Stephen Agazzari

ON BL. STEPHEN AGAZZARI, CANON REGULAR, AT BOLOGNA IN ITALY,

IN THE YEAR 1433.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Stephen Agazzari, canon regular, at Bologna in Italy. (Bl.)

BY J. V. H.

§ I. Elogium of the blessed man: writers of his Life; homeland and family.

Blessed Stephen Agazzari, whose Acts we are setting out to publish, has afforded occasion for more than one rather arduous question. Elogium of the blessed man We shall touch and unfold the controversies so far as they pertain to our purpose, omitting those questions which concern all canons regular, and so would have to be gone back to even from the times of St. Augustine. Constantino Ghini of Siena, himself also a canon regular, reckons our Blessed in his work: Natales Sanctorum Canonicorum at the 28th day of October, and weaves a good long elogium; probably because he held Bl. Stephen as the first father of his congregation of St. Savior: and since it presents an accurate and compendious image of the Acts, we have thought it should be copied here. At Bologna, says the aforesaid Ghini, in the monastery of St. Savior, the death of Blessed Stephen, prior general, who was born at Siena in Tuscany of the noble family of the Agazzari, his father being John, and being not moderately instructed in excellent morals and letters, burning with the love of God, took up the institute of the Hermits of St. Augustine in the monastery of St. Savior, called of Lecceto, about three miles distant from the city of Siena, and there ordained priest by degrees, made such progress in the way of life that, his fame being spread abroad, Gregory XII, then supreme Pontiff, summoned him, and, delighted by his appearance and moved by his devotion, is reported to have said to his men: I have found another Elijah the Tishbite, serene in countenance, grave in morals, sweet in speech, admirable in prudence, humble in devotion, girded with the girdle of chastity, clothed in the habit of penance, lovable to God and men, endowed with zeal for justice, and adorned with all virtues.

[2] in Ghini, in the work Wherefore, ordering him to come to the city of Lucca, by apostolic authority, though he resisted, he clothed him with the habit of canons regular, and together with him his companion James; and sending him back to his men, he transferred the same monastery of Lecceto into a college of canons, with authority that Stephen should clothe the other pupils with the same canonical habit, in the year of the Lord 1407, as appears from the diploma. But Stephen and James, returning to their men, were not received by the greater part. But Peter Regolini, John Andrew Regolini, and Francis willingly followed Stephen, went out from their land and their house, and, having put on the habit of canons, exiles and pilgrims, approaching Gregory with the same Stephen and accompanying him, endured various labors of journeys, until they were introduced into the cenoby of St. Savior at Fabriano. In which place, afflicted by the discomfort of the air, one of them, namely Francis, died in Christ. Wherefore not long afterward, graciously called by the devout above all and pious Guidobaldo of Urbino, count of Montefeltro, they sought the monastery and church of St. Ambrose on the Mountain near Gubbio, and carried with them the devout pledges of the same blessed Francis. There, then, they fixed their seat. As they led a life most devoted to God and in great holiness, God himself, who gives food to all flesh, sometimes when they were placed in need, more than once sent them most white and most sweet loaves by the ministry of Angels.

[3] of the Natales sanctorum canonicorum: Hence, as their excellent name was proclaimed everywhere, Blessed Stephen, called to Bologna by the lord Francesco Ghisilieri of good memory, prior of the canons of St. Savior within and of St. Mary of Reno outside the same city, joined himself and his men in the union of charity, and shortly, God granting, Martin V and other supreme pontiffs approving, many cenobies being acquired, the congregation of the canons regular of St. Savior and of the very ancient St. Mary of Reno was restored and enlarged, and Blessed Stephen for about fifteen years, by which he survived, proclaimed prior general from year to year by all and by common vote, benignly, prudently, vigilantly, desiring more to be loved in God than to be feared, according to the Rule of the holy father Augustine and the constitutions approved by the apostolic see and received in the general chapters, had the care of the whole congregation: observing this above all, to offer himself to all as an example of good works. He was of such great humility that he would not have his name set to certain constitutions made under him. So strong was regular obedience under him that it was proved by miracles. For near Florence, in the monastery of St. Donatus, when a certain novice had struck with his foot a dry piece of vine wood, the master commanded him to dig the earth, plant it, and water it every day. When he had readily done this, the dry wood revived, put forth shoots, produced excellent grapes, and grew into a great vine, which lasted almost to our times, and would have lasted had it not perished with the monastery through the injury of wars. And the blessed Father did many other things wonderfully. Who at length, weighed down by labors and age, foretold his day

of death. When it came, having exhorted his canons to peace, charity, concord, obedience, regular observance, faith toward the holy apostolic see, and the other virtues, and having been most devoutly fortified with the most holy sacraments of the Church, on Friday, about the ninth hour, his hands formed in the likeness of a cross, his eyes fixed on heaven, he commended his soul into the hands of the Savior, and happily passed to the heavenly kingdom on the 5th before the kalends of November, in the year of salvation 1428. His body was placed in the same church of St. Savior before the chapel of the most blessed Virgin. And his name was set in the tables of the church of Bologna on the saints of Bologna or resting at Bologna, among the blessed, together with his chief companion James. The Chronicles of Siena call Stephen and all his first companions Blessed.

[4] he seems to have had no liturgical cult, Besides the encomium set out above I find no announcement in other Martyrologies or Menologies, and I learn from letters of Bologna, lately given, that no mention of our Stephen is made in the liturgical Office of the church in which he lies buried. Since however he is very frequently named with the title of Blessed, and his images not rarely bear signs indicating exceptional holiness; finally because he was the first parent, after Gregory XII, of the notable Congregation of canons regular of St. Savior, deservedly we report his name in our Acts; and for that reason we have shown his elogium, woven by Constantino Ghini, from which it is established that he was a very great man, who contributed great and many things to the Church of God in the fifteenth century. For the rest, what documents are had of his cult, such as it is, we shall give below, when we speak of his death and burial.

[5] the older Acts have perished His Acts existed, formerly kept in the cenoby of St. Savior of the canons regular at Bologna in a volume of larger form, as it is commonly said, in folio. But, as Rev. Fr. Bonaventure Dumaine, Conventual Minor, a man most obliging toward us and the work on the Saints, wrote to me on the 30th day of August 1866, he, together with the custodian of the Salvatorian library, ran through the Catalogues most accurately, and found no index of such a codex either there or in the public libraries of Bologna: whence it must be judged that it does not exist at Bologna, and having been transferred elsewhere lies hidden to this day. Further Crisostomo Trombelli in his History of the canonry of St. Mary of Reno, ch. 50 [Memorie istoriche concernenti le due canoniche di S. Maria di Reno e di S. Salvatore, p. 199.], judges that this Life, which he esteems the most ancient notice on Bl. Stephen, is a work of the fifteenth century: but on the contrary Giovanni Battista Melloni in his work on the Saints of Bologna Uomini illustri, vol. II, p. 190, note 6. shows that it is a product of the sixteenth century; for in it there is mention of the canonization of St. Antoninus, archbishop of Florence, celebrated by Hadrian VI in the year 1523, of the promotion of Giles of Viterbo to the cardinalate by Leo X, of the destruction of the monastery of St. Donatus of Scopeto, which occurred in the year 1529: all of which, unless you suspect interpolations, show that it was first written in the sixteenth century. For the rest, though it was probably written a hundred years after Bl. Stephen, there is no reason for us to take any credit from the author. For even if the anonymous writer did not have an older Life before him, he was certainly contemporary with those who had lived with Bl. Stephen and had often narrated his deeds Melloni, loc. cit.. We grieve therefore over the lost codex, which we should most willingly have woven into our Acts: but by happy fortune the loss was repaired by Giovanni Battista Segni, canon regular, in his work: "On the Order and canonical state." The work of Giovanni Battista we were at last able, after long inquiry, to fetch from Italy, and we were preparing it for the press, when we observed that nothing occurred in that work which we had not abundantly set forth in the Historical Commentary; then, the chief part of the Life comprised the history of Gregory XII. Persuaded by these considerations, we judged that this writing should be omitted; fragments of which however we shall show as opportunity offers in our lucubration. For he published the Life of Bl. Stephen in such a way that the aforesaid Melloni, who had both writings before him, could say that he had shown the old anonymous Life almost word for word, quasi parola per parola. This then we omit, lest we cause the reader disgust.

[6] born at Siena As regards the homeland of Bl. Stephen, some have said he was of Bologna. Girolamo de' Borselli in the Chronicle of Bologna under the year 1444, in Muratori Scriptt. Rer. Ital., vol. XXIII, col. 881., writes: There shone Blessed Stephen of Bologna, restorer of the canons of St. Savior. Tamburini also, De Jure Abbatum, vol. I, disput. II, quaest. 14, no. 4, names our Stephen of Bologna. But such authority matters not much. Theologians and canonists and men of that kind, entangled in other controversies, care not greatly of what homeland, for example, he is of whom they treat, or they copy whatever writer comes to hand; for trifles of this kind contribute nothing to elucidating disputations. But it is altogether otherwise with historians, whose chief office is to consider facts and to weigh them in the balance of equity. What then is put forward by Historians, and thus by writers of Chronicles, must be examined. And first what is drawn from the Chronicle of Bologna of Borselli does not seem to be of Girolamo de' Borselli, who flourished in the fifteenth century, and so was a contemporary of our Stephen Fantuzzi, Notizie degli scrittori Bolognesi, vol. I, p. 156.; but rather of Vincenzo Spargiati, who wrote in the middle of the sixteenth century Ibid., vol. VIII, p. 8..

[7] not at Bologna, But nevertheless it is also true that our Blessed is assigned to Bologna by various writers, whom G. B. Melloni reviews Memorie, vol. II, p. 189, note 3.. For which reason some inquire what is the cause that Bl. Stephen is called of Bologna: for such an error does not easily spread. Certainly our Blessed lived long in the city of Bologna, established the head of his Congregation in it, and at length ennobled it by his death. All of which abundantly suffices for someone to take his name from such a stay. Thus St. Anthony, though born at Lisbon and having stayed at Padua hardly one year, as the Roman Breviary teaches at the 13th of June, yet because he died in that city, is everywhere greeted by all as Anthony of Padua. In the same way St. Nicholas, of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, from his long, says the same Breviary, residence in the city of Tolentino, is called of Tolentino, though born in the town of Sant'Angelo in Piceno. There is, then, a probable reason why our Stephen could have been called of Bologna. But Giovanni Battista Melloni conjectures that another cause too may be given of the appellation: namely, that our Blessed obtained the citizenship of Bologna. For Bartolomeo Agazzari, judge of Todi, in the year 1416 is numbered among the knights of the Order of the Glorious Mary, instituted at Bologna, who are also called Jovial Friars; and in like manner Tommaso Agazzari, judge of Bologna, is named in the year 1417. However that may be, it must stand firm that Bl. Stephen had the city of Siena as his native soil Ibid., vol. II, p. 190..

[8] his father being Giovanni Cioni: A Sienese by homeland, Bl. Stephen was born of his father Giovanni: whence he was frequently named Stephen of John, Stefano di Giovanni, and the Blessed himself constantly used such a name Ibid., p. 191.. Now the family name of his father Giovanni seems to be Cioni, as is clear from Ambrogio Landucci, Augustinian hermit Sacra Ilicetana Sylva, p. 102., and others of the same institute. But at Siena we read also that there flourished the Ciogni Family, which some hold to be one with the Cioni: nor do I have sufficient information to solve the question: the Sienese Diary of the year 1722 under the 28th day of October has these words, rendered in Latin from Italian: Of Stephen Agazzari of Siena, propagator of the canons regular of St. Savior. At Lecceto of Bl. John Chigi, Bl. Francis Nuti, and Bl. Stephen Ciogni, Sienese. The cited Diary, then, has two Sienese Stephens, one Agazzari, who is also called Cioni, the other Ciogni, who is recorded at Lecceto. And indeed that our Stephen was a Cioni is plainly established from the inscription placed at the head of the Necrology of Reno Trombelli, Memorie Storiche, p. 329, note a.: Copy of the very ancient Calendar of St. Mary of Reno made by Order of the Rev. father Brother Stephen Cioni of Siena, because it was already torn and corroded by age, and could easily be lost. It seems certain to me that the inscription was composed by order of the same Stephen, and thus is contemporary. Whence, to pass over other testimonies that can be drawn from perpetual tradition, and which the aforesaid Giovanni Battista reports Memorie, vol. II, p. 192., it is certain to me that our Blessed drew his origin from the Cioni family.

[9] who by blood touched the family of the Agazzari. It remains now to inquire how the family name of Agazzari also came to the same Bl. Stephen. Now the Agazzari were among the first of the nobles of Siena. Tommaso Agazzari by his own private authority in a certain tumult at Siena saved from death a man of the opposing faction, as Francesco Tommasi narrates Muratori, Scriptt., vol. XX, col. 7., and Memmo Agazzari was deputed by the city of Siena as Orator to Milan to the Emperor Sigismund Ibid., col. 36.. Finally of the same family Tommaso, as we said above at no. 7, was judge or, as it was then said, podestà of Bologna in the year 1417 Ibid., Annali di Siena, vol. XIX, col. 426.. From what has been brought forward so far it is sufficiently clear that the splendor of the Agazzari family was very high, whose lineage, as Ambrogio Landucci says Sacr. Ilicet. Sylva, p. 102., enjoyed public honors in the Sienese homeland even up to about the year 1300. That our Stephen drew his origin from it the more recent writers everywhere affirm; yet there exists, so far as I know, only one document of this assertion older than the seventeenth century: namely the Life prefixed to the constitutions of the Congregation of St. Savior says that the Blessed was of the Agarii of Siena, a corrupt form, that is, for Agazzari. This Life Crisostomo Trombelli holds to be older than the year 1500. But above at no. 5 we have shown that the lucubration was written hardly before the year 1530. From what source then the tradition should be derived I altogether do not know. Yet since he is now everywhere among more recent writers called Stephen Agazzari, I by no means wish to eliminate him from that family; rather I willingly distinguish him by that name Melloni, vol. II, p. 193, note 7.. But among the ancients, that is, writers of the fifteenth century, he is almost always Cioni: it must be seen then what is the relationship of the Cioni with the Agazzari, which by no means can I show. Nor should this be taken away from the glory or rather merit of our Blessed, namely that he touched by nearness of blood St. Bernardine of Siena, the splendor of the Order of Minors: for which reason the feast of the Saint among the canons regular was by a Statute of the General Chapter held in the year 1451, as is reported, to be kept Ibid., vol. II, p. 194, note 10.

