William of Como

ON BL. WILLIAM OF COMO, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, IN LOMBARDY,

IN THE YEAR 1226.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

William, bishop of Como in Italy. (Bl.)

BY V. D. B.

§ I. The state of the church of Como; Blessed William's homeland; his episcopate; the dispute over precedence; the privilege and the hatred of Otto IV.

Primo Luigi Tatti, a clerk regular of the congregation of Somasca, had proposed to himself to comprise the Life of Blessed William, bishop of Como, in a separate book; Of the sources from which Blessed William's deeds are to be drawn. as he himself professes in his Annals of Como Annali sacri di Como, vol. II, page 588.: but, prevented by death, so far from being able to complete this plan of his, he left his Annals themselves incomplete: and no one else, so far as I know, has attempted up to this day to narrate separately the deeds of Blessed William. Yet in composing his Annals Tatti took special care to collect all those things which seemed to make for the praise of the blessed man; so that the loss is not so great as it appears at first sight. Other writers too who have treated the affairs of Como have not omitted to celebrate the memory of Blessed William: but the names of each do not seem to need recording here, since those who preceded Tatti were far surpassed by him; those who came after seem to have done nothing else than tread in his footsteps. Nor do we warn the reader at the threshold to expect anything else from us than that we should illustrate, according to our strength, the things that have been recorded by Tatti.

[2] The ecclesiastical and In the volume immediately preceding, where we discoursed of St. John III, bishop of Como, at October 18, we demonstrated at length that Como was at first contained in the ecclesiastical province of Milan, and that, while from the beginning of the seventh century until the year 698 it adhered to the schism of Aquileia, it passed under the dominion of the patriarch of Aquileia, civil state of the diocese of Como in the time of Blessed William. until about the year 1789 it again acknowledged the rights of the archbishop of Milan Acta SS. vol. VIII of October, page 904 and following.: so that Blessed William, who occupied the see of Como at the beginning of the thirteenth century, was subject to the patriarch of Aquileia. But since in that age (no less than now) Novocomum lay within the borders of Lombardy, and ecclesiastical affairs were continually entangled and disturbed by political ones, and since moreover in the month of September of the year 1196 the people of Como and of Milan, having laid aside the memory of old mutual injuries and fixed the boundaries of both dominions, had entered into a treaty for keeping peace with each other thereafter and for making war with common arms [Cf. Benedetto Giovio, Historiae Novocomensis, book I, page 36; Tatti, Annali sacri di Como, vol. II, page 526; Sassi, Archiepiscoporum Mediolanensium series, vol. II, page 621 and 622.], the fortune of the most holy bishop could not but follow the vicissitudes of the Milanese rather than of the people of Aquileia. Yet through the wantonness of men the blessed man was able to abstain from civil affairs more than if the rights of the bishopric of Como had been entire. For by many imperial diplomas the territory of Como had been given to the bishops Cantù, Storia della Città e diocesi di Como, vol. I, page 398.; but when at the beginning of the twelfth century the city began to have consuls Ibid. page 395; Tatti, vol. II, page 314., and at the end of the same century podestàs [Cf. the diploma of Bishop Anselm of the year 1180 and the decree of Henry V of the year 1192, in Tatti, vol. II, page 880, 881 and 889.], the authority of the bishops could not but decrease; and indeed from the twelfth century the name of the bishops no longer appears in treaties, but only that of the city and its magistracy; some dominion, however, was left to the bishops over Lugano Cantù vol. I, page 398; Tatti, vol. II, page 569 and 888.. Wherefore, in collecting the deeds of Blessed William, it will almost be permissible to omit what pertains to the commonwealth of Como.

[3] The homeland and family of Blessed William. Some have held that the blessed man was by nation a Milanese, sprung namely from the family della Torre, which had transferred its seat from the Valsassina to Milan Tatti, vol. II, page 536.. In actual truth the holy prelate also had the surname della Torre, but received from an altogether different family. For in a charter which William himself asked to be drawn up in the year 1219 he is called Lord Guglielmo, by the grace of God bishop of Como, son of the late lord Ruggero de la Turre of Mendrisio Ibid. page 931. Cf. Martyrologium Novocomense, page 230.; then in the Necrology of St. Mary of Torello, in which are inscribed the anniversary offices to be performed for the blood relatives of the blessed prelate, his father Rogerius, his paternal uncle Lanfranc and his brother Bregondius are expressly said to be of Mendrisio Ibid. page 536.. Now that village, or borough, lies above the road by which one goes from Como to the lake of Lugano, and is now part of the Ticino district (Canton du Tessin) Cf. Vandermaelen, Cartes de l'Europe, table LXV.; formerly reckoned to the diocese of Como in temporals as well as in spirituals Tatti, vol. II, page 537.. We have just seen that Blessed William's father was called Rogerius; his mother had the name Adila; his paternal uncles were called Rodolf and Lanfranc; of the latter, no less than of his brother Bregondius, we have already made mention; his sisters were named Baritia, Aemilia and Juliana; his brothers' sons Rogerius and Bregondius; and the latter was a canon of the cathedral of Como and provost of the collegiate church of Uggiate: all which names are read in the aforecited Necrology. There is no doubt, then, that the holy bishop had a distinguished birth; but he by no means belongs to the same family from which sprang Raimondo della Torre, who in the year 1261 came to the see of Como through the contrivances of his father Martino: for he was a Milanese Ibid. page 693.; but whether he was joined by blood with Giovanni Ambrogio della Torre, who sat at Como in the year 1675, I leave to others to investigate: all these things indeed Tatti affirmed in the dedicatory letter prefixed to the Martyrology of Como; but he himself afterward judged that they should partly be corrected in the Annals.

