May V

St. Pius V., Pope, C.

The two original most authentic lives of St. Pius V. are that written by Jerom Catena, secretary to the Cardinal of Alexandria, and consultor to several congregations in Rome, In Italian, highly approved by Sextus V., the other in Latin, by Ant. Gabutio, superior of the Regular Clerks of St. Paul, much commended by Clement VIII. The titles of these two works are, Hieron. Catena Vita del gloriosissimo Papa Pio V., and Raccolta di Littere di Papa Pio V. Gabutii de Vitâ Pii V. libri 6. Bzovius in his annals on Pius V adds to this latter several particulars. See his Pius V., also Archangelo Caraccio, Brevis Narratio Gestorum Pii V. Minorelli, Ord. Prædic. Vita S. Pii V. Romæ. 1712. Apostolicarum Pii Quinti Epistolaruin libri 5, operâ Fr. Gaubau. Ant. 1649. Paul. Alex. Maffei, Vita di Pio V. Feuillet, Vie du Pape Pie V. Galesini Translatio Corporis Pii V. a Sixto V. celebrata. Agatio di Somma, whose Italian life of this saint was translated into French by Dom. Felibien in 1672. Touron, b. 28, t. 4, p. 306, and the remarks of Henschenius, ad 5 Maij, t. 1, p. 617.

A. D. 1572.

Michael Ghisleri, known afterwards by the name of Pius V., was born at Bosco, a little town in the diocese of Tortona, on the 27th of January, 1504. He was descended of a noble Bolognese family, but considerably reduced in its splendor and fortunes. In his tender years the most perfect maxims of piety were instilled into him, and he never swerved in the least from those principles during the whole course of his life. He studied grammar under the care of the Dominican friars at Voghera; and giving himself up entirely to the most fervent exercises of religion, took the habit of that order when he was only fifteen years of age. He was sensible that faint and languishing endeavors never deserve to find the inestimable treasure of true virtue, which they undervalue; they are sure to lose ground, and at length to yield under the repeated assaults of the enemy: whereas fervor breaks down all obstacles in the pursuit of perfection, as so many shadows, and courageously marches on, reckoning all labors the sweetest pleasures, and esteeming as nothing whatever leads not to this great end. It was the young novice’s holy ambition to surpass all others in humility, modesty, and the exercises of mortification, obedience, and devotion. In every thing he did, he set no bounds to the ardor of his desires to please God, and accomplish his holy will in the most perfect manner. Thus all his actions were perfect sacrifices of his heart, and the meanest were enhanced by the fervor of his intention. To his studies he joined assiduous prayer, watching, fasting, and the exercises of penance and charity. After the uninterrupted fatigue of the day, it was his sweet refreshment to pour forth his soul in tears and devout prayer or meditation, for several hours before the altar, or in his cell. Having prepared himself by a long and fervent retreat, he was ordained priest, at Genoa, in 1528. He taught philosophy and divinity sixteen years, and was long employed in instructing the novices, and in forming them to piety, and in governing different houses of his order: in all which offices he labored effectually to revive the spirit of its holy founder. He never accepted of any priory but by compulsion, and with tears. No one would he ever allow to absent himself from the choir, or to go out of the convent without some urgent necessity. Constant devotion and study he called the double breast from which religious persons draw a spiritual nourishment, which maintains in them the love of God and contempt of the world. Though he went often to Milan to hear the confession of the marquis of Guast, governor of the Milanese, he could never be persuaded to buy a cloak to defend him from the rain, saying: “Poor followers of the gospel ought to be content with one tunic.” His journey he performed on foot, in recollection and strict silence, unless he opened his mouth to speak to his companion something on God. Pope Paul IV., in 1556, promoted him to the united bishoprics of Nepi and Sutri, in the ecclesiastical state, notwithstanding the tears he shed in endeavoring most earnestly to decline that dignity. Under his care these dioceses soon assumed a new face. In 1557, he was created cardinal by the same pope, under the title of St. Mary upon the Minerva, though generally known by that of the Alexandrian cardinal, from Alexandria, a city in Lombardy, a few miles distant from the place of his birth. His dignities served to render his humility and other virtues more conspicuous, but produced no alteration in his furniture, table, fasts, or devotions. He was most scrupulously cautious in the choice of his few necessary domestics, admitting none but persons of most exemplary piety, and he treated them as his children rather than as his servants. Pope Paul IV. dying in 1559, he was succeeded by Pius IV., of the family of Medicis, who translated our good cardinal to the bishopric of Mondovi, in Piedmont, a church reduced by the wars to a deplorable and calamitous condition. The saint hastened to his new flock; and by his zealous exhortations and other endeavors, re-established peace and union, reformed abuses, and restored the splendor of that, church. But an order of his holiness recalled him to Rome for the dispatch of certain public affairs of the church. When Pius IV. proposed to the sacred college the promotion of prince Ferdinand of Medicis, only thirteen years old, to the dignity of cardinal, our saint opposed the motion with such vigor, that he made himself admired by the whole consistory for his zeal and prudence. The emperor Maximilian II. wrote to pope Pius IV. to desire that priests might be allowed to marry, as a means that might facilitate the return of the modern sectaries to the communion of the church. The whole sacred college saw the inconveniences of such an abolition of the most holy and ancient canons; but none spoke more vigorously against it than our saint. Though charity will allow all condescension that is possible, here it seemed very unseasonable, on many accounts, to abandon so sacred a spiritual law; and this in favor of men who had shown no disposition towards a reconciliation with the Catholic church, except she would give up many other points, not only of discipline, but also of her faith and doctrine.