§ II. The Blessed professes the eremitic life at Lecceto; he gives his effort to letters; the Hermitage of Lecceto is withdrawn from the jurisdiction

of the Order; and at length the Blessed passes with his companions to the canons regular.

At Lecceto, not far from the city of Siena, Bl. Stephen is said to have been born in the common year 1354, of parents, as we have already said, noble, and was diligently brought up in the best morals. Having reached fourteen years of age, and thus about the year 1363, spurning a more comfortable and more celebrated religious institute, he went to the Hermitage of Lecceto, and there bound himself with the solemn vows of Religion. Now Ilicetum (in Italian Lecceto) is a country estate, about six kilometers distant from Siena, called also Silva Lacus (Selva del Lago), a place very celebrated for the monastery of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, which was the head of a certain Congregation of the same Order. Further, its beginnings can be traced back by certain documents to the year of Christ 1123 Repetti, Dizionario geografico della Toscana, under Lecceto.. Ambrogio Landucci himself, who, writing a special History of his monastery, certainly wished nothing taken from its antiquity, begins the series of father priors of Lecceto, of whom there is certain memory from the year 1222, since earlier writings have perished Ilicetana Sylva, p. 16.. As time went on there were two monasteries in that solitude, of St. Savior and of St. Leonard: and the Leonardine indeed was magnificent, as being able to offer comfortable hospitality to various Pontiffs and their court, namely Gregory XII, Martin V, Eugene IV, and Pius II. The Hermitage of St. Savior was suppressed in the year 1783, and the convent of St. Leonard in the year 1810, which at length was given to the seminary of Siena for use as a country retreat for the pupils.

[11] he embraces the eremitic life; Having professed the eremitic life according to the Rule of St. Augustine in the cenoby of Lecceto, probably, says Luigi Torelli in the Secoli Agostiniani under the year 1432, §79 Secoli Agostiniani, vol. IV, p. 60., he applied himself to studies, as is the custom; but with what progress he did this no one has written: it is to be believed, however, that Stephen was mediocre in letters, as one who never obtained any literary degree. So indeed Torelli, whom Melloni contradicts Memorie, vol. II, p. 202.: for Ambrogio Landucci, who has woven for us a Catalogue of the men of Lecceto presented with the laurel, points out none who, educated at Lecceto, obtained a literary degree before the middle of the fifteenth century, and thus at the time when Bl. Stephen gave his effort to letters Ilicet. Sylva, p. 149.. Those whom he enumerates as distinguished by the magistrate are such as had already attained the laurel before entering the Hermitage of Lecceto. The humble hermits, namely, loved knowledge, but shunned its pomp. Then at the time when our Blessed was living as a young man in the said cenoby, there were there two notable men; William Flete, from the farthest bounds, says Landucci Ibid., p. 93., of England, came to Lecceto in zeal for a more perfect life, already a bachelor, nor did he wish to ascend to a higher degree, and he was wholly taken up with writing letters to his countrymen and others, and is said to have been confessor of St. Catherine of Siena: he died in the year 1380. The other was Giovanni Tantucci, who, though a Sienese by homeland, had obtained the doctoral laurel at Cambridge in England, and is praised in various letters of the same St. Catherine: he died in the year 1391.

[12] without, however, neglecting letters Nor can it be doubted that Bl. Stephen, enjoying the familiarity of such great men, also made excellent progress in the sciences. For he was endowed with an excellent disposition, since, as the Life says Melloni, p. 203., there was in him a certain eloquence poured in from above, spiritual, affable, pleasant, and learned, so that he easily turned all who heard him to the love of himself, so that no one ever came to him who did not go away from him delighted with his honeyed words, captivated by an incredible sweetness of speech, and as it were filled with the divine. Him too Gregory XII employed, a learned man and, says Leonardo of Arezzo, a contemporary, in his Chronicle Muratori, Scriptt., vol. XIX, col. 923., to be revered for his old-fashioned severity and holiness, nay, as the Life has it Compare Trombelli, Memorie, p. 37, note., he very often had long and private conversations with Fr. Stephen, and always wished to make his sacramental confession before him with the greatest devotion. It is not likely, however, that Pope Gregory, a supreme theologian entangled in the most intricate controversy on abolishing the notorious schism, should have had as his familiar a man, as Torelli says, moderately learned, neglecting the excellent doctors who stood around him. By these things, then, is struck down the conjecture of Torelli, which he tried to hammer out from the lack of an academic degree.

[13] and the sciences. Although, then, it is not doubtful that Lecceto was a seat of letters, at least so far as was needful for the sacred ministry, yet the chief care was spent on cultivating the spirit in divine things. Very often they lived solitary in caves, one of which, when Giovanni Battista Melloni wrote in the year 1789, still existed. In this monastery, then, regular discipline was entire and uncorrupted, nor do I doubt that it was especially on this account that our Blessed chose this monastery for himself above others. Cloistral observance was in force, nor did the brethren wish anything diminished regarding the measure of their austerity, whence Bl. Nicholas Marescotti, prior of Lecceto, who died in the year 1387 Landucci, Ilicet. Sylva, p. 97., suffered many tribulations, because he was by no means willing to admit into his cenoby those who were not fit to preserve in its vigor the manner of life that was held there Melloni, vol. II, p. 197.. But on the other side the superiors of the Hermits of St. Augustine, whether general or provincial, after the various congregations of Hermits were joined into one body by a bull of Alexander IV in the year 1256 Compare Torelli, Annal., vol. IV, p. 518., either looking askance at the austerity of Lecceto, or desiring to spread to other convents too the zeal and example of observance, took from the often-praised Hermitage superiors for monasteries and in turn sent others there. Whence from frequent migrations of this kind it was to be feared that, discipline growing lukewarm, the monastery would gradually fall to pieces.

[14] the Hermitage of Lecceto from the jurisdiction of the ordinary Already in the year 1387 Bartholomew of Venice, prior general of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, had withdrawn the Hermitage of Lecceto from the jurisdiction of the provincial of Tuscany and had subjected it to himself alone and his successors Compare Torelli, Annal., vol. VI, p. 249.. But this kind of change profited the pious Hermits little, since the generals themselves, with good intent, wished other monasteries to be sharers of the virtues which the men of Lecceto sedulously practiced, and so frequently took from them men to hold regular office in other cenobies, and in turn sent there men who, not at all accustomed to severer discipline, gradually enticed others to a laxer life. This cause of the change is alleged by Gabriel Pennotto from Augustine of Pavia in the Dilucidarium [Generalis totius sacri Ordinis Clericorum Canonicorum, Historia Tripartita, p. 475.]: The Order, he says, of canons regular, who are commonly called Scopetines, was instituted in the district of Siena at St. Savior's by the venerable man Stephen, whose helper was Fr. James Andrew, a Sienese by nation, of the Order of Hermits. For he had contended in long altercation with his General, chiefly for this reason, that when he had educated some young man in his monastery in good morals and letters, he at once took him away from him. The holy man, moved by zeal, seeing that this did not turn to the progress of those young men, after a long contention with himself was compelled, with the assent of the Pontiff, to change his habit, that even thus he might be released from his general. The canons regular are called Scopetines, because they had a celebrated monastery at Scopeto, in the suburb of Florence.

[15] is withdrawn This cause Torelli rejects as a fable Annali, vol. VI, p. 414., both because Gregory XII in no word touches on it in his bull soon to be given, and because the general sent young men elsewhere for the sake of studies, which turned to the benefit and honor of the men of Lecceto. And first of all Gregory has nothing at all special about the government of the prior general, but the opening of the bull sufficiently indicates that something was wanting to the splendor of the men of Lecceto: for he says that he has followed the house of the priorate of St. Savior of Silva Lacus with love; for which reason, he says, we do not cease to follow it with paternal zeal, that, directing the gaze of attentive consideration to its state, we may bestow aid and effort, that to the praise and glory of God it may be not only preserved in its goods and rights, but also may continually rejoice in prosperous events, and may be increased, the Lord favoring, with desired successes in spiritual and temporal things Bullarium Canonicorum Regularium, p. 66.. These things show that the Pontiff greatly favored the men of Lecceto, nor was he obliged to allege the discords growing between the prior general and the men of Lecceto, which tended to the reproach of the whole Order. This discord also Ambrogio Landucci hints at, when he says in his Chronotaxis that, a tower having been built as a bulwark of the monastery, there comes a confusion of tongues. Then, that the general superiors sent the pupils of Lecceto to other monasteries for the sake of studies, and thus that Stephen complained wrongly, is not sufficiently clear: for, as we said above, from Augustine of Pavia, young men at Lecceto were educated in good morals and letters, and living for the most part in the hermitage did not need great knowledge, and those who were endowed with better talent could easily struggle through to greater learning. Whence, to say what I think, it seems sufficiently likely to me that the dispersion of the young men was also a cause why Bl. Stephen and his companions consented to separation from the Hermits.

[16] by the authority of Gregory XII; Since therefore the brethren of Lecceto could not avert through their ordinary superiors the ruin that they feared for the convent, they had recourse to the common father of the faithful, the Roman pontiff. Pope Gregory XII opportunely came to Siena on the 4th day of September 1407 with twelve cardinals Muratori, Scriptt., vol. XIX, p. 421.: and probably the Hermits of Lecceto, who adhered to the party of Gregory, went to greet him and professed him as the true and lawful Pope. For if they had postponed a visit of this kind, they would have been deservedly held suspect, as if they had offered obedience to another Pope (there were then three). Having found this occasion, Bl. Stephen, then subprior and procurator of Lecceto, resolved to approach the Pope. The Pontiff held the monastery in the highest esteem, because he knew excellently its very strict observance from the time when he held only the dignity of the cardinalate. First there approached him Filippo Agazzari, prior of Lecceto, and, as it seems, a kinsman of our Stephen Melloni, Memorie, vol. II, p. 193, note 9., who obtained the confirmation of all privileges, and moreover, says Landucci Ilicet. Sylv., p. 23., that without the assent of the greater part of the brethren living there at the time, no one could be removed from there, nor anyone be sent to them, except through the supreme Pontiff. Landucci says that the concession was given on the 21st of March under the year 1407. But I strongly doubt whether it belongs to this year: for on the 21st day of March 1407 Gregory was at Rome, and remained there until the 9th of August Novaes, Sommi Pontefici, vol. V, p. 16.; nor is it likely that Filippo

Agazzari set out for Rome. What concession it was, then, must be referred to another month: for indeed the same Landucci narrates that on the 23rd day of September Ilicet. Sylv., p. 23. this privilege was extended to all the successors of Filippo. It would besides have been rather vain if the privilege had been enclosed within the life of one man. But since shortly afterward the same Pontiff, namely on the 3rd before the nones of April of the year 1408, gave an apostolic constitution by which he transformed the hitherto Augustinian hermits into canons regular, it would not have been worthwhile to pour out favors of this kind. I judge, then, that the prior Filippo obtained this privilege in the time of the stay of Pope Gregory at Siena, and so from the beginning of September 1407 to the end of the following January 1408, when, leaving Siena, the Pontiff went off to Lucca.

[17] and because the Augustinian hermits refused to acquiesce in the exemption, That the withdrawal from the jurisdiction of the prior general did not please the Augustinian Hermits it is easy enough to judge. And hence new complaints, which in the name of their brethren were brought to the Pontiff by our Bl. Stephen, subprior and procurator of the monastery, and James Andrew of Siena, in the name of all their brethren. The Pontiff, consoling them with kind words, bade them be of good heart, and assigned a day on which they should present themselves at the pontifical throne. Further, in that period, especially on account of the great schism, all, says St. Antoninus in his Chronicle, tit. XVI, ch. 23, §2 Ilicet. Sylva, vol. II, p. 562., except the Carthusians, monastic and regular religious orders, which had their beginning with great fervor and holiness of life, neglecting the least of the paternal traditions, gradually fell away in the process of time… The canons regular, who are said to have had their beginning from the gem of Doctors, St. Augustine, had been relaxed from their Rule and deformed. So Pope Gregory, who in his youth had professed the institute of canons regular at Venice in the monastery of San Giorgio in Alga Compare Flaminio Corner, Ecclesiæ Venetæ, vol. VI, p. 57., took the resolve of instituting, with the help of the Hermits of Lecceto, a congregation of canons regular. At first indeed he hid his mind, but when Bl. Stephen and his companion had come to Lucca at the beginning of April, he disclosed to them his will, that, name and habit being changed, they should thereafter be both named and clothed as canons regular. Stephen was astounded at such a message, and modestly set forth to the Pontiff that he had not received in his instructions from the brethren that the institute should be changed; for which reason he asked that he be permitted to return to Lecceto, that, having received a new instruction, he might proceed more securely Trombelli, Memorie, p. 34..

[18] Stephen and his companions The Pontiff assented: and at Lecceto, the chapter being convoked, he set forth his will, to which all assented, except Francesco or Cecco Berti of Foiano: they were thirteen in number, namely, nine choir religious and two lay brothers: besides Bl. Stephen, Filippo di Leonardo degli Agazzari of Siena, James Andrew, likewise of Siena, Domenico di Cione or Uguccione of Siena, Giovanni di Francesco of Asti, Giovanni di Cristoforo Salimbeni of Siena, Regolino di Angelino di Filippo of Siena, kinsman of St. Bernardine of Siena, Andrea di Angelino, who is everywhere reported to be the brother of the preceding, Giovanni di Antonio Guidi, Francesco di Nanni, the two lay brothers Bartolomeo di Salvi and Cristoforo di Giovanni. But one lay brother of Lecceto, Fr. Francis of Foiano, did not consent to the plan of changing the habit, remaining constant thereafter in the eremitic habit. From which dissent great calamities were afterward created. For he not only disclosed to the Hermits of Siena whatever was treated at Lecceto, but according to his measure bent every art that the monastery should be restored to the Hermits Ibid., p. 36.. Bl. Stephen and his companion James having returned, then, to Lucca, the capitular consent was most pleasing to the Pontiff, and with his own hands he put on them the canonical habit, namely a white ankle-length garment, a shorter linen garment, commonly called a rochet, and a scapular also white, with a cappa of gray color Ibid., p. 35.. Then he gave the same Stephen power of clothing in like manner and aggregating among the canons regular all the Hermits of Lecceto, and at length, the three nephews of the Pope assisting, Antonio Correr, bishop-elect of Bologna, Gabriele Condulmer, Treasurer of the Roman Church, bishop-elect of Siena, and Giovanni, bishop-elect of Ragusa, he committed to the same Stephen the care of framing statutes that should suit the new institute.

