Thomas of Villanova

ON ST. THOMAS OF VILLANOVA, ARCHBISHOP OF VALENCIA,

SURNAMED THE ALMSGIVER, OF THE ORDER OF ST. AUGUSTINE, AT VALENCIA IN SPAIN.

1555.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Thomas of Villanova, archbishop, surnamed the Almsgiver, of the Order of St. Augustine, at Valencia in Spain. (S.)

BY J. P.

§ I. The Acts of the Saint, by whom they were written, and which are to be published.

[ ] This holy Bishop, the great glory of the church of Valencia, His Life was written in Latin and the outstanding ornament of the most famous Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, obtained within a short interval from his death so many heralds of his sanctity and heroic virtues, and these differing both in nation and in language, that it has seemed best to begin the Commentary with them, and to set before the rest some notice of them, so that the reader may understand which are to be preferred to which, and whence what they committed to writing was drawn, and of what credit it is worthy. First in age and nearest to the Saint in familiarity comes Juan Muñatones, who, on the testimony of Tomás de Herrera in his History of the Convent of St. Augustine at Salamanca, written in Spanish, page 200, having embraced the institute of the Hermits of St. Augustine at Toledo, made his solemn profession in the year 1523, and, after he had honorably discharged various offices, was promoted to the mitre of Segorbe about the year 1556, and held it until the year 1571, in which he ceased to live, as Don Francisco de Villagrasa expressly notes in his Spanish Work entitled: The Antiquity of the cathedral church of Segorbe and a Catalogue of its bishops, chapter 43, where he praises him highly for learning and piety.

[2] This Muñatones knew the Saint and often heard him preaching, when he had not yet given himself to the religious life; shortly after the Saint's death by Juan Muñatones; then he lived with him familiarly, and at last published in print, for the public benefit, his Works, when he had died not long before, as I shall set out a little more fully afterwards. On the occasion of this edition he compressed the Saint's deeds into a compendium, and inserted it in his preface, where, after he had lamented the calamities of those times and the perverse manners of men, arising from the savagery of the wars then raging and of the Lutheran heresy overrunning the Christian world, he calls to mind the men who formerly were illustrious for learning and virtue, and with whom by reason of his age it had befallen him to associate, and saying that among these he wishes chiefly to commemorate one, he proceeds thus: And that one is master brother Thomas of Villanova, once most worthy archbishop of Valencia, of whom, since some of his sermons and his esteemed learning are for the greater part contained in this volume *, I have judged that I should do not amiss if in the porch before the Work itself I should recall to the reader something about that Man, and about his life most worthy of immortality. So he in the Alcalá edition of the year 1581. We have therefore an author of such age and authority as we are wont to wish for when we inquire into the deeds of some Saint; nay, such that, had he not been too studious of brevity, there would have been no need to have recourse to others.

[3] and Giuseppe Panfilo an elogium, Next to Muñatones, at least in time, is Giuseppe Panfilo, of the same Order, bishop of Segni, who wrote the Augustinian Chronicles and carried them down to the year 1579; but he left only a short elogium of St. Thomas, which therefore I transfer hither from the Roman edition of the year 1581, page 119: Thomas of Villanova, archbishop of Valencia in Hither Spain, a learned man and a very great lover and guardian of regular discipline, and a most ardent preacher of the divine word. He, when he had undertaken the dignity of pastoral charge, omitted nothing of his former holy institution, but gave himself continually to prayers, to the reading of the Scriptures, to holy meditations, and to the contemplation of inward things, unless he was serving the convenience and profit of others. To the poor and needy he was very merciful, and, that he might for the love of God refresh them somewhat when hungering, remaining fasting more often himself, he shared with the needy the food that was due to him: for wherever he met a poor man, at once without delay, as far as he could, he relieved his want both in clothing and in food.

[4] which is recited; In all things he was peaceable, mild, quiet, grave in gait, sweet in speech, and adorned with a pleasant majesty of manners. And he had so learned to humble himself before God that even in his outward conversation a certain brightness of spiritual grace shining forth showed openly to all the inward humility of his heart. In his habit he differed in nothing from the other brethren of his Order. When at last he had lived many years piously and holily, God calling him, he began to sicken, and rested with a holy end in the year from the Nativity of the Lord 1555. He is buried at Valencia in our church of St. Mary of Succor: at whose funeral more than eight thousand five hundred weeping poor took part. He left many and various sermons filled with weightiest words and sentences, which are sought with the greatest diligence by those who profess to mount the pulpit. He established and founded two colleges, one at Alcalá for the brethren of the Order, the other at Valencia for clerics. So far he, a writer indeed Italian, but contemporary with the Saint and so accurate in the things narrated that no doubt

remains to me that he learned them from eyewitnesses.

[5] then Miguel Salón in Spanish, Somewhat more remote in age from the Saint is Miguel Salón, who nevertheless, since he is his chief biographer, must be described to the reader a little more fully. Let us hear therefore Herrera in his Alphabet, part 2, page 99: Master Miguel Salón, no small glory of the province of Aragon, qualificator in the tribunal of the most holy Inquisition, most widely known throughout the world by his published writings, public professor of sacred Theology in the university of Valencia, a man famous for learning and holiness and worthy of a higher place, was in the year 1563 a bachelor of sacred Theology and a noble member of the province of Sardinia, and afterwards, the monasteries of the kingdom of Valencia * being united to the province of Aragon, he remained in that province. In the year 1575 he came to the general chapter as general definitor of his province, and in the year 1576 he was Prior of Orihuela, and in the year 1599 he is confirmed as provincial of Aragon. At last in the year 1621, and in the eighty-second of his age, in the college of Bl. Mary of Succor at Valencia he laid down the burden of this mortality, leaving a lasting memory no less of his virtues than of his learning. This man, about the year 1584, seized by a violent fever and brought to the last extremity of life, made a vow to our Saint that, if he recovered his health, he would compile his deeds and give them to the public light, and, becoming bound by the vow, he carried it into execution in Spanish with Valencian types in the year 1588.

[6] The helps which he used in composing this Work first with the aid of many witnesses, he recounts in Spanish in the preface to the second edition of the Life, of which presently, in this order and in almost these words: I studiously sought to inquire of his (the Saint's) visitors and of others who served him and were his familiars; who were then still living and knew very well how he conducted himself during the whole time that he was archbishop until he died; likewise of many Religious in Castile advanced in years, who had known his remarkable piety and his example (of life) when he lived in the Order. Gathering what was reported by them and joining it with what don Fr. Juan Muñatones, bishop of Segorbe, writes in the narration which he composed about the holiness of Fr. Thomas from his very boyhood, at the beginning of the book of the same Saint's Sermons, as also with what I had learned from his confessor, who was a Religious of this convent of blessed Mary of Succor, who was with him during the whole time of his archbishopric, and with whom I associated much, I composed a little book entitled: "Of the remarkable and most singular examples which in every kind of holiness and virtue, especially of piety and mercy toward the poor, Fr. don Thomas of Villanova, archbishop of Valencia, left behind."

[7] The same author in the following century published another and longer Work, also in Spanish, about the deeds of St. Thomas: and again from the Processes for the beatification: and this, in the preface already mentioned, he professes to have taken wholly or almost wholly from the Processes instituted by Apostolic authority at Valencia, and others in Castile, for the Saint's beatification and canonization; but toward the end he begs the reader to be secure about the truth and fidelity of what is narrated, since those things which he did not draw from the said Processes, and which are very few, he received from the certain report of persons worthy of all credit; doubtless indicating those whom he had consulted for putting together his first Work. Further, in the said Processes Salón himself was appointed procurator by the Prior General of the whole Order in the year 1610 on the twentieth day of July, as is expressly said in the Relation made to Pope Paul V, to be mentioned at number 10, and this second Life, although published only in the year 1620, he had already begun to write and in all likelihood had carried far in the year 1617, as I gather from the letter prefixed to the whole Work, by which the Prior provincial of Aragon exhorts him, then Prior of the convent of Valencia and professor of theology in the university, and binds him in virtue of obedience, to complete that Life and, the requisite formalities being observed, to bring it to light as quickly as he can. Now Salón applied himself before all else to illustrating the Saint's virtues and the outstanding endowments of his soul, and to strengthening them with examples and testimonies, appealing for this end sometimes to the said processes, sometimes by name, more often in general, to the witnesses from whom he received what is narrated; but he does not seem to have been so careful to preserve the order of events, or to note accurately the circumstances, especially of time, in which he must sometimes be corrected from other writers or documents: but of his manner of writing and his style the discussion will return below.

[8] afterwards others In the same year 1620 in which Salón published the Life just praised, an Epitome of the Life of the same Saint, likewise in Spanish, was brought to light with Madrid types by don Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas, knight of St. James, a copy of which, reprinted at Brussels in the year 1661, I have at hand; he does not signify whence he drew that Epitome, yet I suspect that he used Salón's first Work; for although he differs from the same Salón in some things, yet in most he agrees with him excellently; nay, perhaps all the difference there is between the two authors arose from this, that Salón, as he added many things to his second Work from the Processes, so changed some things; which I cannot affirm with more certainty, since I do not possess the first Work. Another synopsis of the Life was published in Spanish at Brussels in the year 1621 by Fr. Gabriel Metermann; and in Latin at Antwerp in the year 1622 by Fr. Nicasius Baxius, both of the Order of Saint Augustine, and both using Salón's second Work. These were followed in the same Belgium by two other Augustinian authors, Cornelius Curtius and Johannes Naevius, of whom the former gives an elogium of St. Thomas in the Work printed in Latin at Antwerp in the year 1636 on the Illustrious Men of the Hermits of St. Augustine, the latter a compendium of the Life in the Augustinian Hermitage, published at Louvain in the year 1638. But these too refer the reader for fuller information to Salón; him likewise Alfonso del Castillo praises in his Sacrarium of Valencia, into which he inserted a Life of St. Thomas about the year 1635.

[9] in various languages. A long narration of the deeds of St. Thomas was also inserted into the Lives of the Saints of his Order, published in French in the year 1641, by Fr. Simplicien Saint-Martin, Augustinian Hermit; he, besides Salón, Baxius, and Quevedo, praises Francesco Soto, dean of the Pontifical chapel, who published Salón's first Work translated into Italian in the year 1619; as also Fr. Basilio de León; Fr. Henri Yves and Fr. Jerónimo Cantón, of whom the first said many things about the Saint in a Sermon delivered at Toledo in the year 1620; the second published a Life in French in the year 1622, the third in Spanish verse, in the year, as I learn from elsewhere, 1620, and the last of whom, as Prior of the convent of Valencia, approved Salón's second Work on the twentieth day of March in the year just mentioned. These four lucubrations are lacking to me, and some others which are mentioned in Luigi Torelli in the Lives of Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Augustine, page 503, in Antonio Luigi Gandolfo in his Historical Dissertation on Augustinian writers, page 340, and in Antonio de Quintanadueñas in his Saints of Toledo, page 472. But to inquire more laboriously into these seemed to me superfluous, because I did not doubt that their authors had either Muñatones or Salón or perhaps even a less ancient writer for their guide, so that consequently they could contribute little help toward illustrating the Saint's Acts.

[10] The Relation of Giovanni Battista Coccino, Of greater use to us are three printed documents, which come to be mentioned last. The first Felice Contelori, advocate in the Roman curia, appended to the Treatise on the Canonization of Saints, published with Lyons types in the year 1634, from page 449 to 736 under this title: On the Sanctity and miracles by which the venerable man brother Thomas of Villanova, surnamed the Almsgiver, archbishop of Valencia, of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, was famous in life and after death, to our most holy Lord Paul V, supreme Pontiff: the Relation of the most illustrious and most reverend Giovanni Battista Coccino, dean of the Holy Rota. Now Coccino composed this Relation at the command of the same Pontiff, as he himself indicates at page 453, writing thus: Whose actions, being so great a Man's, since it has pleased Your Holiness to enjoin upon us that we should diligently examine them, and exactly weigh the Processes upon the sanctity of his life, drawn up by the mandate of the sacred Congregation of Rites, so that Your Holiness might deliberate whether you ought to assent to the supplications of the Catholic Majesty and of others who most devoutly urge his canonization, it has seemed to us, the business, as is fitting, being maturely discussed, that Your Holiness can assent to the aforesaid supplications.

[11] The said Processes, so far as I understand from the document presently to be assigned, to Pope Paul V from the Processes; translated from the Spanish tongue into Italian, were consigned to the praised Coccino and to two other auditors of the sacred Rota, Sacrati and Manzanedo, in the month of October of the year 1614, and, the matters relevant in the Rota and the validity of the said Processes having been discussed by the judges commissary — the words are the document's — the same men reported orally to His Holiness, a copy of the Relation being at the same time handed over, on the twenty-third day of January of the year 1618, that the Processes had been validly drawn up, the witnesses duly examined, and also that the purity of his faith, the sanctity of his life, his virtues and miracles in particular were most fully established, etc. Now Coccino observes the following order. First he treats of the Saint's theological virtues; secondly of the cardinal ones; thirdly of the gifts of the Holy Spirit; fourthly of his miracles, the fame of his sanctity, and the veneration of his relics; lastly of the validity of the processes; and each of these, namely the first four, he confirms by the authority of the processes, the names of the witnesses being also added. To the Relation is appended the decree of beatification published by Pope Paul V in the year 1618, and another by Pope Gregory XV on the extension of the Office and Mass in the year 1621.

[12] Of the second document, printed at Rome in the printing house of the reverend Apostolic chamber in the year 1658 under this title: The Acts of the Canonization, in which are various compendia of the Life. A Series of all the acts in the canonization of St. Thomas of Villanova, etc., the author is the most illustrious and most reverend lord Francesco Maria Febei, secretary of the congregation of sacred Rites, as the Rev. Fr. Andrés Aznar, assistant general of Spain of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine and procurator of the cause of canonization, indicates in the letter prefixed to it. This author, besides many other things pertaining to the posthumous glory of St. Thomas, includes six compendia of the Life. The first at page 2, which was exhibited by him to Pope Alexander VII about the year 1657; the second at page 8, which in the month of June of the year 1658 he communicated to the Most Eminent Cardinals and the consultors of the sacred congregation; the third at page 16, which on the twelfth day of the same month he handed to the Most Eminent Cardinal Pallotta, the reporter of the cause, and which he on the same day read before the Pontiff, the Cardinals, the consultors, and the officials of the congregation of sacred Rites in the Quirinal palace; the fourth at page 43, which, likewise compiled by Febei himself, on the

2nd of September of the same year the Most Eminent Sacchetti, prefect of the sacred congregation, read out in secret consistory to the Pontiff and the Cardinals; the fifth at page 55, which on the twelfth day of the said month of September in public consistory before the most holy Lord and the Cardinals Marcantonio Buratto, consistorial advocate, recited; the sixth lastly at page 121, which the same Febei compiled and handed to the abbreviator of the curia, that from this and from the one named in the fourth place, already printed long before, he might draw up the Bull to be subscribed by the Pontiff and the senate of the Purpled, after the solemn canonization performed on the first day of November 1658.

[13] The Bull of canonization; which of those enumerated are to be published. This Bull of canonization is the third document which I hinted at at the beginning of number 10, and which, although I shall reprint it entire in the Posthumous Glory, I have nevertheless thought should be mentioned here, because, since it embraces a short history of the Life and virtues of St. Thomas, it comes into use several times in the Commentary and in the Annotations to the Acts: for the same reason, the documents having now been recounted, I append notice of another manuscript document, which at the beginning of the year 1753 one of our colleagues at Rome copied from a manuscript of the Angelica library of the Order of St. Augustine, and which bears this title: A little compendium of the heroic virtues, actions, and miracles performed by brother Thomas of Villanueva, of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine and archbishop of Valencia. For since this too is implied to have been extracted from the processes, I shall use it only where it shall seem suitable for illustrating other things. Now from the lucubrations mentioned thus far I shall reprint in the first place the Life written by Muñatones; secondly the one which in the Series of Acts is the third; thirdly the Spanish one of Salón set out in Latin; but of the manner which I shall observe in this, and how I shall employ the rest, especially Coccino's Relation, in the Annotations, I shall inform the reader more fully at the end of the Commentary, after I shall have discussed some things which seem to have been asserted by Salón and others either less clearly or wrongly.

* elsewhere, are contained

* read, monasteries

§ II. The place and year of his birth, his parents and family.

[ ] The Saint was not born at Villanueva, To this most famous Man there fell as birthplace a town or castle of the diocese of Toledo in New Castile, which by some is called Fontisplanum, by others Fuenllana, distant about half a mile from Villanueva de los Infantes, another town, which the Saint himself made famous by his surname to such a degree that there have not been wanting those who thought that he was born in this very town, nay so that the same opinion found a place in the decree of Pope Paul V, granting the faculty of celebrating the Mass and reciting the Office of the Saint, not only in the kingdom of Valencia by the Religious of the Order of St. Augustine, and in the diocese of Valencia by other Regulars and clerics also, but throughout all Spain by the same Religious of the Order of St. Augustine, and also in the aforesaid town of Villanueva de los Infantes, (the words are the decree's,) where the said Thomas is asserted to have been born and brought up, by all Regulars also of both sexes and also by priests and secular clerics, etc. Occasion for that opinion was in all likelihood given by Juan Muñatones himself, bishop of Segorbe, and, as was said in the preceding §, the first biographer of St. Thomas, who began to narrate his deeds thus: Thomas of Villanova therefore was born at Villanova, whence also he took his surname.

[15] but at Fontisplanum The same Tomás de Herrera had handed down in the Augustinian Alphabet, writing thus: Thomas was born, as they say, in the year 1488 in the March of Aragon, in the town of Villanueva de los Infantes; and the same Philipp Elssius in the Augustinian Encomiastic, saying, He was born in the year 1488 … in the town called Villanueva de los Infantes. But afterwards Herrera changed his opinion in the History of the convent of St. Augustine at Salamanca, where he set out in Spanish the Life of the Saint composed in Latin by Muñatones, and at the end added these words: The holy brother Thomas was born at Fontisplanum (as is established from the process of canonization), a place distant half a mile from Villanueva de los Infantes. Rightly indeed: for although neither in the processes of beatification and canonization, nor in the Bull itself of Pope Alexander VII, nor in Salón and the rest of the writers whom I have seen, absolutely all, was Fontisplanum or Fuenllana expressly named, the testimony of Francisco de Quevedo alone would in this place be of much weight for correcting or explaining Muñatones; who, if he was not born at Villanueva, as Nicolás Antonio in the Bibliotheca Hispana says is stated, nevertheless died there, and perhaps wrote the Life of St. Thomas, in which he professes that he was born at Fontisplanum, which in my judgment he would not have done if a probable reason had existed for the town of Villanueva.

[16] Muñatones therefore believed the Saint born at Villanueva, in the year 1488. either because he had his surname from that town, and he did not examine the matter more deeply, or because in a less strict sense he could be said to have had his origin there, since his parents only by chance, and perhaps only after entering upon marriage, went from Villanueva to Fontisplanum, where Thomas, their firstborn son, was born to them. Let us hear Salón: They entered into marriage with the solemn rite of holy Mother Church, and for some interval of time, immediately after entering upon the marriage, on the occasion of a certain pestilence, dwelling at Fontisplanum in the house of his father-in-law, whose name was García Castellanos, they there begot this son … who was the firstborn of the said family. But although he received the light at Fontisplanum, he was brought up at Villanueva; and hence, according to the custom and usage of the Religious in Castile, he was called father brother Thomas of Villanova. Nor do all writers attribute the same year of birth to the Saint. Quevedo and del Castillo, with a few more recent writers, note the year of Christ 1487; but Salón and most others 1488, to whom we too shall adhere, both because that year is expressed in the Bull of canonization, and because del Castillo admits that he took his compendium of the Life from Salón; and Quevedo does not seem to have so rightly determined the years of his age, saying that he died in the year 1555, at the age of 67; for he would better have said, at the age of 68 and that far advanced, even if he had believed him born after the eighth day of the month of September of the year 1487: perhaps an error crept into his numbers.

[17] About the names of St. Thomas's parents there is no difficulty: His parents were of noble stock, his father was Alonso Tomás García, his mother Lucía Martínez Castellanos, illustrious in piety, religion, and family, as is established by the testimony of very many; of very many, I say, because although no one doubts about their religion and piety, there are nevertheless those who suppress the nobility of their family in silence, nay who expressly deny it; on what foundation we shall presently see. Let us hear the words of the chief writers. Salón, who in all likelihood gave occasion to those who deny it, speaks thus in chapter 1 of book 1: His fathers and forebears were all of a distinguished race… For many of his kinsmen both on his father's and on his mother's side were religious of the military Orders of St. James, Calatrava, and St. John; and among these some were Priors of the Great Cross. Quevedo likewise writes thus in chapter 1: He was the lawful Son of Alonso Tomás García, of the more principal nobles of Villanueva de los Infantes, and a connection and kinsman of the nobler families of that region. These things those Spanish writers say, whose words I have made Latin with what fidelity I could.

[18] against some, Besides these, the author of the compendium of the Latin Life, of which there was discussion at number 13, hands down the following: He was therefore born in the town of Fuenllana of the diocese of Toledo, of the parents Alonso Tomás and Lucía de Castellanos, of the more principal nobles of the towns of Villanueva de los Infantes and Fuenllana. Likewise the author of the other Latin Compendium, which was offered to Pope Alexander VII, and which you have printed in the Series of all the Acts in the Canonization, page 2, begins thus: Thomas of Villanova was born … of Alonso Tomás García and Lucía Martínez, of the nobler families of the towns of Villanueva de los Infantes and Fuenllana. I pass over other writers, both Spanish and foreign, del Castillo, Baxius, Naevius, and others affirming this same thing, and I bring forward the few opponents whom I know. First comes Luigi Torelli in the fourth Century of illustrious men and women of the Order of St. Augustine, pronouncing thus in Italian at page 500: If we attend to his origin, although he received it from persons of humble condition as regards the world, yet these were noble before God. The same he affirms in volume 8 of the Augustinian Century, page 373: His parents were in truth not noble by stock, yet were sufficiently endowed by God with the goods of fortune. There is added Quintanadueñas: His parents, he says, were honest husbandmen, if neither very rich nor noble by ancient lineage, which is a vanity so greatly approved by the world, yet of untainted blood. Baillet in some measure assents, writing thus on the eighteenth day of September: His parents, of a middling but honest family, had goods enough to live comfortably, and even to bestow alms.

[19] which gave occasion for doubting or denying These, and others if perhaps there be any whom I could not consult, in all likelihood drew that opinion from Salón himself, who really here and there writes after that fashion, and brings in the Saint himself speaking, so that one who has not attended to Salón's context, nor weighed the authority of the contrary opinion, might doubt of the nobility of his stock. Let us give one example and another. In chapter 8 of book 2, setting forth how sparing the holy Bishop was toward his kinsmen and blood relations even when in want, lest he should bestow on these what he judged owed to the poor of his church, he confirms what he has said by the following example. There had come at one time a son of his brother or sister (in Spanish sobrino), to visit him and to inform him about the marriage of his daughter, whom the Saint had greatly loved in her infancy, with a man of letters, perhaps an advocate or jurist, in Spanish letrado: wherefore he was greatly angered; for marriages entered into between persons of unequal condition displeased him, and rebuking him he repeated these words several times: A husbandman's daughter with a man of letters! You have acted imprudently. Another example occurs which is more difficult to explain.

[20] an occasion Two nobles of Villanueva sought in marriage the two daughters of his youngest brother, because they were nieces of the Archbishop; yet on this condition, that they should receive from their Uncle a dowry suited to the rank of their husbands. The business was signified to him by letter, and it was set forth how honorable that marriage would be to all his kindred, if he would grant a dowry worthy of his brother's daughters, who were to be joined to noble men. The Saint answered that he supplied to poor or orphan girls of Valencia commonly thirty pounds each, and sometimes sixty, but to noble ones according to their condition; and therefore that his nieces, who were not noble, but the daughters of a husbandman, should be given by him sixty pounds each; and that they should ask no more, since this seemed to him much, and indeed to be withdrawn from the poor of Valencia: but that there was no need at all for his nieces to be given in marriage to noble men, but rather to their equals.

[21] These assertions against the Saint's nobility are clear and strong, gave but they are not to be taken apart from

other sayings of the same author, who otherwise would manifestly contradict himself. For in chapter 1 of book 1 he not obscurely asserted that same nobility in the words cited above. The same he declared more expressly in book 2, chapter 8, where, and in the following chapter, about to narrate how little the humble Man was ashamed to acknowledge and receive into his house his poor kinsmen, and how sparing he nevertheless was toward them for the reasons just alleged, he speaks thus: Although his parents and all his forebears were noble, distinguished men and rich among their own townsfolk, as we saw in chapter 1 of the preceding book, nevertheless among his kindred and relations (as happens in many families) there were some husbandmen and poor. In this way he as it were sets a caution beforehand, lest the reader take in a stricter sense what he is afterwards to say, or to report as said by the Saint.

[22] And so the words recited at number 20, having regard to the other sayings of the same author, Salón, I think can suitably be so expounded that the Saint (if however they are his own words, and not rather the author's), when he said that his nieces, who were not noble, should not be given in marriage to noble men, but to their equals, did not mean to deny absolutely that they sprang from a noble family, but only to declare that they and their parents, the goods of fortune failing, had been reduced to the condition of husbandmen, and had by now grown accustomed to their manner of living; which therefore would not accord with the state of noble men, and of others living more splendidly according to their condition and means. Besides, on the testimony of Juan Álvarez de Colmenar in volume 6 of the Delights, or description, of Spain and Portugal, among the Spaniards custom held that whoever applied himself to agriculture was reckoned to derogate from the nobility of his stock; and that custom prevailed until the times of Philip III, king of Spain, who, on account of the lack of husbandmen, declared to the contrary that he would mark with nobility and a coat of arms all who should seriously give themselves to agriculture; in which sense the Saint, that earlier custom being still in force, could have said of his brother's daughters and of other kinsfolk, who through agriculture had in some measure descended to the rank of non-nobles, that they were not noble, although they were sprung of a noble lineage.

[23] Whatever the case may be, to say nothing of the authority of others, the testimony of Francisco de Quevedo cited above is here again of the greatest weight for the Saint's nobility; is asserted. for he was a knight of St. James, as Nicolás Antonio testifies, and lord, as he was commonly called, of the place Torre de Juan Abad in that tract of New Castile which we call the Mancha. Now in this same tract are situated Villanueva and Fontisplanum, so that consequently that man (whom the same Nicolás Antonio highly commends for genius, prudence, and erudition), as he was not far removed from the Saint's times, so neither far distant from his birthplace, could and must have known well the family of St. Thomas, so as to write so confidently that his father Alonso Tomás García was a connection and kinsman of the nobler families of that region.

[24] Although no one has reckoned up the Saint's other kinsmen, The Saint's brothers and kinsmen. we nevertheless know from Salón, book 2, chapter 9, of two of his brothers, to whom, when promoted to the archbishopric, he supplied a yearly sum of money for the honorable support of their families, and of his sister's husband, the names being nevertheless suppressed. A third brother, and he a religious of the Order of St. Augustine, I find in Herrera in the History of the convent of the same Order at Salamanca, chapter 37, page 262, in these words, translated from Spanish into Latin: Brother Juan Tomás was the son of Alonso Tomás and of his wife Lucía Martínez de Castellanos, citizens of Villanueva de los Infantes. He was the brother by both parents of the holy brother Thomas of Villanova. He received the habit in the convent of St. Augustine at Salamanca in the year 1527, and made his profession on the 15th of December 1528, when the venerable father Fr. Martín de Eztarrona was Prior. Of his life there is no fuller notice. He seems to have been carried off by death in his youth; since no further memory of him has been left either in the records of the Order or in the commentaries of the province. Besides these, Salón indicates to us his maternal grandfather in chapter 1 of book 1, and an uncle in book 2, chapter 8; an aunt, Inés García, is named in the fourth compendium of the Life, which was inserted into the Series of Acts for the canonization praised at number 12.

§ III. The Saint's studies set out chronologically down to his solemn profession in the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, and his priesthood.

[ ] Salón's opinion about the beginnings of St. Thomas's studies, Salón indeed narrated the Saint's deeds in a fuller style, but since he seems to have aimed before all else at graphically describing his heroic virtues and illustrious deeds at every age of his life and at confirming them by examples, it not seldom happens that he neglected the order of time; wherefore it will not be amiss, for the reader's greater convenience, to set out first a chronological series of his life, at least down to his archbishopric, gathered from Salón himself and from other writers, and by the same labor to observe and discuss whether in any matter they differ, or bring forward something which was passed over by the biographers. The holy Boy therefore, born in the year 1488, after he had passed his boyhood most devoutly, and had been instructed in his native place in the best rudiments of the Latin tongue, was sent by his parents to the university of Alcalá, according to Salón in the fifteenth or sixteenth year of his age; therefore about the year of Christ 1503. There, when for about three years, being namely eighteen years old according to the same Salón, he had made wonderful progress in the liberal arts and in theology, his father having died, he was compelled to interrupt his studies for a while and to return home; and so about the year 1506.

[26] and about his father's death In this interval of time the same Salón, Quevedo, and others following them, place the beginnings of the hospice founded by the holy Youth out of the house which his father had left him by will, and endowed with revenues from the rest of his inheritance, which they say still exists, and is called the Hospice of the Archbishop of Valencia. Salón does not express how long after his father's death he stayed with his mother, intent on this business, or in what year he returned to Alcalá, being content to have said in general: When he returned to Alcalá to pursue his studies, the college, the greatest of that university, had already been erected by Cardinal Fr. Francisco Jiménez, archbishop of Toledo; he adds then that the Saint was among the first students of that college, and that, the course of his studies being finished, he proceeded to the mastership of arts and theology, and was given a chair of arts in the year 1514, at about the twenty-sixth year of his age. That arrangement of matters meets with a twofold difficulty in other documents, but one of them greater than the other.

[27] For in the second compendium of the Life in the Series of Acts for the canonization it is read thus: is partly reconciled with other documents, In the twenty-second year of his age he proceeded to the university of Alcalá, and in the college of saint Ildephonsus, applying himself for five years to the studies of all the liberal arts and especially of sacred Theology, he never abstained from prayers, fasts, and scourgings: presently, his father having died, he determined to bestow whatever he had upon the poor, and, his whole patrimony being assigned to the maintenance of poor maidens, in the twenty-seventh year of his age, in the year of salvation 1516, he gave in his name at the convent of Salamanca of the Order of St. Augustine, etc. The first difficulty is in the year in which the Saint went to Alcalá: Salón notes the fifteenth or sixteenth year of his age, therefore of Christ about 1503; the compendium of the Life just cited, with which the first compendium in the same place also agrees, the twenty-second year of his age, therefore of Christ about 1511; for after five years, in the year 1516 in the month of November, he embraced the religious life. But this difficulty is resolved by a likely reason; for since in compendia many things are cut away, it can be understood to have happened that Thomas, being fifteen or fourteen years old, was sent to Alcalá about the year 1503, and, after giving proofs of his talent and excellent disposition, about the year 1511, in the twenty-second year of his age, came nearer to the university, namely when he was enrolled among the students of the chief college. This conjecture is favored by the third compendium, where, no mention being made of previous studies, it is simply said that, advancing in virtues and age and having obtained a good soul, Thomas, being in his twenty-second year, was admitted into the college of St. Ildephonsus of the university of Alcalá. Besides, nothing prevents us from believing that Thomas, being fifteen years old, first went to Alcalá, after three years returned to Villanueva, and stayed there for a while, but for other reasons than those alleged by Salón, Quevedo, and others, and at last returned to resume his studies at Alcalá.

[28] I said for other reasons, for what these say, that the Saint's father died when he was in the eighteenth year of his age, about the year of Christ 1506, is altogether contrary to the compendia of the Life in the Series of Acts and to the Bull of canonization; is partly corrected from these; whence I transcribe the following: At Alcalá in the college of St. Ildephonsus he easily surpassed the doctors themselves in the disciplines and faculties and in every kind of virtue. Presently he expounded logical and theological questions. And now, being sufficiently instructed in the Christian arena, and mindful of the Gospel saying, He that renounceth not all that he possesseth cannot be my disciple, on hearing of his father's death he renounced the honor and emoluments of his chair, and assigned his whole patrimony to the maintenance of maidens: with which a hospice was erected for them in the town of Villanueva, still called the Hospital of the Archbishop. Whence we manifestly understand that his father's death and the foundation of the hospice must be placed much later, namely not long before the year of Christ 1516, the Saint's twenty-eighth. And this, even setting authority aside, is much more likely. For it will not easily happen that a mother, however devout, and his other kinsmen, should permit a youth of eighteen years, and the course of his studies, which he nevertheless resolved to pursue, not yet completed, so to strip himself of all his goods.

[29] But there occurs by chance a document in Herrera in the History of the convent of Salamanca, which, unless it be taken in a convenient sense or be proved supposititious, the sense of one document, with the rest will seem to conflict not only with Salón and all the rest who have handed down anything to memory about the death of St. Thomas's father and the foundation of the hospice, but also with what has been recited thus far from the Bull and the compendia of the Life. It is a letter which the Saint himself addressed to both his parents in the year 1529, and which for that reason, and because no suitable place offers itself for giving it elsewhere, it has seemed best to transfer hither entire. It runs thus: Brother Thomas of Villanova, Provincial of the province of Baetica of the Order of our father St. Augustine, to his beloved parents in the Lord, Alonso Tomás and Lucía Martínez his wife, and to their sons, his brothers, and their wives, greeting and sincere charity in the Lord. Although out of the devotion of due charity we are bound by the Lord's precept to impart aid and help to all Christ's faithful; yet much more to those whose proved love and constant benefits and frequent bestowal of alms more strongly oblige us: for we are the more debtors of spiritual aid to those by whose temporal alms we are sustained.

[30] in appearance opposed to all of them, Wherefore, since from the certain report of our brethren we have recognized the devotion, sincerity, and affection of charity which you bear toward our Order, desiring in this to render a mutual return to your devotion and charity, trusting in the mercy of almighty God, I grant you by the tenor of these presents the communion and special participation of all the Masses, prayers, divine offices, vigils, meditations, penances, labors, disciplines, fasts, and all the other good works which the divine clemency shall deign to work through the brothers and sisters of this our province, and I receive you freely into all the suffrages of the aforesaid province and into the fraternity of our Order. Both in life and in death, that, aided by the protection and help of manifold holy prayers and devout suffrages, you may here the more easily obtain increase of grace and continual advancement, and in the future the reward of eternal life and the heavenly kingdom. Given in our convent of Córdoba in the year of the Lord one thousand five hundred and twenty-nine, on the twenty-fourth day of the month of August. Fr. Thomas of Villanova, Prior Provincial. So far from the praised Herrera, page 146, where he says that the autograph of the letter, when he was writing, was preserved with Fr. Manuel de Navascués, formerly rector of the college of St. Augustine at Ágreda.

[31] is suitably explained; That these letters are supposititious, I do not see on what ground it can be proved; for, as I shall prove below, the Saint presided over the said province in the year noted, nor do I find his successor before the fourth day of October; hence in all likelihood he granted that privilege to his parents and the rest, whether then still living or dead, as his government of the province was expiring. For since a document of this kind ought rather to be reckoned a diploma than a familiar letter, being addressed in the Latin tongue even to women, and containing nothing beyond the privilege and the causes moving him to grant it, it ought not to seem strange either that the Saint set the name of his dead father before the names of his living mother and brothers, since he expressly says that he receives them both in life and in death, that they may here obtain increase of grace … and in the future the reward of eternal life … the more easily. And so let us finish what remains to be noted down to the Saint's entrance into religion.

[32] If Salón has rightly noted the year in which the Saint was given a chair of arts, The various assertions of writers about the Saint's studies are set out. namely 1514, we shall scarcely find time enough for him to have been able to do what is written of him both by Salón himself and in the Bull of canonization, down to the month of November 1516, in which he put on the religious habit. For according to Salón he completed a course of philosophy by teaching it; according to the Bull he also expounded Theological questions; nay, according to the same Salón, being then free from every kind of study, he deliberated about the choice of a state of life, and occupied himself in that for about a year before he departed from Alcalá. Wherefore I should think that the τὸ about must here be taken so broadly that he spent at least some months of the year 1516 in expounding theological questions, and the remaining ones down to November on the choice of a state. Muñatones in the Life says that the Saint, before he gave himself to the monastic life, was invited by the university of Salamanca to be willing to hold the chair which they call of natural philosophy, with by no means a slight salary proposed; but he refused, he says, the honor freely offered, … and him whom neither the enticements of honors nor of other advantages had brought to Salamanca, the imitation of Christ the Redeemer and the pursuit of perfect virtue carried thither. With Muñatones in substance Salón and many others agree; Quevedo dissents a little, writing that Thomas was called thither to lecture on moral philosophy, and that, to show himself grateful for the goodwill of the university, he gave three lectures there, in the last of which he expounded the psalm When Israel went out of Egypt, and then on the next day put on the habit of the Order of St. Augustine: whence he took these things is unknown to me: much less do I discover whence Baillet drew what he reports in volume 3 of his Lives of the Saints on the eighteenth day of September in these words: He taught moral philosophy at Salamanca for a second two years; and a little after: He withdrew in the year 1518 into the house which the Hermits of St. Augustine have at Salamanca. For these things are manifestly contrary to all the writers and documents which I have consulted, and consequently are wrongly asserted. There are those who arrange the years of the Saint down to his entrance into the Order of St. Augustine otherwise, and I forbear to examine these, thinking it enough to have brought forward the chief authors.

[33] He (St. Thomas) gave in his name to the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine in the convent of Salamanca on the 24th day of November 1516. He received the habit of St. Augustine in the year 1516, upon which So in the Bull of canonization, with which as to the day, month, and year the third compendium of the Life agrees; but as to the year and month I have found none dissenting except Baillet, already praised, and Crusenius, presently to be praised. In the day there differ Salón, Quevedo, Baxius, and other more recent writers, who expressly note the feast of the Presentation of the most blessed Virgin Mary in the temple, and therefore the 21st, unless perhaps at that time, for some cause I do not know, it was there celebrated on the 24th; certainly the first two agree with the others to be cited at number 35 in placing his solemn profession in the year 1517 on the 25th day of November, sacred to the blessed Catherine, virgin and martyr. Notable is what Nicolaus Crusenius records in the Augustinian Monasticon about St. Thomas's coming to his Order: In this same year 1517, he says at page 190, … Martin Luther fell away from the true Catholic faith; and with some things interposed he continues thus at page 191: In this same year, nay on the same day, by a divine miracle, the blessed Thomas of Villanova received at Salamanca the habit of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, through whom God willed to restore in the Order that which was then being taken away through Luther, by whose merits also, against the demerits of that wicked apostate, God seemed so to be pleased that he spared the religion, and at the same time raised up in it many men outstanding in learning and piety, who, driven by the Spirit of God, should go forth most bravely armed with doctrine and character to fight for holy mother Church. An excellent observation indeed; but I should have preferred that he had not so strictly determined the year and day, and had rather laid down that St. Thomas, in his novitiate at Salamanca, laid the foundations of a life that was afterwards to bring so much splendor to the most holy Order and so much profit to the Catholic faith, at the same time in which Luther, to the great grief of the Order and the harm of the Church, began to scatter in Germany the seeds of his heresy. For as to the year of his taking the habit I cannot agree with him, when so many and so solid testimonies stand for the year 1516. Perhaps by the taking of the habit he meant to designate the solemn profession, as Torelli more correctly expresses it in volume 8 of the Annals, page 375, writing thus: He was admitted to solemn profession on the day sacred … to St. Catherine … in the year of the Lord 1517, in which year, by the winning of this great Saint, it pleased the divine goodness to repair the damage which the infernal dragon of Eisleben had brought upon religion in Germany.

[34] and some things are observed about the Saint's age. Authors vary when they note in what year of his age the Saint received the habit; Muñatones, from whom Salón scarcely differs, says, he received the habit about the thirtieth year of his age. The Bull of canonization, with the earlier compendia of the Life: When he was in his twenty-seventh year. The cause of the discrepancy I think arose from this, that, since the day and month of St. Thomas's birth are not found, some began to count from the beginning of the year 1588, others from its end, and besides some marked complete years, others incomplete. Thus if we suppose him born after November 1488, in the same month of 1516 he had not yet completed the twenty-eighth year of his age, and thus we understand why the Bull attributes to him only twenty-seven years of age, namely complete. But on the contrary, if we place his birth in the month of January or February of the year 1488, when those same months recurred in the year 1516, he had completed the twenty-eighth year of his age; in the month of November he was well advanced in his twenty-ninth, and consequently was not far from beginning his thirtieth; this reckoning perhaps Muñatones entered upon when he said that he received the habit about his thirtieth year, and so did Salón and others.

[35] he made profession in the year 1517, Herrera in the History of the convent of Salamanca, Salón, Quevedo, the author of the manuscript compendium of the Life, and most others hand down that the Saint consecrated himself to God by solemn profession in the year 1517, on the 25th day of November, sacred to St. Catherine, namely the day next after the completed year of his novitiate, in which sense the words of the Bull of canonization also must be taken, which run thus: On the recurrence presently of the same 24th day of November he made his solemn profession in that place: namely, on the next day following, as is the custom. After a year had elapsed from the taking of his vows he was ordained priest, being thirty-two years of age complete. So Salón, presently adding that the first Sacrifice was celebrated by the Saint on the feast of the Nativity of the Lord; and so in the year 1518 on the 25th day of December. But here again the author's reckoning is less accurate; for not even from the beginning of the year 1488, the Saint's birth-year, down to the feast of the Nativity in the year 1518 can thirty-one complete years strictly be found, much less thirty-two. Quevedo says that the Saint was ordained priest when he was thirty-two years old, but in what year this was done he does not designate.

[36] Hence, I believe, Agostino Maria Arpe in the Augustinian Pantheon put off St. Thomas's priesthood until December of the year 1520, to which I cannot assent; being ordained priest in 1518. for in the year 1519 he was elected Prior of the convent of Salamanca, as is clear from the Bull of canonization, from the compendia of the Life in the Series of Acts, and from the chief authors, and this is established, on Salón's testimony, from the books of that same convent. Herrera, who in the following century, being Prior at Salamanca, composed his History from the writings and records found there and from the Chronicles of the Order, asserts this very thing at page 251, and presently adds that St. Thomas himself received the solemn profession of brother Jerónimo Jiménez on the 23rd day of August of the year 1519; which sufficiently indicates that he was at that time a presbyter; wherefore the year 1518 designated by Salón is to be retained; but a year or two must be subtracted from the age which he then attributes to him.

§ IV. The offices which the Saint held in his province down to the year 1534 are arranged chronologically.

[ ] Scarcely two years being completed from his profession Just as in the preceding § we ran briefly through, and discussed in few words, the series of St. Thomas's years from his birth to his reception of the priesthood in the convent of St. Augustine at Salamanca, so we shall proceed here, the order of times being observed, to touch on the offices and prelacies which he held both in the same convent and throughout the whole province, referring the reader likewise, for the rest, namely what pertains to his virtues, piety, and outstanding deeds, to the biographers. Now here Herrera in the praised History of the convent of Salamanca will bring us much convenience and help, so that we may unfold what Salón and others handed down only confusedly and in general. His solemn profession therefore being made in the year 1517 on the 25th day of November,

and his priesthood being received in 1518 in the month of December, the Saint was made Prior of the same convent of Salamanca about two years after his profession was made, namely in the year 1519; which thing, says Salón plainly, was extraordinary and never seen in our Order. And he then implies that it was the custom in that province that no one should be made Prior before seven years were completed from his profession.

[38] Herrera notes the same year 1519, as was said in the preceding §; [he was Prior at Salamanca in the year 1519; then he is said to have been elected Prior at Burgos] and likewise the author of the manuscript compendium of the Life. Quevedo, however, a year and a half after his profession; the Bull of canonization, and in almost the same words the printed compendia of the Life: Scarcely two years having elapsed. And consequently those are not to be listened to, if any think that this happened later, as Baillet, cited above, who defers the Saint's entrance into religion to the year 1518, and writes that he was made Prior of the convent of Salamanca two and a half years after his profession, thus coming down to the year 1522. The course of his prefecture at Salamanca being finished — the words are Salón's — he was elected Prior for the monastery of Burgos, which will have been done about the year one thousand five hundred and twenty-two. Then in the year one thousand five hundred and twenty-five, by order of the most reverend father general, master Fr. Gabriel of Venice, he visited Andalusia and Castile, which at that time made up a single province, as is established from the ancient codices of Salamanca. But here there occurs a certain difficulty: for according to Herrera provincial chapters were celebrated every two years, and in each chapter a new prefect of the province was elected, and indeed a new Prior of Salamanca also, and that custom lasted until the year 1531, in which, by the will of the Prior general of the whole Order, provincial chapters began to be held, and offices changed, only every three years.

[39] but he seems to have remained at Salamanca The Saint therefore completed his priorate at Salamanca in the year 1521; and in fact, according to the same Herrera in the History of the convent, page 252, in the said year a chapter was held in the month of April, and Fr. Fernando de Toledo was substituted as Prior for the house of Salamanca, of whom the same author writes in this manner in the Augustinian Alphabet: In the old book of professions this about him: "He is a great man in holiness and in prelacy." In the year 1521 he governed the house of Salamanca most holily. But, as Herrera again admits in the History, page 253, Fr. Antonio de Solís, who was made Prior of the convent of Salamanca in the year 1554, notes in the Commentary on the goods of the same convent that the lady Isabel Nieto, beginning her will lawfully before the notary Cristóbal Fernández on the 19th day of September 1522, and not being able to complete it, gave the power of completing it to Fr. Thomas of Villanova, Prior of Salamanca, and to Fr. Agustín de Zayas, who completed it at Salamanca on the 4th day of October of the same year 1522. These things, which Herrera does not discuss further, if they be true, require that there were two Priors of the same house of Salamanca in the course of the same two years, nor is it sufficiently understood how St. Thomas in the same year was Prior at Burgos, as Salón hands down.

[40] on account of the disturbances and the chapter The knot is not difficult to untie by saying either that an error crept into Fr. Antonio de Solís's figures, especially since in the year 1523 St. Thomas was again Prior at Salamanca, as will presently follow, or that to the document of the year 1522 the words Prior of Salamanca were wrongly added. But Herrera opens another way of explaining the matter in the praised History, page 252 and again page 267, where he narrates the disturbances which arose at that same time on occasion of a chapter in the province of Castile. Receive the matter in few words: In the year 1519 in the chapter the convent of Toledo had been designated for the holding of the next chapter in the year 1521. But when the said year came, Fr. Francisco de la Parra, prefect of the province, contrary to what had been decided, chose another place for the chapter, and thus the province was divided into two parts, some following him, others going to the place designated, and in both places a Prior provincial was elected; and by the former, indeed, Fr. de la Parra seems to have been elected a second time, but by the latter, over whom in all likelihood our Saint presided, Fr. Diego de la Torre was substituted.

[41] of the province, over which he was made president by the Prior general, That the Saint presided over the Toledo chapter I gather from what is narrated in the Life of the aforesaid Fr. Francisco de la Parra in Herrera in the History, page 267. The very words, because they manifestly prove how highly the Saint's prudence and dexterity in the conduct of affairs was already valued, I transfer hither, partly in Latin, partly rendered into Latin from the Spanish: In the Acts of the Order on the 31st day of October 1520, the father general names as president of the next chapter in the first place brother Thomas, Prior of Salamanca; in the second, master brother Antonio de Villasandino, and in the third, brother Pedro de Carrión, and commits it to the definitory "that they hear the complaints (these words are expressed in Latin) against brother Francisco de la Parra, the present provincial." And on the 26th day of January 1521 the father general commits his place (elsewhere, appoints as his commissaries), yet in the provincial chapter, to master Thomas, Prior of Salamanca, and to master Antonio de Villasandino, "in the case (this again in Latin) of the complaints against brother Francisco de la Parra." … On the first day of March of the same year 1521 he appoints as vicars general, to visit the province of Castile, M. Thomas, Prior of Salamanca, … and M. Antonio de Villasandino; because the provincial cannot, "brother Francisco de la Parra, both laboring under sickness, and greatly fearing the plots of the people now in tumult throughout that whole province, and for other lawful reasons."

[42] From these things, I say, I gather that the Saint presided over the Toledo chapter: and more probably he presided; for it is likely enough that Fr. Francisco de la Parra held his chapter with his own party in another place chiefly because he took it ill that St. Thomas and his two colleagues had been made presidents of the chapter and judges in his case. Add that, the suit being then brought before a judge and committed to arbitrators, these condemned father de la Parra's manner of acting, and approved the election of the new prefect of the province, Fr. Diego de la Torre; without doubt because it had been made according to the institutes of the Order, in the due place, and before the presidents delegated by the Prior general. Those disturbances are described more fully in Herrera in the Life of the said Fr. de la Parra, who is there afterwards much praised for the honesty and piety of his life and manners. Further, to return to the priorate of Salamanca, I suspect that St. Thomas left the government of the convent of Burgos, to which according to Salón he had been elected Prior, to another, and remained at Salamanca until the suit about the chapter and the election of the Provincial should be decided. In which interval of time perhaps Fr. Fernando de Toledo resigned the priorate of Salamanca, or ceased to live (certainly I find no mention of him anywhere after the month of August 1521), and on that occasion St. Thomas, being present, was compelled to resume the government of the same house. In this way we understand that he could truly be written Prior of Salamanca in the month of September of the year 1522.

[43] There is added that in the catalogue of the Priors of the monastery of Burgos in Herrera, page 168, he becomes Prior of Salamanca a second time in 1523; Fr. Martín de Eztarrona occurs as Prior for the years 1522 and 1523. In the year 1523, as Herrera notes at page 254, on the 25th day of April a chapter was celebrated at Toledo, and St. Thomas was named Prior of Salamanca for the second time, as I intimated above. Salón puts off the Saint's second priorate at Salamanca to the year 1530, but wrongly, as I for my part think, and he himself furnishes the ground for my thinking so with more confidence. For in chapter 14 of book 1, citing the books of professions and the processes for beatification and canonization instituted in Castile, he reckons up the most illustrious men to whom the Saint granted the habit of the Order, or whose profession he received, and among these he names Alonso de Orozco. But he, in Herrera, who likewise often cites the Salamanca books of professions, at page 254 is said to have made his profession at Salamanca on the 9th day of June of the year 1523, and the same is repeated at page 394, where the Life of the same Alonso is recited, gathered from the printed compendium of the informations about his Holiness, life, and miracles, and from various other authors and documents, and these words are expressly added: When the holy Fr. Thomas of Villanova was Prior of that house. Other authors note the same year in the Elogia of the said Alonso.

[44] In the year 1525 on the 13th day of May, according to Herrera, a provincial chapter was held at Valladolid, in 1525 he was visitor and reformer of the province. at which time the Saint was discharging the office of visitor of the province, as Salón intimated above, and as is established from the clause with which he confirmed the Acts in the chapter, and which the praised Herrera expresses in Latin thus at page 256: We therefore brother Thomas and brother Juan Gallego, by the authority of the most reverend Fr. M. Fr. Gabriel of Venice, general of our Order, visitors and reformers of this province, by the counsel and assent of the Reverend Father provincial and of the definitors, interpose upon all the above-written our authority, nay rather that of our most reverend general, willing that it be so, as it is written, inviolably observed by all. In the year of the Lord 1525, on the 21st day of the month of May. Fr. Thomas, Commissary. Fr. Juan Gallego, commissary. This whole year the Saint seems to have spent with the said father Gallego in visiting the province, in making arrangements, and, as Salón says, in signifying by letter to the most reverend general in what way the division of that same province into two could be more easily effected, which not only the Spanish fathers but the Emperor himself through his legate had urgently demanded; as is clear from the letter of the said general approving and decreeing the division. It exists in Spanish in Herrera at page 257, and is noted as written at Treviso in our general chapter on the 22nd day of May 1526.

[45] In 1527 he is set over the province of Baetica, divided from that of Castile. The aforesaid division of the province, namely into that of Castile and that of Baetica or Andalusia, was afterwards confirmed by the authority of the supreme Pontiff, and carried into execution in the year 1527 in the convent of Dueñas, or of the Ladies of the town, commonly Dueñas; where on the 20th day of the month of May the chapter of the province, as previously united, was duly begun, and, before proceeding to the election of the provincial Priors, by decree of the whole assembly six of the chief fathers were named who, together with the father visitors or delegates of the Prior general, namely Fr. Juan Gallego and Fr. Thomas of Villanova, should decide and determine what should seem fitting for the common advantage of both provinces. These words Herrera gives in Spanish from the Acts of the chapter at page 259. By these, besides other things, it was determined that for this time only the fathers of the province of Baetica should first elect their own provincial: And there was elected (this Salón recites in Latin from the codices of the province) first canonically in favor of the province of Baetica, for this time only, the reverend father Fr. Thomas of Villanova, etc. For the province of Castile father Juan Gallego was elected,

both namely being visitors, which office Herrera writes ceased also with this chapter. From it the Saint had earlier asked to be freed, various reasons being alleged; and at last the Prior general wrote back in the said year 1527 in these words: Lest heads be multiplied, we absolve both the aforesaid visitors in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[46] In 1530 he does not seem to have been Prior at Salamanca, What the Saint did or where he lived after the prefecture of the province of Baetica was finished, down to the year 1531, I do not find handed down to memory by certain testimonies; certainly what Salón writes in chapter 12 of book 1 in these words is in no way proved to me: Then in the year one thousand five hundred and thirty, in which he completed the prefecture of the province of Andalusia, he was elected Prior of the monastery of Salamanca, and this was the second time in which, as I said before, he presided at Salamanca. For, as we have shown above, St. Thomas was Prior of Salamanca for the second time in the year 1523; but the remaining words of Salón conflict partly with the custom of that time, partly with the documents which Herrera used. For first, as I indicated above, and as I think was not observed by Salón, down to the year 1531 custom held in Spain that the offices of the Order should be changed every two years; therefore the Saint completed the prefecture of the province of Baetica in the year 1529, in which Fr. Juan de las Casas was substituted for him, and in which the same Juan de las Casas, as provincial and vicar general, on the 4th day of October received in the convent of nuns of Medina Sidonia in Andalusia the profession of sister Juana de San Miguel, as Herrera testifies, citing the archives of the said province at page 97. Secondly, likewise in the province of Castile a chapter was celebrated on the 17th day of April 1529, and Fr. Juan Gallego, who had presided over the whole province, was elected prior of the convent of Salamanca, and who on the 22nd day of July of the same year, as Prior of Salamanca, received the profession of Fr. Juan de San Vicente, as Herrera hands down at page 263, and again at page 339, where he recites a few words from the books of professions; lastly, in the year 1531 on the 29th day of April a chapter of the province of Castile was held in the convent of the Saints near Valladolid; when the offices began to be continued for a triennium, and Fr. Agustín de la Torre was made Prior of Salamanca. So that it can hardly be understood how St. Thomas in the year 1530 was elected Prior of the same convent of Salamanca according to Salón. Nevertheless, since no mention of the Saint occurs to us during the years mentioned, let us give room to conjecture. It is not altogether remote from likelihood that, the prefecture of the province of Baetica being ended in the year 1529, the Saint returned to Salamanca, as being a son of that house; and it may have happened that during those two years, in which he was occupied by no office, unless more probably that of preacher, either the Prior Juan Gallego fell sick or was absent, and the care of the government was committed to him; and hence perhaps it came about that Salón, finding that something had been done by our Saint which is usually performed by the Prior of the house, and not discussing the matter further, thought that he had really been Prior in that same two-year period.

[47] But Salón is again obscure in the same place; for after the words in which he says that the Saint was elected Prior of Salamanca in the year 1530, from 1531 to 1534 he presided at Burgos, he presently adds the following: In the next chapter of Castile, in the year one thousand five hundred and thirty-four, he was set over the province of Castile. But the next chapter was held in the year 1531, as we said in the preceding number, and in it Fr. Francisco de Nieva was made president of the province of Castile; and Fr. Agustín de la Torre Prior of the house of Salamanca, as Herrera writes at page 263, adding in the Alphabet that of Agustín de la Torre it is thus recorded in the old book of professions: A great preacher, Prior of Salamanca. It remains therefore that we investigate what the Saint did or where he stayed from the year 1531 to 1534. Herrera brings light at page 165, where, recounting from his records the illustrious sons of the convent of Burgos, he speaks thus in Spanish: Brother Nicolás de Eztarrona made his profession on the twenty-seventh of July one thousand five hundred and thirty-three, when the holy brother Thomas of Villanova was Prior. At page 168, in the catalogue of the Priors of the same house, he mentions St. Thomas at the year 1532, and, a few things being interposed, expressly says: He was Prior on the 23rd of March 1534. The same he implies at page 272 in the Life of Fr. Juan Gallego, who was substituted for St. Thomas as Prior of the same house. And from this it sufficiently appears that the Saint presided over the convent of Burgos from the year 1531 to 1534.

[48] To this time perhaps must be referred what, Salón being silent, and perhaps in part censor of books for the holy inquisition. Herrera writes in the Alphabet in these words: Don Thomas was, by commission of Alonso Manrique, supreme censor of the faith in Spain, examiner of all books whose censorship pertains to the sacred tribunal of the Inquisition. For thus Alonso de la Vera Cruz, a most learned man, in his Commentaries on the Books on the Soul, in the dedicatory letter to Thomas, says: Deservedly by the archbishop of Seville, Manrique, supreme censor of causes of the faith, when you were Prior at Burgos in our convent, the care of examining all books was committed to you. I said, perhaps must be referred to this time; for, as we shall presently see, he was Prior at Burgos a second time in the year 1537, and the aforesaid archbishop, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church of the title of the twelve holy Apostles, survived among the living until the 28th day of September 1538, as Gil Dávila with others hands down in the Ecclesiastical Theater of both Castiles; and consequently in this second priorate that office could have been committed to the Saint.

§ V. The remaining chronological order of his offices is carried down to the year 1544.

[ ] [In 1534 he presides over the whole province, and in 1537 over the convent of Burgos] A Castilian chapter was held at Burgos on the 25th day of April of the year 1534, and in it, as Salón intimated above, and as Herrera affirms with none of the writers whom I have seen dissenting, St. Thomas was created president of the province, whose deeds when established in this office, as related by the authors, need discussion; but this we defer until we have finished in few words the remaining series of years down to the archbishopric of Valencia. In the year 1537 on the 28th day of April a chapter of the same province was celebrated in the convent of Arenas of St. Mary of the Pillar, and in it, on Herrera's testimony at page 283, our Saint was declared definitor of the province, and for the second time Prior of Burgos, on the testimony of the same Herrera at page 169 in the Catalogue of the Priors, where Fr. Alonso de Ávila is substituted for him as Prior at the year 1540, in which I find at page 284 that a chapter of the province was instituted in the convent of Dueñas or of the Ladies on the 24th day of April, but no mention is here made of St. Thomas.

[50] and he remains here until 1541 Salón says that the Saint stayed at Burgos until the year one thousand five hundred and forty-one. The chief cause of this stay we learn from Herrera in the Alphabet, both at the letter M, where he treats of María of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand the Catholic king, and at the letter T, where he treats of our Saint. And it was this: The praised María of Aragon had professed the Order of St. Augustine in the royal convent of St. Mary of Madrigal, and was afterwards made prioress, and thence (the words are Herrera's) translated to the royal monastery of Burgos of the Cistercian Order, called de las Huelgas, that, discharging the office of abbess, she might reform and rule all things… She had there as her spiritual father and counselor Bl. Thomas of Villanova, whom she asked the general Seripando not to remove from the convent of Burgos. The aforesaid Seripando was surveying the provinces of Spain and Portugal, and was at that time in Portugal, as we understand from his own words, which Herrera recites from his register or commentary at the 12th day of August of the year 1541 in this manner: The most illustrious lady María of Aragon, a nun of our Order, asked us not to remove from our convent of Burgos Fr. Thomas of Villanova (it is read, by the printer's error, as I believe, Fr. Thoma Villanova), whose counsels and services she chiefly used in matters of the soul; and this the most serene queen of Portugal also asked, and the most illustrious prince of Spain (Philip) through his legate at the court of the king of the Portuguese.

[51] Further, Seripando himself most probably had given the aforesaid religious princess the occasion for making that request. where, invited by the Prior general, For, before he set out into Portugal, burning with a certain incredible and admirable desire, as he himself says, of knowing, embracing, and hearing the Man whom his soul sought, he sent from Seville to Burgos a letter to the Saint, most full of expressions of love, on the 26th day of June of the said year 1541; and, inviting him to come to him as soon as possible, he had written among other things in this manner: Wherefore, dearest Brother, unless you wish, what is most shameful, to make no answer when challenged by love and goodwill, think how to satisfy this long thirst of ours: and this you will do if, when we return from Portugal, which, God willing, we hope will be about the beginning of the month of September, you come to meet us as far as Toledo. And also, if it can be done without great inconvenience to you, we desire to see you even before we come to Toledo (for Christian love is impatient of all delay), that you may bring some relief to our troubles, labors, and anxieties. So he in Salón, who recites the letter entire in Latin. By these words, I say, Seripando most probably gave occasion for the religious princess, being alarmed and anxious lest the Saint, as being held at Burgos by no office, should be called elsewhere, and she thus be deprived of his counsel and help, to urge, by herself and by others, that this might not happen.

[52] Seripando was too prudent to refuse the requests of most serene princes; he sets out for Toledo; I should think, however, that he too by letter, alleging just reasons, urged especially upon María of Aragon and obtained that she should desist from her entreaties, and not unwillingly allow St. Thomas to depart, whom he himself had determined in his mind to set over the whole province of Spain: although, by the disposition of divine Providence, the matter fell out otherwise, as we shall see afterwards. For the rest, in the month of September, as the Prior general had desired, the Saint went to Toledo, whither the same Prior general had also summoned, besides the provincial, the Priors of some of the chief convents of Castile, and where on the 30th day of the month a consultation was held, and the joining of the province of Baetica with that of Castile was again decreed. The Acts of the said consultation, drawn from the records of the province of Baetica, Herrera exhibits, at least in part, in the History of the convent of Salamanca, page 98; the same we here subjoin.

[53] Be it manifest to all to whom it shall be needful that these letters come, that Fr. Girolamo of Naples, Prior general of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, The province of Baetica is united to that of Castile in the same year all the fathers subscribed below being gathered, the provincial and the Priors of the chief houses of the province

of Castile of the same Order, in the house of St. Augustine of the city of Toledo, asked singly and separately the votes and opinions of all for applying a suitable remedy to the reformation of the province of Baetica, etc. Then, so far as I understand, there follows that it was proposed that both provinces should again be united, and it goes on thus: To which opinion, after great deliberation and the common votes and prayers of all, both in Sacrifices and in private prayers, all assented, and approved that this union be made under conditions which shall be explained in other letters. In faith and public testimony of which he ordered the present letters to be written by Fr. Marco of Treviso, scribe of the Order, and to be strengthened by the subscription of all, the seals of the whole Order and of the province being added. Fr. Antonio de Villasandino, provincial. Fr. Francisco de Nieva, Prior of Salamanca. Fr. Agustín Cruzat, Prior of Toledo. Fr. Rodrigo de Cantos, Prior of Dueñas. Fr. Alonso de Orozco, Prior of Medina. Fr. Alonso Dávila, Prior of Burgos. Fr. Thomas of Villanova. Fr. Agustín de la Torre, vicar of the nuns of Madrigal. in the chapter over which the same Prior general presides,

[54] The consultation being ended, the Prior general summoned a chapter, to be held in the convent of Dueñas on the 11th day of November of the same year 1541, to which were called the fathers both of the province of Castile and of Baetica: and on the 12th day of the said month of November in the chapter the most religious fathers, master brother Antonio de Villasandino, who presided over the province of Castile, and father brother Andrés de Ávila, who presided over the province of Baetica, resigned their prefecture, and Fr. Francisco de Nieva was elected president of the whole Spanish province. So, nearly, Herrera in the place cited, who, repeating almost the same things at page 285 about the chapter instituted in the month of November, also names the definitors of the province, but in both places is so silent about St. Thomas that from no word of his can I gather whether he was present at the chapter or not. Salón sets out the matter thus in chapter 9 of book 1, that he was indeed summoned, yet did not arrive until after the election of the Prior of the province and of the definitors or assessors. His words, so far as they pertain to this, I transcribe. When in the year one thousand five hundred and forty-one a chapter of our Order's province was to be instituted in Castile, at which the most reverend father general, master Fr. Girolamo Seripando, was present and presided; the said father general himself by a special letter (which we shall see afterwards) called and invited him; since he much desired to see and speak with him, on account of what he had heard of his singular piety and learning, and indeed with the intention of making him Prior provincial of Castile, and his own vicar general throughout all Spain.

[55] and to which St. Thomas, Fr. Thomas, suspecting what the Prior general intended in his mind, of set purpose and in order to avoid the burden, delayed on the journey, and took care not to arrive before the noon of the Saturday on which the assembly was held, nor before the hour at which it was quite certain, and according to the laws and constitutions of our sacred Order necessary, that the president of the province and the assessors should already be constituted… But although the most reverend Father grieved that Fr. Thomas had not been present earlier, he nevertheless received him on his arrival with great joy and pleasure, and rebuked him indeed somewhat on that account, but with great charity and consideration, and, as it were as a penalty for his delay, enjoined that on the following day he should deliver a sermon in the chapter. So Salón, then, some things being interposed, continuing thus: When the hour for speaking came, and on the Sunday on which the assembly was held there fell the festivity of St. Michael, he took as his theme these words of Psalm 107: Who will lead me, etc. The thing itself which that author narrates I shall not deny to have happened, yet I think that he was mistaken in some circumstances.

[56] on Salón's testimony, who nevertheless confused the times, For first, the Prior general in the letter recited by Salón did not invite the Saint to the provincial chapter, of which he makes no mention in it, but rather to the consultation to be instituted with the chief fathers of Castile at Toledo about the joining of the two provinces, at which, as we saw above, the Saint was present, and to whose acts he subscribed, and after which a chapter was summoned for the following month of November. Secondly, since the chapter was held, and in it the election of the Prior provincial made, on Saturday the 12th day of the month of November, how is the Saint said, arriving later, to have been ordered as it were as a penalty for his delay to deliver a sermon before the assembled fathers on the following day, which was Sunday, and on which fell the festivity of St. Michael? For the feast of St. Michael is not kept in the month of November, but in September, nor did that feast in that year fall on a Sunday, but on a Thursday.

[57] For my part I think the matter happened thus: the Prior general summoned the Saint, with the chief fathers of the province of Castile named above, to Toledo for the month of September; and when they had arrived there, St. Thomas was asked to deliver a sermon on the day before the chief and in all likelihood the last and decisive consultation, which was held on the thirtieth day of the said month. he came later; lest he should be set over both provinces; There you have the feast of St. Michael: and in fact among the sermons of St. Thomas published in print there exists one on that holy archangel upon the same text and matter alleged by Salón, who mentions it on account of the ecstasy which the Saint underwent in it before the Prior general and the fathers. Therefore the thing truly happened, but at another time than that which Salón implies; confusing namely the provincial chapter celebrated in the month of November in the convent of Dueñas with the consultation instituted at Toledo in the month of September. Thus too what the same Salón narrates becomes in some measure more likely; namely that he came to the chapter late on purpose, for fear of being set over the whole province of Spain; as one who had already dealt with the Prior general face to face before, and from whose manner of speaking or acting he could have suspected something of the kind. But let us pursue our thread.

[58] In the same chapter of the year one thousand five hundred and forty-one he was designated Prior for the convent of Valladolid, He is made Prior at Valladolid. whence afterwards, about the year one thousand five hundred and forty-four, he was translated to the archbishopric of this church of Valencia. So Salón, with whom Herrera agrees in the Alphabet, letter M, page 94, where, treating of the aforesaid María of Aragon, he says that Seripando the Prior general came to her at Burgos on the 19th day of November of the year 1541, and granted her on the 21st of the same month that she might choose a confessor both for herself and for those nuns whom she then had with her, and besides some father of the Order whom she might send to the Emperor to ask leave to return to her convent of Madrigal: But since the aforesaid lady wished to send to the emperor either M. Antonio Villasandino, Prior of Burgos, or M. Thomas of Villanova, Prior of Valladolid, the General charged the aforesaid fathers that whichever her excellency should name should obey her command diligently and with great fidelity. Whether any of them was sent to Charles is unknown. The same author in the same place, at the letter T, page 440, says: In the year 1542, on the 20th day of July, Seripando wrote to Thomas of Villanova, Prior of Valladolid, that the fruit which had followed from his agreement with the Baeticans had been pleasing to him.

[59] In the year 1543 — the words are Giuseppe Panfilo's in the Chronicle, page 116 — In the year 1543 in the general chapter the (general) chapter (of the Order) was held at Rome on the third of the Ides of May, in which the office was prolonged for another four years to the same Girolamo Seripando. In this assembly action was taken about revising and examining the ancient constitutions, which did not seem in all things to suit these our times: and for discharging this office five grave and prudent men were deputed, namely Fabiano of Genoa, Francesco of Gambassi, Silvestro of Vicenza, theologians in Italy; Pierre Guerente in France, and Thomas of Villanova in Spain; that, when they had examined them and reduced them to a compendium, they might bring them to the chapter next to be held, so that it might be judged what should be done. The same is recorded by Crusenius in the Augustinian Monasticon, page 199, Torelli in the Annals at the year cited, and Herrera just praised; Salón likewise in the Life, book 1, chapter 17, where he adds that the four other deputies were present at the chapter, but not St. Thomas; that he was nevertheless elected in his absence on account of the testimony which Seripando had given before the assembled fathers concerning his life, learning, and prudence.

[60] instituted at Rome, although absent, Both things are confirmed in Herrera by the letter with which the same Seripando exhorted the Saint to render that service to the Order, on the 18th day of May, in these words: Since there are very many constitutions among those ancient ones which serve for these our times, the father definitors have decreed that they be read over again and reformed, and have committed a business of this kind to five fathers of various nations, whom they have persuaded themselves to be most prudent and most wise. Among whom you are one, to whom, as to a most approved Man (for such all judge you to be), the lot of your nation has fallen. Take up therefore the burden which has been given you in your absence by your fathers on account of the great opinion they have of you, and use that prudence and sound counsel by which we have known you to be a Man: and do not disappoint us, who promise ourselves these things and much greater from you; but answer and satisfy our love, which, as you know, we bear you in great measure. We know that our love will have the greatest weight with you; but we assign the greater parts to your virtues, which may lead you to take up this labor for our Religion, which begot you anew to Christ.

[61] he is chosen to revise the constitutions of the Order. You have a space of four years, of which you can assign even the spare times to this work. Your office will be diligently to examine the book of the Constitutions and Additions, and to remove or add what shall seem to you more fitting and suited to this time. Those laws were indeed most fitting in their own times; which, the changeableness of the times so requiring, seem in most matters to pertain almost not at all to us. Read them therefore and consider them maturely. And when you have completed the work, you will bring it to the next general chapter, or will see that it be brought by others, that it may be compared in the definitory with the rest of the other fathers', so that from them one volume may be composed. You will be able in this work to use also the counsel and opinion of other fathers of that province who shall seem to you fit for it. Farewell, and commend us to God in your prayers.

The Saint could not complete the business committed to him, being called in the very next year to the mitre of Valencia. The letter in which he signifies this to the praised Seripando, and humbly asks that another be substituted for him, since he was thereafter to be occupied with other affairs, you have entire in Salón, chapter 17 of book 1. And there was substituted for him Fr. Antonio Villasandino, on the testimony of Herrera both in the Alphabet and in the History.

§ VI. He was preacher and counselor to the emperor Charles V; he sent disciples into the Indies.

[ ] On account of his remarkable gift of speech Although from the beginnings of his monastic life down to his archbishopric St. Thomas almost always, as we have already shown from Herrera, presided either over monasteries or over the whole province, and was also involved in other cares of his Order and in affairs of great moment; he does not on that account seem ever to have ceased from preaching to the people. Salón clearly implies this in chapter 8 of book 1, where he pronounces thus in general: Since, as all with one voice report and testify, in whatever places he lived and stayed, not only by speaking publicly from the pulpit did he bring forth so much fruit … but also, etc. The same author in chapter 6 of book 1 says that the Saint began to preach at Salamanca in the third year from his solemn profession, and therefore while he was Prior of that convent, and by our reckoning about the year of Christ 1520. That he often preached at Burgos the same Salón indicates in various places, and everywhere declares at length with what concourse, applause, and fruit of his hearers he did so. The same thing Muñatones declares at number 5, discussing the Saint's sermons delivered at Salamanca. Pope Alexander VII embraced much on this subject in few words in the Bull of canonization: While, he says, he is engaged in these things, the Spirit of the Lord sent him upon him to preach the Gospel to the poor; for, being transferred out of obedience from the chair to the pulpit, he seemed to the peoples a trumpet of life and a voice of the heavens; and consequently a vessel of election, to bear the name of Jesus before kings and princes. On which account the emperor Charles V chose him singularly as his preacher; whose apostolic spirit, being made all things to all men, dispensed the food of the divine word to the wise and to the unwise, so that with one voice of all he was proclaimed an organ of the Holy Spirit.

[63] What is here asserted about Charles V, Muñatones, he is chosen as preacher to the emperor, Salón, Quevedo, and all generally have likewise handed down; but they do not determine the time. Let us hear the first two, that from the circumstances we may in some way draw it out. Muñatones writes thus: Wherefore suddenly the most celebrated name of Thomas of Villanova filled all Spain, … and penetrated with most illustrious repute even the royal court and the regal palace of the prince. By which it came about that Charles the Fifth, most Christian emperor and Catholic king of Spain and our lord, and likewise his most esteemed august consort, longing to hear him preach for not a few Lents and on very many other feast days, summoned him to themselves, and those most Christian princes declared with no obscure indication that from his discourse they were filled with remarkable consolation of soul. And Salón thus: Within a few years his fame flew through the kingdom of Castile to such a degree that, when it had come to the ears of Charles the Fifth, emperor of glorious memory, and of his most illustrious and most religious consort the empress, they wished at some time to hear him. And in his first … sermon their souls were filled with such sweetness … that they at once ordered a letter to be sent to his provincial superior, in which they signified that they wished for him and named him as preacher, and desired that … he should for the most part live at Valladolid. They heard him speaking almost always, both during several forty-day fasts, … and on Sundays and the chief feasts through the year, etc.

[64] and on account of his prudence as counselor. From these circumstances it follows that this must be placed between the years 1526 and 1539; for in the former the empress Isabella, sister of John III, king of Portugal, first came into Castile and was married to Charles the Fifth; and in the latter she died at Toledo. Further, since according to Salón himself and according to Herrera's records the Saint within the said years almost always presided either over the whole province or over the convent of Salamanca or Burgos, as we have shown above, I think the rest is to be so interpreted that he did not stay constantly at Valladolid, or rather in that city in which the emperor with the empress and his court was staying; but that at fixed times, especially when he had to preach through Lent, he betook himself thither. No less easily are reconciled with the aforesaid the things which the same Salón hands down in chapter 12 of book 1; namely that the Saint was not only preacher to the emperor, but also one of his chief counselors, and that in such wise that in graver causes the most devout prince formed his conscience according to his judgment; for this it was not needful that he should always be with the emperor, since it could be done by letters, of which the biographer adds in the same place that many were found in his desk the day before he died: The day before he died, he says, he handed the key of his desk to one of his visitors and familiars, whose name was master Caro, that he might take out the many letters kept there and commit them to the flames: and the greater part of them were of those in which Charles the Fifth the emperor consulted him in affairs of graver moment, and from which it was clear how great a trust he placed in his judgment and counsel. But it is not established whether these letters were written before he received the archbishopric or after.

[65] The beginnings of those sent to Mexico That Religious of the Order of St. Augustine were sent by our Saint into the Indies, especially into the kingdom of Mexico, whom he himself, while he presided over convents, had either clothed with the habit of the Order, or admitted to solemn profession, or had had as disciples, and had formed to virtue by his example and holy instruction, is the common and certain opinion of many authors: but they vary wonderfully when they either designate the time at which they were sent, or record the names and number of those who were sent. The first is thus established in general in the Bull of canonization: And under him as teacher so great was the progress of his disciples that, when he had determined to declare a holy war against the princes and powers of darkness, he found them worthy to be sent, while he himself was afterwards discharging the office of provincial, to storm the citadels of Mexican unbelief, being plainly conformed to the apostolic pattern, like swift angels, to a people wholly ignorant of the Christian religion; kindling them with the joy set before them, either of the future conversion of those minds turned away from God, or of the laurel to be gained of their own blood shed for Christ; the first of which the most clement Lord deigned to confirm through them with a most happy issue, not without great profit to the Christian commonwealth.

[66] from the Augustinian family of fathers, Salón, in chapter 14 of book 1, where he touches on certain deeds of Fr. Jerónimo Jiménez, a disciple of St. Thomas, and recites his letters sent from the kingdom of Mexico to his Master, speaks in this way: There is seen also (namely from the letters) the care and solicitude with which Fr. Thomas was affected, that there might be promoted there the preaching of the Gospel and the conversion of those peoples, begun through his sons and disciples, sent by him not only the first time, when he presided over the province of Andalusia, but altogether always, both when he presided and when he did not preside over that of Castile. The Saint was set over the province of Andalusia or Baetica in the year 1527; therefore according to the biographer he sent his disciples to Mexico between that year and 1529. With Salón agrees Agostino Arpe in the Augustinian Pantheon, page 288, in these words: He sends Religious into the Indies, 1529. To the same opinion must be referred also the words of Luigi Torelli in the Lives of men illustrious for holiness, page 501, which, rendered from Italian into Latin, have this sense: Twice he governed a province, once that of Baetica and again that of Castile, at which time, when the great kingdom of Mexico had been discovered, he was the first who sent thither from the Order heralds of the Gospel. For before he governed the province of Castile some had already been sent into the said kingdom, as will follow afterwards.

[67] Francisco de Quevedo at least tacitly excludes the Saint's first provincialate: although as to the number and time Twice, he says, he governed the province, and on the last occasion he sent into the Indies, to preach in Mexico, those strenuous athletes of Christ who by their life, learning, and miracles bore so great a part in the conversion of those provinces, brother Cristóbal de San Martín, brother Pedro de Pamplona, brother Juan Cruzate; and as superior (he designated for them) the holy brother Jerónimo Jiménez. So he, yet not altogether accurately. Let us hear the rest first. Giuseppe Panfilo, an author scarcely or not at all remote from the times of the event, makes no mention in the Chronicle of fathers of his Order sent to the Indians before the year 1533. And he writes in this manner at page 112: In the year of the Lord 1533 certain Spanish brethren from the kingdom of Castile, men very religious and learned, power having been given them by their superiors, embarking, set out for the new Indies, in which by God's kindness the mysteries of the most holy religion had begun to be preached and the light of the faith to shine, where by the examples of their life and by their learning they brought forth most abundant and very great fruits to Christ God, and, increasing our Order, built many monasteries. And those who arrived were: Francisco de la Cruz, surnamed the Venerable; Agustín de Coruña, afterwards elected bishop of Popayán; Jerónimo Jiménez, otherwise de Santos; Juan de San Román; Juan de Oseguera; Alonso de Borja; Jorge de Ávila. Crusenius in the Augustinian Monasticon says that this mission was made By the mandate of the Apostolic See at the instance of the king of Spain; in the rest, namely as to the time and names of those sent, he follows Panfilo.

[68] Herrera in the Alphabet mentions this mission in different places, authors vary, and in the History of the convent of Salamanca treats of it of set purpose at page 263 and following, where he assigns the same year, and enumerates the seven missionaries in the same order. Nay, at page 275 and following he gives a compendious history of the apostolic expedition, first written by father Antonio Osorio de San Román, and afterwards inserted into the Centuries of the Order by Fr. Jerónimo Román, and into the Mexican History by Fr. Juan Grijalva. And in this account it is said that it was decided in the year 1531 in the convent of the Saints that Augustinian fathers should go into the new world or West Indies to preach the Gospel, etc.; then the fathers designated for the mission are said to have come together at Toledo, and there before Fr. Francisco de Nieva, Prior of the province, and the chief fathers, to have lawfully chosen for themselves as provincial of the Mexican mission Fr. Francisco de la Cruz, to have set out on their journey in the month of March, and to have landed at Mexico on the 7th day of June 1533. But nothing either in Herrera or in the others whom I have been able to consult could I find by which I might certainly show that Religious of the Order of St. Augustine were sent into the said region before the year just assigned, much less in the time of St. Thomas's first provincialate, that is, between the years 1527 and 1529, as Salón says.

[69] they are ascribed to our Saint, Yet not even so do I think that his assertion is wholly to be rejected: for although Panfilo and the rest first mention a mission made in the year 1533, while Fr. Francisco de Nieva governed the province of Castile, yet none in that fashion

speaks in such a way that it must be absolutely believed that none of the Augustinian fathers went to Mexico before. Certainly Pope Alexander VII speaks in the Bull of canonization in such a way as to indicate not obscurely that he acknowledges St. Thomas as the first author of the Augustinian mission to the Mexicans. When, he says, he had determined to declare a holy war against the princes and powers of darkness, he found them (his disciples) worthy to be sent, while he himself was discharging the office of provincial, … to storm the citadels of Mexican unbelief. Consequently nothing prevents me from suspecting that the Saint first planned the Mexican mission, gradually formed and animated his disciples for it, and afterwards, when he governed the province for the first time, gave some of them to sailors or ship-captains about to set sail for Mexico as chaplains or directors of conscience, who on that same occasion might explore both the region and the disposition of the inhabitants, and report what fruit was to be expected thence; and that from their report it came about that, by the same Saint's care, it was decreed by the fathers of the Spanish province to establish there a settled mission and to erect convents: which was carried into execution in the year 1533, and, as the beginning of the whole affair, the rest being neglected, was noted by the writers. A similar conjecture about some Augustinian fathers sent to Mexico with the yearly fleet before the year 1533 is made by Torelli in the Annals, volume VIII, page 183.

[70] and with how great zeal It is not the place here to explain how happy successes that mission obtained, and how many convents in a very short time its first founders erected there, to the great profit of the inhabitants; but it will be enough to have reported a few things from which it may be clear how great a part St. Thomas claimed for himself in that business by his care and zeal to promote it. And so, on Herrera's testimony, or rather that of Antonio de San Román, Jerónimo Román, and Juan Grijalva, whom he cites in the History at page 275 and following, in the year 1535, while the Saint governed the province for the second time, he sent six new colonists to Mexico, under the leadership of Fr. Nicolás de Ágreda; in the year 1536 twelve others, whom he committed to Fr. Francisco de la Cruz, who for that end had returned from the kingdom of Mexico into Spain. Nor did the Saint lay aside this care when he had already finished his prefecture of the province: witness is Fr. Jerónimo Jiménez in the letter which in the year 1539 on the 9th day of October he sent from the kingdom of Mexico to Burgos to St. Thomas, and whose beginning I transfer hither: To the very reverend father brother Thomas of Villanova, Prior in the monastery of our holy father Augustine, at Burgos. Very reverend Father. May the peace of God guard your heart. All our brethren, praise be to God, arrived at the city of Mexico on the sixth day of the month of September, and from them I have understood that a great crown is being prepared for your Paternity by the Lord, who gives you a spirit to favor that work so proper to you, so greatly commended, and so beloved of its friends. The thanks which we, all your Paternity's sons, render for the favor, as we experience it here, shown to us in this, ought to be written in letters of gold, or, if it were lawful, in our own blood, so that it might in some measure be discerned how heartily we render them: yet they must be written by the Lord of this vineyard with an unspeakable pen in the book of life.

[71] From that letter, which Salón recites in Spanish, and which, rendered into Latin, I shall give entire in the Life, he promoted this work, it is clear not only, as I was just saying, that the Saint, even when he had laid down the prefecture of the province, labored strenuously to promote the mission; but besides, while I attentively consider the whole context and manner of writing, I strongly suspect that the care of it lay upon him alone, or at any rate upon him before all others, as vicar or procurator general. Indeed Jiménez, who in the month of August of the year 1538 had been made for the second time vicar provincial, calls himself and his companions sons of St. Thomas, nay subscribes himself his subject with this formula: Your Paternity's constant son and subject, Fr. Jerónimo Jiménez. He could, however, on another ground call himself and his companions sons of St. Thomas; namely because most of the missionaries, and the chief ones, had either received from him the habit of the Order, or, with him receiving it, had made solemn profession, or had been instructed by his teaching in virtue and zeal for souls.

[72] Such certainly were, as may be seen in Herrera in both Works, it is shown. Jiménez himself, Agustín de Coruña, otherwise de Gormaz, and Alonso de Borja, who in the year 1533 went to Mexico; likewise those who followed them in the year 1536, Juan Bautista de Moya and Francisco de Nieva, at that time secretary to St. Thomas as provincial; and Juan Estacio, in the year 1539, who afterwards passed into Peru, where already Fr. Andrés de Salazar, another disciple of the Saint, with eleven companions had laid the foundations of an Augustinian mission likewise. Many sent thither by the Saint the praised Herrera names expressly, especially in the History, page 278; but among them he by no means reckons Cristóbal de San Martín and Pedro de Pamplona, whom Quevedo alleged at number 67. Of them I have found no memory anywhere; unless perhaps the first of them be one of those whom Herrera calls Diego and Juan de San Martín, and the other the one whom the same author writes Pedro Pareja. Besides, if the words are to be taken in a stricter sense, Quevedo erred in other things also. For I do not read that Juan Cruzate went to Mexico before the year 1541; and that Jerónimo Jiménez migrated thither in the year 1533 I said just now, and proved above from Panfilo. Neither of them therefore did the Saint send in his second provincialate, namely between the years 1534 and 1537.

[73] But how equipped did he send his disciples? Plainly conformed to the Apostolic pattern, Those fathers sent to the Indians says Pope Alexander VII in the Bull of canonization. Clothed with the habit of the reform, stricter and meaner, and expressly discalced, that is, supporting their feet with sandals only, as is our custom. So father Macarius of St. Quirinus, presently to be praised, who, to establish this opinion, brings forward the testimonies of many writers, Latin, Spanish, and Italian, some of which, on his own credit, since not all the lucubrations of those authors are at hand, we here subjoin in Latin. First he cites Fr. Andrés de San Nicolás, in the preceding century chronicler of the congregation of the Augustinian reformed, who in the proemial introduction to volume 1 of the History of the congregation of Spain and the Indies, chapter 7, writes in this manner of the first heralds of the Gospel from the family of St. Augustine who set out for Mexico: Departing thence, seven embarked at Seville, all clothed in cloth so rough and so coarse, etc., with sleeves, cowl, cloak, and sandals of the same pattern which we discalced use to this day in Spain, so he in Spanish.

[74] are written of The praised Macarius goes on hence to two older Spanish authors, Jerónimo Román and Juan Grijalva, Augustinians, of whom the former in Century 12 and book 2 of his History, chapter 10, speaks thus: In the beginning they did not wear shoes, but (they were) discalced or with sandals. And the latter thus in book 1, chapter 2, of the History of the Order in New Spain: They all (the new missionaries) laid aside their shoes and put on sandals, which that province used until the year 74: that is, until the year 1574, about which, on the testimony of Filippo Bonanni in the Catalogue of religious Orders, number 62, where he cites Andrés de San Nicolás, in Spain, with the favor of the Catholic king Philip, the family of the discalced Augustinians filled many houses. What has been brought forward thus far about the clothing of those setting out for the Indians is solidly confirmed in Joachim Brulius in his Peruvian History of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, book 5, chapter 1; where the author narrates that the first chapter of the Peruvian province was summoned at Lima in the year 1551, and that in it Fr. Juan Estacio, a disciple of St. Thomas, as we said above, was declared Prior provincial, and that various decrees were made by the fathers, of which he recites the second, running thus: Wherefore we decree and ordain that the Religious of this province continue to preserve the same austerity and poverty in dress which they brought from Spain, and be always clothed in a black habit… Let them wear shoes made of cord. The same Brulius in the following chapter affirms that among the instructions to those going to convert the infidels was this one: That they should make their journey on foot, which they should defend against the injuries of the weather with nothing but half-shoes. Antonio de la Calancha, another Augustinian and author of a Peruvian Chronicle written in Spanish, older than Brulius, in chapter 23 of book 1 depicts the habit of the Peruvian fathers in almost the same way as the authors alleged above depict that of the Mexican ones.

[75] in that habit, But of the Mexicans too this same thing is implied in more than one place in Herrera in the History of the convent of Salamanca: thus at page 278 I read that Fr. Francisco de la Cruz, having returned in the year 1535 from Mexico into Spain to gather new laborers in the Lord's vineyard, never changed his rough clothing, nor his holy custom of going on foot, nor any other austerity which he used in Mexico, and that hence all were moved by the example of his piety and stirred to imitation. At page 289 is given the Life of Fr. Alonso de Borja reported by Grijalva, and similar things are recorded about his clothing; likewise at page 306 in the Life of Fr. Juan Estacio; but, not to linger over reckoning up more, at page 346 Fr. Jerónimo Jiménez, in the Life gathered from the Works of Grijalva and Román, is said always to have worn that habit with which the Mexican province was founded, and it is described in almost the same way as above.

[76] in the manner used by the discalced Augustinians, Hence Bonanni, in the place cited, treating of the discalced Hermits of St. Augustine, not without foundation joined the beginnings of the said reform with the beginnings of the Mexican mission, saying thus: This Order of Religious numbers four congregations, each of which is governed by its own vicar general: yet over all presides the prepositus general of the whole Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine. The first was the Spanish, which took its beginning in the year 1533; when eight (nay seven, for the one who had been designated the eighth, Fr. Juan Bautista de Moya, remained in Spain until the year 1536) men of the Augustinian family, alike conspicuous for holiness and learning, set out for the kingdom of Mexico, that they might there gather most abundant fruits by the examples of their life; and therefore, discalced with sandals, they put on a rough garment and one so scanty that they seemed rather covered with haircloth garments. This family of Religious grew in the Mexican province, and thence in Spain, with the favor of the Catholic king Philip, filled many houses about the year 1574.

[77] But there are others who go further, and this was the reason and hence they the beginnings of their reform why I have dwelt longer on this matter and have inquired more laboriously into the assertions of the writers. For as St. Thomas is deservedly acknowledged and celebrated as the primary author of the often-mentioned Mexican mission, because, although he himself by no means set out thither, yet he first planned it

and took care that his disciples, formed and animated for it, should be directed thither, or directed them himself, and labored very much for it, as I think has been abundantly demonstrated; so those men refer to the same Saint the original foundations of the reform of the discalced Hermits of St. Augustine; because, although he himself was never discalced, nor was that reform made in his time, at least in Europe, yet his disciples, sent either by himself or by his care, crossed the sea clothed in the same habit which the discalced wear to this day, and because from them, either going before by example, or exhorting when from Mexico they returned to Spain to procure new companions or for other causes, some Spanish fathers took up the same habit; whence in course of time the said reform was introduced, and at last, with the assent of the supreme Pontiffs, established, both in Spain and in other parts of Europe.

[78] Among those who in their writings also acknowledged our Saint, in the sense already set forth, acknowledge St. Thomas as their first source. as the original cause of the aforesaid reform, the very reverend Fr. Macarius of St. Quirinus, of the Order of the discalced Hermits of St. Augustine, vicar general of the congregation of Italy and Germany, expressly produces Fr. Andrés de San Nicolás mentioned above; he wrote to us a long letter upon this matter from Rome in the year 1752, and for the same opinion either recited or at least indicated all the testimonies of authors brought forward by me thus far, besides those which I thought should be added to them from Herrera. To the testimonies he attached here and there reasons by which he might show by what right the discalced fathers, when they inquire into the primary origin of their reform, go back to St. Thomas of Villanova, and, as he says, look up to and venerate him in the place of a best and sweetest Parent after our holy Father Augustine. To this opinion of theirs I have found until now no opponent; nor do I see what can be so greatly objected to it in the sense set forth: especially since those fathers by no means contradict those by whom different authors of the said reform are designated according to the diversity of regions; but only assert that these particular authors accomplished it according to the pattern received from the disciples of St. Thomas sent to Mexico, and therefore they follow him with a special veneration as the fountain of the whole reform.

§ VII. He is elected archbishop of Valencia against his will; his letters to Girolamo Seripando, Prior general of his Order, and the latter's to him.

[ ] Having refused the archbishopric of Granada, Before the Saint was promoted to the chair of Valencia, the mitre of the archbishopric of Granada had been offered him, which he had refused, because he had chosen to be abject in the house of his God, as Pope Alexander VII says in the Bull of canonization. Salón and Quevedo narrate this at greater length in the Life; both assert that it happened while the Saint was governing the province for the second time; therefore between the 25th day of April of the year 1534 and the 28th of April 1537, as long as the provincialate lasted, as is established from what has been said before. At length, after not many years, when he governed the convent of Valladolid as Prior, he accepted unwillingly the charge of the archbishopric of Valencia. Pope Alexander VII again in the Bull briefly: The same Charles V, and Philip II, Catholic king of Spain, devoutly believed that the discipline of the church of Valencia, shaken by its long widowhood, could be restored only if Thomas were set over it as bishop. But lest, as he had before refused the mitre of the church of Granada, because he had chosen to be abject in the house of his God, he should refuse to undertake the charge of Valencia also, when it was found that the will of the emperor and king did not sufficiently press him, being compelled at their request by his own superior, leaving his cell with tears he betook himself to Valencia.

[80] that of Valencia Certainly the Saint labored with no less effort to avoid the mitre of Valencia than that of Granada, and without doubt both the prayers of his friends and the reasons, exhortations, and admonitions of the Most Eminent Tavera, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, archbishop of Toledo, and of the chief princes of the court, brought forward to move his reluctant mind, would have fallen in vain, had there not at last been interposed — what could not so conveniently be done when the archbishopric of Granada was in question, since at that time the Saint himself governed the province — the authority of the Reverend Fr. Francisco de Nieva, president of the province of Castile, enjoining it upon him by letter and by a precept of obedience, which the Saint, as one no less zealous for obedience than for humility, did not dare to resist further; whence it is clear why he accepted the archbishopric of Valencia rather than that of Granada.

[81] urged by obedience The aforesaid letter Salón recites in chapter 17 of book 1, and describes, after his manner, most fully both the manner in which the emperor was moved to nominate him for that mitre, which seemed to contain something of a prodigy in itself, and other things which I have already lightly touched on; so that there is no need to have recourse here to Francisco de Quevedo or to the other writers named in the course of this, some of whom treat the same things at length, yet produce nothing which you will not find more fully explained in him. Further, that that election was made before the month of August of the year 1544 is established from the same Salón, whom I have found none contradicting: the writers of Valencian and Liège affairs also agree, where they treat of George of Austria, uncle of the emperor Charles V, who in the year 1538 entered upon the archbishopric of Valencia, and about the year 1542, being summoned by the emperor, returned to Belgium, where he was first designated coadjutor to Cornelius van Bergen in the bishopric of Liège, and then in the year 1544 was substituted as bishop for him at his death; after he had resigned the archbishopric of Valencia; as we learn partly from Gaspar Escolano, part 2 of decade 1 of the History of Valencia, column [ ] and following, partly from Jean de Chapeaville, volume 3 of the Deeds of the bishops of Liège, from page 341.

[82] Chapeaville adds at page 350 that George on the day before the Kalends of August, by letters written to the college of canons and to the estates of Liège, appointed the 17th day of the aforesaid month for his inauguration; he accepted in the year 1544. but Escolano at column [ ] says that St. Thomas entered the city of Valencia on the last day of the same year 1544. But at column [ ] he also clearly explains what Pope Alexander VII in the Bull hinted at above in a word about the discipline of the church of Valencia shaken by its long widowhood, asserting that the said church had been deprived of the presence of its shepherd for more than one hundred and twenty years when George of Austria came thither, who himself too after about four years abandoned it, chiefly, as the same author not obscurely implies in the following column, because the good bishop perceived that, although the labor of fervent preachers had been employed, the obstinacy of the Moors, living in great number in that same kingdom and opposed to our faith, could not be broken; nay, on the testimony of the same Escolano, that perversity of the Moors struck St. Thomas with such fear that for this one reason he shunned the archbishopric. But these things too will recur in Salón.

[83] Presently, the bishopric being accepted, the Saint sent a letter to Rome on the 12th day of August to the most reverend Seripando, His letter to Seripando, and Seripando's Prior general of his Order, in which he set forth his election and the manner in which he had been compelled to accept it, and asked his consent. Herrera in the Alphabet gives it as seen by himself in the Roman archive; I forbear to recite it here, because Salón too inserted it entire in chapter 17 of book 1 of the Life. Seripando sent his reply on the 19th day of September. Salón does not mention it; although it contains an illustrious elogium of the Saint's learning and virtues. I judge it indeed worthy to occupy a place here; thus Herrera exhibits it in the Alphabet: To Fr. Thomas of Villanova, archbishop-elect of Valencia. To God, who governs heaven and earth with highest and unspeakable providence, immense thanks are to be rendered by us all, and by myself especially, who now preside over the Augustinians, because through Charles the emperor, the one champion of piety, as I gladly hear from your letter, he has placed you, a Man of the highest integrity and learning, in the order of bishops. I congratulate therefore first you, then the church of Valencia, and lastly all the men of our Order. For you have obtained a most ample testimony of your virtue, in which there is no mark of ambition or covetousness. We venerate the counsel of God alone, who chooses whom he wills, and we praise the most faithful heart of the emperor. And the church of Valencia has obtained that Shepherd whom it ought most greatly to have desired, such as the Apostle describes, Able to exhort in sound doctrine, and to restrain those who contradict.

[84] And there will be none of our Order who will not rejoice to him and as it were triumph, that in you the ancient virtue of the Fathers is stirred up and their glory revives. For after that great Alonso of Toledo, bishop of Seville, no one is remembered as called by God to so great an office in Spain. This honor you restore to us by your outstanding virtue. And I too can congratulate myself on my own judgment, that I seemed to divine these things about you when I contemplated in Spain your character and integrity, and your great skill in the greatest branches of learning. I do not doubt that our most holy Lord the Pontiff will receive this imperial nomination with a most grateful mind, with whom there will stand the weightiest testimony of your virtue from the most reverend lord of Burgos, who, as I have often written to you, loves you exceedingly. I too shall not fail in my office when I return to Rome, which I think will be about the Kalends of November, God helping. May the Lord therefore, who called you, clothe you with virtue from on high, that you may be able to fulfill all the parts of a lawful shepherd to his glory and to the salvation of your sheep. With which words we bless you and pray good things for you, as regards what first concerns us; then, as we ought, we kiss your hands as those of a bishop worthy of the highest honor; lastly we desire that the affairs of your Order in that city, which certainly need great help, be commended to you by your piety. Of which matter, when we shall have learned that you are seated in your see, we shall treat more fully. Meanwhile farewell, most worthy Bishop, and embrace me, whom you used to venerate as a father, now as your most devoted servant.

[85] upon various matters This letter was followed by the Bull of Paul III confirming the election on the sixth of the Ides of October, as Escolano has in the aforesaid History of Valencia, column [ ], in which the supreme Pontiff discoursed no less honorably than Seripando about the Saint's learning and piety, as we learn from Salón; but neither he nor any other whom I have seen has furnished us a copy of it. The letter of St. Thomas, in which after receiving the Bull he gives thanks to Pope Paul and humbly submits himself and his affairs, you have entire in the aforesaid Salón, chapter 17 of book 1. To Seripando's first letter he had not written back, in all likelihood deferring it until he should have come to Valencia and entered upon possession of his see. Meanwhile he received a second from the same, conceived in these words: To the most reverend Archbishop of Valencia. Such was always my confidence in you and my goodwill that it has now begotten the highest respect and veneration, so that I fear nothing

in taking refuge with you and asking your help in all matters in which I shall know that you can be of profit to me. For it comes into my mind with what readiness of soul, while you were among us, you used to obey me; so that I dare to assert and to affirm on oath that among so great a number of my brethren I found none who was either more dutiful toward me or more obedient to my commands. Why should I now, though your virtue has raised you to that most ample dignity, doubt that you are of the best will toward me, and that you will deny me nothing which can be done by you with your dignity preserved? I shall never despair of being able to obtain by asking from him from whom I obtained everything by commanding. There is in the most sacred senate of the Cardinals Reginald Pole, Cardinal of England, a man of proved virtue, of truly Christian piety, of singular learning; of whose humanity and most holy character the opinion among all good men is such that he who does not honor and respect him cannot be reckoned in the number of the good.

[86] affairs. Here Herrera, from whom I have transcribed, cut away a part of the letter, and in its place substituted the following: These things about Pole Seripando wrote, in order to beg Thomas to see that the revenues of the prebend called the Capiscolia, which the Cardinal enjoyed in the church of Valencia, be paid and rendered. Then he goes on to give Seripando's own words: There is in my college of the Augustinians at Valencia Juan Bautista Burgos, who now presides over the rest; he, unless I am mistaken, is of upright life and of no common learning. This man, both because he is of your profession and because he is of most gentle character and desires and procures with all his might the honor of others, receive as commended to you. In which matter you will also do me a most welcome service. But since the will of the Christian princes, whom God makes to dwell of one mind in his house, about the council is the same as the will of Paul III, supreme Pontiff, I hope to see you at Trent, of whose excellent virtue I have promised many things to the fathers. Meanwhile I beg you not to disdain to answer this letter of mine. For Juan Bautista Burgos, he whom I commended to you, will see with all fidelity that yours is delivered to me. So Seripando on the 28th day of November of the year 1544, about a whole month before the Saint came to Valencia.

[87] For, so far as I gather from Salón, he came to the monastery of the Order of St. Augustine, under the title of the most blessed Virgin Mary of Succor, founded near the walls of the city of Valencia, At the beginning of the year 1545, established in his see, three or four days before the birthday of Christ the Redeemer, and there, on account of continual rains, stayed until the first day of the year 1545, on which, as the praised author expressly adds, he entered the city about the second hour after noon, in the 56th year of his age. Escolano, several times praised, notes the Saint's entry into the city on the last day of the year 1544: which is the more correct, I do not know. With what joy, applause, and preparation he was received there must be seen in Salón, chapter 2 of book 2, and I proceed to those things which either he himself does not have, or which can be elucidated from elsewhere. And so the Saint, now established in his see, in the month of January sent a letter to Seripando, which Herrera affirms that he saw in the Roman archive, and which I here subjoin from his Alphabet.

[88] To the most reverend Fr. M. Girolamo of Naples, most worthy General of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine. he sends another letter to the same, At Rome. Most reverend Father. The letter which your most reverend Paternity sent me I received with the greatest gladness: from which it could very easily be known that congratulation was to be rendered not so much to me, who am unworthy of this dignity, as to your Paternity. For a wonderful appearance of all joy, gladness, and exultation appeared in them *. Whence, although hitherto you greatly loved me as a private Monk or as one having the care of a few, now, my authority increasing, that love itself seems to have grown. But this congratulation, although most approved by me because it proceeds from the best of hearts, is nevertheless the more pleasing to me for this, that, although you desired me to be advanced in dignity, you would not have shown so great a gladness of heart unless, trusting in divine help, you hoped that I should not altogether disgrace the office of the ministry enjoined on me. But, to confess the truth, considering the monastic life, tranquil, quiet, and suited to my disposition, I should be affected with weariness of this pontifical life which I now lead, did I not both trust that it would bring greater fruit to the commonwealth of Christ, and had I not read that one occupied with many affairs and striving for the salvation of his neighbors can please God no less than one shut up within a cell; especially in this church, which, long deprived of the government of a shepherd, runs wild with the sprouting of many vices. Whence most merciful Christ is to be entreated by us that, since he has deigned to confer this church upon us, he may deign also to confer his grace for ruling it, lest by our sloth the gift of his most bountiful piety be turned to our judgment. Further, if there be anything of business, most religious Father, pertaining to your Paternity, to be transacted with us, it shall be most diligently attended to. May your most reverend Paternity fare well. From Valencia, the 24th day of January in the year 1545. After these things in his own hand, as Herrera implies, the Saint wrote the following: At the commands of your Reverend Paternity, Fr. Thomas, Archbishop of Valencia.

[89] and receives others from the same. Not long after, namely on the 3rd day of March of the year 1545, the praised Seripando sent a third letter to St. Thomas; but upon precisely what business is unknown to me; since Herrera, cited, seems to exhibit only a fragment of it, or rather its beginning, which contains scarcely anything but a repeated congratulation. Receive the words: To the Reverend Archbishop of Valencia. I congratulated you from my inmost heart on the dignity to which I had heard you were called by God, in that letter to which you yourself answered on the 24th of January. I now congratulate your see, which has received you safe and sound, in which by divine help you will easily be able to heal all that was sick and longed for your healing hand. That will be pleasing to God, salutary to your sheep, honorable to you, and delightful to me, etc. That there was frequent exchange of letters between our Saint and Seripando, Seripando himself openly signifies in the letter recited at number 84, in these words: As I have often written to you: nor is there reason to doubt that that same exchange was continued as long as St. Thomas survived among the living. But none of their letters besides those already mentioned have come to us. For the rest, what and how great a man the praised Girolamo Seripando was, afterwards bishop of Salerno, Cardinal presbyter of the Holy Roman Church, and legate of the supreme Pontiff at the synod of Trent, is declared by the elogia with which authors everywhere celebrate his memory when occasion for writing of him arises.

* them

§ VIII. The Saint, summoned to the council of Trent, did not go; he instituted diocesan synods.

[ ] He was summoned to the council of Trent; In the course of the first year of St. Thomas's archbishopric, namely on the 13th day of December 1545, the first Session of the most sacred council of Trent was celebrated, at which the often-praised Girolamo Seripando was then present as general of his Order, and at which he had hoped that our Archbishop too would be present, as he indicated on the 28th day of November of the year 1544 in the letter given to the Saint: But since the will of the Christian princes … about the council is the same as the will of Paul III, supreme Pontiff, I hope to see you at Trent, of whose excellent virtue I have promised many things to the fathers. Seripando's hope indeed failed him, since St. Thomas by no means betook himself thither. Nevertheless from this there is in some measure confirmed what Salón writes in book 1, chapter 10; namely that when the Saint on a certain day had held converse with friends about the corrupt morals of ecclesiastics, and with a prophetic spirit had promised that an amendment would shortly follow, presently on the next day a courier was there with letters from the supreme Pontiff Paul III and from the emperor Charles V, by which he was summoned to that same council.

[91] he was summoned; Similar things are written by Naevius in the Life, chapter 10; Curtius in the Elogium, and many others. Herrera in the Alphabet cites another testimony, whence it is established that the Saint received a letter about that business from the emperor: Thither (he says) the emperor Charles was sending our Thomas and twelve other bishops from Spain in the year 1546; and already Thomas was in readiness to set out on the journey, if a new command of the emperor should arrive; but that failing, he gave up the journey he had planned. We read in the Roman archive a letter of Fr. Alonso de Madrid, provincial of Castile, given to the general Seripando at Seville on the 20th of August in the year 1546, in which he writes that M. Francisco de Nieva on account of old age and health could not go to the council of Trent and to the general chapter, and that Thomas, archbishop of Valencia, with twelve other bishops had been summoned by the emperor to the synod of Trent, and that, when a second command should come, he would go at once. Torelli, in volume 8 of the Annals at the year 1546, number 5, citing the same letter of Alonso de Madrid, adds that the emperor's command was made under this clause, that St. Thomas and the other bishops should not stir from their place until a second should follow; and that, since this did not follow, the bishops did not leave their dioceses either.

[92] This last, about the second command not having followed, I should think Torelli did not learn from the letter cited, but added because he knew from elsewhere that the Saint was not present at the council. yet he was not present; Salón in book 2, chapter 6, signifies that the Saint was prevented from going to Trent by sickness. Curtius says that he could not go because he was of little firm health, upon whom besides a very heavy old age pressed, hastened by excessive labors. The same cause is alleged by Naevius, Elssius, and others generally. For my part I think the matter happened thus, that the Saint, summoned by the first letter, wrote back and pleaded his ill health as the reason why he did not reckon himself fit for so troublesome a journey; yet was so disposed in mind that, if a second command should come, he would go at once. Meanwhile, though absent, he labored for that same council as much as he could; for, as Salón describes more fully in the place just cited, he invited by letter the bishops known to him who were about to set out for Trent, to pass through Valencia, and, when they arrived and had been most kindly received in his hospitality, he communicated to them in writing many things which seemed to him to need to be treated in the council. And not a few of them were approved and decreed by the fathers of Trent, as the bishops, afterwards returning into Spain, reported to him with thanksgiving.

[93] Simplicien de Saint-Martin, in the Life published in French, chapter 35, says he is said to have given to the bishops sailing to Trent that the Saint appointed as his procurator for that same council the bishop de Nuesqua; Antonio de Quintanadueñas likewise, in the Life written in Spanish, better writes de Huesca, that is, of Huesca; and indeed in Philippe Labbe, volume 14 of the Councils, among the bishops who were present at the fifth session and the following ones, there is reckoned the Reverend Lord Pedro de Agustín, bishop of Huesca, a Spaniard. But whence the two authors alleged learned that he was present also as St. Thomas's procurator is unknown to me

. These same writers, as also Metermann, Curtius, Naevius, and Baxius, add a plainly wonderful thing: The bishops of Spain, says the one named last, who were setting out for this general council and were making their journey through Valencia, visited the holy Bishop Thomas out of respect, and, having bidden farewell, embarked on ships and set sail. But behold, a horrible storm caught the voyagers. They with troubled minds looked for present death, being on the very point of being swallowed by the waves: when in so great straits they saw a saving star, the holy Archbishop, I say, wandering over the waves of the sea with his pastoral staff, and, pacifying and calming the swellings of the waves, directing the ship in which they were carried, so that with a prosperous course they reached the harbor. So with others Baxius in chapter 9, Salón being silent, whose order of narration he nevertheless generally follows elsewhere.

[94] to have appeared and brought help in a shipwreck; The same author says that this is established from the sermon which master Luis Ponce de León delivered in praise of this apostolic Man St. Thomas. But I should think that there is an error in the name, and that for Luis, Basilio should be substituted: and this I gather both from Baxius himself, who in chapter XVII of his Synopsis confirms another matter related about the Saint in these words: As Fr. M. Basilio Ponce de León attests in the sermon which he delivered on St. Thomas; and from Simplicien de Saint-Martin, who in chapter 36, after describing with a fuller pen that storm and the whole course of the affair, at last concludes in this manner: This the bishops attested at Trent, and on their return at Valencia, and the Reverend Fr. Basilio de León, professor of Theology in the university of Salamanca, publicly said from the pulpit in the sermon which he delivered at the solemnity of the beatification of our glorious St. Thomas in the convent of the nuns of the Order of St. Ursula. These things I have thought should be observed, lest the reader think that Luis de León or Legionensis, who made his solemn profession in the convent of the Order of St. Augustine at Salamanca in the same year in which St. Thomas was raised to the archbishopric, is the one designated by Baxius, as happened to me before I had consulted Baxius in the other place, and Simplicien de Saint-Martin.

[95] about which the chief authors are silent. The Life of Basilio Ponce de León, whom in the Alphabet he calls his master, Herrera gives in the History of the convent of Salamanca, page 420, from which we learn that he, after living in the said convent for about 20 years and presiding over it twice, ceased to live in the year 1629, in the 59th year of his age. For my part I should not dare to judge absolutely that the story which others say was related by him was rashly invented; yet it is so little proved to me that I cannot pluck out of my mind all doubt about its truth. For the thing is in itself and in its circumstances so prodigious and memorable that you will scarcely find anything more wonderful in the Saint's whole Life, and in my judgment, if it really happened so, it must have been most famous throughout the whole Christian world, and celebrated by the pens not only of Spanish but of foreign writers of that time. For according to Simplicien de Saint-Martin it was asserted at Trent by the very bishops delivered from shipwreck, where so many fathers, afterwards illustrious by published books, came together from various parts of the Christian world. It was also related at Valencia by the same bishops.

[96] Meanwhile Muñatones is silent, a Spanish bishop, who afterwards was present at the council of Trent and wrote the Life of St. Thomas; silent is Quevedo, the other Spanish biographer; nay, not even Salón himself, who composed the Life in the city of Valencia and held discourse about the Spanish bishops' journey to Trent and their return, touches with a word on that storm calmed by the Saint; where nevertheless he generally exhibits in a fuller style the most minute matters, gathered with the greatest zeal. Besides, neither in the long relation about his sanctity and miracles, extracted from the processes and made to Pope Paul V by Giovanni Battista Coccino, dean of the sacred rota, for the beatification of St. Thomas, is there any mention of the said storm, nor any in the whole Series of acts for the canonization. Lastly I have found no author older than those named above at number 93 who committed it to writing, so that consequently it rests on the testimony of one man, not a little remote in time, given by word of mouth: which is not sufficient for me to lay aside doubt.

[97] About the same time in which preparation was being made at Trent for the general council, Meanwhile in the year 1545 he himself held a diocesan synod, our Saint gathered a diocesan synod at Valencia for reforming the perverse morals of his subjects, especially the ecclesiastics; namely about the month of November 1545, if Salón has rightly noted, who describes at length in the whole of chapter 5 of book 2 the difficulties that arose against those most holy constitutions, and Thomas's constancy and inflexible strength in overcoming them and in defending ecclesiastical immunity. The same things are described also in the Life to be prefixed to Salón from the Series of acts for the canonization; but here, as also in Baxius, it is called a provincial synod. That it was diocesan I gather from the Greatest Collection of the councils of Spain: for the Most Eminent author, Cardinal José de Aguirre, in volume 4, page 122, about to publish the diocesan synod celebrated at Valencia in the year 1566, prefaces thus: Although it has been our care in this Collection to publish only national or provincial councils, as of greater moment; it has nevertheless seemed good to add to them some diocesan ones, etc. But he does not before give in its own place the constitutions or ordinances made in the synod of the year 1545; because in all likelihood it was only diocesan.

[98] That the said constitutions were nevertheless preserved and highly valued at Valencia I again gather from the same Greatest Collection, volume 4, page 201, and held another in 1548. where in the conclusion of the Epitome of the constitutions of the church of Valencia from the year 1200 to 1580 the vicar general of the chapter and the canons of the metropolitan church of Valencia speak thus: And moreover adhering to the constitution formerly published by Thomas of Villanova of good memory, archbishop of Valencia, and by the then existing canons and chapter, on the ninth day of November 1545, which is found at the end of the book of printed constitutions, etc. Done in the said chapter on the 2nd day of the month of August in the year from the Nativity of the Lord 1582, etc. The constitutions of St. Thomas are praised also in the same place at page 133 at the end of the constitutions of the diocesan synod praised above, held namely in the year 1566 under Martín Ayala, archbishop of Valencia, where I read the following: Confirmation of the synodal constitutions of the most reverend Fr. Thomas of Villanova, archbishop of Valencia. Since the synodal constitutions of the most reverend brother Thomas of Villanova, our predecessor, were most holily instituted by him, and are highly approved by us; we ordain that in all those matters which have not been otherwise decreed in our provincial council lately held, or in the present diocesan synod, or restricted by some limitation, they be diligently observed in our diocese.

[99] But these words do not expressly indicate the synod held by the Saint in the year 1545, but equally and more probably the other, which he held three years later, and whose constitutions are recited in the same place at page 134 with this title: Ordinances for the choir of the churches of the diocese of Valencia, published by the most reverend Fr. Thomas of Villanova, archbishop of Valencia, in the diocesan synod of Valencia in the year of the Lord 1548, on the 14th day of June. Let the curious reader see the Ordinances themselves in the place cited: what the careful Bishop intended by them he sufficiently intimates in the preface, which alone I transcribe: Since priests and other clerics, dedicated to the divine worship, ought to excel not only in purity of soul and conscience, but also in bodily and outward gravity and in decency of manners, and in the celebration of divine things to show themselves well ordered to those who look on, so that by outward decorum they may display the inward composure of the heart, therefore we, don brother Thomas of Villanova, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See archbishop of Valencia, wishing to provide in those things which pertain to the divine office and to the priestly order, have made the following ordinances for the choir of the churches of our diocese, with the approval of the holy synod, which we command to be inviolably observed.

§ IX. On the year and day of the Saint's death.

[ ] He died in the year 1555 About the remaining deeds of the Saint down to the last year of his life there is nothing which I should add; for the reader will be abundantly instructed in these both from the Lives to be published and, if any doubt occur, from the Annotations to be appended after the custom. And so I hasten to the year of his death, about which the writers in some measure disagree. Muñatones in both copies of the Life which we have, as also in the one which Herrera turned from Latin into Spanish in the History of the convent of Salamanca, page 315, writes in this manner: He died in the year of salvation one thousand five hundred and fifty-four. Escolano in book 10 of the History of Valencia, chapter 36, says: In the year one thousand five hundred and fifty-six, on the eighth day of September, died the holy archbishop don Thomas of Villanova. But Panfilo, who about the same times composed the Chronicles of the Order of St. Augustine, carried down only to the year 1579, has thus at page 120: God calling him, he began to sicken, and rested with a holy end in the year from the Nativity of the Lord 1555: and this his opinion is confirmed by the reckonings of all the others whom I have seen.

[101] on the 8th day of September. The same year is marked in the Saint's epitaph, which Salón gives in the Life, as do Saint-Martin, Curtius, and others; the same in the Series of acts and in the Bull of canonization; so that consequently the otherwise very weighty authority of Muñatones ought not to detain us here, into whose figures in all likelihood an error crept. The same must be believed of Escolano; since in the same book cited, chapter 35, when he had said that the Bulls for the Saint for the archbishopric of Valencia were given by Pope Paul III on the sixth of the Ides of October in the year 1544, a little below he writes that he held the archbishopric for ten years and eleven months, which, if you add a day or two, are completed in the year 1555 on the 8th day of September. As to the day I have thus far met no one dissenting, but, what rarely happens, when they determine the hour or the part of the day, those very men who profess to have used the processes so differ in the circumstances, or at least declare them so obscurely, that, whichever way I turn, I cannot emerge from doubts. Wherefore I have judged that either the very words of the chief writers, or at least a summary of them, should be set before the reader.

[102] Salón designating the morning time Salón in book 2 of the Life, chapter 22, which for reasons to be alleged in the Annotations is with us 25, describes the matter after his manner most fully in this order: on the 7th day of September about the ninth hour of the evening the Saint wished to be strengthened with the Sacrament of extreme unction; on the 8th at the fourth hour of the morning he confessed again, and then ordered the history of Christ's passion according to John to be read to him. At the seventh hour, by his order, the holy sacrifice of the Mass was celebrated in the same chamber; and as soon as after the consecration the priest raised the Chalice, the Saint began to recite the Psalm: In thee, O Lord, have I hoped, and uttered the verse Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit, while the priest received the most holy Sacrament, and, as he was finishing the reception, at the same moment the outstanding Servant of God

ended his life. Then in the chapter which with us is 26 he continues in this order: presently the death of the holy Bishop was announced by the sound of the bronze bell, the body duly adorned and carried into the greater hall of the palace, an altar erected here, and the sacrifice of the Mass celebrated by several priests, and at last toward noon the doors of the palace, which until then had been closed, were opened to the numberless people running up: about the second hour the sacred body was carried to the metropolitan church, and thence, after the Vespers of the dead had been chanted, to the church of the monastery of blessed Mary of Succor, of the Order of St. Augustine, outside the walls of the city, where it was exposed for the rest of the day and the whole night, the gates of the city being kept open for the sake of the people, who ran thither continually in vast numbers: in the morning about the eighth hour the solemn obsequies were held and the body was laid in the sepulcher on the same day.

[103] From this series of events Salón manifestly indicates others in some measure disagree, that the Saint died on the 8th day of September between the seventh and eighth hour of the morning, and was committed to burial on the 9th. Let us now hear the very words of the Bull of canonization: At last, desiring to venerate once more under the sacramental species God the Savior, whom he hoped presently to behold face to face, he willed that the holy Sacrifice be performed in his chamber, and that meanwhile the Gospel of the Lord's Passion according to John be read to him; and, having heard it with deep contemplation, and having adored with wonderful piety and humility the most august Sacrament, toward which he was always most devout, at the elevation, pouring forth a flood of tears for joy, he began the Canticle: "Now dost thou dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace"; and when it was finished he added: "Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit": and as he was saying these words he expired, on the 8th day of September, on the eve of the Nativity of the most blessed Virgin, for love of whom he languished while he lived, in the year of salvation 1555, in the 68th of his age. With the Bull, at least as to the matter about which there is here doubt, agree the three compendia of the Life in the Series of all the acts for the canonization, and in one of them, after it has been narrated that the Saint at the elevation of the most holy Sacrament recited the psalm Now dost thou dismiss, etc., it is expressly added: He expired on the eighth day of September in the year of salvation 1555 IN THE EVENING between the seventh and eighth hour: in another: He expired and rendered his most blessed soul to his Creator on the 8th day of September 1555 between the seventh and eighth hour IN THE EVENING before the Nativity of the most blessed Virgin Mary: in the third: And as he said these things, on the eighth day of September IN THE EVENING before the Nativity of the most blessed Virgin, between the seventh and eighth hour, in the year of salvation one thousand five hundred and fifty-five, in the sixty-eighth of his age, the Lord gave sleep to his Servant, etc.

[104] You will say that the difficulty is removed if we believe that the word evening, whether by a copyist's inadvertence or from some Spanish word misunderstood in the processes, crept into one compendium of the Life and thence into the others and into the Bull: I do not deny it; nay, there are several things which persuade that this is likely enough. others support it; The first is because otherwise Salón's whole series of the event is overturned, although he is not altogether accurate in the circumstances of time and not seldom needs correction. The second, because not only Quevedo, Saint-Martin, Baxius, Torelli, and others with unanimous consent imply that the Saint died while the priest was receiving the sacred Body of the Lord, but also the compendium of the Life which our colleague at Rome copied from a manuscript of the Angelica library of the Order of saint Augustine, in these words: While a priest was celebrating Mass in his chamber, from the elevation of the Host he began to recite with great tears the psalm: "In thee, O Lord, have I hoped," down to the priest's communion; and then the good Prelate said: "Into thy hands, O Lord, etc." and rendered his soul to his Creator. The third, because in the compendium of the Life which is given in the fifth place in the Series of acts for the canonization, his death is narrated to have happened in the same way as in the others, between the seventh and eighth hour, but with the word evening omitted. The fourth, lastly, because both in the Bull and in the compendia of the Life the matter is so set forth that, that single word evening being removed, everyone would suspect that the Saint died during the very sacrifice of the Mass.

[105] But certainly to this last, at least in appearance, Coccino is opposed in his Relation to Pope Paul V, Coccino at first sight pages 478 and following, writing thus: But that he always placed his trust in God is proved by the testimony of Francisco Iter, doctor of both laws (a witness), the 47th examined in the process of Valencia, folio 234, by ordinary authority, who deposes that he, being at the end of his life, said to the bystanders: I wish first to see my Creator before I depart from this life, and at once wished Mass to be celebrated, which is the memorial of the life and passion of Christ our Redeemer, and was present at it with the greatest devotion, and at the elevation of the most holy Sacrament, beginning the psalm: "In thee, O Lord, have I hoped," and gradually continuing it until the priest received the most sacred Eucharist, said: "Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit." He afterwards ordered where the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Gospel of John to be recited to him, in which, when he had heard the most holy John read, he enjoined silence by signs, that he might for a while give himself to meditation; presently he signed to the reader to continue the Gospel, and when he had done this several times during the reading, at those words: "But afterwards they besought Pilate, etc.," he rendered his soul to his Creator. So in the process of Valencia upon the 18th article deposes Juan Pellejero, chief sacristan of the church of Valencia, of the age of 72 years, the 7th witness, folio 157, who was present at the aforesaid, and adds that the venerable Archbishop while alive took his hand in his own, which he then let go as he died; and with this agrees Pedro Moncada, knight, the 14th witness, who deposes these things only from hearsay upon the 18th article, folio 177; which two last witnesses were examined by ordinary authority.

