ON ST. ARDUINUS OR ARDOVINUS, CONFESSOR, NOT A BISHOP, AT CEPRANO IN THE PAPAL STATES,
IN THE YEAR, AS IS REPORTED, DCXXVII.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Ardovinus or Arduinus, confessor, at Ceprano in the Papal States. (S.)
BY V. D. B
Sole §. The praises of Ceprano. The cult of St. Arduinus. The ancient proper office. The writings of Vitalianus.
On the right bank of the Liri, by which river the Papal States are divided from the kingdom of Naples, a little above its confluence with the Sacco, Ceprano, which, although an obscure town, has some glories, there rises the little town of Ceprano, populous with three thousand and somewhat more inhabitants, furnished with five churches, most of which are canonical or conventual, formerly very obscure, but now (because the Piedmontese soldiers have often been troublesome to the Romans) sufficiently known from the daily papers. Its origins are without controversy most ancient, as is plain from the inscriptions collected there, and from the bridge, restored by the emperor Antoninus Pius and repaired by Pope Paul V, the contractor being Alessandro Bernardi, an architect of Ceprano. But since the original name of the little city lies hidden (no differently from so many other towns which once stood on the most fertile, but now deserted, soil between the Tiber and the Liri), hence it happens that what things are to be referred to it is not known. It seems to have first come under the power of the Roman pontiffs about the year 730, St. Gregory II being pope and governing the universal church. In the church of St. Paternian, to which there was then attached a distinguished monastery of canons, Bl. Pope Paschal II celebrated in the year 1114 a council, whose acts will be given both by the Annals of Baronius and by the collections of councils of Labbe and Hardouin. There in the year 1080 St. Pope Gregory VII granted pardon to Robert Guiscard, because he had encircled Benevento in siege, and Pope Lucius II in the year 1144 tried to conclude peace with Roger, king of Sicily. Because it sat on the river Liri and had a castle that was not weak, it often suffered much damage in war; which, however, I forgo recounting, since they do not sufficiently pertain to ecclesiastical matters, content to add this one thing, that the people of Ceprano would have it that Honorius I, who ascended the chair of St. Peter in the year 625, was born within their walls [Compare Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione ecclesiastica, under Ceprano; Castellano, Specchio geografico-storico-politico, vol. VI, p. 220; Indice alfabetico di tutti i luoghi dello Stato Pontificio, 1831, p. 66.].
[2] [In the church of St. Mary Major is kept the body of St. Arduinus, who has long been venerated there with the memory of miracles.] The chief church now is that of St. Mary Major; which is distinguished indeed by its amplitude, architectural beauty and also the fame of its antiquity, but much more by the heavenly treasure which it possesses, namely the body of St. Arduinus, whose deeds we have to set forth: wherefore Pope Gregory XVI, in the bull In eminenti apostolicae dignitatis solio, given on the fourth before the Nones of May of the year 1841, willed that there should be restored there the former college of canons, consisting of an archpriest, a primicerius and eight canons; to whom he gave the faculty of wearing more splendid vestments. When in the year 1728 our predecessors inquired into the affairs of the most holy man, his body, as was written back to them, was guarded in a stone casket under the altar of a chapel dedicated to his name; except that a bone was kept at Rocca Arcis *, a place in the diocese of Aquino. In the church of St. Mary itself there was seen a wooden image of the holy man and a silver head; and moreover an ancient painted panel, where he was represented in pilgrim's dress, some miracles being exhibited round about, with these titles inscribed: "I. He marks the place with a burning iron. II. At the tomb a great light appears during rain. III. He at once heals one mortally injured. IV. He soon heals those in agony. V. He raises one suffocated. VI. He frees Ceprano from a conflagration. VII. He snatches a boy from Satan and from flames. VIII. He calms the sea. IX. He brings dead horses to life. X. The tomb is guarded by angels. XI. He heals the blind, the lame, the possessed and other sick persons." Most of these miracles are explained in the History of St. Ardovinus the Englishman of Ceprano, written out in the manner of a legal allegation by Antonio Vitagliano of Ceprano, doctor of philosophy and medicine. Urbino, 1645. Which History we shall give below, declaring it (which we could not fail to indicate at present) in a few words at this place.
