Antilia

ON ST. ANTILIA, VIRGIN AND PERHAPS MARTYR,

AT AREZZO IN TUSCANY.

A Collection on her cult and deeds: with a note about the body of St. Donatus of Arezzo.

Antilia, virgin and perhaps martyr, at Arezzo in Tuscany. (S.)

BY C. S.

She is announced at the 15 of February Arezzo, an ancient city of Italy in Tuscany, and in the dominion of the Grand Duke, made illustrious by an ancient bishopric subject to the holy Roman See alone, religiously keeps this Saint's body, and venerates her as Virgin and Martyr with an annual ecclesiastical Office. But as her cult is ancient and certain, so her deeds are either quite unknown or fictitious. Philip Ferrari in the General Catalogue of the Saints announces her twice, namely at the day XV of February, on which he affirms that she is venerated at Orvieto (in Italian Orvieto, in Pontifical Tuscany), and at the XXIV of September, on which at Arezzo. In the first place he records her only as a virgin in these words: "At Arezzo in Etruria, of St. Anthilia, virgin." In the second place he adds the palm of martyrdom, saying again: "At Arezzo in Tuscany, of St. Anthilia, virgin and martyr." Yet that the same Saint is announced by him in both places is manifest from his Annotations there; and therefore my elders in the Prætermissi at the XV of February deferred the examination of her deeds to the day XXIV of September, on which she was formerly venerated at Arezzo; but we to the XXV of this month, on which she is now venerated there, as we shall say below.

[2] At the same days, namely the XV of February and the XXIV of September, and the 24 of September the praised Ferrari likewise treats of her as a virgin martyr in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, where in the first place he exhibits from an old manuscript parchment of the church of Arezzo the following elogium of her: "Antilia, a virgin of the family of the emperors, of outstanding beauty, in the Xth year of her age, was so beset by a demon (which had been foretold to her mother while pregnant by a certain hermit) that she tore herself with her teeth, nor did anyone dare approach her, though she was bound with iron chains, until, St. Donatus, bishop of Arezzo, being summoned, she is freed. And she, following the holy bishop, dwelt for some time at Arezzo, intent on prayers, vigils, and sacred sermons: where she is tempted by the prefect, who had harassed SS. Donatus the bishop and Hilary the monk, whether she would marry him. But when Anthilia remained constant in her purpose of cherishing chastity and the faith, being bound with iron fetters she is beaten and shut up in prison, in which, being healed by night from her wounds by an angel and kindled to martyrdom, she is led out on the next day and set before the prefect.

[3] with a fabulous elogium, at Arezzo "He, having in vain exhorted the Virgin with many promises to the worship of idols, orders red-hot iron plates to be applied to her sides: which torment Anthilia so endured that she provoked the tyrant to the faith and mocked his torments. For which reason he, driven to madness, orders the Virgin to be beheaded. Whose severed head they report was so fitted to the body that she spoke to those present many things about the faith, especially about the most holy Trinity. Her body was laid by the Christians at Arezzo; but her head was carried to Rome; which, being translated to Montepulciano, is handed down to be famous for miracles." Thus far Ferrari, who in the same place in the Annotations observes that certain things altogether at variance with truth in that manuscript of Arezzo must be corrected, and he himself corrected them. "For in it," he says, "she is asserted to be the daughter of the emperor Theodosius and of the empress Galla, and to have suffered under the emperor Arcadius, her brother, who lived long after Julian the apostate (under whom St. Donatus the bishop was crowned with martyrdom). Nor is it likely that the daughter of an emperor and the sister of his successor in the empire was so treated by his prefect, especially since at that time the persecution of the heathen had utterly ceased." So he rightly, but of this matter we shall treat below.

[4] and at Orvieto she was venerated as a virgin only; After this he intimates his doubt whether two St. Antilias must not be distinguished, in these words: "Of Anthilia there is treatment on this day (XV of February) at Orvieto, but at Arezzo on the day XXIV of September; if however she is the same who is venerated at Orvieto and who at Arezzo. But it seems wonderful that, whereas the Acts show her to be virgin and martyr, yet in both places she is celebrated only as a Virgin." But I see no necessity of doubling her, since on account of relics received, and for many other causes, the Saint of Arezzo could be venerated at Orvieto. Further, Arthur du Monstier announced her in the Sacred Gynæceum at the said day XV of February in the words which Ferrari deservedly disapproved in the Acts of Arezzo, as if taken from Ferrari himself, thus: "At Arezzo in Tuscany, of St. Anthilia, virgin, daughter of the emperor Theodosius and of the empress Galla." A little more rightly Castellanus has it in the universal Martyrology at the day XXIV: "At Arezzo, St. Anthilia, virgin and martyr."

