Full text of "LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS"

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AS IJKPRKSKNTKD IN TI1K PIKE AHTB, 



FUHMiKiJ TMM HK(*oXl&gt; HMHlKtt OK HACKKD AND LlfiUKNPAIttT AUT 



JY MUM. ,1 A MESON, 



NK\V K1MTION. 



LONDON: 

L ( ) N &lt; \ M A N S, 0- R E E N, A N D O. 

A XD NKW YOHK: 15 MAST 10"&gt; STEB10T. 
1 890, 



BINDERY WV 9 



CONTENTS. 



VAOK 
xm 



I. General Character and Influence of Monastic Art tlgli- 
nms and Samtm erts of tint Bepresentationa. Historical 

and Moral Importance of tlio Monastic Subjects, 
generally and individually. Contrast between the 
lUiuwluvtirie Picturtw and those of the Mendicant Orders xvii 
II. Distinction toetweeu the Devotional and thn Historical 

Subjects . * . . - - . xxvi 

III. Pounders, Habits, and Attributes of tlio different Oxxlera . xxix 

IV, Principal Churches and Edifices of the various Orders xxxix 

ST. BENEDICT AND TllK EA.ULY BKNEDICTINES IN ITALY, 
PRANO K, SPAIN, AND INLANDERS. 



Origin of tli BwuHlietim^. KUiiea of the Bmicdictinoa interesting 
and MUgsHtivtt under Three Point* of View. AH MidHionaries, and 
as tho Doptmitariws of Learning, AB Artita, Archi^ctB^ and 
MuHicianfl. Art Agncnlturiftte* Principal Saints of the Bcmceliefcine 

Order * - - * * * 

ST. BENMIHCT, Tho Legend. Ilia Sister, St. Hchokstica. His Dis- 
cipliw, Ht MatttUH, St. Pkci&lt;lu% and Bt Flavin- Pictures of St. 

Benedict* Th proper Hrtl)it,Bomiitmio white, nncl aomotimos hlack. 

Attributou of Bt Benedict Example* of Devotional Figures, 

Subjects from Im Lifa "by varioiw Painters. Legend of the Dead 

Nuns * * * * - . . 7 

ST. iLDWtroNSO. FamouH in Spanwli Art IBs Vision of the Virgin. 

Urn ViHicm of St. Loocadia . - * * * 24 

ST. BAVON* Tli Legcmd. Pictures of the Saint Story of the Slave 20 
ST. GUMB. Origin of the Legend - . - * - B 

BT. BINBDWT OF ANIAN and ST. WX&MEAM OF AQUITATNB . .31 

ST. Nxius OF QROTTA F.KEEATA. Legend of St. NiluB and the 

Emperor Otho. Frescoes of Domeniclxiao at Grotta Ferrata , 32 



THK F.KXFjmTlXKS IX FA tn.VNM \XH IX &lt;;F.UMAM. 

us &lt;MmnTt&lt;*d \v ith &gt;ur Hi* fury, K,*rlir&lt;t Kn;;! it&gt;**,*ii t Si* !M ts. i 
St. Allaii, Tin* Lrf nd* Fttvt Iutt d &lt;nUt&lt;*tifn of &lt;*hriMun-.fv into 

tin** of t Vntrrhnry,, f Si, I .mlinu;* uf Vvlk, nf Si, F* itn t i| 

of St. Itiltla of WUitUy of St, KMa **f I *tl*lni-;!ii!in **f c*jHlion 
tlm I%ut of St. riml of !IchfHi) f of St. (inthU- of (*tn\t&gt;mti. nl 

St. Ktlirlhrr;^!, of St. Kllit*1i r4a (trf ivfr i.riilnl in Fly * *.tt li*iiivil\ 
of St, \VHnir;^i of i *ln i j&lt;ti*f. St. Khth nf l*Mjr, \i Uh, a?ul St. 



Jarity in &lt;f*rtnatiy St. KwaM tin* Illarlt, nnI Sf, Kvi-.tlil t1i* Fiur. 
*St. SwitHrrt. St. IJ*von, St. Wiill^ir^a, St. Ottilia, Hi, S*l* B iI4 

&gt;t^jiitoi4 uf th Hnj;IIf*!i U^tMMiirtiniM wifhlli** Kt*tan Kisrr, | t i\: ii*l 

Marty tilotu of K Itt^ l^liiuin*!, St, N ot. Nt, S*vif!;Mj. NI HuiiNtatH 
IHM Li*^*inl ; hi -4 Skill HH u* Artist ; a* 11 ^Itra-rtun atifii M Fi^titr, 
St. Edith of Wilton , , . , . , . H4 

ii}.jtnilM ff St. Kihvard tin* Martyr and St. K*h*ard fliu ^ f ^niVn;.Mr 



TUF2 HBKOUMKI) nKNK 



r1nw of t-h Moral Iitflnoitw ami tHfiri^tln^ of UM Otitir ttffonu 

of th Ohlrr in Italy * , , , , it;| 

hti&gt;KU of CJAMAI4HH4, li^&lt;nul of St. HomtuiMo, Ft^itrn of 
Ht. Itoiuualilo iu tin* Early Klor^ntiim KoiumU TUt* Viwiun of Hi, 



Tiiw Otumit OF VAtM&gt;M!immA. I^**nit of Hfc, John O 
l*imlttr at Klortna?- Bultjsnt frutti Uiw LilX TIo * tiu 
of VallnmltroHH. Ht tlruiltk - , * 

THK OAIVTKUHUKH. Origin, Intorwi, unit hn|mrtitn^ &lt;*f tlm )r4^r In 
cimnuction with Art* L&lt;KnU of Ht. ,Hrunt&gt; uti n*tin*ntotinl by !*ti 
Suiui^ ]&gt;y Zurl&gt;aran, by (?nriliu*.hu. Thw (nmrtf*r&gt;Himyw In Lmulm* 
St Hugh of Orvnoblu. Ht. Hui;h of Lim-ohs, Murtyr, Wlit^r Infuut 
Martyrs . , . . , , , 



CONTENTS, 



PAGE 

TIIM GiBTKiicuNs. Popularity of the Order, St Bernard of Clairvaux. 
Tho Legend. Hia Learning and Celebrity. Preaches tlie Second 
OruBade, Pictures and EfligicB of St. Bernard. Habit and Attri 
butes, Devotional Subjects. The Vision of St. Bernard. Popu 
larity of this Subject Li ch field Cathedral. Historical Subjects, 
St. Bernard in the Cathedral of Spires .... 138 

TIIM OLIVKTANB. Bt, Bernard Ptolomei, Founder. St. Francesca 
Roniana, Popularity of hir Kiligies at lloine * . . 148 

ST. OitAHijKS BORBOMEO, His Character. Hin Influence in the Reform, 
of the Church, II is great Charity. The Plague at Milan. Effigies 
of St. Charles. Scenes from 1m Life. Palestrina . . . 153 

ST. Prom* NKEL Founder of the Qratorians. Legend of the Massixni 
Family. Pictures of St. Philip Ncri . .161 

The Port-Royalists : La Mfero Atigt .liquo ; Jaquelino Pascal ; Pictures 
by Philippe Champagne. The Trappistes: Story of Do Banc&lt; . 104 



EATILY ROYAL SAINTS CONNECTED WITH THE 
BENEDICTINE ORDER. 

lH^ies of Royal Saints not satisfactory ; ami why* St Charlemagne, 
St. Clotilda. St Cloud. St. Sigismond of Burgundy. St. Cyril 
and St MethodhtH, A)&gt;oHtloB of the Sclavomana, St "Wenceslaus of 
lUheinia, and St. Ludmilhu St. Henry of Bavaria. St. Cunegnntla, 
St, Stephen of Hungary, St. Leopold of Austria. St. Ferdinand of 
CaHtilo. Si (JaHimir of Poland . 168 



THE AIIOUSTINES. 

Origin of the Order. Their Patriarch, St Augustine. St. Monica. 

St. Prttrtok and Bt Bridget of Ireland . . . .101 

ST. NICHOLAS tw TOLMOTINO . . . . .10*7 
ST TIIOMAH or ViiiLANUBVA : his Popularity in Spain : Murillo s 

Picture 109 

HT, JOHN NWOMUOK. Tho Legend. Paton Saint of Bridges. Popu 
larity throughout Bohemia and, Aiwtrift .... 203 
HT, ,h(&gt;WKN/-o (IniHTiNiANL Popular at Venice. Pictures "by Oarpaccio, 

Uollini, and l*ari Bortlone . . . . 206 
HT, ItoSAtUA, oif l*4Wfliuic), The Sicilian Legend. Painted by Vandyck 
for ih JtiHtiltB 208 

ST, O^AHA, OF MONTFrFAIXO ...... 209 



vl 



lW HKUIVKI) FROM TflK M tJlTSTi N*K IM l.tt. 

Tlltf PUKMOXJ TUATIIX JIAN ^. Li r^ tl*] nf St NrhTf : Vaiin* Pi^ttUV: 

of him in the (*&lt;*rtuun SchL St. H* rnuu 1n "j*:t : PHmv ly 

Vnndyt k * . * . * * 

THM SHKVI. St. Philip IVnr;;l t hwvh &lt;f th* A;mwi/iat i &lt;tt 

Flori n i. Fir .mr,* |&gt;J4iiH-4 fir tht* Orl**r hy An4r\i *lrt S,irt&lt;&gt; ;nt 



IfiHV JVjUVi-viUft**} t . t * * * 

Tin-; Ojihiiu OK Ot u I/AI*Y op Mi;u*r\. I*\, ii*l . ! St. P*f^r Xoht *. 
Po|m1ur in S{&gt;nni:0 Art . 

TlUi P&gt;HUlTTIKa 1*4^1*11*1 ^f St. Bi idy:**! if Sttfttnt^ KtHuln: v 

Pnjnilar Iirpri 



ri;;in of tin 1 Afriiilicatit Orl*r.&lt; in flir f rhii1rfit!!i f \- 

nl St. l^rHlh l. Uilui St. I IntnUurU r *tl!f4 -trtl, ( M* th* it t\\n (*n 

tiitit .j* IH liu tii*u iti flttHl. Phy. .jo^iioiuy. fftnv chavu"t^tiit^t til 
Hunt**. Itnw ri in i^H iiliH! lv tit* 4 rnrly Paint* i - ; hy tho lHt**r Ht 
Pntrinii|;&lt;. of Art , 

HH FuAxriBrAKti, Tin*, 
wnUnl in th Frmu isriiti 



Tlu* Li*f,t* U Orlj, i j of th 
Pf)|Htliirity of Urn Kfti|.h*M &lt;f Ht* Friiitrlr^ Tlit^ IVvotiiinnl anul My" 
ti&lt;*nl HuhjtidH, Hingis Flguirei im F M&lt;U*r. Thr Sti^uuitu, Tin* 

Vision i&gt;f th Virgin mul Inftuit C?lir* Tin* |j*tn4 t*f th*s fliiMt* 

Hi/Fniticlrti HjH mH^i Poverty* FIVMHHM a tht* Illiuir ut 

f/iftt and MIra&lt;;ht, f i of Bt* I VutuijH^ us* a S^rh &lt;f Snhji** 

hy (thii liuuhijt), by H&lt;n*KU*tto da Muinxto St, Fiiuit*!- jmu!h**:* to 

ih^ Binln* Urn JUlmii uiiit!i*riiiiig Aiittual-J* Srjmrat** Sftl*jM i 

thtt Life of JSU Fruncm ..,. 

HT. (JLAIU* HVr lac^tuL Sim m tin*. Tyju* if Fitnul$* I*Ii*fy,, An 
ItquvHinit tit Inns oJ f Iur ; iw Atrftt)^ ; a-^ ili * Miptrtf Kf^rnlim/ PIt&gt; 
tunm from hr I Hutory , . * * 

Hf* AwTONf OF PADUA* Tint Li gruci Hh (JhuiHrli &i PiMhtn. Hi 
Life, as a Serku of Piciums ly Titian il othrm. Ht, Antony with 
tlt&lt; Inftmt OhtiRt * . , * * / 

^ Ctttxlitial t nntl Doctor of tin* Clmrdb * . 



CONTENTS, 



ST. BKENARPINO OF SJKNA, Habit and Attributes. Popularity of 

Ins Efligiew, Bernardino da Feltri, with the Monte-di-Pidd , 291 

ST. EUSUBKTII OF HuNQAuy. The Type of Female Charity. Beauty 
and Intern! of the Legends relating to her. Her Life. Devotional 
HqwjBcnlations of her popular throughout Europe. The Legend of 
the WORM. Pictures from her Life. Description of St. Elizabeth in 
the 4 Erliixlo of Wolf Ton Goethe. St Elizabeth of Portugal, the 
original II eroino of Schiller s Fridolin* . . . .297 

ST. Louis OF FRANCE, King ; and his Sister, ST. ISABELLA , .319 
ST, LOUIH OF Touw)UBE, Bishop ..... 325 

8r, MAUOAHKT OF OOHTONA ..... 328 

BT, IVKB OF BKKTAQNK . , . . . . .331 

ST. ELKAMR DM SABIIAN "...,.. 333 
ST. HOSA DI VITKUBO ....... 334 

B%\ FUANOIS DM PAULA ,,..,.. 334 
ST, JUAN DB BIOS ....... 338 

ST?, FKLIX DB CANTALIOTO .,.,.. 342 
ST DIEOO D*ALOArA. The Cappella Ilcrrera. Anecdote of Annilml 

Cttracci and Albano ...*... 344 
ST. VINCB^T DM PAULJW . * . . . . .347 

ST. PMTBII OF ALCANTARA , . . . , ,350 
ST. JOHN GAPIKTKANO , . . . , .351 

ST. PMTKR HKUALATO ,.-.,.. 352 
ST. OATHKIUNK OF BOLOONA ...... 352 

THM DOMINICANS. The principal Saints represented in the Dominican 

EdiiiccH. The proper Habit and general Character of the Order . 354 

ST. DOMINICK, The Legend. The^War with the Albigenses. The 
InHtitution of the Bosary, Ilia SUCCCSB m a Preacher. His Death, at 

Bologna* His Slmne, called a Area di San, Doniemco. Various 
Ittspresentations of St. Potiu ; f , and Pictures from his Life, by 

Angelieo and others 1 ;r " . . . , 3^ 

ST. POTKE MARTIB. The San Piotro Martire of Titian ; of Andrea del 

Sarto* Portrait of Savonarola as Peter Martyr . . * 371 
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS . * . , . * .375 
ST. OATUBBINB OF SIKNA* The Legend. Description of the City of 
Siemi and the Fonte-Branda, The Visions of St. Catherine. She 
induces the Pope to (put Avignon for Rome. Andrea Vaimi the 
Planter : his Portrait of St Catherine. Attributes and Pictures of 
St Catherine. She faints "before the Crucifix. She receives the 

Stigmata 381 

ST. AHTOHINO, AEOIIBISHOI* OF FLOKUNCH. His Friendship for Angelico 
daPiesole. Legends and Pictures of him at Florence . 397 



vltl OONTKNTh, 

PAOK 



ST. TiAYMONn OF PKNAPOSITK .,.. 403 
ST* VI NOMNT FKHHAIUH, or FKHIU:H , , . . 404 

ST. HYACINTH , . . . * * . * loft 

ST, LOVHH BKLTUAN ... , 4UH 



MKiiiTKS, l)5sputi &lt;l Origin of tlnw Onl*r. Principal ilar- 
tn*illlu Saints. Si. Albert* Hi, Angi*hin , * . ,411 

ST. THKHMHA, Ftuunlri i^ tf tin*, Ikir^Fuofi^i t^avtn^litou. Ihr History 
iuul (Hiaracter ilUtrcait il JIM a Sulyoet of Art* l*u*ltuvs of hrt. (,?la- 
tucicr (f St. Tlu iVNa Uy llnrrift Mtirtincau * * . .415 

ST. JUAK w, IIA t.liUTjs ....... 4*25 

Hi?. ANOIIKA &lt; Jdunrst ,****, 4^5 

ST. MMUA MADDAIIKNA i&gt;w* VAWAI . 4*JC1 

S&lt;KUli L 



THK JKSUITM. 

*^ of tin*, Jiwtiitrt on Arln atul Arllnf-H uttfuvouf{U.&gt;l^. Ifiilnt wi&lt;l 

Olmmctcr of th&lt; Onl&lt;*r , . lLH 

ST. ItJXATUW lit&gt;Vt&gt;tjA . . . 4!0 

ST. KUANCIK XAVIKR ... . 4**il? 

ST. FRAKCIH BCHUUA * . . . * . * 441 
ST STANIHLAH KOTXRA .*.* 445 

ST. LuUIB iiON7-A&lt;A * , * 445 



THE OEBEE OF THE VISITATION OF ST. MAUY. 



ST. FRANOIH i&gt;i 3 SAI.R.H ; atul MADAMK PK UHAKTA^J Oratlmoihor of 

,**,** 447 



"LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



1* Head of St. Benedict. After Perit$ino. Vatican. 

2* St Benedict. J^ull length; from an J&ngraviny l&gt;y 

8. Figure of St Benedict. Andrea JHfantegna. 

4* St. Giles tlie Hermit. XW&lt;MW a;. Lvydtn. 

5. St. NiluB. After Domenwhino* 

0, Angol. From the Chapel at Grotta-Perrata,. 

7. St. Helena. 2$oi&ser1$e Gallery. 

8. St. Helena and Constantino, Palma Vecc7iio. 
0. St. Bennut Bincop. From a Pnnt by Hollar, 

10. St (luililac. Awie.iit l&iglish Sculpture. 

1L Tho I)r( k .ani of Bt Elholrcda. Ancient Sculpture. 

12. St TfJthiilrcda. jtfaxun Miniature* 

13. St Ottilia. JProm a German Missal. 

14. St. BobiUd. Peter Viaoher. 

15. St Dunstan. JVom a Drawing 5;/ himself. 

10, St. Edmund and St. Edward the Confessor, / "Vom i/ie Diptych at 
Wilton. 

17. St* Tlxomas t^ Booket. From an old Print. 

18. Penance of Henry IL Ancient Stained Olass* 

19. Angel. 

SSO. St* Benedict and St Komimldo, Taddeo Oaddi. 

SiU St. Joliu Qualberto. JFra Angelica. 

22. St. Bruno* JSe? /S twwn 

4 23- St Bruno, Statue by lloudon* 

4. St Bruno, ^m^rea Savchi, 

25. St. Hugli of Grenoble. JS. v. Leyd&n, * 

20. St. Bernard, Anyelico d^ Fiesote* 

547. St Burnard writing a tlxe Praises of tlic Virgin. 
28. St Bernard* HofoaerBe Galtery. 
20* St IFrauceHca Romana. Domeniokino. 
30. St Oharlos Borroiueo* Le Brun* 

a 



MM* OF 



31. MtHiVal Aii .foLi. JA/fev* iff r/?/ff,V.*. 
Bsi. St&gt; Philip Nori, Hatw in *SV. /WcrV* 
;n. Tlir Nutw of Port Koyal. / */*/////* iV 
1M. Si* Si^Mtmwd* tti jtftji fft 
& p &gt;. St. LuiimHln. A* J/V.n 
IUJ, Si. Proroiurt. ,-t . ( r ttr*h i 



B. St, U*npy. 7. v/i -l/:Av/i, 

^*J, St. K&lt;nlinatU . .A/ it r it In. 

40* St, Kicht&gt;la of Tolrtifitm, (&gt;/,/ /V-/^v"^f/. 

iL St. Lotvnzo t JittHtitnani. (*&lt;:ntit IkilhiL 

la. Hua^i* of th^ th-Ur of Mi ivy. 

4n. St. IVtc*p Nulusvct. * 

4-L St* Domittu k aiul Hi. Fr 

45. A Fraiicimc iut* JKurl 

Hi. St. Fruur.iH* Uinnfa 

47. Hi. Kv 

4H. Si. Fr 

41), St. FraneiH. 

f0* Sfc. FruneiH otituiut&lt;rH Ptivorty, (MiiUtity* ntnl Oi 

1*wth** 

51. Si, 7**ran&lt;jxH priMirlun;^ it) tlu* lUrds, (finfttt, 
5^, St. (?lara. /Yr^/iW 
53. St. (Mara. JtitttrAhitttra. 
f&gt;4 St. (/lara, J**tMrtttt fit AWIM, 
r&gt;5. Hi, Autuny 

f)G, Mimdo of Si* Antony of Pttdua. 
57, St, Antony of Pixtiua with thu Infaut Ohrint. 
f)H, HU Jk jnav^uituu* /tuty/tiitf* 
fill St. Bernardino of Siena, 
CIO* Ht Bernardino 
ill. St. Bernardino. 
(12. St Elizabeth* Pr;/a 
(I3 Bfc* LOUIB. OW J^mna/i 
U St. LOUIH of TouloiiHU and Si- Uoimvi*nlura. 
05, Bt, Francis tie Puula. J/Vm//&lt;% 
00. HL FtOLx do Cantalicia Muritto. 
07* St- I^tor of Alcantara. Lutltwiou Canted. 



CD. St, 

70- Bt Bominick. 

7L St- Doiuiuick. 

7S&gt;. St Putev and St. Paul appear to St Dominlclt, 

73. Bt Peter Martyr. 6 y ma &lt;to Oanegliano* 

74. Jerome Savonarola aa St. Petur Martyr. 

75. St* Thomas A&lt;j[ttlnaB, 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



76. Yision of St. Catherine. 

77. St. Catherine of Siena* Portrait. Andrea VannL 

78. St. Oathorino and St. Domiuick. Sasso Ferrate. 

79. St Catherine fainting. Ram. 
SO. St. Antonino. D. QJdrlandajo. 

81. St. Theresa. L Bmn. 

82. St. Theresa. Spanish. 

83. St. Theresa. lialum. 

84. St. Ignatius Loyola. Rubem. 

85. A Monk received into Parudiwe. Angelioo. 

80. Angel, JlcmmeUnek 

87. A Monk at his Devotions. Overbeck* 

88, Angel, P. Angelwo. 



ffitcfjhtp. 

L The Saints of Vallombrosa. 1. The Archangel Michael 2, StGual- 
berto as Founder. 3. St. Benedict as Patriarch. 4, St. Bernardo 
Cavdinale, a famous Al&gt;l&gt;ot of the Order. Ironi Peruyino s Picture 
of tlm Assumption of the Virgi%: painted for the Convent of Vallom- 
brom; now in the Florence Academy, 

II. The Benedictine Saints. In the centre St. Boniface, to tlie right St. 
Mmirus and St. Placidus, to the left St. Scholastica and St. Justina of 
Padua. After a dwitfii by Benedetto Mont&gm. The introduction of 
St. Jufllma shows that the design was made for an altarpieec at the 
time the Benedictines were rebuilding their church, the San Giustina, 
at Padua. The group appears to have been popular, as it occurs on a 
diHh of Raphael ware which I saw in the collection of Medieval Works 
of Art exhibited in 1850. 

III, St, Boniface embarks at Southampton on his mission to Germany. 
After the Fresco of IMnmh Jfm 9 at Munich* 

IV, L St. Sebald, Patron of Nuremberg: after Ham U&ctm. 2. St. 
Ewald heals a maniac : after Martin llm&kirk 

V. The Virgin, viaits St Bernard. 1. After the Picture by Oiottino in 
the Florence Academy, 2. After th* Picture by Fra Filippo Lippi, the 
Carmelite. 

VI. The Vision of St Bernard. After the Picture ty Murillo at Seville: 
etc/Md from a dotyp& iakm from the original Picture tyj Mr. 
Stirling, 



3d! LIST OF tU 

VI L Thtt Olwrity of Hi, Tlwnwn of Yilkuwva, Aft ft Mvrilh; ;w,W 
fw MM (fart tad tit *SVr///r, Tho dflnti|t if* from a t f nlni\ jm tak&lt;n by 
Mr. Stirling ; the original pulim* hiw tirvi-r lnn rngrawd. 

VI [I. r riu, FnuiciHrnn Suints. 1. St. I*fUiav*iili!ni and St. Antony of 
JPwhm, S?. St, I/oui-* nf Toul&gt;U Ms uul St. lrrnarliiu* nf Sinia. J! 

Hi, Olara ami S{, (Ulln riitt* f At^xmitiria, iw typ of pltly nii4 



wisom, or j nnctty an fieo^na 

IX. St, Fninris. "I, Thr Vi^itm of Si, KraurvJ hi Ibc ror/.iimoula ; &lt;//Vrr 
()p,riwfc t ;&gt;, Tlu nttm 1 nuljirt : v/i?r fy^fa. II S|. Fntnriu r- 

rriv&lt;*;; flip Stij iiufa : irf&gt;r 6 /o//,, 4, 4f&gt;r { %^/i\ f, /f/A7* //iii/.i* 
ttwhi, (I r rii^ KfpfuKV of K| Kraurii! : ff/V^f LmifL 7. St Krui i 
at liin IV r votion;&lt; : ri/fr*;* f)wnnt}&lt; ltitw&gt; For llii:t rtrhiii;( I 11111 
iiidi hfi d in fly* kindtio. U and f^in nf Mr, 



X. Ht, Elixabt ili of lltiiiioitT* L /l/ /rr An^rffcn /rt ^V^&gt;/*&gt;; /&gt;**i 

Mft7i. wirirle m^/i&lt;? Jrnfliwj/ | rtrttyw* 55, /l/Vr /jW/Wii, II 4 |; 
(hiwbfck, 

XI. Hi, Tlit tiwi pliniftln;r lit the iVff of out S niMnr for Uu Soul.* i 



PREFACE. 



IK PRESENTING to the public this Second Series of SACRED AND 
p LEGENDARY ART, I can but refer to the Preface and general Intro- 
|/2 duction prefixed to the First Series for an explanation of the purpose 
fU of the work as a whole, and the motives from which it was first 
flf undertaken, 

amniii m 

I spoke of it there as, at best, only an attempt to do what has not 
hitherto been done to interpret, as far as I could in a limited space, 
and with very imperfect knowledge, those works of Art which, the 
churches and galleries of the Continent, and our own rich collections, 
have rendered familiar to iis as objects of taste, while they have 
remained unappreciated as subjects of thought ; to show that, while 
we have boon satisfied to regard sacred pictures merely as decorations, 
valued more for the names appended to them than for their own sakes, 
we have not sufficiently considered them as books as poems as 
having a vitality of their own for good and for evil, and that thus we 
have shut out a vast source of delight and improvement, which lay in 
the way of many, even the most uninstructed in the technicalities 
of Art. 

This was the object I bad in view knowing that, doing my best, 
I could do BO more nor better than make the first step in a new 
direction. No one can, feel more strongly than myself the deficiencies 
of the First Series of this work. That it has met with groat and 
unhoped-for success, is no evidence of its merit; but rather a proof 
that it did, opportunely, supply a want, which, as I had felt myself, I 
thought others might fed also. 



for the gtmtle and generous toiw of criticism towardtt that 

public and private I am deeply grateful But, in tliin 

Kori&t, 1 nliall require even more cnpacially tho c^amlmtr aiitl forbear 

ance of tho reader* 

To speak of the religious picture* pnintel for tlut mo*M?&lt;tio cmmim* 
intioB, and to avoid altogether any alhuucm to disputed point* of faith, 
of history, of character, has Iwcn impoHHibltt. It wn wwd cf tin* Hrat 
jStTiett, by ati authority for which I havo A high rtpw% that I had 

* spoiled my Imok by not making it Jtvman, C*ttht*lic* But I am 
not a Itumiui Catholic ; how, therefore, could I hoiuwtly wiitu in thu 
tone of thought, feeling^ conviction, natural mid bC!t&gt;m!nx in if of 

that faith ? 1 have had to tread what till will ullciw t lm diRUntlt and 
dangoroiui ground* How wa thin to tn&gt; doiiii nafoly, and without 
o{foncu% oaily givtni in tlumc days 1 Not, urly f by wwwvlnjj; to th 
right or to tho left ; not by thu air^tatiou of mvttdour ; not by 
leaving wholly cuudo anpcctn of chanuUor and moral*! which thin 
department of tlm Fino Art^, thti rwproHiitatit*n of lifts 

nocoti)arily plai*o bnforo UH. Thera wan only emit wny in wlitr.h th 
tiisk undurtaktm could Im tuMimxl in a right tplrit Ijy going 
straight forward, according to tho t&gt;ext Hghte I hud^aiul yittg what 
appeared to me th truthj an far at my tstibjeet mjuiwl, it ; and my 
subject* let ma ropoat it iwthistie^ not religious* 

This h too much of ogotium* but it h becoiwo nocoiwary to avoitl 
ambiguity, 1 will only add tit s as from the beginning to Urn end of 
this book there in not one word to my OWE ftwtli my own fooling 
no 1 truly hope there is not one WOK! which ou giv oifoneo to tha 
earnest and devout reader a any peuaion ;-"if thore b^ I am 
cam I say more 1 



The arrangement is that which naturally offmt ifomlf; but, in 
olaaaiag the wider tho variouii Owkw, I liavj not iHdan 

tidily sadhwed to this iyntem : it will bo found tlmfc I cb|nrtcl 

from it oecaslonally, wliere the eubjoettt fell into groupn, or warn to 
be found m the same picture** Much lias botm omittol, and omitted 
with regret, to keep tbe volume within thock portable dimeiiHion* 011 



PREFACE. 



which its utility and its readability depended. If it be asked on what 
principle the selection has been made, it wcmld be difficult to reply. 
I have just followed out the course of my own thoughts niy own 
associations. If I have succeeded in carrying my readers with me, 
there needs no excuse : they can pursue the path into which I have 
led them, to far wider knowledge and higher results. But if so far 
they find it difficult or tedious to accompany me, what excuse would 
avail ? 

Here, as in the former series, the difficulty of compression has been 
the greatest of all my difficulties ; it was hard sometimes, when in the 
full career of reflection or fancy, to pull up, turn short round, and 
retrace my steps, lest I should be carried beyond the limits absolutely 
fined by the nature and object of the work. There was great tempta 
tion to load the text with notes of reference to authorities, or notes 
of comment where such authorities were disputed and contradictory ; 
but I found it would only encumber, not elucidate, the matter in 
hand. The authorities consulted are those enumerated in the Preface 
to the First Series, with the addition of separate and authentic 
biographies of the most remarkable persons. To Mr. Maitland s 
Essays on the Dark Ages; to Sir James Stephen s Essays in 
Ecclesiastical Biography; and to Lord Lindsay s beautiful work on 
Christian Art, 1 have been largely indebted, and have great pleasure 
in thus acknowledging my obligations. 

Of the illustrations both woodcuts and etchings 1 I will say 
nothing, for they are to be considered merely as sketches helps to 
the memory and the fancy. To illustrate the book as it ought to be 
illustrated, would have involved an expense which would have 
rendered it inaccessible to the general reader, and thus defeated its 
purpose* It would not be difficult for those interested in the subject 
to collect a little portfolio of engravings after the pictures referred to, 
which, placed in the same order, would be, as a series, most interesting 
and suggestive in itself, as well to illustrative of tjie pages which 
follow. 



PRKFAt K. 



NOTE TO THE 8KOONI) KWTtONT, 



IN riiKPAiuNa tlit) Second Kdition for the prenfy tho authors*** ha 

availed licimelf of tho opportunity to cornet tlu work ^awfully 

tlirouglumt ; to Innerfc muoh adtlitlonal tuattor mid wwral new 
legcndHy an well an many new ill uwt rations, which will IH^ found to 
incrcAMO materially any value or interest the lH&gt;ok may ponscna nn a 
vohxmo of reference* 





8T 



Introduction, 



i. 

IN tlie first series of this work, I reviewed the scriptural personages 
and the poetical and traditional saints of the early ages of the Church, 
as represented in Art. 

I endeavoured to show that these have, and ought to have, for us a 
deep, a lasting, a universal interest j that even where the impersonation 
has been, through ignorance or incapacity, most imperfect and inade 
quate, it is still consecrated through its original purpose, and through 
its relation to what we hold to be most sacred, most venerable, most 
beautiful, and most gracious, on earth or in heaven. Therefore 
the Angels still hover before us with shining, wind- swift wings, as 
links between the terrestrial aixd the celestial ; therefore the Evangelists 
and Apostles are still enthroned as the depositaries of truth ; the 
Fathers and Confessors of the Church still stand robed in authority as 
dispensers of a diviner wisdom ; the Martyrs, palm-sceptred, show 
us what once was suffered, and could again be suffered, for truth and 
righteousness sake ; the glorified penitents still hold out a blessed hope 
to those who, in sinning, have loved much j the Tirgin Patronesses 

b 



INTRODUCTION. 



still represent to us tlie Christian ideal of womanhood in its purity 
and its power. The imago might be defective, but to our forefathers 
it became gracious and sanctified through the suggestion, at least, 
of all they could conceive of holiest, brightest, and best; the lesson 
conveyed, either by direct example or pictured parable, was always 
intelligible, and, in the hands of great and sincere artists, irresistibly 
impressive and attractive. To us, therefore, in these later times, such 
representations are worthy of reverent study for the sake of their own 
beauty, or for the sake of the spirit of love and faith in which they 
were created. 

Can the same be said of the monastic personages, and the legends 
relating to them, as we find them portrayed in sculpture and paint 
ing? I think not. It appears to me that, here, the pleasure and the 
interest are of a more mingled nature, good and ill together. At tih,4 
very outset we are shocked by what seems a violation of the 
principles of Art. Monachism is not the consecration of the 
tiful, even in idea ; it is the apotheosis of deformity and suffering; 
What can be more unpromising, as subjects for the artist, than the 
religious Orders of the Middle Ages, where the first thing demanded 
has been the absence of beauty and the absence of colour ? Ascetic 
faces, attenuated forms, dingy dark draperies, the mean, the squalid, 
ihe repulsive, the absolutely painful,- these seem most uncongenial 
materials, out of which to evolve the poetic, the graceful, and the 
elevating ! True, this has been done, and done in some cases 
so effectually, that we meet constantly with those whose per 
ceptions have become confused, whose taste is in, danger of being 
vitiated through the conventional associations awakened by the 
present passion for what is called Mediaeval Art. But with all our 
just admiration and sympathy for greatness achieved through the 
inspiration of faith and feeling in spite of imperfect means and 
imperfect knowledge, let us not confound things which, in their very 
essence, are incompatible. Pain is pain ; ugliness is ugliness ; the 
quaint is not the graceful. Therefore, dear friends, be not deceived 1 
every long-limbed, long-eyed, long-draped saint is not a Giotto; 
nor every meagre simpering nun, or woe-begone monk, f a Beat(&gt; 
AngeHco/ 

And again : the effigies of the monastic personages do not only fail, 
and necessarily fail, in beauty they have a deeper fault. Gene 
rally speaking, the moral effect of such pictures upon the mass of the 
people was not, at any time, of a healthy kind. The subjects were 



INTRODUCTION. 



not selected to convey a precept, or to touch the heart ; the aim 
was not to set forth the virtue of the good man as an example ; but 
to glorify the community to which he belonged, and to exalt the 
saints of the respective Orders as monks, not as men. Even where, 
as men, they shine most attractively, the holy example conveyed in 
the representation is neutralised through a species of assumption 
in the purpose of the work, a vainglorious and exclusive spirit, 
which has certainly interfered with, and diminished, the religious 
impression. Sometimes, where the sentiment which the painter 
brought to his task was truly pious, we still feel that the glory of 
his community was the object at heart; and that the exaltation of 
his own patriarch, whether that were St. Benedict, St. Francis, or 
St. Dominick, had become to him an act of devotion. I have 
observed that many who have resided long in Catholic countries are 
apt to see, in the monastic pictures, only this selfish, palpable 
purpose ; and, associating such representations with the depravation 
of the priestly character, the tyranny of rulers, and the ignorance of 
the people, regard them either as mere objects of virtu, where the 
artist is rare and the workmanship beautiful, or as objects of 
disgust and ridicule, where they have not this fancied value in the 
eyes of the connoisseur. 

The want of physical beauty, the alloy of what is earthly and self- 
seeking in the moral effect, these are surely important drawbacks 
in estimating the value of the monastic pictures considered as religious 
Art. If they can still charm us, still attract and rivet attention, still 
excite to elevated feeling, it is owing to sources of interest which I 
will now endeavour to point out. 

In the first place, then, Monachism in Art, taken in a large sense, 
is historically interesting, as the expression of a most important era 
of human culture. We are outliving the gross prejudices which once 
represented the life of the cloister as being from first to last a life of 
laziness and imposture ; we know that, but for the monks, the light 
of liberty, and literature, and science, had been for ever extinguished ; 
and that, for six centuries, there existed for the thoughtful, the 
gentle, the inquiring, the devout spirit, no peace, no security, no 
home but the cloister. There, Learning trimmed her lamp; there 
Contemplation * pruned her wings ; there the traditions of Art, pre 
served from age to age by lonely, studious men, kept alive, in form 
and colour, the idea of a beauty beyond that of earth of a might 
beyond that of the spear and the shield, of a Divine sympathy with 



INTEODtJCTION. 



suffering humanity. To this we may add another and a stronger 
claim on our respect and moral sympathies. The protection and the 
better education given to women in these early communities ; the 
venerable and distinguished rank assigned to them when, as gover 
nesses of their Order, they became in a manner dignitaries of the 
Church; the introduction of their beautiful and saintly effigies, 
clothed with all the insignia of sanctity and authority, into the deco 
ration of places of worship and books of devotion, did more, perhaps, 
for the general cause of womanhood than all the boasted institutions of 
chivalry. 

This period is represented to us in the Benedictine pictures or 
effigies. Those executed for the Cistercians, the Vallombroaiana, the 
Camaldolesi (or by them, for these communities produced some of the 
most excelling of the early artists), are especially characterised by m 
air of settled peace, of abstract quietude something "fixed in the 
attitude and features, recalling the conventual life as described by 
St. Bernard. 1 There is an example at hand in the assemblage of 
Saints by Taddeo Gaddi, now in our National Gallery. The old 
mosaics, and the most ancient Gothic sculpture, exhibit still more, 
strongly this pervading sentiment of a calm, peaceful, passionless life ; 
sometimes even in the female figures, grave, even to sternness, but 
oftener elevated, even to grandeur. 

Then followed a period when the seclusion of the cloister-life ceased 
to be necessary, and ceased to do good. The strong line of demar 
cation between the active and the contemplative life, between life in 
the world and life out of the world, could no longer be safely drawn, 
The seventh century after the death of St. Benedict saw the breaking 
forth of a spirit which left the deepest, the most ineffaceable, im 
pression on the arts and the culture of succeeding times ; and some 



1 * Bonwm est nos Jiic ease, quia homo mvU purius, cctdit rarius, WTQit volocius, 
incedit cautius, quiescit securiw, moritur felicvut, purgatur ritiw, pmmwtur 
copiosius, ( ( Good is It for us to dwell here, where man lives more purely ; falto 
33d ore rarely ; rises more quickly ; treads more cautiously ; rests more securely; diei 
more happily j is absolved more easily ; and rewarded more plenteously/) 

This sentence was tisually inscribed on some conspicuous part of the Cistercian 
"houses. "Wordsworth, from whom I take the quotation, has thus paraphrased it j 

* Here man more purely lives ; less of fc doth fall ; 
More promptly rises ; walks with nicer tread ; 
More safely rests ; dies happier ; is freed 
Earlier from cleansing fires ; and gains withal 
A brighter crown. 



INTRODUCTION. 



of the grandest productions of human genius, in painting, sculpture, 
and architecture, signalised the rise of the Mendicant Orders. 

To understand fully the character of these productions, it is neces 
sary to comprehend something of the causes and results of that state 
of spiritual excitement, that frenzy of devotion, which seized on 
Christian Europe during the period I allude to. It seems to me, that 
in this movement of the thirteenth century there was something 
analogous to the times through which we of this present generation 
have lived. There had been nearly a hundred years of desolating 
wars. The Crusades had upheaved society from its depths, as a 
storm upheaves the ocean, and changed the condition of men and 
nations. Whole provinces were left with half their population ; 
whole districts remained uncultivated ; whole families, and those the 
highest in the land, were extinguished, and the homes of their 
retainers and vassals left desolate. Scarce a hearth in Christen 
dom beside which there wept not some childless, husbandless, 
hopeless woman. A generation sprang up, physically predisposed to 
a sort of morbid exaltation, and powerfully acted on by the revela 
tion of a hitherto unseen, unfelt world of woe, In the words of 
Scripture, men could not stop their ears from hearing of blood, 
nor shut their eyes from seeing of evil. There ,was a deep, almost 
universal, feeling of the pressure and the burden of sorrow ; an 
awakening of the conscience to wrong ; a blind, anxious groping 
for the right ; a sense that what had hitherto sufficed to humanity 
would suffice no longer. But, in the uneasy ferment of men s 
minds, religious fear took the place of religious hope, and the re 
ligious sympathies and aspirations assumed in their excess a dis 
ordered and exaggerated form. The world was divided between 
those who sought to comfort the afflictions, and those who aspired 
to expiate the sins, of humanity. To this period we refer the worship 
of Mary Magdalene, the passion for pilgrimages, for penances, for 
martyrdom; for self-immolation to some object or for some cause 
lying beyond self. An infusion of Orientalism into Western 
Christianity added a most peculiar tinge to the religious enthusiasm 
of the time, a sentiment which survived in the palpable forms of 
Art long after the cause had passed away. Pilgrims returning 
from the Holy Land, warriors redeemed from captivity among the 
Arabs and Saracens, brought back wild wonders, new superstitions, 
a more dreamy dread of the ever-present invisible, enlarging 
in the minds of men the horizon of the possible, without en 
larging that of experience. With more abundant food for the 



fancy, with a larger sphere of action, they remained ignorant and 
wretched. As one, whose dungeon-walls have been thrown down 
by an earthquake in the dead of night, gropes and stumbles amid 
the ruins, and knows not, till the dawn comes, how to estimate his 
own freedom, how to use his recovered powers, thus it was with 
the people. But what was dark misery and bewilderment in the 
weak and ignorant, assumed in the more highly endowed a higher 
form; and to St. Francis and his Order we owe what has been 
happily called the Mystic school in poetry and painting : that 
school which so strangely combined the spiritual with the sensual, 
and the beautiful with the terrible, and the tender with the inexorable ; 
which first found utterance in the works of Dante and of the ancient 
painters of Tuscany and Umbria. It has been disputed often, 
whether the suggestions of Dante influenced Giotto, or the creations 
of Giotto inspired Dante: but the true influence and inspiration 
were around both, and dominant over both, when the two greatest 
men of their age united to celebrate a religion of retribution 
and suffering ; to solemnise the espousals of sanctity with poverty 
with the self-abnegation which despises all things, rather than 
with the love that pardons and the hope that rejoices; and which, 
in closing the gates of pleasure/ would have shut the gates 
of mercy on mankind. 1 We still recognise in the Franciscan 
pictures, those at least which reflect the ascetism of the early 
itinerant preachers and their haggard enthusiasm, something strangely 
uncouth and dervish-like. Men scourging themselves, haunted by 
demons, prostrate in prayer, uplifted in ecstatic visions, replaced 
in devotional pictures the dry, formal, but dignified figures of 
an earlier time. For the calmly meditative life of the Benedictine 
pictures, we have the expression of a life which panted, trembled, 
and aspired ; a life of spiritual contest, of rapture, or of agony. 
This is the life which is reflected to us in the pictures painted 
.for those religious brotherhoods which - sprang up between 1200 
and 1300, and drew together and concentrated, in a common 
feeling, or for a common, purpose, the fervid energies of kindred 
minds. 

If the three great divisions of the regular Ecclesiastics seem to 
have had each a distinct vocation, there was at least one vocation 

* For the espousals of St. Francis with Poverty, the Dame to whom none 
openeth pleasure s gate, 1 as represented by Giotto, see p. 255 ; and Dante Par. 
a xi. 



INTRODUCTION. 



common to all. The Benedictine monks instituted schools of learn 
ing ; the Augustines built noble cathedrals ; the Mendicant Orders 
founded hospitals ; all became patrons of the fine arts, on such a 
scale of munificence that the protection of the most renowned princes 
has been mean and insignificant in comparison. Yet, in their 
relation to Art, this splendid patronage was the least of their merits. 
The earliest artists of the Middle Ages were the monks of the 
Benedictine Orders. In their convents were preserved from age to 
age the traditional treatment of sacred subjects, and that pure un 
worldly sentiment which in later times was ill exchanged for the 
learning of schools and the competition of academies; and as they 
were the only depositaries of chemical and medical knowledge, 
and the only compounders of drugs, we owe to them also the 
discovery and preparation, of some of the finest colours, and the 
invention or the improvement of the implements used in painting j 
for the monks not only prepared their own colours, but when 
they employed secular painters in decorating their convents, the 
materials furnished from their own laboratories were consequently 
of the best and most durable kind. 1 As architects, as glass painters, 
as mosaic workers, as carvers in wood and metal, they were the 
precursors of all that has since been achieved in Christian Art ; 
and if so few of these admirable and gifted men are known to 
us individually and by name, it is because "they worked for the 
honour of God and their community, not for profit, nor for re 
putation* 

Theophilus the Monk, whose most curious and important treatise 
on the fine arts and chemistry was written in the twelfth century and 
lately republished in France and in England, was a Benedictine. 
Friar Bacon was a Franciscan, and Friar Albert-le-Grand (Albertus 
Magnus) a Dominican. It is on record that the knowledge of 
physics attained by these two remarkable men exposed them to the 
charge of magic. Shakapeare, who saw the thing that hath been aa 
the thing that is, introduces Friar Laurence as issuing from his cell 
at dawn of day to gather simples and herbs, and moralising on their 
properties. The portrait is drawn throughout with such wonderful 
and instinctive truth, it is as if one of the old friars of the fourteenth 
century had sat for it. a 

i Materials for a History of Oil Painting, by Sir Charles Eastlake, p, 6. 
? * The good friar of this play/ says Mr, Kuig3it &gt; in his Kotes to Borneo and 
Juliet, * in his kindliness, Ms learning, and his inclination to mix with and 



INTRODUCTION. 



In reference to the monastic artists, it is worth, observing that the 
Benedictines are distinguished by the title Don or Dom (Dominus), 
peculiar, I believe, to the ecclesiastics of this Order : as Don Lorenzo 
Monaco, who painted the beautiful Annunciation in the Florence 
Gallery; 1 Don Giulio Clovio, the famous miniatore of the sixteenth 
century. The painters of the Mendicant Orders have the prefix of 
Fra or Frate, as Fra Giacopo da Turrita, a celebrated mosaic worker 
in the thirteenth century ; Fra Antonio da Negroponte, who painted 
that supremely beautiful and dignified Madonna in the Frari at Venice ; 
both Franciscans : Fra Filippo Lippi, the Carmelite \ Fra Beato 
Angelico da Fiesole, and Fra Bartolomeo (styled, par excellence, II Frate, 
the Friar), both Dominicans. 

Thus much for the historical and artistic interest of the monastic 
representations taken generally. Considered separately, some of these 
pictures have even a deeper interest. 

The founders of the various religious communities were all re 
markable men, and some of them were more, they were wonderful 
men; men of genius, of deep insight into human nature, of deter 
mined will, of large sympathies, of high aspirations, poets who 
did not write poems but acted them; all differing from each othet 
in character, as their various communities differed from each other 
in aim and purpose. As a matter of course, in all works of art 
dedicated by those communities, the effigies of their patriarchs 
and founders claim a distinguished place. Thus we have in the 
monastic pictures a series of biographies of the most interesting 
and instructive kind. It will be said that this is biography 
idealised. Idealised certainly, but not falsified; not, I think, 
nearly so falsified as in books. After having studied the written 
lives of St. Benedict, St. Bernard, St. Francis, St. Clara, St. 
Donxinick, and others, to enable me to understand the pictures 
which relate to them, I found it was the pictures which enabled 
me better to understand their lives and characters. I speak, of 
course, of good pictures, painted by earnest and conscientious 
artists, where traditional or characteristic resemblance has been 
attended to. The monkish pictures of the later schools are in general 
as ignorantly false in character as they are degraded in taste and 
style. 

perhaps control, the affairs of the world, is no unapt representation of one of the 
distinguished Order of St. Francis in its best days. 
1 Vide Sacred and Legendary Art, vol. i. p. 86. 



INTRODUCTION. 



I have spoken of the want of beauty in the early pictures of monas 
tic subjects ; but though the figures of the ascetic saints are not in 
themselves beautiful, the pictures in which they occur are sometimes 
of the highest conceivable beauty, either through the effect of suggestive 
and harmonious combination, or the most striking and significant con 
trasts. For instance, a group which meets us at every turn is the 
combination of the dark-robed, sad-visaged, self-denying monk, with 
the lovely benign Madonna and the godlike innocence of her Child. 
Sometimes the votary kneels, adoring in effigy the divine Maternity, 
the glorification of those soft affections which, though removed far from 
him in his seclusion, are brought near to him, and at once revealed and 
consecrated through the power of Art. Sometimes the sainted recluse 
stands with an air of dignity by the throne of the Virgin-mother; 
sometimes the introduction of angels scattering flowers, or hymning 
music, for the solace of the haggard hermit, forms most striking and 
poetical contrasts. 

And, again, the grouping in some of the monastic pictures is 
not merely beautiful, it is often in the highest degree significant. 
It has struck me that such pictures are not sufficiently considered 
like books, as having a sort of vitality of meaning ; only, like books, 
before we can read them we must understand the language 
in which they are written. I have given a number of instances 
in the course of this volume. I will add another which has 
just occurred to me. In the Pitti Palace there is an Annuncia 
tion of the Virgin/ in which St. Philip Benozzi, who lived in the 
fourteenth century, stands by in his ample black robes, listening to 
the angelic salutation. We are struck, not by the anachronism 
where the subject is not treated as an event, but as a mystery, 
there can be no anachronism, as I have elsewhere shown, but we 
are embarrassed by what appears a manifest incongruity; and such 
it is on the walls of a palace: in its original place the whole 
composition was full of propriety, and through its associations, 
became harmonised into poetry. It was painted for the Order 
of the Servi, in honour of their chief saint, Filippo Benozzi; 
it was suspended in their church at Florence, dedicated to the 
Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin (the famous Anmmziata). 
The Order was founded in especial honour of the Yirgin, 
and, by a rule of the original institute, all their devotions began 
with the words of the angel Gabriel, *Ave Maria! 7 Thus we 
have the explanation at once; and the dark-robed, listening monk 

c 



INTRODUCTION. 



in the background becomes an object of intelligent interest to those 
who understand the import and the original purpose of this fine 
picture. 

/ I will give another example : we often meet with pictures of St. 
Dominick holding the keys of St. Peter, or receiving them from the 
apostle. The allusion, is to a custom of the papal court, which has 
prevailed since tho days of Innocent III. The important and con 
fidential office of Master of the Sacred Palace was given to St. 
Dominick in 1218, and has ever since been held by a member of the 
Dominican Order. The pictured allegory is thus the record of an 
historical fact, and commemorates one of tho chief honours of the 
community. 

IL 

The representations of Monastic Saints may be classed, like other 
sacred and legendary subjects, as either devotional or historical. 

The Devotional pictures exhibit the saint as an object of reverence, 
either in his relation to God or his relation to man ; they set forth bis 
sanctity or his charity. 

In those effigies which express his sanctity, he stands with his 
proper habit and attribute, either alone or beside the throne of the 
Virgin; or he is in the attitude of prayer, kneeling before the 
Madonna and Child ; or he is uplifted on clouds, with outstretched 
arms ; or he is visited by angels ; or he beholds the glory of Paradise ; 
or the most blessed of Mothers places in his arms her Divine Infant ; 
or the Saviour receives him into joy eternal. In all such pictures, 
the purpose is to exalt the human into the divine. The principle of 
Monachism which pervades the early legends of St. Anthony and 
others of the saintly hermits, that which made sanctity consist in the 
absolute renunciation of all natural feelings and affections, we find 
reproduced in the later monastic representations, sometimes in a painful 
form ; 

They who, through wilful disesteem of life, 
Affront the eye of Solitude, shall find 
That her mild nature can be terrible, 

And terrible it certainly appears to us in some of these pictures, where 
the solitude is haunted by demons, or defiled by temptations, or 
agonised by rueful penance, or visited by awful and preternatural 
apparitions of the crucified Redeemer. In the later pictures of the 



INTRODUCTION. xxvii 



female saints of the various Orders, those, for instance, of St, Ca 
therine of Siena, St. Theresa, Sfi Maria Maddalena de ; Pazxi, and 
others, the representation becomes offensive, as well as painful and 
pathetic, I recollect such a picture in the Corsini Palace, which I 
cannot recall without horror, and dare not attempt to describe. The 
gross materialism of certain views of Christianity, not confined to the 
Roman Catholics, strikes us in pictures more than in words ; yet surely 
it is the same thing. 

On the other hand, there is a view of the sanctity of solitude placed 
before us in the earlier monastic pictures, which is soothing and 
attractive far beyond the power of words. Ho\v beautiful that soft 
settled calm, which seems to have descended on the features, as on the 
souls, of those who have kept themselves unspotted from the world! 
How dear to the fatigued or wounded spirit that blessed portraiture 
of stillness with communion, of seclusion with sympathy, which 
breathes from such pictures ! Who, at some moments, has not felt 
their unspeakable charm 1 felt, when the weight of existence pressed 
on the fevered nerves and weary heart, the need of some refuge from 
life on this side of death, and all the real, or at least the possible, 
sanctity of solitude ? 

But again : where the saint has been canonised for works of 
charity, which exalted him in his human relation, it is common in the 
devotional effigies to express this, not by some special act, but in a 
poetical and general manner. He stands looking up to heaven, with 
a mendicant or a sick man prostrate at his feet ; or he is giving alms 
to Christ in the likeness of a beggar; or he is holding aloft the 
crucifix, or the standard, as a preacher to the poor. Such pictures 
are often of exceeding beauty; and the sentiment conveyed, Be PML m, 17 
followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have 
us for an ensample/ would be irresistible were it not for that frequent 
alloy of pride and emulation, in the purpose of the picture^ of which I 
have spoken. 

Such figures as those of St, Theresa interceding for souls in purgatory, * 
and St. Doininick doing penance for the sius of others, express, at once, 
the sanctity and the charity of the saint. 

The Historical subjects are those which exhibit some event or 
action, in the life of the saint, generally expressing the virtues for 
which he was canonised ; consequently, they may be regarded as 



the attestation, in a dramatic form, eitlier of Ins sanctity or lus 
charity. 

Thus we have in the first class his miracles performed either 
before or after death, and these miracles are almost invariably copied 
from those of our Saviour. The dead are raised, the blind see, the 
dumb speak, the sick are restored, food is multiplied ; the saint 
walks through fire or over water, stills the tempest, or expels evil 
spirits. When these wonders are not copied literally from the Gos 
pels, they are generally allegorical ; as where roses spring from the 
blood of Sfc Francis, or fall from the lips of St. Angelo ; or where 
St. Francis preaches to the birds, or St. Antony of Padua to the 
fishes ; or where the same saint discovers the miser s heart buried in 
his treasure-chest * where his treasure is, there shall his heart be 
also/ Or they are parables for the purpose of setting forth some 
particular or disputed dogma of the Church, as the mule kneeling 
before the Host when carried by St. Antony, or the Saviour ad 
ministering in person or by an angel the consecrated wafer to St 
Bonaventura. Or they are obvious inventions to extol tlie glory of 
some particular saint, and, through him, the popularity and interests 
of the community to which he belonged : such is the whole story of 
St. Diego d Alcali 

Martyrdoms, of course, come under this designation, but among the 
monastic saints there are few who suffered death for their faith. The 
death of St, Peter the Dominican, called the Martyr (persecutor at 
once and victim), was an assassination rather than a martyrdom ; it is, 
however, the most important among these representations, and, in the 
hands of Titian, in the highest degree tragic and striking. 

Less frequent in the churches, but more interesting, are those dra 
matic and historical pictures which place the saint before us in his 
relation to humanity ; as where he is distributing alms, or ministering 
to the sick, or redeeming slaves and prisoners, or preaching to the 
poor. Pictures of St. Elizabeth of Hungary tending the sick boy in 
the hospital; of St. Charles Borromeo walking amid the plague* 
strickea wretches, bearing the sacrament in his hand ; of St. Antony 
of Padua rebuking the tyrant Eccellino; of St. Vincent de Paul 
carrying home the foundlings j of St. Catherine of Siena converting the 
robbers ; and innumerable others, belong to this class. 



INTRODUCTION. xxix 



III. 

In arranging according to their dignity the saints of the different 
Orders, the Founders would claim, of course, the first place; after 
them follow the Martyrs, if any ; then the Eoyal Saints who wear 
the habit ; lastly, the Canonised Saints of both sexes, taking rank 
according to their celebrity and popularity. 

St. Benedict is the general patriarch of all the Benedictine commu 
nities, who, next to him, venerate their separate founders : 
St. Romualdo, founder of the Oamaldolesi ; 
St. John Gualberto of the Vallombrosians ; 
St. Bruno of the Carthusians ; 
St. Bernard of the Cistercians. 

St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the four great Latin Doctors, is 
considered as the general patriarch of the Augustines, and of all the 
communities founded on his Rule ; each venerating besides, as separate 
head or founder, 

St. Philip Benozzi of the Servi j 

St. Peter Nblasco of the Order of Mercy ; 

St. Bridget of Sweden of the Brigittines. 

The Augustine Canons also regard as their patriarch and patron 
St. Joseph, the husband of the Virgin. 

St. Francis is the general patriarch of the Franciscans, Capuchins, 
Observants, Conventuals, Minimes, and all other Orders derived from 
his Kule. 

St. Dominick founded the Dominicans, or Preaching Friars. 

St. Albert of Vercelli is generally considered as the founder of the 
Carmelites, who, however, claim as their patriarch Elijah the Prophet. 

St. Jerome is claimed as patriarch by the Jeronymites; and St. 
Ignatius Loyola was the founder of Jesuitism. 

In those grand sacred subjects which, exhibit a congregation of 
saints, as the Paradiso, the Last Judgment, and the Coronation of the 
Virgin, the founders of the different Orders are usually conspicuous. 
I will give an example of such a poetical assemblage of the various 
Orders, because it is especially interesting for the profoundly significant 
treatment ; because it is important as a chef-d oeuvre of one of the 
greatest of the early artists, Angelico da Fiesole ; and because, having 



INTRODUCTION. 



been recently engraved by Mr. George Scliarf for the Arundel Society, 
it is likely to be in the hands of many, and convenient for immediate 
reference. 

The picture to which I allude is the fresco of the Crucifixion painted 
on the wall of the Chapter House of St. Mark at Florence, To 
understand how profoundly every part of this grand composition has 
been meditated and worked out, we must bear in inind that it was 
painted in a convent dedicated to St. Mark, in the city of Florence, 
in the days of the first arid greatest of the Medici, Cosmo and Lorenzo, 
and that it was the work of a Dominican friar, for the glory of the 
Dominican Order. 

In the centre of the picture is the Redeemer crucified between the 
two thieves. At the foot of the cross is the usual group of the 
Virgin fainting in the arms of St. John the Evangelist, Mary 
Magdalene, and another Mary. To the right of this group, and the 
left of the spectator, is seen St. Mark, as patron of the convent, 
kneeling and holding his Gospel; behind him stands St. John 
the Baptist, as protector of the city of Florence. Beyond are the 
three martyrs, St. Laurence, St, Cosmo, and St. Damian, patrons 
of the Medici family. The -two former, as patrons of Cosmo and 
Lorenzo de Medici, look tip to the Saviour with devotion; St. 
Damian turns away and hides his face. On the left of the cross 
we have the group of the founders of the various Orders. First, St. 
Dominick, kneeling with hands outspread, gazes up at the Crucified j 
behind him St. Augustine and St. Albert the Carmelite, mitred and 
robed as bishops ; in front kneels St. Jerome as a Jeronymite hermit, 
the cardinal s hat at his feet ; behind him kneels St. Francis ; behind 
St. Francis stand two venerable figures, St. Benedict and St. 
Romualdo; and in front of them kneels St. Bernard, with his 
book ; and, still more in front, St. John Gualberto, in the attitude in 
which he looked up at the crucifix when he spared his brother s 
murderer. Beyond this group of monks Angelico has introduced 
two of the famous friars of his own community ; St. Peter Martyr 
kneels in front, and behind him stands St. Thomas Aquinas ; the two, 
thus placed together, represent the sanctity and the learning of the 
Dominican Order, and close this sublime and wonderful composition. 
Thus considered, we may read it like a sacred poem, and every 
separate figure is a study of character. I hardly know anything in 
painting finer than the pathetic beauty of the head of the penitent 
thief, and the mingled fervour and intellectual refinement in the head 
of St. Bernard. 



INTRODUCTION, 



It will be remarked that, in this group of patriarchs, Oapi e Fonda- 
tori de } religiosij St. Bruno, the famous founder of the Carthusians, is 
omitted. At the time the fresco was painted, about 1440, St. Bruno 
was not canonised, 

"We have portraits of distinguished members of the various commu 
nities who were never canonised, but these do not properly belong to 
sacred Art. The decree of beatification did not confer the privilege 
of being invoked as intercessor and portrayed in the churches ; it was 
merely a declaration that the personage distinguished for holiness of 
life had been received into bliss, and thence received the title of JBeato, 
Blessed. The bull of canonisation was a much more solemn ordin 
ance, and conferred a species of divinity : it was the apotheosis of 
a being supposed to have been endowed while on earth with privileges 
above humanity, with miraculous powers, and regarded with such 
favour by Christ, whom he had imitated on earth, that his prayers 
and intercessions before the throne of grace might avail for those whom 
he had left in the world. To obtain the canonisation of one of their 
members became with each community an object of ambition. The 
popes frequently used their prerogative in favour of an Order to which" 
they had belonged, or which they regarded with particular interest. 
Sometimes the favour was obtained through the intercession of crowned 
heads. 

In the monastic pictures it is most especially necessary to ascertain 
the date of the canonisation in order to settle the identity of the 
personage. I will give an example. There is in the Dresden Gallery 
a remarkably fine devotional picture, by Garofalo, representing St. 
Peter and St. George standing, and a little behind them, in the centre, 
a saint in a white habit, seated with a pen and an open book in his 
hand, looking up to the Madonna in glory. This figure is called in 
the catalogue St. runo. Now there can be no doubt that it is St. 
Bernard, and not St. Bruno ; for, in the first place, the habit has not 
the proper form, of the Carthusian habit, there is no scapulary united 
by the band at the sides ; secondly, it was St. Bernard, not St. Bruno, 
who wrote the praises of the Virgin ; and, thirdly, the whole question 
is set at rest by the fact that St. Bruno was not canonised till the 
beginning of the seventeenth century, consequently could not appear 
between St. Peter and St George in a picture painted in the beginning 
of the sixteenth. 

The colour and form of the habit are also of great importance in 
ascertaining the name of tlie personage j but though, at a single 



INTRODUCTION. 



glance s we distinguish the black Benedictine monk from the white 
Cistercian, and the grey or brown tunic of the Franciscan from the 
white tunic and black mantle of the Dominican, it is not always easy 
to discriminate further. St. Benedict, for instance, sometimes wears 
the black, and sometimes the white, habit; and the colour will 
decide whether the picture was painted for the Monad Neri, or for 
the Eeformed Benedictines. I have explained this at length in the 
legend of the saint, and will only point to the picture by Francia 
in our National Gallery as an example of St. Benedict in the tohiu 
habit. 

Grey was the original colour of the Franciscan habit* The Re 
formed Franciscans introduced the dark-brown tunic : the girdle, of 
a twisted hempen cord, remains the peculiar distinction of the habit 
at all times. 

The black habit is worn by the Augus tines, the Servi, the Oratorians, 
and the Jesuits. 

The white habit is worn by the Cistercians, the Camaldolesi, the 
Port-Royalists, the Trappistes, the Trinitarians. 

Black over white, by the Dominicans, 

White over black, by the Prcmonstratensians and the Carmelites. 

The tonsure, the shaven crown, has been from very early times 
one of the distinguishing signs of the priesthood. To shave the 
head was anciently an expression of penitence and mourning, and 
was thence adopted by the primitive hermits in the solitudes of 
Egypt. The form of the tonsure was settled by the Synod of Toledo 
in 633 \ and the circle of short hair left round the head has since 
been styled the clerical crown (corona clericalis). The Carthusians 
alone of the Monkish Orders shaved the whole head, in sign of greater 
austerity, 

I do not know what is the specific rule of the different Orders with 
regard to beards ; but in pictures we find long beards worn only by 
the early Benedictines, the Hermits, and the Capuchins, 



But when, with some attention, we have settled the Order, it re 
quires some further examination to discriminate the personage. This 
is determined by some particular attribute, or by some characteristic 
treatment ; by the relative position of the figures ; or by the locality 
for which the picture was painted, all of which have to be critically 
considered. Some saints, as St. Francis, St, Catherine of Siena, 
St. Elizabeth of Hungary, are easily and at once discriminated; 



INTRODUCTION. xacxfl| 



others, after a long study of characteristics and probabilities, leave us 
at a loss. 

And first with regard to the distinctive emblems and attributes. 
They are the same already enumerated and explained, in the first series 
of this work, as of general application in the sacred and legendary 
subjects; but in the monastic pictures they have sometimes a particular 
significance, which I shall endeavour to point out. 

The GLOEY expresses the canonised saint : it ought not to be given 
to a Beato. In some instances, where the figure of the saint lias been 
painted before the date of the canonisation, the glory has been added 
afterwards; in the later schools of the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries it is omitted. 

The DKAGOBT or the DEMON at the feet of the saint is a common 
attribute, and bears the common meaning, that of sin and the world 
overcome : but sometimes the Demon or Demons, chained to a rock 
behind, or led captive, signify heresy vanquished; as in pictures of 
St. Bernard, the great polemic of the Middle Ages. 

The HIND or STAG-, as the general emblem of solitude, is frequent ; 
but it has a special meaning in the legends of St. Giles and St. Felix 
de Valois. 

WILD BEASTS, such as bears, wolves, &c., at the feet of a saint, 
originally signified th^t he had cleared a wilderness, or founded a 
convent in a solitude. When the original signification was forgotten, 
some kgend was invented or suggested to account fpr it. 

The CRUCIFIX held in the hand signified a preacher ; in this sense 
it is given to St. Francis, St. Dominick, St Peter Martyr, St. John 
Oapistrano, St. Francis Xavier, St. Vincent Ferrier. Merely as a 
symbol of penance and devout faith, it is given to St. Francis, St. 
Margaret of Cortona, St. Theresa. It has a special significance in 
the pictures of St. John Gualberto and St. Catherine of Siena. 

The LILY, as the emblem of purity and chastity, is common to 
hundreds of saints, male and female ; it is, however, especially char 
ractedstic of St. Clara, St. Antony of Padua, St. Dominick, and SK 
Catherine, of Siena ; and also of those young saints who made early 
TOWS of celibacy, as St Oasimir, St. Stanislas, St. Aloysius of Gon- 
zaga. The crucifix twined with the lily, common in late pictures, 
signifies devotion and purity of heart: it is given particularly to 
St. Nicholas of Tolentino. But tie lily beiag also the symbol of the 
Virgin, and consecrated to her, is placed near those saints who were 

d 



INTRODUCTION. 



distinguished by their devotion to the Mother of the Redeemer, as in 
pictures of St. Bernard. 

The INFANT CHKIST placed in the arms of a saint is a common 
allegory or legend, but comparatively modern, and a favourite sub 
ject of the later schools of art, I believe it to be derived from the 
legend of St. Antony of Padua, of whom it is related that the radiant 
figure of Christ descended and stood on the open book of the Gospel 
while preaching to the people. The pictures of tbe Madonna and 
Child, that universal subject in all religious edifices, may, in heated 
imaginations, hare given rise to those visions so common in the lives 
of the monastic saints, where the Virgin-Mother, bending from her 
throne, or attended by a train of angels, resigns her Divine Infant to 
the outspread eager arms of the kneeling recluse. Such representa 
tions we have of St. Catherine of Siena, St. Theresa, St. Catherine 
of Bologna, and indeed of all the nun-saints; also of St. Francis, 
St. Antony of Padua, St. Felix of Cantalicio, and others \ never of 
St. Dominick, nor, that I remember, of St. Clara. They strike me 
sometimes as very pathetic. 

The STANDARD with the CEOSS is the general symbol of Chris 
tianity triumphant, and is given to the early preachers and mission 
aries. But it is also given to the royal and warrior saints connected 
with the different Orders, as St. Oswald, St. "Wenceslaus, St. Henry, 
St. Leopold. 

The FLAMING HEAUT is the rather vulgar and commonplace 
emblem of Divine love. I have never met with it in any of the very 
early pictures, expect those of St. Augustine. The heart crowned 
.with thorns is given to St. Francis de Sales ; impressed with the 
name of Christ, the I H S, it is given to the Jesuit saints, to St. 
Theresa, to St. Bridget of Sweden, and to St. Maria Maddalena de 1 
Pazzi. It has a particular meaning in the legend of St. Catherine of 
Siena. 

, The CROWN OF THOENS, placed on the head or in the hand of a 
, saint, is a modern emblem, and expresses suffering for Christ s sake. 
It has a more special meaning in the pictures of St. Francis, who is 
considered by his followers as a type of the Eedeemer ; and also in the 
legends of St. Louis of France, of St, Catherine of Siena, and St. Eosa 
di Luna. 

, The PALM, as the meed of martyrdom, is proper to a few only 
of the monastic saints. St. Placidus, the disciple of St. Benedict, is 
the earliest monastic martyr ; St. Boniface and St. Thomas & Becket 
were also Benedictines. St. Albert and St, Angelo were Cannel- 



INTRODUCTION. 



itcs, and St. Peter Martyr a Dominican ; these, I believe, are the 
only monkiisu martyrs who are conspicuous and individualised in 
works of Art. The only nun-martyr is St Flavia, the sister of Sfa 
Placidus. 

We find, also, pictures and prints commemorating the five Fran 
ciscans martyred at Morocco ; a long procession of about a hundred 
Dominican martyr-missionaries ; and the Jesuit martyrs of Japan : 
but they are not individually named, nor have they, I believe, been 
regularly canonised. 

But the palm is also occasionally given to several saints who have 
not suffered a violent death, but have been conspicuous for their victory 
over pain and temptation j for instance, to St. Francis and St. Catherine 
of Siena. 

The LAMB, as an attribute, is proper to St. Francis, both as the 
symbol of meekness arid with an especial meaning for which I must 
refer to the legend. 

The FISH, the ancient Christian symbol of baptism, is proper to 
some of the old missionaries and primitive bishops who converted the 
heathen ; but the original meaning being lost or forgotten, a legend 
has been invented by way of interpretation^ as in the stories of 
St. Uldch of Augsburg and St. Benno of Meissen. 

The CROWN, placed near the saint, or at his feet, signifies that he 
was of royal birth, or had resigned a kingdom to enter a monastery. 
Those royal saints who retained the sovereign power till their death 
wear the crown ; and the sainted queens and princesses frequently 
wear the diadem over the veil. 

A SERAPH is sometimes introduced as an ornament, or hovering 
near, to distinguish the saints of the Seraphic Order ; as in a figure 
of St. Bonaventura (p. 327). 

The STIGMATA, the wounds of Christ impressed on the hands, feet, 
and side, are, as an attribute, proper to St. Francis and St. Catherine 
of Siena \ improperly given also to St. Maria Maddalena de Paz^i, 
and related of several other saints whom I have not met with in 
pictures. 

A SUN on the breast expresses the light of Wisdom, in figures of 
St. Thomas Aquinas. It is carried in the hand of St. Bernardino of 
Siena in the form of a tablet, and within the radiant circle are the 
letters I H S. This is the proper attribute of tbat famous Franciscan, 
and is explained in his legend. The Mont de Ptitt is given to him 
in some pictures, as in the small Franciscan predella, attributed to 
Kaphael, in Lord Ward s collection j but it Is, I am assured by a 



INTBODtrOTION. 



high authority, the proper attribute of Era Bernardino da Feltre 
(who was never canonised), and given by mistake to St. Bernardino 
of Siena, 

The STAR, over the head or on the breast, is given to St. Dorninick 
(black and white habit), and St. Nicholas of Tolentino (black habit) ; 
and seems to express a divine attestation of peculiar sanctity, the idea 
being borrowed from the star in the East. The five stars given to 
St. John Nepomuck have a special significance, which is explained 
by his story. 

A BOOK in the hand of a saiut is, In a general way, the Scriptures 
or the Gospel. It is given in this sense to preachers and missionaries, 
It has, however, a special meaning in pictures of St, Boniface. Books 
in the hand or at the feet of St. Bernard, St. Thomas Aquinas, Car- 
dinal Bonaventura, St. Theresa, accompanied by the pen or inkhorn, 
express the character of author or writer, and the books are often 
lettered with the titles of their works. 

The DOVE, as the scriptural emblem of the Holy Spirit, and ex- 
pressing direct inspiration, is also given as an attribute to the same 
saints ; but in the effigies of St. Scholastica, the sister of St. Benedict, 
it has a special meaning. 

The OPEN BOOK in the hands of a founder, often indicates the 
written Kule of the Order, and sometimes the first words of the Rule 
are inscribed on the page. 

The SCOURGE indicates self-inflicted penance, and is given in this 
sense to St. Dominick (who was famous for scourging himself), and 
St. Margaret of Cortona. 

WALKING over the SEA. or over rivers is a miracle attributed to so 
many saints, that it becomes necessary to distinguish them. St. Ray 
mond the Dominican, and St. Francis de Paula the Capuchin, cross 
the sea on a cloak. St. Peter of Alcantara, a Franciscan, walks over 
th water. St. Hyacinth, the Dominican, walks over the river 
Dniester when swollen to a torrent, and is always distinguished by 
the image of the Virgin in his hand. St. Sebald, in a German print, 
crosses the Danube on his cloak. In devotional figures of these 
saints the miracle is often represented as an attribute in the back 
ground. 

ROSES are sometimes an allusion to the name of the saint; St. 
Rosalia of Palermo, St. Rosa di Viterbo (Franciscan), St. Rosa di 
Lima (Dominican), all wear the crown of roses, or it is presented by 
an angel. But roses in the lap or the hand of St, Elizabeth, are an 
attribute taken from her beautiful legend. 



INTRODUCTION. acxxvii 



The CARDINAL S HAT is proper to St. Bonaventura, and he is the 
only monkish saint to whom it belongs; he is distinguished from 
St, Jerome, the other Cardinal-saint, by the Franciscan girdle, and 
the absence of the long beard. 1 

The MiTBE and PASTORAL STAFF are borne by abbots as well as 
bishops : the pastoral staff only, without the mitre, by abbesses. 

SLAVES with their chains broken, BEGGARS, CHILDREN*, LEPERS, at 
the feet of a saint, express his beneficence ; and in the ancient devo 
tional figures these are sometimes of diminutive size, showing that 
they are merely emblems to signify charity, and not any particular 
act of charity. 

Other attributes in use in the monastic representations, and pecu 
liar to certain saints (as the kneeling mule in pictures of St. Antony 
of Padua), will be explained in their respective legends. 2 

To understand and to sympathise with the importance attached to 
almsgiving, and the prominence given to this particular aspect of 
charity in the old pictures, we must recall a social condition very 
different from our own; a period when there were no poor-laws; 
when the laws for the protection of the lower classes were imperfect 
and perpetually violated ; when for the wretched there was absolutely 
110 resource but in private beneficence. In those days a man began 
his religious vocation by a literal and practical application of the text 
in Scripture, Sell all thou hast, and distribute to the poor. The 
laws against debtors were then very severe, and the proximity of the 
Moors on one side, and the Turks on the other, rendered slavery a 
familiar thing. In all the maritime and commercial cities of Italy 
and Spain, brotherhoods existed for the manumission of slaves and 
debtors. Charitable confraternities performed then, and in Italy 
perform now, many duties left to our police, or which we think we 
fulfil in paying our poor-rates. These duties of charity shine in the 
monastic pictures, and were conspicuous on the walls of churches, I 
am persuaded to good purpose. Among the most interesting of the 

1 In the German Christliche Ikonographie/ and other books of the kind, the 
cardinal s hat is mentioned as an attribute of St. Francis Borgia, the Jesuit. He 
was not a cardinal : if the cardinal s hat be introduced into his effigies (of which I 
do not remember an instance), it must signify that he rejected that dignity when 
offered to him, 

2 A Tery useful book, as a companion to churches and picture galleries, ia 
the little manual, Emblems of Saints, compiled by the Kev. F. 0. Husen- 
beth. 



INTRODUCTION. 



canonised saints whose stories I have related in reference to Art, are 
the founders of the charitable brotherhoods; and among the most 
beautiful and celebrated pictures, were those painted for these com 
munities; for instance, for the Misericordia in Italy, the various 
Scuole at Venice, the Merced and the Caritad in Spain, and for the 
numerous hospitals for the sick, the houseless travellers, the poor, arid 
the penitent women (Donne Convcrtite). All these institutions were 
adorned with pictures, and in the oratories and chapels appended to 
them the altarpiece generally set forth some beneficent saint, 
St. Roch, or St. Charles Borromeo, the patrons of the plague- stricken; 
or St. Cosmo and St. Damian, the saintly apothecaries ; or St. 
Leonard, the protector of captives and debtors; or that friend of 
the wretched, St Juan de Dios, or the benign St Elizabeth; 
either standing before us as objects of devout reverence, or kneeling 
at the feet of the Madonna and her Son, and commending to the 
Divine mercy l all such as are anyways afflicted in mind, body, or 
estate. 

The pictures, too, which were suspended in churches as votive 
memorials of benefits received, are often very touching. I recollect 
such a picture in the Gallery at Vienna. A youth about fifteen, in 
the character of Tobias, is led by the hand of his guardian angel 
Raphael ; and on the other side is St. Leonard, the patron of captives, 
holding his broken, fetters : Christ the Redeemer appears above ; and 
below, in a comer, kneels an elderly man, his eyes fixed on the youth. 
The arrangement of this group leaves us no doubt of its purpose; it 
was the votive offering of a father, whose son had escaped, or had 
been redeemed, from captivity. The picture is very beautiful, and 
either by Andrea del Sarto or one of his school. 8 If we could dis 
cover where it had been originally placed, we might discover the facts 
and the personages to which it alludes ; but even on the walls of a 
gallery we recognise its pathetic significance: we read it as a poem 
as a hymn of thanksgiving. 

"When we consider the deep interest which is attached to pictures 
and other works of Art in their connection with history and character, 
we have reason to regret that in the catalogues of galleries and col- 

1 For some account of the objects of these Scuole, see Sacred and Legendary 
Art,* p.- 168, second edition. 

2 The two figures of St. Kaphael and Tobias, without the others, are in a small 
picture in the Pitti Palace : the peculiar dress and physiognomy of the youth give 
to the picture the look of a portrait ; the reason of this is understood in the 
complete group. 



INTRODUCTION. 



lections, the name of the church, chapel, or confraternity whence the 
picture was purchased, or where it was originally placed, has been so 
seldom mentioned. The locality for which a picture was painted will 
often determine the names of the personages introduced, and show us 
why they were introduced, and why they held this or that position 
relatively to each other. A saint who is the subordinate figure in 
one place is the superior figure in another ; and there was always a 
reason, a meaning, in the arrangement of a group, even when it 
appears, at first sight, most capricious and unaccountable. What a 
lively, living, really religious interest is given to one of these sacred 
groups when we know the locality or the community for which it \vas&gt; 
executed ; and how it becomes enriched as a production of mind, when 
it speaks to the mind through a thousand associations, will be felt, I 
think, after reading the legends which follow. 



IV. 

Those who have thought on works of Art with this reference to 
their meaning and intention should be able, on looking round a church 
or any other religious edifice, to decide at once to what community it 
belongs, and to understand the relation which the pictures bear to 
each other and to the locality in which they are placed. This is a 
very interesting point, and leads me to say a few words of some of 
the most important of these edifices and the memorials of Art and 
artists which they contain. 

There is a Latin distich which well expresses the different localities 
and sites affected by the chief Monastic Orders, 

Bernardus vales, colle Benedictus amabat, 
Oppida Franciscus, magaas Ignatius urbes j 

and we shall find almost uniformly the chief foundations of the Bene 
dictines on hills or mountains, those of the Cistercians in fertile 
valleys by running streams, those of the Franciscans in provincial 
towns, and those of the Jesuits in capital cities. 

To begin ynfh the Benedictines; the Order produced the earliest 
painters and architects in Europe, and their monasteries and churches 



xl INTRODUCTION. 



are among the earliest and most important monuments of art in out 

fh A i?dP" Wn an&lt; * Ot ^ er courltries - ^ e term Abbey applies particularly to 
* the foundations of this Order. 

In looking round one of the Benedictine edifices, we shall find of 
course St. Benedict as patriarch, Ms sister St. Scholastic^ and the 
other principal saints of his Order enumerated in the introduction to 
his legend. We shall also find the apostle Paul frequently and 
conspicuously introduced into pictures painted for this community. 
He is their patron saint arid protector, and their Rule was framed in 
accordance with Ms precepts. 

The parent monastery of Monte Cassino was founded by St. Bene 
dict on the spot where stood a temple of Apollo. The grand masses 
of the conventual buildings now crown the summit of a mountain 
rising above the town of San Germano; the river Rapido, called 
farther on, the Garigliano, flows through, the valley at its base. The 
Hospice, or house for the reception and entertainment of strangers 
and travellers, stands lower down. The splendid church and cloisters 
are filled with works of Art, the series of statues in marble of the 
most illustrious members and benefactors of the community being 
perhaps the most remarkable ; but the monastery having been restored, 
almost rebuilt, in the seventeenth century, most of the pictures 
belong to the modern schools. 

More interesting for the antiquity of its decorations is Subiaco, 
formerly the mountain cave in which St. Benedict at the age of 
sixteen hid himself from the world. The Sacro Speco, or sacred 
cavern, is now a church; the Natural rocks forming the walls in 
some parts, are covered with ancient frescoes, the works of Concioli 
painted in 1219, before the time of Cimabue, and most important 
in the history of early Italian Art. About a mile from the 
Sacro Speco is the monastery of Santa Scholastica, once famous for 
its library, and still interesting as the spot where the first printing- 
press in Italy was set up; as the first printing-press in England 
was worked in the cloisters of the Benedictine Abbey of West 
minster. 

San Paolo-fuor-le-Mure at Rome belongs to the Benedictines. 

For the San Severino at Naples, Antonio lo Zingaro painted the 
series of pictures of the life of St. Benedict which I have described 
at p. 18. 

For the Benedictine convent of San Sisto, at Piacenza, Raphael 
pwfed Ms Madonna di San Sisto, now at Dresden. The monks have 
fceen sorely chidden for parting with their unequalled treasure ; but 



that they knew how to value it is proved by the price they set 
on it, 60,000 florins (about 6500 English money), probably the 
largest sum which up to that time had ever been given for a single 
picture, and which, be it observed, was paid by a petty German 
prince, Augustus, Elector of Saxony. With this sum the Bene 
dictines repaired their church and convent, which were falling into 
ruin. 

For the monks of Grotta Ferrata, Domenichino painted the life 
of San Nilo. The cloisters of San Michele in Bosco were painted 
by all the best painters of the later Bologna school (Ludovico 
Caracci and his pupils) in emulation of each other. These once 
admirable and celebrated frescoes, executed between 1600 and 1630, 
are now more ruined than the frescoes at Subiaco, painted four 
centuries earlier. 

The San Giustina at Padua is one of the oldest and most celebrated 
of the Benedictine foundations. The church having been rebuilt 
between 1502 and 1549 by contributions collected throughout Europe 
by the monks of the community, all the best artists, from 1550 to 1640, 
were employed in its decorations. Much more valuable than any 
of these late works, though good of their kind and date, are the 
paintings in the old cloisters by a very rare and admirable master, 
Bernardo Parentino, who died in the habit of an Augustine friar 
about 1500. 

In France the most celebrated of the Benedictine houses were the 
abbeys of St. Maur, Marmoutier, and Fontevrauld, all ruined or dese 
crated during the first French Revolution, and their splendid libraries 
and works of Art destroyed or dispersed. 

In Germany one of the greatest of the Benedictine communities was 
that of Bamberg. 

With regard to the Reformed Benedictines, the monasteries of 
Vallombrosa and Camaldoli in Tuscany produced some of the most 
interesting of the early monastic artists. The pictures in our National 
Gallery by Taddeo Gaddi were painted for the Camaldolesi. Pera- 
gino painted for the Vallombrosians the grandest of his altarpieces, 
the Assumption now in the Florence Academy with the saints of 
Vallombrosa ranged below. Ghirlandajo and Andrea del Sarto painted 
for these Orders some of their finest works, for instance^ the frescoes 
of the Sassetti Chapel in the Trinita, and the Cenacolo in the San 
Salvi. 

Of the Carthusian monasteries, the parent institution is the 
Chartreuse at Grenoble,, The Certosa di Pana remains unap- 

e 



xlii INTRODUCTION. 



proaclied for its richness and beauty, and is filled witli the works, 
of the finest of the Lombard sculptors and painters, Luiui, Borgog- 
none, Possano, Solari, Cristoforo Komano, Amadeo, and others beyond 
number. 

The Certosa at Eome, built by Michael Angelo out of the ruins of 
the Baths of Diocletian, is filled with pictures by the later artists. 
Zurbaran and Carducho painted for the Carthusians of Spain ; and Le 
Sueur painted for the Carthusians of Paris his finest work the life of 
St. Bruno, now in the Louvre. 

In the churches and abbeys of the Cistercians we shall generally 
find St. Bernard a prominent figure, and the companion of the patriarch 
St. Benedict. In consequence of his particular devotion to the Virgin, 
the Cistercian churches are generally dedicated in her name ; and 
St. Bernard visited by the Virgin, or presenting his books to her, are 
favourite subjects. 

In our own country, the cathedrals of Canterbury, "Westminster, 
Winchester, Durham, Eli, Peterborough, Bath, Gloucester, Chester, 
Kochester, were Benedictine. St. Albans, which took precedence of 
all the others, Croyland, Glastonbury, Malmsbury, Malvern, Tewkes- 
bury, and hundreds of others, lie in ruins, except that here and there 
the beautiful abbey-churches have been suffered to remain, and have 
become parish churches. 

The Olivetans, a congregation of Eeformed Benedictines, produced 
some celebrated artists. Lanzi mentions three lay-brothers of this 
Order, all of Verona, who excelled in the beautiul inlaid work called 
Tarsia or Intarsiatura. The monastery at Monte Oliveto near Siena, 
the beautiful Church, of San Lorenzo at Cremona, and S. Maria in 
Organo at Verona, belong to this Order. 

In the churches of the Augustines we shall generally find St. 
Augustine and his mother, Monica, as principal personages. The 
Apostles; and stories from their lives and ministry ; St. Joseph the 
husband, and Joachim and Anna the parents, of the Virgin, are also 
conspicuous ; and the saints, martyrs, and bishops of the earliest ages, 
as St. Sebastian, St. Nicholas, St. Laurence, St. Mary Magdalene, 
though common to all the Orders, figure especially in their pictures* 
In the convents of the Augustine Hermits we frequently find the 
pattern and primitive hermits, St. Anthony and St. Paul, and others 
whose legends are given in the first series of this work. The $rin-, 
cipal saints who belonged to the different branches of this great Order, 
many of them canonised for their charities, of course fi.nd a place in; 



INTRODUCTION. 



their churches; as St. Thomas of Villanueva, St. Lorenzo Giustmiani: 
but their great saint is St. Nicholas of Tolentino. 

The churches of the Agostiai in Italy most remarkable for works of 
Art are the Sant Agostino at Rome, for which Raphael painted his 
prophet Isaiah; the Sant Agostino at Pavia, which contains the shrine 
of the patron saint, marvellous for its beauty, and peopled with exquisite 
statuettes ; the Bremitani at Padua, and the San Lorenzo at Florence, 
both rich in early works of Art. Churches dedicated to St. Laurence, 
St. Sebastian, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Antonio Abbate, generally 
belong to the Augustines. 

Most of the great cathedral churches along the Rhine Co 
logne, Mayence, Strasburg belonged to this Order;, in our own 
country, the cathedrals of Oxford, Lincoln, Salisbury, Lichfield, 
Carlisle, Hereford ; and York Minster and Beverley Minster, 
though founded by the Benedictines, afterwards belonged to the 
Augustines. 

The most celebrated edifices of the Franciscans are, first, the parent 
convent and church at Assisi, in the decoration of which the greatest 
artists of Italy, for a space of three hundred years, were successively 
employed. 

Some of the finest pictures of the Perugino school were executed 
for this Order. Raphael painted his Madonna di Foligno for the Ara- 
Celi at Rome. In the same church Pinturicchio painted the chapel 
of St. Bernardino. The Santa-Oroce at Florence is a treasury of early 
Florentine Art, of the frescoes of Giotto, Taddeo, and Angelo Gaddi, 
and Giottino, and the sculptures of Luca della Robbia and Benedetto 
da Maiano. Titian rests in the Frari at Venice ; but round this noble 
church I looked in vain for any pictures especially commemorating the 
Franciscan worthies. 

The St. Antonio-di-Padova is rich with most precious monuments 
of Art, with the bronzes of Donatello and Andrea Riccio ; the mar 
bles of the Lombardi, Sansovino, Sammichele; and pictures and 
frescoes of all the great painters of Upper Italy, from the earliest 
Paduan masters, Avanzi, Zevio, and Andrea Mantegna, down to 
Campagnola. 

When Murillo returned from Madrid to his native Seville, poor 
and unknown, the Franciscans were the first to patronise Mm. They 
had resolved to devote a sum of money, which had been collected 
by one of the begging brothers, upon a series of pictures for their 
small cloister : for the eleven pictures required, they could give only 



1NTKODUCTION. 



the sum in their possession a trifling remuneration for an artist 
of established name; but Murillo was glad to undertake the com 
mission, and thus kid the foundation of his future fame. He 
afterwards, when at the height of Ms reputation, painted for another 
Franciscan community (the Capuchins of Seville) twenty of Ms finest 
pictures. 

The Dominicans have a splendid reputation as artists and patrons 
of Art. The principal church of the Order is the San Domenico at 
Bologna, in which is the shrine of the patriarch. The Dominicans 
employed Niccolb Pisano to build their church as well as to execute 
this wonderful shrine. The church has, however, been rebuilt in a 
modern style, and is now chiefly remarkable for the works of the 
Caracci school. 

The most interesting, the most important, and the largest of all 
the Dominican edifices, is the Santa Maria-sopra-Minerva, at Rome. 
Here sleeps that gentlest of painters, Angelico da Fiesole, among the 
brethren of his Order. Around him are commemorated a host of 
popes and cardinals : among them Leo X., Cardinal Howard, Cardinal 
Bembo, and Durandus. The whole church is filled with most inte 
resting pictures and memorials of the Dominican saints and worthies, 
particularly the chapels of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Catherine of 
Siena. To the right of the choir stands Michael Angelo s statue of 
Our Saviour. 

Not less interesting is the principal church of the Dominicans at 
Florence, the Santa Maria Novella. In this church is the famous 
chapel Dei SpagnuoK, painted by Taddeo Qaddi and Simone Memmi ; 
and the chapel of the Strozzi, painted by Andrea Orcagna. In the 
cloisters is a series of fifty-six pictures of the lives of Dominican 
saints, St. Thomas Aquinas, San Pietro Martire, St. Vincent Ferrier, 
and others, painted by Santi di Tito and Cigoli, In this church is 
preserved the Virgin and Child by Cimabue, which excited such 
admiration at the time, and such delight and wonder among the 
people, that the quarter of the town through which it was carried to 
its destination was styled for ages afterwards, and is even to this day, 
the Borgo AJlegri 

In the same city is the convent of St. Mark, where Angelico and 
Fra Bartolomeo lived and worked, and have left some of their finest 
productions. 

In the San Domenico at Siena are some of the finest productions 
of that rernarkahle school of Art, the famous Madonna by Guido da 



INTEODUCTION. 



Siena which preceded that of Cimabue, and the admirable frescoes by 
RazzL 

The churches of San Sabino and San Giovanni-e-Paolo at Rome, 
and the San Giovanni-e-Puolo at Venice, belong to this Order. For 
the last-named church Titian painted his San Pietro Martire. 

For the Dominicans of S. Maria alle Grazie at Milan, Leonardo da 
Vinci painted bis Last Supper. Other interesting churches of this 
Order are Santf Eustorgio at Milan, Sant Anastasia at Verona, and 
Santa Catarina at Pisa. 

It is worthy of remark that the churches built by the Dominicans 
generally consist of a nave only, without aisles, that when preaching 
to the people, their chief vocation, they might be heard from every 
part of the church. This form of their churches showed off their 
pictures to great advantage. 1 

Among the churches of the Carmelites, I may mention as the most 
interesting the Car-mini at Florence, in which Masaccio, Masolino, 
and Filippino Lippi painted, in emulation of each other, the frescoes 
of the Brancacci Chapel, the most important works of the fifteenth 
century. 

In this convent worked that dissolute but accomplished friar, Fra 
Filippo Lippi. 

I must say one word of the Jeronimites, who are scarcely 
alluded to in the succeeding pages, because I do nob find one of 
their Order who, as a canonised saint, has been a subject of Art. 
They claim as their patriarch St. Jerome, whose effigy, with the 
stories from his life, is always conspicuous in their churches. 
Stories of the Nativity and of Bethlehem (where St. Jerome planted 
his first monastery), and of a certain holy bishop of Lyons, St. 
Just (San Giusto), who left his diocese and turned hermit in the 
deserts of Egypt about the end of the fourth century, are also to be 
found there, 

The Jeronimites were remarkable for the splendour of some of their 
edifices : in Spain, the Escurial belonged to them ; the monastery of 
San Just, to which Charles V. retired after his abdication, and the 
remarkable monastery of Belem (Bethlehem) in Portugal, also be 
longed to them. St. Sigismond, near Cremona, is perhaps the finest 

1 The S. Maria-sopra-Minerva, at Konie, is an exception. 



xlvi INTRODUCTION. 



in Italy. A community of this Order, the Jesuati, had a con 
vent near Florence (the San-Giusto, now suppressed), in which 
the friars carried on an extensive manufactory of painted glass; 
and it is particularly recorded that they employed Perugino and 
other artists of celebrity to make designs, and that Perugino learned 
from them the art of preparing colours* Vasari has given us a 
most picturesque description of this convent, of the industry of the 
friars, of their laboratories, their furnaces, and their distilleries; 
of their beautiful well-ordered garden, where they cultivated 
herbs for medicinal purposes ; and of the vines trained round their 
cloisters. This abode of peace, industry, and science, with its 
gardens and beautiful frescoes, was utterly destroyed by the Im 
perialist army in 1529. 

The Jesuits employed Eubens and Vandycfc to decorate their 
splendid church at Antwerp. The best pictures painted for this 
Order were by the late Flemish and Spanish artists. 

Though the religious communities of Spain were most generous 
patrons of Art, and though some of the very finest pictures of the 
Valentian and Seville schools were those which commemorated tbe 
monastic saints ; yet these subjects, considered as Sacred Art, do not 
appear to advantage in the Spanish pictures, for it was the monachism 
of the seventeenth century, and the Spanish painters rendered it from 
the life. In the representation of Spanish friars, Zurbaran perhaps 
excelled all others : his cowled Carthusians, with dark deep-set eyes 
and thin lips, his haggard Franciscans, his missionary fathers and 
inquisitors, convey the strongest idea of physical self-denial and the 
consciousness of spiritual power. Murillo, Juanes, and Alonzo Oano 
frequently give us vulgar heads, sublimated through the intense truth 
of expression; but, on the whole, we should seek in vaiu in the 
Spanish monastic pictures for the refined and contemplative grace 
and intellectual elevation of the early Italian painters, 

Were it the purpose of my book to give a history of Monastic Art 
and Monastic Artists, I should have to extend these compressed 
notices into volumes; but it must be borne in mind that I have 
undertaken only to describe or to interpret briefly the lives and cha 
racters of those monastic personages who were subjects of Art, 
thence subjects of thought to those who painted them, and sources of 
thought to those who behold them. 



INTRODUCTION. 



xlvii 



I cannot better conclude than in the appropriate words of an old 
monk, Wilhelm of Bamberg, who lived about eight hundred years 
a go ; &lt; I offer this little work as long as I lived to the correction of 
those who are more learned : if I have done wrong in anything, I 
shall not be ashamed to receive their admonitions; and if there be 
anything which they like, I shall not be slow to furnish more.* 





of St. Benedict. XAfter Perugiuo.) 



Benedict anO tl)t earlp aSeneOictmes in Etalp, 
JFrance, ^&gt;paw, anU JTlantters. 



A..D. 529. 

FIRST in point of time, and first in interest and importance, 
not merely in the history of art ? but in the history of civilisa 
tion, we rank the Benedictine Order in all its branches. 

The effigies of the saintly personages of this renowned and 
wide-spread Order occur in every period, and every fotm^ and 
every school of art, from the earliest and rudest to the latest and 
worst, from the 10th to the 18th century. To the reflecting- 
mind they are surrounded with associations of the highest 
interest, and are suggestive of a thousand thoughts, some 
painful and humiliating, such as wait on all the instittitiona 

B 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



which spring out of the temporary conditions of society and 
our imperfect human nature: yet predominant over these 
feelings of gratitude, sympathy, and admiration ; if not in all 
cases due to the individual represented, yet belonging of right 
to that religious community, which under Providence hecarae 
the great instrument of civilisation in modern Europe, 

sacred &lt;md I have alluded to the origin of Eastern monachism in the 
vofii ses. life of St. Anthony. There were monks in the West from the 
days of Jerome. The example and the rules of the oriental 
anchorites and cenobites had spread over Greece, Italy, and 
even into Gaul, in the fourth and fifth centuries ; but the 
cause of Christianity, instead of being served, was injured by 
the gradual depravation of men, whose objects, at the best, 
were, if I may so use the word, spiritually selfish, leading 
them in those miserable times to work out their own safety 
and salvation only ; men who for the most part were ignorant, 
abject, often immoral, darkening the already dark superstitions 
of the people by their gross inventions and fanatic absurdities. 
Sometimes they wandered from place to place, levying con 
tributions on the villagers by displaying pretended relics; 
sometimes they were perched in a hollow tree or on the top of 
a column, or housed, half-naked, in the recesses of a rock, 
where they were fed and tended by the multitude, with whom 
their laziness, their contempt for decency, and all the vagaries 
of a crazed and heated fancy, passed for proofs of superior 
sanctity. Those who were gathered into communities, lived 
on the lands which had been granted to them ; and belonging 
neither to the people nor to the regular clergy, responsible 
to no external law, and checked by no internal discipline, 
they led a useless and idle, often a miserable and perverted, 
existence. Such is the picture we have of monachism up to 
the end of the fifth century. 

Whether Benedict, in collecting out of such materials the 
purer and better elements, subjugating such spirits to a far 
stricter discipline, and supplying what was deficient in the 
oriental monastic rule, namely, the obligation to labour (not 
merely for self-support, but as one of the duties towards God 



THK EARLY BENEDICTINES. 



jaud man), contemplated the vast results which, were to arise 
from his institution, may well be doubted. We can none of 
ns measure the consequences of the least conscious of our acts; 
nor did Benedict, probably-, while legislating for a few monks, 
anticipate the great destinies of his infant Order. Yet it is 
clear that his views were not bounded by any narrow ideas of 
expediency ; and that while he could not wholly shake from his 
mind the influences of the age in which he lived, it was not 
the less a rarely gifted mind, large, enlightened, benevolent, 
as well as enthusiastic, the mind of a legislator, a reformer 
;aud a sage, as well as that of a Christian recluse. 

j The effigies of the Benedictines are interesting and suggestive 
under three points of view : 

First, as the early missionaries of the north of Europe, who 
carried thd light of the Gospel into those wilds, of Britain, 
Gaul, Saxony, and Belgium, where heathenism still solem 
nised impure and inhuman rites; who with the Gospel 
carried also peace and civilisation, and became the refuge of 
the people, of the serfs, the slaves, the poor, the oppressed, 
against the feudal tyrants and military spoilers of those bar 
barous times. 

Secondly, as the sole depositaries of learning and the arts 
through several centuries of ignorance ; as the collectors and 
transcribers of books, when a copy of the Bible was worth a 
king s ransom. Before the invention of printing, every Bene 
dictine abbey had its library and its Scriptorium, or writing- 
chamber, where silent monks were employed from day to day, 
from month to month, in making transcripts of valuable 
works, particularly of the Scriptures : these were either sold 
for the benefit of the convent, or bestowed as precious gifts, 
which brought a blessing equally to those who gave and 
khose who received. Not only do we owe to them the multi 
plication and diffusion of copies of the Holy Scriptures : we 
ure indebted to them for the preservation of many classical 
remains of inestimable value ; for instance, of the whole or 
the greater portion of the works of Pliny, Ballast, and Cicero. 
They were the fathers of Gothic architecture ; they were the 



LEGENDS OF THB MONASTIC 



earliest illuminators and limners j and to crown their deserv- 
ings under this head, the inventor of the gamut, and the first 
who instituted a school of music, was a Benedictine monk, 
Guido d Arezzo. 

Thirdly, as the first agriculturists who brought intellectual 
resources, calculation, and science to "bear on the cultivation of 
the soil; to whom we owe experimental farming and gardening, 
and the introduction of a variety of new vegetables, fruits, &c. 
M. Ghiizot styles the Benedictines c fes dtlfricheiirs de V Europe: 
wherever they carried the cross they carried also the plough. It 
is true that there were among them many who preferred study 
to manual labour ; neither can it be denied that the shelter 
ing leisure and * sober plenty of the Benedictine monasteries 
sometimes ministered to indolence and insubordination, and 
that the cultivation of their domains was often abandoned to 
their farmers and vassals. * But, says Mr Maitlancl, c it was, 
and we ought most gratefully to acknowledge that it is, a most 
happy thing for the world that they did not confine themselves 
to the possession of such small estates as they could cultivate 
with their own hands. The extraordinary benefit which they 
conferred on society by colonising waste places places chosen 
because they were waste and solitary, and such as could be re 
claimed only by the incessant labour of those who were willing 
to work hard and live hard lands often given because they 
were not worth keeping lands which for a long while left their 
cultivators half-starved and dependent on the charity of those 
who admired what we must too often call fanatical eal, even 
the extraordinary benefit, I say, which they conferred on man 
kind by thus clearing and cultivating, was small in comparison 
with the advantages derived from them by society, after they 
had become large proprietors^ landlords with mow benevolence, 
and farmers with more intelligence and capital, than any 
others. 

Sir James Stephen thus sums up their highest claims upon 
87L the gratitude of succeeding times : * The greatness of the Bene 

dictines did not, however, consist either in their agricidtur^l 
skill, their prodigies of architecture, or their priceless libraries, 
but in their parentage of countless men and women illustrious 



THE EARLY BENEDICTINES. 



for active piety, for wisdom in the government of mankind, for 
profound learning, and for that contemplative spirit, which 
discovers within the soul itself things beyond the limits of 
the perceptible creation. 

The annalists of the Benedictine Order proudly reckon up 
the worthies it has produced since its first foundation in 529; deS Beuoit 
viz. 40 popes, 200 cardinals, 50 patriarchs, 1600 arch 
bishops. 4600 bishops, and 3600 canonised saints. It is 
a more legitimate source of pride that t by their Order were 
either laid or preserved the foundations of all the eminent 
schools of learning of modern Europe/ 

Thus, then, the Benedictines may be regarded as, in fact, 
the farmers, the thinkers and writers, the artists and the 
schoolmasters, of mediaeval Europe ; and this brief imperfect 
sketch of their enlightened and enlightening influence, is 
/given here merely as an introduction to the artistic treat 
ment of characters and subjects connected with them. All 
the Benedictine worthies who figure in art are more or less 
interesting; as for the legendary stories and wonders by 
which their real history has been perplexed and disfigured, 
even these are not without value, as illustrative of the morals 
and manners of the times in which they were published and 
represented : while the vast area of civilisation over which these 
representations extend, and the curious traits of national 
and individual character exemplified in the variety of treat 
ment, open to us, as we proceed, many sources of thoughtful 
sympathy with the past, and of speculation on the possible 
future. 

The following is a list of the principal saints of the Bene 
dictine Order whom I have found represented in works of art 

ST. BENEDICT, patriarch and founder. In the religious 
edifices of the Benedictines, properly so called, which acknow 
ledge the convent of Monte Cassino as the parent institution, 
as for instance in St. Giustina at Padua, San Severo at Naples, 
Saint Maur and Marmoutier in France, San Michele~in~Bosco 
at Bologna, and all the Benedictine foundations in England, 
St. Benedict is represented in the blade habit ; but when 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



lie figures as the Patriarch of the Reformed Orders who adopted 
the white hahit as the Camaldolesi, the Cistercians, the Car 
thusians he is represented in the white hahit, as in many 
pictures of the Tuscan school. This is a point to be kept in 
remembrance, or we shall be likely to confuse both, names and 
characters. 

The black habit Is given to 

St. Scholastica, the sister of St. Benedict, and to his im 
mediate disciples, St. Maurus, St. Placidus, and St Flavia ; 

To St. Boniface, the Apostle of G-ermany ; 
St. Bennet, Bishop of Durham ; 
St. Benedict of Ankn ; 
St. Dunstan of Canterbury ; 
St. Walpurgis of Eiehstadt ; 
St. Griles of Languedoc ; 
St. Ildefonso of Toledo; 
St. Bavon of Ghent ; 

and in general to all the early Benedictines who lived previous 
to the institution of the Camaldolesi in 1020. 

St. Romualdo and the monks of Camaldoli wear the white 
habit. 

St. John Q-ualberto and the monks of Vallombrosa wear the 
pale grey, or ash-coloured habit. These occur in the founda 
tions of their respective orders, und chiefly in Florentine art. 

St. Peter of Clugny and the Cluniacs ought to wear the 
black habit. 

St. Bernard of Clairvaux and the Cistercians wear the white 
habit, with variations of form which will be pointed out 
hereafter. 

St. Bruno and the Carthusians also wear the white habit. 
It must be remembered that St. Bruno is not met with in 
any works of art before the sixteenth century, rarely before 
the seventeenth ; while St. Bernard, who figures early as a 
canonised saint and as one of the great lights of the Catholic 
Church, occurs perpetually in Italian pictures, with his 
ample white robes, his peja, and his book ; and not merely in 
the groups of his own Order, but in combination with St. 
Francis, St. Dominick, St. Thomas Aquinas, and other per- 



ST. BENEDICT. 



sonages of remarkable authority and sanctity. There are a 
few instances in early German art of St. Bernard attired in 
the black Benedictine habit, which I shall notice in then- 
proper place. 

The Olivetani, a branch of the Benedictine Order founded 
by St. Bernardo Ptolornei, also wear the white habit. 



Having thus introduced the Benedictine saints generally, 
we proceed to call them up individually, and bid them stand 
before us, each &lt; in his habit as he lived/ or as poetry has 
interpreted and art translated into form the memories and 
traditions of men. And first appears old Father Benedict- 
well named ! for surely he was BLESSED. 



ST. BENEDICT. 

Itol San Benedetto. JV. Saint Benoit $pa. San Benito. Founder 
patriarch, and first abbot of the Order. March 21, 543. 

HABIT ANB ATTRIBUTES. In the original rule of St, Benedict, the colour 
of the habit was not specified. He and Ms disciples wore black, as all the 
monks had done up to that time ; but in the pictures painted for the Eefortned 
Benedictines, St, Benedict wears the white habit. 

The proper and most usual attributes are, 1. The Kod for sprinkling holy 
water : 2. The Mitre and pastoral staff as abbot : 3. TheBaven ; sometimes 
with a loaf of bread in its beak : 4. A pitcher or a broken glass, or cup 
containing wine : 5. A thorn-bash : 6. A broken sieve. 

ST. BENEDICT was "born of a noble family in the little town of 
Norcia, in the duchy of Spoleto, about the year 480. He was 
sent to Borne to study literature and science, and made so 
much progress as to give great hopes that he was destined to 
rise to distinction as a pleader ; but, while yet a boy, he appears- 
to have been deeply disgusted by the profligate manners of the 
youths who were his fellow-students, and the evil example 
around him, instead of acting as an allurement, threw him into 
the opposite extreme. At this period the opinions of St. Jerome 
and St. Augustine, with regard to the efficacy of solitude and 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OBDEKS. 



penance, were still prevalent throughout the West: young 
Benedict s horror of the vicious lives of those around him 
together with the influence of that religious enthusiasm which 
was the spirit of the age, drove him into a hermitage at the 
boyish age of fifteen. 

On leaving Borne, he was followed by his nurse, who had 
brought him up from infancy, and loved him with extreme 
tenderness. This good woman, doubtful, perhaps, whether 
her young charge was out of his wits or inspired, waited 
on his steps, tended him with a mother s care, begged for 
him, and prepared the small portion of food which she could 
prevail upon him to take. But while thus sustained and 
comforted, Benedict did not believe his penance entire or 
effective ; he secretly fled from his nurse, and concealed him 
self among the rocks of Subiaco, a wilderness about forty miles 
from Home. He met there a hermit, whose name was BomanOj 
to whom he confided his pious aspirations; and then took 
refuge in a cavern (il sagro Speed), where he lived for three 
years unknown to his family and to the world, and supplied 
with food by the hermit this food consisted merely of bread 
and water, which Ilomano abstracted from his own scanty 
fare. 

In this solitary life, Benedict underwent many temptations , 
and he relates that on one occasion, the recollection of a beau 
tiful woman whom he had seen at Rome, took such possession 
of his imagination as almost to overpower his virtue, so that 
he was on the point of rushing from his solitude to seek that 
face and form which haunted his morbid fancy and disturbed 
his dreams. He felt, however, or he believed, for such was the 
persuasion of the time, that this assault upon his constancy 
could only come from the enemy of mankind. In a crisis of 
these distracted desires, he rushed from his cave, and flung 
himself into a thicket of briars and nettles, in which he rolled 
himself until the blood flowed. Thereupon the fiends left him, 
$ad he was never again assailed by the same temptation. They 
show in the garden of the monastery at Subiaco the rose-bushes 
which have been propagated from the very briars consecrated 
by this poetical legend. 



ST. BENEDICT. 



The fame of the young saint now extended through all the 
country around ; the shepherds and the poor villagers brought 
their sick to his cavern to be healed ; others begged his prayers ; 
they contended with each other who should supply the humble 
portion of food which he required ; and a neighbouring society 
of hermits sent to request that he would place himself at their 
head. He, knowing something of the morals and manners of 
this community, refused at first ; and only yielded upon great 
persuasion, and in the hope that he might be able to reform the 
abuses which had been introduced into this monastery. But 
when there, the strictness of his life filled these perverted men 
with envy and alarm ; and one of them attempted to poison him 
in a cup of wine. Benedict, on the cup being presented to him, 
blessed it as usual, making the sign of the cross ; the cup 
instantly fell from the hands of the traitor, was broken, and its 
contents spilt on the ground. (This is a scene often represented 
in the Benedictine convents.) He, thereupon, rose up; and 
telling the monks that they must provide themselves with 
another superior, left them, and returned to his solitary cave at 
Subiaco, where, to use the strong expression of St. Gregory, 
he dwelt with himself; meaning thereby, that he did not allow 
his spirit to go beyond the bounds that he had assigned 
to it, keeping it always in presence of his conscience and Ms 
God. 

But now Subiaco could no longer be styled a desert, for it . 
was crowded with the huts and the cells of those whom the 
fame of his sanctity, Ms virtues, and his miracles, had gathered 
around him. At length, in order to introduce some kind of 
discipline and order in this community, he directed them 
to construct twelve monasteries, in each of which he placed 
twelve disciples with a superior over them. Many had come 
from Borne and from other cities ; and, amongst others, came 
two Itoman senators, Anicius and Tertullus, men of high 
rank, bringing to him their sons, Maurus and Placidus, with an 
earnest request that he would educate them in the way of 
salvation. Maurus was at this time a boy about eleven or 
twelve years old, and Placidus, a cMld not more than five. 

o 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OKDEES. 



Benedict took them under his peculiar care, and his community 
continued for several years to increase in number and celebrity, 
in brotherly charity and in holiness of life. But of course 
the enemy of mankind could not long endure a state of things 
so inimical to his power : he instigated a certain priest, whose 
name was Florentius, and who was enraged by seeing his 
disciples and followers attracted by the superior virtue and 
humility of St. Benedict, to endeavour to blacken his reputa 
tion, and even to attempt his life by means of a poisoned 
loaf; and this not availing, Morentius introduced into one 
of the monasteries seven young women, in order to corrupt 
the chastity of his monks. Benedict, whom we have always 
seen much more inclined to fly from evil than to resist it, 
departed from Subiaco; but scarcely had he left the place, 
when his disciple Maurus sent a messenger to tell him that 
his enemy Florentius had been crushed by the fall of a 
gallery of his house. Benedict, far from rejoicing, wept for 
the fate of his adversary, and imposed a severe penance on 
Maurus for an expression of triumph at the judgment that had 
overtaken their enemy. 

Paganism was not yet so completely banished from Italy, but 
that there existed, in some of the solitary places, temples and 
priests and worshippers of the false gods. It happened (and the 
case is not without parallel in our own times) that while the 
bishops of Borne were occupied in extending the power of the 
church, and preaching Christianity in far distant nations, a 
nest of idolaters existed within a few miles of the capital of 
Christendom. In a consecrated grove, near the summit of 
Monte Oassino, stood a temple of Apollo, where the god, or, as 
he was then regarded, the demon, was still worshipped with 
unholy rites. 

Benedict had heard of this abomination : he repaired therefore 
to the neighbourhood of Monte Cassino , lie preached the king 
dom of Christ to these deluded people, converted them by his 
eloquence and Ms miracles, and at length persuaded them to 
taeak the statue, throw down the altar, and burn up their 
wmse^ated grove. And on the spot he built two chapels, in 
BOUGHT of two saints whom he regarded as models, the one of 



ST. BENEDICT. 



the contemplative, the other of the active, religious life, St. Sacred and 
John the Baptist and St. Martin of Tours. iifp^Wof 

Then, higher up the summit of the mountain, he laid the 
foundation of that celebrated monastery which has since heen 
regarded as the Parent Institution of his Order. Hence was 
promulgated the famous Eule which hecame, from that time 
forth, the general law of the monks of Western Europe, and 
which gave to monachism its definite form. The rule given 
to the cenobites of the East, and which, according to an 
old tradition, had been revealed to St. Pachomius by an 
angel, comprised the three vows of poverty, of chastity, 
and of obedience. To these Benedict added two other obli 
gations ; the first was manual labour, those who entered his 
community were obliged to labour with their hands seven 
hours in the day : secondly, the vows were perpetual ; but he 
ordained that these perpetual vows should be preceded by a 
noviciate of a year, during which the entire code was read 
repeatedly from beginning to end, and at the conclusion the 
reader said, in an emphatic voice, This is the law under 
which thou art to live and to strive for salvation : if thou 
canst observe it, enter ; if thou canst not, go in peace, thou 
art free.* But the vows once taken were irrevocable, and 
the punishment for breaking them was most severe. On the 
whole, however, and setting apart that which belonged to 
the superstition of the time, the Eule given by Si Benedict 
to his Order was humane, moderate, wise, and eminently 
Christian in spirit 

Towards the close of his long life Benedict was consoled for 
many troubles by the arrival of Ms sister Scholastica, who had 
already devoted herself to a religious life, and now took up her 
residence in a retired cell about a league and a half from his 
convent. Yery little is known of Scholastica, except that she 
emulated her brother s piety and self-denial 5 and although It is 
not said that she took any vows, she is generally considered as 
the first Benedictine nun. When she followed lier brother to 
Monte Cassino, she drew around lier there a small community 
of pious women ; but nothing more is recorded of her, except 
f jhat he used to visit her once a year. Oa one occasion, when 



U3GE2O3S OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



they had "been conversing together on spiritual matters till 
rather late in the evening, Benedict rose to depart ; his sister 
entreated him to remain a little longer, hut he refused : Scho- 
lastica then, bending her head over her clasped hands, prayed 
that Heaven would interfere and render it impossible for her 
brother to leave her. Immediately there came on such a furious 
tempest of rain, thunder, and lightning, that Benedict was 
obliged to delay his departure for some hours. As soon as the 
storm had subsided, he took leave of his sister, and returned 
to the monastery : it was a last meeting ; St. Scholastica died 
two days afterwards, and St. Benedict, as he was praying in his 
cell, beheld the soul of his sister ascending to heaven in the 
form of a dove. This incident is often found in the pictures 
painted for the Benedictine nuns. 

