ON BL. JEROME GARIBI, CONFESSOR, OF THE ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR OF ST. FRANCIS, AT BOLOGNA AND NICE,
IN THE YEAR 1502.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Jerome Garibi, confessor of the Order of Friars Minor, at Bologna and at Nice in Italy. (B.)
BY V. D. B.
§ I. Those who have written about Bl. Jerome. His birth and entry into the Order of Minors. The convents of the Conventuals and of the Observants at Nice.
Although we shall show that Bl. Jerome Garibi died on the Nones of November of the year 1502, [Those who have counted Bl. Jerome among the blessed and written of him in the sixteenth century,] we have nevertheless judged that he should be treated on the present day, since his cult, which is our principal rule, belongs altogether to the eleventh day before the Kalends of October: which things will be made more than sufficiently evident below. Several hagiographers have written of him, yet relating very little of his deeds, nor is there anyone among them who knew the blessed man by sight. The first of all to make a very brief mention of him has no ignoble name among the historians of the Franciscan family: Pietro Ridolfi, or Rodulphus, from Tossignano, a town of Emilia in the territory of Imola at the foot of the Apennines, theologian of the Minor Conventuals, in the year 1573 guardian of the friary of Bologna, then by order of Sixtus V in the year 1587 bishop of Venosa [Ughelli, Italia sacra, volume VII, column 179, Coleti's edition. — De Cerreto, Annalium Minorum continuatio, volume XXII, page 173.], in the year 1591 by the will of Gregory XIV created bishop of Senigallia, and dying ten years later Ughelli, volume II, columns 878 and 879.; and he, one year before he first put on the episcopal insignia, published at the Venetian presses the Histories of the Seraphic Religion [Wadding, Scriptores Ordinis Minorum, page 289, and de Cerreto, Annales Ordinis Minorum continuatio, volume XXII, page 76.]; in book I of which Historiae seraphicae religionis, page 107. he chose to insert these praises of Bl. Jerome: "Bl. Jerome Garibbus of Nice, doctor of theology, died at Bologna, where his bones are kept buried in the chapel of the Crucifix." This he knew by sight, having formerly been an inmate of this friary. After him came Filippo Bianchi, who, hiding under the person of Ludovico Sarti, published the Treasury of the Indulgences of Bologna, and there Tesoro delle indulgenze di Bologna, page 437, taught that Bl. Jerome of Nice, of the Order of Minors of St. Francis, lies buried in its church at Bologna. In the third place follows the decree of the Friars Minor of Bologna on granting relics of Bl. Jerome to the convent of Nice, which was issued on the 2nd day of August 1596. To this is to be joined another not dissimilar writing, which belongs to the year 1605. From which it is manifest that the ecclesiastical cult of Bl. Jerome was already flourishing in the sixteenth century.
[2] in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, are reviewed. But as concerns the historical matter, of greater moment are the Annals of Bologna, which Giovanni Francesco Negri composed at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and which up to the end of the century just past were still kept unpublished in the library of the Institute of Sciences of Bologna. In the same century a Brief Eulogy of Bl. Jerome
composed Barezzo Barezzi of Cremona [Chroniche de' Minori, book III, chapter 23, page 243, and the translation of Blancone, fourth part of the Chroniques, book III, chapter 19, page 240.], Arthur du Monstier Martyrologium Franciscanum, at 22 October., Fortunatus Huber Menologium Magnum, at 22 October. and Masini [Guida spirituale, at 23 August, page 168, and Bologna perlustrata, at 22 October, pages 115 and 498.]; at somewhat greater length Paolo Bricio Seraphica subalpina D. Thomae provinciae monumenta, Turin, 1647., Pietro Gioffredo, and in the following century [Nicaea civitas sacris monumentis illustrata, part I, title XIX, Turin 1658, in Graevius, Thesaurus antiquitatum et historiarum Italiae, volume IV, part VI, pages 142 and 143; Storia delle Alpe maritime, in the Monumenta patriae, volume IV, columns 1149 and 1150] Sigismondo Alberti Album virorum Liguriae Sabaudiae sanctitate illustrium, page 56, Turin 1703. and the anonymous author of the eulogies which are attached to the images of the Saints of the Order of Minors.
Among the saints or blessed who flourished at Bologna, or whose bodies are kept there, Bl. Jerome is reckoned in the seventeenth century by Fedele Onofri Fioretto delle Croniche, page 32., Giorgio Benacci Teatro dell' anno, manuscript, page 446. and Giovanni Giacomo Brocco Breve compendio degl' uomini illustrissimi di Bologna, manuscript, leaf 41.; but they are very meagre. Epigrams on him were written by Pietro Andrea Trincheri Book I, epigram X., an advocate of Nice, and Gabriele Mainardi Epigram, reported by Melloni, a Minorite of Bologna.
When the memory of many things and some monuments had already perished, Ludovico Moraglia [De viris sanctis et pietate illustribus conventus Niciensis necnon religionis Seraphicae, manuscript, part II, page 214 and following.], a member of the convent of the Friars Minor of Nice, diligently inquired into the deeds of Bl. Jerome, and collected his Life from the writings of others and the report of fame; which we think never came to light. But Giovanni Battista Melloni made use of it [Atti o memorie degli uomini illustri in santità nati o morti in Bologna. Delle classe di quei, che da tempo immemorabile sembrano aver culto publico e titolo di beati o di santi con tolleranza della chiesa, volume III, pages 273–299 and 433 435, Bologna 1780.], who spent incredible labour in collecting all things that pertained to the saints and blessed of Bologna. Further, he wrote with much judgement commentaries on Bl. Jerome Garibi, into which he gathered not only those things which he found in printed books, but also those which old accounts and other documents of that kind supplied him. Wherefore we declare at the outset that the excellent writings of Melloni will be the principal sources from which we shall draw what we say of Bl. Jerome.
[3] Bl. Jerome, born at Nice before the middle of the fifteenth century, Nicia or Nicaea, formerly to the Italians Nizza di Provenza and Nizza del Varo, to the French Nice de Provence, now commonly, because of its increased celebrity, simply Nizza and Nice, was the native place of Bl. Jerome. When he was born, that city was already subject (I do not inquire by what right) to the house of Savoy, within the bounds of whose kingdom it still lies. For he seems to have been born about the year 1440, while the people of Nice were following the side of Amadeus VIII, duke of Savoy, who from the 17th day of December of the year 1439 until the 7th of April of the year 1449 held the pontificate in these lands under the name of Felix V [Compare Gioffredo, Storia delle Alpi maritimi, at the year 1444, Monumenta historiae patriae, volume IV, column 1080.]; with whom certainly Ludovico Bardato, bishop of Nice, formerly abbot of St. Pons, was in communion in sacred things, as were the cathedral canons, the Friars Preachers and others. From his native place he was afterwards usually called Master Jerome of Nice, or the Master of Nice; by which name he himself sometimes calls himself, yet elsewhere writing: "I, Master Jeronimus Garibi of Nice." For his family was noble, the house of the Garibi, which afterwards continued to flourish at Nice. That the boy was piously brought up by his parents Melloni gathers from the rest of the course of his life: daily experience favours the conjecture.