[5] Whatever be the case about her cult and the day of her cult among the people of Orvieto, and at Arezzo indeed at one time on the 27 of September with indulgences, it was not always the same here, nor of the same rite, among the people of Arezzo. Angelo Lorenzo Grazini, priest of Arezzo, in the booklet which he entitled the Vindication of the holy Martyrs of Arezzo, §23, praises a certain ancient Series of Indulgences of that city, in which in the month of September, to our purpose, he asserts that this is read in Italian: "On the XXVII day of the said (month), which is the day of St. Antilia, disciple of the glorious St. Donatus, there are Indulgences of a hundred and sixty days." But he had set down beforehand in §10 that that Series of Indulgences is extant in the archive of the cathedral church of Arezzo, no. 1026, and was copied out by a certain canon Bartholomew, one of which name he says he found in the ancient documents among the canons there in the year 1218, another in 1518; and he confesses that he does not know to which of the two it is owed. He notes however that it is ancient at least in its beginning, and proves that it belonged to the old cathedral outside the walls, now destroyed, since in it is also read in Italian: "On the VII day of the said (month of August), which is the day of our glorious protector St. Donatus, there are Indulgences and remission of guilt and penalty, and throughout the whole Octave daily a hundred days; and the same Indulgences are in the cathedral church within the city."

[6] That these things and what is to be said after may be understood, some things about the cathedral churches, the old and the new, in the old and the new cathedral church, of Arezzo must here be annotated. I have at hand a certain Italian manuscript Apology, composed for claiming for the people of Arezzo the body of St. Donatus, bishop of Arezzo and martyr, and transmitted to us in the year 1746. The author of the Apology is not named, but there is appended the authentic testimony of Paolino Giannerini, patrician of Arezzo, doctor of sacred Theology and canon-theologian of the cathedral church of Arezzo, by which he attested to the truth of the matters and documents which are reported in it on the XXVI day of February of the year 1746, and added the greater seal of that same cathedral church. Angelo Lorenzo Bruni, notary, secretary of the most illustrious chapter of Arezzo, likewise subscribed. From this Apology, which we shall also praise more than once below, we learn that the episcopal see of Arezzo

was anciently outside the walls of the city in the church of St. Stephen, next to which there was afterward added another, sacred to St. Donatus, which two contiguous churches were thereafter called by the common name of the Old cathedral church outside the walls.

[7] Secondly we learn that that same see was, by virtue of a Bull of Innocent III, Roman Pontiff, of which the former no longer stands. In the 16th century translated in the year 1204 within the city to the present-day church of St. Peter, which at the same time took the title of SS. Stephen and Donatus. Finally, on the same apologist's testimony, both suburban churches, namely of St. Stephen and of St. Donatus, were leveled with the ground in the year 1561 by order of Cosimo I, duke of Florence. From all these it is made out that that Series of Indulgences, which was made while the church outside the walls and the other within the walls existed together, cannot be older than the year 1204, nor more recent than the year 1561. Therefore, to return to St. Antilia, her feast was anciently venerated by the people of Arezzo, both within and outside the city, on the day XXVII of September; but whether it was then celebrated with the rite of a Virgin martyr or only of a Virgin cannot be elicited from what has been said. But afterward — it is uncertain from what time, yet before the end of the 16th century — her feast was referred to the day XXIV of the said month of September, and an Office of a Virgin only was prescribed for the whole diocese of Arezzo.

[8] [and in the 17th she was venerated as a virgin on the 24 day of September, but now today] So Grazini teaches me in the Vindication praised above, §23, where he says that in an old booklet, or Order for reciting the divine Office, prescribed by Pietro Usimbardi, bishop of Arezzo, in the year 1598, the following is read: "On the XXIV day of September, of St. Antilia, virgin, double throughout our whole diocese. Her body is kept in the cathedral church, the Hymn for a Virgin only." These same things he asserts are repeated again in a similar booklet made in the year 1619 by Antonio de Ricci, prelate of the same see. And he says that both those booklets are kept at Arezzo in the archive of the cathedral church. But this day too was afterward changed: for, as Grazini testifies in the same place, the solemn Office of this Virgin is performed both in the city and in the diocese every year on the day XXV of September. The author of the manuscript Apology already praised also agrees, and therefore we treat of St. Antilia on this day, although our elders in the Prætermissi at the XV of February remitted her from Ferrari to the XXIV of September, as was also said among the Prætermissi of this day.

