Elzéar De Sabran

ON ST. ELZÉAR DE SABRAN, BARON OF ANSOUIS AND COUNT OF ARIANO, CONFESSOR,

AT PARIS IN FRANCE.

The year MCCCXXIII.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Elzéar de Sabran, baron of Ansouis and count of Ariano, at Paris in France. (S.)

BHL Number: 2521

BY C. S.

§ I. The memory of the Saint's birthday feast and of his translation in the Martyrologies: the monuments for illustrating his deeds: the Life to be published, and others both manuscript and printed.

[ ] In the fourteenth century there flourished with many virtues and miracles an illustrious pair of spouses, St. Elzéar, husband of Bl. Delphine the virgin, Elzéar de Sabran, baron of Ansouis in the Gallic Province, and count of Ariano in Apulia; and Delphine de Signe, lady of Puimichel in the same Province; who, joined in matrimony from their youthful age, by a singular gift of divine grace, and by an example rather to be wondered at than imitated, preserved their virginity unstained in the common conjugal bed for about twenty-five years, during which they lived together, even to death. Of these the second, although she has not been canonized by the Roman Pontiff, is nevertheless honoured by many with the title of Saint, but at this day is venerated only as Blessed by the clergy of Apt and by the whole Order of St. Francis on the twenty-sixth day of November. By many also her name is written Delphina; I shall call her Dalphina from the instruments which were drawn up for the canonization of both. But Elzéar, whom Gregory XI, the successor of Urban, proclaimed by a published bull to have been reckoned among the holy confessors by Pope Urban V, has been inscribed in the Martyrologies on this twenty-seventh day of September, on which he happily died, and is venerated with an ecclesiastical Office in various places.

[2] In the name of the holy Count, which in the vernacular tongue I have read written Aulzias and Augias, whose name is somewhat varied by others, there occurs a certain slight variation among the various writers who have written in Latin. In the Roman Martyrology of Baronius, and in the enlarged and more corrected edition of the same, published not long ago by Benedict XIV, Pontiff of holy memory, he is called Eleazarus; by which name he also passes in Odoricus Raynaldus in the continuation of Baronius's Ecclesiastical Annals, tom. XV, at the year of Christ 1323, num. 68, who could have followed St. Antoninus, part 3 of the History, tit. 24, chap. 9, §15. In the process for the canonization of Bl. Delphine, and in the manuscript Life of the same Blessed one, Elziarius; in the first Life of Urban V, Pontiff, in Étienne Baluze, tom. 1 of the Popes of Avignon, Alziarius, but in the Notes there again Elziarius; in the Summary of the process of canonization of the Saint himself he is called Elizarius. Far more commonly, however, he is called Elzearius; in which manner also he is named in the bulls or letters of Urban V and Gregory XI, Roman Pontiffs, in the Life both to be published by us and published by Surius, and finally by the praised supreme Pontiff Benedict XIV in his distinguished Work on the beatification of the Servants of God, etc.; with which agree his own proper Offices and other writers, to whom I have judged that I should adhere. These things premised, I proceed to some Martyrologies in which his sacred memory has been recorded.

[3] he is announced on this day in some supplements of Usuard, Among the Usuardine Supplements the Danish codex in our Sollerius, who observed that this was for the use of the Franciscan fathers, has thus on this twenty-seventh day of September: The solemn feast of Saint Elzéar the confessor. The Alberg codex in the same place, with the Saint's name corrupted, says: On the same day, of Saint Elyasis the confessor. The Hagenau codex mentions his canonization at the same time in these words: On the day of Cosmas and Damian, of Saint Elsearius, count of Arriano and confessor, newly canonized by Pope Urban V. That codex was written in the year 1412, as may be seen in Sollerius's Preface to the Martyrology of Usuard, chap. 3, art. 4, §4; and therefore these words newly canonized are to be taken with some latitude of time, since, from what is to be said below, the canonization of St. Elzéar was made in the year of Christ 1369 by the praised Urban, and was promulgated in the year 1371 by Gregory XI. In the Florentine Strozzi codex, reckoned among the aforesaid supplements, the profession of the third Rule of St. Francis is thus ascribed to him: Of Saint Eleazarius the confessor, of the third Order of St. Francis. With this agrees the Lübeck-Cologne edition, which says: On the same day, of St. Elsiarius, count and confessor, of the third Rule of Saint Francis, confessor.

[4] and in others and in the Roman The same or very similar things are read in the editions of Belinus, Grevenus and Molanus, of which the last has the place of his death rightly added, saying: At Paris, on the same day, of Saint Eleazarius the confessor, of the third Order of the holy father Francis. The author of our manuscript Florarium of the Saints likewise recorded him on this same day with the following elogium. On the same day, the birthday of Saint Elzéar, count and confessor, of the third Rule of blessed Francis. He, remaining in virginity with Delphine his wife, ever bore pious bowels toward the poor. And to his servants he left five precepts. The first precept: To hear Mass every day. The second: To confess often. The third: To speak nothing shameful. The fourth: Not to swear. The fifth: Not to play with dice. At length, going to Paris, and being there overtaken by a grave infirmity, he passed to the Lord in the year MCCCXXIII, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, on the fifth of the Kalends of October. He was buried among the Minors. Among more recent writers also Pietro Galesini thus inscribed him on this day in the Roman Martyrology: At Paris likewise, of Saint Elzéar the confessor, illustrious for the excellent offices of a most holy life and for the grace of miracles. In the present-day Roman it is read more briefly: In the same place (namely at Paris) of Saint Eleazarus the count. The present-day Parisian says it in a few more words: At Paris, of Saint Elzéar, count of Ariano, who with his wife Delphine preserved virginity, and afterwards vowed it.

[5] I pass over Du Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, and others, and he is announced in the Franciscan Martyrologies, that I may add something of the monastic ones. The Martyrology of the Saints and Blessed of the three Orders of St. Francis, published after the close of the Roman Martyrology brought to light by the zeal and authority of Benedict XIV, supreme Pontiff, and printed among the monastic ones, likewise commemorates him thus on this day: At Paris, the deposition of Saint Elzéar the confessor, count of Ariano, of the third Order: who, preserving unstained virginity with blessed Delphine his spouse, passed full of merits to the Lord; and being illustrious for miracles in his life and after his death, was reckoned in the catalogue of the Saints by Urban V, supreme Pontiff. In the same place there agrees also another Martyrology of the Friars Minor Conventual, in which it is said: At Paris, of Saint Elzéar de Sabran, count of the city of Ariano in Lucania, confessor of the third Order of Saint Francis, who, preserving unstained virginity with blessed Delphine his spouse, passed full of merits to the Lord, and Urban V, supreme Pontiff, enrolled him, illustrious for miracles, in the catalogue of the Saints. His body, in the time of John XXII, was translated to Apt in Provence and was honourably laid in the church of Saint Francis of the Friars Minor. Finally, Arthur du Monstier in his Martyrology and Fortunatus Hueber in his Franciscan Menology have made mention of him, where they may be consulted.

[6] The Martyrologies thus far recorded announce St. Elzéar on the twenty-seventh day of September, [in others on the following day, in that of the Capuchins on the twentieth of October:] on which he died, and on which Urban V and Gregory XI, Roman Pontiffs, decreed that his memory should be celebrated, as is clear from the bull by which the latter promulgated his canonization. But three manuscript Usuardine codices among the Supplements just praised, namely the Utrecht one and two of Leiden, one written in Latin, the other in Flemish, commemorate him on the following day in this manner: On the same day, the deposition of Saint Elearius the confessor, of the Order of the third Rule of blessed Francis. Perhaps for the writers of these codices, which Sollerius judged to be not older than the fifteenth century, or for the first of them, some Calendar of the Franciscans served as a guide, who, as we shall show in its own place, once recited the Office of St. Elzéar with a semi-double rite only on the twenty-eighth day of this month, most probably because the twenty-seventh day was occupied by an equal Office of SS. Cosmas and Damian, martyrs. But afterwards it was granted by Innocent XII to the same Franciscans that they should celebrate the Office of St. Elzéar with the rite of a greater double and on his own proper day, the twenty-seventh, as they do at this day. The Capuchins, however, for what reason I know not, defer his birthday even to the twentieth day of October; on which day, in their Martyrology, although he is said to have passed to the Lord on the fifth of the Kalends of October, nevertheless it is added: Yet his feast is celebrated among us on this day.

[7] Finally, in the aforesaid Martyrology of the three Orders of St. Francis the translation of the same Saint is announced on the eighteenth day of June in the words his translation on the 18th of June. We have a petition which I subjoin: At Apt in Narbonese Gaul, the translation of the body of Saint Elziarius, count of Ariano, confessor of the third Order, from the Parisian monastery of the Friars Minor into the church of the aforesaid city, where he is venerated with the pious veneration of the faithful. Of his cult and proper Offices we shall treat more fitly in the last §, where there will also be discourse of the festivity of the translation, wont to be celebrated at Apt on the nineteenth day of June. For illustrating the deeds and the posthumous glory of the holy Count we have various things, and others we still lack. In the first place, Antoine Pagi, after the Sermons of St. Antony of Padua, which he published in the year 1684 from the Avignon press, brought out a petition offered by Raymond Bot, bishop, and by the clergy and people of the city of Apt, to John XXII, Roman Pontiff, in the year of Christ 1327, that is, about four years after his death, for obtaining his canonization. The author of this petition he calls Franciscus Mayronius; concerning whom, because mention is made of him in the Life to be published, as of a man of the highest authority with St. Elzéar, it will be useful to have here reported what the praised Pagi noted in the same place in the Preface, num. 8.

[8] for the requesting of his canonization Besides the sermons of St. Antony (says he) I have taken care to have printed the petition offered to John XXII, supreme Pontiff, for obtaining the apotheosis of St. Elzéar, count of Ariano, which, at my earnest request, D. Grossi, doctor in sacred Theology, a man most learned in historical and mathematical matters, transcribed and corrected from the archive of our convent of Apt. The author of that petition is Franciscus Mayronius, as is read at the end. Him the Irish, him the British claim as their own: which error arose from this, that he professed Theology in England, as Maurice the Irishman testifies in the preface to the four books of Mayronius on the Master of the Sentences. But that this distinguished theologian was born in Gallia Provincia ought to be beyond all controversy. This is manifestly shown by a manuscript codex on the first book of the Sentences, which is preserved in the library of our convent of Cesena, at the end of which these things are read: “Here ends the lecture upon the first book of the Sentences of Brother Francis [*] Mayronis, of the province of Provence, of the Order of Friars Minor, reported under him at Paris in the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred and twenty.” For Mayrona, a little town of the county of Nice, dependent upon the archbishopric of Embrun, and the birthplace of Mayronius, was at that time subject to the counts of Provence.

[9] written by Mayronius: likewise the Summary of the process The aforesaid Work, whose beginning is: “Attend, O my people, to my law, etc.” has not yet seen the light, nor is there any mention of it in Wadding in his book on the Writers of the Minors. From that closing clause the year can be made known in which Mayronius lectured in the Theological faculty of Paris, or in which he instituted the celebrated Sorbonic act, in which in the summer, on every Friday, one responds without a president from the fifth hour of the morning to the seventh of the evening; and from the aforesaid petition, composed by Mayronius in the year one thousand three hundred and twenty-seven, it appears that Wadding in the praised book, and very many others, were deceived when they wrote that Mayronius died in the year one thousand three hundred and twenty-five. Thus far Pagi. But that petition will be useful to me in this Commentary, and will be reprinted entire in its own place. Luke Wadding, in tom. 8 of the Annals of the Minors, of the Roman edition of the year 1733, at the year of Christ 1351, num. 39, reports Apostolic letters, to be exhibited below, by which Clement VI, supreme Pontiff, committed the examination of the deeds and miracles of St. Elzéar to the bishops of Carpentras and Uzès, or Uceticum, and to the abbot of St. Ruf, and then subjoins: By the authority of these letters a process was compiled, the Summary of which I have read through in the Vatican library, num. 4018.

[10] received from the Vatican library, This Summary, which our Papebroch had once sought in vain by letters, we ourselves, while staying at Rome, when the Vatican library lay open to us by the singular benevolence of Benedict XIV, then reigning, saw there in that same codex, and took care to have transcribed. Now it was made under Urban V as Pontiff, and was exhibited to him, that he might deign to reckon Elzéar in the register of the Saints; and that this was performed by him we shall say more fully below. So it is clear from the end of the Summary, where the writer of it thus says: Setting forth the aforesaid, I who have made and written these things submit them to the correction of the most holy Lord Urban V, by divine providence (Pope) of the holy Roman Church, and to the most sacred assembly of the lord Cardinals, and of each one of them, etc. Further, since the process of the canonization of St. Elzéar was begun as early as the year 1351, at which time Bl. Delphine, his spouse and a virgin, still survived among the living, she is read here and there in that same process as testifying in the first place among the others who had known him while alive. But it is to be lamented that the writer of the aforesaid Summary, while he is zealous to be brief, very often refers the reader to the process in such a way that he only says that the things which are read in the several articles of the process, indicated by numbers, were asserted by the witnesses whom he recounts by name; but for the rest is silent as to what is contained in those several articles. Hence only in a few places, where the writer speaks more clearly, will this Summary be able to be useful to me.

[11] Antoine Pagi, in tom. 4 of the Breviary of the Roman Pontiffs, but we lack the process itself. in Urban V, writes that a manuscript exemplar of the praised process, containing 238 leaves and subscribed by two notaries, is extant in the convent of the Friars Minor of Apt in the Gallic Province. But when I had long striven in vain to obtain a transcript of it thence through a friend, at length, after that friend's labour had proved fruitless, answer was made by those Fathers, though late, that the same process is preserved in the archive of the city of Apt itself. Wherefore I hope it will come about that the reader will pardon me if from the want of it I have been able to illustrate certain things less fully: which process, if at some time it be communicated to us, will thereafter be able to be employed both in the Supplement of our whole Work and for examining the Acts of Bl. Delphine on the twenty-sixth day of the month of November. For these are so closely connected with the deeds of Elzéar that both could conveniently have been treated together here, had not both the different day of cult, and Delphine's long life in widowhood, and the hope of obtaining meanwhile more concerning her, persuaded otherwise.

[12] Because of the alleged connexion of their deeds, another instrument is exceedingly useful to us: the process drawn up for the attempting of the canonization of Bl. Delphine herself by John, archbishop of Aix, and John, bishop of Vaison, We have likewise the process of Bl. Delphine, to whom Pope Urban V had committed this by letters given at Avignon on the third of the Nones of March, in the first year of his Pontificate, that is, of Christ 1363. To the two aforesaid prelates he had added a third, Gerald, bishop of Sisteron, who excused himself on account of the grave affairs of his diocese. We received the said process from Turin from that most illustrious man the marquis de la Plaine, grand chamberlain of the most serene duke of Savoy, and councillor of his privy council, who at the end of our transcript added the following in Italian in his own hand. I the undersigned, Charles Emmanuel Philibert Hyacinth de Simiane, marquis de la Plaine, testify that the things which are contained in this manuscript book of one hundred and six pages have been faithfully transcribed from an authentic manuscript book containing the process of the canonization of Bl. Delphine the virgin, which book, in the said authentic form, was given me by the convent of the Minor fathers of the city of Apt in Provence, where the bones of the said Saint rest together with the bones of St. Elzéar, her spouse. I say that they were transcribed by my procuring and command: in faith whereof I have written and subscribed these lines with my own hand in the accustomed form in which I am wont to sign. At Turin, the fifth day of July, MDCLXII. Then follows, written in abbreviated form, the name Charles Emmanuel Philibert Hyacinth de Simiane.

[13] the bull of St. Elzéar's canonization, and a manuscript Life, Again another help toward illustrating the holy Count's deeds is the bull of his canonization published by Gregory XI. We have also a manuscript Life of him, which Fr. Johann Gamans, presbyter of our Society, often praised by us, transmitted to our Elders in the year 1641, received from the notable manuscript parchment Passionale of the monastery of Böddeken, of the Order of Regulars of St. Augustine, in the diocese of Paderborn, for the month of September, fol. CCXXIX, page B; as our transcript sets forth at its head; and Papebroch added in the same place that this had been collated with the manuscript of Bernard Rottendorf. A very similar Life Laurentius Surius published in print from a manuscript in tom. 3 of the Lives of the Saints, but with the style changed here and there after his manner; and from him Henricus Sedulius reprinted the same in his Seraphic History. The author is anonymous, and of unknown profession and time, of which he nowhere makes mention: yet concerning the time when the Life was written it is permitted to conjecture from the Life itself. It is certain that he wrote after the death of Delphine, when already some Life of this Blessed one existed. So it is clear from the Life to be published, in which mention is made of it more than once.

[14] by an anonymous author indeed, At number 7, according to my division, it is thus read: As appears more clearly in the Life of the holy virgin Delphine herself; again at num. 55: As is had more expressly in the Life and Legend of the holy countess: and finally in the same place: But her body (that of Garsenda, a most pious matron) was buried in the church of the Friars Minor of Apt, near the tomb of the holy Count and the holy countess. Further, Wadding in the Annals of the Minors and Borély in his French Life of her, and others, fixed the death of Bl. Delphine at the year 1360, while her husband Elzéar had been dead already from the year 1323. Hence therefore we have it that the Life of which we treat is not older than the year 1360; but how long after it was drawn up remains in doubt. If it be permitted to use conjectures, it does not appear to me alien from likelihood that it was composed within that space of time which flowed between the death of Bl. Delphine and the year 1371, in which Gregory XI declared by a published bull that Elzéar had been enrolled among the Saints by his predecessor Urban V. These reasons have impelled me so to suspect.

[15] but of the best character, In that whole Life there exists no memory of Elzéar as having been reckoned among the Saints by the Roman Pontiff. Nothing likewise is read in it which is later than his canonization; nothing of his body raised from the earth, which we shall see was done certainly not later than the year 1381, and perhaps even earlier; nay, the biographer so speaks as though at the time when he wrote it were resting in its own sepulchre or tomb, in which it had been laid at Apt in the year 1323 or the following one; and he closes the Life with the same miracles and the same words with which Mayronius closed the petition offered to John XXII, supreme Pontiff, in the year 1327, for obtaining his canonization. Finally, at that time some Life of Delphine could easily have existed, since already from the year 1363 a process for the canonization of that Virgin had been begun by Apostolic authority. Nor ought it to alarm us that in the Life to be published Elzéar and Delphine are called Saints; for at that time men were more liberal in bestowing a title of this kind, which Bl. Delphine, although never canonized, retains even today among many in Provence. Besides, that title could easily have been added to both by an amanuensis who transcribed the original Life after the canonization of Elzéar and the public cult of Delphine. Another objection against so great an antiquity of this Life can be drawn from the Life itself, because in it, at num. 27, mention is made of Philip de Regio, otherwise of Aix, as of one dead; whom Borély indeed writes to have died before Bl. Delphine, but Wadding and others whom he praises say not before the year 1369, on the eighteenth day of May. According to their opinion, therefore, the oft-named Life could not have been written before the year 1369; but perhaps it is even by many years later than that time; for the reasons which I have adduced as conjectures do not prove the contrary.

[16] However it be (for from doubtful matters nothing certain can be established), the author of the Life is grave enough; of whose age, and helps and that some exemplar of the process of Elzéar's canonization served him as a guide is altogether persuaded by his manner of writing and the order of things, almost the same as that which was kept in the process. We shall give this from our Summary, num. 189 and following; and if anyone shall wish to compare it with the Life to be published, he will discover without difficulty that nearly the same order has been kept in both, except in some things which the reckoning of time — which history, not the process, requires — persuaded the biographer should be placed elsewhere. For the same cause the biographer has related in that Life a few miracles about which nothing is said in the said articles of the Summary; because in the second part of the process the miracles were treated separately, in which, as the Summary has it, Concerning the miracles, first there is treated of those which he did in his life. Secondly of those which he did after death. But these latter, namely those which befell after the Saint's death, he has recorded only in general in the words of Mayronius, whether for brevity's sake, or for some other cause unknown to me; but from this no argument on either side can be formed as to the antiquity of the Life.

[17] As regards the style, this, although here and there it labours a little with solecisms, and the good faith with which he writes, it is discussed. is grave enough, and shows the author to be exceedingly

well instructed in the matter which he treats, and a lover of truth. The one thing of which Baillet accuses him in his Critical Table is that he was not accurate in the reckonings of the years of the holy Count's age. But this error is in one place only, where, perhaps from a mere slip of memory or of the pen, or from a copyist's fault, the Saint is read to have died in the twenty-eighth year of his whole life instead of the thirty-eighth, as we shall demonstrate below: which Baillet not noticing, and retaining the twenty-eighth year, so composed the biographer's other reckonings with the years of Christ that he consequently perverted the whole chronology of the events. More prudently did Wadding proceed, who, since he perceived that the final age of St. Elzéar at twenty-eight years could not stand with the other statements of the biographer, was content to have shown that an error lay somewhere, and left this to be emended by others. This Life, therefore, I shall print after this Commentary from our praised Böddeken transcript, and shall illustrate it with the usual annotations.

[18] We have also a shorter Life from Rouge-Cloître, which is a priory of Regular canons in Brabant, other manuscript Lives; others published in print, from a manuscript parchment codex in folio, which is entitled the first part of the Memorial of the Saints. This Life is nothing else than an abridgement of the aforesaid one, contracted in almost the same words, with other things cut away, and enlarged with a Prologue. I do not know of what sort was that one which Wadding thus mentions in tom. 7 of the Annals of the Minors, at the year of Christ 1323, num. XLII. I have, says he, another Life taken from another anonymous author, divided into nine lessons: in a more polished style it contains all the more important parts of Surius's history. Thus far of the manuscript Lives; it would be long and useless to enumerate all those published in print, which various men have brought out in various tongues, Latin, French, Flemish, Italian and Spanish. Concerning these and others Arthur du Monstier may be consulted in his annotations on the Franciscan Martyrology on this day: I shall here review one or two only, of which mention will often recur. Besides Adrien Baillet, Master J. Raphaël, of the Order of Preachers, of the Gallic Province, wrote and published a Life of him in the French tongue; who dedicated it to Louis XII, king of the French, in whose service he was.

[19] among which one was written in French by J. Raphaël Of that writer, known solely as it were from this little lucubration, mention is made by Jacques Échard in tom. 1 of the Writers of the Order of Preachers, page 896, where he says that it is extant at Paris in the royal library, H. 1223. It is extant also in our Museum with its Preface to the praised king Louis; and in the same Opusculum, with continuous printing, there follows likewise in French the Life of the blessed Delphine of Puimichel, countess of Ariano, wife and spouse of St. Elzéar, composed by master Peter Eberard, inquisitor of the faith. Échard, just praised, at page 896, citing this very booklet, called the author Eberardinus, and advised that Pietro Possevino and Altamura are to be corrected, because the first of them called him Eberardus, the other Ebardus. But that the latter is indeed rightly, and the former wrongly, blamed, is plain from these French words of the title: Faicte par maitre Pierre Eberard inquisiteur de la foy. Wherefore it must be said that Échard, or whoever transcribed for him the title of this booklet, doubled the first syllable of the word inquisiteur, and added it once to the preceding word Eberard; reading in French: Eberardin inquisiteur.

[20] and dedicated to Louis XII, king of France; Further, at the end of both Lives that booklet is said to have been printed at the request of the honourable lord Peter de Sabran, knight, lord of Beaudiner, from the region of Provence, who says of himself that he was descended from the stock of the said holy count of Ariano, Elzéar. Printed at Paris by Jean Trepperel, printer and bookseller, dwelling in the new street of the blessed Virgin, under the sign of the shield of France. The year of printing being omitted, it must be determined with some latitude from the reign of Louis XII, who reigned from the year 1498 until 1515. Raphaël therefore wrote more than a century and a half after the death of St. Elzéar; but what was wanting to him from nearness of time he strove to supply from elsewhere: for in the Preface to the praised king he says, in French words like the rest: Which (Life) and the things which are contained in it, I have taken from the process of the canonization of the said Saint, as also from certain Chronicles, Histories and ancient writings. Would that, however, he had been content in writing with the process alone, or at least with no other instruments than those of good character, because thus he would not have filled his Opusculum with digressions by no means pertinent here, and would have won greater credit for his statements. Some of his assertions we shall examine through the course of the Commentary: but the miracles wrought after the Saint's death, certain of which he seems assuredly to have learned from the process, we shall review, translated into Latin, in § XI.

[21] Borély published another, in which St. Elzéar's More laboriously than the rest, Elzéar Borély, of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual and doctor of sacred Theology, embraced in one Work, likewise in French, the deeds of St. Elzéar and especially of Delphine, and, dedicating it to Charles Emmanuel Philibert Hyacinth de Simiane praised above, brought it to light in the year 1654 from the presses of Lyons. This whole Work he divided into three books in such wise that, as he himself professes in the preface, in the first he sets forth the whole life of St. Elzéar together with that of Bl. Delphine down to the death of the Spouse; in the second, which does not pertain to Elzéar, he describes that Blessed one's widowhood and death; and finally in the third he treats of the posthumous Glory of both. Of the other biographers who wrote before him he appended in the same place the following censure in the French tongue. The reverend father Binet of the Society of Jesus, who composed his History (the deeds of St. Elzéar and Bl. Delphine) from documents which, when he had come to venerate the sacred relics of these Saints, he received from one of our Religious; Surius and Fr. Raphaël of the Order of Preachers, and other writers whom I have read, contain indeed nothing false as to the substance; but the circumstances of time and place labour much among them, and the proper names are so vehemently corrupted by faulty geography and chronology that the very inhabitants of the region would not recognize either the places or the families which are recorded.

[22] And so he promises that he will perform all these things better from authentic documents, and Bl. Delphine's deeds and cult were embraced together. which he affirms were collected by himself with great labour both in the archive of the convent of his Order at Apt and elsewhere in the same city. Among these the chief was the process, or instrument, in which are contained the testimonies of those who in the cause of the canonization of Bl. Delphine in the year 1363, that is, about three years after her death according to Borély's reckonings, were lawfully interrogated and gave testimony. I, as I have noted above, have one instrument of that same process, which contains the articles to be proved by the witnesses, but I lack the book of witnesses which he used. For commending Borély's good faith there makes the testimony of Guillaume de Mile, grand vicar of the bishop of Apt, prefixed to that Work, affirming that it is conformable with the aforesaid process and with the other authentic instruments which he followed. Notwithstanding these things, I shall be compelled to hold some of Borély's assertions as suspect, and even to reject some.

[23] Nor must I here pass over our most friendly helper, Certain other helps. the very reverend lord Joseph Antoine de Brantes, canon, treasurer and penitentiary of the metropolitan church of Avignon, who out of his kindness and benevolence both communicated to me what he himself knew of the cult of St. Elzéar, and transmitted to me a twofold manuscript Notice which he had received. One was composed by a noble man of Avignon, whose name he kept back; the other the Minor Conventual fathers of Apt had given him; and this last has the following written in French at the end. All these things were faithfully collected from the archives and Apostolic Bulls in the year MDLII by R. Fr. François Carrière, doctor in Theology, Conventual of Apt: accurately examined and approved by the most illustrious lord bishop of Apt and by the magistrates of the city. Both Notices will at some time be of use. The most praiseworthy lord de Brantes moreover bestowed his labour toward obtaining the process of canonization and certain other things; but the outcome did not answer to our wishes.

* Francisci

§ II. The Saint's illustrious lineage, his grandparents, kinsmen and parents: the place and year of his birth: the persons by whom he was first instructed.

[ ] Sprung from the illustrious family of Sabran, All the instruments and writers agree that St. Elzéar was born of the illustrious race of Sabran; which the Benedictine writers of the History of Languedoc, tom. 2, page 160, relate to be so called from Sabran, a castle of Lower Languedoc, in the diocese of Uzès. They produce there among the instruments, col. 182, one of the year 1029, in which Emeno de Sabran is named as witness of a certain donation made; and again, col. 561, another of the year 1156, in which the castle of Sabran is reckoned among the goods of the aforesaid church of Uzès. Further, from the Summary of the process of St. Elzéar's canonization praised above it is clear that in it the genealogy of that Saint was treated in the first place; which, since I do not have it, I know not how far back this was traced therein. Father Raphaël had it, and used it for composing the French Life, in which he wove the genealogy of his Hero. Borély also treats of the same at length in the Life, book 1, chap. 2, where he may be consulted. But it certainly does not please me to go back with them even to that famous Stilicho who flourished under the emperor Theodosius the Great and his sons: nay, Borély himself acknowledges that a genealogy fetched from Stilicho does not cohere with Roman History.

[25] he had as grandfather Elzéar, It will suffice me to have said (what is evident from the ordinary writers of Provence) that the house of Sabran was one of the more illustrious of that region. And so, that I may come to the times nearest to St. Elzéar, our anonymous author in the Life to be published, num. 1, indicated his grandfather and grandmother and his parents in these words: His father was Ermengaud de Sabran, a man distinguished and powerful, who, famous for a long line of nobles and for the lordship of very many lands, was honoured and courted by all. His mother was Lauduna Albe, who, being welcome both for the brightness of her blood and for the graciousness of her converse, was called by the appropriated name Bona-comitissa by Elzéar and Alicia, the illustrious parents of her husband. In our transcript there is read de Sabarno for de Sabrano, which I have corrected; because that de Sabrano is to be read is beyond doubt from elsewhere, and therefore a certain fault of the writer or amanuensis is to be recognized in that place. By a like but grosser error the Summary of the process of Elzéar's canonization in the Vatican codex, or at least in our transcript of it, has: de Sabnino.

[26] a man powerful in the Gallic Province, To this pertains what Étienne Baluze noted in his Notes on the Lives of the Popes of Avignon, tom. 1, col. [ ], at the word S. Alziarium. This only will I say (says he) which pertains to his genealogy, that I have found in ancient excerpts from the Register of the first year of Clement V a bull given at Lyons on the sixteenth of the Kalends of January (that is, in the year of Christ

1305) by which he dispenses with the noble man Bermund, lord of Uzès and of Armasanicæ, and with Dulcelina, daughter of the noble man Elisiarius de Sabran, lord of the castle of Ansorfium, of the diocese of Aix, that, notwithstanding the fourth degree of consanguinity in which they touched one another, they might be able to contract matrimony with each other … That Elziarius was the grandfather of St. Elziarius, and thus Dulcedina was that Saint's aunt. Thus Baluze, where for Ansorfium there seems to be needed the restoration of Ausoysium or Ansoysium, of which Elzéar, the Saint's grandfather, was lord. Now Ausoysium, in French Ansouis or Ançoïs, is a castle or village of the Gallic Province, and is marked in geographical tables on the right of the river Durance between Aix and Apt Julia, from which last it is distant only about three miles of Provence.

[27] lord of Ansouis, Honoré Bouche in the Chronography of Provence, tom. 1, page 220, reviewing that place in the diocese of Aix, writes that in the Bulls of Gelasius II and Alexander III it is called de Ansoisso; but he himself calls it in French Ansouys, by which name it survives at this day; and its consuls have this privilege, that they carry the canopy when in the public annual procession the reliquaries of St. Elzéar and blessed Delphine are borne about in the city of Apt, as we shall say below from the letters of the lord de Brantes. I have found it called in Latin Ausoysium or Ausoisium in the Bull of his canonization and in the Summary of his process and elsewhere, which form I have also retained. Gassendi in the Notice of the church of Digne, whose words we shall give afterwards, and after him Denis de Sainte-Marthe in the Gallia Christiana, called that same Elzéar, our Saint's grandfather, lord of Uzès. And indeed that this title was in the house of Sabran the Benedictine writers of the History of Languedoc also relate, tom. 2, page 641, in which place, in a genealogical table of the ancient toparchs of Uzès, they reckon the Sabrans also, and among them Elzéar, the Saint's grandfather, of whom they say these things in French words. Elzéar de Sabran, lord of Uzès in respect of an eighth part, which in the year MCCLXXX he sold to the bishop of that city. He gave the beginning to the family of the counts of Ariano. Of this last assertion there will be discourse again.

[28] The wife of this Elzéar, Raphaël and Borély call, not Alicia, his grandmother Cecilia d'Agoult, whose children as our manuscript to be published has it, but Cecilia d'Agolt or d'Agoult, and affirm that she was the daughter of the lord de Sault. With this agrees Peter Eberard in the Life of Bl. Delphine, where he called St. Elzéar's grandmother, the lady of Ansouis, Cecilia Dagolt. Likewise agree Pierre Gassendi in the Notice of the church of Digne and Denis de Sainte-Marthe, tom. 3 of the Gallia Christiana, col. 1123, by whom that same Cecilia is called de Agoulto and de Agulto. Finally, that I may pass over others, Surius too read Cecilia in his exemplar, so that, unless she bore two names, I cannot doubt that here also a fault lies hidden in our manuscript. That the family of d'Agoult was also illustrious, not to be longer, may be seen in César de Nostradamus, Honoré Bouche, Jean François Gaufridi, and other writers of Provence. Now of this marriage Raphaël and Borély say there were born Ermengaud or Ermongaus, and two daughters, Burgola and Alayetta or Alizetta. Burgola they say was married to Giraud de Villeneuve, baron des Arcs, and was the mother of Elzéar, bishop of Digne; and that of Alayetta and her husband, the illustrious man Jean de Porcellet, was begotten Rainald, likewise bishop of Digne.

[29] The same things Gassendi and Denis de Sainte-Marthe have; of whom, however, the former also reports the opinion of others, and some grandchildren are reckoned. according to which that Rainald was the grandson of Alayetta, not her son, which it is nothing to our purpose here to examine. The last two writers moreover record another son of Elzéar and Cecilia, William, third bishop of Digne of that name and abbot of the monastery of St. Victor of Marseilles; and this is altogether conformable with the statements of the biographer, who asserts in the Life to be published that St. Elzéar was brought up under the care and governance of William de Sabran, his uncle, abbot of Marseilles. The praised Gassendi reviewed all the aforesaid thus under William, bishop of Digne: It may here be noted that this William was the son of Elziarius, lord of Uzès, and of Cecilia de Agoulto; that he had a brother Hermengald, grand justiciar among the Neapolitans, who of Lauduna Alba begot St. Elziarius, count of Ariano and spouse of St. Delphine: that he had as sisters both the said Alizetta or Alayeta, mother of Rainald Porcellet (bishop of Digne), and Burgola, mother of Elziarius de Villeneuve, prelate of the same see. Different from these two seems to have been she whom Baluze above, at num. 26, called Dulcelina and Dulcedina. Now let us come to the Saint's father.

[30] The son of Elzéar de Sabran and Cecilia d'Agoult, Ermongaus, called by others Ermengaud, besides his paternal inheritance obtained also the county of Ariano in Apulia, and discharged the office of grand justiciar, as they call it, in the kingdom of Naples. From the words of the writers of Languedoc reported at num. 27 it would have to be said that his father Elzéar had already brought that county into the family of Sabran. The Saint's father Ermongaus, grand justiciar But the opposite is written by Raphaël and Borély, who attribute this to Ermongaus, differing however in this, that the former of them will have that donation of the county to have been made by Charles II, the latter by Charles I, kings of Sicily. For Raphaël stands the petition offered to Joanna, queen of Naples, in the year 1372, as Borély himself asserts, who recites it at page 549 and the following. For in it father Bertrand Imberti, Friar Minor Conventual of Apt, addresses the queen in these words, but in French: The memory of Ermongaus de Sabran is still fresh: although he died long since, his own illustrious deeds, performed in the service of Charles II, daily make him live again in the memory of men; to whom that great prince, to reward his valour, gave the county of Ariano.

[31] in the kingdom of Naples, and count of Ariano, But whether Ermongaus obtained that benefit from Charles I or from Charles II, or whether even Elzéar, the father of Ermongaus, received it, it is agreed that Ermongaus, the father of St. Elzéar, was count of Ariano. Fabio Barberio in the Catalogue of the bishops of that same city of Ariano, page 41, makes mention of donations made by him to the cathedral church, which it will not be beside the purpose to have here reported. Thus therefore he has it: Raynus, bishop of Ariano, sat about the year MCCCIV … To this prelate and to the R. chapter and also to the canons of Ariano, Ermogauus de Sambrano, a Frenchman, count of that same city, who was the father of St. Elisearius, gave as a gift a certain grange of St. Eleutherius with some pieces (that is, portions) of lands, as is evident from a privilege exhibited to me by the most illustrious lord Paolo Caiatia, at present bishop of Ariano, drawn up in the year MCCCVII; which grange indeed was not very far distant from this city. And besides he gave certain other lands, in which is said to have been of old the Black Wood, which is called by the same name today. And also he bestowed upon the aforesaid persons other lands, in which formerly was the Wood of Trelapolis, and the Wood called Lasplinia, in the appurtenances of that same city.

[32] toward whose church he was munificent, and which is in Apulia, From the privilege of which donation it is manifestly plain to anyone that Ermogauus, then count of Ariano, excelled in great religion and piety toward churchmen, since he had bestowed so many goods, which were of the greatest moment, upon the aforesaid bishop and canons. Ariano, of which here, once a most ancient town of the Hirpini, is now a city of the kingdom of Naples in the Principato Ultra, called by the natives likewise Ariano, distinguished with the title of a county and with a bishopric under the metropolis of Benevento. Baudrand in his geographical Lexicon writes that it is set upon a steep hill at the roots of the Apennine mountain, two miles from Benevento toward the East, in the direction of Trevico. Concerning the same Ferdinando Ughelli may be consulted at more length, tom. 8 of the Italia sacra, col. 212 and the following, among the bishops of Ariano, and Fabio Barberio in the Opusculum just praised. But shamefully did those hallucinate who reprinted Laurentius Surius's Collection of the Lives of the Saints at Cologne in the year 1618; inasmuch as at the very threshold of the Life, upon those words of the biographer, Elzéar count of Ariano, they noted the following in the margin.

[33] not in Narbonese Gaul: his mother was Lauduna Alba. His native place (say they) is Arianum, a city of Narbonese Gaul, which is commonly called Arange or Orange, in Latin Arauisio, as Abraham Ortelius has it in his geographical Thesaurus. Everyone sees the gross error here, which the praised editors could have avoided the more easily because in the same Life it is afterwards said that St. Elzéar went to Italy that he might take possession of the county of Ariano left to him by his deceased father. Besides this, neither was Elzéar born at Ariano, nor did Ortelius say that Arausio (for Arausio, not Arauisio, is read in him) is Ariano. For the rest, this faulty annotation is absent from the edition of Surius made likewise at Cologne in the year 1574. I return to Ermongaus. He took to wife Lauduna Albe, as the biographer and all others testify, called in French d'Albe or d'Aube. Raphaël and Borély add that Lauduna's father was the lord de Roquemartine. Lauduna's family is not so well ascertained by me as that of Ermongaus; nor yet are the names Albe or Aube and Roquemartine unknown, which may be read in Gaufridi's History of Provence: and the Benedictine writers of the History of Languedoc, tom. 3, pages 107 and 142, have made mention of Adelaide de Roquemartine, wife of Barral, viscount of Marseilles. Nostradamus also, in the History of Provence, part 3, page 346, affirms that the family des Albes or Aubes has for many centuries now been held among the noblest of that region.

[34] Further, whether these illustrious spouses always had a fixed domicile in Provence before the birth of Elzéar, Of these the Saint was born in Provence in Gaul, or whether they returned thither at last from the kingdom of Naples after the famous slaughter of the French in Sicily in the year 1282, commonly called the Sicilian Vespers, as Raphaël expressly affirmed, it is agreed that our Saint was born and brought up in Provence. Wadding, tom. 6 of the Annals of the Minors of the second edition, at the year of Christ 1316, num. 10, Baillet in the French Life, and others, determinately assign the castle of Ansouis as the place of his birth; which, although it is not expressed in the Life to be published, is nevertheless by no means repugnant to it. On the contrary Raphaël, part 1, chap. 2, and Bouche in the History of Provence, book XI, sect. 3, at the year 1284, wrote that he was brought forth into the light in the castle of Robians near the castle of Ansouis, with the agreement of our manuscript Notice of Apt, whose words we shall presently give. This castle the praised Bouche, in the Chorography of Provence, book 4, chap. 1, §1, reviewing among the towns and villages which beyond the river Durance pertain to the diocese of Aix, and reckoning it immediately after Ansouis, calls in French Saint Jean de Robians, and says it was long ago destroyed.

[35] Receive his words. Saint Jean de Robians.

Of St. John of Robianzum, and more probably in the castle of Robians; where St. Elzéar, count of Ariano and baron of Ansouis, was once born. A village now destroyed from the times of Raymond de Turenne, of whom in the History; namely in the same author, book XI, under Louis II of Anjou, count of Provence, toward the end of the fourteenth century. It may be doubted whether St. Elzéar was born in that castle by chance, or whether his parents had a fixed domicile in it when they abode in Provence. The reason for doubting is that according to the Life to be published Lauduna, when already pregnant with him, must be said to have remained in the castle of Ansouis, and the holy little Boy to have been brought up in the same; and that on the contrary Elzéar and Cecilia, the parents of Ermongaus, then and for many years afterwards surviving, dwelt at Ansouis; so that it would be nothing wonderful if Ermongaus with his wife and household had inhabited the castle of Robians, which is near Ansouis. However it be, I prefer, on account of the testimonies alleged, to believe that the castle of Saint Jean de Robians was St. Elzéar's birthplace: for I do not see to what end that opinion should have been fabricated, and therefore it appears to me more likely that some instrument or an ancient tradition served here as a guide to Raphaël and Bouche, with whom, as I have said, our manuscript Notice of Apt agrees.

[36] Concerning the year in which the Saint was brought forth into the light, writers disagree. Baillet and the curators of the repeated Surian edition of the Lives of the Saints establish the year of Christ 1295, not about the year 1295, and to these accedes Wadding, when in the Annals, at the year 1316, num. 10, he says that Elzéar in that same year was in the twentieth year of his age. But these were deceived by that Saint's final age, faultily written in the Life to be published, since there he is said to have died in the twenty-eighth year of his whole life, for which the thirty-eighth is to be read, as I have noted above and shall prove below. Benignus Fremaut, in the Flemish Legend of the Saints of the Order of St. Francis, coming nearer to the truth, preferred to set down the year 1287; Bilancetti in the Italian Life about the year 1286; Raphaël 1284 (for which, in the edition, through the error perhaps of the compositors, is read 1184); and the same year 1284 Bouche also, in the History of Provence, and the manuscript Notice of Apt marked. The words of the latter I subjoin, translated from the French into Latin. In the year of grace MCCLXXXIV, while Philip the Bold, son of St. Louis the king, was reigning in France, Bl. Elzéar was born in the castle of Robians near Ansouis, of the county of Provence, of the diocese of Aix, the eldest son of the most noble lord Ermongaus de Sabran, baron of Ansouis and count of Ariano in the kingdom of Naples, and of the most noble lady Lauduna d'Aubes de Roquemartine.

[37] but ten years earlier. The controversy depends upon the Saint's age and upon the year of Christ in which he died. And it is certain indeed that he departed this life on the twenty-seventh day of September of the year 1323, and in the thirty-eighth year of his age. Hence first his nativity cannot be fixed later than before the aforecited day of September of the year 1286: but because it remains uncertain by how many months, when dying, he had already begun the thirty-eighth year of his life, or had even already completed it, it is also left doubtful whether that nativity is to be bound to the year 1286 or to one of the two preceding. Those, however, who fix the year 1284 seem to me to speak less probably, because, even though they should hold that he was born in the month of December of that year, even so, in dying he would have exceeded the thirty-eight years of his life by about nine months, and therefore he would have had to be said rather to have lived thirty-nine, or at least he would not rightly be said to have met death in the thirty-eighth year of his whole life. Of the two other years, although the matter is uncertain, 1286 pleases me best, on account of the remaining chronology to be woven in the course of this Commentary.

[38] His mother seems not to have lived long after his birth: Concerning the Saint's parents it is here to be observed that no further mention of them is had in the whole Life after his birth, except of the death of Ermongaus, which we shall say in its own place happened about the year 1309. Nay, the same biographer asserts at some length that St. Elzéar, both as a boy and afterwards with his spouse Delphine, dwelt with his grandfather in the castle of Ansouis until the twentieth year of his life, excepting that time in which he was instructed under the care of his uncle William de Sabran in the monastery of St. Victor of Marseilles. Hence two things appear to me altogether likely: first, that Ermongaus, when Elzéar was quite a boy, set out for the kingdom of Naples, whether he then received the county of Ariano from Charles II, as Raphaël judged, or had obtained it already before. The other is that his mother Lauduna did not live very long after the birth of her Son, as Borély affirmed. Both the same writers moreover say that Ermongaus, Lauduna being dead, contracted a second marriage with Alice de Baux, granddaughter of the aforesaid king Charles II by his daughter Beatrice and by Bertrand, count of Montescaglioso, lord de Baux, and that from that marriage was born William, the heir of St. Elzéar: which things cannot stand with sound chronology.

[39] Among the many children of Charles II there was in truth some Beatrice by name, yet the Saint had a brother, perhaps not of the same mother, who, first married to Azzo, marquis of Este and lord of Ferrara, after his death was joined in matrimony to the aforesaid Bertrand; on which matter Borély also agrees. That Beatrice could not have celebrated that second marriage before the year 1308 is clear from the death of Azzo, which it may be seen happened in this year, in Lodovico Muratori, tom. 8 of the Annals of Italy, and in others. But in the Life to be published, num. 44, Ermongaus is said to have died when (St. Elzéar) had been made twenty-three years old; which if you add to the year of that Saint's birth, there will come forth the year of Christ 1308 or 1309, about which therefore the death of Ermongaus will have to be fixed. Fabulous therefore is his marriage with Alice, granddaughter of Charles II, king of Sicily, by Beatrice and Bertrand de Baux, who could scarcely have been born, much less have borne a son to Ermongaus, at the time when he died. Yet I have not said these things because I would deny that Elzéar had a brother called William, and his heir: for that is altogether evident from the Saint's own testament, an abridgement of which Bouche recites in book 9 of the History of Provence, sect. 3, chap. 2, §7, and in which he is said to have instituted his brother William his heir in such wise that, if the latter should meanwhile die without offspring, whether male or female, Elzéar or Elzias de Villeneuve should succeed in his place.

[40] St. Elzéar therefore had a brother William; but whether he was begotten of the same or of another mother is hitherto unascertained by me. From what has been said it is also gathered that Elzéar, when he made his testament, had besides him no brother or sister, at least none who could inherit; since otherwise he would not have substituted Elzias de Villeneuve as heir to the aforepraised William and his children. Of the Saint's infancy and boyhood, and of his wonderful mercy toward the poor above all, by which he ever afterwards shone, the Life to be published may be consulted; because it is my purpose in this Commentary to treat only those things which need a longer illustration than the annotations to be subjoined to the several chapters after the custom would allow. Of the persons by whom the holy Boy was brought up and instructed it behoves to record some things here. Raphaël, part 1, chapter 3, calls his nurse Maurina Gaultiere of the castle of Ansouis: of whom I have read nothing further elsewhere, except in Borély, who in book 1, chap. 2, among the Saints and Blessed whose bodies he says are buried at Apt Julia in the church of the Friars Minor Conventual, reckoned blessed Maurina Gautiere, one of the handmaids of their house (namely of Elzéar and Delphine). By what right, however, he ascribes to her the title of Blessed, I know not; for neither Hueber nor Arthur du Monstier have made mention of her in their Menologies.

[41] More celebrated is Garsenda or Garsendis Alphanti, to whom the first instruction of the holy Count, of the persons by whom he was reared after he had been removed from his nurse, seems to have been committed. She was conspicuous no less for her virtues than for the nobility of her blood, and was joined by affinity to the house of Sabran itself, as Borély testifies, who moreover adds that she was of Lauduna's council in the castle of Ansouis at the time when Ermongaus was living in Italy. In the Summary of the process of St. Elzéar's canonization it is thus read of her: Carsendis Alfanta, of holy conversation, was with the lady Laudina his mother for ten years, and dwelt also with him, and was in his service and household. Elzéar venerated her as his own mother, and at num. 51 of the Life to be published he is brought in speaking thus of her with his blessed spouse Delphine: I have sent for thee, that we may fulfil the vow of virginity, as we have often treated of doing: but nevertheless, because it is the will of God that the lady Garsenda be present at this vow, for that she often led us to it, and from our childhood nourished us with salutary admonitions and with great devotion and diligence, and has greatly longed to see and hear this, therefore let us go to her. In the same Life mention of her occurs also elsewhere with great praise, and at num. 23 she too is said to have vowed chastity with her husband, a noble knight; which however must have been done after the use of matrimony, since afterwards, at num. 53, Inardus, her son, is read to have bound himself by the same vow together with Elzéar and Delphine.