[4] [He, who when younger had had Bishop Anselm as benefactor, was himself made bishop in the year 1204, and at once a most grave controversy] Tatti conjectures Ibid. page 537. that Blessed William, before he was promoted to the episcopal see of Como, was a canon of the cathedral church. I would not deny it: it is certain at least that he owed very much to Anselm, who occupied the see of Como from the year 1165 to 1195 Ibid. page 449, 518 and 519.. For William himself, laying down in the year 1217 what anniversaries were to be held in the collegiate church of Torello: Likewise we will, he says Ibid. page 928., and firmly establish, that every year there be held the anniversary of Bishop Anselm, our singular benefactor; wholly omitting this concerning Arditio II, Anselm's successor. Now when this Arditio had rested in the Lord on July 2 of the year 1204 Ughelli. Italia sacra, vol. V, col. 297, and Tatti, vol. II, page 535 and 536., Blessed William was a little afterward ordered to be bishop of Como. But whether, when he was solemnly brought in, the quarrels again broke out between the cathedral canons and the Benedictine monks of St. Abundius, by which Arditio's procession had been disturbed, the archdeacon of the chapter and the abbot of St. Abundius disputing about occupying the bishop's right hand, I for my part am not able to say. Certainly that dispute had not yet been laid to rest: for after his enthronement Arditio, fearing lest great scandals or perhaps homicides should be committed in the church when the procession took place, had commanded both parties to inform him of the ancient custom, and of possession and right; but neither party had wished to complain of the other. Yet in the year of the Lord's incarnation 1195, on Tuesday, which was the fourteenth day of the outgoing month of January, that is, January 18 , in the 13th indiction, the parties had come to an agreement that, with the assent of both parties, the aforesaid lord Arditio, elect, should receive the witnesses whom each party should bring in, the witnesses and attestations having the same force as if that controversy had been examined in judicial order Tatti, vol. II, page 890.. The monks had won by the episcopal judgment; but this was declined

through an appeal interposed by the canons of Como to the apostolic see Ibid. page 892., and the review of the case was committed to Masters Gallus, primicerius of Bergamo *, and P., canon of Oglate in the diocese of Como. On both sides the attestations were published and there was long litigation before the apostolic delegates; but, seven years having already elapsed, they had been unwilling to proceed to pronouncing an arbitration. The monks of St. Abundius complained of this delay to Pope Innocent III, who on the 17th of the kalends of July in the 8th year of his pontificate, or in the year 1203, commanded the delegated judges to proceed, after due reasoning, to pronouncing an arbitration, the obstacle of delay and appeal being removed Ibid. page cit.. From which it is plain that this suit had not yet been settled when Blessed William ascended the episcopal see of Como.

[5] he was entangled in a dispute over precedence. And this was the first business in which the blessed man was entangled. For since it remained suspended and unjudged, and the paschal feasts of the year 1203, at which also a procession was to be held, were at hand, the most prudent prelate, fearing lest on that occasion new quarrels should be stirred up, laid down, the rights of both parties being saved, that the archdeacon, a deacon or another chosen by himself should walk at his right Ibid. page 538.: which ordinance, although provisional, at first sight excites astonishment, as being contrary to Arditio's sentence, however suspended by the appeal; but the good bishop seems to have wished the order to be kept which obtained immediately before the suit was contested. Namely, in the twelfth century the monks of St. Abundius seem to have defended their rights negligently and to have done some things out of courtesy and goodwill which others then contended were to be performed by them as of duty. But when at the end of the same century Gabardus and after him Guglielmo Casella had been elected abbots, they strove to recover the former rights of their monastery and to free their house from many burdens. This was the cause of the contentions which they had not only with the canons of the cathedral church but also with the craftsmen of the town, who went so far as to occupy part of the buildings of St. Abundius for some time. It could not but be that the city was very often disturbed by these things; nor are testimonies lacking by which it is established that, while Blessed William was bishop, there were at Como in fact most ardent factional enmities: nevertheless we refrain from narrating them, since we know from no monuments what the good prelate accomplished in appeasing them. These things were without doubt apt to torment his fatherly mind; but God did not wish that there should be nothing from which he might receive comfort. And indeed, while the city was boiling with factions and dissensions, Blessed Manfred, a Milanese by homeland, is related Ibid. 542 and following. to have lived most holily in the hermitage of Monte Generoso, which overhangs the lake of Lugano, whose deeds are celebrated in a few words in our work at January 28, on the day before in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy of Ferrarius, more accurately by Tatti here and there in his Annals.