[9] as a virgin martyr at Arezzo and at Montepulciano: her head here, her body And that not only the day of her cult but also the rite was changed we have from the same Vindication, in which Grazini testifies that her sacred Office is today performed as of a Martyr both at Arezzo and at Montepulciano; and he wonders why this is done, and then sets forth his own opinion on this matter, which we shall more conveniently examine below. Of the Saint's relics the same writer says this in the same place: "We venerate also in the cathedral the body of St. Antilia, virgin and martyr, yet without the head; since this is today venerated in the neighboring city of Montepulciano, which formerly was a town of the diocese of Arezzo." But about the place where that sacred pledge rests, after a few words he subjoins: "This indeed is certain, that when in the year MCCLXXXVI our ancestors had raised a new and magnificent tomb for St. Donatus in the present-day cathedral, … namely the very noble structure of the high altar, exhibiting at the back part a sepulchral chest supported by little marble columns, … they took care that an epigraph should be carved again and again in two places in the floor of that chest, as anyone is free to see who lifts his eyes to that floor, which, supported by columns as I said, forms a certain appearance of a small portico, and as it were a vestibule for those entering through the back into the chamber of the altar."

[10] is kept at Arezzo in the cathedral church in a marble tomb Now the epigraph runs thus: "This is the chest polished to a nicety, of which mention is made in the translation of the blessed Donatus, bishop and martyr, in which his body rested, and now rests, with the bodies of the blessed Antilia the virgin, and of the holy martyrs Laurentinus and Pergentinus: which chest was broken for this floor." With these the author of the manuscript Apology plainly agrees, who adds that the said epigraph is cut in Gothic letters, and that in the same chest the bodies of St. Donatus, of St. Antilia, and of SS. Laurentinus and Pergentinus, protomartyrs of the city of Arezzo, are kept even today. But a twofold translation of St. Donatus the praised writers record: the first namely from the church of St. Stephen to the church of St. Donatus outside the walls, which the author of the Apology refers to about the year 1024; the other from that same church of St. Donatus to the present-day cathedral within the walls, which this same writer shows happened between the years 1205 and 1283, and thinks that this is mentioned in the inscription given. On the contrary Grazini judges that the earlier translation is recorded in it, and praises to this end a manuscript History of that Translation, kept in the archive of the chapter of the cathedral of Arezzo, from which he recites these words.

[11] "For there are on the altar of the blessed Donatus two tombs, both alike, with the bodies of SS. Donatus, Laurentinus and Pergentinus. whiter than snow, alike in material, but unlike in workmanship," etc. "One polished and wholly smoothed to a nicety," etc.; "in it they place the holy body." Since therefore in the praised epigraph it is said that in the Translation of the blessed Donatus mention is made of "the chest polished to a nicety," he judged rightly so, unless perhaps in the instrument of the later translation a like mention was made. Further, whichever translation is there treated of, from that same epigraph it is not sufficiently certain whether St. Antilia's body was first deposited in that marble chest in the year 1286, when that new tomb with the altar was built, or whether it had already rested in it before with the bodies of SS. Donatus, Laurentinus and Pergentinus: for in either way these words may be taken: "In which (chest) his body (St. Donatus's) rested, and now rests, with the bodies of the blessed Antilia," etc. If I had at hand the manuscript History of the Translation praised by Grazini, which he asserts was also published by Jacopo Burali in the Life of Theodald, bishop of Arezzo, but teeming with innumerable faults, light might hence be kindled for me on one side or the other, but neither is extant in our Museum.

[12] What we have thus far adduced proves that St. Antilia's cult among the people of Arezzo began at least from the 13th century and persists in this our own time. Other Acts, in which the Saint is also said to be Theodosius's daughter, Of her deeds, martyrdom, and the century in which she flourished, it is not so well established. We gave above in nos. 2 and 3, from Philip Ferrari, her fabulous Acts, which he, having received them from a manuscript of the church of Arezzo, purged even of the grosser little fables, and yet did not thus render sufficiently credible. In these the Saint's virginity is ascribed together with the palm of martyrdom. I have other manuscript ones, in which her virginity alone without martyrdom is asserted; and to which this title is prefixed: "The Life of St. Anthilia the Virgin, compiled most briefly by the Reverend D. Pietro de' Boncompagni, bachelor of both laws and canon of Arezzo. From volume K." Then it begins thus: "Anthilia, a royal virgin, daughter of Theodosius the elder, being possessed by a demon, and having on that account tried many kinds of cures, was freed by the prayers of Donatus, bishop of Arezzo, summoned by the emperor, through the sign of the Cross.