[42] and was instructed in manners and letters. Arthur du Monstier inscribed her in the Menology of his Order on the eighth day of November in these words: At Apt in Gaul, of blessed Garsenda, a most noble matron, Tertiary. In Borély also she is reckoned among the Blessed who rest in the church of the Minors at Apt, and in Hueber's Menology she is celebrated on the aforesaid day of November, upon which her cult may be inquired into. From the discipline of this so illustrious matron St. Elzéar passed to the celebrated monastery of St. Victor of Marseilles, to be imbued with more polished letters and manners under the care of his uncle William de Sabran, abbot of that place, and afterwards also bishop of Digne, of whom we have already made mention above at num. 29. Whoever wishes for more about him may go to Jean Baptiste Guesnay in his St. John Cassian illustrated, book 2, page 680, where he is much praised for piety and learning; and to Denis de Sainte-Marthe, tom. 1 of the Gallia Christiana, col. 692, and tom. 3, col. [ ], where he is reckoned the seventh of his name among the abbots of St. Victor, and the third of the same name among the bishops of Digne. As regards the time, according to the praised Sainte-Marthe and Gassendi in the Notice of the church of Digne, William was created abbot of the said monastery in the year 1293 or the following, at which time St. Elzéar was in about the eighth or ninth year of his age;

and so far as I have been able to gather from the Life to be published, he was handed over to the discipline of his uncle at least not much later.

§ III. Bl. Delphine is destined as spouse to the Saint: this virgin's family, wealth and love of virginity: espousals first, then matrimony, contracted by them.

[ ] A marriage is decreed between him The holy Count had not yet reached the years of puberty when, by the command and in the presence of Charles II, king of Naples and Sicily and count of Provence, he entered upon espousals in the city of Marseilles with Bl. Delphine, a virgin likewise of tender age, most worthy of him in nobility of blood, in wealth and in manners. In the process which was drawn up in the year 1363 for the obtaining of the canonization of that same Delphine, these things may be read of her birth: The said lady Delphine was the natural and lawful daughter of the excellent man of good memory the lord E. de Sinha, lord of Puimichel, and of the lady Delphine de Barratio, spouses, and sprang from the land or parts of Provence … The said father and mother of the said lady Delphine were Catholic Christians, and were begotten and born of Catholic Christians, and as such and for such were and had been held, known, named and reputed openly and publicly, commonly and notoriously, etc. The father's surname, which is written de Sinha, is in Eberard's Life de Sicthe, in our manuscript Notice of Apt de Scitho, in Borély de Signe; who also adds that this family, once illustrious in Provence, was already extinct in his own time. But the father's name, which in our exemplar is marked with the single letter E., the praised Eberard and Borély called William.

[44] César de Nostradamus, part 3 of the History of Provence, page 347, says that Delphine was of the most noble family de Glandevez, and Bl. Delphine, a young virgin, and with him agree Baillet in the Lives of the Saints on this day, and Guillaume François Berthier, of the Society of Jesus, the Trévoux writer, in the History of the Gallican church, tom. 13, page 64. Puimichel, commonly Puy-Michel, of which she herself was lady, and where those holy Spouses dwelt for some time, Bouche, tom. 1 of the Chorography of Provence, page 233, places in the diocese of Riez; and the geographical table prefixed to that Work exhibits it about three miles of Provence from the city of Riez, called by its inhabitants Riez, and about four from Dinia, in French called Digne. In the process just mentioned an article concerning the goods sold by her for the use of the poor expresses their value thus: She sold castles of great value, pertaining to the same lady (Delphine), and among the rest she sold the castle of Puimichel, a good one, from which was received a rent and revenue of one thousand two hundred gold florins every year.

[45] Delphine was the only heiress of her parents, into whose possessions and titles she had succeeded, illustrious in blood and wealth, is to be married: as the same process testifies, which has it thus: The said father and mother of the said lady Delphine departed this life, she being their sole and only daughter and universal heiress at their death, and being set and left in the age of infancy. Notwithstanding these things, in the Summary of the process of the canonization of St. Elzéar himself the lady Alasacia of Puimichel, sister of the lady Delphine, is read to have testified much upon this matter; and she is often recorded among the living in the Life to be published, and is said to have been a nun. The manner in which these things may be composed is suggested by Borély and Raphaël. The first, book 1, chap. 1, writes that Alasacia, whom he calls in French Alayete, was Bl. Delphine's sister, and the elder indeed, but that already before her parents' death she had embraced the religious institute in the monastery of St. Catherine of Sourbs, of the diocese of Riez. The other, part 1, chap. 7, records a certain Catherine, a natural sister of Bl. Delphine, and affirms that she was a nun in the same monastery; who perhaps may be the same as Alasacia. In either way all difficulty ceases. Such a virgin then, whom hereditary wealth equally with brightness of blood, and remarkable endowments of mind and perhaps also of body, exceedingly commended, her uncles and guardians and Charles II, king of Sicily, destined as wife to the young Elzéar, and by divine providence as the guardian of his virginal chastity in the conjugal state.

[46] But she herself, ignorant of the divine counsel and wholly kindled with love of the heavenly Spouse, but she, having resolved to cultivate virginity, shrank most vehemently from wedlock. I think it will not be beside the purpose if from the process of her canonization I here premise some things concerning her purpose of preserving virginity, that the things which are narrated on the same subject in the Life of St. Elzéar to be published may find greater and easier credit with the reader. Thus therefore the praised process has it: The parents of the said lady Delphine being dead, that lady was and remained under the rule, governance and tutelage of certain of her uncles: and when she had come to an age of some discretion, yet within the years of pupillage, and heard then what her said uncles and guardians asserted and said, that they wished to give her in marriage to some man of the nobler and more powerful of her own province, on account of the good land and ample dowry which she had; … the lady Delphine, being a girl, taking ill the words about her marriage, and being forestalled by divine love, often and many times desired to remain all her time in virginity. And she desired that all her castles and all her land might be utterly burned or demolished, and that the men of her castles and the vassals of that lady might be so dispersed that under pretext of her said patrimony, or for any other reason whatsoever, no mention should ever be had of any carnal marriage to be contracted by her.

[47] she resists in every way, Nay rather, for the aforesaid reason (which was more wonderful) she then often longed to be deprived of her lights, that is, of her carnal and bodily eyes, that she might the better and more freely serve God in her virginity … The aforesaid lady (Delphine), while she lived among men, referring the things contained in the present article with devotion and great humility to the honour of God and ascribing them to divine grace, often and many times said and asserted before many persons worthy of credit that those things had been true. Such was the virgin Delphine in mind when in the thirteenth year of her age she was commanded by Charles II, king of Sicily and count of Provence, and by her guardians, to celebrate espousals with Elzéar; and how much she resisted them the same process teaches, from which receive the following. The said lady Delphine, being set in the thirteenth year of her age, was brought to the city of Marseilles by the uncles of that lady at the command of the most serene prince, the lord Charles II, king of Sicily, for this reason, that the same king wished her to be given in marriage to Elziarius de Sabran, firstborn son of the count of Ariano, whom Elziarius she at length married, as will be said below.

[48] even in the presence of Charles II, king of Sicily, While the friends of both parties wished that marriage to be solemnized by words of the present tense, the lady Delphine, a girl, not fearing the presence of the royal majesty, nor willing for the time to assent to the will of her kinsmen, but desiring to obey her Creator rather than creatures, withstood them and refused to contract the said marriage then, although by threats and terrors she was urged to that marriage by her said uncles and kinsmen; since Delphine had already resolved in her mind to remain in perpetual virginity. Nay rather, hiding herself then from them, she fled to a certain vaulted chamber of the lodging in which she then was, and in that vault she lay hid and hid herself, commending her virginity to Christ and to the glorious Virgin His Mother with such prayers as she could, with great devotion and tears, and uttered the following words, saying: Blessed Virgin, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, if it please thy kind will that I have thy blessed Son as my spouse, help me in this hour, since I am herein forsaken and destitute of human aid. And these words being uttered by her as is set forth above, that girl felt [*] in herself a great consolation and divine familiarity, and so great that she could not express it with her mouth.

[49] and would rather die; at length, induced by a Religious, And among other things it seemed to her that Bl. Mary, the Mother of God, offering to that girl a part of the cloak of that blessed Virgin, said to her familiarly such words as these in effect: Come, my daughter, I and my Son, whom thou desirest to serve in virginity, and to whose protection thou fleest, will defend thee. In fine, that girl, being consoled by the aforesaid things, received in herself so great a fortitude of mind, and so resolved, that going forth from the said vault with great confidence, she desired with all her affections to die and to be torn limb from limb for the love of Christ and of virginity … The things contained in the present article, ascribing them to divine grace and uttering them with devotion and great humility, that same lady Delphine often and many times, while she lived among men, said and reported before many persons worthy of credit to have been true. Thus far of Bl. Delphine's constancy in her purpose of virginity; now let us see from the same instrument by what device she was at length brought to consent. The said lady Delphine, while she lived in the body, many times said and reported the aforesaid things, namely that the friends and kinsmen of that lady, seeing so great a will and constancy in the girl Delphine, that she would in no wise consent to a carnal marriage, suborned a certain Religious of the Order of Friars Minor, in whom that girl greatly confided.

[50] Which Religious, that he might be able to bring her to consent to the said marriage, she contracts with him at Marseilles, said and suggested to her that she should consent to the said marriage with the said Elziarius, for this reason, that unless the said girl did so, the peril of the royal indignation hung over her said uncles and friends: and also for this reason, that, as the same Friar asserted, the same girl could, whenever she wished, draw back from the said marriage. And that Friar, by the aforesaid words alluring the said girl to the said marriage and so seducing her, obtained from her that she should consent to the said marriage, provided however that she could relinquish the said marriage when she wished. And such a consent the said girl gave, and resolved in her mind rather to die than in any way to consent to carnal union: and thereupon between the said Elziarius and the girl Delphine such a marriage was confirmed by words of the present tense outside the face of the Church … Subsequently, after two years had passed, the said marriage between the said girl Delphine and Elziarius was solemnized and contracted in the face of holy mother Church. So the praised instrument, or master Nicolas Loarenchi, procurator of the cause; whose words, if they be taken rigorously, bring forth great difficulties.

[51] For he seems there to record a twofold contract, not yet a marriage, both matrimonial, but one outside the face of the Church, the other in the face of holy

mother Church. But that by the former he does not seem to have designated espousals appears not only from these words, a marriage by words of the present tense, but also from this, that thereafter through the course of the instrument he always reckons twenty-seven years from the marriage entered upon until the death of St. Elzéar, and affirms that he lived with Delphine as with his wife for just so many. So in one place he says: The marriage between the aforesaid Spouses lasted for twenty-seven years, and at length was dissolved by the death of the said Man. Likewise in another place he says even more clearly: For twenty-seven years, as is set forth above, they lived together, not dividing lodging, chamber or bed, in chastity and virginal observance. But indeed these twenty-seven years cannot be assigned unless their beginning be reckoned from the first contract; since it is evident from elsewhere that the holy Count departed from the living in the twenty-fifth year after the marriage celebrated in the face of the Church.

[52] Without doubt the praised procurator of the cause drew and adopted these things from Franciscus Mayronius, who in the petition given to John XXII, Pontiff, for the obtaining of Elzéar's canonization (of which consult num. 7) speaks thus of him: as some have asserted, From the eleventh year of his age until the thirty-eighth year he continued in an unstained wedlock with the title of virginity, without any divorce of cohabitation. The same things he then sets forth even more clearly in these words: But this man for twenty-seven years was preserved untouched with his wife in the same house and in the same chamber and in the same bed. Compare these with the text of the procurator, reported in the preceding number, and you will not doubt, I think, that he followed Mayronius. But however great Mayronius's authority may be (inasmuch as he was intimate with St. Elzéar and stood by him when dying), he must here have hallucinated, and have inadvertently so confounded the twofold contract, the espousal namely and the matrimonial, that he referred the matrimonial also to the time at which the espousal took place. This error being committed, he must consequently also have believed that the Saint lived with his wife Delphine in matrimony for twenty-seven years; namely as many as are reckoned between their espousals and that Saint's death: which things I now proceed to prove.

[53] but espousals only: I begin with the procurator of the cause himself, master Nicolas Loarenchi, who, having adopted Mayronius's error, betrayed it either unwillingly or unknowingly. Above, from num. 47, he says that Bl. Delphine, being set in the thirteenth year of her age, confirmed that marriage with Elziarius outside the face of the Church; but then he says: Subsequently, after two years had passed, the said marriage between the said girl Delphine and Elziarius was solemnized and contracted in the face of holy mother Church. Then in the same process it is immediately subjoined: And … that marriage being contracted, when Delphine was asked and importuned by Elziarius with soft and honourable words concerning the carnal union to be had between them, the lady Delphine, then set in the age of fifteen years, addressed the same Elziarius, then set in the age of thirteen years, with such soft and devout words as she could, and induced him to the observance of virginity. According to these things the holy Spouses entered upon the first contract when Delphine was in the thirteenth year of her age; and two years afterwards, when she was in the age of fifteen years, and he in the age of thirteen years, they solemnized and contracted the marriage in the face of holy mother Church; and then Bl. Delphine was first delivered to St. Elzéar as to her husband.

[54] which is proved by various reasons With the latter contract the Summary of St. Elzéar's process (for it makes no mention of the first) accords exceedingly well, saying thus: The lady Delphine remained as his spouse twenty-five years, and contracted with him in the sixteenth year of her age: he was thirteen years old, and he died being thirty-eight years old. Take now the 25 years from the 38 years of St. Elzéar's life, and there will remain thirteen years, which he is here said, both in the Summary and in the instrument of Bl. Delphine's process just praised, to have numbered when he contracted marriage with her in the face of the Church and began to lead a common life with her. Besides, since it is read in the same process of Delphine that two years intervened between this and the former contract, subtract again 27 years from the 38 which St. Elzéar lived, and the remainder will be eleven years, which age Mayronius attributes to him when he took Delphine to wife, and from which he numbered the years of his conjugal life; because, as I have said, he confounded his matrimonial contract with the espousal one. The same reckoning holds in Delphine's age, who, according to the same process of her canonization, being set in the thirteenth year of her age, celebrated the first contract, namely the espousal one, with St. Elzéar; but the other, namely the matrimonial, after which the blessed Spouses began to live together, subsequently, after two years had passed, when Delphine was set in the age of fifteen years.

[55] Upon the same subject the anonymous author in the Life to be published, num. 6, says these things: and from the absurdities, Now it came to pass by divine providence … that this Boy, of angelic purity and dove-like innocence, when he was ten years old, by the command of the most serene prince Charles II, king of Jerusalem and Sicily, and in his presence, joined to himself in marriage, not without great mystery, in the city of Marseilles, the virgin Delphine, who was twelve years old … And after three years, in the castle of Puimichel, on the feast of Bl. Agatha the virgin, their wedlock was solemnly and publicly celebrated in the face of the Church, as the custom is. After which solemnity, on the fourth day, the virgin Delphine is solemnly conducted to her Spouse in the place of Ansouis, that she might dwell with him. What discrepancy in the years occurs here can be removed, if the biographer assigned the years of the age of each as completed, but the three years between the espousals and the marriage as incomplete; whereas the aforesaid writers reckoned the years of their age as begun, and the intervening two years as completed. But as these things demonstrate that the two contracts, the espousal and the matrimonial, are here to be distinguished, so at the same time they drive away or lessen the difficulties and absurdities which follow from the opposite opinion.

[56] Of this kind, besides the too tender age of ten or eleven years in the Spouse, which otherwise would have to be admitted. there is first a marriage contracted without any necessity outside the face of the Church; secondly, the same entered upon by the bride on this condition, provided however that she could relinquish the said marriage when she wished; and thirdly, that foolish counsel — that I may say nothing harsher — of that Religious man, persuading her so to enter upon marriage; from which what damaging consequences might have arisen, every theologian sees. This counsel appears to me the less likely also for this, that Borély, calling that same Religious William of St. Martial, says that he was then a great doctor and inquisitor of the holy faith throughout all Provence. But if in truth we refer that counsel to espousals concerning a future marriage, it will, when expounded in a convenient sense, have far less difficulty. For, so far at least as I judge, the praised Religious inquisitor wished to persuade Delphine of nothing else than that the espousal contract, to which she was being urged, was not of such a kind but that, before she should come to the celebration of the marriage, it could for just causes be rescinded, if she herself so wished.

[57] For he could thus have spoken because he judged that the tender girl was being compelled to espousals by the king and her guardians, contrary to what was fair and just, by grave fear. A few other things pertaining hereto For which reason he seems to have persuaded her only to yield to the threats of the king and of her own people; and then that there would not be wanting, before the matrimonial contract, further time for deliberating whether she wished to consent to it, or to complain of the grave fear unjustly inflicted upon her and to seek the rescission of the espousals. Peter Eberard in the French Life of Bl. Delphine distinguished, with us, the espousals from the marriage, and says that after various assaults from her kinsmen she at length consented; since these on the one hand threatened the certain indignation of the king against the whole family if she persisted in her purpose, and on the other promised that there would be much intervening time between the espousals and the marriage. After some things he subjoins that she, when three years afterwards she was being compelled in vain to enter upon the marriage, at last yielded conquered hands to the counsels of William of St. Marcel, of the Order of St. Francis, inquisitor of the faith, a man of great authority for the nobility of his blood and for his virtues, and afterwards bishop of Nice in Provence, who brought her to consent, not because she could withdraw from the marriage whenever she wished, but because, by the example of SS. Cecilia and Valerian, they could preserve their virginity unstained even in the marriage itself.

[58] are reported. These espousals he more probably contracted I know not whether this brother William of St. Marcel is the same as, or different from, him whom Borély above called William of St. Martial; nor do I any better know upon what document of good character that narration of Eberard rests, which otherwise appears simple enough and likely. Both add also that Bl. Delphine was already then bound by a vow of virginity, which I do not find in the process; nay, on the contrary in it Delphine is expressly said to have uttered such a vow in the marriage, first apart, and afterwards with her Husband. But enough of these things now, that we may return to the chronology of St. Elzéar's affairs. He was, as we have just said, at the time of the espousals ten years old according to the Life to be published; which years were completed is evident from what has been alleged above and from the rest of the chronology: but that Delphine was then in her thirteenth year we have likewise shown from her process, and therefore have noted that the twelve years which the Life to be published then attributes to her ought to be reckoned as completed. The year of Christ in which these things were done is drawn out without difficulty from the ten completed years assigned to Elzéar, which, added to the year of his birth, lead to the end of the year 1296 or the beginning of 1297; at which time also that Charles II, king of Sicily, before whom the espousals were celebrated, was staying in Provence, Bouche shows in the History of Provence, tom. 2, page 323.

[59] in the year 1296 or the following: a full two years afterwards This epoch can also be confirmed from the space of twenty-seven years, which we have observed above to have flowed from the espousals contracted until the year of the Saint's death, that is, the twenty-seventh day of September of the Christian era 1323. And hence gather how far Baillet was from the truth, when, from ignorance of that Saint's true final age, he attached his espousals to the year 1305. Between these and the marriage two years at least intervened, namely on account of the tender age of the Spouse, who was in only the eleventh year of his life; on which matter our anonymous author writes thus in the Life to be published, num. 6: And after three years (from the espousals entered upon), in the castle of Puimichel, on the feast of Bl. Agatha the virgin, their wedlock was solemnly

and publicly celebrated in the face of the Church, as the custom is. That this three-year period was not completed, however, but only begun, must be established from the things which we have adduced above. For in the process of Bl. Delphine this marriage is said to have been contracted subsequently, after two years had passed (from the espousals), and from those same espousals until the death of St. Elzéar twenty-seven years are numbered; but in the Summary of the process of that same Saint, from his marriage until his death twenty-five years; so that it must be said that only two completed years, or a third begun, intervened between the oft-named espousals and the marriage.

[60] he contracted marriage with her, Concerning the day of the marriage contracted, with our transcript of the Life agree Laurentius Surius from his own, which he used, and those who followed Surius, Bilancetti, Wadding and Baillet, in all of whom the day of St. Agatha the virgin, which is the fifth of February, is assigned. On the contrary Eberard, in the French Life of Bl. Delphine, put St. Agnes for St. Agatha; but Borély and Fremaut the day of St. Cecilia. It is not easy for me to say whether Agatha's or Agnes's is to be retained; yet for the former stands the greater authority, from the Surian and our own manuscript exemplar: the assertion of the latter I shall presently refute. From what has been said it further follows that this marriage fell in the year of Christ 1299, which, with twenty-four completed years added, will yield the year 1323, in the month of September of which, on the twenty-seventh day, St. Elzéar, dying, was in the twenty-fifth year of his marriage, then begun from the eighth month, if he celebrated it on the feast of St. Agatha, or even already from the ninth, if on the first feast of St. Agnes, that is, on the twenty-first day of January. The same year of the wedlock entered upon was fixed also by Borély and Fremaut; but when they substituted the feast of St. Cecilia for that of Agatha or Agnes, they departed from sound chronology. It will be useful to have heard Borély.

[61] This marriage (says he in French) took place in the year MCCXCIX, whose place, year and day, on St. Cecilia's day, at the tenth hour of the morning, when count Elzéar was twelve years and a half old, and the countess fifteen. But if the nuptials of St. Elzéar with Bl. Delphine were celebrated in the aforecited year 1299, on the festal day of St. Cecilia, that is, on the twenty-second of November, he could not have completed twenty-four years in his wedlock when he met death on the twenty-seventh day of September in the year 1323; at which time nevertheless he must certainly have begun the twenty-fifth of them. I know indeed that Borély defers the holy Count's death even to the year 1325, and reckons twenty-seven years between it and his marriage; but in these calculations there is more than one error. In the first place I shall clearly prove in its own place that St. Elzéar died in the year 1323, and shall refute Borély by the words alleged by himself from the process of canonization. Secondly, Borély in reckoning those twenty-seven years followed Mayronius, whose error we have refuted in this §. Thirdly and lastly, not even in Borély's own opinion can that day of St. Cecilia stand; since, the beginning being taken from that day of the year 1299 until the twenty-seventh of September 1325, the twenty-sixth year only would be running, and so he could not thus have passed to heaven in the twenty-seventh year of his wedlock.

[62] But indeed, because Borély expressed there in detail not only the day, but also other notes of time and age, about which not all agree, I scarcely doubt that he found these same in some ancient instrument which in that place treated of the espousals, and, referring them to the marriage, consequently ascribed to them the year 1299, in which this in truth took place. That I so think, the reasons which I here subjoin have persuaded me. According to Borély, from whom it is evident that the espousals have been confounded with the marriage, that contract of which he speaks was entered upon at Marseilles before Charles II, king of Sicily; both which things Nicolas Loarenchi in the instrument of Bl. Delphine's process, the anonymous author both in the Life to be published and in that published by Surius, Raphaël in the Life of St. Elzéar, and Eberard in the Life of Bl. Delphine, expressly affirm of the espousals. None of these, when they write of the marriage celebrated two years afterwards, makes mention of Marseilles or of the king's presence; nay, the praised anonymous author, in the Life to be published and in that published in Surius, says that this was done in the castle of Poderium Michaëlis, or Podium-Michaëlis, commonly Puy-Michel, which was Delphine's own; with whom the rest, although they do not expressly relate it, agree by the circumstances and their manner of writing. Borély therefore agrees with all these concerning Marseilles and the presence of king Charles II if the espousals be in question, but not if the marriage.

[63] Moreover, the day of the marriage contracted, while the others are silent, are inquired into, the anonymous author of the Life to be published and the Surian edition assign as the feast of St. Agatha, Eberard as that of St. Agnes; the day of the espousals all these have passed over in silence. On the contrary Borély makes no mention of the espousals, and I have proved that the day of St. Cecilia, to which he attached the marriage, cannot be composed with chronology; but that it is otherwise, if it be referred to the espousals, I shall now show. And so from all these things it appears to me most likely that Borély found the aforesaid chronological notes about St. Cecilia's day and the tenth hour of the morning, as also the presence of king Charles and the city of Marseilles, in some ancient monument; and because he had confounded the espousals with the marriage, referred to the latter what was to be referred to the former, and from the same error appended to those notes the years of Christ and the ages of both Spouses, known from elsewhere. If we take these things so, all the reckonings will stand rightly, as will be plain to one considering the following chronology. St. Elzéar was born in the year 1286, in a month unknown to us, but before the twenty-seventh day of September, on which, dying in the year 1323, he was in the thirty-eighth year of his life. Let us suppose, then, that he was born in the month of June.

[64] and are more probably assigned From this until the twenty-second day of November of the year 1296, to which we believe his espousals are to be affixed, there flowed 10 years and about five months, and so he then numbered the eleventh year of his age, which the instruments and writers alleged above attribute to him at the time of the espousals. In the year 1299, on the fifth day of February or the twenty-second of January, he took Bl. Delphine to wife, two years being completed, or the third begun by about six months, after the espousals, while he himself was about twelve years and a half old. At length he dies on the twenty-seventh day of September of the year 1323, which was the twenty-seventh from the espousals contracted, the twenty-fifth from the marriage entered upon, and finally the thirty-eighth of his whole life; all which epochs the instruments and writers whom we have praised in this § have assigned. For the rest, this chronology may indeed wander somewhat from the truth as to the number of months in Elzéar's age, because, as I have noted, the month in which he was born is unknown; but this defect cannot injure the remaining chronology. Nothing likewise can be objected against it from the age of Bl. Delphine, who, since Borély says she was born in the year 1284, but without adding the month, could easily have been in the thirteenth year of her age at the time of the espousals, and in the fifteenth year, whether completed or begun, at the time of the marriage assigned by me. Finally I observe in a few words that Baillet, from the same error by which he attached the espousals to the year 1305 above, referred the marriage to the year 1308.

rather, sensit*

§ IV. Bl. Delphine's happy endeavours in persuading St. Elzéar to virginity: his purpose, first of preserving it, then the vow of both and their most chaste living together.

[ ] Delphine strives to bring her holy Spouse What befell after the marriage was contracted the biographer goes on to set forth in the Life to be published, num. 6. After which solemnity, (says he) on the fourth day the virgin Delphine is solemnly conducted to her Spouse in the place of Ansouis, that she might dwell with him. These nuptials, namely, had been celebrated in the castle of Puimichel, which we have said belonged to Bl. Delphine by paternal inheritance. The castle of Ansouis, its lords Elzéar de Sabran and Cecilia d'Agoult, St. Elzéar's paternal grandfather and grandmother, inhabited, and to their care and governance that pair of young Spouses had been committed. Ermongaus, the Saint's father, seems then to have resided in the kingdom of Naples, where he had the county of Ariano; but his mother Lauduna had perhaps by then already departed from the living, according to what was said in §2. Certainly no further mention is anywhere made of her in the whole Life; and Ermengaus afterwards is recorded only once, on occasion of his death, which we shall prove in its own place to have happened about the year 1309. In that same castle of Ansouis St. Elzéar dwelt with his virgin wife Delphine at the house of his aforesaid grandfather, as the biographer testifies at num. 29, until he had been made twenty years old; when at length, though with difficulty, he obtained leave to abide with her in the castle of Puimichel and himself to govern his own household. What things were done by them meanwhile may be read in the Life, chap. 1 and 2.

[66] But because in their whole life nothing appears so admirable to preserve virginity in wedlock as their virginal chastity in wedlock and in living together, begun at Ansouis and preserved most entire even to death, it has seemed good to me to treat of it here, and to prove it by solid testimonies, chronology being for a little while omitted, which I shall then resume. I begin with the biographer. He, when he had said in the words reported in the preceding number that Delphine on the fourth day after the nuptials celebrated in the castle of Puimichel was conducted to her Spouse in the castle of Ansouis, thus proceeded: And when the silence of night had come, when she had reached the secrets of the bedchamber, the aforesaid virgin began to reveal the secret of her heart to her virgin Spouse. To whom among other things she said: I came unwillingly to the conjugal state, drawn thereto by my parents (that is, by kinsmen and guardians); because I have purposed and do purpose to preserve the treasure of virginity, inspired in me by the Lord. And although the Youth, as yet ignorant of the divine counsel, did not yet purpose in his heart to preserve such virginity, nevertheless, as he was altogether placid and kindly, he heard her gladly, and, seized with divine fear, all that night he touched her not, nor spoke to her an unseemly word.

[67] But she passed that night sleepless, praying with tears and sighs, she strives to lead him. and on bended knees commended her virginity to the Lord to be guarded. And on the following nights, as soon as she was in the secret chamber, the prudent girl forestalled him with chaste, honourable and devout words … Thus therefore both remained virgins. On the same subject the process of Bl. Delphine has these things: That marriage being contracted, when Delphine was asked and importuned by Elziarius with soft and honourable words concerning the carnal union to be had between them, the lady Delphine, then set in the age of fifteen years, addressed the same Elziarius, then set in the age of thirteen years, with such soft and devout words as she could, and induced him to the observance of the purity of virginity; setting before him and adducing the life and examples of many holy men and women,

and especially of Cecilia, Valerian, Alexius and his consort, who led such a life: and repeating her discourse very often concerning the brevity of this life, and the contempt of the world, and the love of the supernal eternal glory, so far that, by the assistance of divine grace, she moved him to tears of devotion. Similar things Peter Eberard writes in the Life of Delphine, except that he clings to his own opinion about the vow of chastity already uttered by her beforehand.

[68] Borély's narration is set forth, Concerning the place and time Borély dissents, book 1, chap. 3, where, since he believed the marriage to have been celebrated at Marseilles before king Charles II, he affirmed that Delphine there in the royal palace revealed to her spouse Elzéar her vow of preserving virginity. If we believe him, Bl. Delphine, having suffered much at the nuptial banquet itself from the wanton sayings of petulant courtiers, as soon as the tables were removed, taking her Spouse by the hand, led him aside with a cheerful countenance into a neighbouring chamber and shut the door, to the wonder of all, who ill construed her feigned modesty at the feast. The discourses which Borély says the most chaste Spouses here used he professes to have received from the testimony of Andrew Durand, canon of Apt, who had learned them from the mouth of Delphine herself, to whom he had been quite intimate in the last years of her life. And since the same writer promised in his preface that he had so expressed testimonies of this kind, authentic as they are, in the style of his own time, that he adhered as accurately as possible to their sense, and that he had preferred to report the witnesses' own assertions entire rather than to weave from them a continuous history, I have thought it not beside the purpose to set down here the aforesaid discourses, translated from Borély's French into Latin.

[69] which he writes to have been done in another place Bl. Delphine therefore, on the testimony of the praised Andrew Durand in Borély, thus addressed her Spouse: My lord count, I have not greatly feared to approach thee, that I might open to thee my thoughts about our happy wedlock. The high esteem in which all hold the endowments of thy mind, and the great piety which thou thyself provest by the daily exercise of so many notable virtues, have made me consent the more easily to this alliance, holding it persuaded that thou art altogether inclined to that most beautiful of all virtues to which a generous mind can aspire. Thinking these things I believed that thou wouldst not be vehemently stricken if I said that I have already consecrated my virginity to God; and since this is no longer of my own choosing, that I cannot determine concerning it for the pleasure of any man; and therefore I beg thee that thou wilt not use thy right, which thou hast obtained over me for the lawful uses of matrimony. That modesty of thine, which betrays itself in thy countenance, makes me hope for a favourable answer, and thy great indulgence and compliances toward me hitherto promise me that thou wilt not be unwilling to approve this counsel of mine.

[70] and with other circumstances Ah, my Lord, how illustrious a work should we do, how pleasing to God, how admirable to the angels, and how prodigious in the esteem of men, if at this very moment of time, when all the court is wanton and thinks us shut in here for the sake of pleasures, we ourselves should consecrate our wedlock to God by a vow of virginity? Would it not, my Lord, be for our highest happiness, if, content with the joining of our minds and affections, and having cast far from us the thoughts which make men like to brute animals, we led on earth a life like to that of angels? Borély subjoins that Elzéar, when he had hesitated somewhat astonished at so unexpected an address from his bride, at length answered: A great undertaking is that which thou urgest, lady, of which we have hitherto no example in the world, and which I should believe to be rather the effect of the fervid devotion of thy youth, which will languish in a riper age, than a mature counsel, from which thou art impelled to an arduous thing which surpasses human devisings. In my judgment indeed thou attemptest what cannot be done, when thou meditatest joining two states so opposed, matrimony with virginity: nor would this be a prodigy unlike wishing to preserve fire in water, since they destroy each other.

[71] To me indeed it would be a pleasure to follow thy counsels, if only it could be done; but since I know no leader in this way, I do not think us more refined in mind than the rest, that we should be the first to begin it. Yet if thou persist in so generous a counsel, we must either part from one another after the example of St. Alexius, or both follow the religious profession. Finally, thou oughtest not to have consented to matrimony, if thou hadst already resolved to cultivate virginity. So it is, my Lord; (Delphine replied to this) the undertaking is arduous, but not insuperable; and although we have no examples, God can grant us graces abundantly enough that we may be the first to begin. Know, my Lord, that I do not speak so firmly in vain, nor should I have proceeded so far, had I not been strengthened by heavenly help. I will not conceal from thee what befell me when I was vehemently urged to this wedlock. Amid my tears and sighs the blessed Virgin, visiting me, deigned to console me, and, when I had committed myself to her protection, bade me fear nothing, and promised that in whatever state I should be her care. These things make me believe that my counsel does not displease her, and that what I propose to thee can be done. Come then, my lord count, do not resist the will of heaven, by which thou hast been given me as a guardian angel.

[72] These things said (subjoins Borély), the countess cast herself upon the ground, he writes on the testimony of Durand the canon, once intimate with Bl. Delphine; and embracing her Spouse's knees, My Lord, said she, I commit myself to thy protection: surely thou wilt not oppose the words of the blessed Virgin, whom thou followest with so tender a love. After these things, on the same testimony in Borély, she went on with sobs alone, and both mingled their tears in a mutual embrace, until Elzéar, breaking silence, thus addressed her again: Come, lady, I cannot refuse thee what thou askest, save the vow of virginity now to be uttered: for I desire to learn by experience what I fear from frailty, and to try my strength before I expose myself to danger. How can we know what will befall us at the age of twenty or thirty years and in the remaining space of our life? At this youthful age indeed it would be easy to utter that vow; but perhaps afterwards it will be hard to keep it. Believe me, lady, let us not put ourselves in danger, if we do not wish to perish in it. As for me, I promise thee that, so long as God shall grant graces, I will strive with all my strength to answer them, and I promise thee fidelity: but it is better to contain oneself from devotion than to be compelled by obligation.

[73] Then the same biographer adds that, when Delphine wished to answer, but not all the things which he there asserts such a noise was raised by the courtiers who stood before the door, with voices and beating upon the doors, that the discourse had to be broken off and the door opened. But that Delphine, not content with St. Elzéar's answers, went to Garsenda Alphanti, that pious matron of whom we have spoken at num. 41 and 42, and, having set forth what she had done, besought her that by the authority in which she was of great weight with him she would bring him to utter the vow of virginity; and that Garsenda promised that she would do this, the countess being much praised and encouraged. Thus far he, praising for that approach to Garsenda the testimony of the aforecited Andrew Durand, from whom he there also recites the words of both. I, on account of the authority of that witness, cannot deny that discourses of this kind were held between St. Elzéar and blessed Delphine, and between her and Garsenda; but concerning the place and time the things which I have adduced both in this § and in the preceding one make me at least doubt.

[74] If it had been permitted me to read Durand's testimonies in the process itself, would I dare hold for certain. I could pronounce more certainly whether he said that they were held in that place and time, or whether Borély, since he had confounded the espousals with the marriage, referred them thither. By the same labour I could have discerned whether, in Durand's opinion, a vow of virginity in Delphine before the marriage is to be admitted, or only a purpose. Certainly that vow, of which neither the anonymous author in the Life to be published nor the procurator of the cause in the instrument of Bl. Delphine's process makes mention — nay, which the latter rather contradicts — becomes the less credible for this also, that Delphine, being bound by it, would not have been allowed, without a relaxation of it, to celebrate matrimony with a Spouse unaware of it and by no means consenting to the preservation of virginity. But that her vow was relaxed is nowhere read; and if it had been relaxed, she would have alleged it in vain to Elzéar for preserving chastity after the marriage was entered upon. Finally, the narration which I adduced above from the Life to be published and from our instrument of Bl. Delphine's process, as it is far simpler, so it also appears more likely. Now I return whence I digressed.

[75] He promises continence to his entreating bride, Although St. Elzéar always yielded to his entreating bride, he did not however at once resolve to preserve virginity perpetually, much less promise it to her or vow it to God. So we learn from the instrument of Delphine's process just praised, in which it is again thus to be read: After the aforesaid things (which I have recited at num. 66 and following), while the said Elziarius, spouse of the said lady Delphine, was still more urgent with the said Delphine, his bride, and importuned her further about consummating the marriage between them by carnal union, it came to pass that Delphine, in the castle of Puimichel, which was that lady's dowry, fell into an infirmity, being violently in fever; and that she, being thus sick and lying in bed, caused her said Spouse to be called to her, and addressed him in this manner: Know, Elziarius, that unless thou consent to me that thou wilt trouble me no further concerning carnal union, I shall never rise alive from this bed; since thou knowest that I would rather die than consent to carnal union: but if it shall please thee to consent to me in this, I hope that God will show me favour, and that I shall escape from this infirmity; and we shall live together henceforth to the glory and honour of God.

[76] yet short of a vow. Certain things of Borély's Then the same Elziarius, her spouse, having heard the words just cited, consented to the same Delphine, whom he most tenderly loved, and promised as she requested; yet short of the emission of any vow for the time. And thus by the prudence, devotion and sanctity of Delphine herself, she drew and led her said Spouse to the observance of perpetual virginity. Agreeing in most things with these, Borély, in chap. 3, varies in some circumstances, praising the testimony of the aforesaid canon of Apt, Andrew Durand, from whom he says he received those things, taken from the mouth of the blessed countess herself while she lived, which I here report in abridgement. Elzéar had already for two years refused to bind himself by a vow of virginity, when Delphine, staying in her castle of Puimichel, felt the approach of a slight fever, and judged that this occasion should be used. She therefore feigns her sickness greater than it was, and sends to Ansouis,

that they should summon her Husband. He hastens thither; she declares to him in his presence that there is but one remedy for her ill, and that he alone can cure her. But the holy Count, easily supposing what the matter was, smiling sweetly, asks what that remedy is. She denies that she will dare to declare it before he had promised that he would do what she was about to ask.

[77] asserted concerning these things Speak then, replied Elzéar; for there is nothing that I would refuse thee. Then indeed Delphine, taking and pressing her Spouse's hand, with sighs and sobs asks and beseeches him that he would at length consent to a vow of virginity. At this he, bursting into tears, said: I am ready, lady, to do what thou desirest; do thou only care for thy health, and we will utter the vow when it shall please thee. But we must find a way by which we may be freed from the persecution of our parents. Thou knowest that they desire nothing so much as offspring from us, and that, having already suspected something of our manner of life, they leave us no moment of time to be freely spent upon our devotion. Thou knowest that it has already often happened that they come by night to spy out what we do in the bedchamber, and that they have even entered it unawares, to see whether we used the same bed. Unless we guard against these things, our life will be a perpetual martyrdom. Something therefore must be found by which we may both provide for our own tranquillity and seem to comply with their desire.

[78] Let not that care trouble thee: (said Delphine here, rejoicing) God, are weighed who for our preservation will grant us His graces, will also suggest a way by which our parents may be satisfied. If we shall have overcome the first temptations of the flesh, we shall easily conquer those which are of the world. Let us only be zealous to win God to us, and let us leave the care of our parents' desires to His providence. At these words Elzéar at length acquiescing answered: Lady, I submit myself wholly to thy will: think only of restoring thy health, and as soon as thou art recovered we will make the vow which thou desirest. Thus far from Borély, who there presently subjoins that that vow was deferred for some time, because on the same day a courier arrived sent from king Charles II at Naples, announcing to Elzéar the death of his father Ermongaus; and therefore he had to set out on the next day for Italy, that he might take possession of the county of Ariano by inheritance. But hence it is manifestly clear that Borély, being too little solicitous about chronology, referred these things to far other times than those in which they happened.

[79] For if that promise of a vow was made two years after the marriage was entered upon, and are refuted. that is, in Borély's own opinion, two years after the year 1299, it must have happened in the year 1301 or the following, and in that same year Ermongaus, St. Elzéar's father, must have ended his day in Italy. But in §5 I shall prove that the death of that Ermongaus and St. Elzéar's Italian journey cannot be placed before the year 1308. Nay, I shall show in the following § that the holy Spouses, for two or three years before Elzéar went to Italy on account of his father's death, dwelt together in the castle of Puimichel and presided over their own household; so that neither time nor occasion could have been wanting to them for performing their promises, if these had been made two years after the marriage. Either therefore the aforesaid sickness of Delphine, and the promise made on that occasion by Elzéar concerning the vow of virginity to be uttered as soon as possible, happened later; or (which seems altogether to be said) he then only promised that he would not importune his bride thereafter about the use of matrimony, which she alone is said to have asked in the instrument of the process which I produced at num. 75 and the following.

[80] Further, that first purpose of the holy Count, as I have said, concerning the preservation of virginity was some time afterwards much confirmed by a notable ecstasy, The Saint is confirmed in his purpose of virginity by an ecstasy, by which he was divinely enlightened on the feast of the great Mother of God assumed into heaven. Let us hear again the instrument of Bl. Delphine's process just praised. After the words given at num. 76 the procurator of the cause there thus proceeds: Subsequently, after some interval of time, in the place of Sault, whither the said Elziarius had gone for the feast of a certain new knighthood, a divine enkindling coming upon him there and thereupon a notable change (as is more fully described in the headings of his life), from that time neither by word nor deed nor by any sign did he further ask or importune concerning carnal union (read: he asked or importuned); nay, from that time by the virtue and sanctity of Delphine that same Spouse of hers was drawn away and removed from all carnal concupiscence. This so wonderful ecstasy, from which the Saint himself was wont to derive the great change in himself, the biographer sets forth more fully in the Life to be published, num. 8 and the following. For the noting of the time it will be useful to have observed from it that the holy Youth had then reached the fifteenth year of his age. The rest that pertains hereto will be able to be elucidated in the Annotations.

[81] and at last, together with his wife, The most chaste Spouses therefore went on by mutual consent to cultivate virginity, bound meanwhile by no vow, which at length at some time Delphine first uttered alone in private, and then both together in the castle of Ansouis before trusty witnesses. Read the matter as it was done in the Life, num. 50 and the following; here I shall assign only the time. The biographer writes at num. 44 that St. Elzéar, when he had been made twenty-three years old, set out for Italy, that he might possess by hereditary right the county of Ariano which his father Ermongaus at his death had left. Accordingly this journey belongs to the year 1308 or the following, since we believe the Saint more probably to have been born in the year 1286. Then at num. 51 he says that he stayed five years in Italy, after which, having returned to Provence, he celebrated Easter in the castle of Ansouis, and there, on the feast of St. Mary Magdalen next following, that is, on the twenty-second day of July, he made together with his blessed wife the vow of which we treat. That this five-year period was only begun becomes likely from the Summary of Bl. Delphine's process, in which the aforesaid return to Provence is said to have happened when a space of four years or thereabouts had already run out; namely after he had set out for Italy.

[82] binds himself by a vow; Let us add therefore a full four years to the year 1308 or the following, and so we shall come to the year 1312 or 1313, the holy Count then numbering, on the twenty-second day of July, the fourteenth or fifteenth year of his marriage. Baillet assigns only about three years to the Saint's stay in Italy, and attached the departure to the year 1318, from the oft-named error of a decade, and the return to the year 1321. The Summary of Delphine's process has these things briefly concerning the same return and the vow of virginity made: Subsequently, when a space of four years (after the Saint's coming into Italy) or thereabouts had already run out, the said lord Elziarius, count of Ariano, returned from the said parts of the kingdom of Sicily to the parts of Provence, and the said lady Delphine, his spouse, made and repeated the said vow of virginity (which, in her Husband's absence, she had uttered alone) again together with that her Spouse, the Sacrament of the Eucharist being there received by them with great devotion from the hand of a certain Religious Friar Minor, the common confessor of those Spouses. This was perhaps father John Juliani, whom the Saint himself in the Life, num. 61, calls the confessor of both, or at least his own, and who in the same place, at num. 3, is said to have discharged the same office with his mother Lauduna.

[83] which, as long as they lived together, they wished to be secret, But as the most chaste Spouses had always most studiously concealed their purpose of virginity, so they enjoined deep silence about it upon the witnesses of their vow. Now the holy Count (they are the biographer's words at num. 55) strictly charged them all that they should disclose to no man his vow and that of his holy consort. The Summary of Bl. Delphine's process agrees, in which it is moreover added that that silence was imposed with the religion of an oath. Receive the words. The lady Delphine and the said Elziarius, spouses, wished and willed that the vow of virginity made by them, as has been said above, and their observance of and perseverance in virginity, should be secret so long as they lived together; and … having sent for and called to them their knights (that is, the nobles whom they had in their service) and the chamber-women (of his wife) and other confidants of theirs, they made them swear that they would keep secret the state of those spouses as to the aforesaid vow and virginity, and would reveal it to no one so long as those Spouses should lead their life among men.

[84] But how holily and how entirely the praised Spouses always lived, in conjugal living together and a common chamber although they used the same bed, it is pleasing to set forth also from another source than the Life to be published. The Summary of Bl. Delphine's process has these things again: For a great part of the said time (of twenty-seven years, as is premised there, for which I have proved above that twenty-five years should be substituted), and for the most part and always, except at certain times in which the said Elziarius sometimes betook himself to other parts as business required, those Spouses cohabited together in the same lodging and in the same chamber and in the same bed. And from the time that the said marriage was contracted between them, as is premised, Delphine never slept except clothed, nor would she touch the flesh of her said Husband, nor even his hand, save on certain occasions when Delphine washed her said Spouse's head, or, when he was sick, touched his head and his pulse. These things are conformable to the statements of Bertranda Bartholomea of Puimichel, who, as Borély testifies in chap. 4, gave testimony that she had often seen them both, at home and especially on a journey, when they lay in bed, clothed in a tunic of ash colour under their shift.

[85] The same Bertranda is there said to have asserted that Elzéar was never seen by her to be touched by his wife, preserving their virginity unstained, except when he suffered from a pain in the head or some other malady, when she out of duty soothed his forehead with her hand or examined the beating of his artery. This too she says was observed by her, that these most chaste Spouses, as often as either returned from abroad, were wont so to embrace one another that they did not touch each other's faces, much less impress a kiss; although the tears poured forth for joy plainly proved their mutual love. The praised Bertranda is reckoned in the Summary of Elzéar's process among the witnesses who were of his household, and who therefore were bidden to render the grounds of their statements by their sight of him and their converse had with him. Borély, who had the process itself, writes that she was for forty continuous years partly in the service of both, partly of Delphine alone after her holy Husband's death. He adds also that she was their chamber-maid, and one of those two who long slept in their chamber by command of his grandfather and grandmother, that they might observe them and keep them from nocturnal prayers, of which matter we shall say something in the following §. Meanwhile it will be profitable to have noted these things here for winning greater credit for what has been said.

