under the rule of St. Austin, was instituted about the beginning of the
13th century, and is both the first mendicant order and the first order
that had a solemn confirmation from the Pope. They are very numerous,
and have still many convents in Spain and Portugal.
Dominick, the founder of this order, was born in Spain, in 1170. His
mother, when she was with child with him, dreamed that she was delivered
of a hog, with a flaming torch in his mouth, an emblem appropriate
enough for an inquisitor; and when he was baptized, his god mother,
although it was visible to no one else, saw a star that illuminated all
the world; and as he lay in his cradle, a swarm of bees pitched upon his
lips. And, although from the day of his baptism to the day of his death,
he is said never to have committed one mortal sin, he would,
nevertheless, before he was seven years old, rise out of his costly bed,
for his parents were said to have been very rich, and lie upon the
ground. When he was a boy he would never play or use any pastimes; and
when he arrived at man’s estate, he gave all that had been left him by
his father, with the exception of his books, among the poor; and having
nothing else left to give, he gave them his books also.
Seeing a woman one day weeping bitterly for the loss of her brother, who
had been taken captive by the Moors, he begged her to take him, and to
sell him to those infidels, and with the money he should fetch, redeem
her brother; but, to his extreme mortification, the woman refused to
comply with his desire.
One day, when Dominick was in his study, the devil so pestered him in
the shape of a flea, leaping and frisking about on the leaves of his
book, that he found it impossible to continue his reading: irritated at
length by such unhandsome treatment, he fixed him on the very spot where
he finished reading, and in this shape made use of him to find the place
again. Having at last, however, released old _nick_ from this
demonological dilemma, he appeared to him again in his study in the
guise of a monkey, and grinned so “horribly a ghastly grin,” and skipped
about so, that he was more annoyed now than before. To put a stop to
these monkey tricks, Dominick forthwith commanded him, the said monkey,
to take the candlestick and hold it for him; this the monkey did, and
Dominick made him continue holding it, until it was burnt down to the
bottom of the wick, and although the monkey made a horrid noise at
burning his fingers, he was forced to hold it until it was burnt out,
which it did until it had burnt the devil’s monkey fingers to the bone.
Having gone into France with the bishop of Osma, of whose church
Dominick was a canon, though by preaching and working miracles he
converted the _Albigenses_ about Toulouse by thousands in a day, he,
nevertheless, so roused Simon de Montford, who was general of the Pope’s
_cruzado_ against those christians, by which Montfort, and his
_cruzado_, to which Dominick was the chief chaplain, that many thousands
of those poor christians were butchered.
That part of France must necessarily, at that time, have been very
populous, otherwise there could not have been so many of those
christians left for Montfort to murder, after Dominick had made such
extensive conversions among them, for assuredly Montfort would not lay
violent hands on any of his proselytes. The greatest conversion ever
made by Dominick was after he had the rosary given him by the blessed
virgin, whose virtues Dominick successfully eulogized with all the
eloquence he was master of. There was one, however, desperate enough to
ridicule both the rosary and the mountebank oratory upon its virtues;
but he was soon punished for his audacity, by a great number of devils
getting into him; but Dominick relenting at the sufferings of the
demoniac, although he did not deserve such commiseration at his hands,
called the devils to an account for the uproarious noise they made; when
the following colloquy passed between them.
DOMINICK.—How came you to enter this man, and how many are you in
number?
DEVILS.—(_After tremendous howlings._) We came into him for having
spoken disrespectfully of the rosary; and for his having laughed and
made “_merry game_” of your sermons. We are 15,000 in number, and have
been forced much against our inclination to enter one who might have
done us infinite services.
DOM.—Why did so many as 15,000 of you enter him?
DEV.—Because there are 15 decads in the rosary which he derided.
DOM.—Why did you suffer this man to be brought to me?
DEV.—(_All together roaring out._) It was done to our great confusion:
we could not prevent it.
DOM.—Is not all true I have said of the virtues of the rosary?
