Brocard

ON BL. BROCARD, SECOND PRIOR GENERAL OF THE ORDER OF ST. MARY OF MOUNT CARMEL,

IN PALESTINE

About the year 1221.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On the cult and the deeds of the Blessed.

Brocard, second Prior General of the Order of St. Mary of Mount Carmel, in Palestine. (B.)

BY J. V.

Although Castellanus in his Universal

Martyrology on this day numbers Brocard

among the Venerable only:

The public cult of the Blessed, On Mount Carmel

in Galilee, the venerable Brocard,

Prior, etc.; there is nevertheless

no doubt that he is honored with a public cult. One may

see Lezana, volume 4 of the Annals, at the year

1221 from num. 3, and the new Speculum Carmelitanum,

part 4, page 660, num. 2267. Besides,

Simon de Peyronet inscribes his name in his Catalogue of Saints, page 40:

Brocard, priest,

Prior General of the Carmelites, 2 September, in

Molanus, in the Auctarium to Usuard of the second edition,

1573, where Molanus reports him as Blessed

in these words: On the same day, of blessed Brocard, priest

and Prior General of Carmel, a man of great

sanctity. Ferrarius likewise on this day, not on 29 March,

as Lezana wrongly wrote at num. 4, has the following in his General

Catalogue of Saints: On Mount Carmel,

of Bl. Brocard, second Prior General of the

Carmelites. And he adds in the Notes, page 349: The

Carmelites lately obtained leave to venerate him

in their own churches, as the proper Offices of the

Carmelite Order teach, approved by the sacred Congregation of Rites

and printed at the Plantin press

at Antwerp in 1617. In the repeated edition of the same,

made likewise in the same place in 1631, there is added to the double rite

thy servants who humbly make supplication

in veneration of blessed Brocard, dweller on Mount

Carmel, thy confessor; that by his saving

patronage our life may everywhere be governed amid adversities. Through our

Lord. Finally, at the end of the Carmelite Breviary

of the year 1672, among the Offices newly granted by

our most holy Lord Clement X, there are found concerning him,

page CCLXIII, three proper Lessons of the second Nocturn.

[2] The beginning of the first Lesson is: Brocard, born at Jerusalem;

his native place, the time of his prelacy, his virtues. whence we learn the native place of the Blessed:

we do not, however, on that account believe that he was a Jew by nation,

as Peter Saracenus writes in the Carmelite Menology,

page 239; since Didacus de Coria, John Palæonydorus,

Lezana and others keep deep silence about his Jewish stock,

calling him only a man of Jerusalem. Far less true is

what Palæonydorus has in the Venetian edition of the year

1570, book 3, chapter 2, page 52, that the election of the Blessed

as Prior General happened in the time of Eugenius

III, in the year of the Lord 1166: since the said Pontiff

died in the year 1153. Wherefore the new Speculum Carmelitanum,

published at Antwerp in 1680, cautiously omitted the cited words,

vol. 1, part 2, page 251, num.

1034. Lezana at the year 1166, after he has proved

that those err who contend that Bl. Berthold fell asleep

in the Lord in that year, adds at num. 3:

Since, however, as we have said, the death of Bl. Berthold

did not take place until the year 1187, therefore

consequently we also do not think that Bl. Brocard was elected

General until the year 1188

or 1189. Adhering to this opinion,

the beginning of Bl. Brocard's prelacy may be set at about

the year 1188, against Zeger Pauli, who places it

in the year 1175. Our Blessed, elected by the unanimous

consent of all, held the prelacy not

fifty-two years, as Philip of

the Holy Trinity will have it in his History of the Carmelite Order,

page 341, but 33, shining forth with outstanding virtues,

which Lezana, at the said year 1188, num. 7, records from the cited Palæonydorus: This is Brocard,

who throughout the whole age of his priorate strove to be loved

as an easy man, to be feared as a strong one, and to be regarded as a prudent one.

And it was granted him by God that even while

living he was distinguished by miracles: for, after the manner of Elijah

raising the dead, he drew a young man to the reception of the Order

as another Jonah. But what he brings forward

at the year 1221, num. 5, from Werner Rolewink

in the Fasciculus temporum about the year

1204, in Rolewink, vol. 2 of the German

Writers published at Frankfurt in 1581, I do not find in the place

cited by Lezana; but altogether other

words.

[3] He asks a Rule from Albert the patriarch; The Blessed General, says the first Lesson, in order

to increase regular observance, asked of Bl. Albert,

patriarch of Jerusalem, a Rule

embracing in a brief compendium the whole institute of the Order.

Many believed that this was given

in the year 1171, as Lezana attests at num. 2; where he also

wonders that so vain an invention grew common among

good and learned men, and thereafter laboriously refutes it: others, among whom is William of

Sanvico, assign the year 1199; but these too Lezana refutes in the same place,

num. 5 and following. The same

argument tells against them all, namely that Bl. Albert

did not land in Palestine before the year 1206.

The aforesaid Lezana, treating at the year 1205

expressly of the primitive Rule given to the Carmelites by Bl. Albert

the patriarch, confesses at num. 8

that nothing certain can be affirmed about the date; take

his words: As to the time of the Rule's being given, since neither

in that which is in the Speculum of the Order, book 8, chapter 3,

nor in the Vatican Bull under Innocent IV, which

we have seen, is any such date subjoined; nothing certain can

be affirmed. For what many have said, that it was written in the year

1171, we have rejected under that year as a vain and

fabricated assertion.