[86] As regards the use of a common bed, in

it they must be said to have persisted for no other cause and the endeavours of their kinsmen for the getting of children from them than that they might the better conceal first their purpose and then their vow of virginity; whether they did this from zeal for humility, or for the sake of avoiding the troublesome dissuasions of their kinsfolk, or rather from both causes. Certainly, as long as they lived in the castle of Ansouis under the governance of his grandfather and grandmother, care had studiously to be taken lest these should come to know of it, who from their excessive desire for grandchildren were troublesome to them even as things were. Certainly Eberard in the French Life of Bl. Delphine relates that the grandmother Cecilia, since she was wholly ignorant of the secret, consulted various physicians, that by the help of medicines she might promote Delphine's fertility; and that Delphine, lest she should bring in any suspicion of her purpose of virginity, complied in all things with her persuading grandmother. But these things seem somewhat amplified, and I prefer here to believe Borély, who narrates them a little otherwise on the testimony of a certain skilled Papal physician, whom from the circumstances he suspected to have been Arnold of Villanova.

[87] prudently eluded, According to him the matter stood thus. This physician, being asked for that purpose by the viscounts of Marseilles, Delphine's kinsmen, had engaged his services, and, because he knew both to be vigorous, had not hesitated even to promise a happy outcome. When this came to Delphine's ears, since she had no other way of escape, she asks her confessor to inform the physician how the matter stood. He obeys; and the physician, admiring so singular a virtue, promised secrecy, and then, having looked upon them in person, pronounced to the kinsmen that they were so constituted that whatever remedies of this kind he should prescribe for them would gravely injure their health and would not conduce to the end which they had set before themselves. By this means, subjoins Borély, these two virgin Spouses were freed from that fear. For the rest, the danger of incontinence was so far from them that from their living together and their familiar intercourse they were even more and more confirmed in their purpose of virginity. So expressly teaches the oft-mentioned Summary of Bl. Delphine's process, from which I have excerpted the following.

[88] in a wonderful manner they mutually Her said Spouse, while he lived among men, often and many times before divers persons worthy of credit said and asserted … that the more and the more familiarly he, her Spouse, abode and conversed with the same lady Delphine, the firmer and the more secure he felt himself concerning his own virginity, and the fewer temptations he suffered and had against the purity of virginity and of life; and he remained of greater constancy and of a more fervent purpose to serve God: and so for twenty-seven (nay, twenty-five) years, as is premised, they lived together, not dividing lodging, chamber or bed, in chastity and virginal observance. Very similar things has the Life to be published, num. XI and 12, where Delphine also is said to have experienced the same things in herself, and therefore commonly called him the nourisher of the good things which God had placed in her, and the father of her soul and the guardian of her virginity. That I may not be too prolix, I omit other testimonies which may be read in Borély, but I add the last declaration of St. Elzéar himself from the Life to be published, num. 69.

[89] cherished their virginal chastity even to death. He, in the twenty-fifth year of his wedlock, being reduced to extremity at Paris by sickness, although in his whole life he had studiously concealed his own virginity and that of his holy consort, nevertheless at the end of his days, compelled by the Holy Spirit, speaking of it before those who stood by, burst out into these words: A bad Man has been saved by a good woman, whom, as I received her a virgin, so in this mortal life I leave a virgin. Finally, this virginity of Elzéar's Delphine herself, then still surviving among the living, made certain by her irrefragable testimony in the process of his canonization, as Gregory XI, supreme Pontiff, testified in the Bull by which he promulgated that Saint's canonization, in these words: But since (Elzéar) advanced in greater age, and went forward into longer times, with so much the ampler fervour of spirit did he burn into His (God's) love, and so cleaved to the works of chastity, so was zealous to avoid the contagions of the flesh, that, although he had a wife, young in age and illustrious in nobility, yet, as is evident from the testimonies of the said wife and of his confessor, the Saint himself ever shone red with virginal whiteness. More on the same subject will occur in the Life and Annotations.

§ V. The troublesome dwelling of both Spouses with his grandparents, then a more tranquil one in the castle of Puimichel: the Saint's succession to the inheritance of his dead father, and his wonderful meekness: the precepts promulgated by him: his promotion to the equestrian Order, and his soldiering.

[ ] The holy spouses, dwelling with his grandparents, We have said above that St. Elzéar, after the nuptials celebrated in the castle of Puimichel in the year 1299, withdrew together with his blessed wife, the virgin Delphine, to the castle of Ansouis, and dwelt there with his grandfather Elzéar and his grandmother Cecilia. How grievous this dwelling was to them may be gathered well enough from this, that they had to live there at the discretion of those who, since they desired offspring from them above all, did not cease to provoke them to delights and to hinder them from the exercise of virtues. That these things may become clearer, it is pleasing to add here some things from Borély. On his testimony the oft-praised canon Durand, who on account of his piety and remarkable skill in medicine was quite intimate with Bl. Delphine in the last ten years, learned from the blessed countess herself the things which he testified upon this subject, and which I here briefly report. The aforesaid grandfather and grandmother, always intent upon all their actions, carped at whatever was praiseworthy; they forbade the ecclesiastical fasts, and held suspect their daily care of hearing Mass. And not content with these things, they wished to be informed what they did in the night hours also.

[91] For suspecting that they lay not in a common chamber but apart on benches or seats, who desired offspring from them above all, they ordered a certain old woman with another chamber-maid to sleep in the same chamber, that they might most studiously observe them and keep them from pious works. Hence in the evening they could scarcely have recited the Lord's Prayer twice before the imperious old woman would presently cry out that they must go to bed; that that hypocrisy was vain; that that place was destined for sleep, not for prolonged prayer; that that devotion must be deferred until they were in church; and finally that they must sleep without importunate prayers. Nay, she went so far in importunity that she was not satisfied until she saw them stripped of their garments and lying in bed. The companion of this old woman, Bertranda Bartholomea (of whom consult what is said at num. 84 and 85), is said in Borély to have testified the same things and to have added some things pertaining hereto, which contracted into an abridgement are as follows. The pious Spouses were wont to feign sleep until they found that their observers had fallen asleep: but then, going forth presently from the bed, they gave themselves to the prayer they longed for.

[92] Bertranda testified, I say, that this was observed by her as often as she too feigned sleep, they are hindered from the exercise of virtues: that she might enjoy so sweet a spectacle; and that she had seen them praying with so great modesty that, bathed in pious tears, she took good care not to hinder them; nay, that she would have joined herself as their companion, had she not feared that she would thus disturb their holy affections and awaken the old woman with whom she lay. Moreover she declared that, when she herself had risen with the same old woman very early in the morning as the custom was, they were wont, the door of the chamber being secretly shut, to return to prayer, all the windows being left closed meanwhile, that they might seem to sleep far into the daylight. And this she says was discovered by her several times, when, the door not being rightly bolted, she went back into the chamber with hushed step, lest she should awaken the sleepers, whom she knew to have prayed until midnight, and then found them praying again with knees bent to the ground. She adds finally that she was much besought by them not to reveal to anyone, especially to his grandfather, what she had seen; and that she willingly promised this and stood by her promises.

[93] hence they remove to the castle of Puimichel, Since these things are so, it is nothing wonderful if, as the biographer asserts, St. Elzéar urged his grandfather with many prayers and with difficulty obtained that he might be permitted, with his wife, to have his own domicile and his own household in the castle of Puimichel, which belonged to her. This holy Youth, he says in the Life at num. 29, as he grew in age, so he advanced and increased in grace and merit and perfection, and his holy desire of working better grew continually. Whence when he had been made twenty years old, and his heart was not at rest in the castle of Ansouis on account of the superfluous care which his grandfather and all his household had in nurturing him in the acts and wantonness of worldly men, after many instances of prayer he obtained that he might go to the castle of Puimichel, which was the virgin Delphine's own by paternal succession and disposition: in which castle they remained for three years; and by changing their place they changed their manners for the better. Before I proceed, the chronology must briefly be noted.

[94] and most holily order their own household. St. Elzéar was in the thirteenth year of his age when in the month of January or February, a few days after it had begun, in the year 1299, he brought his bride to Ansouis. When he departed hence to Puimichel he numbered twenty years, which, added to the year 1286 in which he was born, show that this change of domicile belongs to about the year 1306, not to 1315, to which Baillet wrongly referred it from ignorance of the Saint's age at which he died. For about seven years, therefore, he abode with his wife in the castle of Ansouis, and was compelled to live after another's manner. Being freed from this kind of captivity, and having become at last their own masters, it is wonderful with what virtues the holy Spouses shone, and with what holy laws they instructed and ruled their domestic household: so that it presented the appearance not so much of the house of a baron or a count as of a most excellently ordered monastery. Consult the Life to be published, chap. 3, where these things are set forth more fully. Nor were miracles wanting, by which the divine Omnipotence deigned to illustrate the wonderful charity of His Servant toward the afflicted, and which in the Annotations I shall there confirm also from other sources.

[95] His father being dead, he sets out for Italy Meanwhile St. Elzéar's father Ermongaus, living in the kingdom of Naples, met his last day, and he himself, as firstborn heir, had to set out thither that he might take possession of his paternal county of Ariano. The Summary of Delphine's process says these things upon this matter: When the cycles of certain years had passed (after the marriage entered upon), it came to pass that the count of Ariano, father of the said Elzéar, being in the parts of the kingdom of Sicily and in his county of Ariano, departed this life. Wherefore the same Elzéar, his father's successor in the said county, as being his firstborn son, betook himself from the parts of Provence to the said parts of the kingdom, and was there for some time, the said Delphine his spouse being left behind in the parts of Provence. The time of the journey the biographer indicates more clearly at num. 44 of the Life to be published; When he had been made, he says, twenty-three years old, his

father being dead, he remained count of Ariano and lord of the barony and of Ansouis by his father's disposition. And then he first entered Italy to take possession of the said county.

[96] According to these things and to the chronology established above, that death of Ermongaus and St. Elzéar's journey into Italy to take up the county of Ariano: are to be referred to the year 1309, or at least not earlier than to 1308. Here Claudio Bilancetti agrees with us in the Italian Life, chap. 5, where he attached them to the year of Christ 1309 and to the Saint's twenty-third. On the contrary Borély differs widely, when in book 1 of the Life, chap. 5, he writes on the testimony of Bertranda Bartholomea that these things happened in the third year of their wedlock, that is, by Borély's own reckonings, in the year of the common era 1302. I, to whom it was not permitted to consult Bertranda's testimony in the process, am compelled to doubt whether it stands so; and if in fact it does so stand, to believe it corrupt, because of the arguments which I shall set forth for the studious reader to weigh. Borély proceeds in his opinion, disapproved by me in the preceding §, from which he establishes that St. Elzéar, two years and a half after the marriage was celebrated, promised the sick Delphine that, as soon as she should have recovered, he would bind himself by a vow of virginity; but that this was deferred longer, because, news of Ermongaus's death being received the same day, Elzéar had set out on the next day for Italy. But the biographer reckoned about ten years between the celebration of the aforesaid marriage and the Saint's departure into Italy, of which he affirms that they dwelt seven in the castle of Ansouis, and the rest at Puimichel.

[97] The author of the Summary of Delphine's process, although he does not express the years, which is to be referred to the year 1308 or the following, nevertheless altogether favours the biographer, and cannot be reconciled with Borély. For after he had treated of the marriage contracted, and of the aforesaid sickness of the blessed countess, and of the wonderful ecstasy which the holy Count had undergone in the house of Sault, he at length subjoined: After the aforesaid things, when the cycles of certain years had passed, it came to pass that the count of Ariano, father of the said Elziarius, being in the parts of the kingdom of Sicily and in his county of Ariano, departed this life, etc. Who would compose these things with the statements of Borély, who asserted that between the marriage and the departure only two years and a half, and between this and blessed Delphine's sickness scarcely one day, intervened? But indeed, if the same be compared with the biographer's assertions, it will be plain to one considering them that they have no difficulty at all. There is added also another reason, namely that Ermongaus is read in Fabio Barberio, in the Catalogue of the bishops of Ariano, to have given certain things to bishop Raynus and to the canons of that church in the year 1307. Barberio's words I gave above at num. 31 and the following, which, as they are by no means contrary to the biographer's reckonings, are altogether opposed to Borély's.

[98] Besides this, from the same Barberio's Catalogue Ermongaus must be said not to have remained in life long after the aforecited year 1307. not to 1302, For in the case of Raynus's next successor, being silent about Ermengaus, he records St. Elzéar as count of Ariano; saying: Rostagnius, bishop of Ariano, sat about the year MCCCIX, under the Pontificate … of Clement V. This prelate established a fixed number of twelve canons in his cathedral church. At which time St. Elisearius held dominion, and was count of this city, and not of some other land of Gaul near Narbonne, as Nicolaus Lelius falsely narrated in a certain Opusculum which he dedicated to the most illustrious Anna Maria Cesi Peretti, princess of Venafro, when he treated of that Saint's life. Thou seest, studious reader, how these things again agree with our reckonings, according to which the death of Ermongaus must have fallen in the year 1308 or 1309. Wherefore, however Bertranda Bartholomea's testimony may stand, which Borély alleged, I judge that we must cleave to the chronology which I have hitherto woven from the biographer. But by what means, thou wilt say, did Borély find those two years and a half in the testimony of the praised Bertranda, and in what way could she, who lived in the service of those Spouses, have hallucinated so greatly in this matter?

[99] nor to 1318. For my part I suspect that Bertranda's testimony was wrongly understood by Borély. She may have said that Ermongaus died when Elzéar and Delphine had already dwelt tranquilly about two years and a half in their castle of Puimichel; but that Borély by an error reckoned that space of time, not from the beginning of their habitation in that castle, but from the marriage contracted. This being supposed, Bertranda will agree with our biographer, and at the same time it will appear why Borély, both here and in the preceding §, made premature the death of Ermongaus and St. Elzéar's Italian journey, and wrote other things which manifestly conflict with the Life to be published and with the Summary itself of Bl. Delphine's process. Wadding and Baillet also dissent from me, of whom the latter in the Life attached the death of Ermongaus and the Saint's journey to the year 1318; the former, in tom. 6 of the Annals of the Minors, placed it about the year 1319. But this error is to be excused, because it arose from that Saint's badly written year of death, from which also the disturbance of the remaining chronology necessarily followed. Both, however, agree that St. Elzéar then numbered the twenty-third year of his life, and the tenth or eleventh of his wedlock. But enough of these things now.

[100] Being made count of Ariano, he shows an admirable meekness toward rebels It is likely that Elzéar de Sabran, the Saint's grandfather, had also died by then, since our Elzéar is said above at num. 95 to have then received, by the disposition or testament of his deceased father, not only the county of Ariano but also the barony of Ansouis. So ample an inheritance supplied new matter for virtues to the holy Count; and since the biographer sets these forth more fully in chap. 4, I shall here only briefly touch upon them, except where some illustration shall seem to be needed. In the first place he displayed a surpassing meekness to his new subjects of Ariano, whose injuries, reproaches and snares he bore for three years most placidly, Philip I, prince of Taranto, urging him in vain to recall the rest to obedience by the hanging and mutilation of some. At length the Man's clemency conquered, and brought it about that thenceforth he was both honoured by the people of Ariano as a lord and loved as a father. What was the cause of their hatred of him is not clear; nor was it perhaps other than that they turned away from a Frenchman born and brought up in France, or that those among them who were of a more licentious life ill endured so holy a Count.

[101] and toward his calumniators: Another specimen of truly heroic meekness the biographer subjoins in the same place. The holy Count had found letters full of calumnies against him, by which certain men had tried to induce his father Ermongaus, while he lived, not to write him his heir. But the most gentle Man not only punished or rebuked none of the calumniators, but even honoured the chief author of the letters above the other nobles, enriched him with gifts, and pursued him with marks of a special love. And when he was once reading those letters aloud to his wife, and she asked whether he would not at least show them to the said calumniators for the sake of their amendment, I, said he, forgive them wholly and from the heart in this crime; and far be it from me to open those letters to them. Nay, I wish them to know that I am simply ignorant of such things: for if they perceived that I knew them, they would already be in great part punished; because they would always fear me, and I should be continually suspect in their hearts: and, the letters being destroyed, this will never come to their knowledge. So the biographer. Further, it is most likely that the calumniators wished to persuade Ermongaus to institute as heir his second-born son, born perhaps of another mother than Lauduna, William by name; that very man, namely, to whom St. Elzéar left his county and his other possessions by testament, as we shall say in its own place.

[102] Among the first cares of his rule this was one, he tempers justice with mercy. that he should discharge his father's legacies and debts; and these were so heavy that, whatever he attempted at once, he was able, as the biographer testifies, to wipe them out entirely only one year before his death. What would have grieved others pleased him: for he gave thanks to God that he had received an inheritance burdened with so great a debt that it could scarcely delight even the followers of worldly things. He wished justice to be so exercised toward his subjects that neither should indulgence make impunity for crimes, nor should the severity of the laws exclude mercy. Nay, he was wont himself to visit those condemned to death, to console them, and to prepare them for repentance of their crimes and for a Christian death; all which things thou wilt find set forth at greater length in the cited chap. 4 of the Life to be published. Hither likewise pertain the ten precepts which (though perhaps at another time and place) Borély relates in chap. 6 to have been enacted and promulgated by him, and asserts to have been found by himself in the archive of the Friars Minor of Apt, written on parchment, which, on account of its antiquity and the likeness of the characters, known to him from elsewhere, he suspected to have been written by none other than Elzéar himself.

[103] He professes also that he reports them in the Saint's own phrases; Ten salutary precepts, which, unless we take it only of an accurate interpretation, they cannot appear to have been written by that Saint's hand, since the French tongue in which they stand in Borély is too discordant with his age, that is, with the fourteenth century begun by a few years or grown to maturity. Whatever it be, I shall here recount them from Borély, translated into Latin. The first. Let none of my subjects dare in any way to Blaspheme within my dominions: for as the praises which are given to God win us His great favours and happily procure the divine graces, so perjuries, abjurations and all execrable utterances of this kind, which savour of the speech of hell rather than of earth-dwellers, draw down upon us the thunderbolts of heaven, which ruin both our body and our soul. The second. Secondly I wish to introduce into all my lands piety toward the holy Mother of God; and therefore I wish that all my subjects choose her for their patroness: for since we have need of the mercy of God, we can supplicate none better than this omnipotent Queen, since she deigns to take up our protection and shows herself the refuge of all sinners.

[104] Besides, I especially forbid that anyone be occupied in any servile work on the feast days worthy of a holy count, which holy Church has consecrated to His worship; and I wish that all my subjects on those days be present at Mass and the divine office, under penalty of the chastisement to be inflicted by my officials appointed for this end. The third. I bid my officials take care that in all my lands men live chastely, and that the voluptuous, the lustful and the shameless be driven out. But if any adulterer be found among them, let him be publicly reproved a first and a second time; but the third time let him be chastised and cast out: because, since it is evident that nothing defiled shall enter into paradise, nothing impure is to be tolerated among Christians, who are destined for eternal glory. The fourth. I wish that all the greater feasts of the Church be most exactly and solemnly celebrated in my house: such as those of Easter, of Pentecost, of All Saints, and of the Nativity of the Lord: that all on these feasts confess their sins;

or at least that no one pass two of these feasts without confession and communion; as also the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin our mother, and the days of her Annunciation; that she may ever favour us as long as we shall be in this world, and in the hour of our death may be our advocate for obtaining for us the grace of her Son.

[105] to be accurately observed by his subjects The fifth. I forbid my house to the slothful and to those unwilling to labour for the sustaining of life by their own work: and lest the distribution of corn, which I take care to have made every year for the relief of the needy, be to them a cause of sloth, and lest from the hope of this assured alms they cease to procure themselves a living by their labour, I especially forbid my officials to give corn to those whom they shall have found abusing this favour. I wish them to leave such men to their own misery, lest I destroy their soul by idleness while I strive by the help bestowed that their body may not die of hunger. The sixth. Public games of dice, as being assemblies in which God is everywhere offended by foul abjurations, and as being occasions of all quarrels, I proscribe: yet I do not forbid men to take recreation on feast days, that they may refresh limbs wearied by the working days; but let those recreations be without gain and without loss of temporal goods; since losses of this kind cannot but beget enmities among my subjects. The seventh. Let all live in peace, and that they may preserve so fair a virtue, quarrels, contentions and injuries must be avoided, which belong rather to demons than to men endowed with reason.

[106] he promulgates. The eighth. If ever it happen that they quarrel, I do not wish the sun to set unless they are reconciled: this is the counsel of the Gospel, admonishing us not to fall asleep in enmities, lest the common enemy of all, ever watchful against us, abuse our intemperance against ourselves in the night season. The ninth. I expressly command that on all feast days, and on others on which a sacred sermon shall be held, all the inhabitants of the village who shall then be present in the place come to the church to hear the word of God, which is the true nourishment of the soul: and if at the time of the sermon certain slothful and irreligious persons be found in the streets, let them be committed to prison, and be punished as neglectful of the salvation of their souls. The tenth. Let none of my subjects harm his neighbour in goods or in honour; but let them honour one another, as it behoves Christians to do, who have been marked with the character of Jesus Christ by Baptism, and are all destined to enjoy eternal felicity together. Thus far the precepts, worthy of the holy Count, which, because I have not found them elsewhere, are to be reported on Borély's credit. Nevertheless the fourth precept seems to regard only the Saint's domestic household, at least as far as concerns the sacramental expiation of the soul and the Eucharistic table; yet he prescribed a more frequent use of both to the noblemen and noblewomen who dwelt in his palace; for these were bound to confess every week and to approach the divine banquet every month, as the biographer of the Life to be published testifies at num. 30. I have already noted above that these precepts, if they were truly issued by St. Elzéar, could easily have been promulgated at another time; namely after he returned into Provence, or after he had gone back again into Italy, as we shall see in their own places. But in his first Neapolitan stay befell his promotion to knighthood, or the equestrian order of nobles, to which (as the Life has it at num. 50) he was there raised at that time by Robert, king of Naples and count of Provence, surnamed the Good and the Wise, who had succeeded his father Charles II, who died in the year 1309.

[107] Raphaël in the French Life, chap. 13, writes that this honour was conferred upon him He is initiated into the equestrian order by Robert, king of Naples; because in a tournament or sportive contest of the lance, in French joute, being commanded by king Robert and long resisting, he had in fighting excelled all the rest. He adds that after the contest he withdrew secretly to a church, and while he was praying God's pardon for his deed, an angel appeared to him, who, having inflicted three strokes of a rod, declared that this offence was forgiven him. He subjoins finally that the same Saint then fell into so wonderful an ecstasy that he heard neither the trumpets nor the other instruments amid which he was to be conducted to the king, and that he had to be recalled otherwise to the use of his senses. But our biographer, recording nothing of that sportive contest, nothing of the angel, asserts that the ecstasy took place when, after a night spent in prayers in the church, he was to be initiated in the morning into the equestrian order. Hence I plainly know not by what authority or on what witness that narration of Raphaël rests.

[108] To the aforesaid stay of St. Elzéar in the kingdom of Naples are to be referred the things which the biographer, and being commanded by him he serves in arms in another place, at num. 66, related in this manner concerning the warlike service rendered by him against Henry VII, otherwise VI, emperor. For it befell the holy Man that once, by command of king Robert, whose subject and vassal he was, he went to Rome for feats of arms with the lord John, the king's brother, against the emperor Henry, who had committed many things against the liberty of the Church. And when he was in the war at Rome, he delivered a strong German of the adverse party from the hands of those who wished to kill him. Concerning this war, in which the holy Count perhaps had a small part, Odoricus Raynaldus may be consulted in the continuation of the Annals of Cardinal Baronius, tom. 15, at the year of Christ 1312, and Lodovico Muratori, tom. 8 of the Annals of Italy, at the same year; from whom it will suffice to have noted a few things here. Henry of Luxemburg, elected emperor of the Romans and confirmed by Pope Clement V, came to Rome in the year 1312, that he might there be crowned by the Cardinals, to whom the praised Clement, who sat at Avignon, had for this end committed his own place.

[109] But Robert, king of Naples, head of the Guelfs, sent aid to the Orsini and other Roman Guelfs against the emperor Henry. who opposed the emperor, under the leadership of his brother John. Increased by these and other forces, the Guelfs began to join hands with the Ghibellines; and when they had tried in vain to keep Henry from entering the city of Rome, they held out in the Vatican Basilica and in the Leonine city which they had occupied; so that Henry was compelled to be adorned with the imperial ornaments in the Lateran church, and at length even to withdraw from Rome. In this warlike expedition, then, St. Elzéar, being commanded by his king Robert, may have contributed his service. For the rest, the things which the biographer records of Henry's deeds against ecclesiastical liberty seem to have happened a little later, namely when the emperor after his coronation denied that he had sworn the oath of fidelity to Clement the Pontiff. The remaining matters pertaining hereto we shall give in the Annotations.

§ VI. The Saint's return into Provence, and the vow of perpetual virginity uttered there by him and Bl. Delphine: his profession of the third Rule of St. Francis weighed: the testament made by him: his return into Italy and the offices there discharged.

[ ] He summons his wife into Italy, The fifth or sixth year was already running since St. Elzéar was staying in the kingdom of Naples, when at length he called to himself his dearest wife Bl. Delphine, who had meanwhile governed her household and subjects in Provence, and with her Garsenda Alphanti. The cause of his summoning them our biographer relates at num. 50 and the following to have been that he might, together with his Spouse, utter the long-meditated vow of virginity in the presence of Garsenda, that pious and illustrious matron whom the Saint venerated as a mother on account of her surpassing virtues and the instruction received from her in his tender years, and whom he knew to desire nothing in this life so much as to be present at that vow. But since she then lay sick, Delphine indeed set out for Italy, but after some stay there returned with her holy Spouse into Provence, that this consolation might be given to Garsenda. Yet it is most likely that this was not the only cause of that journey, but that there was another, and that perhaps the chief; namely that Delphine might visit the court of king Robert and the county of Ariano, and that he himself might at some time return to his barony of Ansouis and to the other things which he possessed in Narbonese Gaul, and might bestow his cares also upon his subjects there.

[111] and with her in the year 1314 or the following Leave of departure being obtained from king Robert, though with difficulty, and on this condition, that both should return within two years, they set out thence and arrived at Ansouis before the Easter of that year, as we have it from the Life to be published, num. 52 and the following. About the year some difficulty here occurs. From the same Life, num. 51, St. Elzéar had then remained in Italy five years, but from the Summary of Bl. Delphine's process, when a space of four years or thereabouts had already run out, when he returned into Gaul. And these places indeed could easily be reconciled by reckoning five incomplete years, which added to the year 1309, in which we placed his departure into Italy at num. 96, would yield the year of Christ 1314, to be assigned to his arrival in Provence, were it not that other things stand in the way. For, on the testimony of the same biographer at num. 55, the holy Count, when the two years which he was in the parts of Provence were completed, returned to Naples, as he had had in command from king Robert. Elzéar therefore would have to be said to have sought Italy again in the year 1316, about whose Easter that two-year period would have been completed.

[112] he returned into Provence, But what makes against our believing this is that Saint's own testament, to be recorded more fully below, which, since it is marked as made at Toulon on the eighteenth day of July in the year 1317, altogether persuades that his return into Italy happened in this year; unless one prefers to believe, without any other argument, that Elzéar returned again into Provence in that year, or that the year of the testament is faulty; neither of which is likely. It behoves therefore either to ascribe three completed years instead of two to the holy Count's stay in Provence, or five years completed by some months to his abiding in Italy, or at least to place his first journey into Italy one year later, that is, in the year 1310. Baillet, always clinging to his error about the Saint's age at death, attached the aforesaid return into Provence to the year 1321: but I judge that from the remaining chronology it is to be referred to the year 1314 or 1315.

[113] The Saints' arrival among their own people in Narbonese Gaul was a joy to all, where in the castle of Ansouis, after Easter had been celebrated, and to a certain kinsman of Elzéar, Rostang de Sabran, even a salvation. For he, when he was leading a too licentious life, and had then not confessed his sins for two years, as soon as he had embraced the holy Count, felt himself smitten with so salutary a sorrow of mind that he could neither rest nor take food before he had cleansed his mind amid abundant tears in the sacred tribunal of penance. The virgin spouses, having entered their castle of Ansouis, visited Garsenda, who then lay sick from illness, and, having set forth the cause of their coming, exceedingly gladdened her. In that same castle the feast of Easter, which in the year 1314 fell on the day

the seventh of April, but in the following year on the twenty-third of March, they celebrated together, and from the feast of Easter (the words are the biographer's at num. 53 and the following) until the feast of Mary Magdalen (that is, until the twenty-second of July), applying themselves in the said castle of Ansouis to the divine praises and to meditations, on the very feast of Mary Magdalen in the chapel of Bl. Catherine they most devoutly heard Mass and received the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

[114] And because the lady Garsenda could not be at the Mass, and a pious preparation, both utter the vow of virginity since she lay sick, therefore, the Mass being ended, they go at once to her house, and before her, in the presence of the lady Alasia, sister of the virgin Delphine, and of the lord Inardus, knight, son of the said lady Garsenda, all others being excluded, they made their vows in this manner. First indeed the holy Count, with bended knees and hands joined upon the Missal, vowed his vow saying: Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every good and every gift proceeds, I, a frail and infirm sinner, cannot without Thy special gift be continent or chaste; but trusting in Thy singular help, I vow and promise to Thee and to the glorious Virgin and to all the Saints to live chastely all the time of my life and to preserve the virginity which until now Thy clemency has guarded in me; and for the keeping of this promise I am ready to suffer whatsoever tribulations and pains, and moreover bodily death. And there the holy virgin Delphine in like manner repeated in public the vow of virginity which she had before made in secret (while her Husband was absent in Italy). And last of all the aforesaid knight, the lord Inardus, made a like vow of chastity.

[115] Thus far the biographer, who after a few things thus proceeds: Now the holy Count strictly charged them all and they bid it be concealed. that they should disclose to no man his vow and that of his holy consort. The Summary of Bl. Delphine's process has it more briefly on the same subject: Subsequently, when a space of four years or thereabouts had already run out, the said lord Elziarius, count of Ariano, returned from the said parts of the kingdom of Sicily to the parts of Provence: and the said lady Delphine, his spouse, made and repeated the said vow of virginity again together with that her Spouse, the Sacrament of the Eucharist being there received by them with great devotion from the hand of a certain Religious Friar Minor, the common confessor of those Spouses. Then, some things being interposed, there follows also in the same place that both strictly forbade their people that any should reveal this vow to anyone while they lived: the words I gave above at num. 83. Borély, book 1, chap. 3 and 5, agrees about the vow of virginity uttered by both, but varies in the circumstances, of which something must now be said.

[116] Another narration of Borély's concerning the uttering of that vow, In his opinion the matter stood thus. Delphine was not summoned by Elzéar into Italy, but remained in Provence, always exceedingly anxious lest the Neapolitan court should pervert her Spouse's chaste manners and draw him away from the vow of virginity which, as he says, he had promised her when about to depart from Provence. After four years Elzéar, concealing the cause of his return, which was the very uttering of the vow, came into Provence with a great retinue and pomp. Hence Delphine, suspecting something of a change in his mind, betrayed her anguish in her countenance, Elzéar wondering and asking why she alone, when all the rest rejoiced, seemed somewhat sad at his coming. But she at first evaded an answer; but then, addressing him apart, asked what he thought about the promised vow. To whom he: I consented to the divine inspirations before I consented to thy counsels; and therefore I would rather die than fail of what was promised to God and of the faith given to thee. Know, my lady, that the execution of our desire was all the time I was at Naples more at my heart than at thine, who didst suggest it.

[117] which varies in its circumstances, Our affairs there are in such a state that they would have demanded a long stay from me, had not love of thee impelled me to ask leave of the king to depart; which I obtained with the greatest difficulty, nor should I have obtained it, had I not myself seemed to bear thy absence grievously; and on that head I was a byword to the whole court. Indeed one of the nobles once said these very words: It is fair, O king, that thou grant a young Husband leave to see his lady after four years' absence. I have come therefore to discharge my promises, and without further delay the vow of virginity must be fulfilled tomorrow. In chap. 5 he adds that he, to remove all anxiety from his bride, drawing back his garment somewhat, showed the hair shirt with which he was clothed next to the naked flesh. But concerning the uttering of the vow he presently subjoined in chapter 3: They could not but disclose their counsel to father John Juliani of Riez, who was their confessor, and to the damsel Alphanti, to whom the hearts of both lay open. The confessor celebrated Mass in the chapel of the castle of Ansouis; and after he had refreshed them with the divine Eucharist, he received from them the vow of virginity upon the Breviary which belonged to the countess. So the lord Durand testified, asserting that that same Breviary had once been seen by him in the countess's hands.

[118] is weighed. This narration of Borély's differs not a little in its circumstances from the biographer's account; nor have I anything from elsewhere by which I may confirm either. Borély indeed praises for himself Andrew Durand, canon of Apt, intimate with Bl. Delphine and a careful investigator of her life; but since the same Borély, as I have already noted above, certainly errs here in the time, and has elsewhere too misinterpreted the statements of witnesses, I would not dare charge the biographer with a certain error. Certainly he sets forth the time and the other circumstances so distinctly that I can scarcely doubt that in this place too, as almost everywhere else, he had before his eyes and followed the process of canonization or some other instrument of good character. The one thing in the biographer's assertions which might seem to anyone less likely is that the holy Spouses are said to have made their vows not in the chapel but in the bedchamber of the sick Garsenda. But this could have been done from the singular love and veneration of both toward that pious matron and their guide to the exercise of virtue, and at the same time for the sake of a safer secrecy: for she herself is said to have vehemently desired it, and the revelation of the secret had less danger if these things were done in a private chamber than if in the public chapel of the castle. And so, until more certain things be produced, I prefer to cleave to the biographer.

[119] Abraham Bzovius in the continuation of the ecclesiastical Annals of Cardinal Baronius, tom. 14, Authorities are set forth at the year of Christ 1325, num. 32, seems to have judged that St. Elzéar and Delphine at the same time also embraced the third Rule of St. Francis. His words are these: Not long after (when he had returned from Italy) he made a vow of virginity with Delphine his spouse, and kept it perpetually, both he and his wife having embraced the third Order or Rule of St. Francis. They performed this in the castle of Ansouis in Narbonese Gaul or Provence. On this occasion, than which none more apt will be given in the course of this Commentary, I shall inquire what is to be determined concerning that profession of St. Elzéar, at whatever time or place made. St. Antoninus, who, born in the fourteenth century, met his death a little after the middle of the fifteenth, seems not obscurely to have ascribed him to the Order of St. Francis, when in part 3 of the History, tit. 24, which treats of that same St. Francis and of the three Orders instituted by him, chap. 9, §15, he commemorated the holy Count with the following brief elogium.

[120] Meanwhile the lord Eleazarus, most devout count of Ariano, and arguments, who had lived sixteen (nay, 25) years with his wife, a religious woman, Delphine by name, in virginity without separation of bed, departed from this light at Paris in the hands of brother Franciscus de Maronis: who, being set in his last moments, said: I give thanks to God that I leave my spouse Delphine a virgin in mind and in flesh. Whose death at that same hour was divinely revealed to his wife, who was in the province of Provence. He was buried in the habit of the Minors at Paris in their convent, illustrious for many miracles. So far as appears from this, St. Antoninus was ignorant of Elzéar's canonization, and therefore reckoned him here not among the canonized Saints of the Order of St. Francis, but among certain other brethren of the said Order, men of great perfection, of whom at the beginning of the title he had promised to treat. More clearly speak the Martyrologies produced in §1, of which, however, the most ancient — namely the Utrecht one, the twin Leiden ones, and the Florentine Strozzi one — our Sollerius judged in the Martyrology of Usuard to be not older than the fifteenth century, and likewise our manuscript Florarium of the Saints, which was brought to its end in the year 1486.

[121] In the Brief also, by which Paul III, supreme Pontiff, granted to the Brothers and nuns of the three states of the third Order of St. Francis that on certain days they might remove and suspend the interdict and the cessation from divine offices in their churches, in that Brief, I say, they are said to number Elzéar among the Saints of their Order. It is extant in Antonio de Sillis in the Work which he published on the Origin, progress, etc., of that third Order; but since in it also SS. Louis, king of France, and Roch are ascribed to the same Order, it cannot here be of great authority. The same nevertheless is the opinion concerning St. Elzéar both of others and especially of the writers of the Order of St. Francis, throughout which whole Order we shall say below that the annual festivity of that Saint is celebrated with an ecclesiastical Office by Apostolic indult. This opinion is exceedingly favoured by St. Elzéar's own singular zeal toward the Order of St. Francis, by the confessors from it employed by him even to his death, by his manner of life and disposition, inclined to all piety and penance, by the legacies written in his testament to various convents and persons of the said Order, and finally by his burial, according to his testament, in the habit of a Tertiary and in a church of that Order.

[122] Nor does it stand in the way that St. Elzéar, while he lived, is not read to have publicly worn the common garb of the Tertiaries, to be ascribed to St. Elzéar. since, as Hippolyte Helyot testifies, or whoever it was that after his death continued to publish in print his History of the Religious and military Orders, tom. 7, chap. 29, Tertiaries are permitted to use a tunic of lighter cloth with a cord beneath secular garments; and thus would the condition of the holy Count's life and the offices which he discharged in the royal court of Naples require. Perhaps of this kind was that tunic of ash colour, in which Bertranda Bartholomea, their chamber-maid, is said above at num. 84 to have testified that she saw both him and his virgin spouse Delphine clothed beneath their shift. Nevertheless, in the opinion of Borély himself, from whom I reported that testimony, the holy Spouses used these tunics for the sake of afflicting the body and of virginal modesty, because in the same bed together

they slept: for of the profession of the third Rule of St. Francis neither does Bertranda in Borély nor does he himself in that place make mention. For asserting the same of St. Elzéar there is also some favour in what is read in the Life to be published, num. 34: Every day he said the divine Office according to the rite of the Roman Church, and so devoutly and attentively that he drew those who heard him to great devotion. These things, I say, favour it after a fashion, because in the Rules of the Tertiaries also, such as Antonio de Sillis reports them approved by Nicholas IV, Pontiff, toward the end of the thirteenth century, the daily recitation of the divine Office is prescribed to the lettered.

[123] Other things are set forth, But on the contrary it can be argued on the opposite side from the strange silence about that profession in the more ancient documents. Nothing of it, at least expressly, is to be read in the Summaries of the processes of the canonization of St. Elzéar and of blessed Delphine which have come into my hands. Nothing in the petition which father Franciscus Mayronius composed for the reckoning of Elzéar among the Saints, and which the clergy and people of Apt offered to Pope John XXII in the year 1327. Of the same also there is deep silence in the bull of his canonization published by Gregory XI, Roman Pontiff, and in the French Life, both that of the Saint himself by master J. Raphaël and the other of Bl. Delphine, written in the same tongue by master Peter Eberard. Finally, the Life to be published has no word of it beyond those things which I have already recited from it, and which cannot make the matter certain. Besides, another argument can be formed, drawn from the Rule of the Tertiaries itself and from his Life and the Bull of canonization. In the praised Rule, chap. 5, which is entitled Of abstinence and fasting, it is thus said.

[124] which make for the opposite opinion; Let all abstain from the eating of flesh on the second, fourth and sixth days of the week, and on the Sabbath day, unless the urgency of infirmity or weakness should persuade otherwise … But on every sixth day of the whole year let a fast be kept, unless perhaps they be excused by infirmity or another lawful cause, or unless the feast of the Lord's Nativity should fall upon that day and be to be observed. But from the feast of All Saints until Easter they shall fast on the fourth and sixth days of the week. They are nevertheless to keep the other fasts which are appointed by the Church or commonly enjoined by the ordinaries for cause. But in the Lent of blessed Martin, until the day of the Lord's Nativity, and from Quinquagesima Sunday until Easter, let them take care to fast on every day (Sundays excepted), unless perhaps infirmity or some other necessity should persuade otherwise. So the Rule: let us see then now what the Saint is read to have performed in this part. Gregory XI in the bull of canonization, in Wadding and in Giusto Fontanini, thus speaks: He macerated his body with fastings, adding to himself, upon the observance of the ancients ordained by the holy Fathers, the austerity of new ones, brought in by the motion of his own will. For through the whole of Advent, and on the sixth day of every week, and at all other times he observed the fast. So there; but the place seems slightly corrupt, and for at all other one should read at many other, etc.

[125] The biographer in the Life to be published, num. 35, says upon the same subject: notwithstanding which, however, On the days appointed by the Church, and beyond this on the sixth day of the week, and in all Advent, and on very many other festivals, he fasted. Now if this writer and the Pontiff just praised had known that St. Elzéar was of the third Order of St. Francis, it must surely seem strange that they did not reckon, among the fasts which he was wont to keep, abstinence from the eating of flesh on every second and fourth day of the week and on Saturdays, and also the Quinquagesima of St. Martin, which was kept from the Octave of All Saints until the Lord's Nativity, nor finally the other which began from the Sunday of Lent; all which things, as we have just seen, the third Rule of St. Francis prescribes to its nurslings. Why at least did they not on this occasion mention that Rule even by a word, when the passage itself required it? Why, I say, did Gregory derive the fasts which he says were observed by him beyond the ecclesiastical ones common to all, from the motion of his own will rather than from the prescript of a Rule? These things, that I may frankly speak my mind, raise a doubt in me about the Saint's profession of the third Rule, for the certain asserting of which to him I have hitherto found no witness older than the fifteenth century.

[126] Nevertheless, because of the things which I have reported above, and especially because it is evident sentence is rather given for the affirmative opinion. that he was buried in the habit of a Tertiary, the affirmative opinion pleases me best, and I prefer to believe that St. Elzéar embraced it, if not many or some years before his death, at least in his last sickness. Further, there are three instruments which I lack, and which in all likelihood might have brought much light here; namely the holy Count's testament itself, the process of canonization, and finally a certain parchment on which St. Elzéar is said to have had his customary exercises of piety briefly written, and which Borély, book 1, chap. 6, asserts is religiously preserved in his chapel at Apt, but of which I have striven in vain to obtain a transcript. Wherefore I leave further inquiry to others, to whom it may be permitted to consult these, being about to say more certain things when I shall have obtained more certain testimonies. I go on to other matters.

[127] What was done by St. Elzéar and his blessed wife, the virgin Delphine, throughout that two years (or perhaps even about three years) in Provence, About to return into Italy, the biographer has not cared to set forth, besides what we have already discussed concerning the vow of virginity uttered by them. Doubtless they spent that time, after their manner, both upon themselves in the exercise of virtues and upon the tranquillity, comfort and salvation of their subjects. Hither also are in all likelihood to be referred some of the things which are narrated on a like subject in the Life to be published, Chap. 3. That time being completed, together with his blessed wife, as he had had in command from king Robert, seeking Italy again, he set out for Toulon, meaning to accomplish the remainder of the journey thence by sea. But before he loosed from the port, he there made his testament; whether because he was then ill, or for some other cause unknown to us. In our manuscript Notice of Apt that testament is said to have been made at Telo (in French Toulon) in the year 1317, on the eighteenth day of July; and, as I have learned from the letters of the often praised lord de Brantes, it is preserved at Apt (I know not, however, whether it is the autograph) in the convent of the Friars Minor Conventual. Of it Honoré Bouche treats at greater length in the History of Provence, tom. 2, book 9, sect. 3, §7, under king Robert, where he gives an abridgement of it in French, which I here exhibit rendered by myself into Latin. Thus therefore Bouche has it.

[128] he sets out for Toulon, Those who have written his (St. Elzéar's) Life have related many illustrious things concerning his notable piety toward churches, his charity toward the poor, his love and observance toward his wife, and his works of justice and liberality on various occasions. Nevertheless they have brought forward things not so memorable as those which are contained in his testament, which he made at Toulon on the eighteenth day of July of the year MCCCXVII, and in which he ordered the following. First, that wheresoever he should die (somewhat presaging that he would depart from the living far from Provence), his body should be translated in the year of his death and buried in the church of the Friars Minor of the city of Apt, covered with the habit of the Order of St. Francis alone, without any other ornament or ceremony, and no otherwise than is wont to be done for a Religious of that Order of private condition. Secondly, he wrote many pious and notable legacies to many parish churches of the places and villages of which he was lord, to the number of eleven, which he named and designated, for the celebration of Masses; to some of which he left wherewith to buy a silver chalice weighing two besses (in French, du poids de deux marcs).

[129] and there makes his testament, Moreover he bequeathed a good deal to the convents of the religious Friars Minor in the cities of Apt, Avignon, Aix, Arles, Marseilles, Riez and Sisteron; and to many Religious of the same Order privately, and to the convent of the Friars Preachers at Aix, and also to the cathedral church of Ariano, of which he was count, and to the Friars Minor of that same city in the kingdom of Naples. After these things he assigned a legacy to the king of Jerusalem and Sicily and count of Provence, and likewise to all whom he had in his domestic service, in so great a number as to move admiration. He himself distinguished them by their own name and surname, as regards the nobles and knights, three or four in number, giving to the first three hundred pounds (in French trois cens livres), to another one hundred and fifty, to the others one hundred: but as regards the rest of his household, up to the number of eight, fifty pounds to each, to eight others twenty-five; and as regards the children of certain deceased servants who had served him, three or four in number, to some fifty pounds, to others twenty-five.

[130] an abridgement of which is given, in the year 1317. To his wife, whom in the testament he thus indicates: “Delphine of Puimichel, countess of Ariano, our dearest consort,” he bequeathed all his goods, whatsoever they were, movable and immovable, vessels of gold and silver, jewels, cloths, hangings, the lordships and jurisdiction in the places of Puimichel, Saint Estienne de Brosse, Cabrières and Robians, without any obligation of paying legacies therefrom, but with full power of disposing of all these according to her own judgment and pleasure; and moreover assigning to her as dowry all the goods and rights which he had in the kingdom of Sicily. He bequeathed besides to the villages of which he was lord, namely Ansouis, Cucuron, Vaugines, Puimichel, Cabrières, Cadenet, Puyloubier and La Motte, a great sum of money for compensating the damages and losses which they might perchance have suffered either from himself or from his household. But of the remaining goods and rights he made his brother William de Sabran, count of Ansouis, universal heir, substituting to him, if he should die without male or female offspring, Elzias de Villeneuve, his cousin (by his father's sister).

[131] Thus far the praised Bouche from the testament, whose Latin closing clause he reports thus: He is given as governor to Charles, duke of Calabria, Done at Toulon in the lodging of the heirs of the lord Guillelmus Amati, canon and protonotary. The witnesses were Petrus Alfanti of Montils, of the Order of Minors; Bertrandus Scaferi of Culmanum, notary; Dragonianus of Olvernicum, monk of the monastery of St. Andrew of Avignon; the lord Rostagnus de Sancto Petro, knight; the lord Guillelmus Petri, prior of Roquebrune; the lord Passinella of Valence, priest; and Raim. de Sancto Petro, esquire, of Toulon. And I, the notary Cornilla, public notary. Now let us pursue the rest. In this year 1317, therefore, after the eighteenth day of July, St. Elzéar, taking with him his wife, the virgin Delphine, returned to Naples, as he had had in command from king Robert, and there he was appointed master of the lord Charles, the king's firstborn and duke of Calabria; says the biographer at num. 55, who also in the following number affirms that a notable change of manners in that prince, from the training of so holy a Governor, was observed, to the wonder of the whole court.

[132] This charge of duke Charles committed to St. Elzéar won him great authority. and with him, while king Robert is absent, For, as the biographer testifies in the same place at num. 57, But the nobles and powerful men of the kingdom, and others of lower rank, seeing that this Saint was so familiar and intimate with the lord duke, who at that time governed the whole rule, because his father king Robert was staying in the parts of Provence, began to honour the holy Count the more; and those who had anything to despatch with the duke or with his court, many of them came to the Saint and spoke with him first. For these things and for the others which follow in the same Life, and at the same time for confirming our chronology, it will be profitable to have noted some things here. The praised Charles, duke of Calabria, was the only son then surviving of king Robert by Yolanda, daughter of Peter III, king of Aragon; who, dying afterwards before his father, left by his second wife Marie of Valois a daughter Joanna, heiress of the kingdom of Naples and of the county of Provence. Him king Robert, when in the year 1318 he was about to set out for Genoa with a naval force against the Ghibellines, appointed vicar of the kingdom of Naples. The same king in the year 1319 went from Genoa to Avignon to Pope John XXII, and did not return from Provence into Italy before the death of St. Elzéar, which we shall say fell in the year 1323, as may be seen in Bouche, tom. 2 of the History of Provence, book 9, sect. 3, §1 and 2.