[4] into the friary of the Minor Conventuals Further, in the sixteenth century two convents of Friars Minor rose at Nice, one of the Conventuals, the other of the Observants. The beginnings of the former, to which St. Francis gave his name, belong perhaps to the year 1239, and certainly an opportunity for erecting new buildings was given in the year 1250, when Oggerio Badato, a noble citizen of Nice, provided excellently for the Friars Minor by his testament Gioffredo, Storia etc., column 573.. About two centuries later that friary was still flourishing in numbers. Its church was enlarged and consecrated in the year 1410 Id., Nicia illustrata, part II, chapter 2, number 51. Storia etc., column 1007.; and in the year 1429, when not long before a provincial chapter had been celebrated within the walls of this friary, the convent itself was seen to need enlarging and restoring, leave being given by Pope Martin V to alienate some goods which had come to it by testament in the year 1388 [Id., Storia, column 1046, and Wadding, Annales Minorum, at the year 1429, number 13, volume X, page 142, Rome 1734.]. At the same time the building of the greater church was finished; in which, on the 28th day of December of the year 1442, Raimundus, taken from the Friars Minor to the bishopric of Sulci in Sardinia, consecrated the altar of St. Anthony of Padua, and on the following days nine others [Gioffredo, Nicia illustrata, part II, chapter 2, number 54; Storia etc., column 1078.]. Nor does Gioffredo declare this convent to have been distinguished only in number and extent, but also very celebrated for the studies of sacred letters Id., part I, chapter 21, title XVIII.; indeed Moraglia calls it religious, and famous for its architecture, and the most celebrated for devotion of the others of the same city In Melloni, page 274.. To demonstrate which fame something perhaps is worth the testaments of the most noble married couple Onorato Grimaldi and Marietta Lascaris, in which in the year 1437 they chose their burial in the chapel of the Crucifix at the Friars Minor; and the order by which René of Anjou, on the 13th day of January of the year 1337, setting his army in motion to recover the kingdom of Naples, provided that the Friars Minor of Nice should in no way be hindered from gathering their usual alms from street to street by the general edict by which the export of foodstuffs necessary for the soldiers was forbidden.
[5] rather than into that of the Observants Some years later the convent of the Observants arose. For in the year 1459, on the 9th day of May, Anne of Cyprus, duchess of Savoy, had begged of Pope Pius II leave to erect two convents of that kind; the citizens of Nice asked that it be done among them, public money being offered. The duchess complied on the 17th day of April of the year 1460; and indeed in the following year the work was begun in a suburban place whose vulgar name was als Carmes viels, and the church was consecrated under the title of the Holy Cross in the year 1474. Which place was approved, until Frederick Barbarossa, having plundered the city, held himself there for some time as in a castle: lest which should happen again, that seat was almost demolished, and the inmates were transferred within the walls [Gioffredo, Nicia illustrata, part II, chapter 2, number 56; Storia etc., columns 1112 and 1134; Wadding, Annales Minorum, at the year 1461, number 35, volume XIII, page 198.]. And here without doubt, no otherwise than in other new courses of the Observants, one could feel the first-fruits of the spirit, regular discipline flourishing and the excellent poverty of St. Francis restored.
[6] [he joins it about the year 1480; three years later he labours at the restoring of the vault;] The older house pleased Bl. Jerome more; and he must have entered it (if one may sufficiently trust the things which Moraglia preserved) not long before the year 1480; so that he must be said to have devoted himself to sacred letters, obtained the laurel of the doctorate and reached mature age before he gave his name to the Conventuals. But of these things below. Further, on the witness of the same Moraglia In Melloni, page 275., or rather of the fame of the seventeenth century which he follows, "Jerome entered the convent of St. Francis with such fervour for acquiring the virtues that through the whole time of his novitiate he was a model of perfection to all; and so he persevered until death… And among the other marks of the virtues he laid humility, with pure affection of heart, as the chief basis of his structure." And if he perceived anything that could turn to the advantage of the convent or of his companions, he did it with a willing mind, meanwhile remitting nothing of piety. In Moraglia's age the memory survived that he had by no means disdained to collect alms from door to door; and that when the vault of the church was being built he served the masons like a workman, and carried on his shoulders cement, stones and timber. These things Gioffredo teaches belong to the year 1483 Nicia illustrata, part II, chapter 2, number 56., from an inscription publicly displayed in the church of St. Francis and from genuine codices of the same convent. It pleases me to recite Gioffredo's words: "In the year 1483 Brother Ludovico Terreni restored the church of St. Francis, out of the alms of the pious, the old vault having collapsed, with a new vault. Inscription in the church of St. Francis. Authentic manuscript."
[7] he is related to have cultivated poverty in an outstanding way. Moroglia and Melloni heap Bl. Jerome with many praises, in which nothing is more characteristic than if they had been drawn from the common office of Confessors or from the Roman Octavarium; which therefore it is better to pass over. They put forward singular things, but in my judgement most uncertain, about his poverty; namely that he so abhorred money that he would neither receive nor keep it; that he was content with one tunic and one hood, except that in winter he put on an inner garment; that he never used a shirt, nor a soft mattress, for which a straw sack or bare boards were enough. If we listen to Gioffredo Nicia illustrata, part I, chapter 21, title XVIII., "it is told of him that he never used shoes, … although even then this was lawful with impunity to the Conventual Friars by apostolic indult"; but Moraglia contradicts In Melloni, page 276.: "Not with bare feet," he says, "as some think, but he was always seen to go about with shoes on." Since Gioffredo, a most prudent historian of Nice, brought out his work in the year 1658, and Moraglia, a Minorite of Nice, wrote his about the year 1663, it is evident from this one head alone that no certain memory of these things had survived.
§ II. Whether Bl. Jerome was lector and guardian at Nice. He is sent to Bologna. Unhappy beginnings.
He does not seem to have taught theology at Nice, nor to have lived there long. Concerning the offices of guardian and lector imposed on Bl. Jerome at Nice, the same historians contend in a similar way. "Soon," says Gioffredo Nicia illustrata, part I, chapter 21, title XVIII., "to the convent of Nice
government he was elected guardian, in which office he kept them to their duty by admonitions no less than by the example of his life… In the convent of Nice he spent most of his life, now as guardian, now as lector of sacred theology; until, living for a time at Bologna by the order of his superiors, a master of the same sacred faculty, and (as is believed) having distinguished hearers in that most celebrated university, he was seized by illness and closed his last day." To which Moraglia remarks that it is wrongly asserted that Bl. Jerome was for a long time an inmate of the friary of Nice and at one time guardian: "For," he says In Melloni, page 276., "having seen and seen again all the writings in our archive, I found no mention made of him, except only once, on the occasion of the exchange of one service for another, in the year 1485; in which instrument it appears that he was truly guardian then; but that at that time he was living at Bologna. From which it is to be argued not only that he was not several times the superior of the community here, nor lector of any faculty, nor stayed here long."