Likewise what others (with sounder foundation, to be sure)

have assigned to the year 1199, we have also

there disallowed. This alone, then, is ascertained,

that the date of the Rule is to be sought from this year 1205 *

down to 1214; for in this time alone was Albert

surviving in the patriarchate.

Nevertheless it is credible enough that in this same year

of Albert's coming to Acre, or a little after,

the Rule was given to our men by him. At least

it is certain that this was done before 1214, perhaps in the year 1209,

as has been said in Bl. Albert, vol. 1 of April, page

786. And let this suffice concerning the Rule, which may be read

there entire on page 778 and the following,

and which Lezana at the said year 1205, num.

14, deservedly commends for its brevity, clarity and perfection.

[4] The histories of the Order relate, in the same author at the year

1213, num. 2, by the same, as they say, he is sent as legate to Damascus, that Bl. Brocard was sent by Albert

to Damascus; which, he says, we believe

happened about this time. Especially because, as

that Bradley affirms, Albert wrote to Bl. Brocard

"how he should proceed to Damascus

to the king of Syria, and afterwards should proceed with him

to Rome to the Lateran Council". Bostius and Palæonydorus are indeed

deceived, in that they

believe this Sultan to have been Saladin, whereas

he was none other than Saphadin; since Saladin had already

departed from life some years before… Both Bradley and

they themselves also seem to have been deceived,

when they assert that Bl. Brocard was sent by Albert

to arrange a truce *; since the Pontiff's

letters (in Odoricus Raynaldus, at the year

1213, num. 3, addressed To the noble man Salphadinus, Sultan

of Babylon and Damascus) were not about truces,

but about the restitution of the Holy Land to be made;

although it is possible that Albert, who had desired

to come to Rome for the Lateran Council,

lest his absence should be to the loss of the Holy Land,

procured that a truce should meanwhile be arranged, Brocard and

others being sent for this purpose. Certainly, on Raynaldus's

testimony at the year 1214, num. 3, the letters transmitted to the Pontiff

by the agency of the Venetians assert that the Saracens, filled with fear of the Christians' warlike

preparation, made a show of being about to restore the Holy

Land to the Christians,

and that, in order to be safe from the arms of the Christians,

they would commit themselves to the patronage of the patriarch of Jerusalem,

and would pay a fixed weight of gold by way of tribute;

which letters he there recites entire, from the Chronicle

of Richard of San Germano, a contemporary author,

from num. 4.

[5] What effect, however, the preceding

legation obtained is still unascertained, and he converts the Sultan's viceroy: says Lezana at num. 4,

both on account of Albert's death, which happened in the following

year, and because we find nothing about

it in the histories. Whence, then, could it have been known

that the Blessed obtained everything at Damascus according to his wish, as is said

in the second Lesson? Sixtus of Siena, in book 4 of his Holy Library,

relates that Albert, by order of Innocent III,

wrote commentaries not to be despised on the site and state of the

Holy Land: would that (as Papebroch wished

in Bl. Albert, num. 27) would that,

I say, those Commentaries had been found somewhere and brought

to the light of day, from which perhaps

we might learn some things pertaining to our Blessed.

Meanwhile I fear that this legation of Brocard,

with its circumstances, may not appear sufficiently credible to the learned reader:

since neither the cited Richard, nor Marinus Sanutus, nor Sanvicus himself in

his Chronicle has made mention of it. With some things interposed, Lezana

thus proceeds: Yet those things which Bostius and Palæonydorus,

as above, record to have happened at that time,

since they very greatly commend the sanctity of blessed Brocard,

are not to be omitted; namely:

"Being asked by the Sultan's Mamluk, that

is, his vice-prince (the second Lesson calls him viceroy),

for a fitting remedy, he led him to

the streams of the Jordan and baptized him, and having made him a faithful

defender of the name of Christ, took him with him

to Carmel; where, persevering in the habit and observance

of the Order, he passed over to Christ".

Peter Saracenus has the same, from the writers of Bl. Brocard's Life,

in the Carmelite Menology,

page 242. As wonderful and illustrious as these things

are for the Blessed's commendation, so much should I wish them supported

by the testimony of some more ancient writer.

[6] he dies an octogenarian about the year 1221. When he was already passing his eightieth year (says the third Lesson,

but Saracenus his ninetieth),

being set in the agony of death he exhorted the brethren with a weighty discourse,

that they should remain constant in good,

should abhor riches, should despise

the world, and should order their life by the

standard of all the virtues; and when these things were finished, he breathed out his

soul on the 2nd day of September. Patriarch Albert, hearing

that he had died, said: Now the flower of Carmel

departs. And having said this, he wept, saying: Now he is secure,

he is safe, exalted among the princes of the Church,

to be inscribed in the catalogue of the Saints.

So Palæonydorus, page 53, after he had fixed the Blessed's death

in the year of the Lord 1197: how ill

these things hang together is clear from what was said at num. 3.

