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Cljf iHonastir (J^rtirrs,
AS EEPEESENTED IN THE FINE ARTS.
THE SECOND SERIES OF SACRED AND LEGENDARY ART.
BY MES. JAMESON.
t;i2irb €Vitmx,
LONDON:
LONGMAN, GEEEN, LONGMAN, EGBERTS, & GEEEN.
1863.
wee MUSEUM UWAIW /
^HMVAROUWVERSnV .
LONDON
PRINTED BY S POT TIS WO OD E AND CO.
NEW-STREET SQUARE
r
>
CONTENTS
Preface - - -. - - -.- - xiii
I]SrTRODUCTIOjSr :
I. General Clicaracter and Influence of Monastic Art. Ugli-
ness and Sameness of the Ilepresentations. Historical
and Moral Importance of the Monastic Subjects,
generally and individually. Contrast between the Bene-
dictine Pictures and those of the Mendicant Orders - xvii
II. Distinction between the Devotional and the Historical
Subjects ______ xxvi
III. Founders, Habits, and Attributes of the diflerent Orders - xxix
IV. Principal Churches and Edifices of the various Orders - xxxix
ST. BENEDICT AND THE EARLY BENEDICTINES IN ITALY,
FRANCE, SPAIN, AND FLANDERS.
Origin of the Benedictines. Effigies of the Benedictines interesting
and suggestive under three Points of View. As Missionaries, and
as the Depositaries of Learning. As Artists, Architects, and Mu-
sicians. As Agriculturists. Principal Saints of the Benedictine
Order 1
St. Benedict. The Legend. His Sister, St. Scholastica. His Dis-
ciples, St. Maurus, St. Placidus, and St. Flavia. Pictures of St.
Benedict. The proper Habit, sometimes white, and sometimes black.
Attributes of St. Benedict. Examples of Devotional Figures.
Subjects from his Life by various Painters. Legend of the Dead
Nuns - - - - -♦- - -7
St. Ildefoxso. Famous in Spanish Art. His Vision of the Virgin.
His Vision of St.- Leocadia - - - - - - 24
St. Bavon". The Legend. Pictures of the Saint. Story of the Slave 20
St. Giles. Origin of the Legend - - - - - 28
St. Benedict of Anian and St. William of Aquitaine - - 31
St. Niltts of Geotta Ferrata. Legend of St. Nilus and the Em-
peror Otho. Frescoes of Domenicliino at Grotta Ferrata - - 32
IV CONTENTS.
THE BENEDICTINES IN ENGLAND AND IN GERMANY.
PAGE
Introduction of the Order into England. Its Interest and Importance
as connected witL. our History. Earliest English Saints. St. Helena,
St, Alban. The Legend. First Introduction of Christianity into
England. The Legend of Glastonbury. The Legend of St. Augus-
tine of Canterbury, of St. Paulinus of York, of St. Bennet of
Wearmouth, of St. Cuthbert of Durham, of St. Oswald the King,
of St. Hilda of Whitby, of St. Ebba of Coldingham, of CiBdmon the
Poet, of St. Chad of Lichfield, of St. Guthlac of Croyland, of St.
Ethelberga, of St. Ethelreda (as represented in Ely Cathedral), of St.
Werbm'ga of Chester. St. Edith of Polesworth, and St. Modwena - 39
St. BoisriFACE, Maetyr. The Legend. Habit and Attributes, Popu-
larity in Germany. St. Ewald the Black, and St. Ewald the Fair,
St. Swidbert. St, Lieven. St. Walburga. St, Ottilia. St. Sebald
of Nuremburg, St. Benno - - - - - - 70
Disputes of the English Benedictines with the Norman Kings. Legend
of Dale Abbey. Legend of St. Edmund and Ragnar Lodbrog.
Martyrdom of King Edmund. St. Neot, St. S with en. St. Dunstan :
his Legend ; his Skill as an Artist ; as a Musician : ancient Figure.
St. Edith of Wilton - - - - - - 84
Legends of St. Edward the Martyr and St. Edward the Confessor.
Legend of St. Thomas a Becket - - - . - 9()
THE REFORMED BENEDICTINES,
Decline of the Moral Influence and Discipline of the Order. Reform
of the Order in Italy - - - - - -11 o
The Ohdee of Camaldoli. Legend of St. Romualdo. Figures of
St. Romualdo in the Early Florentine School, The Vision of St.
Romualdo - - - - - - - - IIG
The Oeber op Vallombeosa. Legend of St. John Gualberto.
Popular at Florence. * Subjects from his Life, The Guardian Saints
of Vallombrosa, St, Umilta - - - - -118
The CAExnusiANS, Origin, Interest, and Importance of the Order in
connection with Art. Legends of St, Bruno as represented by Le
Sueur, by Zarbaran, by Carducho, The Charter-House in London.
St, Hugh of Grenoble, St. Hugh of Lincoln, Martyr. Other Inftuit
Martyrs - - - - - - - -124
CONTENTS.
The Cistercians. Popularity of the Order. St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
The Legend. His Learning and Celebrity. Preaches the Second
Crusade. Pictures and Effigies of St. Bernard. Habit and Attri-
butes. Devotional Subjects. The Vision of St. Bernard. Popu-
larity of this Subject. Lichfield Cathedral. Historical Subjects.
St. Bernard in the Cathedral of Spires - - - - 138
The Olivetans. St. Bernard Ptolomei, Founder. St. Francesca
Eomana. Popularity of her Effigies at Rome - _ _ 143
St. Chaeles Borromeo. His Character. His Influence in the Reform
of the Church. His great Charity. The Plague at Milan. Effigies
of St. Charles. Scenes from his Life. Palestrina - - - 15,3
St. Philip Neri. Founder of the Oratorians. Legend of the Massimi
Family. Pictures of St. Philip Neri - - - - 101
The Port-Royalists : La Mere Angelique -, Jaqueline Pascal ; Pictures
by Philippe Champagne. The Trappistes : Story of De Ranee - 1(34
EARLY ROYAL SAINTS CONNECTED WITH THE
BENEDICTINE ORDER.
Effigies of Royal Saints not satisfactory ; and why. St'. Charlemagne.
St. Clotilda. St. Cloud. St. Sigismond of Burgimdy. St. Cyril
and St. Methodius, Apostles of the Sclavonians. St. Wenceslaus of
Bohemia, and St. Ludmilla. St. Henry of Bavaria. St. Cunegunda.
St. Stephen of Hungary. St. Leopold of Austria. St. Ferdinand of
Castile. St. Casimir of Poland - - - - - 168
THE AUGUSTINES.
Origin of the Order. Their Patriarch, St. Augustine. St. Monica.
St. Patrick and St. Bridget of Ireland - - - - 191
St. Nicholas of Tolentiis^g _ - _ _ _ 197
St. Thomas of Villantjeva : his Popularity in Spain : Murillo's
Picture - - - - - - - -109
St. Jo hist Nepomuck. The Legend. Patron Saint of Bridges. Popu-
larity throughout Bohemia and Austria « _ _ _ 203
St. Lorekzo GiusTiisriANi. Popular at Venice. Pictures by Carpaccio,
Bellini^ and Paris Bordone ------ 206
St. Rosalia of Palermo. The Sicilian Legend. Painted by Vandyck
for the Jesuits _______ 208
St. Clara of Monte-Falco ------ 200
VI CONTENTS.
ORDERS DERIVED FROM THE AUGUSTINE RULE.
PAGE
The Pkemoxsteatensians. Legend of St. Norbert : vai-ioiis Pictiu'es
of him in the German School. St. Herman-Joseph : Picture by
Vandyck - - - - - - - - 210
The Servi. St. Philip Benozzi. Church of the Annunziata at
Florence. Frescoes painted for the Order by Andrea del Sarto and
others - - - - - - - -213
The Trinitaeians. Instituted for the Redemption of Captives.
Legend of St. John de Matha, St. Felix de Valois, and St. Radegunda.
How represented --_____ 217
The Order oe Our Lady of Mercy. Legends of St. Peter Nolasco.
Popular in Spanish Art ---___ 220
The Brigittines. Legend of St. Bridget of Sweden, Foundress.
Popular Representations .--___ 224
THE MENDICANT ORDERS.
Origin of the Mendicant Orders in the Thirteenth Century. Characters
of St. Francis and St. Dominick contrasted. Of their two Commu-
nities. Distinction in Habit. Physiognomy. How characterised in
Dante. How represented by the early Painters : by the later Schools.
Patronage of Art - - - - - - -227
The Frajs'CISCANS. The Seraphic Order. Principal Saints repre-
sented in the Franciscan Edifices - - - - . 236
St. Francis oe Assisi. The Legend. Origin of the Porzioncula.
Popularity of the Effigies of St. Francis. The Devotional and Mys-
tical Subjects. Single Figures as Founder. The Stigmata. The
Vision of the Virgin and Infant Christ. The Legend of the Roses.
St. Francis espouses Poverty. Frescoes in the Choir at Assisi. The
Life and Miracles of St. Francis, as a Series of Subjects by Giotto,
by Ghirlandajo, by Benedetto da Maiano. St. Francis preaches to
the Birds. His Ideas concerning Animals. Separate Subjects from
the Life of St. Francis - - - - - - 238
St. Clara. Her Legend. She is the Type of Female Piety. Ancient
Representations of her : as Abbess; as the ^^Madre Serafica." Pic-
tures from her History - - - - - -270
St. Anton- r of Padija. The Legend. His Church at Padua. His
Life, as a Series of Pictures by Titian and others. St. Antony with
the Infant Christ ------- 278
St. Boxavextura, Cardinal, and Doctor of the Church - - 288
CONTENTS. Vll
PAGE
St. Bernakdino of Siena. Habit and Attributes. Popnrarity of his
Effigies. Bernardino da Feltri^ with the 3Io)ite-di-Pieta - - 291
St. Elizabeth of Hungary. The Type of Female Charity. Beauty
and Interest of the Legends relating to her. Her Life. Devotional
Representations of her popular throughout Europe. The Legend of
the Roses. Pictures from her Life. Description of St. Elizabeth in
the " Erlinde " of Wolf von Goethe. St. Elizabeth of Portugal; the
original Heroine of Schiller's " Fridolin " - - - - 297
St. Lons of France, King ; and his Sister, St. Isabella - - 319
Sx. Louis OF TouLOUSE; Bishop ----- 325
St. Margaret of Cortona _ _ - - - 328
St. Ives of Bretagne ------ 331
St. Eleazar de Sabran ------ 333
St. Rosa di Viterbo -___-- 334
St. Francis de Paula - - - - - - 334
St. Juan de Dios 338
St. Felix de Cantalicio ------ 342
St. Diego d'Alcala. The Cappella Herrera. Anecdote of Annibal
Caracci and Albano ------ 344
St. Vincent de Paule ------ 347
St. Peter op Alcantara ------ 350
St. John Capistrano ------ 3,51
St. Peter Regalato ------ 352
St. Catherine of Bologna 1 - - - - - 352
The Dominicans. The principal Saints represented in the Dominican
Edifices. The proper Habit and general Character of the Order - 354
St. Dominick. The Legend. The War with the Albigenses. The
Institution of the Rosary. His Success as a Preacher. His Death at
Bologna. His Shrine, called the Area di San Domenico. Various
Representations of St. Dominick^ and Pictures from his Life^ by
Augelico and others ------ 359
St. Peter Martyr. The San Pietro Martire of Titian ; of Andrea del
Sarto. Portrait of Savonarola as Peter Martyr - _ - 371
St. Thomas Aquinas - - - - - - 375
St. Catherine of Siena. The Legend. Description of the City of
Siena and the Fonte-Branda. The Visions of St. Catherine. She
induces the Pope to quit Avignon for Rome. Andrea Vanni the
Painter: his Portrait of St. Catherine. Attributes and Pictures of
St. Catherine. She faints before the Crucifix. She receives the
Stigmata - - - - - - - - 381
St. Antonino, Archbishop of Florence. His Friendship for Angelico
da Fiesole. Legends and Pictures of him at Florence - - 397
Vlll CONTENTS.