[6] [In the year 1206 he obtains the faculty of absolving from censures his chapter, long since rebellious against Innocent III.] It was pleasing also to the blessed prelate at length to loose from them his chapter, which had long since been tied with the bonds of excommunication. The cause and origin of the matter may be learned from the following letter of Innocent III, given at Ferentino on June 14 of the year 1206 [Innocent III papae Regestorum book IX, pontif. year IX, of Christ 1206, epist. XC, in Migne, Patrologia, vol. CCXV, col. 908.]: To the Chapter of Como. Having long since become disobedient and rebellious toward us, you have shown yourselves, as not the effect of the thing but rather the failure of the work makes manifest, contemners of the mandates of the apostolic see and perverters nonetheless of ecclesiastical discipline. For when formerly we several times directed our writings to you that you should receive our beloved son B., our subdeacon, as your canon and brother, a prebend being liberally assigned to him in your church, you, stopping your ears after the manner of the deaf asp, wholly disdained to do it; and although on this account you have long been bound by the bond of excommunication, yet your rebellion could not yet be softened, which how grievous and troublesome it is to us we should have shown otherwise, had not mildness tempered rigour and mercy the movement of the mind. But since the aforementioned subdeacon has been suitably provided for in the church of Milan, absolving you wholly from his claim, we give command by our letters to our venerable brother … your bishop, that he relax by our authority, according to the form of the church, the sentence of excommunication by which on this account you have long remained bound; nonetheless commanding your whole body by apostolic writings that you presume to ordain nothing concerning the prebend which we had commanded to be assigned to the said cleric, until you have received the good pleasure of our will on this matter. Given at Ferentino, on the 18th of the kalends of July, in the ninth year. He who wishes to excuse the canons of Como will perhaps say that they relied on the statutes of Bishop Anselm, which had been approved by Gregory VIII and Celestine III and by which it was forbidden that more than twenty canons be enrolled in the cathedral church; but they ought to have taken account of the clause: saving the authority of the apostolic see Bull of Honorius III, in Tatti, vol. II, page 929 and 930.. Besides, it seems that a vacant prebend was in question, since at the end of the letter Innocent forbids the canons to confer it until they have received the good pleasure of his will. However that may be, this matter seems to have been very obscure: and indeed, while the chapter of Como was bound by this sentence, Blessed William was elected bishop by it; and that he did not abstain from it in sacred functions may be gathered from his ordinance on the order to be kept in the paschal procession of the year 1205.

[7] [In the year 1210 he obtains from Otto IV the privilege of hundred-year prescription and other things:] Up to the year 1210 we find nothing about Blessed William that is worthy of memory. But in this year he obtained from the emperor Otto IV a diploma by which the property of the church of Como was covered by imperial protection and the privilege of hundred-year prescription granted. We will, says the emperor In Tatti, vol. II, page 901 and 902., that it come to notice that we, considering both the fervour of devotion and the constancy of faith of our beloved faithful William, bishop of Como, receive under our entire and special protection his person and the church of Como, which we embrace more closely in the arms of our love, and all his goods, both movable and immovable, all the things and possessions which he now possesses and shall in future acquire in any just manner, giving strict command to all and each of the faithful of our empire under pain of our favour, and firmly establishing by imperial decree, that no marquis, count, castellan, no person great or small, no corporation and no community or commune presume to raise or make war, assault or attack against the person of our aforementioned beloved faithful William, bishop of Como, and of his successors, or against the church of Como, or to infest, molest, burden, diminish, detain, impair him or his things, both movable and immovable, which he now has or in future shall lawfully have, or to derogate from his right in anything, or to give any help, counsel or favour to any who with rash daring should presume to disquiet it and inflict any violence or injury on them. We establish also, and grant by imperial clemency to the same church of Como, that no prescription, begun or to be begun, run against the same church, except the hundred-year one. Solemn threats are then directed against transgressors. Given in the year of the Lord's incarnation one thousand two hundred and ten *, in the 13th indiction, in the month of March, in the first year of the lord Otto, most invincible emperor. Done at Augusta happily. Amen.

[8] [concerning the diploma granted, a few things are observed about the occasion and place.] Otto, whom Innocent III had crowned at Rome on September 27 of the year 1209, gave this diploma after, returning at the beginning of the following year from Germany into Italy, he had established his authority in Tuscany and Romagna. For proceeding from there to Milan through Ferrara, Imola and Piacenza, he confirmed here and there the rights of the cities and bishops Hurter, Histoire du pape Innocent III, vol. II, page 316. Brussels, 1839.; and so the diploma recited is by no means a testimony of Otto's exceptional goodwill toward Blessed William, as some people of Como would have it. Let them read the much ampler concessions or confirmations of former rights made to the bishops of Parma Ughelli, Italia sacra, vol. II, col. 174 and 175. and of Imola Ibid. col. 634 and following.. These latter diplomas were given on the same day, that is, the 50th of March of the year 1210, or, as is read in the Parma one: These things were done in the year of the Lord's incarnation 1210, the glorious Lord Otto, emperor of the Romans, reigning, in the 12th year of his kingship but the 1st of his empire. Given by the hand of Vultherus, protonotary, at Imola, in the month of March, on the 3rd of the kalends of April, in the 13th indiction; and in the Imola one: These things were done at Imola in 1210, in the 13th indiction, on the 2nd day of the outgoing month of March, the most glorious Otto IV, emperor of the Romans and ever august, reigning, in the 12th year of his kingship but the first of his empire. And indeed, since at the end of March the emperor Otto was still staying in these parts, I cannot say what Augusta it is from which he gave the Como diploma. There are certainly many cities whose name is Augusta; but none (so far as I know) in the regions through which the emperor passed in the month of March. For one must not think of Augusta Praetoria (Aosta), nor even of the other Augusta, which seems to have been situated in the place now called Vico, not far from Mondovì * in Piedmont D'Anville, Géographie ancienne, vol. I, page 176.. For Otto went to these places only later Hurter, vol. II, page 317.. For the rest, these things do little for the deeds of Blessed William.