[3] [Vitalianus, a physician of Ceprano, explained the affairs of this saint in two little works,] Vitalianus namely, having had words concerning St. Ardovinus with Pietro Muti, secretary of the sacred consistorial congregation of cardinals, judged that he must claim for himself the illustrious sanctity and legitimate veneration of his patron: whence it may appear that it had then been called into doubt, since the laws of Urban VIII on the cult of the saints were understood by many too severely and wrongly. This little work was written in the year 1642, seeing that it ends in these words: "Farewell, at Ceprano, on the 1st day of December 1642"; offered to Muti on the 3rd before the Kalends of February 1644; corrected and printed at Urbino in 1645; and designated by Moroni In the work and place cited. with the title: Memorie di S. Arduino, 1645. But at the time when that composition saw the day, the same Vitalianus had already given to the public the Antiquum Cepranum, to which he sends the reader at num. 12 of the History of St. Ardovinus. But this vexes me not a little. For in the historical Bibliography of the Papal States Bibliografia storica delle città e luoghi dello Stato Pontificio, p. 54. at the name of Ceprano this one book is indicated: Vitaliani Antonio. Il Ceprano ravvivato nel Lazio. Roma per Francesco Moneta, 1653, in quarto; a work which is in the possession of few: which things Moroni brought in the same words into his Lexicon. Antiquum Cepranum and Il Ceprano ravvivato must therefore be different: the title is not the same; the year is not the same. But when our predecessors in the year 1728 had earnestly requested, the authority of the Very Rev. Father General, head of our Society, being interposed, that the Antiquum Ceperanum be sent to them, it was answered to them from Ceprano that the Renovatum Ceperanum was not found in all that region, even though it had been diligently sought, even outside the walls of the town; but that those who had read it affirmed that the chapter in which the affairs of St. Ardovinus are explained was not unlike the History of St. Ardovinus: where (as you see) the Antiquum Ceperanum is called Renovatum Ceperanum (il Rinovato Ceprano in tutto questo paese non vi si trova;) and before in the same response, where the requests of our predecessors were reviewed, it was signified by a similar name: Si desidera l'opera del Vitagliano, intitolato Il renovato Ceprano The work of Vitagliano, entitled Il renovato Ceprano, is desired.. Which comes very close to Il Ceprano ravvivato nel Latio; whose true Latin title may be Antiquum Ceperanum renovatum in Latio, and which came to light not in the year 1653, but before the year 1645.
[4] [He followed especially an old legend, containing the life and miracles, with proper hymns and prayers.] In the History of St. Ardovinus, then (for if our predecessors sought the Antiquum Ceperanum in vain, we surely had less hope on account of the distance of the times), many indications are heaped up, by which it may be manifest that his cult is both great and arose before the memory of all men. Among these comes first of all that in the middle of the 17th century, as is plain from it, there was in use a legend divided into nine or more lessons; to which were joined particular hymns and prayers; so that at least fifteen pages were filled; although the ninth lesson was read on the fifth page. In vain did our predecessors seek this office; but no copy was any longer to be found, and so in the year 1728 the office was recited from the common of a confessor not a bishop, though there survived the memory of the former proper office which was in use in the preceding century. The longing for which is somewhat relieved in that Vitalianus seems to have transferred from it into his History of St. Ardovinus whatever were not vain or common praises. The office in honour of St. Arduinus was performed, and is even now performed, with double rite of the first class with an octave, since he is the chief patron of the town (the second patron is St. Roch), not indeed on the present day, but on the 28th of July; which festivity is of precept, servile works and the noise of the courts being forbidden; which things are certain to me partly from letters once given to our predecessors, partly from the Order of reciting the divine office, published by the bishop of Veroli, in whose diocese Ceprano lies, for the year 1847; where notice that the blessed man is venerated not in the whole diocese, but only at Ceprano. And at that day indeed our predecessors would have spoken of him, had they not awaited ampler documents (but in vain).