Pope Pius IV., after a tedious illness, expired in the arms of St. Charles Borromeus, on the 9th of December, 1565, having filled the chair almost six years. St. Charles, when he saw that the pious cardinal Sirlet, who was first proposed, could not be chosen, united the suffrages of the conclave in favor of our saint, testifying an entire confidence in his virtue. All others applauded the choice, except the pope elect; who, having in vain opposed it by tears and entreaties, at length, for fear of resisting the call of God, gave his consent, on the 7th of January, 1566, and took the name of Pius. The largesses usually bestowed by the popes, at their coronation, on the people of Rome, he converted into alms, to avoid the disorders of intemperance, &c., to which they are liable. He accordingly directed the sums usually expended on such occasions, to be distributed among the poor in the hospitals and elsewhere. He, in like manner, sent to the poorer convents in the city the thousand crowns usually employed in an entertainment for the cardinals, ambassadors, and lords who assisted at the ceremony. His first care was to regulate his family in such a manner, that it might be a model of virtue, and he induced the cardinals to do the like in their respective houses. He forbade the public exhibition of the sights of wild beasts, as savoring too much of inhumanity; and published very severe regulations against excesses in taverns, and against detraction committed in public assemblies, and re-established a strict observance and execution of the laws. By rigorous edicts, he banished numbers of lewd women under pain of corporal punishment, if found afterwards within the city: others he confined to an obscure part of Rome, under the same penalty if they were seen elsewhere. He said mass every day, (and usually with tears,) unless hindered by sickness; he made daily two meditations on his knees before a crucifix, and called prayer the comfort and support of a pastor amidst the hurry of affairs. His tenderness for the poor and his charities are not to be expressed: but nothing appeared more admirable in him than his sincere and profound humility. An English Protestant gentleman was converted, by seeing the condescension and affection with which he kissed the ulcers of the feet of a certain poor man. His rigorous fasts and abstemiousness he would scarce ever mitigate, even on account of sickness. He published the catechism, and the decrees of the council of Trent, which he labored strenuously to carry into immediate execution; and made many other useful regulations, extending his solicitude to every part of Christendom, particularly the eastern missions.

He generously assisted the knights of Malta, when they were besieged by the most formidable armies of the Turks, and by his liberalities enabled them to repair their breaches after their victories, and to build the new impregnable city of Valette, in 1566.* The rebellion raised in France under Charles IX. obliged him to exert his vigilance in protecting the city and territory of Avignon against the stratagems of Coligny. He purged the ecclesiastical state of assassins and robbers, but rejected the perfidious proposal of one who offered to invite the chief captain of the robbers to dinner, and then to deliver him up. His severity, which was necessary for the public tranquillity, did not make him forget that mercy, wherever it can be allowed to take place, is to be the favorite inclination of a disciple of Christ. A certain Spaniard had composed a bitter and seditious pasquinade, filled with notorious slanders against his holiness, for which the magistrate had confiscated his estate, and condemned him to death: but the pope granted him a free pardon, with this mild request, that when he should see him fall into any fault, he would admonish him of it. By a bull dated the 1st of October, 1567, he condemned several erroneous propositions ascribed to Michael Baius of Lovain, some of which that doctor denied to have been advanced by him, others he with great humility retracted. To recompense the zeal of Cosmus of Medicis, duke of Florence, he granted him by a bull the title of grand duke, and crowned him as such at Rome in 1569, though the emperor refused for some time to acknowledge that new title. By a great number of wise regulations he endeavored to extirpate various scandals and abuses: in a brief, by which he strongly enforces the canons relating to the respect due to holy places, among other things, he forbids any either to give or ask an alms in churches, but only at the doors; which is commanded by several councils, to prevent an occasion of distractions and an abuse contrary to the silence and respect due to the house of prayer. Certain privileges granted to particular confraternities, seem to have given occasion in some places to too great a neglect of these wholesome and necessary canons.

Notwithstanding his attention to the public affairs, the good pope did not forget that the exercises of an interior life are the means by which our souls must maintain and improve the spirit of holy charity, and by it sanctify our exterior actions. Prayer and holy meditation were his delight; for he well knew that the fire of charity will soon be extinguished in the heart unless it be continually nourished by new fuel. St. Pius joined to prayer assiduous mortification, and large alms. He often visited the hospitals, washed the feet of the poor, kissed their ulcers, comforted them in their sufferings, and disposed them for a Christian death. He gave twenty thousand crowns of gold to the hospital of the Holy Ghost, and great and frequent charities to other hospitals; he founded a distribution of dowries for the marriage of poor women, and made many most useful pious foundations to perpetuate the honor of God and the salvation of souls, particularly for the instruction of youth in the Christian doctrine, which he earnestly recommended to all pastors by an express bull, in 1571. In the time of a great famine in Rome, he imported corn at his own expense from Sicily and France, to the value of above one hundred thousand gold crowns; a considerable part of which he distributed among the poor, gratis, and sold the rest to the public much under prime cost. Frugal in all things that regarded himself, he was enabled by his good economy to make many useful foundations for promoting virtue and religion, and to relieve the distressed by incredible general alms-deeds and public benefactions, exclusively of the large daily demands which particular charities made upon him. He was a great encourager of learning and learned men; and to him the schools are indebted for the most accurate edition of the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, which appeared in 1570. He wrote to queen Mary Stuart, in 1570, to comfort her during her long imprisonment suffered for religion.

Selimus II., emperor of the Turks, pursuing the ambitious and boundless designs of his father Solyman, proposed nothing less to himself than to overrun all Christendom with his arms, and to add all the western kingdoms to his empire. Though he was himself an effeminate tyrant, enervated by drunkenness and debaucheries, he was long successful in his wars, by the conduct of veteran soldiers and experienced generals who had been trained up by his warlike father. Flushed with victories and elated with pride, when Italy was afflicted with a famine, and the great arsenal of Venice had been lately almost entirely destroyed by a dreadful fire, he haughtily demanded of that republic the peaceable surrender of the isle of Cyprus, by way of satisfaction for pretended injuries; though in reality for the sake of its excellent wine, with which liquor he was extremely besotted, though forbidden by the Koran, threatening that in case of refusal he would force it from them. Having all things in readiness beforehand, the infidels immediately invaded the island, took Nicosia by storm, in 1570, after a siege of forty-eight days, and in 1571, Famagusta by capitulation, after having battered that city with above 1,500,000 cannon shot, during a siege of seventy-five days. Notwithstanding the articles of an honorable capitulation had been ratified by the most solemn oaths, the Bashaw Mustapha, by an unheard-of treacherous perfidy, put to most cruel deaths all the brave Venetian officers of the place; and caused the valiant Venetian governor Brigadin after cutting off his ears and nose, with a thousand insults, blasphemies, and torments continued or repeated for many days, to be flayed alive in the market-place: all which he suffered with admirable patience, and in great sentiments of piety, expiring when his skin was torn off to his waist. Alarmed at the danger which threatened all Christendom, St. Pius entered into a league with Philip II., king of Spain, and the Venetians, in order to check the progress of the Mahometans; the other Christian princes excusing themselves from acceding to it, on account of domestic broils. This alliance was ratified in May, 1571; and to avoid occasions of dissension among the princes that were engaged, the pope was declared chief of the league and expedition, who appointed Mark Antony Colonna general of his galleys, and Don John of Austria generalissimo of all the forces. The army consisted of twenty thousand good soldiers, besides seamen; and the fleet of one hundred and one great galleys, some tall ships, and a considerable number of galliots and small vessels. The pope, together with his apostolic benediction, sent to the general a prediction of certain victory, with an order to disband all soldiers who seemed to go only for the sake of plunder, and all scandalous and riotous persons, whose crimes might draw down the divine indignation upon their arms.

