the lady Castellana, Bl. Philippa's mistress, inhabited the episcopal house itself; for both the biographer, who has that our Blessed was accustomed to withdraw into the episcopal little chapel, and the Compendium, which asserts that she applied herself to prayer in the episcopal chapel, expressed this clearly enough.

[43] to the works of mercy, and to wretched people of every kind After, therefore, the biographer earnestly commended Bl. Philippa for the promptness of her obedience and her flight from idleness, he proceeds to praise her no less for the works of mercy with which she relieved the needy, the sick and the wretched of every kind: let us set forth the matter in as many of his words: That she was wonderfully inclined, he says at the same no. 5, to relieving the straits of the wretched, anyone may understand from this, that all the needy, especially those entangled in debt, or who by disease, old age, or defect of body were prevented from procuring a living for themselves, fleeing to her, she received with a singular sense of compassion, consoled with her address, and, refreshed with food and drink, led them to her mistress, that through her help they might be commended to the archprelate her brother. She visited the public prisons, that she might impart some help to them. The sick likewise and women in childbed, often cheating her own appetite, and sparing something of her own ration to bestow on the needy, whom she sought out of her own accord everywhere; most frequent in the poorhouses and hospitals, she was most of all moved with compassion for those whom she saw destitute of all help from others. The biographer proceeds, and subjoins at no. 6 one specimen, although it happened about the end of her life, which runs thus: Setting out for Rome for the solemn jubilee, she found matter for continual grief, very many religious pilgrims lying by the road and breathing out their spirit here and there; what was her feeling then on the return, when, accompanied by one woman (the rest slipping away to care for their bodies), she betook herself to a little church for the sake of prayer, so that, although wet with rain and shivering with cold, she might discharge her daily task of prayers.

[44] she was assiduously devoted to relieving, There, by chance finding a beggar lying and in his death agony, forgetting to refresh her strength with food, she set herself to console him and relieve him with every help, until, her company pressing, she was with difficulty torn away from the pious work. With these the French Compendium of the Life agrees sufficiently, if you consider the substance and force of the words on both sides, and it adds that the specimen of mercy which we have just brought forward from the biographer happened in the town called Saint Laurent; but whether that is a town of Italy or of France it kept silent, and since places of this name are found here and there, it is not my mind to guess in which of these it happened. The biographer advances, and proceeds to narrate what further help she gave to the wretched, and how, to succour them, she joined herself indiscriminately to lowly women hired for this end, with great humility of spirit and contempt of the brightness of her family. To those lying ill, he says at the same no. 6, in the hospital, not content with preparing and serving dishes with her own hands, with lowly women whom the same care of the poor had devoted to the ministry of the poorhouses, openly associating, conversing, going round the temples, the prisons, the huts of the poor, solicitous also for the want of the absent, she kept sending to the Franciscan nuns of the convent of Le Puy alms collected from the matrons of the Dauphiné.

[45] and the Virgin, kind to others, desired to profit them more, but to herself Nor did the virtue of Bl. Philippa stop here; but she had among her wishes both to do and to suffer graver and harder things: In no way, says the biographer at no. 7, wearied with all these things, she wished six hundred times so much heavier a burden of labours to be offered her to be borne for her Spouse's sake. Further, when she had given herself enough to action, by the opinion of her directors (behold another specimen of remarkable veneration towards her directors and of outstanding humility), she withdrew herself a little from the crowd of affairs to enjoy the quiet of divine contemplation. Such was Bl. Philippa towards others; now let us see from the biographer too what she was to herself, and behold how beneficent and kind to others, so severe and rigid to herself she was: Creeping quietly, says the biographer at the cited number, from her little bed, which she had hardened with a plank placed beneath, and in which she laid her little body, always wrapped in her clothes, for a short space, she presented herself in the temple before light (go above to no. 25, where you will find almost the same things, but with order neglected, asserted in the Compendium), that she might be present at the various psalms of the various hours of the singing clerics, then at very many sacrifices until far into the day. But hear Maupertuy explaining besides certain special ways by which this Blessed one used to subjugate the flesh to the spirit: he, namely, having rightly freed Bl. Philippa's mistress from the calumny of which already above, speaks thus: At least she granted Philippa de Campo-Milano every desirable facility of exercising piety, indulging her to be present at the sacred rites as she pleased, which indulgence the holy Virgin by no means used sparingly: for very often she assisted present for eight continuous hours almost daily at the matins and the other Offices of the principal temple.

[46] but austere to herself, in pouring out prayers She increased her austerities not moderately, sleeping in her chamber only on a board or plank, she added to her hair shirt smaller cords, with which she bound her arms and feet; but these rigours, by which she reduced her body to servitude, in no way standing in the way, she performed what were the duties of her office with great agility, so that her mistress and companions freely asserted that she had given the effect of more work in one day than others in several, which also moved great admiration in those to whom it was well known how frequently she was in the temple, and to whom she seemed to give no work by day. So Maupertuy, with whom, in almost the very words, as regards diligence in work, the biographer and the Compendium agree: I return therefore to the biographer, who, having asserted Bl. Philippa's assiduity in the temple, begins to indicate the prayers which she poured out every day; and they are rather numerous: Meanwhile, he says at the same no. 7, kneeling on both knees, she ran through, almost without any taste and solace of interior sweetness (which she herself more than once complained of to pious men), psalms and prayers dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God, the Holy Spirit, and the honour of the Cross and torments of Christ, the sevenfold hymn of the penitent David, likewise the psalter written out for relieving the pious souls, and interwoven with twenty lessons, and not a few other things: and if on any day some joy of spirit was granted her by God in that office, then she seemed to herself to have thrown off as it were a huge weight of troubles.

[47] which the biographer, and But here a certain discrepancy arises between the biographer and the Compendium; for he asserts that Bl. Philippa discharged the psalter written out for relieving the pious souls, and interwoven with twenty lessons; on the contrary, the Compendium expressly stated that the same was of only nine lessons; let us see the very words of the Compendium, especially since they also elsewhere differ from the biographer; it has thus, although, as I have already warned before, with chronological order inverted, at no. 2: She occupied a secret place in the principal temple, that she might be present at the principal Mass and all the hours on bended knees, and sometimes prostrate: and the prayers she poured out were these: the Office of the blessed Virgin, the Vigils of the dead with nine lessons, the Office of the holy Cross and of the Holy Spirit; likewise that of the Passion of the Lord, as arranged by St. Bonaventure, and the seven psalms of the penitent David with the litanies, and innumerable other prayers. Further, since I have not thus far found an Office of the dead interwoven with twenty lessons such as the biographer asserts here, it seems one should rather adhere to the words of the Compendium, until I am taught what that Office was (unless perhaps she had it written out for her private piety, as seems to be hinted). But what is that Office of the Passion of the Lord, arranged by St. Bonaventure, which is alleged by the Compendium in turn? Among the other works of this most holy Cardinal there is had: The Life of Christ contemplatively composed by blessed Bonaventure. But that Bl. Philippa read through this contemplatively composed Life every day seems to me plainly unlikely. [Among the Opuscula of St. Bonaventure there is extant an Office of the Passion of the Lord divided by the canonical hours, each of which has a psalm, a hymn and a prayer Vol. VI Opp., p. 436. Rome edition, year 1596.. Another office of similar form is reckoned among the opuscula of St. Francis of Assisi p. 380.. Stals further proceeds.]

[48] enumerate, she was very assiduous, and For it is lengthy, and, as it was printed by the work and at the expense of master Berthold Rembolt in the year 1517, as is subjoined to the Soliloquy, fol. 76, contains 96 chapters, and 49 entire leaves in rather compressed type in the smaller quarto, as they call it, which I think no sensible person will be persuaded can be read devoutly by anyone every day, especially with so many other things added; hence I suspect that that Office was more compendious, and perhaps such as ascetical little books commonly exhibit. However the matter stands, it is clear hence that Bl. Philippa was very assiduous in pouring out prayers; but for the most part without spiritual sweetness; for she herself confessed this to her directors, and to those Who, as the Compendium has, could be of counsel to her in these things. As for what concerns the other virtues of this Blessed one, the biographer records them with his usual brevity at no. 8: here are his words on this matter: Exceedingly patient of bitternesses and labours, she was most intolerant of honour alone; in good and bad things always with an even dignity and courtesy of countenance, her eyes continually cast down to the ground, which during sacred meditation, fixed in one and the same place, she never moved. And how great a delight poverty was to her, and that she was by no means of slender fortune, as we taught in § II, the biographer settles openly enough in compendious fashion, when, praising one of the Blessed one's brothers, if she had several, with his name suppressed, he declares: All her fortunes, he says, she granted to her brother, nor could she ever be induced by any request of his to take possession of them again; she lived most slenderly, most zealous for taming the flesh.

[49] [she was wonderfully devoted to poverty, she bore the care of her own and others' salvation, and pilgrimages] With these the Compendium agrees sufficiently, and of her brother

it mentions the wife, whom we saw at no. 16 called Margaret, and likewise enrolled in the service of the lady Castellana; for its words at no. 5 are these: Her goods, the ownership of which she had transferred to her brother, she refused to take back (her sister-in-law and others trying in vain to induce her to it). Hence, therefore, and from what has been said before, it becomes conspicuous how great a care of her own salvation this Blessed one bore; and what kind of care she had for the salvation of others, and with what implacable hatred, she who was otherwise a winning and gentle Virgin, pursued sins, the same Compendium has at no. 6, where this is read: Obscene or blasphemous talk was such a horror to her that, if ever she heard men swearing, although they were the more illustrious among the nobles, she rebuked them freely as well as candidly. The biographer settles this matter thus: She never hurt anyone, he says at no. 8, by word, deed or example, and yet she was not so winning that she did not very courteously rebuke with words the petulance of certain youths, and those sacrilegious in speech against God, or rashly abusing the oath, even though they were more powerful men. The biographer further subjoins to these the sacred pilgrimages which we saw above at no. 38 from Maupertuy, and celebrates them briefly after his manner in these words: By her mother's example she undertook pilgrimage, full of veneration, several times to places renowned for religion, the most celebrated image of the Virgin of Le Puy, the incorrupt remains of St. Claude (the Prologue of the Miracles adds also the monastery of St. Anthony).

[50] she undertook sacred, Further, not undeservedly is the image of the Virgin Mary of Le Puy called by the biographer most celebrated, to which sacred pilgrimages are undertaken from everywhere (or more truly, alas, were undertaken formerly). [The author deplored the desertion of the sanctuary of Le Puy in the year 1794, when everything in the Gauls was turned upside down. But after religion's honour returned to it in the year 1801, by right of postliminy the image of B. Mary was restored to the altars, and the piety of the people boiled up again towards their excellent Mother. Of which matter we received not long ago a new testimony. There was, namely, an ancient privilege of the Church of Le Puy, that whenever the Feast of the Annunciation of B. Mary fell on the Friday of the Preparation, there should be a plenary indulgence in the form of a jubilee for all the faithful truly penitent and confessed and refreshed with holy communion, and visiting the Cathedral Church of Le Puy. And when lately, in the year 1842, this concurrence had occurred, Pope Gregory XVI, happily reigning, confirmed the said privilege by letters given in the form of a Brief on the 6th day of August 1841 Ami de la Relig., vol. CXII, p. 25, no. 3537.. The granted privilege was solemnly promulgated on the Sunday within the octave of the Epiphany, the 9th of January of the following year, by the present Bishop of Le Puy, Pierre Marie Joseph Darcimoles, who, vested in pontifical rite, read out first the ordinance by which he exhorted all to prepare themselves holily for the indulgence, then, as a sign of the reverence due to the Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff, having laid aside his mitre, the whole people rising, read out the apostolic Brief of confirmation Ibid., p. 118, no. 3543.. When at length the days of salvation had dawned, a huge multitude of people began to flow in, not only from the diocese of Le Puy but also from the neighbouring provinces: some ran together in bands after the manner of suppliants, others scattered. One hundred and forty thousand men were counted who within twelve days frequented the sanctuary of Le Puy for the sake of veneration. The city, which was reckoned at about twelve thousand people, for twelve continuous days saw the number of its inhabitants doubled, the houses of private persons being turned out of Christian charity into public inns Ibid., vol. CXIII, p. 135, no. 3585.]. Let us hear Corneille speaking briefly about this sanctuary in his Universal Dictionary; for he, at the word le Puy, among the other splendid ornaments of the cathedral temple, records about the middle of the article the following: The principal altar of this temple, he says in French, which is approached by more than fifty steps, is separated from the choir by high railings, that the treasure may be looked after; for besides the lamps and silver candlesticks which surround the image of the holy Virgin holding the little Jesus on the altar, as also crowns gleaming with gold and gems, and garments covered with pearls, there are many crosses of gold and silver, outstanding vessels, images of Saints male and female, and other gifts of immoderate value, offered by those who visit this sacred place from every part. About St. Claude, namely bishop of Besançon, whose incorrupt remains she several times visited full of veneration, consult our Work at the 6th day of June: as also about St. Anthony the Great, abbot in the Thebaid, whom the Prologue of the Miracles mentions, vol. II of January, on the 17th day; but above the rest about the third translation of the relics of the same saint p. 150.. The biographer subjoins to these the example of piety towards her mother (go above to no. 27), and, having noted Bl. Philippa's last illness and the time of her death, puts the coronis on his lucubration; but before this is done here, some things from the Compendium and Maupertuy which the biographer either passed over too briefly or left untouched must be added.

[51] and the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, frequent in the temples, And first of all the Compendium testifies at no. 8 that she was affected with most ardent love towards the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, and generally waited for supper without having dined: here is its entire text on that matter turned into Latin, since it also explains the tenderness of conscience of this Blessed one. She was most especially devoted to the cult of the Most Holy Sacrament, and desired above all to adore God in the sacrifice of the Mass; indeed she underwent as it were a martyrdom when she was present at the divine service at that time at which her mistress was rising from bed; for the first Mass began about the seventh hour, and thereafter the rest, at each of which it was among her wishes to assist. But when she was present at the sacrifice, she accused herself as negligent of her duty towards her mistress; but in her mind she replied to herself likewise: this Mass will soon be finished: and so she was present at several sacrifices succeeding one another, so much that her mistress, with no one serving her, rose from her little bed and went to the temple; nor indeed (behold another encomium of the pious matron) was she angry on that account with Bl. Philippa, whom she addressed by the name of daughter; and when she had returned home, she shut herself in her chamber, and then all seemed to say to themselves: this daughter spends her days comfortably; but she, then applying herself vigorously to labour, in a short time (her mistress asserted this) gave the effect of more work than others in a longer one. And when the hour of dinner approached, to her sister-in-law admonishing her to take food, she, having given thanks, answered that she would wait until supper, as she generally did.