[13] "For which reason, by the command of the most religious emperor, the cross being everywhere exalted at Constantinople, and to have died a virgin in peace, very many nobles and common people received the white robe of Baptism. But Anthilia, a most pleasing virgin, dedicated herself wholly to God, vowing virginity by the blessed man's work, following him afterward to Arezzo, where, persevering in her holy purpose, intent on heavenly meditations, she passed from this life on the eighth of the Kalends of October. Her the blessed old man buried most honorably in the oratory which he had lately built in the hollow of a rock, adorning with this golden epitaph the sacred tomb of Anthilia, most dear daughter of Basilia. Whose body at the time of the translation of the divine Donatus was found in the sarcophagus in which St. Donatus had laid it, covered with a golden mantle and entire, with hair and skin, as if buried on the same day; and together with him it was translated into his church by bishop Theobald, and thence, it is not known by whom or when, into his episcopal city, where, famous in both places for miracles, she is venerated with the utmost piety of all."

[14] For compiling these things Boncompagni must certainly be said to have used other Acts than those which Ferrari had, are likewise fabulous and unworthy of belief: yet equally fabulous: for, to pass over that it is ridiculous, what he hints, that on account of the miracle of the demon cast out of the girl Crosses were then first erected at Constantinople, which it is established was dedicated to Christ by its own founder Constantine the Great, and consecrated with sacred churches; to pass over, I say, these things, to take away credit from them this one observation of Ferrari suffices, namely that, since St. Donatus, bishop of Arezzo, was crowned with martyrdom under Julian the apostate, his disciple could not have been Antilia, daughter of the emperor Theodosius, who besides is unknown to the ancient writers. Let him who will also believe so inept a fable-teller in what he there invented about the entireness of the sacred body found and the other circumstances. Yet, that the studious reader may know from what source those fables about St. Antilia first flowed, it will be helpful to have here assigned it to him.

[15] these fables draw their origin On the day XXX of April there is venerated among the Greeks St. Donatus, bishop and confessor of Eurœa in Epirus, who flourished in the reign of Theodosius the Great. He, in the elogium which my elders gave there from the Menæa, is said really to have freed from a demon a certain daughter of that same Theodosius, whose name is not added, and, after other miracles wrought, being richly endowed by that same emperor with gifts for building a church, to have returned to Eurœa; where also in old age he ended his day. In the same century another St. Donatus presided as bishop over the church of Arezzo in Tuscany, who suffered under Julian the apostate together with St. Hilarian the monk, of whom we have treated at the day VII of August. In both places it was also observed that from the same name of both Donatuses, and the small interval of time by which they lived apart from one another, their deeds were so foully confused that not a few things — and those needing correction too — which were proper to the bishop of Eurœa were attributed to him of Arezzo. And so great indeed is the confusion of them that our Sollier preferred utterly to omit the Acts of St. Donatus of Arezzo, of which he had various, rather than to purge them with fruitless labor.

[16] from the Acts of St. Donatus, bishop of Eurœa, I do not examine whether the assertion of the Menæa about the demon expelled from the emperor Theodosius's daughter by St. Donatus of Eurœa is true or false; but from the time,

at which St. Donatus of Arezzo underwent martyrdom, it is manifest that that expulsion is one of those things which were falsely transferred from the Acts of him of Eurœa to him of Arezzo. Nor yet is this history read in all his Lives: for it is absent from the elogia which Peter de Natalibus in the Catalogue of the Saints, book 7, chapter 33, Ado and after him Surius, and Ughelli in the Italia Sacra reviewed. The anonymous daughter of the emperor Theodosius being thrust into the Life of St. Donatus of Arezzo, she was then believed to be the same as St. Antilia; either because an old tradition bore that she was the disciple of that same St. Donatus, or because another reason unknown to us persuaded the people of Arezzo of it. I doubt whether others, when they clearly perceived that the said freeing of the possessed woman pertained to Donatus of Eurœa, and on account of the diversity of time could not be referred to him of Arezzo, did not prefer to believe that St. Antilia, whose body is honored at Arezzo, was the disciple of Donatus of Eurœa.