Saracenus and others write that he died in the year 1207,

whom Lezana refutes in the same place, num. 9. Castellanus

favored the year 1231. We, following Lezana's reckoning,

as Henschen did in St. Berthold on 29 March,

have placed the happy passing of Bl. Brocard

about the year 1221. Grossi's Viridarium briefly

praises him in the Speculum Carmelitanum,

vol. 1, part 2, page 133, num. 561: Now this

Br. Brocard ruled the Order for thirty-three years,

and at length rested in peace, and is buried on Mount

Carmel: where God did many miracles through him, both in life and in

death. And

in Lezana here at num. 3, reviewing the Saints of the Order,

he says thus: The seventh was Bl. Brocard,

second General of the Order, to whom the patriarch Albert

expressly directed and wrote

the Rule of the Order; whose glorious body indeed,

renowned for many miracles, rests on Mount Carmel.

[7] The deeds of the Blessed written of old: observations That the Acts of the Blessed were committed to writing by some contemporary,

Molanus notes at 2 September

in these words: The Life of Brocard was begun to be written

in the same year in which he died, as the beginning of his history has.

But that Life, says the cited Lezana, although we have not seen it,

is nevertheless easy to believe of, namely that the apostate Bale,

who also wrote his Life, as we shall see

below (num. 6), had this more ancient one

in his keeping, and that all perished with him. The new

Speculum Carmelitanum too, part 4, page

659: It is truly to be lamented, it says, that this Life lies hidden

or has perished; for from it Carmelite history

would be not a little illustrated as regards those things which

happened in his own time. A certain manuscript Life

was sent hither in the year 1670 by Louis

of St. Teresa, provincial definitor of the discalced Carmelites

of the province of Paris,

in a very courteous letter to Henschen and Papebroch of 17 March;

on which Papebroch noted these things:

This Life is in no way ancient:

I asked that the author be indicated, or at least

his date; and then that a note be sent of the other Lives collected by

the same man (as I suspect). I wrote

15 April 1670. Whether and what answer was made,

I am to this day ignorant. Rightly, however, did he observe that it is not

ancient; since it was compiled and put together from the hortatory Oration

of Thomas Bradley, bishop of Dromore,

inserted in the new Speculum Carmelitanum, part 4, from page 662,

as will be plain to anyone willing

to compare the two. For indeed, if it had been written before Bradley

or Bostius, it would not, I think, have escaped

the author of the Speculum, who would surely have preferred it to

Bradley and Bostius as more ancient, or at least

would have compared it with them.

[8] For the rest, the style is oratorical rather than

historical, on the Life to be published here. nor sufficiently polished, and now and then even disjointed;

some things have been added, others wrongly transposed,

as at num. 7 the words of the patriarch, which Bradley

reported after the Blessed's death. At the end of the prefixed

exordium the anonymous author grandly declares that he

has considered each particular very slowly and carefully,

and has not wished to write anything false or trivial or unfitting.

Whether he has stood by his promises we leave

to the learned reader to judge. The title is of this sort:

On Saint Brocard, FIRST Prior General

and lawgiver of the Order of the Most Blessed Mother of God

Mary of Mount Carmel. This anonymous writer contradicts

Lezana and the Speculum Carmelitanum, indeed himself;

for in the Life at num. 4 he has this: He governed the congregation

of the brethren of Mount Carmel … after the death of

St. Berthold his predecessor, for thirty-three years

… Moreover in the very beginning of the Life (unless

it be an error of the copyist) he commits a shameful parachronism,

setting the year of the Blessed's death as

1117, which in Saracenus's opinion was the year of his birth;

indeed, when more probably he was not yet born.

See above, num. 6. Whence this Life was taken

is indicated at the end in these words: Excerpted

from a manuscript of the Library of the Discalced Carmelites,

marked in the year 1670 on the 9th day of March. 5. GGGGG

namely in our Convent of St. Peter at Clermont

in Auvergne, as is plain from the cited letter of Louis

of St. Teresa. But although the authority of this

anonymous writer be small, we have nevertheless judged

that Life should be published, with certain annotations added:

both because no other Mss. concerning the Blessed

were at hand, and lest we should appear ungrateful to those

who courteously transmitted it to our predecessors.

* better, 1206

* i.e. by a truce

VITA

by an anonymous author

From a Ms. of the Convent of Clermont of the Discalced Carmelite Fathers.

Brocard, second Prior General of the Order of St. Mary of Mount Carmel, in Palestine. (B.)

BHL Number: 1466

By an Anonymous writer.

The reason for the writing being given, Since I have undertaken to write the life

of the holy father Brocard, who in the year 1117 *, on the second

day of September, bidding farewell to earth rendered his soul to his

Creator, I know not whence I should make the beginning of my composition;

if I were to start from his virtues, I do not see

any way in which, in making them known, I could

excerpt them in a single chapter: for their greatness

is such that they demand not the brevity of a chapter, but

the length of a volume. For who could in few

words tell the wisdom of so great a Man, his gravity, the loftiness

of his mind, his gentleness, his temperance,

his justice, and in all things that discretion which is the moderator

of the virtues? If I should begin from praising and adorning

the brilliance of his speech

and this most learned manner of writing, I fear lest

I should be one *, in Roscius's sight, ^a making a gesture on the stage,

and should myself appear barren and thin. If concerning the

miracles wrought through him, with the Holy Spirit cooperating,

by which on earth a testimony of sanctity by no means doubtful

is rendered to Christians, and in

heaven a crown of rewards is prepared for the Saints out of the goodness of miracles:

for not all the things which he did excellently occur

to one describing the life of St. Brocard,

nor are they to be heaped together in this place; but only

those which are true and worthy of note.