[52] she specially venerated. From her last confession, proceeds the Compendium at no. 9, she made a general one every year. But how often in the course of the year she was accustomed to confess, neither the biographer nor the French Compendium of the Life expressed, although the Compendium insinuates clearly enough that she was of tender conscience, as we saw in the preceding number, and it is agreed among all that she led her life most accurately according to the divine precepts. Further, what Bl. Philippa showed herself when she desired to be refreshed with the heavenly and Eucharistic banquet, the Compendium did not keep silent, whose words at no. 6, as I myself distinguished it, in smaller type and perhaps added later, are these: But when she intended to enjoy the Eucharistic banquet, she prepared herself on the preceding day by an accurate confession, fasts, works of penance and meditation, and the rest of the day (the whole mass of temporal things being despised) she spent in giving thanks and visiting the churches within and without the city. These are about the illustrious deeds which authors have related of Bl. Philippa before she came to the city of Rome, and by which she became famous at Vienne from the twentieth year of her age; now those things which she did elsewhere on earth and in the last years of her life, and those which pertain to her posthumous glory, are to be reviewed in the following §.

§ V. Going to Rome on the occasion of the Jubilee, and returning thence, she has wonderful compassion on the wretched: she dies at Vienne and is buried: from her death she becomes famous for various miracles, and enjoys ecclesiastical cult.

To Rome, that at the Jubilee of the year 1450, very great Adorned with so many and such outstanding virtues, Bl. Philippa had already for very many years, as we have seen, made Vienne illustrious, when it pleased divine providence that that most sweet odour of virtues should be spread elsewhere also: Maupertuy relates the matter in the following words: Vienne, he says, had already for long enough been witness of Philippa's virtues, and it was fitting that, for the glory of God and for the edification of the faithful, she should mount a higher and more celebrated stage. She is therefore divinely inspired to go to the city of Rome for the sake of gaining the Jubilee of the year 1450; nor was that difficult for her zeal; she begins that holy and prolonged journey on foot, and fills it all with the odour of good works, and stays a whole holy year at Rome, and there laboured continually that she might stand secure at the judgment of Christ Jesus. A secret presentiment, or perhaps a true revelation of impending death, made her most observant of the time still remaining. At length the holy Virgin, some months after she had returned to Vienne, the plague raging there, was herself infected too, and died on the 15th day of October of the year 1451. These things about the last labours of our Blessed Maupertuy says, which neither the biographer nor the Compendium, as we saw at nos. 43 and 44, passed over untouched. Further, that that Jubilee was celebrated in the year 1450, and frequented by an infinite number of mortals, is admitted among historiographers; let us hear the words of Odorico Raynaldi, continuator of the most eminent cardinal Baronius, at the aforesaid year, no. 1; they run thus.

[54] illustrious for the number of peoples, she might be present, In the fiftieth year of this century, in the thirteenth Indiction, very great concourses of peoples from the whole Christian world, with wonderful frequency, out of zeal for piety and religion, were made into the City, since no difficulties of the roads, nor any dangers, could hold them back; wondering at which crowd of the faithful flowing together, St. Antoninus committed the following words to history, part III, title 22, chapter 12, §3: In the year 1450, are the words of St. Antoninus, the Jubilee was celebrated under Nicholas, Pontiff of the City, first announced and published solemnly with plenary indulgence for those visiting four churches of the City, namely St. John Lateran, St. Peter, and St. Paul and St. Mary Major, on certain determined days, penitent and confessed in a certain manner and form, to obtain which there came together from every nation which is under heaven very many of the faithful, men and women. This is confirmed, proceeds Raynaldi, by Giannozzo Manetti, book II, in the Life of Nicholas V. To this, says Manetti, most celebrated and most holy solemnity … the whole multitude of all Christian peoples is said to have run together and flowed together, so that it may be thought it could not undeservedly be preferred to the other Jubilees hitherto celebrated in number and abundance of people of both sexes; for such crowds of Pannonians, Germans, Cimbri, Britons, Gauls, Spaniards, Celtiberians, Portuguese, Greeks, Dalmatians, Italians, and the other Christian peoples, to comprehend all summarily in one word, flowed together daily, that the gathering of those running together in the half of any month, designated at will, went beyond to stupor and admiration; for such and so great crowds of those arriving ran together daily that they seemed like troops of starlings or bees and ants, wonderful and incredible to say!

[55] having set out, she likewise succours the wretched Among these the Virgin Philippa too undertook the sacred pilgrimage, and perhaps, as Le Lièvre has, with bare feet, and together with her mistress, as the MS. Martyrology cited at no. 2 asserts in agreement with Le Lièvre, and for a whole year,

indeed beyond a year, as we shall say below, stayed at Rome; the biographer records the affair in this way: Setting out for Rome, he says at no. 6, for the solemn Jubilee, she found matter for continual grief, very many religious pilgrims lying by the road and breathing out their spirit here and there. But what Bl. Philippa was at Rome, or of what kind (see what Maupertuy has on this matter at no. 53), neither the biographer nor the Compendium committed to writing: for the latter as well as the former, having related her coming to the city of Rome, record immediately her return thence, without a word interposed. Here are the biographer's words which he subjoins to those just cited, and which indicate what Bl. Philippa showed herself on the return, at no. 6: What was her feeling then, he says, on the return, when, accompanied by one woman (the rest slipping away to the inns to care for their bodies), she betook herself to a little church for the sake of prayer, which she also elsewhere held as a custom on the journey, so that, although wet with rain and shivering with cold, she might discharge her daily task of prayers. There, by chance finding a beggar lying and in his death agony, forgetting to refresh her strength with food, she set herself to console him and relieve him with every help, until, her company pressing, she was with difficulty torn away from the pious work.

[56] and having returned to Vienne, by a death precious in the sight of the Lord But the other things which she did on these journeys, the writers being silent about them, are wholly uncertain, and about what time she returned from Rome must now be briefly investigated; for we have seen that this Blessed one, by reason of the Jubilee promulgated in the year 1449, came to the City, without doubt at the end of the same year, and stayed a whole year, on the testimony of Maupertuy, to whom, the others being silent, one must adhere: the consequence therefore hence is that she began to return from Rome to Vienne at the beginning of the year 1451, or when one or two of its months had elapsed, and was back about the middle of that year; for Maupertuy insinuates this clearly enough, when he affirms that she succumbed to death some months after her return, in the year 1451, on the 15th day of October, against which day of death no one, as far as I know, objects. But indeed, did Bl. Philippa have a revelation of her own impending death? Not so easily, surely, although that favour is not unusual for Saints, will Maupertuy persuade me of it without a second surety, especially since the biographer, who was familiar with this Blessed one up to her last breath, insinuates not even the least word from which I might judge it likely, which he would certainly not have omitted, if such a revelation had been established to him; however the matter stands, the Virgin Philippa died by a death precious in the sight of the Lord on the Ides of October of the year 1451, and was taken from the number of mortals on that day by the plague: let us hear the biographer's words, with which all agree, at the end on this matter.

[57] infected with the plague she fell asleep, She flew away, he says, to the blessed embraces of her Spouse in the year 1451, on the Ides of October, about fifty years of age, although from the lively temperament of her features anyone would have pronounced her far younger. A plague raging among the people (it is noted in the margin epidemic, or popular disease) snatched the holy Virgin from the number of mortals, to add her to the immortals. With the biographer, as regards her last illness, the Compendium, the Prologue of the miracles, Maupertuy and others agree, and it is indicated by the Antiphon which is subjoined to the miracles wrought by her patronage, in which, as also in the Prayer, she is invoked against this tremendous disease as patroness of the kingdom of France, as we shall see below. But whether this scourge of the human race had its usual progress in France, the French historiographers whom I have inspected keep silent. But that this disease raged at Rome in the year 1450 Raynaldi shows at the same year, § XVIII, from the letters of Nicholas V given on the 3rd day before the Nones of September of the year 1450, in which he says that he was away from the City about the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, the plague compelling him. Similar things also at the following year about the city of Prague, § XI, from Aeneas Sylvius, Raynaldi has, as also about Milan at the year 1452, § II; but he nowhere insinuates that France was infected with the plague; since, however, all to a man who treat of her affirm that Bl. Philippa died of the plague, it seems that one should by no means depart from them (notwithstanding the silence of the historiographers).

[58] and was buried in the principal temple of St. Maurice: The lifeless body, proceeds the biographer, the illustrious clergy of St. Maurice buried in the earth within the cloister of their temple. Somewhat otherwise the Prologue of the miracles, with which the Compendium agrees almost in words too (setting aside the year of age when the Virgin Philippa succumbed to death, as we said above); here are the words of the Prologue: At length, in the year of the Lord's Incarn. 1451, in the month of October, on the 15th day, held by an epidemic disease, of the age of fifty years or about, although, strengthened by spiritual nourishments, she appeared altogether younger, she closed her happy days in the Lord, carried before the outer doors of the upper chamber of B. Mary of the Chapels within the cloister of B. Maurice (where so often, while she lived, adds Maupertuy, she had poured out most fervent prayers) by the lords of the said church, she was honourably entombed. Now compare the words of the Compendium, and see whether they are not depraved by the ignorance of an amanuensis, as we said at no. 20; they run thus: At length, in the year of the Lord's incarnation 1451, in the month of October, on the 15th day, held by an epidemic disease, at the age of 40 years or about, so that by her own nourishments for spiritual things she appeared altogether younger, that she might the more happily pass her last day in the Lord, carried before the doors of the upper chamber of B. Mary of the Chapel within the cloister of St. Maurice by the lords of the said church, she was honourably entombed. Le Lièvre, however, who in the Antiquities of Vienne briefly celebrates the virtues of Bl. Philippa, writes thus on this matter Antiq. et Saint. de Vienne, p. 403.: Having returned to Vienne, namely from Rome, and infected with the plague, she dies holily, having worked in her life many (of which not one has come to our knowledge) illustrious and celebrated miracles by the virtue of her fervent faith: and after her death innumerable miracles were done at her sepulchre in the cloister of the church of Vienne, which, committed to writing, were confirmed by witnesses and notaries.

[59] her sepulchre and sacred ashes Further, in how great veneration the sepulchre of this Virgin was, the same Le Lièvre subjoins: Many, he says, of the elder confreres saw over the sepulchre iron railings, lest, out of honour and reverence on account of the continual miracles, anyone should touch it with his feet in walking over it; and it is to be imputed only to our prelates as a fault that she was not solemnly inscribed in the roll of the Saints. She died in the year 1451, on the 15th day of October, 50 years old. But although at that time Bl. Philippa was not solemnly reckoned in the number of the Saints, nor have I thus far found that this happened afterwards, she nevertheless rightly obtains her place in our Work, since her legitimate cult is established, preceding by a hundred and more years the Decree of Urban VIII issued in the year 1625 on the veneration of the Saints: for this cult is established by the Martyrologies cited at the beginning, and other things, as we shall now see: and first of all, in the said Le Lièvre above, the following are narrated on this matter in French, which I translate into Latin: In memory of the virtues and merits of this one, namely Philippa, Matthew Tardyt and Francis Boucher, presbyters of our church, instituted at their own expense that every year a commemoration (in the vernacular remembrance) should be made with the antiphon Salve Regina; and this is done after the ringing of the great bell, in the chapel of the holy Virgin, on the fourteenth day of October.

[60] were piously visited, and she herself, by several Not much discordant with these is the note likewise subjoined in French to the miracles, framed in the following words: In the year 1458, on the 15th of October, the anniversary day of the death of the same Virgin, it was established that every year, with musicians singing and organs sounding, a solemn mass should be celebrated in honour of the Mother of God, and in her chapel, and that the sepulchre of the Virgin Philippa (the lords Tarditi and Bouchety, presbyters of this church, kindly paying all the expenses) should be adorned with flowers, which is also observed, and continued to this day in memory of the same Virgin. But what makes not a little to this point, and sufficiently proves her legitimate cult, is the very conclusion of the miracles, which has thus in French: This description contains only part of the miracles wrought by the merits of the Virgin Philippa, of which our forebears had a register; but it is pleasing to believe that they were so many in number beyond the knowledge of men that all could not be collected. Moreover, in the year 1567 the principal temple of Vienne (see more of these things in Le Lièvre, Antiq. Vienn. p. 479.) was occupied by the heretics, and its records plundered, and burned in a public place. On this occasion our forebears erected an altar near her sepulchre in honour of the same Virgin, and placed a perpetually burning lamp; nor was this interrupted, except when the temple was occupied by the heretics. But what most of all proves, besides the altar consecrated to her name and the sacred rites celebrated in her honour (go to the sixth and fifty-second miracle, etc.), that ecclesiastical cult was paid to her, are the very miracles and benefits of every kind wrought by the patronage of Bl. Philippa, of which we must now discourse in a few words.

[61] miracles, some of which, That she became famous for miracles of every kind we have just seen from Le Lièvre: of these there have come to our Museum and our knowledge fifty-seven in number, and all of them (except 6 and 49) are strengthened by a public notary, and most by the subscription of witnesses; these, although fewer in number, were collected in the year 1456 as a favour to the queen of France, as the French note subjoined to our apograph expressly teaches: In the year 1456, on the 4th day of January, a Catalogue of the miracles of the Virgin Philippa was made from the archetype, and sent by the canons of this church to the queen of France, as she herself had asked; namely Mary, daughter of Louis II of Anjou, king of Sicily, and wife of Charles VII, king of France (go to L'Art de vérifier les dates L'Art de vérif. les dates, vol. I, p. 619.). Further, since the greater part of the miracles, as is to be seen below, took place after the year 1456 had passed, it must follow that a Catalogue of 57 miracles in number, of which we have a copy, was made again: and Maupertuy saw as many miracles in number in the archive of Vienne, as he notes in the margin, writing thus in French on this matter Hist. de Vienne, p. 266.: Her sepulchre, that is the Virgin Philippa's, in a short time becomes celebrated for illustrious miracles. 57 are counted. Among these the blind enlightened, the possessed freed, the dead raised: but above the rest she was formidable to demons, and many possessed, and harassed by horrible visions, imploring her help, were freed, and made immune from these foul apparitions.