[9] In the year 1485 he was guardian at Nice; but toward the end of the year, Although Moraglia's argument is of the kind which logicians call negative, it nevertheless seems to have such force that it easily persuades that Bl. Jerome did not live long in the convent of Nice; and therefore we did not dare above to move his passing over to the Minorites a long space of time away from the year 1480. Recall what was related of the labour given in restoring the vault of the church. Whether Moraglia, and after him Melloni, mean that Bl. Jerome was in the year 1485 guardian of Nice or of Bologna is ambiguous at first sight; but the matter itself has no doubt. In the year 1485, namely, he was guardian of Nice and was living at Nice, but toward the end of that year he was transferred to Bologna. For Gioffredo, who also saw the Nice charter of which Moraglia treats, speaks most openly. In the History of the Maritime Alps, namely Monumenta Patriae, volume IV, column 1151., going back over the question of the last year of Bl. Jerome, which in Nicia illustrata he had set down, following another's opinion, as agreeing with the year 1540, he notices that this hardly fits with a capitular act celebrated on the 12th day of October of the year 1485, by which it is established that at that time Bl. Jerome was already guardian of the convent of Nice (essere lui vissuto guardiano del convento di Nizza in quest' anno).
[10] that he had gone to Bologna is established from an account of Bologna. But that toward the end of that year the same blessed man had already betaken himself to Bologna we understand from the following fragment of an account of the convent of Bologna In Melloni, page 279.: 1486. Zenaro 22. da le done de sancto Zoane Batista lir octo per octo missi ga servito al convento per lo celebrare, zoè 4 missi de fra Philipo, e altri 4 magistro Yeronimo da Niza, li quali missi li compini adì 7 de questo, e per lore dà Achillo de Zambercharo lir. 8. These words Melloni interprets as if Bl. Jerome, at the beginning of January of the year 1486, had already for four months performed the divine offices in the monastery of St. John the Baptist; but who does not see that this interpretation cannot stand with the capitular act of Nice? Nor should you say that at Bologna perhaps in that age the beginning of the year was still begun from Easter or from the 25th day of March, so that the 7th day of January of the year 1486 would belong to the beginning of the year 1487: for it is by no means so. I would not inquire whether, as at Rome and in most cities of Italy the beginnings of the year were reckoned from the 25th day of December, so also at Bologna an anticipation of some days was made Art de vérifier les dates, volume I, page X.: for to confirm what we have said it is enough for us that the first days of January were at that time referred by the Bolognese to the new year, as is manifest here and there from the Chronicles of Bologna [Muratori, Scriptores Italiae, volume VIII; compare especially columns 604, 605, 608, 641, 691, 748 and 783.], which end in the year 1481. That account, therefore, is to be rendered thus in Latin: "In the year 1486, on the 22nd day of January, received from the ladies of St. John the Baptist eight pounds for eight Masses celebrated in the convent, namely four by Brother Philip and four by Master Jerome of Nice; the last of which Masses they celebrated on the 7th day of this month. For these, therefore, eight pounds were paid by Achilles de Zambecharo (perhaps the syndic of those nuns)." Those pounds or lire were at that time not yet coined at Rome but at Florence; and they were received by the Romans, the Bolognese and others at the rate of 13 baiocchi each; so that, if you compare them with our money, eight pounds are to be equated with 6 francs and 60 centimes. The ladies of St. John the Baptist, moreover, are Dominican nuns, who had lived in that monastery from the middle of the thirteenth century Melloni, Class II, volume I, page 220, note 10.. But let us get out of this digression, and return for a little to Nice.
[11] Whether while preaching he sweated [ blood.] Moraglia Ibid., volume III, pages 227 and 278. praises at length the oratorical faculty of Bl. Jerome, and declares that not only at Nice but also in other cities he stirred men with the greatest fruit to penance and to the love of God and of neighbour: mere guesses (unless I am mistaken). Pietro Andrea Trincheri, an advocate of Nice, flourishing in the middle of the seventeenth century, relates in an epigram that he spoke to the people with such heat that the veins of his breast sometimes burst. Here it is Ibid., and in Gioffredo, Nicia illustrata, part I, chapter 21, title XVIII.:
While Garibbus pours the gospel seed from his mouth, A vein of his heart is crushed, and the blood flows. And rightly: do the hard minds of men resist like adamant? The Lamb will be lavish of the blood with which to break them.
For it was formerly thought that there was such power in blood, especially that of the goat and the lion, that adamants were softened by it. But, these trifles being dismissed, the thing itself displeased Gioffredo, nor did Moraglia give it place: "That Garibbus," he says, "a vein having burst, threw out blood while preaching, there is no tradition, nor any certain monument that I have seen."
[12] [The removal of Bl. Jerome from the province of St. Louis to that of Bologna has perhaps nothing wonderful about it.] Moraglia In Melloni, page 276. admires the mind of Bl. Jerome, entirely torn away from earthly things, in that, having left his native place, he betook himself to a distant region, namely Bologna. He inquires also into the causes of this departure: whether he went to Bologna only for the sake of teaching: not likely, since the province of Bologna always abounded in learned men; or so that he might go before his disciples no less by the example of a most holy life than he instructed them in the doctrine of sacred letters: more probable, since in every age and place they are rare who join outstanding holiness of morals with distinguished learning. But, if I see anything, in the fifteenth century Minorites passed from one province into another more frequently than happened afterwards: so that it could easily have been that it mattered nothing great when Bl. Jerome migrated to the Bolognese. However that may be, the most blessed man is never read to have returned afterwards to the people of Nice, nor to have had anything in common with the province of St. Louis. For that was then the common name of that Franciscan province to which, in the year 1216, in the first division of the order, the convents of Narbonese Gaul were assigned, and which was then called the province of Provence Van den Haute, Breviarium historicum Ordinis Minorum, page 166.. Which name is still given it in the Provincial of the year 1314 In Wadding, at the year 1314, number 11, volume VI, page 227. and in another of the beginning of the fifteenth century [Ibid., at the year 1399, number 11, volume IX, page 160, and at 1400, number 12, page 212.]. But when the title and patronage of St. Louis, bishop of Toulouse, was given to it is altogether obscure to me. Gonzaga De origine Seraphicae religionis, page 817. states that it was done by the will of Pope Clement VII and of Francis I, king of France; but wrongly, as will be established below from some relics of Bl. Jerome himself; and indeed long before, before he comes to the sixteenth century, Wadding is accustomed to honour this province with the title of St. Louis. On the other hand Van de Haute Breviarium historicum, page 166., although in other respects he was a most diligent investigator of Franciscan matters, made this name older than was right, since he thrust it into the division of the order made in the year 1239; at which time St. Louis was not yet born.