[106] is contrary in the circumstances to both opinions, To one reading these things as they stand, without distinction, it may appear clear that the Saint died long after the Mass was ended, nay more probably, according to the Bull and the compendia of the Life mentioned, in the evening: since, if the Saint only after the priest had received the most sacred Eucharist wished the Passion of the Lord according to John to be read to him, and expired at those words: But afterwards they besought Pilate, nothing prevents that reading from having been prolonged until the seventh hour of the evening, especially since the reader was often ordered to pause, that the Saint might indulge in meditation. But he who takes that path will be not only contrary to Salón and others, but will also with difficulty reconcile Coccino with the Bull and the compendia of the Life. For in these it is not obscurely implied that the reading of the Passion preceded the consecration and the reception of the most sacred Eucharist, and that, the reception being completed, the Saint recited the psalm Now dost thou dismiss, etc., and added to this Into thy hands, and died upon those very words. But in Coccino the Saint is said to have begun at the elevation the psalm In thee, O Lord, have I hoped, and to have prolonged it until the communion, then to have said Into thy hands, etc., and afterwards that the Passion of the Lord was recited, upon which at last he died at these words: But afterwards they besought Pilate; which, since they are not so found in the Vulgate, I should think were substituted through the inadvertence of the copyist or the printer, for the printing is very imperfect, for those words which are added immediately after verse 30 of chapter 19, And bowing his head he gave up the spirit: The Jews therefore … besought Pilate. So that between the verse Into thy hands, etc., and the Saint's death, according to Coccino, the whole reading of the history of Christ's passion had intervened.

[107] And so Coccino's words are not to be taken, as at first sight appears, is contrary, as joined together, but separately and in conformity with his own manner of writing and his purpose; and thus it will come about that they contradict neither opinion. For it must be considered that that author in his Relation did not regard the order of time but of the virtues, beginning from faith and its precepts, so that under different headings he examines the different virtues by which St. Thomas was illustrious throughout the whole course of his life, and proves them by examples and testimonies adduced, and does not in these restrict himself to such an order as to set what is earlier in time before what is later. For example, at page 592 he treats of the Sacrifice of the Mass, and first shows from testimonies how the Saint bore himself in it while he was archbishop, and only afterwards how he did so as a religious. These things being considered, we shall gradually and not very difficultly untie the knot. The praised author from page 471 discusses the Greatness of St. Thomas's faith, and confirms it by testimonies and examples, whence it may be clear first how lofty were his thoughts about the most holy Trinity, then with what singular devotion he was affected toward the most holy Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin, and at last he appends the words recited at number 105; whence we may gather two things, namely the affection with which at the end of his life he was borne toward the sight of the Lord hidden under the Eucharistic species, and the feeling with which his soul was filled from hearing the history of the Lord's Passion, which two things indeed are joined together in appearance in the narration, but in fact, in my judgment, do not depend on one another.

[108] For they are both taken from different places and rest on different testimonies also, it is explained, in such wise indeed that the part in which there is treatment of the sacrifice of the Mass celebrated in the Saint's chamber was drawn from folio 234 of the process of Valencia, and has only Francisco Iter as witness; but the other, about the reading of the Lord's Passion, beginning from these words: He afterwards ordered to be recited to him, etc., from folio 157 of the same process, and is strengthened by the testimonies of Juan Pellejero and Pedro Moncada. Both are drawn also from the same Coccino at page 480, writing in this manner: And although the aforesaid Francisco Iter has no corroborating witness in this his deposition, it is nevertheless confirmed both by the statement of brother Juan Alonso, the 11th witness upon the 18th article in the same process, folio 167, and by the statement of Gregorio Juañes, likewise the first witness upon the 18th article in the same process, folio 141, examined by ordinary authority, and by other witnesses who depose about the most holy and most devout end of this Bishop, from which taken together a full proof can easily be gathered. Francisco Iter has no corroborating witness, therefore the words to which Juan Pellejero is subjoined as witness do not affect the preceding ones, in which Francisco Iter testified about matters pertaining to the sacrifice of the Mass celebrated in the Saint's chamber, and consequently, with the authority of the compendia of the Life in the Bull and in the Series of acts being added, it is most likely that the τὸ he afterwards ordered regards not what immediately precedes in Coccino, but other things which had been narrated before in the process at page 157, perhaps the same things which are reported by Salón about the sacramental Confession made by the Saint before the reading of the Lord's Passion.

[109] and a way of reconciling all is proposed. Hence I further gather that Francisco Iter deposed that the Saint at those words Into thy hands

O Lord expired, as the compendia of the Life have; nay, although neither is expressed in Coccino, that he did so during the Sacrifice itself, as Salón, Quevedo, and the others praised at number 104 handed down. But that Juan Pellejero and Pedro Moncada testify that the Saint died at those words: But afterwards they besought Pilate, is no obstacle, if we lay down with Salón, first, that the reading was begun after the sacramental Confession made at the fourth hour of the morning, to which the compendia of the Life are not contrary; secondly, that it was continued also during the time of the Sacrifice, for this the words of the compendium of the Life in the Bull imply: He willed that the holy Sacrifice be performed in his chamber, and that meanwhile the Gospel of the Lord's Passion according to John be read to him; thirdly, that, as the priest was elevating the most sacred Eucharist, the Saint began to recite the psalm or canticle Now dost thou dismiss, as the compendia of the Life have, and added to this the psalm In thee, O Lord, have I hoped, of which alone Salón and Francisco Iter in Coccino, with others, make mention, and that, as the reader was finishing the last words of verse 30 of chapter 29 of John the Evangelist, and the priest was receiving the most holy Sacrament, he said: Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit, and saying these words expired. Thus all will be reconciled, if only you are willing to admit what I intimated above about the word evening added by inadvertence; if not, I leave the matter to be explained by others. Further, there are those who fix the Saint's age at 67 years, and those who fix it at 68, but since he was born in the year 1488, they are to be reconciled thus, that some counted complete years, others incomplete.

* read, of the deponent

* probably, that he ordered

* the greatest

* read, to himself

§ X. On the Saint's Writings and their various editions.

[ ] The Saint before his death gave his manuscripts to Muñatones, Various lucubrations, especially sacred sermons, that outstanding Herald of the Word of God left in writing to posterity when he departed from among the living, which, having obtained them from himself, the often-praised Juan Muñatones, bishop of Segorbe, saw published not many years afterwards, at least for the greater part, whose words from the preface attached to the Alcalá edition of the year 1581 I transfer hither: But since I have for the greater part come into possession of the sacred sermons of this excellent Bishop (for I certainly know that some have perished, not without great loss of a precious thing), and understand how great a fruit of remarkable profit the publication of them will bring to the Christian Church, especially in these times, of whose ill fortune I began to speak above, I shall not allow so great a treasure to lie hidden in darkness; but shall diligently take care that it rather come to light and into the eyes and hands of men. To this is added that, when formerly I dealt with the Author himself about hastening the publication, and earnestly begged him not to allow men to be defrauded of such fruitful vigils, with that modesty with which he was remarkably endowed he answered that he was not so great an admirer of his own works that, amid so great a fertility of writers, with the outstanding lucubrations of the most excellent authors coming forth daily, he would dare to send out into public the slenderness of his narrow learning. But, since according to the usual manner and course of nature I, who was of less advanced age than he, seemed likely to survive him, that after he had departed this life I might do what I should judge more for the public good, he gave me all of it, whatever business it was, that at my discretion I might either suppress or publish it.

[111] Wherefore I now think it by no means left free to me not to publish it; who, with the help of Pedro Uzeda, resolved to publish them since I judge this publication to be so useful, nay necessary to the commonwealth. I therefore sent the copies which were with me to the father provincial and to the fathers of the province of Castile of our Order, that they might choose a learned man to whom they might delegate the care of reviewing, purging, and even emending, if anything in these writings should seem worthy of correction through the carelessness of copyists or amanuenses (who often fall to us rude and unskilled), and that he might see to it that the sermons, reduced to the form of a volume, could be printed, since through my frequent occupations, by which I am necessarily distracted, it was not permitted me to accomplish it. The fathers presently performed the work which was asked of me, and delegated that care to master brother Pedro Uzeda, rector of the college of our Order in the university of Alcalá, whose erudition, tested by twenty years of theological lectures, and the judgment in sacred doctrine thence confirmed, will fully and abundantly fulfill my wishes and desires; and I render the greatest thanks to the divine Goodness that I now see the Work finished and complete: from which, although I am persuaded that every kind of studious men can draw great conveniences and profits, yet no one can doubt that those whose care it is to imbue the Christian people by preaching with doctrine and good morals will draw far the most abundant.

[112] Hence they will gather an artful method of invention, hence they will learn the art of arranging arguments, most useful to preachers. hence lastly they will be able to draw the conduct of a whole discourse, and will procure for themselves a varied and manifold store, from which they may abundantly season and happily enrich their own sermons. Behold, we set before them a model on which to shape themselves, which if indeed they imitate, I do not doubt that they will apply themselves seriously and diligently and with great ardor of spirit against the sins of men, and will utterly remove and lay waste that forest of crimes which has struck its roots so deep in human breasts. May the best God grant that that ardor and that holy zeal with which the Author of these sermons burned, and which in his time kindled the Christian people to the pursuit of virtue, may now be stirred up and moved in these men who take this book into their hands, that hence they may pluck out and destroy vices, and on the other hand build up and plant virtues, as the Author of the Work himself holily did. So, with the errors of the press corrected here and there, the praised Muñatones, then going on to commend to preachers that after the pattern of our Saint they should pursue brevity and ease of speech in their preaching.

[113] But his sermons, although he delivered them to the people in the Spanish tongue, the Saint nevertheless wrote in Latin, A part of them, reduced to due form, as the aforesaid Pedro Uzeda Guerrero manifestly attests in the letter prefixed to the same edition and addressed to bishop Muñatones, where he speaks thus: For my part, so far as concerns me, I have taken care, according to my ability, that the Work should come forth into the hands of men as correct as possible. But I resolved so to abstain from changing words and sentences that yet I have either removed certain ungentle words, as it were of the plebeian order, or exchanged them with others, and besides have so turned certain sentences and whole periods, which he, lest anything should hinder his impulse, had freely mingled in the vernacular tongue with his Latin sermon, that the discourse might proceed with a like thread and texture, and that I might not, as the saying is, unfittingly put Sicyonian shoes on Socrates. For the rest I have taken the greatest care that no manner of speaking, no metaphor, no way of exaggerating might in these calumnious times give any handle to cavils or sycophancies. But what profit this labor of ours has brought, he will judge more exactly who shall compare this edition, truly your own, most ample father, with those manuscript copies which, corrupted and transcribed by unskilled scribes, are commonly circulated; by which, that not only loss of reputation is created for the Author, but also certain danger to a doctrine otherwise most holy, there is no one who does not see. These are the words thus far of Uzeda, cleared of several manifest misprints.

[114] the other part being put off to another time, That Work Uzeda divided into two volumes contained in a single tome; in the first are given sermons for Sundays and feasts of the Lord, as also for some weekdays, especially of Lent, and also Commentaries on the Song of Songs; in the other, sermons for the feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary and some more select ones on the Saints, with many being omitted in both volumes which needed more laborious correction, as the editor intimates at the end of the second in these words: We have thus far given only the more select sermons; for it was not permitted us to publish all the Author's Commentaries as it were in one birth, written as they were for anything rather than for this; which namely the Author had left hastily in his notebooks and in erasures, and of which very many, mutilated in unworthy ways, seem scarcely able to coalesce into one body of discourse. We shall take care (God favoring his own work) that by our care and diligence they shall shortly receive such a form that everyone may judge them both to befit and to represent their Author. Let this volume be the forerunner of the rest, and pave the way for the others and open the hard path of human minds and wills, and begin to accustom to piety and divine ardors the hearts of men grown unused to them; presently the remaining sermons, which are now wanting, will begin to make their way.

[115] saw the light in the year 1581, There is no reason for me to doubt that the praised Uzeda, after that first Work was completed, turned his studies and labors to the other sermons; these, however, as he had resolved, he does not seem to have brought forth into the light. Certainly I have found that the printing of the first Work was repeated at various times; but nowhere have I discovered that anything new from the Saint's lucubrations was published in print before the year 1685, of which last edition I shall presently speak; when namely I shall have observed something about the time of the first edition. This, following Herrera in the History of the convent of St. Augustine at Salamanca, all the authors whom I have seen thus far attach to the year 1581. In the year 1581, says the praised Herrera at page 383, treating of the deeds of Pedro Uzeda, he was rector of the college of Alcalá and reduced to order the sermons of the holy brother Thomas of Villanova … and published them in the manner said above in the letter to Muñatones. This opinion is favored by the very title of the Alcalá edition of the said year, which runs thus: The sacred Sermons of the most illustrious and most reverend Lord Thomas of Villanova, etc., now first brought to light.

[116] But there are not lacking reasons which persuade either that another edition preceded this one, or at least that the Work was prepared for the press for more than ten years before it was published; and perhaps earlier; for Muñatones, who died in the year 1571, speaks in the preface as though even then nothing at all delayed the publication: And I render, he says, the greatest thanks to the divine Goodness that I now see the Work finished and complete. The same thing Uzeda not obscurely signifies in the letter sent from the college of Alcalá to the same Muñatones, then certainly still among the living, which he concludes with this formula: May God, Best and Greatest, preserve your amplitude safe for us as long as possible. Farewell. His other words you have at number 113. Lastly it appears no less evidently from the letters of Philip the Second, king of Spain, prefixed to the said Alcalá edition of the year 1581. For from them we learn that leave to print the sermons of our Saint had been given from the year 1569. Here for you, so far as they concern this, are the very words rendered from Spanish into Latin: Prorogation. Philip by the grace of God, etc. Since it was set before us … that we had granted to the said Order (of St. Augustine) leave that for the space of ten years the sermons of brother Thomas of Villanova might be printed … and that that space

of ten years was ended at the close of the past year one thousand five hundred and seventy-nine… For that reason we prolong and extend the space of our said leave … for another six years, etc. Given at Madrid on the eighteenth day of February in the year one thousand five hundred and eighty. And so, if another did not precede the often-mentioned edition, there is no doubt that one could have preceded it, and that one was attempted ten years before. Perhaps the death of Muñatones, by whose care and at whose expense it was going forward, caused it delay; and hence it came about that Uzeda laid aside the intention of publishing the other sermons.

[117] The same Work afterwards went to press often, both before and after the Saint's canonization. it was afterwards often reprinted and approved at Rome. Father Domenico Antonio Gandolfo in his historical Dissertation on Augustinian Writers reckons three editions made before the canonization, the first at Brescia in the year 1603, the second at Cologne in 1614, the third likewise at Cologne in 1618; I have besides a copy printed in the same place in the year 1619; he assigns also two after the canonization, the first at Rome in the year 1659, under the care of Giovanni Battista Penna, bishop of Vigilie, the second again at Cologne in 1661. For the rest, of these printed sermons most probably must be understood what is read in the Series of all the acts in the canonization, pages 4 and 5, in the following words: On the 16th day of November (of the year 1649) the examination of the Works published by the same Blessed was committed to Cardinal Cornelio, with fathers Hilarion and Alciati being employed. In the congregation held on the 7th day of March 1650 it was pronounced that in the aforesaid Works nothing is contained against faith and good morals, nor any new doctrine alien from the common sense of the Church. Of these sermons, I say, this must be understood: for nothing else either by the Saint himself or by another from among his Works occurs anywhere as published until the year 1685: when for the first time his Works, enlarged by many sermons and by an Elucidation on the Apocalypse, began to be brought to light at Brussels, under the care of the very reverend Fr. Antonin de Witte, of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, a Belgian of Brussels.

[118] He, so far as I have been able to extract from the first volume, having set out for Spain, A much richer edition was made in the year 1685 brought back to his own country from there both relics of St. Thomas obtained at Valencia, as I shall say in the Posthumous Glory, and manuscript lucubrations of the same Saint, and, arranging them in five parts, prepared them for the press in as many volumes, which should comprise namely both those previously published and those not published hitherto. The first saw the light in the year just mentioned, and has various sermons for the Sundays from the first of Advent to the Sunday of the Resurrection, and also for some weekdays of Lent: the second in the year 1690, and besides sermons from the Sunday of the Resurrection to the first of Advent it contains the Elucidation on the Apocalypse, the Commentary on the Song of Songs being omitted, which Uzeda gave and which the praised de Witte had promised that he would give here. For thus he writes before his first volume: St. Thomas of Villanova wrote various sermons, to be published by me, God granting, besides this first one, in four further volumes. Likewise on the Song of Songs incompletely, as also on the Apocalypse, both of which the kindly reader will find at the end of the second volume, to be given to the press with all speed.

[119] and following, by Fr. Antonin de Witte The third was published in the year 1695, and besides sermons on the feasts of our Lord Jesus Christ, it presents many on the chief feasts of the most blessed Virgin Mary, toward whom that outstanding Preacher was borne with most tender affection, as will be clear in the course of this: the fourth in 1703, comprising sermons on some Saints, beginning from the first day of the month of November, the feast of All Saints, down to the 16th of June, sacred to SS. Cyricus and Julitta, martyrs. The fifth was without doubt destined for the Saints whose memory is kept in the remaining part of the year, and of whom some sermons are read in the editions of Uzeda and others; perhaps for this too was reserved the Commentary on the Song of Songs mentioned above; but I doubt whether it was published; chiefly because the Very Reverend Fr. Domingo Laurys, Prior of the Reverend Fathers, Hermits of St. Augustine, at Antwerp, being consulted about it, answered me that there was no copy of it in his convent, although there are three copies of the four earlier volumes, one of which, with other books, he most kindly and courteously granted me. Further, let the reader observe that in this last edition not only a single sermon is given for each Sunday and festival, but not seldom three or four, nay sometimes even seven or eight.

[120] from manuscripts received in Spain, and at Salamanca The praised de Witte does not expressly indicate in what city of Spain, or from whom, he obtained the said manuscripts of St. Thomas; that he obtained them at Salamanca, however, seems to me most likely from the words of the censors' approbation prefixed to the first volume, which I transcribe: The mandate being seen, etc., we judge it altogether to be approved, according to the commission given us by the excellent Father Master provincial, that for the greater glory of God there come to light the first volume of the sacred sermons … of the divine Thomas of Villanova, etc. Now at last, partly from the same Saint's sermons printed five times, partly from two manuscript volumes (from which those which had hitherto been printed were taken, some sermons being omitted, which now, faithfully transcribed and authenticated by a notary at Salamanca, come forth for the first time), partly from another posthumous autograph of the same Saint, subscribed by the same Saint's own hand, a collation being faithfully made, it is sent forth into the light by the zeal and labor of the very Reverend Fr. Antonin de Witte, an Augustinian Hermit of the same profession, lately Prior of our convent of Brussels and ex-definitor of the general chapter. And whoever shall be willing to consider the style and doctrine of these sermons, never before printed, and their collation with the manuscripts, will judge with us that the author of them all is the Lord Thomas, directed by the same Spirit of truth.

[121] Hence I further conjecture that the manuscript volumes here designated are those in all likelihood left after correction which Pedro Uzeda, after he had corrected the sermons contained in them and reduced them to due form, left at Salamanca in the convent of his Order, where, while the Work of the first edition was being prepared for the press, or perhaps had already then been committed to it, namely about the year 1576, he lived, on Herrera's testimony, and was interpreter of the sacred Books. For it does not seem likely to me that Fr. de Witte obtained more correct manuscript autographs than those which the Saint himself committed to Muñatones, and which he handed over to Uzeda to be corrected and reduced to form. But the lucubrations which Uzeda first published he had emended with no small zeal and labor, while those which he did not publish needed greater emendation, which namely the Author had left hastily in his notebooks and in erasures, and of which very many, mutilated in unworthy ways, seemed scarcely able to coalesce into one body of discourse, as he himself says above at number 114. And thence it is consequent for me that the sermons, at least very many of them, from the manuscripts obtained in Spain, a collation being faithfully made, first sent forth into the light in 1685 and following years by the praised Fr. Antonin de Witte, had a restorer before, and no other than Uzeda; especially since he promised his care and diligence for this in the letter to Muñatones prefixed to the first edition, and no other occurs anywhere who is said to have undertaken that business.

[122] For the rest, when the censors say that one of the aforesaid manuscript volumes is subscribed by the hand of St. Thomas himself, by Uzeda, with the Author's protestation. perhaps they hint at his protestation, which Fr. de Witte prefixed to the often-named first volume, conceived in these words: Protestation. I, Brother Thomas of Villanova, protest that in all things which I have written and shall write here and elsewhere I intend to follow the sense of holy Mother Church, to whose examination and correction I submit all my sayings and writings: in faith of which I subscribe my name. Fr. Thomas of Villanova. To these is subjoined: St. Thomas of Villanova, in his manuscript book, folio seven. But since the Saint did not write his Works with the intention of publishing them in print, as is sufficiently drawn from the words of Muñatones and Uzeda recited above, I should believe that this protestation was added by him either when he committed them to Muñatones's discretion, or before, when he began to suspect that they would be published by someone after his death.

* elsewhere, was kindling

* elsewhere, imperfect

§ XI. In what order and manner the Saint's Acts are to be published, and by what documents illustrated.

[ ] [After the Life written by Muñatones, and the other from the acts of the canonization,] It remains that, as I briefly indicated in §1 of this Commentary at number 13, I set out the order and manner which I shall observe especially in the Life to be published in the third place. About Muñatones and his lucubration, to be placed before the other two, there is nothing which I should add to what was said in the same place at number 2; nothing either about the other, to be subjoined immediately after Muñatones, namely that extracted from the Series of acts, mentioned several times, except this one thing, that I have chosen it before the other five Lives or compendia of the Life contained in the same Series and designated at number 12; because, being longer than they, it exhibits the Saint's deeds more fully, and will more easily admit in the Annotations those things which from the rest will need to be added or observed. For to reprint them all, not so different in the matters narrated, I did not judge advisable, especially because the longer Acts of Salón, for reasons presently to be alleged, did not seem to be passed over.

[124] the third written in Spanish by Salón Salón, of whom I gave notice at number 5, twice published the Acts of St. Thomas; first in the year 1588, the thirty-third from his death, gathered from what he had read in Muñatones, and what he had learned from the Saint's familiars and acquaintances and from his confessor himself. Then in the year 1620, composed without doubt from what had been published before, and from the processes drawn up for the beatification, as I showed in the same place at number 7. The earlier publication I neither have, nor did I think that I should labor hard to have it; because, since in writing the second he had, besides his earlier helps, the processes themselves as his guides, I was bound to suppose that these would be more accurate and would obtain greater authority with readers. Further, many praise and commend this author, and everywhere, when they discourse of the Saint's deeds, refer the reader to him for fuller information; but no one, so far as I know, has hitherto been found who, for the sake of that same reader, would translate Salón's Spanish Work into Latin. I believe, because they were deterred both by its length and by the author's style, at times more diffuse than is fair; which certainly seemed to me very difficult for an interpretation at once apt and faithful. Nevertheless the plan of our undertaking impelled me not to abstain from this and to avoid very long tedium.

[125] and rendered into Latin For since we endeavor, where the documents permit, so to exhibit the Acts of the Saints of whom we treat that nothing further should reasonably be desired, and to that end sometimes, after the warnings in

the Commentaries prefixed, we reprint Acts suspect to us, interpolated, nay even sprinkled with fables, I perceived that I should by no means answer the expectation of readers if I passed Salón by. Since, even if I had joined to Muñatones not only those six compendia of the Life from the Series of acts in the canonization, but also the elogia of Baxius, Naevius, and other authors about the Saint, not even so did I seem likely to reach the half of the deeds which that Spaniard has; and consequently it would have been necessary to have recourse to him as the chief and trustworthy biographer, and to translate the greatest part of his Work also, to be inserted into the Commentary. As to the chief, I say, and trustworthy biographer; for he before all others composed a full History of the Saint; he was near in age to the same Saint, since he was sixteen or seventeen years old when the Saint ceased to live; he obtained the city of Valencia itself as his native place, and without doubt knew his own Bishop; in the same city he gathered and published the Life; he was outstanding in learning and integrity of manners; he had eyewitnesses, and used authentic documents. He strays indeed now and then, as I have observed thus far, from the right chronological order, especially where he narrates the offices administered by the Saint before he entered upon the archbishopric; but what forbids us to judge that most of those errors proceeded from those who from the province of Castile or elsewhere supplied his materials, or reported them orally, by whom, whether their memory failed or they cared little about circumstances of this kind provided they indicated the fact itself faithfully, he was cast into the same errors?

[126] in the manner here set out, Salón divided his Work into three books, of which the first two comprise the Life, the last the miracles and certain other things that followed the death of St. Thomas: the last I shall use in the Posthumous Glory: but the first two I have translated in this way. I have followed the author's order in the division of chapters for the most part, not always; for I have divided some, because they were longer, and others, because they comprised the author's mere doctrine or histories less connected with the Saint's deeds, I have either suppressed altogether, or at least frequently mutilated in those parts in which the author digresses to the histories and examples of the sacred Scriptures and the teachings of the Fathers, which, even if useful to read, are nevertheless not necessary for the understanding of the deeds; for this belongs to our undertaking, not that, especially when similar teachings, proceeding not from the Saint of whom we treat but from the biographer himself or from some other cited author, recur very often. The same I have observed sometimes when the author repeated things sufficiently narrated before. In the Annotations, however, I have generally warned the reader both of the thing omitted and of its subject-matter. In the rest, although I have pursued fidelity rather than elegance of speech, since, as I intimated above, Salón's Spanish style was very difficult for me, for the sake of greater convenience I have now and then changed the phrasing, and more frequently have either added or removed slighter particles which lend grace to one language but not to another; yet I have everywhere taken care not to depart from the author's sense: but where for clarity's sake I have inserted anything notable, I have enclosed it in brackets of this kind [].

[127] But in the Annotations I have made very much use of the Relation on the sanctity and virtues of St. Thomas praised in §1, number 10 and following, made to Pope Paul V, it will be illustrated from the processes. in which the most illustrious author, Giovanni Battista Coccino, dean of the sacred Rota, elucidates by reasonings and by the opinions and authorities of the Fathers and doctors the virtues required for eminent sanctity, and contends that they shone forth in our Saint, and proves it by producing from the processes examples strengthened by the names of the witnesses. These examples and testimonies, excerpted from his Work, where they were suitable for procuring greater credit, elucidation, or authority for the Acts, I have inserted into the said Annotations, the names of the witnesses being added. But since the same names sometimes recur, and in one place the age or condition of the attesting person is added, but not in another, it has seemed good to set out beforehand in alphabetical order a double list of persons; the first of those who are cited from the Castilian process, the other of those from the Valencian, and to append to each name the age and condition, as I have learned it either from Coccino or elsewhere; for thus in the Annotations, where the same names recur, nothing will need to be added, since the reader can easily have recourse hither whenever he shall judge it worth the trouble.

Witnesses from the Castilian Process.

Inés Gonzáles, aged 80 years. A list of the witnesses

Alonso Garcías, aged 90.

Álvaro de Villegas (doctor), magistral canon of the church of Toledo.

Andrés Bautista de Güemes, examined at Burgos.

Andrés de Busto, aged 64.

Ana Bretona, aged 90.

Antonio Martínez, aged 80.

Antonio de Molina, aged 80.

Bernabé Gonzáles, aged 88.

Bartolomé Jossa (doctor).

Bartolomé de Sosa (doctor), theologian.

Basil (father), vice-rector of the Society of Jesus at Valladolid.

Basilio Vich.

Beatriz López, aged 70.

Catalina García, aged 80.

Catalina Gonzáles, aged 80.

Christo * de Guzmán.

Cristóbal Tomás, aged 70.

Diego de Guevara (Fr.), of the Order of St. Augustine, examined at Salamanca.

Leonor de Salazar (doña), a nun, examined at Valladolid.

Fernando Busto.

Francisco Sobrino (doctor), doctoral canon of Valladolid.

Francisco Zumel (master Fr.), examined at Salamanca.

García López.

Gaspar de Borja (don), Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church.

Gregorio Ruiz (doctor), magistral canon of Salamanca.

Gonzalo Camero, aged 88.

Gonzalo de Polo, aged 80.

Elena López, aged 83.

Juan de Castro (Fr.).

Juan Fernández, aged 60.

Juan Gallego, aged 95, an inhabitant of Villanueva.

Juan de Osorno (Fr.), of the Order of St. Augustine, administrator of the college of St. Gabriel at Valladolid.

Juan de Ramo, elsewhere Juan Ramos and de Ramos, aged 83, an inhabitant of Villanueva.

Juan Sánchez, aged 70.

Lucía Martines, aged 70.

Lucía Pérez, aged 90.

Luisa López, aged 80.

Luis Feo, aged 90, an inhabitant of Villanueva.

Luis de Sena (doctor), magistral canon of the church of Toledo.

María López, aged 50.

María Sánchez, aged 80; elsewhere there occurs Mariana Sánchez, perhaps the same.

Mateo de Ollala.

Mencía de la Torre, a nun.

Pedro Agado.

Pedro García, aged 78, a Castilian parish priest, who served the holy Archbishop, and, as I gather from the Acts, was his steward. Elsewhere he is said to be aged 86, perhaps because he was examined twice; first by ordinary authority, then by Apostolic.

Pedro de Vandillo.

Witnesses from the Valencian Process.

Antonio Juan Andreu. and the other

Antonio Ruiz, aged 82.

Baltasar Aparicio.

Bautista Navarro, aged 74.

Bartolomé Escola, aged 80.

Bartolomé Pérez, aged 101.

Blanca de Cardona.

Carlos Juan de Torres (don), aged 73.

Cristóbal Pérez (father), of the Society of Jesus.

Leonor de Guzmán (doña).

Federico Borja (don), canon and chief archdeacon of the church of Valencia.

Feliciano de Figueroa (don). In the Most Eminent Aguirre, volume 4 of the Councils of Spain, page 291, he subscribes thus: Licentiate Feliciano de Figueroa.

Francisco Blasco.

Francisco Dimas Pellicer.

Francisco Juan Fores.

Francisco Iter, doctor of both laws.

Francisco Luis Balaquel, canon of Valencia.

Francisco de Molina (Father Master).

Francisco Ramón.

Francisco Roca Full, doctor of both laws, chaplain of the oratory of his majesty, precentor and canon of the church of Valencia.

Gaspar Genovés, priest, doctor of sacred Theology.

Gregorio Yvanes.

Héctor Ruiz de Corella (don).

[131] Jaime Capena (don).

Jaime Ferrando. from the process

Jaime Ferrer (don).

Jaime Sánchez (Fr.).

Joaquín Baiarri, doctor of both laws, perhaps the same who elsewhere is read as José Joaquín Bayarri.

Joaquín Real, doctor of both laws, of his majesty's council and regent of the chancery.

Juan Alfonso (Fr.).

Juan Bautista Alatar, surgeon, whom St. Thomas often employed, as Salón relates.

Juan Bautista Calbet, aged 76.

Juan Bautista Scriba, aged 70.

Juan Boyl (don).

Juan Feris.

Juan Panagos, elsewhere Panegos, aged 74.

Juan Pellejero, aged 72, sacristan of the church of Valencia, was present at the Saint's death.

José Montañés (Fr.), of the Order of St. Francis.

Luis Nadal.

Marco Antonio Cisternus.

Marco Antonio Vernich.

Mariana Cabanillas, aged 70, served the Saint, as I conjecture from various places.

Mariana de Sotomayor, aged 80, lived in the archiepiscopal palace until the Saint's death.

Mateo Juan López, in one place said to be aged 75, in another 72.

Matías Pallas (don), canon of the church of Valencia.

Miguel Jerónimo Vich (don). In the Most Eminent Aguirre, volume 4 of the Councils of Spain, page 712, Miguel Vich in the year 1594 is called sacristan and canon of the church of Valencia.

Miguel Jerónimo Vinarón.

Miguel Juan José Cafanova.

Miguel Soler.

Miguel Vicente, notary.

Miguel Vicente Mollá, canon of Valencia.

[132] Pedro Gutiérrez, aged 91.

Pedro Juan Assenno, elsewhere Assentio. In the Most Eminent Aguirre in the place just cited it is written: of Valencia Doctor Pedro Assensio, rector of St. Bartholomew's.

Pedro Mañes, aged 70.

Pedro de Moncada (don), knight.

Pedro Pallares.

Pedro Portillo.

Pedro de Santa Eulalia, aged 70.

Pedro Valentino.

Felipe Adell, aged 71, presbyter.

Raimundo Sanez (don).

Vicente Ferrer.

Vicente Grau.

Vicente Roca. In the praised Aguirre, page 200, among the canons of the metropolitan church of Valencia he is reckoned with this title and name: Vicente Roca de la Serna, Archdeacon of Játiva.

Vicente Sánchez.

Besides these witnesses some others from the same processes will be adduced in the Posthumous Glory, who deposed about the miracles divinely wrought after the Saint's death, and whose names I have not thought it necessary to insert into the lists given, because they are generally alleged in one place only.

* perhaps Cristóbal

FIRST LIFE

By Juan Muñatones, bishop of Segorbe, a familiar friend of the Saint.

Thomas of Villanova, archbishop, surnamed the Almsgiver, of the Order of St. Augustine, at Valencia in Spain.

By J. Muñatones, bishop.

The Saint's country and parents. Thomas of Villanova therefore was born at Villanova ^a, whence also he took his surname, which town is situated in that part of Hither Spain which the common people of Spain call la Mancha de Aragón, once called by the cosmographers the Laminitan Field ^b, namely at the sources of the river Guadiana ^c, as is the judgment of learned men. And he was born of honorable and honored parents ^d, of a birth not only Christian but also free from every impurity and stain ^e; he had above all a mother remarkably devout, a woman of outstanding charity toward God and her neighbors, and of so burning a spirit that she herself also experienced those sweetnesses and spiritual delights which God is wont to grant to those men whose familiar conversation is in heaven, and whose souls languish with divine love ^f; which things the Son so related about his mother that you would say Augustine was weaving the history of his mother Monica.

[2] The studies of his youth As a Youth he gave his labor to the study of the liberal arts in the university of Alcalá ^g, the most famous school of Spain in these arts, where after no long

time he attained such learning in the liberal disciplines, and obtained such repute and fame for philosophical doctrine, that in the public lecture-hall and at the public stipend of the university he lectured and taught the liberal arts; so great was the keenness of intellect that shone in him while still a Youth, and so lively and ready a power of mind for understanding and penetrating all the most abstruse matters. There came forth then from his teaching innumerable disciples trained by him, among whom, in the History of the deeds of Cardinal Francisco Jiménez, published at the charge of the university of Alcalá and by the labor of Álvar Gómez of Toledo ^h, two disciples of Thomas of Villanova are mentioned for the celebrity of their more distinguished fame: Fernando de Enzinas, who by certain most subtly devised acutenesses made the art of dialectic a marvel to some minds and a terror to others; and Domingo de Soto, who, although he began at first to go the same way as Enzinas, afterwards advanced so far, not only in the disciplines of the liberal arts but also in Theological studies and those of the more sacred Letters, that he increased both the Dominican Order, being a monk of that institute, and the university of Salamanca, being holder of the chief chair of theology, and the memory of his own name, and this by the publication of useful books ⁱ.

[3] and his virtues, Then therefore, both for these merits of intellect and letters, and for the old-man's probity of manners and most holy life in youthful age, he was chosen as a fellow into the illustrious college of the divine Ildephonsus of that same university. There was present at that time in the same college that great John of Vergara ^k, doctor of theology, most famous for wisdom and for the undying renown of all branches of learning, who, admiring the integrity of Thomas of Villanova's life, and, in the midst of the contests of the literary arena and amid the very waves, as it were, of young men rivaling one another in study, his holiness and piety, and his outstanding kindness in every affair toward poor and needy men, was wont to speak of it with frequent commendation.

[4] Hence at last he was summoned by the university of Salamanca and asked to be willing to hold the chair which they call of natural philosophy, his entrance into religion and the rudiments of a most holy life. with by no means a slight salary proposed. But he thought that he should by no means yield to the demands of the men of Salamanca. He gladly refused the honor offered, being already then touched surely from heaven and divinely impelled to aim at the way of Christian perfection. And him whom neither the enticements of honors nor of other advantages had brought to Salamanca, the imitation of Christ the Redeemer and the pursuit of perfect virtue easily carried thither. Wherefore at Salamanca in the most religious monastery of our divine father Augustine he took the habit of religion, in about the thirtieth year of his age ^l; where through that whole time of his novitiate and probation, as they call it, and also in the time next after his profession, he was so wonderfully given to vigils and prayers, and so tempered his body by modesty and frugality of life, that he raised almost all the men of our Order into great hope of his rare and excellent virtue, and by no vain foreboding they divined that he would be a most illustrious man.

[5] Being ordered to profess scholastic Theology there, he undertook to lecture on the book of the Sentences to the monks. The wonderful skill of his preaching Presently he discharged the office of sacred preaching with such dexterity that even in the very beginnings he gave a most clear proof of a spirit most ardent toward God, and of an admirable zeal for the divine worship and honor and for the spiritual salvation of his neighbors. Whence it came about that in a very short time the fame and name of Thomas of Villanova became widespread through the whole city of Salamanca. I have indeed received it by the report of very weighty men and by indubitable testimony that that most illustrious father Juan Hurtado *, a monk of the institute of the divine Dominic (a man assuredly most widely known throughout all Spain for his outstanding gifts of preaching the word of God, and of letters and holiness), drawn by the celebrity of that fame, went on to hear him preaching, and approached to find out whether the matter were as it was proclaimed publicly, and when the sermon was finished, cried out that he rendered the greatest thanks to the divine Goodness for having bestowed on his Church so vigorous a worshiper and so outstanding a laborer.

[6] A short time after, namely in that year in which the Spanish tumults against the royal majesty were stirred up, and its fruit the clergy and chapter of the church of Salamanca committed to him the sermons to be delivered through Lent in the chief church ^m. He then expounded the most famous psalm: When Israel went out of Egypt; I was present among the assembly of hearers, not yet a monk but still a young layman ⁿ. Men went to him along all the roads, they ran up full of admiration and almost thunderstruck, to marvel at his new manner of speaking, to marvel at the impetus of his discourse, carrying away the minds of his hearers wherever he willed, to marvel at his most ardent affections, burning the very inward parts of men. So deeply did that teaching descend into the breasts of all the people that you would not say that at that time the city of Salamanca was a people made up of lay citizens, but you would think it a rightly ordered monastery and an assembly of religious brethren.

[7] He especially moved the scholars and those devoted to letters in that most ample university which has now long flourished in that city; remarkable. and he taught them so to loathe the allurements of the present life, and to long for the goods of the age to come, and so to give themselves to divine things, that not only did the monasteries of that city overflow with new monks, but the convents of the neighboring towns also, and the houses of almost all the cities, scarcely sufficed for those seeking to be initiated into the sacred rites of religion. With wonderful increase the fame and authority of his singular teaching spread day by day. But this he took the greatest care to do, to fortify his doctrine and erudition by adding the supports of virtue and of a stricter life: namely, that by word and deed he might help the Church of God, and by example give light to men for living well and blessedly.

[8] Called to the court, he speaks before the emperor, Wherefore suddenly the most celebrated name of Thomas of Villanova filled all Spain, and by the sound of his holiness and outstanding religion all but astounded * this whole coast of the Spanish world, and penetrated with most illustrious repute even the royal court and the regal palace of the prince. By which it came about that Charles the Fifth, most Christian emperor and Catholic king of Spain and our lord, and likewise his most esteemed august consort, longing to hear him preach for not a few Lents and on very many other feast days, summoned him to themselves, and those most Christian princes declared with no obscure indication that from his discourse they were filled with remarkable consolation of soul. This too seems to me to be in the place of a miracle, that in general men of every order, of every state and condition, roused by a certain spirit as by a goad, vied with one another in pressing to his sermons.

[9] and he carries away to himself the hearts of hearers of every order. I pass over now the innumerable throng of the mixed multitude, which as though unaware of itself was inflamed with piety: I pass over too the nobles and great men, and any magistrates, and men of note of the equestrian order, who were all seized and stirred with incredible ardor; but (and what I am more wont to marvel at) men of letters, outstanding preachers, and monks of almost all Religious Orders, and in short all men laden with letters and erudition, anxious, eager to hear, forgetful of themselves, roused from every quarter, he carried away to himself. A thing assuredly most worthy of the highest admiration, that minds of men so different could be so fully satisfied by one and the same discourse. These are the powers of clear truth and of sincere divine virtue. Of these I am an eyewitness, who took diligent care that on no account should I ever be absent from that Man's sermon.

[10] His prudent and fatherly manner of governing his subjects. Nor indeed did this most illustrious Thomas of whom we treat obtain from God the single talent of preaching the word of God alone, but very many others also, chiefly a singular prudence in administering the commonwealth; and consequently there was often committed to him the care of governing the chief monasteries of our Order, which he ruled most holily; and above all he remarkably performed in deed what father Augustine sets forth in the Rule as to be observed by prelates, that he should be patient toward all, and admonishes them to temper modesty with the severity of unbroken authority. Conspicuous besides for liberality, he diligently provided for the needs of all, promptly furnishing at once what ought to be bestowed. He seemed above all to burn wholly with charity, especially toward sick monks and those who lay languishing in the infirmary.

[11] Twice he presides over his whole province: Moved by these things, the fathers of the Religion, having experienced his outstanding gifts for every work, twice designated him Prior Provincial; to which at last, after he had long resisted, he yielded; for he was with difficulty torn away from the retirement of his private chamber and cell. For he drew from spiritual prayer and meditation no less than from the books themselves and the study of letters that from which he might frame and compose his sermons: wherefore he avoided functions of this kind and the care of governing, yet he was drawn unwilling and reluctant, the Religion strongly urging it for the public good. So great was the wisdom in him, and so notable a prudence and gravity in conducting affairs. Far more illustrious than before did the solid virtue of this Man now begin to send forth its splendors: as is the nature of true and by no means counterfeit virtue, his holiness grew with the passing of time, and at the same time the fame of his holiness spread more widely. Further, it happened, God so providing for human affairs, that at that time the archbishopric of Valencia, being vacant of a bishop, was deprived of a shepherd, and the city of Valencia lacked its bishop, he having happily departed this life ^o.

[12] But the majesty of the emperor Charles the Fifth placed his chief thoughts above all on this, he becomes archbishop of Valencia, and that such Prelates should be set over the churches as, being perfect in every respect, should administer the affairs of the Church worthily. Now at that time the emperor was far from Spain, staying in inner Germany, providing with imperial majesty for German affairs, which were greatly disturbed; amid those surges therefore of great wars the heroic virtue of Thomas of Villanova presents itself to the emperor's mind: it alone it is that transacts the most holy Man's business; it, that stirs up before a most busy prince the memory of one absent and thinking of nothing less than of honors or of entering upon dignities. And so, the news being received, presently the most prudent emperor … Thomas of Villanova archbishop [p] … he ruled to the very end of his life with such holiness of life and such an example of singular religion that he answered most abundantly to the expectation, most ample, which men had conceived of him, feeding the people with frequent sermons, as befits a true shepherd, and with the greatest solicitude omitting nothing of those things which ought to be performed by a father of the commonwealth.

[13] Master Segria, bishop of Sassari in Sardinia [q], he fulfills the parts of a good shepherd: a man plainly well enough known for letters and for the example of his virtue, and who was a most zealous follower of his teaching and sermons, affirmed to me in familiar conversation that he sounded forth something greater and more ardent, and surpassed himself, after entering upon that dignity and receiving the pastoral charge, and that with greater intensity and keener zeal he flashed as it were in his sermon from the pulpit, from the time when he was made archbishop, being kindled namely with a jealous affection, his bride having been taken. But it is by no means my purpose to review one by one the virtues of that evangelical heart, and how splendid examples of a good shepherd he set forth in every affair: this would be a task of immense labor; but I shall touch briefly only on the bestowal of alms.

[14] Without doubt, and it is ascertained by certain proof of the matter, he lives sparingly, that he may help the poor; that he was accustomed to bestow on the poor and needy so copious a portion of all the revenues and incomes which lawfully came to him, that he reserved for himself and his own affairs only

that with which as Archbishop he could pass his life no more delicately than he had once passed it as a poor Monk in a monastery. And so, being promoted to a grade of dignity, he resolved to use the same frugality which he had used in the Religion and in the monastic state, so that there might be left over whereby he might provide for the poor with more ample beneficence and be able to make provision with a more lavish kindness. And since this matter is well enough known and ascertained in the city of Valencia and in the whole kingdom of Valencia, I do not wish to linger longer in recounting it.

[15] With these habits and this manner of living he carried his life most holily, he dies devoutly; until, summoned by God best and greatest, he died in the year of salvation one thousand five hundred and fifty-four [r]; when namely, the Sacraments of the Church being received, burning with great courage and remarkable piety, and with a serene and even countenance inclined to gladness, he rendered his soul to God his Creator, to the great admiration of those sitting by, who marveled at so holy and blessed an end of life. Very many men also followed his death with tears and lamentations and various wailing, especially the poor and needy, openly crying out that their Parent had been snatched from them, by whose care * and bounty their want and destitution had hitherto been provided for.

[16] Buried in the church of the Order of St. Augustine, he is venerated. But the clergy and chapter of the church of Valencia were held by the greatest desire of burying the holy Man's body with them in a most honorable sepulcher, and, having sent to him, a little before he departed this life, the choicest men of the chapter and of the priestly senate, they urged with great entreaties that he would approve and ratify this their desire: that they had determined, out of their long-standing respect and veneration for him, to raise a tomb in a more distinguished place of the church, in which he might be laid. He refused with singular modesty, answering that he was a monk and ought to be buried in a monastery of his own Order and institute. And so in the monastery of the Augustinian Hermits, in the church of the Virgin called of Succor, he directed that his body when dead be buried in a truly humble place at the entrance of the church. Where, the more he seems to have fled the honor of a magnificent sepulcher, with so much the greater honor is he venerated by the people; and that sepulcher is frequently visited by the people of the whole city of Valencia; and there devout men pour forth their prayers to God and take up vows, and call upon the most holy Archbishop as their patron, especially those who had known him more closely [s] and more familiarly while he lived.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Some words are lacking here to complete the sense, namely nominated, or such like. For the rest, a fuller exposition of all these things Salón will give.

q. Master Juan Segria, so far as I understand from Salón, in whom he recurs very often, was a familiar of St. Thomas before his archbishopric in the city of Alcalá, and from the beginning of the archbishopric, living in his palace, discharged the office of visitor, was consecrated bishop by him and taken as his suffragan, clung to him to his very death, strengthened him with the sacred Viaticum, committed him to burial, and enjoyed the sight of him in an apparition not long after his death. Then he probably exercised the same office of suffragan both under Francisco Navarra and under Martín de Ayala, archbishops of Valencia, successors of St. Thomas; certainly in volume 4 of the Councils of Spain, page 86, he subscribes thus to the provincial council of Valencia celebrated under the most illustrious de Ayala, in the month of February of the year 1566: Juan Segria, bishop of Christopolis, procurator of Orihuela. Wherefore, if he was promoted to the see of Sacer or rather Sassari, which in Sardinia is archiepiscopal, which I cannot confirm, since catalogues of the archbishops of Sassari are not at hand, I cannot doubt that it was done between the said year 1566 and 1571, in which Muñatones ceased to live.

r. Nay, in the fifty-fifth, as has been proved in the preliminary Commentary.

s. Perhaps it should be read propius, more closely; for the rest, besides what is noted in the margin, I have corrected here and there other more manifest faults of the printer which occurred in the edition of the year 1581, which I have followed as the older.

* Hurtado

* read, astounded

* read, care

SECOND LIFE

From the Series of Acts in the canonization.

From the Series of acts in the canonization.

The Saint's parents and their virtue; Thomas of Villanova, of the Order of the Hermits of saint Augustine, archbishop of Valencia, was born in the town of Fontisplanum, commonly called Fuenllana, of the diocese of Toledo, about the year one thousand four hundred and eighty-seven ^a, in his mother's house, of Alonso Tomás García of Villanueva de los Infantes and Lucía Martínez, devout spouses, who are reported to have been such outstanding worshipers of the Catholic religion that they consecrated their houses to receiving in hospitality the inquisitors of the kingdom of Murcia when they visited the diocese of Toledo; and so liberal toward the poor that they were everywhere called by the surname of the Almsgivers. For Alonso, knowing that what is shut up does not shut out the moth, but shuts it in, and that things kept nourish rust and do not avoid it, in order to keep his goods did not keep them, but bestowed them on the poor. For the rich tax of grain which he received yearly from his mill he had been accustomed to bestow on the needy, and the grain lent to poor husbandmen for sowing, when their want presently required it, he freely remitted. And Lucía, lest she should eat her bread in idleness, put her hand to strong things, and, taking the spindle in her fingers, giving herself assiduously to spinning flax and wool, provided with them for the nakedness of the poor, herself content with a hair-shirt only in place of a chemise.

[2] his own virtues Thomas from his boyhood, the Lord even then working in the infancy of his Servant, gave no obscure signs of his future sanctity, and did not late display the fruit of his devout upbringing; for the breakfasts usually given to boys going to school he bestowed on the poor, and, that he might not send away naked men who had no covering in the cold, he very often returned home stripped of his cloak, doublet, cap, hose, and mantle, with which he had clothed the needy Christ in the poor. Besides, lest at any time the means of relieving the poor should be taken from him, if after his daily bread was distributed there remained anyone whose want had not been provided for, he earnestly begged his mother to order that the portion of dinner prepared for him be given to that man, promising that on that day he would eat nothing: his mother assented, and Thomas, his portion being given to the hungry man, abstained from food for that day ^b, and laid up his dinner in the hand of a poor man, that it might keep for him what his belly would have lost. It happened one day that his mother had hurried out of the house, without preparing or leaving bread to be broken for the poor; the poor after their custom came to the door

of the house, but when Thomas found no bread, he took the chicks from the hen that was in the house and divided them among the poor: his mother returned and asked Thomas about the chicks, and he with a cheerful face answered: Mother, when you are about to leave the house, I beg you to leave bread to be distributed to the poor, so that on your return you may find the chicks; for the poor came, and since bread was lacking, lest I should send them away empty, I gave each one a chick.

[3] He carried newly laid eggs to the hospices for the refreshment of the sick, in his boyhood; and, being sent at one time by his father to the field to preside over the harvest, he divided among the poor gleaners the food brought for himself and for the reapers ^c: yet, being alike subject and obedient to his parents' command, he scarcely departed from their orders, save so far as charity toward God urged otherwise, or charity toward his neighbor persuaded it. While still a little boy he already emulated the manner of life of holy old men, and, scarcely having entered the world, he held nothing more important than to keep himself unspotted from this world in mind as well as in body ^d; and therefore he was so composed in his manners that, walking through the streets always with downcast eyes, he neither looked about in the lanes nor gazed in the squares; and he was so chaste and modest that he was commonly thought a virgin, and no word came from his mouth which did not draw his hearers to modesty, and did not excite the highest reverence toward him.

[4] Advancing in these and other virtues and in age, having obtained a good soul, his literary studies; being in his twenty-second year, Thomas was admitted into the college of St. Ildephonsus of the university of Alcalá, and, diligently professing the studies of the liberal arts and especially of sacred theology ^e, giving to religion the time that was left over from his studies, kneeling before an image of the Crucified fixed to the wall of his chamber, he spent it in pouring forth prayers to God and in chastisements of the flesh, which chamber, with the said image of the Crucified, is still visited with the greatest veneration by Christ's faithful ^f. Meanwhile Thomas, bereft of his father, entering upon the way of a more perfect life, and leaving himself nothing which he might here call his own, that as a naked and unencumbered soldier he might follow Christ the Lord, resolved to spend on the poor whatever he had, and begs his mother to consent that he might assign his father's house with the rest of his patrimony to the support of noble and modest poor women: and this was fulfilled according to his desire, and a hospice of this kind was erected in the town of Villanueva, and is still called the Hospital of the Archbishop.

[5] Being in his twenty-seventh year, and in that hard kind of arena in which our mind, continually warring against the spiritual forces of wickedness which are in the heavenly places, the monastic life; is compelled to undergo the greatest contests, foreseeing that he needed some standard-bearer as leader and helper by whom he might be directed in that war so as to conquer, he chose Augustine, the most valiant tamer of vices and heresies, under whose Rule he might serve, and on the 24th day of November in the year 1516 Thomas gave in his name to the Order of the Hermits of saint Augustine in the convent of Salamanca, and, having laid for a year the rudiments of the Religious life with wonderful austerity of life, when the twenty-fourth day of November presently recurred, he made solemn profession in the same place; and, emulating the better gifts, he reached in a short time such a goal of religious perfection that, scarcely two years having elapsed, he was appointed Prior of that same convent of Salamanca. Thence indeed he discharged the offices of Prior of St. Augustine's at Burgos, of visitor of the provinces of Castile and Baetica, of Provincial and definitor of the same province of Castile, and of Prior of Valladolid, with such examples of life and manners, and with such zeal restored the shaken integrity of regular discipline, that he deserved to be enrolled in the number of the reformers of the Constitution of the Order.

[6] sobriety in food; Meanwhile, as Thomas was passing through the city of Toledo, Tomás Gallego and Juan de Bonillo, his kinsmen, and also a certain familiar of the archbishop of Toledo, meet him together, and each in his own name and in the archbishop's offers him dinner and lodging. But Thomas, saying that he would injure no one's courtesy, withdraws himself from each and pursues his journey. His kinsmen follow him from afar, to see where Thomas would betake himself to refresh himself with food at midday. But when he had gone out of the city, finding a spring, he stopped, and, taking out bread from his wallet, soaked it in water, and fed on that food only. Seeing this, his kinsmen approach Thomas and complain much that he had refused what was offered. But he says: Brethren, by eating the fat of meats the health of the soul is not gained ^g.

[7] his election against his will Thomas, wont to be the first of all to enter the choir and the last to leave it, was wonderfully intent on vigils, scourgings of the flesh, and sermons, rousing the negligent in the way of salvation, raising up the fallen, confirming those who stood; so that all, raised into great hope, divined by no vain foreboding that he would be a most illustrious Man. And moved by these things, Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second, since from the long widowhood of the church of Valencia that fruitful land had been turned into saltness through the wickedness of them that dwelt therein, so that it was no longer a field of firstfruits which the Lord had blessed, but a squalid and dreadful desert overgrown with thorns; for, the discipline of the clergy having collapsed, the people was led into the gravest errors; they believed, not without reason, that so great a barrenness could be remedied only if Thomas were set over it as bishop. But lest, as he had before refused the mitre of the church of Granada, Thomas should refuse to undertake the charge of Valencia also; when it was found that the command of the emperor and king did not press him enough, being compelled by his own superior by force of a precept of obedience and under the anathema of excommunication, he left his cell with tears and betook himself to Valencia. In the convent of St. Mary of Succor of the Order of saint Augustine he dismounted from his horse, and thence, a solemn entry being renounced *, he went on foot with a companion, clad in the habit of a simple Religious, to the cathedral, and laid these foundations of humility, that the summit of an ecclesiastical prelate might be raised the more solidly and loftily the more deeply they were laid.

[8] to the archbishopric of Valencia When therefore he had ascended the episcopal chair, it was the new Bishop's care not only to build and plant, but (which was of greater business and labor) he was constantly engaged in this thought, that according to God's counsel he might root up unfruitful branches and destroy and scatter what was ill built. For he found ecclesiastical discipline so corrupt that the capitulars and the other prebendaries were not ashamed, clad in a short shaggy cloak and adorned with ruffs ^h turned back at the neck, sitting after the African fashion on horses decked with every kind of trapping and saddle-cloth, even masked, to exercise themselves unworthily in tilting-matches in the public squares, and also, following after curiosities, to give themselves to the theaters, and thence without delay to dare to enter the choir to attend the Divine offices or to perform the Sacred rites ⁱ.

[9] Wherefore, the pastoral charge being undertaken, with that fiery charity with which he burned for the honor of God and the salvation of souls, his pastoral care; he gave himself wholly to reforming the morals of all ^k, and, that he might confirm in the faith the flock entrusted to him, a provincial synod being gathered, he strove with all his might to restore the discipline of the clergy to its former brightness: foreseeing that thence the amendment of the laity would better come forth. And although he had striven gently to draw their minds to embracing honesty, yet, not omitting to attain the end bravely, he brought the license of the capitulars to this, that it dared rather to withdraw itself from the Shepherd's rod than to be curtailed by the ordinances of a stricter life. God permitted, while the capitulars and clergy of the metropolitan church, lest the opportunity of sinning should be taken from them, declaring themselves exclusively subject to the Apostolic See, were busy in withdrawing from Thomas's authority, that a canon named Vulpus ^l, for two dagger-blows inflicted on the alguacil of Juan de Villacosa ^m, governor of Valencia, being thrust into the lay prisons, was in great fear that he would shortly pay the penalty. His danger being reported to the capitulars, they hastened to the Archbishop, asking that he would deign to provide for ecclesiastical immunity out of his pastoral duty. Hearing these things, Thomas said with a smile: I shall not be able to help you, who are not of my fold and do not acknowledge me as your shepherd; presently, at their repeated entreaties, he added: Do not doubt, brethren, for I shall embrace a glorious death rather than a hateful life, and shall gladly go forth to punishments, to defend ecclesiastical liberty as my duty.

[10] Thomas therefore, whom the zeal of God's house consumed, in defending ecclesiastical liberty having put on justice for a breastplate, and taken sure judgment for a helmet, and taken equity for an impregnable shield, at once presses that Vulpus be restored to him, and where courtesy is neglected, urges with commands, and strikes with anathema the royal ministers still obstinate, and lays the churches under interdict. The governor, driven to rage, hastily condemns to the last punishment another cleric who had killed a man at the bull-games, and orders him to be hanged with a rope. And the duke of Calabria, viceroy of Valencia, warns Thomas by a threatening letter to desist from what he had begun, unless he preferred to be despoiled of his temporal goods: and Thomas, to whom the Lord had given a face like adamant, fearing nothing, answered with priestly constancy: Duke, I shall then be the richer when I am utterly stripped of temporalities, and shall most joyfully return to the cell where I shall find the divine Augustine my father, and from which I departed unwilling and only with tears.

[11] The duke at last, having in various ways but in vain tried the great strength of Thomas's soul, his fortitude; his solicitude, six months later ordered the prebendary to be released at his discretion. And the governor with the alguacil was compelled on Palm Sunday to present himself before the doors of the church with bare feet and uncovered head, though with body unbound, carrying a candle in his hands. But Thomas's soul was inflamed not only with zeal for defending ecclesiastical liberty, but with solicitude for the salvation of all his subjects. Therefore while he suffered very many things, while he endured hardships and labors almost without number, to defend the liberty of the church and to establish in his province the observance of the synodal laws; at the same time by the duty of pastoral care and by that almost immeasurable force of charity which ruled in his heart he was impelled to procure the salvation of each one; and so in labor and hardship, in vigils and many fastings, beseeching, reproving, rebuking in all patience and doctrine, he became all things to all men, that he might win the souls of all.

[12] his charity Among examples of which kind there is reckoned before the rest that Thomas often drew certain prebendaries by gentle speech to cast off the works of darkness and to put on the armor of light; but those who still shrank from the light and made provision for the flesh in its desires he led into his chamber, and there, the doors being shut, his own shoulders being bared, and kneeling before the image of the Crucified, addressed each in these words: Brother, it has come about through my sins that you have not kept your feet from the evil way and have despised so many of my admonitions: wherefore, if the fault is mine, it is right that I myself pay the penalty: and forthwith he scourged himself with harsh whips. Then the prebendaries, pouring forth a flood of tears, besought Thomas to cease striking himself with blows, promising amendment of their past life, which they are said so to have fulfilled that thereafter, being faithful to the Lord, they no more fell into mortal sin ⁿ.

[13] and his resourcefulness Another priest, sharply but often vainly admonished, he strove by long imprisonment to recall from an unchaste habit; at last, having summoned him, he addresses him with these gentle words: Friend and brother, whence is this to me, that I should dare to judge

you, my brother, my fellow-priest, bought at that very price at which my own soul was bought, not indeed with corruptible silver and gold, but with the precious Blood of the sacred immaculate Lamb Jesus Christ? Perhaps you are better than I, and shall I judge you, who am ignorant of myself? Judge yourself and know your own dignity: by which words the priest, not only moved but terrified, became most religious ^o. A canon of the cathedral, likewise living dishonorably, he called to himself, and ordered him to set his household affairs in order, and, as though about to set out for Rome, to return to him by night: the canon did as he was bidden, and Thomas, keeping him for six months in his own chamber, rebuking him day and night by word and example, bent him to penitence; presently he sent him away amended, received by his household and friends with courteous words as though he had returned from Rome.

[14] in recalling From Miguel Vicente, a notary, he removed a concubine, and placed her in a hospice among religious women. By night Miguel led her out of the hospice through a window: and when he was sought for by the ministers of the lay tribunal, he took refuge in the cathedral. It was urged upon Thomas that he should order Miguel, as unworthy of the benefit of ecclesiastical immunity, to be thrust into prison; but Thomas said: I do not desire the death of a sinner, but rather that he be converted and live: I only desire that Miguel restore the concubine, sent away from him, to the religious hospice, and be willing to amend what he has done. When these things were reported to Miguel, he groaned that he had wounded so kind a Father, forsook the unchaste woman, repented, and led the rest of his life religiously. From which it is clearly established to what a height the excellence of Thomas's charity attained; since for the sake of amendment he suffered men of this kind to dwell with him even in his own chamber.

[15] the wicked to right living; But when he feared that others could be infected by the bad example of his own household, avoiding that saying: A man's enemies are they of his own household, he did not retain even for an hour in his service anyone noted for unchastity: nay, he expelled from his house his own nephew, his brother's son, defiled by such a fault, and compelled him without delay to return to his own country. But never did Thomas undertake the task of anyone's conversion, nor go to deliver sermons, unless he had first besought God with poured-forth prayers to grant him the grace of softening the hearts of his hearers: presently, rising from such prayer, he rebuked sinners with such fervor and burning zeal that he recalled very many to penitence and to the forsaken path of a more perfect life, and by the exercise of an alike prudent and outstanding charity brought back innumerable souls to the Lord's fold, whom, being touched with inward sorrow of heart, he impelled to hasten at once to the feet of a confessor; and therefore he was everywhere called St. Paul, St. John Chrysostom, the Apostle of Christ, the Divine understanding, and the Taper of divine love.

[16] And indeed once, preaching before Philip II of happy memory, Catholic king of Spain, his outstanding faith, out of his exceeding charity toward his neighbor he gave also a wonderful proof of the greatness of his faith: for, treating of the ineffable mystery of the Trinity, and striving to inflame men's hearts toward it with vehement discourse, thence moved to tears he broke forth from his heart into these words: I will say it, brethren, I will say it, and I will say it with exceeding joy of heart, though perhaps I shall seem to you rash: Thy faith, O Lord, in thy Saints, who are engaged in the searching out of such testimonies, is now scarcely faith, since from faith it has already passed into light [p]. When at these words Gaspar de Ávalos, archbishop of Granada, a man endowed with learning and the highest piety, was also present, when Thomas had come down from the pulpit he addressed him thus: I did not think that human understanding could raise itself so high; for what I have heard from you far enough surpasses our weakness, when you have so clearly set forth that generation of which a man may scarcely speak. But to this and to very many other sermons, translated into the Latin tongue [q], a most learned volume and most useful for the salvation of souls, Thomas's singular modesty never, while he lived, gave assent that it should be committed to the press.

[17] And Thomas was so inclined to the love of God his charity toward God and neighbor; that he was wont everywhere to say that it seemed to him almost more tolerable to be sent beforehand into hell than not to love God, and that he was more terrified than by fires and torments at this, that they who are tormented in hell hate God. Greatness of soul too shone in him among his other virtues; for, bravely remitting injuries, he loved his enemies exceedingly: when he was wounded, he was wont to say: There is need of patience; I shall ask God that of his mercy he soften that man's heart, and, if he repents, I shall not deny clemency. Thomas was wonderfully liberal toward the poor, most sparing toward himself: this was that Householder of the Gospel, who, bringing forth out of his treasure things new and old, fed his household not only with holy morals but also with bodily food. This was that prudent Servant, who, daily putting out his Lord's money to the bankers, continually opened his hand to the needy and stretched out his palms to the poor: yet he kept for his own use at home a single biretta, content with a single garment and a worn cloak, which he mended with his own hands out of an old scapular cut into pieces; and thus not once but continually, as long as he lived, despising all his own comforts, he afterwards worked with the labor of his hands, whence he might better be able to give alms and might more amply relieve the poor, whose Father and Guardian he showed himself.

[18] Having his own chamber covered and adorned only with rush mats, he rested there on a mean little bed or on strewn twigs, and, frequently taking poor men as his companions, poverty in food and clothing was accustomed to take his food from the same pot: yet so sparingly that, worn out with age, he would never consent that a whole chicken, but only a quarter of a chicken or half a partridge, be prepared for his table; and to his steward, who often urged and begged otherwise, he answered that it would be unjust for the servant to be fed with richer food than the Master: declaring himself the Servant and the poor his masters: adding also this: Is it not enough and more than enough for one used to being refreshed with onions and other things * to eat a quarter of a chicken or half a partridge? On a certain day a very poor woman brought a lamprey to Thomas's house, which the steward was busy to buy: seeing this, Thomas asked at what price he had determined to buy it: the steward answered: My lord, for twenty-five reals [r]; and Thomas thereupon said: I am not worth so much that I should eat what could be enough for twenty-five poor men, and he ordered the lamprey to be left for others to buy, and alms to be given to the needy woman.

[19] his munificence Taking also the linens from his own bed, and stripping himself of his shirts, he bestowed them on the poor, and when a certain woman named Daces, who by constant sewing prepared furnishings of this kind for Thomas, being often asked by him for shirts and linens, admonished Thomas not to be so liberal as utterly to deprive himself of such necessities, Thomas answered: Daces, daughter, bring help, not counsel, for what belongs to the poor cannot without injustice be denied to the poor. With his own cloaks too, if other garments were lacking, he provided for the nakedness of the poor, and after the manner of the divine Gregory the Great he kept by him a catalogue of all the poor living at Valencia, that he might relieve each according to his need and condition: so that he was accustomed to supply to a certain needy noble the sum of a thousand crowns yearly, and Thomas turned his face from no poor man, and suffered no one to depart from him to whom he had not brought a remedy for the destitution laid before him.

[20] toward the poor; Among which very many things there holds no obscure place indeed the fact that once, when Thomas had disputed with a shoemaker [s] about the price of sleeves, he was unwilling to spend twenty-five reals on them, but ordered sleeves of a cheaper price to be brought to him. The shoemaker left Thomas, sharply railing at the Bishop's avarice. And when, some days having elapsed, the same man was complaining with a friend about his poverty, since above all a dowry was lacking for his daughter now of marriageable age, his friend urged the shoemaker to hasten to disclose this to the Archbishop: the shoemaker with a smile tells his friend the affair of the sleeves, and refuses to have recourse to Thomas's charity: at length the need of the shoemaker's daughter was of itself reported to Thomas by the deputed visitors, and he after his custom sends to the girl an assistance of a dowry of seventy crowns. The shoemaker, astounded with amazement, thinking he saw a dream, scarcely gave credit to the deed; presently hastening to Thomas he gives him thanks, and asks pardon for having exaggerated his avarice. Thomas answered calmly: My son, if I had spent as much as you wished for the sleeves, so much the less would have been left for your daughter's dowry; be silent and give thanks to God, who provided her a dowry.

[21] and his frugality To noble girls he bestowed the assistance of a dowry even to the sum of five hundred crowns, and Thomas obtained the surname of father of orphans; since as many as he found needy and bereft of parents, so many he relieved with his own money. But the more liberal he was toward his subjects, the more sparing he showed himself toward his kinsmen: for, acknowledging the poor as the lords of all the revenues of the church of Valencia, he asserted that whatever he received from them was to be conveyed to them through his hands as through a bridge; but when his mother, having bestowed nearly all her substance on the poor, came to Thomas and brought with her some needy kinsmen of his, whose want she greatly commended to Thomas, he answered: Mother, the goods which I have are not mine, but the natural poor of this province's. He then sent away his mother, who lived long most religiously in the town of Villar [t]: but to his kinsmen, that he might in something gratify his mother, he gave fifty crowns each, which he presently recovered by using half his customary portion in food, lest, as he said, he should defraud the poor of the place for their sake.

[22] When Thomas's own brother, having set out for Valencia, toward his kinsmen, came to him clothed in a richer habit than usual, Thomas by no means acknowledged him as his brother, saying: My brother was not wont to clothe himself in so adorned a habit; wherefore it was necessary that he, having taken a meaner garment, should return to Thomas, and then he embraced him and received him as a guest, adding: You are truly my brother [u]: but after he had rested enough, a moderate sum of money being given him, he gave him leave to return to his own country, saying: My brother, hold me excused: for what I possess is entrusted to me, not given.

[23] But when the Moors had plundered the town of Cullera [w] of his diocese, proved by examples; and had led very many of the inhabitants away captive, Thomas most liberally poured out a great sum of gold in redeeming them from the yoke of slavery. But besides proofs of this kind of outstanding charity, Thomas produced others long to endure. For in the university of Alcalá he founded a college of religious of the Order of St. Augustine, who should apply themselves to sacred Theology, and enriched it with a suitable revenue, out of the sum of money which was owed him by the emperor Charles V [x]; judging that the revenues of the archiepiscopal table

ought to be expended on the poor of the city and diocese. In the city of Orihuela [y] he erected another similar college for poor men desiring to apply themselves to the studies of sacred Theology. At Valencia too he founded and enriched with revenues a college of poor men to be devoted to the acquiring of sacred Theology, from which colleges there came forth men conspicuous both for learning and for probity.

[24] Amid these constant exercises of heroic virtues the Lord was well pleased in Thomas, his sanctity by God and began to show himself wonderful in him. For the neighbors dwelling in the houses adjoining the bishop's palace marveled greatly, seeing that far more grain was drawn out of the Archbishop's granary than they had seen gathered into it, yet they did not inquire into the truth of the fact: but at last, God alone working, clearer proofs of this miracle were given. For Bonilla, under-keeper of the archiepiscopal granary, when he had cleaned the granary many days before, being emptied of wheat, and was asked by his fellow-servants to give them their monthly portion of grain, had complained with Hernández the under-steward of the Bishop's excessive liberality, which would at last be the cause that necessities should be lacking to his own household: meanwhile a wretched woman, to provide for her starving offspring, came to Thomas and urged with weeping that he would order alms of grain to be given her: Thomas at once called to him García the steward and Hernández the under-steward, and commanded them to relieve the needy woman as their duty: Hernández, moved, answered that not a grain of wheat was contained in the granary.

[25] illustrated by miracles The woman urges, Thomas's charity urges the more, who summons Bonilla and orders him to lead the needy woman to the granary and to give her whatever remainder of grain he should find. Bonilla repeats a second and a third time that he would carry out the command in vain: then Thomas to him: Trust, Bonilla, and go to the granary, lest this needy woman depart without help; Bonilla obeys the orders, and Thomas says to the woman: Follow Bonilla. Then García, Hernández, and Bonilla, going with the woman to the granary, turning to her with a laugh, say: Come, good woman, and you will see the granary everywhere empty and swept with brooms. And when they had come near the granary, they see grains overflowing from the chinks of the door, and, astonished, they try to open the door, which, being pressed by a great weight of grain, they can scarcely unbar, pushing with all their strength, and they find the granary crammed with grain. Then, struck by the novelty of the thing, crying out with loud voices that it was a miracle, they return to the Archbishop and tell him what had happened. Thomas betakes himself to the granary, and, having imposed strict silence on each, says to the woman: Take the grain, eat, and give thanks to God, who prepared it for you [z].

[26] made illustrious; Two years before his death, when Thomas after dinner had come to a window looking onto the courtyard, he saw a certain poor man of Saragossa, contracted for forty-five years by the disease of paralysis, leaning on crutches: he beckoned with his hand that he should come up; and when he had come to the hall of the palace, Thomas asked him whether he would rather be restored to health than be helped by the assistance of alms? The paralytic answered: My lord, I desire health rather: then Thomas, making over him the sign of the most holy Cross, said: Trust and give thanks to God, who has deigned to grant you health: cast away your crutches, and go in peace: and forthwith his feet and ankle-bones were made firm, and the paralytic raised himself up wholly sound, and, throwing away his crutches, fell at Thomas's feet, to whom Thomas, having given him alms, added: Be silent, be thankful to God, and pray for me.

[27] frequent raptures into God; He suffered besides a continual elevation of mind, both when preaching and when performing the Sacred rites, or reciting the divine offices, so that at last he was compelled to give up sermons altogether and to abstain from the public celebration of the divine Mysteries, being about to withdraw himself from that glory and repute of holiness which he found himself thence obtaining on account of such proofs of God's friendship and of familiar converse with the divine. But the more Thomas despised this fleeting glory, the more it was increased toward him by clearer proofs. For once on the day of the Lord's Ascension, in a private walk of the archiepiscopal palace, reciting the canonical Hours, at the antiphon of None (And while they beheld, he was raised up), Thomas, caught up into ecstasy and raised from the ground, remained wholly motionless from the fifth hour of the morning to the fifth of the evening: namely for an interval of twelve hours, seen not only by his household but also by innumerable inhabitants of the city. Then, as though roused from a deep sleep, turning to his chaplain, he said: Where have we come to? The chaplain answered: To the Psalm: Thy wonderful works, O Lord [aa]: and, kneeling with many tears, he earnestly begged Thomas that he would deign to disclose to him where he had remained so long in spirit. Thomas, that he might not weary his chaplain too much, at last, silence being enjoined, said: Brother, when I had begun the antiphon: While they beheld, the angels plucked it from my mouth, and sang it with so sweet a melody that indeed to me not even the interval of reciting the Lord's Prayer seemed to have passed.

[28] At last a particular charity flourished in him toward foundling children, his wonderful compassion toward foundlings; and in feeding and rearing them Thomas's zeal was almost admirable. For, knowing the wickedness of women who neglected the death of their children cast out at the gates, he had it published by all the rectors of the churches that children should be exposed by night at the door of his palace: and to those who brought the foundlings to him he gave a gratuity of four reals: so that at the gate of his palace by night there were left children scarcely on the threshold of birth, having been brought to Thomas by the poor. Thomas at once handed them over to nurses to be suckled, to whom, being arranged in order in the hall of the palace at the beginning of each month and carrying the children in their arms, he paid the monthly wage with his own hand: adding besides a gratuity to those who brought fairer and plumper children, that he might the more urge them to earnest care of the children. In short, he helped all with aid and counsel, and in the administration of the Sacraments, unless canonical impediments stood in the way, or law resisted, or prudence otherwise advised, he wearied out no one's desire, and especially the children who were gravely sick, leaping from his bed at midnight, leaving his table at noon, he anointed with the sacred chrism, lest they should depart from this light without such help.

[29] And at last Thomas, full of merits, most abundantly laden with the constant exercise of all the virtues, his last illness; his flesh consumed with fasting, scourges, and anxious zeal for winning souls, and despising fleeting things, hastened to make his way to his fatherland. Wherefore, when he had fallen into a fever, as it grew heavier day by day, an equal cheerfulness of soul increased in him, always casting his thought upon the Lord and desirous of conforming to his will; when the bishop Segria signified to him the slight confidence which the physicians retained about his temporal life, he was gladdened, gave thanks to the bishop, and, kneeling with eyes raised to heaven, said: I rejoiced in the things that were said to me; we shall go into the house of the Lord. And at once moderating his gladness he added: Lord, if I am still necessary to thy people, I do not refuse the labor; if not, I desire to be dissolved and to be with thee.

[30] Presently he ordered the sacred Viaticum to be brought and the clergy to be summoned. Strengthened with the Sacraments, his exhortation to the clergy The venerable Sacrament was brought by the aforesaid bishop Segria, the chapters and clergy going before, and, the Viaticum being received, Thomas, turning to the clergy, exhorted them with a short but vehement discourse to keep the commandments of the Lord, to preserve the holiness due to so lofty a ministry, most earnestly to profess themselves obedient above all to the Apostolic See, and earnestly to ask the Almighty that he would deign to grant them the best and most exemplary bishop: and he added that, if God should make him worthy of his kingdom, as he most truly trusted in his infinite goodness, he would constantly ask his Majesty for the church of Valencia, that its faith might not fail; and at last, having dismissed them in the peace of Jesus Christ, and having summoned his steward and confessor, since only a very poor stock of goods remained to him, he divided it among his poor household: then asking his steward that, for the bowels of Christ, if any household property were left, he would frankly disclose it to him, lest he should be deprived of the consolation of knowing that he had knowingly reserved nothing at his death which he had not supplied for the uses of the poor, or lest, unknowingly, he should be afflicted with grief for having ceased to bestow anything on the poor, saying: If I live, God will not fail me.

[31] The steward, since no hope of the Bishop's temporal life remained, at once signifies to Thomas and his care that nothing of his goods what hitherto he had with singular care concealed especially from him: namely that for some months he had kept in the sacristy of the church the sum of five thousand gold pieces, so that whenever it should happen that all things necessary for the maintenance of his household were lacking, the rest having been bestowed on the poor, he might thence be able to pay wages to the household: at once Thomas asks his steward, his confessor, and two dignitaries of the metropolitan church, that for the love of God they would bring out that money from the sacristy and distribute it among the poor. They, having received the money in baskets, going about through the city, fulfill the desires of all the needy, and returning signify to Thomas that all the poor have been abundantly relieved, but that a residue of one thousand five hundred crowns still remains. Thomas was troubled, and said to them: Why do you detain me here still, so that I may not go to enjoy the good which the Lord has prepared for me? For I think that he will prolong this present life until I know that nothing is left in the house. Hasten therefore and finish the work, lest I linger here longer in labor, but rest in the peace of Christ.

[32] should be left over, not distributed to the poor; Meanwhile Thomas ordered the Sacred rite to be performed in his chamber, saying that he desired still, almost before his departure, to see under the species God his Creator and Redeemer, whom he hoped presently to be able to behold face to face. The Sacrifice is prepared, and Thomas, remembering that in the division of his goods he had assigned nothing to a certain jailer, a father of a family placed in the greatest want, ordered him to be called, and, having bestowed on him the bed in which he was lying, asked pardon for his forgetfulness, and at once signed that he himself be lifted from the bed and laid on the ground on a rush mat, so that the keeper might carry away with him what was his own. Those standing by refuse to obey, asserting that this indeed could not be done without danger of hastening his end. Then Thomas, adding to the virtue of charity the virtue of humility, by an example wholly unheard of, begged the keeper that for the bowels of Jesus Christ he would lend him the use of the bed until death.

[33] his devout death; At last those who had bestowed the remainder of the money on the poor return and announce to him that nothing is left to be distributed, and Thomas, giving them thanks, added: Now I hasten gladly to the contest, naked with the naked, having nothing by which I may be held back, about to wrestle bravely against the malignant spirits; and at once he asked to be strengthened with the sacrament of extreme Unction, which he received with no less piety, himself reciting the psalms of David with the priest. Presently the Mass is begun, and Thomas orders the Gospel of the Lord's Passion according to John to be read to him meanwhile, on hearing which he signed to the reader at each period to pause, and, when he had meditated a little, indicated again that he should continue the reading. The most august Sacrament, toward which he was always

most devoted, he adored with wonderful humility as it was elevated by the priest, and, for joy pouring forth a flood of tears, he began the psalm "Now dost thou dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace:" and when it was finished he added: "Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit," and saying these words he expired and rendered his most blessed soul to his Creator on the 8th day of September 1555 between the seventh and eighth hour in the evening [bb] before the Nativity of the most blessed Virgin Mary, for whose love above all, while he lived among men, he languished.

[34] The clergy and people, hearing that Thomas's recovery was despaired of, taking refuge with God, a general supplication being proclaimed and celebrated, made a station in the church of saint Thomas the apostle; the people's grief; and as they carried out these acts of piety, so general a lamentation prevailed that the chant of the clergy was not heard at all, and at the antiphon: We are not worthy to be heard by thee, the singers, moved with grief and compassion, could not finish it for tears. And when the sound of the bell by which the Bishop's death was published had been heard, the mourning of all so broke forth that that day seemed truly to bear the image of the universal judgment, and men of every condition, turning aside through the streets as though senseless, complained that they had lost their Father: and this most just complaint of all in their vast grief struck the greatest terror.

[35] Thomas's body was carried to the cathedral, where it rested, left all night [cc], the burial of the body. and all pressed forward to kiss his feet and hands: presently thence on the following day it was translated to the church of St. Mary of Succor, near which groans and sighs so resounded that indeed the souls of all seemed for tears to be bursting from their bodies. But it was necessary that the friars should conceal the hour at which the body was to be committed to the ground, lest the people should hinder the carrying out of the work. Thereafter God deigned to work such great miracles by the intercession of Thomas that, proofs having been received from the ordinary, namely Juan de Ribera, patriarch of Antioch and archbishop of Valencia, upon the purity of his faith, the integrity of his morals, the holiness of his life, and his miracles, an informative process compiled from them was transmitted to Rome and exhibited to the congregation of sacred Rites in the year 1608.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. The same saying Coccino confirms at page 475, by the testimony of Fr. M. Diego de Gavara (elsewhere Guevara), visitor of the Order of saint Augustine, in the process of Castile; but the same is also read in the sermon itself as printed, with some little words indeed altered, but the same sense remaining.

q. The Saint wrote his sermons in Latin, with some things nevertheless mingled in the vernacular tongue, which Uzeda made Latin, as is clear from his letter to Muñatones prefixed to the sermons.

r. On these consult the annotations to Salón, book 2, chapter 3, letter h.

s. A sutor, that is, a maker of clothing, from the verb suere, to sew. Further, the same story Salón narrates in chapters 3 and 21 of book 2, as does Coccino at page 642, but with somewhat different circumstances. Coccino's words I shall give in the Annotations to Salón, partly at letter d of chapter 3, partly at letter c of chapter 21.

t. Salón in chapter XI of book 2 reports the matter in such a way that the Saint's mother did not come as far as Valencia, but stayed with her Son at Villar, a place belonging to the archbishopric of Valencia, for one whole month only, and thereafter returned to her own country. Perhaps they speak of different visits of the mother to her Son, so that the one mentioned by Salón happened at the beginning of the archbishopric, and the one here related afterwards, when his mother remained there longer and perhaps fixed her dwelling.

u. The same, though in other words, is reported in the fifth compendium of the Life; Salón in book 2, chapter 9, indicates indeed that his brothers came to the Saint, but passed over these circumstances about the clothing.

w. It is properly called Cullera, and is a maritime place at the mouth of the river Júcar.

x. A great sum of money the Saint lent to the said emperor for building the fortress of Ibiza, as Salón narrates in book 2, chapter 9, which see, and for information about the place the Annotations appended to it at letter e.

y. It was once called Orcelis, commonly Origuela or Orihuela, an episcopal see under the archbishopric of Valencia.

z. On this fact see the Annotations to Salón, book 2, chapter 22, letter h and following.

aa. Nay, Thy testimonies are wonderful.

bb. Consult the preliminary Commentary, §9.

cc. Salón differs in book 2, in the last chapter, saying that the sacred body was carried to the cathedral about the second hour after noon, and thence, after the Vespers of the dead had been chanted there, was translated to the church of St. Mary of Succor, where all night it was exposed to the eyes and kisses of those who came running.

* pomp

* garlic

LONGER LIFE

By Miguel Salón, a contemporary

Published in Spanish from the processes for the beatification and from trustworthy testimonies, and rendered into Latin by J. P. as translator.

By M. Salón.

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's birth, his parents, and their outstanding virtue.

[ ] The author's preface on divine Providence in choosing the parents of the Saints. Although it is most certain that sometimes perverse and wicked sons have been born of good and holy parents, and on the contrary of wicked parents, nay even of parents alien from the true faith, sons much given to the worship of God; yet it frequently and almost always happens that the Lord our God grants to those chosen and destined to be distinguished in the Church by holiness and example, parents and forebears of great piety and virtue, so that the holiness of the sons (as St. Ambrose says), received from their forebears and acquired by a kind of hereditary right from their predecessors, may shine with greater splendor and glory ^a, and that there may be said of them what the holy King and Prophet sang: This is the generation and family of those who placed all their happiness and care in this, that they might seek the Lord with their whole heart, and enjoy the friendship and favor of the true God of Jacob ^b. In this way did divine Providence direct the graces and favors which from infancy and through the whole course of his life it willed to impart with vast liberality and munificence to this blessed father, brother Thomas of Villanova, archbishop of Valencia.

[2] The Saint's birth, country, and parents; The Servant of God was born in the year of the Lord 1488 ^c, while Pope Innocent VIII governed the holy Church, Frederick III being emperor, Maximilian his son king of the Romans, and in Spain don Ferdinand and doña Isabella reigning, the Catholic kings worthy of perpetual memory. He had as father one named Alonso Tomás García, of Villanueva de los Infantes by birth and dwelling, which place is of the Laminitan Field ^d, very well known in the archbishopric of Toledo; and as mother doña Lucía Martínez Castellanos ^e, born at Fontisplanum, half a mile from Villanueva de los Infantes. They entered into marriage with the solemn rite of holy mother Church, and for some interval of time, immediately after entering upon the marriage, on the occasion of a certain pestilence dwelling at Fontisplanum in the house of his father-in-law, whose name was García Castellanos ^f, they there begot this son, the glory and splendor of the whole stock, the blessed father brother Thomas, who was the firstborn ^g of the said family. But although he received the light at Fontisplanum, he was brought up at Villanueva; and hence, according to the custom and usage of the religious in Castile, he was called father brother Thomas of Villanova.

[3] His fathers and forebears were all of a distinguished race, their noble origin, honored by their townsfolk, rich, old Christians, and of wholly untainted blood ^h. For many of his kinsmen both on his father's and on his mother's side were religious of the military Orders of St. James, Calatrava, and St. John; and among these some were Priors of the Great Cross ⁱ. And indeed the inquisitors, from time immemorial, as often as they came to Villanueva for the sake of visitation, were lodged, and are lodged, in the houses either of the parents or of the brothers or of the kinsmen of the said father Don Fr. Thomas, as being the most ancient familiars of the holy Office ^k, whose office of procurators * they have discharged, and discharge in certain cases. His maternal grandfather, named García Castellanos, was an exceedingly good Christian, and remarkable for liberality toward the needy of Fontisplanum: for since he was a man rich in flocks, besides the other alms which by custom he bestowed at his house, on Wednesdays and Fridays he ordered a vast quantity of cheese and of the milk that produced it, and all the milk obtained, together with much bread, to be distributed to the poor.

[4] The parents themselves too of this holy Bishop were outstanding in the worship of God, in charity, and in example; in all their conversations they discoursed of God, of matters pertaining to his worship, of compassion toward the poor, in which they especially excelled. their devout manner of life, Among their other possessions and goods of fortune they had a mill half a mile from Villanueva on the river Jabalón ^l: and all the flour coming to them thence was brought every Thursday to their house, and on Fridays, partly made into bread, partly as it was as flour, was distributed to the poor. Besides this, on the chief festivals they set aside bread, wine, firewood, and money for those who blushed to have their want made public; and there was always set apart in their house a basket filled with fragments of bread for all the needy who came to their doors, so that no one departed without an alms.

[5] Our holy Archbishop's father was also accustomed to lend wheat for sowing to husbandmen of slender fortune, and their liberality toward the needy. on this condition, that when the harvest was made they should restore it without any profit: but if the restoration were omitted, he did not on that account press or afflict them, nay, if they were poorer, he kindly remitted it. Nor on that account did he refuse them the same loan of wheat when the sowing-time came round again, that they might sow after their custom. He used the same compassion toward honorable men who, pressed by need, asked for a loan of money; and he kept this holy and devout custom through the whole course of his life. When the servant of God, our holy Archbishop's father, was carried off from among the living ^m, his wife doña Lucía Castellanos always continued in the same exercise of charity, giving wheat on loan to poor husbandmen for sowing in the same manner and with the same compassion as her husband was wont, and thus she persevered in her widowhood as long as her life remained.

[6] She was also an exceedingly religious woman, much given to solitude and prayer: Especially the mother's to this end she had in her house a private little chapel, to which every day at fixed hours she withdrew with her maidservants and nieces to give herself to prayer, and there, on days when for a lawful hindrance she could not betake herself to the church, the sacred Office of Mass was celebrated: and every week she approached the sacred mysteries of confession and the Eucharist. She was so devoted to the frequent use of the Sacraments, and so practiced in meditation and prayer, that even then in this life, as father Don Fr. Thomas himself related to some of his more familiar friends, that holy matron enjoyed many consolations and heavenly delights, and those divine pleasures and sweetnesses of spirit which God is wont to communicate to those who with full effort give themselves to an interior turning toward heavenly things and seek God in it with their whole heart. And with these and the other ornaments of truly Christian virtues she was so laden (as don brother Juan Muñatones, bishop of Segorbe and a Religious of the same Order, reports in the short narration of this holy bishop's life prefixed to the beginning of his sermons) that, when father Don Thomas held converse among his particular friends about his mother's piety, devotion, and spiritual exercises, nothing at all seemed to be heard different from what our holy father Augustine writes about his most holy mother Monica in the ninth book of the Confessions.

[7] remarkable The inward devotion of her soul was best declared by all her outward actions, even by her very manner of dressing: for as long as she was joined in marriage she wore a very modest dress; when bereft of her husband she put on a religious habit and scapular, and wore them as long as she lived. She was besides most devoted to voluntary afflictions of the body, always covered with a hair-shirt, and keeping fasts to the very end of her life, not only on the days prescribed by the church, but also on every Friday, and on the vigils of the Saints whom she particularly venerated. And after her example the greater part of her maidservants also used a hair-shirt and wore themselves down with fasting on the same days. So great was the seclusion in that house that, when military forces came to Villanueva, many honorable maidens, thinking that they would not be safe in their fathers' houses, betook themselves to the house of this holy matron; and she received them and maintained them with great charity until the soldiers withdrew: and they lived there with as great security as they could have found in a convent of virgins most perfectly enclosed and remote.

[8] virtues She was never seen idle, nor did she permit her maidservants to be idle: and when she worked, whether she turned the spindle or did any other task, she always prayed, and never let the Marian rosary out of her hands. The work and labor to which she and her maidservants for the most part gave themselves was spinning flax and wool, from which she ordered cloth and woolen stuff to be made for her, and about the Paschal feasts ⁿ, especially in Holy Week, she distributed it all to the poor and clothed them, the tailor cutting for each what each most needed. But when she had nothing at home to spin, she called some poor women who sought their living by the distaff, asked from them what had been entrusted to their distaff, spun it herself at home with her maidservants, and returned what was spun to the said women, so that they might receive the price of the labor and add it to their gain. Sometimes there came to the house of the same servant of God poor women in need of clothing at a time when the distribution of cloth and woolen stuff of which we have spoken had already been made; and lest these too should go away without an alms, she took off the tunics, bands, and garments which she herself wore, and bestowed them on them. Besides, to honorable and needy persons, whom we call the shamefaced ^o, she secretly sent many alms; now wheat or flour; sometimes money; at times clothing. She also relieved the poor shut up in prison and especially those lying in the public hospital with such charity that she seasoned food for the sick with her own hands at home; and at a fixed hour, with a maidservant as companion, went to them to refresh them with food, revived and consoled them. So liberal and compassionate was she toward all the poor that both in life and after death she obtained the surname of the Almsgiver.

[9] And that it might also be attested how greatly her piety and her alms pleased the Lord, attested even by miracles from God; on a certain day, when all the flour which was brought to her every week from the mill had been already bestowed upon the poor (in the way that has been said), a beggar came up asking an alms: and when the said lady Lucía ordered her maidservants to bring some flour to this beggar, they answered that it had all been already given out, and that nothing was left in the flour-store [p]: Look carefully, replied the good matron, whether anything is left over, and for the love of God give it to this poor man. But the maidservants insisted that not even a speck of flour was left; since they themselves with their own hands had distributed it all in the morning. Nevertheless with great faith and hope in divine providence the handmaid of God repeated her word: Go with God's favor, and sweep out the store, for God will not allow this wretched man to go away from my house without an alms. With this they acquiesced, and coming to the store began to cry out, Lady, lady, what is this? For most truly this morning we left nothing at all in the store but emptiness everywhere: and now it is full: What does this mean? She, fleeing all vainglory,

made a sign that they should be silent, and said: Praise and honor be to God, who thus provides for his poor. Out of this prodigious flour they gave to that beggar: and all who were informed of the matter, for although she tried to hide it, it was at once spread abroad, praised the Lord, and judged it a most evident miracle, wrought by the Lord God on account of the remarkable piety of this handmaid of his. The Lord granted her also a special gift of curing children with hernias by making the sign of the Cross over them; and they were indeed so healed and freed from the malady as if they had never suffered from it. Yet, lest the healing should be ascribed to her merits, she bound them with a band which they were to wear for five or six days. In these exercises of such great devotion and piety the happy woman occupied herself for the whole time of her life, and persevered until death.

[10] In the last illness, from which she ceased to live, she recited devout prayers continually, Thomas her son appears to her as she is dying. and with great solicitude from her bed repeated to her household: Give an alms to those needy persons: let those poor be clothed with garments. When she had been fortified with all the Sacraments of holy Mother Church, an honorable man who had formerly served in her house asked how she was. How? she replied: filled with vast consolation; for my Son the archbishop has visited me: for he had departed from among the living some years before. In short, so great were the charity and mercy of the parents of this holy bishop Don Fr. Thomas of Villanova toward the poor and needy, both townsfolk and foreigners and pilgrims, that not only while they enjoyed life, but even after they died, the memory of their outstanding piety flourishes and remains quite fresh, and their house has always been called, and is called to this day, the hospice of the poor and needy.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Troix is set down in Spanish: in the lexicons is read trox, which means a barn or granary, but I have preferred to use the words cella farinaria, flour-store, as more proper here.

* In Spanish, de comissatios

CHAPTER II.

The Saint's virtues in boyhood and his remarkable mercy toward the poor.

[ ] The child's modesty; Since the parents of this blessed Bishop were such good Christians and, as we have said, such true worshipers of the divine Majesty, they likewise brought him up in such a manner that he sucked in virtue with his milk and embraced it from his very infancy. Nay, even in his tender age he was exceedingly humble ^a and obedient to his parents ^b, very devout and given to matters pertaining to divine worship, and displayed in all his actions such honesty and holiness that his neighbors and familiars observed it, and were struck with such admiration that they said with one voice: Truly this little Boy will one day turn out an outstanding and most holy man: and that in such wise that even today there flourishes the memory and fame of the holiness which the Servant of God displayed in his infancy.

[12] He shunned wicked boys, and for the most part went about alone, his zeal for divine things; with no boy for companion. On Sundays and feast days, when sermons were preached in the church of that place or in the monastery of St. Francis, even then as a Child he attended them and received them with great attention: and after dinner he called together such boys of the neighborhood and of the same part of the town as he could, and repeated the sermon which he had heard with such spirit and fervor that even grown men of riper age ran to hear him, praised God, and not a few of them were suffused with shame, attending to what that Boy set before them; and the discourse was sometimes finished not without many tears, both of him who spoke and of those who listened.

[13] He was also at that same tender age exceedingly devout and beneficent toward the poor, his remarkable mercy toward the poor, so much so that, when about to go to school, he refused to take his breakfast at home, but carried it off placed in a little basket: which his mother observing, she was eager to learn from other boys of the neighborhood whether he ate it on the way or at school; and she found that neither was done; but that the breakfast was every day, when the devout Child had gone out of the house, given to the first needy man he met, and that he kept his fast until, returning home from school, he was called to dinner. Often he returned home now without shoes or stockings, now without his tunic, because, when he saw a half-naked boy pinched with cold, he asserted that it was not in his power not to give him his own clothes and to cover him in the best way he could. On a certain day in midwinter, when he was at a neighbor's house opposite his father's, there came thither some boys naked, trembling with cold, and begging that help be given them; and he, seeing that nothing was bestowed on them in that house, called them to himself, and gave to one his tunic, to another his doublet, to a third his stockings, and, keeping only his shirt, so returned home. When his mother saw him coming back in that state and rebuked him, the blessed Child replied: Determine about me, my lady mother, as you please, and take whatever punishment you will; but the Lord knows how impossible it was for me, seeing those poor little ones naked and trembling with cold, to do otherwise, and how my strength failed me to refrain from covering them in the best way I could. The good mother, dissembling, cast her eyes upon an image and praised the Lord for having granted her a son so devout and merciful ^c.

[14] his mercy, At another time, when on a feast day they had clothed him in a new garment, going out of the house and reckoning himself unworthy of so elegant a dress, he met a needy boy of the same height and figure as himself, clad in a worn-out garment: he asked that they should exchange, and the exchange was indeed made; and he returned home wearing the old clothes of that needy boy. His mother, seeing this, asked what had become of the new clothes in which he had gone out clad a little before. Lady, he answered, these are most fitting for me and suit me better than the new ones, and he to whom I gave them is more worthy of them than I. And the Lord provided that, as a reward for the piety and humility exercised in this action, his mother acquiesced in this answer, well content, and uttered not another word. When beggars came to the doors of their house, he urged all to grant them an alms, and if they did not at once relieve them, he offered his own food.

[15] proved by various examples In the month of August, since his father had an ample harvest and a great number of reapers, he was ordered to carry them their breakfast and dinner, and a great part of this, with no one noticing, he gave to the poor who ran up thither (as is the custom) to gather the remaining ears, or those which at that time escaped from the reapers' hands. And although he distributed a great part of what he carried from home to the reapers among the needy ^d, yet it always sufficed abundantly for all, so that never was even the least shortfall observed. As often as on an honorable pretext he could obtain some coins from his mother, taking these, as also such bread and eggs as he could, he ran at once to the poor of the hospital. When a poor little woman once asked his mother for some balls of wool, which she lacked for beginning a web, the said mother answered: I must give them tomorrow to the weaver, that he too may begin another; then be present; if any are left over to me, though I doubt of this, I shall gladly share them with you. The blessed Boy, seeing that the needy woman was going away without comfort, asked how many she needed, and, with no one seeing or hearing, entered the place where his mother kept the balls of wool, and, taking those which the woman said she needed, secretly carried them off and brought them to her to begin her web. And it pleased God both that the poor woman was helped, and that on the following day his mother, ordering the web to be begun, found that nothing was missing. On a certain day, when his mother, going out of the house with her maidservants, had taken away the keys of the bread and of the store-room, some beggars came to the doors asking an alms; he, seeing that nothing was given them by the servant left at home, nor could be given, since everything was locked, went to the place where a hen was warming six chicks, and gave each one to each of the poor. His mother, returning home and learning this, asked why he had given away the chicks: Because, he answered, it was neither fitting nor could my heart bear that the poor, begging an alms, should go away empty; and since everything was locked, and there was nothing to give but the chicks, I gave these, and should have given the hen in the same way, if more needy men than these had come ^e.

[16] and the austerity of his life. His Father sent him once with a household servant to the house of a certain husbandman, to recover the wheat which had been lent for sowing (as we have said was the custom of this blessed Bishop's father); but he saw that it was very scanty and for feeding his children

was altogether necessary, that which the poor wretch of a man had gathered that year, and he withdrew demanding nothing whatever; and setting before his father the destitution of the poor farmer, he prayed most insistently that he would have mercy on him and remit the debt, since he had himself beheld with his own eyes how little the man had gathered that year, and how necessary it was to him for the support of his children and household. So it came about that the father, at his prayers, willingly forgave it; and, when the season for sowing came round again, granted him wheat afresh for the seed. As on this occasion, so on many others, the witnesses ^f in the process instituted at Villanueva de los Infantes for his beatification report it to have happened, that the father of this Servant of God showed the same charity to other needy farmers, remitting the wheat lent them for seed, at the entreaty and persuasion of his Son. He was moreover, at that tender age, much given to the afflicting of the body, keeping fasts on many days beyond those prescribed by the Church, and raging against himself with scourges in the most hidden way ^g. His mother once found the scourges in his bed; but he was overwhelmed with vehement distress and grief of soul; for from boyhood and throughout his whole life he most diligently shunned that the torments of his body or any other particular exercises of devotion should become known to anyone.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER III.

He learns the liberal arts and theology and teaches them with a great reputation for talent and piety.

[ ] His studies happily begun at Alcalá, When he had reached his fifteenth or sixteenth year, his parents, considering the happy disposition and holy inclinations of soul which their upright Son displayed, and the sure hope besides which he raised, that if they sent him to a university where letters flourish he would turn out an altogether distinguished man, resolved duly and fittingly to direct him to Alcalá, one of the most eminent and famous of all Spain ^a. Arriving there, equipped both with the best rudiments of the Latin tongue, which he brought from his native place alone, and with the keenness and grace of intellect with which he had been adorned by God and by nature; aided at last by heavenly favour obtained through prayers, he became in a short time a Master of the Latin tongue and of Latin eloquence, and made great progress as well in the studies of the liberal arts as in those of sacred Theology. There he gave signs of great learning in letters, and — what is to be more highly esteemed — such examples of the virtues, especially of a lowly and modest mind intent upon divine things ^b, that all who journeyed from Alcalá to Villanueva reported to his parents and kinsfolk that their Son was reckoned and esteemed among the foremost of those who at that time were devoting themselves to study and excelled in that university in the repute of virtue and of learning.

[18] When he was eighteen years old, his father died at Villanueva; on his father's death he breaks off his studies; he founds a hospice; and soon, as became a dutiful Son, he went thither to see to affairs and to be a comfort to his mother. On arriving he learned that by his father's will there had been left him, among other things, as the firstborn, the house which his father had built adjoining his own for him, so that when the course of his studies was finished he might return to Villanueva and dwell in it. Seeing this donation made to him by his father over and above his inheritance, he begged his mother that this house might be furnished with beds and furniture and be given over as a hospice for the poor and for pilgrims: For me, he said, it will be provided by the Lord whereby I shall live. His mother at his entreaties furnished the house with beds and furniture and turned it into a hospice; while he himself endowed it with revenues out of the remainder of his father's inheritance, and ratified this by his will ^c. And so it was maintained, and is maintained even today, and is called the Hospice of the Archbishop of Valencia. The sick poor who take refuge there are cared for with great solicitude; and those who die are buried with honour and with the accustomed prayers ^d. Moreover, persons coming thence to Valencia at this present time relate that, since the examination into his life, sanctity and miracles began to be instituted, all the sick who come there and devoutly commend themselves to him recover their health, so that scarcely anyone dies.

[19] When he returned to Alcalá to pursue his studies, returning to Alcalá there had already been erected by Cardinal Francisco Ximenes ^e, archbishop of Toledo, the greatest college of that university, distinguished by the name of St. Ildephonsus; and, that it might have a good beginning, he took care that the first fellows should be from among those students who at that time held there the best name and the greater repute in virtue and letters. For this reason he consulted the masters and the weightier persons in those schools. Of this kind was the testimony ^f which was given by all with one voice concerning the learning and virtue of father don Thomas, and confirmed by that which he himself abundantly demonstrated in his disputation and competition, so that the Cardinal at once and without any difficulty named him a fellow ^g of his college.

[20] he is enrolled among the fellows of the chief college; So great an example did he there afford in every kind of virtue to the other fellows of the college, that — as don brother John Mugnatonius, bishop of Segorbe, relates in the narrative which he wrote of the life and sanctity of this Servant of God (which was mentioned in the first chapter) — master John de Vergara, a man among the most renowned for erudition and excellence of speech that this university possessed, and who at that same time was also living in that college, seeing the piety, the devotion, the turning of the mind to heavenly things, and the holy manners of that upright fellow of the college, Thomas of Villanova, spoke of them publicly (a thing worthy of note), and set them forth in his sermons as an example, to the utmost admiration of his hearers, as though he were speaking of a Saint already canonized.

[21] adorned with the mastership of arts His course of studies finished, he proceeded to the mastership of arts and the licence in theology; and soon, because his singular erudition was so well known and so evident, he was granted a chair of arts in that distinguished university in the year one thousand five hundred and fourteen, in about the twenty-sixth year of his age ^h. There he lectured through a course of logic and philosophy, with great esteem on the part of those attending the school and with delight and profit to his hearers, teaching them virtue no less than letters. He busied himself above all with kindling in them a zeal for the frequent use of the Sacraments, for humility, modesty, uprightness, and for withdrawal from temporal things — virtues which greatly adorn the sciences in lettered men and wonderfully set them off.

[22] with the highest commendation of his name Moreover he so excelled in those two virtues especially, humility and gentleness, that (as the aforesaid don John Mugnatonius reports in the narrative cited) neither when he was a pupil in the presence of his masters or of other students, nor when he was a master among his hearers, nor when he presided or argued in any academic acts, was any word ever heard from him against other doctors or masters which might wound anyone even in the least. Nor was there ever observed in him, either in his voice or in the movement of his hands, any perturbation, but always modesty and a bearing of body altogether religious; by which he was so far an edification to all that when he opened his mouth (though as yet a layman and a young man and merely a fellow of the college) his words sufficed to quell all those tumults which are wont sometimes to arise in scholastic exercises and disputations, especially among those skilled in the arts and among candidates for a chair in their disputations. So beloved was he by all, masters as well as students, on account of his courtesy and gentleness, that many quarrels and dissensions which could not be settled by the weightier doctors of that university he himself settled and calmed, through the love and veneration in which he was held by all, and through his prudent manner of acting.

[23] he teaches; invited to the university of Salamanca, In the course of studies which he taught he gained many disciples, and from among them many came forth who made vast progress. Alvarus Gomecius, in the History which he wrote of the founder of that same university of Alcalá, Cardinal brother Francisco Ximenes, places father don Thomas of Villanova among the distinguished men who flourished in it in letters and illustrated it with their good name; and among the eminent talents ⁱ which came forth from his course he mentions master Ferdinand de Enzinas, and father brother Dominic Soto, to whom all theologians owe so much ^k. So celebrated was that course of our good father don Thomas that, when at the time it was completed the chair of natural philosophy fell vacant at Salamanca ^l, the rector and masters of that renowned university, moved by their high esteem for him and by his reputation, with no one opposing and without his seeking it, assigned it to him ^m; and, desirous of gaining so excellent a Man for their schools, ordered that he be invited to occupy it, offering him the best of terms and a fruitful salary.

[24] Father don Thomas gave them ample thanks for the favour and goodwill shown him, he gives thanks, and deliberates about his state of life. since they had invited him of their own motion, without his asking and with no one opposing. That appointment, however, he did not accept; because, in the year that ran out after he had, as we said, brought that course at Alcalá to its end — the year one thousand five hundred and sixteen, and his own age between the twenty-eighth and the twenty-ninth — he gave himself with full effort to prayer and to spiritual exercises, which, although he had always practised them, he now devoted himself to with greater fervour and spirit, since he saw himself already unencumbered and free from every kind of study and scholastic contention. At that time he gave himself to great fasts, to frequent prayer, and to as many alms as he could, in order to obtain from the Lord that He would direct and show him in what state — whether in the clergy or in a religious Order — he might serve Him more perfectly and to the greater profit of his own soul and the good of his neighbour.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER IV.

He embraces the institute of the Hermits of St. Augustine; he takes the habit at Salamanca, and in his noviciate excels in the virtues.

[ ] After serious deliberation The Lord heard the prayers of His Servant, and using toward him that kindness and mercy with which He is wont to enlighten and direct those who commend themselves to Him with their whole heart and sincerely call upon Him, suggested to him that he should choose the religious state, as more agreeable to the inclinations of his soul and to his holy desires; and where (unless through his own negligence and fault a religious lose it) a more frequent access to God is granted, with great tranquillity and security of soul. After making the choice of a state with great attention and deliberation of mind, since he was by nature most prudent and a lover of the middle way, and at the same time desirous of embracing the apostolic life, in which, unencumbered by temporal things, he might consecrate himself wholly to God, and through the gifts granted him by the same Lord might also show himself useful to his neighbour, he inquired with great care and quite singular exactness into the Rules, constitutions, ceremonies and customs which are observed in every Religious body. For about one year before he departed from Alcalá he busied himself with this, with much effort always commending the outcome of that choice to the Lord, and communicating also the feelings and desires of his mind with certain foremost religious men, his intimate friends, men of great talent and prudence, whose admonitions and counsels he might use as guides for obtaining a successful issue in a deliberation which so much concerned his soul.

[26] Every such diligence having been employed, between the twenty-ninth and the thirtieth year of his age, since the Order of our holy father Augustine seemed to him very agreeable to his desires and purposes — both because the Rule of this most glorious Doctor (although all such Rules are so) was so holy, so rightly ordered, and so fitted to evangelical perfection and to the life of the holy Apostles, who were the first Religious of the Church; and because the observance of this Order consists in a well-tempered mean, being neither so heavy or rigid as to be beyond his strength, nor so free or lax as to diminish his devotion — he resolves to give himself to the Order of St. Augustine, he determined to give himself to it. Accordingly, being informed of the distinguished discipline and religious observance which flourished in the house of our holy father Augustine at Salamanca, he left the university of Alcalá and everything to which he might there, or in any other place, aspire, and set out for Salamanca to seek the habit of our Order.

[27] Of this purpose he made no one of his kinsfolk privy or a sharer, and, with no one of his kinsfolk knowing, not even his own mother, although he loved and revered her exceedingly: because, as he himself often said in his sermons, in matters pertaining to the service of God friends according to flesh and blood rarely give good counsel; but on the contrary in many places holy Scripture sets them forth, as regards spiritual things, as the accustomed and manifest enemies of the same. This appeared abundantly in this case; for the mother of this Servant of God, though so good a Christian and so spiritual and devout a woman, as was said in the first chapter, when she learned of the change of state made by her Son in embracing a religious Order, showed that she took it ill and sought her own advantage as a mother ^a, and ordered word to be sent to him that it would be very pleasing to her that, since he wished to embrace religion, he should do it in the convent of Uclés of the Order of St. James of the Sword ^b, because there she would have him nearer to her and might visit him sometimes. Hence it was the safer course that the Servant of God did, in carrying out the work of his vocation with none of his kinsfolk consulted, and entering upon the way to which God was leading him with no one privy to the plan.

[28] By his coming and by his holy desire he brought the greatest joy to that most religious convent, on account of the esteem and the distinguished name he had already acquired at Salamanca, he takes the habit at Salamanca. as we saw in the preceding chapter. And so, when it had become clear to the Prior and to the chief fathers of that house that his purpose was not sudden but well deliberated and commended to the Lord, the votes of the convent being collected according to the use and custom of religious Orders, they gave him the habit of the sacred Order of our holy father Augustine in the year one thousand

five hundred and sixteen, soon after Prime ^c, on the feast day of the Presentation of the blessed Virgin Mary. For he who from his tender years had been most devoted to this most holy and most pure Virgin, and had chosen her as his chief patroness and advocate, and through whose hands he acknowledged and professed — as he ought — that so many graces and benefits had been conferred upon him by her blessed Son, and hoped that they would be conferred thereafter, wished to offer himself to the Lord and to consecrate himself to His sacred service in holy religion on that very day on which the Church festively recalls that light so holy and so devout, on which the most illustrious Virgin was offered in the temple of Jerusalem.

[29] So great was the humility, devotion, obedience, turning to God, His virtues and observance of silence which the Religious always kept, whether as novice or as bound by vows, that the Prior and the fathers of the monastery, though they themselves were for the most part exceedingly pious and the house itself the flower of observance, were struck with wonder and suffused with blushes, seeing how evidently this Recruit surpassed them in the sacred warfare. Now the virtues which in those first years he cultivated beyond the rest, and busied himself to acquire as the most solid foundations of the whole spiritual life, were these: the first (as the older fathers of that time report) was continual prayer; the second, frequent and very attentive reading of holy and pious books, especially of the Works of St. Bernard, to whom he was much devoted, and to whom, as afterwards appeared from his sermons and conversations, he was very like in genius and spirit; the third, solitude and a silence so remarkable that throughout the whole year of his noviciate they never saw him speaking, unless he were questioned, and even then he concluded his answer in very few words. Whence (as those same senior religious, and all who knew him, record) throughout the whole course of his life there remained with him the habit of keeping silence strictly, of speaking only where it was necessary, and of loving solitude and retirement within the walls of his cell.

[30] his chief virtues in the noviciate; The fourth virtue was (and upon it he laboured with much zeal) a great conformity of his own will with the will of his superiors. That virtue found for itself a most fitting seat in the blessed Recruit, since by disposition he was humble, guileless and pure of heart. For a good disposition contributes and often helps much toward acquiring the virtues required in the state which one embraces. And so, since the Servant of God was by nature modest, humble, patient, and adorned with a pure and sincere mind, soon the submission of his own will and true obedience — the virtues, that is, in which lies the chief and highest part of a truly religious man — clung to him and struck vast roots in him. These shone out greatly in this blessed Religious. For whom would a Man of thirty years, a master of arts of great repute and fame and a licentiate in theology, a man who had taught with such praise and applause in so distinguished a university as that of Alcalá, and who had refused the chair of philosophy at Salamanca offered him with no one opposing — whom, I say, would such a Man ^d not strike with peculiar and vast admiration, when he was seen in all the offices of humility, by which the recruits of our Order are wont to be tested and exercised, to claim the foremost part for himself with such alacrity that he put the other novices to shame?

[31] his abstinence and chastisement of the body. This and the other virtues of that holy soul were accompanied by continual abstinence and temperance in food; for not only did he keep the fasts of the Order with the same rigour as those prescribed by the Church, but also many others besides, which of his own devotion he undertook by the favour and permission of his superior — so far that of the three parts of the year he passed two in severe fasting; and on the other days, on which he did not fast, he ate the same as the rest of the convent, yet with great temperance, leaving the greater portion of the food set before him to the poor. Likewise he afflicted his body and rendered it thoroughly subject to reason, wearing it down with brief sleep, and that far removed from any comfort, and indulging in but few hours of rest. His accustomed bed was a straw mattress with two coverlets, but in the season of Advent and Lent bare boards. And what is all this ^e compared with what we shall see hereafter, when he was already advanced in years and archbishop? These were the rudiments of his religious life, and upon these foundations he raised so ample a building of holiness, constant in those same virtues throughout the whole course of his life, and perfecting himself in them every day. In all these things the Servant of God took no heed at all of the eyes of those who anxiously watched his doings ^f: because neither at this nor at any time of his life did he ever aim at anything else than to please the Lord God; nevertheless all men perceived exceedingly well these and his other virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which shone out so peculiarly in all his actions.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER V.

He makes solemn profession; he is ordained priest; he advances in the exercise of virtue.

[ ] Solemn profession made, The year of his noviciate and probation being completed, he at once made solemn profession according to the custom of religious Orders, in the year one thousand five hundred and seventeen, on the feast day of the glorious virgin and martyr Catharine ^a. This he made with vast piety and a flood of tears, for the joy and consolation which in that act his soul perceived and experienced, seeing itself now wholly offered and consecrated to the Lord God as a victim. Bound by solemn vows he lost nothing whatever of the devotion, the attention to divine things, the humility and the obedience which he had cultivated in the year of probation. On the contrary, judging (as indeed is the truth) that one professed is held to a greater perfection and to amendment in all things, he began with greater effort, and to the greater example of the brethren, to practise them all, as though he were then for the first time entering upon that way.

[33] with wonderful charity The narrow bounds of the cloister, which are observed in our Order in the year of the noviciate, did not permit him room, while he was a novice, to make openly manifest that excellence of great piety and compassion which throughout his whole life he had so much as his own and as it were implanted in him by nature. But when leave was given him, as it is given to the professed who are advanced to a mature age, to visit the sick, to serve the aged, and more freely to exercise the works of mercy, he gave himself to all these as much as he could, and especially to the service of the sick, to which, whether he were subject or superior, he was always exceedingly devoted, as all who knew him record. And although the care of the infirmary neither fell to him by office nor bound him by his superior's command, yet by the interior instinct of the Holy Spirit alone, and by that affection of mercy by which his will was guided and moved, he visited the sick as a rule, offered them food with his own hand, made their beds, cleansed them of their filth, cherished them kindly, and attended them with every service he could.

[34] he serves the sick. If anyone needed him for any service whatever, however abject and lowly, as soon as he had learned it he hastened up with such charity, such speed and such alacrity of countenance that in his face one could most easily discern the Spirit of God dwelling in his soul and governing all these actions and exercises of piety. He strove to persuade his friends to devote themselves to the same works of mercy, as the surest means of winning God to themselves and of advancing in His love. And through this piety of his he was so dear to the sick and so longed for by all, that when they saw or heard him coming to the infirmary they thought an angel was entering, bringing them present ^b consolation and health.

[35] Ordained priest, To this office he was giving his labour, newly bound to our Order by solemn vows, and would always have given it not unwillingly. But since God had chosen him for the higher ministries of His Church and for works of mercy of greater moment, divine Providence ordained that his superiors, attending to his already mature age, to his learning and erudition such as we saw in the preceding chapter, and to his piety and sanctity so manifest, should bid him be at once initiated into holy Orders, so that through the most sacred Sacrifices he might labour for the common good of the Church, for the consolation of souls, and for his own advancement and merit: and so, a year having passed since the pronouncing of his vows, he was ordained priest, having completed the thirty-second year of his age ^c.

[36] He offers his first-fruits to God on the feast of the Lord's Nativity, His first sacrifice of the Mass he offered on the feast of the most holy Nativity of our Redeemer Jesus Christ and of the most glorious child-bearing of the Queen of angels, whom from his tender years he so greatly loved. With what piety, with what spirit and with how many tears he performed the divine Rite on that first day — both because they were the first-fruits of a work and ministry so sublime as is that in which a creature so vile and wretched as man holds in his hands and, by the power of the divine words, sets present before him the King of glory, before whom the Seraphim of the highest heavenly hierarchy tremble; and because of the circumstances of the day, full of mercies toward men and of incitements to devotion and tenderness — is most easily gathered from this, that as long as he lived, according to the testimonies given by those who afterwards knew him and were devoted to his service, he was most piously affected toward the Mysteries of this festival: for they all affirm that the Servant of God confessed that on that sacred day the chief favours of his soul were granted him by the divine hand.

[37] Therefore with great effort he always prepared and disposed himself for it: remarkable in his devotion to this Mystery so indeed that, not only while he lived in the religious community, but

also when he already held the archbishopric, he observed, according to the rite of our Order, the sacred season of the Lord's coming, beginning from the feast of All Saints, and abstained from foods with the same rigour with which good Catholics, constant in the fear of God, are wont to abstain from them in the season of the devout and holy fast of forty days. When the day of this most devout festival had come, in the first two Masses (as those same persons report), while he recited the hymn Gloria in excelsis Deo, sung by the angels on that sacred night, and the Gospel of each, which embraces the most glorious child-bearing of the Queen of heaven and the coming and adoration of the most fortunate shepherds; and likewise those words of the Preface, Because through the mystery of the incarnate Word, he was so stirred with inward feeling and poured forth such a flood of tears that, unable to restrain them, he was compelled to break off for no small space of time; indeed sometimes he remained beside himself, motionless in body and rapt in mind to God.

[38] Indeed a little after his death I heard from F. Jacobus Montiel ^d, who was his confessor, from F. John Sierra, who was afterwards bishop of Bosa ^e, both religious men of the house of blessed Mary of Succour ^f, and afterwards from master John Porta, a priest of very good example ^g, who exercised among them the office of visitor, that while he was celebrating those two Masses it was most clearly discovered, from the brightness and splendour which his venerable face cast forth, what his soul felt within, and what God was communicating to it. These two holy Sacrifices the Archbishop performed in his domestic chapel, in the presence of only one or another of the members of his household whom I have already named. The solemn Mass in the first years he said publicly in his church, at that time restraining and covering as much as he could the aforesaid motions and affections of soul. For he always studiously avoided that the particular favours which he obtained from the divine hand should be perceived and made known. But in the years that followed, because not even at the solemn Mass could he so far conceal what his soul felt while reciting the Gloria in excelsis Deo and those words of the Preface, Because through the mystery of the incarnate Word, etc., but that it was clearly noticed by the ministers and by those who assisted him at the altar, he abstained from the public celebration of the divine Rite, and performed the threefold Sacrifice in his domestic chapel, with only one or another of the aforesaid members of his household present.

[39] But how much joy the soul of the Servant of God took in that festival, he is repaid by divine favours. and what his spirit felt from the wonderful and most devout mysteries of that most holy night, is best made manifest by the sermons which on this solemn day he has left us. For although in all those that have hitherto come to light written by the holy Bishop the gifts of his soul and spirit are most clearly discerned, yet in the sermons on our Redeemer's birth a notable piety and a sense of tender love shine out. So all who have read them through confess, and they assert that they can scarcely be read through without tears. In these he openly shows how true a Disciple of St. Bernard he was, and what remarkable progress he had made in the readings which in the year of his noviciate he took from that most devout doctor: since both felt so devoutly and wrote with such fervour of spirit concerning the nativity of Christ our Redeemer and the glorious child-bearing of His blessed Mother. With the same sense of piety and fervour of spirit the holy Bishop always kept this feast day and performed the Masses of that sacred festival — which is the surest testimony of that piety and fervour which he felt when on that same day he first began to discharge the office of a priest, and which in him, as in a true Servant of God, was daily increased and ever perfected.

[40] Care of his soul from the time he received the priesthood, Great, as we have seen, had his turning of soul to God always been; but after he beheld himself a priest, and invited every day to the table of his Lord, it was so great as to be a marvel. From the time when he frequented the schools it was his custom daily to examine his soul and to call it to judgment before the tribunal of his own conscience, to search out what progress he had made that day. The same exercise he continued when professed in the religious life, but with greater care and stricter inquiry when he was made a priest. For he often used to say: "A priest who, offering the divine Rite daily, does not find himself better and more perfect from day to day, is by no means in a good state; it is a bad sign for him." In confirmation of this he adduced the teaching of St. Bernard: "In the way of the Lord ^h not to advance is to go back." And so this daily examination of conscience he practised with great solicitude, and greatly urged and commended it as an exercise of great moment and of much profit to a soul desiring its own advancement. By this way he formed the habit of losing no part of the whole day, nor any time that was not spent either for his own good or for that of some neighbour.

[41] his flight from idleness, Never did he enter another's cell, nor another his, unless brotherly love compelled it: but whatever could be dealt with in few words and dispatched at the door of the cell he settled standing there; he dismissed the man who had sought speech with him, and at once returned to his accustomed solitude, in which he took such delight. This was very well known throughout the whole province of Castile, and is so even today among religious men, by report or tradition received from certain elders of that time: namely, that F. Thomas was never seen either idle or exchanging talk with the other brethren, but always either occupied in some holy work of charity or shut up in his cell. He turned away from a religious whom he saw idle, or wandering about the house, or wasting time without fruit. To bring a remedy for this he laboured diligently, and while he was superior he prevented it; and while he was subject, he reproved it in a brotherly way, prophesying that a man who did not correct that fault would come to ruin.

[42] his love toward all, his reverence toward superiors. With great sincerity of soul he loved all in the Lord and honoured all, and priests especially: if anyone had a quarrel with a brother, he himself grieved vehemently, and at once, like an Angel of peace, strove to compose their minds and to bring them back to true and religious friendship. He reverenced his superiors exceedingly, judging that in each one of them he had present the true governor and ruler of souls, our Lord Jesus Christ. But although his charity and love extended to all, he did not open his counsels to all, nor make himself familiar with all, but only with those most zealous for retirement and for heavenly things; and not even with all of these, but with a few more suited to his disposition and condition.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER VI.

He teaches Theology, and preaches with wonderful learning, efficacy and fruit.

[ ] The Servant of God would indeed have wished to lie hidden long — nay, for his whole life — in those exercises which we have related in the preceding chapter, By the command of his superiors, in his own convent frequenting the choir, celebrating Mass daily with that preparation, devotion and tranquillity of soul, serving the sick, hiding himself in his cell; since he saw how much profit his soul drew from this way. But since he had been called to higher things, of greater example and of the good of his neighbours, the Lord willed that soon after he had received the priesthood he should be set to the work of letters in the holy family, and should begin to use the gifts of his mind. Accordingly the office of teaching scholastic theology was committed to him in that same convent of our holy father at Salamanca.