DEV.—(_After the most hideous bellowing_.) Cursed be the hour in which
we entered into this _statue_? Woe be unto us for ever! Why did we not
suffocate him before he was brought hither? But it is now too late and
we cannot do it, for thou holdest us in burning flames and chains of
fire, so that we are forced to declare the truth to thee, to our great
prejudice. O yes! O yes! Know all christian men and women, that this
cruel Dominick, this implacable enemy of ours, has never said one word
concerning the virtues of the rosary that is not most true; and know ye
further, that if you do not believe him, great calamities will befall
you.
DOM.—Who was the man in the world the devil hated the most?
DEV. (_All of them._) Thou art the very man, who, by thy prayers, and by
thy severe ways of penance, and by thy sermons, hast shown the way to
Paradise to every one, and hast snatched our prey. But know thou, that
our dark congregation and infernal troop are so enraged against thee,
that a brigade of the strongest and most mischievous spirits have a
commission to fall upon thee and them.
DOM. (_turning to the people_.) God forbid, O Christians! that you
should believe all that is said by the devils, who are liars, and
inventors of lies. Not but that the Almighty is able to communicate so
much strength to the vilest and most miserable sinner, as will overcome
all infernal hosts, as you see I do at this time, who am the greatest of
sinners.
DEV.—Cursed be so great humility as this, which tears and torments us so
much.
DOM. (_Throwing his stole, for he had not his scapulary yet, which has
much more virtue, about the neck of the Demoniac._) Of which state of
men among Christians are there the most damned?
Here an extraordinary circumstance took place, for no sooner had
Dominick’s stole touched the neck of the demoniac than a great quantity
of thick gory blood burst out at his nose, and a poisonous clay from his
ears. At this sight, Dominick commanded the rebellious devils to desist
from tormenting the poor sinner.
DEV. We will with all our heart, if ye will suffer us to depart.
DOM. Ye shall not stir until ye have answered the question put you.
DEV. In hell there are a great many bishops and princes, but not many
country people, who, though not perfect, are not very great sinners.
There are also a great many merchants, and townspeople, such as
pawnbrokers, fraudulent bakers, grocers, Jews, apothecaries, gamblers,
rakes, &c. who were sent there for covetousness, cheating,
voluptuousness, &c.
DOM. Are there any priests or monks in Hell?
DEV. There are a great number of priests, but no monks, with the
exception of such as had transgressed the rule of their order.
DOM. How are you off for Franciscans?
DEV. Alas! alas! we have not one yet, but we expect a great number of
them after their devotion is a little cooled.
DOM. What saint in heaven does the devil fear most?
Instead of returning any answer to this question, the devils begged
Dominick by all that was sacred to be satisfied with the torments he had
already inflicted upon them, and with those to which they were condemned
in hell, begging he would not insist upon a true answer to that question
before so great a congregation, to the ruin of their kingdom; telling
him, that if he would ask the angels they would tell him who it was.
This, however, would not satisfy Dominick, who, whatever virtues he
might have, had little mercy in his composition, especially, it would
appear, towards devils. He persisted upon their telling; and, perceiving
how reluctant the demons were to comply with his wishes, he threw
himself upon the ground, and went to work, hammer and tongs, with his
rosary; upon which sulphureous flames of fire burst forth from his nose,
mouth, eyes and ears; after this above an hundred angels, clad in golden
armour, appeared with the blessed virgin in the midst of them, holding a
golden rod in her hand, with which she gave the demoniac a switch on the
back, commanding, at the same time, the devils to return true answers to
Dominick’s questions; at this they all roared out lustily, _O our enemy!