Here, then, I would premise, that it may be understood that I *

have very slowly and carefully considered each particular

which I have gathered into the life of St. Brocard; and that I have not wished

to set down anything which I judged either false or trivial

or unfitting.

[2] the author relates the Blessed's election to the prelacy, He was indeed the first [b] and

chief Prior General in the Order of the brethren of the most blessed Mother of God

Mary of Mount Carmel, raised up by the unanimous election * of all

the brethren, to whom he always showed himself companionable

and lovable: which

election indeed we believe was most burdensome to him,

and that it befell him contrary to what he had wished.

I think no one has used so great an effort to

obtain an honor as he used that he

might not be elected by the brethren, confirmed by Albert, legate of the Apostolic

See and patriarch of Jerusalem,

and have it laid upon him by the same. And since

the will of God and the charitable affection of all the brethren

had overcome his diligence and his resistance,

he held out his right hand, extending it,

and gave it to the brethren to be kissed; and he humbly gave his assent

to his own election; lest he should be judged either too proud,

or empty and ungrateful for so great a promotion. Having taken up the office,

he not only in his own monastery of Mount Carmel handled the brethren

of his Order in the Holy Land, then

possessed by the Christians, humble and obedient in gentleness

and zealous admonition, but also by the example of great

virtues, like another Elijah,

showed the way of God. And because the glory of the heavenly kingdom,

which he desired with the highest longing, is not

acquired save by doing something great, or by hazarding oneself for the faith against

the Moors, and the crown is presented not to spectators

but to contenders *;

St. Brocard put his hand to strong deeds, proceeding so

fervently that to some it seemed impossible to follow him.

For who was more ready than he in holy works,

and further removed from all obstinacy of hardness?

Who was ever more moderate in acquiescing in the judgments of his friends,

and more obedient to the Apostolic See? And what worthy of his merits

did he obtain, who by his prayer and exhortation restored to the Christians Acre ^c,

situated at the foot of Mount Carmel,

which had been captured by the industry of Saladin, the wicked prince

of Egypt and Syria? For before the coming

of Philip and Richard ^d, kings of the Franks and of the English,

the faithful peoples, placing in no one upon earth * their confidence

of counsel and aid save in St. Brocard,

had consolation.

[3] the regular observance, which Lastly, St. Brocard, whom his own virtue

so raised that he became the first counselor of the archbishop of Cæsarea [e],

and likewise no mean one to the master of the Templars

[f], nevertheless did not neglect his purpose of the observance

of the Order he had earlier taken up:

but he labored fervently in vigils and through each

* added something by which he might become better. He considered

also, in those pursuits of the ancient Saints

who had inhabited Mount Carmel before him,

leading an eremitical life, the very great rewards

now laid up by God for their labors: for

he was strong in body, gracious in aspect, distinguished

in learning, singular in eloquence, excellently instructed in letters both Greek

and Latin. And, what

is precious above all, conspicuous for entire faith according to

the rite of the Roman Church, and for outstanding

sanctity: and although he wrote a compendious rule

excerpted from the Rule of St. Basil,

handing it to the brethren to be observed; yet

he was himself at once a rule of conduct, the integrity of honesty,

brother, you have an excellent teacher,

whose chastity, poverty and abstinence you should imitate,

in which, for forty years in the desert of Mount Carmel,

faithfully serving God and his blessed Mother,

he never relaxed his vow. You will see

in the rule, brother, the diligence of the holy Father, and you will not cease to marvel

at his prudence, the assiduity of his prayer

and his observance of silence: never in so long a space of his servitude did he taste

flesh, and the longer his misery was for Christ's sake,

the sweeter the happiness that comes after death. Few

there are who pass their whole life happily: for

fortunate times receive some at the beginning, others at the end;

it goes well with those whose latter part of life

is glad; but best of all, when,

as men lay earth upon the body, they serve the dead man,

and the key-bearer of the kingdom opens heaven to the soul.

[4] Further, St. Brocard throughout the whole age of his priorate

strove, out of the wisdom for the conduct of affairs divinely

granted him, both to be loved as an easy man, he wondrously advanced, and other virtues; and to be feared as a strong one,

and he is found * by the brethren to be regarded as a prudent one;

and therefore the Lord assigned to him such a grace of merits

that even while living he shone with miracles.

For when on a certain day, at the solemnity of the Annunciation

of the most glorious Virgin, he was devoutly celebrating Mass,

he heard many murmurs in the church; and

the Mass being ended, praying after his usual manner for the peace of the Church,

he said: O most merciful God, although we are altogether unworthy

of thy compassion, yet spare thy great

name, spare, I beseech thee, the holy places: behold,

now many churches are, with thy permission, destroyed;

and where a little before the Christian religion flourished,

now the sacrilegious fabrications of Mahomet ^g are worshipped.