[44] This command, as a truly religious man whose will was submitted to his superiors, he teaches theology he at once undertook with great humility and alacrity of soul; and carrying it out, he lectured on the Master of the Sentences to the religious of his house and to many others, students of letters who flocked in from the university, always following and embracing in his expositions the doctrine of St. Thomas, which he constantly professed and which the holy Man followed with great affection and devotion, both because of that eminent doctor's remarkable sanctity, erudition and clearness of intellect, and because he was invited to it even by his own name; and also because he knew himself the son of that illustrious and radiant light among doctors, our holy father Augustine, to whose doctrine, opinions, arguments, principles and reasonings St. Thomas so clung and adhered that to anyone considering him attentively he seems no other than a disciple of St. Augustine, repeating the lectures received from his master.

[45] nor on that account does he neglect other works of piety; And although that office caused him much business, since his lecturing was very erudite and learned and was highly esteemed, yet he did not on that account cease to apply himself to the same exercises of piety and mercy as before, visiting the sick and serving them; and giving himself to prayer at the same hours as when he was not teaching; confident that time spent on such works would bring no detriment to his studies. He laboured exceedingly to perfect his hearers in theology, but much more to advance them by piety and example in the worship of God, continually urging upon them that they should join letters with the fear of the Lord, as being the gate to true wisdom. But his superiors judged that the gifts of the Servant of God were not to be bounded by the faculty of teaching the sciences alone, but that the force and amplitude of the same extended also to instructing souls from the pulpit; wherefore, when he was in his thirty-fourth year ^a — only the third from his solemn profession, and the second after he had lectured on theology — they laid upon him the office of preaching. Obeying the command of his superiors, he began to give sermons in the church of his convent with no other view, and led by no other reason more, than to submit himself to the judgment and will of his prelates (in following which he believed that he was carrying out the will of God

) and to the salvation of his neighbours, for which his soul burned with so great a desire.

[46] bidden to preach in the church of his Order But since the steps by which this Herald of the Gospel ascended the pulpit were simple obedience to the commands of his superiors and a heavenly and apostolic desire to promote so far as he could the fruit of souls, directing all things to this one end, that he might serve God and by that service please Him and advance His glory, as soon as he began to preach he at once openly displayed those excellent gifts and that heavenly faculty of mind granted him for this office by the Lord. It is like a prodigy, and truly surpasses the force of nature, what all who heard and frequented his sermons at that time relate of this divine Orator; and especially what lord John Mugnatonius the bishop attests in the narrative of the holy Prelate's Life cited above ^b. For he says that he began to preach with such fervour of mind, such an indication of sanctity, and such zeal for the salvation of souls, that within a few days and from the very beginnings of his sermons the name of F. Thomas and the fame of his excellent talent and learning were carried and spread throughout the whole city of Salamanca with such admiration and such astonishment in all, as though one of the holy Apostles had been raised to life, or an angel sent by the Lord and but lately come down from heaven to preach the word of God; so highly indeed did he esteem this matter.

[47] by his learning and fervour The report common to the whole city reached the ears of a most religious man, an eminent theologian and a most excellent preacher, whose name at that time was so celebrated throughout all Spain: F. John Hurtado, of the Order of the holy father Dominic, who on account of his religious virtue and learning and the remarkable gifts of his mind, set forth to the emperor Charles V by his master Cardinal Adrian, afterwards Supreme Pontiff of that name the sixth, was designated by the imperial majesty to the archbishopric of Toledo — which nevertheless he was unwilling to accept, and he begged for the love of God that it might be made known to no one. This man, then, of such religious sanctity and true humility, moved by admiration of the things which were told by all concerning the sermons of F. Thomas, as much by the laity and the unlearned as by lettered and erudite men, whose judgment in this matter prevails, resolved to hear him once, to find out whether it was as was reported.

[48] He heard him indeed most attentively, and when the sermon was ended, astounded and as it were rapt out of himself — because (as he himself affirmed) he had heard a doctrine not written in books but sent from heaven and received at the feet of Jesus Christ; and because he had seen that evangelical freedom with which he pursued the vices, that fervour and efficacious force with which he stirred men to virtue, that zeal for the divine glory and the salvation of souls with which his inmost heart was evidently kindled — he strikes men's minds; he cried out in a loud voice, in the hearing of all who were present: "Glory and everlasting praise be to the Lord our God, who has deigned to send so excellent a Minister of His Gospel and so fit a Labourer into His vineyard, and to make him known in our times! Much indeed was that which was proclaimed of this Father, and to me it appeared much; but beyond all comparison what I have myself seen with my own eyes today far surpasses it."

[49] A short time afterward, in the year one thousand five hundred and twenty-two, in the chief church of Salamanca through Lent when the greater part of Spain, with the peoples of Castile, was so greatly disturbed ^c, at the demand and request of the leading men of the chapter of Salamanca he preached through Lent in the principal church of the city. It was the custom at that time that in Lent, along with the Gospel, some psalm or some profitable subject should be taken for the sermon; on that occasion he took the psalm In exitu Israel de Ægypto, etc., with such a throng and concourse of hearers that not only the church but even the very crossways were insufficient to hold the number of men who, eager for his teaching, ran together to hear. Early in the morning they were there to take a place in the church; they neglected their business and left undone the work to be done, out of an insatiable relish for receiving the word of God from his mouth. They called him a second Elias, of whom holy Scripture says that his doctrine was fire and his words burned like a torch ^d.

[50] No man heard him but he was changed, inflamed and kindled with divine love. saying that every kind of men They returned from his sermons as it were thunderstruck, looking at one another and struck with astonishment, when they had observed his dexterity in instructing, his efficacy in persuading, that abundance of speech in his delivery — not dry and empty, and such as is poured out to the winds only, but rich, filled with spirit and doctrine, fervent and animated with heavenly power — with which now he struck terror, now brought consolation, now moved men to sincere sorrow for their crimes and to tears, now to confidence and inward joy, burning up the hearts of his hearers, softening the hardest breasts, and obtaining in them all those effects which the sacred Writings teach to be most proper to the word of God, when he who announces it is His faithful servant and a true minister of the Holy Spirit, such as this divine Orator was. All this, as to its substance ^e, bishop Mugnatonius says in that place.

[51] With so great a heat of devotion (he also says) did all Salamanca burn through his teaching, he draws men to virtue, that truly the time of the holy Apostles seemed to have shone again in this city. For not only those zealous for virtue, for good affections and for integrity of manners, but also the rich and the powerful, in whom the thorns of riches and cares are wont to choke the seed of the word of God — nay, even those given to pleasures and delights, whose way it very much is to follow a wandering and dissolute life — bore fruit from his sermons. Indeed even the common folk and the lowest people, who take in little and soon consign what they have heard to oblivion, were, through the teaching, admonitions and reproofs of this apostolic Orator, destined by God for the profit of this city and of all who afterwards enjoyed his heavenly doctrine, brought back to the way and so changed in their actions and manners, that those who saw it — and by name the aforementioned Mugnatonius, from whom is taken almost everything contained in this chapter — affirm (not by way of exaggeration, but because the thing is so) that whoever at that time had looked upon Salamanca would by no means have judged or called it a city composed of secular inhabitants, but a monastery and a convent of religious men of a thoroughly amended life.

[52] and that many should bid farewell So far did the sacred discourses of the blessed Father affect especially the students of this renowned university, that many of them, changing their thoughts and affections in a wonderful manner, began so earnestly to turn their desires elsewhere, and to shrink from the pleasures of the present life, so greatly desired and sought after in youth, and to pant after the eternal and the true, that, withdrawing themselves in body and mind from the world, they embraced the religious state. In this way the Lord led so many into that way, that not only were the monasteries of the city of Salamanca filled with novices, but, because there was no room left in them for so many others daily bidding farewell to the world and asking for the habit, it was necessary to send them to the monasteries of other towns and places. And so through the sacred sermons of F. Thomas all the religious Orders of the kingdom of Castile were sufficiently furnished with learned and excellent men.

[53] to the world, he is the cause. All this the same lord John Mugnatonius relates as an eyewitness; for with great zeal he heard him speak, not omitting even one of all the sermons which the Servant of God then gave at Salamanca; and he was himself one of those who, moved by the efficacy of his words, forsook the world and whatever they could possess in it: and he took the habit of our Order, and lived in it so religiously, and was besides endowed with such distinguished learning, that it seemed good to his royal Catholic majesty Philip the second to appoint him tutor to his son prince Charles, and afterwards bishop of Segorbe. In the same way it pleased the Lord God at that time to call and to bring to our Order many other excellent men, who afterward illustrated it with their vast piety and their learning, as I shall relate below.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER VII.

He teaches others the virtues required in a herald of the Word of God, and practises them himself; he is chosen preacher to the emperor Charles V.

[ ] On account of the frequent labour of preaching he abates nothing Heralds of the divine word are sometimes wont — especially those who, having gained a remarkable esteem and fame of name, are driven by the desire and concourse of their hearers to give frequent sermons — on account of the great labour attached to this office, to relax somewhat of the rigour and harshness of their former life, and, in order to bring profit and fruit to souls, to suffer some loss of their own rest and interior retirement; although in fact no loss is suffered, since by all this the Lord is served and Christian charity exercised. But the good F. D. Thomas, neither on account of the labour of preaching, nor on account of the multitude (such as it was) of men who ran to him for counsel in their affairs and for consolation in their calamities (for the Lord God had adorned him with prudence and dexterity for all things), relaxed anything of his fasts and abstinence, nor made even the least loss either of his interior retirement or of the time which he had each day set apart for prayer: he was as harsh toward his body as before, as turned in mind to heavenly things, as assiduous in all the exercises he had used before.

[55] Nor did so numerous an assembly, concourse and applause of hearers who followed him, nor the esteem which all held of his person and doctrine, take away anything more from his holy humility, modesty he abates from the exercise of piety. and integrity. On the contrary, the more he was heard, loved and honoured

by all, the more guileless was he toward all, the more humble and modest, and that without any pretence of counterfeit virtue, but in such a way that it easily appeared how pure and sincere a mind he bore. By this good example of life he won for himself that eagerness and zeal with which he was heard; by the austerity with which he treated his flesh, afflicting it with brief sleep and much abstinence, he gained for himself the force and efficacy with which he spoke to the people; and indeed the blessed F. Alphonsus de Horosco ^a relates that the words and voice of father Thomas were like a knife, piercing through the heart and soul of his hearers; while by frequent and assiduous prayer he acquired that divine spirit and those most fervent affections with which, as with burning arrows, he penetrated the vitals and breast of his audience.

[56] He teaches others the virtues required in a preacher, Certain of his familiars, seeing him so distinguished, so renowned for the throng of his hearers, and so fruitful a herald of the word of God, asked him what authors or books he used, and who were the most fit for that office. All books, he answered, which the Church approves as Catholic are good, and in all of these an orator will find whence to draw fruit, provided only that he have three things: holiness of life, humble prayer, and a true ardour and desire for the divine glory and the salvation of souls. For the example and holiness of his life will win him authority with his hearers; in humble prayer his own soul will be instructed, his understanding enlightened, his affections kindled: here are forged the arrows with which hearts are to be struck and pierced through; while the ardour for the divine glory and for the salvation of souls will inflame his mind and give his words strength and efficacy. Study alone, without prayer and burning zeal, makes the understanding swollen indeed with great subtleties and an abundance of opinions, but leaves the preacher's will dry and his breast cold; and from a cold breast (this saying he uttered and often repeated) how can burning words be brought forth?

[57] and practises them himself, These were the chief gifts which accompanied his sermons: a life so religious and of such example in every kind of virtue and sanctity that in his works could well be seen what he preached in words; a fervent charity and a most ardent desire for the divine glory and the salvation of souls, joined with remarkable prudence and the most profound humility — virtues so necessary to a herald of the Gospel; prayer so assiduous that, as that distinguished servant of God, the holy Bishop's visitor, master John Porta, used to relate, he contracted from its frequent use such a habit that afterwards, even when he was archbishop, in the midst of business, dealing with those who came to him, he would listen and answer fitly what he ought, and at the same time pray and speak in his heart with God. Now it is most clear and most certain that the discourse of this true Minister of the new Law, supported by such helps, could not but bear remarkable fruit wherever it was delivered. And this appeared also among all the peoples among whom he scattered the seed of the Gospel, and especially at Burgos, Valladolid and Salamanca, in which places he stayed longest and gave sermons. In each of them all clung to him with an unwonted zeal, the whole people was carried away to him, they anxiously asked one another where he was going to speak, and hastened there in good time to hear him; and the church or monastery to which he betook himself to preach was reckoned most fortunate.

[58] and a vast fruit, Not only laymen of every rank and condition, but also those of every religious Order, and the masters and sacred preachers themselves, on the day on which F. Thomas was to speak to the people, would omit their own sermon and go to hear him, having experienced the fruit and profit which they drew from his teaching. To whatever city or people he betook himself, that effect so clear and manifest which his sermons had while the Servant of God was preaching was a thing worthy of note. For at once notorious sinners, pernicious by their example, were seen to be converted to amendment; public vices and the vices of men of every condition were taken away; enmities and inveterate quarrels were extinguished; merchants given to dangerous trading were untaught their error, and, struck with fear through his teaching, changed their manner of business, remitted and restored much, that they might procure security of conscience; noble and illustrious persons publicly amended their lives, and exchanged their promenades, games, finery and affection for perishable things ^b for retirement, modesty, alms, prayer and the frequent use of the Sacraments.

[59] He did not seek ornament of diction in his sermons, nor take care not by the ornament of his speech, that his discourse should be very elegant and polished, but that it should be pure and apt, and before all else that his words should be solid, devout, full of spirit and of efficacy for moving the minds of his hearers; not that they should extol his speech with empty admiration and praises, but that they should think of God and of His works as a Christian mind must; that they should grieve for their sins and earnestly strive after amendment of manners. Such were all the sermons of this divine Orator. And so it often happened that, the sermon ended, many, oppressed within by anguish, went away from it to expiate their crimes at once by sacred confession; and that, prostrate at the priest's feet, they could not utter them for the heavy sadness and grief which penetrated their hearts and had been sent into them by the divine will through the words of F. Thomas, so far that from the abundance of their tears they could scarcely speak.

[60] From the sermons of the blessed Father, and from what the Lord God evidently wrought through them, but by the efficacy of his words he attains it. it was plainly ascertained how certain is the Prophet's saying concerning the word of God, that namely to hard, stubborn and obstinate hearts it is like a hammer or an iron mattock, breaking hard rocks ^c; and this which the Apostle says of the same, writing to the Hebrews ^d: "For the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword; and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." And of this kind was the discourse of F. Thomas. Therefore not the common folk only, but learned men and grave persons too, called him the Apostle; others, the sacred Orator of the primitive Church; others, an Angel sent from heaven for the salvation of souls, who by divine power moved, directed and carried hearts away to himself. It often happened that, when he was finishing a sermon in one place, he would announce a sermon in another; and when those who had not heard him rightly pressed him and asked in what place he had announced the sermon, of his eminent humility and modesty he would answer: There is no need for you to go thither; for what you have already heard here, that I shall say there also; nevertheless the whole crowd followed him, and all ran thither with the utmost longing and an extraordinary ardour to hear him.

[61] Within a few years his fame so flew through the kingdom of Castile the emperor Charles V chooses him as his preacher that, when it had come to the ears of the emperor Charles the fifth of glorious memory, and of his most illustrious and most religious consort the empress, they wished to hear him once. And at the first sermon at which they were present, their minds were suffused with such sweetness, they recognized so many gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit bestowed on the good Father, they were affected with such zeal for his teaching, and conceived such an esteem for his piety, fervour and zeal for souls, that they at once ordered letters to be sent to his father provincial, in which they signified that they wished for and named him as their preacher, and desired that for the spiritual consolation and delight of their souls he should for the most part dwell at Valladolid.

[62] and they hear him assiduously; They attended his preaching almost always, both through several of the forty-day fasts in which he gave sermons, and on the chief Sundays and feasts throughout the year, both professing that from his sermons they drew a vast profit for their souls, and that by his words, as often as they heard them, they were enlightened and kindled with divine love. The same was openly confessed by prelates and illustrious men and all who lived at court, who frequented his sermons with an unwonted zeal never seen before. So far that he never spoke from the pulpit but many bishops assembled and were seen among his hearers, men illustrious with titles of honour *, almost all the senators, and the foremost and noblest men of that court; not, as sometimes happens, swept along by the force of the multitude, but drawn solely by the gain and the vast fruit which, in hearing him, they experienced in their souls.

[63] he preaches also before the king of Portugal. It is reported that the same emperor, as often as he stayed at Valladolid, where he had his court, scarcely ever was absent from his sermon, and commanded his chaplains that whenever he was to speak they should tell him where it would be; and when the sermon was not in the royal chapel, and when sometimes he did not wish to go out in public, he came secretly to hear him: for he rarely missed a sermon of his. It happened also that, while F. Thomas was living at Valladolid and the emperor was staying outside Spain, John king of Portugal — to whom, for the excellence and example of his Christian piety, the name of the Holy was given — having heard the fame of his teaching and fervour, asked the head of the province of Castile to send him to him for some space of time, since he desired to hear him and at the same time to experience the fruit of his teaching. Thither F. Thomas went, at the bidding of obedience, to give some sermons. But his departure and absence so afflicted with feeling and grief all the people of Valladolid, highest and lowest, indeed the whole court, that the magistrates assembled and went in a body to the empress, beseeching that her majesty would deign to treat with the king of Portugal, her brother, about sending F. Thomas back to them; since in his absence they thought themselves lost.

[64] Mugnatonius's testimony concerning his sermons. Bishop Mugnatonius, in his brief narrative cited above concerning the sanctity and learning of father Thomas, speaks thus: "This ^e too seems to me to stand in place of a miracle, that universally men of every rank, of every state and condition, roused by a kind of spirit, as by a goad, vied with one another in flocking to his sermons. I pass over now the innumerable throng of the promiscuous multitude, which was inflamed with piety as though unaware of itself. I pass over also the nobles and the great, and any magistrates whatever, and men of note of the equestrian order, all of whom, seized with an incredible ardour, were stirred up. But what I am wont to marvel at the more, he drew to himself lettered men and excellent preachers, and monks of almost every Religious body, and in short no men whatever heaped with letters and erudition but were anxious, eager to hear, forgetful of themselves, roused up from every quarter. A thing assuredly most worthy of the highest admiration, that minds of men so diverse could be so fully satisfied by one and the same discourse. These are the powers of clear truth and of sincere divine virtue. Of these things I am an eyewitness, who diligently took care that never in any way from this

Man's sermon I should be absent." This account and this testimony (setting aside the other things which he records in the same place before this on the same subject), even if there were no other witnesses — though there are many, and of outstanding authority — would suffice for grasping how great was the spirit of F. Thomas, how great his faculty of speaking from the pulpit, with what extraordinary affection and devotion he was heard by all, and what universal fruit his discourse and teaching obtained wherever he preached.

ANNOTATA.

b. Spanish vanidades.

Spanish titulares*.

CHAPTER VIII.

As a director of consciences he leads men of both sexes to a more perfect life.

[ ] After the example of Christ and the Apostles Just as the sun, that bright and ruddy torch set in heaven by divine Providence to illuminate the world, not only communicates its brightness and clearness to the whole earth generally and publicly, but also passes through every opening and makes partakers of it those shut up in bedchambers and dwelling in inner rooms; in the same way too that true sun of justice and light of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ, imparted His light and doctrine not only generally and publicly, by preaching in the temple and in the synagogues, but also in the private houses of those who were devoted to Him and received Him under their roof and hospitality. This appeared in the house of holy Martha, where the most fortunate Mary, sitting at His sacred feet, received His divine words with so great consolation: and the same appeared in many other houses which the sacred Evangelists record. The same thing blessed Luke relates, in chapter XX of the Acts of the Apostles, to have been attested of himself by the apostle Paul, when, about to bid farewell to the churches of Asia, he called together all the bishops of that province and set forth to them with what fervour, with what solicitude and care, and with what labours he had provided for the salvation of the whole region, teaching all publicly and privately from house to house the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and the necessity and use of the Sacraments.

[66] teaching many privately By the same way the true heralds of the Gospel have always provided for the salvation of souls; for as salt is everywhere salt, and light everywhere light, so also sacred preachers and true ministers appointed by the Holy Spirit at every time and in every place enlighten, teach, lead to heaven and kindle with divine love those who hear them, deal with them and come to them. Hence it will abundantly appear what a good salt of souls, and what a shining and clear light of consciences, our blessed father Thomas was. Since, as all with one voice report and attest, in whatever places he lived and stayed he not only bore such fruit by speaking publicly from the pulpit as we saw in the preceding chapter, but also privately there was a notable change of manners and of life in individual men who confessed their sins to him or dealt with him familiarly, ecclesiastics and religious as well as laymen and married people.

[67] he led them to a more perfect rule of life: In the monasteries which he frequented (leaving aside those of his own Order, over which he presided and of which we shall speak in chapter XI), and especially in those of virgins, there was an altogether manifest restoration of discipline, brought in through his instructions, example, counsels and industry. In the houses to which he came, it was soon seen how earnestly profane manners and customs were exchanged for the turning of souls to God and for devotion; not otherwise than if profane houses had been turned into monasteries. Persons who came to him at once forsook the common way of acting in this world, and became more zealous for heavenly things and for divine worship. Among these are recorded countless persons, whose memory is preserved most fresh even to this day, especially at Burgos and Valladolid. I will bring forward here some of them, of whose Christian piety and example, resulting from their intercourse with F. Thomas, men speak in the said cities even today as of persons of great sanctity.

[68] with himself as director of conscience, some embraced the monastic state, The archdeacon of Burgos, having heard his teaching, resolved to employ him in sacred confession and to take him as the director of his soul. And this was the effect it had: that, bidding an utter farewell to the world, to his dignity and to the goods of fortune, he entered a religious Order, and in it lived and ceased to live as a most religious man. A cleric, holding a benefice in the church of St. Giles, by frequenting his sermons began to be so affected toward the worship of God, and to be held by so tender a desire of living with F. Thomas, that, likewise leaving his ecclesiastical benefice, he took the habit in the monastery of our holy father Augustine, where he led a life so holy and austere that he was granted by the Lord much consolation and particular favours in prayer, by which he was often rapt into an ecstasy of mind. But although this matter was hidden from all, he yet made F. Thomas privy to the whole of it, that he might be so directed by him as to draw fruit from these favours of God with acknowledgment and humility, fitting to the good of his soul. This religious, on account of his fasts, his brief sleep and his works of great penance (for he indulged in sleep at most two hours each night, and passed the rest in prayer, while he kept continual and rigid fasts), lived only two years and a half in the Order, bringing by his death as much sadness to all as by the holiness of his life he had given incitement to piety. At his death F. Thomas preached a sermon, and related things so prodigious of that blessed religious that he carried all away into admiration and into esteem for his sanctity.

[69] In the same way an apothecary of Burgos bade farewell to the world, others embraced the ecclesiastical state. distributed his goods to the poor, embraced the ecclesiastical state, and led a life so far removed from perishable things and of such remarkable example that he likewise died with a reputation for sanctity. The same effect he obtained in Francis de Cuevas, Alphonsus del Castillo, and other such men, among the chief and very wealthy in the city of Burgos. Above the rest, another apothecary, whose name was Torres, a man exceedingly rich and powerful, likewise forsook his house and goods and attached himself to F. Thomas and his instruction; and when the latter had been promoted to the bishopric of Valencia, he followed him, reckoning that no consolation or rest could come to his soul so long as he was deprived of the instruction and intercourse of the Servant of God. So also certain others followed him.

[70] Among the more distinguished matrons he wrought a special good by the admonitions, Ladies of the first rank and wealthy, their goods counsels and rules which he prescribed to them for the government of soul and conscience, both within and outside the sacred tribunal of penance. Lady Maria de Castro and her husband Andreas Gutierres, dwellers at Burgos, persons of the first rank and exceedingly rich, having heard a sermon of F. Thomas, were taken with love of his teaching and wished to confess to him: his intercourse so wrought upon them that they soon laid aside all vanity and pomp, forsook whatever of silk and gold they possessed at home, and, since it was of vast quantity, applied part of it to the adornment of churches and part to the relief of the poor. Thereafter they led in their house a life altogether devout and removed from the company of men, keeping between themselves, by a vow undertaken with the consent of both, perpetual continence, and giving themselves to assiduous prayer, to the frequent use of the Sacraments, and to the distribution of vast alms. Those holy spouses, through the instruction of F. Thomas, shone with such example in every kind of virtue, and especially in the desire of promoting and increasing the divine honour, that lady Maria de Castro was commonly called "God's honour." And indeed she professed that she had not found herself to be a Christian until she had enjoyed the conversation and familiarity of F. Thomas, and that after God she owed to him the salvation of her soul. She and her husband constantly spent the remainder of their life in the same devout works, until they died with so great a reputation for sanctity that it flourishes even today in the city of Burgos.

[71] Another matron, by name Agnes Garcia, a woman of the first nobility in the same city of Burgos, being distributed, and pomp laid aside, they lived in holiness. very rich and powerful, having taken F. Thomas as the director of her conscience, distributed all her goods to the hospitals and the poor, serving these with her own hands, cherishing them with great charity, and persevering in the same holy exercises until she died as a saint ^a. The same he effected in lady Eleonora de Carrion, who had had as husband John Alphonsus de Salinas; in lady Juliana del Castillo; in lady Maria Anna de la Torre; in lady Catharina de Espes, and in other chief and more illustrious matrons of Burgos; and likewise in the nobler and richer women of the city of Valladolid, who, taking F. Thomas as the arbiter of their conscience, bade farewell to the manners of this world, embraced an honourable retirement from the company of men, lived with great example of Christian piety, and spent themselves and their goods in assiduous works of charity and mercy to the very end of their lives.

[72] Nuns in various convents Most notable also was the restoration of discipline which followed from his instructions and exhortations in the convents of nuns which he frequented. At Burgos, in the monastery of St. Ildephonsus, lady Beatrix Orense, lady Sancia Pimentel and lady Agnes Vela, having heard sermons of his so devout and words so divine and piercing the very soul, touched with a desire of consecrating themselves with all their effort to the divine service, procured for themselves leave to deal with him and to communicate the secrets of their minds; and through his exercises and counsels they were advanced to a life so intent upon divine things and so religious that, as Antonius de Leon relates — the chief chaplain in the said monastery and director of consciences, who received the last breath of the said ladies — they stood forth in life as a mirror of religious piety, and ended that life as excellent handmaids of God.

Now the words of F. Thomas had so impressed themselves upon their souls that they never let them go from their memory. And although the good Father was absent, having been made Prior of other convents ^b and afterwards archbishop of Valencia, they nevertheless constantly directed their life by the rule of F. Thomas's teaching and of certain devout instructions which he had left them in writing, and which they always preserved as sacred relics. The same benefit he conferred on many other nuns of the same convent, who had him as director of conscience and frequented him during the time he stayed at Burgos.

[73] introduced a more amended discipline Likewise in the monastery of St. Dorothy in the same city, several ladies, drawn by his teaching, by his fervour of spirit and especially by the sermons given to the nuns alone in the choir (which at that time it was lawful to enter), and moved by the efficacy of his words, began to use him as the ruler of their conscience; and being thus enlightened by the Holy Spirit, they soon made a remarkable change in their manners and habit, and thereafter lived a life most religious in the restoration of discipline and in the turning of their minds to divine things, stirring up by their example many others to frequent F. Thomas and to take him as director of their souls; and these, opening to him the secrets of their conscience, were likewise changed. In this way, through the instruction of the Servant of God, an amendment of discipline was brought into this monastery, and all the nuns were led to great piety, who thereafter lived most religiously and died as excellent handmaids of God. To the pattern left by these, those who came afterwards, and those who survive today in the said monastery, have constantly adhered in the same restoration of discipline, being much given to solitude and to the frequent use both of prayer and of the Sacraments. Therefore both those first ones and the rest counted themselves altogether happy whenever they could obtain a sermon or some writing of F. Thomas, and preserved them as sacred relics, on account of the vast consolation and profit which the souls of those who read his words perceive.

[74] Nay, the holy Man conferred this same benefit on many other nuns of the said city of Burgos, of St. Clare and of Holy Cross, whose confessor he was and with whom he dealt; as also on religious men of other Orders, kindling them by his holy and divine discourses to divine love and service and to the observance of their constitutions and rules. And this was very well known and public, from the remarkable experiences which all had who frequented him. In such a manner that whoever had once laid his sins before his ears at once perceived his soul enlightened, applied himself with all his strength to the divine service, and, noticing that all his discourses and every one of his words, as though proceeding from a heavenly seraph, were vehement, fervent, efficacious to inflame even the coldest souls and true instruments of the Holy Spirit, tried to deal with him at other times too in the tribunal of penance and to speak with him privately.

[75] As in the monasteries and in the religious persons with whom he dealt the change and the amendment made in divine worship were notable and evident, many illustrious virgins too so also by his sermons and by his conversations on devout matters he brought it about that many laymen of every condition, wherever he preached or dealt familiarly with men, sent word of dismissal to the world and gave themselves over to the religious life; and that many maidens too of the first rank renounced finery and vain affections of soul, bound themselves to a religious Order, and embraced a state so different, in which they served the Lord with remarkable example and with an incitement to piety for all. As did lady Eleonora de Castro and lady Francisca de Castro, who, being women exceedingly illustrious and sought in marriage by men distinguished with titles of honour, with F. Thomas as director of conscience forsook the world and all its vanities and pleasures, withdrew into the monastery of St. Dorothy at Burgos, and embraced the religious life, so formed by his teaching to the rule of discipline as though they had been accustomed to it for many years — so far that the other nuns of the same convent were astonished, seeing in both these virgins, novices in that state of life, so remarkable a religious piety.

[76] In the same way, through the instruction and example of the Servant of God, lady Helena de Pesquera, a most illustrious woman, bade farewell to the world and professed the religious life in the monastery of St. Mary la Real de las Huelgas ^c at Valladolid; gave themselves over to the religious life. where she so excelled in religious piety that (much resisting) she was set over that same monastery, ample though it was, as superior, and by her virtue and example brought much profit to that house. Like these, others also, and very illustrious ones, were called by the Lord to religious communities, and there, to the great example of all, consecrated themselves to His worship. But since his sermons and instructions were of vast profit to souls, especially with persons who were familiar with him and entrusted to him the secrets of their conscience, these were also seized with vehement feeling and grief of soul whenever he was sent elsewhere by his superiors; and all poured out abundant tears at his absence, judging it a great loss to their souls.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER IX.

In prayer and in his sermons he is frequently rapt into ecstasy.

[ ] So intent was his mind on heavenly things that, while preaching, The examples and holiness of his life, together with the prayer which the blessed Father always used, so assiduous and humble, would surely have sufficed for him to gather from his teaching and sermons as much fruit in souls as we have seen in the preceding chapters. It pleased the Holy Spirit, nevertheless, considering how zealously he was preparing himself to bring forth ampler fruits through his gifts, to impart to him certain extraordinary gifts, for the greater consolation of his soul and the good example of his neighbours. He had — and of this we shall treat first in this chapter — a vehement interior sense both of what he meditated and considered in prayer and of what he said from the pulpit; so vivid was it, so strongly and sweetly impressed upon his soul, that often in prayer he remained withdrawn from his senses and rapt into divine things. And in the pulpit he was so kindled that by the flames sent forth from his mouth the fire with which his soul burned within was abundantly disclosed. Hence he so softened the hearts of his hearers, however dry and hard, that in most of his sermons his words were accompanied by abundant tears, coming from the heart and bursting forth through the eyes both of the speaker and of the hearers. Often he stood motionless in the pulpit, without power of speech, as though deprived of the use of his outward senses by the vehemence of the interior affection which held his blessed soul. And although he often strove to cover and dissemble such affections and excesses of mind, he could not; since this does not lie in a man's power but in that of that most high and almighty Lord, who, as He sees to be expedient, then governs the heart of His Servant and all his senses, both interior and exterior.

[78] while celebrating Mass, while praying This gift shone out openly in F. Thomas and was very public; whence the fathers of Castile notable for gravity, and the chief persons familiar with him, looked up to him as a man whom theologians call Ecstatic, that is, a man who has from the Holy Spirit the gift of excess of mind. At Burgos it was his custom for the most part to perform the divine Rite later and after all the other religious, in the chapel of the holy Crucifix, because by that hour all the laity had gone home, and because he had thus the opportunity of celebrating in greater tranquillity and solitude. And it often happened that while performing the sacred rites there he was rapt into ecstasy, and remained so motionless that the religious who was serving the Mass had to pull his vestment, and that not without some force, that he might return to his senses and complete the Sacrifice. It happened on various occasions that, applying himself to prayer before dinner, he persisted in it fasting until the third or fourth hour of the afternoon ^a, and that the religious ran to his cell to bring him food. The same happened in the choir, where, the divine offices being ended, he alone remained in prayer; and they report that he was several times seen beside his senses and lifted from the ground. He had ordered the brother to whom the care of his chamber was committed to call him at a certain hour to celebrate Mass. One day this brother came at the said hour; and when, calling him once and again, he perceived that he obtained no answer, suspecting how the matter stood, he forced the door, opened it, entered, and found the Servant of God so rapt in ecstasy that he made no answer to one addressing him. A little after he came to himself, and when this brother signified to him that dinner in the convent was by then already over, and that the time in which it was lawful to celebrate Mass had passed, he answered, much dissembling: I did not think the day was so far advanced; I am sorry not to have celebrated; but God knows that in this I have not offended against Him.

[79] F. Melchior de Yebre of the Order of the holy father Francis, and while reciting the divine office who was guardian at Alcalá, a man of eminent virtue known throughout Spain, whose life master Villegas writes in his volume of the Extravagant Saints ^b, setting forth what an excellent servant of God and how understanding of divine things F. Thomas was, related to F. Didacus Guevara, preacher of the convent of our holy father Augustine at Salamanca, and to F. John Camara, master of sacred Theology and guardian of the college of SS. Peter and Paul of the Order of St. Francis at Alcalá, and to other excellent persons who attest it, that that blessed Father, while he was archbishop of Valencia, on the feast day of the Ascension into heaven of Jesus Christ our Redeemer, about the sixth hour of the morning, reciting the canonical hours, when he had come to None and had said that Antiphon, While they looked on, he was raised up*, was withdrawn from his senses and rapt into ecstasy, and remained standing upright on his feet until the fifth hour of the evening: and returning to himself from the ecstasy and excess of mind, he asked the chaplain who was reciting the Hours with him, and had not moved a foot from the place: How far have we come? And when the chaplain answered: We began None

and your Grace prefaced it with the Antiphon While they looked on: Therefore, said he, let us say None, and then I will go to celebrate the holy sacrifice of the Mass, and afterwards to the choir, to assist at the office and at the sermon. That cannot be done, most illustrious Lord, said the priest. Why not? Because just now the fifth hour of the evening has been struck; let your Grace attend to the sound of the bronze bell in the monasteries, giving the signal for Compline. Astounded, he said: Let us then recite None and the remaining Hours: I am indeed sorry, not so much for my own sake as for yours, that you have not performed the divine Rite. But so it pleased the Lord God, and that without your fault or mine. Be assured that we have in no way offended Him; for neither could you forsake me, nor I the grace conferred upon me by the Lord.

[80] Then that chaplain prostrated himself at his feet, earnestly begging was rapt into ecstasy for a long time that for the love of God and for the profit to his own soul that would come of it, he would declare what that so long-lasting alienation of the senses had meant; for it had lasted about eleven hours, having begun, that is, at half past six in the morning, and by now the fifth hour of the evening had struck. The good F. Thomas, since the man begged with such ardent zeal and promised that he would cover the matter with silence, resolved to declare it to him, so that that upright priest — whose name was lord Bonillo, and who held an ecclesiastical benefice in the metropolitan church — might give praise to God and use it for the profit of his soul. And thus he declared it. Know, brother, that at the very moment of time in which I began the Antiphon While they looked on, a great throng of angels took it up from my mouth and began to sing it through this air so sweetly and tunefully that the harmony stole me from myself, and the heavenly music fixed all my senses. But I marvel that you assert that so many hours have passed, since — I speak the truth to you — it did not seem to me that half a one had gone by. For this is the property of heavenly delight and consolation, that one day seemed to him half an hour. The aforementioned F. Camera adds in his testimony that he is firmly persuaded that F. Melchior de Yebra, who related the matter, had also been taught it by the inspiration of the divine Godhead: for in his remarkable simplicity and candour of soul he used to relate many things which he had learned by the showing of the Holy Spirit, and which were afterwards proved by the event. Moreover, since the Saint on that day neither performed the sacred Rite, nor appeared in the church, nor ate before evening, the matter was known to several of his household ^c, and was communicated by them to others, who likewise confirm it by their testimony.

[81] Hence there is no reason to marvel at what F. Thomas himself confessed of himself on this matter in his sermon on the Transfiguration of our Redeemer. For since he had so often been seen in ecstasy while praying, while preaching ^d and while celebrating the Sacrifice of the Mass ^e, and could neither avoid it nor forestall it, and since what he had wished to keep covered was now public, it seemed good to him, taking occasion from the doctrine to be set forth in that sermon, to say something of the things which were communicated to him by God in his excesses of mind: both that his hearers might praise God, and that they might make themselves ready by integrity of soul to receive the same, whenever it should please the divine Godhead to communicate them to them also, if it were fitting. Moreover, since his spirit and soul burned with such ardour with the things which he was to say in the sermon concerning divine contemplation and prayer, and concerning the vast and extraordinary graces which God lavishes therein upon men truly zealous for heavenly things, I think it was not in his power to abstain from saying them, the Holy Spirit so directing his tongue, to whom he commended himself so earnestly, most particularly and almost always when he was about to speak in a sermon.

[82] which he was himself compelled And so in that sermon, weighing those words which the divine Peter addressed to our Redeemer when he beheld Him surrounded with such glory on mount Thabor, Lord, it is good for us to be here, etc., and drawing from them the blessed and most fortunate condition of the soul which, forgetful of earthly and temporal things, cleaves with its whole heart and desire to things eternal, sets all its love and affection upon God, and builds in its own soul a tabernacle and dwelling for the most holy Trinity, he says: Who could utter, what tongue express, the joy, the delight, the tranquillity, the goods and delights, the peace and inward security which he enjoys who in that manner offers his heart to the Lord as a dwelling place? Happy and blessed the man who turns all his care and thought to the making of that tabernacle! O with what delight will he be filled! Then, dealing with the same in words full of spirit and feeling, his heart kindled with an ardent desire to bring profit to his hearers and to prick them on, he began to add and to say these things.

[83] "For my part, brethren, to say something meanwhile of myself, to confess. if sometimes (and this most rarely) it has been granted to me, unworthy — not indeed by my merit, but by the free gift of Christ the best and greatest — to go up with Him into the high mountain, and there to look upon the glory of His countenance, even a little and from afar, oh with what burnings, with what tears do I cry out : My Lord, it is good for us to be here; suffer me not to go down again from this mountain; this Thy presence suffices me ; depart not, I beseech Thee, go not away from me; in this let my whole life, in this let all my days be spent. What more is sought? This alone I will, this alone I long for, this alone I desire, this alone I ask. But alas, alas, suddenly that glory vanishes, that peace, that sweetness, and I am left full of sorrow; it forsakes at once my panting * soul, and like a lightning-flash passing by, so that splendour passes away: oh, if it had but lasted! But let us return to the history," etc. Thus far his own words; for he wrote out his sermons in Latin ^f.

[84] A truly illustrious testimony of what the soul of the Servant of God enjoyed in those excesses of mind, Likewise while preaching and of what the Lord in His mercy communicated to him during the time they lasted. For since the blessed Man was endowed (as is clear) with a mind altogether upright, sincere and humble; and since he so greatly loved secrecy, and anxiously took care that the particular favours granted him by God should be disclosed to no one, what in that sermon, in the words here recited, he indicated of himself is the surest proof of the remarkable graces conferred upon his soul on like occasions ^g. On a certain day of Holy Week, preaching at Burgos in the monastery of St. Ildephonsus, he took for his theme those words of the Apostle: "For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus," etc., and repeated them three times; for as often as he recited them, so often did he seem unable to go further for the tears which increased at each repetition of the same. The whole audience was moved in soul, and he himself, doubling those words a third time, was rapt into ecstasy, and remained in it, while all waited, for about the space of an hour. When the hour had passed he returned to his senses, and began his sermon upon those words and carried it to the end like a heavenly seraph.

[85] In the convent of the nuns of St. Dorothy, of the Order of Canons Regular of St. Augustine, before the nuns, where, as has been said, he so far prevailed by his sermons that those who before wore garments woven of goat's hair *, and bore veils of silk, and shoes most elegantly made after the fashion of women of the first rank and of the richer sort, changed everything, taking a habit of black and coarse cloth, veils of white linen, and a whole dress entirely consonant with the religious life; and exchanged obsequious salutations and familiar meetings for prayer, for the frequent use of the Sacraments, and for a careful and devout assiduity in the divine Office — rising for Matins at midnight, although the region is so cold, even in the height of winter's harshness, and many of them persevering there in prayer until the hour of morning. In this convent he gave sermons frequently, on account of the fruit which he there gathered; and there too he was seen on the festival of the Body of the Lord, and on other solemn feasts, to be rapt into ecstasy at the beginning of the sermon; sometimes also, before he mounted the pulpit, leaning on the altar he was withdrawn from his senses, and those excesses lasted for some hours.

[86] before the emperor. On a certain day, preaching in the chief church of the same city and rebuking sins with a vehement feeling of soul, and holding in his hand an image of the Lord dying on the cross, in a voice issuing from the inmost depths of his soul he began to repeat: Look hither, Christian, look hither; and pronouncing these words, and unable to go further, he stopped with his face aflame, rapt into ecstasy, moving the minds of his hearers more by his silence than he would have done by speaking. At Valladolid on the Thursday of Holy Week, preaching before the emperor Charles the fifth on the Mandatum ^h, after much and well-handled doctrine which the history of this sacred Gospel supplies, in the middle of the sermon, coming to those pithy words of St. Peter, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? and expounding them and saying: Thou, Lord, mine? Thou, my God, the glory of the angels, the beauty of the heavens, the Lord of every creature — mine? Mine? — being able neither to go on nor to utter a word further, he remained motionless like a marble column, without any other motion or sense than that he held his eyes fixed on heaven, with tears flowing continually.

[87] before the General of his Order When in the year one thousand five hundred and forty-one a chapter of the province of our Order was to be held in Castile, at which the most reverend father general, master Fr. Jerome Seripando, was present and presided; that same father general by a particular letter (which we shall see hereafter) called and invited him, since he greatly desired to see and speak with him on account of what he had heard of his singular piety and learning, and indeed with the intention of making him Prior provincial of Castile and his own vicar general throughout all Spain. F. Thomas, suspecting what the Prior general purposed in his mind, of set purpose and to avoid the burden delayed on the journey, and took care not to arrive before the noon of the Saturday on which the assembly was held, nor before the hour at which it was altogether certain, and by the laws and constitutions of our sacred Order necessary, that the head of the province and the assessors should already have been appointed. This was a particular providence of our Lord, that the happy church and diocese of Valencia might enjoy him, as we shall see below.

[88] and before the assembled fathers But although the most reverend father grieved that F. Thomas had not been present sooner, he nevertheless received him on his arrival with great joy and delight; and he did indeed rebuke him for that cause

a little, but with great charity and consideration, and as it were in punishment for his delay enjoined him to give the sermon at the chapter the next day. It was assuredly an arduous business for him, who had arrived already weary from the journey, who had so short a space of time left, and whose memory, although he was endowed with remarkable keenness of mind, judgment and understanding, was somewhat weak (for which reason he did not preach unless he had laboured on the sermon for fifteen or twenty days ⁱ) — this obligation of giving a sermon at which a numerous audience and an abundance of learned men are wont to be present; even if none should be present but those who come together for the assembly, religious of the same Order, who make up the choice of a province so ample and extensive as that of Castile, and one full of so many men outstanding in religion and learning. But obedience and the desire of satisfying his superior overcoming all difficulties, he accepted the sermon.

[89] He passed that whole night in prayer, beseeching the Lord to enlighten his understanding and to direct his tongue to attain the doctrine fitting for the next day's hearers. to the fathers of the province, When the hour of speaking had come, and the feast of St. Michael fell on the Sunday on which the assembly was held, he took for his theme these words of Psalm CVII: "Who will lead me into the fortified city? who will lead me even into Idumea? ^k" The theme being set forth, he said: These words, which I have chosen for the matter of this discourse, were uttered by one who is now a dweller in heaven, and who, when he uttered them, was here a pilgrim on earth ^l. And pronouncing those words, a dweller in heaven, etc., he was so affected with an inward feeling of soul and with such tenderness of mind that he at once stopped, unable to go further, while abundant tears ran down his venerable cheeks. So he remained for a notable space of time, unable to conceal (though he strove to) what his soul felt, to the vast admiration of the whole audience, to which by those heavenly tears and by his silence he said more than others would have said with many carefully chosen words. At length, after a long interval of time, that emotion and interruption ceased, and he began to say things so sublime and at the same time so full of the lesson of piety that, in the judgment of many and eminent theologians — outstanding among few — who were present at the sermon, the greater part of what he brought forward had not been drawn by study out of books, but obtained by infused knowledge through a particular illumination and gift of the Holy Spirit.

[90] While he was Prior at Burgos, he one day gave the habit to a novice of that same city, and at other times he long remained in an excess of mind. whose name was D. John de Castro; to view this action a great multitude of men flowed together, both because the young man who was receiving the habit was very well known and sprung from an illustrious family, and that they might hear the sermon which, according to the custom usual on such occasions, F. Thomas was to give. The habit now given, he began his sermon on these words from the Canticle of Canticles: "Our sister is little, and she hath no breasts" — the not far advanced age of the young man supplying the occasion for making a sermon upon them. He began then to weigh those words with that spirit which he was wont to use at other times, and soon stuck fast without the faculty of speech for the space of about half an hour. Restored to himself and looking at the bystanders, he said: Pardon me, sirs, that my poor heart is so weak as to put any man to the blush. But what we did not say a little while ago we will say now; and he preached like a heavenly angel. Those witnesses who relate these things add that, as often as he was rapt into ecstasy while preaching, none of the hearers went away, but rather, when the thing was understood, many more came. And if it happened in some monastery, all the religious ran up to hear what he would say when he had returned to himself; since after those ecstasies he handled things so divine and with such fervour and efficacy that he wore down the minds of his hearers.

ANNOTATA.

Spanish y quan espiritual*

elsewhere a*

elsewhere o qualibus*

elsewhere clamito*

elsewhere there is added hoc gaudium, sufficit mihi*

elsewhere hiantem; elsewhere luentem*

Spanish chamelote*

CHAPTER X.

He foretells things to come.

[ ] The grace of foretelling things to come Although the gifts of which we must treat in this and the following chapter are neither sufficient nor certain proofs of a pure and holy conscience, since souls estranged from the divine friendship and subject to grave sins have sometimes possessed them and can possess them, as is clear from the sacred Writings and from those words of Jesus Christ our Redeemer in Saint Matthew: Many will say to me in that day of judgment: Lord, in thy name we have preached and prophesied, and in thy name we have cast out devils, and in thy name we have done many mighty works. And then will I confess to them: truly I never knew you, nor are you of the number of my elect, nor are you the greater with me on that account; because whatever you allege is of the least value, since your works have been full of iniquity ^a. Yet when these gifts and graces of foretelling things to come, of casting out devils and others of this kind are joined with true virtue and holy manners, and are found in men who openly show that they seek no other advantage and aim at no other end than the glory of God and the profit of the brethren, they confer much splendour on that virtue and declare its price more amply. Wherefore holy mother Church, who is ruled and governed by the Holy Spirit, whose are all gifts and graces, in the beatification and canonization of holy confessors, although the first and chief thing to which she attends and which she examines is sanctity and life, yet weighs also much the gifts and graces by which they were renowned, and the miracles which they wrought before and after death; and, adding these to those, she makes herself secure.

[92] Nor did the Lord God omit to adorn F. Thomas in that way: granted to the Saint since He disclosed to him many things that were to come, and the knowledge of which could in no way be obtained by a natural or human way. Not many of these indeed are known, both because he took diligent care that the favours particularly granted him by God should not be published abroad, and because that inquiry was instituted so many years after his death: but the things which have come down to us are altogether certain and notable. But since what is contained in this and the following chapter is established from the process not entirely but only in part, I shall here note what is established from it, and what I have learned from other persons worthy of credit, but taken out of life before the inquiry which was afterwards instituted by the authority of the ordinaries and of the Apostolic See.

[93] And so, as regards the gift of prophecy, father master F. Christopher de Santotis ^b, a man of eminent piety and learning (who was for that reason present at the sacred council of Trent as a theologian

delegated by the king of Spain) attests in the process that, when a certain foreigner, a great friend of F. Thomas and very well known to father master de Santotis himself, by name Nicolaus de Witte, had a servant whom he loved much for his virtue afflicted with a grave sickness, for that cause he was on a certain Friday led to Burgos to the sacred image of the Redeemer fastened to the cross; where, after the invocation of His most holy name before that most devout image, it pleased the Lord to grant him a health so sudden and so complete that every one of the bystanders judged it to surpass the powers of nature and to be miraculous.

[94] is proved by examples On that occasion the said Nicolaus de Witte, who was a Fleming, went up altogether joyful to the chamber of F. Thomas, who at that time was Prior of that house, to inform him of the benefit conferred by the Lord upon his servant. It is true, answered F. Thomas, it is a great benefit that the Lord has conferred upon your servant's body, that He may confer another far greater upon your lordship's soul. And so it came about; for on that occasion a desire came upon him of forsaking the world and withdrawing into a religious Order, and this indeed he carried into effect, taking the habit in this sacred house of our holy father Augustine at Burgos; and F. Thomas himself clothed him with it ^c, to the vast delight of the whole convent. That good man became so skilled in heavenly things and of such good example that he was given as master to the recruits of that same monastery: and the said father master Santotis ^d himself passed his noviciate under him. Then in course of time the same F. Nicolaus de Witte sought leave of F. Thomas, then head of the province, to go with some other religious into the Indies ^e and there to serve the Lord in the preaching of the sacred Gospel: where by the remarkable fervour granted them by the Lord they wrought wonderful things for the salvation of those souls. And indeed it has been learned from many religious returning thence that the said father Nicolaus led there a life so holy, and departed from among the living with so great a reputation for sanctity, that he is invoked with great devotion and has wrought many miracles after his death. All there hold him to be a saint and venerate him as such.

[95] What follows was related to me by master John Porta, an excellent servant of God and worthy of all credit, whom F. Thomas had as visitor of his diocese. First, when he was archbishop and observed the great licence and intemperance of life which then existed in every rank of men, he vehemently desired to see a correction of manners, especially in the ecclesiastical order, because much depends on the example of this; and he begged it of the Lord with all his effort. And since it is implanted in men by nature that the tongue is busy with what the heart desires, he often spoke and dealt on that subject with his more intimate friends, especially with the bishop of Segrian ^f and with the said master Porta. On a certain day, after he had ministered at the altar with many tears and devotion (although he always had this, but on that day more than usual), holding, as he was accustomed, a conversation with the said master about the state of the Church, he addressed him in these words: Do not doubt, master, that the Lord will very soon supply a remedy by which the ranks of His Church shall be seriously corrected; and know this to be certain, since He of His clemency has Himself indicated it to a certain servant of His. It is right to believe (as that good master Porta used to say to me) that he was himself the man to whom God had indicated it, and that this was the cause of that devotion and of those extraordinary tears; although out of humility he never disclosed it. In fact the Lord fitted the event to the words of His Servant: for on the days immediately following a messenger came from the emperor Charles the fifth with letters of the most holy lord Paul the third and of the imperial majesty himself, by which he was summoned to the council of Trent, from which, as is agreed among all Catholics, there followed a general reformation of manners in every rank of the Church, and especially in the ecclesiastical and religious ^g.

[96] A young man, an inhabitant of this city of Valencia, was sick, the healing of a sick man, and had been brought to such a pass that no hope of longer life remained; whence master Porta (who also related this matter) conceived great grief, for the love he bore him, and communicated this grief of his to F. D. Thomas, that he might pray for the sick man. On the next day, after he had performed the divine Rite, Bl. Thomas called him and said: Take courage, for the young man who is as a son to you will not die of this sickness. Betake yourself thither, and order Aguilar the physician to be called in (in such a way that the others who have come hitherto do not take it ill), for he will detect the kind of the disease, and, by God's inspiration, will cure it. The thing fell out exactly as F. Thomas foretold. And this was afterwards attested in the process by the very Valencian inhabitant who had been sick, namely F. Christopher Perez de Almacan of the Society of Jesus ^h.

[97] In the year one thousand five hundred and fifty-two the clergy of the parish of St. Catharine the martyr began to build themselves a tomb in the greater chapel of the church. the burning of a church, The matter being learned by those who belonged to the parish, Michael Jerome Garcia, a knight, and Antonius Martinus Moret, a merchant, who in that year had charge of the fabric of the church, accompanied by D. Didacus Boil, lord of Masamagrell, and by John Isquierdo, a merchant, went to the Archbishop, complaining of the damage which the parish was to suffer while the clergy were constructing that place of burial, and praying him to meet it. He at once ordered the rector and the chief men of the clergy to be called to him, and asked them with whose money the principal chapel of the church and all that was in it had been built. They answered that it had been done at the cost and by the alms of those who belonged to the parish. Why then, said he, do you claim it for yourselves without their consent and without my leave? Go, and at once fill up and block the trench which you have dug; but let the clergy be buried in another part of the church, where no injury may be done to anyone, and let the principal chapel be left free and empty, until there shall be a vast necessity on the occasion of a fire which will befall that church: then, if it seem good — for a great part of it will have to be rebuilt — it will be of profit to grant this place of burial to one of the more honoured and wealthy men, who may contribute a vast sum for its restoration: but if not, the restoration will be done at the cost of the parish, not at yours. And so he dismissed them, and the matter was carried out. The prediction was found as true as was true that vast fire which in the year one thousand five hundred and eighty-four, on the day of the Lord's Supper, we ourselves beheld with our own eyes, and which, by a more hidden judgment of God, took its origin from the sacred tomb of that same church, the altar * of the principal chapel, the organ, and the greater and better part of it being burnt up. And moreover, when on that same day the aforesaid John Isquierdo and Antonius Moreth met one another (from whom I heard it), the one said to the other: Do you see what happens? Today has been fulfilled what that blessed archbishop D. F. Thomas of Villanova said to us and prophesied.

[98] A very rich merchant, a familiar friend and devoted to him, the unlucky marriage of a girl, announced to him beforehand his daughter's marriage, that he might beg the Lord for it. F. D. Thomas promised that he would do so, and warned him not to complete the business before they should meet again together. But that merchant, without speaking to him further, completed the matter; and then after a few days returned to announce that it was now completed. F. Thomas, seeing him glad, as over a marriage in his own opinion very suitable, said: I am sorry that your lordship has so quickly determined and concluded the business, and that before you came to me a second time; since you had committed to me the care of commending it to the Lord. For if you had been pleased to accept my judgment, it would by no means have been carried through. But I also foretell to you that this marriage will be the ruin and destruction of your family, and that after your death, which is not far off, your daughter will suffer much calamity and misery. It came about altogether as the Servant of God foretold, and I myself am a clear witness of the unhappy issues of that wedlock; since I afterwards dealt with the very persons, who, if I were to name them (which is not lawful), would be attested by many who knew them and are even now surviving in that city.

[99] he foretells a boy's unhappy end. One of the servants of the blessed Bishop, by name Nicolaus, came one day very joyful to the chamber in which he was living, to tell him that his wife had obtained a son from the Lord. Father D. Thomas looked at him with a sad countenance and said: Pray earnestly to the Lord, you and your wife, for that boy; for I foretell that it will come to pass that he will not grow up, but will fall not many years hence, will die an unhappy death, and will bring you vehement griefs. This forewarning too (master Porta used to tell me) was most true. For that boy, when only a few years old, was killed for a crime wicked beyond a boy's years; while his father, wishing to avenge the homicide, ruined himself and suffered much calamity and loss.

[100] A prediction concerning When the college was finished which he built beside the schools of that city for poor students of that diocese, and the well-ordered chapel which he wished to be erected in it under the invocation of the blessed Virgin Mary presented in the temple, in memory of his having taken on that day the habit of our holy father Augustine at Salamanca; and when the laws which seemed fitting for the due governance of the students, both at all times and in times of good and ill health, had been prescribed, and the rules laid down which were to be observed both in divine worship and in studies and in every action: some persons, and by name master Caro, noticing that, as a Man to whom the experience of nothing was lacking, and who knew to the smallest point whatever was fitting for a college or a monastery, he had extended his care to all things, even particular and minute, and yet had not taken care that a place of burial should be provided in the said chapel for students of the college who should die there, said to him that he should look to it, since he seemed to have forgotten this matter.

[101] the college founded by him. There is a tradition among the students of the said college, received from the ancients and handed as it were from hand to hand down to those of today, that he answered: Let no care about that trouble you, for it will not be necessary. And as has been evident down to this time, prudent men look up to that answer as a prophecy of what we see even now. For although more than seventy years have passed since there began to be students in the college, and there have always been such, and not seldom some have been seized with the gravest illnesses, by which they were brought to the last extremity, yet none has hitherto died in the said college; but the danger

all escaped, completed their course of studies, and went out thence in entire health, very learned and devout, so much so that their superiors soon used their labour for the service of the churches and the salvation of souls. One indeed died, but not in the college: for, feeling himself ill, he went away to his own country, thinking it would be better for him there; where, his sickness increasing, he ceased to live. All this is ascribed to the prayers of F. Thomas and to the care which (as is to be believed) he has in heaven for the college and for his students.

ANNOTATA.

Spanish el retablo*

CHAPTER XI

He drives out demons.

[ ] His power Besides the prophetic spirit, of which we spoke in the preceding chapter, the Servant of God received also that gift by which many Saints and friends of God were renowned, namely power and command over demons. And this (as Palladius says in the History which he called the Lausiac, in the Life of blessed Paul ^a, whom the ancients called by the surname the Simple or the Sincere on account of his eminent humility, purity and sincerity) the Lord is wont to impart to persons excelling in humility; since it is a just reward of humility that those spirits, in whom arrogance and pride found, held and hold so notable a place, should be subject and obedient to those who excel in that virtue; of whom the prophet says: The pride of thine enemies, O Lord, riseth up always and mounteth against thy honour and glory, since they desire and strive to claim it for themselves ^b.

[103] over demons When the good F. Thomas was Prior at Burgos, there was a wretched man so possessed by demons that, although much and great diligence was employed to drive them out, they never went forth: so obstinate were those execrable spirits. He was brought to F. Thomas; and he bade all the religious give themselves with him to prayer that they might be expelled; and although this was done, they were not expelled. Being asked why they were not driven out by the prayers of so many religious men, he said (what without doubt he must have learned from the Lord in prayer): Because these demons are of those of which our Redeemer says in the Gospel: This kind of demons is not cast out but by prayer and fasting; because to cast them out there is need of much prayer and fasting. Therefore, at F. Thomas's command, the religious kept fasts for some days and earnestly prayed the Lord for that man; and by those fasts and prayers the same man was set free, whole and sound. And this, on the testimony of father master Santotis, all believed to have been a miracle wrought by God through the intercession and patronage of F. Thomas.

[104] is proved by various examples In the same city of Burgos there arose one day so vehement a storm of winds and whirlwinds that it threw some houses to the ground and stripped many of their roofs, to the great loss of the place. F. Thomas betook himself to the chapel of the Lord fastened to the sacred wood, which is held there in great veneration in the monastery of our holy father Augustine; where with vast piety and fervour he begged the Lord to have mercy on this calamity and to lay down that scourge from His hand: and, as though informed in prayer of the state of the matter, he climbed the tower with another religious, and looked around him with his eyes (as he afterwards declared) upon demons of various and most foul shapes wandering through the air and stirring up the causes of these damages; and he commanded them in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that they should straightway hurry away thence, and cause no further damage or evil to that place. And at that very moment of time they fled away and every misfortune ceased: so that from the calm and serenity which the air at once enjoyed there evidently appeared the force which the voice of the Servant of God brought upon them, and the strength and power which he obtained over them.

[105] Likewise F. Jerome Guzman, a monk of our Order, a most religious man, related that, is confirmed. while F. Thomas was Prior in that city of Burgos, there was brought into the chapel of the sacred image of Christ hanging from the cross a man possessed, whom the demon repeatedly tormented vehemently, and repeatedly allowed to be quiet and free from that torment. F. Thomas, being informed of the matter, ordered the sacristan that as soon as he saw him tormented he should at once call him, at whatever hour it might happen. In the morning, as he was returning from morning prayers, the sacristan ran up saying that at that time the demon was vehemently tormenting the wretched man, drawing much foam from his mouth and distorting his face in strange ways. F. Thomas asked all the religious, who were then coming out of choir, to accompany him to the chapel of the sacred image of Christ hanging from the cross, that they might pray together for the possessed man. They betook themselves to the said chapel, where all with F. Thomas gave themselves to prayer; and the Lord in His remarkable mercy willed that that accursed spirit should flee away, leaving the wretched man free, though exceedingly wearied and weak, without any sign of him. There all gave infinite thanks to the Lord for the vast benefit which the wretched man obtained there in the presence of all from His blessed right hand. Then F. Thomas said to his Religious: See, fathers, why I wished you all to accompany me to beseech the Lord for that possessed man. I desired it for a twofold reason. First, because common prayers are of greater power before the Lord our God; secondly, that, when this benefit and miracle was to be wrought by the divine goodness, he for whose sake the Lord should work it in that man might be safer from the danger and stroke of vainglory.

[106] In the first year of his archbishopric, in the general visitation He drives out of a girl a demon suffused with shame, which he was making throughout the whole diocese of Valencia, when he had come to the town of Alcoy ^c, as is related in his process, he found a girl whom a malignant spirit had so taken possession of that it could be expelled neither by prayers, nor by exorcisms, nor by the other remedies wont to be employed in the Church. The course of what had been done was related to F. D. Thomas, and he promised that he would pour out prayers to the Lord for her. On a certain Saturday, the sacrifice of the Mass being finished, he said to the vicar of that town: Tomorrow, when all the people have come together for the Office, announce from the pulpit both whatever you have heard and learned about this demon, and certain other things which I shall specially teach you; and be assured that he will go out very soon: for this demon is an exceedingly proud spirit, and thinks that his deceits are known to no one; but when he perceives that they are known to us, and that we are even publishing them abroad, he will depart suffused with shame. And so it came to pass; for on the next day, which was Sunday, when the vicar published from the pulpit both what he had been able to learn about that demon at the time of the exorcisms and what he had privately learned of his deceits from F. D. Thomas, he straightway fled from the woman's body, causing her indeed some pain in going out, yet leaving her without hurt or damage of any kind.

[107] In the same town of Alcoy a married woman, by name Andolça Gisbert, likewise many out of a woman wife of Andreas Boatella, was for a long time so horribly vexed by demons dwelling in her that the whole people was struck with fear and terror. For the demons repeatedly tortured and afflicted her so far that the thing was worthy of compassion; sometimes she was driven with such fury that she struck men with amazement; and when she could tear herself out of the house in which she was kept shut up, she wandered through the streets, throwing stones and causing much damage. And although the vicar of the place took pains to apply to her prayers, exorcisms and the other remedies prescribed by holy mother Church for helping the possessed, none of these availed. Wherefore the magistrates * of the town, and the wretched woman's kinsfolk, brought the matter to F. D. Thomas as their bishop, relying on the hope

that with him some remedy would be found, such as the girl before mentioned had obtained by his counsel.

[108] after prayers poured out That good Shepherd committed the charge of going to Alcoy and applying exorcisms to that wretched woman to a priest whose name was lord Ojos negros ^d, and who in the city of Valencia was accustomed to recite prayers over the possessed and to level exorcisms at evil demons, and sometimes freed them from the tyrant of hell. The priest went thither, and although he recited the sacred Gospels, the litanies and the other prayers which he was wont to use, he availed nothing further. Then Thomas gave orders that she should be brought to Valencia; and when she had been brought, he commended her to the Lord with particular prayers, and, after he had prayed much, declared that the demons which tormented her were most wicked, and would not be cast out by the common way and manner; since they were of those of which our Redeemer declared that they must be cast out by the force of prayers and fastings — which the Servant of God probably learned in prayer, when he was apart beseeching the Lord for her.

[109] to God, Then, understanding that this woman, while she was well, was affected with great devotion toward the mystery of the Son of God assuming human nature, he sent word to commend to the nuns of the monastery of the Incarnation in the same city that they should pour out prayers for her: which those religious women did with great devotion. Then he bade a priest whom he designated to offer on a certain day the sacrifice of the Mass for her in the chapel of St. Mary of the Snows, which is in the same city in the monastery of the holy father Francis; and he himself also offered it on the same day with great piety in his own chapel. And on that very appointed day, when the Mass which the priest celebrated at the altar of St. Mary of the Snows was finished, and that which he himself the Saint said in his own chapel, at once the demons forsook the woman, and she remained wholly calm and sound. And although the chief reason for which the Lord had mercy on the woman were evidently the prayers and fastings of the blessed Bishop, yet he willed that the prayers of the nuns and the Sacrifice of the priest should also be employed, that it might be ascribed not to himself but to others, desiring in his remarkable and true humility to avoid all honour and human esteem. But the Lord permitted that, although the Servant of God so strove to hide it, yet all who heard, and the witnesses who reported it, attributed it chiefly to the prayers, fastings and merits of F. D. Thomas.

[110] Other possessed women There was at Valencia, in the street which is called del Fumeral, a girl into whose body an evil demon entered. That accursed guest stayed in her a long time very secretly, so that none of the theologians could affirm for certain whether the things which she uttered at his moving were divine announcements or the wiles and lies of Satan. She was brought to master John de Salaya, a doctor of Paris and perpetual rector of the university of Valencia, a man at that time very celebrated for his virtue and erudition, that he might hear her confession and examine her; nor yet could it be determined by this way how the matter stood. So for a long time the evil demon lay hidden in the woman. But at length it was discovered that a spirit of wickedness dwelt in her; for she answered in the Latin tongue theological difficulties put to her, which is one of the surest signs that a simple and unlearned person, who has never given attention to studies, is possessed by a demon. They tried therefore to expel him by prayers and exorcisms, but nothing was effected: on the contrary, the wicked one mocked all who came to level adjurations at him, and tortured the wretched girl with a thousand mockeries. The matter was made known to F. D. Thomas, who ordered her to be brought into his house, that he might help her in this calamity by his prayers and Sacrifices. When she had been brought, he celebrated the most holy office of the Mass for her with vast devotion, and as soon as he had finished it and had prayed the Lord for her, the spirit condemned to eternal punishments departed, by God's clemency and the prayer of His Servant leaving her free without sign or trace of what she had suffered, to the vehement astonishment of all who were present, since they saw that so many attempts had been made and remedies applied in vain to free the unhappy woman from the demon, and that after the Sacrifice offered for her by F. D. Thomas he departed from her forthwith.

[111] Another girl, the daughter of an officer of the same city, upon whom other remedies had been employed in vain on the occasion of certain days of festivity, by the Lord's permission, in punishment of the levities of mind and of certain superstitions which such persons frequently practise, was seized by a demon and driven with such and so great a fury that she could by no means be governed *. Diligent provision was made that the exorcisms and remedies appointed by holy Church in like cases should be applied to her. But when no profit was drawn from this (so far did the demon lord it over the wretched little woman), a matron who was devoted to F. D. Thomas ordered her to be brought to her; so it was done, and she herself together with those who had brought her went to the blessed Bishop and begged him to have compassion on what the girl, one of his flock, was suffering. The Servant of God in his humility excused himself, because they demanded it as being wholly confident that he had the power of commanding the demon to depart from her.

[112] But considering how urgently they pressed and how they begged him for the love of God, he sets her free and touched with compassion at what he saw the wretched girl suffering, he ordered her to be brought nearer and to kneel; and when she was prostrate there at his feet, he recited the Gospels and the other prayers. The witnesses report that it was a piteous thing to hear such terrible cries as she uttered while he read. The demon, seeing himself constrained, and not able to hold out before that Servant of God, as though subdued by the prayers, declared that he would go out: and immediately, from what all the bystanders observed in the woman, they knew that he had departed. For at once they saw her calm, with a countenance serene, such as she had not worn before, and free from the effects which she suffered and which the indwelling demon produced in her. There she confessed her sin and her fault; and F. D. Thomas consoled her and exhorted her to expiate her faults by sacred confession, to receive the Sacraments, and, when she had received them, to be brought to him again. When she had returned to him he urged and persuaded her to give herself to the religious life, which she did with a willing mind and great devotion, since the holy Bishop proposed it to her and helped her with a great part of the dowry, that she might withdraw into a monastery and there, called far away from the affairs of the world, serve God.

[113] he frees In a place near Valencia, called Chirivella, a demon likewise, by the hidden judgment of God, seized a little girl. The parish priest, in whose house she was living (since he had already had proof of the power with which the holy Prelate was endowed against demons), came to beg that he would permit her to be brought to him and would relieve her with his help. F. D. Thomas, according to his lowliness of mind, said that they should present her to certain priests, for these had been adorned by the Lord with the grace of relieving such calamities. The said parish priest asserted that she had already been brought to those priests, and that the demon had already been adjured by their prayers, but without fruit; and therefore he begged him to have compassion on the unhappy little girl, because she suffered much. Therefore, moved with pity: Let her be brought, said he, yet not by day and with noise, but by night and with few knowing of it. So she was brought, and by his order placed in the lower part of the house, where one of the household servants lived with his wife and daughters. Going down he visited her there, and ordered her to be put alone in a little cell, and to pass that night there with an Agnus Dei ^e and bound with a stole. And he himself went up to his oratory, to commend her to the Lord.

[114] from demons, Those who lived in that part of the house noticed that night that the wicked spirit vehemently tortured the afflicted little girl, and thence they were moved with great feeling of compassion: wherefore next morning they at once informed the blessed Bishop of it. Then he went down again to visit her and blessed her, and thereupon a great, though not a full, tranquillity came upon her. He returned to his chapel and with great devotion offered the sacrifice of the Mass for her; and when it was ended he visited her again and found her wholly calm and much changed from her former state: he ordered her bonds to be loosed and food to be offered her, saying that she was now sound and free. And so it was; and she herself confessed that she found herself now free. For she said that the demon had before appeared to her in horrible shapes set before her, and that she had been vexed by these as long as she was possessed by him; but more terribly when she was being brought to the house of that Monk (meaning F. Thomas), and most of all through this whole night; but that in the morning, while he was visiting her and blessing her, those visions had in great part fallen away, and indeed wholly after he had returned, that is, when he had performed the sacred rites: and that now no trace of the vision remained to her, no sense of pain; but that she found herself thoroughly sound, filled with consolation, and free of all fear of the hostile spirit.

[115] and by whom he is feared. Besides these, although no particular account of the matter has been left, the Lord God imparted His mercy to many other possessed persons, through the intercession of the prayers and Sacrifices of His Servant. For in the process instituted at Burgos there is a witness, and one indeed of illustrious family, who asserts that he learned from persons worthy of credit that, while there was a possessed man in that city, he was led to F. Thomas, and that the latter, having first prayed, commanded the demons to go out, and the possessed man came away free. The same man also affirms that he had heard, as a thing public in the said city, that the demons feared him and obeyed him. But who would not have feared him, who so earnestly loved and worshipped the Lord God?

ANNOTATA.

Spanish los jurados*

Spanish averiguar*

CHAPTER XII.

On account of his remarkable prudence he is consulted both by the emperor and by others; he is set over various convents, and twice over the whole province; his manner of governing is set forth..

[ ] The emperor Charles V uses his prudent counsel, Not only with the virtues and graces hitherto related was F. Thomas adorned by the Lord God, but he was endowed besides with an eminent circumspection and prudence in all that he did and said. His wonderful judgment and the excellence of his speech were experienced by all who dealt with him, to the vast profit of their souls and the happy issue of their business; and especially by all the courtiers, senators * and counsellors of his majesty as well as prelates and magnates who lived in that court; in matters of conscience running to the good Father as to an outstanding theologian (which he was) and servant of God, but in business and in the weighty cases that arose, as to a fountain of counsel, and one by whose judgment every matter was to be rightly directed. All alike marvelled at his learning in speaking; but persons of illustrious family above the rest looked up to and esteemed in him his eminent prudence and the counsels, so exact, which according to it he gave to all. For this reason his more intimate friends praised him earnestly before the emperor; and since it happened that his Catholic and imperial majesty himself experienced it on certain occasions, it came about also that F. Thomas was not only his preacher, but also the chief man whom that most Christian prince consulted and heard in great and weighty matters, and according to whose opinion he proceeded with a safer conscience. And indeed, on the day before he died, the blessed Bishop handed the key of his cabinet to one of his visitors and familiars, whose name was master Caro, that he might take out the many letters kept there and commit them to the flames; and the greater part of them were of those in which the emperor Charles the fifth consulted him in matters of greater moment, and from which it appeared how great a confidence he placed in his judgment and counsel.

[117] His remarkable judgment and prudence were also known by experience to those who, detesting their faults, came to his feet; and many others, to the vast profit of their souls. for by reason of that burning desire with which he was carried toward the salvation of souls (which was the proper effect of the charity that scorched his heart), by reason of the natural piety and compassion implanted in him by God, and of the remarkable judgment we have spoken of, although in other respects he was of himself much a lover of retirement and shrank from conversations with men, he willingly heard the confessions of all who had recourse to him for the remedy and consolation of their conscience. He helped them to bewail their crimes, he encouraged them to perform true works of penance, he was himself affected with a sense of grief at their troubles, and he supplied such counsels that very often a matter which to others seemed destitute of every remedy obtained this very thing, and that most efficaciously, from his counsel.

[118] He is set over various convents; All the fathers of that province knew this, and among the other virtues by which he was renowned they had a very good view of his prudence, and therefore of how rightly he would administer any office and prefecture that should be committed to him: and for that reason they resolved to use his services in these; and indeed they so used them that there was no office in the province, no matter of grave moment or of secret counsel, which he did not discharge. Twice he was Prior at Salamanca: first about the year one thousand five hundred and nineteen, as is clear from the books of that convent, when not more than two years had passed since his solemn profession. For he made his profession in the year one thousand five hundred and seventeen, on the day sacred to St. Catharine the martyr; and he was made Prior of that same convent toward the end of the year one thousand five hundred and nineteen, a thing altogether extraordinary and never seen in our Order: so much so that even blessed father John of Sahagun ^a (whom some years ago Pope Clement the eighth enrolled in the register of the Blessed ^b, with faculty of henceforth honouring him with an ecclesiastical office throughout our whole Order), although he was so eminent a man when he received the habit — having been of the college of St. Bartholomew at Salamanca, having lectured on holy Scripture from a chair, having gained great esteem and being adorned with the gifts of a man of great religion — was not set over that convent until seven years had passed from his profession, according to the custom then most usual in that province: whereas F. Thomas was set over it when not two years had passed since he made his profession. Whence it sufficiently appears with what example he lived and with what virtues and gifts he shone in the space of two years of monastic life, being so quickly chosen to preside over a house of such strict discipline, and at that time when the religious life so greatly flourished throughout Castile, as it always flourished and flourishes, and when there was so great a number of men excelling in sanctity and learning.

[119] he is set over convents; Twice also he presided over our convent of the holy father Augustine at Burgos, and over others at Valladolid ^c; twice likewise he governed the whole province, first Andalusia, then Castile; in this order ^d: when the course of his prefecture at Salamanca was completed, since they saw how well, with what spiritual and temporal fruit to that house, and with what charity and consolation to the religious he had presided, he was chosen Prior of the monastery of Burgos, which was done about the year one thousand five hundred and twenty-two. Then in the year one thousand five hundred and twenty-five, by order of the most reverend father general, master F. Gabriel of Venice ^e, he visited Andalusia and Castile, which at that time made up a single province, as is clear from the ancient codices of Salamanca. From that visitation, on account of the weight of the reasons and the counsels given in accordance with it by F. Thomas to the said father general (who in every matter followed his judgment and counsel), it followed that the province of Andalusia was divided from that of Castile.

[120] And that division of the provinces took effect in the provincial chapter in the year one thousand five hundred and twenty-seven. twice likewise over the whole The manner and order to be observed in that division the most reverend father committed to F. Thomas and to F. John Gallego; and these two, that all might be directed with maturer counsel, took to themselves as associates six of the fathers present who were more outstanding in gravity and piety, and all together decreed that, since that separation of the provinces was being made chiefly for the sake and favour of Andalusia, the Andalusian fathers should first choose for themselves, out of the whole body, the head of the province and the definitors who should be judged more suitable for their province; and then the Castilian fathers should likewise choose the head of their own province together with definitors. Under this condition the Andalusian fathers first chose for themselves the more outstanding head of the province, namely father brother Thomas, the province of Castile yielding such a father to them in their favour, as is clear from the codices of the province, where these words are read: "But there was first canonically elected, in favour of the province of Bætica and for this time only, the reverend father F. Thomas of Villanova," etc.

[121] Then in the year one thousand five hundred and thirty, in which he completed the prefecture of the province of Andalusia, province. he was elected Prior of the monastery of Salamanca, and this was the second time that, as I said before, he presided at Salamanca. In the next chapter of Castile, in the year one thousand five hundred and thirty-four, he was made head of the province of Castile, and when his government of the province was finished, in the year one thousand five hundred and thirty-seven, he was made definitor of the province and Prior of the monastery of Burgos. Here he remained until the year one thousand five hundred and forty-one, in which the chapter of the province of Castile was held, and at which the most reverend father master F. Jerome Seripando, general of our Order, afterwards Cardinal of the holy Roman Church and one of the legates of Pius the Fourth at the council of Trent, was present. And although the said most reverend father (as we shall say hereafter) purposed in his mind to set him over the whole province, he himself, fearing this very thing, took pains to prevent his being elected by arriving when the election must necessarily have been already carried out (for it is performed on the Saturday before dinner, but he would not arrive until after noon on the Saturday). In the same chapter of the year one thousand five hundred and forty-one he was appointed Prior of the monastery of Valladolid, whence afterwards, about the year one thousand five hundred and forty-four, he was translated to the archbishopric of this church of Valencia, to the great fruit and splendour of the city and diocese ^f.

[122] Concerning the government of this blessed Bishop the following words are read in the chronicles of our Order, folio CXIX: His manner of governing "That most excellent Man was a person worthy of great esteem: for in all business he kept great equity and justice: he was an enemy of all novelty; he never wished anything new to be ordered in his monasteries, but that the institutions and good customs of our predecessors should be kept. He desired that the monks should make the greatest account of the interior state of soul: for without it (he used to say) exterior composure would not make true monks, but pretenders of uprightness. He was a most devout Man, of much prayer and spirit. All who enjoyed his conversation loved him. He was a distinguished preacher, and adorned with a particular and heavenly doctrine. The emperor Charles the fifth and all the magnates of his court loved and greatly reverenced him. He was so estranged from the honours of the world that, although the emperor wished to speak with him, and his intimates signified to him that it would be pleasing to his majesty if he visited him, yet he did not come to speak with him except three or four times, and that in the fewest words and about matters to which charity compelled him. Hence the imperial majesty loved him the more and conceived a great opinion of him, which his life and learning most excellently won for him; and by this and by his faculty of speaking from the pulpit he was among the most excellent men that Castile possessed, and as such he was held and is held today throughout the whole," etc. Thus far the words of the Chronicle ^g.

[123] devout and holy, although he was set over others against his will; And although from these it is abundantly seen how holily and religiously he administered the offices and prefectures which he discharged in the Order, it will be of profit, for the example of other superiors, to have added here what lord John Mugnatonius the bishop relates as an eyewitness in the narrative composed on the life, religion and virtues of the Servant of God and cited above, and what other witnesses, questioned in various parts of Castile, affirm in their answers. From all which it follows that, as often as he was made Prior, he was plainly compelled by the troublesome demands and prayers of the religious who elected him (for at that time the election lay with those who belonged to the convent). And his superiors cast upon his conscience whatever offence should be given to God from his refusing to serve the Order in those offices in which it was certain that he would bring much consolation and profit to the brethren and would obey the will of God and of his superiors. And indeed whatever charges he undertook, he accepted out of mere obedience, being called to them by the will of God alone. Let anyone now consider whether those who in that way, and with the true and heavenly doorkeeper opening

it, Christ Jesus, entered by the door, ought not to have granted them by the same Lord the grace of turning out so good a Superior as he showed himself in all the convents committed to his care.

[124] his zeal for religious discipline; Wherefore, as all report, when he was Prior he burned with a great zeal for the divine honour and for religious observance. He always took the greatest pains he could that the religious subject to him should be separated from the affairs of the world, true monks and serving God with their whole heart. This he begged of them in all his sermons and chapters with great feeling of soul and with many tears drawn from his heart. By his good example, his teaching and his care, in the monasteries over which he presided he reformed certain things which required amendment, and recalled the observance of Religion to its rule. So much so that the grave fathers of Castile — and this I myself have heard from many of them as occasion offered — profess that they must in great part owe the observance of that province and its preservation to the holy zeal and solicitude with which F. Thomas procured it; and that before his government certain things had fallen away from the ancient discipline and required amendment, which that Superior corrected and brought back to due order, and which were thereafter constantly observed through the diligent zeal and solicitude of his successors, of whom many (as we shall see) were sons of this great Religious and Prelate by reason of the habit received and of their entrance into religion.

[125] Although, even while he presided over houses, he was so much occupied in giving sermons and hearing confessions on account of the vast fruit which he drew from his teaching, his diligence in frequenting the choir; and although so many persons had recourse to him for the consolation of their souls and for a remedy in their troubles, he did not on that account fail to frequent the choir at midnight and to be present by day at those Hours at which he conveniently could, and that indeed in such a way that he entered first and went out last ^h. Hence some masters of novices who had him, and lived with him in those convents over which he presided, frequently repeated and set before their recruits the example of F. Thomas frequenting the choir, to kindle in them a love for the choir.

[126] But although he saw himself set in a prefecture, his courtesy and kindness toward his subjects and although even without it he was esteemed for his own gifts and won for himself among men of every condition a greater veneration than any religious ever attained at one and the same time, he always dealt with his subjects so guilelessly and modestly as though all were his equals and none his inferior: yet not for that reason unmindful or careless of that religious authority which a superior is bound to keep, lest on the occasion of that frankness his subjects should put off the due observance and veneration: but he so tempered these two that in every case and at every time he displayed a composed and grave humility, and a gravity holy and prudent, religious and humble. He loved all as his own and natural sons or brothers, applying himself with earnest solicitude to the good of their souls, exhorting them continually to the love and fear of God, to interior purity of conscience, and to charity toward their neighbours. He was by no means one of those of whom our Redeemer says in the Gospel that, laying great and most heavy burdens on the shoulders of their wretched subjects, they so regard their own ease and pleasure that they do not touch them with one finger ⁱ. For, since toward himself he was (as he always was) very austere, abstemious, solitary, most poor, and most tenacious of the constitutions and rites of our Order, all that austerity which he used against himself was no hindrance to his being, on the contrary, mild and easy toward his subjects, and kindly granting them exemption in certain matters where he could — never to himself.

[127] He was a hater of all novelty out of the vast love which he bore toward peace and tranquillity, his hatred of novelties; and his circumspection in punishing since novelties (as he asserted) generally give a handle to quarrels and disturbances. Hence he never wished anything new to be brought into his houses, but that the institutions of our forefathers and the good customs anciently received in the house should be accurately kept. He was a most earnest lover of what was fair and just in all things, and at the same time beyond measure merciful and prudent in punishing offenders, always waiting for the occasion and the time at which the reproof and penalty would turn to the profit and good of the subject. It happened that he himself beheld with his own eyes certain things which displeased him, and passed them over by dissembling, as though he had not seen them; and when the time seemed opportune, he called the guilty man and reproved him with charity and gentleness; and if the matter required rigour, he punished most severely. But since the holy and most prudent Prelate satisfied his office when the motion of mind from which the fault had flowed had cooled, and when the time was suitable, the reproof or punishment was received with great humility and patience, and the subject acknowledged his own fault and the good Prelate's love and affection, from which the punishment proceeded, and by it amended himself and profited the more.

[128] in the faults of his own, for which he sometimes takes the penalty upon himself; It happened, as the religious who had charge of his chamber sometimes saw, that on learning of a fault or negligence from which the conscience of a religious subject to him might suffer damage, he felt and bewailed it in his mind as his own, and was more afflicted by it than by any other temporal loss or evil: and because perhaps that sheep of his did not attend to the gravity of the deed and thought the matter of slight moment, it also happened that the good Prelate, unknown to others, afflicted himself with fasting, took the penalty upon himself, and punished his body with scourges even to the drawing of blood; and offered this as well spent, as if by the shedding of it he might obtain that none of his subjects should ever offend that supreme and almighty Lord, whose worship and honour his soul so earnestly desired.

[129] his solicitude in the needs of his subjects, especially of the sick; With the same charity and the same love he busied himself to meet the individual temporal needs of his religious, considering what each one needed, and supplying what was necessary with remarkable liberality. He excelled in solicitude toward the sick, visited them frequently, and with great affection of soul served the consolation and comfort of all, looking to what each of them lacked, and how each was provided for, both as to cleanliness in bed and as to a good supply of food, with that charity and solicitude with which a mother is wont to look after a sick son whom she loves most tenderly. For, setting aside even that vast charity with which the good Superior was endowed, and the obligation of his office, he was by his nature exceedingly kind, inclined to compassion, and, as all attest, most tender in heart and mind; hence he was affected with vehement feeling at the miseries and troubles of his brethren.

[130] his charity toward offenders and his patience; With the same charity he corrected and punished the errors of his subjects, and in his remarkable prudence applied reproof and punishment to each in such a way that it should both be in place of medicine to them and obtain their amendment: for he hated the faults and loved the persons. But since, on account of his eminent kindness and gentleness, he was dear to all, and the fatherly love which he bore toward all was manifest, the Servant of God accomplished more by one word of correction, uttered in his own spirit, than another superior would obtain by many reproofs and penalties. Above all else, all who knew him marvel at, and (according to the testimonies given in all the processes) extol with the highest praises, the patience, forbearance and gentleness with which he bore the imperfections and manners of every man; which virtue is most highly commended to superiors by St. Paul and by our holy father Augustine, both because it is the heaviest cross of governing, and because it is the most efficacious way by which a prelate may greatly deserve before God and bind to himself the will, the affection and at the same time the minds of his subjects. All who used his familiarity make no end of proclaiming what a distinguished place that virtue held with him, and with what singular grace and gift from heaven he was endowed for bearing with and supporting every man, and measuring himself to all, so that like a second Eliseus he might impart life to them.

[131] To this and to the other virtues the good Superior joined a great ardour and care for the common good of his house, his care of the common good, and likewise a notable disregard and neglect of his own advantage and of any particular need of his own — a thing so greatly desired by St. Paul the apostle where he treats of the effects and laws of charity, and so much commended by our holy father Augustine in his Rules, as the surest sign of that most illustrious virtue. This appeared abundantly; for although he was so great a preacher and so dear to the emperor Charles the fifth, and held in such honour (as we shall see) among all the magnates of Spain, his bed and cell, except for the necessary books, his clothing and food, and whatever he had for his own use, were as poor as those of the poorest, most abject and lowest religious to be found in the Order. For whatever those illustrious men gave him (and it was not little), he turned to the profit and use of the community, and disposed of it just as of the other revenues and incomes of the convent. Hence it was his custom, out of many and very precious things sent to him, to accept only those which were given and could be applied to the community, never being willing to admit any that was granted to himself alone.

[132] I shall here record one thing worthy of note, from which many like it may be drawn. and his neglect of his own advantage is proved by an example When by obedience he was ordered to move from Valladolid to Burgos, to preside over our house there, before his departure the chief men of the court visited him, not without feeling and grief of soul at his absence. Some devoted to him gave him certain things, saying that he should accept that alms and use it for whatever end he pleased. One of these sent him a casket of three hundred gold crowns *, together with the key, saying that he should deign to take from it for himself and for his journey as much as he thought fit. He accepted what the others bestowed; but understanding the direction of the man who sent the casket, he at once ordered it to be carried back by the same servant, saying that he was most grateful to his lordship for that benefit, but that neither he nor his journey had need of anything.

[133] The owner of the casket complained that he had sent it back to him, as confirmed. whereas he had accepted what had been sent by others. But he answered: The alms, my lord, accepted from others was not given me for myself, but that it might be applied where I should see there was need, and that the necessities I should notice in the convent to which I am hastening might be relieved. But if your lordship had sent me a certain and determined sum for the same end, I should have accepted it, as from the others. For if I had not accepted it, I should have done an injury both to the house to which

I am going, and to the piety of those who gave, which indeed I neither ought nor can hinder. But your lordship has destined it for me alone, and I have never taken anything for myself, nor may God permit this. In that way that Servant of the Lord was always poor in heart and in deed, and with such integrity and purity kept the poverty he had promised, and at the same time was so great a lover of the common good and profit. For it is most usual that these two are joined in a truly religious man: to be forgetful of himself, and very solicitous for the common concern.

ANNOTATA.

Spanish oydores*

Spanish escudos en oro*

CHAPTER XIII.

His manner of governing while he presides over the whole province.

[ ] To rule and govern was a very troublesome business for F. Thomas, Set over the whole province as one who by his nature so loved solitude and the quiet of his cell, and was so given to the reading and study of the sacred Writings and of devout books, and to the consideration and meditation of the divine mysteries which are comprised and set forth in them, that he might be of profit both to himself and to all who followed his sermons and teaching. Wherefore, if it was so arduous and troublesome to him to preside over particular houses, as often as he was chosen for this and accepted it out of mere obedience, how much more grievous must it have been for him to be set over a province and to undertake an office so arduous for one who considers the obligations it contains and the troubles it draws with it, and is not blinded by the smoke of ambition, from which F. Thomas kept his heart and thought so free.

[135] twice made head against his will On each occasion when he was elected (as bishop Mugnatonius and many others report) he vehemently resisted, unwilling to acquiesce in the election, and with many tears suppliantly begged those assembled that, since by the divine mercy there were among them many most excellent fathers, [fit] by their remarkable piety and gifts for this office and for others greater, they should elect one of these; because he found himself and his strength unequal to so great a burden as is the government of a province; and that they should leave him in his cell among his books, since by frequenting the pulpit he would be of greater service to the Lord and of greater fruit to souls. And some of the witnesses observe that they never heard him utter the word "pulpit" except on that occasion and in that necessity, that, if he could, he might withdraw himself from the prefecture of the province.

[136] Nevertheless, although he resisted as much as he could, is made superior, since it was God who directed the wills of these good fathers, and so holy and religious an ardour that moved them, namely that they might obtain as their head a true Servant of God and one so capable for that office, they always pressed so strongly and brought forward reasons so efficacious that, compelled by them and fearing to resist the divine will, he undertook the office of provincial superior on both occasions, and would have been promoted to it more often had he not prevented it. When he was made head of the province, all the virtues grew in him along with the office; for (as he himself asserted) to be promoted is the same as to be bound to be holier, more religious and of better example, more devout and more assiduous in prayer, as needing greater grace from God and a new light from heaven, that you may well discharge an office of such moment, and one on which depends every spiritual and temporal good or loss of the province and of each of those living in it.

[137] As head of the province he at once visited in person all the houses of the province, and while visiting the convents, above all else by no means sparing the labours which had necessarily to be borne on so many journeys and through regions so far apart. In the houses which he visited he did not allow anything extraordinary or more sumptuous to be set before him, since he never exceeded his daily fare, and that a very moderate one. In visiting he took diligent pains to strengthen and encourage those whom he found walking in the path of religion in the way they ought, that they might always go further forward: he corrected the negligent; he punished, and that severely, the contumacious and turbulent; to the simple he supplied light; the faint-hearted he consoled; and to all he suggested the order and laws to be kept, that each might in his own vocation please and serve the Lord.

[138] Besides many other and very good things, some senior fathers record four which he much commended and enjoined in each of the convents which he surveyed. he commends four things: care of the divine service, The first was the divine worship, declaring how it consists in the interior attention and devotion of the heart with which the sacrifice of the Mass is to be performed and the divine office recited, and in the exterior pause and brief suppression of the voices in choir, and also in the cleanliness and adornment of the altars: saying and affirming that so much depends on the care of these that he did not doubt it to be the gate through which every good enters into monasteries, and by which particular persons are endowed with great heavenly graces.

[139] The second was the reading of sacred books with great consideration of that the reading of sacred books, which the Holy Spirit there speaks to the ears of one reading attentively. This reading he compared to the natural heat of the stomach, and said that, as without that heat natural life cannot be preserved nor any food be of profit, and as by it all food is rightly cooked and digested, the human body is nourished, and strength and powers are supplied to all the members for performing their own natural functions, so also by the reading of good books and the consideration of what is said in them the spirit of a religious man is well quickened, so that he may have devotion at the altar, attention in choir, relish in the divine office, alacrity for obedience, patience in troubles, strength against temptations and the snares of the enemy, and that whatever he does may turn to the good and advancement of his soul. As on the contrary he who does not use it will meet with weariness in all things, and will live destitute of all the goods and fruits of his state, for want of that heavenly exercise of reading. And indeed, since he himself had frequent use of this above all, and from it much experience, he discoursed of this matter with much fervour and with great fruit and good to all who heard the sermons which he gave to his religious.

[140] peace and charity, The third thing which he commended, and as a matter of the gravest moment (and not undeservedly, since our Redeemer so greatly enjoined it), was peace, concord and true charity among them. He explained what remarkable goods and what effects it has, and gave rules most fitting for preserving it easily in a community. But those whom he found to be a hindrance to this virtue, whether from a depraved disposition and proneness to evil, or from vice and perverse habit, he punished severely, as enemies of the chief good and of what is most necessary in a convent.

[141] and flight from idleness; The fourth and last was to urge much and commend that every religious should take upon himself that occupation and that exercise which best suited his talent and state, in order to avoid that great enemy of virtue, that moth of the soul, that door of so many evils, which is idleness and the waste of time. And this he so greatly commended that, although he was averse to laying down precepts of obedience, lest he entangle consciences, in this he laid one upon superiors, strictly commanding that a religious whom they saw wandering about the house and wasting time in chatter and other useless things should the first time be reproved in a friendly way and in private, the second time publicly and sharply; and if he did not amend himself, that they should punish him severely; but if after all that he persevered in that vice, that his penalty should be increased until he was brought to better ways and put off that evil habit, so pernicious and harmful to the soul.

[142] kindly toward all, Since that holy Bishop was in himself so devout, given to prayer, humble and gentle, and always accustomed to spend well all the hours and moments of the day, he knew by experience how necessary are all those things which he so greatly commended, in order that each, as he is bound, might live religiously. The same charity, kindness and courtesy which, as we have said, he used toward seculars and outsiders, whose confessions he heard to win their souls, he likewise showed to his own subjects, to make them devoted to religious perfection. Although he shrank exceedingly from offences against God, and would gladly have given his life, and, if he had had them, a thousand lives, that not even one crime should be committed, [yet] he treated kindly and received with a cheerful mind the fallen man who repented, and turned himself a thousand ways to bring him back to good and to win him; not otherwise than a good shepherd who forgets everything and considers nothing, that he may see the straying and lost sheep brought back to the flock. It cannot be told how many souls he won, and how many he kindled with divine love through his remarkable prudence, gentleness and charity.

[143] It happened also sometimes, through the light which the Lord had given him for discerning every man's state and disposition, by prudent indulgence he sometimes and the remedy which would be more profitable for him (through that gift of the Holy Spirit which St. Paul calls the discernment of spirits, and such as the Servant of God had), that some of his subjects were corrected and changed for the better by his mere look, without his uttering a word. A thing

I shall record only one for the present purpose, which F. John Rincon — much loved by F. Thomas and taken as his companion when he came to the archbishopric of Valencia — related to certain clerics of this church (who afterwards narrated it); and this it is. While he was Prior at Burgos, he caught one of his subjects in a notable offence, for which he deserved to be gravely rebuked and punished. Yet he dissembled, neither saying a word to him nor betraying in his countenance the great grief which he had conceived from it; although the guilty man himself knew well how certain a knowledge of it F. Thomas had.

[144] He did only two things: the first [was] to watch thereafter over that sheep with greater care; he leads him to a more religious life. the second, with many prayers and tears, and with no small blood which he shed on his account by raging against himself with scourges, to beg the Lord most earnestly to forgive him that fault and to fill him with holy fear, that he might never offend Him thereafter. In such a way did the Lord grant him what he asked, that that religious not only did true penance for his sin and amended himself as he ought, but was moreover thereafter so devout, so given to heavenly things, and of such example, that F. Thomas, being in the next three years head of the province of Castile, took him as his companion. That monk was much struck at this, and addressed him thus: How can it be that your Paternity takes as his companion a man such as I am, and whom you know so well? But the good Shepherd answered him: It is true, father, that I know you, and that I know the fault and the evil you have committed; but I know likewise your penance, your amendment, and the good which by the divine mercy your soul has gained from that fall. Praise constantly the divine goodness and His remarkable mercy: for on that account, after the penance you have done, you are no worse in the divine eyes or in mine, nor less fit to attend me as companion in this office. Other cases befell him in which by a like manner of acting and by his prudence he won many souls fallen into sins, and rendered lost religious women thoroughly religious and bound to the Lord ^a.

ANNOTATION.

CHAPTER XIV.

Some disciples or spiritual sons of the Saint are enumerated and illustrated with an elogium.

[ ] Among the disciples or spiritual sons of St. Thomas Just as among trees that one is more highly esteemed whose fruit is better, more agreeable to health and sweeter to the taste, so among men honour and glory take much increase from the virtue and good gifts of soul of their sons. A wicked and foolish son is his parent's disgrace, but a wise and prudent one (as the Holy Spirit says) is his crown and glory. In this way too it pleased the Lord our God greatly to honour F. D. Thomas, so directing him that the chief religious and the more illustrious men whom our Order has had in our time in the province of Castile, and who by their remarkable example and learning greatly illustrated our sacred religion both here in Spain and in that new world of the Indies, were all, or almost all, whether by reason of the habit received or of the profession made, sons and shoots of F. Thomas. Wherefore it has seemed good to me to enumerate here the sons whom that blessed Father bore to the Order of our holy father Augustine, so far as is clear from the books of professions in the convents over which he presided, and from the processes instituted for his beatification and canonization in various parts of Castile.

[146] F. Jerome Ximenez The first was the venerable F. Jerome Ximenez, a distinguished religious, of whom, before I go on to the others, I cannot but record some things worthy of note. That venerable father, a son of F. Thomas in the religious Order, most desirous of the glory of God and of the exaltation of His most holy name and of the salvation of souls, understanding how numerous were the peoples and nations that lived in the Indies without knowledge of our true faith, and grieving at the destruction of so many souls redeemed by the blood of Christ, crossed thither with other religious both of our own and of the Order of the holy father Dominic and of the seraphic father St. Francis, who, driven by the same spirit and fervour of Apostolic charity, undertook an enterprise so glorious and heavenly as is the propagation of the Gospel and the conversion of the Indians.

[147] a distinguished herald of the Gospel in Mexico, This Apostolic Man (as F. Stephen de Salazar relates in his most erudite book on the Symbol of the Apostles, discourse sixteen, chapter five), with three companions, traversed the globe to scatter the seed of the Gospel; and when they had strayed from the way among the heathen and been taken captive, they were highly valued by them and held in great veneration for their remarkable sanctity and good example. By the other Spaniards with whom they had crossed over, who neither saw them nor knew where they were, they were sought and miraculously found by the Moors of the Molucca islands, who brought them back to the Christians and gave them their liberty. That blessed father and his other companions were the first founders of the Gospel in that new world and the tamers of souls. But although at the beginning of their sacred preaching they met with great difficulty and resistance among those nations, yet afterwards, through the illustrious example by which he and his companions shone, and through the miracles and prodigies which God wrought through them upon the sick, they so won love, attention and trust to themselves that those peoples, leaving their errors and the worship of idols, embraced the truth of the sacred Gospel. There the venerable F. Jerome Ximenez lived and died with a great reputation for sanctity, and even today he is held and honoured by all as such.

[148] He was called the Apostle of that region, and deservedly indeed; who, to the Saint, since he was the leader of those Evangelical soldiers by whose hand, in the place where the demon had his seat, the standard of the Cross was set up and raised, and the name and glory of the Crucified spread abroad. The said father Ximenez and his companions always acknowledged F. Thomas as the patron and chief author of the beginnings of this holy work and of so good a thing. Testimony of this is borne by the same F. Jerome Ximenez in a letter which, among others, he wrote to him from Acapichtla, a very large and wealthy city of the kingdom of Mexico, where that father gathered great fruits. Thus runs the letter.

[149] "To the very reverend father brother Thomas of Villanova, as the chief Prior in the monastery of our holy father Augustine, at Burgos. Very reverend Father, the peace of God keep your heart. All our brethren, praise be to God, arrived at this city of Mexico on the sixth day of the month of September, and from them I have learned that a vast crown is being prepared for your Paternity by the Lord, who gives you the Spirit to favour that work so proper to Him, so greatly commended, and so beloved by His friends. The thanks which all we, your Paternity's sons, give for the favour shown us in that work, as we experience it here, should be written in letters of gold, or, if it were lawful, in our own blood, that it might in some measure be discerned with what heart we give them; and yet they are to be written by the Lord of this vineyard with an unspeakable pen in the book of life.

[150] The divine goodness sufficiently shows how acceptable to Him is the instruction of this wretched people, a promoter of the mission, since so evidently day by day He gives a greater increase of fruit to His word, and appoints His leaders to discover new regions by publishing the Gospel there. A year has passed since last September when a religious of the Order of St. Francis, a Frenchman by nation, departed from this city of Mexico to seek the land pointed out to the governors of these regions, and could not find it. He traversed some five hundred miles of lands inhabited by men, and at length, when he had passed through a desert of more than sixty miles, he came upon a region thronged with people, tempered by good institutions, whose cities are walled about and whose houses are ample, which uses shoes and boots of leather, and a great part of which is clothed in long garments made of silken cloth. I do not describe the wealth of the region, since he records so much of it that it appears incredible; this that religious told me, that he had seen a shrine of idols whose walls both within and without were covered with precious stones — emeralds, I think he said. It is said also that in the inner part of the region camels and elephants are found. Men whom greed of gold has driven to roam that southern sea report that they have lately discovered, near that region, islands very wealthy and of the same political discipline and nation.

[151] a letter from the Indies These things I transcribe to your Paternity, that you may see and understand how pleasing to the Lord is the service which you render Him in taking care that labourers come to cultivate this ample vineyard of His. For this He shows us more fully every day, by showing how barren it is for want of those who might till it. The brethren who set out hither, and the youth committed to them by your Paternity that he might receive the habit here, all came to Mexico, and with them others from Seville, twelve in all. Some arrived weak; but since this city lacks nothing for recovery, and on the contrary abounds in such things, they were soon strengthened, and each went off to take up the burden of that part which was committed to him in the Lord's vineyard, except the novice and brother Didacus de Vertavillo, who remained to be master of the professed at Mexico. Both they and all of us who dwell here, praise be to the Lord, continue vigorous and sound, and we beg the Lord to increase in your Paternity that spirit which He has imparted to you in favour of this His work, and to

preserve you in His grace. At Acapichtla, the ninth of October, one thousand five hundred and thirty-nine. Your Paternity's assiduous son and subject, F. Jerome Ximenez."

[152] addressed; This letter, with others which will hereafter be set in their places, master John Baptist Caro found in the cabinet of this holy Prelate after his death, and kept it all his life; then, when the said master Caro died, lord Francis Beneyto, a noble man and a priest, an inhabitant of this city, found the same among the papers of the said master Caro, and handed them to me while I was composing the first little book which I published on the remarkable and most particular examples left to posterity by the most illustrious and most reverend lord D. F. Thomas of Villanova, archbishop of Valencia. From that letter, sent to him by F. Jerome Ximenez, it is sufficiently understood how greatly the said F. Jerome cared for the foundations of the faith in the Indies, and with what charity and solicitude, with what zeal and desire for the salvation of souls; and likewise how much, at the time when he wrote this letter, he had already advanced in it, and was advancing more from day to day; finally it is understood also that the foundations of our Order had already been laid there; and that at Mexico novices were being received and trained, and the professed with their masters, in the same order and manner as here in Spain. At the same time is seen the care and solicitude with which F. Thomas was affected, that the preaching of the Gospel and the conversion of those nations should be promoted there, begun by his sons and disciples sent by him not only the first time, when he was head of the province of Andalusia, but altogether always, both when he was head of that of Castile and when he was not ^a.

[153] Likewise Fathers Francis de Nieva, John Estacius, Let us now pass to the others whom the Servant of God gave as sons to the Order of our holy father Augustine. The second was brother Francis de Nieva, of whom Cardinal D. John Tavera, archbishop of Toledo, used to say: If the religious Orders were to perish, brother Francis de Nieva would suffice to restore them. So distinguished a servant of God was he that the emperor Charles the fifth designated him for the archbishopric of Granada, nor [yet] would he by any means accept it. And in the chapter of the province held in Castile in the year one thousand five hundred and forty-one, at which the most reverend father General Jerome Seripando was present (since F. Thomas did not arrive at the time of the election, as we said above), he was made head of the province on account of the remarkable testimonies which all the fathers and graver persons of the province gave of the said Nieva to that General. The third was F. John Estacio, an exceedingly devout man and very zealous both for divine worship and for the conversion of the Indians. That father brought forth by his example and teaching so much fruit among them that for that reason he was created bishop of the city of the Angels in New Spain: where he lived so religiously as if he had not passed to another state of life; he won many souls of those unbelievers, and died most holily.

[154] The fourth was a holy man (and worthy to be so called), F. Alphonsus de Orosco, Alphonsus de Orosco, who for the sanctity of his life and his learning deserved to be chosen as preacher first to the emperor Charles the fifth, then to Philip the second his son. His sanctity and piety are excellently shown by the books and sermons, so spiritual, composed by him. Of that illustrious servant of God the grave fathers of Castile relate that the Queen of heaven twice appeared to him and bade him write; which he also did, with such fruit and edification to those who peruse his Works. The king who is now dead and all his court esteemed and greatly venerated him; and the same veneration is shown even today to his body at Madrid, which the Lord confirmed when it was translated from the old church, where it had been buried, to the new, where it now rests. For it was found entire and very supple, although his garments were consumed and it had been committed to the earth more than ten years: for which reason the physicians too reckoned that soundness to be miraculous.

[155] The fifth was the blessed F. John de Moya, John de Moya, who likewise migrated to the Indies, and whose most religious life, most profound humility, hardest abstinence and assiduous prayer are also recorded in the passage cited of the Sermons on the Symbol of the Apostles by F. Stephen de Salazar, as an eyewitness; it is related likewise in the book called Mesa franca, and in the Flos Sanctorum written by father Marieta of the Order of St. Dominic. Since he was a man of such example that the Indians themselves said in their own tongue: This man is truly holy. And he was so holy that, now aged and worn out with years, traversing a most intemperate and beyond measure hot region called Urio, that by preaching and hearing confessions he might supply the lack of ministers of the Gospel, he passed nine and ten days without drink, and many without any other food than certain roots, there called Batatas. By his blessing, and with a little oil fortified with the sign of the Cross, he healed wounds and incurable fistulas. Not only while he lived, but even now after his death, the Lord works many miracles through the intercession of His servant upon persons devoutly commending themselves to him, as those returning from the Indies relate, where his body is held in veneration.

[156] The sixth was F. Alphonsus de Borgia, of the most illustrious family of the Borgias of this our kingdom, Alphonsus de Borgia who, while giving his attention to the study of letters at Salamanca, having heard F. Thomas in a sermon, bade farewell to the world and asked of him, then Prior of that convent, the habit of our Order; and he turned out a man so truly religious and learned that he too was one of the first heralds and Evangelical tamers of the new world. He was a most holy man and held as such there by all, as is clear from the Centuries of our Order and from the History written both by Pamphilus the bishop and by Marieta . They relate that this father, when he was about to depart from among the living and had been anointed with holy oil, begged the fathers who were present to recite the Responsory and forthwith to give the signal with the bronze bell; and when the prayers of the Responsory were finished he gave up his soul to his Creator, saying: Into thy hands, O Lord*, etc., and died as a saint.

[157] Augustine de Coruña, and Ferdinand de Castro Verde The seventh was F. Augustine de Coruña, likewise one of the first founders of the Gospel in the new world, a religious of great perfection, bishop of Popayán, very like the holy bishops of the primitive Church: he wore nothing woven of linen, but only of wool; at midnight he rose with the other religious for Matins; he led a very poor life, and profited much in the souls committed to his care. A son of F. Thomas likewise was F. Ferdinand de Castro-Verde, preacher to the emperor, whom his Majesty always had as his companion for the consolation of his mind, and whom for his remarkable gifts he made bishop of Jaén. He governed his bishopric to the great example of all, as is clear from the Centuries cited. His brother's son was F. Francis de Castro Verde, preacher to kings Philip the second and Philip the third, whom God preserve to us, and whom we all know.

[158] John de Guevara and other distinguished men. Master F. John de Guevara, who for so many years was professor of theology at Salamanca and a religious of such perfect virtue, always gave many thanks to the Lord, as for a particular benefit received from His kindly hand, that he was a son of F. Thomas, inasmuch as the latter, while he was head of the province and was visiting the house of Toledo, had granted him the habit ^b. Many others could I add here, and some indeed whom I myself knew, who received the habit from F. Thomas; and although less celebrated than those already named, they were nevertheless remarkable in piety and true Servants of God. But those whom I have here enumerated suffice for understanding the great piety and holiness of this blessed Bishop, when we behold how remarkable in piety and in profit to the Church were the sons nurtured in the Order through him ^c.

ANNOTATA.

besides by the curious reader among the published sermons of St. Thomas, in the second sermon on the Sacrament of the altar, where he adds that he learned it from the mouth of the young man, then sick, and of the nun, compelled by obedience: nor does he seem to have had any other part in it. Accordingly I have cut away the whole chapter, and have here substituted the following chapter in the fifteenth place.

Spanish: there is added el Presentado*

CHAPTER XV.

The love and reverence in which he was held by all in Spain.

[ ] The good man is loved, the evil man hated by all. Holy Scripture, as a most certain proof of the remarkable virtue and sanctity of Moses, alleges that he was beloved not only of God, whom he worshipped with such solicitude, but also of the men with whom he met and conversed: just as, on the contrary, in testimony of the depraved disposition and perverse condition of Ismael, the angel said to his mother that he would have peace with no one, would be hated by all, that his hand (would be) against all and the hands of all against him ^a. This too the disposition and condition of each man requires, says my holy father Augustine, and he alleges the reason. Since the evil man, if we consider rightly, has true friendship with no one, loves no one but himself and his own advantage and the vicious inclinations of his mind; and if by chance he shows his neighbour some sign of love, all this is done for the sake of those inclinations; just as a traveller entertains handsomely the beast he rides on, because it serves him and is necessary for the journey. But on the contrary the good man loves out of true friendship and benevolence, serves and profits his neighbour as much as he can, from no other end, reason or regard than that which charity has bound up with it, namely the glory of God and the good of his brother; and so (the Saint concludes) it is most just that the evil man, who loves no one, should be hated by all; but that the good man, full as he is of a love so true and excellent as is Christian charity, should be loved and cherished by all.

[160] All reverence Thomas; So too was the holy Prelate loved by all who knew him, the highest and the lowest, clerics, religious, seculars, and men of every kind. As a Saint all loved, honoured and reverenced him, seeing with what spirit he preached, what fruit he made in souls, how by his words he penetrated hearts, and of what example he was to all in every kind of sanctity and virtue, neither feigned nor pretended. Wherever he stayed, men of every condition ran to him to deal about the affairs of the soul and of conscience, submitting them to his hands and acquiescing with such security as if an Apostle had risen again, or an angel had come down from heaven. Persons of great gravity attest, in the processes drawn up in Castile, especially at Valladolid and Burgos, that the reputation of his sanctity, rightly due to his holy life and most religious manners, was so great that wherever he lived, Religious as well as seculars venerated him as a Saint. In the streets through which he passed, they came out of their houses to kiss his hands and his garment; and matrons of the first rank looked out from their windows, and thence on their knees asked his blessing.

[161] a weighty matter is committed to his judgment: A magisterial canonry ^b falling vacant at Burgos in the greater church, master Gregory Gallo, born in that same city of Burgos, who was professor of holy Scripture at Salamanca and afterwards bishop of Orihuela ^c and of Segovia ^d, and doctor Velasco, born at Haro, contended for obtaining it: the canons, with whom lay the conferring of the benefice, asked F. Thomas to deign to be present at the discourses and disputations of that contest. He was present at them all, and deliberating with the said canons he said that in his opinion the canonry should be conferred on doctor Velasco: and dropping further consultation, they agreed with F. Thomas's judgment, as being thereby quite safe in conscience, and conferred it on the said doctor Velasco; who afterwards for his learning, good example and excellent gifts was made by the emperor bishop of Ciudad Rodrigo ^e, to the remarkable good of that church. When in the same city of Burgos, on a Wednesday of Lent, he had preached in the chief church in the hearing of a great part of the inhabitants, on the night immediately following the middle vault of that same church fell in, in that very part and place where F. Thomas had preached. And although that collapse might for some other natural cause have been delayed until night, so that it did not happen at the time when he was preaching, so great was the esteem for his sanctity that all ascribed it to his merits and judged that on account of these it had been deferred by the Lord God.

[162] by his authority For his remarkable piety and learning he had such authority with all, that he himself brought an end and a remedy to very troublesome affairs which could not be settled by persons of great esteem and dignity. At Burgos, when a certain countess wished to give her daughter in marriage to a man adorned with titles of equal nobility, it was discovered, when the marriage contract was to be drawn up, that the girl had made a promise of future marriage to a nobleman much inferior in condition and in goods of fortune to the nobleman with whom her mother was arranging the marriage. This so stirred the mother's anger and indignation that she drove her from her house and shut her up in a monastery, saying that she should never thereafter come into her sight, nor should anyone bring it about that she should admit her to her sight; as indeed happened, although many persons of the first rank, and among them the archbishop of Burgos himself, spent their pains upon this.

[163] Then that knight to whom the girl had pledged her faith had recourse to F. Thomas, vehemently begging that quarrels he would intervene and take up the business of appeasing the countess's mind; to which end he threw himself at his feet and, embracing them, would not let go until he promised what he asked; at that time F. Thomas was coming down from the pulpit. The blessed Father, having compassion on his grief and on the troubles which might arise if the countess did not change her mind, pledged his pains. And so, after he had commended the matter to the Lord, as he was wont to do in all things, he went off to treat with her the business he had promised. She received him with great reverence, saying: Whence comes to me so great a good, that your Paternity should visit me in my own house? F. Thomas set before her what he intended, and the reasons suggested to him by the Holy Spirit for moving that lady's will and persuading her of what he desired. And she, as though her heart were torn from her by him, committed the business to his hands, that he might freely determine about it according to his own judgment, promising that she would not depart from his prescription. And so the matter was settled and concluded according to the judgment of the Servant of God, so that all were content and remained in peace and joy.

[164] In the same way, when another matron of the first rank at Burgos steadfastly refused to pardon the slayers the death of her son, and implacable enmities are extinguished by others. and persons of great authority who had spent their pains on it could not obtain it, F. Thomas, at that time Prior there, was asked by these same persons to go and speak with her, trusting that by his holy words he would bring her to that which they had not obtained by their prayers. The blessed Father put it off somewhat, judging from the circumstances of the case that the outcome would be troublesome, and that there was need of commending it earnestly to the Lord. After it seemed to him that he had dealt diligently enough with God, he went to speak with her. God wrought through the prayers of His Servant a thing worthy of note and astonishing to all. For as he was entering the house, and his companion was telling the maidservants to inform their mistress that F. Thomas was there, as soon as she heard it she leapt without delay from her seat *, and before he had fully come up the stairs, or uttered a word, or indicated why he was there, she fell on her knees at his feet on the threshold of the chamber, and said that she would do whatever he should command, and would not depart a nail's breadth from his order.

[165] It became sufficiently well known throughout all Spain how greatly he was esteemed and loved by the emperor Charles V, The emperor Charles V, at the prayers and no less by his son Philip the second, who now enjoys heaven; and this appeared from what follows. When some knights of the emperor's household had committed some fault at his court, the emperor was so offended at them that he ordered them to be sought out with the utmost diligence, and, when found, to be put to death without any remission. Many magnates and his familiars — and by name the supreme commanders of the naval and military forces, the archbishop of Toledo lord John de Tavera, and prince Philip himself — begged the emperor Charles V for them, that he would grant them their life: but no one could prevail with the emperor (otherwise by nature most clement) to prevent their being put to death. Seeing this, those magnates had recourse to F. Thomas (at that time Prior at Valladolid), begging that he would have compassion on those young men exposed to so great a misery, and, by the reasons which in his spirit and prudence he would know how to set forth, would beseech the emperor to grant them their life: for they trusted that the emperor would grant it to his asking.

[166] of none but the Saint The good Father hung in great doubt, and deservedly indeed, when he considered that this had not been obtained through such men; nevertheless, as those magnates urged him, and as he himself feared to omit what charity requires in like cases, having first earnestly commended the matter to the Lord, he resolved to go and beseech the emperor. He came to the court, and since all, both the royal guards and the doorkeepers, had been forewarned, he easily made his way to the emperor's chamber: and he, learning that he was there, at once ordered him to be admitted. He threw himself at the emperor's feet, asking for his hands to kiss, but was at once bidden by him to rise: and standing he set forth both the cause of his coming and the reasons which seemed fitter for moving the royal mind of his majesty: especially how acceptable this would be to the Lord, because it conduced to the tranquillity and peace of many; how great a benefit the whole court would obtain from it; and how much he himself would reckon it done to him personally. And these things he brought forward with speech so fitting and words so efficacious that the mind of the most Christian prince was bent to assent to the request and to grant those noblemen their life on account of the prayers of the blessed Father; a thing which the whole court, the magnates and those most in the emperor's favour above the rest, had not been able to obtain, although they had asked it so suppliantly. He withdrew from the emperor with his wish granted.

[167] pardons the guilty. As he came out, those who were awaiting the issue of the matter in the hall asked him how far he had advanced the business; and although he only answered that all, by God's inspiration, would turn out well, they all perceived that those knights had now been granted pardon, and went in to kiss the emperor's hands for the favour. And lest they should marvel that what he had denied to them all had been granted to F. Thomas, he said: Do not marvel that I have granted these knights their life at the request of the Prior of the Order of St. Augustine; for that Religious does not ask, but commands, and bends hearts. Whence it is seen what force, what efficacy

and what power the Lord attached to the words of His Servant ^f. Father master F. Gaspar de Sahona, who was twice Prior provincial of the Order of our holy father in this province of Aragon, in setting forth to me what I have already said, related (and it is clear also from the Process) that he had heard from certain of the more outstanding fathers in Castile, as a thing very widely known and certain, that when F. Thomas came to speak with the emperor that he might spare those knights, it was the first time that he had spoken with him in the palace; and that the emperor, seeing him in his own house (for he had never beheld him there, but only preaching in the pulpit), rejoiced so greatly that, for the delight he took in it and for the devotion which he bore toward his teaching and the holiness of his life, he uncovered his head as he approached — a mark of courtesy which the emperor used with none but Cardinals. And lest those who were present when F. Thomas came in, and who saw this new and unwonted courtesy of the emperor toward one of his own subjects, should marvel, after his departure he said: This Religious is a true Servant of God, and like a Saint in this life he is worthy of veneration. So great an esteem did the emperor conceive of him.

[168] Public also and manifest was the reverence and devotion in which he was held by all prelates, nobles, and men of the first rank, ecclesiastics as well as religious, Not only among prelates and magnates and the greater in proportion as they were the more given to the divine service and to piety. Father master F. Dominic Soto ^g, F. Melchior Caro ^h the bishop, father master F. Alphonsus de Castro, and all the more illustrious men of that time publicly declared from their chairs and pulpits in what veneration he was held among them, and with what esteem they regarded his person and teaching; for they cited his opinions and judgments, and his sayings in sermons, with the same veneration with which they would have cited those of any other most excellent ancient doctor approved by the Church. Many likewise who in our times have written religious or ecclesiastical Histories, or books on the training of souls, bring forward and cite the authorities and opinions of F. Thomas with the same reverence with which they would cite those of another holy doctor: which is well known to those who take delight in the reading of such Histories and books.

[169] Not only persons outstanding in judgment, religion and knowledge greatly reverenced F. Thomas, but even among rustics and the uncouth sort of men, but — what many prudent men of this time have considered, and because they made much of it I have thought good to relate it here — even country and rustic folk, who in their roughness and with their boorish jests and gibes spare no passer-by in the roads, however religious; so greatly did they everywhere look up to him that, however inflamed their mouths were against other passers-by, at the coming of the good Father all fell silent and were dumb. F. Rodericus de Solis (a Religious of very great authority and adorned with great gifts, as all the senior fathers of Andalusia and Castile know, as well as those of this our own province), conversing with me about the remarkable veneration in which F. Thomas was held by all, even country folk and rustics, told me that, when he was a novice at Seville in the convent of St. Augustine, his kinsfolk were taking pains that he should pass over to the Order of St. Dominic, in which one of them was living.

[170] At that same time F. Thomas, head of the province, coming to survey that convent, as F. Rodericus de Solis attests, and understanding what his kinsfolk intended, called him to himself in the presence of the Prior and of the master, taught him what was to be done that he might be enlightened and directed by the Lord, and dismissed him saying: Do you, my son, commend yourself to God in the manner I have said; I likewise shall keep you commended, and He Himself will be our Guide. So both did; and after three days he ordered him to be called and said: I do not wish, my son, that you should speak a word to me, but only listen. I have commended your choice to God, and I tell you that your kinsfolk are moved not by God but by the affection of flesh and blood, on account of the kinsman whom you have there. I confess indeed, for it is true, that the Order of the holy father Dominic is as holy and illustrious as we all know: but this is your first vocation; here the Lord wills you to be. If you forsake this, you will serve Him neither here nor there; if you persevere in it, He will supply grace and will make you a man of the first rank in this province.

[171] These words were so deeply impressed on the novice's mind whom he confirmed in his vocation, that he at once resolved and determined to remain in his first vocation, nor did he lend his ears to the words or persuasions of his kinsfolk. And so he persevered and made his profession, and turned out one of the more outstanding men of our Order in piety and learning: so truly did the word of F. Thomas take effect, as afterwards appeared in course of time in the province of Bætica; and we religious of the province of Aragon can bear testimony to the singular prudence, charity and religion with which, to the glory of God, the good F. Rodericus de Solis reformed this our province; where he lived until he was taken by the Lord from this life to eternal rest (as from his deeds and his death is to be believed).

[172] he was held in veneration. Then F. Thomas, returning after about a year to Seville to visit that house a second time, finding the said F. Rodericus de Solis now bound by solemn vows, and discovering him to be a young man of good talent, took him away with him to give his attention to studies at Salamanca, on the journey imbuing him by his example and counsels with all sanctity and religion. When they had come in sight of Salamanca, as they were entering he said: Have you observed, my son, that on so long a journey and in passing through so many villages and fields, where we have met so many farmers — a people that commonly takes pleasure in assailing travellers, and especially monks, with a thousand follies and gibes — they have never thrown a word at us, but on the contrary all have saluted us reverently? I did not indeed notice it at the time (F. de Solis used to say to me), but afterwards, taught by greater experience and knowing in what honour and veneration he was held throughout all Spain, I pondered it deeply ⁱ.

ANNOTATA.