PAGE
St. Raymond of Penafokte ------ 402
St. Vincent Ferearis, or Ferrer ----- 404
St. Hyacinth ___--_. 405
St. Louis Beltean ------- 408
Santa Rosa di Lima ------ 409
The Carmelites. Disputed Origin of this Order. Principal Car-
melite Saints, St. Albert. St. Angelus - - - - 411
St. Theresa^ Foundress of the Barefooted Carmelites. Her History
and Character ill-treated as a Subject of Art. Pictures of her. Cha-
racter of St. Theresa by Harriet Martineau - - - - 415
St. Juan de la Cruz -__--. 425
St. Andrea Corsini -_-._. 425
St. Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi ----- 426
S(EUR Louise de la Misericorde ----- 427
THE JESUITS.
Influence of the Jesuits on Arts and Artists unfavourable. Habit and
Character of the Order ------ 428
St. Ignatius Loyola - . m - - - - 430
St. Francis Xayier - - - . - - - - 435
St. Francis Borgia - -^ - - - - - 441
St. Stanislas Kotzka -___-_ 445
St. Louis Gonzaga - - - - - - - 445
THE ORDER OF THE VISITATION OF ST. MARY.
St. Francis de Sales ; and Madame de Chantal, Grandmother of
Madame de Sevigne - - - - . - - 447
LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS.
1. Head of St. Benedict. After Peruf/ino. Vatican.
2. St. Benedict. Fulllenyth, from an Engravim/ by Wicrx.
3. Figure of St. Benedict. Andrea Mantegna,
4. St. Giles the Hermit. Lucas v. Leyden.
6. St. Nihis. After Domcnichino.
6. Angel. From the Chapel at Grotta-Ferrata.
7. St. Helena. Boisseree Gallery.
8. St. Helena and Constantine. Palma Vecchio.
9. St. Bennet Biscop. F7'om a Print hy Hollar.
10. St. Guthlac. Ancient English Sculpture.
11. The Dream of St. Ethelreda. Ancient Sctdpture.
12. St. Ethelreda. Saxon Miniature.
13. St. Ottilia. Froin a German Missal.
14. St. Sebald. Peter Vischer.
16. St. Dunstan. Fro7t7 a Z>ra7uing by himself
16. St. Edmund and St. Edward the Confessor. From the Diptych at
Wilton.
17. St. Thomas a Becket. Fro^n an old Print.
18. Penance of Henry If. Ancient Stained Glass.
19. Angel.
20. St. Benedict and St. Romualdo. Taddeo Gaddi.
21. St. John Gualberto. Fra Angelico.
22. St. Bruno. • Le Sueur.
23. St. Bruno. Statue by Jlondon.
24. St. Bruno. Andrea Sacchi.
25. St. Hugh of Grenoble. L. v. Leyden.
26. St. Bernard. Angelico da Fiesole.
27. St. Bernard writinp' the Praises of the ^^iro-in.
28. St. Bernard. BoisserSe Gallery.
29. St. Francesca Romana. Domenichino.
30. St. Charles Borromeo. Le Brim.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
31. Musical Angels. Mattco di Gualdo.
32. St. Philip Neri. Stcttue in St. Peter's.
33. The Nuns of Port-Eoyal. P/uIip2)c de Champagne.
34. St. Sigismond. Benedetto Montagna.
35. St. Ludmilla. E. Max.
36. St. Procopius. A. Carracci.
37. St. Cunegunda. Hans Burgmair.
38. St. Henry. 1. von 31elem.
39. St. Ferdinand. Murillo.
40. St. Nicholas of Tolentino. Old Drawing.
41. St. Lorenzo Giustiniani. Gentil Bellini.
42. Badge of the Order of Mercy.
43. St. Peter Nolasco. Claude de Mellan.
44. St. Dominick and St. Francis. Spanish School.
45. A Franciscan. Ziirharan.
46. St. Francis. Giunta Pisano.
47. St. Francis. Simon 3Iemmi.
48. St. Francis. Sassetta.
49. St. Francis. Cigoli.
50. St. Francis encounters Poverty, Chastit}^, and Obedience. School of
Giotto.
51. St. Francis preaching to the Birds. Giotto.
52. St. Clara. Perugino.
53. St. Clara. Intarsiatura.
54. St. Clara. Portrait at Asst'si.
55. St. Antony of Padua. Siena School.
56. Miracle of St. Antony of Padua. Pcsellino.
57. St. Antony of Padua with the Infant Christ. L. Caracci.
58. St. Bonaventura. Raphael.
59. St. Bernardino of Siena. Spagna.
60. St. Bernardino of Siena. Siena School.
61. St. Bernardino. A. delta Rohhia.
62. St. Elizabeth. Paolo Morando.
63. St. Louis. Old French {Montfaucoii).
64. St. Louis of Toulouse and St. Bonaventura. Cosimo Poselli.
65. St. Francis de Paula. Murillo.
66. St. Felix de Cantalicio. Murillo.
67. St. Peter of Alcantara. Ludovico Caracci.
68. Angel. Agostino della Rohhia.
69. St. Dominick. Carlo Dolce.
70. St. Dominick. F. Angelico.
71. St. Dominick. L. v. Leyden.
72. St. Peter and St. Paul appear to St. Dominick. Al Pisano.
73. St. Peter Martvr. Cima da Coneqliano.
LI;ST OF ILLUSTBATIOIsS. XI
74. Jerome Savonarola as St. Peter Martyr. Fra Bartolomeo.
75. St. Thomas Aquinas. JBenozzo Gozzoli.
76. Vision of St. Catherine.
77. St. Catherine of Siena. Fortrait. Andrea Vauni.
78. St. Catherine and St. Domiuick. Sasso Ferrata.
79. St. Catherine fainting. Razzi.
80. St. Antoniuo. D. Ghirlandajo.
81. St. Theresa. Le Brun.
82. St. Theresa, Spanish.
83. St. Tlieresa. Italian.
84. St. Ig-natius Loyola. Rubens.
85. A Monk received into Paradise, Anyelico.
'i^j. Angel. Henimelinck.
87. A Monk at his Devotions. Ovcrbeck.
SS, Angel. F. Angelico.
I. The Saints of Vallombrosa. 1. The Archangel Michael. 2. St. Cxual-
berto as Founder. 3. St. Benedict as Patriarch. 4, St. Bernardo
Cardinale, a famous Abbot of the Order. From Perugino^s Picture
of the Assumption of the Viryin: painted for the Convent of Vallom-
hrosa ; noiv in the Florence Academy,
II. The Benedictine Saints. In the centre St. Boniface^ to the right St.
Maurusand St. Placidus, to the left St. Scholasticaand St. Justina of
Padua. After a Desiyn by Benedetto Montayna. The introduction of
St. Justina shows that the design was made for an altar-piece at the
time the Benedictines were rebuilding their church, the San Giustiua,
at Padua. The group appears to have been popular, as it occurs on
a dish of Kaphael ware which I saw in the collection of Mediaeval
Works of Art exhibited in 1850.
III. St. Boniface embarks at Southampton on his Mission to Germany.
After the Fresco of Heinrich Hess, at 3Iunich.
IV. 1. St. Sebald, Patron of Nuremberg : after Hans Beham. 2. St.
Ewald heals a Maniac : after Martin Hemskirk.
V. The Virgin visits St. Bernard. 1. After the Picture by Giottino in
the Florence Academy. '2. After the Picture by Fra Filippo Lippi,
the Carmelite.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
VI. The Visio7i of St. Bernard. After the Picture hy Murillo at Seville :
etched from a Calotype taken from the original Picture hy Mr. Stir liny.
VII. The Charity of St. Thomas of Villanueva. After 3Iurillo ; painted for
the Caritad at Seville. The etching is from a Calotype taken by Mr.
Stirling ; the original picture has never been engraved.
VIII. The Franciscan Saints. 1. St. Bonaventura and St. Antony of
Padua. 2. St. Louis of Toulouse, and St. Bernardino of Siena. 3. St.
Clara and St. Catherine of Alexandria, as types of piety and wisdom,
or sanctity and theological learning.
IX. St. Francis. 1. The Vision of St. Francis in the Porzioncula: after
Overheck. 2. The same subject: after Spada. 3. St. Francis re-
ceives the Stigmata : after Giotto. 4. after Ciyoli. 5. after Badalocchi.
6. The Ecstasy of St. Francis : after Lauri. 7. St. Francis at his
Devotions : after Domenichino. For this etching I am indebted to
the kindness and taste of Mr. George Scharf.
X. St. Elizabeth of Hungary. 1. After Anyelico da Fiemle; from a
Sketch made in the Academy at Peruyia. 2. After Holbein. 3. After
Overheck.
XI. St. Theresa pleading at the feet of our Saviour for the Souls in
Purgatory. After Ruhens.
PEE FACE.
In presenting to the public tliis Second Series of Sacred and
Legendary Art, I can but refer to the Preface and general Intro-
duction prefixed to the First Series for an explanation of the purpose
of the work as a tvhole, and the motives from which it was first
undertaken.
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 hmited 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 us as objects of taste, while they have
remained unappreciated as subjects of thought; — to show that, while
we have been 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-r-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 uninstracted in the technicalities
of Art.
This was the object I had in view — knowing that, doing my best,
I could do no more nor better than make the first step in a ucav
direction. No one can feel more strongly than myself the deficiencies
of the First Series of this work. That it has met with great and
imhoped-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 feel also.
XIV PREFACE.
For the gentle and generous tone of criticism towards that work —
l)ublic and private — I am deeply grateful. But, in this Second
Series, I shall require even more especially the candour and forbear-
ance of the reader.
To speak of the religious pictures painted for the monastic commu-
nitifis, and to avoid altogether any allusion to disputed points of faith,
of history, of character, has been impossible. It was said of the First
Series, by an authority for which I have a high respect, that I had
" spoiled my book by not making it Roman Catholic''' But I am
not a Roman Catholic ; how, therefore, could I honestly write in the
tone of thought, feeling, conviction, natural and becoming in one of
that faith ? I have had to tread what all will allow to be difficult and
dangerous, ground. How was this to be done safely, and without
offence, easily given in these days ? Not, surely, by swerving to the
right or to the left; — not by the affectation of candour ; — not by
leaving wholly aside aspects of character and morals which this
department of the Fine Arts, the representations of monastic life,
necessarily place before us. There was only one way in which the
task undertaken could be achieved in a right spirit — by going
straight forward, according to the best lights I had, and saying what
appeared to me the truth, as far as my subject required it; and my
subject — let me repeat it here — is artistic and aesthetic, not religious.
This is too much of egotism, but it has become necessary to avoid
ambiguity. I will only add that, as from the beginning to the end of
this book there is not one word false to my own faith — my own feeling
— so I truly hope there is not one word which can give offence to the
earnest and devout reader of any persuasion : — if there be, I am sorry ;
— what can I say more ?
The arrangement is that Avhich naturally offered itself; Init, in
classing the personages under the various Orders, I have not pedan-
tically adhered to this system : it will be found that I have departed
from it occasionally, where the subjects fell into groups, or were to
be found in the same pictures. Much has been omitted, and omitted '
with regret, to keep the volume within those portable dimensions on
PREFACE. XV
which its utility and its readability depended. If it be asked on what
principle the selection has been made, it would be difficult to reply.
I have just followed out the course of my own thoughts — -my 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
fixed 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 Eccle-
siastical Biography ; and to Lord Lindsay's beautiful Avork on Christian
Art, I have been largely indebted, and have great pleasure in thus
acknowledging my obligations.
Of the illustrations — both woodcuts and etchings — 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 ren-
dered 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 as illustrative of the pages which
follow.
XVI
PREFACE.
NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
In preparing the Second Edition for the press, the authoress has
availed herself of the opportunity to correct the work carefully
throughout ; to insert much additional matter and several new
legends, as well as many new illustrations, which will be found to
increase materially any value or interest the book may possess as a
volume of reference.
86
Jntiolrurtioiu
I.