It would take volumes to relate all the actions and miracles 
of St. Benedict during the fourteen years that he presided over 
the Convent of Monte Oassino. In the year 540 he was visited 
by Totila, king of the Goths, who cast himself prostrate at 
his feet, and entreated his blessing. Benedict reproved him 
for the ravages and the cruelties that he had committed in 
Italy, and it was remarked that thenceforward the ferocious 
Goth showed more humanity than heretofore. 

Shortly after the visit of Totila, Benedict died of a fever 
with which he had been seized in attending the po6r of the 
neighbourhood. On the sixth day of his illness, he ordered 
his grave to be dug, stood for a while upon the edge of it 
supported by his disciples, contemplating in silence the narrow 
bed in which he was to be laid ; then, desiring them to carry 
Mm to the foot of the altar in the church, he received the last 
sacraments, and expired, on the 21st of March 543. Con 
sidering the great reputation and sanctity of life of this 
extraordinary man, we cannot be surprised that he should have 
been the subject of a thousand inventions. The accomplished 
ecclesiastics of his own Order who compiled the memoirs of 
Ms Me, reproach the legendary writers for admitting these 
improbable stories ; and remark with equal candour and good 
sense, loin d applaudir au faux zele de ces ecrivains, on doit 
leg Gondanffier comme des personnes qui corrompent la veritS 



ST. BENEDICT. ia 



del histoire: et qui, au lieu de faire honneur au Saint, le 
deshonorent, en abusant de son nora pour debiter des fables et 
se jouer de la credulite des simples/ 

Even before Ms death, that is, before the year 543, institutions 
of the Order of St. Benedict were to be found in every part of 
Christian Europe. Of his two most famous disciples, the elder, 
St. Maurus, introduced the Eule into France and founded the 
monastery of Glanfeuil, since called St. Maure-sur-Loire; and 
so completely did this Eule supersede all others, that in the ninth 
century, when Charlemagne inquired whether in the different 
parts of his empire there existed other monks besides those of 
the Order of St. Benedict, none could be found. St. Maurus 
died in his convent of Grlanfeuil. 1 St. Placidus was sent by his A.D. r,s4. 
Superior into Sicily, where, according to the tradition, he was Jsm " 15 " 
joined by his young sister Flavia and two of his brothers. But 
within a few years afterwards, and while Placidus himself was 
still in the bloom of youth, the convent near Messina, in which 
he dwelt, was attacked by certain pirates and barbarians. Pla 
cidus and his sister Flavia were dragged forth and massacred, 
with thirty of their companions, in front of the convent, on the 
5th of October, about the year 540. It is fair to add that the 
martyrdom of St. Placidus and St. Flavia is considered by the 
later Benedictine writers as apocryphal. 



Pictures of St. Benedict often perplex the observer, "because, 
as I have already shown, he was frequently represented in 
early art wearing the white habit, whereas the original habit 
of his Order was UacL Where he has the white habit, it is 
easy to confound him with St. Bernard, St. Bruno,, or St. 

1 St Maur was introduced into England, and held in great veneration by our 
Norman ancestors $ I believe it is generally known that from this French saint is 
derived one of our greatest English surnames, Seymaur or SevmoMt, from Saint- 
Maur ; but I should regret a return to the French appellation. Saipt-Maur is 
foreign, and interesting only as the name of a French monk : Seymour is English, 
and surrounded by all those historical associations which giv0 the name rts English 
claims to consideration, and its charni to English ears. 



14 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Romualdo ; where lie lias the black habit, he may be mis 
taken for Si Antony. It is therefore necessary to attend 
particularly to some characteristic attributes which serve to 

distinguish him. 

In all pictures painted for those Benedictine churches and 
edifices which depend on Monte Gassino and Subiaco, and in the 
single devotional effigies, St. Benedict wears the black habit 




St. Benedict (From an engraving by Wierx.) 



with a hood ; where he figures as patriarch of the Reformed 

Benedictines of Clairvaux, Citeaux, Camaldoli, or Yallombrosa, 
lie wears the white habit. He is sometimes beardless, or with 
little beard ; but more frequently he has a long white beard. 



Ht, NBN tttWST, 



abbot, of Monte. (Vw 




he ban KwnotimeM the pastoral 
ntaff and mitre* He fre* 



ou which ni*4% written the 
first wordx of hi famous 
Itul, 4 AUSOULTA, Fiu, 
VKIIUA MAWKTIU/ 
Like* otlu*r naintH who 



. ittwtiua, (A, 



^ lj ^ iavo ri * H ^ Ht(l( ^ * " l ^W^H of 

t!u fl&lt; mon J lu - &lt; ^rie the 

or rod IIKCH! to 
holy water, here 
l of the purity 
or holiucHH by which he con- 
quered. Tlu^ thorn-butth h an 
attribute whicsli coininetuo- 
ratcB the ineaiw through 
which ho conquered, A 
pitcher of wine In lug hand, 
or a pitcher or a broken cup 
Htanding on IUH book, cx- 
preHsewthe attempt to poison 

him iu wint. The ruv&lt;n and a loaf of brad ? with a serpent 
&lt;*,rcu*piu&lt;( frotu it, CXJMIHN the attempt to poison him In 
bread 

When he in grouped with bin two disciple**, Hi. Mauruw and 
Ht PlafudttH, they all wear the black habit; or Bt Benedict 
appears iw abbot, and the two dmeipleH a deaconn, wearing 
th rich &lt;lahnalica over the black tunic. Si Mauru has a 
book or a cenKor ; Ht FlaeiduB boar hU palm m martyr, 

When a nun in a black habit w introduced into picture* of 
Ht, IJ(Sttediet, or HtamU alone with it lily in her hand ? and a 
dovo at her feet or preHwed to hor boHom, it represents St. 
BcholiiHtictk It in common to find in the Bcmedietiue churchen, 
enpeoially iu Italy, devotional figures of Ht Benedict and St 
Bcsholiwtica Htaitclitig on each side of the altar. 

When, iu the Benedictine groupH, a fourth wiiwt in intro- 
du(5ed, a female saint, young ai,id beautiful, and with the, 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



martyr palm and crown, it is probably, if not otherwise dis 
tinguished, St. Flavia, the martyred sister of St. Placidus. 

Every one who has visited the Vatican will recollect the 
three beautiful little heads by Perugino, styled in the catalogue 
li tre SantL In the centre is St. Benedict, with his black cowl 
over his head and long parted beard, the book in one hand, and 
the asperge in the other. On one side, St. Placidus, young, and 
with a mild, candid expression, black habit and shaven crown, 
bears his palm. On the other side is St Flavia, crowned as 
martyr, holding her palm, and gazing upward with a divine 
expression. These exquisite little pictures were painted by 
Perugino, for the sacristry of the church of the Benedictines 
simpietro at Perugia. There I afterwards saw the other pictures which 
neri. completed the series, and which are not less beautiful ; St. 

Scholastica and St Maurus ; St Ercolano and St Costanzo, 
the patrons of Perugia ; and Peter the Venerable, abbot of 
Clugni. 1 

In a composition by Benedetto Montagna, engraved by him 
self and exceedingly rare, he has represented his patron saint 
standing in the centre with his crozier and book. On the right 
hand, St Scholastica holding a book, and next to her, St Grius- 
tina, the patroness of Padua, with a sword in her bosom, and 
holding a palm. The engraving was executed at Padua, and 
the name inscribed, otherwise I should have supposed this figure 
to represent St Flavia. On the other side of St Benedict are 
St Madras and St Placidus. 

FI. fttti pm By Paul Veronese : St Benedict standing in the black habit 
between St Maurus and St Placidus : lower down are five 
Benedictine nuns,. St Scholastica being distinguished by her 
dove; above, in a glory, is the marriage of St Catherine. This 
arrangement leaves no doubt that the picture was painted for a 
convent of Benedictine nuns, Spose di ChristoS 

1 Peter the Yenerable, abbot of Clugni, was not canonised, but he was a Beato ; 
and I have met with, him in one picture standing as companion to St Benedict, but 
unfortunately have no note of the pkce or the painter. He is very interesting for 
his gentle spirit, as well as for his learning ; .-vnd worthy of commemoration for 
H asylum he afforded to Abekrd when persecuted by St. Bernard, and for the 
beautiful letter which he wrote to Heloise on the death of her husband. 



ST. BENEDICT. 



There are one or two examples in which St. Benedict appears 
with St. Manrus and St. Placidus represented as children, 
wearing the albe and kneeling at his feet, or with censers in 
their hands. 

These remarks apply chiefly to Italian art In the early 
German school we find that the groups of Benedictine 
worthies vary according to the locality. In the place of St. 
Maurus, St. Placidus, St. Scholastica, we have, perhaps, 
St. Boniface, St. Cunibert, St. Willibald, St. Gertrude, or 
St. Ottilia. In the early memorials of English ecclesiastical 
art, the companions of St. Benedict are St. Gregory and St. 
Austin, of Canterbury, or St. Dunstan and St. Outhbert. In 
the lives of these saints I shall have occasion to point out the 
motive and propriety of these variations ; but here I will not 
anticipate. 

Among the pictures of St. Benedict as Patriarch, should be 
mentioned those which represent him as seated on a throne ; 
and around him a great number of figures, male and female, 
wearing the habits of the different Orders, religious and 
military, which were founded on his Eule. There is a grand 
picture of this subject in the Convent of San Martino near 
Palermo, by Ebvelli, the best of the late Sicilian painters. 

Separate subjects from the life of St. Benedict, in general 
representing some of his most famous actions or miracles, are 
of course frequently found in the convents of his Order. 

1. He stands on the step leading to the door of his convent 
at Monte Cassino ; a man, kneeling at his feet, places a sick 
child before him, which is healed by the prayer of the saint ; Louvre. 
as in a picture by Subleyras (where St. Benedict wears the Louvre. 
white habit) ; another by Silvestre ; a third by Eubens ; and 

in a very fine Velasquez. 

2. St. Benedict, in the monastery of Monte Cassino, gives 
the Eule to his Order. 



3. St. Benedict, when at Subiaco, is haunted by the recollec 



tion of a beautiful woman he had seen at Borne. He lies in 

the midst of thorns ; two angels in front scatter roses, while Brer*. 

the tempting devil is gliding away behind, 



LEGEHDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



m 4. St. Benedict receives St. Maurus and St. Placidus, who 
st.Giustina. ^ p resen ted by their respective fathers. 

5. St. Benedict, kneeling, with his hands outspread, and 
looking up with an expression of transport, sees, in a vision, 
his sister Scholastica, attended by two virgin martyrs (probably 

i*seur. St. Catherine and St. Agnes), and St. Peter and St, Paul 

L0uvre " Here he wears the black habit with the cowl thrown back ; 

the crozier and mitre, expressing his dignity as abbot, lie near 

him. This beautiful picture was painted for the convent of 

Marmoutier. 

6. The wicked monks attempt to poison St, Benedict. He 
is seated within the porch of a convent, a monk approaches 
and presents to him a cup of wine, another behind holds a 

FL A&lt;ad. pitcher, and turns away his head with a look of alarm : as in 

. a predella by Andrea del Sarto. Here St Benedict and the 

monks wear the white habit, the picture having been painted 

for the monastery of St. Salvi, near Florence, a branch of the 

Vallonibrosian Order. 

7. The mission of St. Mauro and St. Placido : St. Benedict 
gives them his blessing before they depart, the one to France, 
^ other to Sicily. 

Bologna. 8. St. Benedict being near his end, stands looking down 
A."* ml into his grave ; he is sustained by two angels, and there are 
nine figures of monks and attendants. 

A complete history of the life and miracles of St. Benedict 
in a series of subjects executed in painting, sculpture, or stained 
glass, may still be found in many of the churches, chapels, and 
cloisters of the Benedictine convents. I will mention a few of 
the most celebrated, 

** "^ ser * es a ^ Naples painted by Antonio Solario (called 
" Lo Zingaro, the Gipsy) , in the cloisters of the convent of San 
Severino. Here Si Benedict wears the Hack habit. 

Florence. 



2. A series by Spinello Aretino, which covers the walls of the 

acristy of San """"" 

&gt; the Vallombr 
tie wMte habit 



sacristy of San Miniato. Here, the convent being attached 
to the Vallonibrosian Order, St. Benedict and his monks wear 



ST. BENEDICT. 



3. A series elaborately carved in wood, in forty-eight com- Venice, 
partments, in the choir of the church of San Giorgio at Venice. 

By Albert de Brule. 

4. A series painted in fresco by Lndovico Caracci and his ^f Cai a acci * 
pupils, in the Benedictine convent of San Michele-in-Bosco ; 

once famous as a school of art, now unhappily in a most ruined 
state, these magnificent cloisters having been converted into a 
horse-barrack by the French. 

5. A set of ten pictures by Philippe de Champagne : not Musse. 

L / i r i & Brussels. 

very good, 

As the selection of subjects is nearly the same in all, I shall 
confine myself to the exact description of one complete series, 
which will assist the reader in the comprehension of any 
others he may meet with, and shall review that which is 
earliest in date, and in other respects the most remarkable. 
Perhaps it were best to begin with the story of the painter, 
one of those romances which enchant us in the histories of 
the early artists. It reminds us of the story of the Flemish 
blacksmith ; but Antonio lo Zingaro sounds better, at least 
more musically, in a love tale, than Quinten Matsys a name 
as quaint and hard as one of his own pictures. Antonio was 
either a gipsy by birth, or he followed the usual gipsy profes 
sion, that of a tinker or smith : he saw and loved the daughter 
of Col Antonio dell Fiore ; the father refused his consent, 
but admiring the manly character and good looks of the 
handsome youth, he was heard to say, that if Antonio had 
been a painter he would have given him his daughter. On 
this hint Antonio left Naples ; changed, as Lanzi says, his 
forge into an academy, his hammer into a pencil \ placed 
himself for a few weeks under Lippo Dalmasio of Bologna ; 
then, at Venice, studied the works of the Vivarini ; at Flor 
ence those of the Bicci and Masaccio ; at Borne those of 
Gentile da Fabriano; and returning to Naples in 1443, he 
claimed the love and the hand of the fair daughter of Col 
Antonio. Shortly afterwards he painted for the Benedictines 
this life of their great founder, in the very convent which, 
according to tradition, had been endowed by Tertullus, the 
father of St. Placidus. 



LEGENDS CXF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



The series begins from the beginning, and all the stories 
represented may be found in the old legend. 

1. Benedict, as a boy about seven or eight years old, journeys from 
Norcia to Borne. A mountain rising in the middle divides the picture 
into two parts ; on one side is the city of Norcia, on the other a distant 
view of Borne. He is seen on horseback accompanied by his father 
Eutropius ; two servants armed with lances go before, and his nurse Cyrilla, 
mounted on a mule, follows behind. 

2. On his flight from Borne, he arrives at Affide, and is received before 
the church of St Peter by the men of the place. Behind him is seen his 
nurse Cyrilla, who has followed him from Bome. 

3. Cyrilla, occupied in preparing food for her charge while he was busied 
in his devotions, borrowed from a neighbour a sieve or earthen vessel in 
which they clean the corn ; she broke it, and was in great distress, not 
having money wherewith to replace it Benedict by a miracle repaired it 
In this picture the youthful saint is represented at prayers in his chamber ; 
Cyrilla in front holds the broken sieve ; in the background is seen a 
church, and over the door the country people have hung the sieve, and are 
looking at it with admiration and amazement. The broken sieve is some 
times, but not often, introduced as an attribute in pictures of St. Benedict 

To the left of this composition a beautiful woman is seen standing at a 
balcony smelling at a sprig of myrtle ; it is the portrait of the daughter of 
CoP Antonio : two doves billing upon the roof above, are supposed to 
allude to the recent marriage of the artist. 

4. Benedict, in the wilderness of Subiaco, meets Bomano. He puts on 
the dress of a hermit. 

5. The cave at Subiaco, since famous as lo sagro Speco ; Benedict seated 
within, it intently reading ; beside him a basket tied to a string which com 
municates with a bell at the mouth of the cave. The demon is busy cutting 
the string. Various wild animals around express the solitude of the place. 

6. Bomano the hermit dies, and Benedict is left in his cave alone, with 
none to feed him or care for him ; but absorbed in Ms devotions, he is 
uromndf ol of the wants of nature. In the mean time, a certain priest had 
prepared himself a feast for Easter day, and on the eve, as he slept in his 
bed, an angel said to him, Thou hast prepared a feast for thyself while my 
servant on yonder mountain dies for food/ When the priest arose in the 
morning, lie took the food that he had prepared for himself and went forth 
to seek the servant of God ; and after a long search, he found him towards 
the evening in Ms solitary cave, and he said unto Mm, &lt;Bise, brother, 
let us eat, for this is Easter day/ Benedict was surprised, for he had 
dwelt so long apart from men, that he knew not what day it was. The 
picture represents Benedict and the priest with food spread before them ; 
in. &e bacikground is seen the priest asleep in Ms cell, and visited by the 
divine revelation. 

Gnido painted, in the cloisters of San Michele-in-Bosco, the peasants 



ST. BENEDICT. 21 



bringing their offerings to the cave of St. Benedict Prom the beauty and 
graceful head-dress of one of the female figures, the Italians styled this 
picture la Turbantina. It has perished like the rest. 

7. Benedict in his solitude is tempted by recollections and desires which 
disturb his devotions. On one side of the picture he is seated reading ; 
he makes the sign of the cross to drive away a little black bird, of course 
the demon in disguise, which, hovering over his book, perpetually 
interrupts him by suggesting sinful thoughts. He flings down his book, 
tears off his garment, and throws himself down amidst the thorns and the 
nettles. 

8. Benedict, being chosen superior of the monastery near Subiaco, en 
deavours in vain to reform the profligate monks. In return they attempt 
to poison him. A monk presents the cup of wine, five others stand behind 
with hypocritical faces. The saint raises his hand in benediction over the 
cup, which is seen to break. 

6 The seven women introduced into the monastery to tempt Benedict and 
his companions/ was painted by Ludovico Caracei in the series at Bologna, 
but is omitted in. the series by Solario. 

9. The reception of the two children, St Maurus and St Placidus. This, 
in the Neapolitan series, is a rich and charming composition. The children 
are seen habited in magnificent dresses, and with glories round their heads. 
The two fathers, Anicius and Tertullus, present them. They are accom 
panied by a great retinue of servants on foot and on horseback, with 
hawks, dogs, &c. Lo Zingaro has introduced his own portrait at full 
length holding his pencils, and behind him his master, Lippo Dalmasio : 
the authenticity of these portraits gives additional value to the picture. 

10. A certain monk in one of the dependent cells at Subiaco, was always 
inattentive to his religious duties, and, at the hour devoted to mental prayer, 
was seen to leave the choir and wander forth. Benedict, coming to reprove 
him, saw that he was led forth by a demon in the shape of a little black 
boy who pulled him by the robe" (a personification of the demon of sloth) ; 
this demon, however, was visible to no other eyes but those of the saint, 
who, following the monk, touched him on the shoulder with his staff and 
exorcised the demon, who from that hour troubled the sinner no more. 

11. Three monks come to complain to Benedict that three out of the 
twelve monasteries at Subiaco are in want of water. Benedict by his 
prayers procures an abundant fountain^ which gushes forth and flows like 
a torrent down a mountain side. This subject is particularly striking in 
the frescoes by Spinello, in the church of San Miniato. 

1SL A Gothic peasant, employed in felling wood, lets the blade of his 
billhook fall into the lake. Benedict takes the handle of the billhook, puts 
it into the water, and the blade rises miraculously from the bottom, and 
unites to it. The disciple Maurus, behind, looks on with astonishment 

13. St. Plaeidus, while yet a child, in going to draw water, falls into the 
lake ; St Benedict, who is praying in Ms cell, has a revelation of his danger, 
and sends Maurus in all haste to help him ; Maurus rushes to Ms assistance, 



LEGEKDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



treading the water as if it liad been dry land. (Benedict imputed this 
miracle to the ready obedience and unseMsh zeal of Maixras, while Ms 
disciple, in his humility, insisted that he was miraculously sustained by 
the virtue and prayers of Ms superior.) 

14 The wicked priest Morentius, being filled with jealousy and envy 
at the superior sanctity of Benedict, sent him a poisoned loaf, Benedict, 
aware of his treachery, threw the loaf upon the ground, and commanded 
a tame raven, which was domesticated in the convent, to carry it away 
and pkce it beyond the reach of any living creature. In the picture, 
the scene represents the refectory of the convent : on one side Benedict 
is receiving the poisoned loaf, on the other side the raven is seen 
flying through the window with, it in his beak. In the background 
Florentras is seen crushed to death, by the walls of his house falling on him. 

15. Benedict is seen preaching to the people near Monte Cassino. In the 
background, on the top of the hill, is the temple of Apollo, and Benedict 
flings down the idol 

16. He founds the monastery of Monte Cassino. The demon endeavours 
to retard the work, and seats himself on the top of a large stone required 
for the building, so that no human power avails to move it from its place. 
In the picture, several monks with long levers are endeavouring to move a 
great stone : St. Benedict kneels in the foreground, and at his prayer the 
.demon takes to night (The composition of this subject, by Spada, is 
famous, and has been engraved.) 

17. One of the monks who was assisting in the building of the monastery 
is crushed to death. He is brought to the feet of St. Benedict, who recalls 
him to life. 

In digging the foundations of the monastery of Monte Cassino, they 
discover an idol of bronze, from which issues a supernatural fire which 
threatens to destroy the whole edifice. St, Benedict perceives at once that 
this is a delusion of the enemy, and at his prayer it disappears, This 
subject is not in the series by Lo Zingaro. 

18. Totila, the king of the Goths, visits St Benedict in his monastery. 
He is prostrate at the feet of the saint, while Ms-warriors and his attendants 
are seen behind. 1 

1 And Totila, king of the Goths, hearing that Benedict possessed the spirit of 
prophecy, and willing to prove him, attired Riggo, his armour-bearer, In his royal 
sandals, robes, and crown, and sent him, with three of his chief counts, Yuleni, 
liudeni, and Bledi, to the monastery. Benedict witnessing his approach from a 
lofty place whereon he sat, called out to Mm, Put off, my son, those borrowed 
trappings : they are not thine own ; and Totila, hearing of this, went to visit 
him ; and perceiving him from a distance seated, he presumed not to approach, 
but prostrated himself on the earth, and would not rise till, after having been 
thrice biddm to do so by Benedict, the servant of Christ deigned to raise him 
MmsaH, and chid him for his misdeeds, and in a few words foretold all that was 
to befell Mm, the years of his reign, and the period of his death. See Lord 
itches of C&rutwn A rt. 



T, BENEDICT-. 



19. The sick child restored at the prayer of its parents ; a frequent 
subject 

20. St. Benedict visits Ms sister Scholastica, and they spend the day in 
spiritual discourse and communion. And when the night approached, 
Scholastica besought her brother not to leave her ; but he refused her 
request, saying that it was not right to remain all night from his convent* 
Thereupon Scholastica, who had a secret feeling that her end was approach 
ing, and that she should never see him more, bent down her head upon her 
folded hands, and prayed to God for the power to persuade her brother ; 
and behold, the heavens, which till that moment had been cloudless, were 
immediately overcast ; and there arose such a tempest of thunder and 
lightning and rain, that it was impossible for Benedict and his attendant 
to leave the house, and he remained with his sister in prayer and holy con 
verse till the morning/ (This subject also is omitted in the series by Lo 
Zingaro.) 

21. Three days afterwards, St. Benedict, standing rapt in prayer, beheld 
the released soul of his sister, in the form of a dove, flying towards heaven. 

The death of St. Scholastica has been painted by Luca Giordano. 

22. St Benedict dies at the foot of the altar. Two of Ms disciples behold 
at the same moment the selfsame vision ; they see a path or a ladder 
extending upwards towards heaven strewed with silken draperies, and lamps 
on either side burning along it ; and on the summit the "Virgin and the 
Saviour in glory. And while they wondered, a voice said to them, What 
path is that ? J and they said, "We know not. And the voice answering 
again said, * That is the path by wMch Benedict the Beloved of God is even 
now ascending to heaven. So they knew that he was dead. 

The following curious and picturesque legend seems to have 
been invented as a parable against idle and chattering nuns. 

Two ladies of an illustrious family had joined the, sisterhood 
of Si Scholastica. Though in other respects exemplary and 
faithful to their religious profession, they were much given to 
scandal and vain talk ; which, heing told to St. Benedict, it 
displeased him greatly ; and he sent to them a message, that if 
they did not refrain their tongues and set a "better example to 
the community he would excommunicate them. The nuns were 
at first alarmed and penitent, and promised amendment ; but 
the habit was too strong for their good resolves ; they continued 
their vain and idle talking, and, in the midst of their folly, they 
died. And being of great and noble lineage, they were buried 
in the church near the altar; and afterwards, on a certain day, 
as St. Benedict solemnised mass at that altar, and at the moment 
when the officiating deacon uttered the usual words, Let those 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



who are excommunicated, and forbidden to partake, depart and 
leave us ; behold ! the two nuns rose up from their graves, 
and in the sight of all the people, with faces drooping and 
averted, they glided out of the church. And thus it happened 
every time that the mass was celebrated there, until St. 
Benedict, taking pity upon them, absolved them from their 
sins, and they rested in peace. 

This most rich and picturesque subject, called by the Italians, 
le Sucre mortej was painted by Lucio Massari, in the series 
Bologna. at Bologna. Richardson mentions it with praise as equal 
cloisters of to any of those by his master, Ludovico, or his competitor, 
Guido ; he calls it &lt; the dead nuns coming out of their tombs 
to hear mass. The fresco has perished, and the engraving 
in Patina s work does not give a high idea of it as a com 
position. 

The above detailed description of a series of subjects from the 
life of St Benedict will be found useful; for, in general, how 
ever varied in treatment, the selection of scenes and incidents 
has been nearly the same in every example I can recollect, and 
some of them may be found separately treated. 



ST. ILBEFOXSO. 

Or St, Alplionso. Ger. Der Heilige Ildelphons. Archbishop and patron 
saint of Toledo. Jan. 23, 667. 

THIS saint, famous in the Spanish hierarchy and hardly less 
famous in Spanish art, was a Benedictine and one of the earliest 
of the Order in Spain ; he became archbishop of Toledo in 657, 
and died in 667. He wrote a book in defence of the perpetual 
virginity of the Holy Virgin, which some heretics had ques 
tioned, and in consequence the Holy Virgin could she do 
less ? regarded him with especial favour. Once on a time, 
wten St Ildefonso was entering his cathedral at the head of a 
midnight procession, he perceived the high altar surrounded 
by ablaze of light. He alone of all the clergy ventured to 
approach, and found the Virgin herself seated on his ivory 



ST. ILDKFONSO. 25 



episcopal throne, and surrounded by a multitude of angels 
chanting a solemn service from the psalter. He bowed to the 
ground before the heavenly vision, and the Virgin thus ad 
dressed him : * Come hither, most faithful servant of G-od, and 
receive this robe which I have brought thee from the treasury 
of my Son. Then he knelt before her, and she threw over 
him a chasuble or cassock of heavenly tissue, which was 
adjusted on his shoulders by the attendant angels. From that Ford &gt; s 
ni^ht the ivory chair remained unoccupied and the celestial Handtlook - 
vestment unworn, until the days of the presumptuous arch 
bishop Sisiberto, who died miserably in consequence of seat 
ing himself in the one, and attempting to array himself in the 

other. 

This incident has been the subject of two magnificent pictures. 

1. * Murillo has represented the Virgin and two angels about Madrid Gai 
to invest the kneeling saint with thp splendid chasuble ; other 
angels stand or hover around and above; and behind the prelate 

there kneels, with less historical correctness, a venerable nun, 
holding in her hand a waxen taper. The Virgin and the angel 
on her left hand are lovely conceptions, and the richly embroi 
dered chasuble is most brilliantly and carefully painted. The 
reputation of this picture has been extended by the excellent 
graver of Fernando Selma. A good impression is in the sariing-asp. 

? ... i TUT Painters. 

British Museum. 

2. The second picture was painted by Rubens ; it is an altar- Vienna imp. 
piece with two wings ; in the centre, the Virgin is seated on 

the episcopal throne attended by four angels, before her kneels 
St Edefonso, and receives from her hands the sacred vestment. 
On the right side kneels the archduke Albert, attended by his 
patron, St. Albert ; and on the left wing, the archduchess- 
infanta, Clara Isabella Eugenia (daughter of Philip IL), who 
is attended by St. Clara. 

The investiture of St. Ildefonso is a subject of frequent occur 
rence : there are two or three examples in the Spanish Gallery 
of the Louvre. There is another curious legend of St. Ildefonso 
which has furnished a subject for the Spanish artists. This was 
a vision of St. Leocadia, to whom he had vowed a particular 

E 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



worship, and who rose out of her sepulchre clad in a Spanish 
mantilla, in order to inform St. Ildefonso of the favour with 
which the Virgin regarded the treatise he had written in her 
praise; he had just time before she disappeared to cut off a 
corner of her mantilla, which was long preserved in her chapel 
at Toledo as a most precious relic. Mr. Ford mentions with 
admiration the bas-reliefs by Felise de Vigarny representing 
the principal events in the life of St. Ildefonso, which were 
executed in the reign of Charles V., about 1540. 



ST. BAVOH. 

Mem. St Bavo, or St. Ba Ital San Bavone. Patron saint of Ghent and 
Haerlem. Oct 1, 657. 

ST. BAVON is interesting, as we have a fine sketch of him in 
our National G-allery ; and many pictures of Mm exist in the 
churches in Belgium. 

He was a nobleman, some say a duke, of Brabant, and was 
born about the year 589 : after living for nearly fifty years a 
very worldly and dissipated life, and being left a widower, he 
was moved to compunction by the preaching of St. Amand, the 
apostle of Belgium and first bishop of Maestricht. Withdraw 
ing himself from his former associates, Bavon bestowed all 
his goods in charity, and then repaired to Si Amand, who 
received him as a penitent, and placed Mm in a monastery at 
Ghent But tMs state of penance and seclusion did not suffice 
to St. Bavon : he took up his abode in a hollow tree in the 
forest of Malmedun near Ghent, and there he lived as a hermit; 
his only food being the wild herbs, and * his drink the crystal 
well/ He is said to have died in his hermitage, somewhere 
about the year 657. 

In the old Flemish prints and pictures he is represented either 
as a hermit, seated and praying in a hollow tree ; or as a prince, 
in armour, and with a falcon on his hand. Among the penances 
lie imposed on himself, was that of carrying a huge stone, 
emblematical of the burden of his sins, which is sometimes 
introduced as an attribute. The chapel erected in his honour is 



ST. BATON, 



27 



now the cathedral of Ghent, for which Rubens painted the 
great altar-piece. It represents the saint in his secular 
costume of a knight and a noble, presenting himself hefore 
Amand, bishop of Maestricht ; he is ascending the steps of a 
church; Amand stands above, under a portico, and lower 
down are seen the poor to whom St. Bavon has distributed all 
his worldly goods. The original sketch for this composition London 
is the more valuable because of the horrible ill-treatment which 
the large picture has received from the hands of a succession 
of restorers. I find also the following representations of this 
saint : 

1. St. Bavon in his ducal robes, with a falcon on his hand; 
statue over the door of the cathedral at G-hent. 

2. St. Bavon in armour, with the falcon on his hand. SSS/" 

3. The slave of a nobleman, being possessed or mad, is Jordaen 
restored by St. Bavon. The nobleman, in a balcony behind, 
looks down on the scene. 

There is a story of St. Bavon which I do not remember to 
have seen represented, and which would be a beautiful subject 
for a picture. It is related that St. Bavon, one day after his ^jj e 
conversion, beheld coming towards him a man who had formerly Clv - Fr - 
been his slave, and whom he had, for some remissness in his 
service, beaten rigorously and sold to another master. And at 
the sight of him who had been his bondman, the Man of God 
was seized with an agony of grief and remorse, and fell down at 
his feet and said, Behold, I am he who sold thee, bound in 
leathern thongs to a new master ; but, my brother! I beseech 
thee remember not my sin against thee, and grant me this 
prayer ! Bind me now hand and foot ; beat me with stripes ; 
shave my head, and cast me into prison : make me suffer all I 
inflicted on thee, and then perchance the Lord will have mercy 
and forget my great sin that I have committed against Him, and 
against thee 1 * And the bondman, hearing these words, was 
astonished, and he refused to lay hands on the Man of God, his 
former master ; but St. Bavon insisted the niore^ and at last, 
after much entreaty and many arguments, he yielded ; and he 
took the Man of God and bound him, and shaved his head, and 
cast him into the public prison, where he remained for a certain 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



time, deploring day and night the crime he had committed 
against his human and Christian brother, 

In this legend, as M. Ghiizot well observes, the exaggeration 
of the details is of no importance ; even the truth of the recital 
as a mere matter of fact is of little consequence. The im 
portance of the moral lies in this * that the story was penned in 
the seventh century ; that it was related to the men of the 
seventh century, to those who had incessantly before their eyes 
the evils, the iniquities, the sufferings of slavery ; it was a 
protest in the name of the religion of Christ against such a 
state of things, and probably assisted in the great work of the 
abolition of slavery, begun by Pope Gregory the Great, in 604. 



ST. GILES. 

Lot. Sanctus jEgidius. Ital. Sant Egidio. J?r* Saint Gilles. &p. San Gil. 
Patron saint of tlie woodland. Patron saint of Edinburgh ; of Juliers in 
Flanders. Sept 1, 725. ATTRIBUTE ; a "wounded Mnd. 



4 Ane Hynde set up "beside Sanct GeilL* 

SIB DAVID LIOTSAY. 

THIS renowned saint is one of those whose celebrity bears no 
proportion whatever to their real importance. I shall give his 
legend in a few words. He was an Athenian of royal blood, and 
appears to have been a saint by nature ; for one day on going 
into the church, he found a poor sick man extended upon the 
pavement; St. Giles thereupon took off his mantle and spread 
it over him, when the man was immediately healed. This and 
other miracles having attracted the veneration of the people, 
St. Griles fled from his country and turned hermit ; he wandered 
from one solitude to another until he came to a retired wilder- 
ness, near the mouth of the Rhone, about twelve miles to the 
south of Nismes. Here he dwelt in a cave, by the side of a 
clear spring, living upon the herbs and fruits of the forest, and 
upon the milk of a Mnd, which had taken up its abode with 
him. How it came to pass that the king of France was hunting 



ST. GILES. 



in the neighbourhood, and the hind, pursued hy the dogs, fled ( Or , accord- 
to the cavern of the saint, and took refuge in his arms. The oi 
hunters let fly an arrow, and, following on the track, were sur- S 
prised to find a venerable old man, seated there with the hind Goths * ) 
in his arms, which the arrow had pierced through his hand. 
Thereupon the king and his followers, perceiving that it was 
a holy man, prostrated themselves before him, and entreated 
forgiveness. 

The saint, resisting all the attempts of the king to withdraw 
him from his solitude, died in his cave. But the place becom 
ing sanctified by the extreme veneration which the people bore 
to his memory, there arose on the spot a magnificent monastery, 
and around it a populous city bearing his name and giving the 
same title to the counts of Lower Languedoc, who were styled 
comtes de Saint-Grilles. 

The abbey of St. Giles was one of the greatest of the Bene 
dictine communities, and the abbots were powerful temporal as 
well as spiritual lords. Of the two splendid churches which 
existed here, one has been utterly destroyed, the other remains 
one of the most remarkable monuments of the middle ages now 
existing in France. It was built in the eleventh century ; the 
portico is considered as the most perfect type of the Byzantine 
style on this side of the Alps, and the whole of the exterior of 
the church is described as one mass of bas-reliefs. In the 
interior, among other curiosities of antique art, must be 
mentioned an extraordinary winding staircase of stone, the 
construction of which is considered a miracle of skill. 1 

St. Giles has been especially venerated in England and 
Scotland. In 1117, Matilda, wife of Henry L, founded an 
hospital for lepers outside the city of London, which she 
dedicated to St. Giles, and which has since given its name to 
an extensive parish. The parish church of Edinburgh existed 
under the invocation of St. Giles as early as 1359. And still, 
in spite of the Reformation, this popular saint is retained in 
our calendar. 

1 Tins staircase, called in the country *La yis de Saint Gilles, was formerly *Ie 
butdes pelermagea de terns lea compagnons taiUeurs de pierre/ Voyages au MiM 
de la France. 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEES. 




4 St. Giles the Hermit. 

He is represented as an aged man with a long white beard, 
and a hind pierced by an arrow is either in his arms or at his 
feet. Sometimes the arrow is in his own bosom, and the hind 
is fawning on him. In pictures his habit is usually white, 
because such pictures date subsequently to the period when 
the abbey of St. Giles became the property of the Reformed 
Benedictines, who had adopted the white habit. 

Representations of St. Giles are seldom met with in Italy, 
but very frequently in early French and German art. 1 

* * St. Giles standing in a transport of religious ecstasy before Pope Gregory IX., 
painted by Murillo for the Franciscan convent at Seville, is cited by Mr Stirling 
(Artists of Spain, p. 836) as &lt;St, Giles, the patron of the Greenwood, but it re 
presents a very different person ; a St. Giles, more properly** Beato Egidio, who 
was one of the early followers of St. Francis of Assisi, and consequently wears the 
Mbit and cord of SL Francis. The picture is now in England. 



ST. BENOIT D ANIANE. 31 



A very influential character of his time was ST. BENEDICT 
OF ANIAH, better known by his French name, Saint Benolt 
d Aniane. 

He was a Goth by race, a native of Maguelonne in Langue- 
doc ; and his name, before he assumed that of Benedict, is not 
known. His father sent him in his childhood to the court of 
king Pepin-le-Bref, where he was first page and then cupbearer, 
and distinguished himself as a military commander under 
Charlemagne. In the year 774 we find him a monk in the 
abbey of St. Seine, having been converted to a religious life by 
a narrow escape from drowning. Having vainly endeavoured 
to reform the monks of his monastery, we next find him a soli 
tary hermit on the banks of the Anian, which flowed through 
the district in which he was born, A number of companions 
congregated around him, and he was enabled to construct an 
extensive monastery, into which he introduced the Benedictine 
Eule in all its pristine severity. 

From Languedoc he was called by Louis-le-Debonnaire to 
Aix-la-Chapelle, where he assisted in the foundation of a large 
monastery near that city, the capital of Charlemagne and his 
successors ; and we find him afterwards presiding in a council 
held especially for the reform of the monastic orders. At 
this time was promulgated a commentary upon the original 
Rule, which M. G-uizot characterises as substituting narrow 
and servile forms for the large and enlightened spirit of the 
first founder. 

As this Saint Benoit d Aniane had a great reputation for 
sanctity, effigies of him probably existed, and, if not destroyed, 
may still exist, in the churches of Languedoc. I have met with 
but one Italian picture in which he is represented. It comme 
morates the great incident of his life the conversion of St 
William of Aquitaine. This William was duke of Aquitaine 
in the time of Charlemagne, and a famous warrior and statesman 
of that day. Among other exploits, he obtained a signal victory 
over the Saracens, who about that period were ravaging the 
south of France. Converted by the preaching and admonition 
of St. Benedict d Aniane, he withdrew from the world, and 
became a professed monk in a monastery which he had himself 



32 LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



erected : lie received the habit from the hands of St. Benoit, and 
died a few years afterwards in the odour of sanctity. 

St. William of Aquitaine receiving the monastic habit from 
St. Benedict, is the subject of a picture by Guercino, now in the 
Academy at Bologna. The abbot is seated on a throne, and 
St. William, who kneels before him, is in the act of laying aside 
his helmet and cuirass. 

Separate pictures of this St. William of Aquitaine, whose 
conversion is regarded as a great honour to the Benedictines, 
are often found In the edifices of the order. In general 
he is represented in armour, or in a monk s habit, with his 
armour and ducal crown lying beside him. There is a fine 
half-length of St. William, attributed to Giorgione, at 
Hampton Court. 

A curious old print in the British Museum represents St. 
William kneeling, wearing a magnificent helmet ; his breviary 
on the ground, while his clasped hands embrace a standard : 
behind him is a shield, on which are three fleurs-de-lys and 
three crescents ; the latter, I suppose, in allusion to his victories 
over the Saracens. 

There is a print after Lanfranco, representing the death of 
St. William : the blessed Virgin herself brings the holy water, 
a female saint dips her fingers into it, and an angel sustains 
him ; in the background the demons flee in consternation. He 
died in 812 or 813 ; and St. Benedict d Aniane in 821. 



ST, NILUS, OF GROTTA FEKBATA. 
lioL Sail Nilo. Fr. Saint Nil le jeune. Sept 26, 1002. 

THE name of this obscure Greek monk is connected in a very 
interesting manner with the history of art, and his story is mixed 
up with some of the most striking episodes in the Mstory of 
mediaeval Rome; but among the thousands of travellers, artists, 
students, and critics who have thronged his beautiful chapel at 
Grotta Ferrata during the last two hundred years, how few have 
connected its pictured glories there with the deep human 
interests of which they are the record and the monument ! 



ST. KILUS OF GROTTA FERRATA. 33 



St. Nilus was a Greek of Calabria, born near Tarentxun. 
He was a man of a gentle and melancholy temperament, who, 
after many years of an active existence, and the loss of a wife 
whom he had tenderly loved, embraced in his old age a 
religious life : he became a monk of the Greek order of St. 
Basil, and, through his virtues and his intellectual superiority, 
in a few years he was placed at the head of his community. 
An invasion of the Saracens drove him from the east to the 
west of Italy. He fled to Capua, and there took refuge in the 
Benedictine convent of Monte Cassino, where he was received 
with all reverence and honour. There he composed Greek 
hymns in honour of St. Benedict, and the abbot assigned to 
him and his fugitive brotherhood a small convent dependent 
on Monte Cassino. 

Pandolfo, prince of Capua, left a widow, Aloare, who at this 
time governed in right of her two sons. She had instigated 
these youths to murder their cousin, a powerful and virtuous 
noble ; and now, tortured by remorse, and fearful for the con 
sequences to them, she sent for St. Nilus, confessed her crime, 
and entreated absolution ; he refused to give it, but upon con 
dition that she should yield up one of her sons to the family of 
the murdered man, to be dealt with as they should think fit, as 
the only real expiation she could make. The guilty mother 
wept, and could not resolve on the sacrifice. Nilus then, with 
all the severity and dignity of a prophet, denounced her sin as 
unforgiven, and told her that the expiation she had refused of 
her own free will would ere long be exacted from her. The 
princess, terrified, entreated him to intercede for her, and 
^endeavoured to force upon him a sum of money. Nilus flung 
the gold upon the earth, and turning from her, shut himself up 
in his cell. Shortly afterwards, the younger of the two princes 
assassinated his brother in a church, and for this sacrilegious 
fratricide he was himself put to death by order of Hugh Capet, 
king of France. 

Nilus then quitted the territory of Capua, and took up Ms 1.0.096. 
residence at Rome, in the convent of St. Alexis on the Aventine, 
whither those who were diseased in body and mind repaired to 
the good saint for help and solace ; and majiy were the miracles 



S4 LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC OBDERS. 



and cures wrought by his intercession : among others the cure 
of a poor epileptic boy. 

Rome was at this time distracted by factions : the authority 
of the emperors of the East had been long set aside ; that of the 
emperors of the West was not yet established. The famous 
Crescentius had been declared consul, and for a time, under his 
wise and firm administration, liberty, order, and peace reigned 
in the city. John XVI, a Greek by birth and an intimate 
friend of St. Nilus, was then pope. On a sudden, the young 
emperor, Otho III., appeared in Italy at the head of his bar 
barous legions ; declared a relation of his own pope, under the 
name of Gregory V. ; put out the eyes of the anti-pope John, 
and besieged Crescentius in the castle of St. Angel o. After a 
short resistance Crescentius yielded on honourable terms ; but 
had no sooner given up the fortress, than the faithless emperor 
ordered him to be seized, flung headlong from the walls, and 
his wife Stephanie was abandoned to the outrages of the soldiers. 

In the midst of these horrors, Otho and the new pope en 
deavoured to conciliate Nilus, whose virtues and whose reputa 
tion for sanctity had given him great power over the people : but 
the old man rebuked them both as enemies of God. He wrote 
to the emperor a letter of reproach, concluding with these words : 
6 Because ye have broken faith, and because ye have had no 
mercy for the vanquished, nor compassion for those who had no 
longer the power to injure or resist, know that God will avenge 
the cause of the oppressed, and ye shall both seek mercy and 
shall not find it.* Having despatched this letter, he shook the 
dust from his feet, and departed the same night from Rome. He 
took refuge first in a cell near Gaeta, and afterwards in a solitary 
cavern near Frascati, called the Crypta, or Grotta, Ferrata. 

"Within two years Pope Gregory died in some miserable 
manner, and Otho, terrified by remorse and the denunciations of 
St. Nilus, undertook a pilgrimage to Monte Galgano. On his 
return he paid a visit to Mlus in his hermitage at Frascati, and, 
falling on his knees, besought the prayers and intercession of 
the saint He offered to erect, instead of his poor oratory, a 
magnificent conventwith an endowment of lands. Mlus refused 
Ms gifts. The emperor, rising from his knees, entreated the 



ST. NILTTS OF GROTTA FERRATA. 35 



holy man to ask some boon before they parted, promising that, 
whatever it might be, he would grant it. Nilus, stretching 
forth his hand, laid it on the jewelled cuirass of the emperor, 
and said, with deep solemnity, I ask of thee but this, that 
thou wouldst make reparation for thy crimes before God; and 
save thine own soul ! Otho returned to Rome, where, within 
a few weeks afterwards, the people rose against him, obliged him 
to fly ignominiously, and. he died, at the earl) age of twenty- 
six, poisoned by the widow of Crescentius. In the same year 
St. Nilus died, full of years and honours, after ha7ing required Jan. 1002. 
of the brotherhood that they would bury him immediately, 
and keep the place of his interment secret from the people. 
This he did in the fear that undue honours would be paid to his 
remains, the passion for sanctified relics being then at its height. 

The gifts which St. Nilus had refused were accepted by his 
friend and disciple Bartolomeo; and over the cavern near 
Frascati arose the magnificent castellated convent and church 
of San Basilio of Grotta Ferrata. In memory of St. Nilus, who 
is considered as their founder, the Rule followed by the monks 
is that of St. Basil, and mass is even now celebrated every day 
in the Greek language ; but they consider their convent as a 
dependency of Monte Cassino, and wear the Benedictine habit 

This community was long celebrated for the learning of the 
monks, and for the possession of the finest Greek library in all 
Italy ; now, I believe, incorporated with that of the Vatican. 
The Cardinal- Abbot Giuliano da Eovere, afterwards the warlike 
Julius IL, the patron of Michael Angelo, converted the convent 
into a fortress ; and in one of the rooms died Cardinal Consalvi. 

But we must leave the historical associations connected with 
this fine monastery, for our business is with those of art. 

About the year 1610, when Cardinal Odoardo Farnese was 
abbot of Grotta Ferrata, he undertook to rebuild a defaced and 
ruined chapel, which had in very ancient times been dedicated 
to those interesting Greek saints St. Adrian and his wife St. 
Natalia, whose story has been already narrated. The chapel 
was accordingly restored with great magnificence, re-dedicated 
to St Nilus and his companion St. Bartolomeo^ who are 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEKS. 



regarded as the two first abbots ; and Domenichino, then in Ins 
twenty-eighth year, was employed to represent on the wall some 
of the most striking incidents connected with the foundation 
of the monastery. 

The walls, in accordance with the architecture, are divided 
into compartments varying in form and size. 

In the first large compartment, he has represented the visit 
of Otho III. to St. Nilus ; a most dramatic composition, con 
sisting of a vast number of figures. The emperor has just 
alighted from his charger, and advances in a humble attitude 
to crave the benediction of the saint. The accessories in this 
grand picture are wonderful for splendour and variety, and 
painted with consummate skill. The whole strikes us like a 
well got up scene. The action of a spirited horse, and the two 
trumpeters behind, are among the most admired parts of the 
picture. It has always been asserted that these two trumpeters 
express, in the muscles of the face and throat, the quality of 
the sounds they give forth. This, when I read the description, 
appeared to me a piece of fanciful exaggeration ; but it is 
literally true. If painting cannot imitate the power of sound, 
it has here suggested both its power and kind, so that we seem 
to hear. Among the figures is that of a young page, who holds 
the emperor s horse, and wears over his light flowing hair a 
blue cap with a plume of white feathers : according to the 
tradition, this is the portrait of a beautiful girl, with wh&lt;?m 
Domenichino fell violently in love, while he was employed on 
the frescoes. Bellori tells us that not only was the young 
p * m painter rejected by the parents of the damsel, but that when 
the picture was uncovered and exhibited, and the face recognised 
as that of the young girl he had loved, he was obliged to fly 
from the vengeance of her relatives. 

The great composition on the opposite wall represents the 
building of the monastery after the death of St. Mlus by his 
disciple and coadjutor St Bartolomeo. The master builder, or 
architect, presents the plan, which St. Bartolomeo examines 
through his spectacles. A number of masons and workmen are 
busied in various operations, and an antique sarcophagus, which 
was discovered in digging the foundation, and is now built into 



ST. NILIJS OF GROTTA FERRATA. 



tie wall of the church, is seen in one corner; in the background 
is represented one of the legends of the locality. It is related 
that when the masons were raising a column, the ropes gave 
way,- and the column would have fallen on the heads of the 
assistants, had not one of the monks, full of faith, sustained 
the column with his single strength. 

One of the lesser compartments represents another legend. 
The Madonna appears in a glorious vision to St. Mlus and St, 
Bartoloineo in this very Grotta Ferrata, and presents to them 
a golden apple, in testimony to her desire that a chapel should 
rise on this spot. The golden apple was reverently buried in 
the foundation of the belfry, as we now bury coins and medals, 
when laying the foundation of a public edifice. 

Opposite is the fresco, which ranks as one of the finest and 
most expressive of all Domenichino s compositions. A poor 
epileptic boy is brought to St. Kilus to be healed ; the saint, 
after beseeching the divine favour, dips his finger into the oil of 




St. Nilus heals tlie Epileptic Boy. (From tJbte fresco at Grotta Ferrata.) 



88 LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



a lamp burning before the altar, and with it anoints- the mouth 
of the boy, who is instantly relieved from his malady. The 
incident is simply and admirably told, and the action of the boy, 
so painfully true, yet without distortion or exaggeration, has 
been, and I think with reason, preferred to the epileptic boy 
in Raphael s Transfiguration. 

In a high narrow compartment Domenichino has represented 
St. Mlus before a crucifix : the figure of our Saviour extends 
the arm in benediction over the kneeling saint, who seems to 
feel, rather than perceive, the miracle. This also is beautiful. 

St. Mlus having been a Greek monk, and the convent con 
nected with the Greek order, we have the Greek fathers in their 
proper habits, venerable figures portrayed in niches round the 
cornice. The Greek saints, St. Adrian and St. Natalia ; and 
the Roman saints, St. Agnes, St. Cecilia, and St. Francesca, 
are painted in medallions. 

A glance back at the history of St. Mlus and the origin of 
the chapel will show how significant, how appropriate, and how 
harmonious is this scheme of decoration in all its parts. I know 
not if the credit of the selection belongs to Domenichino; but, 
in point of vivacity of conception and brilliant execution, he 
never exceeded these frescoes in any of his subsequent works, 
and every visitor to Rome makes this famous chapel a part of 
his pilgrimage. For this reason I have ventured to enlarge 
on the details of an obscure story, which the beauty of these 
productions has rendered important and interesting. 




Angel, (From the Chapel at Grotta Ferrate. ) 



THE BENEDICTINES IN ENGLAND AND GEKMANY. 



Cfje Benelffctines fa Cnglatfo, 
anU fn 



THE introdnctlon of the Order of St. Benedict into England,, 
which took place about fifty years after the death of the founder, 
was an important era in our history of far more importance 
than the advent of a king or the change of a dynasty. Many 
of the English Benedictines were, as individual characters, 
so interesting and remarkable, that I wish heartily th^tisd 
remained to our time conspicuous as subjects of art. We should 
hav^ found them so, had not the rapacity of Henry VIII. and 
his minions, followed afterwards by the blind fanaticism of the 
Puritans, swept from the face of our land almost every memo 
rial, every effigy of these old ecclesiastical worthies, which was 
either convertible into money or within reach of the sacrilegious 
hand. Of Henry and his motives we think only with disgust 
and horror. The Puritans were at least religiously in earnest ; 
and if we cannot sympathise with them, we can understand their 
stern hatred of a faith, or rather a form of faith, which had 
filled the world with the scandal of its pernicious abuses, while 
the knowledge or the comprehension of all the benefits it had 
bestowed on our ancestors lay beyond the mental vision of any 
Praise-G-od-Barebones, or any heavenly-minded tinker or stern 
covenanter of Cromwell s armyj When I recall the history of 
the ecclesiastical potentates of Italy in the 1 6th century, I could 
almost turn Puritan myself: but when I think of all the 
wondrous and beautiful productions of human skill, all the 
memorials of the great and gifted men of old, the humauisers 
and civilisers of our country, which once existed, and of which 
our great cathedrals noble and glorious as they are even now 
are but the remains, it is with a very cordial hatred of the 
profane savage ignorance which destroyed and desecrated them. 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Now if I dwell for a while on the legends of our old ecclesias 
tical worthies, and give a few pictures, rapidly sketched in 
words, of scenes and personages sanctified by our national 
traditions, it is not so much to show how they have been illus 
trated, but rather with a hope of conveying some idea as to 
the spirit and form in which they may be or ought to be, 
artistically treated. 

(in a cycle of our early English saints, wherever they 
are to be found, whether in our old illuminated missals or 
in such decorations of our old churches as may survive /ipy 
sculpture or be released from whitewash and plaster, we 
should expect to meet with ST. HELENA, the mother of Constan- 
tine, and ST. ALBAN, our first martyr, taking precedence of 
the rest.) 

st. Helen, Of St. Helen I will not say much here, for her legendary - 
Aug. fs. history belongs to another place. The early ecclesiastical 
writers fondly claim her as one of our native saints : all the best 
authorities are agreed that she was born in England ; according 
to Gibbon at York; according to other authorities at Colchester; 
and the last-mentioned town bears as arms a cross with four 
crowns, in allusion to its claim, Helena being inseparably 
connected with the discovery, or the * invention/ as it is not 
improperly termed, of the Holy Cross at Jerusalem. Some say 
she was the daughter of a mighty British prince, King Coilus or 
Coel (I suppose the * Old Bang Cole * of our ballads), and that 
in marrying Constantius Chlorus she brought him a kingdom 
for her dowry* Others but they are denounced as Jews and 
pagans aver that she was the daughter of an innkeeper, and 
thence called Stabularia, literally Ostler-wench; while her 
Christian panegyrists insist that she obtained the name of 
Stabularia because she erected a church over the stable in which 
our Saviour was born. But I shall not enter further into the 
dispute concerning the birthplace and lineage of Helena. From 
remote antiquity the English have claimed her as their own, and 
held her in especial honour : witness the number of our old 
etaretLeB dedicated to her, and the popularity of her classical 
Qreefc .name in all its various forms. In h.er old age she became 



ST, HELENA. 



-41 



a Christian ; and her enthu 
siastic zeal for her new reli 
gion, and the influence .she 
exercised over the mind of 
her son, no doubt contributed 
to the extension of Christi 
anity throughout the empire. 
For this she should be held 
in honour ; and cannot, cer 
tainly, be reproached or con 
temned because of all the 
extravagant, yet often beau 
tiful and significant, fictions 
and allegories with which she 
has been connected, and which 
served to lend her a popula 
rity she might not otherwise 
have possessed, None- of the 
old legends have been more 
universally diffused than the 
* History of the True Cross ; 
and I believe that, till a dark 
ness came over the minds of 
the people, it was, formerly, 
as well understood in its al 
legorical sense as the c Pil- 

7 St. Helena. (Boisseree Gallery. ) grim s Progress is UOW. 

But this will be related In proper time and place. St. Helena 
as an English saint should stand in her imperial robes 
wearing the earthly crown and the celestial glory round her 
head, and holding the large cross, generally much taller 
than herself; sometimes she embraces the cross with both 
arms, and sometimes she is seen in companionship with 
her son Constantine, and they sustain the cross between 
them. 

St. Helena is particularly connected with the Benedictines, 
for it was believed that her remains had been .carried off from 
Home about the year 863, and were deposited in the Benedio- 

G * 




LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEES." 



St. Alban. 

A.1X 30% 

June 22. 




8 St. Helena and Sfc. Constantine. (Palma Vecchio.) 

tine abbey of Hautvilliers in Champagne. The disputes con 
cerning the authenticity of these relics fill many pages of the 
&lt; Annales &gt; of Mabillon. Every one who has been at Rome 
will recollect the superb sarcophagus of red porphyry in 
which she once reposed, and which is now empty, as well as 
her chapel in that lonely and beautiful church the * Santa 
Groce di Gerusalemme.* But of these I will say no more at 
present 

ST. ALBAN, the famous English proto-martyr, was not a 
monk, but, as the shrine dedicated to him became subsequently 
one of the greatest of our Benedictine institutions, I place 
him here. 



ST. ALBA1T. 



There is something particularly touching in the circum 
stances of his death, as related by Bede. He lived in the 
third century, in the reign of the Emperor Aurelian. In his 
youth he had travelled to Rome, conducted thither by his love 
of learning ; and, being returned home, he dwelt for some time 
in great honour in his native city of Verulam. Though still in 
the darkness of the old idolatry, he was distinguished by the 
practice of every virtue, and particularly those of hospitality 
and charity. When the persecution under Diocletian was 
extended to the shores of Britain, a Christian priest pursued by 
the people took refuge in Ms house. Alban concealed him 
there, and, struck by the example of his resignation, and 
enlightened by his teaching, he became a Christian and received 
baptism. A few days afterwards he had the opportunity of 
proving the sincerity of his conversion. The stranger being 
pursued, Alban provided for his safety ; then putting on the 
long raiment of the priest, he surrendered himself to the sol 
diers ; and refusing equally to betray his guest or worship idols, 
he was condemned to death. He was first cruelly tortured, 
and then led forth to be beheaded. An exceeding great multi 
tude, mostly Christians, followed him to the place of execution 
near the city. To reach it they were obliged to pass the river 
Coin , but so great was the multitude that it was impossible 
for them to go over the narrow bridge : the saint stood for a 
moment on the bank, and, putting up a short prayer, the waters 
miraculously divided, and the whole multitude passed dry-shod, 
to the number of a thousand persons* On reaching the summit 
of the hill, a most pleasant spot covered with bushes and 
flowers, St. Alban, falling on his knees, prayed that God would 
give him water, and immediately a living spring broke out 
before his feet, in which he quenched his thirst ; and then bend 
ing his neck to the executioner, the head of this most courageous 
martyr was struck off, and he received the crown of life which 
God has promised to all who suffer for His sake. 

Bede adds, that in* his time there existed on the spot a 
church of wonderful workmanship ; but in the subsequent wars 
and ravages of pagan nations the memory of the martyr had 
almost perished, and the place of his burial was forgotten ; . 



44 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



until It happened, in the year 793, that the same was made 
known by a great miracle. 

For when Offa, king of the Mercians, was taking his rest on 
Ms royal couch, he was admonished by an angel from Heaven, 
that the remains of the blessed martyr should be disinterred, 
and restored to the veneration of the people. So King Offa 
came to Verulam, and there they found St. Alban lying in a 
wooden coffin; and there and then the pious king founded 
a church, and in its vicinity arose the great Benedictine 
monastery and the town of St. Alban s in Hertfordshire. 

St. Alban being the first saint and martyr in England, the 
abbot of St. Alban s had precedence over all others. 

In some old effigies which remain of St. Alban he is repre 

sented like St. Denis, carrying his head in his hand. His 

proper attribute as martyr would be the sword and a fountain 

sacred and springing at Ms feet; not three fountains^ as in the effigies of 

Leend.Art, 






f "We have jit learned in our childhood the famous legend 
which makes Gregory the Great the father of Christianity in 
England, which tells how he became interested for the poor 
"benighted islanders, our fair-haired ancestors, 



jmjfdif) and represents St. Augustine of Canterbury as the first 
Christian missionary in this nation. But it appears that 

our modern artists, and particularly the decorators of our 
national edifices, are under a mistake in assuming this view to 
be consonant with the truth of history. St. Augustine preached 
in England that form of Christianity which had been promul 
gated by the Hierarchs of the West. He was the instrument 
by which the whole island was brought under the papal power, 
But Christianity and a knowledge of the Scriptures had shone 
upon Britain three centuries at least before the time of Augus 
tine. 

The old traditions relating to the first introduction of Chris 
tianity into this land, are in the highest degree picturesque and 
poetical. As to their truth, I am rather inclined to sympathise 



ST. AUGUSTINE. 



with the early belief in those ancient stories, which, if they 
cannot be proved to be true, neither can they be proved to be 
false. Now, everything that is possible may be true, and 
everything that is improbable is not therefore false ; which 
being granted, it is a great comfort to be emancipated from the 
severe limits prescribed by critical incredulity, and allowed 
for a while to revel in the wider bounds allowed to a more 
poetical and not wholly irreligious faith. 

/Some, says Dugdale, hold that, when Philip, one of the 
twelve apostles, came to France, he sent Joseph of Arimathea 
with Joseph, his son, and eleven more of his disciples hither, 
who, with great zeal and undaunted courage, preached the 
true and lively faith of Christ; and when King Arviragus 
considered the difficulties that attended their long and 
dangerous journey from the Holy Land, beheld their civil and 
innocent lives, and observed their sanctity and the severities 
of their religion, he gave them a certain island in the west 
part of his dominions for their habitation, called Avalon, 
containing twelve hides of land, where they built a church 

flffltfhaet-^upi^ 

%eixaats. These holy men were devoted to a religious solitude, 
confined themselves to the nnmber of twelve, lived there 
after the manner of Christ and the apostles, and, by their 
preaching, converted a great number of the Britons, who 
became Christians. 5 

&lt; Upon this ground/ says another writer, c the ambassadors 
of the kings of England claimed precedency of the ambassadors 
of the kings of France, Spain, and Scotland in several councils 
held in Europe ; one at Pisa, A.D. 1409 ; another at Constance, 
A.D. 1414; another at Siena, A.D. 1424; and especially at BriS.%.22. 
Basle, A.D. 1434, where the point of precedency was strongly 
debated : the ambassadors from France, insisting much upon 
the dignity and magnitude of that kingdom, said, " Twas not 
reasonable that England should enjoy equal privileges with 
France ; " but the ambassadors of England, insisting on the 
honour of the Church, declared that the Christian faith was 
first received in England, Joseph of Arimathea having come 
hither with others, in the fifteenth year after the assumption of 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEHS. 



tlie Virgin Mary, and converted a great part of the people 
to the faith of Christ: but France received not the 
Christian religion till the time of Dionisius (St. Denis), by 

whose ministry it was converted : and T)y reason hereof the 
kings of this land ought to have the right of precedency, 
for that they did far transcend all other kings in worth and 
honour, ,so much as Christians were more excellent than 
Pagans 

Such is the legend of Glastonbury, that famous old abbey, 
whose origin is wrapt in a wondrous antiquity \ where bloomed 
and still blooms the mystic thorn/ ever on the feast of the 
Nativity, when, amid the snows of winter, every other branch 
is bare of leaf and blossom ; where sleeps King Arthur * till 
he comes again; where Alfred found refuge when hunted by 
his Danish foes, and matured his plans for the deliverance of 
his country. And not at Glastonbury only, but at Bangor 
and many other famous places, there were, before the coming 
of St. Augustine, communities of religious men and women, 
who lived according to the Eastern rule, as the Essenes of 
Palestine and the Cenobites in Egypt, of whom I have spoken 
in the lives of St. Paul and St. Anthony. 
f But Augustine the monk, whom the English call St. Austin, 
was undoubtedly the first who introduced the Order of St. 
Benedict into England. The Benedictines number St. Gregory 

as one of their Order : it is not certain that he took the habit, 
but he placed the convent which he had founded at Rome on 
the Celian Hill under the rule of St. Benedict ; and out of this 
convent came the monk St. Augustine, and his companions, 
whom Gregory selected as his missionaries to England^ In 
those days the coasts of England were, to the soft Italians, a 
kind of Siberia for distance and desolation ; and on their journey 
these chosen missionaries were seized, we are told, with a 
sudden fear, and began to think of returning home rather than 
proceed to a barbarous, fierce, unbelieving nation, to whose 
very language they were strangers; and they sent Augustine 
to entreat of their holy father, the Pope, that they might be 
excused firom this dangerous journey. We are not informed 
how Si Gregory received Augustine : we only know that he 



ST. AUG-USTINE. 



speedily sent him tack with a brief but peremptory letter, 
beginning with these words, Gregory, the servant of the servants 
of God, to the servants of our Lord. Forasmuch as it had 
been better not to begin a good work than to think of desisting 
from that which is begun, it behoves you, my beloved sons, to 
fulfil the good work which, by, the help of our Lord, you have 
undertaken. ^/Augustine constituted chief and bishop 

over the future converts,) they continued their journey, and 
landed in the Isle of Th^net, in Kent. 

Now, the men of Kent had been, even from the earliest times, 
the most stiff-necked against the Christian faith, so that it was 
an old saying to express the non-existence of a thing, that it 
was not to be found * either in Christendom or in Kent? Not 
withstanding, the Saxon King Ethelbert received St. Augustine 
and his companions very graciously, persuaded thereto by his 
wife Bertha, who was a Christian ; and they entered by his 
permission the city of Canterbury, carrying on high the holy 
cross and the image of our blessed Saviour, and singing 
Hallelujahs. 

Jfa^they preached the Gospel, and King Ethelbert and his 
subjects were baptized and became Christians. It is recorded 
that the first Kentish converts received the rites of baptism and 
confirmation in a chapel near Canterbury, which the French 
princess Bertha had dedicated to her native saint, Martin of 
Tours. 

But Augustine was not satisfied with converting the Saxons : 
he endeavoured to bring the ancient British Church to acknow 
ledge the pope of Eome as its spiritual head, and himself as his 
delegated representative. The Britons were at first strongly 
opposed ta what appeared to them a strange usurpation of au 
thority ; and their bishops pleaded that they could not lay aside 
their ancient customs and adopt the ceremonies and institutions 
of the Roman Church without the consent and free leave of the 
whole nation. (For before the time of Augustine the British 
Church acknowledged no obedience to Eome, but looked to its 
own metropolitan, the bishop of Caerleon-on-ITske, and derived 
their customs, rites, and ordinances from the Eastern Churches. ) 
6 Therefore they desired that another synod might be called, 



48 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



because their number was small. This being agreed to, seven 
bishops and many learned men repaired thither ; and on their 
way they consulted a certain holy and wise man who lived as 
an anchorite, and who advised them, saying, " If Augustine 
shall rise up when ye come near him, then he is a servant 
of God, and ye shall listen to his words ; but if he sit still 
and show no respect, then he is proud and cometh not from 
God, and is not to be regarded." And when they appeared 
before Augustine, and saw that he sat still in his chair 
without showing any courtesy or respect to them, they were 
very angry, and, discoursing among themselves, said, " If he 
will not rise up now unto us, how much more will he con 
demn us when we are subject to him ? " Then Augustine 
exhorted them to receive the rites and usages of the Church 
of Rome; but they excused themselves, saying that they 
owed no more to the bishop of Rome than the love and 
brotherly assistance which was due to all who held with them 
the faith of Christ ; but to their own bishop they owed obedi 
ence, and without his leave they could not alter the ordinances 
of their Church. Then Augustine (desired their conformity 
in three things only. 1. In the observation of Easter. 
2. In the administration of baptism. 3. In their assistance 
by preaching among the English Saxons. And neither 
in these things could he obtain their compliance, for they 
persisted in denying him all power over them. J (I cannot 
but think that this conference between St. Augustine and the 
ancient British clergy would be a capital scene for a picture, 
and much better than the trite subjects usually chosen from this 
part of our history. To understand fully the conduct held by 
Augustine on this occasion, we should remember that it was 
then a question, which divided the whole Christian world, 
whether the eastern or western patriarch should be acknow 
ledged as the head of the universal Church ; and whether the 
Greek or the Roman ceremonial was to prevail. If it had not 
been for the obstinacy of St. Augustine, we might all have been 
now Greeks or Russians dreadful possibility ! But to con 
tinue the story.) /Notwithstanding the opposition of the 
Britons-, and contrary to the directions of his, great and wise 



ST. AUGUSTINE. 



master St. Gregory, Augustine carried tilings with a high 
hand, and deprived the British bishops of their sees, which they 
had possessed for nearly 400 years, and this of his own will 
and power, and without any crime or sentence of a council. 
Further, he is accused of having incited the Saxons to rise 
up against the British Christians, and to have been the cause 
that Ethelfred, king of Northumberland, went up against the 
people of Chester, and slew the monks of Bangor, 1200 in 
number, and utterly destroyed that glorious monastery, in 
which were deposited many and precious records and monu 
ments of British history A 

(The massacre at Bangor, which is described with picturesque 
circumstances byBede, took place in 607, or later; and Augus 
tine, who had received the pallium as first Primate of England 
in 601, died in 604.) 

* This Augustine, saith Capgrave, was very tall by stature: 
of a dark complexion; his face beautiful, but withal majes- 
tical. He always walked on foot, and commonly visited his 
provinces barefooted, and the skin on his knees had grown 
hard, through perpetual kneeling at his devotions ; and further, 
it is said of him, that he was a most learned and pious man, an 
imitator of primitive holiness, frequent in watchings, fastings, 
prayers, and alms, zealous in propagating the church of his age, 
earnest in rooting out paganism, diligent in repairing and 
building churches, extraordinarily famous for the working of 
miracles and cures among .the people. Hence his mind may 
have been puffed up with human vanity, which caused St. 
Gregory to admonish him. 

To this description I will add, that he ought to be represented 
rearing the black Benedictine habit, and carrying the pastoral 
staff and the Gospel in his hand, as abbot and as missionary. 
After the year 601, he may be represented with the cope, pal 
lium, and mitre, as primate and bishop of Canterbury. The title 
Df Archbishop was not in use, I believe, before the ninth century. 

The proper companion to St. Augustine, where he figures s 
is chief saint and apostle of England, would be St. Paulinus; f T rk 

&gt;, in 601, was sent from Eoms to assist him in his mission. 

H 



50 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Paulinas preached through, all the district north of the Humber, 
and became the first Primate of York, where he founded the 
cathedral, and afterwards died very old at Kochester, in 644. 
His friends and converts. King Edwin and Queen Ethelburga, 
may be grouped with him. 

But to remote Northumbrian royal hall, 

"Wliere thoughtful Edwin, tutor d in the school 

Of sorrow, still maintains a heathen rule, 

"Who comes with functions apostolical ? 

Mark him, of shoulders curtfd, and stature tall, 

Black hair, and vivid eye, and meagre cheek, 

His prominent feature like an eagle s leak: 

A man whose aspect doth at once appal 

And strike with reverence. Wordsworth. 

This portrait of Paulinus, from a description left us by an 
eye-witness, may be useful to artists : the epithet, * thoughtful 
Edwin, as well describes the king. 

The conversion of Coifi, the Druid and high-priest of Thor, 
is the most striking and picturesque incident in the life of St. 
Paulinus of York. &lt; King Edwin gave his license to Paulinus 
to preach the Gospel, and renouncing idolatry, declared that he 
received the faith of Christ ; and when he inquired of the 
high-priest who should first profane the altars and temples 
of the idols, he answered, "I! for who can more properly 
than myself destroy those things which I worshipped through 
ignorance?" Then immediately, in contempt of his former 
superstitions, he desired the king to furnish him with arms 
and a horse, and mounting the same, he set forth to destroy 
the idols (for it was not lawful before for the high-priest to 
carry arms or ride on any but a mare). Having, therefore, 
girt a sword about him, with a spear in his hand, he mounted 
the king s charger, and proceeded to the idols. The multi 
tude beholding it, concluded that he was distracted ; but he, 
when he drew near the temple, cast his spear into it, and 
rejoicing in the knowledge of the true God, commanded 
his companions to destroy the idols with fire. 1 Here would 

1 The soene took place at Grodmundham, in Yorkshire, Stukely says, in his 
Itinerary, * The apostle Paulinus built the parish, church of G-odnmndham, where 
is the font in which he "baptized the heathen priest Coifi/ 



ST. BENNET BISCOP. 



have been a fine subject for Rubens ! I recommend it to our 
artists ; only they must be careful to preserve (which. Rubens 
never did) the religious spirit ; and in seeking the grand and 
dramatic, to avoid (as Rubens always did) the exaggerated 
and theatrical. 

/From the time of St. Augustine, all the monasteries already 
in*-existence accepted the rule of St. Benedict, and those grand 
ecclesiastical edifices which rose in England during the next 600 
years were chiefly founded by or for the members of this mag 
nificent order. They devoted their skill in art, their x labour, 
their learning, and their wealth to admirable purposes ; land as 
in these present more civilised times, we find companies of 
speculators constructing railways, partly for profit and expedi 
ency, and partly, as they say, to give employment to the poor, 
so in those early times, when we were only just emerging from 
barbarism, we find these munificent and energetic communities 
draining the marshes of Lincolnshire and Somersetshire, clear 
ing the midland and northern forests, planting, building, and 
transcribing Bibles for the honour of God and the good of the 
poor; and though their cultivated fields and gardens, and their 
cloisters, churches, libraries, and schools, were laid waste,burned, 
and pillaged by the devastations of the Danes, yet the spirit in 
which they had worked survived, and their institutions were 
afterwards restored with more extensive means, and all the 
advantages afforded by improved skill in mechanical and agri 
cultural science. I feel disappointment and regret while writing 
this, to be obliged to confine myself to the artistic representa 
tions of the early English Benedictines ; yet, even within these 
narrow limits, I find a few who must be briefly commemorated ; 
and I begin with one who is connected in an interesting manner 
with the history of Art in our country. 

[In the year 677, BENEDICT, or BEI^NET BISCOP, of a noble ST. 
family in Northumberland, founded the two Benedictine mo nas- 
teries of St. Peter s at Wearmouth, and St. Paul s at Jarrow, 
which became in process of time two of the most flourishing 
schools in England. 



52 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS, 



St. Bennet seems to have been a man, not only learned and 
accomplished as an ecclesiastic, but endowed with a sense of the 
beautiful, rare in those days, at least among our Saxon ancestors?) 
Before his time there were scarcely any churches or chapels 
built of stone to be found in England. Glass in the windows 
was unknown ; there were very few books, and fewer pictures. 
Bennet made no less than five journeys to France and Italy, and 
brought back with him cunning architects and carvers in stone, 
and workers in metal, whom he settled near his monastery ; he 
brought glaziers from France, for the art of making glass was 
then unknown in England. Moreover, he brought with him a 
great quantity of costly books and copies of the Scriptures, and 
also many pictures representing the actions of our Saviour, in 
order, as it is expressly said, that the ignorant might learn 
from them as others did from books. And further it is related 
that he placed in his monastery at Wearmouth pictures of the 
Blessed Virgin, of the twelve apostles, the history of the Gospel, 
LC. the and the visions of St. John. His church of St. Paul at Jarrow 
^ a( j orne ^ w fth many other pictures, disposed in such a manner 
as to represent the harmony between the Old and the New 
Testament, and the conformity of the figures of the one with the 
reality of the other. Thus, Isaac carrying the wood which was 
to make the sacrifice of himself, was explained by Christ carry 
ing the cross on which he was to finish his sacrifice ; and the 
brazen serpent was illustrated by our Saviour s crucifixion. 
(From this we may gather how ancient, even in this country, 
was the system of type and antitype in Christian art, of which 
Sir Charles Eastlake has given a most interesting account in 
the notes to Kugler s Handbook, p. 216.) And further, St. 
Bennet brought from Borne in Ms last journey, a certain John, 
Abbot of San Martino, precentor (or teacher of music) in 
the Pope s chapel, whoin he placed at Weannouth to instruct 
his monks in the chanting the divine services according to 
the Gregorian manner, which appears to be the first introduc 
tion of music into our cathedrals. He also composed many 
books for the instruction of his monks and of those who fre 
quented the schools of his monastery/^Among the pupils of 



ST. BENNET BISCOP. 



53 



St. Bennet was the Venerable Bede-, who studied in his convent A.D. 735. 
during seven years. 

After a long life of piety, charity, and munificence, embel 
lished by elegant pursuits, this remarkable man died about the 
year 703. ) 




St. Bennet Biscx-p, 



He is represented as bishop, wearing the mitre and planeta, 
and bearing the pastoral staff; in the background, the two 
monasteries are seen, and the river Tyne flowing between them ; 
as in a little print by Hollar. 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



BERT. 



In association with this enlightened bishop, we ought to find 
ST. GUTEBEKT of Durham; a saint in that age, of far greater 
celebrity and more extended influence, living and dead; yet 
looking back from the point where we now stand, we feel in 
clined to adjust the claims to renown more equitably. Perhaps 
we might say that St. Cuthbert represented the spirituality, and 
St. Benedict of "Wearmouth the intellect, of their time and 
country, 

ST.CUTH- Cuthbert began life as a shepherd, in the valley of the 
Tweed, not far from Melrose, where a religious house had 
recently sprung up under the auspices of St. Aidan. One 
of the legends of his childhood seems to have been invented 
as an instructive apologue for the edification of schoolboys. 
As St. Outhbert was one day playing at ball with his com 
panions, there stood among them a fair young child, the 
fairest creature ever eye beheld ; and he said to St. Cuthbert, 
c Good .brother, leave these vain plays; set not thy heart 
upon them ; mind thy book ; has not God chosen thee out 
to be great In His Church? but Cuthbert heeded him not; 
and the fair child wrung his hands, and wept, and threw 
himself down on the ground in great heaviness ; and when 
Cathbert ran to comfort him, he said, Nay, my brother, it 
is for thee I weep, that preferrest thy yam sports to the teach 
ing of the servants of God ; * and then he vanished suddenly, 
and Cuthbert knew that it was an angel that had spoken to 
him ; and from that time forth, his piety and love of learning 
recommended him to the notice of the good Prior of Melrose, 
who instructed him carefully in the holy Scriptures. And it is 
related, that on a certain night, as Cuthbert watched his flocks 
by the river-side, and was looking up to the stars, suddenly 
there shone a dazzling light above his head, and he beheld a 
glorious vision of angels, who were bearing the soul of his pre 
ceptor St Aidan into heavenly bliss ; whereupon he forsook his 
shepherd s life, and entering the monastery of Melrose, he 
became, after a few years, a great and eloquent preacher, con 
verting the people around, both those who were Pagans, and 
those who, professing themselves Christians, lived a life un 
worthy the name, and he brought back many who had gone 



ST. CUTHBERT. 



astray ; for when lie exhorted them, such a brightness appeared 
in his angelic face, that no man could conceal from him the 
most hidden secrets of .the heart, but all openly confessed 
their faults and promised amendment. He was wont to 
preach in such villages as, being far up in the wild and 
desolate mountains, were considered almost inaccessible ; and 
among these poor and half-barbarous people, he would some 
times remain for weeks together, instructing and humanising 
them. Afterwards removing from Melrose to Landisfarne, 
he dwelt for some years as an anchorite in a solitary islet, on 
the shore of Northumberland, then barren, and infested by 
evil spirits, but afterwards called Holy Island, from the 
veneration inspired by his sanctity. Here he dug a well, and 
sowed barley, and supported himself by the labour of his hands ; 
and here, according to the significant and figurative legend, 
the angels visited him, and left on his table bread prepared in 
Paradise. After some years, Cuthbert was made bishop of 
Landisfarne, which was then the principal see of the Northum 
brians (since removed to Durham), and in this office he was 
venerated and loved by all men, being an example of diligence 
and piety, modest in the virtue of patience, and affable to all 
who came to him for comfort ; and further, many wonderful 
things are recorded of him both while he lived and after his 
death, miraculous cures and mercies wrought through his 
intercession ; and the shrine of St. Cuthbert became, in the 
North of England^ a place of pilgrimage. It was often 
plundered, and on one occasion his relics were carried off by 
the Danes. Their final translation was to the Cathedral of 
Durham, where they now repose. 

St Cuthbert is represented as bishop, with an otter at his 
side, originally signifying his residence in the midst of waters- 
There is, however, an ancient legend, which relates that one 
night after doing penance on the shore in the damp and the cold, 
he swooned, and lay as one dead upon the earth ; but there came 
two otters out of the water, which licked him all over, till life 
and warmth were restored to his benumbed limbs. , In this, as 
in so many other instances, the emblem has been translated 
into a fact, or rather into a miracle. The proper attribute of 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



St. Cuthbert is the crowned head of King Oswald in his arms ; of 
whom, as associated with St. Cuthbert and often represented in 
early art, I will say a few words here. 

ST, OSWALD. ST. OSWALD was the greatest of our kingly saints and martyrs 
of the Saxon line. His whole story, as related by Bede, is 
exceedingly beautiful He had requested that a teacher might 
be sent to instruct him and his people in the Word of God ; but 
the first who came to him was a man of a very severe dispo 
sition ; who, meeting with no success in his mission, returned 
home. Then Aidan, afterwards Prior of Melrose, rebuked this 
missionary, saying, he had been more severe to his unlearned 
hearers than he ought to have been ; which good man, Aidan, 
being endued with singular discretion and all the gentler virtues, 
undertook to preach to the subjects of King Oswald, and suc 
ceeded wonderfully. 

One of the most beautiful and picturesque incidents in the life 
of Oswald is thus related by Bede. 

Having been dispossessed of his dominions by Cadwalla 
(or Cadwallader), king of the Britons, who, besides being a 
bloody and rapacious tyrant, was a heathen (this, at least, 
is the character given him by the Saxons), he lived for some 
time in exile and obscurity, but at length he raised an army 
and gave battle to his enemy. And the two armies being in 
sight of each other, Oswald ordered a great cross of wood to 
be made in haste, and the hole being dug into which it was 
to be fixed, the king, full of faith, laid hold of it, and held it 
with both hands, till it was made fast by throwing in the 
earth. Then raising his voice, he cried, "Let us all kneel 
down, and beseech the living God to defend us from the 
haughty and fierce enemy, for he know r s that we have under 
taken a just war, for the safety of our nation." Then they 
went against the enemy and obtained a victory as their faith 
deserved, 

This King Oswald afterwards reigned over the whole country, 
from the Humber to the Frith of Forth, Britons, Picts ? Scots, 
and English ; but having received tt.e "Word of God, he was 
exceedingly humble, affable, and generous to the poor and 



ST. OSWALD. r.7, 



strangers. It is related of him, that tie was once sitting at 
dinner on Easter-day, and before him was a silver dish full of 
dainty meats ; and they were just ready to bless the bread, 
when his almoner came in on a sudden, and told him there 
were some poor hungry people seated at his door, begging for 
food; and he immediately ordered the dish of meat to be 
carried out to them, and the dish itself to be cut in pieces and 
divided amongst them. And St. Aidan, who sat by him, took 
him by the right hand, and blessed him, saying, * May this 
hand never perish ! * which fell out according to his prayer. 
This most Christian king, after reigning justly and gloriously 
for nine years, was killed in battle, fighting against the pagan 
king of the Mercians./ A great proof of the charity attributed 
to him, and a much greater proof than the sending a dish of 
meat from his table, was this that he ended his life with a 
prayer, not for himself, but for others. For when he was 
beset with the weapons of his enemies, and perceived that he 
must die, he prayed for the souls of his companions ; whence 
came an old English proverb, long in the mouths of the 
people, * May God have mercy on their souls, as Oswald said 
when he fell. His heathen enemy ordered his head and 
hands to be cut off, and set upon stakes, but afterwards, his 
head was carried to the church of Landisfarne, where it was 
laid as a precious relic in the tomb of St. Cuthbert, lying 
between his arms (hence in many pictures, St. Cuthbert holds 
the crowned head as his attribute) ; while his right hand was 
carried to his castle of Bamborough, and remained undecayed 
and uncorrupted for many years. And in the place where he 
was killed by the pagans, fighting for his country, infirm men 
and cattle are healed to this day/ &lt; Nor is it to be wondered 
at, that the sick should be healed in the place where he died, 
for whilst he lived, he never ceased to provide for the poor and 
infirm, and to bestow alms on them and assist them/ In the 
single figures he wears the kingly crown, and carries a large 
cross. 

The whole story of St. Oswald is rich in picturesque subjects. 
The solemn translation of his remains, first to Bardney in 
Lincolnshire, by Osthrida, queen of the Mercians; and after- 

i 



OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



wards to St. Oswald s, in Gloucestershire, by Elfleda, the 
high-hearted daughter of Alfred, and her husband Ethelred, 
should close the series. 

In those devotional effigies which commemorate particularly 
the Christianising of Northumbria by the early Benedictines, 
we should find St. Benedict as patriarch, with St. Paulinus of 
York, and St Cuthbert of Durham. Or, if the monument 
were to be purely Anglo-Saxon, we should have St. Oswald 
between St. Cuthbert and St. Bennet of Wearmouth : where 
female saints are grouped with these, we should find St. 
Helena, St Hilda of Whitby, and St. Ebba of Coldingham. 

Du^daie. * In those early times, says a old author, * there 

were in England, and also in France, monasteries consisting 
of men and women, who lived together like the religious 
women who followed and accompanied the blessed apostles, 
in one society, and travelled together for their advancement 
and improvement in a holy life. From these women, these 
monasteries were derived, and governed only by devout 
women, so ordained by the founders in respect of the great 
honour which they had for the Virgin Mary, whom Jesus on 
the cross recommended to St. John the Evangelist These 
governesses had as well monks as nuns in their monasteries, 
and jurisdiction over both men and women ; and those men 
who improved themselves in learning, and whom the abbess 
thought qualified for orders, she recommended to the bishop, 
who ordained them. Tet they remained still under her 
government, and officiated as chaplains until she pleased to 
send them forth upon the work of ministry. And among 
these were Ebba, abbess of Coldingham ; and St Werburga, 
abbess of Repandum in England ; and St Bridget of Kildare, 
in Ireland, who had many monks under their charge^ * And 

3r. HILDA, more particularly HILDA, great-grandchild to King Edwin, 
and abbess of Whitby, famous for her learning, piety, and 
excellent government in the time of the Saxons, when, as Bede 
relateth, she held her subjects so strictly to the reading of the 
Scriptures and the performance of works of righteousness, that 
many of them were fit to be churchmen and to serve at the 



ST. HILDA. 



altar ; so that afterwards, saith lie, we saw five "bishops wlo 
came out of her monastery, and a sixth was elected, who 
died "before he was ordained. She was a professed enemy to 
the extension of the papal jurisdiction in this country, and 
opposed with all her might the tonsure of priests and the 
celebration of Easter according to the Roman ritual. She 
presided at a council held in her own monastery, and in 
presence of King Oswy, when these questions were argued, 
but heing decided against her, she yielded. She taught/ 
says Bede, the strict observance of justice, piety&gt; chastity, 
and other virtues, and especially peace and charity, so that, 
after the example of the primitive Christians, no person 
was there rich, and none poor, all being in common to all, 
and none having any property; and her prudence was so 
great, that not only private individuals, but kings and princes, 
asked and received her counsel in religious and worldly affairs. 
The people adored her, and certain fossils which are found 
there, having the form of snakes coiled up, are commonly 
supposed to be venomous reptiles, thus changed by the 
prayers of St. Hilda. And in the year of the incarnation 
of our Lord 680, on the 17th of November, this most religious 
servant of Christ, the Abbess Hilda, having suffered under an 
infirmity for seven years, and performed many heavenly works 
on earth, died, and was carried into Paradise by the angels, 
as was beheld in a vision by one of her own nuns, then at 
a distance, on the same night : the name of this nun was then 
Bega ; but she afterwards became famous under the name of 
SL Bees. 

St Hilda should wear a rich robe over her Benedictine 
habit, and hold in one hand her pastoral staff as abbess ; in the 
other hand, a book or books. St. Hilda and St. Benedict of 
Wearmouth on each side of St. Cuthbert, might express the 
sanctity, the learning, and, what modern authors would style, 
the female element of civilisation/ proper to this early period. 1 

1 In Hutchison s History of the Cathedral of Durham, there k a carious and 
interesting catalogue of the subjects which filled the large stained glass windows, 
before the wholesale destruction of those glorious memorials. Among them we find, 
separately or in groups, and often repeated, St. Helena ; St Aidan (the instructor 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



ST. BBBA. 



Of St. Ebba it Is related, that when attacked in her monas 
tery by a horde of Danish barbarians, she counselled her sister 
hood to mutilate their faces, rather than fall a prey to the 
adversary; and they all consented. And when the Danes 
broke through the gates and rushed upon them, they lifted their 
veils, and showed their faces disfigured horribly, and covered 
with blood : then those merciless ravishiers, starting back at 
such a spectacle, were about to flee ; but their leaders, being 
filled with fury and disappointed of their prey, ordered the 
convent to be fired. So these most holy virgins, with St. Ebha 
at their head, obtained the glory of martyrdom. 

St. Ebba should bear the palm, and, being of royal lineage, 
she would have a double right to the crown as princess and as 
martyr. 



^ the monastery of the Abbess Hilda, lived Csedrnon the poet, 
* 68 whose paraphrase of Scripture history, in Anglo-Saxon verse, 
is preserved to this day. A copy exists in the Bodleian Library 
v. Arena*)- at Oxford, illuminated with antique drawings, most extraor- 
*S v dinary and curious as examples of Saxon art. 
Bede,b.iv. The story of Caedmon, as related by Bede, appears to me 
c " 24 very beautiful. * He did not, says Bede, &lt; learn the art of 
poetry from men, but from Grod ; for he had lived in a secular 
habit till lie was well advanced in years, being employed as one 
of the servants in the monastery. And he knew nothing of 
literature, nor of verse, nor of song ; so that when he was at 
table, and the harp came to him in his turn, he rose up, and 
left the guests, and went his way* 

And it happened on a certain occasion, that he had done so, 
and had gone into the stable, where it was his business to care 

of St. Cutlibert and St. Oswald), as bishop; St. Cuthbert, as patron saint and bishop, 
bearing the head of St. Oswald in his arms ; St. Oswald himself, in princely attire^ 
carrying a large cross, and, again, St. Oswald * blowing his horn;* and the 
"Venerable Bede, who, at Durham, is Saint Bede, in a blue gown, and carrying his 
book, I have observed that, in the ancient stained glass, dark blue is often sub- 
stltated for black in the dress of the monks ; black, perhaps, being too opaque a 
colour. The figure of St. Bede still exists as a fragment. 



N THE POET. 



for the horses ; and he laid himself down to sleep. And in 
his sleep an angel appeared to him, and said, c Csedmon, sing 
to me a song; and he answered c I cannot sing, and therefore 
I left the entertainment, and came hither because I could not 
sing. And the other, answering him, said, Yon shall sing, 
notwithstanding. He asked, Wliat shall I sing? And 
the angel replied, c Sing the beginning of created beings. 
Thereupon Caedmon presently began to sing verses in praise 
of God, the Father and Creator of all things. And awaken 
ing from his sleep, he remembered all lie had sung in his 
dream, and added much more to the same effect in most 
melodious verse. 

In the morning he was conducted before the Abbess Hilda, 
by whom he was ordered to tell his dream, and recite his 
verses ; and she and the learned men who were with her, on 
hearing him, doubted not that heavenly grace had been con 
ferred on him by our Lord : wherefore, the Abbess Hilda re 
ceived him into her community, and commanded that he 
should be well instructed in the Holy Scriptures* As he read, 
Csedmon converted the same into harmonious verse. He sang 
the creation of the world, and the origin of man, and many 
other histories from Holy Writ ; the terror of future judgment, 
the pains of hell, and the delights of heaven. And thus he 
passed his life happily, and as he had served God with a 
simple and pure mind, devoting his good gifts to his service, 
he died happily. That tongue which had composed so many 
holy words in praise of the Creator, uttered its last words 
while lie was in the act of signing himself with the cross ; and 
thus he fell into a slumber, to awaken in Paradise, and join 
the hymns of the holy angels, whom he had imitated in this 
-world, both in his life and in his songs, 1 

St. Cuthbert and St. Hilda, with Caedmon the poet and Bede 

1 c As Csedmon s paraphrase is a poetical variation mixed with many topics of 
invention and fancy, it has also as great a claim to be considered as a narrative 
poem as Milton s Paradise Lost has to be deemed an epic poem.* . . * In its 
first topic, the "fall of the angels," it exhibits much of a Miltonic spirit: and if it 
were clear that our illustrious bard had been familiar with Saxon, we should be 
induced to think that he owed something to the paraphrase of Caodinon/ Turner s 
History of the Anglo-Saxons, Tol. iii. p. 356, 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS 



the historian on either side, would form a very beautiful 
and significant group. I do not know that it has ever been 
painted ; if notj I recommend it to the attention of artists 
particularly those who may be called upon to illustrate our 
northern worthies. 

Quitting the JSforthumbrians, we will take a view of the 
Benedictine foundations in the midland districts among the 
Mercians and East Anglians. Here we find a group of saints 
not less eminent, and even more picturesque and poetical. 



III -these days lived four holy men, who were brothers, all 
^j^ ^ been educated in the monastery of St. Cuthbert 
. in. The eldest of these, whose name was Cedd, was desired by 

e.is;b. iv. jjthelbald, the son of King Oswald, to accept some land, on 
which to build a monastery. Cedd, therefore, complying with 
the king s request, chose for himself a place among craggy 
and distant mountains, which looked more like lurking-places 
of robbers, and retreats for wild beasts, than habitations for 
men ;/-* that the words of the prophet might be fulfilled, and 
that where the dragons were wont to dwell, the grass and 
corn should grow, and the fruits of good works should spring 
up where beasts inhabited, or men who lived after the manner 
of beasts. There arose the Priory of Lastingham, in the 
district of Cleveland, in Yorkshire. 

A.D. 659. And, after many years, Cedd died of the plague, and his 
younger brother Chad became abbot. And Chad was very 
famous among the people for his holy and religious life ; and 
being of modest behaviour, and well read in the Holy Scriptures, 
he was chosen to be bishop of the Mercians and Northumbrians : 
and he set himself to instruct the people preaching the Gospel 
in towns, in the open country, in cottages, in villages ? and castles. 
He had Ms episcopal see in the place called Lichfield c the 
field of the dead ; there he built a church, in which to preach 
&ud baptize the people ; and, near to it, a habitation for himself, 
Krhere, in company with seven or eight brethren, he spent, in 
reading and praying, any spare hours which remained to him 



ST. GUTHLAC. 



from the duties of his ministry. And after he had governed 
the Church there gloriously for two years and more, he had a 
vision, in which his brother Cedd, accompanied by the blessed 
angels, singing hymns and rejoicing, called him home to God; 
and the voices, after floating above the roof of the oratory, 
ascended to heaven with inexpressible sweetness. So St. Chad 
knew that he must depart; and having recommended his 
brethren to live in peace among themselves and towards all 
others, he died and was buried. 

Such was the origin of the see and the cathedral of Lich- 
field, where, since the year 1148, the shrine of St. Chad was 
deposited, and held in great veneration by the people. Over 
the door of the present cathedral there is a figure of St. 
Chad throned as a bishop, restored from the old sculpture ; 
but every other vestige of the saint perished at the time of 
the Reformation, or during the ravages of the civil wars* 
I do not know that St. Chad has any attribute proper to 
him in his individual character: as founder and first bishop 
of the see of Lichfield, he ought to wear the mitre and 
pastoral staff, and to hold the cathedral in his hand. A choir 
of angels singing, as they hover above his head, would be 
appropriate ; or a storm and lightning in the background, 
for it was his custom, when there was a tempest, to pray 
for mercy for himself and all mankind, considering the 
thunder, and the winds, and the darkness, as prefiguring the 
day of the Lord s judgment ; * wherefore, said he, it behoves 
us to answer his heavenly admonition with due fear and 
love. 

ST. GUTHLAC would necessarily find a place in a series of the ST. 
Mercian Saints. His story gave rise to the foundation of A^D. 711. 
Croyland Abbey, one of the grandest of all the Benedictine 
communities, famous for its libraries and seminaries ; and for 
the story of Turketel, so well and pleasantly told by Lord 
Campbell, that I only wish the pious old chancellor (I mean 
Turketel, of course) had been a saint, that I might have had 
the pleasure of inserting him here. Of St. G-uthlac, who is not 
connected with any existing institutions or remains of art, there 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



is not much to say. The legend relates that at the time of 
his birth a hand of a ruddy splendour was seen extended from 
heaven to a cross which stood at his mother s door : and this 
vision prefigured his future sanctity. Nevertheless he grew up 
wild and lawless in wild and lawless times ; and at the age of 
sixteen, gathering a band of military robbers, placed himself 
at their head: yet such was his innate goodness, that he 
always gave back a third part of the spoil to those whom he 
robbed/ After eight years thus spent ; he began to see the 
evil of his ways : and the rest of his life was one long penance. 
He retired first to the monastery of Repton, rendered famous 
by St. Werburga; there he learned to read, and having 
studied the lives of the hermit fathers, he determined to 
imitate them. He retired to a vast marshy wilderness on the 
eastern shore, where was a sort of island, as much infested 
by demons as the deserts of Egypt. And they led St. Guthlac 
such a life, that the blessed St. Anthony himself had 
never been more tormented and scared by hideous shapes 
and foul temptations. Guthlac, trusting in his chosen 
protector, St. Bartholomew, defied the de 
mons, and many times the blessed apostle 
visited him in person, and drove them 
into the sea. In the solitude where he 
dwelt, arose first an oratory ; afterwards a 
most splendid church and monastery, built 
upon piles with wondrous art and wisdom, 
and dedicated to St. Bartholomew. The 
marshes were drained and cultivated, and 
good spirits (that is, health, peace, and 
industry) inhabited where foul spirits 
(disease, and famine, and savage ignorance) 
had dwelt before. 

The ruins of Croyland Abbey cover 
twenty acres, and stand again in the midst 
of an unhealthy marsh. Remains of muti 
lated but once beautiful sculpture adorn the 
eastern front. Among these is the figure of n ot ^ ui 

^ r ^ ,. , , ,,. -, T* !0 St. Guthlac. (Ancient 

St. GraMac, holding a whip, ins proper English sculpture.) 




Sx. AUDREY (QUEEN ETHELREDA). 



65 



attribute : this lias "been explained as alluding to his severe 
penances; but among the relics left to the monastery by 
St. Pega, the sister of St. Guthlac, is the whip of St. 
Bartholomew/ with which I suppose he chastised and drove 
away the demons which, haunted the hermit saint : this is 
the more probable interpretation of the attribute. On the 
antique bridge of Croyland is seen the throned figure of 
Ethelbald, king or duke of Mercia, the first founder of this 
great monastery. 



/The first Benedictine nunnery in England was that of ST. ETHEL- 
Bbrking, in Es s^j ajjjjits first abbess St. Ethelberga, of whom BERGA * 
there is nothin^^^ted except that she led a most pious and 
orderly life, governing her congregation with, great wisdom, 
studying the Scriptures, and healing the sick. She is repre 
sented in the old missals with a pastoral staff and a book in her 
hand. As she was one of the few Saxon abbesses not of royal 
birth, she should not wear the crown. ) 






A still greater saint was Queen ETHELREDA, whom our ST. 
Anglo-Saxon ancestors regarded with peculiar veneration. The 
common people worshipped her under the name of St. Audrey, A.D. 679. 
and effigies of her formerly abounded in the old missals, in June ^ 
stained glass, and in the decorative sculpture of the old eccle 
siastical edifices in the eastern counties. To her we owe the 
foundation of the magnificent Cathedral of Ely ; and the most 
curious memorial which remains to us of her legendary life still 
exists there. 

She was the daughter of Ina, king of the East Angles, and 
Hereswida his wife; and was married at an early age to 
Toubert, prince of the Grervii, receiving for her dowry the isle 
of Ely. Being left a widow at the end of three years, she was 
married toEgfrid, king of Northumbria, with whom she lived, 
say the historians, in a state of continency for twelve years. 
She at length obtained Ms permission to withdraw entirely from 
the world, and took the veil at Coldingham. A year afterwards 
she founded a monastery on her own lands at Ely, where she 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OBDERS. 



lived for seven years in the practice of those religious austerities 
which were the admiration of the time, and gathered around her 
many virgins dedicated to God. Wonderful things are recorded 
of her by our early chronicles. When the beautiful lantern of 
A.D. 134-1 Ely Cathedral was designed by Allan de Walsingham (sub-prior 
of Ely, and one of the most excellent architects of the time), the 
capitals of the great pillars which sustain it were carved with 
groups of figures representing the chief incidents in the life of 
Ethelreda, to whom the church, on its restoration by Bishop 
Ethelwold, had been originally dedicated. 

The subjects, taken in order, exhibit the chief incidents in 
her life : 

1. We have the marriage of Ethelreda to King Egfrid: her 
father, King Ina, gives her away. 

2. She is represented making her religious profession ; she 
has taken off her royal crown, and laid it on the altar ; St. 
Wilfrid, bishop of York, pronounces the benediction; and Ebba, 
abbess of Coldingham, places the veil upon her head. 

3. The third capital represents the miraculous preservation 
of the saint It appears that King Egfrid repented of his 
concession, and threatened to drag her from her convent. She 
fled, attended by two companions, and took refuge on the 
srtTnm.it of a rock, a promontory since called St. Ebb s Head. 
Egfrid pursued her to the foot of the rock, and would have 
accomplished his purpose, had not a sudden advance of the 
tide surrounded the rock so as to render it inaccessible ; which 
was attributed to the prayers of the saint and her companions. 
King Egfrid retreated, and consoled himself by marrying 
another wife. 

4. The fourth capital represents the miraculous dream of the 
saint. After her escape from Egfrid, she crossed the Humber, 
and sought repose in a solitary place, while her two virgins, 
whose names were Sewerra and Sewenna, watched beside her. 
In her sleep she had a vision, and dreamed that her staff, which 
she had stuck into the ground, had put forth leaf and branch, 
and had become a tall tree; and, being much comforted, shy 
continued her journey. 



ST. ETHELREDA. 




11 .The Dream of St. Ebhelreda. (From the ancient sculpture in Ely Cathedral.) 

5. The next pillar represents her receiving the pastoral 
staff, as abbess of Ely, from St. Wilfrid, archbishop of York; 
who, being cruelly persecuted by Ermenburga, Egfrid s second 
choice, had fled southwards, and taken refuge at Ely. 

6. The sixth capital represents the sickness of St. Ethelreda, 
who is lying on her couch, with her pastoral staff in her hand, 
and her physician beside her. Another group in the same 
capital represents her interment. 

7. The seventh capital commemorates a miracle of the saint, 
which is said to have occurred about 400 years after her death: 
There was a certain man whose name was Britstan, an usurer 
and a son of Belial. Being seized with a grievous sickness, he 
repented of his crimes, and resolved to dedicate himself to God 
in the monastery at Ely. But on his way thither he was over 
taken by the officers of justice, and thrown into prison. He 
implored the protection of Si Ethelreda; and one night, in his 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



sleep, St. Benedict and St. Ethelreda appeared to him, and the 
former touching his fetters, they fell from his ankles, and he 
became free. In this group, an angel is in attendance on St. 
Ethelreda. The other figure represents St. Sexburga, her 
sister, who succeeded her as abbess. 

8. The eighth and last capital exhibits two groups. In the 
first, St. Sexburga, St. Ermenhilda, and St. Werburga of 
Chester, are consulting together concerning the removal of 
the body of St. Ethelreda, which had rested in the common 
cemetery for sixteen years. In the second is seen the body of 
St. Ethelreda undecayed, with the royal crown on her head, 
while the attendants express their astonishment and admira 
tion. On this her second burial, Etlielreda was laid in an 
antique marble sarcophagus most beautif ally wrought, probably 
a relic of the Eomans, but which the people supposed to have 
been constructed by angels expressly for the purpose. 

The devotional figures of St. Ethelreda represent her richly 
dressed, as was usual with all the Saxon princess-saints of that 
time. St. Ethelwold of Winchester had a particular venera- 
coii. of the tion for her, and in Ms famous Benedictional she leads the 
choir of virgin saints, in a tunic of gold, with golden shoes, 
and a crown on her head. Her proper dress would be a rich 
mantle, clasped in front, worn over her black Benedictine 
habit ; a crown, to denote her rank as princess ; the white veil 
flowing underneath it; the pastoral staff in one hand, a book 
in the other. I do not know that she has any particular 
attribute to distinguish, her from other royal abbesses; but 
th.e visionary tree which sprang from her staff might be 
introduced at her side. 

P. &lt;?9. This very curious figure of St. Ethelreda, holding the Grospel 
in one hand, a lily (the emblem of her chastity) in the otter, 
I give as a genuine specimen of Saxon art. It is taken from 
the Benedictional of Ethelwold, and was executed about the 
year 980. 

St. Ethelreda had a niece, WERBUBGA, daughter of "Wul- 
phere, king of the Mercians, to whom the Cathedral of Chester 
has been dedicated since the year 800 ; she being, with St. 
Oswald, still the tutelar saint of Chester. She was brought up 



ST. WERBURGA. 



69 




1^ St. Efchelreda (From an ancient Saxou miniature. A.D. 980.) 

under her aunt, St. Ethelreda, at Ely, and altogether devoted 
to good works, having founded many religious edifices, and 
among others, the monasteries at Weedon, Trentham, Repton, 
and Hanbury, over which she presided until her death, at 
Trentham, about the year 708. 

Her shrine at Chester was magnificent, and enriched with 
many statues. * A part of this shrine is now at the upper end Chester. 
of the choir, where it serves as a supporter to a fair pew erected 
for the bishop of the diocese. 5 

I must mention here, Modwena. an Irish saint, of whom a ST. 
curious effigy existed at Stratford-on-Avon, and is engraved 
in Fisher s Antiquities. King Egbert, says the legend, had an 
epileptic son, whom none of the physicians of his court could 
heal ; and he was told that in Ireland, over the sea, there dwelt 
a holy virgin, who had power to cure such diseases ; and thither 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



he sent his son with many presents, and the virgin healed the 
hoy. * But she refused the gifts of the king. Then he invited 
her into England ; and, heing surprised by her learning as well 
as her sanctity, he built for her the monastery at Polesworth 
in Warwickshire, and placed under her care and tuition his 
ST. EDITH, daughter Edith, who became afterwards famous as St. Edith of 
Polesworth. St. Modwena, in this ancient picture above 
referred to, wears the black habit of a Benedictine nun, and a 
white veil ; she holds a crosier in one hand, as first abbess of 
Polesworth, and a book in the other. 

In a group of the early Mercian saints, we ought to find St. 
Chad as bishop, and St. G-uthlae as hermit, St. Ethelreda and 
St. Werburga as princesses and abbesses, conspicuous, and 
admitting of a very beautiful variety in age, in dress, and in 
character. 

The period I have just reviewed, from about 650 to 750, was 
remarkable for great mental activity and progressive civilisa 
tion, as well as for enthusiastic religious feelingj 

In approaching the Danish invasions, which laid low our 
ecclesiastical edifices, and replunged the whole island into a 
state of temporary barbarism, we must pause for a while, and 
take a view of those Anglo-Saxon Benedictines who became 
Christian missionaries in foreign and (in those days) barbarous 
lands. The apostles of Friesland and Germany form a most 
interesting group of saints in early G-erman and Flemish art : 
not less do they deserve to be commemorated among our own 
national worthies. At the head of these, we place 

ST. BONIFACE, MAKTYR. 

Ldt. and Ger. Sanctns Bonifacius. Ital. San Bonifaccio. Archbishop of 
Mayence, and first primate and apostle of Germany. June 5, 755. 

HABIT AND ATTRIBUTES. He appears as bishop, wearing the episcopal 
robes orex the black Benedictine habit In his hand is a book stained with 
blood, or transfixed by a sword. 

THE story of St. Boniface is one of the most beautiful and 
authentic of -the mediaeval legends. As one of the Saxon 



ST. BONIFACE. 



worthies, educated in an English. Benedictine convent and 
connected with our own early history, he is especially inter 
esting to us ; his was a far different existence from that of 
the good abbot of Wearmouth. His active eventful life, his v. P . si. 
sublime devotion, and his tragical death, afford admirable 
subjects for Christian art and artists. 

The sketch of the history and mission of St. Boniface, which 
forms a striking passage in the * Essays in Ecclesiastical Bio 
graphy,* is so beautiful and comprehensive, that I venture to 
insert it almost entire. 

&lt;In the Benedictine abbey of Nutsall, near Winchester, 
poetry, history, rhetoric, and the Holy Scriptures were taught 
in the beginning of the eighth century, by a monk, whom his 
fellow-countrymen called Winfred, but whom the Church 
honours under the name of Boniface. He was born at 
Crediton, in Devonshire, of noble and wealthy parents, who 
had reluctantly yielded to his wish to embrace the monastic 
state. Hardly, however, had he reached middle life, when 
his associates at Nutsall discovered that he was dissatisfied 
with the pursuits by which their own thoughts were engrossed. 
As, in Ms evening meditations, he paced the long conventual 
avenue of lime-trees, or as, in the night-watches, he knelt 
before the crucifix suspended in his cell, he was still conscious 
of a voice, audible though inarticulate, which repeated to him 
the Divine injunction " to go and preach the Gospel to all 
nations." Then, in mental vision, was seen stretching out 
before him the land of his German ancestry ; where, beneath 
the veil of the customs described by Tacitus, was concealed 
an idolatry of which the historian had neither depicted, nor 
probably conjectured, the abominations. To encounter Satan 
in this stronghold became successively the day-dream, the 
passion, and the fixed resolve of Boniface ; until, at length, 
abandoning for this holy war the studious repose for which he 
had already abandoned the world, he appeared, in his thirty- 
sixth year, a solitary and unbefriended missionary, traversing 
the marshy sands and the primaeval forests of Friesland. But 
Charles Martel was already there, the leader in a far different 
contest Nor, while the Christian mayor of the palace was 



T2 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



striking down the pagans with his battle-axe, could the 
pathetic entreaties of the Benedictine monk induce them to 
bow down to the banner of the Cross. He therefore returned 
to Nutsall, not with diminished zeal, but with increased know 
ledge. He had now learned that his success must depend on 
the conduct of the secular and spiritual rulers of mankind, 
and on his own connection with them. 

c The chapter of his monastery chose him as their abbot, but 
at his own request the Bishop of Winchester annulled the 
election ; then, quitting for ever his native England, Boniface 
pursued his way to Eome to solicit the aid of Pope Gregory II. 
in his efforts for the conversion of the German people. 

This was in the year 719 ; and it is said that on the occasion 
of his visit to Rome he quitted his Anglo-Saxon name of Win- 
fred, and assumed that of Boniface. Having received his 
mission from the Pope, he travelled into Thuringia and Bavaria: 
he again visited Friesland, where Charles Martel now reigned 
as undisputed master ; he penetrated into the wilds of Saxony, 
everywhere converting and civilising the people, and found 
ing monasteries, which, it should be remembered, was much 
the same as founding colonies and cities. In the year 732 
Boniface was created Archbishop and Primate of all Germany; 
and soon afterwards King Pepin-le-Bref, whom he had crowned 
and anointed, created him first Bishop of Mayence. Into 
the monasteries which he founded in Germany, he introduced 
copies of the Holy Scriptures ; and in the midst of all his 
labours and honours, he was accustomed to carry in his bosom 
the Treatise of St. Ambrose, De Bono Mortis. In his 
seventy-fourth year he abdicated his ecclesiastical honours, 
and solemnly devoted the remainder of his life to the labours 
of a missionary. 

* Girding round him his black Benedictine habit, and deposit 
ing his Ambrose, " De Bono Mortis," in the folds of it, he once 
more travelled into Friesland, and, pitching his tent on the 
banks of a small rivulet, awaited there the arrival of a body of 
neophytes, whom he had summoned to receive at his hands the 
rite of confirmation. Ere long a multitude appeared in the 
distance advancing towards the tent ; not, however, with the 



ST. BONIFACE. 73 



lowly demeanour of Christian converts drawing near their 
"bishop, but carrying deadly weapons, and announcing by their 
cries and gestures, that they were pagans, sworn to avenge their 
injured deities against the arch-enemy of their worship. The 
servants of Boniface drew their swords in his defence ; but, 
calmly and even cheerfully awaiting the approach of his 
enemies, and forbidding all resistance, he fell beneath their 
blows, a martyr to the faith which he had so long lived and 
so bravely died to propagate. His copy of Ambrose, " De 
Bono Mortis," covered with his blood, was exhibited during 
many succeeding centuries at Fulda as a relic. It was con 
templated there by many who regarded as superstitious and 
heretical some of the tenets of Boniface ; but no Christian, 
whatever might be his own peculiar creed, ever looked upon 
that blood-stained memorial of him without the profoundest 
veneration. For, since the apostolic age, no greater bene 
factor of our race has arisen among men than the monk 
of Nutsall, unless it be that other monk of Wittemberg, 
who at the distance of seven centuries, appeared to reform 
and reconstruct the churches founded by the holy Bene 
dictine. 1 

Is not this a man whom we Anglo-Saxons might be proud 
to place in our ecclesiastical edifices ? 

In the single figures and devotional pictures St. Boniface is 
represented in the episcopal robes and mitre, the crosier in one 
hand, in the other a book transpierced with a sword. Or he 
is in the act of baptizing a convert, while he sets his foot on 
the prostrate oak, as a sign that he had overcome the Druid 
superstitions. Such figures are frequent in German art, and 
doubtless had once a distinguished place in the decorations 
of our own abbeys and cathedrals ; but he is found there no 
longer. 

He is seldom met with in Italian art. Bonifaccio, the 
Venetian, has represented the martyrdom of his patron saint; 
but I rather think that this is the Italian martyr Boniface, 
whose story has been related in the second volume of LEGEND- p- 2$& 
AET ART. 