[9] [When in the year 1211 Otto, unmindful of the benefits of Innocent III and having attempted to subject Sicily to himself, had been deposed by the pontiff,] When Otto IV had been crowned with the imperial diadem, great rejoicing had been excited here and there in Italy and Germany, because the best was hoped of him. But that joy soon vanished. Otto refused to keep faith with his promises about restoring very many provinces to the holy see; he sought an unwonted authority over the feudal princes of Germany, and did many other things against right and law; but what seemed the chief crime, he prepared to subject to himself Sicily, which Frederick, son of the emperor Henry VI, held by hereditary right. He was not yet three years old when his father died at the end of September of the year 1197, his guardianship being left to Pope Innocent III. Which office Innocent so discharged that he strenuously defended the rights of his ward. Yet he had not wished him to be created emperor, nor Philip of Swabia, his paternal uncle. Philip, however, was elected by some princes of Germany; but Innocent, to whom it was well perceived how grievous the dominion of the emperors would be to the Roman pontiff and to all Italy, if the empire

and the kingdom of both Sicilies were in the hands of the same house [De Sismondi, Histoire de la renaissance de la liberté en Italie, page 56 and following. Brussels, 1841.], had striven with incredible care and solicitude that Otto of Brunswick should be ordered emperor by the other electors. Hence for ten years many disturbances and wars arose, until in the year 1208 Philip died, Otto was acknowledged by all and in the following year crowned at Rome. Through all that space of time, in good and bad fortune, Innocent had been a faithful friend to Otto; so that no one ever seemed to have received more benefits from anyone than Otto from Innocent. Yet the son rose up against the father; the client against the patron; and he used against his benefactor the authority which he had obtained through him. Yet Innocent took almost no account of the violation of the papal territory; but that he attacked the ward, that he strove to despoil the young Frederick of his paternal kingdom of Sicily, that he gathered forces and joined the Pisans and other allies to himself for war, of this he complained most vehemently; and when he made no progress by prayers and admonitions, in the year 1211 he brandished the sword of excommunication against him and his allies, and him whom he had exalted when humble he put down, now mighty, from his seat [Hurter, book XVI, vol. II, page 353 and following; Art de vérifier les dates, vol. I, page 293, and vol. II, page 26.].

[10] [Blessed William refused to present himself at his tribunal; wherefore Innocent III singularly protected him and the church of Como.] Immediately after, the pontiff sent legates in all directions to make known the sentence of excommunication and deposition, forbidding that anyone should thereafter call Otto emperor and obey him. Cardinal Gerard de Sessa, bishop of Novara, was sent into Lombardy, who discharged his legation fairly successfully Tatti, vol. II, page 552; Hurter, book XVII, vol. II, page 390.. Meanwhile Frederick, king of Italy, was elected emperor in Germany, and at the beginning of the year 1212 the decree of election was brought to Innocent, who, hoping well of his ward, approved it Hurter, page 387 and 388.. The new emperor at once went on into Germany; and, since the people of Como favoured his side, he seems to have been received within the walls Tatti, vol. II, page 553.. But Otto himself too had not been quiet. In the month of November of the year 1211, having received news of the new election, he moved into upper Italy and in the month of January summoned the envoys of the cities to Parma and Lodi, in whose assembly he declared guilty of lèse-majesté whatever cities followed the side of Frederick Hurter, page 390 and 391.. And while Otto was in these parts, the captains of Arzago went to him and cited Blessed William to his tribunal, to sue him over I know not what matter. But the blessed man, exactly obeying the commands of Innocent, refused to present himself before an excommunicated man. Otto, however, pronounced sentence; and when this came to the ears of the pontiff, he wrote a letter to Jacopo Mosso, bishop of Turin, and to the provost of St. Gaudentius of Novara, commanding them to protect manfully the bishop of Como and his goods: Since, he says Regestum, book XV, ep. 31, in Migne, Patrologia, vol. CCXVI. col. 566., he who is no longer to be named emperor, but an impious persecutor, has been tied with his abettors by the bond of anathema, and all have been absolved from the debt of fidelity to him, we denounce as void and empty all things which the same excommunicated man or any official of his has decreed or shall decree against clerics or churches, or against princes or their abettors who have withdrawn their obedience from the said tyrant in order to protect the liberty and justice both of the church and of the empire, and by the counsel of our brethren we wholly annul them by apostolic authority. But especially the sentence which the same Otto wickedly promulgated against our venerable brother … bishop of Como, in the cause which is pending between him and the captains of Arzago, because the same bishop did not come into the presence of that excommunicated man when he had been called by him, we decree to be null, and that no prejudice to the church of Como is generated by it. Wherefore we command your discretion by apostolic writings, enjoining you to compel the captains themselves, admonition having been premised, by ecclesiastical censure, appeal being removed, not to burden or molest the said bishop or his church on the occasion of that church. Given at the Lateran on the nones of April, in the 15th year of our pontificate, of Christ 1212. The blessed man is not read to have had other troubles at that time.

