The present section is intended to give _An account of some of the
principal works he consulted in the composition of it_. It will contain,
1st, some remarks on the attention of the church, during the early ages
of Christianity, to preserve the memory of the martyrs and saints: 2dly,
some account of the acts of the martyrs; 3dly, some account of the
sacred calendars: 4thly, some account of the Martyrologies: 5thly, some
account of the Menaeon and Menologies of the Greek church; 6thly, some
account of the early Agiographists: 7thly, some account of the
Bollandists: and, 8thly, some account of the process of the
beatification and canonization of saints.
IX. 1. The Roman Catholic church has ever been solicitous _that the
lives and miracles of those who have been eminent for their sanctify
should be recorded for the edification of the faithful_. St. Clement the
Second, successor of St. Peter in the see of Rome, is said to have
divided the fourteen districts of that city among seven notaries,
assigning two districts to each of them, with directions to form a
minute and accurate account of the martyrs who suffered within them.
About one hundred and fifty years from that time, pope Fabian put the
notaries under the care of deacons and subdeacons. The same attention to
the actions and sufferings of the martyrs was shown in the provinces. Of
this, the letter of the church of Smyrna, giving an account of the
martyrdom of St. Polycarp, the letter of the churches of Lyons and
Vienne, giving an account of the martyrs who suffered in those cities;
and the letter of St. Dionysius, the bishop of Alexandra, to Fabius, the
bishop of Antioch, on the martyrs who suffered under the emperor Decius,
are remarkable instances. "Our ancestors," says Pontius, in the
beginning of the acts of St. Cyprian, "held those who suffered
martyrdom, though only catechumens, or of the lowest rank, in such
veneration, as to commit to writing almost every thing that related to
them." Nor was this attention confined to those who obtained the crown
of martyrdom. Care was taken that the lives of all should be written who
were distinguished by their virtues, particularly if they had been
favored with the gift of miracles.
IX. 2. The lives of the martyrs and saints, written in this manner, were
called _their acts_. They were often collected into volumes. One of the
earliest of these {022} collections was made by Eusebius, the father of
church history. Some of the lives he inserted in the body of his great
historical work: he also published a separate collection of them; it was
greatly esteemed, but has not reached our time: many others were
published. These accounts of the virtues and sufferings of the martyrs
were received by the faithful with the highest respect. They considered
them to afford a glorious proof of the truth of the Christian faith, and
of the holiness and sublimity of its doctrines. They felt themselves
stimulated by them to imitate the heroic acts of virtue and constancy
which they placed before their eyes, and to rely on the assistance of
heaven when their own hour of trial should arrive. Thus the vocal blood
of the martyrs was a powerful exhortation, both to induce the infidel to
embrace the faith of Christ, and to incite the faithful to the practice
of its precepts. The church, therefore, always recommended the frequent
reading of the acts of the martyrs, and inserted the mention of them in
her liturgy. This Ruinart proves by many examples: he also shows that
the greatest care was taken to procure the genuine acts of the martyrs;
or, when they could not be had, to procure exact accounts of their
trials and sufferings. By this means the church was in possession of
authentic histories of the persecutions she had suffered, and through
which she had finally triumphed over paganism, and of particular
accounts of the principal sufferers. The greatest part of them was lost
in the general wreck which sacred and profane literature suffered from
the barbarians who overturned the Roman empire. In every age, however,
some were found who carefully preserved whatever they could save of
those sacred treasures. Copies were frequently made of them; and this in
this, as in every other important branch of Christian learning, the
chain of tradition has been left unbroken. Much, however, of these
sacred documents of church history has been irretrievably lost; and,
speaking generally, the remaining part came down to us in an imperfect
state. Hence Vives, at the end of the fifteenth century, exclaimed,
"What a shame it is to the Christian world, that the acts of our martyrs
have not been published with greater truth and accuracy!" The important
task of publishing them in that manner was at length undertaken by Dom
Ruinart, a Maurist monk, in his _Acta primorum martyrum sincera et
selecta_. He executed it in a manner that gained him universal applause.