[62] since from below But whence it was established to Maupertuy that our Blessed was especially formidable to demons I do not see, nor did he himself indicate it; he asserts indeed that the possessed, as we saw above, were freed, but how many they were in number he kept silent; and since nothing similar can be drawn from the miracles to be given below, and only one

possessed by a demon and harassed by foul apparitions (go to miracle 52) is read to have been freed by her patronage, I by no means think that one should assent to Maupertuy here, unless it was established to him from elsewhere about that matter; more truly without doubt she would be held the singular patroness of women in perilous and painful childbirth, and of infants extinguished in birth, since in very many miracles, as will become evident below, she is read to have succoured both mothers and offspring; further, all the miracles are written in the French idiom and in a simple style, which being preserved, I shall subjoin them, turned into Latin, to the Life, together with the Prologue or Prelude written in Latin, which is prefixed to the miracles: the French Compendium of the Life, as also the Life to be published, exhibit some miracles in Latin; but they are fewer, and, the chronological series being kept, they are joined to the rest to be given below: nor should you infer that only these few were perceived by the biographer and the author of the Compendium; for both clearly expressed that more were performed by the merits of Bl. Philippa: for here are the words of the Compendium pertaining to this, subjoined to two miracles to be given below in the first and third place: The Sum of all the miracles. Dead infants recalled to life, sixteen. Prisoners freed, eight. Women labouring in childbirth, eight. The blind who received sight, two. Freed from the death agony, two. The demented and those turned to madness, four. Fire allayed, once. A ruptured man, once. A woman labouring with gout in the hand, once. A wife and husband reconciled, who for twelve years had not seen each other. A woman recovered her lost milk. The sick of various infirmities, eleven. A man (held) for thirty years by the red infirmity was healed in nine days.

[63] to be given below not slightly At the end, five miracles having moreover been interposed, although not without certain slight discrepancies, namely, as they are exhibited below, 4, 20, 11, 26 and 47, the author of the Compendium assigns the source from which he drew his material in these words: From a sufficiently old MS., he says, of the most distinguished man M. Chorier, advocate in the parlement of Grenoble. The biographer, however, when he had put the coronis on the Life, has the following as regards the miracles: Philippa having been received into heaven, various prodigies shortly testified how much her grace availed with her Spouse. That same old manuscript Codex, from which the Life was drawn, reviews very many most fully, confirmed by many witnesses, each of whose names it states, and the archetype has the handwriting of a public notary attached (which also exceedingly fits those which we shall give below). I think my reader will be satisfied if, all being gathered into some sums of various kinds, I set out a few more fully, from which the rest, not dissimilar, may be understood. To dead infants, that they might be initiated by the lustral waters with Christian rite, she restored life to fourteen (the Compendium, more probably from a discrepancy of the codices, which note also for the rest, if any differ, has sixteen, and below, as will be clear to one entering upon the number, seventeen are recalled to life); among them she raised some, a vow having been conceived by the parents, within the walls of their homes, others placed on her sepulchre. I shall relate two examples more openly. And having recited the miracle to be given below in the first place, he subjoins another, which is the forty-ninth in order; and since it differs in some things from the French, and is more prolix and clearer than it, it seemed good to exhibit it here. To which I shall likewise set forth here two of those which the author of the French Compendium exhibits, yet in Latin, since they differ not slightly from those to be given below in order 26 and 47.

[64] differ moderately, The biographer has it written thus: Claudia, wife of John Fournery, in the village of St. Martin beyond the Rhône, in the year 1454 (the French has 1459), in the month of May, bore a dead daughter. When it was established that she lacked life, the sorrowful midwife and the other women judged she should be buried in silence. Peter Catoni and Peter Bulues, who happened to be present, opposed it, lest she be covered with profane earth; taking her in their hands, they carry her to Philippa's sacred ashes, and place her on the tomb. Wonderful to say! at the very moment of time when the priest Louis Galtherius, standing at the divine altars, was offering the immortal victim to God with the sacred chant, the girl, many looking on (who afterwards affirmed this on oath, their hands laid on the Gospel tablets), moved her lips and head, opened one eye, poured phlegm from her mouth, blood from her nostrils, at which the soul, dashed against them, broke out not without a clear noise. The parish priest of St. Ferréol at once dipped her in the sacred dew at the parish basin of lustral water, the rite of the ecclesiastical ceremonies being kept at leisure. After five hours the girl, having received the fruit of the granted gift, departed from life. But the biographer also subjoins a third miracle, namely that which is exhibited below in the tenth place, with this only difference, that the man whom the biographer asserts was taken in the village of Sapandum (in the vernacular perhaps Sapey near Grenoble), the collector of the miracles affirms was arrested at Ruperfortium in Savoy; but it manifestly appears that through the drowsiness of the copyist some things were passed over, for the biographer is accustomed everywhere to stand exactly by his word, by which he had earlier promised to gather the miracles into sums of various kinds; but here, as if abruptly, he who copied the Life for us inserts the miracle about this prisoner; but what things were omitted, or how many prisoners (the Compendium counts eight) the biographer asserted were freed, I wholly do not know.

[65] it seemed good to exhibit here As for what concerns those which the author of the Compendium exhibits, the first, which below is in order the twenty-sixth, runs thus: In the year of the Lord 1456 Banetus asserted that it was about twelve years that he had not seen Claude his son, who had gone away without leave, and had sent away his wife, and that he had vowed a pound of wax to the blessed Virgin Philippa. And he returned before the year had elapsed, in Lent, with his wife, whereas before they would not see each other, nor could bear each other. Now compare the same miracle described below at the place cited, and you will see added to it another, about Claude's daughter, dead, recalled to life by the merits of Bl. Philippa. And another miracle, which below is in order the forty-seventh, the author of the Compendium narrates in this way: In the year 1458, on the 27th day of May, a woman burdened with many children, when she grieved much that she had nothing with which to bring them up, came in the course of time to such madness that she fell into despair, and as if insane wished to run about through the fields, and to throw herself out of a window, which she would have done, had her mother not held her back. The mother, having heard many miracles of Bl. Philippa, vowed her, that, if she were healed, she would come to the tomb, and offer nine pounds of wax, and would eat nothing but bread, and drink water, until she had fulfilled the vow: which being done, the madwoman at once returned to her former and sound mind. Nothing, therefore, about the mother's most difficult moroseness in living together, which on the contrary, unlike the collector of the miracles, it praises highly, and the Compendium establishes that she herself made the vow.

[66] sight, The Biographer further proceeds in these words: Those not masters of their minds, freed from madness, six. Of these I have thought that especially worth knowing, namely that which we have just seen from the Compendium, and which is conformable to the one to be given below at no. 47. Some given up for dead and in their death agony, restored from disease immediately after invoking the Virgin's help, about six each. Pregnant women helped to give birth, as many. The miracle of one, such is its wonderfulness, it is a scruple to keep silent, and having narrated the miracle which is the eleventh in order, he subjoins: Why should I record six hundred others? Spouses at variance now for the twelfth year, and torn very far apart by avoiding each other's sight, are suddenly reconciled, a vow having been conceived by the husband's father. A nurse recovers the milk in her breasts, already extinguished for some days, the same help being summoned. Thirty-three afflicted with various diseases experienced the most present succour of the Saint. And having adduced the miracle exhibited below in the last place, which the Biographer asserts happened in the year 1462, but the collector of the miracles in the year 1472, he puts the coronis on his lucubration in this way: a fire restrained from heaven will close the column of prodigies. Nevertheless, since no slight discrepancy occurs between the Biographer and the Collector of the miracles, for each exhibits this miracle, it seemed good to set it forth here too, the Reader however being forewarned that the year in which this miracle took place was more probably wrongly changed in our apograph (for earlier 1456 was had); thus, then, the Biographer sets forth that which in the Collector of the miracles is in order the thirtieth.

[67] was made illustrious: In the year 1454, in the month of August, a little before midnight, in the village of St. Genesius, a flame, of uncertain origin, began to lay waste a great part of the houses: all the inhabitants, roused by the ringing of the clanging bell, leap from their beds; astonished at the spectacle, and dreading the contagion of the plague threatening their own roofs too, they could unfold no counsel: a vehement south wind, more powerful than every remedy, spread the evil far and wide. Already the heat, having devoured everything in its way, was threatening most swift destruction to the house of Goffredus Girinus, a religious priest; there was present indeed another priest named Stephen; both, stupefied by the evils, stood as spectators of their disaster: until, admonished to take as their patroness that Virgin of Vienne famous for so many miracles, both vowed, Goffredus that he would approach the Blessed one's Relics in pious pilgrimage, Stephen that he would send as an offering a very small sum of money (such was the poverty of those times and places amid the continual plunderings of wars), namely three solidi and a third, or forty denarii, which the manuscript Codex calls two groats. The promise pleased Philippa. At once the South winds fell, and the North wind, roused, turned back the balls of flames to parts of the village empty of buildings, and the force of the fire subsided as if water had been poured on it; if the breeze carried anything off, it fell with harmless outcome, so that brands, driven against the shingle-covered roof of a certain farm, could do no harm. These things that same Goffredus, having set out for Vienne, that he might free himself from his vow, the pilgrimage being completed and his companion's little gift paid, asserted on oath before some citizens of Vienne.

[68] there exist also in her honour an Antiphon and a Prayer, Someone will perhaps conjecture hence that more miracles than those which are exhibited below, fifty-seven in number, lighted the Biographer's way, nor do I myself much resist; for the Biographer's words just related hint this clearly enough, and the things which we saw at no. 60 are apt to make it out; however these further stand, it becomes more than sufficiently manifest hence that Bl. Philippa flashed with frequent miracles, and that she was most worthy to have ecclesiastical honours duly shown her almost from the very time of her death. Now we must treat in a few words also of the Antiphon which we mentioned at no. 57; it runs thus in our MS.:

To the Virgin Philippa.

Hail, gem of chastity, Flower and glory of maidens; Hail, splendour of the noble. Philippa, of the people of Vienne, The strength of the fostering City, Their lot and bulwark, Thou who art the companion of Virgins, Bride of Christ the supreme King, Take up the prayers of thy little servants, Break the weapons of adversaries, Take away the venom of the plague, And give the solace of salvation. Pray for us, Blessed Virgin Philippa, That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Prayer.

O God, who didst once free the sons of Israel, signed with the cross, from the Angelic extermination, hear us, we beseech thee, placed in straits and miseries, and, with the intervention of Blessed Philippa, thy Virgin, deign to rescue this city and diocese of Vienne, and the circuit of the whole kingdom of France, both from epidemic disease and from the deadly plague of body and soul. Through Christ.

[69] [but whether they are sung publicly in the church I have nothing from which to draw out.] But whether this Antiphon or hymn is such as to be sung publicly in an ecclesiastical Office, which I have not thus far found this Blessed one enjoys at Vienne or elsewhere, or whether someone, out of his private affection towards Bl. Philippa, composed this hymn or antiphon, I am not going to say; since no one, as not even the collector of the miracles himself, says a word about that matter, or instructs me in my ignorance. Nor is it less in obscurity with what or what kind of cult this Virgin enjoys in these later times, or has enjoyed: Le Lièvre (go to no. 59) wrote that those iron railings with which the sepulchre of Bl. Philippa had been surrounded no longer existed in his time; the same indeed asserts that they were seen by the elder confreres, or canons of St. Maurice and the cathedral temple of Vienne, and since Le Lièvre's lucubration, as worthy of public light, was approved in the year 1623, those railings may not improbably be conjectured to have been taken away when the sixteenth century was already grown or growing old, by a chance unknown to me; yet that the honours of which we treated at no. 60 were still continued in his time, he who copied the miracles for us noted, or added it as noted in the autograph, as may be seen at the number just cited. More than these I have not found about Bl. Philippa, and consequently I put an end to this Commentary.

LIFE BY AN ANONYMOUS CONTEMPORARY AUTHOR.

From a MS. sent by Fr. Chifflet, presbyter of the Society of Jesus.

Philippa de Campo-Limano, V., at Vienne of the Allobroges. (Bl.)

BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.

[Bl. Philippa is born among the Boii; her father having died she is left to the care of her mother alone, and is carefully brought up, and scarcely] Philippa was born among the Boii ^b, in the castle whose name is Changy ^c, near Crozet ^d, a town of the tract of Forez, on the way to Palissa ^e: of illustrious stock on both parents' side; for her father, John de Campotemilano ^f, and her mother, Joanna de Verniaco ^g, had ennobled the splendour of their birth ^h with Christian virtue. He dies a few days after the birth of his daughter; she, when she had undertaken to bring her up and educate her in domestic discipline, easily imbued her tender character with the rudiment of true piety. Among the other endowments of the religious matron there is said to have shone forth an outstanding cult towards the Mother of God, whom she strove to merit by various afflictions of the body, by prayers, and by frequent pilgrimage to her image at Le Puy ⁱ, and by every kind of veneration. Nor did the charge imposed on her of administering the whole palace of Changy, which she discharged with incorrupt fidelity, prevent her from forming her dear offspring with great increments of heroic virtue to the praise of perfect holiness. The crop answered the cultivation: the love of right and honourable so kindled Philippa that her probity grew up together with her years, and was confirmed day by day. Having scarcely passed the turn of childhood (such was the maturity of disposition beyond her age), co-opted into a share of her mother's stewardship and office, she proved herself to all, never destitute of her mother's care and precepts.