[19] to the canons regular, These last things are indicated in the Bull which Gregory gave in the second year of his pontificate, on the 3rd before the nones of April, that is, the 3rd day of April 1408. After a proem in which he signifies that he greatly wishes all things to prosper well in the house of St. Savior of Lecceto or in Silva Lacus, for this reason, he says, of our own motion, not at the instance of a petition offered to us on this matter by the beloved sons of the house, which up to now has belonged to the Order of Friars Hermits of St. Augustine, or by anyone else on their behalf, but of our mere liberality and from sure knowledge, we erect the same house into a conventual priory by apostolic authority. These words make it manifest that neither our Stephen nor any other of his companions sought a change of his institute, and thus that the erection of the canons regular truly proceeded from the pontiff's own motion; which is shown also by the manner of acting of Bl. Stephen, who on learning the mind of the Pontiff openly professed that he had nothing in his instructions by which power was given to him or his companion of admitting such a change, for which reason he wished, before the business went further, to seek the counsel of his brethren and to obtain their consent. When therefore Ambrogio Landucci says Ilicet. Sylva, p. 102. that the canons regular err when they deny that Stephen was the founder, calling him propagator or restorer, because this conflicts with the express truth, since in the diplomas there is established an altogether new habit, new constitutions, and even a title under the Rule of St. Augustine. That a new institute arose from the pontifical diplomas there is no reason for us to dispute; certainly the men of Lecceto were brought over from the eremitic state to the canonical state. But the canons denied that Bl. Stephen was the founder of the new congregation; for he is to be called properly and truly a founder who both conceives some religious institute in his mind and carries it out in deed, in which sense we have founders properly so called, for example Saints Benedict, Bruno, Dominic, Francis, Ignatius, and others: which things occur by no means in Bl. Stephen, but well in Pope Gregory. Let us say, then, if it pleases, that our Blessed was the first parent of the congregation, since he carried out the will of the Pope expressed in the bull and completed it in deed.

[20] privileges being granted Pope Gregory clothed the constitution of the new canons with certain conditions: Under the condition, he says, and in the manner written below we have instituted it to be governed, willing and by the same authority decreeing, that the said brethren actually residing in the same house and their successors, who shall be at the time, shall thereafter be canons regular and live according to the regular institutions of such canons regular, and shall be named brethren of St. Savior. And each of them shall wear under the scapular a rochet, and above a cappa of gray color of biting wool, like the cappas of the lay brothers of the Carthusian Order, which cappa the said brethren shall use when it happens that they go out of the enclosure of the priory or house to the people or crowd. And also such priory or house, with the same brethren and lay brothers and persons living in it, present and to come, and also the movable and immovable goods … from all superiority, lordship, and power of the prior general of the said Order of Friars Hermits, and also of the bishop existing at the time and of the beloved sons of the chapter of Siena and of any other superiors secular and regular, by the aforesaid authority we altogether exempt and free, so that the prior general, bishop, and chapter and the other aforesaid superiors may be able to exercise no visitation, correction, or other jurisdiction over them, but they shall be subject immediately to us and to the apostolic see.

[21] and favors, And moreover by the present letters we add, that the said canons or brethren who shall at the time have professed the regular life of the same canons regular, and who shall at the time reside in such house under the same regular observance of the said canons regular, may, as often as shall be opportune, yet according to the regular institutions of canons regular, elect a suitable brother, even a professed member of the same Order, as prior of themselves and of the same house. Who however, after he has given his consent to the election made of him, must be reverently and humbly presented by such electors only to the diocesan of the place or his vicar general in spirituals, who shall be at the time: and who after he has been so presented shall be held by that very fact to be confirmed by the aforesaid see, and from then on may freely and licitly govern the said priory in the same spirituals and temporals. Which prior shall always be understood to be discharged on the completion of one year, unless then it be determined by the greater part of the same brethren of the aforesaid house having a voice in the election of the said prior that the said prior ought to remain further in the said office of the priory of the same house: and that when the said house is destitute of the comfort of its prior through the death of the same prior or by any other chance, the same vacancy occurring, that during such vacancy the aforesaid office be exercised by the elder brother of the said house constituted in the priesthood; until a new election of another prior be made according to the aforesaid manner and be brought to due effect.

[22] a new habit also being granted, he transferred. To the same established canons the Pontiff grants all the privileges, favors, and exemptions formerly conceded both to the Augustinian hermits and to the canons regular, and then he goes on: And moreover we will and ordain that our venerable brother Antonio, bishop of Bologna, chamberlain, and our beloved sons Gabriele, bishop-elect of Siena, our treasurer, and also Giovanni, bishop-elect of Ragusa, shall provide the same prior and brethren or canons, lay brothers and persons, with suitable constitutions and norm of living for the preservation of the prior and brethren or canons, lay brothers and persons aforesaid, and shall do, order, and dispose all other and each of the things in the premises and concerning them, as shall seem to them expedient. Decreeing from now void and empty all processes, and sentences of excommunication, suspension, and interdict, if any should perhaps happen to be promulgated against these things by any authority whatever, and from now by like motion we hold ratified and firm whatever shall have been disposed or in any way ordained by the same chamberlain, treasurer, and elect of Ragusa in the premises and concerning them. Let no one therefore etc. Given at Lucca on the 3rd before the nones of April in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1408, etc., in the 2nd year of our pontificate Bullarium canonicorum Regularium, part I, p. 66.. It will be helpful to indicate briefly what offices were discharged by those whom in the aforesaid bull Gregory XII chose as commissioners. Antonio Correr, nephew of Gregory XII by a brother, canon regular of San Giorgio in Alga, bishop of Bologna, in the month of May or June of the year 1408 was made cardinal, and died in the year 1445 Ciaconius, Vitæ Rom. Pontt. et Cardd., vol. II, col. 765.. Gabriele Condulmer, nephew of the said Gregory by a sister, first a canon regular of St.

George in Alga, then bishop of Siena, although not yet of lawful age, in the year 1408 together with the aforesaid Antonio, his cousin, received the red hat, and in the year 1447 died as pontiff under the name of Eugene IV Ibid., loc. cit., and col. 876.. Giovanni, however, who is called elect of Ragusa, born in the lowest place, professed of the Order of St. Dominic, attained the dignity of the cardinalate in the year 1408, together with the two preceding; he led a most holy life, so that he is reckoned among the Blessed; he departed from life on the 10th day of June 1419 Ibid., col. 763. Compare Acta SS. vol. II of June, p. 344..

§ III. The constitution of the congregation of canons regular; the Augustinian Hermits oppose the pontifical bulls; the Pope meets the impending evils with prudent counsel.

The bull of the new erection Bl. Stephen, returning to Lecceto with his companion James, showed the aforesaid bull to the three commissioners designated by the Pontiff, and, as they themselves declare in the instrument of execution, they found it sound and entire, not cancelled, not corrupted, but altogether free of every fault and suspicion. But here Ambrogio Landucci meets us, who, speaking of the change of habit, names other commissioners P. 23.: In four diplomas, he says, pertaining to this change, there is assigned not only the form of delivering the aforesaid habit, together with laws and constitutions by the bishops of Florence (Jacopo Palladini Ughelli, Ital. Sacr., vol. III, col. 165.), Grosseto or Crassetum (Francesco Bellanti Ibid., col. 670.), and Massa (Bartolomeo Ghini Ibid., col. 721.), but also the Title, which is: Brethren of St. Savior, as may be seen in the archive of Lecceto, where the first copies exist. There is no reason for us to suspect the good and sincere faith of Landucci; for which reason G. B. Melloni says that several bulls were issued, and perhaps that the commissioners were changed; for indeed Jacopo Palladini in the following year, or 1409, took part in the Council of Pisa Melloni, Memorie, vol. II, p. 217, note 5., in which, two Popes, Gregory XII and Benedict XIII, being deposed, Alexander V was elected; and thus the fathers of Pisa brought, as it were, new wood to a fire already vast. This conjecture or divination of Melloni cannot stand. For if several commissioners had already been designated for carrying out the pontifical will, Bl. Stephen, approaching Gregory XII at Lucca, could not have been ignorant of his mind; at least he would have understood from rumor that a change of institute and habit was in question, and so would have set out for Lucca with the instructions of his brethren, nor would there have been need for him to seek a new consent of his companions. But if these things are true, I do not grasp how there can be room for naming other commissioners. The ordinance of Gregory was unforeseen, even those whom it touched being unaware. And so, without, as I have said, calling into doubt the sincerity of Landucci, I judge that the diplomas cited either regard certain special controversies, or pertain to the dissension which was growing between the Augustinian prior general and the inhabitants of Lecceto. Then in no word does Landucci indicate at what time the diplomas praised by him were given.

[24] Bl. Stephen promulgates it at Fiesole. To comply with the pontifical will, Bl. Stephen called his companions together at Fiesole, to receive the new habit. Why the rite was carried out at Fiesole rather than at Lecceto I could not easily say. The change of institute displeased the Augustinian Hermits, as we shall see further on, and if the new canons regular had not returned to Lecceto, one could rightly surmise that another place was chosen for this reason, for the rite to be completed: but since for some time they inhabited Lecceto as canons, there seems to be no effective reason for them to have transferred themselves elsewhere. Perhaps the cause was this, that Giovanni Dominici, bishop-elect of Ragusa, one of the three commissioners designated by the Pope, was alone present at the clothing; for he himself never went to Ragusa Farlati, Illyricum Sacrum, vol. VI, p. 153., presented with the Roman purple in the same year 1408, and lived for the most part in the convent of the Friars Preachers founded by himself: and for that reason he called the men of Lecceto together at Fiesole; whither all came, except, as we said above, one of the lay brothers, Brother Francesco Berti. In the presence, then, of the Fathers Preachers, among whom more probably was St. Antoninus, after finishing his novitiate at Cortona a dweller in the monastery of Fiesole, Giovanni Dominici, already a cardinal, gave the new habit to the hermits of Lecceto, probably on the 28th day of June 1408 Melloni, Memorie, vol. II, p. 218, note.. Landucci puts the 25th day of June Ilicet. Sylv., p. 23.; but both Torelli Annal., vol. VI, p. 413. and Pennotto Canonicor. regularium Historia, p. 477. and Segni assign the 28th day of the month to the clothing. With the canonical habit he delivered also the constitutions, fitted to the new kind of life, which the three apostolic commissioners had framed by common counsel. All these things were celebrated before master Marco di Pietro of Mugello, public notary requested for this. At length the new canons returned to their monastery of Lecceto.

[25] and he is elected prior of the Congregation; But, as Pennotto says [Ibid., loc. cit. Compare Mozzagrugno, Narratio rerum gestarum canonicorum regularium, book V, p. 19.], an enemy, envying their quiet and progress, oversowed cockle in the field of that new canonical institution: for some of the nobles, supported by the backing of the city, rising up in arms against the prior of the canons and the venerable Brother Stephen, afflicted them with many injuries and persecutions, and at last, making an assault, the magistracy of Siena, retaining all their privileges, writings, and goods, violently drove them from the monastery. Before they were expelled from Lecceto, however, Bl. Stephen, by virtue, says Landucci Ilicet. Sylv., p. 23., of the aforesaid diploma made apostolic commissioner of the new institute, gathered a chapter of the canons, on the 2nd day of July, and, the election being made, Filippo di Leonardo Agazzari was appointed prior. Which according to the Gregorian constitution, cited at no. 21, was approved by the bishop of Siena. But Torelli sets these things forth more mildly Vol. VI, pp. 415 and 416., whose Italian words I render in Latin: While, he says, the new canons regular were about having the beginnings of their new institution duly ordered, our hermits of Siena and the general himself with the whole Order demanded the restitution of the convent of Lecceto, which they had lately lost. The Senate too of the republic of Siena supported them with its authority, for they set forth that if the convent of Lecceto were taken from the Augustinian Order, there would at the same time be taken from the Order a most precious gem, since the report was that it existed from the time of its founder, St. Augustine: accordingly they sought restitution. Such demands were harshly received by the Pontiff, because he did not wish to destroy what shortly before he had publicly and solemnly established.

[26] but the Hermits being in tumult, Nevertheless both the Hermits and the Senate insisted on protesting, and at length the Pontiff, moved by their prayers, assented that the canons who had lately professed the canonical life should return to the eremitic norm and habit. He gave therefore on the 20th day of November 1408 at Rimini, whither, as less secure at Lucca, he had fled, new apostolic letters of the following tenor Torelli, Annal., vol. VI, p. 417; Empoli, Bullarium Erem. S. Augustini, p. 130.: Gregory etc. to the beloved sons the canons or brethren of St. Savior of Silva Lacus, pertaining without intermediary to the Roman Church, of the Order of St. Augustine, of the diocese of Siena, greeting and apostolic blessing. The honor of the sacred religious life, under which you show the Lord devout and sedulous service, deservedly leads us to be intent with all our desires on those things that regard the quiet of your mind. Accordingly for certain just and reasonable causes, lawfully inducing our mind, for the greater quiet of your souls, to all and each of you we grant, from sure knowledge, of our own motion, by apostolic authority, by the tenor of the present letters, to return to the Rule of the Friars Hermits of the said Order at the place of Lecceto of the diocese of Siena, and to resume their habit, and also to enjoy and use all and each of the exemptions, immunities, and privileges which you enjoyed before the change of the said habit, or used in the said Order of Hermits: notwithstanding any Constitutions and apostolic letters or of the said Orders or others contrary whatever. Given at Rimini, on the 12th before the kalends of December. In the second year of our pontificate. An apostolic constitution obtained by importunate prayers, which had in some degree been made necessary both by the uncertain state of the supreme magistracy of the Church, thus divided into three parts, and by the continued vexations which the young canons had experienced from the Hermits.