[133] Through all that time therefore, until the year 1323, he administers the kingdom of Naples. in which he was sent as legate into France, St. Elzéar helped Charles, duke of Calabria, in administering his father's kingdom by his industry and counsels; and, as is read in the Bull of canonization, he presided over the council of the duke of Calabria. But how uprightly and holily he used the authority by which he was of great weight with the prince, how incorrupt he showed himself in refusing the gifts offered him, how pious and untiring an advocate in taking up and promoting the causes of the poor, how kind in receiving and maintaining the Sicilian exiles, the biographer sets forth in the same chap. 4, where I shall observe some things in the Annotations. For the rest, whoever shall wish to compare what has just been said with the Life to be published will easily perceive that these things cohere rightly with our chronology, and that Baillet's is not to be admitted, according to which St. Elzéar, having returned from Provence to Naples only from the year 1322, and being sent thence into France in 1323, would have spent only a single year in training and helping Charles, duke of Calabria. By the same labour the reader will recognize that Borély was too liberal when in chap. 8 he assigned a full twelve or thirteen years to that training.

§ VII. The Saint's legation to the court of Paris for obtaining a bride for Charles, duke of Calabria: his deeds there, his sickness, and his holy death, which is revealed to Bl. Delphine: his apparition made to her.

[ ] Sent by Robert, king of Naples, We have come to the last year of St. Elzéar's mortal life, which, while discharging a royal legation, he crowned with a blessed end at Paris in France. Our anonymous author in the Life to be published, from the beginning of chapter 5 until num. 68 according to our division, reviews without order of time the various virtues by which he was illustrious while he lived, and then, being about to narrate his death, says: Two years therefore before this Saint rendered up his spirit to heaven, nearly all the debts and legacies were discharged by which his land had been bound. And he said in his chamber to his holy consort: When the debts of the county and barony shall have been cleared of all burdens, and nothing shall remain unpaid, I shall not remain long upon the earth. Which in truth was fulfilled: for after they had been entirely paid in full, he survived only one year. But at words of this kind the virgin Delphine was not a little saddened. But after this (he proceeds in the same place) it came to pass that king Robert and his solemn council sent the holy Count as legate into France to the king of the French with an honourable retinue, to procure a wife who should be of royal blood, endowed in manners and in person, for his only son the lord Charles, duke of Calabria. With this agrees the Summary of Bl. Delphine's process, in which it is had: The lord Robert the king and Sancia the queen of Jerusalem and Sicily being then in the city of Avignon, the said lord Elzéar, count of Ariano, spouse of the said lady Delphine, was sent to the parts of France as ambassador or envoy, for the sake of choosing a wife for the lord Charles, duke of Calabria, the said king's firstborn son — one of the royal damsels of the royal house of France, namely her who should seem to the same lord Count the fitter and more suitable.

[135] he is sent as legate to Paris in the year 1323 for the marriage This Charles, to whom I have said above that St. Elzéar was given by his father king Robert as governor of his manners and as helper in administering the kingdom so long as the king should be absent, had by his first nuptials married Catherine of Austria, who, dying in the year 1323, was buried at Naples in the church of St. Lawrence. Her epitaph, which Bouche, just cited, recites as placed upon her monument, I have here transcribed, because it makes both for what has been said and for our chronology. Here lies Catherine, daughter of king Albert, and granddaughter of Rudolph, king of the Romans, and sister of Frederick, elected king of the Romans, lord of Austria; and consort of the honourable Charles, firstborn of the lord prince, the lord Robert, by the grace of God illustrious king of Jerusalem and Sicily, duke of Calabria, and our lord's vicar general; distinguished in life and exemplary in manners. Who died at Naples in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ MCCCXXIII, on the fifteenth day of the month of January, in the sixth Indiction, in the fourteenth year of the reigns of our aforesaid lord the king. Whose soul may rest in peace. Catherine of Austria being dead without offspring, king Robert did not long delay to procure another wife for his only son, and to this end sent St. Elzéar as legate into France to ask for Marie of Valois, daughter of Charles, count of Valois, and of Mathilde of Châtillon.

[136] Robert was even then staying in Narbonese Gaul, to be arranged between Charles, duke of Calabria, and Marie of Valois, at Avignon with the Pontiff, and thither he seems to have summoned St. Elzéar and, having furnished him with his commands, to have sent him as legate to Paris. It is likely also that Bl. Delphine then accompanied her Husband as far as Avignon, unless, having already before followed queen Sancia, she was then staying there; since from what is to be said she was there in Robert's court when in the month of September of that same year he died at Paris. Further, before (the Saint) departed (from her), that he might leave his virgin consort consoled, he said to her: If by the Lord's permission I return from France, I wish to leave, so far as I can, all these destructive affairs; and we will establish our dwelling at Ansouis, that, being removed far from earthly things and from worldly tumult, we may more fully feel spiritual foretastes. These were, on the biographer's testimony, whose words I have given, the pious desires of both, which Elzéar not long after saw more happily fulfilled in heaven; but Delphine, persevering in holy widowhood, and even selling all her goods and distributing them among the poor, at length in this life carried them into execution, surviving her holy Spouse by many years.

[137] The time of the legation undertaken and discharged is manifest from what has been said above. he bestows happy labour. For since the first wife of Charles, duke of Calabria, Catherine of Austria, died on the fifteenth day of the month of January in the year 1323, and the Saint himself on the twenty-seventh day of September of that same year, there is no room for doubting; and beyond all doubt Borély erred, who attached both the legation and the death of Elzéar to the year 1325. As regards the outcome of that legation, the same biographer relates that it was happy, and this is proved by the nuptials of the praised Marie of Valois with Charles, duke of Calabria, entered upon by contract at Paris on the eleventh day of January of the year 1324, as the brothers Sainte-Marthe, Scévole and Louis, testify in tom. 2 of the genealogical History of the house of France, page 426. Of this marriage, for whose arranging the holy Legate died, was born Joanna, who, her father being taken from the living before Robert, succeeded to the kingdom of Naples and to the county of Provence, and is most known to historians.

[138] Raphaël in the French Life, part 1, chap. 17, reports a certain singular deed Meanwhile a certain deed is narrated to have happened, which he says befell the holy Count then living at Paris. Receive the matter in a few words. When Elzéar was once in the street of St. James, a certain parish priest was passing near him, who seemed to be carrying the sacred Viaticum to a dying man. On seeing which, as many noblemen as were about him fell upon their knees; he alone remained standing where he was, all wondering and suspecting ill of him, that he gave no sign of reverence. The bishop, the matter being known, some days afterwards invited the holy Legate to him, and withdrawing apart with him, courteously asked why he, otherwise pious, had neglected to show, with public scandal, the honour due to the Sacrament. He answered that this had not been done by him without cause; that the reason would be evident if that parish priest were summoned. The parish priest therefore was brought, and being compelled by the bishop and the Count to say what he had carried on the aforesaid day to the sick man, confessed that, after hearing the confession of a certain merchant, he had refused to give him the sacred Viaticum which he asked, because he was unwilling to make satisfaction to those to whom he owed; but that, driven by fear of the threats of his friends, he had carried to him an unconsecrated host; and he begged pardon for his fault.

[139] not sufficiently proved to me. These things heard, the bishop deprived the parish priest of his parish, and informed of the matter the king and others to whose ears the ill suspicion about St. Elzéar had already come; and by this deed the fame of that Count's sanctity, as of a man divinely inspired, was greatly increased. Similar things has Borély, chap. 8, with the circumstances here and there a little varied: but neither of these praises a witness or an instrument for a deed so unusual, and in the said parish priest damnable on more than one head, from which he drew it; nor do I find anything like it in the things which are at my hand. Hence I suspect that Raphaël, who wrote about a century after St. Elzéar's death, was Borély's guide; but whom he himself followed in this part I do not discern. And so let these things be said on his credit. I go on to narrate the Saint's last sickness from the Life to be published. At num. 69 it is thus read in it.

[140] Falling sick there, he declares his bride's virginity, But when he had perfectly and happily consummated in France the business committed to him, in the city of Paris he fell into his bed, seized with a grave infirmity. And knowing that he was drawing near to death, he made a general and devout confession, with a shedding of tears, to master Franciscus de Maronis of the Order of Minors, his fellow countryman (concerning whom see what was said above at num. 7 and following), who was there. How long that sickness lasted he did not declare, and it must be said to have held him at least for some days from this, which he subjoined: Also every

morning before his bed he devoutly heard Mass, and very often in that infirmity he returned to Sacramental confession. At that time also, although in his whole life he had studiously concealed his own virginity and that of his holy consort, nevertheless at the end of his days, speaking under the compulsion of the Holy Spirit, he burst out concerning it into these words before those who stood by: A bad man has been saved by a good woman; whom, as I received her a virgin, so in this mortal life I leave a virgin. After these things the same biographer in a few words commends his great patience and cheerfulness amid the most grievous pains of his sickness, and makes mention of the divine viaticum and the Sacrament of extreme Unction which he received.

[141] and holily dies in the year of Christ 1323, Lastly he says that he, being now set in his agony, indicated by his anxious countenance as it were a conflict with an evil demon, and cried out: Great is the power that the demons have, but they have lost their force by the virtue and merits of the blessed Incarnation and passion of Jesus Christ. And after a little (the biographer proceeds) crying out again, he said: I have finally conquered all. After some little space of time he said with a strong cry: I commit myself wholly to the divine judgment. And when he had said these things, his face was renewed and made ruddy and shining and exceedingly comely, and he gave up his spirit. But his countenance was not in any wise changed by this; nay, it remained serene and beautiful as before. Finally, after narrating the sudden conversion of a certain wanton man who had seen the Saint dying, he marked the time of his death thus: Now the holy Man died, full of virtues and good works, in the year from the Lord's Incarnation one thousand three hundred and twenty-three, on the fifth of the Kalends of October; in the twenty-eighth year of his whole life, and was entombed with the habit and cord of the Friars Minor in their church at Paris.

[142] not in the year 1327 nor 1325, When Luke Wadding had read these same things in the edition of Surius, he discoursed thus, in tom. 7 of the Annals of the Minors at the same year, num. 39, concerning the opinions of various writers about the time of his death. At this place the history of his life in Surius says that he died in this very year of Christ MCCCXXIII, but in the twenty-eighth year of his age. The first, against others who think otherwise, I would confidently dare to prove; the second I would not dare to approve. Cardinal Baronius (in the Notes on the Roman Martyrology on this day) says he died in the year MCCCXXV. Peter Rodulph, from the Memorial of the Order, two years later, namely in the year MCCCXXVII: with whom I think Marianus wished to agree, and therefore that MCCCXVII was written by an error in his codex. But these opinions are refuted, and the first is to be preferred, which is had in his Life; inasmuch as it coheres with the very cause of his journey into Gaul, in which he died, etc. Then he proves this from the death of Catherine of Austria, as we too have observed above at num. 137. Borély nevertheless, book 1, chap. 8, page 173, fixed the oft-named French legation of St. Elzéar, and at page 187 his death, in the year 1325 with Baronius, and for that opinion praised the testimony of Bertranda Bartholomea, who at his death was in the service of Bl. Delphine.

[143] But that very testimony, as it stands in Borély, as has wrongly seemed to some is certainly faulty, and affords a suspicion that the year was changed by him. For he says that the holy Count's death was divinely revealed to Bl. Delphine at the very hour at which it had happened, on the twenty-seventh day of September of the year MCCCXXV, on a Tuesday. But the twenty-seventh day of September of the year 1325 was a Friday, not a Tuesday, as we have from the Dominical letter F: whereas on the contrary that same twenty-seventh day of September in the year 1323 coincided with a Tuesday, as the Dominical letter B of that year proves. It is therefore most likely that the year was here changed by Borély, and that for the year 1323 he substituted 1325, in conformity with his former error, from which, because of the marriage confounded with the espousals, he wrongly reckoned from the year 1299 the 27 years which flowed between the espousals and the Saint's death from the end of the year 1296 or the beginning of the following. Nay, his own reckonings given afterwards prove that the aforecited year of Christ 1323 was the year of St. Elzéar's death.

[144] In book 2, chap. 8, page 416, he expressly writes that Bl. Delphine died on the twenty-fifth day of November of the year 1360; it is proved: but of his age not 28, but in book 3, chap. 5, page 517, he reckons at 38 the years which she lived as a widow. These, even taken as incomplete, or 37 completed, added to the year 1325, extend the Blessed one's life to the year 1362, but only to 1360 if they be added to the year 1323. I forbear to say more, because the matter is certain and cannot be called into doubt. Let us now hear Wadding, praised above, reasoning about the other epoch, namely the age at which that same Saint is said in the Life to have died. But as regards the years of his age, I think it is evidently proved from his very Life that he lived more years (than 28, namely, as is read in it). For in chap. XXII (according to another division) he is said to have been in his twenty-third year when, his father being dead, he was made count of Ariano, and then first to have come into Italy: in chap. XXV it is related that he remained five years in Italy. Then in the same place and in chap. XXVII he is said to have gone away into Narbonese Gaul, and to have remained there two years.

[145] Presently in the same place it is narrated that he returned into Italy, as is read in the Life by an error, and there performed very many things which demand the space of one or two years. Then, sent away into Gaul to receive a bride for Charles, he died in the month of September. If thou join these divisions of years together, they will make up at least two years beyond thirty: how then could he end his life in his twenty-eighth year? I have set forth the knot from his own Acts; let others loose it, if they please, or if they may. Thus far Wadding, rightly observing that these things cannot cohere with St. Elzéar's age at death as assigned by the same biographer. Baillet too recognized the error in the reckonings, but, not knowing where it lay, retained the twenty-eight years of his life, and, ordering the rest of the chronology according to these and to the year in which he died, 1323, committed more than one error in it, as we have proved in their places through the course of this Commentary. That same twenty-eighth year of his life is expressly read not only in the edition of Surius, but also in our Böddeken exemplar to be published, and in the manuscript of Bernard Rottendorf, with which Papebroch noted that this had been collated, as also in another abridgement of the same Life which we have from a manuscript of Rouge-Cloître; so that that error must have been common enough.

[146] but in his thirty-eighth; But opportunely we have authentic instruments by which we may correct this defect of the Life. In the book of witnesses or Summary of his process, in one place, are read the following chronological notes, which I have used in this Commentary: The lady Delphine remained as his spouse twenty-five years, and contracted (marriage) with him in the sixteenth year of her age. But he was thirteen years old, and he died being thirty-eight years old. Behold, here not twenty-eight but thirty-eight years are assigned to the Saint's final age; and lest thou couldst suspect a fault in the number, of those thirty-eight years thirteen are clearly said to have been passed before the marriage, and the remaining twenty-five in the marriage itself. Again, in another place of the praised Summary, the first witness, namely (that same) lady Delphine … deposes, saying it to be true that he was of the age of thirty-eight years when he died. Certainly these two places, with which the reckonings scattered through the Life to be published are altogether conformable, ought alone to suffice for our ascribing to Elzéar 38 years of life, at least incomplete; yet I add other things also which equally prove it.

[147] which is demonstrated. Franciscus Mayronius, who had been intimate with the Saint and had stood by him as he died, in the petition which Raymond Bot the bishop, and the clergy and city of Apt, four years after his death, namely in the year of Christ 1327, offered to Pope John XXII for requesting his canonization, thus says: At length he died in the thirty-eighth year of his age. In the Summary of Bl. Delphine's process 27 years are numbered from the marriage entered upon, that is, as I proved in §3, from the espousals, until St. Elzéar's death; and he, by the reckonings of that same Summary, was about eleven years old at the time of the espousals; which added to the 27 years make up the said number of thirty-eight years. Finally, the same final age of the holy Count was marked, in the words already given at num. 4, by the author of our manuscript Florarium of the Saints, brought to its close in the year 1486, and by master J. Raphaël in the French Life which he dedicated to Louis XII, king of France, toward the end of the fifteenth century, or when the sixteenth was not yet full grown. It must therefore be said that the writer of the Life to be published, by an easy slip of memory or of the pen, wrote the twenty-eighth for the thirty-eighth; unless one prefers to impute this error to some amanuensis. But the year of Elzéar's final age being thus restored, the rest of the chronology which I have hitherto woven remains entire, and flows of its own accord.

[148] Bl. Delphine learns his death divinely, When St. Elzéar died at Paris, his blessed wife Delphine was staying at Avignon in the court of king Robert, in the service of queen Sancia, and there she was divinely informed of his death. So teaches the Summary of that Delphine's process, which after the words recited at num. 134 proceeds in this manner: The same lord Count (for the cause of the aforesaid legation), being in that same city of Paris, there departed this life. And when he was dead, before his death had been made known to the said king and queen, or to anyone else, in the city of Avignon, that death was revealed to the said lady Delphine, then present in the said city of Avignon. And the lady Delphine foretold the aforesaid death to the aforesaid king and queen: and at length after some days the same king and queen received and had certain and undoubted knowledge and true news of that death by letters and messengers. Nothing of this revelation is read in the Life to be published, perhaps because it might seem to pertain less to St. Elzéar: yet Raphaël and Eberard have made mention of it, the latter in the Lives of Bl. Delphine, the former in those of Elzéar, written in French.

[149] Borély also, book 1, chap. 8, here praises the authentic testimony of Bertranda Bartholomea, and announces it: to her therefore grieving saying thus: This is altogether proved from the testimony of the damsel Bartholomea, who declared before the commissaries deputed in the cause of the canonization of St. Delphine that, when on the twenty-seventh day of September of the year MCCCXXV (I have proved above that MCCCXXIII should be read), on a Tuesday, at the seventh hour of the morning, she had come to the lady countess in her chamber, and had found her on bended knees, holding in her hand a little book of the divine Office, and all bathed in tears, she asked what was the cause of her weeping. It is this (she answered)

that my beloved Husband is dead. At this the damsel, astounded, replied: The lord count is dead? How, lady, hast thou learned it, when the whole court knows it not? I am just now returning from the queen, where I saw many nobles, nor did anyone speak a word to me of the matter. My daughter (the countess answered), it is most certain that he is dead. Pray to God for thy good Lord: I have lost all; and thou too hast suffered a great loss. Then he goes on to narrate the rest at greater length; for me it suffices to have reported these things.

[150] According to these things Delphine, from the aforesaid revelation, in whatever manner it was at last made, The Saint afterwards appears, had received nothing certain concerning her Husband's heavenly glory, and therefore bore his death the more sorrowfully, until an apparition of the Saint himself took this anxiety wholly from her. It happened indeed first in the following year, but because a fitter place will not be found elsewhere, I shall report it here from the Summary of Delphine's process, whose words are these: The said lord Count her spouse being dead, whom the said lady Delphine greatly loved, when she had often begun to think within herself, and did think, upon the pleasant presence of her said Spouse and the spiritual consolations which she had received with him, and therefore could not refrain from tears, and had remained for a long time in continual sorrow and tears, nor could find a remedy for this, on a certain day, that lady being then in her castle of Cabrières, and shut up alone in her chamber, and thinking upon these things, there appeared to that lady her said holy Spouse, who had already died a year then past.

[151] The same lady countess, because she was weeping thus, gently rebuking her; he lightly rebuked, and subjoined to her these words: “The snare is broken, and we are delivered.” Then, when that lady, filled with joy and wonder at the aforesaid words, had at once there given herself to prayer, humbly asking of God that He would deign to declare to her the words just spoken, which she did not understand, it was declared to her in that prayer in this manner. The snare was broken for her said holy Spouse, because, being delivered from the perils and snares of this world, he possessed the glory of paradise; and for that lady the snare was in part broken, because she loved nothing of worldly things but her said holy Spouse, when that Spouse was living among men; but the bodily death of that Spouse coming upon her, it did not remain that she should love anything worldly, but God alone; nor ought she to pant thereafter save after God. And that lady from the declaration just spoken was made more cheerful, thinking with all her affections how, all temporal things being left, she might please God alone, and might despise herself in this world, and love nothing earthly.

[152] and she, being made more certain of his glory, ceases to grieve. And then she was rendered so quiet and consoled that thereafter she had no sorrow or feeling about the bodily death of her said holy Spouse: and this lady asserted and revealed the things contained in the present article to her confessors and to certain other devout persons. The same apparition is reported by Raphaël, part 1, chap. 17, by Eberard, and by Borély, book 2, chap. 1, where the last praises as witness father Bertrand Imberti, of the Order of Minors, who, while he was Bl. Delphine's confessor, had learned it from her mouth, and declared it for the drawing up of the process of Canonization. In one of the circumstances, however, the testimony of the praised Bertrand may seem to have varied a little, since in Borély, no mention being made of Elzéar appearing, it is only said that Delphine saw a great brightness and heard the voice of her holy Husband, saying: Delphine, thou dost very ill in afflicting thyself with so inconsolable a grief for my absence. Why dost thou complain of my beatitude? Know that God has been merciful to me, and that I am beyond all danger. The snare is broken, and we are delivered. He adds also that the sense of this versicle, which the author of the Summary says was revealed to Delphine as she prayed, was expounded to her by the same voice of the Saint. Now let us return to Paris, whence we digressed.

§ VIII. The burial of the sacred body in the habit of the Order of St. Francis at Paris, and the translation thence made to Apt; the prodigious circumstances of the translation not proved: its time.

[ ] The body laid at Paris in the habit of a Tertiary, We have said above at num. 128 that St. Elzéar, when he made his testament at Toulon in the Gallic Province in the year 1317, on the eighteenth day of July, laid down in it that, wheresoever it should befall him to die, his body, clothed in the Franciscan habit alone, should be translated to Apt Julia, which is the episcopal city of that Province, and be buried there in the church of the Friars Minor. That therefore this will of the holy Count, which he perhaps also indicated to those present in his last sickness, might be satisfied so far indeed as was permitted, the venerable corpse of the holy Count, clothed in that habit, was buried, or for the time laid, in the church of those same Friars at Paris, where he had met his death. So expressly affirms the biographer at num. 71, subjoining in a few words after narrating his happy death: Entombed with the habit and cord of the Friars Minor in their church at Paris. Further, whether this was a burial properly so called, or only a laying of the sacred body in its coffin within the church above ground, doubtless it was so done that Delphine's and above all king Robert's will in this matter might be inquired into.

[154] But in the same year (the biographer proceeds at num. 72) his sacred body (the king's command having now been received) was translated, then it is translated to Apt. and carried to the city of Apt, and there honourably delivered to burial in the church of the Friars Minor, as he had chosen beforehand while yet he lived; where it shines continually with great and frequent miracles, that the sublimity of his sanctity, which, while he lived in mortal flesh, had been kept in secret and had not yet fully become known to the world, might afterwards be proved from heaven by miracles of the divine power. Of the translation made it is certainly evident, but not so of the circumstances which are reported by some; among whom, since the most ancient that I have been able to consult is master J. Raphaël in the French Life, part 2, chap. 1, I shall here recount his narration, which is long enough, in abridgement, and then examine what seems to be determined concerning it. Those sent by St. Elzéar's brother to translate his body to Apt set out happily with it, having at length with difficulty obtained it from the Friars Minor of Paris.

[155] And having now traversed by far the greatest part of the journey, Miracles which Raphaël they were only one mile distant from Avignon, when all the bells of that city sounded of their own accord, the inhabitants being astonished and ignorant of the cause of so great a prodigy. The chief men therefore assemble in the church, and after prayers poured out to God that He would deign to reveal the cause of so great a thing, they presently appoint a public procession, at the head of which they set barefoot little boys, whom the rest should follow whithersoever they went. These little boys, God guiding, going forward to the bridge set upon the Rhone, at the end of it met those bearing the sacred body, and, setting their knees upon the ground, rested in veneration. Having learned therefore from the bearers what they carried, the people of Avignon did not doubt that this was the cause of the prodigy. Presently also God confirmed this very thing by a miracle; for a certain man, thrust forward by the multitude of those running up, falling from that bridge into the Rhone, and having invoked Elzéar, if that body were truly his and holy, at once obtained that the river, its waves being divided on either side, received him and permitted him to go away unharmed.

[156] After thanks had been rendered to the Saint, they carried the sacred body into the city of Avignon to the church of St. Francis (the words are Raphaël's) according to some historians, in the city of Avignon and of L'Isle, and according to others to the church of St. Didier. But all that day, and the night which followed, until it was borne outside the territory of the city, the bells, with none to move them, continued their festive soundings. Meanwhile it had been debated among the people of Avignon about keeping the sacred pledge for themselves; but the sounder part, urging otherwise, had prevailed. On the next day therefore the same bearers, accompanied out of piety by a great number of the citizens, pursued their journey, and as soon as they reached the territory of the town of L'Isle (which lies between Avignon and Apt, commonly called l'Isle), the same prodigy which had been at Avignon was heard in all the bells of this town. Wherefore the people of L'Isle, to whom the fame of the miracles had already come, going forth with a suppliant train, came to meet the holy Count's body. And with the rest there went forth also a certain woman having a breast affected with a most grievous malady, and so pierced through that her lungs and liver could be seen.

[157] She, having implored the Saint's help, if he were in heaven, came to the bier, on the rest of the journey and put to her breast the hand with which she had touched the sacred coffer, and forthwith rejoiced in entire health. The body having been brought into the town, a certain little girl, following her mother to the water-mill, slipped into the water, and was so crushed by the wheel that a part of her intestines clung to it. But after her mother, on the advice of the bystanders, falling upon her knees, had invoked St. Elzéar, the aforesaid girl came forth thence, bearing her loosened hair and a fair red apple in her hands. These miracles having been seen, the people of L'Isle resolved to keep this sacred treasure, and laid it in a certain house, with burning torches set round about and guards added. On the next morning too, when the bearers asked for it again, they refused to permit it to be carried away thence; and so that day was passed in altercation. But on the night following it seemed to each of the bearers in sleep that they heard a voice saying that they should only go on to Apt on the next morning in safety; for that not far from L'Isle they would be filled with joy.

[158] and at Apt Julia Morning therefore being come, after comparing their dreams, they set out on the road toward Apt, and as soon as they had gone forth from the town, they beheld the sacred body before them. Meanwhile the people of L'Isle, not finding it, send some of their own to inquire whether it had been carried off by those same guardians of the funeral; and if it were so, to ask that, laying aside all fear, they would wait a little: for that they were unwilling to resist the divine will, but desired to accompany the funeral, in order to honour so far as they could the relics of the holy Count. The miracle therefore being learned through the messengers, at once a train of suppliants, furnished with torches and burning tapers, hastened thither, and together with a numerous multitude of people, whom the miracles heard of and the prodigious sound of the bells wherever the funeral pomp passed had called forth from the neighbouring castles and villages, followed it religiously as far as Apt. When they came into the territory of Apt, a like miracle of the bells was heard; whereby the inhabitants of the city, being admonished, coming out in like manner to meet those who approached, solemnly carried the long-desired mortal remains of St. Elzéar into the church of the Friars Minor, situated near the walls of that city.

[159] Now, moreover, of the people running up from every side there was so great a narrates as having been done, and which Borély also

throng that it was necessary, the wall of the choir of the church being pierced through, that a new door should be opened, so that entrance and exit might lie open to those flowing in for three whole days. Among the other miracles a most sweet odour was perceived not only in the church itself, but even in the city of Apt and in the air round about; the bells for three whole days, by day and by night, sounded of their own accord; and the torches which the people of L'Isle had carried burning all along the way were in no way diminished from their weight. Thus far from master J. Raphaël, with whom Borély, book 3, chap. 1, so agrees as nevertheless to vary in some circumstances, of which the chief are these. In the first place, since he wrongly referred St. Elzéar's death to the twenty-seventh day of September of the year 1325, and said in book 1, last chapter, that the translation was made seven or eight months afterwards, he had consequently to attach this equally ill to the year 1326. Secondly he says that the Roman Pontiff himself (who then was John XXII, residing at Avignon), hearing of the prodigy of the bells, convoked a council of the Cardinals, of the clergy, of the Religious and of the civic magistrate, and that in it it was decreed that the cause of so stupendous a thing should be sought out from the words or deeds of the little boys; and that these, when they had been gathered for this end from the neighbourhood of the Pontifical palace, crying with one voice, Long live the Saint, went forward to the bridge of the Rhone, and did not cease to cry until, in the middle of that bridge, falling upon their knees before the sacred body which met them, they had uttered these same words with greater joy and voice.

[160] a little otherwise, and the Office of Apt Thirdly, him who fell into the Rhone and was thence saved by the benefit of St. Elzéar, Borély makes not a man or an adult, as Raphaël indicates, but a boy, and brings in not himself but his father as imploring the Saint's help. Fourthly, of the woman's breast cured near L'Isle by the touch of the sacred coffin he makes no mention. Fifthly, he affirms that the little girl who slipped beneath the wheel of the water-mill did not come forth alive from the waters, but was cast out dead, and, being brought by her mother to the Saint's body, came to life again. I forbear to observe other differences of less moment. The Office of St. Elzéar, among the Propers of the church of Apt renewed and printed in the year 1664, has these things upon the same subject in the hymn at Matins:

Everywhere the pledge of his consecrated body shines forth,

and grows illustrious with miracles,

while it is borne into Provence.

A boy fallen into the Rhone

comes forth from the waters with dry foot:

and to a girl lately dead life is restored.

[161] In the sixth lesson also of that Office it is there read: commemorate, are reviewed, The sacred body, brought into the church of the Friars Minor of the city of Apt, was illustrious with many miracles: for, besides that the bells with no help at all sang a public thanksgiving the more vehemently for three continuous days, a great many sick of divers diseases, taking refuge at his sepulchre, recovered health. Now let us examine what is to be judged of these things. Raphaël wrote, as I have said, the Life of St. Elzéar between the years 1498 and 1515, at which time Louis XII, to whom he dedicated it, reigned in France; and so at least 175 years after the translation. In the Prologue to the praised king he professes that he received what he narrates both from the process of the canonization of the said Saint and from some Chronicles, Histories and ancient manuscripts. The process, as I have already often lamented, I could not obtain; but so far as I have been able to gather from its Summary, he did not draw the aforesaid marvels from the process, both because I find no indication of so unusual a thing in the praised Summary, and because neither Raphaël nor Borély, elsewhere frequent enough in citing witnesses, says any word about these things or about the process; and finally because of the silence of others, whom I shall presently record.

[162] There remains the doubt whether he drew those prodigies from the Chronicles, Histories and manuscripts and their authority is weighed, which he calls ancient; especially since above at num. 156 he said that St. Elzéar's body, when it was brought to Avignon, was carried to the church of St. Francis ACCORDING TO SOME HISTORIANS, AND ACCORDING TO OTHERS to the church of St. Didier. But perhaps those disagreeing historians, whom he praised for a difference of place alone, made mention indeed of the translation, which is certain, not of the said prodigies. But let us suppose for a while that some writer earlier than Raphaël went before him here; it will remain equally doubtful of what antiquity and of what fidelity in writing he was. For indeed a hundred and seventy-five years, or even a greater space, which had flowed between the translation and the Life written by Raphaël, was ample enough for the aforesaid translation to be adorned meanwhile by someone with new prodigies, whether from uncertain tradition or otherwise, and for that narration, thus committed to writing, to have seemed to Raphaël such as could be called ancient.

[163] As regards Borély, he himself testifies in the Preface and it is shown that Raphaël's Opusculum was read by him; and although he varies somewhat in the circumstances of the prodigies, he cannot be of greater authority than he, since he praises no other witness. Nor is his own Office just praised to be esteemed more highly, published ten years after Borély's lucubration, which was its author's guide; for in the older Office nothing of this kind is to be read, as I shall observe below. Let us see therefore what may weaken the said tradition or the historians of uncertain credit read by Raphaël (if indeed he had any predecessors). It cannot be denied that prodigies of the bells so unusual, in so many places, and so long-continued, could neither have been unknown to the inhabitants of that region who lived at the same time, nor be so quickly blotted out from the memory of the natives that they should already have been given over to oblivion four, or even thirty, years afterwards. Nor is it in any way likely that they were then of set purpose suppressed in silence by those whose greatest interest it was to record them. And yet one of these things must altogether be said, if we admit that those prodigies happened in the aforesaid translation.

[164] that those prodigies were unknown to Franciscus Mayronius, Certainly father Franciscus Mayronius was contemporary, who from what has been said above stood by St. Elzéar as he died; nay, he must have been a plain witness of all the miracles which happened in the translation, if he, as Borély asserts in book 2, last chapter, accompanied the holy Count's funeral from the city of Paris to that of Apt; or at least he could not have been ignorant of the things which then befell at Apt, if at the coming of that sacred body he there then delivered a panegyric of the Saint to the people, which Raphaël also affirmed. Nevertheless Mayronius, in the oft-named petition by which the clergy and people of Apt supplicated Pope John XXII in the year 1327 for Elzéar's canonization, makes mention indeed of the translation and of the miracles obtained at his sepulchre at Apt, but not of the prodigies wrought along the way at the time of the translation. It will be useful to have repeated here his words, which our biographer has almost adopted. At length he died at Paris in the thirty-eighth year of his age, … and after some time his body was translated to the city of Apt. And it began at once to shine with great and many miracles at the place of that holy Man's burial, that the sublimity of his sanctity, which, kept in secret, had not yet become known, might be proved from heaven by wonderful miracles of the divine power.

[165] and to the clergy and people of Apt, his contemporaries, Whence by his invocation and merits, by the divine power, the dead have been raised, the blind enlightened, those possessed by demons delivered, and very many sick healed beyond the natural order. And at last, by his visibly and wonderfully appearing and revealing, the kingdom of Majorca, which was disturbed by an untimely war, was long since quieted without shedding of blood, by the permission of God Himself. This and no more Mayronius. Had then the said prodigies so slipped from him and from the clergy and people of Apt, four years after the translation, that they did not so much as mention them when it most behoved them to mention them? For what could they have brought forward more opportunely for happily and effectually promoting the cause which they were pleading, than those illustrious miracles, of which that same Pontiff John XXII, with all his court and the whole city of Avignon, would have been an eye- and ear-witness? Then, if that translation of the Saint had been made illustrious by so many and so notable prodigies, how, I ask, could it come into the mind of Mayronius and of the people of Apt to derive the beginning of his miracles after death from his burial at Apt, and to say that these were done that the sublimity of his sanctity, which, kept in secret, had not yet become known, … might be proved from heaven?

[166] and to other ancient writers. For indeed these words not only do not suggest the miracles reported by the aforesaid writers, but rather deny that any happened in that translation. What then shall we here plead, save that these things were unknown to Mayronius and to the clergy and people of Apt, and therefore were not done? Like silence about them is in the Bull of his canonization, published in the year 1371 by Gregory XI, Roman Pontiff, although in this too place and occasion would not have been wanting for briefly recording them, especially where it speaks of the miracles wrought by him after his death. No mention of them is extant either in the Life to be published, whose author, from what has been said above, most probably had the process of canonization as his guide. Nothing about them is to be read in the Lives of the praised Pope John published by Baluze, nothing in the older proper Office of St. Elzéar himself, which we have in the Breviary of the church of Apt published in the year 1532. Nothing, finally, about so prodigious a sounding of the bells could the often praised lord de Brantes, canon penitentiary and treasurer of the metropolitan church of Avignon, find in the archives of Avignon, who by letters given on the ninth day of May in the year 1757 had promised that, if he found anything upon this matter in them, he would communicate it to me.

[167] These arguments are indeed only negative, but they ought to have the greatest weight; This translation happened when facts of such moment are passed over in silence by those from whom they could not have lain hid, and whose greatest interest it then was to record them. And so, that I may not be longer, the authority of Raphaël and Borély cannot impel me to give credit to their narration in this part; especially because I have learned from daily experience how easily little traditions of this kind are born, and, being lightly seized upon and enlarged by the people, gain strength within some space of time under the name of antiquity. I add a few words about the year of the translation, which it is agreed was made from Paris to Apt. According to our biographer, in the same … year (in which he died) his sacred body was translated and carried to the city of Apt, and there in the church of the Friars Minor, as he had chosen beforehand while he lived, was honourably delivered to burial. But for the year of his death he had assigned the year of Christ 1323. With this agrees our manuscript Notice of Apt, in which it is thus read in French words. In the year MCCCXXIII, while he was acting as legate of king Robert at Paris for obtaining a wife of the royal blood of the French for the king's son Charles the duke, he met death there in the thirty-eighth year of his age, on the twenty-seventh day of September; and as he had been of the third Order of St.

Francis, he was buried in the habit of the same and laid in the church of the Friars Minor at Paris.

[168] In that same year his body was translated to the city of Apt and buried in the church of the Friars Minor; in the year 1323 or the following, as he himself had ordered in his testament, made at Toulon on the eighteenth day of July of the year MCCCXVII. From these things the translation would have to be said to have happened in the year 1323, unless perhaps these words of the biographer, in the same year, are so to be expounded as to signify within the same year of his death, reckoned not from the Christian era but from that Saint's death. A cause for doubting is afforded me by Borély, who writes in book 1, last chapter, that the holy Count's body rested seven or eight months at Paris before it was translated to Apt. There is added also the Martyrology of the three Orders of St. Francis, reported in §1, num. 7, in which that translation is announced on the eighteenth day of June; which is not far from Borély's reckonings, since from the twenty-eighth day of September, on which Elzéar died, until the eighteenth of June there would not have been nine full months; and by this reckoning this translation would have to be thrown back to the year 1324. But from another source it becomes doubtful to me whether that announcement of the Martyrology is accurate enough, and does not confound one translation with the other.

[169] The reason is that Borély, who examined the archives of his Order of Minors at Apt, not later. writes in book 3, chap. 7, that the solemn translation of St. Elzéar's body from its sepulchre at Apt to the altar was made by Cardinal Anglic in the year 1381 on that same eighteenth day of June; but the Friars Minor Conventual of Apt, with whom the sacred body rests, in their manuscript Notice agree with Borély about the Cardinal, the year and the month, but at the same time expressly say that the praised Anglic was indeed deputed on the eighteenth day of June to make this translation, but first carried it out on the following day, and that the memory of that event is celebrated by them with an annual Office on the nineteenth day of that same month of June; on which matter see more below in § XI. These things make it that I cannot certainly declare whether it happened in the year 1323 or in 1324, but I judge that it is without doubt to be attached to one or the other. For the rest, others, among whom is Borély himself, who placed the Saint's death later, had consequently to place the translation later also. I know not whether Denis de Sainte-Marthe followed one of these, when in tom. 1 of the Gallia Christiana, col. 362, he says of Raymond IV, surnamed Bot, bishop of Apt: He received the head (nay, the body) of St. Elzéar, count of Ariano, brought from Paris to Apt, and buried it with great pomp in the church of the Friars Minor in the year MCCCXXVII, in the month of October.

§ IX. The supplication made to Pope John XXII for Elzéar's canonization, without effect: likewise another to Clement VI, and the process drawn up by his command, the canonization nevertheless not then following.

The clergy and people of Apt offer a petition to Pope John XXII, After the venerable body of St. Elzéar was entombed in the church of the Friars Conventual at Apt, the greatness and abundance of the miracles, some of which we shall give in § XI, in a short time impelled the people of Apt to treat with the Apostolic See for obtaining his canonization. Indeed four years afterwards, namely in the year 1327, they offered to this end the oft-praised petition to John XXII, Roman Pontiff, who was residing at Avignon. This petition Antoine Pagi, as I have already noted in §1, having received it from the archive of the Friars Minor of the city of Apt, printed at Avignon in the year 1684 after the Sermons of St. Antony of Padua, with this title: A Supplication offered to John XXII for obtaining the canonization of Bl. Elzéar. Of the same Borély also makes mention in book 3, chap. 7, where, although he agrees about the year of Christ 1327, from his error about the year of St. Elzéar's death he then numbered only two years from his death. I here subjoin it word for word from the praised edition of Pagi, in whom it is said to have been written by Franciscus Mayronius as its author. Thus therefore it stands.

[171] they offer a petition, In the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred and twenty-seven, namely on the third day of the month of May, Raymond Bot, by divine grace bishop of Apt, together with all the men of that city, supplicated our Lord Pope John XXII for the canonization of the lord Elzéar de Sabran, count of Ariano, of illustrious and holy memory. “The angel of the Lord went down with Azarias and his companions into the furnace, and shook off the flame of the fire out of the furnace, and made the midst of the furnace like the blowing of a wind bringing dew.” Daniel writes this word in the third chapter. As of old the almighty power by a stupendous miracle preserved Azarias with his companions in the midst of the burning furnace from the burning of the fire, so in these latest days, not forsaking His Church, He guarded count Elzéar of most illustrious memory, by a wonderful prodigy, set in the midst of the burning furnace of this world, from the burning of pleasure. That is a thing to be celebrated, and a renown not granted in ages past, that a Youth, notable in blood, in complexion, in corpulence and in comely aspect, living amid the delights of the world, and “as fat separated from the flesh,” which is said of Nathan in Ecclesiasticus, chapter 47, from the eleventh (nay, the thirteenth, as I have proved elsewhere) year of his age until the thirty-eighth year, should continue in an unstained wedlock with the title of virginity, without any divorce of cohabitation.

[172] To this most pure cohabitation is fitting that prophetic saying of Isaias, chapter 62: in which the virginity in wedlock “The young man shall dwell with the virgin.” For when this Virgin of wonderful virtue was drawing near to his end, he protested before many bystanders that he was leaving his spouse a holy virgin, with whom, that his service might be more pleasing to God, he had made a vow of preserving celibacy for ever. On account of the unstained observance of which it is fitting that the inhabitants of Provence say that which is said in Canticles, chapter 2: “The flowers have appeared in our land, the time of pruning is come.” For very many pruned this fruit of chastity from this Spouse; which they learned [*] by experience as mistress, being men given over to certain slipperinesses of the flesh, who at his kindly kiss were suddenly changed, being pricked by a supernatural power to a firm and abiding purpose, not without great wonder. For their mother holy Church venerates a fourfold celibacy of husbands and wives with integrity of virginity.

[173] First indeed the celibacy of Joseph, spouse of the Virgin Mother of God; preserved by Elzéar for many years even to death because he was a most pure virgin, lest that most illustrious matrimony should halt by impurity on the part of one of the spouses, according to blessed Augustine. Secondly the celibacy of John the Evangelist, who was called by Christ from his nuptials, according to Jerome. Thirdly the celibacy of holy Valerian with Cecilia the virgin; although of that spouse's virginity it is not so perfectly evident. Fourthly the celibacy of holy Alexius with his spouse, whom he left. Yet indeed this modern celibacy seems to be more wonderful, as regards the observance of chastity, than the celibacy of blessed Alexius; because he was not thus in nearness to the consort from whom he withdrew. But this man for twenty-seven (nay, twenty-five, as is clear from what has been said above) years was preserved untouched with his wife in the same house, and in the same chamber, and in the same bed, so that the sublimity of that virtue appears more to be admired than to be imitated. Secondly, this celibacy seems in this more admirable than the celibacy of blessed Valerian with Cecilia, because here the guarding of virginal integrity was more long-continued; and the longer the preservation in a burning furnace, the more wonderful.

[174] Thirdly, this celibacy seems in this more wonderful than the celibacy of John the Evangelist, is much celebrated as regards the arduousness of the observance; because he was separated from his spouse by Christ's calling: but this man was long preserved in integrity with his spouse by Christ's preservation, transcending that oracle of the Wise man, Proverbs, chapter 6: “Can a man hide fire in his bosom, and his garments not burn? or walk upon hot coals, and his feet not be burnt?” For his feet, that is, his affections, were not burnt, while he trod upon the occasions of carnal burnings, being by the Lord's power so sundered from them that he nowhere reckoned himself so secure in the way of chastity as when he was in the conjugal bed, in which he had made his vow of integrity; as he revealed to certain intimates. Fourthly, this celibacy seems most of all made like to that celibacy which Joseph kept with the Virgin Mother of God; because this was a long-continued and most familiar cohabitation without any contagion of the spouse; for the Mother of the Lord is not to be compared with others.

[175] Yet that so firm purpose of chastity was not procured humanly, but divinely inspired. For on a certain day of the Assumption of Bl. Mary, the Mother of God, when this man, being a youth of about twelve years (nay, from what has been said above, of a somewhat riper age), had newly contracted marriage, and was not yet accustomed to heavenly things, suddenly, while he was at the feast of the lord of Sault with the other noble young men, there came upon him so great a change of mind that, feigning sickness, he hid himself in a chamber, where, the grace of the Holy Spirit and a compunction until then unexperienced coming upon him, he conceived the spirit of preserving unstained purity for ever; although he did not at once express a vow. Whence it is not to be doubted that so great a continence was [*] granted by a supernatural gift, according to that of Wisdom, chapter 8: “Whereas I was rather good, I came to a body undefiled. And I knew that I could not otherwise be continent, except God gave it; and this also was a point of the highest wisdom, to know whose gift it was.”

[176] and they assert that he was illustrious for many other virtues But this Man not only thus flourished with the transcendent virtue of chastity, but also with an admirable piety and humility of mind. For when, being in the kingdom, he often went out to the hunt after the manner of nobles, he withdrew himself, with a certain knight, his confidant, from the tumult of the hunt, and went secretly to the dwellings of lepers, and there, ministering to them services and food, washed their feet, bound up their sores, wiped away the putrefaction of their wounds; and with a wonderful fervour of spirit he rushed for Christ's sake to kiss even their ulcerous wounds — Christ, who, according to the prophetic saying, was upon the Cross as a leper, Isaias, chapter 54. But he shone wonderfully in this life also with many other marks of virtues, which cannot be comprehended in a brief discourse. At length he died in the thirty-eighth year of his age at Paris, with wonderful heraldings of the Cross which he felt in his happy consummation; and after some time his body was translated to the city of Apt.

[177] and shone with miracles, And it began at once to shine with great and many miracles at the place of that holy Man's burial, that the sublimity of his sanctity, which, kept in secret, had not yet become known, might be proved from heaven by wonderful miracles of the divine power. Whence by his invocation and merits, by the divine power, the dead have been raised, the blind enlightened, those possessed by demons delivered, and very many sick

healed beyond the natural order. And at last, by his visibly and wonderfully appearing and revealing, the kingdom of Majorca, which was disturbed by an untimely war, was long since quieted without shedding of blood, by the permission of God Himself.

[178] for the examining of which they supplicate Therefore the whole body of the ecclesiastics and citizens of the city of Apt supplicates your Holiness that the loftiness of the Apostolic See would command inquiry to be made concerning his life and miracles; that, the truth of the aforesaid things and of very many other of his renowns being ascertained, he may be enrolled by Christ's Vicar in the catalogue of the Saints on earth, whom God has shown to be glorified in heaven by so many persevering miracles: so that through you the lamp may shine upon the candlestick for all who are in the house of the militant Church, and he whom Christ has adorned with such marks of virtues may himself receive us rejoicing into the eternal tabernacles. Amen. Thus far that petition, to which its editor Pagi says that in his transcript there is written at the end in the same place: By Franciscus de Maironis.

[179] Of the same subject Denis de Sainte-Marthe makes mention in tom. 1 of the Gallia Christiana, col. 362, under Raymond IV, four years after that Saint's death. surnamed Bot, where he has these things: But in the following year (that is, in the year 1328), on the fifth of the Nones of May, (the same Raymond) asked of John XXII by a petition, in the name of the whole clergy and people of Apt, that he would enrol him in the register of the Saints. Rightly indeed, but one year too late; which error however followed from another, in that he had premised that the head of St. Elzéar (he meant to say the body) was brought from Paris to Apt in the year 1327, and was laid in the church of the Friars Minor in the month of October by that same bishop. He praises indeed in the margin the Registers of the Friars Minor; but I prefer to stand by the instrument just given, from which Borély also assigned the year 1327. For the rest, that supplication of the men of Apt to John XXII did not obtain the desired issue (it is not known for what cause); nor have I read that anything further was done for Elzéar's canonization before the Pontificate of Clement VI, who was raised to it in the year 1342.