O our damner! O our confusion! Why didst thou come down from heaven to
torment us here? Why art thou so powerful an intercessor for sinners? O
thou most certain and secure way to heaven; but since thou commandest
it, we must tell the truth, though it will confound us, and bring woe
and misery on our princes of darkness for ever. Hear, O Christians_,
continued the devils, this mother of Christ is too powerful in
preserving all her servants from hell; it is she that, as a sun,
dissipates all our darkness, _and enervates and brings to nought all our
machinations. We are forced to confess that nobody is damned who
perseveres in her holy worship, and is devoted to her. One sigh from her
has more power than the prayers of all the saints; and we fear her more
than all the citizens of Paradise; and you must all know, that vast
numbers of Christians are, contrary to right, saved by calling upon her
at the time of their death; and that we should long ago have destroyed
the church, if it had not been for this little Mary; and being now
forced to it, we must own, that none who persevere in the exercise of
the rosary, can undergo the eternal torments of hell, for she obtains
contrition for all her devout servants._
Here the _confab_ ended between 15,000 cowardly devils, and Dominick,
who exhorted the congregation to join with him in reciting the rosary:
and behold a great miracle: at every angelical salutation, a multitude
of devils rushed out of the demoniac in the shape of burning coals, and
the blessed virgin having given the congregation her benediction,
disappeared, leaving Dominick in quest of fresh enterprises against the
devil and his horde.
Dominick was a proud designing man, and of a very ferocious disposition.
The stories related of the St. Franciscan order, are equally absurd and
ridiculous.
Similar stories are too numerous: we shall therefore close this subject
with
_The Hermit of the Pillar._
(_St. Simeon Stylites, St. Telesephorus, St. Syncletia._)
We are informed by Alban Butler, that St. Simeon Stylites, the ycleped
hermit of the pillar, astonished the whole Roman Empire by his
mortifications. In the monastery of Heliodorus, a man 65 years of age,
who had spent 62 years so abstracted from the world that he was ignorant
of the most obvious things in it; the monks ate but once a day; Simeon
joined the communities, and ate but once a week. Heliodorus required
Simeon to be more private in his mortifications: “with this view,” says
Butler, “judging the rough rope of the well, made of twisted palm tree
leaves, a proper instrument of penance; Simeon tied it close about his
naked body, where it remained unknown both to the community and his
superior, till such time as it having ate into his flesh, what he had
privately done was discovered by the effluvia proceeding from the
wound.” Butler says, that it took three days to disengage the saint’s
clothes, and that “the incisions of the physician, to cut the cord out
of his body, were attended with such anguish and pain, that he lay for
some time as dead.” After this he determined to pass the whole forty
days of Lent in total abstinence, and retired to a hermitage for that
purpose. Bassus, an abbot, left with him ten loaves and water, and
coming to visit him at the end of the forty days, found both loaves and
water untouched, and the saint stretched on the ground without signs of
life. Bassus dipped a sponge in water, moistened his lips, gave him the
eucharist, and Simeon by degrees swallowed a few lettuce leaves and
other herbs. He passed twenty-six Lents in the same manner. In the first
part of a Lent he prayed standing: growing weaker, he prayed sitting;
and towards the end, being almost exhausted, he prayed lying on the
ground. At the end of three years he left his hermitage for the top of a
mountain, made an inclosure of loose stones, without a roof, and having
resolved to live exposed to the inclemencies of the weather, he fixed
his resolution by fastening his right leg to a rock with a great iron
chain. Multitudes thronged to the mountain to receive his benediction,
and many of the sick recovered their health. But as some were not
satisfied unless they touched him in his enclosure, and Simeon desired
retirement from the daily concourse, he projected a new and
unprecedented manner of life. He erected a pillar six cubits high, (each
cubit being eighteen inches,) and dwelt on it four years; on a second of
twelve cubits high, he lived three years; on a third of twenty-two
cubits high, ten years; and on a fourth, of forty cubits, or sixty feet
high, which the people built for him, he spent the last twenty years of
his life. This occasioned him to be called _Stylites_, from the Greek
word _stylos_, a pillar. This pillar did not exceed three feet in
diameter at the top, so that he could not lie extended on it; he had no
seat with him; he only stooped or leaned to take a little rest, and
bowed his body in prayer so often, that a certain person who counted
these positions, found that he made one thousand two hundred and
forty-four reverences in one day, which if he began at four o’clock in
the morning, and finished at eight o’clock at night, gives a bow to
every three quarters of a minute; besides which, he exhorted the people
twice a day. His garments were the skins of beasts; he wore an iron
collar round his neck, and had a horrible ulcer in his foot. During his
forty days’ abstinence throughout Lent, he tied himself to a pole. He
treated himself as the outcast of the world and the worst of sinners,
worked miracles, delivered prophecies, had the sacrament delivered to
him on the pillar, and died bowing upon it, in the sixty-ninth of his
age, after having lived upon pillars for six and thirty years. His
corpse was carried to Antioch attended by the bishops and the whole
country, and worked miracles on its way. So far this account is from
Alban Butler.