[27] the Pope grants, Broken by these calamities there returned to the ancient state and habit first of all the recently elected superior himself, Filippo di Leonardo Agazzari, Giovanni di Francesco of Asti, Giovanni di Cristoforo Salimbeni, Giovanni di Antonio Guidi, Andrea Regolino, Andrea di Angelino, Bartolomeo di Salvi, and Cristoforo di Giovanni, these two lay brothers. Six, then, leaving the canonical habit, returned to the Hermits. Landucci says Ilicet. Sylv., p. 14. that seven changed their state again: but error has crept in, for he himself reckons six choir religious and two lay brothers; and so he should have written that there were eight canons who returned to their former state. Those who had come back, says the aforesaid Landucci Ibid., loc. cit., gathered capitularly, by their suffrage again elected as prior Bl. Filippo degli Agazzari of Siena. Meanwhile there remained faithful to the new institute with Bl. Stephen James Andrew (who however afterward, weary of persecutions, with the aid of St. Bernardine of Siena, was enrolled in the Order of Minors of the Observance and lived in it most holily Trombelli, Memorie, p. 37.), Giovanni di Antonio Vanni, Domenico Cioni, Regolino di Angelino, and Francesco di Nanni. These, as it is easy enough to judge, placed amid enemies domestic and external, suffered great vexations; when, says Mozzagrugno Narratio rerum, book V, fol. verso 19., an assault being made by the magistracy of Siena, their privileges, constitutions, and all their writings being retained, and all their goods taken away, they compelled all to flee violently and injuriously from the same monastery of Lecceto, except Francis of Foiano the lay brother, of whom we have spoken above at no. 18, whom, persevering in his former eremitic habit, they left there alone for the keeping of the place. The wretched canons, so ignominiously expelled from their own seats, betook themselves to a certain little place not far distant from the same monastery. Where begging from door to door they led a laborious life most wretchedly for some days.

[28] that they may return to the ancient habit: And these things were the cause that Pope Gregory XII gave the above-mentioned letters at Rimini, by which power was given to the new canons of resuming the eremitic habit. Since those who adhered constantly to the canonical state, and so to Bl. Stephen, had no certain seat, Pope Gregory wished first of all to have at his side two, whom he took as sharers of his counsels and arbiters of his own conscience, namely our Bl. Stephen and James Andrew. It is said in the Proem of the constitutions, of the year 1548: Bl. Stephen followed the Pontiff for the sake of allaying the sedition by which

Christendom and Religion were not moderately torn in that period, as he ran here and there. The others he ordered to be commended to his nephew, Antonio Correr, Cardinal bishop of Bologna, who could help the exiles but little, since the city was then occupied by Baldassare Cossa, who, Alexander V having died in the year 1410, attained as third the supreme pontificate: whence there were enmities between Gregory and Baldassare Cossa, and so he could bestow little favor on the exiles. Nevertheless they found a refuge of some sort in a certain little chapel near the Bolognese gate of San Mamolo; but after a few months they left not only Bologna, but the whole province Melloni, Memorie, vol. II, p. 227.. Placed in these straits they could hope for almost no help from anyone. Pope Gregory, himself in need on account of the diverse factions in Christendom, could console them in no other way than by certain privileges. And among other things he granted them, by apostolic letters given in the diocese of Aquileia on the kalends of September 1409, that they might settle in whatever place they wished and establish a regular priory: and they are of the following tenor Bullar. Canonic. regul., part I, p. 70..

[29] yet so that, faithful to their vocation, Formerly indeed, by our letters given at Lucca on the 3rd before the nones of April, in the second year of our pontificate, the secret of our mind being stirred by the special and affectionate love with which we have up to now followed, and intend incessantly to follow with paternal zeal, the house and convent of the priory of St. Savior of Silva Lacus, pertaining without intermediary to the Roman Church, of the Order of St. Augustine, of the diocese of Siena. We of our own motion, not at the instance of a petition offered to us on this matter by the beloved sons, the brethren of the said house, which up to now has belonged to the Order of Hermits of the said St. Augustine, or by anyone else on their behalf, but of our mere liberality and from sure knowledge, erected the same house into a conventual priory by apostolic authority, to be governed perpetually through a prior, under new conditions and manners inserted in the said letters, as is more fully contained in our same letters. Since then, as the malice of the time grows and the insolence of the perverse rages, some brethren of the aforesaid convent, living under our devotion and integrity of faith, cannot at present dwell in such house and convent; we, compassionating them with pious affection, and wishing to assist them with the support of paternal protection, by the tenor of the present letters, by the same authority grant, that wherever the said brethren shall find a suitable, licit, and honorable place, which may be duly and canonically conferred on them for their residence, they may freely and licitly accept and take it up, and have and receive it as such a conventual priory, to the glory and honor of Almighty God, and retain it, by the same authority erecting the said place, to be held by them, as is set forth above, into such a priory, and decreeing by the aforesaid authority that the said brethren may dwell in it according to the institutions and rules given them by our said letters: And that the said place, to be held by the said brethren, to be erected into a priory, as is set forth above, and the said brethren, living under the said manners and rules expressed in our other letters, as is set forth above, may use and enjoy the exemptions, concessions, and indults contained and noted in such letters, whose tenors and forms we will to hold here as sufficiently expressed: notwithstanding any apostolic constitutions and others to the contrary. Let no one at all therefore be permitted etc. Given in the city of Austria, of the diocese of Aquileia, on the kalends of September, in the third year of our pontificate, of the Incarnation 1409.

[30] they might establish a cenoby in whatever place they wished The city of Austria from which Pope Gregory sends the preceding letters is commonly called Cividale del Friuli, situated, that is, in the tract of Forum Julii. But as jurisdiction was slippery and ambiguous, three Popes putting forward their several and lawful elections, passage from one obedience to another was easy for kings, cities, and peoples, according to political reasons, and thus for the pontiffs themselves there was nowhere a fixed seat and stay. Hence Gregory, who had deposed the patriarch of Aquileia, and found him most hostile, compelled to quit Aquileia, fled to Ladislaus, then king of the Neapolitans, and found at Gaeta a harbor of temporary tranquillity. From Gaeta, then, on the ides of September he gave new apostolic letters, by which he confirmed the letters cited above. But concessions of this kind helped little, when those who gave them, affairs being everywhere in the balance, had no external power by which mandates could be enforced. From the same refuge of Gaeta he bestowed other favors too, a consolation to the wretched exiles: thus by letters given on the 20th of September 1410 he grants the Prior and his successors the faculty of choosing a confessor for himself, who may absolve them from all sins, even those reserved to the Ordinary Bullar. Canonic. regul., part I, p. 75.; earlier also by other letters given on the 18th of September of the same year he had given a like faculty to all the canons regular of Lecceto, yet on the condition that besides the fasts prescribed by the Church they should keep six others, on days that they should choose Ibid., loc. cit.. And at length, besides other favors, the Pontiff grants a plenary Indulgence on the day of solemn profession, and the faculty of absolving from censures and irregularities, by letters of the 8th before the kalends of February 1412 Ibid., p. 75., that they might also aggregate to themselves ten canons, persons from any Religious order whatever.

§ IV. The Blessed and his companions, first established at Fabriano, then acquire the monastery of St. Ambrose near Gubbio and are united with the Congregation of St. Mary of Reno in the district of Bologna.

First a dwelling is established at Fabriano At length Bl. Stephen and his companions found a temporary, indeed, but tranquil seat at Fabriano in Picenum. They were following the fortune of Gregory XII, who, as is established from Bulls given in various places, wandered from city to city, as these adhered to his party. And hence it is that Bl. Stephen prescribed to his companions that they leave Bologna, inasmuch as that city followed the obedience of Alexander V, who dying in the city of Bologna itself was succeeded on the 17th of May 1410 by John XXIII, previously called Cardinal Baldassare Cossa Novaes, Sommi Pontefici, vol. V, p. 41.. Hence Trombelli places the migration to Fabriano in the course of the year 1410 Memorie, p. 58.. Fabriano was then a tranquil and opulent city; and Bl. Stephen hoped that he had found there for his companions a quiet station, in which from the riches of the citizens, increased by the manufacture of cotton paper, first invented there, as is said, he conjectured there would be large alms Moroni, Dizionario di Erud., under Fabriano.. It is not sufficiently established how long he stayed. This is certain, that Francesco di Nanni died at Fabriano, whose bones were then translated to the cenoby of St. Ambrose near Gubbio. Constantino Ghini says in his Menology, Natales of the holy canons, at the 28th of October, that the discomfort of the air was the cause why they had to leave the place. If then the year of the death of the said Francis were known to us, we could to some extent measure the length of the stay at Fabriano. This only we know, that Francesco di Nanni on the 12th day of August 1412 subscribed a charter presented by our Bl. Stephen to his brethren Melloni, Uomini Santi, vol. II, p. 232.; and that about the end of September 1414 his bones were translated to St. Ambrose of Gubbio, as is established from the Inventory of the things translated from Fabriano thither. Accordingly the death of Francis must be enclosed between two terms, and the stay at Fabriano, as we shall see below, must be restricted to the year 1414. For which reason we can follow the opinion of those who refer the death of Francis to the year 1413. Landucci by an evident error ties the death of Francis to the common year 1451, and adds Ilicet. Sylv., p. 110.: Clothed by Stephen in the new habit of the canons he found at length that softly clothed he could not easily walk the narrow road to heaven, whence returning to the stricter eremitic way, he departed from the living most holy. It is not easily to be believed that so much use of life remained to the said Francis, who is also honored with the title of Blessed; because certainly, having suffered the gravest hardships, he did not survive afterward for forty years.

[32] where Bl. Francis Nanni dies, From the words of Landucci it is sufficiently clear that he speaks somewhat unfavorably of the new habit of the canons, which he calls softer, and opposes to the stricter life of the Hermits; in this certainly to be approved, that he makes much of his own institute of life; but these things are not to be said to the detriment of truth. Landucci himself certainly confesses that the canons regular claim for themselves Francesco di Nanni, persevering until death in the canonical state, and alleges Mozzagrugno, Segni, Ghini: But he replies: These things do not correspond to what is found in our Lecceto monuments, from which we have that Francis returned to his former state Ibid., p. 110.: yet a little higher he had said: we follow Herrera, Alphabetum, p. 226, and Torelli, p. 294. But both Herrera and Torelli contradict Landucci in almost every way. The former indeed, in the place cited Alphabetum Augustinianum, p. 216., teaches that, having professed the institute of the Hermits in the sacred house of Lecceto, he flew to the new … of canons regular with other hermits of the same convent, and rendered that new planting more pleasant with the odoriferous flowers of his virtues, until he was translated to the heavenly garden in the year 1413 at Gubbio among the Ambrosians. By these things Herrera sufficiently shows that Francis died not a hermit, but a canon; there is one thing in which the writer is mistaken, that the venerable man closed his life at Gubbio. Torelli under the year 1424 Secoli Agostiniani, vol. VI, p. 462. says that Francesco di Nanni, not long before (namely when the canons of St. Savior were migrating from Fabriano to Gubbio), passed to a better life at Fabriano, and that his body was translated to the cenoby of St. Ambrose. By which words it is plainly shown that he lived constantly among the canons regular, and died holily.

[33] his body then being translated to St. Ambrose near Gubbio But equivalent to all arguments is the instrument drawn up by public notaries, which the Inventory shows Melloni, Uomini Santi, vol. II, p. 233, note.: It has pleased me to add here a copy of the Inventory, made by the hands of the undersigned notaries, found in the Gubbio archive, of all the things which they brought with them from Fabriano to the same St. Ambrose, which is to be read in these words: "In the name of the Lord. Written below are the things which Fr. Stephen di Giovanni of Siena, canon regular, prior of the said place, carried off to the place of St. Ambrose of Monte San Jacopo of Gubbio: which things are his own and of his companions present and future, assigned by the said Fr. Stephen the prior, in the presence of Matteo di Grazia and of me, Salinguerra of Ser Nuzio, and also Francesco di Andrea of Florence, as witnesses. These are the things, namely, first of all one chalice, whose cup and paten are of silver and enamel, on the foot is written Ave Maria, and many other utensils of modest value and quantity, which with the bones of Bl. Francis the canon did not make up the whole of two ass-loads…" And the aforesaid were consigned

by the lord Fr. Stephen and shown to me, Salinguerra, the notary undersigned, in the presence of Matteo di Grazia of Gubbio and Battista Pucci of Angure as witnesses. And I, Salinguerra, citizen of Gubbio, notary called by the aforesaid Fr. Stephen, saw the aforesaid things and wrote them in attestation and subscribed myself, the aforesaid witnesses being present. From all these things it is manifest that Landucci suffered something human, when he writes most confidently that something altogether other is established from the monuments of Lecceto. There may perhaps have been another Francis, also son of Giovanni or Nanni, who was a hermit returned from the canons; but it is certain that the Francesco di Nanni of whom there is frequent mention both persevered holily among the canons regular and holily finished his life at Fabriano.

[34] which at length, by the action of Gregory XII In the year 1414, then, so far as one may conjecture, the canons regular, led by Bl. Stephen, having experienced the discomfort of the air, abandoned Fabriano. It then happened opportunely that they obtained the possibility of at last acquiring a stable and fixed place. There was near Gubbio, as Jacobilli narrates in his elogium of our Bl. Stephen Vita dei Santi dell'Umbria, part I, p. 363., a church dedicated to St. Ambrose of Milan in the year 1331, beside which there lived holily according to the Rule of St. Augustine certain men, brought into a certain monastic form by the venerable man Ceccarello di Leonardo, and whom Pietro Gabrielli, the bishop, joined into a collegiate body, yet so that they were called brethren, not canons. Ceccarello having died in the year 1345, various priors succeeded: but at the beginning of the fifteenth century Giovanni of Revolo remained alone with one lay brother; whence care took hold of him to hand over his monastery to a livelier community. In this state of affairs Gregory XII entered the duchy of Urbino, magnificently received by Guidantonio of Montefeltro, duke of Urbino and lord of Gubbio. There our canons came, to complain of the vexations inflicted on them by the hermits: they also labored to draw to their party the duke of Urbino himself, but in vain; until St. Ambrose appeared to him in sleep and warned him that there was nothing to fear: that the institute of the canons was holy and would shortly be widely spread. Following these admonitions Guidantonio treated with Pope Gregory that the donation should be confirmed. Jacobilli ties the transaction to the year 1414, but Muratori rather calls it back to the year 1412, to whom Giovanni Battista Melloni assents Uomini Santi, vol. II, p. 235, note.. To confess the truth, the opinion of Jacobilli pleases me: for Gregory would not have put a solid two years between the petition made by Guidantonio and the confirmation, given at Rimini on the 24th of September 1414. For no one were the time and faculty of acting more uncertain than for Gregory, a fugitive from city to city, from whom princes and cities dissented and to whom they adhered at their political pleasure. Unless, then, it be shown, which will not easily be shown, that Stephen spent nearly two whole years in winning for himself the favor of Prince Guidantonio, both the prince's petition and Gregory's concession cannot be drawn away from the year 1414. For the rest, the bull of concession we shall give below in the Acts of Bl. Archangelus Canetoli, to be given on the next day.