[180] While he sat, the cause of the canonization was again attempted by the common consent of the clergy and people of the counties of Provence and Forcalquier, Pope Clement VI commands the bishops of Carpentras and a commission was given by that Pontiff to the bishops of Carpentras (then Geoffrey III) and of Uzès (then Elias, who was afterwards taken to the Cardinalate), and also to the abbot of St. Ruf near Valence in Narbonese Gaul, that they should inquire into the deeds and miracles of that Elzéar. The letters given by him upon this matter Luke Wadding reported, from the Vatican Register, book 3, part 2, ep. 167, in tom. 8 of the Annals of the Minors of the Roman edition, at the year of Christ 1351, num. 38; from whom receive them. To our venerable brothers the bishops of Carpentras and of Uzès, and to our beloved son the abbot of the monastery of Saint Ruf near Valence. Great gladness is with us, and our breast is filled with a wondrous sweetness of joys, and great outlays of thanksgivings and praises are owed by us to God, when the heavenly King Himself, under whose dominion all things subsist, causes His Saints — venerable through the teaching of an exemplary life and the merits of sanctity, and called from the prison of the present life to eternal beatitude — to shine with frequent miracles, through which He may make His people faithful and persevering in the constancy of faith, and may more openly invite those whom, of the multitude of His mercies, He wills to come to the fellowship of those Saints, to follow their footsteps and to walk in their shining paths.

[181] Indeed, on the part of our venerable brothers the archbishops of Aix and of Arles, and of Uzès and to the abbot of St. Ruf, and of some bishops of the provinces of Aix and Arles, and of our beloved sons the prelates of the churches, and of the Religious, and of the barons and nobles and communities of the same provinces and of the counties of Provence and Forcalquier, it was some time ago set forth before us in consistory that Elzéar de Sabran of blessed memory, count of Ariano and lord of the barony of Ansouis, sprung from the said province of Provence, illustrious in nobility of race, so strove, in an exemplary life and in perfect chastity in this pilgrimage of the world, its pleasures being cast off and the enticements of the flesh driven far away, to render pleasing service to the Lord by chaste manners and by acceptable acts of virtue, and by the merit of that life to profit himself and others by his example, that the almighty Lord Himself, manifesting the works of His power in that Elzéar, by his holy merits, in the city of Apt in the house of the Friars Minor, where his body rests, and elsewhere, raised many dead, enlightened the blind, cleansed lepers; restored hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, and health to paralytics and to the contracted; honouring on earth him whom, as is piously believed, He crowned in heaven.

[182] that they inquire into Elzéar's deeds and miracles. Wherefore it was humbly supplicated to us on the part of the aforesaid that, since concerning the aforesaid things, which are said to be as it were well known and manifest in the said provinces and counties, full credit could be had through men worthy of credit and of standing and through the evidence of the facts, we would command inquiry to be made upon them by some upright men; that, the truth being ascertained and certainty had of the premises, since it is not fitting that he be left without veneration among men whom his merits and miracles show to be a saint, we might deign to add him to the catalogue of the Saints. We therefore, whom it behoves to be found swift in things certain and slow in things doubtful, not having knowledge of the aforesaid, being inclined to supplications of this kind, by our brothers' counsel, by Apostolic writings commit and command to your discretion — of whose circumspection we have full confidence in the Lord — that you, or two of you, diligently inquire into the truth concerning the life and merits of the said Elzéar and his miracles and the other circumstances, following the interrogatories which we transmit enclosed under our Bull, and take care to intimate to us what you shall have found upon these matters, faithfully written under your seals, with the testimony of your letters containing the tenor of these. Given at Avignon on the Kalends of September in the tenth year; that is, of Christ 1351.

[183] and draw up a process. By the authority of these letters (Wadding proceeds in the same place) a process was compiled, the Summary of which I have read through in the Vatican library, num. 4018. It is that very one which we took care to have transcribed from that same codex, and have often praised and shall praise through the course of this Commentary. Nevertheless, lest anyone should err from Wadding's words, that process indeed was drawn up under Clement VI, but the praised Summary only some years afterwards under Urban V, who succeeded the said Clement in the Pontificate after Innocent VI, and at length enrolled Elzéar among the Saints, as we shall say in its own place. What further was done for that canonization under Clement VI, and what the author of the said Summary performed in contracting the praised process into an abridgement, it will be useful to have here recounted in his own words from our transcript of the Vatican codex num. 4018; the name de Sabnino, which by the fault or error either of that Vatican codex or of our amanuensis is read in our transcript for de Sabrano, being everywhere corrected as often as it shall occur.

[184] These therefore, at first only two, In the name of the Lord. Amen. Whereas on the part of the reverend fathers, the lords archbishops of Aix and of Arles, and of some bishops of the provinces of Aix and of Arles, and of the prelates, and of the Religious and convents, of the barons, nobles and communities of the said provinces, and of the counties of Provence and Forcalquier, supplication was made to the lord Pope Clement VI of holy memory, while he lived among men, and to the sacred college of the lord Cardinals, in consistory, for the canonization of the lord Elizarius de Sabran of blessed memory, formerly count of Ariano and lord of the barony of Ansouis, sprung from the said province of Provence. This appears at fol. III, the chapter Clemens; namely in the process, of which he here makes an abridgement; which let it also suffice to have noted in this place for what follows. The said Lord, granting which supplication, committed the business of making the inquiry, under a certain form, to the reverend fathers the lords bishops of Uzès [*] and of Carpentras, and to the abbot of Saint Ruf near Valence; and the Bull upon the interrogatories to be made in the cause was, as is the custom, transmitted to two of them. It appears at fol. III, the chapter Clemens, and the chapter Forma.

[185] But the said commissaries betook themselves to the city of Apt for this business on the second day of the month of December in the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred and fifty-one, in the church of the Friars Minor of the said place, then all three meeting at Apt the said abbot being absent. The said lords bishops of Uzès and of Carpentras and commissaries sitting in tribunal, master Nicolas Laurentii, procurator and in the procuratorial name of the aforesaid, the lord bishop of Cavaillon being present there in his own name, presented and exhibited to the commissaries two Bulls, one open and the other closed with a hempen thread [*], after the manner of the Roman curia, and also four procuratorial mandates, namely of the bishop, of the chapter, of the city, and of the convent of the Friars Minor of Apt. It appears at fol. VIII, IX, X, XII. Which letters being reverently received, published and opened (it appears at fol. VII and VIII), although they could have proceeded, yet by their letters they intimated to the said abbot, their colleague, that he should betake himself to the said city and place, being about to proceed with them in the said business. It appears at fol. XIV and XV. Which he also did: it appears at fol. XVI.

[186] But on the seventh day of the month of December in the aforesaid year, the said three commissaries sitting in tribunal in the said church of the Friars Minor at Apt, examined witnesses in the church of the Friars Minor, the said master Nicolas Laurentii, in the procuratorial name of the aforesaid, asked to be admitted to prosecute the business — it appears at fol. XVI and XVII — and supplicated the said commissaries that they would proceed in the business according to the form delivered to them, bringing them a roll containing one hundred and seventy articles, upon which he intended to produce witnesses; supplicating that these be received and examined upon the same according to the form comprised in the Apostolic letters which he exhibited to them: it appears from fol. XVII as far as LIIII. All which things being received and read by the said lord commissaries (it appears at fol. V), they received from the aforesaid Nicolas an oath bodily taken upon the holy Gospels of God concerning calumny and the speaking of truth in the whole cause: it appears at fol. VI. After which the said Nicolas (perhaps to be read: After which things the said Nicolas), for proving the said articles given, named on different occasions four and seven witnesses: it appears at fol. LV, first page. And nevertheless he produced LXVII instruments concerning miracles wrought by the aforesaid Elizarius, which are set down from folio LXVII as far as folio CV.

[187] And, oaths being received from the witnesses concerning the giving of testimony upon the things contained in the articles and in the Apostolic letters, and the process drawn up by them upon these matters they inquired secretly and singly into the truth, both concerning the life, conversation and miracles of the said lord Elizarius, and concerning other things touching this business; whose names and words shall be set down in their depositions. It appears from folio CV as far as folio CCXXXIX. And when these premises were being transacted, there were present John

Alegre of Cahors and Stephen Ronati of the diocese of Saint-Flour, from the Friday which was the second day of December of the aforesaid year until the third day of the following February. Which notaries wrote the book of the process, themselves attesting these things from folio CCXXXIX. Which book the aforesaid commissaries, and each of them, closed with their seals with a hempen cord [*] on either side, and also sealed: it appears at fol. LXVII.

[188] presented to the Pontiff, who committed the examination of it Subsequently, in the year from the Lord's Nativity one thousand three hundred and fifty-two, on the ninth day of the month of May, in full consistory the said three commissaries presented and also delivered the said sealed book, together with the Apostolic letters, to the lord Pope Clement VI; as the lord Cardinals assert in the book of the process, fol. first. And the said supreme Pontiff by the oracle of the living voice committed to the reverend fathers and [*] the bishop of Albano, Peter, presbyter of the title of Saint Martin in the Mountains, and John, deacon of Saint George at the Golden Veil, Cardinals, that they should receive, open, view and examine that same process, and see to it that they reported to him what they found, as is wont to be done. It appears at fol. first of the present book. And the said lord Cardinals on the tenth day of the month of May in the aforesaid year met at vespers in the house of me the bishop of Albano: and there the venerable fathers the bishops of Apt and of Senez, both for themselves and in the name of the lord archbishop and of the whole province of Aix, appearing before the said Cardinals (it appears at folio first, there, Quo mandato, etc.), humbly and with instance requested that we should proceed in the business.

[189] to three Cardinals: of this process And the said lord Cardinals, having seen the Bulls, and the process sealed and bound, and having recognized the seals, both by their own inspection and by the oaths of the commissaries and by the notaries' signs, since it was evident to them that it was so, opened the said book and held it for opened. It appears in the process, folio II. After these things there follows the order of the matters which, established in that process by the testimonies of men worthy of credit and by authentic instruments, were exhibited to the praised Cardinals; concerning which the author of that Summary there proceeds thus: The order of the collection of the said business is this. First there is treated of his life and conversation. Secondly of his miracles. Thirdly of his fame and of the devotion of the faithful toward him. But of his Life: First there is treated of his genealogy and of his infancy, his pious works, and that he then thought of God and of the divine services. Secondly of his penance and its austerity. Thirdly of the revelations made to him by God. Fourthly of his rule, and of that of his household, and of the virtues of the same.

[190] the summary series, and the witnesses, Fifthly of the offices committed to him, and his prudence, and his refusal of gifts. Sixthly of the teaching, alms and compassion which he had and showed toward the poor. Seventhly of his devotion and assiduity in prayer. Eighthly of his passing from this world. Of the miracles, first there is treated of those which he did in his life. Secondly of those which he did after his death; of which some appear to be proved by witnesses, some by instruments. Of his fame, first of certain revelations which brought in fame and assertion concerning those facts to very many holy men. Secondly of his fame in general. But since some witnesses were of his household, let them render the grounds of their statements [*] by their sight of him and their converse had with him. Their names, and the length of their familiarity with him, I have thought should here be specially designated, lest it be needful to repeat them. And they are eleven in number, whose names follow.

[191] First: The lady Delphine, his spouse; she remained with him twenty-five years, among whom Bl. Delphine his wife, and contracted with him in the sixteenth year of her age. But he was thirteen years old; and he died being thirty-eight years old.

Second: The lady Carsendis Alfanta, of holy conversation, was with the lady Laudina his mother for ten years, and dwelt also with him, and was in his service and household.

The lord Raymond de Agout, lord of Vaussault, deposes upon this at folio CXXVIII, at the line: Being asked upon the CXXIII.

Hugh Gaufridi, deposes at fol. CXXX.

The lord Guido Guidonis deposes at folio CXXXI, who was of his household for ten years and more.

The lady Alasacia of Puimichel, sister of the lady Delphine; deposes upon this at folio CXLVIII, and being asked upon the VIII.

Bertranda Bartholomea, of Puimichel; deposes at folio CLVI concerning nine years.

Brother Giraldus Raybaudi was of his household, as he deposes at folio CLXII, at the line: The Brother being asked upon the XXI and XXVII.

The religious man Ysnardus of Albano, Prior of Capua; deposes herein at fol. CLXXXV, at the line: Being asked concerning the place.

William Henrici; was with him for some time; as he deposes at folio CXC.

Peter Ruffi; was his bailiff, and dwelt with him for many years, as he himself deposes at folio CXXIII, at the line: Being asked.

[192] Thus far there; concerning which it must be noted in a few words and others who were of his household, are reviewed that not all those witnesses were then still among the living when the praised process was drawn up by the authority of Clement VI: for it is evident that Garsenda Alphanti, who in this Summary is written Carsendis Alfanta, departed this life before Elzéar himself; and therefore without doubt she is here called of holy conversation. Wherefore it is likely that this matron's testimonies were heard from others who had known her while alive, and reported by them to the commissaries; unless one wishes to suspect that some things were left in writing by her. Whether also some of the remaining witnesses had by then died, is hidden from me; but certainly there were then still living Bl. Delphine, the Saint's virgin wife, Alasacia the sister of that Delphine, and Bertranda Bartholomea, as is certain from the process and the deeds of that Blessed one. I return to the Summary, in which it is subjoined: There follow the Rubrics upon the articles and the depositions of the witnesses produced upon them, very brief, chiefly for this reason, that I have not cared to abridge the articles, lest, the form being changed, the substance of the proofs should seem to be changed.

[193] This last resolution of the writer of the Summary is very convenient for those who have the process, from our Vatican Summary. but troublesome to me, because in this way he has left me almost always to divine what each witness testified in the several articles. For a specimen receive the first Rubric. It stands thus: And first upon the first article, which begins, Ut super vita, folio XVII, second page, and XVIII, first page, at the beginning there: In primis, etc., there deposes concerning the truth: The first witness, namely the lady Delphine, formerly wife of the said lord E., folio CV, first page. And first upon the first article. And hence gather, studious reader, how justly I lament that I could not obtain the oft-named process, since from it I could have solidly confirmed many things, and perhaps also reported some things unknown to me from elsewhere. But since the matter stands thus, we shall try at least to draw out some things, so far as may be permitted, from those same rubrics, where they are a little clearer.

[194] But however happily that cause of canonization was promoted under Clement VI, it was not then brought to the desired end, and hung in suspense until the year 1369, The canonization nevertheless was not then completed. in which it was at length prosperously finished by Urban V. Borély in book 3 of the Life of Bl. Delphine, chap. 7, confesses that he does not know what so long delayed beginnings so happy, and suspects that this is perhaps to be ascribed to the tumults of war and to the pestilence, by which he says Provence was long afflicted at that time. I too cannot assign a certain cause of this interruption or delay, which may have been various, and in which perhaps no small part was had by the death of Clement VI, who died on the sixth day of December of that same year 1352, in whose month of May he had himself committed in consistory the examination of the oft-named process to the Cardinals of Albano, of Saint Martin in the Mountains, and of Saint George at the Golden Veil. For the rest, Innocent VI succeeded Clement in the same year, and to him in the year 1362 Urban V, under the first of which two I have read that nothing was done for the said canonization, but under the second that it was completed, as we shall see in the following §.

didicerunt*

fuerit*

Uceticensi*

that is, cannabis*

cannabis*

the &* is superfluous

perhaps reddunt*

§ X. Elzéar's canonization by Urban V, supreme Pontiff: his death: the bull of that canonization published by Gregory XI.

[ ] Urban V, Pontiff, whom some report The hitherto interrupted cause of Elzéar's canonization, which we have said above was first attempted in the year 1327 under John XXII, then further promoted under Clement VI in the years 1351 and the following, and finally hung in suspense under Innocent VI, was at last resumed under his successor Urban V, and brought to the long-desired end. If the things be true which Raphaël narrates in the Life, part 2, chap. 3, the praised Pontiff Urban was bound to the holy Count by no small benefit, by which he could easily be moved to decree to him beyond others those sacred honours as to his own preserver. He writes, namely, that Urban, when he had first been brought forth into the light by his mother without any human appearance, but like a shapeless mass of flesh, was presently carried to St. Elzéar, who was then lodging with his parents; and that at his prayer he was suddenly endowed with human limbs, and was raised by him from the sacred font and called William. On the same testimony of Raphaël, St. Elzéar then foretold to his parents that he would one day be the greatest among Christians; presaging namely the Pontificate for him.

[196] to have been greatly bound to Elzéar, Besides, he adds that Elzéar after his death appeared to William, then abbot of St. Victor at Marseilles, when for piety's sake he was going to the cave of St. Mary Magdalen, upon a white horse and surrounded with great brightness, and, having said who he was, commanded him to betake himself to Avignon; for that God willed to commit to him the helm of His Church; which he observes also came to pass, William being substituted by the Cardinals in the place of Innocent VI. The same things has Borély in the Life of Bl. Delphine, book 3, chap. 7, following perhaps none other than Raphaël. Concerning the first miracle in the forming of the limbs, and the prophecy, there agree also Antoine and Louis Ruffi in the History of the city of Marseilles, book XI, chap. 3, and Jean Baptiste Guesnay in his St. John Cassian illustrated, book 2, chap. 27; but the latter praised only the Life of St. Elzéar first published in the year 1622 by Étienne Binet, presbyter of the Society of Jesus; while the others praised some History or other; so that it may be doubted whether the narration of all these rests upon any testimony older than Raphaël's. I certainly find nothing similar in the Lives of that Pontiff published by Étienne Baluze, nor of Raphaël's

authority, who lived in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, is grave enough for me to believe him at once, when he asserts things so wonderful without a witness. Besides this, as regards the apparition, if Raphaël will have it made a little before Urban's election, as Borély expressly affirms, it cannot be admitted; since from his Lives and from approved writers it is evident that William was in Italy when he was elected, absent and unaware, by the Cardinals gathered at Avignon.

[197] Let us begin with more certain things. For the more speedy completion of the canonization the process was of very great profit, orders the process made under Clement VI to be examined, which I have said was drawn up under Clement VI. For there was no need to seek new testimonies and to examine witnesses about Elzéar's deeds and miracles contained in it. Then was composed its Summary, often praised in this Commentary, that the Pontiff, or those to whom he committed this business, might be able by an easy method to find the several things proved in the process. The writer of the Summary himself says these things at the end: And let these things suffice, to the honour of God, of the Bl. Virgin Mary, and of all the citizens above: and to the exaltation of the holy Catholic faith and of the holy Church of God. Setting forth the aforesaid, I who have made and written these things submit them to the correction of our most holy lord, the lord Urban V, by divine providence [*] of the holy Roman Church, and to the most sacred assembly of the lord Cardinals, and of each one of them, who in the premises may deign of their clemency to hold my insufficiency and imprudence excused, according to the saying of the Apostle: Bear ye, etc.

[198] Further, Pope Urban, having set out in the year 1367 from Avignon, where he was wont to reside, and in the year 1369 was staying at Rome in Italy when, after a diligent examination held as usual and the divine help implored, he pronounced for Elzéar's sanctity. The contemporary author of the second Life of that same supreme Pontiff, published by Étienne Baluze, makes mention of the same matter twice. First at the year 1368: In the same year, says he, in the month of August, the lord Pope declared that Saint Alziarius, formerly count of Ariano, was to be canonized, whose body is in the city of Apt in Provence, and shines with many miracles. Then, to show that he stood by his promises in the following year, he says again after some things: In the year of the Lord MCCCLXIX, on Sunday, the fifteenth of April, he enrolled the aforesaid Saint Alziarius in the catalogue of the Saints, appointing his feast to be celebrated on the twentieth day of September. All these things are rightly stated except the day assigned for his cult, for which the twenty-seventh day of September seems to be substituted, as will be plain from the Bull of that canonization published by Gregory XI, Urban V's successor, and to be exhibited below.

[199] Concerning the year and day of the canonization, besides the Bull just mentioned, enrols him among the Saints at Rome; and upon that matter the author of the first Life of that same Urban in the praised Baluze also agrees, from which I have transcribed the following. In the year of the Lord MCCCLXIX, on the fifteenth day of the month of April, at Rome the said Pope Urban canonized and noted in the catalogue of the Saints Saint Alziarius, formerly count of Ariano, a Provençal by nation, shining with many and great miracles; in commendation of whom he made a very solemn Sermon, and much profitable and edifying to those who heard it. Finally, these things are confirmed by Urban's own Apostolic letters, which he transmitted upon this matter to the bishop of Apt, and also to the Guardian of the convent of the Friars Minor and to the magistrate of the city of Apt, at the same time forbidding that anything be altered about that Saint's body without his special leave. These, in manuscript, received from the Friars Minor of Apt, that most kindly patron of our Museum, the very reverend lord Joseph Antoine de Brantes, canon, treasurer and Penitentiary of the metropolitan church of Avignon, transmitted to us, and from that transcript I here subjoin them.

[200] he admonishes the people of Apt by a letter, and commands Urban V, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to our venerable brother the bishop of Apt; to our beloved sons, the Guardian and convent of the house of the Friars Minor; and to the community of the city of Apt, and to all others to whom the present letters shall come, Greeting and Apostolic benediction. For certain causes we most strictly inhibit you and each of you by Apostolic authority by the tenor of the present letters, that you do not translate the body of Saint Elzéar the confessor, formerly count of Ariano, buried in the church of the Friars Minor of Apt, whom this day by the aforesaid authority we have thought fit to enrol in the catalogue of the Saints, nor raise it into a shrine, nor in any wise touch it, nor dispose of anything of his relics without our special leave. For we promulgate the sentence of excommunication against the persons acting contrary hereto, from which they may not obtain the benefit of absolution by any other than the Roman Pontiff, save in the article of death.

[201] that they abstain from his relics. Urban dying meanwhile, Let it therefore be lawful to none at all of men to infringe this page of our promulgation, or with rash daring to go against it. But if any shall presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of Almighty God and of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Rome at Saint Peter's on the seventeenth of the Kalends of May, in the seventh year of our Pontificate: that is, of Christ 1369, in whose month of October the seventh year of his Pontificate was to be completed. In the following year, in the month of April, Urban departed from Rome, about to return to Avignon, which he entered on the twenty-fourth day of September, and being there seized with a grave sickness, he died most holily on the nineteenth day of December of that same year, illustrious for miracles after his death. But that death befell the men of Apt inopportunely for this reason, that, although Urban had already in the past year at Rome reckoned Elzéar in the number of the Saints, nevertheless the Bull of canonization had not yet been published by him, without which the feast of that canonization could not be celebrated. But this defect was supplied by Urban's successor Gregory XI, whose Bull, before I report it, it will be useful to have noted some things here from the distinguished Work on the beatification of the Servants of God and the canonization of the Blessed, book 1, chap. 36, §14, num. 38, of Benedict XIV of happy memory, supreme Pontiff, who most lately, while I write these things, departed this life to the utmost grief of the whole Church of God.

[202] Gregory XI published the bull of canonization in his own name, According to those things, says he, which have been said above, the final sentence concerning canonization having been pronounced by the supreme Pontiff, the consistorial advocate most humbly urges for the despatch of the bull, and the supreme Pontiff answers: We decree it. Formerly, before the bull was despatched, the feast of the canonization could by no means be celebrated; as is gathered from the decree of the Congregation of sacred rites published in the cause of St. Francis de Sales on the fifth day of August MDCLXV, in which it was granted by special favour that before the despatch of the Bull the nuns of the Holy Visitation of the city of Annecy might celebrate the solemnities of the canonization of the said Saint. But since, the canonization being made, it sometimes happens that, the despatch of the bull being delayed, the Pontiff dies who reckoned the Blessed one among the Saints, then some one of his successors proceeds in his own name — the deeds of his predecessor, however, and the canonization made by him being recorded — to the despatch of the bull, whose beginning is wont to be: “It is agreeable to reason, and befits honesty, that those things which have proceeded from the prudence of the Roman Pontiff should obtain their effect, although, his death supervening, Apostolic letters were not drawn up upon them.”

[203] The first example of this thing I think was that of Gregory XI, which afterwards other Pontiffs also did in a like case. who promulgated that Bl. Elziarius de Sabran, lord of Ansouis in Narbonese Gaul and count of Ariano in Apulia, had formerly been enrolled in the canon of the holy confessors by Urban V, supreme Pontiff, Apostolic letters being despatched: It is agreeable to reason, etc. This custom Pontiffs afterwards commonly embraced: and Benedict XIII of holy memory indeed ordered to be despatched in his own name those bulls of canonizations which had not been despatched under those Pontiffs who had completed the canonizations of the Blessed, so that the bull of canonization of St. Elizabeth, queen of Portugal, alone was wanting, as has been said above: namely in the same book, chap. 9, num. XI, where he writes that this too was at length despatched by himself when he had been raised to the supreme Pontificate, as also four other bulls of canonizations performed by his predecessor Clement XII, all which he reported among the Appendices in the repeated and enlarged Roman edition of the said Work of the year 1749, which I use. These things being observed, I here subjoin entire the Bull itself of Gregory XI from Wadding, from whom Giusto Fontanini reported it in his codex of Canonizations.

[204] Gregory, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, This bull is recited, in which the Pontiff, having prefaced to the perpetual memory of the matter. It is agreeable to reason, and befits honesty, that those things which have proceeded from the providence of the Roman Pontiff should obtain their effect, although, his death supervening, Apostolic letters were not drawn up upon them. Formerly indeed Pope Urban V of happy memory, our predecessor, providently considering that great outlays of thanksgivings and praises are owed by all the faithful of Christ to our Lord Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of them that rule, under whose dominion all things subsist, when that heavenly King Himself, the glory of the knowledge of all things, whose ineffable height of knowledge and providence is enclosed within no limits, comprehended by no bounds, disposes with the judgment of an upright judge things heavenly and earthly alike, causes His Saints — venerable through the teaching of an exemplary life and the merits of sanctity, and called from the prison of the present life to eternal beatitude — to shine with frequent miracles, and, showing by sure and clear tokens wonderful and stupendous things by the intercession of their merits, makes plain that they, after exceeding labours and the hard contests of the present life, are filled with the sweetness of eternal rest, and obtain the palm of heavenly grace:

[205] And that the same God the Maker, rich in mercy, what his predecessor performed in this cause, liberal in graces and munificent in retribution, bending the eyes of His Majesty from the heights of the heavens to the lowest parts of the world, and examining with kindly consideration the great merits and wonderful works of blessed Elzéar de Sabran, count of Ariano and baron of Ansouis, a lord sprung from the province of Provence, illustrious in nobility of race, and His most glorious confessor, by which he, set in the world, shone as a luminous lamp; and, as a just Judge and praiseworthy rewarder, graciously intending to recompense him with worthy gifts, should place him, as one who had earned it and was most worthy of retribution, after the prison-house of the present life and the laborious contests of the world, which, fervent in divine services, he waged powerfully and openly, in the ethereal seats, that he might sit with princes and hold a throne of glory, having attained the sweetness of eternal happiness. And lest the brightness of the praiseworthy acts of that same blessed Elzéar, with which he had shone forth while set upon earth, lying hidden under a cloud, should be darkened by shadows, that same predecessor willed that some of them be expressed in his letters, if they had been drawn up upon these matters, which we have caused to be inserted in the present, that they may be brought to public knowledge.

[206] celebrates the Saint's virginity, his charity toward his neighbour, He indeed from the first beginnings of his youthful age loved the Son of God with a tender mind; nor did he cease to love Him, continuing his salutary endeavours, so long as the convenience of temporal life was with him. But since he advanced in greater age and went forward into longer times,

with so much the ampler fervour of spirit did he burn into His love, and so cleaved to the works of chastity, so was zealous to avoid the contagions of the flesh, that, although he had a wife young in age and illustrious in nobility, yet, as is established [*] from the testimonies of the said wife and of the confessor of that Saint, the Saint himself ever shone red with virginal whiteness. Moreover the Saint himself, while he lived in the present world, was most illustrious in race, lofty in power, opulent in means, elegant in manners, things dishonourable and base being utterly banished from his mind; being greatly compassionate toward the servants of Christ and the poor and other wretched persons, he showed himself munificent in the bestowal of alms, for the most part ministering to them himself, and abounded in so great charity that nothing was so dear to him but that he would gladly have given it away, if he could thereby have drawn but one soul to Christ; nor would he take vengeance upon any rival of his.

[207] his chastisement of the flesh, his zeal for prayer, And lest the burning of the companion flesh should extinguish the fervour of the spirit, but rather that it should be kindled by mortification and repression, taming that flesh by the harshness of a continual hair shirt, as is asserted, he curbed with the bridle of endurance the unbridled craft of its lusts, so that, not led by the oarage of his own will, but by the salutary governance of the spirit, he safely performed what was lawful and altogether abstained from unlawful delights. For he macerated his body with fastings, adding to himself, upon the observance of the ancients ordained by the holy Fathers, the austerity of new ones, brought in by the motion of his own will. For through the whole of Advent and on the sixth day of every week, and at all other times, he observed the fast; meanwhile he occupied himself in many prayers, that no hour of time should pass by him uselessly, using no cushions under his knees; nay, he very often drew back [*] his own garments. And while he presided over the council of the duke of Calabria, he meanwhile promoted the petitions of the poor, so that all called him the Advocate of the poor.

[208] and other virtues and miracles, on account of which He was moreover most clear in purity of life, illustrious in humility, and a sincere friend of truth; and all his sayings exhorted to the increase of virtue, and his salutary works soothed the hearts of his hearers, and redounded manifoldly to their saving edification. For there is no doubt that a certain woman, who for a whole year and more had been powerless in her whole body, and in some parts of her body so dried up that she seemed a piece of dry wood, and who, after the Saint himself had passed to Christ, had caused herself to be carried to his tomb, was suddenly cured at the invocation of the said Saint. In sign of which that woman returned to her house on her own feet. A certain man too, by chance thrown down in a ditch, on every side beneath the earth, so that no one could by any means come to him; after he had remained there so long [] that naturally he ought not to have been alive, was preserved from death at the invocation of the aforesaid Saint. For the Lord loved this Saint, and chose him at last [] for the fellowship of His inheritance, and adorned him also with the diadem of everlasting glory; and that his name might be exalted with the praises of peoples, both in his life and after that, as is premised, he happily passed to Christ, to enjoy the delights above, the Lord the Maker Himself, truly wonderful in His Saints, illustrated that same Saint with the splendour of very many other and various miracles, manifestly showing how much of honour and reverence was owed to him.

[209] Whence the aforesaid predecessor, having had credit concerning acts and miracles of this kind of the said Saint, he testifies that he was reckoned among the Saints by Urban V; by worthy proofs, with such certainty of the truth as frailty itself permitted him to know, being often stirred by the solemn prayers of many prelates and other circumspect persons, thought fit to enrol that blessed Elzéar, by the counsel of his Brothers, of whose number we then were, by the authority of almighty God and of His blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and by his own, as one received by an ineffable sanctification from the Lord into the choir of the Blessed, with a famous solemnity, in the catalogue of the Saints, namely on the seventeenth of the Kalends of May, in the seventh year of his Pontificate. And that he might be extolled with devout praises on earth whom the Lord of them that rule had willed to be honoured on high, he willed that the festivity of that same Confessor be celebrated with due reverence on the twenty-seventh day of the month of September, on which he passed to the Lord; and also, that a multitude of the faithful may flow together more fervently and more abundantly to the church of the Friars Minor, where the body of that Saint venerably rests, and that his famous solemnity may be performed, to all truly penitent and confessed who shall reverently come thither on that feast yearly, to seek his suffrages, trusting in the mercy of almighty God and in the authority of His blessed apostles Peter and Paul, he mercifully relaxed one year and forty days of the penances enjoined upon them.

[210] O how praiseworthy, O how wonderful the sublimity of the divine providence, and invites the dwellers in heaven and on earth to congratulation and the immensity of the eternal retribution, by which an inestimable reward is repaid to those who serve Him! O happy gift, proceeding from the highest good and consisting in Christ, whereby one has deserved to be with the most blessed spirits in the presence of the Maker, and to be illumined with the splendour of the uncircumscribed light! O field of most happy fertility, bringing forth abundant fruits, where flowers come forth and do not wither; where the seeds scattered do not perish, and where, the sheaves being multiplied, the grains of glory are gathered! For this bounteous Confessor tilled this field with obedience; he was zealous to scatter in it the seeds of virtues, and deserved to gather such grains of life after his labours. Let mother Church therefore exult and celebrate the festive solemnities of joys, who bore so great and such a Son, brought him forth born, reared him as her nursling, now shining red among the glorious hosts of the heavenly kings. Let her rejoice, I say, and jubilate, and utter voices in the praises of the Most High, who is seen made illustrious with the splendours, adorned with the marks [], of an Offspring so exalted, so famous; who, in extolling [] him with sounding heraldings and in cherishing him with the display of the highest veneration, more eminently opens and more evidently explains that those are to be admitted to the joys of everlasting beatitude and to a share of the eternal inheritance who profess the aforesaid Church as their mother, the spouse of Christ's faithful, by clear testimonies of faith and of work; and that the Most High permits none to enter into the glory of the heavenly country save through her virtuous ministry, as of the key-bearer of the heavens, with the doors unlocked.

[211] [and invites to praises, and because Urban had died before the bull was published,] Let the hosts of the heavenly ones rejoice moreover at the coming of so sublime and so shining an Inhabitant, and because there is joined to them a tried and approved Husbandman and chief cultivator of the Christian faith; let the generous nobility of the citizens above sound the jubilation of gladness, because it is known to have received the increase of so great and such a Count, and let the venerable assembly of the Saints bloom again with joy and exultation at the new habitation of a most worthy Consort. Rise up therefore, numerous throng of the faithful; rise up, ye zealous for the faith, and together with her sing likewise a hymn of abundant praise; let our hearts be flooded with a copious shower of gladness, and let the secret places of the breast be filled with the dew of fruitful sweetness at the exaltation of so great and so powerful and excellent a Prince, the fullness of earthly hope being most safely received, because there has grown up for us an effectual patron with the Son of the eternal Father, one already made from a fellow-native of earthly things a fellow-citizen of heavenly ones, who, being already set in His presence, discharges the office of a diligent pleader for the advancement of our salvation. But lest, because, that same predecessor's death supervening, Apostolic letters were not drawn up upon the premises, there could in any wise be hesitation about them; we will, and by Apostolic authority have decreed, that the present letters everywhere suffice for fully proving all the premises done by the aforesaid predecessor, as is premised, and that for this no help of another proof be required.

[212] he himself publishes it and commands it to be observed. Let it therefore be lawful to none at all of men to infringe this page of our will and constitution, or with rash daring to go against it. But if any 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 Avignon on the Nones of January, in the first year of our Pontificate. That is, in the year of the Christian era 1371, since the praised Gregory XI was substituted in the Pontificate on the thirtieth day of December of the preceding year, Urban V having died. For the rest, this bull of Gregory, which from Wadding's Annals of the Minors Giusto Fontanini, as I have said, reprinted in his Codex of Canonizations, and Odoricus Raynaldus in the Continuation of the ecclesiastical Annals of Cardinal Baronius, tom. 15, among the addenda to the year 1326, num. 68 — and which I too have reported from the repeated and enlarged Roman edition of those same Annals of the Minors published by Joseph Maria Fonseca of Évora in the year 1733 — this bull, I say, is certainly faulty in some places, if you regard the words. I have indeed some manuscript exemplar of it, transmitted to us by the above-praised canon, treasurer and penitentiary of the metropolitan church of Avignon, Joseph Antoine de Brantes, who had received it from the Friars Minor of Apt. But since this exemplar had graver faults, I judged that it should be neglected.

add Papæ*

another reading, constat*

read amovebat*

that is, fuerat*

another reading, suæ*

perhaps insigniis*

or attollenda*?

§ XI. Some miracles drawn from Raphaël, and in part confirmed from the Summary of the process of canonization.

[ ] Since I lack the process of canonization, Since the anonymous writer of the Life to be published has made mention only in general of the miracles obtained after his death through St. Elzéar's patronage, saying at num. 72: By his invocation and merits, by the divine power, the dead have been raised, the blind enlightened, the contracted delivered, and very many sick restored beyond the order of nature to their former health, etc.; since, I say, the biographer reports these things only in general, it behoves that we set them forth a little more fully in this § from things received elsewhere. These were proved in the process of canonization, which we lack, by witnesses worthy of credit who then lived, or from authentic instruments produced by the procurator of the cause, as is clear from the Summary, in which it is expressly said: Of the miracles, first there is treated (in the process) of those which he did in his life; secondly of those which he did after his death; of which some appear to be proved by witnesses, some by instruments. Then through the course of the Summary, after the articles concerning the Saint's deeds in his life, there follows the Rubric concerning the miracles wrought while he lived, from which I shall observe some things among the Annotations to the Life. Various articles are subjoined, indicated almost by number only, with the names of the witnesses added who asserted the miracles contained in them.

[214] Then follows the Rubric concerning the miracles wrought after his death. in which many miracles And first of the dead raised. Secondly of those delivered from peril of death. Thirdly of those delivered from a continued fever without sweat or other crisis. Fourthly of the blind enlightened. Fifthly of the deaf restored to hearing. Sixthly of those restored to speech. Seventhly of those delivered from the falling sickness. Eighthly of those cured of powerlessness of the arms and hands. Ninthly of those cured of a fracture. Tenthly of lunatics delivered. Eleventhly of those delivered from a fistula. Finally the writer of that same Summary,

says: It is to be known that upon the miracles wrought after the death of that lord Elizarius and after the mortality there were produced [*] sixty-seven instruments, as appears in the book of the process, and they are contained from folio LXVII as far as folio CV, of which I have made mention at the end of each article, for the proving of which things and persons they were produced. And these aforesaid instruments were received, while he lived, by master Jacobus Atriti, public notary in the counties of Provence and Forcalquier, by the authority and commission of the lords bishops of Apt for the time being, etc.

[215] Again, after some things, he subjoins: It is moreover to be known are contained; I shall give some from Raphaël. A man dead of a fever, that the Brothers Hugh Melli, William Raybaudi and Bertrand Silvestri, of the Order of Minors of Apt, were appointed by the Guardian who then was, and each of them deputed to require that instruments upon the miracles be drawn up by the aforesaid notary. From all these things gather, reader, how justly I have longed for the praised process; but since I have been frustrated of my hope, it remains that I should at least exhibit here in Latin the miracles which Raphaël, in the second part of the Life of St. Elzéar, recounted in French, having most probably received them chiefly from that same process, and that I should confirm them from the Summary where I can. And so after chapter 1, which treats of the translation discussed above, the second Chapter, concerning some recalled from death to life, stands thus: In the year of grace MCCCXXVI Bertrand Flote, of the city of Digne (called by the natives Digne) in the Gallic Province, died of fevers; and therefore his wife Guillelma wept and lamented bitterly. And when many had tried in vain to console her and to lead her to patience, they at length persuaded her to have recourse to the holy Count of Ariano; inasmuch as for his patronage and merits God had wrought great miracles, and wrought them daily.

[216] and a boy killed under a mill-wheel, are raised. She, having received this salutary counsel from the bystanders, piously fell upon her knees, and, her eyes lifted to heaven, vowed to St. Elzéar that, if he would deign to obtain this grace from God, that her husband should return to life, both she and he would come to his sepulchre with a certain weight of wax. And presently, the vow being made, the said Bertrand came to life again and began to speak. Of this miracle a public instrument was made. It is most likely that this instrument is one of those which we have seen praised in the Summary of the process. I go on to recount Raphaël's words. There was also raised from death a certain little boy named Bertrand des Prez, son of Guido (in French it is Guyot), of the aforesaid diocese of Digne, who, having slipped beneath a mill, expired under its wheel; for which dead boy a certain good woman, Guillelma Blegiere, vowed and promised to the said Saint that, if the said boy should come to life again by his merits, she would visit his sepulchre with the gift of a pound of wax. This vow being uttered, the boy suddenly revived, began to speak, and said: Elzéar has raised me, and I will visit him with my brother. In the Summary, in the rubric concerning those raised from the dead, article 50 begins: Item Bertrandus: which, however, whether it be one of the two just named, I cannot divine.

[217] Likewise a woman killed by the throw of a stone suddenly revived. There also befell a great miracle (Raphaël proceeds in the same place) to a certain woman who was called Beatrix Royne, of the city of Apt, and who was killed by the throw of a stone by some young man of that same city of Apt, as twenty-five eye-witnesses worthy of credit affirmed. But after a vow made to the holy Count by a devout woman named Bertranda, the aforesaid Beatrix at once returned to life, and the wound inflicted by the stone was healed, with no trace or scar left, although it had been very grave and great. That this miracle was certainly treated in the process of canonization is clear from our Summary, in which under the aforesaid rubric concerning the dead raised it is thus read: Upon article XLVII, which begins: Item Beatrix; there stands an instrument at fol. LXX, second page, about the middle. Likewise the twenty-sixth witness, namely Burgundia Sabaterie of Apt, at folio CLXXXI, first page, about the middle, deposes, saying that she saw her dead, as it appeared to her; and afterwards strong: and it had been promised to the said Saint that they would offer him her shroud (that is, the linen cloth in which Beatrix's corpse should have been wrapped); and she saw some return who carried her shroud to the said Saint.

[218] with no scar of the wound left; and some others Likewise the twenty-seventh witness, namely Guillerma Sabaterie, deposes that she saw her dead, as it appeared; and heard that a certain woman vowed her, being dead, to St. Elizarius, and that she would carry her shroud to him; which also she did, and on her return she was found alive and very well and sound. And there is an instrument of this at folio LXX, second page. Thus far the Summary. In Raphaël there follow these things: There were likewise brought back from death to life John Moreau of Manosque (which, as Baudrand testifies in his Lexicon, is a small but pleasant town, called by its inhabitants Manosque, six leagues distant from Apt), and Raymund (or Raymunda; in French it is Raymonnet) of Pretz, of the diocese of Sisteron, bound by an annual tribute to the city of Avignon; Bartholomew Roux, of the diocese of Cavaillon (in French Cavaillon in the Comtat Venaissin); Benedict Bernardi of the castle of Peymier, of the diocese of Aix (commonly Aix in Provence); Astruga, wife of William de Bonitz; Alacta Bareliere of the castle of Sereste; and William Roux of the diocese of Apt, and many others, through the merits of the said St. Elzéar. These things also, which are here briefly touched upon, were in all likelihood received from the oft-named process, so far at least as I have been able to gather from our Summary.

[219] For in that same rubric concerning the dead raised some of the names just recorded occur. restored to life through St. Elzéar's merits Thus it is read: Upon article XLIII, which begins: Item Joannes; there stands an instrument at folio XLVIII, first page, about the middle. Likewise upon article XLIIII, which begins: Item Raymundus, fol. LXVIII, second page. Again, some things being interposed. Likewise upon article LI, which begins: Item Raymundus, there stands an instrument at folio LXXIII … Upon article LII, which begins: Item Bonetus; the XXXIX witness, namely Peter Bertrandi [*], layman, fol. CXCIX, first page, deposes saying that he saw that same Bonetus, his brother, and he had a fever: and he saw him in part of a shroud (that is, in a funeral linen), and afterwards, a vow being made, raised to health. Likewise the XL witness, namely Bonetus Bernardi, at folio CC, first page, about the beginning, deposes saying that he heard that he was placed in a shroud, and a vow made; and afterwards raised. And upon this there stands an instrument at folio LXXIII, second page. This Bonetus Bernardi seems to have been the same as he who above was called by Raphaël Benedict Bernardi.

[220] Alacta also (in Raphaël in French Alacte) is most probably Alaïseta, a boy monstrously born, of whom the same Summary has these things: Upon article LIII, which begins: Item Alaiseta, there stands an instrument at fol. LXXIII, first page. The names of the rest are not expressed in the Summary. Thus far of the dead restored to life, whom our biographer at num. 72 recorded only in general, saying: By his invocation and merits, by the divine power, the dead have been raised. After these things the praised Raphaël, in chap. 3, which he entitled concerning infants born monstrous and with a defect of limbs, first narrates (I much doubt whether truly) the things which I have reported from him at num. 195 concerning Urban V's nativity. Then, other things not pertaining hereto being interposed, he thus proceeds in French: To the lord Suart, lord of Pontevès in the Gallic Province, there was born of his wife, the lady Thomasa, a monstrous son without feet or hands. This infant, by the counsel of the lord Foulques de Pontevès, knight and doctor, they vowed to God and to the said holy Count, praying that he would obtain from God for the infant the usual members of the body which nature is wont to grant.

[221] And they promised that they would bring that infant with a waxen image to his sepulchre, and another born without eyes, are given wholeness of body. and would make him a religious of the Order of St. Francis in the church of Apt, where the body of the aforesaid Saint rested and rests. The vow being uttered, that same infant was at once furnished with all his members most excellently formed, and when he had reached a fit age he was brought to the aforesaid church of Apt for the discharging of the vow, and embraced the religious state of the said Order of St. Francis. Moreover the wife of John de Roche amatour dauriel, of the diocese of Carpentras, in the Comtat Venaissin, bore a son lacking eyes, who, after he had so remained for eight days, was vowed to the said Saint by his father John, and presently God, for the merits of the holy Count, bestowed eyes upon him. These two miracles, of which I have found nothing in our Summary, I leave solely to the credit of Raphaël alone, whose words again are those which I subjoin from chapter 4, whose title is concerning the powerless, the dropsical, the paralytic, and those labouring under joint disease.

[222] Paralysis, In the year of grace MCCCXXXV, on the fifteenth day of October, when certain men of Apt were going with musical trumpets to the sepulchre of the lord St. Elzéar for the sake of honouring the sacred body, and had come to the bridge, they found a certain boy of eight or nine years, named Peter Chabert, who had been powerless in his legs and thighs all his life, so far that he could never walk without the help of two crutches. And one of those trumpeters, called Bertrand Folque, of the city of Apt, beholding this poor boy, who did not move himself, but almost let himself be trodden upon, asked what ailed him. He answered that he was powerless and had always been so. But then the said Bertrand, who was borne with a singular piety toward the aforesaid holy Count, vowed to him for that same Peter that, if he obtained from God that he might be able to walk without crutches and staves, he would visit his sacred sepulchre with him. And when he had uttered this vow, at once the said poor little fellow was healed, and without the help of staves went forward thither with that same Bertrand to render thanks to God and to the holy Count.

[223] and other evils of the limbs, By the merits of that same Saint there was also cured Brother Hugh Ripert, of the Order of St. John, rector of the house of St. Michael, in the diocese of Sisteron, who for ten years had lain powerless and paralytic in bed, from which he had not been able to raise himself, or to eat or drink, save what was put into his mouth by others. There were likewise healed Raymund Marcel of Cabrières (a castle in Provence), who for six years and more had been powerless; William Silve and Bartholomew Digne, of Aix; James Escoffier del Mouchel; Raymund Tripiale of the diocese of Orange; and Bertrand de Vaurelle of the castle of Orgon, of the diocese of Cavaillon, who for seven years continuously had been grievously

tormented by joint disease without the power of using his hands. Likewise Aicharda Laurence of Puimichel, of the diocese of Riez, and many others were restored to health by the merits and prayers of the said St. Elzéar. For these things reported in this whole number and in the preceding one I have likewise found nothing to note from our Summary.

[224] and the falling sickness driven away. There follows in Raphaël chap. 5, Concerning those labouring under the falling sickness. The lord Pontier, a noble knight, son of the lord William Peter, lord of Mazan, of the diocese of Carpentras, laboured under the falling sickness, of that kind which is called epilepsy, and was frequently vexed by it. But his mother, the lady Beatrix, having weighed the grave sickness by which he was afflicted, commended him to various Saints, but without effect. And when the said son was once vehemently tormented by that same ill, at length she has recourse to the lord St. Elzéar, beseeching and promising that, if her son should thereafter be free of that sickness through his patronage, she would visit his sepulchre with him barefoot, and would there offer at his sacred body a waxen image of two pounds, and as much corn as her son should weigh. The vow being made, the son was perfectly healed, and came away free of the said sickness. Likewise William Stephani of the castle des Jordains, Hugh Arnaldi of the castle of Manne, Beatrix Latresse of the diocese of Sisteron, and many others were healed through the prayers and merits of the said Saint. In the oft-named Summary, in the rubric concerning those delivered from the falling sickness, various cures of this kind are recounted; but I could draw nothing certain thence for the aforesaid.