In tlio 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 ; 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 and 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 shining, have loved much ; the Virgin Patronesses
b
-^VIU INTEODUCTION.
still represent to us tlie Christian ideal of womanhood in its purity
and its power. The image 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 in-
telligible, 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 o^vn
beauty, or for the sake of the sj)irit 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 j)leasure and the
interest are of a more mingled nature, good and ill together. At the
very outset we are shocked by what seems a violation of the hrsb
principles of art. Monachism is not the consecration of the beau-
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,
the 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 perceptions
liave become confused, Avhose 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 ! — every long-limbed, long-
eyed, long-draped saint is not "a Giotto;" nor every meagre sim-
pering nun, or woe-begone monk, " a Beato Angelico."
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 Avere
INTRODUCTION. XIX
not selected to convey a precept, or to touch the heart ; tlie 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 re-
presentation is neutralised through a species of assumption in the
purj^ose of the work, a vainglorious and exclusive spirit, which has
certainly interfered Avith, 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 M'ho
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 j^rejudices 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
b 2
XX INTRODUCTION.
suffering hunianity. 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 go-
vernesses 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-
nition 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 Vallombrosians, the
C-amaldolesi (or hy them, for these communities produced some of the
most excelling of the early artists), are especially characterised by an
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
' " Bonum est nos hie esse, quia homo vivit purius, cadit rarius, surgit vclocius,
incedit cautius, quiescit securius, moritur felicius, purgatior citius, jprmniatur
copiosius." (" Good is it for us to dwell here, where man lives more purely ; falls
more rarely; rises more quickly; treads more cautiously; rests more securely; dies
more happily; is absolved more easily; and rewarded more plenteously.")
This sentence was usually inscribed on some conspicuous part of the Cistercian
houses. Wordsworth, from whom I take the quotation, has thus paraplirased it: —
" Here man more purely lives ; less oft doth fall ;
More promptly rises ; walks with nicer tread ;
More safely rests ; dies happier ; is freed
Earlier from cleansing fires ; and gains withal
A brigliter crown."
INTRODUCTION. XXI
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 Christendom
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 revelation of a
hitherto imseen, 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 Avas 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 religious sympathies and
aspirations assumed in their excess a disordered 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, fi-om 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
enlarging that of experience. With more abundant food for the
XXU INTRODUCTION.
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^
We still recognise in the Franciscan pictures, those at least which
reflect the asceticism 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 i^eligious brotherhoods which sprang
uj) 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
openetli pleasure's gate," as represented hj Giotto, see p. 255 ; and Dante, Par.
e. xi.
INTRODUCTION. XXUl
common to all. The Benedictine monks instituted schools of learniug;
the Augnstines built noble cathedrals ; the Mendicant Orders founded
hospitals ; all became patrons of the fine arts, on such a scale of mu-
nificence 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 tra-
ditional treatment of sacred subjects, and that pure unworldly senti-
ment 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 com-
pounders 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; — for the monks not only
prepared their own colours, but w^hen they employed secular painters
in decorating their convents, the materials furnished from their own
laboratories were consequently of the best and most durable kind.'
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 reputation.
Theophilus the Monk, Avhose most curious and important treatise
on the fine arts and chemistry Avas 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. Shakspeare, " who saw the thing that hath been as
the thing that is," introduces Friar Laurence as issuing from his cell
at dawn of day to gather simples and herl)s, 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.^
' Materials for a History of Oil Painting, by Sir Charles Eastlake, p. 6.
- " The good friar of this play," says Mr. Knight, in his notes to Eomeo and
Jxihct, " in his kindliness, his learning, and his inclination to mix with, and perhaps
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 ; ^ 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 ex-
cellence^ 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 remark-
able men, and some of them were more, — they were wonderful men;
men of genius, of deep insight into human nature, of determined will,
of large sympathies, of high aspirations, — poets who did not write
poems but acted them ; all differing from each other 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. Dominick, and others, to enable me to under-
stand 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 conscien-
tious 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.
control, the affairs of the world, is no unapt representation of one of the distin-
guished Order of St. Francis in its best days."
' Vide Sacred and Legendary Art, vol. i. p. 86.
INTRODUCTION. XXV
I have spoken of tlie want of beauty in the early pictures of
monastic 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 contrasts. 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 afifections
which, tliough removed far from him in his seclusion, are brouglit
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 " Annunciation 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 susjoended in their church at Florence,
dedicated to the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin (the famous
Annunziata). The Order was founded in especial honour of the
Virgin, and, by a rule of the original institute, all their devotions
began with the words of the angel Gabriel, " Ave Maria ! " Thus
we have the explanation at once ; and the dark-robed, listening monk
c
XXVI INTKODUCTION.
in tlie 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
jDrevailed since the 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 the chief honours of the
community.
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 his
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 j^ainful
form : —
They who, through wilful disesteeui 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 awlul and preternatural
apparitions of the crucified Redeemer. In tlie later pictures of the
INTRODUCTION. XXVll
female saints of the various Orders, — those, for instance, of St. Ca-
therine of Siena, St. Theresa, St. Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi, and
others, — the representation becomes oifensive, as well as painful and
pathetic. I recollect such a picture in the Corsini Palace, which I
cannot recall without horror, and dare not attemj^t to describe. The
gross materialism of certain views of Christianity, not confined to the
Eoman 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 oi solitude, placed
before us in the earlier monastic pictures, which is soothing and
attractive far beyond the power of words. How beautiful that soft
settled calm, which seems to have descended on the features, as on the
souls, of those who have kept themselves unsj)otted 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 ? — 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 Phil. iii. 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. Dominick doing penance for the sins 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
c2
XXVni INTRODUCTION.
tlie attestation, in a dramatic form, either of his. sanctity or his
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 St. 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 the 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'Alcala.
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 re-
lation 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-
stricken 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 ; 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. Eomualdo, founder of the Camaldolesi ;
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 ;
St. Peter Nolasco — 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 Rule.
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-cV ceuvre of one of the
greatest of the early artists, Angelico da Fiesole ; and because, having
XXX INTEODUCTION.
been recently engraved by Mr. George Scharf 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 mind that it was
painted in a convent dedicated to St. Mark ; in the city of Florence ;
in the days of the first and 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 Eedeemer 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 pro-
tector 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 up
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 out-
spread, gazes up at the Crucified ; 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 ; be-
hind him kneels St. Francis ; behind St. Francis stand two venerable
figures, St. Benedict and St. Eomualdo ; and in front of them kneels
St. Bernard, with his book ; and, still more in front, St. John Gual-
berto, 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 com-
position. 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. XXXI
It will be remarked that, in this group of patriarchs, " Capi e
Fondatori cW religiosi^'' St. Bruno, the famous founder of the Carthu-
sians, 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 Beato^
Blessed. The bull of canonisation was a much more solemn ordinance,
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 inter-
cessions 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 fre-
quently 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. Bruno. 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 the personage ; but though, at a single
XXXll INTRODUCTION.
glance, we distinguisli 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 Monaci Neri, or for
the Eeformed Benedictines. I have explained this at length in the
legend of the saint, and wiJl only point to the picture by Francia
in our National Gallery as an example of St. Benedict in the ivhite
habit.
Grey was the original colour of the Franciscan habit. The Ee-
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 Augustines, 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 Premonstratensians 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 croiun (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. XXXIU
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 legen-
dary subjects ; but in the monastic pictures they have sometimes a
particular significance, which I shall endeavour to point out.
The Glory expresses the canonised saint : it ought not to be given
to a Beato. In some instances, where the figure of the saint has 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 Dragon 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 firequent ;
but it has a special meaning in the legends of St. Giles and St. Felix
de Yalois.
Wild Beasts, such as bears, wolves, &c., at the feet of a saint,
originally signified that he had cleared a wilderness, or founded a
convent in a solitude. When the original signification was forgotten,
some legend was invented or suggested to account for 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
Capistrano, 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 cha-
racteristic of St. Clara, St. Antony of Padua, St. Dominick, and St.
Catherine of Siena; and also of those young saints who made early
vows of celibacy, as St. Casimir, 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 the lily being also the symbol of the
Virgin, and consecrated to her, is placed near those saints who were
d
XXXIV INTEODUCTION.
distinguislicd by their devotion to the Mother of the .Redeemer, as in
pictures of St. Bernard.
The Infant Christ 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 the Madonna and
Child, that universal subject in all religious edifices, may, in heated
imaginations, have 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 Cross 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 Heart is the rather vulgar and common-place em-
blem of Divine love. I have never met with it in any of the very
early pictures, except 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'
Pazzi. It has a particular meaning in the legend of St. Catherine of
Siena.
The Crown of Thorns, 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 Redeemer ; and also in
the legends of St. Louis of France, of St. Catherine of Siena, and
St. Rosa di Lima.
The Palm, as the meed of martyrdom, is proper to a few onlj^ of
the monastic saints. St. Placidus, the disciple of St. Benedict, is the
earliest monastic martyr ; St. Boniface and St. Thomas a Becket
INTEODUCTION. XXXV
were also Benedictines. St. Albert and St. Angelo were Carmelites,
and St. Peter Martyr a Dominican; — these, I believe, are the only
monkish martyrs who are conspicuous and individualised in works of
art. The only nun-martyr is St. Flavia, the sister of St. 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; 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 and 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. Ulrich 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' Pazzi,
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 that famous Franciscan,
and is explained in his legend. The Mont de Piete is given to him
in some pictures, as in the small Franciscan predelia, attributed to
d2
XXXVl INTEODUCTION.
Eapliael, in Lord Ward's collection ; but it is, I am assured by a
high authority, the proper attribute of Fra 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. Dominick
(black and white habit), and St. Nicholas of Tolentino (black habit) ;
and seems to express a divine attestation of j)eculiar 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 saint 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. Tliomas 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 efiigies 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 rule 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. Eay-
mond the Dominican, and St. Francis de Paula the Capuchin, cross
the sea on a cloak. St. Peter of Alcantara, a Franciscan, walks over
the 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,
f 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
INTRODUCTION. XXXVll
a,n angel. But roses in the lap or the hand of St. Elizabeth, are an
attribute taken from her beautiful legend.
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. ^
The Mitre 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
devotional figures these are sometimes of diminutive size, showing
that they are merely emblems to signify charity, and not any parti-
cular 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.^
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 ;
Avhen the laws for the protection of the lower classes were imperfect
and perpetually violated ; when for the wretched there was absolutely
no 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 «iow, many duties left to our police, or which we think we
fulfil in paying our poor-rates. These duties of charity shine in the
' In the German " Christliclie 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.
^ A very useful book, as a companion to churches and picture galleries, is the
little manual, ''Emblems of Saints," compiled by the Eev. F. C. Husenbeth.
XXXVlll I^'TllODUCTION.
monastic pictures, and were conspicuous on the walls of cliurclies, I
am persuaded to good purpose. Among the most interesting of the
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, and
the penitent women {Donne Convertite). All these institutions were
adorned with pictures, and in the oratories and chapels appended to
them the altar-piece generally set forth some beneficent saint, —
St. Eoch, 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 " all such as are any ways 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
Eaphael ; 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 corner, 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. ^ 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.
' For some account of the objects of these Scuole, see " Sacred and Legendary
Art," p. 168, second edition.
2 The two figures of 8t. Raphael 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 com-
plete group.
INTRODUCTION. XXXIX
When we consider tlie deep interest wliicli 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-
lections, the name of the church, chapel, or confraternity whence tlie
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 was
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 Avith 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 diifercnt localities
and sites aiFected by the chief Monastic Orders, —
Bernardus valles, coUes Benedictus amabat,
Oppida Franciscus, magnas Ignatius urbes ;
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 with 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 our
Fr.Ahhaje. own and otlier countries. The term Ahhey applies particularly to
Abbazia/ * the foundations of this Order.
In looking round one of the Benedictine edifices, we shall find of
course St. Benedict as patriarch, his sister St. Scholastica, 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 and protector, and their rule was framed in
accordance with his precepts.
The parent monastery of Monte Cassino was founded by St. Benedict
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 Germane ; the river Eapido, 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 commimity being
perhajDS the most remarkable ; but the monastery having been re-
stored, almost rebuilt, in the seventeenth century, most of the pic-
tures 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 firom 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 his-
tory of early Italian art. About a mile firom 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 "Westminster.