[5] [Although his feast is kept on the 28th day of July, he is praised at the 25th day of October by Wilson, Ferrarius, Challoner and others.] But if they deferred to the present day, the reason is that in the second edition of the English Martyrology and thence in the universal Catalogue of saints of Ferrarius his memory is celebrated today. "At Ceprano," says Wilson, citing in the margin the Registers of the church of Ceprano and the epigraph carved on the tomb of the holy man, "at Ceprano in the kingdom of Naples," or rather in the Papal States, "the commemoration of St. Ardwin, presbyter and confessor; who, born of noble parents in England, and having set out for Jerusalem to visit the holy sepulchre of our Saviour, when he returned from there to Italy, at the time when a most savage plague was raging through the kingdom of Naples, there gave back his soul to God in peace in great sanctity of life. His body was buried with solemn pomp in the aforesaid city
where to this day it is kept with great honour and veneration of the citizens, on account of the daily miracles which God deigns to work at his tomb in testimony of his sanctity, and for the increase of devotion among the people towards that place." Whence Ferrarius, by I know not what distraction of mind, cooked up this announcement: "At Ceprano in England, of St. Arduinus, presbyter"; warning in his Annotations that Ceperanum is a place in England and in Latium on the river Liri between Frosinone and Aquino at X thousand paces: whereas it is manifest that St. Arduinus is inscribed in the English Martyrology not because Ceprano is in England, but because he himself is reported to have been an Englishman by home. This gross error Richard Challoner avoided in the British Martyrology, yet deceived by Wilson so that he shut up Ceprano in the kingdom of Naples and made the memory of St. Arduinus at the 25th day of October: "At Ceprano," he says, "in the kingdom of Naples, the commemoration of St. Ardwin, an English presbyter, whose tomb has been glorified with miracles." By an error of ten days, XVIII being written in place of XXVIII, the commemoration of St. Arduinus, confessor in England, was made on the 18th of July in the manuscript Additions to Usuard of the Charterhouse of Brussels: wherefore on this day also, as also on the 28th of July, mention of him has already been made in our work among the Passed Over.
[6] [In the neighbourhood there are venerated St. Fulk and St. Bernard, likewise Englishmen, and St. Gerard, an Auvergnat by nation, all of whom are said to have been pilgrims to Jerusalem;] Now if we are to come to the deeds of St. Arduinus themselves, nothing occurs in these that exceeds belief. Yet there is something that makes me anxious, which I would not hide. Near Ceprano, namely, are three parishes, each of which rejoices in a holy patron who was a pilgrim to Jerusalem and for the most part an Englishman. And indeed on the 22nd day of May the town of Santopadre in the diocese of Aquino venerates blessed Fulk or Fulco; who, "in England having paid out his paternal and maternal goods to the Lord's poor, began to go on pilgrimage through the world for the maceration of his body: and first he made for Jerusalem, to visit the sepulchre of Jesus Christ: returning from there, he afterwards made a pilgrimage through all Apulia, piously visiting some places … Finally, as was the will of the Lord, after lengthy labours of soul and body, he reached the land of Santopadre; where, that he might end the remaining space of his life in exercising spiritual works of mercy, he betook himself to the hospital of that land, placed outside the walls: in which, as long as he lived, such was his exercise that he always gave his service to God and the sick … Exercising himself in such an office, he fell asleep in the Lord, and was buried outside the hospital as an unknown pilgrim" Acta SS., vol. V of May, page 393.. On the 14th day of October, moreover, Rocca Arcis or d'Arce in the same diocese of Aquino festively venerates St. Bernard, who is related to have been an Englishman by nation, and "visiting the places where the saints of God were adored, not fearing the length of the journey, exercised himself eagerly; and of whom it is plain that, when he had walked through a great part of this world, frequenting the temples of God, desiring by his labour and bodily fatigue to obtain from the Lord rest for his soul in the heavens, and returning about the parts of Apulia, he at length, as he happened to be walking along here, reached Arpino. Here … he lay down sick; and when he had been ill elsewhere for a long time, pressed by a greater infirmity …, in a few days, giving thanks to the Lord, he departed from the world. The blessed man having died, his most holy body is buried outside Arpino and yet in its territory, near the chapel of blessed John on the road of Rocca Arcis" Ibid., vol. VI of October, page 631.. Finally on the 11th day of August Castrum Gallinarium in the diocese of Sora festively celebrates St. Gerard the confessor, who, "in the third year after all spiritual power, breathed on by the spirit of God, had taken up arms for the liberation of the holy sepulchre, landed on the Campanian shores, … being then a young man, born in the province of Auvergne, worn out by sickness from the grave hardship of the journey; and when he had been received in hospitality by a certain illustrious man in the Castrum whose name is Gallinarium, on the fifteenth day, the sickness growing heavier, he gave back his devout spirit to God" Ibid., vol. II of August, page 694..