[225] Chapter 6 in Raphaël is entitled Of the blind and the deaf, Sight given back to some blind and stands thus: In the time of Pope Benedict XI, sprung from the region of Toulouse and of the Cistercian Order, two years after he had been elected to the Pontificate, Ysnarda Rostagne, of the castle of Bonitz, of the diocese of Apt, when for a whole ten years, being deprived of sight, she had seen nothing at all, recalling in her mind the great miracles which God was working through the intercession of the lord St. Elzéar, and especially what he had obtained for her husband Peter Lostang, who had been …, made a vow to that same Saint, saying: O my lord, St. Elzéar, since I am a sinner and unworthy to be heard by God, nor can pray to Him worthily enough, I suppliantly beseech thee to deign to pray to Him for me, that I may receive at least the light of one eye; and I promise thee that I will visit thy sacred body with the gift of a wax candle. This vow being uttered, she was endowed with clear sight in both eyes. Before I proceed, certain things must here be noted. And first as regards the time: the Benedict of whom Raphaël speaks was Benedict XII, called by others XI, who, born at Saverdun in the county of Foix, was substituted in the Pontificate to John XXII when he died, on the twentieth day of December of the year 1334, and met death on the twenty-fifth day of April of the year 1342.

[226] Of Ysnarda's cure this brief mention is extant in the Summary: and hearing to the deaf Upon article LXV, which begins: Item Ysnarda, it appears at folio XCVI, first page. The sickness of Peter her husband is faultily printed in Raphaël in this manner: Lequel avoit esté sont. Perhaps for sont one should read sourd, deaf; but since this was not certain to me, I have preferred to leave a lacuna. Sight through that same Saint's merits and patronage was likewise received (so Raphaël proceeds) by Peyrona Grimande of Reiglaine, of the diocese of Aix, in one of her eyes; by Peter Salvan of Synnene, and by many others. Likewise through the merits of the said holy Count, the lord St. Elzéar, there were cured (deaf persons): Bertrand Fogon, who for five years had heard nothing; Alaeta Garcive of Ansouis, of the diocese of Aix; the lady Almodia, wife of the lord Bertrand Audibert, of Aix; and many others. In the Summary two of the aforesaid are thus recounted among the blind enlightened. Upon article LXII, which begins: Item Petrus; it appears at folio XCV, first page. Upon article LXIII, which begins: Item Perona; it appears at folio XCV, second page. Finally, besides the aforesaid Ysnarda, a certain Bertrand is also named, and some lady, of whom an instrument is there added to be extant.

[227] Then in the rubric concerning the deaf restored to hearing two of those named by Raphaël occur in these words: restored: fistulas of the eyes, Upon article LXVI, which begins: Bertrandus, there stands an instrument at folio CIII, first page … Upon article LXIX, which begins: Almodia, there stands an instrument at folio CIIII, first page. Perhaps also Alaëta is the same as Alasacia, of whom it is there said: Upon article LXVIII, which begins: Item Alasacia, it appears at folio CIII, first page. I subjoin chapter 7, concerning those who laboured under a fistula. In the year MCCCXXVI Beatrix de Galle of the castle of Vaquiers had a daughter named Bertranda, who had for some time so laboured under a fistula of the eyes that her face thereby appeared almost deformed. And when the said Beatrix had heard from report of the notable sanctity of the lord Elzéar, she turned her mind with great devotion to him, and promised that, if he should heal her daughter of that sickness, she would come to venerate his sacred body and would offer a waxen head. Presently also, having entered the church of the castle of Vaquiers, she confirmed her vow, and returning thence home found her daughter perfectly cured and healed of the fistula of the eyes, with no trace or blemish at all of the eye disease left.

[228] and in other members of the body In our transcript of the Summary this daughter of Beatrix is called Bermunda, perhaps by the copyist's fault, and her cure is thus briefly touched upon in the rubric concerning those delivered from a fistula: Upon article CVIII, which begins: Bermunda filia; the seventieth witness, namely Beatrix Gala, at folio CCXXV, second page, deposes, saying that she vowed her daughter to the lord Elizarius; and, visiting the sepulchre of the aforesaid Saint, she was cured. It is true that she had before vowed her to the said Saint. Likewise the fifty-fourth witness, namely Matheldis, wife of William, at folio CCXIII, second page, about the beginning, deposes that she saw the things contained in the said article, and heard from the mother of the said daughter that she had devoted her said daughter to St. Elizarius, whom she saw sick in the morning and cured, that is healed, in the evening. I return to Raphaël, who in the aforecited chapter subjoins the following.

[229] removed through the Saint's patronage. Moreover through the merits of that same Saint there came away whole: James Sapilli of the diocese of Sisteron, who had laboured under a fistula in his right leg for a year and more, and who by the common judgment of physicians and surgeons could hope for no remedy from nature: Ponceta Sibourne, of the diocese of Apt, who had borne a fistula in her left breast for more than two years, and so wide and deep that a fist and hand could be inserted into the breast: Joanna Befaucon, who had laboured under the same disease between her nose and her eyes; and many others were cured through the merits of the said Saint. The Summary, under the same rubric concerning those delivered from a fistula, has this of them: Upon article CIX, which begins: Jacobus Sarpelli, there stands an instrument at folio LXXVII. This man doubtless is the same as he who is called by Raphaël James Sapilli. To Poncetta Siborne I judge likewise to pertain what is there subjoined: Upon article CX, which begins: Pontius Siborne; there stands an instrument at folio LXXVII. Of Joanna Befaucon, finally, this of the Summary seems to be understood: Upon the CXIII, which begins: Johanneta, there stands an instrument at folio LXXVII. Besides these, others also are read to have been delivered from the same disease, but so briefly that without the process, which I lack, I can declare nothing certain thence.

[230] Lunatics or the witless There follows in Raphaël chapter 8, concerning lunatics and the insane. In the year MCCCXXVII, on the seventh day of September, a certain good woman named Rostaigne Roberta, of the castle of St. Martin, of the diocese of Apt, had a brother called Hysnard Boffier, who from his infancy had been a lunatic and of insane mind, and could not rest by day or by night, but wandered by day and by night through the countryside. But it happened on a certain day that the aforesaid Hysnard was vexed vehemently and more grievously than ever before, and that the said Rostaigna therefore, having on the same day entered the church of the Friars Minor in which the aforepraised sacred body rests, saw and heard the notable miracles which God was working through St. Elzéar's intercession. Wherefore she, being in the said church, vowed to that holy Count that, if he obtained a sound mind for her brother, she would visit his sacred body with him barefoot, and would offer a certain weight of wax. The vow being made, the said Hysnard was at once, by the merits of that Saint, endowed with the use of his senses and of a sound mind, and thereafter no trace of this disease appeared in him.

[231] A like grace the Saint obtained for Syfred de Brancolis, brought back to a sound mind. of the diocese of Carpentras, who had laboured more than six years, and for Rostang de Sabran, who had long been out of his mind, and afterwards was created bishop of Riez in Provence. The Summary, in the rubric concerning lunatics delivered, records the healing of Hysnard or Ysnard thus: Upon article CIIII, which begins: Ysnardus, there stands an instrument at folio XCII. Of the other two nothing is there to be read; and Raphaël seems to have slipped in memory when he wrote that Rostang de Sabran afterwards obtained the bishopric of Riez, since in Denis de Sainte-Marthe and Honoré Bouche, in the Catalogues of the bishops of Riez, I find none of that name who sat in that church in all that time which flowed from St. Elzéar to Raphaël's age. In chap. 9 the same Raphaël treats of that Saint's patronage against tempests, and that by a single example, which I subjoin in Latin.

[232] When in the year MCCCXXX, on the twentieth day of the month of August, Hysnard Gaultier, He succours one in peril in a tempest: clerk of Castellio (in French de Chastillon), was in the field, a tempest suddenly arose, with such thunder, such tumult of winds, and such terrible flashings of lightning, that he was astounded and believed that the earth would burst asunder and the mountains fall into the abyss: nay, stones so heavy fell (in all likelihood he speaks of hail) that he thought stones shot from a bow could not strike more vehemently than these struck. Hence he, both by the force of the said stones, and by the wonderful agitation of the winds which did not cease, and by the thick rain, and finally by fear (for he had seen a thunderbolt near him), was deprived of the power of speaking, and could no longer breathe. Yet remembering the said Saint, he had recourse to him with all the affection of his heart, praying with his mind alone that by his merits he would deign to preserve him and to snatch him from the present peril in which he was; and he promised that he would come to his sacred body with the votive offering of a waxen image. After the vow was made, he suddenly wondered to find himself in a certain cottage, himself not knowing by what means he had come thither, or by whom he had been led to it; and thus by the merits of the said holy Count he came away free from the tempest and the lightning. These things he,

which I cannot confirm from our Summary, in which no rubric on this subject is extant.

[233] I go on to narrate the rest from Raphaël. Chapter 10, the ruptured, which is entitled Of the ruptured and the injured, stands thus. The lord Foulques Cavaillon, presbyter of the castle of Les Mées, of the diocese of Riez, in lifting a great chest suffered so great a rupture that, although he employed many physicians, the remedies availed nothing. Considering therefore that he could not be healed naturally (and the disease had already lasted five years and more), he placed his hope in the lord St. Elzéar, promising and vowing that, if he should obtain by prayer the cure of his sickness, he would go to his sepulchre to offer a pound of wax. After he had vowed these things, he was forthwith healed. There were also healed the lord Alexius, presbyter of Riez, whose intestine had burst forth, and who had suffered that sickness now for five years, helped meanwhile by no remedy; likewise Bertrand Fournier, of the city of Riez; Raymundetus Motet of the castle des Jourdains; and many others obtained soundness through the merits of the said St. Elzéar, count of Ariano. Of all these the Summary has this very obscurely in the rubric concerning those cured of a fracture: Upon the C article, which begins: Dominus Falco, folio LXXIX at the end. Upon article CI, which begins: Alecius, folio LXX, first page toward the end. Upon article CII, which begins: Bertrandus, folio LXXX, second page. Upon article CIII, which begins: Raymundettus, son of Garsendis, the thirty-seventh witness, namely the lord Raymund, at folio CXCVII, first page at the end, deposes, saying it to be true that which is contained in the article. He renders the reason. Likewise the thirty-eighth witness, namely Bertrand Mote, at folio CXCVIII, second page before the middle, deposes, saying that he knows nothing of his infirmities, yet there is an instrument at folio LXXXI, first page about the middle.

[234] and he heals the feverish: Chapter XI in Raphaël treats of the feverish cured. In the year MCCCXXXI Durand Blanquier of the castle of Guaremboys, of the diocese of Aix, laboured under so sharp fevers that, his cure being despaired of, he was forsaken by the physicians. But he had an aunt (paternal or maternal; for in French it is tante) named Ayssolena, who, pitying Durand, vowed him to the lord St. Elzéar, promising that, if he obtained health for him, she would go with that same Durand to Apt to his body for veneration's sake, and would offer a certain weight of wax. As soon as she had vowed this, the fevers ceased. Through the merits of that same holy Count there were suddenly delivered from fevers Alaëta Garcine of the castle of Ansouis, and many others. In our Summary there is extant also a rubric concerning those delivered from a continued fever without sweat or other crisis; but for the aforesaid I can produce nothing thence. I go on therefore to chapter 12, whose title is: How the said Saint restores speech to the dumb.

[235] he restores speech to the dumb; The lady Raymunda Audiberte, wife of the lord Raymund Audibert, of the city of Aix, had lost her speech through a grave sickness, and remained in that state for the space of five months. When she perceived that no remedy was left her from the physicians, she commended herself to the lord St. Elzéar, promising that, if through his patronage she should receive the power of speaking, she would without delay carry a wax candle to his sepulchre. This prayer and vow being made, she at once received her speech. By his merits it was also restored to a certain other woman, called Bertranneta, of the city of Apt, and to Beatrix, wife of William Astoant, lord of part of the castle of Mazan, of the diocese of Carpentras, and to many others. The oft-praised Summary has also a rubric concerning those restored to speech, in which three articles are indicated, but in none of which do the names just mentioned occur.

[236] he delivers a captive from prison, In chapter 13 Raphaël narrates a captive delivered from prison in these words: Raymund Albenay of the castle of St. Jean de Blanquier was shut up at Aix in a squalid prison, and remained in it for eight months. And when he found the prison to be foul and damp and very hurtful to health, and could scarcely bear it any longer, he cleansed his soul by sacramental confession, and, on the counsel of a certain deacon of the said city, on a certain day in the morning commended himself to the lord St. Elzéar, and vowed that, if by his prayers he should escape from prison, he would visit his sepulchre with the gift of twelve pounds of wax. Which vow being made, the door of the prison suddenly opened to him; and when the keeper of the prison saw it open, he wished to shut it, but, having long striven in vain, he was compelled so to leave it until the hour of vespers. But then the archbishop of Aix and many others who were present, the truth of the matter being perceived, ordered Raymund to be led out of the prison, for the sake of trying whether the door could then be shut. He therefore having gone out, it was presently easily closed by that same keeper of the prison; wherefore the aforesaid Raymund set forth to the archbishop his prayers and the vow made to the holy Count, and was let go free in honour of God and of the said Saint. These things too, of which I have found nothing in the Summary, let them be said on Raphaël's credit.

[237] He moreover subjoins in the same place, in the last chapter, certain things concerning the help brought by that same Saint to men at war, and he was illustrious for other miracles. which, because they are neither of great moment nor can I confirm them from elsewhere, I pass over in silence. For the rest, I wish the readers here admonished that far more things, whether miracles or benefits, are recounted in the process, of which mention is made in our Summary, but so briefly and obscurely that I am compelled to set an end to this §.

producta*

perhaps Bernardi*

§ XII. The solemn elevation of the sacred body made in the year MCCCLXXXI, which perhaps another preceded: the relics withdrawn from the peril of profanation, and surviving at Apt: some honoured at Ariano in Apulia: whether also at Avignon?

[ ] After the middle of the fourteenth century father Bertrand Imberti We have given above, in §10, Urban V's letters, given in the year of Christ 1369, by which that Pontiff most severely forbade the people of Apt to translate or elevate the body of Elzéar, then reckoned by him among the holy confessors, or in any way to dispose concerning it without his special leave. Now his venerable body lay in the church of the Friars Minor Conventual outside the walls of the city of Apt, whither it had been translated from Paris, where he had died in the year 1323, as the Saint himself had ordered in his testament. But from the letters of the often praised lord de Brantes, Penitentiary of the church of Avignon, I have learned that that tomb is at this day to be seen in the same church, of stone, and not much adorned, in the choir behind the high altar. It is certain also that that sacred pledge, illustrious for many miracles, was taken up thence after the middle of the fourteenth century and exposed to the public veneration of the faithful. Our manuscript Notice of Apt and Borély in the Life of Bl. Delphine, book 3, chap. 7, assign the year of Christ 1381; but he at the same time raises a suspicion of some translation or elevation, or laying in another shrine, made before that year, which the aforepraised Notice also favours, and which Denis de Sainte-Marthe, to be adduced below, altogether affirms.

[239] Nevertheless, that I may not be compelled to review the same passages of the writers twice, obtained from Joanna, queen of Naples, I must begin from the later, and the matter must be taken up a little higher. Our manuscript Notice of Apt has it thus in French words: In the year MCCCLXXIII brother Bertrand Imberti, guardian of the convent of the Friars Minor of Apt, set out for Naples, to offer a petition to the most serene Joanna, queen of Jerusalem and Sicily, countess of Piedmont and of Provence, that he might obtain from her a royal alms out of which a comely shrine might be made for enclosing the relics of St. Elzéar. And the queen gave him a thousand golden Florentine florins, to be received from the first payment of the second year of the revenues of the royal right, commonly called Ripaille du Rhosne, as is read in the letters patent, signed: At Naples in the thirtieth year of our reigns, on the last day but one of May. This sum of money was spent upon a silver-gilt shrine weighing about forty pounds, which even today is seen with the arms of the most serene queen Joanna set upon it. Father Imberti's petition Borély published in French from his autograph, as he asserts, in the place just cited; which, since it contains nothing peculiar, it has by no means seemed worth the labour to exhibit in Latin.

[240] a great sum of money, out of which was made But it will be profitable to have observed in a few words that queen Joanna in all likelihood lent the readier ear to the petitioner because she was not ignorant how dear Elzéar had been to her grandfather king Robert and to her father Charles, duke of Calabria, and that that very Elzéar met his death at Paris on the legation which he had happily discharged for arranging the nuptials of that Charles with Marie of Valois, of which nuptials Joanna herself was born. Borély placed the aforesaid donation one year earlier, namely of Christ 1372, which agrees better with the thirtieth year of Joanna's reign, in which she had succeeded her grandfather Robert, who died not later than the month of January of the year 1343. But in whichever year that royal donation was made, the reliquary seems not to have been finished before the year 1381; the cause of which delay Borély alleges to be that, since the officers of the revenues would give only five hundred gold pieces to father Imberti, the goldsmith, when these were spent, refused to finish the work begun without ready money, until the praised father went again to the queen and, having obtained from her sterner letters, at length received the remaining five hundred gold florins.

[241] a half-length silver-gilt statue. The same Borély exhibits in that same Life that precious shrine, which is a herm, or half-length statue, representing St. Elzéar, and says that it renders the holy Count's countenance excellently, so far as he could gather from ancient images of that Saint painted while he lived. That the countenance is painted with colours imitating human flesh, the frequently praised lord de Brantes, who had seen it, wrote to me: but how rightly Borély's engraving represents that silver statue, and how like it is to the original paintings of that Saint, I have not ascertained. But certainly they trifle who affirm that that herm was made by the care of Bl. Delphine, or that her Husband's countenance was recognized in it by her; since it is altogether evident that Delphine died many years before this shrine was made, her death being attached by Borély to the year 1360. Yet, lest the studious reader should want anything, I have given Borély's engraving, preserving the same size in which it stands in him, to our engraver to imitate. For its illustration I observe these few things in the words of the same Borély, translated from the French into Latin. But that it might be evident to posterity that that reliquary is a royal gift, it bears in the middle of the base, in front and behind, the arms of Jerusalem and Sicily, which were queen Joanna's; and on either side the arms of the house of Sabran, which have a golden lion on a scarlet field.

[242] Further, because this shrine was far too small to be able to hold all St. Elzéar's bones, there was then also made, or had already before been made, In this the Saint's head, his other bones in another coffer, another, in which the greatest part of them might be preserved.

Perhaps also at that time a third shrine had already been finished, of gilded silver, wrought in the fashion of an arm, of which mention will presently be made. These things being premised, let us come to the translation or elevation of the sacred body. Our manuscript Notice of Apt has these things in French: In the year MCCCLXXXI, on the eighteenth day of June, Clement VII (a pseudo-pontiff elected in the schism), residing at Avignon, by the oracle of the living voice commanded the most illustrious Cardinal Anglic, bishop of Albano, to take up the relics of St. Elzéar from the sepulchre. Which also he solemnly did on the following day, when, the people of Apt being called together, after Mass celebrated Pontifically, he laid the bones in a wooden coffer, and, having locked it with two keys and made it fast with three iron bands, placed it in a recess of the altar which the most illustrious Cardinal de Grisac, brother of Urban V, had caused to be made, after the pattern of that of St. John Lateran at Rome. But the head he enclosed in the royal shrine, and one bone of the arm in a silver-gilt arm which the most illustrious Cardinal Peter of Luxemburg had given as a gift. Wherefore the Friars Minor (of Apt) keep solemnly every year the nineteenth day of June, on which that venerable translation took place. Thus far the Notice.

[243] Clement VII, of whom it there treats, was Robert, by Cardinal Anglic, brother of Peter, count of Geneva, who, elected in the schism against Urban VI, Roman Pontiff, resided at Avignon; and to him among other princes the king of France and Joanna, queen of Naples and countess of Provence, adhered, and among the Cardinals Anglic also, otherwise Angelic. Now Avignon is only nine miles, or leagues, distant from Apt; so that the aforesaid Anglic could easily, having left Avignon on the eighteenth day of June, carry out on the next day at Apt the elevation committed to him. But the collector of the Notice seems to have distinguished this Cardinal from Cardinal de Grisac, brother of Urban V, and to have ascribed to the one the building of the altar, to the other the elevation of the sacred bones. Yet it is certain that Anglic, or Angelic, Grimaldi or Grimoard de Grisat or Grisac is one and the same, whom Urban V, his brother, in the year 1366 created cardinal presbyter of St. Peter ad Vincula, of the title of Eudoxia first, and presently bishop of Albano; as may be seen in Ciacconio and Oldoini, tom. 2 of the Lives of the Roman Pontiffs and Cardinals, col. 561 and the following.

[244] Whether the whole head, with the lower jaw and chin, was then also enclosed in the oft-named silver shrine and a bone of the arm in a shrine likewise of silver may be doubted on account of what is to be said at num. 255 concerning the relics of Ariano in Apulia. The Acts of Bl. Peter of Luxemburg, whose gift that other shrine, or silver arm, is said to be, thou hast illustrated in our Work on the second day of July, on which he is venerated. That arm the Friars Minor of Apt also, with whom it is, report as received from that Blessed one, in letters given to the lord de Brantes at Avignon, in which they added that his family shield is to be seen upon it. On the contrary Borély, making no mention of Bl. Peter, says only that that shrine, adorned also with many precious stones, was given by the family of Luxemburg, and so speaks as though it had not yet been finished when the elevation was made. However it be, Bl. Peter was then in the twelfth year of his age, not yet co-opted by the aforesaid Clement among his Cardinals; nor yet can an argument be drawn from this tender age against that gift, since he far surpassed his years by a manly genius and maturity of manners. But he died in the year 1387, beyond which therefore that donation cannot be deferred, if it be truly his.

[245] were enclosed and elevated in the year 1381. Concerning the year of the elevation, namely that of Christ 1381, Borély agrees; at which time, according to Denis de Sainte-Marthe, tom. 1 of the Gallia Christiana, col. 366, Raymond V sat in the see of Apt, whose death he records in the same place on the thirteenth day of April of the year 1382. But he seems not to have been sufficiently well informed, when under his successor Raymond VI he first says: About that time a silver vessel, having the form of a head, in which the head of St. Elzéar the count was to be placed, that it might lie open to the veneration of the Christian people, is blessed by Cardinal Angelic in the church of the Friars Minor of Apt. Concerning the day too there is a small difference in Borély, who assigns the eighteenth of June to the elevation. But I prefer to cleave to our Notice of Apt, whose writer, expressly naming the eighteenth and nineteenth days of that same month of June, relates that on the former the mandate was given by Clement, and on the latter the translation itself was made, and observes that on this nineteenth day the annual memory of it is celebrated by the Friars Minor at Apt. On that same day too the Office of the Translation of St. Elzéar is read as prescribed in the old Breviary of the cathedral church of Apt, printed in the year 1531, which is extant in our Museum. I confess, however, that it may be doubted whether this Office, which has no lessons proper to the translation, treats of the present elevation (which indeed appears to me the more likely), or of the first translation made from Paris to Apt, as I have already said above in §8.

[246] It is likely that before this solemn translation Now it must be inquired whether before the aforecited year 1381 no other translation, elevation, or laying in another shrine, or at least inspection, of St. Elzéar's body took place in the church of the Friars Minor of Apt; for on this matter certain assertions of Borély and others make me doubt. In the first place Borély, although he agrees, as I have said, about the year 1381, nevertheless writes at page 554 that St. Elzéar's bones were then placed in the altar which Cardinal Anglic caused to be made in honour of the holy Count out of the feeling of devotion which he had conceived toward him from that day on which, by the authority of Urban V his brother, he had come to Apt to raise his sacred bones and to lay them in a coffer prepared. According to these things, therefore, it behoves that some other elevation of this kind preceded, between which and the year 1381 the altar was erected which Borély greatly praises, especially for eight miracles of that Saint which it exhibits elegantly carved in marble. Borély is so far favoured by the collector of our Notice of Apt, reported at num. 242, that he acknowledges Cardinal de Grisac, brother of Urban V, as the author of that altar, although at the same time he wrongly distinguishes him from Cardinal Angelic.

[247] some other elevation was made By Denis de Sainte-Marthe's reckonings, not one only but a twofold translation or elevation would have to be said to have happened before that same year 1381. In tom. 1 of the Gallia Christiana, col. 383, in the Series of the abbots of Valsainte, of the Cistercian Order, of the diocese of Apt, he says these things: Paul Atanulphi (abbot of the said place) was present at the translation of the relics of St. Elzéar, MCCCLXX. In the same place, col. 379, in the Series of the abbots of St. Eusebius, of the same diocese, he had premised: Rostang II de Baux, of the illustrious race of the Baux, abbot … was present at the translation of the relics of St. Elzéar de Sabran, made by Anglic Grimoald the cardinal, MCCCLXXIII. Finally, in the same volume, col. 366, under Raymond VI, bishop of Apt, whom he holds to have succeeded Raymond V, who was taken from the living in the year 1382, he had made mention, in the words recited at num. 245, of the silver shrine having the form of a head, blessed about that time by Cardinal Angelic, that St. Elzéar's head might be enclosed in it. All these things move in me a strong suspicion of some translation or elevation of the body made before the aforecited year 1381; although it is not easy to say in precisely what year it happened.

[248] What Borély says, that Cardinal Anglic performed it by the authority of Urban V, or inspection of the sacred body cannot be admitted, unless one wished to fix it before Elzéar's canonization. For it is evident that the oft-named Cardinal, who had followed his brother Urban the Pontiff into Italy in the year 1367, did not return thence into Provence before the Pontificate of Gregory XI, who had been substituted to that Urban, who died toward the end of the year 1370. Consult, if you please, Étienne Baluze in the Annotations to the Lives of the Popes of Avignon, tom. 1, col. 994. Besides, that in the year 1369 St. Elzéar's body still lay buried … in the church of the Friars Minor of Apt, we gather from the letter reported at num. 200, in which the aforepraised Urban signified his canonization to the people of Apt, and forbade them to elevate it or in any wise to touch it without his special leave. Much more likely is Denis de Sainte-Marthe's assertion under Rostang II, abbot of St. Eusebius, where he assigns the year 1373, at which time Cardinal Anglic had already returned from Italy and was staying with Pope Gregory XI at Avignon.

[249] That canonization of St. Elzéar was also then still fairly recent, by the same Cardinal Anglic. made indeed in the year 1369 by Urban V, but first promulgated by a Bull by his successor Gregory; so that neither occasion nor reason was wanting on account of which the elevation of the sacred body should then have been asked by the people of Apt, and committed by Gregory XI to Cardinal Anglic, brother of the deceased Pontiff, and willingly undertaken by him. Wherefore, if we believe that Borély, from a mere slip of memory, wrote Urban V for his next successor Gregory, nothing will stand in the way of St. Elzéar's altar having been able already to exist in the year 1381, which he asserts was built by the praised Cardinal out of the devotion which he had conceived toward him at the elevation of his sacred body. Of the same translation I judge that there is treatment in the catalogue of the abbots of Valsainte in Sainte-Marthe in the place just cited, although there the year 1370 is written, for which I think 1373 should be substituted. And because Rostang, known to Sainte-Marthe by name alone, is there read to have succeeded Paul Atanulphi in that same year 1370, it may be doubted whether this one or that was present at that translation; which I do not examine. Finally, what the oft-named Cardinal Anglic performed in this matter at that time — namely whether he translated the Saint's bones to the altar or to some other more honourable place in the same church, or only, having transferred them from the old coffin into a new coffer, enclosed them again in the stone tomb until an altar should be erected for him — I cannot declare. The latter, however, appears the more likely from those things which I have recounted above about the translation solemnly made afterwards in the year 1381. And if it be so, it must be called rather a recognition than a translation of the sacred body.

[250] I go on to narrate the rest that pertains to these sacred relics In the fifteenth century St. Elzéar's relics buried in the ground, from Borély. In the year 1410 the body of Bl. Delphine was taken up from her sepulchre and, being enclosed in a wooden coffer adorned with silver plates, was placed in the same altar in which the relics of her holy Husband were preserved. In it they remained together, nor were they removed except when they had to be carried about in processions, until after the middle of the sixteenth century, when they incurred no small danger from the Huguenots or Calvinists, under the leadership of François de Beaumont, baron des Adrets, infamous for impiety and savagery. The Friars Minor, whose convent was situated outside the walls of the city of Apt,

and therefore exposed to the injuries of enemies, hearing that he was approaching with his wicked troops, hid the sacred remains of Elzéar in a subterranean place of the convent, most secret. This they had resolved to do also with the relics of Bl. Delphine; but because her coffer was too large to be placed in the same place along with the other, they determined to bury it in the earth, enclosed in another of wood, lest the damp should hurt the silver. But on that same evening, before that coffer was finished, the soldiers of the baron des Adrets burst into the convent, and, greedy of plunder, dragged the Friars Minor with bound hands into the church, threatening them with immediate death unless they betrayed the reliquaries.

[251] withdrawn from the impiety of the Calvinists, These refusing, and preferring death, Bl. Delphine's coffer meanwhile came into the hands of the heretics, and was despoiled of its silver plates, and opened and inspected by them. Yet that booty caused their fury against the Religious to cool somewhat; and it was obtained from them that the Blessed one's bones should not be burned, as some of them wished. Nay, while the impious men were plundering the rest in the church and convent, those bones were happily carried into the city by the labour or counsel of those same Religious: but the remains of St. Elzéar remained inviolate in their hiding-place. The time at which these things were done Borély has not noted; but from the leader's name it is permitted to gather that it happened in the year 1562, in which the baron des Adrets, about to bring aid to the Calvinists of Sisteron, is read in César de Nostradamus, in the History of Provence, part 7, at the aforecited year, and in others, to have encamped for some time near Apt, and to have withdrawn thence after hearing of the defeat of Montbrun, another leader of the Calvinists.

[252] after those turbulent times are again publicly exposed. On the same testimony of Borély, the aforesaid relics, on account of the turbulent times, were only twenty-five years afterwards brought back, those of Elzéar namely from their hiding-place, but those of Delphine from the city of Apt, and again exposed to the veneration of the faithful. In the course of time there was also made a silver shrine, or half-length statue, in which Bl. Delphine's head was enclosed, and it was set upon the altar in the chapel common to both, beside a like other shrine in which I have said above that St. Elzéar's head is preserved. As regards Bl. Delphine's herm, Denis de Sainte-Marthe, tom. 1 of the Gallia Christiana, col. 373, under Modeste de Villeneuve, bishop of Apt, says these things: In the year MDCXLII, on Passion Sunday, he blessed among the Minorites of Apt a silver vessel skilfully made for preserving more decently the skull of Bl. Delphine. I add here what I have learned about the present state of St. Elzéar's relics among the people of Apt from the letters of the lord de Brantes, canon, treasurer and penitentiary of the metropolitan church of Avignon, and what he himself partly saw and partly received from a letter of the reverend father Provensal, guardian of the convent of the Minors Conventual of Apt. Of what was seen by himself, when some years ago he was staying at Apt, he asserts nearly the following.

[253] The same Saint's tomb, bones and other relics, St. Elzéar's tomb, in which namely he once lay buried, is of stone and not much adorned, and stands in the choir behind the chief altar. There is a chapel in the church, closed with a wooden door, doubtless for the sake of a safer guarding of the relics, in the fashion of a sacristy. The altar has no painted panel, but a recess, in which is an oblong coffer containing the bones of both Saints, which he could not look at more closely, but they said it was clothed with silver plates. Upon the same altar three half-length statues are set, of which the middle one represents St. Elzéar, another, at the Gospel horn, Bl. Delphine, and the third finally, at the Epistle horn, a certain St. Margaret, whom the ignorant common people assert to have been the handmaid of both, but he himself rather believes to be some Saint whose relics were taken out of the Roman cemeteries. In the same chapel there is a little coffer in which are preserved the prayer-books of both, written in Gothic letters on parchment; and the praised canon observes that the antiphon Salve is thus read in them: Hail, Queen of mercy, sweetness of life, etc., in which manner the Carthusians recite it even today. He adds that St. Elzéar's little book almost equals the size of one hand, but that Delphine's is a little smaller. There was also shown to him a certain tunic woven of rough cloth and marked with the figure of a cross of wool or linen, which Bl. Delphine is related to have made for her Husband.

[254] But from the letters of the aforesaid guardian of Apt the aforepraised lord de Brantes wrote to me the following. preserved even today in the church of the Friars Minor at Apt. The Friars Minor Conventual of Apt have St. Elzéar's testament; his belt; and an image of the child Jesus carved of wood, which the holy Spouses are said to have been wont to place in the night hours between them in the bed. The relics themselves are enclosed in a coffer, covered with a carpet, and with an iron grate, one key of which the supreme senate of Aix has (the French call it Parlement), another is with the consuls of Apt, and the third finally with the Friars Minor, whose church it is in which those relics rest. Finally it is added: The arm-bones of St. Elzéar and of St. Delphine are kept in a silver-gilt arm which Bl. Peter of Luxemburg gave as a gift, whose family shield is also to be seen upon it. Yet rightly does the lord de Brantes subjoin in the same place: I doubt whether this be not an error; since in the Notice enclosed (see above at num. 242) mention is made only of St. Elzéar's arm, and not also of St. Delphine's. Lastly, in the same letter it is said that St. Elzéar's head is preserved wrapped in a silken bag and set in the head of the half-length statue. Of this, wont to be carried about in processions, discourse will return in the following §; now let us subjoin the few things which we know concerning the relics of that same holy Confessor venerated elsewhere.

[255] Master J. Raphaël in the Life, part 2, last chapter, writes thus in French to our purpose: Some portion of the sacred head is venerated at Ariano, God wrought many other miracles through the patronage of the said Saint, stirred by which the citizens of Apt, with whom his body rests, took care that his blessed head should be enclosed in a shrine and adorned, which is preserved in the church of the Friars Minor of St. Francis of the aforesaid city of Apt. But afterwards the bone of that Saint's chin was carried to the greater church of the city of Ariano, and its inhabitants venerate it with great devotion, and caused a silver shrine to be made which should represent his head. So he, writing about the end of the fifteenth century or the beginning of the sixteenth. More liberally speaks Ferdinando Ughelli in the Italia sacra of the Roman edition of the year 1662, tom. 8, col. 300, saying these things under the bishopric of Ariano: There is likewise celebrated in this (cathedral) basilica the birthday of St. Eleazarius Sobranus, count of Ariano, of the Tertiary Order of St. Francis, on the twenty-seventh day of September … The head of that Saint, together with one finger of the same, is kept in the treasury. Exactly the same things are to be read in the repeated and enlarged Venetian edition of the same Work by Nicola Coleti of the year 1721, tom. 8, col. 213, as also in Francesco Orlendi, vol. 3 of the Orbis sacer et profanus, page 1925.

[256] I willingly assent to them that some portion of St. Elzéar's head, namely the chin or a part of it, as Raphaël asserts, inserted in a silver head. was granted to the people of Ariano, whose count he had been; but that I should think this of the whole head, or of a greater portion of it, is forbidden by the things which I have produced above concerning that Saint's relics venerated at Apt Julia. Namely, here again befell that of which we have often complained in our Work as having been done with the relics of other Saints, that a portion of a head, though far smaller, should be called the head, the occasion being taken from the shrine or silver head in which that portion is enclosed. Of the finger the praised Raphaël has nothing, nor have I found anything elsewhere; unless that the removal of one thumb from the relics of Apt was once attempted in vain. So the often praised lord de Brantes informed me from letters received from the guardian of the Friars Minor Conventual of Apt, in which he said that a certain Minister general of theirs, while he was passing through Apt, carried off St. Elzéar's thumb; and that when this had been reported by the Religious, who tried in vain to hinder it, to the consuls of Apt, that Minister was seized at Aix, and the thumb that had been carried off was brought back to Apt with a suppliant train, and that on that occasion all the Saint's bones were recognized. How certain these things are, however, I know not.

[257] If an arm was ever given to the church of St. Didier at Avignon, Other relics of that same Saint the same Raphaël attributes, in the Life, part 2, chap. 1, to the church of St. Didier at Avignon. For after he had said that St. Elzéar's body, when it was being translated from Paris to Apt and had reached Avignon, rested there, according to some in the church of St. Francis, but according to others in the church of St. Didier, he presently subjoined: To which Pope Clement VI gave, after his canonization, an arm of the said sacred body as a singular gift, and in which God works many miracles through his intercession. From what is to be said it is certain that even today there is extant at Avignon in the collegiate and parish church of St. Didier a chapel of St. Elzéar, and that his Office is solemnly celebrated in it every year. It is certain also that, if an arm of St. Elzéar was ever given to this church by any Pontiff after he was reckoned among the Saints, this benefit must be attributed to another than Clement VI, who in the year 1352, that is, about seventeen years before his canonization, ceased to live. Perhaps Raphaël erred in the number only, and meant to say Clement VII, the pseudo-pontiff. For Clement VII, the lawful Roman Pontiff, was raised to the Pontificate at least some years after that Life was published by Raphaël; but that while the pseudo-pontiff was residing at Avignon, the sacred relics of Elzéar were elevated at Apt by Cardinal Anglic, we have shown in the preceding §.

[258] it was ever given, But, that I may frankly speak my mind, this assertion of Raphaël's is very suspect to me, both because there is deep silence about so notable a donation in the others whom I have read, and because those relics seem neither to survive in the church of St. Didier, nor does any memory of them seem to exist at Avignon at this day. The frequently praised lord de Brantes, canon, treasurer and Penitentiary of the metropolitan church of Avignon, and most studious of the things which pertain to the Saints, being consulted by me about St. Elzéar, in the letters which he gave me out of his kindness and long-standing benevolence toward our Museum, by no means omitted to record his chapel at Avignon in the church of St. Didier, and the painted panel which is seen there upon the altar; but of relics not a word. In the same letters he confessed that he did not know why St. Elzéar's Office is celebrated in that church; nor did he suggest any other cause (yet not affirming it) than that others will have it that that Saint's body, at the time of the first translation made from the city of Paris to that of Apt, was laid in that church.

[259] I have moreover a certain other manuscript Notice, it seems not to survive there at this day. which, composed by some noble man of Avignon,

and which, having received it, the same canon de Brantes transmitted to me. In this too mention is made of St. Elzéar's chapel erected in the church of St. Didier, and of the Office wont to be celebrated in it every year; but the reason of this thing is derived, not from that Saint's relics, of which there is deep silence there, but either from the sacred body once laid in that church, as I have just said, or from his canonization celebrated there; on which matter discourse will recur in the following §. Meanwhile, so far as pertains hereto, it seems from these things to be established that neither those notable relics nor the memory of them survives in the city of Avignon; for otherwise, to what end would those most distinguished men have derived the custom received in the church of St. Didier of reciting the Office of St. Elzéar from other and uncertain causes rather than from them? These things make me require something more certain for admitting without scruple the aforesaid donation of relics than the bare assertion of Raphaël, which is certainly at fault in the donor.

§ XIII. The Saint's cult and solemn feast in the city of Apt: his old and new ecclesiastical Offices there: likewise the cult and Offices in the abbey of St. Victor near Marseilles, at Ariano, at Avignon, and in the Seraphic Order.

[260] The antiphon and prayer wont to be said before the relics at Apt, Although I have already said many things about St. Elzéar's cult, not a few nevertheless remain to be said, which I have reserved for this §. I begin from the veneration long shown, and wont to be shown at this day, to his sacred relics in the church of the Friars Minor Conventual of Apt. In Borély, at the end of the French Life of Bl. Delphine, there is extant a Latin Commemoration for the holy virgins and spouses, Elzéar and Delphine, which for two hundred years has been recited before the sacred relics of both Saints. Now Borély published that Life in the year 1654, and so the said Commemoration will have been recited there already from the middle of the fifteenth century, if he assigned the time rightly. It stands thus:

Heavenly flowers of wedlock,

blossoming amid the goods of the world,

Elzéar with Delphine,

ye bear fruits of sweetness,

at which the peoples rejoice,

having experienced the divine gifts.

Pray for us, Virgins of God,

That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray. O God, who in Thy holy virgins Elzéar and Delphine hast renewed the virginal wedlock of Thy most holy Mother, mercifully grant that by their merits and prayers we may cultivate purity, and may deserve to come to Thee, who art purity. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

[261] Of the more recent, or present-day, cult of St. Elzéar among the people of Apt I have moreover learned these things from the letters of the often praised lord de Brantes. where his feast is most solemnly celebrated. His feast is there venerated on the twenty-seventh day of September solemnly and with cessation from servile work by clergy and people. On the same day the canons of the cathedral church betake themselves to the church of the Friars Minor and celebrate a solemn Mass. After this, with those same canons accompanying, a public procession is appointed, in which the reliquaries of St. Elzéar and Bl. Delphine, or the half-length silver statues with the relics enclosed in them, are carried about. The canopy the consuls of Ansouis carry by their privilege — Ansouis being a village three miles or leagues distant from Apt, of which the Saint was baron. Behind follows the magistrate of Apt, and at last a mounted troop, festively adorned for honour's sake (the French call it a cavalcade), closes the suppliant train. On that day too a sermon on that Saint's praises is delivered to the people. More on this subject I have not received, and therefore I proceed to review his ecclesiastical Offices.

[262] In the old Breviary of Apt on this day Among the Breviaries of various peoples which we have in our Museum there are two of the diocese of Apt, of which one, mutilated at the beginning and end, was printed in the year 1532; the other, more recent, in the year 1664. In the former, on this twenty-seventh day of September, an Office of his Birthday under the rite of a lesser double is prescribed. This has nine lessons, of which the first six contain the Saint's deeds, and the remaining three were taken from the Gospel of Matthew, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden, etc., with a Homily. All the rest also is proper, but because it is taken here and there from the Life and composed in a rude style, I have judged that it should be omitted, lest without profit I should create weariness for the reader. Yet it will be useful to have recounted some things from it. The hymn at first Vespers is this.

repressor of the flesh and of worldly estate,

has rightly been made a blessed possessor

of the kingdom of the heavens.

Who, more pious, prudent, humble, chaste,

playing with the Word, becomes the friend of the Bridegroom,

rightly concluding, goes forward unforgetting

upon the way of the just.

Upon whose sacred tomb frequently

his Maker looks with clemency,

and by his merits powerfully drives away

the evils of diseases.

Whence now the choir in his honour,

with sounding song, praises the Creator,

that the comely Bridegroom may through love grant

the places of the pious.

Praise be rendered to God, three and one,

by whom the earth is made firm in its lying place,

and by whom the sky is wheeled about with a twofold pole,

comely for God. Amen.

[264] from which But at Matins the following Hymn is read.

Jesus, Redeemer of all,

perpetual glory of the Saints,

grant through Elzéar

that we may enjoy Thee in our fatherland.

Who, mindful of Thy consecrated [*] name

at the sevenfold hour,

paid the praises of a devout song

with a suppliant heart.

Who, rightly spurning the fleeting joys

of this world,

wanders through the courts of the Saints,

holding God in his mind.

Kindly grant that we be helped

by his suffrages,

and pour a gift into us

by the sacred footsteps of that Man.

Be there, O Christ, most loving king,

to Thee, to the Father with the Spirit,

honour and most ample glory

throughout the whole compass of the world. Amen.

[265] Receive finally the Hymn at Lauds also.

Jesus, loftier crown, Hymns

light and reward of the Saints,

who, more sublime in the heavens,

crownest Elzéar.

Grant to the suppliant assembly

to be purged of its crimes;

join work to affection

in the praises of this Saint.

The time of a year having run,

and thirty and seven besides,

he goes forth from his mortal body,

joined to the fellowship of heaven.

He shuddered at the vain joys of earth

and at the luxury of the flesh;

amid the wedlock of a bride

he shone forth a pure virgin.

Thee, O Christ, most loving king,

contemplating here continually,

he is thus inwardly transformed

into Thee, for whom he strongly thirsts.

Continent in the practice of virtues,

he bore fasting limbs,

here obtaining the banquets of heaven,

which he preferred to the food of the flesh.

Therefore Thee, most loving One,

we all suppliants beseech:

bounteous One, grant our prayers,

place us with him in life.

Glory to Thee, O Lord,

glory to the Only-begotten,

who reignest in single Godhead

with the Spirit the Paraclete. Amen.

[266] At both Vespers and at the other Hours, except at Sext, the following Prayer is set: Prayers and an antiphon are here recited: O God, who hast adorned blessed Elzéar, Thy confessor, among his other marks of virtues, with virginal chastity in wedlock; mercifully grant that we, who venerate his sacred solemnities with festival on earth, may happily attain his blessed fellowship in heaven. Through our Lord. But the sixth Hour has this proper Prayer: O God, who hast adorned blessed Elzéar, Thy confessor, with the illustriousness of his race and with holiness of life; mercifully grant that we, who with festival rehearse his sacred solemnities on earth, may happily attain his blessed fellowship in heaven. Through our Lord. I add finally the antiphon at the Benedictus, in which mention is made of the Saint's relics and miracles in these words: Let the city of Apt exult, which the illustriousness of his happy members adorns, and thou, religious house of the church of the Minors, endowed with so great a privilege: in thee are laid the bones by which the fulfilment of vows has been rendered to the sick: to thee, most excellent Confessor, languishing souls cry for pardon of their evils. I forbear to say more.

[267] In the same Breviary, on the nineteenth day of June, there was prescribed to be venerated the Translation of St. Elzéar, count of Ariano, there is extant also an Office of the translation: but in the more recent one confessor, with a semi-double rite, but with the same Office of which I have just treated, except the following prayer: O God, who showest Thyself wonderful above all created things, and by the merits of Thy Saints causest the way of Thy truth to be known for the saving of the nations, grant, we beseech Thee, that by the merits of Thy bounteous confessor Elzéar, with whose relics and miracles Provence shines, we may happily be brought to eternal joys. Through. But which translation is here commemorated — namely whether the first, by which St. Elzéar's body was carried from the city of Paris to Apt, or the other, made in the year 1381 within the church of the Friars Minor of Apt by Cardinal Anglic — is not sufficiently evident to me. See what I have said above at num. 245. Let these things suffice concerning the older Breviary of Apt; now let us come to the more recent, printed in the year 1664. This was published by the authority of the most illustrious lord Modeste de Villeneuve des Arcs, bishop of Apt, who, as he himself testified in his letters prefixed to the Opusculum, ordered the ancient Breviary of his church to be purged of faults and restored to the form prescribed by the Roman Church, and committed that charge to the lord Poncet de Bermond, doctor in sacred Theology and provost of the cathedral church of Apt.

[268] only a single Office of his birthday feast In this Breviary there is extant only a single Office of St. Elzéar on the twenty-seventh day of September, with a double rite, composed after the Roman norm, like the rest which are extant in it. It has, however, a proper Hymn for both Vespers and for Lauds, and another for Matins. Likewise proper Antiphons at the Canticles Magnificat and Benedictus, and a Prayer. The lessons of the first Nocturn are prescribed from the Common of a confessor not a Pontiff: Blessed is the man that is found, etc.; the lessons of the second Nocturn contain the Saint's life and translation; and in the third Nocturn, finally, there is read from the Gospel of Luke: Fear not, little flock, etc., with a Homily of the venerable Bede, from the aforesaid common, in the second place. The Hymn at both Vespers and at Lauds is this.

Let us keep with all our hearts the feast

of the chaste Spouse,

of the comely Bridegroom's lily,

and of the true father of the poor.

With a sterner girdle,

with the continual harshness of a hair shirt,

he macerates his flesh,

and wastes it with fasting.

O Christ, crown of virgins,

who feedest among the lilies,

make us to know nothing

of the wounds of corruption.

Praise and perennial glory

be to the Father and to the Son,

together with the holy Paraclete,

unto the ages of ages. Amen.

[269] is prescribed on this twenty-seventh day of September: as is also done Receive likewise the other Hymn, which is sung at Matins.