Nor yet * had he finished his prayer, and behold,

one of his friends called him, whose son on that

day lay dead; and St. Brocard, compassionating

his grief, having first poured out prayer, after the manner

of his father Elijah the prophet raised the dead man:

whom he invited to the profession of his Order, offering

him the sacred habit, which the young man devoutly

received and put on, and dying afterwards in it he is buried.

But as many as are the miracles which the Lord

deigned to show through his Saint,

so many are the tokens of his sanctity. Nor am I able

to note down all his good deeds, which from the years of discretion until

old age he performed worthy of admiration:

for the goods of the soul were especially conspicuous in him;

admirable probity, remarkable kindliness

and outstanding generosity. What shall I say of his wondrous

humility and his charity toward his brethren, and his love

toward all and his singular goodness, in which

he strove to excel many Saints *? Of how great

prudence he was appears from this, that

he so governed * the very great congregation of the brethren of Mount Carmel,

and affairs so various and manifold, after the death

of St. Berthold his predecessor, for thirty-three

years, as St. Cyril ^h attests,

that no one of the brethren ever felt himself lacking counsel, comfort, food

and clothing at any time of his generalate.

[5] O Religion of the Carmelites, holy race, planted in

the old Testament by Elijah [i], so often visited by the Blessed Virgin

Mary, which in the latest days deserved such

when the way of salvation had been opened to all through Christ

the Son of God, the devil, grieving overmuch that Jesus

Christ should reign everywhere, raised up a false prophet

in Arabia, Mahomet by name, a wicked

man, who lied that he was a minister * of God,

and founded a [law] contrary to the Gospel *.

When he was dead, Abu Bakr ^k held the principate

three years: after him Omar ^l twelve years;

whom a certain Persian, feigning that he wished to adore him,

slew by fixing a sword in his belly. This Omar

expelled by his wickedness * all the Christians whom he did not kill;

except the hermits of Mount Carmel,

the servants of the Virgin Mary: yet he compelled them

to change the white mantle into a barred mantle.

Then the brethren were in great tribulation

until the times of Godfrey ^m and of his brother King

Baldwin; and then St. Berthold and

St. Brocard were sent for the consolation of the hermits, and

for the support of all Christians. Now the princes of the Holy Land *

saw in St. Brocard

the highest liberality, a penetrating intellect, great care

for administering justice according to the rigor of the Order;

he therefore received their letters,

and gave them useful counsel in difficult affairs.

[6] the legation to Damascus; Now on a certain occasion, not long before

the Lord called him from this world, Albert the patriarch of Jerusalem

wrote to him;

how he should proceed to Damascus ⁿ to the king of Syria,

to make a truce for a time, and afterwards should proceed

with him to Rome to the Lateran [o] Council.

And when he had obtained everything from the Sultan according to his wish,

there came to him the Mamluk [p] of that

land, by name Sarraia [q], stricken with leprosy, who

had wholly lost the use of his hands, asking

to be cleansed by him. To whom St. Brocard answered:

Draw near to the spiritual water of the Jordan, that your

body may be washed, and you will recover health. And he

said: I know what you say; I wish to be baptized and to become a Christian.

Then St. Brocard, keeping the manner of his father Elisha

the prophet, taking a very little of the water of the fount

of Elijah, poured it upon the leper's * head in the name of the Father and

of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

and at once healed he remained many years with the brethren

of Mount Carmel, serving God and the Blessed

Virgin until the end of his life, in which, dear to God,

he passed to heaven.

[7] his labors, his love of poverty: But when the time was at hand in which the Lord

had willed to reward his faithful Servant in glory,

since the lawgiver of the Carmelite brethren and the teacher

of the Holy Land, while he was young, while he could bear labors,

sweating and enduring cold, fought bravely against

the world and the devil, and never conquered

but always came off conqueror by God's grace; but

afterwards, weighed down by old age, he lost his strength: yet his soul,

like a most valiant athlete, most bravely * overcame the assault.

The patriarch also heard that he was

sick and said: Now the flower of Carmel falls. And having said this,

he wept and presently added: Now he is secure,

he is safe, raised up among the princes of the Church; let him be written in the catalogue

of the Saints. Fortune has those for enemies

whom it casts down from felicity into distress,

for whom it is most wretched to have been happy. But St. Brocard

considered that man is born into

the world not to gather wealth or to possess

delights, but for labors: and therefore he wished to live

on earth not as a dweller, but as

through holy works, persisting keenly.

For indeed in great fortune virtue is not easily

found. Perceiving which, that Theban

philosopher [r] cast a huge weight of gold into the sea,

that he might give himself more unencumbered to philosophy.

So also St. Brocard, that he might cleave more closely to Christ

and be free for contemplation in the desert,

wishing to have nothing of his own, despised all temporal things:

whence also at his death he made no

testament.

[8] Many of whose * disciples were holy lovers

of poverty; his disciples, his zeal for prayer, as St. Cyril, the Greek doctor

[s], who has also been canonized [t], and Bl. Angelus,

martyred in Sicily, his brother by the same mother John,

patriarch of Jerusalem, Joseph of Emana

*, Peter of Bethlehem [u] and several others.