The Christians sailed directly from Corfu. and found the Turkish fleet at anchor in the harbor of Lepanto. As soon as the Turks saw the Christian fleet so near, they reinforced their troops from the land, and sailed out in order of battle. Don John kept the centre, and had for seconds Colonna and the Venetian general Venieri: Andrew Doria commanded the right wing, and Austin Barbarigo the left. Peter Justiniani, who commanded the galleys of Malta, and Paul Jourdain, were posted at the extremities of this line. The marquis of Sainte Croix had a body of reserve of sixty vessels ready to sustain or relieve any part in danger of being overpowered. John of Cordova, with a squadron of eight vessels, scoured before, to spy and give intelligence; and six Venetian galeasses formed an avant-guard to the fleet. A little after sunrise the Turkish fleet, consisting of three hundred and thirty sail of all sorts, appeared in sight, almost in the same order of battle, only, according to their custom, in form of a crescent. They had no squadron of reserve, and therefore their line being much wider, they far outfronted the Christians, which is a great advantage in battle. Hali was in the centre, facing Don John of Austria; Petauch was his second; Louchali and Siroch commanded the two wings, against Doria and Barbarigo Don John gave the signal of battle, by hanging out the banner sent him from the pope, on which the image of Christ crucified was embroidered. The Christian generals harangued their soldiers in few words, then made a sign for prayers; at which the soldiers fell on their knees before a crucifix, and continued in that posture in fervent prayer till the fleets drew near to each other, when at a second signal the battle began. The Turks bore down with great rapidity on the Christians, being assisted by a brisk gale of wind, which promised them the greatest advantage possible, especially as they were superior in numbers, and in the extent of their front. But the wind, which before was very strong, fell just as the fight began, was succeeded by a calm, and this soon after by a high wind, entirely favorable to the Christians; which carried the smoke and fire of their artillery upon the enemy, almost blinded them, and at length quite bore them down. The battle was most obstinate and bloody, and the victory the most complete that ever was gained over the Ottoman empire. After three hours’ fight, with equal advantage, the left wing, commanded by Barbarigo, got the better, and sunk the galley which Siroch was in, who had fought to admiration. His loss so dispirited his squadron, that, being vigorously pressed by the Venetians, it gave way, and made towards the coast. Don John, seeing this advantage of his right wing, was animated with new courage, doubled his fire, and killed Hali, the Turkish general, boarded his galley, pulled down his flag, and cried, Victory: after which it was no longer a fight, but a perfect slaughter in the centre; the Turks suffering themselves to be killed without making any resistance. Louchali, indeed, by his numbers and wider front, kept Doria and the right wing at a distance, till the marruis of Sainte Croix coming up to join him, the Turk made all the sail he could, and escaped by flight, with thirty galleys, all the rest being either taken or sunk.¹ This battle was fought on the 7th of October, 1571, and continued from about six in the morning till evening, when the approaching darkness and the roughness of the sea obliged the Christians to betake themselves to the next havens. The Turks, with their haughty emperor, were seized with the utmost consternation at the news, of their dreadful overthrow: and the city of Constantinople was as much alarmed as if the enemy had been at the gates: many of the inhabitants carried their treasures to the Christians to keep for them, as if the town had been already in their hands. The infidels, who, elated by their rapid conquests in the East had already swallowed up, in their imagination, Italy, and all the rest of Christendom, were taught by this defeat that the tide of their victories was stemmed. God, who has set bounds to the raging billows of the sea, and who weighs in his hand the globe of the universe as a gram of sand, fixes limits to states and empires, and governs their revolutions. By abandoning many flourishing nations to the infidels, he has given a terrible instance of his justice, by which he admonishes others whom he has hitherto spared, though perhaps more guilty, to fear his anger, and by sincere repentance to sue for mercy, while it is yet offered them. It is owing to his clemency towards the remaining part of Christendom, that he bridled the fury of these most fierce and barbarous infidels, in the very height of their pride and prosperity. From that time the Turks* have gradually weakened themselves by their own domestic policy, and have at present reason to dread the arms of those Christian powers, to whom their very name was formerly a terror. In the battle at Lepanto, the infidels lost thirty thousand men, with their general, Hali, and above two hundred ships and galleys, besides ninety that were stranded, burnt, or sunk. There were taken one hundred and sixteen pieces of great cannon, two hundred and fifty-six smaller, and five thousand prisoners, with a great number of officers of rank, among whom were two sons of Hali, nephews to the grand signior. The booty was exceedingly great; for the Turkish fleet was laden with the plunder of many merchantmen, and of several islands: fifteen thousand slaves, that were found chained on board their galleys, were set at liberty.