[35] and Guido of Urbino, was given to the canons: After the cenoby of St. Ambrose of Gubbio had been received, restored, and increased in goods by the munificence above all of Guidantonio, duke of Urbino, the canons regular at last found a stable seat, as is clear from the bull of Gregory XII, given on the 9th before the kalends of October 1414. After a short time Giovanni of Revolo departed from life: the canons then assembled to elect a new prior for themselves, who according to the pontifical constitution, partly cited above at no. 21, was annual. By unanimous voice our Stephen was elected and confirmed until the year 1419. Shortly afterward the congregation grew with new canons, Fr. Peter, a Dominican of Siena, and Bartholomew di Andrea of Cascia, who by virtue of the indult by which ten religious from other Orders, as we said above at no. 30, could be received and aggregated to the canons regular. In the manuscript Life, some fragments of which Giovanni Battista Melloni has preserved Ibid., p. 240, note., these words are read: Peter from the Order of Preachers was enrolled by our aforesaid reverend first parent, then first elected Ambrosian prior by virtue of the new privilege, through the decease of the aforesaid Fr. Giovanni Revolo, lately deceased, and in each of the following years until the year 1419 canonically confirmed. This small gain, though slight, was for the condition of things huge for men in a manner abandoned by all, and it presaged greater increases: when, namely, the Congregation of canons regular of St. Mary of Reno was united to the Congregation of St. Savior.

[36] The cenoby of St. Mary of Reno, The history of the cenoby of St. Mary of Reno, three miles distant from Bologna, has been learnedly composed by Crisostomo Trombelli under the title: Historical Monuments of the two cenobies of Mary of Reno and of St. Savior [Memorie istoriche concernenti le due canoniche di Santa Maria di Reno e di San Salvatore.]. He says first that it was founded by St. Gregory VII or at least under his pontificate: to which opinion those concur who have written on the affairs of Bologna. Ughelli indeed records that it was founded under Bernard, bishop of Bologna from the year 1083 to 1104: In the time of this bishop, he says Ital. Sacra, vol. II, col. 17., the canonry of St. Mary on the Reno was built by canons regular of St. Augustine, whence afterward notable learned men came forth. The same is reported by Cherubino Ghirardacci, of the Order of Hermits, in the History of Bologna, written in Italian Historia di Bologna, vol. I, p. 56.: Under his (Bernard's) episcopate the canons regular of St. Augustine built beside the Reno the canonry of St. Mary. To which opinion also Carlo Sigonio of Modena comes, writing Works, vol. III, col. 410.: While the same Bernard was sitting, or certainly about these years, canons regular of St. Augustine established the canonry on the Reno under the name of St. Mary. So indeed the historians, whom Gabriel Pennotto contradicts, himself a canon regular, in his General History of the Canons P. 310 (b) Memorie, p. 3., whom the aforesaid Trombelli refutes in his work Bullar. Canonic. Reg., p. 1.. It would be beyond our purpose to mingle longer talk on such incidental controversies. For the rest, the most ancient instrument we know is the diploma of Walter, archbishop of Ravenna, given on the 10th before the kalends of February 1136, in which he frees the prior and brethren of St. Mary from all burdens and tithes, forbids anyone who has professed the canonical life to depart without leave of the prior or Congregation, permits clerics and seculars to be clothed, grants burials in its church, and allows it to receive the ordinations of clerics from any Catholic bishop whatever, when the Church of Bologna has no bishop, or whomever it has is established not to be Catholic. Almost the same things has the bull of Innocent II shortly following, given on the 6th before the kalends of September of the same year, if however you except the liberty of ordinations Ibid., p. 3.. Let these things be enough on the beginnings of the cenoby of St. Mary of Reno.

[37] then on account of intestine discord, For about one hundred and fifty years the Reno institute stood, increased by many riches and by churches that followed its discipline; but on the death in the year 1270 of Guezo Trombelli, Memorie, p. 15., the following election of a new prior was a seedbed of discords. Seven canons, supported by the power of the family of the Galluzzi, held the monastery, while eight fled to Bologna, and as the greater and, as they said, sounder part of the chapter, appointed the election to be held at Bologna in the cathedral church, and set a space of one day as a peremptory term. So, the others remaining at St. Mary of Reno, the fugitives named as prior Giovanni di Guglielmo. The men of Reno opposed to the Giovanni so elected another Giovanni, who was called di Ubertino. From this kind of discord there flowed, as always happens, a relaxation of cloistral discipline, some living among seculars at Bologna, others running to and fro to show the election made by them approved and valid, so that there were very few who stayed assiduously in the house of St. Mary. But scarcely was peace settled by a new election of Giovanni di Ubertino when a new storm arose at his death. For he having died in the year 1311, there was a new election, a new calamity, as the chapter split into two parts. Further from the relaxation of regular discipline the temporal estate also suffered great detriment; for long lawsuits in various and distant tribunals, dispersions of the brethren, who had to be fed outside the cloister, and the negligence of those who took care of domestic matters, absorbed a very great force of money, so that various estates had to be sold and alienated, and money had to be sought at ruinous interest Ibid., p. 15 ff..

[38] frequent wars To the cause of tottering discipline, which we may call internal, there was added an external one; namely the continual wars, seditions, and factions raging in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in the district of Bologna. The calamity was also heaped up by the giving of the cenoby, as it is commonly said, in commendam: whence unknown men, placed far off, not rarely hostile, hung over the canons regular, who through their ministers and procurators, seeking not so much the things of Christ as their own, gaped after the scraping together of money, and held sacred things of no account. These evils, in themselves very grave, were increased immeasurably by the great schism, which is commonly called the Western. Then each Pontiff, to increase the number of his followers and stir up their zeal, distributed with a large hand privileges, dispensations, wounds to the laws, and thus gradually enervated ecclesiastical discipline, whether you regard seculars or regulars. Certainly all men of sounder counsel understood that the Church needed reform, and hence already in the fifteenth century that cry, in a manner universal, that an ecumenical council be convoked and a bar be set against the rushing abuses. Nevertheless already in the fifteenth century there began a true and effective reform of various Orders. For besides the canonical Order, of which the author was Gregory XII and the helper our Bl. Stephen, the reform of the Hermits of St. Augustine also, especially in Italy, began about the middle of the fifteenth century Torelli, Annal., vol. VI, p. 781.. The return of the Friars Minor to the primitive Rule of St. Francis under Saints Bernardine of Siena and John of Capistrano was wonderfully spread. At almost the same time discipline fallen among certain Friars Preachers was restored through the Congregation under the title of Bl. James Salomoni, as may be seen in the History of the same Congregation composed by Fr. Giovanni Francesco de Rubeis Migne, Dictionnaire des Ordres Religieux, under Lombardie.. And among the Carmelites too in the fifteenth century the ancient spirit revived in the Congregation called of Mantua Lezana, Annales Carmelitarum, vol. IV, p. 804.. All things then, the schism being extinguished, presaged a universal reform and emendation of morals, when at the beginning of the sixteenth century the well-known heresies of that century rent the seamless tunic of Christ.

[39] and a most savage plague, having fallen, From the causes alleged so far, to which a very grave plague also contributed its share, the number of the men of Reno gradually decreased, so that, as is read in the codices of Reno

contemporary, the city of Bologna seemed deserted, the citizens were driven to fetch household servants from Germany and by means of marriages to create a new people. It is said plainly in the aforesaid codices: Francis (Ghisilieri), the aforesaid prior, ALONE on account of the plague, which is said to have prevailed for a long time Trombelli, Memorie, p. 20.. Further the aforesaid Ghisilieri, who gave the greatest increase to the Congregation of St. Savior, as we shall presently indicate, is said to have been born at Bologna in the year of Christ 1360, of a lawful, as the instruments report, marriage and noble family… His relatives are all rich and powerful, and it is the greatest house of persons of this city: they have always been and are most faithful to the Church Ibid., p. 194.. Of the same Jacobilli writes from Mozzagrugno Santi dell'Umbria, vol. II, p. 377.: Francesco Ghisilieri of Bologna, a man no less outstanding in nobility than in piety, a prudent zealot, perpetual prior of the monastery of St. Mary of Reno and of St. Savior of Bologna, to which in the year 1418 he united the monastery of St. Ambrose of Gubbio: he was a most learned man, he printed a treatise On the Judge of Regulars, and Expositions of the apostolic constitutions of the canons Regular of the said congregation of St. Savior; on which perhaps our Congregation has no other greater treater of this matter, or there is none equal to him. He composed also statutes for the reform of the said congregation. He took part in many chapters held in the said Ambrosian monastery and that of St. Savior of Bologna, and never wished to be abbot general; and he died holily in his monastery of St. Savior on the 27th day of June 1429 and was buried beside Bl. Stephen of Siena. The confusion has arisen from two namesakes of the same Congregation: each was also prior of St. Mary of Reno, but distant by two full centuries. On the witness of Giovanni Fantuzzi in the Notices of the writers of Bologna Notizie degli Scrittori Bolognesi, vol. IV, p. 144., the author of the criminal judge is Francesco Ghisilieri, who put on the habit of a canon regular on the 9th day of April 1574 and, after minor offices excellently discharged, was created prior of St. Agatha at Urbino in the year 1601, then twice prior of St. Mary of Reno, namely in the years 1616 and 1621; in which office he died with a reputation for probity and knowledge. This man I judge to be the author of the celebrated book: too accurately does he cite the distinct times of the various offices, although he too confuses both Ghisilieri, while at the end he cites Mozzagrugno.

[40] Francesco Ghisilieri Although we shear the doctoral laurel from Ghisilieri, yet we by no means wish his ardor in restoring canonical discipline to be diminished. For by his effort above all was made the association of the Ambrosian and Reno canons regular; by which the greatest increase came to the new Ambrosian institution, both of wealth and of places. For to the Reno Congregation pertained the churches of St. Andrew in Torricella, St. Domninus by Bagni, St. Mary of Raticosa, St. James of Casadio, St. Praxedes and St. Pudentiana at Rome Trombelli, Memorie, p. 105 ff.; to all of which must be added the church of St. Savior at Bologna. Various churches in the course of time either perished or were abandoned by the canons. The cause of which calamity was the fewness of the canons, even after they had grown together into one society. And assuredly of Ghisilieri it is read Ibid., p. 21.: Francis the aforesaid prior, now worn out with old age and left alone now for many years in his monastery, many canons whom he had received and initiated in the habit of his said monastery having been removed from the midst. And a little below: He reports, saying that his monastery for many years, on account of wars and plagues, regarding its annual revenues, took on a daily worse condition, destitute of canons, where he himself had remained alone now for many years, though he had always eagerly and anxiously sought that some should make profession, to whom both the habit and the observance of the monastery and its administration might come after him; none of whom being found for many years, etc.

[41] wishes to join to the canons regular, Ghisilieri being placed in this bereavement, there came to Bologna Domenico Cioni, companion of our Stephen, whether to seek some convenient place for the new Congregation, or summoned by Ghisilieri: and at once the matter began to be treated of delivering to the Ambrosians the monastery of St. Savior at Bologna. There certainly existed various reasons for both monasteries to be joined: both were canons regular, both had the same Rule of St. Augustine, and although the dress was not similar in all respects in both, in neither was there anything that departed from the canonical norm; nor was there such diversity in the particular Statutes that they could not be settled with easy dealing. Indeed the matter was transacted with the highest consent, and, as the manuscript Life in Melloni has it Uomini Santi, vol. II, p. 246, note., Ghisilieri appointed as his agents Brothers Stephen and Domenico, and the mandate of this procuration is established as drawn up at Bologna before the most reverend bishop between the parties, by the hand of Ser Marco di Rainaldo de' Formaglini and Ser Rainaldo, son of the late Comacino de' Formaglini, publicly stipulated before witnesses in the year 1418, indiction XI, on the 22nd day of April. Already in the preceding year 1417, in the month of October, on the feast of St. Luke, the lord Angelo, as the Chronicle of Forlì says Muratori, Scriptt., vol. XIX, col. 887., formerly called Pope Gregory XII, died at Recanati, who had renounced the papacy.

[42] which union, Pope Martin V approving, Meanwhile Martin V Colonna, elected supreme Pontiff on the 11th day of November 1417, had to bring to completion by his authority what Gregory had begun: for indeed such unions and societies cannot be firm without the knowledge of the supreme Pontiff. When, therefore, it had been agreed between our Stephen and Ghisilieri to unite both Congregations, and, as has been said, Stephen with his companion had received the mandate of procuration: with Guidantonio of Montefeltro as sequester of their petition, they addressed the Pontiff, as it seems, by letter. By the care, the manuscript Life of Bl. Stephen has it Melloni, Uomini Santi, vol. II, p. 247., of Guidantonio, count of Urbino, who was bound to the same new Pontiff by a very close affinity. We have seen above, at no. 34, that the count of Urbino was a very great friend to our Stephen, and that it was especially by his patronage that he obtained the Ambrosian monastery: yet the cited Life errs in this, that it makes him a relation of the Pope at the time when the apostolic letters were to be given: for this first happened when, Rengarda Malatesta, a most choice woman, having died, he took to wife Caterina Colonna, niece of Martin V, which happened about the year 1424. For Federico, bastard son of Guidantonio, was born in the year 1422, and two years later Rengarda died, whom Caterina Colonna followed as lawful wife. The apostolic letters confirming the society of both Congregations of canons regular were given on the nones of June 1418: accordingly long before Guidantonio contracted the bond of affinity with Pope Martin through Caterina his niece Baldi, Vita e Fatti di Federico di Montefeltro, vol. I, p. 8.. The said letters are said to have been given at Freiburg of the diocese of Lavant: there are various towns of this name in Germany: but the doubt is to some extent circumscribed by the addition of the diocese, which however is badly expressed; for we must read diocese of Lausanne: for it is established that Pope Martin came to Fribourg of the Swiss on the 3rd day of June 1418 and stayed there three days Schmitt, Histoire du diocèse de Lausanne, vol. II, p. 155..