[7] [This matter, however singular, does no harm to the credit of the deeds of St. Arduinus.] There is nothing, then, for Ceprano, the village of Santopadre, Rocca Arcis and Castrum Gallinarium to envy one another: for each town not only possesses the body of its patron, but has as patron a pilgrim who visited the sepulchre of the Lord; who turned aside there by chance; who died there; and of whom three were born in England, one only in the district of Auvergne in the Gauls. It is no wonder at all that these same four are sometimes called companions Compare ibid., vol. V of May, p. 192., or at least SS. Bernard and Gerard Ibid., vol. VI of October, p. 630.; and that one is confused with another, so that St. Fulk is said by Ferrarius to be venerated at Ceprano, when St. Arduinus is honoured there by the prayers of all, along with St. Roch, who also was a pilgrim. But this too must be confessed, that it is easy to suspect from this that, since the inhabitants were ignorant of the deeds of their patrons, they made common to all what belonged to one. This is doubtless a mere suspicion, relying rather on human nature and inclination than on any monuments; and for that reason not to be made much of. But if anyone should wish to embrace and defend it, he must decide that one of the four was truly a pilgrim and visitor of the Holy Places; that this must be held to be he who lived in more remote times, and that after his example the deeds of the later ones were fashioned. But these things altogether favour St. Arduinus, seeing that in the old legend he is said to have ended his life in the year 627, while SS. Bernard and Gerard seem to have lived at the end of the 11th century, and St. Fulk not much later. Yet I would not wish to be held the champion of this conjecture; knowing well that among pilgrims there were many of old of the most outstanding piety, and that the Christian people have always been inclined to make much of the sanctity of this kind of men: hence in nearly all the provinces of Italy some foreign saints are venerated; and similarly in Gaul, Belgium and Germany; it is thus nothing beyond belief that in a very short space four pilgrims with an outstanding fame of sanctity should have met death and be venerated by the local inhabitants. It remains for me to see to the printing again of the very rare writing of Vitalianus on St. Arduinus; the titles of the chapters or rather of the numbers not being prefixed, or (as he himself expresses it) the rubric, but set beside the several numbers.
Annotation* Rocca d'Arci
HISTORY OF ST. ARDOVINUS THE ENGLISHMAN, OF CEPRANO,
Written out in the manner of a legal allegation by Antonio Vitagliano of Ceprano, doctor of philosophy and medicine.
Ardovinus or Arduinus, confessor, at Ceprano in the Papal States. (S.)
BY VITALIANUS.
PROLOGUE.
The author commends himself to Muti. To the most illustrious and most reverend Lord Pietro Muti, secretary of the sacred congregation of cardinals and most worthy canon of the basilica of St. Peter b. I promised you in recent days, because it had proceeded from your kindness, to send you at the first opportunity briefly the History of St. Ardovinus the Englishman, of our land of Ceprano: which indeed I should have been going to do of my own accord too, both that I might open my mind to you, and that I might show, even when absent, the zeal, goodwill and respect (which I owe) . But if, when you are not able clearly through yourself (which God forbid, and I do not doubt it), employing men in counsel, honest men and lovers of your most illustrious house c: for I think it pertains greatly to my reputation that in these (oh would they were!) weightier matters you should understand and know me to be mindful. But I ask you to receive this work, such as it is, dedicated to you, to cherish and protect it; so that, the detractions of the wicked being cast out, you may most keenly defend it under the patronage of your protection. Farewell. At Ceprano, on the 3rd before the Kalends of February 1644. Of Your most illustrious Lordship the most obedient Antonio Vitaliano.