The holy pope, from the beginning of the expedition, had ordered public prayers and fasts, and had not ceased to solicit heaven, with uplifted hands, like Moses on the mountain, besides afflicting his body by watching and fasting. At the hour of the battle, the procession of the Rosary, in the church at the Minerva, was pouring orth solemn prayers for the victory. The pope was then conversing with some cardinals on business: but, on a sudden, left them abruptly, opened the window, stood some time with his eyes fixed on the heavens, and then shutting the casement, said: “It is not now a time to talk any more upon business; but to give thanks to God for the victory he has granted to the arms of the Christians.” This fact was carefully attested, and authentically recorded both at that time, and again in the process for the saint’s canonization.² In consequence of this miraculous victory, the pope ordered the festival of the Rosary to be kept on the first Sunday of October, in perpetual thanksgiving to God, and in the litany of our Lady inserted those words: succor of Christians. He caused a triumph to be decreed Don John, which was graced with many illustrious prisoners; and he bestowed honors and gratifications on other generals and officers. The year following he was preparing to pursue the advantage gained by this great victory, when he died of the stone, on the 1st of May, 1572, being sixty-eight years, three months, and fifteen days old, having governed the church six years and almost four months. He had suffered, from January, the sharpest pains with heroic patience. He was beatified by Clement X., in 1672, and canonized by Clement XI., in 1712. His precious remains lie in the church of St. Mary Major. Many miracles are recorded by Gabutius. Henschenius has added a relation of many others approved by the auditors of the Rota under Urban VIII., in 1629.³

The greatest danger in a public elevated station is, as St. Bernard pathetically put his disciple, whom he saw raised to the popedom, in mind of lest, in the hurry of external concerns, we should forget to give sufficient attention to those of our own souls, and lose ourselves in the wilderness or tumult of distracting thoughts and employments. But those who have their whole time at their own disposal, yet have their eyes always abroad, and live, as it were, without themselves, are truly foolish. Every one’s first and principal business is included within himself, in his own heart. It is so deep, that we shall always find in it exercise enough, and shall never be able to sound it: only He, who tries the thoughts and reins, can thoroughly know it. What have we to do to concern ourselves with the wars of states. and the quarrels of private persons? But it is infinitely both our duty and our interest to take cognizance of the contests between the flesh and the spirit within our own breasts: to appease this intestine war, by teaching the flesh to be in subjection, placing reason on its throne, and making God reign sovereignly in our hearts. It is not so slight a task as men generally seem to imagine, to keep our domestic kingdom in good order, and to govern wisely and holily those numerous people which are contained in this little state, that is to say, that multitude of affections, thoughts, opinions, and passions, which easily raise tumults in our hearts. Those who are charged with the care of others, are obliged to reserve to themselves leisure for pious meditation, prayer, and self-examination, and diligently to watch over their own souls. He who is bad to himself, to whom will he be good?⁴

St. Hilary, Archbishop of Arles, C.

From his life, by a contemporary bishop of his province, who had been his disciple. Ceillier shows this author to have been St. Honoratus, bishop of Marseilles. See Rivet, Hist. Littér. de la France, t. 2, p. 209.

A. D. 449.

This saint was nobly born about the year 401, and was related to St. Honoratus of Arles, and of the same country in Gaul, which was probably Lorraine, or some other part of Austrasia. He was brought up in a manner suitable to his birth, in the study of the liberal arts, and of every branch of polite learning, especially of eloquence and philosophy. But how little value we ought to set on all things that appear great in the eyes of the world, he himself has taught us. “We are all equal,” says he, “in Jesus Christ; and the highest degree of our nobility is to be of the number of the true servants of God. Neither science, nor birth, according to this world, can exalt us, but in proportion to our contempt of them.” Before God had put these sentiments into his heart, he seems to have been not altogether insensible to the advantages of this world, in which he was raised to the highest dignities. His kinsman, St. Honoratus, who had forsaken his country to seek Christ in the solitude of the isle of Lerins, where he had founded a great monastery, was the instrument made use of by the Almighty to open his eyes. This holy man had always loved Hilary, and thought he could not give him more solid proof of his friendship than by endeavoring to gain him entirely to God. He therefore left his retirement for a few days to seek him out, and endeavored to move him by the same powerful, weighty reflections, which had made the deepest impression on his own mind, and induced him to break the chains of the world. “What floods of tears,” says St. Hilary, “did this true friend shed to soften the hardness of my heart! How often did he embrace me with the most tender and compassionate affection, to obtain of me that I would take into serious consideration the salvation of my soul! Yet, by an unhappy victory, I still remained conqueror.” Honoratus, finding his endeavors to wean him from the charms of a deceitful world ineffectual, had recourse to prayer, his ordinary refuge. “Well,” said he to Hilary, “I will obtain of God, what you will not now grant me.” Upon which they took leave of each other. Hilary, reflecting on what Honoratus had said to him, was not long before he began to feel a violent conflict within himself. “On one side,” says he, “methought I saw the Lord calling me; on the other the world offering me its seducing charms and pleasures. How often did I embrace and reject, will and not will the same thing! But in the end Jesus Christ triumphed in me. And three days after Honoratus had left me, the mercy of God, solicited by his prayers, subdued my rebellious soul.” He then went in person to seek St. Honoratus, and appeared before him as humble and tractable as the saint had left him haughty and indocile.

From this moment there appeared in Hilary that wonderful change which the Holy Ghost produces in a soul which he truly converts. His words, looks, and whole comportment breathed nothing but humility, patience, sweetness, mortification, and charity. Every one saw in him a man who began to labor in earnest to save his soul, and who had put his hand to the plough to look no more behind him, or to send a single thought after what he had left for Christ’s sake. Aspiring to perfection, he sold all his several estates to his brother, and distributed all the money accruing from the sale among the poor, and the most indigent monasteries. Thus disengaged from the world, and naked, no less in the inward disposition of soul than in his exterior, he, like Abraham, took leave of his own country, and made the best of his way to Lerins; where from his first entrance he made it appear that he was worthy to live in the company of saints. He set out in the pursuit of monastic perfection with such zeal and ferver, as to become in a short time the pattern of those on whose instructions and example he came to form his own conduct. His application to prayer and mortification, and his watchfulness and care to avoid the smallest faults and imperfections, prepared him to receive the gift of tears. It is thought that his baptism was posterior to his retirement. St. Honoratus having been chosen archbishop of Aries, in 426, Hilary followed him to that city; but it was not long before his love of solitude occasioned his return co Lerins. All the holy inhabitants of that isle testified as great joy to receive him again, as he felt to see himself among them. But. God, who had other designs upon him, did not permit him to enjoy long his beloved retirement. St. Honoratus begged his assistance, and the comfort of his company, and as he did not yield to entreaties, went himself to fetch him from Lerins. Soon after God called St. Honoratus to himself, his death happening in 428 or 429. Hilary, though sensibly afflicted for the loss of such a friend, rejoiced however to see himself at liberty, and set out directly for Lerins. But no sooner were the citizens apprized of his departure;, than messengers posted after him with such expedition, that he was overtaken, brought back, and consecrated archbishop, though only twenty-nine years of age.