[43] through Bl. Nicholas Albergati The aforesaid letters of Pope Martin were directed to Bl. Nicholas Albergati of the Carthusian Order, bishop of Bologna, and afterward cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, whose Acts our men have given at the 9th day of May Acta SS. vol. II of May, p. 467.. In the year of the Lord 1417, says Matteo de' Griffoni in the Memoriale Historicum Muratori, Scriptt., vol. XVIII, col. 225., on Sunday the 4th of July the Rev. father lord Brother Nicholas degli Albergati of Bologna, of the Order of the friars of the Carthusians, was consecrated and made bishop of Bologna, who is a man of holy life, and with whom the whole people of Bologna was very content. On account of the reputation for holiness of Nicholas and his dexterity in handling business, which frequent legations too, discharged in various provinces and under various Pontiffs, show, Bl. Stephen and Ghisilieri preferred that both congregations should grow together into one under his auspices: for that reason they asked that the apostolic letters be directed to Bishop Nicholas, and as it is said in the Acts of Ghisilieri: And concerning the entire disposition of these matters to be assigned to the Reverend lord Nicholas, bishop of Bologna, and not to another. We report therefore a summary of the apostolic constitution, which is as it were the foundation of the new congregation; whoever wishes to read it entire, let him go to the Bullarium of the Canons Regular P. 88. Rome edition, 1733.. The Pontiff first sets forth the wretched state of the monasteries of St. Mary of Reno and St. Savior of Bologna: Although, he says, in times past in the aforesaid monasteries many of the said canons of the Order, forming a convent, were accustomed to reside and serve the Lord under the habit and observance of regulars, bearing there an increase of divine worship; yet everywhere on account of the storms of wars and other calamities with which those parts have been afflicted, the said monasteries, their resources and revenues being dispersed and scattered, lie under the reproach of such great destitution and desolation that of the canons of the said order and observance no one at present resides, and few can be found accepting to reside in them in any way.

[44] through executory letters, And as the same petition subjoined: The beloved sons Stephen di Giovanni and Domenico Cioni of Siena, and certain other Canons of the monastery of St. Ambrose of Gubbio of the said Order, yet of another habit and observance, desire in the said united monasteries to be subject conventually to regular chastity, and also to serve and attend to divine things. The Pontiff therefore commits to Bl. Nicholas to inquire diligently whether the prayers of both parties, namely of Ghisilieri and Stephen, rest on truth. So Bl. Nicholas, after he had ascertained that all was true and right, issued a decree on the 4th day of March 1419, by which he unites both congregations. Attending, he says in the decree of the execution committed to him Ibid., p. 9., to the good will and affection which the same Lord Francis the prior bears toward the reform of his said monasteries and the increase of divine worship in them: attending also to the affection of the said canons (of St. Ambrose), who offer themselves and their successors to be placed in the said monasteries, and to reform them, and to lead the regular life in them under good observance: attending also that divine worship ought to be increased in many ways: wishing to foster the pure and sincere wishes of mind both of the said lord prior and of the aforesaid canons, to the same canons, of passing to the said monasteries, retaining the habit and observance of the said monastery of St. Ambrose, and living and walking in them also according to the customs and institutions conceded, confirmed, and approved for them and for the said monastery of St. Ambrose by the apostolic see, by apostolic authority, and in every manner, right, and form by which more and better

he could, he bestowed leave, even in the life of the said lord prior, if and as it should please him, and otherwise or in another manner not. The same lord bishop decreeing and determining, by the aforesaid apostolic authority, that all free administration of the aforesaid monasteries should nevertheless belong and pertain freely to the said lord Prior Francis as long as he lived, in spirituals and temporals, so that in his lifetime those passing over should in no way have or be able to have any power of or over the aforesaid, in the life of the said lord prior.

[45] here reported And subsequently the aforesaid lord bishop, the aforesaid monastery of St. Ambrose, whose fruits, revenues, and proceeds, and those of the said united monasteries, do not exceed according to common estimation the annual value of six hundred gold florins, with all its rights and appurtenances, by the aforesaid apostolic authority united, annexed, and perpetually incorporated to the same monasteries of St. Mary of Reno and St. Savior of Bologna, and decreed by the aforesaid authority that they be from now on, and henceforth in perpetuity, united, annexed, and incorporated to one another. He then decreed that such a union should have effect only through the death of Ghisilieri or his declaration. From what has been said so far it is altogether clear that from such a society nothing was changed in the state of the canons of Reno, and that by the reform in question no right perished for the monasteries of St. Mary and St. Savior: but through the death or declaration of the said Ghisilieri, all the spirituals and temporals of the said monasteries were to devolve on the canons of St. Ambrose. In which case the canons residing in the said monasteries at the time, as often as it should be opportune, should elect a prior of the said monasteries according to their form, manner, and condition … namely, that the prior be elected by the greater part of the convent of canons of the said monastery having a voice in chapter: and that the said election be presented by the aforesaid electors to the diocesan or his vicegerent. Which presentation being made, the said prior so elected shall be understood to be confirmed by apostolic authority: whose office shall always be understood to expire at the end of the year, unless it be determined by the greater part of the brethren of the aforesaid chapter having a voice in chapter that he remain in the said office of the priory, as is more fully contained in their privileges.

[46] was carried out. After the apostolic letters given at Fribourg of the Swiss on the 5th day of June 1418, it may be asked how it comes about that their execution was postponed until the 4th day of March 1419, that is, for nine months. The cause is explained by Segni Melloni, Uomini Santi, vol. II, p. 249, note.: Ghisilieri, he says, had no further concern or mention of the aforesaid union, nay rather seemed to refuse it, because he could no longer despair of the propagation of his monastery: but chiefly because he took it ill that in the apostolic letters it was too cautiously decreed about keeping there the habit of the Ambrosians: by which, namely, his petition would attain the contrary effect, far foreign to his intention… Stephen held on with his teeth, nor could he by any means bring his mind to give up his habit. But at length the matter was settled for the sake of reverence for the bishop. The skill of Bl. Nicholas Albergati in handling affairs was, as we have already noted, supreme and exceptional: to draw Ghisilieri to concord, he granted first of all that the entire administration of affairs, both spiritual and temporal, should remain with Ghisilieri during his whole life; and then, that the canons should wear a white tunic and rochet with a white scapular above, and on going out of the monastery to the people, over the rochet a black cappa, with a black hood attached to the cappa. Thus far, then, the controversy on the habit of the canons was settled, inasmuch as the Ambrosians put on the tunic and white scapular. And in such a way the Ambrosians and the men of Reno were united Torelli, Annali Agostiniani, vol. VI, p. 488.. There are some, however, who deny that Ghisilieri threw any obstacle in the way of the union being created: there is, they say, no testimony of such resistance, the contemporary manuscript Life is silent, the other documents are silent, nay Segni himself, whose text we have cited above, is said to have added these things from report: the manuscript Life has been lost, the contemporary documents we do not have before us. Yet so far as I can grasp from the text of Segni brought forward, this writer does not seem to speak from any doubtful rumor, but from sure knowledge which he could draw from documents.

§ V. The Congregation of canons obtains various privileges; the cenobies multiply; the Blessed relieves the want of his men by miracles.

The Congregation of canons obtains The affairs of the Congregation of St. Savior having been rightly settled by Bl. Nicholas Albergati, Pope Martin V confirmed by his authority what had been done so far, by a bull given at Mantua on the 12th before the kalends of January, or the 19th day of December 1419, which is commonly called the Mare Magnum of the Order. The Pontiff first narrates rather at length what had been done up to that day, and approves each and every thing Bullar. Can. reg., p. 82.. We, he says, inclined in this part to the supplications of the canons and brethren of St. Savior, whom we have enclosed within the bowels of charity, holding the aforesaid letters and what is contained in them (excepting only those in which they are judged to comprehend the same house of Silva Lacus), and whatever else followed from them, as ratified and acceptable, by the aforesaid authority, from sure knowledge confirm them and fortify them with the patronage of the present writing, supplying all defects, if perhaps any have intervened in them. Decreeing and also determining, that all and each of those who shall be of such State and Religious order, present and future, shall be perpetually named canons or brethren of St. Savior. The same name of St. Savior Gregory XII had given to the Ambrosian canons by letters given at Rimini on the 8th before the kalends of February 1415 Ibid., p. 79.: and moreover he had ordained that they should for the future be named, entitled, and also called Constant Brethren of St. Savior in perpetuity. From Segni Giovanni Battista Melloni teaches us Uomini Santi, vol. II, p. 230, note.. They were called Constant Brethren from their supreme constancy toward God, since they were exiles for a long time, and from their constancy against the Hermits, whose injuries and blows they endured most patiently; and from their constancy toward the Pontiff, during the schism, and because they were so long wanderers, hoping for some seat from him.

[48] exemption from ordinary jurisdiction; At length Pope Martin closes the apostolic letters with the usual formula of exemption. That the canons, he says, or brethren of St. Savior, snatched from outside snares, and given back unharmed from the yoke of any suppression, may serve the author of peace the more freely as the more quietly, them and their Order and persons, and also monasteries, priories, houses, convents, places, property, goods with the aforesaid members, rights, and appurtenances, present and future, from all jurisdiction, lordship, and power of patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, of patriarchal, cathedral, and metropolitan and other church chapters, and of other ordinary judges and of any of their officials, by the aforesaid apostolic authority, by the tenor of the present letters, we perpetually, altogether, and entirely exempt, absolve, and totally free: and we take them under the protection of Blessed Peter and of the apostolic see and our own, willing them to lie immediately subject to the aforesaid see. The canons regular remained further under the government and obedience of Francesco Ghisilieri until his death, namely until the month of May 1429 Trombelli, Memorie, p. 48.. His elogium was woven by Trombelli Ibid., p. 194., who says that he was always of most chastened morals and a faithful administrator of property: by whose will chiefly it came about that he set under his monasteries, already falling, a very strong prop, the canons regular of St. Ambrose, who preserve, adorn, and propagate the regular congregation down to our times.

[49] it acquires the whole substance of St. Mary of Reno, By virtue of the apostolic letters, a fragment of which we cited above at no. 45, on the death of the aforesaid Francis the whole substance of the monasteries of St. Mary and St. Savior of Bologna devolved to the hands of Bl. Stephen and his companions. But the magistracy or, as it was then called, the commune of Bologna by no means acquiesced in the devolutions, but claimed the goods of both monasteries for itself by a like right of devolution. The prior of St. Mary of Reno was, namely, the first chaplain of the city Trombelli, Memorie, p. 48., and the said church of St. Mary the spiritual Chamber, as an instrument of the year 1268 says Ibid., p. 390., of the commune and people of Bologna, and its chief member. Hence, Ghisilieri being dead, and so, as the people of Bologna judged, the whole monastery blotted out, all the goods both of St. Mary and of St. Savior of Bologna reverted to the civic fisc: and so for the Ambrosian canons, to whom according to the apostolic letters both monasteries and their goods pertained, dwellings were uncertain, possessions uncertain, and new seats had again to be sought. But since the spoils of churches could not belong to a secular prince, not so long afterward the people of Bologna, better taught, yielded the property to the Church. Meanwhile the substance of the men of Reno had already been partly sold: of the liturgical furnishings a value of two thousand pounds of Bologna had already been dispersed; and what ready money Ghisilieri had collected for future times, that, seized by alien hands, was never restored except sparingly and after long lawsuits. That the detriment might however be repaired in some way, Pope Martin decreed that the goods which in the letters cited were estimated at six hundred gold florins should be reduced to four hundred florins, and accordingly that a lesser assessment should be paid Ibid., p. 49..

[50] the monastery of St. Donatus of Scopeto, A more prosperous fortune then befell our canons regular, when they obtained the place of St. Donatus of Scopeto, whence the common name of Scopetines came to them among some. Nor is that a wonder: not rarely they obtain their common name from the place where they are situated in some more celebrated city. Thus the Fathers Preachers in France were everywhere called Jacobins, because their chief dwelling at Paris was at St. James the Apostle. So also Florence, the chief city in Italy after Rome, gave the name of Scopetines to the canons regular. Scopetum is a name rather common to various estates in Tuscany, as may be seen in topographical lexicons, for example of Emanuele Repetti, and is derived from the heaths of which brooms are for the most part composed Giovanni Lami, Ecclesiæ Florentinæ Monumenta, vol. II, p. 1300.. It is distant about a hundred paces from Florence outside the Roman gate. Various has been the fortune of the place from the eleventh century. At the beginning it was of the right of patronage of the Filastri family of Florence: then in the fourteenth century the same right passed to the monks and monastery of St. Savior of Settimo, of the Cistercian Order. But at the urging of Guidantonio, duke of Urbino and commander of the Florentine army, Bl. Stephen brought some companions over to Florence, having obtained the Church of St. Donatus of Scopeto, then vacant and exempted from the lordship of the abbot and convent of Settimo Ibid., p. 1301.. The history of this donation is excellently set forth in the apostolic letters of Pope Martin V given at Florence on the 5th before the kalends of July (27 June) 1420, which we give from the Bullarium of the Canons Regular Bullar. Can. Reg., p. 93.: Martin, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the beloved

all canons regular, called brethren of St. Savior of St. Augustine, wherever established, greeting and apostolic blessing. The honor of the sacred religious life, under which you show the Lord willing and sedulous service, deserves that we follow you with apostolic favors and graces. Formerly indeed, at the instance of your supplication, for certain causes then expressed by you moving our mind to this, by other letters of ours the parish church of St. Donatus of Scopeto near Florence, which was then immediately subject to the monastery of Settimo of the Cistercian Order of the diocese of Florence, and had before been accustomed to be ruled and governed by monks of the same monastery, removable at the sole nod of the abbot existing at the time; which, as we had learned, had long been vacant and was then vacant: if causes of this kind should be verified and the assent of the said abbot should be added to it, and otherwise in certain manner and form should be exempted and totally separated from subjection to the monastery and Order, and also from all jurisdiction, lordship, and power of the aforesaid abbot, and the said church with all its rights, jurisdictions, and appurtenances be granted and assigned to you and your Order; and also that in the said church the said Cistercian Order, and its habit and observance, if any were in it, be extinguished and suppressed, and the same church be erected into a conventual priory of your said Order, to be ruled and governed perpetually in spirituals and temporals through a prior, by the canons or brethren from among those who should be there at the time, to be erected and to be presented to the archbishop of Florence existing at the time or to his vicar general in spirituals, as often as the said priory should happen to be vacant, according to certain manners, forms, conditions, limitations then expressed, and also that those who should live in such priory after it was erected, at the time, that they and the same priory with all its jurisdictions, appurtenances, rights, and goods movable and immovable, which should pertain to it by just titles.