[17] confounded with St. Donatus of Arezzo. Hence the Saint's deeds are unknown; For indeed Grazini, after he had recited from the old table of Indulgences these words, "On the XXVII day of the said (month of September), which is the day of St. Antilia, disciple of the glorious St. Donatus, there are Indulgences of a hundred and sixty days," presently subjoined: "What is this? Some teach that a certain St. Antilia, sprung from Cæsar Theodosius her father, was healed of demoniac vexations by St. Donatus, bishop of Eurœa in Epirus, and that she then handed herself over to him to be instructed. How these things can agree with ours is hidden from me." So he: who published the praised Vindication lately, that is, in the year 1755, and could produce nothing more certain about her deeds. Let us therefore confess, as we must, that the Acts of St. Antilia of Arezzo lie hidden hitherto, and that besides her cult nothing certain is had about her. This same is confirmed from the diversity of rite, by which she was venerated at Arezzo now as a virgin only, now as a virgin martyr; from which diversity her palm of martyrdom is rendered not a little doubtful.

[18] Certainly in the older documents which I have seen praised by the people of Arezzo about her hitherto, nor is it sufficiently established whether to the laurel of virginity she is never honored with the title of Martyr. Namely in the little table of Indulgences just cited only this is read: "The day of St. Antilia, disciple of the glorious St. Donatus"; in the sepulchral epigraph given in no. 10, the body of "the blessed Antilia the virgin" is said to rest there, whereas nevertheless the laurel of martyrdom is expressly ascribed to the others in the same place in these words: "of the blessed Donatus, bishop and martyr"; and "of the holy martyrs Laurentinus and Pergentinus." The booklets too, in which the Order for reciting the divine Office was prescribed in the year 1598 by Pietro Usimbardi and in the year 1619 by Antonio de Ricci, bishops of Arezzo (see no. 8) — those booklets, I say, have simply: "Of St. Antilia the Virgin, double … the Hymn for a virgin only." In all these there is no mention of the Saint's martyrdom; nay, it is clearly denied in both Orders of the divine Office. For which reason Grazini, having weighed these things, rightly says: "Assuredly I wondered why among us and in the city of Montepulciano her sacred Office (at this time) is performed as of a martyr."

[19] Then after some things he sets forth his own opinion upon that matter, she has added the palm of martyrdom: saying thus: "But when I afterward saw that in the sacristy of this monastery of St. Flora there are held relics of St. Antilia, virgin and martyr, and again other relics of St. Antilia, virgin, daughter of the emperor Theodosius, I easily persuaded myself that the rite once prescribed by those two bishops has today been rightly and deservedly amended. For it appears that our Antilia the martyr was other than Antilia the daughter of Theodosius, a virgin only, and disciple of Saint Donatus — not however of ours, but of him of Epirus." So he; with whom I altogether and gladly agree, that St. Antilia of Arezzo is far different from the praised daughter of the emperor Theodosius (if indeed such a one ever existed), whom some of the people of Arezzo confused with their own. Namely, from the confusion of the two Donatuses they judged that St. Antilia, in whose sacred body they rejoiced, and who was perhaps believed to be the disciple of Donatus of Arezzo, was that same anonymous daughter of Theodosius whom they had seen recorded in the elogium of St. Donatus of Eurœa.

[20] I confess it could also have been that those two praised bishops, which latter is more likely. or any others who went before them, from the same error believed that their St. Antilia was only a virgin; because the martyrdom of the emperor Theodosius's daughter deservedly appeared unlikely. Nevertheless, whether that reason alone moved them, the table of Indulgences makes me doubt, and the epigraph of the marble tomb, much older even than this, in which I said only the palm of virginity is ascribed to St. Antilia. For what causes the rite was afterward changed, and the Office began to be celebrated for her as for a virgin martyr, is unexplored by me, and was so by Grazini himself, as is clear from what has been said. These are the things which render me somewhat doubtful about St. Antilia's martyrdom, although I incline rather to that opinion which makes her a martyr, and strongly suspect that the cause of variations of this kind must chiefly be traced to this, that, as happens in many other cases, the Acts of her martyrdom lay hidden.