In this high station the virtues which he had acquired in solitude shone with lustre to mankind. The higher he was exalted by his dignity, the more did he humble himself beneath all others in his heart. He reduced himself in every thing to the strictest bounds of necessity: and he had only one coat for winter and summer. He applied himself diligently to meditation on the holy scriptures, and preaching the word of God, was assiduous in prayer, watching, and fasting. He had his hours also for manual labor, with a view of gaining something for the poor; choosing such work as he could join with reading or prayer. He travelled always on foot, and had attained to so perfect an evenness of temper, that his mind seemed never ruffled with the least emotion of anger. He had an admirable talent in preaching. When he spoke before the learned of the world, his elocution, his accent, his discourse, his action, were such as the greatest orators justly admired, but despaired ever to come up to. Yet when he instructed the illiterate, he changed his manner of address, and proportioned his instructions to the capacities of the most simple and ignorant, though always supporting the dignity of the divine word by a manner and __EXPRESSION__ suitable to its majesty. He preached the truth in its purity, without flattering the great. He had often in private admonished a certain judge in the province of a criminal partiality in the administration of justice, but without effect. One day the magistrate came into the church, attended by his officers, while the saint was preaching. The holy bishop broke off his sermon on the spot, and gave his surprised audience for reason, that he who had so often neglected the advice he had given him for his salvation, was not worthy to partake of the nourishment of the divine word. The judge no sooner heard his reflection, but withdrew in confusion, and the saint resumed his discourse. Observing one day that many went out of the church immediately after the reading of the gospel, just as he was going to preach, he prevailed with them to return, by saying: “You will not so easily get out of hell, if you are once unhappily fallen into its dungeons.” He had such a love for the poor, that to have the more to bestow on them, he lived himself in the greatest poverty: he never kept a horse, and labored hard in digging and manuring the ground, though educated according to the dignity of his family. To redeem captives he caused the church plate to be sold, not excepting the sacred vessels; making use of patens and chalices of glass in the celebration of the divine mysteries. If his compassion for the corporal miseries of the faithful was so tender, we may judge how much more he was moved to pity at their spiritual necessities. He bore the weak with tenderness, but never indulged the passions or sloth of any. When he put any one in a course of penance he was himself bathed in tears; whereby he both excited the penitent to the like, and with ardent sighs and prayer obtained for him of God the grace of compunction and pardon. He visited the bishops of his province, and endeavored to make them walk in the perfect spirit of Christ, the prince of pastors. He established many monasteries, and took particular care to enforce a strict observance of monastic discipline among them. He had a close friendship with St. Germanus, whom he called his father, and respected as an apostle. He presided in the council of Ries in 439, in the first council of Orange in 441, in the council of Vaison in 442, and probably in 443, in the second council of Arles, in all which several canons of discipline were framed.

His zeal exasperated several repid persons; and some of these, by misconstruing his actions, gave the holy pope St. Leo a disadvantageous character of him. His zeal, indeed, had been on some occasions too hasty and precipitate: but this was owing in him to mistake, not to passion; for the circumstances of his actions, and of his eminent piety, oblige us to interpret his intention by the same spirit by which he governed himself in his whole conduct. This disagreement between St. Leo and St. Hilary proved a trial for the exercise of zeal in the former, and of patience in the latter, for his greater sanctification by humility, submission, and silence. Chelidonius, bishop of Besançon, had been deposed by St. Hilary upon an allegation, that, before he was consecrated bishop, he had married a widow, and had condemned persons to death as magistrate; both which were looked upon as irregularities or disqualifications for holy orders. Chelidonius hereupon set out for Rome, to justify himself to the pope, St. Leo, who received his appeal from his metropolitan, and acquitted him of the irregularity with which he stood charged. St. Hilary, upon hearing that his suffragan was gone for Rome, followed him thither on foot, and in the midst of winter. The pope having assembled a council to judge this affair, St. Hilary took his seat among the other bishops that composed it: but from his not attempting to prove the irregularity which had been alleged against Chelidonius, the saint seemed to own that he had been imposed on as to the matter of fact. But he pretended, that the cause ought not to be judged otherwise than by commissaries deputed by the pope to take cognizance of it in the country that gave it birth, a point for which some Africans had contended. This plea was overruled, the contrary having been frequently practised, when both parties could appear at Rome: though the manner of judging appeals is only a point of discipline, which may vary in different places. Another affair brought St. Hilary into a greater difficulty. Projectus, a bishop of his province, being sick, St. Hilary, upon information, hastened to his see, and ordained a new bishop: after which Projectus recovering, there were two bishops contending for the same see, and Hilary supported the last ordained; perhaps because the first might remain disabled for his functions. The author of St. Hilary’s life does not clear up his conduct in this particular: but we cannot doubt of the sincerity of his intention. Moreover the discipline of the church in such matters was not at that time so clearly settled by the canons as it has been since. St. Hilary therefore imagined a metropolitan might have a discretionary power in such matters. However St. Leo rightly judged such an ordination irregular fable to great inconveniences, and productive of schisms. Wherefore he forbade St. Hilary to ordain any bishops for the future. Our holy prelate cancelled his mistakes by his patience, and St. Leo, writing immediately after the saint’s death, to his successor Ravennus, calls him, Hilary of holy memory.¹ Exhausted by austerities and labors, St. Hilary passed to a better life on the 5th of May, 449, being only forty-eight years old. St. Honoratus, the eloquent bishop of Marseilles,* who has given us an abstract of his life, relates several miraculous cures wrought by the saint while he was living. His body lies in a subterraneous chapel, under the high altar, in the church of St. Honoratus at Arles, with an elegant ancient epitaph. The name of St. Hilary stands in the Roman Martyrology.

That this saint never gave in to the Semi-Pelagian doctrine, though it had not been then condemned by any decree of the pastors of the church, is clearly shown by Tillemont² and Dom. Rivet.³ This is proved from several passages in his life by St. Honoratus; and in the Martyrologies of Rabanus and Notker it is mentioned that he vigorously exerted his zeal in bringing to light and in correcting the Pelagian heresy, which is taught in the conferences of Cassian.^† His exposition of the creed, commended by the ancients, is now lost: his homilies on all the feasts of the year were much esteemed, but are not known at present. The best edition of his works is given by John Salinas, regular canon of St. John Lateran, in Italy, in 1731

St. Angelus, Carmelite Friar, M.