[2] [having passed the years of childhood, she bears with her mother the care of the castle of Changy, wonderfully devoted to piety; grown older, when she had decided to preserve virginity, variously] Already then there was in her a singular sense of divine things. Having discharged her household duties, she would hide herself in the chapel, where, more withdrawn from the crowd, she could more tranquilly devote herself to meditation on the heavenly mysteries. Whence, if ever at the invitation of the noble girls her equals she came forth to delight them with the sweetness of her voice, which she very skilfully controlled, having complied for a little while, at once pleading the weight and multitude of her occupations, she betook herself to domestic labours or the quiet of divine converse, most sparing of good leisure. Nothing was more pleasant to her than to be present at conversations about God and the eternal salvation of men; hence it came about that she let no sermon on Christian matters go by unheard as far as was permitted: she was never sated with performing divine service and adoring Christ in the hiding-places of the Eucharist. Chastity fortified with these arts the most impure enemy of Virgins did not hesitate to attempt. The ingenuous courtesy of Philippa, the sweetness of her character, her virginal modesty, the great ornament of her innate grace, and finally the brightness of her stock stirred up a crowd of suitors. Not even by her kinsmen and relatives was marriage greatly disapproved. The Virgin alone, inasmuch as she had already come into the hands of the eternal Spouse ^k, was averse to the mortal marriage-bed. For she inflamed the more sharply the young men seeking her marriage by their repulse. Some even dared to plot snares against her undefiled modesty, to assail it with prayers and huge gifts offered, and when she was moved by no blandishments, to try to terrify the little Virgin with heavy threats: she meanwhile, by imploring and hoping for heavenly help, eluded the frauds of the evil demons.

[3] [she is tempted by the demon and the enemies of chastity, but is preserved unharmed.] Most vehement was that assault, when a woman ^l, covering an impure mind with the appearance of probity, and joined to her by no slight bond of relationship and friendship, entered into a partnership of wicked counsel with the enemies of the virginal flower to storm the Virgin: from which snares Christ freed her, as she continually vexed her body with voluntary pains, and was perpetually intent on the thought of the sacred mysteries. Much also profited that modesty of countenance and eyes, of which she was an outstanding specimen, and careful caution in speaking, if there was need: at other times the deepest silence, and the keenest hatred of sloth and shameful idleness, in which noble girls for the most part languish. Then indeed, when the foul slaves of lust saw themselves shut out from their wishes, their love turned to fury, assailing her esteem with all contention by curses and detractions, they heaped virulent reproaches ^m on her even when present and hearing: she, well conscious of herself, both spurned the insults, and did not hurt the enemies who had deserved worst of her with even the least sign of anger. Thus far, although from hearsay, yet ascertained from sure authors, we have spoken of what the upbringing and virtue of Philippa were up to the twentieth year of her age. The history of the remaining thirty, of which the holy city of Vienne ⁿ was the spectator, as of a great theatre, of such great virtues placed in it, I shall write the more willingly because I am about to say things which I myself have drunk in with my eyes ^o, and which are very well known to very many others, whom she, as well as me, deigned to honour with her benevolence, familiar conversation and frequent patronage with God.

[4] [At twenty years of age she goes to Vienne to serve the lady Castellana, abandons the pomp of garments,] Having gone out of the borders of the Boii [p], at twenty years of age, she was summoned to Vienne of the Allobroges, to render the service of a household member to a matron of illustrious station, the lady Castellana [q], in the company of noble girls: because her brother's [r] wife, Margaret [s] by name, was already employed in the same ministry, and because Philippa's father, John de Champs le Milan [t], had elsewhere had his liberal services engaged in the domestic household of the brother of the lady du Chastel, John de Norry [u], who then sat at the helm of the church of Vienne. She had just visited the holy city when in a sacred sermon she heard a more exquisite adornment of the body attacked as a tinder of pride, and an allurement to another's love displeasing to God: until then, after the manner of her companions, she had studied neatness and elegance in dress; as soon as she perceived that it was blamed by the herald of the divine word, she at once cast away whatever was of rather charming adornment, content with slender and modest attire. It will not be out of place to record in this place that she was accustomed to do this in all other things, that she was most obedient to the precepts of men outstanding in probity and learning, especially those to whom she had entrusted her soul to be purged and ruled. I knew excellently well a certain one [x] of the clergy very familiar with the Holy Virgin, whom she very often asked that, if he had noted anything in her liable to just reproof, he would not be loath to signify it.

[5] [and spurns the other delights of court life: she succours the wretched in various ways,] At the same time as she spurned more graceful adornment, she likewise forbade herself the other pleasures and trifling delights of court life: and while, as happens, about supper time people wait for the dishes to be brought in, and that space is consumed by the courtiers in inept chatter, the sport of mutual mockery, and sometimes wanton witticisms, for the sake of beguiling hunger; while after food they indulge in looser jests, she resolved to withdraw into the episcopal little chapel [y], as formerly into that of Changy, to exercise her mind in the contemplation of the supreme good, so hating sloth that when she reclined at table nothing seemed longer to her than to fly back to working at some task or to turning over divine things in her mind. That she was wonderfully inclined to relieving the straits of the wretched anyone may understand from this, that all the needy, especially those entangled in debt, or who by disease, old age or defect of body were prevented from procuring a living for themselves, fleeing to her, she received with a singular sense of compassion, consoled with her address, and, refreshed with food and drink, led them to her mistress, that through her help they might be commended to the archprelate her brother. She visited the public prisons, that she might impart some help to them, the sick likewise and women in childbed, often cheating her own appetite, and sparing something of her own ration to bestow on the needy: whom she sought out of her own accord everywhere, most frequent in the poorhouses [z] and hospitals [aa], she was most of all moved with compassion for those whom she saw destitute of all help from others.

[6] [and setting out for Rome for the solemn Jubilee, and returning thence, she has compassion on them, and succours them at Vienne,] Setting out for Rome for the solemn Jubilee, she found matter for continual grief, very many religious pilgrims lying by the road and breathing out their spirit here and there. What was her feeling then on the return, when, accompanied by one woman (the rest slipping away to the inns to care for their bodies), she betook herself to a little church for the sake of prayer, which she also elsewhere held as a custom on the journey, so that, although wet with rain and shivering with cold, she might discharge her daily task of prayers. There, by chance finding a beggar lying and in his death agony, forgetting to refresh her strength with food, she set herself to console him and relieve him with every help, until, her company pressing, she was with difficulty torn away from the pious work. To those lying ill in the hospital [bb], not content with preparing and serving dishes with her own hands, with lowly women whom the same care of the poor had devoted to the ministry of the poorhouses [cc], openly associating, conversing, going round the temples, the prisons, the huts of the poor, solicitous also for the want of the absent, she kept sending to the Franciscan nuns [dd] of the convent of Le Puy alms collected from the matrons of the Dauphiné.

[7] [she gives herself to divine contemplation, and pours out numerous prayers in the temple,] In no way wearied with all these things, she wished six hundred times so much heavier a burden of labours to be offered her to be borne for her Spouse's sake; further, when she had given herself enough to action, by the opinion of her directors she withdrew herself a little from the crowd of affairs to enjoy the quiet of divine contemplation. Creeping quietly from her little bed, which she had hardened with a plank placed beneath, and in which she laid her little body, always wrapped in her clothes, for a short space, she presented herself in the temple before light, that she might be present at the various psalms of the various hours of the singing clerics, then at very many sacrifices until far into the day: meanwhile, kneeling on both knees, she ran through psalms and prayers dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God, the Holy Spirit, and the honour of the Cross and torments of Christ, the sevenfold hymn of the penitent David, likewise the psalter written out for relieving the pious souls, and interwoven with twenty Lessons [ee], and not a few other things, almost without any taste and solace of interior sweetness (which she herself more than once complained of to pious men): and if on any day some joy of spirit was granted her in that office by God

then she seemed to herself to have thrown off as it were a huge weight of troubles.

[8] diligent in work, and shining with various virtues Having returned home after rather long converse with those above, in a few hours she gave the effect of much more of the daily task of work than other girls in many, which her illustrious mistress was accustomed to affirm to certain women. Exceedingly patient of bitternesses and labours, she was most intolerant of honour alone: in good and bad things always with an even dignity and courtesy of countenance: her eyes continually cast down to the ground, which during sacred meditation, fixed in one and the same place, she never moved. All her fortunes she granted to her brother, nor could she ever be induced by any request of his to take possession of them again: she lived most slenderly, most zealous for taming the flesh: already grown and marriageable she consecrated her virginity [ff] to God by vow. Bereft of both parents, she most constantly spurned a splendid lord [gg] who urged her to enter into marriage with someone, and of his own accord offered a great sum of money from his own as a dowry. She never hurt anyone by word, deed or example; and yet she was not so winning that she did not very courteously rebuke with words the petulance of certain youths, and those sacrilegious in speech against God, or rashly abusing the oath, even though they were more powerful men. By her mother's example she undertook pilgrimage, full of veneration, several times to places renowned for religion, the most celebrated image of the Virgin of Le Puy [hh], the incorrupt remains of St. Claude [ii].

[9] shining forth, infected with the plague at Vienne, she fell asleep in the Lord. Of her piety towards her parents this example exists. When as a young girl she was in charge of the storeroom in the castle of Changy, being asked by one of the servants to give him one of the reeds, of which there was a great quantity in a certain chamber whose key she kept, she complied: her mother surprises her as she is unlocking the room, and asks carefully what she is doing; the highest regard for her mother so dismayed the girl that she sprinkled her answer with falsehood: but caught in the lie, sharply rebuked with blows by her angry parent, she never thereafter laid aside the grief contracted from the guilt of truth dissembled and a mother exasperated. She flew away to the blessed embraces of her Spouse in the year 1451, on the Ides of October, about fifty years of age, although from the lively temperament of her features anyone would have pronounced her far younger. A plague [kk] raging among the people snatched the holy Virgin from the number of mortals, to add her to the immortals. The lifeless body the illustrious clergy of St. Maurice buried in the earth within the cloister of their temple.

NOTES.

e. A small town not uncelebrated in the Bourbonnais tract, five leagues distant from Varennes, nine from Moulins, which the river Besbre washes. See the Dictionaries of Corneille and Baudrand.

29 and following, and we said there that she imposed on herself the law of preserving chastity within that time which ran from the fifteenth to the twentieth year of her age; and although we cannot assign the year itself, we judged indeed that it should not be removed much from the fifteenth.

p. Go above to letter b.

q. What pertains to her and her sister the lady de l'Espinace you have discussed in § III.

r. Of her brother, whom the biographer records only with his name suppressed, he treats again below, and notes that Philippa transferred to him the ownership of her goods, which she could be induced by no one to take back.

s. She, enrolled in the same household of Castellana, is otherwise almost unknown to me, nor are particular things related about her; yet she too laboured that Bl. Philippa should recover her fortunes, and frequently admonished her, when dinner was at hand, to take food (go to no. 51), as the French Compendium of the Life has.

t. Go back to the Notes at letter f.

u. This prelate presided over the church of Vienne, on the testimony of the Sainte-Marthe brothers Gall. Christ. Antiq., vol. I, p. 808., up to the year 1438, in which, created archbishop of Besançon, he died at Gy before his solemn entry: he too, as the same assert, was present at the Councils of Pisa in the year 1409 and of Constance, celebrated from the year 1415. But more rightly Maupertuy, who notes that it was not the archprelate John who was present at both Councils, but John de Nant, in which nothing is had but these words, John of Vienne Labbe, vol. XI, Conc. col. 2217. and John, bishop of Vienne Vol. XII, col. 1480., which is also strengthened by the testimony of the Sainte-Marthe brothers; for they, while exhibiting the Catalogue of the prelates of Paris Gall. Christ. Antiq., vol. I, p. 457., write the following: John de Nant, IV (see there his cenotaph), sprung from the illustrious Family de Nanto in the county of Burgundy, is announced prelate on the feast day of St. Denis, the 9th of Oct. 1423, which is established from an old manuscript Diary of the history of the Franks, in which he is called of Vienne. It is clear, therefore, that this prelate, not his successor, was present at both synods celebrated before the year 1423. Note here in passing the error of the MS. Martyrology cited at no. 1; for it makes this prelate still surviving in the year 1451, though he was not among the living beyond the year 1438.

x. Who he was it does not please me to guess.

y. That our Blessed inhabited the archiepiscopal house we also observed above at no. 42; but since the archprelate's death long preceded the death of Bl. Philippa, where did she and her mistress have their dwelling when the prelate had died? The biographer, the Compendium and others pass this over untouched, nor is it drawn out from elsewhere; yet I suspect that the mistress, the lady Castellana, inhabited another house at Vienne after the death of her brother, and I think that the Blessed one was with her up to the last day, which she certainly died at Vienne.

z. In the receptacles of the poor or beggars.

aa. That is, in infirmaries.

bb. That is, in the inn of pilgrims.

cc. The same as ptochotrophium. See the Notes at letter z.

dd. More probably of the Order of St. Clare, whom Corneille enumerates in the first place among the other congregations of nuns.

ee. Of this psalter interwoven with twenty Lessons see the preceding Comment., § IV, no. 47.

ff. See the Notes at letter k.

gg. Who he was is unknown to me.

hh. Go back to the Notes at letter i.

ii. See what was said at no. 50.

kk. In the margin is added: Epidemic, or popular disease. What pertains here more fully you have in § V, nos. 56 and 57.

PRELUDE TO THE MIRACLES OF THE VIRGIN PHILIPPA,

anciently published by a certain presbyter of the church of Vienne. From the MS. of M. Jean Le Lièvre.

Philippa de Campo-Limano, V., at Vienne of the Allobroges. (Bl.)

BHL Number: 6812

BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.