1 Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography, i S72. 
L 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



The most splendid monument ever consecrated to St. Boni 
face is the Basilica which bears his name, and which was 
founded by King Louis of Bavaria in 1835, in celebration of 
the twenty-fifth anniversary of his marriage. The interior is 
sustained by sixty-three pillars of white marble. The whole of 
the choir and nave are covered with frescoes, executed by Pro 
fessor Hess and Ms pupils ; those in the choir represent our 
Saviour, and on each side his mother Mary and St. John the 
Evangelist; beneath, in a line, stand St. Benedict and the most 
celebrated of those teachers of the Christian faith who preached 
the Gospel in Bavaria, St. Boniface, St. Willibald, St. Cor- 
binian, St. Rupert, St. Emnieran, St. Cylien, and St. Magnus, 
abbot of Fiissen, 1 all of whom were Benedictines. Along the 
upper walls, on each side of the central nave, runs a series of 
compositions in thirty-six compartments, representing in 
cidents in the lives of all those saints who preached the Gospel 
throughout Germany, from the year 384 down to the baptism 
of Wittikind in presence of Charlemagne in 785. Beneath 
these thirty-six small compartments are twelve large compart 
ments, containing on a larger scale scenes from the life of St. 
Boniface, in each compartment two : 

1. The father of "Winfred (afterwards Boniface), being healed 
of a grievous malady by the prayers of his pious son, solemnly 
devotes him to the priesthood. 2. Boniface receives the Bene 
dictine habit 3. He leaves the monastery at Nutsall, and 
embarks at the port of Southampton for Rome. 4. He arrives 
at Rome. 5. Pope Gregory II. consecrates him as missionary. 
6. Boniface crosses the Alps into Germany. 7, He preaches 
the Gospel in IViesland. 8. He receives the papal command 
to repair to Rome. 9. Pope Gregory creates him bishop of the 
new converts. 10. Returning to Germany he is miraculously 
fed and refreshed in passing through a forest. 1L He hews 
down the oak sacred to the German divinity Thor. 12. He 

i In the Belle Arti at Venice, there is a charming picture by Cima da Coneg- 
liano of the incredulity of St. Thomas. On one side stands a bishop, called in 
the catalogue St. Magnus; on what authority I do not know, nor why a 
Bavarmn bishop should be represented here, unless as the patron of the donor of 



SS. EWALD. 



founds the bishoprics of Eichstadt and Wurzbourg. 13* He 
founds the great monastery of Fulda. 14. The solemn conse 
cration of the monastery. 15. He receives into his monas 
tery St. George of Utrecht as a child. 16. He crowns Pepin March 1,75-2, 
d Heristal king of the Franks. 17. He is created first Arch 
bishop of Mayence. 18. He resigns his archiepiscopal dig 
nity, resumes the habit of a simple monk, and prepares to 
depart on his second mission. 19. He suffers martyrdom at 
the hands of the barbarians. 20. His remains are borne to 
Mayenee, and finally deposited in his monastery at Fulda. 

I have given the list of subjects, because it will be found 
useful and suggestive both to artists and travellers. The 
frescoes have been executed with great care in a large, chaste, 
simple style. I have etched the scene of the departure of St. 
Boniface from Southampton. The dress of the saint, the 
short black sleeveless tunic over the white cassock, is the 
travelling and working costume of the Benedictine monks. 



In the time of St. Boniface, two Saxon brothers left ss. 
England to preach the Gospel in Westphalia. These brothers, TOO* oct.s 
who were twins, were baptized by the same name, but, being 
diverse in hair and complexion, were distinguished as ST. 
EWALB THE BLACK and ST. EWALD THE FAIK. Having studied 
for some time in Ireland, then famous for its seminaries of 
learning, they embarked on their mission, encouraging each 
other, and singing psalms and hymns by the way, and, pass 
ing through Friesland, reached in safety the frontiers of 
Westphalia. There they required to be conducted to the lord 
of the country, that they might obtain his permission to 
preach the Gospel among his people ; but the ignorant and 
barbarous infidels of the neighbourhood fell upon them, 
murdered them cruelly, and threw their bodies into the river. 
A light was seen to hover above the spot, and search being 
made, the bodies of the martyrs were found, and, by order of 
Pepin d Heristal, buried at Cologne, in the church of St 
Cunibert. They are venerated as the patron saints of West 
phalia. 

There is a set of curious pictures illustrating the story of 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Cologne. 
S. Cunibert 



Maaicb Gal. 



these "brother martyrs, which appear to have been executed "by 
Martin Hemsklrk, for the church of St. Cunibert : 

1. The two brothers , distinguished as the Black and the Fair 
Ewald, stand together ; the former carries a sword, the latter 
Munich Gai. a club. & The brothers depart on their mission, 3. St. 
Ewald the Fair heals a possessed woman in presence of 
Kadbrad, duke of Friesland. 4. The brothers defend their 
faith before the judge. 5, One of the brothers stands before 
a pagan emperor. 6. St. Ewald the Fair is beaten to death 
with clubs. 7. The Martyrdom of St. Ewald the Black. Two 
are engraved in the Boisseree Gallery. 

I have etched the scene of the miracle. The attitude of St. 
Ewald is precisely that which I once saw assumed by a famous 
mesmerist, when throwing a patient into a mesmeric sleep. 

Drayton, in his Polyolbion, celebrates a long list of the saints 
whom we sent from England to other countries, and among 
them he gives a conspicuous place to these brothers : 



So did the Ewaldi there most worthily attain 

Their martyr s glorious types, in Ireland first approved, 

But after, in their zeal, as need required removed, 

They to Westphalia went ; and as they brothers were, 

So they, the Christian faith together preaching there, 

Th 1 old pagan Saxons slew, out of their hatred deep 

To the true faith, whose shrines "brave Cullen still doth keep. 



Song 24. 



Le. Cologne. 



ST. 



Maruh 1, 
A D. 690. 



St. Swidbert, an English Benedictine monk, left his monas 
tery in Northumberland to preach the Grospel to the heathen in 
Friesland and the duchy of Berg. He built a great monastery 
in Kaiserswerdt, on the Rhine, six miles below Dusseldorfl 
In a picture by B. de Bruyn he is represented as bishop, 
holding up a star in both hands, which may be a symbol of the 
rising light of the Gospel, which he preached in that district. 
He died in 713. 

The companion picture, of the same size, represents St 
Cunibert, who was Bishop of Cologne, and counsellor of King 
Dagofoert and several of his successors, and he was also the 
intimate friend of Pepin d HeristaL He governed the diocese 
of Cologne during thirty-seven years, and one of the most 



ST. WALBUKGA. 



ancient churches of that ancient city bears his name. Accord- 
in " to the legend, it was St. Cunibert who discovered the 
spot where St. Ursula and her companions lay buried, being 
directed thither by a dove. There is a curious picture of Munich Gai. 
this prelate painted by B. de Bruyn, one of the old Cologne 
school, probably for his church. He is represented as bishop, 
holding a church in his hand: his proper attribute is a 
dove. 

I must mention one more of these old Benedictine mission- ST. L 
aries, who has been illustrated in Flemish art. St. Lieven was 
born and educated in Ireland, then famous for its ecclesiastical 
schools. After being consecrated bishop in his native land, 
he was called on, or believed himself inspired, to preach the 
Gospel in the Low Countries, where so many martyrs had 
already preached, and he was destined to add to the number. 
While preaching and baptizing near Ghent, he was cruelly 
murdered, the infuriated pagans having first torn out his 
tongue, aiid then cut off his head. His hostess, a Christian NOT. 
lady, and her infant son (called St. Brictius, or St. Brice) were 
slain with him. 

St. Lieven was a poet, and, among other productions, com 
posed a hymn in honour of St. Bavon, within whose church, at 
Grhentj his remains are still preserved. He is sometimes re 
presented as a bishop, holding his own tongue with a pair of 
tongs. Rubens painted the horrible Martyrdom of St. Lieven, 
with most horrible skill, for the altar-piece of his chapel in the 
Jesuits Church at Ghent. 

Connected with St. Boniface and the early German martyrs 
and missionaries, in pictures, in architectural ornament, and 
in the stained glass of the German churches, we find two 
famous female saints, ST. WALBUBGA and ST. OTTILIA. 

The various names borne by the former saint, according to 
the various localities in which she has been honoured, in 
Bavaria, Alsace, Poitou, Flanders, and England, testify to her 
popularity; she is St. Walpurgis, Walbourg, Valpurge, 
Gualbourg, arid Avangour. Her Anglo-Saxon name, Wai- 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



burga, is the same as tlie Greek Eucharis, and signifies 
gracious. She was the niece of St. Boniface, and sister of St. 
Willibald. When her uncle and brother had decided on 
bringing over from England a company of religious women, to 
assist in their missions among the pagans, by teaching and by 
D. 72s. example, Walburga, after passing twenty-seven years in the 
monastery of Winburn, in Dorsetshire, set forth with ten other 
nuns, and repaired to Mayence ; thence her brother Willibald 
removed her to Eichstadt, and made her first abbess of the 
Benedictine nunnery at Heidenheim, about half way between 
Munich and Nuremburg. Walburga appears to have been a 
strong-minded and, for her time, a learned woman. She is 
the author of a Latin history of the life and mission of her 
brother Willibald; she governed her sisterhood with such a 
strong hand, and was so efficient in civilising the people around 
her, that, after the death of St. Willibald, she was called to 
Eichstadt, and for several years governed the two communities 
of monks and nuns. Her death took place about the year 778. 
Like many of the religious women of that time, Walpurgis 
had studied medicine for the purpose of ministering to the poor. 
The cures she performed, either through faith or skill, were by 
the people attributed solely to her prayers. After her death 
she was laid in a hollow rock, near the monastery of Eichstadt, 
a spot where a kind of bituminous oil exuded from the stone. 
This oil was for a long time supposed to proceed from her 
remains, and, under the name of Walpurgis oil, was regarded 
by the people as a miraculous cure for all manner of diseases. 
The cave at Eichstadt became a place of pilgrimage. A beau 
tiful church arose upon the spot ; and other churches dedicated 
to St. Walburga are found, not only in Bavaria, but all over 
Flanders, and in Burgundy, Poitou, and Lorraine. There is a 
chapel dedicated to her honour in the Cathedral of Canterbury. 
She died on the 25th of February ; but, in the German and 
Belgic calendars, the 1st of May, the day on which she was 
enshrined as a saint, is recorded as her chief festival, and it was 
solemnised as such over all Germany. On this night, the famous 
Walpurgis Nacht^ the witches held their orgies on the Blocks- 
berg. For other wild and poetical superstitions connected 



ST. 



with the name of Walpurgis, I must refer the reader to the 
notes of * Faust/ and the writers on German ecclesiastical 
antiquities. 

In German and Flemish art, St. Walburga is conspicuous. 

She is represented, in the devotional figures, as wearing the 
habit of a Benedictine nun, with the crosier, as abbess of 
Heidenheim, and in her hand a vial or flask, which originally 
may have been intended to express, in a general way, her 
medical skill ; but, latterly, the flask is always supposed to 
contain the miraculous oil which flowed under her shrine at 
Eichstadt. 

Eubens painted for the church of St. Walburga at Antwerp, 

1. The Voyage of the Saint and her companions from England 
to Mayence : they are in a small boat, tossed in a storm ; 

2. The Burial of St. Walburga, 

The Voyage of St. Walburga is also among the frescoes 
painted by Hess, in the church of St Boniface, at Munich, and 
occupies the twenty-seventh compartment. 

With St. Walburga should be represented her most famous ST. 
companion, St. Lioba, also singularly learned for the time, 
and a poetess. She was greatly loved and honoured by 
Charlemagne and his empress Hildegarde, who would wil 
lingly have kept her in their court as friend and counsellor, 
but she preferred the seclusion of her monastery. She died 
about the year 779, and was buried at Fulda by the side of St 
Boniface. 

It appears that some of the early Benedictine abbesses in 
England and Germany were ladies spiritual/ (as the bishops 
and abbots were &lt; lords spiritual, ) and had large communities 
of monks, as well as nuns, under their rule and guidance. We 
are told that five of these &lt; ladies spiritual signed the acts of 
the great council held at Beckenham. If it be easy to mock 
at all this, and to contemn a state of the Church in which 
women lield a high, a venerable, and an influential position, 
let us first consider all that the women of these early times 
owed to the sanctity and teaching of such institutions, though 
even those sacred asylums could not always protect them from 
outrage and injustice. To this day, women must feel grateful 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



that thus was kept alive in the hearts and the consciences of 
men that religions idea of the moral equality of women, that 
reverence for womanhood, which the Divine Author of our faith 
was the first to promulgate, which is enforced "by his doctrine, 
by his example, and "by the most touching incidents of his 
ministry on earth. 

ST OTTILIA. ST. OTTILIA shares in the honours paid to St. Lucia as patron 
saint against all diseases of the eyes. She was the daughter of 

Dec. 13,720. Duke Adalrich of Alsace, and born blind; her father, who was 
a heathen, then commanded that she should be carried out of 
the house and exposed to perish, but her nurse fled with her to 
a monastery. Our Lord appeared to Erhard, a pious bishop in 
the country of Bavaria, and said, &lt; Go to a certain monastery, 
in which thou wilt find a little maiden of noble birth; baptize 
her and give her the name of Ottilia : and it shall be, that after 
thou hast baptized her she shall recover her sight. Afterwards 
her father repented, and dying, left to her all that he possessed. 
She knowing that her father was tormented in Purgatory be 
cause of his cruelty, gave the first proof of her piety by deliver 
ing him from torment, by dint of prayers and tears ; she built 
a monastery at Hohenburg, in which she lived in great 
austerity and devotion. She 
collected around her 130 nuns, 
who walked with her in the 
paths of Christian perfection ; 
and died abbess of Hohenburg 
in 720. She is the patron saint 
of Alsace, and more particu 
larly of the city of Strasbourg. 
In consequence of her great 
austerities and mortifications, 
she has taken rank as martyr 
in the Church, and is generally 
represented as an abbess in the 
black Benedictine habit; in 
one liand a palm or a crosier, 
in the other a book upon which 13 (From J^^an missaL) 




ST. SEBALD. 



are two eyes. She is principally to be met with in the German 
ecclesiastical sculpture ; and I have seen a picture of her in v. Bartsu, 
the gallery at Vienna, in which she is represented kneeling at cjnfroii. 
the feet of the Virgin and Child, who look down upon her 
with benignity : opposite to her stands St. Peter Martyr. 

The baptism of St. Ottilia by St. Erhard of Bavaria is one 
of the subjects in the church of St. Boniface at Munich. It is 
the twenty-second compartment. 1 

A distinguished personage in this group of early G-er- ST - 
man saints is ST. SEBALD. As an object of veneration, he 
belongs exclusively to Nuremberg, but the rarity and value 
of some of the old prints and woodcuts in which he is repre 
sented have spread his name, at least, among collectors and 
amateurs: and who that has visited Nuremberg, will not 
recall the pilgrim-patron of that most ancient city? his 
antiquated church and wondrous shrine? What student in 
art does not possess, or at least does not wish to possess, the 
casts from those beautiful bronzes of Peter Vischer, which 
emulate in feeling, grandeur, and simplicity, the finest Italian 
productions of the fifteenth century the bronzes of Ghiberti 
and Donatello ? 

St. Sebaldis represented in the popular legends of Nuremberg 
as the son of a Danish king : it is most probable that he was 
of Anglo-Danish lineage, and that he left England with 
Boniface and his companions; his name, anglicised, is St. 
Siward, Seward, or Sigward, and we find him in connection 
with SS. Willibald and Willibrod, the Anglo-Saxon mission 
aries. It appears that he travelled through the north of Ger 
many to Nuremberg, and took up his residence near the city, 
preaching, converting, baptizing, and performing miracles 
until his death, which is placed about the year 770. 

St. Sebald is portrayed as a pilgrim and missionary, with 
the shell in his hat, a rosary, a staff, and a wallet; and holding 
in one hand his church with its two towers, one of the most 

1 In a picture by Albertinelli In the Munich Gallery (549) the saint called Ottilia 
in the German catalogue is St. Lucia. We must remember that St. Ottilia was ass 
abbess, and iii all devotional pictures is so represented. 

M 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



venerable edifices of the most ve 
nerable city of Nuremberg. He is 
thus represented in the statue by 
Peter Vischer ; in a fine woodcut 
by Albert Diirer, where he is stand 
ing under an arch adorned with 
the armorial bearings of the city ; 
and in a most exquisite little print 
by Hans Sebald Beham, where he 
is seated under two trees, as 
one reposing after a long journey, 
yet still embracing his beloved 
church. 

The bas-reliefs on his shrine 
exhibit four incidents of his life : 
1. St. Sebald, accompanied by his 
disciple, called by some Dionysius, 
and by others Deocari, meets 
Willibald and Winibald, almost 
dead with hunger and fatigue: 
he transforms stones into- bread, 
and water into wine. 2. While 
preaching to the people of Nurem 
berg, a wicked blasphemer mocks 
at him and his doctrines ; he prays 14 
fora sign, and the earth opens to (Fmm the statue * y Peterviscber -) 
swallow up his adversary ; the man, half buried, calls aloud for 
pardon and mercy, and the saint rescues him from perdition. 
3. St. Sebald dwelt in a cell, whence he made almost daily 
journeys to the city of Nuremberg to instruct the Christian 
converts, and he was accustomed to rest in the hut of a poor 
cartwright. One day, in the depth of winter, he found his host 
and all his family ready to perish with cold, for there was no 
wood to make a fire. The saint desired him to bring in the 
icicles hanging from the roof of the house, and to use them for 
fuel. The grace and naivete with which this quaint legend is 
represented are particularly striking : the female figure, who, 
on her knees, is feeding the fire with icicles; the attitude of 




St. Sebald. 



ST. BENNO. 8$ 



the saint, who is turning up the soles of his feet to the flame 

. are both admirable. 4. St. Sebald requiring fish, to keep a 

fast-day, desires the poor eartwright to go to the market and 
buy it. Now the lord of Nuremberg, being a tyrant and a 
pagan after the usual pattern, had prohibited his vassals from 
buying fish in the market till the inmates of the castle were 
supplied : the cartwright is seized, and his eyes are put out ; 
but he is restored to sight by St. Sebald. This group is also 
beautifully managed, and the figure of the weeping wife is 
conceived and draped with truly Italian grace. The inscrip 
tions on this wonderful shrine inform us that Peter Yischer 
began to cast it in 1508, and finished it with the assistance of 
his five sons, who, with their wives and children, dwelt under 
his roof, and shared his labours and his fame. The citizens 
of Nuremberg have been excellent Protestants for the last 
300 years, and withstood most manfully the Catholic forces of 
the empire in 1632 ; but, happily, it never occurred to them to 
prove their sincerity or their piety by desecrating and destroy 
ing their monuments o f art ; and the shrine of St. Sebald 
guarded by the twelve apostles, crowned with saintly teachers, 
while angels and seraphs, lovely Blysian forms, hover and 
cling like birds round its delicate tracery, stands just where 
it did three centuries ago. 

ST. BENHO, a German Benedictine, was Bishop of Meissen 
in Saxony, in the time of the Emperor Henry IY. After 
Henry was excommunicated in 1075, he attempted to make a 
forcible entry into the Cathedral of Meissen. Benno closed the 
doors against him, flung the key into the Elbe, and retired to 
Rome. On his return to his bishopric he recovered the key 
miraculously, says the story; for he ordered a fisherman to cast 
his net in the river, and a fish being caught, the key was found 
within it. St. Benno is often represented in the old German 
prints with a fish in his hand ; in the mouth of the fish, a key. 

In the German Church at Home (Sta. Maria dell Amrna) 
there is an altar-piece representing St. Benno and the mira 
culous recovery of the key. The painter, Carlo Saraceni, was 
one of the late Venetian School ; and the picture, which is well 



84 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS, 



coloured and animated, is, in arrangement and costume, an odd 
combination of the German and Venetian manner. St. Benno 
was canonised in the time of Luther, who made a most vig 
orous attack on the c new idol set up at Meissen. In the 
beautiful cathedral we may now look in vain for its intrepid 
bishop ; we find, instead, the portraits of the intrepid reformer 
and his wife Catherine, "by Lucas Cranach. Such are the changes 
on which pictures make us ponder not idly nor irreverently. 



We return to England. 

One thing which particularly strikes us in the history of 
the early Benedictine communities, in England and elsewhere, 
is their perpetual feuds and tilts with the drinking, hunting, 
fighting barons around them; their quarrels, peaceful men 
though they were, with the seneschals and foresters who in 
vaded their privileges and ignorantly opposed their plans of 
improvement. 

Their fields, their gardens, and their mills had sprung up in 
heretofore uncultivated places, and were often grants of land 
reclaimed from some royal or baronial forest, in which the game, 
jealously preserved, trampled their fences, destroyed their corn, 
and worried their sheep. Our Korman kings of one of whom 
it was said Hhat he loved the tall stags as though they had 
been his children, while of another it is related that he laid 
waste two hundred villages to make a hunting-ground often 
interfered with the peaceful agricultural pursuits of the Church 
vassals. The Church, in her turn, had recourse to her spiritual 
weapons. Thus we find St. Hugh of Lincoln excommunicating 
the foresters of King John ; and some of the earlier Church 
legends exhibit in a curious manner the feeling which existed 
between the two great powers in the state, the military and the 
ecclesiastical. But, as Mr. Turner observes, every battle which 
the churchmen fought against the king or the noble was, tJien^ 
for the advantage of general freedom. 

There is a most picturesque story of St. Anselm, archbishop 
of Canterbury, one of the most learned and distinguished of the 



ST. ANSELM, 



canonised churchmen of those times. The contemporary his 
tories are full of his contests with that uncivilised and irreligious 
barbarian, William Rufus. Anselm, as archbishop, presided in 
the council wherein it was forbidden to sell the serfs with the 
land as though they had been cattle, which was formerly the 
custom in England, But the story I am now going to relate 
exhibits him merely as opposed to the rude nobles of that age. 
One day, as he was riding to his manor of Herse, a hare, pur 
sued by the huntsmen and dogs, ran under the housings of his 
mule, and cowered there for refuge : the hounds stood at bay ; 
the foresters laughed } but St. Anselm wept, and said, * This 
poor hare reminds me of the soul of a sinner, beset by fiends 
impatient to seize their prey. And he forbade them to pursue 
the creature, which limped away, while hounds and huntsmen 
remained motionless as if bound by a spell. 

The famous German legend of the hermit and the wild hunts 
man seems to have originated in a similar feeling. 

I do not know that the pretty story of St. Anselm has ever 
been represented in art ; but the legend of Dale Abbey I found 
illustrated in some old painted glass in Morley Church, in 
Derbyshire. There are five small subjects. In the first, the 
abbot, being aggrieved by the trespasses of the game which 
had devoured his wheat in the green blade, is seen shooting 
the deer with a crossbow. In the second, the king s foresters 
complain of him, and the king has a label from his mouth on 
which is written, * Bring ye him before me/ In the third and 
fourth he is in the presence of the king, who kneels at his feet, 
and grants him as much land as between sun and sun he shall 
encircle by a furrow drawn with his plough, to which he is to yoke 
two stags caught wild from the forest : the inscriptions, * Go 
take them and tame them;* * Go home and take grcmnd with 
the plough? In the fifth compartment lie is ploughing with 
the two stags ; the inscription is, * Here St. Robert ploweth 
with them? 

There is a version of this legend in a collection of Ballads 
by William and Mary Howitt ; but the turn which they iiayo 
given to the story differs altogether from what I conceive to be 
the real significance of the legend. The monks would hardly 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



have placed in their great window, over the altar, a series of 
pictures commemorating their own trespasses : that they should 
commemorate the wrongs done to them, the invasion of their 
ancient charter, and the amends granted by the king, seems 
perfectly intelligible. 

These curious fragments of glass were brought from a window 
of Dale Abbey, together with, a part of the ruins, which have 
evidently been used in building the north side of the little 
church at Morley. 



ST. EDMUND, KING AND MABTYK. 

A.D. 870. Dec. 12. 

THE history of Eagnar Lodbrog, and the first invasion of the 
Danes, may be found in most of our chroniclers. The ecclesi 
astical legend, as connected with St. Edmund the Martyr, is 
exceedingly picturesque, and the real horrors are here softened 
by a veil of religious poetry, and graceful and instructive 
fiction. 

Lodbrog, who was of the royal race of the Northmen, dwelt 
on the coast of Denmark. One day, taking his hawk on his 
hand, he went out fowling in a small skiff. 

A storm came on, and, after being tossed about for several 
days, he was driven upon the English coast, at Redham in 
Norfolk, The people -of the country carried him to Edmund 
the king, who reigned over the East Angles. 

Edmund was then in the bloom of youth, a gentle and 
accomplished prince ; and Lodbrog was struck with wonder at 
the splendour of a court which so far exceeded in civilisation all 
he had left in his own country. Edmund, on his part, was 
attracted by the immense strength of the Dane and his skill in 
the chase. But the king s huntsman envied his superiority ; 
and one day, when they were out hunting together, he trea 
cherously slew him, leaving his body in the wood. 

Now Lodbrog had reared a greyhound in King Edmund s 
court, which tarried by his master s body and watched it ; but 
after some days, being hungry, he returned to the king s house, 



ST. EDMUND. 



and, after being fed, again disappeared. When this had 
occurred several times, the servants, by the king s command, 
followed after the dog, and discovered the body of Lodbrog 
concealed in a thicket. The treacherous huntsman confessed 
his crime, and was sentenced by the king and his counsellors 
to be put alone into the boat which had brought Lodbrog to 
England, and set adrift on the sea ; and the winds and the 
waves carried him to that part of the coast where dwelt 
Hinguar and Hubba, the sons of Lodbrog, They, seeing 
their father s boat, and concluding he had been murdered, 
burst into a most bitter weeping, and were about to put the 
huntsman to a cruel death ; but he, doubly treacherous, saved 
himself by accusing King Edmund of the deed, whereupon 
they swore by all their gods that they would not leave 
unavenged the death of their father ; and they collected a 
great fleet of ships, in which eight kings and twenty earls, 
with their followers, embarked and steered towards England. 
They landed in Northumbria, laid waste the whole country 
from the Tweed to the Humber, and then penetrated into 
East Anglia. They burned and destroyed everything before 
them, slew the monks of Croyland and Peterborough ; &lt; and 
from this period, says the historian of the Anglo-Saxons, 
4 language cannot describe their devastations : it can only 
repeat the words plunder, murder, famine, and distress; it 
can only enumerate towns and villages, churches and monas 
teries, harvests and libraries, burnt and demolished, and 
wounds inflicted on human happiness and human improve 
ment which ages with difficulty healed. 5 * 

When they approached the dominions of Edmund, they sent 
him a haughty message, requiring of him that he would relin 
quish the half of his kingdom ; whereupon Edmund called to 
Mm his counsellor Humbert, bishop of Helmham, and said to 
him, * Humbert ! servant of the living God ! and half of 
my life ! the fierce barbarians are at hand, and oh ! that I might 
fall, so that my people might thereby escape death ; for I will 
not, through love of a temporal kingdom, subject myself to a 
heathen tyrant. Then the bishop replied, * Unless thou save 
thyself by flight, most beloved king, these fierce pirates will 



8S LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



presently destroy thee/ But the Mug absolutely refused to 
fly; for, said he, I will not survive my faithful and beloved 
friend ; it is nobler to die for my country, than to forsake it. 
Then, calling in the messenger, he thus addressed him : 
Stained as ye are with the blood of my people, ye deserve 
the punishment of death; but, following the example of 
Christ, I will not pollute my hands with your blood. Go 
back to your master, and tell him, that though you may rob 
me of the wealth and of the kingdom which Divine Provi 
dence bestowed on me, you shall not make me subject to an 
infidel. After slaying the servants, slay also the king, whom 
the King of kings will translate into heaven, there to reign 
for ever. 

When the most blessed King Edmund had sent back the 
messenger with these words, he advanced boldly against the 
enemy with all the forces he could raise, and met the Danes 
near the town of Thetford, and gave them battle ; and after 
great slaughter on both sides, King Edmund retreated, and was 
afterwards surrounded by Hinguar and Hubba, who had united 
their forces. He took refuge in the church with his friend 
Humbert, whence he was dragged by the barbarians, bound to 
a tree, and, after been scourged, shot with arrows, * until, as 
the old legend expresses it, * his body was stuck as full of darts 
as is the hedgehog s skin with spines. At length they cut off 
his head ; and with him suffered his friend and inseparable 
companion, Bishop Humbert. 

or NOV. 20. This happened on the 12th day of December, in the year 
870, in the twenty-ninth year of his age. 

"When the Christians came forth from their hiding-places, 
they sought everywhere for the remains of the martyred king : 
and then appeared a wonderful and unheard-of prodigy, for they 
found a huge grey wolf of the wood watching over the severed 
head. Then they, taking it up boldly and reverently, carried 
it to the place of interment, followed by the wolf. And, after 
many years, a great church and monastery was erected over 
his remains ; and around them rose a town, called, In memory 
of him, Bury St Edmunds, which name it retains to this day. 

In the old effigies, St. Edmund bears an arrow in his hand. 



ST. SWITHEiT. 



which Is Ms proper attribute, and is sometimes accompanied 
"by the * grey wolf crouching at his side. 



Contemporary with this martyred ting, we find the preceptor ST. 
and kinsman of the great Alfred, St. Mfeot He was a monk of 
Grlastonbury, and it is recorded of him that he visited Some 
seven times, was very learned, mild, religious, fond of singing; 
* humble to all. affable in conversation, wise in transacting 

/ O 

business, venerable in aspect, severe in countenance, moderate 
even in his walk, sincere, upright, calm, temperate, and charit 
able. This good man is said to have reproved Alfred for Ms 
faults, and consoled him in his misfortunes. He lived for a 
time in a wild solitude in Cornwall, and died in 878. Two 
towns in England bear his name. 

He should be represented as an aged man with a venerable 
beard, wearing the black habit of his Order, and a pilgrim s 
staff and wallet, to signify his frequent journeyings. 

ST. SWITHEN shared with St. Neot the glory of educating ST.SWITBE* 
our Alfred. He was chancellor under Egbert and Ethelwolf, July 2 86:L 
and * to him, says Lord Campbell, c the nation was indebted 
for instilling the rudiments of science, heroism, and virtue into 
the mind of the, most illustrious of our sovereigns. He also 
accompanied Alfred on his pilgrimage to Rome. He was Bishop 
of Winchester; a learned, humble, and charitable man; a 
devout champion of the Church, and munificent in building, 
like most of the prelates of that time. It is related of him that , 
while presiding over the erection of a bridge near his city of 
"Winchester, a poor old woman complained to Mm that some in 
solent workman had broken all the eggs in her basket; where 
upon the good bishop restored them all ; or, according to the 
popular legend which converts tMs simple act of justice and 
charity into a miracle, he restored the broken eggs by making 
them whole. He had ordered that Ms body should be buried 
among the poor, outside the church, under the feet of the 
passengers, and exposed to the droppings of the eaves from 



80 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



July is. above. When his clergy attempted to remove the body to a 
more honourable tomb inside the church, there came on such a 
storm of rain as effectually stopped the procession ; and this 
continued for forty days -without intermission, till the project was 
abandoned, and his remains were suffered to rest in the humble 
grave he had chosen for himself. St. Swithen figures in our 
Protestant calendar as the Jupiter Pluvius of our Saxon an 
cestors; and, in this character, perhaps a waterspout would be 
his most appropriate attribute : but he has some graver claims 
to reverence. He ought to be conspicuous in a series of our 
southern canonised worthies, bearing the cope, mitre, and pas 
toral staff as bishop, and the great seal as chancellor; and, 
thus distinguished, he should be placed in connection with 
the kingly Alfred, the wise St. Heot, St. Dunstan the skilful 
artificer, and St. Ethelwold the munificent scholar. 

ST. DUNSTAN. 

A.D. 988. May 19. 

IF the history of our earlier English hierarchy, ST. DTOSTAN 
stands out a conspicuous figure; but the colours in which he is 
portrayed are as contrasted as night and day. In the hands of 
some of our historians he appears a demon of ambition and 
cruelty. I recollect that my own early impressions of him, 
after reading sentimental versions of the story of Edwin and 
Elgiva, were revolting ; I could think of him only as a bigoted 
and ferocious priest. The story of the Devil and the red-hot 
tongs, adding a touch of the grotesque, completed the repulsive 
picture. More extensive sources of information, and awakened 
reflection and comparison, have considerably modified these 
impressions. Dunstan was, in fact, one of the most striking 
and interesting characters of the times ; and not merely as a 
subject of art, but as being himself an artist, he must be com 
memorated here. 

He was born in the year 925, in the beginning of the reign of 
Athelstan, the grandson of Alfred. His early years were passed 
in the neighbourhood of Grlastonbury, where he afterwards 



ST. DUNSTAN. 



became a professed monk. He profited by all the means of 
instruction which that great seminary placed at his disposal. 
He became not only learned in boobs, but an accomplished 
scribe, and made himself master of those arts which, according 
to the rule of the Order, were carried on within the walls. He 
was a painter, a musician, and an excellent artificer in metaL 
He constructed an organ &lt; with brass pipes, filled with air from 
the bellows, and which uttered a grand and most sweet melody. 
In those days, when a complete and well-written copy of the 
Scriptures was a most precious possession, such volumes were 
frequently enclosed in caskets of metal, adorned with figures of 
our Saviour, the Virgin, and the apostles ; or guardian angels 
spread their wings over them, as over the ark of old. Some 
curious and elegant specimens of the piety and skill of the early 
monks are still preserved, and arts were thus kept alive which 
would else have perished. Dunstan, like St. Eloy, whose story sacred *nd 
has been already related, was a cunning artificer in metals. itfSa?"^ 
* To have excelled his contemporaries in mental pursuits, in the 
fine arts, though then imperfectly practised, and in mechanical 
labours, is evidence of an activity of intellect, and an ardour 
for improvement, which proclaim him to have been a superior 
personage, whose talents might have blessed the world. He Turner s 
repaired at a very early age to court, where he was at first salons. 
much beloved by King Edmund, who took particular delight in 
his musical talent, which was then rare, and which, added to his 
skill in mathematics, his mechanical dexterity, and the power 
he obtained over the king, exposed him to the imputation of 
sorcery. His enemies persuaded the king that he was assisted 
by a demon ; and Edmund reluctantly drove him from his pre 
sence. Some time afterwards, as the king was hunting, having 
outstripped his courtiers, it happened that the stag and the 
hounds in pursuit, coming suddenly to the edge of a precipice, 
fell over, and were dashed to pieces* The king, following at full 
speed, and seeing the precipice, endeavoured to rein in his horse. 
But unable to do so, and seeing his impending destruction, he 
recommended himself to Grod in prayer, recalling, and at the 
same time repenting, his injustice to Dunstan. His horse, on 
reaching the edge of the precipice, instead of tumbling head- 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OBDERS. 



long, stood still, trembling and panting. The king was saved ; 
he sent for Duns tan, who had retired meantime to his cell at 
Glastonhury, where he was occupied with his usual pursuits, 
and restored him to favour. 

The famous story of the Devil seems to be referred to this 
period. One night, as Dunstan was working at his forge, the 
most terrible howls and cries were heard to proceed from his 
cell. The Devil, as he related, had visited him in the form of a 
beautiful woman, and endeavoured to tempt him from his holy 
work. He had seized the disguised demon by the nose with 
his red-hot tongs, which had caused him to roar with pain, and 
to flee discomfited. 1 A much more beautiful legend is that 
which relates that on a certain day, as Dunstan sat reading the 
Scriptures in his cell, his harp, which hung on a peg against the 
wall, sounded, untouched by human hands, for an angel played 
on it the hymn Gaudete animi, to the great delight and solace 
of the holy man. Dunstan was a poet and an artist ; and later 
poets have heard in the chords of a harp, swept by the * desul 
tory breeze, now the 6 full celestial choir, chanting * the lofty 
anthem ; now the wailing of an imprisoned spirit; and anon 
the soft complainings of love. There needs no miracle here. 

There was a certain royal lady at this time, whose name was 
Ethelfreda, who particularly admired the talents of Dunstan, 
and venerated his sanctity. For her he is said to have designed 
the pattern of a robe which she embroidered with her own 
hands. The probability is, that Dunstan drew the design for 
some vestment for the church service, or covering for an altar, 
such as it was then, and is even now, considered an act of reli 
gion to prepare and to decorate. Dunstan returned to court and 
became the minister and favourite of the king, who appointed 
him abbot of Glastonbury, and his treasurer. Edwin succeeded, 
and, from his accession, appears to have resisted the power of 
Dunstan. His character has of course suffered in the hands of 



* One would iiave thought that fire being the natural element of the demon, he 
might have taken it more easily. The same story is told of St. Eloy. And the 
reader will probably recollect the incident, also related by himself, of Luther 
throwing his inkstand at the Devil. Such fancies may be interpreted without 
the Imputation of deliberate falsehood calculated for a certain purpose. 



ST. DTOSTAN. 



the ecclesiastical historians, who represent him as abandoned to 
vice, and Elgiva not as his wife, but as his mistress. He drove 
Dunstan from his court His subjects rebelled against him, and 
raised his brother Edgar to a share of the throne. Edwin died 
about the age of twenty, and Edgar became sole king. Dunstan 
was now at the height of power. He was made successively 
Bishop of Worcester, of London, and at length Archbishop of 
Canterbury. Mr. Turner represents Dunstan as having intro- Hist, of the 
duced the Benedictine Order into England ; but there had existed 
no other Order in England from the time of St. Augustine of 
Canterbury. The fact is, that he introduced the reform of the 
Benedictine rule; restored its discipline; and used all the 
means which his energy, his talents, and his influence placed at 
his disposal, to extend and exalt his already powerful Order. 

In the year 960 he made a journey to Borne, was received 
there with great honour by Pope John XII., from whose hands 
he received the pallium as Primate of the Anglo-Saxon nation. 
Eeturning to England, he set himself assiduously to found 
monasteries and schools, and to extend everywhere the taste for 
knowledge and the civilising arts. His miracles, his supernatural 
arts, and his visions, form a large part of the ecclesiastical 
history of his time. He relates himself a vision in which he 
beheld the espousals of his mother, for whom he entertained the 
profoundest love and veneration, with the Saviour of the world, 
accompanied with all the circumstances of heavenly pomp, amid 
a choir of angels. One of the angels asked Dunstan why he 
did not join in the song of rejoicing? when he excused himself 
on account of his ignorance. The angel then taught him the 
song. The next morning, St. Dunstan assembled his monks 
around him, and, relating his vision, taught them the very 
hymn which he had learned in his dream, and commanded 
them to sing it. Mr. Turner calls this an impious story, 
whereas it is merely one form of those old allegorical legends 
which are figurative of the mystic espousals of the soul, or the 
Church (as in the marriage of St. Catherine), and which 
appear to have been suggested by the language and imagery 
of the Canticles. 

St. Dunstan died at Canterbury in 988. 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



The few representations which remain to us of St. Dunstan 
must be considered as devotional. I have not as yet met with 
any dramatic or historical pictures relating to his life, which, 
however, abounds in picturesque incidents. A drawing from 
his own hand has been most erroneously described as &lt;St. 
Dunstan on a throne, and a monk kissing his feet : however 
outrageous the pride of Dunstan, he never would have dared 
such an exhibition of presumption. The drawing, of which I 




-~- v v/ 

1 5 St. Dnnstan kneeling at the feet of Christ. (From a pen-drawing by himself, existing 
in the Bod. Lib., Oxford, and engraved in Hick s Thesaurus.) 

give a faithful (reduced) transcript, represents our Saviour 
throned, holding a sceptre, and Dunstan himself prostrate 
before him. 



ST. BUNSTAK 95 



A miniature, in which St. Dunstan is enthroned, and B. Museum 
three ecclesiastics kneel at his feet, one wearing the black, 
the other the white Benedictine habit, and the third the dress 
of a priest or canon regular, is also very curious, and of a much B. Museum. 
later period. 

St. Dunstan seated, writing, is engraved in &lt; Strata s Regal 
and Ecclesiastical Antiquities, from an ancient MS. 

In a series of pictures from the life of St. Dunstan, the scene 
with Edwin and Elgiva would of course find a place, and the 
sentiment would vary according to the view taken of his cha 
racter. Either he would appear as the venerable ecclesiastic, as 
one clothed with Divine authority reproving a licentious boy 
unmindful of the decencies and duties of his high station ; or as 
a fierce and cruel priest, interfering to sever the most holy ties 
and to crush the most innocent affections. This last is the view 
taken by Mr Taylor in the drama of &lt; Edwin the Fair, and by 

Wordsworth : 

The enthusiast as a dupe 
Shall soar, and as a hypocrite can stoop, 
And turn the instruments of good to ill, 
Moulding a credulous people to Ms will 
Such BUNSTAK. 

In connection with St. Duns tan, we must not forget St. Edith 
of Wilton, one of the most interesting of the princess-nuns of 
the Anglo-Saxon race. She was the daughter of King Edgar by 
Wilfrida, a beautiful nun, whom he had carried off forcibly from 
her seclusion. For this sacrilege, Edgar was placed by St. 
Dunstan under an interdict for seven years. Wilfrida, as soon 
as she could escape from the power of the king, again took refuge 
in her convent, and there brought forth a daughter, Editha, 
whom she educated in all the learning of the times, and who was 
a marvel for her beauty as well as her sanctity and her learning. 
She refused to attend her father s court, but expended the rich 
dowry he gave her in founding the nunnery at Wilton, which y 
since the Eeformation,hasbeen the seat of the earls of Pembroke. 
This St. Edith should be grouped with St. Dunstan and St. 
Ethelwold and St. Denis of France. She should be young and 
beautiful, and richly dressed; for, even at the time when all the 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



sainted princesses wore costly garments, she was remarkable for 
the splendour of her attire. On this account being rebuked 
by St. Ethelwold, she replied that the judgment of God, 
which penetrated through the outward appearance, was alone 
true and infallible. c For/ said she, pride may exist under 
the garb of wretchedness ; and a mind may be as pure under 
these vestments as under your tattered furs. 5 And the holy 
man, being so answered by this wise and royal lady, held his 
peace. St. Edith died soon after the consecration of the 
church she had built in honour of St. Denis, being in her 
twenty-third year. 

ST. EDWARD THE MARTYR. 
A.D. 978. 

chronicle As King Edward, the son of Edgar, was one day weary with 
hunting and very thirsty, he left his attendants to follow the 
dogs, and hearing that his stepmother Elfrida and his brother 
Etheked were living in a certain village named Corvesgate, he 
rode thither, unattended, in quest of something to drink ; in his 
innocence suspecting no harm, and judging the hearts of others 
by his own. His treacherous stepmother received him with 
caresses, and, kissing him, offered him the cup ; and as he 
drank it off, one of her servants stabbed him in the back with a 
dagger. Finding himself wounded, lie set spurs to his horse, 
and his attendants coming up, followed him by the track of his 
blood, and found his body mangled and bleeding in the forest. 
The wicked woman Elfrida, and her son Ethelred, ordered the 
body of Edward to be ignominiously buried at Wareham, in the 
midst of public rejoicing and festivity, as if they had buried his 
memory and his body together; but Divine pity came to his aid, 
and ennobled the innocent victim with the grace of miracles, for 
a celestial light was shed on that place, and all who laboured 
under any infirmity were there healed. And when multitudes 
from all parts of the kingdom resorted to his tomb, his murderess 
Elfrida, being severely reproved by Dunstan, and struck with 
remorse, would also journey thither ; but when she mounted her 



ST. EDWARD, KING AND CONFESSOR. 



horse, he, who before had outstripped the winds and was full of 
ardour to bear his royal mistress, now by the will of God stood 
immovable; neither whip nor spur could urge him forward; and 
Elfrida, seeing in this the hand of God, repented of her crime, 
and, alighting from her horse, walked humbly and barefooted 
to the tomb. His body was taken up, and he was buried with 
great honour in the nunnery which had been endowed by his 
ancestor, Alfred the Great, at Shaftesbury. 

St. Edward is represented as a beautiful youth, with the 
diadem and flowing hair, holding in one hand a short sword or 
sceptre, and in the other the palm as martyr ; further to dis 
tinguish him, the scene of his assassination is frequently repre 
sented in the background. This incident, from its tragical and 
picturesque circumstances, has always been a favourite subject 
with English artists. I am not sure that the title of martyr pro 
perly belongs to St. Edward, for his death was not voluntary, 
nor from any religious cause. The Anglo-Saxons regarded his 
memory with devout reverence, but as a patron-saint he was 
not so popular as his namesake, Edward the Confes&or. 



ST. EDWARD, KING AND CONFESSOR. 

A.D. 1066. Jan. 5. 

THE effigies of ST. EDWARD were formerly common in our 
ecclesiastical edifices, and are still to be found. I shall give 
his legendary history here as it is represented in the singular 
bas-reliefs in his chapel in Westminster Abbey, of which there 
are accurate engravings in Carter s Specimens of Ancient 
Sculpture/ 

L King Ethelred had by Ms first wife Edmund Ironside ; 
and by his second wife, Queen Emma, he had Alfred. The 
queen wasnear her second confinement, when Ethelred assembled 
his council to deliberate on the concerns of his kingdom, and 
whom he should appoint to succeed him ; sonic inclined towards 
Edmund on account of his great bodily strength, others towards 
Alfred* St. Dunstan, who was present, prophesied the short life 
of both these princes, therefore the council decided in favour 



9S LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDEES. 



of the unborn child, afterwards Edward the Confessor ; arid 
all the nobles then present took the oath of fealty to him, 
dans le sein de sa mere. 

In the bas-relief, Queen Emina, standing in the centre, 
is surrounded by prelates and nobles, who seem to do her 
homage. 

This same Queen Emma afterwards married Canute, and, 
during the reign of Edward, was accused of many crimes ; she 
was said to have hated her son, to have refused him aid from 
her treasures, to have loved Canute more when living than 
her first husband, and more commended him when dead 
an unpardonable sin in the eyes of the Saxons, though 
excusable, considering the contrasted characters of the cruel, 
slothful Ethelred, and the warlike fiery-spirited Dane. She 
cleared herself by walking blindfold and unhurt over eleven 
red-hot ploughshares ; ever since a favourite legend with the 
English. 

2. The second compartment represents the birth of King 
Edward the Confessor, which took place at Islip in Oxfordshire. 

of In the chapel, not many years since, there stood the very font 
Oxfordshire. ^e^i^ that religious prince St. Edward the Confessor received 
the sacrament of baptism, which font being rescued from 
profane uses, to which it had been condemned during the 
Commonwealth, was placed by Sir Henry Brown on a pedestal, 
and adorned with a poem rather pious than learned. 

3. In the third compartment we have the coronation of the 
saint, on Easter-day 1043. 

4. A large sum of money having been collected for the tribute 
called Danegelt , it was conveyed to the palace, and the king was 
called to see it; at the sight thereof he started back, exclaim 
ing, that he beheld a demon dancing upon the money, and 
rejoicing : thereupon he commanded that the gold should be 
restored to its owners, and released his subjects from that 
grievous tribute. In the bas-relief the money is represented 
in casks, and upon these casks there seems to have been a 
figure of a demon, which has been broken away. 

5. Hugolin, the king s chamberlain, one day took some money 
out of a coffer in the king s bedchamber, leaving it open, the 



ST. EDWARD, KING AND CONFESSOR. 99 



king being then on Ms couch. A young man who waited on 
the king, believing him to be asleep, put his hand into the 
coffer, took out a handful of gold, went away and hid it ; he 
then returned a second time, took another handful ; and again 
a third time, on which the king cried out, * Nay! thou art too 
covetous ! take what thou hast, and be content; for, if Hugolin 
come, he will not leave thee one penny : whereupon the young 
man ran out of the room and escaped. When Hugolin returned, 
he began to lament himself because of the robbery. c Hold 
thy peace, replied the king ; * perhaps he who hath taken it 
hath more need of it than we have : what is left is sufficient 
for us. 

6. King Edward partaking of the Eucharist before the altar 
at Westminster, attended by Leofric, earl of Chester (the 
husband of Godiva), had a vision of the Saviour standing in 
person on the altar. 

7. The king of the Danes had assembled an army for the 
purpose of invading England, and, on going on board his fleet, 
fell over into the sea and was drowned ; which circumstance 
was miraculously made known to King Edward in a vision. 
In the bas-relief the Danish king is floundering in the sea. 

8. The king, the queen, and Earl Godwin, the queen s father, 
are seated at table ; in front is the contest between Harold 
and Tosti, two boys, the sons of Godwin : the king, looking on, 
foretold the destruction of both, through their mutual enmity. 

9. On Easter-day, as the king was seated at table, he was 
observed to smile, and then to look particularly grave. After 
dinner, being asked by Eaxl Harold and the Abbot of West 
minster the reason of his smiling, he told them that at that 
moment he had had a vision of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, sacred ma 
and that while he looked they turned from the right side, on n m 
which they had rested for two hundred years, and were to lie 
seventy-four on their left side, during which time the nation 
would be visited by many sorrows ; which prophecy came to 

pass when the Normans invaded England. 

10 and 12 represent the legend of St. John the Evangelist, 
which has been already related. 

11 represents the king s miraculous power of healing, a gift 



100 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDERS. 



which was popularly believed to have descended to all his 
anointed successors down to the time of Queen Anne. 

13. The pilgrims deliver to the king the ring which they had 
received from St. John the Evangelist. 

Bec.28,io65. 14 represents the dedication of the church of St. Peter at 
Westminster. 

A short time afterwards, in the year 1066, on the eve of the 
Epiphany, St. Edward the Confessor died, * and was buried in 
the said church, which he first, in England, had erected after 
that kind of style which, now, all attempt to rival at a great 
expense. 

In the reign of Henry III the church was rebuilt, and a 
splendid chapel and shrine erected to the memory of the founder. 
The architect of the shrine is said to have been Pietro Cavalini, 
an Italian painter, some of whose works remain in the church of 




16 



Richard II. witli his three protectors, St. John the Baptist St Edmund 

and St. Edvraxd the Confessor. From an ancient diptych, now at Wilton. 

(Sketch from Hollar s pi int.) 



ST. THOMAS A BECKET. 



101 



Assisi ; but of the paintings which he is supposed to have exe 
cuted on the walls of this chapel, no trace remains. 

The single devotional figures of St. Edward the Confessor 
represent him in the kingly robes, the crown on his head, in one 
hand the sceptre surmounted with a dove (as in the effigy on his 
seal), in the other the ring of St. John, He has a long beard, 
a fair complexion, and a mild serene countenance. The ring is 
his proper attribute : in the beautiful coronation of the Virgin Kensington 
in the collection of Prince Wallerstein, the figure of St. Edward 
the Confessor appears in the lower part of the picture holding 
the ring, and a letter which is supposed to contain the message 
of St. John: this is quite un-English in character and con 
ception, and the introduction of our Saxon king into foreign 
devotional subjects very nnusuaL 



ST. THOMAS OF CAOTERBURY. 

St. Thomas a Becket Lt, Sanctas Thomas Episc. Cantuariensis et Martyr, 
ItaL San Tomasso Cantaaxkn&e. /V, Saint Thomas de CantorberL 
Dec, 29, 1170, 

THE story of Becket in connection with the annals of England 
is to be found in every English History : the manner in which 
it is related, the colour given to his actions and character, vary 
considerably in all; the view to be taken of both had become a 
question 5 not of justice and truth, but of religions party. Lord 
Campbell, in his recent and admirably written life of Becket, as 
chancellor and minister of Henry IL, tells us that Hs vitupe- 
rators are to be found among bigoted Protestants, and his un 
qualified eulogists among intolerant Catholics, After stating, 
with the perspicuity of a judge in equity, thfcir respective argu 
ments and opinions, he sums up in favour of the eulogists, and 
decides that, setting aside exaggeration, miracle, and religious 
prejudice, the most merciful view of the character of Becket is 
also the most just And is it not pleasant, where the imagina 
tion has been so excited by the strange vicissitudes and pictu- 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OTtDERS. 



resque scenes of his varied life, the judgment so dazzled by his 
brilliant and generous qualities, the sympathies so touched by 
the tragic circumstances of his death, to have our scruples set at 
rest, and to be allowed to admire and to venerate with a good 
conscience; and this too on the authority of one accustomed 
to balance evidence, and not swerved by any bias to extreme 
religious opinions ? But it is not as statesman, chancellor, or 
prelate, that Becket takes his place in sacred Art. It is in his 
character of canonised saint and martyr that I have to speak of 
"him here. He was murdered or martyred because he pertina 
ciously defended the spiritual against the royal authority ; and 
we must remember that in the eleventh century, the cause of 
the Church was in fact the cause of the weak against the strong, 
the cause of civilisation and of the people against barbarism and 
tyranny ; and that by his contemporaries he was regarded as the 
champion of the oppressed Saxon race against the Norman 
nobility. 

I must not allow myself to dwell upon the scenes of his 
secular career. The whole of his varied life is rich in materials 
for the historical painter, offering all that could possibly be 
desired, in pomp, in circumstance, in scenery, in costume, and 
in character. What a series it would make of beautiful subjects, 
beginning with the legend of his mother, the daughter of the 
Emir of Palestine, who, when his father Gilbert Becket was 
taken prisoner in the crusade, fell in love with him, delivered 
him from captivity, and afterwards followed him to England, 
knowing no words of any Western tongue except Gilbert and 
London^ with the aid of which she found him in Cheapside ; 
then her baptism, her marriage, the birth of the future saint ; his 
introduction to the king ; his mission to Borne ; his splendid 
embassy to Paris ; his single-handed combat with Engleran de 
Trie, the French knight ; the king of England and the king of 
France at his bedside when he was sick at Rouen ; his conse 
cration as archbishop ; his assumption of the Benedictine habit ; 
Ms midnight penances, when he walked alone in the cloisters 
bewailing his past sins ; his washing the feet of the pilgrims and 
"beggars ; his angry conference with the king ; their reconcilia 
tion at Friatville ; his progress through the city of 



ST. THOMAS A BECKET. 103 



when the grateful and enthusiastic people flung themselves in 
his path and kissed the hern of his garment ; his interview with 
the assassins; his murder on the steps of the altar; and, finally, 
the proud king kneeling at midnight on the same spot, sub 
mitting to be scourged in penance for his crime: I know 
not that any one of these fine subjects has been adequately 
treated. There was, in a recent exhibition, a little picture 
of the arrival of the Emir s daughter at her lover s door in 
Cheapside, where the dark-eyed, dark-haired, cowering maiden 
is surrounded by a crowd of wondering fair-haired Londoners, 
which was excellently drawn and conceived, only a little too 
pale in the colouring: and the murder has often been painted, 
but never worthily. 

The sole claim of Becket to a place in sacred Art lies in his 
martyrdom, and the causes which immediately led to it; and to 
these, therefore, I shall confine myself here. 

Thomas a Becket, on being promoted to the see of Canter 
bury, resigned the chancellorship; and throwing aside the 
gay and somewhat dissipated manners which had made him 
a favourite with his sovereign, he became at once an altered 
man. 

6 The universal expectation was, that Becket would now play v. Lord 
the part so successfully performed by Cardinal Wolsey in a u-^Sot the 
succeeding age ; that, chancellor and archbishop, he would iance ors 
continue the minister and personal friend of the king; that he 
would study to support and extend all the prerogatives of the 
crown, which he himself was to exercise; and that, in the palaces 
of which he was now master, he would live with increased mag 
nificence and luxury. When we judge of his character, we must 
ever bear in mind that all this was easily within his reach; arid 
that if he had been actuated by love of pleasure or mere vulgar 
ambition, such would have been his career. But very different 
was the path which he resolved to pursue. 

From this time his history presents us with one long scene 
of contention between a haughty, resolute, and accomplished 
prince, and a churchman determined to maintain at once the 
privileges of the Church, and his own rank of spiritual father to 



104 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



the king and people of England. It was a contest for power in 
which, the intrepid archbishop was brought into collision, not 
merely with the king, but with many of the nobility, and some 
of the Norman prelates whom he had excommunicated for con 
tumacy. Henry, driven desperate at last by the indomitable 
zeal and courage of -his adversary, was heard to exclaim, &lt; Of 
the cowards that eat my bread, is there none that will rid me 
of this upstart priest ? 

The words, uttered in a moment of exasperation, had scarcely 
left his lips when they were acted on. Four of his Norman 
attendants, Reginald Fitzurse, William Tracy, Hugh de Mor- 
ville, and Richard Brito, bound themselves by oath to put the 
refractory priest to death. They came over to Canterbury, and 
though they at first entered the presence of Becket unarmed, he 
seems to have anticipated their fatal purpose. * In vain/ said 
he, * you menace me *, if all the swords in England were bran 
dished over my head, their terrors could not move me. Foot to 
foot you would find me fighting the battle of the Lord ! ? They 
rushed in a fury from his presence, and called their followers 
to arms. The re&t of the story I give in the words of Lord 
Campbell ; - 

* In this moment of suspense, the voices of the monks singing 
vespers in the adjoining choir were heard; and it being suggested 
that the church offered the best chance of safety, Becket agreed 
to join the worshippers there, thinking that at all events, if he 
was murdered "before the altar, his death would be more glorious, 
and his memory would be held in greater veneration by after 
ages. He then ordered the cross of Canterbury to be carried 
before him, and slowly followed his friends through the cloister. 
He entered the church by the north transept, and hearing the 
gates barred behind him, he ordered them to be reopened, 
saying, that the temple of God was not to be fortified like a 
castle. He was ascending the steps of the choir, when the four 
knights, with twelve companions, all in complete armour, burst 
into the church, their leader calling out, " Hither to me, ye 
servants of the king I " As it was now dusk, the archbishop 
might have retreated and concealed himself, for a time at least, 
toiong the crypts and secret passages of the building, with 



ST. THOMAS 1 SECRET. 



wMcli he was well acquainted ; but, undismayed, lie turned to 
meet the assassins, followed by his cross-bearer, the only one 
of his attendants who had not fled. A yoice was heard, 
^ Where is the traitor?" Silence for a moment prevailed; 
but when Fitzurse demanded, " Where is the archbishop ? " he 
replied, "Here I am; the archbishop, but no traitor! Kegmald, 
I have granted thce many favours ; what is thy object now ? 
If you seek my life, let that suffice ; and I command you, in 
the name of God, not to touch one of my people." Being again 
told that he must instantly absolve the prelates whom he had 
excommunicated, the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of 
Salisbury, he answered, " Till they make satisfaction I will 
not absolve them." " Then die," said Tracy. The blow aimed 
at his head only slightly wounded him, as it was warded off 
by the faithful cross-bearer, whose arm was broken by its 
force. The archbishop, feeling the blood trickle down his face, 
joined his hands and bowed his head, saying, " In the name 
of Christ, and for the defence of his Church, I am ready to 
die." To mitigate the sacrilege, they wished to remove him 
from the church before they despatched him ; but he declared 
he should there meet his fate, and, retaining the same posture, 
desired them to execute their intentions or their orders, and, 
uttering his last words, he said, " I humbly commend my 
spirit to God, who gave it." He had hardly finished this 
prayer, when a second stroke quickly threw him on his knees, 
and a third laid him prostrate on the floor at the foot of the 
altar. There he received many blows from each of the con 
spirators, and his brains were strewed upon the pavement. 

* Thus perished, in the fifty-third year of his age, the man 
who, of all the English chancellors since the foundation of the 
monarchy, was of the loftiest ambition, of the greatest firm 
ness of purpose, and the most capable of making every sacrifice 
to a sense of duty, or for the acquisition of renown. (I think, 
however, Lord Campbell should not have placed the two 
motives together thus, as though he had deemed them equal.) 
* I cannot/ he adds, * doubt Becket s sincerity, and almost all 
will agree that he believed himself to be sincere ; and I will 
add, in conclusion, that perishing as he did, voluntarily, 

p 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS, 



resolutely, and in support of what he considered as the right* 
eous cause, it is not, perhaps, without reason that he has been 
styled a martyr , even where he would not be allowed the 
dignity of a saint. 

His monks buried him in the crypt at Canterbury ; and it 
is related, that as they carried him to his resting-place, chant 
ing with trembling and fear the Requiem for the dead, the 
voices of the angels were heard singing a loud and harmonious 
LataKtwr Justus, the beginning of the Service of the Martyrs ; 
and the monks stopped in their mournful chant, being 
amazed ; then, as inspired, they took up the angelic strain, 
and thus, the heavenly and the earthly voices mingling 
together in the hymn of praise and triumph, they bore the 
holy martyr to his tomb. 

Considering the extraordinary veneration once paid to St. 
Thomas & Becket throughout all Christendom, but more espe 
cially in England, it seems strange that we may now seek 
through the length and breadth of our land, and find not a 
single memorial left of him. 

The Church which he had defended canonised him, and held 
up his name to worship ; within two years after his death, his 
relics were laid in a rich shrine, the scene of his martyrdom 
became a place of pilgrimage to all nations, and the marble 
pavement of Canterbury Cathedral maybe seen at this day worn 
by the knees of his worshippers. 1 But the power which he 
had defied, the kingly power, uncanonised him, desecrated his 
shrine, burned his relics, and flung his ashes into the Thames, 
By an act in council of Henry VIIL, it was solemnly decreed 
* that Thomas & Becket was no saint, but a rebel and a 
traitor ; that he should no longer be called or esteemed a saint; 
that all images and pictures of him should be destroyed, all 

1 * There, to whose sumptuous shrine the near succeeding ages 
So mighty offerings sent, and made such pilgrimages ; 
Concerning whom, the world since then hath spent much breath, 
And many questions made, both of his life and death : 
If he were truly just, he habh his right if no, 
Those times were much to blame that have him reckoned so. f 

DEAYTON S PolyoLbwn. Song 24. 



BT. THOMAS 1 BUCKET. 107 



festivals held in his honour should be abolished, and his name 
and remembrance erased from all documents^ under pain of 
royal indignation and imprisonment during his Grace s plea 
sure. This decree was so effective in England, that the effigies 
of this once beloved and popular saint vanished at once from 
every house and oratory. I have never met, nor could ever 
hear of, any representation of St. Thomas & Becket remaining 
in our ecclesiastical edifices : l and I have seen missals and 
breviaries, in which his portrait had been more or less carefully 
smeared over and obliterated. But with regard to the repre 
sentations of St. Thomas of Canterbury in Eoman Catholic 
countries, where alone they are now to be found, there are 
some particulars to be noted which appear to me curious and 
interesting. 

St Thomas was martyred in 1170; and canonised by Pope 
Alexander III. in the year 1172. In that year William the 
Good, king of Sicily, began to build the magnificent church of 
Monreale, near Palermo, the interior of which is incrusted with 
rich mosaics ; and among the figures of saints and worthies we 
find St. Thomas of Canterbury, standing colossal in his episcopal 
robes, with no attribute but his name inscribed. It is the work 
of Byzantine artists, and perhaps the earliest existing effigy of 
Thomas & Becket in his saintly character. In the year 1178, 
the great abbey of Aberbrothock was founded in his honour, 
by William the Lion, king of Scots. A few years later, about 
1200, Innocent III., being pope, presented to the little church 
of Agnani, the place of his birth, a cope and mitre richly 
embroidered. On the cope we find, worked with most delicate 
skill, and evidently from excellent original drawings, thirty- 
six scenes from sacred story ; and among these is the martyr 
dom of Becket : on the mitre he is again represented. I saw 
careful tracings of these subjects made upon the embroidered 
originals ; the colours, I was told by the artist, being but 
little faded. This cope is not quite so ancient as the famous 

1 I am informed "by an obliging correspondent, that in the very-ancient church 
of the Tillage of Horton, in Ribblesdale, there exists a head of SI Thomas h, 
Becket, still to be seen in the east window over the altar. 



108 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



dalmatica in the Vatican, but is almost as beautiful, and even 
more elaborate. 

These examples show how early and how effectually the 
Church had exalted the saintly fame of Thomas Becket. In 
the former instance, the appearance of our English saint in a 
Sicilian church, his figure designed and executed by Greek 
artists, seems incomprehensible till explained by the recollection 
that William the Good married the Princess Joanna of England, 
daughter of Henry II She arrived in Sicily in the year 1 177, 
and William probably thought to honour his bride, and certainly 
intended no dishonour to his father-in-law, by placing within 
the glorious temple he was then building the worshipped image 
of the man whom that father-in-law had assassinated. Alto 
gether the circumstances seem to me curiously illustrative of 
the feelings and manners of that time. 

In the devotional figures, St. Thomas is represented wearing 
the chasuble over the black Benedictine habit, and carrying the 
crosier and Gospels in Ms hand. When represented as martyr, 
he is without the mitre, and the blood trickles from a wound iu 
Ms head, or he has a battle-axe or sword struck into his head. 
He is, in every instance I can remember, beardless. The 
observer must be careful to distinguish these martyr-effigies of 
Si Thomas Archbishop and Martyr, from those of St. Peter 
Martyr, the Dominican Friar. 

Though I suppose no authentic effigy of him now exists, yet 
those which, we possess seem to have been done from some 
original portrait existing in his time. 

Brit. MUS. There is a beautiful and very rare little print by Vorster- 
mann, executed in England, and, from the peculiar character, 
I suppose from some original document not named. 

Verona. In his church at Verona, dedicated to him in 1316, is placed 

the scene of his martyrdom. I found him standing by the 
throned Virgin in a picture by Girolamo da Treviso; and again 

v&lt;wbe. in a picture by Girolamo da Santa Croce, where he is seated on 

Y*&gt;tra a throne, and surrounded by a company of saints : a most beau 
tiful picture, and a capital work of the master. A small picture 
in distemper on panel, of the martyrdom of St. Thomp, used to 



ST. THOMAS A J&ECKET. 



109 



17 




Thomas & Becliet. (After a 



hang over the tomb of King Henry IV. at Canterbury, and is 
engraved in Carter s c Specimens/ 

I remember to have seen a very old representation of the 
murder of St. Thomas a Becket, in which the faithful cross- 
bearer is standing by the altar, with outstretched arm, as if 
defending his lord ; and another in which King Henry, kneeling 
before the tomb of Becket, and his shoulders bared, is scourged 
by four Benedictine monks. 

In a beautiful Psalter which belonged to Queen Mary, elabo 
rately illuminated by French artists, tkere is a complete series 
of groups from the life of Thomas a Becket, beginning with the 
baptism of his Eastern mother, and ending with the penance of 
King Henry. 

In the ancient representations of his martyrdom, the assassins 
are handed down to the execration of the pious, by having their 
names written underneath, or they are distinguished by their 
armorial bearings. Morville bears the Fretty Jleurs-de-li$ ; 
Tracy, or, two bars or bandlets gules ; Brito, three bears" heads 



"110 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



muzzled; Fitzurse, three bears passant, in allusion to his name. 
I have seen also a French, print of the martyrdom of St. Thomas, 




Penance of Henry II. (From old stained glass.) 



in which the fierce Norman assassins are hahited in the full 
court costume of Louis XV. 1 



With St. Thomas a Becket I conclude this sketch of the most 
popular and distinguished of our Anglo-Saxon saints ; those who, 

1 There is at Chatsworth a picture by Johan Yan Eyck, styled the Consecration 
of Thomas a Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury, an important and beautiful 
csompodtion of seventeen figures. I mention it here, but I am doubtful about the 
subject. A very beautiful picture of the same school, now in the possession of 
Sir Charles Bastlafce, which used to be styled The Burial of St. Thomas & Becket/ 
ifi, I am persuaded, the btirial of St. Hubert. 



ST. THOMAS 1 BECKET. 



as subjects of art, have represented, or might properly re 
present, in a characteristic manner, the early religions ten 
dencies of our nation. The Conquest introduced us to a new 
celestial hierarchy. First came St. Michael, the favourite 
patron of William of Normandy, who landed at Hastings on 
the day of the feast of the archangel. Matilda of Scotland, 
the wife of Henry L, popularised St. Giles. The French 
princes and nobles connected with our Norman tings brought 
over their French patrons, St. Martin, St. Maur, St. Maurice, 
St. Kadegonde, and that * Sainte Demoiselle Pecheresse, 
Mary Magdalene. The Crusaders introduced a long array of 
poetical Greek patrons, St. George, St Catherine, St. 
Nicholas, St. Barbara, &c., of whom I have already spoken 
at length. The French and the Eastern saints were the 
patrons of the dominant race, and represented the religious 
feelings of the aristocracy and the chivalry of the country. 
Henry III., to conciliate the Saxons, gave to his eldest son a 
name dear and venerable to his English subjects, and placed 
him under the protection of St, Edward the Confessor. When 
Edward III. gave the password at the siege of Calais, it was 
Ha, St. Edward! Ha, St, George! 9 and the Normans 
with more, perhaps, of policy than piety associated with 
their hereditary patrons the martyr saints of the Anglo- 
Saxons; but this was seldom. The English meanwhile clung 
to their own native saints ; among the people, the Edwards 
and Edmunds and Oswalds, the Austins and Audrys and 
Cuthberts, gave way very slowly to a companionship with the 
outlandish worthies of a new dynasty : and it is amusing to 
find that, in adopting these, the popular legends, in a truly 
national spirit, claimed them as their own. According to 
the local traditions, St. George s father and mother lived ia 
Warwickshire, and St. Ursula assembled her virgins at 
Coventry. 

The religious Orders which sprang up after the eleventh 
century brought over to us of course their own especial saints 
and patriarchs. I confess I find no proof that these ever be 
came very popular in England, as subjects of religious Art: 



112 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



or that their effigies, even before the Reformation, prevailed 
in our ecclesiastical edifices to any great degree. It does not 
appear that St. Bernard, St. Francis, St. Dominick, ever 
superseded St. Cuthbert, St. Dunstan, and St. Thomas a 
Becket. 

But it was the reverse abroad^ and we turn once more to 
the splendours of foreign Art. 




THE REFORMED BENEDICTINES. 



113 




St. Benedict. St. Bomualdo. 

1 (From a picture in the National Gallery.) 



C&e EeformeU 38ene&fcttne& 

FOR about three centuries after the death of St. Benedict we 
find his Order extending in every direction throughout, Chris 
tendom ; so that when Charlemagne inquired whether any other 
religious Order existed in his dominions, he was informed that 
from east to west, and from north to south, only Benedictines 
were to be found throughout the length and breadth of his 
empire. M. Guizofc, in his view of the reign of Charlemagne, 
gives us a tableau of the celebrated men who were in his 

Q 



LEG-ENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDERS. 



service as ministers, counsellors, secretaries : they were all 
ecclesiastics of the Benedictine Order; and we have seen, 
that in England almost all the leading men who figured as 
statesmen, as scholars, and as legal functionaries, from the 
seventh to the twelfth century, belonged to the same religious 
community, 

But it appears that, from the middle of the ninth to the 
middle of the eleventh century, the intellectual superiority of 
the Benedictines, and their moral influence over the people, 
declined. As far as I can judge, Mr. Maitland has trium 
phantly proved, that the common notion of the universal 
ignorance, and laziness, and depravity of the monks, even 
during this period, has been much exaggerated; still, the 
complaints of the ecclesiastical writers of the time, writers of 
their own Order, there were no other, prove that manifold 
disorders bad crept into the religious houses, and that the 
primitive rule of the founder, particularly that chapter which 
enjoined manual labour, was neglected or evaded by the monks. 
If there appeared among them some men more conscientious 
or more enlightened, who denounced, or endeavoured to reform 
these abuses, they were in some instances imprisoned or even 
murdered by their own companions ; oftener they withdrew in 
disgust, and hid themselves in deserts, to avoid what they 
could neither heal nor prevent. The number of these solitaries 
was so great, that every forest, every woodland glade, or 
rocky glen, "had its hermit cell, and in all the romances, 
legends, and poems of the time, some holy hermit is sure to 
figure as one of the chief actors. 

The first successful attempt to restore the strict institutions 
of St Benedict was made in France, in the famous monastery 
of Clugni, by the Abbot Odo, between 927 and 942 : but as 
these monks of Clugni, however important in the page of 
history, are comparatively insignificant in Art, I pass them 
over for the present In Italy the reform began in the 
following century under Romualdo and G-ualberto, two very 
remarkable characters, who occur very frequently in the early 
Florentine works of art, but rarely in any other. 



ST. ROMUALDO. 



ST. ROMUALDO, FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF CAMALDOLI. 

Feb. 7, 1027. 
The habit entirely white white liood and girdle. 

ROMUALDO, descended from one of the noblest families of 
Ravenna, that of the Onesti, "was born about the year 956; his 
father, Sergius, gave him the usual education of a young noble 
man of that time. In his youth he was fond of hunting, but 
when he chased the boar through the pine forests of Ravenna, 
he would slacken his bridle, and become, almost unconsciously 
to himself, absorbed in contemplation of the beauty and 
quietude of the scene. Then he would sigh forth a prayer or 
two, and think of the happiness of those who dwell in peace 
far from the vain pleasures and deceits and turmoil of the 
world. 

.His father, Sergius, was a man of a far different spirit, 
worldly, haughty, grasping, and violent. Believing himself 
aggrieved by a near relation, on the subject of a succession to 
a certain pasture, in the course of the dispute he challenged his 
adversary, and slew him on the spot Romualdo, then a young 
man of twenty, was present on this occasion; and, struck with 
horror and compunction, he believed himself called upon to 
expiate the crime of his father by doing penance for it himself. 
He retired to the monastery of Sant Apollinare in Classe, about 
four miles from the city of Ravenna ; and there, in a fit of 
disgust and despair, assumed the habit of the Order of St. 
Benedict. He passed seven years in the convent, but was 
scandalised by the irregularity of the monks, and the impunity 
with which the fundamental rules of a religious Order were 
daily and hourly transgressed. The idea of restoring to the 
monastical institutions that purity and that spiritual elevation 
of which he fondly believed them capable, took possession of 
his mind, and the rest of his long life was one of perpetual 
struggle in the cause. He was slandered and vilified by the 
corrupt monks, his life threatened, often in danger ; but his 
enthusiastic faith and firmness overcame all. After a conflict 



llfl LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



of about thirty years, he found himself at the head of some 
hundreds of reformed monks, and had become celebrated 
throughout the whole of the north of Italy. 

The parent monastery was founded by Romualdo, in a solitary 
glen among the Apennines, near Arezzo ; called from the family 
name of its original owners, the Campo Haldoli; hence the 
appellation of the Order. It is one of the strictest of all the 
monastic institutions. The congregations of the Camaldolesi 
remind us in some respects of those of the ancient Egyptian 
hermits ; they are devoved to the perpetual service of God, in. 
silence, contemplation, and solitude ; they neither converse nor 
eat together, but live in separate huts, each of which has its 
little garden, for that part of the institute of St. Benedict 
which enjoined manual labour is retained. 

Eomualdo died in 1027, according to his legend, at the 
great age of one hundred and twenty years; according to 
more probable accounts, at the age of seventy. Dante has 
c. 2. placed him in his Paradiso * among the spirits of men con 
templative. 

Figures of St. Romualdo are met with only in pictures 
painted for the houses of his Order, and are easily recognised. 
He wears the white habit with loose wide sleeves,- a long white 
beard descending to his girdle, and leans upon a crutch : we 
have such a picture in our National Gallery, painted by Taddeo 
Gaddi, either for the convent at Camaldoli, or, which is more 
probable, for that of the k Angeli, a foundation of the Camal 
dolesi at Florence, now suppressed. It is one of the two com 
partments entitled in the catalogue * Saints ; the Virgin and 
Child having evidently formed the centre group. St. Romualdo 
sits on the right in front ; his pendant in the opposite wing being- 
St. Benedict with his rod. Thus we have the two patriarchs of 
v.p.ns. the Order most conspicuously placed. With St. Benedict, 
beginning at the top, we have St. Ambrose with his music-boob, 
St. Francis, St. Stephen, St. Paul, St. Catherine, as patroness 
of theologians and schoolmen, St. John the Baptist, St. Mark 
(holding his Gospel open at the text cL xvi. v. 16); and in 
.. company with St.* Romualdo we find Si Gregory, Si Philip, 



ST. KOMUALDO. in 



St. Laurence, St. Dominick, St. John the Evangelist, St. Peter, 
and (I think) St. Bernard, the great scholar and polemic of his 
time, as pendant to St. Catherine. 

The Vision of St. Eomnaldo is the only suhject I have 
seen from his life. It is recorded in his legend, that, a short 
time before his death, he fell asleep beside a fountain near his perhaps the 
cell ; and he dreamed, and in his dream he saw a ladder like 5Ste whlch 
that which the patriarch Jacob beheld in his vision, resting on 
the earth, and the top of it reaching to heaven ; and he saw the 
brethren of his Order ascending by twos and by threes all 
clothed in white. When Romualdo awoke from his dream, he 
changed the habit of his monks from black to white, which 
they have ever since worn in remembrance of this vision. 

The earliest example is a small picture by Simone Avanzi, 
which I saw in the Bologna Gallery. The latest, and a justly 
celebrated picture, is the large altar-piece by Andrea Sacchi, 
painted for the church of the Camaldolesi at Rome ; the saint, Rome. 
seated under a tree, leaning on his staff, and surrounded by 



five of his monks, is pointing to the vision represented in the Nap 6&lt;m * 
background. It has been a question whether Andrea has 
not committed an error in representing St. Romualdo and his 
companions already in white, supposing the alteration to 
have been made in. consequence of the vision. But the picture 
ought perhaps to be understood in a devotional and ideal 
sense, as Romualdo pointing out to his recluses the path to 
heaven. 

Although the Camaldolesi have not been remarkable as 
patrons of art, their order produced a painter of great import 
ance in his time Lorenzo, called from his profession Don 
Lorenzo Monaco; and another painter named Giovanni, who 
belonged to the same convent, * Degli Angeli/ already men 
tioned. Several pictures from this suppressed convent are in sacred and 
the Florence Academy, and one in which Don Giovanni [ j |j* MLArl 
Monaco assisted Frate Angelico. In the Gallery of the FLAcad 
Uffizi is a beautiful Adoration of the Magi by Don Lorenzo. 



U8 LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



ST. JOHN GUALBEKTO, FOUNDER OF THE OIIDEE OF 
VALLOMBEOSA. 

Ital. San Giovanni Gualberto. FT. S. Jean Gualhert, or Calhert 
July 12, 1073. 

The proper habit is a pale ash. colour or light grey ; the monks now wear 
a black cloak, and, when abroad, a large hat. 

SAINT JOHN GUALBERTO appears only in the Florentine pic 
tures, and I have never seen his beautiful legend represented 
in a manner worthy of its picturesque and poetical associa 
tions and grave moral significance. 

Giovanni Gualberto was born at Florence of rich and noble 
lineage. His father, who was of high military rank, gave 
him a good education according to the ideas of the time ; he 
excelled in all manly exercises, and entered on the active and 
brilliant career of a young Florentine noble, in the days when 
his native city was rising into power and opulence as a 
sovereign state. 

When he was still a young man, his only brother, Hugo, 
whom he loved exceedingly, was murdered by a gentleman with 
whom he had a quarrel. Gualberto, whose grief and fury were 
stimulated by the rage of his father and the tears of his 
mother, set forth in pursuit of the assassin, vowing a prompt 
and a terrible vengeance. 

It happened, that when returning from Florence to the 
country house of his father on the evening of Good Friday, he 
toot his way over the steep, narrow, winding road which leads 
from the city gate to the Church of San Miniato-del-Monte. 
About half way up the hill, where the road turns to the right, 
he suddenly came upon his enemy, alone and unarmed. At the 
sight of the assassin of his brother, thus as it were, given into 
his hand, Gualberto drew his sword. The miserable wretch, 
seeing no means of escape, fell upon his knees and entreated 
mercy : extending his arms in the form of a cross, he adjured 
him by the remembrance of Christ, who had suffered on that 



ST. JOHN GUALBERTO* 119 



day, to spare Ms life. G-ualberto, struck with a sudden 
compunction, remembering that Christ when on the cross 
had prayed for his murderers, stayed his uplifted sword, 
trembling from head to foot ; and after a moment of terrible 
conflict with his own heart, and a prayer for Divine support, 
he held out his hand, raised the suppliant from the ground, 
and embraced him in token of forgiveness. Thus they parted ; 
and Gualberto, proceeding on his way in a sad and sorrowful 
mood, every pulse throbbing with the sudden revulsion of feel 
ing, and thinking on the crime he had been on the point of 
committing, arrived at the church of San Miniato, and, enter 
ing, knelt down before the crucifix over the altar. His rage 
had given way to tears, his heart melted within him ; and as 
he wept before the image of the Saviour, and supplicated 
mercy because he had shown mercy, he fancied, that, in gra 
cious reply to his prayer, the figure bowed its head. 1 This 
miracle, for such he deemed it, completed the revolution 
which had taken place in his whole character and state of 
being. From that moment the world and all its vanities became 
hateful to him ; he felt like one who had been saved upon the 
edge of a precipice: he entered the Benedictine Order, and 
took up his residence in the monastery of San Miniato. Here 
he dwelt for some time an humble penitent; all earthly ambition 
quenched at once with the spirit of revenge. On the death 
of the Abbot of San Miniato, he was elected to succeed him, 
but no persuasions could induce him to accept of the office. 
He left the convent, and retired to a solitude amid the 
Apennines about twenty miles from Florence, the Yallom- 
brosa, renowned for its poetical as well as its religious 
associations. 

Here lie took up his abode, and built himself a little hut 
in company with two other hermits. But others, attracted 
by his sanctity, collected -around him ; the number increased 
daily, all regarding him as their head, and he found it neces 
sary to introduce some order into his community. He there 
fore gave .to his, disciples the rule of St. Benedict, renewing 

1 This crucifix- is preserved in the church of the Trinitk at Florence, which 
belongs to the Yallombrosan Order. 



120 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



those strict observances which for three centuries had been 
almost laid aside; adding also some new obligations for 
example, that of silence. The rule, however, was considerably 
less severe than that of the CamaldolesL 

This new institution received the confirmation of the Pope ? 
and the founder lived to see twelve 
houses of his Order spring up 
around him. One of the most cele 
brated of these, next to the parent 
institution at Yallombrosa, was the 
monastery of the Salvi, about two 
miles from Florence: it is now 
ruined and deserted, but the vast 
space it covers shows its former 
magnificence. In the refectory still 
exists Andrea del Sartb s Last 
Supper, to which many a pilgrim 
age is still made. The church of 
the Trinity at Florence, so familiar 
to those who have dwelt there, also 
belongs to the monks of Vallom- 
brosa. 

St. John Gualberto died in 1073. 
The devotional figures of this saint, 
which are to be found only in the 
pictures painted for the convents 
of Ms Order, exhibit him in the 
light-grey habit, and in general 
holding a cross in his hand, some 
times also a crutch. He is gener- 21 st John Gualberto . (F . Angelico . } 
ally beardless. 

With regard to the subjects from his life, some of them are 
of extreme interest in the history of Florentine Art. I have 
always regretted that the most beautiful and most affecting 
incident in his story, the meeting with the murderer on the 
road to San Miniato, has never been worthily treated. The 
spot where the meeting took place has been consecrated to 




ST. JOHN GUALBERTO. 121 



memory by a small tabernacle surmounted by a cross, within 
which the scene is represented ; and I remember, in the 
churches at Florence and in the convents of the Order of Val- 
lombrosa, several miserably bad pictures of this incident, 
where Gualberto is generally an armed cavalier on horseback, pi. 
and the murderer kneels at his stirrup entreating mercy. Tnnltk 
There may possibly exist better examples, but I have not met 
with them. As the Order increased. in importance and in 
riches, the subjects selected by the monks were those relating 
to the religious life of their founder, and to the legends con 
nected with it. The following are the most important : 

1. John Gualberto, among his other virtues, was remarkable 
for his simplicity and his humility. On a certain occasion, 
visiting one of his dependent monasteries, that of Moscetta, 
over which he had placed, as superior, one of his disciples, 
named Rudolfo, he found that this man had expended in the 
embellishment of his convent a large portion of the sums en- v. southeyv 
trusted to him, having enriched it with marbles, columns. nSSd of 
and other decorations. Gualberto sternly reproved this vain 
glory, and prophesied the impending destruction of the con 
vent, which soon after took place from a sudden inundation 

of the mountain torrents, which carried away great part of the 
newly-constructed edifice. 

2. Gualberto had distinguished himself by his constant 
enmity to the practice of simony then common in the Church. 
Pietro di Pavia, a man of infamous character, having purchased 
by gold the archbishopric of Florence, Gualberto denounced 
him for this and other malpractices. Pietro sent a body of 
soldiers, who burnt and pillaged the monastery of San Salvi, 
and murdered several of the monks. Gualberto persisted in 
his accusation ; but suoh was the power of this wicked and 
violent prelate, that he would probably have prevailed, if one 
of the monks of Vallombrosa had not demanded the ordeal 
of fire, at that time in legal use. He passed between the 
flames triumphantly, and the archbishop was deposed. This 
monk, afterwards known as Peter Igneus, is commemorated 
among the worthies of the Order. I have seen this incident 
represented in pictures ; he is seen passing in his white habit 

B 



122 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDERS. 



FI. Acad. between two fires in the midst of a crowd of spectators, St. 
John Gualberto standing by : as in a small picture by Andrea 
del Sarto. 

3. It is related of Gualberto, as of other saints, that when 
his monks were driven to extremity by want, he multiplied 
the viands upon the table. 

4. One of his monks being grievously tormented by the 
demon when on Ms sick-bed, Gualberto came to his assistance, 
and, holding up the cross which he usually carried in his hand, 
he exorcised the tormentor. 

pi. Acad. When the figure of a cardinal is introduced into pictures 
painted for this Order, as in the magnificent Assumption by 
Perugino, it represents St. Bernard degli Uberti, a celebrated 

Fi.Aead. abbot of Vallombrosa. The same cardinal is introduced into 
a group of saints, &lt; St. Michael, St. John the Baptist, St John 
Qualberto, and the Cardinal St. Bernard; one of the 
grandest pictures ever painted by Andrea del Sarto. 

,L.D 1514. The most beautiful monument relating to the history of 
Gualberto is the series of bas-reliefs by Rovezzano, now in the 
Florence Gallery. At the time when the remains of the saint 
were about to be translated from the convent of Passignano to 
that of the Salvi, Rovezzano was employed to build a chapel 
and a shrine to receive them. Of the shrine, which was of 
exquisite beauty, but little remains except this series of five 
compositions : 1. Gualberto exorcises the demon from the 
couch of the monk Fiorenzo. 2. The monks, while performing 
service in the choir, are attacked by the soldiers of the arch 
bishop and his partisans. 3. Peter Igneus, having received 
the blessing of his superior, passes unhurt through the fire. 

4. The death of the saint surrounded by his weeping monks, 

5. The translation of the relics of St. John Gualberto. The 
blind, the lame, and other afflicted persons throw themselves 
in the way of the procession. 

These charming works, among the most finished remains 
of Italian sculpture in its best time, were injured by the 
brutal and ignorant German soldiery, during the invasion of 
Italy in 1530. Yet, mutilated as they are, they remain, for 
grace, expression, and delicacy of finish, worthy of being 



ST. JOHN GTJALBEETO. 133 



reckoned among the miracles of Art. They are now to be 
seen on the walls of a little corridor on the north side of 
the sculpture gallery at Florence. 

It is interesting to find these Yallombrosan hermits not only 
in possession of one of the finest libraries in all Italy, until 
despoiled by the French of its rarest boobs and manuscripts ; 
but, from a very early period, among the most munificent 
patrons of Art. 1 

The pictures painted for them have been abstracted from 
their shrines, and are now only found on the walls of galleries 
and academies; but surely it is a species of injustice to look 
upon them without reference to their original destination. For 
the Vallombrosans, Cimabue painted his Madonna, famous in FI. 
the history of the revival of Art 5 and for a long time preserved 
in the TriniU at Florence ; for them, Signorelli painted the 
chapel of San Miniato; for them, Perugino painted the Assump 
tion in the Academy, once over the high altar in the church at 
Vallombrosa ; for them, Andrea del Sarto painted his Cenacolo s - Salvi - 
and the c Quattro Santi. In the groups of saints painted for FL Acad 
this Order, we shall generally find St. Benedict as patriarch; 
St John G-ualberto as founder ; St. Michael the archangel the 
celestial patron and protector of the community ; and San 
Bernardo Cardinale, already mentioned. I have seen strange 
mistakes made with regard to these pictures ; such mistakes as 
diminish greatly their interest and significance. Thus, San 



1 Raphael, on his journey over the mountains from Urbino to Florence, in 1508, 
spent some days at Vallombrosa, and painted the portraits of Don Biagio, the 
General of the Order, and Don Baldassare, the Abbot of the Monastery. (Pas- 
savant, i, 115.) These two heads, after being preserved for three hundred years 
among the treasures of the convent, were removed, in 1813, to the Academy, and, 
when I was there, they hung in the little side-room, beneath the beautiful groups of 
aigels by GranaccL In the catalogue they are attributed to Perugino, but are, 
without doubt, by Raphael. I hardly know in what words to express my feeling 
of their wonderful beauty. They are nearly life-size, yet finished like exquisite 
nuniatureSj and, with the intense expression and colour of Titian, have an elevation 
of sentiment, a delicacy and precision in the drawing, to which Titian never attained. 
Not long ago, I heard a distinguished writer of the present day an artist, too 
express his opinion, that Raphael had been overrated.* One might as well say 
that Shakespeare had been overrated. I would be content to rest the question of 
his supereminence as a painter on these two heads alone. 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Bernardo Cardinale Is confounded with St. Bernard of Clairvanx 
when lie wears the mitre as abbot ; or with St. Jerome when he 
wears the cardinal s hat. The same figure in Botticelli s Coro 
nation of the Virgin is called, in the catalogue, St. Dominick 
So in a beautiful Nativity painted for the Camaldoiesi, St. 
Rornualdo, in his monk s habit, and leaning on his crutch, is 
styled St Joseph. 

There were formerly Yallombrosan nuns, and I believe they 

A.D. IBID, still exist. The foundress was Rosana, the wife of Ugolotto 

PI. Acad. Caccianemici of Faenza, afterwards beatified as San? Umilta 

(Saint Humility). There is a curious effigy of her, with incidents 

v.Rio,po&lt;sie from her life, by Bufalmacco. In one of these slie is preachino- 

Lord LM-" continence to her husband, reminding us of St. Cecilia and St. 

saCTedand 6 " Valerian; i n another she has persuaded her husband to assume 

e fo2 d Art the monastic habit. These quaint little pictures are of great 

value as memorials : genuine works of Bufalmacco the friend 

and butt of Giotto and Boccaccio being extremely rare. 

Guido Aretino, the greatest musician of his time, and the 
inventor of the modern system of notation in music, was origi 
nally a monk of Yallombrosa. 



THE CARTHUSIAKS, 

THE Carthusian Order was founded in 1084, by Bruno, a monk 
of Cologne. The first seat of the Order was the famous monas 
tery at Chartreux, near Grenoble (afterwards known as la grands 
Chartreuse, and which gave its name to the Order, and all the 
affiliated foundations). Another contemporary monastery rose 
at La Torre, in Calabria. Both were reared by Bruno himself 
in his lifetime. 

Of all the reformed Benedictine congregations, the Order of 
the Carthusians is the most austere, but it is also the most 
interesting. As a community, the Carthusians have never 
exhibited the ambitious self-seeking of the Franciscans and the 
Dominicans. They have been less in alliance with the Church 



THE CARTHUSIANS. 125 



as a power; more in alliance with, religion as an influence. In 
their traditional origin, and the early legends connected with 
their founder Bruno, there is something wildly poetical : in 
the appearance of the monks themselves, in their ample white 
robes and hoods, their sandalled feet and shaven heads, (for 
the tonsure is not with them partial, as with other monks,) 
there is something strangely picturesque. Their spare diet, 
their rigorous seclusion, and their habits of labour, give them 
an emaciated look, a pale quietude, in which, however, there 
is no feebleness, no appearance of ill-health or squalor : I never 
saw a Carthusian monk who did not look like a gentleman. 
The sumptuous churches and edifices of this self-denving 
Order date from the 16th century; about that period we find 
the first application of their increasing funds to purposes of 
architecture and artistic decoration. They had previously 
been remarkable for their fine libraries and their skill in 
gardening. They were the first and the greatest horticulturists 
in Europe : of the Carthusians it may emphatically be said, 
that wherever they settled, * they made the desert blossom as 
the rose. When they built their first nest amid the barren 
heights of Chartreux, they converted the stony waste into a 
garden. When they were set down amid the marshes at 
Pavia, they drained, they tilled, they planted, till the unhealthy 
swamp was clothed, for miles around, with beauty and fertility: 
it is now fast sinking back to its pristine state, but that is not 
the fault of the few poor monks, who,, after years of exile, 
have lately been restored to their cells, and wander up and 
down the precincts of that wondrous palace-like church, and 
once smiling garden, likei pale phantoms come back to haunt 
their earthly homes. 

It is remarkable that, with all their sumptuous patronage of 
art, and all their love of the beautiful in nature, these religious 
recluses have never been, accused of deviating personally from 
the rigid rule of their Order, which has been but slightly modi 
fied since the days of Peter of Clugni, who, writing of them 
about fifty years after the death of their founder Bruno, has 
left us such a striking, and almost fearful, description of their 
austerities. The rule was the severest ever yet prescribed. To 



tntf LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 

120 



the ordinances of St. Benedict, which commanded poverty, 
chastity, obedience, and daily labour, was added almost 
perpetual silence ; only once a week they were allowed to 
walk and discourse together. They fasted rigorously eight 
months out of the twelve; flesh was absolutely forbidden 
at all times, even to the sick ; of the pulse, bread, and water 
to which they were confined, they made but one meal a day, 
and that was eaten separately, and in silence, except on 
certain festivals, when they were allowed to eat together. 
They were enjoined to study, and to labour with their hands ; 
their labour consisted in cultivating their fields and gardens, 
and in transcribing books, by which, in the commencement 
of the institution, they supported and enriched their com- 
of spam. mun i ty% ]$ r j^ord speaks of the Carthusian monks at Paular, 
as paper-makers and breeders of sheep on a large scale. The 
libraries in the Carthusian convents have always been well 
filled with books, even from the first institution of the Order. 
St. Bruno, who had been an eminent scholar and teacher, was 
careful to provide good books at a great expense, and these 
were transcribed and multiplied by the monks with most 
praiseworthy industry. When the Count de Nevers, who had 
been much edified by their sanctity, sent them a rich present 
of plate for their church, they sent it back as useless to them. 
He then sent them a quantity of parchment and leather for 
their books, which they accepted with gratitude. 1 

1 The several parts of which tbe Bible consists, were in the Middle Ages con 
sidered more in the light of separate and independent books than they are now, 
when the Bible is accepted as one book, and it is even difficult to procure the Old 
Testament and the New Testament bound separately. We find MS. copies of the 
Pentateuch, the Book of Job, the Prophecies, the Four Gospels, the Bevelatiou, 
the Canonical Epistles, all in separate volumes. The copying of the whole Bible 
was a very long and laborious undertaking ; and many apologues and legends were 
invented to encourage and extol the merits of so vast a performance. I give one 
quoted in Mr Maitland s work : 

* A monk, who was a scribe, wrote out the whole volume of the divine law ; 
but he was a great transgressor, and after his death there was a sharp contention 
for his soul : the evil spirits brought forward his innumerable sins ; the angels 
counted up the letters in the volume he had written as a set-off against the same 
numoer of sins. At length the letters were found in a majority of one, by vir 
tue of which the monk was spared for a while for reformation in this life.* Dwrk 
Ages, p. 268. 



BT. BRUXO. 



127 



Peter of Clugni, writing to Pope- Eugenius, to complain of 
some contention relative to the election of a Superior of the 
Carthusians, thus expresses his admiration of the Order gene 
rally : 

* I thought, and I do not believe I was wrong, that theirs was the best 
of all the Latin, systems, and that they were not of those who strain at a 
gnat and swallow a camel : that is, who make void the commandment of 
God for the traditions of men ; and, tithing mint, and anise, and cummin, 
and (according to one Evangelist) every herb, neglecting the weightier 
matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. For they do not consider 
the kingdom of God as consisting principally in meats and drinks, in gar 
ments, in labours and the like, though these, wisely managed, may do that 
kingdom of God good service ; but in that godliness of which the Apostle 
says, " Bodily exercise is profitable to little, but godliness is profitable to all 
things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." 
These holy men feast at the table of wisdom ; they are entertained at the 
banquet of the true Solomon, not in superstitions, not in hypocrisy, not in 
the leaven of malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity 
and truth. 

I have said enough of the Carthusians to show what interest 
attaches to their connection with Art ; but, at first sight, it 
appears unaccountable, that while the institution of the Order 
dates from the year 1084, we do not find that the Carthusians oriose. 
figure in very early Art. This is explained by the circumstance 
that their founder and patriarch, Bruno, was not canonised for 
more than 500 years after his death. The, Order had increased 
in numbers, in possessions, anA in influence, but the monks 
remained secluded, laborious, and unambitious. At length 
Bruno was declared a Beato by Leo X. the most humble and 
self-denying of ascetics was beatified by the most luxurious 
and profligate of churchmen ! and he was finally canonised by 
Gregory XV. in 1623. 

Of course, all the single devotional figures of Bruno, as saint 
and patriarch, date subsequently to this period ; he wears the 
peculiar habit of his Order, the white scapular, which, hanging 
down before and behind, is joined at the side by a band of the 
same colour, about six inches wide. The hands are usually 
crossed on the bosom, the head declined, and the whole atti 
tude expresses contemplation and humility. 



128 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Manuel 
Pereyra, 
1647. 



573. 



A.D.1746. 



There was a fine statue of St. Bruno over the porch of the 
hospital of the Carthusians, in the Alcala at Madrid. This 
effigy was so much admired by Philip IV., that the coachman 
who drove him about Madrid had ge 
neral orders to slacken his pace when 
ever the royal carriage passed it, In 
order that the king might have leisure 
to dwell upon it for a few moments. 
This statue I have not seen, but it 
could hardly surpass the fine charac 
teristic figure by Houdon, in the Cer- 
tosaat Borne. This, for simplicity and 
contemplative repose, far exceeds an 
other figure of the same saint, the 
colossal statue by Sloedtz, in St. 
Peter s, erected soon after the 
canonisation of the saint. 

Instead of relating in detail the life 
of St. Bruno, I will give it here as 
represented by Le Sueur in the series 
of pictures painted for the cloisters 
of the Chartreuse at Paris, in 1649 ; 
purchased from the monks, and trans 
ferred to Versailles, in 1776 ; and now in the Louvre, where 
the twenty-two pictures fill one room : 




St. Bruno reading the Pope s letter. 
(Le Sueur.) 



1. Raymond, a learned doctor of Paris, and canon of Notre Dame, teaching 
theology to his pupils. 

Bruno, born at Cologne, was the son of rich and noble parents, who, 
proud of Ms early distinction in letters, sent him to finish his studies in the 
theological school at Paris, under a celebrated teacher and preacher, whose 
same was Raymond. In this picture Raymond is instructing his auditors 
from the pulpit, aud Bruno, under the lineaments of a beautiful youth, is 
seated in front, a book under his arm, and listening with deep attention. 

2. The death of Raymond. 

This learned doctor, venerated by the people for his apparent piety and 
austere virtue, lies extended on his deathbed, A priest, attended by two 
young students, one of whom is Bruno, presents :he crucifix. A demon at 
the pillow appears ready to catch the fleeting soul This may have sug 
gested to Reynolds the imp upon the pillow of Cardinal Beaufort ; but in 



ST. BRUNO. 



120 




St. Bruno. (Statue by Houdon, in tlie Certo-a at Borne,) 



both, instances it is a fault of taste which, we expect to meet with, and excuse 
in the early ages of Art, but which is inexcusable in painters of the seven 
teenth and eighteenth centuries, 

3. The fearful resurrection of Kaymond. 

Now Kaymond, being greatly venerated for his apparent sanctity, was 
carried to the grave attended by a great concourse of the people ; and as 
they were chanting the service for the dead, just as they came to the words 
" Eesponde mini quantas habes iniquitates," the dead man half raised himself 
from his bier, and cried, with a lamentable voice, " By the justice of God 1 
am accused I " thereupon the priests laid down the bier, and put off the in 
terment till the following day. Next day they again formed in procession, 
and as they chanted the same words, " responde miki" the dead man again 
rose up and cried out with a more dreadful voice, " By the justice of God I 
am judged / " and then sank down on his bier as before. Great was the 
consternation of the people, and they put off the conclusion of the obsequies 

S 



LEGENDS OF TEE. HONASTIG ORDERS. 



till the third day, when, just as they had begun to chant the same verse, 
trembling for the result, the dead man again rose up, crying with a terrible 
Toice and look, " By the justice of God 1 am condemned ! " Upon this, priests 
and attendants, half dead with fear and horror, flung the body out into a 
field, as unworthy of Christian burial/ In the picture the ghastly terror of 
the incident is given with the highest dramatic power without the slightest 
exaggeration ; and the effect of the awful incident on Bruno, who stands 
behind the officiating priest, prepares us for the next scene. 

4. St. Bruno kneeling before a crucifix in an attitude of profound medita 
tion ; in the background they throw the body of the canon into an unhallowed 
grave. 

5. St. Bruno teaches theology in the school at Bheims. 

6. St. Bruno, after long meditation on the dangers of the world, engages 
six of his friends to follow him into a life of penance and seclusion, 

7. St. Bruno and his companions prepare to set off for Grenoble, but first 
they distribute all their worldly possessions in alms to the poor. 

8. Hugo, bishop of Grenoble, had a dream, in which he beheld seven 
stars move before him, and remain stationary above a certain spot in his 
diocese. "When Bruno and Ms six companions appeared in his presence and 
made their request for a spot of ground on which to found a retreat from 
the world, he saw the interpretation of his vision, and bestowed on them a 
rocky and barren hollow near the summit of a mountain, about six leagues 
from Grenoble. 

9. Bruno and his companions, preceded by St. Hugo on Ms mule, journey 
to the village of Chartreux. 

D. 1084. 10. St. Bruno founds the monastery afterwards celebrated under the name 
of *La Grande Chartreuse. In the picture he is exa.TOJ.ri ing the plan 
presented by an architect, while masons and other artificers are seen at work 
in the background. 

11. St Hugo, bishop of Grenoble, invests St. Bruno with the habit of Ms 
Order. 

12. The rule wMch Bruno drew up for his brotherhood is confirmed by 
Pope Tictor III. Though in this picture, and others of the same subject, 
St Bruno is represented as giving a written rule to Ms monks, it is certain 
that his ordinances were not reduced to writing till after his death. 

13. St Bruno, wearing the chasuble as abbot, receives several young men 
into his Order. Among those who are present is the father of one of the 
novices, who seems to lament the loss of his son. 

14. Urban II, raised to the pontificate in 1088, had been one of the 
disciples of St Bruno when he taught in the university of Bheims. On his 
accession to the supreme spiritual power, he sent for St. Bruno to aid him 
in the administration of his affairs. The picture represents St. Bruno 
leading the letter, while the monks around Mm exMbit disquiet and con 
sternation. Several of these refused to be separated from bin), and followed 
him to Borne. 

I5 St Bruno is received by Pope Urban II. 



8T. 



131 



16. The Pope desired to make St. Bruno archbishop of Keggio ; but he 
absolutely declined the honour. In the picture, St. Bruno in his coarse 
white habit kneels before the Pope : prelates and cardinals in rich dresses 
are standing round. 

17. St. Bruno, unable to endure the cares and turmoils of the court, 
retired to a desert in Calabria. He is seen lying on the ground, and looking 
up at a glory of cherubim in the skies. 

18. He obtained leave from Urban to found a convent for his Order in 
Calabria. In the picture he is seen praying in his cell, while several of Ms 
monks are employed in clearing and cultivating the ground. 

19. Boger (or Kuggiero), Count of Sicily and Calabria, being out on a 
hunting expedition, lost himself in the wilderness, and discovered the her 
mitage of St. Bruno. In the picture he finds the holy man praying in his 
rocky cell, and, kneeling before the entrance, entreats his blessing. 

20. Shortly afterwards, this same Count Boger of Sicily besieged Capua, 
and while asleep in his tent he beheld in a vision St. Bruno, who warned 
him that one of his officers had conspired with the enemy to betray his 
army. The Count, awaking, is enabled to guard against the meditated 
treachery. 

21. The death of St. Bruno, who expires on his lowly pallet, surrounded 
by Ms monks. His death took place in 1100. This is one of the most 
striking pictures of the whole series. 

22. The last picture represents the apotheosis of the saint. He is carried 
up by angels, his white habit fluttering against the blue sky. Not a pleasant 
picture, nor gracefully arranged. 

I have described these subjects as painted by Le Sueur ; but 
the same incidents have been often repeated and varied by other 
painters, employed to decorate the edifices of the Carthusian 
Order. Whatever might have been the austerities of the monks, 
their churches and monasteries were in later times sumptuous. 
Zurbaran was employed in the Chartreuse of Santa Maria de Handbook 
las Cuevas, near Seville, already rich in architecture, in tombs, of Spain - 
plate, jewels, carvings, books, and pictures, and celebrated for 
its groves of orange and lemon trees, on the banks of the Gua- 
dalquiver,* and represented the life of the founder and the 
fortunes of the Order in twenty-eight pictures. 

No one ever painted the Carthusians like Zurbaran, who 
studied them for months together while working in their 
cloisters* * Every head looks like a portrait ; their white 
draperies chill the eye, as their cold hopeless faces chill the 
heart ; but the faces are not always cold and hopeless. The 



132 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 




St. Bruno praying in the desert. (Andrea Saeohi.) 



fine head in the Munich Gallery, styled St. Bruno with a 
skull/ is probably a study of a Carthusian monk, after nature, 
and nothing can exceed the intense devotional aspiration of 
the upward look and parted lips. 

The series of the life of St. Bruno, painted for the Chartreuse 
of Paular by Vincenzio Carducho, consists of fifty-four large 
pictures. Twenty-six represent scenes from the life of St. 
Bruno, and twenty-six are consecrated to the exultation of the 
Order. Both the series of Zurbaran, and that of Carducho, 
comprise the subjects from the story of the Carthusian martyrs 
a dark page in our English history. 

he Charter-House was suppressed by Henry VIII., after 
existing from 1372 : it was founded by Sir "Walter Manny, of 
chivalrous memory ; and the history of the dissolution of the 



ST. BRUNO. 133 



monastery, and tlie fate of the last unhappy monks, is feelingly 
related in Knight s * London. The prior Haughton and eleven 
Carthusian monks were hanged, drawn, and quartered ; one of 
the quarters of Haughton s body being set over the gate of his 
own monastery. Ten others were thrown into prison, a prey 
to the most horrible tyranny, neglect, filth, and despair, till 
they all, but one, died under the treatment, and he was after 
wards executed. * Whatever we may think of their opinions, 
these men were truly martyrs; deliberately dying, because 
they would not accept of mercy offered on condition of violat 
ing their vows and belying their conscience. In the series by 
Carducho, two pictures represent the monks in their white 
robes, dead or dying, and chained to the pillars of their 
dungeon ; and open doors give a view of Catholic martyrs in 
the hands of grim Protestant tormentors. In the third, three 
Carthusians are hurried off to execution on a hurdle drawn by 
horses, which are urged to their full speed by their rider, in 
the dress of a Spanish muleteer. 

This whole series has been removed from Paular to the 
Museum at Madrid, where it is placed in the first hall as we 
enter. Mr. Stirling s observations on the present locality of 
these pictures are in such good taste, and so often applicable 
to other changes of the kind, that I give the passage entire: 

* Like many other trophies of Spanish Art, these fine works of Carducho 
have lost muct of their significance by removal from the spot for which, they 
were painted. Hung on the crowded walls of an ill-ordered museum, Ms 
Carthusian histories can never again speak to the heart and the fancy as 
they once spoke in the lonely cloister of Paular, where the silence was 
broken only "by the breeze as it moaned through the overhanging pine- 
forest, by the tinkling bell or the choral chant of the chapel, or by the 
stealing tread of some mute white-stoled monk, the brother and the heir of 
the holy men of old, whose good deeds and sufferings and triumphs were 
there commemorated on canvas. There, to many generations of recluses, 
vowed to perpetual silence and solitude, these pictures had been companions ; 
to them the painted saints and martyrs had become friends j and the benign 
Virgins were the sole objects within these melancholy walls to remind them 
of the existence of woman. 

* In the Chartreuse, therefore, absurdities were veiled, or criticism awed, 
by the venerable genius of the place ; while in the Museum, the monstrous 
legend and extravagant picture, stripped of every illusion, are coolly judged 



134 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



of OIL their own merits as works of skill and imagination. Still, notwith 
standing their present disadvantages of position, these pictures vindicate the 
high fame of Cardncho, and will bear comparison with the best history ever 
painted of the Carthusian Order. 

st Hugh of But neither Carducto nor Le Suenr have equalled Zurbaran 
AprTi,n32. in characteristic expression. I recollect a picture by him in 
the Aguado Gallery, which represents a curious legend of St. 
Hugo. Hugo, it will be remembered, was Bishop of Grenoble 
when Bruno founded the first Chartreuse. He frequently left 
his bishopric, and resided among the Carthusians as a humble 
brother of the Order, devoting himself for months to a life of 
austerity and seclusion. On one occasion, when he appeared 
in the refectory, he found the monks seated motionless, for 
although it was a festival, they were not permitted to eat any 
flesh whatever, and, no other food being obtainable, fowls had 
been served up before them. In this picture seven Carthusians, 
looking very grave, and some with their white cowls drawn over 
their heads, as if resigned to fasting and despair, are seated 
at table ; the aged bishop, in purple vestments, attended by a 
page, stands in the foreground, and by the sign of the cross 
converts the fowls into tortoises. 1 Of Hugo of Grenoble it is 
related, that for forty years he was troubled and haunted by 
Satan after a very singular fashion. The demon was conti 
nually whispering to his mind intrusive questionings of the 
providence of God in permitting evil in this world. Hugo 
firmly believed that such thoughts could on]y come by dia 
bolical suggestion. He endeavoured to repel them by fast 
ing, prayer, and penance, and he complained bitterly to his 
spiritual father, the Pope, that he should be, in despite of his 
will thus grievously tormented. The pope, Gregory VII. , 

1 ETot into turtle. The small land-tortoise was considered as fish. There is a 
similar picture in the Museum at Madrid, mentioned by Mr. Stirling (Artists of 
Spain, 771). 

A legend similar to this of St. Hugo is related of St. Ulrich, first bishop and 
patron saint of Augsburg. On a fast-day he converted flesh into fish ; and in 
German prints and pictures he is represented with a fish in his hand, as in the 
fine woodcut of Albert Diirer, in which he stands with St. Erasmus and St. 
Nicholas (Sucrcd &lt;md Legend. Art, ii. 290, 327, 334). Where there is a key with 
the fish, it is St. Bruno. 



ST. HUGH OF LINCOLN, 135 



(the great and sagacious Hildebrand,) possibly smiled to 
himself at the simplicity of the good bishop, and assured him. 
it was only a trial of his virtue. Nevertheless, in spite of 
Pope and penance, these perplexing doubts pursued him to 
the grave, without, however, obtaining any dominion over his 
mind or disturbing his faith. 

St. Hugo of Grenoble died in 1132. 



It is necessary to distinguish between this St. Hugh of ST. HUGH o* 
Grenoble, and another St. Hugh, also a Carthusian, and con 
nected in an interesting manner with our own ecclesiastical 
history. He was sent here in 1126, by Pope Urban III., and 
consecrated Bishop of Lincoln. To him we owe the rebuilding 
of the cathedral, which had been destroyed by an earthquake ; 
the greater part remains as this good bishop left it, one of the 
most splendid and perfect monuments of the best period of 
Gothic architecture. The shrine of the founder, rich in gold 
and gems, and yet more precious for its exquisite workmanship, 
stood behind the choir. It was confiscated and melted down 
at the Eeformation. Such memorials of St. Hugh as offered 
no temptation to Henry VIII., were destroyed by those modern 
Vandals, the Cromwellian soldiery, who stabled their horses 
in the nave of the cathedral, and the sole memorial of this ex 
cellent and munificent priest, within the glorious precincts 
raised by his piety, is the stained glass in the rose window of 
the south transept. This contains several scenes from his life, 
confused and dazzling, from the rude outlines and vivid colour 
ing, so that the only one I could make out distinctly was the 
translation of his remains^ when the two kings of England and 
Scotland bore him on their shoulders to the porch. of the 
cathedral. 

His name is retained in our calendar, November 17th. 

Devotional pictures of St. Hugo are rare. Here is one; it P.U& 
represents him in the Carthusian habit, over it the episcopal 
robes, the mitre on his head and the pastoral staff in his hand. 



136 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEKS. 



By Ms- side a swan, his proper attribute, which is here the 
emblem of solitude, in which he delighted. He has sometimes 
three flowers in Ms hand, or an angel who defends him against 




ST. HUGH 



25 St. Hugh presenting a votary. 

(From a picture in the Boisseree Gallery. ) 

the lightning, emblems mentioned in the German authorities, 
but not explained. 

There was a third St. Hugh, a little St. Hugh of Lincoln, 
who was not indeed a monk, but his story is one of the late 
monkish legends. The popular hatred of the Jews, in the 
eleventh and twelfth centuries, is set forth, and not exagge 
rated, in the tale of Ivanhoe. It should seem that our ancestors 



ST. HUGH MARTYR. 137 



regarded the whole Jewish nation as if they had been the iden 
tical Jews who crucified our Saviour ; as if every individual 
Jew represented, to their imaginations, the traitor Judas. To 
this fanatic hatred was added, on the part of the people, envy 
of their riches; on that of the ecclesiastics, jealousy and fear 
of the superior intelligence and medical and astrological skill 
of some distinguished individuals of that detested race. I will 
not dwell upon the fearful excesses of cruelty and injustice 
towards this oppressed people, in our own and other countries ; 
though I must touch upon the horrible reprisals imputed to 
them, and which served as excuses for further persecutions. 
There are a number of stories related of their stealing little 
children, and crucifying them on their Easter feast, in ridicule 
of the God and Saviour of the Christians. Of these real or 
imaginery victims, we Have four who were canonised as saints : A . D . 1137. 
St. William of Norwich, St. Hugh of Lincoln, St. Richard of It up: 
Pontoise, and St. Simon of Trent A * D " 1472 * 

Chaucer has given the story of one of these little Christian 
martyrs in the Prioress s Tale ; he places the scene in Asia, 
but concludes with a reference to * young Hugh of Lincoln, in 
like sort laid low. The tale, as modernised by Wordsworth, 
is in everybody s hands. 

St. Hugh of Lincoln is represented as a child about three 
years old, nailed upon a cross ; or as standing with a palm in 
one hand, and a cross in the other. There is a picture attri- Engraved 
buted to Agostino Caracci, representing St. Simon of Trent, 
as a beautiful boy, holding a palm in one hand, and in the 
other the long bodkin with which those wicked Jews pierced 
his side. 

The effigies of these little martyrs, which used to occur fre 
quently in the churches, kept alive that horror of the Jews 
which is so energetically expressedan the Prioress s Tale. Suet 
atrocious memorials of religious hatred are now everywhere 
banished, or exist only in relics of the old stained glass. 



138 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OKDERS. 




St. Bernard of Clairvaux. (Angelico da Fiesole.) 



THE 



A.JX 1128. 



ANOTHER and a far more important reform in the Order of Si 
Benedict took place in 1098, when Robert de Molesme founded 
at Cisteaux (or Citeaux), about twelve leagues to the north of 
Chalon-sur-Saone, the first abbey of the Cistercians, in a 
desert spot, described as overgrown with woods and brambles, 
wholly unfrequented by men, and the habitation of wild 
beasts. 

Of all the branches of the Benedictine Order, this was the 
most popular. It extended, in a short time, over France, 
England, and Germany; produced innumerable learned men, 
popes, cardinals, and prelates ; and numbered, within a centujry 
after its foundation, 3000 affiliated monasteries. In England 
their first seat was Waverley, in Surrey; and Furness and 
FountainSj Kirkstall, Bolton, Tintern, and many other abbeys, 



ST. BERNARD OF CLAIRVATTX. 



magnificent even in ruin, belonged to tMs famous Order* In 
Spain, tlie noble military Orders of Calatrava and Alcantara 
were subject to it. In France, the most celebrated of the 
numerous dependent monasteries was that of Clairvaux in *.. ins. 
Champagne. 

The habit adopted by the Cistercians, at the time they placed 
their Order under the especial protection of the Virgin Mary, , 
was white, the colour consecrated to her purity; and, according 
to a legend of the Order, assumed by her express command, 
intimated in a vision to ST. BERNARD, the great saint of the 
Cistercians, the man who mainly contributed to render the 
Order illustrious throughout Christendom, and the only 
member of it who is conspicuous as a subject of Art. 



ST. BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX. 

LaL Sanctnis Bernardns Doctor mellifLuus. Ital. San Bernardo di Chiara- 

valle, Ab"bate. Oer. Der Heilige Bernhard. JV, Saint Bernard. 

Aug. 20, 1153. 