* quintus decimus?

* 17?

* Bergomensi

* others wrongly nono

* Mondovì

§ II. The foundation of the monastery of canons regular of Blessed Mary of Torello and of the hospital of St. Silvester. The bull of Honorius III on the number of the canons of Como.

[Blessed William founds, and in the year 1217 consecrates, the regular canonry of Torello;] A little later, while the preparations for the crusading war were in full heat, which Innocent III had proclaimed in the year 1213 at the Lateran council and his successor Honorius III had spurred on with new incitements in the following year, while the greatest expenses were being made for it and at least a twentieth part of ecclesiastical revenues was being contributed by all, Blessed William nevertheless collected the funds with which he might complete a new house of canons in his diocese and endow it with necessary means. For this purpose he chose in the valley of Lugano a mountain place, solitary, about four miles distant from Lugano, called Torello. At his own expense, then, he raised there a monastery and a church, whose first stone the canon Bertram laid in the name of the blessed bishop. And when in the year 1217 that church had been completed, Blessed William himself consecrated it on October 26 of the same year and commended it to the patronage of Blessed Mary, St. James and the other apostles; whence that monastery was called Blessed Mary of Torello. The blessed Prelate himself wished to be, as founder, so also the legislator of this house of ascetics. He set before it, then, a Rule collected from the sayings of St. Augustine and other holy Fathers, with particular Constitutions of his own added.

[12] and wrote its Rule closely following the discipline of Murbach. Tatti Annales sacri di Como, vol. II, page 561 and passim., who turned over the charters of St. Mary of Torello with much diligence, published these Constitutions Ibid. page 903., which on many accounts are worth reading. They are inscribed to Martin, provost of St. Mary of Torello, and his other brethren. The origin of the monastery is disclosed at the beginning: Your church, says the blessed man, we have built and consecrated, the Lord helping, from the fruits of the church of the bishopric of Como, which we could have spent on other uses, A few singular things, however, about profession, chant, and we have already endowed it in part; and what is lacking we desire to fill up shortly. And that the rule might always remain entire, he wished the provost to be forbidden the power of dispensing. Then he entirely commanded that the common life be lived; nor did he wish anyone to be received who was not legitimate, had not passed the twentieth year of age, or had not been tried a whole year, unless perhaps in favour of a most approved person that time should seem to the chapter to be shortened. The prescribed solemnity of profession is almost the same as that of Murbach, which was much spread in the twelfth century Amort, Vetus disciplina canonica, vol. I, page 402 and 403.. The prayers, however, are different, and the formula of profession; nor is it found among those which Lelarge published among various formulas for making a canon De ordine canonico, page 545 and following.. Here it is Tatti, vol. II, page 905.: I, brother N., offering, give myself up to the church of St. Mary of Torello and promise obedience according to this canonical Rule to God and to the lord provost who now is or shall be for the time; and chastity, and to live without property: and if I fail in these things, I promise amendment at the provost's command. The order of rising at night is partly taken from the discipline of Murbach, partly entirely new. According to that discipline Blessed William ordered the Gradual Canticle to be sung before Matins; afterward, he then adds, let all the divine Offices be performed according to the order of our Greater church, which we noted in the volume immediately preceding was the Patriarchal or Aquileian Acta SS. vol. VIII of October, page 905..

[13] [prostration during the Credo, about clothing, fasts, use of the sacraments, penances, conversi etc. are recounted.] I would not pursue particulars, except very few. When Mass is celebrated, he says In Tatti, vol. II, page 910., if the Credo in unum is said, when there is said: He was incarnate of the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, prostrate yourselves on your faces, remaining so until Resurrexit. Where it is first to be noted that the rite was formerly very various as regards the words at which the celebrant and those standing by were to bend the knee or even to prostrate themselves; then that those stray from the truth who suppose that St. Louis, king of France, was the author of this custom, or (what is worse) that this usage arose only in the fourteenth century. Yet Blessed William himself did not first introduce it. In the Order of the offices of the church of Siena, which Oderic, canon of the same church, published in the year 1213, and Trombelli had printed in the year 1766, the following is read Trombelli, Ordo offic. eccl. Senensis, page 459.: In which (namely in the Constantinopolitan creed), while there is sung: And was made man, we bend the knee, because we adore Christ made man and crucified for us: which same words are found entirely in the Mitrale, or Summa on the ecclesiastical offices Book III, chap. 4, in Migne, Patrologia, vol. CCXIII, col. 113., which Sicard of Cremona wrote between the year 1185 Ibid. col. 9 and 10., in which he was created bishop (for he notes in the conclusion of the work Ibid. col. 433. that he wrote his book for his brethren and sons), and the year 1215, in which he died Ibid. col. 9 and 10.. And since in neither place is it noted that this rite was particular or new, it seems that it can be gathered from this that it had long been received here and there in Italy, at least in upper Italy. In clothing and bed the use of woollen cloth was commended; linen, however, was not forbidden. On colour these things were laid down In Tatti, vol. II, page 912.: Let all your woollen clothing, such as the cape, coverlet, manstrace, tunic, hose and whatever others there may be, be of grey or white colour; coloured only with its own proper and natural colour, without deceit. Three Lents were prescribed: of Advent or the Nativity, of the Great Fast and of St. Peter; not, however, all equally severe. Besides, a fast was enjoined twice in each week. These things also are to be noted Ibid. page 914.: But those who are to communicate three times in the year, namely at Easter, Pentecost and at the Nativity of the Lord, in each