To the venerable and to us in Christ Jesus beloved master brother Thomas of Villanova, of the Order of Hermits of our holy father Augustine; at Burgos. Fr. Jerome of Naples, unworthy Prior general of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine. To the venerable and to us in Christ Jesus beloved, greeting. I was of my own accord sufficiently stirred by a certain wonderful desire of seeing you, from what I had heard of you (that is) of your learning and the innocence of your life in Italy: but truly, when in the regions of Spain which I have hitherto traversed I have heard, with the clearest and one voice of all, what men of great credit and authority proclaim about these same things, I began to burn with a certain incredible and admirable desire of knowing, embracing and hearing the Man whom my soul sought. The gifts of the most holy Spirit are divided, as I think, for this reason, that one mortal mind is not capable of them all; therefore to one is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge — you know the rest, so that it need not be recited. But, O good God, what do I hear! That all the divine gifts have been granted to you most abundantly, so that you are at once a most eloquent interpreter of the divine Word and of such integrity of life and holiness that you seem not to follow but to go before those first and highest Fathers of our Order. This I have written to you that you may know that I was affected with vehement gladness at what has been told me, and gave thanks to the Lord who has given these things to you so abundantly, since in this age I have seen a great scarcity of such men; and it has befallen me in this long pilgrimage of mine, undertaken for the sake of our commonwealth, to see great tracts of land without dew and water. But would that I might find some Elias moved with zeal for the Lord God of hosts, at the word of whose mouth, after darkness, cloud and wind, a mighty rain may come upon the earth. Wherefore, dearest Brother, unless you wish — what is most shameful — not to answer one provoked by love and goodwill, think how to satisfy this our long thirst: this

you will do if, when we return from Portugal — which we hope, God willing, will be about the beginning of the month of September — you come to meet us as far as Toledo. And even, if it can be done without great inconvenience to you, we desire to see you even before we reach Toledo (for Christian love is impatient of all delay), that you may bring some relief to our troubles, labours and anxieties. And although we know for certain that you, out of the goodness of your nature, will do this readily, yet, that you may understand how vehement is our desire of that thing, we will that it be enjoined upon you unto the merit of holy obedience. And if you accomplish this, nothing can befall us either dearer or more pleasant. Our love for you certainly required a longer letter, but the very great hope which we have placed in your prudence and courtesy promises that at no time will you fail us either in service, or in counsel, or in labour. Farewell in the Lord. From Seville, the 26th day of June 1541. Fr. Jerome, unworthy General. Thus far Seripando, whose illustrious deeds so many writers have celebrated in their writings that there is no need at all to name any one in particular.

Spanish estrado*

CHAPTER XVI.

He flees dignities, refuses the archbishopric of Granada; designated to that of Valencia, he long and much resists.

[ ] fleeing dignities after the pattern of the Saints, We read ^b of the ancient Saints and glorious Fathers, whom the Holy Spirit set as masters of others in His Church, that although many of them offered themselves to martyrdom with wonderful alacrity and gladness, yet all fled bishoprics and dignities more than death itself, weighing how strict and rigid an account that supreme Shepherd and Bishop of our souls will exact from all the shepherds of His Church concerning the negligences and sins of His sheep. Of their number was also our good father F. Thomas, fleeing offices as much as he could, and shrinking from bishoprics and dignities. And therefore both publicly and privately, both in conversations and in the pulpit, he used to say that he was affected with great compassion, and with no envy, toward those who are advanced to offices which require so many and so great examples of sanctity and have so many and so hidden dangers. Assuredly the Servant of God judged and spoke as a true son of his holy father Augustine, who writes thus of himself: Perceiving that the faithful were beginning in some measure to esteem my teaching and my manners, I never betook myself to a place or church which I knew to be destitute of a bishop, lest I should lose so great a good as is the security which the lowly condition of a subject promises, and that I might withdraw myself from the great dangers to which he exposes himself who mounts the seat and chair of a bishop ^c.

[174] he refuses the archbishopric of Granada; While he was discharging the prefecture of the province for the second time, the archbishopric of Granada fell vacant; and the emperor, being at Toledo, out of the benevolence and religious regard which he bore toward F. Thomas's teaching, and out of the great opinion he had of his remarkable piety and prudence, proved by many experiences — although F. Thomas was not present there (for he was surveying the province), nor did any other person intercede for him — of his own motion, confident of the remarkable fruit that would be made through him in any church that should be committed to him, designated him archbishop of Granada. He was summoned to accept the election; but with the humility and courtesy that he ought, he begged his majesty to revoke it and choose another. Some friends much urged him to accept; but he never would. And since in the province, over which he himself presided, he had no superior who might command or could oblige him to it, and since the necessity of that church at that time would not bear so long a delay as was required for writing to the father general and awaiting his answer and command, that appointment was suppressed in silence: although it was known to many, as is clear from the processes and by name from the book in which the oaths of the students of the greater college of Alcalá are extant, and from what father Ossorno, perpetual administrator of the college of our Order at Valladolid, attests, relating that father Orosco (whose sanctity and learning were known at court and esteemed by king Philip the second), in a sermon given in our convent at Valladolid (where he presided) on the day on which the death of father D. Thomas was learned and his funeral celebrated — at which sermon father Ossorno, who attests it, was himself present — said among other things in praise of the humility and piety of F. Thomas, that he, being head of the province of Castile for the second time, had been chosen by the emperor Charles the fifth for the archbishopric of Granada, and had by no means been willing to accept it.

[175] Then in the way we have said the election to Granada was suppressed, that of Valencia afterwards falling vacant, and he, glad and cheerful, persevered in his former state, serving the Lord in the Order in the same occupations and offices as before: until in the year one thousand five hundred and forty-four, for good and just causes, the most illustrious and most reverend lord D. George of Austria, uncle of the emperor Charles the fifth, resigned the archbishopric of Valencia, and was promoted by Pope Paul the third from that church to that of Liège, a bishopric and dignity among the chief and most esteemed in Germany, on account of what is annexed to it. This resignation being made, the most Christian emperor in his holy zeal at once took care to set a shepherd over the vacant see of Valencia.

[176] Some in the process relate that they heard a notable and as it were miraculous thing, by a wonderful event reported as most certain, which happened at the election of this Servant of God to the archbishopric of Valencia. And in particular one of the witnesses affirms that it was communicated by father D. Thomas himself, after he had already presided over the archbishopric some years, to an inhabitant of this commonwealth, a much honoured man with whom the said Lord Thomas was on familiar terms, by name Bernard Simon, and that from him the witness himself learned it. Nay, the most excellent and most reverend lord D. John de Ribera, patriarch of Antioch and archbishop of Valencia (whose sanctity, nobility, prudence and other gifts, worthy of a great prince and prelate, are known to all and will be in eternal memory), on a certain occasion, in my presence, asserted that the same had been told him, as by an eyewitness, by one of the most religious and most learned fathers whom the Order of the holy father Dominic has had in our times, whose name was master F. Peter of Salamanca, and who through Flanders and Germany was the companion of F. Peter de Sotomayor, confessor to the emperor Charles the fifth.

[177] And it is this. The emperor, wishing to supply a bishop to that church, by Charles the fifth designated a religious of another Order, and ordered his secretary to draw up the document for him. The secretary went off to draw it up, and in place of him whom the emperor had designated, wrote in it the name of F. Thomas de Villanova of the Order of the holy father Augustine, being certain in his own mind that this was the man named to him by the emperor. He returned with the document to be confirmed by the emperor, and as soon as the most Christian prince beheld it, he said: What have you done, what have you written? For I did not designate to you brother Thomas de Villanova, but such a one of the Order of St. Jerome. The secretary, astounded, answered: With the utmost truth I affirm to your sacred majesty that I understood no other name than that of brother Thomas of Villanova; nevertheless the remedy is at hand: let your majesty return me the document, and I will at once draw up another with the name of the other father expressed. Then the emperor, of his own motion, and without being solicited by anyone on behalf of F. Thomas, said to the secretary who was demanding the document and about to draw up another: By no means: this man I will, and no other; nor is there any reason for drawing up another document. For since you have written him without my commanding it, and without another persuading or suggesting mention of that father, and with no human reason impelling you to it, but only because it seemed to you certain that I had named him, this is the work of God, and it is His election, not mine; from me proceeded the former one; but of that which you have written and delivered to me God is the author: I pledge myself that this is most safe: and so, willing and glad, he confirmed it.

[178] he is designated archbishop: That document, together with other letters, was soon sent from Germany to Valladolid, where at that time the most serene prince D. Philip was staying, who afterwards was our king and lord, the second of that name, and who at that time was governing all Spain for his father, and where likewise F. Thomas was living as Prior of the convent of St. Augustine in that same city. On account of the vast love and benevolence which all bore toward him, the news of this election brought the highest delight to the whole court, and was received with the eminent applause of all, and especially of the most serene prince, who loved and venerated him as an excellent Servant of God. But, as the witnesses report, although that news came very joyful to all, to him it was sad, very troublesome and mournful.

[179] on receiving the news, he grieves For among other things which the blessed F. Orosco said in a sermon about F. Thomas when his obsequies were being celebrated, in the presence of F. John Ossorno, who attests it, this one thing was worthy of note. At the time when a nobleman, one of the chief of the prince's household, brought the document of the archbishopric of Valencia, F. Thomas was engaged in choir with the community in reciting the Compline of the Office. The doorkeeper, having got some knowledge of the matter, went at once to the choir to announce that a nobleman was there with a command from the prince, and that he had understood there were letters from the emperor. But he answered: Let him be bidden to wait until the office should be finished and he should come out. The doorkeeper, out of the gladness with which the good news of his majesty's letters had affected him, when he had gone in to inform F. Thomas, had not entered with all the modesty and decorum due, but with a livelier gesture and a louder voice than the place required, so that the religious who were in choir might gather something and rejoice at the glad news. F. Thomas took this very ill, although at the time he dissembled. Nevertheless he persevered in the Office to the end of Compline, and waited until the other religious went out. Compline finished, he went out among the last, and received the prince's command brought by that nobleman, and the document sent for the archbishopric of Valencia. He dismissed him as soon as possible, bestowing no gift on him and returning no thanks, as others are wont to do, saying only that he kissed the prince's hands and would go to him as soon as possible to deal with the matter.

[180] he goes as a suppliant to Philip the second, When the nobleman had gone, he ordered the signal for supper to be given with the bronze bell, and, the community being assembled, the doorkeeper to be called; whom, when he had come, he not only gravely rebuked for his immodest and unseemly entrance into the choir, but also ordered to be beaten with scourges. Whence it appears what reverence the Servant of God himself kept in choir, and how great

he desired to be kept by others, especially while the divine Office was being recited; and how little delight, nay how much distress, the news of the document and of the election brought him: and this he afterwards sufficiently made manifest; for on the next day, when he had first commended himself to the Lord the whole night through and had performed the divine Rite with great piety, taking the document he betook himself to the court, and having obtained leave to approach the most serene prince, he said that he was most grateful for the favour shown him by the emperor and by the prince, and that on that account he kissed their hands without end; but that since he was well known to himself and knew how incapable he was of that burden, he humbly begged that the prince would not take it ill if it were not accepted by him; and falling at his feet he said that he was returning the document, and most earnestly begged the prince not to refuse to receive it, since he would not accept any bishopric.

[181] The prince brought forward some reasons by which to induce him to accept; and when he urged him to accept for, since he had before refused the mitre of Granada, he feared that he might offend the mind of the emperor his father if he did not accept that of Valencia. But not even so was he persuaded to take on so great a burden, but rather to beseech the most serene prince again most humbly to pardon him and not to take it amiss; since he had seriously commended it to the Lord and had long since so determined in his mind, knowing for certain that it was fitting for the salvation of his soul and the tranquillity of his conscience to persevere all his life and to die in the observance of his Order, and not to change his state or take up a bishopric. And so, induced by no reason to accept it, with due courtesy he obtained leave of the prince to depart.

[182] Learning the outcome of the matter, D. Peter Velasco, commander of the Castilian soldiery, and though magnates pressed him and D. Francis de los Cobos, chief commander of Leon, as also some other illustrious men who were on familiar terms with him, at once followed him, to urge him to accept, considering that in this he would render service to God and delight those to whom he owed so great a love as the most serene prince and his father the emperor bore toward him — who beyond all doubt, and not undeservedly, would take it ill to hear that he was resisting any election made concerning him. But no one was fit to persuade him. Cardinal lord John Tavera, archbishop of Toledo, being informed that none of those magnates had been able by their reasons to bring him to depart from his opinion, went to him, and shutting the door withdrew alone with him to rebuke him, and asked what the reason was why a man so devout and humble should stand so obstinate and tenacious of his own opinion, and would not submit himself to the judgment of his friends, with whose counsel, as of men grave, prudent and most devout, it behoved him to agree, and therefore to accept the archbishopric; since in the judgment of all it was fitting to the service both of God and of the emperor; and, he said, while it is otherwise, right reason and the divine will are manifestly resisted, by whose guidance it was certain that the appointment had been made; since neither had he procured it for himself, by himself or through friends, nor had it been made out of human favour, but by a manifest command from heaven, which God suggested to the emperor our lord, whose piety and zeal he himself knew exceedingly well. This persuasion would have stormed the mind of any other man and made him change his opinion. But it availed not even in the least; as was publicly known at Valladolid and throughout the whole province of Castile, and will appear evidently from the letters which, copied from the originals, I shall presently subjoin here.

[183] But Thomas, prostrating himself at the feet of the most illustrious Cardinal, long and much whom he loved and greatly reverenced, and by whom he was much loved, with a flood of tears besought him, if he wished him well, not to exact this thing, but to deign to send letters with him to the emperor and to help that his majesty might not be offended or take it amiss that the archbishopric was not accepted; declaring that the one reason which moved him to this was the security of his salvation, and the fear lest in a bishopric he should expose it to great danger. And he begged that he would persuade the most serene prince of this same thing. But what would those magnates have done and said if they had known what had passed between the emperor and his secretary about the document sent, as we have related here, in the way they understood and knew afterwards?

[184] he resists. Those magnates, together with the Cardinal (whom they had awaited, to learn whether he had moved him to accept), went away affected with great grief, considering that what they wished and desired could be obtained by no one. And so, the Lord God directing the matter to the greater merit of the holy Prelate, they resolved to beg the prince suppliantly — whom they knew to be much inclined to this also — to send letters, such as they themselves were going to send, to the provincial of the Order, that he might lay a command upon him. For although they clearly saw that F. Thomas was resolved, determined and fixed not to accept the archbishopric, yet they believed it certain that, in his humility and piety, when he received a command from his superior, he would do out of obedience what he was by no means going to do if left to his own judgment ^d.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER XVII.

Out of obedience he accepts the archbishopric of Valencia, and is consecrated.

[ ] At length, being commanded by the head of the province The most serene prince therefore wrote; and the Cardinal and the magnates wrote to Toledo, where at that time F. Francis de Nieva was living as head of the province ^a, created in the aforesaid chapter of the year one thousand five hundred and forty-one, who was also one of those who received the habit from F. Thomas, as I said in chapter XIV. The said head of the province, reading through the letters of the prince and of the magnates, and weighing how much profit and service F. Thomas would render to the Lord by his prudence, piety and learning in whatever church he should be made bishop, answered each that what they desired and demanded seemed to him most just; and he wrote the same to F. Thomas himself, and commanded him out of obedience and under pain of ecclesiastical censure to accept as soon as possible, sending him, in the bundle of letters in which he answered the prince and the magnates, this letter with its command.

[186] "To the very reverend father F. Thomas of Villanova, commanded out of obedience Prior of the monastery of our holy father Augustine, at Valladolid: the Prior provincial. Very reverend Father, I have received a letter from the prince our lord, in which he signifies that the archbishopric of Valencia has been conferred by the emperor upon your Paternity; and since from the same I have also learned that that appointment is refused by your Paternity, I command your Paternity that, upon sight of this our present letter, within the space of twenty hours you accept the appointment to the archbishopric of Valencia, in that form and manner in which the emperor made it: and that you may draw the more merit from it, I command it in virtue of holy obedience and under pain of excommunication, three canonical warnings having been given beforehand. And this I command because I am certain that it will be very acceptable to God, as also to the emperor. May our Lord preserve your very reverend Paternity and ever protect you with His right hand, that you may bring forth fruit for His Church. At Toledo, the second of August ^b, one thousand five hundred and forty-four. Your Paternity's brother, F. Francis de Nieva, provincial."

[187] By virtue of this command, and as both the magnates and the graver fathers of the Order vehemently pressed him during those days, he accepts. joining to these efforts many sacrifices of the Mass and prayers that the Lord might bend his mind to what should be of greater service to Him, he accepted the archbishopric of Valencia on the feast day of the blessed Virgin Mary of the Snows ^c. For the same bearer of the letters had departed and returned with all speed. But since by the command he was bound to accept within the space of twenty hours, there was no room for delay: for the prince ordered the courier, on his return, to carry the Prior provincial's letters to him forthwith; and so, setting aside his own judgment and the resolution of mind which he had firmly conceived, he was obliged to consent at once and to accept the emperor's appointment and document, lest he should resist the obedience which he had vowed, and in following which he knew that he was obeying the divine will.

[188] In the previous year, one thousand five hundred and forty-three, He had before been ordered to examine the Constitutions of the Order a general chapter of our Order had been held at Rome, and it had been decreed that the constitutions of our Order, which both by reason of their age and antiquity and by reason of the changes of the times had to be brought into a better form, should be committed to certain fathers more outstanding in prudence, piety and zeal. To this end five fathers were designated out of the whole Order: three Italians, one Frenchman, and likewise one Spaniard. The Italians and the Frenchman were chosen from among those who were present at the chapter, being judged by all most fit for that charge; but for Spain, F. Thomas, though absent, was nevertheless elected, on account of the report which the most reverend Seripando, Prior general, made of his life, learning and prudence in the crowded assembly. But after the new appointment to the archbishopric of Valencia, he saw that he could not give his time to the business committed to him in the general chapter. Soon therefore, as a most obedient and most humble son, he wrote to the said father general, both to indicate the election made concerning him by the emperor, and that the correction of the Constitutions of the Order, enjoined upon him, might be committed to another. It has seemed good to me to recite these letters also here, because from them it will plainly be seen in what way and by what road the Servant of God came to the archiepiscopal dignity and chair.

[189] therefore signifying his election to his General, The letter runs thus: "To the most reverend father, master F. Jerome Seripando, Prior general of the Order of our holy father Augustine. At Rome. Most reverend father: grace and peace be to you from the Lord. I have not written sooner to your most reverend paternity because the couriers were not to be relied on and the road to Rome less safe. Now a matter has arisen for which it was necessary to employ an extraordinary courier. And it is this. The emperor, being with his army in Germany, without any person intervening on my behalf, but of his own motion and judgment, has named me, who was far removed from any such thought or desire, archbishop of Valencia. That this election was made by the divine hand is the opinion of many: and although it would have been better for me to remain in the peace and tranquillity of the monastic life which I had professed, the father Prior provincial sent me a command under pain of ecclesiastical censure that I should at once, within the space of twenty hours, accept the appointment, as the emperor required; and so, compelled by my superior's command, I could not but accept.

[190] he asks that another be substituted for that examination. This I write to your most reverend paternity, that you may bless me as a son whom you follow with such kindness, and may approve and confirm what has been done; since in the whole business my mind was not to resist obedience and the divine disposition concerning my person, trusting that He will supply me with the strength and ability required for a burden and ministry so sublime: since I aspire to nothing else than His holy service. But if his Holiness confirms this election, I shall not be able to accomplish what was committed to me by your most reverend paternity and by the fathers of the general chapter concerning the constitutions, since I shall be occupied with other business. Yet in whatever matter pertains to the service of your most reverend paternity and to the honour and progress of the Order I shall always show myself, as a most obedient son, most ready. May our Lord keep your most reverend paternity, and preserve you for many years to His service and to the profit of the Order. At Valladolid, the twelfth of August, one thousand five hundred and forty-four. Your most reverend paternity's most obedient son, Brother Thomas of Villanova ^d." In this way the Servant of God became archbishop of Valencia, and at the same time so holy and true a Pastor, as we shall be taught in the second book.

[191] Great gladness came upon all who knew him, Great joy at his election, especially at Valencia. because they saw the government of so eminent a church as that of Valencia committed to such upright hands; and this was sufficiently shown by the letters which many bishops and illustrious men, both from Spain and from Rome, sent to him, and which for brevity's sake I here pass over: although the manner of writing of them all is very notable; for, knowing well how humble a man he was and how great a lover of solitude, all sent letters as it were of consolation for the sadness and grief with which they judged that he would beyond doubt be affected by the new dignity: no one in his letter congratulated him, but rather the church and the region which was to rejoice in such a Father and Prelate. And here at Valencia, as many witnesses report, there was the greatest gladness as soon as his election was published, and when many who on various occasions had been in Castile, and especially at Burgos and Valladolid, gave a report of his sanctity and learning. But when news was brought that he had refused to accept, the heart of all was as it were covered with a cloud of sadness; but when they learned that the archbishopric had been accepted by him, it was just as though the sky were opened to them with a new and extraordinary serenity.

[192] Worthy of note also is the manner of speaking about his religion and learning, both of Pope Paul the third in the Bull directed to him concerning the archbishopric, Pope Paul III in the Bull, and prince Philip in his letters and of the prince in the letters written for the carrying out of the matter. For the Pontiff extols to the sky his erudition and his upright and religious life, making plain how great an esteem he had conceived of him from the good odour of his fame, and how great a confidence of the vast fruit he was to bring to that church both in spiritual and in temporal matters. The most serene prince, in the letters directed to the most excellent duke of Calabria, then viceroy of Valencia, and likewise to the magistrate and to the chapter in praise of this holy Prelate, giving testimony to the excellence of the man and Prelate whom the emperor his father was appointing for them, and to the causes which had moved him, writes among other things thus.

[193] "Considering the integrity of life, purity of manners, they praise him earnestly; he alone grieves: singular erudition and knowledge, remarkable sanctity, religion and learning, and other excellent merits and virtues of the very reverend father in Christ brother Thomas of Villanova of the Order of St. Augustine, it has seemed good to the imperial Catholic and royal majesty, the emperor, my lord and father, to choose and name that same man — as one whom he knows most excellently, and whose good and illustrious gifts he has fully examined — archbishop of this city. Wherefore you must reckon yourselves exceedingly happy, give infinite thanks to God, and pray much for the emperor and for happy issues to him in every matter, on account of so remarkable a benefit, in which he has provided you with so good a Shepherd," etc. But the more that dignity was to others an occasion of greater gladness, and the holier and fitter the election appeared, as indeed it was, the greater the sadness and distress with which it affected his own mind, foreseeing that so heavy a burden had been laid upon him as is the care of so many souls, and the obligation of rendering an account of the precious blood shed for them by Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Wherefore he went about sad through all those days, nor did he admit the greetings of friends running to congratulate him, except those from which he could by no means excuse himself; nor did he, as the custom is, bestow gifts on the man who brought the Bulls. For he was afflicted to the utmost both by the rest and security which his soul was losing, and by the dangers to which he was exposing himself in undertaking an office so laborious and subject to such obligations as the very name of bishop comprises. He acknowledged this sufficiently and with great humility in the letter sent to his Holiness after the Bulls of the archbishopric had been received, writing thus:

[194] he writes to the Pontiff; "Most blessed Father: I have lately received your Holiness's letters under lead, by which you have set me over the church of Valencia as archbishop and pastor, not without much fear and trembling. For who would not fear to undergo the weight of so great a ministry and the summit of so sublime a dignity, if he has the light of faith and is not unmindful of the judgment to come and of the account to be rendered? May the most devout and most clement Christ bring it about that I be found a fit minister for His Catholic Church, for the founding of which by His own blood and that of His own He deigned to come down from heaven; so that I may in part answer by deed to your Holiness — to whom for so great a benevolence toward me I am unable to render thanks by any speech — by diligently and faithfully discharging the office enjoined upon me. For I should believe nothing more pleasing or more acceptable to your Beatitude than to find faithful and ready helpers, whom you call into a share of your solicitude, for ruling, preserving and enlarging the Church of God committed to you. And to this the will indeed lies ready in me: would that the accomplishment too were granted! For the rest, if there is in me any strength or sufficiency, your Holiness by this your clemency has claimed the whole of it for yourself. So that your Holiness will find in the whole world no subject more grateful, more humble, and (as is fitting) more ready for all your commands. The testimony also of the oath taken before consecration (as the custom is), as your Beatitude requires by the same letters, I send with this letter. May your devout and kindly Holiness fare well for many years, to the profit and peace of the Church of God. Your Holiness's humble and devoted creature, brother Thomas of Villanova ^e."

[195] he is consecrated bishop. The election of F. Thomas to the archbishopric of Valencia, made by the emperor Charles the fifth, being confirmed by Pope Paul the third, and the Bulls having been received from his Holiness — the expenses of which the lord Cardinal archbishop of Toledo, John Tavera, defrayed (since he knew his poverty, who spent all that he received on devout works, or applied it to the common use of his convent, reserving nothing whatever for himself) — he was soon consecrated in that same city of Valladolid by the same Cardinal with great solemnity and with the sacred ceremonies which the Catholic Church, instructed by the blessed Apostles, uses in such actions and has always used from the beginning. At the consecration, besides the three bishops required for that act, there were present, with the utmost delight of mind for the affection and love which they bore toward him, many others: many magnates, men distinguished with titles, and the better and greater part of the court. When the act was finished, many threw themselves on their knees, nay some pushed others aside, to kiss his hands; while others, and not a few, fell down to kiss his feet, and everyone who could reach him counted himself happy. And since all alike loved and reverenced him, almost all mingled many tears with this affection and gladness, thinking that he would soon set out for his church and that they were to be deprived of so great a teaching and consolation of his.

ANNOTATA.

d. The same

letter, with a few changes, Herrera recites in Spanish, as Salonius does, in the Bibliotheca, part 2, p. 441, and asserts that he saw it subscribed with the Saint's own hand in the Roman archive. At p. 442 and following he gives Seripando's letters in reply and others, which I have inserted in the preceding Commentary.

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

He sets out for Valencia and stays outside the walls in a convent of his Order.

[ ] He departs for Valencia with one companion and two servants; The Bulls for the archbishopric having been received, and being consecrated at Valladolid in the church of our holy father Augustine by lord John Tavera, Cardinal and archbishop of Toledo, as was said in the preceding book, he soon set out on the journey to Valencia with no other equipment or retinue than one religious who was very dear to him for his virtue, by name father brother John Rincon, and two servants, such as the chief fathers are wont to have when they set out on a journey. As he departed, some Religious and other excellent persons wished to accompany him for some part of the way; but he gave the religious men many thanks for their goodwill toward him and said that he would by no means permit it; but he earnestly begged that they would always accompany him with their prayers and Sacrifices. To seculars, however, he would never make known either the day or the hour of his departure; and on a certain day, after celebrating the Sacrifice of the Mass in the early morning twilight, he went away with no one privy to the matter until he had already set out on the road: and so he departed with only the religious and the said two servants.

[197] he did not visit his mother on the way, though asked. On the journey he came to a place from which he could either go straight on to Valencia without any detour, or turn toward Villanueva de los Infantes. His mother had ordered him to be asked that, when he went to Valencia, he would direct his journey that way and refresh her with the sight of him. He halted a while in the said place and asked his companion: What shall we do, F. John? Shall we pursue the journey straight to Valencia, or turn aside toward Villanueva de los Infantes, as my mother has begged by her letters? His companion answered him: Let us make the journey by Villanueva, my Lord; for on account of the six or seven days by which your lordship can be further delayed by that detour, that consolation is not to be denied to your mother. That indeed, said he, seems good to me too; but (such was his custom in whatever he had to do) let us commend it a while to God. So he stood for some time, uttering no word and as it were deliberating what he should do; and when half a quarter of an hour had passed: Let us go on, said he, to Valencia; for it now concerns us more to help our spouse, who perhaps needs our presence; there will be no lack of opportunity of consoling my mother, and if it cannot be done in person, it shall be done by letter. For what the first parent declared concerning the wife given him by the Lord — For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, signifying with what love and solicitude a husband ought to hasten to provide for his wife — that same thing binds bishops no less toward their churches, that they should love them and help them in their necessities.

[198] Divine providence at his coming Divine Providence is wont, when it chooses a man itself for some office, to manifest at once from the beginning what is to be expected from him in future; as we see in St. Moses the prophet, in whom, by the fortitude with which he avenged the Hebrew of the injury inflicted by the Egyptian, the Holy Spirit (as St. Jerome holds, and as the most glorious martyr St. Stephen declared in that so erudite and learned discourse which on the very day of his martyrdom he delivered to the Synagogue at Jerusalem) indicated what He afterwards intended to work through him in Egypt for the good and liberty of his brethren. And St. Luke the evangelist relates that, when Jesus Christ our Redeemer called St. Peter the apostle to leave his ship, his nets and all that he possessed on land and to follow Him, he took at one cast so great a multitude of fishes that it was necessary to call the companions who were in another ship near by to help in drawing up the nets; the Lord thus prefiguring (as He Himself soon declared) the infinite multitude of men whom he was afterwards to take for heaven with the nets of his speech and doctrine.

[199] grants rain to the kingdom of Valencia; So too the Lord our God, sending F. Thomas to Valencia, soon showed sufficiently how great a good He was directing to that region along with that holy Prelate. For, since that kingdom had already laboured for some time under a scarcity of water, and thence under great barrenness and want, as he entered the territory and borders of his diocese it began to rain; and when he reached the monastery of blessed Mary of Succour, which is situated outside near the walls of Valencia, and to which, as a monastery of his Order, he turned aside, so great an abundance of water fell from heaven for the relief of that region that all at once, from that visible benefit of waters sent from the heavens (which with a loud voice they ascribed to the coming and merits of the Servant of God), perceived in their understanding the spiritual and invisible benefits which were to be conferred upon their souls by his example and teaching.

[200] Of his coming and reception in the said monastery of blessed Mary of Succour, father brother Jacobus Montiel, approaching the city who was at that time Prior there and was afterwards his confessor, and other senior fathers who at the same time dwelt in that house, used to relate — and it was very well known — that when the holy Prelate and his companion, with the mules and the two servants, came to the door and called the religious who kept watch there, he at once opened; and that when they said that they had come to stay in that house for only two days, he demanded (as they say the custom and institute of our Order requires) the letters * which they were bringing from their superior, to be shown to the Prior, since without them he was not allowed to admit them. The companion answered: Brother, you rightly discharge your office; but this father was Prior and provincial of Castile, and does not need the letters you demand. Go to the father Prior and tell him that we, two senior religious of Castile, have come hither, and do not wish to stay here more than two days, until the rains cease, and that the servants already know where they may lodge with the mules so long within the city.

[201] With this message the doorkeeper went to the father Prior, who, unknown, he turns aside into a convent of his Order; since it was already known that the Archbishop was coming, half suspected that this was the very man who had come to the door; he hastened there as quickly as he could; but when he saw no one but two monks, and without any retinue, for the servants had already gone away, he hung the more in doubt whether it were he. Nevertheless, seeing from their faces and bearing that they were men of gravity, he received them with great courtesy and offered that they should remain there as long as they pleased. This one thing he grieved at, that the house was narrow and poor, and that the services could not be shown them of which he perceived them to be worthy. Let not this trouble you, father Prior (said the companion, for F. Thomas kept unbroken silence), for this father with one little cell, and I with another, however small, will be quite content as long as the rains last; for our food we shall provide ourselves; for the servant to whom the expenses of the journey have been committed will be here presently.

[202] The good Prior, continually gazing on the venerable and devout face of F. Thomas known, he is solemnly conducted by the religious (although he kept unbroken silence) — and the more he gazed, since he had already had a view of his great humility and modesty, the more persuading himself that he was beyond doubt the Archbishop — yet hesitated to ask it, because he saw him arriving thus without a retinue (as the good father Montiel himself related, pouring tears from his eyes not only when he first told it, but as often as he spoke of him). At length he resolved to ask it of him himself, and thus addressed him: I beseech you for the love of God, my Father, take away my doubt; are you the lord Archbishop? And since, saving the truth, he could not conceal it, and recognized the Prior's upright mind, he assented to him and said: I am he, although I am neither worthy nor fit for it. The said Prior at once threw himself at his feet, earnestly demanding his hands to kiss. He at once ordered all the religious to be called together, who, running up with vast alacrity, all kissed his hands.

[203] Without delay the Prior ordered the Cross and the candlesticks to be brought, and three religious to be vested: one with a cope, to carry the Cross in his hands, and the other two with dalmatics, to bear the tapers. in the church and at the image of Bl. Mary, And so from the portico in which the holy Prelate was — from that part which we call the De profundis, where there is a very devout image of our Redeemer bearing the Cross, and of our holy father Augustine and some Saints of our Order lifting Him as He bears it — they went in order to the church, through the door by which one goes to the choir, and where his tomb now is, singing together the Te Deum Laudamus. He was led to the principal altar, where he remained prostrate on his knees until the chant was finished and the priest vested in a cope had recited some prayers in thanksgiving. Thence, singing the hymn Ave maris stella, etc., they led him to the chapel of blessed Mary of Succour, and there, the said hymn being finished with some versicles, the same priest recited the prayer of the blessed Virgin Mary, and the holy Prelate gave his blessing to all the religious, although for tears he could scarcely utter the words. The blessing given, he asked the father Prior that the religious should withdraw, since he desired to stay there a while alone before that holy image, which seemed to him very devout. And indeed all his life he bore a great affection toward it, and this was one of the reasons why, as he lay dying (as will be told), he insisted most firmly that he should be buried nowhere else than in the chapel of blessed Mary of Succour, in the tomb of the other religious.

[204] many run out from the city; He remained there a long space of time, commending himself to the blessed Virgin Mary, and would have remained longer, had they not interrupted him: for when the servants, who had gone on with the mules to the episcopal palace (where some of his household who had gone before were already staying), said that the archbishop had already arrived and was lodging in the monastery of blessed Mary of Succour, the report of his coming was soon spread abroad, and many canons and other chief persons ran up to kiss his hands and to congratulate him on his coming. And so he was compelled to leave the chapel of blessed Mary and to betake himself to the Prior's chamber, which, while he stayed in the chapel, had been prepared for him in the best way possible, and another for his companion, with a little court annexed to each. All who came he received with great charity both

and with courtesy, and after conversing with them for some time, he asked in words very obliging and religious (for so he always did) that they would not stay there longer, both because of the coming on of night and the increasing rain, and for the tranquillity of the monastery; and that they would deign to advise his friends to spare themselves the labour of visiting him in a monastery outside the city and amid the rains; for when he came into the city of Valencia he could be approached in his own house on any day and at any hour, and he would receive them with great gladness and delight; but that during the days in which the rains kept him in the monastery he might rest, both that he might prepare himself for his entry, since he had arrived wearied from the journey, and that at such festivals he might be free from business and greetings.

[205] on account of continual rains for some days, He had resolved to approach Valencia on the fourth day before the Nativity and to stay two days in that house; and on the third day, that is, on the eve of the vigil of the Nativity, to enter the city of Valencia and be present in choir at the Vespers of the Nativity, a festival which he kept with very great devotion. But the Lord so disposed the matter that on account of the abundance of rain he had to remain in that monastery until the first day of the year. On each of the days in which he stayed in that house he celebrated Mass with great devotion at the altar of the blessed Virgin Mary; and that he might celebrate with greater tranquillity, fearing that many might be present to hear, he came to the altar very early in the morning and with the doors shut in some fashion, since the days were shorter and cloudy. But he was present with the other religious in choir at both the evening and the morning hours of the festival of the Lord's birth, and after many entreaties of the Prior he took the middle seat; but he ordered the silk hanging placed at that part of the seat which supports the back to be removed, and the cushion of shorn silk [set] at the feet. He was asked for the antiphon Magnificat, which he intoned, to the great example of piety to all.

[206] The Prior earnestly begged him to deign to celebrate the first or solemn Mass, assisting at the divine office with the religious and to honour that monastery with that favour; he answered that he would willingly satisfy his desire, but that it was not fitting that he should celebrate for the first time with episcopal rite in any other church than the cathedral, and that the canons would justly complain, to whom on his part he ought not to give occasion for laying complaints. And so, when Lauds had begun, he went off to celebrate the first Mass privately at the altar of the blessed Virgin Mary, and, that being finished, to rest a while. But at first light he celebrated the other two at the same altar with much devotion and tears; thence he went to the choir, and wishing to deal with no one, he remained on his knees until the hour of the Office. When this had come, he assisted at Terce and Sext and at the solemn Mass, nor did he move from the choir until the signal was given for dinner. When it was given, he went with his companion to the place which is called the De profundis*; and both on that day dined in the refectory with the other religious, where he took the Prior's place, because he asked this again and again, and blessed them all. Dinner ended, he betook himself to his cell with his companion and the Prior, and shut up in it rested until Vespers, at which likewise he was present, although the night before he had given very little to sleep and rest.

[207] In this manner, as those senior fathers related, he stays there, and is visited by the viceroy. the holy Prelate passed the day of the Nativity in that house, admitting no one's greeting or visit. On the other days he came only to the solemn Mass and to Vespers, like any other religious; he received the greetings of certain persons and ate with his companion in his chamber; nor did he fail to be present at Vespers, except on the feast day of St. John, on which the duke of Calabria, then viceroy of Valencia, visited him, to whom he was already known and who greatly venerated him. And as soon as he learned that he was the archbishop, he made known to all the inhabitants of this city what a distinguished preacher and servant of God was the Prelate who was coming to govern that church. But besides other things he asserted to his noble friends that he marvelled that he had accepted the archbishopric of Valencia; since he knew that he had by no means been willing to accept the mitre of Granada, and had declared that he would accept no other, nor leave the religious state to which he had been called by God. But he said this because at the time he did not know, as he knew afterwards, what we have related, namely that he had accepted out of mere obedience and against his will, compelled by the command and censures sent him by the Prior of the province.

Spanish la licencia*

Spanish Misa del Gallo rezada*

CHAPTER II.

To the great joy of the inhabitants he enters his church, and turns his first cares to the prison and the hospital.

[ ] The rain ceasing and the streets cleaned, That good Prelate kept himself in the monastery of blessed Mary of Succour, not entering Valencia on account of the abundant rains, until, the feast days being past, they began to cease and the sky to clear. And although the vast quantity of mud which had thence been produced did not allow him to enter for some days with a procession of suppliants drawn up and with the accustomed solemnity from the gate of the city to the church, yet on account of the desire both with which he himself was affected of seeing, embracing and, as becomes any good Bishop, refreshing his spouse, and with which the breast of that same church burned to enjoy the sight of her Spouse and to hear the voice of that Shepherd of whom all had foretold such good things, the lords of the chapter and the magistrates of the city determined and ordered that all the roads by which he must pass from the monastery of blessed Mary of Succour to the greater church should be cleansed of the vast quantity of mud and strewn with sand, and that he should proceed riding on a mule from the said monastery to the city basilica, and thence in the manner of a procession to the church. And so on the last day of the year one thousand five hundred and forty-four all the roads were cleaned from the monastery of blessed Mary of Succour to the gate which is called de Quarto, and from it to the door of the greater church which is named from the Apostles, and which was magnificently adorned, as is the custom on such an occasion and day.

[209] he is brought into his church On the feast of the Circumcision and the first day ^a of the year one thousand five hundred and forty-five, and in the fifty-sixth year of his age, about the second hour after noon, riding on a mule, escorted by the magistrate and the whole body of the nobles of this illustrious city, he came to the aforesaid basilica, where he dismounted from the mule and adored the Wood of the Cross, which had been placed there on a seat covered with a precious cloth and prepared for that end. The whole entrance of the said basilica also was covered with cloth, both the precious cloth of the greater church and the silk and velvet of the city; and the ground was strewn with many carpets. Thence, the whole clergy accompanying him in the manner of a procession and singing, as the custom is, the hymn Te Deum laudamus, he was led to the greater church. The chant finished, they said the versicles and prayers appointed in the pontifical book for the reception of a bishop; and these said, he blessed all the people and imparted the forty days' indulgences which bishops can grant to their subjects.

[210] with a great example of humility Of this reception and entry of the blessed Prelate the witnesses relate certain very notable things: for many, both on account of the remarkable esteem and on account of the fame of sanctity which they had received concerning his person, observed with great attention whatever was done, and followed him until he had withdrawn into his own house. Accordingly some of them, still surviving among the living at the time when the inquiry about him was instituted, relate: first, that the humility and poverty of his dress brought great admiration to all; for he entered in a gown and cloak of black cloth very worn out, and in a hat so old that it had already lost its colour and was worn away with age ^b. But no one will marvel at this who peruses what we shall say hereafter of the poverty which he always kept in his garments while he was Archbishop.

[211] The second was the remarkable example of humility and at the same time of piety and of piety which he gave when, at the lower entrance of the city basilica, where he was received by the chapter, dismounting from the beast he came to the seat to adore the Wood of the Cross. In that place where he was to kneel they had set a cushion of red plush, which seeing, he bent down and removed it with his own hands, and prostrate on his knees on the ground adored the wood of the Cross, kissed the foot of the crucified Lord with many tears, and then, bowing down, kissed the ground itself. That action was of such an example of piety that it moved the bystanders and affected them with such tenderness that many of them wept together. Nay, those who attest it, as is contained in the process, relate it with such feeling that they can neither refrain from tears nor speak without them. Thirdly they say that he was received with such a show of joy and gladness by the whole city, and by all who then dwelt in it — ecclesiastics and laymen, men outstanding in birth, and nobles, and generally by the whole people — as had never on any occasion been seen at Valencia. All showing their consolation and inward delight of soul; on that day there truly seemed to enter to them the redemption of the city and the remedy of all the evils, both spiritual and bodily, which were found in it.

[212] And according to the opinion which they had conceived of his remarkable sanctity, and to the consolation and joy of the inhabitants, learning and kindness from what was publicly related of the Servant of God by many and very grave persons who had been in Castile, and by name at Burgos or at Valladolid, all asserted with one voice, as of a certain thing, that with that holy Prelate there had come thither the amendment of all the corruption and dissoluteness which was in the city and throughout the diocese, and the remedy and consolation of the poor and needy. Nor did they show the gladness of their heart and the opinion and esteem which they had of the holy Prelate's remarkable sanctity, learning, piety and other virtues by their voice alone, but also in writing, with many verses and epigrams set up through the squares, streets and corners by which he had to pass, and especially at the greater church, at its doors and open spaces. Some celebrating the remarkable gifts of the blessed Prelate; others giving infinite thanks to the Lord that He had granted him to us; others congratulating the church and the city on so happy a lot as is the coming of so good a Father and Shepherd; others blessing the Order of our holy father Augustine for bringing forth such sons; others by emblems and hieroglyphic symbols signifying the joy and consolation which they felt at his coming. Nay, some also attest that many prefixed to their writings, verses and pictures, in a clear and very legible character, these words: To the most illustrious and most holy Prelate

don Fr. Thomas of Villanueva, archbishop of Valencia, whom for the salvation of souls, and as father of the poor, the happy city of Valencia receives on this day with congratulation and jubilation. Words which, in the judgment of many who even then had great knowledge of the gifts of that illustrious Man, were written on those papers at the direction of the Holy Spirit, who knew perfectly how true they were to be.

[213] who accompany him in a vast throng. After therefore the holy Prelate had been received with such gladness and solemnity, and the ceremonies above mentioned had been finished in the church, he went on to his house, all the canons accompanying him, with so great a throng of men pushing one another to kiss his hands, his garment or his feet, that he would himself have been exposed to great inconvenience and danger of life, had not the guards of the duke of Calabria come to drive them back and to secure room — the duke, who was waiting in the greater chapel of the cathedral church that he might kiss his hands when he came; even as that great and most Christian prince kissed them at the first steps of the altar as he approached.

[214] On the next day, thanks being given to God, On the next day he returned to the church to celebrate the sacred sacrifice of the Mass, and there — which he did with great devotion and shedding of tears — to give infinite thanks to the Lord for the benefit He had bestowed on him in allowing him to come to his church; and to pray suppliantly that He would deign to direct him and enlighten him with His divine favour and grace, that he might rightly discharge his office, duly govern the diocese, and be a worthy minister of His glory and of the salvation of his sheep.

[215] he surveys the prison When he had done this above all else, and had commended himself in that sublime and divine Sacrifice to the Lord, that He would grant him light and guidance in all things, he at once displayed the remarkable charity and kindness with which he was to govern his subjects and to deal with them. For returning from the church to his house, he first asked that the prison of ecclesiastics should be shown him, that he might see with his own eyes how the clerics were kept there, and might provide for this matter before all else. He entered it, and surveying it, when he came upon the caverns which they there call tavegas, and found them very dark, damp and dismal, he asked: Has an ecclesiastic ever been put here? They answered that he had, and that they served that purpose. He showed great distress in his face and shuddered at such a prison, fitter (as he said) for robbers and highwaymen than for priests and men consecrated to God; and he at once ordered it to be blocked up and filled with earth, saying: God forbid that ever, by my order or with my will, a cleric should be shut up in so horrible a place! By another way must the souls of our brethren be corrected and won. The misery and need of a neighbour move strongly when they are seen with one's own eyes, by reason of the force and strength which the Author of nature has put in them for moving the will and softening the heart. And superiors and judges would learn this by excellent experience if only, as they are bound, they visited the prisons and beheld with their own eyes what the wretched captives suffer; as that holy Prelate often taught in his sermons, and as he himself did, as we here see, and observed as long as he held this church.

[216] A sum of money offered by the canons In these same days the lords of the chapter, both to show the joy which they had taken in his coming, and because they had been informed of his poverty — as one who, unless he sought a loan, had nothing with which to furnish his house and provide the necessary furniture — being duly assembled, decreed among themselves to offer him some sum of money as a gift; three thousand crowns ^c, some say, four thousand others attest, and this is the more certain to me. For a priest devoted to God, upright in life and worthy of credit, by name lord Michael Tiensa, who for many years was perpetual vicar in the church of the general hospital (who was surviving among the living when I put together my first little book on this holy Prelate, but had ceased to live when the inquiry and process were instituted by the bishop's authority), affirmed to me as an eyewitness with great certainty that four thousand were appointed.

[217] These, in the name of the chapter, lord Jerome Carroz, he grants to the hospital, lord Michael Vique, and lord Honoratus Pellicer, canons of the same holy church, brought to him, beseeching him to use them for the furnishing of his house, and to look not at the gift but at the will and desire with which they were borne toward his service. He received the money, giving them many thanks both for their affection and for the gift, and said: That sum of money with which you intend to benefit me, is it granted in such a way that I may freely dispose of it and use it as it shall seem expedient to me? And when they asserted that it was left wholly to his will, he said: Since then it has happened (as it had happened in those days) that fire has done so much damage to the general hospital of this city, I beg you and the lords of the chapter not to take it ill, or to think that I make less of your gift — for I make more of it and shall always keep it in memory — if I grant this gift to the hospital, which will please God most, that the work which must needs be built may be begun. God permitted that not only did they not take it ill of him, but on the contrary they looked up to his vast charity and mercy, in that, though he himself was in need, he chose rather to provide for the necessity of the hospital than for his own house. And so at that very moment of time he ordered the administrators of the hospital to be summoned, and when they came at once he handed over to them all the money, to which he had not even put his hand, charging them to take it for building beds for the sick, and to begin the work forthwith; and he added that, with the Lord's help, he would strive to bring relief both to the necessity which they were suffering at that time, and to the other works of piety and mercy which are customarily exercised in that house. The said vicar, lord Michael Tiensa, accompanied the administrators who received the money, and so related what is recounted above as an eyewitness. And he added that by the said alms of father D. Thomas the building of the hospital was begun.

[218] Nor did he bestow only this money, but calling to him all the preachers and confessors, and he induces others to do the same. he diligently enjoined them that, while preaching and hearing confessions, they should commend the matter with great effort, and should ask the persons with whom they were to deal, if they knew them to be at all rich, to help and favour it. The same he did himself in the sermons which he gave, with as much efficacy as if the house had been his own and every one of the sick and needy his own brother or son; nay, he grasped the necessity of that house, and the remarkable merit which all who helped it gained before God, with such feeling that he was moved with compassion and demanded it with tears. The duke of Calabria, who was a very devout prince and inclined to almsgiving, and who contributed much help to that same work, he begged and prevailed upon that they should often together inspect the work and visit the hospital, so as by their example to give a spur to all the rest to help it. And so they went there together frequently, to the great edification of the whole city, and many principal persons, ecclesiastical as well as lay, moved by so holy an example, likewise hastened thither.

ANNOTATA.

Spanish brocado*

Spanish terciopelo*

CHAPTER III.

As Archbishop he keeps poverty in dress, food and household furniture.

[ ] The Archbishop's love of poverty in his garments, Dignity and honour are a vast test of true virtue ^a, and show by the most efficacious proof the roots which it has struck in a man's heart, when it is not changed by his state and offices. So too father D. Thomas most excellently showed how true a religious he was, and how poor in heart and spirit; since, being promoted to the archbishopric of Valencia and set in so sublime a dignity, he was not at all changed in his manner of acting, and lost nothing of the humility, guilelessness and poverty which he had always professed in religion. So poor was he in heart and in deed, and so earnestly through his whole life did he love the evangelical and religious poverty which he had vowed, that all who knew him or were on familiar terms with him make no end of recording with praise how greatly he strove after that virtue. As Archbishop he wore for some years the same garments which he had brought from the convent, and when they were torn with use he had them mended, until, being old and too much worn, they could be of no use. The same he observed in his under-clothing, having his shirts and tunics repaired, and, when they were worn out with age, ordering one to be made out of two; with which, nevertheless (as we shall see at the end of this chapter), he clothed himself only to hide the hair shirt he wore. And if a worn doublet could be made fit by sewing on other sleeves, he wore it however old, and did not have a new one made. For — and he himself affirmed this — he thought that worn and threadbare garments in a poor religious were more acceptable in the divine eyes than new and costly ones.

[220] which he himself with his own hands, For this cause, as long as he lived in religion, he himself mended his stockings, breeches and whatever he could with his own hands, by no means having recourse to another. The same he continued as Archbishop, both for the cause already named, and out of the desire and heavenly fervour which he felt, now that he was made a Bishop, of sparing expense in favour of the poor ^b. To that end, in the little cell which he alone entered and no other, he had in a drawer a thimble, a needle, scissors, thread and such gear as monks are wont to keep in their cells for mending their poor garments. Nay, he ordered his own old and broken shoes to be repaired and fitted with other soles, as long as, thus repaired, they could be of use. These will seem slight matters and not worthy of an Archbishop, or to be inserted in his life; but who could doubt that they comprised great merit in themselves and pleased the divine eyes exceedingly? Inasmuch as they were so many proper effects and most certain proofs of the love and affection with which he was carried toward religious poverty, and of the desire with which, as we shall see, he aimed at gathering superfluities for the poor.

[221] It happened that, when he had not shut quite properly the little cell into which he withdrew to mend something, mends, there came to his house one of the canons of his household, who wished to speak with him; and when he asked where the lord Archbishop was, he was answered that he was busy in that little cell. He, out of the familiarity and openness with which he dealt with the blessed Bishop, without waiting to be announced, went at once to the cell, and since it was not well shut, he entered without giving a signal or uttering a word, and found him engaged in mending his breeches; which the Servant of God took very ill. The canon, astounded at the sight of such a thing and reckoning it unworthy of an Archbishop, began: I beseech you, my Lord, ought this to be done by your Lordship? For a single real any tailor will mend them. Truly, my Lord, I will not allow it: and saying this he tried to snatch the breeches from his hands. The good Bishop restrained him and said: You judge wrongly; for although I have been promoted to the archbishopric, I have not therefore ceased to be a religious who has vowed poverty; and I take delight in busying myself sometimes with the things with which poor religious busy themselves. As for your saying that the breeches can be mended for a single real, I say that with that one real a beggar could eat tomorrow. And you will have deserved well of me if, for the love you bear me, you tell this thing to no one.

[222] Only twice in the space of the eleven years in which he was Archbishop nor will he have new ones made for himself, did he order the white and black habit to be made for him such as we religious of the Order of our holy father Augustine wear. On both occasions he wished the white to be made of finer cloth, the black of common cloth and of low price. On one occasion a friend had urged him to clothe himself in cloth of woollen or silken threads crossed transversely, since such a garment was less heavy, and could not seem to anyone unbecoming to an Archbishop. Nay, he added, it would be made at a more convenient price than if he clothed himself in the cloth of that region; adding that he would have it brought. When the Saint, on its being brought, found that the cloth cost a dearer price than he had thought, and was in his judgment choice, and that the habit would be a splendid one, he said to his friend: For you, who are rich and lord of your goods and a secular, it will be lawful to clothe yourself with this cloth; but for a poor monk such as I am, who have nothing that does not belong to the poor, it is not lawful to be clad in a thing so costly and choice. And so our good Father's friend took away the cloth, and had a tunic made from it for one of his daughters; while he had a habit made for himself of cheap black cloth. This he wore for many years, until it was so old and worn out that his household were ashamed to see him clad in it. And to make him lay it aside and take a new one, they were compelled one day to assail him all together, and so, from their mere importunity, he procured another for himself of coarse cloth and of the lowest price to be found. And this was the second of the two.

[223] as long as the old can be mended; And that it may more clearly appear how much he valued poverty, I judge that a thing should here be noted which one of his household relates who at that time served him; and although it may seem to some a mean thing, yet I am certain that those who consider it with upright and devout eyes will praise the Lord God for the humility and poverty of spirit of this blessed Bishop. That witness says, then, that when that garment which his household afterwards compelled him to lay aside for its age was not only old and worn out, but even broken and torn below the shoulders by sitting, because he had worn it continually and desired to wear it longer, deploring the expenses to be made for himself, only that he might keep them for the poor ^c — that witness says, I say, that on a certain day he was accosted by another servant, by name Alvaro de Noriega, who said: Come with me, for the Archbishop has ordered that from the pieces of cloth which he keeps in a box for mending his garments we should sew one onto the garment which he now wears. We sewed on for him (he says) a huge piece, taking away what was more broken and torn, and thus mended he wore it without any shame for several months more — a thing at which the poorest and humblest religious would have blushed.

[224] and only at a slight price; Needing a doublet, because the one he wore was so old and broken that it could be of no further use, he ordered a tailor to be called to make a new one, and charged him that it should be made of good and solid cloth, yet modest and seemly. So the tailor did; choosing the best cotton * that was to be found, and he brought it made and said that it cost thirty royal coins. The Servant of God was greatly astounded; and when the tailor affirmed that he could not sell it for a lower price without loss to himself, he asked whether he would find anyone who would take it at that price; and when he asserted that he would, he said to him: Take it then, brother, and sell it to another with good luck: for a doublet of ten or twelve royals at most suffices me. For a doublet of three crowns befits neither a religious nor one who is bound to show himself a father to the poor ^d: with those three crowns I shall be able to clothe a poor man from head to heel. But afterwards, as will be seen below, he supplied a remarkable dowry to one of that same tailor's daughters. Like things befell him often at other times ^e, on account of the habit he had contracted of clothing himself in a religious and most seemly manner.

[225] the canons are indignant in vain. As that modesty and poverty of the holy Bishop was a good example to the good, so also — which is proper to virtue — it could not but offend some and displease the eyes of those who measure things by the usage, the vain manners and the laws of this world. For some of the chapter, judging that their Archbishop was not clothed according to the decorum due, nor conformably to his dignity and the honour of the church, sent men to beseech him to clothe himself in better garments and of finer cloth, and in such a way as in some measure to display his dignity. To whom, smiling and with a cheerful and grave countenance, he answered: Tell those lords that I am most grateful to them for the care they take of me; but that I plainly do not know what harm or detriment it does to the dignity of an archbishop that I am clothed like a monk, who have professed poverty: since the authority of this office, and the obligation arising from it, by no means consists in dress and the fineness of cloth, but in care and zeal for the salvation of the souls committed to me by God. Nevertheless let them determine in what garment they would have me clothed, and unless it be contrary to my profession, I shall acquiesce in their judgment and will. To an answer so religious and prudent they dared reply nothing; they only asked that the little cap with which he covered his head in summertime, when on account of the vehement heat religious men are wont to bare their heads of the cowl, should be made of half-silk cloth. And so he did, to comply with their persuasion and desire. Moreover, pointing with his hand to that half-silk cap, he used to say wittily and pleasantly (as he was accustomed in all things): Behold here my archbishopric: for to the lords of the chapter I do not seem clothed as an Archbishop unless I use a half-silk cap.

[226] In food he was so temperate that he never had anything more than what is commonly wont to be given to religious in the ample convents of our Order in the province of Castile, whence he had come, To the frugality of his table with only some dessert added for those who ate with him. On the greater feasts, for the sake of the solemnity and at the same time of those sitting at his table, he ordered some bird or chickens to be added, or a portion of veal or goat's flesh, according to the order of the festival. But this always with the same temperance which he had observed in the Order ^f. His table companions were commonly his confessor, his steward, and his visitors, masters Porta and Caro, while they were at Valencia; and sometimes they asserted that on account of the soberness of the table they had risen from it even hungry, by which nevertheless they were not at all distressed, being animated by the Archbishop's example.

[227] Whatever expense, however moderate, was made beyond the ordinary, he keeps watch with great solicitude. as has been said, he felt in his mind and rebuked; and to prevent it, at the end of each month (as some who served him relate) he examined with his own eyes the accounts of the ordinary expenditure; and if one month exceeded another, except in what had been spent by reason of some festival or solemnity or on a lawful and urgent occasion, he rebuked it with great feeling, saying: Consider that these are not my goods but the goods of the poor, and that whatever is spent in my house without necessity must be restored to them. Wherefore I commit it to your conscience to take heed with great solicitude that nothing beyond what is necessary be spent either for me or for the house: for when it is otherwise, besides that God is gravely offended, it is taken from the poor to whom it belongs, and must be restored.

[228] On a certain Friday, going down to say Mass in the cathedral church, at the first steps he met the steward bringing, among other fish, a lamprey ^g; he asked at what price it had been bought. He answered, four royals. He was astounded and said: What is so costly a thing to me? You have done ill. Then, said the steward, in truth there were others there who would gladly have bought it for themselves at the same price, and if I would let it go, they would thank me. Then, said the Servant of God, carry it to them and take the four coins ^h, and hereafter be not so lavish and liberal with another's money, nor buy so dearly for me. Two eggs and a piece of common fish are more than enough for me, a monk. For indeed the goods which I have are not mine but the poor's; with these four coins more than four of them will eat.

[229] He never allowed there to be in his house any hangings or carpets or silken table-coverings. He tolerates no costly adornment in his house or chamber, Nay, upon the table which he used in his chamber there was a covering of black leather only, tinted with a golden colour; and at the door there hung a curtain of black cloth with twisted nap Nor was there in the whole house any hanging ornament, except in the greater hall, by which one goes to the chapel, and where he commonly transacted business; and there, between the two windows which look upon the courtyard of the house, there hung a curtain of black leather tinted with a golden colour, with an image of the most blessed Virgin Mary; and the table set there was covered with the same leather: his bed was spread with a light mat, such as certain religious are wont to have in their cells ⁱ.

[230] he tolerates costly adornment, The steward once bought for him a curtain, not large, interwoven with silk and fine wool, on which was represented the taking down of Christ the Lord from the Cross; and likewise a small carpet of Turkish work, since he had found them for sale at a slight price in the market of the cathedral church. When father Thomas learned of this

it displeased him much, because expenses had been made on things by no means necessary. But, said he, let them be kept; for the curtain, since it represents Christ the Redeemer, can be used in the church (as indeed it was used, for he gave it as a gift to be placed on the pulpit from which the people are addressed), and the carpet in the chapel where we perform the holy sacrifice of the Mass. But hereafter do not buy me furniture or any curious thing; for it has been said to you often enough that I am a monk and have professed poverty, and that, except what is necessary for the maintenance of myself and my house, all the rest belongs to the needy.

[231] nor silver plate on his table: For the same cause he neither had nor ever wished to have vessels of silver for the table, except a dozen slender spoons for those invited to the table, and two little vessels for holding salt. The steward, considering the cost of the dishes and platters which were continually being broken in the hands of the serving-boys, often suggested to him that a silver service for the table could have been made out of what was daily spent on dishes and platters ^k. He answered: Do you think I have not seen what you warn me of? You are wrong if you believe this: I notice it well. But I am a monk, and what is an honour to others I judge to be a reproach to me. The holy Bishop's poverty appeared abundantly when he departed from among the living. For (except those things which he distributed among his servants) all his furniture, which before his death he bequeathed to the college founded by him beside the schools of this city, when sold at public auction in the market of the cathedral church, fetched only about fifty crowns.

[232] his bed simple; Not only, when he was now Archbishop, did he constantly keep the same poverty and simplicity which he had professed and kept in religion, but he also treated himself with the same harshness and the same afflictions of the body which he had used in the Order, hiding them nevertheless as much as he could; although, however great the care he took to hide them, they were discovered by some servants and members of his household, who bore testimony. In his chamber he had a bed supported on straps, not gilded or painted with any colour but the proper and natural one of its own material. And it was furnished with hangings of cotton cloth of an ashen colour, with only two mattresses and two coverlets of the kind which we use in our Order, and with nothing else either rare or elegant. He never used linen sheets, unless sickness required it; and accordingly the bed was spread with woollen coverings.

[223] and he lies almost on twigs, The servant who had charge of making the bed thought that he took his sleep in it, since in the morning he so turned it over and changed its position as though he had lain in it. But the servant discovered, without his knowing (and some others also saw it and suppressed it in deep silence) ^l that between this bed and the wall there lay on the ground another [bed] made of twigs and covered with a single coverlet, which no one would have found or noticed, had not the said servant one day, going round, found it; who understood how the matter stood, but dissembled. Wherefore the Servant of God for the most part made up in the evening the bed in which he pretended to rest; and when he left the care of making it to the servant, he would say: You will easily be able to make up the bed from the front side without going round it: do not go round or do anything other than what is enjoined on you by me. When he was afflicted with the sickness of which he died, understanding that it would be his last, he ordered the servant who sometimes made his bed, and to whom he entrusted this secret, by name Benedict, that toward nightfall, while the others were at supper and no one was watching, he should carry away some of the twigs lying between the bed and the wall. That same servant, after the holy Bishop's death, embraced the Order of the holy father Jerome in the monastery of la Murta, where he was a distinguished servant of God and a religious of great example.

[234] By the same rule, although he wore woollen tunics and sometimes shirts, always clothed in a hair shirt, he clothed himself with these to cover the hair shirt which he wore until his death; and hence these were worn out with him more quickly than they are wont to be with other men. Those who washed or mended them marvelled how in so short a time they were worn away in a man who always stayed at home, quiet and solitary. But after his death, when both the hair shirt and how rough it was were discovered, they perceived that its roughness had been the cause why they were worn out more quickly with the Servant of God than with other men of the same condition.

[235] As to food, besides the ordinary and remarkable soberness set forth in this chapter, given to fasts, he was also a very rigid keeper of fasting, not only in religion but also in the archbishopric. Besides the fasts of the Church, he kept also all the particular fasts of the Order, and many others out of devotion. In the season of Advent and Lent, on Wednesdays and Fridays, and likewise on the vigils throughout the year, he ate apart; since he refreshed himself with bread and water. And he asserted that it pleased him to eat later on those days, and that he did not wish that on his account the ordinary guests of his table should put off their meal beyond the appointed hour. And so he withdrew himself, and on those days had no one present but his chamber-servant, to whom he entrusted many secrets, lest anyone should know that he was fasting on bread and water: this he kept all his life, unless some sickness hindered it.

[236] From those fasts, and from lack of sleep and the labours of his office, he began to grow weak. even when ill he spares expense in food. The physicians therefore said that on that account and because of his age he ought to take nourishment of solid substance, and that every day a hen should be cooked for him apart. So great an expense seemed to him by no means necessary, since he was neither ill nor kept his bed, but on the contrary went about the house; yet as the physicians and his household pressed him, asserting that he needed it, and that unless he took solid nourishment he would from weakness be seized by disease, so that he would be incapable of discharging his office, and far greater expenses would have to be made, he at length consented that mutton should be cooked for him separately and, what would suffice, half a hen; adding that he would also continue the taking of nourishment as it should seem expedient. This lasted about one month; for, judging that he was better and had more strength, he said that there had been enough of the hen, and returned to the common food, nor could he be induced to anything else ^m.

ANNOTATA.

ruan*

CHAPTER IV.

He surveys the diocese and chooses ministers to be his helpers in governing.

[ ] The prudence required in a bishop Political prudence at the beginning of a government has three things very proper to it. The first is to be able to dissemble the faults of subjects, waiting for the occasion and time in which they may be corrected and punished with less tumult and greater amendment of all. The second, to observe with great solicitude the conditions of those who are to be governed, that it may be known how one must deal with them; for when a superior conforms himself not to the vices but to the disposition of his subjects, the government is gentler, more tranquil and safer: as we see in that supreme and heavenly Prince, Governor and Lord of all created things, who is said to dispose all things sweetly. Since He governs all creatures in such a way, and so concurs with them, as to remove none from its own order and from what the proper condition of its nature requires. The third is to join to himself the better and more prudent men of the community, that they may help him in bearing the burden of his office, and that the rest may love and reverence him, seeing what opinion and esteem he has of the good, and how he honours those whom he finds worthy ^a.

[238] well furnished, All this, as a most prudent and circumspect Bishop, F. D. Thomas most excellently observed when he began to govern that church. For he at once studied to know the manners and dispositions of the people of Valencia, and bestowed much care upon this, that he might possess the knowledge of governing them. Hence (although the condition of his own nature also required this) he dealt sincerely with all, observing and choosing from each what conduced to that end. And although he soon found and understood that in those parts they led a very immoderate and dissolute life, as regions which vicars had governed for a long time and their own pastors for a very short one ^b, he dissembled, awaiting the season and the fit occasion in which he might bring all things into order. From among the natives themselves he chose as visitors, as ministers of his house, and as helpers in his office those whom he saw to be devoted to the worship of God and endowed with His spirit and with the prudence and zeal which so sublime a ministry requires, as is the helping to govern a church and the salvation of souls.

[239] he soon surveys the diocese Hence he soon visited the parishes both of the city itself and of the whole diocese with such diligence that, beginning at the end of the month of February of the same year in which he came, he finished the visitation at the end of September. In all places, however ignoble, he preached with such spirit, fervour and zeal that, although he had always been endowed with a heavenly and divine spirit, as we saw in the preceding book, that with which he was kindled before the archbishopric differed much from that which was afterwards observed in him: as a Spouse who now had a bride, on whose honour and salvation he had to bestow vehement zeal; as a Shepherd who had his own sheep, for which, if necessity required, he must devote both his blood and his life; as a Father who now spoke not to strangers as hearers, as before, but to his own sons. His sermons, when he saw himself Archbishop, seemed not human words but flames of fire and rays sent from heaven, as the bishop of Segrian ^c told bishop Mugnatonius, who relates these things.

[240] with remarkable fruit By this visitation he barred the way in all places of the diocese to many crimes, public and hidden; he consoled many souls afflicted with inward troubles and sadness of spirit, fallen, and full of despair of their salvation. He extinguished a thousand vehement fires of discord and dissension which the demon and his ministers had kindled in that kingdom. Many he drew away from the way of perdition, who were hastening at full pace toward hell, and brought back to the way of salvation and to the love of virtue. Whatever peoples he came to and visited, so great a change was noticed in their manners that it appeared no otherwise than if one of the Apostles had gone to them, or an angel had set out from heaven for their conversion and amendment. And what wonder that with the office of Shepherd his spirit and ardour for the salvation of souls should have increased, and likewise the authority and efficacy of his words and teaching — since before, when he discharged only the office of preacher in Castile, as we saw in the seventh chapter of the first book, his words in whatever city and people he went to preach obtained those very spiritual effects which we there described, and made that change in the actions and manners of his hearers.

[241] In this visitation he made in each place a general pardon, of his subjects; he chooses visitors, both to ecclesiastics and to seculars, of all those things in which they had hitherto offended and for which they had deserved to be punished by his hand, beseeching them with great feeling and with burning tears to amend themselves and to begin with great and earnest effort to serve the Lord and to enter upon a new life; since otherwise they would compel him thereafter to use rigour and justice against those who should abuse that clemency. At the time of this visitation, namely while he was beginning it at Valencia, he chose as visitors of the archbishopric master John Segrian, whom he had known at Alcalá and of whose virtue and learning he was entirely assured, since he had dealt with him there; and master John Porta, whose purity of soul, excellence of Christian piety and good gifts he discerned as soon as he had been in his company.

[242] As his confessor he took father brother Jacobus Montiel, a confessor, procurators when he had completed his priorship of the convent of blessed Mary of Succour, on account of the great religion and prudence which he had noticed in him during those days in which, on account of the rains, he stayed in that monastery while he was purposing to go to Valencia; as familiar friend and as it were counsellor, master Thomas Real, a man of great perfections in virtue, judgment and learning; and in course of time he also made master John Baptist Caro a visitor, and as procurators the doctors D. Amic and D. Sora — all of them native men, of remarkable example, learning, and above all of an upright and sincere heart, and utterly estranged from the fraud and cunning in which the sons of this world are so practised and skilled. For, since God had adorned the holy Bishop with a most pure and sincere soul, he embraced in friendship none but men of the same purity and sincerity. And by that gift granted him by the Holy Spirit (as I said in the preceding book) of discerning, when he dealt with anyone, with what faculty and talent he was endowed and for what thing he was fit — which by St. Paul is called the Discernment of spirits — as soon as he dealt with those here named he discerned their disposition and spirit, and how fit they were to help in the ministries committed to him: and so he committed them to them, and they served God and the holy Bishop most excellently.

[243] Although, as he himself sometimes signified, the chief means by which he had the Lord favouring him in making the choices of those whom I have already named, and of certain others in course of time for other ministries, was the humble and devout prayer which he always sent before and joined to all his actions, praying the Lord with great confidence in the divine goodness and providence to direct him in each. I shall here relate only how he behaved with master Porta, when he designated him visitor and wished him to live in his palace, and with master Segrian, whom likewise on his first arrival he made visitor, and afterwards suffragan bishop, whom we call de Gratia; since in the same manner were made all his choices for any office whatever, even the least in his house.

[244] Master John Porta told me that the first time he spoke with the blessed Prelate, he gazed at him with great attention prayer to God being always sent before; and bade him return the next day, and that he afterwards learned that the Saint had spent almost that whole night in his oratory. When he had returned on the next day and at the appointed hour, he said: I have chosen you as my visitor; on the coming Sunday I must begin the visitation of the parish of St. John; be here, you shall accompany me. And when master Porta, out of the humility and candour with which (as is known to all who knew him in this city and had him as a familiar) the Holy Spirit had greatly adorned him, judged himself incapable of that office, brought many excuses, and falling on his knees besought him not to lay it upon him, the good Man answered him: You do and say what becomes you; but I know that you are fit and that in this you will render service to God; and I trust in the same Lord that I am by no means deceived.

[245] likewise a suffragan bishop On the death of bishop Estana, who discharged the office of suffragan in that holy church when F. D. Thomas came to it, and noticing that it was necessary that another should be designated in his place who might celebrate on solemn feasts, confer the sacrament of Confirmation, and discharge the other pontifical offices which the Archbishop cannot perform on account of his other occupations of government, he said to master John Segrian, who lived with him and discharged the office of visitor, as has already been related: Attend; there is need of a suffragan to help me; and I have cast my thought upon you. Do you for this matter say three Masses of the Holy Spirit, and I will do likewise; let us commend it to the Lord, that He may grant us light. Master Segrian (who was both very humble and a great servant of God) answered that he was incapable and not furnished with the necessary gifts;

and he earnestly begged him to choose another. But, Do not say this, the Archbishop replied; for I was less [fit] for a bishopric, and am less so today: and God, who called me, as you well know, when I by no means sought it, of His clemency leads and helps me. Do what I have told you, and if it shall please Him and He shall choose you, He will supply what is wanting to you.

[246] with a happy issue in all things. After the second sacrifice of the Mass was performed, he said: I believe that you will be a bishop; and after the third: It is certain that it is God's will that you should serve Him in this church as suffragan bishop: pray to Him henceforth with greater effort, for it is His will, He calls you: and I shall this very day write to Rome to our most holy Lord about that business. In this manner the great Servant of God behaved in his choices, and hence in all things too he had so prosperous an issue. And this he also said and sometimes proclaimed, and strove to persuade all to hold it for certain that in no kind of business, whether spiritual or temporal, whether ecclesiastical or secular, could he proceed safely except by that path of prayer, earnestly commending the matter to the Lord and committing it to His divine hands. Among the many instructions and examples which he brought forward to the same purpose, he much pondered what St. Luke writes: how our Redeemer, on the day on which He willed to choose out of His disciples and to name the twelve Apostles, weighed the matter through the whole preceding night alone on the mountain, commending it with much prayer to the eternal Father, and, after so great and so fervent a prayer had gone before through that whole night, thus and not otherwise, when the day came, chose those twelve and named them His Apostles.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER V.

He celebrates a diocesan synod, and by a memorable example of fortitude defends ecclesiastical immunity and liberty.

[ ] Crimes in the diocese Father D. Thomas ^a, after the visitation of the whole diocese was finished, returning to Valencia, judged it very necessary that, the rectors of the churches and the other ecclesiastics who are wont to assemble and be present being called together, a diocesan synod should be celebrated. I said, Ecclesiastics; for he wished no secular to be admitted or to be present, either as scribe or secretary of the synod, or as proctor of some absent or sick person; but ecclesiastics alone. For since for so great a space of time not their own pastors but vicars had governed that region (for although now and then some archbishop, such as F. D. Thomas's predecessor, the most illustrious and most reverend D. George of Austria, stayed in it, this neither lasted long nor for the greater part elsewhere than at Villar, until he was removed thence) ^b, our good Father found it corrupted and ruined in manners and vices, and in such licence and dissoluteness of living that the thing was worthy of compassion, and is so even now to one who understands what the witnesses relate of the dissoluteness and perversity of that time, not only in seculars but also in ecclesiastics, and not only at Valencia but in other peoples and places of the diocese too.

[248] Among seculars crimes were frequent, and especially divorces and public adulteries; rife in various ways among ecclesiastics many kept concubines publicly, to the vast offence of God and the scandal of the seculars. These things grieved him exceedingly when he came: the perversity of the seculars, because the Lord God is wont severely to punish adulterers; but the dissoluteness of many clerics, both because of the gravity of the fault in men consecrated to God and to His divine worship, and because of the remarkable damage which they cause by their evil example, and because seculars are wont to defend their wicked deeds by alleging the sins of ecclesiastics. As a remedy for so great an evil, and one so pernicious to souls and to the commonwealth, in the visitation of the diocese he ordered those whom he perceived to be living perversely to be called to him apart, rebuking their crimes and prescribing the way in which they might wholly free themselves both from the sin and from all occasions and dangers of falling back into it.

[249] he strives to root out; Poor clerics or seculars, that he might bind them the more firmly to true amendment, he helped himself, and provided that some out of the revenue of the church of that place, others in other ways, might live honestly. But if after receiving so great a benefit they were not going to amend themselves, he said that he would take care to learn it, and would order them to come to Valencia, and would punish them severely as ungrateful and unmindful of the divine mercy and of his own. Wealthy clerics, or those who enjoyed an ecclesiastical benefice and led a wicked life, he rebuked with the same charity, adding threats that, if they did not wholly amend themselves — which likewise he would hear from his visitors — he would deprive them of their benefices or punish them in some other way. The same he observed with the richer seculars, admonishing them that, since he now forgave them all that was past, they should take up a new life and should not abuse his clemency. The same order he kept at Valencia also.

[250] and at length a synod But although by this way many were brought back to better ways, yet more persevered in their sins out of evil habit. Hence, for the due ordering of the affairs of the diocese, he judged it very necessary that a synod be celebrated, trusting that this would be fit for taking away at least the public sins. Meanwhile their crimes affected him with such a sense of grief that he passed a whole night in the bitterest sighs. F. John Rincon, who had come with him (and who, although he stayed there some little while, yet desired to return at once to his monastery), learning of this from the neighbouring chamber, asked him: What ails you, my Lord? He answered: What ails me? I fear that in this bishopric I may not attain the salvation of my soul; for I am bound to succour these lost sheep; and as they are constituted, I know not by what way. Let your Lordship do what he can, said that good father, for God will require nothing beyond that; and let him not torment or waste himself, for he knows that saying of Ezechiel where the Lord says: "If, when you announce to the wicked man that he should turn from his ways, he shall not be turned from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul" ^c. Let your lordship preach to them with that spirit which he has received from God, rebuke them, and by his authority and prudence chastise them, and do what belongs to his office; but if they do not amend, let them charge it to their own loss, for God requires nothing more of your Lordship, nor will He impute their damnation to him. Your reverence speaks rightly, answered the holy Bishop; and therefore without delay I wish to hold a diocesan synod and to prescribe those laws which I shall see to be fitting for the correction of so many evils; let your reverence help me with his prayers to God, that He may direct me and enlighten those who are to be summoned, and give them the spirit, zeal and desire of His honour which they need.

[251] he assembles a diocesan one. And so, the visitation being made, in the second month ^d after his return to Valencia he summoned to the celebration of a diocesan synod all the rectors of the churches and the rest who either by law or by ancient custom ought to assist him. All came most willingly, ready to comply with him out of the love and reverence which they bore toward him on account of the fame of his sanctity and learning, and also on account of the remarkable charity and kindness which they had seen in him in the visitation. He kept them assembled for one week, hearing all with great patience and wisdom; and gathering both what he had seen and found in the course of the visitation and what each one there suggested and said, he ordained laws, constitutions and mandates which seemed most necessary for the restoration of the manners both of ecclesiastics and of all seculars, and as remedies for the abuses and vices which existed in that region.

[252] What the holy Bishop with holy zeal and remarkable prudence ordained and commanded, his holy constitutions his successors highly esteemed and followed, and by name D. Francis de Navarra ^e, D. Martin de Ayala ^f and D. John de Ribera ^g, all of them men and prelates greatly devoted to the divine worship, of much learning and prudence, and of eminent zeal for the salvation of their sheep. But although all that the blessed father D. Thomas, after frequent consideration and prayer, ordained in that synod for the correction of all the ranks of that region seemed then to men who feared God and were zealous for the salvation of souls, and have always seemed, very fitting and necessary, and as coming from a good shepherd — especially what he prescribed for ecclesiastics — yet, since that region, as recorded in this chapter, was so corrupt and ruined, and men lived in it with such licence and dissoluteness, because it had so long been deprived of the presence and voice of its own pastors, and since the council of Trent ^h had not yet been celebrated, by which the restoration of the Church and the renewal of authority, reverence and due obedience to bishops was made, he met with great resistance and contradiction to his mandates, especially among ecclesiastics.

[253] For the canons, at the urging of some of them who lived wickedly, some canons resist, and to whose perverse manners and vices an obstacle was set and the way barred by the decrees of the synod, came together, and, to please those men, all or the greater part of them rebelled, and by common judgment deputed their scribe, by name John Alemany, to announce to him St. Thomas certain favours and privileges obtained from certain Pontiffs, by which their persons were exempted from his jurisdiction, and above all a Conservatory, by virtue of which it was not lawful for the ordinary bishop to take cognizance of or to judge their persons or offences; and to add that by virtue of those bulls and favours they protested against his statutes in the synod pertaining to their persons, and appealed on the whole matter to his Holiness. Having received that charge, the scribe, accompanied by some of them, came to the Archbishop with such shouting and fury, so turbulent and disturbed, that he uttered nothing distinctly, and it was necessary for the blessed Bishop with his remarkable modesty and gentleness to calm his mind. And so he addressed him (as the witnesses report) in these very words: What is this, Alemany? Restrain your vehemence, do not disturb my house, be of a quiet mind, and let us understand what you want; for you will do it better without shouting. My Lord, said he, the canons bid it be announced that, by virtue of the favours and the Conservatory which they hold

from the Apostolic see, they are exempt, and that they protest against everything published by your Lordship in the synod which pertains to their persons, and that you are not their judge, and that they appeal to our most holy Lord.

[254] [announcing that they appeal to Rome, he hears them with moderation and dismisses them.] Then the holy Bishop, without any disturbance or change of his venerable countenance, or any agitation or unseemly gesture of body or hands — these, however, joined and lifted to heaven — said: They [say] that I am not their judge: but God will be; and that they do not consent to the synod and appeal to the Pontiff: but I appeal to the God of heaven — and turning to the canons he added: Who knows and sees what need there is that correction be made among you, and that a stop be put to the damnation of your souls and to the vast scandal and detriment which you cause in this city by your evil example: who knows and sees that whatever was decreed in the synod is just and lawful, and that I in all this business aim at nothing but His service and the good of the souls which He has committed to me, that I may satisfy my conscience and the obligation of my office: and I hope that He of His goodness and equity will provide in the matter. Go with good luck, appeal as much as you please from my jurisdiction and judgment, but you will not escape the divine one ⁱ.

[255] A canon being thrust into a secular prison, The Lord did provide, and this very soon appeared plainly. For a few days later one of the canons, who was named D. Elfus de Proxita, inflicted a mortal wound with a dagger on the governor's chief officer, whose name was Nogueroles: which the governor, whose name was D. John Villarrasa, took so ill that he took pains to arrest him, and when arrested led him openly and with vast ignominy to the royal prison which they call the Tower, and there placed him under the watch of officers and safely guarded, having no regard at all to his being a canon and a subdeacon. On the occasion of that canon's imprisonment all the other canons came together and went to father D. Thomas, begging him with great feeling to rise up in defence of ecclesiastical jurisdiction and immunity, to reclaim the person of D. Elfus de Proxita, to withdraw him from the hands and power of the secular court, and to succour them in that necessity.

[256] [when the rest beg him to defend the man, the Saint refutes them in a friendly way;] He heard them with his accustomed gentleness and kindness, and smiling said: How can I help you, or intervene in this cause, or reclaim this canon, if you are not my subjects nor my sheep, and do not acknowledge me as your pastor and judge? You will not accept my constitutions and the correction which I institute for the salvation of your souls; you have appealed from my jurisdiction, and by interposing a contention have declared that you are exempt; how can I demand back a person who is not subject to me, or to whom I am not superior? Indeed, if I were your judge and had judicial power over you, you would see in what fashion and with what effort I should defend him. But since I have not that power, as you contend, and since you have protested by so furious a declaration as your scribe made when he came accompanied by you, how can I take up your causes or the defence of your persons? Have you not noticed that this is known to the whole city, to the governor and to his assessors? These will plainly answer at once that I am not the judge of the canon who is their prisoner, and that I have no right to demand him back, and that they are not bound to obey me, since he is not subject to me nor to my jurisdiction. You yourselves announced to me the Conservatory, by which you contend that your conservator is the superior and judge of your persons; have recourse to him; for, as you have dealt with me, it does not belong to me or to my office to defend you against a secular tribunal: let your conservator defend you.

[257] as the danger presses and they beg pardon But since the wounded officer was in great danger, and the governor was a rigid and firm judge, and the case a grave one which had caused him great trouble, the canons, fearing that if the officer died he would forthwith, without regard to anything, put the canon to death in that same tower, returned to father D. Thomas beseeching him again and again, and (as the witnesses who were present report) prostrate at his feet said, not without tears: Most reverend Lord, most illustrious Lord, have pity on us and on our honour; and do not endure so great a contumely and injury as is done to your chapter, while the governor keeps our brother, a canon and a subdeacon, a prisoner in gaol like a secular [man], and that with such danger. For if the officer dies, as is feared, the governor, rigid and undaunted as he is, will not hesitate at that very hour to put him to death in the prison. Pardon, most illustrious Lord, the rebellion and irreverence shown by us in those declarations, and have pity on your chapter and on its honour.

[258] He gave the same answer as before. I have already told you, and the canons yield their right, my lords, that I cannot come to his defence, or demand the canon back, or bring an action against the governor; nor will what I do have any authority. His advocates will laugh at my mandates and censures, knowing, as they know and as is plain to all, that by virtue of the Conservatory which you announced to me you contend that you are immune from my jurisdiction. Renounce this Conservatory and the immunities which you claim, and revoke those declarations and appeals, and then indeed I shall be able to defend you as subject to me and to my jurisdiction; and, God favouring, you will see in what fashion I shall proceed in defence of your persons and of ecclesiastical immunity. Considering the peril in which the captive canon stood, and that what the Archbishop answered was so consonant with reason, they resolved, for the time during which he should preside over that church as Bishop, to renounce the immunity of that Conservatory and everything about which they had appealed and protested, and to subject themselves wholly to his jurisdiction; which they did forthwith, and by an instrument duly drawn up and delivered by their scribe they acknowledged him their lawful and true judge.

[259] This done, he set about with a strong and constant mind, as the event showed, he demands back from the governor the man arrested; to demand back the person of lord Elfus, as subject to himself and to his jurisdiction ^k. He at once issued letters of monition, commanding the governor under pain of excommunication to hand over to him within three hours and without further delay the person of that canon and subdeacon, whom unjustly and against ecclesiastical privileges and immunities, and against the laws of holy Church, he was keeping in his prison. When he did not obey, he soon issued others in which he hurled his censures, commanding him under pain of major excommunication latæ sententiæ to release from custody within two hours and to hand over to him the person of lord Elfus de Proxita, canon and his subject.

[260] When he obeyed none the more, the two hours having elapsed, he deprives the refuser of the Church's communion and lays a general interdict, he at once ordered excommunication with the usual imprecation of anathema to be published against him and his ministers, and soon, from the feast of St. Luke, laid a general interdict, and willed those censures, with new burdens added and superadded, to be declared from the pulpits every Sunday. This lasted in the same way until the Epiphany. On the day after the Epiphany he decreed a cessation from divine offices in all the churches, which lasted until Holy Week, and would have lasted until the governor obeyed ^l. Meanwhile, Lent coming on, the duke of Calabria, viceroy of Valencia, sent to ask and beseech him to take away the interdict and the cessation from Divine offices, or at least the cessation. He answered by the same man whom the duke had sent, that the duke would pardon him this: for it was not lawful for him, since ecclesiastical jurisdiction had been injured and oppressed, while he was bound in conscience to defend it, and had no other arms than those which Jesus Christ left to bishops, namely censures: hence he begged his excellency to order the governor to remove the injury and offence which he was inflicting on the Church and on his jurisdiction by keeping a canon and subdeacon in custody; and then the censures would be removed by him; but as long as the governor did not hand over the canon into his hands, he could not lay down from his own hands the arms of the Church.

[261] which he will not remove either at the prayers or at the threats of the viceroy, The duke, seeing the interdict and the cessation from Divine offices continued through Lent, and that Passion Sunday had now come, on which the wood of the true Cross is wont to be exposed, again ordered word to be sent him by the governor's deputy: let him consider the affliction of the people; he was being pressed by the governor and his counsellors to seize his temporal goods, and out of the love and reverence which he bore toward him he had been unwilling to carry this out without forewarning him; wherefore he earnestly begged him to remove the censures, since otherwise, at the urgent demand of the judges, he would be compelled to order it, and it would grieve him to order it. The Saint answered the governor's deputy with a strong mind, and such as those holy prelates Ambrose, Thomas of Canterbury and others like them: Report three things to the lord viceroy: first, that if I were to hinder or oppress his royal authority, he as a good governor and faithful minister of the king would defend it by every lawful and just means, and would not desist from that defence for any human consideration. Therefore in the same way, when the governor thus injures and oppresses ecclesiastical jurisdiction and immunity by keeping a canon and subdeacon a captive in his prison, I too as a bishop am bound to defend it, or to lay down my office. And the arms left me by Christ Jesus in the Gospel for defending it [are] those censures. How can I, unless I be an unfaithful minister of the Church, desist from those arms, or remove the censures laid, so long as the governor has not obeyed and has not freed ecclesiastical jurisdiction from oppression?

[162] to which he answers stoutly, Secondly, as regards temporal goods: tell his excellency that if they be seized or taken from me, all the loss will fall back upon the poor, and God will protect them and His Church, and no detriment will thence come to me. Since in returning to my cell, out of which they drew me against my will, I shall be richer and happier than in this palace and with all the things of which they can deprive me. Thirdly, tell him that for defending the spouse committed to me by God — that is, my church — I shall count it my honour and glory to lose, not temporal goods, I say, but, where it shall be fitting, life itself ^m. The governor's deputy ⁿ carried back this answer to the duke; and that most devout prince, seeing his purpose, and judging that he would not depart from what he had said, but rather that he answered as a good

prelate, zealous for the honour of the church and desirous of satisfying the obligation of his office, summoned the governor and persuaded him how much it would conduce to God's service, and how reason and the obedience by which Catholic Christian judges are bound to the Church required — lest they burden their consciences much — that he should subject himself to the Archbishop and restore free the canon whom he was holding captive.

[263] The said governor, both because the officer had by now been restored to health and was whole of his wounds, until the governor obeys, and chiefly because of the affection and reverence which he too bore toward father D. Thomas, and because Holy Week was at hand and the people were in affliction and the greatest sorrow, and all charged him with wilfulness and obstinacy and favoured the Archbishop's side, on the Saturday before Palm Sunday took the canon out of prison and handed him over to father D. Thomas: who shut him up in a chamber of his house, kept him there for some time in custody, examined him upon his offences, and punished him as he judged fitting. When the canon was being handed over to him, he told the governor's deputy who presented him that, although he was about to remove the interdict and the cessation from Divine offices at once (as was done, the signal being given at midday with the holy bells of all the churches as at a more solemn festival, all the inhabitants of the city weeping for gladness and joy), yet he would not absolve the governor before the following day, which was Palm Sunday, since he himself desired to absolve him.

[264] He ordered him therefore to be present on the Sunday at the seventh hour of the morning in the front sacristy of the greater church, to whom, summoned before him that there the penance to be performed might be read out to him, and absolution be imparted to him by his own hand. On that Sunday, very early, the holy Bishop said Mass with great devotion, earnestly praying the Lord to grant the governor knowledge of his faults so as to perform the penance to be enjoined upon him, and a Christian heart to undertake it and to fulfil it with due humility and to the profit of his soul. The Sacrifice ended, he went down to the sacristy, where a seat had already been placed in the fashion of a tribunal, and there had assembled the secretary with the sentence, some canons as assistants, and many of the clergy. And at the same time the governor also came. Father D. Thomas took his seat, at whose feet the said governor threw himself; but he bade him rise and, standing with head uncovered, to hear the penance he was to perform. The secretary drew out the sentence and read it aloud.

[265] The sum of it was this: that namely D. John Laurence de Villarrasa, he orders the sentence to be read out, governor general of Valencia, by violently arresting a canon and subdeacon, by keeping him shut up like a secular man in the royal prison for so many months to the ignominy of the ecclesiastical state, and by not obeying, without fear of God and in contempt of the censures, the commands of his Prelate, had by his sins and offences which he had committed against the Lord God and the immunity of holy Church, and by his wilfulness and hardness, compelled him to lay an interdict and a cessation from Divine offices for so many months, even in the season of Lent, with such sorrow and scandal to the whole city, and with as great spiritual detriment as the souls of his inhabitants had suffered from the lack of Mass and of the Sacraments, and the souls of the departed from the lack of their prayers.

[266] But that in all these things the Bishop had neither fault nor was the cause of them, he enjoins a public penance, since he had been compelled to use the ecclesiastical arms, that is, the censures; but rather the other's disobedience and pertinacity. That therefore, since all those offences, scandals and damages had been public, it was just and necessary that the penance for the sins and the satisfaction for the injuries inflicted upon ecclesiastical jurisdiction should likewise be public, that by these he might be a good example to the whole city, to which by his disobedience and pertinacity he had for so many months been a stumbling-block. Therefore it was enjoined and commanded him that on that very day, without upper garment, hat, cloak, shoes and girdle, and bearing a candle in his hand, he should go out to the greater chapel and in the habit of a penitent assist at Terce and the other canonical hours; that he should follow in the same habit the procession as it went forth to the market place for the blessing of the palms, be present at the whole blessing and sermon, and in the same way return with the procession as it returned to the church, and be present at the whole office of the Mass until it was finished, without failing in anything whatever.

[267] and imparts absolution to the suppliant. The sentence and penance being read out, he was asked by the same secretary and Apostolic notary whether he accepted it and whether he would altogether fulfil it: with great humility and to the very good example of all the bystanders he answered that he would; and not without vast admiration, because the said governor was a man of remarkable authority and of an austere disposition, and one whom the emperor and the prince valued so highly that several times in this city and kingdom, when the office of viceroy was vacant, he supplied his place for three or four years. Nevertheless he accepted the penance and wholly fulfilled it, as a knight most excellently Catholic and reverent toward the Church, her prelates, and especially father D. Thomas. The said sentence and penance being accepted, the Saint imparted absolution to him with the solemn rite and the ceremonies used in holy Church in the solemn absolution of one publicly excommunicated, and in the same place gave him a short address, exhorting him with his good spirit and accustomed kindness to acknowledge the offence which he had committed against God and His spouse the Church, and the scandal given to the city by his pertinacity against the just commands and censures of his Prelate, and the spiritual damages which so many souls had suffered through so long a time of interdict and cessation from Divine offices; and that, besides this public penance, he should make a true sacramental penance for so many evils.

[268] The governor humbly fulfils the penance, All this the good knight showed that he received with a grateful mind, prostrating himself at his feet and kissing his hands with many tears. It was assuredly a notable spectacle, but far more notable to behold him going out to the greater chapel and assisting in the same penitential habit at all the things above mentioned, in the sight of the whole city, on a day on which there was so great a concourse of men ^o. This penance enjoined on the governor was not only for what I have hitherto related, but also because in the same time of the interdict and cessation from Divine offices, at a bull-running which was held on occasion of the Carnival in the square of the Preachers, a subdeacon had killed a man and had taken refuge in the house of D. John Valterra; whence the governor ordered him to be dragged out, thrust into prison, and without any delay, toward nightfall, to expiate his faults by sacred Confession and be strangled [p]; and on the next day the dead man to be carried out and laid stretched on the ground with a noose tied about his neck before the door of his own governor's house: which affected the holy Bishop with a keen sense of grief, and therefore he again increased the censures in which he was involved and made them heavier.

[269] They relate that the father of the subdeacon, already put to death, came with many tears and cries to father D. Thomas, demanding judgment on the severity which the governor had used in putting his son to death at once and granting no time for his defence; the Saint rebukes the father of another subdeacon put to death by the governor; and that the good Prelate answered: What judgment, brother, can I render you on a thing already done? For I cannot recall your son to life, but only command that he be committed to the earth, which I have already commanded, and it has been done. The penalty for the severity used against him has likewise been exacted, by the increase of the censures laid upon the governor: that he proceeded thus against a subdeacon was a crime, but at the same time a divine punishment upon your son; because, being a subdeacon, he did not live as such; nor did it become him to bear the arms with which he was furnished and with which he slew that wretched man, who had no space to expiate his faults by confession, and of whom we know not in what state death overtook him, or whither his soul went, destitute of the Sacraments. This punishment was also inflicted upon you, who brought him up ill, and who, knowing how far he strayed from the right way, did not have recourse to me, that as a Pastor I might provide for that lost sheep. Go with God's favour, and do good for his soul; for this alone now belongs to the matter.

[270] With the same fortitude and the same zeal for ecclesiastical jurisdiction and immunity he acted he gives a public sermon as often as any secular judge arrested a person enjoying ecclesiastical privilege or took him from him; he brought an action against him, demanded back his subject, and withdrew him from the power and hands of that judge. For satisfaction and the good example of the people, when he had enjoined on the governor on Palm Sunday the public penance here related, ten days later, on the Tuesday of Easter, he gave in the chief church a sermon, as they report, heavenly, such as all were which he gave. In it he handled three things. First, how great is the authority of ecclesiastical jurisdiction and immunity from the very beginnings of the Church, and in what veneration princes, not only Christian but even idolaters, have always held the persons, places and things consecrated to their gods and to their divine worship. This he demonstrated from many passages of holy Scripture and by many testimonies of histories both ecclesiastical and profane.

[271] Secondly, what reverence each man owes to the commands of his prelates, on ecclesiastical immunity, and with what obedience they are bound to receive and fulfil them, so long as no manifest iniquity is involved in them; how greatly ecclesiastical censures are to be feared, and how greatly they have always been feared by true Catholics and by great kings and emperors; and what manifest punishments the Lord God has exacted from those who have not feared and reverenced them: all of which he likewise confirmed by many passages and instructions of the Saints and by testimonies of ecclesiastical histories. Thirdly, as a consequence of these, by what obligation prelates are bound to use those censures against those rebellious to their lawful commands, according to what the Gospel says, what our Redeemer taught, what the Apostles and all the ancient holy Bishops constantly did, and what has always been the practice of their successors. Because these are the arms of the Church, and he would be a very wicked minister of it who, so long as anyone with pertinacity injured ecclesiastical authority and jurisdiction, should let them go from his hands. Which likewise he confirmed by the same instructions of the sacred Pages and of the holy Fathers.

[272] From all these he concluded how unwillingly he had laid the interdict and the cessation from Divine offices and prolonged it for so long a time, and how he had striven both by his prayers to God and by good remedies to bring it about he sets forth the Prelate's obligation of defending it that it should not be drawn out so long: but that, so long as the authority of the Church was offended, he could do nothing else than what is prescribed to prelates by the laws of that same Church, namely to protect it by the arms granted them by Christ. Then, about to make an end, he said: Yet do not think from this that the lord governor is not thoroughly Christian and a good Catholic, in that for so long

he deferred obeying my commands and censures. For since the case was a grave one and concerned a notable detriment to the royal authority, of which he is one of the chief ministers, he judged (although he erred) that he could without damage to his conscience keep the canon who had wounded the officer with such danger to his life, until he should see what issue the wounds had.

[273] and he praises the penance of the obedient governor. But when he was untaught his error and knew himself bound by the censures, as a good son of the Church he obeyed with such humility and with a heart and mind so Christian that he not only, as he ought, restored to me my subject, but himself, a man of such authority and nobility, performed the public penance imposed on him by me, to the great good example of the whole city. And hence I do not doubt that, for the great merit which he has thence gained and for the service rendered to the Church, a vast reward and crown awaits him in heaven. And this is worthy to be set down in writing for perpetual memory, as the humility and obedience of the emperor Theodosius toward blessed Ambrose were set down, and of other Christian emperors toward other bishops and prelates of the Church. Thus he ended his sermon, which, although he drew it out long by reason of the demands of the matter, yet to all, on account of the spirit and charity with which he spoke, did not seem to have lasted half an hour; and they went away blessing him a thousand and a thousand times.

ANNOTATA.

p. This is confirmed by the words of Coccinus above under letter l.

CHAPTER VI.

Sending prayer before every business, he always obtains a happy issue.

[ ] Given to prayer Although in every state of life — both as a student of letters and of the college, and as a religious and a preacher — he was much given to the exercise of prayer, yet in the archbishopric, when he perceived, not only by the excellence of his own judgment and by the inward light communicated to him at all times by the Lord, but also by what, being made Archbishop and beginning to procure the good and restoration of that church, he had learned by use and experience — when he perceived the vast and immense labours which the government of souls brings, and how necessary is a particular favour from heaven for sustaining and breaking through them, together with all the difficulties which the demon and his ministers suggest for hindering the fervour and holy desire of a good prelate who earnestly strives to discharge his office rightly — he was far more zealous for prayer. Since he knew that for obtaining the strength which so great a burden as the care of souls requires, and the virtues and gifts comprised in the name of archbishop, the most efficacious remedy is to have recourse to the Lord our God in humble and fervent prayer.

[275] To it he fled as to a most safe harbour, to drive off the storms and troubles he determines nothing without sending it before which a wretched prelate must needs bear, as one bound to deal with so many subjects of different kind and disposition. This was the school in which that heavenly and divine master, Jesus Christ our Redeemer, taught him what was to be done, answered and said in the business that came before him. No matter came to him but he at once fled, like a second Moses, to the tabernacle of his oratory, to communicate it with the Lord and to demand counsel. And indeed those who used his familiarity relate that, although the holy Prelate was endowed with remarkable eloquence, a very keen judgment, much experience and knowledge, he trusted himself so little, and so placed his confidence in prayer and in divine providence,

that he never determined any business ^a on the spot, however slight, but would say (and this saying was habitual with him): Pray diligently, and we too will offer the sacrifice of the Mass upon that matter and commend it to the Lord, and He in His great goodness and mercy will direct us.

[276] He was so assiduous in prayer that he spent upon it the greatest and best part of his time, both by day and by night ^b, in his oratory; hence all things succeed prosperously for him, and the surest place for finding him was his oratory. Thither his servants generally went to seek him when any matter arose. They sometimes found him (not indeed wishing it, but on the contrary much against his will) rapt in ecstasy, withdrawn from his senses and wholly fixed in God; at other times bathed in tears; at other times stretched on the ground, his body composed in the form of a cross. Nor yet did he on that account neglect the duties of his office. For as soon as he was called for any necessary matter, and for any person who needed him, he came out of the oratory to see how the matter stood. He cut short long speeches and superfluous words, lest there be a waste of time, which he always highly valued; and when the matter which it had been fitting to handle was finished, he said farewell and at once sought the oratory again. To this purpose he often said to his servants: Take care to call me at once, whatever person comes and asks to speak with me; keep no one waiting; for besides the trouble with which they are afflicted by waiting, God will exact from us an account of the time of which our neighbours have suffered the loss by our fault. And do not consider whether I am occupied in study or given to solitude; for although I should prefer to be interrupted by no one, yet, since I am a bishop, I am not my own but my sheep's.

[277] Even as he commended all his cares and all his business to God, whether he chooses his household for himself, and committed them by humble prayer to His hands, so also he undertook no matter, whether private, of his house, or public, of his office, but it turned out well. Not one of all those whom he received into his house in the whole time in which he was archbishop did he dismiss as a servant, nor did he change the office of any of the ministers admitted into it, except to grant a better one. So did God provide that all whom he took into his service should be fit. By the same way of humility and continual prayer the Holy Spirit, besides many others of His gifts, bestowed upon him that gift which they call of Counsel, that is, the faculty of giving to everyone who consulted him counsel more fitted to the time and the state of affairs. For he who constantly has recourse to the Lord by humble and devout prayer obtains light, knowledge and counsel both for himself and for his neighbours.

[278] or gives counsel to others, It often happened that some rectors or vicars of churches came to him kindled with anger, sometimes to lay complaints about certain clerics, sometimes about absurd things done there. He lent them his ears with great gentleness and patience, and at the same time as he lent his ears he asked the Lord in his heart to enlighten that complaining priest, lest through the anger with which he had come he should offend Him, and to grant light by which he might be appeased in mind and might say what was just. And under the pretext and title of noticing something in his chamber, he would enter his oratory, that with greater intensity and more fervent entreaty he might there pray to the Lord. It happened also in these same cases that he persisted long in prayer, and was found by master Porta, who at that time lived there and entered to call him to dismiss those who were waiting, prostrate on the ground and bathed in tears from the fervour with which he sought from the Lord counsel and a remedy about the thing done in those churches. Coming out he gave such counsel that all who heard were astounded, and those who accepted and followed it obtained a prosperous issue. Those skilled in law * who transacted any business with him, and those whom he took into his councils, said and affirmed on oath that commonly, when they had recourse to him or were called by him for some consultation, when the Archbishop's opinion had been heard, there remained nothing for them to say. Because all the men learned in the law and even versed in canon law, and the most learned, erudite and practised advocates of causes, knew nothing and could bring forward nothing in that case firmer and more solid.

[279] and to bishops going to the council of Trent In the time of Pope Paul the third, when the holy council of Trent had been summoned, some bishops of Castile made their journey through this city, and all these he received into hospitality with great charity and delight; and he earnestly begged them to consider with vast solicitude what would conduce to the common good of the Church, urging upon them that, although the summoning of that holy council had been made chiefly to root out and cut away the errors and heresies that had arisen in Germany, yet it was nevertheless necessary to provide for the amendment and restoration of manners, of which all ranks of men stood so greatly in need. He grieved much that on account of the infirmities with which he was afflicted he could not set out thither and be present at the council. But he sent letters to all the bishops known to him that they should come to Valencia, to communicate to them his counsels and desires, and what he himself would perform and attempt if he were able to go and assist in person. He handed to all a written series of the chief heads and questions which seemed to him to need handling, and vehemently exhorted them to place a firm confidence in the Lord and in His divine goodness and providence. Because he knew for certain that from that holy council much good and profit would flow forth upon all the ranks of the Church, and especially the ecclesiastical and religious.

[280] (where all things) Many of them (since after the council had begun and some sessions had been celebrated it was not then permitted to proceed further, on account of the pestilence raging in those parts by God's permission) returned this way, and gave him vast thanks for the admonitions delivered to them, asserting that that prescribed series of heads had been much approved by the fathers of Trent and had been a guide and a pole star * to the council in all that had hitherto been established for the reformation; nay, that all, or at least most, of the things comprised in them had been sanctioned by decree, two heads excepted. For this the holy Bishop gave infinite thanks to God. But that they had not decreed all, he said in his humility and modesty: Although on those two heads the opinion of those lords was different, yet we desired to counsel rightly in all things: on another occasion it may come to pass that, considering them more attentively, they will approve these also.

[281] And the two things which he had asked and which had not been received by all (as he himself afterwards declared to his familiars) were these. besides two, here set forth, were approved, First, that bishops should not pass from one church to another, save in so grave and most urgent a necessity that it could not rightly be provided for in any other way. Because thus, seeing that they must remain in the church they have, they would apply all their love and solicitude to it. Secondly, that the government of parishes and the benefices to which the care of souls is annexed should be conferred on natives of those same places, when men both fit and sufficient in number were to be found. Because on that account and in that hope, in every place and village, sons would be set by their parents to the study of letters; and although not all would turn out capable for the care of souls, yet at least by this way there would be in all places clerics fit for the services of the churches and for the other ministries of choir and altar.

[282] That gift of counsel, which the Lord imparted to His Servant on account of the frequency of his prayer, and to the emperor Charles V, was well known to everyone who dealt with him. Indeed, when out of his cabinet, as he himself ordered before he died, all the letters shut up in it were taken out (as I related in the first book), many were found among them sent to him by the emperor Charles V, in which he communicated very grave affairs with him and asked for a brief answer by that same courier, and his majesty signified that he would determine nothing in the matter until he had learned his judgment and counsel. And when he died, bishop Segrian, the visitors, master F. Peter of Salamanca, F. Jacobus Montiel his confessor, master Thomas Real and the rest of his household did not so feel and bewail his death (as the said F. Montiel and master Porta told me) because they themselves were deprived of his consolation and the poor suffered a vast loss, as because they saw this church and the whole region deprived of the fountain (for so they called it) of counsels and remedies in all cases and necessities, both temporal and spiritual, which were communicated with him.

[283] And although his prayer was assiduous and at every hour — for always, both when he dealt with those who came and transacted business, and when for some time he could give himself to studies, he held his soul present to God and directed his heart and thought to Him, commending to Him all his actions and the souls and the need of his sheep — yet especially at night, before he went to bed, he had hours, and others in the morning, set apart for this holy exercise without ever any omission. And if the matter to be handled or carried out on the next day was of great moment, he gave that whole night, granting nothing to sleep, to meditation, commending it to the Lord with great devotion and tears, and not seldom with blood drawn from his shoulders; and most of all when he had either to speak in a sermon or to rebuke someone for a wicked life. Hence, since his chief zeal and the preparation with which he girded himself for sermons or for reproofs to be made to any took place in the oratory before the sacred image of the Crucified — which now stands on the altar beside his tomb, and before which, as we shall see, he obtained some extraordinary graces and favours from the divine hand — he came forth thence to preach with such fervour of spirit and such vehemence and efficacy of words that, like flames of fire and arrows sent forth from the workshop of the Holy Spirit, they kindled and pierced through the hearts of his hearers, so that they went away from his sermons astounded, perceiving the zeal for the divine honour and the salvation of souls burning in his soul, and saying in a loud voice that this doctrine and these words were not those of a man but of a heavenly seraph under human form. With the same efficacy he struck the heart of the man whom he rebuked in private, and, however hard and obstinate he was, softened and moved him, as we shall see in chapters XIII and XIV of this second book, where we shall treat of the charity with which he rebuked and won many lost souls.

ANNOTATA.

fame that, as often as he undertook to commend anyone to God, he was wont to persist in prayer the whole night; and Fr. John de Astudillo, of the Order of St. Benedict … in the process of Castile … deposes that he had heard he was so fervent in prayer that he transacted no grave business of his own or of another which he did not direct Note: [ ] read dirigeret by means of prayer and of counsel sought in converse with God.

los letrados*

el norte*

CHAPTER VII.

While praying, he is taught hidden things by God.

[ ] To him praying God The Servant of God's prayer ^a was moreover so pleasing and acceptable in the eyes of the divine Majesty that He not only granted him what he asked, but also sometimes disclosed and taught him the temporal or spiritual necessities which the same Lord wished him to relieve; as appeared in the cases to be related here by me, and as in these, so also in many other like ones which are established in the processes. In the convent of blessed Mary of Jesus of the Order of the holy father Francis, near this city, on a certain day, at the hour appointed by custom for taking food, the religious on whom that charge was laid gave the signal with the bronze bell. The Guardian and the monks came, that, as the custom is, they might present themselves together in the place which they call the De profundis; the keeper of the refectory came out and asked to what end the signal had been given and they had assembled; since bread was lacking, and what the collectors of alms had brought did not suffice for ten monks. Let them therefore go to beg in those villages and certain places. Meanwhile they heard the signal given hastily at the door with the bell: the doorkeeper ran to see who was calling, and found it was father D. Thomas's household muleteer with a double load of bread, which he was sending as an alms, that the monks might eat.

[285] Toward evening, when the Guardian had gone to him to give thanks for the remarkable charity and alms bestowed on them in so great want, reveals hidden things: he asked by what way his Lordship had heard of it, since it had been known to no one in his monastery, except the one keeper of the dining-hall a little before the hour of dinner, when the collectors of alms had returned. He answered: From early morning my heart foretold me that today there would be that want in your house, and it made me very anxious, and I judged myself bound to relieve it: and do not desire to know more. Beyond doubt the Lord revealed that matter to him in his morning prayer, and hence he took care to send the bread. For since that want had been known to no one until the hour of dinner or a little before, he could not have been informed of it by anyone, or have known it in the morning by human means, but only from divine instinct in his morning prayer.

[286] It happened in a place not far from this city that one man killed another so secretly and warily A murderer, from a sacramental confession that it was known or discovered to no one who, or at what hour, or in what manner he had slain him. The dead man had two brothers, one of whom, a farmer, dwelt in the same place and was known to the murderer; the other a priest, enjoying an ecclesiastical benefice and a minister of holy Penance in a certain church of Valencia, whom the man did not know, and he was ignorant that he was the dead man's brother. When the Lenten fast had come, that murderer went to Valencia to expiate his offences by sacred Confession, and it fell out exactly that he betook himself to that church where that priest, the dead man's brother, was publicly lending his ears to penitents in a chapel; to a man unknown he opened his offences, and among others that he had killed a man in his own village. The priest asked him of what place he was an inhabitant; and when he had named it, the priest recognized that his brother had been killed by him. He asked him again the name by which both he and the dead man were called, the manner and the hour in which he had slain him, and all the circumstances of the deed. The wretch, though astounded and not without vast disturbance why so many questions were put to him, declared the whole matter; completed his confession as he could, and went away.

[287] After no many days the priest summoned his lay brother being sacramental and said: Such a one killed our brother; and there is no reason for you to doubt: for I have learned it by a most certain way; and he killed him at such an hour; then he explained all the circumstances declared to him by the other in confession. Let a month or two pass, said he, and then have him arrested and questioned about all the circumstances of the deed; for either he will assent to them, or he will be so disturbed that the judge will see that the crime was committed by him, and will have sufficient indications and proofs for putting him to the rack. For when he was questioned by me, to whom, unknown, he confessed his sins, about the same things, he was so disturbed that he could not give an answer, and at every word contradicted himself. Hence think what he will do before a judge.

[288] being accused and condemned, he refuses to expiate his soul So the brother carried out the matter; and when the man had been arrested, he inserted all those circumstances of the deed in the bill of accusation for making the inquiry according to the form of law. The unhappy man, when the judge questioned him and asked him about each point separately — noticing that what he had declared in sacred confession had been disclosed by the priest, and that hence so many questions were being put to him, since no one but he knew or could have known these things in a human way — was seized with such grief that he was most vehemently disturbed in mind, could give no answer, and contradicted himself at every word. So that to the judges he seemed beyond doubt guilty, and that disturbance and discrepancy of statements sufficient indications and proofs for lawfully subjecting him to inquiry by torture, as was done. At the first trial he openly confessed the homicide, how it had been resolved on and with what caution carried out; and according to his own confession they passed sentence of death. When the sentence had been announced to him, and a confessor brought to console him, to hear him confess his sins and to dispose him for death, he said: Why should I make a confession? Refrain from its very name: for it is on account of confession that my life is taken from me, not on account of my offence. Nor was there anyone who could persuade him otherwise or move him from this saying. Consider, they said, that the Sacrament of penance was instituted by Christ as a remedy and for the remission of our sins and for the life of the soul. And am I to believe, he replied, that a thing which leads me to the gallows was instituted by Christ for the life of the soul and as a Sacrament of the Church?

[289] by sacred confession; the Saint, taught this from on high, That wretched man being in this state, father D. Thomas called his vicar general and said: I have learned that a wretched man is in prison condemned to death, and all the morning it has been whispered in my ear that he will not expiate his soul of its faults by sacramental confession, because he asserts that it is on account of confession that he is being led to the gallows. I do not doubt that the unhappy man is in that anxiety because some confessor has betrayed his crime, learned in the Sacrament: (this matter, although it was afterwards found in fact to be so, he had learned from no one but God alone in prayer). Betake yourself thither and tell the judges that I have been taught this matter, and am bound by my office to take care that that soul, of which indeed I must render account, do not go to perdition: let them deign to send him hither to me; for I pledge my faith that, if he be worthy of death, I will restore him and will not hinder the execution of the judgment. The vicar general went thither; and the judges, both out of the reverence and veneration which they bore toward the holy Bishop, and because they knew how truthful and faithful he was in fulfilling his promises, ordered their ministers to bring the man to the lord Archbishop.

[290] questions the wretch brought to him, When he had been brought, he called him apart into his oratory, and before the sacred image of Christ crucified adjured him to declare for what cause he was unwilling to purge his soul of his offences by sacred Confession, and asserted that on account of confession he was being dragged to the gallows. Let him speak sincerely, and he promised that he would find that the confession of sins made to a priest, God's minister, brings not death but life. The unhappy man took courage and related to his Bishop the whole course of the matter as related by me here. Namely, that of the homicide committed by him, of the time and manner, or of the least of its circumstances, no one had been privy but God alone, who beholds all things, and that priest to whom in the time of Lent he had opened his sins, and whom, when he opened them, he did not know, nor knew to be the dead man's brother, until he learned it from the note which the same man gave him to be shown to the parish priest of his place. That it could not have come about that it should be betrayed in a human way, unless that priest had told his brother and the latter the judges; that hence had arisen all his misfortune, his arrest, the torment of the rack, his sentence; that hence he shrank from Confession, and hence his mind failed him at the hearing of its name. Be of quiet mind, said the holy Prelate; for if the judges have not come to the knowledge of your offence by another way, confession shall not take away your life.

[291] He at once ordered the priest, the betrayer of the confession, to be called he summons the confessor; he asks the judges that to him and shut up in a chamber where no one could speak with him; then also the judge with his assessor; and having first received leave from the wretched man that his offence might be dealt with without what was done being to his detriment, he said: My lords, this case is among the gravest that can befall a judge, and one in which we must proceed with great circumspection. I hold the man here well guarded; set your guards to watch him with their eyes, let there be added both bonds and fetters, as it pleases you, but he must remain here until what he has told me has been well verified; since it concerns the Sacrament of penance exceedingly, and that at this time when heresies so greatly assail it. Be wholly assured that, if he has deserved to be put to death, I shall interpose no hindrance, but shall restore him faithfully. But first I must make trial (God

will give light) in what fashion and through what accuser it came to the juridical knowledge of your lordships and of the procurator of the treasury that this homicide was committed by this man. For if that knowledge was obtained by human means and information, your manner of acting was lawful, and you will by right inflict punishment upon him. But if the knowledge of this offence arose from the Sacrament of penance and from that alone, he who betrayed it has committed a great sacrilege against the secret and seal of Confession, and is worthy of a bitter penalty; and whatever has proceeded from such a beginning is of no weight and cannot be brought and produced before a human judgment, no otherwise than if it were in no way known to any man. This thing is clear, and is the teaching of all theologians; consult whomever you will.

[292] This man, therefore, must remain under my power they should grant time for examining the case and have the accuser arrested until that matter has been ascertained by me; and you, my lords, as Christian judges, on whom it lies to favour the reverence and the seal which the Sacrament of confession requires, as holy Church commands and our Lord Jesus Christ instituted, owe me your help in this business, and I trust indeed that you will give it. To which end it is necessary, and this too I ask of you, that at once, before anyone warns them or knows what we are handling here, you take care to have arrested and presented to me the dead man's brother, who brought the accusation: for this is very necessary for the investigation of this case. The judges, considering how just was what the Archbishop had said, withdrew, and at once ordered that brother who had brought the accusation to be arrested, and handed him over to him. Meanwhile, while that brother was being arrested by the judges' order and dragged from his village and brought to the holy Bishop, he stayed for the greater part of the time alone in his oratory, prostrate on the ground before the image of Christ crucified, praying with great devotion and many tears that by His heavenly favour and grace He would help him to attain the truth of that deed, so pertaining to the reverence and secrecy of a Sacrament so necessary to the salvation of souls, instituted by His kindly hand for the remission of all offences, and through which He so abundantly imparts to sinners His remarkable mercy, the power and merits of His suffering on the Cross, and of the Blood shed on it with such charity and love. He prayed likewise that He would grant light to the priest and to his brother, by which they might acknowledge their fault and confess the truth as they ought, and [so] a remedy might be brought to a case so unwonted and so pernicious to the devout esteem in which the Sacrament of penance is held among all Catholics.

[293] the accuser confesses the truth, He was heard by God; for the lay brother who had laid the accusation, brought to him and given into his power, he kept shut up in his oratory before he could exchange a word with anyone or know that his brother the priest had been put into custody; and before that sacred image he begged and adjured him to say truly who had told him, or by what way he had learned, that his brother had been killed by that [man]. He added that he was now privy to the whole matter, and pledged his word that he would keep him free from all harm if only he would tell the truth; but if not, he bade him hold it certain that it would become known from another source and that he himself would be severely punished. He set forth to him how great a service he would render to God by speaking, and how great an offence he would inflict by concealing, for which both in this and in the future life he would be punished by God. And these things he uttered with such spirit and with words so fervent that that man, trembling, threw himself at his feet and candidly confessed the whole course of the matter ^b. This man's confession he willed to be taken down in writing, and that he should be shut up in a chamber of his palace, so that he might call him again when there was need: so it was done; and on the next day the same first accuser ratified it, remaining in custody until the end of the whole affair.

[294] as does the confessor The lay brother's confession being received, he let some days pass before he addressed the priest: all that interval commending what he was to say to him with vehement effort to God, and praying with many tears and also with some afflictions of the body by scourges, that He would grant light to him also, that when called he might confess the truth. Here too he was heard by the Lord. And so he summoned him and shut himself up with him in the oratory, and before the same image adjured him by the Lord represented in that holy figure, and by His Blood, to say truly how he had known that his brother had been killed by that [man], and with those circumstances of the deed which he had suggested to his brother for accusing him before the judges. If he wished to be forgiven by the Lord and to obtain His mercy, let him speak the truth, acknowledge his fault and confess it. But if not, let him know that the matter would be proved from another source, since his brother, whom he had called to him, to whom he had signified the same and whom he had persuaded to lay the accusation, had already confessed. Hence, unless he told the truth, he said that he would be punished by God in this life and the other, and here would be put to a public and severe punishment as an example to others.

[295] seized with vast horror at his crime; He uttered this with such ardour and feeling of mind on account of the offence inflicted upon God, upon the Church and upon the reverence of the Sacrament of penance, that the priest (as he himself afterwards related) began to tremble and fell at his feet like a dead man, without breath and without colour. The Archbishop raised him with his own hands, and he, falling on his knees and beating his breast, and weeping much, began to cry out: Lord, mercy, mercy! My brother has spoken the truth, most reverend Lord; I called him, taught him, and by persuasion led him to all that he has related to your Lordship. I, a wicked priest and a perverse man, without fear of God and reverence for the Sacrament, betrayed what my brother's slayer had confessed to me. Out of anger and grief at my brother's death I committed so great a crime and sacrilege. Here I am, ready for every penalty which your Lordship shall wish to inflict on me: but mercy, my Lord, mercy! Then again he fell into a swoon of soul and, as it were deprived of his senses, at the feet of the blessed Prelate. It was a fearful thing * to behold the guilty man pale on the ground, as it were bereft of sense, his whole face bathed in tears, and the judge on his knees at the feet of the Crucified, pouring out abundant tears and giving thanks to the same Lord for the mercy which He had shown that priest, granting him both to acknowledge his fault and to confess it so openly.

[296] Those who were outside were somewhat moved in mind by the sighs and sobs which were heard in the oratory; The Saint, after fervent prayers to God they entered to find out what the matter was, and came upon a spectacle which affected all with compassion and grief. Then father D. Thomas withdrew thence, wiping his eyes, and ordered the priest to be lifted from the ground, to be carried back to the chamber in which he was kept shut up, to be refreshed with food and properly cared for, since he was much weakened. The blessed Father took food himself also, but very little: for he was exceedingly sad on account of the offence done to God by that priest's sacrilege against the reverence of the sacrament of penance, and because he saw himself bound in conscience, for the example of others, to punish him severely. Rising from the table, he withdrew into the oratory, the place of his refuge and of all his consolation, where he stayed the whole evening before that holy figure of Christ crucified, beseeching Him to have pity on his grief and to grant light both to the priest, that he might persevere in the acknowledgment of his fault and make true penance, and to the judges, when they should be called, that they might grasp how just was what he was going to say to them and how necessary for the reverence due to the Sacrament of confession: and in this he spent the whole evening and a great part of the night.

[297] On the following day he celebrated Mass, asking the same of the Lord: before the judges he pleads the murderer's cause and when it was finished he ordered the judge with his assessor to be called, and in that same oratory addressed them thus: Before that image, which represents the true and supreme Judge of all men, I have been taught, my lords, all that has been done in the cause of the man condemned by you to death: and the matter stands just as I feared. The dead man's brother, who accused him, did not know by any human means that he had killed him, but only by that which his brother the priest suggested by betraying the sacred confession of the condemned man. This is established both from what that brother has confessed to me in this note, and from what the same priest has likewise confessed to me. So that the accusation, arrest, and all the other judicial and criminal actions instituted against that man rest on no principle or foundation other than that which he himself declared in the Sacrament of penance to the priest, the dead man's own brother, and from this confession all the knowledge that there is of that offence drew its origin.

[298] and prevails that he be dismissed free That knowledge (as I have already said) can neither be employed nor be of any efficacy in any human judgment or tribunal, no otherwise than if it had never been obtained. Ask as many theologians as you will; none has said or can say the contrary. And so all the judicial acts instituted either for him or against him, and the sentence of death passed, are void and of no force; they must be blotted out and erased, that no memory of them remain, since they proceeded from the knowledge and the betrayal of the Sacrament of penance: and therefore that wretched man, accused in so iniquitous a manner, must be restored to entire liberty. I will admonish him — for this befits his peace — urging him not to remain in this place nor to return thither, and that, if he possesses any house or other things, he should sell them all and go away to spend his life far from here; that he may take from the dead man's brother and kinsfolk, who would have him daily before their eyes, the occasion of sometime thinking of revenge. It is certain that he will do so. Concerning the priest I shall determine what shall be fitting; for that will belong to my office.

[299] when he has been dismissed, The judge and his assessor, both because of the veneration which they bore toward father D. Thomas and their vast opinion of his knowledge and learning, and because they too had within those days consulted some of the chief theologians on the same case, in no way doubted his assertion, but greatly approved it. And so they loosed the man from the bonds and custody in which he was held in the Archbishop's palace, restored him to entire liberty, consoled him, and burnt all the documents of the action brought against him, no memory of that affair being left. And the man, as the Archbishop urged and charged him, went away to spend his life

in another place, far from the one he had inhabited before; he sold all that he possessed there, and took from the dead man's brother and kinsfolk every occasion of seeing him there.