San Paolo-fuor-le-Mure at Eome 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
painted his Madonna di San Sisto, now at Dresden. The monks have
been sorely chidden for parting with their unequalled treasure ; but
INTRODUCTION.
that they knew how to vahie it is proved by the price they set on it,
60,000 florins (about 6,500/. English money), pro])ably 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 Benedictines 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. Peru-
gino painted for the Vallombrosians the grandest of his altar-pieces,
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 Char-
treuse at Grenoble. The Certosa di Pavia remains unapproached for
e
xlii
INTRODUCTION.
its richness and beauty, and is filled with the works of the finest of the
Lombard sculptors and painters, — Luini, Borgognone, Fossano, Solari,
Cristoforo Eomano, Amadeo, and others beyond number.
The Certosa at Rome, 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, Ely, Peterborough, Bath, Gloucester, Chester,
Eochester, 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 suflfered to remain, and have
become parish churches.
The Olivetans, a congregation of Reformed Benedictines, produced
some celebrated artists. Lanzi mentions three lay-brothers of this
Order, all of Verona, who excelled in the beautiful 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 othei's
whose legends are given in the first series of this work. The prin-
cipal saints Avho belonged to the different branches of this great Order,
many of them canonised for their charities, of course find a place in
INTRODUCTION. xliii
their churches ; as St. Thomas of Villanueva, St. Lorenzo Giustmiani :
but their great saint is St. Nicholas of Tolentino.
The churches of the Agostini in Italy most remarkable for works of
art are — the Sant' Agostino at Eome, 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 Eremitani 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 — Cologne,
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-Croce 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 joictures 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 Lombaxdi, 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 him. 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 the sum in their
e 2
xliv
INTIIODUCTION.
possession — a trifling remuneration for an artist of established name;
but Murillo was glad to undertake the commission, and thus laid the
foimdation of his future fame. He afterwards, when at the height of
his reputation, painted for another Franciscan community (the Capu-
chins of Seville) twenty of his 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 Niccolo 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 Spagnuoli^ painted by Taddeo Gaddi 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 Allegri.
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 tluit remarkal)le school of art, — the famous Madonna b}^ Guido da
INTBODUCTION. xlv
Siena which preceded that of Cimabue, and the admirable frescoes by
Kazzi.
The churches of San Sabino and San (Tiovanni-e-Paolo at Rome,
and the San Giovanni-e-Paolo 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 his Last Supper. Other interesting churches of this
Order are Sant' 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.^
Among the churches of the Carmelites, I may mention as the most
interesting the Carmini 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 Jeronymites, who are scarcely alluded
to in the succeeding pages because I do not 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 fi-om 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 Jeronymites 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
' The S. Maria-sopra-Miuerva, at Eonio, is an exception.
xlvi INTRODUCTION.
in Italy. A community of this Order, the Jesuati, liad a convent
near Florence (the San-Giusto, now suppressed), in which the friars
carried on an extensive manufactory of painted glass ; and it is par-
ticularly 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 labo-
ratories, 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 Imperialist army in 1529.
The Jesuits employed Rubens and Vandyck 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
Valencian and Seville schools were those which commemorated the
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 Cano
frequently give us vulgar heads, sublimated through the intense truth
of expression ; but, on the whole, we should seek in vain in the
Spanish monastic pictures for the refined and contemj)lative 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 Avho were subjects of Art, —
thence subjects of thought to those who painted them, and sources of
thouo-ht 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
ago : — " 1 offer this little work as long as I live to the correction of
those who are more learned : if I have done wrong in anything, 1
shall not be ashamed to receive their admonitions ; and if there be
anything which they like, I shall not be slow to furnish more."
Head of St. Benedict. (After rerupiiio.)
J>t. ISenetrirt antr tf)t earip aSfuetsittmesJ m Jtalg,
jTraiue, ^pam, anlr jflanireis;
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 civilisation,
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 form, 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 in-
terest, and are suggestive of a thousand thoughts, — some painful
and humiliating, such as wait on all the institutions which
C C B
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
spring out of the temporary conditions of society and our im-
perfect 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 reli-
gious community, which under Providence became the great
instrument of civilisation in modern Europe.
Sacred and I have alludcd to the origin of Eastern monacliism in the life
voriL 368^ ' of St. Anthony. There were monks in the West from the days
of Jerome. The example and the rules of the oriental ancho-
rites and cenobites had spread over Grreece, Italy, and even into
Gaul, in the fourth and fifth centuries ; but the cause of Chris-
tianity, instead of being served, was injured by the gradual de-
pravation of men, whose objects, at the best, were, if I may so
use the word, S'piritually 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 wan-
dered from place to place, levying contributions 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 in-
ternal discipline, they led a useless and idle, often a miserable
and perverted, existence. Such is the picture we have of
monacliism 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 Grod
THE EARLY BENEDICTINES.
and man,) — contemplated the vast results which were to arise
from his institution, may well be doubted. We can none of us
measure the consequences of the least conscious of our acts ; nor
did Benedict, probably, while legislating for a few monks, anti-
cipate the great destinies of his infant Order. Yet it is clear
that his views were not bounded by any narrow ideas of expe-
diency; 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, and a sage,
as well as that of a Christian recluse.
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 the light of the Gospel into those wilds of Britain, Gaul,
Saxony, Belgium, where heathenism still solemnised 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 barbarous 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 those who
received. Not only do we owe to them the multiplication and
diffusion of copies of the Holy Scriptures : we are indebted to
them for the preservation of many classical remains of inesti-
mable value ; for instance, of the whole or the greater portion of
the works of Pliny, Sallust, and Cicero. They were the fathers
of Gothic architecture ; they were the earliest illuminators and
B 2
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OlfDEIlS.
Maitland's
" Dark
Ages."
Essays,
371/
limners; and to crown their deservings 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
tlie soil ; to whom we owe experimental farming and gardening,
and the introduction of a variety of new vegetables, fruits, &c.
M. Guizot styles the Benedictines " les defricheurs de U 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 " shel-
tering leisure " and " sober plenty " of the Benedictine monas-
teries sometimes ministered to indolence and insubordination,
and that the cultivation of their domains was often abandoned to
their farmers and vassals. " But," says Mr. Maitland, " 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 zeal, — 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 more benevolence,
and farmers with more intelligence and capital, than any
others."
Sir James Stephen thus sums up their highest claims upon
the gratitude of succeeding times : " The greatness of the Bene-
dictines did not, however, consist either in their agricultural
skill, their prodigies of architecture, or their priceless libraries,
l)ut in tluMr parentage of countless men and women illustrious
THE EARLY BENEDICTINES.
de S. Benoit.
for active piety, for wisdom in the government of mankind, for
profound learning, and for that contemplative spirit, which dis-
covers within the soul itself, things beyond the limits of the
perceptible creation."
The annalists of the Benedictine Order proudly reckon up the chroniqne
worthies it has produced since its first foundation in 529 ; viz.
— 40 popes, 200 cardinals, 50 patriarchs, 1,600 archbishops,
4,600 bishops, and 3,600 canonized saints. It is a more legiti-
mate source of pride that " 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 mediseval Europe ; and this brief imperfect
sketch of their enlightened and enlightening influence, is given
here merely as an introduction to the artistic treatment of cha-
racters 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 exem-
plified in the variety of treatment, 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 to be represented in the black habit ; but when
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
he figures as the Patriarch of the Eeformed Orders who adopted
the white habit— as the Camaldolesi, the Cistercians, the Car-
thusians, — he is represented in the white habit, 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 immediate
disciples, St. Maurus, St. Placidus, and St. Flavia ;
To St. Boniface, the Apostle of Germany ;
St. Bennet, Bishop of Durham ;
St. Benedict of Anian ;
St. Dunstan of Canterbury ;
St. Walpurgis of Eichstadt ;
St. Griles of Languedoc ;
St. Ildefonso of Toledo ;
St. Bavon of Grhent ;
and in general to all the early Benedictines who lived previous
to the institution of the Camaldolesi in 1 020.
St. Eomualdo and the monks of Camaldoli wear the white
habit,
St. John Grualberto and the monks of Vallombrosa wear the
pale grey, or ash-coloured habit. These occur in the founda-
tions of their respective orders, and 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 canon-
ized saint and as one of the great lights of the Catholic Church,
occurs perpetually in Italian pictures, with his ample white
robes, his pen, and his book ; and not merely in the groups of
his own Order, but in combination with St. Francis, St. Do-
minick, St. Thomas Aquinas, and other personages of remark-
ST. BENEDICT.
able authority and sanctity. There are a few instances in early
Grerman art of St. Bernard attired in the black Benedictine
habit, which I shall notice in their proper place.
The Olivetani, a branch of the Benedictine Order founded by
St. Bernardo Ptolomei, 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 " 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 I —
for surely he tvas blessed.
St. Benedict.
Ital. San Benedetto. Fr. Saint Benoit. Spa. San Benito. Founder,
patriarch, and first abbot of the Order. March 21, 543.
Habit and Atteibutes. — In the original rule of St. Benedict, the colour
of the habit was not specified. He. and his disciples wore black, as all the
monks had done up to that time ; but in the pictures painted for the Reformed
Benedictines, St. Benedict wears the white habit.
The proper and most usual attributes are, 1. The Bod for sprinkling holy
water : 2. The Mitre and pastoral staff" as abbot : 3. The Raven ; sometimes
with a loaf of bread in its beak : 4. A pitcher or a broken glass, or cup con-
taining wine : 5. A thornbush : 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 Rome 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 ORDERS.
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 Rome, 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 himself among the rocks of
Subiaco, a wilderness about forty miles from Rome. He met
there a hermit, whose name was Romano, to whom he confided
his pious aspirations ; and then took refuge in a cavern {il sagro
Speco), 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 Romano ab-
stracted 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,
and 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 in-
stantly 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. Grregory, 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 his 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, his virtues, and his miracles, liad gathered
around him. At length, in order to introduce some kind of
discipline and order into 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
Eome and from other cities ; and, amongst others, came two
Eoman senators, Anicius and Tertullus, men of high rank,
bringing to him their sons, Maurus and Placid as, 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 child not more than five. Benedict took
c
10 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEES.
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
liis 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 reputation, and even to
attempt his life by means of a poisoned loaf; and this not
availing, Florentius 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 Rome 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 Cassino, 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 ; he preached the king-
dom of Christ to these deluded people, converted them by his
eloquence and his miracles, and at length persuaded them to
break the statue, throw down the altar, and burn up their con-
secrated grove. And on the spot he built two chapels, in
honour of two saints whom he regfarded as models, the one of
ST. BENEDICT. 11
the contemplative, tlie other of the active, religious life : St. sacroci and
John the Baptist and St. Martin of Tours. a. p. 350. '
Then, higher up the summit of the mountain, he laid the
foundation of that celebrated monastery which has since been
regarded as the Parent Institution of his Order. Hence was
promulgated the famous Rule which became, 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 obe-
dience. To these Benedict added two other obligations ; 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 be-
ginning 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
Rule given by St. 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 his 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. Very little is known of Scholastica, except that she
emulated her brother's piety and self denial ; and although it is
not said that she took any vows, she is generally considered as
the first Benedictine nun. When she followed her brother to
Monte Cassino, she drew around her there a small community
of pious women ; but nothing more is recorded of her, except
that he used to visit her once a year. On one occasion, when
c 2
12 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEKS.
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, but 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 pra3dng 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 Cassino. 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 tliat thenceforward the ferocious Groth showed
more humanity than heretofore.
Shertly after the visit of Totila, Benedict died of a fever with
which he had been seized in attending the poor of the neigh-
bourhood. 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 him to the foot of
■ the altar in the church, he received the last sacraments, and ex-
-pired, on the 21st of March 543. Considering the great repu-
tation 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 his life reproach the legendary
writers for admitting these improbable stories ; and remark with
equal candour and good sense, " loin d'applaudir au faux zele
Mabiiion. dc CCS ccrivaius, on doit les condamner comme des personnes qui
ST. BENEDICT.