He was of Jewish parents, and a native of Jerusalem. Being converted to the faith, he embraced the austere life of certain anchorets on the banks of the Jordan; from whom he passed to the hermits of the desert on mount Carmel. He seems to have been one among them at the time when the blessed Albert drew up a rule for them in 1206: at least he became one of the first friars of that holy order. Coming to preach in the West, he was massacred by the heretics at Licate or Leocata, in Sicily, in 1225, by the contrivance of a powerful rich man, whose incest with a sister he had severely reproved, and had converted her from that scandalous life. The annals of the order furnish the most material circumstances of his glorious death, and the account of his miracles. See Papebroke the Bollandist, t. 2, Maij. p. 56, who sets no great value on any of the three different acts or relations of his martyrdom, but gives long accounts of miracles performed since his death, and of the great veneration which is paid to him in Sicily, especially at Leocata and at Palermo. See also on St. Angelus, the new Bibliotheca Carmelitana, printed at Orleans, in 1752, t. l, p. 113.

St. Mauront, Abbot

He was born in the year 634, and was baptized by St. Riquier. Being the eldest son of blessed Adalbald, an illustrious French nobleman of royal blood, and of St. Rictrudes, of a most noble family in Gascony or Aquitaine, his high birth promised him the first honors of the kingdom, and his capacity and integrity made him superior to the greatest affairs. He passed his youth in the court of king Clovis II. and the holy queen Bathildes, and discharged in it many honorable employs. On the death of his father he became lord or duke of Douay, and succeeded to his other large estates, came home into Flanders to settle his concerns and to marry a rich young lady, a treaty having been already concluded for this purpose. But God designed him for a state of greater perfection; and his instrument for bringing this about was St. Amand, bishop of Maestricht, who then led a retired life in his monastery of Elnone. Mauront was so touched by a discourse of this holy prelate on the vanity and dangers of the world, that he went directly to the monastery of Marchiennes, founded by his mother. There he soon received the clerical tonsure from St. Amand, and after some years was made deacon and prior of Hemaye, or Hamaige, half a league from Marchiennes, on the Scarp. He built himself a new monastery called Breüil, on his estate of Merville, a considerable town near St. Venant, in the diocese of Teroüanne, and when it was finished, was chosen the first abbot. His father Adalbald had two brothers, Sigefrid, count of Ponthieu, and Archenald Mayor of the Palace to Clovis II., son to Dagobert, to whom they were related. After the death of Adalbald, whom the poet who celebrated St. Rictrudes, styles duke of the people of Douay,* his brother Archenald rebuit, the castle of Douay, (which gave rise to the town,) and founded the church of our Lady, now called St. Amatus’s.¹ St. Amatus, on being banished by king Theodoric III., was committed to the care of Mauront, who profited exceedingly by the saintly conversations of that holy confessor: whom he so much respected that he resigned to him his abbacy, and lived under his obedience, but was obliged to resume his charge upon the death of that holy bishop, in 690. He was also abbot of the monks at Marchiennes, while his sister Clotsenda was abbess of the separate house of nuns, this being at that time a double monastery. St. Mauront died there in the seventy-second year of his age, of Christ 706, on the 5th of May, on which day he is commemorated in the Belgic Martyrologies. Merville, the ancient Minariacum of Antoninus, having been plundered by the Danes or Normans, towards the end of the ninth century, Charles the Simple, king of France, transferred the community of monks from Breüil to our Lady’s church at Douay, which had been founded by Archenald, St. Mauront’s uncle. At the same time the body of St. Mauront, with that of St. Amatus, was translated from Breüil to Douay, and both are there enshrined in the church of St. Amatus, which, since the secularization of the monastery in 940, is a collegiate church of canons. In its archives, and in the ancient calendars of the cathedral of Arras, St. Martin’s at Tournay, Liesse, &c., St. Mauront is styled sometimes Levite or deacon, and sometimes abbot: by which he seems never to have been ordained priest. His body is kept in a rich shrine in this church, in which is a chapel sacred to his name and his parents, where his statue is seen betwixt those of his parents. He is represented holding in his right hand a sceptre, and in his left a building with a tower or belfry. The abbey of St. Guislin in Hainault possesses his skull in a shrine of silver gilt. The cathedral of Arras, and some churches, show particles of his relics.* On his life consult Huebald the monk, in his life of St. Rictrudes, the archives of the church of St. Amatus in Douay, copied by Buzelin in his accurate Gallo-Flandria, and Annales Flandrici, and by Henschenius, t. 2, Maij, p. 53. See also Miræus, Malbrancq, Locrius, Grammaye, Sylvius Baldricus, Le Cointe, an. 638, n. 97; Molanus, &c.

St. Avertin, C.

He was a holy deacon, who attended St. Thomas of Canterbury in his exile, and in all his troubles. After the martyrdom of that prelate, Avertin consecrated himself to the service of the poor and strangers at Vinzai, a village in Touraine, where he happily ended his course about 1189. See the new Martyrology of Evreux, that of Tours, &c., on the 5th of May.