His prefatory discourse, respecting the number of martyrs, has been
generally admired. An invaluable accession to this branch of sacred
literature was published by Stephen Evodius Assemani, in two volumes
folio, at Rome in 1748. The title of the work expresses its contents:
"_Acta Sanctorum Martyrum orientalium et occidentalium editore Stephano
Evodio Assemano, que textum Chaldaicum recensuit, notis vocalibus
animavit, Latine vertit, et annotationibus illustravit_." It is to be
observed, that the eastern and western martyrs mentioned in this place,
are not the martyrs of the eastern of Greek church, and the martyrs of
the Latin or western church, in which sense the words eastern and
western are generally used by ecclesiastical writers. By the eastern
martyrs, Assemani denotes the martyrs who suffered in the countries
which extend from the eastern bank of the Euphrates, over Mesopotamia
and Chaldea to the Tigris and the parts beyond it; by the western, he
denotes the martyrs who suffered in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. Stephen
Assemani was the nephew of Joseph Assemani, whose Kalendaria will be
mentioned in another place. Joseph was first praefect of the Vatican
library; Stephen was archbishop of Apamea; both of them were Maronite
monks, and sent into the east by pope Clement XII. to purchase
manuscripts.
IX. 3. It was the pious custom of the early Christians to celebrate
yearly the memory of the martyrs, on the days on which they suffered. On
that day the martyr was considered to be born to a life of glory and
immortality, and, with respect to that second life, it was called the
day of his birth. The different churches, therefore, were careful to
preserve an exact account of the particular days on which the martyrs
obtained the crown of martyrdom. The book which contained this account
was called a _Calendar_. At first the calendar contained the mention of
the martyrs only; but, in the course of time, the confessors, or those
who, without arriving at the glory of martyrdom, had confessed their
faith in Christ by their heroic virtues, were admitted to the same
honor. The calendars were preserved in the churches; a calendar of the
Church of Rome was published by Boucher; another by Leo Alatius; a third
by Joannes Fronto, chancellor of Paris, and canon regular of the church
of St. Genevieve at Paris. A most ancient calendar of the church of
Carthage was published by Mabillon. But under this head no publication
is more respectable than Joseph Assemani's _Kalendaria Ecclesiae universae
notis illustrata._
{023}
IX. 4. The calendars gave rise to the _Martyrologies_; the object of
them was to collect, in one volume, from the calendars of the different
churches, the names of the martyrs and confessors throughout the world,
with a brief mention of the day of their decease, and the place in which
they suffered, or which they had illustrated by their birth, their
residence, their rank, or their virtues. The Roman Martyrology is
mentioned in the following terms by St. Gregory, (Lib. 8. Epist. Indict.
1.) in a letter to Eulogius, the bishop of Alexandria: "We," says his
holiness, "have the names of almost all the martyrs collected into one
volume, and referred to the days on which they suffered; and we
celebrate the solemn sacrifice of the mass daily in their honor. But our
calendar does not contain the particulars of their sufferings; it only
mentions their names, and the place and time of their martyrdom." The
Roman calendar seems to have been adopted generally through the western
church. It certainly was received in England. At the council held at
Shovesham in 747, by Cuthbert, the archbishop of Canterbury, it was
ordered, "That throughout the year, the feasts of the saints should be
celebrated on the days appointed by the Martyrology of the church of
Rome, with the proper psalms." It was once generally believed to have
been composed by St. Jerom; but this opinion is now universally
rejected. It suffered much in the middle ages. Pope Gregory XIII.,
immediately after he had completed the great work of reforming the
calendar, used the most earnest endeavors to procure a correct edition
of the Roman Martyrology. He committed the care of it to some of the
most distinguished writers of his time on ecclesiastical subjects. Among
them, Bellarmin, Baronius, and Gavant deserve particular mention. With
this edition Baronius himself was not satisfied. He published another
edition in 1586: and afterwards, at the instigation of cardinal Sirlet,
published a still more correct edition, with notes, in 1598. He prefixed
to his edition a dissertation, in which he appears to have exhausted the
subject. A further correction of the Roman Martyrology was made by pope
Urban VIII. They were all surpassed by that published by pope Benedict
XIV., at Cologne, in 1751. But the most useful edition is that published
at Paris, in 1661, by father Lubin, an Augustinian friar. It is
accompanied with excellent notes and geographical tables. Politus, an
Italian divine, published, in 1751, the first volume of a new edition of
the Roman Martyrology. It comprises the month of January, but the plan
of annotation is so extended, that it fills five hundred folio pages of
the smallest print; from the time of Drackenborch's edition of Livy, so
prolix a commentary had not been seen. Among other principal
Martyrologies, is that of the _Venerable Bede_. After several faulty
editions of it had appeared, it was correctly published by Henschenius
and Papebroke, and afterwards by Smith, at the end of his edition of
Bede's Ecclesiastical History. Notwithstanding Bede's great and deserved
celebrity, the Martyrology of _Usuard_, a Benedictine monk, was in more
general use; he dedicated it to Charles the Bald, and died about 875. It
was published by Solerius at Antwerp, in 1714, and by Dom Bouillard, in
1718; but the curious still seek for the earlier edition by Molanus, in
1568, as, in the subsequent editions, some parts of it were omitted.