13
corrompent la verite de I'histoire ; et qui, au lieu de faire hon-
neur au Saint, le deshonorent, en abusant de son nom pour
debiter des fables et se jouer de la credulite des simples."
Even before his 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 Kule into France and founded the
monastery of G^lanfeuil, since called St. Maure-sur-Loire ; and
so completely did this Rule 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 Grianfeuil.* St. Placidus was sent by his a.d. 584.
Superior into Sicily, where, according to the tradition, he was
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.
Placidus 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.
Jan. 15.
Pictures of St. Benedict often perplex the observer, because,
as I have already shown, he was frequently represented in early
art wearing the wkite habit, whereas the original habit of his
Order was hlack. Where he has the white habit, it is easy to
confound him with St. Bernard, St. Bruno, or St. Romualdo ;
* 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 Seymour, from Saint-
Maur ; but I should regret a return to the French appellation. Saint-Maur is
foreign, and interesting only as the name of a French monk : Seymour is English,
and surrounded by all those historical associations which give the name its English
claims to consideration, and its charm to English ears.
14
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
where he has the black habit, he may be mistaken for St. An-
tony. 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 Cassino 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 Vallombrosa,
he wears the white habit. He is sometimes beardless, or with
little beard ; but more frequently he has a long white beard.
:f.J6
S-SCHOLA^STtCHA S.lvSTfMA g M
S.MAVRO S.PL\CIDO
.v|/^ .:/i£'n^/^.h/7^?t^ ^a/yn^.
ST. BENEDICT.
As abbot of Monte Cassino, he has sometimes the pastoral staff
and mitre. He frequently
carries an open book, on
which are written the first
words of his famous rule,
" AUSCULTA, FlLI, VeEBA
Magistri."
Like other saints who liave
resisted the attacks of the de-
mon, he carries the asperge,
or rod used to sprinkle holy
water, here emblematical of
the purity or holiness by
which he conquered. The
thornbush is an attribute
which commemorates the
means through which he con
quered. A pitclier of wine
in his hand, or a pitcher
or a broken cup standing
on his book, expresses the
The raven and a loaf of bread,
with a serpent creeping from it, express the attempt to poison
him in bread.
When he is grouped with his two disciples, St. Maurus and
St. Placidus, they all wear the black habit; or St. Benedict
appears as abbot, and the two disciples as deacons, wearing the
rich dalmatica over the black tunic. St. Maurus has a book or
a censer ; St. Placidus bears his palm as martyr.
When a nun in a black habit is introduced into pictures of
St. Benedict, or stands alone with a lily in her hand, and a dove
at her feet or pressed to her bosom, it represents St. Scholastica.
It is common to find in the Benedictine churches, especially in
Italy, devotional figures of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica
standing on each side of the altar.
When, in the Benedictine groups, a fourth saint is introduced,
a female saint, young and beautiful, and with the martyr palm
St. Benedict. (A. Mantegna.)
attempt to poison him in wine.
San Pietro
del Monaci
neri.
16 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OKDERS.
and crown, it is probably, if not otherwise distinguislied, 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 Santi. 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 mildj 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 tho sacristy of the church of the Benedictines
at Perugia. There I afterwards saw the other pictures which
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.^
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. Maurus and St. Placidus.
Fi.PittiPai. 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 Christo.^'
^ Peter the Venerable, abbot of Clugni, was not canonised, but he was a Beaio ;
and I have met with him in one picture standing as companion to St. Benedict, but
unfortunately have no note of the place or the painter. He is very interesting for
his gentle spirit, as well as for his learning ; and worthy of commemoration for
the asylum he afforded to Abelard when persecuted b}'- St. Bernard, and for the
beautiful letter which he wrote to Heloise on the death of her husband.
ST. BENEDICT.
17
There are one or two examples in which St. Benedict appears
with St. Maurus and St. Placidus represented as children, wear-
ing the albe and kneeling at his feet, or with censers in their
hands.
These remarks apply chiefly to Italian art. In the early
Grerman 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. Grregory and St. Austin of Canterbury, or
St. Dunstah and St. Cuthbert. 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 Rule. There is a grand picture of this
subject in the Convent of San Martino near Palermo, by Novelli,
the best of the late Sicilian painters.
Separate subjects from the life of St. Benedict, in general re-
presenting 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 ; as in Louvre.
a picture by Subleyras (where St. Benedict wears the white Louvre.
habit) ; another by Silvestre ; a third by Rubens ; and in a very Darmstadt
fine Velasquez.
2. St. Benedict, in the monastery of Monte Cassino, gives the simone
Avanzi.
Rule to his Order. BoiognaGai.
A.D. 1370.
3. St. Benedict, when at Subiaco, is haunted by the recollec-
tion of a beautiful woman he had seen at Rome. He lies in the Paima v.
midst of thorns; two angels in front scatter roses, while the
tempting devil is gliding away behind.
18 • LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDERS.
Padua.
St. Giustina
Le Sn cm-
Louvre.
4. St. Benedict receives St. Maurus and St. Placidus, who are
presented by their respective fathers.
5. St. Benedict kneeling, with his hands outspread, and look-
ing up with an expression of transport, sees, in a vision, his
sister Scholastica, attended by two virgin martyrs (probably
St. Catherine and St. Agnes), and St. Peter and St. Paul. 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 Mar-
moutier.
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 pitcher,
Fi. Acad. 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 monas-
tery of St. Salvi, near Florence, a branch of the Vallombrosian
Order.
Fiamingo. 7. The misslou of St. Mauro and St. Placido : St. Benedict
Mouacfneri! givcs them his blessing before they depart, the one to France,
Perugia. ' ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ g-^.^^^
Bologna ^' ^^* Benedict, being near his end, stands looking down into
a.'d^iSsI! ' l^is 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.
Naples. 1. A series at Naples painted by Antonio Solario (called Lo
Zingaro, the Gipsy), in the cloisters of the convent of San
Severino. Here St. Benedict wears the black habit.
Florence. 2. A scrios by Spiuollo Aretino, which covers the walls of the
sacristy of San Miniato. Here, the convent being attached to
the Vallombrosian Order, St. Benedict and his monks wear the
tuhite habit.
ST. BENEDICT. 19
3. A series elaborately carved in wood, in forty-eisrlit com- Venice.
-^ ' J ^ A. de Brule.
partments, in the choir of the church of San Giorgio at Venice.
By Albert de Brule.
4. A series painted in fresco by Ludovico Caracci and his The caracci.
pupils, in the Benedictine convent of San Micliele-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 very Musee.
good.
As the selection of subjects is nearly the same in all, 1 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 An-
tonio 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 profession, 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 pen-
cil ; placed himself for a few years under Lippo Dalmasio of
Bologna ; then, at Venice, studied the works of the Vivarini ; at
Florence those of the Bicci and Masaccio ; at Eome those of
Grentile da Fabriano ; and returning to Naples in 1443, he
claimed the love and the hand of the fair daughter of Col' An-
tonio. 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.
D 2
20 LEGENDS OF 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 Rome. A mountain rising in the middle divides the pictm-e into
two parts : on one side is the city of Norcia, on the other a distant view
of Rome. He is seen on horseback accompanied by his father Eutropius ;
two servants armed with lances go before, and his nurse Cyrilla, moimted on
a mule, follows behind.
2. On his flight from Rome, 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 Rome.
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 backgTOund 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 sometimes, 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
Col' 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 Romano. He puts on
the dress of a hermit.
5. The cave at Subiaco, since famous as lo sagro Sjjeco; 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. Romano the hermit dies, and Benedict is left in his cave alone, with
none to feei him or care for him -, but absorbed in his devotions, he is un-
mindful 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, he took the food tliat 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 his solitary cave, and he said unto him, " Rise, 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 the background is
seen the priest asleep in his cell, and visited by the divine revelation.
Guido painted, in the cloisters of San Michele-in-Bosco, the peasants
ST. BENEDICT. 21
bringing their offerings to the cave of St. Benedict. From the beauty and
graceful head-dress of one of the female figures, the Italians styled this picture
la Turhantina. 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 sinfid 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.
" The seven women introduced into the monastery to tempt Benedict and
his companions," was painted by Ludovico Caracci 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 TertuUus, 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 pro-
cures 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.
12. A Gothic peasant, employed in felling wood, lets the blade of his bill-
hook 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. Placidus, while yet a child, in going to draw water falls into the
lake ; St. Benedict, who is prajdng in his cell, has a revelation of his danger,
and sends Maurus in all haste to help him ; Maurus rushes to his assistance.
Richardson.
22 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
treading the water as if it had been dry land. (Benedict imputed this
miracle to the ready obedience and unselfish zeal of Maurus^ while his dis-
ciple, in his humility, insisted that he was miraculously sustained by the
virtue and prayers of his superior.)
14. The wicked priest Florentius, 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 place 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 Florentius 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
San Micheie. takes to flight. (The composition of this subject, by Spada, is famous, and
Bologna. ^^^ ^^^^ engi^aved.)
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 dis-
cover 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 his warriors and his attendants are
seen behind.^
' And Totila, king of the Goths, hearing that Benedict possessed the spirit of
prophecy, and willing to prove him, attired Kiggo, his armoiirbearer, in his royal
sandals, robes, and crown, and sent him, with three of his chief counts, Vuleni,
Eudeni, and Bledi, to the monastery. Benedict witnessing his approach from a
lofty place whereon he sat, called out to him, " 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 pros-
trated himself on the earth, and would not rise till, after having been thrice bidden
to do so by Benedict, the servant of Christ deigned to raise bim himself, and chid
him for his misdeeds, and in a few words foretold all that was to befall him, the years
of his reign, and the period of his death. — See Lord Lindsay's Sketches of Christian
Art.
ST. BENEDICT. ^'^
19. The sick child restored at the prayer of its parents; a frequent
subject.
20. St. Benedict visits his 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 im-
mediately-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 converse 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 his disciples behold
at the same moment the selfsame vision ; they see a path or a ladder ex-
tending 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 ?'■ and they said, " We know not." And the voice answering,
again said, " That is the path by which 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 St. Scholastica. Though in other respects exemplary and
faithful to their religious profession^ they were much given to
scandal and vain talk; which being 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
24
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Bologna.
Cloisters of
San Michele-
in-Bosco.
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. Bene-
dict, 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 Suore morte,''^ was painted by Lucio Massari, in the series
at Bologna. Kichardson mentions it with praise as equal to
any of those by his master, Ludovico, or his competitor, Guido ;
he calls it " 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 composition.
The above detailed description of a series of subjects from the
life of St. Benedict will be found useful ; for in general, however
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. Ildefonso.
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,
when St. Ildefonso was entering his cathedral at the head of a
midnight procession, he perceived the high altar surrounded by
a blaze of light. He alone of all the clergy ventured to
approach, and found the Virgin lierself seated on his ivory
ST. ILDEFONSO. 25
Handbook.
A.v. -267.
episcopal throne, and surrounded by a multitude of aogels
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 God, 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 ad-
justed on his shoulders by the attendant angels. From that
night the ivory chair remained unoccupied and the celestial
vestment unworn, until the days of the presumptuous Arch-
bishop Sisiberto, who died miserably in consequence of seating
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 oai
to invest the kneeling saint with the 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 stiriingssp.
reputation of this picture has been extended by the excellent
graver of Fernando Selma." A good impression is in the
British Museum.
2. The second picture was painted by Rubens ; it is an altar-
piece with two wings ; in the centre, the Virgin is seated on
the episcopal throne attended by four angels, before her kneels
St. Ildefonso, 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 II.), 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 lie had vowed a particular
E
Painters.
Vienna Imp.
Gal.
26 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDERS.
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.
Sacred aiul
Legend. Art,
ii. p. a()4.
St. Bavon.
Flon. St, BavO; or St. Baf. Ital. San Bavone. Patron saiut 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 him exist in the
churches in Belgium.