ANNOTATA.
* in the printed text, "id" is redundant
* in the printed text, "praesto"
LEGAL ALLEGATION FOR THE SANCTITY OF BL. ARDOVINUS, THE ENGLISHMAN, OF CEPRANO. a
BY VITALIANUS.
[1] The compendious Life of St. Ardovinus is described. Among the other most blessed men, (to use the words of the legend fol. 2, lesson I, and following,) most illustrious Lord, whom pious mother church most celebratedly venerates and continually exalts with worthy praises, there will surely be a certain man of venerable life, and sufficiently devout from his very rattles, by name Ardovinus, originating from England; who, spurning in infancy the world and all vices, having taken up the habit of pilgrimage, left his homeland, abandoning his parents; he made for Jerusalem, the Jordan, the Mount of Olives, and all the places in which our Redeemer Jesus Christ was born, or worked miracles, or preached, or suffered, died or was buried, and at length rose again, or ascended to heaven. As is plain in the place cited, fol. 3, lesson 6.
[2] The Life proceeds to his death. Who at length, coming to Ceprano as a most humble pilgrim, as soon as he entered the threshold of his lodging, was suddenly seized with such gravity of sickness that into the way of peace and life he sent forth his blessed spirit; which the bosom of Abraham most gladly received in the homeland of eternal blessedness, as is shown in most clear words at fol. 5, lesson 9.
[3] The endowments of soul and body of St. Ardovinus are explained. Whence, that we may take our beginning from his holy and exemplary life, it is not disputed that he was full of all virtues and sanctity to the end. And, a great example of himself being left, he confirmed it, and most fully in his most happy death; seeing that, though born and brought up in the parts of England, from his very years of boyhood, being of a good disposition, he surpassed all boys in innocence and the old too in gravity of manners, he began day and night to meditate on the law of the Lord: and he took care not to offend his soul in any way not only by deed but also by word; as is had in the said legend, fol. 2, lesson 2.
[4] The works of St. Ardovinus are reviewed. Moreover, having afterwards been raised to the dignity of the priesthood, he daily ministered to whomever he could the provision of spiritual food, as ibid., fol. 2, lesson 3, and he clung more vigilantly to good works, fol. 4, lesson 7. Again, when he had set out for the holy city of Jerusalem, with how great devotion of mind and how great gentleness of body he approached the monument of the Redeemer could neither be explained by letters nor fully signified by words fol. 3, lesson 5. "By their works, moreover, you shall know them," says Matthew ch. 7.. What is to be thought from the said works of Ardovinus, therefore, I leave to your reverence to decide. "For their works follow them." Apocalypse of John, 14.
[5] The constancy and trust of Arduinus in bearing adversities. Of his admirable trust it is more than sufficiently established, since he did not fear the hardships and perils of life for the honour of God, sustaining them with patience and perseverance to the end. Now the act of sustaining includes patience and perseverance, as St. Thomas 2. 2. q. 123 and 128. "The fleeting and prosperous things of this world he despised, and he did not at all dread to bear adverse and harsh things for God," as is established at fol. 2, lesson 3, and it subjoins at lesson 4. "He tolerated very long sicknesses and very frequent dangers, and by how much the harder the perils by which he was distressed, by so much the more constantly he grew strong in the service of God"; indeed it is added fol. 3, lesson 6, that "in each of the aforesaid places he poured out innumerable floods of tears, burning for the vision of Christ, as if he truly beheld him whom he believed through faith." Ardovinus therefore remained in good trust, and so he merited the triumphal crown: "for he who shall persevere to the end shall be saved" from Matthew, ch. 10. "But being made servants to God," says the Apostle, 6 to the Romans "you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end life everlasting; but the grace of God, life everlasting, in Christ Jesus our Lord."