Many let go the reins of their sons when they have begun

to grow up: but St. Brocard, from the time when, elected Prior,

he had taken up the care of the brethren, so strove to restrain all,

young and old, under the rigor of discipline,

that no one is read ever to have fallen from the fiery chariot

of Elijah; but by moving, chastising

and kindling to virtues he diligently instructed all at all times.

O with what urbanity of judgments

and abundance of the best words, soothing the minds of the brethren,

did he wondrously discourse! O with what devotion

did he direct prayers, compunctions, tears

to Christ, to the Blessed Virgin and to the Saints!

Whence also he frequently exhorted the brethren to read over the collations

and the Lives of the Fathers. And because his

admonitions proceeded from the zeal of charity and a simple heart,

the brethren were wondrously edified in hearing them.

And so he was greatly distressed in mind,

because, hindered by all the affairs of the Church or of the monastery,

he saw the opportunity of praying taken from him.

For as a merchant setting out for the sake of gain

carries with him his books and counters, so St.

Brocard, wherever he went, carried with him a stole,

[9] With these titles of praise, then, he came to the eighty-first

year of his age, his happy passing from this world in prosperous health

and with the authority of the priorate continued: he obtained too an easy

and tranquil end of life,

such as best accorded with his former manner of living *.

To whom at length, after much endurance of abstinence

and labors, Mary the Mother of God stood by,

saying: Come now, blessed of the Lord, and enter

those eternal tabernacles which are owed to you.

For behold, with me are your fathers Elijah [y]

and Elisha and the prophets, who will now receive you into their

choir. Having heard these things, Brocard

on the following day is set toward the term of this life;

whence, placed in his agony, having called the brethren, humbly

asking pardon he said: My little sons, God has called

us into an Order of hermits and of priests,

and we are called Brethren of the Blessed Mary; but yet

see to it that after my departure this name

of Brethren of the Blessed Mary be not false in you.

O most beloved, persevere, despise the world, hate

delights, whose blandishments present the greatest

hindrance to the attainment of eternal life.

And with many other words he persuaded them to guard against

future evils * and to seek future goods.

[10] At last, as the hour of his passing drew near,

that soul, lover of everlastingness *, his passing, and miracles. freed from the bonds

of the body, seized with easy ascent the way to the height of heaven,

with the brethren standing by and seeing,

borne up by angels into heaven: where now abiding,

rescued from darkness, contemplating with pure gaze those divine

spectacles, it looks upon our

weakness. Whose holy body the brethren, with fitting

honor, with psalms and prayers, delivered to burial

beside our holy Father Berthold. Then his death affected

the brethren, dwelling among pagans, with incredible sorrow:

yet this was for their consolation,

that at his tomb, by God's working,

many miracles were wrought; the blind were enlightened,

the lame set upright, demoniacs freed *, and many others

healed of divers diseases, to the praise and glory of almighty

God. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

famous actor, was in Cicero's age so consummate in his art

that, if we wish to signify that anyone excels the rest of men of his kind,

we call him a Roscius κατ᾽

ἐξοχὴν, that is, by way of excellence, as Calepinus attests. To this the anonymous writer seems to look, excusing his own slightness.

b So

he also put it in the title, and repeats it below at num. 5; but wrongly. See

the Commentary, num. 8. At what time the Blessed succeeded Berthold has been said

in the same place, num. 2.

it was recovered by Philip Adeodatus, king of the Franks, and Richard, king of the English, in the third

year of the siege, and it was possessed by the Christians for a hundred years.

e From

Michael le Quien, vol. 3 of Oriens Christianus, col. [ ], the archbishop of Cæsarea

in Palestine in the year 1179 was Eracleus or Eraclius; and when he was translated

in the following year to the patriarchal see of Jerusalem,

Monachus was made archbishop: and to him too, when he had been raised to the patriarchate

of Jerusalem in 1194, there succeeded an archbishop to whom Innocent III addressed a letter on 20 February in the year 1214; but his name is unknown.

f The Order

of the Templars was begun, according to Pagi, at Jerusalem in the year 1119; but

on account of enormous crimes it was extinguished by Clement V in the Council of Vienne in the year

1312.

In this year Mahomet the false prophet, when he had appeared in the city of Mecca, situated in Arabia Felix,

being brought into danger on account of the religion he had innovated, was compelled to flee

from it. From that flight the Mahometans measure out the years and duration of their new worship in their Era, which they call the Hegira,

that is, the persecution. It is most famous among all Mahometans and the inhabitants of the Eastern

regions, and takes its beginning from the 16th day of the month of July,

which in this year fell on a Friday. Mahomet had been born, as

George Elmacin has in his Saracen History, in the city of Mecca on the 12th day of the month

of the earlier Rabia, which corresponds to the fifth of our May, and therefore in the year

of Christ 570, etc. But Elmacin, in the twin

edition

published at Leiden in 1625, the one Latin, the other Arabic-Latin, book 1,

chapter 1, places on that day the Hegira or flight of Mahomet: Now he entered Medina Talnabi, that is, the city of the Prophet, at midday itself on Monday (according to others, Thursday), which was the twelfth of the month of the earlier Rabia. But the day and year of his birth he expresses at the beginning of the chapter in this way:

Now Muhammad was born … in the stony valley of the city of Mecca about

the dawn of Monday, which was the eighth of the month of the earlier Rabia: to which corresponds, of

the months of the Romans †, the 22nd day of the month Nisan, or 26 April of ours, of the year 882 of Alexander the Great, which

was the year of Christ 558, not 570: for when 324 are subtracted from 882, there remain

only 558. That the years of Christ ought thus to be drawn out from the era of Philip Aridæus, that is, of Alexander's death, the praised Pagi teaches in the Dissertation prefixed to vol. 1,

num. 92, in these words: Since the Christian Era begins in the year 324 from

the death of Alexander, in order to draw out the years of Christ, those 324 years must always be cast off

from an Era of this kind. But if to the Christian era 558 you add 54 lunar years, that is, as many as Mahomet had been born, on Elmacin's testimony, when

he fled to Medina; you will have only the year of Christ 611: and accordingly the Hegira

will have to be anticipated by more than a decade, against all the chronologers who assign its beginning

to 15 or 16 July 622. Wherefore I suspect that in both our

editions of Elmacin the year of Alexander, or of Philip Aridæus, 882 has been set

for the year 882 of the Seleucids, which was the year 894 of Philip, but of Christ

570. This seems certain from the fact that in the same place a little lower the 40th year of Mahomet

is wrongly joined with the year 922 of Alexander the Great, which was the twentieth of the reign of Chosroes, perhaps of Hormisdas: for,

as Pagi proves from Theophylact at the year 592, num. 4, Chosroes the younger was substituted in

the place of his father Hormisdas in the year of Christ 590, when there was running

the 914th year of Philip or of Alexander, the 902nd of the Seleucids, whose era is twelve years

later than the death of Alexander. Consequently the 20th year of Chosroes II,

of Christ 610, could not fall in the year 922 of Alexander, of Christ 598;

but the year 922 of the Seleucids ought to have been put, or the 934th of Philip, in which Mahomet,

being forty years old, arrogated to himself the office of prophecy. See the Chronological Concordance

of Labbe at the years cited. Whether this knot concerning the year of Mahomet's birth

can be otherwise untied, I leave to be examined by those more skilled. Now the nefarious impostor died

on 17 June in the year of Christ 632, of the Hegira 11: when he had been born sixty-three lunar or Arabic years, or according to others, sixty-five. So

Elmacin. The Annals of Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria, which Edward Pococke translated from the Arabic

into Latin, vol. 2, page 227, place the beginning

of the Hejra or Hegira in the first year of the reign of Heraclius, of Christ 614;

and on page 251 they fix the death of Mahomet in the 11th year of Heraclius. But

there is a manifest error in the years of Heraclius, since he was emperor from the year 610: as regards the year of Christ 614, it is plainly the same as that which is with us

reckoned 622. Assuredly, says John Selden at the beginning of the preface prefixed to vol. 1, on the verso page,

Eutychius everywhere in his Chronology makes the birth of Christ eight years

later than in the common era… And accordingly on that account he begins the Hegira from

the year of Christ 614, which our chronologers unanimously assign

to the common year of Christ 622. Further, on what principle, in Elmacin, book 2, chapters 16 and 19 toward the end, the Hegira is to be restored, falling short by 14 years at the death of the emperor Basil, but exceeding by 9 in Leo son of Basil, as our Sollier noted in the same place;

these things, I say, and others of this kind, let those skilled in Arabic look to, or others

who have leisure and pleasure for it.

i This

we neither assert nor yet deny; wishing to keep inviolate

the precept of Pope Innocent XII, by which he imposed perpetual silence upon all concerning the question of the primitive

institution and succession of the Order of the Carmelites from the prophets Elijah and

Elisha, in the constitution given 20

November 1698.

He was created Caliph, or supreme prince of the Saracens, on the day on which

Mahomet died, and reigned two years and a few months,

dying according to Pagi on 23 August in the year of the Lord 634. Du Cange's Glossary mentions him

at the word Chalifa, in these words: Now the first to usurp the name and dignity of Caliph was Abu Bakr, the successor of Mahomet, as George El-Macin is the author.

Elmacin, book 1, chapter 3. He reigned only 10 years and some

months, being slain by Abulula, servant of Mugira, a Persian by nation, in the year of the Hegira 23

(of Christ 644), as the Annals of Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria, relate, vol. 2,

page 320, and the cited Elmacin. Pagi, however, from Theophanes writes that Omar

was slain in the year of Christ 645. That Omar, according to Theophanes, having continued the siege of the Holy City for two years, at length received it into his power on the giving of a pledge, not

in the year of Christ 636, but 637, of the Hegira 16, as the praised Pagi proves against Baronius and Labbe in explaining Theophanes. For the rest, how moderately

and clemently the same Omar bore himself toward the captive Christians, giving them a written

charter of security, witnesses are, besides Elmacin, the Annals

of Eutychius in the cited volume, page 284. And although Roderick Ximenes,

archbishop of Toledo, in his History of the Arabs, chapter 7, calls him harsh: When Abu Bakr was dead, Omar is placed on the throne of the kingdom of the Arabs, and reigned ten years. He was harsh and very steadfast in battles; yet no one will hammer out from the word HARSH

that so dreadful a persecution against the Christians was stirred up by him as is here

narrated, of which Ximenes does not mention even a word, nay, the opposite of which