Ma

* The knights of Malta, or of St. John of Jerusalem, were originally called knights-hospitallers, instituted by certain merchants of Amalphi, in the kingdom of Naples, who, trading in the Levant, obtained leave of the Caliph of the Saracens to build a house at Jerusalem, for themselves and pilgrims, on paying an annual tribute. Soon after, they founded a church in honor of St. John Baptist, with a hospital for sick pilgrims, from which they took their name. The valiant and most pious prince. Godfrey of Bouillon, who took Jerusalem, in 1099, exceedingly favored these hospitallers, who, in the reign of Baldwin I., king of Jerusalem, in 1104, added to their three religious vows another, by which they obliged themselves to defend the pilgrims in the Holy Land from the insults of the Saracens. From that time they became a military order of knights, and wore for their badge a cross, with eight points. In 1187, Saladin, the Caliph of Syria and Egypt, wrested Jerusalem, for the last time, from the Christians, after the kingdom of the Latins had maintained itself there eighty-nine years, under eight kings. The knights retired to Acon or Acre, anciently called Ptolemais, on the sea-coast in Palestine, till that strong fortress was taken by storm by the Saracens, in 1291. From which time they resided in Cyprus, till, in 1310, they gallantly took Rhodes from those infidels, and the year following defended it against their furious assaults, being relieved by the seasonable succors brought by the brave Amedeus IV., count of Savoy. The Turks having vanquished the Saracens, and embraced their superstition, and Mahomet II. having taken Constantinople by storm, in 1453, under Constantine Paleologus, the last Grecian emperor, these knights became more than ever the bulwark of Christendom. Under the conduct of the valiant grand master, Aubusson, in 1480, they bravely defended their isle for two months against the victorious army, of above one hundred thousand men, of Mahomet II., the greatest warrior of all the Turkish emperors, who conquered the two empires of Constantinople and Trebizonde, twelve kingdoms, and two hundred cities. But Solyman II., surnamed the Magnificent, after a gallant defence made by the knights, rendered himself master of this strong fortress by the treachery of the chancellor of the order, in 1522; and the grand master. Villiers l’Isle-Adam, after prodigies of valor, was obliged to seek a new retreat. The emperor Charles V. gave the knights the isle of Malta, in 1530. Solyman II., in 1566, bent the whole strength of his empire against this small island; but after a vigorous siege of four months his army was shamefully repulsed by the most memorable defence that is recorded in history, under the conduct of the grand master John de Valette, assisted by the munificence chiefly of pope Pins V. The Turks retreated with eighty thousand men, when the grand master had, only six thousand. The knights of this order are obliged to make proof of their being nobly descended for four generations, both by the father and mother’s side, and upon their admission pay two hundred and fifty crowns in gold to the treasury of the order. They make the three religious vows, consequently can never marry; and add a fourth, never to make peace with the infidels. They observe certain constitution borrowed from the rule of the regular canons of St. Austin. Formerly this order consisted of eight languages or nations; but the English, which was the sixth, was extinguished by king Henry VIII. Each language is divided into certain grand priories; and every grand priory into several commanderies. Servant-Knights prove their nobility; but not for four descents. The chaplains must also be of noble extraction. The Donnes or Demi-Crosses are not strictly members of the body: may marry, and wear a gold cross of three branches; those of the knights having four. The grand master is chosen by the priors. There are servants of the office who are employed in the hospitals. The chief end of this military order is to defend the innocent, and protect and cover Christendom from the insults of the Mahometans; in imitation of the Maccabees, who with the zeal of martyrs defended the people of God in the old law.

Raymund do Puy was the first grand master after they commenced knights. He drew up the statutes of the order, and died in 1160. Several saints which this order has produced are honored at Malta; on whom see Le Martyrologe des Chevaliers de Malte, par M. Goussancour, two tomes. And as to its many great heroes, and the glorious military exploits, achieved by them, read the history of Malta by Abbé Vertot, though in this he has not equalled the reputation of his other works, and has failed not only in the style, but also in sentiments and exactitude.

The knights of Malta are obliged, after their profession, to wear a white cross or star with eight points, sewed on the left side of their cloak or coat. But before their vows, they wear a gold cross, with eight points, enamelled with white, hanging at a black riband. The knights may defer their vows, and seldom make them till sure of a commandery. The languages of Malta now subsisting are called, of Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Aragon, Germany, and Castile. France alone having three languages, it is the most powerful in the order. In Spain other military religious orders flourish, us those of Alcantara and Calatrava, instituted upon the taking of those towns from the Moors; they are subject to the Cistercian rule, but the knights are not hindered by their vow from marrying once. In Portugal that of Avis is likewise under the Cistercian rule: it was re-established after the victory of Evora over the Moors, and confirmed by Innocent IV. in 1234.

The knights templars, of whom we sometimes make mention, were instituted by seven gentlemen at Jerusalem, in 1118, to defend the holy places and pilgrims from the insults of the Saracens, and keep the passes free for such as undertook the voyage of the Holy Land. They took their name from the first house which was given them by king Baldwin II., situated near the place where anciently the temple of Solomon stood. By the liberality of princes, immense riches suddenly flowed into this order, by which the knights were puffed up to a degree of insolence which rendered them insupportable even to the kings who had been their protectors; and Philip the Fair, king of France, resolved to compass their ruin. They were accused of treasons and conspiracies with the infidels, and of other enormous crimes, which occasioned the suppression of the order by a decree of pope Clement V. and the general council of Vienne, in 1312. The year following, the grand master, who was a Frenchman, was burnt at Paris, and several others suffered death, though they all with their last breath protested their innocence as to the crimes that were laid to their charge. These were certainly much exaggerated by their enemies, and doubtless many innocent men were involved with the guilty. A great part of their estates was given to the knights of Rhodes or Malta.

The Teutonic knights owe their establishment to certain German gentlemen from Bremen and Lubec, at the siege of Acon or Acre in Palestine, who instituted this order in imitation of the knights templars and hospitallers. It was approved by Calixtus II. in 1192. The Teutonic knights conquered, in 1250, the infidels of Prussia, whom the Polanders had not been able to subdue, and built the cities of Elbing, Marienbourg, Thorn, Dantzic, and Koniugsburg. The Poles disputed several of these territories with them. A length Albert, marquis of Brandenbourg, grand master, embracing Lutheranlsm with several of the knights quitted the title of grand master, and drove the order out of Prussia, which he left to the house of Branden bourg. From which time the order is reduced to a few poor commanderies, and the grand master resides at Margentheim or Mariendal in Franconia.

¹ See Gratiant’s History of Cyprus.