He was a nobleman, some say a duke, of Brabant, and w^as
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. Withdrawing
himself from his former associates, Bavon bestowed all his goods
in charity, and then repaired to St. Amand, who received him
as a penitent, and placed him in a monastery at Ghent. But
this 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 Grhent, 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
he imposed on himself, was that of carrying a huge stone, em-
blematical of the burden of his sins, which is sometimes intro-
duced as an attribute. The chapel erected in his honour is
ST. BAVON.
27
London
Nat. Gal.
now the cathedral of Grhent, for which Rubens painted the great
altar-piece. It represents the saint in his secular costume of a
knight and a noble, presenting himself before 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 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; g. Huge,
Sculp.
statue over the door of the cathedral at Grhent.
2. St. Bavon in armour, with the falcon on his hand. Eng. .i. ]\ra-
3. The slave of a nobleman, being possessed or mad, is re- jordaens.
stored 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 oimot,
^ . . ^ , Hist, de la
conversion, beheld coming towards him a man who had formerly civ. 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 Grod
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 ! " And the bondman, hearing these words, was
astonished, and he refused to lay hands on the Man of Grod, his
former master; but St. Bavon insisted the more, and at last,
after much entreaty and many arguments, he yielded ; and he
took the Man of Grod and bound him, and shaved his head, and
cast him into the public prison, where he remained for a certain
K 2
28 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. Gruizot 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.
Tm. Sauctus /Egidius. Ital. Saiit Egidio. Fr. Saint Gilles. Sp. San Gil.
Patron saint of the woodland. Patron saint of Edinburgh ; of Juliers in
Flanders. Sept. 1, 725. Attribfte; — a wounded hind.
"Ane Hynde set up beside Sanct Geill."
Sir David Lindsay.
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 chnrch, 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. Giles 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 Khone, 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 hind, which had taken up its abode with
him. Now it came to pass that the king of France was hunting
ST. OtTles. 29
Goths.)
in the neighbourhood, and the hind, pursued by the dogs, fled (or, accord-
to the cavern of the saint, and took refuge in his arms; the ther legend,
hunters let fly an arrow, and, following on the track, were sur- king of the
prised to find a venerable old man, seated there with the hind
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 for-
giveness.
The saint, resisting all the attempts of the king to withdraw
him from his solitude, died in his cave. But the place becoming
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. G-iles 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 in-
terior, 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. ^
St. Griles has been especially venerated in England and Scot-
land. In 1117, Matilda, wife of Henry I., 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. Gfiles as early as 1359. And still, in spite of the Eefor-
mation, this popular saint is retained in our calendar.
' This staircase, called in the country "La vis de Saint Grilles," was formerly "le
but des pelerinages de tons les compafxnons taillcurs depierre." — Voyages cm Midi
(Ic la France.
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
8t. 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 pictm-es his habit is usually white,
because such pictures date subsequently to the period when the
abbey of St. Griles became the property of the Reformed Bene-
dictines, who had adopted the white habit.
Representations of St. Griles are seldom met with in Italy, but
very frequently in early French and German art.^
* " 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 Spam p. 836) as " St. Giles, the patron of the Greenwood," but it re-
presents a very different person ; a St. Giles, more properly il Beato Egidio, who
was one of the early followers of St. Francis of Assisi, and consequently wears the
habit and cord of St. Francis. The picture is now in England.
ST. BENOIT d'aNIANE. 31
A very influential character of his time was St. Benedict
OF Anian, better known by his French name, Saint Benoit
d'Aniane.
He was a Groth by race, a native of Maguelonne in Langne-
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
rule 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 Eule,
which M. Gruizot characterises as substituting narrow and servile Hist.deia
forms for the large and enlightened spirit of the first founder. en France.
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 OF THE MONxiSTIC ORDERS.
erected : he 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 Griorgione, at Hampton Court.
A curious old print in the British Museum represents St.
William kneeling, wearing a magnificeilt helmet ; his breviary
on the ground, while his clasped hands embrace a standard :
behind him is a shield, on which are three fleur-de-lys and three
crescents ; the latter, I suppose, in allusion to his victories over
the Saracens.
There is a print after Lan franco, 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 Ferrata.
Ital. San Nilo. Ir. Saint Nil lejeune. Sept. 26, 1002.
The name of this obscure Grreek 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 history of
mediaeval Eome ; 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 deejD human in-
terests of which they are the record and the monument !
ST. NILUS OF GROTTA FEKUATA. 3o
St. Nilus was a Grreek of Calabria, born near Tarentum. 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 Grreek 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 Grreek hymns in honour of St.
Benedict, and the abbot assigned to him and his fugitive bro-
therhood 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, tiu-ning 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 his
residence at Eome, 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 many were the miracles
F
34 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
and cures wrought by his intercession : among others, the cure
of a poor epileptic boy.
Eome 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. Mlus, 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. Angelo. 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 tlie 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 :
" 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 Eome.
He took refuge first in a cell near Gaeta, and afterwards in a soli-
tary 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 Nilus 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 convent with an endowment of lands. Nilus refused
his gifts. The emperor, rising from his knees, entreated the
ST. NILUS OF CxKOTTA FERRATA. -^'^
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 Grod, and save
thine own soul I " 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 early age of twenty-six,
poisoned by the widow of Crescentius. In the same year St.
Nilus died, full of years and honours, after having required 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 Grrotta 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 Grreek language ; but they consider their convent as a de-
pendency 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 Griuliano da Rovere, afterwards the warlike
Julius II. 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 tliose of art.
About the year 1610, when Cardinal Odoardo Farnese was
abbot of Grrotta 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 Legend. Ait,
was accordingly restored with great magnificence, re-dedicated
u. 426
36 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
to St. Nilus and his companion St. Bartolomeo, who are re-
garded as the two first abbots ; and Domenichino, then in his
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, consisting
of a vast number of figures. The emperor has just alighted from
his charger, and advances in an humble attitude to crave the
benediction of the saint. The accessories in this grand picture
are wonderful for splendour and variety, and painted with con-
summate 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 see'in 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 whom Domenichino fell violently in love,
Beiiori, whilc he was employed on the frescoes. Bellori tells us that
not only was the young 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. Nilus 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. NTLUS OF GROTTA FERRATA.
37
the 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. Nilus and St.
Bartolomeo in this very Grotta Ferrata, and presents to them a
golden apple, in testimony of 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. Nilus to be healed ; the saint,
after beseeching the divine favour, dips his finger into the oil of
11^^ . \„\»j
5 St. Nilns heals the Epileptic Boy. (From the fresco at Orotta Ferrata.)
38 legp:nds of 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. Tlie
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
Eaphael's Transfiguration.
In a high narrow compartment Domenichino has represented
St. Nilus 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 Grreek monk, and the convent con-
nected with the G-reek order, we have the Grreek 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. Nilus 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 tlie 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 Eome makes this famous chapel a part of his
pilgrimage. For this reason 1 have ventured to enlarge on the
details of an obscure story, which the beauty of these produc-
tions has rendered important and interesting.
Angel. (From the chapel at Grotta Ferratn.)
THE BENEDICTINES IN ENGLAND AND GERMANS. 39
anU III #crmanj)*
The introduction of tlie 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 they had re-
mained to our time conspicuous as subjects of art. We should
have 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 om* ancestors lay beyond the mental vision of any
Praise-God-Barebones, or any heavenly-minded tinker or stern
covenanter of Cromwell's army. When I recall the history of
the ecclesiastical potentates of Italy in the 16th 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 humanizers
and civilizers 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.
40 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 tra-
ditions, it is not so much to show how they have been illustrated,
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 in sculpture or
be released from whitewash and plaster, — we should expect to
meet with St. Helena, the mother of Constantino, 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.' 18.' 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 con-
nected with the discovery or the " invention," as it is not im-
properly 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 King 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 Sta-
bularia 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 birth-place and lineage of Helena. From
remote antiquity the English have claimed her as tlieir own, and
held her in especial honour: witness the number of our. old
churches dedicated to her, and the popularity of her classical
Greek name in all its various forms. In her old age she became
ST. HELENA.
41
I
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 alle-
gorical sense as the " Pil-
grim's Progress" is now. 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 some-
times 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
Eome about the year 863, and were deposited in the Benedictine
G
St. Helena. (Boisseree Oallery.)
42
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDERS.
o St. Helena and St. Constaiitine. (Palma Veccluo.)
abbey of Hautvilliers in Champagne. The disputes concerning
the authenticity of these relics fill many pages of the " Annales"
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 Croce di Gerusalemme."
But of these I will say no more at present.
St. Aiban, St. Alban, the famous Englisli proto-martyr, was not a
June 22.' uiouk, but, as the shrine dedicated to him became subsequently
one of the greatest of our Benedictine institutions, I place him
here.
ST. ALBAN. 43
There is something particularly touching in the circumstances
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 his house. Alban concealed him there, and, struck
by the example of his resignation and enlightened by his teach-
ing, 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 soldiers; 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 multitude, mostly Chris-
tians, 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 miracu-
lously 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 Grod would
give him water, and immediately a living spring broke out before
his feet, in which he quenched his thirst ; and then bending his
neck to the executioner, the head of this most courageous
martyr was struck off, and he received the crown of life which
Gfod 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
G 2
44 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OllDERS.
almost perished, and the place of his burial was forgotten ;
until it happened, in the year 793, that the same was made
known by a great miracle.
ciumnccy-s For whou Offli, kiup^ of the Mercians, was takinof his rest on
Hist, of ' ^ .111 1 -
Herts, p. 4i>(;. liis royal couch, he was admonished by an angel trom 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 woodeu
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
bacred and sprins'lnsr at his feet ; not three fountains, as in the effiofies of
Legend. Art, 0^-01
i. 1^4. St. Paul.
We have all learned in our childhood the famous legend which
makes Gregory the Grreat the father of Christianity in England,
which tells how he became interested for the* poor benighted
islanders, our fair-haired ancestors, (non Angli sed angeli I) and
represents St. Augustine of Canterbury as the first Christian
missionary in this nation. But it appears to me 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 promulgated by the
Hierarchs of the West. He was the instrument by which the
whole island was brought under the papal power. But Chris-
tianity and a knowledge of the Scriptures had shone upon
Britain three centuries at least before the time of Augustine.
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. 45
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 every-
thing 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 Aval on, containing twelve hides of land,
where they built a church of wreathen wands, and set a place
apart for the burial of their servants. These holy men were
devoted to a religious solitude, confined themselves to the
number 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."
" Upon this ground," says another writer, " 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. n. 1409 ; another at Constance, v. usher, De
A. D. 1414; another at Siena, a. d. 1424; and especially at Britt. p. -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
4() LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERfc
Sacred aiKl
Legend. Art,
ii. 341.
the Virgin Mary, and converted a great part of the people to
the faith of Christ: but P'rance Received not the Christian
religion till the time of Dionisius (St. Denis), by whose ministry
it was converted : and by 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 Grlastonbury, that famous old alibey,
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 Grlastonbury 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.
But Augustine the monk, whom the English call St. Austin,
was undoubtedly the first who introduced the order of St.
Sacred and Benedict into England. The Benedictines number St. Grregory
i.' 303. ' ' as one of their order : it is not certain that he took the habit,
but he placed the convent which he had founded at Eome 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 from this dangerous journey. We are not informed
how St. Gregory received Augustine : we only know that he
ST. AUGUSTINE.
speedily sent him back with a brief but peremptory letter,
begimiing 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 un-
dertaken." So, Augustine being constituted chief and bishop
over the future converts, they continued their journey, and
landed in the Isle of Thanet, 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 per-
mission the city of Canterbury, carrying on high the holy cross
and the image of our blessed Saviour, and singing Hallelujahs.
Then they preached the Grospel, 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 Kome as its spiritual head, and himself as his
delegated representative. The Britons were at first strongly
opposed to 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 Eoman Church without the consent and free leave of the
whole nation. (For before the time of Augustine the British
Church acknowledged no obedience to Rome, but looked to its
own metropolitan, the Bishop of Caerleon-on-Uske, and derived Glastonbury,
their customs, rites, and ordinances from the Eastern Churches.)
" Therefore they desired that another synod might be called.
48 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Bede.