Another Martyrology of renown is that of _Ado_; he was archbishop of
Vienne, in Dauphine, and died in 875. The best edition of it is that by
Roswede, in 1613, published at Rome in 1745.--Such have been the
exertions of the church of Rome, to perpetuate the memory of those who
have illustrated her by their virtues. During the most severe
persecutions, in the general wreck of the arts and sciences, in the
midst of the public and private calamities which attended the
destruction of the Roman empire, the providence of God always raised
some pious and enlightened men, who preserved the deposit of faith, sod
transmitted to future times the memory of whatever had been most
virtuous in former ages or their own.
IX. 5. The Greek church has also shown great attention to preserve the
memory of the holy martyrs and saints. This appears from her Menaeon and
Monologue. The Menaeon is divided into twelve months, and each month is
contained in a volume. All the saints, whose festivals occur in that
month, have their proper day assigned to them in it: the rubric of the
divine office, to be performed on that day, is mentioned; the
particulars of the office follow; an account of the life and actions of
the saint is inserted; and sometimes an engraving of him is added. If it
happen that the saint has not his peculiar office, a prose or hymn in
his praise in generally introduced. The greater solemnities have an
appropriate office. From this the intelligent reader will observe that
the Menaeon of the Greeks is {024} nearly the same as a work would be,
which should unite in itself the Missal and Breviary of the Roman
Catholic church. It was printed in twelve volumes in folio at Venice.
Bollandus mentions that Raderus, a Tyrolese Jesuit, had translated the
whole of the Menaeon, and pronounced it to be free from schism or heresy.
_The Menologium_ answers to the Latin Martyrology. There are several
Menologia, as, at different times, great alterations have been made in
them. But the ground-word of them all is the same, so that they are
neither wholly alike nor wholly different. A translation of a Menologium
into Latin by cardinal Sirlet, was published by Henry Canisius, in the
third volume of his _Lectiones Antiquae_. The Greek original, with a new
version, was published by Annibal Albani, at Urbino, in 1727. From these
works it is most clear that the Greek church invokes the saints, and
implores their intercession with God: "_Haud obscure ostendit_," says
Walchius, "_Graecos eo cultu prosequi homines in sanctorum ordinem
ascriptos, ut ilios incocent_." Bib. Theologica, vol. iii. 668. From the
Menaeon, and the Menologium, Raderus published a collection of pious and
entertaining narratives, under the title of _Viridarum Sanctorum_. It is
to be wished that some gentleman would employ his leisure in a
translation of it. We should then be furnished, from the works of the
Agiographists of the eastern church, with a collection of pious and
instructing narratives, similar to those in the well-known _Histoires
Choisies_. One of the most curious articles inserted in the _Acta
Sanctorum_ of the Bollandists, is the _Muscovite or Russian Calendar_,
with the engravings of the saints. It was first published by father
Possevin. He praises the Russians for the great attention to decency
which they observe in their pictures and engravings of holy subjects. He
mentions that the Russians, who accompanies him in his return to Rome,
observed with surprise in the Italian paintings of saints, a want of the
like attention. Father Papebroke, when he cites this passage, adopts the
remark, and loudly calls on Innocent XII. to attend to the general
decency of all public paintings and statues. _A Greek Calendar of the
Saints_ in hexameter verse accompanies the Russian Calendar, in the
_Acta Sanctorum_; both are illustrated with notes by father Pane broke.