of the Lents do not neglect to come to private confession. We grant the eating of meat only on three days of the week, namely on the Lord's day, Tuesday and Thursday. The penalties to be inflicted according to the various faults are accurately enumerated; many, however, being left to the judgment of the superiors. Among these penalties comes the use of the discipline, or rods Ibid. page 918, 919 and 922.. Boys were admitted among the brethren Ibid. page 918.: lay brothers were also admitted; but these by no means seem to have been religious, but only received into the community of the brethren's prayers Ibid. page 921.. The novice brethren were ordered to buy for themselves the garments that pertain to the order, at the discretion, however, of the provost or prior. Besides these superiors there was also a minister, on whom the whole administration of temporal affairs lay; there was also a sacristan, who looked after all things that concerned the bells, the altars and the church. Many anniversaries were also established. The rest seemed fit to be omitted.

[14] [He gives it relics and consecrates the church: the rest of the fortunes of this place.] Blessed William also endowed the new monastery with many relics, and had two altars erected; of which he himself dedicated the greater to Blessed Mary assumed into heaven and the other to St. James the Greater. To his donations the neighbouring people, stirred by the religion of the place, gradually added many others. But, as here and there elsewhere, here too temporal affairs were at times negligently administered. Wherefore in the year 1598, with the consent of Clement VIII, since the canons of St. Mary of Torello did not have the means of being maintained, they joined themselves to the clerks regular of the congregation of Somasca, and their provostship was united with that which these clerks had at Lugano under the title of St. Anthony Ibid. page 562 and 563.: so that long since almost no trace survives of that foundation of Blessed William.

[15] It is uncertain whether he introduced the Friars Preachers to Como. They will have it also that the same blessed prelate had a part in founding the convent of the Friars Preachers of Como Ibid. page 565 and 566.. But Benedetto Giovio Historiae Novocomensis, book II, de templis et coenobiis, page 199. will have it that this foundation was made about the year 1234, when Blessed William had long since died. And although Giovio mixes errors into these things (for example, what he has about Benedetto of Asinago [Cf. Tatti, vol. II, page 199, and Échard and Quétif, Bibliotheca FF. Praedicatorum, vol. I, page 595.]), I would not dare so to depart from him as to judge that trust is to be placed in what Tatti related; since he himself seems to proceed very doubtfully in this place; and what he wrote perhaps arose from no other source than from the popular tradition that Blessed Dominic in the year 1219 visited all the cities of Lombardy and founded convents in very many [Tatti, vol. II, page 565 and 566; cf. Mamachi, Annales Ord. FF. Praedicatorum, vol. I, page 546.]. Nor did Cantù have anything certain to bring forward on this matter Storia di Como, vol. I, page 409 and 410.. Since, then, it is so doubtful whether the convent of the Friars Preachers was founded before Blessed William's death, I would not inquire further about it.

[16] He founds the hospital of St. Silvester. On the other hand Benedetto Giovio Hist. Novocomensis, book II, page 171., Tatti Vol. II, page 587. and Cantù Storia di Como, vol. I, page 410. agree that the hospital house of St. Silvester near the city of Como was opened by the blessed man for the sick poor and furnished with a suitable endowment. This afterward became a priory of the brethren of St. Anthony of Vienne and was called the house of St. Anthony. Later its revenues were given in commendam to seculars, and Carmelite friars were brought into the church, which they entirely renewed: so that this foundation of the blessed man too was not lasting. Tatti sought in vain for the time of the founding of this hospital Vol. II, page 588..

[17] [He obtains from Honorius III the approval of the statute on the number of cathedral canons.] And while Blessed William was attending to these things, he did not neglect the interests of his cathedral chapter. For when Innocent III, whose complaints against that chapter we related above, exchanged this earthly life for the eternal, Blessed William and the canons of Como approached his successor, Honorius III, by letter, asking him to deign to confirm by apostolic authority the statute of Anselm, bishop of Como, on the number of canons; by which confirmation they might defend themselves against the molestations of very many men, and especially of their own citizens, who continually disquieted them more and more about receiving clerics; for unless their prayers were satisfied, they withheld what was due to the clerics and very often threatened that they would do graver things to the detriment of the church. When these things became known to Honorius III, and that Anselm of good memory, bishop of Como, wishing to provide for the advancement of his church, by the authority of Pope Gregory of holy memory, our predecessor, with the will and assent of his chapter, had laid down that in the church of Como there should be a fixed number of twenty canons, and that it should always remain unimpaired, and, reducing the same statute to writing, had strengthened it with the protection of his seal; which, when it had been offered to Pope Celestine of happy memory, our predecessor, he, having diligently heard it, had approved; he too approved and confirmed it, laying down that prebends of the church of Como should not henceforth be permitted contrary to the statute of the Lateran council, saving the authority of the apostolic see. Given at the Lateran on the 6th of the kalends of February in the second year, that is, of Christ 1218 Ibid. page 929 and following..