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
oapgrave. an auchorite, and who advised them, saying, ' If Augustine shall
rise up when ye come near him, then he is a servant of Grod,
and ye shall listen to his words ; but if he sit still and show no
respect, then he is proud and cometh not from Grod, 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, dis-
coursing among themselves, said, * If he will not rise up now
unto us, how much more will he condemn us when we are
subject to him?' Then Augustine exhorted them to receive
the rites and usages of the Church of Eome ; but they excused
themselves, saying that they owed no more to the Bisho^D of
Eome 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 obedience, 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 obser-
vation of Easter. 2. In the administration of baptism. 3. In
their assistance by preaching among the Eoglish Saxons. And
neither in these things could he obtain their compliance, for
they persisted in denying him all power over them." (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 Grreeks 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. 49
I
master St. Grregoiy, Augustine carried things 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, 1,200 in number, and utterly
destroyed that glorious monastery, in which were deposited
many and precious records and monuments of British history."
(The massacre at Bangor, which is described with picturesque
circumstances by Bede, 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 farther,
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 build-
ing churches, extraordinarily famous for the working of miracles
and cures among the people. Hence his mind may have been
puffed up with human vanity, wliich caused St. Gfregory to
admonish him."
To this description 1 will add, that he ought to be represented
wearing 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
of Archbishop was not in use, I believe, before the ninth century.
The proper companion to St. Augustine, where he figures as st. Pauimus
chief saint and apostle of England, would be St. Paulinus ; who,
in 601, was sent from Rome to assist him in his mission.
H
50 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Paulinus 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 Eochester, in 644.
His friends and converts. King Edwin and Queen Ethelburga,
may be grouped with him.
But to remote Northumbria's royal hall,
Where thonghtfiil Edwin, tutor'd in the school
Of sorrow, still maintains a heathen rule,
Who comes with functions apostolical ?
Mark him, of shoulders curv'd, and stature tall,
Black hair, and vivid eye, and meagre cheek.
His prominent feature like an eagWs heak: —
A man whose aspect doth at once appal
And strike with reverence. Wordsiuorth.
This portrait of Paulinus, from the description left uuby 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. " 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 igno-
rance ? ' Then immediately, in contempt of his former super-
stitions, 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 multitude 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 Grod, commanded his companions to
destroy the idols with fire." ^ Here would have been a fine
' The scene took place at Godmundham, in Yorkshire. Stukely says, in his
Itinerary, "The apostle Paulinus built the parish chvirch of Godmundham, where
is the font in which he baptized the heathen priest Coifi."
ST. BENNET BISCOP. 51
subject for Eubens ! I recommend it to our artists ; only they
must be careful to preserve (which Eubens never did) the reli-
gious spirit ; and in seeking the grand and dramatic, to avoid
(as Eubens 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 labour,
their learning, and their wealth to admirable purposes ; and 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 Grod 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 representations
of the early English Benfedictines ; 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 Bennet Biscop, of a noble st. bennet
family in Northumberland, founded the two Benedictine monas- moSthT
teries of St. Peter's at Wear mouth, and St. Paul's at Jarrow,
which became in process of time two of the most flourishing
schools in England.
H 2
I
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 hear 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
Bede. 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 Grospel,
e. the and the visions of St. John. His church of St. Paul at Jarrow
he adorned with 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 Kugier's Handbook, page 216.) And further, St. Bennet
brought from Eome in his last journey, a certain John, abbot of
San Martino, precentor (or teacher of music) in the pope's
chapel, whom he placed at Wearmouth to instruct his monks in
the chanting the divine services according to the Gregorian
manner, which appears to be the first introduction of music into
our cathedrals. He also composed many books for the instruc-
tion of his monks and of those who frequented the schools of his
Apocalypse.
ST. BENNET BISCOP.
53
monastery. Among the pupils of St. Bennet was the Venerable a. d. 735.
Bede, who studied in his convent during seven years.
After a long life of piety, charity, and munificence, embellished
by elegant pursuits, this remarkable man died about the year
703.
St. Bennet Biscop.
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.
54 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
BEUT.
In association with this enlightened bishop, we ought to find
St. Cuthbert 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. cutii- 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. Cuthbert was
one day playing at ball with his companions, there stood among
them a fair young child, the fairest creature ever eye beheld ;
and he said to St. Cuthbert, " 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 Cuthbert ran to comfort him, he said, " Nay, my brother,
it is for thee I weep, that preferrest thy vain 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. CUTIIBEIM. . 55
astray ; for when he exhorted them, such a brightness appeared
in his ano'elic 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 sometimes remain for weeks
together, instructing and humanising them. Afterwards re-
moving from Melrose to Landisfarne, he dwelt for some years
as an anchorite in a solitary islet, on the shore of Northumber-
land, 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 Northumbrians (since removed to Durham), and in
this office he was venerated and loved by all men, being an ex-
ample 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 wrouo'ht
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
56 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OKDEES.
St. Cutlibert is the crowned head of king Oswald in his arms ; of
whom, as associated with St. Ciithbert 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 Grod ; 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 Cad walla (or
Cadwallader), king of the Britons, who, besides being a bloody
and rapacious tyrant, was a heathen (this, at least, is the cha-
racter 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 ])oth hands, till it
Bede. was made fast by throwing in the earth. Then raising his
voice, he cried, ' Let us all kneel down, and beseech the living
Grod to defend us from the haughty and fierce enemy,, for he
knows that we have undertaken 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 the word of Grod, he was
exceedingly humble, affable, and generous to the poor and
ST. OSWALD. ''iT
strangers. It is related of hini, that he 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 com-
panions ; whence came an old English proverb, long in the
mouths of the people, " May G-od 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 after-
wards, 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. Cathbert 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."—" 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
58 LEGENDS 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 Wear mouth : where female
saints are grouped with these, we should find St. Helena, St.
Hilda of Whitby, and St. Ebba of Coldingham.
Dngciaie. " In thosc early times," says a quaint 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 im-
provement 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 recom-
mended to the bishop who ordained him. Yet 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. Wer-
burga, abbess of Eepandum in England; and St. Bridget of
Kildare, in Ireland, who had many monks under their charge."
St. hilpa. " And 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. 59
altar ; so that afterwards, saith he, we saw five bishops who
came out of her monastery, and a sixth was elected, who died
before he was ordained. She was a professed enemy to the ex-
tension 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 Koman ritual. She presided at a
council held in her own monastery, and in presence of king
Oswy, when these questions were argued, but being decided
against her, she yielded." " She taught," says Bede, " the
strict observance of justice, piety, 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 reli-
gious 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 St. 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.^
' In Hutcliinson's History of the Cathedral of Durham, there is a curious 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
I 2
60 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OKDEES.
SI'. EiiBA. 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 ravishers, 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. Ebba
at their head, attained 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.
CAiimos. In the monastery of the abbess Hilda, lived Caedmon the poet,
whose paraphrase of Scripture history, in Anglo-Saxon verse, is
preserved to this day. A copy exists in the Bodleian Library
Aixha^o- at Oxford, illuminated with antique drawings, most extraor-
dinary and curious as examples of Saxon art.
logia, vul
XXV
c. '24.
Bede, b. iv. The story of Csedmon, as related by Bede, appears to me very
beautiful. " He did not," says Bede, " learn the art of poetry
from men, but from Grod ; for he had lived in a secular habit
till he 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. Cutlibcrt 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-
stituted for black in the dress of the monks ; black, perhaps, being too opaque a
polour. The figure of St. Bede still exists as a fragment.
C^DMON THE POET, 61
for the horses ; and he laid himself down to sleep. And in his
sleep an angel appeared to him, and said, " Caedmon, sing to me
a song ; " and he answered, " I cannot sing, and therefore I left
the entertainment, and came hither because I could not sing."
And the other, answering him, said, "You shall sing, notwith-
standing." He asked, " What shall I sing ? " And the angel
replied, " Sing the beginning of created beings." Thereupon,
Casdmon presently began to sing verses in praise of God, the
Father and Creator of all things. And awakening from his
sleep, he remembered all he 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 conferred on
him by our Lord: wherefore, the abbess Hilda received him
into her community, and commanded that he should be well
instructed in the Holy Scriptures. As he read, Csedmon con-
verted 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 he 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. ^
St. Cuthbert and St. Hilda, with Csedmon the poet and Bede
' "As Csedmon's paraphrase is a poetical yariation 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 Caedmon."— Turner's
Hiatory of the Ayiglo- Saxons, vol. iii. p. 356.
62 • 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 not, I recommend it to the attention of artists — particularly
those who may be called upon to illustrate our northern
worthies.
Quitting the Northumbrians, we will take a view of the Bene-
dictine 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.
St. Chad. In thoso days lived four holy men, who were brothers, all of
whom had been educated in the monastery of St. Cuthbert.
Bede, b. iii. The eldost of thoso, whose name was Cedd, was desired by
c.'s. ' " ' Ethelbald, 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, tha,n 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.
AM. 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 ;
Bcde. and he set himself to instruct the people — preaching the Grospel
in towns, in the open country, in cottages, in villages, and castles.
He had his episcopal see in the place called Lichfield — " the
field of the dead ; " there he built a church, in which to preach
and baptize the people ; and, near to it, a habitation for himself,
where, in company with seven or eight brethren, he spent, in
reading and praying, any spare hours which remained to him
ST. GUTIILAC.
63
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 G-od ;
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 Lichfield,
where, since the year 1148, the shrine of St. Chad was de-
posited, 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 ; btit every
other vestige of the saint perished at the time of the Reforma-
tion, 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, con-
sidering the thunder, and the winds, and the darkness, as pre-
figuring the day of the Lord's judgment ; " wherefore," said he,
" it behoves us to answer his heavenly admonition with due
fear and love."
St. GrUTHLAC would necessarily find a place in a series of st.
GtTTH-
the Mercian Saints. His story gave rise to the foundation of a
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. Guthlac, who is not
connected with any existing institutions or remains of art, there
LAC.
64
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 Eepton, 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. Gruthlac such a life, that the blessed St. An-
thony himself had never been more tormented and scared by
hideous shapes and foul temptations. Guthlac, trusting in his
chosen protector, St. Bartholomew, defiied
the demons ; 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 in-
dustry) 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. Eemains of muti-
lated but once beautiful sculpture adorn the
eastern front. Amonof these is the fio^ure of
St. Guthlac, holding a whip, his proper
10 St. Guthlac.
(Ancient
English sculpture.)
ST. AUDREY (QUEEN ETHELREDA). 65
attribute: this has been explained as alluding to his severe
penances ; but among the relics left to the monastery by St.
Pega, the sister of St. Gruthlac, is " the whip of St. Bartholo-
mew," with which I suppose he chastised and drove away the
demons which haunted the hermit saint : this is the more pro-
bable 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-
Barking, in Essex ; and its first abbess St. Ethelberga, of whom
there is nothing related 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 represented
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.
REDA.
A.D. 679.
June 23.
A still greater saint was Queen Ethelreda, whom our st. ethel-
Anglo-Saxon ancestors regarded mth peculiar veneration. The
common people worshipped her under the name of St. Audrey,
and effigies of her formerly abounded in the old missals, in
stained glass, and in the decorative sculpture of the old ecclesi-
astical 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 Gervii, receiving for her dowry the isle
of Ely. Being left a widow at the end of three years, she was
married to Egfrid, king of Northumbria, with whom she lived,
say the historians, in a state of continency for twelve years.
She at length obtained his 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
K
66 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEES.
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 Grod. Wonderful things are recorded
of her by our early chronicles. When the beautiful lantern of
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 con-
cession, and threatened to drag her from her convent. She fled,
attended by two companions, and took refuge on the summit
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 l)ecome a tall tree; and, being much comforted, she
continued her journey.
ST. ETHKLREDA.