[51] the Cistercian abbot of Settimo assenting. But besides the assent of the abbot of Settimo, there was required also the consent both of the Cistercian Abbot General and of the monks of Settimo, which indeed had been omitted in the earlier bull, and hence the apostolic letters given earlier were held to be surreptitious. But in the bull of which we have given a fragment the Pontiff supplies this defect. We, he says, wishing to follow you with favors for such merits in regard of your honor, graciously inclined in this part to your supplications, will and from sure knowledge grant you by apostolic authority, that the aforesaid letters and the processes had through them, from their date, and whatever followed from them, shall be valid and obtain full firmness of strength, as if it had been provided in them, as regards the premises, that the aforesaid assent also of the said abbot and convent should be added… And also that the assent of the said abbot and convent to the aforesaid execution, if it ought to have been added, had been solemnly added. In the text brought forward above, there was mention of the Archbishop of Florence. Namely Amerigo Corsini, made bishop in the year 1511, obtained from Pope Martin V on the 2nd day of May 1420 the archiepiscopal dignity for his see of Florence Ughelli, Ital. Sacr., vol. III, col. 166.; and so had scarcely attained this name for two months. Further, although the monastery of St. Donatus of Scopeto was reckoned among the first of the Congregation, as being that in which Bl. Stephen placed the chief novitiate of his institute Trombelli, Memorie, p. 42., yet it lasted scarcely a solid century, destroyed in the year 1529 by the soldiers who were besieging Florence Muratori, Annali d'Italia, vol. X, p. 208..

[52] Bl. Stephen himself From the various apostolic letters cited above, when we treated of uniting the Ambrosians with the men of Reno, we saw that the administration of the monasteries of St. Mary and St. Savior of Bologna remained in the hands of Ghisilieri, which he retained until his death in the year 1429. Nevertheless, the society of both Congregations of canons being entered into, a prior or superior general of the united Congregation had to be elected. All the electors indeed desired Ghisilieri for themselves for this office, both on account of his age and on account of his huge merits toward the Order Trombelli, Memorie, p. 198.. But the truly humble man declined the supreme honor, pleading the weight of his years and his manifold infirmities. Accordingly the suffrages of all flowed together on Bl. Stephen. In the year 1419, says the manuscript Life Melloni, Uomini Santi, vol. II, p. 251., on the 23rd day of May the first general chapter was gathered in the Ambrosian convent near Gubbio. Thence according to the often-praised pontifical Bulls, which granted only an annual priorate, which then in Bl. Stephen was continued until his death. His chief care was in forming well the young men desirous of embracing religion: for on a well-instituted novitiate depended the prosperity of the congregation. Accordingly he had scarcely obtained from Pope Martin V the monastery of St. Donatus of Scopeto when he wished the candidates of his institute to gather there.

[53] was elected superior general He himself spent a great part of his time in exercising the novices in every kind of religious virtue; on which occasion a certain prodigy is reported by the writers, perhaps not so much to be ascribed to miracle as to nature. Among the novices there was a young man most given to due obedience. One summer evening when all were conversing with Bl. Stephen on heavenly things, this young man, striking his foot against a dry and rotten vine-branch, impatiently kicked it away. Bl. Stephen, noticing this, severely rebuked him before those standing by, and ordered him then, having recited the Angelic Salutation three times, to fix the vine-branch in the ground and to water it twice each day. The novice obeyed most accurately: and behold! the vine-branch put forth roots, clothed itself with leaves, and in the following year gave grapes, and as long as the monastery stood, that is, until the month of November of the year 1529, it brought forth fruit marked with a cross: for then, as we said above, the cenoby was leveled with the ground by the soldiers. Segni says that this happened when Bl. Stephen was exercising for the fourth time the supreme magistracy in his Congregation, or in the year 1422 Ibid., p. 252..

[54] and is illustrated by various prodigies, especially Another prodigy too is narrated of the Blessed. In the year 1426, in the eighth, as Segni says, of his generalate, the brethren of the monastery of St. Ambrose at Gubbio, on the vigil of some feast, had labored much in the field: but at the hour of refection scarcely a little bread and raw greens could be set before the weary men. But the blessed man, in no way wearied of such great want, consoling his brethren, ordered them to take their place at table in the usual manner: there is a knock at the gate of the monastery, and the doorkeeper running up is met by a most beautiful young man who has entered the house, the doors being shut. He offers the doorkeeper a basket full of very white loaves of unusual form, and in such great quantity indeed that they sufficed for feeding the brethren for many days. Full of joy and desiring to satisfy the hungry brethren as soon as possible, without inquiring at all the donor's name, he ran to Bl. Stephen: but he ordered him at once to bring the benefactor, that thus he might know the donor's name. The doorkeeper hastened to the gate, but the young man had disappeared. The brethren, struck by the novelty of the thing and glad of the benefit conferred, having given thanks to God, ate the bread set before them with jubilation of heart: and in memory of the grace received they long kept in the monastery the basket and the little cloth with which it was covered. Of that portentous basket the anonymous author of the lost manuscript Life writes Ibid., p. 256, note.: The napkin and basket were kept for many years in that convent until the times of Ven. Fr. Francesco Caravigini, whom I heard often relating these things, with eyes hardly dry, to me and my companions in the Order's beginnings, and testifying that he had seen them and many times most devoutly kissed them.

[55] for the relief of the want of the brethren, The report of the portent being spread, which also indicated the great want of the brethren, there grew also men's veneration toward the canons and a more inclined mind. Their chief favorer, Guidantonio of Montefeltro, duke of Urbino, obtained from Martin V a bull by which, that their revenues might be increased, he granted them two monasteries. The bull, which does not occur in the Bullarium of the canons regular, and which Segni has preserved for us, was given at Rome on the 1st day of June 1428. As, says Pope Martin, a petition lately presented to us on the part of our beloved son, the noble man Guidantonio, count of Montefeltro, contained, the priory of St. Ambrose .., so utterly lacks the revenues, proceeds, and resources necessary for the sustenance of the prior and canons there serving the Most High; and unless the aforesaid count, on account of the singular devotion which he bears to the same prior and canons, provided them with food and clothing and other necessities of life, the prior and canons aforesaid would be compelled to go begging from door to door to ask the alms of Christ's faithful, and could not attend to regular observance… Wherefore on the part of the said count we were humbly supplicated that some subsidy be granted to the Ambrosians. The Pontiff therefore united to the monastery of Gubbio the churches of St. Donatus of Pulpiano and St. Bartholomew of Pretorio, whose annual revenue was sixty gold florins Ibid., p. 256, note.. At that very time some controversy seems to have arisen, whose nature we do not know, between the bishop of Gubbio, who was then Francesco Bilio Sarti, Episc. Eugubini, p. 245., and the Ambrosian canons: for Segni says Melloni, Uomini Santi, vol. II, p. 297.: This execution (of the bull brought forward) was committed to the prior of the principal church and not to the bishop, because we were then in lawsuit with him.

[56] which by no subsidy While these things were being done, Francesco Ghisilieri was still alive, who, as we said above, died only in the year 1429. But since to him pertained all the spiritual and temporal administration of both Reno monasteries, he contributed no subsidy to the Ambrosians. For it was his plan to spend what money he could set aside on restoring the monastery of St. Mary. Accordingly he refused to feed more than eight canons, who should suffice for celebrating the divine office Melloni, Uomini Santi, vol. II, p. 253.. Yet, as an ancient writing teaches, in the said monastery there stayed and lived sometimes sixteen, sometimes eighteen, sometimes twenty, and sometimes twenty-four and more Ibid., loc. cit., note.: But those canons who exceeded the eight had to be fed at the expense of Bl. Stephen and the Ambrosians; and so besides the domestic straits at the station of Gubbio, the alms of the faithful had to be scraped together, that they might sustain their brethren with Ghisilieri. For not a few, attracted by the reputation of holiness which our Canons enjoyed, ran to their cenobies, whom they by no means wished to repel. Recourse had then to be made, when ordinary alms were sparser, to the liberality of magnates, which did not fail them. Among pious benefactors occurs Galeotto Canetoli, doctor of laws and of the chief nobility of Bologna, who granted to our canons the churches of Saints James and Philip and of St. Elizabeth, which had an annual revenue of four florins of Bologna under the burden of one pound

of pepper, to be given to the cathedral church. Of the Canetoli family we shall treat more at length below in the Acts of Bl. Archangelus Canetoli, to be given on the next day.

[57] the monastery of St. Mary of Reno relieved. We have seen above that Ghisilieri retained for his whole life an altogether free perpetual priorate, and was wholly taken up with this, that all should stand well with his own monasteries. But at his death, by which both monasteries of St. Mary and St. Savior were to be intimately united with the monastery of St. Ambrose of Gubbio, the city of Bologna chiefly stood in the way of this, which wanted for itself the houses of St. Mary and St. Savior with all their goods movable and immovable. As soon as it could be done, they elected as their prior Adeodato di Giacomo Martini of Bologna, and a few months afterward the five capitulars, who alone constituted the chapter, appointed the same man syndic and procurator of their community. Bl. Stephen, as prior general, confirmed the election. But before all, in order to have free possession of both monasteries, they had to be disentangled from the snares of the city of Bologna. Accordingly they had recourse to Pope Martin, from whom they chiefly sought two things: first, that the church of St. Savior be restored to them with its revenues; then, that the money to be paid at Rome be remitted to them. Pope Martin committed the inquiry into the fact to the prior of the church of St. Bartholomew, and when he had ascertained that the said prayers rested on truth, he ratified both petitions, and, as has already been said, reduced the estimate of the goods from six hundred florins to four hundred Trombelli, Memorie, p. 49.. All of which were confirmed by a bull of the same pontiff, given on the 9th day of February of the year 1430 Ibid., loc. cit..

[58] The institution of the confraternity of St. Jerome. Nor did Bl. Stephen confine himself to his congregation of canons alone, but extended his efforts to outsiders also. In the year 1420 there had been erected at Bologna a lay Sodality under the title of St. Jerome, to which Bl. Albergati, cardinal and bishop of the same city, gave statutes. In these are chiefly commended the keeping of the commandments of God and of the Church, and preserving mutual charity among themselves: the fast of Friday and Saturday, monthly confession, communion three times within the year: then on each Friday and Saturday they assembled toward evening at the house of the sodality, and there, the Psalm "Miserere" being recited, the priest rector said with them the "Confiteor," then the seven penitential psalms with other prayers, which being finished each went back to his own, saying the Psalm "De profundis." In the night time they assembled again for Matins, and when it had been recited, the lights being put out, each scourged himself, and at length with new prayers returned home. To this sodality our Bl. Stephen gave his efforts Melloni, Uomini Santi, vol. III, p. 174, note.. For in the Narrative of the origin of the lay Confraternity of St. Jerome, which I cite from Melloni, Giovanni Vittori says: Bl. Nicholas Albergati showed his affection toward the said confraternity when he gave it a spiritual father full of heavenly grace, understanding, and holiness. This was Bl. Stephen, canon regular of the congregation of Reno, lately united by harmonious reform to the Congregation of Gubbio: under his direction the confraternity took increase in virtue, spirit, and merit Ibid., vol. II, p. 259, note..

§ VI. The last illness of the Blessed; the place, year, and day of his death; signs of cult: enumeration of the monasteries.

Bl. Stephen falls ill at Bologna After the death of Ghisilieri Bl. Stephen began to make longer stays at Bologna. But his age now inclining to old age, he applied himself more ardently to leave behind him the Congregation of canons regular formed by himself in the best order, and above all he made the monastery of St. Savior at Bologna notable for the number, learning, and holiness of its men. At length, having reached seventy-eight years of age, he fell into a grave fever, which he foresaw would be mortal for him. On the 20th day of October, it says, seized by the sickness of a grave fever, he took to his bed; and as it grew worse, on the seventh day, knowing that he was approaching death, he began to apply himself to most devout prayers Melloni, Uomini Santi, vol. II, p. 260.. Pierre Helyot, in the History of the Regular and Military Orders Histoire des Ordres Religieux et Militaires, vol. II, p. 382., says that Bl. Stephen died on the 30th day of October in the year of the Lord 1432 after a three-day illness… As regards the day and year we shall examine below. But that he suffered from his last illness for seven or eight days all the older writers teach, among others the author of the Life cited a little above. Further Ghini reports these things of our Blessed in the Natales of the Holy Canons at the 28th day of October: At length, weighed down by labors and age, he foretold his last day. When it came, having exhorted his canons to peace, charity, concord, obedience, regular observance, faith toward the holy apostolic see, and the other virtues, and having been most devoutly fortified with the most holy sacraments of the Church, on Friday, about the ninth hour, his hands formed in the likeness of a cross, his eyes fixed on heaven, he commended his soul into the hands of the Savior, and happily passed to the heavenly kingdom, on the 5th before the kalends of November, in the year of salvation 1428. These things indeed we have already recited at the beginning of this Commentary, but since the principal circumstances of his death are narrated, we have not hesitated to bring them forward again.

[60] he prepares himself holily for death, Bl. Stephen, imitating his father St. Augustine, who, as is read in his Life written by St. Possidius Migne, Patrol., vol. XXXII, col. 63., in the last illness of which he died had ordered the psalms of David, the very few that are on penitence, to be written out for him, and lying in bed gazed at those quires placed against the wall in the days of his infirmity, and read them, and wept continually and abundantly; he too wished the psalms which they call of Penitence, as the manuscript Life has it Melloni, Uomini Santi, vol. II, p. 261., and the Passion of the Lord according to John to be recited before him. And at length he began Psalm 30, which begins, In you, Lord, have I hoped, as the manuscript Life says Ibid., loc. cit., note.: when he had begun to sing Psalm 30, when he had finished the sixth verse (Into your hands), he stopped for a little. Afterward, fortifying himself with the sign of the cross, his hands joined and his eyes lifted up, in the hands of his sons weeping together … he gave back his most innocent soul to his Savior. The outer man is painted to the life by the author of the manuscript Life Ibid., p. 262, note.: Rev. Fr. Stephen was handsome in aspect, of joyful countenance and robust body … in whom there was a certain eloquence poured in from above, spiritual, affable, human, pleasant, and learned, so that he easily turned all who heard him to the love of himself: so that no one ever came to him who did not go away from him delighted with his honeyed words, captivated by an incredible sweetness of speech, and as it were filled with a divine spirit. This, as the same Life bears witness, Guidantonio, often already praised by us, experienced: He, when he had diligently contemplated the venerable aspect, the graceful and religious face of Rev. Fr. Stephen … and had regarded his most grave morals, … the count, turning to the same father, bade him be of good heart. It was a question, that is, of obtaining by the effort of Count Guido the favor of the pontiffs Gregory XII and Martin V: but of these things we have treated enough in the course of the Commentary.

