Volume III, Treatise III, Chapter IX

What Has Been Said in the Preceding Chapter, Ws Confirmed by Several Examples,

In the book of the illustrious characters of the Cistercian order, —Lib. Viror. Illust. Ord. Cisterc.—we read that one of their abbots in Saxony, not being content to wear the cloth of that country, sent every year into Flanders to buy finer for his own habit. After his death, his clothes were ‘distributed amongst the religious, and the prior kept an under garment for himself, which he put on upon the eve of a great festival, and had no sooner done so, but he cried aloud, as if hot plates of iron had been applied to his flesh, so great was the pain he felt. The religious hearing this noise presently ran to him, in whose presence he immediately pulled off the garment, and threw it upon the ground. They were much surprised to see it look like red-hot iron, and all those who had got any of the deceased abbot’s clothes, being terrified at this sight, immediately brought them to the same place, and threw them all in a heap together, when they forthwith took fire, and by their sparks and flame seemed a burning furnace. The fire miraculously lasted so long, that they had time to advertise the abbots of the neighbouring monasteries, who saw it, and bore testimony of it afterwards.

Cesarius tells us, that the Benedictine monks of a monastery in France, being much oppressed by a gentleman that lived near them, resolved to make their complaints to (Philippians 1) They made choice of a young religious of noble extraction to present their petition, in hopes that the consideration of his family might procure him a more speedy and favourable audience of his majesty. The young monk being presented to the king, prefers his complaints, demands justice, and begs that the gentleman might be obliged to restore what he had taken from their monastery. The king for some time looking upon him, and observing his habit and comportment, asked him who he was? Having answered that he was the son of a | ‘person of quality well known to the king, he began to talk of

another matter, till the monk interrupted him, saying: Sire,

it is certain that this gentleman has deprived us of almost all

we had, and scarce left anything in the monastery. I easily

believe it, replied the king, for it appears so by your shoes,

which would not have been so tight, had he left one bit of leather more in your convent. This remark, however, his. Majesty graciously sweetened, by adding: Make it your busi-

ness for the: future, to surpass the rest of your religious as

much in humility as you exceed them in quality, and be not

troubled at what I have said, since it is for your good; return

home to your monastery, and I will give orders that you be

no longer annoyed by this gentleman.

The same Cesarius sets down a similar answer made by another Philip, king of the Romans, to a Bernardine abbot, who was representing the great poverty of his convent. His majesty noticing the tightness of his shoes, told him that he perceived by them that his convent was very poor, seeing they were so sparing of leather.

We read in the chronicles of the Franciscans, that a guardian of that order, and an intimate friend of St. Francis, having built a chapel for his religious, ordered that a cell should be built very near it, to which the saint might retire to perform his devotions when he came there, and be in consequence induced to stay the longer withthem. The first time he came there, the guardian conducted him to his cell, which was made only of ordinary timber: the saint, however, no sooner saw it, but he said, that if the guardian wished him to stop there, he should cover it at the top, on the inside, with boughs of trees tied together with osiers, that be might have a true picture of poverty, and this being done accordingly, the saint staid there for some days.

St. Francis Borgia, as may be seen in his life, gave most signal proofs of his real love of poverty. His habit, his diet, his chamber and bed were truly poor. Poverty appeared in the very paper he used to write his sermons on, in the fire they made sometimes for him in his greatest necessity, and in a thousand other things like to these. He came to such perfection of poverty that they could not prevail on him to change his shoes and stockings; and once, his old stockings being taken away, and a pair of new ones put in their place without his knowledge, he obliged them to bring the old ones back again. When he went begging, he chose rather to eat of the scraps of bread he brought home with him, than of the loaves that were laid upon the table. In his longest journeys and worst health, he would never take a pair of sheets along with him, for he thought this against holy poverty. He passed many nights upon a little straw, exposed to the open air; and he took such satisfaction herein as caused astonishment in his fellow-travellers. He had only one cloak, winter and summer, and to preserve it the longer, he caused it to be lined. It was not without the greatest difficulty he was persuaded to ride in boots; and he would never have more than one hat, which he thought a sufficient defence against sun and rain. In travelling, he often came to his inn all wet and shivering with cold, and it was an extraordinary joy to him when he met with no manner of convenience or comfort in this condition. Though he was ever so sick, and the weather extremely cold, yet he would never admit of anything about his bed, or in his chamber, which might keep the wind from him. Nay, he deemed a little mat, which was fastened to the head of his bed, to have too much delicacy in it, and the high state he had forsaken made all these things much more admirable in him,

About ReligiousBookshelf.com · A Supernerd Media project