Let us venerate both the name of Elzéar

and the marks

of that admirable virtue

by which he stands illustrious to posterity.

Everywhere the pledge

of his consecrated body shines forth,

and grows illustrious with miracles,

while it is borne into Provence.

A boy fallen into the Rhone

comes forth from the waters with dry foot;

and to a girl lately dead

life is restored.

Power, honour, praise, glory

to God the Father and to the Son,

together with the holy Paraclete,

unto everlasting ages. Amen.

In the same Office there are three proper antiphons. Namely the antiphon at the Magnificat at first Vespers: To his virgin spouse, being absent, the chaste Count wrote this: I dwell in Christ's wounds, and there

thou wilt always find me. At the Benedictus: While the granaries of the Count, notable for Christian liberality, are shut to no needy man, the grains of corn are divinely multiplied. At second Vespers, at the Magnificat: Elzéar dying uttered these words: They gave me Delphine untouched, untouched I leave her. Lastly the Prayer is this: O God, who hast adorned St. Elzéar, among his other marks of virtues, with virginal chastity in wedlock, grant us, we beseech Thee, by the suffrage of his merits, that, being adorned with the comeliness of purity, we may deserve to come to Thee, who art purity. Through our Lord. Thus far of the city of Apt, where the Friars Minor Conventual, in whose church the relics of St. Elzéar rest, without any doubt celebrate his feast more particularly.

[270] An Office of that same Saint under a double rite is extant also in the Proper of the abbey of St. Victor of Marseilles, in the abbey of St. Victor at Marseilles; and at Ariano, which I have in my hands, but mutilated, so that the year of printing cannot be recognized. It is most likely that this honour is paid him there for the sake of grateful memory, because as a boy he lived for some time in that monastery under the care of his uncle William de Sabran, abbot of that place, as was said in §2. Above too, at num. 255, we have seen that his birthday feast is celebrated on this twenty-seventh day in the cathedral church of Ariano, which is a town of Apulia, of which the Saint himself, while he lived, was count; and where a part of his head, or the chin, is religiously preserved enclosed in a silver shrine. To his cult there pertain the things which Fabio Barberio recorded in a few words in his Bishops of Ariano. At page 48, of Nicolò Ippolito, bishop of Ariano, whom he holds to have sat about the year 1510, he says these things.

[271] He built from the foundations the front part of that (cathedral) church toward the square, where there are extant also other where he ordered to be placed not only the statue of St. Otho, protector of the people of Ariano, but also the image of St. Elisearius, once count of that same city; wherefore he also commanded that under each of their stone effigies two verses should be inscribed, as they are at present read … Under that of St. Elisearius it is thus read:

Elisearius was once the lord of this city,

who deserved to be called a Saint, hallowed within the city.

In the same place, page 62, he indicates that there is extant in the same church a chapel of St. Elisearius, count of that city. Moreover, at page 3, he had premised certain miracles, writing thus: Concerning which fire (which arose, as he had said, on the twenty-third day of February of the year MDXC in the aforepraised church) I have written more things in that same second treatise on the Life and patronage of St. Otho, where very many things are narrated by me which happened miraculously about a certain most sacred little panel of the most blessed Virgin Mary with the images of SS. Otho the protector and Elisearius, count of that same city, which had already been touched by the fire for no small space of time, and yet was not then burnt at all.

[272] Wherefore in this our age, on every Saturday of the week after Vespers, the reverend lord canons go in procession to the place of the treasury, monuments of his cult. where the said miraculous panel is extant, singing as they go, Hail, Queen, Mother of Mercy, etc., in thanksgiving for the deliverance of the whole cathedral from the said fire; in which indeed certain other miracles occurred, especially about a lamp lighted before that panel, which, though its slender cord was burnt through, was seen to remain in the air, and moreover to be lighted for four days and as many nights without the pouring in of new oil, of which by the natural order it seemed to have need for its sustenance. Very many other things are written in the Treatise just cited, which I hope will bring the kindly reader no less delight than wonder at the rare events. Thus far Barberio, whose praised Treatise we do not have, and which my Elders too lacked when on the twenty-third day of March they illustrated the Acts of St. Otho the solitary, as may there be seen in the Appendix, page 46 [*]. More therefore about these things I cannot declare.

[273] He is venerated also with a solemn Office at Avignon Wholly obscure is the cause on account of which he is specially honoured at Avignon in the church of St. Didier: for here too he has his own chapel, and is celebrated with an ecclesiastical Office. It will be useful to have reported here a few words of our often praised friend the lord de Brantes from the letters given me upon this subject. As regards Avignon, this one thing I can declare, says he, that the Office of St. Elzéar is solemnly celebrated in the collegiate and parish church of St. Didier on the twenty-seventh day of September, and that there is extant in it a chapel hallowed by his name, where on the painted panel of the altar he and St. Delphine are exhibited, both falling upon their knees, and in the midst of them the most holy Virgin Mother of God, bearing the child Jesus. I know not to what that solemnity is owing. If Raphaël in the Life of St. Elzéar could safely be believed in what he affirms about that Saint's arm given to the said church, no other reason would have to be sought; but see what was said above at num. 257 and following. A noble man of Avignon, in the manuscript Notice which I received from the lord de Brantes, his name being suppressed, seems to assign a twofold cause of that thing. For first he says that it is had from pious tradition that St. Elzéar's body, in the translation appointed from Paris to Apt, rested for forty days in the church of St. Didier, in which the Friars Minor then performed their divine Offices, as he asserts, until their own church, which they now use, was finished.

[274] in the collegiate and parish church of St. Didier, The other cause, likewise alleged from tradition, is that Elzéar's canonization is said to have been celebrated in that church of St. Didier. Therefore (says he in French) the feast of St. Elzéar is celebrated every year with great solemnity in the collegiate and parish church of St. Didier. Nay, there is in it a chapel dedicated to him, which the chapter some years ago granted to the lord Claude, marquis de Calvière, and to his wife Antoinette d'Albon, as a place of burial. I cannot deny that the holy Count's body, while it was being translated from the city of Paris to the city of Apt, and had been brought to Avignon, rested in the aforesaid church; and this would become the more likely if it were evident that the Friars Minor of Avignon, to whose church at Apt he was being carried for burial according to his testament, at that same time performed the divine offices in that same church of St. Didier. Nor yet is it necessary to make so long a stay of the sacred body there, which from other considerations is not likely. Raphaël in the French Life, part 2, chap. 1, writes indeed that that venerable pledge was then laid, according to some historians in the church of St. Francis, according to others in that of St. Didier, but at the same time asserts that on the day after it had been brought thither it was carried on toward Apt.

[275] where he has also a chapel; it is uncertain for what cause. Sebastiano Castrucci in the History of the city of Avignon and of the Comtat Venaissin, tom. 1, chap. 9, agrees about Elzéar's canonization made there, in the words which I subjoin translated from the Italian. In this church (of St. Didier) St. Elzéar de Sabran, count of Ariano, was solemnly canonized, St. Delphine the virgin, that Saint's spouse, being present. Of these things not a word is true; because Elzéar was reckoned among the Saints not at Avignon but at Rome, by Urban V the Pontiff, in the year 1369, and at that time Bl. Delphine had long since met her death. Less far from likelihood would it be if one said that St. Elzéar's canonization was promulgated in the aforesaid church out of the bull of Gregory XI, who next succeeded Urban, or that the first solemnity of that canonization was celebrated in it. Yet even this I cannot confirm; nor does any reason occur to me why that church can seem to have been chosen for that purpose above the rest, save that the Saint's body is said to have rested in it at the time of its translation. And so I prefer, with the praised lord de Brantes, to be ignorant of the cause both of the chapel erected and of the custom of reciting the Office introduced, than to divine one of those alleged or some other.

[276] In §1 of this Commentary we have seen that St. Elzéar is inscribed in the Martyrologies of the Seraphic Order as a Tertiary. In the Seraphic Order he was once venerated on the 28th of September, For the same cause his annual memory has long been kept in that Order, and is kept at this day. I have at hand various Offices proper of the Friars Minor and also Directories, as they call them, printed in the seventeenth century, in which his birthday feast is prescribed on the twenty-eighth day of September with an Office of semi-double rite only, from the Common of a confessor not a pontiff, with the Prayer from the same common, O God, who dost make us, etc., and with proper lessons of the second Nocturn, but those of the third from the Gospel, Fear not, little flock, etc. Of the Office deferred to the twenty-eighth day there will doubtless have been no other reason than that the twenty-seventh day was occupied by the Office of the same rite of SS. Cosmas and Damian, martyrs. Toward the end of that century or the beginning of the next, a new Breviary was published with proper Offices of the Saints of the three Orders of St. Francis, approved by Innocent XII, Roman Pontiff, and in it the cult of St. Elzéar received an increase.

[277] For in the first place his birthday feast was raised to the rite of a greater double, but now on the 27th of the same month, and put back upon his own proper day, the twenty-seventh of September. The lessons of the first Nocturn assigned from the book of Ecclesiasticus, Blessed is the man; those of the second and third as above; but the Prayer proper, the same which I recited above at num. 266 in the first place from the older Office of Apt. There was added also another memory of that Saint on the eighteenth day of June, on which his translation is commemorated with an Office of a lesser double. The Office is the same as on his birthday, except that for the first Nocturn the lessons are taken from the occurring Scripture. It is likely that this increase of cult was made by force of a decree of the general chapter, concerning which I read the following in the particular Rubrics of that new Breviary. Whereas it was set forth to the sacred Congregation of Rites that in the last general chapter of the Order of Friars Minor of St. Francis of the Observance, celebrated at Rome in the year MDCLXXXVIII, a statute was made which is asserted to be found among the printed Constitutions of that same chapter, under the title: For Tertiaries and Cord-bearers, num. 48, of this tenor, namely:

[278] At the instance of the three states of the Third Order, subject to our obedience and direction, [and on the 18th of June; but by the Tertiaries his birthday is venerated with an Octave.] it is enacted that, as they recite all the Offices of the Saints and Blessed of the First Order, and celebrate their solemnities under that rite under which they are celebrated by us, so we, the approbation of this decree being first obtained from the Sacred Congregation of Rites, be bound to keep and recite the Offices of the Saints and Blessed of their Order, under the rite reported in the aforementioned Directory of the three Orders and customary among them. And whereas Fr. Francisco Diaz of St. Bonaventure, definitor general of the aforesaid Order and consultor of the Sacred Congregation of Rites and of the Index, with the consent of the father procurator general of that Order, has most humbly supplicated this sacred

Congregation for the approbation of the aforesaid statute, hitherto by no means obtained from it; that same sacred Congregation, upon the report of the most eminent and most reverend lord Cardinal Giudice, has kindly approved the aforesaid statute. The twenty-seventh day of March MDCXCIV, etc. In the third Order, however, St. Elzéar's birthday feast is venerated with an Octave.

read sacri*

LIFE

By an anonymous author,

From the notable manuscript parchment Passionale of the monastery of Böddeken, of the Order of Regulars of St. Augustine, for the month of September, collated with the manuscript of Bernard Rottendorf.

Elzéar de Sabran, baron of Ansouis and count of Ariano, at Paris in France. (S.)

BHL Number: 2523, 2522

By the Anonymous author.

THE OLD DIVISION OF CHAPTERS.

Chapter I. Here begins the Life of St. Elzéar, confessor, count of Ariano, which is on the fifth of the Kalends of October.

II. How he is joined to the virgin Delphine in perpetual celibacy.

III. How he was rapt four times, and first in the place of Sault on the feast of the Assumption.

IV. How he was rapt a second time in the city of Aix.

V. How he was rapt a third time.

VI. How he was rapt a fourth time in the castle of Ansouis.

VII. Of his state revealed to four holy persons.

VIII. Of the rule of himself and of his household.

IX. Of his mercy toward the poor, the lepers, and other sick folk.

X. Of his patience; how he was made count, and that he administered justice with mercy.

XI. How he was made a new knight, and taken [*], and how with his spouse he made a vow of virginity.

XII. How he was made governor of the duke of Calabria, and how he kept his hands clean from gifts, and was the advocate of the poor.

XIII. Of his faith and humility, and how Christ gave him [*] discipline.

XIV. Of his happy passing from this world.

raptus*

that is, ei*

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's illustrious birth: his pious boyhood and youth: his wedlock with Bl. Delphine, and the virginity preserved in it: a notable ecstasy.

Chap. I

[ ] Born of the counts of Ariano, presently by his mother, In these latest times, in which the darkness of vices was upon the face of the deep, and manifoldly deformed the life of mortals, there was sent from God a man of wonderful virtue and grace, Elzéar, count of Ariano, sprung from the region of Provence ^b, illustrious and noble in race, but more illustrious and more noble in sanctity; whose life ought not to be covered with silence — how he was so kindly and abundantly forestalled by the divine clemency and power that he seemed already, while yet he was held within his mother's womb, to have received divine grace. Whose father was Ermongaus de Sabran ^c, a man distinguished and powerful, who, famous for a long line of nobles and for the lordship of very many lands, was honoured and courted by all. But his mother was Lauduna Albe, who, being welcome both for the brightness of her blood and for the graciousness of her converse, was called by the appropriated name Bona-comitissa by Elzéar and Alicia ^d, the illustrious parents of her husband. And that Lauduna, the holy Man's mother, noble, Catholic and devout, when she had been made fruitful with the aforesaid Elzéar, felt more than usual a strong change in her mind, which inflamed her soul to holy desires and works of piety.

[2] For when for human recreation she sometimes went forth from the castle of Ansouis ^e to walk abroad, who while pregnant with him was much moved to piety, the others of the household being occupied in worldly talk and pastimes, she apart held her converse with a certain noble lady, Garsenda Alphanti, who was much spiritual and of excellent devotion, and enlightened with divine revelations ^f: and so, to avoid idle and vain words, she sought from the aforesaid lady Garsenda the utterances of holy instruction. To whom, opening also her heart, she said that the world and the things which are of the world were very tasteless to her, so far that, if she were free from the law of a husband, she purposed [*] wholly to leave the world and to devote herself to the divine service; and that the inner spirit very often, and as it were continually, urged her to this. At which the said lady Garsenda wondered not a little, and rejoiced exceedingly; because she saw her thus newly changed for the better, whence she said that she had received a special unction of the Holy Spirit.

[3] Her confessor too, Brother John Juliani of the Order of Friars Minor, she is piously offered to God. a brother indeed of great purity, in life and manners a perfect man ^g, and enlightened with divine wisdom, sometimes reported of her that he found her newly inflamed more than usual with a holy and firm purpose toward the divine love and the contempt of the world, and toward all virtuous works. And therefore with the greatest wonder, as it were prophesying, he said: If this woman shall live long, the Most High will work great things through her, or the fruit of her womb will be something great. But when the time of bearing had come, the happy mother bore a happier firstborn Son ^h, whom in that same hour with fervent devotion and thanksgiving she offered to God, saying: Lord God, at whose command all creatures come forth, I give Thee thanks for this Son given me by Thy clemency, and I humbly beseech Thee that Thou wouldst receive him as Thy servant, and pour upon him the grace of Thy blessing. But if Thou foreseest that he will be a rebel against Thy will, when he has been made white with holy baptism, take him without delay from this world ⁱ: for it is better that he live with Thee innocent and without merits of his own, and die to the world, than that in this mortal life he should offend Thy Majesty.

[4] And that God might show that He had received this sacrifice as an odour of sweetness, From infancy he is strong in mercy toward the poor and in other virtues; He poured into the Infant's heart in his very cradle so great a grace of piety that, before he had completed the third year of his age, his bowels were wonderfully moved toward the poor of Christ. For when he was carried in the arms of his nurses, often at the gate of the castle of Ansouis, looking with a compassionate eye upon those poor of Christ, he would by no means pass by unless alms were first given them; nay, he wept bitterly without ceasing. And therefore his nurses either returned for bread or carried it with them; and then, the alms being given, the Infant passed on merry and rejoicing. But when he had completed the fifth year of his age, he bestowed upon the poor of Christ all that he gained in childish games and all that he could otherwise have, and caused the infants and boys with whom he sometimes took his pastimes, especially poor ones, to be invited with him to dinner.

[5] he is brought up with his uncle the abbot of Marseilles. Now this Infant and boy was so pious and merciful toward the poor of Christ, so humble, pleasing and kindly to all, sweet, meek and God-fearing, and obedient to his master, placid and sparing in words, mature in manners and quiet, cheerful and pleasant in countenance, excellently honourable, comely in body and of a sanguine quality, liberal and mild, and, so far as that age allowed, provident and discreet, and forestalled with heavenly gifts; so that there manifestly appeared in him sure and true tokens of what he would be and of how great sanctity. And in this he was reared under the care and governance of William de Sabran his uncle, abbot of Marseilles ^k; and as he grew in age, so he advanced in divine wisdom and grace before God and men. For in that tender age he was so kindled with zeal for the faith that, as he said to a certain monk, devout and honourable, of the household of the said abbot, he greatly longed to go to the parts of the infidels, and there in the confession of Christ to end his days by martyrdom; at which the aforesaid monk, wondering greatly, was kindled in the secret of his mind with a new devotion from this [*] ^l.

II.

[6] Now it came to pass by divine providence, which orders all things with wisdom He takes Bl. Delphine to wife, and disposes them with sweetness, that this Boy, of angelic purity and dove-like innocence, when he was ten years old, by the command of the most serene prince Charles II, king of Jerusalem and Sicily ^m, and in his presence, joined to himself in marriage, not without great mystery, in the city of Marseilles, the virgin Delphine, twelve years old, noble, not unlike him in manners, grounded in no ordinary way in the love of Christ and exceedingly kindled with divine love. And after three years, in the castle of Puimichel ⁿ, on the feast of Bl. Agatha the virgin, their wedlock was solemnly and publicly celebrated in the face of the Church, as the custom is ^o. After which solemnity, on the fourth day, the virgin Delphine is solemnly conducted to her Spouse in the place of Ansouis, that she might dwell with him. And when the silence of night had come, when she had reached the secrets of the bedchamber, the aforesaid virgin began to reveal the secret of her heart to her virgin Spouse. To whom among other things she said: I came unwillingly to the conjugal state, drawn thereto by my parents; because I have purposed and do purpose to preserve the treasure of virginity, inspired in me by the Lord.

[7] by whom he is led to preserve virginity. And although the Youth, as yet ignorant of the divine counsel, did not yet purpose in his heart to preserve such virginity, nevertheless, as he was altogether placid and kindly, he heard her gladly, and, seized with divine fear, all that night he touched her not, nor spoke to her an unseemly word. But she passed all that night sleepless, praying with tears and sighs, and on bended knees commended her virginity to the Lord to be guarded. And on the following nights, as soon as she was in the secret chamber, the prudent girl forestalled him with chaste, honourable and devout words, as appears more clearly in the Life of that holy virgin Delphine [p]. Thus therefore both remained virgins [q]. But while the happy Boy was still staying with the aforesaid abbot, he was carnally and basely urged by the carnal household to the unlawful works of the flesh. But he, who had manfully and firmly imprinted in his heart that he would rather incur bodily death than mortally offend God, concealing his own virginity and his consort's, answered thus: I have, said he, a pleasing and beautiful consort, as is manifest to you all; and therefore she suffices me.

III.

[8] Now in that same year he fasted through the whole of the greater Lent, He chastises his flesh: on the feast of the Assumption of the Bl. V. M. and, wearing beneath, next to the flesh, a certain little cord rough with frequent knots [r], he girded himself strongly with it; which, chastising his tender flesh, drew forth blood and wounds: whereby he became wholly pale and altered in countenance. But after he had come to the fifteenth year of his age, this holy Youth was once in the place of Sault [s], on the feast of the Assumption of the glorious Virgin, with

the said lord abbot, because there a new Mass was being celebrated and a certain noble was being promoted to new knighthood [t]. On the night of that sacred solemnity this Saint was at Matins in the church, and on the morning of that same feast, confession going before, he devoutly received the Sacrament of the Eucharist; and this, that with the Mother of grace he might by night and by day ascend to the heavens with his heart lifted up, and that he might prepare his soul for the divine visitation soon to come. But when the hour of dinner drew near, the Youth, sound and temperate, who ought to have attended and served his uncle, being adorned as he was with virtuous manners, would not rise before, although he was called [u].

[9] But after dinner, being set at table, when he took something or tasted food [x], being rapt into ecstasy, suddenly there came upon him the Spirit of grace, who vehemently inflamed his heart with great sweetness and delight of divine love. And so great was the force of that inward burning and flame that it could not be hidden: for he was wholly altered outwardly [y], and grew hot in his whole body, and was suffused with redness in the face. Which his companions perceiving, and having care of him, thought that he was in a fever; and drawing him from the table, they lead him to a chamber, that he might rest. But when all had withdrawn, prostrate upon the ground, he gave himself to prayer, as the inward spirit suggested to him. Where he felt so great a flame of divine love that it made his whole soul melt and transformed it wholly into God. And then God showed him the brevity of this fleeting life, and how this world, even by the consideration of divine goods, is deservedly to be despised; and he there conceived so great a contempt of all things and of temporal goods that, if all the ornaments of this world, or castles, and all other precious things were given him, he would receive none of them, but would despise them as mire; because he then most vehemently thirsted for God alone.

[10] He saw also most clearly with how great mercy and kindness God had preserved him until that day, he is wonderfully enlightened by God, and kindled to the contempt of the world that he might not fall into many sins, and how he had been singularly guarded by God in virginity. And therefore he then and there firmly purposed in his heart never to care about an heir or an inheritance, but to preserve virginity perpetually, to which his bride had much led him; and he began strongly to think how he might please God alone. And being in such meditation and in such a burning of love, he began from the bowels of his heart to ask God that He would deign to open him a door, and to show him the way in which He willed him to live in this world. For he then exceedingly longed to leave all these temporal things, and to flee to some desert places where, known by none, under the sole hope and confidence of the divine protection, he might wholly devote himself to God's service. And after that supplication it was inspired in his mind, as if one person were speaking to him in his heart, that he should not give up his estate, nor absent himself, nor give up the temporal goods which he had, nor make any outward change in himself.

[11] and to preserve virginity: And when he answered to such an inspiration and mental speaking that [*] on account of his frailty he could not so live in the ardour of divine love, nor persevere, then the inspiration spoke to him saying: I know how much thou canst; and what thou shalt not be able to work, I will do and supply: and that he should persevere in virginity, that inspiration strongly urged upon him. But after that wonderful rapture and divine visitation he was so consecrated in soul by the divine gift that from that time he felt no appetite for temporal goods, nor for worldly honours, nor thought any more about an heir; but his will in all these things was dead and buried; nor from that time did he fear the judgment of death, but was ready to receive it in whatever place and time God might will to inflict it upon him. He was also greatly confirmed, without any other vow, in preserving virginity of mind and body; nay, what is more to be wondered at and venerated than imitated, whenever he dwelt with his bride and was nearer to her, he felt himself the more secure of his own virginity and purity.

[12] afterwards he goes on to live most chastely with his wife. And so, dwelling together, they did not divide house, or chamber, or bed, as [*] it seemed to him; nor did he feel that the virgin Delphine was his wife, as regards any carnal act. And the same the virgin Delphine said of herself: and therefore she commonly called him the Nourisher of the good things which God had placed in her, and the Father of her soul and the Guardian of her virginity. These things are great and elsewhere unheard of. He was moreover after that rapture so helped by divine grace against the temptation of the flesh that he was as it were dead to them, nor was any sign of any carnal temptation ever known in him by anyone [z]. And what is more, when in sleep an illusion of such things befell him, sleeping he strongly resisted; and thus his noble spirit, ever watchful in battle-line about his heart, guarded and manfully defended the treasure of virginity; as in course of time he sometimes revealed this and the preceding vision to some of his secret confessors.

ANNOTATA.

p. See the Commentary, num. 13 and the two following.

q. Bl. Delphine's pious and happy endeavours in persuading her Spouse to virginity thou hast set forth at greater length in the same Commentary, §4.

r. This barbarous word Surius has not ill expounded by knotty. Further, that these things were drawn by the biographer from the process I gather from its Summary, in which it is read: Upon the IX article, which begins, Item quod tunc adveniente Quadragesima, the first witness, namely the lady Delphine, at fol. CX, first page beyond the middle, deposes, saying that she believes the first to be true. Of the second she deposes from hearing it from E. himself; that is, from Elzéar. Likewise the seventh witness, namely the lady Alasacia, at fol. CXLIX, first page at the end, deposes, saying that what is contained in the article is true, as regards the aforesaid little cord. Raphaël, in the Life, part 1, chap. 7, writes that this little cord of hemp, rough with many knots, was made at the Saint's request by the religious Catherine of Puimichel, nun of the convent of St. Catherine of Sourbs, of the diocese of Riez, whom he asserts to have been a natural sister of Bl. Delphine, and whom I suspect to be the same as Alasacia, of whom mention will return more than once in this Life. Raphaël adds that the aforesaid nun, when from the Saint's leanness she perceived what the matter was, threatened him that she would inform his parents unless he laid aside the little cord; and that he indeed then complied, but in place of the little cord put on a hair shirt. The same things Borély reports, book 1, chap. 3, from the testimony, as he asserts, of Bertranda Bartholomea; but he says that that Catherine was a kinswoman of Bl. Delphine, and in place of the little cord he puts a girdle of horsehair, much knotted.

s. Baudrand in his Lexicon has these things: Saltum (in French) Sault, a castle of Gaul in Provence, the head of an ample county among the mountains on the border of the Dauphiné and of the Comtat Venaissin, seven leagues distant from

Carpentras to the East, and four from Apt Julia to the North; and from it the adjacent tract was also called Saltum and the woodland district, commonly le Comte de Sault, as Antoine Pinet testifies. Of the same Bouche treats at greater length in the Chorography of Provence, where, reckoning it among the lesser fiefs of the county of Provence, he writes that before it was raised to the title of a county it obeyed its own supreme lord, and that it belonged to the family of d'Agoult, from which we have said that Cecilia, St. Elzéar's grandmother, was sprung. Hence also in the Life it presently follows that the lord of Sault was that Saint's uncle.

t. Surius has rightly expounded these things thus: For there a certain man was offering his first-fruits or first sacrifice, and a certain noble was being endowed with the equestrian order and dignity.

u. It seems that Surius's manuscript had here more rightly sumere, who interpreted these things in his own style thus: About the hour of dinner, sound and unharmed, when he ought to have served at table with his uncle, being as he was very civilly instructed in good manners, he would take no food, although he was admonished. Yet I prefer, with our manuscript, to retain avunculo instead of the word patruo; for the lord of the place of Sault seems to be indicated here, the lord d'Agoult, brother of St. Elzéar's mother.

x. These things too Surius rendered rightly thus: After dinner (that of his uncle, namely), sitting at table, when he had tasted food, etc.

y. That is, changed, or disturbed, from the French altéré.

z. To this time I judge should be referred what is read in the Summary of the process of his canonization: Upon the XII article, which begins: Item post dictam (perhaps ecstasim), the first witness, namely the lady Delphine (his wife), deposes at fol. CXII, page 2 beyond the middle, saying that she perceived in him no sign of carnal temptation. Worthy also of reading are the things which I recited in the preliminary Commentary, num. 88, from the Summary of Bl. Delphine's process.

disponeset*

read hoc*

read quod*

read utque*

CHAPTER II.

The Saint's other ecstasies, and his virginity divinely revealed to others.

IV.

[ ] Praying by night, and weighing God's goodness The holy and happy Youth had it of custom after the said rapture that every night, before he laid himself in bed to sleep, he prayed at length, and sometimes stood uplifted in meditations and contemplations for a great part of the night, and at times until day. And this manner he observed more regularly when he was with his virgin bride, from whom, as from other folk ^a, he did not guard himself. But sometimes he rose at midnight, after taking sleep. Whence, when he was seventeen years old, he was staying for a time with the children of king Charles ^b; and on a certain night after the Sabbath day, being in the city of Aix and in the palace of the said king, at midnight, the others sleeping, he alone rose from his bed, and, entering into a hall in which none lay, he set himself at a window, and praying on bended knees, suddenly there came upon him so great a divine enkindling that he was wholly bathed in tears. And there came upon him so great a feeling of his own miseries and defects that he was wholly plunged into them ^c, and it seemed to him that the whole course of his life did not suffice him for knowing that great mercy and ineffable divine goodness by which God had preserved him, and willed to preserve and guard him in time to come.

[14] And therefore in acknowledgment of this benefit he humbled himself most profoundly before God, and weighing his own defects, he is rapt into ecstasy, and it seemed to him that he was not worthy of God's mercy, but rather, nay a thousand times, of hell; and that of himself he was ready to commit all the evils of the world, and would in fact have committed them, had not the divine clemency and mercy preserved him. And when he was in such meditation, and from the bowels of a contrite and humble heart asked for the divine mercy, he heard a voice with the ears of his mind and heart saying to him: Do not afflict thyself so much in the consideration of thy defects and sins; since my mercy is greater than thy offences. But live confidently, and hold and firmly believe that I will not permit thee at any time to lose my grace. And then he languished and desired that all might feel that which he then felt, that they might love God with their whole heart, and so might never offend Him. And thereupon he was there carried away in spirit into a certain spacious and broad plain, in which was a church, and within a great multitude to hear Mass, which a certain priest, clothed in priestly vestments, was about to celebrate; and the singers began very sweetly and devoutly: But it behoves us to glory in the Cross, etc.

[15] And while the Mass of the holy Cross was being said, and was heard most devoutly by all the people, and is found in it in the morning by a physician, it appeared to him that Christ's passion was being renewed in the minds of all the people; his own mind too was most fervently kindled toward Christ's passion; and so he heard that whole Mass. And there he was so fastened with Christ crucified that not only did he continually bear His passion and death in his heart, but with the highest ardour longed to die for Christ. And from that time he not only bore patiently injuries and tribulations and dangers and losses, but rejoiced in whatsoever adversities, and loved his persecutors and adversaries as much as, or more than, before, and especially prayed to God for them. But in that mental elevation and wonderful rapture he continued insensible until sunrise: and then the physician of the said king's children, coming and entering the hall, and finding him standing motionless and insensible at the window, drew near, and, having called him twice, he answered nothing. At length, being called a third time, he came to himself, and with difficulty and pain closed the eyes which he had continuously kept open: for it seemed to him that he had them full of fine sand. He found also his whole robe ^d wet with tears upon the breast.

[16] as also at another time by Bl. Delphine, shining with light. At another time, when he was at Ansouis, on a certain evening the virgin Delphine was washing his head. To whom the Saint said: Make haste and finish quickly without delay; for he felt himself visited by the Lord. And rising, he there went into the chamber and gave himself to prayer, and in that same place remained all that night praying and contemplating. And when it was dawn, he called his bride, who came at once with a light, and found him wholly inflamed. For she saw that from his face there proceeded a certain brightness, clearer and fairer than the light of a candle, which made his face and the space near him beautiful and bright. And at a fitting time he revealed to her, namely to his holy bride, that all that night he had seen and felt that ineffable divine goodness and the rewards of eternal life which God had prepared for those who love Him and for His beloved, so that he utterly abhorred every other love; then clearly seeing and continually feeling that God was ever ready to communicate to us His gifts and graces, if He found persons willing to receive them, as He was ready to give. And by such visions and divine influxes he was often visited by the Lord, and was wholly nourished spiritually in them.

VI.

[17] At another time likewise, giving himself to prayer by night, At another time, in that same castle of Ansouis, when he had reached his eighteenth year or thereabouts, on a certain Saturday evening, entering the chamber at the beginning of the night, he found his virgin bride Delphine there praying. And he likewise, as he had of custom, gave himself to prayer, and stood ^e all that night praying and contemplating until the morning of the Lord's day, the sun having already risen. And, as he revealed in course of time to his confessor, a spiritual and devout man, namely Brother John Juliani, and also to his holy wife in her chamber, God showed him that night great and mighty things. For He showed him such and so great things as he would never have dared to ask of God. For he saw, with an inestimable joy in the feeling of it, the divine Persons. He saw how the Father had begotten the Son, and was continually known by Him; and how from the Father and the Son proceeds the Holy Spirit, who was love in the divine Persons, and was one God: yet so that he could not express or shape ^f the manner of this generation and spiration; but when he wished to relate something of this matter as best he could, he said: O how ill and imperfectly do I speak! I know not indeed, nor can I shape it as I saw it, nor express in speech as I learned by experience.

[19] by a heavenly vision And therefore he said that to utter such things was a great pain, since they were inexplicable; and he said that in the whole world he heard nor thought of anything by which, according to any likeness or property or agreement, he might wish to declare or make manifest those things which God had shown him in that vision. Likewise he saw in that mental vision and continually felt how it pleased that infinite goodness which God is to have creatures to whom He might communicate His goodness, and that for this He had created them, namely the angelic and the human nature. Likewise he felt that God had created human nature with so great love that for its sake He had made all other creatures; and that, if it could preserve itself in the state of innocence, so as not to go astray nor to turn aside to depraved works, it would fully know Him here, and would never love anything outside God. Likewise God showed him the fall of our first parent, and how it would have led us to eternal death, had not the highest charity come to our aid.

[19] Whence he felt that God punished sinners so far as they were worthy, he knows many things of the mysteries of the faith, nay even as damned ^g, and gave to all, on the side of His goodness, occasion of coming to salvation, so that our malice alone drew us to eternal death, because we would not receive His grace. And how the judgments of God were justified in themselves: and moreover that inexplicable charity by which the Son of God for the [*] repairing of our nature had humbled Himself, taking human flesh; which ineffable charity that happy Youth could not express. Moreover he felt concerning the glorious Virgin such mysteries and inexplicable works, which God had wrought in her to make her His Mother, that he could not express them either. Likewise how He willed to be born so poor and humble, and to consummate the whole course of His life in straits, giving Himself to us as an example by reason of the excess of His love, and feeling that love there; and how, committing His preaching to none, He willed Himself to work it.

Likewise he felt the excessive love with which He gave Himself to us in the Sacrament of the altar, willing continually to communicate His goodness and Himself to us, and to be with us so familiarly until the end of the world for our profit and salvation.

[20] He felt that divine love with which He willed to come to so hard and harsh a passion and death, and being vehemently kindled to the love of God; and how He did all things for our need alone; and seeing this, that angelic Youth wept bitterly, because all Christians did not feel this with the whole marrow of their hearts: and he wondered that for their sins Christians should be deprived of so great and such a good, that they did not feel this charity and mercy ^h. He saw moreover how through Christ's passion and the merit of His death eternal life was restored to the Saints, and they were delivered from hell, and the gate of life opened to us. The Lord showed him also the triumph with which He ascended the heavens, and the glory of the resurrection, and the charity with which He sent the Holy Spirit. With this too he felt the charity of God poured out in the hearts of the Apostles, with which He made them speak and preach for the converting of the world. And he felt with how great firmness of love the faith was then received, and how for it the holy martyrs hastened rejoicing to death, longing in their heart and supremely desiring that they had found that time; and with [i] all he could have died for the faith, feeling there the joy which those had who for the reverence of God suffered persecutions and troubles.

[21] And in this he said that he felt the care and protection which the Lord had for His holy Church, he loathes earthly things, which the Lord had for His holy Church, and the immense charity with which He had ordained the Sacraments for our salvation, in which he felt an inexplicable mercy and love ^k. And in narrating the aforesaid he said that he could not express this in word as he had seen it, and as God had shown it to him, and as he felt it in his heart; and it was to him the greatest labour and pain, but [*] it behoved him thus sometimes to be occupied in outward things. Now the happy Youth was so changed for the better by the aforesaid vision, and made another man, that on the following Lord's day he could not eat at table, and it was a great pain to him to converse among men. Therefore his grandfather, the lord Elzéar de Sabran, having compassion on him, said: What ails thee, Son? Why dost thou not eat? Art thou perhaps burdened with some infirmity? and the like. But he silently ruminated upon the wonderful things which God had shown him that night. And because, when the spirit has been tasted, all flesh becomes insipid, therefore as often as he had to give himself to affairs and to be occupied with secular men, [it was to him the greatest labour and pain, if it behoved him thus sometimes to be occupied in outward things ^l,] and to converse with such persons, as he had received command from God in the divine visitation made to him in the place of Sault, as appears above ^m. From which it may be believed that such patience and pain was to him of no small merit.

[22] and even sleeping he meditates on divine things. Now it befell at that time that a certain kinswoman of his was betrothed to the then Seneschal of Provence ⁿ, at whose solemnity, which lasted five days, this Saint was present, though much against his will. For he was so honourable and chaste in words that he was never heard by any living man to utter an unchaste word from his mouth: and because in that court, as is the custom, there were nobles and others, occupied day and night in songs and dances and human pastimes, who said many dishonourable, wanton and unchaste words, thereby bringing no small trouble upon the pure and chaste Youth, whence his heart was grievously smitten with the arrows of displeasure; especially since he could not, as he was wont, give himself to prayer and contemplation. And because he was accustomed to taste divine things, his inward spirit languished with desire of eternal things: but the clement and kindly Lord sent him such consolation in those five days that on every night, when he was awakened, he found his eyes, face and the cloths near his face wet with tears; because what he could not fulfil waking, his inflamed heart and mind supplied in sleeping. For which, rendering thanks to God, he remained consoled in spirit.

VII.

[23] It is revealed to a devout matron that St. Elzéar The noble lady Garsenda Alphanti, sprung from the castle of Ansouis, who, while her husband, a noble knight, was alive, had made with him a vow of chastity, and on account of the sanctity of her life had been so far enlightened with divine light that she often knew things far distant and things to come as though present, and had very often been visited with divine revelations and consolations ^o; she saw two wonderful visions concerning the holy youth Elzéar, not to be passed over in silence. For because she had in part reared this holy Youth, she therefore prayed to God for him often and fervently. And when on a certain night she was pouring out such prayers in church, she heard with her bodily ears Christ saying to her: For the Youth for whom thou askest me so much, I have appointed my Mother as his mistress: wherefore doubt not at all concerning him. At which answer she was exceedingly astounded, and at length, coming to herself, began again to pray God that, if it were an illusion, it might depart; but if it were true, that her heart might be more fully informed of it. And when on the following day she was devoutly hearing Mass, after the consecration of the sacred Body she heard with her bodily ears a voice from the Host itself directed to her, saying: The things which I told thee last night about the youth Elzéar are true and certain, and thou mayest not doubt of it.

[24] And when she had narrated these things to her very spiritual confessor, namely Brother John Juliani, the aforesaid confessor asks the holy Youth, is under the singular protection of the holy Mother of God. saying secretly: Tell me, what form and manner dost thou keep in thy prayers, and what Saint hast thou chosen before others as thy advocate? To whom the Saint: I, said he, have chosen the glorious Virgin as advocate; and when I wish to prepare myself for prayer, I first consider my unworthiness and vileness; and therefore I turn to the Mother of grace, and humbly ask her to place in my heart and mouth the things which are pleasing to her and to her blessed Son; and with as much devotion as I can I offer her one Ave Maria; and when that is said, new matter of divine things never fails. Which having heard, that confessor fully knew that the things which the lady Garsenda had said were true. To this makes the fact that this holy Youth was commonly visited by the Lord on the Sabbath and on the night following, and that on the feast of the Assumption he was first visited by the Lord.

[25] At another time the same lady Garsenda, when on a certain night she was praying through the night in the chapel of Bl. Catherine of the castle of Ansouis, To her his virginity is commended by a precious stone, about the middle hour of the night saw a hand holding a certain precious stone, from which there proceeded so great a splendour that with the rays poured about on every side it wholly illuminated that chapel. And wondering at the splendour and comeliness of the stone, she thought within herself what this might be; and there she heard with her bodily ears a voice saying: The stone with its splendour is the virginity of Elzéar, for whom thou prayest, which shall so shine in the world; but look further, and see how much it shines before God. And when the stone was turned, a greater brightness than the first, and so burning a splendour, proceeded from it that her eyes could not bear it, but, her eyes being closed, the vision thereupon disappeared; whereby she remained exceedingly consoled [p]. The lady Mablina de Simiane [q], illustrious and very powerful in castles, revenues and vassals, and no less devout and dear to God; who, being bereaved of her husband in her sixteenth year, with whom she had remained only three months, and thereafter would not hasten to a second marriage, although urged by her parents and kinsfolk, and manifoldly troubled on this account, but lived chastely and honourably and holily in widowhood until an aged age.

[26] Who after many labours and works of piety came to so great a serenity of mind to another she is commended in another way. that she was often so intent upon divine things that she did not perceive what was being done about her. I shall report one instance out of many: for once from holy Thursday until the following holy Saturday, since the office of the Mass was being said, she stood in the same place, and persevered insensible. She, I say, of St. Elzéar, who was then a youth [r], deserved to see such a vision, though she was wholly ignorant of his holy celibacy. For she saw in spirit, through a certain spacious and great plain, the holy youth Elzéar, clothed in a splendid habit, bearing in his hands a white and luminous banner, whose comeliness and splendour illuminated the whole air and plain. Whom there followed a multitude of innumerable peoples of both sexes, of divers ages, estates and conditions, at the sight of which she greatly rejoiced. And she began to ask God from her heart that He would show her what this vision signified. And there answer was made by the Lord: This, said He, is the virginity and sanctity of Elzéar, whom the whole world ought to venerate and many to imitate.

[27] Brother Philip de Regio [s], of the Order of Friars Minor, noble and a kinsman of the virgin Delphine, who was of holy life and of dove-like simplicity, The same a certain Minorite so far that he seemed already brought back to the state of first innocence; to whom, on account of his exceeding purity, the blessed Virgin Mary often appeared; when he was once fervently intent upon prayer and contemplation, he saw in spirit St. Elzéar and his consort Delphine sleeping together in one comely and great bed, and in the midst of them, at the head of the bed, he saw Jesus standing, and with a placid and kindly countenance looking now upon the one, now upon the other. Whence he knew that Christ Jesus greatly delighted in their celibacy.

[28] and another pious woman know by divine revelation. Bertranda Carmata [t] of the city of Carpentras [u], a woman of holy life and greatly learned in divine things, to whom among other things God once caused this grace to be done. For when on a certain solemnity she had devoutly prepared herself for the reception of the Lord's body, and the priest through carelessness or forgetfulness had omitted to administer the Host, the power and clemency of God was at hand, which willed to console her in a wonderful and singular manner. For while she was most devoutly hearing the Mass, in which she spiritually ate the body of Christ, an angel of the Lord, taking from the altar one part of the consecrated Host already divided, offered it to her to eat. The priest

however, when he was taking the Body of Christ and did not find that part of the host, looking and searching here and there and beneath the corporals, was anxious and exceedingly saddened, until the said lady revealed the grace which the Lord had done her. She, I say, that woman, once saw in spirit a vision like in all things to that of Brother Philip mentioned before, with this added, that Christ sat between them at the head of the bed.

ANNOTATA.

a. That is, from men.

p. Of one or the other, or of both of these visions, I suspect that there was treatment in the process also, since in its Summary these things are read: Upon the XVII article, which begins, Accidit, quod quædam; the first witness, namely the lady Delphine, at folio CXVIII, page 2 beyond the middle, says that she also heard the things contained in the article from the lady Garcendis and from Brother John. There follows in the same place the testimony of another, who renders the ground, because he heard it said by the lady Garcendis. To the same likewise seems to belong what is presently subjoined: Upon the XVIII article, which begins, Item vidit; the first witness, the lady Delphine, at fol. CXV, first page, deposes, saying that she heard it said. Likewise the fourth witness, namely the lord Guido Guidonis, at folio CXXXIII, second page, deposes, saying that he believes the things contained in the said article to be true, because he thus heard it said by the confessor of the lady Garcendis.

q. Fortunatus Hueber inserted her in his Franciscan Menology on the 16th day of November among the Tertiaries of St. Francis, and by a huge anachronism referred her to the seventeenth century. Arthur du Monstier gave her a place with the title of Blessed in the Gynæceum sacrum on the 31st of May, from whom she was recorded by us on the same day among the Passed Over, and it was said that she should be treated today together with St. Elzéar, if we were meanwhile informed about her cult; which has not hitherto been done. For the rest, the things which these writers narrate of her are drawn from this Life.

r. St. Elzéar therefore was alive when this vision was offered to Mablina. Surius believed him alive from his manuscript, who wrote that Mablina saw these things concerning Bl. Elzéar while he was still a youth: and Raphaël agrees in the French Life, part 1, chap. 8. On the contrary Borély, often praised in the preliminary Commentary, book 1, chap. 4, where he calls the aforesaid matron Mabilia de Simiane, and has set forth this notable ecstasy of hers at length, asserts that it happened after St. Elzéar's death, when every year on the 27th day of September at Apt, in the church of the Friars Minor, that Saint's virginity was publicly asserted in a sermon, and it had been begun to collect votes for his canonization, and Mabilia nevertheless somewhat doubted of his virginity. Nay, he adds that a public instrument concerning that ecstasy was drawn up at that time. Let others judge of this matter who shall be able to read either the praised instrument or the process of canonization; for it has been permitted me to consult neither.

s. A notable elogium of this man thou hast in Arthur in the Franciscan Martyrology, in which on the 18th day of May there is inscribed as Blessed Philip de Aqueriis, who is there said in the Annotations to have been called by another name Philip of Riez. On that same day in our Work mention was made of him from the praised Martyrology only among the Passed Over, because a cult was wanting, of which neither is anything evident to me hitherto.

t. Her too, as Blessed, together with the aforesaid Mablina de Simiane, Arthur du Monstier recorded in the sacred Gynæceum on the 31st day of May, and my Elders from him reckoned her among the Passed Over on the same day.

u. That is, of Carpentras. Now Carpentras, commonly Carpentras, is a city of Gaul in Provence, in the dominion of the Church, the head of the Comtat Venaissin, and episcopal under the archbishop of Avignon.

perhaps nostræ*

perhaps si*

CHAPTER III.

The Saint's pious rule in his household: his various virtues: his mercy toward the poor and lepers, illustrated by miracles: sick folk healed by him.

VIII.

[ ] He instructs his household with excellent laws This holy Youth, as he grew in age, so he advanced and increased in grace and merit and perfection, and his holy desire of working better grew continually. Whence when he had been made twenty years old, and his heart was not at rest in the castle of Ansouis on account of the superfluous care which his grandfather and all his household had in nurturing him in the acts and wantonness of worldly men ^a, after many instances of prayer he obtained that he might go to the castle of Puimichel, which was the virgin Delphine's own by paternal succession and disposition ^b; in which castle they remained for three years, and by changing their place they changed their manners for the better. For when they were in the said castle, the new Father of the family newly began to preside over his household in his house, and, a young plant of new manners, to institute new manners, and imposed penalties upon transgressors. For he first ordained prayers, that all the persons, men and women, staying in his service should hear at least one Mass every day without fail.

[30] and to every virtue, Secondly, that all should keep a chaste and clean way of life; and those doing the contrary he expelled from his house and household. For once, when one who dwelt with him had committed the sin of fornication, at once, when it became known to him, he expelled him from his house. The same he did at another time with two others. For he would not have anyone whom he knew to be living in mortal sin eat his bread, lest he should infect others, and lest he should seem to nourish sin. Thirdly, that the nobles and knights, the maidens and matrons should confess once in every week, and should every month devoutly prepare themselves to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Fourthly, that the aforesaid maidens and matrons should occupy themselves in the morning until dinner in prayer or in devout and pious acts, and after dinner should apply themselves to manual work. Fifthly, that none should dare to utter blasphemy against God, nor against the glorious Virgin, nor against any of the Saints, nor to swear falsely, nor viciously and lightly without cause, nor to utter unchaste or dishonourable words; because death and life are in the hands of the tongue, as the Wise man says: Evil communications corrupt good manners, as the Apostle says.