[300] The Saint punishes the confessor. The priest, since his offence was so grave and of such pernicious example, he deprived, according to the penalties prescribed in law, of his benefice, forbade him the hearing of sacred Confession and the celebration of Mass for his whole life, and condemned him to perpetual imprisonment in the castle of Chulilla. Before he was taken thither, he gave him an address, exhorting him to consider his fault, to undergo the penalty with great patience, and not to think it severe, since he had deserved for so great a sacrilege to be stripped of the dignity and insignia of the priesthood and to be condemned to the galleys for life. The priest approved the sentence with great humility, and bore that penalty with such patience that after three years the Saint ordered leave to be granted him to frequent the church of that place and to assist at the divine Offices, but not to hear confessions or celebrate Mass; and so he finished the course of his life there, giving to all a good example of a mind turned to heavenly things, of uprightness and of piety. And from the account of a case of such moment it is seen what the Servant of God obtained from the divine Majesty by praying that He would grant him light, direct him, and teach him what was to be done in arduous and difficult matters.

[301] Praying, he understands that a cleric had hanged himself, It appeared likewise how pleasing his prayer was to the Lord God in another very notable case of another cleric whom he was keeping in custody, because, though rebuked many times for his wicked manners and the evil examples he gave to all who knew him, he would not return to good ways. While he was thus held in custody, when one morning the Servant of God was standing after his custom before that sacred image of the crucified Lord, it began to sweat blood; whereat he was struck and seized with great grief, fearing and suspecting that on that night some great crime had been committed against God, and praying Him with great affection of soul that in His immense goodness and clemency He would set an end to it and bring a remedy. At the very time in which he was asking this of the Lord, the keeper of the prison came up, wholly disturbed, saying that that priest, because he feared to be shut up in the castle of Chulilla or to be severely punished, had refused to eat for three days and that morning had hanged himself. At that same moment of time the good Prelate went down to the prison with the utmost speed, and found him — for the rope had broken — stretched on the ground, stupefied, bereft of his senses and like a dead man. He ordered him to be lifted and laid on the bed of a chamber, and, since he was said to have abstained from food for three days, that a cordial for the heart * and food should be given him.

[302] He meanwhile gave himself to prayer in a corner, that the Lord might have mercy on him; and running to him sets him free. for he seemed destitute of all sense. The prayer being finished, he returned to him as he began to be restored to his senses, and said: My son, do you not know at what price you were bought by Jesus Christ, who redeemed you with His Blood? Eat, and give Him thanks that you are not wholly dead. Then he blessed him: whereupon he came fully to his mind, threw himself at his feet, asking pardon and saying: Good Father, spare me and help me before God, as you have done. For your prayers have snatched me out of the great darkness in which I was, and now I find myself in a place of light. The holy Bishop ordered this to be suppressed in silence, and the violent dizziness which clung to him from the struggle and the disturbance of blood which he suffered when he hanged himself to be treated.

ANNOTATA.

fue un juyzio final*

un cordial*

CHAPTER VIII.

The holy Prelate's humility and courtesy toward all, especially the poor.

[ ] Humble Since in the preceding chapter ^a we have treated of the blessed father D. Thomas's frequent prayer, and of the favours and gifts granted him by the Lord God through it, it will be fitting here to treat of his most profound humility: in which, although the blessed Father, as we saw in the first book, was so perfect both before his entry into a religious Order and afterwards while living in it, yet he excelled far more afterwards, while he was Archbishop. He made much of the dignity in which he had been set by God, so as always to consider to what he was bound: but of himself he conceived no higher opinion than of a poor religious who was not worthy of it. From the candour and sweetness with which he dealt with all, it was seen how deeply he kept impressed on his mind that saying and counsel of the Wise Man: "The greater thou art, humble thyself in all things" ^b.

[304] With the same sweetness and courtesy with which he received the noble, and courteous toward all the wealthy and the powerful, he admitted also the poor and the ill-clad. With each he dealt according to his condition, and used that manner of speaking which prudence prescribes and reason requires; keeping nevertheless toward all that equality which Christian charity demands in receiving, hearing and dealing with them. He had not (as all who were his familiars or served him report) doorkeepers to keep waiting [men] who came to him on business. He used only one doorkeeper, not because that befitted his condition, but that he might be informed as soon as anyone came, while he himself was in solitude or engaged in study. To his chambers there were neither vestibules nor several halls to be passed through in order to gain access to him. But he commonly walked about in the ample hall in which was the chapel of the archiepiscopal palace, and which was the most accessible and frequented, with the doors of all the stairs that opened into it standing open. This was his ordinary abode at the hours appointed for transacting business, that easy access might lie open to everyone, and that he might be found ready by those who needed him.

[305] with the poor he holds long conversations, Sometimes poor men, old men, the blind and men of that kind came to set forth their troubles and calamities; and he was not only not affected with trouble or weariness thereby, but received them with much delight and kindness. And that he might hear them with a more attentive mind, and might rouse them to disclose their troubles with greater freedom and hope of remedy, he seated himself on a low seat which he had for that end in that hall, and bade them (although they by no means wished it) take another at his side; and if they were not fitly seated, he lifted and drew them with his own hands; nor was he offended, however filthy the beggar who came; and he dealt with him with such love and openness that sometimes he spent a whole hour, nay two, in hearing and consoling.

[306] and serves them like a servant, Since from that hall, in which he stayed generally when he was not engaged in prayer or study, there was access by a portico to the chamber which his visitor master Porta inhabited — through which minister he also distributed many alms — it often happened (as master Porta himself related) that some poor men seeking him met the Archbishop in that same hall, and said to him, whom they did not know and saw only in poor clothing: Father, where is the lord visitor? And he answered: Wait, brethren; for I will call him; and without delay he went to the visitor's chamber, called him and said: See, there are men here who want you; at once and with charity, I beseech you, settle their business: for they seem to be poor men, and it is wrong to bring loss upon them of time necessary for procuring their livelihood. It likewise sometimes happened in the evening, while he was dismissing someone with whom he had transacted business, and no servant was at hand to carry a light before him as he went, that he himself took a candle and went before him, until a servant ran up to snatch it from his hands.

[307] always ready for conversation with them, On a certain day some canons of his household said to him that that hall in which his lordship generally stayed was not very convenient, since so many doors and so many stairs opened into it, and it seemed rather a street or a market than a chamber. Smiling he answered: That which you think inconvenient, my lords, is the best thing that hall has, and what invites me to stay in it for the most part. For that is the proper place for a Shepherd in which his sheep may have him ready at hand and, when they need him, may always find him with brief and easy trouble. There was nothing they could answer to this; but on the contrary they were much touched by the example of remarkable humility and charity which shone out from those words.

[308] It also sometimes happened that, walking about that hall with some canon or other honoured man, leaving his dinner, he saw a needy man waiting, and, however poor and ill-clad he seemed, with his remarkable humility and openness went to him and said: Wait a little, I pray, brother; this lord and I will finish in a few words, and we shall see what you bring. It happened likewise sometimes that, out of the love with which he was affected toward the poor, when at dinner time some of them came sad and anxious, he rose from the table (bidding his guests go on eating and not wait for him) and hastened with his mouth full of food to bring them consolation and to do them good. Nor did he return to the table until he had brought them consolation and help. For he reckoned the coming of such a poor little man the best dish that could be set before him. It is assuredly a thing worthy of note that he never said or allowed that his servants should keep anyone waiting until he rose from the table; but rather, when a person coming to him seemed afflicted by some calamity, he left the table and his food; and that indeed so far that in his own judgment the food would neither please his taste nor profit his health unless he had first hastened to remedy the need and console the afflicted [man], though he came at such an hour.

[309] About the same time there came one day a poor man with his little son, he hastens to serve them; that he might anoint him with the sacred oil of Confirmation, saying that he was oppressed with sickness. At once, on hearing this, he left his food, went to the chapel, imparted to him the Sacrament of confirmation ^c and then returned to the table. Such was the remarkable humility and charity of this Servant of God toward the poor and the calamitous. When some men, whether ecclesiastics or seculars with whom he dealt familiarly, had visited him, as he dismissed them from his chamber he said to them as they went: See, for the love of God, whether there be not beggars or some men waiting outside who dare not come in; tell them to come in, for that is lawful for them. For I fear that the servants may keep them from entering, although they have the contrary command from me; lest namely a poor man or

a person needing my services be sent away; but let them admit them, when I am not occupied with prayer or study, and if I am so occupied, let them inform me at once.

[310] While the college was being built which he founded beside the schools of the university in this city, dealing familiarly with servants and boys he often betook himself thither to inspect the work. And it is praiseworthy before the Lord (although whatever he [did] is of that kind) what some witnesses relate of the simplicity, affability and kindness with which he dealt not only with the masters and men advanced in years, but also with the servants and boys who served the work, the apprentices of the stonemasons and carpenters and of the other craftsmen, no otherwise than if he were among his own sons. Many students came in to see that work, and especially on the day on which they knew that the Archbishop was there; nor did he bid them go away or be driven off; but on the contrary he called them to him, and with fatherly charity and kindness asked them whence they came, to what studies and under what masters they applied themselves; he exhorted them to virtue and the fear of God, and by name to obedience to their parents; and if they were living in strangers' houses, to seemliness and faithfulness in keeping them: that they should show their masters much observance and reverence; that they should not waste their time ill or neglect their lectures; that they should take great care to guard themselves from the company of wicked young men and from nocturnal wanderings, but should then go over their lectures again.

[311] he lays down instructions for virtue; He gave them many instructions by which they might advance in virtue and letters, and these indeed in such a way that they were carried by affection toward the rules he laid down for excelling in their studies. When he dismissed them, they kissed his hands and his garment, while he blessed them and attended them with the urbane courtesy of his countenance and speech, warning them not to be forgetful of his words. He promised that to those who should be outstanding in studies, in virtue and in piety, he would show his favour on any occasion where there was need. The needy he invited to come to his house, adding that he would supply them with clothes, books and all necessary things; and this he did abundantly for those whom, on the report of their masters or of other persons worthy of credit, he heard to be upright students.

[312] his poor kinsfolk To the virtue of humility, if we attentively consider the effects which it generally produces and works in truly humble persons, three things are very proper. The first is not to disdain or blush for one's own kinsfolk but to acknowledge them, however abject and low their condition and however higher and more honoured that which the humble man enjoys. The second is to avoid everything that breathes authority, pomp or excellence. The third is that he who is humble be affable, gentle and very patient ^d. In all these conditions and effects of true humility the holy Bishop is said to have greatly excelled. For first, although his parents and all his forebears were noble, chief men, and rich among their own townsfolk, as we saw in chapter 1 of the preceding book, nevertheless among his kinsfolk and relations (as happens in many families) there were some farmers and poor men; yet the archiepiscopal dignity, or the reverence with which he was honoured throughout all Spain, in no way brought it about that he either did not acknowledge them or received them with a troubled mind, as certain proud men, forgetful of heavenly graces, deal with their kinsfolk when they see themselves set in honour; on the contrary he rejoiced at the sight of them, received them with great love when they came to Valencia, took them into his house, and dealt with them with the same simplicity with which he would have dealt if in his first condition he had lived with them at Villanueva; he declared to all that they were his kinsfolk, and counted it his honour and glory.

[313] he honours even before others, Once, while he was handling in his chamber a matter of great moment pertaining to this kingdom with the bishops of Tortosa ^e and Segorbe ^f, his uncle came in, with a linen cloth tied about his neck, in the way in which Castilian farmers go about in the villages; he rejoiced at the sight of him and at once greeted him, saying: You are welcome, lord uncle, take a seat: and, having asked leave of the bishops, he began to ask him about his coming, his native place, his mother and his kinsfolk, with such delight and pleasure that it was a marvel to all. After some interval of time he called the steward to receive his guest and treat him well, saying to his uncle: Go now, take your rest; for you are wearied; when I have finished with these lords the matter we are handling, I shall visit you presently: and returning to the bishops, exceedingly glad at the good man's coming, he said: He is our uncle, our nearest kinsman on the mother's side.

[314] Another time his cousin visited him, both to enjoy the sight of him and receives them gladly. and because he thought that a great gift would be given him. Him too he received with vast delight and openness of mind, calling him "lord cousin" with a full mouth and entertaining him handsomely for a whole month, during which he kept him in his house. Toward the end of the month he asked how his affairs stood at home. Ill, he answered: because one of the two oxen with which he tilled his field had died. Lord cousin, said the good Bishop, what is necessary for procuring another ox and putting it in the dead one's place I shall supply: not because you are my cousin, but that I may relieve your need: but expect nothing more from me. For what I possess is neither mine nor to be spent for the use of my kinsfolk, but belongs to the poor of this place where the fruits of this church are gathered. Like things often befell him with his kinsfolk: he admitted them, received them with much love, acknowledged and professed them to be such, though poor; but with these and with all (as we shall see in the following chapter) he kept the order which charity and justice require in the distribution of ecclesiastical goods and revenues.

[315] As regards his flight from everything that breathes pomp and magnificence, Estranged from all pomp, all who knew him or dealt with him never cease to celebrate it. It appeared abundantly in the simplicity and poverty of his garments and household furniture. For as magnificent garments and ornaments are signs of vanity and pride — such as the holy queen Esther called Signs of pride, and standards of swelling and arrogance, and brought in by the arrogance and vanity of swollen men — so also it is a remarkable testimony of humility and simplicity to use poor garments and to be content in one's house with only what is necessary, without sumptuous and choice ornaments; when this is not done out of avarice, out of which a Bishop so munificent and liberal by no means did it, who (as we shall see) spent on the poor whatever he had.

[316] He showed this more fully when he preached; for in his times the Roman Pontiff did not yet order, as he now orders, about to preach, he allowed no adornment in the pulpit that bishops preach clothed in pontifical habit, with a throne set before them and surrounded with their ministers and assistants, so that the people, who are moved only by what is outwardly seen, may make more of and receive with greater reverence, as is just, the teaching of their bishop and the voice of their own pastor. Father D. Thomas, out of the vehemence of the humility that ruled in his heart, never wished either a canopy in the pulpit or a throne in the churches in which he preached. For the first sermon which he gave in the chief church of this city they fastened to the pulpit a canopy of cloth figured with flowers *, and laid upon it another costly cloth, without his knowing or being aware of it until the very moment in which he had to go up; when there was neither space nor place for taking them down: when he beheld it, he felt much grief; but either it had to be borne, or — what seemed to him more unfitting — the sermon had to be omitted.

[317] And so, when on another Sunday he was to preach to the people, he suffered, on the preceding Saturday he summoned master Clara, at that time second sacristan, whom they commonly call master of the cathedral church, and earnestly charged him that those flowered cloths should not be put on the pulpit, nor any greater adornment than is customarily set up for other preachers: because he, although a Bishop, was a poor monk, and did not mount the pulpit seeking splendour, but desiring fervour and doctrine for winning souls. D. Jerome Carroz de Eslava, canon of this holy church, whom father D. Thomas himself on coming hither made vicar general of the chapter, came to him to say that it was fitting that those cloths be put up, that his dignity required this, nay, that if their putting up were omitted it would be a great disgrace and would be counted a fault in himself as vicar of the chapter. Never could he be persuaded of this, always repeating the same reason which he had put to master Clara. At the most they obtained that the canopy with the flowered cloth should be omitted, but that the curtain or hanging customarily put up for other preachers should be set up, and (what sufficed for the people to understand that the Prelate was to speak) that a certain silken band should be applied to the edge of the pulpit, and nothing else be added, since he would take it ill and would take it down with his own hands.

[318] in the churches he used the common sacred furniture; For celebrating Mass with pontifical rite on some of the more solemn feasts he had no sacred furniture of his own, but such as belonged wholly to the church. And for celebrating with ordinary rite, when he celebrated in the chapel of that same church consecrated to St. Louis — which, as we shall say hereafter, took place twice every week — the sacred furniture and the chalice likewise belonged to the church; but when he celebrated in his own domestic chapel, he had all the apparatus and furniture his own, but poor, without any splendour or ornament, yet clean: as appeared in the things which as he lay dying he ordered to be carried to the college. When he went about visiting the diocese, since it is the custom that the bishop, clothed in surplice and cope, should inspect first the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, then the font of holy Baptism, he had no ornament or apparatus of his own for that ministry; but he took it in the church which he was visiting, in no way regarding whether it was old or new, costly or poor; what they offered, that he put on.

[319] In a certain tiny village he put on the old and torn surplice of the vicar of the parish, and for intoning the responsory which is customarily sung at visitations for the souls of the departed, he put over it a cope of black linen worked by the fuller *, quite ancient, as content as if it had been very costly: for in his remarkable humility he did not turn his mind to such things. And it is certain that, although for these and like acts he lacked the furniture and apparatus which other bishops are wont to have, this did not proceed (as I said) from avarice, since he so earnestly loved the evangelical poverty which he had professed; nor from negligence or carelessness about what his office required, since he had been adorned by the Lord with so remarkable a judgment and prudence: but from his solicitude

for gathering as much as he could for the poor, and from his vast love toward the virtue of humility. And hence God provided that all those things which would have brought derision and contempt to others were in him examples of virtue and incitements to esteem and revere him the more; when so sublime a dignity was seen joined with so great a humility, and the religious gravity which he always kept with so great a simplicity.

[320] various The third thing which we said is proper to humility was found no less perfectly in the Servant of God, as ecclesiastics who survived his death by many years openly declared and attested. For, as they report, he not only received them with vast love and courtesy, bidding them sit if they were priests, or, if they stood, not considering that they were his subjects, addressing them also standing; but he also admitted their reasons, and when in the business in hand they had right on their side, with great readiness and courtesy he always approved them and preferred them to his own. Nor is it wonderful that he used such sincerity and courtesy toward priests, who kept the same with seculars, though poor labourers and farmers.

[321] At Carpesa, which is a place of no great size in this territory of Valencia, examples of his lowly mind there was a dispute between the jurats and the parish priest, because he wished a preacher who was his friend to come on the occasion of a certain festival, while they, at whose expense the festival was celebrated, had called another: judging therefore that their will, and not the parish priest's, was just, they came to the holy Prelate, who was in his chamber; he bade them come in: and since there were not seats enough in it, he called the servants to fetch some from another inner room. Seeing them delay a little, he went in himself and brought out three with his own hands, one after another, that all might sit; and they, although they strove, could not prevent it or snatch the seats from his hands. And so he received with great kindness the speech of the two jurats sitting with him, and dismissed them saying: Celebrate that festival with much devotion, and, since it is done at your expense, summon your own preacher. I shall signify to the parish priest what is fitting. And indeed he ordered him to be called, asking who arranged the festival and supplied the expense: and when he answered that these things were done by the jurats out of the people's money, he said: Since they pay, you have no right to call a preacher other than the one whom they have called who pay; both because this is just, and because it lies upon you to remove every occasion of trouble with those who belong to your parish, even if it were done with some detriment to your right — how much more here, where it is done with none.

[322] His true and profound humility and gentleness were greatly declared by what some witnesses relate. When sometimes, on account of things reported to him by persons worthy of credit, he had rebuked certain priests and punished them rather severely, and they cleared themselves sufficiently, he did not hesitate to beg pardon and to give them abundant satisfaction. And although some, while he rebuked them, did not clear themselves, if he afterwards understood that those who had so informed him had erred, and that he had been led into error by them, he ordered the man whom he had rebuked to be summoned, and did the same, although he had himself taken a most just course. The theologian of the greater church was reported to him unfavourably by malevolent men, by whom he judged that he ought not to be imposed upon. Yet he would not summon him at once, because he heard that he was a man of good example and devout; but he waited for a fit occasion; and having got one, he took him aside into his oratory, set forth what had been said to him, and rebuked him gravely. The theologian, having obtained leave to answer, which the holy Bishop most willingly granted him, wishing that he might be able to bring a true clearing of himself, brought so just a one that the Saint clearly understood that he lived uprightly and that the whole matter had arisen from malice. He seized his hands with great love and joy, and as though wishing to kiss them said: May the Lord console you, as by what you have said you have consoled me. I understand that the matter is as you say, that others erred and that I was unjustly informed by them. For the love of God grant me pardon; for I solemnly declare that I was informed by such men that you yourself would judge, if it were lawful to name them, that I had lawful reason to give them credit and to admonish and rebuke you.

[323] are recited. There was a preacher who, producing letters of licence in which father D. Thomas's signature had been so accurately counterfeited that anyone would have been deceived by them, published in certain places indulgences of which there was no authority and no foundation. On learning this, the holy Prelate was seized with the greatest grief; for although he was vehemently offended by any sin, yet by none so much as by lying and fraud, especially in matters so grave. He ordered the parish priests of the places in which that wicked man had published those feigned indulgences to be summoned, and when they had come into his presence he rebuked them with a certain bitterness and sense of grief for having permitted it. The parish priest who was chief among the rest, and as it were their general rural vicar — the Lord so directing the matter for the excuse of those who were free from fault — had kept for himself the letters of faculty presented by that false preacher, and said: Most illustrious Lord, if you will give me leave to speak, you will see how far all these parish priests and I are from the offence given either to the Lord God or to your lordship in what has been done. For that preacher, coming to me as your lordship's rural vicar in that district, showed me letters of faculty furnished with your lordship's signature, and on account of them I granted him leave to preach in all the places over which I preside as your lordship's vicar. The holy Prelate looked at them and, astounded, said: I certainly gave no such faculty; yet I confess that there will be no one who knows my hand and has seen this signature but will judge it to be mine; for I myself, unless the fraud were evidently and certainly established, as it is, should judge it mine. For the love of God, brethren, forgive the trouble and anxiety which I have caused you by ordering you to come hither. For neither did you sin in granting leave to preach after letters of faculty had been shown you, furnished with a signature so conformed to my writing, nor did I in summoning you, until I should be taught the truth of a case of such moment. He at once ordered the keeper of his treasury to hand over to them whatever expenses they had incurred in coming from their parishes, and on the days on which they had stayed at Valencia, and whatever had to be spent on their return to their homes.

[324] Offended With such humility and equity did the blessed Bishop deal with his subjects; sometimes even suffering detriment to his own right, that he might win a soul, and attributing and imputing to himself a fault committed not by him but by a subject. It was altogether public throughout the whole city of Valencia that, when he had several times rebuked with great charity a canon of that church for his offences, and he did not correct them, on a certain day, compelled by conscience, by the obligation of his office and by the grief with which he was affected at offences against God, he punished him more severely. That canon was proud, and since it seemed to him that the holy Prelate had exceeded measure, he put off the reverence [due] to him, saying that he belonged to the holy Office, and that he had him not for his judge, and that there was no reason why he should fear him; and he uttered these things with words so uncivil that the keeper of the treasury, who came thither on that occasion, being offended by them, wished to lay hands on him. But father D. Thomas at once interposed his favour for the canon, without regarding his incivility, and ordered the keeper of the treasury to grant him free departure, saying: Let him go; for assuredly he is not at fault, but I, who gave the occasion when I went beyond measure: although the Lord knows that I intended nothing else than the amendment of his life.

[325] As soon as the inquisitors were informed of the case, on account of the love and reverence in which he was held by all, by a canon, they summoned the canon and shut him up in a chamber of the same Inquisition, and sent a cleric to the Archbishop to signify to him in their words that they had been seized with vast distress on learning how irreverently that canon had behaved toward his lordship, and that he was being kept shut up with them; and that if his Lordship wished to punish him, they would send him and put him under his power; but if not, that he would be punished by them, as was fitting and as his offence deserved. Since the holy Office neither wished nor would ever suffer that its name or favour should be used by anyone to oppress another, much less his own superior and bishop.

[326] It was the hour of going to table when that messenger came to father D. Thomas, he transfers the blame to himself, and affected him with so great a sense of grief that he at once ordered the mules to be saddled, and, accompanied by his confessor and two servants (for he never took a larger retinue when he sometimes went out of the house), went to the Inquisition and asked the inquisitors to release the canon at once, saying: It is not he, my lords, who is at fault, but I, who exceeded measure in rebuking and gave him occasion for what he said to me: hence, I beg you, let this matter be wrapped in silence. The inquisitors showed themselves reluctant to dismiss him so quickly and altogether unpunished, judging the case to be grave, and that indeed against a Bishop of such sanctity and of such esteem with the emperor and throughout all Spain. But on account of the urgent entreaty with which the Servant of God pressed it, affirming and protesting that he would not go from there without his canon, they took him out and, to satisfy him, handed him over free.

[327] Beholding his sheep (no otherwise than the good Shepherd of the Gospel, and provides for his honour. who, when he finds it, is carried away with gladness and desires all to be partakers of his joy), he ran and embraced him, tears flowing on both sides, and ordered the canon's house to be gone to quickly and his mule to be brought at once, that he might lead him to his own house to dine with him. And (what with the best right was a marvel and a good example to the whole city), because a report had been spread through Valencia that that canon was held prisoner in the prisons of the Inquisition, because he had behaved irreverently and indeed with very wicked speech toward the Archbishop, before the Saint returned home to dinner he led him about, joined to his side, through the whole city, conversing with him and holding discourse with such familiarity as he could have used with the best of friends. For the holy Bishop was zealous not only to withdraw his subjects from calamities, but also to preserve their esteem and honour, nay even to restore it, if they had ever suffered any loss of it.

ANNOTATA.

de brocado*

Spanish de bocasí*

CHAPTER IX.

He helps his needy kinsfolk very sparingly, and long resists the emperor asking for a loan of money, lest he take it from the poor.

[ ] The Archbishop helps sparingly Although St. Thomas ^a was so kind, sincere and humble, he was nevertheless very detached from kinsfolk and friends, and utterly estranged from all human respect, and always used evangelical freedom. How detached he was from his kinsfolk appeared from this, that he bestowed little or nothing upon them. To his own mother, although he loved and honoured her as becomes a dutiful son, yet because she enjoyed her own goods, he sent only a hundred crowns each year, as a token of a son's acknowledgment toward his mother; and for the same cause, to the two brothers whom he had, to the one a hundred, to the other, who had more children and less wealth, two hundred. Once he sent a servant to Villanueva to visit his mother; and she charged him on his return to report to her Son that, since it was known there that she was the Archbishop's mother, and it was noised abroad that some sum of money was sent to her by him every year, so many beggars ran to her house, not only from the town of Villanueva but also from the neighbouring places, that what he sent by no means sufficed — nay, not even double and more, which she added from the goods of her house. Let him therefore deign to send a much larger sum, since she desired it not for herself but for the poor. And so the matter was: for since that handmaid of God was likewise, as we saw in chapter 1 of book 1, devout and liberal to the poor, she spent not only what her Son sent but double from the goods of her house.

[329] his mother, his brothers The servant, returning to Valencia, reported what had been entrusted to him by his parent, and what he had himself found with his own eyes in those days in which he had stayed in her house at Villanueva. The Saint answered: I already send my parent every year those hundred crowns, as a token of a son's acknowledgment toward his mother who can do no more. If these goods were mine, though I gave a thousand or two thousand, it would be very little for my debt toward her: but they are not mine, but the poor's of this place, and that little which I send her is taken from them. And although I know very well that she too spends it on the poor, yet it is not lawful for me to take it from those to whom it belongs, that she may distribute it to others. Out of her own goods let her give out as much as she pleases; but what I send out of these suffices. His brothers complained of the same, thinking that too little was granted them, and wrote and besought that he would grant more; but he did not consent to them. This only could be obtained, that to the brother to whom on account of the greater number of his children he gave two hundred pounds a year, he granted at one time the sum for ten years, namely two thousand ducats, from which, being applied to some estate in their native place, if the Archbishop should die, an annual income would remain for him and his sons. On this condition therefore he granted it and conferred the benefit for the whole space of his life. This one thing his brothers obtained, and this he thought lawful for himself, since the same sums of money had already been appointed for each year. And he gave it, warning them to hope for nothing more, not even one real, to be given them ^b. The same manner he kept with his other kinsfolk who were pressed by some necessity, helping them, as poor men, with a small sum well measured to the standard of their need.

[330] Once there came his cousin, both to visit him and his kinsfolk, and to tell him that he had given his daughter (to whom, as an infant, father D. Thomas had shown much love) in marriage to a lettered man. At this he grew much displeased, because marriages entered upon without equality of condition were displeasing to him, and he chid him, often repeating this saying: A farmer's daughter with a lettered man! You have acted imprudently. At the same time the keeper of the treasury was present, and both to appease him and because he saw the cousin seized with great shame, said: Since she is the daughter of your lordship's cousin, the inequality was not great; your lordship can provide for the equality by conferring a dowry. Neither will I do that, nor does God permit it, answered the holy Prelate; for the revenues of bishops are not appointed to enrich or advance in station their kinsfolk, but for the relief and succour of the poor of their diocese. He ordered only fifty crowns to be given him, saying: Take this for the expenses of your journey, and expect nothing more from me; for what I possess is not mine, but the poor's of this place.

[331] Likewise at the Lord's Nativity there came the husband of the Servant of God's sister and another kinsman to wish him a happy feast, and relying on the hope whom, kindly that he would present them with a notable sum of money as a gift. He received them with great love, rejoiced at the sight of them, kept them in his house through the feast days and entertained them handsomely; but when these were over, he warned them that it was expedient for them to return home. He gave them what they had spent on their coming and what was necessary for their return; and he added that they should expect nothing more, since he could bestow nothing further on them, giving the same reason which he was wont to give, namely that those goods were not his, but the poor's of that place. They said that the mules which they used for their labours in their field had died and that others were needed. In that, said he, since it is a necessity, and it is not convenient for you to remove it so quickly, I will help you when you have gone. Which he did, yet in such a way that he would not hand them the money, lest they spend it on other things, but, when they had departed thence some days, ordered a pair of mules to be bought for each and sent to them, bestowing on them an alms on account of the want in which they were and by which he knew that they were truly pressed.

[332] received, he says, On another occasion another kinsman of his came with the mind of remaining in his house and service, and by that way of binding him to grant him a livelihood and goods. He received him with his accustomed charity and kindness and kept him in his house for some days; but when he judged him refreshed from the weariness of the journey, he bade him return to his native place, giving him what was necessary for the return. Hearing that this seemed to him too little, and that he complained, he called him and said: What has been given you, you reckon little; but I fear ^c lest even of that an account must be rendered by me to God, because I take it from the poor of this place, to whom it belongs. Nor would I give it even to you, unless I saw that you lacked the means of returning to your native place. Go, with God's favour, and do not hereafter come hither to me, and warn your kinsfolk there that they too should not come hither to me in future: because what I have is not mine, nor is it kept for them, but for the poor of this place.

[333] that the goods of the archbishopric In the same manner he behaved toward his nephew, by name Bonillo, known to many inhabitants of Valencia. He visited him, relying on the same hope as the others, that he would return rich to his native place. The Saint received him with joy and kept him in his house for a month; but at its close, seeing that he needed some help to live in comfort, he bought him a cart with two mules and handed him two hundred crowns, and dismissed him saying: This I give you, considering your want, that enjoying it and at the same time labouring, you may pass your life honestly: and expect nothing more from me; since even so I bestow more than I can. That nephew, since he had left his native place thinking that he would return rich, and it had turned out otherwise, for shame would not return thither, but went away to spend his life in a place three miles distant from Valencia, called Benifayó; where many knew him and spoke with him. And although the holy Prelate learned that he was living there and doing his labours with the cart and mules, he did not take it ill, but rejoiced, that everyone might understand how little he conferred on his kinsfolk.

[334] belonged to the poor of the diocese. I could relate the same here of other of his kinsfolk, who visited him with the same hope, and on whom he conferred nothing but their travelling money, and at most a pair of mules or of oxen for tilling their fields. I shall only add, in conclusion of this matter, what he granted for the sake of marriage to two of his nieces, daughters of his younger brother. Two knights of Villanueva had cast their eyes upon them, because they were the Archbishop's nieces, and treated of joining them to themselves in marriage, if only their Uncle would supply a dowry conformable to the state of the husbands whom they were to receive. Word was written to him what was in hand, and how honourable that marriage would be to all his kinsfolk, if his Lordship would supply his nieces, who were to be joined in marriage to two nobles, with a fitting dowry. He answered that he commonly helped poor girls or orphans of Valencia by giving each thirty, sometimes sixty pounds; but noble ones according to their condition; and therefore that his nieces, who were not noble but the daughters of a farmer, must be helped by him in the same order, namely each with sixty pounds. And let them ask no more, since he judged this to be much and that it was taken from the poor of Valencia; adding that there was no need at all for his nieces to be given in marriage to noblemen, but to their equals ^d.

[335] So detached was the Servant of God from his kinsfolk and from everything pertaining to flesh and blood

; He does not go to the emperor, though asked, nay, in the same way from all human respect and obsequious indulgence toward men, using with each (although always with due courtesy and civility) an evangelical and religious freedom, and with a mind armed with Christian fortitude, such as St. Paul the apostle desired in his disciple Timothy; and that both before and after he entered upon the archbishopric. When he was preacher, as has been said, to the emperor Charles the fifth, by whom he was much loved and honoured, as we saw in the sixteenth chapter of the first book, the commander of the whole Castilian soldiery, the chief commander of Leon, and other of his familiars said to him that his majesty had several times signified to them the love with which he was affected toward him, and that it would be pleasing if he visited him, and that he ought to do this, they said, and not so rarely; because in all the time in which he was at Valladolid he visited him only three or four times.

[336] He answered: When it shall please his majesty to use my service in any matter, he knows very well how ready I am, and how willingly I shall render him service in whatever he shall command; but I should count it a sin to interrupt with my visits a person such as his majesty, occupied with so many affairs of such moment, when no necessity requires it and charity does not oblige. This he kept so religiously that, when he was Prior at Burgos, he came to Valladolid in the time of the Lenten fast to give sermons before the emperor. When he made an end of giving them, he at once returned to his convent without having visited his majesty, or bidden him farewell, or shown him any office of greeting, saying that he was departing thus because nothing occurred on account of which charity obliged him to visit him.

[337] While he was Prior at Valladolid, where the emperor was staying while he was in Spain, about to preach he refuses converse with him: his chief chaplain had orders to inform him when St. Thomas was to preach to the people in his monastery; for the emperor omitted very few of his sermons. Being informed on a certain Sunday, he betook himself to the church early, before the office began; and having prayed before the most holy Sacrament, he entered the monastery and said to the sacristan: Inform the father Prior that I am here. The sacristan at once went up to his chamber, where he was studying his sermon, to tell him that the emperor was in the monastery and had ordered him to be informed. He answered: Go, father, and tell his majesty that I am intent on my studies, and that, if he wishes me to come down, I shall be incapable of preaching; but if I am to preach, I cannot come down. With this answer the sacristan returned to the emperor, fearing that he might be offended by it, since it seemed to him a mean one. And the great emperor not only did not take it ill, but approved it and judged it so religious that, turning to the magnates and his familiars who were there, he said with a glad countenance: All monks ought to be as free as this one.

[338] Likewise, when preaching one Sunday before the same emperor from the pulpit he directs his discourse to him; at the time when it was so greatly disputed in Castile whether it was lawful to sell magistracies * and other offices of the commonwealth, a fit occasion offering itself in the course of what he was setting forth for handling that matter, he said: I beseech your majesty, deign to order those curtains to be removed: because I now desire to say something on the difficulty which is being agitated, whether it is lawful to sell public offices. I shall have obtained a vast favour and a remarkable benefit if I may say it while looking upon your majesty's face. The most Christian prince at once ordered them to be removed, and the Saint, with his eyes fixed on his face, said: Some ask me to declare what I think of this sale of offices. One single word on this matter will I put to your majesty; namely: I suppliantly ask you, in your remarkable prudence and zeal for the common good of your kingdoms, to consider whether he who with his own money procures for himself a government and a public office, from which considerate and God-fearing [men] shrink so greatly even though they receive a salary — whether he, I say, procures it for himself in favour of the commonwealth or for the private advantage of his own house. There is nothing more that I may add on this matter: let your majesty order the curtains to be drawn again. That freedom of father D. Thomas seemed to the emperor so apostolic and evangelical, and he so approved it, that he who hitherto had conceived a great esteem of him conceived a far greater thereafter. From this freedom with so great and powerful a prince it can easily be gathered how great a freedom he used with all the rest: as appeared on many occasions in which, while he was Archbishop, princes and lords asked certain things of him by letter. For although he received these with great courtesy, yet he answered with the same: It would indeed be a delight to me to be able to serve and satisfy your lordship in the matter you require of me; but I cannot, because by the law of God it is not lawful.

[339] To the man asking a great sum of money We may close this whole matter with what happened when the emperor was planning to build the fortress of Ibiza. A rumour spreading that a numerous fleet of the Turks was coming to invade those shores, the governors of the island, fearing especially for Ibiza ^e, begged the emperor to deign to build a citadel in it, since there was a vast and very urgent need of one there. His majesty saw that their petition was just and necessary, and resolved to issue an order for building it. But since money had not been prepared for that end, it seemed good to seek a loan from the Archbishop of Valencia. And so, through the same envoys of Ibiza who had undertaken the business of that fortress, he ordered him to be asked for twenty thousand ducats as a loan to help that work. But father D. Thomas replied, begging that his majesty would pardon him, since he had nothing of his own and no power of making a loan, because all the goods of the archbishopric belonged to the poor, and it was not lawful for him to deprive them of these.

[340] as a loan, he first refuses, lest the poor suffer, On that business several demands and answers passed between him and the emperor; for his majesty perceived the danger to which the island would be exposed unless help were brought in time. And when he pressed vehemently by letters, signifying that it was asked of him only as a loan, and that moreover the work was a devout one and for the common good, and in so urgent a necessity, the good Father answered that he saw and even understood this well, but that Ibiza had not been committed to him by God but Valencia, and that for such works it was neither necessary nor lawful to spend the money of the poor, but that of the kingdoms, since in these general treasuries had been established for such things. If therefore it pleased his majesty to take away the revenues of the archbishopric, let him do so with good luck, for he would neither resist nor defend them: but that it was not lawful for him to grant the money which he demanded, even as a loan, and so to suffer that the poor should meanwhile perish of hunger; since he knew that this was contrary to the divine will and to the obligation of his office.

[341] Those who were handling that business (as they themselves afterwards related more at large to various persons) suggested to him at length under a safe condition he grants a part. that he should have pity on that island, and take care that the emperor should not be offended on seeing him so constant in his will not to relieve so urgent a necessity: he answered: It will grieve me to have offended him, but it would be worse to have offended the Lord God. And if the emperor be offended, I have here the key of our cell, which I still carry hanging from my girdle: and I truly assure you that I shall return more gladly to die in it than to live in this palace. As to what you ask, that I should have pity on your native place, the Lord knows that I wish to help you with my own blood. But it shall be done in this way. His majesty asks me for twenty thousand ducats; I cannot give him so many as a loan with a safe conscience, because it would be a great detriment to the poor. Let us divide the matter: let ten thousand of these be kept, and let another ten thousand be given as a loan to the emperor, under an obligation of repaying me, and with an assignment whence I may receive them at the appointed time without any hindrance or difficulty; for otherwise I cannot do it without grave detriment to my soul. In this manner and on these conditions he granted ten thousand. And of these, in conformity with the assignment made, he recovered seven thousand while he lived, and after his death the three thousand remaining were received and applied to the devout works ordered by him. For he had from the Apostolic See a faculty and a document that when about to die he might spend on those devout works and determine concerning all that should be owed to him, or should in due time have accrued from the revenues. With such fortitude and such a spirit, when there was fitting reason for using and showing it, had the Lord adorned the holy Bishop, kind, gentle and humble though he was.

ANNOTATA.

veyntiquatrías*

CHAPTER X.

He watches solicitously over his house, and spurs his servants to virtue by teaching, reward, love and example.

[ ] Those to be admitted to his service as servants Since we must now describe how rightly the holy Bishop governed the church and the sheep committed to him by the Lord, it will be very fitting to the purpose to relate first how religiously and holily he governed his house and household; because, as St. Paul the apostle says in the first Epistle which he sent to Timothy, among the gifts necessary to a good bishop one is to know how to rule his household; and he gives the reason for it: because if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God? So conformable to Christian piety and so rightly ordered were the order and manner which father D. Thomas kept in his house, that even now by those who knew it he is called the mirror of bishops and lords, and the pattern of fathers of families. And first indeed on this matter they record that no servant ever entered his house but he underwent his scrutiny, as he first inquired diligently into his condition, manners and rule of life, examined him with his own eyes, and conversed with him apart for some days to discover what disposition he was of and what trust he deserved. And so he was never deceived in this, nor did he dismiss anyone once admitted to his service in all his time.

[343] To those entering he set forth the laws to be observed in his house, and among them he much commended these four: he prescribes the laws to be kept in his house, first, that they should with great zeal strive to be loved by all; for, he said, faults and negligences which you commit in service to myself I shall easily bear, provided that no offence against God, or anything which harms the tranquillity and peace of my house, come into it. To that end he had ordained by command that no one should meddle with another's office, unless required to do so by him to whose care it was committed. Secondly, that they must be great lovers of solitude; because he would not have his servants wander about the city or set foot out of the house without his leave: and so he said to them: Do you not see that I am a monk, accustomed to the solitude of a monastery? Since therefore I am a monk, it is clear that he who is to dwell in my house must live as in a monastery, or not enter it. For this cause, except three clerics — two, namely, who should assist him in saying the Office and Mass, and a third who was master of the youths, sons of honest and poor men, whom he kept with him, and whom he kept rather out of charity and with a mind to give alms, and to apply them to the study of letters, than to his own service — all the other servants were joined in marriage and dwelt within the palace with their wives and children: because, since he used no servant for procuring himself authority and reverence, but only those whom he absolutely needed for his service, there was sufficient room and convenient dwelling for all of them within the compass of the house. And this he did that all might be more secluded and honest, and that, attending to their children and wives, they might not spend themselves on other cares. For the same cause he had commanded that, when the signal for prayer was given, all should shut themselves in the house, no one should stay outside or set a foot out by night, lest occasion arise of offending God or of stirring up trouble for anyone.

[344] Thirdly, that they must be very observant of silence, neither discussing news among themselves nor bringing it to the Saint himself: which are to be kept, Because if it be otherwise, he said, it is impossible that the peace and brotherhood which I desire be kept in my house. And this above all he anxiously took care of and commended beyond the rest. Lastly, that they should be given to prayer and devoted to the Sacraments. Those who knew how to read he enjoined to fix hours for themselves and daily to recite the little Office of the blessed Mary or other devout prayers; and those who did not know how, to run over their prayer beads in praying. And if anyone had failed in this, he called him and rebuked him as a father. He had also commanded that on all the chief feasts of our Lord Jesus Christ, of His most holy Mother and of the Apostles, each should confess his sins and come to the sacred Table: so that every month once or twice they should expiate their consciences of faults and receive the Sacraments. And to no one was it granted to omit this.

[345] he watches in fatherly fashion over their spiritual good All those laws were kept with the utmost care in that religious household (for so it deserves to be called). To this they were obliged (as the servants who lived in his service related) first by the solicitude and vigilance which the good Lord and upright Father of the family bestowed on it, attending with great zeal to the purity of the consciences and the spiritual salvation of his servants, no otherwise than of his own sons. He often called them all together, gave them addresses, and took note of them with admonitions * as of religious: he stirred up and spurred on those whom he knew to be walking in the right way; he gave courage to the weak, admonished the negligent, rebuked those who had deserved reproof. And all these things indeed he carried out with such charity and gentleness that, as all affirmed, he was never seen to be moved with anger, or to address a servant with a bitter word or an angry face, even when he chid him.

[346] and bodily, They were likewise moved by the charity and kindly manner of acting which they always experienced in him. For although the office of an archbishop has so many occupations and cares attached to it, he did not on that account fail to watch over all the needs of his servants: whether nothing was lacking to any one's portion, whether each was suitably provided for; and he admonished the steward with as great a solicitude as if he had been free from every other thing. Nor is this to be wondered at, since true charity supplies eyes for every detail and works attention to all matters of lesser moment pertaining to the good of a neighbour. If any misfortune befell any of them, he felt it in his mind, and when it was notable he was not seldom seen to be vehemently afflicted on that account and to pour forth tears; especially when any of his servants was sick and fell into danger of life, with the same tenderness as if he had begotten him. He was affected with such feeling not only when the sickness had brought him to that pass, but also when it was of such a kind as could bring him to it; though he were a muleteer or the lowest in the whole house, he visited and consoled him; nay, he called the physician to himself as often as he came to see the sick man, inquired how he was, and earnestly charged him to take care of him as of himself. And he asked the sick man daily how they served him, whether he ate at the hour appointed by the physician, whether absolutely everything was supplied which he prescribed — with greater solicitude than the sick man's own father would have used.

[347] going about the house by night he consoles a servant He was wont every night, when it was already late, with a youth carrying a torch before him, to go about his whole house and all the doors of the chambers, both upper and lower, to see whether all had withdrawn as they ought. And this survey he made as Priors are wont to do every night through the monasteries, when the signal for silence has been given. Discharging that duty, one night about the tenth hour he entered a lower chamber where a muleteer lay sick, wrestling with death, those who were present awaiting his end. He came to the bed and called him by his name, and he, being called, opened his eyes and tried to throw himself upon him to kiss his hands: but he could not even move. The Saint exhorted him to bear this sickness patiently, to acquiesce wholly in the Lord's will, and with great confidence in His divine clemency and in the power of the Sacraments which he had received, to commit himself to His hands. He stayed a notable space of time at the sick man's pillow, consoling him and exhorting him for death.

[348] When it seemed enough, he read the Gospels, and having blessed him went up to his own chamber. as he lay dying, and that same night he is healed; That same night the deadly fever, with all the symptoms that accompanied it, left the sick man, who, as I said, had been brought to the last extremity. The physicians, when they visited him in the morning, thinking to find him dead, found him sound and whole without any trace of the disease, and that indeed in such a way that, had he not been so weak, he could have risen from bed and put on his clothes. They marvelled at this exceedingly, because, as they themselves asserted, it was naturally impossible to be freed from a fever and a sickness so deadly as that with which that man had been seized, and that within so short a space of time, namely six or seven hours. And therefore his recovery was attributed to the blessed Prelate's coming to visit him,

and to the Gospels and prayers recited by him.

[349] Moreover he was so grateful to those who loved virtue and served well that, he draws the same servants by reward, besides their appointed wage, he from time to time, to urge them to a greater affection for virtue and to care in keeping the rules he had prescribed, presented one with a garment, another with money ^a. On a certain day the keeper of the treasury called a servant of the holy Bishop who served well and said: The Archbishop has ordered me to count out to you fifty crowns above your wage; whenever you wish, write a receipt and I will hand them to you. Toward evening the servant came to the Saint to give thanks for the benefit. The good Father answered: My son, take this for now; for more I cannot at present; for I have gone into the account with the keeper of the treasury, and he has me as his debtor. But go on showing yourself such as you ought and discharging your service, and especially that of the Lord God, with that charity and care which I find in you: for on another opportunity we shall be able to benefit you with a more open hand.

[350] He so distributed the morning hours that in summer at the ninth hour, by love, and in winter at the tenth, he came out of his chamber either to celebrate or to hear the sacrifice of the Mass. And in that space of ground which lay between the chamber he occupied and the chapel, many men awaited him, both going and returning: some asking alms, others offering petitions, each according to the need and business in which he was involved. But since, when Mass was ended, he both lent his ears and gave an answer to all, it often happened that he lingered so long with these, so as to dismiss all contented and to take care that they should not have to return often, that the hour of dinner slipped by. In such cases the Servant of God showed himself so good a father to his servants that, careless of himself and of his dinner, he was solicitous for them, and ordered the steward to set food before them and not to wait for him. When the business was finished and all suitably dismissed, he ate, not caring that it was late and that the appointed hour had passed. For he said that it concerned him more, as a Bishop, to hear and dispatch the causes of those who came to him on business than to eat; nay, that food would neither taste nor profit him if anyone, after waiting, went away without consolation and a suitable answer. So that as a good Prelate he watched over the need of his sheep and did not withdraw himself from their business, and as a good Father of a family had greater care for the food and refreshment of his household than for his own person.

[351] and by example he allures them to virtue: By this love and by these benefits he urged all his servants to uprightness, but most of all by the remarkable example with which he shone before them. Assuredly a master's kindly manner of acting and his rewarding avail much for servants to serve him uprightly; but that at the same time they should serve the Lord of the heavens, and take care to please both the eyes of God and their master's, nothing so persuades as a devout and holy life found in the master. Hence (speaking after the manner of men) it was as it were impossible that there should exist in the holy Prelate's House a wicked servant or one corrupt in manners, where the master was a man of such example and so excellent a Servant of God. They had before their eyes at every hour that mirror of every virtue: that religious turning of the mind to God; the gravity and modesty of his person joined with so great a humility and simplicity; the kindness and courtesy with which he dealt with all, especially the poor; the devotion with which he recited the divine office and celebrated the sacrifice of the Mass; that breast which loved all with such Christian piety, bore with all, endured with such patience and gentleness the imperfections and troubles of each; the admonitions and counsels, proceeding from a more than human prudence, with which he imbued them. In his conversation there was no word either harmful or useless; but all was holy and religious and stirring to virtue. What must those have been before whose eyes so many and so heavenly examples were continually set? Assuredly lovers of the same virtues and of their Lord's holy manners; and though secular in condition, yet very religious in their manner of living.

[352] he avoids longer conversations, There are two things by which masters do the greatest harm to servants: first, by a manner of life not sufficiently composed and by lightness of manners; secondly, by an intemperate and free licence of tongue: for from the first they learn to live boldly and unseemly, from the second to spare no one. In these especially father D. Thomas was of very good example; so withdrawn from the company of men (as all report) that, if you except the time in which he was bound by charity and by his office to stay in that hall we have spoken of for transacting business, he spent all the rest in solitude, either in prayer or in books. And in the business that came before him, what he could do standing he by no means did sitting, in order to cut short longer conversations. And when he had said and done what the matter required, he broke off the conversation at once and dismissed the man, saying: Come now, nothing remains here; go, with God's grace to accompany you. Those who were his familiars and lived with him affirm that never in all the time in which he dwelt in this region did he go out for the sake of recreating his mind a while, or leave the house, except to the church on Wednesdays and Fridays to say Mass, as we shall relate, and on Sundays and feasts to assist at the divine office and the sermon; sometimes to the hospital and likewise to his college to inspect and forward the work; and, though rarely, to the court to visit the duke of Calabria and to treat of business pertaining to the good of this region: he never went out to any other place.

[353] he does not go out of the house except for devout works Some canons sometimes invited, nay begged him, to go into the country for the sake of health and recreation; he answered: I am grateful to you for your good will, and I acknowledge the desire you have for my health; that indeed is plainly lawful for those who govern, for the relief of the labours and troubles which government has joined to it, subject as it is to so many and so various dispositions and conditions of men: but you know well the proverb: Custom is a second nature. For my part, in the whole course of my life from my very boyhood I have so accustomed myself to keep to the solitude of my house that it is now in a manner natural to me and exceedingly sweet. At Alcalá, while applying myself to studies, I was either in my chamber, or in the school, where I heard my master, or where I myself, afterwards promoted to a chair, taught. Never did a desire of walking come upon me, nor was anything else than my books a delight to me: (God gave me that natural inclination.) More strictly did I keep this as a religious; so indeed that even as Prior I never went out of my cell except when the duties of the community required it, or a sermon had to be given or someone's confession to be heard, or some other thing to be done to which charity obliged; and that very rarely. Hence the habit and custom of staying at home has remained with me; and I so delight in it that no desire of going out comes upon me, except when I am compelled or cannot excuse myself. How holily and with what example he cultivated seemliness and chastity ^b we shall be taught in the following chapter.

[354] It is a thing worthy of note which all who were his familiars relate, namely how far he was, in speaking, the licence of the tongue, from vain and useless talk and conversation, and likewise from murmurings, however slight. Here especially he showed himself the best son of our holy father Augustine, who, as Possidius writes ^c, so shrank from these that he ordered verses to be inscribed on the walls of his house comprising this sense:

Whoever loves to gnaw the life of the absent with his words, Let him know that this table is unworthy of him.

And if by chance in any common conversation or at table (where sometimes, with less fear of God, the tongue is wont to be freer) such talk arose, that excellent Doctor at once said: Either let that talk be broken off, or I will erase those verses ^d. In the same way the Servant of God, as the son of so great a parent, would not have any news about anyone brought to him, nor did he permit, or could he endure, anything to be said before him which in the very least injured the honour or fame of anyone. But if by chance he heard it, he rebuked gravely, defended the honour of the absent, strove to persuade the contrary and said: You interpret it in that sense, but rashly, and you do not speak justly; because for another end that thing could have been lawful and good, and such you ought to think it, as I indeed think it.

[355] And this father D. Thomas uttered truly and from his mind's judgment: and most of all that by which a neighbour is injured, he vehemently hates. for he never gave credit to anyone's offence unless it were evidently clear to him, or he had received it from the report of men worthy of credit who asserted that they had seen it. And even in that case, when he could not excuse the deed itself, he excused the intention; but where no room remained even for this, he said: Let that matter be suppressed in silence: let each put his hand into his own bosom; I pledge myself that we shall all bring it out leprous ^e: but whoever has never committed the like or worse, let him praise God, to whom he must owe it, and let him have pity on his neighbour, and consider what his own frailty would have done if exposed to the same occasion. Indeed, to understand how far the blessed Bishop was from every kind of detraction, and what grief he conceived at it, that will suffice which he once did at Valladolid in the court of the emperor Charles the fifth.

[356] Coming one day to him to ask a necessary thing, he vehemently hates. while the doorkeepers were informing the emperor that he might grant him access, he entered the antechamber, where some magnates were. These, out of the affection and love which all bore toward him, at once rose and compelled him to sit down. In the course of conversation talk arose about a certain absent person; but at the second word the good Father rose, saying: I beseech your lordships, either let us drop this matter and turn the talk elsewhere, or grant me leave to go away from here; for it cannot be done without offence to God if this talk be prolonged. Meanwhile he was called to go in to the emperor, and, as he withdrew, the commander of the whole Castilian soldiery, who was one of those present, said to the rest: Wherever father F. Thomas of Villanova may be, he is a religious, and does not cease to be so out of respect for anyone; and he added many things to his great commendation, calling him a Saint and a true servant of God. And deservedly indeed. Since he who took such care of his tongue — in the guarding and governing of which, as being so difficult to control, St. James the apostle in his Catholic Epistle places so great a part of Christian perfection — he certainly took the same care of his other senses, of the powers of his soul, and of all his actions, that they should not swerve by a single point from what both the divine law and reason require and prescribe.

ANNOTATA.

and desirable; but that by the hope of reward men are carried toward it more spiritedly.

Spanish capítulos*

CHAPTER XI

Most loving of chastity all his life, he obtains that same virtue also for others.

[ ] His chastity in boyhood, It has seemed good to me, for the greater confirmation of the good example by which the blessed father D. Thomas went before his servants and urged them to be cultivators of seemliness and virtue, to treat separately in this chapter, as an appendix to the preceding, of the seemliness and purity which he kept all his life. In this virtue he was very perfect both in his tender years and throughout the whole course of his life. For as a Boy, as we saw in the first book, he fled the company of boys whom he saw inclined to evil and given to any vice: moreover he was very devout, liberal to the poor, given to devotion, turned to heavenly things, and so fearing God that at that tender age he was an example to those older, and they said: That Boy will turn out a distinguished man and an excellent servant of God. At the same age, given to works of penance, he practised fasts frequently, and vexed his flesh with scourges and other bodily harshnesses. Which virtues in a boy are the foundations of chastity, and when he is more advanced in years, the outwork and guard of that most excellent virtue ^a.

[358] Then, while he was applying himself to letters at Alcalá and dwelling in the chief college of that university, in youth, there were two things from which it shone how remarkable was his chastity ^b. First, from the care and fear of the other students of the college that they should not utter before him any word not entirely seemly and free from all levity: for they knew how ill, out of his love for chastity, he took any licence of word. Secondly, from what was said in the third chapter of that same book and related by lord John Mugnatonius the bishop in the brief narrative which he wrote of the life and sanctity of father D. Thomas: namely, that master John de Vergara, a man among the most celebrated for erudition and excellence of speech whom that university had, and who at the same time was living in that college, seeing with his own eyes the Servant of God's remarkable turning of mind to heavenly things, his piety, seemliness and holiness of life, publicly proclaimed these in his sermons and set them forth as an example, no otherwise than if he were speaking of one already enrolled in the register of the Saints.

[359] But he who while still a secular and applying himself to studies was so chaste and seemly in body and soul, certainly, when now consecrated to God in a religious Order, and soon after ordained priest and daily performing the sacrifice of the Mass with such devotion and so many tears, must have kept so precious a treasure of chastity more zealously and more perfectly. in Religion and in the archbishopric. The same can be gathered from the many gifts granted him, as we have seen, by the Holy Spirit: for if, as he himself says in the book of Wisdom, wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins, the many gifts granted to the blessed Father — of knowledge and doctrine, of prudence and counsel, of humility and gentleness, of piety and mercy, of fortitude and magnanimity, of so fervent an ardour and desire of the divine glory and the salvation of souls, of the spirit and efficacy of words by which he bore so much fruit wherever he preached and among all to whom he either lent his ears in sacred Confession or with whom he conversed, and moreover, as we have seen, restored so many monasteries of religious virgins — are very certain and evident proofs how far the Servant of God kept his soul and flesh unhurt by all foulness and corruption of the senses. No less diligently did he avoid these as Archbishop, when his dignity bound him more strictly, and the example to be shown his subjects, and likewise the care with which he laboured to correct and restrain all the vices of ecclesiastics, and chiefly these.

[360] The remedies used by him for preserving it; There are three things which greatly conduce to chastity and continence. The first is humble and devout prayer; the second, penance, fasting and the affliction of the flesh; the third and chief, the removal of all occasions by which a man is exposed to the danger of falling into the snares of the vice opposed to them ^c. Hence it can be inferred how abundantly the Lord endowed father D. Thomas with that eminent virtue of chastity, as a man so assiduous in prayer, so sober in the nourishment of his body, so given to fasts, so estranged from every fomenting of the flesh; clothed in a hair shirt, lying on twigs during the small part of the night which he granted to rest. How far he fled occasions, and with how great circumspection he always lived, appeared even before the archbishopric in all the places in which he lived, as at Salamanca, Valladolid and Burgos. For never, although he was greatly loved by all, did he visit a woman, however high in rank; nor did he enter the houses of matrons who were even his disciples in sacred things, except very rarely and when charity compelled him to relieve some necessity; nay, only in the presence of his companion and of the attendants or maidservants of those same matrons. Likewise they never saw him in the church or at the tribunal of penance except when they had to be heard in sacred Confession or helped with counsel; and that indeed with as much brevity as could be.

[361] especially the flight from meeting with women; As Archbishop he never admitted any matron coming to visit him; women came to him alone (as we shall relate) only on the more solemn feasts — the nurses who reared the foundling infants for him, that he might see in what fashion they nourished and reared them. But when he finished the sacrifice of the Mass in his own house, many poor women presented themselves veiled in that ample hall, and he, by no means looking on their faces, gave them alms and exhorted them to the fear of God and to confidence in His divine providence, if only they served Him rightly. For the sake of others, on Wednesdays and Fridays — or, if a feast fell on those days, on the day before or after — he betook himself to the chief church, performed the divine Rite in the chapel of St. Louis, and when it was performed, together with his thanksgiving in the sacristy of that same chapel, he came out, took a small seat placed beside the principal altar, and there lent his ears to all the women who, with head and face covered, came to his feet to set forth their troubles and necessities; if these were spiritual, he consoled them and helped them with counsel as to how namely they ought to behave in order to win the Lord's favour to themselves and to obtain a remedy for those calamities; if they were temporal, he asked (promising secrecy as though the things had been said in the tribunal of penance) their name and that of him with whom they expiated the faults of their souls in confession, and ordered the latter to be sent to him, adding that through him, secrecy being likewise preserved, he would succour them.

[362] From what is now to be said the religious and most chaste mind of the blessed Bishop will appear. he keeps his mother from entering Valencia, Since his mother had not for years enjoyed the sight of him, out of the desire of enjoying it she wished to visit him at Valencia; and, because she knew his disposition, she did not inform him of her coming, nor did he receive news of it before she had come to Liria ^d, a place four miles distant from Valencia. Hearing this, he at once sent a household servant to keep her at Liria and to lead her thence to Villar, a village pertaining to the bishopric, and to announce that they would see one another there. There he visited her, and, as a dutiful Son, received her generously and refreshed her with much consolation for a month; and when this had passed, he ordered her to be brought back to her native place with due retinue and honour.

[363] While she was staying at Villar she signified to him that it would be pleasing to her to view Valencia, lest on that occasion other women should come to the palace. since she had heard that the city was beautiful and pleasant. But he dissuaded her from this, saying: If you go to Valencia, you will certainly have to lodge in my house, and on that occasion the matrons of Valencia, to bind me to them by this favour, will wish to visit you, to take you out walking, to accompany you to see their gardens and the sea; and I, though for so lawful a cause, do not desire the entrance of women into my house. He assuredly showed himself a true Son of our holy father Augustine, of whom Possidius * writes that he never would permit his own sisters and nieces to stay within his house, alleging as reason that, although they were holy and devoted to the worship of God, and none of them could be held suspect, yet such might be held the women who should come to them for the sake of conversing and visiting.

[364] Besides, the blessed father D. Thomas was as regards his own person so seemly and modest A splendour shines out in his face; that none of his servants ever saw even his feet bare: he alone put on and took off his own clothes and drew off his stockings with his own hands. To this end he said to the maker of his stockings: Take care, master, that from the middle

of the leg downward they be very wide, so that I myself, when it shall seem good, or when there is no servant at hand, may easily be able to draw them off. Not only was his remarkable chastity plainly known to all his familiars, but it was also held for certain that he remained a Virgin, such as he had been at his very birth. This opinion of theirs was confirmed by the brightness and splendour which they saw sent forth from his venerable face while they spoke with him. There is a witness who affirms that one day, while he was speaking with the Servant of God as he returned from the sacrifice of the Mass, that splendour and brightness were such that they spread a mist over him, and he had to cast down his eyes: even as the face of Moses, coming down from the mountain from converse with God, so dazzled the eyes of the children of Israel that they could not bear to look upon him with unveiled face.

[365] But although the light which they attest burst forth from father F. Thomas's face was neither so great nor so splendid as the light of Moses's face, he is believed to have died a Virgin. yet it was such that they well discerned that it was sent forth from his countenance, and ascribed it to the purity preserved by him all his life. This was known more particularly and more certainly when he departed from among the living. For on the very day on which he was snatched by the Lord from this life to the tranquillity of eternal life, his confessor, who in his last sickness had heard the general confession of his whole life, made it public in the palace itself before a throng of people, saying: Now we have a holy Virgin in heaven ^e. It is now lawful to say it, since he is dead. On account of this testimony of the confessor, and of the undoubted opinion which they held while he lived of his virginity and chastity, when they carried his body to the tomb they strewed it with many flowers and added to the mitre a crown woven of the same.

[366] Various persons, having implored his help, The Lord seems to have confirmed the same opinion by the favours which the divine Majesty confers on those who commend themselves to this His Servant against temptations and falls of the flesh. Reserving for chapters XIII and XIV * those whom while living he freed from this sin by his prayers, I shall here relate only some who after his death commended themselves to him, and who through his intervention were freed by the Lord from that vice and from great and urgent temptations and dangers of perishing. A man of the first rank, whom the evil demon had long held bound by love of a certain woman, hearing on a Sunday a preacher of our Order speaking in the greater church of father D. Thomas and setting forth what an excellent worshipper of God he was, and how he succoured those who ask his help to free themselves from an evil manner of life and especially from the sin of lust — hearing him, I say, he was at that same moment of time moved in heart, and there forthwith with great devotion invoked him and said silently: Holy man, have mercy on my soul, and pray for me to the Lord, that He may grant me grace and strength to forsake this wicked love. Toward evening he visited his tomb, and with what devotion he could repeated his prayer. And in that very place, as though his heart were loosed from a chain, he firmly and earnestly resolved not to see the woman thereafter, to expiate his faults by a general confession, and to serve the Lord as a truly Christian man: as indeed he did: for he abstained from the sight of the woman, made a general confession to a father of this house of blessed Mary of Succour, worshipped God, frequented the Sacraments and led a thoroughly Christian life.

[367] are brought back from the vice of impurity Another rich man, taken and blinded with impure love, had agreed with the woman who held him bound in sin that he would await her at an appointed day and hour in a carriage before the doors of this church of blessed Mary of Succour. At the appointed hour that man was awaiting her, and while he waited he stood at the doors of the church. And there at the same hour stood two clerics, who had poured out their prayers at the Saint's tomb, conversing about his remarkable humility and charity, and how he favoured his clients with God. And one of them said: That Saint is hitherto unknown; but the day will come when he shall be known, and God shall honour him. Hearing this, that man resolved to enter the church and to commend himself to him at the tomb. So he did, and falling on his knees he was changed in mind, and with great devotion and many tears commended himself to him and besought him to obtain for him from the Lord strength by which that inclination of soul by which he had been so greatly blinded might be fully and by the roots torn out of him, and grace be granted him not to offend Him thereafter. Prostrate there, before he rose he felt a great horror of what he had loved before, and a very bitter grief for the offence against God, together with a firm purpose of losing a thousand lives, if he had so many, rather than offending Him; of expiating his soul of its faults by Confession and of taking up a new rule of life; as he did.

[368] to chastity While that man stayed at the tomb, the woman came and approached to speak with him. He rose and, entering the chapel of blessed Mary and thence casting his eyes upon the tomb of father D. Thomas, said: Sister, God through the intercession of this holy Archbishop has opened my eyes, of whose light I remained so long deprived; I have seen the ruin of my soul and of my house, and I have promised God that I will not offend Him hereafter: therefore I ask you henceforth not to remember me more than if you had never known me. Remember that we are Christians, that we must die, and that we must render to the Lord God a very strict account of our life. (All this he said to her, and he related that he had said it to a father of this house, with whom a few days later he cleansed his soul by sacred confession.) Hearing this she began to weep; but he said: Pour out these tears before Mary the Mother of God, and then at that tomb, praying the most holy Virgin and the holy Archbishop to ask for you from the Lord such light as has been granted me by Him. She followed his counsel, no longer that of a man but of the angel of her soul. First with what devotion she could she poured out prayers to the most blessed Virgin, then at the Saint's tomb; and here likewise the Lord instilled into her the same horror of that wicked love, grief for her offences, and a most firm purpose of washing away her crimes by sacred Confession and of not offending the divine Majesty in future: which she also performed in deed: nor did they see one another thereafter, but each passed a very devout life in their own house.

[369] On a certain day a cleric, likewise much entangled in the vice of pleasure, are led back; came to the church, and on bended knees before the tomb of father D. Thomas remained about two hours, or even longer, pouring out tears with great devotion. And he noticed that the sacristan cast his eyes upon him several times: and so when he rose from there he went to him and said: Do not marvel, father, that you have seen me weeping before that tomb: for to this holy Bishop I owe the salvation of my soul; he snatched me from hell. For many years I lived shamefully, taken with a wicked and foul love. Calling to mind the priests whom that Saint while living brought back to good ways and withdrew from sin, and devoutly believing that he for his holiness of life and remarkable charity dwells in heaven, and that there in glory he does not lack that piety and compassion toward sinners which he had here, but rather is endowed with a more perfect one, I commended myself to his patronage, beseeching him to pray to the Lord for me, that He would snatch me from this shameful state and endow me with grace by which I might conceive hatred of the woman who held me blinded and lost: and I promised that, if he should obtain this grace for me from the Lord, I would visit his tomb and would take care that a dramatic poem should be festively performed in his praise and honour. Within nine days from my commending myself to him, I began vehemently to hate that woman and to conceive a true grief for my crimes, with a firm purpose never to offend God. Therefore, in discharge of what I promised, I have come hither to visit his tomb, to give thanks for the benefit conferred on me from on high through his intercession, to make a general confession of the crimes of my whole life, and to consult with the Prior of this house how that dramatic poem may be performed in his praise. And it was performed when I was Prior of this convent for the first time, in the year one thousand five hundred and eighty-three.

[370] Another cleric, of the first rank and learned, suffered vehement temptations of the flesh, and are freed from temptations. and was greatly afflicted with that concupiscence. Understanding that several who had been vexed with the same calamity, having invoked the patronage of father D. Thomas, had by his intercession been helped by the Lord and had obtained strength against so powerful an enemy, and that those storms had been calmed in them, he resolved to use the same remedy, to have recourse to the Servant of God and to take him as the Patron of his infirmity. And so he made a novena of prayers at his tomb, praying that he would ask from the Lord mercy for him in this calamity, and strength against those temptations: and when the nine days' prayers were completed, he soon experienced God's favour, found himself changed into another man with great peace and tranquillity of soul and flesh, and knew that that favour had been granted him by God through the merits and intervention of father D. Thomas. And that he might have it the more established that that grace had been conferred upon him by the Lord through the Saint's intercession, when on a certain day he had left in the house of a craftsman a particle of the relics of that Servant of God, which he carried about him, that he might enclose it more becomingly in a case to be worn, it happened that on that very day on which he had left it he experienced a vehement struggle in himself, and was vexed with a temptation of the flesh by which he was brought into vast peril. Struck as by a new and extraordinary thing, that after so great a tranquillity and peace as he had enjoyed in soul and flesh through the invoked intercession of father D. Thomas in all those days, so troublesome and sharp a temptation should have returned, he noticed that the relics were not with him, being left in the goldsmith's house; and judging this to be the cause of the trouble afflicting him, he at once went to the goldsmith's house, received back the relics, laid them on his breast, and at that same moment of time found himself free from lust, quiet and tranquil; and such he remained thereafter by the benefit and patronage of the holy Bishop, carrying those relics with him, commending himself to him every day and often visiting his tomb. The same could be related in writing of certain others, both laymen and ecclesiastics and religious, who affirm that, when they were in like spiritual troubles, they commended themselves with great devotion to the blessed father D. Thomas and were freed by the Lord, and manifestly obtained that favour from the divine hand through his intercession and merits. But those mentioned here suffice.

ANNOTATA.

Possidius*

* here XIV and XV

CHAPTER XII.

He carries out the office of a good Shepherd.

[ ] Solicitously intent on the salvation of his sheep, Since we have now related in what manner, with what piety and with what example the Servant of God presided over his house and household, it is now fitting that we treat of the care and vigilance, the circumspection and prudence, the remarkable charity and mercy and the other virtues with which, as a good Bishop and a holy and perfect Shepherd of souls, he was endowed ^a. On account of the vast desire for the salvation of his neighbours with which father F. Thomas always burned, especially when by his office he was bound to it, he also employed great solicitude and diligence in watching over the subjects committed to him by the Lord. Hence he laboured much to discern their manner of living and their spiritual infirmities, and to apply to them that medicine and remedy which in his holy ardour and remarkable judgment he saw to be suited to the time. To this end he had a book in which, with no one seeing or knowing, he wrote down the names of the clerics who had been accused of any vice, and of the churches which they served, in order to rebuke them; and another in which he wrote down, with their names and place of dwelling, seculars who kept concubines, who had separated from their wives, usurers, or those marked with any other vice, that according to the rule of charity he might employ upon them the pains fitting for their amendment. Through this knowledge he had great care of each one. In this chapter we shall treat of laymen only; of clerics we shall speak afterwards.

[372] A layman whom he understood to be living shamefully he ordered to be called to him apart, he inquires into the wicked and punishes them; and with his accustomed charity and spirit rebuked him once and often. But when by that remedy he did not break his hardness, although (as all report) he greatly shrank from excommunicating souls or involving them in censures, and likewise from punishing [men] with a fine or with prison, nevertheless upon some keepers of concubines or men separated from their wives, whom he knew it would profit and that it would be a fit remedy for their abstaining from sin (which alone he set before his mind), he inflicted a fine, always applying the money of the fine to the building of the hospital. Others he punished with prison (for at that time also it was lawful for archbishops to use that punishment upon keepers of concubines and men separated from their wives). When neither by his rebuke nor by his punishment a wicked layman returned to good ways, he handed a list of the incorrigible to the viceroy, that he might drive them into exile; and this he did either that they might correct themselves from that fear, or lest sheep so scabby and corrupt should infect the sound and good.

[373] that this may be done more easily, he desires the division of the diocese; He would have wished to know in particular all who lived in his archbishopric; and he grieved that it was so ample. He took pains with the emperor Charles the fifth that a bishopric should be made out of the city of Játiva ^b and the rest of the mountain region, and that Valencia, with the space of land as far as Almenara ^c and Énova ^d in the middle and the sea coast, should suffice for the metropolitan; and he added that he would give his consent and would signify in writing to the supreme Pontiff how greatly this was fitting; so that, when the bishops were greater in number and the boundaries of the dioceses narrower, each shepherd might better know his sheep and watch over them ^e.

[374] dissenting spouses He was very solicitous that those joined in marriage should live peaceably and love one another, as they are bound by the divine law and by their condition. In this all record that he bestowed much labour. When he understood that there was any dissension between husband and wife, he first summoned each apart, corrected them, received their complaints, and defended the other party; then he called both together, restored peace and concord, having first earnestly commended the matter to the Lord. If they were rich, he threatened a visible penalty and loss in their goods unless they bore with one another in charity and loved one another as they were bound: but if they were poor, he rebuked them and promised that he would help them according to their need, and this too he performed, adding a declaration that he would deprive them of the alms unless they lived peaceably. For I, he said, sinner and wretch though I am, hold here God's place; and God does not impart His favour to those who are discordant and divided.

[375] he reconciles; He hated divorces exceedingly, and laboured with vast solicitude to bring a remedy to them and to make husbands return to their wives. And although this cost him very many and great labours, since among them were many persons of the first rank, yet, the Lord favouring his holy ardour and devout zeal, many returned to their wives and thereafter lived and served the Lord in peace. All these things became known from what the spouses themselves related: with what love and zeal he corrected them, what discourses he held with them, what pains he employed to draw them out of their evil state and, if they were at variance, to bring them back to concord. For as regards himself, he always kept deep silence, and took care that no one should disclose the vices and calamities which he found and corrected among those joined in marriage, although those whom he called to him, rebuked and restored to favour were many in number (for this region was depraved). And that the whole matter might be committed to greater secrecy, and the reputation of each, and especially of the women, might be better preserved, he had commanded his vicar general and his provisors to refer to him all suits and matrimonial causes, asserting that he would look into them himself and would not have them subjected to the hands of others: and although he was practised neither in civil nor in canon law, but only in theology, he said that light would be granted him by God, since He had made him a Bishop; [yet] that he would consult them where there was need, or where the question pertained merely to jurisprudence.

[376] With great desire he was carried toward the conversion of the Moors of this kingdom, He has a particular care for the Moors and drew such grief from the blindness and ruin of that nation, that for this cause especially he strove strongly to resign the archbishopric, wrote, and often, as we shall see hereafter, most earnestly begged the emperor to give him power to renounce it. And since this did not succeed with him ^f, he wrote several times that his majesty should order that in their districts parish priests of good example and zealous for the divine glory and for the salvation of those souls, which had been regenerated at the sacred font and admitted into the bosom of holy mother Church, should be appointed; and that fruits or revenues should be assigned to those parish priests, out of which they might bestow alms upon them. For he was firmly persuaded that, seeing the good example of the parish priests and being won in will by benefits and devout works, they would be bent in heart to better things, and that many of them would be converted and would be the beginning of the conversion of others.

[377] Of this matter, as one which affected him with such desire and sorrow, and is greatly distressed at their perversity. he frequently spoke with his familiars, especially with the bishop of Segrian, with his confessor and with his visitors, and declared to them that one of the chief reasons and causes why he had by no means been willing to accept the archbishopric of Granada, and why he had refused that of Valencia and would not have accepted it had not the head of his province commanded him out of obedience and under pain of censures, was that both in the one and in the other so many Moors dwelt, who by Baptism were sons of the Church and bore the sign of Jesus Christ, whom in heart and in deeds they pursued with such hatred, and whom with sacrilegious words they assailed no otherwise than their most hated enemies. On this occasion he related to them that, among other letters written to him by certain religious, his familiars, when they knew that he had accepted the archbishopric of Valencia, he had received one from father master F. Dominic Soto, in which he said that he had greatly marvelled that he had accepted it, when he had refused to accept that of Granada, because in that diocese the Moors were so numerous; whereas in this of Valencia they were neither less numerous nor better. That he grieved Soto added on account of the trouble with which he was to be afflicted by them, whom he loved as his father and master. And this (said father F. Thomas) he wrote not knowing how unwillingly I accepted, namely out of mere obedience. For afterwards, being taught the matter by my answer, he wrote back that it had brought him consolation that I had accepted in this way; since, where there was so much obedience and nothing of one's own will, the Lord would remove all difficulties and would bestow grace and strength against all troubles.

[378] In the season of Lent, on account of his remarkable solicitude for the salvation of his sheep, The preachers, what they should say from the pulpit he every year called together the preachers and confessors in the church of St. Stephen and St. Thomas; and gave a long sermon with vast erudition and fervour, indicating and prescribing to them the method by which at that sacred season they were bound to discharge their office;

how much they would deserve before God if they discharged it rightly; how greatly they would be punished by Him if they did not satisfy their duty. And, as many who were present relate, he set forth to the preachers the sins that most prevailed at that season and were most pernicious beyond the rest, and with great affection of soul begged that all with one consent should inveigh against those in their sermons, seeking a fit occasion, which would not be lacking, provided that they joined their studies with frequent prayer and asked of the Lord that He would direct them and teach them what was to be said in the sermon, and would impart His Spirit to them. And let them know that they did not mount the pulpit to display their erudition and to win esteem and the applause of the people, but that as soldiers of Jesus Christ they might by the keenness of their words wage war against the sins of men and snatch them from the demon's claws.

[379] and the confessors, how they must deal with penitents, The confessors he addressed thus: See, fathers, here is your time for winning souls: notorious sinners will come to your feet: do not squander the blood of Jesus Christ by absolving anyone inconsiderately and abusing the keys entrusted to your hands by the Lord. Note that our Redeemer, when in instituting the Sacrament of penance, of which you are the administrators, He said: Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them (namely, that the sins from which the confessor, rightly discharging his office, absolves are truly forgiven), said at the same time: Whose you shall retain, they are retained. That is, that the man whom you, likewise duly discharging your office, do not absolve, will neither be absolved nor pardoned. Yet, although you must not absolve all, but those who come rightly disposed, however great, nay most grave, be the crimes disclosed to you in confession, do not be astounded, or offended, or disturb the speaker, but listen with patience and charity.

[380] he teaches. And follow this counsel: When a notorious sinner presents himself to you, and one so cold that by his coldness he would strike horror into you — although you must not absolve him, nor is it lawful for you, seeing him so devoid of the disposition required for absolution — yet do not dismiss or drive him away, nor listen to the very end; but, alleging some excuse of a hindrance or of business to be done, in which nevertheless there be no lie, say: My good man, deign for three or four days to withdraw your mind from business, and either in your house or in the church, with what devotion and sorrow for your sins you can, address God thus: Lord, I have offended Thee, and I do not feel it as I ought: have mercy on my soul, and by Thy remarkable clemency and the merits of Thy most holy Blood grant me knowledge of and sorrow for my sins. And do you during those same days ask this same thing of the Lord by your Sacrifices and prayers, and you will manifestly find what the Lord will work in them by this way. For I myself (he said), when as a religious in Castile I lent my ears to penitents, often led some grave sinners, who presented themselves to me devoid of sorrow, by the same [way], and it succeeded happily.

[381] In the church he institutes new benefices, He watched with a solicitude worthy of a good Prelate not only over the salvation of souls, which is the chief thing, but also over that which yields nothing to it, namely over the divine worship and the adornment of God's house, and even over the temporal concerns of his chapter. In the chief church he instituted some benefices with the obligation of celebrating Mass at first light ^g, so that the labourers who at the beginning of the day gather in the market place to earn the day's wage from him who is to hire them might have opportunity of assisting at the sacrifice of the Mass and of commending themselves to the Lord before they betook themselves to their labours. And so many of those poor labourers hasten to the market earlier than usual, that before they hire out their labour they may be present at Mass and enjoy so great a consolation as it is for a Christian man to have seen the Lord in the holy sacrifice of the Mass before he sets his hand to anything.

[382] For the adornment of that same chief church he ordered nine ^h tapestries of silk and finer wool to be made in Flanders, and procures costly adornment. representing the joys of the blessed Mary, and among them the offering of that same Virgin in the temple, which cost him many ducats. They were made with singular craftsmanship, the figures were very beautiful and the colours splendid, and that indeed so that even today they are as bright and beautiful as on the first day, although about seventy years have passed and they are used in the church on all solemn days and chief feasts. And the models of the images to be represented in them he sent thither painted on canvas by a very celebrated painter of this city, by name John, so skilled and industrious in that art that, in the judgment of those who have erudite eyes, the things which he painted, and which are preserved in many churches of this city and kingdom, could contend for the prize with the paintings made by Michelangelo at Rome. But although these were very well reproduced in the tapestries, yet, since he had not ordered it to be indicated at what height they should be made, they were made only at that height at which the common tapestries coming hither from Flanders are wont to be, which namely the loom in use there bears. Hence when they had been brought and hung beside the cloths of the chief church woven with silk and gold thread *, and the Saint found that they had not the height of those cloths, he was seized with great sorrow (as the sacristans of the church related), and with his innate modesty and gentleness said: They have not been fitly made; for I wished them to be of the same height as these interwoven cloths. Yet for now they will serve in this way; and if God grant me life, we shall have others made equal to these cloths; and these will serve the church in which I am to be buried. He did not have them made, because he afterwards survived among the living only about three years, and, lest he should fail the poor, he would not have them made before he had gathered a small sum of money each year, until he should obtain the price to be paid for them.

[383] Of the temporal good of his chapter likewise he had a fatherly care. The revenues For the chief capitulars of the church, that they might be freer to assist at the divine offices and at the ecclesiastical and spiritual ministries, committed the collection and administration of the fruits and revenues of the canons to twelve lay persons as their collectors and administrators, in such a way that each should each month receive the share of those revenues falling to him. And to each administrator the fruits of a determined place were assigned as the wage of his labour. Then, considering that those goods were ecclesiastical, they judged it more advisable that the collection and administration should be made not by laymen but by ecclesiastics. Wherefore they named twelve clerics as collectors and administrators of the fruits on the same condition, that they should every month give to each the share of the revenues which the former ones gave.

[384] Out of these offices they created benefices, and ordained that those who discharged them should enjoy in the chief church the same distributions of the canons as others endowed with an ecclesiastical benefice. The clerics obtaining them they called provosts of the fruits of the canonical table, and their benefices provostships, commonly pavordías. In the course of time that place or portion assigned to each provost and administrator of the canons' revenues as the wage of his labour turned out so fruitful and produced such tithes that, with a notable difference and a very manifest advantage, the fruits and revenues which the provosts received from their offices were larger than the very fruits and revenues of the canons. This was the occasion for the canons to take pains, when the clerics holding those provostships died, to acquire them for themselves, whether by way of Rome or by any other fitting way. Hence it came about that many were at the same time canons and provosts, and enjoyed two benefices at once, as not being incompatible with one another. Those who enjoyed both were rich and powerful: for among those provostships some were worth two thousand ducats a year, others three thousand, nay even six thousand. But the canons who enjoyed only their canonry received at most from the revenue four or five hundred crowns.

[385] to a just equality To father D. Thomas, visiting the chief church and finding the fruits and revenues of the chapter in that state, it seemed an iniquitous thing, and alien to reason and justice, that the canons, the proper and lawful lords of the fruits and tithes pertaining to the canonical table, should have nothing more than what I have said; while the provosts, their collectors, administrators and as it were servants, kept for themselves so great — nay a greater and better — part of those goods. Hence he said: This matter requires a remedy: which indeed he procured. For he at once wrote to Pope Paul III of the inequality he had found between the canonries and the provostships, of the manner and the end for which the latter had been instituted, and of the whole course of the matter as related by me here; and he suppliantly asked, as a most equitable thing, that his Holiness would by an Apostolic Brief order that the said provostships, on the death of those who then held them (for while they lived, since the benefices had been conferred, this would have been unfitting and an occasion of dissension), should be suppressed and the fruits of the canonical table return to their lawful and true lords.

[386] he takes care that they be brought back. The said Pontiff, on account of the opinion which he had of him as a very learned and remarkable Servant of God, at once assented to the good Prelate's petition, and issued the Bulls in the manner in which he had asked. When these had been brought, he called the canons and said: It has seemed to me unfitting and unjust that so great a part of the fruits and tithes of the canonical table should be taken by the provosts, and so little be left to you from canonries so ample. Now from his Holiness (as I suppliantly asked) a remedy has been brought by these Bulls, in which he extinguishes the provostships as soon as those who hold them shall have died, and restores the revenue to its own place and to its own lords. Take and keep them, for the price for them has now been paid, and pray to the Lord both for his Holiness, who has bestowed this benefit and this favour upon you, and for me, who procured it. And so he handed them to them, and, as was just, the provostships were extinguished, and the canons enjoy their own goods, except that portion which they call from February, and which at the prayers of the city Sixtus V applied to this university of Valencia: all the rest has now returned to the canonical table ⁱ. This favour the canons owe to the holy Bishop; nay, they acknowledge and profess it, and showed that they acknowledged it with a grateful mind at his solemn beatification and on the day on which his festival was celebrated; they show it even now by the reverence with which they preserve his head, and by the devotion with which they follow him, as returning thanks for this and for many other benefits which while living he conferred upon them.

ANNOTATA.

brocados*

CHAPTER XIII.

In rebuking offences he prudently prefers gentleness to severity.

[ ] Adorned with remarkable prudence The vigilance and solicitude employed by the holy Prelate for supplying a remedy to the many crimes with which this region was infected turned out, as we related in the preceding chapter, to such good and such profit because it had circumspection and prudence as its companion ^a. This virtue the Lord in His clemency communicated to father D. Thomas in such a degree that, although he excelled in all, yet none did all who knew him and dealt with him so greatly praise and celebrate. He manifested it (as we saw in the first book) before the archbishopric in all the counsels which he gave, and in every word and deed. For he never did a thing that was not well considered, nor uttered a word that was not well weighed. But when made Archbishop he excelled in it beyond measure, as appeared in everything he undertook. And so it had to be: for if (as St. Paul teaches) God supplies to everyone called to some office and burdened with the care of it the wisdom, the ability and the gifts necessary for duly discharging it — since the Lord called father D. Thomas to the archbishopric without any effort of his own and without human help, but, as is clear from the last chapter of the first book, from His divine will alone, and that indeed in such a way that his calling, like Aaron's, was heavenly — it is altogether certain that He could not but grant him all the virtues which the dignity and office of an archbishop requires, and among these a singular circumspection and an infused prudence which should perfect that with which the good Bishop was already endowed and which he had as it were obtained from nature. I said that his calling was heavenly, because his election by the emperor was truly prodigious, and, with his will altogether resisting, his consent to accept it arose out of mere obedience.

[388] he undertakes nothing rashly, Besides others, this virtue works three effects in superiors. The first is that they should not lightly believe or attempt anything, but proceed with slow step. The second, that they should shrink from all dissensions. The third, that the prudent man should know how to be indulgent to the little, the ignorant and the weak; and to find ways and means both for softening hardness and for winning to himself the will of the resisting and pertinacious ^b. Of all these our good Father left illustrious testimonies and examples. For as to the first (as all his familiars report), however slight the business, he never determined it on the spot, but restrained himself; and asked for delay and time for weighing it and commending it to the Lord, using that saying so solemn with him: We will celebrate Mass for it and commend it to the Lord; He will give us light. He did not believe a neighbour's offence, however great the authority of the informer, but withheld judgment until it was established for him, as an evident thing, either from the person's own confession or from the report of eyewitnesses worthy of credit. He commonly attributed it to disturbance of mind and to error, until he himself found, due diligence having been employed, that the matter, where his office obliged, had been examined and proved. So that as a holy and prudent man he did not lightly believe, and as a solicitous and zealous shepherd he took pains to know thoroughly and to prove that which he was bound either to hinder or to correct.

[389] As regards the second, he often yielded his right to avoid tumults, he abstains from new commands and censures, and dissembled things which others, endowed with less authority, would have taken very ill. For this same cause he was averse to introducing novelties and to issuing commands, except such as, his conscience obliging, he could not omit; nor did he attach ecclesiastical censures to those he issued: for he said that when novelties are introduced and commands heaped up, disturbances are stirred which are useful to few and pernicious to many; and that by censures souls are entangled and occasions given for offences to become graver; since he who is not terrified by the deadly offence against God, and by the loss inflicted on his soul by mortal sin, will be no more terrified by censures.

[390] In the first years in which he was at Valencia, understanding that there were there many keepers of concubines, and those very public, because tumults often arise thence; he took pains to correct that crime, vehemently reproving it in his sermons; and although he bore fruit with some, yet these were few in number. To the rest he threatened, saying in a sermon that they were known to him, and that unless they returned to good ways he would be compelled to issue a decree against them, naming them expressly, with censures and excommunication; nay, that when he had begun he would not cease to proceed against them in particular with all rigour and severity. Seeing that many nevertheless persevered in the sin, he ordered an edict to be put to the press comprising grave censures and penalties against all keepers of concubines. As soon as this became known, a vast tumult arose throughout the whole city, since many were subject to that sin, and among them not a few persons of the first rank. They came to him begging that he would not publish it, because, as things stood at that time, it would be useful to few and pernicious to many. And he excused himself to those who had come to speak with him, saying: That loss will arise from their fault, not from mine; for I, since through sermons and exhortations they will not amend themselves, shall do what belongs to my office. Let pains be taken that that sin cease to be public, and, if I find some amendment, I shall restrain the rigour of the censures. Many abstained from that crime, while others, though they did not wholly forsake it, yet removed the bad example they had given; and so, lest he should further entangle consciences, he omitted the publication of the edict.

[391] A certain theologian judged it not rightly done that the edict was not published and carried into execution, and small fruit and one day, meeting master Porta: You, said he, and the Archbishop, and all his ministers, are bound by deadly sin; because, since so many keepers of concubines live in this city, and are not corrected by the sermons, exhortations and threats of their Bishop, it is the obligation of your office to keep them from the church and from the communion of the upright, and to denounce them by name from the pulpits; and this you do not fulfil. Master Porta, upright in life as he was, was struck on hearing this, and at once went to the Archbishop to inform him of the matter. The holy and most prudent Bishop, smiling, answered: This man must be a good one; but of those whom St. Paul addresses as having a zeal, but not according to knowledge: and he ordered the text of the Decree to be brought thither and the canon Non potest*, cause XXIII, question IV, to be read out, taken from the third chapter of the second book ^c of our holy father Augustine against Parmenianus, where that excellent Doctor so prudently and wisely instructs bishops and prelates of the Church that it is safer, when some sin has crept widely and has extended itself to the greater and more powerful part of the commonwealth, to have recourse to the Lord by prayers and tears, and to have it ardently inveighed against by preachers, than to hurl the edge of censures against it and to stir up tumults by anathemas.

[392] are brought forth. The chapter and text being recited, he said: You know well what diligence we employ, how we call them to us, how we admonish them, how we deliver to the viceroy and the governor a list of those whom we find incorrigible, that they may be arrested by them; you have read what my holy father Augustine teaches in the text. Do not be disturbed by that theologian's saying. St. Augustine knew perfectly the method of governing, and [yet] he was never able to root drunkenness out of his diocese. So distinguished a bishop was St. Chrysostom, as we all know, and he could never bring a remedy to the abuse and vice of swearing at Antioch: nor yet on that account did he choose to hurl excommunication against the offenders: because, as wise and prudent men, they would not, in healing one wound, give occasion for a greater one, and make themselves odious by a thing that would not profit. For my part,

if by God's leave it were permitted me to come even in the least degree near to those Saints, I should account myself happy. It is more prudent, as we do, to summon them and reprove them apart; because by this way, although it be true that the concubinaries are great in number, we do good to many, whereas by the other course we should bring harm to many and profit to very few.

[393] A canon living too freely He displayed his remarkable prudence also in the methods which, again and again, without deceit or falsehood, he employed to draw away from sin persons of distinction upon whom neither public rebukes in sermons nor private reproofs had any effect. I shall record one such case, whose soul (according to the account of those who ascertained it for certain) he won by a singular ingenuity and subtlety of speech; and from this it will be known by what divine ways and arts he dealt with the rest. He had many times reproved the shameful life and evil example of a certain canon, and, making no progress with him by this way, he set himself to discover by reflection how he might win the man's friendship and goodwill for himself. Over the space of two years he pursued him with so many kindnesses and favours that this canon began to be numbered among the more well-disposed and intimate persons whom father Don Thomas had about him. When he perceived that the man's will was now thoroughly conciliated and bound to him, on a certain day he addressed him thus: I know, my lord, that you wish to oblige me in every matter: but tell me, would you undertake for my sake a labour in a business in which I have very much at stake? When the canon offered himself for any matter whatsoever that might be laid upon him, however difficult and laborious, the good Bishop said: I have a business at Rome whose success I desire, and although there is no lack of someone there to whom I might commit it, I should wish that you yourself should travel thither to transact it, because if I commit it to such hands as yours, I shall be secure of complete success. Would you undertake that labour for my sake?

[394] by a marvellous Nor was he lying; for at that time he was labouring with great solicitude to obtain at Rome a bull whereby he might recall to its former discipline a certain convent of nuns then subject to him, and introduce there the observance of enclosure; which indeed was necessary, but liable to some opposition. This seemed to him an opportune occasion for winning the canon's soul. He, hearing father Don Thomas's desire, was taken aback, but out of the goodwill and obligation by which he was bound to him, he answered generously that, for the sake of rendering him service, he would with a glad mind set out for Rome and wherever else he might send him. And so, said the good Father, arrange and set in order all your affairs and your household, since the road is long and dangerous, and it is fitting that you leave everything settled in such a manner as if you had to die, and that indeed within a short time; for I am held by so great a desire for this business that any delay is burdensome to me.

[395] So the canon did; and when he informed the Archbishop that he was now ready to undertake the journey, ingenuity if it pleased his Lordship, the good Father replied: Therefore, when you have taken leave of everyone, spend this night in my house; we shall deliberate together on what must be done; you shall sup here and rest, and before dawn in the morning I shall send you off: bring no servant, dismiss them all, because I shall give you one of mine who will serve you better than any of all your own. The canon, when he had bidden farewell to friends and kinsmen, went on to the Archbishop's residence towards nightfall, and there took his supper and his sleep, meaning to depart in the morning. But the good Bishop, who in that journey had his mind set rather upon winning for God the soul of his sheep than upon the whole business, spent the greater part of the night in prayer, humbly asking the Lord that He would guide with His own hand what he had already resolved within himself to urge upon that canon. As daybreak drew near he betook himself to the chamber where the man was resting, and said: My lord canon, what is best still remains to be done: you have set your house in order, and all your goods and affairs — indeed, as you have indicated, you have made your will as one about to die; in this you have done both what you owe and what so long and dangerous a journey requires; but, so far as I perceive, that has not been done by you which binds you more, and which consists in the ordered disposition of the soul, whereby namely you should duly confess your faults and be refreshed by the Eucharistic banquet, so that you may set out upon that journey and have God propitious to you, to preserve and lead you.

[396] One thing indeed I have turned over in my mind, and let it not trouble you, to the confession of his sins, for it is certain that it must be done so. My business (however vehemently I desire it) does not press so hard but that your departure can be deferred for a month. But it would by no means be fitting for you to return home or to walk about the city, since you have already taken leave of everyone: therefore keep yourself in this chamber for that month; no one shall know of it save one servant, who will serve you with love and in secret: the rumour will be spread ^d that you have already set out. And during this month recall your memory, examine your conscience, and consider to whom you wish to disclose your sins in sacred confession, for I shall summon him without anyone's knowledge. Wash your soul of its filth, as a Christian knight and an upright ecclesiastic; and on the day before your departure, very early, I myself shall give you the sacred Eucharist in my chapel, and so, with the Lord's favour, you shall set out.

[397] He made no reply whatever; but on the contrary, as if the Holy Spirit were speaking to his heart, penance as indeed He was speaking through the mouth of His Servant, he received it with an even mind, and said that he would gladly remain there that month, would examine his conscience, would cleanse his soul of its faults by confession, and would do whatever the Archbishop advised; as in fact he performed, and indeed more; since towards the end of the month his confessor persuaded him, as he made his confession, to remain there a second month, so as to discharge the penance imposed upon him and to make a further purgation of his soul, and to ask of the Archbishop leave to defer his departure. And so he asked it, for the Lord had now changed his heart, and divine grace had converted an impious man into a truly penitent one, and one so given to retirement that he reckoned that enclosure a paradise to himself. With a glad mind the good Bishop granted him that leave; for this was the very thing he had greatly desired, and had asked of the Lord daily.

[398] and the amendment of his life Towards the end of the two months he told him, and not falsely, that certain letters and answers pertaining to the business had to be awaited from Rome, and that it would be pleasing to him if he stayed there until they were brought; that he had heard they would be at hand before long. And since God was directing the whole affair to the profit of the man's soul, the canon most gladly consented to remain as long as he might wish. And thus the Saint kept him shut up for half a year, bewailing his sins, performing works of penance, purging his soul, and receiving from that custody no vexation but on the contrary joy. And the Lord so provided for the matter that neither had the canon any journeys to undertake, since he had already entered upon that which was of more importance to him, namely the change and amendment of his life, nor had the Archbishop letters to await, nor anyone to send who should transact the business at Rome. For towards the end of the half year the Bull which was awaited was brought, drawn up composed exactly with all those clauses and in those forms in which he had himself petitioned.

[399] he wins him over. Then he addressed the canon thus: See, my lord, how kind a God we have; instead of the instructions and answers I awaited from Rome for sending you off, the bull itself has come, in the very manner I longed for, so that there is no need for you to undertake so troublesome a journey: nevertheless I am no less bound to you than if it had been undertaken: nay, I shall repay you and show myself grateful in whatever I can. The rumour will be spread ^e that you returned this night, and that the business I desired is now concluded; and in the morning you will return to your house and to the church: for this house has proved a happy Rome to your soul. He went out of that chamber and workshop of his salvation so amended and so changed that he never returned to his former vices, but served God in plain earnest, to the great admiration of his household and to the good example of all. This deed, this pious guile, [was] a most excellent testimony both of the desire by which the holy Prelate was carried towards the salvation of his subjects, and of the great circumspection and prudence which he knew how to observe with each individual.

[400] He kindly reproves the rash deed of an unlearned man. By the same prudence he knew how to accommodate himself to the dispositions of the unlearned and the simple, and to bear with their improprieties when they proceeded from a good zeal, even though there was fault in the manner. On a certain day, when a huge cloud with great thunder and lightning was drawing near and threatening violent strokes upon Mislata, a place near Valencia, several Catholic inhabitants ran together to the church, to ask the parish priest to expose the sacred wood of the Cross, or the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, that in that necessity they might be safe. But since the parish priest was absent from the place, a certain old man put on a surplice, and, having taken the veil of the church, and with others carrying torches before him, drew out with his own hands from the sacristy the most holy vessel containing the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and went on to the doors of the church, admonishing all to beg mercy of the Lord with great piety. And although this old man's deed was rash and worthy of chastisement, yet as he made the sign of the Cross with that sacred pyx of the Eucharist which he held in his hands, by the power of the supreme Lord existing therein, and on account of the reverence for the holy Cross, and the pious zeal and devotion of the simple people, it pleased the Lord that the cloud manifestly withdrew, no damage being inflicted throughout the whole territory of Mislata. The old man was accused of his rashness before the Archbishop; he ordered him to be summoned, and, when he was present, in the presence of master Porta (who reported this), reproved him with great kindness and charity, praising the faith and pious fervour which he had then displayed, but also admonishing him of his ignorance and of the irreverence with which he had treated the most holy Sacrament, in handling with his hands the vessel which the hands of priests alone may touch. And since the man was tolerably wealthy, he enjoined upon him as a penalty that he should have two large white candles made, which for a whole year should burn every Sunday from that point of the sacrifice of the Mass at which the priest prepares himself to consecrate the Body and Blood of the Lord, until he receives that same divine food.

ANNOTATA.

had set out, which error they were not to be undeceived of, for just causes: and the words the rumour will be spread admit an explanation of this kind.

\* Gratiani

CHAPTER XIV.

With exceptional charity he meets the needs of his subjects, and recalls wicked clerics to right living.

[ ] Kindled with vehement charity Although the office of a Bishop requires a man exceedingly perfect and heaped with every kind of virtue, as our Redeemer indicated when he compared him in the Gospel to so many and so diverse things — to salt, to light, to a city set upon a mountain, and to a lamp set upon a lampstand that it may give light to all who are in the house — nevertheless among all these there must be found in him, and must shine forth, that virtue which is the more principal, which perfects all the rest and constitutes a man a true servant and friend of God, namely charity ^a. From what we have thus far seen it is easily understood with how intimate a charity that blessed Pastor loved his sheep. For if in him, together with his dignity and sacred rule, all the virtues (as is evident) took increase, how greatly shall we suppose that virtue to have grown in his soul which holds the palm among them all, and which our Lord so greatly desires in a bishop — in one who saw himself a Bishop with a new obligation of loving his subjects more amply, whom now (as he himself used to say) it was necessary to love not merely as his neighbours, but as his own children? By its fruits, as the Lord says in the Gospel, the charity of each is to be known; and from those fruits it will be seen with how vast and pre-eminent a charity the blessed father Don Thomas was endowed.

[402] he is much afflicted by his neighbour's miseries, The principal fruits of this virtue (as St. Paul teaches) are to feel the calamities of our brethren as our own, to grieve at their falls, to procure their amendment, to have regard for their honour, to bewail their offences, and to pour out tears — nay, blood — for them; to endure their vexations and to bear with the dispositions of all, that we may win all; to have pity on them in their necessities and defects, and to relieve them in whatever way we can. It is truly to be wondered at how greatly the blessed Father shone in all these things, according to what all the witnesses report of his remarkable piety, compassion, clemency, and the rest of those effects of true charity just now enumerated by me. He felt the miseries of his subjects, both spiritual and temporal, so keenly that, as those affirm who lived with him in the same house, very often, when a poor man came to disclose his want, or some other afflicted person to draw consolation from his conversation, the tears streaming from the eyes of the most pious Father, out of the feeling and compassion with which that person's misery and need affected him, were more abundant than those which the afflicted person himself shed. Out of the same charity and compassion he passed the nights — in which men cast themselves upon their beds to relieve their troubles — at the feet of the image of the Crucified which he kept in his oratory, praying and weeping for the troubles of his neighbours. It happened many times that he would begin at about the tenth or eleventh hour to pray to the Lord for the necessities and troubles communicated to him the day before, and the day would dawn while he had not yet withdrawn from the feet of Jesus Christ, like another Jacob; for, although the light drew near, he was unwilling to leave off that heavenly exercise and wrestling with the Angel of the [New] Testament, at whose feet he lay prostrate, until in place of a blessing He should grant remedy and solace to the persons for whom he was praying.

[403] The tongue is commonly the clear interpreter and manifest witness of what is contained and felt in the heart of men, he seeks a remedy for them, especially of men sincere, simple, and without guile, such as the Servant of God was. Hence, as bishop Segrianus and master Porta used to report, at dinner and in the evening and whenever they were with the holy Bishop, these were his conversations, nor did he treat of any other matter than of such things as these: How shall we relieve this man? Go, comfort that one; to whom shall we commend the misery of that poor widow, that he may defend her suit? Nor did such conversations ever weary him. However many came to him, and at whatever hour, none seemed to him troublesome, no time inopportune, no need incurable. For this reason he had commanded his servants, and by name the doorkeeper, that they should turn no one away, be burdensome to no one, receive all with love and courtesy, and call and inform him at once: for this was his consolation, his delight, and the best part of his life, when his sheep came to seek counsel in their affairs, or solace and support in their miseries.

[404] The Lord commanded that Aaron the high priest should carry the names of the sons of Israel written upon his breast and upon his shoulders, and he supplies their needs. teaching that a prelate ought to have his subjects inscribed upon his breast by love, and to carry them upon his shoulders by succouring them in their necessities, helping them in their calamities, bearing with their imperfections, grieving at their falls, and stretching out a hand that they may rise. All these things the good Father fulfilled abundantly, loving all his subjects from the heart, helping them in their necessities with great piety and liberality, as we shall see, condoling with the fallen, bringing them aid to rise again with great kindness and clemency, pursuing offences with hatred and loving the persons, and procuring their amendment without damage to their honour. That we may perceive the great charity of this remarkable Servant of God and great Prelate, we shall take our beginning from the singular compassion with which he was affected toward those who had fallen into certain offences, and from the piety he employed in raising them up, as from the primary and chief effect of this most excellent virtue. Then we shall set out a discourse concerning that piety by which he was carried toward the poor and those pressed by temporal necessity, succouring them and bringing them aid with great liberality and largesse.

[405] He snatched souls from damnation and won for heaven men of shameful life, he strives intensely for the amendment of clerics especially clerics (for of laymen we have spoken in chapters XIII and XIV ^b), whom he led from a too licentious life and a pernicious example to true penitence, with so remarkable an amendment that not only did they emerge from their ruined condition, but many even embraced the religious life, and some the Carthusian, in such wise that if it were necessary to write of each one, and to report what the witnesses declare in their depositions, this single matter would suffice to make up many books. With so singular a care did he set about this, and so many did he draw out of the mire of vices, that what they testify upon this head, and what the Holy Spirit wrought through that heavenly instrument, is marvellous to read. In order to withdraw ecclesiastics from sin — because their example is of great moment to all others — he spared no labour, was tormented by nothing, regarded nothing; however much loss of his own right might intervene, provided that he won one soul and brought it to the recognition of its damnation and to the hatred of its sins. If to that end it was needful to spend money, most gladly did he spend it; if to devise arts and stratagems, he devised and found them; if to pour out his own blood, he poured it out. In short, in this heavenly Seraph (for so deserves to be called a soul so kindled with love of the divine glory and of the salvation of his neighbours) there were beheld all the effects and properties of kindness, compassion, meekness, zeal for the salvation of souls, and whatever besides St. Paul the apostle teaches to be found in a breast full of true charity. We shall speak of some of them, taking our beginning from the lesser.

[406] he kindly While in a certain parish of this city, on the Friday on which the mysteries of Christ's passion are recalled, the office was being celebrated, one of the chief priests of that same church, standing at the altar before the most holy Sacrament which he himself had brought from the Sepulchre, was kindled with such anger — because those singing in the choir had omitted something — that, not master of himself, he broke out with a loud voice into blasphemy, to the vast offence of all present in the church. He was reported to the Archbishop; the Archbishop summoned him and rebuked him as he deserved, intending to chastise him more severely; but seeing his tears, and those bursting forth from true sorrow of heart, he said: Assuredly the blasphemy uttered by you, and the scandal thence given, were worthy that I should chastise you severely, as I had conceived in my mind; yet I here fill the place of that merciful Lord who, when He sees one guilty of sin grieving and pouring forth tears, embraces him and bestows pardon. And therefore, since you acknowledge your faults and feel and bewail them as a good Christian, I forgive you and will deal mercifully with you. Keep a three-day fast, and during the same distribute alms among the poor of your parish: but because the deed was public and pernicious in its example, go into the church and let them see you in the choir, but do not celebrate Mass within fifteen days, that all may understand that he does not dare to approach the Lord or His altar who has so greatly offended Him at the altar.

[407] and prudently rebuked men of shameful life, A layman accused a cleric of keeping a woman and having three children by her. The good Bishop, in the best way he could, defended the cleric, wishing to preserve his honour unharmed: but the layman took this so ill that he broke out into these words: Your Lordship is so very good that you are willing even to protect the wicked. Not on that account did the Bishop grow angry; but, alleging his reason, he dismissed him, and presently sent for the cleric. Him he shut up in his oratory and so rebuked him that, although the wicked love was keen and of long standing and confirmed by the pledge of children, the man resolved never thereafter to look upon that woman with his eyes, and to cut off every occasion of offending God further. And this he observed so piously that the holy Archbishop — both because he saw his remarkable amendment, and lest, the woman and the children being left in want, an occasion of returning to his former ways should remain to him — gave her in marriage, and gave the children, who were small, to be brought up. Of these he placed two boys with craftsmen, to be taught their craft, and the girl, who was older, with a matron; and when she came to marriageable age, he granted her a dowry and joined her in matrimony.

[408] and, having first prayed to God. He was informed that two other clerics were leading a shameful life, in such wise indeed that the one kept a woman secretly in his own house, and the other near his house, with a secret passage opening an easy way to the crime; and he ordered both to be summoned separately, having first earnestly besought the Lord that He would guide his tongue, and impart light to those lost sheep, so that they might receive his reproof and teaching as they ought, might acknowledge their wicked manner of living, and return to right living. When they had come, he led them both by turns into his oratory, as was his custom, and, prostrate before the sacred image of the Crucified, reproved them concerning the damnation of their souls with such spirit and feeling that, as they themselves afterwards recounted, every word was to them a burning arrow, piercing and setting fire to the heart. They both withdrew thence so changed that they never returned to sin; but on the contrary, withdrawing for some days from the city, the better to bewail their offence against God and to examine their consciences, they made a general confession of their whole life, and spent all the time in which they thereafter survived in many works of true penitence. And because that good Pastor, who relieved all men, understood that those clerics were poor, and that from poverty and the lack of necessities had come the occasion of their fall with those women, who enjoyed some property, he called them both to himself, and ordered the keeper of his treasury to give to each of them every month a fixed sum of money, whereby he might maintain his household suitably and without peril to his soul. And he took care that the women should enter into matrimony, and helped them, that this might be done the more honourably and that they might serve the Lord joined in matrimony.

[409] There was another cleric more forgetful of the fear of God and of the obligation of his state: the foulness of their crimes he, on a certain night, well furnished with arms and a broadsword, and in a dress as far removed from his condition as were his manners and his life, walking through this city, fell in with an officer of justice, and, although he tried to defend himself, not without grave scandal to all who accompanied him, he was at last taken and brought to the Archbishop. The good Pastor was seized with great grief of mind on beholding an ecclesiastic in such a dress and gait and at such an hour; he presently commanded the officers who had brought the captive to leave both him and his arms there. He dismissed them, ordering that their fee be paid to them, saying that this was owed on account of the labour undertaken; for the rest, let them depart in the name of the Lord, since it was his office to look to his sheep. When all had withdrawn, in his own bedchamber, where his bed stood, he ordered two mattresses to be laid upon a mat with a coverlet, and a bed to be made up for the cleric. So it was done; and while the man who deserved rather to be cast in irons into a dark dungeon had gone to bed, father Fray Thomas betook himself to the oratory, to pray to the Lord with great feeling of grief and with many tears, that He would have mercy on that soul, and not allow to go to waste the Blood which He had poured out for it upon the Cross. There he kept himself a long while, that he might render the divine mercy favourable to his petition.

[410] When midnight was past, he returned to his own bedchamber, where the cleric lay in the bed he sets before them, which he had ordered to be made up for him, and, without taking off his clothes, laid himself upon his own [bed], and thence, through the remaining part of the night, began with an immense feeling of the man's unhappiness to reprove and exhort him, setting before his eyes what Jesus Christ had done for his salvation, how exact an account He would demand, what would have befallen his soul if death had seized him in that state: and threatening him: Nay rather, it will seize you, unless you return to right living, he kept saying, and other things of this sort (as the cleric himself narrated) with such spirit and fervour that the cleric — though he was abandoned and lost, and had lived hitherto wholly void of the fear of God — weighing the charity and kindness of his Bishop, and his words there spoken, began to open the eyes of his mind, and, suffused with shame for his past life, in that very place and in plain earnest resolved to begin a new life. When day had come, he dismissed him, saying: Go with a happy step and with God's favour to your house, and acknowledge what thanks you owe to God, and pray Him humbly to give you the capacity to grasp and see into my words; I require nothing further of you. The cleric returned to his house, and there kept himself in solitude for some days in order to make a general confession; which he also carried out, and thereafter lived so changed and so unlike himself that he cast all who knew him into admiration. The event is truly notable, when we consider by what way he drew him out of so wicked a state, and rendered him an upright ecclesiastic and a servant of God, such as he afterwards proved through the whole course of his life.

[411] that as penitents Another cleric accused of a shameful life he ordered to be summoned by a household servant (for he shrank from summoning by a beadle, and used to say that a mark of infamy is branded upon a priest when he is summoned by a beadle). When the man had come, he said: Wait a little. He entered his oratory, as was his custom, to commend the man to the Lord; he made ready the accusation brought against him, ordered him to be called, and, fallen upon his knees before the sacred image of the Crucified, addressed him thus: Behold, here I hold the accusation against you. I am indeed unwilling to bring it to the tribunal of justice, because in a priest the fear of God ought to have more force than any other human regard or dread. Here we stand before Jesus Christ crucified, who is to judge both you and me: nor do we know whether perhaps before tomorrow: tell me truly what life you lead: I do not indeed command you to this, nor do I threaten ecclesiastical censures, but I ask it for the sake of the account which we must render to Christ crucified, that I may be able to apply to you a medicine and remedy conducive to your salvation. So greatly did these words prevail in the cleric's heart that, exactly as if he were expiating his sins before him in the Sacrament of penance, he laid open his life to him.

[412] they may return to right living. Having heard the ruined state of that sheep, the good Pastor was touched with such compassion for his unhappiness that at once tears burst from his eyes; and through these, and through the reproof made to him, the man presently turned all his thoughts elsewhere, and withdrew thence so changed and touched with such grief and sorrow for the offence committed against the Lord that, on returning home, he could not restrain his tears in the streets, and did so sincere a penance for his wickedly spent life, and so amended it, that he was a good example to all whom he had before injured by his depraved example. The same that I have recorded of this man the witnesses narrate of many others, whom by the same way of compassion and fatherly reproof, accompanied by frequent prayer to God for them, he snatched from sin and made true penitents and worshippers of God. I forbear to enumerate them here, since it would be to repeat the same manner in which he won the souls here recorded by me, and weariness would be created for the reader. This is certain: that innumerable are the clerics and laymen whom by that path of charity and mercy he won for heaven and withdrew from the claws of the demon; which we shall see more particularly in the following chapter.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER XV.

Continuation of the same matter.

[ ] At his words the wicked tremble. When he perceived that with some men, on account of their hardness and obstinacy, the manner above recorded did not suffice, ^a he would add the chastisement of his own body, which had deserved nothing of the kind, and the shedding of his blood, to soften their hardness and convert them. By these two means he snatched many souls, already lost, from hell, and each of them, employed with his vast charity and prudence, brought forth great effects and had remarkable power. As concerns the first, namely reproof, many who had been brought back by it to right living used to report that the greatest punishment which a cleric of sound judgment could suffer from the holy Bishop was to appear before him and to receive chastisement from his mouth: since his words were so fervent, and the tears which he meanwhile poured forth so vehement, that the soul of the man chastised trembled, and it seemed to him that he stood in the divine judgment; nay, going away thence he would keep what he had heard so impressed upon his heart that he could neither forget it nor fail to use it for his own advancement. Many affirmed that, even if they would not have returned to right living out of the fear of God and the proper advantage of their own souls, they would nevertheless have abandoned their sins, so as not (as they said) to receive a second reproof from the Archbishop, and not to stand before him a second time in that divine judgment.

[414] The vicar in one of the chief churches of this city was accused A priest at first rebellious is so moved by reproof, of living most shamefully. He summoned him in order to correct him: the man was proud, and at the first words of the man reproving him, being stirred with bitter feeling of mind, he began to cast off reverence. The Saint ordered him to be thrust into prison; but when they were already about to lead him away, he grieved for the plight of his sheep, called him back, and, shutting himself up with him in the oratory, chid him as a Father, setting before him — a priest and a rector of souls — the obligation of his state, the depraved example and the occasion which he gave to the subjects of his parish of leading a wicked life such as he himself led, the exact account to be rendered in the supreme judgment of God, and other things, by which his eyes were opened to discern the ruin of his soul. So moved was he that he cast himself at his feet, praying with many tears that he would grant him pardon and stretch out his hands to be kissed. The Saint raised him up, saying: I indeed trust in the divine mercy and in this feeling of sorrow which I observe in you, that you will amend yourself; nay, I would gladly send you home in peace at once; nevertheless, both on account of those to whom you have been an offence by your wicked example, and on account of the irreverence shown to me, who fill the place of God, in the presence of others, and partly in penance for your offences, you shall be detained in prison for some days: bear this patiently, considering how small a thing it is for one who has deserved to be seized by death in his sins and thrust into the everlasting prison of hell.

[415] that he goes to prison of his own accord, That reproof, made with so great love, obtained so happy an effect in the priest that, departing thence from the Archbishop's presence, he went on to the prison and betook himself into a dark dungeon; and however much father Don Thomas, understanding this,

commanded him to go out thence, and to take the upper rooms for his custody, and to be honourably provided for during the days he should stay there, yet he, suffused with shame for the offence committed against God and for the injury done to his Bishop, so holy (as he put it) and so worthy of all veneration, ordered him to be entreated humbly to grant him leave to remain there: since his Lordship well knew how small any punishment whatever was compared with that which his offences had deserved. He remained in that dark prison for the space of two months, desiring to see no one, and willing to eat nothing but bread and raw herbs after the manner of a monastery, day and night pouring forth tears with a lively acknowledgement of the gravity of his crimes and a vehement sorrow that he had so greatly wounded God his creator.

[416] nor does he withdraw thence unless commanded under obedience by the Bishop; During those two months there was a holy contest between the penitent and the Bishop; the Bishop commanding him to return home, since he could there do the penance suggested to him by God; but the penitent humbly praying him to allow him there to consume his life in the bread of sorrow and in the bitterness of his soul. Father Don Thomas gave infinite thanks to the Lord God for what He had wrought by His divine hand in that little sheep. But when the two months were completed, he did not suffer him to remain there longer, and ordered him absolutely and under obedience to return to his house and his church, and to profit by the great graces which God had bestowed upon him. Then, obeying the Bishop's command, he left the prison, and passed the remainder of his life most holily, with so great a withdrawal of mind from worldly things and with so good an example that those who had known him were astounded, seeing so remarkable a change in his manners and life.

[417] another who had relapsed after a first correction Another priest came at one time into the church of blessed Mary of Succour, and after he had on bended knees before the tomb of the holy Prelate repeatedly kissed the feet and hands of the marble statue set upon that tomb, he began to pour forth tears in such abundance that the sacristan, noticing it, after some interval of time thought good to approach him and to ask what he felt in his mind. The priest, unable to restrain his tears, answered: Do not wonder, father, at what you see in me: for that holy Archbishop snatched me out of hell and made me a Christian; because, according to the manner of my life, I was not such, nay, I was not even a man endowed with reason, but a brute beast. I was leading a life so dissolute that his officers, offended by my most evil examples, arrested me without his order or command, and one day brought me into his presence, where he rebuked me vehemently, yet ordered me to be restored to liberty, since I promised that I would return to right living.

[418] he so strikes with words, prayer and tears But I, wholly worthless and forgetful of the mercy shown me by him, presently returned to my obstinacy. Being informed of it, he ordered me to be apprehended a second time and brought to him. I cannot explain in what state I came to him this second time, how I trembled in my mind; because I was certain within myself that, for my offences and depraved examples, it would be a small thing to be condemned to the galleys in perpetuity, and even to be stripped of the dignity and insignia of the priesthood. When he had me in his sight, he ordered the officers to leave me there and withdraw, and, shutting himself up with me in the oratory, began to address me thus: Do you believe that there is a God, who sees and knows your crimes? Do you believe that there is a Judge in heaven, who will demand an account of them from you and from me? It must be that you are neither a Christian, nor believe that there is another life, that there is a judgment, a punishment — nay, that there is a hell prepared for you everlastingly. Unhappy shepherd that I am, upon whom it falls to render an account of a sheep so lost and of a man so shameful as you are! And turning to the most pious image of the Crucified which he had there, he said: Supreme Shepherd, have mercy on a sheep so lost as this one is, and on a shepherd so unfortunate as I am. And uttering this, he began to sob and to weep so bitterly that the mere sight of him cast a trembling into my heart, and seized my mind with such grief that I thought I should die on the spot; and that indeed would have been welcome to me, that I might be freed from that sight. And truly the mere perception of what he was saying, and the mere sight of the grief with which he bewailed my ruin, was enough to strike lifeless the bravest and most robust of mortals who might have been present.

[419] I gathered my strength as best I could, and, weeping likewise, cast myself at his feet, that he offers himself for any punishment whatsoever humbly praying that he would inflict upon me any punishment he pleased, and that I might not behold him afflicted with so great grief on account of my offences, since any punishment would be light compared with that which I deserved. And with vast sorrow and a most firm mind I there and then resolved to change my life, and promised it to him with all the sincerity I could — not that he might grant me pardon, for by the knowledge of my offences and of the gravity of my crimes which the Lord had instilled into me in that very place through the merits of the good Pastor, any punishment whatever seemed light; but only that the tears flowing down that venerable face might cease. So kind was he to me that he gave me credit, trusted my words, and said: I do not wish to condemn you to the galleys, as you know yourself to deserve and confess it yourself, nor to cast you into prison, nor, as would be just, to chastise you: but one thing I demand, and if you perform it, I pardon you. Namely: keep yourself at home for a month, and with all the care and diligence you can, search out your life, as if you had straightway to die and to present yourself at the divine judgment; then make a general confession of your whole life before a confessor to be assigned to you by me, and abstain from celebrating Mass until you have fulfilled this: no other penalty do I require of you. Hearing this (said the priest) I cast myself on the ground at his feet, and would have kissed his very footprints a thousand times if I had been permitted; but he did not allow it; rather, laying his arms upon me, he said: It is enough, go happily, and may the Lord by His mercy impress my words upon your heart.

[420] Having gone out thence (said the priest) I fulfilled his command, and may repent in earnest; and the words and tears of the blessed Bishop were so impressed upon me that they will never fall from my memory, and I found myself such as is a man who, held in a dark prison, is brought out to enjoy the sight of the sky and the light of the sun. It seemed to me that I then began to open my eyes, as indeed I then did open them, and the world was made another world for me; I began to be a Christian and a priest, such as I had not been up to that time. Nor do I doubt that, just as the Saint's words and tears were the beginning of my conversion and penitence, so also now, on account of his prayers in heaven, perseverance has been granted me by the mercy of God, since I commend myself to him every day. That is the reason (he said), father, why I cannot look upon this stone and approach that tomb without my heart growing soft and the tears bursting from my eyes in the manner you behold. If it were possible and lawful for me, I would never wish to withdraw from this tomb, in which rests he who snatched me from hell and gave life to my soul. All this that priest related with great feeling of mind and with many tears to the sacristan mentioned above.

[421] before another often admonished in vain Nor did the charity of the holy Bishop stop here; some of his sheep cost him more than tears; nay, he sometimes expended his own blood upon them, raging fiercely against himself with scourges, that God might hear him and by His mercy pour light upon the man whom he desired to convert. He had often reproved a cleric of wicked life and of the depraved example which he gave in his neighbourhood; but understanding that he was not returning to right living, but abusing his mercy, he ordered him to be summoned by a beadle; yet without the beadle accompanying him, as we shall record in the following chapter. When he had arrived, the Bishop entered the oratory, carefully barring the doors and ordering a servant to guard them, that no one might approach. When they were alone (as the cleric himself afterwards narrated) he gravely rebuked him, ascribing the fault to himself and saying: Your obstinacy is my fault, not yours: mine, because I have used such great mercy toward you, reproving you so many times and not punishing you a second or a third time, thinking that I would bend you by this path of kindness: I have committed the fault, and since I have committed it, it is just that I too should do penance. Saying this amid many tears, prostrate before the Crucifix, he took off his scapular and cowl, drew his arms out of his garment, and, with the part of his shoulders bared, with scourges made ready there began to beat himself dreadfully, weeping continually and praying our Redeemer Jesus Christ to forgive him the ruin of that soul which through his own fault had so long clung to shameful deeds. And he inflicted such blows upon himself that his garments afterwards appeared sprinkled with blood.