By the bedewing of that grace of the Holy Spirit which, on the day of Pentecost, poured brightness into the Apostles called together, and shone wonderfully in them, the things which were done in this hemisphere, that they may be clear to the followers of Christ, and that virtue, firmly with a better tinder, without which our faith does not suffer man to be saved, under a shorter style granted, I shall not keep silent the Life of this praiseworthy Virgin Philippa, as the deeds permit, partly by showing the miracles, as is piously believed, shown through her. She then, under the duchy of Bourbon ^b, indeed of Changy near Crozet ^c, which is in the county of Forez ^d, drawing her origin from the noble house of Champ de Milan, at about forty ^e years of age, faithfully serving the noble Anne de Nory ^f, lady du Châtel, wearing the habits of foolish worldliness, came to this city of Vienne, the most reverend father John de Nory ^g, brother of the same Anne, presiding in this most holy see of Vienne. This Virgin, voluntarily summoned to the heavenly dowry, abandoned the said habits, not yet refusing the service of her mistress herself; indeed she, who was not found idle, was not wanting in the services of the divine progeny, and in the same state, for a certain space of time following thereafter, she was enquired of by that same mistress. After she tried to lead a solitary life (although she lived among the people), very often repeating the divine service of the church under most honourable cover, and once a year from the time of the same acquaintance (as is drawn out from her confessors) she confessed generally with a pure and entire confession: remembering the viaticum to be humbly taken, she visited with hastened repetitions. O how many times, wounded with love of the incorrupt Mother of Christ, not ceasing to visit Le Puy ^h, the monasteries of SS. Anthony ⁱ and Claude ^k, she went to Rome how piously and devoutly, with cheerful countenance, with shaken foot, in the year of Jubilee. Never to devotion ^l, her body bound with little cords, she, either performing all things, treating of concord for those in discord, visiting the sick of the hospitals with service, consoling the desolate, distributing to the poor from the goods conferred on her, assiduously fulfilled all the works of mercy. And whatever things were celebrated in the Holy church of Vienne from the hour of matins up to Compline inclusive, and most aptly following the words of the preachers, not only there or in the places round about, but also at Lyon she ran diligently with affection to hear them. She vexed ^m in fasts and various kinds of abstinences, she tried to enjoy the interior life. She fitted her manners with pleasing countenance to all divine things. At length, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1451, in the month of October, on the 15th day, held by an epidemic disease, of the age of fifty years or about, although, strengthened by spiritual nourishments, she appeared altogether younger, she closed her happy days in the Lord, carried before the outer doors of the upper chamber of B. Mary of the Chapels within the cloister of B. Maurice by the lords of the said church, she was honourably entombed; and when she was devoutly entreated, she wrought the miracles which follow.

NOTES.

a. Who that presbyter was I could not know; see some things pertaining here in the Preliminary Commentary, §1, no. 7, and observe that this whole Prelude is remarkably obscure.

h. Go to § IV, no. 50.

i. In the same place.

k. See the same number.

MIRACLES WROUGHT THROUGH THE INTERCESSION OF THE VIRGIN PHILIPPA

By an anonymous author, from a French MS.

Philippa de Campo-Limano, V., at Vienne of the Allobroges. (Bl.)

BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.

FIRST PART.

Various miracles are wrought at Vienne at the invocation of Blessed Philippa.

[By the merits of Bl. Philippa a woman dangerously ill and near childbirth is healed; her son, whom she had borne dead, is restored to life.] In the year 1452, on the 10th day of February. Fr. William Gerry, of the Order of Carmelites at Vienne, asserted, and affirmed before a notary and witnesses, that on the day before he had gone to a woman named Claudia, wife of Peter Venut, of the parish of St. Blaise ^a, who from a grave infirmity was near death, and was moreover pressed by the straits and pains of childbirth: the aforesaid Fr. William therefore entreats God, and recites many suffrages and prayers for the same woman, who at length in the morning time bore a dead son; and this dead infant was carried to the sepulchre of the Virgin Philippa, a vow and promises having been made by the parents to God, to the glorious Virgin Mary and to the Virgin Philippa, that, if the boy were given life and baptized, they would offer the Virgin Philippa a candle equal in weight to the boy. Immediately and in a moment of time the infant's right eye begins to quiver, which it opens four or five times; noticing which, Fr. William the Carmelite baptized the infant, giving him the name of John: and he remained among the living, baptism having been received, an hour and a half, which was also abundantly confirmed by the infant's father, Peter Venut, present at the baptism. The act was signed. Vital.

[2] A dead infant is raised. In the aforesaid year, on the 11th of February. The same Fr. William Gerry, Carmelite, as also the demoiselle Antonia, widow of John Blein, of the parish of St. Andrew of the Nuns ^b, testified that the said Antonia, as midwife, received, the Carmelite father being present, a dead infant, which for the space of an hour and a half remained without any sign of life: but as soon as it was vowed to the Virgin Philippa, and laid on her sepulchre, it opened an eye, moved its body, several times was refreshed with the nurse's milk: it was therefore baptized, and after an hour and a half expired. These things happened in the presence of witnesses, and a wax candle was offered in thanksgiving to the Virgin Philippa. It was signed. Perret and Vital.

[3] A girl near death is restored to health, In the year 1453, on the 8th day of April, another miracle took place in the Chapel of the Holy Mother of God through the merits and intercession of the B. Virgin Mary and of the Virgin Philippa. A girl only eight months old, called Henrica, daughter of James de Eyrieu, notary, and of Aloysia his wife, inhabitants of the place of Maleval ^c in the diocese of Vienne, was near death on account of a grave illness contracted two months before; but when at home she was vowed by her parents, on both bended knees, to the Virgin Philippa, and her father moreover promised, if his daughter were healed, that he would offer the same Virgin a wax candle of one pound, and would go from the bridge of the Rhône to the sepulchre of the Virgin naked to the shirt: the vow having been made, the daughter raises herself without any support, and her spirit is miraculously restored to her body, as if the daughter had suffered no harm; the vow made to the Virgin Philippa was fulfilled before witnesses. It was signed. Vitalis.

[4] One held in prison is restored to liberty. On the 12th of August 1453 another miracle befell Germain l'Hardys of Chalon ^d in Burgundy ^e: he testified that he had been imprisoned in the castle of Corbien ^f, in a certain tower about two leagues distant from Gap ^g, on account of a horse which he and one accomplice had stolen fifteen days before at Sisteron that on the following Saturday he and his accomplice were to be led by the lord of Corbien to Sisteron and handed over to the ministers of justice, fearing danger of life or exile, he commends himself to the Virgin Philippa, at that time very much celebrated for holiness and miracles, and vows that, if he escaped the danger of life, he would walk naked ^k from the said place, would visit the sepulchre of the same Virgin, and offer a wax candle of one pound, as also an image made of two pounds of wax; which done, he at once perceives the bars loosened so much that he could put a finger between them; hence with a little stick he unlocks them, and escapes through the window of the tower, having first thrown out an iron pole, and from the height of two lances, by a rope made of a worn sack found there, he let himself down, and the chains with which his feet were bound, lifted up lest they should raise a noise, he carried for the space which a crossbow ball shot four times covers; and when he had freed himself from these too, he came naked to Vienne for the sake of paying his vow, and offered the wax candle in thanksgiving for the liberty obtained, before witnesses. It was signed. Perreti.

[5] A sick man almost deprived of the use of his eyes is given full health. Another miracle took place on the 23rd day of August 1453. John, a weaver called Paf, of the parish of Argoir ^l in the diocese of Lyon, lying dangerously ill and near death from the inflammation of a carbuncle, was vowed by his sister Joanna to the Virgin Philippa; for she hoped that by the merits and virtues of this Virgin he would recover his former health, and receive back the use of his eyes, which he had almost lost; she vowed, therefore, that the sick man, if he were healed, would come to Vienne naked of two pounds. The vow having been made to God, the sick man begins to proceed towards Vienne in the manner before promised. Free, therefore, from evils, and with his limbs strengthened, he came gratefully to the said Virgin, and fulfilled his vow in the presence of witnesses. Signed. Chatar.

[6] A noble demoiselle near childbirth, but unable to bring forth, is delivered. Another miracle in the year 1453, on the 8th of September. A certain noble lady called Vicona, wife of the nobleman Odo Taillebois, of the district of Chandieu (commonly Mandement de Chandien ⁿ) in the diocese of Lyon, pregnant only four and a half months, began to be shaken by most grievous pains of childbirth from Thursday up to the following Monday. Devoting herself, therefore, to God and the Virgin Philippa, she promised that, if the infant came forth sound and received baptism, she would offer the same Virgin a mantle and a candle equal to the length of the infant, and would have one Mass celebrated in honour of God and the said Virgin, and moreover would offer one quadrans ^o every year as long as she lived, adding also that the first infant whom she should bring forth should be given the name of Philippa. Nor in vain; for after a few days had elapsed this lady bore a son, soon baptized by the rector of the parish and given the name of Philippa. And the mother, fully restored to health, came to Vienne to fulfil her vow, and carried the infant with her, and gratefully persevered until death in visiting annually the sepulchre of this Virgin and offering what she had promised.

[7] Milk is restored to the breasts. On the 29th day of November of the aforesaid year. Joanna, wife of John Dueil, of the place of Moisseu [p], of the jurisdiction of Bellegarde [q], in the diocese of Vienne, was so deprived of the milk of her breasts that she could not supply nourishment to her infant from Thursday up to the following Tuesday; then, devoting herself to the Virgin Philippa, she promised, for the use of the lamp of the same Virgin, a quarter [r] of oil, and to abstain from wine until the vow had been fulfilled. Which done, she both received back her milk and returned home with thanksgiving. Signed. Vitalis.

[8] A sick man is healed. In the year 1454, on the last of June, there were in the chapel of the Holy Virgin Anthony Vidalon and Margaret, his wife, of the parish of Aneisien [s] near Annonay [t] in the diocese of Vienne, as also Bartholomew Pugnet and Aloysia his wife, of Annonay, who testified that the following were true: namely that the aforesaid Vidalon, on Easter day just past, in the parish temple of Aneisien, in the morning, was struck with grave pain of the side, as also of the head and legs, so much that, carried home after holy Communion, and laid on his little bed, he was fortified with the Sacrament of extreme Unction, and on the following Friday, fallen into agony, and so destitute of the senses of sight and hearing and the use of all his limbs that he was judged dead by those standing round; seeing which, his wife, on both knees several times bent, implores the help of God and the Virgin Philippa, and orders her husband to be carried on a bed to Vienne upon the sacred ashes of the same Virgin, keeping silence the whole time of the journey. Which being completed, and two hours having elapsed from the vow being paid, the aforesaid Anthony was restored to health, and gradually recovered his strength. Signed. Vitalis.

[9] A dead infant is restored to life. In the year 1454, on the 9th day of August, another miracle took place, as Stephen Berecht of the parish of Bregnies [u] in the diocese of Lyon attests. For he asserted that Joanna Claudia Berecht on the preceding day bore a dead infant, which she vowed to God and the Virgin Philippa, promising that, if the infant recovered life and received baptism, she would carry the infant to the sepulchre of the same Virgin, and offer her a wax candle. The infant, therefore, was carried to the sepulchre, and remained there from Thursday up to the following Sunday, awaiting the grace of life as well as of Baptism; at length today the infant's tongue, which had been drawn back in the mouth, came forth to the lips; the infant also moved its right arm from the navel to the breast, as if desiring milk. The colour of its face changed, and it emitted blood from its mouth, and offered sufficient signs of life: hence it was baptized, and afterwards died in the presence of witnesses. Signed. Perreti.

[10] Some prisoners are freed. In the year 1454, on the 14th day of September. Jaquemundus Quarat, of the parish of Eclose [x] in the diocese of Vienne, testified that, together with companions, this year, when there was war between the Dauphin and the duke of Savoy [y], he was taken at Ruperfortium [z] in the duchy of Savoy [aa], and led to the great tower of the castle of Aiguebelette [bb], together with William Gay de Vauleserre [cc], Anthony Chapuys de Flachetes [dd] and others: these all devote themselves to God and the Virgin Philippa, promising that, if they escaped and came out of prison sound and unharmed, they would go to Vienne, and offer a wax candle of one pound, indeed that they would go by the straight road to Vienne before they had returned home. Which done, the aforesaid Jaquemundus pulls an iron pole out of the window of the tower, and goes out of prison on the ninth of this month; then without any hurt or harm he goes to the door of the same tower, and opens it very easily; and so the aforesaid captives all escape, and from the tower they reach the great gate of the citadel (which they unlock with the same ease), and, receiving no harm or obstacle from the sentinels or watchmen, they went away, and at once make for Vienne and the Virgin's sepulchre, to whom, their vows fulfilled and thanks given to God, they returned home in the presence of witnesses. Signed. Boudet.

[11] A sick mother near childbirth is healed, and gives birth happily. Another miracle, on the 28th of November 1454, was related by the noble and powerful lord Leonard a

St. Priest, baron of St. Chamond in the Jarez [ee] in the diocese of Lyon, asserting: that in the past month of August the noble lady Anne, his wife, being pregnant, was seized by a grave illness, so that no movement was felt in the pulse of the veins or in other parts of the body. She was vowed to several Saints: but no remedy being received, indeed for two hours she was as dead, so that the midwife was now holding a little knife for the sake of cutting the womb and preserving life for the infant: but her sister, the lady d'Alpinat, having felt that her heart was still beating, forbade the midwife to cut the womb; then the said sister vowed a vow to God and the Virgin Philippa for the sake of the same demoiselle brought to that extremity: which done, she suddenly received entire health; a little time having elapsed, she bore an infant, which, on account of firm confidence in the merits and intercession of the Virgin Philippa, was presented with Baptism; to whom the aforenamed lord, his wife and all the household came to pay the vow, rendering the greatest thanks to God, to the Holy Virgin Mary and to the Virgin Philippa. Signed. Jo. Cahnety.

[12] An infant is raised and presented with baptism In the year 1454, on the 3rd day of January [ff], John du Pra, of the parish of Gusney [gg] in Forez [hh] in the diocese of Lyon, and others present testified that Laurentia, wife of Benedict Martin de Pomiers [ii], near Lyon, bore an infant whom the neighbours thought dead: and this infant the same Laurentia soon vowed to the Virgin Philippa; and, carried to Vienne by the aforesaid Pra and others, and laid upon the sepulchre of this Virgin, it twice moved its lips in testimony of life, and was baptized by a presbyter present with thanksgiving. Signed. Cahnety.