[6] Endurance, sobriety and chastity were together in Ardovinus. As regards temperance, which is said by Aristotle 3 Ethics to be a moderation concerning the acts of pleasure, or a moderation or tempering made by reason, as St. Thomas 2. 2 q. 141, art. I, it includes subjectively abstinence, sobriety, chastity and modesty, with all of which the servant of God Ardovinus is related to have been adorned in his said legend fol. 3, lesson 6, in these words: "Nor is he simply to be thought to have stayed there a short time, but through the courses of many years to have given himself there to weeping, prayers and fasts"; and fol. 4, lesson 7, subjoining: "Continually," it says, "sweating in vigils and prayers, and macerating his body with fasts and abstinence from food."
[7] How many kinds of fasting there are and its effects. Fasting then is twofold; both to abstain from sins ch. Jejunium, de Consecrat. dist. 5; and to abstain from luxury of food through the several days ch. Non dico, de Consecrat. dist. 3; and Ardovinus was adorned with both, while he macerated his body with fasts and abstinence from food. For what else does that plurality of fasts indicate, if not that doubleness of fasting? A plurality doubles two singularities, l. qui §§ Stichus ff. de legat. 3; and so fasting, taken generically, purges minds, lifts up the sense, places the flesh under the spirit, humbles the contrite heart, dissolves the clouds of concupiscence, extinguishes lust, brings light to chastity, does not love wordiness, commends humility, and finally furnishes men with a blessed and holy life; as, from the opinion of Augustine, Ripa says in his treatise on the plague, title on remedies for curing the plague, about the end, num. 151; where with open mouth he exclaims: "O sacred fasting, O abstinence, triumpher and queen of the virtues, you repress demons, you confound tyrants, you shut out the strongest claws of wild beasts, you crush the mouths of lions!" From which effects the sanctity of Ardovinus comes to be judged, since fasting too was an act of his virtue; as the Apostle says, 6 to the Corinthians, and St. Thomas 2. 2. q. 147, art. 2.
[8] Miracles worked in life are signs of sanctity in Ardovinus. Add you too the miracles worked while he was alive, such as the calming of the sea, and the provision for the want of the sailors from fol. 4, lesson 7; which miracles in life are indeed signs of sanctity; [Augustinus Triumphus, De Potest. eccles., q. 15, art. 4, verse "secundo illis," and q. 16, art. 3, ad 2; Bellarmine on ch. Nec mirum, n. 10, 26, q. 5; Molfesio, cons. 46, num. 42 and 43.]
[9] The days of death of those who die gloriously are called birthdays. But, near to death, Ardovinus rejoiced exceedingly, his whole soul strengthening itself by the divine will, as he now most evidently knew that the path of death was near to him; whose coming he eagerly enough and with jubilation demanded beforehand, and he most humbly sang with the Prophet Ps. 115, saying: "Thou hast broken my bonds, O Lord; I will sacrifice to thee the victim of praise"; and while he was so rejoicing with a most joyful voice, "into the way of peace and life he met his day"; as in the said legend, fol. 5, lesson 9. "In his death there was a universal weeping of every state of persons; and the people ran together crying out, with voices raised to heaven. When this became known to the inhabitants of Ceprano, they all came together in one; and, taking up his venerable body, they carried it to the church of the most blessed Mother of God the Virgin Mary; and, having celebrated the funeral, they buried him"; as at fol. 5, lesson 9. The day of death is called our day: which clearly proceeds in those who die gloriously, because on that day they are said to be born, never to die; §. Sed in bello, instit. de excusat. tut.; as happens in Ardovinus. Hence the days of death are called birthdays of those whose merits are observed in solemn trophy for the example of a better life * b. [Ch. licet, and there the note of Panormitanus, extra de fe. and not. by the Gloss in § fin. at the words natalibus instit. de ing., which is reported and followed by Ripa in l. heredes, § cum ita, n. 1 ff. ad Senat. consult. Trebellian.] The birthday of our protector Ardovinus is celebrated on the 28th day of the month of July.