The habit white, a long loose robe with very wide sleeves, and a hood 
or cowl : he has sometimes the mitre and crosier as abbot. The attributes 
axe a book, or a roll of papers, always in his hand ; often a pen or ink- 
horn ; sometimes a demon fettered at his feet, or chained to a rock behind 
him. 

IF I were called upon to enter on the life and character of St. 
Bernard in relation to the history of his time ; to consider him 
as the religious enthusiast and the political agitator ; as mixed 
up with the philosophy, the theology, the wars, the schisms, 
the institutions, of an age which he seemed to have informed 
with his own spirit, while in fact he was only the incarnation, 
if I may so express myself, of its prejudices and its tendencies 
then I might fairly throw down the pen, and confess myself 
unequal to the task ; but, luckily for me, the importance of St. 
Bernard as a subject of Art bears no proportion to his import 
ance as a subject of history. It is not as the leading ecclesi- 



MO LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OKDERS. 



astic and politician of Ms age, it is not as the counsellor of 
popes and king s, it is not as the subtle theological disputant 
it is not as the adversary of Abelard and Arnold de Brescia 
that he appears in painting and sculpture. It is as the head 
of a dominant Order, and yet more as the teacher and 
preacher, that we see him figure in works of art ; and then 
only occasionally; for he is far less popular than many saints 
who never exercised a tithe of his influence, whose very 
existence is comparatively a fiction. 

Bernard was "born at the little village of Fontaine, near 
Dijon. His father was noble, a lord of the soil. His mother, 
Alice, was an admirable woman ; all the biographies of Bernard 
unite in giving her the credit of his early education. He was 
one of a large family of children, all of whom were fed from 
the bosom of their mother ; for she entertained the idea that 
the infant, with the milk it drew from a stranger s bosom, 
imbibed also some portion of the quality and temperament of 
the nurse : therefore, while her children were young, they had 
no attendant but herself. They all became remarkable men 
and women ; but the fame of the rest is merged in that of 
Bernard, who appears, indeed, to have moulded them all to 
his own bent. 

After pursuing his studies at the university of Paris, 
Bernard entered the reformed Benedictine monastery of 
Citeaux. He was then not more than twenty, remarkable for 
his personal beauty and the delicacy of his health ; but he 
had already, from the age of fifteen, practised the most 
rigorous self-denial: he had been subject to many tempta 
tions, but surmounted them all. It is related that, on one 
occasion, he recollected himself at the moment when his eyes 
had rested with a feeling of pleasure on the face of a beautiful 
woman, and, shocked at his own weakness, he rushed into a 
pool of water more than half frozen, and stood there till feel 
ing and life had nearly departed together. 

He was about twenty-five, when the abbey of Oiteaux became 
so overcrowded by inmates, that his abbot sent him on a mission 
to found another monastery. The manner of going forth on 



ST. BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX. 141 



these occasions was strikingly characteristic of the age ; the 
ahbot chose twelve monks, representing the twelve apostles, 
and placed at their head a leader, representing Jesus Christ, 
who, with a cross in his hand, went before them. The gates of 
the convent opened, then closed behind them, and they 
wandered into the wide world,- trusting in G-od to show them 
their destined abode. 

Bernard led his followers to a wilderness called the Valley of A . nu. 
Wormwood, and there, at his bidding, arose the since renowned 
abbey of Clairvaux. They felled the trees, built themselves 
huts, tilled and sowed the ground, and changed the whole face 
of the country round : till that which had been a dismal solitude, 
the resort of wolves and robbers, became a land of vines and 
corn, rich, populous, and prosperous. 

In a few years the name of Bernard of Clairvaux had become 
famous throughout the Christian world. His monastery could 
no longer contain those who came to place themselves under 
his guidance. On every side the feudal lords appealed to 
him to decide differences and to reconcile enemies; the 
ecclesiastics, to resolve questions of theqlogy. He was the 
great authority on all points of religious dicipline ; he drew 
up the statutes of the Templars ; Louis YL appointed him 
arbiter between the rival popes, Anacletus and Innocent II. , 
and Bernard deciding in favour of the latter, the whole Church 
received the fiat with perfect submission* He was then in 
his thirty-ninth year. He was afterwards sent to reconcile 
the disputes between the clergy of Milan and those of Borne, 
and succeeded. He was commissioned by Eugenius III. to 
preach a second crusade. He succeeded here also, unhappily ; 
for his eloquent adjurations so inflamed the people, that those 
who refused to take up the cr.oss were held in scorn, and had 
a distaff put into their hands, in mockery of their effeminate 
cowardice. Bernard was invited to assume the command of 
the multitude he had excited to take up arras ; but he had the 
wisdom to decline. He remained at home studying theology 
in his cell; and of those whom his fiery exhortations had 
impelled to the wars of Palestine, few, very few returned. 



142 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDEES. 



The people raged against Bernard for a false prophet; but 
their rage was transient as violent. He defended himself 
"boldly and eloquently, affirming that the armies of the 
crusaders were composed of such a vile, insubordinate, 
irreligious crew, that they did not deserve to be protected 
by Heaven* If they had been betrayed, defeated, destroyed; 
if the flood, the plague, the sword, had each had a part in 
them, it was in just punishment of the vices and the crimes 
of the age. He bade them go home and repent : and they 
did so. 

Worn out by fatigues, missions, and anxieties, by long and 
frequent journeys, by the most rigorous fasts and penances, the 
health of this accomplished and zealous monk gave way prema 
turely ; and, retiring to his cell, he languished for a few years, 
and then died, in the sixty-third year of his age. Twenty 
years after his death he was canonised by Alexander III 

The virtues and the talents of Bernard lent a dreadful power 
to his misguided zeal, and a terrible vitality to his errors. But 
no one has ever reproached him with insincerity. In no respect 
did he step beyond his age ; but he was, as I have already said, 
the impersonation of the intellect of that age ; and, in a period 
of barbarism and ignorance, he attracts us, and stands out in 
the blood-soiled page of history like a luminous spot surrounded 
with shadow. Of Ms controversy with Abelard it is not 
necessary to speak. Had the life of Abelard been as pure from 
moral stain as that of Bernard, he might possibly have had a 
better chance against Ms great adversary. 

The writings of St. Bernard are of such authority that he 
ranks as one of the fathers of the Catholic Church. It was said 
of him (and believed) that when he was writing his famous 
homilies on &lt; The Song of Songs, .which is Solomon s/ the holy 
Virgin herself condescended to appear to him, andmoistened his 
lips with the milk from her bosom ; so that ever afterwards his 
eloquence, whether in speaking or in writing, was persuasive, 
irresistible, supernatural. 

In devotional pictures a monk in the wMte habit of the Cis 
tercian Order, with a shaven crown, little or no beard, carrying 



ST. BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX. 



a large book under Ms arm, or with writing implements before 
him, or presenting books to the Madonna, may be generally 




St. Bernard writing the praises of the Virgin. 



assumed to represent St. Bernard. His peculiar attributes 

however, are 1. The demon fettered behind him; the demon, 

having the Satanic, and not the dragon form, is interpreted to 

signify heresy. 2. Occasionally three mitres on his book or at 

his feet, as in a picture by Garofalo, signify the three bishoprics 

he refused, those of Milan, Chartres,and Spires. 3. He has Dresden Gak 

also the bee-hive as symbol of eloquence, in common with 

Chrysostom and Augustine ; but here it alludes also to his 

title of Doctor melli/Zuus. 4. The mitre and crosier, as abbot 

of Clairvaux, are also given to him, but rarely. 



144 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Giottino. 
FL Acad. 



11, CMesa 
de la Badia. 



In old German art lie may be found 
occasionally with, the black mantle over 
the white tunic, as in this figure. 

He is often grouped with other Bene 
dictine saints, St. Benedict or St. Ro- 
mualdo, or he is embracing the instru 
ments of the Passion, a subject frequently 
met with in the old French prints. 

The subject called the Vision of St. 
Bernard must be considered as mystical 
and devotional, not historical. St. Ber 
nard, as we have seen, was remarkable 
for his devotion to the Blessed Virgin : 
one of his most celebrated works, the 
Missus est, was composed in her honour 
as Mother of the Eedeemer ; and in eighty 
sermons on texts from the Song of Solo 
mon, he set forth her divine perfection as 
the Selected and Espoused, the type of 
the Church on earth. Accordingly, the 
Blessed Virgin regarded her votary with 
peculiar favour. His health was ex 
tremely feeble ; and once, when he was 
employed in writing HE homilies,, and 
was so ill that he could scarcely hold the 
pen, she graciously appeared to him, and comforted and re 
stored him by her divine presence. Of this graceful subject. 
there are some charming examples : 

1. He is kneeling before a desk, the pen in his hand ; the 
Virgin above, a graceful veiled figure, comes floating in, sus 
tained by two angels ; as in a picture by Giottino. The little 
etching I have appended will give an idea of the composition. 

2. St. Bernard is writing in a rocky desert, seated at a rude 
desk formed of the stump of a tree. The Virgin stands before 
him, attended by angels, one of whom holds up her robe. On 
the rock behind him is inscribed his famous motto, Sustine et 

(Bear and forbear). I give an etching of this group 




Sfc - Bernard. 



ST. BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX. 



from the large picture by Filippino Lippi. In the original 
composition the demon is seen chained to the rock behind St 
Bernard, and there are monks in the background ; these I have 
omitted for want of space. The figure of the Virgin is singu 
larly noble and graceful ; the angels, as is usual with Filippino, 
are merely handsome boys. 

3. He is seated -writing, and looking round to the Virgin, Munich Gai 
who enters on the opposite side attended by two angels. Behind Perugmo - 
St. Bernard stand St. Philip and St. Bartholomew. A beautiful 
version of the subject. 

4. He is sustained amid clouds, the pen in his hand, looking Louvre. 
up at the Madonna and infant Saviour, who are surrounded by 

a choir of red seraphim : Mary Magdalen stands near. This cosimo 
visionary representation is extremely characteristic of the 
painter, original, fantastic, but also elegant. 

I have seen several other instances, by Fra Bartolomeo; 
by Murillo; and one by Benozzo Grozzole in the collec 
tion of M. Joly de Bamville, in which the figures are half- 
length. The leading idea is in all the same, and easily 
recognised. 

5. The Virgin nourishes St. Bernard with milk from her The finest, 
bosom. This subject occurs only in the later schools of art, Mu5uo? by 
and must be taken in a mystical and religious sense. It is a 

literal and disagreeable version of a figure of speech too 
palpable for representation. Yet genius has overcome these 
objections, and Murillo s great picture is cited as a remarkable 
example of his skill in treating with dignity and propriety a 
subject which, in many hands, might have suggested opposite 
ideas. * The great abbot of Clairvaux, seated amongst his 
books, and with jars of lilies on the table, as an emblem of his 
devotion to Our Lady, is surprised by a visit from that celestial 
personage. As the white-robed saint kneels before her in 
profound adoration, she bares her "beautiful bosom, and causes 
a stream of milk to fall from thence upon the lips of her votary^ 
which were from that time forth endowed with a sweet persua 
sive eloquence that no rival could gainsay, no audience resist. 
Above and around the heavenly stranger cherubs disport them 
selves in a flood of glory ; and on the ground lie the abbot s 

u 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



crosier and some folios bound in pliant parchment, like 
those which once filled the conventual libraries of Spain, and 
which Murillo has often introduced into his pictures. The 
chaste and majestic beauty of the Virgin almost redeems the 
subject. The etching will give an idea of the arrangement of 
the picture, but, of course, not of the wonderful expression and 
colouring. 

I believe it is well known that the fine stained glass in the 
choir of Lichfield Cathedral was brought from a Cistercian 
nunnery near Liege (the abbey of Herekenrode, ruined and 
desecrated in the French revolutionary wars). On one of these 
windows, the third on the north side of the choir, we find this 
mystical legend very beautifully expressed. St. Bernard kneels 
at the feet of the Virgin, looking up with passionate devotion ; 
she prepares to bare her bosom. Behind him stands his sister, 
the Abbess St. Humbeline. The workmanship dates between 
1530 and 1540, when the nuns rebuilt their convent, and em 
ployed the best artists of the Low Countries to decorate it. The 
designs for these windows I should refer to Lambert Lombard, 
the first, and by far the best, of the Italianised Flemish school 
of the sixteenth century. 

The historical subjects from the life of St. Bernard are very 
few. 

B*rtM&gt;b f He was in tlie habit of lecturing his monks every morning 

xiii " u " from some passage in Scripture. This scene is represented in a 
rare old engraving by Benedetto Montagna. 

At Berlin there are two little pictures from the early life of 
St. Bernard. 1. As a child, his mother consecrates him to the 
service of the Church ; 2. His habit having fallen into the fire, 
he takes it uninjured from the flames. And in the same gallery 
is a curious picture representing St. Bernard holding his crosier 
and book ; and around this central figure six small subjects from 
Ms life. 

Some other incidents in the life of St. Bernard would be ad 
mirable for art. As, for instance, the building of his monastery, 
where he and his white monks, scattered in the wilderness, are 



ST. BEKSTABD OF CLAIRVAUX. 



felling the trees, while others are praying for divine strength 
and aid ; or the preaching of the Crusade in varions countries 
and among various conditions of men ; but I have not met 
with either of these subjects. 

It is related that, when he was abbot of Clairvaux, his sister 
Humbeline, who had married a nobleman, came to pay him a 
visit borne in a litter, and attended by a numerous retinue of 
servants : he, scandalised by so much pride and pomp, refused 
to see her. She then desired to see another brother, who was 
also in the convent, who in like manner rejected her. She 
burst into tears, and entreating on her knees that her saintly 
brother would instruct her what she ought to do, he conde 
scended to appear at the gate, desired her to go home, and 
imitate her mother. Humbeline afterwards became a model 
of humility and piety, and ended her life in seclusion. This 
conference between the brother and the sister would be a fine 
subject for a painter. 

In the Boisseree Collection there is a very curious picture 
-entitled c St. Bernard in the Cathedral of Spires, (Der Heilige 
Bernhard im Doni zu Speir,) which for a long time embarrassed 
me exceedingly, as I dare say it has others. At length I found 
the legend. It is related, that when St. Bernard was preach 
ing the Crusade in Germany, he entered the Cathedral of 
Spires, accompanied by the Emperor Conrad, and a splendid 
retinue of prelates and nobles. There, in presence of all, 
he knelt down three times as he approached the altar, 
reciting the famous hymn to the Virgin. The first time, he 
exclaimed, Clemens/ the second, Pia!^ the third 
time, * dulcis Virgo Maria ! In memory of the saint and 
of this incident these words were inscribed on the pavement 
where he had knelt, and the Salve Regina was sung every day 
in the choir. These memorials were preserved, and this 
custom retained, till the magnificent Cathedral of Spires, 
almost equal to that of Strasbourg, was desecrated and turned 
into a military station in the beginning of the French Eevolu- 
tion. The picture I have alluded to, represents, in the centre, 
St. Bernard kneeling in the black habit, which is very unusual ; 
and rather fat and clumsy, which is not characteristic, for he 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



was of a fair complexion, and spare and delicate temperament 
The three inscriptions are visible on the pavement. The 
Emperor Conrad stands on the right, with his courtiers and 
warriors ; on the left, a "bishop and an abbot with attendants. 
The picture is gorgeous in colour, and very curious as an 
historical memento. 

Dante, whose great poem is a reflection of the religious 
feelings prevalent in his time, has given St. Bernard a most 
distinguished place in the * Paradiso (c. xxxi.) The poet, 
looking round, finds that Beatrice has left his side, and that 
her place is filled by that teacher revered, St. Bernard, upon 
whom, with great propriety, devolves the task of presenting 
him to the Virgin, who, in turn, is to present him to her 
divine Son. St. Bernard then breaks forth into that sublime 
address to the Virgin-mother, which Petrarch has imitated, 
and Chaucer has translated. This leading idea, this rapport 
between the Virgin and St. Bernard, must be borne in mind, 
for it is constantly reproduced in the pictures painted for the 
Cistercian Order; and I shall have much to say on this subject 
in tlie Legends of the Madonna. 

In pictures executed for the French, Flemish, and German 
churches, St. Bernard is often found in companionship with 
his friend and contemporary St. Herbert, bishop of Magde 
burg, founder of the Premonstratensians ; for whom the reader 
will turn to the Angus tins, further on. 



THE CONGREGATION OF MONTE OLIVETO. 

must bear in mind that there are three St. Bernards repre 
sented in art ; the great abbot of Clairvaux, whose history 
has just been given ; St. Bernard degli Uberti, abbot of Val- 
lombrosa, and cardinal, already mentioned ; and a third St. 
Bernard, distinguished as San Bernardo del Tolomei, who is 
more properly the Beato Bernardo, for I do not find that he 
has been regularly canonised; he was born in 1272, of an 
illustrious family of Siena, and for some years was distinguished 



THE CONGREGATION OF MONTE OLIYETO. 149 

as a learned professor of law in his native city; but the dominant 
passion of the age reached him, and he was still in the prime of 
life when, seized with religions compunction, he withdrew from 
the world to a mountain, about ten miles from Siena, called 
the Monte Uliveto, or Mount of Olives. Others joined him; 
they erected cells and an oratory in the usual manner ; and thus 
was founded the &lt; Olivetani, or * Congregation of the Blessed Monaoi 
Virgin of Monte Oliveto. Bernardo placed his new Order under Monte l 
the Eule of St. Benedict, and gave them the white habit. The 
Order was confirmed by Pope John XXII. in 1319. The prin 
cipal saints represented in the churches and monasteries of the 
Olivetani are St. Benedict, as patriarch, and St. Bernard of 
Clairvaux, the patron saint of their founder. Only in late 
pictures do we find the founder himself, generally in the white 
Benedictine habit, with a branch of olive in his hand, in allusion 
to the name of his Order. In a picture by Salviati he kneels 
before the Madonna, and at his feet is a small model of a hill, 
with an olive tree, and a cell at the summit. In a picture 
by Pamfilo he receives from the Blessed Yirgin branches of 
olive. 

The saint who figures in the Olivetan foundations as the 
boast of their Order, is St. Francesca Eomana, as her name 
implies, a Roman saint. Effigies of her abound in Home ; we 
even meet with them on the outer walls of the houses. Her 
convent, in the Torre de* Spechi is (or was) the best seminary 
in Rome for young women of the higher classes. Many who 
have visited Rome of late years will remember the splendour 
and interest of her festival, when the doors of this school are 
thrown open to all visitors. 

She was born in 1384;, "the daughter of Paolo di Bassi and 
his wife Jacobella. She was baptized in the church of Sant 
Agnese, in the Piazza Navona, and, from her childhood, dis 
played the most pious dispositions. Her parents married her, 
against her inclination, to Lorenzo Ponziano, who was rich and 
noble ; but she carried into her married life the same spiritual 
virtues which had distinguished her in early youth. Every 
day she recited the Office of the Virgin from beginning to end. 
She was particularly remarkable for her charity and humility. 



150 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OKDEKS. 



Instead of entering into the pleasures to which her birth and 
riches entitled her, she every day went, disguised in a coarse 
woollen garment, to her vineyard, outside the gate of San Paolo, 
and collected faggots, which she hrought into the city on her 
head, and distributed to the poor. If the weight exceeded her 
womanly strength, she loaded therewith an ass, following after 
on foot in great humility. 

In the lifetime of her husband, with whom she lived in the 
most blessed union, she had already collected a congregation of 
pious women, whom she placed under the Rule of St. Benedict; 
but they pronounced no irrevocable vows, and were merely 
dedicated to works of charity, and the education of the young. 
A.D. 1425. After her husband s death she joined these sisters, and became 
their Superior. In recompense of her piety, she was favoured 
with ecstatic visions, and performed surprising miracles. It is 
related, that on a certain day the provision of bread was found 
to be reduced to a few small pieces, hardly enough for two 
persons (the number to be fed was fifteen) ; this being told 
to the saint, she merely replied, c The Lord will provide for 
us. Then, calling for the bread, she laid it on the table, and, 
having blessed it, there was found to be abundance for all. 
On another occasion, as she was reciting the Office of the 
Virgin in her vineyard, there came on a storm of rain, 
by which the sisters were wet to the skin, while she remained 
perfectly dry. Further, it is related that, like St. Cecilia, 
she was everywhere attended by an angel visible to herself 
alone. 

After many years passed in a life of sanctify, regarded with 
enthusiastic reverence and affection, not only by the Komans, 
but in all the neighbouring states, she died in the house of her 
son Baptista Ponzani, who lived at that time near the church of 
St. Cecilia in Trastevere. She had gone to comfort him with 
maternal solicitude in some visitation of sorrow or sickness, but 
was seized with fever, and expired in the arms of her sisterhood, 
who had assembled round her bed, while the bereaved poor 
prayed and wept at her door. 

She was canonised by Paul V. in 1608. All pictures of her 
date of course after that time ; and as the Caracci were then at 



ST. FRANCESCA ROMANA. 



the height of their celebrity, the best pictures of her are from 
their school. 

The church now dedicated to St. Franeesca Romana was 
formerly that of St, Maria Nuova, rendered celebrated as the 
scene of her prayers, vigils, and ecstatic trances. It is situated 
in a locality of majestic interest, near the extremity of the 
Forum, between the grand remains of the Basilicaof Oonstantine 
and the ruins of the temple of Venus and Rome (on part of the 
site of which it stands), and close to the arch of Titus. She is 
represented in the dress of a Benedictine nun, a black robe and 
a white hood or veil; and her proper attribute is an angel, who 
holds in his hand the book of the Office of the Virgin, open at 
the words, c Tenuisti manum dexteram meum, et in voluntate Psai. 
tua deduxisti me, et cum gloria suscepisti me ; which attribute is 
derived from an incident thus related in the acts of her canoni 
sation. Though unwearied in her devotions, yet if, during her 




9 St. Prancesca Romana. Domeniuhino (from tue fresco at Grotta Ferrate). 

prayers, she was called away by her husband or any domestic 
duty, she would close her book, saying that * a wife and a 
mother, when called upon, must quit her God at the altar, and 
find Him in her household affairs. Now it happened once, 
that, in reciting the Office of Our Lady, she was called away 
four times just as she was beginning the same verse, and, 
returning the fifth time., she found that verse written upon the 



152 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OBDERS. 



page in letters of golden light by the hand of her guardian 
angel. This charming and edifying legend is introduced in 
most of the pictures of St. Francesca ; occasionally, however, 
she is kneeling before a pix, while, from the consecrated wafer 
within it, rays proceed and fall upon her breast, in allusion to 
the name of her Order, the Oblate. 

Turin Gai. There is a fine picture by G-uercino, of St. Francesca Romana 
seated, holding the book of the Office of the Virgin, a basket of 
bread beside her, while a young angel, clothed in the albe worn 
by boys who serve at the altar, his hands crossed on his bosom, 
stands reverentially before her. This picture was painted for 
Emanuel II. of Savoy, about 1656. 

* The Vision of St. Francesca, painted by Mcolo Poussin, 
represents her kneeling in supplication. The Virgin appears 
to her from above, holding in her extended hands a number 
of broken or blunted arrows ; figures of the dead and dying 
lie on the ground. This alludes to the supposed cessation 
of an epidemic disease in Rome through the prayers of the 
saint. 

Bologna. St. Francesca restores a dead child, and gives him back to 

iiAs!f m his mother, is the subject of a picture by Tiarini, remarkable 
for true and dramatic expression. 

The marble bas-relief by Bernini in the crypt of her church 
at Home, in which she is seated with her book and her angel, 
is, for him, unusually grand and simple. 

Pictures of St. Francesca are to be found in the convents of 
the Congregation of Monte Oliveto. 

St. Carlo Borromeo is represented sometimes in companion 
ship with St. Francesca; they stand as pendants to each 
other, or kneel together before the same altar. "Where they 
are thus placed in connection, it is because the one founded 
the sisterhood of the Oblate at Rome, the other intro 
duced the brotherhood of the QUati into Milan, and became 
the Superior of the institution, for which reason I place him 
here. 




\ 




ST. CHARLES BORROMEO. 153 



o 



ST. CHARLES BOKKOMEO. 
Ital. San Carlo. Cardinal and Archbishop of Milan. Nov. 4, 1584. 

THIS admirable saint, c whom Jews might bless, and Protes 
tants adore/ lived at a period when Christian art had widely 
departed from its primitive simplicity, and there is something 
in the grand, mannered, ostentatious style of the pictures and 
sculptures which commemorate him, quite at variance with the 
gentle yet severe morality, and profoundly spiritual temper, 
the meek and resolute character, of the man to whose influence 
and example Banke imputes, in great part, the reform among 
the prelates of Italy and the restoration of ecclesiastical dis- 
cipline in the sixteenth century; the preservation, in fact, of 
the Church of Rome, when it seemed hastening to a swift 
destruction. A picture of St. Charles, by such a painter as 
Angelico, might have rendered with characteristic truth this 
lowly, beneficent, and serene spirit, upon whom the ample 
draperies, the rich, artistic accessories of the Caracci school, 
seemed to hang like a disguise. But, however represented, 
the actions and effigies of St. Charles Borromeo must always 
interest the religious and the philosophic mind. His was a 
phase of character so genuine and so peculiar, that before the 
worst picture of him we are inclined to pause, heart-struck, 
and bow in reverence. 

He was born in 1537, of one of the oldest, noblest, and 
wealthiest families of Lonibardy. He was the second son of his 
father, Grunt Borromeo ; and, like all the younger brothers of 
his race, from generation to generation, he was from infancy 
dedicated to the Churck In this case, his destiny happily 
coincided with the natural vocation. At twelve years old, he 
had a grant of the revenues of a rich Benedictine monastery, 
and he then requested that only such sums should be employed 
for his maintenance and education as were absolutely necessary, 
and the rest devoted to works of piety and charity. Even in 
Ms boyish years, the gravity and sanctity of Ms demeanour 
edified all his family. His father died before he was twenty, 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



and Ms uncle Pope Pius IV. created him cardinal and arch 
bishop of Milan at the age of twenty-three. 1 , He lived in the 
Coiirt of Eome as his uncle s chief counsellor and favourite, 
not only without reproach, but an object of reverential wonder 
for the singular combination of youthful modesty and candour 
with the wisdom and the self-government of maturer years. 
He was a good deal under the dominion of the Jesuits at 
this time, who seemed to have inspired him with prudence, 
without either corrupting his native sincerity or weakening 
1565. his fervid charity. On the death of his elder brother, Count 
Frederigo, lie succeeded to the hereditary honours of his 
family, and left Rome to take possession at once of his 
heritage and his diocese; he was then in his twenty-sixth 
year. His fame had gone before him, and the people of 
Milan received him as a second St. Ambrose. Not so the 
ecclesiastics; they dreaded the arrival of a young apostle 
whose whole life was in singular contrast with their own; 
who came among them armed with bulls and edicts for the 
reformation of abuses and the restoration of the Church 
revenues to their proper channels the maintenance of an 
active and efficient clergy and the relief of the poor. Having 
assembled a convocation for these purposes, and distributed 
in charity the immense personal property he had inherited, 
lie was suddenly called back to Rome, to attend his uncle on 
his death-bed; in this sacred duty he was assisted by St. 
Philip Neri. His subsequent influence in the conclave pro 
cured the election of Pius V., who endeavoured to detain the 
young archbishop at Rome; but in vain. St. Charles felt 
that his duty called him to the government of his diocese ; and, 
from this time, his life presents a picture of active charity, of 
self-denying humility, only to be equalled by the accounts we 
have of the primitive apostles and teachers of Christianity, All 
Ms own private revenues, as well as those of his diocese, were 
expended in public uses : he kept nothing for himself, but what 
sufficed to purchase bread and water for his diet, and straw 

i He was cardinal by tlie title of Santa Prassede (see Sacred and Legendary 
Art, ii. 248). I was much, astonished to find in the Duomo at Milan an altar 
dedicated to tMs peenlkily Roman saint, till I remembered that San Carlo was 
titular Cardinal di Santa Prassede. 



ST. CHARLES BORROMEO. 155 



for his bed. He travelled through every district and village, 
examining into the state of the people and the conduct 
of the priesthood, conversing with and catechising the poor. 
Up among the mountains, into the secluded valleys of the 
Italian Alps, where the neglected inhabitants had long 
remained in a state of physical and. spiritual destitution, did 
this good man penetrate ; he sent missionaries among them 
to teach and to preach, and then went himself to see that 
they performed their duty : on one occasion he was found in 
a poor mountain-hut, lying on some straw, shivering with 
ague, which had seized him in one of his excursions on foot. 
With all his excessive austerity, his fasts, and his penances, - 
he lived in public with the splendour becoming his rank, and 
exercised the most munificent hospitality, wearing under his 
cardinal s robes of scarlet and fur a ragged black gown ; and, 
where the feast was spread for others, contenting himself with 
a little dry bread and a glass of water. His buildings and 
foundations, his seminaries, his colleges, his hospitals, were 
all on a magnificent scale according to the taste of the time ; 
his charities boundless. 

But his determination to restore the discipline of the Church, 
and his strictness with regard to the moral conduct of the people 
committed to his charge, raised a host of enemies. The slothful 
ignorant clergy, the profligate nobles, united against him ; but, 
inflexibly firm as he was gentle of spirit, he overcame all 
opposition. His most determined adversaries were the Umiliati 
and the Franciscan friars, whom he required to live according 
to the Rule of their Order. The former community hired one 
of their own brotherhood, a miserable perverted wretch, to 
assassinate him ; this is one of the great events of his life, and 
one often represented. It was in November, and by the light 
of tapers, that the good prelate was celebrating the evening 
service in his chapel ; he was kneeling at the altar, and they 
were singing the anthem, Non turbetur. cor meum naque formidet, 
when the assassin, Fra Farina, concealed behind a door, fired at 
him ; the bullet struck him on the back, but was turned aside 
by the rich metallic embroidery on Ms cope. At the report of 
fire-arms the music ceased ; every one rose in consternation. 



156 LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



St. Charles, who believed himself mortally wounded, made them 
a sign to kneel down again, and, without stirring from the spot, 
or a change in his countenance, finished his prayer. It was 
found that the hall had bruised him, and several small shot had 
penetrated his clothes, but he was otherwise unhurt. The 
people, in their enthusiastic veneration, attributed his safety to 
the direct interposition of Heaven, to a miracle operated in his 
favour. He, meanwhile, shut himself up for a few days, and 
solemnly re-dedicated to Grod the life which had been spared 
to him. 

The other memorable incident of his life was the plague 
at Milan in 1575. It had been preceded by a scarcity, in 
which St. Charles ministered to his people like a beneficent 
angel. He sold his principality of Oria, and gave the produce, 
forty thousand crowns, for their relief. When the pestilence 
broke out, he was at Lodi : while all the higher clergy and 
the nobles were . flying from Milan in different directions, 
St. Charles calmly took his way thither, and entered the city 
in spite of the remonstrances of his vicars, replying only, that 
it was the duty of the shepherd to die for his flock. During 
the continuance of the plague, which carried off some 
thousands of the people, he preached every day, distributed 
medicine and relief to the sick and poor, administered the 
last sacraments to the dying, and assisted in burying the dead. 
Three several times he walked barefoot through the city, wear 
ing his purple robes as cardinal, and with a halter roundhis neck ; 
then, kneeling before the crucifix in the cathedral, he solemnly 
offered himself as a sacrifice for the people. Twenty-eightpriests 
voluntarily joined him in his ministry, and it is recorded that 
neither himself utor any of these caught the infection. 

In considering the life and character of St. Charles Borromeo, 
we cannot but feel that in earnestness and goodness lies a power 
beyond all other power which God has given to man. It is 
dear that he was not a man of large intellect. The admirable 
good sense he exhibited on several occasions, was at other times 
olouded by the most puerile superstition. He was not wiser 
titan tifcie men of his creed and time, except in so far as he wasr 



ST. CHARLES BOBROS1EO. 15? 



better: he was better, because lie lived up to the creed he 
professed. If lie was a rigid disciplinarian in external forms, 
he was most rigid to himself. He took no interest whatever in 
politics, and, after he had possession of his diocese, not much 
in science, in art, or in literature, though he extended educa 
tion on every side and to all classes. Neither did he owe his 
boundless influence over the people to any external advantages. 
He had a sallow meagre visage, a very aquiline nose, a dark 
complexion, a high but narrow forehead ; his features, alto 
gether, presenting almost a caricature of the Italian physiog 
nomy. He was tall and thin, and stooped in his gait from 
bodily weakness ; he had a bad voice, and stammered, yet he 
was one of the most forcible and eloquent of preachers. He 
died on the 4th of November 1584, and, true to his spiritual 
vocation to the very last, he was heard to breathe out, with a 
sort of dying rapture, the words c JEece, venial and so expired, 
having lived on this earth forty-six years. 

He was canonised by Pope Paul V. in 1610, and his remains 
were afterwards consigned to the rich shrine in which, guarded 
merely by tlie reverential piety of all denominations of Christians, 
they now repose; for, amid the changes and revolutions of Italy, 
as yet no one has dared to violate the sanctity of his chapel, or 
take away a jewel from among the offerings of his votaries. 
What the good saint himself would have thought of the gold, 
silver, gems, and crystal lavished upon him, we can all imagine 
and believe. This thought has always intruded with a dis 
agreeable and discordant feeling in the visits I have paid to his 
chapel, panelled with silver, and glittering with heaped-up 
treasures ; the dead form arrayed in splendid pontificals, the 
black skeleton head crowned with the jewelled mitre, shocked 
me. Upon the sarcophagus, and all around, we find repeated 
the motto of San Carlo, Humilitas, reading its lesson, and almost Milan. 
reproaching the sumptuous decorations of the house of death/ 

In crossing the Simplon into Italy, the colossal statue of San 
Carlo, standing on an eminence near the shore of his native 
lake, the Lago Maggiore, and visible for many miles around, 
is one of the first objects which strike the traveller. It was 
erected in 1696, and is nearly seventy feet high ; the attitude 



153 LEGENDS OF THE .MONASTIC ORDERS. 

is majestic ; the proportions agreeable to the eye, when viewed 
from a distance, though lost when near; and the hand is 
extended in benediction over the district which still reveres 
him as c II buon Santo S 

The Company of Goldsmiths at Milan raised to him a statue 
of pure silver, as large as life, which stands in the sacristy of 
the cathedral. 

The best devotional figures represent St. Charles in his 
cardinal s robes, barefoot, carrying the crosier as archbishop ; 
a rope round his neck, one hand raised in benediction. In 
all the Italian pictures he is distinguished by the peculiar 
physiognomy which has been preserved in authentic portraits : 
the thin beardless face, mild dark eyes, rather latge mouth, 
and immense aquiline nose. 

Of the many pictures which exist of him, I shall notice only 
the most remarkable, all of which belong to a late period of art. 

His portrait by Gruido is in his fine church in the Corso at 
Borne ; another, by Philippe de Champagne, is at Brussels, 
VTe have * San Carlo kneeling, with angels around him, by L. 
Oaracci, and the same subject by Annibal. He stands beside 
the figure of the dead Christ, to whom an angel points, by 0. 
Procaccino : the same subject by L. Caracci San Carlo pre 
sented by the Virgin to our Saviour, one of the best pictures 
of Carlo Marratti, is over the high altar of San Carlo-in- 
Rome. Corso. In the late Milanese pictures he is often represented 
with St. Catherine and St. Ambrose; also with St. Francesca 
Romana, for the reason given in her life ; and with St. Philip 
Neri, his friend and contemporary. 

"When the citizens of Bologna added him, about the year 
1615, to the list of their patron saints, he became a favourite 
subject in the then flourishing Bologna school. All the three 
Caracci, G-uido, Guercino, Lanfranco, Garbieri, and Brizio, 
have left pictures of him. In Guide s magnificent Pieta, his 
masterpiece, St Charles stands below with the other protectors 
of Bologna, Si Petronius, St. Dominick, St. Francis, St. Pro- 
eulus, St. Florian. The head of San Carlo is on the right, 
beautiful for devout feeling,, besides being a characteristic 
portrait. 



ST. CHARLES BORROMEO. 



159 



Among the incidents of his life, the two principal are, the 
plague at Milan, and the attempt to assassinate him. In the 
subjects taken from his conduct during the pestilence, he is 
sometimes represented standing amid the dead and dying, and 
administering the sacrament a subject frequently painted; 
or, prostrate before the altar, he offers himself a sacrifice for 
his afflicted people. Of this last incident, the finest example I 
know is the picture by Le Brim : yet the sentiment, as it seems 
to me, is weakened, not enhanced, by the introduction of the 
attendant behind, who, lifting up the rich robe, shows to his 
companion the feet of the saint streaming with blood (he had 
walked barefoot through the streets of Milan). But Le Brun 
has always "a touch of the theatrical always painted in a wig. 
I give a sketch from this picture, taken from the celebrated 
engraving by Edelinck. 




St. Charles Borromeo. 



160 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Ranke Hist, 
of the Popes. 



The procession through the streets of Milan during the 
pestilence, by Pietro da Cortona, is over the high altar of San 
Carlo-ai-Catinari at Rome, where no less than three churches 
are dedicated to him. 

Before I close this brief account of San Carlo, it seems worth 
recording that his name is associated with music, as well as 
painting and sculpture. In the middle of the sixteenth century 
the style of music performed in the churches had become so 
secular and depraved in taste and style, that the Council of Trent 
took the matter in hand as a scandal to religion ; and Pius IY 

&lt; nominated a commission to advise upon the question, whether 
music was to be permitted in the churches or not The decision 
was long doubtful, .The Church required that the words 
should be distinctly articulated, and the musical expression 
adapted to them. The musicians affirmed that this was not to 
be attained according to the laws of their art. Carlo Borromeo 
was at the head of this commission, and the very strict opinions 
of this &lt; great ecclesiastic on all matters of Church discipline 
rendered it most probable that judgment would be given against 
that heaven-descended art which had been so profanely abused. 

&lt; But, adds the historian, &lt; happily the right man appeared at 
the critical moment. That man was PALESTKINA. When his 
great Mass, since known and celebrated as the * Mass of Pope 
Marcellus* was performed before Pius IV., St. Charles, and 
the other members of the commission, they were unable to 
resist its majestic solemnity, its expressive pathos ; and c by 
this one great example the question was for ever set at rest." 




From a fresco by Matteo di Gualdo at Assist, 



ST. PHILIP NERI. 



161 




32 St. Philip Neri ; au angel holds the Gospel from which, he preaches. 

In connection with. St.- Charles Borromeo, we find his con 
temporary and intimate friend ST. PHILIP NERI. 

Effigies of this saint, who was canonised in 1622, belong, 
of course, to the later schools of art, and none are very good. 
He is, himself, extremely interesting as founder of one of the 
most useful, practical, and disinterested of all the religious 
communities, that of the Oratorians. 1 

i "When I visited the elegant little church o the Oratorians, recently erected 
near Alton Towers, I found portrayed on the window over the high altar the fol 
lowing 1 saints. In the centre, as patron of the church 3 St. Wilfred of York ; on 
his right, St. Benedict (I presume St. Bennet of Wearmouth), and St. Ethelburga ; 
on his left, St. Chad of Lichfield, and St. Hilda of Whitby. From this selection 
I presume that the Qratorians consider themselves as derived from the Benedictine 
Order. 

Y 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



He was born in 1515, the son of a Florentine lawyer, and 
descended from one of the oldest Tuscan families. In 1533 
he repaired to Borne in search of employment, and became a 
tutor in the family of a nobleman. He was already dis 
tinguished as a profound and elegant scholar and con 
scientious teacher, and yet more for his active charity. His 
superior intellect, his persuasive eloquence, his spotless 
life, rendered him a very influential personage in the re 
ligious movement of the sixteenth century. As the adviser 
and almoner of St. Charles Borromeo, he had great power 
to do good, and he used it for noble and practical pur 
poses. 

Ranke gives us a striking picture of Filippo Neri in few 
words. * He was good-humoured, witty, strict in essentials, 
indulgent in trifles. He never commanded; he advised, or 
perhaps requested : he did not discourse, he conversed ; and 
he possessed, in a remarkable degree, the acuteness necessary 
to distinguish the peculiar merit of every character. 

He associated with himself, in works of charity, several 
young ecclesiastics, members of the nobility, and students in 
the learned professions at Rome, who, under his direction, 
were formed into a community, and devoted themselves to the 
task of reading the Scriptures, praying with the poor, founding 
and visiting hospitals for the sick, &c. They were bound by 
no vows; there was no forced seclusion from the ordinary 
duties of life. They took the name of Oratorians, from the 
little chapel or oratory in which they used to assemble round 
Filippo to receive his instructions. 

Cardinal de Berulle introduced the Peres de VOratoire into 
France in 1631, and they have lately been established in 
England. After a long, useful, and religious life, Filippo 
Neri died in 1595, at the age of eighty-two. 

Gregory XIII. , in confirming the congregation of the 
Oratory in 1575, bestowed on Filippo Neri and his com 
panions the church of S. Maria della Yallicella. After the 
death of the saint it was entirely rebuilt, not, certainly, in 
very good taste, yet it is one of the most superb churches in 
Borne, It still belongs to the Oratorians. Here, after his 



ST. PHILIP NERI. 163 



canonisation in 1622, a chapel was dedicated to San Filippo 
by his Florentine kinsman Nero de Neri, and in it is placed 
the mosaic copy after the fine picture by Guido which repre 
sents the saint in an ecstasy of devotion. In the oratory is 
preserved the books, the crucifix, the bed, and some other 
relics of this benevolent saint I do not know that he is 
distinguished by any particular attribute. The sketch is from v * P. 
his statue in St. Peter s, executed by AlgardL 

St. Philip Neri was the spiritual director of the Massimi 
family; it is in his honour that the Palazzo Massimi is dressed 
up in festal guise every 16th of March, as those who have 
been at Borne at that period will well remember. The annals 
of the family relate, that the son and heir of Prince Fabrizio 
Massimi died of a fever at the age of fourteen, and that St. 
Philip, coming into the room amid the lamentations of the 
father, mother, and sisters, laid his hand upon the brow of 
the youth, and called him by his name, on which he revived, 
opened his eyes, and sat up. * Art thou unwilling to die ? 
asked the saint. No, sighed the youth. 6 Art thou re- 
signed to yield thy soul to God ? * * I am. * Then go, said 
Philip, c Vo,) che sii benedetto, e prega Dio per noi! * The 
boy sank back on his pillow with a heavenly smile on his face, 
and expired. 

This incident, so touching as a well-authenticated fact, so 
needlessly exalted into a miracle, is the subject of a very 
beautiful picture by Pomerancia, painted by order of Prince 
Fabrizio, and placed in the church of Vallicella. The family 
portraits in this picture are from life; the head of the saint 
bending over Paolo; the beautiful expression in the face of the 
dying youth ; the surprise of the father ; the devout thank 
fulness of the pious mother ; the two sisters, who kneel with 
clasped hands and parted lips, watching the scene are ren 
dered with much dramatic power. 

When I was at Rome in 1846, Pius IX. performed a service 
in the family chapel of the Massimi in memory of this incident. 
The prince received all visitors in state, and the halls and cor 
ridors of this once magnificent but now dilapidated palace were 
thronged with people of all classes : some who came there in 



164 LEG-ENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



honour of the saint; others, as a mark of respect to the family; 
others, like myself, merely as spectators of a strange and 
animated scene a sort of religious * at home. 

It is worth remarking and considering, that at the very time 
when St. Charles Borromeo, San FHippo, and their companions 
and disciples, were setting an example of Christian charity at 
Eome, the massacre of St. Bartholomew was enacted in France 
by those who professed the same faith ; and the same Pope 
who encouraged St. Charles in his spiritual reforms, and as 
sisted St. Philip Neri in his works of charity, and in his efforts 
for the moral regeneration of Italy, struck the medal in honour 
of the massacre of the Huguenots ! Such are the moral and 
religious inconsistencies which make the devils sneer, and the 
angels weep. 



I must not conclude these notices of the Reformed Benedic 
tines in their connection with Art, without a few words on the 
Port-Eoyalists and the Trappistes. The renowned convent of 
Port-Royal-des-Champs was a foundation of the Cistercians 
in the sixteenth century. The account of the fortunes of this 
community, and of the noble conduct of La Mdre Angelique 
and her nuns, which forms no unimportant page of French 
history, has been recently given to us by Sir James Stephen ; 
and his brief, but earnest and eloquent, summary of their 
wrongs, and feminine and Christian heroism, must lend a 
new interest to every memorial connected with them. They 
were persecuted to the grave because they refused to certify, 
by their signatures, that they knew what they did not know, 
and believed what they did not believe. If they were not 
saints and martyrs of the Church, yet saints they were in the 
true and original sense of the word; for they lived holily, 
worked faithfully, suffered patiently, resisted humbly, and 
died at last, as their historian expresses it, martyrs of sin 
cerity, strong in the faith that a lie must ever be hateful in 
the sight of God, though infallible popes should exact it, or 



OF PORT-ROYAL. 1C5 



an infallible church, as represented by cardinals and confessors, 
should persuade it. 9 

Nor can I refrain from numbering among these martyr-nuns 
the noble Jacqueline Pascal (the sister of the great Pascal), with 
her large poet mind, and woman s softest gifts, who died broken 
hearted because she had in evil hour signed that formal lie. 
She had previously written to La Mere Angelique, c Je sais 
bien qu on dit que ce n est pas & des filles & defendre la verite, 
rnais si ce n est pas & nous & defendre la verite, c est & nous & 
mourir pour la verite. Tet for the sake of peace she was 
induced to sign, and died of that malady for which earth has 
no cure a wounded conscience ; a martyr to truth, which she 
could not violate and live. 1 

The eldest daughter of the painter Philippe de Champagne 
had become a nun in the convent of Port-Royal, about the year 
1650. Champagne was a religious man, but he was also a rich 
and prosperous man, holding an office at court 5 and having lost 
two children by death, he was unwilling to resign to a nunnery 
the only one left : she persisted, however, and he consented 
perforce. She took the TOWS under the abbess Angelique, Nos.ss9, 
second of that name, a woman of genius, virtue, and learning. 
Of this excellent abbess thereremains a portrait by Champagne : 
where it is now, I do not know; but the portraits of her father 
and her mother, Arnauld-D Andilly and his wife, Madlle. Le 
Febre, are in the Louvre. The first is one of the finest portraits 
ever produced by the French school : the second is rather hard 
in the execution ; but it is a face of such peculiar character, 



1 When the commissioner of the Archbishop of Paris was sent to examine 
into the condition and confession of faith of the nuns of Porfc-Royal, Soeur 
Jacqueline was one of those interrogated. After a searching examination on 
grace, election, and so forth, which she met unflinchingly, the commissioner 
concluded with a home question: * N*avez-vous point de plaintes & faire V . 
6 Non, monsieur ; par la grace de Dieu je suis parfaitement contente. D. Mais 
cela est e tracgel! Quand je vais quelquefois yoir des Beligieuses, elles me tiennent 
des deux heures de suite & me faire des plaintes, et je ne troure point cela ici? 
M. * II est vrai, monsieur, que par la grace de Dieu nous vivons dans tine tres- 
grande paix et une grande union. Je crois qye cela went de ce gue chcwune fait 
son devoir &ans se m$kr des acres Vie de Jacqueline de Pascal, par Victor 
Cousin. 



166, 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS, 



so spiritualised, so refined from all earthly alloy, with such a 
tinge of pale, religious contemplation, such a look of transparent 
purity, without any of the charms of youth, that, once seen, 
it leaves an indelible impression upon the mind. This portrait 
hangs nearly opposite that of her husband : they ought to hang 
side by side. In the same gallery we find Philippe cle Cham 
pagne s most celebrated picture, known as Les ReligieusesS 
I give a sketch from it here. It represents the daughter of 




Two Nuns of Port-Royal. (Philippe de Champagne.) 



Champagne who had been ill of a fever, and given over by her 
physician, restored by the prayers of one of the sisterhood, 
Catherine Agnes by name. This picture, remarkable for the 
simplicity, and purity, and religious repose of the treatment, 
seems to have been painted with earnest feeling and good-will, 
to please his daughter, and as an offering of paternal gratitude. 
The nuns wear the white habit and black hoods proper to their 
Order ; and are distinguished by a red cross on the breast, the 
badge of the Port-Royalists. 

The Trappistes, another late community of reformed Cister- 



OF PORT-ROYAL. 167 



clans, Is the most austere of all ; and remarkable as having A.D, ie, 
originated in an age of general luxury, profligacy, and ir- 
religion. 

The romantic story of the conversion of the Abbe de 
Ranee, who, on hastening to an assignation with his mistress, 
the beautiful Duchess de Montbazon, found her dead in the 
short interval of his absence, and laid out in her coffin under 
circumstances of peculiar horror, is well known, and would 
afford many picturesque subjects ; but as they would hardly 
belong to religious art, properly so called, I pass them over. 
De Ranee, on founding his famous institution of La Trappe, 
seems to have taken as his device the text, * In the midst of 
life we are in death; 5 and imposed as conditions, perpetual 
silence, perpetual labour, perpetual contemplation of our 
mortality. Not only all art and all ornament, but all litera 
ture, was banished. That in the mind of De Ranee there 
was, after the shock he had received, a touch of the morbid 
or the mad, that even iu his gloomy retreat he was haunted 
by that c enervating thirst for human sympathy which had 
distinguished him in the world, seems clear and intelli 
gible;, yet the numbers of those who resorted to him, who 
lived and died under his terrible ordinations lived happily 
and died calmly shows us that there are forms of moral 
suffering, and mental disease, for which we might provide 
more appropriate asylums than either the hospital or the 
madhouse. 



., Q LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 

JOS 



rtnt& 



I HAVE given a sketch of the most eminent of our Anglo-Saxon 
princes, who were canonised through the influence of the 
Benedictine Order in England; confining myself to those 
who have either figured, or ought, as I presume, to figure, in 
the illustration of our early ecclesiastical history. I shall 
now, in order to keep this department of my subject quite 
distinct, place together those Royal Saints who flourished 
throughout Christendom in early times ; who either preceded 
the institute of St. Benedict, or whom we find in connection 
with that illustrious Order in religious Art or through historical 
associations. 

I know not how it may be with others, but to me the effigies 
of the Eoyal Saints are not satisfactory. They are all, of 
course, historical personages, but they do not figure as such in 
sacred Art ; and whatever space they may fill in the page of 
history though it be that of a whole era, like Charlemagne 
however distinguished as actors in the world s drama, how 
ever reverenced for virtues which the world seldom sees in high 
places still, in their saintly character, they are not, with one 
or two exceptions, eminent or interesting. As connected with 
Art they are comparatively unimportant, both in regard to what 
they represent and what they suggest. For, be it remembered, 
they do not represent history ; neither do they personify an 
attribute of Divine power, nor embody a truth, nor set forth 
an example ; which is the reason, I suppose, that for one real 
St. Charlemagne or St. Clotilda, we have ten thousand St. 
Christophers and St Catherines. In considering these royal 
Saints we must in the first place, and in all cases, set the 
saint above the sovereign and put history out of our minds, 
and its stern facts and judgments out of our memories. Now 



or POET-EOYAL. 



this is not easy : in some cases it is not possible ; hence the 
legendary fictions connected -with many of these stately and 
glorified personages disturb rather than excite the fancy, for 
here the real and ideal do not blend well together. When 
Constantine, with the celestial nimbus round his head, figures 
as the hero of a religious legend, he becomes as mere a fiction 
as Charlemagne starting amid his magicians and paladins at 
the sound of Orlando s horn. Unluckily for these pictured or 
poetical creations, we can hardly in either case set aside the 
image in our minds of the real Constantine, the real Charle 
magne: and the reality is more perplexing, more painful, when 
it disturbs our religious, than when it interferes with our 
poetical, -associations. The Charlemagne of Ariosto is delight 
ful ; the Saint Constantine of Church history is to me disgust 
ing. There should not intrude repugnance and offence and 
the risk of a divided feeling, where the idea conveyed ought to 
be either abstract, or at least gracious and harmonious, and 
the feeling completely reverential. Now in the case of historical 
or political personages, whose effigies are placed before us in 
the character of superior beings, they are involuntarily sub 
jected to a judgment such as crowned kings must be prepared 
to endure, but which in regard to crowned saints is in some 
sort profane ; For the glory of the celestial is one, and the 
glory of the terrestrial is another. Therefore, I repeat, the 
effigies of sainted potentates and princes are unsatisfactory. 
As it is out of the question to deal with them otherwise than 
in the religious and artistic point of view, they may be passed 
over briefly. 

We should, in the first place, distinguish between those who 
were canonised for services and submission to the Church or 
for the interest of churchmen, and those who were canonised 
so to speak in the hearts of the people, long before an 
ecclesiastical decree had confirmed their exaltation, for virtues 
difficult and rare on a throne beneficence, clemency, self- 
denial, humility, active sympathy with the cause of humanity 
and the general good, as far as they understood it. To the 
former class belong St. Constantine, St. Henry, St. Ferdinand, 
and a crowd of others ; to the latter class belong St. Charle- 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



magne, St. Elizabeth, and perhaps a few more. In giving a 
reason for the canonisation of the Empress Cunegunda, the 
writer of her life remarks, that those who are placed in high 
stations must necessarily be to very many the occasion of 
eternal salvation or of eternal perdition : that, as far as the 
wide circle of their influence and example extends, they can 
not rise without raising the standard of virtue around them ; 
they cannot fall without dragging down others into the abyss 
of sin. * Therefore, he argues, a greater degree of glory or 
of punishment than would be the lot of common men is the 
just and everlasting portion of the rulers of men. 
I shall now take them in order. 

At their head stand Constantine and Charlemagne, often 
together, as patrons respectively of the Greek and the Latin 

ST. CON- Churches. St. Constantine rarely stands alone in Western 
Art. Notwithstanding his famous donation of the central 
territory of Italy to the popes of Eome (which Ariosto has so 
irreverently placed in the moon with Orlando s lost wits), I 
have seldom seen him figure in any situation where his Chris 
tian merits took precedence of his imperial greatness, not 
even in the Hall of Constantine in the Vatican, where 
Eaphael has done his best to glorify him. It is still the 
emperor, and not the saint ; and when Sylvester receives the 
act of donation, he is throned, and the imperial Constantine 

sacred and humbly presents it on Ms knees. The * Legend of St. Con- 
gtaELt ne an&lt; j g^ gyi ves ter I have already given at length ; 
the emperor plays, throughout, the secondary personage in 
that curious fiction. In an assemblage of the Blessed in a 
Last Judgment, a Paradise, a Coronation of the Virgin, and 
such subjects, it is usual to find Constantine and Charlemagne 
standing together : the former bearing the long sceptre, or 
the standard with the cross (the Labarum), and, in Italian 
Art, always in the classical costume ; the latter in a suit of 
armour, a long mantle often trimmed with ermine ; a sword, 
or a globe surmounted by a small cross, in one hand ; and in 
the other a book either as the great legislator of his time. 



SS. CONSTANTINE AND CHARLEMAGNE. 173 



or because lie ordered the translation of the Scriptures to he 
carefully corrected and widely promulgated. 

The most ancient representation of Charlemagne in his saintly ST&lt; CHARLE 
character I have yet met with, is a fragment of Mural painting jiffs 
preserved in the Christian Museum in the Vatican ; the head 
only, wearing the kingly crown surmounted by the aureole ; 
he has a short, square yellowish beard, and a refined and 
rather melancholy face : I describe from memory, but it im 
pressed me as having a portrait-like air, as a head I would 
have given to Alfred. 

The copies of the Gospels which Charlemagne ordered to be 
transcribed and distributed to various religious institutions 
were sometimes illuminated by Greek artists, whom he had 
invited from Constantinople. Two of these MSS. are in the 
National Library at Paris. The drawing of the figures is as 
rude as that of St. Dunstan ; the colours vivid, the ornaments P . 94. 
fanciful. An Evangelistarium, copied and illuminated for the 
use of Charlemagne and his empress Hildegarde, was presented 
to Napoleon on the birth of his son, and was in the ex-king s 
private library in the Tuilleries : I know not if it still exists 
there. Napoleon liked to be considered as a second Charle 
magne ; and Charlemagne assumed the name and attributes 
of King David. 1 He occurs perpetually in the French 
missals : in Angelico s exquisite coronation of the Virgin, 
he kneels at the foot of the Divine throne, on the left of 
the picture; and has three crowns embroidered on his robe, 
representing his dominion over France, Germany, and Italy. 
In order to represent the embodied religious and intellectual 
spirit of those times, the imperial saint should stand between 
his secretary and chronicler Eginhardt, and the wise Saxon 
monk Alcwin, le confident, le conseiller, le docteur, et, pour 
ainsi dire, le premier ministre intellectuel de Charlemagne : * 
and thus accompanied, I should not object to see him with a 
halo round his head. 

1 So Alcwin occasionally addresses Hm in his letters, * Tr&s-exeellent et 
digne de tout honneur, Seigneur Roi David 1 * Alcwin had been educated in the 
Benedictine Monastery of York under St Wilfred.-~6toize&gt;* : Cours 
Moderne, Leon 22. 



_ LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



In France, Germany, and Italy, Charlemagne stands at the 
head of the Royal Saints ; tut in a chronological series, St. 
Clotilda and St. Sigismoncl should precede him. 

CLOTILDA, the Christian wife of the fierce and warlike Clovis, 
3m. s. wag a princess of Burgundy. She is said to have christianised 
France, and occurs frequently in French pictures and illumi 
nated missals and breviaries. She is usually represented in the 
royal robes, with a long white veil and a jewelled crown : she is 
either bestowing alms on the poor, or kneeling in praj r ers ; or 
attended by an angel holding a shield, on which are the three 
Fleurs-de-lys. By her prayers and alms she hoped to obtain 
the conversion of her husband, who, for a long time, resisted 
her and the holy men whom she had called to her aid. At 
length, as the historians tell us, Clovis having led his army 
against the Huns, and being in imminent danger of a shame 
ful defeat, recommended himself to the God of his Clotilda : 
the tide of battle turned ; he obtained a complete victory, and 
was baptized by St. Eemi, to the infinite joy of Clotilda. On 
this occasion, says the legend, not only was the cruse of holy 
oil miraculously brought by a dove (figuring the Holy Ghost), 
but, owing to a vision of St. Clotilda, the lilies were substi 
tuted in the arms of France for the three frogs or toads 
coiiectionof (crapauds) which Clovis had formerly borne on his shield. 
In the famous Bedford missal, presented to Henry VI. when 
he was crowned King of France, this legend, with appropriate 
and significant flattery, is introduced in a beautiful miniature : 
an angel receives in heaven the celestial lilies, descends to earth, 
and presents them to St. Remi, who receives them reverently 
in a napkin, and delivers them to Clotilda ; lower down in the 
picture, she bestows the emblazoned shield on her husband. 
Such is the famous legend of the Fleurs-de-lyS) the antique 
emblems of purity and regeneration, how often since trailed 
through blood and mire I St. Clotilda displayed some qualities 
not quite in harmony with her saintly character. When, in 
her old age, her two younger sons had seized the children of 
their eldest brother Chlodomir, and demanded of her whether 
she would prefer death or the tonsure for her grandsons, she 



ST. SIGISMOHD. 



exclaimed passionately,* Better they were dead, than shaven 
monks ! They took her at her word, two of the princes were 
immediately stabbed. The third escaped, fled to a monastery, 
assumed the cowl, and became famous as SAINT CLOUD; who orciodoai- 
should be represented as a Benedictine monk, with the kingly dus &gt; A - ]D - 560 - 
crown at his feet. 

ST. SIGISMOND of Burgundy was the cousin of Clotilda, At A . 525, 
this time, Gaul was divided between the Arians and the Ca- ay 
tholics ; the Catholics triumphed, and those who perished on 
their side became consequently canonised martyrs. Sigismond 
was one of these : his father Gondubald, an Arian, had mur 
dered the parents of Clotilda. When Sigismond succeeded to 

the throne of Burgundy, he 
became a Catholic, and was 
distinguished by his piety: 
he, however, like the pious 
Constantine, put his eldest 
son to death, on the false 
accusation of a cruel step 
mother ; and while r epentin g 
his crime in sackcloth and 
ashes, he prayed that the 
punishment due to him might 
fall upon him in this world, 
rather than the next. His 
prayers were heard ; the sons 
of Clotilda invaded his king 
dom, took him prisoner, and 
avenged the crimes of his 
father Gondubald, byputting 
him to death. The body of 
Sigismond was flung into a 
well ; .and thence, some years 
afterwards, removed to the 
convent of St. Maurice. It 
is his connection (as a saint sacred and 
st Sigismond. only) with St. Maurice and J?4ii. &lt;LArt 




174 LEGEHDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



the Theban Legion which, has popularised St. Sigisrnond in 
Italy. He is one of the patrons of Cremona. In a chapel dedi 
cated to him there, Francesco Sforza celebrated his marriage 
with Bianca Visconti, the heiress of Milan. As a monument at 
once of Ms love, his gratitude, and his piety, he converted the 
little church into a most magnificent temple, glorious with 
marbles and pictures, and shrines of wondrous beauty. The 
painters of the Cremona school, rarely met with out of Italy, 
cannot be better studied than in the church of St. Sigismond. 
I made a pilgrimage thither one hot dusty day (it is two miles 
from the city gate), and I remember well the feeling with which 
I put aside the great floating draperies which hung before the 
portal, and stepped out of the glaring sunshine into the perfumed 
air and subdued light, and trod the marble pavement, so cool 
and lustrous, arid leaned, unblamed, against the altar-steps, to 
rest me. I was quite alone ; and, for many reasons, that church 
of San Gismondo dwells In my remembrance. Yet the pictures, 
though interesting as examples of a particular school of art, 
were not to me attractive, either in style or subject, excepting 
always the grand altarpiece of Giulio Campi. It represents 
the Madonna and Child enthroned ; and Francesco Sforza and 
Bianca Maria Visconti, as duke and duchess of Milan, presented 
by St. Chrysanthus and St. Daria, with St. Sigismond and St. 
Jeromo standing on each side. The choice of the attendant 
saints appears unintelligible, till we remember that the nuptials 
^^ g ave gf orza the sovereignty of Milan and Cremona were 
celebrated on the feast of SS. Chrysanthus and Daria; that the 
church was dedicated to St. Sigismond, and the monastery to 
St. Jerome. The picture is splendid, like Titian ; and the 
dress of St. Sigismond in particular, with its deep crimson and 
violet tints, quite Venetian in the intense glow of the colouring. 
The describer of this picture in Murray s Handbook mentions 
6 the shrinking timidity in the figure of Bianca. There is no 
such thing ; on the contrary, she looks like a gorgeous bride who 
had brought two duchies to her husband. But this is a digres 
sion ; I must turn back to the old royalties of Germany and 
Gaul. How is it there were no Eoyal Saints among the powers 
and principalities of Italy ? I find none : not even the great 



SS. CYRIL AND KETHODIUS. 175 



Countess Matilda, 5 whose munificent piety almost doubled the 
possessions of the Church of Rome. 



Next after Charlemagne we find St. Wenceslaus and St. 
Ludmilla, familiar to all who have visited Prague. 

A school of art, distinct from German Art, and of which we 
know little or nothing in England, flourished in Bohemia 
about the middle of the fourteenth century. Charles IV,, 
king of Bohemia and emperor, who held his court at Prague, 
decorated his churches and palaces with altarpieces and 
frescoes ; not only employing native artists, but inviting to his 
capital others from foreign countries ; among them an Italian, 
one of the school of the Giotteschi, called from his birthplace 
Tomaso di Mutina (.#., Thomas of Modena). By this painter, 
by Theodoric or Dietrich of Prague, and by Carl Skreta Bitter 
Ssotnowsky von Zaworzic (* Phoebus! what a name! after 
the musical nomenclature of Italian Art !) I saw, when I was 
in Bohemia and Austria, various pictures, and am only sorry 
I did not then pay more attention to the peculiar and national 
subjects represented, the legendary worthies and patron 
saints of Bohemia. 

The earliest apostles of the Sclavonic tribes, the Moravians, 
Bohemians, Hungarians, and Bulgarians, were two Greek 
monks of the Order of St. Basil, known as St. Cyril and St. 
Methodius, and connected in a very interesting manner with 
the history of religious Art. Cyril was learned and eloquent, a 
philosopher and a poet; Methodius was considered an excellent 
painter of that time, when his country produced the only 
painters known. These two monks departed together, by order 
of the patriarch of Constantinople, to preach to the savage 
nations along the shores of the Danube. Bogaris, the king or 
chief of Bulgaria, having heard of the art of Methodius, 
required of him that he should paint a picture in the hall of his 
palace, and that it should be * something terrible/ to impress 
his subjects and vassals with awe, Methodius accordingly 



176 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



painted the Day of Judgment, representing at the summit our 
Lord seated in glory, and surrounded with angels; on his 
right, the resurrection of the blessed, and on his left, the doom 
of sinners, swallowed up in flames, and tormented by the most 
hideous demons. When the king desired to have the inter 
pretation of this terrible picture, Cyril, who was as eloquent 
in words as Methodius was in colours and forms, preached to 
the barbarian monarch and his attendants such a sermon as 
converted them all on the spot. Their mission was extended 
successfully through the surrounding nations. While Metho 
dius painted the doctrines of the Christian faith, Cyril explained 
them in the language of the people, invented for them a 
written alphabet, translated portions of the Gospel, and ob 
tained from Pope Nicholas the privilege of celebrating the 
divine service in the Sclavonic tongues. These two saints are 
generally represented together, as St. Methodius the painter, 
and St. Cyril the philosopher. The former holds in his hand 
a tablet, on which is a picture of the Day of Judgment ; the 
latter holds a large book. % Thus they stand in a fine marble 
group in the cathedral at Prague. 
Another missionary who carried the light of the Gospel into 

or Albert. Bohemia was St. Adelbert, an Anglo-Saxon Benedictine from 
the kingdom of Northumbria. He converted Ludmilla, the 
grandmother of Wenceslaus, venerated through northern 
Germany and Denmark as St. Wenzel. Ludmilla carefully 
educated the yonng prince in her own faith. Meantime, his 
brother Boleslaus had been brought up by his heathen mother 
Drahomira in all the dark errors of paganism. The characters 
of the two princes corresponded with the tenets they respec 
tively embraced. Wenceslaus was as mild, merciful, and just, 
as Boleslaus was fierce, cruel, perfidious, Bohemia was divided 
by the two parties, the Christian and the heathen ; and at 
length Boleslaus and his wicked mother conspired to assas- 

ST. Ltm- sinate Ludmilla, as being the great protectress of the Chris 
tians, and the enemy of their native gods. The hired murderers 
found her praying at the foot of the cross in her private oratory, 
and strangled her with her own veil Thus she became the 
first martyr-saint of Bohemia. 



Sept. 16. 



ST. WENCESLATJS, 



177 




St. Ludmilla. (E. Max.) 



The turn of Wenceslaus came next ; lie tad valiantly met 
his enemies in the field, though not even the atrocities of 
Drahomira could induce him to forget his duty to her as a 
son. According to the legend, two angels from heaven 
visibly protected Wenceslaus in battle ; but they forsook 
him, apparently, when, by the arts of his mother, he was A.D. sss, 
entrapped to pay her a visit, and slain by the hand of his pt 2S " 
brother at the foot of the altar and in the act of prayer. 

Wenceslaus lived at the time when the passion for relics 
had spread over all Christendom. On a visit which he 
paid to his friend Otho L, that warlike emperor bestowed 
on him certain relics of St. Yitus and St. Sigismond, Thus 
in the Bohemian pictures we have St. "Wenceslaus and St. 
Sigismond, all glorious in their princely robes, their crowns 
and palms, and shining armour; St. Ludmilla, with her 
palm and her veil ; St. Yitus, as a beautiful b ; oy with a saerea and 
cock on his book ; St. George ; and St. Procopius, a holy 2nd edit. 
Bohemian prince who turned hermit in the eleventh century, 
and is represented with a doe at his side and a crown at his 
feet. . . . 

St. Wenceslaus is represented robed and armed as Duke of 
Bohemia, carrying the shield and standard with the black 

A A 



178 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 




St. Procopius. 



Imperial eagle (a. privilege granted to Mm by Otho L), and 
his palm as martyr." 

In the Imperial Gallery at Vienna is a very curious altar- 
piece, with the Virgin and Child enthroned in the central 
compartment: on one side St. Wenceslaus ; on the other St. 
Palmatius, inscribed 

&lt; Quis opiis hoc fmxit ? Thomas de Mutina pinxit. 7 

Another picture in which St. Wenceslaus, a colossal figure, is 
rosein, 1653. g^^g ^{fa flie same attributes, while an angel brings him 
the crown of martyrdom. In the background is a pedestal, 
on which is depicted a bas-relief, exhibiting the murder of 
the saint by his wicked brother. The painter, Angiolo Caro- 



ST. HENRY OF BAVARIA. 17* 



selli, was one of tlie numerous artists in the employment of 
Rudolph. II. 

In the gallery of the Academy there is (or was) a series of 
pictures representing the life and martyrdom of Wenceslau*, 
by Carl Skreta, who, notwithstanding his terrihle name, was 
a very good painter, particularly of portraits. 

The martyrdom of St. Ludmilla I found represented in a 
curious old fragment of a bas-relief, standing in the Church 
of St. Laurence at Nuremberg. A fine marble statue by a 
native Bohemian sculptor, Emanuel Max, has recently been 
set up in the Church of St. Vitus at Prague, from which I 
give a sketch. 



ST. HENRY of Bavaria was one of those princes who earned ST. HENRY, 

_ _ .., i i 1 /NT i Emperor. 

their canonisation by boundless submission to the Church. A.v.im, 
He was born in the year 972, was elected emperor in 1002, 
and died at Eome in 1024. He founded and endowed, in con 
junction with his wife Cunegunda, the magnificent cathedral 
and monastery of Bamberg in Franconia, and many other 
convents and religious edifices in Germany and Italy. His 
brother the Duke of Bavaria, and other princes of the empire, 
reproached him for expending not only his patrimony but the 
public treasures in these foundations ; they even made this an 
excuse for their rebellion against him. But Henry showed 
himself not less valiant than he was devout. He defeated his 
adversaries in the field, and then earned his title of saint by 
pardoning them all freely, and restoring to them their posses 
sions. He undertook an expedition against the idolatrous 
nations of Poland and Sclavonia, partly for their conversion, 
and partly for their subjection. On going forth to this war 
he solemnly placed his army under the protection of the three 
holy martyrs St. Laurence, St. George, and St. Adrian, and, 
as already related, girded on the sword of the last-named war 
like saint, which had been long preserved as a precious relic 
in the church of "Walbeck. The legend goes on to assure us 
that his saintly protectors were seen visibly fighting on his 
side, and that through their divine aid lie defeated the infidels, IL 4*9. 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



and obliged them to receive baptism. As a memorial of his 
victory arose the beautiful church of Merseberg. He also led 
an army to the very extremity of Italy, and drove the Saracens 
from their conquests in Apulia. These were services rendered 
not only to the Church,, but to Christendom ; and it seems 
clear that though the piety of Henry was deeply tinctured by 
the fanaticism and superstition of the times in which he lived, 
he possessed some great and some good qualities. He pro 
fessed a particular veneration for the Virgin, and it was his 
custom in his warlike expeditions, whenever he entered a citv 
for the first time, to repair immediately to a church dedicated 
to the Mother of the Saviour, and there to pay his devotions. 
On one occasion when visiting the abbey of Verdun, he was 
seized with such a weariness of soul, such a disgust for the 
pomps and cares of his position, that he was about to re 
nounce the world, and take the habit of a monk. The prior, 
Richard of Verdun, told him that the first vow required of 
him would be obedience. The emperor expressed his readiness 
to obey; thereupon thfe prior enjoined him. to retain his kingly 
office and discharge his duties. * The emperor, said he, 
came hither to learn obedience, and he practises this lesson 
by ruling wisely. 

ST. COTE- Henry, on assuming the imperial dignity, married the 
March s, beautiful and pious princess Cunegunda, daughter of Sieg 
fried, Count of Luxembourg, who shares her husband s celestial, 
as she shared his earthly crown. She is Saint Cunegunda, 
adored by her people while living, and the subject of in 
numerable legends and ballads since her death. After a union 
of several years, during which they lived together in love and 
harmony, but by mutual consent in the strictest continence, 
the holy Empress was suspected of infidelity to her husband ; 
and Henry, though perfectly convinced of his wife s immacu 
late purity, was somewhat affected by the malicious reports 
concerning her. Cunegunda herself would willingly have sub 
mitted to these accusations as a trial sent from Heaven to test 
her patience and humility ; but considering that Providence 
had placed her in a position of life wherein an evil example 
would cause much mischief and scandal, she appealed to the 



ST. 



181 




St. Cnnegunda walking over the red-hot ploughshares. 



trial by ordeal, and, having walked unnurt over the burning 
ploughshares, she was acquitted. This story of the Empress 
Cunegunda is as popular in German Poetry and German Art, 
as the story of our Queen Emma, the mother of the Confessor, 
was formerly in England. Henry endeavoured to make Ms 
wife amends for the indignities to which she had been exposed, 
by treating her with more respect and tenderness than ever, 
but she obtained his permission to retire from the world, and 
withdrew to the cloister. Henry died in 1024, and was in 
terred in his cathedral of Bamberg. Cunegunda, on his death, 
assumed the Benedictine habit, and not only set an example 



382 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



2 Thess. 
iii. 8. 



of piety and charity, but of industry, . working continually 
with her hands when not engaged in prayer ; for this most 
holy Empress had often on her lips the words of St. Paul, that 
those who did not work had no right to eat. She died in 
1040, and was buried at Bamberg, by the side of her husband. 
The influence of the monks of Bamberg, which became one of 
the greatest of the Benedictine communities, procured the 
canonisation of their founder, Henry, by Eugenius III., in 
1152, and that of Cunegunda by Innocent III. in 1200. 

The single devotional figures 
of St. Henry exhibit him in com 
plete armour, wearing the im 
perial crown ; in one hancl, his 
sword, or the orb of sovereignty; 
in the other he -usually holds the 
Cathedral of Bamberg. 

The effigies of Cunegunda re 
present her as Empress, wearing 
a long veil under her diadem; 
and in her hand she also bears 
the Cathedral of Bamberg as 
joint founder, or it may be the 
Church of St. Stephen at Bam 
berg, of which she was sole 
founder. In a print by Hans 
Burgmair, she is stepping over 
the red-hot ploughshares, and 
holds a ploughshare in her hand. 

Henry, having been a great 
protector of religion in Italy as 
well as in Germany, is some 
times found in Italian pictures, 
particularly at Florence, where 38 
he built and endowed the Church of San Miniato, so famous 
in Florentine story. The legend of & St. Laurence and. the 
Emperor Henry occurs frequently in old Florentine Art I 
found in the Pitti Palace a picture representing St. Henry and 




St. Henry. (I. v. Melem.) 



ST. STEPHEN OF HUNGARY. 



St. Ounegunda standing with a lily between them, emblem 
of their chastity. 

The most beautiful monument to the sanctity and glory of 
this imperial pair is their sepulchre or shrine in the Cathedral 
of Bamberg. They lie together, under a rich Gothic canopy, 
arrayed in their imperial robes ; the heads and hands are ad 
mirably sculptured \ but finer still are the bas-reliefs which 
decorate the pedestal or sarcophagus on which they recline. 
There are four subjects : 1. Cunegunda undergoes the fiery 
ordeal, a beautiful composition of eight figures. 2. Cunegunda 
pays, out of her dower, the architects and masons who are 
building the Church of St. Stephen at Bamberg. 3. Henry, in sacred and 
his last illness, takes leave of his wife. 4. Henry receives the it^S, * 
last offices from the Bishop of Bamberg. 5. The legend of 
St. Laurence, which I have already related at length. These 
sculptures, contemporary with the bronzes of Peter Yischer at 
Nuremberg, were executed, under the auspices of a bishop of befcweeni499 
Bamberg, by Hans Thielmann of Wurzburg. In delicacy of an 
workmanship and dramatic feeling, they equal some of the 
finest contemporary works of Italy. 

In the courtyard of the castle at Nuremberg, there stood, 
and I hope still stands, a lime-tree, said to have been 
planted by Cunegunda, and, for her sake, religiously guarded 
by the people. It was, when I saw it, almost in the last 
stage of decay, though still preserving its vitality. This 
memorial, though it concerns Nature^ not Art, deserves to be 
mentioned.. 

Of ST. STEPHEN, king at Hungary, there is not much to ^Stephen 
be said with reference to Art. He was the first Christian king sept. 2. * 
of that country, and succeeded his father Duke G-eysa, about 
the year 998. Geysa and his wife received baptism late in life 
from the hand of St. Adelbert, the Northumbrian missionary ; 
and, as a sign of their new faith, gave the name of the Christian 
proto-martyr to their eldest son. Stephen found his country 
barbarous and heathen ; and he left it comparatively civilised 
and Christianised. Having subdued the pagan nations around, 
and incorporated them with Ms own people, he sent ambassa- 



184 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



dors to Rome with rich offerings to request the papal benedic 
tion and the title of king. The Pope, Sylvester II., sent him 
in return a royal diadem, and a cross to be borne before his 
army. This crown was preserved at Presburg, and is the same 
which was placed on the fair head of Maria Theresa on the 
memorable day of her coronation. What may have become of 
it since 1848 I do not know. 

St. Stephen married Gisela, the sister of St. Henry, a prin 
cess ; full of most blessed conditions. Unhappily, all their 
children died before their parents. The eldest son, a youth of 
singular beauty of person and great promise, is styled St. 
Erneric by the Hungarians, and associated with his father as 
an object of reverential worship. 

St. Stephen is considered as the apostle and legislator of 
Hungary. In common with those saints who have triumphed 
over paganism, he bears the standard with the cross ; and is 
usually represented with this attribute, dressed in complete 
armour, wearing the kingly crown, and holding the sacred 
sword, which was also preserved among the regalia of Hungary, 
He is introduced into groups of the Blessed where the object 
has been to compliment those sovereigns of Spain or Austria 
who were connected with Hungaiy, but I do not recollect ever 
meeting with him in Italian Art. 

A picture in. the Vienna Gallery, and which appears to have 
been painted for Maria Theresa, represents St. Stephen receiv 
ing the crown sent to him by Pope Sylvester in 1003. 



st. Leopold. ST. LEOPOLD, Margrave of Austria, was born in 1080. In 

NwA 1 !. 6 1106 he married Agnes, the beautiful and youthful widow of 

Frederic, Duke of Suabia ; by her he was the father of eighteen 

children, eleven of whom survived him ; and, after a long and 

most prosperous reign, he died in 1136. 

The virtues of this prince were certainly conspicuous in 
the age in* which he lived. The history of his life and actions 
shows that he had a deep religious feeling of his responsibility 



ST. LEOPOLD OF AUSTRIA. 185 



as a governor of men, a just mind, a merciful and kindly disposi 
tion ; but these virtues, and many more, would not, in all pro 
bability, have procured him the honours of a saint, had he not 
founded during his lifetime the magnificent monastery of 
Kloster-Neuburg, on the banks of the Danube. It is related 
that, on a certain day soon after their marriage, Leopold and 
Agnes stood in the balcony of their palace on the Leopoldsberg 
(a site well known to those who have resided in Vienna), and 
they looked round them over the valley of the Danube, from the 
borders of Bohemia on one side, to the confines of Hungary on 
the other, with the city of Vienna lying close at their feet. 
And, as they stood there, hand in hand, they vowed to com 
memorate their love, and their gratitude to Heaven who had 
given them to each other, by building and endowing an edifice 
for the service of God. Just then the breeze caught and lifted 
the bridal veil of Agnes, and it went floating away upon the 
air till lost to view. About eight years afterwards, as Leopold 
was hunting in the neighbouring forest, he saw at a distance 
a white and glittering object suspended from a tree; and on 
spurring his horse towards it, he recognised the veil of Agnes, 
and recollected their joint vow. He immediately ordered the 
wilderness to be cleared, and on that spot arose the Kloster- 
Eeuburg ; around it, a once flourishing town, and some of the 
richest and most productive vineyards in Austria* This convent, 
when I visited it some years ago, was a seminary ; the old 
Gothic church and cloisters had been partly rebuilt in the worst 
ages of Art, in the worst possible taste ; but the library was 
still fine and extensive, and the veil of Agnes and the shrine 
of St. Leopold were then preserved among the treasures of the 
place. 

It was at the request of the monks of Ktoster-ISTeuburg that 
Leopold was canonised by Pope Innocent VIII., in 1485. 
He has since been reverenced as one of the patron saints of 
Austria, and it is in this character that he is represented in 
German Art; I have never met with him in an Italian pic 
ture. His canonisation was celebrated with great pomp, and 
he became popular as a saint all over Germany just before the 
Reformation, and at the time when Mabuse, Lucas Cranach, 

B B 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Albert Durer, L. van Leyden, and other early German artists, 
flourished. In the Vienna Gallery are two devotional figures 
of St. Leopold. One of these, attributed to Holbein, represents 
him standing, as prince and saint, in complete armour, with 
a glory round his head, and a coral rosary in his hand. The 
other, by Lucas Cranach, also represents him in complete 
armour, with spear and shield, and in companionship with 
St. Jerome, who in the old pictures is often the represen 
tative of a life of religious seclusion of the cloister in its 
general sense. They are placed together as the patrons 
of the Kloster-Neuburg, whence, I presume, this picture 
originally came. 

There is a fine woodcut by Albert Durer, executed in 
compliment to his patron the Emperor Maximilian, and repre 
senting the eight guardian saints of Austria. Among them 
stands St. Leopold, wearing his ducal crown (with which 
crown, brought from Kloster-Neuburg for the purpose, I saw 
the ex-emperor Ferdinand crowned Archduke of Austria in 

sacred and 183t5). The others are St. Quirinus, as bishop; St. Maxi- 

Legend,Ait, m ^ an? as "bishop and martyr; St. Florian the martyr, in 
complete armour ; St. Severinus, an obscure saint considered 

A.D. 432. &s the first apostle of Austria (whose relics are honoured 
at San Severino in Naples), in the Benedictine habit; St. 
Coloman, as pilgrim (one of the earliest missionaries), St. 

A.D. 1048. Poppo, as abbot of Stavelo (of whom it is recorded that he 
persuaded the Emperor St. Henry to abolish the barbarous 

A.D.H39. combats between men and beasts); and St. Otho, as bishop 
of Bamberg. 

Another rare and curious woodcut by Albert Durer repre 
sents the Emperor Maximilian on his knees before the 
First Person of the Trinity, who stands on a raised throne, 
arrayed as a high priest, and holding the orb of sovereignty. 
Beside Maximilian stands the Virgin with the infant Christ ; 
she is saying Lord y save the king, and hear us when roe call 
upon tkee!* St. Andrew, kneeling on, his jewelled cross, 
St. Barbara, St. George, Si Leopold, St. Sebastian, and St 
Maximilian, appear to be assisting the emperor in his 
devotions. 



ST. FERDI^A^D OF CASTILE* 



1S7 




g$ St. Ferdinand. (From a picture "by Murillo.) 

ST. FERDIKAND OF CASTILE was the son of Alphonso, king ... 
of Leon, and Berengaria of Castile. After a union of several r&gt;|nF 
years, and the birth of four children, Alphonso and Berengaria SSr 
were separated by a decree of the Pope, because, being within May so * 
the prohibited degrees of consanguinity, they had married 
without a dispensation. Their children were, however, declared 
legitimate. Berengaria returned to her father, the king of 
Castile, and lived retired in his court; but she exercised during 
her whole life an extraordinary influence over the mind of her 
eldest son, Ferdinand, and his obedience to her even to the 
hour of his death was that of a docile child. When Berengaria 
succeeded to the throne of Castile, she gave up her rights to her 



18 8 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDEES. 



son 5 and shortly afterwards on the death, or his father he suc 
ceeded to the throne of Leon, thus nniting for ever the two 
kingdoms; and from this time it may be said that Beren- 
garia and her son reigned together, such complete union existed 
between them* He married Joan, Countess of Ponthieu; and 
she vied with her husband in duty and love to the queen- 
mother. In reading the chronicles of the royal houses of Spain, 
the murders, treasons, tragedies which meet us in every page, 
it is refreshing to come upon this record of domestic confid 
ence, fidelity, and affection, lasting through a long series of 
years : we feel there must have been admirable qualities, shall 
I say saintly qualities, on which this peace, and trust, and 
tenderness were founded. But history does not dwell up.on 
them : and St. Ferdinand owed his canonisation less to his 
virtues than to his implacable enmity against the Moors. Mr. 
. Ford, who is not given to praising saints, styles him, the 
Handbook best of kings and bravest of warriors. His piety, if tinctured 
with the ferocious fanaticism of the times, was conscientious, 
and the nature of Ferdinand was neither ambitious nor cruel. 
He had made a solemn vow never to draw his sword in Chris 
tian conflict, and in his wars against the infidels he was 
constantly victorious. Moreover, it is related in the Spanish 
chronicles, that, at the great battle of Xeres, Santiago himself 
appeared visibly at the head of his troops, combating for him, 
and, while thousands of the Moors were left dead on the field, 
on the side of the Christians there fell but one knight, who 
had refused before the battle to pardon an injury. 

But neither his victories, nor his magnificent religious 
foundations, leave so pleasing an impression of the character 
of Ferdinand as one speech recorded of him. When he was 
urged to replenish his exhausted coffers, and recruit his army 
by laying a new tax on his people, he rejected the counsel 
with indignation : &lt; God/ said he, &lt; in whose cause I fight, 
will supply my need. I fear more the curse of one poor old 
woman than a whole army of Moors ! 

After driving the infidels from Toledo, Cordova, and Seville, 
lie was meditating an expedition into Africa, when he was 
seized with sickness, and died as a Christian penitent, a cord 



ST. FERDINAKD OF CASTILE. 189 



round his neck and the crucifix in his hand. He was buried 
in the Cathedral of Seville, and was succeeded by his son, 
Alphonso the Wise, in 1152. His only daughter, Eleonora 
of Castile, who inherited the piety and courage of her sainted 
father, married our Edward I. She it was who sucked the 
poison from her husband s wound. 

It was not till 1668 that Ferdinand was canonised by 
Clement IS., at the request of Philip IV. 5 and the greatest 
religious festival ever held at Seville took place in 1671, on 
the arrival of the Pope s bull. Of course the pictures of him 
as saint are confined to Spain, or at least to Spanish Art, and 
can date only from this late period. But the Spanish School 
of Seville was then in all its glory, and as Philip IV. was a 
munificent patron of Art, the painters hastened to gratify 
him by multiplying effigies of his sainted ancestor. 

St. Ferdinand, as Mr. Stirling tells us in his beautiful book, Aimaisof 
founded the Cathedral of Burgos, * which points to heaven 
with spires more rich and delicate than any that crown the 
cities of the imperial Rhine. He also began to rebuild the 
Cathedral of Toledo, where during four hundred years artists 
swarmed and laboured like bees ; and splendid prelates lavished 
their princely revenues to make fair and glorious the temple 
of God entrusted to their care. There is preserved in the 
convent of San Clemente at Seville a portrait of St. Ferdinand, 
* a work of venerable aspect, of a dark dingy colour, and 
ornamented with gilding; 5 reckoned authentic and contem 
porary. When Ferdinand VIL, in 1823, wished to borrow 
this portrait for the purpose of having it copied, the nuns of 
San Clemente would not allow it to leave their custody. 

Devotional pictures of San Fernando represent him in 
complete armour, over which is thrown a regal mantle ; he 
wears the kingly crown, surmounted by the celestial glory* 
He has sometimes a drawn sword in his hand, sometimes it is 
the orb of sovereignty. In the arms of the city of Seville he 
is throned as patron saint, with the two famous bishops St 
Isidore and St. Lauriano on either side* 

There are five pictures of San Fernando by Murillo ; one of 



igo LEGEKPS OF THE MONASTIC ORBEBS. 

Arteagain them, a fine head, is supposed to be a copy of the portrait in 
fe e ^ia s San Clemente. The sketch given above Is from the small full- 
length in the Madrid Gallery. 

In the Spanish Gallery of the Louvre are two figures of St. 
Ferdinand, attributed to Zurbaran,but probably by some later 
painter. I recollect a fine San Fernando among the Spanish pic 
tures in the possession of Lord Clarendon. Another picture in 
my list I must mention, from its characteristic Spanish feeling; 
* St. Ferdinand bringing a faggot to burn a heretic, by Valdes. 

sj* Casimir. Of ST. CASBiiK of Poland there is nothing to be remarked 
March 4. except his enthusiastic piety and his early death. He was the 
third son of Casimir IV. of Poland and Elizabeth of Austria; 
and, from his childhood, a gentle-spirited and studious boy, 
whom no influence or teaching or example could rouse to 
active pursuits, or waken to ambition, or excite to pleasures : 
and thus he grew up in his father s half-barbarous court, and 
among his warlike brothers, a being quite of a different order ; 
a poet, too, in his way, composing himself the hymns he sung 
or recited in honour of the Virgin and the saints. After re 
fusing the crown of Hungary, he became more and more 
retired and austere in his habits. At length he fell into a decline 
and died in 1483. He was canonised by Leo X. at the request 
of his brother Sigismond the Great ; and became patron saint 
of Poland. He is represented as a youth in regal attire ; a 
lily in his hand, a crown and sceptre at his feet Or, he holds 
in his hands hfe hymn to the Virgin beginning, 

Omni Die 
Die Maris& 
Mea laudes amma I 

while the lily and the crown lie on a table beside him ; as in 
an elegant little picture by Carlo Dolce. When Casiniir V. 
abdicated the crown of Poland, and became abbot of the Bene 
dictine convent of St. Germain-des-Pres at Paris, he introduced 
the worship of his patron saint, and the young St. Casimir is 
often found in French prints. 

Other royal saints who are particularly connected with the 
Mendicant Orders will be found in their proper place. 



THE AUGUSTINES. 191 



SDfje 



THE Augustine Order lias "been so widely scattered, its origin 
is so uncertain, it lias been broken up into so many denomi 
nations, and the primitive rule so variously modified, that it is 
difficult to consider the whole community as one body of men, 
animated by one spirit, and impressed with a certain definite 
character, as is the case with the Benedictines and Franciscans 
and the Dominicans. 

There is no occasion to enter into the much disputed question 
of the origin of this famous Order. In tracing its history in 
connection with Art, it is sufficient to keep in mind the only two 
facts which, on looking over the best ecclesiastical authorities, 
stand out clear and intelligible before us* 

I. The Augustines claim as their founder and patriarch the 
great Doctor and Father of the Church, St. Augustine ; and in 
every language they bear his name : in Italian, Agostini, Padri 
Agostiniani; in German, Augustiner. 

It is related in his Life, that he assembled together a number 
of persons religiously and charitably disposed, who solemnly 
renounced the cares and vanities of this world, threw their 
possessions into a common stock, and dedicated themselves to 
the service of G-od and the ministry of the poor. Similar com 
munities of women were likewise formed under his auspices ; 
and such, they aver, was the origin of the * Rule of St. Au 
gustine. 

IL At the same time, it is not clear that this great Father 
and Teacher of the Church contemplated the institution of a 
religious Order such as was founded by St. Basil in the East 
and afterwards by St. Benedict in the West ; or that any such 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDEHS. 



Order existed until the middle of the ninth century. About 
that period, all the various denominations of the Christian 
clergy who had not entered the ranks of monachism priests, 
canons, clerks, &c. were incorporated, by the decrees of Pope 
Leo III. and the Emperor Lothaire, into one great community, 
and received as their rule of discipline that which was promul 
gated by St. Augustine. Thenceforward, we have the regular 
and secular canons (Canonici regolari e secolari) of Augustine, 
and all those personages who had been dedicated to a holy life, 
or to the duties of the priesthood, in the first centuries after 
the apostolic ages, were retrospectively included in the Augus 
tine community. 

In the time of Innocent IV., all the hermits, solitaries, and 
small separate confraternities, who lived under no recognised 
discipline, were registered and incorporated by a decree of the 
Church, and reduced under one rule, called the rule of St. 
Augustine, with some more strict clauses introduced, fitting the 
new ideas of a conventual life. There was some difficulty in 
compelling these outlying brethren to accept a uniform rule and 
habit, and bind themselves by monastic vows. Innocent IV. 
died before he had completed his reform, but Alexander IV. 
carried out his purpose; not, however, without calling a 
miracle to his assistance, for just at the critical moment, St. 
Augustine himself deigned to appear : he was dressed in a long 
black gown, tattered and torn, in sign of poverty and humility ; 
round his waist he wore a leathern strap and buckle, and car 
ried in his hand a scourge ; and he gave the Pope to under 
stand that the contumacious hermits were to take forthwith 
the Augustine habit, and submit themselves to the monastic 
rule, under pain of the scourge, freely and not metaphorically 
applied. At length these scattered members were brought into 
submission, and the whole united into one great religious 
body, under the name of Eremiti or Eremitani Agostini, 
hermits or friars of St. Augustine ; in English, Austin-Friars. 
This was about forty years after the introduction of the 
Franciscans and Dominicans. 

The Augustines, as I have observed, branch out into a , 
great variety of denominations j and the rule is considered 



THE AUGUSTUSES. 



as the parent rule of all the monastic orders and religious 
congregations not included in the Benedictine institution, 
and to number among its members all the distinguished 
characters and recluses who lived from the fourth to the sixth 
century. 

The first great saint of the Order who figures as a subject of st. 
Art is of course St. Augustine himself, whose effigy is generally 
conspicuous in the houses and conventual churches "bearing Ms 
name : not chiefly as one of the four Latin fathers (in this 
character he is to be found in most religious edifices) , but more 
especially as patriarch and founder of the Augustine Order ; 
not always in the rich episcopal cope and mitre, but with the 
black frock, leathern girdle, and shaven crown of an Augustine 
friar : not seated with the other great Fathers in colloquy 
sublime on the mysteries and doctrines of the Church, but 
dispensing alms, or washing the feet of our Saviour under the 
guise of a pilgrim ; or giving the written rule to the friars of 
his Order ; or to the various religious communities who, as 
Lanzi expresses it, fight under his banner, militano sotto la 
sua bandieraS All these subjects I have already discussed at sacred and 
length, with reference to the life and character of St. Augustine L 295. 
as a Father of the Church ; and, therefore, I shall say no more 
of them here. 

St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, is also a favourite st. Monica, 
subject in the pictures painted for this Order. She is usually 
considered as the first Augustine nun. In the Santo-Spirito 
at Florence, which belongs to the jEr^wzfo-Agostiniani, we find / x 
St. Monica seated on a throne, surrounded by twelve women of 
the Capponi family, and in another chapel of the same church 
she and her son stand together. 

St. Antony and St. Paul, the primitive hermits, with all the 
curious legends relating to them, are generally to be found in 
the edifices of the Augustine friars, either as examples of sacredaaa 
hermit life, or as belonging to the community. Of these ancient n. $$& 
worthies I have already spoken at length in a former volume. 

The Augustine writers also number among the early saints 

cc 



LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



of their Order St. Patrick and St. Bridget of Ireland. It is true 
that nearly every vestige of these two memorable personages 
has been destroyed or mutilated ; but not the less do they live 
in the hearts of the people, familiar names in their household 
talk, mixed up with many wild, strange, incongruous legends, 
but still representing to them the traditions of their ancient 
civilisation ; the memories of better times, before their religion 
was proscribed and their country confiscated. 

st. Patrick. St. Patrick, who styles himself c a Briton and a Roman/ 
was carried away captive into Ireland when a youth of sixteen, 
and was set to tend the herds of his master. Being born of 
Christian parents, he turned his misfortune to good account, 
making his captivity a school of patience and humility. The 
benighted condition of the people among whom he dwelt filled 
him with compassion; and when afterwards he made his escape 
and was restored to his parents and his home, he was haunted 
by visions, in which he beheld the yet unborn children of these 
Irish pagans stretching forth their little hands and crying to 
him for salvation. So he returned to Ireland, having first 
received his mission from Pope Celestine, and preached the 
word of God ; suffering with patience all indignities, affronting 
all dangers and fatigues with invincible courage, converting 
everywhere thousands by his preaching and example, and 
gaining over many disciples who assisted him most zealously 
in the task of instructing and converting these barbarians. He 
himself preached the kingdom of Christ before the assembled 
kings and chiefs at Tara; and though Mell, the chief monarch, 
refused to listen to him, he soon afterwards baptized the kings 
of Dublin and Munster ; and the seven sons of the king of 
Connaught. After forty years of unremitting labour in teaching 
and preaching, he left Ireland not only Christianised, but full 
of religious schools and foundations, which became famous in 
Western Europe and sent forth crowds of learned men and 
missionaries ; and having thus founded the Church of Ireland, 
and placed its chief seat at Armagh, he died and was buried 
at Down, in the province of Ulster. 
The story of St. Patrick exorcising the venomous reptiles 



ST. PATRICK AND ST. BRIDGET. 195 



from Ms adopted country has the same origin as the dragon 
legends of the East, and the same signification. It is merely 
one form of the familiar allegory figuring the conquest of 
good over evil, or the triumph of Christianity over Paganism. 

It is related that St. Patrick consecrated many women to 
the service of God, finding them everywhere even more ready A.D. soo, 
to receive the truth than the men ; and among these, was St. 
Bridget or Brigida. The mother of this famous saint was a 
beautiful captive, whom her father, a powerful chieftain, had 
taken in war. The legitimate wife of the chief became jealous 
of her slave, and cast her out of the house like another Hagar. 
So she brought forth her child in sorrow and shame ; but two 
holy men, disciples of St. Patrick, took pity on her, baptized 
her and her daughter, and Bridget grew up in wisdom and 
beauty, and became so famous in the land, that her father 
took her home, and wished to have married her to a neigh 
bouring chief, but Bridget would not hear of marriage. She 
devoted herself to the service of God, the ministry of the poor, 
and the instruction of the people, particularly those of her 
own sex ; and retired to a solitary place, where was a grove 
of oaks, which had once been dedicated to the false gods. 
There she taught and preached, healing the sick, and restor 
ing sight to the blind ; and such was the fame of her sanctity 
and her miraculous power, that vast crowds congregated to 
that place, and built themselves huts and cells that they 
might dwell in her vicinity; and, particularly, many women 
joined themselves to her, partaking of her labours, and imi 
tating her example: and this was the first community of 
religious women in Ireland. Kildare, c the cell or place of 
the oak, became afterwards one of the most celebrated convents 
and most flourishing cities in Ireland. Here was preserved, 
unextinguished, for many centuries, the sacred lamp which 
burned before her shrine. 

The Church of St. Patrick and St. Bridget, at Down, was 
destroyed by Sir Leonard Grey in the reign of Henry VIIL 
Other memorials of these patrons perished in the desolating 
wars of Elizabeth; and whatever religious relics, dear and 
venerable to the hearts of the Irish, may have survived the 



196 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



first period of the Reformation were utterly swept away by the 
savage Puritans under Cromwell. In London the name of 
St. Bridget survives in the beautiful Church of St Bride in 
Fleet Street, and the Palace (now the Prison) of Bridewell. 

In any pictured memorial of the former civilisation and 
spiritual glories of Ireland, if such should ever be called for, 
St. Patrick and St. Bridget ought to find a place ; for they 
represent not merely the Church of the Roman Catholics, but 
the first planting of the Church of Christ in a land till then 
filled with the darkest idolatry ; and the two should always 
stand together. 

St. Patrick may be represented in two ways ; either as 
missionary and apostle, or as the first bishop and primate of 
the Church of Ireland. 

As the apostle of Ireland he ought to wear a gown with a 
hood, and a leathern girdle ; in one hand a staff and wallet, 
in the other the gospel of Christ; he should not be repre 
sented old, because, though dates are very uncertain, it is 
most probable that he was still a young man when he first 
came to Ireland. At his feet or under his feet should be a 
serpent. The standard with the cross, the proper attribute 
of the missionary saints who overcome idolatry, would also 
belong to him* 

As bishop he should wear the usual episcopal insignia, the 
mitre, the cope, the crosier ; the gospel in his hand, and at 
his side a neophyte looking up to him with, reverence. 

St. Bridget may also be represented in two different cha 
racters. She may wear the ample robe and long white veil 
always given to the female Christian converts ; in one hand 
the cross, in the other the lamp, typical at once of heavenly 
light or wisdom (as in the hand of St. Lucia), and also her 
proper attribute as representing 

The bright lamp that shone in ELildare s holy fane. 
And "birra/d through long ages of darkness and storm/ 

and which her female disciples watched with as much devotion 



ST. NICHOLAS OF TOLEHTINO. 



as the Vestal Virgins of old the sacred fire. An oak-tree or 
a grove of oaks should be placed in the background. 

She may also be represented as first abbess of Kildare ; and 
as this abbey became afterwards a famous Franciscan com 
munity, St. Bridget might with propriety be represented as the 
Irish St. Clara, in the long grey habit and black hood, bearing 
the pastoral staff. This would be much less appropriate as 
well as less picturesque than the former representation, but I 
believe the old effigies would thus exhibit her. 



Next to the patriarch St. Augustine, the great saint of the 
Order is ST. NICHOLAS OF TOLENTINO. 

He was born about the year 1239, in the little town of St. ! 
Angelo, near Ferrno. His parents having obtained a son sept.io/ 
through the intercession of St. Nicholas, bestowed on him the 
name of the beneficent bishop, and dedicated him to the service 
of G-od. He assumed the habit of an Augustine friar in very 
early youth ; and was distinguished by his fervent devotion and 
extraordinary austerities, so that it was said of him that 4 he 
did not live, but languished through life. He was also an 
eloquent preacher, and unwearied in his ministry. As for his 
miracles, his visions, and his revelations, they are not to be 
enumerated. He died in 1309, and was canonised by Pope 
Eugenius IV. in 1446. 

According to the legend, the future eminence and sanctity of 
this saint were foretold by a star of wonderful splendour, which a version of 

* _ , Star in 

shot through the heavens from Sant Angelo, where he was the Hast.* 
born, and stood over the city of Tolentino, where he afterwards 
fixed his residence. For this reason the devotional effigies of 
St. Nicholas of Tolentino represent Mm in the black habit of 
his Order, with a star on his breast ; and sometimes he carries sa*. cw. 
the Gospel as preacher of the "Word, and a crucifix wreathed 
with a lily, the type of his penances and his purity of life. 



193 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDERS. 



FL Santo- 
Spirito. 



Hat. Gal 



Leudi ten- 
berg Gal. 



He is generally young, 
of a dark complexion, 
and an ardent meagre 
physiognomy. 

There is a fine statue 
of this saint by Sanso- 
vino. 

&lt; Si Nicholas of To- 
lentino crowned by the 
Virgin and St. Augus 
tine/ is a picture attri 
buted to EaphaeL 

A charming little 
picture by Mazzolino 
da Ferrara, exhibiting 
all his characteristics, 
represents St. Nicholas 
of Tolentino kneeling 
before the Virgin and 
Child. The head of the 
saint is a master-piece 
of finish and expression, 
but has not the wasted 
nor the youthful fea 
tures generally given to 
him. 

It is related of this 
animal food. 




St. Nicholas of Tolentino. 



St. Nicholas that he never tasted 
In his last illness, when weak and wasted from 
inanition, his brethren brought him a dish of cloves to restore 
his strength. The saint reproved them, and, painfully raising 
himself on his couch, stretched his hand over the doves, 
whereupon they rose from the dish and flew away. This 
legend is the subject of a small but very pretty picture by 
Garofalo. 

Another picture by the same painter represents St. Nicholas 
restoring to life a child laid at his feet by its disconsolate 
mother. 

c la the year 1602, the city of Cordova v/as visited by the 



ST. THOMAS 3&gt;E VILLANUEVA. 109 



plague ; and the governor, Dion Diego de Vargas, caused the 
image of St. Nicholas of Tolentino (it was the day of his 
festival), to be carried through the streets in solemn proces 
sion to the Lazaretto. Father G. de Uavas met the procession, 
bearing a large crucifix ; thereupon the saint stretched forth 
his arms, and the figure of Christ stooping from the cross 
embraced St. Nicholas ; and from that hour the pestilence 
was stayed. This miraculous incident is the subject of a 
picture by Castiglione, from which there is a print in the 
British Museum. 



A much more interesting saint is the good Archbishop of st Thomas. 
Valencia, ST. THOMAS DE VILLANUEVA, called the ALMONER, sept iL 5 " 
glorious in the pictures of Murillo and Eibalta ; but he lived 
in the decline of Italian art, and I do not know one good 
Italian picture of him. 

Thomas of Villanueva, the son of Alphonso Garcia and 
Lucia Martinez of Villanueva, was born in the year 1488. 
The family was one of the most ancient in Valencia, but his 
parents, who were of moderate fortune, were remarkable only 
for their exceeding charity, and for lending money without 
interest, or furnishing seed for their fields, to the poor people 
around them. Their son inherited their virtues. When he 
was a child only seven years old, he used to give away his 
food to the poor children, and take off his clothes in the street, 
to throw them over those who were in rags. The vocation for 
the ecclesiastical life was too strongly exhibited to be gain- 
sayed by his parents. After studying for fourteen years at 
Alcala and at Salamanca, he entered the Augustine Order at 
the age of thirty : and I find it remarked in his Life, that the 
day and hour on which he pronounced his vows as an Augus 
tine friar were the same on which Luther publicly recanted 
and renounced the habit of the Order. 

After two years preparation, by retirement from, the world, 
penance and prayer, Thomas de Villanueva became a distin 
guished preacher, and soon afterwards prior of the Augnstines 



200 LEGE2JTDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



at Salamanca. He was regarded with especial veneration by 
the Emperor Charles V., who frequently consulted him on the 
ecclesiastical affairs of his empire. It is recorded, that when 
Charles had refused to pardon certain state criminals, though 
requested to do so by some of his chief counsellors, the Grand 
Constable, the Archbishop of Toledo, and even his son Don 
Philip, he yielded at once to the prayer of St. Thomas, declar 
ing that he looked upon his request in the light of a Divine 
command. 

In the year 1544, Charles showed his respect for him by 
nominating him Archbishop of Valencia. He accepted the 
dignity with the greatest reluctance : he arrived in Valencia 
in an old black cassock, and a hat which he had worn for 
twenty-six years; and as he had never in his life kept anything 
for himself beyond what was necessary for his daily wants, he 
was so poor, that the canons of his cathedral thought proper 
to present him with four thousand crowns for his outfit : he 
thanked them gratefully, and immediately ordered the sum to 
be carried to the hcispital for the sick and poor, and from this 
time forth we find his life one series of beneficent actions. He 
began by devoting two-thirds of the revenues of his diocese to 
purposes of charity. He divided those who had a claim on 
him into six classes : first, the bashful poor, who had seen 
better days, and who were ashamed to beg; secondly, the poor 
girls whose indigence and misery exposed them to danger and 
temptation ; in the third class were the poor debtors ; in the 
fourth, the poor orphans and foundlings; in the fifth, the 
sick, the lame, and the infirm ; lastly, for the poor strangers 
and travellers who arrived in the city, or passed through it, 
without knowing where to lay their heads, he had a great 
kitchen open at all hours of the day and night, where every 
one who came was supplied with food, a night s rest, and a 
small gratuity to assist him on his journey* 

In the midst of these charities he did not forget the spiritual 
wants of his people ; and, to crown his deservings, he was a 
munificent patron of art. 

* Valencia/ says Mr. Stirling, was equally prolific of saints, 
, and men of letters. Its fine school of painting first 



ST. THOMAS DE VILLANUEVA. 201 



grew into notice under tlie enlightened care of the good arch 
bishop. He encouraged art, not to swell his aichiepiscopal 
state, but to embellish his cathedral, and to instruct and im 
prove Ms flock, Among the painters who flourished under 
his auspices, was Vicente de Juanes, the head and founder of 
the Yalencian School \ c His style, like his character, was grave 
and austere : if Raphael was his model, it was the Raphael of 
Perugia; and whilst his contemporaries El Mudo and El 
Greco were imbuing Oastilian Art with the rich and volup 
tuous manner of the Venetian School, he affected the antique 
severity of the early Florentine or German masters. He was 
particularly remarkable for the combination of majesty with 
ineffable mildness and beneficence which he threw into the 
heads of our Saviour. We can easily imagine that such a 
painter, both in his personal character and his genius, was 
fitted to please the good Archbishop of Valencia ; and not the 
least precious of the works which Juanes left behind him is 
the portrait, from life, of St. Thomas of Villanueva, which 
now hangs in the sacristy of the cathedral. He appears robed 
and mitred, * with that angelic mildness of expression, that Stirling. 
pale and noble countenance, which accorded with the gentle 
ness of his nature. This picture was painted when Juanes 
was in the prime of his life and powers, and his excellent 
patron declining in years. 

Thomas de Villanueva died in 1555. To the astonishment 
of the people, he left no debts, in spite of the enormous sums 
he had spent and given ; and thenceforth it was commonly said 
and believed that his funds, when exhausted, had been re 
plenished by the angels of God. On Ms death-bed he ordered 
all the ready money in Ms house to be distributed to the 
parish, poor; and sent all his furniture and goods to the 
college he had founded in Valencia, There remained nothing 
but the pallet on which lie lay ; and that he bequeathed to the . 
jailer of the prison, who, as it appears, had become one of the 
instruments of his charity. He was followed to the grave by 
thousands of the poor, who bewailed the loss of their bene 
factor ; and, already canonised in the hearts of his people, he 
was declared a Beato in the year 1618, by Paul V. At the 

D D 



202 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OIIDERS. 



same time It was ordained that in his effigies an open purse 
should be placed in his hands instead of the crosier ; with the 
poor and infirm kneeling around him ; and thus we find him 
represented, though the crosier is not always omitted. Most 
of the pictures of St. Thomas de Villanueva which are now 
commonly to be met with in the churches of the Augustines, 
both in Italy and in Spain ? have been painted since 1688, the 
year in which the bull of his canonisation was published by 
Alexander VII. It can easily be imagine^, that he was most 
popular in his own country. There were few churches or 
convents on the sunny side of the Sierra Morena without some 
memorial-picture of this holy man/ but the finest beyond all 
comparison are those of Murillo. 

Lord Ashburton s picture, perhaps the most beautiful Murillo 
in England next to that of Mr Tomline, represents the saint 
as a boy about six or seven years old dividing his clothes 
among four ragged urchins. The figures are life-size. This 
picture was formerly in the collection of G-odoy, by him pre 
sented to Marshal Sebastiani, from whom it was purchased by 
the late Lord Ashburton in 1815. The small original sketch 
of the composition is in the same collection. 

The picture called the ; Charity of San Tomas de Villa 
Nueva/ which Murillo preferred to all his other works, and 
used to call his own picture/ was one of the series painted 
for the Capuchins at Seville. Eobed in black (the habit of his 
Order), and wearing a white mitre, St. Thomas the Almoner 
stands at the door of his cathedral, relieving the wants of a lame 
half-naked beggar who kneels at his feet. His pale venerable 
countenance, expressive of severities inflicted on himself, and 
sacred and of habitual kindness and good- will towards all mankind, is 
H. e !0? d * Art not inferior in intellectual dignity and beauty to that of St. 
Leander. 5 

There is a fine picture of the same subject, but differently 
treated, in the Louvre; and another, brought from Seville 
about 1805, was purchased by Mr Wells of Redleaf, and 
recently sold. 

the college of Valencia, which he founded, is a grand 
re of St. Thomas surrounded by scholars/ (?) parts of 



ST. JOHN HEPOMUCK. 



which, says Mr. Ford, c are as fine as Velasquez. This must 
have been painted, however, long after the death, of the saint. 



ST. JOHH EEPOMTJCK. 

ItaL San Giovanni Neponmceno. Ger. S. Johannes von Neporniik. Canon 
Kegular of St. Augustine. Patron Saint of Silence and against Slander. 
Protector of the Order of the Jesuits. In Bohemia and Austria, the 
patron saint of bridges and running water. 

CHARLES IV. , Emperor of Germany, of whom I have already p. ITS. 
spoken, died in the year 1378, after having procured, by lavish 
"bribery to the electors, the succession of the empire for his 
son Wenceslaus IV. In his early childhood his father had 
invited Petrarch to superintend Ms education : the wise poet 
declined the task, and it may be doubted if even he could 
have made anything of such untoward material. The history 
of the long and disgraceful reign of this prince does not, fortu 
nately, belong to our subject : it is sufficient to observe that 
lie obtained from his people the surnames of the Slothful and 
the Drunkard; and from historians, that of the Modern 
Sardanapalus. He married the Princess Joan of Bavaria, a 
beautiful and virtuous princess : she was condemned to endure 
alternately his fits of drunkenness, of ferocity, and fondness, 
and her life was embittered and prematurely brought to a close 
by his cruelty and his excesses. 

She had for her confessor and alinoner a certain excellent 
priest, called, from the place of his birth, John of Uepomuck. 
This good man pitied the unfortunate Empress, and, knowing 
that for misery such as hers there was no earthly remedy, he 
endeavoured by his religious instructions to strengthen her to 
endure her fate with patience and submission. 

Wenceslaus, in one of his fits of mad jealousy, sent for John, 
and commanded him to reveal the confession of the Empress. 
The priest remonstrated, and represented that such a violation 
of his spiritual duties was not only treachery, but sacrilege. 
The Emperor threatened-, entreated, bribed, in vain. The 



204 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



confessor was thrown into a dungeon, where he was kept for a 
few days In darkness and without food. He was again brought 
before the Emperor, and again repelled Ms offers with mild but 
most resolute firmness. Wenceslaus ordered him to be put to 
the torture. The unhappy Empress threw herself at her 
husband s feet, and at length by her prayers and tears obtained 
the release of the saint. She ordered his wounds to be dressed, 
she ministered to him with her own hands ; and as soon as 
he was recovered he reappeared in the court, teaching and 
preaching as usual. But, aware of his dangerous position, he 
chose for the text of his first sermon the words of our Saviour, 
Yet a little while and ye shall not see me^ and sought to pre 
pare himself and his hearers for the fate he anticipated. 

A few days afterwards, as he was returning home from 

some charitable mission, the Emperor, preceiving him from the 

window of his palace, was seized with one of those insane fits 

of fury to which he was subject; he ordered his guards to 

drag him to his presence, and again repeated his demand. 

The ho]y man, who read his fate in the eyes of the tyrant, 

held his peace, not even deigning a reply. At a sign from 

A.D. lass, their master the guards seized him, bound him hand and foot, 

Mayie " and threw him over the parapet of the bridge into the waters 

of the Moldau. 

He sank; but, says the legend, a supernatural light (five 
stars in the form of a crown) was seen hovering over the spot 
where his body had been thrown, which when the Emperor 
beheld from his palace, he fled like one distracted, and hid 
himself for a time in the fortress of Carlstein. 

Meantime the Empress wept for the fate of her friend, and 
the people took up the body and carried it in procession to the 
Church of the Holy Cross. 

From this time St. John of ITepomuck was honoured in his 
own country as a martyr, and became the patron saint of 
bridges throughout Bohemia. In the year 1620, when Prague 
was besieged by the Imperialists, during the Thirty Tears war, 
it was commonly believed that St. John of Nepomuck fought 
on their side ; and on the capitulation of Prague, and subse 
quent conquest of Bohemia, the Emperor Ferdinand and the 



ST. JOHN NEPOMUCK. 205 



Jesuits solicited Ms canonisation, but the papal decree was 
not published till the year 1729. 

The rest of the history of Wenceslaus would here be out of 
place, but it may be interesting to add that the unhappy 
Empress died shortly after her director ; that Wenceslaus was 
deprived of the empire, and reduced to his hereditary king 
dom of Bohemia, which, during the last few years of his life, 
was distracted and laid waste by the wars of the Hussites. 