IX. 6. We proceed to the _Lives of the Saints_, written by individuals.
For these our attention must be first directed to the Agiographists of
the Greek church. The eighth century may be considered as the period
when Grecian literature had reached its lowest state of depression; in
the ninth, Bardas Caesar, the brother of the empress Theodora, protected
letters; from that time they were constantly cultivated by the Greeks;
so that Constantinople, utile it was taken by Mahomet, was never without
its historians, poets, or philosophers. Compared with the writings of
the ancients, their compositions seem lifeless and unnatural; we look
among them in vain either for original genius or successful imitation.
Still they are entitled to our gratitude; many of the precious remains
of antiquity have come down to us only in their extracts and
abridgments; and their voluminous compilations have transmitted to us
much useful information which has no other existence. Sacred biography,
in particular, has great obligations to them. The earliest work on that
subject we owe to the care which the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus
bestowed on the literary education of his son; an example which, at the
distance of about six hundred years, was successfully rivalled by the
elegant edition of the Delphin Classics, published under the aspics of
Lewis XIV. But the Greek emperor had this advantage over the French
monarch, that he himself was the author of some of the works published
for the use of his son. In the first (published by Lerch and Reisch at
Leipsic, in 1751) he described the ceremonial of the Byzantine court;
the second (published by Banduri, in his _Imperium Orientale_) is a
geographical survey of the provinces, or, as he calls them, the
_Themata_ of the empire; the third, which some ascribe to the emperor
Leo, his father, describes the prevailing system of military tactics;
the forth delineates the political relations and intercourse of the
court of Byzantium with the other states. His Geoponics (published by
Nicholas Niclas at Leipsic, in 1731, in two volumes, 8vo.) were written
with a view of instructing his subjects in agriculture. By his
direction, a collection of historical examples of vice and virtue was
compiled in fifty-three books, and _Simeon Metaphrastes_, the great
logothete, or chancellor of the empire, composed his Lives of the
Saints. Several of them were published, with a Latin translation, by the
care of Lipoman, the bishop of Verona. Cardinal Bellarmin accuses
Metaphrastes of giving too much loose to his imagination. "He inserts,"
{025} says the cardinal, "such accounts of conversations of the martyrs
with their persecutors, and such accounts of conversions of bystanders,
as exceed belief. He mentions many and most wonderful miracles on the
destruction of the temples and idols, and on the death of the
persecutors, of which nothing is said by the ancient historians." We
next come to _Jacobus de Voragine_, a Dominican friar and archbishop of
Genoa, in 1292. His _Golden Legend_ was the delight of our ancestors
during the ages which preceded the revival of letters. The library of no
monastery was without it. Like the essays of Montaigne, it was to be
found on the shelf of every private person; and, for a long time after
the invention of printing, no work more often issued from the press.
After enjoying the highest degree of reputation, it lost much of its
celebrity, in consequence of the Lives of Saints published by
_Mombritius_ in two immense volumes, in folio, about the year 1480, from
manuscripts in the library of the church of St. John of Lateran and in
consequence of the Lives of Saints published by _Surius_, a Carthusian
monk. The first edition of Surius's work was published in 1570-75, in
six volumes; the second appeared in 1578, the third and most complete
was published, in twelve volumes, in 1615. That he frequently shows too
much credulity, and betrays a want of taste, must be admitted; but his
works are allowed to breathe a spirit of piety; his candor, and desire
to be accurate, are discernible in every part of his writings; and his
learning, for the age in which he lived, was considerable. In
_Ribadeneira_ the line of ancient Agiographists respectably finishes.
While candor and good taste must allow that, even in the Lest of the
compilations we have mentioned, there is a great want of critical
discernment, and that they are wholly deficient in elegance, and the
artificial beauties of composition, justice requires that their defects
should not be exaggerated. Still less should an intention to deceive,
even on the pretence of edification, be imputed to them. Whatever may
have been either the error or the criminality of some of her members,
the church herself, in this, as in every other instance, has always
inculcated the duty of sincerity and truth, and reprobated a deviation
from them, even on the specious pretence of producing good. On this
subject our author thus forcibly expresses himself, in one of his
letters on Mr. Bower's History of the Lives of the Popes: "It is very
unjust to charge the popes or the Catholic church with countenancing
knowingly false legends; seeing all the divines of that communion
unanimously condemn all such forgeries as lies in things of great
moment, and grievous sins; and all the councils, popes, and other
bishops, have always expressed the greatest horror of such villanies;
which no cause or circumstances whatever can authorize, and which, in
all things relating to religion, are always of the most heinous nature.