[31] But the transgressors of this statute were punished in this manner. and restrains offenders with penalties, For they sat upon the ground during the whole dinner before the others, eating only bread and water ^c, or they stood shut up for one whole day in a chamber and ate common fare. Sixthly, that none should play at dice, or at any other unlawful or dishonourable game; and those doing the contrary he punished grievously. Seventhly, that all of his household should dwell in peace, friendship and concord, and that one should not offend another by word or by deed; and if any did the contrary, he should at once be reconciled to the one offended: and to this this Saint was not a little watchful; and he punished the guilty, and according to the greatness of the offence. Eighthly, that every day after dinner, or at another hour in the evening, unless a lawful cause stood in the way, they should have a conference together, and he with them, on the words of the Lord for the instruction of souls; and in that conference, while one spoke, all the others should pray in their heart for him, that God might minister to him words in which all might profit. And that none should dare to interrupt the words of the one so speaking, or otherwise to hinder him. And he who did the contrary was deprived of such devout and good conference, until, being corrected and amended, he should be called by the others ^d.

[32] But he above the others in those conferences and in his discourses, so that his house seemed to be a monastery; joyful and cheerful in mind and countenance, and adorned not a little with divine grace, had fiery words proceeding from the fount of divine wisdom, so that his hearers felt from his words a great change in their heart, and glowed with good and holy desires, and were made humble and God-fearing. For he taught his household, like another Tobias, to fear God, and to abstain from sins, and to keep the divine precepts. He exhorted

them also to the divine love, and that they should love one another, and should keep their vessels clean and bright. But of prayer he said: The prayer of a Christian ought to take its beginning from the consideration of his own defects, and there first to be humbled; because the prayer of him that humbleth himself pierces the clouds. These and many like things he said, all which it would be long to write. And although all who dwelt with him felt themselves to profit in good will and in every good work, yet singularly, by reason of his nearness and familiarity, they felt the burnings of the flesh and the flame of lust laid to sleep.

[33] and especially commends chastity to his own people For from this very many knights and nobles and others of another estate and condition promised and kept perpetual chastity, and some of them virginal purity. Whence in his house there was so great a charity of all, so great maturity, so great devotion, so great honourableness of manners, so great peace, so great kindness and so great purity that, the habit apart, there appeared there rather a true religious house and monastic life than the house of a count or a secular life. Wherefore the lady Alasia ^e, a nun, sister of the virgin Delphine, who continually stayed with those holy Spouses, very often asserted that she lived far more religiously, honourably and rightly with them than in her own monastery; nay, from dwelling with them she felt a great advancement of her life. And I shall report one thing not to be passed over in silence. For when at a certain time she was for some days vexed by a temptation of the flesh, she once went secretly to their chamber, and shutting herself in there, went round on bended knees the immaculate bed in which they were wont to sleep, and praying with all her heart she said: Lord Jesus Christ, king of virgins and lover of chastity, I ask Thee that by that holy purity and virginity which is kept in this bed Thou wouldst deliver me from this temptation.

[34] and obtains it: he himself, going before the rest by his example, Wonderful to say! She was so suddenly and perfectly delivered from that temptation that, if afterwards she had wished to think against purity and to take delight in it, she could scarcely do so. She asserted also that by staying with them she profited much spiritually, and was delivered from great temptations. Whence indeed as many as dwelt with him changed their life for the better, some of whom by his merits came to great sanctity of life. For as the famous report of this Saint concerning the rule of his house ran everywhere, some began to live and to rule their houses after his pattern. For at that time the venerable lord, then bishop of Digne ^f, wished to have the aforesaid rules of this Saint, and commanded them to be kept by his household in his house. But the holy Man, knowing that to show the way of truth and to walk in it is a twofold merit of virtue, therefore observed the aforesaid rules all the time of his life, and commanded them to be observed in his house. Moreover every day he said the divine Office according to the rite of the Roman Church ^g, and so devoutly and attentively that he drew his hearers to great devotion.

[35] shines with virtues: he enjoys the gift of prayer and contemplation On the days appointed by the Church, and beyond this on the sixth day of the week, and in all Advent, and on very many other festivals, he fasted. He wore a hair shirt next to the flesh beneath precious garments, and often slept in it. And after he was first visited by the Lord in the place of Sault ^h, he never, while he was in health, lay naked. Often he took the discipline with little iron chains, and, saying the whole psalm Have mercy on me, O God, mindful of Christ's wounds, at every verse he struck his back thrice strongly. On all the Sundays of Lent and of Advent, on all the great festivals of the whole year, and on very many others, especially of virgins, he most devoutly received the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Whence he once related to his holy consort that, when he took the Body of Christ, it seemed to him in taste as though he were swallowing the finest sugar ⁱ. And when he was asked what sign this was, he answered: It appears to me that it is God's will that I should frequent this holy Communion. Moreover this holy Youth deserved to obtain from God so great a grace of praying and of meditating and contemplating that, from the time when in the place of Sault, as has been said, he was visited by the Lord, at all times and at every hour and in every place he was ready and prompt without difficulty or labour for any of the aforesaid acts ^k.

[36] even amid business and pastimes, For his noble spirit, which was united to God and cleaved to Him continually with a peculiar familiarity, when he was at table, eating, tasted divine things, and then frequent new and most devout matters came unexpectedly into his mind, as he sometimes revealed in her chamber to his holy consort and bride. Moreover, when he was in conversation with divers persons and talked with them, his spirit was in no wise made distant from God; nay, what is more, when he was in dances, hearing songs and musical instruments, his mind was rapt into God with a wonderful and very great excess, so that his blessed bride, when she was present at such things, having experienced it in her own case ^l, greatly feared lest his foot should stumble and a fall should happen ^m. And after such acts, when he returned home, he entered his chamber, and suddenly feeling the divine sweetness, he set himself to prayer and contemplation, and was fully consoled. He also passed the night in prayer, and almost always poured forth very abundant tears.

[37] But in these acts of devotion he was more free and gives himself to them with his blessed wife. when he was with his virgin bride, from whom, as has been said above, he did not absent himself as from others ⁿ; nay, when they were together in their secret chamber, they held converse of divine things, and mutually invited one another to acts of devotion. Together they devoutly said Matins; and when that was ended, each apart in the same chamber gave himself to prayer or holy meditation, so that their own chamber was to them a devout oratory, and the soul of each a true temple of God. Finally, the zeal of that holy Man, both public and private, was intent upon three things. First, that he might flee every sin, and avoid every offence against God as the flames of hell. Secondly, that he might offer his soul to God by the burning of love and devotion. And therefore it was a great pain to him when for worldly acts he was removed far from such things; but because he had received a command from the Lord about this in his first visitation ^o, he did not dare to withdraw himself from them. Thirdly, that he might hide the good things which he did in secret, and the divine visitations and illuminations which he very often felt, and especially from carnal and worldly persons.

IX.

[38] This holy Man was, as he was naturally liberal, so by the gift of supernal grace pious and merciful toward the poor of Christ and toward lepers. The poor lepers, six of whom he heals with a kiss, For every day he had twelve poor men and lepers, whose feet and mouths he himself washed and kissed. And when they had taken refreshment, they returned to their own places with large alms [p]. Whence I shall report one wonderful thing, not to be passed over in silence. When once in his county he was going with a great retinue to hunt, he made them all go on before, and he himself, keeping only one knight and his barber, turned aside to a certain dwelling of lepers, where he found six smitten with grievous leprosy, some of whom were so deformed that it was horrible to look upon them. For they had their lips eaten away and consumed, so that their teeth appeared and fell out of them. Whom when the clement and pious Saint saw, greeting them kindly and instructing them salutarily, he most devoutly kissed them one by one. Wonderful to say! At once after his kisses all were restored to perfect health, and that whole house was filled with a most sweet odour; and alms being given them, he departed thence.

[39] But when he was departing from the said hospital, a flame of fire, made illustrious by a twofold prodigy, he feeds and cures them. or a fiery and shining ray, went forth from his head, reaching to the very house of the lepers, all beholding it; and as he went further on, the flame or ray was stretched out further in length, ever going forth from his head and reaching to the lodging of those lepers, illuminating all the intervening space in a wonderful manner. And this lasted until he came to his retinue, which was far enough distant. And when he had come to them, at once the flame departed; and the Saint, who in all the wonderful things which God wrought [*] through him fled human praises, strictly charged his people that they should reveal this miracle to no man so long as he led his life among men. But the lepers who had been cured, leaving their wretched hospital, thenceforth dwelt among the sound without repulse. He often also visited secretly other houses of lepers, accompanied by one companion only, and there on bended knees washed their feet and kissed their sores, cleansed and bound them, so that the companion who was with him stood wholly astounded, and, filled with great wonder, was changed in mind and from devout was rendered more devout [q].

[40] With so great piety and devotion also were his bowels moved with compassion to relieve the miseries of his neighbours He bestows large alms; and in a time of famine that he never turned his face away from any poor man, but rather always bountifully extended his hand and his mind to all who asked for the love of Christ: for this active virtue seemed to be inborn in him. For he caused the poor and needy to be sought out secretly, to whom sometimes, even when they did not ask, he sent great alms. It befell in a certain year, while he was in the castle of Puimichel, that on account of the great barrenness of the season the corn failed the inhabitants of that country; who, having recourse to the Saint, asked for aid, that they might be able to pass through that year []. But he, the provision of his household being set aside separately, lent all the remainder to the aforesaid inhabitants. And when for some time before the harvest the poor and needy did not yet cease to ask, he commanded that it should be given them from that provision of the household. At length, when nothing of the corn [r] remained in the granary, and one poor man had come to ask for corn, the Saint commanded a certain woman, called Stephana [], who kept the keys of the granary, to give corn to the poor man.

[41] She answered that nothing at all of the corn remained in the granary. he succours the wretched, corn also being divinely received To whom the Saint said confidently: Go, go and seek diligently; for perhaps thou wilt find. Then she, knowing that nothing of the corn remained there, yet complying that she might obey her lord, went to the granary, and found there as much corn as had been kept from the beginning for the provision of the household. Seeing which, and filled with the greatest wonder, she gave the alms to the poor man,

and at once related to her Lord what she had found and done. But the Saint presently bound that Stephana by an oath that, so long as he lived, she should disclose this to no man: which in the end could not be concealed, because the previous emptying and the running out of the corn was known to many of the household. But the Saint did not ask back the corn which in that year he had lent to the aforesaid inhabitants, but remitted it all to them for the love of God. The like befell at another time by reason of the great dearness [s] and famine to the inhabitants of Ansouis and of the whole barony. For two hundred sesters of corn he partly gave for the love of God, partly lent, and kept only what was necessary for [*] his household.

[42] in his granary: visiting the sick he heals them, And when for some time before the harvest the poor came from every side, he commanded that it should be given them from that provision. And when report had been made to him that there was no more corn in the granary, he nevertheless commanded that they should go and see, and seek diligently, and give to a certain poor man who was importunately asking. Wonderful indeed: they went and found so much corn in the granary that it sufficed abundantly for the whole household and for all the poor until the new harvest. But all that he had lent to the inhabitants he remitted [t]. He also sometimes visited the sick, and to many he imparted the grace of health. Whence it once befell, when he was in the city of Arles [u], that Constantia, a girl of seven years, daughter of John Alba, who had suffered a continued fever for fourteen days and for one natural day had lost her sight and speech, was sick unto death: for whom her mother grieved past remedy.

[43] and among these a dying girl. But the holy Man, perceiving it and having compassion on the mother's grief, went to the said girl, whose departure was being awaited with lighted tapers. And placing his hand upon the girl's head, he said: Let God's will, daughter, be fulfilled in thee. And going out thence, he consoled the tearful and sorrowing mother, saying that her daughter would live. And the aforesaid girl presently asked for food, asserting that a certain man had cured her by touching her face and head; and on that same day she was wholly delivered, and on the morrow walked on her own feet through the house and the street [x].

ANNOTATA.

p. On this subject the Summary of the process of canonization has the following. Upon article XXVII, which begins, Item contine (this word is faulty), the first witness, namely the lady Delphine, at fol. CXVIII, second page at the end, deposes, saying that what is contained in the article is true and notorious, as regards the twelve poor men; as of the others she says that she heard about the lepers. Likewise the seventh witness, namely the religious lady Alasacia, at fol. CLII, first page at the end, deposes, saying that what is contained in the article is true, as regards the twelve poor men. She renders the ground of her statement, because she saw it done. And moreover she believes that what is contained in the article about the lepers is true. Likewise the eighth witness, namely Bertranda Bartholomea, at folio CLVII, second page, deposes, saying that what is contained in the article is true, as regards the twelve poor men. She believes also the things contained in the article as to the lepers to be true, rendering the ground of her statement. Likewise the ninth witness, namely the religious man brother Gerandus Raybaudi, of the Order of Friars Minor, at folio CLXII, second page, deposes, saying that what is contained in the article is true, as regards the twelve poor men. He heard also about the lepers. Likewise the twenty-ninth witness, namely the venerable and religious man, the lord Ysnardus of Albano, Prior of Capua, of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, at folio CLXXVI, second page, deposes, saying that he saw concerning the twelve poor men when he was in the household of the said lord Elizarius: nay, he often helped him to minister to them. He says many other things about the poor while the said Elizarius was at Naples. Consult also the Bull of canonization in the preliminary Commentary, num. 206. My suspicion about the lepers, of whom the aforesaid witnesses testified only from hearsay, I shall set forth at the following letter.

q. To all these things, or to some of them, which have been said in this whole number and in the preceding one about the lepers, I suspect that the testimonies from hearsay about the lepers given at the preceding letter are to be referred; because, since the aforesaid healing of the lepers was done in the county of Ariano with only two of his men present, and the other works of piety bestowed upon lepers were done with only one companion privy to them, Bl. Delphine and her domestics and familiars could not testify of these otherwise than from hearsay, and not from sight, as they did concerning the twelve poor men whom the holy Count was wont to feed in his house. But let those see to these things who have the process of canonization at hand.

r. Bladum, in Italian biada and biado, was used in the Middle Ages for any wheat. Examples may be seen in Du Cange in his Glossary.

s. Caristia is the dearness or scarcity of corn, from the Italian carestia. See the Glossary just praised.

t. Of these things hear the Summary of the process of canonization. Upon article XXXVI, which begins, Primo quod triginta, the first witness, namely the lady Delphine, deposes at folio CXXII, first page, saying that near the harvest he caused corn to be delivered to the needy poor (in our manuscript it is blandum, which both here and afterwards I have corrected), which he caused to be kept for the need of his household. Upon the other things contained therein she deposes from hearsay and belief, rendering the ground. Likewise the ninth witness, Brother Gerandus Rabaudi (above written Raybaudi), of the Order of Minors, at folio CLXIII, second page before the middle, deposes from hearsay, saying that, although there was no corn in the granary, he nevertheless commanded and caused it to be delivered to a certain needy man; and corn was found in the granary in great quantity; as the keeper of the keys of those granaries told him. The same things another also is said to have testified in the same place. Then there follows in the same place: Upon article XXXVII, which begins, Item quod viginti quinque,

the first witness, namely the lady Delphine, at folio CXXIII, second page before the middle, deposes, saying that she heard from many that the said miracle was wrought. Likewise the ninth witness, namely Gerandus Rabaudi, of the Order of Friars Minor, at folio CLXIV, first page about the middle, said that he believed the things contained in the said article to be true. He renders the ground, because he so heard it narrated by the said Stephania. From the name of Stephania I suspect that there is here treatment of the miracle of the multiplied wheat, which Stephana was just said to have discovered. Those who keep the process of canonization will be able to say more certain and more numerous things about these matters.

u. Arelate, commonly Arles, is an archiepiscopal city upon the Rhone in Provence, and once the head of the kingdom of Arles. There is also another little town of Gaul in the county of Roussillon, called Arelate and Arulæ, but in French also Arles, as may be seen in Baudrand in his Lexicon; but the discourse here is most probably of the former city.

x. In the Summary of the process, under the title Of the miracles wrought while he lived, a certain Jacoba Alba is read to have testified upon the thirty-ninth and Fortieth articles; but beyond the surname Alba I could draw nothing thence for the aforesaid miracle. There is premised in the same place the healing of another feverish person, which may have been one of those which the biographer recorded only in general. Thus therefore the praised Summary has it: Upon article XXXVIII, which begins Item contigit per septem annos, the first witness, namely the lady Delphine, at fol. CXXIV, second page toward the end, deposes that she heard the things contained in that article said both by the said lord Elizarius and by that Friar Minor himself, and by others: and that a certain Friar Minor was cured of a fever by him she also heard from many. Likewise the fourth witness, namely the noble man, the lord Guido Guidonis, at folio CXL, second page, deposes, saying that on one day he saw that Brother grievously sick, and two days after he saw him sound and cured, and for the three following days preaching. And he believes that he was miraculously cured by the lord Elizarius himself, by the imposition of hands and invocation. There are also other testimonies in the same place about miracles wrought while he lived, but praised so briefly that they cannot be of use to me.

read operabatur*

that is, ali*

rather, vocatæ Stephanæ*

that is, pro*

CHAPTER IV.

The holy Count's meekness toward rebels and calumniators: the equestrian Order conferred upon him: the vow of virginity made by him: his integrity in the tutorship of the duke of Calabria undertaken, and his care of the poor.

When he had been made twenty-three years old, his father being dead ^a, He spares his rebellious subjects he remained count of Ariano and lord of the barony and of Ansouis by his father's disposition. And then he first entered Italy to take possession of the said county; and the city of Ariano rebelled against him for three years, and he suffered [*] many injuries, great losses and reproaches. And they also sometimes prepared snares for him, and laid false crimes upon him; and, though harassed also with many grievances through all that three years, he never asked vengeance of God upon them, nor took it. And although the prince of Taranto ^b, who had a singular love for him, having exceeding compassion on him, wished to hang many of the aforesaid city and to mutilate many, that the rest, being terrified, might obey, he by no means permitted it, but constantly forbade it, asserting that the Lord and justice would bend them. And it came to pass after this, by the ordering of the divine clemency and by the merit of his patience, that he was honoured by all as a true lord and loved as a father.

[45] and does good to his calumniators above the rest; Now he found certain letters which some nobles had sent to his father, then living, in which they grievously and falsely accused him, and induced and strongly urged his father not to leave him his heir ^c, alleging manifold reasons falsely and treacherously. And when he had read the aforesaid letters to his holy consort in her chamber, she asked him whether he would show those letters to the false accusers, that they might be more humble and penitent for so great a crime. To whom the most gentle Man answered thus: I, said he, forgive them wholly and from the heart in this crime; and far be it from me to open those letters to them. Nay, I wish them to know that I am simply ignorant of such things: for if they perceived that I knew them, they would already be in great part punished; because they would always fear me, and I should be continually suspect in their hearts. And, the letters being destroyed, this will never come to their knowledge. Nay, a little afterwards, when one knight ^d, who had been the chief fabricator of the said letters, was present with other nobles at a certain solemnity, the holy Count, kindly and pious, honoured the aforesaid knight above the rest, and showed him greater familiarity, and, bringing him into his own chamber ^e, gave him precious robes ^f from his own body, and in his lifetime showed him special signs of affection.

[46] Indeed this holy Man was of so great virtue and grace, and of so great fortitude and patience in adversities, that in his whole life he was never seen by anyone, however familiar or of his household, nor was he ever seen to be angry; to be impatient or angry in word or deed for any tribulation whatsoever. Whence the virgin St. Delphine, who assiduously contemplated his virtues and acts, seeing that he was in no wise troubled against those who injured and opposed him, but bore all things with equanimity with a cheerful and pleasant countenance, wondering at so great and invincible a patience, which had established for itself so noble a seat in him, wished to make trial of him. And while they were together in her chamber, she accosts him with such words. O, said she, Elzéar, what manner of man art thou, who art never angry against those who injure thee, nor disturbed? Thou indeed seemest insensible, and yet thou art a man capable of suffering and a worldly man: or perhaps thou knowest not how, or canst not, be angry. What harm would it do to the wicked, who sometimes hurt thee unjustly, if thou didst sometimes show thyself angry with them?

[47] To whom the most gentle Man answered thus: Delphine, what avails it to be angry? of which thing he himself set forth the reason. Such anger profits nothing. Nevertheless I will now open to thee the secret of my heart. Know that sometimes I begin inwardly in my heart to be indignant against those who assail me; but there I at once turn myself to think upon and to bear the injuries inflicted upon Christ. And I say to myself: If thy servants ^g should pluck out thy beard and give thee buffets, Christ endured greater things. And I assert to thee, Delphine, that I never cease to meditate upon Christ's injuries until my mind is wholly quieted: and God has conferred upon me this singular grace, that I love my adversaries with an equal, or a greater, love after the injuries inflicted than before; and I pray to God especially for them. And I know and confess that I am worthy of greater and worse injuries ^h. By which words the virgin Delphine remained wonderfully edified and refreshed with heavenly sweetness, understanding that his noble spirit, wholly kindled in the desire of eternal things, was so united to God that it did not suffer any passion to have dominion in him.

[48] And when he had found his county and barony bound and burdened with great legacies and debts, He orders justice to be so administered, he appointed certain persons who should receive certain revenues and goods and pay them, until all should be entirely satisfied. And when he heard of so great burdens and encumbrances, he said within himself: I give Thee thanks, Lord my God, because, as when Thou didst first visit me ⁱ Thou didst take away from my mind the love of this world and of all earthly things, so likewise now, at Thy bidding and ordering, I possess these lands and inheritances, which I behold so burdened with debts and legacies that even a lover of this world could scarcely take any delight in them. But since piety without justice, especially in a prince, is reckoned empty, therefore this holy Man, that he might walk with upright foot through all the ways of the Lord, as he was merciful, so was he also a zealot of justice, which he tempered with mercy and administered to his subjects, enjoining upon his officials that in their judgments and sentences they should in no wise deviate from the rule of justice.

[49] But those who were slack in this virtue, and who from negligence delayed, that it may be tempered with mercy. he sharply rebuked, and sometimes deposed from their offices, substituting worthier men. Brigands ^k and other evildoers he manfully pursued, and when they were taken and detained he punished them according to the deserts of their wickedness. But those condemned to death he instructed with salutary admonitions, and very kindly induced them to confess their sins; and especially that they should have recourse to Christ's passion. Whence when once a certain wicked brigand had been condemned by his court to hanging, he went to the prison, and, preaching to him at length and exhorting him, and inclining him to true repentance, so showed him his offences that he brought him to true contrition ^l; and weeping and groaning, and grieving from the inmost bowels of his heart, he confessed that he was worthy of such a death and of a yet more shameful one. And rendering thanks, he underwent that punishment of death patiently and gladly. To those condemned in money he customarily remitted a third part, and to some the half; and if they were poor he remitted the whole to them, though he gave it to them secretly and by another's hand, that those thus punished might not lose their fear, and might abstain from like offences. But the goods of those condemned to death, which were confiscated to the lordship, if such men had a wife and children, he secretly restored to them by another's hand.

XI.

[50] Being about to be enrolled in the equestrian Order, he is found in ecstasy: When by king Robert ^m, to whom he was very acceptable, he was distinguished at Naples [*] with the military sacraments, he kept vigil that night, as is the custom, in the church in which that feast was held. But when a great multitude of knights and other nobles, entering the church with lights and passing before his face with trumpets and with divers other kinds of music, rejoicing and exulting, he changed worldly joys into heavenly. For, in no wise perceiving what was being done about him, he was wholly lifted up to heavenly things, and, being mentally carried among the hosts of angels and the blessed spirits, he contemplated divine things with them; and thus all that night, transcending earthly things, he thereupon tasted with great sweetness and delight of mind things spiritual and eternal; as he afterwards more secretly revealed to his consecrated consort. He was thereupon urged in his heart more than usual to make with his happy bride the sacred vow of virginity, as the Holy Spirit had often inspired them ⁿ.

[51] he summons his wife by letters into Italy, Therefore he sent her letters by a special messenger, because she was then staying in the parts of Provence, that she should come to him at once, and should bring with her the lady Garsenda Alphanti. But she, as one truly humble and obedient to her Husband, leaving the lady Garsenda sick, presented herself by sailing to the sight of her holy Man. And when he had seen her and received her with joy, he said to her secretly: I, said he, have sent for thee, that we may fulfil the vow of virginity, as we have often treated of doing: but nevertheless, because it is the will of God that the lady Garsenda be present at this vow, for that she often led us to it, and from our childhood nourished us with salutary admonitions and with great devotion and diligence, and has greatly longed to see and hear this, therefore let us go to her. And leave being obtained from king Robert with no small difficulty, he enjoining [*] upon them that within two years they should return to him, they left the parts of Italy, where he had been for five years, and returned into the region of Provence.

[52] and having returned with her into Provence To whom many nobles and kinsfolk came out to meet, receiving them with joy; among whom Rostang de Sabran, knight, his kinsman, when he had embraced him, his spirit was suddenly greatly changed for the better. For, being ancient of days and having not confessed for two years, he felt so great a burden of his sins that he could not rest, nor take food, nor do any other act, until he had disclosed all his sins with great contrition and shedding of tears in Sacramental confession; and from that time he changed his life for the better. But the happy Spouses, coming to the castle of Ansouis, find the lady Garsenda still lying in bed. And when they had visited her and indicated the cause of their coming, the devout lady, exulting in spirit and filled with exceeding joy, said: I give Thee thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, who hast willed to console me with a twofold joy: for as I greatly desired to hear and see these vows, so with all my mind I longed to be dissolved and to be with Thee. For when I prayed fervently for this, said she, answer was made me by the Lord that I should be kept in this mortal body until I should see these holy Spouses utter this vow of virginity.

[53] And in that same castle they kept Easter together, and there, with Mary, he utters the vow of virginity in the presence of Garsenda, the glorious Mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalen, and the holy Mary of James and Salome, and the holy Apostles, contemplating the joy of the Resurrection, they celebrated that feast spiritually; and from the feast of Easter until the feast of Mary Magdalen, applying themselves in the said castle of Ansouis to the divine praises and to meditations, on the very feast of Mary Magdalen in the chapel of Bl. Catherine they most devoutly heard Mass and received the Sacrament of the Eucharist. And because the lady Garsenda could not be at the Mass, since she lay sick, therefore, the Mass being ended, they go at once to her house, and before her, in the presence of the lady Alasia, sister of the virgin Delphine, and of the lord Inardus, knight, son of the said lady Garsenda, all others being excluded, they made their vows in this manner. First indeed the holy Count, with bended knees and hands joined upon the Missal, vowed his vow saying:

[54] Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every good and every gift proceeds, who a little afterwards dies, and appears to both I, a frail and infirm sinner, cannot without Thy special gift be continent or chaste; but trusting in Thy singular help, I vow and promise to Thee and to the glorious Virgin and to all the Saints to live chastely all the time of my life, and to preserve the virginity which until now Thy clemency has guarded in me; and for the keeping of this promise I am ready to suffer whatsoever tribulations and pains, and moreover bodily death. And there the holy Virgin Delphine in like manner repeated in public the vow of virginity which she had before made in secret. And last of all the aforesaid knight, the lord Inardus, made a like vow of chastity. Which being done, the lady Garsenda, filled with spiritual joy, said: Praise, honour and glory be to almighty God, who has made me see what I have so greatly longed for. Now shall I die glad, nor do I desire anything more in this world; but receive henceforth, Lord, Thy handmaid, and let Thy holy will concerning me and in me be wholly fulfilled. Lord Jesus Christ, sower of chaste counsel, receive the fruits of the seeds which Thou hast sown in the virgin Delphine.

XII.

[55] Now the holy Count strictly charged them all that they should disclose to no man his vow and that of his holy consort. in glory. Being given as governor to Charles, duke of Calabria And after a little time the lady and holy Garsenda, full of good works, passed to the Lord, as she had longed; at whose death and burial the holy Count was present with his holy consort. But after her death she appeared all glorious in a splendid and most beautiful habit to both, namely to the Count and to the holy countess; to the one sleeping and to the other waking, whom she made certain of her glory and left spiritually consoled, as is had more expressly in the Life and Legend of the holy Countess ^o. But her body was buried in the church of the Friars Minor of Apt, near the tomb of the holy Count and the holy countess, with the habit of Bl. Francis [p]. And when the two years were completed which he was in the parts of Provence, he returned to Naples, as he had had in command from king Robert, and there he was appointed governor of the lord Charles, the king's firstborn and duke of Calabria [q].

[56] he instructs him in piety, Whom, when he perceived him to be light in manners and wanton in acts, and accustomed and prompt to hear light and dishonourable words, he called aside [r], and said to him: It does not become a distinguished person and a king to hear or speak light and dishonourable words; because evil communications corrupt good manners; but rather brightness of blood ought nobly to be adorned with honourable words and virtuous manners. And these words and the like he said to him with so great effect, and impressed them upon his mind, that at once there came down upon him a spirit of meekness and gentleness [*], so that in a short time, not without great wonder of the counts and other nobles who continually attended him, he was wholly altered [s] in manners and changed for the better, some saying: The lord duke is changed into another man; others asserting: The count of Ariano has spoken with the duke. And not only did he thenceforth abstain from dishonourable words and unvirtuous manners, but no one dared to speak such things in his hearing.

[57] and in the administration of affairs But the nobles and powerful men of the kingdom, and others of lower rank, seeing that this Saint had become so familiar and intimate with the lord duke, who at that time governed the whole rule, because his father king Robert was staying in the parts of Provence [t], began to honour the holy Count the more; and those who had anything to despatch with the duke or in his court, many of them came to the Saint and spoke with him first. Some offered him cloth of scarlet [u]; some many ounces of gold; and some other jewels [x] and precious gifts: but the holy Man, divinely enlightened, knowing [*] that gifts blind the eyes of those who receive them, therefore shook off his hand and his mind from every gift. And when at some time certain of his household had said that in recompense of his labours, after the benefit conferred, without any preceding compact, he could justly and without sin receive some gifts and presents [y], the pure and clean Man answered thus: The receiving of such things could be matter of scandal, and moreover a vice and an occasion of receiving unjustly: wherefore I will abstain from all generally.

[58] rejecting all the gifts offered him, to the poor When once, coming from the duke and his court, he had entered his own chamber, as he was wont, that he might recollect himself with God in actual meditation, he uttered words of this sort, speaking to God: O Lord God, Thou owest me in paradise a hundred ounces of gold and two pieces of scarlet [z]. And when by chance the lady Alasia, the nun, had entered the chamber and heard such words, wondering she said: My Lord, what do these words mean? To whom the Saint answered: Today I could have had those gifts; but I would not accept them for the love of God. In secret also he said to his holy consort that very many frequently strove to corrupt him with gifts and presents [aa]. And when the complaints of many poor men came to his ears, perceiving that their affairs and causes slept in the court, wounded in heart by the dart of compassion, he went to the duke and boldly asked of him that he might take up the causes of the poor, and be their advocate in the court [bb]. And when he gave him kindly assent, the pious and merciful Saint caused a new purse to be made, in which he put only the petitions and complaints of the poor; and when he went through the streets of the city, the poor flocked to him in troops and about the door of his house in so great a multitude that he and his household entered with difficulty.

[59] He heard their words and reasons with great diligence and calm, and to exiles a true father and out of many words, among which many feeble folk mixed many superfluous things, he, being ingenious and prudent, reduced the substance of the fact to certain points, and, speaking for them to the duke and to the officials, brought their affairs to an end. At that time there came to Naples some noble and generous ladies with their sons and some household from the kingdom and island of Sicily, exiled by reason of the losses of the wars [cc]. With whom the Saint, having wondrous compassion, procured an office, and did so much with the duke that every day they had provision regularly from his palace. He himself also provided them with cloths and many other necessaries, because he could not see their want and that of other poor folk without great compassion. On a certain day, when with washed hands he was going to table for dinner, a certain poor man, importunately entering the house, thrust himself upon him, saying: Lord, what have you done about my petition? To whom the Saint kindly answered: Wait for me a little; for before I eat I will despatch thy business. And rising from the table, he went to the court, and returning, the poor man being despatched, he went to table.

[60] he shows himself publicly. For some, by reason of long delay, who had not wherewith to provide for themselves out of their own, the Saint himself provided out of his own substance [dd], and thus bestowing upon them his mind, his tongue and his hands,

he offered in one man a threefold sacrifice pleasing to God; mindful of our Redeemer, who willed to be born, to live and to die so poor; who said: As often as ye did it to one of the least of mine, ye did it to me. And though the report ran through the whole city that the Count of Ariano had been made the advocate of the poor, he did not on this account desist; because he was laying up a treasure in heaven, whither his heart was wholly carried away.

ANNOTATA.

d. That is, a nobleman.

p. Of the same illustrious matron I have noted some things in the aforesaid Commentary, num. 41 and the following.

q. Consult the same Commentary, §6, in which from num. 127 I have discussed the time at which the holy Count returned into Italy with his wife the virgin Bl. Delphine, and the governance of Charles, duke of Calabria, undertaken by him, and other matters pertaining hereto, which, lest I do again what has been done, I here pass over.

r. That is, he led him aside from the others.

s. Alteratus is a barbarous word, as it were made another, namely better, as follows.

t. See the preliminary Commentary, num. 131 and the two following.

u. Scarletum, otherwise scarlatum, is in Latin coccus or the scarlet colour. And so pannus de scarleto is cloth dyed with scarlet.

x. That jocalia, in French joyaux, are in Latin necklaces, gems, rings and other precious things of that kind, Du Cange rightly says in his Glossary, where he may be consulted if anyone wishes for more.

y. That encenia, encœnia, exenia are often used for gifts or other presents, see in the praised Du Cange.

z. Petia de scarleto here designates a portion of uncertain measure of scarlet cloth.

aa. On this subject the Summary of the process of canonization has it thus: Upon the XXX article, which begins, Item cum propter familiaritatem, the first witness, namely the lady Delphine, at folio XIX, second page near the beginning, deposes, saying that she never saw nor knew him to receive anything. Likewise the fourth witness, namely the lord Guido Guidonis, at folio XXXVI, first page near the middle, deposes, saying that what is contained in the article is true. He renders the ground, because he never knew that he received anything; and upon this there was common report, because he received nothing. The same things are read to have been testified in the same place by the lady Alasacia, the nun, sister of Bl. Delphine, by Bertranda Bartholomea, and by Brother Gerandus Raybaudi of the Order of Friars Minor.

bb. For these and the following receive these things from the Summary of the process upon article XXIX. Likewise the fourth witness, namely the lord Guido Guidonis, knight, at folio CXXXV, second page beyond the middle, deposes, saying that he saw him receive the petitions of the poor, and that there was common report of the things contained in the article. The same article was confirmed by their testimony also by Bl. Delphine, the lady Alasacia, Bertranda Bartholomea, Brother Gerandus Raybaudi of the Order of Minors, and Ysnardus Prior of Capua; of whom Alasacia alone says that she does not remember to have heard him called the Advocate of the poor. Yet that this very thing was also proved appears from the Bull of canonization, in which it is read: And while he presided over the council of the duke of Calabria, he meanwhile promoted the petitions of the poor, so that all called him the Advocate of the poor.

cc. Guerræ, from the French word guerres, in Latin wars. But there are indicated here the wars which Frederick of Aragon, king of Sicily, waged for that very kingdom with Robert, king of Naples, or against the Guelfs, of whom that same Robert was leader; concerning which consult the historians.

dd. This faulty period restore thus: For to some (or also) who by reason of the long delay (or the time during which their affairs were deferred) had not wherewith to provide for themselves, the Saint himself provided out of his own substance (or from his own money). The Bull of canonization praised above says moreover these things of his mercy: Being greatly compassionate toward the servants of Christ and the poor and other wretched persons, he showed himself munificent in the bestowal of alms, for the most part ministering to them himself.

add est*

Neapoli*

read injungente*

or suavitatis*?

sciebat*

CHAPTER V.

The holy Count's other virtues: his soldiering: his sickness and convalescence: his legation into France: his death, burial, translation and miracles.

XIII.

Faithful and truthful and Catholic, the holy count Elzéar was wholly kindled with zeal for the faith. The holy Count's firm faith, For for that faith he was not only ready to suffer whatsoever adversities, but even longed to die. For he had been so enlightened by God with the rays of faith, precisely in the first and fourth visitation, that, as he had then seen in spirit the Creator and the creatures and the mystery of the Redemption, so from that time he continually felt it in his soul. For at one time he was once conferring in her chamber with his holy consort, and of the last times, of the malice of Antichrist; and in that holy conference the virgin St. Delphine said: Horrible will be that persecution of the faithful: for if the powers of the heavens shall be moved, how shall mortal men stand? To whom the Saint said: Consider, Delphine, if master Franciscus Maronis, who is one of the greatest clerks of the world and instructed and firm in the faith, and Brother John Juliani, our confessor, who is enlightened in faith and illustrious for a holy life, and the lady Garsenda, whose holy life is known to many by her virtuous works and miracles, and who, as thou knowest, ever nourished us from childhood in holy works and virtuous acts: if these three, I say, of whom I so esteem ^a, should come to me with one accord and say to me that our faith was false, and that until now we have lived in error and been deceived; and that the Pope and the Cardinals wished to change the faith, and that the whole world began to cry this out; I tell thee that for all these things I would not depart a point from the true Catholic faith which God has shown me, even if for this I must die a thousand times.

[62] his pious sentiments, the union of his mind Nor could Antichrist, nor his disciples, draw me back from this, nor from any article of the faith which holy mother Church now holds. By which words the virgin Delphine was no less confirmed in faith than spiritually consoled. He held in great reverence the prelates and all the presbyters of holy Church, because through them the way of salvation is derived to others. Spiritual and devout persons he willingly saw, and with them was refreshed with the cups of charity. At another time, when the holy Man was at Montpellier ^b, and was making some stay there, the virgin Delphine, who was then in the castle of Puimichel, sent him a servant with a letter, that she might be certified of his state and stay. He wrote back thus: I am sound and safe in body, and if thou desirest to see me, seek me in the right region of the side of Jesus Christ: for there I dwell, there thou wilt be able to find me, and seek me not elsewhere. When at another time he was with king Robert in the city of Avignon, on a certain feast day, after Sacramental confession, in the morning he said to a certain priest who was about to celebrate that he should administer him the Host, because he wished to communicate; and it came about, while the priest wished to begin the Mass, that he was called [*] by the king; and then he told the priest not to proceed, but to await his return.

[63] continual with God, his confidence in dangers, Then, going out of the chapel, he rode with the king as far as the palace of the Pope, which was far enough distant. But after his return, when he dismounted from his horse, he thus enters the chapel, and bids the priest begin the Mass and complete it, after which he devoutly communicated. In which act we may perceive how greatly his faith and his union with God illumined his soul, since by certain things seen or heard on the way or at its end he was not inwardly scattered or distracted; because that good spirit which moved him with God so held besieged the approaches and ways about him that nothing sordid or unclean, or unlike him, contrary, or

displeasing, did he permit to enter into his heart. At another time, when he was going with his bride and all his household by sea from Naples to the parts of Provence, so great a tempest arose at sea that, the sail being broken with the mast [*], the ship was imperilled among the waves. There is great lamentation and grief of all, so that none hoped for life. But the Saint, having faith in the Lord, devoutly besought Him from his heart, and while the rest wept, he alone was not altered in outward things.

[64] his contempt of death, and his humility And when the ship, not without a great prodigy, had come to land, and, giving thanks to God, they had reached the harbour, he began to rebuke some of his household, because with shedding of tears and with cries they too excessively feared death, and trusted little in the divine protection. Then the holy virgin Delphine asked him apart, saying: My Lord, thou who so reprovest others, didst thou not fear to die in so great a peril? To whom the Saint said: Know, Delphine, that after God first visited me at the place in Sault, in whatsoever place, whether at sea or on land, and by whatsoever kind of death He shall will to call me, I am ready to receive it; nor now, nor at any time, however great the perils in which I have been set, have I ever [*] since then feared to die; and when I see dangers at hand, I offer my heart to God Himself in this manner: Lord my God, to whom the secrets of hearts are clear and manifest, who knowest all things before they come to pass, if Thou hast decreed to punish us, or any of us, let Thy anger, I beseech Thee, be turned against me, an ungrateful sinner; and spare the others: because in anyone of this household Thou art more honoured than in me. And I tell thee, Delphine, said he, that after this prayer I always find myself the more consoled in soul.

[65] For so profound was his humility that, annihilating himself in his own reckoning before God, he esteemed himself to be [*] the greatest sinner and very ungrateful for His benefits; whereas in truth he was a most pure vessel, and a vessel filled with every odour of the virtues, as both his bride St. Delphine, who attentively searched his acts and manners, and others also, who more than the rest from his earliest age until his death were his familiars and domestics, asserted. And some of them, touching the holy Gospels, affirmed that they could never know that in his whole life he committed a mortal fault. His confessors too, and those to whom he most assiduously confessed, and to whom he had made a general confession of his whole life in full, who were of great sanctity and perfect life, asserted the same, adding moreover that with great grief and tears he repented and confessed of the smallest things.

[66] For so great was the purity of his conscience, and so vast the light of grace, with the surpassing integrity of his chaste mind. He wars for the Church; that he did not suffer himself to be stained even with light faults; and yet, as has been said, from the exceeding depth of his humility he thought himself the greatest sinner. And thus, being grounded in such and so great humility, he built the other virtues upon it the more securely. Worldly honours, although outwardly he made a show of them, were to him contemptible and burdensome, and inwardly he bore them with annoyance. And when honour was not rendered him according to the requirement of his state, he was more glad than usual. Now this virtue of humility conferred upon him great security in all his acts, so that, whithersoever he went, whether to death or to life, he dwelt secure and constant under the divine protection and confidence. For it befell the holy Man that once, by command of king Robert, whose subject and vassal he was, he went to Rome for feats of arms with the lord John ^c, the king's brother, against the heretical emperor, who had committed many things against the liberty of the Church. And when he was in the war, at Rome he delivered a strong German of the adverse party from the hands of those who wished to kill him.

[67] But the war being ended, in which the emperor's party succumbed, then, being sick and chastised by God, he suddenly recovers. at once in that same city of Rome the Saint fell into his bed, burdened with so grave and burning a fever that it appeared to him that he was then burning between two beds of fire. And thinking upon the past war, he began, because he had been present there, strongly to repent. And while he persisted in that thought, he heard the voice of Christ with his bodily ears saying thus: Elzéar, know that in the war in which thou wast armed thou didst put thyself in danger of losing my grace; but since thou repentest, I will give thee discipline for the offence. Then he bowed himself, and began to say, Have mercy on me, O God, and completed the whole psalm to the end. And Christ at every verse struck him strongly on the back thrice regularly with the disciplines [d]. After this, when he had fallen asleep, he was perfectly delivered from the fever and cured in body, and refreshed in mind with an unspeakable consolation.

XIV.

[68] Two years therefore before this Saint rendered up his spirit to heaven, nearly all the debts and legacies were discharged by which his land had been bound. And he said in her chamber to his holy consort: When the debts of the county and barony shall have been cleared of all burdens, He extinguishes all his debts: he is sent as legate into France, and nothing shall remain unpaid, I shall not remain long upon the earth. Which in truth was fulfilled: for after they had been entirely paid in full, he survived only one year. But at words of this kind the virgin Delphine was not a little saddened. But after this it came to pass that king Robert and his solemn council sent the holy Count as legate into France to the king of the French with an honourable retinue, to procure a wife who should be of royal blood, endowed in manners and in person, for his only son the lord Charles, duke of Calabria ^e. And before he departed, that he might leave his virgin consort consoled, he said to her: If, by the Lord's permission, I return from France, I wish to leave, so far as I can, all these destructive affairs; and we will establish our dwelling at Ansouis, that, being removed far from earthly things and from worldly tumult, we may more fully feel spiritual foretastes. For this Saint was a man of desires, and esteemed that he had done little or nothing for God so long as he had lived in this world; and therefore his mind glowed and he purposed that he would do vast things for Christ.

[69] and, the business being accomplished, he falls sick at Paris, But when he had perfectly and happily consummated in France the business committed to him, in the city of Paris he fell into his bed, seized with a grave infirmity. And knowing that he was drawing near to death, he made a general and devout confession, with a shedding of tears, to master Franciscus de Maronis of the Order of Minors, his fellow countryman ^f, who was there. Also every morning before his bed he devoutly heard Mass, and very often in that infirmity he returned to Sacramental confession ^g. And although in his whole life he had studiously concealed his own virginity and that of his holy consort, nevertheless at the end of his days, speaking under the compulsion of the Holy Spirit ^h, he burst out concerning it into these words before those who stood by: A bad man has been saved by a good woman, whom, as I received her a virgin, so in this mortal life I leave a virgin ⁱ. But in that infirmity, which vexed him continually with the gravest pains, he endured with great patience for the joy set before him. His spirit was unceasingly united to God, and with this he wished to hear good words and the passion of Christ, which he asked to be read to him.

[70] and being piously prepared for death His tongue also by no means ceased from the praise of God, saying that verse: The Lord will bring him help upon the bed of his sorrow; Thou hast turned all his couch in his sickness — which he held as it were continually in his mouth. But having received the Lord's Sacrament, when afterwards he was anointed with the holy oil, and that verse was said, By Thy holy Cross and passion deliver him, O Lord, he himself repeated that same versicle three times, and at the end said: This is my hope, in this I will die ^k. At last, being set in his agony, he began to make his face very terrible, and his countenance to show that he was suffering great labour from certain things cast against him ^l; and labouring in such a conflict and crying out, he said: Great is the power that the demons have, but they have lost their force by the virtue and merits of the blessed Incarnation and passion of Jesus Christ. And after a little, crying out again, he said: I have finally conquered all. After some little space of time he said with a strong cry: I commit myself wholly to the divine judgment.

[71] And when he had said these things, his face was renewed and made ruddy and shining and exceedingly comely, he dies, and is buried there, and he gave up his spirit. But his countenance was not in any wise changed by this; nay, it remained serene and beautiful as before. All these things a certain young esquire among others saw, who was very wanton and of a vain life. He from this had so great a feeling of his sins and inward grief that, being no longer able to bear it, at once, having called a Friar Minor who was there, he confessed apart in a certain chamber with vast grief, devotion and abundance of tears. Now the holy Man died, full of virtues and good works, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand three hundred and twenty-three, on the fifth of the Kalends of October; in the twenty-eighth year of his whole life ^m, and was entombed with the habit and cord of the Friars Minor ⁿ in their church at Paris.

[72] But in the same year his sacred body was translated, then he is translated to Apt, where he shines with miracles. and carried to the city of Apt, and there honourably delivered to burial in the church of the Friars Minor, as he had chosen beforehand while yet he lived ^o; where it shines continually with great and frequent miracles, that the sublimity of his sanctity, which, while he lived in mortal flesh, had been kept in secret and had not yet fully become known to the world, might afterwards be proved from heaven by miracles of the divine power. Whence by his invocation and merits, by the divine power, the dead have been raised, the blind enlightened, the contracted delivered, and very many sick wonderfully restored beyond the order of nature to their former health [p]. And at last, by his visibly and wonderfully appearing and revealing, the kingdom of Majorca, which was disturbed by an untimely war, was, according to his promise, quieted in a wonderful manner without shedding of blood [q].

ANNOTATA.

p. Some of these miracles I have reported in the aforesaid Commentary, § XI, and some also from the Bull of canonization at num. 208.

q. These things are taken from the petition which, as I have often said, was written by Franciscus Mayronius in the year 1327 for requesting St. Elzéar's canonization. Hence I suspect that there is here treatment of that war of which Jerónimo Zurita, in the Indexes of the deeds of the kings of Aragon, book 2, at the year of Christ 1324, thus makes mention: On the second of the Nones of September, at Formiguera, a town of Cerdagne, dies Sanchez, king of the Balearics. Since that kingdom was coveted by the king (James II of Aragon), because Sanchez had had no children by his wife queen Maria, who was the sister of king Robert (of Naples and Sicily), Alfonso, the king's son, sending in an army, seizes by force the dominion of Roussillon and of Cerdagne. But by the striving and entreaty of Philip, brother of Sanchez, who had met the king at Saragossa, the king desists from his purpose, and yields to the boy James, son of Ferdinand, brother of Sanchez, by right of agnation, the kingdom of the Balearics and the other dominions attributed to him, the supreme power being reserved. Thus far there; but of St. Elzéar's apparition, asserted by Mayronius and by the biographer, I have read nothing further anywhere else.

read vocaretur*

or malo*

umquam*

that is, esse*