Elmacin and the cited Annals teach. See Parergon 8 of the Chronological History

of the patriarchs of Jerusalem, vol. III of May, page XXXII, or

Papebroch's Response to Article 15, §18. In both places, however, we wish

corrected what is said, that Elmacin was not a Christian;

for Pagi shows the contrary at the year 622, num. 8, and our Sollier noted the same in the title

of the Latin edition of Elmacin, in these words: From the last § of the whole History, page 370, it is plain that George Elmacin was a Christian.

thereafter first king of Jerusalem, renowned no less for virtues worthy of a Christian

prince than for warlike bravery, set out for the East in the year 1096 with

Baldwin his brother by the same mother; he took Jerusalem

by force on the Ides of July 1099, and on the eighth day after was elected king by unanimous consent, and in the year 1100, on the 15th of the Kalends of August, ended his present life in Christ, full of faith and good works, as

the Abbot of Ursperg has, in Pagi, num. 13. In the same year on 25 December

his brother Baldwin I was crowned king of Jerusalem, who, after various victories won over the Saracens, died in Lent in the year 1118. For the memorial of Godfrey see vol. IV of July, in the Prætermissa at the 15th and 18th day.

o The Fourth Lateran

Council, to which Innocent III had invited Bl. Albert,

was celebrated at Rome in the year 1215 in the months of November and December.

p Hear Mark Antony Alegre de Casanate in the Paradise of Carmelite adornment, page 253: A Mamluk, an Arab by nation, viceroy of the city of Damascus, was drawn to the faith of Christ by the persuasions of St. Brocard, and, having come to loathe the world, was numbered by Brocard himself

among the company of the sons of Elijah on Carmel. Shining forth distinguished by the example of his life, having quickly become a strenuous

athlete of the Christian warfare, he flew to the stars, as the acts of

Brocard relate, in the year of Christ Jesus 1173, that is, 40 years before Brocard could have been sent to Damascus by the patriarch Albert, by whom nevertheless this man is said to have been converted on the occasion of that legation. Du Cange in his Glossary at the word MAMELUCHI notes the following:

Thus the Egyptians called Christian slaves, or those born of Christian

parents, captured in boyhood and sold for a price, from whom was

chosen the one who ruled the rest, under the appellation of Sultan. Edward

Pococke in his Supplement to Gregory Abul-Faraj, page 8, says that the Turkish Mamluks

began to rule in the year of the Hegira 648, of Christ 1250, whom, on page 19,

the Circassian Mamluks succeeded in the year of the Hegira 784, of Christ 1382. On page 31 he says that those are in error who suppose that the Mamluks were only the sons of Christians. William of Tyre mentions the Mamluks in book 21, chapter 23, narrating the rout of Saladin by the Christians in the year 1177.

q In Bradley, Sacain; nowhere have I found either name.

r Crates, namely, who,

having cast no small weight of gold into the sea, said: Away with you, sink, evil

desires. I will drown you, lest I myself be drowned by you. Nor did he think that he

could possess virtues and riches at the same time. These and

similar things about Crates are had in St. Jerome, vol. 4 of Martianay's new edition,

col. 89, in the Notes. Before the holy Doctor, Philostratus of Lemnos mentions the same deed

in book 1 of the Life of Apollonius of Tyana, chapter 13.

s In Bostius one does not read Greek, but excellent; and there is added, and Eusebius his inseparable companion. He is found among the Prætermissi at 10 June, vol. 2, page 263.

t It is an

addition of the anonymous writer, Bradley and Bostius being silent about the canonization, the

decree of which I have sought in vain. Bale, cited by Lezana at the year 1224, num. 6,

only admits that Eugenius IV permitted that Cyril, that doctor who had had visions, be reckoned among the Saints. See also vol. 1 of March, page 499, num. 6.

u Of St. Angelus the martyr there is a full treatment in vol. 2 of May, pages 56 and 798. Mention of John his brother is made in vol. III of July, page 473, in the Prætermissi at the 13th day: of Joseph at 13 June, vol. 2, page 665: of Peter, finally, at 4 June, vol. 1, page 374.

x That is, a chaplet of prayer made up of beads, as Du Cange attests at the word Pater-Noster, by which the common people are wont to designate the Rosary. But orarium, which in Du Cange and others generally signifies the priestly stole, seems here to be taken by the anonymous writer for a little book of prayers.

y In Bradley Elijah is omitted: because he is not in heaven, but in the earthly Paradise, as Fr. Daniel of the Virgin Mary noted in the same place. But did not Moses and Elijah appear at the Transfiguration of the Lord, Matt. 17 v. 3? What, then, could the earthly paradise have set in the way of his appearing here?

* perhaps 1217

strike out quis*

delete me*

read electione*

Bradley, præstatur*

read sicuti*

Bradley and Bostius, singula*

invenitur* is redundant

Bradley and Bostius, necdum*

Bradl., Sanctus*

Bradl., gubernaverit*

Bradl., nuntium*

add legem*

Bradl., potestate*

the same, sanctitatem*

the same, leproso*

the same, fortunæ*

the same, Ejus*

Bradl. and Bost., Emaus*

Bostius, moderationi*

the same, fugere*

Bradl. and Bost., puritatis*

elsewhere, relevati*