[10] [The singing of the Angels at the tomb of Ardovinus was an indication of his sanctity.] There was added at his sepulchre the guard and song of the Angels; as at fol. 6 of the said legend, first miracle. For on very many nights before the finding of his body it was revealed to spiritual men that around his tomb a wedge of assisting angels, holding lighted candles, and singing together sweet-sounding songs there, (was present;) which song of angels is a sign of sanctity. [The Rota in the Report on Bl. Bertrand, Miracle 5; Castellinus, De Certitudine gloriae sanctorum, De Sign. sanct. canonizand., num. 11, verse "Armonia quoque caelestis."]
[11] Splendour demonstrates glorious bodies. Moreover there was his distinguished splendour, when a certain man as at fol. 11, miracle 20 saw then as it were a shining column going forth from that church, flying around the church and truly illuminating it with its light, then quickly ascending to heaven, according to that of Matthew [14]: "The just shall shine as the sun in thy sight." That splendour demonstrates glorious bodies is fully proved by Antonius de Litteratis in the Summa, part 5, ch. 8, n. 10; and, what is to be weighed with greater wonder, as at fol. 6, miracle 2, a ray of the sun illuminated with great brightness only the earth by which the servant of Christ was covered; according to that of Malachi ch. 4: "Unto you that fear my name, the sun of justice shall arise."
[12] [From time immemorial he was painted with a diadem, rays and the inscription of a saint.] At his altar, moreover, under which his holy body rests in a stone casket, he was continually venerated as a saint, and to the present he is venerated with a great concourse and devotion of the people; where from time immemorial, the superior ordinaries permitting, there have been celebrated and from day to day there are celebrated masses of the said saint, with proper and particular hymns and prayers, as in his legend, fol. 14 and 15. It concurs also that from the most ancient time, and perhaps immemorial, he has been publicly painted and carved as a saint, with a diadem and the splendour of rays, likewise with the title and inscription of a saint c, and adored as a saint d, not only by Christ's faithful of either sex, but also by the supreme Roman pontiffs themselves, especially by Paschal II, on the ninth before the Kalends of November 1114, after the celebration of the council of Ceprano, which Baronius reports in vol. XII of the Annals e, by Innocent III, on the 23rd day of June 1207; when, passing here from Rome and celebrating mass in the said chapel, he betook himself to Monte Cassino f, Riccardo reporting it in his Chronicle; and finally by Clement VII many times, but especially on the 16th day of January 1531, through his almost continuous stay at Ceprano, as may be seen in Giovanni Tarcagnota [g, which we have explained more widely in our Antiquum Cepranum throughout.] Through images, therefore, which we kiss and before which we uncover our heads and prostrate ourselves, we adore Christ and the saints whose likeness they bear; [as in the council of Nicaea throughout, and it is noted in the council of Trent, session 25, on the invocation and veneration of saints; where it is found written in open characters that the holy bodies of the holy martyrs and of others living with Christ, which were living members of Christ and a temple of the Holy Spirit, to be raised and glorified by him to eternal life, are to be venerated by the faithful, through which many benefits are furnished to men by God.]
[13] The constitution of Urban VIII is no obstacle to the sanctity of Ardovinus. Nor does the constitution of Urban VIII, pontiff of memory to be preserved, stand in the way, published at Rome on the 2nd day of October 1625, [vol. IV of the Bullarium, N. 37; it begins: Sanctissimus Dominus noster sollicite animadvertens;] where it is commanded that images of saints not yet canonized or beatified by the apostolic see should not be painted with rays, splendours or laurels; and that, if any have been placed, they should be removed; and he forbade the placing of tablets and images of wax or silver; which he likewise confirmed and decreed in a general congregation of the holy inquisition on the 4th day of April 1625: because the said constitution or decree does not prejudice those who either by the common
consent of the church, or by an immemorial course of time, or through the writings of the fathers and of holy men, or by the knowledge and toleration of the apostolic see or of the ordinary for a very long time, are venerated; [as is taught from the bull by Lezana in the Summary, vol. I, ch. 12, n. 39; and Bonacina, vol. II, disput. 3, q. 1, point 2, n. 2; provided that the knowledge and toleration be of a very long time, which he himself declares to be a space of 30 or 40 years h, from C. de longo tempore scripto, and from Prateius in his Lexicon, at the word Longissimum, and others;] which concurs in Ardovinus, who from time immemorial, and beyond the memory of men, has been painted, reputed and held in the catalogue of saints as such.