* The Turks derive their pedigree from a Scythian nation of Great Tartary, not from the Turcomans in Armenia and Assyria, nor from Turkistan, in Great Tartary, as some have fancied; though both those nations seem also of Scythlan extraction. The original country of the Turks, according to prince Cantemir, was Chuter or Kitala, that is, Great Tartary, in the provinces above the Caspian sea, which was as inexhausted a hive in sending out numberless swarms, as the European Scythia and Sarmatia. The Turci were anciently a most numerous and powerful nation, spread in European Scythia, now Monscovy, near the Volga, where, from the time of the emperor Mauritius, they are often mentioned by Constantiue Porphyrogeneta, (I. de regendo imperio, ad Romanum Filium: et I. de Legationibus.) and by other Byzintine historians. They were also dispersed wide in Asia, above the Caspian sea; and this was perhaps the original country of the Turci. whence some tribes had passed into Europe. M. de Guignes (Histoire Générale des Huns, des Turcs, &c. t. 3,) shows, that the Huns came originally from the eastern part of Tartary that borders upon China, and that by wars with the Chinese, and various domestic revolutions, they were driven by several migrations to the West, some to the Volga, others about the Caspian sea. They were afterwards called Turks. Among the Asiatic Turks, or Tartars, Gingischan, (which word, in the Mogul language, signifies king of kings,) a prince of the Ogusian Tartars, about the year 1200. conquered Mogul and Persia, and entirely overthrowing this last empire, erected upon its ruins a new one, comprising all the East, so far as was known to the Greeks. This great conqueror dying in 1224. one of his sons succeeded him in Persia, another in Mogul, and a third in part of Tartary; in other places, his governors made themselves independent. The Turks are descended of another branch of these Ogusian or Gingischan Tartars. The example of Gingischan excited Soliman Shah, prince of Nera, a city on the coast of the Caspian sea, and head of a wondering tribe of the same Tartars, to tread in his steps. With fifty thousand select soldiers, he passed Mount Caucasus, and, bending his course towards Asia, overran several countries in 1211; but was drowned in attempting to pass the Euphrates on horseback, in 1219. His sepulchre is shown near Aleppo, and held by the Turks in great veneration to this day. His sons often served with their forces under the Saracen sultans, who were then masters of the eastern parts of the Grecian empire: sometimes with them, and sometimes alone, they plundered the provinces of the Greeks, and about that time renounced idolatry to embrace Mahometism, the superstition of the Saracens. Othman, one of the descendants of Soliman Shah, rendered great services to Aladin, the Saracen sultan of Iconium, till that prince, compelled by intestine commotions, abandoned his dominions, and fled to the emperor Michael Palæologus, who kept him in perpetual Imprisonment. Upon this revolution, Othman easily obtained the sovereignty of Aladin’s country, and laid the foundation of the Turkish monarchy at Iconium, about the year 1300. He afterwards conquered Bithynia and took the city of Prusa, in 1326, where he fixed his residence. From him is the imperial Turkish family called Othmaus or Ottomans. Tamerlane, the founder of a great empire in Tartary, a generous and valiant prince, to defend the Grecian empire against the perpetual encroachments of the Turks, fell upon the latter, took their sultan Bajazet, and kept him prisoner in an Iron cage, having defeated him, not near Prusa, as the Greeks suppose, but near the banks of the Euphrates, as prince Cantemir proves, from the unanimous consent of all Turkish and other oriental monuments. Notwithstanding this check, the Turks extended their conquests over both the Saracens and Greeks, till Mahomet II. took Constantinople, in 1453, and Trebizond, in 1456. The Persians called both the Gingischan Scythians, by whom they were conquered, and these Othmans, by the same name—Turks; which name is given the latter by all foreigners. This account of the original of the Turkish nation is given us by prince Demetrius Cantemir, in his History of the Othman Empire, printed In 1743. It is drawn from the Turkish and oriental memoirs, and agrees with what is recorded by Chalcondylas, the only historian among the Greeks who deserves credit concerning the first transactions of this nation. Prince Cantemir observes, that the Turks own the Crim Tartars to be descended from the same Ogusian tribe, by a younger branch, to that of the Othmans; and the Turks have often declared that if the Othman family fail that of Crim Tartary is to succeed to their empire.

² See Card. Lambertini, afterwards Benedict XIV., de Beatif. and Canoniz. Sanctor t. 1, p. 524.

³ Bolland. t. 1, Maij. pp 714, 719.

⁴ Eccl. 14:5.

¹ Ep. 37, ad Ravenn. p. 256.

* This St. Honoratus of Marseilles, who was many years a disciple of St. Hilary of Arles, and was bishop of Marseilles from 483 to 494, is commended for his eloquence and piety by Gennadius, a priest of his church, in his catalogue of illustrious men, which he wrote in 494, for a continuation to that of St. Jerom. See the life of St. Honoratus of Marseilles in Dom. Rivet, Hist. Litter. t. 2, p. 644.

² T. 12, p. 480, t 15, p. 63.

³ Hist. Littér. t. 2, p. 274. See also Henschenlus, 5 Maij. p. 34.

^† The authority of Cassian drew many in the territory of Marseilles into the error of the Semipelagians, who denied the necessity of grace to the beginning of faith, or to the desire of a good work. Some have thought St. Hilary of Arles to have been of this number, because St. Prosper says that some of those adversaries of St. Austin had been lately raised to the episcopal dignity. But this may be understood of some others. Or St. Hilary perhaps did not relish St. Austin’s manner of expressing himself on the doctrine of gratuitous predestination to glory. But as to the Semipelagian error, though it was not yet condomned by the church, St. Hilary always adhered to the doctrine of the church. And St. Honoratus tells us, that when he lay on his death-bed, in his last exhortation to his clergy to resist the enemy of their souls, he made use of these words: “We cannot fail meeting with conflicts in our road to bliss; but we may attain it by the succor of preventing grace, and its consequent labors.” See L’Histoire du Petagian time, à Avignon, 1763, t. 2. c. 7, p. 53.

* Duci Duwacorum.

¹ Grammaie, in Duaco, Buzelin, Annal. Flandr. Locrius, Chronicon Belgicum, Silvius, Baldericus, Castilion, Sacra Belgil Chronol. p. 38.

* The B. Rictrades, besides Mauront, had three other children. 1. The B. Clotsenda, her eldest daughter, abbess of Marchiennes after her death, honored on the 13th of June. 2. St. Eusebia or Isoye, chosen abbess of Hamaye (Hamaticum) at twelve years of age, about the year 646, where she succeeded Gertrude, grandmother to Adalbald, who with St. Amand had founded the double monastery of Marchiennes 3. B. Adalsend, a nun under her at Marchiennes, honored on the 24th of December. Adalbald is commemorated on the 2d of February. See Molanus. Nat. Sanct. Belg.

 Butler, A. (1903). The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints (Vol. 2, pp. 238–251). New York: P. J. Kenedy.