Hence the authors, when detected, have been always punished with the
utmost severity. Dr. Burnet himself says, that those who feigned a
revelation at Basil, of which he gives a long detail, with false
circumstances, in his letters on his travels, were all burnt at stakes
for it, which we read more exactly related by Surius in his Commentary
on his own times. The truth is, that many false legends of true martyrs
were forged by heretics, as were those of St. George, condemned by pope
Gelasius, as many false gospels were soon after the birth of
Christianity, of which we have the names of near fifty extant. Other
wicked or mistaken persons have sometimes been guilty of a like
imposture. A priest at Ephesus forged acts of St. Paul's voyages, out of
veneration for that apostle, and was deposed for it by St. John the
evangelist, as we learn from Tertullian. To instance examples of this
nature would form a complete history; for the church has always most
severely condemned all manner of forgeries. Sometimes the more virtuous
and remote from fraud a person is, the more unwilling he is to suspect
an imposture in others. Some great and good men have been imposed upon
by lies, and have given credit to false histories, but without being
privy to the forgery; and nothing erroneous, dangerous, or prejudicial
was contained in what they unwarily admitted. However, if credulity in
private histories was too easy in any former age, certainly skepticism
and infidelity are the characters of this in which we live. No
histories, except those of holy scripture, are proposed as parts of
divine revelation or articles of faith; all others rest upon their bare
historical authority. They who do not think this good and sufficient in
any narrations, do well to suggest modestly their reasons; yet may look
upon them at least as parables, and leave others the liberty of judging
for themselves without offence. But Mr. Bower says, p. 177, 'The Roman
Breviary is the most authentic book the {026} church of Rome has, after
the scripture; it would be less dangerous, at least in Italy, to deny
any truth revealed in the scripture, than to question any fable related
in the Breviary.' Catholic divines teach that every tittle in the holy
scriptures is sacred, divinely inspired, and the word of God dictated by
the Holy Ghost. Even the definitions of general councils do not enjoy an
equal privilege; they are indeed the oracles of an unerring guide in the
doctrine of faith; which guide received, together with the scriptures,
the true sense and meaning of the articles of faith contained in them;
and, by the special protection of the Holy Ghost, invariably preserves
the same by tradition from father to son, according to the promises of
Christ. But the church receives no new revelation of faith, and adds
nothing to that which was taught by the apostles: 2dly, Its decisions
are not supernaturally infallible in matters of fact, as scripture
histories are, but only in matters of faith. Nor do Catholics say that
its expressions, even in decisions of faith, are strictly dictated by
the Holy Ghost, or suggested from him, by any immediate revelation or
inspiration; but only that the church is directed by his particular
guidance, according to his divine truths, revealed and delivered to his
church by his apostles. As to the Roman Breviary, the prayers consist,
for the greatest part, of the psalms, and other parts of the holy
scriptures, to which the same respect is due which we pay to the divine
books. The short lessons from the Homilies, or other works of approved
fathers, especially those fathers who are mentioned by Gelasius I. in
his decree, carry with them the authority of their venerable authors. As
it was the custom in the primitive ages to read, in the churches or
assemblies, the acts of the most illustrious martyrs, of which frequent
mention is made in those of St. Polycarp, &c., some short histories of
the martyrs and other saints have been always inserted in the Breviary,
to which only an historical assent is due, whence they have been
sometimes altered and amended. These are chiefly such as are judged
authentic and probable by the cardinals Baronius and Bellarmin, who
revised those lessons, in the last correction under Clement VIII.
Gavant, who was himself one of the revisers of the Breviary, and
secretary to the congregation, writes thus, (in Breviar. sect. 5, c. 12,
n. 15, p. 18:) 'The second lessons from the histories of the saints were
revised by Bellarmin and Baronius, who rejected what could be justly
called in question: in which difficult task they thought it best to
restore the truth of history with the least change possible, and to
retain those things which had a certain degree of probability, and had
the authority of some grave voucher, though the contrary sentiment had
perhaps more patrons.' In computing the years of the popes, the
chronology of Baronius was judged the most exact, and retained.