Without mentioning circumstances and miracles in the Golden Legend,
which are too numerous, and some not fit to be related; it may be
observed, that it is there affirmed of him, that after his residence on
the pillars, one of his thighs rotted a whole year, during which time he
stood on one leg only. Near Simeon’s pillar was the dwelling of a
dragon, so very venemous that nothing grew near his cave. This dragon
met with an accident; he had a stake in his eye, and coming all blind to
the saint’s pillar, and placing his eye upon it for three days, without
doing harm to any one, Simeon ordered earth and water to be placed on
the dragon’s eye, which being done, out came the stake, a cubit in
length; when the people saw this miracle, they glorified God, and ran
away for fear of the dragon, who arose and adored for two hours, and
returned to his cave. A woman swallowed a little serpent, which
tormented her for many years, till she came to Simeon, who causing earth
and water to be laid on her mouth, the little serpent came out four feet
and a half long. It is affirmed by the Golden Legend, that when Simeon
died, Anthony smelt a precious odour proceeding from his body; that the
birds cried so much, that both men and beasts cried; that an angel came
down in a cloud; that the Patriarch of Antioch, taking Simeon’s beard to
put among his relics, his hand withered, and remained so, till
multitudes of prayers were said for him, and it was healed; and that
more miracles were worked at and after Simeon’s sepulture, than he had
wrought all his life.
HOLY RELIQUE-MANIA.
On the first introduction of the relics of saints, the mania became
universal; they were bought and sold, and, like other collectors, made
no scruple to steal them. It is not a little amusing to remark the
singular ardour and grasping avidity of some to enrich themselves with
religious morsels; their little discernment, the curious impositions and
resources of the vender to impose on the good faith and sincerity of the
purchaser. It was not uncommon for the prelate of the place to ordain a
fast, in order to implore God that they might not be cheated with the
relics of saints, which he sometimes purchased for the holy benefit of
the village or town. Guibert de Nogen wrote a treatise on the relics of
saints: acknowledging that there were many false ones, as well as false
legends, he reprobates the inventors of those lying miracles. It was on
the occasion of one of our Saviour’s teeth, that De Nogen took up his
pen on this subject, by which the monks of St. Medard de Soissons
pretended to work miracles; a pretension which he asserted to be as
chimerical as that of several persons who believed they possessed the
navel, and other parts less comely, of the body of Christ.
There is a history of the translation of Saint Lewin, a virgin and a
martyr, by a monk of Bergavinck; her relics were brought from England to
Bergs. The facts were collected from her brethren with religious care,
especially from the conductor of these relics from England. After the
history of the translation, and a panegyric on the saint, he relates the
miracles performed in Flanders since the arrival of her relics. The
prevailing passion of the times to possess fragments of saints is well
marked, when the author particularises, with a certain complacency, all
the knavish modes they resorted to, to carry off those in question. None
then objected to this sort of robbery, because the gratification of the
ruling passion had made it worth while to supply the market.
There is a history, by a monk of Cluny, of the translation of the body
of St. Indalece, one of the earliest Spanish bishops; written by order
of the Abbot of St. Juan de la Penna; wherein the author protests to
advance nothing but facts; having himself seen, or learnt from other
witnesses, all he relates. It was not difficult for him to gain his
information, since it was to the monastery of St. Juan de la Penna that
the holy relics were transported, and those who brought them were two
monks of that house. His minute detail of circumstances, he has
authenticated by giving the names of persons and places; and the account
was written for the great festival immediately instituted in honour of
this translation. He informs us of the miraculous manner by which they
were so fortunate as to discover the body of this bishop, and the
different plans that were concerted to carry it off; with the itinerary
of the two monks who accompanied the holy remains; during which they
were not a little cheered in their long and hazardous journey by visions
and miracles.