[422] he rages fiercely against himself with scourges, and obtains his amendment. The cleric stood stricken and lifeless, seeing what punishment the holy Bishop was taking upon himself. And casting himself at his feet, weeping most bitterly, covered with blushes and full of shame for his offences, he humbly begged that for the love of God he would hand him the scourges, for it was his own part to perform the penance, since he had abused his mercy. And he pledged before that same sacred image of the Crucified that he would make so earnest an amendment that it would be evident to his Lordship and to the whole world. And so the good Father completed the chastisement of his body, and, having resumed his garments, exhorted him to amendment with words exceedingly fervent and with great affection of mind: so that the cleric departed thence changed in heart, and unable to restrain his weeping. He went home and shut himself up therein, for some days neither going out nor dealing with anyone, bewailing his crimes and the time in which he had been immersed in them. Thereafter he contracted such faintness and pallor from the terror inflicted upon him by what he had beheld in the Archbishop's oratory that for more than half a year he could not recover his natural colour; and so great a desire of amending himself and serving God came upon him, and he so perfectly fulfilled it, that throughout all the time in which he afterwards survived he showed himself an excellent worshipper of God, and was the occasion in his church that others also, at his pious example, bade farewell to frivolities and strove anxiously to establish a life befitting upright priests.

[423] Another priest (and he himself was my authority for these things), in his youth lived in ruinous fashion with a woman inflamed with love of him, the devil turning to his own gain that priest's want, and this

woman's riches, For another, whom he had previously held in custody, and the fact that she gave them to him, so that she might possess them both bound by a firmer and more blinding knot. The blessed Bishop summoned him and frequently reproved him with his accustomed charity; but when he did not come to his senses, he ordered him to be arrested and cast into prison loaded with chains, to try whether by chastisement he would return to right living who was abusing his kindness and mercy in that fashion. When eight days had elapsed, judging that he had been a captive long enough, he ordered him to be taken out and brought to him. Nor do I wonder that the eight days seemed long to him; since, when chastisement arises from pure charity, he who inflicts it feels the pain more than he who undergoes it, and however brief the interval of time over which it is drawn out, it appears long.

[424] The priest thus brought to him he shut up in the oratory and addressed with great candour of mind: and confessing his crime I have indeed reproved you, and have often threatened that, unless you utterly forsook that woman and amended your life, I would chastise you severely: but you say that this is neither in your power nor possible for you: what binds you to her, with such offence to God and such depraved example to so many men? Tell me this, I pray, and open your mind. Imagine that you are here not with an archbishop, but with the best of all the friends you have: for I firmly assure you that, after God, there is no one better to your soul nor more zealous for your advantage than I. Seeing so great kindness and charity in his Bishop, the priest sincerely confessed to him his crime, and the length of time that wicked love had lasted, and that its chief occasion was that he himself was in want, while the woman was rich and maintained him. Hearing this, the Archbishop, as though someone had planted a dagger in his heart, turned to the image of the Crucified placed there and said with great affliction and many tears: Shall one of my own men be wounded through want, O King of glory! Shall a priest subject to me be a slave to sin for lack of food? This, my God, is not his fault, but mine. Humbly I beg You, Lord, by the Blood poured out by You on that Cross, have mercy upon this soul and grant it light, whereby it may acknowledge its unhappy condition and return to You, its Creator and Redeemer. For since I am guilty of his sin in not having succoured him, I, Lord, will pay the penance. Truly, father Don Thomas was not guilty of fault in not having succoured him, since up to that time he had not known of his want: but true charity and humility imputes to itself any fault whatsoever of one's neighbour.

[425] Then, turning to the priest, he rebuked him most gravely for the foulness of his sin and for the little trust which he had had in God's providence, he had sent home, and exhorted him at length to the fear of God and to trust in the mercy of the heavenly Father, who nourishes the birds of the air with such care and clothes the fields with such beauty and loveliness: and he dismissed him, saying: Go to your house, and do not go out until tomorrow, nor see that woman, nor accept anything from her hand: I shall provide you with everything necessary: recite the Office with all the devotion you can, commend yourself to the Lord, and return here in the morning about the seventh hour. And since I exact so little from you, who have deserved a remarkable chastisement, see that you depart not by a single point from what I tell you. The priest went home and shut himself up in it, observing whatever had been prescribed to him by the Archbishop.

[426] When night had come, and the hour of rest, and all had already gone to bed, the good Bishop entered his oratory to commend the amendment of that priest to the Lord. by night he strikes himself dreadfully, But his supplication consisted in this, that he bared his back and struck it dreadfully with scourges, beseeching the divine Majesty to have mercy upon the soul of that priest and upon his own, to whom the man had been committed. From the number of the blows and the ardour with which he had inflicted them upon himself, he had not only his back but also his shoulders and part of his breast filled with bruises and bloody wounds, which for some days brought him sharp pangs of pain. For although the frequent scourgings by which he afflicted himself for the salvation of his sheep needed a surgeon's service, nevertheless, to preserve secrecy and the modesty of his body, he did not use one, and thus the pain which he endured until the wounds healed of themselves was more bitter than what he felt at the very time of the scourging.

[427] in the morning he shows him the wounds, On the next day about the seventh hour of the morning, when the priest had returned to him as he had directed, he again kept him shut up with himself in the oratory, and with great spirit and weeping (for he had most tender bowels, and tears soon appeared in his eyes) he resumed his exhortations; and although throughout the whole course of his life he took care not to disclose his particular exercises of piety, nevertheless, in order to profit him more and to bind him more strictly to amendment and to the divine service, he lifted his scapular and cowl, and, opening his garment a little, showed on part of one shoulder and on his breast the wounds of the scourges which he had inflicted upon himself for his sake that night, and said: This punishment for your sins I have exacted from myself; if you return to them, and are so ungrateful and obstinate that neither God's mercy nor the efforts of me, His vicar, have profited you, be certain that the divine justice will delay no longer, but will cut you down as fuel for the fire of hell, like a dry tree which no remedy avails.

[428] he impresses upon him the horror of his crime and the amendment of his life. The priest, beholding those wounds upon his Bishop, was seized with such shame and struck with such terror at the threats uttered with such spirit and force that, as if out of his mind, he threw himself upon him to kiss the scars, fell at his feet, and with great affection and purpose of mind promised that he would withdraw both from the woman and from all sin, and would sooner perish of hunger than ever cast his eyes upon her. The same priest reported that, although he was bound to her by the greatest love that can be imagined, both because of the sin and because of her gifts, yet at that time the Lord so blotted her out of his memory and his will that he neither ever saw her afterwards nor remembered her, as if he had never known her. And lest by occasion of want he should return to the offence of God and visit the woman again, the good Pastor said to him: Withdraw your mind from business, and, examining your life and conscience diligently, make a general confession such as befits the thorough purging of the soul: and I shall order a Mass to be assigned to you every day in a certain church, and thirty reals to be bestowed on you every month by the dispenser of my alms, that you may live honourably: see whether that suffices. When the priest said it did (for at that time, compared to the price of things, one real and a half were worth more than four are today), he conferred that alms upon him for a long while, until the same priest, having obtained another means of providing for himself, refused to receive it any longer, judging it to be unjust and a withdrawal from other poor persons.

[429] In like manner Another priest, the parish priest of a certain place, was accused of maintaining a concubine in his own house, to the great offence of the whole place; the Bishop summoned him to reprove him, and in the course of the reproof ordered him at once to drive the woman out of his house: he promised, but did not perform. A second time he summoned him, and, shutting him up in his oratory, addressed him thus: Are you in your right mind? Do you consider that there is a God in heaven, and a bishop on earth, whose office it is to punish crimes of yours so public and, by their example, so harmful to the subjects of your own parish? Living in that fashion, with what daring do you perform the divine Office? In what manner will you reprove your subjects, as you are bound to do, being a rector of souls? The fault is not with you, but with me, who set you there and willed that a man as impious as you should be rector. Since therefore I erred in appointing you rector, and still more when I allowed you to depart after being summoned and reproved, and did not cast you into prison: I, Lord, he said, turning to the Crucifix, am guilty of the fault; it is just that I too should bear the punishment. Repeating these words amid many tears, he uncovered part of his shoulders and began to beat himself so dreadfully that blood at once leapt forth.

[430] The parish priest was astounded, seeing with what rigour the holy Bishop took punishment for his sins; others covered with blushes and shame, he cast himself at his feet, and, with tears flowing from his eyes, promised, calling to witness Jesus Christ fastened to the cross and represented in that holy image, that he would at once expel the woman from his house, would see her no more, and would perform such acts of penance in his church as would rouse to right living all whom he had offended among his people by his evil example. The good Bishop completed the penalty of the scourges, and, out of his remarkable kindness, trusting the priest's promises, said: I believe that you speak from the heart, and I place my hope in the exceeding mercy of our Lord: namely that, not regarding your offences and mine, He will bestow upon you the grace to accomplish what you have promised me here before that image of the Crucified: whatever has been done, I pardon. Do you, with His favour, return home, make a general confession and begin a new life, and give thanks to the Lord every day that He did not snatch your life from you in so wicked a state. The priest departed and at once had the woman driven out of his house, and so lost the memory of her as if he had never known her. He lived thereafter to the remarkable example and instruction of the people toward uprightness, giving himself continually to acts of penance, and rousing many in the same parish who were living wickedly to change their life and serve the Lord.

[431] Another priest, an eminent man holding a certain principal office in the chief church, from a most evil rule of living was living impiously in like manner, and to the great offence of all who knew him: and his licence of living came to such a pass that he carried off a novice from a convent of nuns and kept her in his house. The holy Bishop was seized with the utmost grief on learning of it. And as soon as he learned it, he ordered him to be summoned, and brought him in likewise to the oratory before that sacred image of the Crucified. So vehement was his feeling of grief, so great his affliction of mind, that, wishing to begin the reproof, he first burst into tears and (as the priest himself afterwards narrated to his friends) into sobs proceeding from his inmost bowels. He restrained that feeling as far as he could, and began to reprove him, setting forth the foulness of the outrage and declaring the matter to him in words so fervent that the priest confessed he would rather have died then, or have been detained in the prisons of Chulilla, ^b than have been in that oratory a hearer of what the Bishop uttered in his rebuke. At length the Saint began to address him thus: On account of my offences God has permitted that you should be led into so great an outrage as

it is, to steal away from Him a virgin already prepared to make her profession and to become His spouse. If indeed I had proved a good bishop, His divine kindness would not have permitted so great a treachery as you have shown Him: because I am a wicked shepherd, you are a sheep so shameful; and with many tears, turning to the Crucified, he said: Lord, so great a crime committed by this man, and the injury done You by him, You have permitted on account of my offences. Enlighten him, Lord, with Your light; give him knowledge of his sins, give him the spirit of true penitence and amendment; and since on account of my offences he has wounded You so grievously, it is just, Lord, that I should pay for it.

[432] he brings them to penitence and to right living. Uttering these words, he began to bare his shoulders, and with scourges made ready there for this purpose to beat himself so vehemently that the blows were heard outside and the blood burst forth. So greatly did the priest shudder, seeing how dreadfully so holy a Prelate raged against himself with the scourges, that he cast himself at his feet, and wished to snatch the scourges from his hands, to uncover his own shoulders and to strike himself; but father Don Thomas refused, and said this one thing: Since the crime has been so grave and of such pernicious example, you shall remain here shut up in a chamber, until I have seen to it that her kinsfolk receive that girl and that she is provided for; and then you shall discharge the penance to be imposed upon you by me. The priest remained there with the desire of amending his life and of discharging his penance. The holy Prelate ordered one of the girl's relatives to be summoned to him, who both on account of his persuasions and on account of his promises of support took her into her own house and kept her removed from the sight of men; and then after some years he himself took care that she should be given in marriage. The priest he ordered to live apart in the college of the Society of Jesus at Gandía, ^c to make a general confession, and not to celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass until it should seem good to the father with whom he was to lay down his sins. Thus the said priest did, and returned to Valencia to the office which he held in the chief church, thereafter giving all the inhabitants the best example, and proclaiming both the zeal by which the holy Bishop was carried toward the glory of God and the salvation of souls, and what he had seen and heard in that oratory. ^d And on very many days he visited him, and prostrated himself to kiss his feet, addressing him as the Redeemer of his soul. By this same method the good Pastor won many other lost sheep and brought them back from the path of hell to the service of the Lord by reproofs full of charity, pouring forth not only fervent tears, but also blood, through exceedingly sharp beatings with the scourges. ^e

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER XVI.

He has regard for the honour of his own, especially of ecclesiastics; he is ready to forgive and kind toward penitent offenders.

[ ] He carefully consults the good name of his subjects, Just as true charity, although it holds sins in hatred, nevertheless loves the person, so a prelate endowed with this virtue so proper to his office corrects and punishes the faults of his subjects in such a way as to have pity on the persons and, as far as he can, to have regard for their honour and good name. ^a This doctrine father Fray Thomas frequently expounded in his preaching, and himself diligently observed. For this reason, as his visitors related after his death, he had a register in which were written the names and accusations of clerics, and of the churches which they served or frequented. For he kept this order, that the visitors themselves should conduct the visitations, draw up their records, and, when these were finished, come back to him, report the offenders, and inform him of the matter. And he himself transferred with his own hands into his register whatever he gathered from those records against anyone, observing the same procedure if anyone was accused outside a visitation. When he had culled from the records what seemed necessary and had entered it in his register, he ordered them to be burned, and exact silence to be kept by the visitors. And thus he had regard for the honour of the accused or of the offenders, himself drawing up whatever pertained to the manners and life of ecclesiastics, with no layman or secretary of his privy to it. This done, he would order those who needed to be reproved or chastised to be summoned separately at a suitable time, and according to what was noted in the book he would reprove or chastise them, as was said in the preceding chapter. Having attained the end which alone he aimed at, namely the amendment of his sheep, he would erase or tear out what had been entered in his book, in such a way that it should never be disclosed.

[434] he does not readily believe informers; From the same care and desire of preserving the honour of his clerics it came about that he rarely gave credence to denunciations laid against them, especially by laymen. The perpetual vicar of Liria ^b was at one time accused by the inhabitants of his parish: the Saint, being unable to bring himself to believe what they reported against him, dismissed them courteously, saying that he would look into the matter. Having summoned master Porta, he told him what those men had reported to him, and added that he believed the whole matter arose from a depraved disposition of minds. Nevertheless (he said), that we may be sure — since it is public at Liria that they have come here to accuse him — go thither and visit the church; but in the inquiry concerning the vicar observe the order to be set out to you by me, and let us commend the matter to God; for He will carry a light before us and open the truth. He set out for him the order suited to this particular case of the vicar, and dismissed him. When master Porta had arrived there and was conducting the visitation, he clearly found that the whole matter had arisen from a depraved disposition of minds and from malice, and in the very manner in which the Archbishop had judged.

[435] a bitter accuser On a certain day a cleric, who professed himself far removed from the affairs of the world and upright (and was in fact such, as the witnesses report), came to accuse another cleric of the same parish of leading a wicked life and not without depraved example; and, out of the zeal by which he was carried, thinking it lawful for himself to discourse upon the matter more fully, he greatly aggravated the case of the absent man: whence father Don Thomas felt no small grief and showed it in his countenance, and, restraining the ill-advised zeal of the complainant, said: For the love of God, father, return to tranquillity of mind; moderate the anger with which you have come here, and which is great, and consider that he of whom you speak is your brother, and one whom, though liable to sins and frail, the hand of God is able to make a saint. But if you have not fallen into a like fault of human frailty, it is God's mercy, not your virtue; since of yourself you are as weak and pitiable as he, and such are we all.

[436] he sharply rebukes Moreover, even if you are free of that fault, do you think yourself free of others? That wrathfulness with which you have come here to accuse your neighbour, without first having corrected him between you and him alone, and not according to the law prescribed in the Gospel — do you not judge it to be a sin, and indeed a deadly one? For the love of God restrain yourself a little, and consider whether perhaps in the benefice which you hold in the church there has not been mixed some hidden simony, which you do not now perceive, but whose mask will be laid aside in the hour of death: consider whether you do not keep in a corner of your chest some coins unjustly gathered, or a wicked will in the secret of your breast; for any of these is no less a sin, and no less a concubine, than she who, by your account, is maintained by your brother. If you had first reproved him apart and in due order, and, making no progress by that way and desiring his amendment with charity, had come to me

I should certainly have thanked you, and you would thus have deserved well; but that you have come here to lay down complaints and to bite your brother with an unjust tooth — this has grieved me.

[437] Thus he rebuked the man who came to accuse his neighbour under the pretext of pious zeal, he secretly examines the accused and recalls him to right living; and defended the absent one. When that cleric had been dismissed, he sent for the other, and, shutting him up in his oratory, reproved him with the love and feeling of grief which both the offence against God and the spiritual harm of that little sheep required, and in the manner of proceeding customary with him, according to what we have related in the preceding chapter; so indeed that each of them came out thence with eyes bathed in tears. A most certain testimony both that the good Bishop had wept while reproving this cleric, and that the man reproved had likewise wept at the recognition of his ruin and at the Prelate's example. So happy, by God's mercy, was its outcome that, as afterwards appeared, that cleric greatly corrected and changed his life, and suffered no damage to his honour.

[438] So zealous was the Saint to preserve this that he gave orders to his officers he takes care that priests that if perchance anyone should say: Tonight I will hand over to you a cleric in a woman's house, or a woman in his house — that I say even if the man saying such things were a person of distinction and offered money, they should not betake themselves thither or stir from their place, unless either he himself or his vicar general had expressly ordered it. Because, he used to say, such a man either sins out of frailty and in secret, or out of malice, without shame and openly: if openly, then we too shall know it and shall give you the order; if out of frailty and in secret, there is no reason for you to intercept or arrest him with uproar and ignominy, but he shall be summoned by us, and the Lord will permit that through our reproof he return to right living. But if anyone was so accused that it was expedient to summon him by a beadle, he would say to the beadle: Summon such a man to me; but do not join yourself to him as a companion; rather walk two hundred paces either before or behind him, that no one may understand that he is being brought by you; for the good name and honour of an ecclesiastic is a matter of great moment and price. ^c

[439] Master John Baptist Caro, visiting the diocese, be openly arrested, but, when summoned, found in a certain place that the parish priest maintained in his house a woman and several children common to them both, all poor and naked; taking pity on him, he was unwilling to lead him away a captive; he only directed that he should drive them all, mother and children, out of the house. Returning to Valencia, he set forth to the holy Prelate the perverse manner of life and the great want of the parish priest. He, touched with a great feeling of grief, said: Do you write in your own name that he should come to Valencia, and when he is here, do you present him to me to be reproved. And although I cannot but rebuke him dreadfully, and you will see me angry, yet if we perceive in him acknowledgement of his fault and a desire of amendment, do you intercede for him and continue to intercede, however much I may seem inflamed with anger. Write also that he should bring the woman and the children, lest they remain there; but let him not know that you write at my command. So master Caro did, and wrote as the Archbishop had commanded. The parish priest came with his household: as he arrived, master Caro said to him: Your perversity of life has become known to the Archbishop: nevertheless let us betake ourselves to his residence, and when you come into his sight, cast yourself at his feet, ask pardon, and promise from the bottom of your heart that hereafter you will not offend the Lord.

[440] he rebuked them and, to the penitent, They went on to the palace: master Caro, entering first the chamber where father Don Thomas was, said, in the priest's hearing: My lord, the parish priest of such a place is here, to implore the pardon and mercy of your Lordship. What parish priest? said the Saint. Let him come in: and looking at him: This is he who keeps a woman and so many children by her in his house: drag him out of here, let him not remain here before me, take him to prison. Then master Caro began to intervene for him, and the priest, prostrate at his feet with many tears, to beg pardon and most earnestly to promise that he would correct himself: so indeed that the blessed Father, moved with mercy, likewise had tears flowing from his eyes, and amid these said: If you acknowledge your fault, and pledge from your soul that the Lord will not be offended by you hereafter, I will pardon you at once; but if anything be reported hereafter against your manner of life, you shall pay for all at once. Amend yourself as you ought; see that you be a Christian and a priest, and that you live as such; you will enter into grace with God and with me. The priest prostrated himself on the ground to kiss his feet; but he did not allow this, and threw his arms about him, earnestly urging him to stand by his promises.

[441] he showed himself accommodating and generous: It did not suffice the charity of the Servant of God to have granted him pardon and to have so greatly roused him to amendment; but seeing him also ragged, poor and miserably circumstanced, he directed master Caro to procure clothing for him and likewise for the woman and the children, and the keeper of his treasury to pay the cost. When they were clothed, he granted the parish priest leave to return home and to his church; he ordered the woman and the children to stay at Valencia, and supplied them with food, until by his order she bound herself to the service of a certain matron. Of the children, the youths who were of an age fit for service he placed with masters, the girls with mistresses, and the boys with craftsmen, that they might be taught a craft; and the infants he gave out to be nursed until they should reach a like age.

[442] pitying an imprisoned priest, A priest of another place, leading a shameful life, was often reproved by the holy Bishop, and, since he did not amend himself, was ordered to come to Valencia, and on arriving was cast into prison. The Saint, noticing that some days had passed and that no one entreated or interceded for him, said to master Porta: So far as I see, that wretched priest, detained in prison, has neither friend nor intimate: do you, I pray, see to it that, without his knowing it, someone intervenes with me; perhaps through what he has endured in custody and through our reproof he will return to right living. Master Porta induced to this master Peter Maça, a very learned theologian and a familiar of the Archbishop: but although the holy Prelate desired this very thing, yet, that the business might obtain a better effect, as soon as master Maça began to plead he showed himself difficult and to all appearance angry, saying: Do you beg me for him, for that incorrigible and pernicious man, who has deserved to be sent to the oar? Do not beg me for a man so obstinate. Nevertheless, as master Maça continued his prayers (which he himself also desired), the man was brought out of prison.

[443] When he came into his sight, the Bishop, holily dissembling and with no other aim than to profit that soul, he himself, that he may have occasion for sparing, stirs up an intercessor; said: Take him back, take him back; for he will not amend himself; do not entreat for him: but as they were leading him away, he said to master Maça: Order him brought back; that I may comply with your prayers and with the charity by which you were moved to this, I will not punish him according to his deserts. When he had been dragged to his feet, the Archbishop touched him with such a discourse that he drew tears from himself as he spoke, from the offender prostrate at his feet, and from all the bystanders, and brought a remedy and medicine to the soul of that wretched priest. For there and then the man resolved and promised to correct his life, and fulfilled it in deed, passing the remainder of his life most uprightly. Not in this one thing alone did the same priest experience the mercy of blessed father Don Thomas, but in another matter worthy of esteem. For the Saint, seeing him ragged and miserably clothed, said to master Maça, when all had gone away: I noticed that that priest was miserably clothed and appointed. That struck me with grief: do you have a cloak and a full-length tunic made for him at once, and do not disclose that the price was paid by me, but let him pray for the one who bestows this alms upon him.

[444] To all prisoners, both clerics and laymen, whom it was fitting to detain for their faults in his prison, he orders prisoners to be kindly treated. he ordered food to be supplied. He showed the same charity to laymen distinguished with the tonsure, whom for their offences he sent to the citadel and prisons of Chulilla, ^d maintaining them wholly for as long as he ordered them detained there according to the measure of their crime. I said: to laymen distinguished with the tonsure; because, as all report, throughout the whole time of his archbishopric he sent only two priests to Chulilla: one who had committed a homicide — and him only, partly to preserve the peace at Biar, where it had been committed, partly because he abundantly deserved it — and another who had betrayed the secret of the sacred confession made to him by a man guilty of homicide, of whom we treated in the preceding chapter.\* To the keeper of the prisons, who said that he suffered loss from the custody of poor prisoners, he made good whatever loss he suffered, both for his relief and lest, because they were poor and not profitable to him, he should neglect to serve them and to succour them with charity.

[445] To the fiscal procurators and beadles likewise he himself paid a wage sufficient to sustain life, He forbids his ministers to accept gifts, and directed that they should accept not even one royal coin from anyone. He took diligent care that none of his ministers should receive even a single coin from anybody, or should do anything unseemly either for his own advantage or from necessity. He himself perfectly relieved all their needs, and used to say: I do not wish you to receive money from anyone, much less from clerics: if a need arises, tell me, run to me, for nothing of what is necessary will be lacking to you. On each of the more solemn feasts he handed to each of the beadles, fiscal procurators and keepers of the prison four crowns, both as an alms and as a gratuity and favour for faithful service. The labours of journeys and whatever extraordinary tasks he laid upon them he repaid most fully: and if any loss or misfortune befell them, feeling it himself in his mind, he came to their aid and supplied what was necessary.

[446] One of the beadles, returning from Enguera, whither he had gone by his order and on his business, fell on the road and was gravely injured. Arriving at Valencia, he went to him to render an account of the business transacted. The good Bishop learned of the misfortune he had met with, and, that they may be faithful, he himself abundantly relieves them. and how exhausted he came, and ordered him to betake himself home. Presently, on entering it, he saw coming to him a physician and a surgeon, to undertake his care and to apply such remedies as the injury received from the fall required. On the following day in the morning father Don Thomas's distributor of alms visited him, bringing two hens and a hundred reals, and admonishing him in the Archbishop's name to be of good courage and not to be anxious about anything, for nothing would be lacking to him of what should be necessary in his sickness. After a fortnight the same man returned with two other hens,

and another hundred reals, and in the same manner he was always relieved until he recovered full health and was able once more by his office of beadle to support his family.

[447] the opinion of two successors concerning his government. He exercised the same charity very often in cases of this kind, whether of sickness or of any necessity whatever, toward the rest of those who held any office in his service: and this solely both that he might relieve them as needy, and that he might forestall any occasion of their doing anything in their office alien to equity, and that he might encourage them to treat offenders and prisoners with that charity and humanity which he himself desired. ^e Hence lord Francis de Navarra, who succeeded him, hearing of the remarkable kindness and charity of father Don Thomas and the illustrious examples of his heroic virtues, used often to say: Who could tread in the footsteps of so great a Giant! And lord Martin de Ayala, archbishop, ^f who held a place among the outstanding and more distinguished theologians whom Spain has possessed in our times, learning of the divine government of father Don Thomas, and how frequently Michael Real, in his time the ecclesiastical judge of the archiepiscopal court, had conversed with him, sent for the latter and endeavoured to be instructed by him how the Saint corrected clerics, how he chastised their offences, and especially how he bore himself when they were accused by laymen: being eager to cleave to his examples and footsteps in every matter. ^g

ANNOTATA.

\* the sixth of this book.

CHAPTER XVII.

The Saint's charity and liberality toward beggars and toward the shamefaced poor.

[ ] Out of charity toward the poor Both from what father Don Thomas judged concerning the obligation by which Bishops are bound to be very liberal toward the poor, and from the remarkable name and repute which on account of his alms he always obtained, and obtains even today, it will easily be understood with what munificence and largesse he relieved the necessities of the poor. For since he judged so certain the opinion and doctrine set forth by us in the two preceding chapters, ^a and was so zealous to please the Lord, as is evident from what this History has thus far declared to us, there is no doubt at all that, retaining for himself only what was plainly necessary for himself, his household, and the decency of his state, he laid out all the rest in alms. Nor was he led to this either by the importunity of the poor or with a reluctant mind, but by great goodwill and charity; since God attributes an immortal and everlasting memory to those alms alone which proceed from a heart full of true charity and mercy, not to those which (as sometimes happens) are bestowed on account of anyone's entreaties and importunities, and other human regards. The blessed Bishop was of a heart so inclined to alms, and of such piety and mercy toward the needy, that it did not suffice him to bestow what was superfluous to his honourable maintenance (in which lies the whole obligation of a good and God-fearing bishop), but he even (as we shall presently see) deprived himself of necessities in order to relieve them, and grieved in his mind that far more was not at hand to be granted them.

[449] he grieves that the revenues of the archbishopric are not larger As soon as he was declared archbishop of Valencia, and it became known in this city that he had accepted, there were sent from this church Don Michael Vique, canon, and canon Pellicer, with some priests, to congratulate him and to greet him in the name of his church. Among these was master James Messeguer, doctor of theology, at that time enjoying a benefice in the same church, and afterwards prefect of the schools at Orihuela. ^b Those who came he received with much love and provided lodging in the friary itself. While master Messeguer was staying there, he asked him privately one day how much revenue the archbishopric yielded, and when he replied that it then yielded about eighteen thousand ducats, he seemed on that account to grieve, and with some feeling of mind said: They have deceived me, I thought it was worth more: and turning to the said master Messeguer (who himself narrated this to me): Master, he said, do not wonder that, on hearing that it is not worth more, I was seized with grief: for I do not do this for my own sake, since for me and my household a thousand abundantly suffice; but I understand that many poor are found in that region, and I grieve that so little is produced for as many poor as they have told me are found there. About no other matter (said that master) did I see him anxious than about this alone: whether there would be much that he could bestow upon them.

[450] revenues, almost all of which he lays out. When he had reached Valencia, and had completed the visitation and that diocesan synod of which we have spoken, in order to set in right order whatever pertained to the manners and life of his sheep, and to bring aid to the spiritual necessities of souls, which, as is fitting, was his first care, he presently turned all his thoughts to bringing a remedy to the temporal affairs of the poor: distributing his goods for their benefit and for that of other pious works in such a way that, as those report who had full knowledge of this matter, apart from the two thousand ducats which were paid to his predecessor lord George of Austria, ^c and the three thousand which he expended on the uses of his house and household and on the wages of jurists, ministers and procurators (which was done so orderly and moderately that there was even a surplus at the year's end), he laid out all the rest in alms. For the two thousand ducats which he furnished to the college and the parishes of the newly converted to the faith ^d must likewise be reckoned among his alms, since it was so pious a work and pertaining to the service of the Lord. So that, on first arriving, the archbishopric yielding eighteen thousand ducats, he spent thirteen thousand in alms; then, as soon as the revenue reached twenty-two thousand, he bestowed seventeen thousand; and when in the course of time it rose to thirty thousand, he gave away twenty-five thousand every year, not leaving himself so much as a farthing for the following year, ^e because, as he himself used to say, he would count that a sacrilege.

[451] He orders fixed alms to be distributed daily But that it may be seen with how vast a care he attended to and provided for all the necessities of the poor, he kept the following order in bestowing alms. For the poor begging from door to door he ordered meat, or according to the requirement of the day fish, to be cooked every day in a special pot, and to each of those coming to his residence from the tenth hour there was given one loaf, a bowl of pottage, a draught of wine and one coin; and to those who seemed pressed by sickness or by some infirmity he wished there to be given, besides the bread and pottage, a portion of mutton and two coins. And so great was the number of those who ran to that dole that, since the courtyard where they were placed in order to receive it could not hold them — for sometimes four hundred were there, sometimes five hundred and more — it was necessary that some should wait for others, and that when the first had been dismissed, as happens when someone sets a second table, others should come in, and when these had gone out, others should follow. And this was done with such charity that, however late they came, none departed from the residence without an alms; for he had commanded that no one should be sent away empty at whatever hour he came; he should, however, be admonished to be present earlier in future.

[452] There was no lack of one to object to him: Let your Lordship observe to those begging from door to door; of those returning a second time that many among these are shirkers of labour; others who, from what they eat here, lay aside the coins collected from door to door and make a profit out of alms; others who, since they run up in such numbers, sometimes carry off two and three portions, the servants whom they deceive not noticing. But to these and like arguments, by which charity is wont frequently to cool under the appearance of zeal, the holy Almsgiver would reply: If there are idlers and worthless men in this city, let the governor and the magistrates of the city keep watch; that in no way pertains to me, but it is my part to relieve the necessities of those who present themselves at the doors of my house. But if from the little obtained here from us,

they lay aside the other alms, or receive several portions and deceive us, what harm do they thereby bring upon us? God in His mercy forbid that we should deceive the poor; for when we are deceived by them while bestowing in good faith, with a sincere heart and in the name of Him who, to make us rich, willed to be in want and to die in so great poverty upon the Cross, that is the almsgiver's crown.

[453] On a certain day, through the window of that spacious hall he interprets deceits kindly. which he commonly paced, observing how the food was being distributed to the poor, he caught sight of one who, having received his portion, passed a little afterwards to the other side to receive another; one of the servants who brought the basket and pot thither recognized him and began to rebuke him; and as they contended with one another, the servant saying that the portion had already been given him and the beggar denying it, the Archbishop, seeing the whole matter, sent to order that the alms be given him and that all altercation be dropped. When all the poor had gone out, he called the servant and asked why he had refused to bestow the alms on that man: and when he answered that the man had already received his portion, and had fraudulently passed to the other side to receive a second: Do you call this (said the Servant of God) a fraud? You have not known the poor very well; do not hereafter mix yourself up in altercations of this kind; allow yourself to be deceived by them. For that poor man, by whom you suppose yourself deceived, may have been sent from heaven to test your charity and patience: for so we read of a poor little man who, changing his dress and appearance, several times in the same day begged alms of blessed Gregory: and he was an angel, appointed by God to try the piety and mercy of the holy Pontiff.

[454] Toward the poor whom we call shamefaced — such as are many artisans and people of the middling sort, both men and women, To the shamefaced poor, who cannot procure a livelihood by the labour of their hands and endure vast want in their homes — he was touched with great compassion, and relieved them not only through the dispenser of alms, but even with his own hands. The dispenser of alms was charged to inquire of the rectors of the parishes and of the overseers of the poor, who are appointed in them each year, how many shamefaced poor dwelt in each and where they lived, and the keeper of the treasury paid out to the same two hundred ducats every month, that they might relieve each one suitably to his want. But if necessity required more, and the dispenser of alms signified that two hundred did not suffice, more also were paid out. Besides that ordinary bestowal of alms, which was made through the dispenser, father Don Thomas furnished another with his own hands to many whose household was more numerous, or whose condition was more honourable and their need of a larger dole.

[455] of whom he keeps a list, To this end he kept a memorandum book and list of such persons dwelling in each parish, and determined that in the first week the poor of one parish of this kind should attend, and in the second those of another; and thus in a cycle of three months the same persons from the same parish returned, as it were by turns, to receive that dole from his hand. This dole, on going out to perform the divine Office, he handed to each one wrapped in paper; and every day there commonly came fifteen or eighteen men to receive it, sometimes even more. To each he gave at least fifteen reals, and to many more, bringing aid according to each one's need. For since he had a list and the names of all, and a particular knowledge of each one's want, he succoured them according to the requirement. In that manner he was a help to all; and to some, who lacked the ability to work, he granted a fixed daily dole on which to live.

[456] and to those unable to work he generously succours: A certain poor young farmer, who procured his livelihood by the labour of his hands, by an accident lost all the strength of his right hand and the power of working. Hearing how kind and generous toward the needy father Don Thomas was, he came to beg alms. He, perceiving the man's infirmity and want, directed the prefect of alms to bestow seven reals on him every week. The prefect gave these for some weeks; but afterwards, judging that he was young and robust, he advised him to apply himself to some labour and not to come back again to receive the dole. That poor man came to father Fray Thomas to report how they had withdrawn from him the dole appointed by his Lordship. At once he ordered the prefect of alms to be summoned and asked why he had taken away the man's dole. When he answered that the man seemed to him young and robust and fit for work: And what does youth and health profit (said the good Father) a poor farmer, who knows only how to plough and to dig, if his right hand, with which he must work, denies him its service and is destitute of strength? Restore, restore his dole to him at once, and at the same time make up the weeks in which you have not given it. So he helped many others who were unable to practise their crafts.

[457] To various artisans To those who were fit for practising their crafts, but were nevertheless pressed by need at home and could remedy it by practising their craft, if only they might obtain some sum of money, ^f he himself supplied the means of procuring what was necessary for practising their craft. And this not only when they themselves declared their want, but even when they did not declare it: by whatever way he learned of it, he ordered them summoned to him and gave them the means of acquiring what would enable them, by practising their craft, to support their household and to live comfortably and honourably. Thus on various occasions he ordered several weavers of silk and of nap cloth to be summoned, and helped them with great liberality to the same end. To one of these, summoned to him, he said: I have heard that you are pressed by need, because you lack a stock for practising your craft: if you had silk of your own for weaving cloth, could you support yourself and your household? The craftsman answered: If only, my lord, I had a hundred ducats with which to buy prepared silk, and might begin to weave for my own profit, I place my trust in the Lord that by these and by the dole which your Lordship bestows on me every third month, both my household and I may live comfortably. Therefore, said he, call in the keeper of the treasury. When he came he directed him: You shall give that honest man at once a hundred and fifty pounds, and let tomorrow not pass without your having given it.

[458] That man prostrated himself to kiss his feet, for want of materials but the holy Bishop restrained him, saying: Brother, give thanks to the Lord, whose those goods are, not mine, but entrusted to me that I may relieve you; buy yourself silk at once and begin to weave your cloths: but see that both you and all your household worship the Lord piously; and if you worship Him, through these beginnings and through your labour He will Himself help you, and you will pass your life honourably. And do you visit me from time to time; for it will be a pleasure to learn how things go with you; I shall commend you to God, and, where it is necessary, help you. With these hundred and fifty pounds the good man procured silk, set up a loom, and he and his household began to work. Through these beginnings, through the Saint's prayer, and through their labour, his family prospered day by day and gained in such a way that within a few years he possessed many goods, and he shortly gave up the alms which the Saint bestowed every third month.

[459] Others practising the same craft, whose need became known to him, to those unable to practise their craft he likewise ordered summoned to him, and helped in the same way, bestowing on some the same sum of a hundred and fifty pounds, on some, because their household was more numerous, the sum of two hundred pounds, to be applied to the same business of procuring silk; and to these he would say: Take heed: if the cloths to be made from your own silk must be disposed of at some loss or damage to you, whether because trade is not flourishing or because buyers are lacking, do not do it; keep them until they can be conveniently sold, and until you obtain at least the price of your silk and of your labour: meanwhile come to me, for I shall not fail your want. One of these in particular, who came to him several times, he asked one day: How do your affairs stand? Have you any need? I have, my lord, he answered: for the woven goods are not selling, and this is hard for me. Then tell me frankly, said the holy Prelate, what you now need, so that you may sell without any loss: for that would grieve me. Twenty crowns, my lord, he replied, could be a remedy for me, until some merchants from Toledo come who will buy at a fair price.

[460] Hearing this, he called in the prefect of the treasury, and directed that thirty be given him, and added: he supplies a notable sum of money If in the meantime, while you are spending what you have now received, those merchants of Toledo have not come, or others to pay a just price, come back to me and tell me what you need; for I shall not fail you; therefore do not sell at a loss, since it will not weary me to relieve you; since I know that you and your wife serve the Lord piously and labour according to your strength: and in truth, as often as he returned, he succoured him with great liberality. The rest experienced the same, whom, when they could not conveniently dispose of their wares, he helped until there was opportunity of selling at a suitable price. In this way, through what the Servant of God bestowed so that they might procure what was required for practising their craft, and what he added lest they should sell their wares below a just price, and through the prayers with which he favoured their labour, they acquired goods and became foremost in the practice of their craft.

[461] a true Father of the poor He was so true a Father of the poor that, as a natural parent not only provides how his children are to be fed today and tomorrow, but also whence they are to have the means of living in the future, lest a livelihood suited to their station be lacking, and therefore takes care that they be trained in some art or trade, or, if they be noble, that riches remain to them and revenues or possessions, and, as St. Paul says, lays up treasure for them; so the blessed father Don Thomas not only bestowed the said alms, whether every week through the dispenser of alms, or himself every third month upon needy artisans, or the extraordinary ones here related for procuring the things suited to practising a craft, but also provided and inquired by what means and way the shamefaced poor, together with the alms which he gave, might occupy themselves with some employment suitable to their relief.

[462] to a widow, that she may feed her children, A certain poor woman was bereaved of her husband and left with many children still very small. The Saint, having learned her want and her virtue, succoured her with a fixed dole every month; but observing that by this alone she was not delivered from difficulty, he desired to know what craft she might know how to practise, so that by the alms and at the same time by the gain procured by the labour of her hands she might conveniently nourish her sons. This business he commended to God and turned over in an anxious mind. For he often said that alms

consists not merely in this, that something be given, but that the needy person be delivered from his necessity and, as far as can be done, set free; nay, that a Christian man is unworthy of the name of almsgiver who, being able to snatch his neighbour from want, neglects to do it, or at least does not prepare the way and apply himself zealously to obtaining a remedy for him. That this is the very thing which the Holy Spirit says in the first verse of the fortieth psalm in these words: Blessed is he that understandeth concerning the needy and the poor, etc. For, speaking of the true almsgiver, He does not say: Blessed is he that gives to the needy and the poor, but: He that understandeth: that is, he who provides, turns it over in thought, inquires with his understanding how the poor man may obtain a remedy and be delivered from want.

[463] he sets up a house and workshop. Therefore that true Almsgiver provided and pondered in his mind, commending the matter to the Lord, by what means that destitute widow might, together with the alms given her, feed her sons and bring them up honourably. Under God's guidance he called her and said: Sister, the need and trouble which you suffer on account of your little children grieve me exceedingly: I should like to learn whether you know any art or trade by which you might earn something and, together with my alms, obtain a remedy. I shall supply what is necessary for what you know how to make, and shall help you. The woman answered that she knew how to prepare fine flour, barley meal, and things of that kind. Rejoicing greatly, he ordered everything necessary for this trade to be procured for her at once. And so there were straightway made for her a small mill, chests and the requisite tables, a little ass too was bought for her, and, as the Saint directed, wheat, barley and everything necessary for furnishing a house and workshop was supplied. By this trade, and by the support she derived from it, and by the monthly alms, the poor woman was fully restored and brought up her children comfortably. The same charity and solicitude he showed to many others skilled in some craft (whom I do not here enumerate, since for that alone another and indeed a longer book would be needed), bestowing, besides the appointed alms, money for procuring the instruments and material of their craft, and besides that a certain sum whereby they and their household might be honourably maintained while they worked.

[464] It did not suffice the holy Bishop to bestow a dole out of his own goods, He earnestly urges others to do likewise, but, as a father of the poor who provided for them with heart and mind, he tried to induce those who came to him and dealt with him, whom he knew able to bring aid, to the same solicitude and piety. Hence some witnesses report, who in his time were procurators of the poor in the parishes, that whenever they visited him all his conversations turned upon their poor: namely what income, what dole they obtained. His first word when they came was this: What are your poor doing? And in all the rest of the conversation he commended them earnestly to them, and admonished them, as though his own advantage were at stake, to take pains to preserve and, as far as could be done, to increase the revenues appointed for them from certain legacies and from the alms of the faithful. For so, he said, there will be found in your parishes honourable men who will undertake the administration of the poor, and who will not be reluctant to add something of their own, so as to supply them with either good or at least middling food: and out of the affection with which he was carried toward this matter, he would say as he dismissed them: Take heed: on that matter we must have frequent conversation together; nay, all our talk must needs turn upon it.

[465] On a certain day he gave to one of these procurators, named Louis Camarena, he earnestly commends it. a counsel worthy of the prudence and charity of so holy a Prelate, saying: Hear me; out of the goodwill with which I am affected toward you, because I find you so inclined to cherish the poor, I wish to give you this counsel: What must be done with your goods, since they have been granted you by God and no children survive you, do in your lifetime, and let it be done wholly for the benefit of the shamefaced poor and of honourable persons who are secretly pressed by need in their homes. Do not put it off, so as to write in your will what is to be given to the poor who shall exist hereafter: for the hand of God is not shortened, that He should not succour, and should not move the hearts of the faithful then living to bring help and bestow alms upon the poor of their own time. For God will not require of you an account of the needy who shall exist after your life, but of those who now, while you live, endure want, and to whom, while you can do good, you bring no aid. Consider what you have already heard said in a sermon in the time of the Lenten fast upon the Gospel of the rich feaster and poor Lazarus: for the Lord imputes nothing else to the rich man than that he had not relieved the misery of poor Lazarus, then present and lying before his doors. To the poor now existing belong the rich now existing, and to the poor of the future, the rich of the future. And this is hinted at by the words of the Holy Spirit in the twenty-second chapter of Proverbs: The rich and the poor have met one another: and thus the Lord ordained. ^g It is surely plain that a man already born and another yet to be born do not meet one another, but two who are already born and enjoy life at the same time.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER XVIII.

His charity toward men of every condition, and first toward poor ecclesiastics.

[ ] His munificent charity extends to all, To the good bestower of alms, ^a as he himself favours and succours all, so also all bless him living, dead, and, as long as the world shall stand, they will bless him: but when this world has ceased, he will rejoice in that heavenly and divine blessing above all blessings, hearing from the mouth of the supreme Judge before all His angels: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Among these is the blessed father Don Thomas, whom, while he survived among the living, no one had as a familiar, no one knew, without blessing him a thousand times; and after whose death no one has taken his name upon his lips or received it in his ear without blessing him. And that we may be sure that he will enjoy that blessing to be bestowed on the day of judgment, the holy and Apostolic See has already now granted that we should call him and venerate him by the name of Blessed, and has attributed to him the glorious title and surname of the Almsgiver, saying: Blessed Thomas of Villanova, surnamed the Almsgiver ^b: a title plainly just, and owed to his charity and mercy, since there was no kind of needy person to whom he did not bring aid and succour, as is evident from what has been related thus far: and that this may appear more particularly, it has seemed good in this chapter to run through under distinct headings all the orders of men ^c to whom he was a help with great largesse.

[467] It is abundantly evident from chapters thirteen and fourteen ^d how above others he helped many ecclesiastics in spiritual matters, and first toward priests, to whom he brought spiritual winning their souls by his holy reproofs, prayers and afflictions of the body, withdrawing them from a wicked state and making them servants of God: then how he brought support to several of them who were in want of temporal things, procuring and bestowing clothing and the means of living honourably. Besides those enumerated by us there, the witnesses in the process mention several others whom, seeing that they profited nothing by his reproofs, he detained for some days in custody, that they might be amended by chastisement. But when he released them from custody, he rebuked them like a Father, and if they were poor he also clothed them and helped them with alms, so as to bind them the more strongly for the future to the divine service.

[468] One of those whom he assisted, as he did others, I shall here merely add. and temporal aid, On a certain day he asked whether any of the priests were in custody; for on account of the care he took that they should be released when it seemed to him that the time they had spent in prison was enough for amendment, he supposed that none now remained. He was told that only one remained. Then: Wretched priest, he said, who has not had the good fortune to be freed like the others! Let him be released and brought to me here. When he had been brought, he rebuked him with great charity, and admonished him that unless he amended himself, as he promised, he would send him back to prison and chastise him severely. But although he threatened with his mouth for the man's good, he nevertheless contemplated attentively with his eyes his poverty and nakedness, and pitied him so in his heart that without delay he called master Porta and ordered him that same day to ask money of the prefect of the treasury and to see that there be made for him a cloak, a full-length garment, a shirt, a doublet, and a complete outfit. As the visitor was going away to order the clothes to be made, he called him back and said: See, as I understand, he has only the one old shirt which he wears, torn and filthy: I said one shirt was to be made; let two others be made besides this, that he may have a change. Likewise, because he knew that he was poor and had nothing besides his Mass stipend, he ordered money to be handed him with which to procure the necessary furniture of a house. But he also said to him: Worship the Lord piously, and visit me again; because I desire to bestow on you thirty reals every month, that with that support together with your Mass stipend you may maintain yourself: but if you return to the offence of God, which indeed I shall learn of very soon, I shall deprive you of the alms and shall make of you a particular example of punishment. So

he assisted in spiritual and temporal matters a priest who thereafter piously worshipped God.

[469] Being informed that some priests in certain churches of Valencia were pressed by great want, whereby they too might honourably since they enjoyed no other benefit than the Mass stipend, namely about half a real, and another half which they obtained each day from the distributions by supplying the places of others; nay, that even if some of them enjoyed a benefice, its fruits were very slender, and besides that either a mother or poor sisters had to be fed — with the same charity he succoured those he had summoned to him with his own hand in portions divided out over the several months, giving according to each one's necessity to some thirty, to others forty, to others fifty and more pounds a year. The same men, or their mothers or sisters, when sick, he ordered to be visited by his chaplain, and, taking nothing away from the alms usually given, he supplied a physician, remedies and whatever was necessary. Likewise, when extraordinary cases or necessities arose for which the customary alms did not suffice, he himself came to their aid according to the requirement of the case or the need.

[470] live, and support poor parents A poor priest maintained in his house his mother and sister, who were in want, and was pressed by great necessity, because what he received each day, both from the Mass stipend and from the distributions in the church, did not exceed one real. He knew how to weave silk cloths; and so, when the hours of the office in the church were completed, having a loom at home, he spent the rest of his time every day, even on Sundays and feasts, in weaving; and thus from what he acquired in the church and by the weaver's craft he supported his household, to which without the practice of the craft he knew he was unequal. He was accused by his neighbours of giving them a depraved example by laying aside his full-length garment like a layman, weaving cloths, and working on Sundays and feasts. Defending his cause, the Saint said: What if perhaps he is poor, and the fruits received in the church do not suffice him? There is nothing here to be an offence to you, but rather something by which you should be touched by an example of virtue, since St. Paul at the hours when it was allowed laboured, working with his own hands, and from the gain thus acquired supplied a livelihood for himself and for those who were with him. When these had been dismissed, he sent for the priest, disclosed the complaint laid against him, and asked him to state plainly whether it were true.

[471] and feed them The priest replied that the matter was so: namely that, the hours of his service in the church being finished, he spent the remaining hours each day, even on Sundays, in weaving silk cloth; for which end the full-length garment had to be laid aside and a layman's dress assumed: but that this was done in his own house with the door shut. That in the church he did not receive more than one real a day, and that with that real and the gain acquired from the weaver's craft (because he knew no other) he fed his mother and his sister and provided for his own need; that in short this was the plain truth. The Saint embraced him in his arms, saying: If it were lawful for me, I would kiss those hands that serve a work of such great piety in feeding a mother and sister. Do not desist from it; for you render a great service to the Lord. Would that more priests, who go out of the churches to stroll about and waste their time, would shut themselves up in their houses and apply themselves to the work of their hands; would that those who do not know how would learn, and would distribute the gain thence obtained among the poor, when they themselves are not in need! Oh, how rich such an alms would be! Nevertheless, although it is truly lawful for you, when you are free of the church, to work with closed doors even on Sundays and feasts to meet the need of your parent and sister, yet do not do it on those days; I shall succour you, my alms will make up what you would have gained on those same days. Come to me at the beginning of each month, and each time I shall hand you twenty royal coins. The holy Bishop rejoiced greatly whenever he came, and gave the coins with great charity as long as he lived, and on the more solemn feasts he doubled the dole.

[472] he confers support A singer in the greater church, a native of Guadalajara, having learned of the ill health of his mother, who lived there, resolved to visit her, and, coming to the Saint, asked him to give him his blessing before his departure and to pray to the Lord for her. Having promised that he would keep her commended before God, he questioned him: How much money have you procured for your journey? I have forty pounds, my lord, said he. That is little (said the blessed Father): for besides the expenses of the journey going and returning, you will bring your sick mother nothing of the dainties and delicacies and things of the city of Valencia by which she may be refreshed. And so, out of his vast charity, overlooking nothing, he ordered another forty pounds to be given him, and one mule of his own (though he had few), so as to spare him the cost of hiring another, and that he might there be able to serve his mother and be a comfort to her the longer, not troubling himself how much the hire would cost if he were going to stay a long while.

[473] In this manner he brought aid to many clerics not only at Valencia he shows the same liberality but also in other places of his diocese, charging the visitors who went out for the sake of visitation to inquire in all places great and small after clerics labouring under poverty, and to succour them; nay, to bring him a list of them, since he would arrange how their need might be met in the course of the year. He likewise relieved some poor religious whom their monasteries could not suitably relieve; for when, not being ignorant that a remedy was brought by him to all, they informed him of their want, he furnished help with immense love. Likewise, and indeed with greater largesse, he directed alms through his chaplain to nuns whom he knew to be devoted to God and withdrawn from the affairs of the world, and bereft of parents, kinsfolk and friends, exhorting them to continue to keep themselves within their cloisters, removed from the company of any person whatsoever; since he would not fail them, especially in their infirmities: and this he also fulfilled in deed.

[474] Moreover he assisted certain needy monasteries of well-ordered discipline, and indeed with notable alms; toward religious. the ordinary ones were fifty pounds about the feast of St. John the Baptist and another fifty about the Nativity of the Lord. When the Fathers of the Society of Jesus came to Valencia, perceiving how great a profit they would be to souls, according to their institute, by preaching, administering the Sacraments and expounding Christian Doctrine, he helped toward the foundation of the college of St. Paul with a notable dole of two thousand five hundred pounds, and with many others thereafter, and favoured them on all occasions. ^e To this house of ours of blessed Mary of Succour he bestowed as a dole a hundred pounds a year, as to one of the poor houses of well-ordered discipline. And since it was provided with only one dormitory, and that above the church, he gave five hundred pounds, with which a new one might be built above the refectory. And for the necessary adornment of the sacristy he contributed help several times, and indeed of fifty pounds each time. Finally, whenever the confessor, a religious of this house, indicated some need, he sent for the Prior and complained that he had not come at once to signify what was needed, and gave with great charity.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER XIX.

His munificence toward noblemen and matrons in want relative to their station.

[ ] To noblemen The witnesses assert that words cannot express, nor sufficiently extol, the help and the great support which noblemen and men of the first rank experienced in that holy Prelate, whom, according to the dignity of their persons, so that they might preserve the decorum and honour of their station and not be brought down by necessity to matters or actions humble, base, unworthy of themselves and ruinous to their consciences, he succoured with many and very ample alms; but, what is worthy of note, he took care also that it should become known to no one

the munificence and largesse which he employed toward them, lest anything of their good name should thereby be lost. A nobleman came to him, declaring his need and begging that he would deign to relieve him with aid: at his mere word he did it, and, because the man was a person of the first rank, with a notable sum, promising that a like sum should be granted him as often as he came. Nevertheless, wondering that that nobleman was pressed by so great a necessity as he had indicated, he gave a familiar of his the task of secretly inquiring into the matter. He, on a pretext sought out, went to the nobleman's house to look it over, and found it very well furnished: so much so that he did not seem to him to be pressed by need, whose house was so well ordered.

[476] Returning to father Don Thomas, he brought back this answer: in want relative to their condition Truly, my lord, he said, as that nobleman's house is furnished, I for my part do not believe that he is in need; for he has better furnishings in it than your Lordship has in this house of yours. Rightly so, said the Servant of God; but concerning the revenues and possessions whereby he may live honourably, what did you learn? On that matter I found out nothing, said he. Then the holy Bishop: Since, brother, he said, I desired to know this, and it remains unascertained, be certain that an honourable man, such as that nobleman is, would not have come to me to ask help, as he did, unless he were afflicted by the need he set out to me. Nor does it matter that his house is furnished with fine appointments; on the contrary I rejoice that these have not been pawned and sold by him, because thus he has regard for his good name. And charity requires that we take precautions lest a noble and honourable man suffer the loss of his name because his house is destitute of those appointments and furniture with which other men of the same condition have theirs furnished. And so the kindly Father of the poor went on to relieve him with his alms, bestowing at intervals a hundred and fifty pounds each year; and when an extraordinary necessity arose, he relieved him in this too.

[477] Many others, whom it would be long to relate and enumerate here if I wished, noble and honourable men, he helped, some every month with twenty crowns, others with thirty and others with more, according to the condition of each one's stock and the household to be maintained at home. I shall record only two, whence the great charity and mercy of the Servant of God may shine out. There lived in this city, with distinguished daughters of marriageable age, a man of the first and more illustrious nobility of this kingdom of Aragon, but, relative to his station, in great want. The Saint desired to be a help to him: but knowing that he would be suffused with shame if there were any talk of bestowing a monetary alms upon him, he devised this way: when the fruits were to be leased out, he called him and said: Have you, my lord, an intelligent and faithful agent? When he said he had, he added: Order him then to bid for such a portion of the leasing to be made today, and although, as I have learned, two thousand ducats are gained from it each year, certain and subject to no dispute, let him not offer for that portion or tract of land more than one thousand; the other thousand I desire that you set down to your own profit, and I shall reckon it a favour shown to me by you: but let no one know that that portion of land has been leased in your name.

[478] The matter was so carried out. Some who had knowledge of that portion or land said that they would have given more than two thousand for it, nay two thousand five hundred, and that this was a loss to him. He replied that, since those goods were his own, they should not be anxious about the matter; that he knew what he was doing, and rejoiced in that loss. Thus the nobleman leased that portion of land, having regard for their honour, and it, when the rent had been paid and the necessary expenses deducted, yielded him from the remaining profit more than a thousand ducats a year, and sometimes a thousand five hundred. Thus he maintained his household honourably as long as father Don Thomas survived among the living; as the sons of the same nobleman, imbued with knowledge of the whole affair, themselves testified. As for others of similarly eminent condition, who would accept nothing under the title of alms, he employed other arts and methods, and with great secrecy brought a remedy to their want when he had learned of it.

[479] with remarkable liberality A nobleman to whom at the beginning of each month he gave twenty crowns, an extraordinary necessity having arisen, came to the almoner of the holy Prelate, named lord John, to signify it to him: he said that he came indeed covered with blushes, because he had a few days before received his monthly portion, but that he was nevertheless urged by need to beg for help. The almoner went up to the chamber in which father Don Thomas was, informed him of the nobleman's need, and, according to his own words, added that he would be content with a hundred reals. These, as soon as the matter was laid before him, he ordered to be given. As the almoner was withdrawing from the chamber he said to him: Listen: even though he begs only a hundred (perhaps he does not dare beg more, because he considers that twenty pounds are given him by us every month), hand him two hundred reals. The almoner, perceiving so great kindness and piety, rejoiced greatly. But as he was setting about to go down the stairs, the Saint ordered him called back. Listen, he said: an honourable man, and one who every month receives from us the dole granted him, is here on account of an extraordinary need; give him three hundred reals; for he will surely need them. The almoner went off very content with that order. Before he had traversed the whole flight of stairs, the Saint ordered him called back again: Listen, he said, since an honourable man comes running at night and at this hour out of a particular need, that need must be greater than he has reported; count out four hundred reals, and admonish him not on that account to omit coming here each month to receive the ordinary support necessary for the maintenance of his house, and to signify to you any other need whatsoever arising beyond the usual; [add] that neither will it weary you to report it to me, nor me to relieve every one. For it did not suffice the holy Almsgiver to give liberally, but he himself encouraged those pressed by want to declare their needs and to ask.

[480] and with prudent ingenuity A certain jurist, very familiar with him, returning from abroad, came at once to visit him, and met him in the spacious hall where he was accustomed to wait for the poor and for others who wished to signify some need. At the same time there was present a nobleman to whom on the first day of each month the Saint gave sixty reals; and these indeed, foreknowing that he would come on that day, he was carrying wrapped in paper in his sleeve. As they both entered together, the good Father was at a loss how to hand the poor nobleman his dole at once, so that neither should the latter be forced to wait, nor the jurist notice it; he commended the matter to the Lord, and, taking the dole wrapped in paper in his right hand, which he had placed under his scapular, he came to embrace the jurist, and, throwing his left arm about his shoulder and saying: You have come at a welcome moment, he stretched the other [arm] over the other shoulder, and, while the jurist did not notice, handed the paper to the nobleman: and then at once placed his hands under his scapular; and thus he prudently satisfied both the courtesy to be shown to the newly arrived jurist and the charity by which he wished to relieve the nobleman wholly secretly and with not even a moment's delay interposed.

[481] Not to these alone did he give assistance with such great and never wearied piety, he gives assistance; but, after the likeness of that heavenly Father whose goodness is so remarkable and perfect that He makes His sun to rise upon the good and the bad and rains upon the just and the unjust, ^a this excellent Almsgiver also supplied help and support to all, not only to the good and those endowed with virtue, but even to some who, on account of their offences, did not deserve it, lest they should become worse or go utterly to ruin. He was warned that a nobleman whom he relieved every month with ten crowns sometimes indulged in gambling and abused the alms, and that it was expedient that he be deprived of it. That indeed I shall not do, replied the good Father; because, unless we give, he will become worse, and if he now commits a single evil, he would then commit more. Thus he protected the absent man. Then he ordered him to be summoned to him, and rebuked him most gravely, setting forth the foulness of the fault and threatening that he would be deprived of the alms unless he returned to right living. He bade him consider that the goods which he gave him belonged to the poor, and that he would be severely punished by God unless he spent them on the necessities of his house. So greatly did that reproof avail that the nobleman never returned to gambling, nor ever involved himself in anything by which he might brand a mark of infamy on himself or be a depraved example.

[482] To women of plebeian rank, both widows and married, he gave succour, likewise to women in various ways, when he had learned of their need, according to the measure of their want; to some bestowing every week or every month through the almoner's hands a fixed sum of money, to others with his own hand in this way: for these alms he had appointed two days in the week, on which in one week the women of one parish should attend, and in another those of another; and when he came out of his chamber to celebrate Mass in his domestic chapel, they should all, with veiled faces, be arranged in order in the spacious hall next to the said chapel. Thus arranged, he went round them, gave to each an alms wrapped in paper, and exhorted them in a low voice to serve the Lord piously and to trust firmly that the heavenly Father would never fail those who piously worship Him.

[483] For the sake of women of higher condition and esteem, and to matrons, whom it did not befit to go to his house along with plebeians, and who would not accept an alms in that manner, on each Wednesday and Friday that did not fall on a feast day he betook himself to the chief church to celebrate the divine Office in the chapel of St. Louis, and when this was finished and his thanksgiving completed in the sacristy of the said chapel, he came out and took a small seat placed beside the high altar, so that matrons of the first rank and of honour, with veiled faces, might approach his feet as those of a confessor and declare their need and trouble: if this was spiritual, he consoled them and suggested counsel suited to the good of the soul; but if temporal: Send me, he would say, your confessor: for through his ministry I shall bring you aid. And when he had learned more particularly from the confessor the matron's condition, virtue and want, he directed through him what he understood to be necessary. ^b

[484] By this way he succoured many with immense liberality, to the more illustrious of whom he sent sums secretly and he used to say that alms of this kind were of great merit before the eyes of the Lord; because other women of the plebeian sort can go into service and disclose their need to the overseers of the poor in the parishes; but a noble matron liberally brought up, who cannot do this, and is pressed by need, stands in great peril of soul and of honour. And hence he said that alms and help shown to such women, lest they fall into offence against God, were spiritual rather than temporal. And what is a remarkable example and lesson of virtue: having received notice of the want of certain very illustrious matrons, whose dignity and birth forbade them to disclose it to anyone, or to ask or accept a dole, he employed this device.

[485] sending them as though in payment of a hidden debt. He strove to learn with whom they

expiated the faults of their souls; these he sent for, and, holily promising that secrecy would be kept by him, and admonishing them to keep it likewise, he inquired into the want of those matrons, and, having learned the truth of the matter (for they, being confessors, could not be ignorant of it), he weighed it, and took counsel with them how much it would be expedient to grant them according to the state and the want of the household; and at length he would say: Therefore take this now, father, and hereafter return here every three months to receive as much; and tell that matron (but, that she may not blush, see that she in no way learns from whom it is given her) that it is sent by a person who is bound to her by some debt, and cannot pay the whole at once, but only by instalments, and that thus the debt will be paid every three months. And he spoke the truth, since according to the doctrine related above, and which the holy Prelate held as certain, alms made by bishops are owed to the poor. Truly astonishing to grasp are the devices and methods of this excellent Servant of God for succouring and favouring all. But no one will wonder at it who has considered how proper it is to Christian charity, established at its height and perfection, to be ingenious and to find unusual ways of doing good and giving aid to all.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER XX.

His liberality toward poor girls to be joined in matrimony; his care of exposed infants.

[ ] To poor girls Toward poor girls he was affected with great compassion, and rendered them help with remarkable charity and largesse: so much so that throughout the whole time of his archbishopric there were no marriages of poor maidens to which he did not contribute something in support. For dealing with their marriage or assigning a dowry he had appointed neither a time nor a day; but at whatever time he was asked on behalf of a needy or orphaned maiden, he bestowed an alms. Daughters of the common sort he called to his residence with their fathers or mothers, and addressed them with much kindness, so that they might set forth their want; and, by the remarkable prudence with which he was adorned by the Lord, he at once discerned whether they were dealing sincerely. And to make himself the more sure, he entered their names and dwellings in a register, and, appointing a day on which they should return, dismissed them kindly. Meanwhile he took care to have inquiry made secretly through the almoner into their manners and life. If the report was upright and suitable, he contributed toward the marriage what we shall presently say; but if not, he handed over only some dole and dismissed them with a just reason given; for no one ever departed from his residence without support.

[487] He expended ample alms to this effect. to enter upon marriage For to needy girls, whether they were orphaned of their parents or not, who had earned some wage by service, he commonly conferred on each a support of twenty or twenty-five pounds; and of this kind at least eighteen or twenty were given in marriage each year; to those whom their parents could not put out to service, but for a just cause (as happens with some poor craftsmen and with many honourable widows) were compelled to keep at home, he supplied forty or fifty, and to some seventy or eighty pounds according to the station of the persons: and of this kind likewise he settled in matrimony every year, in the city and throughout the diocese, twenty-five or thirty. The first thus helped by him to enter matrimony were some poor girls of Villar and Chulilla, towns of the archbishopric, because these, as being his own dependants, seemed to be preferred. For the same reason, when he first visited those places, learning that the poor were many at Chulilla, he gave two hundred crowns for buying wheat, and directed the parish priest and the magistrate to distribute it among the poor according to each one's want.

[488] The daughters of honourable and noble parents he helped according to their condition, he grants a dowry some with a hundred pounds, some with two hundred, some with three hundred and more; and this with such charity and such affection of piety that, when by some certain way he had been informed of the need, there was no occasion for many to ask him or to exaggerate the matter in order that he should stretch out his helping hands: he himself took care to reckon what would be necessary for a maiden of that condition to be honourably married, and what help her parents could bring, and to succour according to the requirement. In that way he gave assistance.

[489] In his thought he also anticipated what those contracting marriage with craftsmen would need, he grants, both that the husbands might at once be able to set up house, and that they might practise their craft and procure a livelihood conveniently. And so some witnesses report that, when a poor girl was being joined in matrimony to a young carpenter, being asked to help with a support of twenty pounds toward buying a bed and other furniture, he granted it liberally, and at the time when he was bestowing it he asked what craft the young man knew whom the poor girl was marrying; the answer was, Carpentry. Whence then (said the excellent Servant of God) shall he live, unless he have some sum of money? It is not just that we should procure him household furniture and no money for practising his craft: and turning to the prefect of the treasury: Give him, he said, fifty pounds, that with the twenty asked for he may set his house in order, and out of the thirty added he may procure material for himself and work at home: and so they were given. To the young man, who cast himself at his feet and gave thanks for such charity, he said: Give thanks, my son, to our Lord Jesus Christ: for He out of His own goods has helped you, not I: for these things are not mine, but His, and destined for you. And under these auspices, the Lord favouring his labours, that carpenter afterwards acquired goods and honourably maintained his household. ^a In the same way he helped many others, not only bestowing what they asked and what he was accustomed to give, but often double and more. And if with some, not from vice or fault, but from sickness or some other cause, the household estate was falling apart, he succoured their want.

[490] suited to each one's station. The daughters of noble and first-rank men, as he supplied help to their parents themselves, that they might live honourably according to their nobility and condition, so also he helped as to a dowry, that they might enter upon marriages befitting their parents' honour; and very often he added, of his own motion, more than was requested and seemed necessary either to those who were negotiating the marriages or to the parents themselves: because it is proper to true charity always to reckon small what it renders for the Lord's service and for the profit of neighbours, and however much it renders, always to desire to render more. Here occasion offered itself to record what befell between him and certain tailors on the occasion of the marriage of their daughters: but we shall treat of this matter in the twentieth chapter ^b which follows, where we shall set out a discourse concerning his care of gathering goods for the poor.

[491] All foundlings As concerns exposed infants, all who lived in his time in the general house of the poor bear witness, and it was most widely known, that as long as he survived in life he undertook the care of rearing all who were exposed there and of paying the wage of the nurses. For this reason they then began to be laid, not at the door of the house of the poor, but before the doors of his own palace, and sometimes two or three on the same night. Hence he sometimes fed fifty or sixty, nay sometimes seventy or eighty of these. Nor was he wearied, however great the number, nor did he take it ill that they were exposed at the doors of his house; on the contrary he received them with a more cheerful countenance and remarkable piety. ^c

[492] he receives with a cheerful spirit, On a certain night an infant was exposed at the gate of the palace: two servants observed it and at once ran up; the one took up the infant, the other pursued at a run to identify the man who had exposed it; and although he overtook him, he thought good to let him go. They both went up with the infant to the chamber in which father Don Thomas was supping, saying: We bring your Lordship a child; we could have brought the parents at the same time, for we overtook them; but that did not seem good. At once with a cheerful brow he took him in his arms, examining whether he had been washed at the sacred font; finding that he had, he blessed him, and, turning to the servants: You did not act rightly, he said, in pursuing the parents; for what were we to do with them, had they been brought by you? Let this not be done hereafter; for want afflicts them abundantly. He handed him to bishop Segrianus, with whom he was supping, and said: Let us at once seek a nurse to feed him; where forty-eight are nursed, as many as we have, forty-nine will also be nursed, and more, if the Lord shall send them to us. For he never feared that means would be lacking with which to maintain the poor.

[493] he entrusts them to nurses at his own cost, Since the charity which he showed to those infants was known to all, and many were brought to him by night, the holy Prelate (who weighed all things with an intent mind), both on account of the harm which the infants might suffer by lacking the nourishment of milk through the whole night, and on account of the trouble which by their wailing they created for the household, took care that two of the nurses should live near the palace, and hired houses for them, so that they might take up the infants at whatever hour they were exposed, cherish them with milk and keep them, until nurses were found for them, who were sought with great diligence on the very next day. And like a good father who repeatedly desires to look upon a son nursed away from home and to find out how he is, he had ordered all the nurses to come with the little infants to his house on the first day of each month.

[494] Having entered, they waited for him in the spacious hall of the chapel, he orders them brought to him at a set time. and he, when the sacrifice of the Mass was finished, went round them all as they were placed in a double row, examining each infant, to see how they were nourished and in what state they were brought. To the woman who brought one clean, neat and rightly cared for he bestowed, besides her wage, a bonus of some reals; but to her who brought one not so cared for he granted nothing; on the contrary he rebuked her and reproached her negligence, so that hereafter, both to enjoy the bonus and to avoid the reproof of negligence, they might take better care of the infant. He did the same thing on the chief and more solemn feasts after dinner: for he counted it in place of better and more savoury sweetmeats ^d to see how the infants were fed. If he found any languid or pale, he grieved much, and complained to the nurse, asking why she fed him so. And if any (as happens) replied that she was poor, and did not obtain sufficient food from the wage given, he ordered a bonus to be given her secretly by way of alms, lest the others should complain or take it ill. If they needed remedies for correcting their milk, he ordered them to be supplied; for the Servant of God succoured all with great charity.

[495] He also observed with what swaddling bands and cloths the children, and he examines whether they are carefully reared; and with what garments the nurses were clothed, and ordered what was necessary to be furnished both to the children and to the nurses, so that the latter might go about in suitable clothing and the infants be well appointed and clean, since he loved them as

his own sons. While they were brought in and he examined each one, he stroked their foreheads with his hand and caressed them; and to the nurses he would say: If the son of a king were committed to you to be nursed, how honoured and fortunate you would count yourselves, with what solicitude you would feed him, how clean and rightly appointed you would keep him! But the King of heaven reckons these little ones to be His own, He willed these to be committed to me, and these I commit to you, sisters, in His name; keep them clean and rightly appointed, for whatever they need we shall wholly provide.

[496] That those who were unable to rear infants might the more easily expose them at his residence, he takes care that they may easily be exposed at his door; he ordered the door to be kept half open in summer until the ninth hour and in winter until the seventh hour of the evening, and the entrance of the house to be lit, but in such a way that its brightness should not hinder those who wished to bring them; and, so that they might be no less able to expose the infants when the doors were shut, a little bell was hung there for them. ^e He had also promised his servants — namely that when they noticed some infant being laid down, they should at once run with great diligence to take it up and bring it to him — that he would grant to anyone who brought him an infant a fourfold real; and thus, as soon as they perceived either an infant or the sound of the bell, they at once flew to take it up and carry it in with all speed.

[497] A destitute married woman one night laid an infant before the doors of his residence. a mother receives her own exposed son to nurse, On the next day early in the morning she came to the nurses who lived next to the palace to supply milk to the infants exposed by night, asking whether by chance they had an infant for whom a nurse must be sought, saying that she would nurse him, because the child born of herself had died. You come opportunely, they said, for one was brought this night; let us inspect your milk, and if he shall be willing to suck it easily, you will be able to nurse the boy at the same wage at which the rest are fed. Her milk being inspected, which was fresh, and which the boy took very easily from her breasts, they informed father Don Thomas of the matter, and on the report of those nurses the child was committed to her to feed, and, as the custom was, a part of the wage was paid in advance. Thus the woman carried off her own son, money for her need, and new swaddling bands for the infant; for those in which he was wrapped when she exposed him were so poor and torn that they could not be used. And he had directed that the nurses who lived next to the palace should keep swaddling bands and cloths in reserve and fit for infants who were brought naked or wrapped in poor and torn clothes unfit for further use.

[498] which the Saint learning, none the less pays the wage; Although the woman took the greatest pains she could that this matter should be wrapped in great secrecy, yet it could not be so hidden but that she was recognized as the infant's own mother, and the guile she had used. It was also pointed out to the Servant of God that he should withdraw her wage, and might even wish to demand back from her what she had obtained by fraud. That indeed I shall not do (replied the Servant of God); be mindful of what I have said to you on other occasions; let us beware of defrauding the poor; for when we are defrauded by them, no harm accrues to us — nay, often much profit, such as accrues from that woman. For unless she were his mother, we should bestow an alms upon only one child by supplying nourishment; but since she is his parent, we render a benefit to both: to the child by procuring nourishment, to the woman by succouring her want through the wage which she earns. This very thing, he added, the mother of Moses did, nursing her own son and receiving for him a wage bestowed on her by Pharaoh's daughter: nor does holy Scripture on that account reprove her, nor ought we to reprove that poor woman, who devised this guile to bring a remedy to her want, and who brings me the interest of a double merit, in that, being informed of the matter, I earn it by making a double alms; and I do it gladly.

[499] those afflicted with a malady he entrusts to a surgeon, To a surgeon named John Baptist Alatar ^f (an honourable and good Christian man, though sprung from the New Christians), because he was skilled and deft of hand at healing those who were crippled in some limb, or had an arm or leg broken or dislocated, the Saint used to send children or poor persons afflicted with such a malady to be cured, together with notes drawn up by his secretary. And the said Alatar, when he pleased, gathering the notes, went to father Don Thomas, who paid the price of the cures made at his order according to those same notes. When the reckoning was made, the Saint would say: Brother Alatar, this matter concerns the poor: let us bestow an alms upon them; and he would deduct something, paying the remainder with great liberality and cheerfulness: so indeed that the surgeon, weighing the charity of the holy Prelate, went away well content with the price given.

[500] by whom the incurable are healed not without a prodigy: On a certain day there was laid before the doors of the Servant of God a little girl with her feet twisted backwards: he ordered that surgeon to be called to bring them to their right position and to cure her. When he saw her he said that he did not dare to undertake it, because he had never cured a like malady, and judged it to be incurable, since she had been brought into the world in that condition. The good Father did not on that account lay aside his confidence, but, embracing him in his arms, said: Apply what you are wont to apply for softening the sinews and joints, and, binding her with bandages, fix your hope in the Lord; since through faith His divine kindness brings a remedy to what men judge wholly incurable. The surgeon, believing his word (for he was very familiar with him, and, looking up to him as a remarkable Servant of God, reverenced him with great devotion), carried out father Don Thomas's orders, and within a few days so cured her that he brought her feet round to the front, and, inflicting no torment or pain, so set them as if she had never been afflicted with such a malady. Whence both Alatar himself and those who had seen her before and beheld her afterwards were moved with great admiration, and judged it to be an evident miracle, wrought by the Lord on account of the prayers and faith of the blessed Bishop. The same surgeon asserts that afterwards, when the cure of that girl made by him became known, he undertook and cured other infants brought to him by some accident, trusting in the merits and favour of the same father Don Thomas on account of the vast devotion with which he attended him, and that in each case he recognized a miracle wrought by God through the intervention of the blessed Father.

[501] Not these infants only did the charity of father Don Thomas gather, he receives orphans into his palace to be fed. but many others who, their parents being carried off by death, were left orphans and destitute of all protection. There died in this city a poor cobbler and his wife, leaving three infants, of whom the eldest was at most four or five years old: when he learned of it, he ordered them to be brought into his own house. Here they were reared by an upright woman of advanced years and pious example, whom he had set over the infirmary. Feeding them there, he cherished them with such love that the boys, on seeing him, ran up as to their own parent, such as he truly showed himself by his deeds. This was continued until they grew somewhat older; for then he committed them to masters to be taught a trade. In this same way he fed and cherished many bereft of parents and of all human help; and he succoured all with such care that, as he himself asserted a few days before his death, he had paid the nurses' wages and the children's food for two years after his death.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER XXI.

His joy when occasion is given for bestowing alms; his frugality toward himself, that he may bestow more; the building of two colleges.

[ ] He delights So great was father Don Thomas's mercy toward the poor that, in however great a multitude they offered and presented themselves, he was never wearied. His greatest pleasure and consolation was to learn the needs of the poor and, when he had learned them, to bring a remedy. There was in this city a holy woman whom he greatly loved for her virtue and Christian piety, but especially for her charity and liberality toward the poor. To her, since it was known with how great love father Don Thomas was affected toward her, many destitute persons ran, some that she might intercede for them with him, others that she might lead them to his residence; and since they were frequent, she, fearing that she was bringing him trouble, said one day: Truly, my lord, I come almost driven by force, and I no longer think that I obtain any merit from it, for I do not doubt that I bring much trouble to your Lordship. Smiling, the good Father said: Do not believe that, but reckon that you deserve much from it. For in whatever way you come, you have God and the piety by which you are touched toward the poor as your guide. Do not cease to bring them; and let no weariness of it seize you, for none seizes me, nor will it hereafter, however frequent they be; and nothing else is troublesome to me except that there is not much more at hand to bestow.

[503] when the poor Of a poor craftsman who owed seven crowns,

a cleric began to take his goods in pledge, because, although he had granted many delays and had waited a long time, he had never obtained payment, and was himself in want. A neighbour, knowing this, urged the craftsman to inform the Archbishop of it, since he would direct the cleric to desist from the distraint: and although the aforesaid debtor refused to go thither, saying that the cleric was in the right, since he had waited so long, the neighbour spurred him on and offered himself as a companion; and so they came to him together. Receiving them, he listened very familiarly, but took the cleric's part, saying: He has done you no injury, since he waited so long, and perhaps he is in greater want than you. In this he has committed no fault, but you have, in that, having nothing wherewith to pay, you did not come to me, who would have succoured you at once; and you would not have received that trouble from the distraint, and by declaring your want to me you would have brought me great pleasure. He at once directed the almoner to hand him ten crowns to pay the seven which he owed, and the expenses, if any had been incurred in the distraint. Dismissing him, he said: If necessity befall you at other times, run to me; I shall supply a remedy, and it will be a pleasure to me: which he also performed on another occasion, when on account of debts the one little house which the same man held was put up for sale, and he came to his aid.

[504] He delighted in the visits of those, and received with great pleasure those, come to him, whom he knew to be given to almsgiving and kindly toward the poor, and whose talk and conversations tended to this, that they might supply protection to them and point out to him those whom they knew to be pressed by necessity. Such persons, when they visited, he received with outstretched arms, and, when they bade farewell, he exhorted them to visit more often to treat of the relief of the poor. As holy Scripture, in expounding the charity of the patriarch Abraham, reports that he stood at the door of his house, on high places and hills, so as to lead into his house the poor and the strangers whom he caught sight of thence, to serve them and to set out a lavish table: so also the blessed Don Thomas, after he had celebrated Mass and dispatched the business of those who were waiting for that purpose, would stay for a notable space of time in the spacious hall of the chapel, with all the doors both of that hall and of the stairs standing open, waiting to see whether anyone would come who might ask an alms or set forth some need: and for this reason he received the newcomer most lovingly and familiarly, and ran at once to his relief. Likewise, without anyone noticing, he surveyed with his eyes through the windows of that same hall the portico of his house, and through the windows of the chambers the marketplace, to see whether he might detect a poor man coming: he would order him to be called, and, being informed of his calamity, helped him at once. And God provided that, although he bestowed alms so great and so continual, what was to be given never failed.

[505] When on a certain day, after taking his dinner, he had distributed among the poor all the money he had in the house (as sometimes befell him), whom he can help toward the evening of the same day there ran up some pressed by great need. Finding that nothing was left to him to give them, he felt a most vehement grief — not indeed at their coming, for this was his pleasure, but because he had no money in the house to bestow upon them. Uttering no word, he entered the chapel, and there with many tears humbly begged the Lord to be favourable to those poor, and by His blessed hand so to provide that they should not depart from his house without solace. While he was occupied with these things, before any of them went away (for since he had signified nothing, and they did not know why he had gone in, they waited), there arrived one of the merchants who had leased the goods of the archbishopric, with two servants carrying in a basket a thousand ducats, for the greater part in silver, for the rest in lighter coin, wrapped in papers.

[506] He was called to receive that money: and so great was his joy that, as before he had poured out tears from grief, so, seeing this remarkable mercy of God, entreated indeed by himself, he wept for gladness. he hands his cloak to a needy man; Straightway he gave part of that money to the poor who had waited, and gave infinite thanks to the Lord that in that case He had supplied the means whereby they should be helped, and should not go away without an alms, without which none of the poor ever departed from his house: so indeed that once, when he was destitute of money to give to a needy man whom in mid-winter he beheld almost naked, he called him and, that he might cover himself, handed him the cloak ^a of black cloth which he wore over his white garment, as the religious of our Order are wont to do when the cold is severe. Moreover he bade him return the next day, when the almoner would supply him with help for the sustenance of life.

[507] he is believed to have bestowed more Some wondered how he could give to so many and so much as we have related in the preceding chapters, and are about to relate in this one, the archbishopric at that time yielding at most twenty or twenty-five thousand ducats. For according to what has been recorded thus far, even if it had yielded seventy or eighty thousand ducats, they would truly have been necessary to help all, as he did, and so many with so many and so ample alms. But this wonder will find no place with him who on the one hand understands how much the industry of a good householder avails and can do, so that, by not spending goods out of order and on superfluous things, and by gathering what can be gathered without a lack of the necessary, a little may be equivalent to much; and who on the other hand knows the power of alms, and how frequently it happens that loaves are multiplied by the Lord in the hands of almsgivers, so that by five alone many thousands of men can be abundantly satisfied.

[508] than he received from his revenues; Both things helped father Don Thomas to bestow from so modest an income so many and so ample alms (which, it is certain, if a reckoning and computation could be made, would far exceed all that he received). For, as we shall presently see, on his own part he took great care to spare expenses as far as he could for the benefit of the poor, while God on His part took care to increase and enlarge his alms. He was so solicitous and strict in sparing expenses for the poor that I truly do not think there is any natural father so thrifty for his children, however dearly loved. For he came to such a pitch of parsimony for the benefit of the poor that he withdrew food from himself and mended his garments with his own hands, as we saw in this second book, chapter eighteen. ^b And that this may appear more particularly, I shall record in this chapter what befell between him and certain tailors, reserving for the next how God in several cases enlarged his alms.

[509] he is thrifty with himself, Since he had two doublets very much torn, especially in the sleeves, he sent them to be mended at the house of that holy woman whom I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. She, having looked at them, went to tell him that they were so torn that she could neither repair them, nor was it fitting that so great an Archbishop should be clothed in them; since for thirty royal coins a new one could be made. Nor shall I do this (said father Don Thomas). For when sleeves have been sewn onto them, they will be able to serve me, and with those thirty reals we shall help someone who lacks a garment, whether new or mended. So he ordered a tailor to be called to repair them and to attach the sleeves: before he handed them over he wished to bargain about the wage; and although the tailor said once and again: Your Grace will order to be given me what you please, he was by no means willing to acquiesce, but insisted that it be told him how much the man would receive. Then he named a certain wage, but father Don Thomas, judging it more than fair, disputed so long that, although the craftsman at last agreed to what the Archbishop said was fair, he went away much offended and, as it were, injured by a bad example, reckoning him miserly and mean.

[510] The holy Bishop noticed this well enough, but cared little; that he may give to the poor, for the desire of sparing for the benefit of the poor obtained more power in his heart than any contempt whatever of his own person, provided it happened without fault of his and without offence to God; trusting, namely, that the divine goodness, which knew his mind, would turn it to His own glory and would unteach men of their error: as befell with that tailor. For to the same man, who had three daughters of marriageable age and nothing wherewith to dower them, a certain cleric of the church of St. Catherine the martyr urged that he should go to the Archbishop and declare his need. And when he refused, because, remembering what had happened while he mended the doublets, he thought him miserly, the cleric so persuaded him that he resolved to go to the Archbishop, to set forth his need and to beg for help. Recognizing him at once, the good Father listened most lovingly, and asked the names of the daughters and with whom they confessed their sins. Being informed of these things: Go, he said, brother, with God's favour; let your confessor come here; and do you and your daughters commend the matter to God: He will direct it, and will come to your aid.

[511] He questioned the confessor, and, having learned both the virtue and the want of the girls, as is shown by two examples, the one, and the opportune occasion which offered itself for giving them in marriage, he asked what dowry would be suitable: and when the confessor answered: If your Grace would deign to supply thirty pounds for each, it would be a remarkable piety and a great help to them; In the name of the Lord, said father Don Thomas, do you and their father come here tomorrow; I shall draw up a bond for him concerning them, and when the marriage is concluded I shall pay it out. The father came to him with the confessor to give thanks for the benefit rendered him; and since so great was the charity of the holy Prelate that he most carefully weighed and examined whether what he granted the poor would suffice for their need, he had thought that night that thirty pounds were little, and that the greater part would be necessary for household furniture; and so he said: Listen: yesterday I promised your confessor thirty pounds for each of your daughters when they are given in marriage: I have thought about that matter this night, and have found it to be little, because the greater part will be necessary for furnishing the house with furniture: therefore fifty shall be given to each; with twenty pounds they will be able to furnish the house, and the rest to spend on procuring the material of their craft, that they may begin to work. The tailor, beholding such piety and munificence, prostrated himself on the ground to kiss his feet, but the Servant of God restrained him, and said: Are you not the very man, my brother, who repaired my doublets? When he said yes, he added: I know that you were offended when you saw me disputing about the wage: but you judged wrongly: for then I tried, and always try, without taking from anyone what I judge to be just, to spare expenses so that I may be able to bestow this alms — not to heap up money for myself; because I have no need of it, nor, by God's favour, will any be found with me at the time of my death. That matter was very public in this city; for, although father Don Thomas enjoined secrecy, that man could not keep silent about so great a piety and largesse.

[512] the other, The doublets being so ruined that they could neither be of use nor be mended again, he was compelled to procure a new one for himself: he ordered it to be made by another tailor; and when the man brought it, he asked at what price it stood. And when the craftsman answered that the cloth together with the workmanship came to twenty-four royal coins, ^c Take it, he said, brother, and carry it home: for a doublet so costly does not suit me: and although the craftsman made many replies to this, he would never have it for himself, but it had to be taken away and another made of cheaper and plainer cloth, costing only ten reals: whence he too was offended, and judged him mean. After some days a daughter of his had to be given in marriage, and, like the other tailor, lacking a dowry, at the urging of a cleric of the metropolitan church he went to the Archbishop to ask an alms; this he granted with a glad mind, and, as he judged suitable, bestowed seventy pounds. ^d The steward had been standing by when the same man had asked twenty-four reals for the doublet, and was likewise present when he bestowed this alms upon him, and, thinking it ample, said: Lately your Grace was so thrifty toward this same man, and today so liberal. So it is, answered the kindly Father of the needy, because on that day I was making an expense for myself; today I am making an alms: then I was spending out of what it is lawful for me to draw for my sustenance as my own, now I give what belongs to the poor. For myself I want nothing but what is very necessary: hence what is superfluous grieves me and I cut it away; but what I give the poor, since the goods are theirs, neither grieves me nor is there reason it should, but rather that I should succour their needs liberally.

[513] the third, He was persuaded by some to build that high square chamber situated above the principal gate of his house, they saying that the place was very necessary, whither he might withdraw either to study or to recite the divine Office in quiet — nay, that when there was need it would serve for storing grain, and that it would be built at small cost. He did indeed assent to its construction, but finding that it cost far more than he supposed, he grieved most vehemently, so much so that a canon visiting him found him pacing that chamber, holding a Marian rosary in his hand, and much afflicted and weeping: not knowing the cause, and thinking that some grave misfortune had befallen, he asked: What is it, what has happened to your Grace, that compels you so to weep? Alas, my lord canon, he answered, why should I not weep, when they have induced me to spend so great a cost upon this chamber and to withdraw it from the poor? For God will exactly require it of me. The craftsman set over the work to be done, hearing both these words and the many complaints he laid against him, saying that he had been deceived by him when he had asked about the cost to be incurred, and that he was robbing the poor of whatever exceeded the price named by him, gathered together all the workmen labouring there and presented them before him, saying: For the love of God let your Grace not torment yourself, nor complain of the cost that is spent upon this work: for in this you bestow as great an alms as in what you give to other poor. Behold all these men: they are all poor, and have nothing for themselves and their households but the daily wage which they earn here. Unless your Grace were building this work, since it is winter, most of them, nay nearly all, would for the greater part of the days have nowhere to hire out their labour and earn a real: but from this work they have obtained and do obtain a place to spend their labour this winter and to earn daily wages, wherewith they procure their livelihood, and without which they would perish of hunger. This was a vast solace to him, the craftsman showing him the great alms he was bestowing by supplying them with the opportunity of working and of earning a daily wage. On that occasion he inquired which of them were joined in matrimony, and how many children they had; and those for whom he perceived that what they got from the daily wage was too little to maintain a family, he ordered to be relieved with some dole every week through the prefect of alms; and, since it was winter, those whom he found not to have a garment besides the wretched and torn one which they wore daily he directed to be clothed, their houses to be visited, and coverlets and mattresses to be supplied to those who had none.

[514] A silversmith used to fashion on silver plates in enamel very beautiful and pious images, the fourth, and, thinking that father Don Thomas would buy some of the best fashioned to be placed in his chapel, he brought four of these for him to see, setting a reasonable price. The Servant of God, delighted with the sight of them, took them into his chapel, and, placing them upon the altar, sank to his knees and set about prayer; and when this was finished, he brought them back to the craftsman, saying: I give you many thanks for the goodwill shown me by you in bringing them here, and for the consolation received by me from the sight of them; but I have nothing wherewith to buy them: what I possess, brother, belongs to the poor; nor is it lawful for me to take these things from them to make expenses on things not necessary, though holy and pious, such as these images are. So he dismissed him. The man went away, wondering that he was unwilling to buy even so pious a thing, from which the soul could draw much solace, in order to spare expense for the benefit of the poor.

[515] On a certain day, when in the chamber where he was sometimes accustomed to mend his garments with his own hands, and the fifth; the door not being properly shut, he was engaged in that same exercise, it happened at that very time that a man came up to it to ask an alms: but since he caught him mending his own clothes, he withdrew without asking anything at all. The Servant of God observed this, and, guessing what the matter was, called him back at once, and asked why he was withdrawing without indicating the cause of his coming. And he intimated that, if perhaps he had been offended by what he had seen or had lost confidence, he should not on that account be afraid or omit to signify what the matter was. And so the man indicated that he had a daughter to be given in marriage, and that he had not the means to give her unless his Lordship should help. You were withdrawing, then, said father Don Thomas, without indicating your need, because you saw me mending my clothes. You judged wrongly: for it is for this very reason that I mend them myself and strive to save whatever I can, so that I may have something to give when you and others resort to me from this and like necessities. He asked him his name and place of dwelling, so that the prefect of alms might make inquiry concerning his condition; and when this had been made very secretly, he learned that both the father and the daughter were pious and needy, and granted him forty pounds in aid of the dowry. Many others like those here narrated are recorded: for he helped all who came to ask, and never uttered these words: I cannot, or, Come back another day; except when it was fair first to investigate the matter, as when it was a question of helping girls to enter matrimony, of whom I spoke in the preceding chapter.

[516] he repents of a pious work done outside his diocese, For the close of this chapter, that it may appear how he repented of spending anything on any other object than the poor of his diocese, it will suffice to have learned what moved him to found the college which he built in this city next to the schools for poor students. Out of the love with which he regarded the university of Alcalá, where he had learned and taught letters, and at the same time out of a desire to favour his Order in some matter, he there laid the foundations of a college for the religious of our holy father Augustine. Even though the work was so holy and pious, and it is lawful for religious bishops to remember their Order and to render it some benefit — nay, even though he had spent but small cost upon that college (for he gave it only its beginnings, ^e and the province of the Order of Castile afterwards completed it ^f) — he was thereafter seized with an immense feeling of grief that he had spent anything outside the diocese; because it seemed to him that he had taken it from the poor of this place, to whom it belongs. So much so that father Fray John Rincon (whom he took as his companion when he came to the archbishopric of Valencia), returning that way and gazing at the walls of the college, said: O college, how many tears you cost that holy soul living at Valencia! ^g

[517] and by way of compensation Therefore in satisfaction and penance for what he had done at Alcalá, as father Don Thomas himself asserted, he founded the college at Valencia for poor students of his diocese to be promoted to the clerical state, and willed that it should be called the College of the most sacred Virgin Mary of the Temple; because (as we saw in the first book) on the day of the same most holy Virgin presented in the temple he had put on the habit of our Order. For he was never unmindful of the grace granted him by the Lord on that day, nor, even when he saw himself promoted to another state and dignity, did he ever lose the memory of it. Hence, that religious men advanced by God to higher things and increased with honours may perceive how highly they ought to esteem the fact that they have been religious, it seems to me that the very words should be reported with which that most religious Archbishop opened the constitutions of his college.

[518] he builds a college at Valencia. He speaks thus: "To the honour and glory of the most holy Trinity, and of the blessed Virgin Mary our Lady, and for the fruit of souls, especially of the diocese of Valencia: I, brother Thomas of Villanova, by the grace of God and of the holy Apostolic See Archbishop of Valencia, have built and founded in this illustrious city of Valencia a college for poor students under the invocation of Mary the Virgin of the Temple; because on the day of the same most sacred Virgin, presented in the temple, aided by God and by His heavenly grace, I was offered to receive the habit of our holy father Augustine in the friary of Salamanca; and in memory of so great a favour and benefit as I obtained on that day, I have dedicated this college to the most sacred Virgin, and I desire that every year the feast day of her Presentation be solemnly celebrated in the chapel of the said college." Thus far his own words. ^h This holy work, this alms, he bestowed upon the poor students of this diocese for the reason recorded by me; he also left it a small income; because, lest other poor should go without, he had conceived in his mind to increase it little by little, though he was unable to carry it out, being called out of this life by the Lord. From that college, poor though it be, there have come forth, and come forth daily, many men remarkable for virtue and letters, and men who, both in this university and diocese and in others, serve the Lord to the great good of the faithful in professorial chairs, in the pulpit, and in the administration of parishes.

ANNOTATA.

more fully he speaks in chapter 3 of the said book 2.

CHAPTER XXII.

The Saint's alms are made illustrious by miracles.

[ ] A beggar deprived of the use of his limbs He often delighted ^a to behold with his eyes the alms which was daily distributed among all the poor gathering in the courtyard and portico of the palace, which we mentioned in chapter eighteen ^b of this second book; and so from the window of the spacious hall of the chapel he contemplated how it was distributed. On a certain day, among the poor who ran up to receive it, he saw one as it were powerless and crippled in his feet, supporting himself on crutches under his arms, and even with these walking with difficulty and pain. ^c And the holy Prelate noticed that the same poor man fixed his eyes attentively upon him. He directed two servants to bring him to him; they, lifting him with their arms — for he could not climb with his feet — brought him: and when he had been brought before him, he bade him sit on the bench placed there, so that the poor who came might sit and disclose their troubles: and the blessed Father, out of his remarkable humility, sat down at his side and said: I noticed, brother, from the window that you were gazing at me very attentively: what was the reason for gazing? Perhaps the alms which is granted you as a sick pauper does not suffice? Speak openly. For me indeed, my lord (said he), what is given suffices: but there are a wife and two children; and when it is divided among these, we suffer vehement want.

[520] Do you know no craft, he answered, by which, together with what I shall order to be given you, he restores to health; you may be able to maintain yourself and your family? The poor man replied: I know a craft, my lord, for I am a tailor: but let your Grace observe in what state my hands and fingers are; if I had good health for working, I would procure my livelihood by my labour, as I used to do before a malignant flux seized me, by which I was crippled in hands and feet. Which then would you prefer, said father Don Thomas, health, or a larger dole? O my lord, said the poor man, if only I enjoyed health! Not allowing him to say more, he rose, and, making the sign of the Cross over him, said: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth crucified, put away your supports, and go home sound to your work. At once the poor man felt vast strength in his hands and feet, rose up sound and erect, and, prostrating himself at his feet as though he had never been seized by such a malady, kissed his hands; and he blessed him, and, dismissing him, said: Give thanks to Jesus Christ; for He and the power of His holy and glorious name have made you sound. ^d Practise your craft and come here every week; for I too shall relieve you. The poor man went away joyful and openly declaring that health had been restored to him by God through the words uttered by the holy Archbishop. And the Lord permitted that many who had seen him carried up in the arms of the Archbishop's servants should shortly afterwards behold him sound, brisk, going down those same steps on his own feet with his crutches laid on his shoulder, and that those who might testify should survive in life. ^e

[521] A great quantity of bread was baked daily in the holy Bishop's house, meal is multiplied, both for the distribution of alms and for the use of the household. It happened that by a great and extraordinary rising of the river of Valencia all the mills were broken and stopped, so that it was necessary to carry the grain to be ground to Alcira, ^f Segorbe ^g and other places. But since much was daily bestowed upon the poor, and on account of the calamity they ran up more thickly than usual, and the wheat which had been sent from his house to be ground outside Valencia was not brought back in good time, the man who had charge of the kneading trough, perceiving that there would not be enough for two days if the baking were done in the usual way, and that the wheat which had been sent out and was being brought in little by little would not suffice even for the household alone, signified to the holy Prelate that the poor must of necessity be dismissed, and that they must be directed to go elsewhere until the mills were repaired; and he, greatly angered at the man, replied with vast feeling of mind: Shall I send the poor away? God forbid! Sooner shall I dismiss you all, as many of you as I have in my household. Today and tomorrow bake as you do every day, and bestow upon all the needy, however much more numerous than usual they be. And if there be a lack, let it be lacking to us: although I shall trust in the Lord that nothing will be lacking. And so it came to pass: for on that day as many loaves were baked from that meal as were wont to be; on the following day they were likewise baked, as if nothing had been taken from it; and on the third day, on which by that man's reckoning nothing was going to be left, as much meal was found as on the preceding day, as if nothing had then either been taken away: and this continued for about a whole month, until the river mills were repaired. And although every third day some meal was brought in from the outside mills, it did not amount to a third part of what was baked daily for the poor alone. Hence a miracle wrought by God plainly appeared in the meal which that man said would not suffice for two days, and which lasted until all the mills at Valencia were put to use.

[522] a granary with wheat In a certain year at harvest time, the holy Prelate, noticing the impending shortage of wheat and the necessity that would be borne by the poor, and desiring as a good Father to meet it and to provide a remedy in good time, made an agreement with the bailiffs that all the wheat which should fall to them that year should be handed over to him, in deduction of the sum of the leases, at the price at which they were going to sell it before the Nativity of the Lord (for, as I shall report toward the end of this chapter, among the conditions on which he leased out was this, that all the grain should be sold before the feast of the Nativity). This agreement being made, which pleased all, he ordered a great part of the wheat to be carried into the house

for the poor of this city, and the rest to be distributed to other parts for the poor of the chief places of the diocese. When it had been carried to the palace, that high chamber mentioned in the preceding chapter was filled. He called in the overseers of the poor in the parishes, and, as seemed to him necessary, assigned a determined portion of wheat for each week and a somewhat larger one for the chief feasts. He also directed the steward to give wheat, as part of the alms, to the honourable persons and those of the first rank whom he commonly helped, like another Joseph providing for all his brethren, succouring all.

[523] emptied Since so ample and general an alms could not be covered in silence, on a certain day toward evening there came together at his house three widows, ^h upright women, who formerly had possessed both goods and fairly comfortable houses, but who were then pressed by great want — one especially, who had several children and for the greater part little ones. Prostrate at his feet, they each declared their misery, humbly asking that he would pity them and their children, and would deign to order that a little wheat be bestowed on them, in the manner in which they understood it was given to other poor. He at once ordered a servant to ask the steward ⁱ for the key, and to go up and bring wheat. But the steward himself came and said that all the wheat was already exhausted, because, since so many poor were pressed and his Grace directed that it be handed out to all, it could not last so long as had seemed to him. Father Don Thomas was astounded and said: This cannot be so; look again, I pray, for at least something will be left over for those needy women. The steward called two servants who that same day had swept out the granary with brooms, and, See, my lord, he said, here are those who swept out the granary today; let your Grace ask them whether even one grain is left. ^k When they affirmed that nothing was left, he rose and said again: This cannot be so; ^l let us go up thither; I wish indeed to see it with my own eyes.

[524] is filled by divine power. He and the steward went up with two servants, and he said: Open: for God will have mercy on the poor women and will grant us the grace to find something to bestow upon them. They opened, as he ordered, and found the chamber full of wheat, to the great wonder of all, so that the steward and the servants stood astounded, since they had seen with their eyes before that not even one grain was left, and they could not doubt that it was a manifest prodigy wrought by God at that moment of time on account of the merits of His excellent Servant, the Father of the poor, in reward for the remarkable faith and trust which he had in divine providence, and for his piety toward those wretched widows. ^m Out of the prodigious wheat he ordered four measures to be handed to each woman, and from her who had more children he took three little ones for himself, consoling each and exhorting them to perseverance in virtue, patience in misery, and great trust in the divine goodness. Upon all who knew of the miracle he most earnestly enjoined secrecy, charging them in the Lord's name not to disclose it to anyone. ⁿ And although some knowledge of it was gained, yet to few, apart from his own household, did it become distinctly known. ^o

[525] He was touched with great compassion and solicitude toward the sick poor: His care of the sick, whom, going out toward evening, he had commanded the prefect of alms to supply abundantly to all suffering from fevers or other diseases which we call curable, mutton, fowl, pickles, bread from his own house, and whatever the physician should prescribe and they should need: but to those who were seized by infirmities which are called incurable and cling for a whole lifetime, he should bestow at the end of each week a fixed alms whereby they might bear their infirmity. He had hired at a fairly generous price an apothecary, to whom all might resort for anything necessary, and two physicians and a surgeon who with all diligence and zeal should treat all who were to be designated by the prefect of alms. Not content with this, he kept a list of all the sick poor living in each parish, and every week toward evening he went out to visit those in need of greater solace and help. He was accompanied by his confessor father brother James Montiel, the prefect of alms, the steward, and behind them two servants with a great basket furnished with shirts and bed linen for the sick.

[526] He consoled those whom he visited, roused them to patience and to the conforming of their will with the divine. he visits and piously and generously He asked whether anything pricked their conscience, or any trouble afflicted their mind: let them say plainly, since they could trust him as their own parent. And if a poor man hinted that he wished to communicate something to him in secret, he ordered his companions to withdraw and encouraged him to disclose it without fear: and according to the nature of what was communicated to him he brought solace and remedy. He surveyed with his eyes what shirts they had, what bed linen and coverings: when they appeared filthy and torn, he asked why they were not changed, or why the sick man was not kept cleaner: and when he knew that this was from a lack of linen, out of what the servants brought he handed out shirts and bed linen, and when all these had been distributed, he at once ordered more to be fetched from his house. Likewise, noticing that a sick poor man needed a mattress or a coverlet, he directed that these too be brought from his house. For he always kept in a cell adjoining his chapel shirts, bed coverings and coverlets ready for the poor.

[127] To that end, in the houses next to the palace which were inhabited by the infants' nurses, he helps, mentioned in chapter nineteen,\* he kept some upright women who continually sewed shirts and bed linen for him; and when he bestowed these in such quantity both on the sick whom he visited by night and on other needy persons, those upright women warned him that they could not sew so many, however hard they laboured to their strength: but he replied: Be silent, daughters; for you labour for the poor; the Lord will supply strength. [p] If you had stood at the foot of the Cross when our Redeemer was taken down from it to be laid in the tomb, and His most holy Mother had begged your help to sew the linens in which the most holy body of her blessed Son was wrapped, how happy you would have thought yourselves! You do the very same thing now in the shirts and linens which you sew for the poor: with this thought and this attention you must make them; and it is so certain that under this aspect it is received by the Lord, that you will hear it from His own mouth on the supreme day of judgment.

[528] it is made illustrious by miracles; As he went round the sick poor by night once a week, it happened more than once that, when he made his way home, it was midnight, and in the chief church the signal was given for the hours of Matins, and, dismissing the steward with the servants to bed, he said to the confessor and the prefect of alms: Since we are here, let us go into the church; for few clerics perhaps will come this night, and we shall help them at the hours of Matins. To a work of such great piety and mercy as it is to visit the sick in the manner described, the Lord gave His favour by miracles, although they were not made public. For from time to time they brought from the house fifteen or twenty shirts, and ten or twelve pieces of bed linen; but before these ran out, and they were compelled to return home to bring others, on making a careful reckoning they had already bestowed more than they had brought. Some sick men, of whose life the physicians had despaired, were forsaken by their fever on the very night on which he had visited them and had fortified them with the reading of the Gospels and the sign of the Cross; and the physicians, revisiting them the next day and believing that they would find them dead, found them free, past danger, and fit to rise at once from their bed and put on their clothes: and they affirmed that, considering the state in which they had left them the day before, that restoration of health and soundness was not natural but truly prodigious.

[529] cloth offered him as a gift for a garment Since he himself sometimes made a circuit of the diocese, on one occasion the magistrates of the town of Alcoy, [q] perceiving that the black garment in which he came was worn out and much torn, out of the love and reverence with which they were carried toward him, sought out the best black cloth [\*] that could be found and offered it to him, entreating that he would take in good part their goodwill and their desire of serving him; because the garment in which he was clothed did not befit him at all, even were he not an archbishop; that it would be a pleasure to them, they added, to supply him with the best of the excellent cloths of Segovia, but that they offered what they had found best, as to their own parent. Most gladly, and giving many thanks both for their goodwill and for the act itself, he accepted. The cloth seemed to him good and choice, and he asked whether three or four of the same kind were to be found and at what price. When they said yes, he asked that they be brought to him, and that not even one royal coin be deducted from the just price for his sake, since he would take that very ill.

[530] and others bought with his own money he grants to the poor; Three were brought like the one offered; he ordered the servant who kept the money to pay the price at once; and when it had been paid he called together the parish priest, the magistrates and the overseers of the poor of that same city, and said: I am indeed greatly obliged to you for the cloth offered me, and still more for the goodwill and love with which it was offered, and I shall never forget it. The garment which I now wear, though worn out, will be able to serve me from here as far as Valencia: there the opportunity of making a new one will be given; grant me one favour, which will be a very great solace to me. Take, namely, this cloth given me by you as a gift, together with the three bought by me, and, since you know very well who in this city are the shamefaced and honourable poor, divide them among these according to the clothing each one shall most need: and do not forget some honourable and poor widows who shall likewise need a gown. All kissed his hands, greatly roused by the example of his virtue, when they saw such charity in one who took from himself to clothe the poor. They received the four cloths, and out of them clothed many honourable poor; nay, those same cloths stretched much further than they had supposed. [r]

[531] On another circuit, in which he himself visited the Marquisate of Denia, [s] his money set aside for the poor is increased. after he had bestowed many alms upon the poor in those and the adjoining places, had dowered some girls and had succoured honourable persons, especially widows, he ordered the servant who on that circuit carried one purse for the expenses of the journey and another for alms to consider how much money had been placed in the alms-bag when they set out from Valencia, and how much had been drawn from it to be bestowed on the needy of those parts. The servant looked, and found that much more had been distributed in alms than had been put into the purse when they left Valencia, and indeed that a notable part still remained in it. He was greatly astounded, because whatever had been put into the purse at their departure, and whatever had been drawn from it, had passed through his own hands. He indicated this to the holy Bishop and added that it was to him an evident miracle. The Saint ordered him to cover it in silence, saying that he would be seized with great grief if it got out.

ANNOTATA.

p. Akin to these is what Coccinus records at page 540 in these words: The said Mariana de Sottomajor … says that he bestowed the shirts, linens and other linen cloths, etc., of his own bed upon the needy, and that she, the witness, although she had helpers in sewing the cloths, could not finish them so quickly but that the holy Man's liberality outran her speed, so much so that, if she wished provision to be made for the holy Man's sudden needs, she was compelled always to keep two shirts in reserve; and when she had said to him several times: Let your Lordship take heed that, if you act thus, the shirts and linens necessary for yourself will be lacking; the Archbishop answered: Dear daughter, this is for the poor; give, and bring me help: and the same witness adds moreover that of the linen cloths which Note: qui were at hand he was always accustomed to choose the poorer ones for himself and his own. He gave a like answer to another woman named Daces, as we saw in the second Life, number 19.

q. On Escolano's testimony, book 9 of the History of Valencia, chapter 42, it is 15 miles distant from Valencia. See further notice of it in the Annotata to chapter XI of book 1.

r. Without doubt the author here wished to hint that the cloth had been prodigiously increased.

s. Dianium, otherwise Denia, is a town distinguished with the title of a marquisate on the shore of the Mediterranean sea and of the gulf of Sucro, four miles distant from Gandía.

\* with us the twentieth

\ Spanish veyntidozeno*

CHAPTER XXIII.

Continuation of the same matter.

[ ] To the visitors about to survey the diocese He used the same charity ^a when he ordered the visitors to go round the diocese; and how pleasing this was to Him the Lord showed by working some notable miracles, as those report who received them from their very mouths. One of these, which master John Porta recounted, I shall set out in his own words. We commonly surveyed the diocese (he used to say), bishop Segrianus and I: and since the Saint knew how necessary it is for the fruit of souls, and for the good example of all, that it should be understood and seen by them that neither the bishops nor their ministers are led by their own advantage, but by great charity and mercy, he ordered us to take up bundles of linens and cloths, which we might distribute among the poor of the places to which we were going to proceed for the sake of visitation. To these he gave us two large purses, from one of which we should draw money for our expenses, from the other for the alms to be bestowed upon the needy. At our departure he would say: See here what is for your expenses: take nothing at all from anyone, whether cleric or layman, in the places you are to visit: if they offer some fruit, a flask of wine, a thing of small price, you may accept it, for to refuse these would be discourteous; but beyond that, I beg you, nothing; neither money for the visitation, nor any gift whatsoever.

[533] he entrusts money to be spent on pious works, Let the parish priests and the other clerics learn from you how free of private advantage they ought to be. If in the churches you find a lack of sacred chalices, of ornaments, or of other necessary things, and there be no means of procuring them, and the inhabitants be not obliged nor accustomed to come to their aid with support, remind me, or write it in your notebooks, so that when you have returned here we may provide for the matter. For he was very solicitous both that the poor should be helped and that the divine ministry should be performed reverently. Of the second purse he spoke to us thus: This I entrust to you, so that when you come to any place you may inquire who the poor there are, especially the sick, girls and widows, and may bestow alms upon them according to the measure of their want (and the visitor reports that he uttered these things with vast affection of mind); and let not your heart be tight here nor your hands sparing; give cheerfully and liberally, trusting in God, since He Himself supplies it to us and will always supply it abundantly, when He shall have beheld charity and trust in us. Nor are these alms, he added, to be made only

in the places of the old Christians, but also — nay rather — in the communities of those recently converted to the faith; let these see that souls are sought by us, not their riches. These rules and laws we had to observe in the course of the visitation. Everything was carried out at his expense.

[534] this, having perhaps been lost, And the Lord showed in some cases how greatly this pleased Him: two very notable instances in particular that visitor used to narrate. The first, which he reported, was this: Bishop Segrianus and I, setting out from Jávea ^b to another place on the same sea-coast, both from ignorance of the road and from some fear of the Moors, hired six men to accompany us and to open the way for a certain distance. When we had reached that point, we ordered them to return, since we were now safe. It seemed good to me to give them something, both for the labour they had spent and as an alms; for they were poor men. Putting my hand into the travelling-case in which the two purses given us by the Archbishop were carried under lock, I found only the one assigned to our expenses, and not the other made ready for alms. I grieved vehemently, fearing that it had been left at the inn and would not appear again. I handed them four reals each out of the other purse. When we had come to the place we were making for, I signified to the bishop what had happened to me, and by his judgment we sent the man we had hired to the parish priest of Jávea, that he might diligently search the chamber in which I had passed the night, in case the purse had by chance been left in it: I passed the whole night seized with vehement sadness, but with a more vehement one when in the morning the man hired by us brought back the answer that nothing of the kind had been found there.

[535] We went to the church to celebrate Mass, and meanwhile I, it is found notably increased; with all the devotion I could, commended that mishap to the Lord. Our arrival being known, many poor and persons pressed by need flowed thither, as they were accustomed to do; and I, returning to my lodging with the intention of granting them something out of our travelling money, and afterwards of raising money for every use (for we commonly carried letters for receiving in the chief places the sums necessary for us), and opening the travelling-case which the bishop and I had most carefully and repeatedly searched, found, besides the travelling purse, the alms purse too full of money — so indeed that, although even then at Jávea and in other places we had bestowed a great part of it upon the poor, and at most only half could have remained, I found it not only the purse and the money which ought to have been left in it, but bulging with as much as it could hold — so that the prodigy wrought there by God should be the more manifestly disclosed. Having returned to Valencia we told this to our good Father, and he, smiling, replied: So does our Lord act, and it happens to me not seldom in the alms which I bestow with my own hands. Have trust and enlarge your heart when you give an alms, without fear that it will fail you: for we have in heaven a most rich and most munificent Father of the poor, if we, whom He uses as ministers on earth, be liberal and fortified with trust.

[536] The other was this: The same visitor, on another visitation, coming to Albaida, ^c turned aside to the same lodging to which he was accustomed at other times: his baggage, with the travelling-case in which he carried the two purses of travelling money and of alms, was brought into the chamber in which he was to pass the night. While they were preparing supper, he went out into the garden of the same lodging to recite the canonical Hours: presently, as they were wont when they knew that the visitor had come, many poor ran up; and when the Hours were finished he went up to the chamber in which the purses were, to bestow alms upon them; but he found the travelling-case open and the purse of alms carried off: he was affected with great grief, because, since he always carried the case locked with a key, and finding it unlocked and the [bag] of alms missing, he was certain that it had been taken by theft. He bestowed on them out of the travelling money with the intention of raising money in the same place for every use by means of the letters he carried. On the next day he went on to the church to perform the divine Office, where he commended this mishap to the Lord: and through the whole preceding night (which from grief he had passed sleepless), as he himself narrated, he said at intervals: Father Don Thomas, this crime has been committed against God, against you, and against your poor; your business is at stake; humbly pray the Lord to bring a remedy; as in fact it was brought.

[537] When the Sacrifice was performed and he was entering the sacristy to take off the sacred vestments, the thief himself two men followed him, requesting that he would order the clerics and servants who were present to go out; since a matter pertaining to their conscience had to be communicated to him. They all went away; and the two barred the door and prostrated themselves at the visitor's feet, weeping and begging for mercy and pardon. When master Porta said: What has been committed by you? I, said one of them, am a servant of the inn in which you lodged, reverend sir, and when you arrived I lent a hand to carry the baggage into the chamber in which you were to pass the night: and I carried the travelling-case; and both from its weight and from seeing that it was locked with a key, I understood that money was being carried in it. At once a wicked thought of stealing what I best could came upon me: and so, seeing you praying in the garden and the rest of the household occupied, I went up to the chamber, broke the lock with the point of a dagger, opened the case, took away the first of the two bags placed in it that fell into my hand, went down, and, detected by no one, left the house in great haste. Meeting this friend of mine, I asked him to join me as a companion for a little while, saying that some quarrel had befallen me at home and that it was advisable to go away to Albaida.

[538] is compelled to bring it back We went out about the hour of evening prayer, and when we had gone forward fifty paces there stood in our way a monk in a black habit, but also clothed in a sacred mantle, wearing a mitre and carrying a staff like a bishop, and threatening that he would beat and chastise us unless we restored what we had carried off by theft. For my part I supposed it was perhaps an empty appearance, or a frenzied delusion arising from the fear that seized me. We chose another road, and at once the same bishop appeared there, uttering the same threats. I promised that I would restore it, without even one real taken away: and at once he vanished. And so we retraced our road, and all night long I sighed for the day, that I might restore the bag to you, meaning to take for that purpose the vicar of the place, who might hand it over to you secretly; because I would not dare come into your sight. When I had come to the church for that reason and was waiting for the vicar, your lordship appeared, and when I saw you performing the sacred rites, at which we were present, it seemed good to me, when these were finished, to confess my crime here in the sacristy, under that hope of secrecy which I have of you, and to beg pardon.

[539] is forced. See here, sir, the bag, not diminished by even one real; by the wounds of Jesus Christ let your lordship forgive me; and let this matter not become known to men: what I have said of the bishop who met us on the road is as true as that I now behold you with my eyes, and I can attest it on oath. He cast himself again at the visitor's feet, asking mercy and pardon with many tears. The good master Porta raised him up, consoled him, made him secure as to secrecy, and admonished him to purge his soul by sacred confession and not to offend the Lord hereafter: since that theft had been a grave sin, being of money assigned by the Archbishop to the poor: and that if he expiated it by sacred confession and abstained from offending God, it would be forgiven him by the divine Majesty; but if he returned to the offence, God would permit that the crime be made public and be punished. So that man withdrew with his companion: master Porta continued the visitation and returned to Valencia. When he came to the chamber in which father Don Thomas lived, to kiss his hand, before he reached him or uttered a word, the Servant of God said to him: How sad a time, how wretched a night you had at Albaida; yet how the Lord brought a remedy! The visitor was most vehemently astounded, and said: Whence did your Grace know this? Who wrote or signified it? For no one there had knowledge of it except myself alone, nor did I communicate it to anyone on the road. Do not concern yourself whence I knew it (replied father Don Thomas), but let us give thanks to the Lord for the benefit conferred upon us in that case. ^d

[540] Likewise money sent to captives To conclude the miracles which God worked in the holy Bishop's alms, and the ways in which He multiplied them, I shall report only one deed at Cullera. ^e In the year of the Lord one thousand five hundred and fifty-two, ^f on the night before the feast of St. Barnabas, a very notorious pirate named Dragut Araix plundered the said town and afflicted it with vast damage. The Saint, learning how many men had been slain by him, how many subjected to captivity, how many oxen and herds maimed, how much wheat, wine and oil belonging to many poor farmers had been destroyed, and the other grave evils inflicted there, without anyone's asking, but of his own motion and [led] by his piety, at once called to himself father Verdolay (at that time preaching from the pulpit at Valencia with great fervour of spirit and with the reputation of great piety toward God, such as he indeed had, and afterwards a monk in the Carthusian house of Scala Dei in Catalonia) and along with him the prefect of alms and two servants, and handed them eight hundred ducats in ready money, and as much in cloths, ^g that they should betake themselves thither without delay, redeem the captives, console the women bereft of their husbands and help them with alms according to their ascertained need, bestow money upon the poor farmers to procure for themselves wheat, wine and oil according to the loss each had suffered; and buy them oxen and mules to take up again their labour.

[541] So greatly was that alms multiplied that the servants reported — being eyewitnesses, and men who had laboured with their own hands at the distribution of the money and the cloths — that all the captives had been redeemed by them, that everything necessary had been procured for all the poor, that ample alms had been given to those bereft of their husbands and to the needy, to some fifty pounds, to others more, to others fewer, as each one's need required: is reported to have grown by divine power. so indeed that afterwards, when accounts had been drawn up of what they had bestowed on redeeming captives, on the poor farmers for procuring everything necessary and for buying beasts for their labour, and on the needy widows, it was found that double the amount ^h that had been brought from Valencia in money and cloths had been spent, and that the alms of so great piety and kindness had evidently been multiplied by the Lord.

[542] Among so many and so great gifts as he had, and as we have set forth in this book, He is anxious lest the goods of the archbishopric one thing only could be a stumbling-block to some, as being very foreign to the ancient holy prelates in whose footsteps father Don Thomas followed in all things: namely when they shall see that he leased out the archbishopric's

fruits. But when the end for which he was moved to this, and the manner which he observed in it, are known, it will be perceived how rightly and how suitably to the divine service he did it, and how rightly all will do who shall adopt the same method. For he did not do this with the mind or desire that the price of the lease should grow; but because he wished to know for certain how much would be at hand for him to bestow upon the poor, and because he knew what great perils, both spiritual and temporal, present themselves when fruits are committed to the hands of collectors; since, as we so often see, faith and the fear of God are wanting in men, especially where money is concerned.

[543] The harm which can arise in leases when the prices of fruits are increased be leased at too high a price, (although this is not to be attributed to those who lease out, but to the greed of those who take the lease) father Don Thomas met in a twofold manner: first, by breaking off the contentions and disputes which are wont to arise in such cases, and ordering the leased item to be knocked down when the price seemed fair and suitable, no room being left for further bidding. Thus a witness ⁱ narrates that once, when in a room \* of the palace part of the fruits of the archbishopric was being leased out according to custom, and the Saint heard two merchants contending with one another and greatly increasing the price, he called this same witness and said: Ask those men whether they are in their right minds. Go, restrain them, and say that I do not wish it to be increased further, for it is enough and more; for they would bring loss upon themselves. With that message the witness went to the procurator standing there with the procurator of the college of canons; but these answered that this could not be done, because, since it was a public auction, the merchants standing there to bid would complain that their liberty was being taken from them against equity, while the candle was still burning. ^k With this answer he returned to father Don Thomas, who, hearing it, said: Since it must be so, let us permit it this time, that we may not do them injury: I could indeed wish that the price did not grow so, and truly it would not grow so if it came to me; but since everything comes to the poor, let it be; for it is lawful, just as it would be lawful for the administrator of a hospital to allow, in a public auction, the price of the lease of the goods and houses of that hospital to be increased in favour of the poor.

[544] and the price itself several times The other thing which he did, lest the lessees should suffer from the prices being higher, and that he might at the same time meet their need by an alms, was to remit their debt to them when, either through the barrenness of the years or through some other misfortune or adverse chance, they suffered loss in their leases. Thus it is narrated ^l of a nobleman of Alcira who, having taken the lease of the tithes of that place, and not paying the price at the due time, nay not even some months later, began through the steward, who had often demanded it, to be compelled by the distraint of his goods and burdened with costs. The nobleman allowed the distraint to go forward, lest his want should be made public, until, compelled by this same thing, he resolved to declare it to the Archbishop himself and to beg a postponement of payment. When he came and set forth his misery and poverty so that he might grant him time, the good Bishop said: See what you say, and that the matter is so; for I shall investigate and get at the truth: and when he affirmed that he spoke the truth, he replied: God forgive you: and why did you not come to warn me of your misery when you began to be pressed for the debt, or at least when you began to be urged by the distraint of your goods? For I would not have permitted you to be so pressed. Do not torment yourself: for I do not merely grant you a postponement — that is not enough — but, your alleged need standing, I do not wish you to pay even one farthing. Nor should you thank me for it, for I give you your own goods; because what I possess does not belong to me, but to the needy.

[545] he remits altogether. A singular mercy! such as that of the most clement king in the parable which the Lord preached, Matthew the eighteenth, who, being asked by his debtor for a postponement of payment, out of his vast kindness and clemency granted much more than was asked, most liberally forgiving him the whole debt. In the same kindness which St. Thomas used toward this man, many others rejoiced in like cases; nor did he himself lack a particular reward: since some of them, afterwards attaining prosperity, restored what he had remitted in the time of their want, to be bestowed by his hands upon the poor; for he would not have received it on any other title, because he had remitted the debt to them and had altogether pardoned it. I call this a reward, because the good Father counted it a reward to obtain things to be given to the poor.

ANNOTATA.

\ Spanish entresuelos*

CHAPTER XXIV.

Desiring to resign the archbishopric, he foreknows his death by divine revelation; he is seized by illness; the mourning and prayers of the people.