On the bridge at Prague, and on the very spot whence he 
was thrown into the river, stands the statue of St. John of 
Nepomuck, He wears the dress of a canon of St. Augustine ; 
in one hand the cross, the other is extended in the act of bene 
diction ; five stars of gilt bronze are above his head. This is 
the usual manner of representing him ; but I have seen other 
devotional effigies of him, standing with his finger on his lip 
to express his discretion; and in some of the old German 
prints he has a padlock on his mouth, or holds one in his hand. 
He is of course rare in Italian Art, and only to be found in 
pictures painted since his canonisation. There is one by 
Giuseppe Crespi, in which he is pressing the crucifix to his 
heart, painted about 1730; and another by the same painter 
in which he is confessing the Empress. She is kneeling by 
the confessional, and he has the attribute of the five stars 
above his head. Neither of these pictures is good. 

St. John of Nepomuck, or, as he is called there, San Juan 
NepomucenOj became popular in Spain, but at so late a period 
that the pictures which represent him in the Jesuit churches 
and colleges there are probably worthless. I have before me 
a Spanish heroic poem in his praise, entitled La Eloqmnda 
del Silentio, Poema Heroico, Viday Martyrio del gran Proto- 
martyr del Sacraimntal Sigillo, Fidelissimo Custodio de la 
JFama y Protector de la Sagrada Compania de Jems; dedi 
cated significantly to the Jesuit confessor of Philip V., William 
Clarke by name* In the opening stanza St. John is compared 
to Harpocrates, and in the frontispiece he is seen attended by 
an angel with his finger on his lip ; underneath is the bridge 
and the river Mold^u, on which is the body of St. John Nepo- 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEES. 



muck with five stars over it. I lived for some weeks under the 
protection of this good saint and Protomartyr of the Seal of 
Silence/ at the little village of Traunkirchen ("by the Gmun- 
den-See in the Tyrol), where his effigy stood in my garden, 
the hand extended in benediction over the waters of that 
beautiful lake. In great storms I have seen the lightning play 
round his head till the metal stars became a real fiery nimbus 
beautiful to behold 1 



AD 1455 ^ T - LOBENZO GriusTiNiAin, of Venice, was born in 1380, of 
sept. 5. one O f ^ e oldest and noblest of the Italian families. His 
mother, Quirina, the young and beautiful widow of Bernardo 
Griustiniani, remained unmarried for his sake, and educated 
him with the utmost care and tenderness. He appears to 
have been a religious enthusiast even in his boyhood, and 
believed himself called to the service of God by a miraculous 
vision at the age of nineteen. As he was the eldest son, his 
family was anxious that lie should marry ; but he fled from 
his home to the cloister, and took refuge with the Augustine 
hermits at San-Giorgio-in-Alga. The next time he appeared 
at the door of his mother s palace, it was in the garb of 
a poor mendicant friar, who humbly begged an alms, per i 
poveri di Die. His mother filled his wallet in silence, and 
then retired to her chamber to pray, perhaps to weep whether 
tears of gratitude or grief, who can tell ? 

*,D i54L He became distinguished in his retirement for his indefa 
tigable care of the poor, his penances, and his mortifications 
(which were, however, private), and was held in such general 
esteem and veneration that he was created Bishop of Castello 
by Pope Eugenius IV. And a few years afterwards, on the 
death of the Patriarch of Grado, the patriarchate was trans 
ferred to Venice, and Lorenzo was the first who bore that title. 
The whole of his long life was spent in the quiet perform 
ance of his duties, and the most tender and anxious care for 
the people committed to his charge. He wore habitually his 
coarse black gown, slept on straw, and devoted the revenues of 
Ms diocese to charitable and religious purposes. He died, amid 



ST. LORENZO GITJSTINIANI. 



207 



the prayers and tears of the whole city, in 1455. The people 
believed that the republic had been saved from plague, war, and 
famine, by his prayers and intercession, and did not wait for a 
papal decree to exalt him to the glories of a saint They built 
a church in his honour, and placed his effigies on their altars, 
two hundred years before his canonisation, which took place 
in 1690 by a decree of Alexander VIII. , who was a Venetian. 

The portrait of San Lorenzo was 
painted during his life by Vittore 
Carpaccio, and is engraved in the 
great work of Litta. There is a 
fine half-length figure in marble 
over his tomb in San Petro di 
Castello. Both these represent him 
with the spare yet benign linea 
ments we should have given to him 
in fancy, and in the simple dress of 
a priest or canon. I do not know 
that he has any particular attribute. 
This characteristic sketch is from 
a contemporary picture by Gentil 
Bellini; and is singular, because 
he has the nimbus, and is attended 
(in the original) by angels bearing 
the crosier and mitre, although 
not canonised. 

Pictures of this amiable prelate 
abound in the churches of Venice 
and Palermo* The best I have seen was painted about the 
time that Clement VII. had declared him a Beato, and repre 
sents him standing in a niche on an elevated step; three 
canons of his order are looking up to him; St. John the 
Baptist, St. Augustine, and St. Francis, stand in front. 

There is also a fine picture by II Prete Genovese, in which 
San Lorenzo, during a famine, is distributing in charity the 
precious effects, plate, and vestments belonging to his church. 




Mem one 

delle Farai- 

Klie 

Itiiliane, 1 



Venice, 
S. Maria 
dell Orta. 



41 St. Lorenzo Giustiniani. 



Pordenone, 
VenlceAcao, 



Venice,, al 
TolentinL 



2og LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



.D. ii6o, ST. EOSALIA of Palermo, of whose festival we have such a 
gorgeous description in Brydone s Sicily/ would be claimed 
by the Augustines as belonging to their order of hermits ; for 
which reason I place her here. 

She was a Sicilian virgin, of noble birth,, who, in her six 
teenth year, rejected all offers of marriage, and withdrew 
secretly to a cavern near the summit of Monte Pellegrino 
that rocky picturesque mountain which closes in the Bay of 
Palermo on the west; and there she devoted herself to a 
life of solitary sanctity, and there she died unknown to all 
Bat, when she had ascended into bliss, she became an Inter 
cessor before the eternal Throne for her beautiful native city, 
which she twice saved from the ravages of the plague. Happily, 
after a long interval, her sacred remains were discovered 
lying in a grotto, uncorrupted such virtue was in her 
unsullied maiden purity ! and on her head a wreath of roses 
from Paradise, placed there by the angels who had sung her 
to rest. Her name, inscribed by herself, was found on the 
rock above. She was thenceforth solemnly inaugurated as 
the patroness of Palermo ; and in the year 1626, through the 
credit of the Sicilian Jesuits, she was canonised by Pope 
Urban VIII. 

On the summit of Monte Pellegrino stands the colossal 
statue of the virgin saint, looking to the east over the blue 
Mediterranean, and seen from afar by the Sicilian mariner 
at once his auspicious beacon, and his celestial protectress. 

Her grotto has become a church, and a place of pilgrimage, 
and statues and pictures of her abound through the locality. 
She is not usually represented in the religious habit, but in a 
brown tunic, sometimes ragged ; her hair loose. She is gene 
rally recumbent in her cavern, irradiated by a celestial light, 
and pressing a crucifix to her bosom, while angels crown her 
with roses. Such a picture, by a late Sicilian painter, 
probably Novelli, I saw in Dublin, in the possession of Mr. 
Alex. Macdonnell. Sometimes she is standing, and in the 
act of inscribing her name on the rocky wall of her cavern. 

As a subject of painting, St. Rosalia is chiefly interesting 
for the series of pictures painted by Vandyck, soon after her 



BEATA CLARA. 209 



canonisation, for the Jesuits 9 Church at Antwerp. One of 
these is now at Palermo : two are at Munich ; the Vision of gpecuie de&gt; 
St. Eosalia ; and the saint ascending into heaven with a com- 
pany of angels, one of whom crowns her with roses ; a fourth, 
very grand and beautiful, represents St. Eosalia glorified and 
crowned with roses by the infant Saviour. "We must be care- En ^ by 
ful not to confound St. Eosalia with the Magdalen, or with p * Pontius - 
St. Cecilia, or with St. Dorothea. 

Another Augustine saint whom we find occasionally in 
pictures is Clara di Monte-Falco, styled in her own country 
Saint Clara ; but, as she was never regularly canonised, her 
proper title is the * Beata Clara della Cruce di Monte-Falco. 
This beautiful little city crowns the summit of a lofty hill, 
seen on the right as we travel through the TJmbrian valleys 
from Foligno to Spoleto. Here she was born about the year 
1268, and here she dwelt in seclusion, and shed over the whole 
district the perfume of her sanctity and the fame of her mir 
acles and visions. She is represented in the dress of her Order, 
the black tunic fastened by a leathern girdle, black veil, and 
white wimple, which distinguishes her from her great name 
sake, the Abbess St. Clara of AssisL This Beata Clara is 
met with in the Augustine churches. There is a picture of 
her in the Santo Spirito at Florence. 



Of the various communities which emanated directly from 
the Augustine Order, properly so called, the earliest which has 
any interest in connection with art is one with a very long 
name the PJBEMONSTKATEKSIAKS. 



2JO LEGENDS OF THE MUJNA&IJLI* v 



ST. NORBERT, FOUNDER* 

ItaL San Norberto, Foadatore de 1 PremostratesL Ger. Stifter der Pra- 
monstratenser-Orderu May 6, 1134 

ST. NORBERT, whose effigy occurs frequently in French and 
Flemish Art, was a celebrated preacher and religious reformer 
in the eleventh century. He was "born at Cologne ; he was a 
kinsman of the Emperor Henry IY. ; and though early in 
tended for the ecclesiastical profession, in which the highest 
dignities awaited his acceptance, he for several years led a 
dissolute life in the Imperial court. 

One day, as he was riding in pursuit of his pleasures, he was 
overtaken by a sudden and furious tempest; and as he looked 
about for shelter, there fell from heaven a ball of fire, which 
exploded at his horse s feet, burned up the grass, and sank deep 
in the earth. On recovering his senses, he was struck with 
dismay when he reflected what might have been his fate in the 
other world had he perished in his wickedness. He forsook his 
evil ways, and began to prepare himself seriously for the life of a 
priest and a missionary. He sold all his possessions, bestowed" 
the money on the poor, reserving to himself only ten marks of 
silver, and a mule to carry the sacred vestments and utensils for 
the altar; and then, clothed in a lambskin, with a hempen cord 
round his loins, he set out to preach repentance and a new life. 

After preaching for several years through the northern pro 
vinces of France, Hainault, Brabant, and Liege, he assembled 
around him those whose hearts had been touched by his elo 
quence, and who were resolved to adopt his austere discipline. 
Seeing the salvation of so many committed to his care, he 
humbly prayed for the Divine direction ; and thereupon the 
blessed Virgin appeared to him in a vision, and pointed out to 
him a barren and lonesome spot in the valley of Coucy, thence 
called Pre-montre. Hence the name adopted by his com- 
munity, * the Premonstratensians. The Virgin likewise dic 
tated the fashion and colour of the habit they were to adopt; 
it was a coarse black tunic, and over it a white woollen cloak, 
in imitation of the angels of heaven, * who are clothed in white 



211 



garments* The four-cornered cap or beret, worn by the Au 
gustine canons, was also to be white instead of black. The 
rule was that of St. Augustine, but the discipline so severe 
that it was found necessary to modify it. Still, the necessity 
of monastic reform was so universally felt, that, even in the 
commencement, it found favour with the people. St. Norbert 
lived to count 1200 members of his community ; was created 
Archbishop of Magdeburg by the Emperor Lothaire; and, after 
a most active and laborious ministry, died in 1134. 

In the German prints and pictures St. Norbert has the cope, 
mitre, and crosier, as archbishop, and carries the sacramental 
cup in his hand, over which is seen a spider, in allusion to the 
following story : 

One day that Norbert had consecrated the bread and wine 
for the ceremony of the mass, on lifting the cup to his lips he 
perceived within it a large venomous spider. He hesitated 
what should he do ? To spill the sacred contents on the ground 
was profane not to be thought of. To taste was certain death. 
He drank it, and remained uninjured. This was regarded as a 
miracle, as a recompense of his faith, and has been often re 
presented. When, instead of the cup, he holds the Monstranz, 
I think it may be an allusion to the name of his Order. He 
has also the attribute of the demon bound at his feet, common 
to all those saints who have overcome the world. 

A frequent subject is St. IsForbert preaching at Antwerp 
against the heretic Tankelin. This Tankelin was a sort of 
atheist and socialist of those times. He insisted that the insti- . 
tution of the priesthood was a cheat, the sacraments unnecessary 
to salvation, and that a community of wives as well as goods 
was the true apostolic doctrine. Of course he had no chance 
against our austere and eloquent saint. In a very beautiful 
picture by Bernard v. Orlay, St. Norbert with his mitre on. his Munich Gat 
head is preaching to a large assemblage of people ; before him 
stands Tankelin, in a rich robe trimmed with fur, and with GaL 
frowning and averted looks ; in front are two women seated, 
listening, apparently a mother and her daughter, the latter 
inimitable for the grace of the attitude and the pensive expres 
sion of the beautiful face. The costume and style of this picture 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



are thoroughly German, and I suppose it was painted before 
Bernard v. (May had studied in the school of Baphael. 

&lt; St. Herbert in a vision receiving the habit of his Order from 
the hand of the Virgin/ was painted by Niccolo Poussin. 

Two pictures from his life are in the Brussels Gallery. 1. 
He consecrates two deacons. 2. He dies, surrounded by his 
brotherhood, in the act of benediction. The pictures are not 
very good. 

I know but one other saint of this Order, who has found a 
place in the history of Art, and his legend is very graceful. 

A.D..133*, ST. HERMAN was the son of very poor parents, dwelling in 
Apnl7 the city of Cologne. His mother brought him up piously, 
giving him the best instructions she could afford. Every day, 
as he repaired to school, he went into the Church of St Mary, 
and, kneeling before the image of Our Lady, said his simple 
prayer with a right lowly and loving and trusting heart. One 
day he had an apple in his hand, which was all he had for his 
dinner, and, after he had finished his prayer, he humbly offered 
his apple in childish love and faith to the holy image, * which 
thing/ says the legend, c pleased our Blessed Lady, and she 
stretched forth her hand and took the apple and gave it to our 
Lord Jesus, who sat upon her knee ; and both smiled upon 
Herman/ The young enthusiast took the habit of the Pre- 
monstratensians, and edified his monastery by his piety, his 
austerities, and his wonderful visions. He had an ecstatic 
dream, in which the Virgin descended from heaven, and 
putting a ring upon his finger, declared him her espoused. 
Hence he received from the brotherhood the name of Joseph. 
He died in 1236. 

The vision of St Herman- Joseph has been represented by 
Vandyck He kneels, wearing the white cloak over the black 
tunic, and is presented by an angel to the Virgin, who touches 
his hand. The pretty legend of th? child offering the apple I 
do not remember to have seen. 



THE SURVIj OE SERVIH. 213 



THE SERVI, OR SERVTTL 

EVEBY one who has been at Florence must remember the 
Church of the * Annunziata ; every one who remembers that 
glorious church, who has lingered in the cloisters and the 
Cortile^ where Andrea del Sarto put forth all his power 
where the Madonna del Sacco and the Birth of the Virgin 
attest what he could do and be as a painter, will feel in 
terested in the Order of the SERVI. Among the extraordinary 
outbreaks of religious enthusiasm in the thirteenth century, 
this was in its origin one of the most singular. 

Seven Florentines, rich, noble, and in the prime of life, 
whom a similarity of taste and feeling had drawn together, 
used to meet every day in a chapel dedicated to the Annuncia 
tion of the Blessed Virgin (then outside the walls of Florence), 
there to sing the Ave or evening service in honour of the 
Madonna, for whom they had an especial love and veneration. 
They became known and remarked in their neighbourhood for 
these acts of piety, so that the women and children used to 
point at them as they passed through the streets and exclaim, 
* Guardate i Servi di Maria!" (Behold the servants of the 
Virgin !) Hence the title afterwards assumed by the Order. 

The passionate devotion of these seven enthusiasts was in 
creased by their mutal sympathy and emulation, till at length 
they resolved to forsake the world altogether, and distributing 
their money to the poor, after selling their possessions, they 
retired to Monte Senario, a solitary mountain about six miles 
from Florence. Here they built for themselves little huts, of 
stones and boughs, and devoted themselves to the perpetual 
service of the Virgin. At first they wore a plain white tunic, 
in honour of the immaculate purity of their protectress ; it 
was then the favourite religious garb; but one of the brother 
hood was honoured with a vision, in which the holy Virgin 
herself commanded them to change their white tunic for a 
black one, in memory of her maternal sorrow and the death 
of her Divine Son : the habit was thenceforward black 

These seven Santi Fondatori dei Servi were Buonfiglioli 



J14 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OKDEE&. 



Monaldi, Griovanni Manetti, Benedetto Antellesi, Gherardo 
Sostegni, Amadio, Eicovero Lippi, and Alessio Falconieri. 
They were all allied to the noblest families of Florence, and, 
as their Order grew in fame and sanctity, their native city he* 
came proud of them. I remember in the private chapel of the 
Casa Buonarotti (still the residence of the representative of 
Michael Angelo) a series of lunettes, in which all the renowned 
Florentine saints are seen as walking in procession, led by 
John the Baptist and Santa Reparata, the patron saints of the 
city. The Padri Serviti, in their black habits, form part of 
this religious company. At their head walks Si; PHILIP BEN- 
ozzi, the chief saint of the Order, who has been called the 
founder, but it existed fifteen years before he joined it in 1247. 

Filippo Benozzi began life as a physician. In general, I 
think, the study of medicine and surgery does not prepare the 
m i n( j f or intense devotional aspirations; yet I have heard of 
young men studying for the medical profession, who, after 
going through a probation in the hospitals, unable to bear the 
perpetual sight of bodily suffering, and yet subdued at once 
and elevated by such spectacles, have turned to the Church, 
and become c healers of the sick in another sense. 

Such a one was Filippo Benozzi. After studying at Paris 
and at Padua, then, and down to recent times, the best schools 
of medicine in Europe, he returned to Florence, with the title 
of Doctor, and prepared to practise his art. He had a ten 
der and a thoughtful character ; the sight of physical evil 
oppressed him, he became dissatisfied with himself and the 
world. One day, as he attended mass in the Chapel of the 
Acts i 29. Annunziata, he was startled by the words in the epistle of the 
day, * Draw near and join thyself to the chariot. And going 
home full of meditation, he threw himself on his bed. In his 
dreams he beheld the Virgin seated in a chariot ; she called 
to him to draw near, and to join her servants. He obeyed 
the vision, and retired to Monte Senario, where such was his 
modesty and humility, that the brethren did not for a long 
time discover his talents ; and great was their astonishment 
when they found they had among them a wise and learned 
Doctor of the University of Padua! He soon became dis- 



ST. PHILIP BENOZZI. 215 



tinguished as a preacher, and yet more as a reconciller of 
differences, having set himself to allay the deadly hereditary 
factions which, at that time, distracted all the cities of 
Tuscany. He prevailed on the Pope, Alexander IV., to 
confirm the rule of the Order, preached through the chief 
provinces of Italy, and at Avignon, Toulouse, Lyons, Paris, 
gaining everywhere converts to his peculiar adoration for the 
Virgin, and at length died General of his Order in 1285. 

His memory has from that time heen held in great veneration 
by his own community; but it was not till 1516 that Leo X. 
(himself a Florentine) allowed his festival to be celebrated as 
a Beato. This was a great privilege, which the Serviti had 
long been desirous to obtain, and it led to the formal canon 
isation of their saint in 1671. It was on the occasion of 
his Beatification under Leo X., or soon after, that Andrea del 
Sarto was called to decorate the cloisters of the Annunziata. Florence. 
Vasari gives a most amusing account of the contrivances o 
the sacristan of the convent (a certain Fra Mariano) to get the 
work done as well and as cheaply as possible. He stimulated 
the vanity of rival artists ; he pointed out the advantage of 
having their works exhibited in a locality to which such numbers 
of the devout daily resorted ; he would not hold out the hope of 
large pay, but he promised abundance of prayers ; and he dwelt 
on the favour which their performances would, no doubt, obtain 
from the Blessed Virgin herself, to whose especial honour, and 
that of her newly exalted votary, they were to be consecrated. 
He obtained not all, bnt in great part what he desired. Andrea 
painted on one side of the Oortile two scenes from the life of the 
Madonna, the birth of the Virgin, and the adoration of the 
Magi ; and on the other side the life of San Filippo BeuozzL 
Of the first I will not say anything at present ; every figure 
in those sublime groups is familiar to the student and the 
lover of Art. Baldovinetti painted on the same side the birth 
of our Saviour ; and Franciabigio his chef-d oeuvre, the Mar 
riage of the Virgin. Of the six frescoes from the life of San 
Filippo, Cosimo Eoselli painted the first, where he takes the 
habit of the Serviti. The five others are by Andrea. 2. S. 
Filippo, on his way to the court of the Pope at Viterbo ; gives 



21G. LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



his only shirt to a poor leper. 3. Some gamblers and profligate 
young men mocked at the devotion of the saint, and pursued 
him with gibes and insults as he ascended, with three of his 
"brotherhood, the Monte Senario. A storm came on : the bre 
thren drew their cowls over their heads, and quietly pursued their 
way ; the scoffers ran for shelter to a tree, and were killed by 
the lightning. This is one of the best of the series, admirable 
for the fine landscape and dramatic felicity with which the story 
is told. 4. San Filippo heals a possessed woman. 5. The death 
of the saint, also very beautiful. 6. Miracles performed by his 
relics after his death : his habit is placed on the head of a sick 
child, who is immediately healed. The fine figure of the old 
man in red drapery, leaning on his stick, is the portrait of 
Andrea della Robbia, one of the family of famous sculptors. 

In the cloisters, over the door which leads into the church, 
Andrea del Sarto painted the Riposo, so celebrated as the 
* Madonna del Sacco. And, on the walls, Bernardino Pocetti, 
Mascagni, and Salimbeni, clever mannerists of the sixteenth 
century, painted a series of subjects from the lives of the ori 
ginal founders of the Order, of which the best (by Pocetti) 
represents the recovery of a child drowned in the Arno, by the 
prayers of Arnadio. This fresco is celebrated under the name 
of the AmgatO) or Affogato, i The Drowned Boy. On the whole, 
the black robes of the personages give to these frescoes a spotty 
and disagreeable effect, and they are not in any respect first 
rate : yet they are interesting when considered in reference to 
their locality and the history of the origin of the Order. Oat 
of Florence, St Philip Benozzi and his companions are not 
conspicuous as subjects of Art, though the Order became 
popular and widely extended. In 1484 the Servitiwere added 
to the Mendicant Orders, and from that time are styled FratL 
Father Paul Sarpi, the Venetian, so famous in the political 
and literary history of Italy, was of this Order, and would be 
properly styled Fm Paolo. 



THE TRINITARIANS. 217 



THE TEDHTARIANS. 
The Order of the Most Holy Trinity, for the Eedemption of Captives. 

OF the many communities, male and female, which emanated 
from the Augustine Rule, the most interesting are those which 
were founded for purposes of mercy and charity, rather than 
for self-sanctification through penance and seclusion. These 
have, however, afforded comparatively but few subjects, either 
in painting or sculpture. 

.Among the suffering classes of our Christendom, from the 
tenth to the fifteenth century, none were more pitiable than the 
slaves and prisoners. The wars of that period had a peculiar 
character of ferocity, enhanced by the spirit of religious hatred : 
prisoners on both sides were most inhumanly treated. The 
nobles and leaders were usually ransomed, often at the price of 
all their worldly goods; the poorer classes, and frequently 
women and children, carried off from the maritime cities and 
villages, languished and toiled in a hopeless slavery, &lt; captives 
in the land of their enemies. 

ST. JOHN BE MATHA. was born at Faucon in Provence, in st. John 
1154, of noble parents. As usual, we find that his mother, 
whose name was Martha, had educated him in habits of piety, 
and consecrated him early to the service of God. 

He, being a student in the University of Paris, became 
famous there for his learning and holiness of life; and, being 
ordained priest, at his first celebration of divine service he 
beheld a vision of an angel clothed in white, having a cross of 
red and blue on his breast, and his hands, crossed over each 
other, rested on the heads of two slaves, who knelt on each 
side of him. And believing that in this vision of the mind 
God spoke to him, and called him to the deliverance of 
prisoners and captives, he immediately sold all his goods, 
and forsook the world, to prepare himself for his mission. 
He retired to a desert place, where, at the foot of a little 
hill, was a fair, clear, and cold fountain, to which a white 
hart did daily resort for refreshment, whence it was called in 
Latin Cervus Jrigidus, and in French Cerfroy ; and here, with 

F F 



21S LEG-ENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



st Felix de another holy and benevolent man, named Felix de Valois 
No^so. the two together arranged the institution of a new Order for 
the Redemption of Slaves, and travelled to Rome to obtain 
the approbation of the Pope. 

When they came to Rome they were courteously received by 
Pope Innocent III, who having been favoured with the like 
vision of an angel clothed in white with two captives chained 
(and on this occasion one captive was a Christian, and the 
other a Moor, showing that in this charitable foundation there 
was to be no distinction of colour or religion), c his Holiness 
did forthwith ratify the Order, and, by his command, they 
assumed the white habit, having on the breast a Greek cross 
of red and blue ; the three colours signifying the Three Persons 
of the Most Holy Trinity : the white, the Father Eternal : the 
blue, which was the traverse of the cross, the Son as Re 
deemer ; and the red, the charity of the Holy Spirit : and he 
appointed that the Brotherhood should be called The Order of 
the Holy Trinity, for the Redemption of Captives. 

This being settled, John de Matha and Felix de Valois the 
Clarkson and "Wilberforce of their time returned to France 
and they preached the redemption of captives through the whole 
country, collecting a number of followers who devoted them 
selves to the same cause. They were then called Hathurim, 
and the name survives in a street of Paris, near which was one 
of their first establishments, but the parent monastery was that 
of Cefroy. The Pope also gave them, at Rome, the church and 
convent since called S. Maria della Navicella, on the Monte 
Celio, well known to those who have been at Rome, for its soli 
tary and beautiful situation, and for the antique bark which 
stands in front of it, and from which it derives its name. 

Having collected a large sum from the charitable, John sent 
two of his brotherhood to the coast of Africa, to negotiate for 
an exchange of prisoners, and for the redemption of slaves. 
They returned with 186 redeemed Christians. The next year 
John went himself to Spain, preaching everywhere the cause 
of captives and slaves ; then passing over to Tunis, he returned 
with 110 redeemed captives. On a third voyage, in which he 
tad ransomed 120 slaves, the infidels, furious at seeing him 



ST. JOHN" 2&gt;E MATHA. 2 39 



depart, cut up the sails of the ship into fragments, and broke 
away the rudder. The mariners were in despair at "being thus 
abandoned to the winds and waves. But John, trusting in 
his good cause, replaced the torn sails with his mantle and 
those of his brotherhood; and, throwing himself on his knees, 
prayed that God himself would be their pilot And behold it 
was so ; for gentle winds wafted them into the port of Ostia. 
But the health of John de Matha was so completely broken, 
that he found himself unable to proceed to France, and the 
last two years of his life were spent at Rome, where, in the 
intervals of a lingering malady, he passed his time in visiting 
the prisons and preaching to the poor. And thus he died in 
the exercise of those charities to which, from early youth, he 
had devoted himself. 

St John de Matha is represented in a white habit, with a 
blue and red cross upon his breast, fetters in his hand or at 
his feet, and, in general, the vision of the angel with the two 
captives is placed in the background. The peculiar cross and 
white habit distinguish him from St. Leonard, whose beautiful ft. 896. * 
legend has been already related. 

Mr. Stirling mentions a picture representing the Virgin Artists of 
giving San Juan de Mata a purse of money for the redemp- pflSk 
tion of captives, painted by a certain Tray Bartolome, who 
belonged to the Order ; and his effigy is common in the old 
French prints. 

His companion, St. Felix de Valois, wears the habit of an 
Augustine hermit, and is represented sitting in a contem 
plative attitude by the side of a fountain, at which a stag or 
hind is drinking. There is a series of ten pictures, by Gomez, 
representing the lives of these two companion saints ; but the 
subjects are not mentioned. 

I remember a singular mosaic of a circular form, executed 
by Giovanni Cosmata about 1300, and certainly for this 
Order. It represents Christ enthroned, and loosing the 
fetters of two slaves who kneel on each side. One of these 
slaves is white, and the other is a negro. I have lost my 
note of the church in which this mosaic exists, but it is pro- 
bably to be found in S. Maria della Navicella. 



220 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



St. Bade- 
gimda 
August 13, 

5S7. 



A.B. 564. 



Dugdale. 



The first founders of the Trinitarians placed themselves 
especially under the protection of St. Eadegunda, whose 
effigy is often to be found in the houses of the Order, and in 
connection with the legend of Juan de Matha. The story 
relates that Eadegunda was the daughter of Berthaire, king 
of Thuringia, and that in her childhood she was carried 
away into captivity with all her family by Clothaire V., kin^ 
of France, who afterwards married her* And this queen 
was a virtuous lady, much devoted to prayer and alms- 
deeds, often fasting, and chastening lierself with hair-cloth, 
which she wore under her royal apparel. And one day, as 
she walked alone in the gardens of her palace, she heard the 
voices of prisoners on the other side of the wall, weeping in 
their fetters, and imploring pity; and remembering her 
early sorrows, she also wept. And, not knowing how to 
aid them otherwise, she betook herself to prayer, whereupon 
their fetters burst asunder, and they were loosed from 
captivity. And this Queen Eadegunda afterwards took the 
religious habit at the hands of St. Medard, bishop of Noyon, 
founded a monastery for nuns at Poitiers, and lived in great 
sanctity, ministering to the poor. She is represented with 
the royal crown, under which flows a long veil ; she has a 
captive kneeling at her feet, and holding his broken fetters 
in his hand. 

When the Order of the Trinitarians was introduced into 
England by Sir William Lucy of Charlecote, on his return 
from the Crusade, he built and endowed for them Thellesford 
Priory in Warwickshire, and dedicated it to the honour 
of God, St. John the Baptist, and St. Eadegunda. 



THE OKBER OF OTO LADY OF MERCY. 

Bt Peter AMOKG the converts of St. John Matha, when he preached the 
JL uitt& deliverance of captives in Languedoc, was the son of a nobleman 

of that country, whose name was Peter Nolasque, or Nolasco. 

In Ms youth he had served in the Crusade against the Albi- 



ST. PETER NOLASCO. 221 




genses, and afterwards became the tutor or governor of the 
3 r oung king, James of Aragon. Struck with the miseries of Don 
war, which he had witnessed at an early age, and "by the fate tldo qulb ~ 
of the Christians who were kept in captivity "by the Moors, he 
founded, in imitation of San Juan Mata, a 
community for the redemption of slaves 
and captives, and prisoners for debt, to 
which he gave the name of The Order of 
Our Lady of Mercy. This foundation was 
at first military and chivalrous, and con 
sisted of knights and gentlemen, with 
only a few religious to serve in the choir. 
42 Badorder The kin & Ja y me el Conquistador, not only 
of Mercy. placed himself at their head, but gave them 

as a perpetual badge his own arms. From Barcelona the 
Order extended far and wide, and Peter Nolaseo was the first 
General or Superior. From this time his long life was spent 
in expeditions to the various provinces of Spain, then under 
the dominion of the Moors ; to Majorca, and to the coast of 
Barbary, whence he returned with many hundreds of redeemed 
slaves. He died in 1258. 

The Fathers of the Order of Mercy, which had lost its mili 
tary character, and become strictly religious, obtained the 
canonisation of their founder in 1628. The Spanish painters 
thereupon set themselves to glorify their new saint ; and the 
convents of the Order of Mercy, particularly La Merced at 
Seville, were filled with pictures in his honour. 

St. Peter Nolasco is represented as an aged man wearing 
the white habit, and on his breast the shield or arms of King 
James, the badge of the Order : this distinguishes him from 
all monks wearing the white habit. Zurbaran painted a great 
number of pictures from his life. Two of the best of these are 
in the Museum at Madrid : 1. St. Peter ISTolasco beholds in a 
vision his patron, St. Peter the Apostle, who appears to him 
on a cross with his head downwards. 2. An angel shows him 
in a vision the city of Jerusalem : the angel is vulgar, the 
kneeling saint very fine. Several other pictures belonging to 
the same series, and obtained apparently from the same con- 



222 LEGEKDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



vent (La Merced at Seville), "were in the Soult Gallery, and 
others were among the Spanish pictures collected by King 
Louis Philippe, and formerly in the Louvre. 

Connected with this Order, and often associated with St. 
Peter Nolasco, is another Saint, Raymond Nonnatus, called by 
the Spaniards San Ramon, who died in 1240, just after being 
created a cardinal by Gregory IX. In consequence of the 
peculiar circumstances attending his birth, he obtained the 
surname of Nonnatus^ and is in Spain the patron saint of 
midwives and women in travail. Mr. Stirling mentions a 
picture of San Ramon, in which he is represented as having 
his lips bored through with a red-hot iron, and a padlock 
placed on his mouth ; according to the legend, this was the 
barbarous punishment inflicted on him while, in his vocation 
as a Friar of Mercy, he was redeeming Christian captives 
among the Moors. Several interesting pictures in the Soult 
Gallery relate to this saint, and not to St. Raymond de Pena- 
forte, who was quite a different person, and belonged to the 
Dominican Order. 1 One of these pictures (in the Soult Cata 
logue, No. 22) represents a chapter of the Order of Mercy held 
at Barcelona, in which St. Raymond Nonnatus, habited as 
Cardinal, presides, and St. Peter iTolasco is seated among the 
brethren. Another (No. 24 in the same Catalogue) represents 
the funeral obsequies of St. Raymond : he is extended on a 
bier, wearing the mitre as general and grand vicar of the Order, 
with the cardinal s hat lying at Ms feet. The Pope and the 
King who assist at the ceremony are Gregory IX. and St. 
James of Aragon. Both these pictures formed part of the series 
painted by Zurbaran for the Merced at Seville. Another, 
which was in the Spanish Gallery of the Louvre, represents 
St. Raymond wearing the white habit and badge of the Order, 
and the mitre as grand-vicar. In the Catalogue it is called, 
"by some extraordinary mista&e, San Carmelo. 

In the legend of St. Peter Nolasco it is related, that when 
lie was old and infirm, two angels bore him in their arms 
to the foot of the altar in order to receive the sacrament, and 
tiien carried him back to his cell. This is one of the corn- 

1 TE0 Mstory of St. Raymond de Pe&aforte is given further on. 



ST. PETER NQLASCO. 




St. Peter Nolasco. (Claude de Mellan.) 



monest subjects from tlie life of St. Peter Nolasco, and it 
admits of great beauty in the treatment. There were two or 
three specimens in the Standish Gallery in the Louvre, 1 This 
sketch is from the masterpiece of Claude Mellan, a famous 
French engraver. The print was published in 1628, in the 
year in which St. Peter was canonised. 

San Pedro Nolasco finding the choir of his convent occupied 
by the Virgin and a company of angels (in a fine picture by 

i Since the year 1848, the pictures composing the Standish Gallery and the 
Spanish Gallery of the Louvre, all the private property of King Louis Philippe, 
have been packed up, and their present destination is unknown to me. The Souli; 
Gallery was sold and dispersed on the 19th May 1852. 



Granada. 



224 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Boccanegra), and San Pedro Nblasco correcting the novices 
of Ms Order (by Salcedo), are mentioned by Mr. Stirling. 1 

A favourite subject in these convents is Our Lady of Mercy, 
JSuestra Senora de la Merced. She is represented standing, 
crowned with stars, and wearing on her breast the badge of 
the Order, which she likewise holds in her hand. The attendant 
angels bear the olive, the palm, and broken fetters, in sign of 
peace, victory, and deliverance. 



THE BRIGITTINES. 

THE last of these branches of the Augustine Order which it 
is necessary to mention in connection with Art is that of the 

or Birgitta. Biigittines, founded by St. Bridget of Sweden, whom we must 
be careful not to confound with St. Bridget the primitive saint 
of Ireland. This St. Bridget was of the royal blood of Sweden ; 

wuipho at the age of sixteen she married Ulpho, Prince of Norica in 

Foi^ueL Sweden, and was the mother of eight children. She was 
singularly devout, and inspired her husband and children with 
the same sentiments. After the death of her husband she 
retired from the world ; and she built and endowed, at a great 
expense, the monastery of Wastein, in which she placed sixty 
nuns and twenty-four brothers, figuring the twelve apostles 
and seventy-two disciples of Christ. She prescribed to them 
the Rule of St. Augustine, with certain particular constitutions 
which are said to have been dictated to her by our Saviour 
in a vision. The Order was approved in 1363 by Urban Y. ? 
under the title of the Eule of the Order of our Saviour. But 
the nuns always bore the name of the Brigittines. She was 
said to have been favoured by many revelations, which were 
afterwards published. She died in the odour of sanctity in 

0^ 8 1373, was canonised by Boniface IX. in 1391, and has since 
been regarded as one of the patron saints of Sweden. 

1 The first of these pictures must represent, I think, St. Felix de Yalois, of 
and not of St. Peter ITolasco, the vision is recorded. 



ST. BRIDGET OF SWEDEN. 2 25 



She is represented of mature age in the dress of a nun, 
wearing the black tunic, white wimple, and white veil, which 
has a red band from the back to the front, and across the 
forehead; this distinguishes the habit from that of the Bene 
dictines. She has the crosier, as first abbess of the Order, and 
sometimes the pilgrim s staff and wallet, to express her 
various pilgrimages to Compostella and to Rome. The earliest 
representation I have seen of this saint is a curious old wood 
cut in possession of Lord Spencer, of which there is an 
imitation in Otley s History of Engraving. It represents her 
writing her revelations. As her disciples considered her 
inspired, the holy Dove is generally introduced into the 
devotional representations of this saint. In the Church of 
the Hospital of St. John at Florence, there is a fine picture 
of * Santa Brigitta giving the Rule to her nuns, by Era 
Bartolomeo. In the Berlin Gallery are two curious pictures 
representing this saint at a writing-table, and one of her *a "w. 

TTT-T T .,io- ( ^ , . . Lorenzo di 

visions ; called there by mistake St. Catherine of Siena. 

One of the daughters of St. Bridget distinguished for her 
extreme piety, became Superior of the community after the 
death of her mother, and was canonised under the name of 
St. Catherine of Sweden. 

The Order of the Brigittines was introduced into England 
by Henry V., and had a glorious nunnery, Sion House, near 
Brentford, which, at the Reformation, was bestowed on the 
Duke of Northumberland, and still continues in possession of 
his descendants. The nuns, driven from their sacred precincts, 
fled to Lisbon, where they found protection and relief ; and 
their Order still exists there, but in great poverty. Some of 
the beautiful relics and vestments which they had carried away 
from Sion, and religiously preserved in all their wanderings, 
are now in the possession of the Earl of Shrewsbury. 1 

In the Madrid Gallery there is a most beautiful picture by 
Giorgione, representing a lovely female saint offering a basket 
of roses to the Madonna, and behind her a warrior saint with 

1 Among these, a cope of wonderful beauty, embroidered all over witli scriptural 
subjects worked in silk and gold, was in the collection of * Works of Mediaeval 
Art,* exhibited in the Adelphi (April 1S50). 

G G 



226 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



liis standard. This is called in the Madrid catalogue, by 
some strange mistake, St. Bridget and her husband Fulco. 
There can be no doubt that it represents two saints very 
popular at Venice, and often occurring together in the 
Venetian pictures of that time, St. Dorothea and St. George, 
with their usual attributes. 



To the Augus tines belong the two great Military Orders, the 
Knights Templars (1118) and the Knights of St. John of 
Jerusalem, afterwards styled of Malta (1092). The first wear 
the red cross on the white mantle ; the second, the white cross 
on the black mantle. They may thus be recognised in portraits ; 
but in connection with sacred Art I have nothing to record of 



them here 



THE MENDICANT ORDERS. 227 



Clje 

THE FRANCISCANS. THE DOMINICANS. THE CARMELITES* 

THE three great Mendicant Orders arose almost simultaneously] 
in the beginning of the thirteenth century. 

The Carmelites, as we shall see, claim for themselves a 
very high antiquity : and for their founder, no other than 
the prophet Elijah himself. These claims the Roman Church 
has not allowed ; neither do we find the Carmelites, at any 
time, an influential Order ; nor are they conspicuous in early 
Art ; and in modern Art they are interesting for one saint only, 
the Spanish St. Theresa, On the other hand, the Franciscans 
and Dominicans are so important and so interesting in every 
respect, so intimately connected with the revival of the Fine 
Arts and their subsequent progress, and so generally associated 
and contrasted in the imagination, that I shall give them the 
precedence here ; and I shall say a few words of them in their 
relation to each other before I consider them separately. 
/ In the Introduction, and in the preceding chapters, I have 
/touched upon that wonderful religious movement which, in 
(the thirteenth century, threw men s minds into a state of 
fusion, I have described some of its results. Without 
doubt, the most important, the most memorable of all, was 
the portentous twin-birth of the two great mendicant com7 
munities of St. Francis and St. Dominick. Their founders 
were two men of different nations differing yet more in 
nature, in temperament and character, who, without any 
previous mutual understanding, had each, conceived the idea 
of uniting men under a new religious discipline, and for 
purposes yet unthought of. , 

Lithe year 1216, Dominick the Spaniard, and Francis of 
Assisi, met at Rome. They met and embraced, each re- 



228 LEGEOT3S OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



cognising in the other the companion predestined to aid the 
Church in her conflict with the awakening mental energies, so 
long repressed; and in her attempt to guide or crush the 
aspiring, inquiring, ardent, fevered spirits of the time. Some 
attempts were made to induce them to unite into one great 
body their separate institutions. Dominick would have com 
plied : it may be that he thought to find in Francis an instru 
ment as well as an ally. Francis, perhaps from an intuitive 
perception of the unyielding, dogmatic character of his friend, 
stood aloft. They received from Innocent III. the confirmation 
of their respective communities, and parted, as it has been 
well expressed, * to divide the world between them. For, 
before the end of the century, nay, in the time of one genera 
tion, their followers had spread themselves in thousands, 
and tens of thousands, over the whole of Christian Europe, 
and sent forth their missionaries through every region of the 
then known world. 

Both had adopted, as their fundamental rule, that of St 
Augustine ; and hence it is that we meet with pictures of the 
Franciscans and Dominicans in the churches of the Augustines : 
whereas I do not remember meeting with pictures of the Men- 
iicant Orders in any of the Benedictine houses and churches ; 
such must, therefore, be rare, if they occur at all. 

In fact, from the beginning, the monks had been opposed 
to the friars, as, in earlier times, the secular clergy had been 
opposed to the monks. 

The monastic discipline had hitherto been considered as 
exacting, in the first place, seclusion from the world; and 
secondly, as excluding all sympathy with worldly affairs. This, 
at least, though often departed from in individual cases, was 
the fundamental rule of all the stricter Benedictine communi 
ties, who, as it seems to me, wherever their influence had 
worked for good, had achieved that good by gathering the 
people to them, not by lowering themselves to the people. 
They were aristocratic, rather than popular communities. 
I The Franciscans and Dominicans- were to have a different 

stination. They were the spiritual democrats ; they were to 
dgle witk the people, yet without being of the people r ihey 



THE FBANCISCANS AND DOMINICANS. 231 



were to take cognisance of all private and public affairs; of all 
those domestic concerns and affections, cares and pleasures, 
from which their vows personally cut them off. They were to 
possess nothing they could call their own, either as a body or 
individually; they were to beg from their fellow-Christians food 
and raiment : such, at least, was the original rule, though 
this article was speedily modified. Their vocation was to look 
after the stray sheep of the fold of Christ ; to pray with those 
who prayed; to weep with those who wept; to preach, to 
exhort, to rebuke, to advise, to comfort, without distinction of 
place or person. The privilege of ministering in the offices of 
religion was not theirs at first, but was afterwards conceded. 
They were not to be called Padri, fathers, but Frati, Suori, 
brothers and sisters of all men : and as the Dominicans had 
taken the title of Frati Predicatori, preaching brothers ; so 
Francis, in his humility, had styled his community Frati 
Minorij Frdres Mineurs^ Minorites, or lesser brothers. In 
England, from the colour of their habits, they were dis 
tinguished as the Black-Friars and the Grey-Friars^ names 
which they have bequeathed to certain districts in London, 
and which are familiar to us at this day : but it does not 
appear that the Mendicant Orders ever possessed, in England, 
the wealth, the power, or the popularity of the Benedic 
tines. 

One important innovation on the rules and customs of all 
existing religious communities was common to the Franciscans 
and Dominicans ; and while it extended their influence, and 
consolidated their power, it was of incalculable service to the 
progress of civilisation and morals, consequently to the cause 
of Christianity. This was the admi ssion into both communities 
of a third class of members (besides the professed friars and 
nuns), called the Tertiary Order, or Third Order of Penitence. 
It included both sexes, and all ranks of life ; the members 
were not bound by vows, nor were they required to quit their 
secular occupations and domestic duties, though they entered 
into an obligation to renounce secular pleasures and vanities, 
to make restitution where they had done wrong, to be true and 
just in all their dealings, to be charitable to the extent of their 



228 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 

means, and never to take up weapon except against the enemies 
of Christ. Oonld such a brotherhood have been rendered 
universal, and could Christians have agreed on the question, 
6 whom, among men, Christ himself would have considered as 
his enemies ? * we should have had a heaven upon earth, or at 
least the Apostolic Institutions restored to us ; b.ut, with every 
drawback caused by superstition and ignorance, by fierce, cruel 
and warlike habits, this institution, diffused as it was through 
every nation of Europe, did more to elevate the moral standard 
among the laity, more to Christianise the people, than any 
other that existed before the invention of printing. It is 
necessary to keep this * Third Order in mind, to enable us to 
understand some of the stories and pictures which will be 
noticed hereafter ; those, for instance, which relate to St. Ives 
and St. Catherine of Siena. 

The distinction between the Franciscans and Dominicans 
lay not in essentials, but merely in points of discipline^ and 
difference of dress. 

In pictures the obvious, and, at first sight, the only apparent 
distinction between the two Orders is the habit ; we should 
therefore be able, at a glance, to tell a Franciscan from a 
Dominican by its form and colour. This is so essential a 
preliminary that I shall here describe the proper costume of 
each, that the contrast may be impressed on the memory. 
]""* The habit of the Franciscans was originally grey, and it is 
1 grey in all the ancient pictures. After the first two centuries 
j the colour was changed to a dark brown. It consists of a 
plain tunic with long loose sleeves, less ample, however, than 
{ those of the Benedictines. The tunic is fastened round the 
waist with a knotted cord. This cord represents symbolically 
the halter or bridle of a subdued beast, for such it pleased 
Francis to consider the body in its subjection to the spirit 
A cape, rather scanty in form, hangs over the shoulders, and 
to the back of the cape is affixed a hood, drawn over the head 
in cold or inclement weather. 

The Franciscan nuns wear the same dress, only instead of a 
hood they have a black veil. 



THE FRANCISCANS AND DOMINICANS. 



The habit of the Dominicans is a white woollen gown, 
fastened round the waist with a white girdle: over this a 
white scapular (a piece of cloth hanging down from the neck 
to the feet, like a long apron before and behind) : over these 
a black cloak with a hood. The lay brothers wear a black 
scapular. 

The Dominican nuns have the same dress, with a white veil 

The members of the Third Order of St. Francis are dis 
tinguished by the cord worn as a girdle. Those of the 
Third Order of St. Dominick have the black mantle or the 
black scapular over a white gown ; the women, a black cloak 
and a white veil. 

The Dominicans are always shod. I The Franciscans are 
generally barefoot, or wear a sort of wooden sandal, called in 
Italy a zoccolo ; hence the name of Zoccolanti, sometimes given 
in Italy to the Franciscan friars. 

The dress, therefore, forms the obvious and external distinc 
tion between the two Orders. But, in considering them in 
their connection with Art, it will be interesting to trace another 
and a far deeper source of contrast. As the two communities 
have preserved, through their whole existence of six hundred 
years and more, something of that character originally im 
pressed by their founders, so in pictures, and in all the forms 
of Art, we feel this distinctive character as sensibly as we 
should the countenance and bearing of two individuals. I 
mean, of course, in genuine Art, not in factitious Art Art as 
the interpreter, not the imitator. 

Two celebrated passages in Dante give us the key to this Paradiso, 
distinct character, rendered by the great painters as truly as ** 
by the great poet \ 

Dominick was a man of letters ; a schoolman, completely / 
armed with all the weapons of theology; eloquent by nature ; 
sincere, as we cannot doubt; in earnest in all his convictions ; 
but, as Dante portrays Mm, Bemgno ai moi edai nemiti crude : c. x&. 

The holy wrestler, gentle to Ms own, 
Aad to Ms enemies terrible. 



232 LEGEKDS OW THE MONASTIC OBDEES. 



In other words, unscrupulous, inaccessible to pity, and * wise 
as the serpent/ in carrying out his religious views and pur 
poses. 

^Francis, on the contrary, was a wild and yet gentle enthu 
siast, who fled from the world to espouse the * Lady Poverty ; 
a man ignorant and unlettered, but of a poetical nature, pas 
sionate in all its sympathies ; in Dante s words, Tutto serqfico 
in ardore. &lt; The one like the cherub in wisdom, the other like 
this seraph in fervour. The first would accept nothing from 
the Church but permission to combat her enemies ; the latter, 
nothing but the privilege of suffering in her cause. And the 
character of the combatant and penitent, of the active and the 
contemplative religious life, remained generally and externally 
impressed on the two communities, even when both had fallen 
away from their primitive austerity of discipline. 



The Dominicans, as a body, were the most learned and the 
lk most energetic. We find them constantly arrayed on the side 
of power. They remained more compact, and never broke up 
into separate reformed communities, as was the case afterwards 
with the Franciscans. Their greatest canonised saints were 
men who had raised themselves to eminence by learning, by 
eloquence, by vigorous intellect or resolute action. 

The Franciscans aspired to a greater degree of sanctity and 
.umility, and a more absolute self-abnegation. They were 

.ost loved by the people. They were among the Catholics of 
the thirteenth century what the .Methodists of the last century 
were with us. Their most famous saints were such as had 
descended from worldly power and worldly eminence, to take 
refuge in their profession of lowly poverty and their abject 
self-immolation, rendered attractive to the high-born and high 
bred by the very force of contrast. The Franciscans boast of 
several princely saints ; which is not, I believe, the case with 
the Dominicans. The latter have, however, one canonised 
martyr in their ranks their famous St. Peter more glorious 
in their own estimation than all the Franciscan royalties 
together ; but on this point, as we shall see, opinions differ. 
He was certainly the incarnate spirit of the Order, 



THE FRANCISCANS AND DOMINICANS. 



I have taken here the picturesque and poetical aspect of the 
two Orders, which, of course, is that which we are to seek for 
in sacred Art, where a fat jovial Franciscan would be a 
solecism : a gross, arrogant, self-seeking Dominican, not less 
so. As the painters employed by each generally took their 
models from the convents in which, and for which, they worked, 
we may read no unmeaning commentary on the progressive 
history of the two communities in the pale, spiritual, thought 
ful, heavenward look of the friars in the early pictures ; and 
the commonplace and often basely vulgar heads which are so 
hatefully characteristic of the degenerate friarhood in some of 
the later pictures, and more particularly in the second-rate 
Spanish and Bolognese schools. 

Very interesting and very significant to the thoughtful 
observer are those pictures which represent in companionship 
the chief saints of the two Orders : as where St. Francis and 




44 St. Dominick and St. Francis. 

(Prom a picture formerly in the Spani&fa. G-aHery of the Louvre.) 
H H 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



St. Dominick are embracing each other ; or stand on each side 
of the throne of the Virgin ; or are jointly trampling on the 
world and sustaining the Church and the cross between them, 
as in this little sketch from a Spanish picture. 

And we can sometimes tell at a glance for which of the two 
Orders the picture was painted, by observing the degree of 
relative importance and dignity given to the figures. As, for 
instance, in a picture where St. Dominick stands pointing to 
the Virgin, while St. Francis and St. Clara are kneeling; 
painted, of course, for the Dominicans. Or where St. Francis 
receives his awful seraphic vision, while St. Dominick is 
standing by; painted, of course, for the Franciscans. And 
when the Mendicant Orders had attained the height of their 
power and popularity, we find the Augustines exceedingly 
anxious to assert their own superiority as the primitive Order, 
and to represent St. Augustine as giving the rule to St. Francis 
Florence, and St. Dominick. Andrea del Sarto painted a picture, by 
Pitta Pai. comman( j O f the Augustine Hermits, in which St. Augustine 
stands in an attitude of great dignity, expounding the doctrine 
of the Trinity ; St. Francis stands meditating, and St. Peter 
the Dominican consults an open volume; St. Lawrence, St. 
Sebastian, and St. Mary Magdalene are listening around. 
The introduction of the last three personages expresses the 
right assumed by the Augustines of including in their Order 
all those sacred worthies who lived between the first and the 
sixth centuries. The picture is one of wonderful beauty, and, 
with this interpretation of its significance and its intention, 
may be read like a page out of a book. 

Of the munificent patronage extended by the Franciscans 
and Dominicans to every branch of Art, of the great artists 
they produced from their ranks, I have given a general 
sketch in the Introduction. In looking at the pictures pro 
duced by them or for them, it will be well and wise and just 
to recollect, not merely their connection with the progress of 
Art, but with the progress of human culture and social 
amelioration. Equally beautiful and candid is the testimony 



THE FRANCISCANS AND DOMINICANS, 



borne to their deserts by Sir James Stephen, in his c Eccle 
siastical Sketches. 5 

&lt; So reiterated, he says, and so just have been the assaults 
on the Mendicant Friars, that we usually forget that, till the 
days of Martin Luther, the Church had never seen so great 
and effectual a reform as theirs. . . . Nothing in the histories 
of Wesley or of Whitfield can be compared with the enthu 
siasm which everywhere welcomed them, or with the immediate 
and visible result of their labours. In an age of oligarchial 
tyranny, they were the protectors of the weak ; in an age of 
ignorance, the instructors of mankind ; and in an age of pro 
fligacy, the stern vindicators of the holiness of the sacerdotal 
character and the virtues of domestic life. 

If an earnest English Protestant could thus write of them 
in the nineteenth century, we may be permitted to look with 
some sympathy and respect on the effigies which commemor 
ated what they were what they acted and suffered, during 
the thirteenth and fourteenth; and this in spite of their 
dingy draperies, and what Southey pleasantly calls their 
* bread and water expression. 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 




45 



A Franciscan. (Zurbaran.) 



THE FBANCISCANS. 

IK pictures painted for the Franciscans, we expect of course 
to find, conspicuous in their grey or brown habits, and girded 
with the knotted cord, the worthies of their own Order. 
And in entering a church or convent belonging to any 
of the Franciscan communities, whether under the name 
of Minorites, Capuchins, Minims, Observants, Eecollects, 
the first glance round the walls and altars will probably 
exhibit to us, singly or grouped, or attending on the 
Madonna, their eight principal saints, called in Italian J 
CardinideW Of dine Serqfico ; The Chiefs of the Seraphic 
Order. 

* In the first and highest place St. Francis, as the Padre 
O) patriarch and founder. 



THE MtA^CISCANS. 237 



St. Clara, as the Madre Serafica^ first Franciscan nun and 
foundress of the Povere Donne (Poor Clares), 

St. Bonaventura, il Dottore Serczfico, the great prelate 
of the Order, sometimes as a simple Franciscan friar, some 
times as cardinal ; often grouped with St. Clara, and with St 
Lonis. 

St. Antony of Padua. He generally figures as the pendant 
to St. Francis, "being the second great luminary and miracle- 
worker of the Order ; he is very conspicuous in Spanish Art. 

St. Bernardino of Siena, the great preacher and reformer 
of the Order. 

Then the three princely saints : St. Louis, king of France ; 
St. Louis, bishop of Toulouse ; and the charming St. Elizaheth 
of Hungary, with her crown on her head, and her lap full of 
roses, conspicuous in G-erman Art. 

Following after these, and of less universal popularity, we 
find 

St. Margaret of Cortona, in Italian pictures only. 

St. Ives of Bretagne, 

St. Eleazar of Sabran. 

St. Rosa di Yiterbo. 
(These four belonged to the Third Order of Penitence.) 

St. John Capistrano. 

St Peter Regalato. 
And chiefly in Spanish pictures 

St. Juan de Dios. 

St Felix de Cantalicio. 

St Peter of Alcantara. 

St. Diego of Alcala. 

Any works of Art in which we find one or more of these 
personages conspicuous, we may safely conclude to have been 
originally executed for a community of Franciscans, or for the 
purpose of being placed in one of their churches. 

A single instance of a picture dedicated to the honour of the 
Franciscan saints is to be found in a grand altarpiece in the 
Church of San Bernardino at Verona, of which it is written in 
Murray s Handbook, * No lover of Art should pass through 
Verona without seeing this picture ; and I venture to add my 



238 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS, 



testimony to its exceeding beauty. The Virgin and Child are 
seated in glory; and on each side are St. Francis and St. 
Antony of Padua, nearly on an equality with the celestial 
personages. Around these, and mingled with the choir of 
angels, are seven beautiful seraphic or allegorical figures, 
bearing the attributes of the Seven Cardinal Virtues, Below 
on the earth stand six Franciscan saints ; on the right of the 
Virgin, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Bonaventura, and St. 
Louis, king ; on the left, St. Eleazar of Sabran, St. Louis of 
Toulouse, and St. Ives ; below these in the centre is seen the 
half-length of the votary who dedicated this fine picture, a 
certain Madonna Caterina de Sacchi, who appears veiled and 
holding a rosary. The lower group, painted by Paolo 
Morando, is much superior to the upper part of the picture. 
4.D. 1522. Morando died young while he was at work upon it, and it was 
finished by Francesco Morone. 

Some of these saints are personally so interesting, their lives 
and actions so full of matter and so significant, that it is with 
difficulty I refrain from following out the track of thought sug 
gested to my own mind : and though, as Wordsworth writes 

Nuns fret not at their convent s narrow room, 
And hermits are contented with their cell/ 

I could sometimes feel inclined to fret at the narrow limits of 
artistic illustration within which I am bound. But, without 
further pause, I must now endeavour to show through what 
real or imaginary merits each has earned his or her meed of 
glorification, and by what characteristic attributes they are to 
be recognised and distinguished from each other. 



ST. FKANCIS OF ASSISI. 

Lat. Sanctus Franclscus, Pater Seraphicus. ItaL San Francesco di AssisL 
IT. Saint Francois d Assise. Get 4, 1226. 

Habit, grey or dark brown, girded with a hempen cord. Attributes : 1. 
The stigmata; 2. The skull ; 3. The crucifix ; 4 The lily ; 5. The lamb. 

father of this famous saint, Pietro Bernardone of Assisi, 
was a rich merchant, who traded in silk and wooL His 



ST. FRANCIR OF ASSIST. 



mother s name was Pica. He was christened Giovanni ; but *.. na 
his father, who carried on large dealings with France, had 
intended his eldest son to be his chief agent and successor, and 
had him taught early to speak the French language : this was, 
for the time and locality, a rare accomplishment, and his 
companions called him Francesco the Frenchman. The name 
superseded his own, and remained to him through life ; by that 
name he became celebrated, venerated, canonised ; and it has 
since been adopted as a common baptismal name through 
Western Christendom. .^^ 

Francis, in his boyish years, was remarkable only for his 1 
vanity, prodigality, and love of pleasure. He delighted es 
pecially in gay and sumptuous apparel; but he was also 
compassionate, as ready to give as to spend, and beloved by 
his companions and fellow citizens. Thus passed the first 
fifteen or sixteen years of his life. In a quarrel between the 
inhabitants of Assisi and those of Perugia, they had recourse 
to arms. Francis was taken prisoner, and remained for a 
year in the fortress of Perugia ; on this occasion he showed 
both patience and courage. On his return home, he was 
- seized with a grievous fever, and languished for weeks and 
months on a sick bed. During this time, his thoughts were 
often turned towards God; a consciousness of his sins, a 
feeling of contempt for the world and its vanities, sank deep 
into his mind. He had been brought in his young years so 
near to death, that life itself took a shade from the contempla 
tion. " l 
Soon after his recovery he went forth, richly dressed as 
usual, and met a poor man in filthy ragged garments, who 
begged an alms for the love of G-od. Francis, looking on 
him, recognised one who had formerly been ranked with the 
richest and noblest of the city, and had held a command in 
the expedition against Perugia. Melted with compassion, he 
took off his rich dress, gave it to the mendicant, and, taking 
the other s tattered cloak, threw it round his own shoulders. 
That same night, being asleep, he had a vision, in which he 
fancied himself in a magnificent chamber, and all around 
were piled up riches and jewels, innumerable, and arms of all 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



kinds marked with the sign of the cross ; and in the midst 
stood the figure of Christ, who said to him, These are the 
riches reserved for my servants, and the weapons wherewith I 
arm those who fight in my cause. 5 And when Francis awoke, 
he thought that Providence had intended him for a great 
captain, for he knew not yet bis true vocation. Soon after 
wards he went into the Church of San Damiano to pray. Now 
this church, which stands not far from the eastern gate of 
Assisi, was then, as it is now, falling into ruin ; ard as he 
knelt "before a crucifix, he heard in his soul a voice which said 
to him. Francis, repair my Church, which falleth to ruin ! 
He, not understanding the sense of these words, believed that 
the church wherein he knelt was signified; therefore he 
hastened home, and, taking some pieces of cloth and other 
merchandise, sold them, and carried the money to the priests 
of San Damiano for the reparation of the church. Whereat 
his father, being in great wrath, pursued him to bring him 
back ; but Francis fled, and hid himself for many days in a 
cave, being in fear of his father. At length, taking heart, he 
came out, and returned to the city ; but changed, pallid, worn 
with hunger, his looks distracted, his garments soiled and torn, 
so that no one knew him, and the very children in the streets 
pursued him as a madman. These and all other humiliations 
Francis now regarded as the trials to which he was called, and 
which were to usher him on his path to regeneration. His 
father, believing him frantic, shut him up, and bound him in 
his chamber ; but his mother, having pity on her own son, 
went and delivered him, and spoke to him words of comfort, 
entreating him to have patience, and to be obedient to his 
parents, and not to shame them and all their kindred by his 
wild nnseemly deportment. As he persisted, his father took 
him before the bishop, a mild and holy man; and when 
Francis beheld the bishop, he flung himself at his feet, and 
abjuring at once parents, home, heritage, he tore off his gar 
ments, and flung them to his father, saying, * Henceforth I 
recognise no father but him who is in heaven ! Then the 
bishop wept with admiration and tenderness, and ordered his 
attendants to give Francis a cloak to cover him ; it was of the 



ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI. 241 



coarsest stuff, being taken from a beggar who stood by ; but 
Francis received it joyfully and thankfully as the first fruits 
of that poverty to which he had dedicated himself. 

He was then in his twentj r -fifth year, and from that time 
forth he lived as one who had cast away life. 

His first care was to go to an hospital of lepers, to whom 
he devoted himself with tender and unwearied charity. This 
was in him the more meritorious, because previous to his con 
version he could not look upon a leper without a feeling of 
repugnance, which made him sick even to faintness. 

Then he went wandering over those beautiful Unibrian 
mountains from Assisi to Grubbio, singing with a loud voice 
hymns (alia Francese, as the old legend expresses it, whatever 
that may mean), and praising Grod for all things; for the 
sun which shone above ; for the day and for the night ; for 
his mother the earth, and for his sister the inoon ; for the 
winds which blew in Ms face ; for the pure precious water, 
and for the jocund fire ; for the flowers under his feet, and for 
the stars above his head ; saluting and blessing all creatures, cundo.* 
whether animate or inanimate, as his brethren and sisters in 
the Lord. 

Thus in prayer, in penance, in charity, passed some years 
of his life. He existed only on alms, begged from door to door, 
and all but what sufficed to stay the pangs of hunger was 
devoted to the reparation of the Church of San Damiano and 
other churches and chapels in that neighbourhood. Among 
these was a little chapel dedicated to the c Queen of Angels, s. Marg 
in the valley at the foot of the hill on which Assisi stands. gSL 1 " 
Here he inhabited a narrow cell, and the fame of his piety and 
humility attracted to him several disciples. One day, being 
at mass, he heard the text from St. Luke, * Take nothing for 
your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, nor bread, nor money, 
nor two coats : and regarding this as an immediate ordinance, 
he adopted it as the rule of his life. He was already barefoot, 
poorly clad, a mendicant for the food which sustained him. 
There was but one superfluity he possessed ; It was his leathern ; 
girdle. He threw it from him, and took one of hempen cord. 



t&gt; 

ii 



LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDEB&. 



which being afterwards adopted by his followers, they have 
been thence styled by the people Cordeliers, 

Having thus prepared himself for his mission in the manner 
commanded in the Gospel, he set forth to preach repentance 
charity, humility, abnegation of the world, a new life, in 
short ; and everywhere he preached without study, trusting 
that G-od would put into his mind what he ought to- utter for 
the edification of others- 
It was, as I have said, a time of great and general suffering 
of sorrow, and of change of mental and moral ferment 
Men s minds were predisposed to be excited by the marvellous 
and melted by the pathetic, in religion; and the words of 
Francis fell upon them like sparks of fire upon the dry summer 
grass. Many, excited to enthusiasm by his preaching, joined 
themselves to him; and among these his earliest disciples 
four are especially mentioned and commemorated, Silvestro, 
Bernardo, Leo, and Giles (or Egidio). His first female disciple 
was a maiden of noble family, Clara d Assisi, whose story I 
shall have to relate hereafter. 

It being necessary to bind his followers together, and to 
him, by a rule of life which should be literally that of the 
apostles, he made the first condition absolute . poverty ; his 
followers were to possess nothing hence the picturesque 
allegory of his espousals with The Lady Poverty, to which I 
shall have to return. Meantime, to pursue the course of his 
life, he repaired to Borne to obtain the sanction of the Pope 
for his new institution. Innocent III was too cautious to 
lend himself at first to what appeared the extravagance of a 
fanatic enthusiast Francis, being repulsed, retired to the 
Hospital of St Antony ; but that night, as is related by St. 
Bonaventura, the Pope was admonished by a dream, in which 
he beheld the walls of the Lateran tottering ,,and about to fall, 
while the poor enthusiast whom he had rejected in the morn 
ing sustained the weight upon his shoulders. The Pope, on 
awaking, sent for him, confirmed the rule of his Order, and 
gave him a full dispensation to preach. St Francis then 
returned to his humble cell in the Porzioncula, 1 and built 

1 The testa Porzioncula, which occurs so perpetually in reference to the pictures 



ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI. 243 



other cells around for Ms disciples. He gave to Ms followers 
the name of Frati Minori, to signify the humility and the 
submission enjoined them, and that they should strive every 
where, not for the first and highest place, "but for the last and 
lowest They were not to possess property of any kind, nor 
would he allow any temporal goods to be vested in his Order : 
nor would he suffer during his life any building or convent in 
it, that he might say with perfect truth he possessed nothing. 
The spirit of Holy Poverty was to be the spirit of his Order. 
He prescribed that the churches built for them should be low 
and small, and all their buildings of wood; but, some repre 
senting to him that wood is in many places dearer than stone, 
he struck out this last condition. To extreme austerity he 
joined profound humility of heart ; he was in his own eyes the 
basest and most despicable of men, and desired to be so reputed 
by all. If others commended him, he replied humbly, * What 
every one is in the eyes of God, that I am and no more. He 
was endowed with what his biographer calls an extraordinary 
* gift of tears ; he wept continually his own sins and those of 
others ; and, not satisfied with praying for the conversion of 

of St. Francis, is, I believe, sometimes misunderstood. It means, literally, *a 
Email portion, share, or allotment.* Tke name was given to a slip of land, of a 
few acres in extent, at the foot of the hill of Assisi, and on which stood a little 
chapel ; both belonged to a community of Benedictines, who afterwards bestowed 
the land and the chapel on the brotherhood of St. Francis. This chapel was then 
familiarly known as the * Capella della Porzioncula. Whether the title by which 
it has since become famous as the S. Maria-degli-Angeli (* Our Lady-of- Angels ), 
belonged to it originally, or because the angels were heard singing around and 
above it at the time of the birth of St. Francis, does not seem clear : at all events, 
tlus chapel became early sanctified as the scene of the eestacies and visions of the 
saint : here, also, St. Clara made her profession : particular indulgences were 
granted to those who visited it for confession and repentance on the 5th of August, 
and it became a celebrated place of pilgrimage in the fourteenth century. Mr. 
Ford tells us that in Spain the term Porzioncula, is applied generally to distinguish 
the chapel or sanctuary dedicated to St. Francis within the Franciscan churches. 
The original chapel of the Porzioncula now stands in the centre of the magnificent 
church which has been erected over it. The church and chapel were both much 
injured by an earthquake in 1832, but the chapel was restored from the old 
materials, and the exterior is adorned with frescoes by Overbeck. It is a small 
building might contain, perhaps, thirty persons; but I did not take the measure 
ment : it looks small under the lofty dome of the edifice which now encloses it, 
and also the * narrow cell near it, called the Stanza di S, Francesco.* 



M5GENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



the heathen, he resolved to go and preach to the Mahometans 
in Syria, and to obtain the crown of martyrdom : but he was 
driven back by a storm. Afterwards, in 1214, he set forth to 
preach the gospel in Morocco. But in travelling through 
Spain he was stopped by sickness and other obstacles, so that 
he did not on this occasion proceed to Africa; but, after 
performing many miracles in Spain, and founding many 
convents, he returned to Italj r . 

Ten years after tlie first institution of his Order, St. Francis 
held the first General Chapter in the plain at the foot of the 
hill of Assisi. Five thousand of his friars assembled on this 
occasion. This famous Chapter is called, in the history of his 
Order, the c Chapter of Mats/ because they had erected booths 
covered with mats to shelter them. They gave themselves no 
care what they should eat or what they should drink, for the 
inhabitants of Assisi, Spoleto, Perugia, and Foligno supplied 
them with all they needed; and such was the general en- 
thusiasm, that the Cardinal Protector Ugolini, and Francis 
himself, were obliged to moderate the austerities and mortifi 
cations to which, the friars voluntarily subjected themselves. 
On this occasion he sent missionaries into various countries, 
reserving to himself Syria and Egypt, where he hoped to 
crown his labours by a glorious martyrdom for the cause of 
Christ. But it was not so ordered. 

He arrived at Damietta, he penetrated to the camp of the 
infidels, and was carried before the Sultan. The Sultan asked 
him -what brought him there ? to which he replied, that he 
had come there to teach him and his people the way of eternal 
salvation. In order to prove the truth of his mission, he 
desired that a fire should be kindled, and offered to pass 
through it if the Sultan would command one of his Imauns to 
pass with him. As the Sultan refused this, Francis offered 
next to throw himself into the fire, provided the Sultan and 
all his people would embrace Christianity. The Sultan 
declined this likewise; but looking on Francis with the 
Oriental feeling of respect and compassion, as one idiotic or 
insane, he sent him back guarded to Damietta, whence he 
returned to Italy without having the satisfaction of either 



ST. FRANCIS OF ASSIST. 



gaining a soul to Christ or shedding Ms blood for Ms sake. 
As some amends for this disappointment, he had the joy of 
hearing that five of his missionaries, whom he had sent to 
Morocco, had there suffered a cruel martyrdom. 

Four years after Ms return, he obtained the confirmation of 
his Order from Pope Honorius ; resigned his office of Superior, 
and retired to a solitary cave on Monte Alverna. There he or La 
was visited "by ecstatic trances, by visions of the Virgin and our 
Saviour, and it is said that he was sometimes raised from the 
ground in a rapture of devotion. It was on this occasion that 
he was favoured with an extraordinary vision, which I cannot 
venture to give otherwise than in the words of his biographer* 
c After having fasted for forty days in his solitary cell on Mount 
Alverna, and passed the time in all the fervour of prayer and 
ecstatic contemplation, transported almost to heaven by the 
ardour of his desires, then he beheld, as it were, a seraph with 
sis shining wings, bearing down upon him from above, and 
between his wings was the form of a man crucified. By this he 
understood to be figured a heavenly and immortal intelligence, 
subject to death and humiliation. And it was manifested to 
him that he was to be transformed into a resemblance to Christ, 
not by the martyrdom of the flesh, but by the might and fire of 
Divine love. When the vision had disappeared, and he had 
recovered a little from its effect, it was seen that in his hands, 
his feet, and side, he carried the wounds of our Saviour. 

Notwithstanding the interpretation which might easily be 
given to this extraordinary vision, it has remained an article of 
belief, on the testimony of St. Bonaventura, that these wounds 
were not only real, but impressed by supernatural power. The 
title of the SEKAPHIO has since been given to St. Francis and 
to his Order. He wished to Iiave concealed the favour which 
had been vouchsafed to him; but notwithstanding his pre 
cautions, the last two years of his life became, in various ways, 
a period of perpetual manifestation. He suffered meantime 
much from sickness, pain, weakness, and blindness caused by 
continual tears. He hailed the approach of death with rapture ; 
and desired, as a last proof of his humility, that his body should 
be carried to the common place of execution, a rock outside the 



246 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



walls of Assisi, then called the Cotte d* Inferno, and buried 
with the "bodies of the malefactors. He dictated a last testa 
ment to his friars, in which he added to the rule already given, 
that they should work with their hands, not out of a desire of 
gain, but for the sake of good example, and to avoid idleness. 
He commanded that those who did not know how to work 
should learn some trade. But Pope Nicholas III. afterwards 
abrogated this last precept. 

When he felt the approach of death, he ordered himself to be 
laid upon the bare earth, and endeavoured with a trembling 
voice to recite the 141st Psalm: he had reached the last verse, 
Bring my soul out of prison^ when he ceased to breathe. His 
AjD.1226. "body was carried to the city of Assisi, and those who bore it 
paused on their way before the Church of San Damiano, where 
Clara and her nuns saluted it, and weeping, kissed his hands 
and his garments. It was then carried to the spot which he 
had himself chosen, and which became from that time conse 
crated ground. 

Two years after his death, in the year 1228, he was canonised 
by Gregory IX., and in the same year was laid the foundation 
of that magnificent church which now covers his remains. To 
all those who contributed, either by the work of their hands or 
by their wealth, indulgences were granted. Almost all the 
princes of Christendom sent their offerings ; and the Germans 
were particularly distinguished by their liberality. The city of 
Assisi granted the quarries of marble: the inhabitants of all the 
neighbouring towns sent their artists to decorate the temple 
within and without. The body of St. Francis was transported 
thither in the month of May 1230 ; and, contrary to the usual 
custom with regard to the remains of the Eoman Catholic 
saints, it has ever since reposed there entire and undisturbed. 



Were all other evidence wanting, we might form some idea 
of the passionate enthusiasm inspired by the character of St. 



ST. FRANCIS OF ASSIST. 



Francis, and the popularity and influence of his Order, from 
the incalculable number of the effigies which exist of him. 
They are to be found of every kind, from the grandest crea 
tions of human genius, down to a halfpenny print, and are 
only rivalled in profusion and variety by those of the Madonna 
herself. In this case, as in some others, I have found it 
necessary to class the subjects, noticing only the leading 
points in the artistic treatment, and the most remarkable 
examples under each head, so as to assist the reader to dis 
criminate the merit, as well as to comprehend the significance, 
of the representation. 

But even a classification is here difficult. I shall begin 
with those subjects which must be considered as strictly de 
votional. They are of two kinds : - 

I The figures which represent 
St. Francis standing either alone 
or in a Sacra Conversazione; or 
enthroned, as the Padre Serqfteo y 
the patron saint and founder of 
his Seraphic Order, 

II. Those which represent him 
in prayer or meditation as the 
devout solitary, the pattern of 
ascetics and penitents. 

The earliest known representa 
tion of St. Francis has almost the 
value and authenticity of a por 
trait. It was painted by Giunta 
Pisano a few years after the death 
of the saint, and under the direc 
tions of those who had known him 
during his life: it is a small full- 
length, in the sacristy of his 
church at Assisi; which when I 
was there, hung high over a door 
with a curtain drawn before It, 
(Gmnta Pisano.) rather, as it seemed, to preserve 




46 st. 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



than to conceal it. He is standing a long meagre figure- 
long out of all proportion, wearing the grey habit and the 
cord; holding a cross in his right hand, and in the left 
the Gospel : the face is small ; the forehead broad ; the fea 
tures delicate and regular; the beard black, thin, and short; 
the expression mild and melancholy. Another very ancient 
figure, with the hood drawn over the head, and in the hand 
a scroll, on which is written Pax kme, exists at Subiaco, and 
is supposed to have existed there since the time of Gregory 
IX. (the same Cardinal Ugolini who was the friend of St. 
Francis, and * Protector of the Order). A third, by Mar- 
garitone di Arezzo, also with the hood drawn over the head, 
the Gospel in one hand, the other raised in benediction, is 
still preserved in the Church of Sargiano near Arezzo. The 
character of head in these effigies is nearly the same, and 
is, or- ought to be, the authority for succeeding painters ; and 
the best have not widely departed from this peculiar type 
no doubt the true one. But it has either been set aside 
altogether or most grossly 
caricatured by later painters, 
and more particularly by the 
German and Spanish schools. 
I have seen heads of St. 
Francis, mere coarse versions 
of the burly sensual friars we 
meet begging in the streets 
of Italy or Spain; and re 
minding us rather of Friar 
Tuck in Ivanhoe, or the dis 
guised bandit in Gil Bias, 
than of the fervent ascetic 
the tender-hearted and 
poetical enthusiast. 

But even where the true 
character of head is neglected 
or degraded, we distinguish 
St. Francis from all other 
wints wearing the same habit, 47 s . ^ ncls . (Sim0u MtnmiiU 




ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISL 






by tlie stigmata (or wounds of Christ) in his hands and feet; 
and he is often in the act of opening his tunic and displaying 
the wound in his side : these are proper to him, and, together 
with, the crucifix and the skull, common to other saints, are 
the almost unfailing attributes in the countless effigies which 
exist of him. Tl^lamb and the lily, as syijxb61s.^of-BSteekness 
and piirlty^. are also given, to, him. 

When St. Francis is grouped with other saints, or stands 
near the throne of the Madonna or at the foot of the cross, he 
has generally a crucifix in his hand, more seldom the lily, and 
in the early pictures he is often distinguished only by the 
habit and physiognomy. When St. Francis and St. Dominick 
stand together, the crucifix is given to the former, the lily to 
.the latter. 

I have seen some devotional figures of St. Francis which 
deviate from the usual version; and shall mention one or two, 
which, though expressive, are exceptional: 

1. In a picture by Sassetta, he is standing within a glory 
of seraphim, Ms hands extended in the form of a cross: 
over his head are three angels, with the symbols of poverty, pi so. 
chastity, and obedience : under his feet the worldly vices, as 
pride, gluttony, heresy, the latter being distinguished by the 
printing press, a curious and, for the time, significant attri 
bute. (48) 

2. He stands holding a flaming seraph in his hand, to 
denote his title of the Seraphic^ as in a picture by Sano di 
Pietro of Siena. I observe there is often something fanciful 
and peculiar in the attributes chosen by the Siena school. 

3. He stands on a throne, delivering the Franciscan cords 
to Eeligion, who distributes them to various persons, popes, 
princes, &c. This picture was painted for the Franciscans of 
Bolog] a, 

4. lie stands between St. Clara and St. Elizabeth, who here 
represent piety and charity, as in a small Spanish picture. 

Very different are those pictures which represent St. Francis 
as the devout penitent ; the example at once, and the con 
soler, of the broken and contrite spirit. He is usually kneel- 

K K 



LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 




j , f ,,.,,,.,, 48 St. Francis in a glory of SerapHm. (Sassetta, 1444.) ^^^~~~ 

ing in a gloomy solitude, or in his cell, "barefoot, .his grey or 

, "brown tunic ragged or patched; and either with hands 

\ clasped, and head bowed down over a crucifix, the symbol of 

\ redemption; or over a skull, the emblem of mortality; or with 

\ arms outspread, and eyes raised to heaven, where there is 



ST. FRAFCIS OF ASSI8I. 



251 




St. Francis. (Cigoll) 



usually a vision of angels., or the Virgin, or the Trinity. 
Some of these ascetic or ecstatic figures are wonderful for 
expression ; and none have excelled Cigoli in Italy, and Zur- 
baran in Spain, in the representation of the hollow-eyed, wan,, 
meagre, yet ardent and fervent recluse. 

I cannot remember any of these penitential figures by the 
very ancient painters; but in the late Bologna and Florentine 
schools, and more especially in Spanish Art, they abound* 

A second class of subjects, which are not strictly devotional, 
nor yet historical, I will call mystical. They represent some 
vision or incident of his life, not as a fact, but as conveying a 
significance more than meets the eye, and proper for religious 
edification. 

1. .St. Francis receiving the Stigmata/ is the most im- 



252 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEKS. 



Vienna Gal. 



FL Acad, 



portant and striking of these mystical subjects, and the one 
most commonly met with. It is the standing miracle of his 
Order, always introduced into a series of pictures from his life, 
and constantly met with as a separate subject. An agreeable 
one it is not; and, without presuming to impugn the faith or 
the good taste of those who regard it with reverence as a visible 
manifestation of the divine nature in Christ, I will confess 
that, in this representation (so frequent, not only in churches, 
but in galleries and collections, as to have become absolutely 
commonplace), the union of the grossly physical and the 
awfully spiritual is, to me, painful and repulsive. Of course, 
when it is a separate subject, it may be taken in a completely 
mystic sense, and as a vision rather than an event. It has 
been varied in a thousand ways, but can never be mistaken. 
In a rocky wilderness, St. Francis kneels, generally with 
uplifted looks and hands outspread in devout ecstasy. Above 
him hovers the mystic seraph, sometimes far distant, diminu 
tive, almost lost in a flood of glory ; sometimes quite near, 
large, life-like, dreadfully * palpable to feeling as to sight 
Sometimes the rays passing from the hands and feet are like 
threads of light ; sometimes, with better taste, they are seen 
only in their effect When a friar is seen in the background, 
it is Ms friend and disciple Leo, who is recorded to have been 
present 

The earliest example is the fresco, by Giotto, in the upper 
church at Assist; it is treated with great simplicity, merely as 
an incident There is a similar composition in the Louvre. 

The finest example I have ever seen is by Agostino Caracci; 
a picture often copied and engraved, but no copy or engraving 
has ever rendered the expression of the head, which, as I well 
remember, made me start back. The mystic seraph is just 
discerned far above, and rather behind, the saint : he seems 
to feel, to await its approach, with ecstatic aspiration. 

The picture by Cigoli is also a masterpiece of expression, 
but conceived in a different spirit St. Francis, prostrate, 
seems fainting under the divine anguish. It is related that, 
while Cigoli was at work on this picture, a poor pilgrim, worn 
out with fatigue and hunger, begged an alms : the painter, struck 














BADALOCCH1 



ST. FEANCIS OF ASSISL 



with. Ms appearance, desired him to come into his study and 
wait while he sketched him : but before the sketch was com 
pleted the poor wretch swooned from exhaustion: Cigoli seized 
the moment, and transferred to his canvass the wasted features 
almost fixed in the languor of death. I am not sure that the 
result is quite satisfactory; for the swoon is too painfully 
natural : it ought to be a trance rather than a swoon. 

2. A much more agreeable subject is that styled The 
Vision of St. Francis. The Virgin mother, descending in a 
glory of light and attended by angels, places in his arms her 
Divine Son. This is not an early subject, but, once introduced, 
it soon became a favourite one both with the painters and the 
people. The contrast afforded was precisely of that kind which 
the later artists delighted in ; equally violent in the forms and 
the sentiment. On one side kneels the visionary, with features 
wan and worn, and fatigued with emotion, with tattered 
raiment, and all the outward signs of sordid misery : on the 
other we behold the Virgin, loveliest and most benign of female 
forms, bending from her heavenly throne; and the infant 
Saviour smiling as if fresh from Paradise. The subject admits 
of great variety, without departing from the leading idea, for 
sometimes St. Francis holds the divine Child in his arms with. 
an air of reverential tenderness, while the Virgin looks down 
upon both with maternal benignity; and sometimes the 
Child, seated in her lap, extends his hand to the prostrate 
saint, who, with half-closed eyes, as if fainting with excess of 
bliss, just touches that hand with reverential lips. A choir of 
angels generally completes the mystic group ; and the locality 
varies with the taste of the painter, being sometimes a 
landscape, sometimes the interior of the Porzioncula, where, 
according to the legend, the vision occurred, and in memory of 
which almost every Franciscan church in Spain has its Porzion 
cula, or chapel dedicated to the Vision of St. Francis. In this 
subject it is necessary to distinguish St. Francis from other 
saints who were favoured with a similar vision; and more 
especially from St. Antony of Padua, who wears the same 
habit. In general, St Francis may be recognised by the 



54 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



stigmata ; lie is rather aged, with more or less beard ; while St. 
Antony is, or ought to he, young, beardless, of a beautiful 
countenance, with a lily beside him. Where the infant Christ 
stands beside the saint or on his book, it is probably St. Antony. 
Where the saint is prostrate, and almost in a trance before the 
Virgin and Child, it is probably St. Francis. 

It is a mistake, and a gross departure from the proper reli 
gious feeling, to represent St. Francis caressing the infant 
Saviour as a father would caress his child ; yet this is what we 
find in many of the later pictures, in which, but for the habit, 
he might be mistaken for St. Joseph. 

There is a very daring and original version of this vision of 
St. Francis in a picture by Murillo. Here it is no longer the 
blessed Infant leaning from his mother s bosom, but the cruci 
fied Saviour who bends from his cross of agony ; and while St. 
Francis, with outstretched arms, and trampling a globe under 
his feet, symbol of the world and its vanities, looks up with the 
most passionate expression of adoration and gratitude, the 
benign Yision gently inclines towards him, and lays one hand 
on his shoulder, while the other remains attached to the cross : 
two choral angels hover above. This may possibly be intended 
Seville. Q re p resen -t the vision in San Damiano. 

3. c St. Francis shivering in his cell in the depth of winter, 
a demon whispers to him suggestions of ease and luxury; he 
repels the temptation by going out and rolling himself in the 
snow on a heap of thorns ; from the thorns sprinkled with his 
blood spring roses of Paradise, which he offers up to Christ 
and the Madonna. This altogether poetical and mystical 
NO. ss2, subject refers to the famous vision in the Porzioncula, There 
***" is an example in the Louvre, wherein St. Joseph and SL 



Madrid Gai. Dominick stand by as spectators. There is another by 
Murillo, in which a flight of cherubim shower the roses on the 
saint. 

4. St. Francis, languishing in sickness, an angel descends 
from heaven to solace him with music : styled also * The 
Ecstasy of St. Francis.* This is a beautiful subject often 



ST. FKANCIS OF ASSIST. 255 



gracefully treated, but never, at least as far as I know, in a 
truly poetical and religious spirit. In general, St. Francis is 
in Ms cavern, leaning back with eyes half closed, or sustained 
by an angel, while another angel sounds the viol above. Or it 
is & choir of angels, singing in a glory ; but this is a less 
orthodox conception. A singular version of this subject re 
presents St. Francis almost fainting with ecstasy ; the angelic 
visitant, hovering above, touches his viol and makes celestial 
music : meanwhile St. Bernard, seated near with his ample 
white robes and his book, seems to have paused in his studies Louvre, 
to listen. No - 1M 

5. * St. Francis espouses Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience. 
Giotto was the first who treated this subject; whether he 
derived the original idea from a celebrated passage in Dante s 
Paradiso, or Dante from him, has been disputed : both the poet 
and the painter allegorised the old Franciscan legend as given 
by St. Bouaventura long before their time; and the inventor 
of the apologue was certainly Francis himself. * Journeying to 
Siena, in the broad plain between Campiglia and San Quirico, 
St. Francis was encountered by three maidens, in poor raiment, 
and exactly resembling each other in age and appearance, who 
saluted him with the words, " Welcome, Lady Poverty," and 
suddenly disappeared. The brethren not irrationally con 
cluded that this apparition imported some mystery pertaining 
to St. Francis, and that by the three poor maidens were 
signified Chastity, Obedience, and Poverty, the beauty and 
sum of evangelical perfection : all of which shone with equal 
and consummate lustre in the man of God, though he made 
his chief glory the privilege of poverty. 

This legend is very literally rendered in a small picture in 
the possession of Count Demidoff, from which I give a sketch. 
Below, St Francis meets the three virgins in the plain ; and 
above, they are seen floating away, distinguished by their 
attributes. 

The treatment of this subject in the lower church of Assisi 
is altogether different. The whole allegory is elaborately 
worked out, and it has been supposed with reason that Giotto 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS, 




50 St. Francis encounters Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience. (School of Giotto.) 

was indebted to his friend Dante for many particulars in the 
conception. The vault of the choir is divided into four com- 



ST. FRANCIS OF ASSIST. 



partmeuts. In the first we have the allegory of The Fortress 
of Chastity, to which St. Francis appears ascending; while 
through a window appears Chastity herself, as a young 
maiden, praying; two angels floating in the air present to 
her the palm and the volume of the Holy Scriptures. 

The second compartment represents Obedience, who is 
figured as an angel, robed in black, placing the finger of the 
left hand on his mouth, while with the right he passes the 
yoke over the head of a Franciscan friar kneeling at his feet. 
On one hand is Prudence, on the left Humility. Above this 
group, and attended by kneeling angels, stands St. Francis 
in his habit: two hands appear as coming out of heaven 
holding apparently the knotted cord of the Franciscans. 

The third compartment, The Espousals of St. Francis with 
the Lady Poverty, 5 was certainly suggested by a passage in 
Dante s Paradiso, or suggested that passage. The scene is a 
rocky wilderness : Poverty, 

The Dame to whom none openeth pleasure s gate 
More than to death, 

stands in the midst, emaciated, barefoot, in a tattered robe, 
her feet among thorns, which a youth is thrusting against her 
with a staff, and a dog barks at her ; she is attended by Hope 
and Charity as bridesmaids, herself being thus substituted for 
Faith. St. Francis places the ring upon her finger, while our 
Saviour, standing between them, at once gives away the bride 
and bestows the nuptial benediction. For the corresponding 
passage in Dante I may refer to the Divina Commedia. 
Kugler says, * A tradition ascribes these paintings collectively 
to Dante, who was an intimate friend of the artist, and even c " * L 
recalls him from the other world to reveal them in .a dream 
to the painter. But as Dante was apparently alive, and in 
communication with Giotto, at the time these frescoes were 
painted, he needed not to come from the other world to 



reveal his suggestions. 



The fourth compartment of the vault remains to be described. 
It exhibits the glorification or apotheosis of the saint. He is 
seated on a throne, wearing the rich embroidered robe of a 

L L 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



deacon (from his great humility he had refused any higher 
ecclesiastical honour) : he holds in one hand the cross, in the 
other the written rule of his Order. On each side are choirs of 
angels, who hymn his praise; others in front, bearing lilies in 
their hands, have a truly angelic and ethereal grace. 

I shall now proceed to the historical representations taken 
from the life and miracles of St. Francis. 

The history of this saint, in a series of subjects, may be 
found very commonly in the churches and convents belonging 
to his Order. 1 

About isos. The earliest, the most complete, and the most remarkable, is 
that which still exists, but in a most ruined condition, in the 
upper church of Assisi, in twenty-eight compartments. 

About 1445. The series by Ghirlandajo, in the Trinita at Florence, which 
is extremely fine and dramatic, was painted for Francesco 
Sassetti, in the chapel of his patron saiut. 

A third series I must mention, the exquisite sculpture 
round the pulpit in the church of Santa Oroce, executed by 

About use. Benedetto da Maiano in the style of Ghiberti s Grates of the 
Baptistery, at Florence; and, as it seemed to me, when I had 
the opportunity of comparing them on the spot, hardly less 
beautiful, expressive, and elaborate. These are the most in 
teresting examples I have seen. 

We will now pass in review the whole of the subjects con 
tained in the upper church of Assisi, comprising all the incidents 
I have found represented as a series in other places, and many 
which are not to be met with elsewhere, or which exist only as 
separate subjects: assembled here, they form the pictured 
chronicle of his life. The brotherhood of St. Francis, though 
vowed to poverty, had been enormously enriched by the 
offerings of the charitable and devout. Within fifty years 
after the death of their patriarch, one of the grandest churches 
in Italy had risen over his remains, and their hospitals and 
missions had extended to every part of the then known world. 

1 According to Vasari, Cimabue, when called to Assisi about 1265, painted in 
the lower church the life of St. Francis. This would, of course, be the 
on record ; it has utterly perished. 



ST. FRANCIS OF ASSIST. 259 



In the next century, these munificent mendicants seemed to 
have thought that they could not tetter employ their surplus 
wealth than by doing honour to that glorioso powrel di Dio 
whose name they hore. As on a former occasion they had 
summoned Cimabue, they now called to their aid Giotto, the 
greatest painter of the time. Whether Griotto painted the 
whole series of subjects round the nave of the upper church 
has been doubted, and with reason. That he painted a great 
part of them, seems to be pretty well ascertained : but I will 
riot now go into this question, which is one of pure anti 
quarian criticism. Our attention at present must be fixed 
upon the subjects themselves, as illustrating the actions and 
miracles of the great patriarch. A reference to the previous 
sketch of his life will sufficiently interpret most of these, and 
to the others I will add some notes of explanation. 

I have marked with an asterisk those which have been en 
graved in Ottley s * Specimens of the Early Florentine School. 

1. When St. Francis was still in his father s house, and in bondage to the 
world, a half-"witted simpleton, meeting him in the market-place of Assisi, 
took off his own garment, and spread it on the ground for him to walk over, 
prophesying that he was worthy of all honour, as one destined to greatness, 
and to the veneration of the faithful throughout the universe. 1 

2. St. Francis gives his cloak to the poor officer. The scene is repre 
sented in. the valley which lies below Assisi, and St. Francis is on horseback. 
(In any other locality this might be mistaken for St. Martin.) 

3. The dream of St. Francis, already related. Here our Saviour stands 
beside the bed, pointing to the heaps of armour prepared for the warriors of 
Christ. 

4 St. Francis, kneeling before the crucifix in the Church of San Damiano, 
receives the miraculous communication. 

5. St. Francis and Ms father, Pietro Bernardone, renounce each other in 
the Piazza of Assisi Francis throws off his garments, and receives from 
the bishop a cloak wherewith to cover him. 



1 * Here/ says Lord Lindsay, we find the oriental veneration for fatuity on the 
very threshold of the story. His description of these frescoes in the Sketches of 
CJirutian Artfa admirably written, and the most accurate and detailed I have met 
with. I have not only borrowed largely from him, hut in many places have given 
big words abbreviating where I found it impossible to be either more exact or 
more elegant, and adding here and there from my own notes made on the spot. 



2C0 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



6. The vision of Pope Innocent III. This is a very beautiful fresco : 
the head of St. Francis looking up to heaven as if for aid, while he sustains 
the falling Church, is extremely expressive ; and so is that of one of the 
attendants at the Pope s bedside, who has dropped his head on his arm, as 
overcome with sleep. 

7. Pope Honorius III. confirms the rule of the Franciscan Order. 

8. St. Francis in the chariot of fire. On a certain night he had gone 
apart from his brethren to pray ; but at midnight, when some were awake 
and others sleeping, a fiery chariot was seen to enter by the door of the 
house, and drive thrice round the court. A globe, bright and dazzling as 
the sun at noon-day, rested upon it, which they knew to be the spirit of 
St. Francis, present with them, but parted from his body. 

Stirling s This was one of the subjects painted by Murillo for the Capuchins at 

Spain, p.sas. Seville, and seems to have much perplexed commentators. 

9. The seats prepared in heaven for St. Francis and his Order. A large 
throne, and two small ones on each side of it, appear above. A monk 
kneels on one side ; an angel, floating in the air, points to St. Francis pro 
strate before an altar. 

10. St Francis exorcising Arezzo. The city of Arezzo was then dis 
tracted by factions ; and the saint, on approaching, beheld a company of 
demons dancing in the air above the walls, these being the evil spirits who 
stirred up men s minds to strife. Thereupon he sent his companion Silvester 
to command them in his name to depart. Silvester obeyed, crying with a 
loud voice, e In the name of the omnipotent God, and by command of his 
servant Francis, go out hence, every one of you ! y And immediately the 
demons dispersed, and the city returned to peace and propriety. In the 
fresco, St. Francis kneels in prayer, while Silvester stands before the city 
in a noble attitude of command. 

11. St. Francis before the Soldan. This legend has been already related. 
Of this subject, the fresco by Ghirlandajo is particularly fine ; and the bas- 
relief by Benedetto da Maiano, most beautiful. 

12. St. Francis lifted from the earth in an ecstasy of devotion. 

13. St. Francis exhibits to his congregation a tableau or theatrical repre 
sentation of the Nativity of our Saviour. 

This is curious, as being the earliest instance of those exhibitions still so 
common in Italy about Christmas-time, and for which the Franciscan com 
munities are still pre-eminent 

14. St Francis and his companions, in journeying over a desert moun 
tain in the heat of summer, are exhausted by fatigue and thirst The 
saint, through his prayers, causes the living stream to flow from the 
rock. 

This fresco is remarkable in the history of Art, as containing the earliest 

snccessf ul attempt to express an action taken from common life. It is that 

Bint, de ^ e *Mrsty man, bending over the fountain to drink ; known as VA$$Mo 

r Ak par les (the iMrsty man), and deservedly praised by Yasari and by Lanzi. It ia 

engraved in IXAgiiicourt 



ST. FRANCIS OP ASSIST. 261 



15. St. Francis preaching to tlie birds. Drawing nigh to Bevagno, be 
came to a certain place where birds of different kinds were gathered toge 
ther j whom seeing, the man of God ran hastily to the spot, and, saluting 
them as if they had been his fellows in reason (while they all turned and 
bent their heads in attentive expectation), he admonished them, saying, 
"Brother birds, greatly are ye bound to praise the Creator, who clotheth 
yon with feathers, and giveth you wings to fly with, and a purer air to 
breathe, and who careth for yon, who have so little care for yourselves." 
Whilst he thus spake, the little birds, marvellously commoved, began to 
spread their wings, stretch forth their necks, and open their beaks, atten 
tively gazing upon him ; and he, glowing in the spirit, passed through the 
midst of them, and even touched them with his robe ; yet not one stirred 
from his place until the man of G-od gave them leave ; when, with his 
blessing, and at the sign of the cross, they all flew away. These things 
saw Ms companions, who waited for him on the road ; to whom returning, 
the simple and pure-minded man began greatly to blame himself for having 
never hitherto preached to the birds/ 

The illustration is a sketch from a small picture, now in the 
Louvre, qnite similar in treatment, and probably a copy of the 
fresco by one of Giotto s scholars. 

And here we must pause for a moment. The last subject will 
probably excite a smile, but that smile ought to be a serious 
smile, not a sneer; and I cannot pass it over without remark. 
; Among the legends of St. Francis, some of the most inte 
resting are those which place him in relation with the lower 
animals. He looked upon all beings as existing by and through 
&lt;prod, and as having a portion of that divine principle by which 
|ie himself existed. He was accustomed to call all living things 
his brothers and sisters. In the enthusiasm of his charity he 
interpreted literally the text, Go ye into all the world, and 
preach the gospel to every creature. He appears to have 
thought that all sentient beings had a share in the divine 
mission of Christ; and since a part of that divine mission was 
to enlarge the sphere of our human sympathies, till they embrace 
all our fellow-creatures, it should seem that the more the tender 
spirit of Christianity is understood and diffused, the more will 
the lower creation be elevated through our own more elevated 
intelligence and refined sympathies. Dr. Arnold says, in a 
striking passage of one of his letters, that * the destinies of the 
brute creation appeared to him a mystery which he could not 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 




51 St. Francis preaching to the Birds. 

approach without awe. St. Francis, in his gentle and tender 
enthusiasm, solved that mystery at least to himself by ad 
mitting animals within the pale of Christian sympathy* I shall 
give a few of these legends here as the best commentary on the 
subjects above described. It is recorded that when he walked 
in the fields the sheep and the lambs thronged around him, hares 
and rabbits nestled in his bosom ; but of all living creatures he 
seems to have loved especially birds of every kind, as being the 
most unearthly in their nature : and among birds he loved best 
the dove. c One day he met, in his road, a young man on his 
way to Siena to sell some doves, which he had caught in a 
snare ; and Francis said to him, " Oh, good young man 1 these 
are the birds to whom the Scripture compares those who are 
pure and faithful before Grod ; do not kill them, I beseech 
thee, but give them rather to me ; " and when they were given 
to him, he put them in his bosom and carried them to his con- 



ST. FRANCIS OF ASSIST. 



vent at Bavacciano, where lie made for them nests, and fed 
them every day, until they became so tame as to eat from his 
hand : and the young man had also his recompense i for he 
became a friar, and lived a holy life from that day forth. 
St. Francis had also a great tenderness for larks, and often 
pointed out to his disciples the lark mounting to * heaven s 
gate/ and singing praises to the Creator, as a proper emblem 
of Christian aspiration. A lark brought her brood of nestlings 
to his cell, to be fed from his hand ; he saw that the strongest 
of these nestlings tyrannised over the others, pecking at them 
and taking more than his due share of the food ; whereupon 
the good saint rebuked the creature, saying, " Thou unjust 
and insatiable ! thou shalt die miserably, and the greediest 
animals shall refuse to eat thy flesh." And so it happened, 
for the creature drowned itself through its impetuosity in 
drinking, and when it was thrown to the cats they would not 
touch it.- * On his return from Syria, in passing through the 
Yenetian Lagune, vast numbers of birds were singing, and he 
said to his companion, " Our sisters the birds are praising 
their Creator ; let us sing with them/ and he began the 
sacred service. But the warbling of the birds interrupted 
them ; therefore St. Francis said to them, " Be silent till we 
also have praised God," and they ceased their song, and did 
not resume it till he had given them permission. c On another 
occasion, preaching at Alviano, he could not make himself 
heard for the chirping of the swallows which were at that time 
-building their nests : pausing, therefore, in his sermon, he 
said, a My sisters, you have talked enough : it is time that I 
should have my turn. Be silent, and listen to the word of 
God!" and they were silent immediately/ *0n another 
occasion, as he was sitting with his disciple Leo, he felt him 
self penetrated with joy and consolation, by the song of the 
nightingale, and he desired his friend Leo to raise his voice 
and sing the praises of God in company with the bird. But 
Leo excused himself by reason of his bad voice ; upon which 
Francis himself began to sing, and when he stopped, the 
nightingale took up the strain, and thus they sang alternately 
until the night was far advanced, and Francis was, obliged to 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



stop, for Ms voice failed. Then lie confessed that the little 
bird had vanquished him ; he called it to him, thanked it for 
its song, and gave it the remainder of his bread ; and having 
bestowed his blessing upon it, the creature flew away. 

Here we have a version of the antique legend of the Thes- 
salian Shepherd and the Nightingale: but there the nightin 
gale is vanquished and dies ; here the lesson of humility is 
given to the man. Mark the distinction between the classic 
and the Christian sentiment 1 

c A grasshopper was wont to sit and sing on a fig-tree near 
the cell of the man of God, and oftentimes by her singing she 
excited him also to sing the praises of the Creator ; and one 
day he called her to him, and she flew upon his hand, and 
Francis said to her, " Sing, my sister, and praise the Lord 
thy Creator." So she began her song immediately, nor ceased 
till at the father s command she flew back to her own place ; 
and she remained eight days there, coming and singing at 
his behest. At length the man of God said to his disciples, 
" Let us dismiss our sister ! enough, that she has cheered us 
with her song, and excited us to the praise of God these eight 
days/ So, being permitted, she immediately flew away, and 
was seen no more. 

When he found worms or insects in his road, he was careful 
not to tread upon them ; * he stepped aside, and bid the reptile 
live/ He would even remove them from the pathway, lest 
they should be crushed by others. 

One day, in passing through a meadow, he saluted the flocks 
which were grazing there, and .he perceived a poor little lamb 
which was feeding all alone in the midst of a flock of goats ; 
he was moved with pity, and he said, * Thus did our, mild 
Saviour stand alone in the midst of the Jews and the Pharisees/ 
He would have bought this sheep, but he had nothing in the 
world but his tunic ; however, a charitable man passing -by, 
and seeing his grief, bought the lamb and gave it to him. 
When he was at Rome in 1222, he had with him a pet 
lamb, which accompanied him everywhere ; and in pictures of 
St. Francis a lamb is frequently introduced, which may either 
signify his meekness and purity of mind, or, it may represent 



ST. FRANCIS OF ASSIST. 



this very Iamb 3 i which, lay- in his bosom ; and was to him as a 
daughter. 
We now return to Giotto s frescoes : 

*16. The death of the young Count of Celano. St. Francis being invited 
to dine with a devout and charitable noble, before sitting down to table, 
privately warned him that his end drew near, and exhorted "him to confess 
his sins, for that God had given him this opportunity of making Ms peace 
in recompense of his hospitality towards the poor of Christ. The young 
count obeyed, confessed himself, set his house in order, and then took his 
place at the entertainment ; but, before it was over, sank down and expired 
on the spot. 

17. St. Francis preaching before the pope and cardinals, all seated in 
appropriate attitudes, under a magnificent Gothic Loggia. 

This fresco and similar subjects are to be referred, I believe, to the 
following passage in his life. Francis hesitated long between the contem 
plative and the active religious life. He and his disciples were men quite 
unlearned. He wished to persuade others to follow, like himself, the way 
of salvation ; but he knew not how to set about it. He consulted his 
brethren what he should do. " God," said he, " has given me the gift of 
prayers, but not the gift of words ; yet as the Son of Man, when he was 
upon earth, not only redeemed men by Ms blood, but instructed them by 
his words, ought we not to follow his divine example 1 " And 3 in his 
great humility, he requested not only of his brethren, but also of Clara 
and her sisterhood, that they would pray for Mm that a sign might 
be given what he should do. The answer was to all the same" Go, 
preach the Gospel to every creature." And, when he preached, such 
eloquence was given to him from above, that none could resist his words, 
and the most learned theologians remained silent and astonished in his 
presence. 3 

A particular sermon, wMch he preached at Borne before Honorius III., 
may also be alluded to. 

St Francis, in the Eule given to his brotherhood, prescribed short ser 
mons, because those of our Saviour were short ; and as we are not the 

more heard above, so neither are we the more listened to below, for * our 
much speaking.* 

*18. When St. Antony of Padua was preaching at a general chapter of 
the Order, held at Aries in 1224, St Francis appeared in the midst of them, 
his arms extended in the form of a cross. 

19. St. Francis receiving the stigmata, as already described. 

20. The death of St Francis in the midst of his friars ; angels bear Ms 
soul into heaven. 

21. The dying friar. Lying at that time on Ms deathbed, he beheld 
the spirit of St Francis rising into heaven, and, springing forward, he 
cried, * Tarry, father ! I come with thee/ and fell back dead. 

M M 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



22. St. Francis being laid upon, Ms bier, the people of Assisi were ad 
mitted to see and kiss the stigmata. One Jerome, sceptical like St. Thomas, 
would see and touch before he believed : he is here represented kneeling 
and touching the side, ( the dead brow frowning with anguish/ 

*23. The Lament at San Damiano. The body of St. Francis being carried 
to Assisi, the bearers halt before the porch of the church, and are received 
by St. Clara and her nuns : St. Clara leans over, embracing the body ; 
another nun kisses his hand. 

24. This compartment is in a ruined state. 

*25. The vision of Pope Gregory IX. This pope, before he consented 
to canonise St. Francis, had some doubts of the celestial infliction of the 
stigmata. St. Francis appeared to him in a vision, reproved his unbelief, 
opened his robe, and, exposing the wound in his side, filled a vial with the 
blood which flowed from it, and gave it to the pope, who, on waking, found 
it in his hand. 

*26. A certain man who had been mortally wounded by robbers, and 
given over by his physician, invoked St. Francis, who appears, attended by 
two angels, and heals him. 

*27. A certain woman of Monte Marino, near Benevento, having died 
unshriven, her spirit was permitted, through the intercession of St. Francis, 
to return and reanimat^ the body, while she confessed and received abso 
lution. The woman sits up in bed ; an angel hovers above, awaiting the 
final release of the soul, while a horrible little demon, disappointed, flies 
away. 

28. St. Francis the vindicator of innocence. A certain bishop had been 
falsely accused of heresy. The bishop s cathedral is seen, on the left, the 
prison to the right ; in the midst he is kneeling ; a priest behind holds the 
crosier of which he has been deprived. The jailor steps forward with 
manacles, and St. Francis in his habit is seen floating above in the sky, and 
interceding for his votary. 

The series by Ghirlandajo In the Sassetti chapel consists of 
only: 



1. A famous Florentine legend, not to be found at Assisi A child of 
the Spini family fell from the window of the Palazzo Spini, and was 
killed on the spot. While they are carrying the child to the grave, 
the parents invoke St. Francis, who appears visibly, and restores Mm to 
life. 

2. St. Francis renounces the inheritance of his father. 

3. He stands before Pope Honorius III., to whom he presents the roses 
which sprang from Ms blood. 

4. He receives the stigmata 

5. St. Francis before the Soldan. He offers to walk through the fire to 
prore the truth of Ms mission. 



ST. FBAXOIB OF ASSISL 



6. Called The death of St Francis/ but more properly The incredulity 
of Jerome/ The saint lies extended on a bier, surrounded by his brethren ; 
a bishop, with spectacles on Ms nose, is reciting the service for the dead ; 
a friar, in front (most admirably painted), kisses the hand of the saint ; 
conspicuous in the group behind, Jerome stoops over, and places his hand 
on the wounded side. In compartments to the right and left kneel the 
votaries, Francesco Sassetti, and his wife Madonna Nera. This, even in 
its ruined condition, is one of the finest and most solemnly dramatic 
pictures in the world. 

These frescoes are- engraved in Lasinio s c Early Florentine 
Masters. 9 



Croce " 



The series of bas-reliefs by Benedetto da Maiano consists 
of five subjects: 

I. St Francis receives the stigmata. 2. He receives from Honorius III. 
the confirmation of his Order. 3. He appears before the Soldan. 4. The 
incredulity of Jerome. 5. The martyrdom of the five Franciscan mis 
sionaries, as already related. 

This series was engraved by the younger Lasinio, and published in 1823. 

In all these instances the subjects form what may be 
properly termed an historical series. There is, however, an 
example of a pictured life of St. Francis which must be taken 
altogether in a mystical sense. I have spoken of the vene 
ration entertained for him by his followers. They very early 
compared his actions and character with those of the 
Redeemer ; and, with a daring fanaticism for which I can 
hardly find a name seemed almost to consider their seraphic 
patriarch less as an imitator and follower of Christ, than 
as a being endued himself with a divine nature ; in short 
for it amounted to that as a reappearance, a sort of amtar 
of the Spirit of Christ again visiting this earth ; or as the 
Second Angel of the Revelation, to whom it was given to 
set a seal on the elect. A memorial of this extravagant 
enthusiasm still exists in a set of twenty-six small pictures, 
painted by Giotto for the friars of the Santa Croce at 
Florence. It was the custom in the rich convents to have the 
presses and chests which contained the sacred vestments, and 



68 LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



ntensils ornamented with carvings or pictures of religious 
subjects. These twenty-six pictures adorned the doors of 
the presses in the sacristy of the church of Santa Croce, and 
present the parellel (already received and accredited, not 
invented by the painter) between the life of our Saviour 
and that of St. Francis. The subjects have an ideal and 
mystical, rather than a literal, reference to each other. For 
some excellent remarks on this curious series, I must refer 
to the notes appended by Sir Charles Eastlake to Kugler s 
Handbook, 

It remains to notice a few separate subjects which relate to 
St. Francis, and are not usually met with. 

Nicholas V. (in 1449) descends into the tomb of St. Francis 
at Assisi, which had never been opened since his death. He 
finds the body entire and standing upright ; kneeling, he 
lifts the robe to examine the traces of the stigmata ; atten 
dants and monks with torches stand around ; as in a picture 
by Lahire, in the Caravaggio style, and most striking for 
effect. Another picture of the same scene, a most extra 
ordinary and crowded composition, is engraved in the 
Dusseldorf Gallery. 1 

A certain poor man was cast into prison by an inexorable 
creditor; he besought mercy in the name of the holy St. 
Francis ; it was refused ; but St. Francis himself appeared, 
At cagii. broke his fetters, opened the doors of his dungeon, and set 
him free. There is a picture of this subject by Giovanni 
Santi, the father of Eaphael. St. Peter, the patron saint of 
prisoners, stands near with Ms keys; an angel attending 
on St. Francis is supposed to be the portrait of Raphael 
when a boy. I saw a drawing from this fresco at Alton 
Towers, differing in some respects from the minute descrip 
tion given by Passavant. 

I am far from supposing that we have exhausted the 

1 This is a mere legend. The tomb in the hollow rock was opened Bee. 26, 181 8, 
"by order of Pius VII., when the skeleton was found recumbent and entire ; it waa 
left untouched, and the tomb reverently closed Jan. 1, 1819. 



ST. FRANCIS OF ASSIST. 26fl 



variety of illustration connected with, the pictured life of Si 
Francis, but I must stop ; I must not be tempted beyond the 
limits of my subject ; I must forbear to give words to all the 
reflections, all the comparisons between the past and the 
present, which have arisen in my own inind while writing 
the foregoing pages, and which will, I trust, suggest -them 
selves to the thoughtful reader, I have heard it said that 
the representations of this most popular of all the monastic 
saints, and of the wild and often revolting legends which 
relate to him, weary and disgust by their endless repetition. 
They must do so if regarded as mere pictures ; for there are 
few out of the vast number which are really good ; and the 
finer they are, the more painful ; too often, at least, it is so. 
Their effect depends, however, on the amount of faith or of 
wise thoughtfulness, not less than on the taste, of the observer. 
I have said enough to show what sad, what thrilling, what 
solemn interest lies in the most beautiful and most ancient of 
these pictured monuments ; what associations of terror and 
pity may be excited by some of the meanest. Many of the 
subjects and groups I have slightly touched upon will be 
better understood as we proceed to review the companions 
and followers of St. Francis, who are supposed to share 
his beatitude in heaven, and upon whom Art has bestowed on 
earth a glory hardly less than his own. 



270 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 




52 fit. Clara. (Perugino.) 

ST. CLAKA. 

Lat. Sancta Clara, Ital. Santa Cliiara, Fr. Sainte Claire. 
August 11, 1253. 

6 Clara claris prseclara meritis magnse in coelo claritate glorise ac in terra 
miraculorum sublimium clare claret/ 

ST. CLARA, from some inevitable association of ideas, always 
comes before us as the very ideal of a 4 Grey Sister/ * sedate 
and sweet ; * or of a beautiful saintly abbess, c sober, steadfast, 
and demure ; and ber fame and popularity as a patroness have 
rendered her musical and significant name popular from one 



ST. CLABA. 271 



end of Europe to the other, but more especially in Spain. 
Her story is so eminently picturesque, that we have reason to 
regret that as a picturesque subject so little use has been made 
of it. 