Historical facts, nowise revealed or contained in scripture, cannot be
made an object of divine faith. If edifying histories are inserted in
the church-office, they stand upon their own credit. Such only ought to
be chosen which are esteemed authentic. This rule has been always
followed when any were compiled. If the compilers are found afterwards
to have been mistaken, it is nowhere forbid to correct them.[1] This has
been often done by the order of several popes."
Footnotes:
1. Nimia profecto almplicitate peccant qui scandalizantur quoties
audiunt aliquid ex jam olim creditia et juxta breviarii prescriptum
hodiedum recitandis, in disputationem adduci.--_Diss. Ballandic{e}._
vol. 2, p. 140.
IX. 7. Among the _modern collections of the Lives of Saints_, of which
our authors availed himself, in the work we are speaking of, the
histories which different religious have written of their own orders,
hold a distinguished place. But he was indebted to no work so much as
the _Acta sanctorum of the Bollandists_. That noble collection was first
projected by Father Roswede of the society of Jesus. He died before he
had completely digested his plan. Fortunately for the lovers either of
sacred history or sacred literature, it mm taken up by father Bollandus
of the same society, and has been carried down to the eleventh day of
October inclusive. Those who, after Bollandus's decease, succeeded him
in his undertaking, were from him called Bollandists.
As far as the editor has been able to learn, the work was composed by
the following authors, and published in the number of volumes and years
following:
No. of Vols. Years of their
Months. all in folio. appearance. Authors.
January Two, 1643 ........... Bollandus and Henschenius
February Three, 1658 ........... Bollandus and Henschenius
March Three, 1668 ........... Henschenius and
Papebrochius
April Three, 1675 ........... Henschenius and
Papebrochius
May Seven, 1680-1688....... Henschenius, Papebrochius,
Baertius, and Janningus
{027}
June Six, 1695--1715...... Henschenius, Papebrochius,
Baertius, Janningus,
and Sollerius
July Seven, 1719--1731...... Janningus, Sollerius,
Pinius, Cuperius, and
Boschinus.
August Six, 1733--1743...... Sollerius, Pinius,
Cuperius, Boschius, and
Stiltingus
September Eight, 1746--1762...... Pinius, Stiltingus,
Limpenus, Veldius,
Suyskenius, Pericrius,
and Cleus.
October Five 1765--1786...... Stiltingus, Suyskenius,
Perierius, Byeus, Boaeus,
Gnesquierus, Hubenus,
and Fronsonus.
Antwerp was the scene of the labors of the Bollandists. They were
engaged on them, when the enemies of every thing sacred arrived there
under Pichegru. The most eminent of the Bollandists was Father
Papebroke, a rival of the Petaviuses, the Sirmonds, and Mabillons: one
of those men who exalt the character of the society to which they
belong, and the age in which they live. The Spanish Inquisition
condemned some of the volumes in which he was concerned, but afterwards
retracted the censure. Several dissertations, replete with various and
profound erudition, are interspersed in the body of the work; they are
equally distinguished by the learning, and the soundness and sobriety of
criticism which appear in them. It would be an irreparable loss to the
Christian world that the work should not be completed. The principal
dissertations have been printed, in three volumes folio, at Venice, in
1749-59. Those who wish to see an account of the controversy which
produced or was occasioned by the sentence of the Inquisition, may
consult the _Acta Eruditorum_, 1696, p. 132-500.
IX. 8. Another source of information, of which our author availed
himself in the composition of his work, was the _Acts of the
Beatification and Canonization of the Saints_.
The name of _Martyr_ was given by the ancient church to those who had
suffered death for the faith of Christ; the name of _Confessor_ was
applied to those who had made a public profession of their faith before
the persecutors. It was afterwards extended to those who had edified the
church by their heroic virtues. St. Martin of Tours is generally
supposed to have been the first saint to whom the title of confessor was
applied in the last sense.
Originally, every bishop had the privilege of canonizing saints, or
declaring them entitled to the honors which the Catholic church bestows
on her saints. The council of Cologne, cited by Ivo of Chartres, forbids
the faithful to show any public mark of veneration to any modern saint,
without the permission of the diocesan. A capitulary of Charlemagne in
801 is to the same effect.