[ ] Anxious to work out his salvation in the archbishopric, As ^a the Servant of God, on account of the remarkable modesty and prudence of his mind, had always fled dignities, and had undertaken the bishopric of Valencia with such great reluctance, compelled by the command laid upon him in virtue of holy obedience and under pain of censures by the head of the province, so he never lived content in it. Hence he often asserted to master Porta, to whom he opened his breast, that from the time he had been Archbishop he had never known gladness, and had never so greatly feared for the salvation of his soul as from the time he had been installed: so indeed that as often as he heard himself addressed by the name of Archbishop, his soul was straitened and his heart tormented. Nor did the said master Porta, whom he used so familiarly, alone know this grief in which the holy Bishop lived, but all his household and many others too: because they frequently heard him saying amid sighs: May God forgive the emperor, who brought me to this and unwillingly drew me from the quiet which I enjoyed in the religious Order. He came to such a pass that he not only desired but strove with all the effort he could to free himself from the archbishopric and to return to his cell. He sent several letters to the Emperor asking that this faculty be given him. But the Emperor put him off with specious answers until the year one thousand five hundred and fifty-four, in which, when father Don Thomas had addressed a letter to him urging greatly upon the same matter, he answered that about the spring of the following year one thousand five hundred and fifty-five he would return to Spain and would put in at Barcelona, where he would make his landing toward Valencia, and that they would see one another and would decide what should be more suitable to God's service, and that finally he would take care that solace should be added to his grief.

[547] he tries to resign it; not heard by the emperor, In the month of February of the said year one thousand five hundred and fifty-five, learning that the people of Barcelona had by then received news of the emperor's coming and that he was expected, he sent master Porta thither with letters, humbly asking that he would deign to come to Valencia, as he had promised; but if for any reason he was not going to come thither, that he would not be reluctant to grant the faculty for what he had so greatly asked. For he had determined, on account of the grief which the burden of the archbishopric brought him, to renounce it, yet was unwilling to carry this out before the emperor's coming and without his leave. At the beginning of March of the same year, by the Lord's favour, his majesty put in at Barcelona, received the letters, and, since it was expedient to take the road for Saragossa, answered that it would be a very great pleasure to him to come to Valencia and to see him, but that for the good of Aragon the journey must be made through that kingdom

that he would nevertheless send from Valladolid letters of reply and of consolation. ^b

[548] When master Porta reported this answer of the emperor, he takes refuge with God he was seized with a great feeling of grief, and, that he might bear it with due patience and heavenly consolation, he fled to the oratory, which was his solemn resort in all matters, to seek it from the Lord before the sacred image of the Crucified, which was his accustomed refuge (and which, as I said above, is placed today at the head of the same Saint's tomb in the church of St. Mary of Succour). Thither he ran morning and evening, humbly praying with long prayer and many tears that He would have compassion on his affliction, and (since the divine Majesty knew that he desired to send word of resignation to the archbishopric not in order to escape labour, but in order to come nearer to the divine goodness in the quiet and peace of religion, and to establish more securely the salvation of his soul) that He would move the emperor's heart to grant what he had so often begged. He persisted in this prayer, and for some whole nights clung to it with great fervour and weeping and afflictions of the body; fearing that he was unworthy to be heard on account of his offences.

[449] On a certain night, ^c as he was intent upon this exercise, the sacred image of the Crucified addressed him, and from the image of the Crucified he learns of his own death and since among other psalms he was reciting the Miserere with great devotion in the Latin tongue, the sacred image also said in Latin: Be of good cheer; on the day of my Mother's Nativity you shall come to me and shall rest. ^d And so it came to pass, as we shall see in this chapter. Here is made manifest what the sacred Pages so often proclaim: that when human solace is lacking, the divine takes its place, if recourse be had to the Lord. The Servant of God lacked the consolation which he hoped for from the emperor, who was to come to Valencia as he had promised, and, as he believed, was to grant him leave to resign the archbishopric and to rest; because his majesty had of necessity to make for Aragon. That consolation failing, he had recourse to the Lord, and received as much as the message must bring which he received from the very mouth of the sacred image of the Crucified, promising that within the half year which runs between March and September, and indeed on so illustrious a day, he should depart, to enjoy His fellowship and eternal peace.

[550] By this remarkable benefit he remained anointed with solace and gladness, he understands, and prepares himself for it. and although, as a good Servant, he always lived ready for whatever hour he might be called by the Lord, yet after the day on which he received this heavenly and prodigious message he prepared himself more particularly. About Easter he called the prefect of the treasury and reckoned how much of the money hitherto received was his or was left over: and when accounts had been compared between the aforesaid prefect of the treasury and the steward, four thousand crowns were found to be left. He wondered that so much was left, because in that Lent, on account of the great scarcity which had begun to arise that year, many extraordinary alms besides the usual had been made. He directed that the prefect of alms should double what was usually given every month, until the whole should be consumed in alms, and he likewise increased those which he handed out with his own hands. In these holy and pious exercises father Don Thomas spent the eleven years in which this region enjoyed him; but with greater fervour, piety and more perfect charity after he received that message, namely from the last days of March to the last of August of the year one thousand five hundred and fifty-five.

[551] When the Lord is about to chastise some city or kingdom for its crimes, He is wont to take away His servants and to lead them out of this life to everlasting rest. ^e This city, The death of Saints often a herald of impending evils. as we saw, deserved to be chastised with the famine which it endured in the year one thousand five hundred and fifty-six, and with the grave pestilence which soon followed in the years one thousand five hundred and fifty-seven and fifty-eight. Before these, as though for a sign heralding so many evils, in the year one thousand five hundred and fifty-five the Lord took away two holy men and friends of His who were living in it. At the end of August, father brother John Micon of the Order of the glorious father St. Dominic, a man of remarkable humility and spirit, and of vast holiness and example, as is known to this whole kingdom, and as the Lord declared at his death; when, no one calling or moving them save Him who was crowning his soul in heaven, the hearts of all the citizens were so moved that men of every condition and nation ran up with such a throng and such unwonted devotion to venerate his body, counting themselves happier that they could come to kiss his feet or his garments than if they had obtained the lordship of the whole world. ^f And presently, in the following September, father brother Thomas, so remarkable and true a servant of God and so good a bishop, as this History has taught us and as appeared in his death and after his death.

[552] The Saint is seized by illness; On the twenty-ninth day of August he suffered from a quinsy, which he contracted from the studies and vigils to which he was given all his life and especially in the time of his archbishopric; for on account of the daily occupations to which he was bound by his office, a great part of the night had to be given to prayer and to the withdrawal of the mind to divine things, and to be taken from sleep and necessary rest. Hence he was always weak in the chest, and with the coming on of the said infirmity he was vehemently broken. On the day before, namely on the feast of our holy father Augustine, whom as a true son he loved and greatly honoured, he had celebrated Mass with great piety: but on the following day, when he had finished the lesson of the Office and had assisted at the sacrifice of the Mass — for he felt himself by then incapable of celebrating — the Lord visited him. He received and bore his infirmity with remarkable patience, and with a countenance no less cheerful than at any other benefit whatsoever conferred upon him by the divine hand. Seeing that the malady persisted, nay even took increase from a supervening fever, he made a general confession, preparing himself with great conformity of his will with the divine for all that it might deign to determine concerning his life.

[553] fortified with the sacred Viaticum On Monday, the second day of the month of September, he directed that, for the example of all, the most holy Sacrament, the only and true solace of his soul, should be brought to him from the greater church in a procession of suppliants in due order. He received it from the hands of bishop Segrianus with such piety and with so many tears that they leapt from his eyes to all who were present from the college of canons and the clergy; since they too poured them out abundantly with great feeling of mind, both on account of the piety and spirit which they observed in the Servant of God, and from fear of losing a Pastor and Father by whom they were so greatly loved and whom they themselves so greatly loved.

[554] he exhorts the clergy to piety. Refreshed with the heavenly food, he delivered an exhortation to the canons and clerics standing by, beseeching them in the Lord's name to regard the obligation of their state, and what the name of cleric, which is the Lord's Portion, required, and how greatly the upright or wicked manners of the people depended upon the example of ecclesiastics. He earnestly commended the love and fear of the Lord, obedience toward the holy Roman Church and its doctrine, and piety and mercy toward the poor: he concluded by asking that they should pour out many prayers for his soul and for obtaining good bishops from the Lord; and in finishing he blessed them, though from the abundance of his tears he could scarcely carry it through; nor could the canons and clerics themselves, from the flood pouring from their eyes, easily begin the Te Deum laudamus, as they are wont to do when a sick man has been fortified with the sacred Viaticum.

[555] Presently on the following Tuesday the whole city began to display so great a grief at his sickness There are instituted that the mysteries of the dying Christ seemed to be recalled. ^g And so from the chief church and the other parishes processions began to be instituted to various churches more frequented for the sake of devotion, generally before dinner, so that in honour of the patron of the church to which they went a Mass might be sung, or rather in a mournful tone. \* To the processions there flowed together all the clerics of that church and almost all the inhabitants of the parish. The clerics walked with sorrowful countenance, many even with bare feet, reciting the litanies in a subdued voice which moved the hearers to compassion. ^h The laity followed (many likewise, especially women, with bare feet), all pouring out tears and drawing deep sighs, especially those whose households he relieved: and this in such silence that nothing was seen but tears, nothing heard but groans. These processions were accompanied not only by craftsmen and men of the common sort, but in every parish by knights, noblemen and many matrons of the first rank; which apart from this occasion was never seen: so great was the love and affection in which he was held by all, so general the feeling of minds at his infirmity.

[556] In each of the churches through which they passed they stopped a while, public processions for his recovery invoking the church's patron for the Bishop's health, and with copious weeping beseeching the Lord not to snatch such a Pastor and Father from them. A witness reports that in the manner already described a procession was instituted by the clergy of St. Catherine to the church of the holy Saviour, where a most devout image of the Crucified is kept, to which the inhabitants of the city have recourse in their necessities, obtaining remarkable benefits from the Lord. And when a Mass of the wounds of Christ had been celebrated there in a mournful tone, and the office completed, on the return their passage was made through the church of St. Thomas the apostle: entering it they wished to recite the Antiphon customarily said in processions for obtaining rain, then changed for the present necessity and adapted to him whose church they were entering, in these words: We are not worthy to be heard by Thee; by our demerits we deserve to be punished; but trusting in Thee, grant what we ask; holy Thomas the apostle, intercede for us. But neither could they sing it, nor the ministers utter the versicle suited to it, nor the priest vested in a cope recite the prayers of the Saint and for the sick man, on account of the abundance of tears which they poured out — with a like abundance being poured out by all the lay folk who accompanied them and filled the church and a great part of the streets. The same happened in many churches which those instituting processions from the other parishes entered for a while, meaning to halt there on their passage. This was continued through all the days of that same week, which seemed no other than the very Friday of Holy Week.

ANNOTATA.

none of them could I elicit that he came to Spain at the appointed time; on the contrary they everywhere indicate that, after Renty, a town of Artois, was freed from the siege of the French, about the month of September of the year 1554, when he was suffering from gout, he returned to Brussels, where, on Sandoval's testimony, he learned from the letters of St. Francis Borgia and of others of the death of lady Joanna, queen of Spain, his mother, who died in Spain on the 11th day of April 1555, and presently ordered funeral rites to be celebrated with due honour: but also in the same year, as is evident from the testimonies of all, in the month of October in the same city of Brussels he transferred the rule of the Belgic provinces to his son Philip.

\ Spanish en tono*

CHAPTER XXV.

Having bestowed all his goods upon the poor, he dies a holy death.

[ ] About to die, he orders all his money On the Wednesday of that same week, and on the fourth day before the feast of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin Mary, which that year fell on a Sunday, the physicians found that he was somewhat better; whence the greatest joy was brought to the whole city: nor did they on that account cease from the processions, nor did he (on account of the message received from the Lord when the sacred image of the Crucified addressed him, as we have recorded in this chapter) dispose himself any less diligently for death. And so on the very day on which the physicians declared that he was better, expecting death as near at hand, at the time of which he had so often said that not one real would be found in his house, he ordered the prefect of the treasury to gather all the money he had, to receive that day as much as he could from the lessees, and to bring all that he was keeping in the sacristy of the church: ^a which he, carrying it out with all diligence and accuracy, gathered five thousand pounds. ^b

[558] On Thursday, having called together bishop Segrianus, Don Michael Vique, canon, to be bestowed upon the poor; father Fray Peter de Salamanca of the Order of the holy father Dominic, the prefects of alms and of the treasury, and the visitors, he said: You know with how great love you are bound to me; and I likewise know that it is your wish to satisfy me in all things: and so, if I can obtain anything from you, render me this today: call in the almoners or overseers of the poor of the city, and with them, some this way, some that, going round the houses of all the needy, and having regard for the good name of honourable and noble persons, distribute this money at once according to each one's want; and for the love of God do not bring back home a single penny; for that would bring me remarkable grief: and if the thing cannot be completed on this day, let it at least be completed tomorrow.

[559] Those men went round, some one parish, some another, through all that day and the next, in which also money distributing money to the poor and giving to each according to his condition and want, not only for present necessities but even to those who had poor daughters they gave the means of settling them in matrimony in due time, and to those lacking clothing or the means of paying their debts, wherewith to procure the one or discharge the other: and so to some they gave fifty ducats, to others sixty, to others more or fewer according to their want. Through so many and so ample alms a remedy was brought to all the poor of the place: for no one received less than four pounds wrapped in paper. But it was also clearly ascertained that, as they bestowed it, the Lord multiplied the money: the servants carried the silver enclosed in linen sacks in baskets: the pence (we so name the smaller coinage), wrapped in papers each containing four pounds, other servants carried in larger baskets: and when they were brought out of the sacristy, careful note had been taken which were the silver coins and which of the smaller coinage, lest an error be committed in the distributing.

[560] is believed to have been increased by divine power; The goods of a wretched maker of iron armour were being distrained by his landlord for half a year's rent of the house which he inhabited, namely four reals. The distributors of the said alms, coming to his house and learning the need which at that time pressed him above the rest, namely the payment of the half year's rent of his house, handed him a paper of four pounds. When they had gone, he opened it and found that instead of pence they were all half-reals. He gave the utmost thanks to God, and, making a reckoning, had about thirty pounds; and, what brought him the greater astonishment, the paper fitted for four pounds held all those half-reals. Out of that alms he paid the debt and the rent for the whole year, met the other needs of his household, bought iron and steel for making swords, and, working at home under these auspices, prospered so far that his family became one of the wealthier among those practising the same craft. And although in the process this one deed alone is recorded concerning the alms received by the poor maker of iron armour, it is nevertheless to be believed that other prodigies and increases of this kind occurred in the other sums bestowed on this occasion and in this distribution upon other poor.

[561] he sends back the ministers who had returned with some part of the money, The distribution of five thousand ducats could not be completed within Thursday and Friday. And so, when those men returned to the palace on Friday about the ninth hour of the evening, he asked whether all the money had by now been bestowed. The answer was that it had by now been distributed and given, to all the poor whom the prefects of alms both of his own house and of the parishes, and also the parish priests and other persons questioned upon that matter, knew, according to each one's want; but that nevertheless about a thousand pounds remained. ^c Wretched sinner that I am, he said with great feeling of mind, why, my lords, do you delay me here? Why, by not completing the distribution of all the money found, do you prevent me from departing to enjoy the good I hope for? Make haste; let not even one real be left over to me; let that money not be kept in my house this night: inquire after the poor to whom it belongs; let it be handed to them at once, or carried to the hospital. Grant me this favour, my lords, if you love me: even though it be night, return at once to bestow it, that it may not remain in my house.

[562] that not even a penny may be left over to him as he dies. It was said to him that it could be kept for the nurses (who were then many) of the infants who were to be left orphans when God called him out of the living. He answered: That is not necessary; for provision has already been made for them, and the infants' nourishment paid for two years. Hence I beg you as earnestly as I can that you go and distribute the money and refresh me with that solace: they said that they would go at once to satisfy him; and indeed they only supped and rested for a few hours; and presently, when day had dawned, they went out to give both more to those to whom too little seemed to have been granted, and to many others who had newly become known: thus everything was distributed. About noon on the vigil of the blessed Virgin Mary they came back and announced that all the money had by now been bestowed, and that not even one coin was left. O my lords, he replied, may the Lord God so fill you with joy and solace as you have delighted and consoled me with that word! And turning to the sacred image of the Crucified which he had been accustomed to keep in his oratory (and before which he had corrected and brought back to right living so many sinners, and had shed so much of his blood for them, chastising his body with scourges), and which, when he was seized by his illness, he had ordered to be placed opposite his bed, he seemed with eyes bathed in weeping to give innumerable thanks to the Lord God that he was now departing from this life a poor man, not possessing a single penny; ^d having obtained what he had longed for all his life.

[563] This pleasure was somewhat diminished by the prefect of the treasury, He bestows his furniture and his very bed. saying that on that very day some money had been received by him, and also that the household furniture remained. But not even so did he lose the merit and practice of religious poverty, a virtue so greatly loved by him. At that very moment he ordered the money to be divided among his poor servants, and the head of the college to be summoned, so that whatever was in his house might be carried off: and thus he did not lack what he so greatly desired, namely to die poor and bereft of everything. When the money brought that day to the prefect of the treasury, and some furniture, was distributed among the servants, the keeper of the prison had not been present; the Saint, learning this afterwards, ordered him to be called and said: Brother, since you were not present here when some furniture and the little money received today were bestowed upon the other servants, no one remembered you; the Lord has done me this favour, that I should remember: there is nothing that I may give, nor is anything left over except this bed: it I most gladly

grant you; let these be witnesses that it has already been handed over by me to you and from this very moment is yours. This one favour, this alms, I beg you to render me: that you allow me to die in it: shortly you will be able to take it back and to carry it off as your own. Then, turning to the same image of the holy Crucified: Everlasting praise be to You, he said, my Redeemer, that, as You had no bed on which to render up Your spirit save that Cross, nor any tomb in which to be laid save another's, You grant me this grace, that I too should complete the course of my life in another's and a borrowed bed. ^e

[564] Although on the preceding Wednesday the physicians had found him in a better state and had not despaired of his life, yet, seeing that on Thursday and Friday he brought up no phlegm from his chest, The news of impending death and on Saturday, on the vigil of holy Mary the Virgin, when he had put an end to the distribution of alms here recorded, noticing that the same chest was vehemently constricted, and that the malady and the fever were growing worse, they judged his death to be beyond doubt. Therefore they told bishop Segrianus, his confessor, master Porta and father master Fray Peter de Salamanca, who were continually present there, to signify this to him. For he himself had asked that, when the physicians judged death to be near, they should inform him; that no grief would thereby be brought upon him. And so those four friends and more intimate companions, both because he had himself asked it and because the physicians so advised, approaching the bed stood for some space of time unable to utter a word, and by that silence and the sadness of their countenances plainly showing the torment of their hearts.

[565] From the countenance and bearing with which he beheld them, and from the message he receives the news joyfully; which he had received from the mouth of the sacred image of the Crucified (namely that he would depart to enjoy His fellowship and eternal rest on the feast of the Nativity of blessed Mary), the Servant of God gathered what they meant; and, to draw them on to speak as they hesitated, he asked: What do the physicians say? My lord, said bishop Segrianus, they say that they would not have laid aside hope of your life if only your lordship brought up the phlegm; but since they perceive the chest so straitened, death seems to them beyond doubt. As he uttered these words, no one of them all could restrain his tears; but he consoled them, saying: Since you are Christians, pious and learned, do not be saddened at news so joyful to my soul; and, turning to the same image of the Crucified, with great piety and with many tears he began to recite this verse of the psalm: "I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord," ^f repeating the same over and over in a slow voice and with his eyes fixed on the image, and eliciting frequent acts of the conforming of his will with the divine.

[566] he spurs his own to virtue; The torment of the malady in no way disturbed him; on the contrary through the whole time of his infirmity he kept his mind as clear and whole as if he felt none, receiving all who visited him with the same familiarity and cheerfulness of countenance as he had been accustomed to when in health, commending to each the fear of God and zeal for His service and glory. Many admonitions and lessons he gave to all from his bed, with such spirit that he cast his hearers into admiration. Many who heard him speaking in the last days of his infirmity affirmed that they were more moved and pricked in mind by his words (however weak he was and hindered by the pain he endured from his malady) than by the discourses of one enjoying health, although the blessed Father spoke from the pulpit with the spirit and force which we have seen. On the same evening, when, as I have reported, it was signified to him what the physicians thought and how certainly they believed that he would not long survive, he wished to be left alone, no one remaining in the chamber except a servant who should stand at the door until called. All went away to the room adjoining the chamber in which he lay. And he, left alone, with his eyes fixed on the sacred image of the Crucified, remained from the hour of evening prayer until the ninth was heard, commending himself to the Lord with great devotion and many tears (as he was found when he called by the signal of the little bell).

[567] he is anointed with the sacred Oil; There came in bishop Segrianus, the confessor, the prefect of alms, the visitors and some other members of the household, who had steadily waited until he should call. As they entered he directed them to anoint him with the sacred Oil. Hastening at once to the chief church, bishop Segrianus himself, several canons and clerics, and also some noblemen of the first rank who, hearing of it, out of the remarkable love and affection with which they were carried toward him, ran up to accompany it furnished with torches, brought the sacred Oil, taken from the chapel of St. Peter, about the tenth hour of the night. The courtyard was filled, and bathed in as great a brightness as it would have had at midday. This Sacrament he received with exceptional piety, himself supplying and answering all the litanies and prayers which holy Church, taught by the blessed Apostles, employs in that ministry.

[568] he wishes to be buried in the church of the Order of St. Augustine; When the Sacrament had been received, Don Michael Vique, canon, and Francis Roca, dean, prostrated themselves at the foot of his little bed, begging with many prayers that he would render to them and to the whole college this favour: that he would allow himself to be buried in the greater church, in whatever place he pleased; let him designate any place he liked, whether in the choir or in the chief chapel, nay even at the side of the altar; that they would lay him there in an honourable tomb, that they would count themselves happy, and that by that favour the vehement mourning which they and his whole church would feel at his death would be somewhat lessened. The holy Bishop answered: I indeed give many thanks to you and to those lords for the favour, goodwill and love shown me in this matter: but I am a monk and a religious of my holy father Augustine: outside the walls of the city is situated the monastery of blessed Mary of Succour, inhabited by religious of my Order; there I have chosen my burial, and it has always been and is my will to be entombed with those fathers, my brethren; and for the love of God do not attribute this to a lack of love, or take it ill. For you know that I have not through my dignity become forgetful of my obligation toward the Order, nor am I bound to it with less love than when I lived in it; and therefore I desire to be entombed in it and with those fathers. For the rest, beseech the Lord to receive me into heaven. For if His divine goodness, regarding not my offences but His own infinite kindness and mercy and the merits of His precious Blood, shall bring me into His glory, I shall never there give this church and city to forgetfulness, nor shall I love them less after my death than I have loved them and followed them with every good while I lived here. ^g Receiving so religious an answer (by which he truly showed how religious he had always been in life, and how religious he was in death), since there was nothing they could reply, they kissed his hands.

[569] Both the canons named above, and some others, wished to pass the night there; After some rest, having confessed again and he, understanding this, earnestly begged that they would spare themselves that labour, and that he trusted in the Lord that he would reach the day sacred to His holy Mother, and could be seen by them even then. All went away, and at his direction the household too went to bed. There remained alone bishop Segrianus, the confessor and the visitors, whom nevertheless he ordered likewise to go to bed in their own chambers until they should be called: since it was midnight, and he desired to be left alone and to rest as long as he could. He rested for some hours; at any rate he called no one by the signal of the little bell until the fourth hour of the morning. But then, although he had never been left alone — for two servants had not gone from the vestibule of the room, meaning to come in as soon as anything happened — about the fourth hour he called, and ordered the confessor to attend, wishing to make his confession on the occasion of the feast of the blessed Virgin Mary then begun. And although his throat was so constricted by the malady that he could not receive the most holy Sacrament, yet he wished, when the hour came, to be refreshed spiritually at the close of this life. When the confessor was present, he confessed with vast piety and weeping.

[570] Meanwhile bishop Segrianus, the visitors and the prefect of alms came in, he orders the passion of the Lord to be read to him, and he wished that one of them should begin to read aloud before him the History of the suffering Lord written by St. John. Master Porta began to read; and when he came to this place: "Jesus answered: I have told you that I am he; if therefore you seek me, let these go their way. That the word might be fulfilled which he said: Of them whom thou hast given me, I have not lost any one" — he gave a sign with his hand to stop; and he himself paused for a great space of time, contemplating the Crucified with unmoving eyes streaming with tears. Then he signalled him to go on; and thus, indicating a pause by a sign as his devotion moved him, and meditating for a while, he dwelt upon the passages as they occurred. In that manner the sacred and most devout History of the suffering Lord was read through until about the seventh hour, when he said: Both because it is such a day, and lest I should depart from this world without first beholding my Creator and Redeemer, let that altar be made ready and let Mass be at once celebrated.

[571] So it was done; it was celebrated at the seventh hour, and a Mass to be celebrated in his chamber; and he was present with extraordinary attention. At the moment when the priest elevated the Lord God in the most holy Sacrament, he adored with such devotion and with so many tears that he moved all who were present in the chamber to pour them out likewise, and kindled them to the same devotion. As soon as the Chalice had been elevated, he began to utter the psalm In thee, O Lord, have I hoped, in a very slow voice and amid tears continually flowing from his eyes, but, to the vast admiration of all the bystanders, his venerable countenance, the nearer he drew to the end, put on the more serene and cheerful an appearance: as those who stood by narrated to bishop Mugnatonius, and as he records in the Account of the deeds of the holy Bishop, of which I made mention at the beginning of this History.

[572] he dies a holy death. Thus reciting that psalm, he uttered the last verse: "Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit, etc." while the priest received the most holy Sacrament: and as the priest ended the reception, at the same moment the excellent Servant of God, ending his life, rendered his soul into the most clement hands of his Redeemer, to whom at that moment he had commended it with such fervour, devotion and weeping. About the eighth hour of the feast of the blessed Virgin Mary, ^h as the sacred image of the Crucified had foretold, he died, experiencing no disturbance, commotion or contraction of countenance, but wholly tranquil, his face remaining white and beautiful like an angel's: so that the hearts of those who beheld him dead were worn out with grief, and at the same time those who gazed on the beauty which he wore were filled with solace.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER XXVI.

The mourning and weeping at the news of his death; his obsequies and burial.

[ ] At the news of his death, all mourn; Presently the canons ordered the bell to be tolled in the chief church and in all the parishes, and the same was done in all the monasteries. That sad news, understood and made known by the sound, brought such sickness and sadness to the whole city, and covered the heart of all with such mournful grief, that to each one it seemed that his own parent had been snatched from the living. They met one another at the crossways and did not remember to give one another greeting. In the mouth of all, weeping in general, there was no other word than: O Lord, what a loss we have suffered! Many men too, both ecclesiastics and chief laymen, sighing from the depths, said in the hearing of others: O Valencia, with how grave a scourge art thou chastised by God, when this holy Bishop is taken from thee! It seemed that the Friday of Holy Week was being recalled, and you would have said that all were coming forth from a sermon on the suffering Christ, so were the countenances of all affected on hearing the word: The Archbishop is dead: the poor especially ran about through the streets weeping and saying with a loud voice and with sighs that pierced the hearts of all who heard: Our Father being taken from the living, our protection and consolation taken away, what shall we do? The mourning was so general that the sight of the people miserably bewailing on that day the solace they had lost struck horror. The clerics in the greater and the other churches, worn out with grief, addressing one another, kept repeating: We were not, we were not worthy of him; our sins have taken him away. In many houses of noblemen and of other honourable persons, and of many craftsmen whom he had relieved, there was on that day nothing but wailing and groaning, so indeed that all who passed the doors understood it, and, seeing doors and windows barred, were roused to yet greater grief and compassion themselves. ^a

[574] As soon as he had died, the sacred body was at once ordered to be arrayed: the Saint's body, over the white garment (which he had never laid aside, even when sick) they placed the black one of his Order, as he had directed and much enjoined before his death, and over both these an alb, dalmatics, the most precious chasuble of the church of white cloth woven with silk and gold threads, \ and a most precious mitre with the pallium and the staff, in the manner in which archbishops are wont to be vested. They ordered all the doors of the palace to be closed, so that he might be carried to the spacious hall where the chapel is: they remained shut until noon, lest, from the multitude of men running up out of the affection with which they regarded him, some should trample others underfoot, and lest, as in so great a throng and so great a press of people crushing one another as was to be expected, some should be suffocated. Clothed in pontifical array, and with the doors shut, he was carried to the said spacious hall, in which while living he had been accustomed to wait for and console the poor and the afflicted. In its innermost part, at the door of the chapel, was hung a canopy of black silk and velvet cloth, and there was set an altar with the sacred image of the Crucified which he had in his oratory, three silver statues and lights; in the middle a high platform \ covered with black cloth, and set upon it a bier covered with cloth woven with silk and gold threads, with cushions of the same cloth, and here the sacred body laid, with a Cross set up at its feet.

[575] who is asserted to have died a virgin, Then his confessor said: You may cover him with flowers, and place upon his head a garland woven of them; since, now that he is dead, it is lawful to declare that we have in heaven a Saint who was virgin and uncorrupt. And so baskets filled with flowers were brought, and with these he was covered and wreathed. [b] All these offices of vesting him, carrying him into the hall and covering him with flowers were performed by bishop Segrianus, Francis Roca the dean, Don Michael Vique, Don Hieronymus Carroz and some other canons, preparing the whole thing with their own hands, and repeatedly kissing the holy Prelate's hands and bathing them with burning tears. There stayed there the same canons and other clerics attending their good Pastor, and some of them performing the divine Office for him at that altar until noontide. Then, the tolling of the bell being repeated in the chief church and in all the parishes and monasteries, they ordered the doors to be opened.

[576] he is exposed to the sight and the kisses of the people, As soon as they were opened, there was a vast concourse of men, both men and women, of every condition, some of whom had waited until they should be opened, others of whom came on hearing the sound of the bell: and although in going up and down the stairs they trod upon one another, counting themselves happy who could reach him to kiss his feet or his garments, it is a thing worthy of note that (as those report who saw and weighed it), where the concourse was so great that of necessity they could not but tread upon one another, grief for him whom they were losing so occupied the hearts and stopped the tongues of those who beheld him that no one complained of another, or opened his mouth save to utter sighs and groans. At the same hour poor people ran up in numbers past counting, so that it was a wonder whence they burst forth; for there is one who says that, like a vast army, about two thousand were present, ^c the Lord so disposing it in testimony of the remarkable piety with which he had regarded them while living. Leave to enter the house was not granted them, on account of the cries and lamentations which they uttered as they wept most bitterly; but from the crossways and streets adjoining the palace in which they stood, their wailing rose even to heaven and was heard very far off.

[577] he is carried to the metropolitan church, A little before the second hour he was carried by the canons and the clergy to the church: then those poor raised so great a howling, crying out with lamentable voice: Father, have mercy on us! and saying amid sighs that pierced the soul: What shall we do, bereft of our Father? that the city seemed to be sinking at that very hour. They stirred such compassion that there was neither cleric nor canon who could utter a note in the chant without shedding tears, considering what a Father all were losing. He was placed in the choir of the church, and, Vespers and Compline of the day being finished, the Vespers of the Dead were begun in a most solemn and slow chant. Meanwhile the clergy of all the parishes and the religious of the monasteries assembled: Vespers being completed, the procession was arranged, and all being set in order and going out by the gate named from the Apostles, they took their way through the street which takes its name from the knights. \*

[578] At the time when the bier with the sacred body, to be carried to burial, was being moved from the choir, until it was carried outside the church, and hence with a great retinue it is a wonder how great were the lamentations of all men, both the highest and the lowest; so great indeed that to each one his own parent seemed to have been snatched from the living, and his soul to be wrung from him, as he beheld him carried out of the church. They rushed thither, one to give a kiss to the bier, another to try whether he could reach to kiss his feet, another to labour to cut off some part of the dalmatic or of the alb showing beneath the chasuble. It was necessary that the canons should take possession of the sacred body, closely joined encircle the bier, and by force remove the people, until it was carried out of the church, upon which they spent a great space of time, being wholly unable to begin their chant. When these had gone out, the procession went forward: the sacred body on the said bier was carried on the shoulders of men surrounded by the canons, bishop Segrianus following with his ministers and assistants, furnished in pontifical vestments. There accompanied it the magistrates \* and the governor with the other administrators of the city, all the nobility and chief people of Valencia, and an innumerable multitude of the people, with that pitiable army of the poor following behind. So numerous was that retinue that the funeral was already at the church of blessed Mary of Succour and not even then had the people escorting it finished going out of the city. All walked, not, as they are accustomed in like retinues, conversing, but in a sad and marvellous silence.

[579] All who beheld those obsequies relate that they had never seen in that place a procession

or a day so full of mourning. to the church of the Order of St. Augustine; For there was no cantor or cleric or religious who, for the tears he shed, could utter a word or a note from his mouth. The same was to be seen in all the rest, both men and women, with whom the streets and windows through which the sacred body was carried were crowded; and, what many observed, the matrons and noble women who were watching the procession there were without any adornment or feminine finery, but with covered brows showed the grief of their hearts. With this mournful and tearful music and pomp, their tongues silent and their eyes proclaiming the common sadness of all his sheep, they came to the monastery of blessed Mary of Succour, and placed him on the same bier on which he had been brought, in the midst of the church, surrounded by many torches. The procession returned by the way it had come to the chief church, some canons and several clerics attached to him remaining by the sacred body, keeping watch that night and reciting the psalms by turns.

[580] On the way, while he was being carried to burial, in the street commonly called de Quarte, before the exit from the city, in one of those houses which are all lofty, a boy of about nine or ten years fell from a higher place, on the way a benefit is conferred upon a boy. where in the middle of the building there is an open court, at the time when the body was being carried past. His mother, seeing him falling, at that very moment fell on her knees crying out: Holy Archbishop, preserve my son for me! and from the middle of the space which is between the ground and the higher part of the house he came down with so gentle a fall and without any pain or injury planted his feet upright on the ground, as if some had taken him in their arms and let him down little by little. This was observed only by the mother and by two or three standing within the house; all the rest at the door and in the street, with their whole minds attending to venerating the sacred body and bewailing his funeral, did not gain knowledge of it until afterwards it was reported by many of that neighbourhood and district.

[581] All that night, as if it had been the night before the Friday of Holy Week, Solemn obsequies the church of blessed Mary of Succour lay open, as also the greater gates of the city, which are named from Quarte and from Coxo, on account of the innumerable multitude of the people and of persons of the first rank and of every condition running up to kiss his feet, his garments and his ornaments, the opportunity of doing which had not been given either in the palace or in the greater church. Many walked barefoot, but all shed burning tears. In the morning, when day had already dawned, about the fifth hour there came Religious from the four chief monasteries of the mendicant Orders, each to chant Lauds for the dead, a Mass and a Responsory, and this lasted a little beyond the eighth hour. Then the chapter was present with all the clergy of the city, the magistrate, and many noble persons and those of the first rank, in a procession of suppliants in due order. They likewise chanted Lauds of the dead, and celebrated with great devotion and solemnity the Mass, which bishop Segrianus performed.

[582] are celebrated; When the Mass with the Responsories was finished, the same bishop and those who had ministered to him at the altar, and also persons distinguished with dignity, the chief canons and the Prior of the friary, took up the sacred body with their own hands to carry it into the tomb: but at the very moment of time at which those lords lifted it from the bier, there arose such howling, such an onrush of the people desiring to kiss his feet, that it was necessary to desist, to leave it on the bier, to cover it with a veil, to intimate to the people that he was not to be buried before evening, and to ask them to depart. In this way all the people and the clergy of the parishes were dismissed, and, only the canons and the clerics of the greater church remaining, with the magistrate and the governor and some noblemen and the Religious of the monastery, the doors of the church were barred. Then the same men as before took up the sacred body again, carried it up to the tomb, and, clothed in a pontifical garment of thicker silk cloth of white colour \* and enclosed in a sarcophagus, laid it in the middle of the church, opposite and with its face turned toward the chapel of the blessed Virgin Mary, where it lay for so many years.

[583] he is laid in the tomb. It had indeed been his will, and he signified it before he died, that he should be laid in the front chapel of the blessed Virgin in the same tomb in which the Religious of that same house are laid: but to the lords canons and the more eminent fathers of the friary it seemed rather more fitting and decent that he be laid alone and in the middle of the church, as has been said. Over the place of burial was set a catafalque, covered with silk and velvet cloth of black colour, marked with a broad Cross of thicker silk cloth of red colour: at its feet was set up the archiepiscopal cross, with wooden candlesticks of black colour, and on these his arms were painted. Thus that catafalque stood for nine continuous days, and on each of these days the bell of the chief church, of the parishes and of the monasteries was tolled in the morning, at noon and at the hour of evening prayer with a very long-drawn sound, [all] meanwhile steadily showing with what feeling they were affected at the loss of such a Prelate.

[584] On each of these days, by turns and at distinct hours before dinner, the ecclesiastics of two parishes and the religious of one monastery came Funeral rites are performed for him there, and and chanted a Mass of the Dead, and, when this was finished, encircling the catafalque, a Responsory. On the ninth and last day more solemn obsequies \ were performed in the chief church, at which there assembled the viceroy (who at that time was the duke of Maqueda), the governor, the magistrate, all the nobility of the city, and an innumerable multitude of the people: a more thronged concourse was never seen in that church. Between the choir and the greater chapel there was built a great platform, covered with black cloth, in the middle of which was set a very high catafalque, covered with cloth interwoven with silk and gold threads, at its feet the archiepiscopal cross, at its head the most precious mitre of the church laid upon a cushion of silk and gold cloth; at the four corners of the catafalque his arms painted on a broad canvas; and these were a shield on a yellow field displaying a heart pierced with an arrow and a Cross, above the shield an archiepiscopal cross, a hat and green plumes, and below the shield an inscription running thus: Virtue lives on after the grave.* Round the platform the same arms with the same inscription were painted several times on paper of a larger size: on the platform itself there were sixty wooden candlesticks of black colour, and on these likewise his arms were painted, and yellow torches set upon them, and near the catafalque twelve white torches.

[585] Bishop Segrianus performed the rite at the altar; the funeral oration was delivered by Master Çapater, at that time in this city most celebrated both for learning and for eloquence; and in the metropolitan church on various occasions. he chose for his theme these words of the Psalm: "The just shall be in everlasting remembrance: he shall not fear the evil hearing." To these he related the excellent virtues and endowments of the holy Bishop, and from them inferred that the memory both of him and of them would be perpetual for all ages. Hence, both with those who knew him and with those who came after, this name clung to him: Father Don Thomas of good memory. When with that solemnity, and with the devotion of the whole city, the obsequies had been performed, after another nine days funeral rites were performed for him with a most solemn rite and a vast concourse in the church of blessed Mary of Succour. Hither there likewise assembled, out of the devotion and sincere love with which they were carried toward him, the lords canons with the clergy of the chief church. The same bishop celebrated the Mass; the oration was delivered by master John Luviela, also at that time a very celebrated preacher and professor of theology in this university: he took for his theme: "From my infancy mercy grew up with me, and it came out with me from my mother's womb." And he set forth his holiness from infancy and his liberality toward the poor. Not many days afterwards the same thing was done in the university; the oration was delivered by master Peter Maça, himself also a professor of theology in the same. [d]

[586] The Servant of God had been in no way anxious about the building of a tomb of singular workmanship, A marble statue is set up at his tomb. or about setting up marble monuments for himself, or making other expenses, so as to commend his name written here on earth to immortality: but that supreme and most powerful Lord, who had already enrolled him in heaven, provided that this honour too should not fail him. For He moved the heart of Francis Roca, dean and canon of this holy church, so that, out of the remarkable affection with which he had always regarded him in life and in death, immediately after his death, before he was committed to the earth, he ordered his likeness to be rendered in colours by the most celebrated painter of this city, John by name; which, most perfectly rendered, stands among the painted images of the other bishops of this church in the room to which the canons of the same assemble. He also sent to Genoa for someone to bring thence a likeness of him well wrought in precious marble in archiepiscopal dress, which, perfect in all its parts and just as it was desired, was brought and placed above the tomb, with an inscription encircling it which declares in a few Latin words with how great a faculty of speaking the blessed Father was endowed, and how ample the alms were which he bestowed to the last breath of his life. It runs thus: "In this tomb is laid Don Fray Thomas of Villanueva, archbishop of Valencia, an outstanding preacher of the divine word, who not only cherished Christ's poor with a kindly hand while he lived, but followed them with most ample alms to his last breath. And he died on the day of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin Mary in the year MDLV."

[587] A brief description of his appearance and manners. That blessed Father was of middling stature, somewhat dark and aquiline of face, with cheeks a little flushed, grey-blue of eye, modest and devout of countenance, displaying at once gravity and much authority, well constituted in body, bilious and sanguine. ^e The Lord adorned him with great gifts of nature — talent, judgment, prudence. He was endowed with exceptional learning, and, as is evident from this History, was the most celebrated herald of the word of God and the religious of the best example whom Spain possessed in those times. The divine Majesty honoured him in this life with that honour and reverence in which he was held by all — princes, bishops, magnates and men of every state; and after his death he left so great a report of his good name that they have called him and always call him a Saint and the Archbishop of good memory, and with so vast and pious a belief that he enjoys heavenly gladness that, from the time he died, no one has come or comes to his tomb without reverencing him as a Saint and commending himself to his prayers and merits. And many who do so have experienced remarkable benefits from the Lord through the intercession and favour of this Servant of His, He working in them illustrious prodigies in every kind of infirmity, the chief of which I shall set out in the following book: and because both of these and especially of his excellent virtues and holiness it was established, our most holy Pope Paul

V enrolled him in the number of the Blessed, as we shall see at the close of that same book.

ANNOTATA.

As Thomas went to the heavenly ones (a marvel to tell) the same thing helped and held the Man back; for he was drawn upward by more than eight thousand, and yet the same force was keeping him on the ground. I wondered in silence, when a voice was thus borne to my ears: What you behold is so numerous a company of the needy: these raise him up full of merits, and in turn draw him back, and the mind itself is split into two parts. With eager souls they rejoice that he is lifted above the stars: and yet they grieve that he does not remain on earth.

\ Spanish brocado*

\ Spanish estrado*

\ Spanish de los Cavalleros*

\ los jurados*

\ Spanish de raso blanco*

\ Spanish: there is added que llaman honrras*

THE SAINT'S POSTHUMOUS GLORY.

BY J. P.

§ I. The Saint's cult from his very death; the processes toward beatification.

[ ] Soon after his death Whoever has read the Acts of St. Thomas recited thus far will not wonder that he won for himself in life the veneration of men, and after death the honour customarily shown to Saints; nay, he will judge that it would deservedly be a matter for wonder if, when the report of his sanctity was so certain, he had obtained less — at that time certainly at which a cult of this kind had not yet been restrained by such severe decrees, without the authority of the Roman curia intervening. Concerning this report of sanctity, says Coccinus in his Account to Pope Paul V at page 698, very many witnesses depose that they heard the Servant of God spoken of as of a perfect man and as one of the Saints who shines in the Church of God, and that this was not only the common and universal voice of the whole people, but also of men most weighty and eminent in dignity, and that they had never heard the contrary. So in the process of Castile the most ample Cardinal D. Gaspar de Borja … doctor Francis Sobrino, doctoral canon of Valladolid … father Basil, vice-rector of the Society of Jesus at Valladolid … and very many other witnesses: and in the process of Valencia don Francis Rocca Full, doctor of both laws, chaplain of his majesty's oratory, precentor and canon of the church of Valencia … don Frederick de Borja, archdeacon major and canon of Valencia … which two were examined by ordinary authority; Michael Vincent Molla, canon of Valencia … Francis Louis Balaquel, canon of Valencia; … Joachim Real, doctor of both laws, of his majesty's council and regent of the chancery; … don Hector Ruiz; … father Christopher Perez of the Society of Jesus; … Francis Dimas; … Bartholomew Escola; … don Charles John de Torres; … Peter Guttierez; … Mariana de Sottomajor … Baptista Navarro … and very many others.

[2] men run to his tomb as to a Saint's; As he proves the report of sanctity, so the aforesaid Coccinus proves by testimonies the cult shown to the same Saint from his very death, at page 668 in these words: At length, after the body had been laid in the tomb, for the nine days next following the whole city of Valencia flowed together to it as to the tomb of some Saint, kneeling, imploring help and offering gifts, and in the following times, down to this day, has been accustomed so to do. He then subjoins the names of the witnesses, which you have among the Annotata to Salon's last chapter, letter d. I pass over other authors by whom these or like things have been committed to writing, and add one, Mugnatonius, whose testimony, as of one who died not many years after the Saint, is of the greatest authority. The more and more, he says at number 16 of the Life, that he seemed to have fled the honour of a magnificent tomb, the greater is the honour with which he is venerated by the people; and that tomb is frequently visited by the inhabitants of the whole city of Valencia; and there devout men pour out their prayers to God and take up vows, and call upon the most holy Archbishop as their patron, especially those who had known him more nearly \* and more familiarly while he lived.

[3] What the witnesses had asserted in Coccinus, praised in the preceding number, with great frequency, concerning the frequency of the people at the Saint's tomb, is again particularly asserted in the same author at page 701 in this manner: And this frequency the witnesses prove excellently well who depose that they saw great throngs of peoples flowing together from all sides to the tomb in their necessities … and that around it there are many gifts and tablets in token of the graces which God bestowed upon those who asked at the venerable Man's prayers. Then witnesses are cited from the process of Valencia: Michael Vincent Molla; Francis Louis Balaquer; Michael Hieronymus Vich; Fr. Christopher Perez of the Society of Jesus; brother James Sanchez; don James Ferrer; don Charles John Torres; Joachim Real; don Hector Ruiz de Corella; Joseph Joachim Bayarri; don Raymond Sanez; don James Capena, and others. At page 702 he also particularly shows the veneration of his relics: That the relics also of this most holy Bishop are held in great veneration, so that they are kept with other notable relics and are carried to the sick for the cure of their infirmities, the witnesses in the process of Valencia prove, namely in this order: Michael John de Lop; James Ferrer; donna Eleanor de Gusman; don Charles John Torres; Mark Anthony Cisternus; don James Capena; Peter Pallares; Mariana de Sottomajor; Francis Iter, of whom the two last were examined by ordinary authority. Then he adds from the process of Castile this series: Brother Didacus de Guevara; Christo \* de Gusman; Matthew de Ollala; Peter de Vandillo; Gundisalvus Camero; Andrew de Busto; Garzias Lopez. These four last were examined by ordinary authority.

[4] The veneration and cult were greatly fostered and promoted by the miracles and benefits and miracles are wrought. which the Lord wrought at his invocation, and of which mention is made in general thus in the Bull of canonization: Yet successively many miracles were performed by his merits interceding, the Lord working with him. Some of them Coccinus wove into his Account; more Salon in the third book of his Work, and thence too Bax, Nævius and others appended some to their lucubrations; which, although most of them preceded the beatification and all of them the canonization, I shall not give until I have finished whatever remains to be said particularly about the cult and about the acts leading to the said beatification and canonization. Nothing in particular

does Salon supply in his second Work down to the year 1601, in which a beginning was made of instituting the processes, so that the way might be paved little by little for a public cult of St. Thomas in the Church. I said in his second Work, for in the first, which was begun about the year 1584 and finished by him in the year 1588, he certainly described one thing, and so perhaps more, which was most worthy of report, and which San-Martin summarized in French at the close of our Saint's Life.

[5] In the year 1582 his body is found entire and sweet-smelling; His words run in Latin nearly thus: In the year MDLXXXII, the twenty-seventh from his death, Baptista Vives, canon of the metropolitan church, wishing to testify by some notable monument the devotion with which he was carried toward our Saint, ordered to be made the bronze railings or little columns with which his tomb is encircled, and also the silver lamp which burns before it day and night. Hence it came about that the Reverend Father Salon, the chief writer of this Life, then Prior of the monastery of blessed Mary of Succour, resolved to visit the sacred body and to lay it more honourably than it had been before. For the Religious, fearing lest, as report had it, the canons should desire to carry it off, had placed it without a coffin or chest in a very deep cavity and covered it with earth. And so when it was dug out of the earth to be laid in a tomb of precious and polished marble, it happened not without a miracle that that venerable body, after it had lain so long buried in the earth, was found wholly entire and furnished with flesh no otherwise than on the first day of his death; especially the face, which had been so kindly to all and so benevolent to the afflicted, and the right hand with which he had so munificently distributed the revenues of the church among the poor. And the whole exhaled so pleasant an odour that the aforesaid author, calling God to witness, says that the entire church was truly imbued with it, and that the same odour clung for many days to the hands of all who touched it, adding that the lesser relics of the Saint too, which some had claimed for themselves, produced the same odour in the hands of those who handled them.

[6] with the veneration of the faithful growing, processes At length, as the devotion and trust of the faithful toward the venerable Bishop grew from day to day, and as the benefits divinely granted fostered the same, as I hinted above, many chief ecclesiastical and lay persons, reproving the negligence and carelessness of the Augustinian fathers, as Salon narrates, prevailed so that the same Salon, then head of the province of Aragon, with some of the more eminent fathers of the same Order, in the year one thousand six hundred and one went to the most illustrious lord John de Ribera, patriarch of Antioch and archbishop of Valencia, entreating that by his authority and that of the bishops of the places in which the Saint had lived he would see to it that inquiries be instituted, thereafter to be sent to Rome with a view to beatification and canonization. The most illustrious lord gladly granted the petition, and at once named as clerk of this process John Micon, notary of his court; and as commissary, to take down the sayings and depositions of the witnesses, doctor Christopher Colom, visitor of the diocese.

[7] are drawn up by ordinary authority, He also ordered letters requisitorial to be dispatched in his name to the archbishops of Toledo, Burgos and Granada, and likewise to the bishops of Valladolid and Salamanca, and also to the vicars general and superiors of the places in which the Saint had dwelt from his birth until the archbishopric of Valencia, so that there too an inquiry might be made according to the norm of law concerning his life and manners. These letters, handed to them by father Dominic Camissanus, a religious of the friary of blessed Mary of Succour and constituted procurator in that cause both of the said friary and of the province, the aforesaid bishops also gladly received in the year one thousand six hundred and two, and, having issued their mandates, proclaimed the inquiry. It was instituted most perfectly (on Salon's testimony, whose narration appended to the Miracles I follow) at Villanueva de los Infantes, Alcalá, Salamanca, Valladolid and Burgos; where, by God's permission, even then, namely about forty-seven years from his death, there survived in life several persons of the clergy, of the religious Orders and of the lay nobility, chief men, eminent in virtue and authority and worthy of all credit, who had known the Saint and dealt with him, and out of whose depositions, and those of others testifying from hearsay, the same Salon asserts that the first book of the Life composed by him is made up, as also the second book out of the depositions of witnesses of this kind in the process of Valencia.

[8] Sufficiently informed by these processes of Thomas's sanctity, and of the miracles which the divine goodness daily wrought at his intercession, a cult is decreed and the body is raised. the most illustrious lord of Valencia granted faculty both that the body should be raised and that a Mass of All Saints should be celebrated in his honour, and that on the Sunday after the feast of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin Mary the same Mass of All Saints, together with the praises of the same Thomas, should be chanted with solemn rite and a sermon delivered to the people. And so in the year 1604, on the night before the feast of the Virgin presented in the temple, in the presence of D. Christopher Colom the visitor, John Micon the clerk, some canons, knights and men of the first rank, the sacred body was translated from the place of its first burial to that where it now stands below the choir, and was raised between two altars, on one of which is placed the image of the Crucified which once addressed the Saint, and on the other a true likeness of the same Saint bestowing an alms, painted on a panel. And in the year 1605, on the appointed Sunday, the most illustrious patriarch himself spoke to the people of Thomas's virtues and praises.

[9] Meanwhile, since matters worthy of note concerning his sanctity and miracles were continually being reported, The processes are examined at Rome, the cause is admitted, the aforesaid commissary Christopher Colom continued the inquiry until the year 1608, in which at last the aforesaid processes, together with the letters of Philip III king of Spain and of others presently to be named, were committed to father John Belda, procurator in the same cause, who should carry them to Rome, offer them to the supreme Pontiff, and in the name of all entreat that he would order them to be opened and subjected to the accustomed examination. Thus far I have followed Salon's longer account; now I continue with the author of the Series of the acts often mentioned: Wherefore at the prayers repeated once, again and a third time by Philip the third, Catholic king of Spain, by the archbishops, bishops, nobles and deputies of the kingdom of Valencia and the people of the same city, and also by the whole Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, Paul V ordered the process to be examined: and the congregation on the XXVII day of July in the year MDCIX charged Cardinal Millino with the task of reporting on the contents of that process, and he fulfilled the mandate on the XXIV day of August of the same year; and the congregation judged that a sufficient savour of sanctity, virtues, pre-eminent charity and miracles was thence perceived, so that the authority of the Apostolic See could be interposed in the same cause.

[10] And when these things had been reported to Paul V by Cardinal Pinello in a secret consistory on the nineteenth day of October in the year MDCIX, and by Apostolic authority new he assented, and by letters given in the form of a Brief on the XXVI day of November of the same year granted the congregation faculty to inquire only in general, and thereupon to decree the remissorial and compulsory letters sought by the procurators of the cause; which, released by the same congregation on the XXVIII day of the same month, were directed to the patriarch of Antioch, the aforesaid archbishop of Valencia, and to his suffragan vicar general, and also to the bishop of Orihuela. These deputed judges at once, when the process in general had been completed in the city of Valencia, transmitted it closed to the City on the XXX day of May MDCX: and on the XII day of June of the same year a process of this kind, drawn up as aforesaid by Apostolic authority by the remissorial judges, the bishop of Orihuela and the bishop-elect of Segorbe, vicar general and official of the archbishop of Valencia, and exhibited by the procurator of the cause, was opened in the ordinary congregation, and its discussion and report were committed to Cardinal Millino, formerly deputed as reporter, who fulfilled the office on the VII day of August of the same year; and the congregation declared that it was established more than sufficiently concerning the report of purity of faith and holiness of life, and concerning the miracles and the people's devotion toward brother Thomas in general; and therefore that remissorial and compulsory letters could be released in particular.

[11] processes are instituted. Presently, when the supreme Pontiff had assented that new letters, likewise in the form of a Brief with the opportune faculties, be directed to the same congregation, which the same Paul V gave on the XX day of September in the year MDCX, with faculty of inquiring in particular and, to that effect, of decreeing the remissorial and compulsory letters necessary thereupon: the congregation released them on the ninth day of October of the same year, directed for the diocese of Toledo to Bernard Cardinal Rojas, archbishop of Toledo, also with faculty of substituting; and for the city and diocese of Valencia to the Archbishop and his vicar general. But when news was afterwards received of the death of that same archbishop, before the same letters had been exhibited and duly presented to him, the congregation on the XXVI day of February in the year MDCXI transmitted faculty to the bishops of Marrakesh, Coron and Segorbe, jointly and severally, of opening and also of carrying into execution letters of this kind, directed to the deceased archbishop of Valencia and to his vicar.

\ perhaps propius*

\ perhaps Christophorus*

§ II. The advancement of the cause; the beatification.

[ ] The processes instituted in the kingdoms of Valencia The things afterwards done in Spain, namely in the kingdoms of Valencia and Castile, Coccinus records in his Account to Paul V from page 707, where he discusses the validity of the processes; whence, omitting however many things not pertaining to the sequence of the history, I transfer this. This remissorial brother Michael Salon, procurator constituted by the father General, and brother Sebastian Garzia, procurator constituted by the father Provincial of the Crown of Aragon, and the deputies and elect of the city and kingdom of Valencia, presented on the XXV day of May MDCXI to the said bishops of Marrakesh and Coron, who consented to it, and appointed the place and hour of the hearing, the notary and the runners, an oath having first been received from them of faithfully discharging their duty; and at the instance of Fr. Gaspar Marebon, procurator substituted by the said Salon and Garzia — for this they had in their mandate — after prior citation, report, and the bringing forward of witnesses, the tendering of the oath, and the designation of the day and hour of the examination to be made, they had received CCCLXIII witnesses, who, an oath having been taken in due form, deposed not only upon the articles but also upon the interrogatories. Further, since the aforesaid remissorial letters contained also compulsory letters, the aforesaid Fr. Gaspar Marebon, substituted procurator, urged and obtained that the sayings of the deceased witnesses, who from the year MDCI to the year MDCVIII had been examined by ordinary authority, should be compelled from the original (for the living, along with those newly received, were re-examined); of which deceased witnesses, who are LXXIX, the depositions are extant. So much for the process of Valencia.

[13] Of the Castilian process, because it had to be instituted in various places, and Castile, he discusses more fully and under various headings; wherefore, lest the same things recur too often if I use his words, I cull only the substance of the matter. In the year 1611 brother Dominic Camisanus, procurator constituted in the province of the Crown of Aragon, presented the said remission to the Cardinal of Toledo and to his vicar (for he says it was directed to both jointly and severally with faculty of subdelegating),

who consented to it, and named a notary and a runner, an oath having been received from them of faithfully discharging their duty; and, after prior admonition and oath, IX witnesses were examined by the vicar upon the articles and interrogatories. Keeping the same norm of law, judges subdelegated by the said vicar of Toledo received witnesses in other cities: at Burgos the vicar of the diocese fifteen witnesses, and the sayings or depositions of eight deceased persons, who in the year 1606 had been examined by ordinary authority, were compelled from the original: at Valladolid the bishop himself nine witnesses, and the sayings of four deceased persons, likewise examined in the same year 1606: at Salamanca in the year 1612 the bishop also himself three witnesses and the sayings of four deceased persons: at Madrid D. John de Hoses, Apostolic protonotary, treasurer and canon of Cartagena, one witness, namely the most Eminent Cardinal de Borgia, and the deposition of one deceased person: at Alcalá Louis de Montesino, canon of the church of SS. Justus and Pastor, four witnesses and likewise the depositions of four deceased persons: at Villanueva de los Infantes the vicar of that same town fourteen witnesses and the depositions of thirty-five deceased persons, who in the year 1602 had been examined by ordinary authority. These depositions, taken in the places already enumerated, were closed and secured with a seal and sent back by the subdelegates to the vicar of Toledo, and here, reduced into one process, with due observances, they were directed to Rome. Now I resume the account in the Series of the acts.

[14] On the first day of September in the year MDCXII the procurator of the cause presented to the congregation the process of Valencia, reported at Rome to the congregation of Rites, drawn up by the bishops of Marrakesh and Coron and subscribed by them on the XIV day of April of the same year, which the congregation ordered to be opened and translated from the Spanish tongue into Latin. On the second day of March in the year MDCXIII the same procurator presented the process drawn up at Toledo and transmitted to the City with the letters of the vicar general of the archbishop of Toledo, and by the same, in virtue of the faculty, as subdelegated judge. And the congregation ordered a process of this kind to be opened and interpreted. Then, the prayers of the Catholic king of Spain, of the kingdom of Valencia and of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine being several times repeated in the congregation, namely on the XVI days of November in the year MDCXIII; on the XV of February, the I of March, and the XXVIII of June MDCXIV; at last on the XXX day of September of the same year the congregation, having heard the contents of the aforesaid processes reported by Cardinal Lancellotti, subrogated as reporter in the place of the absent Cardinal Millino, judged that the cause was found in such a state that it could then be committed, according to custom, to the auditors of the Rota; and, a report of the aforesaid having been made to the supreme Pontiff by Cardinals Gallo and Lancellotti in a secret consistory on the sixth day of October MDCXIV, he assented, and by mandate of the congregation the aforesaid processes were handed by Mucantius, at that time secretary, to Vincent Romerius, notary of the Rota.

[15] and committed to the auditors of the Rota, Successively Paul V on the eleventh day of the same month of October signed the commission by which he enjoined upon the auditors of the Rota, Sacratus, Coccinus and Manzanedo, that they should maturely weigh processes of this kind, sharply discuss them, and make to his Holiness a most full report of their contents; which commission, signed and subscribed by the regent of the Chancery in the Bank of the runners, was handed on the XVI day of October to Mucantius the secretary, and by him to the aforesaid notary of the Rota. The relevance and validity of the said processes having been discussed in the Rota by the commissary judges, the same, having at the same time delivered a copy of the report, reported orally to his Holiness on the XXIII day of January in the year MDCXVIII that the processes had been validly drawn up, the witnesses duly examined, and also that it was most fully established concerning purity of faith, holiness of life, virtues and miracles in particular: and therefore that it was possible at any time to proceed to the canonization of brother Thomas.

[16] who, a report of these having been made to Pope Paul V, I take the aforesaid copy of the report to be the one of which afterwards, when it had been committed to the press, I gave notice in the Commentarius prævius §1, and which I have since often used and shall use further; it will be well to have transferred hither its closing passage: From all these things your Holiness has seen these exceptional miracles of the venerable Man, never sufficiently celebrated by the heralding of praises; you have heard his excellent virtues, most widely known throughout the world, described in this little book as it were in a brief compendium; you have known that the holy Archbishop, endowed with a living faith and a great hope, left nothing unattempted for attaining the delights of heaven, \* burned with the most ardent charity toward God and his neighbour, raised from the foundations colleges and hospitals for the convenience of students and of the poor with an annual revenue settled upon them, with the utmost prudence amended the depraved manners of the people subject to him and the clerics of a laxer life; that he faithfully distributed, even in a small matter, what belonged to poor churches and pious places; that he bestowed the ecclesiastical revenues not upon his kinsmen but upon the needy; that he settled maidens lacking a dowry in honourable matrimony; that he contended sharply for the defence of ecclesiastical liberty; that, content with slender food and humble furniture, he gave with a liberal hand all else that was left him to pitiable persons and to churches; wherefore we must praise God, best and greatest, in His Saints, especially since at the prayers of the Archbishop of Valencia paralytics are cured; very many stricken with the wounds of diseases obtain their former firmness of body; those suffering from gout for six years are freed in no long space of time.

[17] judged that it was possible to come to canonization. The handkerchiefs or aprons of St. Paul drove out the sicknesses of those who had touched them: Christ Jesus, having rebuked the perfidy of the Jews, as is found in Matthew the ninth, enjoined upon the paralytic who lay in his bed, to show His power on earth, that he should rise and make for his house: Peter, as is narrated in Acts the ninth, restored Aeneas, suffering from palsy, as it were the bronze part of his body, in the name of Jesus to his former liberty. And the venerable Thomas, through whom God made His omnipotence manifest in the regions of Spain in our times, cured a paralytic, following in Peter's footsteps: further, he set free in marvellous fashion those who had been taken captive, restored their walking to the lame, sight to the blind; he called the dead back to life; the prayers of suppliants went before like heralds of health; yet these were straightway, or after a brief interval of time, attended by a grace complete in all its parts; those who had driven out every disease and the sad cares of disease exulted with joy; yet the Man's holiness was celebrated in the mouths of the nations; the people flowed together to his monument both from near and from distant parts, and the very city of Valencia daily, where the relics of the venerable Thomas are kept, as though displaced from its seats, hastened to praise the Man renowned for miracles; yet there did not fall from their minds what the Lord Jesus, about to ascend to the heavens whence He had come down, had proclaimed to the Apostles and to the multitude of believers in the last chapter of Mark. Wherefore it must needs be that this is the gift and sign of believers, that in those in whom faith shines forth, holiness of life proved by miracles, and God's love and power toward the shepherds of the peoples and the keepers of His commandments, shine out. On account of which we have concluded that the cause is found in such a state that your Holiness can, whenever it shall please you, come to the solemn canonization of the aforesaid brother Thomas of Villanova, of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, archbishop of Valencia, surnamed the Almsgiver. Thus Coccinus; I return to the Series of the acts.

[18] On the XXVIII day of the same (month of January in the year 1618) the ambassador of the Catholic king presented to the supreme Pontiff new letters of the same king and a petition, The congregation of Rites judges that the theological virtues are established, moved by which his Holiness on the third day of February again committed the cognizance of this cause to the congregation of sacred Rites to the effect of beatification. And the congregation on the twelfth day of March in the year MDCXVIII again deputed Cardinal Lancellotti as reporter of the cause. On the XXXI day of the same month it judged that the theological virtues were established, namely faith, hope and charity both toward God and toward his neighbour; and it declared that two miracles wrought in his life to prove the greatness of his faith, namely of the multiplication of wheat and of the healing of a lame man, were conclusively proved and were true miracles. Both miracles here recorded we had described at length above in Salon, book 2, chapter 22, and illustrated in the Annotata there from Coccinus and from the Life given in the second place.

[19] On the XXIII day of April it added that the virtues of prudence and justice in a heroic degree were also most fully proved. likewise concerning the cardinal virtues, On the third day of June the other two cardinal virtues, temperance and fortitude, were approved. And on the XXI day of July MDCXVIII the congregation declared that it was most fully established, not only concerning the aforesaid, but concerning the remaining virtues likewise in a heroic degree, and concerning purity of faith, holiness of life and the frequency of the people at the tomb of the Servant of God, and also that the processes were valid, and relevant also as to the four miracles written below, as being most conclusively proved, namely: here is appended the account of the said miracles, but since I shall give these among very many others below from Coccinus, with the names of the witnesses added, let a brief compendium of them here suffice: Paul Francis Cardona and Sperantia Valeria, who had died of a fever, were called back to life; Frances Nadal, brought to the end of her life by an incurable cancer, was healed without a natural remedy. Catherine Vincentia Rossellon, likewise brought to extremity by an incurable disease of sores, recovered her former health.

[20] Thereafter the same congregation on the XVIII day of August in the year MDCXVIII declared that four other miracles had been sufficiently proved; concerning miracles these too, for brevity's sake, as being about to be narrated more fully below from the same Coccinus, like the preceding, I abridge: Marcella de Lisania was suddenly freed from a vomiting of blood and from the disease of ophthalmia. Peter Anthony Sutor recovered the faculty of walking, lost through a contraction of the sinews. James Cervera, vexed for fourteen years with incurable ulcers and then with a strong fever, asking the help of the same Saint, came away sound. Vincent Ciprer de Paternoy, seized by a strong palsy, invoked the Saint, fell asleep, and awoke wholly unharmed.

[21] and concerning the validity of the processes; The aforesaid miracles, I say, being approved, the congregation on the VII day of September in the year MDCXVIII, Cardinal Lancellotti reporting, again declared that it was most fully established concerning the validity of the processes, etc. Salon gives the declaration itself in these words: In the cause of the servant of God Thomas of Villanova, of the Order of St. Augustine, archbishop of Valencia, the congregation of sacred Rites, the most illustrious Lancellotti reporting, adhering to the order of the report of the three auditors of the Rota, the matter having been maturely weighed and diligently considered and several times discussed, judged that it was most fully established concerning the validity of the processes, the excellence of his virtues, the purity of his faith, the holiness of his life, the working of miracles, and finally concerning the report of his sanctity and the frequency of the people at the tomb of the aforesaid servant of God Thomas of Villanova. And therefore it decreed that, if it should please our most holy Lord, he may henceforth be called Blessed, and that every year on the XVIII day of September in the whole kingdom of Valencia by the Religious of the same Order of St. Augustine, both friars and nuns, and in the city and diocese of Valencia, of which he was Archbishop for eleven years, by all regulars of either sex, and also by priests and secular clerics, the Office may be recited and Mass celebrated of him as of a Blessed, according to the Rubrics of the Roman Breviary and Missal from the common of a Confessor Pontiff.

[22] the Pontiff, assenting to the sentence, Thomas Blessed In the Series of the acts, where in four places, as I shall afterwards set forth, the account of the deeds is repeated on behalf of

the beatification, it is said in as many places that Paul V assented to the declaration already recited and thereupon granted Apostolic letters in the form of a Brief on the XIV day of September 1618. These letters given on the said day and month I nowhere find; on the contrary, if Salon has noted rightly, the supreme Pontiff did not assent to the declaration before the first of October, nor did he grant the letters before the seventh of the said month of the year 1618. For according to the aforesaid Salon the Pontiff, when the declaration of the Cardinals of the congregation of sacred Rites had been reported to him on the VII day of September, set out from the City, so that, more tranquil and freer from business, he might commend himself and that matter to the Lord in prayers and Sacrifices, and returned at last on the vigil of the feast of St. Michael the archangel; and on the next day, the first of the month of October, after the declaration of the congregation had been read again before the Cardinals, the secretary of the same congregation declared the Pontiff's assent in these words: And a word having been had with our most holy Lord concerning the aforesaid, his Holiness assented and approved the sentence of the sacred congregation on the first day of October MDCXVIII. On the seventh day of the same month of October he declared him Blessed and ordered letters or a Brief to be dispatched. Here Salon has agreeing with him not only other authors who mark the day of the beatification, but also the Apostolic Letters themselves, which are recited by him and are appended to Coccinus's Account, whence I transcribe.

[23] he declares by Apostolic letters issued Pope Paul V. For a perpetual record of the matter. Set by the Lord, though no merits of ours support it, in the See of the Prince of the Apostles, we gladly assent to the devout wishes of the faithful by which the Lord of virtues is honoured in His servants, and we follow them with opportune favours. Indeed it has lately been set forth to Us on behalf of our beloved sons the Prior general and the other superiors, and also the brethren of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, that Thomas of Villanova of good memory, professed of the same Order while he lived, and archbishop of Valencia, was made illustrious by the Lord with many and exceptional gifts of virtues, graces and miracles. Wherefore not only the whole aforesaid Order, but also our most dear son in Christ Philip, Catholic king of Spain, and our venerable brother Isidore, archbishop of Valencia, and also our beloved sons the chapter and canons of the church of Valencia, and the deputies, elect and syndics of the kingdom and city of Valencia, have caused humble supplication to be made to Us that, until they obtain from the Apostolic See the honour of canonization, which they hope will at some time, by the inspiration of divine grace, be accorded to D. Thomas of Villanova on account of his excellent merits, the same Thomas of Villanova may be called blessed, and an Office and Mass of him, as below, may be recited.

[24] Wherefore We, the matter having first been maturely discussed by our venerable brethren the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church set over the sacred rites, to whom We committed it to be examined, by the counsel of the same Cardinals, inclining to supplications of this kind, on the 7th day of October 1618, by Apostolic authority and by the tenor of these presents perpetually grant and indulge that the same Thomas of Villanova of good memory may henceforth be called BLESSED, and that every year on the XVIII day of September in the whole kingdom of Valencia by the Religious of the same Order of St. Augustine, both friars and nuns, and in the city of Valencia, where his body is said to rest, and in the diocese of Valencia, of which he was Archbishop for eleven years, as aforesaid, by all regular persons of either sex, and also by priests and secular clerics, the Office may be recited and Mass celebrated respectively of him, as of a Blessed, according to the Rubrics of the Roman Breviary and Missal from the common of a Confessor Pontiff, freely and lawfully. Notwithstanding Apostolic constitutions and ordinances, and, so far as need be, the statutes and customs of the said Order even confirmed by oath, Apostolic confirmation or any other security, and all other things whatsoever to the contrary. Given at Rome at St. Mary Major under the Fisherman's ring on the VII day of October MDCXVIII, in the fourteenth year of our Pontificate. Scipio, Cardinal of St. Susanna.

[25] After this various images of the Saint were printed in the City, besides his likeness representing some miracles, and this elogium subscribed to them: to the vast joy of the Order of St. Augustine and of all Spain, Bl. Thomas of Villanueva, surnamed the Almsgiver, of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, archbishop of Valencia, an outstanding preacher of the divine word, renowned for miracles, conspicuous for holiness, most liberal in alms toward the poor, a most keen defender of ecclesiastical liberty. He died at Valencia in the year of the Lord MDLV, of his age the LXVII, on the day of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin Mary. At length toward the end of the year 1618 the letters of beatification were received with vast applause and gladness by the inhabitants of the city and kingdom of Valencia and of all Spain, and, at the order of the most illustrious lord Isidore Aliaga, archbishop of Valencia, were promulgated in the metropolitan and other churches on the twenty-fifth day of April in the year 1619, until when, for certain reasons which Salon does not express, the pomp of solemn and public rejoicing had been deferred, and it was continued for three days, the city gleaming day and night with festal fires. After other offices of piety and devotion celebrated in the chief church, a procession was arranged by the clergy to the church of blessed Mary of Succour, accompanied, besides the Religious and a vast multitude of the people, by the viceroy, the sworn magistrates of the city and the magistrate, and almost all the nobility, and with such solemnity that, on Salon's testimony, a greater had never been seen at Valencia. From the same church of blessed Mary of Succour the head of St. Thomas was taken and carried amid musical harmonies to the metropolitan church, where it was thereafter kept, as I understand from the Sacrarium of Valencia, published in Spanish in the year 1635 by Alphonsus del Castillo.

\ read for attaining heavenly things*

§ III. The extension of the faculty of saying the Office and Mass of the Blessed, made once and again; the Acts at Rome down to the declaration that a solemn canonization was to be made.

[ ] The faculty of saying the Office and Mass After the solemn appellation of Blessed, and the indult concerning the Office and Mass of him for the Religious of the Order of St. Augustine in the whole kingdom of Valencia and for the clergy of the city and diocese of Valencia, as is clear from the preceding §, presently in the year 1619, at repeated prayers, the same indult was extended to all the aforesaid Religious of either sex of the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and Catalonia, and also to all regulars of either sex and priests and secular clerics of the town of Villanueva, and at last in the year 1621 to all Religious of either sex of the same Order existing anywhere in the world: the Apostolic Letters of both indults or grants are extant in Cherubini, volume 4 of the Bullarium, those of the former given by the same Paul V at page 40 in these words: Pope Paul the fifth, for a perpetual record of the matter. Set by divine disposition, though with insufficient merits, on the supreme throne of the Apostolate, we gladly attend, according to the office of Apostolic service entrusted to Us from above, to those things whereby the honour and veneration of the servants of Christ may be promoted on earth, and we gladly assent to the devout wishes of Christ's faithful, especially of Catholic kings, desiring this, and we follow them with opportune favours, as we see to be wholesomely expedient in the Lord. For otherwise, in the name of our beloved sons, etc. Here he repeats almost word for word the letters in the form of a Brief by which the beatification was decreed in the year 1618, and which you have in the preceding §, and at length continues.

[27] first by Paul V, But since, as has lately been set forth to Us anew on behalf of the aforesaid Prior general and superiors and brethren, both the said king Philip and the aforesaid Order, and also the said deputies, elect and syndics, greatly desire that the aforesaid grant and indult be extended by Us by Apostolic authority to the whole Order of St. Augustine of this kind and also to the town called Villanueva de los Infantes, of the diocese of Toledo, whence the said Thomas is said to have taken his origin: We, inclining to the supplications presented to Us again upon this in their name, by the counsel of the same Brethren (the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church), by the aforesaid authority and by the tenor of these presents grant and indulge that henceforth in perpetual future times by all Religious of either sex of the same Order of St. Augustine dwelling in Spain, namely in the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and Catalonia, and also in the aforesaid town of Villanueva de los Infantes, where the said Thomas is said to have been born and brought up, by all regulars also of either sex, and also by priests and secular clerics, the Office and Mass of the same Thomas of Villanova, the form and tenor of the aforesaid letters being otherwise observed in all things and through all, may be recited and celebrated respectively, freely and lawfully. Notwithstanding all those things which in the same letters of ours We will not to stand in the way, and all other things whatsoever to the contrary. And We will that to transcripts of these presents, even printed ones, subscribed by the hand of some public notary and secured with the seal of some person constituted in an ecclesiastical dignity, the very same credit be given as would be given to these presents themselves, if they were exhibited or shown. Given at Rome at holy Mary Major under the Fisherman's ring on the XXIV day of September MDCXIX, in the fifteenth year of our Pontificate.

[28] The letters of the other indult mentioned at number 26, given by Gregory XV, the same collector of the Bullarium exhibits in the same place at page 68, then by Gregory XV as follows: Pope Gregory XV. For a perpetual record of the matter. Formerly there issued from Pope Paul the Fifth of happy memory, our predecessor, letters of the following tenor, namely: Set on the supreme, etc. The editor here advises that the remainder be omitted, because Paul's Constitution itself was recited at page 40, as it has just now been recited by me. But since, as has lately been set forth to Us on behalf of the said king Philip of illustrious memory, then living among men, and of the Prior general, and also of the aforesaid superiors and brethren, and of the deputies, elect and syndics, they, out of the affection of devotion which they respectively bear toward the said blessed Thomas, greatly desire that the aforesaid grants and indults be extended by Us, as below, to all Religious of either sex of the same Order existing anywhere in the world: We, willing to assent to their devout wishes in the premises and to follow them with ampler favours and graces, and absolving their individual persons, and judging them to be absolved, by the tenor of these presents, from any sentences, censures and penalties of excommunication, suspension and interdict, and other ecclesiastical ones, whether laid down by law or by man on any occasion or cause, if they are in any way bound by them, solely to the effect of obtaining these presents, inclining to the supplications humbly presented to Us upon this in their name, by the counsel of the same Cardinals, by the same Apostolic authority and by the tenor of these presents also grant and indulge that by all Religious of either sex of the same Order existing anywhere in the world the Office and Mass of the same blessed Thomas of Villanova, the form and tenor of the aforesaid letters being otherwise observed in all things and through all, may likewise freely and lawfully be recited and celebrated respectively.

[29] Notwithstanding all those things which the said

Paul our predecessor willed not to stand in the way in his aforesaid letters, is extended. and all other things whatsoever to the contrary. We likewise will that to transcripts of these presents, even printed ones, subscribed by the hand of a public notary and secured with the seal of some person constituted in an ecclesiastical dignity, the very same credit be given as would be given to these presents, if they were exhibited or shown. Given at Rome at St. Peter's under the Fisherman's ring on the XIV day of May MDCXXI, in the first year of Our Pontificate.

[30] Meanwhile at Rome men were labouring not sluggishly to promote the canonization; for on the sixth day of December of the year just mentioned, 1621, as I read in the Series of the acts, The cause is promoted toward solemn canonization, the approval of the eight miracles, made before the beatification, was repeated in the congregation, and two others besides were subscribed as sufficiently proved, namely of the instantaneous granting of milk to Catherine Montalta, of which she had been deprived at her sixth childbirth; and of the healing from gout from which Louis Lemosy, a surgeon of Valencia, had suffered for six years: a fuller exposition of both, supported by witnesses, I shall give from Coccinus among the other miracles. Finally on the same sixth day of December the sacred congregation judged that the supreme Pontiff could safely proceed, whenever he pleased, to the canonization of the same Blessed, and issued the following Decree: The cause of Bl. Thomas of Villanova, of the Order of St. Augustine, archbishop of Valencia, having been diligently discussed and maturely weighed by mandate of our most holy Lord with a view to canonization, the congregation of sacred Rites, several sessions having been held thereupon, the most illustrious Cardinal Millino reporting, judged that our most holy Lord could safely proceed, whenever it should please him, to the solemn canonization of the same Bl. Thomas according to the rite of the Holy Roman Church and the disposition of the sacred Canons, and define him a Saint reigning with God and propose him to the universal Church to be honoured and venerated. Francis Maria, Cardinal a Monte.

In place of the ✠ seal.

Peter Ciammareconus, secretary.

[31] it is interrupted, The cause nevertheless remained in that state for several years, for, as is said in the Series of the acts and in the Bull of canonization itself, in which a brief series of the acts of this kind is contained, when the new decrees of Urban VIII came in — who, Gregory XV being taken from the living on the VIII day of July 1623, was substituted as supreme Pontiff in the same year on the VI day of August — the cause fell silent until the year MDCXLIX. By these decrees the form of canonization was enlarged, and it was enacted among other things that in future there must be no proceeding to the canonization of anyone who has been adorned with any veneration or with the title of Blessed, unless first, in the same sacred congregation before his Holiness, a full and distinct report has again been made by the Cardinal Ponent in the Order, not only of what is contained in the processes and other writings, and of what was bestowed upon him by the supreme Pontiffs in view of that veneration, but also of what has supervened after the veneration was granted him, of which it may be established, to this end, that from all the aforesaid the supreme Pontiff may be able to deliberate whether there should be a proceeding to canonization.

[32] at length in the year 1649 The acts thereafter from the year 1649 down to the canonization itself Pope Alexander VII embraced in the Bull, as I have already hinted, and the same the most illustrious Francis Phœbeus, secretary of the congregation of sacred Rites, related in the Series of the acts already so often praised, with the day, month and year, however, added throughout, and other circumstances which for brevity's sake were passed over in that place. To transcribe this here entire would be disagreeable, both because the same things often recur, and because already several things have been culled from it which concern the Life of St. Thomas and the order of matters for the beatification; yet, lest the curious reader should miss anything, I shall compile from the said Phœbeus what further pertains to the order of canonization alone.

[33] it is resumed. The Works written by the Saint are examined, And so, when on the XIII day of July 1649 a report had been made before Pope Innocent X of all that had gone before, on the XV day of the same month the commission was signed for the resumption of the cause in the state and terms in which it was then found; on the XXIV day of the same month Cardinal Cornelius was deputed as reporter of the cause, and on the XXI day of August the care was committed to him of taking proofs upon the excepted case; which having been seen and discussed, on the XXV day of September it was declared that it was established that a cult had been and was shown to Bl. Thomas by virtue of the indults of Paul the Fifth and Gregory XV, and therefore that the case was comprehended among those excepted from the decrees of the most holy Inquisition issued concerning non-cult. On the XVI day of November the examination of the Works published by the same Blessed was committed to Cardinal Cornelius, with the fathers Hilarion Rancati and Terence Alciati called in.

[34] In the congregation held on the VII day of March MDCL it was pronounced and are approved. The remaining Acts down to 1657, that nothing was contained in the aforesaid Works against faith and good morals, nor any new doctrine alien from the common sense of the Church. And on that account on the VI day of February MDCLII remissorial letters were decreed for proving what had at length supervened, and these were released and directed to the archbishop of Valencia, and also to the bishops of Segorbe and Tortosa on the 2nd day of May MDCLII. Then on the VIII day of May MDCLV it was granted that the same processes, transmitted to the curia, should be opened; and these, Cardinal Pallotto being subrogated on the same day in the place of Cardinal Cornelius, who had been snatched from the living, were discussed in the congregation held before your Holiness on the XXVIII day of March of the past year MDCLVI, and it was declared that it was established concerning the validity and relevance of the same processes, especially as to two miracles, namely of the healing of a deformed hernia and of the preservation of a girl from suffocation under water. Therefore it only remains that the decree of the sacred congregation confirmed on the VI day of December MDCXXI be fulfilled, with the solemnities written below, however, going before. Thus far Phœbeus, at the close of the compendium of the Life of St. Thomas and of the acts in the beatification, which in the year 1657 he offered to Pope Alexander VII. He then goes on to explain the solemnities just mentioned and to beg the most holy Lord to bring the cause to the desired end, which I forbear to report, as also the fuller exposition of the two miracles, since I shall give this with the rest at the end.

[35] Presently very many days, he says, slip by in deep silence, and meanwhile in the month of December MDCLVII there are brought to the City the letters of Nata, daughter of Philip IV, Catholic king of Spain, in which, on the occasion of a petition offered to him, a nun in the royal monastery at Madrid, by which she announced to her agent in the Roman curia that she, brought to extremity by a vehement pain from an ailment of the shoulder-blade, had come away wholly free by the touch of Thomas's relics — the credit of which matter is left with the author herself, since the truth of that deed is not otherwise established at all; and, not unmindful of so great a benefit, she ordered his Holiness to be earnestly asked by a petition that it might be granted her and the nuns by Apostolic kindness that every year in her monastery the festivity of the blessed Prelate should be celebrated with a double Office through an octave. The supreme Pontiff ordered a petition of this kind, presented to his Holiness, to be transmitted to me, so that I might set forth to his Beatitude by word of mouth the reason of the request.

[36] I obey, and God quite unexpectedly inclined his Holiness's heart to do justice with His Servant; Alexander VII conceives in mind and decrees the canonization. so that what I had tried to urge in vain by repeated offices, I at last obtained without a word being interposed, God alone inspiring it. But it is no wonder that a slender voice springing forth from the depths of the earth struck upon the ears and did not ascend to the heart, until the almighty word of God, coming from the royal seats, without being brought to the ears penetrated the heart within. For the most holy Alexander stood silent, turning over many and indeed most weighty things in his mind, and thereupon, weeping, addressed him with these tender words: Why grant the Office of Bl. Thomas only to the petitioners, when the remarkable merits of the same Blessed and the far greater proofs of our devout affection toward him and toward the most worthy offspring of the divine Augustine demand it of Us by the fullest right? To their petitions and wishes we shall of our own accord add ampler things: for we shall, God granting, as soon as possible enroll in the catalogue of the Saints so glorious a Prelate, to be honoured by the whole Christian world: he ordered therefore that whatever remained to be done in order to this end should be completed, and that in the general congregation to be held according to custom before his Holiness the next spring, the most Eminent lord reporter of the cause should set forth all the acts in the same cause, to be drawn up by me in a truthful narration.

[37] Petitions are brought from Spain; He then adds that he presently made partakers of this glad news the procurator general of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, Fr. Peter Lanfranconius, and the assistant for Spain, Fr. Andrew Aznar, procurator of the cause, and admonished them to write to Spain, so as to receive thence repeated entreaties of the Catholic king and of others; and that while he himself was applying himself to gathering the acts, two letters of his Catholic majesty were brought to the Pontiff by the aforesaid fathers, and also others of very many prelates and universities of the kingdoms of Spain …, by which the most Holy Father was earnestly asked that he would at length deign by his infallible oracle to propose Thomas, reigning among the Saints in heaven, to be honoured and imitated by Christ's faithful on earth. On the VIII day of June 1658 the same Phœbeus announced in the ordinary congregation to the most Eminent lords set over the congregation of sacred Rites that in the next week, before the most Holy Father in general congregation, Thomas's illustrious deeds were to be subjected to a new examination, and that upon them the individual Cardinals and consultors were to open their opinions; to which end he at once transmitted to them the Compendium of all the acts in the same cause, which he recites in his Series from page 8 to 15.

[38] the acts thus far having been examined in general congregation, On the XII day of June the aforesaid congregation was held in the Quirinal palace, in which, after the invocation of the Holy Spirit made according to custom by the Pontiff, before the same, the Cardinals, the consultors and the officials of sacred Rites, Cardinal Pallotto read out the Life, death, virtues and miracles of Bl. Thomas, and also all the acts in the same cause, and at length concluded with these words: Nothing therefore remains to be desired, since, those things being fulfilled which the newest decrees require, the sentence of the sacred congregation, that it was possible at any time safely to proceed to the canonization of blessed Thomas, wholly revives, and indeed only this remains, that your Holiness should most kindly assent to the most humble and most zealous entreaties, several times and most recently repeated, of Philip the Fourth, Catholic king of Spain, of the archbishops, bishops, nobles and kingdoms of Spain, and also of the whole Order of Hermits of St. Augustine. Which will certainly turn to the greatest example of the Church militant; since blessed Thomas, a singular specimen of charity and a chief ornament of the pontifical Order, a hundred and two years after his death, being in the fortieth year from the veneration granted him — after the lapse, I say, of nearly thirty years in which the Apostolic See has enrolled no one in the list of the Saints — deservedly by right demands this increase of accidental glory from your Holiness.

[39] the Pontiff declares his mind, Phœbeus gives this report of Cardinal Pallotto, to which he says all the Fathers assented with one voice,

entire from page 16 to 41, and from it I have culled the Life reprinted above in the second place, and other things here and there, where it was opportune, pertaining to the series of the beatification and canonization. This congregation being finished, the most holy Lord, when the fathers, the procurator general of the Order of St. Augustine and the assistant for Spain, procurator of the cause, had been brought to his feet by Phœbeus, directed them to prepare everything opportune for carrying out the solemnities of the canonization, to be celebrated, God assenting, on the Kalends of November; and they, returning cheerfully to their convent, transmitted this glad news to Spain, and presently Phœbeus himself published the following decree of the sacred congregation.

[40] Valencia. Of the Canonization of Bl. Brother Thomas of Villanova. the congregation issues a decree, In the cause of the canonization of blessed brother Thomas of Villanova, archbishop of Valencia, of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, all things being completed which even the newest decrees require, by mandate of our most holy Lord Alexander, by divine disposition Pope the VII, in the general congregation of sacred Rites held before his Holiness, there was made by the most Eminent lord Cardinal Pallotto a most full and distinct report of his Life, sanctity, virtues and miracles, and also of all the acts in the same cause from its introduction and resumption, both of those which preceded and of those which followed the beatification: and this having been heard, the most Holy Father (although the same sacred congregation had formerly, on the sixth day of December MDCXXI, judged that it was possible at any time safely to proceed to the solemn canonization of the same Blessed) commanded both the consultors and the Cardinals present there that each should open his opinion again, and all were unanimous in the affirmative; namely that Bl. Thomas, for his remarkable liberality toward the poor surnamed the Almsgiver, whom God set as an example especially to prelates, seemed altogether to be proposed to the veneration of the same and of the rest of the assembly of Christ's faithful, as reigning with God; not doubting indeed that this would turn to the greatest profit and comfort of the Church militant. On the XII day of June MDCLVIII.

[41] On the 2nd day of September in a secret consistory another report was made by the most Eminent Cardinal Sacchetti, and the Cardinals in secret consistory approve. prefect of the sacred congregation, which Phœbeus recites from page 43 to 54; and this being finished, the most Holy Father — these are the words of the aforesaid Phœbeus — sought the opinions of the Cardinals in these words: "You have heard, venerable brethren, the pre-eminent merits of virtues and the notable miracles of blessed Thomas of Villanova, archbishop of Valencia. Does it please you that we proceed to the canonization of the same Blessed?" Then the individual Cardinals, by the word Placet alone, with unanimous voice approved the judgment of proceeding to the solemn canonization of Bl. Thomas. Presently in the same consistory the provisions of churches were, according to custom, proclaimed and proposed. As soon as the aforesaid consistory was finished, I committed to the chamber printer the care of printing the aforesaid report, which, when printed, I saw to it was distributed by the procurator general of the Order of St. Augustine to each of the Cardinals and bishops living in the City, so that from it they might perceive the merits of the man to be canonized and might with prudent judgment confirm thereupon the opinions to be uttered in the semi-public consistory, and might set them down in writing. On Monday the IX day of September the masters of ceremonies by order of the supreme Pontiff handed to the runners the schedule of the notification of the public consistory.

§ IV. The remaining Acts down to the solemn canonization, celebrated on the first day of November of the year 1658.

[ ] In the public consistory the consistorial advocate delivers an address, and On the XII day of September a public consistory was celebrated in the Quirinal hall, and in it an oration was delivered by lord Mark Anthony Buratto, consistorial advocate, again embracing the Life and miracles of Bl. Thomas, and also the supplications of the Catholic king and of the others often named, which Phœbeus recites from page 55 to 65, together with the answer made in the Pontiff's name by the most reverend lord Francis Nerli, archbishop of Florence, secretary of Briefs to princes, which I append: That the honours of the Saints and the sacred solemnities are sought for blessed Thomas of Villanova, of Augustinian profession, archbishop of Valencia, our most holy Lord gladly hears, and embraces the devotion of religious prayers with the care and benevolence of a fatherly mind. In which indeed the Pontifical mind is struck by the thought that the Christian Commonwealth, if ever at any other time, then most of all at this time, has need of the saving patronage and protection of the nobles of the heavenly Jerusalem and of the household of God, which, the Father of mercies being at last entreated, may bring back the tranquillity of the peace so long sought, and may turn aside the many storms of whirlwinds, both those that press and those that threaten.

[43] in the name of the Pontiff And so great and so approved a Priest of the Most High excels in the glory of exceptional virtues and of deeds miraculously performed, that he may plainly seem to be "written down in the judgments of times to appease the wrath of the Lord, to reconcile the heart of the fathers unto the children, the heart of the children unto the fathers, and to restore the tribes of Jacob." Moreover the admirable Man is indeed remarkably adorned by all the praises of pre-eminent holiness; but one, as it were by its own right, claims him wholly for itself: his incomparable and inexhaustible liberality toward Christ's poor; whence his illustrious surname of the Almsgiver; so that he may be proposed to all sacred prelates for imitation as an excellent model for kindling vehemently the zeal of pastoral charity, and one not sought from distant ages. Since therefore such devout, and now also public, wishes of the faithful seem so greatly to pertain to the greater glory of God, best and greatest, and to the honour and profit of the whole Church, there is surely reason why happy Spain should deservedly glory in an ample offspring of holy Men; why the episcopal Order should truly rejoice, and should recognize and emulate the better charisms of its sublime institute even in men of almost this present time.

[44] the archbishop of Florence answers; There is reason why the family of Augustine the Great should be so pleased with such a Nursling, and should enjoy being repeatedly admonished and adorned by the more illustrious examples of Religious observance: and the whole Christian world may hope for some end to the ruinous disasters which for so many years now miserably tear and consume it, being increased with new and powerful supports from the Heavenly ones, and, by the very renown and admiration of such great virtues, provoked and equipped to put off the old man with his deeds and to disarm the right hand of avenging justice. But since reason and the custom of this holy Church require that, even after sworn witnesses have been heard and all the acts duly and in order completed, so great a matter must be transacted not without the prayers of the just and the previous illumination of a heavenly oracle, his Holiness exhorts all to apply themselves devoutly and diligently to fastings, alms and careful prayers, so that the divine will, with the light of the Holy Spirit shining before, may be still more clearly revealed. And he himself will seek the opinions of his venerable brethren the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church; then he will also wish to hear the patriarchs, archbishops and bishops present in the City. To this effect our most holy Lord has ordered me to answer the most elegant oration just now delivered.

[45] After Vespers of the same day, so Phœbeus continues at page 67 after not many things interposed, Indulgences preceding the solemnity are proclaimed; the mandataries of the most Eminent lord Cardinal Vicar affixed on the doors of the churches of the City, and also in the public places of the same city, an edict printed in the Italian tongue of the following tenor. The aforesaid collector adds the Italian edict itself, which in Latin comprises the following: Plenary indulgences. Martius, by divine mercy bishop of Albano, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Ginetti, vicar general of our most holy Lord the Pope, and ordinary judge of the Roman curia and its district, etc. Our most holy Lord Pope Alexander VII grants plenary Indulgences and remission of sins to all Christ's faithful of either sex who shall have fasted on the next Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and, having confessed and been refreshed with the sacred Banquet, shall have visited one of the basilicas written below while the most holy Sacrament is exposed there, and on one day of the next week the church of St. Augustine, and shall have devoutly prayed the divine Majesty to inspire and assist his Beatitude in the weighty deliberation concerning the canonization of blessed Thomas of Villanova, archbishop of Valencia, of the Order of St. Augustine. The venerable Sacrament will be exposed in the Basilica of St. John Lateran on Sunday, the XV of the current month, until the hour of the conventual Mass on Tuesday. In the basilica of St. Peter after the conventual Mass on Tuesday until the hour of the same Mass on Thursday. In the basilica of holy Mary Major after the conventual Mass on Thursday until the hour of the same Mass on Saturday. In faith whereof, etc. Given at Rome from our house on the XI day of September MDCLVIII. M. A., bishop of Hierapolis, Vicegerent. Joseph Palamolla, secretary.

[46] On the XII day of September, Phœbeus continues, very early in the morning the most Holy Father departed from the Quirinal palace, to gain which he himself proceeds and, Mass having been performed and being carried in a sedan chair, thence made for the Vatican, and, entering the basilica, poured out prayers before the altars of the most holy Sacrament and of the Apostles, and presently went up to the palace. And toward Vespers, so as to rouse the people to devotion not only by word but by example, being about to gain the published plenary indulgence, he again sought the basilica, in which he found the venerable Sacrament exposed. There he prayed a little, and did the same before the high altar: thereupon he went on to the church of St. Augustine, where the solemnities of blessed Thomas of Villanova had already been begun at first Vespers. For although the same Blessed had died on the VIII day of September, yet by Paul V of holy memory the eighteenth day of the same month was decreed for recalling the annual memory of the same Blessed, so that the Friars of St. Augustine after the octave of St. Nicholas of Tolentino might be more free to give themselves to the solemnities of the same blessed Thomas. And after his Holiness had likewise poured out prayers before the high altar, on which the venerable Sacrament was placed, and before the altar of blessed Thomas, he returned to the Quirinal palace. And his Holiness extended the same plenary indulgence to nuns, to enclosed cenobites, to those detained in prisons and to the sick or others incapable, what was enjoined in the Edict being commuted into other works of piety at the discretion and within the limits of each one's strength.

[47] the Pontiff, who at length in the semi-public consistory Since all that has been narrated seems to have been performed on one and the same day, an error has doubtless crept into the number, and for the XII day the XVII of September must be restored: this is clear from the fact that above it is said that the beginning of the indulgences for the Lateran basilica was fixed for Sunday, the XV of the month of September, and for the Vatican for the following Tuesday; and likewise from the fact that, when the Pontiff came to the church of St. Augustine, the first Vespers of St. Thomas had already been begun, which clearly hint at the XVII day. Meanwhile, as the aforesaid Phœbeus reports, a semi-public consistory was duly proclaimed and celebrated on the XXIII day of the said month in the ducal hall of the Quirinal palace, where the supreme Pontiff, setting out a discourse to the most Eminent Cardinals and the others assisting according to custom, after many other things spoke of our Saint in this manner:

[48] after a remarkable elogium of the Saint seeks their votes But that we propose today Thomas of Villanova, archbishop of Valencia, before the rest, both the prerogative of Blessed long since granted him by Paul V our predecessor brings about,

and the honour of the episcopal Order, and the entreaties, shared with the Augustinian family, of the king of Spain and of other princes and peoples; and then also (we say it confidently) the veneration we have for the divine Augustine, most holy master of theology, handed down as it were through the hands of our ancestors according to the flesh, and the particular veneration undertaken from our youth toward this Nursling of his. Furthermore we purpose to propose him as an example of bishops in this age of ours on account of his many and illustrious virtues in the pastoral office, and especially on account of that one liberality munificently displayed from his earliest years to the last day of his life, by which, that he might lend to God at interest, he had mercy on the poor, and which it is fitting that all prelates of the ecclesiastical hierarchy should imitate — namely that all who have power should be truly beneficent and be so called. Whether therefore it is fitting to decree to Thomas, archbishop of Valencia, whom we have long honoured as enjoying divine beatitude, the appellation of Saint, and a cult equal to that appellation, as we still deliberate, imploring the oracles of heaven, so also we most gladly seek your opinions, venerable Brethren. To the votes.

[49] and, having heard these, appoints the canonization, After these things Phœbeus recites from page 71 to 109 the votes of thirty-four Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, of one patriarch, of seven archbishops, and of thirty-two bishops, who all judge that Thomas should be inscribed in the list of the Saints, and adorn him with some elogium, sometimes rather lengthy. I do not transcribe the said elogia of theirs, lest there be too frequent a repetition of the same matter; for although some praise him for every virtue in general, others particularly for one or several, namely for charity toward God, for chastity, for humility especially in fleeing dignities, for fortitude and constancy in defending ecclesiastical liberty, for industry and prudence in correcting sinners, and for the like, which we have already sufficiently known from elsewhere, yet for the greater part they agree in this, that they greatly extol his devotion toward the poor, which grew up with him from infancy and won him the glorious title of the Almsgiver. All their opinions having been heard, says Phœbeus, the most Holy Father added what is presently to be set down: "Having perceived, venerable Brethren, the opinions of you all, since we see that all tend whither our mind was aiming after a long meditation of the matter, we appoint the first of November as the day of the canonization. Do you meanwhile with fastings, prayers and alms humbly beg of God that He would deign to signify to us — the rule of all good and right — His will, that according to it, as in all other matters, so most of all in this we may go forward."

[50] The aforesaid Phœbeus subjoins the remaining deeds down to the appointed first day of November, which was solemnly performed on 1 November 1658. not even omitting the description of the adornment of the Vatican basilica, which he signifies had never in past time been more elegantly furnished; but these things, since they seem of lighter moment, I judged should be passed over. Finally he exhibits a fairly lengthy narration of all the ceremonies which were observed in the solemnity itself, which likewise I did not think it worthwhile to reprint here, because they can be sufficiently known from various published works in which the ceremonies customarily observed in the canonization of Saints are described and declared, and namely from chapter 36 of book 1 of the illustrious Work On the Beatification of the Servants of God and the Canonization of the Blessed, which our most holy Lord Pope Benedict XIV published formerly as a Cardinal, and afterwards revised and enlarged. There is added that at least the chief ones are recorded in the Bull of canonization itself.

§ V. The first part of the Bull of canonization, divided into two parts, containing the Saint's Life.

[ ] How the Bull is to be given here. To what has been reported thus far it has seemed good to subjoin the Bull of canonization itself; and since it is longer than can conveniently be comprised in one §, to divide it into two parts, of which the first, besides the preface of Pope Alexander VII, exhibits the Life of St. Thomas reduced to a compendium; the second, besides the miracles wrought from the same Saint's death and duly approved, sets out the series of the deeds both toward the beatification and toward the canonization, together with the ceremonies observed in the same canonization, the Indulgences granted, and a brief exhortation of the same Pontiff that the faithful should render praises and thanks to God and have recourse with confidence to St. Thomas's patronage. Beyond these things I judged that nothing needed to be premised or observed. For what pertains to the Saint's Life I consider sufficiently discussed in the Commentarius prævius and in the Annotata to the Acts; and what pertains to the second part can be understood from the foregoing.

[52] Alexander, Bishop, servant of the servants of God. The chief end of canonization is set forth, For a perpetual record of the matter. When the most holy King and Prophet, full of the spirit of God, invites all kinds of created things by the sweetest psalms to praise their Creator, it is not obscurely known that he does this chiefly for the sake of men. For the angelic minds, whom he calls first, and likewise all living and inanimate things, which he next addresses, had no need at all of any such command or incitement. For those, by the necessity of their beatitude, proclaim the thrice-holy hymn with unceasing voice; and these in their own way praise their Author while they are silent, and offer Him to be praised by others who contemplate the divinity of the Maker. Therefore the faithful are chiefly roused by the prophetic voices, to whom it is especially said: Praise ye the Lord in his Saints; honouring, namely, the holy men made friends of God, glorifying on earth those whom He has crowned with glory and honour in heaven: humbly calling upon the household of God in your difficulties: in short, acknowledging and worshipping the Lord in His servants. And this very thing the Catholic Church, taught by the Holy Spirit, admirably understands, when almost daily she offers to her sons the memory of some Saint to be recalled and celebrated with the divine Office and prayers; and when at intervals of time she enrolls in the number of the Saints, by divine instinct and by Apostolic pontifical authority, some who shine among others like stars with the light of excellent holiness and miracles, and proposes them to the faithful peoples to be venerated: namely so that in that way the praise and glory of almighty God may more and more increase, and thanks be at the same time given to His goodness and kindness, who gave such power and authority to men.

[53] and Thomas's holiness is declared from the Acts. But that the same God has reserved for these times, in which by ineffable providence, and by no merits of ours, He willed us to preside over His Church, that the most holy priest Thomas of Villanova, most greatly beloved of Him, should be adorned with that title and honour, and has inspired us with this mind, we congratulate the age on its happiness in the Lord, in that it can more closely behold a new and saving example of holiness, and can especially invoke a new interpreter and intercessor with God's mercy in present perils and necessities, and hope through his prayers for peace and tranquillity in its days, the Lord being appeased. And separately in our own name we most humbly hold and render immortal thanks, as we ought, to the same divine kindness. But now, that Thomas's holiness may become known by our testimony also;

[54] His birth; his devotion toward the poor This most holy Man had his birth in the castle of Fuenllana in the diocese of Toledo in the year one thousand four hundred and eighty-eight from the restoration of the world's salvation, of honourable and Catholic parents, Alphonsus Thomas Garcia de Villanova, of the town of the same diocese, and Lucia Martinez Castellana, so given to charity that they never permitted a needy man to go away from them with an empty bosom. And as it were by an inborn feeling of devotion and mercy brought with him from his mother's womb, and brought up under such parents, he was seen to dedicate himself to God before he could through age know God. He never denied Christ's poor what they asked, nor made the eyes of the widow wait; nor did he eat his morsel alone, but the orphan ate of it. For the breakfasts customarily given him as he set out for school he divided among the hungry; and, pitying the nakedness of the poor, he often returned home stripped of his cloak, doublet, cap, hose and mantle; sometimes earnestly begging his mother to add the dinner prepared for him to the customary daily distribution of alms for a poor man who came, promising that on that day he would not eat at all: which being obtained, filled with a devout and innocent fast, he refreshed with heavenly banquets his mind hungering for divine things. And thereafter he carried newly laid eggs to the hospitals for the refreshment of the sick; so utterly poured out upon the needy from his tender years that he distributed to the poor of Christ the Lord the very chicks taken from the hen, and once, being set over the reapers, shared with the needy who were gleaning ears not only their food but his own and that destined for himself.

[55] and his remaining virtues in boyhood; Yet, always alike subject to his parents' command, so far as charity toward God laudably urged, he did not swerve from their orders. For he wished, and understanding was given him; he called, and the spirit of wisdom came upon him, by whose working he assiduously prayed to the Father of lights both at home and in the churches, and trod down the concupiscence of the flesh with a robust and unbroken rigour of holiness, chastising his poor body and reducing it to servitude, taming it with a hair shirt and with scourges: and when these were sometimes left through forgetfulness by him on his bed, and found by his mother not without wonder, it plainly appeared in him that the sowing was anticipated by the threshing, the shoot by the vintage, the root by the fruit. Which private and silent severity toward himself he seasoned also with equal modesty. For he was so modest that he was never accustomed to lift his eyes from the ground, and so chaste and modest that he remained a virgin to his last breath, nor did any word ever come forth from his mouth that did not savour of purity of heart.

[56] Understanding, moreover, that they who have been learned shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, his studies of letters and his entry and they that instruct many unto justice as stars for all eternity, at Alcalá in the college of St. Ildephonsus he easily surpassed the doctors themselves in the disciplines and faculties and in every kind of virtue. He thereafter expounded logical and theological questions. And now, sufficiently trained in the Christian wrestling-school, and mindful of the Gospel saying: He that doth not renounce all that he possesseth cannot be my disciple, on hearing of his father's death he renounced the ornament and the emoluments of the professorial chair, and assigned his whole patrimony to the maintenance of maidens: whereby a hospital was raised for them in the town of Villanueva, still called the Archbishop's hospital. Meanwhile he inclined his ear to hear the Lord speaking within him and saying: Forget thy people and thy father's house. Whence, when he was in his twenty-seventh year, lest by the din of secular cares he should be drawn away from perfect union with God, the Lord led him into the wilderness, that He might there speak to his heart, and there he gave his name to the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine in the friary of Salamanca on the twenty-fourth day of November of the year one thousand five hundred and sixteen; and, having completed the rudiments of religion for a year with marvellous austerity of life, when the same twenty-fourth day of November presently came round he made his solemn profession there, and, emulating the better charisms, in a short time reached that goal of religious perfection that, scarcely two years having elapsed, he was named Prior of the same friary.

[57] Thence indeed, from Prior of the friary of St. Augustine

of Burgos, into the Order of St. Augustine; the offices he held in it; he discharged the offices of visitor of the provinces of Castile and Baetica, of Provincial, of definitor of the same province of Castile, and of prior of the friary of Valladolid, with such examples of life and manners, and restored with such zeal the shaken integrity of regular discipline, that he deserved to be enrolled in the number of the reformers of the Order. Amid these things, the Most High willing to water the mountains from His upper rooms, he was ordered not to hide in the earth the talent entrusted to him by the Lord, but, as a most wise steward, to turn it to the common profit. In the aforesaid most celebrated friary of Salamanca, therefore, he expounded out of obedience the Master of the Sentences, both to the religious of his Order and to outsiders who came, following the doctrine of St. Thomas; to which both the likeness of the name and the custom of his religion urged him: and under that teacher the progress of the disciples was so great that, when he had resolved to declare holy war upon the princes and powers of darkness, he found them worthy to be sent — while he himself afterwards discharged the office of provincial — plainly conformed to the Apostolic pattern, like swift angels, to a nation wholly ignorant of the Christian religion, to storm the citadels of Mexican unbelief; kindling them by the joy set before them, either of the future conversion of those minds turned away from God, or of the laurel to be obtained by their own blood shed for Christ: of which the first the most clement Lord deigned to confirm through them with a most happy outcome, not without great benefit to the Christian commonwealth.

[58] his marvellous power of speech; his election to the mitre of Valencia; While he was engaged in these things, the Spirit of the Lord was upon him and sent him to preach the Gospel to the poor. For, transferred out of obedience from the chair to the pulpit, he seemed to the peoples the trumpet of life and the voice of the heavens; and thereby a vessel of election, to carry the name of Jesus before kings and princes. Therefore the emperor Charles V chose him in particular as his preacher: whose apostolic spirit, made all things to all men, dispensed the food of the divine word to the wise and to the unwise, so that with one voice of all he was proclaimed the instrument of the Holy Spirit. Moved by these things, the same Charles V and Philip II, Catholic king of Spain, devoutly believed that the discipline of the church of Valencia, shaken by a long widowhood, could be restored if only Thomas were set over it as prelate. But lest, as he had before refused the mitre of the church of Granada because he had chosen to be an abject in the house of his God, he should also refuse to undertake the care of Valencia, when it was found that the will of the emperor and the king did not press sufficiently, at their request he was compelled by his superior, and, leaving his cell with tears, betook himself to Valencia; and at the friary of holy Mary of Succour of the Order of St. Augustine, dismounting from his horse and avoiding the pomp of a solemn entry, he went on foot with his companion, clothed in the habit of a simple religious, to the cathedral; and thus he laid these foundations of humility, so that the more deeply he might make firm the summit of an ecclesiastical prelate, the more solidly and loftily he might raise it.

[59] his pastoral care On this height of the chair that good Pastor laid down his life for his sheep; and although the persecutor's sword did not take him away, yet he did not lose the palm of martyrdom. For, a provincial synod being convened, he restored ecclesiastical discipline and the manners of the laity, being visited with many injuries. Presently, turning to the promotion of the salvation of his sheep, he recalled very many to the path of life by the force of a charity at once prudent and fiery, by exhorting, by fasting, by praying, and even by pouring out his own blood in repeated scourgings; so that he could truly say: Day and night I was pressed by heat and cold, and sleep fled from my eyes. And although he had striven gently to draw minds to the pursuit of uprightness, he nevertheless did not neglect to reach the end with strength.

[60] and his fortitude in defending the Church's liberty; For he showed an unconquered spirit both in defending the rights of the Church and in restoring and preserving ecclesiastical authority; using those words, that he would rather embrace a glorious death than a hateful life, and that he did not fear or flee punishments for vindicating into liberty the ecclesiastical immunity as a debt of his pastoral office: which he showed to have been said from the heart when to a royal minister threatening the despoiling of his temporal goods he answered with an undaunted mind: Then shall I be the richer, when, free of temporal support, I shall return glad to my cell, where I shall find my father the divine Augustine, from whom I departed only unwillingly and weeping. He compelled offenders by ecclesiastical censures to undergo the due penalty, boiling over with exceptional charity, and offering himself as a holocaust for his own whom he could not correct by beseeching and reproving.

[61] For, in their very presence, by scourging himself even to blood, and rebuking himself with tears, by whose sins, he said, it came about, if they did not come to their senses, he so pricked them his ardour for rooting out crimes; that he brought them back to penitence and to better fruit. Yet with such marvellous kindness, excellence of charity and sweetness of prudence did he bring back many, both of the clergy and of the people, to the way of the fear of the Lord, that, where he feared lest others might be infected by the bad example of his own household, that excellent lover of purity did not keep anyone defiled by unchastity in his house for even an hour. Nay, he expelled from his house his own brother's son, marked with the fault of wantonness, and compelled him without delay to return to his homeland. Wherefore thus in labour and hardships, in vigils and fastings, reproving, beseeching, rebuking, in all patience and doctrine, he was made all things to all men, that he might win all, and, like another Paul, was called the divine understanding and the taper of divine love: and he so burned with the love of God that he was wont to say everywhere that it seemed to him almost more tolerable to be sent down into hell than not to love God; and that beyond the fires and torments he dreaded this one thing, that those who are tormented in hell hate God. And behold, there was given him the peace of the Lord's covenant, and there was to him the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and expiated the wickedness of the daughters of Israel; and because he had mercy, he taught his flock as a Pastor, beloved of Christ the Lord and obedient to Him; he fed the lambs and fed His sheep.

[62] For he was so liberal toward the poor and so sparing toward himself his frugality toward himself and liberality that, in order to relieve the needy more amply, whose parent he showed himself, he wore torn garments which he mended with his own hands, kept at home a single cap for his own use, dwelt in a chamber lined with matting, rested upon twigs on the ground, and often permitted poor guests to take their food from the same dish; and he himself ate so sparingly that, worn out with age and infirmity, he permitted the table to be furnished with a single and that a modest dish; and to the steward urging otherwise with prayers he often answered that it was unjust that the servant should feed on richer food than his master's poor. Taking the linens from his own bed, and stripping himself of his shirts, he bestowed them upon the poor, judging that what belonged to the poor could not be denied them without injury: in which he stood forth a perfect imitator and son of his most holy patriarch Augustine, in that he counted nothing his own, nay reckoned everything common with his brethren: whence also, following in the footsteps of St. Gregory the Great, he kept by him a catalogue of all the poor, that he might be able to provide for each according to his want. Besides this he supplied needy girls with a dowry according to their condition.

[63] And when the Moors had plundered the town of Cullera in his diocese, toward his neighbour, proved by miracles and had led away very many of the inhabitants captive, he liberally poured out a vast sum of gold in redeeming them from the yoke of servitude. And when he had learned by experience that poor women neglected the life of children cast out on the public road, he took care that the children be brought to him, and spent a great sum of money in feeding and rearing them. He raised three colleges, which he endowed with rich incomes: the first at Valencia, the second at Alcalá, the third at Orihuela, from which very many men eminent both for uprightness and for learning have come forth. This remarkable devotion of a Man after His own heart, that same most devout Lord, who alone does great wonders and is wonderful in His Saints, confirmed by singular testimonies of His divine right hand working beyond the accustomed order of second causes to be most acceptable to Him.

[64] approved by God; For, to relieve the family of a wretched woman, it came about that the under-keeper of the archiepiscopal wheat was sent by him to the granary, which he had a little before left utterly empty: and when he had reached it, he beheld with the under-steward and others the grains overflowing through the chinks of the door; and while they strove to open the door, pressed by the great mass of wheat, they could scarcely unbar it, pushing with all their strength; wherefore, struck with astonishment, they cried out the miracle in loud voices. And then Thomas, running thither and enjoining silence upon all, bestowed the wheat upon the woman and said: Eat, and give thanks to the Almighty, who has prepared it for you. Besides this, conscious that he was sent to heal the contrite of heart, having made the sign of the most holy Cross over a certain poor man of Saragossa who had suffered from palsy for forty years and leaned upon crutches, saying: Trust, and give thanks to God, who has deigned to impart health to you, he made firm his bases and his soles, so that the paralytic raised himself up, strong throughout, and, throwing away his crutches, fell down at his feet: on whom the holy Archbishop enjoined silence, and exhorted him to be grateful to God and to pour out prayers for him.

[65] his zeal for prayer and the graces received thence; Mindful also of Christ the Lord's promise: If you shall ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it you, he never went forth to deliver sermons, or undertook the task of anyone's conversion, without first having entreated God with poured-out prayers that He would deign by divine grace to soften the hard hearts of sinners; and presently, rising from prayer of this kind, he reproved sinners with such fervour and burning zeal that he called very many back to penitence and to the path of a more perfect life; and, touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, he impelled them to run at once to the confessor's feet. It happened also that, treating before the said king Philip II of the ineffable mystery of the most holy Trinity, he so far raised his mind that the archbishop of Granada, a man endowed with learning and piety, said that he had not thought that he could have raised himself so far, since what he had heard far exceeded the human understanding; and Thomas's singular modesty never, while he survived, gave assent that the volume of this and of very many other sermons should be committed to the press.

[66] continual elevations of mind. Moreover the Servant of God underwent a continual elevation of mind, so that he was compelled to abstain from sermons and other sacred functions; thereby avoiding the glory of the world in that manner. Yet him, reclining within in the lowest place, He who had invited him to the wedding compelled to go up higher, not without great glory before those who sat at table; for on the very solemnity of the Lord's Ascension, when he was assisting at the divine offices, at the antiphon of None, And while they looked on, he was raised up, he too was lifted from the ground and remained wholly motionless for a whole space of twelve hours in the sight of all; as though that happy soul were already girding itself for its journey to God.

[67] Suffering his last illness, everything, even his bed, At length, full of these and many other merits, he fell into a fever, and, when the household stock

had long since been consumed in devout uses, he divided among his poor servants what remained of his most poor furniture; but, having forgotten a certain prison-keeper, a needy householder, he gave him the bed in which he lay sick, since nothing else was left him, and urged him to carry off then what was his own; but when his household refused to lay him on a mat, as he asked to be done, with marvellous humility he begged of the prison-keeper by the bowels of Jesus Christ the use of that same bed until death, so that he who had lived wholly for other poor might die a most poor man in another's bed as he departed. And while, praying and watching, he awaited the coming of his Lord, the bishop of Segorbe \ announced that the last term of his life was drawing near; to whom, gladdened, he gave thanks and added: I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord; taking up also that saying of St. Martin: If I am still necessary to Thy people, I do not refuse the labour. But if not, I desire to be dissolved and to be with Thee.*

[68] And then, when it was signified through the steward that a sum of five thousand gold pieces remained, he distributes among the poor, and joyfully he ordered it to be distributed to the poor; and when he had learned that all the poor of the city had been abundantly relieved, and that still a thousand five hundred gold pieces remained, panting for the prize of immortality, stripped of all earthly affections, he complained thus: Why do you still keep me here, that I may not fly away to enjoy the good which the Lord has prepared for me? Make haste, finish the work, that I may not be detained here longer anxious in labour, but may at last rest in the peace of Christ. And being informed that everything was now completed, himself now about to complete his course, giving thanks to God, he added: Now I hasten glad to the contest, naked with the naked One, having nothing whereby I may be held back, to wrestle strenuously: and he ordered himself to be fortified with the sacred Oil, and the clergy to be called, to whom, when he had received the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist, he bequeathed by testament holiness of life and perpetual obedience toward the holy Apostolic See.

[69] At last, desiring once more to venerate under the sacramental species God the Saviour, he dies. whom he hoped presently to behold face to face; he willed the holy Sacrifice to be performed in his chamber, and meanwhile the Gospel of the Lord's passion according to John to be read to him; and, having heard it with deep contemplation, and having adored with marvellous devotion and humility the most august Sacrament — toward which he was always most devout — at the elevation, pouring out a flood of tears for joy, he began the canticle: Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace; and when it was finished, he added: Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit; and as he said this he expired on the VIII day of September in the evening of the Nativity of the most blessed Virgin, for love of whom, while he lived, he languished, in the year of salvation MDLV, of his age the LXVIII.

[70] The clergy and people, who had fled to God, a general procession having been proclaimed for their languishing Pastor, the people's mourning and the burial of the body. performed a station in the church of St. Thomas the Apostle; and so universal a weeping prevailed that the chant of the clergy was not heard; and at the antiphon We are not worthy to be heard by Thee, the cantors, moved by grief and compassion, could not finish it for tears. Presently, when the tolling of the bell announcing his death was heard, the wailing of all so burst forth that men of every condition, running about the streets as though out of their wits, complained that they had lost their father. And the same people thought that in so vast a loss they could be relieved by the sight of his body, so that they would not have allowed it, when it had been carried in pontifical vestments and with a crown of flowers, the token of his virginity, to the aforesaid church of holy Mary of Succour of the Order of St. Augustine, to be committed to the earth, had not the friars of the same monastery secretly consigned it to burial. And such was the grace of his dead body that it appeared not unlike a living man.

\ perhaps Segrianus*

§ VI. The miracles duly approved; the order of the beatification and canonization.

[ ] The Pontiff, after recounting some Yet successively many miracles were performed by his merits interceding, the Lord working with him and confirming with the following signs the holiness of the life of His Servant, faithful even unto death. For two dead persons were called back to life. Paul Francis Cardona, who had died after a seven months' fever, and Sperantia Valeria, consumed also by a ten months' fever, were restored not only to life but even to entire health. Marcella de Lizania, in her third year, afflicted by a three months' disease of a catarrh in the chest, so afflicted by a vehement and continual cough that, with blood bursting from her chest, she could not take food nor keep what she had taken, the catarrh descending also to her eyes, all remedies having been applied for her cure, and being wholly destitute of hope of returning to her former health, when she had been carried to Thomas's tomb, on the next day, at the hour at which Mass was being celebrated for her health, was healed, and, rising from her bed, hastened unharmed to her mother with the clearest eyes, as though she had never suffered the disease of ophthalmia. He freed Frances Nadal from a cancer; and to Catherine Vincentia Roselon, tormented for five years with innumerable sores, he restored unhoped-for health. Peter Anthony Sutor, lame for two years from a contraction of the sinews and now useless, he healed.

[72] miracles, gives thanks to God, James Cervera, a mason, full of incurable ulcers, is healed by him. Vincent Cyprer, his sinews slackened by palsy, likewise obtained health. The dry breasts of Catherine Montalta, when the flowers with which the tomb of the Servant of God had been strewn were applied, were seen at once to flow with milk for the sustaining of her little infant. For Louis Lemosy, suffering so in his feet for six years that very often he lay immovably in his bed, he made firm his bases and his soles. He restored John the flute-player, afflicted with a hernia of fourteen years, to his former soundness. A seven-year-old girl, Vincentia Mattheu, who had fallen into a well and been submerged in the water for three hours, he snatched out unharmed. By which flashing signs light shone forth, and it was shown that he was to be venerated on earth whom human weakness had as so acceptable an Advocate in heaven. We therefore give the greatest thanks we can to almighty God, and our heart is filled with joy and our tongue with exultation, that, by no merits of ours interceding, but by the inscrutable secret of His wisdom, He has foreordained that this celebration of the canonization of His Servant should shine forth to the whole world through the ministry of our humility. For since from his happy death his holiness was celebrated throughout all peoples and nations, and his name was in great honour among Christ's faithful, the Lord working through his intercession so many miracles, which also increased daily along with his veneration, the way was being prepared by the Father of lights for Thomas's glorification.

[73] sets forth the series of the deeds toward the beatification Therefore the informative process was exhibited by the ordinary to the Congregation of sacred Rites in the year one thousand six hundred and eight, and, the prayers being added, three times repeated, also of Philip III, Catholic king of Spain, of illustrious memory, and also of the prelates, nobles and deputies of the kingdom of Valencia, and of the whole Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, and the rest being performed according to custom, it was answered by the aforesaid Congregation that it was plainly established concerning the validity of the processes, the excellence of his virtues, the purity of his faith, the holiness of his life, the working of miracles, the report of his sanctity and the frequency of the people at the tomb of the Servant of God; and therefore that he could (if it should please the supreme Pontiff) henceforth be called Blessed, and that of him, as of a Confessor Pontiff, the office might be recited and Mass celebrated every year in the kingdom of Valencia by the Religious of either sex of the Order of St. Augustine, and in the city of Valencia by the clergy both secular and regular. To which Pope Paul V of happy memory, our predecessor, assented, and thereupon granted letters in the form of a Brief, and the aforesaid indult was presently extended to all the aforesaid Religious of either sex of the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and Catalonia, and also to the town of Villanueva, and at last likewise to all Religious of either sex of the Order of St. Augustine existing anywhere in the world.