[21] As regards the sacred relics, of which the praised Grazini says that some are kept with the title of virgin martyr, Her relics, not those of Theodosius's daughter, are at Arezzo. others with the appellation of virgin and daughter of the emperor Theodosius, in the monastery of St. Flora at Arezzo, I believe them all to be of that same St. Antilia of whom we treat. For indeed the aforesaid daughter of Theodosius (if she ever existed) has no cult, at least under that name, among the Greeks, from whose Menæa she became known in the elogium of St. Donatus of Eurœa, but only as anonymous. This same woman first received the name of Antilia and the title of Saint when, from the confusion of the two Donatuses, she began falsely to be believed the disciple of the bishop of Arezzo. But this error being committed, what wonder is it if the relics of that same Saint of Arezzo were variously inscribed according to the various time and sense of the givers; since it is established from what has been said that she was wont to be venerated at Arezzo also with a varying Office, formerly as a virgin only, now as a virgin martyr. About the time at which St. Antilia flew up to the heavens, whether by a natural death or by martyrdom, nothing certain can likewise be settled. St. Donatus, bishop of Arezzo, suffered under Julian the apostate, or about the year 362 of the Christian era, and therefore she must have lived in the fourth century, if she was his disciple; which itself also is by no means ascertained.

[22] On this occasion some things are added Further, on occasion of the common tomb of the relics of SS. Antilia and Donatus, it has seemed good to observe here a few things about the sacred body of the latter. Our Sollier, at the day VII of August, illustrating the deeds of that same holy bishop and martyr, says this in no. 8 about his body: "By what has been said thus far the people of Arezzo would be left in peaceful possession of their St. Donatus, were not some disturbance to arise from the Samnites." Then he praises Mario de Vipera, who in the Catalogue of the Saints of the church of Benevento writes that his body was, at an unknown time however, translated to Benevento and deposited in the church of St. Mary of the Samnites, and that he is therefore venerated there among the tutelary Saints of the city. But Sollier takes these words up thus in the same place: "I do not think the people of Arezzo will take it ill that their patron is celebrated also at Benevento and elsewhere; but they will by no means acknowledge that they are deprived of the sacred body. The great number of Saints of the same name may easily have brought in this confusion too." Nor did he add more, doubtless from scarcity of documents.

[23] about the body of St. Donatus of Arezzo, For the same cause Papebroch at the day XII of June, under Bl. Guido of Cortona of the third Order of St. Francis, seems to have doubted somewhat of the possession of that same body of St. Donatus, which the people of Arezzo claim for themselves. For in the Annotations of the late Francesco Paolo de' Baldelli to the Miracles of the praised Bl. Guido, published and enlarged by Papebroch in the same place, at letter b, this is to be read: "It is credible that the people of Arezzo (when the city of Cortona had been taken by them in the year 1259, as was set down before there at letter a from the Chronicles of Giovanni Villani) carried off also the body of Bl. Guido, although it is not known what became of it: yet there are those who believe that he is honored at Arezzo under the name of St. Donatus, patron of the city. Wadding says it is believed to have been carried into Germany; but to this opinion occasion seems to have been given by St. Guido, abbot of Pomposa near the river Po, translated to Speyer, as we said at his day, the XXXI of March."

[24] or of a part of it, These things, although mildly said, greatly displeased the people of Arezzo, a certain anonymous one of whom wrote the Apology, already often praised above, with an Appendix on the same subject, in the year 1746, and destined it for us, asking that on a given opportunity we would be willing to use them for asserting the possession of the people of Arezzo. But although we are wont to keep documents of this kind for the Supplement of the Work, when a proper place has not occurred before; yet, that I may meanwhile somehow satisfy the demands of that most courteous Man, I gladly confess that I am altogether convinced of their possession. For after he had shown from the Acts, with none contradicting, that St. Donatus's body was buried at Arezzo, then, beginning from the 8th century well advanced, with documents and testimonies carried through each century down to the year 1730, he so learnedly and solidly proved that St. Donatus's body, or a part of it, was always kept at Arezzo, that he leaves me indeed no doubt, nor do those in any way deserve to be heard who believe that the body of Bl. Guido of Cortona is honored at Arezzo for St. Donatus's body.

[25] It would be long, nor is it for this place, to report each thing, which will be able to be treated more at large in the Supplement. I said "or a part of that body," existing at Arezzo. because the author of the Apology himself confesses and proves that it is not the whole, and in the Appendix on the same writes thus in Italian: "The body of St. Donatus in the cathedral church of Arezzo, as being of MCD years, is not only not an entire body, but rather consists of not many bones and confused fragments, tightly enclosed within a small silver urn." But his skull he affirms is honored in the collegiate or parish church of St. Mary. Let these things suffice for now; more, as I said, will have to be given in the Supplement.