[13] The origin of the convent and province of Bologna. Now the province of Provence, or of St. Louis, was reckoned to the Ultramontane family; that of Bologna, to which Bl. Jerome was passing, to the Cismontane; yet this distinction of families, which in the year 1445 introduced two subordinate heads into the government of the Observants Van den Haute, Breviarium historicum, page 164., was among the Conventuals a mere name. At Bologna, further, the Friars Minor were already known in the age of St. Francis. The patriarch himself in the year 1220, or certainly 1226, had addressed almost the whole city Melloni, Class II, volume I, page 160.. First a house at the Pulliolae was given to his companions; and since the place was unsuitable, it was granted to nuns of the order of St. Mark, another convent having been built for the Friars Minor in the year 1236 at the Porta Steria. Its title at first was the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, afterwards St. Francis Ibid. and the following pages.. The house of Bologna was at first reckoned to the province of Lombardy; but when this was divided in the year 1239 into those of Bologna, Venice, Genoa and Milan, the convent of Bologna itself was made the head of a new province, comprising seven custodies Van den Haute, Breviarium historicum, page 166.. That friary was large, formerly flourishing in sacred letters, enriched with many holy relics, and fertile in holy men to whom the Church has granted the honours of the heavenly ones.
[14] A wretched event which Bl. Jerome saw when he had scarcely come to Bologna. But when Bl. Jerome betook himself there, lamentable calamities hung over this house. Who knows whether these were the reason why the most holy man was called there, that by his piety and the chastity of his morals he might for a while repair the fame of that friary, which was already collapsing? Certainly a notorious troublemaker was then living there; who a little later, when Bl. Jerome had already arrived there, having fallen into graver crimes, paid the penalty of his misdeeds. See how a contemporary writer of the order of Friars Preachers, Girolamo de' Borselli, left these things on record in the Annals of Bologna In Muratori, Scriptores Italiae, volume XXIII, column 905.: "In the year of the Lord 1486 Brother Gregory of Vercelli, of the order of Minor Conventuals, for thefts, debaucheries and sacrileges, together with a secular priest and a lay youth, were hanged on a high gallows in the square before the legate's palace. Above them were hung the garments of the monks of San Michele
in Bosco, which he had stolen a little before. The said Brother Gregory had brought a complaint before the minister of the province of the Minors at Rome, before Sixtus IV. Alessio de' Orsi, standard-bearer of justice, was cited to the curia; and all who had been agents of this hanging, having received a penance, returned to Bologna. The year before, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza had received the legation of Bologna to govern, having sent Prospero Caffarelli, bishop of Ascoli and a man of the greatest integrity, to hold his place" Ibid., in the place cited.. Who was then minister of the province of the Minors of Bologna is unknown to me; perhaps Leo of Cremona, who was discharging that office in the year 1488: for in that age provincial ministers were elected for an indefinite time, the triennial ministers having been abolished by Nicholas V in the year 1453 Van den Haute, Breviarium historicum, page 283.. But whoever then presided over the province of Bologna, he is to be heaped with merited praises; which, for the rest, were common to most superiors of the order of Minors. For here and there, long before the Council of Trent, by restricting appeals to the Roman curia, brought a remedy to the huge evils by which the Church was afflicted, they raged with an iron arm against wicked subjects; as is clear from the decrees of the chapters. That the convent of Bologna was saddened for a long time by the presence of Gregory of Vercelli, and that Bl. Jerome had to live with that worthless man, is established even from this one head, that Gregory appealed to Sixtus IV, who died on the 12th of August of the year 1484, and only in the year 1486 paid the penalty of his last theft, committed a little before.
§ III. Whether Bl. Jerome taught theology at Bologna. He becomes discreet, guardian and custos.
It is not established that Bl. Jerome was lector What office was imposed on Bl. Jerome when he first came to Bologna is not well known. That he taught in the university of Bologna and had distinguished hearers we have already heard Gioffredo assert Nicia illustrata, part I, chapter 21, title XVIII., whether from the conjecture of others or from knowledge. Moraglia speaks affirmatively in these words In Melloni, page 280.: "He also reached the highest summit of the theological faculty… Whence, at length summoned to Bologna, of theology at Bologna. in that most famous academy, since his learning at once became known, he had distinguished hearers, and many doctors very often hung on his lips as on a most certain oracle"; and Coronelli, or whoever else composed the eulogies attached in the eighteenth century to the images of the saints of the order of Minors Ibid., page 281.: "The Reverend Father Jerome Garibbus of Nice, a city of Provence, of the order of Minor Conventuals, master of sacred theology and public professor in the university of Bologna." That the degree of doctor or master in theology was conferred on Bl. Jerome is a most certain fact; that he taught publicly at Bologna, no testimonies exist before the middle of the seventeenth century: whoever thinks these are to be trusted, let him see to it; certainly Gioffredo himself trusted them little.
[16] In the year 1487 he becomes discreet and auditor of the convent of Bologna; It is, however, plainly ascertained that from about the beginning of the year 1487 he was reckoned among the auditors of accounts of the convent of Bologna. There were then still in force, at least in part, the general constitutions issued at Assisi in the twenty-fourth general chapter of the year 1354, in which, in chapter III, on the observance of poverty, this law had been laid down Chronologia historico-legalis ordinis seraphici, volume I, page 67.: "Ministers, custodes, guardians, procurators and other officials, and the rest of the brothers, shall render due account of what has been given and spent, and of what has been committed to their counsel and assent for dispensing; namely the ministers in the provincial chapter, and the custodes there before the brothers of their custody; the guardian and procurator once within fifteen days before some discreet brothers of the place or convent, commonly assigned for this; the other brothers to the minister and custos, when they have been required." In some places, however, and also at Bologna, the relaxation had prevailed that the guardians rendered account of money received and spent only every month or even more rarely: which custom, if not approved, was partly tolerated and partly corrected in the forty-fourth general chapter, of Terni, of the year 1500; in whose chapter IV, on not receiving money, is read Ibid., page 162.: "But the guardians and procurators of convents and places shall faithfully render accounts from fortnight to fortnight before the discreet brothers and others who wish to be present; and all the discreets shall be bound to be present. Nor on this account shall they desist from rendering accounts, granted that not all who were called were present. They may, however, in case of need, put it off up to a month, and with no further excuse."
[17] which office he discharges for some time. When, therefore, the office of discreet (which to the graver brothers, as assistants, counsellors and co-judges of the guardian, who in matters of greater moment was bound to follow the opinion of the greater part Compare Van den Haute, Breviarium historicum, pages 290 and 291.) had been imposed on Bl. Jerome by the provincial minister, he discharged it diligently, as we have learned from the book of receipts and expenses of the convent of Bologna. For there, at the year 1487, one may read Folio 193, in Melloni, page 279.: "Account made on the last day of February before the Reverend brothers auditors … Master Jeronymus of Nycia, etc." Likewise at the end of April of the same year. Then at the year 1488: "Account made on the second day of February before the brothers and auditors, namely Master Leo of Cremona, minister and commissary of the Father General of the province, Master Florianus, Master of Bologna, Master Jeronymus of Niza, etc." Leo of Cremona seems then to have ordered accounts to be made every month, since thereafter, up to the month of July, they are read to have been rendered at that interval. Then the months of August and September are blank. After that is read: "Account made on the last day of October before these brothers auditors, namely the Reverend Father Master Hieronymus of Nicia, Master Christopher of Lodi, guardian, etc." Our blessed man was likewise present at the accounts rendered on the last day of November, January, February, March, April, May, June, September and November of the year 1489; but he was absent in the month of December of the year 1488 and in the months of July, August, October and December of the year 1489. In the following years now he is present, now absent, until in the year 1495 he himself was created guardian. Afterwards also, up to the year 1502, in which he died, his name is read from time to time. Indeed he seems himself very often to have written these records, and in the month of October of the year 1500 he notes it in these words: "Account made, etc., there being present, etc., and I, the Master of Nicia, the writer of these presents."