[74] And in the same year, two other miracles being besides approved, and the canonization, the same Congregation judged that the Apostolic See could safely proceed at any time to the solemn canonization of the same Blessed according to the rite of the Holy Roman Church and the disposition of the sacred canons. But, new decrees of Pope Urban VIII of blessed memory, also our predecessor, coming in, the cause fell silent until a report of all the premises was made to Innocent X of like memory, likewise our predecessor, and by him there was deputed as reporter, then living among men, Frederick of good memory, called Cardinal Cornelius of the holy Roman Church, and the commission for the resumption of the cause was signed; and there was also committed to the said Cardinal Cornelius as reporter, with our beloved son Hilarion Rancati and the late Terence Alciati as consultors, the examination of the Works of the same servant of God Thomas, and, a report having been made, it was decreed that nothing was contained in them against faith and good morals, nor any doctrine alien from the Catholic sense. Afterwards remissorial letters were decreed for proving what had supervened after the veneration was granted, and letters were directed to our venerable brethren the archbishop of Valencia and the bishops of Segorbe and Tortosa; and, the processes having been transmitted to the City, in the place of the aforesaid deceased Cardinal there was subrogated our beloved son John Baptist, called Cardinal Pallotta, protector of the said Order of St. Augustine; by whom, when the same processes had been reported in the aforesaid Congregation and maturely discussed by it, it was declared that it was abundantly established concerning validity, concerning relevance, concerning the increase of the cult, and also concerning two other miracles newly wrought; and that thus all that was required by the new decrees had been fulfilled.

[75] The prayers being added of our most dear son in Christ Philip IV, Catholic king of Spain, together with the ceremonies and also of our venerable brethren the archbishops and bishops of the kingdoms of Spain, and also of the nobles of the same, and also of the whole Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, by which they had often asked and were asking this of the aforesaid Roman Pontiffs our predecessors and of us: it remained that, according to custom, the Cardinals to whom this had been committed should review the whole cause and, according to the gravity of the matter, examine it. And when they had done this rightly and faithfully, and all had been of the same mind, the aforesaid Cardinal John Baptist thereafter reported most fully, in the same Congregation of Rites held before us, concerning the holiness of life, the virtues and the miracles of the servant of God Thomas, and also concerning all the acts. Presently, by our venerable brother also Julius, bishop of Sabina, likewise called Cardinal Sacchetti of the Holy Roman Church, prefect of the said Congregation, the sum of the whole process having been fully reported in our secret consistory, and his own opinion and that of his colleagues set forth, the remaining Cardinals who were present approved the same opinion with unanimous vote. Wherefore in the following public consistory, in which our beloved son also Mark Anthony Buratto, advocate of our consistorial court, spoke on behalf of the canonization of the said blessed Thomas, and humbly entreated us in the name of the aforesaid king Philip, and of the aforesaid universities and kingdoms, and of the whole Order of Hermits.

[76] he sets forth, We, in so weighty a cause, exhorted the Cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops and bishops who were then present that they should diligently apply themselves to alms, fastings and prayers, so that the divine

will might shine forth more clearly to us. Afterwards, in a semi-full consistory, not only the aforesaid Cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops and bishops having been summoned according to custom, but our notaries and those of the Apostolic See being present, and the auditors of causes of our sacred Apostolic palace, we set forth what seemed opportune concerning the life and miracles of blessed Thomas, and all openly confirmed by their votes that we should proceed to his canonization. We therefore, having heard their unanimous consent, opened our mouth in blessings; and, following God's nod and will, judging it just and due that those whom God honours in heaven we should praise and glorify on earth by the office of veneration, appointed the day of the canonization, exhorting all that, joining their prayers with ours, they should strive by alms, fastings and Sacrifices to obtain the grace of the Holy Spirit for our humility in so lofty a business.

[77] and the indulgences granted therein, At length, when nothing else was lacking of those things which by the authority of the holy fathers, the decrees of the sacred canons, the ancient custom of the holy Roman Church and the prescription of the new decrees had to be done and observed, today in the most sacred basilica of blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, in which with solemn rite we assembled in the morning with the Cardinals of the same holy Roman Church, the patriarchs, archbishops and bishops, and our beloved sons the prelates, officials and members of the household of the Roman curia, with the secular and regular clergy and a very great throng of the people; after the petitions repeated for the decree of canonization in the name of the same king Philip, by our beloved son also Jerome, cardinal priest of the Title of holy Mary across the Tiber, likewise called Colonna, through the aforesaid advocate Mark Anthony; after the sacred hymns, the litanies and the other prayers; after the grace of the Holy Spirit had been duly implored: to the honour of the most holy and undivided Trinity, to the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of the Christian religion, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and our own, mature deliberation having been had beforehand and the divine help often implored, and by the counsel of our venerable brethren the Cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops and bishops present in the City, we have decreed and defined blessed Thomas of Villanova, archbishop of Valencia, to be a Saint, and have enrolled him in the catalogue of the Saints, as by the tenor of these presents we decree, define and enroll him; ordaining that by the universal Church every year on the eighteenth day of September his memory ought to be recalled with devout piety among the holy Confessor Pontiffs. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[78] And by the same authority to all Christ's faithful of either sex, truly penitent and confessed, and the indulgences granted, who each year on the feast day of the same St. Thomas shall come to visit the tomb in which his body rests, we have mercifully relaxed in the Lord seven years and as many quarantines of the penances enjoined upon them or otherwise in any way owed, in the form customary to the Church. These things being performed, having venerated with praises and confessions God the eternal Father, and Christ the Lord, King of glory, Son of the everlasting Father, and the holy Paraclete Spirit, one God and one Lord, and the sacred hymn Te Deum having been solemnly chanted, we prayed by a particular prayer in honour of blessed Thomas through the merits of the same, and celebrated Mass at the altar of St. Peter the Apostle with a commemoration of the same Saint, and granted to all Christ's faithful then present a plenary indulgence and remission of all their sins.

[79] It is therefore right and just that we give thanks and he exhorts the faithful to the praise of God and to the Saint's patronage. and give glory to God living for ever and ever, who has blessed our Fellow-servant with every spiritual blessing, that he might be holy and immaculate before Him. And since He has given him to us as a shining sun in His temple in this night of our sins and tribulations, let us approach with confidence the throne of divine mercy, entreating with mouth and with deed, that St. Thomas may profit the whole Christian people by his merits and examples, may be present with his prayers and patronage, and that in the time of wrath there may be reconciliation. For the rest, because it would be difficult for these our letters to be carried to every place where there should be need, we will that to copies of them, even printed ones, subscribed by the hand of a public notary and secured with the seal of some person constituted in an ecclesiastical dignity, the same credit be everywhere given as would be given to these presents themselves, if they were exhibited or shown. Let it therefore be lawful for no man whatsoever to infringe this page of our decree, definition, enrolment, mandate, ordinance, grant, bestowal, relaxation and will, or with rash daring to go against it. And if anyone shall presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of almighty God and of His blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Rome at St. Peter's in the year of the Lord's Incarnation MDCLVIII, on the Kalends of November, in the fourth year of our Pontificate.

✠ I, Alexander, Bishop of the Catholic Church.

The Pontiff's seal is added below, then follow the names of the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church and of the others subscribing according to custom, which for brevity's sake I omit.

§ VII. The indulgences granted to the faithful on the occasion of the canonization; the solemnities at Rome and elsewhere that followed it.

[ ] Various indulgences Besides the indulgences recorded in the Bull of canonization, Phœbeus at page 122 also enumerates others granted in particular by the supreme Pontiff. Moreover, he says, the most Holy Father ordered to be printed a formula of indulgences to be applied to the sacred images of blessed Thomas, in which he especially exhorted preachers that at least once a year they should extol with encomiums, according to their powers, the exceptional charity of the holy Prelate, and should instil it into the hearts of the faithful, gaining, as often as they should do this, if truly penitent, confessed and refreshed with holy Communion, a plenary indulgence; and their hearers seven years and as many quarantines of indulgences. He likewise granted a plenary indulgence to those who should be present at the procession called of the Banners, to be celebrated according to custom from the basilica of St. Peter to the church of St. Augustine, which indulgence the most Eminent lord Cardinal Vicar caused to be published by a public edict. He likewise granted a plenary indulgence to those visiting the churches of the friaries of the friars of the same Order, existing anywhere in the world, within the octave decreed in the present year for recalling the solemnities of the canonization, and granted by Apostolic letters in the form of a Brief.

[81] in view of St. Thomas I have by me an edict, printed in the printing house of the reverend Apostolic chamber in the year 1661, which, because besides the indulgences mentioned in the first place it comprises several others also, I here transfer rendered from Italian into Latin. It runs nearly thus: Indulgences which, beyond the ordinary ones printed in type, the most holy Lord Pope Alexander VII grants to Christ's faithful of either sex who shall have upon them or privately in their houses a medal or image of St. Thomas of Villanova, archbishop of Valencia, blessed by his Holiness: on this condition, however, that he who shall distribute the said medals or images, or he to whom they shall be distributed in the first instance, observe the decree of his Holiness issued on the VI day of February MDCLVII.

[82] granted by the Pontiff Whoever at least once a week shall have been accustomed to recite the usual divine Office, or that of the most blessed Virgin or of the dead, or the seven penitential or gradual Psalms, or the chaplet of the Lord or of Mary, or the third part of the Rosary, or to visit those detained in prison, or to relieve Christ's poor, and, being truly penitent and having confessed to a priest approved by the ordinary, shall have received the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist on one of the days written below, namely of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of Pentecost, of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of St. Thomas of Villanova on the XVIII of September, of All Saints, of the Dedication of his own church, of the Patron or Title of the said church, and shall have poured out devout prayers for the extirpation of heresies and schisms, for the propagation of the Catholic faith, for the peace and concord of Christian princes, and for the other necessities of the Roman Church, let him obtain on any of the same days a plenary indulgence of all his sins.

[83] granted to the faithful; Whoever shall publicly from the pulpit have praised the burning charity of St. Thomas, in order to instil it into the hearts of the faithful (to which his Holiness exhorts all preachers to do at least once every year), having confessed and been refreshed with the sacred Banquet, let him likewise obtain a plenary indulgence; and he who shall have heard it, seven years and as many quarantines of indulgences. Whoever, being penitent and, as above, confessed and refreshed with the sacred Banquet if he shall have been able, or at least contrite, shall at the point of death have devoutly invoked the name of Jesus and the intercession of St. Thomas with his mouth, if he shall have been able, and if not, with his heart, let him likewise obtain a plenary indulgence. Whoever shall have prayed the divine Majesty to kindle his heart with the charity which it deigned to bestow upon St. Thomas, and shall have bestowed some dole upon Christ's poor, let him receive on each occasion indulgences of forty days. Whoever shall have visited churches or altars consecrated to God in honour of St. Thomas of Villanova, let him gain on that day indulgences of fifty days. Any person of either sex serving under the Rule of St. Augustine, under which St. Thomas lived, as often as he shall have practised some spiritual work belonging to the same Rule, and, invoking the Saint, shall have recited three times the Salve Regina, and shall have prayed for the prosperity of the Church and of his Holiness, and for the other things as above, let him obtain indulgences of forty days. Willing that all the aforesaid indulgences may be applied by way of suffrage to the souls of the faithful departed, his Holiness forbids the printing of these indulgences in any place outside the City. G. Gualterius.

[84] On the XXIV day of November — these are again Phœbeus's words at page 123 — the procession the aforesaid eight-day solemnity was begun in the church of St. Augustine, and before the most august senate of the Cardinals an episcopal Mass of blessed Thomas was celebrated by the most reverend lord Fr. Ambrose Landucci, bishop of Porphyreon, prefect of the Apostolic sacristy, and, this being finished, a sermon in his praise was delivered most elegantly and learnedly by father Rho of the Society of Jesus, a man never sufficiently to be praised. And in the afternoon the solemn procession of the Banners was performed from the basilica of St. Peter to the church of St. Augustine with these ceremonies. Before I go further, let the curious reader observe that in the solemn procession which is instituted on the very day of the canonization to the Vatican church, a banner with the image of the Blessed to be canonized is carried, and that it thereafter remains hanging from the vault of the same Vatican basilica for an everlasting memorial of the matter; but also that another, or several others, are kept ready, which, the canonization being completed, are likewise carried in procession to the church of the nation or Religious Order of the Saint canonized, when his feast is first celebrated; concerning the solemnities of the former procession, and the origin of the custom of carrying in it a banner or banners, anyone will easily be able to be instructed who shall wish to consult the aforesaid Work of our most holy Lord Benedict XIV, book 1, chapter 36, §6, and the several authors cited in the same place; but since fewer are met with in whom the other ceremony is explained, I judged it would be not unpleasing if I set out at least the chief points from Phœbeus.

[85] The Religious invited by the Friars of St. Augustine assembled in the basilica of St. Peter at the twentieth hour, of the banners and when Vespers were finished the cantors of the basilica sang the Antiphon: "Priest and Pontiff and worker of virtues, good shepherd among the people, pray to the Lord for us, holy Thomas." When this was finished, two beneficed clerics, vested in copes, sang

the verse: "He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor." And the cantors answered: "His justice remaineth for ever and ever." Presently the hebdomadary canon, likewise vested in a cope, with two acolytes holding candlesticks before him, sang the Prayer: "O God, who didst make blessed Thomas remarkable," etc. And the cantors answered: Amen. Then, the lectern and candlesticks being removed, the confraternities and mendicant Religious began to move forward, passing two by two before the altar of the Apostles and each genuflecting to it, save only those who carried the crosses, banners and candlesticks.

[86] And those who carried St. Thomas's banners, namely the confraternity brethren of the society of St. Tryphon, held at Rome erected in the church of St. Augustine, holding the poles, and the confraternity brethren of the society of the most holy Sacrament, erected in the Vatican basilica, holding the cords hanging from the banner, when they had come to the hebdomadary, seated on the accustomed bench on the Epistle side, halted, and the hebdomadary, rising, handed the cords received from the hands of the confraternity brethren to four friars vested in chasubles, who had approached the hebdomadary himself immediately before and near the banners. And when the cords of the last banner had been assigned to the fathers, the vicar general, the assistants of Italy and Spain and the Prior of St. Augustine, vested in copes, the hebdomadary put incense into the thurible: meanwhile the clerics of the seminary, the clerics, the beneficed clergy and the canons of the basilica, carrying torches, with the chapter cross going before, began to move forward after the Dominican friars. And the hebdomadary, standing, reverently incensed with three swings the image of St. Thomas depicted on the banner, then adored it on bended knees, and thence, after all, withdrew to the sacristy with his assistants. The clergy and chapter of the basilica arranged themselves in retrograde order on this side and that from the last step of the scholae to the door outside, and on bended knee venerated the Saint's image as it passed by, and returned to the sacristy. And the procession went forward in the order that follows, through the Bridge of St. Angelo, Monte Giordano, Parione, the square called Pasquino's, through the street which leads to the church of the Anima, through the square of the bloody tower to the church of St. Augustine.

[87] instituted, I forbear to enumerate here the order in which each of those who accompanied the procession walked; Phœbeus counts seven banners: namely one of the Reformed Friars of the Order of St. Augustine; another likewise of the Friars of St. Augustine of the congregation of the Insubrians; a third of the college of St. Ildephonsus of the university of Alcalá; and the four others of the Friars of the Order of St. Augustine. But when, he says, the procession had reached the church of St. Augustine, all the Religious arranged themselves on this side and that in the main nave of the church: and to the last and more honourable banner the most Eminent lord Cardinal Savelli, the titular, vested in alb, girdle, stole, cope and mitre, between the deacon and subdeacon of the Pontifical chapel, vested in dalmatic and tunicle, and accompanied also by very many prelates of the curia, coming forth from the church as far as the steps, went reverently to meet it, and, kneeling upon a spread carpet and a cushion, adored the image of St. Thomas, then incensed it, and, having taken up his mitre again and returned into the church, betook himself to the high altar, walking before the banner, which was carried as far as the middle of the church, and there, tied to a rope, was raised to the vault, the Cardinal meanwhile standing near the Epistle side.

[88] and other solemnities both there And as soon as the Friars had begun to raise the banner, the Cardinal, standing in the same place and turned toward the Cross of the altar, intoned the hymn "Te Deum laudamus", which the cantors continued. Toward the end of the hymn the Cardinal put incense into the thurible, and again incensed the banner with three swings, and, the hymn being finished, the deacon sang the verse: "Pray for us, holy Thomas," and the cantors answered: "That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ." And the Cardinal sang the Prayer: "O God, who didst make blessed Thomas," etc. "Through Christ our Lord": and the cantors answered: Amen. At length the Cardinal kissed the altar, and, taking his mitre and standing in the midst beside it, solemnly blessed the people. And then artillery pieces were discharged, and the blare of trumpets and the resounding of drums set a glorious end to these solemnities of the procession. And on the remaining seven days the friars celebrated the solemnities of the holy canonization with musical harmonies, Sacrifices, divine prayers, offices and sermons, and with magnificent display also, with the munificent hand of Cardinal Savelli the titular assisting.

[89] And let these things said about the solemnities held at Rome at the canonization suffice. and elsewhere, namely in Belgium There is no doubt that both at Valencia and throughout all Spain, and in all the friaries of the Order of St. Augustine throughout the Christian world, this new glory of the holy Archbishop was celebrated with the highest splendour; as was done in the year 1659 in our Belgium, where, on the testimony of the Reverend Father John Estrix, a Religious of the same Order of St. Augustine, at the close of the Life of St. Thomas written in the Belgic tongue, both in the other towns, however humble, and in the chief cities, Brussels, Antwerp, Mechelen, Louvain, Ghent, Bruges, Liège, Lille, Tournai, etc., it was possible to see the remarkable zeal of all both to honour the Saint and to obtain through his intercession an end to the atrocious war then raging among Christian princes. And indeed there was fulfilled what the devout faithful were begging, what the purpled Fathers with the supreme Pontiff were ardently desiring, and what some with great confidence foretold, namely the most reverend Philip Visconti, bishop of Catsaca, who, when in the semi-public consistory he gave his vote for the canonization of St. Thomas, after many other things uttered in his praise, pronounced thus: Wherefore I judge that he can safely be numbered by your Holiness among the Heavenly ones with solemn rite. And this will turn to the greatest glory of God, to the ornament of the episcopal Order, to a singular benefit of the Augustinian Religion, to the edification of the whole Church, to the peace of Christian princes: and what the canonization of St. Nicholas under Eugene brought forth, the canonization of St. Thomas under Alexander will give: what, I say, they were begging and confidently foretelling was presently fulfilled; for in that very year 1659 peace was ratified between the kings of France and Spain, and in the next year following was published.

[90] For the rest, while the canonization of St. Thomas was celebrated at Antwerp with vast display and splendour by the Reverend Augustinian Fathers, held after the canonization. in their church on the chief day, to the praise and satisfaction of all, as I have found noted among us, the panegyric oration was delivered by Fr. Cornelius Hazart, priest of the Society of Jesus; which I add particularly so that the reader, turning over volume 3 of the Flemish Work under the title The Triumph of the Pontiffs, published by the same Hazart from the Antwerp press in the year 1681, may correct what is read at page 285 in these words: Further he (Pope Paul V) beatified Bertrand the Dominican and Thomas of Villanova, of the same Order and bishop of Valencia — may correct it, I say, and kindly judge that these things slipped through inadvertence from the pen of that praiseworthy man, who certainly never doubted, nor could prudently have doubted, that St. Thomas was of the Order of St. Augustine, much less intended to snatch him from it, as was afterwards objected to him by someone from the passage cited.

§ VIII. The extension of the Office and Mass after the canonization; sacred places and altars raised to the Saint; his relics honoured in various places.

[ ] The Office and Mass restricted to some only In the year 1618, as was shown above, Pope Paul V granted faculty to all the Religious of either sex of the Order of St. Augustine in the whole kingdom of Valencia and to the clergy of the city and diocese of Valencia to recite the Office and celebrate Mass of Bl. Thomas from the common of a confessor pontiff according to the rubrics of the Roman Breviary and Missal, and in the year next following the same Pontiff extended that faculty to all Religious of either sex of the same Order dwelling in the kingdoms of Spain, and to the Regulars of either sex and the priests and secular clerics of the town of Villanueva: and finally in the year 1621 Pope Gregory XV granted the same faculty to all Religious of either sex of the said Order existing anywhere in the world. I have two little books containing the proper Offices of the Saints of the Hermits of the Order of St. Augustine, printed before the solemn canonization of Thomas, one at Venice in the year 1627, the other at Paris in 1641; in both, at the XVIII day of September, an Office to be celebrated with double rite is prescribed, and in the former indeed nothing proper is assigned except the following prayer: O God, who didst set blessed Thomas, the father of the poor, as an example to prelates; grant, we beseech Thee, that he who brought help to the needy on earth may aid us by his prayers in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, etc. And in the other, these rubrics are subjoined to the same prayer: In the first Nocturn, lessons from Scripture. In the second Nocturn, from a Sermon of St. Maximus the bishop: "The merits of the blessed father Thomas." In the third Nocturn, a Homily on the Gospel Watch ye, as in the common.

[92] restricted before the canonization, On the other hand I have a copy of an Office transcribed at Rome from a manuscript booklet of the Angelica library of the Order of St. Augustine, under this title: The Office of blessed Thomas of Villanova, archbishop of Valencia, surnamed the Almsgiver, of the Order of the Hermits of our Holy Father Augustine, beatified by Paul V, supreme Pontiff. At Pisa by brother Ambrose Landucci of Siena, cursor of sacred Theology, MDCXXIII; in this, if you except the psalms, there is almost nothing that is not proper, nothing not fitted to the Saint's heroic virtues and exceptional merits with God. But it was probably not committed to the press; it was however kept at Rome until the solemn canonization should be obtained and a proper Office of the Saint be recited; although not even then was that very Office employed, as may be gathered from what is to be said.

[93] after this to the universal Church, In the Bull of canonization no mention is made of an Office or a Mass; nevertheless not long afterwards there was offered to the sacred congregation of Rites and approved on the XIV day of June 1659 the Office which is read today in the Roman Breviary, with the following decree, which is appended to a copy of the same, printed at Rome in the printing house of the reverend Apostolic chamber in the year just cited: The congregation of sacred Rites, having seen and maturely weighed the above-mentioned Prayer, Lessons and Antiphons, approved them on the XIV day of June MDCLIX; and the most Holy Father ordered them to be printed in the Roman Breviary and Missal among the Offices and Masses to be recited and celebrated ad libitum: and likewise granted that they can ad libitum be recited and celebrated by all Christ's faithful of either sex, both secular and Regular, on the eighteenth day of September, the feast of St. Thomas of Villanova, with the rest from the common of a confessor pontiff under semi-double rite. On the XVII day of the same month of June, and in the same year MDCLIX. J., Bishop of Sabina, Cardinal Sacchetti. In place of the ✠ seal. Francis Maria Phœbeus, Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Rites.

[94] In the same month and year also there issued from the said Congregation another decree, and to the Augustinian fathers and others with a more solemn rite, by which the annual commemoration of St. Thomas was established with a more solemn rite among the Augustinian fathers; it is prefixed to the Proper of the Saints of the aforesaid Order, published in print at Antwerp in the year 1674, and runs thus: It is fitting that the Augustinian family, the fruitful parent of Saints, from which at length an illustrious shoot, namely a most ardent exemplar of charity,

came forth, Fr. Thomas of Villanova, presently archbishop of Valencia, lately enrolled among the Saints, and which therefore has by this new gift deserved well of the Catholic religion for that same accession of light, should especially never present its devout wishes in vain to the Apostolic See. Wherefore the sacred congregation of Rites judged that it should be granted to the same whole Order, which had petitioned, and to both sexes, that it should recall each year the memory of so great a Confrere under the rite of a double of the second class with an Octave. On the XIX day of July MDCLIX. F., Bishop of Sabina, Cardinal Sacchetti. In place of the ✠ seal. Francis Maria Phœbeus, Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. An Office almost wholly proper, different however from that which I mentioned at number 92, is given in the same place at the XVIII day of September, as also the distribution of the lessons through the remaining days of the Octave that are not impeded. And the octave day has a proper prayer, namely that which before the canonization used to be recited on the feast itself. See number 91. Further, in the city and the whole diocese of Valencia, as I understand from a Directory printed there for the year 1720, he is likewise honoured with a double Office of the second class with an Octave; and in that of Toledo with a double Office, as I know from a like Directory published at Madrid for the year 1718. But with what rite his memory is celebrated in the town of Villanueva, or in other particular places, is unknown to me.

[95] At length in the year 1694 it was enacted that the Office previously inserted in the Roman Breviary and granted to be recited ad libitum are extended. should thereafter be recited by precept. See here also this decree from a copy printed by the press of the reverend Apostolic chamber in the year just mentioned. Of the City and of the World. To the devout prayers of the most serene Catholic king and of his mother the queen, presented to his Holiness by the most excellent lord duke of Medinaceli, ambassador of the aforesaid majesty to the holy See, and referred to the sacred congregation of Rites, the same sacred congregation, on the report of the most Eminent and most reverend lord Cardinal Giudice, judged that it should be granted that the Office of St. Thomas of Villanova, of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, otherwise granted to be recited for the universal Church under the rite of a semi-double ad libitum, should every year on the XVIII day of September, the feast of the same Saint, henceforth be recited by precept under semi-double rite by all, both secular and Regular, of either sex, who are bound to the canonical Hours, if it shall seem good to our most holy Lord. On the IV day of September MDCXCIV. A report therefore having thereafter been made to our most holy Lord by me the secretary, his Holiness kindly assented on the XI day of the same month of September and of the year MDCXCIV. A., Cardinal Cybo. In place of the ✠ seal. B. Inghirami, Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Rites.

[96] Altars raised to the Saint; I have no doubt that both altars and chapels, or even churches consecrated to the name of St. Thomas, exist in great numbers both throughout Spain and throughout the whole Christian world; but for want of records it is permitted to set out here only the few of which I have by chance come to knowledge. Certainly an altar had already then been raised to him in the church of St. Augustine at Rome before the solemnities of the canonization were performed, as Phœbeus clearly hints in the often-mentioned acts at page 68, where, narrating that in the month of September in the year 1658 the Pontiff betook himself to the said church, he says: And after his Holiness had likewise poured out prayers before the high altar … and before the altar of blessed Thomas, he returned to the Quirinal palace. Nay, that a magnificent chapel was raised to him in that same church, Fr. Augustine Oldoini of the Society of Jesus taught me in volume 4 of the History of the Roman Pontiffs and the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, column 668, where, setting out the deeds of the most Eminent Camillo Pamphili, he writes the following: He completed a chapel wrought of Parian marble, with statues, gold and marvellous structure, to D. Thomas of Villanova in the sacred edifice of St. Augustine. The magnificence of this chapel is also commended, and especially the marble statue of St. Thomas bestowing alms upon the poor, begun by Melchior Gofar of Malta and completed by Ercole Ferrata, in the Description of ancient and modern Rome under the heading of the church of St. Augustine.

[97] churches at Castel Gandolfo But Pope Alexander VII himself also, out of his exceptional veneration for the Saint, built and dedicated to him a church, to be mentioned here before the rest, at Castel Gandolfo, as the same Oldoini teaches us in the same volume, column 712: Likewise, he says, he not only enlarged the palace of Castel Gandolfo on the Alban lake, whither the Pontiffs are wont to withdraw for relaxation of mind in the months of May and October, but also made it far more convenient and brought it to royal magnificence. He raised in the same Castle and dedicated a church of St. Thomas of Villanova, whom he had lately enrolled among the Saints, magnificently and splendidly built for the condition of that place. Philip Bonanni of the Society of Jesus, volume 2 of the Medals of the Roman Pontiffs, page 641, exhibits a medal struck on the occasion of the building of the church in the year 1659, namely the year next after the canonization, which I here append reproduced.

[98] consecrated to him The same author in the same place, page 652, thus briefly describes the medal: It exhibits the front which those staying at Castel Gandolfo behold: it has an almost square ground-plan. On the greater altar opposite the door is an image of the Redeemer hanging from the Cross; on the right altar of the Virgin assumed into heaven, on the left of St. Thomas of Villanova. Above the door stands this inscription.

Alexander VII, Supreme Pontiff, to the divine Thomas, archbishop of Valencia, enrolled among the Saints, piously and duly dedicated the church built from the ground, whose first foundation stone Flavius Cardinal Chigi, his brother's son, had laid, in the year of Salvation MDCLXI.

[99] While I was inquiring into that medal, I came by chance upon another, by Pope Alexander VII. which I likewise judged should be reproduced. And this the same Bonanni sets out in the place cited in this manner: The image of the divine Thomas of Villanova, as he is wont to be depicted, bestowing alms upon the poor … The medal contains no inscription, nor a mark of the year; yet I know that it was published in the year MDCLVIII in memory of that sacred action in which Alexander enrolled the divine Thomas in the number of the Saints, that is, on the first day of November, the solemn commemoration of All Saints.

[100] That the body of the holy Archbishop is most religiously kept and honoured in the church of the Order of St. Augustine under the title of blessed Mary of Succour near the city of Valencia, His relics at Valencia, at Rome has been sufficiently made known from what has been said before; not, however, so entire but that notable parts of it too have in the course of time been granted to other churches, to be honoured with the same cult. Thus that his head was translated in the solemnities of the beatification in the year 1619 into the city itself to the metropolitan church, and was kept in it, Salon and del Castillo in the Sacrarium of Valencia teach us. Thus that afterwards relics of this sacred treasure were also carried to Rome we know from the Sacred Hemerology of Charles Piazza at the XVIII day of September, who after a brief elogium appends this: His festivity is solemnly kept with plenary indulgences at St. Augustine's in his own exceptional chapel, where his notable relics are exposed in a silver statue; at St. Mary Major, where in her Pauline chapel a part of his leg is exposed.

[101] Father Joseph de Albertis of the Society of Jesus in the year 1701 sent to our Museum an instrument, and elsewhere, confirmed by public authority, in which are enumerated the chief relics honoured in various churches of Castel Sant'Angelo, a town in Picenum and in the diocese of Fermo, and among them those of St. Thomas also are recorded in these words: There is likewise venerated (in the church of the Order of St. Augustine), and publicly and solemnly carried on his feast, a notable fragment of a bone of St. Thomas of Villanova the Augustinian, given and laid up in a chapel built at his own expense by the most reverend Fr. Nicholas de Joannettis, Prior general of the whole Order of Hermits of St. Augustine. We also keep a copy of another instrument, whence we learn by what way both the Brussels and the Antwerp Augustinian fathers in our Belgium obtained the sacred remains of Thomas, honoured in their churches. This, since it is not lengthy, it has seemed good to transcribe entire.

[102] In the name of the Lord. Amen. We the undersigned testify that the very reverend father Antoninus de Witte of the Order of the Hermits of our Holy Father Augustine, lately Prior of the friary of Brussels and ex-definitor of the general chapter and of the Flemish-Belgic province, etc., and namely in Belgium showed us in his cell the sacred relics, approved and sealed by the most illustrious lord of Mechelen, of D. Thomas of Villanova, archbishop of Valencia of the said Order, etc., which, while he was commissary of his province in Spain, he had obtained at Valencia. And that he drew off in our sight a particle of the same, cut with a saw in such a way that it still adhered to the greater part, and then, wrapped in cotton cloth, faithfully enclosed it in a silvered wooden casket, bound round with a red silk ribbon and sealed by us. To the effect of giving it to the very reverend and excellent father master John Smidts, lately the third most worthy provincial of this Flemish-Belgic province; so that, approved by the most illustrious lord of Antwerp, together with the sacred relics of D. John of St. Facundus, offered by the same Reverend Father Antoninus de Witte in the festive solemnity of the same Saint's canonization to the aforesaid excellent Father Master, ex-provincial, they may be exposed to the public veneration of the faithful in the church of the monastery of Antwerp, in the manner in which they magnificently gleam in the church of his Order at Brussels on both sides of the lower choir.

[103] are honoured. In faith whereof we have secured these presents, subscribed by us, with our seals. At Brussels at the church of the divine Apollonia, and on the festive day of that same sacred virgin and martyr, the X \ of February MDCXCIV, in memory that the friary of Antwerp likewise obtained the relics of the same wonder-worker from the fathers of Brussels. G. F. le Febure, cantor and canon of Anderlecht, Apostolic protonotary. J. B. le Febure, councillor and contador des gens de guerre* … by the finances of his Majesty.

In place of the seals ✠ ✠.

Which I attest,

P. Luppens, notary.

There is also by me a copy of the letters by which the most illustrious lord of Antwerp on the XII day of September 1695 approved the aforesaid particle, duly recognized, with faculty of exposing it to public veneration throughout his diocese; but it is not necessary to transcribe it here: I proceed therefore to the miracles.

\* in the Roman Martyrology the IX

MIRACLES

From Salon and others.

From Salon and others.

§ I. Whence the miracles are taken and how they are to be given; the Saint's apparitions to several persons and the benefits conferred after his death.

[ ] Miracles after his death. As Salon in the first and second books of his Work described at length the Acts, miracles and prodigies of St. Thomas while he lived in this life, drawn for the greater part from the processes instituted for the beatification, and for the rest received from trustworthy witnesses, so, using the same instruments and aids, he comprised in his third book the miracles, benefits and prodigies wrought after the same Saint's death.

These I shall now record in Latin in the same order in which he gave them in Spanish: yet, that I may carry it out the more easily and briefly, I shall not turn his very words into Latin, but, cutting away many not very necessary circumstances, shall set forth the facts only; nay, sometimes even, where I shall find them sufficiently set out in others, namely in Coccinus and Bax, I shall transfer them hither. And Salon begins his chapter 1 from an apparition of the Saint, made to the often-mentioned bishop Segrianus and master John Porta, by whom it was publicly narrated.

[2] These, when they had learned that the procurators of Francis de Navarra, archbishop of Valencia, were drawing near to Valencia, The Saint, appearing, consoles two of his household; left the palace in which they had remained since the Saint's death and withdrew to the house of the archdeacon major; but from the recollection of the excellent Father they had lost they were so overwhelmed with grief that all night long they could not close their eyes. Between the third and fourth hour of the morning each of them, in a chamber separate from the other, beheld a great light and in the midst of it the holy Prelate, clothed in the same dress which he used in his hall; and he, with fair and venerable countenance, coming to the head of each one's little bed, spoke thus: Why do you mourn on my account, why do you mourn? Do not, if you love me, mourn for me; since the whole world could not bestow on me the rest and the good which I enjoy.

[3] A little before his death he had committed schedules to a certain member of his household, another, who neglects to bestow the money left to the poor, that he should receive at a suitable time the money owed him by the lessees and distribute it among the poor whom he named, earnestly begging that he would carry it out faithfully and quickly: and the man promised that he would do so, received the money, and granted some part of it indeed to the poor, but turned the greater part to his own advantage, resolving within himself to make it up afterwards out of his own goods. The Saint appeared to him on the night before the Epiphany of the Lord and, inflamed with grief, said: You have deceived me; that indeed I had certainly not believed of you, nor had I thought that you would omit what you had so earnestly promised. Would you relieve your own need out of the goods of the poor? You have grievously offended the Lord, and He will take punishment on you unless you do penance and amend. Do this, as is just, and take diligent care to gather what you have kept back and to restore it to them at once, for their want demands vengeance before God. Trembling, he begged pardon and pledged that he would do it as quickly as he could.

[4] He did indeed presently set about it, but, lest he should harm his family, he sharply rebukes and chastises a second time, did not wholly complete it: the Saint came back to him on the night before the feast of the blessed Virgin Mary purified, and, upbraiding the man of bad faith and threatening him with a sudden death, turned to a boy standing beside him armed with scourges and said: Beat him, that he may believe and fear; which he did, until the Saint said: It is now enough; do you make use of this warning, that you may not grieve eternally: and having said this he vanished. Presently, when morning came — for through the bitterness of the blows he could not rise from his bed for some days — he ordered the man who had been the Saint's almoner to be called, and committed to him the task of gathering the money by whatever way he could and satisfying the obligation at once. As witness of this deed Salon cites the same master Porta, who learned it from the almoner himself.

[5] Two years had passed since this apparition (these things Bax abridged into Latin from Salon), when he showed himself to be seen by a most noble woman whom a grave and dangerous disease had afflicted, and restored her to good health; this spectacle vouchsafed to her the woman herself reported to the Augustinian brethren at Valencia to the greater glory of God and of His worshipper Bl. Thomas. There was another he frees a woman from a dangerous disease, and another from a bitter fever. whom a most vehement fever tormented, the malady increasing so far that the crowd of physicians already stood without hope. In these straits, as is wont to happen, recourse was had to heavenly medicines, among which were the relics of this Blessed, which they brought to the sick woman. The woman received these sacred remains with particular honour and commended herself with all zeal to Bl. Thomas. There was in the chamber where she lay an image of the Mother of God; before which on the following night the sick woman saw the blessed Pontiff kneel, clothed in pontifical habit, with hands joined and raised on high. Refreshed by this sight, she herself entreating him as he entreated, said: Blessed Bishop, have mercy on me who am lost, and obtain for me the strength whereby I may be fit to serve Christ: the vision ceased and the woman was restored to health.

[6] He heals a man struck with hemiplegia. Hemiplegia so struck the right side of a man devoted to the Saint that he could move neither arm nor foot nor body, nor utter a distinct word; the physician sent for applied medicines in vain, and, perceiving that the malady rather increased than lessened, said that no remedy remained for preserving his life except the invocation of divine help, and went away and never returned. The sick man, so placed, began to invoke with great confidence and constancy the Saint from whom he had at other times also obtained health: on a certain night he was heard by his wife and her sister, who were staying close to his chamber, speaking, praying and addressing Thomas as though present, that he would impart health. They wondered indeed that he who before could not, then spoke clearly; but, lest they should interrupt his speech, they did not go in, until he called them in a clear voice, saying: Come and see the grace conferred upon me by the Lord through the intercession of the blessed father Thomas, who at this hour has healed and consoled me. Then he raised himself, lifted his arm, made the sign of the Cross, and, rising from his bed and kneeling on the floor spread with matting together with his wife, her sister and his two daughters, whom he ordered to be called to the spectacle of the miracle, gave thanks to God and to the Saint; on the following day the women came to the church of blessed Mary of Succour and had a Mass celebrated, which he too did after two days, publicly recording the miracle.

[7] Appearing to a dying man, he promises health. Another, brought to extremity by a violent fever and abandoned by the physicians, at his mother's admonition, she being devoutly disposed toward St. Thomas, invoked him with many prayers and tears; after some nights, when less hope now shone, he saw the Saint at the head of his bed, and, crying out from astonishment, felt a hand laid on his forehead by him and heard it said: Fear not, son, in a few days you will be well. To his mother, who ran up at his cry, he told the matter; and when she doubted whether he had not dreamed it or been delirious from the fever, he replied: Do not think that: I was awake then as much as now: with open eyes, just as I now behold you, I saw him suddenly beside those images at the head of the bed, laying his hand on my forehead; this is certain and clear from the fact that I am notably better. The physicians, returning the next day, whom they thought they would find dead, found him free of fever and past danger; within a few days he came away sound and vigorous and publicly attested the truth of the vision with great affection of devotion and with weeping.

[8] A woman, having invoked the Saint, obtains money, An honourable woman, formerly rich but reduced to the straits of want, whom the Saint while alive had helped with alms, was after his death frequent at his tomb, praying that by his patronage the Lord would have mercy on her need. She seemed to be heard; for by a very small gain, received from her own and her daughter's work, she lived comfortably. But so that this hidden benefit might be confirmed by open testimony, it happened that, when the rent of the house she had leased had to be paid, and there was nothing wherewith, fearing therefore that trouble would be created for her by the landlord, and not daring to appeal to her kinsfolk and friends, whom perhaps it would weary to relieve her more often, as they had done, she had recourse to the Father whose kindness she had always experienced. She came to the church of blessed Mary of Succour and, prayer having been poured out before the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist and the blessed Virgin invoked, she prostrated herself on her knees at the Saint's tomb, praying that as when he lived, so also dead, he would relieve her. After two hours of prayer she returned home, and, resolving to write to a kinsman to whom she might indicate her need, and about to take paper, putting her hand into the writing-desk she came upon two papers filled with royal coins, new and as it were just brought out from the mint; she was astounded, since she had never placed money there, nor for a long time had she possessed so great a sum; for those reals together made thirty crowns, and therefore the miracle was sufficiently established; with ten crowns she paid the half-year's rent of the house she had leased, and turned the rest to other necessary uses.

[9] To another woman brought to such want that, although she laboured day and night, another obtains a mantle, not even so much was left over as to procure herself a veil or mantle (such as women use to cover their head and body when going out of the house), and she was compelled on Sundays, when about to go to Mass, to ask the loan of one from her neighbours; sad therefore, especially because these refused to render her that service any longer, she presented herself for a whole week daily without such a mantle at the Saint's tomb, begging an alms from him. On the next following Sunday in the morning there appeared a girl of about ten or eleven years with an angelic countenance (as the woman herself reports), and, going up the stairs, since she dwelt in an upper chamber, said: Good woman, your need has become known to my mistress, and she sends you this mantle; take it and give thanks to the Lord. When she asked who her mistress was and where she dwelt, so that she might thank her too for the benefit, she replied: Do not care to know whence it is sent you, but give thanks to the Lord; and having uttered this she vanished in a single moment of time, so that she was neither seen to go down the stairs, nor in what manner or by what way she departed. The woman stood astonished, holding the mantle in her hand, and believed that it had been an angel of the Lord, sent to her through the Saint's intercession.

[10] To the same woman a malignant humour, flowing down from her head into her neck, produced some ulcers running with matter with great pain, the same woman and her husband and when the surgeons had tried their art in vain, she resolved to have recourse to the Servant of God, to make a nine days' prayer at his tomb, and to pour into the ulcers some drops of oil taken from his lamp. Within nine days, the flux of the humour ceasing, they dried up and so closed that only slight scars remained in memory of the benefit received from God through the Saint's intercession. The same woman, being with child and pressed by poverty, together with her husband daily implored the Saint's help and sometimes visited his tomb. On a certain day, when her delivery was at hand and there was nothing wherewith they might buy what was necessary, her husband, returning from the church of blessed Mary of Succour after many prayers and tears, heard a voice saying to him: Take, take this; turning his head he saw no one, but noticed a purse on the ground, took it up, and, going home, found about five crowns in it. And although want pressed, he did not touch the money before

he had most carefully inquired whether it were not another's; and at last, no one claiming it, and on the judgment of his confessor too, he kept it as an alms sent him by the Saint. The author adds that the money was multiplied even in the very use of it, so much so that with about five crowns he seemed to himself to have accomplished as much as with twenty and more.

[11] on various occasions he experiences the Saint's help; The same man moreover twice experienced the Saint's goodwill. A malignant humour had so infected his hip that both the leg and that whole part were motionless and as it were dead beforehand; the industry of physician and surgeon availed nothing. He therefore turned to Thomas, and his wife began a nine days' prayer at his tomb; on the fifth day in the morning, when he had passed the night miserably, he fell asleep; and his wife, entering, perceived a sweet odour, and he, awakening, said that a hand had seemed to him to stroke his hip gently, and that he felt himself thereby affected with great solace and free of all infirmity; and he rose up as though he had been seized by no malady: and the physician and surgeon, visiting him again out of Christian charity, declared that it was an evident miracle. To the same man at another time a rib was broken by a fall, which a man called in, excellently skilled in the art of curing such maladies, bound with bandages, a medicament being applied, and ordered him to remain motionless in bed for the space of forty days. Sad on account of their poverty, the wife and husband had recourse to the blessed Father in the same way as before, and within five days, when a hand seemed again gently to stroke the rib, it so knit together, and he was so strengthened, that he presently rose fit for work. Whence all were struck with vast astonishment, and especially he who had bound the rib, taught by much experience that for a healing of this kind forty days were required, and that by a natural way it could not be accomplished in five days.

[12] a man is snatched from want, a matron from danger. Another man, who, suffering from a disease, had spent all his goods in vain on medicines, and at last, having implored the Saint's help, had recovered health, had nothing wherewith to pay the rent of the house he had leased; he went to the tomb, prayed, and felt a solace, as if someone said to him: Hasten home, you will at once obtain a remedy: and when he had returned thither a merchant was present, who, hiring his labour to remove stains from scarlet cloths, counted out eighty reals. A noble matron devoutly attached to the Saint, and accustomed on most Sundays to come with her niece and maidservants to his tomb for the sake of prayer, on a certain Sunday, not knowing what moved her, commended herself to him longer and more ardently than usual. Meanwhile it seemed to be said to her: Do not stay here longer, return home, take out your furniture and whatever is precious in it, and hurry into the neighbourhood. She went away at once, and, entering the house, heard a crash, and called the neighbours, who, as soon as they had carried everything out of the house, and she herself with her niece and maidservants had entered the house of a neighbouring matron, the whole building collapsed, without any damage to the neighbouring houses.

§ II. Benefits obtained through the use of earth and flowers from his tomb, and of oil from the lamp hung by the same tomb.

[ ] A boy and a man, by the earth of the tomb, A little boy (so Bax from Salon) was held by a great fever, and by some mortal symptoms, so that he was already to be extinguished at the very rising of his life. His anxious father turned ardent prayers to God's servant Bl. Thomas, and poured with water into his little son's mouth a little earth dug from his tomb; and this done, the boy began to be better, and, opening his little eyes, to suck his mother's breasts, so that it not obscurely seemed that by the help of the holy tomb the child had returned from the tomb into life. A certain man, tormented with a vehement colic pain for the space of three days, the medical art being baffled, stirred all to compassion; his daughter, fearing for her father's life if the malady should last longer, went to the Saint's tomb, and after many prayers and tears, carrying home full of hope earth from the same tomb, offered it to her father, whom she found no better; and he, drinking it mixed with water, at that very moment was freed from torment and fell asleep, and after some hours of rest, which he had not enjoyed for so many nights, awoke sound and vigorous without any trace of pain, so that, rising at once, he went on to the church of blessed Mary of Succour, to give thanks to God and to the Saint.

[14] A year-old infant, with a violent fever and a pustule under the tongue so malignant and two infants are healed by the oil of the lamp, that the physicians judged it to have the appearance of a pestilential carbuncle, was brought to such a pass that he refused his mother's breasts and was believed by all a victim of death, since no remedy availed. The sorrowing mother, a devout worshipper of St. Thomas, carried the infant to his tomb and vowed a funeral cloth if her child should be restored to health; then she asked of the sacristan oil from the lamp which burned before the Saint's tomb, and with it anointed the pustule; presently the boy took the breast, was freed from the fever, and on the next day wholly healed; the grateful mother brought him back to the tomb and paid her vow. Another infant of six months had his head and his whole little body swollen with inflammation, and no remedies availed. His grandmother and another woman from the neighbourhood, devoted to the Saint, made a nine days' prayer at his tomb, and on the first day after the prayers were performed, taking oil from the lamp, they anointed the infant, and on that same day, the scales falling off, his health began, and on the fifth was completed, with no sign of the malady surviving.

[15] A third, brought near to death and despaired of by a violent fever, a flux of the bowels and vomiting, an infant likewise laid upon the Saint's tomb, at a neighbour's urging was carried by his parents to St. Thomas's tomb, not without fear that he would die on the way: and in fact he was held for dead by all before they reached the church, the pulse of the artery ceasing, his eyes closed, his breath taken away, and other signs following which indicate death. Nevertheless he was laid on the Saint's tomb; and the parents with the aforesaid neighbour, prostrate on their knees, implored his help with many tears, and added a vow that, if they were heard, they would offer a tomb-cloth and a candle equalling the boy's measure. At that very moment of time the infant, opening his little eyes, uttered a cry, and, taken up by his mother, was found alive and blooming without any sign of fever, and within two days perfectly healed. On the next day they brought him back to the tomb and with thanksgiving paid their vow.

[16] and a man by the touch of the same tomb; A man had so injured his right arm by a fall that he could neither stretch it out nor move it; after many remedies applied for a long time but in vain, he conceived a nine days' prayer at St. Thomas's tomb. On the first day he tried to touch the tombstone with his arm, and, what he had not been able to do for the space of five months, he felt that he could stretch it a little, though not without discomfort and great pain; he continued this on the following days always further and better, until the ninth day, on which he received it perfectly sound and fit for labour as before.

[17] flowers taken from the same being applied, What follows in Salon in Spanish is thus reported in Latin, with the names of the witnesses added, by Coccinus at page 693: There was near the city of Valencia, in a town commonly called Patraria, a certain woman, Catherine Montalta, wife of Anthony Sallent, a farmer of the slenderest condition, who, being now a mother for the sixth time, and from a total lack of milk being quite unable to feed her little ones, as the love of maternal charity requires, and being compelled by pressing want of household means, to her own great inconvenience, to hand them to nurses to be suckled: while she lay abed from her sixth childbirth, she too, among the rest, because she understood that very many were consoled at the intercession of Thomas of Villanova, fled to him with a devout affection of heart to obtain milk, adding a vow by which she promised that she would make a novena, as they call it, at his tomb, and would see to it that as soon as she went out of the house the sacrifice of the Mass should be celebrated. And when after some days, having left her bed, she had hastened to Valencia to the church called of holy Mary of Succour, kneeling before Thomas's tomb she earnestly and with living faith asked him to obtain this grace, and, having received some of the flowers with which the holy Man's tomb was strewn and placed them between her breasts, and the Mass having been reverently heard, \* as soon as, returning home, she had gone out of the church, she felt her breasts so filled with milk that from the too great abundance it dripped through the nipples, and, straightway filled with incredible joy, she put the infant which she carried in her arms to her breast and filled it with milk, which afterwards she always had abundantly. Concerning the truth of this deed, in the process of Valencia … Catherine Montalt herself fully deposes … Anthony Sallent her husband … Vincentia Sallent their common daughter … Seraphina Ledo … Joanna Anna Mattin … Brother Peter Orduna, priest of the Order of St. Augustine. This miracle, as was seen above, was discussed and approved by the congregation of sacred Rites, and thereafter inserted in the Bull of canonization.

[18] dried-up breasts flow with milk; scrofulous swellings are removed. Another, suckling her child, on account of a sickness that came upon her was deprived of all milk, her breasts being so dried up that they yielded not even a drop. Having experienced no power in remedies, she sought St. Thomas's tomb, carrying the infant in her arms; when she was kneeling there, the sacristan came to place fresh flowers on the tomb and to take away the withered ones; she asked that some of these be given her, and, having obtained them and placed them on her breasts, when her prayer was finished she withdrew. Having gone a little way from the church, she found her breasts so full of milk that it was already beginning to flow. She presently held it out joyfully to the infant, and he drew it with great sweetness. Then, turning back to the church, she cast herself on her knees, giving thanks with many tears to God and to the Saint. Another likewise had laid aside hope of recovering by human remedy the milk lost for five months: she promised a nine days' prayer to St. Thomas, and on the first day, praying at his tomb, felt her breasts at the same moment full of milk. A girl, from a flowing corrupt humour, was seized in the neck by a scrofulous swelling hard as a stone, and afflicted with such pain that she could neither take rest nor turn her head to the other side; it grew so much that it brought the poor thing to extremity. A matron, a kinswoman, urged her to commend herself devoutly to the Saint, and she herself, going to his tomb, prayed fervently for the sick girl, took away the little flowers laid on the tomb and sent them by a maidservant to the girl, who applied them to the swelling, and this at that very moment of time, all torment ceasing, was so dissolved, and her neck became so supple and sound, as though it had never been affected by any trouble, not even any trace of it remaining. A woman seized by a like malady on the right side of her neck, when medicines availed nothing, betook herself to the Saint's tomb, and amid ardent prayers anointed the affected part with the oil of the lamp, and, the pain suddenly abating and the swelling subsiding, found herself sound.

\ read Missa audita*

§ III. Infants dead, or held for such, called back to life.

[ ] A boy, Paul Francis (so Coccinus at page 672), born of Gabriel Cardona and Augustina Assentia, husband and wife, inhabitants of the city of Valencia, dwelling in the street called del Palamar, of the parish of St. John of the Market, being in his sixteenth month of age, when he had already suffered from a fever for six or seven months, and the gravity of his condition had gone so far that he had already been abandoned by the physician, who despaired of the sick child's recovery, on a certain day two hours before noon underwent a grave swoon of mind, and, when after three quarters of an hour he had come to himself, the disease growing worse and worse, at the second hour of the afternoon he died, to the very great grief of his mother; who, when she had recognized that he was dead by placing a lighted candle at his mouth and nostrils, and her hand at the infant's heart and pulse, and from the very body, which had grown cold, and from the very drooping of the head, and could not restrain her wailings and tears for the greatness of her grief, repeating over and over that if, while the boy was still alive, she had carried him to the tomb of the holy archbishop Thomas of Villanova, he would doubtless not have died: being advised to carry him thither thus dead, having taken the boy in her arms, she hastened to the church of Bl. Mary of Succour, as they call it, where the holy Prelate's body is kept, and, kneeling before the tomb, with fervent tears asked him to obtain life for the boy from God; and behold, scarcely so little a space of time had elapsed as that the Lord's prayer and the Angelic salutation might be said three times, when the boy, to the incredible astonishment of the bystanders, came to life again and uttered the word Tata customary to little ones, with his eyes fixed on his mother, who, thanks having been given to God and to His holy Servant, carried him home with great joy, now freed also from all disease.

[20] Sperantia Valera, daughter of Sperantia Crespo, dwelling in the city of Valencia in the street and a girl which is called della Parra, of the parish of St. John of the Market, sixteen months old, died of a long fever of nine or ten months; and when her eyes had been opened and her body shaken, she nevertheless gave no signs of life, and so lay lifeless for the space of two or three hours, until her mother, who was most bitterly bewailing her dead infant, remembering that she had some earth from the tomb of the venerable man Thomas of Villanova, took it with great faith and laid it on the girl's throat, and, kneeling, said in a loud voice these or the like words: Holy and blessed father Thomas of Villanova, I ask you to obtain from the Lord our God the resurrection of my daughter, and I will offer you her funeral cloth; for I greatly trust in you, and believe you to be a Saint. These prayers being finished, without any delay intervening the infant began to cry and sucked her mother's breasts, and at once was better, and after a very few days was restored to perfect health.

[21] sixteen months old; That these two things happened in this manner the witnesses prove in the places to be cited below; and as to the first, in the process of Valencia … Augustina Assentia the infant's mother … Angela Torres his maternal aunt … Augustina Esturgia … his maternal grandmother … brother Mark Rouira, conventual monk of St. Augustine … And as to the second, there depose in the same process of Valencia … Sperantia Grespo \* the girl's mother … Elizabeth Agatha Fabra, the girl's paternal aunt … Anthony Fabra her father … Isabella Pastor her paternal grandmother … and Joanna Angela Pina. Thus far Coccinus, who then subjoins reasons to show the truth of the miracles, and at last continues thus: Nor were we content with the aforesaid in so grave a matter; but it seemed good to us to hear also concerning the death of the said infants the opinion of the most skilled physicians of this kindly City, namely Ambrose, Galiani, Odoardo, Lopi, Angelo, Vittorio, Bernardino, Castellano and Benedict Averini, who, the business having been maturely discussed, concluded with unanimous vote that the aforesaid infants had been dead — whom without doubt we must believe, since we must abide by physicians in those matters which concern their own art. Both miracles were approved by the sacred Congregation and inserted in the Bull of canonization, as was said above; both Salon has too, as also the others which, as I began, I go on to reduce into a Latin compendium.

[22] and infants A girl was suddenly oppressed by so grave and deadly a symptom, not unlike a swoon of mind, that she shortly died. For she lay without pulse and breath, cold, and, after experiments had been made, with all the signs of certain death. Her parents grieved vehemently, as also the neighbours who had come to see. But when she had lain in this way for some hours, the parents devoutly implored the Saint's help, adding a vow to bring him a funeral cloth and wax equal to the girl's height; and she at once, the vow being uttered, opening her eyes, recovered her colour and pulse with full health, and they joyfully carried her to the Saint's tomb to fulfil their promises. The same happened to another girl twenty-two months old and, in the judgment of all present, taken from the living after five days by a burning fever: for when the parents, out of the vehemence of their grief, asked of the Saint the life of their only daughter as a benefit owed to their constant devotion toward him, and vowed altogether a like vow, she too opened her eyes and was wholly healed, many standing by and judging that she had truly been called back from death.

[23] others, To an infant of about fifteen months a violent fever and a swoon supervening upon it brought death within a short time, in the evening about the hour of prayer; all tests made death certain; thus he lay lifeless and cold through the whole night: on the next day, when her husband said that he must be wrapped in a funeral sheet, and that after an hour he wished to call in the clerics of the church of St. Michael to carry him off and bury him, the wife replied: Grant me this favour, sir, that I may carry the boy, though now dead and cold for so many hours, to father Thomas's tomb; since, as he works so many miracles daily, I trust that he will call him back to life. This seemed foolish to the husband, yet the mother's grief and faith persuaded him: so they carried him covertly, and when they had arrived there they asked that a Mass be said in honour of All Saints; meanwhile the mother laid the dead boy on the tomb, and with great sighs and tears and burning trust invoked the Saint, until the priest came to the reception of the most sacred Body of the Lord; for then the boy, opening his eyes, began to cry, and she, rising, took him in her arms and received him alive and sound to the immense consolation of her mind. Thanks having been duly given to God and to the Saint, they returned home, publishing the remarkable miracle through the streets and in the neighbourhood.

[24] In the parish of St. John a woman near her delivery, the pangs continually increasing, was tormented for three days in the opinion of all and brought to such a pass that the midwife was certain she could not escape death without a miracle; for she observed that the child was lying crosswise and was even then dead, and said it was advisable to anoint with the sacred Oil the mother, whose breath was gradually failing. A neighbour standing by urged her to ask the help of the holy Archbishop; the midwife supported her urging, adding that she had seen marvellous things in various deadly childbirths, wrought by God through his patronage: she therefore, though very near death, gathered her spirit and broke out once and again into these words: Holy Archbishop, have mercy on me and help me. At this word the child, turned to a natural position, was brought forth in a single moment of time, but dead, black and stinking. Leaving him, the women turned to the mother, who, a remedy having been taken to strengthen the heart, was presently restored in strength and freed from pain, to the no small astonishment of the others.

[25] It was already resolved to bury the dead child in a pit dug in the stable, dead, black and not washed in the sacred font of baptism: but as they were preparing to carry it thither the same neighbour, who had before suggested the counsel, restrained them and advised that for him too they should direct prayers to the Saint, so that he might at least be baptized. All, both men and women, kneeling down, persisted in prayers for about a whole hour; at length the infant (it was a girl) opened her eyes, cried, put off the black colour and the stench, and put on a white and pleasing one, and was handed to her mother, weeping for joy. Then, a great multitude of men running to the prodigy, they carried her to the church of St. John to be washed in the saving waters, and her parents wished, in memory and thanksgiving for the twofold and so remarkable benefit, that the name Thomasa be given her. The mother, recovered from her lying-in, betaking herself with her little daughter to the church of Bl. Mary of Succour, ordered a Mass to be celebrated at the altar nearest the tomb, and offered a silver infant. San-Martin writes that this miracle happened in the year 1608, and that the mother's name was Anna Torrez de Rames, and the neighbour's Catherine Sales.

[26] Likewise a boy of two years was taken from the living by a strong fever in the house of his uncle, by whom he was greatly loved, to life as they judged to be certain from all the signs: this happened about noon; toward evening a monk of the Order of St. Augustine came and advised the rest of the household, who were afflicted, and especially the boy's uncle and parents, to flee to father Thomas's help. All obeyed; and the uncle, going to the Saint's tomb, with many sighs and tears begged life for the boy, and did not return home before night, but strengthened with hope. When midnight was past, the boy, now for more than twelve hours held for dead, cold and stiff, opened his eyes, recovered warmth and colour, and raised himself brisk and sound in his bed, to the great wonder of those who were present, and their praising of God.

[27] are called back. There follows in Salon the account of a boy of sixteen months called back to life, which differs so little from that which I gave from Coccinus at number 19 that it has seemed good to pass it over, and to close this § with that which is placed last in the same Salon. A boy of three years was at length snatched from life by a sharp fever which for about a whole month, remedies being baffled, continually increased. He lay with closed eyes, open mouth, without colour, breath or any motion. And so, several tests having been made in vain to elicit a sign of life, the father went to the Saint's tomb, asked that the prayers customarily poured out to him be recited, and himself, begging life for the boy with much devotion and confidence, promised that he would offer a funeral cloth: while he persisted in these things for about an hour, the boy, dead and cold at home now for many hours, opening his eyes, gazed on his mother, ate the yolk of an egg offered him, and on the following day was restored in strength and enjoyed entire health, to the no small wonder of those who had beheld him truly dead.

\ elsewhere Crespo*

§ IV. Dying infants brought back to health.

[ ] infants The six-month-old little son of the count de Sinarcas was seized by so intense a fever with difficulty of breathing that he was gradually being suffocated. A vein was opened for him, and thereupon he fell into a swoon of mind, and his soul

seemed to all to be departing. The parents and the grandfather withdrew from the sight of the dying child, and there was straightway recourse to lord Matthias Pallas, canon, the infant's uncle, who kept relics of the Saint; these were brought and laid upon the boy, and at that same instant of time he was somewhat better; the parents and others came in and gave thanks to God and to the Saint, by the touch of whose relics the boy had been snatched from the jaws of death. Another boy, from a burning fever and a swoon supervening, was in the opinion of all already breathing his last; the sorrowing mother invoked St. Thomas with many tears, and, not daring to leave him whose last breath she awaited at every moment, sent a friend devoted to the Saint to the tomb, to see that a Mass be celebrated and to promise a funeral cloth; at the same time at which the Mass was finished, the sickness too, as it were in a single instant, had an end; the boy, freed from fever and swoon, stood forth sound and strong, with no sign of the disease remaining.

[29] from fevers, A third, twenty months old, was suffering from a sharp fever and a flux with continual deadly paroxysms; the physicians applied remedies; but the poor child went from bad to worse, and for five days now had taken no nourishment. The parents, when they see that their only son's life is despaired of, take him up and carry him as though dead to the Saint's tomb, promising a funeral cloth and his likeness painted on a panel; and while they pray, the boy recovers, asks for food, eats, and within a quarter of an hour is restored to entire health: they, thanks having been given to God and to the Saint, return home, publishing the miracle. A girl of twenty months had likewise been oppressed by a fever and a convulsion so vehement that in the physicians' judgment she could not be healed. Her parents carried her to St. Thomas's tomb and poured out prayers for her; at once, the fever and convulsion ceasing, the little one, who had been carried thither like a dead child, began to walk on her feet sound and unharmed.

[30] A certain woman suckling her child (so Bax from Salon), her stomach being gravely disturbed, and other suffered a remarkable disorder of the humours in her body: whence the suckling child, her breasts being corrupted, contracted a kind of apoplexy, and one side stiffened: so affected that he was held by all for lifeless. But his grandmother promised that she would hang up for Bl. Thomas the funeral wrapping of her grandson, which was made ready for burial, and at once all the disease left the boy. Likewise a boy in the eleventh month of his age was afflicted at once by fevers, pimples and a contraction of the sinews; and the physician, his art being baffled, at last declared that no remedy remained save from God. The afflicted father, hearing this, about the ninth hour of the night ran to the monastery of blessed Mary of Succour, and was led by the father Prior and the other religious, to whom he was known, to St. Thomas's tomb; where, kneeling down, while the others recited the common prayers, he begged and obtained health for the boy. For, returning home between the tenth and eleventh hour, he found his little son in the maidservant's arms sound, brisk and fawning upon his father; he called his wife, who, not enduring the sight of her dying child, had withdrawn into another chamber, and made her partaker of his gladness. Salon adds another benefit obtained for a year-old boy; but it is so like in substance and words to the one narrated above in the second place at number 28 that I think it enough to have indicated it.

[31] Another, of six years, was brought within a few days to extremity by a vehement fever, grave and in the opinion of all was held for dead for the space of eight hours. The father went to the Saint's tomb, prayed, ordered a Mass to be celebrated, promised a funeral cloth, and, returning home, received him sound. Another parent had likewise obtained by prayer health for his two-year-old son, dying likewise of a fever; but after some months the same little boy, oppressed by a grave disease, was within eight days brought to such a pass that he was believed by all to be destitute of life. The father, hastening at midnight to the church of Bl. Mary of Succour, so far prevailed as to be admitted to the Saint's tomb, and there implored help with such earnestness and with so many lamentations, vowing at the same time to offer a funeral wrapping and a panel on which the benefit should be painted, that the religious, the Matins office being finished, came to him from the choir, tried to console him, and joined their own prayers to his. Rising, he took away the little flowers laid on the tomb and earth from the grave, and, returning home, found the boy past danger; who, placing to his mouth the little flowers handed him by his father, fell into a sleep which he had not known for many nights, and at length, awaking, stood forth sound and whole.

[32] Likewise a violent disease came upon a two-year-old, so that he was suddenly deprived of all his senses maladies and sent forth foam from his mouth, nor could it be said whether it was a convulsion or a frenzy. The father carried him, liker a dead than a living child, to the Saint's tomb, and after prayers and tears received him restored to his senses and to health. Another woman, distinct from the one whom we mentioned in this chapter (number 30), struck with a grave affection of the stomach, offered her breasts to her little son, who was at once so afflicted by a convulsion and by a pustule in his mouth that he could by no means bear to suck. By that malady and by the lack of nourishment he was within a few days consumed and brought to extremity. The mother, turning to the Saint, prayed and pledged a funeral cloth to be hung at his tomb, and straightway the convulsion in the boy ceased, the pustule vanished, no trouble remained, and presently the infant seized the breasts, sound and brisk.

[33] A little girl suffering from a grave fever the physician judged, when a swoon supervened, would shortly die; from the end of life wherefore her father invited a friend, a cleric, to hasten if he wished to see for the last time the little daughter whom he too greatly loved. He hastened, and on the way commended the girl to the Saint toward whom he was carried with devout devotion, and promised that a funeral wrapping and as much wheat as the infant weighed should be offered him; nay, that if the father were less content with the vow, he would himself pay it. He entered the house and found the parents and all the household astonished and rejoicing, and saying that not a quarter of an hour had elapsed when the infant, already plainly expiring, had in a single moment of time been freed from all the malady and called back from death. He signified the vow uttered by him at the same time, and they, attributing the grace to God and to the Saint's patronage, fulfilled it.

[34] Another, four years old, being in a high fever, was thought by the judgment of all a victim of death; being brought her mother, seeing her hastening to her end, promised St. Thomas, whom she invoked daily, that she would offer a funeral cloth and would clothe the girl in the habit of his Order, if she were restored to health: and she, hearing her mother's vow, though very near death, said as best she could: Father Don Thomas, heal me, and I shall wear your habit; and meanwhile, a priest, her mother's own brother, entering the chamber, the little one raised herself in bed and, embracing her uncle, said: I am sound, Father Thomas has healed me; clothe me in his habit; all, astonished, could not hold back their tears for joy; both vows were satisfied, and the girl was led with thanksgiving to the Saint's tomb.

[35] A boy of six years the intense force of a disease had so oppressed come away that on the third day they did not dare to open a vein for him, and on the fourth about noon the physician, beholding him with dying eyes and with the other signs of impending death, affirmed to his mother that it could not but be that he would die shortly, and that help must be implored from God alone: and after this, when he had departed, his mother, continually awaiting his last breath, prayed to St. Thomas, and, seeing her son not yet destitute of all his senses, admonished him to do the same, if not with his mouth, at least with his heart; the boy, gathering his spirit as far as he could, said: Holy Archbishop, help me; holy Archbishop, obtain health for me: and, repeating these words often, he fell asleep, which had not happened to him for many days before; the mother withdrew into another chamber, and to her, returning after an hour, he said with bright eyes, with entire strength, and in a clear and brisk voice: Lady, I am now recovered; father don Thomas has imparted health, for I saw him here before me clothed in a black habit, with a mitre on his head and a staff in his hand; he came to me and said: Rise, Vincent, for by God's mercy you have been made sound; and having said this he vanished; nor was this a dream, for I was awake, and saw this candle, these images and the Saint as clearly as I now see you yourself. The mother, weeping for gladness, embraced her little son and gave very many thanks to God and to the Saint. At the third hour the physician returned, to console the parents, who were very dear friends to him, thinking it certain that the child was already dead; but when he found him unharmed and well, struck with astonishment he said: This is a great and plainly evident miracle. He asked at last what had happened to the boy, and, when the mother set out the whole course of the matter, he again proclaimed in a loud voice that it was as great and as evident a miracle as if he had been called back to life.

[36] A boy of four, while playing with others in the street, was crushed by a carriage, unharmed. one of the wheels pressing his neck and jaw, the other his hip. He was carried home without sense and like one dead, with blood flowing from his mouth, ears and nostrils. In that carriage had ridden lord Matthias Pallas, canon of the church of Valencia, who, saddened by that accident, entered the boy's house and hung upon the neck of him as he lay senseless the Saint's relics which he kept about him, admonishing all to ask help of him. They obeyed his admonitions at once, and meanwhile the surgeon came, who opened a vein for the boy and applied medicines to his wounds; but, a vehement fever coming on from this, he was the worse. Nevertheless, at the canon's exhortation, the parents persisted steadfastly in prayers; and the boy after a few hours was overcome by sleep, and then, awaking, sprang from his little bed without pain and began to run about the chamber; on the next day the aforesaid canon, revisiting him, found him sound, brisk, and free of every injury or trace of one.

[37] Another, one year old, brought to the end of his life by a vehement fever, they come away lay as though lifeless with closed eyes and destitute of vital warmth. His parents took him up and carried him to St. Thomas's tomb, where, while they pray and vow his funeral garment, he opened his eyes, took the breast, and was restored to perfect health. Likewise a girl, eighteen months old, prostrated by a violent fever, lay as though lifeless without pulse, breath or motion, with foam bursting from her mouth and nostrils; and she was said by the physicians themselves to be dead. Her parents, kneeling down, entreated St. Thomas with many tears and sighs, and promised both a funeral cloth and wax equal in weight to the girl, if she should live. Suddenly she too opened her eyes and recovered her colour. On the following day her grateful parents carried her sound and well to the Saint's tomb, together with the promised wax and funeral cloth. Further, that almost all thus far recorded vowed to the Saint the funeral garment of the infant ought not to seem strange; for that custom is employed elsewhere in Spain also.

§ V. Many dying and despaired of by the physicians, brought back to health by the Saint's patronage.

[ ] A man despaired of by the physicians, A zealous worshipper of the Saint was so prostrated by a grave infirmity that in the physicians' judgment no natural remedy remained. Being already fortified with all the Sacraments of the dying, and on a certain night pressed by his infirmity more than usual, he sought the Saint's help also more ardently than usual and with a firmer trust, although all thought it was all over with him. At midnight he noticed near his bed a light and with it the blessed Father, who, addressing him, said: Trust, son, for you will presently recover. The event confirmed the word; for, as the Saint vanished, at that same moment of time, full of consolation, he felt himself sound, vigorous and strengthened; he called his household, who had gone to bed, told the vision, and confirmed it by his sudden healing.

[39] Another devoted to the Saint a quotidian fever had utterly exhausted; another exhausted by fever, for there remained to the poor man nothing but bones, skin and the shape of a man; meanwhile he directed prayers to the Saint daily. On a certain day, when his strength did not suffice for him to advance even one step, he resolved to try whether he could reach the Saint's tomb, and, his wife with the rest of the household complaining in vain and condemning his rashness, he put on his clothes, leaning step by step upon a staff, and reached it not without great difficulty, and, prostrate on the ground at the tomb, passed almost a whole day in prayers. Toward evening he not only did not experience the onset of the fever, as he was accustomed, but felt himself so vigorous and strong that, laying aside his staff, he returned home sound, ate, and was thereafter not attacked by the same malady, nor kept any trace of it except weakness; but this too ceased within a few days.

[40] a third and a fourth abandoned, Another likewise, devoutly disposed toward the Saint, was oppressed by a grave fever and lethargy, abandoned by the physicians, and by their counsel anointed with the sacred Oil. Thus, as he lay prostrate like one dead, they placed on him the little cap which St. Thomas had once used, and anointed the pulse of his artery with the oil of the lamp burning at his tomb. Suddenly he opened his eyes, was released from that deep torpor, and so recovered that the physicians were astounded. After a few days he went out in perfect health, to give thanks to God and to the Saint for the benefit. A quartan fever had for four years consumed another man, and at last, turning into a burning fever, had cut off all hope from the physicians; abandoned therefore by these, he turned to St. Thomas. While those who were awaiting his end, weary from continual vigils, committed themselves a little to rest, the Saint appeared to the sick man, and, laying his hand upon him as he was terrified, said: Do not fear, son, for the Lord will presently grant you health; having said this he vanished. The sick man, past all fever and danger, cried out, related the matter to his mother, who ran up with the rest, and on the following day put on his clothes; and although he could not then go out of the house on account of his remaining weakness, yet within a few days he went out to give thanks to the Saint.

[41] a fifth despaired of by the physicians; A noble knight in his youth was so oppressed and prostrated by a sharp pain in the sides with a burning fever that they did not dare to open a vein for him, and two physicians toward evening warned his aunt that no hope of life remained, and that he must therefore be fortified with the Sacraments of the Church. Religious came bringing relics of the Saint, which, at their urging, the sick man venerated as far as he could; and as soon as they had been applied to his head and side, without any delay intervening, opening his eyes he found himself refreshed and wholly free of pain and fever. On the next day the physicians, returning and not without astonishment seeing him whom they feared to find dead so suddenly changed, asked what the sick man had taken; and when he answered that he had been made sound by the Saint, and was able to rise from his bed if weakness did not hold him back, they affirmed that it was an evident miracle.

[42] likewise two clerics By a strong fever and a quinsy supervening a cleric of Valencia was placed in the straits of death. His mother, seeing him lying with closed eyes and with deadly signs, invoked the Saint and persuaded her son to do the same in his mind. His relics were brought, handed to the sick man to be kissed, and at last laid on his head. At that same moment he opened his eyes, was marvellously refreshed, and within a short time, the fever wholly ceasing and the quinsy loosening, obtained full health, miraculous in the judgment of the physicians and of others. Likewise a sharp fever with livid spots suffused over the whole body (in Spanish tavardillo) and penetrating even the head, cast another cleric into a frenzy. His mother and sisters, having obtained no help from the physicians, took care that the relics of St. Thomas, whom they devoutly honoured, should be brought. When these were held out to the sick man to be kissed, they, kneeling down, besought help with great weeping and confidence, and pledged that, if they were heard, they would make a nine days' prayer and hang a panel at his tomb. At once the sick man, opening his eyes, began to speak clearly and quite deliberately, was freed from all his malady, and shortly afterwards, enjoying perfect health, went to the church of blessed Mary of Succour to render thanks to God and to the Saint.

[43] A Religious of this friary of St. Augustine at Valencia was, in the physician's judgment, to be anointed with the sacred Oil; and a Religious, and others a violent fever had brought him to this within a few days, but this likewise, when the relics of Thomas had been brought and laid on the sufferer's head, at once ceased and left him so strong that he did not need to be anointed, and the physician, revisiting him on the next day, judged it a miracle; for he had thought he would find him dead. A merchant of this city of Valencia received from a wicked man two dagger-thrusts, which the physicians and surgeons judged incurable by human remedy: on a certain evening he suffered so great a swoon that all reckoned him already dead. His wife poured out many prayers and tears to St. Thomas, and the sick man himself, a little restored to himself, and likewise devoted to him, commended himself. At length his relics were brought and laid on the sick man, who thereupon gained such strength and was so refreshed that the physicians, not without astonishment, affirmed it to be a miracle, and confirmed it when after some days, his wounds knitting together, he experienced entire health.

[44] There was one who from strong fevers and a vast flow of blood from the mouth was hastening to his end; the sick, near to death, recover. and so, medicines availing nothing and the physicians themselves reckoning him a victim of death, he committed himself to St. Thomas's patronage, and with the bystanders venerated his relics brought to him; suddenly the flow of blood restrained itself, the fever ceased, and he felt himself strengthened and wholly sound. Another worshipper of the Saint, perceiving in remedies no relief against a sharp fever, but rather an increase of the malady, asked a matron, his kinswoman, likewise devoted to the Saint, to make a nine days' prayer at his tomb: she agreed, and presently on the first day he was better, and so, recovering day by day, on the ninth day he stood forth so sound and robust that he could go out to render thanks to God and to the Saint. A third an abundant eruption of blood through his mouth and nostrils over the space of fourteen hours so overthrew that he lay as if bloodless and lifeless. The physicians, unable to check the flow, and judging that his life was over, declared that he must be fortified with the Sacraments of the Church, for no remedy remained save from God alone. While the others with the sick man call upon St. Thomas, a neighbour hastens to the monastery to have his relics brought; but as these had then been carried elsewhere, he cast himself down at the Saint's tomb, prayed fervently, and carried back to the sick man the little flowers taken thence; he received them devoutly and, applying them to his nostrils and mouth, asked for help. Straightway the flow of blood stopped, the fever which had come on ceased, his strength returned to him, he ate, came away wholly sound, and in memory of the miracle brought a funeral wrapping to God and to the Saint.

[45] A fourth, near the archbishop's residence, was seized by a vehement pain in one side, groin and leg; A man is freed from a pain in the side and another from a deadly fever. and when he had reached home, dragging his foot not without great difficulty, he took to his bed and, amid sharp pains, from the third hour of the afternoon, no surgeon being called in and no remedy applied, cried out for the Saint's help, trusting for certain that he would experience his favour; toward midnight he fell asleep, and, awaking, stood forth free of all pain and trouble. A fifth was brought to extremity by a malignant fever within a few days, and, when nothing but death was expected, was anointed with the sacred Oil. His mother, devoted to the Saint, hastened to his tomb, and earnestly commended her son, likewise a worshipper of the same, adding a vow to offer a funeral garment and a painted panel. At that same hour, to the wonder of all, the sick man was released from fever and from danger, and, if you except the weakness remaining from his torment, was suddenly sound.

[46] Several women A woman devoted to the Saint had been so afflicted and choked by an exceedingly grave fever and pain in the sides that she was at the point of death, and, after many remedies had been applied, both her son, who was a doctor of medicine, and his other colleagues and friends judged that it was all over with her. On the night on which she was believed about to die, her daughter, bathed in many tears, commended her mother to the Saint, pledging that she would offer him a funeral wrapping; at that moment the mother was fully restored to her senses, and freed from fever and from all her malady, all wondering at the sudden healing, and especially the physicians, and affirming that it was a very evident miracle. Another, placed on the confines of death by a sharp fever and other maladies coming on, the physicians had abandoned without any hope of life. And so she turned with great devotion to the Saint, venerated his relics brought to her, and at the very moment at which these were laid upon her head a great sweat broke out upon her, and at once the fever and all those other maladies withdrew, and she stood forth sound and unharmed, all wondering that she who was reckoned a victim of death was so suddenly healed. Another, brought by the continual onsets of a vehement fever and by other maladies to such a pass that the physicians likewise abandoned her as one despaired of and about to die shortly, commended herself much to the Saint in her heart and venerated his relics offered to her: and at the very moment at which, after the veneration, they were laid upon her head, she felt herself free of the fever and strengthened. To another likewise, dying from fever and quinsy, deprived of speech and, at the physicians' advice, anointed with the sacred Oil, an inward invocation of the Saint and a kiss impressed on his relics brought sudden health; for at once, her speech returning and much blood and pus flowing from her ears, she found herself freed from the fever and sound, not without the vast admiration of those who at every moment were awaiting her last breath.

[47] from incurable maladies Another woman a malady so vehement had seized that she was suddenly deprived of speech and of her senses, and the physicians called in ordered her without any delay to be anointed with the sacred Oil. Her husband went to the church of St. Peter to call the parish priest's vicar for that end; but, saddened by his absence, he received from a canon of St.

Thomas relics, which he should lay upon the dying woman's head until the vicar returned. He obeyed the advice, and first applied them to his wife's mouth, then laid them on her head: at that very moment she, opening her eyes, spoke distinctly: and when the parish priest came, it was not necessary to anoint her, so sound and strengthened was she, the physicians being struck with admiration. On the next day she went on to the church of blessed Mary of Succour, and, having confessed her faults and been refreshed with the most sacred banquet of the Eucharist, gave thanks to God and to the Saint.

[48] dying women To these Salon appends seven other benefits or miracles suddenly obtained through the Saint for dying women, which, lest there be a continual repetition of almost the same matter and the same words, I abridge into fewer words. The first, deprived of her senses for five days by a pestilential fever and a convulsion, and at the point of death, when the relics of St. Thomas were laid on her head, presently recovered her senses, her speech and her health. The second unexpectedly sent forth through her mouth and ears so copious a flow of blood for a whole night that the physicians, a swoon coming on, judged her incurable and to be anointed with the sacred Oil. They commended the dying woman to St. Thomas, and about the sixth hour of the morning she opened her eyes, and, the flow of blood presently ceasing, recovered her strength and was healed. The third, despaired of by the physicians, vowed a nine days' prayer at the Saint's tomb, and at once, the fever ceasing, was healed. The fourth, fortified with the Sacraments of the dying, uttered a vow to the Saint, and as soon as his relics had been laid on her head and applied to the ulcers arisen from the corruption of her blood, she recovered, and within a few days stood forth free of every sign of her infirmity. The fifth from a violent fever lay deprived of her senses, anointed with the sacred Oil, and as if dead. At the same time at which her husband was praying for her at St. Thomas's tomb, she returned to her senses and was past danger. The sixth, placed at the door of death by fever and quinsy and likewise fortified with the sacred Oil, when at her sister's advice she uttered a vow, was snatched from danger and within two days fully healed. The seventh likewise, anointed with the sacred Oil, asked for the Saint's relics, venerated and kissed them, and wished them applied to her side, from the pain of which and from a violent fever she had been brought to extremity, and, straightway refreshed, fell asleep, and at last, awaking, had nothing of the malady remaining.

[49] What happened to the eighth recorded by Salon was approved by the sacred congregation, are healed, and described in the Bull of canonization and in the Series of the acts toward the same canonization: thus Coccinus narrates it: Vincentia Catherine, daughter of Anthony Rosellon, twenty-five years old, dwelling in the city of Valencia among the dyers near the parish church of St. Michael, having for five years come to the end of her life from a very great pain in the knee and thigh with several very deep holes made there by that disease, and, on account of a certain swoon by which she had been seized, extreme Unction being already made ready (in the Series of the acts it is said that she was fortified with that Sacrament on the day of blessed Mary of the Angels, festal there, in the year MDCIII); her mother, seeing her daughter set in such anguish, with a true and living faith asked the venerable Thomas of Villanova to deign to obtain health for her from the Lord, promising, the grace being obtained, that she would carry coram Note: perhaps wax to his tomb; and at once, the vow being uttered, the sick woman began to be better, and after three days obtained perfect health. What is narrated above is proved … in the Process of Valencia by Catherine Vincentia Rosello herself … and Anthony Rosello her father … and Catherine Ximena … Martin Sanchez … and John Castello … That it was a miracle is most evidently gathered if one considers the long infirmity, and that it could never be healed though many remedies were applied, and that the holes were of such a kind that the surgeons put vincos read rushes of the sea from one to another, as the said Catherine Vincentia and Martin Sanchez prove, and that, being set at the end of her life, after she had implored the venerable Man's help, with only leaves applied over the holes, as the aforesaid witnesses depose, within three days she came away unharmed even of the said holes. In this Salon differs, that he expresses neither the sick woman's name nor her age, and puts four years for five; that he mentions only two holes, and does not speak of the leaves applied — perhaps because these were not believed to contain any medicinal power, as is clearly enough hinted in the Series of the acts, where it is said that, after St. Thomas had been invoked, she presently used no natural remedy.

\ perhaps ceram* [wax]

\ read juncos* rushes

§ VI. Women labouring hard in childbirth freed, and given living offspring.

[ ] Women labouring in deadly childbirth A woman in labour, pressed by grave pains, could not, in the midwife's judgment, because the child lay crosswise, bring it forth without both herself and the child being extinguished. Ointments and remedies customarily employed in such a case availing nothing, the poor woman, turning to St. Thomas, as a suppliant invoked his help, and vowed a Mass to be celebrated in honour of All Saints; as she uttered this vow the Saint was present in the form of a venerable old man, clothed in the habit of the Order of St. Augustine and holding a staff in his hand, and said: Take courage, daughter, and trust in the Lord's mercy, for He will shortly free you. Having said this he vanished, seen by the labouring woman alone, who signified and attested this to the others. A little after she brought forth a boy alive and sound, herself also unharmed; the midwife meanwhile being astonished and openly proclaiming that this delivery was not natural but miraculous.

[51] are prodigiously freed: Another woman with child a strong fever had seized, and the letting of blood, repeated several times at the physicians' order, had rendered her very weak; meanwhile the straits of childbirth came upon her. But the midwife who was called believed that she would die before she gave birth, both because she was so weak and especially because no motion was observed in the child. Pressed by pains and anxious at the pressing danger, she called to her aid with many tears St. Thomas, whom she devoutly honoured, adding a vow that she would make a nine days' prayer at his tomb, would offer a silver gift, and would have Masses said in thanksgiving. Uttering this vow, her pains being mitigated, she turned upon her side and fell asleep: awaking she said: I have given birth; come, take it up. The midwife, although she did not believe it and thought her out of her senses through the force of her disease, nevertheless ran up, and beheld a dead child lying beside her, and asserted that it could not have happened without a miracle that, lying on her side, asleep, so weak, helped by no one, and with a dead child, she should give birth. After this, since the afterbirth had not followed the child, the woman in childbed again invoked the Saint, and straightway sent it out without any trouble; which the same midwife ascribed to another miracle.

[52] others who have brought forth a dead child receive it living: Another, labouring gravely, was at last freed of the child, but, in the opinion of all, a dead one. The midwife, all tests having been made to elicit a sign of life, pronounced it certainly dead. The afflicted parents, devout worshippers of St. Thomas, turned to him with prayer and tears, and promised a funeral wrapping. While they were uttering this vow, the little girl began to cry, all with the midwife wondering and crying out that by an evident miracle she had been raised from death. Afterwards the parents made for the Saint's tomb and with thanksgiving paid their vow. There follows in Salon a lengthy narration of a miracle wrought upon a woman in labour and her dead child, which he says was indeed different from the one set out above at number 24 and following, but so like it that, the rest being omitted, it has seemed good to add here only one or two circumstances which are not read there. It is said, then, that she was baptized by the midwife at the foot protruding from the mother's womb: then, after prayers to St. Thomas, she was expelled by a certain force and driven into the same midwife's arms, so devoid of life that she gave no motion either to other tests or to the prick of a rather large needle, and in the midwife's judgment had already died before in the womb; after repeated prayers she received life and health, and was washed in the sacred font.

[53] Another woman a birth so difficult and deadly distressed others likewise in dangerous that three or four midwives who were called confessed that they could not help her, and that pastores must be sent for (I have kept the Spanish word, by which the author probably designates surgeons or helpers at birth) to draw out the child. She had recourse to St. Thomas, and, commending herself to him with immense devotion and weeping, vowed a nine days' prayer at his tomb: at that same moment, without anyone's help, she brought forth a pretty boy, and herself remained strong and sound; all praising God and the Saint for the remarkable grace and prodigy. A woman of the chief nobility of this city of Valencia, when the time of childbearing had come, suffered grave pangs: the midwives called in declared that, since the child lay crosswise, it could not be that she should give birth, and, if she did so give birth, the death of both would follow. Remedies were applied, but the pains persisted with greater violence, the danger increased; relics of Saints were brought; nothing was obtained. At length a doctor, a counsellor to the king, fetching the relics of Thomas which he kept at home in his oratory, offered them to the woman in labour, and advised her to invoke him devoutly and confidently; she obeyed the advice, and presently, as they were laid on her head, to the admiration of all she brought forth a fair and sound little daughter, whom she afterwards, when she had been brought to the Saint's tomb, named Thomas's daughter.

[54] Another, eight months with child, from a copious flow of blood childbirth are helped. continued for about a whole month, the industry of the physicians and midwives being baffled, was so exhausted and overthrown in strength that she was believed about to give up her last breath; a priest was called, before whom she made a confession of her faults, interrupted however from time to time by the swoons that came upon her. She had reached the ninth month of her pregnancy, in the midwife's judgment by no means strong enough to bring forth the child. She was therefore fortified with all the Sacraments of the dying on the day sacred to St. Blaise. Meanwhile her husband sent a servant to the wife of the sick woman's brother, that if she wished to see her alive she should come quickly. She presently set out on the journey, but, passing the church of blessed Mary of Succour, she had a Mass celebrated in honour of St. Thomas, whom she devoutly honoured, and asked that his relics be carried to the sick woman. When they had been brought by a Religious, the latter venerated and kissed them with all the devotion and confidence she could. And when they were laid on her head, at once (as she herself afterwards narrated) she experienced much solace and delight, was restored in strength, and, the flow of blood ceasing along with the swoons, within two hours, always keeping the Saint's relics by her, she brought forth a fair and sound child, so vigorous and robust that those who had seen her before, astonished, judged it an evident miracle. Then, when it was opportune, the parents came with the child to the church of blessed Mary of Succour and gave thanks to God and to the Saint.

[55] Another woman, devoted to the Saint, sent forth so copious a quantity of blood from her mouth and ears A dying woman is healed. that within a few days, overthrown by a vehement swoon,

she thought the last instant of her life was at hand. Meanwhile in her mind she commended herself to Thomas with all the devotion she could; but, the swoon increasing, she was brought to such a pass that all bewailed her as dead. After six hours she returned to her senses, opened her eyes, and said in a clear and strong voice: My blessed father Don Thomas has freed me from death; for I had come to extremity and he obtained life and health for me from the Lord. Look; I am sound and vigorous. Presently she asked for food, and, being refreshed, put on her clothes and rose from her bed, to the wonder of those who a little before had beheld her dying, and who proclaimed that it was an evident miracle.

§ VII. The lame and the feeble restored to the use of their limbs.

[ ] A man in his foot, The miracle which Salon sets out in the first place under this heading was approved by the sacred congregation and thereafter inserted in the Bull of canonization. Coccinus narrates it in Latin thus: When at Valencia, as the custom of the Spaniards bears, a bull-hunt was being publicly exhibited, one of the bulls, dashing out of the field at full course, ran with strong impetus upon Peter Assentius, a cobbler (in the Bull and the Series of the acts he is called Peter Anthony Sutor), an inhabitant of the said city, who chanced to be in his way, and, throwing him to the ground, so struck his side that not only was he afterwards unable to walk without crutches, but even, his sinews being contracted, one foot was a hand's breadth from the ground; and when he had been affected in this manner for two years now and more, no medicine availing, he had recourse himself also with devout prayers to the venerable man Thomas, promising that, health being obtained, he would offer his crutches at his tomb; and, having set about celebrating a novena, as they call it, there, on the third day he laid aside one of the crutches, and, before the novena was completed, both, and walked sound and whole, as before the injury. These things are proved in the process of Valencia … by the same Peter Alphonsus,\* … Dominic Assentio … Brother John Pons … Mark Fernandez … Sperantia Sevida … wife of Mark Ferrandi … Brother Anthony Uget.

[57] another in his legs Another man (I continue with Salon), crippled in his legs by a grave infirmity, could not move himself without crutches. The poor man, after many remedies applied in vain, being pressed by pain and by need, because he could not practise the craft by which he formerly lived, was urged by a friend to flee to the Saint. He followed the counsel and, leaning on crutches and supported by the help of certain neighbours, set about a novena at the church of blessed Mary, not without trouble and pain. On the sixth day, assisting at the sacrifice of the Mass, he felt a great solace of mind and an unwonted relief and lightness in his legs, which before had been very heavy. It seemed good to make trial: and so he raised himself without anyone's help, and not only stood on his feet without crutches, but, going in and running about the monastery, he called the Religious to behold before them the miracle wrought for him by God through the Saint's intercession. Thanksgiving being performed, he returned home sound and brisk, and having strength enough to practise his craft (he was a stonecutter).

[58] and a youth crippled in all his limbs are cured. A youth of slender fortune, crippled in his limbs, lay abed for half a year. His master indeed loved him for his upright service, but, because no remedies availed, judging the malady incurable, resolved to send him to a hospital: afflicted by this news, the youth began with many tears to implore as a suppliant St. Thomas's help, and meanwhile fell asleep. Awaking, he beheld the venerable man present in pontifical array, and, terrified and unmindful of his palsy, meditated flight. To whom the Saint: Do not fear, son; rise from your bed to give thanks to the Lord, who has healed you. Having said this he vanished from the youth's eyes; who at length, recognizing that it had been St. Thomas, began to cry out, and to those who were in the house and ran up he presented himself sound and strong and free of every sign of the malady, and narrated the whole course of the matter: all wondered and professed it a most certain miracle. This the grateful youth afterwards had painted on a panel and brought to the church of blessed Mary of Succour.

[59] Another, twenty-six years old, from a malignant humour had contracted on his leg two wounds teeming with matter, A corrupted leg, which was gradually corrupting within. Having tried in vain for a whole year the art of various surgeons at Toledo, where he lived, his brother, going thither, brought him laid on a mattress to Valencia, not without great trouble and torment. But here too all the efforts of the skilled lacked effect. At length, after another year, when he was overwhelmed with pains and in peril of his life, the youth mentioned in the preceding number told him what had happened to himself. Hearing this, he resolved to imitate him. He set about a novena at the Saint's tomb with great pain and torment. On the first day, praying there and pouring out many tears, he felt much relief, and, so persevering, before the novena was completed he came away wholly sound and unharmed, and the wounds knit together with no sign of the malady remaining. Those who had known his former state, struck with astonishment, confessed that it was a very evident miracle.

[60] For a whole half year another had lost the use of his arms and feet through a grave torment arms and feet, which no remedies could remove. On a certain day, when he had been more dreadfully vexed by it in the night and amid groans and lamentations had implored the holy Bishop's help, he wished to be dressed and carried to his tomb. There he remained prostrate through the whole day, praying and weeping. Toward evening he felt the pain and heaviness in his arms and feet lessen, rose up very nimble and strong, and, thanks having been given, returned home safe and brisk, telling all the grace granted him by God through the Saint's patronage. The miracle which Salon here subjoins is either the same as that which I gave above at number XI, or at least so like it that it has seemed good not to transcribe it.

[61] Another appended to this, and briefly reported in the Bull of canonization, likewise a leg I transcribe from Coccinus: James Cervera, a mason, an inhabitant of Valencia in the street of the Mill, as they call it, of the parish of St. John of the Market, having wounded his left leg with the point of a sword, and many holes having afterwards arisen there through the flowing of humours, applied various remedies for XIV years; and when these did not help, and that disease was judged incurable by the surgeons, and moreover he had been seized by a strong fever and had been vexed by it for a whole month now, fleeing with devout prayers to the holy Prelate's help, a vow being made that, health being received, he would offer him a panel with the miracle painted on it and would hang it at his tomb, he was within three days wholly freed both from the fever and from the affection of the leg. Concerning this deed there depose in the process of Valencia … James Cervera himself … Magdalen Rodera his wife … Machynus Reyo … Peter Paul Corder … Anthony Ochoa, surgeon, … and Amator Lopez, physician.

[62] A merchant, devoted to the Saint, from a vehement pain lost the use of his right arm and shoulder, arms and feet so that he had to be dressed and undressed by others. This malady, soothed by no remedies, persisted through a whole winter, and he feared it would persist his whole life. He went to Thomas's tomb and, having begged health with great devotion, vowed that, if he obtained it, he would offer a silver arm. Presently on the next day, freed from all pain and from every sign of the malady, he stood forth sound. A boy of two years was so crippled in both feet that, wherever he was set down, he lay motionless. His father, after remedies applied in vain, was once called to the church of blessed Mary of Succour to make a new adornment for the altar nearest the Saint's tomb; on that occasion, beholding there so many waxen and silver gifts, and so many funeral wrappings and panels, monuments of benefits and miracles, he too earnestly commended his son to the Saint, and, his prayer finished, returning home he found his little son in the same place where he had left him, but beginning — what he had not been able to do for many months — to move his feet, and indicating that he had been healed. The boy was lifted up by his father, and not only stood on his feet without anyone's support, but presently began of his own accord to walk: which the parents ascribed with the rest to a visible miracle. San-Martin, narrating this same miracle, says that it happened in the year 1598, and that the boy's father was a goldsmith named Vincent Fabregues.

[63] ill affected A poor woman had broken her shin close to the foot, and, although for two months very many remedies had been applied to her, had obtained no relief. And so, leaning on one foot and two crutches, she sustained her life by secret alms. She was seen on a certain day by her neighbours to go out of the house in the manner just described, with the other foot hanging and swollen, and to return in the evening with a glad countenance, walking on both feet and carrying the crutches on her arm. Being asked by them whence so sudden a healing: she answered, weeping for gladness, that when on the way she had with devotion and much weeping begged of St. Thomas her step and her health, at that same moment of time she had felt much solace in her mind and relief in her foot, and that, the pain presently ceasing, on inspecting it she had found it free of all swelling and wound and as sound as though it had never been hindered by any malady; and that finally, laying aside the crutches, she had walked on very strong. Afterwards, to make them more certain of the miracle, she showed the sound foot itself.

[64] are healed. Another woman, having suffered for two years a vast torment in her left arm, and crippled in all its use, bidding farewell to human remedies and fleeing to St. Thomas's patronage, promised nine days' prayers and as many sacrifices of the Mass to be celebrated: with great devotion and confidence she carried this out; on the last day, while the priest was elevating the most sacred Eucharist, she felt a new relief and warmth in her arm, and with full health presently recovered in it the same strength which she had had before she was seized by the malady. A girl, wholly crippled in her hands and arms by a long disease, lay abed for the space of three months, and obtained no solace in remedies; at last she placed her confidence in the holy Bishop's patronage, and asked her sister to make for his tomb and to implore God's mercy through his intercession; she obeyed and humbly prayed the Saint to relieve her sister, which the sick woman meanwhile also did with great devotion; she presently experienced great relief, and, while both continued this, on the third day her hands and arms were restored to full vigour and health.

\ undoubtedly Assentius*.

\ eaque*

§ VIII. The blind, a mute woman, paralytics, and likewise those suffering from gout and asthma, cured.

[ ] The use A boy of four years a flow of blood in his neck, face and head so infected that he presented the appearance of a monster, and, a great quantity of pus and putrid blood flowing out through his eyes with an intolerable stench, he lost his sight. The obstinate malady clung to him five or six months, and grew worse from remedies. Seeing this, his father resolved to celebrate a nine days' prayer at the Saint's tomb, and, taking the boy, though in a most wretched state, went thither.

On the fourth day, as the father was earnestly praying there, the eruption of pus and gore through the eyes began to be checked and sight to return to the boy, and within the remaining days of the novena there came a perfect deliverance from the dreadful malady and health, which the boy himself, pointing with his finger to the tomb, ascribed to the Saint; and all the rest who had known the malady ascribed it to an evident miracle.

[66] A flux of the head had deprived the five-year-old little daughter of an advocate (de un letrado) of all light of her eyes: of the eyes and of the tongue is restored; so indeed that, in the judgment of surgeons and physicians, after three months of useless efforts, the malady was incurable. The parents therefore turned their vows to St. Thomas. The mother, with her little daughter as companion, began a nine days' journey to his tomb; and, before it was completed, when on a certain day she was assisting at the sacrifice of the Mass, suddenly the little one's eyes were opened, and full power of seeing restored, the surgeons and physicians above the rest being astounded and judging it an evident miracle. A woman, seized by a certain malady, had suddenly lost the use of speech, and had long remained wholly mute; as she invoked the Saint's help with devout tears, his sacred relics were brought and applied to the mouth and tongue of her as she devoutly venerated them: at that same instant of time, the impediment of her tongue being loosed, she spoke clearly, as before, and gave thanks to God and to the Saint. Likewise a boy of nine years, who for some months had lost the faculty of speech, not to be recovered by any remedies, being led by his father to St. Thomas's tomb, on the sixth day of a devoutly instituted novena began to speak, and within the remaining three days spoke clearly and distinctly.

[67] Hemiplegia struck a most noble matron, so that her right arm and that whole side lacked all sensation those struck by hemiplegia and her tongue lacked speech. Lying so for some time, she commended herself greatly in her mind to St. Thomas. Her son, a canon of this church, brought her relics of the same Saint and offered them to be venerated and kissed, and when she had done this, at once she spoke clearly, moved her arm and hand, and stood forth sound and safe, which those who were present attributed to an evident miracle. A daughter of the same matron, brought into peril of her life by a vehement pain of the heart and by grave swoons of mind, when her brother the canon had likewise brought relics of the Saint and his help had been devoutly implored, was suddenly wholly healed.

[68] A man, suddenly struck by a certain malady, crippled in his left side, or by another like malady twisted in his mouth and powerless in his hand, came to such a pass that his household bewailed him as dead, and the physicians, having found no power in remedies, likewise abandoned him as such. After he had lain in that manner for three hours, he came to himself sound and whole; and to those present who wondered and asked the cause of his sudden healing, he answered that, though lying thus outwardly, he had nevertheless not been destitute of all inward sense; that he had therefore implored in his mind the divine mercy through St. Thomas's intercession, and had been snatched from death and restored to health not without a miracle, as both he himself and all who had seen him lying there judged.

[69] are restored Another man, on the road toward Sagunto (a town four miles distant from Valencia, in Spanish Murviedro), was seized by a vehement pain in his foot, leg, thigh and that whole upper part of his body, and rendered powerless to move himself; he was carried into the house of his daughter, who lived on the same road, and there amid grave torments conceived so firm a confidence in the patronage of St. Thomas, with whom he had dealt while he lived, and whose virtues after his death he had heard of, that he refused the services both of the physician and of the surgeon who were called, trusting for certain that he would be healed by his favour. Thus he endured bitter pains through that whole evening until midnight, calling on St. Thomas with continual prayer and great confidence, when at length he fell into a light sleep, and, awaking somewhat later, said: Now I am safe and free of all pain; the holy father don Thomas has healed me, as I trusted from his kindness and goodness. Early in the morning he rose from his bed, put on his clothes, and, quite safe, went on to the Saint's tomb to render thanks for the benefit conferred.

[70] are restored, Likewise a poor craftsman's one leg and that whole part of his body a dreadful pain invaded, which some called an articular disease (in Spanish artetica), others, because it took away all motion from his arm and hand, hemiplegia; and he, since he found no remedy for the malady and hence none for his want either, at the urging of a friend who in a like infirmity had felt the Saint's present help, conceived a nine days' prayer at his tomb, and, though with immense pain and trouble, was carried thither in his neighbours' arms. On the third day, praying earnestly there, he obtained much relief; on the sixth, assisting at the sacrifice of the Mass at the altar nearest the tomb, he felt warmth spread through that whole side, and at the same moment the cessation of all pain, and the restoration of his strength and entire health; he paid the due thanks to God and to the Saint, and went home on foot brisk and robust, publicly recounting the miracle.

[71] Gout The miracle which follows in Salon is reckoned among those approved in the Bull of canonization, and is thus set out by Coccinus: Louis Lemosi, a surgeon and an inhabitant of Valencia, dwelling in the street of the confraternity of the blacksmiths of the parish of St. Martin, was for six years vexed by gout in the great toe of his right foot, the disease returning now once, now twice in the month, and sometimes even every eight days, from which he lay abed for the space of six or eight days: and when there was now no further hope in remedies, with a devout affection of heart he prayed the holy man Thomas of Villanova to obtain health for him from God, and vowed that, if he obtained it, he would bestow an alms of a hundred reals on the church called of blessed Mary of Succour, where his venerable body rests, and, the prayers being finished, he was entirely restored to the health he desired, nor did he ever afterwards suffer from the aforesaid disease. These things are proved in the process of Valencia … by four witnesses, all surgeons, namely Louis Lemosi himself, who received the grace from his vow … John Malo … Alphonsus de Requena … Peter de Calzada. That disease, on the same Coccinus's authority, had according to the deposition of the aforesaid witnesses been judged incurable.

[72] A very sick woman (I follow Salon) an asthma one night so oppressed and constricted and a deadly asthma is removed. that in the judgment of all she was coming to the goal of her life and was about to give up her soul. She, being very devoutly disposed toward the Saint, commended herself to him in mind, since she could not with her mouth, and was heard: for suddenly there left her not only that suffocating malady, but also the infirmity and the fever from which she had before suffered, and perfect health took their place, to the astonishment of those who had known her former state, and their praise of God and of the Saint.

§ IX. Scrofulous swellings, ulcers, quinsy, wounds, tumours, palpitation of the heart, cancer and colic pain removed.

[ ] Scrofulous swellings A malignant flux had filled the neck of a boy of twelve with scrofulous swellings, and his hands and legs with several holes running with pus so foul-smelling that one could not remain in the same chamber in which he was. His aunt, into whose house he had been carried, hearing of the danger (for the physicians judged the swellings to be of that nature which no art can heal), and being well informed of the prodigies and miracles of St. Thomas, devoutly invoked him, exhorted the boy to do the same, and at the same time vowed a nine days' prayer at his tomb. Presently, setting about the fulfilment of her vow with a maidservant as companion, she asked that the Saint's relics be carried to her house. When they had been brought, the boy, though brought to his end, venerated and kissed them. The same were also applied to the parts infected with that virulent malady, and on that very morning he began to recover; shortly after, the flow of pus ceased, it wholly dried up, the holes closed, with no scars left, contrary to what usually happens, health and wholeness returned, with no sign of the malady surviving; whence, the physicians also affirming it, the evidence of the miracle stood forth the greater.

[74] Another boy, afflicted with like swellings in the neck, deadly his mother, because she had heard that his life was in danger unless a speedy remedy were found, resolved to send into France, to be healed by the king's touch (concerning this grace divinely granted to the Most Christian kings, see the Acts of St. Louis the king in our volume V of August, pages 339 and 555, as also the authors cited there). Nevertheless, at a neighbour's urging, she turned her hope to St. Thomas, promised a nine days' prayer at his tomb, and took care that his sacred relics be carried to the sick boy. Within the novena the boy began to be healed; when it was finished, he was set beyond all danger, and shortly after came away quite safe and unharmed.

[75] A woman of slender fortune likewise suffered in her neck from very bad ulcers, and incurable ulcers are driven away. which they said were scrofulous swellings, resistant to every remedy. And so, pressed both by infirmity and by vast want, she, having dismissed the other remedies, committed herself to St. Thomas's kindness, invoking him now at her home, now at his tomb. On a certain day, as she was entreating at home with devout tears that the Saint would pity her pain and her want, she felt herself freed from pain, and, putting her hand to her neck, found that the ulcers no longer ran with any pus, nay that they had closed, and that she was sound and unharmed. San-Martin narrates one like this, differing however from Salon in this, that he adds three children infected with the same malady together with their mother, and freed by St. Thomas's help. A boy a year and a half old was tormented for the space of seven months by a grave disease and a vast flow of blood: there was added a swelling on two parts of the neck and near the nape, which the physicians judged to be a kind of scrofulous swelling of a very malignant humour. The mother, when their art availed nothing, accompanied by her mother-in-law, who had urged this, carried her little son to St. Thomas's tomb. There, while the mother and grandmother prayed devoutly, the boy suffered a greater flow of blood, and was wrapped in linens to be carried home, with a somewhat better countenance than before. On going out of the church, he who for about four months (so the author has it; more probably he meant to say four days) had neither asked for nor been able to swallow water or milk (so I render the Spanish word la pressa, which I have found nowhere explained), asked for water and drank it very easily; carried home, he took milk with much relish, and, all the swelling of the neck and nape vanishing, was found as sound as though he had never suffered from any such trouble.

[76] Quinsy, A quinsy had so constricted the throat of a cleric devoted to the Saint that he was both deprived of speech and set at the door of death. The Saint's relics were brought, and, after he had venerated and kissed them, applied to his throat; at that same moment of time he received free and distinct speech, and no longer felt any trouble or impediment in his throat. Likewise a woman, whom a strong fever and a quinsy vehemently compressing her throat had, after many lettings of blood and other medicines applied in vain, deprived of the faculty of speaking, and who was at every moment almost suffocating. Exposed to so great a danger,

she invoked in her mind her patron St. Thomas, pledging that, if by his intercession she obtained health from the Lord, she would visit his tomb and would see to it that a Mass be celebrated with the prayers customarily recited, in thanksgiving. She was heard at once; for, the suffocation and quinsy suddenly ceasing, she spoke readily, safe and sound; which, because it could not happen by a natural way, all judged to be a very great miracle.

[77] incurable wounds, A vehement flux from the head had produced such wounds in the throat and mouth of a girl that the surgeons, after three months' useless effort, resolved to abandon her as incurable and despaired of: but both she and her sister chose Thomas as their patron; and the sister so indeed that, making for his tomb and commending the sick girl to him, she offered a little gift of a purchased candle with such confidence as though she already beheld her with her eyes restored to health. And indeed at the same moment at which she made her offering, the sick girl at home, all torment ceasing, and with it the flux which was its cause, found her wounds healed, so that she could eat and drink. The surgeon who had despaired of her, being called, declared that that sudden healing could not have happened in a human way and without a miracle.

[78] dangerous tumours, The physicians and surgeons had likewise spent useless effort upon a woman whose right side of the neck a tumour equalling an egg in size infected, so hard and bitter that it brought her into great danger. The malady with its danger lasted about three months: dismissing therefore the physicians and surgeons, she awaited a remedy from heaven. Meanwhile a religious from the friary of blessed Mary of Succour passed by, and advised her to commit herself to St. Thomas, adding that he would bring oil from the lamp burning before his tomb, with which she should anoint her neck; she followed the counsel, and, when the oil had been brought, anointed with great confidence; within two hours the tumour burst, and, a great quantity of putrid matter leaping out, the hardness went away and all torment ceased. The surgeon who was called declared the healing miraculous, and that nothing remained but that some lint be laid on the opening: and within two days she was perfectly healed. Another woman a violent fever and a tumour in the neck had brought into such peril that it was believed her life was over. At her sister's urging she commended herself with great confidence and devotion to St. Thomas, and vowed a funeral wrapping, and at that very instant felt relief; presently the tumour began to subside, and within two days, by an evident miracle in the judgment of all who saw it, she was thoroughly healed.

[79] A girl was for four whole years tormented by a frequent palpitation of the heart, palpitation of the heart, a tumour of the belly, sometimes so vehement that she was suddenly deprived of all sensation. Having obtained no help from the physicians, she turned to heaven, commended herself with great affection and weeping to St. Thomas, whom both she and all her household devoutly honoured, and at the same time promised that she would offer a silver heart. Straightway the malady left her free, nor did it or any sign of it appear thereafter. And so, professing herself miraculously healed, she gave thanks and fulfilled her vow. In the house of a doctor of the royal council a little girl had for many months been afflicted with great pain by a tumour of the belly, the physicians' remedies availing nothing. The mistress of the house on a certain day, having been present at the sacrifice of the Mass in the church of blessed Mary of Succour, came to Thomas's tomb, took up the little flowers lying there, and, returning home, handed them to the sick girl, advising her, having invoked the Saint's help, to apply them to the infected part. She devoutly obeyed her words, and at that same instant the pain withdrew, the tumour subsided, and all the malady left her, not without an evident miracle, as all the household judged.

[80] The face of another girl a cancer so malignant infected that on the eighth day it was judged incurable, an incurable cancer and of that kind which physicians call Noli me tangere. For three years she was thus afflicted, and was in no way helped by the remedies applied to her according to the medical art. To the creeping malady there was added a vehement fever, and it brought her to such a pass that the physician abandoned her as despaired of. And so with many tears she cried out for the help of our Saint, and devoutly venerated and kissed his relics when they were brought. These were then applied to the wounds of her face, half of which was already eaten away (in Spanish del rostro, que tenia medio perdido). At that very moment she experienced solace and the removal of all pain, and within very few days obtained entire health, keeping in her face, contrary to what usually happens, no blemish, no scar, no trace of the malady; which all judged a vast and very evident miracle, and especially the physician who had abandoned her as despaired of; for he, entering that same house after fifteen days to see another sick person, and seeing unharmed the girl whom he had long thought dead, stopped astounded; and, learning that no remedy but the Saint's relics had been applied to her, he said, as he himself attests, that it was a great and evident miracle.

[81] A colic pain had so tormented a certain man for three days and colic pain are removed. that, soothed by no medicine but continually increasing, on the fourth day it brought him to the end of his life. His daughter, beholding her parent exposed to so great a danger, fled to St. Thomas and admonished him to do the same. Then she offered him earth from his tomb, which with great veneration and confidence he swallowed mixed with an egg, and at that same moment was freed from all pain, and both he and the other witnesses of his danger ascribed that sudden deliverance to a miracle. So like to this is the miracle which I set out from the same Salon above at number 13 that, did not circumstances of no very great moment forbid, I should scarcely doubt that it is the very same. Further, the aforesaid Salon here sets an end to the History of the miracles, advising however that many more are recorded in the processes instituted by Apostolic authority, of persons who, suffering from infirmities incurable in the physicians' judgment, were miraculously healed by St. Thomas's intervention. Among these the author himself could have reckoned himself, since in the year 1584, being set at the threshold of death by a most burning fever, a vow having been made to compose the Acts of St. Thomas, he was suddenly restored to health, as he himself briefly hints in the prologue to the Acts, and as San-Martin narrates more fully at the close of the same Saint's Life in French, probably from Salon's first Work, or from its Italian translation.

§ X. The remaining miracles of the Saint, collected from various authors.

[ ] In this § I comprise the miracles and benefits some of which Salon neither had nor could have had, Rain is obtained; some of which he narrated in a slightly different way, some of which he suppressed in silence at least in his second Work, and which either from his first Work or from the processes Francis Soto, Salon's Italian translator, and Coccinus in his Account to Paul V collected. Of the latter kind I should think one or two which San-Martin appended to the French Life along with others reported above from the aforesaid Salon, and which he probably drew from the aforesaid Soto, whom he cites before the rest. Both I abridge from French into Latin. When a vast drought pressed the city of Valencia, a procession was arranged to St. Thomas's tomb; a band of little children went before with the banner of the holy Cross, and as soon as they cried out: Holy Archbishop, grant us water, at once, although the sky was clear and serene, rain fell in such abundance that those who had accompanied the procession were compelled to stay several hours in the church until the waters ceased and drained away.

[83] various persons are freed from various maladies; Baptista Saure from an ill-affected head suffered such marvellous symptoms that, when it was least expected, he suddenly collapsed and lay stretched on the ground sometimes for three or four hours, shaking the earth with a horrible agitation of his whole body, raging like one possessed, dreadful of countenance and foaming at the mouth like a madman. The physicians and surgeons exhausted their art and industry; nothing was accomplished: until at last the poor man fled to St. Thomas, ordered a Mass to be celebrated at his tomb for nine continuous days, and thereafter suffered no assault of the bitter malady. So nearly San-Martin, who after other miracles set out more fully touches briefly upon some, adding the name and the year; whether they are all the same which we read in Salon, or different, I do not know: In the year, he says, MDCI Leonarda Gusman, a widow of Valencia, and in the year MDCII Baptista Cuve, a weaver of silk cloths, were struck by a deadly apoplexy, and when the physicians had been unable to bring them a remedy, in this dangerous case they commended themselves to Bl. Thomas: who at the same time both obtained health for them and restored their sense and speech. A little after he continues thus: Magdalen Leonarda, a widow of Valencia, in the year MDCII; Roch Mouret in MDCIII; Anna Margaret in MDCIV; James Cervera (see number 61), a mason, in MDCV, and a thousand others vexed by very violent fevers — and this last indeed over the space of XIV years — and helped by no human remedy, when they had turned to the Saint and had promised him that they would either visit his tomb or offer a panel which should display the benefit received, recovered by his merits the health they desired, and were thereafter not tormented by fevers.

[84] What I subjoin to these is briefly reported in the Bull of canonization, A woman with a cancer a little more fully in the Series of the acts toward the same canonization, and in these words in Coccinus: Frances Nadal, a widow dwelling at Valencia in the street of Raymond John, of the parish of St. Martin, about the twenty-sixth year of her age, began to suffer from a certain cancer which vexed her miserably first in the chin, then in the lips, and afflicted her with bitter pains; and when the application of remedies availed nothing, and the surgeons affirmed the disease incurable, and she had twice \ been anointed with extreme Unction, at length, nearly two years after she had begun to be so afflicted, having invoked the help of Thomas the archbishop, and having promised a visit to his tomb and the offering of a candle in the event of healing, she touched the affected parts with certain relics of the same venerable Man, and straightway not only remained free of all pain, but even began to recover health, which afterwards, the disease being wholly extinguished and only scars remaining, she obtained entire and as of old. \ The aforesaid are excellently proved from the witnesses in the process of Valencia … for this is deposed by Frances Nadal herself … and Michael Gil, surgeon … and also Valentine Dominiquez, doctor of medicine … examined by ordinary authority … all of whom took part in the said Frances's cures \* … and finally Joseph Garzia … with whom Anna Audet, the said Frances's mother, agrees … And that this was an illustrious miracle cannot be denied; for the physician and surgeon in their depositions affirm that the said Frances suffered from a cancer and that the infirmity was incurable.

[85] Marcella, daughter of Anthony Matthew de Lizania and Marcella Escolana, an infant with ophthalmia, husband and wife, inhabitants of the city of Valencia, being in the third year of her age, was gravely vexed by a certain disease, or catarrh in the chest, over the space of nearly two or three months, so much so that she cast blood out through her mouth, and, unable to keep food down, vomited it up with blood by coughing; which catarrh was afterwards transferred to her head and eyes, so vehemently

afflicting her so that she could in no wise endure either to look upon the light or to open her eyes; and when she had suffered in this fashion for a whole year, and human remedies had done no good, and for several months none at all had been applied, her mother, hearing of the glorious miracles which the divine power deigned daily to work at the intercession of its servant Thomas, went with the girl to the church of the Blessed Mary of Succour, and having seen to it that the child touched with her hands the sepulchre of that venerable Man, being furnished with a great and living faith, she asked of Thomas that he would obtain health for the girl; and having given an alms for a Mass to be celebrated on the morrow, she returned home. But on the following day, two hours before noon (in the Series of the acts: at that hour at which the Sacrifice was being offered there), the girl suddenly ran with joy out of her chamber to her mother, her eyes open, clear, whole and healed, as though she had never suffered any disease in them; nor did she afterwards feel any impediment or trouble in them. These things are proved from the deposition … in the process of Valencia of Marcella Escolana, mother of the child … of Antonius Matthæus Lizanus, father of the same child … of Joannes Baptista Daqui … of Anna Maria Sancho … of Magdalena Beltran … of Brother Gaspar Mir, of the Order of St. Augustine.

[86] a man palsied Vincentius Ciprer of Paternoi, a citizen and inhabitant of Valencia, dwelling in the street of the fishermen, in the parish of St. Andrew, fifty-three years of age, was seized by a certain disease of the sides, and this turning into a palsy, he was deprived of the use of his right arm, side and leg, so that he could neither stand upright nor move the arm by any means, plainly as though it were of wood or of stone *, and as though it had been hung from his shoulder by a cord. And when he had laboured in this manner for eighteen days, he began with a living faith to implore the venerable servant of God Thomas — who, as he heard, was daily growing more and more famous by very many miracles — that he might obtain health. And two days later, when he had betaken himself to bed, again, lying in the bed, he called upon this holy Prelate with great fervour of soul, that he would obtain health for him from the Lord, promising that if he obtained this grace he would readily and eagerly bear witness of the matter in the process of canonization, to the praise and glory of almighty God, and that the sanctity of this Man might become known to all. This invocation being finished, he rested for so much space of time as the Creed of the Apostles might twice be recited in; and when it had passed, wishing to sign himself with the sign of the Cross, and not at all remembering whether he must use the right arm or rather the left, which during the palsy he had been forced to sign himself with, he raised his right arm and formed the sign of the Cross. And when it came back into his mind that a little before he had been utterly unable to use the said arm, being filled with wonder and joy, he said: Good God, had I not an arm that could not move? And straightway, weeping for gladness, he called with a loud voice upon his wife and daughters, and, making the miracle plain to all, he moved his arm without any impediment and exercised it as he had been wont to do before the disease; and, with no one helping him, coming down from the bed, on bended knees he gave thanks to God and to the venerable Archbishop. Concerning this deed there depose in the process of Valencia … Vincentius Ciprer himself … Hippolyta Benet, wife of the said Vincentius … Vincentius Josephus Trilles, doctor of medicine … Apolonia Benet … Seraphina Ciprer. This miracle has, partly in the substance and partly in the circumstances, much likeness to that which I have related from Salonius at num. 6.

[87] and a girl seized with a deadly quinsy are healed. The author of the compendium of the Life mentioned several times, copied from a Ms. of the Angelica library at Rome of the Order of St. Augustine, likewise reports ten miracles which were, as he says, sufficiently approved before the Most Reverend Lords, auditors of the Rota, in divers congregations. These are the very ones which are described in the Bull of canonization, in the Series of the acts, and in the Relation of Coccinus, and have already been given here in their places, save one, set in the third place in the Bull and related by me from Coccinus at num. 85, concerning the healing of Marcella de Lizania; for this the said author passed over, and mixed in another in the following words: Eugenia Figueras de Altamira, labouring continually under a violent fever, when there came upon her besides a certain accident in which the neck and face remained swollen from a sufficiently deadly disease of quinsy, so that the physicians and the bystanders promised her no hope of health, on which account they had given her Extreme Unction; she commended herself with great devotion to the aforesaid Thomas, and immediately began to recover, and within two days came forth wholly sound. Thus he. Now whether this was truly approved in some congregation I do not find anywhere else, but I scarcely doubt that it is the same which I briefly abridged from Salonius at num. 48 in these words: The sixth, from fever and quinsy, etc. Further, the same author of the compendium thus concludes his relation of the miracles: Very many miracles, to the number of one hundred and fifty, wrought after Thomas' departure from this life, are found in the processes drawn up by force of the remissorial letters issued by the sacred Congregation of Rites, excellently proved by eye-witnesses; which are here omitted, lest the little compendium should seem too prolix.

[88] Three remain, which are later than the beatification; a man is rid of a monstrous rupture, two of these, duly approved by the congregation, are contained in the Bull of canonization, and a little more fully in the Series of the acts, as follows: Joannes Alapont, a trumpeter, confirmed for twenty-four years in the disease of a monstrous rupture (for the intestines having slipped down to the lower parts, they made the scrotum of the length of two palms and of three and a half in circumference, so that at last he was utterly deprived of the use of walking and was brought to the last extremity of life), in the year 1649, on the eighth day of the solemnity of the blessed Thomas, bade his wife bring him an image of the Blessed one, painted by himself, and hang it upon the pillar of his bed. The wife did as she was bidden, and went out of the chamber. Then Joannes, directing the keenness of his eyes upon the image of the Blessed one, and beseeching Thomas that he would obtain health for him from God, at once recovered, and the intestines returned to their natural seat; and the swelling so vanished that not even a wrinkle appeared outwardly in that part. And straightway rising strong from his bed he went to the sepulchre of the Blessed one, and, giving himself to the blowing of the trumpet, he never afterwards felt the least hurt or relapse from it.

[89] Vincentia Matthæu, a girl of seven years, an inhabitant of Valencia, on the eighth day of September in the year 1640, while she was drawing water, weighed down by the burden of the water-jars, fell into the depth of a well. the breath is restored to a drowned girl; Her father, having heard the sound of the fall, hastened with the neighbours to the well, and, having invoked the help of the blessed Thomas, went down into it; and being too anxious in searching for the girl under the waters, it wanted little but that he himself was in peril. But there was at hand Hieronymus Cuccarella, who first drew the parent out of the well, and then, adding the care of freeing the daughter, by casting himself into the well sought the girl long, but in vain, even under the waters — so utterly was she hidden beneath them. At length, hooks being used, after about two hours and a quarter he drew the lifeless girl out of the well; and her father, groaning, and never ceasing to implore the help of the blessed Thomas, carried her home, and there the girl took back her strength and her breath, and leaping out of the house wholly sound and strong, at once began to play with the children.

[90] a matron great with a dead child and in her death-agony is delivered and healed. The third Nævius relates thus in the Augustinian Hermitage, p. 279 and following: I have also known an honourable matron at Mechlin, to whom, when she was in the utmost straits of breath because she could not bring forth a dead child which she had long carried, the friends who were assisting her had brought from our convent at Brussels, where she was then living, the mantle with which our Archduchess and Infanta of the Spains Elizabeth had adorned the statue of the same Bl. Thomas at the solemnity of his beatification; and they had laid it upon the matron in her agony. Which being received, she at once brought forth the child, came back to her senses (for these too had been overwhelmed by pain), and quickly recovered. And she herself told me that these things had so befallen her.

* already

* for eight days

* perhaps for the healing

* read: of wood or of stone