[61] which he met at Bologna in the year 1433, From what has been said it is clear that the writers do not agree among themselves on the day, month, and year on which Bl. Stephen died. Indeed Leandro Alberti, though himself of Bologna, writes that the Blessed closed his life in the monastery of St. Donatus of Scopeto. But the error is manifest; for all the others that we know put the place of death at St. Savior's at Bologna, which moreover is shown by his burial in the said church. As regards the month, no difficulty occurs, since all assign October. Thus the manuscript Life says: On the following Wednesday, which was the 28th day of that month (of October), the sixth hour being over, he died in the year 1433. Various writers, however, assign another year. Leandro Alberti in the Description of all Italy Descrittione di tutta Italia, fol. 334., and those who followed him, Girolamo Borselli Muratori, Scriptt., vol. XXIII, col. 881., etc. But to your wonder, even Giovanni Battista Segni, where he writes of the Saints and Blessed of his Order, marks the year 1444, although in other places he agrees with the manuscript Life in putting the year of death at 1433. On which year agree (except perhaps Ghini, by a typesetter's fault) the things read in old writings: for in the manuscript book On the General Chapters and priors general the year of death is ordered Trombelli, Memorie, p. 201. under the fifteenth generalate, which, as we know from elsewhere, was annual, and continued for our Blessed from the year 1419, by which way we arrive at the year 1433. The same has, as we have noted, the manuscript Life: and so by the most ancient documents of all that we have, unless a strong testimony were opposed, it must be retained that the year of death is 1433.

[62] on the 28th day of October, But graver is the dissension among the writers about the day of October on which our Blessed died. First Trombelli, citing a fragment of the manuscript Life which we cited a little above, says: on THURSDAY, which was the 28th of the same month; while Melloni, citing the same fragment, says on WEDNESDAY, the 28th day of that month. Hence it is necessary that one or other copied badly. Now in the common year 1433 the dominical letter was D, by which Wednesday fell on the 28th of October. And Melloni excuses Trombelli, as if by an error of the eyes he wrote fifth for fourth, and in extolling his accuracy in writing heaps him with manifold praise Melloni, Uomini Santi, vol. II, p. 271, note.. Jacobilli indicates the day of death as the 30th, on Friday, at the ninth hour, the hour, he says, and day on which Christ the Lord died Santi dell'Umbria, vol. II, p. 366.. Likewise Torelli in the Annals of his Order ties the death of the Blessed to the same 30th day of October Annali Agost., vol. VI, p. 632.. But that diversity of opinions can easily be settled. For indeed as many as have written of the hour of death agree that it happened at the sixth hour, no mention being made of morning or evening time, because, namely, the Italian clock does not admit such a distinction, as measuring the course of the day by twenty-four continuous hours, and beginning the first hour from sunset. The sixth hour, then, falls about the middle of the night Melloni, Uomini Santi, vol. II, p. 271.. Bl. Stephen therefore died as the 28th day of October was ending and the 29th beginning. As regards the 30th day, that too can be admitted, if we understand the deposition, namely the day on which the body is committed to the earth. From all these things it follows that Bl. Stephen died in the year 1433, on the 28th day of October.

[63] and he was buried in the church of St. Savior: Bl. Stephen was then laid in the tomb of the priors, separate from the graves of the others: but moreover from the burials of other priors, if there were any besides Ghisilieri,

that thereafter he might be found with no trouble. His grave in the old building of St. Savior was placed in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary which was commonly called of the Crib Melloni, Uomini Santi, vol. II, p. 373.. When then about the beginning of the seventeenth century the canons regular were planning to build a new and more magnificent church, the body of our Blessed was translated into the new building, and indeed, on the witness of Masini, whom Melloni cites Ibid., loc. cit., in the year 1605; in assigning which year I judge that some error has crept in. For Salvatore Muzzi in the Annals of Bologna, published in Italian in the year 1844 Annali Bolognesi, vol. VII, pp. 392 and 396., says that it was first in the year 1611 that Giovanni Magenta the Barnabite gave the plan of the new building, and that it was completed in the year 1616. The whole mass of the edifice cost the canons eighty-five thousand Roman scudi, which are equivalent to four hundred fifty thousand present-day francs, and which on account of the depreciation of present money amount to a million francs. Further in the new building the bones of Bl. Stephen were deposited under the high altar, but because on account of the dampness of the soil they were gathering mold, they were transferred under the altar of the sacristy, on which the most holy sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated, where to this day, says Melloni Uomini Santi, vol. II, p. 274., they are kept: but what happened thereafter in the last upheaval I am unable to say.

[64] signs of the cult paid to the Blessed. Above, at the head of this Commentary, at no. 4, we have spoken of the cult of some sort shown to Bl. Stephen: but now we must treat in detail of the various signs of holiness. Ambrogio Landucci, Augustinian hermit, says under the year 1433: that Bl. Stephen Cioni had the reward of his labors at Bologna, where his venerable body is buried, illustrious with miracles. And below: He laid the eternal foundations of the canons regular …, whose firmness the happy death of the founder, adorned with illustrious miracles, and the loftiness of the religious order declare plainly enough to all Ilicet. Sylva, pp. 25 and 102.. Torelli in the Annals Annal. Agost., vol. VI, p. 632.: He completed, he says, the happy course of a holy life in the monastery of St. Savior of Bologna … and, as Segni and Mozzagrugno write, God worked miracles by his merits, which joined with holiness of life conferred on him the title of Blessed both from our own and from outsiders. Indeed those who have written of him have adorned our Stephen with the title of Blessed, as we shall presently show. For that reason also his images are distinguished by an aureole or rays. Crisostomo Trombelli testifies to this Memorie, p. 203.: The image, he says, of the Blessed, wherever it has met me, I have always seen encircled with some splendor, even with rays. So he is shown in the sacristy of St. Peter in Chains at Rome, in our church of St. Savior at Nicosia … and, to pass over many other places, in the principal chapel of the celebrated and ancient cathedral of Siena among other Saints and Blessed of Siena. And this I say not only of painted images, but of those cut in copper, of which two have been dispersed by the thousands. One indeed is of smaller form with rays, the other larger with copious splendor: the latter was cut at Rome in the year 1635 with the permission of the superiors, and below it is read the inscription: "Bl. Stephen Agazzari of Siena, propagator of the very ancient Congregation of canons regular, who died at Bologna 1433."

[65] both at Rome and elsewhere. But there are other and very weighty documents of cult. Namely as many as have written of our Stephen extol him with the highest praises. Thus St. Antoninus, a contemporary of the Blessed, Histories, part II, tit. 15, ch. 23, §2, treating of the begun reform of the regular Orders, says: Certain other religious of the Order of Hermits, separating themselves from that Order, that they might live more strictly, took up the state and habit of canons regular of the Rule of Blessed Augustine, adding certain constitutions, approved by Gregory XII, and are exempted by him from the diocesans. They had their beginning about the years of the Lord 1410 under a certain venerable man, Stephen by name, of Siena. Leandro Alberti in the Description of all Italy Descrittione di tutta Ital., fol. 334.: Among the Blessed, he says, are numbered those written below: and first Bl. Stephen, restorer of the religious order of St. Savior of Scopeto, who ascended to heaven in the monastery of St. Donatus of Scopeto near Florence in the year 1444. We have already noted above that Leandro erred in the place and year of death. In the Annals of Bologna of Borselli under the year 1444 is read Muratori, Scriptt., vol. XXIII, col. 881.: There shone Blessed Stephen of Bologna, restorer of the Religious order of the canons of St. Savior. Cardinal Paleotti, archbishop of Bologna, in the book which is called the Archiepiscopale Bononiense, in the Catalogue of Saints and Blessed, writes: 1444 Blessed Stephen, restorer of the Religious order of the Canons of St. Savior P. 575.. In the Sienese Diary of the year 1722 under the 28th day of October, after Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles, is read: Of Blessed Stephen Agazzari of Siena, propagator of the canons regular of St. Savior. Raimondo Capisucchi, master of the sacred palace and afterward cardinal, in the Life of Bl. John Chigi: Blessed, he says, Stephen Cioni of Siena, a man of singular prudence, was the author of the Congregation of canons regular of St. Savior. Finally the Sienese Academy, which is called of the Intronati, in its Fasti under the 28th day of October, after a long elogium of our Stephen: By the people of Bologna, it says, the sacred corpse of Blessed Stephen is honored with exceptional cult down to these times in the church of St. Savior.

[66] There are enumerated the monasteries of the congregation The Congregation of St. Savior of Bologna first sprouted in the Wood of Lecceto, grew up when it received the monastery of St. Ambrose of Gubbio, gave most abundant fruits after it was united to the Canons of Reno and spread its branches through a great part of Italy. Since these increases are owed to Bl. Stephen, it is worthwhile to set here by way of a capstone what monasteries were established under the congregation of St. Savior, at least as Gabriel Pennotto, canon regular, enumerated them in the year 1645 Canonicor. regul. Gener. Historia, p. 480.. 1° The monastery of St. Donatus of Scopeto, of which we have treated. 2° St. Secundus near Gubbio, which had already belonged to canons regular of the Reform of St. Ubaldus, but being then destitute of inhabitants was granted by Pope Callixtus III to the congregation of St. Savior in the year 1455. 3° The Church of St. John the Apostle at Ravenna, formerly an abbey of the Order of St. Benedict, united by Pius II in the year 1459 to the Congregation of St. Savior. 4° St. Daniel near Abano, distant six miles from Padua toward the south, formerly an abbatial cenoby of the Order of St. Benedict, which the same Pius II gave to the canons of St. Savior in the year 1460. 5° St. Mary of the Isles in the district of Vicenza, earlier a rural parish, but frequented by the visitation of the peoples, which Paul II gave to the canons regular in the year 1465. 6° St. Mary Major of Treviso, celebrated for miracles, which from a small chapel grew into a very ample building, which Pius II committed to the canons regular to administer in 1462.

[67] of canons regular, 7° St. Michael of the place Candiana, distant fifteen miles from Padua toward the east: Nicholas V granted it to the canons in the year 1449. 8° St. Mary of the Angels near Perugia, earlier of nuns of St. Clare, who being removed, canons regular were put in their place, with the approval of Paul II in the year 1468. 9° St. Anthony of Venice, formerly united to the monastery of St. Savior, was erected into a conventual priory by Sixtus IV in the year 1475. 10° St. Mary of Graces in the village of Fornò in the district of Forlì, but of the diocese of Bologna, which Sixtus IV granted in the year 1475. 11° St. Mary of Vado at Ferrara, which, abandoned by its canons, was given to the Congregation of St. Savior. 12° St. John the Baptist at Castel Sant'Arcangelo in the district of Rimini, earlier a priory of the Lateran canons, which, abandoned by these, passed, with the approval of Sixtus IV, in the year 1478, to the canons of St. Savior. 13° St. Paternian of the city of Fano, which is reported to have been dedicated by Pope Clement II, was granted, at the urging of the city, to the congregation of St. Savior by Sixtus IV in the year 1482. 14° St. Agatha of the city of Urbino, earlier of virgin canonesses, then transferred by the same Sixtus IV in the year 1481 to the canons. 15° St. Peter in Chains of the City, united to the Congregation of St. Savior in the year 1489 by Innocent VIII, who also gave the monastery the church of St. Agnes on the Via Nomentana. 16° St. John the Evangelist near Brescia, which Giovanni Dominici, the last provost, since he had no follower of the canonical institute, resigned to the congregation, with the approval of Innocent VIII, in the year 1485. 17° St. Sebastian of Mantua, formerly a hospice, given by the same Innocent in the year 1488. 18° In the same year the aforesaid Innocent gave the church of St. Mary of Graces at Cortona. 19° St. Peter near Cagli in Umbria, formerly of nuns, Sixtus IV in the year 1483 erected into a priory of canons. 20° St. Euphemia at Piacenza was transferred from secular canons to regulars by Innocent VIII in the year 1491. 21° St. Mary Magdalene near the castle of Mirandola about the year 1495.

[68] which are owed to Bl. Stephen. 22° St. Mark of Reggio Emilia was brought over from the congregation of St. Mark of Mantua to the congregation of St. Savior by the same Innocent in the year 1497. 23° St. John the Baptist of Orvieto, which, destitute of canons, came to St. Savior through Alexander VI in the year 1498. 24° St. Jerome at Modena, formerly secular, was made regular in the year 1498. 25° St. Augustine in the district of Pisa, after many and long controversies, was united to the Congregation of St. Savior by Julius II in the year 1504 Pennotto, p. 300.. 26° St. Mary of Gualdo in the diocese of Benevento, transferred by Julius II in the year 1507 from the Benedictines to the canons regular. 27° St. Lawrence in the Ager Veranus, one of the patriarchal churches of the City, which the same Julius gave to the canons regular in the year 1511. 28° St. Mary outside the gate of the city of Lucca, granted by the same Julius in the year 1512. 29° St. Agnellus at Naples, given by Leo X in the year 1517. 30° St. Anthony of Vienne at Padua, erected into a conventual priory by Pius IV in the year 1563. 31° St. Celsus at Milan, formerly of the Order of St. Benedict, granted by Paul III in the year 1518. 32° St. Mary of the Chapels at Naples, formerly of the Order of St. Benedict, which the same Paul transferred in the year 1549. 33° St. Sophia at Benevento, likewise of the Order of St. Benedict, granted by Clement VIII in the year 1595. 34° Holy Spirit in the town of Cento, of the diocese of Ferrara, erected into an abbey by Paul V in the year 1609.