[18] In the year 1495 he becomes guardian by the authority of the provincial minister When he had sufficiently proved his diligence in the office of discreet or counsellor, he was made guardian or superior of the convent of Bologna on the 11th day of May of the year 1495; although he was not incorporated into the province of Bologna. And so Melloni Page 281. somewhat wonders at this promotion, since (as he gathers from the codices) brothers of Bologna generally presided over the convent of Bologna, sometimes however brothers from the provinces of Romagna and Lombardy, very rarely from more distant ones. Yet nothing in the laws stood in the way. The method of designating guardians was very inconstant in the order of Minors Compare Van den Haute, Breviarium historicum, page 287.. Let it be enough for us to know that Bl. Jerome was raised to the office of guardian by the minister of the province of Bologna, Francesco of Argenta, doctor of sacred theology, as we have it from the book of expenses. For there Bl. Jerome noted these things in his own hand Folio 258 verso, in Melloni, page 281.: "I, Master Jeronimus Garibi of Nice, of the order of Minors and of the province of St. Louis, was instituted as guardian of the gracious convent of Bologna by the Reverend doctor of sacred theology Master Francesco of Argenta, most worthy minister of the province of Bologna, in the year of the Lord 1495, on the 11th day of May; and on the 13th I began to exercise the office of guardianship. And here below will be written all the expenses which will be made in the time of my guardianship."
[19] and of the general, the most celebrated Francesco Sansone; The authority of the minister general had promoted this designation, as Bl. Garibi likewise wrote in the book of receipts in these words Ibid., in the place cited.: "Receipts of the month of May 1495. I, Master Jeronimus Garibi of Nice, of the province of St. Louis, was made guardian of the gracious convent of Bologna by the Reverend doctor of sacred theology Master Francesco of Argenta, most worthy minister of the province of Bologna, and by the will of the most Reverend Father General Master Francesco Sanson of Siena, in the year of the Lord 1495, on the 11th day of May; and I began to exercise the office of guardianship on the 13th day of the aforesaid month. And here below will be written all the receipts which will come in during the whole time of my guardianship." Each guardian wrote similar formulas at the beginning of his office. And the minister general who wished this to be entrusted to Bl. Jerome has a most celebrated name in the history of the Friars Minor. For he is Francesco Nanni, who, when in the year 1477 at Rome he had held, before Sixtus IV, a public disputation on the immaculate conception of Mary against Father Bandello, a theologian of the order of Preachers, with the greatest spirit, freedom, learning and weight of arguments, was called Sampson by the pope; which surname afterwards stuck to him in place of his name Van den Haute, Breviarium historicum, page 328, and others elsewhere passim..
[20] a little later a general chapter is celebrated in his convent; But the minister Sampson had scarcely laid this burden on the shoulders of Bl. Jerome when he increased it wonderfully, having convoked the Conventuals to a general chapter to be celebrated in the convent of Bologna about the beginning of the month of June, or at the feasts of Pentecost, of the year 1495; which was then actually held, but has been little illustrated by historians Ibid., page 229, and in Wadding at the year 1495, number 1, volume XV, page 95.. How long Bl. Jerome occupied the place of guardian of Bologna is unknown to me. Yet I should scarcely believe beyond two years; and indeed in the general chapter of Terni of the year 1500, in article 1 of the sixth chapter of the Alexandrine constitutions, it was provided "that no one henceforth may be custos or guardian continuously beyond two years, and he must rest for a year before he is elected there" Chronologia historico-legalis ordinis seraphici, volume I, page 172..
[21] in the year 1502 he is created custos of the custody of Bologna; At the feasts of Pentecost, or about the middle of the month of May of the year 1502, Bl. Jerome was promoted to a greater office, namely to the custody of Bologna: which was done by the definitors in the provincial chapter of Longiano, celebrated at that time, as Melloni learned from the codex of receipts and expenses of the year 1497 and the fifteen following Page 282.. In the same codex also it is read that he was present with the title of custos at the rendering of accounts made on the tenth of June of that year 1502; his name appears there for the last time on the 13th day of August of the same year Ibid., in the place cited.. The power of the custodes (I speak of the custodes of the true government) was not the least. Of these there were two kinds: some presided with limited jurisdiction over a certain part of their province, or with ampler jurisdiction over some convents
gathered together and depending on no province and lawfully erected into a custody Van den Haute, Breviarium historicum, pages 221 and 285.. To the former kind belonged the custody of Bologna. It is hard to say of how many houses it was made up Ibid., pages 168 and 171.. In the catalogue which, in the year 1400, the minister general Bartholomew of Pisa presented to the general chapter, there are reckoned to the custody of Bologna the convent of Bologna of the Annunciation, or of St. Francis, with the monastery, then the houses of Domini Pacis, of Uraguana, of Planorium, of San Giovanni, of Confortinum, of Grespolanum, of Argelota, of Ricardina and of Calderaria; to which the printed catalogue adds the house of San Paolo in Monte, which at the end of the fifteenth century was already in the hands of the Observants Celso Falconi, Memorie historiche della Chiesa Bolognese, page 525., and the house of Santa Maria in Monte, omitted in the Vatican and Aracoeli manuscript catalogues In Wadding, at the year 1399, number 11, volume IX, page 168..
[22] how large it was is inquired. On which Wadding remarks Ibid., number 31, page 193.: "In the province and custody of Bologna, the friary of Variguanum and of San Benedetto of the town of Planorium. This last was transferred to others, but under Julius restored to the Conventual Friars. It has annexed the hospital of Monzonum, granted to the friars by Sixtus IV in the sixth year of his pontificate. The friary of San Giovanni in Persiceto, from which we have said Brother Bonagratia, minister general, came. Confortinum and Calderaria, which in the year 1462 were annexed to the great convent of Bologna. The friary of Santa Maria, which Rodulphus omitted in his catalogue." This Rodulphus, namely (Pietro Ridolfi is meant, commonly called Tossignano, of whom we spoke at the beginning of the commentary), in the year 1586 ascribed these places to the custody of Bologna: "This custody has," he says Historiae seraphicae religionis, book II, page 266., "the place of Bologna; the place of San Francesco in Monte; the place of Peace, called Domini Pacis; the place of Variguanum; the place of San Benedetto of Planorium; it has the hospital of Monzonum, which was given by Sixtus IV in the year 1477. There is in the same custody San Giovanni in Persiceto; the place of Confortinum; the place of Calderaria; the place of Crespellanum; the place of Argellata; the place of Ricardina." But of these things enough for our purpose.