Another has written a history of what he terms the translation of the
relics of St. Majean to the monastery of Villemagne. _Translation_ is,
in fact, only a softened expression for the robbery committed on the
relics of the saints, by two monks who carried them off secretly, to
enrich their monastery; and they did not stick at any artifice, or lie,
to achieve their undertaking. They imagined every thing was permitted to
get possession of these fragments of mortality, which now had become
such an important branch of commerce. They even regarded their
possessors with a hostile eye. Such was the religious opinion from the
ninth to the twelfth century. Our Canute commissioned his agent at Rome
to purchase St. Augustine’s arm for one hundred talents of silver and
one of gold! a much greater sum, observes Granger, than the finest
statue of antiquity would then have sold for. Another monk describes a
strange act of devotion, attested by several contemporary writers. When
the saints did not readily comply with the prayers of their votaries,
they flogged their relics with rods, in a spirit of impatience, which
they conceived necessary to enforce obedience. To raise our admiration,
Theofroy, abbot of Epternac, relates the daily miracles performed by the
relics of saints—their ashes, their clothes, or other mortal spoils, and
even by the instruments of their martyrdom. He inveighs against that
luxury of ornaments which was indulged in under a religious pretext. “It
is not to be supposed that the saints are desirous of such a profusion
of gold and silver. They wish not that we should raise to them
magnificent churches, to exhibit that ingenious order of pillars, which
shine with gold; nor those rich ceilings, nor those altars sparkling
with jewels. They desire not the purple parchment for their writings,
the liquid gold to decorate the letters, nor the precious stones to
embellish their covers, while you have such little care for the
ministers.” The pious writer has not forgotten _himself_, in his
partnership-account with the _saints_.
Bayle observes, the Roman church not being able to deny that there have
been false relics which have wrought miracles, they reply that the good
intentions of those believers who have recourse to them, obtained from
God the reward for their good faith! In the same spirit, when it was
shown that three bodies of the same saint are said to exist in several
places, and that therefore they could not all be authentic, it was
answered, that they were all genuine! for God had multiplied and
miraculously reproduced them, for the comfort of the faithful! A curious
specimen of the intolerance of good sense.
Prince Radzivil was so much affected by the Reformation being spread in
Lithuania, that he went in person to pay the Pope all personal honours.
On this occasion his holiness presented him with a precious box of
relics. On his return home, some monks entreated the prince’s permission
to try the effects of them on a demoniac, who hitherto had resisted
every exorcism. They were brought into the church with solemn pomp,
accompanied by an innumerable crowd, and deposited on the altar. After
the usual conjurations, which were unsuccessful, the relics were
applied. The demoniac instantly recovered. The people called out _a
miracle!_ and the Prince raising his hands and eyes to heaven, felt his
faith confirmed. During this transport of pious joy, he observed that a
young gentleman, who was keeper of his treasure of relics, smiled, and
by his motions ridiculed the miracle. The Prince, indignantly, took the
young keeper of the relics to task; who, on promise of pardon, gave the
following _secret intelligence_ concerning them. In travelling from Rome
he had lost the box of relics; and not daring to mention it, he had
procured a similar one, which he had filled with the small bones of dogs
and cats, and other trifles similar to those that were lost. He hoped he
might be forgiven for smiling, when he found that such a collection of
rubbish was eulogized with such pomp, and had even the virtue of
expelling demons. It was by the assistance of this box that the Prince
discovered the gross impositions of the monks and demoniacs, and
Radzivil afterwards became a zealous Lutheran.
Frederick the Elector, surnamed _the Wise_, was an indefatigable
collector of relics. After his death, one of the monks employed by him,
solicited payment for several parcels he had purchased for our _wise_
Elector; but the times had changed! He was advised to resign this
business; the relics for which he desired payment they were willing _to
return_; that since the Reformation of Luther, the price of such ware
had considerably fallen; and that they would be more esteemed, and find
a _better market_ in Italy than in Germany!