§ III. Blessed William's works at the time of the holy war; his death; burial; a most ancient image.

Blessed William does not seem to have signed himself with the crusading cross; In the middle of the month of December of the year 1215 Pope Innocent III had proclaimed by a solemn bull at the Lateran council a new military expedition against the infidels, and had laid down that for three years each cleric should contribute the twentieth part of his revenues, the cardinals the tenth, while he himself gave an almost incredible quantity of gold and silver. Nor had Innocent invited only soldiers to the holy war, but also bishops, abbots and others. But when Tatti Ibid. page 559. had found in the ancient monuments of the archive of St. Abundius that Blessed William was at Venice in the year 1216, he conjectured that the holy prelate had perhaps signed himself with the cross and was on the point of going from there to the East; but that he did not commit himself to the sea voyage, since in the following year, in the month of October, he consecrated the church of St. Mary of Torello. Which conjecture Cantù made his own. I would not obstinately contend that there is nothing true in these things; I shall note, however, that no ships seem to have set sail for the East from any port of Italy in the year 1216, but that the departure was put off to the following year. Besides, Thomas, archdeacon of Salona, and a contemporary writer, committed to writing these things about the passage of King Andrew, son of Bela the third king of Hungary [Historia Salonitanorum pontificum atque Spalatensium, chap. 27, in Bel, Scriptt. rerum Hungaricarum, vol. III, page 573.]: He sent therefore and hired great ships from Venice, from Ancona, and Zara and from other cities of the Adriatic gulf, and made them all put in at the port of the city of Split… And so in the year of our redemption 1217, on the 23rd day of the month of August, King Andrew arrived at the city of Split. But who would believe that Venetian ships went there a whole year before, or that other ships sailed to the Eastern regions so long a time before? Now if it seems hardly likely that a Venetian expedition was made in the year 1216, why would Blessed William have gone there for the sake of the crusading war? Nay more, the Venetians seem to have sent their soldiers to the holy war only in the year 1218 Cf. Michaud, Histoire des Croisades, book XII, vol. VI, page 60, Brussels, 1841..

[19] He was appointed collector for the holy war by Innocent III. It is much more certain that the blessed man was appointed a collector of money for the holy war. For, as we have noted, Innocent III had commanded at the Lateran council that absolutely all clerics should contribute the twentieth part of their ecclesiastical revenues for three years in aid of the Holy Land; and this was to be transmitted through the hands of those who had been ordained for this by apostolic providence In Labbe, Collectio concil. vol. XI, part I, col. 228.. Honorius III renewed this ordinance in the year 1216, and here and there appointed archbishops and their suffragans as collectors Raynaldus. Continuatio Annalium Baronii, at the year 1216, num. 23.. Certainly that this office was committed to Blessed William in his diocese is established from the following paper, published by Tatti Vol. II, page 931.: In the year of the Lord's incarnation one thousand two hundred and nineteen, on Tuesday, the second of outgoing July (that is, July 30), in the seventh indiction. Lord Guglielmo, by the grace of God bishop of Como, son of the late lord Ruggero de la Turre of Mendrisio, was content and acknowledged, every exception being removed, that he had received from Bartarus, son of the late ser Pellegrino of Cortecella of Como, in the name and on behalf of Lord William, abbot of the monastery of St. Habondius, son of the late Giovanni Ariberto de Casella of Vico, in the name and on behalf of that monastery of St. Habondius, one hundred and twenty pounds of new denarii for the twentieth, which the aforesaid lord abbot in the name of that monastery was bound to give for the purpose of sending on the journey Overseas. Done at Como. The aforesaid Lord Bishop asked that this charter be made, as above. There were present as witnesses Lord Jordan, son of the late Lord James Vicedominus, and Arialdus Guitus, notary, son of the late Vegius Guitus, I delivered and wrote this charter. What a pound of new denarii is I for my part am not able to say. The people of Como had the right of striking coin, and Muratori Dissertazioni sopra le antichità d'Italia, diss. XXVII, vol. I, page 442. and Cantù Storia di Como, vol. I, page 202, 403 and 404. have published some specimens. Among these is one little silver coin of this age, worth about 55 centimes of a franc. But whether this little coin was actually called a new denarius, and of how many denarii of this kind the pound of Como consisted at the beginning of the twelfth century, who could define? Meanwhile it must be considered how heavy was the office of collector imposed on Blessed William, since those things which we see the most holy man carrying out with the abbot of St. Abundius had to be done every year with each of the clerics of his diocese.