§ IV. On what day and year Bl. Jerome died; his burial and translations.
Bl. Jerome dies on the 5th day of November of the year 1502, As was said in number 21, Bl. Jerome was still discharging the office of custos in the month of August of the year 1502; yet he did not complete the two years granted to custodes by the decrees of Terni of the year 1500 (of which above, number 20). For the Bolognese annalist Giovanni Francesco Negri, before whom the best documents on the death of Bl. Jerome most certainly shone, namely (unless I am mistaken) the very leaf torn from the codex of Councils, of which Melloni complains Page 285., says Ibid., page 286.: "In the year 1502, on the night of the fifth of November, at the sixth hour, the venerable Brother Jerome of Nice in Provence, doctor of theology of the order of Friars Minor Conventual, a man of most holy life, gave back his soul to God. His body was publicly exposed on the following day, which was a Sunday, in the church of St. Francis; to which a huge multitude of men ran together, to see him and kiss his garments; and many sick and troubled persons, who commended themselves with faith to the divine mercy, obtained by his merits the consolation they desired." This he says in the Italian tongue: and indeed the sixth day of November, marked with the dominical letter B, was a Sunday in the year 1502. With Negri agrees the author of the eulogies which we said were written on some images of the saints of the order of Minors.
[24] as from several indications of the day And this narrative of Negri is confirmed by some small attendant circumstances. Namely, in the codex of expenses Folio 195 verso, in Melloni, page 283. the procurator of the convent wrote: "On the 6th day of November 1502, expenses made by Master Augustine, occupying my place, when I went to the Father minister (provincial), etc." Why did the procurator of the convent of Bologna set out on a journey on that Sunday, unless because he was bearing the heavier news of the death of the custos and was asking that another be substituted in his place? In the same book, at the 21st day of the same month, are read some expenses made for the washing of two linen cloths which WERE Master Jerome's: from which it is easily gathered that Bl. Jerome was then dead, and yet not long before. Of greater moment is the note which is read in the codex of receipts at the 5th day of November of the year 1503, and which plainly pertains to the anniversary day of Bl. Jerome's death. And these things occur there Ibid., page 283.: "Receipts of the month of November. First, at the 5th day, received from Master Lorenzo of San Giovanni on account of an office which he had celebrated for Master Jerome of Nice, one pound, three shillings, four pence." And from these things it is chiefly confirmed that Bl. Jerome went to the heavenly ones on the 5th day of November, and not on the 22nd day of October, as is commonly asserted, by the authority of Barezzi, Arthur, Huber, Masini, Gioffredo, Moraglia and others.
[25] And hence too it sufficiently appears that Bl. Jerome laid down his earthly burden in the year 1502, and not in the year 1540, as for the most part the same writers would have it. Of these, however, Gioffredo, who had also tied the death of Bl. Jerome to the year 1540 in his Nicia illustrata, perceived his error shortly after, and confessed it in the History of the Maritime Alps, as we noted in number 9. But it can also be shown from other sources that the year 1502 was saddened by the death of Bl. Jerome. In the first place, it is established from the book of accounts of Bologna that at the end of December of that year Brother Giovanni de Pilizzoni, a son of the convent of San Giovanni in Persiceto, was substituted for the most blessed man in the office of custos Melloni, Memorie, page 285.. Moreover, from the book of receipts we have it that some little things which Bl. Jerome had had in use were sold for the price of ten shillings on the 21st day of March of the year 1503. But what is chief, three months before, namely on the 10th day of January of the year 1503, the procurator of the convent received from Brother Pietro of Vigiano the price of the wax which had been consumed at the funeral of Bl. Jerome Ibid., in the place cited.: Item adì sopradetto lire tre e soldi cinque per pagare la cera, la quale su consumata nella morte de' maestro Geronimo da Nizza, avè Fra Piero da Vizzano etc.
[26] [He is buried in the chapel of the Crucifix; he is translated in the year 1614 into the chapel of St. Francis, and in the year 1615 beneath the altar of St. Lawrence.] Further, when the most holy man had closed his eyes for the last time on the fifth day of November of the year 1502, on the next day his body was exposed to the piety of the people, as we have learned from the Annals of Negri. Moraglia adds many other things which are commonly done by the populace at the funerals of holy men here and there in Italy: but we judge that these are to be reckoned among pious guesses: for whence could Moraglia have gathered these things, who was so blind in the affairs of Bl. Jerome that he attached his death to the year 1540? Better is Pietro Ridolfi, also called Tossignano, formerly (as we have said) regent of sacred theology in the convent of St. Francis at Bologna and in the year 1573 guardian there. He, namely, declares that the body of the most blessed man was not deposited in the common tomb, but in a marble sarcophagus set in the inner wall of a chapel next to the church of St. Francis. Concerning this chapel and others of the kind there is some disagreement among writers, which Melloni sets out at length Ibid., page 288 and following.. Enough for us are the words of Father Master Azzoguidi Ibid., page 290., most learned in the affairs of the convent of Bologna, by which almost everything is brought into agreement. And he relates that the first burial of Bl. Jerome was in the old chapel of the Crucifix; that when this was enlarged in the year 1614, the holy remains of Bl. Jerome were carried into the chapel of St. Francis, which the Conventuals of Bologna had acquired already from the year 1609 from the lay confraternity of St. Francis by a certain exchange entered into; further, that by them in the year 1615 this chapel of St. Francis was turned to profane use; wherefore the body of Bl. Jerome was translated again, not indeed into the chapel of the Crucifix, perhaps not yet finished, but into the public church itself, namely beneath the altar of St. Lawrence, behind the choir, and not far from the entrance of the chapel of the Crucifix.
[27] That altar is described, That altar of St. Lawrence, moreover, belonged to Captain Francesco Tanari. When Giovanni Vincenzo d' Achille Marchisini had decided to acquire it for himself from his heirs, so that he might be more free to adorn it according to his piety, the matter was brought before the council of the Conventuals of Bologna, and thirty pounds were offered to the sacristy. The guardian with the discreets consented, yet on condition that the alms, if any were given, should be free, and that no right over the body of Bl. Jerome should accrue to Marchesini. These things having been settled beforehand, Marchesini bought, as the public instrument states Ibid., page 297., "one altar situated and erected in the church of St. Francis of Bologna under the invocation of St. Lawrence, opposite the altar or chapel of St. John of the lords de Raigusiis, and standing midway between the altar of St. Benedict of the lords de Pelicanis and the tomb of Pope Alexander V, supreme pontiff, having an altar-piece painted on the wall and adorned with a frame of wood coloured black and gilded; and beneath it, in a certain urn or little chest, is said to be the body of blessed Jerome, which however is not to be included in this sale and cession, as below; and having a frontal of black gilded wood, pierced for the viewing of the said body of blessed Jerome, with a gilded iron grating and a wooden footstool; and beneath it a monument or underground burial vault, vaulted, with a stone trap-door; and round about the said altar an iron railing adorned and supported with brass posts; and with all other appurtenances, etc."