[13] A dead infant is restored to life and baptized. In the year 1454, on the 17th day of November, the wife of Anthony Belly, called Grangel, of Maclas [kk] in the diocese of Vienne, bore a dead infant, which, carried to the sacred ashes of the Virgin Philippa, soon gave signs of life, three times moving its tongue, opening its right eye and drawing breath; it was therefore baptized by the lord Clement de Commelle, parish priest of Revertim [ll], in the chapel of the Holy Mother of God, with many others present: and the parents of the infant offered a cloth, as also one pound of wax, and had two Masses celebrated in the same chapel, and in sign of joy at the miracle performed the bells of the church were rung. The infant ceased to live a little time after receiving baptism, and was buried near the Virgin. Signed. Bourdeti.

[14] A dead daughter was raised and presented with Baptism. In the year 1455, on the 27th day of April, another miracle took place in the cloister of the church of St. Maurice. To George Galemet, of the place of Bregnes [mm] in the diocese of Lyon, a daughter was born dead by miscarriage: she, carried to the sepulchre of the Virgin, received life, was baptized and called Philippa; salt having been put into her mouth, she had sweated, stretched out her arms, moved her tongue, and her heart had beaten. Signed. Bourdeti.

[15] A dying infant recovers its strength. Another miracle done on the 25th of June 1455: Joanna, wife of Martin Bonis, of Chavanay [nn] in the diocese of Vienne, bore a dying infant, which, vowed to the Virgin Philippa, and carried by its mother to the tomb of the same Virgin, recovered its strength, and was baptized by the lord John Fournier, presbyter, before witnesses. Signed. Bourdeti.

[16] Another dead one is raised and baptized. On the 8th day of July of the aforesaid year Claudia, wife of Claude Grosian, of the parish of St. Maurice de Reymions [oo] in the diocese of Lyon, bore a dead son, who, vowed, and carried to the sepulchre of the Virgin Philippa, remained there from Friday up to the morning time of Sunday; then the demoiselles present felt the infant's stomach move, then the infant vomits and casts out blood; brought then to the fire, it sighed; it was therefore baptized, and called John; which done, it ceased to live in the presence of witnesses. Signed. Bourdeti.

[17] A dead daughter is recalled to life. In the year 1455, on the 20th day of July, a little daughter of fifteen months of Stephen Planchy and Catherine his wife, of the village of Seisseul [pp] near Vienne, after she had cried much, and struggled destitute of all human solace, was found dead in her cradle: for the neighbours, hearing the crying, stayed at home; but afterwards the father and mother, having returned from the field from knocking down fruits with a pole, and finding their little daughter dead, throw themselves on their knees, earnestly begging help from the Lord and the Virgin Philippa; they decide then to carry the infant to the sepulchre of the same Virgin, and at once the girl begins to breathe; when brought to the fire her colour changes, and she recovers her former health. For which they rendered thanks to God and to the same Virgin before witnesses. Signed. Vitello.

[18] A daughter estranged from her senses is healed. In the year 1455, on the penultimate day of November, Anthony des Chevaulx and Antonia, wife of William des Chevaulx, of Biel [qq] in the district of Châteauvillain [rr] in the diocese of Vienne, testified that Claudia, their daughter, was destitute of mind and senses, and deprived of the use of her limbs from the beginning of Lent up to the feast of St. Julian [ss] at the end of the month of August: but when she was vowed, and brought to the sacred ashes of the Virgin Philippa, and when a cloth with a wax image had been offered to this Virgin, this daughter received entire health, and was made fully master of her mind. Signed. Bourdeti.

[19] Two boys dangerously ill are given health. In the year 1454, on the 1st day of February [tt], Peter Vallier and Margaret his wife, of the place of Chamond [uu] near Saint-Chef [xx] in the diocese of Vienne, had two infants so held by a grave disease of the feet, which is called Callus, that they could not support themselves on their feet; at length they were almost destitute of the use of voice and hope of life: one of these was called Quinidius, the other Alexius; and these boys, brought to the extremity, were vowed by their parents to God and the Virgin Philippa, with a promise of offering the same Virgin a wax candle of half a pound and a certain portion of cloth, if it pleased God to give the infants life and health, which was miraculously accomplished, they fulfilling the vow and giving thanks before witnesses. Signed. Chatard.

NOTES.

a. This place is not found (unless perhaps it was a particular parish in the city of Vienne itself) in the Geographical Maps; but other places too will occur hereafter which either are not marked in the Geographical Maps, or have changed their names, or are expressed very faultily; about whose situation a judgment can be formed in some fashion from the dioceses added here and there in which they are situated. [There is a village called St-Blaise-du-Buis, not very far distant from Vienne.]

h. A city of Gaul in Provence, episcopal under the archbishop of Aix, also called by some the capital of the Segusterones, and it is still ample and well cultivated on the river Durance, where it receives the little river Buëch on the threshold of the Dauphiné, 7 leagues distant from Gap towards the South. Baudrand at the word Segustero. Sisteron, today in the diocese of Digne, Digne, Dépt. des Basses-Alpes.

n. This village, in the more recent Map of the Dauphiné arranged by Tillemont and printed by Johann Homann at Nuremberg, is about six leagues distant from Lyon. Perhaps Chandieu, a village three and a half leagues distant from Vienne.

coin was this? That it was one of our quadrantes or liards the dignity of the person forbids us to suspect: Du Cange treats at length of monetary matters; and he, describing gold coins at the word Moneta, exhibits a statute of Charles VIII of the 16th of Feb. in the year 1485, issued on the value of coins, which has thus: Liars and Hardis at 3 den. apiece. And treating of silver coins, he exhibits the little liards of the Dauphiné; but struck under Louis XI: if, therefore, there existed a gold or silver coin of this name, I suspect more truly that this noble lady annually offered one coin of these.

p. In the map just cited Bellegarde is six leagues distant from Vienne, and the village called Moissieu lies adjacent to it.

q. See the Notes at the preceding letter.

r. It is a kind of measure. Go to Du Cange's Glossary at the words Quarteronus, Quartronus and Quatronus.

s. That place near Annonay does not occur in the Maps consulted by me. Unless perhaps it is the one which in the map of Guillaume de l'Isle prefixed to the History of the Dauphiné is called in Latin Audantia.

t. A town of Gaul, also called by some Annonaeum, in the upper province of Vivarais at the foot of the mountains and near the river Deûme, which two leagues below discharges itself into the Rhône; it is seven leagues distant from Vienne towards the south. Baudrand at the word Annoniacum.

u. I do not find this place: yet places of related name occur in the Blaeu Maps, as Bergna about two leagues from Lyon towards the south, la Bresle about three thence towards the west. [There occurs also Brignais, a chapel-of-ease church under the parish of St Genis-Laval, in the district of Lyon.]

x. More probably it is the village which in the Map cited at letter n is called Eclauze, and is nine leagues distant from Vienne to the east. Indeed, it is written Eclose today.

y. On this war see Raynaldi, continuator of the most eminent cardinal Baronius, at the year 1454, § VI, as also especially Fr. Daniel in the Hist. of France at the year 1455.

z. Rupefortium is, I think, the place which is situated on the borders of Bresse and Savoy near the Rhône, and is about eight leagues distant from Chambéry, the metropolis of Savoy, towards the west. Near Chambéry is the place called Aiguebelette, and as it is marked in the Blaeu maps, this place appears to be situated on a mountain, into whose castle these captives seem to have been thrown.

aa. This duchy is exceedingly well known.

bb. See the Notes at letter z.

cc. The place is unknown to me. [A chapel-of-ease church under the parish of Pont-de-Beauvoisin, district of la Tour-du-Pin.]

dd. That place is unknown to me. Is it Flachères, under the parish of Lemps, in the same district of La Tour?

ee.

The territory of Jarez, Le Jarez, a tract of Gaul in the province of Lyon between mount Pilat to the east and the river Loire to the west, on the threshold of the province of Upper Forez, below Saint-Étienne, but its true boundaries have perished. Baudrand at the words Jaresius ager. Further, from the same Saint-Étienne the small town called St. Chaumont or St. Aunemundus is scarcely more than a league distant, between south and east.

ff. The collector of the miracles neglected the chronological order here; for, if the year and day have been rightly noted, this miracle should have been exhibited in the seventh place; and perhaps he who copied the miracles for us noticed this, since the day and year are underlined in our apograph. The reader will observe similar things elsewhere too.

gg. This parish is about two leagues distant from Lyon towards the south on the river Rhône.

hh. Go to the Preliminary Commentary, § I.

ii. In the Blaeu map it is written Fornière, and is a league and a half distant from Lyon.

kk. I have not found that place in the geographical Maps. [There is in the present diocese of Lyon a chapel-of-ease church, Maclas, under the parish of Pélussin, in the district of Saint-Étienne.]

ll. Nor have I found this one. [Is it perhaps Reventin, today a chapel-of-ease church under the parish of St. Maurice, formerly the Cathedral of Vienne?]

mm. Perhaps it is the village which is called Brena in the Maps, situated in Bresse on the Rhône, about three leagues distant from the town of Quirieu, or perhaps it is one of the places seen above at letter n.

nn. It is a small town about two leagues distant from Vienne and one from Condrieu. In the map cited at letter s it is called Cavaneyum.

oo. There are various places in the Dauphiné distinguished by this name, but they lack the addition de Reymions.

pp. Perhaps this place is called Sossuet in the Map cited at letter n, and is about two leagues away from Vienne. [It is a chapel-of-ease church under the name N.-D.-de-Seysseul under the parish of Saint André-le-Bas, in the district of Vienne.]

qq. This place is not expressed in the maps, but I find Castrum Villanense, in the vernacular Château-Villain, expressed in the Tillemont map already several times cited, about ten leagues distant from Vienne. Vosgien also mentions it, and asserts that it is only seven leagues distant from Vienne. [It is perhaps Biol, a chapel-of-ease church not far from Châteauvillain, in the district of la Tour-du-Pin.]

rr. See the preceding Note.

ss. Namely on the 28th day of August, sacred to St. Julian, Martyr of Brioude in Auvergne: see our Work at the said day.

tt. See what was noted at letter ff.

uu. In the maps cited at letter n, towards the north, this and the following place expressed in this miracle are distant at about equal distance, namely eight leagues from Vienne; and the latter is commonly called S. Chef, or St. Theudère.

xx. See the preceding Note.

SECOND PART.

Other prodigies wrought by the help of the Blessed Virgin Philippa.

A sick person is healed by the intercession of Bl. Philippa. In the year and on the day as above. ^a Bartholomew Christin of the above-said parish ^b had a son of one year, James by name; he rejected all bodily nourishment, so that he had now lost his sight from a certain infirmity, but as soon as he was commended to God by the same Christin, his father, and vowed to the Virgin Philippa with a promise of visiting her sepulchre, the infant recovered full health: then the father carried his son to Vienne, and offered the same Virgin half a pound of wax and a small cloth with thanksgiving in the presence of witnesses. Signed. Chatardi.

[21] Dead offspring is restored to life, and baptized. In the year 1455, on the 26th day of November. A certain man called Peronon, of the parish of Edoche ^c in the diocese of Vienne, related that on the day sacred to St. John the Baptist just past his daughter Peronetta at night bore a dead infant, the birth having been anticipated by a month; seeing which, the same Peronon vowed to God, the glorious Virgin Mary and the Virgin Philippa, that, if the infant revived and was presented with baptism, he would visit the sepulchre of the same virgin, and offer her a wax candle of one pound, and half a silver groat ^d: immediately the infant gives signs of life and cries; baptized, therefore, on the fifteenth day it renders its soul to God. The aforesaid Peronon then satisfied his vow before witnesses. Signed. Chatardi.

[22] A dead infant is recalled to life and baptized. In the year 1456, on the 28th day of May. Joanna Ougamart, wife of Anthony Michel, of the parish of Rines ^e in the diocese of Grenoble, narrated that about two years before she had borne a dead infant; but the demoiselle Florena de Bessesel, of the same place, vowed this infant to the Virgin Philippa, with a promise of offering at Vienne a candle of equal weight with the infant. Which done, the parish priest baptized the infant, which he saw breathing and drawing breath. The vow was then paid and fulfilled. Signed. Perretti.

[23] A woman labouring in childbirth is delivered. In the year 1456, on the 29th of May. Claude Jognan and Catherine his wife, of the parish of the castle of Bressieux at the beginning of Lent, laboured a whole day in very grievous pains of childbirth; but, when both had fled to God and the Virgin Philippa, and promised to offer a pound of wax if the infant received life and baptism, at once the infant was brought forth into the light, and was baptized on the feast day of Hilary. The vow was then fulfilled at the Virgin's sepulchre. Signed. Bourdeti.

[24] In the year 1456, on the penultimate day of May. John Seguiet of Tupen ^g near Vienne testified that Andrea, his wife, had borne the pains of childbirth for three months *, One in peril in childbirth experiences help. but nevertheless could not give birth; which several demoiselles seeing, vowed her to St. Philippa of Vienne, promising that, if by the divine good pleasure the infant were born safe and baptized, wax equal to the infant's weight. Then the aforesaid woman bore a sound infant, which, baptized in the place called Moncelles ^h, and called Anthony, continued to live in health. The vow was thereupon fulfilled. Signed. Bourdeti.

[25] One labouring dangerously in childbirth is delivered. In the year 1456, on the aforesaid day, Anthony Savojar of Movelles ⁱ testified that his wife, called Jaquemeta, two and a half years ago, was held for two days and three nights by the pains of one in labour. And the aforesaid woman vowed herself to the Virgin Philippa, and an hour after bore a son, who, baptized in the parish temple and called John, lived two months. His parents paid the vow to the said Virgin, offering a pound of wax and the infant's cloth. Signed. Bourdeti.

[26] [A husband who had deserted his wife is restored to her; their dead son is recalled to life.] In the year 1456, on the 4th day of April. Gouvetus Recamier, called Papon, asserted that his son Claude, joined in matrimony, had already twelve years before deserted his wife and wandered through the region; but he vowed to God and the Virgin Philippa a wax candle of one pound, if, God favouring, his son should return in good health and prosperously; hence his son Claude, having returned within the year, was restored to his wife in good peace. Then the same wife bore a dead son, who, out of devotion laid upon the sepulchre of the Virgin Philippa, breathed three times and received baptism. Wherefore the parents came to Vienne to give thanks to the same Virgin, to have one Mass celebrated, and to offer the wax candle promised above. Signed. Bourdeti.