[20] [In the year 1226 he falls sick, dies and is buried in the church of St. Mary of Torello] Tatti praises at length the pastoral care and solicitude of Blessed William Vol. II, page 588., and relates that he was accustomed, when leisure allowed, to withdraw into the solitude of Blessed Mary of Torello and there to spend his life with the canons, keeping the rules which he himself had prescribed; and that in this way it came about that he died his last day in this house of ascetics: namely, that while he was staying there he was seized with a disease by which he was laid on his bed;

that he was affected with much joy because the infirmity seemed deadly; that his blood relatives were called together, who joined their cares with the solicitude of the canons to bring a remedy; but that all medicines were vain, since God had resolved to call His servant to his reward; and that at length the holy man sweetly expired. There is no doubt that Blessed William passed to a better life on October 21; but some will have it that this happened in the year 1220, others 1227. But Tatti Vol. II, page 589. found in the archive of St. Mary of Torello two documents by which it is established that the excellent prelate ended his earthly life on October 21, 1226: which before him Carosino Dypticha episcoporum Comensium, num. 52. and Ughelli Italia sacra, vol. V, col. 298. had also related. The holy prelate received burial, as he himself had desired when dying, in the middle of the church of St. Mary of Torello, the bones being laid in a common tomb of cut stone, joined with lime at the corners.

[21] Supposed prodigies. When Tatti was writing in the year 1683, people were amazed that the body (as far as concerns the bones) was still entire; especially since the place was damp Tatti, vol. II, page 589.. But all know that in the damp Roman catacombs bones are commonly well preserved; in dry ones they are mostly found reduced to ashes: so that there is nothing wonderful in the entire skeleton of Blessed William. People had also been seized with wonder because, when they had opened the tomb, an exceptional odour was perceived from it; which it was by no means permissible to ascribe to the nature of the earth Cf. Martyrologium Novocomense, page 229 and 230.. Nor should I ascribe it to this cause; but to the perfumes with which the tomb had formerly been filled. For hear Sicard, bishop of Cremona, a contemporary and Lombard writer, treating of the funerals of the faithful, especially of clerics: Incense, he says Mitrale, book IX, chap. 50, in Migne, Patrologia, vol. CCXIII, col. 428., is placed … to avoid the stench… Coals are placed in testimony of burial… Ivy also or laurel is placed… Cypress too is placed in some places, and other leaves which can check the stench: which certainly suffice so that, after the moist parts have flowed away into the earth, a sweet odour remains in a well-closed tomb.

[22] Blessed William's image and memory in the Martyrology of Como. Now the reader will ask by what title I have called William blessed and given him a place in our work. To which question the answer is ready. About four hundred years before the decrees of Urban VIII the blessed prelate obtained public cult; slight indeed, but altogether certain. For the canons of Torello, a few years after the death of their blessed founder, had his image painted over the main door of the church; in which image he is shown clothed in pontifical vestments and his head adorned with a circular or heavenly nimbus Tatti, vol. II, page 590.. Now that in figures, whether painted or sculptured, in which servants of God are publicly represented with a similar nimbus, there is a kind of cult, is an evident thing. Nor did our predecessors undeservedly often make use of them; and Benedict XIV followed them in more than one place, especially where he discourses at length on the paintings of the apse of the apostolic chapel of St. Nicholas in the Lateran patriarchium, afterward existing in the buildings of the penitentiary De servorum Dei Canonizatione, book I, chap. 41, num. 18 and following.; and so, where he explains the manner of proving immemorial cult, he luminously relates that images avail for this Ibid. book II, chap. 22, num. 8 and following.. Rightly and deservedly, therefore, Tatti in the Martyrology of Como, which he published in the year 1675, after celebrating at October 21 the holy virgins of Cologne, whose relics many churches of the diocese of Como possess, proceeds thus: On the same day, near Lugano, in the church of St. Mary of Torello, of Blessed William, bishop of Como and confessor; who illumined the distinction of his race with the purer rays of his virtues. Endowed with the highest piety toward the needy, he raised the hospice of St. Anthony from the foundations. He obtained by entreaty for the church of Como from Otto, the fourth of this name, the privilege of hundred-year prescription. A most diligent guardian of ecclesiastical discipline, and above all of the apostolic life, he not only kept it with his clergy near the cathedral basilica, but also happily propagated it in other places. Wherefore in the district of Lugano he founded and consecrated the church of St. Mary of Torello, where, using common food and the same worship with the canons regular, he lived for some time most holily. Finally, worn out with old age and broken by continual labours for the church committed to him, he fell asleep in the Lord there on this day.

[23] The statute of Giovanni Ambrogio della Torre concerning his tomb Tatti rightly and deservedly complained in his Martyrology that the blessed man's body lay without glory; yet noting nothing of the fact that Giovanni Ambrogio della Torre, bishop of Como, when he visited the church of St. Mary of Torello in the year 1670, had laid down that the pious remains should be taken from the former tomb and placed in a more fitting and more august stone sepulchre. But in the Annals Vol. II, page 590., which he published in the year 1685, where he records these things, he puts forward only the hope that this would be done some day. Cantù, who certainly read these things, neither where he writes of Blessed William Storia di Como, vol. I, page 409 and 410., nor where he writes of Giovanni Ambrogio Ibid. vol. II, page 298., intimates that this was ever done. Wherefore the blessed man seems still to rest in his former coffin.