Pope Alexander III. is supposed to have been the first pope who reserved
the exclusive privilege of canonizing saints to the holy see. It was
recognised by the church of France at a council at Vienne, in which the
bishops, addressing themselves to pope Gregory IX., expressly say, "that
no sanctity, however eminent, authorizes the faithful to honor the
memory of a saint, without the permission of the holy see."
The present mode of proceeding in the canonization of saints,
principally takes its rise from the decree of pope Urban VIII., dated
the 13th of March, 1625. By that he forbade the public veneration of
every new saint, not beatified or baptized; and particularly ordered
that no one, even in private, should paint the image of any person,
whatever might be his reputation for sanctity, with a crown or {}e of
light round his head; or expose his picture in any sacred place, or
publish a history of his life, or a relation of his virtues and
miracles, without the approbation of his diocesan: that if, in a work so
approved of, the person were called saint, or blessed, those words
should only be used to denote the general holiness of his life, but not
to anticipate the general judgment of the church. His holiness adds a
form of protestation to that effect, which he requires the authors to
sign, at the beginning and end of their works. This regulation of pope
Urban is so strictly attended to, that a single proof of the infraction
of it, and even the omission of a definite sentence that there has been
no infraction of it, makes the canonization of the saint impossible, and
invalidates the whole of the proceedings. The only exception is, in
favor of those saints who are proved to have been immemorially venerated
for a hundred years and upwards, before 1634, the year in which pope
Urban's bull was confirmed.
The beatification of a saint is generally considered as a preliminary to
his canonization. It is a kind of provisional permission, authorizing
the faithful to honor {028} the memory of the person beatified; but
qualified as to the place or manner. A decree of pope Alexander VIII. in
1659, prohibits the faithful from carrying those honors farther than the
bull of beatification expressly permits.
The proceedings of beatification or canonization are long, rigorous, and
expensive. 1st, The bishop of the diocese institutes a process, in the
nature of an information, to inquire into the public belief of the
virtues and miracles of the proposed, and to ascertain that the decree
we have mentioned of pope Urban VIII. has been complied with: this
proceeding begins and ends with the bishop, his sentence being
conclusive. 2dly, The acts of this proceeding, with the bishop's
sentence, are sealed up, then taken to the congregation of rites: and
deposited with the notary. 3dly, The solicitors for the congregation
petition for publication of the proceedings. 4thly, This is granted; and
the proceedings, being first legally verified, are opened before the
cardinal-president of the congregation, 5thly, The pope is then
requested to refer the business to a particular cardinal to report upon
it. 6thly, This being granted, the writings of the proposed, if he be
the author of any, are laid before the cardinal-reporter. 7thly, He
appoints a commission to assist him, and, with their assistance, makes
his report. If one formal error against faith, one direct opinion
contrary to morals, be round in them, it puts a total end to the
proceedings, unless the author, in his life, expressly retracted it. "A
general protestation;" says Benedict XIV., "the most sincere submission
of all opinions to the authority of the Catholic church, saves the
author from criminality, but does not prevent the effect of this
rigorous escalation." 8thly, Hitherto the proceedings are not in
strictness before the pope; but, from this sage of the business, the
affair wholly devolves on his holiness. He signs a commission to the
congregation of rites to institute and prosecute the process of
beatification; but, before this commission is granted, ten years must
have expired, from the time when the acts of the diocesan were first
lodged with the congregation of rites. 9thly; The congregation of rites
appoints commissaries, whom the pope delegates, to inform themselves of
the virtues and miracles are the proposed. The commissaries usually are
bishops, and the bishop of the diocese where the proposed is buried is
usually one of them; but laymen are never employed. The proceedings of
the commissaries are secret, and carried on and subscribed with the
strictest order and regularity, and in great form; the last step in
their proceedings is to visit the tomb of the deceased, and to draw out
a verbal process of the state in which his remains are found. The
original of the proceedings is left with the bishops; a legalized copy
is taken of them, and returned by a sworn courier to the congregation of
rites. 10thly, The solicitors for the congregation then pray for what is
called a decree of attribution, or that an inquiry may be made into each
particular virtue and miracle attributed to the proposed: 11thly, Upon
this, they proceed to make the inquiry, beginning with the virtues and
ending with the miracles; but of the former they can take on notice in