[14] The sweet odour of the body stood out as a mark of sanctity in Ardovinus. Moreover there is added a sweet fragrance and good odour; which continually emanates not only from the head, the silver in which it is wrapped having failed; but also from the whole body, which wonderfully gave off fragrance at the time of the opening of the casket in which it is enclosed, in the presence of the most reverend D. Eugenio Fucci, bishop of Veroli i; which odour too is a sign of sanctity: [as the Rota in the Report on blessed Paschal Baylon, in the III miracle at the end; in the Report on St. Teresa in the III miracle after death; and in the Report on St. Isidore in the first miracle after death, where examples are related; and it is proved from St. Gregory, Homily 38; and the reason is from St. Thomas, part 3, q. 83, art. 5, ad 2, because a good odour pertains to representing the effect of grace: for, as Christ was full of good odour, as in Genesis 17: "Behold the odour of my son, as the odour of a full field"; so it is derived from Christ to his friends, according to that of 2 Corinthians: "He spreads the odour of his knowledge through you in every place, because we are the good odour of Christ unto God"; as may be seen in the Report on blessed Bertrand, miracle VI; in the Report on St. Francis Xavier, miracle II after death; and for that reason holy mother church sings: Thy saints, O Lord, shall flourish as the lily, and shall be as the odour of balsam before thee.]
[15] The incorruption of parts of the body of Ardovinus signifies sanctity. Again there concurs the incorruption of the bones of the said saint beyond all the power of nature, for the space of nearly one thousand and eighteen years, namely from the year 627 of the Lord's Nativity to the present 1645; which incorruption indeed is said to be miraculous and is a sign of sanctity k, [as the Rota says in the Report on Bl. Paschal Baylon, in the III miracle; in the Report on St. Isidore, in the I miracle after death; bringing more examples in the Report on St. Teresa on her miracles, in the title on the exhumation of the body near the end; and in the Report on St. Francis Xavier in the I miracle after death; and the reason is from St. Thomas, 3 part, q. 51, art. 3 and 4, in ch. 3 Sentent. dist. 21, q. 1, art. 2 and 4, and Opuscul. 2, ch. 154; because the body after death is liable to corruption and putrefaction. See Castellinus fully, De Certitud. glor. sanctor., De Signis sanctitatis canonizandorum, ch. 6, n. 3, fol. 544 l.]
[16] Miracles likewise after death show this same thing. Finally the form of his sanctity and the life of his innocence the heavenly king, for whom he had soldiered, declared by so great signs and exalted with such miracles as will appear from what follows, as in the said legend, fol. 5; so and in such a way that from fol. 6 to 14 more than 25 miracles, worked of old, are enumerated; although men daily implore his intercessions in their labours and necessities, as many have obtained graces, and obtain them daily. At whose sacred tomb each one takes the desired reward and gets possession of the most abundant benefits, as at fol. 1 of the said legend is had in the hymn; which miracles after death are likewise a sign of sanctity; [as the Rota in the Report on St. Hyacinth on his miracles, verse "quibus addimus," fol. 35; and in the Report on Bl. Paschal Baylon, miracle II; St. Thomas part 1, q. 110, art. 4, ad 1; and 2. 2. q. 128, art. 2, in the body; Bellarmine on ch. venerabili, num. 5, and there Ancharano on witnesses.]
[17] The author's excuse. These are the things, most Illustrious Lord, which at present, apart from the allurement of words, I have thought should be reported to you concerning the life of St. Ardovinus the Englishman, of Ceprano, both by reason of the time, which is granted me as very slight in this act, and for brevity, by which I judged your ears would be consulted: which I shall understand to be at length sufficiently approved and commended when they have not at all displeased your judgment, far from sharpest. Farewell, at Ceprano, on the 1st day of December 1642. Praise to God.
ANNOTATA.
* in the printed text, recolunt.