Clara d Assisi was the daughter of Favorino Sciffo, a noble 
knight ; her mother s name was Ortolana. She was the eldest 
of their children ; and her uncommon beauty, and the great 
wealth of her parents, exposed her to many temptations and 
many offers of marriage. But she had heard of those who were 
seeking the crown of salvation through the thorny paths of 
mortification and prayer ; and her heart burned within her to 
follow their example. While yet in the first bloom of maiden 
hood, she had devoted herself in secret to a religious life ; but 
her parents daily urged her to marry ; and after a time, being 
distracted through the conflict within her own soul, she repaired 
to St. Francis and entreated his counsel. He, believing that 
the way he had chosen for himself was the true way to salvation, 
advised her at once to renounce the world; and he appointed 
the following Palm Sunday as the day on which she should 
come to him and make her profession, 

On that day, according to the Catholic custom, Clara, arrayed 
in her most sumptuous apparel, accompanied her mother 
Ortolana, and her sister Agnes, and the rest of her family, to 
church; and when all the others approached the altar to 
receive the palm-branch with which to join the procession, she 
alone remained kneeling afar off not lifting her eyes, through 
a sense of her own unworthiness ; which when the bishop 
beheld, touched by her maidenly humility and bashfulness, he 
descended the steps of the altar, and himself placed the palm- 
branch in her hand. That same evening, being still arrayed in 
her festal garments, she threw a veil over her head and escaped 
from the city ; and hurrying down the steep ascent on foot, she 
arrived breathless at the door of the chapel of the Porzioneula, 
where Si Francis dwelt with his then small brotherhood. When 
she craved admittance for a * poor penitent/ they met her with 
lighted tapers, and conducted her, singing hymns of praise, to 
the altar of the Virgin. Then she put off her splendid attire, 
and St. Francis with his own hands cut off her luxuriant 



272 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



golden tresses, and he threw over her his own penitential 
habit, and she became his daughter and disciple. * Dispose of 
me ! * she said, kneeliDg at his feet ; I am yours ; for, having 
consecrated my will to God, it is no longer my own ! He 
desired her to take refuge in the convent of San Paolo, whither 
her father and her kinsmen pursued her, and endeavoured to 
force her away ; hut she clung to the altar, calling on God to 
help and strengthen her ; and they were compelled to desist. 
Soon afterwards, her younger sister Agnes, inspired by her 
example, fled from her home joined her in the convent and 
solemnly renounced the world at the age of fourteen: other 
ladies of high rank in the city of Assisi, among whom were 
three of the noble house of Ubaldini, united themselves to the 
two sisters ; and at length their mother, Ortolana perhaps 
because she could not endure separation from her children : 
and from this time the Order of the * Poor Clares dates its 
commencement. The Rule was as austere as that of St. Francis. 
The habit was a gown of grey wool girded with knotted cord; 
on the head they wore a white coif, and over it, when they went 
abroad, a black veil. They went barefoot or sandalled; their 
bed was the hard earth ; abstinence and silence were strictly 
ordained, more especially silence : but voluntary poverty, the 
grand distinction of the whole Franciscan Order, was what St. 
Clara most insisted on ; and when, on the death of her father, 
she inherited great wealth, she distributed the whole of her 
patrimony to the hospitals and the poor, reserving nothing for 
herself nor for her sisterhood. They were to exist literally 
upon charity : when nothing was given to them, they fasted. 
Clara herself set an example of humility by washing the feet 
of the lay sisters when they returned from begging, and 
meekly serving them at table. The extreme austerity of her 
life wasted her health ; but even when she had lost the use of 
her limbs, she sat up in bed and spun flax of marvellous 
fineness. 

At this time the Emperor Frederic ravaged the shores of 
the Adriatic ; and he had in his army a band of infidel Sara 
cens, to whom he had granted the fortress of Nocera, since 
called from them Nocera-dei- Mori ; and they sallied from 



ST. CLARA. 2T& 



this place of strength, and plundered the towns and tillages 
of the valley of Spoleto, &lt; and made the inhabitants drink to 
the dregs of the chalice of wrath and cruelty.* One day they 
advanced nearly to the gates of Assisi, and attacked the con 
vent of San Damiano. The nuns, seized with terror and 
despair, rushed to the bedside of their Mother/ Clara, and 
cowered around her like frightened doves when the hawk has 
stooped upon their dovecot But Clara, then suffering from 
a grievous malady, and long bedridden, immediately arose, 
full of holy faith ; took from the altar the Pix of ivory and 
silver which contained the Host, placed it on the threshold, 
and, kneeling down in front of her sisterhood, began to sing 
in a clear voice, c Thou hast rebuked the heathen, tAou hast 
destroyed the wicked^ thou hast put out their name for ever and 
ever! whereupon the barbarians, seized with a sudden panic, 
threw down their arms and fled. 

And the fame of this great and miraculous deliverance was 
spread far and wide ; so that the people thronged from all the 
neighbouring cities to obtain the prayers and intercession of 
Clara. Pope Innocent IV. visited her in person, solemnly 
confirmed the Eule of her Order, and before her death she 
had the satisfaction of seeing it received throughout Christen 
dom, while many princesses and ladies of the noblest houses 
had assumed the penitential cord of the Third Order of her 
community. 

At the age of sixty, after years of acute bodily suffering^ 
but always faithful and fervent in spirit, she expired in a 
kind of trance, or rapturous vision, believing herself called by 
heavenly voices to exchange her earthly penance for c a crown 
of rejoicing, 

Her sister Agnes, who had been sent to Florence as Superior 
of a convent there, came to attend her on her deathbed, and 
succeeded her as second abbess. 

After the death of St. Clara, the sisterhood, for greater 
safety, removed from San Damiano to San Giorgio, witMn 
the walls of Assisi, and carried with them her sacred remains, 
This church, now Santa Chiara di Assisi, has become the 
chief church of her Order. 

N K 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



She was canonised in 1256. She had bequeathed to her 
sisterhood, in the most solemn terms, the inheritance of 
poverty and humility ; but within the next half-century the 
Clares, like the Franciscans, were released, as a body, from 
their vow of poverty. Their houses subsequently became the 
favourite asylum for oppressed and sorrowing, parentless, 
husbandless, homeless women of all classes. 

The eloquent author of a recent Life of St. Francis styles 
St. Clara the disobedient Clara, and indicates some alarm 
lest young ladies of our own time should incline to imitate 
her disobedience, renounce their parents, and take to mortifi 
cation, almsgiving, and maiden meditation, when they ought 
to be thinking rather of balls and matrimony. 

Now the idea that Heaven is best propitiated by the renun 
ciation of all earthly duties and affections, is not peculiar to 
the period in which Clara lived; nor should she be stigmatised 
as disobedient because she chose what she considered the 
better part, the higher obedience. The mistake lies in sup 
posing that the affections and duties of this world can ever be 
safely trampled under our feet, or accounted as snares, rather 
than as means through which God leads us to himself. Yet 
it is a mistake too common to be justly made a reproach 
against this self-denying enthusiastic woman of the thirteenth 
century^; who, moreover, in ignorance of the spirit of Christ s 
doctrine, might easily shelter herself under the letter ; * If 
any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother, and 
wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own 
life also, he cannot be iny disciple. 

Madam/ said an English traveller to the abbess of a 
foreign convent, &lt; you are here, not from the love of virtue, 
but from the fear of vice. Is not this principle the basis of 
nil female education to the present hour ? Is not fear of evil, 
rather than faith in good, inculcated by precept, by example, 
by all pressure from without, leaving us unsustained from 
within? without guide as to the relative value of our duties, 
until we are made to believe that God s earth and God s 
heaven are necessarily open to each other ? A woman thus 



ST. CLAKA. 



275 



timid in conscience, thus unstable in faith, untaught to 
reason, with feelings suppressed, rather than controlled and 
regulated, whither shall she carry her perplexed life? 
where lay down the burden of her responsibility? May she 
not be forgiven, if, like Clara, she yield up her responsibility 
to her Maker into other hands, and &lt; lay down her life in 
order that she may find it ? 

But we must return from this moral digression to the 
effigies of St. Clara. 

From early times she has been considered as a type of reli 
gious feeling, a personification of female piety; and I have 
seen figures which, no doubt, were intended to represent St. 
Clara in her personal character, as saint, mistaken for 
allegorical figures of religion. 




When she bears the palm (as in this effigy, after the fine 
intarsiatura in the choir of San Francesco di Assisi), it is not 



27G 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Borne. 



Bassono. 
Vienna Gal. 



as martyr. It is the palm of victory over suffering, perse 
cution, and temptation. Or it may represent here the palm 
branch which was taken from the altar and placed in her 
hand. 

In the very ancient portrait in her 
church at Assisi, which bears the date 
of 1281, and the name of Martin IV., 
pope, she carries a cross. I give a 
sketch made on the spot. 

She also bears the lily ; and is dis 
tinguished from the numerous female 
saints who bear the same emblem by 
her grey habit, and the cord of St. 
Francis, which stamp her identity at 
once* 

In devotional pictures she is gene 
rally young, beautiful, and with a 
peculiar expression of soft resigna 
tion. She wears the habit of her 
Order, the grey tunic, the knotted 
girdle, and the black veil. Her proper 
attribute is the Pix containing the 
Host, in allusion to the miraculous 
dispersion of the Saracens ; the figure 
after Perugino (51), sketched in the 
little lonely church called San Cosi- 
mato, which belongs to the Poor Clares, 
is an example. 

Sometimes she is kneeling before 
the Virgin, or our Saviour; and presenting the Pix. 

As the Madre Serqfiea, foundress and superior of the first 
community of Franciscan nuns, she stands with her book and 
ier crosier. In the Madonna pictures, painted for her Order, 
she usually stands on one side of the throne of the Virgin, 
and St. Francis on the other. In a picture by Moretto, she 
is grouped with St. Catherine, the two together symbolising 
wisdom and piety ; and when grouped with Mary Magdalene, 
they are symbols of penitence and piety. 




Sfc. Ckra. 
(Portrait at Assisi,) 



ST. CLABA. 27? 



Pictures from lier history, those at least which I have met 
with, are confined to three subjects : 

1. She makes her profession "by night at the feet of St. 
Francis ; as in a picture by Zurbaran. 

2. She opposes the Saracens. This is the great event of 
her life, and is often represented. I remember a picture 

in the Bologna Gallery, in which the Saracens, terrible tn " 
bearded barbarians, are tumbling backwards over each 
other from their scaling ladders, while St. Clara, carrying 
the Host, and attended by her sisterhood, calmly stands 
above. 

3. The most beautiful picture of St. Clara I have ever seen 
represents the death of the saint, or rather the vision which 
preceded her death ; it was painted by Murillo, for his friends 
the Franciscans of Seville, and thence stolen by Soult I 
saw it some years ago in the Aguado Gallery. St. Clara lies 
on her couch, her heavenly face lighted up with an ecstatic 
expression. Weeping nuns and friars stand around; she 
sees them not, her eyes are fixed on the glorious procession 
which approaches her bed: first, our Saviour, leading his 
Virgin-mother : they are followed by a company of virgin- 
martyrs, headed by St. Catherine, all wearing their crowns and 
bearing their palms, as though they had come to summon her 
to their paradise of bliss. Nothing can be imagined more 
beautiful, bright, and elysian than these figures, or more 
divine with faith and transport than the head of St. Clara. I 
do not know who is now the enviable possessor of this lovely 
picture. There is a small poor sketch of the subject in the 
Louvre, there called a Murillo. 

A series of pictures from her life usually begins with her 
profession by night at the feet of St. Francis, but I have never 
seen it treated with that picturesque feeling and effect of 
which it is susceptible. The walls of her lonely, venerable 
old church at Assisi are covered with a complete series of 
ancient frescoes, attributed to Giottino, but in a most ruined 
state, having been whitewashed over. I could just make out 
a few of the subjects where an attempt had been recently made 
to clean them. 1. She receives the palm branch before the 



273 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



altar; 2. she flies from her father s house; 3. she kneels before 
St. Francis, and receives the habit from his hands ; 4. she dies 
in presence of the Divine personages and the virgin-martyrs, 
as in Murillo s picture ; 5. she is carried to the tomb, among 
the attendants is seen Cardinal Bonaventura. 

In the vault over the choir the paintings are less injured, 
and must have been exquisitely beautiful. There are four 
compartments: 1. The Madonna and Child enthroned; beside 
them St. Clara standing; and around, angels bearing censers, 
flowers, and palms. 2. St. Catherine and St. Margaret. 3. 
St. Agnes, and Agnes, the sister of St. Clara, as a nun. 4. 
St. Christina and St. Cecilia. I do not know whether any 
copies or engravings exist of these lovely figures. 

The church, as I remember, had a cold, forsaken, melan 
choly air. Very different was the impression made by the 
church of San Francesco, which we entered at the moment 
when it was crowded with worshippers, and the sounds of a 
magnificent organ, swelled by human voices, rolled through 
the dimly lighted vaults, dim, yet glorious ; covered, wher 
ever the eye could penetrate, with groups from sacred story ; 
with endless variety of ornament with colour, with life, with 
beauty 1 



ST. ANTOETT OF PADUA. 

Lat. Sanctus Antonius Thanmatnrgus. Ital. Sant Antonio di Padova, In 
SANTO. % San Antonio de Padua, Sol brillante de la Iglesia, Lustre 
de la Religion Serafica, Gloria de Portugal, Honor de Espana, Tesorero 
de Italia, Terror del Infierno, Martillo Fuerte de la Heresia, entre los 
Santos por excelencia, el Milagrero. June 13, 1231. 

HABIT. Grey in the earliest pictures, afterwards dark brown, with the 
hood and cord of St. Francis. 

ATTRIBUTES. The book and lily ; a flame of fire in his hand, or in Ms 
breast. The infant Christ in his arms, or on his book. A mule kneeling. 



in the lifetime of St. Francis, arose one who Imbibed 
Ms spirit and carried out his views, and whose popularity in 



ST. ANTONY OF PADUA. 



religious Art is next to his own. St. Antony of Padua was 
a Portuguese by birth. ; and at the time that the remains of 
the five friars who had suffered martyrdom at Morocco were 
brought to Lisbon, he was so touched by the recital of their 
sufferings, that he took the habit of St. Francis, and devoted 
himself to the life of a missionary, with a fixed determination 
to obtain the crown of martyrdom in the cause of Christ. 
For this purpose he set off for Morocco to convert the Moors, 
but G-od had disposed of him otherwise, for, having landed 
in Africa, he was seized with a lingering illness, which 
paralysed all his efforts, and obliged him to re-embark for 
Europe. Contrary, or, as they may be called, favourable 
winds, drove him to the coast of Italy, and he arrived at 
Assisi at the very moment when St. Francis was holding the 
first General Chapter of his Order. St. Francis was soon 
aware of the value of such a coadjutor, and, feeling the want 
of a man of science and learning in his community, encouraged 
him to devote himself to his studies. Antony did so, and 
taught divinity with great distinction in the universities of 
Bologna, Toulouse, Paris, and Padua ; but at length he for 
sook all other employments, renounced the honours of the 
schools, and devoted himself wholly as a preacher among the 
people. To an easy, graceful carriage, a benign countenance, 
and a flow of most persuasive eloquence, he added advantages 
not yet displayed by any of the Franciscan teachers great 
.skill in argument^ and an intimate acquaintance with the 
learning of the theological schools. 

I will not now dwell upon the miracles which the enthusiasm 
of his followers afterwards imputed to him. There can be no 
doubt that he exercised, in his lifetime, as a missionary 
preacher, a most salutary and humanising influence* Italy 
was at that time distracted by intestine wars, and oppressed 
by a tyranny so monstrous, that, if it were but possible, we 
should, for the honour of humanity, take refuge in unbelief 
The excesses and barbarities of the later Roman emperors 
seemed to be outdone by some of the petty sovereigns of 
Northern Italy. Antony, wherever lie came, preached peace, 
but, to use Ms own words, it { was the peace of justice,- and 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



the peace of liberty. The generous boldness with which he 
rebuked the insane cruelties of Eccellino, seeking him in his 
own palace to denounce him as intolerable before God and 
man/ ought to cover him with eternal honour. Everywhere he 
pleaded the cause of the poor, and the crowds who assembled 
to hear him being greater than could be contained in any 
church, he generally preached in the open air. Like St. 
Francis, he was a man of a poetical imagination, and a tender 
hart, overflowing with the love of nature, and particularly of 
the lower creatures, appealing to them often as examples to 
his audience. The whiteness and gentleness of the swans, 
the mutual charity of the storks, the purity and fragrance of 
the flowers of the field, these he dwelt on often with delight; 
and as St. Francis was said to have preached to the fowls 
of the air, so St. Antony is said to have preached to the 
fishes of the sea. The plain fact seems to have been, that in 
preaching to some obstinate unbelievers he was heard to say 
that he might as well preach to the fishes, for they would more 
readily listen to him ; but the legend relates the story thus : 
c St. Antony being come to the city of Rimini, where were many 
heretics and unbelievers, he preached to them repentance and 
a new life ; but they stopped their ears, and refused to listen to 
him. Whereupon he repaired to the sea-shore, and, stretching 
forth his hand, he said, u Hear me, ye fishes, for these un 
believers refuse to listen! " and, truly, it was a marvellous thing 
to see how an infinite number of fishes, great and little, lifted 
their heads above water, and listened attentively to the sermon 
of the saint ! The other miracles related of St. Antony I pass 
over here : it will be sufficient to describe the pictures in which 
they are represented. After an active ministry of ten years, 
he died, worn out by fatigues and austerities, in his thirty- 
sixth year, reciting his favourite hymn to the Virgin, 
gloriosa Domina ! The brotherhood desired to keep his death 
a secret, that they might bury him in their church, fearing 
that the citizens of Padua would appropriate the remains ; but 
the very children of the city, being divinely instigated thereto, 
ran about the streets crying with a loud voice, * II Santo e 
il Santo e morto /* whence it has been the custom in 



ST, ANTONY OF PADUA. 



Padua, from that time even to this day, to style St. Antony 
XL SANTO, without adding his name. 

Within a year after his death he was canonised by 
Pope Gregory IX. , and the citizens of Padua decreed that 
a church should be erected to him at the public expense. 
ITiceola Pisano planned and commenced this magnificent 
edifice in 1237, but it was not brought to its present form 
for two centuries later. c The exterior, with its extraordinary v . 
spires and its eight domes, has somewhat the appearance of ^ andbook * 
a mosque. Within, the lofty polygonal apsis with its elongated 
pointed arches, and the rich Gothic screens which surround 
the choir, testify to the partiality of the Franciscans for the 
Gothic style, which, in Italy, they seem to have considered 
as more peculiarly their own/ 

The chapel which contains the shrine of the saint was 
begun in 1500 by Giovanni Minello, and Antonio his son; 
continued by Sansovino, and completed by Falconetto in 
1553. It is one mass of ornament, splendid with marble 
and alabaster sculpture, bronzes, and gold and silver lamps, 
the very luxury of devotion. 

There is not in all Italy a church more rich in monuments 
of ancient and modern art than this of Sant* Antonio. Among 
the most curious of these monuments must be reckoned the 
earliest known effigy of St. Antony, and which appears to 
have been followed in all the best representations of him. 
He is a young man, with a mild, melancholy countenance, no 
beard, wearing the habit and cord of St. Francis, the right 
hand extended in benediction, the Gospel in the left; a 
votary kneels on each side. In the devotional figures Ms 
most usual attributes are the lily and the crucifix; the lily 
being sometimes twined round the crucifix. In pictures of the 
Siena school he holds a flame of fire in his hand, as emblem 
of his ardent piety ; as in this sketch from a picture in the P, 
Academy of Siena. A very common representation is that 
of St. Antony caressing the Infant Christ, who is seen 
standing upon his book : or he holds the divine Infant in his 
arms. In such representations we must be careful to dis 
tinguish him from St. Francis. 

o o 



282 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Padua. 

S. Antonio. 



It is related that on one occasion, as 
he was expounding to his hearers the 
mystery of the Incarnation, the form of 
the Infant Christ descended and stood 
upon his book. This is called *the Vision 
of St. Antony of Padua/ and is a very 
frequent subject. 

The miracles and incidents of the 
life of St. Antony, either treated as 
a series- or as separate pictures, gene 
rally find a place in every Franciscan 
church or convent. The most celebrated 
series which occurs in painting is that 
which was executed by Titian and 
Campagnola in a building near his 
church at Padua, called the Scuola del 
Santo/ a kind of chapter-house belonging 
to the convent. There is another example 
at Bologna. The most celebrated instance 
in sculpture is the fine series of basso- 
relievos on the walls of the chapel which 
contains his shrine. In these, and in every 
other instance I can remember, the subjects 
selected are the same. The miracles attri 
buted to St. Antony are all of a homely and 
prosaic character when they are not manifestly absurd ; the 
influence he exercised in the domestic and social relations of 
life seems to have suggested most of these legends : 

1. The saint, after laying aside the Augustine habit, receives the Fran 
ciscan habit at Coimbra in Portugal. On this occasion he dropped his 
baptismal name of Ferdinand, and took that of Antony^ the patron of the 
convent at Coimbra, 

2, A certain noble lady, dwelling in Padua, was- the wife of a valiant 
officer ; and not less remarkable for her beauty and modesty,, than for her 
pairticular devotion to the saint. Her husband, wrought upon by some 
malignant slanderer, stabbed his innocent wife in a transport of jealousy, 
and then rushed from his house in an agony of despair and remorse ; bat 
meeting St. Antony, he was induced to return home, where he found his 




St. Antony. 



2S3 
ST. AKTONY OF PADUA. 



wife still breathing. The saint restored her "by his prayers, which had such 
an effect upon the husband, e eke di lupo cK egli era, divenisze un agnetto* 
The fresco is by Titian. 

3. A certain noble lady of Lisbon was beloved by a youth, her equal in 
rank ; but a deadly feud, like that of the Montagues and Capulets, had long 
separated the two families; and no sooner did her brothers suspect the 
object of her love, than they resolved to assassinate him. Shortly after, the 
young man was slain in the pubEc streets, and his body was buried in a 
garden belonging to Martin Bullone, the father of St Antony. The old 
man was accused as the author of his death, thrown into prison, and was 
about to be led to execution, when St. Antony, who at that time was 
preaching the gospel at Padua, was transported by an angel to Lisbon, and 
suddenly appeared in bodily form, before the judgment-seat, to the infinite 
astonishment of the judge, the accusers, and not less of the accused. 
4 Then. Antony, raising his voice, commanded that the dead body of the 
murdered youth should be produced, and enforced him to speak and acquit 
the old man of any share in his death ; which wonderful and indeed almost 
incredible event is related, with all the particulars, in the life of the saint 
written by Lelio Mancini Poliziano/ 

The bas-relief of this subject is by Campagna, a pupil of Sansovino. The 
fresco is by one of Titian s scholars. 

4. A young maiden named Carilla, being drowned, is restored by the 
prayers of the saint. 

The bas-relief is a chef-d oeuvre of Sansovino. The fresco is poor. 

5. A young child, who was scalded to death, is also restored at the inter 
cession of the saint. 

The bas-relief is by Cataneo. The fresco is not remarkable. 

6. St Antonio, being called upon to preach the funeral sermon of a very 
rich man, who had been remarkable for his avarice and his usury, chose for 
his text, Where the treasure is. there will the heart be also, and, instead 
of praising the dead, denounced him as condemned for his misdeeds to 
eternal punishment. ( His heart, he said, is buried in his treasure-chest ; 
go seek it there, and you will find it/ Whereupon the friends and relations 
going to break open the chest, found there the heart of the miser, amid a 
heap of ducats ; and this miracle was further established when, upon opening 
the breast of the dead man, they found his heart was gone ; which extraor 
dinary event occurred in the city of Florence, and is related by the same 
veracious author, Lelio Mancini Poliziano. 

The bas-relief by Tullio Lombard! is very dramatic. The fresco is sup 
posed to be by Campagnola, and is also extremely expressive ; the astonished 
physician and Ms assistants are in the act of anatomising the dead usurer. 
There is also an elaborate bas-relief in bronze by Donatello* 

There is a little picture by Pesellino of this subject^ which is far superior 



284 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



to any of the above examples. It originally formed part of the predella of 
an altarpiece in Santa Croce. The group of listening women ranged in 
front is exquisite for simplicity, grace, and devout faith in the power of the 
saint Mr. Eogers has the original drawing. 




A Miracle of St. Antony of Padua. {Pesellino. ). 



7. There was a certain youth of Padua named Leonardo, who came to 
make confession- to the saint&gt; and revealed to him, with many tears, that In 
a fit of anger he had kicked his mother. The saint, unable to restrain his 
horror and indignation at such an unnatural crime, exclaimed that the 
foot that had so offended deserved to be cut off ! The young man, rushing 
from the confessional in despair, seized an axe and cut off his foot A 
spectator ran to inform the saint, who hastened to the youth, and by his 
prayers healed the severed liinb. 

The bas-relief is by Tullio Lombardi. The fresco by Titian. In both 
Dresden GaL the mother is interceding for her guilty son. There is another example by 
Trevisani 

8. There was a certain Alcardino, a soldier by profession, who, as it 
should seem, was little better than an atheist, for he absolutely refused to 
believe in the miracles of the saint ; and when the children ran about the 
streets, crying out II Santo e morto/ he only shrugged his shoulders. *I 
will believe/ he said, in all these wonders if the glass cup which I hold 
in my hand be not broken ; and he at the same time flung it from the. 
balcony where he stood, upon the marble pavement below. The slab of 



n*. 



ST. ANTO3STY OF PADUA. 28S 



marble was broken by the collision ; the glass remained uninjured ; a 
miracle that must have sufficed to convince the most obstinate heretic in 
the world : accordingly, we are assured that Alcardino was ever after a 
reverent believer in the power of Sant Antonio. 

The bas-relief is by Gian-Maria di Padova. The fresco by one of Titian a 
scholars. 

9. A nobleman of Ferrara, the husband of a beautiful and virtuous wife, 
had been induced to believe her uiifaithful, and treated her with extreme 
harshness. The lady brought fortli a son, which, the husband refused to 
consider as his own offspring, and the unhappy mother, well nigh in 
despair, entreated the interference of Sant Antonio. The saint repaired 
to the house, and desired that the child might be brought to him in 
presence of the father. He then desired that the infant should be 
unswathed, and commanded him to declare who was his real father, upon 
which the child, stretching out his little hands, pronounced his name. 
Then Saint Antony placed the child in the arms of the father, at the 
same time reciting the words of the psalm, i Out of the mouths of babes 
and sucklings, &e. 

The bas-relief is by Antonio Lombard! The fresco, by far the best of 
all those in the Seuola, is by Titian ; the heads very fine and expressive, 
and the story admirably told. 

10. The legend of the mule is one of the most popular of the miracles of 
St. Antony, and is generally found in the Franciscan churches. It occurs 
three or four times in the church, at Padua. A certain heretic called Bovi- 
dilla entertained doubts of the real presence in the sacrament, and, after a 
long argument with the saint, required a miracle in proof of this favourite 
dogma of the Eoman Catholic Church. St. Antony, who was about to 
carry the Host in procession, encountered the mule of Boviclilla, which fell 
down on its knees at the command of the saint, and, although its heretic 
master endeavoured to tempt it aside by a sieve full of oats, remained 
kneeling till the Host had passed. 

The bronze bas-relief in the Chapel of the Sacrament is by Donatello. 
The fresco is attributed to Campagnola, The same subject was painted 
by Van Dyek for the Becollets at Malines. 

11. St. Antony rebukes the tyrant Eccellino, who humbles himself 
before him. The fresco is in the Seuola, and this is the only example I 
have seen of an incident which is worth all the miracles together. 

12. Luea Belludi, after the death of St Antony, while weeping before 
the altar, and deploring the sufferings of Padua under the horrible tyranny 
of Eccellino, is comforted by a vision of the saint, who foretells the death 
of the tyrant- This subject is in the Seuola. The chapel in which this 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



revelation is said to have occurred is the chapel of St Philip and St. 

James, called also the Oapella Bdludi, and celebrated for the ancient 
Legend. Art, frescoes to which I have already referred ; and I may add, that the figure 

of a warrior on horseback in the Crucifixion of St Philip is, according to 
Lindsa an anc ^ e3lt tradition, the portrait of Eccellino. The tomb of Luca Belludi 

is of late date, about 1791. 

13. Thirty-two years after the death of St. Antony, his remains were 
transported to the church erected to his honour. On this occasion the 
tomb being opened in the presence of Carding Bonaventura and Jacopo &lt;3i 
Carrara, prince of Padua, the tongue of the saint was found entire. This 
scene has been painted in fresco by ContarinL 

Perhaps the finest work ever executed in. honour of St. 
Antony of Padua Is the great picture by Murillo in the 
Artists of cathedral at Seville. * Kneeling near a table, the shaven 
spam, p.b4i. i )roWTX .^. oc j : ed saint is surprised by a visit from the Infant 
Jesus, a charming naked Babe, who descends in a golden flood 
of glory, walking the bright air as if it were the earth, while 
around him floats and hovers a company of cherubs, most of 
them children, forming a rich garland of graceful forms and 
lovely faces. Gazing up in rapture at this dazzling vision, 
St. Antony kneels with arms outstretched to receive the 
approaching Saviour. On a table is a vase containing white 
lilies, the proper attribute of the saint, painted with such 
Zeuxis-like skill, that birds wandering among the aisles have 
been seen attempting to perch on it and peck the flowers. 1 
The figures are larger than life. 

St. Antony with the Infant Saviour in his arms or standing 
on his book, has been a favourite subject with the Spanish 
painters. Murillo who, it must be remembered, was parti 
cularly patronised by the Capuchins of Seville has painted 
it nine times with variations : one of these is in the posses 
sion of Mr. Munro ; another, very beautiful, in the Berlin 
Gallery. 

In the collection of Lord Shrewsbury there is a remarkable 
picture O f this subject attributed to that extraordinary man 
Alonzo Cano. St Antony sustains in his arms the Infant 
Christ, whom the Virgin, above, appears to have just relin- 



ST. ANTONY OF PADUA, 



quished, and holds her veil extended as if to resume her 
Divine Child. The head of St. Antony is rather vulgar, but 
most expressive ; the Child most admirably painted, -looking 
up, as if half-frightened, to his mother. This is one of the 
finest pictures of the Spanish school now in England, but it 
is too dramatic in the sentiment and treatment to be con 
sidered as a religious picture. 




St. Antony of Padua with the Infant Christ, (L, Caracd.) 



283 LFGEXOS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 




58 St Bonaventura. (Raphael) 



ST. BONAVENTUBA. 
Tne SerapMc Doctor. Cardinal, and Bishop of Albano. July 14, 1274. 

CARDINAL BONAVENTURA, styled the Seraphic Doctor , was not 
only the pride and boast of the Seraphic Order, but is re 
garded as one of the great luminaries of the Koman Catholic 
Church. He was born at Bagnarea in Tuscany, in the year 
1221, and baptized by the name of Giovanni Fidanga, In 
his infancy he had a dangerous illness, in which his life wa* 
despaired of. His mother, in the extremity of her grief, 
laid her child at the feet of St. Francis, beseeching him to 
intercede with his prayers for the life of her son : the child 
recovered. It is related, that when St. Francis saw him he 
exclaimed, t buona ventura ! and hence the mother, in a 
transport of gratitude, dedicated her child to God by the 
name of Bonaventura. She brought him up in sentiments 
of enthusiastic piety ; and while he surprised his masters by 
the progress lie made in his studies, she taught him that all 
his powers, all his acquirements, and all his faculties of head 
and heart, were absolutely dedicated to the divine service. 



ST. BOKAVENT^JRA. 2S 



In 1243, at the age of twenty-two, lie took the habit of St. 
Francis, and went to Paris to complete his theological studies. 
Within a few years he became celebrated as one of the 
greatest teachers and writers in the Church. He was remark 
able at the same time for the practice of all the virtues en 
joined by his Order, preached to the people, attended the sick, 
and did not shrink from the lowliest ministering to the poor. 
His humility was so great that he scarcely dared to present 
himself to receive the Sacrament, deeming himself unworthy, 
and, according to the legend, in recompense of his humility 
the Host was presented to him by the hand of an angel. 

"While at Paris he was greatly honoured by Louis IX. (St. 
Louis), and consulted by him on many occasions. In the year 
1256 he was chosen General of the Franciscan Order at the 
age of thirty-five. At that time the community was distracted 
by dissensions between those of the friars who insisted upon the 
inflexible severity of the original Rule, and those who wished to 
introduce innovations. By his mildness and his eloquence he 
succeeded in restoring harmony. Pope Clement IV., in 1265, 
appointed him Archbishop of York; Bonaventura declined the 
honour, and continued to teach and preach in his own country. 
A few years afterwards, Gregory X. raised him to the dignity 
of cardinal, and Bishop of Albano, and sent two nuncios to 
meet him on the road with the ensigns of his new dignity. 
They found him in the garden of a little convent of his Order, 
near Florence, at that moment engaged in washing the plate 
from which he had just dined : he desired them to hang the 
cardinal s hat on the bough of a tree, till he could take it v . woodcut 
in his hands. Hence, in pictures of him, the cardinal s hat 6 * p * 32r * 
is often seen hanging on the bough of a tree. At the great 
Council held in the city of Lyons in 1274, for the purpose of 
reconciling the Greek and Latin Churches, St. Bonaventura 
was one of the most distinguished of the ecclesiastics who 
were present, and the first who harangued the assembly. He 
appears to have acted as the pope s secretary. The fatigues 
which he underwent during this Council put an end to his 
life: before it was dissolved, he was seized with a fever, of 
which he died at the age of fifty-three, aaJ was buried u 

p p 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Lyons in the church of the Franciscans ; but daring the wars 
of the League the Huguenots plundered his shrine and threw 
his ashes into the river Soane. He was canonised by Sixtus 
IV. (himself a Franciscan) in the year 1462. 

In devotional pictures painted for the Franciscans, Bona- 
ventura is the frequent pendant of St. Francis or St. Clara. 
In every picture I have seen he is beardless, and his face, 
though often worn and meagre with fasting and contemplation, 
is not marked by the lines of age. 1 He is sometimes repre 
sented wearing the cope over the grey habit of his Order, 
with the mitre on his head as Bishop of Albano, and the 
cardinal s hat lying at his feet or suspended on the branch of 
a tree behind him. Sometimes he wears the simple Franciscan 
habit, and carries the Fix or the sacramental cup in his hand, 
or it is borne by an angel : and, occasionally, we find him in 
the full costume of a cardinal (the crimson robes and the 
crimson hat), with a book in his hand, significant of his 
great learning. When grouped with St. Francis the 
superior saint he is, in every instance I can remember, a 
simple Franciscan friar, distinguished by the cardinal s hat 
at his feet, or the sacramental cup in his hand, or the angel 
presenting the Host. In the great picture by Crivelli, the 
Host, or sacramental wafer, is seen above his head, as if 
descending from heaven. 

1 The figure of one of the Doctors of the Church in the Cappella di. S. Lorenzo/ 
in the Vatican, painted by Angelico for Nicholas Y., a beautiful, simple, majestic 
figure, with an aged bald head and very long parted heard, the cardinal s hat at 
his feet, represents, I think, St. Jerome, one of the Four great Latin Fathers, 
long established as of primary importance in the system, of ecclesiastical decora 
tion prevalent from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. The figure is certainly 
inscribed St. Eonaventum ; but my impression, when I saw these frescoes and 
examined them with a good glass, was, that the letters underneath are compara 
tively modern. "We find in their proper pkces the other three doctors, St. Au 
gustine, St. Ambrose, and St. Gregory : there was no reason for substituting 
St. Bonaventura for the greatest of all, St. Jerome ; besides that, Bonaventura 
died at the age of fifty-three, is uniformly beardless, and ought to wear the 
Franciscan habit and cord, which distinguish him from St. Jerome. This figure 
has lately been engraved in an exquisite style by Mr. Gruner for the Arundei 
Society ; and I suggest these considerations, because it seems of some consequence 
tltat tke proper traditional type of a saint so important as Bonaventura should 
not be liable to misconception. 



ST. BERNARDINO OF SIENA. 29) 



According 1 to a Spanish legend, St. Bonaventura, after his 
death, returned to the earth for three days to complete his great 
work, the Life of Si Francis. He is thus represented in a 
very extraordinary picture attributed to Murillo ; he is seated Louvre. 
in a chair, wearing his doctor s cap and gown, with a pen in 
his hand, and a most ghastly, lifeless expression of counten 
ance. Mr. Stirling doubts the authenticity of this picture, 
but it is very striking. 

St. Bonaventura receiving the Sacrament from the hand of 
an Angel was painted by Van Dyck for the Franciscans at 
Antwerp. It has been coarsely engraved. 



ST. BERNARDINO OF SIENA, FOUNDER OF TIIB 
OBSERVANTS, 

May 20, 1444. 

THIS saint was born at Massa, a little town in the Sienese 
territory, in 1380. He was of the noble family of Albi- 
zeschi; and, after his mother s death, was educated by his 
aunt, Diana degli Albizeschi, to whom he appears to have 
owed the development of his talents, as well as that extreme 
purity of mind and n_anners which distinguished his 
youthful years. He was extremely beautiful and graceful 
in person ; but so modest, and, at the same time, so dignified, 
that his presence alone was a restraint on the libertine con 
versation of his companions, as the mere appearance of the 
youthful Cato overawed the profligate Romans in the midst of 
one of their festivals. 

At the age of seventeen he entered a confraternity devoted 
to the care of the poor and to the sick in the hospitals. Soon 
afterwards a pestilence broke out at Siena, which carried off 
a great number of the inhabitants, and, amongst the rest, 
many of the ministering priests, as well as the physicians, 
fell victims to the pestilence. Bernardino, assisted by twelve 
young men like himself, undertook the whole care of the 
plague hospital, and for four months attended night and day: 



23*2 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEBS. 

during this time it pleased God to preserve him from the 
contagion, but his fatigues brought on a delicacy of health 
from which he never recovered. 

At the age of twenty-three he took the habit of St. Francis, 
and became one of the most celebrated and eloquent preachers 
of his Order. His ministry was not confined to his own 
country ; he preached from one end of Italy to the other, and 
published a great number of sermons and treatises of piety, 
which have a high reputation in his own Church. Of the 
wonderful success of his preaching, many striking anecdotes 
are related. His hearers were not only for the moment affected 
and melted into tears, but in many instances a permanent 
regeneration of heart and life seemed to have taken place 
through his influence. Those who had defrauded made resti 
tution; those who owed money hastened to pay their debts; 
those who had committed injustice were eager to repair it. 
Enemies were seen to embrace each other in his presence; gam 
blers flung away their cards ; the women cut off their hair, 
and threw down their jewels at his feet: wherever he came, 
he preached peace ; and the cities of Tuscany, then distracted 
by factions, were by his exhortations reconciled and tranquil- 
lised, at least for a time. Above all, he set himself to heal, 
as far as he could, the mutual fury of the Guelphs and G-hibe- 
lines, who, at that period, were tearing Italy to pieces. 

He steadily refused to accept of any ecclesiastical honours ; 
the bishopric of Siena, that of Ferrara, and that of Urbino, 
were offered to him in vain. 

Philip Visconti, duke of Milan, one of the tyrants of that 
day, took offence at certain things that he had spoken in Ms 
sermons against the oppressions which he exercised. The 
duke threatened him; and, finding this in vain, he thought to 
soften him by the -present of a hundred gold ducats, which he 
sent to him in a silver dish. The saint of course declined the 
present, but as the messengers insisted, and averred that they 
dared not take it back, he took it from their hands, and, 
desiring them to follow him, he repaired to the public prison 
and laid out the Whole in releasing the poor debtors. 
, He was the founder, of a teforaned ^Order of 



ST. BEKNARDINO Off SIENA. 



203 



styled In Italy Osser^anti^ in France Peres ou Freres de 
F Observance, because they observed the original Rule as laid 
down by St. Francis, went barefoot, and professed absolute 
poverty. This Order became very popular. 

The health of St. Bernardino, always 
delicate, suffered from the fatigues of his 
mission and the severe abstinence to 
which he had condemned himself. While 
preaching in the kingdom of Naples, he 
sank under his exertions ; being taken 
ill at Aquila, in the Abruzzi, he there 
expired, and there his remains are pre 
served in the church of San Francesco, 
within a shrine of silver. He was 
canonised by Pope Nicholas V. in 
1450 : and there are few saints in the 
calendar who have merited that honour 
so well; none better, perhaps, than 
this exemplary and excellent friar. He 
is venerated throughout the whole of 
Italy, but more particularly in his native 
place, Siena. 

It is related of San Bernardino, that 
when preaching he was accustomed to 
hold in his hand a tablet, on which was 
carved, within a circle of golden rays, 
the name of Jesus, A certain man, who 
had gained his living by the manufacture 
of cards and dice, went to him, and 
represented to him that, in consequence 
of the reformation of manners, gambling 
had gone out of fashion, and he was 
reduced to beggarj. The saint desired 
him to exercise his ingenuity in carving 
tablets of the same kind as that which lie 
held in his hand, and to sell them to the people. A peculiar 
sanctity was soon attached to these memorials; the desire to 
possess them became general; and the man, wlio by the manu- 




5 St. Bernardino. 



294 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OKDERS. 



facture of gaming-cards could scarcely keep himself above 
want, by the fabrication of these tablets realised a fortune. 
Hence in the devotional figures of St. Bernardino he is usually 
holding one of these tablets, the 3r.ljX f encircled with rays 
in his hand. 

Another attribute is the Monte-di-Pietd, a little green hill 
composed of three mounds, and on the top either a cross, or 

a standard on which is the figure of the dead Saviour, usually 

called in Italy a Pietd. St. 

Bernardino is said to have 

been the founder of the chaii- 

table institutions still called 

in France Monts-de-Piete, 

originally for the purpose 

of lending to the very poor 

small sums on trifling 

pledges what we should 

now call a loan society 

and which in their com 
mencement were purely dis 
interested and beneficial. In 

every city which he visited 

as a preacher, he founded a 

Monte-di-pietti ; and before 

his death, these institutions 

had spread all over Italy 

and through a great part of 

France. 1 




60 



1 Although the figures holding the Monte-di- Pietd are, in Italian prints and 
pictures, styled San Bernardino da Siena/ there is reason to presume that the 
honour is at least shared by another worthy of the same Order, * II Beato Bernar 
dino da Feltri/ a celebrated preacher at the end of the fifteenth century. Mention 
is made of his preaching against the .Tews and usurers, on the miseries of the poor, 
and on the necessity of having a Monte-di-Piet& at Florence, in a sermon delivered 
in the church of Santa Croce in the year 1488. Of the extent to which usury was 
carried in those times, and of the barbarous treatment of the poorer class of 
debtors, we read in most of the contemporary authors j and it appears that the 
Franciscan friars, especially the two Bernardinos, and a certain Fra Marco di 
ita^enna (commemorated in a very rare and curious print called The Seven Works 
of Mew?y, ? v. B&rtwl, xiii. p. 88), were instrumental in remedying these evila 



ST. BERNARDINO OF SIENA. 



The best devotional figures of St. Bernardino have a general 
resemblance to each other, which shows them to have been 
painted from some known original; probably the contemporary 
picture by Pietro di Giovanni. He is always beardless ; his Aead. siem. 
figure tail, slender, and emaciated ; his features delicate and 
regular, but haggard and worn; his countenance mild and me 
lancholy: he carries in his hand either the tablet with the name 
of Jesus, which is the common attribute; or the Monte-di-Pieta. 

In sculpture, the most 
beautiful representation of 
St. Bernardino is that of 
Agostino dell a Eobbia, a 
colossal figure in high relief 
on the fa9ade of the cha 
pel of the Confraternita di 
San Bernardino at Perugia. 
Around him is a g ory of 
eight angels, wh o are sound 
ing his praise on various in 
struments of music; and the 
rest of the facade is covered 
with elaborate small bas- 
reliefs from his life and 
miracles. 

In the separate subjects 
from his life which are to 
be met with in the Francis 
can churches, he is repre 
sented preaching to a nu 
merous audience, who listen 
with eager upturned faces ; as in a fine old fresco in the San 
Francesco at Perugia: or he is restoring a young girl to life 
who had choked herself by swallowing a bone; as in a picture 
by Pesellino, engraved in Rossini s work. 

The best series of pictures from his life is in his chapel in 

But unless we could ascertain the date of the first Monte-di-Pieta in Italy, it would 
not be easy to determine to which Bernardino the honour (and the effigy) properly 
belongs. 




61 



tit. Bernardino. (From the bas-relief 
by A. della Robbia.) 



StoriideH* 
Pittura. 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 

296 _, 



the Ara-Celi at Rome, painted by Bernardino Pinturicchio, 
who has put forth his best powers to do honour to his patron 
saint : 

L St. Bernardino assumes the Franciscan habit. 2. He 
preaches, standing on a little green hillock : the attitude and 
expression admirable ; they are those of a preacher, not an 
orator. 3. He beholds the crucified Saviour in a vision. 4. 
He is seen, studying the Scriptures in the solitude of Colom- 
biere, near Siena. 5. He dies, and is laid on his bier; the 
sick, the maimed, the blind, gather around it to be healed by 
touching his remains; a mother lays down her dead child, 
and seems to appeal to the dead saint to restore it. 6. His 
glorification : he appears in Paradise, standing between St. 
Louis of Toulouse and St. Antony of Padua. 

A very remarkable series is that by Pesellino, which I 
recollect to have seen with interest in the sacristry of San 
Francesco at Perugia ; but had not time to make a note of 
the separate subjects, eight in number. 

There is a picture by Ludovico Caracci, of St. Bernardino, 
i c ^ e m08tra ^ Soliati la Citta di Carpi, chi miracolosamente 
non i a vidderoS I have not found this legend in any life of 
St. Bernardino to which I have had access* 



ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGER?. 297 



ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. 

LANDGBAVOE OP THURItfGIA. 

Lat. Saneta Elisabetha Mater Pauperum. Ital Santa Elisabeta di Un- 
gheria. Fr. Madame Saincte Elisabeth. La cMre Sainte Elisabeth. 
Sp. Santa Isabel. Ger. Die Heilige Elizabeth -von TJngarn (or, von 
Hessen). Die liebe Frau Elizabeth, Nov. 19, 131. 



Ave gemma speclosa ! 
Mulierum sydus, rosa 1 
Ex regali stirpe nata, 
Nunc in coelis coronata ; 
Mundo licet viro data 
Christo tamen desponsata. 
Utriuscpie sponsalia, 
Simul servans illibata ; 
Saram sequens fide pia, 
Et Bebeccam prudentia, 
dilecta ! beata 1 
Nostra esto advocata, 
Elisabeth egregia ! 

(From an old German Hrenary, 
printed at Nuremberg, 1515.) 



As St. Clara was the traditional type of female piety, her con 
temporary, St. Elizabeth, became the traditional type of female 
charity. Of all the glorified victims must I call them,? or 
martyrs ? of that terrible but poetical fanaticism of the 
thirteenth century, she was one of the most remarkable;, and 
of the sacred legends of the Middle Ages, hers is one of the 
most interesting and most instructive. I call it a legend, 
because, though in all the material facts perfectly authentic^ 
and, indeed, forming a part of the history of her country, 
there is in it just that sprinkling of the marvellous and the 
fanciful which has served to idealise her character and convert 
into a poem "the story of her life. 

That short sad life, crowded as it was outwHrdly with striking 

QQ 



2gg LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



contrasts and vicissitudes of fortune, was yet more full filled 
even to overflowing witli unseen, untold joys and sorrows ; 
witli pangs and struggles, such as then haunted the unreason 
ing minds of women, distracted between their earthly duties 
and affections, and their heavenward aspirations, as if this 
world were not G-od s world and his care, no less than that 
other world ! The story of St. Elizabeth, and those graceful 
effigies which place her before us, offering up her roses, or 
with her fair crowned head bending over some ghastly per 
sonification of pain and misery, will be regarded with different 
feelings according to the point from which they are viewed. 
For some will think more of the glory of the saint ; others, 
more of the trials of the woman : some will look upon her 
with reverence and devotion, as blessed in her charities, and 
not less blessed in her self-sacrifice ; others, with a sad heart- 
moving pity, as bewildered in her conscience and mistaken in 
her faith : but none, I think, whatever be their opinions, 
can read the chronicle of her life without emotion. 1 

In the year 1207, Andreas II. was King of Hungary,* and 
Herman, of poetical renown, the patron of the Minnesingers, 
was Landgrave of Thuringia, and held his court in the castle 
of the Wartburg. 

In that year the Queen of Hungary brought forth a daughter, 
whose birth was announced by many blessings to her country 
and her kindred ; for the wars which had distracted Hungary 
ceased, and peace and good-will reigned, at least for a time ; 
the harvests had never been so abundant, crime, injustice, and 
violence had never been so unfrequent, as in that fortunate 
year. Even in her cradle the young Elizabeth showed suffi 
ciently that she was the especial favourite of Heaven. She was 
never known to weep from childish petulance ; the first words 
she distinctly uttered were those of prayer ; at three years old 

1 The authorities followed in the life of St. Elizabeth are Counc Montalembert s 
Htetoire de S. filisabeth de Honyrie, Duchesse de Thuringe, third edition, and the 
notes to Mr Kingsley s beautiful drama, * The Saint s Tragedy. 1 Both cite the 
original and often contemporary documents. The common legendaries, recounting 
merely her charities and her miracles, were here almost useless. 



ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. 99 



she was known to give away her toys, and take off her rich 
dresses to bestow them on the poor; and all the land rejoiced 
in her early wisdom, goodness, and radiant beauty. 

These things being told to Herman of Tlmringia by the 
poets and wise men who visited his court, he was filled with 
wonder, and exclaimed, c Would to God that this fair child 
might become the wife of my son ! and thereupon he resolved 
to send an embassy to the King of Hungary, to ask the young 
princess in marriage for his son, Prince Louis. He selected 
as his messengers the Count Reinhard of Muhlberg, Walther 
de Varila, his seneschal, and the noble widow, Bertha of 
Beindeleben, attended by a train of knights and ladies, bear 
ing rich presents. They were hospitably and favourably 
received by the King of Hungary and his queen Gertrude, 
and returned to Wartburg with the little princess, who was 
then four years old. The king, her father, bestowed on her a 
cradle and a bath, each of pure silver and of wondrous work 
manship ; and silken robes curiously embroidered with gold, 
and twelve noble maidens to attend upon her. He also loaded 
the ambassadors with gifts. He sent to the landgrave and 
his wife Sophia magnificent presents stuffs, and jewels, and 
horses richly caparisoned, and many precious things which he 
had obtained through his intercourse with Constantinople and 
the East, the like of which had never before been seen in 
Western Germany; and it is recorded that, whereas the 
ambassadors had set off on their mission with two baggage- 
waggons, they returned with thirteen. 

When the princess Elizabeth arrived at the castle of the 
Wartburg at Eisenach, she was received with infinite rejoic 
ings, and the next day she was solemnly betrothed to the 
young Prince Louis ; and the two children being laid in the 
same cradle, they smiled and stretched out their little arms to 
each other, which thing pleased the landgrave Herman and 
the landgravine Sophia; and all the ladies, knights, and 
minstrels who were present regarded it as an omen of a blessed 
and happy marriage. 

From this time the children were not separated ; they grew 
tip together, and every day they loved each other more and 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



more. They called each other by the tender and familiar names 
of brother and sister ; but Louis knew perfectly the difference 
between his relationship with Elizabeth and with his own sister 
A^nes, and he very soon perceived that his Elizabeth was quite 
unlike all the other children in the court, and exercised over 
them some extraordinary ascendancy : all her infant thoughts 
seemed centred in heavenly things; her very sports were 
heavenly, as though the angels were her playmates; but 
charity, and compassion for the suffering poor, formed, so to 
speak, the staple of her life. Everything that was given to 
her she gave away ; and she collected what remained from 
the table, and saved from her own repasts every scrap of food, 
which she carried in a basket to the poor of Eisenach, the 
children of the poor being more especially her care. 

As long as her noble father-in-law the landgrave Herman 
was alive, no one dared to oppose the young Elizabeth in her 
exercises either of devotion or charity, though both had excited 
some feelings of disapprobation and jealousy in the court; even 
her betrothed husband Louis, influenced by those around him, 
began to regard her as one destined to be the bride of Heaven 
rather than his own. "When she was about nine years old, 
and Louis about sixteen, the landgrave died ; and Elizabeth, 
having lost in him her father and protector, became, with all 
her saintly gifts and graces, a forlorn stranger in her adopted 
home. Louis had succeeded his father, but remained under 
the tutelage of his mother. The landgravine, Sophia, dis 
liked the retiring character of her daughter-in-law; the 
princess Agnes openly derided her; and the other ladies of 
the court treated her with neglect. 

On the occasion of some great religious festival, the land 
gravine carried the two young princesses to the church of 
St. Catherine at Eisenach. They were attired, according to 
the custom of the time, in their habits of ceremony, wearing 
long embroidered mantles, their hair cast loose over their 
shoulders ; golden coronets on their heads, and bracelets OB 
their arms. On entering the church they knelt down before 
the crucifix j Elizabeth, on raising her eyes to the image of 
the dying Saviour^ was struck with, an .irresistible reverence. 



ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. 



and instinctively took off her golden crown, placing it at the 
foot of the cross. She then meekly continued her prayer. The 
landgravine whispered "bitter reproaches, and ordered her to 
replace her crown. Elizabeth, weeping, replied, * Dear lady 
mother, reproach me not ! Here I behold the merciful Jesus, 
who died for me, wearing his crown of thorns ; how can I wear 
in his presence this crown of gold and gems? my crown is a 
mockery of His! Then, covering her face with her long 
mantle, she held her peace, and continued to pray fervently. 
Her mother and sister, seeing the eyes of the people fixed on 
them, were obliged also to take off their crowns aiid cover their 
faces ; * which they misliked greatly/ adds the chronicle. They 
were more angry than ever with Elizabeth; and the whole 
court, perceiving her disgrace, failed not to treat her with 
contumely, and to jeer at what they called her pretended piety; 
so that her life was made bitter to her, even in her young days. 
She endured all with unvarying gentleness. The hardest trial 
of her patience was when the princess Agnes was wont to tell 
her, in a mocking tone, that ( her brother Louis would never 
marry such a Beguine^ but would send her back to Hungary 
to her father. 9 This also Elizabeth bore in silence: she 
would go to her chamber and weep awhile; then, drying her 
tears, she would take up her alms-basket, and go to visit the 
poor children of whom she had made friends and com 
panions ; and in teaching them arid caressing them she found 
comfort. 

All this time Louis was observing her and watching her 
deportment under the contemptuous treatment of his mother 
and sister, and of those who thought to do them a pleasure by 
studiously neglecting or publicly insulting the object of their 
scorn. He did not openly show her any attention ; he had some 
doubts whether she was not too far above him in her austere 
yet gentle piety. But often when she suffered from the con 
tumely of others, he would secretly comfort her with kindest 
words, and dry up her tears. And when he returned home 
after an absence, he was accustomed to bring her some little 
gift which he had purchased for her, either a rosary of coral, 
or a little silver crucifix, or a chain, or a golden pin, or a purse, 



S02 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



or a knife. And when she ran out to meet him joyfully, he 
would take her in his arms, and kiss her right heartily. And 
thus she grew up to maidenhood, looking to him, and only to 
Mm, for all her earthly comfort; trusting and loving him next 
to her Heavenly Father, to whom she prayed hourly for his 
well-being, and that his heart might not be turned away from 
her, for she knew that every earthly influence was employed 
to make him false to her and to his early vows. 

It happened, on one occasion, that Louis went on a long 
hunting excursion with some neighbouring princes, and was 
so much occupied by his guests, that, when he returned, he 
brought not his accustomed gift, nor did he salute her as 
usual. The courtiers, and those who were the enemies of 
Elizabeth, marked this well; she saw their cruel joy, and her 
heart sank with apprehension. She had hitherto kept silence, 
but now, in the bitterness of her grief, she threw herself on 
her old friend, Walther de Varila, who had brought her an 
infant from Hungary, who had often nursed her in his arms, 
and who loved her as his own child. A few days afterwards, 
as he attended the landgrave to the chase, he took the oppor 
tunity to ask him what were his intentions with regard to the 
Lady Elizabeth; &lt; For/ said he, &lt; it is thought by many that 
you love her not, and that you will send her back to her father. 
On hearing these words, Louis, who had been lying on the 
ground to rest, started to Ms feet, and, throwing his hand 
towards the lofty Inselberg which rose before them, * Seest 
thou, he said, 6 yon high mountain? If it were all of pure 
gold from the base to the summit, and if it were offered to me 
in exchange for my Elizabeth, I would not give her for it! 

no I love her better than all the world ! I love only her I 

and I will have my Elizabeth ! ( Ich will mein Elsbetb 
haben! ) Then Walther, right joyful, said, &lt; My sovereign 
lord, may I tell her this ? and Louis answered, c Tea, tell 
her this, that I love only her in the world ! Then from the 
purse which hung at his belt he drew forth a little silver 
mirror, curiously wrought, surmounted with an image of 
our Saviour. &lt; Give her this, he added, * as a pledge of my 
truth. 1 



ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. 



When they returned, Walther hastened to seek Elizabeth, 
and gave her the loving message and the gift. And she smiled 
an angel smile, and kissed the mirror reverently, and saluted 
the image of Christ, and thanked him for all his mercies, hut 
most of all for that he had kept true and tender towards her 
the heart of her hetrothed husband; and, having done this, 
she put the mirror in her bosom, next to her heart. 

About a year afterwards, their marriage was formally 
solemnised with great feasts and rejoicings which lasted three 
days. 

Louis was at this time in his twentieth year. He was tall 
and well-made, with a ruddy complexion, fair hair, which he 
wore long in the German fashion, blue eyes, remarkable for 
their serene and mild expression, and a noble ample brow. He 
was of a princely temper, resolute, yet somewhat bashful, c and 
in his words was modest as a maid. He was never known to 
be unfaithful to his Elizabeth, from the hour in which they 
had been laid together in her cradle to the hour of his death. 

Elizabeth was not quite fifteen. Her beauty was still im 
mature ; but, from its peculiar character, she appeared older 
than she really was. She had the beauty of her race and 
country, a tall slender figure, a clear brown complexion, large 
dark eyes, and hair as black as night; her eyes, above all, were 
celebrated by her contemporaries, they were eyes which 
glowed with an inward light of love and charity, and were 
often moistened with tears. 

She lived with her husband in the tenderest union, but 
carried into her married life the austere piety which had dis 
tinguished her from infancy; and the more she loved her 
husband, the more she feared herself. By the side of her in 
nocent happiness * a gulf still threatening to devour her 
opened wide, a gulf of sin misery death; death to both, 
if they stood in the way of each other s salvation. 

She therefore redoubled her secret penances; rose in the 
night, and left her couch to pray, kneeling on the bare cold 
earth. She wore hair-cloth next her tender skin, and would 
sometimes scourge herself, and cause her ladies to scourge her. 



803 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Louis sometimes remonstrated, but in general he submitted 
from some secret persuasion that himself and his people were 
to benefit by the prayers and the sanctity of his wife. Mean 
time she was cheerful and loving towards him, dressed to 
please him, and would often ride to the chase with him. 
When he was absent she put on the dress of a widow and 
wore it till his return, when she would again array herself in 
her royal mantle and meet him with a joyful smile, taking him 
in her arms as he dismounted from, his horse, and greeting 
him with a wifely tenderness. 

She had for her spiritual director a certain priest named 
Conrad of Marbourg, a man of a stern character, who, after a 
time, through her excitable mind and sensitive conscience and 
gentle womanly affections, ruled her, not merely with a rod of 
iron, but a scourge of fire. 

Conrad had denounced as unpleasing to God certain im 
posts which were laid on the people for the express purpose 
of furnishing the royal table. And he commanded Elizabeth 
not to eat of any food served up at table, except of such as 
had been justly paid for, or produced from the private and 
hereditary estates of her husband. Not always able to dis 
tinguish between the permitted meats and drinks and those 
interdicted by her confessor, Elizabeth would sit at her own 
royal banquets abstinent whilst others feasted, and content 
herself with a crust of bread and a cup of water. On one 
occasion Louis took the cup out of her hand, and, putting it 
to his lips, it appeared to him that he tasted wine of such a 
divine flavour that he had never tasted any like it He called 
to the cup-bearer, and asked him of what vintage was this 
extraordinary wine? The cup-bearer, astonished, replied, 
that he had poured water into the cup, of the landgravine. 
Louis held his peace, for he had long believed that his wife 
was served by the angels ; and some other circumstances 
which occurred during their manied life, convinced him 
that she was under the especial favour and protection of 
Heaven. 

One day that he entertained several of the. neighbouring 



ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. 



princes, he desired of Elizabeth that she would appear in the 
presence of his guests as hecame his wife and the lady of his 
love. She, always obedient, called her maids around her, 
and arrayed herself in her royal robes, her tunic of green and 
golden tissue, her tiara of jewels confining her long dark 
tresses, and over her shoulders her embroidered mantle lined 
with ermine. Thus sumptuously attired, she was about to 
cross one of the courts of the castle which led to the apart 
ment of her husband, perhaps with some secret thought that he 
would approve of the charms she had adorned for his sake, 
when she beheld prostrate on the pavement a wretched beggar 
almost naked, and shivering with cold, hunger, and disease. 
He implored her charity; she told him she could not then 
minister to him, and was about to pass on, but he, sustaining 
his trembling limbs on his staff, dragged himself after her", 
and implored her that she would not leave him to die, but that 
for the sake of Christ our Redeemer and the holy John the 
Baptist, she would have pity upon him. Now Elizabeth had 
never in her life refused what was asked from her in the name, 
either of the Saviour, or of St. John the Baptist, who was her 
patron saint and protector. She paused ; and, from a divine 
impulse of mingled piety and charity, she took off her royal 
mantle and threw it over his shoulders. Then she retreated 
to her chamber, not knowing how she should excuse herself 
to her husband. At that moment the landgrave came to seek 
her; and she, throwing herself into his arms, confessed what 
she had done. While he stood irresolute whether to admire 
or upbraid her, her maiden Guta entered the chamber, having 
the mantle on her arm. Madam, 5 said she, &lt;in passing 
through the wardrobe I saw the mantle hanging in its place : 
why has your Highness disarrayed yourself? And she has 
tened to clasp it again on her shoulders. 

Then her husband led her forth, both their hearts filled 
with unspeakable gratitude and wonder. And when Elizabeth 
appeared before the guests, they arose, and stood amazed at 
her beauty, which had never appeared so dazzling $ for a 
glory more than human seemed to play round her form, and 
the jewels on her mantle sparkled with a celestial light 



B B 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



&lt; And who/ says the legend, &lt; can doubt that the beggar was 
our Lord himself, who had desired to prove the virtue of his 
servant, and who had replaced the mantle by the hand of one 
of his blessed angels ? 

On another occasion, when Elizabeth was ministering to 
her poor at Eisenach, she fonnd a sick child cast ont from 
among the others, because he was a leper, and so loathsome 
in his misery that none would touch him, or even go nigh to 
him; but Elizabeth, moved with compassion, took him in her 
arms, carried him up the steep ascent to the castle, and while 
her attendants fled at the spectacle, and her mother-in-law 
Sophia loaded her with reproaches, she laid the sufferer in hr 
own bed. Her husband was then absent, but shortly after 
wards his horn was heard to sound at the gate. Then his 
mother Sophia ran out to meet him, saying, My son, come 
hither ! see with whom thy wife shares her bed 1 and she 
led him up to the chamber, telling him what had happened. 
This time, Louis was filled with impatience and disgust ; he 
rushed to the bed and snatched away the coverlid; but behold, 
instead of the leper, there lay a radiant infant with the fea 
tures of the new-born in Bethlehem; and while they stood 
amazed, the vision smiled, and vanished from their sight. 

sacred an.i (We have here the beautiful legendary parable, so often re- 

L^end.Art, p ea e( j j n ^e ]} ves O f fa e saints ; for example, in those of St. 

S51.398. 0-regory, St, Martin, St. Julian, and others; and which 
doubtless originated either in the words of our Saviour, 

Matt, xxv, * Inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these my breth 
ren, ye have done it unto me ; * or in the text of St. Paul, 

neb. xUi.2. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some 
have entertained angels unawares. 5 ) 

Elizabeth, in the absence of her husband, daily visited the 
poor who dwelt in the suburbs of Eisenach, and in the huts of 
the neighbouring valleys. One day, during a severe winter, she 
left her castle with a single attendant, carrying in the skirts of 
her robe a supply of bread, meat, and eggs, for a certain poor 
family; and, as she was descending the frozen, and slippery 
path, her husband, returning from the chase, met her bending 



ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. 307 



under the weight of her charitable burden. c What dost thou 
here, my Elizabeth? he said; let us see what thon art 
carrying away?* and she, confused and blushing to be so 
discovered, pressed her mantle to her bosom ; but he insisted, 
and, opening her robe, he beheld only red and white roses, 
more beautiful and fragrant than any that grow on this earth, 
even at summer-tide, and it was now the depth of winter ! 
Then he was about to embrace his wife, but looking in her 
face, he was overawed by a supernatural glory which seemed 
to emanate from every feature, and he dared not touch her ; 
he bade her go on her way, and fulfil her mission; but taking 
from her lap one of the roses of Paradise, he put it in his 
bosom, and continued to ascend the mountain slowly, with 
his head declined, and pondering these things in his heart. 1 

In the year 1226, the landgrave Louis accompanied his 
liege lord, the Emperor Frederick II. , into Italy. 

In the same year, a terrible famine afflicted all Germany ; 
but the country of Thuringia suffered more than any other. 
Elizabeth distributed to the poor all the corn in the royal 
granaries. Every day a certain quantity of bread was baked, 
and she herself served it out to the people, who thronged 
around the gates of the castle, sometimes to the number of 
nine hundred ; uniting prudence with charity, she so arranged 
that each person had his just share, and so husbanded her 
resources that they lasted through the summer; and when 
harvest time came round again, she sent them into the fields 
provided with scythes and sickles, and to every man she gave 
a shirt and a pair of new shoes. But, as was usual, the 
famine had been succeeded by a great plague and mortality, 
and the indefatigable and inexhaustible charity of Elizabeth 

1 There are several different versions of this beautiful and celebrated 
legend. Sometimes the incident occurs before her marriage, and then it ifi 
her father-in-law, Herman, who discovers the roses : sometimes it is placed in the 
period of her widowhood, and then, it is her cruel brother-in-law, Henry. I have 
given the most accredited version, that which is adopted by Count Montalemberfe, 
who must henceforth be considered as the first authority in all that concerns 
the legend of Elizabeth. See, in his Life of her, the chapter *De la grande 
ckariU de la ch&re Sainte Elisabeth, et de son amour pour la pamreti. Third 
edition, p. 50. 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



was, again at hand. In the city of Eisenach, at the foot of 
the Wartburg, she founded an hospital of twenty beds for 
poor women only; and another, called the Hospital of St. 
Anne, in which all the sick and poor who presented themselves 
were received ; and Elizabeth herself went from one to the 
other ? ministering to the wretched inmates with a cheerful 
countenance, although the sights of misery and disease were 
often so painful and so disgusting that the ladies who attended 
upon her turned away their heads, and murmured and com 
plained of the task assigned to them. 

She also founded an hospital especially for poor children. 
As I have already said, children were at all times the objects 
of her maternal benevolence. It is related by an eye-witness, 
that whenever she appeared among them, they gathered round 
her, crying " Mutter ! Mutter ! " clinging to her robe and 
kissing her hands. She, mother-like, spoke to them tenderly, 
washed and dressed their ulcerated limbs, and even brought 
them little toys and gifts to amuse them/ In these charities 
she not only exhausted the treasury, but she sold her own robes 
and jewels, and pledged the jewels of the state. When the 
landgrave returned, the officers and councillors went out to 
meet him, and fearing his displeasure, they began to complain 
of the manner in which Elizabeth, in their despite, had 
lavished the public treasures. But Louis would not listen to 
them; he cut them short, repeating, c How is my dear wife? 
how are my children ? are they well ? Let her give what she 
will, so long as she leaves me my castles of Eisenach, Wart- 
burg, and Naumburg ! Then he hurried to the gates, and 
Elizabeth met him with her children, and threw herself into 
his arms and kissed him a thousand times, and said to him 
tenderly, See ! I have given to the Lord what is his, and he 
has preserved to us what is thine and mine ! 

In the following year, all Europe was arming for the third 
Crusade; and his liege lord Frederick IL, having assumed 
the cross, summoned Lonis to join his banner. No help! 
Louis must go where duty called him ; and he took the cross, 
with many other princes and nobles, from the hands of Conrad, 
bishop of Hildesheiin. Returning thence to his castle of 



ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. BOO 



Wartburg, and thinking on all the sorrow it would cause his 
Elizabeth, he took off his cross and put it into his purse to 
hide it until he should have prepared her for their parting : 
but many days passed away, and he had not courage to tell 
her what was at his heart. 

One evening, while they sat together in her bower, she 
asked him for alms for her poor ; and, as he resisted, she play 
fully unbuckled his purse, and put her hand into it, and drew 
forth the cross. Too well she knew that sign ! the truth burst 
upon her at once, and she swooned at his feet On recover 
ing her senses she wept much, and said, c my brother ! 
if it be not against God s will, stay with me ! * And he 
answered with tears, i Dear sister ! I have made a vow to 
God; I must go!* Then she said, Let it be as God 
willeth : I will stay behind and pray for thee. So Louis 
departed in the summer of that year ; and Elizabeth went 
with him two days journey before she had the strength to 
say farewell. Then they parted with tears and many em- 
bracings ; and her ladies and her knights brought her back 
half dead to the Wartburg; while Louis with his knights 
pursued their journey. Among these was Count Louis of 
Gleichen, whose monument may still be seen in the Cathedral 
of Erfurt, lying between his two wives. The landgrave 
pursued his journey happily towards Palestine, until he came 
to Otranto in Calabria ; there he was seized with a fever, and 
died in the arms of the Patriarch of Jerusalem. He com 
manded his knights and counts who stood round his bed that 
they should carry "his body to his native country, and defend 
his Elizabeth and his children with their life-blood, if need 
were from all wrong and oppression. 

Now, after the departure of her husband, Elizabeth had 
brought forth her youngest daughter, and ? occupied with the 
care of her children and the care of her poor, had resolved to 
wait in patience the return of him who was never more to 
return. "When the evil tidings arrived, she swooned away 
with grief; and if God, the Father of the widow and the 
orphan, had not sustained her, she had surely died. 

Louis had two brothers, Henry and Conrad, The eldest of 



310 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



these, Henry 5 listened to wicked counsellors, who advised him 
to take possession of his nephew s heritage, and banish the 
widow and her children from the Wartburg. It was winter 
time, and the snow lay upon the ground, when the daughter 
of kings was seen slowly descending the rocky path which 
she had so often traversed in her missions of charity. She 
carried her newly-horn baby in her arms ; her women followed 
with the three eldest. Henry had forbidden any of the 
people to harbour her, being resolved to drive her beyond 
the confines of his territory. So she wandered about with 
her children till she found refuge in a poor inn. It is related 
that in passing along the snowy slippery way she fell ; that a 
woman one of the women whom she had tended in her 
hospital mocked at her as she lay on the earth, and that 
even this did not disturb her meek serenity. She afterwards 
placed her children in the care of some faithful servants, and 
for several weeks supported herself by spinning wool, in which 
she excelled. 

In the meantime the knights returned to Thuringia, bear 
ing with them the remains of Louis : and having heard by 
the way of the cruelty and injustice with which the widow of 
their lord and master had been treated, they were filled with 
indignation. They obliged Henry to be contented with the 
title of regent ; they placed the young Herman on the throne ; 
and Elizabeth received, as her dower, the city of Marbourg, 
whither she retired with her daughters. 

She was accompanied by the priest Conrad, her confessor, 
whose power, no longer divided with that of a beloved husband, 
became more and more absolute. Under his direction her life 
became one continued penance. One by one she parted with 
her children, lest she should love them too well : he restricted 
her charities, which were her only consolation, because they 
w&re a consolation. She already wore the cord as a member of 
the third Franciscan Order ; and when she found that she was 
not permitted to give away all she had, she wished to alienate 
her possessions, to take the vows of absolute poverty, and to beg 
he^ bread through the world : but this also Conrad refused to 
allow* She resolved, therefore, as she might not beg, to labour 



ST. ELIZABETH OF HUKGAET. 



for her support. She spun wool, and as her poor fingers became 
weaker and weaker, and she earned less and less, her clothes 
became ragged, and she mended them with shreds of any colour, 
picked up here and there, so that her appearance excited the 
derision of the people, and the very children those children 
whom she had so tended and cherished pursued her in the 
streets as a mad woman ! All these humiliations, and more 
and worse, she endured with an humble and resigned spirit, 
and the pious looked upon her as a second St. Clara. 

But even into her poor retreat the wicked world pursued her. 
It was reported but only in distant parts, where she was not 
known that she was living with the priest Conrad in an 
unholy union ; and her old fiiend, "Walther de Yarila, thought 
it right to visit her and to warn her of these reports. She 
made no answer, but, sadly shaking her head, she bared her 
shoulders and showed them lacerated by the penitential scourge 
inflicted by her harsh director. So "Walther de Yarila said on 
more, but sorrowfully went his way. 

After this visit Conrad dismissed her two women, who till 
now had served her faithfully, and placed round her person 
creatures of his own, who made her drink to the very dregs 
the cup of humiliation. True, it was said that she was 
comforted by celestial visitants; that the angels, and the 
blessed Yirgin herself, deigned to hold converse with her ; 
but not the less did the poor visionary, or favoured saint, 
gradually fade away, till, laid upon her last bed, she turned 
her face to the wall and began to sing hymns with a most 
sweet voice; when her strength failed, she uttered the words 
c Silence ! and so died. The legend adds, that angels bore 
her spirit into heaven; and, as they ascended through the 
night, they were heard from afar chanting the response Reg- 
num mundi contempsL* She had just completed her twenty- 
fourth year, and had survived her husband three years and a 
half. 

No sooner had Elizabeth breathed her last breath than the 
people surrounded her couch, tore away her robe, cut off her 
hair, even mutilated her remains for relics* She was buried 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



amid miracles and lamentations, and foar years after her death 
she was canonised by Gregory IX. 

In the same year was founded the Church of St. Elizabeth 
at Marbourg. It was completed in forty-eight years, and her 
shrine there was enriched by the offerings of all Germany. 
The church is one of the finest specimens of pure early 
Gothic, and in perfect preservation. The richly ornamented 
chapel of St. Elizabeth is in the transept, the stone steps 
around it worn hollow by the knees of pilgrims. The shrine 
of St. Thomas of Canterbury was not more venerated and 
visited in England than the shrine of St. Elizabeth in 
Germany. This shrine is still preserved in the sacristy, but 
merely as a curiosity ; for at the time of the Reformation it was 
violated, with circumstances of great and brutal levity, by 
her own descendant, Philip, landgrave of Hesse, styled in 
history * the Magnanimous, and her remains were dispersed 
no one knows how or whither. 

The Castle of Wartburg, once the home of Elizabeth, is now 
almost a ruin. The chamber she inhabited is still carefully 
perserved, not because it was hers, but because it was Luther s. 
Here he found a refuge from the vengeance of priests and 
princes ; here he completed Ms translation of the Bible ; here, 
as he himself relates, he contended bodily with the demons 
who canxe to interrupt his work ; and here they still show the 
stain on the wall from the inkstand which he flung at the 
head of Satan ; looking on which, we may the more easily 
forgive the sick fancies and soul tortures of that gentlest and 
loveliest of all saints, Elizabeth. 

I remember climbing the rocky bypath to the summit of the 
Wartburg, the path where Elizabeth, was encountered with her 
lapful of roses ; and I cannot help thinking, that to have per 
formed that feat twice a day, required indeed all the aspiring 
fervour of the saint, as well as the tender enthusiasm of the 
woman young and light in spirit and in limb. Poor Eliza 
beth ! Her memory stil lives in the traditions of the people, 
and in the names given to many of the localities near Eisenach 
and Marbourg ; they still cultivate roses round the vicinity of 
the steep and stony Wartburg : I recollect seeing the little 



ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. 



cemetery which lies near the base of the mountain, all one 
blush of roses ; you could not see the tombstones for the 
rose-bushes, nor the graves for the rose-leaves heaped on them. 

And so much for the history of Elizabeth of Hungary ; which 
having read and considered, we now turn to the effigies which 
exist of her. 

She ought, of course, to be always represented as young and 
beautiful, but some of the German artists have overlooked 
the historical description of her person, and converted the 
dark-eyed, dark-haired Hungarian beauty into the national 
blonde. They have also given her the features of a matron of 
mature and even venerable age ; and it is curious that this 
mistake is not made in the Italian pictures. Her proper 
attribute is the lapful of roses, which should be red and white, 
the roses of Paradise (love and purity, like those which crown 
St. Cecilia). She sometimes wears the attire of a sovereign 
princess, sometimes the veil of a widow, and sometknes the 
habit and cord of a Franciscan nun ; in general a cripple or 
beggar is prostrate at her feet, and the diseased cripple has 
sometimes the lineaments of a child. Where three crowns 
are introduced, they represent her sanctity as virgin, as wife, 
and as widow. 

I will give some examples : 

1. The statue in the Cathedral at Marbourg is perhaps the 
most ancient. She stands, as patroness of the church, a grand 
dignified figure, with ample massive drapery falling round her 
form ; a crown on her head ; in one hand she holds the church 
(according to custom), the other hand is broken off; it was 
probably extended in benediction : at her feet is the figure of 
a cripple. 

2. A colossal figure on on6 of the windows of the Cathedral 
of Cologne, north of the nave. 

3. She stands in a niche, holding up a basket of roses, no 
crown, long golden hair flowing over her robe of crimson and 

ermine. 
4; She stands, holding up with both hands the folds of her * 

robe, filled with roses. 

5. A most beautiful figure in a Coronation of the Virgin ; 

s s 



814 



LEGENDS OB" 1 THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Paolo 
Moraiido. 
Verona. S. 
Bernardino. 



Holbein. 
Munich Gal. 



Boisser^e 
Gal. 



she is looking up with, a soft devout expression, her lap full 
of roses, and the three crowns embroidered on the front of her 
tunic. 

6. She stands in the dress of 
a nun, veiled ; a rosary in her 
hand, and the roses in her lap ; 
one of a group of Franciscan 
saints in an altarpiece of the 
glorified Madonna. I give a 
slight, sketch of this figure 
from the original picture. It 
was impossible to render the 
expression in the head, which 
Is wonderfully beautiful and 
sweet, and quite justifies the 
eloquent praise of Vasari. 1 

7. She stands in royal attire, 
ministering to some diseased 
"beggars who kneel at her feet, 
the leprous boy being conspi 
cuous among them. 

8. She stands, veiled as a 
widow, giving a vest to a kneel 
ing beggar. As is usual with 
ancient votive pictures, the 
saint is colossal, the beggar 
diminutive. 

9. St. Elizabeth spinning 
with five of her maids in a 
print by Hans Burgmair. 

Of the subjects taken from her life, the most ancient, I 
presume, are the sculptures over the altar of her chapel in the 

Santa Elisabetta, che e bellissima figura, con aria ridente e volto grazioso, e 
con il grembo pieno di rose ; e pare che gioisca veggendo per miracolo di Deo che 
il pane, che ella stessa, gran signora, portava ai poveri, fosse convertito in rose, in, 
segno che era accetta a Bio quella sua umile caritk. Vasari, i. 659. FL edit. 
The^ other saints in this fine picture are St. Francis, St. Antony of Padua, Si 
Louis King, St. Louis of Toulouse, St. Bonaventura, St. Ives of Bretagne. and St. 
EleazarofSabran. 




St. Elizabeth. (Paolo Morando.) 



ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. 315 



Cathedral at Marbourg. They are carved in wood, in very 
high relief, and in the pure German religious style, somewhat 
like that of Albert Diirer, but certainly more ancient. In the 
centre is the death of St. Elizabeth. Seven figures of priests 
and attendants surround her bed ; the most conspicuous and 
authoritative of these, which I presume to represent her con 
fessor, Conrad, has the head broken off, and is the only figure 
mutilated. On one side, she is carried to the tomb ; on the 
other, is the exaltation of her relics after her canonisation in 
presence of the Emperor Frederick. 

On the doors which close in this sculpture are painted several 
subjects from her life ; among them, the following : 

1. She gives her royal mantle to the beggar. 2. The miracle 
of the poor leper laid in her bed. 3. The parting of Elizabeth 
and her husband. 4. She is expelled from her castle of the 
"Wartburg. 

But the most celebrated picture from the life of St Elizabeth, 
is that which Murillo painted for the Church of the Caritad at 
Seville, one of the series of pictures illustrating the works of 
charity. It is thus described by Mr. Stirling : 

* The composition consists of nine figures assembled in one of the halls Artists or 
of her hospital. In the centre stands " the king s daughter of Hungary," ^ m ^ 
arrayed in the dark robe and white head-gear of a nun, surmounted by a 
small coronet ; she is engaged in washing, at a silver basin, the scald head 
of a beggar-boy, which, being painted with revolting adherence to nature, 
has obtained for the picture its Spanish name el Tinoso. Two of her ladies, 
bearing a silver ewer and a tray with cups and a napkin, stand at her right 
hand, and from behind peers a spectacled duena ; to her left hand there is 
a second boy, likewise a tinoso, removing with great caution, and a wry 
face, the plaister which covers his head, a cripple resting on his crutches, 
and an old woman seated on the steps of the dais. More in the foreground, 
to the right of the group, a half-naked beggar, with his head bound up, 
leisurely removes the bandage from an ulcer on his leg, painted with a 
reality so curious and so disgusting, that the eye is both arrested and 
sickened. In the distance, through a window or opening, is seen a group 
of poor people seated at table, waited on by their gentle hostess. In this 
picture, although it has suffered somewhat from rash restoration, the 
management of the composition and the lights, the brilliancy of the colour 
ing, and the manual skill of the execution, are above all praise. Some 
objection may, perhaps, be made to the exhibition of so much that is 
sickening in the details. But this, while it is justified by the legend^ also 



316 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC CUDERS. 



heightens the moral effect of tlie picture. The disgust felt by the spectator 
is evidently shared by the attendant ladies ; yet the high-born dame con 
tinues her self-imposed task, her pale and pensive countenance betraying 
no inward repugnance, and her dainty fingers shrinking from no service 
that can alleviate human misery, and exemplify her devotion to her 
Master. The old hag, whose brown scraggy neck and lean arms enhance 
by contrast the delicate beauty of the saint, alone seems to have leisure or 
inclination to repay her with a look of grateful admiration. The distant 
alcove in which the table is spread, with its arches and Doric pillars, 
forms a graceful background, displaying the purity of Murillo s architec 
tural taste. 

Among tlie pictures of this * cliere Sairtte Elisabeth, I am 
tempted to include one in verse, which, in its vivid graphic 
power and truth of detail, may be compared to Murillo. In 
the EELINDE of Wolf von Goethe (the accomplished grandson of 
the great poet) a laughing dame ridicules the saintly charity 
of Elizabeth and the austerity of her court, where to cook for 
the sick and to serve beggars was the vocation ! 

j?ur Jrcm!e fodjen unb fur JBetttcr [paten, 
SBirb bcrt evtangt. 

Another lady, who had formerly attended on Elizabeth, thus 
replies : 

Deride not thou that saintly name ! I see 

That mild face now, as she so cheerfully 

Trod the rough path that down the Wartburg goes 

To where the hospital she founded rose, 

We, stumbling on, drawing our robes aside, 

Impatient at the stones that round us lay, 

She, floating on down the steep mountain-side, 

Spite of the rugged path and toilsome way ; 

Then, like a hive, the hospital began 

To stir, and send forth greetings glad and loud ; 

The sickly children tottering towards her ran, 

And from the windows look d a sick and aged crowd. 

But the poor cripple (ofttimes scornM and vex d), 
The idiots by their painful lot perplex d, 
These, who found scoffs and shame their bitter part, 
Were still the dearest to her pious heart : 
They hung upon her robe with joyous cries, 
And gazed with love into her loving eyes. 



ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. 311 



The sick and dying when she strove to cheer, 

Through the long room the cry rose * Here ! oh, here ! 9 

With tender eare their wounds she drest, 

And laid the suffering to rest : 

With softest words she calm d th impatient mood ; 

And if the handmaids "who around her stood 

Sought in her ministry to share, 

The sick would suffer only her sweet care, 

And her fair hands were Mss d, her name was blest ! 

Beep in my heart these pious deeds I kept, 

Nor could I rest to see her stand, 

Drest in coarse serge of gold and gem bereft 

Near the rich jewelTd ladies of the land. 

Oft would I throw my splendid robes aside, 

And often to the wretched serfs would go 

(Near Eisenach, where she sometimes would abide) 

And give, like her, gold to relieve their woe. 

But as she did how vainly have I tried, 

Life, love, and joy renouncing, all to bring 

Unto our Lord as the best offering ! l 



Erlinde/ ersten AbtheHung, p. 2-5. 

&ie JjetPge gran serfpctte mfyt ! 

3d? felje nudj ttjr milbes Slngeit^t, 

SSenn jie ben $fab, bet ficlj on SBartBurg toinbet, 

Sum .^cfjntate fHeg, ba3 fte gegtunbet 

SBenn tmr toof[ tlngebnlb btc S^ode ratten, 

IBalb ^ter^tn unb Balb bottom tap^ten, 

t^ten fie be3 tauten SBcgeS tro| ju 

Unb tote in eittem 35ienen^aug f 

IBegann c^ im @pitat ^u IcBen. 

JBie Iran! en $mbet fiot^erten BeteBt 

Slut Stnfter ^eigten $fy bie alien 

IBte ^tfi^^elem f bie anb te oft Bela^en, 

S)ie Bloben ratted, cp uerfroftet unb BettuBf, 

&lt;ie ^at bie fromme g^att am tnnigiien 

@te ^tngen f!dj mit fiarrem SBii^ an 

!Ktt of ttem htnbe iadjenb, an fte fefi geBaitnt, 

Unb trat fte ein, too fcfytoere tec^e tagen, 

JDa ging eg an ein Sftufen, an ein graven. 

W 3E mir ^Stt mir/ fo fc^off tS bntdj ben 



lie, Bettete btc Jtaufm; 



S18 LEG-ENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



July s, 1336. ST. ELIZABETH OF PORTUGAL, another queenly saint who 
wears the Franciscan habit, was the grand-niece of St. Eliza 
beth of Hungary, and daughter of Peter III. king of Aragon. 
She was married young to Dionysius, ting of Portugal, a 
wise, just, and fortunate prince as regarded his people ; faith 
less, profligate, and cruel in his conjugal and domestic 
relations. Elizabeth, after a long and unhappy marriage, 
was left a widow in 1325, and died in 1336 at the age of 
sixty-five. Having been canonised late by Urban VIII. (in 
1625), she does not appear in early pictures ; and, as I think, 
only in Spanish, and Portuguese Art, for I can recollect no 
instance in Italian or German pictures. She is represented, 
like Elizabeth of Hungary, in the habit of a Franciscan nun, 
or a widow s hood and veil, over which she wears the royal 
crown: she is usually dispensing alms, and distinguished 
from the other St. Elizabeth by her venerable age, or by 
having the arms of Portugal or Aragon placed in some part 
Artists of of the picture. Mr. Stirling mentions a fine composition 
pam,p. . f wm k er exemplary life/ by CarreKo de Miranda, but not the 



2&gt;te Sonttgett, tnit utmennBarer utb f 
(Srmatjnte fie ju fvetmbftdjer ebttlb. 
S)a$ toar etn &lt;&aflbfufFen, (Segtien, 2)anfen. 
Unb tooflt audj eine 2ftagb ftdj u&ertorinben, 
&gt;od) Uej$ son ifyc lein ^vanler ftd) 
(3 mwfj t* im Smtera mtc erfafeit 



feine Sftiitye kjfen r 
SSenn pe im grofcm ^(etb 
33ei ftulg ge^u^ten Srauen ftanb. 
Dft toarf ic^ 06 ba^ $run%ettanb. 
3ur tc^teit iittc Bin ic^ Ijingeeitt, 
SSeun fie in (gifettad? ttertoeitt; 

Heinen @c^a^ trieb 
e f ben &lt;S^tt&gt;a^ 

&gt; nimmer tooflt 1 eg mir getingen, 
5)em ^ernt, meiu ganged Xtjm unb Men 
(Stitfagenb al^ em D^fer barju&tmgeit. 

For tta translation of tMs beautiful and animated picture I am indebted to 
ike daughter of Barry Cornwall 



ST. LOUIS OF FBAKCE. S19 



scene or subject chosen. Pictures of this sainted queen, so 
very rarely met with, ought to excite some interest and atten 
tion. She is remarkable for three things, besides the usual 
amount of prayers, penances, miracles, and charities which go 
to the making of a saint: for forty years of unfailing patience 
under a wifely martyrdom almost intolerable; for having 
been on every occasion the peacemaker and reconciling 
angel between her faithless but accomplished husband and 
his undutiful son, when she might easily have avenged her 
wrongs, and fomented discord, by the assertion of her own 
rights ; this procured her in Spain the charming title of Sanf 
Isabel de Paz; last, and not least, she is the original and 
historical heroine of Schiller s Fridolin, though in the 
ballad and in Betzsch s designs the scene is transferred to 
Germany, and Elizabeth becomes c Die Grafin von Saver n. 
I have never met with this beautiful well-known legend with 
reference to Elizabeth queen of Portugal, to whom it right 
fully belongs. It is mentioned by all her biographers, not 
even excepting the * Biographie Universelle.* 1 



ST. Louis OF FEANCE. 

Lat. Sanctus Ludovicus Eex. Ital. San Lttigi, Be di Francia. 
August 25, 1270. 

THE life of Louis IX. as king of France does not properly 
belong to our subject, and may easily be referred to in the 
usual hMories and biographies. On his merits as a glorified 
saint rest his claims to a place in sacred Art ; and on these I 
must dwell briefly, for the reasons given already in speaking of 
the canonised kings and princes of the Benedictine Order. The 

1 In the French catalogue of the Royal Gallery at Naples, there is a picture with 
this title : Franfow A thano. Miracle de S. Kose. Un homme assiste a 1 office 
divin dans une chapelle ddi& a S. Eose, pendant que son ennemi court vers 
I endroit oil il avait place* ses braves, pour voir si sa vengeance tait accomplie ; 
mais ceux-c: s &ant m^pris le brulent dans le mdme four qu ils avaient prepare 
pour le d^vot. I do not remember the picture, but, from the above ill-written, 
almost unintelligible description, I can just surmise that it refers to this legend. 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Franciscans claim St. Louis, and commemorate him. in their 
pictures and churches, because, according to their annalists, 
he put on the habit of the Third Order of Penitence before 
he embarked on his first crusade, and died in the cowl and 
cord of St. Francis. 

St. Louis was bom at Poissy in 1215. His father, Louis 
VIII. , and his mother, Blanche of Castile, are the Louis and 
Blanche who figure in Shakspeare s King John. During his 
minority his mother governed France with admirable dis 
cretion, and it is recorded that till his twelfth year he had no 
other instructor. 

There is a very pretty story of Blanche of Castile, which 
may fitly find a place here. I have never met with any repre 
sentation of it, but it would certainly form a most graceful 
subject. 

One day, as Queen Blanche sat in her banquet-hall in great 
state, she marked among the pages of honour standing around 
one whom she had not seen before. Now it was the custom 
in those days for the sons of princes to be brought up in the 
courts of sovereigns, and to serve as pages before they could 
aspire to the honour of knighthood. Queen Blanche then, ob 
serving this youth, and admiring his noble mien, and his long 
fair hair, which, being parted on his brow, hung down over his 
shoulders, she asked who he was, and they told her that it was 
Prince Herman, the son of the sainted Elizabeth of Hungary. 
On hearing this, Queen Blanche rose from her seat, and, 
going towards the youth, she stood and gazed upon him for a 
few moments with earnest attention. Then she said, &lt; Fair 
youth, thou hadst a blessed mother; where did she kiss thee? 
The youth, blushing, replied by placing his finger on his fore 
head between his eyes. Whereupon the queen reverently 
pressed her lips to that spot, and, looking up to heaven, 
breathed a &lt; Sancta Elisabeth, Patrona, nostra dulcissima, ora 
pro nobis ! 

This incident appears to me very graceful and picturesque 
in itself, and, besides its connection with the history of la 
fchere Sainte Elisabeth, it exhibits the character and turn of 
raiad of her who formed the character of St. Louis. 



ST. LOUIS OF PRANCE. 



I have a great admiration for St Louis, and never could 
look on the effigies wliicli represent him in his sacred character 
without a deep and solemn interest There is not a more 
striking example of the manner in which the religions enthu 
siasm of the time reacted on minds of the highest natural 
endowments, called to the highest duties. The talents and 
virtues of Louis have never been disputed, even by those who 
sneered at his fanaticism. Voltaire, not much given to 
eulogising kings, and still less saints, sums up his character 
by saying, II n est guere donne & Thomme de pousser la vertu 
plus loin ! Gibbon allows that he united the virtues of a 
king, a hero, and a man. A monument of his love for his 
people, and of his wisdom as sovereign and legislator, exists 
in his code of laws known as * the Ordinances of St Louis, 
which became as dear to the French as the laws of Edward 
the Confessor had been to the Anglo-Saxon race. He showed 
the possibility of combining, as a religious king, qualities 
which a Machiavelli or a Bolingbroke would have held to be 
incompatible; the most tender humanity, unblemished truth, 
inflexible justice, and generous consideration for the rights of 
other princes, infidels excepted, with personal intrepidity, 
with all the arts of policy, with the most determined vindica 
tion of his own power. He was feared and respected by other 
nations, who made him the umpire in their disputes : he was 
adored by his subjects. His chivalrous gallantry, his respect 
for women, his fidelity to his wife, his obedience to his noble- 
minded mother, his tenderness for his numerous children, 
complete a portrait which surely justifies the words of 
Yoltaire: &lt;I1 n est guere donne a 1 homme de pousser la 
vertu plus loin ! * 

The strongest contrast that could be placed before the fancy 
would be the characters of Louis IX. and Louis XL It would 
be a question, perhaps, whether the piety of the first, or the 
odious tyranny of the latter, caused on the whole the greatest 
amount of individual misery ; but we look to the motives of 
the two men, and to the end of time we shall continue to 
revere the one and to abhor the other. True, both were super 
stitious; but what a difference between the superstition of 

T T 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Louis XI on his knees before &lt; Our Lady of Clery/ and the 
superstition of Louis IX. walking bareheaded with the crown 
of thorns in his hand, and moistening it with devout tears ! 

In the thirteenth century two passions were uppermost in 
the minds of Christian men, the passion for relics, and the 
passion for crusading. 

When the Emperor Baldwin II. came to beg aid from 
Louis, he secured his good-will at once by offering to surrender 
the * holy crown of thorns/ which foi 1 several centuries had 
been preserved at Constantinople, and had been pledged to 
the Venetians for a large sum of money. Of all the relics 
then believed in, credible or incredible, this, next to the True 
Cross, was the most precious and venerable in the eyes of 
Christians. Louis redeemed the pledge ; granted to Baldwin 
succours in men and money, and then, considering himself 
enriched by the exchange, he brought the Crown of Thorns 
to Paris, carrying it himself from Sens, barefoot and bare 
headed; having been so thrice happy as to obtain also a small 
piece of the True Cross, he built in honour of these treasures 
the chapel since called La Saints Chapelle, one of the most 
perfect and exquisite monuments of the artistic skill of the 
Middle Ages. 

In the year 1247 Louis was seized with a dangerous malady; 
his life was despaired of, but, after lying for some hours in 
sensible in a kind of trance, he revived, and the first words he 
uttered were, &lt; La Lumiere de 1 Orient s est repandue du haut 
du ciel sur moi par la grace du Seigneur, et m a rappele 
d entre les morts ! He then called for the Archbishop of 
Paris, and desired to receive from his hands the cross of a 
crusader. In spite of the grief of his wife, the remonstrances 
of his mother, the warnings of his prelates and of his wisest 
counsellors, he persisted in his resolve ; and the Archbishop 
of Paris, with tears and audible sobs, affixed the cross to his 
dress. In the next year, as soon as his health would permit, 
and accompanied by his wife, his brothers, and the flower of 
his nobility, he embarked for Egypt, with a fleet of eighteen 
hundred sail, and an army of fifty thousand men. 

I need not dwell on the horrors and disasters of that cam- 



ST. LOUIS OP FRANCE. 



paign. The result was, that, after seeing one of his brothers 
and most of his followers perish, after slaughter, famine, 
pestilence, and, worse than all, their own vices and excesses, 
had conspired to ruin his army, Louis was taken prisoner, 
Throughout these reverses, amid these indescribable horrors, 
when the * Greek fire fell among his maddened troops, 
no doubt entered the mind of Louis that he was right in the 
sight of God. If not destined to conquer, he believed him 
self called to martyrdom : he regarded as martyrs those of 
his people who perished round him : his faith, his patience, 
his devout reliance on the goodness of his cause, his tender 
care for his followers, with whom or for whom he every hour 
hazarded his life, never wavered for one moment. He was 
ransomed at length, and passed from Egypt to Palestine, 
where he spent three years. He then returned to France. 
He reigned for sixteen years wisely and well, recruited his 
finances, enlarged the bounds of his kingdom, saw a new 
generation of warriors spring up around him, and then, never 
having laid aside the cross, he set forth on a second crusade. 
A wild hope of baptizing the King of Tunis Induced him to 
land in Africa; his troops again perished of some terrible 
malady caused by the climate, and Louis himself, after dic 
tating to his son Philip some of the wisest precepts that ever 
fell from the lips of a sovereign, expired in his tent, laid on 
ashes as a penitent, and wearing, as the Franciscans assert, 
the humble habit of their Order. 

He was canonised by Boniface YIII. in 1297, twenty-seven 
years after his death. Part of his body was carried by Charles 
of Anjou to his capital, Palermo, and deposited in the mag 
nificent church of Moiireale: the rest was enshrined at St. 
Denis. His remains and Ms shrine were destroyed and dese 
crated in the first French Revolution. 

The devotional figures of St. Louis represent him with his 
proper attribute, the crown of thorns, which he reverently 
holds in one hand ; his sword in the other, and the crown 
and sceptre of royalty at his feet: when painted for the Fran 
ciscans in the grey habit and cord of the Tiers- Ordre, they 
are careful to place his diadem on his head. In the French 



324 



LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Florence. 
S. Croce. 



Le Brun. 



C. Coello. 
Madrid GaL 



type, of course the best authority, he is 
beardless ; but the Italian and Spanish 
painters sometimes give him a long- 
beard, as in a little figure by Baphael, 
in the collection of Lord Ward. 

In an ancient fresco of the Cruci 
fixion, St. Louis stands on one side 
of the cross, wearing the Franciscan 
habit, and crowned. 

c St. Louis praying for the city of 
Paris, which is seen below. He is 
attended by two angels, one of whom 
bears the crown of thorns, the other a 
nail from the cross. 

St. Louis in a Holy Family: his 
sword in one hand, the crown" of thorns 
in the other ; his crown and sceptre at 
his feet. On the other side St. Eliza 
beth offers a basket of roses to the 
Infant Saviour. 







St. Louis. 



(Ancient French stained glass.) 

The most ancient series from his life is that which was 
painted on the windows of his chapel at St. Denis. 

L He departs on his first crusade, inscribed, c Louis s eu 
va sur mer. 

2. Being in prison in Egypt, a monk consoles him. 

3. He instructs his children, three of whom are at his 
feet. 

4. * II se fait donner la discipline. He is scourged by two 
monks. 

5. He is collecting relics, which he is putting into a bag. 

6. He places a poor leper in his own bed. 

7. His death. His soul is carried by angels into heaven. 

8. Miracles performed by him after his death. 

These curious specimens of Art are engraved in Le Noir s 
* Mus6e des Monumens Fran9ais. 

I have also met with the following historical subjects : 
St. Louis bestows on Bartolomeo of Braganza a piece of the 



ST. LOUIS OF TOULOUSE. 323 



true cross, and a thorn from the crown of thorns. Queen Parma. 
Margaret and several attendants are grouped around them. &i. 

St Louis sends missionaries to the East: in a bas-relief. Pam. 

He was, as we have seen, a great collector of relics. In the Invalides - 
Trinita at Florence there is a picture which represents him 
receiving with great reverence the hand of St. John Gualberto, 
presented by Benizio, abbot of Vallombrosa. 



ST. ISABELLA of France was the sister of St. Louis. She, as 
well as her brother, was educated by their admirable and ener 
getic mother, Blanche of Castile. She expended her dowry in August n 
founding the celebrated convent of Longchamps, which she 
dedicated to the * Humility of the Blessed Virgin. Before the 
Eevolution this.was a rich nunnery of &lt; Poor Clares.* Isabella 
was canonised by Pope Leo X. at the request of the nuns of 
Longchamps ; and, as long as that convent existed, her festival 
was celebrated there with great magnificence. 

Pictures of St. Isabella are to be found in the churches in 
Paris, but all are works of modern Art. She is usually repre 
sented in the habit of a Franciscan nun, and in the act of 
distributing alms or food to the poor. 

The best picture of her which I can remember is a graceful 
figure by Philip de Champagne in the church of SL-Paul et 
St. -Louis. 



ST. Lours OF TOULOUSE. 
Ital. San Ludovico Yeseovo. August 19, 1297. 

Louis OF ANJOU was the nephew of St. Louis, king of France, 
and son of Charles of Anjou, king of Naples and Sicily. His 
mother, Maria of Hungary, who had the direction of his edu 
cation in childhood, brought him up in habits of piety and 



g . 26 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEKS. 



self-denial &lt; It is no hardship/ she said, &lt; for a Christian 
to practise, for the sake of virtue, that severe sobriety 
which the La.cedaemonians and other warlike nations exacted 
from their children for the attainment of martial strength and 
hardihood. 

It happened that, when Louis was only fourteen, his father 
was taken prisoner "by the King of Aragon ; and was obliged to 
deliver up his three sons ; with several of his nobles, as hostages. 
Louis spent several years in captivity. The inhumanity exer 
cised towards himself and the other hostages, according to the 
barbarous customs of that period, broke altogether a spirit 
naturally gentle and contemplative, A sense of the instabi 
lity of human greatness caused a feeling of disgust against the 
world, and an indifference to the rank to which he was born. 
On regaining his liberty in 1294, he yielded all his rights to 
the kingdom of Naples to his brother Eobert, divested himself 
wholly of all his princely and secular dignities, and received 
the tonsure and the habit of St. Francis at the age of twenty- 
two. Soon afterwards, Pope Boniface nominated him Bishop 
of Toulouse. He travelled, to take possession of his bishopric, 
barefoot, and in his friar s habit; and, during the short 
remainder of his life, endeared himself to his people by the 
practice of every virtue. Travelling into Provence in the 
discharge of his charitable duties, he came to his father s 
castle of Brignolles, where he first saw the light, and died 
there in his twenty-fourth year. He was canonised in 1317 
by Pope John XXII. , and his body, which was first deposited 
with the Franciscans at Marseilles, was afterwards carried 
away by Alphonso of Aragon, and enshrined at Valencia. 

Louis, bishop of Toulouse, is in general represented as youth 
ful, beardless, and with a mild expression ; wearing his epis 
copal robes over his Franciscan habit. His cope is sometimes 
richly embroidered with golden fleurs-de-lis upon a blue ground, 
or the fleur-de-lis is introduced as an ornament on some part 
of his dress : or a crown and sceptre lie at his feet, alluding 
to his rejected kingdom of Naples. He wears the mitre as 
bishop, or he carries it in his hand, or it is borne by an angeL 



ST. LOUIS OP TOULOUSE. 



327 



In the altarpieces of the Franciscan convents and churches 
he is often grouped with the other saints of his Order ; as in a 
beautiful picture by Moretto, in which he stands with San" Mian. 
Bernardino : in another by Cosimo Roselli, a Coronation of Brera * 
the Virgin, in which he stands with St. Bonaventura. I give Louvre. 

O / - . O -vr- -I.HM 



a sketch of this group. 




64 



St. Louis and Sfe. Bonaventura. (Cosimo Boselli) 



St. Louis is also conspicuous in a large picture by Carlo 
Grivelli, formerly in the Brera, and certainly painted as an 
altarpiece for one of the great Franciscan churches in the north 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



of Italy. In the centre is the Virgin enthroned : on her kuee 
the Infant Christ, from whom St. Peter, kneeling reverently, 
receives the mystical keys ; an altogether poetical version of the 
sacred and subject, as I have already observed. On one side is a martyr- 
Legend.Art, Bishop, no otherwise distinguished than by his palm ; l behind 
him St. Bernardino of Siena, with the standard as preacher. 
On the other side stands St. Lonis of Toulouse ; behind him 
St. Bonaventura with the sacramental cup, while the Host is 
suspended from heaven above his head. St. Francis and St. 
Augustine, as the two patriarchs of the Order, look out from 
behind the throne. 

I have never met with any pictures from his life. i The 
Death of St. Louis of Toulouse/ by B. Bonfigli, is engraved 
*" 2 by Rossini; the subject appears to me rather doubtful. 



Having been, perhaps, diffuse in my account of the eight 
principal Franciscan saints, because of their universality and 
the interest and beauty of the works of Art in which they 
appear, I shall deal more briefly with the others, who are rarely 
met with, and are for the most part confined to particular 
countries and localities. 

Feb. 22, ST. MARGAKET, styled OF CORTONA, from the name of the 

city which was the scene of her penitence and of her death, was 
a native of Alviano, near Chiusi, in Tuscany. She lost her 
mother in early infancy, and, being driven from home by a 
* father cruel, and a step-dame false, she took to evil courses, 
and led for nine or ten years an abandoned life in her native 
place. One of her lovers was a gentleman of Montepulciano. 
After paying her a visit, he was waylaid and assassinated by 
robbers. A little dog which had accompanied him returned to 

1 There Is reason to suppose that the picture was painted at Ascoli, in the March 
of Ancona (v. FApe ItaUana, vol. iv.) In that case the bishop represented is 
probably Sant* Emigio (Lot. Emygdius), the first bishop and patron of the city ol 
j and martyred about the ysar 308. 



ST. MARGARET OF CORTO^A. 329 



his mistress , and pulling her by the gown, and whining in a 
most lamentable manner, endeavoured to induce her to follow, 
She, after a time, surprised at the absence of her lover, went 
forth, and, guided by the dog, she found his body hidden 
under some bushes, covered with wounds, and in a horrible 
state of decay. Appalled by the spectacle, and seized with 
compunction, she returned a weeping penitent to the house 
of her father; but as she knelt upon the threshold, he, being 
instigated by the stepmother, closed the door against her ; 
whereupon she took refuge in a neighbouring vineyard, and 
sat down. "While thus forsaken by all human help, all human 
pity, a tempting demon whispered that it would be better for 
her to return to her former way of life, than remain there and 
die. But she prayed most earnestly that in this strait God 
would not abandon her, but be to her father, mother, lover, 
protector, lord, all that she had lost. She did not pray in 
vain, for it was miraculously revealed to her, that her prayer 
was accepted; that she should repair to Oortona, and to the 
convent of Franciscans there : which she did, and, entering the 
church barefoot, with a rope round her neck, she cast herself 
down before the altar, and entreated to be admitted as a 
penitent into the Order. But such had been her evil life, 
and such her bad reputation, that the brotherhood refused to 
admit her till she had given proofs of her sincere repentance, 
and of such humility, charity, and purity of life as changed 
their distrust into admiration. She took the habit of the 
Third Order of St. Francis in 1272. It is related, that as she 
knelt one day before the image of the crucified Eedeemer, 
he bent his head in compassion and forgiveness. She was 
regarded from that time with a religious reverence by the 
people of Cortona ; and became the local Magdalene. 

There are few pictures of this interesting saint, who is little 
known out of Tuscany. She is usually represented as young 
and beautiful ; veiled ; not always in the grey habit proper to 
a professed Franciscan nun, but in a dress chequered like a 
plaid (the coarse woollen manufacture of the country), and a 
cloak thrown over it ; with the cord as girdle, showing that 
she was a member of the Third Order. A little dog, gene- 

u u 



gso LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDERS. 



rally a spaniel, is at her feet ; this is her proper attribute. The 
dog is with propriety omitted in the finest devotional effigy I 
can r efer to: in the Assumption of the Virgin, painted by 
Andrea del Sarto for the Duomo at Cortona, where St. Margaret 
is kneeling in front of the Twelve Apostles, and looking up. 
pitti Pat In a picture by Lanfranco she is sustained in the arms of 
angels ; here the dog is not omitted. 

Her beautiful church, and the adjoining convent with its 
cypress-grove, crown the highest point of the hill on which 
stands Cortona, girt with its Cyclopean walls, older than 
those of Troy ; and as we toil up the stony winding path, we 
pause at every opening to look down upon the lake of 
Thrasymene, over the battle-field where the Eoman legions 
encountered the forces of Hannibal, and left the plain strewn 
with their dead and the rivulets running with their blood. 
From these terrible and magnificent associations, we turn, at 
length, to enter the church of the lowly Penitent, where the 
first thing that strikes us is her statue in white marble, stand 
ing out of the shadowy gloom, cold, calm, and pale, her dog 
crouching at her feet. Her shrine, in which she lies beneath 
the high altar, is faced with silver in very modern taste. The 
ancient tomb, which contained her remains before she was 
canonised, is now preserved in a small chapel adjoining the 
church. It is placed over a door. She lies extended under a 
double Gothic arch, the canopy over her head sustained by 
lovely angels ; her face is beautiful ; the attitude particularly 
simple and graceful, and the drapery so disposed as to show 
that, beneath its folds, her hands are clasped in prayer. The 
lower part of the tomb is adorned with four bas-reliefs. On 
one side she takes the penitential habit ; on the other she dies, 
and her spirit is borne into heaven. The two central compart 
ments struck me as beautifully significant and appropriate 
with reference to the history of the saint : 1. The Magdalene 
anointing the feet of our Saviour, expressing the pardoning 
grace which had redeemed her ; 2. The Eaising of Lazarus, 
expressing her hopes of resurrection. The whole exceedingly 
beautiful, and in the finest taste of the best time of Gothic 
Art, about the end of the thirteenth century. 



ST. IVES OF BRETAGNE. SSI 



In the portico of the same church is a quaint old fresco, 
representing St. Margaret at the moment she discovers the 
body of her lover. 

When Pietro di Cortona was ennobled "by his native city, he 
testified his gratitude by presenting a crown of gold to the 
shrine of St. Margaret, of whom he painted several pictures. 

There is a very "beautiful drawing by this master in the 
Goethe collection at Weimar, representing St. Margaret of 
Cortona at the foot of the Crucifix ; and so expressive, that I 
have thought it might have suggested to Goethe the scene of 
the penitence of Margaret in the c Faust/ 



ST. IVES OF BRETAGNE, whose proper style is Saint Yves- itca. 
Helori, Avocat des Pauvres/ is claimed by the Franciscans on J y 
rather uncertain grounds. They assert that he took the habit 
of the Third Order of this community at Quimper in 1283. 
This being denied, or at least doubted, by the Jesuit authori 
ties, it has followed that in pictures painted for the Franciscan 
churches, he wears the knotted cord, and in those painted for 
the Jesuits it is omitted. But wherever we find him, in 
church, chapel, or gallery, we may be sure that the effigy 
was painted for, or dedicated by, one of the legal profession. 

This famous saint of whom it was wickedly said that the 
lawyers had chosen "him for their patron, but not their pattern 
was born in 1253. He was descended from a noble family 
in Bretagne. His mother, Aza du Plessis, attended carefully 
to his early education ; from her he derived his habits of truth, 
his love of justice, his enthusiastic piety. When quite a child 
he was heard to declare he would be a saint, just as a lively 
boy of our own times announces his intention to be admiral or 
lord chancellor; and in this saintly ambition his mother 
encouraged him. 

At the age of fourteen he was sent to Paris, to study juris 
prudence, and afterwards to Orleans, where he made himself 
master of civil and canon law. But, true to his first vocation, 
he lived in these cities the life of an anchorite, and the hours not 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



devoted to study were given to religious meditation, andtothtj 
roost active charity. On his return to his own country his 
parents wished him to marry, but he had already made a secret 
vow of celibacy, to which he adhered during the rest of his life. 
About this time he studied theology under a learned Fran 
ciscan friar, and henceforth he made the Holy Scriptures his 
guide and interpreter in his legal knowledge. When he was 
about thirty, the Bishop of Treguier appointed him Judge 
Advocate of his diocese. In this office his profound knowledge 
of law, his piety, and his charity were equally conspicuous. He 
pleaded gratuitously the cause of the widows and orphans : and 
when adverse parties were brought before him, he exhorted 
them,, in the mostmovinglanguage, to bereconciled as Christians, 
and often settled their differences without the intervention of 
the law. After some years spent in the exercise of every virtue, 
he entered the priesthood. On the eve of his ordination, he 
went to the hospital where he had been accustomed to minister 
to the poor and sick, and, taking off his legal habiliments, his 
furred gown, his tippet, his bonnet, and his boots, he distri 
buted them to four poor old men. He retired thence bareheaded 
and barefoot. He afterwards united his duties of pastor with 
those of advocate of the poor; still using his legal knowledge 
to defend the cause of the destitute and the oppressed, and 
leading the life of an apostle and minister of religion, while 
conducting the most complicated legal affairs of the diocese. 
His health sank under his official labours and his religious 
austerities, and he died, at the age of fifty, in the year 1303. 
His countrymen of Bretagne, who idolised him while living, 
regarded him as a saint when dead; and Jean de Montfort, Duke 
of Bretagne, went himself to Avignon, then the seat of the 
popes, to solicit his canonisation. It was granted by Clement 
VI. in 1347. Since then, St. Ives has been honoured as the 
patron saint of lawyers, not merely in Basse-Bretagne, but all 
over Europe. Through the intercourse between our southern 
shores and those of Brittany, St. Ives was very early introduced 
into England, and by our forefathers held in great reverence. 
Pictures of this good saint are not common, but they are very 
peculiar and interesting, and easily recognised. He has no 



ST. ELEAZAR. 333 



especial attribute, but is always represented in his legal attire, 
as Judge, or as Doctor of Laws, folding a paper in Ms hand: 
sometimes his furred robe is girded with the Franciscan cord. 
In a picture by Empoli, he is seated on a throne, wearing the Florence 
lawyer s bonnet, the glory round his head ; before his throne GaL 
stand various persons of all classes, rich and poor, widows and 
orphans, to whom he is dispensing justice. The costume is not 
that of the thirteenth, but the seventeenth century* In a Brussels. 
picture by De Klerck, he rejects a bribe. In a picture by 
Rubens, he stands as patron saint, attired as &lt; Docteur en 
Droit ; a widow and an orphan are kneeling at his feet In 
another picture by Empoli he is kneeling, and St. Luke pre- 
sents him to the Virgin and Child, who are seen above. 



The Franciscans are rich in princely saints; besides those 
already mentioned, we have another in ST. ELZEAK or ELEAZAR, 
Count of Sabran in 1300. He had, like most other saints, a 
wise and pious mother, who loved him infinitely, but prayed in 
his infancy that he might be taken away from her then, rather 
than live to be unacceptable to his Maker. He was married 
young to Delphine, heiress of G-lendenes, with whom he lived 
in the strictest continence and harmony, and both were equally 
remarkable for their enthusiastic piety and devotion. c Let 
none imagine, says the writer of his life, that true devotion 
consists in spending all our time in prayer, or falling into a 
slothful and faithless neglect of our temporal concerns. It is a 
solid virtue to be able to do the business we undertake well and 
truly. The piety of Eleazar rendered him more honest, prudent, 
and dexterous in the management of temporal affairs, public 
and private, valiant in war, active and prudent in peace, and 
diligent in the care of his household. His wife Delphine 
emulated him in every virtue; both enrolled themselves in the 
Third Order of St. Francis, and after the death of Eleazar, at 
the age of twenty-eight, Delphine, after residing for some years 
with her friend Sancha, Queen of Naples (widow of Robert of 
Anjou, who was the brother of St. Louis of Toulouse), withdrew 
to complete seclusion, and died very old about 1369. 



S34 



LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



St. Eleazar and St. Delphine appear in the Franciscan 
pictures, generally together. They are richly dressed, and 
St. Eleazar is distinguished by holding in his hand a bundle 
of papers, from which seals are depending, in allusion to the 
following beautiful incident. After his father s death, while 
looking over his papers, he discovered certain letters contain 
ing the most false and bitter calumnies against himself, even 
urging his father to disinherit him, as unfit to reign, &c. He 
was urged to avenge himself on the traitor ; but, instead of 
doing so, he sent for him, burned the letters in his presence, 
forgave him, and dismissed him with kind words and gifts, 
so that he converted a secret enemy into an open, true, 
and devoted friend. In the picture of Morando, already 
mentioned, St. Eleazar , appears without his wife, holding 
the sealed papers in his hand. 