this stage of the business, till fifty years from the time of the
proposed's decease: in the case of a martyr, his martyrdom alone, with
proof both of the heroism with which it was suffered, and of its having
been suffered purely and absolutely in the cause of Christ, is supposed
to make an inquiry into his virtues unnecessary. 12thly, The final
determination of the cause is settled in three extraordinary
congregations, called the antepreparatory, the preparatory, and the
general. The virtues to be approved of must be of the most heroic kind:
the number of miracles is, in strictness, limited to two. The pope
collects the vows of the assembly; and two-thirds of it, at least, must
agree in opinion, before they come to a resolution. He then pronounces
what is called a private sentence, before the promoter and the secretary
of the congregation of St. Peter. 13thly, A general congregation is then
held, to determine whether it be advisable to proceed to the
beatification of the proposed. 14thly, Three consistories are afterwards
held. l5thly, The pope then signs the brief of beatification. The
publication of it is performed in the church of the Vatican. The
solicitor for the beatification presents the brief to the
cardinal-prefect; he remits it to the cardinal-archpriest of the church
where the ceremony is held. The cardinal-archpriest reads it aloud; the
Te Deum is sung, a collect in honor of the beatified is read, and mass
is solemnized in his honor. 16thly, When the proceedings for the
beatification are completed, the proceedings for the canonization begin.
But it is necessary that, before any thing be done in them, new miracles
should be wrought. When the solicitor for the canonization is satisfied
that he can prove by judicial evidence the existence of these miracles,
he presents a petition for resuming the {029} cause. 17thly, Three
congregations extraordinary, a general assembly, and three consistories,
are held for the purpose of pronouncing on the new miracles, and
determining whether it be prudent to proceed to canonization. 18thly,
This being determined upon, the pope issues the brief of canonization,
and, soon after, the ceremonial follows. It begins by a solemn
procession: an image of the saint is painted on several banners. When
the procession arrives at the church where the ceremony is performed,
the pope seats himself on his throne, and receives the usual homage of
the court. The solicitor for the cause and the consistorial advocate
place themselves at the feet of his holiness, and request the
canonization; the litanies are sung; the request is made a second time;
the _Veni Creator_ is sung; the request is made a third time; the
secretary announces that it is the will of the pope to proceed
immediately upon the canonization; the solicitor requests that the
letters of canonization may be delivered in due form; his holiness
delivers them, and the first prothonotary calls on all the assembly to
witness the delivery. The _Te Deum_ is sung, and high mass is
solemnized.
The decree of canonization is usually worded in these terms: "To the
glory of the Holy Trinity, for the exaltation of the Catholic faith, and
the increase of the Christian religion: In virtue of the authority of
Jesus Christ, of the holy apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and our own,
after due deliberation and frequent invocations of the heavenly light,
with consent of our venerable brethren, the cardinals, patriarchs,
archbishops, and bishops, present at Rome, we declare the blessed N. to
be a saint, and we inscribe him as such in the catalogue of the saints.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen."
Such is the outline of the process of canonization. It must be added,
that the strictest evidence is required of every thing offered in proof.
It is laid down as a universal rule, which admits of no exception, that
the same evidence shall be required, through the whole of the process,
as in criminal cases is required to convict an offender of a capital
crime; and that no evidence of any fact shall be received, if a higher
degree of evidence of the same fact can possibly be obtained. Hence, a
copy of no instrument is admitted, if the original be in existence; no
hearsay witness is received, if ocular testimony can be produced. The
rigorous examination of every circumstance offered to be proved has
excited the surprise of intelligent Protestants. Miracles, which to them
seemed proved to the utmost degree of demonstration, have, to their
surprise, been rejected. Whatever there is most awful in religion, most
sacred in an oath, or most tremendous in the censures of the church, is
employed in the process of canonization to elicit truth and detect
falsehood. Every check and countercheck is used, which slowness of
proceeding, or a repetition of it in other stages and under different
forms, can effect. The persons employed in it are the members of the
Roman Catholic church, the most exalted by their rank, and the most
renowned for their virtues and talents. When the proceedings are
concluded, they are printed and exposed to the examination of the whole
world. The sixth volume of the celebrated treatise of Benedict XIV. on
the beatification and canonization of saints, contains the acts of the
saints canonized by himself.