[28] afterwards called that of St. Joseph, and the tomb of Bl. Jerome. Not long afterwards that altar seems to have been renewed, and it was honoured with the title of St. Joseph. Hence about the middle of the seventeenth century Gioffredo wrote Nicia illustrata, part I, chapter 21, title XVIII.: "His body is now venerated in the church of the Minor Conventuals of the same city of Bologna, in the chapel of Christ the Lord Crucified (rather, not far from its entrance), beneath the altar of the Passing of St. Joseph, an iron grating being open in the middle on the front side, so that it can more conveniently be seen and venerated by the people." In the renewal of that altar, as we have learned from the Fathers of Bologna, the relics of Bl. Jerome were decently enclosed in a little wooden chest painted on the outside; to which was added the inscription: "Blessed Jerome of Nice, Minor Conventual." Which same thing is read on a small parchment enclosed within. Further, this little chest is placed beside the tomb of Alexander V, supreme pontiff from the order of Minors; and we have learned that on certain days, for the sake of veneration, a burning lamp is kept before the relics of Bl. Jerome.
So he. Moraglia recites the inscription somewhat differently and certainly better In Melloni, page 290., namely: "Here lies the body of Blessed Jerome Garibbi of Nice, Minor Conventual"; and he adds that the chest is covered with a silk veil; that on the greater feasts, a lamp being lit before it, it is uncovered, so that it may be the more open to the veneration of the faithful; and finally that when the chest itself is opened, a most sweet odour arises from the bones.
§ V. The fame of holiness of Bl. Jerome; the books which he used; relics, images, feasts.
Fame of miracles and holiness. On the witness of Paolo Bricio In Gioffredo, Nicia illustrata, in the place cited, and in Melloni, page 291., the wonders worked by his intercession and the benefits flowing to men who besought his help openly attested his outstanding fame and repute for holiness. But neither Bricio nor Gioffredo and Melloni, who call on him as a witness, relate any miracles in particular. The one thing which somewhat bears on this Melloni relates, namely that Father Paolo Bonta, a native of Nice, a Dominican in religion, was accustomed to say from the pulpit to the people at Nice that, when he was studying Theology at Bologna, he had very often gone with great confidence to the tomb of Bl. Jerome; and, because he trusted very much in his help, had commended himself to his patronage.
[30] [Three books of Bl. Jerome, of which one is the Ethics of Aristotle, translated into Latin by Aretino,] A similar devotion toward Bl. Jerome was cherished in his heart in the middle of the seventeenth century by Onorato Leotardi, a senator of Nice, as Moraglia witnesses In Melloni, page 292.. For he held in the highest value a certain book which the holy man had formerly used at Nice, and which he had received as a gift from the superiors of Nice. Nor at the same time did Father Master Gabriele Mainardi, a theologian of the most ample learning, who was adorned with the offices of minister of the province of St. Louis, or of Provence, and of assistant, have other sentiments. And so he wished marks of his veneration to be imprinted on a manuscript codex which Bl. Jerome had likewise formerly used at Nice, and which was thereafter kept there as a treasure. These things, moreover, he inscribed in it in the year 1660 Ibid., pages 278 and 293.: "The ten books of Aristotle's Ethics, or on morals, to Nicomachus, translated by Leonardo Aretino, addressed to Pope Martin V; which our blessed Father Jerome Garibbi, of the Order of Minors, doctor of theology, member and formerly guardian of this our convent of St. Francis at Nice, who died at Bologna, where his sacred body is kept and venerated in the church of St. Francis, had written out in this volume by another's hand, but himself impressed upon his own mind; and I, Brother Gabriele Mainardi, his devoted client, of the same city, order and convent, have venerated it.
From heaven, I pray, defend this house, Garibbus, You who on earth were its watchful guardian. Stagira taught you morals worthy of the earth; The gracious favour of God, morals worthy of heaven. Obtain both, I pray, for your brothers, and grant That their ethics be worthy of men, worthy of God."
[31] kept religiously at Nice: And a certain other Conventual of Nice wished also to bear witness to his devotion toward Bl. Jerome and his trust in his help in a book printed at Venice in the year 1480, which the blessed man had formerly had for his own use at Nice. In the year 1494, while Bl. Jerome was living at Bologna, a certain companion of his, in order to claim the thing as his (so far as it may be said under the rule [Constitutiones Alexandrinae, chapter 6, in the Chronologia historico-legalis, volume 1, page 170.]) for his friend, had first written this in it In Melloni, page 297.: "Brother Francesco Pisani, master of the convent of Venice, companion of Brother Jerome of Nizza. In this little book are many excellent things for the salvation of soul and body, which are very much to be noted, and it is for the use of Master Jerome Garibi of Nice, of the Order of Minors. 1494"; to which that devotee of the most blessed man afterwards added Ibid., in the place cited.: "Who is the author of the following little works I do not yet know; yet I hope that with the help of God and of our blessed Father Garibi I shall at last find out."
[32] an indication of the religious poverty of Bl. Jerome. Nor do I wish to depart from here without praising Bl. Jerome's outstanding zeal for observing religious poverty. For he could have carried all those books with him from Nice to Bologna, as is clear from the Alexandrine Constitutions. For these provided Chronologia historico-legalis, volume I, page 173.: "The general chapter itself (that of Terni of the year 1500) also ordains, in accordance with the ancient general sanctions, that when it happens that any brother is transferred from province to province, or from place to place, the books and other alms assigned to his use may be transferred with him, that he may use them as long as he lives. But after his death all such things as he had shall be applied to the advantage of that convent from which he departed, and shall return to his native province and convent …; except those which had been spent on his necessities or on the pomp of his funeral."
[33] In the year 1696 relics were sent to Nice, but soon after lost, But if some venerated with such religion the codices which the hand of Bl. Jerome had once turned, no one indeed will wonder that the devotion of very many shone forth much more in venerating the bones of the blessed man. It is established, further, from the book of Partitions of the convent of Bologna, marked number 1, that on the 2nd day of August 1596, in a meeting of the minister general Filippo Gesualdo, the minister of the province, and the officials of the friary of Bologna, it was dealt with concerning the granting of some relics of Bl. Jerome to the convent of Nice, which was urgently asking for them; that the Bolognese assented to these prayers, and that the relics demanded were sent to Nice with a diploma of the minister general In Melloni, page 292.. These afterwards perished, perhaps in the year 1601, when the plague had carried off all the brothers and had made the monastery open to the populace.