Mays, i26i. The ST. KOSA Di YiTBKBO, who figures in that city, and in 
the churches on the road between Monte Pulciano and Rome, 
with her grey tunic, her knotted girdle, and her chaplet of 
roses, was not a professed nun, but a member of the Third 
Order of St. Francis. She lived in the thirteenth century, 
-and was conspicuous for her charity, her austerity, her elo 
quence, and the moral influence she exercised over the people 
of Viterbo. Living, she was their benefactress, and has since 
been exalted as their patroness in heaven. Besides the local 
effigies, which are numerous, I remember her in a beautiful 
picture by Fra Paolino da Pistoia (a scholar of Fra Bartolo- 
meo), an Assumption of the Virgin, in which she figures 
below with St. Francis and St. Ursula. 

Santa Bosa di Viterbo haranguing an audience, is the 
subject of a picture by Sebastian Gomez. 

We must be careful to distinguish St. Rosa di Viterbo, the 
Franciscan nun, from St. Rosa di Lima, the Dominican nun. 



Florence 
Acad. 



Artists of 
Spain, p. 



1508 * E PATILA., founder of the reformed Franciscan 

Order of the Minimes, was born at Paola, a little city in 



ST. FRANCIS BE PAULA. * ,535 



Calabria, on the road between Naples and Beggio. His 
parents, who were poor and virtuous, had from his earliest 
infancy dedicated him to a religious life. He accompanied 
them on a pilgrimage to the shrine of his patron saint, St. 
Francis of Assisi ; on his return home he withdrew to a 
solitary cavern near Beggio, and turned hermit at the age of 
fifteen. 

After a while the fame of his sanctity caused others to join 
him ; the people of the neighbourhood built for them cells and 
a chapel, and from this time (1436) dates the institution of 
the Minimes, or Hermits of St. Francis. They followed the 
Franciscan rule with additional austerities, keeping Lent all 
th/year round. 

/ Francis de Paula took for the motto of his brotherhood the 
"word Charity, because the members professed intimate love 
and union not only towards each other, but to all mankind : 
and they were to be styled Minimes, as being not only less, 
but the least of all in the Church of G-od. 

The fame of his sanctity and of many miraculous cures per 
formed for the sick, at length reached the ears of Louis XL of 
France, who was then dying in his castle of Plessis-le-Tours, 
like an old wolf in his den. He sent to desire the presence of 
the man of God (for so he termed him), promising him great 
privileges for his Order, and princely recompence, if he would 
visit him. Francis, who thought that this desire to see him 
proceeded more from a wish to prolong life than to prepare for 
death, declined the invitation. Louis then addressed himself 
to Sixtus IY., and, by the command of the pontiff, Francis 
repaired to Tours. 

When he arrived at Amboise he was met by the dauphin and 
by the greatest lords of the court, honoured, says Philippe de 
Comines, conme s il ewt ete le Pape? On his arriving at the 
castle of Plessis, Louis fell prostrate at his feet, and entreated 
of him to obtain from Heaven the prolongation of his life. 
The good simple friar displayed on this occasion more good 
sense and dignity, as well as more virtue, than the king, 
descended from a line of kings : he rebuked Louis, told him 
that life and death were in the hands of God, and that no 



LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



hope remained for him but in submission to the divine will; 
he then performed for him the last offices of religion. After 
the death of Louis, Charles VIII. and Louis XII. detained 
the good saint almost continually in France, and near the 
court ; where he had great influence. The courtiers called him, 
in derision, le Bonhomine ; but the people gave that title to 
him and to his Order in a different spirit, and the { Eons- 
homines became very popular in France. 

St. Francis de Paula died at Plessis-le-Tours in 1507. Louise" 
d Angoul^me, the mother of Francis I. ; prepared his winding- 
sheet with her own hands, and he was canonised by Leo X. in 
1519. In 1562 the Huguenots rifled his tomb, and burned his 
remains, using for that purpose 
the wood of a large crucifix 
which they had hewed to pieces. 
This circumstance, at once a 
desecration and a consecration, 
rather increased his popularity 
with the opposite party. There 
was no saint whose effigy was so 
commonly met with in France 
was, for since the Revolution 
4 :;DUS avons change tout cela. 

Of course there are no very 
early pictures of St. Francis de 
Paula. The best are Spanish, 
and the best of these by Murillo, 
who painted him for his beloved 
Capuchins at least six times-. 
This characteristic sketch is from 
one of his pictures. 65 st * Jh " anci8 de 1 iullL 

The saint is here represented as a very old man with a long 
grey beard. He wears a dark brown tunic, and the cord of 
St. Francis. The peculiarity of the habit, and that which 
distinguishes the Minim.es from the Cordeliers, consists in 
the short scapulary hanging down in front a little below the 
girdle, and rounded off at the ends, to the back of which is 
sewed a small round hood (not pointed behind like that of 




ST. FRANCIS DB PAULA. 337 



the Capuchins), frequently drawn over the head. In pictures 
the word * Charitas is generally introduced : sometimes it is 
displayed in a glory above, sometimes it is written on a scroll 
carried by an angel. 

There is a picture "by Lavinia Fontana representing Louise, 
Duchesse d Angoul6me, attended by four ladies of honour, 
kneeling at the feet of St. Francis de Paula, to whom she 
presents her infant son, afterwards Francis L The heads in 
this picture, as might be expected from Lavinia Fontana, 
one of the best portrait-painters of her time, have all the 
spirited and life-like treatment of portraiture. The whole 
picture is beautifully painted in some parts equal to G-uido. 

It is related in the legendary life of this saint, that when 
he was about to cross the strait from Reggio to Messina, and 
the mariners refused to convey him, he spread his mantle on 
the waves, stepped upon it, accompanied by two lay brothers, 
and thus they were borne over the sea, till they landed safely 
at Messina. This, as I have already observed, is a legend 
common to many saints, from whom St. Francis de Paula is 
distinguished by his dress, as described, and by his two com 
panions. There is a fine picture of this subject in the Louvre, 
in which the calm trust of the saint and his companions, and 
the astonishment of the Sicilian peasants, who behold their 
approach to the shore, are very well expressed. 

A large and fine picture "by Solimene exhibits St. Francis 
de Paula kneeling, and commending to the care of the Ma 
donna and Infant Saviour a beautiful little boy about three 
years old, who is presented by his guardian Angel. The 
Divine Child, with a most sweet and gracious expression, 
stretches out his hand to receive his little votary, whom I 
suppose to be the god-son of the saint, Francis L Kings, not 
children, figure in the legend of St. Francis de Paula, 

For this saint Charles VIIL founded and endowed the 
Church of the Trinit^-de -Monti, at Rome, 



338 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



March s, ST. JUAN BE Dios was the founder of the Hospitallers, or 

155 * Brothers of Charity ; he is the subject of one of Murillo s 

finest pictures, and his story is very interesting. 

He was born in Portugal, at Monte-Mayor, in the diocese of 
Evora, in the year 1495* His parents were poor, and unable to 
do anything for his education, but his mother brought him up 
in habits of obedience and piety. It happened that, when he 
was about nine years old, a certain priest, travelling in those 
parts, carne to their door and asked hospitality. He was kindly 
received, and lodged for some time in their house. This man 
had been a great traveller, and had passed through many 
vicissitudes of fortune. His conversation awakened in the child 
that love of adventure which distinguished him for so many 
years of his life. He ran away from his father s cottage in 
company with this priest, who, after seducing him from his 
home, abandoned him on the road to Madrid, and left him at 
a little village near Oropesa, in Castile. 

The boy, thus forsaken, hired himself to a shepherd, in 
whose service he remained some years ; he then enlisted in 
the army, served in the wars between Charles V. and Francis 
L, and became a brave, reckless, profligate soldier of fortune. 
Once or twice the impressions of piety, early infused into his 
mind by his good mother, were revived through the reverses 
he met with. ,He was wounded almost to death on one occa 
sion : and on another, having been placed as sentinel over some 
booty taken from the enemy, which, in one of his reveries he 
suffered to be carried off, his commanding officer ordered him 
to be hanged upon the spot ; the rope was already round 
his neck, when another officer of high rank, passing by, 
was touched with compassion, and interfered to save his life, 
but only on condition that he should immediately quit the 
camp; Juan returned to his old master at Oropesa, and 
resided with him some years ; but his restless spirit again 
drove him forth into the world, and he joined the levies which 
the Count d Oropesa had raised for the war in Hungary, 
He remained in the army till the troops were sent back to 
Spain and disbanded; then, after paying his devotions at 
the shrine of Compostella, he returned to his native 



ST. JUAN BE BIOS. 339 



village of Monte-Mayor. Here he learned that, in con 
sequence of his flight, his mother and his father had both 
died of grief. Eemorse took such possession of his mind as to 
shake his reason. He regarded himself as a parricide. He 
determined that the rest of his life should be one long expia 
tion of his filial ingratitude and disobedience. Not knowing 
for the present how to gain a living, he hired himself as 
shepherd to a rich widow. Dona Leonora de Zuniga, who had 
a large farm near the city of Seville. In this situation he gave 
himself up to prayer and to meditation on his past life. The 
vices, the misery, the suffering of every kind which he had 
witnessed, had left a deep impression upon a character which 
appears to have been singularly endowed by nature, and per 
petually at strife with the circumstances of his position. He 
contrasted the treatment of the miserable poor with that of 
the horses in Count d Oropesa s stable ; even the sheep of his 
flock were better cared for, he thought, than multitudes of 
wretched souls for whom Christ had died. These reflections 
pressed upon him until at length he quitted the service of his 
mistress, and repaired to Morocco with the intention of minis 
tering to the captives amongst the Moors ; he even aspired to 
the glory of martyrdom. Being come to Gibraltar, he found 
there a Portuguese nobleman, who, with his wife and four 
daughters, had been banished to Ceuta, on the opposite coast 
of Africa : he thought he could not do better than engage in 
the service of this unfortunate family. At Ceuta they were 
all reduced to the greatest misery by poverty and sickness ; 
the daughters sold their clothes and ornaments ; the unhappy 
father was overwhelmed with despair. Juan, after having 
sold the little he possessed, hired himself out as a labourer, 
and supported the whole family, for some time, by his daily 
labour. He ceased not his charitable cares till they had found 
relief elsewhere ; then, relinquishing, as too presumptuous, his 
hope of martyrdom, he returned to Spain, and lived for some 
time by selling religious books and images of saints, devoting 
himself meanwhile to the ministry of the wretched and the 
poor. He had a vision at this time, in which lie fancied he 
beheld a radiant child holding in his hand a pomegranate 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



(pomo-de- Granada), and the child said to him, &lt; Go, thou 
shaltbear the cross in Granada. He repaired, therefore, to 
Granada, where the people were celebrating the festival of 
Saint Sebastian. The crowd was unusually great because of 
the presence of a famous preacher, who made such an im 
pression on Juan s already excited mind, that, in the midst of 
the church, he burst into shrieks and lamentations; then 
rushing through the streets with cries of mercy ! mercy ! he 
cast himself upon the stones. The people seized him and 
carried him to a madhouse, where, in his paroxysms of violence, 
they adopted the only remedy ever thought of in those times, 

they scourged him every day till the blood flowed from his 

wounds. The preacher whose sermon had reduced him to this 
condition came to see him, and, struck with pity, perhaps with 
remorse, applied himself to heal this perturbed spirit ; his 
gentle voice restored the patient to calmness, and he was 
liberated. 

From this time forth, persisting in his vocation, he dedi 
cated himself to the service of the sick and the poor. He 
began by bringing first one, then another, to his own little 
home, a deserted shed, so small it scarcely held two or three 
persons : when it was full he laid himself down on the outside. 
By degrees the number increased; a few charitable people 
united themselves with him, and thus began the first Hospital 
of the Order of Charity. He was accustomed to dedicate the 
whole day to the ministry of his sick poor ; and toward^ the 
night he went forth for the purpose of seeking out the deserted 
wretches, whom he frequently carried on his back to the refuge 
he had prepared for them. He worked for them, he begged for 
them. The eloquence of his appeals was almost irresistible, so 
that those whom he protected wanted for nothing. He con 
trived a large building, in which to receive in the winter-time 
poor houseless travellers who were passing through the city : 
it was circular, with a great fire in the midst, and sometimes 
contained not fewer than two hundred destitute wretches. 

It does not appear to me that Juaii de Dios ever entertained 
the idea of founding a religious Order and placing himself at 
the head of it. He formed no plan of conduct. "He drew up 



ST. JUAN DE BIOS. 341 



no rules for himself or others. He did his work of charity 
with a singleness of mind and purpose, a passionate, concen 
trated devotion, which looked not to the right nor to the left, 
nor even forward ; he saw nothing but the misery immediately 
before him ; he heard nothing but the cry for help he craved 
nothing but the means to afford it. Thus passed ten years of 
his life, without a thought of himself; and when he died, ex 
hausted in body, but still fervent and energetic in mind, he, 
unconsciously as it seemed, bequeathed to Christendom one of 
the noblest of all its religious institutions. 

Under how many different names and forms has the little 
hospital of Juan de Dios been reproduced throughout Christian 
Europe, Catholic and Protestant ! Our houses of refuge, our 
asylums for the destitute; the brotlferhood of the c Caritad in 
Spain, that of the &lt; Misericordia in Italy, the liaisons de 
Charite in France, the Barmherzigen Briider in Grermany 
all these sprang out of the little hospital of this poor, low 
born, unlearned, half-crazed Juan de Dios 1 I wonder if those 
who go to visit the glories of the Alhambra, and dream of the 
grandeur of the Moors, ever think of him. 

Juan de Dios died at Granada in 1550. He was beatified by 
Urban VIII, and canonised by Alexander VIIL in 1690. In 
France he was honoured as le bien-heureux Jean de Dieu, 
Pere des Pauvres. 9 

There are few good pictures of this saint, but many hundreds 
of bad ones. Formerly every hospital, c della Misericordia, 
and every Maison de Charite, contained his effigy in some 
form or other. In general, he is represented wearing the dark- 
brown tunic, hood, and large falling cape of the Capuchins : he 
has a long beard, and holds in his hand a pomegranate (Porno- 
de- Granada), surmounted by a Cross, a poor beggar kneeling 
at his feet. He is thus represented in the colossal statue of 
white marble which stands in St. Peter s. Pictures of him 
often exhibit in the background the interior of an hospital, 
with rows of beds. 

The only representation of this good saint which can rank 
high as a work of Art is a famous picture by Murillo^ painted 
for the Church of the Caritad at Seville. In a dark stormy 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



night, Juan is seen staggering almost sinking under the 
weight of a poor dying wretch, whom he is carrying to his 
Artists of hospital. An angel sustains him on his way. * The dark form 
, p.860 of the ^^ an d the soher grey frock of the bearer, are 
dimly seen in the darkness, through which the glorious coun 
tenance of the seraph, and his rich yellow drapery, tell like a 
hurst of sunshine. 5 Mr. Ford says of this picture, equal to 
Rembrandt in powerful effect of light and shade. I have 
heard others say, that in power of another kind, appealing 
irresistibly to the heart, it also excels ; they could not look up 
to it without being moved to tears. The companion picture 
was the St. Elizabeth already described. The latter, rescued 
from the Louvre, was on its way to Seville, to be restored to 
the church whence it had been stolen; but, detained by 
Government officials, it now hangs on the walls of the Academy 
at Madrid, * and no pale Sister of Charity, on her way to her 
labours of love in the hospital, implores the protection, or is 
cheered by the example, of the gentle St. Elizabeth. It is 
some comfort that * The Charity of San Juan de Dios remains 
in its original situation. 

We do not in this country decorate hospitals and asylums 
\dthpictrre ? unless, perhaps, ostentatious portraits of Lord 
Mayors, donors, and titled governors ; otherwise I would 
recommend as a subject, * Dr. Johnson carrying home, in his 
arras, the wretched woman he had found senseless in the 
street : even though it might not equal in power Murillo or 
Rembrandt, the sentiment and the purpose would be sufficient 
to consecrate it. 

1587. ST. FELIX DE CAOTALicio is chiefly remarkable for having 
been the first saint of the Order of the Capuchins, and figures 
only in the convents of that Order. He was born at Citta 
Ducale, in Umbria, in the year 1513, of very poor parents. 
He betook himself to a Capuchin convent, and was at first 
received as a lay brother ; but afterwards took the habit, and 
was sent to the Capuccini at Rome; here he passed forty-five 
years of Ms life in the daily mission of begging for his convent, 
It was his task to provide the bread and the wine, and it wag 



ST. FELIX DE CANTALICIO. 



343 



observed that there had never been known, either before or 
after, such an abundance of these provisions as during his 
time. His prayers and penances, his submission and charity, 
were the admiration of his own community, and at length of all 
Rome. He died in the year 1587. The Capuchins were ex 
tremely anxious to have him canonised, and the usual miracles 
were not wanting as proofs of his beatitude ; but it was not till 
the year 1625 that Urban VIII. , at the urgent entreaty of his 
brother, Cardinal Barberini, who had himself been a Capuchin, 
consented to give him a place in the Calendar of Saints. 
At this, time the Italian schools of painting were on the 




St. Felix de CantaHcio- 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDERS. 



decline and the Spanish, schools rising into pre-eminence. 
The Superior of the Capuchins at Seville was amongst the 
early patrons of Murillo. The result has been, that it would 
"be difficult to find in Italy a good picture of this saint, while 
there are several of extraordinary beauty in the Spanish 
schools. He is represented in the habit of his Order, the 
dark-brown tunic, large peaked hood hanging down behind, 
hempen girdle, and wooden sandals : his proper attribute, 
which distinguishes him from other saints of the Order, is the 
beggar s wallet, with two ends like a purse, slung over his 
shoulder to contain the alms begged for his convent. 

It is related of him, that, going out one stormy night to beg 
for the poor brethren of his convent, he met the vision of a 
child, radiant with beneficence and beauty, who offered him 
alms in the shape of a loaf of bread, and then, giving him his 
benediction, vanished from his sight. This legend is fre 
quently met with in the pictures of the Spanish school. 



ST. DIEGO. D ALCALA was another Capuchin saint canonised, 
as ft seems to me, from very unworthy motives, in times when 
No C v q Ts s " the title of saint was bestowed with a shocking and presump- 
tuous levity, as if it were a mere decoration at the button-hole; 
and an official place in heaven given away like a place at 
court, or sold c for a consideration. 

Of this Diego d Alcala there is not much to be said. He 
was a lay brother in a Capuchin convent at Alcala about 1463; 
and as far as I can understand, after wading with much 
pain and disgust through a very lying and, what is worse, 
vulgar and unmeaning legend he seems to have been an 
ignorant simple creature ; not answerable, he, poor man 1 for 
the palpable and interested inventions of his brotherhood. He 
was canonised by Sixtus V. (himself a Franciscan), at the 
request of Philip II. It appears that the Infant Don Carlos 
(for whom romance and tragedy have done what Sixtus did 
for San Diego, bestowed on him a sort of poetical canonisa 
tion or apotheosis) tad been cured of a grievous wound through 
the intercession of this Diego, whom the friars at Alcala had 



ST. DIEGO D ALCALA. 345 



exalted as a mirror of sanctity ; and Philip, from gratitude, say 
the same authors, rested not till he had obtained from Pope 
Sixtus his formal canonisation: the bull was published in 1588, 

Eleven or twelve years after the canonisation of San Diego, 
a certain Spanish gentleman residing at Rome, Don Enrico 
Herrera, dedicated, in the Church of San Griacomo degli Spag- 
nuoli, a chapel to his honour, and engaged Annibal Caracci 
to adorn it with the history of the s.aint. 

This was just after Annibal had finished the frescoes in the 
Farnese Palace. Worn out by his work, and broken in spirit 
by the treatment he had met with, he retired to a little 
lodging, near the Qnattro Fontane, and had resolved to under 
take nothing more, for some time at least. The offer of two 
thousand crowns, and the persuasions of his scholar Albano, 
induced him to yield : he was, however, so ill, that it was with 
difficulty he could rouse himself to make the necessary draw 
ings and sketches for the work. Albano nursed him with 
the tenderness and solicitude of a son ; aided him, cheered 
him ; ran backward and forwards from the Quattro Montane to 
the chapel of San Griacomo ; and painted several of the frescoes 
with great pains and diligence, as his work was to pass for 
that of his master ; Annibal every now and then rising from 
his sick-bed to retouch or finish the work begun by his affec 
tionate pupil. When the chapel was completed, Don Enrico 
refused to pay, alleging that, according to the agreement, 
Annibal was to have executed the work with his own hand ; 
and was about to cite the painter before a tribunal. Meantime 
the applause excited by the frescoes began to mollify Enrico ; 
and it was represented to him, that, as the whole work was 
executed after the designs and under the direction of Annibal, 
it might properly be said to be his. Don Enrico, therefore, 
after some murmuring, withdrew his projects of litigation, and 
consented to pay the 1600 crowns, the other 400 having been 
paid in advance. And now began between the two painters a 
contest of a far different kind. Annibal insisted on giving 
1200 crowns to Albano, and keeping only 400 for himself, 
which he said overpaid him for the little he had executed^ and 
a few sorry drawings (miseri disegni} not worth the money. 

Y Y 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



AlbanOj not to be outdone in generosity, absolutely refused to 
take anything; saying, that he was only his master s creatura 
and disciple, working under his orders, and profiting by his 
instructions. At length they agreed to submit to the arbitra 
tion of Eerrera, who decided that the 1600 crowns should be 
equally divided between them: even then it was with the 
greatest difficulty that Annibal could be persuaded to receive 
his share; and, when he did, it was with a certain air of 
timidity and bashfulness, mostrando in certo modo temersene 
e vergognarsene. 

Soon afterwards poor Annibal died, the figure of San Diego 
over the altar being one of his last works. Albano, I need 
hardly say, became subsequently one of the most famous 
painters of the Bologna school. 

I have given this charming anecdote, as related by Malvasia, 
because it is in such delightful contrast with the stories of the 
mutual jealousies, poisonings, and stabbings, which disgraced 
that period of Italian Art 

With regard to the frescoes, they were taken from the walls 
when the Church of San Giacomo was destroyed a few years 
ago, and transferred to canvas. I saw them in this state when 
at Rome in 1846. They comprise the following subjects : 

1, San Diego takes the Franciscan habit. 2. A mother shut her child 
in an oven, and lighted a fire under "by mistake : the saint, in pity to the 
mother, takes out the child uninjurei 3. Travelling with another lay- 
brother, and being ready to perish with hunger by the way, an angel spreads 
for them a repast of bread and wine, 4. He restores sight to a blind boy, 
by touching Ms eyes with oil from a lamp suspended before an altar of the 
Madonna. (This was in some respects imitated, but far surpassed, by 
Domenichino, in his fresco of the Epileptic Boy.) 5. San Diego, being the 
porter, or, as some say, the cook of his convent, is detected by the guardian 
giving away bread to the poor, and, on opening his tunic, finds his loaves 
converted into roses : (an impertinent version of the beautiful legend of 
St. Elizabeth.) 

There were some others, hut I do not well rememher what 
they were. The whole series was engraved at the time by 
(Juilanu * 
* , I will mention one or two other pictures of this saint. 



ST. VINCENT DE PATJLK 347 



By Murillo. 1. San Diego, bearing a cross upon his 
shoulders, holds up his tunic Ml of roses. 2. He kneels, in 
the act of blessing a copper pot of broth. 3. San Diego, 
while cooking for the brotherhood, is rapt in ecstasy, and 
raised above the earth, while angels are performing his task Gal M 
of boiling and frying below. Three ecclesiastics entering on 1852 
the left, regard this miracle with devout admiration. 4 San 
Diego stands fixed in devotion before a cross. Behind Diego, 
and observing him, is seen the Cardinal Archbishop of Pam- 
peluna with several friars ; the consummate vulgarity of the 
head of Diego, with the expression of earnest yet stupid 
devotion, as fine as possible as fine in its way, perhaps, as 
the San Juan de Dios. But now I have done with San Diego 



We must be careful not to confound St. Francis de Paula 
with ST. VIKCENT DE PAULS, who wears the habit of a Coi- 
delier, and not of a Minime. He also was very popular in 165 
France. Those who have been at Paris will remember the 
familiar efBgies of this amiable saint, with his foundling baby 
in his arms or lying at his feet. He was the first institutor 
of hospitals for deserted children (that is to say, the first in 
France : there had existed one at Florence from the thirteenth 
century), and the founder of the Sisters of Charity. He was 
born in 1 576 at Puy, in Gascony, not far from the foot of the 
Pyrenees. His parents were small fanners, and he began life . 
as his father s shepherd. The contemplative sweetness and 
piety of Ms disposition, something which distinguished him 
from the peasants around, induced his father to send him for 
education to a convent of Cordeliers; and he assumed the 
habit of the Franciscan Order at the age of twenty. The next 
ten years were spent as a theological student and a tutor, and 
his life would probably have passed in the quiet routine of 
conventual duties if a strange accident had not opened to him 
a far wider career. He had occasion to go to Marseilles to 
transact some affairs, and, returning by sea, the small bark 
was attacked midway in the Gulf of Lyons ty some African 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEBERS. 



pirates; and Vincent de Paule, with others on board, was 
carried to Tunis, and there sold for a slave* 

Vincent spent two years in captivity, passing from the 
hand of one master to that of another. The last to whom he 
was sold was a renegado, whose wife took pity on him. She 
would occasionally visit him when he was digging in their field, 
and would speak kindly words to him. One day she desired 
him to sing to her. He, remembering his sacred profession, 
and at the same time thinking on his home and country, 
burst into tears, and when he found voice he began to sing, 
c Sy the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, and then, 
as if taking heart, he ended with the triumphant strain of 
the Sake ReginaS Either by his songs or his preaching 
this woman was turned to the true faith. She converted the 
husband, and they all escaped together and landed at Aigues- 
mortes. Vincent, having placed his converts in a religious 
house, repaired to Rome, whence he was despatched by Paul 
V. on some ecclesiastical business to Paris : he arrived there 
in 1609. From this period maybe dated his long apostleship, 
of which I can give only a short abstract. His compassion had 
been strongly excited by the condition of the wretched galley- 
slaves at Marseilles. He himself had tasted of chains and 
slavery ; he himself knew what it was to be sick and neglected 
andfriendless. He began by visiting the prisons where criminals 
were confined before they were sent off to the galleys ; he beheld, 
to use his own expressions, * des malheureux renfermes dans de 
profondes et obscures cavernes, manges de vermines, attenues 
de langueur et de pauvret6, et enticement negliges pour le 
corps et pour Fame. The good man was thrown into great 
perplexity ; for on the one hand he could not reconcile such a 
state of things with the religion of Christ, which it was his 
profession to uphold and to preach, and on the other hand he 
could not contravene the laws of justice. He knew not how 
to deal with ruffians so abased, who began by responding to his 
efforts for their good, only by outrage and blasphemy ; and he 
was himself poor and penniless* a mendicant friar. Yet this 
precursor of Howard the Good did not lose courage ; he preached 
to them, comforted them, begged for their maintenance. His 



ST. VINCENT DE PAULE. 



next efforts were for the wretched girls abandoned in the 
streets of Paris, many of whom he reclaimed, and established 
the hospital of &lt; La Madeleine * to receive them. A few years 
afterwards he instituted the Order of the Sisters of Charity, 
an order of mins * qui n ont point de monasteres, que les 
maisons des malades, pour cellules qu une chambre de louage, 
pour chapelle que 1 eglise de leur paroisse, pour cloltre que 
les rues de la ville et les salles des h6pitaux, pour cldture que 
Fobeissance, pour grille que la crainte de Dieu, et pour voile 
qu une sainte et esacte modestie, et cependant elles se pre- 
servent de la contagion du vice, elles font germer partout sur 
leurs pas la vertu. This beautiful description is applicable 
to this day ; to this day the institution remains one of those 
of which Christendom has most reason to be proud. The 
rules and regulations which Vincent de Paule drew up for this 
new Order were admirable, and within a few years afterwards 
he had the satisfaction to see these congregations of charity 
spring up in all the cities of France. 

One of the most singular things in the history of this saint 
is his intercourse with the haughty Eichelieu, with whom he 
remained on terms of friendship till the death of the cardinal 
in 1642. The following year he was called from the bedsides 
of the galley-slaves, and the sick in the hospital, to attend 
Louis XIIL in his last moments. In 1648 he instituted the 
hospital for foundlings : he had been accustomed to pick up 
the poor children out of the street, and carry them home 
either to his charitable Sisters or some of the ladies of rank 
who aided him in his good works ; but these wretched orphans 
accumulated on his hands, and at length he succeeded in 
founding c la Maison des Enfans trouves, which he placed 
under the superintendence of the Sisters of Charity. 

When the wars of the &lt; Fronde broke out, he was every 
where found ministering to the sufferers and preaching peace. 

Amongst the charitable projects of Vincent de Paule was 
one to assist the Catholics of Ireland, then horribly oppressed; 
and he carried his enthusiasm so far as to forget his peaceful 
and sacred profession, and endeavoured to persuade Richelieu 
s td send troops into that country, offering to raise a hundred 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



thousand crowns towards their pay. Richelieu contented 
himself with smiling at the request; perhaps also gave him a 
hint to be content with looking after his Sisters of Charity, 
instead of meddling with the angry politics of the time. 

The enthusiastic admiration with which this excellent man 
was regarded throughout the country was honourable to the 
people who had given him, by common consent, the name of 
Tlntendant de la Providence, et Pere des Pauvres. He died 
at St. Lazare, in 1660, in his eighty-fourth year, and was 
canonised by Pope Clement 5IL in 1747. 

The effigies of St. Vincent de Paule which meet us in the 
churches of Paris, and more particularly in the magnificent 
in 1844. church lately dedicated to him, represent him in his Fran 
ciscan habit, generally with a new-born infant in his arms, 
and a Sister of Charity kneeling at his feet. "We have, 
fortunately, authentic portraits of the man; and it is a 
pleasure to feel that the benevolent features, the bright clear 
eye, the broad forehead, and the silver hair and beard, fill 
up the outline suggested by the imagination. 

Over the entrance of his church at Paris is a fine circular 
window of stained glass, representing St. Vincent surrounded 
by the Sisters of Charity. 



OH. 19. ST. PETER OF ALCAOTABA, one of the latest of the canonised 

Franciscans, was born at Alcantara in Estramadura, in 1499, 
and, after a long life of sanctification, died in 1562 ; he was 
canonised by Clement IX., 1669. Of this friar we have the 
oft-repeated legend of walking on the water, through trust in 

Munich Gai. God. About the time he was canonised, Claudio Coello painted 
an exceedingly fine picture of this subject. The saint appears 
walking on the sea, with a terrified lay brother at his side : 
pointing up to heaven, he calmly bids him trust, like Peter, 
in divine aid. The picture is life-size, and struck me as admir 
ably fine dramatic, without exaggeration. I give a sketch 
from it Another beautiful picture of this saint, by Murillo, 



ST. JOHN CAPI8TRANO. 



351 




67 



St. Peter of Alcantara walking on the Sea. 



was In the Aguado Gallery ; it represents Mm kneeling at his 
devotions, and the Holy Dove hovering over his head. 

ST. JOHN CAPISTRANO is only met with in late pictures. At Oct. 23. 
the time that all Europe was thrown into consternation by the 
capture of Constantinople by the Turks, the popes, Biigenius 
IV., Nicholas V., and Pius II. , endeavoured to set on foot a 
crusade for the defence of Christendom, and sent forth this 
eloquent and enthusiastic friar to preach through Europe. 

At the siege of Belgrade, where Mahomet was repulsed by 
the brave Hungarians under John Corvinus, the Franciscan A.&.U 
preacher was everywhere seen with his crucifix in Ms hand, 
encouraging the troops, and even leading them on against the 



S52 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDERS. 



infidels. He died the same year, and was canonised by 
Alexander VIII. in 1690, a few years after the deliverance 
of Vienna from the Turks in 1683, and in commemoration of 
that event 

The proper attribute of this saint is the crucifix, or the 
standard with the cross. In the little Franciscan Predella (an 
early work of Raphael, in the gallery of Lord "Ward), the figure 
with the standard is styled, in the account of the picture, San 
Giovanni Capistrano ; but having been painted before his 
canonisation, it represents, I think, St. Antony of Padua. A 
colossal statute of St. John Capistrano stands on the exterior 
of the cathedral at Vienna, a very appropriate situation : he 
has a standard in one hand, a cross in the other, and tramples 
a turbaned Turk under his feet. 

March so. ST. PETER E.EGALATO of Valladolid is another Franciscan 
saint, who appears in the late Italian and Spanish pictures 
painted for the Order. He was remarkable only for the 
extreme sanctity of his life and his &lt; sublime gift of prayer. 
He died at Aquileria, in the province of Osma, in Spain, in 
1456, and was canonised by Benedict XIV. in 1746. 

March 9, Before concluding these notices of the Franciscan worthies 
connected with Art, I must mention ST. CATHEKENE OF 
BOLOGNA, called also Santa Caterina de* Vigri ; for, although 
one of the latest who were formally canonised, she had "been 
venerated previously in her owa city for nearly two centuries 
under the title of LA SANTA. 

She was of a noble family, and early placed in the court of 
Ferrara as maid of honour to the Princess Margaret d Este. 1 
After the marriage of the princess, from motives and feelings 

1 Nicholas III. of Ferrara had, by his second wife, Parisina (the heroine of 
Lord Byron s poem), two daughters, twins, Lucia and Ginevra. The Princess 
Margaret mentioned here must have been his eldest natural daughter of that 
natne, who married, in 1427, Galeotti Roberto Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, * e 
colla sua ambizione, fece esercitar tanta pazienza al marito che diventb santo. Who 
knows but that this lady, who converted her husband into a saint by trying his 
patieiwse, may by a similar process have assisted in the beatification of her maid 
of honour 2 



ST. CATHERINE OF BOLOGNA. 353 



which, are not clearly explained, she entered a convent of Poor 

Clares, where she became distinguished not only for the sanctity 

and humility of her life, which raised her to the rank of abbess 

at an early age, but also for a talent for painting. Several 

specimens of her art are preserved, it is said, in the churches 

and convents at Bologna. I have seen but one the figure of v . Legend of 

St. Ursula, which has been inserted in the first series of this st Ursllla " 

work. It is painted in distemper on panel ; the face mild and 

sweet, but, from the quantity of gilding and retouching, it is 

difficult to judge of the original style and execution of the 

picture. 

In a small chapel in her convent at Bologna they still preserve 
and exhibit to strangers the black and shrivelled remains of 
Santa Caterina de Yigri, dressed out sumptuously in brocade, 
tf-old, and jewels. And in the Academy is a picture by Morina, Bologna 
in which she stands with St. Stephen and St. Lawrence, wear- Acad 
in^ her Franciscan habit and veiled. Her proper attributes 
would be, perhaps, her palette and pencils ; but I have never 
seen her so represented. 




08 Angel, from the Chapel of Saa Bernardino. (Agostino della KobMa.) 



Z Z 



354 



LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 




6D 



St. Dominick. 



THE DOMINICANS. 

ST. DOMINICK and the worthies of Ms Order are glorious in the 
history of Art. They are conspicuous in- some of the grandest 
works which have been consecrated to sacred purposes since the 
revival of painting and sculpture. The cause is not to "be attri 
buted to their popularity, which never seems to have equalled 
that of St. Francis and his followers ; jior to their greater riches 



THE DOMINICANS. 355 



and munificence as patrons; but to their pre-eminence as 
artists. They produced from their own community two of the 
most excelling painters who have drawn their inspiration from 
religious influences Angelico da Fiesole, and Bartolorneo della 
Porta. Of these two celebrated friars I have already spoken in 
their relation to the general history and progress of Art, I 
should call them emphatically religious painters, in contra*- 
distinction to the mere church painters. It is true that, 
as Dominicans, they worked for the glorification of their 
own Order, and the decoration of their own churches and 
convents ; no doubt they had a share of that esprit de corps 
which characterised more or less all the religious communities, 
and most especially the Dominicans : but had they worked 
with no higher aim, from no purer inspiration, their pictures 
would not have remained to this day the delight and wonder 
of the world, could not have the power even now to seize on 
our sympathies, to influence us through our best feelings. 
They do so still, because, however differing in other respects, 
they were in this alike, that each was deeply impressed withr 
the sanctity of his vocation ; and did in heart and soul, and 
in devout faith and earnestness, dedicate himself to the ser 
vice of God and the teaching of men : and as it was said of 
Angelico that every picture he painted was ( an act of prayer ? 7 
through which his own pure spirit held communion with a 
better and a purer world, so it might be said of Bartolomeo, 
with his bolder genius and more ample means, that every pic 
ture he painted was as an anthem of praise sung to the pealing 
organ, and lifting up soul and sense at once, like a divine 
strain of harmony. 

Neither of them worked for money, though even in their 
lifetime the sale of their works enriched their convents : nor for 
fame ; that * infirmity of noble minds had not penetrated 
into their cells, whatever other infirmities might be there. 
Even the exaltation of their community was present in their 
minds as a secondary, not as a primary, object. The result has 
been, that the Dominicans, at all times less popular as an Order, 
and as subjects less poetical and interesting, than the Fran 
ciscans, are important in their relation to Art through the 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



consummate "beauty of some of the works in which they are 
represented. No pictures painted for the Franciscans, however 
curious and instructive as specimens, however finished as per 
formances, can be compared with those which these inspired 
Dominican painters executed for the convents of their Order at 
Florence, Rome, and elsewhere. 

The habit I have already described. We find in reference to 

it the usual legend, that the form and colour were dictated hy 

the Blessed Virgin herself in a vision to one of the brethren, a 

monk of Orleans. It is white and black ; the white denoting 

n purity of life ; the black, mortification and penance. Hence, 

\ when the Dominicans are figured as dogs (Domini Canes), a 

common allegory, they are always white with, patches of black. 

In the famous and otherwise very remarkable fresco of the 

Florence. Church Militant, painted by Simone Memmi in the chapel 

KovSuJ degli Spagnuoli, we see five or six of these dogs of the Lord, 5 

engaged in worrying the heretics, who figure as wolves ; while 

two others guard the flock of the faithful, figured as sheep 

peacefully feeding at the foot of the pope s throne, and within 

the shadow of the Church. A particular description of the other 

Hand-book parts of this elaborate composition may be found in Kugler. 

iSS? nfir / There are four principal saints who are of universal celebrity, 

and are to be found in all the Dominican edifices : 

St. Dominick, as patriarch and founder of the Order. 

St. Peter Martyr, distinguished by the gash in his head. 

In early pictures usually the companion or pendant of St. 

Dominick. 

St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, who, in the Domi 
nican pictures, takes the same rank which St. Bonaventura 
occupies in the Franciscan pictures ; he represents the learning v 
of the Order. 

These three appear in the ancient works of Art, and in the 
pictures of Angelico. 

St. Catherine of Siena, the great female saint of the Domi 
nican Order, does not appear in any pictures painted before the 
latter half of the fifteenth century. Fra Bartolomeo is, I think, 
the first painter of any note who has treated her as a devotional 
subject. 



THE DOMINICANS. 357 



In later pictures we find St. Antonino, the good Archbishop 
of Florence. 

St. Baymond. 

St. Vincent Ferraris. 
And, confined almost wholly to Spanish Art, - 

St. Peter G-onsalez. 

St. Rosa de Lima. 

St. Lonis Beltran. 

Pope Pius V., a Dominican, was canonised in 1712 by Cle 
ment XL I have never met with him in pictures as Saint 
PiuSy though such may exist ; and probably, as the canonisa 
tion took place just at the worst period of the decline of Art, 
they are worthless. 

Of all these, only the first four are of any great interest and 
importance as subjects of Art. 

All the later Dominican saints have been canonised for the 
wonders they performed as preachers and missionaries, for the 
numbers converted from sin, from heresy, or from paganism 
by their all-persuasive eloquence, and yet more by their 
all-convincing miracles. The Spanish Dominicans were 
particularly remarkable for their * signs and wonders, their 
autos-da-fe, and their triumphs over the Moors and Jews. 
I think it unnecessary to give any specimens of their oratory. 
The most admired sermons of St. Yincent, into which I 
have looked cursorily, reminded me, in the peculiar fervour 
of their style, of sermons I had heard in the tabernacles 
and camp-meetings in America. Yet some of the apologues 
invented by the Dominican preachers are extremely inge 
nious, picturesque, and significant ; and they are otherwise 
remarkable for one pervading characteristic, the exaltation 
of their own Order, the advancement of their own objects, 
rather than the enforcement of any general religious or moral 
truths. Here is a specimen, not unworthy of John Bunyan 
-if John had been a Dominican friar instead of a Puritan 
tinker: 

* A certain scholar in the University of Bologna, of no good repute, either 
for his morals or his manners, found himself once (it might have been in a urea * 
dream) in a certain meadow not far from the city, and there came on a 



353 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDERS 



terrible storm ; and he fled for refuge until lie came to a house, where, 
finding the door shut, he knocked and entreated shelter. And a voice 
from within answered, " I am Justice ; I dwell here, and this house is mine 
but as thou art not just, thou canst not enter in." The young man turned 
away sorrowfully, and proceeding further, the rain and the storm "beating 
upon him, he came to another house ; and again he knocked and entreated 
shelter : and a voice from within replied, " I am Truth ; I dwell here, and 
this house is mine ; but as thou lovest not truth, thou canst not enter here." 
And further on he came to another house, and again besought to enter ; 
and a voice from within said, " I am Peace ; I dwell here, and this house is 
mine ; but as there is no peace for the wicked and those who fear not God, 
thou canst not enter here." Then he went on further, being much afflicted 
and mortified, and he came to another door, and knocked timidly, and a 
voice from within answered, " I am Mercy ; I dwell here, and this house is 
mine ; and if thou wouldst escape from this fearful tempest, repair quickly 
to the dwelling of the brethren of St. Dommick ; that is the only asylum for 
those who are truly penitent/ And the scholar failed not to do as this 
vision had commanded. He took the habit of the Order, and lived hence 
forth an example of every virtue. 

The following legend is more daringly significant, and, 
besides being repeated in various forms, has been represented 
in Art : 

* St, Dominick, being at Eome, had a vision in which he beheld Christ, 
who was sitting in judgment, and held in his hand three sharp arrows which 
were the arrows of the divine wrath ; and his Mother hastened and threw 
herself at his feet, and said, * What wouldst thou do, my Son ?* and he 
replied, " The world is so corrupt with pride, luxury, and avarice, that I am 
come to destroy it." Then the Blessed Virgin wept in supplication before 
him, and she said, " my Son, have pity upon mankind ! " and he replied, 
&lt;fr Seest thou not to what a pitch they have carried their iniquity ? " and she 
said, u my Son, restrain thy wrath, and be patient for a while, for I have 
here a faithful servant and champion, who shall traverse the whole earth 
and subdue it to thy dominion, and to him I will join another who shall 
fight valiantly in thy cause." And Christ replied " Be it so ! M Then the 
Virgin placed before him St. Dominick and St. Prancis ; and our Lord, 
looking upon them, relented from Ms wrath. 

There are many old print8,perhaps also pictures, which appear 
to be founded on this legend ; St. Dominick or St. Francis, or 
both, are either prostrate on the earth, or covering it with the 
skirts of their habits or mantles, while Christ (the Saviour!) 
appears above as the stern avenger, armed to punish or destroy, 
with the Virgin-mother interceding at his feet. 



ST. BOMINICK. 359 



Rubens lias been severely censured for a profane picture of 
this kind, in which St. Francis figures as the redeeming angel, 
shielding the earth with his extended robe. But Rubens did 
not invent the subject, nor did St. Francis; it originated, I 
presume, from this characteristic vision of St. Dominick, of 
Vhich we are now to speak. 




70 St. Dominick. 

ST. DOMINICK. 

Lat. Sanetus Dominions, Pater Ordinis Prsedicatorum. Ital. San Domenico. 
San Domenico Calaroga. Jr. Saint Dominique, Fondateur des Preres 
Precheurs. Sp. San Domingo. August 4, 1221. 

IN the days when Alexander III. was pope, and Frederic Bar- A - - 
barossa emperor of Germany, Don Alphonso IX. then reigning 
in Castile, Dominick was born at Calaruga, in the diocese of 
Osma, in the kingdom of Castile. His father was of the illus 
trious family of Guzman. His mother, Joanna d Aza, was 
also of noble birth. His appearance in the world was attended 
by the usual miracles. Before he was born, his mother 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



dreamed that she had brought forth a black and white dog 
carrying in his mouth a lighted torch. When his godmother 
held him in her arms at the font, she beheld a star of wonder 
ful splendour descend from heaven and settle on his brow. 
Both these portents clearly denoted that the saint was destined 
to be a light to the universe. Moreover, such was his early 
predilection for a life of penance, that when he was only six 
or seven years old he would get out of his bed to lie on the 
cold earth. His parents sent him to study theology in the 
University of Valencia, and he assumed the habit of a canon 
of St. Augustine at a very early age. Many stories are re 
lated of his youthful piety, his self-inflicted austerities, and 
his charity. One day he met a poor woman weeping bitterly ; 
and when he inquired the cause, she told him that her only 
brother, her sole stay and support in the world, had been 
carried into captivity by the Moors. Dominick could not 
ransom her brother ; he had given away all his money, and 
even sold his books to relieve the poor; but he offered all 
he could, lie offered up himself to be exchanged as a slave in 
place of her brother. The woman, astonished at such a 
proposal, fell upon her knees before him. She refused his 
offer, but she spread the fame of the young priest far and 
wide. 

Dominick was about thirty when he accompanied Diego, 
"bishop of Osma, on a mission to France. Diego was sent there 
by King Alphonso, to negotiate a marriage between his son. 
Prince Ferdinand, and the daughter and heiress of the Count 
de la Marche. They had to pass through Languedoc, where, at 
that time, the opinions of the Albigenses were in the ascendant, 
and Dominick was scandalised by these heretical reveries. 
Their host at Toulouse being of this persuasion, Dominick spent 
the whole night in preaching to him and his family. Such wal 
the effect of his arguments, that the next morning they made 
a public recantation. This incident fixed the vocation, of the 
future saint, and suggested the first idea of a .community of 
preachers for the conversion of heretics. 

The marriage being happily arranged, Dominick soon 
afterwards made a second journey to France with his bishop, 



ST. BOMINICK. 



accompanying the ambassadors who were to conduct the young 
princess to Spain. They arrived just in time to see her carried 
to her grave; and the sndden shock appears to have left a 
deep and dark impression on the mind of Dominick. If ever 
he had indulged in views and hopes of high ecclesiastical pre 
ferment, to which his nohle birth, his learning, his already 
high reputation appeared to open the way, such promptings of 
an ambitious and energetic spirit were from this time extin 
guished, or rather concentrated into a flame of religious zeaL 

On a journey which he made to Rome in 1207, he obtained 
the pope s permission to preach in the Vaudois to the Albi- 
genses. At that time the whole of the South of France was 
distracted by the feuds between the Catholics and the heretics. 
As yet, however, there was no open war, and the pope 
was satisfied with sending missionaries into Languedoc. 
Dominick, armed with the papal brief, hastened thither; he 
drew np a short exposition of faith, and with this in his 
hand he undertook to dispute against the leaders of the 
Albigenses. On one occasion, finding them deaf to his argu 
ments, he threw his book into the flames, and, wonderful to 
relate! it leaped three times from the fire, and remained 
uninjured, while the books which contained the doctrines of 
the heretics were utterly consumed! By this extraordinary 
miracle many were convinced; but others, through some 
strange blindness, refused to believe either in Dominick or 
his miracles. 

Then began that terrible civil and religious war, unexampled 
in the annals of Europe for its ferocity. 

What share Dominick may have had in arming the crusade 
against the miserable Albigenses is not ascertained. His 
defenders allege that he was struck with horror by the excesses 
of barbarity then committed in the name and under the 
banners of the religion of Christ. They assert positively that 
Dominick himself never delivered over the heretics to the 
secular power, and refused to use any weapons against them 
but those of argument and persuasion. But it remains an 
historical fact, that at the battle of Muret, where twenty 
thousand of the Albigenses were massacred by the troops of 

3 A 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Simon de Montfort, Dominick was kneeling on an eminence- 
some say in a neighbouring chapel with his crucifix in his 
hand, praying that the Church might prevail : he has been 
compared to Moses holding up the rod of the Lord while the 
captains of Israel slew their enemies with the edge of the sword, 
sparing not the women nor the little ones. That Dorninick, 
however mistaken, was as perfectly convinced as ever Moses was 
of the righteousness of his cause and of the divine protection, 
I see no room to doubt: the man was a fanatic, not a hypocrite. 

About this time he united with himself several ecclesiastics, 
who went about barefoot in the habit of penitents, exhorting 
the people to conform to the Church The institution of the 
Order of St. Dominick sprang out of this association of 
preachers, but it was not united under an especial rule, nor 
confirmed, till some years later, by Pope Honorius in 1216. 

It was during his sojourn in Languedoc that St. Dominick 
instituted the ROSAKY. The use of a chaplet of beads, as a 
memento of the number of prayers recited, is of Eastern origin, 
and dates from the time of the Egyptian Anchorites. Beads 
were also used by the Benedictines, and are to this day in use 
among the Mahommedan devotees. Dominick invented a 
novel arrangement of the chaplet, and dedicated it to the 
honour and glory of the Blessed Virgin, for whom he enter 
tained a most especial veneration. A complete rosary consists 
of fifteen large and one hundred and fifty small beads ; the 
former representing the number of Pater-nosters, the latter the 
number of Ave-Marias. In the legends of the Madonna I 
shall have much to say of the artistic treatment of the c mysteries 
of the rosary ; meantime, with reference to St. Dominick, it 
will be sufficient to observe that the rosary was received with 
the utmost enthusiasm, and by this simple expedient Dominick 
did more to excite the devotion of the lower orders, especially 
of the women, and made more converts, than by all his ortho 
doxy, learning, arguments, and eloquence. 

In 1218, St. Dominick having been charged by the pope 
with the care of reforming the female convents at Rome, 
persuaded them to accept of a new Rule which he drew up 
for them : and thus was instituted the Order of the Dominican 



ST. DOMINICK. 



Nuns. The institution of the Third Order of Penitence 
followed soon after, but it never was so popular as the Third 
Order of St. Francis. 

From this time we find Dominick busily employed in all the 
principal cities of Europe, founding convents. He was in Spain 
in the beginning of 1219 ; afterwards at Paris, where, by per 
mission of Blanche of Castile, mother of St. Louis, he founded 
the magnificent convent of his Order in the Eue St. Jacques, 
from which the Dominicans in France obtained the general 
name of Jacobins. At Paris, meeting Alexander II. , king of 
Scotland, he at the earnest request of that prince sent some 
of his brotherhood into Scotland, whence they spread over the 
rest of Great Britain. 

From Paris he returned to Italy, and took up his residence 
in the principal convent of his Order at Bologna, making occa 
sional journeys to superintend the more distant communities. 
Wherever he travelled he fulfilled what he had adopted as the 
primary duty of his institution. He preached wherever he 
stopped, though it were only to repose for an hour: everywhere 
his sermons were listened to with eagerness. When at Bologna 
he preached not only every day, but several times in the day, to 
different congregations. Fatigue, excitement, and the extreme 
heat of the season, brought on a raging fever, of which he died 
in that city on the 6th of August, 1221. He was buried in a 
modest tomb in a small chapel belonging to his Order ; but on 
his canonisation by Gregory IX., in 1233, his remains were 
translated to the splendid shrine in which they now repose. 

The adornment of the * Area di San Domenico * for so this 
wonderful tomb is styled in Italy was begun as early as 1225, 
when Niccol6 Pisano was summoned to Bologna to design the 
new church of the Dominicans^ and the model of the shrine 
which was to be placed within it. The upper range of bas- 
reliefs, containing scenes from the life of the saint, by JSTiccolo 
and his School, dates from 1225 to about 1300. The lower 
range, by Alfonso Lombardi, was added about 1525, in a richer, 
less refined, but still most admirable style* 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



"We come now to the various representations of this famous 
saint; and, first, it will be interesting to compare the innu 
merable effigies which exist of him with the description of his 
person left by a contemporary, Suor Cecilia, one of his Roman 
disciples. The accuracy of the portrait has been generally 
admitted : 

In stature he was of moderate size ; his features regular 
and handsome ; his complexion fair, with a slight colour in 
his cheek; his hair and beard inclining to led, and in general 
he kept his beard close shaven. His eyes were blue, brilliant, 
and penetrating; his hands were long, and remarkable for 
their beauty ; the tones of his voice sweet, and at the same 
time powerful and sonorous. He was always placid, and 
even cheerful, except when moved to compassion. 9 The 
writer adds, that those who looked on him earnestly were 
aware of a certain radiance on his brow; a kind of light 
almost supernatural, It is possible that the attribute of the 
star placed on his brow or over his head may be derived from 
this traditional portrait, and, as in other instances, the legend 
of the godmother and the star afterwards invented to account 
for it 

The devotional figures of St. Dominick always represent him 
in his proper habit, the white tunic, white scapulary, and long 
black cloak with a hood. In one hand he bears the lily; in the 
other a book. A star is on his forehead, or just above his head. 
The dog with the flaming torch in its mouth is the attribute 
peculiar to him. Every one who has been at Florence will 
remember his statue, with the dog at his side, over the portal 
of the Convent of St. Mark. But in pictures the dog is fre 
quently omitted, whereas the lily and the star have become 
almost indispensable. 

It is related in one of the Dominican legends, that a true 
portrait of St. Dominick was brought down from heaven by St 
Catherine and Mary Magdalene, and presented to a convent of 
Dominican nuns. From this original (some ancient picture, 
probably, by Angelico, for the formal simplicity of the pose is 
very like him), Carlo Dolce painted the figure I have placed at 
p, 354, 



ST. .DOMINICK. 



365 




M.A.W.Sc. 

St. Dominisk. ^ Lucas v Leyden ) 



The head of St. Dominick at the beginning of this chapter is 
from Angelico s Coronation of the Virgin/ in the Louvre. 
There is, certainly, nothing of the inquisitor or the persecutor 
in this placid and rather self-complacent head; rather, I should 
say, some indication of that self-indulgence with which the 
heretics reproached this austere saint In other heads by 
Angelico we have an expression of calm, resolute will, which is 
probably very characteristic ; as in the standing figure in an 
altarpiece now in the Pitti Palace, and many others. In the 
pictures by Fra Bartolomeo, St. Dominick has rather a mild 
full face. In no good picture that I have seen is the expression 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



given to St. Dominick severe, or even ascetic. In the Spanish 
pictures the head is often coarse, with a black beard and tonsure ; 
altogether false in character and person. 

A very ancient and interesting figure of St. Dominick, 
formerly in the church of St. Catherine of Siena at Pisa, is now 
in the Academy there. It was painted for a certain Signore 
di Casa Cascia, 9 by Francesco Traini. The character jf the head 
agrees exactly with the portrait drawn by Suor Cecilia. C 2l 
volto trd il severo e il piacevole; i capelli rossiccii^ tagliati a 
guisa di corona; barba rasa. He holds a lily in his right hand, 
in the left an open book on which is inscribed, * Venite,JiKi, au- 
dite me, timorem Domini docebo vos. The hands very small and 
slender. Around this figure are eight small subjects from his life. 

Besides the devotional figures, in which he stands alone, or 
grouped with St. Peter Martyr or St. Catherine of Siena near 
the throne of the Virgin, there are some representations of St. 
Dominick which are partly devotional, partly mystical, with a 
touch of the dramatic. For example, where he stands in a 
commanding attitude, holding the keys of St. Peter, as in a 

Rome. fresco in the S. Maria-sopra- Minerva ; or where the Infant 
Christ delivers to him the keys in presence of other saints, as 

Florence, in the altarpiece of Orcagna in the Strozzi Chapel ; and in the 
innumerable pictures which relate to the institution of the 
rosary, which, as a subject of Art, first became popular after 
the victory of Lepanto in 1571. Gregory XIII. instituted the 
Festival of the Eosary to be held in everlasting commemoration 
of that triumph ovr the infidels. From this period we find 
perpetual Madonnas * del Rosario ; and St Dominick receiving 
the rosary from the hand of the Virgin, or distributing rosaries, 
became a common subject in the Dominican churches* 

Bologna The most famous example is by Domenichino, a large, 

splendid picture ; but the intention of the artist in some of 
the groups does not seem clear. The Madonna del Rosario is 
seated above in glory ; in her lap the Divine Infant ; both 
scatter roses on the earth from a vase sustained by three 
lovely cherubs. At the feet of the Virgin kneels St. Dominick, 
holding in one hand the rosary ; with the other he points to 



ST, DOMINTCK. 20T 



the Virgin, indicating by what means she is to "be propitiated. 
Angels holding the symbols of the * Mysteries of the Rosary 
(the joys and sorrows of the Virgin) surround the celestial per 
sonages. On the earth, below, are various groups, expressing 
the ages, conditions, calamities, and necessities of human life : 
lovely children playing with a crown ; virgins attacked by 
a fierce warrior, representing oppressed maidenhood ; a man 
and his consort, representing the pains and cares of marriage, 
&c. And all these with rosaries in their hands are supposed 
w obtain aid, per intercessions deW sacratissimo jRosario. I 
confess that this interpretation appeared to me quite unsatis 
factory when I looked at the picture, which, however, is one 
blaze of beauty in form, expression, and transcendent colour 
ing. Mai si videro puttini e piu cari e amorosi; mai ver- Maivasia. 
ginette piu vaghe e spiritose ; mai uomini piwfieri^ piu gram, 
piu maestosi! I remember once hearing a Polish lady recite 
some verses in her native language, with the sweetest voice, 
the most varied emphasis, the most graceful gestures imagi 
nable ; and the feeling with which I looked and listened, at 
once baffled, puzzled, and enchanted, was like the feeling 
with which I contemplated this masterpiece of Domenichino. 

A series of subjects, more or less numerous, from the life of 
St. Dominick, may commonly be met with in the Dominican 
edifices. 

The most memorable examples are : 

1. The bas-reliefs on the four sides of his tomb or shrine, Bologna 
by Niccold Pisano and Alfonso Lombardi 

2. The set of six small and most beautiful compositions by 
Angelico, on the predella of the * Coronation of the Virgin. 

3. The set of eight subjects round the figure by Traini, 
already mentioned. 

I shall here enumerate, in their order, all the scenes and 
incidents I have found represented, either as a series or sepa 
rately: 

1. The dream of the mother of St. Dommlck. Giovanna d Aza is asleep 
on her conch, and before her appears ihe dog holding the torch. In front, 
two women are occupied washing and swaddling the infant saint 



36* 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



2. The dream of Pope Innocent III. (exactly similar to his vision of 
St. Francis). He dreams that the Church, is falling to ruin, and that 
Dominick sustains it. 

3. "When St. Dominick was at Konie, praying in the Church of St. Peter 
that the grace of God might be upon Ms newly-founded Order, he beheld 
in a vision the blessed apostles. Peter and Paul* Peter presented to him a 
staff, and Paul a volume of the Gospel, and they said to him, i Go, preach 
the Word of God, for he hath chosen thee for that ministry. Of this sub 
ject, the bas-relief by Mccold Pisano is as fine as possible* I give a sketch 
of the principal group. 




72 Sfc. Dominick receives from Si Peter and St. Paul the commission io preaeh, 
(Niccold Pisano.) 

4. The burning of the heretical books. The book of St. Dominick is seen 
leaping from the fire. In the picture by Angelico, the Albigenses are 
dressed as Turks ; the good painter could form no other idea of heretics 
and infidels. The grand dramatic fresco by Lionello Spada, in the chapel 
at Bologna, should be compared, or rather contrasted, with the simple 
eleg^nea of Angelieo. 

5. On Ash. Wednesday in 1218, the abbess and some of her nuns went to 



ST. DOMINICK. 



the new monastery of St. Sixtus at Rome, to take possession of it ; and, 
being in the chapter-house with St. Dominick and Cardinal Stephano di 
Eossa-ltfova, suddenly there came in one, tearing his hair, and making great 
outcries, for the young Lord Napoleon, nephew of the cardinal, had been 
thrown from Ms horse and killed on the spot. The cardinal fell speechless 
into the arms of St. Dominick, and the women and others who were pre 
sent were filled with grief and horror. They brought the body of the 
youth into the chapter-house, and laid it before the altar ; and Dominick? 
having prayed, turned to the body of the young man, saying, * adolescens 
Napoleo ! in nomine Domini nostri J. C. tibi dico surge ! } and thereupon he 
arose sound and whole, to the unspeakable wonder of all present. 

This is a subject frequently repeated. The bas-relief by Niceol&lt;$, the 
little picture by Angelico, and the fresco by Mastelletta, should be com 
pared. In the first two, the saint and the dead youth fix the attention ; in 
the last, it is ihsfuribondo cavallo which makes us start. 

6. The supper of St. Dominick. 6 It happened that when he was residing 
with forty of Ms friars in the convent of St Sabina at Borne, the brothers 
who had been sent to beg for provisions had returned with a very small 
quantity of bread, and they knew not what they should do, for night was at 
hand, and they had not eaten all day. Then St Dominick ordered that 
they should seat themselves in the refectory, and, taking his place at the 
head of the table, he pronounced the usual blessing : and behold ! two 
beautiful youths clad in wMte and shining garments appeared amongst 
them ; one carried a basket of bread, and the other a pitcher of wine, wMch 
they distributed to the brethren : then they disappeared, and no one knew 
how they had come in, nor how they had gone out. And the brethren sat 
in amazement ; but St. Dominick stretched forth Ms hand, and said calmly, 
" My children, eat what God hath sent you : " and it was truly celestial 
food, such as they had never tasted before nor since. 

The treatment of this subject in the little picture by Augelico is perfectly 
, exquisite. The friars, with their hoods drawn over their heads, are seated 
at a long table ; in the centre is St. Dominick, with his hands joined in 
prayer. In front, two beautiful ethereal angels seem to glide along, dis 
tributing from the folds of their drapery the i bread from paradise. 

7. The English pilgrims. When Simon de Montfort besieged Toulouse, 
forty pilgrims on their way from England to Corapostella, not choosing to 
enter the heretical city, got into a little boat to cross the Garonne. The 
boat is overset by a storm, but the pilgrims are saved by the prayers of 
St. Dominick. 

TMs subject is often mistaken ; I have seen it called, in Italian, La Bur- 
rosca del Mare. In the series by Traini it is extremely fine ; some of the 
pilgrims are struggling in the water ; others, in a transport of gratitude, are 
kissing the hands and garments of the saint. 

8. He restores to life a dead child. The great fresco of tliis subject in 
the chapel dell Area 3 at Bologna is by Tiarini, and a perfect masterpiece 
in the scenic and dramatic style ; so admirably got up, that we feel as if 

SB 



370 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



assisting, in the French sense of the word, in a side-box of a theatre. To 
understand the scene, we must remember that St. Dominick, being invited 
to the funeral banquet, ordered the viands to be removed, and the child to 
be placed on the table instead ; the father, with outstretched arms, about to 
throw himself at the feet of the saint, the mother, with her eyes fixed on 
her reviving child, seeming only to live in his returning life, are as fine 
and as animated as possible. It is Rubens, with Italian grace and Venetian 
colour. 

9. Pope Honorius III. confirms the Order of St. Dominick/ often met 
with in the Dominican convents. There is a fine large picture of this sub 
ject in the sacristy of St. John and St. Paul at Venice, painted by Tintoretto 
with his usual vigour. The small sketch is, I think, in the Collection of 
the Duke of Sutherland. 

10. St. Dominick, in the excess of his charity and devotion, was accus 
tomed, while preaching in Languedoc, to scourge himself three times a day; 
once for Ms own sins ; once for the sins of others ; and once for the 
benefit of souls in purgatory. There is a small, "but very striking, picture 
of this subject by Carlo Dolce. Dominick, with bared shoulders, kneels in 

3? pitti. a cavern; the scourge in his hand; on one side, the souls of sinners 
liberated by his prayers, are ascending from the flames of purgatory ; far in 
the background is seen the death of Peter Martyr. 

11. The death of the saint. In the early pictures of this subject we often 
find inscribed the words of St. Dominick, c Caritatem habete ; humilitatem 
servate, paupertatem voluntariam possidete/ 

12. Era Guala, prior of a convent at Brescia, has a vision, in which he 
beholds two ladders let down from heaven by the Saviour and the Virgin. 
On these two angels ascend, bearing between them a throne, on which the 
soul of St Dominick is withdrawn into paradise. 

13. The solemn translation of the body of St. Dominick to the chapel of 
San Domenico in Bologna ; in the series by Traini. 

14. The apotheosis of the saint. He is welcomed into heaven by our 
Saviour, the Virgin, and a choir of rejoicing angels, who hymn his praise. 
Painted by Guido with admirable effect on the dome of the chapel at 
Bologna. 



We must now turn from St. Dominick to his far more stern 
disciple 



ST. PETER MARTYR. 871 



ST PJETER MARTYK. 

St. Peter the Dominican. ItaL San Pietro (or San Pier) Martire. Fr* Saint 
Pierre le Dominicain, Martyr. April 28, 1252. 

THIS saint, with whom the title of Martyr has passed by 
general consent into a surname, is, nest to their great 
patriarch, the glory of the Dominican Order. There are few 
pictures dedicated in their churches in which we do not 
find him conspicuous, with his dark physiognomy and his 
bleeding head. 

He was born at Verona about the year 1205. His parents 
and relatives belonged to the heretical sect of the Cathari, pre 
valent at that time in the North of Italy. Peter, however, was 
sent to a Catholic school, where he learned the creed according 
to the Catholicform, and for repeatingit was beaten on his return 
home. St. Dominick, when preaching at Verona, found in this 
young man an apt disciple, and prevailed on him to take the 
Dominican habit at the age of fifteen . He became subsequently 
an influential preacher, and remarkable for the intolerant zeal 
and unrelenting cruelty with which he pursued those heretics 
with whom he had formerly been connected. For these services 
to the Church he was appointed Inquisitor- General by Pope 
Honorius III. At length two noblemen of the Venetian states 
whom he had delivered up to the secular authorities, and who 
had suffered imprisonment and confiscation of property, resolved 
on taking a summary and sanguinary vengeance. They hired 
assassins to waylay Peter on his return from Como to Milan, 
and posted them at the entrance of a wood through which he 
was obliged to pass, attended by a lay brother. On his appear 
ance, one of the assassins rnshed upon him and struck him down 
by a blow from an axe ; they then pursued and stabbed his 
companion : returning, they found that Peter had made an effort 
to rise on his knees, and was reciting the Apostles Creed, or, as 
others relate, was in the act of writing it on the ground with his 
blood. He had traced the word Credo," when the assassins 
coming up completed their work by piercing him through with 
a sword. He was canonised in 1253 by Innocent IV. ; and his 



872 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



shrine In the Sant Eustorgio at Milan , by Balduccio of Pisa 
Is one of the most important works of the fourteenth century. 

In spite of his celebrity in Art, his fame, and his sanctity 
the whole story and character of this man are painful to contem 
plate. It appears that in his lifetime he was not beloved by his 
own brotherhood, and his severe persecuting spirit made him 
generally detested. Yet, since his death, the influence of the 
Dominican Order has rendered him one of the most popular 
saints in Italy. There is not a 
Dominican church in Romagna, 
Tuscany, Bologna, or the Mi 
lanese, which does not contain 
effigies of him; and, in general, 
pictures of the scene of his 
martyrdom abound. 

In the devotional figures he 
wears the habit of his Order, 
and carries the palm as martyr, 
and the crucifix as preacher; 
the palm, if not in his hand, is 
placed at his feet. He is other 
wise distinguished from St. Do- 
minick by his black beard and 
tonsure, St. Dominick being of 
a fair and delicate complexion; 
but his peculiar attribute 
where he stands as martyr 
is the gash in his head with 
the blood trickling from it ; 
or the sabre or axe struck into 
his head, as in this figure from 
a picture in the Brera ; or 
he is pierced through with a 73 st. Peter Martyr. 

_ r . . _ . , & . (Cima da Conegliano.) 

sword, which is less usual, 

I will now mention a few examples : 

1. By Ghiercino : St. Peter M., kneeling with the sabre at 
his feet 




ST. PETEB HARTTE. 878 



2* By Bevilacqua : He presents a votary to the Madonna : Milan eat 
on the other side IB Job, the patriarch of patience, holding a 
scroll on which is inscribed, c Eruet Te de Morte et Bello de 
Mann Gladii.* 

3* By Angolico : He stands on one side of the throne of PI. Gai. 
the Madonna pierced through with a sword, with a keen, 
ascetic, rather than stcru and resolute, expression. 

The finest, the most characteristic, head of St. Peter p.pitu. 
Martyr I have ever seen is in a group by Andrea del Sarto, 
where he stands opposite to St. Augustine, in aria e in attc 
fteramente t&rribilej as Vasari most truly describes him ; and 
never, certainly, were fervour, energy, indomitable resolution, 
more perfectly expressed. I have mentioned in another place P- 284 - 
the significant grouping of the personages in this wonderful 
picture* 

The assassination or, as it is styled, the martyrdom of 
Si Peter occurs very frequently, and seldom varies in the 
general points of treatment The two assassins, the principal 
of whom is called in the legend Carino ; the saint felled to the 
earth, his head wounded and bleeding, his hand attempting to 
trace the word * Credo ; these, with the forest background, 
constitute the elements of the composition. 

"We have an example of the proper Italian treatment in a 
small picture, by Giorgione, in our National Gallery, which 
is extremely animated and picturesque. But the most re 
nowned of all, and among the most celebrated pictures in 
the world, is the * San Pietro Martire of Titian ; painted as 
an altarpieco for the chapel of the saint, in the church of SS. 
Giovanni e Paolo (which the Venetians abbreviate and har 
monise into SAN ZANDPOIX)), belonging to the Dominicans. 
The dramatic effect of this picture is beyond all praise ; the 
death-like pallor in the face of San Pietro, the extremity 
of cowardice and terror in that of his flying companion, 
the ferocity of the murderers, the gloomy , forest, the trees 
bending and waving in the tempest, and the break of calm, 
blue sky high above, from which the two cherubim issue with, 
their palms, render this the most perfect scenic picture in the 
world. 



374 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS, 



It is a mistake to represent St. Peter Martyr assassinated 
on the steps of an altar or within a church, as in some Spanish 
pictures. 

I must mention another most interesting work which relates 
to St. Peter Martyr. Fra Bartolomeo has introduced him into 
most of the large pictures painted for his Order, and has 
given him the usual type of head ; but in one picture he has 
represented him with the features of his friend Jerome 
Savonarola, that eloquent friar who denounced with earnest 
and religious zeal the profane taste which even then had 
begun to infect the productions of Art, and ended by entirely 
depraving both Art and 
artists. After the horrible 
fate of Savonarola, stran 
gled and then burned in 
the great square at Flor 
ence, in 1498, Bartolomeo, 
who had been his disciple, 
shut himself up in his 
cell in San Marco, and 
did not for four years re 
sume his pencil. He after 
wards painted this head of 
his friend, in the character 
of Peter Martyr, with a 
deep gash in his scull, 
and the blood trickling 
from it, probably to indi 
cate his veneration for a 
man who had been his 
spiritual director, and who by his disciples was regarded as a 
martyr ; and if ever the Dominicans regain their former in 
fluence, who knows but that we may have this resolute adver 
sary of the popes and princes of his time canonised as another 
St. Jerome ? 




74 , Jerome Savonarola 

in the character of St. Peter Martyr. 



ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. 575 



ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. 

Ital. San Tomaso di Aquino, Dottore Angelico. March 7, 1274. 

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS, as a theologian one of the great lights 
of the Roman Catholic Church, was of the illustrious family 
of the Counts of Aquino, in Calabria. His grandfather had 
married the sister of the Emperor Frederic L : he was, conse 
quently, grand-nephew of that prince, and kinsman to the 
emperors Henry VL and Frederic II. His father Landolfo, 
Count of Aquino, was also Lord of Loretto and Belcastro, and 
at this latter place St. Thomas was born in the year 1226. 
He was remarkable in his infancy for the extreme sweetness 
and serenity of his temper, a virtue which, in the midst of the 
polemical disputes in which he was afterwards engaged, never 
forsook him. He was first sent to the Benedictine school at 
Monte Casino, but when he was ten years old his masters 
found they could teach him no more. "When at home, the 
magnificence in which his father lived excited rather his 
humility than his pride : always gentle, thoughtful, habitually 
silent, piety with him seemed a true vocation. The Countess 
Theodora, his mother, apprehensive of the dangers to which 
"her son would be exposed in a public school, was desirous that 
he should have a tutor at home : to this his father would not 
consent, but sent him to finish his studies at the University of 
Naples. Here, though surrounded by temptations, the warn 
ings and advice of his mother so far acted as a safeguard, that 
his modesty and piety were not less remarkable than his 
assiduity in his studies. At the age of seveneten he received 
the habit of St. Dominick in the convent of the Order at 
Naples. The Countess Theodora hastened thither to prevent 
his taking the final vows : feeling that he could not resist her 
tenderness, he took flight, and, on his way to Paris, was way 
laid near Acquapendente, by his two brothers Landolfo and 
Binaldo, officers in the emperor s army. They tore his friar s 
habit from his back, seized upon him, and carried him to their 
father s castle of Bocca-Secpa. There Ms mother came to Mm, 



5T6 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



and in vain supplicated him to change his resolution. She 
ordered him to he confined and guarded from all communica 
tion with others ; no one was suffered to see him but his two 
sisters, who were directed to use their utmost persuasions to 
turn him from his purpose. The result was precisely what one 
might have foretold ; he converted his two sisters, and they 
assisted him to escape. He was let down from a window of the 
castle in a basket. Some of the Dominican brethren were 
waiting below to receive him, and in the following year he pro 
nounced his final vows. 

Notwithstanding his profound learning, the humility with 
which he concealed his acquirements, and the stolid tran 
quillity of his deportment, procured him the surname of Bos, 
or the Ox* One instance of his humility is at once amusin^ 
and edifying. On a certain day, when it was his turn to read 
aloud in the refectory, the superior, through inadvertence or 
ignorance, corrected him, and made him read the word with a 
false quantity. Though aware of the mistake, he immediately 
obeyed. Being told that he had done wrong to yield, knowing 
himself in the right, he replied, 6 The pronunciation of a word 
is of little importance, but humility and obedience are of the 
greatest. 

From this time till his death, he continued to rise in repu 
tation as the greatest theological writer and teacher of his time. 
Pope Clement IV. offered to make him an archbishop, but he 
constantly refused all ecclesiastical preferment. In 1274 he 
was sent on a mission to Naples, and was taken ill on the road, 
at Fossa-Nova, where was a famous abbey of the Cistercians. 
Here he remained for some weeks unable to continue his 
journey, and spent his last hours in dictating a commentary on 
the Song of Solomon* When they brought him the Sacrament, 
he desired to be taken from his bed and laid upon ashes strewn 
upon the floor. Thus he died, in the fiftieth year of his age, 
and was canonised by John XXII. in 1323. 

St. Thomas Aquinas represents the learning, as St. Peter 
Martyr represents the sanctity, of the Dominicans. Effigies 
of him are frequent in pictures and in prints, and the best of 



ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. 377 



them bear a general resemblance, showing- them to have been 
derived from a common original. The face is broad and 
rather heavy ; the brow fine and ample ; the expression mild 
and thonghtful. His attributes are 1. a book, or several 
books ; 2. the pen or ink-horn ; 3. on his breast a sun, within 
which is sometimes a human eye, to express his far-seeing 
wisdom ; 4. the sacramental cup, because he composed the 
Office of the Sacrament still in use. He is often intently 
writing, or looking up at the holy Dove hovering above him, 
the emblem of inspiration: he is then distinguished from 
other doctors and teachers, who have the same attributes, by 
his Dominican habit. 

The most ancient and most remarkable pictures of St. Thomas 
Aquinas have been evidently intended to express his great 
learning and his authority as a doctor of the Church. I will 
mention five of these, all celebrated in Art : 

1. By Francesco Traini, of Pisa. St. Thomas Aquinas, of 
colossal size, is enthroned in the centre of the picture. He 
holds an open book, and several books lie open on his knees : 
rays of light proceed from him in every direction; on the 
right hand stands Plato, holding open his Timeus ; on the 
left Aristotle, holding open Ms Ethics ; Moses, St Paul, and 
the four Evangelists, are seen above, each with his book ; 
and over all, Christ appears in a glory : from Mm proceed the 
rays of light which fall on the Evangelists, thence on the 
head of St. Thomas, and emanate from him through the 
universe. Under his feet lie prostrate the three arch-heretics, 
Arius, Sabellius, and the Arabian Averrhoes, with their books 
torn. In the lower part of the picture is seen a crowd of 
ecclesiastics looking up to the saint; among them, Pope 
Urban VL, inscribed Ur&antts Sex Pisamts, who was living 
when the picture was painted, about 1380, It is still pre 
served with great care in the Church of Sa. Caterfna, at Pisa. 
A figure by Benozzo Gozzoli, now in the Louvre, is so like 
this of Traini, that it should seem to be a copy or imitation 
of it, made when he was at Pisa in 1443. 

2. By Taddeo Graddi, in the large fresco in S. Maria Novella, 
St. Thomas is seated on a magnificent throne, over which hover 

3o 



378 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Rome. 




75 St. Thomas Aquinas. (Benozzo Gozzoli.) 

seven angels carrying the symbols of the theological virtues. 
On his right hand sit Peter, Paul, Moses, David, and Solomon ; 
on the left the four Evangelists. Crouching under his feet 
are the three great heretics, Arms, Averrhoes, and Sabellius. 
In a row beneath, and enthroned under beautiful Gothic 
niches, are fourteen female figures, representing the Arts and 
Sciences; and at their feet are seated fourteen figures of great 
theological and scientific writers. 

3. By Filippino Lippi, in the S. Maria-sopra-Minerva ; a 
large elaborate fresco, similar to the preceding in the leading 
allegory, but the whole treated in a more modern style. St. 
Thomas is enthroned on high, under a canopy of rich classic 
architecture ; under his feet are the arch-heretics, and on each 
side stand the theological virtues. In front of the picture 
are assembled those renowned polemical writers, disputants, 
and scholars, who are supposed to have waited on his teach 
ing, and profited by his words. 



ST. THOMAS AQUIHAS. 379 



4. St. Thomas is kneeling before a crucifix. From the 
mouth of the crucified Saviour proceed the words, Bene 
scripsisti de me, Thomas ; quam mercedem accipies? * (Thou 
hast written well of me, Thomas ; what recompense dost thou 
desire ?) The saint replies, * Non aliani nisi te, Domine I 
(Thyself only, Lord !) &lt; A companion of St. Thomas, hear- 
ing the crucifix thus speaking, stands utterly confounded and 
almost beside himself, This refers to a celebrated vision, 
related by his biographers (not by himself), in which a 
celestial voice thus spoke to him. The same subject was 
painted by Francesco Vanni in the Church of San Romano at 
Pisa. 

5. By Zurbaran, his masterpiece, the c San Tomas now in 
the Museum at Seville. This famous picture was painted for 
the Dominican college of that city. Not having seen it, I 
insert Mr. Stirling s description : 

* It is divided into three parts, and the figures are somewhat larger than 
life. Aloft, in the opening heavens, appear the Blessed Trinity, the Virgin, 
St. Paul and St. Dominick, and the angelic doctor St. Thomas Aquinas 
ascending to join their glorious company ; lower down 3 in middle air, sit the 
four Doctors of the Church, grand and venerable figures, on cloudy thrones ; 
and on the ground kneel, on the right hand, the Archbishop Diego de 
Deza, founder of the college, and on the left the Emperor Charles Y., 
attended by a train of ecclesiastics. The head of St. Thomas is said to be,a 
portrait of Don Augustine de Escobar, prebendary of Seville ; and, from the 
close adherence to Titian s pictures observable in the grave countenance of 
the imperial adorer, it is reasonable to suppose that in the other historical 
personages the likeness has been preserved wherever it was practicable. 
The dark mild face immediately behind Charles is traditionally held to be 
the portrait of Zurbaran himself. In spite of its blemishes as a composition, 
which are perhaps chargeable less against the painter than against his 
Dominican patrons of the college ; and in spite of a certain harshness of 
outline, this picture is one of the grandest of altarpieces. The colouring 
throughout is rich and eifective, and worthy of the school of Eoelas ; the 
heads are all of them admirable studies ; the draperies of the doctors and 
ecclesiastics are magnificent in breadth and amplitude of fold ; the imperial 
mantle is painted with Venetian splendour ; and the street view, receding 
in the centre of the canvas, is admirable for its atmospheric depth and 
distance/ 

On a certain occasion* when St. Thomas was returning by 
sea from Borne to Paris, c a violent storm terrified the crew 



3BO LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



and the passengers ; the saint only was without fear, and con- 
tinned in tranquil prayer till the storm had ceased/ I suppose 
this to be the subject of a picture in St. Thomas d Aquin at 
Paris, painted by Scheffer. 

I must mention two other learned personages who have been 
represented, though very rarely, in Art, and who may be con 
sidered in connection with St. Thomas Aquinas. 

ALBERTUS MAGNUS, a Dominican, and a famous teacher of 
theology, was the master of St. Thomas. He is sometimes 
called in Italy Sanf Alberto Magno, and is painted as the pen 
dant to St. Thomas Aquinas in two pictures, by Angelico da 
Fiesole, now in the Academy at Florence (Nos. 14 and 20). 

Of Duis T s SOOTUS, the Franciscan, the rival and adversary of 
St. Thomas in theological disputation, there is a fine and 
striking picture at Hampton Court; it belonged to James 
II., and is attributed to Eibera, by whom it was probably 
painted for a Franciscan convent. I shall have more to say 
of this celebrated friar in reference to the legends of the 
Virgin, as he was one of the earliest defenders of the Immacu 
late Conception. The disputes between him and St. Thomas 
gave rise to the two parties called Thomists and Scotists, now 
forgotten. 

Dante has placed S. Thomas Aquinas and S. Albertus 
Magnus as companions in paradise : 

* Quest! che m ? & a destra piti vicino 
Prate e maestro firm mi ; ed esso Alberto 
E di Cologna, ed io Tomas d ? Aquino/ 

In the Collection of Mr. Rogers there is a fine old head of 
St. Thomas Aquinas, with his book, pen, and ink-horn. It 
is in the manner of Grhirlandajo. 



ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA. 381 



ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA. 

Lat* Sancta Catherina Senese, Virgo admirabilis, et gloriosa Sponsa Christi 
Ital. Santa Caterina di Siena. La Santissima Vergine Senese. At 
Siena, La Santa. April 30, 1380. 

WHAT St. Clara is for the Franciscans, St. Catherine of Siena 
is for the Dominicans, the type of female sanctity and self- 
denial, according to the Rule of her Order. 

She is represented, in many beautiful and valuable pictures, 
alone, or grouped with St. Dominick or St. Peter Martyr, or 
with her namesake St. Catherine of Alexandria, as types re 
spectively of wisdom and sanctity. At Siena, where she figures 
as protectress of the city, she is often grouped with the other 
patrons, St. Ansano and St. Bernardino the Franciscan. It 
is from the painters of that peculiar and beautiful school of 
Art which flourished at Siena that we are to look for the finest 
and most characteristic effigies of St. Catherine as their native 
saint and patroness. Some very singular representations from 
the legends of her life and from her ecstatic visions, which, 
critically, do not rank high as works of Art, derive a strong, 
an almost painful, interest from the facts of her history, from 
her high endowments, from her real and passionate enthusiasm 
her too real agonies and errors, and from the important part 
which she played in the most troubled and eventful times of 
Italian story. Whether we regard her under the moral and 
religious, or the poetical and picturesque aspect, Catherine of 
Siena is certainly one of the most interesting of the female 
saints who figure in Art. 

The city of Siena, as those who have not seen may read, is 
situated on the highest point of one of those lofty eminences 
which rise up from the barren hilly district to the south of 
Tuscany. The country, as we approach it, has the appearance 
of a gi*eat volcanic sea, consolidated even while the waves were 
heaving. The Campagna of Rome, in its melancholy yet 
glorious solitude, is all poetry and beauty compared to the 
dreary monotony of the hilly waste which surrounds Siena. 
But the city itself, rising with its ample walls and towers, is 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



wonderfully striking. It is built on very unequal ground. 
You look down into peopled ravines you gaze up at palace- 
crowned heights ; and every now and then you come on wide 
vacant spaces of greensward and trees, between the inhabited 
part of the city and the massive walls, and heaps of ruined 
buildings showing the former size and splendour of the city, 
when it could send out a hundred thousand fighting men from 
its twenty-four gates. 

Between two high ridges, one crowned by the beautiful 
cathedral barred with white and black marble, the other 
by the convent of St. Dominick, sinks a deep ravine, to 
which you descend precipitately by narrow lanes ; and at the 
bottom of this ravine there is a famous fountain the Fonte- 
Branda (or Blanda). It is called a fountain, but is rather a 
gigantic well or tank ; a wide flight of steps leads down to 
a great Gothic hall, open on one side, into which pour the 
gathered streamlets of the surrounding hills, pure, Iimpid 3 
abundant. 

This ancient fountain was famous for the coldness and 

inferno, c. affluence of its waters in the days of Dante. Adam of Brescia, 

s " the hypocrite and coiner, when tormented in fire, says, that 

* to behold his enemies in the same plight would be to him 

sweeter and more refreshing than the waters of Branda to his 

burning tongue : 

Per Fonte-Branda nbn darei la vista : 

a horrid association of ideas which, with those who have 
seen the fountain itself, is merged in a never-forgotten picture 
of gay and busy life, and sunshine and sparkling waters. 
Around the margin of this cool, capacious, shadowy well, con 
gregate men, women, and children in every variety of costume, 
with merry voices merry, not musical: and cattle and beasts 
of burden, with their tinkling bells. From time immemorial 
the Fonte-Branda has been the favourite resort of the gossips 
and loungers of the city. The dwellings of dyers, wool- 
combers, bleachers, and fullers, and all other trades requiring 
an abundant supply of water, are collected in the neighbourhood 
of this fountain ; and on the declivity of the hill stands an. 



ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA. 



oratory, once the dwelling of Si Catherine of Siena, From it 
we loot up to the convent and church of St. Dominick, the 
scene of many passages in her story, which is thus related : 

In the year 1347 there dwelt in the city of Siena a certain 
Giacomo Benincasa, who was a dyer by trade, and for Ms 
station a rich and prosperous man ; for those were the palmy 
days of Siena, when as a free republic she equalled Florence 
in arts and arms, and almost rivalled her in the production of 
the fine woollen fabrics, which are still the staple manufacture 
of the place. Benincasa and his wife Lapla dwelt, as I have 
said, not far from the Fonte-Branda ; and they had many 
children, of whom the youngest and the most beloved was 
named Catherine. She was so fair, so gay, so graceful in her 
infancy, that the neighbours called her Euphrosyne ; but they 
also remarked that she was unlike her young companions; 
and as she grew up, she became a strange, solitary, visionary 
child, to whom an unseen world had revealed itself in such 
forms as the pictures and effigies in the richly adorned 
churches had rendered familiar to her eye and her fancy. 

One evening Catherine, being then about seven years old, 
was returning with her elder brother, Stefano, from the house 
of her married sister, Bonaventura 3 and they sat down to rest 
upon the hill which is above the Fonte-Branda; and as 
Catherine looked up to the Campanile of St. Dominick, it 
appeared to her that the heavens were opened, and that she 
beheld Christ sitting on a throne, and beside him stood St. 
Peter, St. Paul, and St. John the Evangelist. While she 
gazed upon this vision, lost in ecstasy, her brother stretched 
forth his hand and shook her, to recall her to herself. She 
turned to him, but when she looked up again, the heavens 
had closed, and the wondrous vision was shut from her sight; 
she threw herself on the ground and wept bitterly. 

But the glory which had been revealed to her dwelt upon 
her memory. She wandered alone away from her playmates ; 
she became silent and very thoughtful. She remembered the 
story she had seen the pictures of her holy patroness and 
namesake, Catherine of Alexandria ; and she prayed to the 



SSI 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Virgin Mary that she would be pleased to bestow her Divine 
Son upon her also, and that he should -be her chosen bride 
groom. The most Blessed Virgin heard and granted her 
prayer, and from this time forth did Catherine secretly 
dedicate herself to a life of perpetual chastity/ being then 
only eight years old. 




Vision of St. Catherine of Siena. (Vanni.) 



Her mother and her father were good and pious both, but 
they understood not what was passing in the mind of their 
child. Her love of solitude, her vigils and her dreams, her 
fastings and penances, seemed to them foolishness. Her 
mother rebuked her ; and her father, as she grew up fair and 
beautiful to look upon, wished her to marry like her sisters ; 
but Catherine rejected all suitors ; she asked only to dwell 
with him whom, in her heart, she had espoused : she regarded 
herself as one consecrated and set apart, and her days were 
passed in solitude, or before the altar in prayer. Her parents 
were excited to anger by her disobedience ; she was no longer 
tiheir well-beloved child ; they dismissed the woman servant, 



ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA. SS5 



and laid all tlie household duties, even the meanest and most 

toilsome, on Catherine. Moreover, they treated her harshly, 

and her brothers and sisters mocked her. But Catherine 

thought in her heart, Were not the saints thus afflicted ? did 

not the martyrs of old suffer far more and worse ? and she 

endured all unrepining; she performed submissively and 

diligently whatever duties were required of her : but she lived 

almost without food and sleep ; and, to discourage her earthly 

suitors, she became negligent in her attire, and cut off her 

long and beautiful tresses, offering them up at the foot of the 

altar. Her mother and her sister Bonaventura spoke hard 

words to her; they again pressed her to accept a husband 

approved by her father, but she refused. Shortly afterwards 

Bonaventura died in childbirth, which Catherine knew was a 

judgment upon her for her wicked advice ; nevertheless, she 

prayed so earnestly that her sister might be delivered from 

purgatory, that her prayer was granted, and it was revealed to 

her that the soul of Bonaventura was translated into paradise. 

But, for all this, her parents still urged her with offers of 

marriage ; until one day, as Benincasa entered his daughter s 

chamber, or cell, he found her kneeling in prayer, and on 

her head sat a snow-white dove. She appeared unconscious 

of its presence. Then the good man trembled within himself, 

and .he feared lest in opposing her vocation he might offend 

against the Holy Spirit, who thus, in visible form, attended 

and protected her. So, from this time forth, he resolved to 

say no more, and left Catherine free to follow the promptings 

of her own heart. She went up to the convent of St. Domi- 

nick, humbly entreated admission, and was received as a 

Penitent of the Third Order. She never inhabited the 

convent as a professed and secluded nun; but she vowed 

herself to an absolute silence for three years, slept on a deal 

board with a log for a pillow, and shut herself up in the little 

chamber or garret she had appropriated in her father s house, 

ascending at early dawn, or coming night, the steep path 

which led to the summit of the hill, to perform, her devotions 

in the convent church, afterwards the scene of her miraculous 

visions* , 

3D 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS, 



But in her vocation Catherine did not find that peace which 
she had looked for. The story relates that the arch-enemy of 
man rendered her task of self-denial as difficult as possible ; 
that he laid in her path horrible snares ; tortured her, 
tempted her with foulest images and fancies and suggestions, 
just as he had tempted the holy hermit St. Antony in the 
days of old. In these visitations, as it is recorded, Catherine 
did not argue with her spiritual deceiver ; she knew from 
experience that the father of lies could argue better than she 

could, that argument, indeed, was one of his most efficient 

weapons. She prayed, she fasted, she scourged herself at the 
foot of the altar till the blood flowed down from her shoulders; 
and she called on Christ, her affianced bridegroom, to help 
her. He came, he comforted her with Ms visible presence. 
When at midnight she arose and went into the church to 
compose her soul by prayer, he appeared before her, walked 
up and down the cold pavement with her, talked to her with 
ineffable graciousness and sweetness: thus she herself 
related, and some believed ; but others, wicked and doubting 
minds, refused to believe, and there were times when she dis 
trusted herself and the goodness of God towards her: &lt;If 
these mysterious graces vouchsafed to her should be after all 
but delusions, but snares, of the enemy 1 For a time she 
laid aside her strict austerities and her recluse life, and 
devoted herself to the most active charity. She visited the 
poor around, she nursed the sick ; but, through the ill offices 
of Satan, she was tried and tempted sorely, even through her 
charitable self-devotion. 

There was a poor woman, a neighbour, whose bosom was 
half eaten away by a cancer, and whom few could venture to 
approach. Catherine, overcoming the strong repugnance of 
her nature to such an office, ministered to her, sometimes in 
the cold winter night carrying the wood on her back to make 
a fire ; and, although the woman proved ungrateful, and even 
spiteful towards her, forsook her not till death had released 
her. There was another woman who was a leper, and, as such, 
was banished beyond the walls of the city. Catherine sought 
her out and brought her home, gave up her bed to her, tended 



ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA. 387 



her, and nursed her, and in consequence was herself infected 
by leprosy in her hands. Now this woman also proved ill- 
conditioned and thankless, and peevishly exacted as her right 
what was bestowed in Christian charity. But Catherine 
endured everything from her with unwearied patience ; and 
when at length the woman died, and there was no other to 
undertake the perilous and disgusting office, she washed her, 
laid her out, and buried her with her own hands, which, from 
being diseased, were from that moment miraculously healed. 

Another time, as she was wending her way through the city 
on some compassionate errand, she saw two robbers carried 
forth to the place of execution without the walls, and they 
filled the air with imprecations and cries of despair, rejecting 
the offices of religion, while the multitude followed after them 
with curses. And Catherine was moved with a deep and holy 
compassion ; for these men, thus hurried along to a shameful, 
cruel, merited death, were they not still her brethren in Christ? 
go she stopped the car and demanded to be placed by their 
side ; and so tender and so persuasive were the words she 
spoke, that their hard hearts were melted ; they confessed their 
sins and the justice of their sentence, and died repentant and 
reconciled. 

Catherine, that her virtue and her sanctity might be fully 
manifested, was persecuted and vilified by certain envious and 
idle nuns of the convent of St. Dominick, among whom a 
sister, Palmerina, was especially malignant ; and these insisted 
that her visions were merely dreams, and that all her charitable 
actions proceeded from vainglory. She laid her wrongs, 
weeping, at the feet of Christ. He appeared to her bearing in 
one hand a crown of gold and jewels, in the other a crown of 
thorns, and bade her choose between them ; she took from his 
hand the crown of thorns and placed it on her own head, 
pressing it down hastily, and with such force that the thorns 
penetrated to her brain, and she cried out with the agony. 
Palmerino afterwards repented, and, falling at the feet of 
Catherine, begged her forgiveness, which was immediately 
granted. 



SS8 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Catherine would often pray in the words of Scripture for a 
new heart : whereupon, as it is related, our Saviour appeared 
to her in a vision, took her heart from her bosom, and replaced 
it with his own : and there remained a wound or scar on her 
left side from that time. 

Many other marvellous gifts and graces were vouchsafed to 
her, but these I forbear to relate, for the greatest of all remains 
to be recorded. 

, When Catherine was at Pisa, she was praying at early 
dawn in the chapel of St. Christina, before a crucifix venerable 
for its sanctity ; and while she prayed, being absorbed in 
rapturous devotion, she was transfixed, that is, received the 
stigmata, as St. Francis had done before ; which miracle, not 
withstanding her endeavour to conceal it, was attested by 
many who knew her, both in her lifetime and after her death. 1 

The conversion, through her prayers or her eloquence, of many 
wicked and unjust persons to a new life, the revelations with 
which she was favoured, her rigorous self-denial, and her extra 
ordinary virtues, spread the fame of Catherine through all the 
cities of Tuscany, and even as far as Milan and Naples. At this 
time (about 1376) the Florentines, having rebelled against the 
Holy See, were excommunicated by the pope, Gregory XL 
They would have braved his displeasure but that it reacted on 
their commercial relations with other countries, with France 
more particularly ; and they wished for a reconciliation. They 
chose for their ambassadress and mediator Catherine of Siena. 

She set out, therefore, for Avignon, where the popes then 
resided, and, being received by the papal court with all respect 
and deference, she conducted the negotiation with so much 
discretion that the pope constituted her arbitress, and left 
her to dictate the terms of peace between himself and the 
turbulent Florentines, But on her return to Florence she 
found the whole city in a state of tumult, and when she would 

i The crucifix commemorated in this legend is a painting on panel "by Giunta 
Pisano (about 1260). It was afterwards removed from Pisa by a special decree 
of the pope, and placed in the oratory of St. Catherine at Siena, where I saw it 
in 1347. 



8T. CATHERINE OF SIESTA. 



have harangued the populace, they not only refused to listen 
to her, but obliged her to take refuge in a convent of her 
Order, where she remained concealed till the sedition was put 
down. Catherine, and others too, believed that much, of the 
misery and misrule which then afflicted Italy arose from the 
absence of the Roman pontiffs from their own capital. She 
used all her influence with the pope to induce him to return to 
Borne, and once more fix the seat of government in the Lateran ; 
and it is related that her urgent and persuasive letters, at this 
time addressed to the pope and the cardinals, decided their 
wavering resolution. The pope left Avignon in September 
1376 ; Catherine met him on the way, attended on him when 
he made his public entry into Rome ; and when, in his alarm 
at the consequences of the step he had taken, the Holy Father 
was about to return to Avignon, she persuaded him to remain. 
He died the following year. The Great Schism of the West 
followed ; and Christendom beheld two infallible popes, sup 
ported by two factions arrayed against each other. Catherine 
took the part of the Italian pope, Urban VI, and showed, in 
advocating his cause, more capacity, good sense, and honesty 
of purpose, than the most favourable of his biographers ever 
discovered in the character and conduct of that violent and 
imbecile pontiff. He appointed her his ambassadress to the 
court of Joanna II. of Naples, and she at once accepted the 
mission; but those who were to accompany her refused to 
undertake a journey so beset with dangers, and, after various 
delays, the project was abandoned. Pity that the world was 
not edified by the spectacle of Catherine of Siena, the visionary 
ascetic nun, playing the part of plenipotentiary in the most 
licentious court of Europe, and brought face to face with such 
a woman as the second Joanna of Naples ! 

In the midst of these political and religious dissensions 
Catherine became sick to death, and after a period of grievous 
bodily suffering, still full of enthusiastic faith, she expired, 
being then thirty-three years old. In her last moments, and 
while the weeping enthusiasts who surrounded her bed were 
eagerly gathering and recording her dying words as heavenly 
oracles, she was heard to murmur No ! no ! no ! not vain- 



890 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



gl or y !_not vainglory I but the glory of God ! as if she 
were answering some accuser within; as if to the half-alarmed 
conscience there had been a revelation of some merely human 
purposes and feelings lurking behind the ostensible sanctity. 
But who can know this truly ? and it is fair to add, that the 
words have been differently interpreted, indeed in quite an 
opposite sense, as expressing an assertion, not a doubt 

Among the devout admirers of Catherine during her life 
time was the painter Andrea Yanni. He belonged to a family 
of artists, the first of whom, his grandfather, flourished in the 
beginning of the fourteenth century ; the last, Baflfaello Yanni, 
died towards the end of the seventeenth. The family was 
noble ; and it appears that Andrea, besides being the best 
painter of his time, was Capitano del Popolo, and sent as 
ambassador from the republic of Siena to the pope, and after 
wards to Naples, where, during his embassy, he painted several 
pictures ; hence he has been styled by Lanzi the Rubens of his 
age. St. Catherine appears to have regarded him with maternal 
tenderness. Among her letters are three addressed to him 
during his political life, containing excellent advice with 
respect to the affairs intrusted to him, as well as his own moral 
and religious conduct. These letters bear as superscription 
on the outside, f A Maestro Andrea di Vanni, Dipintore ; 
and begin, Carissimo Figliuolo in Christo* In one of them 
she points out the means of obtaining an influence over the 
minds of those around him, and then adds, Ma non veggo il 
modo che noi potessimo ben reggere altrui se prima non reg- 
ghiamo noi medesimV (I do not see how we are to govern 
others unless we first learn to govern ourselves.) Among 
the works of Andrea in his native city, was a head of Christ, 
said to have been painted under the immediate instruction of 
St. Catherine, representing the Saviour as she had, in her 
visions, beheld him. Unhappily, this has perished : it would 
certainly have been a most curious document, and would 
have thrown much light on Catherine s own mind and 
character. Equally, however, in importance and interest, is 
the authentic effigy of his sainted friend and patroness which 



ST, CATHERINE OF SIENA, 



391 



Yanni lias left us. This portrait was painted originally on 
the wall of the Church of San Domenico, in that part of the 
nave which was the scene of Catherine s devotions and mystic 

visions, and which has since 
"been divided off and en 
closed as a place of peculiar 
sanctity. The fresco, now 
over a small altar, has long 
been covered with glass and 
carefully preserved, and is 
in all respects most strik 
ing and lifelike. I give a 
sketch from it, in which the 
general character of the 
head is tolerably preserved ; 
but it would be difficult to 
transfer, even to a finished 
copy, its peculiar beauty. 
It is a spare, worn, but 
elegant face, with small re 
gular features. Her black 
mantle is drawn round her ; 
she holds her spotless lily 
in one hand, the other is 
j presented to a kneeling nun, 
who seems about to press it 
reverentially to her lips; 
st. Catherine of Siena. this figure has been called 

a votary, but I think it may represent the repentance and 
pardon of her enemy Palmerina. 

In the single devotional figures, so commonly met with in 
the Dominican churches, St. Catherine is distinguished by 
the habit of the Order and the stigmata ; these together fix 
the identity at once. It is true that one of the earliest of her 
biographers, the good St. Antonino of Florence, who was 
born seven or eight years after her death, asserts distinctly 
that the stigmata were not impressed visibly on her body, but 




302 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



on her soul: and about a century later, the Franciscans 
petitioned Pope Sixtus IV. that Catherine of Siena might 
not be represented in a manner which placed her on an 
equality with their own great saint and patriarch. Sixtus, 
who before his elevation had been a Franciscan friar, issued 
a decree, that in the effigies of St. Catherine the stigmata 
should thenceforth be omitted. This mandate may have been 
in some instances, and at the time, obeyed ; but I cannot, on 
recollection, name a single picture in which it has not been 
disregarded. 

The lily is an attribute scarcely ever omitted ; and she also 
(but rarely) bears the palm, not as martyr, but expressing 
her victory over temptation and suffering. The book so often 
placed in her hand represents the writings she left behind her. 
The crown of thorns is also given to her, in reference to the 
legend already related. 

I will now give a few examples : 

B Museum. 1. In a rare Sienese print of the fifteenth century. She 
stands with a hideous demon prostrate under her feet : in one 
hand the lily and the palm ; in the other a church, which may 
represent the Church, of which she was styled the defender, 
in its general sense, or a particular church dedicated to her. 

2. She stands holding her lily ; probably one of the first 
pictures of her in her character of saint, painted for the 
Dominicans at Perugia. 1 

3. She stands with Mary Magdalene *rapt in spirit, and 
looking up at a vision of the Virgin and Saviour : by Fra 
Bartolomeo, in the Church of San Romano at Lucca, as fine 
as possible. Vasari says, * 6 una figura, della quale, in quel 
grade*) non si pud far meglio? 

4. She stands holding a cross and a book. A beautiful 
figure by Ghirlandajo. 

5. She stands holding her book and lily. Statue in white 
marble by Attichiati. 



i This elegant figure, which is engraved in Rossini s Storia ddlu Plttum (vol. 
i,), is not by Bufalmacco, to whom, it is attributed, nor in his style. Bufalmacco 
painted about 1350-60 ; Catherine died in 1880, and was not canonised till a 
century afterwards. 



ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA. 



39$ 



6. She kneels with St. Dominick before the throne of the 
Madonna; the lily at her feet. The Infant Saviour is 
turned towards her, and with one hand he crowns her with 
thorns, with the other he presents the rosary. This small 
but most beautiful altarpiece was painted by Sasso Ferrato 




78 



M./U WILLIAMS. So. 

St. Dominick and St. Catherine of Siena. (Sasso Ferrato.) 



for the Santa-Sabina, on the Aventme, the first church 
of the Dominicans at Rome. I give a slight sketch of 
the composition of this picture the masterpiece of the 

3 E 



394 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Siena, 
S. Dome- 
nico. 



painter, with all his usual elegance, and without his usual 
insipidity. 

7. She kneels, and our Saviour, a majestic figure standing, 
places on her head the crown of thorns ; behind St. Catherine 
are Mary Magdalene, St. Raphael with Tobit, St. Peter, St. 
Paul, and St. Philip the apostle. A magnificent group, 
painted by F. Bissolo. 

8. She receives the stigmata, fainting in a trance before 
the crucifix, and sustained in the arms of two sisters of her 
Order. The fresco in her chapel, by Eazzi, is justly cele- 




79 



St. Catherine of Siena, fainting, (liuzzi.) 

brated, and I give a sketch merely to show the arrangement. 
Here St. Catherine and her companions wear the white tunic 
and scapulary, without the black mantle an omission favour 
able to the general effect of the colour, which is at once most 



ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA. 395 



delicate, rich, and harmonious: and the beauty of the faces, 
the expression of tender anxiety and reverence in the nuns, 
the divine languor on the pallid features of St. Catherine, 
render this fresco one of the marvels of Art. 

As a subject, Sfc. Catherine fainting before the crucifix is of 
very frequent occurrence, but generally she is sustained in the 
arms of angels, as in the picture by Raffaello Vanni, and in 
another by Tiarini, or, while she sleeps or swoons, angels 
hover round her. 

The Sposalizio of St. Catherine of Siena is variously repre 
sented, and often in a manner which makes it difficult to dis 
tinguish her from St. Catherine of Alexandria, except by the 
habit and the veil. 

The earliest and finest -example is perhaps the beautiful 
altarpiece by Fra Bartolomeo, painted for his Convent of 
St. Mark at Florence, but, since the time of Francis L, one 
of the ornaments of the Louvre. The Virgin sits enthroned 
holding her Divine Son; before her kneels St. Catherine, 
receiving from the Infant Christ the mystic ring. On one 
side of the throne stand St. Peter, St. Bartholomew, and St. 
Vincent Ferraris ; on the other, St. Francis and St. Dominick 
are embracing each other. This is one of the pictures seen 
and admired by Raphael when he visited Fra Bartolomeo at 
Florence between 1505 and 1507, and which first roused his 
attention and emulation with regard to colour. 

Historical subjects relative to St. Catherine are rarely met 
with out of their native city ; all those of which I have pre 
served memoranda exist in the churches and oratories at 
Siena. 

In her chapel in the San Domenico, besides the beautiful 
fresco by Razzi, already described, we have on one side the 
scene with the robbers, by the same painter ; on the other the 
healing of a demoniac, by Francesco Vanni. 

In her oratory (formerly the Bottega di Tintoria of her 
father) is the cure of a sick man, who at her command rises 
from his bed ; by Pacchiarotti : and by Salimbeni, the scene 
in which she harangues the revolted Florentines. St. Catherine 



896 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



before Gregory XL at Avignon, pleading the cause of the 
Florentines, and her return to Florence, are by Sebastian 
Folli, a late Sienese painter; and by Pacchiarotti, the finest 
of all, the pilgrimage of St. Catherine to visit the tomb of 
St. Agnes of Montepulciano. This St. Agnes was a Dominican 
nun, who, uniting great intelligence and activity of mind 
with superior sanctity, was elected abbess of her convent at 
the age of fifteen, and died about 1317. Although held in 
great veneration by the people in the south of Tuscany, she 
was not formally canonised till 1604; consequently we see 
few pictures of her, and those of a very late date, and confined 
to the locality. But to return to St. Catherine. She was 
among those wlio, through respect and devotion, visited the 
tomb of Agnes, accompanied by two of her nieces, who on 
that occasion took the veil : the fresco is magnificent, and 
contains heads which for depth and beauty of expression have 
been compared to Raphael 

The library of the Duomo is decorated with a series of ten 
large frescoes representing the principal events in the life of 
Pius II. , painted by Pinturicchio with the assistance of Raphael. 
The lastof these is the ceremony of the Canonisation of Catherine 
of Siena, performed by Pius II. with great solemnity in 1461. 
The body of the saint, exhumed for the purpose, lies extended 
before the pope ; a lily is placed in her band ; several cardinals 
and a crowd of assistants, bearing tapers, stand around. 

In the year 1648, a special office was appointed in honour of 
St. Catherine of Siena by Urban VIII,, in which it was said 
that Catherine was descended from the same family as the 
Borghesi; she who was only the daughter of a dyer I That 
noble house, greatly scandalised by such an imputation, made a 
formal complaint to the papal court: C 6tait iniurieusement 

. . l j*i i. i^/ j.i 

faire passer Jeur maison pour rotun^re et plebeienne, etlaisser 
6galement & leurs descendants un affront kernel dans toute la 
Chr6tient6 ; and they insisted on having these obnoxious 
passages expunged from the Ritual. There cannot be a stronger 
proof of the change which had taken place in point of religious 
feeling between the fourteenth and the seventeenth century. 



ST. AtfTONINO OF FLORENCE. S97 



Gregory XL, the friend of St. Catherine, lies buried in the R me &gt; 
Church of St. Francesca Romana. Over his tomb is a very fine 
bas-relief representing his solemn entry into Home, on the 
occasion of the return of the papal court from Avignon, 
Catherine of Siena is seen conspicuous in the assemblage 
of cardinals, prelates, and princes, who form the triumphant 
procession. 



ST. ANTONINO, ARCHBISHOP OF FLORENCE. 

May 10, 1461. 

THE story of this good saint is connected in a very interesting 
manner with the history of Art 

He was born at Florence, of noble parents, about* the year 
1384. "While yet in his childhood the singular gravity of his 
demeanour, his dislike to all childish sports, and the enthu 
siasm and fervour with which he was seen to pray for hours 
before a crucifix of particular sanctity, then, and I believe 
now, in the Or-san-Michele, caused his parents to regard Florence, 
him as one set apart for the service of God. At the age of 
fifteen he presented himself at the door of the Dominican 
convent at Fiesole, and humbly desired to be admitted as a 
novice. The prior, astonished at the request from one so 
young, and struck by his diminutive person and delicate 
appearance, deemed him hardly fit to undertake the duties 
and austerities imposed on the Order, but would not harshly 
refuse him. What hast thou studied, my son ? he asked, 
benignly \ the boy replied modestly that he had studied the 
Humanities and the Canon Law. &lt; Well, replied the prior, 
somewhat incredulous, * return to thy father s house, my son \ 
and when thou hast got by heart the Libro del Decreto, return 
hither, and thou shalt have thy wish, and so with good words 
dismissed him, not thinking, perhaps, to see him again. Anto- 
nine, though not gifted with any extraordinary talents, had 
an indomitable will, and was not to be frightened, by tasks or 
tests of any kind, from a resolution over which he had brooded 



398 LEG-ENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



from infancy. He turned away from the gate of the convent, 
and sought his home. At the end of a year he appeared again 
before the prior : Reverend father, I have learned the book 
of Decrees by heart ; will you now admit me ? The good 
prior, recovering from his astonishment, put him to the proof, 
found that he could repeat the whole book as if he held it in 
his hand, and therefore, seeing clearly that it was the will of 
God that it should be so, he admitted him into the brotherhood, 
and sent him to Cortona to study during the year of his novi- 
A.I&gt;. H05. ciate. At the end of that period, he returned to Fiesole and 
pronounced his vows, being then sixteen. The remainder of 
his life showed that his had been a true vocation. Lowly, 
charitable, and studious, he was above all remarkable for the 
gentle but irresistible power he exercised over others, and 
which arose not so much from any idea entertained of his 
superior talents and judgment as from confidence in the sim 
plicity of his pure, unworldy mind and in his perfect truth. 

Now, in the same convent at Fiesole where Antonino 
made his profession, there dwelt a young friar about the same 
age as himself, whose name was Fra Giovanni, and who was 
yet more favoured by Heaven ; for to him, in addition to the 
virtues of humility, charity, and piety, was vouchsafed the 
gift of surpassing genius. He was a painter : early in life 
he had dedicated himself and his beautiful art to the service of 
God and of His most blessed saints; and, that he might be 
worthy of his high and holy vocation, he sought to keep him 
self unspotted from the world, for he was accustomed to say, 
that &lt; those who work for Christ must dwell in Christ Ever 
before he commenced a picture which was to be consecrated 
to the honour of God, he prepared himself with fervent prayer 
and meditation, and then he began, in humble trust that it 
would be put into his mind what he ought to delineate; and 
he would never change or deviate from the first idea, for, as 
he said, that was the will of God (cost fusse la volonta di 
Dio) ; and this he said, not in presumption, but in faith and 
simplicity of heart. So he passed his life in imagining those 
visions of beatitude which descended on his fancy, sent indeed 
by no fabled Muse, but even by that Spirit * that doth prefer 



8T ANTONINO OF FLORENCE. 399 



before all temples the upright heart and pure ; and surely 
never before or since was earthly material worked up into 
soul, nor earthly forms refined into spirit, as under the hand 
of this most pious and most excellent painter. He became 
sublime by the force of his own goodness and humility. It 
was as if paradise had opened upon him, a paradise of rest 
and joy, of purity and love, where no trouble, no guile, no 
change could enter ; and if, as it has been said, his celestial 
creations seern to want power, not the less do we feel that they 
need it not, that before these ethereal beings power itself 
would be powerless : such are his angels, resistless in their 
soft serenity ; such his virgins, pure from all earthly stain; 
such his redeemed spirits, gliding into paradise ; such his 
sainted martyrs and confessors, absorbed in devout rapture. 
Well has he been named IL BJEATO and ANGELICO, whose life 
was * participate with angels even in this world ! 

Now this most excellent and favoured Giovanni, and the 
good and gentle-hearted Antonino, dwelling together in their 
youth within the narrow precincts of their convent, came to 
know and to love each other well. And no doubt the con 
templative and studious mind of Antonino nourished with 
spiritual learning the genius of the painter, while the realisa 
tion of his own teaching grew up before him in hues and forms 
more definite than words and more harmonious than music ; 
and when in after years they parted, and Antonino was sent 
by his superiors to various convents, to restore by his mild 
influence relaxed discipline, and Angelico by the same 
authority to various churches and convents at Florence, Cor- 
tona, Arezzo, Orvieto, to adorn them with his divine skill, 
the two friends never forgot each other. 

Many years passed away, in which each fulfilled his voca 
tion, walking humbly before God ; when at length the fame of 
Angelico having gone forth through all Italy, the pope called 
him to Rome to paint for him there a chapel of wondrous beauty, 
with the pictured actions and sufferings of those two blessed 
martyrs, St. Stephen and Si Laurence, whose remains repose 
together without the walls of Borne; and while Angelico was at 
his work, the pope took pleasure in looking on and conversing 



400 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS, 



with him, and was filled with reverence for his pure and holy 
life, and for his wisdom, which, indeed, was not of this world. 

At this period the Archbishop of Florence died, and the 
pope was much troubled to fill his place, for the times were 
perilous, and the Florentines were disaffected to the Church. 

One day conversing with Angelico, and more than ever 
struck "witli his simplicity, his wisdom, and his goodness, he 
offered him the dignity of archbishop ; and great was the sur 
prise of the Holy Father when the painter entreated that he 
would choose another, being himself addicted to his art, and not 
fit to guide or instruct or govern men ; adding that he knew of 
one far more worthy than himself, one of his own brotherhood, 
a man who feared God and loved the poor, learned, discreet, 
and faithful; and he named the Frate Antonino, who was 
then acting in Naples as Vicar- General, When the pope 
heard that name, it was as if a sudden light broke through the 
trouble and darkness of his mind ; he wondered that he had 
not thought of him before, as he was precisely the man best 
fitted for the office. Antonino therefore was appointed Arch 
bishop of Florence, to the great joy of the Florentines, for he 
was their countryman, and already beloved and honoured for 
the sanctity and humility of his life ; when raised to his new 
dignity he became the model of a wise and good prelate, 
maintaining peace among his people, and distinguished not 
only by his charity but his justice and his firmness. 