[27] A dumb boy is given speech. In the year 1456, on the 17th day of June. John Girond, of the parish of the Monastery of Bessesel ^k in the diocese of Vienne, asserted that his six-year-old son, called Claude, had been deprived of speech by a grave infirmity; hence he was vowed to the Virgin Philippa, and recovered health; and the father, together with his son, came to Vienne to offer the Virgin Philippa a cloth made of linen, and to have one Mass celebrated in thanksgiving in the presence of witnesses. Signed. Chatardi.

[28] A sick man is healed. In the year 1456, on the 18th day of June. Benedict Chave of Chatenay ^l in the diocese of Vienne testified that for about five weeks he had been held by a grave pain of the right thumb, which pain had befallen him when he was pulling down a certain house: meanwhile the evil increased day by day, so much that it affected his right shoulder and thence his side, so that the miserable man could not procure a living for himself or help himself with hand or arm: but when he had devoted and commended himself to God and the Virgin Philippa, on the following Tuesday, about to offer conveniently a wax image of the same Virgin of one pound, and a spindle of threads woven by his sister, a virgin, he comes to the sepulchre, and, presented with entire health, has one Mass celebrated. Signed. Perreti.

[29] Dead offspring is restored to life. On Saturday, the 17th of July of the aforesaid year, John de Baulme, of the place of Saint-Chef ^m in the diocese of Vienne, asserted that Joanna his wife on the preceding Tuesday bore a dead daughter, whom the aforesaid Baulme at once vowed to God and the Virgin Philippa, with a promise of coming to Vienne and offering a wax candle of a pound and a half, if it pleased God to grant life and baptism to his infant; so an hour after the infant received vigour and strength, giving movement from the arms to the legs, opening mouth and eyes, and crying: she was therefore baptized by Peter du Bois, present there; then the father, bare of feet and body ⁿ, came to Vienne to render his offering to the same Virgin with thanksgiving. Signed. Bourdeti.

[30] A fire is extinguished. On the second of August of the preceding year, brother Gaufredus Giriu, religious prior of St. Georges d'Oste ^o, testified under the vows of religion that, this city having been taken by the soldiers of the Dauphin [p], fire had consumed part of the houses: but about midnight, the townspeople having been roused by the noise of the bells to give succour, the parish priest of the same place, as also the aforesaid prior, vowed to the Virgin Philippa of Vienne that they would visit her sepulchre and offer two silver groats [q]. Immediately the wind, which was goading the fire, ceased, nor did the flame advance further, and it left intact the neighbouring barn of the nobleman called James de Fontaine. The aforenamed, therefore (notwithstanding the dangers which threatened from the soldiers), betake themselves to Vienne, to discharge their vow to the same Virgin with thanksgiving. Signed. Bourdeti.

[31] A sick man is healed. In the year 1456, on the penultimate day of October, the venerable religious Fr. Arnold du Puis, knight, grand prior of Auvergne [r] of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, testified under the vows of religion that for the space of 32 years he had been held by an infirmity of the whole body, called de Diertes [s]; and that infirmity came forth from red spots, by which he was most afflicted: bodily remedies, therefore, having been applied in vain, he vowed himself to the Virgin Mary and the Virgin Philippa, promising that, if he were freed from his disease, he would come to Vienne, and offer the same Virgin a wax candle of 25 pounds. Yesterday, therefore, as the day was turning towards evening, the aforenamed prior, together with the wax candle, and being in the same condition, reached the door of the church of St. Maurice at the side of the archiepiscopal palace; but seeing the door shut, and holding the candle in his hand, he bends both knees, and earnestly begs help from God, the Virgin Mary and St. Philippa. Immediately

he sees himself free from the evil, nor did any sign or trace of redness appear on his face or any other part of his body; the door, therefore, being opened, he entered the chapel of the Holy Virgin, and, prostrate at the sepulchre of the Virgin Philippa, rendered thanks for the recovered health. Signed. Bourdeti.

[32] A frenzied man is restored to health. In the aforesaid year, on the 27th of December, Peter Regis, miller, of the place of Saint-Eustache [t] in the diocese of Vienne, asserted that his son Vitalis Regis, on the Monday preceding the Nativity of the Lord, led two beasts of burden loaded with corn to Moras [u], a town of the Golden Valley [x]: but during the whole time of the journey he was so harassed, and overwhelmed by heavier rains, that on his return he was oppressed by illness and frenzied fever; hence he uttered vehement cries and howlings, and spoke insults against his wife: which Peter, his father, as also his mother, seeing, together commended him to God, and vowed him to the Virgin Philippa; and soon the frenzy ceased, and the aforesaid Vitalis was entirely free and healed of the evil: hence they came to Vienne, and paid their vows to the same Virgin, bringing a wax torch and three silver groats [y] to God and the same Virgin with thanksgiving. Signed. Bourdeti.

[33] One held by fever is given health. In the year 1457, on the 11th day of January, another miracle befell Stephana, wife of Francis Bourgrand, of the parish of Renel [z] in the diocese of Vienne: she, held for six months by fever, was so fastened to her bed that she could neither raise herself nor support herself on her feet; she hence vowed herself to the Virgin Philippa, promising that, if she were healed, she would visit the sepulchre of the same Virgin three times over the space of three years, and offer a wax image worth three groats [aa]; which promise having been made to God and the same Virgin, she was at once freed from the illness, and came to render her vow and thanks to the same Virgin. Signed. Bourdeti.

[34] A sick man is healed. Another miracle, on the 1st of February in the year 1457, befell Anthony Topin, of the parish of Quirieu [bb] in the diocese of Lyon: he, held for three months by a grave illness, and groaning on his little bed, could neither speak nor rise: hence his wife vows him to the Virgin Philippa, and promises that, if he is healed, he himself will visit the sepulchre of the same Virgin, and offer her a bed-covering, as also a cloth. Suddenly, therefore, feeling himself healed, he rises from his bed, and comes to render vows and thanksgivings and to offer the things mentioned above, together with two groats of Papal money [cc]. Signed. Bourdeti.

[35] A sick boy is restored to health. Another miracle, on the 2nd of February of the aforesaid year, befell Claude, son of Francis Albus, of the place of Saint-Laurent-de- Champ-Mosset [dd] in the diocese of Lyon: he, in the fifth year of his age, was afflicted with a hernia in the noble parts, the bowels descending as far as the middle of the thighs, and the aforesaid parts appeared sometimes red, sometimes black, and were the cause of grave pains and cries, so much that he could neither drink nor eat nor rest: at length his father vowed him to the Virgin Philippa, and, if he were healed, promised that he would lead his son to Vienne for the sake of piety. Immediately the infant was healed of the infirmity and of the relaxation of the bowels, and together with his father, a little time after, came to give thanks to God and the Virgin Philippa and to offer the things to be offered. Signed. Cahneti.

[36] A dead infant is presented with life and Baptism. Another miracle in the year 1457, on the 19th of April. Catherine, wife of Anthony Charle, of the place of Renage [ee], of the district of Branc-Rossant [ff], in the diocese of Grenoble, brought forth a dead infant by miscarriage; this one, when it had been vowed by its parents to the Virgin Philippa, with a promise of offering, if it received life and holy Baptism, wax of equal weight with the infant, suddenly opens its eyes, moves its hands, and its face is given a ruddy colour; baptized, therefore, it was called Claude, and at length expired. And the father came to Vienne to give thanks to God and the Virgin Philippa, and offered the same Virgin a wax candle of nine pounds. Signed. Bourdeti.

[37] One brought into danger of life by a difficult birth is delivered. Another miracle in the year 1457, on the 24th day of April, related by the demoiselle Mary, wife of the nobleman Philip Jobert, otherwise de Vernac: when she was in childbirth, the infant came forth first by the feet, but the rest of the body stuck so enclosed in the womb that it could by no means come forth. Then the same demoiselle offered her prayers to God and the Virgin Philippa, so that, if she brought forth safely, and the offspring were baptized, she herself would come, or send someone, to offer at Vienne a wax head to the same Virgin. At once the infant comes forth entirely, and emits blood from its eyes because of the pains, and was baptized. Thereupon the same demoiselle, carrying her infant with her, and accompanied by other demoiselles, came to Vienne, that she might satisfy her devotion, sound and well. Signed. Bourdeti.

[38] One near death recovers health. In the aforesaid year and on the aforesaid day John Chanonier, called Bachas, of Annonay [gg] in the diocese of Vienne, asserted that his son John was oppressed by a certain illness, so that he cast out from his mouth worms equal in length to a spindle, and asked his father to be carried to his bed for sickness; which done, he began, like one dying, to give forth sobs: then the father, pitying him, vowed his son to God and the Virgin Philippa, and promised that he would go to Vienne and offer a wax candle of one pound. And two hours having elapsed, the infant recovered health, ceased to cast out worms, and began to eat with appetite: and the things which were promised were also paid by them. Signed. Bourdeti.

NOTES.

a. The miracles are not distinguished by parts in our apograph, but all succeed one another in order; I myself, however, divided them into parts after our manner. This miracle took place in the year 1454, on the 1st day of February.

for as far as that, on the testimony of Fr. Daniel at the year 1455, the soldiers of the Dauphin had come. For the rest, the biographer and the Collector of the miracles differ not moderately from each other in the description of this miracle, as may be seen in the Prelim. Comment., no. 67.

p. Go to Fr. Daniel at the place just cited at letter o.

q. See the Notes in this part at letter d. The biographer has three solidi and a third, or forty denarii.

r. A province of France, ample and known. [The grand priory of Auvergne, however, extended more widely, inasmuch as it ran out into both Burgundies, Savoy, Poitou, etc.]

s. In the vernacular Dartres, in Latin it is called Impetigo: there is among physicians a fourfold kind of this disease; and about the second (see the others in him) Le Mascrier in the Table of infirmities has the following in French: In the second, namely kind of impetigo, which is worse than the former, the skin is rougher and redder, and is covered with more raised pustules. This kind of impetigo, which we call Dartres, is called Lichen by the Greeks. In this disease the corrosion is more vehement, and the rough skin turns into scales, the evil creeps on, and occupies the neighbouring parts, disappears, and commonly comes forth again at certain times.

t. I have not found this place.

u. A small town about seven leagues distant from Vienne.

x. A valley in the Dauphiné. To the Latins Vallis aurea on account of its outstanding fertility, it extends from east to west by the side of the Rhône, four leagues below Vienne. Corneille at the word Valoire.

y. Go back to the Notes above, letter d.

z. More probably the place which in the Tillemont map is called Revel, and is four leagues distant from Vienne.

aa. See the Notes above, letter d.

bb. It is a town in the Dauphiné, seven leagues distant from Lyon.

cc. Of what value these were I could not ascertain.

dd. This place is called in the Blaeu Maps S. Laurent de Chamolet, and is about five leagues distant from Lyon towards the East. [The Collector of the miracles is more right: for there is S. Laurent de Chamousset, a parish in the district of Lyon.]

ee. The names of both places expressed in this miracle have more probably been changed; for I could find neither expressed thus: they seem indeed in the Tillemont Map, the former to be called Uriage, the latter Bourg d'Oisans: and in the Blaeu Maps they are called Uriage and Bourg d'Oysan.

ff. See the preceding Note.

gg. Go back to the Notes in the preceding part, letter t.

* perhaps diebus (days)?

THIRD PART.

Other benefits bestowed by the prayers of Bl. Philippa.

One shut in prison is restored to liberty by the help of Bl. Philippa. In the year and on the day as above, a certain man called John Benedict, of Annonay ^a, was shut in a dark prison there on account of a suspicion which the ministers of justice had conceived that he had infected the river of that place with poison; which John Benedict asserted was false: notwithstanding which, he was tortured twice with punishments that he might confess the deed; but he persevered in denying the deed, and saying he was innocent: it happened meanwhile that his wife Benedicta vowed him to the Virgin Philippa, and promised that she would come to Vienne and offer a wax candle of one quarter ^b, if he could escape from the place and safely avoid the punishments; which also happened: for, declared innocent, he was dismissed by the ministers, a certain sum of money intervening; thereupon he as well as his wife paid their vow to the same Virgin. Signed. Bourdeti.

[40] A woman accustomed to bear dead infants brings forth a living one. On the penultimate day of April of the aforesaid year, the demoiselle Margaret, wife of the noble lord Anthony de Fogieres [c], lord of the same place and of Château-Dieu ^d, in the diocese of Lyon, asserted that she had already five times brought forth a dead offspring; but when she saw herself pregnant again, she vowed this foetus to God, the glorious Virgin Mary and the Virgin Philippa, on this condition, that, if it were born safe and continued to live for their solace, she would carry the infant herself to Vienne to the sepulchre of the same Virgin,

and would offer a wax candle in thanksgiving: a little time later this demoiselle bore a son, who was also presented with Baptism; and when after six weeks the mother had offered the same Virgin a wax candle in thanksgiving, the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass having been performed, she returned home glad and sound. Signed. Bourdeti.

[41] One held by various diseases is restored to health. In the year 1457, on the 5th day of May, the demoiselle Antonia de la Foniere, wife of the noble lord Francis de Vangence, lord of Souvignan [e] in Savoy near Bourg-en-Bresse ^f, testified that for two years, about the feast of St. Michael, she had been held by a grave pain of the feet, which reached as far as the thighs, so that she could not support herself; moreover she laboured with gout in the hand so much that she had her fingers bent, and could not extend them; indeed she was pressed by such pain of the head and whole body that she could neither rest, nor find any human remedy against these evils: she resolved, therefore, at length to seek help from St. John the Baptist ^g, St. Romanus ^h and the Virgin Philippa, and promised, if she were healed, that she would visit the temples of each; she is healed, therefore, and visits in her homeland the places of St. John the Baptist and St. Romanus, but neglects to go to the Virgin Philippa: wherefore she relapses into her former infirmity, and as it persisted she grieved exceedingly; she undertakes, therefore, the journey towards Vienne, however ill; but on the way she is healed by the merits and intercession of the Virgin Philippa: and arriving at Vienne, she visited the sepulchre of the same Virgin, and offered three florins in thanksgiving. Signed. Bourdeti.