[34] others sent in the year 1605 to the convent of Porto Maurizio; Some while after, namely in the year 1605 (as is established from a diploma), an arm of Bl. Jerome was granted to the convent of the Blessed Mary of the Annunciation of Porto Maurizio, which in the century just past Bl. Leonardo Casanova, commonly called of Porto Maurizio, so greatly made illustrious. That arm was carried there by Father Arcangelo Garibbo, a Minor Observant of the province of Genoa. In the church there is seen painted an image of the blessed man, surrounded by the halo of the saints. Similar images of blessed Jerome could formerly be seen here and there in the diocese of Albenga, in which Porto Maurizio is enclosed, some placed on altars, some on the fronts of houses, some within bedrooms, and one also in the sacristy of the Reformed Minor Observants who have the surname of Cimella. These and many other things were taught to Melloni Ibid., pages 293 and 435. by Francesco Antonio Fuocardi, a Minor Conventual of Nice, synodal examiner, etc., who diligently collected whatever pertained to Bl. Jerome.
[35] the head separated from the body and kept at Bologna; About the end of the sixteenth century or the beginning of the following, the Conventuals of Bologna seem to have taken other members also from the body of Bl. Jerome. First, namely, the head was separated from the trunk; which was afterwards kept in the chapel of the sanctuary among other notable relics. It is mentioned by the author of the catalogue of the relics which were kept in the sanctuary and church of the Friars Minor Conventual of St. Francis of Bologna Page 11, in Melloni, page 298.; and that head was recognised on the 19th day of February of the year 1722 by the authority of the archbishop, no otherwise than the other relics enclosed in the cupboard at the epistle horn. In the public instrument it is described in these words In Melloni, in the place cited.: "The head of blessed Jerome of Nice, of the Order of Minors, with the inscription of his name, in a little chest of square form, of a height (the cross included) of about twenty inches, of wood elegantly carved and gilded, closed on two sides with panes of glass of square form, and bound with a silk ribbon of golden colour, and also secured in two places on the upper part with a seal."
[36] [so many relics dispersed that those seeking new ones are refused. How in the eighteenth century the people of Nice obtained some.] Nor did the Conventuals of Bologna keep for themselves alone the parts taken from the body, but they also distributed them with a generous hand. But at length a limit was set to these bestowals: indeed, when about the middle of the seventeenth century Bartolomeo Massucci, a son of the convent of Nice, was passing through Bologna on a journey to Rome and asked the guardian or the provincial for some particles of the bones of Bl. Jerome, the latter, seeing, as Moraglia says Ibid., page 291., "that relics of this kind were being so dispersed everywhere in the world, and that there was danger that the convent of Bologna would shortly be despoiled of these sacred remains, at once refused him; protesting moreover that he would take care that the pontiff, under the penalty of excommunication, should forbid anyone henceforth to take away or give away anything of the remains of Bl. Jerome." Yet in the following century the Conventuals of Nice obtained their wishes; for they received from Francesco Ludovico Barelli, a Barnabite clerk regular, most skilled in historical matters and honoured with many most honourable offices, "particles of the bone of blessed Jerome of Nizza," approved by the vicar general of Bologna on the 2nd day of October 1792. Melloni published the diplomas In Melloni, pages 295 and 296..
[37] Images of Bl. Jerome, and annual festivities from the testaments of two Garibbi Long before, the Conventuals of Nice had set up an image to Bl. Jerome in their friary. Thus Gioffredo of it Nicia illustrata, part I, chapter 21, title XVIII.: "A radiant likeness of Bl. Jerome, not so recent and by a skilled hand, exists in the court or cloister of the friary of St. Francis at Nice, at the top of the vault, where other icons of saints of the order of Minors are seen arranged in order." Bl. Jerome is shown there with a cheerful face, with white hair and beard, and reading a book; there is written beside it: "Bl. Jerome Garibbi of Nice" Melloni, pages 292 and 293.. The same also celebrated every year the feast of St. Jerome: to which end Giovanni Michele Garibbo, on the 31st day of January of the year 1694, provided by his authentic testament that his heir should every year, on the feast day of the most blessed man, pay eight pounds to the Conventuals of Nice, from which the costs of a sung Mass and of the exposition of the Most Holy Eucharist should be met. A much more ample legacy Giovanni Andrea Garibbo wished to be written to the same on the 18th day of January of the year 1754, two thousand pounds being assigned and the annual obligation being imposed of celebrating, with as much solemnity as could be, the feast of Bl. Jerome on the day on which he was wrongly held to have died, 22 October. Portions of these testaments may be read in Melloni Ibid., pages 294 and 295..
[38] celebrated at Nice. The origin and beginning of this celebration already surpassed all memory of men in the century just past: as Father Fuocardi wrote to Melloni Ibid., page 296.. This, no otherwise than the festivities of other saints, was announced beforehand to the people by the festive sound of the bells; the relics were publicly exposed; the image was placed on the high altar; terce and vespers were sung; a solemn Mass was celebrated, not indeed of the blessed man himself, but a votive Mass of the Angels, or
of All Saints, or else of the occurring feast; to which an end was put by a most richly adorned exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament. Sometimes a festal triduum was held, this inscription being placed on the front of the church: "To Bl. Jerome Garibbo of Nice, of the Order of Minor Conventuals, conspicuous for eloquence, learning and piety, this friary of St. Francis, mindful of a benefit received, to its own son, these sacred solemnities" Ibid., page 297.. Further, the cult of Bl. Jerome had little by little been so spread in that region that his images were to be seen here and there in the churches, sacristies and houses of Nice; that there was found publicly written: B. Girolamo Garibbo Franciscano de Nizza Bl. Jerome Garibbo, Franciscan, of Nice; and that his name had become as it were common for designating men of outstanding piety, as elsewhere the name of St. Hilarion: which things again Melloni had received from Father Fuocardi of Nice Ibid., page 296..
[39] Summary on the cult of Bl. Jerome. And it has seemed good to relate all these things, though very small, lest, so far as lies with us, the memory of Bl. Jerome Garibi should be altogether abolished. For the French, when at the end of the last century they occupied Bologna, turned the most splendid church of St. Francis into a custom-house, all sacred things being thrown out. And at Nice they did not act more religiously, the church of St. Francis being likewise destroyed: so that only the tower survives. Moreover, since the cult of Bl. Jerome was never expressly and distinctly approved by apostolic authority, we were to neglect nothing by which it might be sufficiently established that it was already long ago such that it could not have escaped the notice of the heads of the churches of Bologna and Nice; then, that many and grave men gave their efforts to increasing it; and so that the Conventuals of Bologna and Nice did not judge themselves prevented by the decrees of Urban VIII from continuing it. Wherefore he would be excessive who, because documents no longer survive by which it might be shown that this public veneration is a hundred years older than the laws of Pope Urban, should assert that all that was done in the two following centuries was faulty: it is rather to be believed that a beginning was given to his cult shortly after the death of Bl. Jerome, as was then customary; and accordingly that his public honours in the church preceded by several lustres the year 1534, in which the public veneration must have begun, if it is not to be judged abolished by the decrees of Urban. So much for Bl. Jerome.