He died in 1459 at the age of seventy, having held the 
dignity of archbishop thirteen years, and was buried in the 
Convent of St. Mark. Adrian VI. canonised him, and the 
bull was published in 1523. 

There are, of course, no effigies of St Antonino in his 
character of saint earlier than this date, and, except at 
Florence, I do not recollect meeting with any. As, however, 
he is the only distinguished canonised prelate of the Order, it 
may be presumed that an episcopal saint introduced into the 
Dominican pictures, and not accompanied by any particular 
attribute, represents St. Antonino. He is always exhibited as 
archbishop. This sketch is from a characteristic full-length 



ST. ANTONINO OF FLORENCE. 



401 



figure the size of life, "by Domenico Q-hir- 
landajo. Here lie wears the pallium as 
archbishop over his Dominican habit. In 
his splendid chapel in the San Marco at 
Florence, dedicated by the Salviati, is his 
statue in white marble, by John of Bologna. 
The frescoes on each side represent the 
ceremonies which took place on his canon 
isation. In the first, he is lying in state 
in the church,, surrounded by five cardinals 
and nineteen bishops ; in the second, he is 
borne to his resting-place in the chapel, 
in a procession of prelates, princes, and 
magistrates. As these frescoes contain 
portraits from the life of the most dis 
tinguished Florentines then living, they About 1590. 
have become invaluable as documents, 
and are, besides, admirably painted by 
Passiguano in his best manner that is to 
say, very like Paul Veronese. 

There is also a well-known figure of St. 
, . Antonino, one of the first objects we meet 

80 St. Antonino of Florence. ? . _ _ ^ .__ 

(GMriandajo,) when entering the Duomo of Florence by 
the principal door. He is seated on a 
throne, attired in his episcopal robes, and in the act of 
blessing the people. 

One among the legendary stories of St. Antonino is fre 
quently represented. During a terrible pestilence and famine 
which afflicted Florence in his time, there were two blind 
men, who were beggars by profession, and who had amassed 
in their vocation many hundred crowns ; yet, in this season 
of affliction they not only withheld their hoards, but pre 
sented themselves among those who sought aid from public 
charity. The moment Antonino fixed his eyes on them, the 
true state of the case was by a miracle made known to him. 
Severely did he then rebuke those selfish hypocrites, took 
from them their hidden wealth, which he, sent to the hospital, 

3F 




LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



and, though lie maintained them generously during the rest 
of their lives, he made them perform strict penance for then- 
former sinful and unfeeling avarice. 



Jan. as, ST. RAYMOND DE PjEHAFORTE, who figures chiefly in Spanish 

1275. ^ r ^ was Q f an in us trious family of Barcelona, nearly allied to 
the kings of Aragon. He was born at his father s castle at 
Penaforte in Catalonia, in 1175; .entered the Church early, 
and became a perfect model to the clergy by his zeal, devotion, 
and boundless liberality to the poor, whom he called his 
creditors. He assumed the habit of the Order of St. 
Dominick a few months after the death of its founder, and 
devoted himself to the duties it enjoined those of preaching, 
instructing the poor, and converting sinners and heretics. 
Late in life he was elected the third General of his Order. 
It is said of him, by way of eulogy, that being commissioned 
by the pope s legate to preach a holy war against the Moors, 
this servant of God acquitted himself with so much prudence, 
zeal, and charity, that he sowed the seeds of the overthrow and 
total expulsion of these infidels in Spain. He died at Barce 
lona in the year 1275, in the hundredth year of his age, and was 
canonised by Pope Clement VIII. in 1601. His miracles, 
performed before and after his death, filled fifteen folio pages. 
The most celebrated of these, and one which is frequently 
represented in pictures, being authenticated by the bull of 
his canonisation, is thus related : He was confessor to Don 
James, king of Aragon, called El Conquistador, a warlike and 
accomplished prince after the fashion of princes that is, he 
was inclined to serve God and obey his confessor in all things 
that did not interfere with his policy or his pleasures. He 
had, in fact, but one fault; he was attached to a certain beauty 
of his court from whom Raymond in vain endeavoured to 
detach him. When the king summoned his confessor to attend 
him to Majorca, the saint refused unless the lady were left 
behind: the king affected to yield but soon after their arrival 
in Majorca, Raymond discovered that the lady was also there 
in the disguise of a page : he remonstrated ; the king grew 



ST. RAYMOND DB PENAFORTE. 403 



angry; Eaymond .intimated his resolution to withdraw to 
Spain; the king forbade any vessel to leave the port, and made 
it death to any person to convey him from the island. The 
result is thus gravely related : * St. Raymond, full of confi 
dence in God, said to his companion, " An earthly king has 
deprived us of the means of escape, but a heavenly King will 
supply them!" then, walking up to a rock which projected 
into the sea, he spread his cloak on the waters, and, setting 
his staff upright, and tying one corner to it for a sail, he made 
the sign of the cross and boldly embarked in this new kind of 
vessel. He was wafted over the surface of the ocean with 
such rapidity that in six hours he reached Barcelona. This 
stupendous miracle might perhaps have been doubted if five 
hundred credible witnesses had not seen the saint land on the 
quay at Barcelona, take up his cloak, which was not even 
wetted by the waves, throw it round him, and retire modestly 
to his cell, more like a humble penitent than one in whose 
favour Heaven had so wonderfully wrought. It is pleasant to 
know that Don Jayme afterwards repented, and governed his 
kingdom (and his conduct) by the advice of Eaymond till the 
death of the saint. 

Devotional effigies of St. Eaymond are found in the Domi 
nican churches and convents, and are in general productions 
of the Spanish and Bologna schools about the period of his 
canonisation (1601). He wears the habit of his Order; in 
the background, the sea, over which he is gliding on his black 
mantle. The representation of the miracle as an historical 
subject is frequent : the best is that of Ludovico Garacci in 
the San Domenico at Bologna ; it exhibits the saint kneeling 
on his black mantle, looking up to heaven with a devout 
and confiding expression, and thus borne over the waves. 

Sir Edmund Head, in the Handbook of the Spanish and 
French Schools, mentions a series of six pictures from the 
life of Eaymond painted by Pacheco for the Merced at Seville 
but does not say what are the subjects chosen. 

It appears to me that there is some confusion here, and also 
in Mr. Stirling s Artists of Spain (p. 318), between this 



404 LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC OKDERS. 



St. Raymond of PeSaforte, the Dominican, and St. Raymond 
Nonnatus of the Order of Mercy, who died in 1240, after 
having been created a cardinal by Gregory IX. 



April 5,ui9. Another Spanish Dominican who figures in Art is ST. 
VIKOENT FERRARIS. He was born at Valencia in Spain, in 
1357; of virtuous and religious parents, who stinted them 
selves of necessary things to provide for his education and 
that of his brother Boniface. He took the habit of the Order 
of St. Dominick in his eighteenth year ; and became one of 
the greatest preachers and missionaries of that Order. There 
was scarce a province or a town in Europe that he did not 
visit ; he preached in France, Italy, Spain, and, by the express 
invitation of Henry IV. , in England. 

From the descriptions we have of this saint, it appears that 
he produced his effect by appealing to the passions and 
feelings of his congregation. The ordinary subjects of his 
sermons were sin, death, the judgments of G-od, hell, and 
eternity ; delivered, says his eulogist, with so much energy, 
that he filled the most insensible with terror. Like another 
Boanerges, he preached in a voice of thunder ; his hearers 
often fainted away, and he was obliged to pause till the tears, 
sobs, and sighs of his congregation had a little subsided; hie 
possessed himself what has been called an extraordinary gift of 
tears ; and, take him altogether, this saint appears to me a 
Roman Catholic "Whitfield. It is said that he performed many 
miracles, and that preaching in his own tongue he was 
understood by men of different nations ; Greeks, Germans, 
Sardinians, Hungarians, and others, declared that they under 
stood every word he uttered, though he preached in Latin, or 
in the Spanish dialect as spoken at Valencia. The last two 
years of his life were spent in Brittany and Normandy, then 
desolated by the English invasion ; there he was seized with 
his last illness, and died at Vannes, at the age of 62. Jeanne 
de France, Duchess of Brittany, washed his body and prepared 
it for the grave with her own hands. He was canonised by 
Calixtus IIL in 1455. 



ST. HYACINTH. 



The proper attribute of this saint is the crucifix, held aloft 
in his hand as preacher and missionary. In allusion to the 
fervour and inspiration which characterised his discourses, he 
is sometimes represented with wings to his shoulders ; likening 
him, in his character of a preacher of the Gospel, to the 
Evangelists, being, like them, a messenger of good tidings : 
but I am not sure that this attribute has been sanctioned by 
ecclesiastical authority; and, at all events, these large em 
blematical wings, in conjunction with the Dominican habit, 
have a strange uncouth effect. 

The finest existing picture of him is that of Fra Bartoloineo, 
painted for his convent of San Marco at Florence ; it represents 
the saint addressing his congregation from the pulpit, one 
hand extended in exhortation, the other pointing to heaven. 
There can be no doubt that the head was painted from some 
known portrait; and the impressive fervour of the counten- 
ance and manner must have been characteristic, as well as the 
features. It is, in fact, as fine as possible in its way. Here 
he has no wings ; but in the picture by Murillo, painted a 
hundred and fifty years later, and which I saw in the Aguado 
Gallery some years ago, he has the large symbolical wings. 
I do not know where this picture now is. 



ST. HYACINTH, though an early saint, is found only in very san oia- 
late pictures. August is, 

At the time that St. Dominick was at Rome, in 1218, Ivo, 1257 " 
bishop of Cracow, and chancellor of Poland, arrived there on a 
mission from his government to the Holy See. In his train 
were his two nephews, Hyacinth and Ceslas. Ivo, moved by 
the preaching of St. Dominick, and the success which attended 
his mission, requested of him to send some of the brethren of 
his Order to preach the Gospel in his distant and half bar 
barous diocese. Dominick excused himself, having otherwise 
disposed of all his disciples. This circumstance made a deep 
impression upon Hyacinth, the eldest of the bishop s nephews, 
of wfrpm we are now to speak. He was born of the noble 
family of the Aldrovanski, one of the most illustrious in Silesia, 



(06 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



had recently completed his studies at Bologna, and was dis 
tinguished by his virtues, talents, piety, and modesty, and by 
the prudence and capacity with which he managed the secular 
affairs of life without allowing them to interfere with his 
religious duties. He was struck by the preaching of St, 
Dominick, and by the recollection of the barbarism, the 
heathenism, the ignorance which prevailed in many parts of 
his native country; he offered himself as a missionary, and, 
with his cousin Ceslas, he took the habit of the Order of St 
Dominick, and pronounced his vows in the Church of St. 
Sabina at Rome in 1218. 

The event showed that it was in no transient fit of enthu 
siasm that he took this resolution. From that time he devoted 
himself to the preaching of the Gospel in the wild, unsettled 
countries of the north; he penetrated to the shores of the Black 
Sea, he preached amongst the Tartars, the Russians, the 
Sclavonians ; thence travelling towards the north, he preached 
amongst the Danes, the Swedes, the Norwegians, and in 
other countries round the Baltic : it is said that he left no 
region unvisited, from the borders of Scotland to China. If 
we consider in what a condition these countries still were in 
the thirteenth century, his missionary services can only be 
compared to some which have distinguished these later days. 

Hyacinth had to traverse uninhabited wilds, uncleared forests 
still infested with wild beasts, hordes of barbarians to whom 
the voice of the Gospel had never reached ; on foot, without 
arms, and thinly clad, without money, without an interpreter, 
often without a guide, and trusting only in the cause of truth 
and in Divine Providence. Thus forty years of his Ufe were 
spent. Worn out by fatigue, he had merely strength to 
return to his cell in the monastery of his Order which he had 
founded at Cracow, and died there on the 15th of August 
1257. He was canonised by Clement VIII, more than three 
hundred years after his death, in 1594. Anne of Austria, wife 
of Louis XIII., carried into France her hereditary veneration 
for St. HyacintE. At her request, Ladislaus, king of Poland, 
sent her some relics of the saint, which she placed in the 
Dominican convent at Paris, and he became an object of the 



ST. HYACINTH 



popular veneration. This, I presume, is the reason why so 
many pictures of St, Hyacinth are found in the churches of 
Paris even to this day. 

The effigies of St. Hyacinth represent him in the habit of 
his Order, bearing the crucifix as preacher, and frequently the 
pyx containing the Host (Le Sant Ciboire). It is related of 
him that when his convent at Kiov in Kussia was sacked by 
the Tartars he escaped, carrying with him the pyx and the 
image of the Virgin, which he had snatched up from the altar. 
On arriving at the banks of the Dniester, he found it swollen 
to a raging torrent; the barbarians were behind him, and, 
resolved that the sacred objects he bore should not fall into 
the hands of the pagans, after recommending himself to 
Heaven he flung himself into the stream : the waters miracu 
lously sustained him, and he walked over their surface as if it 
had been dry land. This is the incident of his life which is 
usually represented in his pictures, and great care must be 
taken not to confound him with St. Eaymond. 

Another of his miracles was the resuscitation of a drowned 
youth, who had remained lifeless for twenty-four hours. 

All the pictures I have met with of this saint have been 
painted since the date of his canonisation, and are found in 
the Dominican convents : 

By Leandro Bassano : St. Hyacinth passing the river 
Dniester with the Ciborio and the image of the Virgin. 

By L. Oaracci : the apparition of the Virgin and Child to 
St. Hyacinth. An angel holds a tablet on which are inscribed 
the words which the Virgin addresses to him c Be at peace, 
Hyacinth ! for thy prayers are agreeable to my Son, and all edlt 184L 
that thou shalt ask of him through me shall be granted. 
Painted for the Capella Turini in Bologna, but carried off by 
the French and never restored* There is an interesting 
account of this picture in Malvasia. When Guido first saw it 
he stood silent, and then exclaimed i that it was enough to 
make a painter despair and throw away his pencils ! How 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



different from the modest Correggio s ancK io sono pittore ! 
The sight of excellence makes the vain man not the great 
man despair. 

By Malosso of Cremona : St. Hyacinth preaches to a 
multitude, and converts the heathen by curing the bite of a 
scorpion which lies at his feet. Painted for the Church of the 
Dominicans at Cremona. 

By Brizzio : St Hyacinth restores a drowned youth (TAnne- 
ffato). A very fine dramatic picture, in the Church of St. 
Dominick at Bologna. 

In the modern decorations of &lt; Notre Dame de Lorette at 
Paris, we find in two large frescoes the two famous miracles 
of St. Hyacinth. The first represents the restoration of the 
drowned youth : in the other he is on the point of crossing 
the Dniester. 



Oct. 9, i58i. ST. Louis BELTBAN, or BEKTKAND, a native of Valencia, 
and a celebrated Dominican preacher and missionary in the 
sixteenth century. He believed himself called by God to 
spread the light of the G-ospel through the New World, and 
embarked for Peru, where he spent several years. It was 
not, says his biographer, from the blindness of the heathens,, 
but from the cruelty, avarice, and profligacy of the Christians, 
that he encountered the greatest obstacles to his success. 
After a vain attempt to remedy these disorders, he returned 
to Spain, died at Valencia, and was canonised by Clement X. 
in 1671. He was a friend of St. Theresa, and seems to have 
been a sincere and energetic man as well as an exemplary 
priest. 

Pictures of this saint abound in the Dominican churches in 
Spain, and particularly in the Valencian school. I do not 
know that he is distinguished by any particular attribute ; he 
would wear, of course, the habit of his Order, and carry the 
crucifix as preacher ; Peruvian scenery or Peruvian converts 
in the background would fix the identity. 



SANTA EOSA DI LIMA. 



In the year 1647 (the year in which he was declared a 
Beato) the plague broke out at Valencia, and the painter 
Espinosa placed himself and his family under the guardian 
ship of San Louis Beltran, who preserved, by his Interces 
sion, the whole family. Espinosa, in gratitude, vowed to his 
protector a series of pictures, which he placed, in 1655, in 
the chapel of the saint in the convent of San Domingo at 
Valencia. They are said to be in * a masterly style ; but the 
subjects are not mentioned. 

There is a picture of him in the Church of S. Maria-sopra- 
Minerva at Rome, under his Italian appellation, San Ludovico 
Bertrando. 



SANTA ROSA DI LIMA, I believe the only canonised female Au 3 
saint of the New "World, was born at Lima in Peru, in 1586. 
4 This flower of sanctity, whose fragrance has filled the whole Stirling s 
Christian world, is the patroness of America, the St. Theresa h 



of Transatlantic Spain. She was distinguished, in the first 
place, by her austerities. c Her usual food was an herb bitter 
as wormwood. When compelled by her mother to wear a 
wreath of roses, she so adjusted it on her brow that it became 
a crown of thorns. Rejecting a host of suitors, she destroyed 
the lovely complexion to which she owed her name, by an 
application of pepper and quicklime. But she was also a 
noble example of filial devotion, and maintained her once 
wealthy parents, fallen on evil days, by the labour of her 
hands. All day she toiled in a garden, and at night she 
worked with her needle. She took the habit of the Third 
Order of St. Dominick, and died in 1617. She was canonised 
by Clement X. According to the Peruvian legend, the pope, 
when entreated to canonise her, absolutely refused, exclaim 
ing, &lt; India y santa ! asi como Uneven rosas ; (India and 
saint ! as likely as that it should rain roses !) whereupon a 
miraculous shower of roses began to fall in the Vatican, and 
ceased not till the incredulous pontiff acknowledged himself 
convinced. 

The best pictures of this saint are by the late Spanish 

So 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



painters. One by Murillo, which, has been engraved, repre 
sents her crowned with thorns, and holding in her hand 
full-blown roses, on which rests the figure of the Infant 
Saviour. 

A large picture of St. Rosa di Lima, with the Infant Saviour, 
on which is inscribed the name of Murillo, is in the collection 
of Mr. Bankes, at Kingston Hall, Dorset. 

With this Transatlantic saint we conclude the notices of the 
Dominican Order, as illustrated in Art. 



THE CARMELITES. 



THE CARMELITES. 
Ital. I Carmini Fr. Les Cannes. 

NEITHER as an Order, nor individually, are the Carmelites 
interesting or important in their relation to Art. 

They pretend, as I have already observed, to a very high Baiiiet. 
antiquity, claiming as patriarch and founder the prophet Butle " 
Elijah, who dwelt solitary in the midst of Carmel ; he gave 
example to many devout Anchorites, of whom an uninterrupted 
succession from the days of Elijah inhabited Mount Carmel, 
and early embraced the Christian faith ; and this community 
of the Hermits of Mount Carmel continued till the thirteenth 
century. They built a monastery near the fountain of Helias 
(Elijah), and an oratory dedicated to the Virgin, thence called 
Our Lady of Mount Carmel :* but, as yet, they had no La Ma- 
written Rule ; wherefore, by the advice of one of their number, cSne e&gt; 
Berthold by name, they desired of Albert, patriarch of Jeru 
salem, that he would give them a Eule of discipline. He pre 
scribed to them a form taken from the Rule of St. Basil, but 
more severe ; and a parti-coloured mantle of white and red 
stripes, for such, according to an ancient tradition, was the Dngdaie. 
miracle-working mantle of Elijah the prophet, the mantle Helyot 
famed in Holy Writ. When, however, the Carmelites arrived 
in the west, and Pope Honorius III. was induced to confirm 
the Rule of the Order, he altered the colour of the mantle, and 
appointed that it should be white, and worn over a dark-brown 
tunic. Hence, in England, the Carmelites were called White 
Friars. They were introduced into this country direct from 
Palestine, by Sir John de Vesci on his return from the Holy 
Wars. He settled them near his castle at Alnwick, and they 
became subsequently more numerous and popular here -than 
in any other country of Europe before the time of St. Theresa. 
The third G-eneral of their Order was an English Carmelite, 
St. Simon Stock, who introduced an alteration in the habit, : 
the scapulary, the long narrow strip of cloth, halnging down tc 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OBDERS. 



the feet, of the same colour as the tunic : this, in pictures, 
distinguishes the Carmelites from the Prernonstratensians, 
who also wear the brown tunic and white cloak, but no 
scapulary. 

The Carmelites chose for the protectress of their Order the 
Virgin Mary; and Honorius III. commanded that they 
should be styled * The Family of the Most Blessed Virgin. 
Hence, in all the convents of the Carmelites, the Virgin, 
under her title of the &lt; Madonna del Carmine^ holds such a 
conspicuous place. She is frequently exhibited standing with 
her white mantle outspread, while her c Family the friars 
and nuns of the Order are gathered beneath its protecting 
folds ; and among them St. Albert as bishop, St. Angelus the 
martyr, and, in late pictures, St. Theresa of Spain, are 
generally distinguished above the rest. 

The rosary, having been instituted in especial honour of the 
Virgin, also found favour with the Carmelites, and sometimes 
the Virgin is represented as presenting a rosary to a Carmelite 
saint. 

Next in importance to the Virgin, we find, in the Car 
melite churches, Elijah the prophet as patriarch of the Order, 
or the Scriptural stories of his life. He is fed by ravens 
in the wilderness ; or he is sacrificing on Mount Carniel be 
fore the priests of Baal; or he is carried up to heaven in 
the chariot of fire. Thus a whole series of subjects from 
the life of Elijah decorates the cloisters of the Carmini at 
Florence ; and on entering the Carmini at Venice, the first 
objects wliich strike us are the statues, in white marble, of 
Elijah and Elisha. 

Next after the Virgin and Elijah, we shall generally find 
conspicuous 

April 8,1214. ST. ALBERT, bishop of Vercelli, and patriarch of Jerusalem, 
regarded by historians as the real founder of the Carmelite 
Order, He wears the episcopal robes, and carries the palm as 
martyr; for it is recorded in his Life, that being summoned 
from Palestine by Innocent III. to attend a council in the 



ST. ANGELUS. 



Lateran, as he was preparing to embark he was assassinated 
at Acre by a wretch whom he had reproved for his crimes. 1 

In the cathedral at Cremona they preserve a singular ancient 
vessel ornamented at the four corners with winged monsters, 
and apparently of the ninth or tenth century, in which, accord 
ing to tradition, St. Albert kneaded bread for the poor. 

ST. ANGELUS the Carmelite, bearing the palm as martyr, is May 5 im 
found in late pictures only. According to the apocryphal samt Ange, 
legend, this St. Angelus came from the Bast about the year 
1217, lauded in Sicily, and preached at Palermo and Messina. 
He was assassinated by a certain Count Berenger, a powerful 
lord of that country, who for several years had lived openly in 
unhallowed union with his own sister. St. Angelo rebuked 
him severely, as John the Baptist had formerly rebuked 
Herod, and found the same recompence. By command of 
Berenger he was hung upon a tree and shot with arrows : at 
least his martyrdom is thus represented in a disagreeable 
picture by Ludovico Caracci, where St. Angelo is hanging 
from a tree with his white and brown habit fluttering against 
the blue sky; the city of Palermo, very like the city of 
Bologna, being seen in the background. 

Another picture by the same painter represents the supposed 
meeting of St. Angelo, St. Francis, and St. Dominick ; or, as 
it is expressed in Italian, * San Francesco e San Domenico, 
che complimentano a/ettuosamente con San? Angelo Carme- 
litanoS 

Both these pictures were painted for the Carmelites at 
Bologna, and are in the Academy there. 3 

1 We must not confound St. Albert the Carmelite with St. Albert Cardinal and 
Bishop of Liege. It is this last St. Albert who, as patron saint of the Archduke 
Albert, figures in Rubens fine picture of St. Ildefonso; but, except in this single 
instance, I have not met with him. He may probably be found in Flemish prints 
of the seventeenth century, as a compliment to the archduke, whose wife, the 
celebrated Clara-Eugenia, made St. Clara fashionable in her time. 

2 They were formerly styled subjects from the life of San Pier Toma, another 
Carmelite friar, who lived in the fourteenth century, who was not a martyr, and 

* was never formally canonised. He was, however, a real personage, while the very 
existence of St. Angelo has been called in question. 



J14 LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS, 



I have seen prints and pictures of St. Angelo in which red 
and white roses are falling from his mouth, symbols of his 
eloquence ; and I remember one in which two graceful angels 
are picking up the roses as they fall. 

In the year 1668 the learned authors of the Acta Sanctorum 
(known as the Bollandists) not only threw discredit on the 
whole legend of St. Angelo, but treated as chimerical the 
supposed origin and high antiquity of the Carmelites as an 
Order. Thereupon arose a most bitter contest. The Car 
melites were loud and angry in refutation and, expostulation. 
From the time of St. Theresa they had had so much influence in 
Spain, that they procured the condemnation of the obnoxious 
volumes by the Spanish Inquisition, The Bollandists, who 
belonged to the Society of Jesuits, appealed to the pope 
against this judgment ; and the dispute ran so high between 
the Carmelites and Jesuits, and caused such general scandal, 
that Innocent XII. published a brief, commanding the two 
parties to keep silence on the subject from that time, for 
ever. 

It was during this contest, that is, about the middle of the 
seventeenth century, that we find the churches of the Car 
melites filled with pictures, in general very bad ones, which 
were intended as an assertion of their claims to superior 
sanctity as well as superior antiquity : pictures of Elijah, as 
their patriarch; of St. Albert, as their lawgiver; of Si 
Angelo., as their martyr ; of St. Simon Stock, receiving the 
scapulary from the hands of the Virgin ; and particularly of 
their great saint, the Seraf.ca Madre Teresa, of whom we 
are now to speak. 



ST.. THEBESA. 



415 




81 St. JUheresa, 

ST. THERESA. 

ltd. Santa Teresa, Fondatrice clei Sc alzi. Fr. Sainte Therese de Jesus des 
Carmes-Dechausse s. JSp. La Nuestra Serafica Madre Santa Teresa de 
Qestu Patroness of Spain. * Oct. 17, 1582. 

1 Scarce lias she learnt to lisp the name 
Of martyr, yet she thinks it shame 
Life should so long play with that Ibreath 
Which, spent, could buy so brave a death. 
She never undertook to show 
What death with love should have to doe j 
Yet, tho she cannot tell you why, 
She can love, and she can die ; 
And has a heart dares hope to prove 
How much less strong is death than love ! 

(From Craskaw s Hymn in memory of the virtuous and learned ladye 
Madre de Teresa, that sought an early martyrdom. ) 

ST.. THEKESA, even setting aside her character as saint and 
patroness, was an extraordinary woman, without doubt the 
most extraordinary woman of her age and country; which, 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDER8. 



perhaps, is not saying much, as that country was Spain, and 
she lived in the sixteenth century. But she would have heen 
a remarkable woman in any age and country. Under no 
circumstances could her path through life have heen the 
highway of commonplace mediocrity ; under no circumstances 
could the stream of her existence have held its course 
untroubled; for nature had given her great gifts, large 
faculties of all kinds for good and evil, a fervid temperament, 
a most poetical and * shaping power of imagination, a strong 
will, singular eloquence, an extraordinary power over the 
minds and feelings of others, genius, in short, with all its 
terrible and glorious privileges. Yet what was she to do with 
these energies this genius? In Spain, in the sixteenth 
century, what working sphere existed for such a spirit lodged 
in a woman s form ? Mr. Ford .calls her * a love-sick nun ; 
of spam, .^ go ^ e respects the epithet may be deserved, but there have 
been, I am afraid, some thousands of love-sick nuns; there 
have been few women like St Theresa. It is impossible to 
consider in a just and philosophic spirit either her character 
or her history without feeling that what was strong, and 
beautiful, and true, and earnest, and holy, was in herself; and 
what was morbid, miserable, and mistaken, was the result of 
the influences around her, 

Theresa d Avila was born at Avila in Castile, on the 28th 
of March 1515, one of twelve children. Her father, Don 
Alphonso Sanchez de Cepeda, was a nobleman of distinguished 
character, exceedingly pious. Her mother, Beatrix, appears to 
have been in all respects an admirable woman ; her only fault 
was, that she was a little too much given to reading romances 
and books of chivalry. Between the piety of the father and 
the romance of her mother was the character of Theresa formed 
in her childhood, and these early impressions influenced her 
through life. Amongst her brothers was one w r hom she dis 
tinguished by particular affection : she tells us that they read 
together the lives of the saints and the holy martyrs, until 
they were filled with the most passionate desire of obtaining 
for themselves the crown of martyrdom; and when they 



ST, THERESA. 417 



were children of eight or nine years old, tliey set off on a 
begging expedition into the country of the Moors, in hopes of 
being taken by the infidels and sacrificed for their faith. She 
adds that, when she and her little brother were studying the 
lives of the saints, what most impressed their minds was, to 
read, at every page, that the penalties of the damned are to 
be for ever, and the glory of the blessed also for ever. 
They tried to conceive the idea of eternity, and they repeated, 
looting in each other s faces, awe-struck, What ! for ever ! 
for ever ! and the idea filled them both with a vague terror. 
As they had been disappointed in their hope of obtaining 
martyrdom amongst the Moors, they resolved to turn hermits ; 
but in this also they were prevented. However, she tells us 
that she gave all her pocket-money in alms ; and if she played 
with other children of her age, they were always nuns and 
friars, walking in mimic processions, and singing hymns. 
Theresa lost her mother at the age of twelve, a loss to her 
irreparable: what her destinies might have been, had this 
parent lived, it is in vain to speculate. The few years which 
follow, exhibit her as passing from one extreme to another. 
The love of pleasure, the love of dress, self-love, and the pride 
of position, the desire to be loved, to be admired all the 
passions and feelings, in short, natural to a young girl of her 
age, endowed with very extraordinary faculties of all kinds, 
made her impatient of restraint. The influence of some 
worldly-minded relations, and, above all, the increasing taste 
for poetry and romance, conspired to diminish in her mind the 
pious influences which had been sown there in her early youth. 
In fact, at the age of sixteen, there seems to have remained no 
settled principle in her mind but that thoroughly feminine 
principle of womanly dignity. Her father, however, seems to 
have been aware of the dangers to which she was exposed, and 
placed her in a convent, with orders that she should be kept 
for a time in strict seclusion. 

In a girl of a different character this would have been a 
perilous experiment. With Theresa, her enthusiastic and 
ardent nature took at once the turn towards religion. Some 
thing whispered to her that she could be safe nowhere but 

SF 



418 LEGENDS OF 1 HE MONASTIC ORDERSi. 



within the walls of a cloister : slie abhorred the idea of a mar 
riage which had been proposed to her, but she equally abhorred 
the idea of seclusion. In the midst of these internal struggles 
she fell dangerously ill. A feeling of the vanity and insecurity 
of all earthly things grew upon her mind ; and after another 
struggle, which ended in another fit of illness, she took to 
reading the epistles of St. Jerome, and this decided her voca 
tion. She obtained the permission of her father to take the 
vows ; but, passionate in all her affections, the separation 
from her family had nearly cost her her life. She was twenty 
when she entered the convent of the Carmelites at Avila. 
After she had pronounced her vows, her mind became more 
settled; not, however, her health, which for many years seems 
to have been in a most precarious state. She tells us that she 
passed nearly twenty years without feeling that repose for 
which she had hoped when she sacrificed the world. She 
draws a striking picture of her condition at this time. * On 
one side I was called as it were by God, on the other side I 
was tempted by regrets for the world. I wished to combine 
my aspirations towards heaven with my earthly sympathies, 
and I found that this was impossible; I fell, I rose, but it 
was only to fall again ; I had neither the calm satisfaction of 
a soul reconciled with God, nor could I taste those pleasures 
which were offered by the world. I tried to think, and could 
not think ; disgust and weariness of life seized upon me ; and 
in the midst of pious meditations and prayers, nay, in the 
midst of the services of the church, I was impatient till the bell 
rang and relieved me from duties to which I could give but half 
my heart. But at length God took pity upon me : I read the 
Confessions of St. Augustine ; I saw how he had been tempted, 
how he had been tried, and at length how he had conquered. 
This seems to have been the turning-point in her life. She threw 
herself with more confidence upon the resources of prayer, and 
at length her enthusiastic and restless spirit found peace. When 
her mind was too distracted or too weak for the exaltation of 
religious thought, instead of tormenting herself with vain 
reproach and penance, she sought and found relief and a fresh 
excitement to piety iu the practice of works of charity : she 



1ST. THERESA. 



laboured with her hands ; she tried to fix her thoughts upon 
others ; and nothing is more striking in the history of this 
remarkable woman than the real piety, simplicity, modesty, 
and good sense, which every now and then break forth in the 
midst of her visionary excitement, her egotism, her pretensions 
to superior sanctity and peculiar revelations from heaven : 
the first were native to her character, the latter fostered and 
flattered by the ecclesiastics around her. 

It was in the year 1561 that she conceived the idea of 
reforming the Order of the Carmelites, into which several 
disorders had crept. Most of the nuns in her monastery 
entered into her views: many of the inhabitants of her native 
town, over whom she had gradually acquired a strong influ 
ence, assisted her with money. In 1562 she laid the founda 
tion of the new monastery at Avila. She dedicated it to St. 
Joseph, the spouse of the Virgin, to whom she had early vowed 
a particular devotion, and whom she had chosen for her patron 
saint. It is perhaps for this reason, as well as in his relation 
to the Virgin, that we find St. Joseph a popular subject in the 
Carmelite churches, and particularly in those dedicated to St. 
Theresa. She had many difficulties, many obstacles, to con 
tend with. She entered the little convent she had been enabled 
to build with eight nuns only ; but in the course of twenty 
years she had not only reformed the female members of her 
Order, but had introduced more strict obligations into the 
convents of the men. It was her principle that the convents 
of the Carmelites under her new Rule should either have no 
worldly possessions whatever, and literally exist upon the 
charity of others, or that they should be so endowed as not 
to require any external aid. This was a principle from which 
her spiritual directors obliged her to depart : such, however, 
was her success, that at the period of her death she had 
already fotyided seventeen convents for women and fifteen 
for men. During the later years of her life, her enthusiastic 
and energetic mind found ample occupation. She was con 
tinually travelling from one convent to another, called from 
province to province, to promulgate her new regulations for 
the government of her Order. She had to endure much 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



opposition and persecution from the friars; and a schism 
took place which obliged Gregory XV. to interfere and to 
divide the Carmelites into two different congregations, 
placing Theresa at the head of that styled the c Barefooted 
Carmelites : in Italy, Scalzi, the unshod ; and sometimes 
Padri Teresiani. 

Besides compiling exhortations and treatises for the nse of 
her nuns, she wrote, at the express command of her spiritual 
directors, a history of her own life ; and left "behind her some 
mystical compositions, singularly poetical and eloquent, even 
judging from the French translation. Crashawe thus alludes 
to her writings 

Oh tis not Spanish, but tis Heaven slie speaks ! 

Sometimes, indeed, the language has the orientalism of the 
Canticles ; and in this instance, as in others, may it not be pos 
sible that fervour of temperament was mistaken for spiritual 
aspiration ? Theresa, in the midst of all her terrors of sin, could 
find nothing worse to say of Satan himself than Poor wretch ! 
he loves not 1 and her idea of hell was that of a place whence 
love is banished. It appears to me that she was right in both 
instances : is not hate, as a state of being, another word for hell? 
and does not the incapacity of love, with conscious intellect, 
stamp the arch-fiend ? But I am writing a book on Art, not on 
morals or religion ; else there would be something more to be 
said of the works of Theresa. To return, therefore, to my sub 
ject, and conclude the life of our saint. . She had never, since 
the terrible maladies of her youth, entirely recovered the use of 
her limbs, and increasing years brought increasing infirmities. 
In 1582 she was seized with her last illness, in the palace of the 
Duchess of Alva. She refused, however, to remain there, and 
was carried back to her convent of San Jos6. She died a few 
days afterwards, repeating the verse of the Miserer^, * A broken 
and a contrite heart, Lord, Thou wilt not despise ! She 
was canonised in 1621 by Gregory XV., and was declared by 
Philip III. the second patron saint of the Spanish monarchy 
after Santiago ; a decree solemnly confirmed by the Spanish 
Cortes in 1812. 



ST. THEUBSA. 423 



Her shrine is at Avila, in the church of her convent. * Her Handbook 
statue sanctifies the portal. The chapel is a very holy place, of Spain " 
and frequented "by pilgrims in smaller numbers, however, 
than heretofore. The nuns never presume to sit on the seats 
of the choir, but only on the steps, because the former were 
occupied by the angels whenever St. Theresa attended mass. 
(I must observe that the angels are always supposed to assist 
invisibly at mass.) 

There is so much in St. Theresa s life and character emi 
nently picturesque, that I must regret that, as a subject of 
Art, she has been not neglected, but, in all senses of the 
word, ill-treated. 

The authentic portraits of her which exist in Spain, and 
which were all taken in later years of her life, after she had 
become celebrated, and also corpulent and infirm, represent 
her person large, and her features heavy, in some pictures 
even coarse. In the devotional figures she is generally kneel 
ing at prayer, while an angel hovers near, piercing her heart 
with a flame-tipped arrow, to express the fervour of divine 
love with which she was animated. I give a sketch from 
a Spanish picture just to show the materialism of the con 
ception. All the Spanish pictures of her sin in this respect ; 
but the grossest example the most offensive is the marble 
group of Bernini, in the Santa Maria della Yittoria at Borne. 
The head of St. Theresa is that of a languishing nymph ; the 
angel is a sort of Eros ; the whole has been significantly 
described as a parody of Divine love/ The vehicle, white 
marble, its place in a Christian church, enhance all its 
vileness. The least destructive, the least prudish in matters 
of Art, would here willingly throw the first stone. 

Other representations of St. Theresa exhibit her looking up in 
rapture at the Holy Dove, which expresses the claim to direct 
inspiration made for her never by her. And sometimes she 
holds a heart with the name of Jesus, the I.H.S., engraved on 
it ; as in this figure (83), by Bramantino, which, like all the 
other Italian figures of St. Theresa^ is wholly uncharacteristic. 



422 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 




^ of 



82 St. Theresa. (From n Spanish picture formmly in the Louvre.) 

&lt;An excellent work of Eibalta adorns the saloon of 
6 "Valencian Academy of San Carlos. It represents 
k Theresa seated at table and writing from the dictation 



ST. THERESA. 



423 



of the Holy Spirit, hovering at her ear in the likeness of 
a snow-white dove : her countenance beaming with heavenly 
light. 

The finest picture I have seen of St. Theresa, is by Eubens ? 

painted for the * Petits Cannes 
at Antwerp, and now in the Musee 
of that city. It represents the saint 
pleading at the feet of the Saviour 
in behalf of sinners in purgatory. 
In the Rubens -religious style, in 
colour, and character, and life, this 
picture is as fine as possible; and 
it must accomplish its purpose in 
point of expression, for, as I well 
recollect, I could not look on it 
without emotion. The annexed 
etching will give some faint idea 
of its beauty as a composition. 
Rubens, who had been in Spain, 
has here given a real and charac 
teristic portrait of the saint. The 
features are large and heavy, yet 
bright with enthusiastic adoration 
and benignity. 

Another picture by the same 
painter represents St. Theresa in 
her cell, enraptured by an appari 
tion of the Saviour; an angel 
behind him bears the fire-tipped 
This, I believe, is one of the few 




St, Theresa. (Italian.) 



arrow of divine love. 

pictures of Rubens never engraved. 

By Massarotti: St. Theresa intercedes for the city of 
Cremona, when besieged by the French. 

By Gruercino : St. Theresa with her patron saint, Joseph. 
Another, in which our Saviour reveals to her the glory of 
Paradise. Another, in which the Virgin presents to her the Milan CM, 
rosary. Another,, in which St Theresa receives the habit 
from the hand of the Blessed Virgin, in presence of her 



4124 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



patron St. Joseph, St. Albert, and St. Juan de la Cruz : 
painted for the Carmelite nuns at Messina. 

SP. Gai. of Attributed to Alonzo Cano: A St. Theresa, crowned with 

Philippe, thorns and holding in her hands the instruments of the 

Passion. Another, in which she ministers to a sick child. 

Both pictures too poor and bad for Alonzo Cano ; the heads, 

however, are characteristic. 

In a small picture in the possession of Mr. Ford, St. Theresa 
is kneeling 1 on one knee, sustaining on the other an open 
book, in which she is about to write; an ink-horn and a 
distaff lie at her feet ; above, the Holy Dove is seen descend 
ing from the skies. On a prie-dieu behind are the words, 
Misericordiam Domini &lt;%ternam cantaboS 

There are some pictures of her in the magnificent church 
of the Scalzi at Venice, but none good. 

The fame and the effigies of St. Theresa have been extended 
to the East. Miss Martineau found a figure of her in the 
convent of her Order on Mount Carmel ; and I extract the 
beautiful and animated account of this picture, as equally 
characteristic of the writer and the subject : 

* The church of the convent is handsome ; and it contains a picture 
worth noting, the portrait of St. Theresa, whom I agree with Bossuet 
in thinking one of the most interesting of the saints of his Church. The 
bringing together of remote thoughts in travel ia as remarkable to the 
individual, as the bringing together of remote personages in the action of 
human life. How I used to dwell on the image of St. Theresa in my child 
hood, and long, in an ignorant sympathy with her, to be a nun ! And then, 
as I grew wiser, I became ashamed of her desire for martyrdom, as I should 
have been of any folly in a sister, and kept my fondness for her to myself. 
But all the while that was the Theresa of Spain ; now wandering among 
the Moors in search of martyrdom, and now shutting herself up in her 
hermitage in her father s garden at Avila. It had never occurred to me 
that I should come upon her traces at Mount Carmel. But here she was, 
worshipped as the Eeformatrbc of her Order. It was she who made the 
Carmelites barefooted : i.e., sandaled, instead of shod, It was she who 
dismissed all the indulgences which had crept in among her Order ; and she 
obtained, by her earnestness, such power over the baser parts of human 
nature in those she had to deal with, as to reform the Carmelite Order 
altogether ; witness, before her death, the foundation of thirty convents, 
wherein her rule was to be practised in all its severity. Martyrdom by the 
Moors was riot good enough for her ; it would have been the mere gratifi- 



ST. ANDREA CORSINI. 425 



cation of a selfish craving for spiritual safety. She did much more for God 
and man Toy living to the age of sixty-seven, and bringing "back the true spirit 
into the corrupted body of her Order. There she is, the woman of genius 
and determination, looking at us from out of her stiff head-gear, as true 
a queen on this mountain-throne as any empress who ever wore a crown ! ; 
Eastern Life, vol. iii. p. 235. 



Ill companionship with St. Theresa we find her friend SAK December 
JUAN DE LA CBUZ, a Spanish Carmelite, whom she liad united 
with herself as coadjutor in her plans of reform. He was the 
first barefooted Carmelite, and famous for his terrible pen 
ances and mortifications. He is often, represented in pictures 
with. St. Theresa, kneeling before the throne of tlie Virgin. 
He died in 1591, and was canonised by Clement X. in 1675. 
Mr. Stirling mentions a series of fifty-eight plates on the 
history of St. Juan de la Cruz, c a holy man who was fre 
quently favoured with interviews with our Saviour, and who 
on one of these occasions made an uncouth sketch of the 
divine apparition, which was long preserved as a relique in 
the Convent of the Incarnation at Avila. 

A fine picture by Murillo, in the gallery of the King of 
Holland, represents San Juan de la Cruz in his Carmelite 
habit, kneeling before an altar, on which lie a crucifix and 
some lilies ; four vellum folios, lettered with the titles of his 
works, are on the ground at his feet. 



ST. A^TBBBA CQKSINT, though he lived in the fourteenth Feu 4, ma 
century, was not canonised till the middle of the seventeenth, 
some years later than St, Theresa. 

He was born in 1302, one of the noble family of Corsini at 
Florence, and, until his sixteenth year, was wild, disobedient, 
and addicted to vicious company, so that Ms parents were 
well-nigh in despair. One day, his mother, in a passion of 
grief and tears, exclaimed, Thou art the wolf whom I saw in 
ray dream ! The youth, startled by this apostrophe, looked 
at her, and she continued, fixing her eyes upon him Be 
fore thou wert born I dreamed I had given birth to a wolf, 
but I saw that wolf enter in. at the open door of a church, 
and Tbehold he was changed into a lamb ! He heard 

3i 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEBERS. 



her in silence. The next day, passing by the Church of tha 
Carmelites, an irresistible impulse induced him to enter; and, 
kneeling down before the altar of the Virgin, he poured out 
his soul in penitence and prayer. So complete was the change 
in his mincl and disposition, that he refused to return to the 
house of his parents, and became a Carmelite friar at the age 
of seventeen. From this time to the age of seventy he lived 
an example of humility and piety, and died Bishop of Fiesole 
in 1373. He was so much venerated by the Florentines, that 
they attributed to his especial intercession and protection 
their victory over Mccol6 Picinino, in the battle of Anghiari 
in 1440. He was canonised by Urban VIII. in 1629. 

Soon after his canonisation, Guido painted for the Corsini 
family the beautiful picture which is now at Bologna. It 
represents St. Andrea as Bishop of Fiesole, standing and 
looking up to heaven with the finest expression it is possible 
to conceive : in one hand he holds the pastoral staff; in the 
left, which is gloved, lie holds the Scriptures. Another pic 
ture, painted for the Corsini family at Borne, represents Si 
Andrea kneeling, and surrounded by a choir of angels. 

His sumptuous chapel in the Carmini at Florence is 
adorned with bas-reliefs from his life, in white marble. The 
one on the left represents his first celebration of mass ; in his 
great humility he avoided the festive and triumphant prepara 
tions made by his family to solemnise the occasion, and with 
drew to a little chapel at some distance from the city, where, 
instead of the usual cortege of prelates, priests, and singers, 
the Virgin herself and a choir of angels assisted in the cele 
bration. On the other side is the victory of the Florentines 
at Anghiari; the saint appears hovering above, with his 
pastoral staff in one hand, and a sword in the other. In the 
bas-relief over the altar, he is carried up to heaven by angels. 
G-uercino painted him for the Carmini at Brescia; and in gene 
ral he may be found in the Carmelite churches, always attired 
as bishop ; but the pictures are of a late date, and not good, 
The palm distinguishes St. Albert from St. Andrea Corsini. 

SANTA MABIA MADDALENA DE PAZZI was another Floren- 



SCEUE IOUISB BE LA MISEKItJOEDE. 427 



tine saint of this Order, one of the noble family of the Pazzi, 
of whom nothing is recorded but her extreme sanctity and 
humility, and the temptations and tribulations of her solitude. 
She was beatified by Urban VIII. in 1626, and canonised by 
Alexander VIII. in 1670. There is a church at Florence 
bearing- her name. 

The pictures in her honour are, of course, of the latest 
Italian school. The best of tliese, by Luca Giordano, repre 
sents the mystic Sposalizia, always the chief incident in the 
life of a sainted nun. Here an angel gives her away, and 
presents her hand to the Saviour; another angel holds the 
lily, emblem of the purity of these espousals. 



I cannot quit the subject of the Carmelites, in their con 
nection with Art, without mentioning one of their Order, 
conspicuous as a favourite theme for painters and poets, the 
SCEUE LOUISE DE LA MIS^KICORDE, who, when she lived in the 
world and for the world, was the Duchesse de la Valliere. 
She was never canonised, therefore the pictures of her in her 
Carmelite dress do not properly belong to sacred Art ; but if 
sorrow and suffering and a true repentance, if the lasting 
influence of her example and undying interest and celebrity of 
lier story, could be regarded as a species of canonisation, she 
might well claim a place among the martyrs as well as among 
the saints. She entered the Carmelite Order in the year 1674, 
at the age of thirty. The picture of Mary Magdalene 
renouncing the world/ which Le Brun painted by her com 
mand as an altarpiece for the convent in which she made her 
profession, has been considered as a portrait of her ; but I 
believe there is no foundation for the traditional interest given 
to this picture, and to the still more famous print of Edelinck, 
the masterpiece of the engraver. The fine penitent Magdalene 
in the Munich Gallery, a head in profile, is more likely to be the 
portrait of La Vallike so often alluded to by writers on her life 
and that of Le Brun. Pictures and prints of the Soeur Louise 
de la Mis&ricorde, in her Carmelite habit, were once very 
popular: there is a very good one in the Britisli Museum* 



LEG-ENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Cfie 3fe#uit& 

CONFINING myself within the limits of my subject, I have but 
little to say of the Jesuits in their relation to sacred Art, 

It seems to me, looking on them from this point of view, u 
misfortune to them that their rise as a religious community, 
and the period of their greatest influence, should have been 
coeval with the decline and absolute depravation of the Fine 
Arts. It was also a misfortune to Art and artists, that there 
was nothing in the spirit of the Order which conduced to their 
regeneration. There was no want of means, no want of 
munificence. Wealth incalculable was lavished on the embel 
lishment of their sumptuous churches. Decorations of gold 
and silver, of alabaster and lapis-lazuli, of rare and precious 
marbles, light, brilliance, colour, all was combined that 
could render the temples, built under the Jesuit auspices, 
imposing and dazzling to the vulgar eye. The immediate end 
was gained; the transient effect was produced; but, in 
absolutely ignoring the higher powers and neglecting the 
more lasting effects in Art, they have lost at least they have 
failed to gain some incalculable advantage, which might 
have been theirs, in addition to others of which they well 
knew how to avail themselves. 1 

If the Jesuits were not wholly insensible to the ancient 
influences of Art as a vehicle of instruction, they yet showed 

1 In the first edition of this volume, the Jesuits were represented as having 
neglected the capabilities of Art as a means of instruction. This, on further con 
sideration, must "be retracted ; for certainly, as a means of education, and for 
their own religious views and political purposes, the arts were, by this sagacious 
and powerful Order, largely employed. The innumerable engravings and 
illustrated books of the lives of the Saviour, the Virgin Mary, and the saints, some 
in a very cheap, and almost all in an attractive form, which inundated the Low 
Countries and Germany during the seventeenth century, were issued mostly under 
the direction and at the expense of the Jesuits. They were also the chief patrons 
crowned heads excepfced of Bubens and Van Dyck. 



THE JESUITS. 429 



themselves incapable of arresting they even did much in 
assisting the downward tendencies of the later schools. Some 
two or three pictures painted for the Order are really fine in 
their way; some may be valuable as documents; none are in any 
degree allied to the poetry of Art. And this was, perhaps, not 
to be imputed to them as a reproach : we are not to infer that 
the Jesuits, as a body, were answerable for the decline of Art 
in the seventeenth century: it had begun a hundred years before 
the canonisation of their great saint; a hundred years before 
their gorgeous churches arose monuments of those worldly 
tendencies in Art, which, if they did not cause, they, at least, 
did not cure. Nor, amid the many distinguished and en 
lightened men, men of science, classical scholars, antiquarians, 
astronomers, mathematicians, which their Order sent forth 
to every region of the world, can I recollect the name of a 
single artist, unless it be Father Pozzi, renowned for his skill 
in perspective, and who used his skill less as an artist than as 
a conjuror, to produce such illusions as make the vulgar stare; 
to make the impalpable to the grasp appear as palpable to 
the vision; the near seem distant; the distant, near; the unreal, 
real; to cheat the eye; to dazzle the sense; all this has 
Father Pozzi most cunningly achieved in the Gresii and the 
Sant Ignazio at Home; but nothing more, and nothing better, 
than this. I was angry with him ; I wearied of his mock altar- 
pieces and his wonderful roofs which pretended to be no roofs 
at all. Scenic tricks and deceptions in Art should be kept for 
the theatre. It appeared to me nothing less than profane to 
introduce shams into the Temples of G-od I 

Certainly it cannot be said of the principal saints of the 
Jesuits that they deserved this fantastic treatment. Their 
Ignatius Loyola, their Francis Xavier, their Francis Borgia, 
are among the most interesting, as well as the most extra 
ordinary, men the world has seen. Nothing can be conceived 
more picturesque, as well as instructive, than their lives and 
characters : nothing finer as subjects of Art ; but Art has 
done little or nothing for them, therefore I am here constrained 
to say but little of them. 

In pictures the Jesuits are not easily distinguished. They 



430 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEBS. 



wear the black frock buttoned up to the throat; but tho 
painters of the seventeenth century, avoiding the mass of black 
and the meagre formal lines, have generally given to the Jesuit 
saints, those at least who were ordained priests, the dress of 
priests or canons, the albe or the chasuble, and, where the 
head is covered, the square black cap. In Spain and Italy they 
now wear a large black hat turned up at each side, such as 
Don Basilio wears in the opera; but such hats I have never 
seen in sacred pictures. By an express clause in their regula 
tions, the Jesuits were permitted to assume the dress in use in 
the country they inhabited, whenever they deemed it expedient. 



ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA, the founder of the Jesuits, was born 
1556t in his father s castle of Loyola, in the year 1491, of a race so 

noble that its head was always summoned to do homage to the 
throne by a special writ. He began life as page in the court 
of Ferdinand the Catholic, and afterwards entered the army, 
in which he was distinguished for his romantic bravery and his 
love of pleasure. His career, under ordinary circumstances, 
would probably have been that of the cavaliers of his time, who 
sought distinction in court and camp ; but it was suddenly 
arrested. At the siege of Pampeluna, in 1521, he was wounded 
in both legs by a cannon-ball. Dreading the disfigurement 
of his handsome person, he caused his wounds to be twice re 
opened and a protruding bone sawed off, at the hazard of hi& 
life i but the intense agony, though borne with unshrinking 
courage, was borne in vain he was maimed for life. 

In the long confinement consequent on his sufferings, he 
called for his favourite books of romance and poetry, but none 
were at the moment to be found ; they brought him the Life 
of Christ and the Lives of the Saints. A change came over 
his mind: he rose from his sick couch another man. The 
* lady to whom he henceforth devoted himself was to be 
neither countess nor duchess, but one of far nobler state, 
the Holy Virgin, Mother of the Saviour ; and the wars in 
which he was to fight were to be waged against the spiritual 
foes of God, whose soldier he was henceforth to be. 



ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA. 431 



As soon as he was sufficiently recovered lie made a pilgrim 
age to Our Lady of Montserrat, and hung up his sword and 
lance before her altar. He then repaired to Manresa. Here 
he gave himself up for a time to the most terrible penances 
for his past sins, and was thrown into such a state of horror 
and doubt that more than once he was tempted to put an end 
to his miserable existence. He escaped from these snares. 
He beheld visions, in, which he was assured of his salvation; 
in which the mysteries of faith were revealed to him : he saw 
that which he had formerly only believed. For him what 
need was there to study, or to consult the Scriptures, for 
testimony to those divine truths which were made known to 
him by immediate intercourse with another world? He set 
off for Jerusalem with the intention of fixing his residence in 
the holy city ; but this was not permitted, and he returned to 
Spain. Here he was opposed in his spiritual views by those 
who condemned him for his former life and his total want of 
theological learning. He could not obtain the privilege of 
teaching till he had gone through a course of study of four 
years duration. He submitted; he had to begin with the 
rudiments, to sit on the same form with boys studying gram 
mar to undergo whatever we can conceive of most irksome 
to a man of his age and disposition. After conquering the 
first difficulties he repaired to Paris. Here he met with five 
companions, who were persuaded to enter into his views: 
Faber, a Savoyard of mean extraction, but full of talent and 
enthusiasm ; Francis Xavier, a Spaniard of a noble family, 
handsome in person, and singularly accomplished ; the other 
three were also Spaniards, then studying philosophy at Paris, 
Salmeron, Laynez, and Bobadilla. These, with four others, 
under the direction and influence of Ignatius, formed them 
selves into a community. They bound themselves by the 
usual vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience; and they 
were to take besides a vow of especial obedience to the head 
of the Church for the time being, devoting themselves with 
out condition or remuneration to do his pleasure, and go 
to any part of the world to which he should see fit to send 
them. 



4S2 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



Ignatius repaired to Rome, and spent three years there 
before he could obtain the confirmation of his Institute. It 
was at length granted by Paul III. The essential duties of 
the new Order were. to be three: preaching in the first place; 
secondly, the guidance of souls through confession ; and 
thirdly, the education of the young. As Ignatius carried into 
his community the ideas and habits of a soldier, so the first 
virtue inculcated was the soldier s virtue, absolute unhesitating 

f o 

obedience ; and he called his society the * Company of Jesus, 
just as a company of soldiers is called by the name of its 
captain. 

He died first General of his Order in 1556, and was canon 
ised by Gregory XV. in 1622. 

When once we have seen a head of St. Ignatius Loyola in 
a print or a picture, we can never afterwards mistake it. The 
type does not vary, and has never been idealised. It does not 
appear that any portrait of him was painted during his life, 
although they show such a picture in the Casa Professa at 
Rome. Impressions in wax were taken from his features 
after death ; and from these, assisted by the directions of 

ties of Father Ribadeneira, Sanchez Coello painted a head which 

" p " afterwards served as a model. In its general character, this 

head is familiar to us in Art : a square, high, poweiiul brow; 

a melancholy and determined, rather than stern, countenance ; 

short black hair, bald on the temples, very little beard, and a 

iayain slight black moustache. * So majestic/ says his biographer, 
r 10ff " e was the aspect of Loyola, that, during the sixteenth century, 
few, if any, of the books of his Order appeared without the 
impress of that imperial countenance. 

Of the figure painted by Rubens for the Jesuits at 
Antwerp, and now at Warwick Castle, I give a sketch here. 
The head in the original is wonderfully fine, and quite true to 
the Spanish type : he wears the chasuble as priest, and his 
hand is on an open book, on which are inscribed the first 
words of his Rule, Ad majorem Dei gloriam. The square 
black cap hangs behind him. The chasuble is splendid, of 
a deep scarlet embroidered with gold. 



ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA. 



48$ 




We. Ignatius Loyola. (Rubens.) 



In. general, Ignatius is distinguished by the EfiS, the mono 
gram of the Order, sometimes in a glory in the sky above, 
sometimes on a tablet borne by angels. The heart crowned 
with thorns, the SacrS Cceur, is also an attribute ; it is the 
crest or device of the Order. 

The subjects taken from his life haye not been, as far as I 
know or can learn, the most striking and picturesque incidents 
of that wonderful life : not Ignatius studying on his sick bed ; 
nor Ignatius performing his midnight watch in the chapel 
of Our Lady, hanging tip his lance before her altar, and 
dedicating himself to her service ; nor the solemn vows in the 
chapel at Montmartre; nor the prayer at Jerusalem; nor 

3K 



LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



even his death scene. These may exist, but neither in prints 
nor in pictures have I met with them. The favourite subjects 
have been his miracles, his visions, or his penances. 

After his penances in the cavern at Manresa, he began his 
vocation of saint in the usual manner, by healing the sick, and 
casting out demons. The particular time and locality chosen 
Vienna Gai. by Rubens for his splendid picture of the miracles of St. 
Ignatius I cannot fix ; but it must have been a later period, 
for Ignatius is here dressed as an ordained priest, and stands 
on the steps of an altar, which could not have occurred before 
1540. One hand rests on the altar; the other is raised as in 
command. Near him stand his nine companions, Pierre 
Faber, Francisco Xavier, lago Laynez, Alfonso Salmeron, 
Nicolas Bobadilla, Simon Rodriguez, Claude le Jay, Jean 
Codur, and Pasquier Brouet. These formed the first Society ; 
all became historically memorable, and the heads here are so 
fine, so diversified, and have so much the air of portraits, that 
I think it probable Eubens had authority for each of them 
(I speak, of course, of the picture, and not of the print, which, 
though fine, is in this respect defective). The principal group 
at the foot of the altar consists of a demoniac woman, with 
her relatives, among whom the son and the daughter of the 
afflicted creature are admirable : another demoniac, who has 
broken his bonds, lies raging and struggling on the ground. 
On the right, a young mother presents her sick child: 
another points out the saint to her two children ; over the head 
of the saint are angels, who seem to chase away the hideous 
demons, disappearing in the distance. All the figures are 
life-size, and the execution, in the manner of Eubens, is as 
fine as possible. 

* The Vision of St. Ignatius represents the miraculous com 
fort afforded to him when on his way to Borne. Having gone 
aside into a little chapel to pray, leaving Laynez and his com 
panions on the outside, he beheld the form of our Saviour, 
bearing his cross, who, standing before him, pronounced the 
words, * Ego vo&is Romte propitius eroS There is another 
vision of St. Ignatius, which I have seen represented, in which 
our Saviour commands him to give to his new community the 



ST. FHAXCIS XAVIBR. 435 



divine name. An angel generally holds a tablet, on which 
are the words In hoc vocabitur till nomenS Both these sub 
jects I have seen in the Jesnit churches, 

6 Loyola haunted by demons in his sleep/ is a fine sketch 
by Rubens. 

The statue of St. Ignatius, cast in silver from the model by 
Pierre le Gros (in his usual bad taste), the glory round the 
head being of precious stones, was formerly in the Church of 
the Gesu at Rome, but disappeared soon after the suppression 
of the Order in 1773, An imitation of it now stands in the 
same place. 

Prints of St. Ignatius are without number. I believe that 
the foregoing legend will sufficiently explain them. 



ST. FEAHCIS XAVIEK, the Patron Saint and Apostle of the 
Indies, was born in 1505. He, also, was of a most illustrious Dec. 3, 1552. 
family, and first saw the light in his father s castle among 
the Pyrenees. He was sent to study philosophy and theology 
at Paris. Here, in the college of St. Barbara, he became 
the friend and associate of Loyola. It appears from his story 
that he did not at once yield up his heart and soul to the 
guidance and grasp of the stronger spirit. Learned himself, 
a teacher in the chair of philosophy, gay, ardent, and in the 
prime of life, he struggled for a while, but his subjugation 
was afterwards only the more complete. He took the vow of 
obedience; and when John III, King of Portugal, sent a mis 
sion to plant the Christian religion in the East, where the 
Portuguese were at one time what the Spaniards had become 
in the West, lords of a territory of which the boundaries were 
unknown, Francis Xavier was selected by his spiritual guide, 
Ignatius, as leader of the small band of missionaries who sailed 
for Goa : and, adds his biographer, a happier selection could 
not have been. Never was a summons to toil, to suffering, 
and to death, so joyously received. In the visions of the night, 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



lie had often groaned beneath the incumbent weight of a wild 
Indian, of ebon hue, and gigantic stature, seated on his 
shoulders. In those dreams he had often traversed tem 
pestuous seas, enduring shipwreck, famine, and persecution in 
their most ghastly forms ; and, as each peril was encountered, 
his panting soul invoked yet more abundant opportunity of 
making such glorious sacrifices for the conversion of man 
kind. And now, when the clearer sense and the approaching 
accomplishment of those dark intimations were disclosed to 
him, passionate sobs attested the rapture which his tongue was 
unable to speak. He fell on his knees before Ignatius, kissed 
the feet of the holy father, repaired his tattered cassock, and, 
with no other provision than his breviary, left Rome on the 
15th of March 1540, for Lisbon, his destined port of em 
barkation for the East. 51 

The rest of his life was wholly spent in India, principally 
in Japan and on the coasts of Travancore and Malabar. By 
such a spirit as his we can 8 conceive that toils and fatigues, 
chains and dungeons, would be encountered with unfailing 
courage ; and death, which would have been to him a glorious 
martyrdom, met not only with courage, but exultation. But 
ruffian vices, abject filth, the society of the most depraved and 
most sordid of mankind,- for such were the soldiery and the 
traders of Portugual, who were the companions of his voyages 
from coast to coast, these must in truth have been hard to 
bear, these must have tried him sorely. Yet in the midst of 
these he writes of his happiness, as if it were too great; as if 
it were beyond what ought to be the lot of mortals I He 
never quailed under obstacles; never hesitated when called 
upon : his cheerfulness equalled his devotion and his charity, 
* Whatever may have been the fate of Xavier s missions or 
the cause of their decay, it is nothing more than wanton 
scepticism to doubt that, in his own lifetime, the apparent 
results were such as to justify the most sanguine of his 

1 Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography, My brief sketch of the Jesuit saints 
is taken principally from these volumes ; from Baillet ; and from Ribadeneira, 
himself one of the early Jesuits, and for some time confessor to St. Francis 
Borgia. 



ST. FRANCIS XAVIER. 437 



anticipations. Near Cape Conaorin lie appointed thirty dif 
ferent teachers, who, under himself, were to preside over the 
same number of Christian churches ; many an humble cottage 
there was surmounted by a crucifix, the mark of its consecra 
tion to public worship ; and many a rude countenance reflected 
the sorrows and the hopes which they had been taught to 
associate with that sacred emblem. 

It was the happiness of Xavier, that he died in the full 
belief of the good he had done, and of the unspeakable, the 
everlasting benefits which, in conferring merely the rite of 
baptism, he had obtained for hundreds of thousands of human 
souls, thereby saved from perdition. 

He died in an attempt to reach China. Its jealous coasts 
were so guarded, that it was only by bribing a mercenary 
Chinese trader that he obtained the boon of being carried 
thither and left in the night-time on the shore, or concealed 
till he could travel to the city of Canton. He had reached the 
little island of Sancian, where the Portuguese had a factory ; 
there he was abandoned by his guide and his interpreter, and, 
being seized with fever, he first took refuge on board a crowded 
hospital-ship, among the sick sailors and soldiers : growing 
rapidly worse, he entreated to be taken on shore ; they took 
him out of the vessel, and laid him on the sands, where he 
remained for many hours, exposed to the extremes of heat and 
cold the burning sun, the icy Bight-blast and none were 
there to help or to soothe his last moments. A Portuguese, 
at length moved with a tardy compassion, laid him under a 
rude shelter ; and here he breathed Ms last breath, regretting, 
it is said, that he should die a natural death, instead of suf 
fering a glorious martyrdom ; but afterwards, repenting of this 
regret, he resigned himself to believe that all was good which 
was in accordance with the will of his Divine Master. He 
died in his forty-sixth year. 

His body was buried in a little sand-hill near the shore ; a 
cross still marks the spot. His remains were afterwards dis 
interred, and carried first to Malacca and then to Groa, where, 
soon after his beatification by Paul IIL, a magnificent church 



438 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDEES. 



was built in his honour. He was formally canonised by 
Gregory XV., in 1622, in the same year with St. Ignatius, 
and the bull was published by Urban VIIL in 1623. 

In the figures of St. Francis Xavier which are to be seen 
very commonly in the Jesuit churches and in the prints pub 
lished by his Order, he is represented in the habit of a priest, 
wearing the surplice over a black frock : he is tall and robust, 
generally bareheaded, and with a short, full, black beard; he 
holds aloft the crucifix or presses it with uplifted eyes to his 
bosom or bears the lily in his hand. 

It does not appear that St. Francis Xavier arrogated to 
himself the power of working miracles, but many were imputed 
to him by his biographers. In Japan lie is said to have 
imitated Moses in the wonders he performed : and it is also 
said that the Bonzes of Japan emulated these, just as the 
magicians of Egypt, with their vain enchantments, counter 
feited the miracles of Moses and Aaron. 

The extreme puerility of some of these legends of St. 
Francis Xavier contrasts very painfully with the truly Chris 
tian heroism of this extraordinary man, and with the real 
majesty of his actions and his character. His life was so 
wonderful, so varied, that it needed no embellishment from 
vulgar inventions; yet these have not been spared. It is 
with some regret I refer to them, but, as I am writing of 
legendary Art, I must mention those which I have seen re 
presented, 

In Japan he healed the sick, cast out devils, and raised the 
dead to life ; and it is particularly recorded that at Cangoxima 
he restored to life a beautiful girl. His miracles are com 
bined into one grand dramatic scene in the fine picture 
painted by Rubens as a companion to the St. Ignatius 
already described. 

Here St. Francis Xavier is standing on a kind of raided 
pedestal or platform, from which he has been preaching to the 
people : he wears his black habit and mantle ; the right hand 
extended, the left pointed upwards. Behind him, a novice of 



ST. FRANCIS XAVIER. 480 



the Order carries the "book of the Gospel ; in front is a man 
raised from the dead; near whom is a group of three women, 
one of whom removes the linen from his face, the others look 
up to the saint, their features beaming with faith and gratitude. 
Behind these is a group of a Japanese rising from his bier ; 
a negro removes the grave-clothes ; a Portuguese officer, in 
complete armour, looks up at the resuscitated man with amaze 
ment. A blind man is groping his way to the feet of the saint. 
A lame man and several others complete the assemblage in 
the foreground. In the background is a temple of classical 
(not Indian) architecture, and a hideous idol tumbling from 
its altar. The Virgin (or Religion) appears in the opening 
heavens holding the sacramental cup; angels bearing the cross 
seem floating downwards in a stream of light. There are 
altogether more than thirty figures ; and in vigour and harmony 
of colour, in character, in dramatic movement, this is even a 
more wonderful picture than its companion. Rubens painted 
the two with his own hand. He received from the Jesuit 
fathers one hundred florins a day while he worked upon them, 
and they were suspended in their great church at Antwerp on 
the festival in honour of the canonisation of St. Francis 
Xavier in 1623. On the suppression of the Jesuit Order, 
Maria Theresa sent the painter Rosa to purchase them for 
her gallery, and paid for each picture 18,000 florins about 
2000. They have since adorned the gallery of the Belvedere 
at Vienna. 

We have the miracles of St. Francis Xavier 9 by Poussin, 
treated in his usual classical style, which, in this instance, 
spoils and weakens the truth of the representation. The 
Japanese look like Athenians, and the Bonzes might figure as 
high priests of Cybele. 

It is related that when Xavier was on his voyage to India he 
preached and catechised every day, so that the vessel in which 
he sailed was metamorphosed from a floating inferno, into a 
community of orderly and religious men. Like the Vicar of 
Wakefield in his prison, he converted his own miseries and 



440 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



privations into a means of solacing tlie wretched, and awaken 
ing the most depraved and evil-minded to better hopes and 
feelings. Bat the legend spoils this beautiful and faithful 
picture of a true devotedness. It tells us that oqe day, as 
Xavier was preaching to the sailors and passengers, his crucifix 
fell into the sea, and was miraculously restored at his earnest 
prayer, for a craw-fish or lobster appeared on the surface of 
the waters bearing the crucifix in its claws. I have seen this 
legend painted in the Jesuit churches, and well remember the 
pulpit of a little chapel in the Tyrol, dedicated to St. Francis 
Xavier, on the top of which was a carving of a lobster holding 
the cross or crucifix in its claws. It is also related that St. 
Francis multiplied the fishes in the net of a poor fisherman. 
This also I have seen represented, and at first I supposed it to 
allude to the miraculous draught of fishes, but it was explained 
by this legend. 

There is a picture in the Fitzwilliatn Museum at Cambridge, 
which represents a vision of Si Francis Xavier. It is by one 
of the Caracci. 

St. Francis Xavier preaching to the Pagans in the East, is 
a very common subject. So is the death of the saint, of which 
I remember two good pictures : one by Carlo Maratta, in the 
a. Andrea- Gesft ; and another, remarkable for the pathos and the beauty 
of the treatment, by Gianbattista Gauli, in the Church of the 
Jesuit novices at Borne. 

A picture by Seghers, which I only know from the en 
graving of Bolswert, represents St. Francis Xavier, in his 
sleepless nights, comforted by a vision of the Blessed Virgin, 
surrounded by a glory of angels. 

I have seen a picture entitled &lt; St. Francis Xavier bap 
tising a Queen of India, which probably refers to the baptism 
of the Queen of Saxurna in Japan : she was converted by 
the beauty of a picture, which Xavier had shown her, of 
the Madonna and the Infant Christ ; * but/ adds the faith 
ful historian, * her conversion was merely superficial. The 
Japanese queen contemplating with reverence and admiration 
the image of the Virgin-mother would be a most picturesque 
Subject 



ST. FRANCIS BORGIA. 



On the whole, I have never seen a picture of St. Francis 
Xavier which I could consider worthy either of him, or of the 
rich capabilities of character and scenery with which he is 
associated. 1 



The third great saint of the Jesuit community is ST. FEANCIS oct 11, 
BOKGIA. His family was at once most illustrious and most 15T2 " 
infamous. On one side he was nearly allied to the Emperor 
Charles Y. ; on the other he was of the same race as Alexander 
VI. and Caesar Borgia. Hereditary duke of Gandia, a grandee 
of Spain, distinguished in his youth and manhood as courtier, 

soldier, statesman; a happy husband, a happy father, 

nothing that this world could offer of greatness or prosperity 
seemed wanting to crown his felicity, if this world could have 
sufficed for him. But what was the world of this enthusiastic, 
contemplative, tender, poetical nature ? It was the Spanish 
court in the" sixteenth century ; it was a subserviency to forms 
from which there could have been but two means of escape, 
that personal emancipation which his position rendered 
impossible, or the exchange of the earthly for the spiritual 
I will not say bondage, but obedience. The manner in 
which this was brought about strikes us like a coup de thSdtre, 
but has all the authority of a fact, and all the solemnity of a 



sermon. 



Several events of Borgia s young life had fostered in his 
mind a deep religious feeling, * a melancholy fear subdued by 
faith. The death of the poet Garcilasso de la Vega, his dear 
and intimate friend ; some dangerous maladies from which he 
had with difficulty recovered, had predisposed him to set 
but little value upon life, although his love for his beautiful 
consort Eleonora de Castro, a numerous family of hopeful 
children, and the high employments to which he was called 

1 For an account of the miracles of St. Francis Xayier performed in Japan, see 
the Life of the saint by the P&re Bouhours, translated by Dryden, 1688. 

3L 



442 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



by his sovereign, had filled that life full of affections and 
duties. He was iu his twenty-ninth year when the Empress 
Isabella, the first wife of Charles V., died in the bloom of her 
youth and beauty, and at a moment when her husband was 
celebrating his most brilliant triumphs. Borgia as her master 
of horse, and his wife Eleonora as her first lady of honour, 
were bound to attend the funeral cavalcade from Madrid to 
Granada, where Isabella was to be laid in the Gapilla de los 
Reyes. The court ceremonial also required that, at the moment 
.when the body was lowered into the tomb, the duke should 
raise the lid of the coffin, uncover the face, and swear to the 
identity of the royal remains committed to his charge. He 
did so he lifted the winding-sheet, he beheld the face of the 
beautiful and benign empress who had been his friend not 
less than his sovereign lady. It was a revelation of unspeak 
able horror, a sight the fancy dare not attempt to realise. He 
took the required oath ; but, in the same hour, made a solemn 
vow to renounce the service of the earthly and the perishable 
for the service of the heavenly and imperishable ; to bend 
no more to mortal man, but only to the unchangeable, eternal 
God. 

Yet this vow could not be at once fulfilled. The idea of 
throwing off his allegiance, of forsaking his Eleonora, or with 
drawing her from the world and from her children, never 
entered his mind; and in the meantime the Emperor ap 
pointed him viceroy of Catalonia. He repaired to his govern 
ment; give himself up to active duties; attended to the 
administration of justice ; cleared the country of robbers ; 
encouraged agriculture; founded schools. At Barcelona, 
while occupied with plans for the education of the people, 
he became acquainted with one of the Jesuit Society, then 
in its infancy Father Aroas. Pleased with his intelligence 
and with the grand and comprehensive plan of education 
conceived as the basis of the new community, he entered into 
correspondence with Loyola, and thenceforth became but 
as an instrument in the hands of that wonderful man. The 
death of his wife,, by which he was at first struck down by 
grief, emancipated him from the dearest of his earthly ties ; 




t/f /&lt;, 7 vv w& /// Au IjtM/ei 



ST. FKASTCIS BORGIA. , 443 



but his long-considered resolve to quit the world was executed 
at last with a deliberation *and solemnity worthy of himself. 
He spent six years in settling his affairs and providing for 
the welfare of his children ; then, "bidding a last farewell to 
every worldly care and domestic affection, he departed for 
Borne to place himself and every faculty of Ms being at the 
feet of St. Ignatius. That sagacious chief sent him to preach 
in Spain and Portugal; calculating, perhaps, on the effect 
to be produced on the popular mind by seeing the grandee of 
Spain, the favourite and minister of an emperor, metamor 
phosed into the humble Father Francis. It was in this 
character that he visited his cousin Charles V. soon after his 
abdication. What a conference must that have been I 

In 1555, Father Francis was elected the third General of 
his Society, and filled the office for seven years. Returning 
to Italy after an absence, he was taken ill at Ferrara, and 
just lived to reach Rome, where he died, spent with fatigues. 
He was at first buried in the G-esia. at Rome, near his prede 
cessors, Loyola and Laynez ; but, by order of his grandson, 
the Cardinal Duke of Lerma (the famous minister of Philip 
III), his remains were exhumed, and borne in state to 
Madrid, where they now lie. To the last he had firmly refused 
to lend the sanction of his name and co-operation to the 
Inquisition ; to the last he was busied with the great scheme 
of education devised by Loyola, but perfected by himself. He 
was beatified by Pope Urban VIII. in 1624, but not canonised 
till 1716. 

Such is the mere outline of the history of this interesting 
and admirable man ; a life so rich in* picturesque incident, 
that we should wonder at the little use which has been made 
of it by the artists of his own country, did we not know to 
what a depth of degradation they had fallen at the time life 
took rank as a canonised saint ; and it is ia his saintly cha 
racter only, as the Jesuit preacher, not as the cavalier, that 
he is generally represented. With regard to the proper cha 
racter of head, we must remember that no authentic portrait 
remains of St. Francis Borgia. He absolutely refused, when 



414 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



General of the Order, to allow any picture to "be painted of 
him. When he was seized with his last illness, he again 
refused; and when, in "spite of this refusal, in his dying 
moments a painter was introduced into his room, he testified 
Ms disgust by signs and gestures, and turned his face to the 
wall. Those heads I have seen of him, particularly one 
engraved for the Jesuit Society by Wierx, represent a narrow, 
meagre face, weak in the expression, with a long aquiline 
nose: altogether such a face as we do not like to associate 
with the character of Francis Borgia. The picture by Vel 
asquez, in the Duke of Sutherland s Gallery, I suppose to 
have been painted about the period of his beatification. It 
represents him on his arrival at Rome at the moment he is 
about to renounce the world; he appears to have just dis 
mounted from his horse, and, with only two gentlemen in his 
train, is received at the door of the Jesuit College by Ignatius 
Loyola, and three others of the Society, one of whom is pro 
bably intended to represent Laynez. The picture is deeply 
interesting, but, considering the fame and acknowledged 
powers of the painter, and the singular capabilities of the sub 
ject in expression, form, and colour, I confess it disappointed 
me : it ought to be one to command to rivet the attention; 
whereas it is flat and sombre in effect, and not very significant 
in point of character. 

Goya painted a series of pictures from the life of St. Francis 
Borgia, which are now in the cathedral at Valencia. They 
must be bad and unworthy of the subject, for Goya was a 
caricaturist and satirist by profession, and never painted a 
tolerable sacred picture in his life. 

St. Francis Xavier baptising in Japan, with St. Francis 
Borgia kneeling in the foreground, is the subject of a large 
picture by Luca Giordano, painted at Naples for the church 
of San. Francesco Saverio, it is said in three days, thus 
justifying his nickname of Luca-Fa-Pre$to. There are many 
other pictures of St. Francis Borgia, unhappily not worth 
mentioning, being generally commonplace ; with the excep 
tion, however, of a very striking Spanish print, which I re 
member to have seen I know not where; Borgia t in his 



ST. LOUIS GONZAGA. 445 



Jesuit habit, with a fine melancholy face, holds in his hand 
a skull crowned with a diadem, in allusion to the Empress 
Isabella. 



ST. STANISLAS KOTZKA, the son of a Polish nohleman and * 33 

J lory. 

senator, was among the first fruits of the Jesuit teaching, and 
distinguished for his youthful piety. He was educated till he 
was fourteen, chiefly by his mother, studied afterwards at 
Vienna, and entered the Jesuit community through the 
influence of St. Francis Borgia. He did not, however, live to 
complete his noviciate, dying at Borne at the age of seventeen. 
The sanctity and purity of his young life had excited deep 
interest and admiration, and he was canonised by Benedict 
XIII. in 1727. 

It is related that when he fell sick at Vienna, in the house 
of a Protestant, an angel brought to him the Eucharist; 
hence he is often represented lying on a couch with an angel 
at his side. Prints and pictures of this youthful saint are 
often met with. He is, or was, regarded as joint patron of 
Poland with the young St. Casimir, and like him bears the 
lily as his attribute. 

In a picture by Pomerancia, he is represented caressing, and 
caressed by, the Infant Christ. 

One of the finest works of Carlo Maratta 5s the St. Stanislas, 
over one of the altars in the Sant -Andrea-in-Monte-Oavallo. Roma 
It represents the young saint kneeling before a benign and 
beautiful Madonna. In another part of the same church is a 
statue of St. Stanislas by Pierre le Gros ? once celebrated and 
admired as a wonder of Art : the drapery is of black marble, 
the head, hands, and feet of white marble; and he lies on a 
couch of giallo-antico. Nothing can be worse in point of 
taste; nothing more beautiful than the workmanship and the 
expression of the head. 

ST. Louis GONZAGA, eldest son and heir of Ferdinand ^ u f Aloy " 
Gonzaga, Marchese di Castiglione, was born in 1568. His 
mother, who watchfed over his education in his infant years, 



146 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



had instilled into his mind early feelings of piety. The 
religious movement of the age, the influence of St. Charles 
Borromeo and of the first Jesuit fathers, no doubt combined 
with the impressions of his childhood and gave shape and 
consistency to the native bias of his mind. With some diffi 
culty he obtained his father s consent to resign his heritage 
to a younger brother, and entered the Society of Jesus before 
he was eighteen. He continued his studies under the direction 
of his superiors, distinguished himself by his talent and his * 
enthusiastic piety, and died in consequence of a fever caught 
in attending the sick during the ravages of an epidemic at 
Rome in the summer of 1591. He was in his twenty-third 
year. He was beatified by Gregory XV. in 1621, and canon 
ised by Benedict XIII in 1726. He is represented in the 
black frock of his Order, with a young, mild, and beautiful 
face, and holding a lily in his hand. The bas-relief in white 
marble, by the French sculptor Pierre le Gros, over the altar 
of the chapel of St. Louis in the Sant Ignazio at Borne, is 
perhaps the best devotional representation of this young saint: 
he is ascending into heaven, borne by angels. It is, however, 
in the mean fantastic taste of the time. 

There is a striking picture by Pietro da Cortona, repre 
senting all the Jesuit saints combined into a Sagm Conver 
sazione. On one side stands St. Ignatius holding the volume 
of the Rule of his Order ; on the other side St. Francis Xavier, 
holding the lily ; in front St. Francis Borgia kneels, holding 
a skull on a book ; behind St. Ignatius stands the two young 
saints, St. Louis and St. Stanislas ; and behind St. Francis 
Xavier, the missionary-martyrs of Japan, holding their palms. 
There is a good print after this composition in the British 
Museum. 

The Jesuits have no female saint 



St. FBANCIS DE SALES. 



THE ORDEE OF THE VISITATION- OF ST. MARY, 

THIS congregation of nuns was instituted in 1610 to receive 
those women who, by reason of their infirmities of body or 
mind, their extreme poverty, previous errors of life, or a 
state of widowhood, were excluded from the other regular 
communities. 

The joint founders of this modern Order were ST. FBANCIS 
DE SALES, bishop of Geneva, and ST. JBANKE-FBANIJOISE DE 
CHANTAL, two saints of great and general interest for their 
personal character and influence, hut popular rather than 
important as subjects of Art. 

ST. FBANOIS DE SALES, of a noble family of Savoy, was born Jan. 29, 
near Annecy in 1567, His mother, who had reared him with 
difficulty, and loved him with inexpressible tenderness, had 
early dedicated him in her heart to G-od, and it is recorded 
that the first words he uttered distinctly were, Dieu et ma 
mSre m aiment Ken! and to the last moment of his life, love, 
in its scriptural sense of a tender all-embracing charity, was 
the element in which he existed. 

He was Bishop of Geneva from 1602 to 1622, and most 
worthily discharged all the duties of his position. He is cele 
brated for his devotional writings, which are almost as much 
admired by Protestants as by Catholics for their eloquence and 
Christian spirit : he is yet more interesting for his benign and 
tolerant character; his zeal, so tempered by gentleness. The 
learned Cardinal du Perron, famous as a controversialist, once 
said, If you would have the heretics convinced, bring them 
to me ; if you would have them converted, send them to the 
Bishop of Geneva. The distinction here drawn, and the feel 
ing expressed, seem to me alikg honourable to the speaker. 

By the unco guid of his own time and faith St. Francis de 
Sales was blamed for two things especially. In the first place, 
he had, in his famous book, the Introduction to a Devout 
Life, permitted dancing as a recreation. Even his eulogists 
think it necessary to explain and excuse this relaxation from 



LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OBDERS. 



strict discipline; and a fanatic friar of his own diocese had 
the insolence, after preaching against him, to burn his book 
in the face of the congregation : the mild bishop did not even 
remonstrate. 

The second subject of reproach against him was, his too 
great gentleness to sinners who came to him for comfort and 
advice. The most lost and depraved of these he would address 
in words of encouragement: All I ask of you is, not to de 
spair 1 To those who remonstrated against this excess of 
mercy, he contented himself with replying, c Had Saul been 
rejected, should we have had St. Paul? 

This good prelate died suddenly in 1622, and was canonised 
by Alexander VII. in 1665. Bossuet, Bourdaloue, and 
Fltehier enshrined him in their eloquent homage. 

Portraits and devotional prints and pictures of St. Francis de 
Sales were formerly very popular in France. In the churches 
of the convents of the Visitation, and in the churches of the 
Minimes, they were commonly met with. The Minimes have 
enrolled him in their own Order, in consequence of his ex 
treme veneration for their patriarch St. Francis de Paula; but 
if he is to be included in any Order, I believe it should be 
that of the Augustines, as a regular canon or priest. 

He was so remarkable, for the beauty of his person, and the 
angelic expression of his regular and delicate features, that 
painting could hardly idealise him. He is represented in the 
episcopal cope, generally bareheaded ; and in prints the usual 
attribute is a lieart pierced and crowned with thorns, and 
surmounted by a cross placed within a glory of light. 

The finest devotional figure of him I have ever seen is in 
the large picture by Carlo Maratta, in the Church, of the 
Filippim (Oratorians) at Forll. 

STE. JEAKKE-FKAN90ISJE DK CHAOTAL, the latest of the 
canonised saints who is of any general interest, was the 
grandmother of Madame de Sevign6; and some people will 
probably regard her as more interesting in that relationship, 
than even as a canonised saint. 



STE. JEANNE-FRANCOIS DE CHANTAL. 413 



Mademoiselle de Fremiot, for that was her maiden and 
secular name, was even as a child remarkable for her religious 
enthusiasm. One day a Calvinist gentleman, who visited her 
parents, presented her with some bon-bons. She immediately 
flung them into the fire, saying, as she fixed her eyes upon 
him, Voil&, Monsieur, comment les h&etiques brdleront dans 
1 enfer I 

She did not, however, grow up a cruel fanatic, though she 
remained a devout enthusiast. She married, in obedience to 
her parents, the Baron de Chantal ; at the same time making 
a secret vow, that if ever she were left a widow she would 
retire from the world and dedicate herself to a religious life. 

Her husband died when she was in her twenty-ninth year, 
and for the next ten years of her life she was sedulously em 
ployed in the care and education of her four children ; still 
preparing herself for the fulfilment of her vow. 

In the year 1610 she assisted St. Francis de Sales in the 
institution of the Order of the Visitation. Having arranged 
the future destinies of her children, and married her son 
advantageously to Mademoiselle de Coulanges, she prepared to 
renounce all intercourse with the world, and to assume the 
direction of the new Order, as &lt; la Mere ChantaU Her chil 
dren, who seem to have loved her passionately, opposed her 
resolution. On the day on which she was to withdraw from 
her home, her son, the father of Madame de Sevign6, threw 
himself on the ground before the threshold of her door. She 
paused for a moment and burst into tears ; then, stepping over 
him, went on, and the sacrifice was consummated. 

Before her death, Madame de Chantal counted seventy-five 
houses of her Order in France and Savoy ; and, from its non 
exclusive spirit, this community became useful as well as 
popular. "When St. Vincent de Paul instituted the Hospice de 
la Madeleine, as a refuge for poor erring women, he placed it 
under the superintendence of the Sisters of the Visitation, 
called in France * SMUTS de Sainte MarieS 

La M&re Frangoise died in 1641, and was canonised by 
Clement XIV. (Granganelli) in 1769. Madame de Sevign6 
did not live to see her * sainte Grande-Maman * receive the 

3 M 



4fiO 



MENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 



honours of beatification ; but, from various passages of her 
letters, she appears to have regarded her with deep veneration, 
and to have cherished for her sake * nne espSce de fraternite 
hereditaire avec les Soeurs de Ste. Marie, qu elle ne mauquait 
point de visitor partout oil elle allait. 

Long before her canonisation, pictures and prints of La 
Mere de Chantal, as foundress of her community, were com 
monly met with : the only subject from her life represents her 
receiving from the hands of St. Francis de Sales the Rule of 
the Order of the Visitation. 




85 A Monk received into Paradise, (Prom the Paramo of F. Angelica dajFiesok) 



INDEX. 



"ABB 

ABELA.HD and Hcloise, allusion to, 16, 
note 

X Becbct, St. Thomas, 101. His ac 
tions and character variously es- 

timated by historians, 101. Lord 
Campbell s opinion, 101. Cause of 
his murder, 102. His varied life 
rich in scenes for the painter, 102, 
103. Becomes Archbishop of Can 
terbury, and resigns the Chancellor 
ship, 103. His history from this pe 
riod to his death, 103-106. Legend 
relative to his burial, 106*. No me 
morial of him remaining in Bngrland, 
106. * Uneanonised in the reign of 
Henry VI II., 106. Greatly honoured 
by the Roman Church, 107, 108. 
Description of devotional and other 
paintings of him, 107-110 

Adeibert, St., his mission to Bohemia, 
176 

Aguado Gallery, references to pictures 
in the, 134, 277, 347, 351, 405 

Alban, St., the first English martyr, 42. 
Legendary miracles, 43 

Albert, St., Founder of the Carmelite 
Order, 411 

Albertus Magnus, 380 

Alton Towers, notice of painted win 
dows in. the church of the Oratorians, 
near, 161, note. Pictures at, 268, 287 

Angelus, St., 413 

Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
picturesque legend respecting* him, 
84. 

Antony of Padua, St., 278. His salu 
tary influence as a missionary, 279. 
Miracles, death, and canonisation, 
280, 281. Works of art illustrative of 
his life, 281-287 

Antonino of Florence, St., 397. The 
gravity, religious fervour, and mental 
firmness of his childhood, 397. Be- 



comes a Dominican at the age of six 
teen, 398. Anecdotes of him and his 
cherished companion, Fra Giovanni 
the painter, 398-400. Frescoes and 
other representations of Antonino, 
400 

Art, its influence as a means of instruc 
tion neglected by the early Jesuits, 
428. (See also the Introduction.) 

Artists (including painters, sculptors, 

and engravers): 
Alban o, 345 
Albertinelli, 81 
Angelieo, 290, 313, 364, 367, 369, 

373, 380, 399 
Aretino, Spinello, 18 
Arczzo, Margaritone di, 248 
Armitage, 103 

Arteaga, 189 

AUichiati, 392 

Avanzi, Simone, 17, 117 

Baldovinetti, 215 

Bartolome*, Fray, 219 

Bartolomeo, Fra, 145, 225, 856, 365, 

374, 392, 395, 405 
Bassano, Leandro, 407 
Beham, Hans Sebald, 82 
Bellini, Gentil, 207 
Bernini, 152, 421 
Bevilacqua, 373 
Bissolo, F., 394 
Boecanegra, 224 
Bologna, John of, 401 
Bolswert, 440 
Bonfigli, 328 
Bonifaccio, 73 
Botticelli, 124, 313 
Bramantino, 421 
Brizio, 158, 408 
Brule, A. de, 19 
Bruyn, B. de, 76 
Bufalmacco, 124 
Burgmair, Hans, 182, 314 



INDEX. 



AKT 

Artists continued 
Campagna, 283 
Catnpagnola, 282, 283, 285 
Oampi Giulio, 1 74 
Cano, Alonzo, 287, 423 
Canuti, D., 18 
Caracco, Agostino, 137, 249, 252 

, Annibal, 158, 345 

, Ludovico, 19, 21, 158, 296. 

403, 407, 413 
Carducho, Vincenzio, 132 
CaroselH, Angiolo, 178 
Carpaccio, Vittore, 207 
Castiglionc, 199 
Cataneo, 283 
Champagne, Philippe de, 19. 158, 

165, 325 
Cignaroli, 81 
Cigoli, 251, 252 
Cimabue, 123 
Coello, 0., 324 

, S., 432 

Concgliano, Cima de, 74, note 

Contarini, 286 

Cor ton a, Pietro da, 446 

Cosmata, Giovanni, 210 

Cranach, Lucas, 84, 185, 186 

Crespi, Giuseppe, 205 

Crivelli, 290, 327 

Bo lUerek, 383 

Dolce, Carlo, 190, 364, 370 

Domenichino, 30-38, 866 

Donatello, 283, 285 

Diirer, Albert, 82, 134, note, 185, ISO 

Eastlake, Sir Charles, 110 

Edelinck, 159 

Empoli, 333 

Espinosa, 409 

Perrara, Mazzolino da, 198 

Ferrato, SUBBO, 393 

Fiaraingo, 18 

Folli, Sebastian, 396 

Fontana, Lavinia, 337 

Franciabigio, 215 

Gaddi, Taddeo, 116, 377 

Gai^ieri, 158 

Garofalo, 198 

Gauli, Gianbattista, 440 

Ghirlandajo, 258, 266, 380, 392, 401 

Giordano, Luca, 23, 427, 444 

Giorgione, 32, 226, 873 

Giottino, 144, 277 

Giotto, 252, 259-261, 265-267 

Giovanni, Fietro di, 295 

Gomez, Sebastian, S3 4 

Goya, 444 

Gozzoli, Benozzo, 377 



AUT 

Artists continued 
Gruncr, 290 

Guercino, 32, 152, 158, 372, 423 
Guido, 20, 158, 370, 426 
Guilain, 346 
Hcmskirk, Martin. 76 
Hess, 74, 79 
Holbein, 186, 314 
Houdon, 128 
Huge, G., 27 
II Prctc Genovcso, 207 
Jordaens, 27 
Juanea, Yi ncen t $ e 201 
Kirkall, 446 
Lahire, 268 

Lanfranco, 32, 158, 330 
Lasinio, 280, 281 
Le Uruu, 159, 324, 427 
Le Sueur, 18, 128-131 
Lippi, tfilippino, 145, 878 
Loxubardi, Alfonso, 363, 367 

-, Antonia, 285 

, Tullio, 284 

Maiano, Benedetto da, 258, 267 

Malossa of Cremona, 408 

Maratta, Carlo, 440, 445, 448 

Marratti, Carlo, 158 

Masaecio, 146 

Mascagni, 216 

Massari, Lucio, 24, 277 

Massarotti, 423 

Mastellotta, 369 

Matham, J,, 27 

Max, Emanuol. 179 

Mazzolino da Ferrara, 198 

Mollan, Ciande, 228 

Mcmtni, Simone, 356 

Methodius, 175, 176 

Miranda, Carreno di, 318 

Monaco, Born Lorenzo, 117 

Montagna, Benedetto, 16, 146 

Morando, 238, 314, 334 

Morone, Francesco, 238 

Moretto, 276, 327 

Morina, 853 

Murillo, 25, 30, 145, 199, 202, ^ 

277,286, 291, 815, 336, 341.347, 

351, 405, 410, 425 
Mutina, Tomaso di, 175, 178 
Novell!, 17, 208 
Orcagna, 366 
Qrlay, Bernard T., 211 
Pacchiarotti, 395 
Pacheco, 403 

Padova, Gian-Mariadi, 285 
Pamfilo, 149. 
Passignano, 401 



45$ 



AM 

Arti sts continued 
Pereyra, Manual, 128 
Perugino, 16, 122, 145 
Pesellino, 283, 295, 296 
Pierre le Gros, 445, 446 
Pietro, Lorenzo, 225 

, Sano di, 249 

Pintuiiccluo, Bernardino, 296, 396 
Pisano, Giunta, 247 

, Hiccol5, 363, 367, 369 

Pistoia, Fra Paolino da, 334 

Pocetti, Bernardino, 216 

Pomerancia, 445 

Pontius, P., 209 

Pordenone, 207 

Poussin, Kiccol6, 152, 212, 439 

Procaccino, C., 158 

Raphael, 123, note, 198, 324, S52 

Kazzi, 394 

Betzsch, 319 

Ribalta, F. de, 199, 202, 421 

Ribera, 380 

Robbia, Agostino della, 295 

Eoselli, Cosimo, 145, 215, 327 

Rovezzano, 122 

Rubens, 25, 77, 79, 333, 359, 422, 

423, 432-434, 438, 439 
Sacchi, Andrea, 117 
Salcedo, 224 
Salimbeni, 216, 395 
Salviati, 149 
Sansovino, 198, 283 
Santa Croce, Girolamo de, 108 
Santi, Giovanni, 268 
Saraceni, Carlo, 83 
Sarto, Andrea del, 122, 123. 213. 215. 

216, 234, 330, 373 
S asset ta, 249 
Schefier, 380 
Seghers, 440 
Signorelli, 123 

Skreta, Karl. See Zaworzic 
Sloedtz, 128 

Solario, A. (or Lo Zingaro), 18 
Solimene, 337 
Spada, Lionello, 22, 368 
Theodoric of Prague, 175 
Thielmann, Hans, 183, 
Tiarini, 152, 370, 395 
Tintoretto, 370 
Titian, 282, 283, 285, 373 
Traini, Francesco, 366, 367, 369, 370. 

877 

Trevisani, 284 
Treviso, Girolamo da. 108 
Valdcs, 190 
Van Dyck, 208, 212, 285, 291 



BE3ST 

Artists continued 

Van Eyck, Johan, 112 
Yanni, Andrea, 390 

, Francesco, 379, 395 

, Eaffaello, 395 

Velasquez, 443 

Veronese, Paul, 16 

Vischer, Peter, 81, 82 

Vorstermann, 108, 209 

Wierx, 443 

Zaworzie, Karl Skreta Ritter Ssot- 

nowskj von, 175, 179 
Zurbaran, 131, 134, 190, 221, 222, 
251, 277, 379 

Attributes, saintly, how to distinguish 
them in pictures, xxxii. 

Augustine, St., 44. Tradition respect 
ing the introduction of Christianity 
into Britain, 44, 45. Narrative of 
Augustine s mission to England, and 
its results, 46-49. His companion, 
St. Paulinus, 49, 50. See also 193 

Augustines, The, 191-226 



Baillet, quotation from, 396 

Bartsch, references to, 146, 294 

Bavaria, King Louis of, account of the 
Basilica founded by him in honour 
of St. Boniface, 74 

Bavon, St., 26. Illustrative works of 
art noticed, and interesting legend 
quoted, 27 

Bede, quotations from. 48, 53, 56, 58, 
60-62, 91 

Benedict, St., 7. His parentage, early 
life, labours, miracles, and death, 
7-13. Description of the chief works 
of art, illustrative of the saint and his 
Order, with the explanatory legends, 
13-24 

Benedictine Orders, 1-167. Their 
origin, and important services in the 
cause of religion, literature, art, and 
social progress, 1-7 

Benedictines in England, 39 

Bennet Biscop, St., 51. His various 
accomplishments, 52. How repre 
sented in art, 53 

Benno, St., 88 

Benolt d Aniane, St., sketch of his life, 
and notices of illustrative paintings 
and prints, 31, 32 

Benozzi, St. Philip, chief of the Order 
of the Servi, 214. Abandons the prac 
tice of medicine, retires to a convent, 
and dies General of his Order, 215, 



454 



BEB 

Worlds of art in connection with Mm, 
215, 216 

Berlin, references to works of art at, 
158, 225, 267 

Bernard of Clairvaux, St., 139. His 
studies and rigorous self-denial, 140. 
He and his followers build the Abbey 
of Clairvaux, and renovate tho sur 
rounding country, 141. Ho becomes 
a great authority in all matters of re 
ligious discipline, 141. His penances, 
anxieties, and death, 142, His writ 
ings highly estimated by his Church, 
142. Description of several devotional 
and historical works of art in con 
nection with Mm, 142-148 

Bernard degli Ubcrti, St., 148 

Bernardo dei Tolpmei, San, 148. Founds 
the Congregation of Monte Oliveto, 
149. Pictures of, 149 

Bernardino of Siena, St., 291, Becomes 
at tho age of twenty-three one of 
the most celebrated and eloquent 
preachers among 1 the Franciscans, 
but refuses all ecclesiastical honours, 
292. Founds the Order of the Ob 
servants,* 292. Death and canonisa 
tion, 293. Works of art representing 
Mm, 293-296 

Bible, the, its several parts formerly re- 
* garded as in dependent books, 126, note 

Black Friars, 2"J9 

Blanche of Castile, Queen, interesting 
anecdote of, 820 

Bodleian Library, Caodmon s paraphrase 
of Scripture history preserved in, 60, 
61, note 

Bogaris, king of Bulgaria, 175 

Bohemian art in, the fourteenth cen 
tury, 175 

Boisseree Collection, references to pic 
tures in the, 76, 211, 314 

Bologna, pictures in the Gallery, &c,, at, 
17-19, 22, 24, 108, 117, 149, 240, 837, 
353, 363, 366, 3G7 

Bollandists, the, their quarrel with the 
Carmelites, 414 

Boleslaus and his mother Draliomira, 
their conspiracy to assassinate St. 
Ludmilla, 176 

Bonaveutura, St., 288. Origin of his 
name, 288* Attains to great eminence 
in the Church , but preserves the re 
markable humility of his disposition, 
289. His death the results of fatigu 
ing labours, 289. Pictorial represen 
tations of him, 290, 291 



CAB 

Boniface, St., Martyr, 70. An admirable 
subject for Christian art, 71. Quo- 
tation from Sir James Stephen s 
sketch of his history and mission, 
71-73. Beauty and importance of 
the works of art consecrated to his 
name, 73 

Borgia, (St. Francis, 441 

Borromeo, St. Charles, 153. His gra 
vity and sanctity in early life, 153. 
Becomes remarkable both for ex 
cessive self-mortification and bound 
less charities to others, 154. Opposed 
in his determination to restore the 
discipline of the Church, and an at* 
tempt made upon his life, 155. His 
noble conduct during the plague at 
Milan, 156. His mental and per 
sonal* characteristics, 156. Notice of 
various works of art commemorative 
of him, 157-159. His name also 
associated with, music, as patron of 
Palostrina, 100 

Bridget of Ireland, St., 195-197 

Bridget of Sweden, St., founder of the 
Order of the Brigittiues, 224 

Brigittines, Order of the, 224 

British Museum, incidental references 
to engraving, &o., in the, 25, 32, 95, 
108, 199, 392 

Bruno, St., founder and patriarch of the 
Carthusians, 1^4. His life, as illus 
trated by a series of pictures m the 
Louvre, 128-131. Description of 
other paintings in connection with 
him and Ms Order, 131-135 

Brussels, pictures in tha Gallery and 
Mus6e at, 19, 77, 212, 333 

Oeedmon the Poet, beauty of the legends 
relating to his life, 60, 61 

Camaldolesi, Order of the, 115-117 

Campbell, Lord, quotations from his 
* Lives of the Chancellors, 89, 103- 
105. 

Capgrave, his account of St. Augustine 
quoted, 49 

Capuchins., remarks on this Order in 
connection with its first saint, 342 

Carmelites, Order of the, 411-427. Pre 
tended antiquity of the Order, and 
its introduction into England under 
the name of White Friars/ 411. 
The Virgin Mary protectress of the 
Order, 414 

Carthusians, Order of the, 124. Poeti 
cal nature of their traditional origin, 



455 



CAS 

125, Their picturesque but gentle 
manly aspect, their skill in horticul 
ture, and sumptuous patronage of art, 
125. Severity of their rule, 125, 126. 
Kature of their occupations, 126. 
Peter of Clugni s approval of the 
Order, 127. (See pp. 134-137, for 
several saints of this Order) 

Casimir of Poland, St., 190 

Catherine of Bologna, St., 352 

Catherine of Siena, St., 381. Descrip 
tion of the city of Siena and its vi 
cinity, 381. Legend of Catherine, 
383-388. Chosen ambassadress to 
the Pope by the Florentines, 388. 
Accomplishes her mission, and is 
subsequently appointed ambassadress 
to the court of Naples, 389. Her 
last moments, 389. Her letters to 
Andrea Vanni, the painter, and 
legend regarding his head of Christ, 
890, 391. Devotional and historical 
pictures of St. Catherine, 391-397 

Chad, St., brief account of him and his 
brother Cedd, 62, 63 

Charlemagne, military servitude of St. 
Benoit d Aniane under, 31. St. Wal- 
burga honoured by, 79. One of the 
early Royal Saints, 169, 170 

Chartreux monastery (La Grand Char 
treuse), 124, 125 

Chaucer, 148 

Christianity, its low condition imme 
diately preceding the rise of the 
Benedictines, 2 

Cistercians, Order of the, 188, The 
most popular of all the Benedictine 
branches, 138. (See Bernard of 
Clairvaux, St. ) 

Clara di Monte-Falco, or * Bcata Clara 
della Cruce di Monte-Falco, 209 

Clara, St., 270. Her early piety, re 
fusal to marry, and escape to a con 
vent, 271. Is joined by other ladies 
of rank, and forms the Order of the 
* Poor Clares,* 272. The convent 
attacked by Saracens, but preserved 
by the prayers of Clara, 273. Justifi 
catory remarks on her character, 274. 
Notice of devotional and other 
pictures of her, 275-278 

Clotilda, St., 172 

Cloud, St., 173 

Constantino, St., 169, 170 

Corsini, St., Andrea, 425 

Crashaw, quotation frm him in illus- 



DKA 

tration of the life of St. Theresa, 415, 

420 
Cremona, picture of San Bernardo dci 

Tolomei at, 148 
Croyland Abbey, origin, and present 

state of, 63, 64 
Cunegunda, St., 180-183 
Cunibert, St., 76 
Cuthbert, St., legend of his childhood, 

54. Adopts the life of an anchorite, 

55. Mode of representing him in art, 
55, 56 

Cyril, St., his mission to Bulgaria, 175, 
176 

Dale Abbey, its legend as illustrated in 

painted glass, 85 
Dante, quotations from, or references to, 

148, 232, 257, 380, 882 
Darmstadt, pictures in the Gallery at, 

Delphine, St., 333, 334 

Diego d AlcaBi, St., 344. Canonised 
from very unworthy motives, 344. 
Interesting anecdote of Annibal Ca- 
racei, who was engaged to paint the 
history of the saint in a chapel de 
dicated to him, 345, 846. Description, 
of these and other paintings in hon 
our of St. Diego, 346 

Dominicans, Order of the, 354. Famed 
for producing two of the most emi 
nent of religious painters, Angelico 
da Fiesole and Bartolomeo della Porta, 
855. Leyeno, as to the habit adopted 
by the Older, 356. List of the prin 
cipal saintB, 356, 357. Specimens of 
the ingenious apologues introduced 
by the Dominicans, laio their sermons, 
357, 358 

Dornmick, St., 359, His early predi 
lection for a life of penance, 360. 
Goes on a mission to France, 360. 
Disputes with the leaders of the Al- 
bigenses, 361. Inquiry as to how far 
he was answerable for the cruelties 
experienced by the * heretics, 1 361. 
He institutes the rosary, 362 ; and 
the Order of Dominican Nuns, 362. 
His indefatigable labours as a preacher 
and founder of convents ; illness, and 
death, 363, Description of the chief 
paintings illustrating his life, 364- 
370 

Drayton, his lines on the brother-mar 
tyrs Ewald, 76, On St. Thomas & 
Becket, 106, note 



458 



INDEX. 



BBE 

Dresden Gallery, references to pictures 
in the, 143, 337 

Dugdale, quotations from, 45, 58, 218, 
220, 411 

Duus Scotus, 380 t 

Duke of Devonshire, references to pic 
tures in the collection of, 68 

Dunatan, St., 90. Conflicting notions 
as to his real character, 90. His 
learning and various accomplish 
ments, 91. First beloved, and after 
wards persecuted, "by King Edmund, 

91. The famous story of the Devil, 

92. Another and a more beautiful 
legend, 92. Reaches the height of 
his power during the reign of .Edgar, 
98. His journey to Rome, visions, 
and miracles, 93. Account of devo 
tional pictures of him (including one 
drawn by himself), 94, 95 

Durham Cathedral, nature of the sub 
jects formerly existing in the stained- 
glass windows, 59, note 



Ebba, St., 60 

Eastlake, Sir Charles, references to his 
Edition, of Kugler a Handbook, 52, 
268, 356 

Edith of "Wilton, St., 95, 96 

Edmund, St., King and Martyr, 86. 
His picturesque legend, 86. His 
effigies, 88 

Edward the Martyr, St., 96. His 
legend, 96. His tragical death a 
favourite subject with artists, 97. 
Query as to the propriety of his title 
of martyr, 97 

Edward, St., King and Confessor, 97. 
His legendary history, as represented 
in the bas-reliefs in "Westminster 
Abbey, 97-101. Devotional figures, 
101 

Elizabeth of Hungary, St., 297. Her 
name regarded as the traditional type 
of female charity, 297. Her interest 
ing and instructive legend, 298-311. 
Popular frenzy for her relics, even 
before burial, 811. Present state of 
the castle of the Wartburg, once the 
home of Elizabeth, SI 2. Description 
of the chief statues and paintings of 
ker, 313-316. Poetical picture, from 
the German, with translation, BIB- 
SIS 
Elizabeth of Portugal, St., 318. Her life 



a very remarkable one, though pic 
tures of her seldom met with, 819 

Ely Cathedral, interesting carved groups 
in the lantern of, 66-68 

Elzear or Eleazer, St., Couut of Sabran, 
333, 334 

Erlinde* of Wolf von Goethe, quota 
tion from, with English translation, 
316-318 

Ethelreda, St. (or St. Audrey), 65. Her 
royal lineage, and early renunciation 
of the world, 65. Carved groups in 
Ely Cathedral illustrative of the chief 
incidents in, her life, 66-68. Devo 
tional figures of, 68 

Ewald the Black and Ewald the Fair, 
Saints, 75. Celebrated by the poet 
Drayton, 76 



Fitzwilliam Museum, reference to, 440 

Felix de Cantalicio, St., 342 

Felix de Valois, the * Wilberf orce of 
the twelfth century, 218 

Ferdinand of Castile, St., 187. His 
fanatic but conscientious character, 
188, Notice of pictures relating to 
him, 189, 190 

Florence, notice of paintings in the 
Academy Gallery, and Churches at, 
18, 117, 120-124, 144, 209, 215, 
252, 258, 266, 267, 283, S24, 333, 
366, 873, 377, 405. In the Pitti 
Palace, 16, 190, 234, 830, 370, 873 

Ford, Mr, his * Handbook of Spain* 
quoted from, or referred to, 25, 126, 
131, 188, 203, 243, note, 342, 416, 
421 

Founders of the various Monastic 
Orders, 29 

Franceeca Bomana, St., 149. Early 
indications of charity and humility, 
149. Legends connected with, her 
subsequent life, as illustrated in art, 
150-152 

Francis of Assisi, St., 288. Prodigality 
of his youth, dangerous illness, and 
subsequent renunciation of the world, 
239, 240. Passes his life in prayer, 
penance, and charity, 241. Receives 
from the Pope a confirmation of 
the Order of Fratri Minor!/ 242. 
Seeks martyrdom in the East, 244. 
His extraordinary vision, and legend 
of the stigmata, 244. His death and 
canonisation, 246. Description of 



INDBX. 



457 



3TBA 

the chief devotional, mystical, and 
historical works of art appertaining 
to him, with legendary elucidations. 
246-269 

Francis Borgia, St., 441. His royal 
lineage, 441. Becomes dissatisfied 
with a courtier s life, and resolves 
to serve only Heaven, 442. Spends 
six years in settling his worldly 
affairs, and is then appointed by 
Loyola to preach in Spain and Portu 
gal, 442. Fills the office of General 
of the Society for seven years, and 
returns to Ferrara, where he dies. 
443. 1 1 is consistent opposition to 
the establishment of the Inquisition, 
443. Pictures illustrative of his life. 
443, 444. 

Francis de Paula, St., $34. Turns her 
mit at the age of fifteen, and being 
joined by others, forms the Order of 
the Minimes, 335. Honoured and 
courted by kings, 835, 336. His 
tomb rifled, and his remains burned, 
by the Huguenots, 336. Notice of 
paintings of him, 336, 337 

Francis de Sales, St., one of the founders 
of tlxe Order of the Visitation of St. 
Mary, 446 

Francia Xavier, St., 435. Becomes as 
sociated with Loyola, who sends him 
as a missionary to India, 435, 436. 
Dies, after great Buffering-, in an at 
tempt to reach China, 437. Account 
of some pictures of him, with their 
explanatory legends, 438-440 

Franciscans, Order of the, 236-353. 
List of their chief saints, and re 
marks on. their great interest as 
subjects of art, 236 

Giles, St., his legend, 28. Abbey of, 
29. The saint especially venerated 
in England and Scotland, 29. Pic 
torial representations of him, 30 

Glastonbury Abbey, legend of, 46 

Goethe Collection, reference to a pic 
ture of St. Margaret of Oortona 
found in, 831 

Gonzaga, St. Louis, 445 

Gregory the Great, notice of traditions 
relating to, 44-47 

Grenoble, St. Hugh of, 184 

Grey-Friars, 229 

Groita-Ferrata, pictorial adornments of 
the Chapel at, 35 

Gualberto, St. John, 118. His beauti 
ful legead, 118-120. Founds the 



IGH 

Order of Vallombrosa, 119. Descrip 
tion of the chief works of art illlus- 
trative of his life, 120-124. Some 
particulars of the Vallombrosan. 
nuns, 124 

Guizot, M., quoted from or referred to, 
4, 27, 31, 113, 171, and note 

Guthlac, St., his legend and pictorial 
attributes, 63, 64 

Habit, monastic, various colours and 
forms of the, xxxi. 

Head, Sir Edmund, reference to his 
* Handbook of the Spanish and 
French Schools, 403 

Helena, St. (mother of Constantino), 
40. Notice of the disputes concern 
ing her birth-place and lineage, 40. 
Legends and pictures, 41 

Henry VIII., injury to art through 
the rapacity of, 39 

Henry of Bavaria, St., 179. His 
legend, 179, Becomes the husband 
of St. Cunegunda, 180. Notice of 
works of art relating to the imperial 
pair, 182, 183 

Herman, St., 212 

Hilda, St., Bede s account of, 58 

Hospitallers, or Brothers of Charity, 
338 

Hugh of Grenoble, St., 134. His austere 
life and spiritual perplexities, 134, 

135. Devotional pictures of him, 135 
Hugh of Lincoln, St., 135. Kebuilds 

the cathedral of that city, 135. Me 
morials of him in the stained-glass 
windows, 135 
Hugh Martyr, St., 136. His legends, 

136. How represented in art, 137 
Humbeline, St., sister of St. Bernard 

of Clairvaux, 147 

Humility, St., foundress of the Val 
lombrosan nuns, 124 

Hyacinth, St., 405. Joins the Domi 
nicans, and becomes a laborious 
missionary in barbarian lands, 406. 
Pictures of him, 407, 408 



Ignatius Loyola, St., 430. Enters the 
army and is severely wounded, 430. 
Beads during his illness, the * Lives 
of the Saints/ and becomes a changed 
man, 430. His pilgrimages and 
penances, 431. Submits to four 
years hard study in order to obtain 



458 



INDEX. 



ILD 

the privilege of teaching, 431. Meets 
with five other zealous men, and in 
stitutes the * Company of Jesus/ 
431. Description of paintings and 
statues of him, 432-435 

Ildcfonso, St., 24. Description of two 
legendary paintings illustr