[42] The foetus of a dead mother is preserved. On the 21st of May of the aforesaid year Godo Piney and William Masson, of the town of Saint-Chamond ⁱ in the diocese of Lyon, asserted that Godo's wife, last Easter, being near childbirth, was oppressed by a grave illness, so much that for two days she was wholly destitute of her senses, and afterwards died, the birth not having been delivered; seeing which, the aforesaid vowed the infant to God and the Virgin Philippa, that it might receive life and Baptism: at once, therefore, the same open the womb of the dead mother, and find the infant alive, which, having received holy Baptism, after two hours rendered its soul to God: which done, they came to Vienne to give thanks to God and the Virgin Philippa, offering a wax image of a pound and a half, and other smaller candles. Signed. Bourdeti.

[43] A sick man is restored to health. In the year as above, on the day sacred to St. John the Baptist, Peter Boudilon and Joanna his wife, John Faiard of Monistrol [k] and Gabriela his wife, of the diocese of Le Puy, asserted that the aforesaid John Faiard, in the month of May, was held for six or seven days by such pain of the throat that he could neither drink nor eat, indeed not even speak: not knowing, therefore, what further remedies to apply, he commended himself inwardly to God and all the Saints, but especially to the Virgin Philippa of Vienne, vowing in his mind, if he were healed, that he would enter on the journey towards Vienne, to render thanks to God and the same Virgin, visiting her Relics in veneration. These things, therefore, being inwardly deliberated and promised, immediately the sick man rises from his bed, and begins to speak in these words: “Virgin, I give myself to thee.” And on the feast of the Holy Cross in the month of May he was sound from his infirmity, and free from the evil, and today he came to Vienne with the aforesaid to give thanks to God and the Holy Virgin. Signed. Chomardi.

[44] A little daughter, dead, is presented with life and Baptism. In the year 1558 (read 1458), on the 20th day of March, Gerard Villery of Charpen ^l and Claude Tansas of Alexian ^m, of the diocese of Valence, related that Claude's wife three days before had borne a dead daughter. Wherefore the afflicted parents vowed her to God and the Virgin Philippa, and that, if she received life and was regenerated by holy Baptism, they would render their vows to the same Virgin, and carry the infant upon the sepulchre, offering four pounds of wax in thanksgiving. They enter, therefore, on the journey, and fulfil their vows, and the daughter, laid upon the sepulchre of the same Virgin, opens an eye and moves her head, and is at once baptized. Thanksgiving, therefore, and the offering of the promises having been made, the aforesaid returned home rejoicing. Signed. Bourdeti.

[45] A sick girl is healed. In the above-said year 1458, on the 14th day of April, Bertrand Dansou, servant of the demoiselle Susanna de Cardarousse, testified that the daughter of the same demoiselle, of sixteen or eighteen years *, was so ill from many ulcers in the mouth that already for three days she could take neither milk nor any other nourishment: the parents, therefore, together with the pastor of the place, vow this daughter to the Virgin Philippa, and promise, if she is healed, two pounds of wax to be sent and offered at Vienne; immediately this daughter sucks milk, receives strength and full and perfect health. The vow was duly paid by a man specially delegated for that, and thanks were rendered to the same Virgin. Signed. Bourdeti.

[46] A sick woman recovers health: In the year 1458, on the 19th day of April, the lord Peter Plaisant, royal physician, and Joanna his wife, daughter of the lord Stephen Brinet of Villefranche [n], now inhabitants of the place of Saint-Bonnet ^o, asserted that the same Joanna was held by languor and a grave illness contracted from fear of pregnancy, and for seven weeks lived rejecting all nourishment (a little broth and water excepted); gravely weakened thereupon, therefore, she vowed herself to God and the Virgin Philippa, that she might be healed, and might be able to bring forth an infant that would be dipped in the sacred font of Baptism, which also, divine grace favouring, happened: for the mother was restored to health, and the infant, presented with Baptism, long survived: the mother hence today satisfied her vow, and offered two pounds of wax, and had one Mass celebrated. Signed. Averti.

[47] A demented woman becomes mistress of herself In the year 1458, on the 27th of May, Claude Baulme of Mommet [p] in the diocese of Valence testified that his wife Margaret, on the day of Pentecost just past, was overwhelmed with great sadness on account of the multitude of her children (for feeding whom the household means were too narrow) and the moroseness of her old mother, most difficult to live with: and this sadness so increased that, alienated from the use of reason, the poor wretch tried to throw herself through the windows, and to run naked through the streets. She is vowed by her husband to the virgin Philippa, and immediately the woman is restored to her senses and to health: the husband hence came to Vienne and offered nine pounds of wax in thanksgiving. Signed. Bourdeti.

[48] One near death is given health. In the aforesaid year, on the 9th of August, Peter Arnould, called Charay, of the parish of Columbiere [q] in the district of Anthon [r] in the diocese of Lyon, asserted that his daughter, a tree having by chance fallen on her head, was near death, so that for three or four days she was more like the dead than the living, and the things which pertain to burial had now begun to be prepared: but the father and others of the kinsfolk who were present vow her to the virgin Philippa, and promise, if the daughter is restored to health, to God and the same Virgin out of devotion a wax candle of three pounds, a cloth of the same daughter, and besides, on all Fridays and Wednesdays until the vow was fully paid, a fast; which done, the daughter is healed, and the vow solemnly rendered. Signed. Bourdeti.

[49] Deceased offspring is raised and baptized. In the year 1459, on the 9th day of May, to John Fournier, called Jaquemet, of the place of Saint-Martin-de-Plaigne [s] in the diocese of Lyon, a daughter was born dead by miscarriage, who, vowed to the Virgin Philippa and placed upon her sepulchre, received life, and, baptized by the parish priest of St. Ferréol, ceased to live after five hours.

[50] A little son, dead, revives and is baptized. In the year 1458, on the 19th day of April, Joanna, daughter of James Alouëtte, of the parish of Soleise [t] in the diocese of Lyon, brought forth an abortive son, who, vowed to the Virgin Philippa, and placed upon her sepulchre, by her merits and intercession, the Mass being finished, was presented with life and Baptism. In thanksgiving a wax candle of equal weight with the boy was offered. Signed. Bourdeti, with good testimony of witnesses.

[51] A dead infant receives life and Baptism. In the aforesaid year, on the 12th of May, the nobleman John du Puis, of the Bourbonnais by birth, of the place of Naucosset [u], asserted that Margaret his wife bore a dead infant, which they vowed to the Virgin Philippa, and carried to the altar of the parish temple; and when it had given many signs of life, it was baptized by the presbyter serving there, and anointed by the parish priest with the Holy Oil [x], which done, it died. The parents then paid their vows to the Virgin Philippa. Signed. Bourdeti.

[52] One possessed by a demon and miserably vexed is freed. In the year 1465, on the 27th day of April, Matthew Baret, of the place of Saint-Pierre-de-Bœuf [y] in the diocese of Vienne, by reason of a lawsuit raised against him by another three years before at the feast of St. Anthony, was held by grave sadness; and when one night he was gravely afflicted by this, he heard a voice saying to him: “Have patience, and thou shalt conquer thy adversaries.” Coming up out of sleep, therefore, he beholds a most bright light in the chamber, which at once vanished. Meditating on this vision, and searching out the means by which to conquer his adversaries, he again falls asleep, and after a little an evil spirit appears, who also invades the wretch; hurrying himself, therefore, from his bed, and driven by furies, he dashed himself to the ground, emitting such cries and howlings that the household as well as the neighbours ran to the spectacle of the wretched man, and, lifting him from the ground, laid him on his little bed: but not being able to hold him there (for he was furiously harassed by the demon), they were obliged to bind him with chains for the space of a whole month: at length the wife and daughter of the wretched man vow him to God, to St. Philippa and to the Holy Cross venerated in the temple of the place, and promise that, when he was restored to health, they would lead him there, and offer a wax candle of half a pound, and a similar one in honour of the Holy Cross, if, God favouring, he were delivered from these evils. Immediately this wretch falls sweetly asleep, is restored to health, is freed from the evil spirit, and the promises are fulfilled. Signed. Molleti.

[53] [A dead infant, when it is being carried to the Virgin's sepulchre, receives life and Baptism at Lyon, dies, and is buried.] Another miracle, in the year 1465, on the 27th day of July, was related by Hugh Billiot, of the parish of Cuyzet near the island of Carbo [z] in the diocese of Lyon: for he asserted that his wife Antonia had borne by miscarriage a male infant, for whom the same Antonia, grieving, vows him to the Virgin Philippa of Vienne, and promises, if he received life and Baptism, that she would offer a wax candle of equal weight with the boy (and the boy equalled eight pounds). They begin, therefore, the journey towards Vienne, accompanied by a good company, and carrying the infant with them, and all reach Lyon, and while they are making a stay in the temple of the Friars Minor, the infant is given the spirit of life, and is baptized by Brother Prior de Tuyssia, a religious of the same Order; and two hours having passed, the infant ceased to live, and in the same temple, more than three hundred persons being present at the miracle, is buried; the kinsfolk then continue their journey to Vienne, render thanks to God and the Virgin Philippa, offer the wax candle, and return home in peace. Signed. Molletti.

[54] One near death is healed. Another miracle, in the year 1465, on the 27th day of September, asserted by Benedict Domenge, servant of the lord William Camyon of Valence [aa], a polisher of parchments: for he said that his mistress's son, unable to suck the breast, and near death, was vowed to the Virgin Philippa; which done, he begins to revive and to suck the nurse's breasts; the parents, therefore, have a Mass celebrated at Vienne in honour of the Virgin, and offer a wax candle worth six silver groats. Signed. Molletti.

[55] A sick man oppressed by pain of the sides is restored to health. In the year 1480, on the 23rd day of June, Anthony Bonpar of Le Puy [bb] was so held for three years by pain of the sides that he no longer hoped for help from men; noticing which, his wife Coleta vows her husband to the Virgin Philippa, and, if he is healed, promises that she as well as her husband will come to Vienne, to render their vows, have one Mass celebrated, and offer fifty pounds of wax to the same Virgin: forthwith the sick man is freed from the evils, and fully restored to health. He hastens, therefore, to Vienne with his wife and certain neighbours, to render his vows and give thanks to God and the same Virgin. Signed. Bourdeti.

[56] One labouring with the same disease is healed. In the aforesaid year and on the aforesaid day John Michelat of Le Puy [cc], who had offered himself as companion to the said Anthony towards Vienne, was oppressed by entirely the same pain of the sides; but having returned to Vienne, and prostrated at the sepulchre of the Virgin Philippa, by the virtue of devotion and faith he was healed and freed from pain, and offered in thanksgiving those things which the narrowness of his household means allowed. Signed. Bourdeti.

[57] In the year 1472, on the 14th day of April, William Sollessart of Montferrand [dd] in Auvergne, fifty years old, A blind man visiting the Virgin's sepulchre is enlightened. had for many years already been so destitute of the light of his eyes that he could see neither colours nor letters, nor recognize anyone by face: having heard, further, of the celebrity of the virtues and miracles of the Virgin Philippa of Vienne, relying on the divine mercy, he undertook the journey towards Vienne, not without a companion: intent, therefore, on prayers, prostrate at the sepulchre of the same Virgin, he recovers his sight entirely, and renders thanks for the benefit received to God and the glorious Virgin Philippa, and returns home with joy. Signed. Bourdeti.

NOTES.

p. Perhaps that place is called Monvendre in the Tillemont Map, and lies adjacent to Valence.

q. It is a burgh on the river Pin, seven leagues distant from Lyon; and Anthon is about two leagues away from Collumbiere, and lies adjacent to the Rhône.

r. See the preceding note.

s. It is about four leagues distant from Lyon towards the south, and the village next to Saint-Chamond is called St. Martin.

t. This place is unknown to me. [Solaise, a chapel-of-ease church under the parish of St-Symphorien-d'Ozon, in the present diocese of Grenoble, Dépt de l'Isère.]

u. Names similar to this occur in the Bourbonnais, as Cousaget, Cressaget, Ecousaio; hence perhaps this place is wrongly expressed in our apograph.

x. Of Confirmation, as it seems; for that Sacrament can be validly and licitly conferred by a presbyter (go to the Scholastic theologians on the minister of this Sacrament) with the licence of the Pontiff going before: although perhaps it can also be understood of some other anointing, as Ménard rightly observes of a similar one in the Notes and Observations on the Book of Sacraments of St. Gregory the Pope Vol. III, part I, Opp. col. 386. Paris edition, year 1705. in this way: But they, he says, err not moderately who write that being chrismated or anointed on the crown of the head by a presbyter is of the same virtue as being chrismated on the forehead by the bishop. For this chrismation of the crown is not a Sacrament, nor can it confer grace ex opere operato, nor give the Holy Spirit: but it is given that the baptized may understand that from that day he is joined to Christ the head as a member, and grafted into His body, and that for that reason he is called Christian from Christ, and Christ from chrism, etc.

y. This village is five leagues distant from Vienne across the Rhône, and in the Map cited in part I at letter s it is called S. Petrus de Bove.

z. This island lies adjacent to Lyon; but this parish is not found in the Blaeu maps, unless it is the one which is called la Ciere.

aa. It is an episcopal city in the Dauphiné on the river Rhône.

bb. An ample and well-cultivated city of Gaul on a hill in Occitania, capital of the province of Velay, near the river Loire, episcopal under the archbishop of Bourges, but exempt from his jurisdiction … this city is otherwise called Anicium. Baudrand at the word Podium. See more in the same at the word Anicium, and some things in the Preliminary Commentary, § III, no. 50.

cc. See the Notes at the preceding letter.

dd. A city of Gaul in the province of Auvergne, scarcely one mile distant from the city of Clermont to the east, whence it is also more often comprehended under it, and was sometimes called Clermont-Ferrand, but in fact is separate. Baudrand at the word Mons-Ferrandus.

* mensium (months)