67
11
The Dream of St. Etlielreda. (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 Grod
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 St. Ethelreda ; and one night, in his
E. 2
68 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. Ethel-
reda undecayed, with the royal crown on her head, while
the attendants express their astonishment and admiration. On
this her second burial, Ethelreda was laid in an antique marble
sarcophagus most beautifully 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 veneration
Coll. of the for her, and in his famous Benedictional she leads the choir of
Duke of '
Devonshire, virgin saiuts, 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 under-
neath 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 the visionary tree which
sprang from her staff might be introduced at her side,
p. 69. This very curious figure of St. Ethelreda, holding the Gospel
in one hand, a lily (the emblem of her chastity) in the other, 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. wer- St. Ethelreda had a niece, Wei{buega, 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
under her aunt, St. Etlielreda, at Ely, and altogether devoted
ST. WERBURGA.
69
12
St. Ethelreda. (From an ancient Saxon miniature.
to good works, having founded many religions edifices, and
among others, the monasteries at Weedon, Trentham, Eepton,
and Hanbnry, 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 tliis shrine is now at the upper end
of the choir, where it serves as a supporter to a fair pew erected
for the bishop of the diocese."
I must mention here, Modwena, an Irish saint, of whom a
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
he sent his son with many presents, and the virgin healed the
V. King'i
Hist, of
Chester.
St. Mod-
wena.
70 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
boy. But she refused the gifts of the king. Then he invited
her into England ; and, being 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 re-
ferred 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. Gruthlac as hermit, St. Ethelreda and
St. Werburga as princesses and abbesses, conspicuous, and ad-
mitting 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 feeling.
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 Grerman 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, Martyr.
Lat. and Ger. Sanctus 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 over 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. 71
worthies, educated in an English Benedictine convent and con-
nected with our own early history, he is especially interesting
to us : his was a far different existence from that of the good
abbot of Wearmouth. His active eventful life, his sublime v. p. 51.
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.
"In the Benedictine abbey of Nutsall, near Winchester, orNusceiia.
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 reluc-
tantly 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 his evening
meditations, he paced the long conventual avenue of lime-trees,
— or as, in the night-watches, he knelt before the crucifix sus-
pended in his cell, he was still conscious of a voice, audible
though inarticulate, which repeated to him the Divine injunc-
tion 'to go and preach the Grospel 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
72 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
mayor of the palace was 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 knowledge. He had now learned that his success
must depend on the conduct of the secular and spiritual rulers
of mankind, and on his own connexion with them.
" The chapter of his monastery chose him as their abbot, but
at his own request the bishop of Winchester annulled the elec-
tion ; then, quitting for ever his native England, Boniface
pursued his way to Eome to solicit the aid of Pope Grregory II.
in his efforts for the conversion of the Grerman people."
This was in the year 719; and it is said that on the occasion
of his visit to Eome 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 founding
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 mo-
nasteries 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 de-
voted 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 contemplated 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 memo-
rial of him without the profoundest veneration. For, since the
apostolic age, no greater benefactor 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 Benedictine."^
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 su-
perstitions. 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 1 rather think that this is the Italian martyr Boniface,
whose story has been related in the second volume of Legen- p. 2r,(;
DARY Art.
' Essays in Ecclesiastical JJiograph^-, i. 372.
L
Venice.
S. Salvadon
74 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 IS?. 5, 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 his 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 G^ospel in Bavaria, — St. Boniface, St. Willibald, St. Cor-
binian, St. Eupert, St. Emmeran, St. Cylien, and St. Magnus,
abbot of Fiissen,^ 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 inci-
dents in the lives of all those saints who preached the Grospel
throughout Grermany, 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 pra3^ers 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 Eome. 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 Friesland. 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. 11. He hews
down the oak sacred to the German divinity Thor. 12. He
' In the Belle Arti at Venice, there is a charming picture by Cima da Conegliano
of the Incredulity of St. Thomas. On one side stands a bishop, called in the cata-
logue St. Magnus ; on what authority I do not know, nor why a Bavarian bishop
should be represented here, unless as the patron of the donor of the picture.
SS. EWALD. 7o
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 monastery
St. Greorge of Utrecht as a child. 16. He crowns Pepin Maicin,7D'2.
d'Heristal King: of the Franks. 17. He is created first Arch-
bishop of Mayence. 18. He resigns his archiepiscopal dignity,
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 Mayence, and
finally deposited in his monastery at Fulda.
I have given the list of subjects, because it will be found
useful and suo^crestive 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 England ss. ewald.
to preach the Grospel in WestjDhalia. These brothers, who were too.' oct.'s.
twins, were baptized by the same name, but, being diverse in
hair and complexion, were distinguished as St. Ewald the
Black and St. Ewald the Fair. 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, passing 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 neigh-
bourhood 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 Westphalia.
There is a set of curious pictures illustrating thestory of these
76
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Cologne.
S.Cunibert?
Munich Gal.
Miinicli Gal.
brother martyrs, which appear to have been executed by Martin
Hemskirk, 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 a
club. 2. The brothers d<^part on their mission. 3. St. Ewald
the Fair heals a possessed woman in presence of Eadbrad, 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
iMartyrdom of St. Ewald the Black. Two are engraved in the
Boisseree Grail ery.
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 :
.e. Cologne.
So did tlie Ewaldi there most worthily attain
Their martyr's glorious types, iu Ireland first approv'd,
But after, in their zeal, as need required removed,
They to Westphalia went ,• and as they brothers were,
So the}^, the Christian faith together preaching there,
Th' old pagan Saxons slew, out of their hatred deep
To the true faith, whose shrines brave Cullen still doth keep.
St. Swii
RKirr.
March 1
A.D. 090
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 monas-
tery in Kaiserswerdt, on the Ehine, six miles below Dusseldorf.
MnniciiGai. In a picturo 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 Grospel, 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
Dagobert 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. Cun
BKRT.
Nov. 12,
ST. WALBURGA. 77
ancient churches of that ancient city bears his name. Accord-
ing to the legend, it was St. Cimibert who discovered the spot
where St. Ursula and her companions lay buried, being directed
thither by a dove. There is a curious picture of this prelate Munich Gai.
painted by B, de Bruyn, one of the old Cologne school, pro-
bably 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. lieven.
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
Grospel 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 Grhent, he was cruelly
murdered, the infuriated pagans having first torn out his tongue
and then cut off his head. His hostess, a Christian lady, and Nov. 12,000.
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
Grhent, his remains are stil] preserved. He is sometimes re-
presented as a Bishop, holding his own tongue with a pair of
tongs. Eubens painted the horrible Martyrdom of St. Lieven, Musee
with most horrible skill, for the altar-piece of his chapel in the
Jesuits' Church at Grhent.
Connected with St. Boniface and the early Grerman martyrs
and missionaries, in pictures, in architectural ornament, and in
the stained glass of the Gferman churches, we find two famous
female saints, St. Walburga 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, Val purge, Grualbourg, and
Avangour. Her Anglo-Saxon name, Walburga, is the same as
Brussels.
St. Wal-
burga.
78 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
the Grreek 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 com-
pany of religious women, to assist in their missions among the
pagans, by teaching and by example, Walburga, after passing
A.D. 728. 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 Heidenhaim, 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 aroimd
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 Grerman and
Belgic calendars, the 1st of ^lay, 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
Blocksberg. For other wild and poetical superstitions connected
ST. WALBURGA. 79
with the name of Walpurgis, I must refer the reader to the
Notes to " Faust," and the writers on Grerman ecclesiastical
antiquities.
In Grerman and Flemish art, St. Walbnrga is conspicuous.
She is represented, in the devotional hgures, as wearing the
habit of a Benedictine nun, with the crosier, as abbess of
Heidenhaim, 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.
Kubens 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. lioba.
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 willingly 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 '' lords spiritual,") and had large communities
of monks, as well as nuns, under their rule and guidance. We
are told that five of these " 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
held a high, a venerable, and an influential position, let us first
consider all that the w^omen 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 that thus was
II
80
LEGENDS OF TPIE MONASTIC OIIPERS.
kept alive in the hearts and the consciences of men that religious
idea of the moral equality of woman, that reverence for woman-
hood, which the Divine Author of our faith was the first to pro-
mulgate, which is enforced by his doctrine, by his example, and
by the most touching incidents of his ministry on earth.
St. Oti'ILIA.
Dec. 13,720.
St. Ottilia shares in the honours paid to St. Lucia as patron
saint against all diseases of the eyes. She was the daughter of
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, " 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 because
of his cruelty, gave the first proof of her piety by delivering him
from torment, by dint of prayers and tears ; she built a monas-
tery 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 particularly 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 hand a palm or a crosier, '~ "~^' '
in the other a book upon which ^'^ ,^ st ottma.
^ (From an old Ocrman missal.)
Is
\"
ST. SEBALD. 81
are two eyes. She is principally to be met mth in the German
ecclesiastical sculpture ; and I have seen a picture of her in the v. Bartsch.
gallery at Vienna, in which she is represented kneeling at the cigiiaroii.
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.'
A distinguished personage in this group of early Grerman st. sebald.
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 wood-cuts in which he is represented have
spread his nanne, 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 slirine ? 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 Grhiberti and Donatello ?
St. Sebald is 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 missionaries. It appears that
he travelled through the north of Grermany to Nuremberg, and
took up his residence near the city, preaching, converting, bap-
tizing, 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
' 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 an
abbess, and in all devotional pictures is so represented.
M
82
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEES.
venerable edifices of the most ve-
nerable city of Nuremberg. He is
thus represented in the statue by
Peter Vischer ; in a fine wood-cut
by Albert Durer, where he is
standing 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 Diony-
sius, and by others Deocari, meets
Willibald and Winibald, almost
dead with hunger and fatigue :
lie 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
for a sign, and the earth opens to
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,
14 St. Sebald.
(From the statue by Peter Vischer.)
ST. BENiNO.
83
on her knees, is feeding the fire with icicles ; the attitude of 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 cartwright 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 witli
truly Italian grace. The inscriptions on this wonderful shrine
inform us that Peter Vischer 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 dese-
crating and destroying their monuments of art ; and the shrine
of St. Sebald — guarded by the twelve apostles, crowned with
saintly teachers, while angels and seraphs, lovely Elysian forms,
hover and cling like birds round its delicate tracery — stands
just where it did three centuries ago.
St. Benno, a German Benedictine, was Bishop of Meissen in
Saxony, in the time of the Emperor Henry IV. 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 — mi-
raculously, 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 Rome (Sa. Maria dell' Anima) there
is an altar-piece representing St. Benno and the miraculous
recovery of the key. The painter. Carlo Saraceni, was one of
M 2
84
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
the late Venetian school ; and the picture, which is well coloured
and animated, is, in arrangement and costume, an odd combina-
tion of the Grerman and Venetian manner. St. Benno was
canonised in the time of Luther, who made a most vigorous
attack on the " 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, fight-
ing barons around them ; their quarrels, peaceful men though
they were, with the seneschals and foresters who invaded 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 Norman kings — of one of whom
it was said " that 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 churchman fought against the king or the noble was,
then, 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. 85
canonised churchmen of those times. The contemporary his-
tories are full of his contests with that uncivilised and irreligious
barbarian, William Eufus. 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, ex-
hibits him merely as opposed to the rude nobles of that age. One
day, as he was riding to his manor of Herse, a hare, pursued
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 impa-
tient 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 Grerman 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 cross-bow. 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 homie and take ground with
the plough.^'^ In the fifth compartment he is ploughing with the
two stags ^ the inscription is, '^ Here St. Robert plotveth luiththem,^'^
There is a version of this legend in a collection of Ballads
by William and Mary Howitt ; but the turn which they have
given to the story differs altogether from what I conceive to be
the real significance of the legend. The monks would hardly
86 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 Martyr.
A. D. 870. Dec. 12.
The history of Ragnar Lodbrog, and the first invasion of the
Danes, may be found in most of our chroniclers. The ecclesias-
tical legend, as connected with St. Edmund the Martyr, is ex-
ceedingly 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 Eedham 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. 87
and, after being fed, again disappeared. When this had oc-
curred several times, the servants, by the king's command,
followed after the dog, and discovered the body of Lodbrog con-
cealed 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 con-
cluding 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 col-
lected 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
Angiia. They burned and destroyed everything before them,
slew the monks of Croyland and Peterborough ; " and from this
period," says the historian of the Anglo-Saxons, " 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 monasteries, harvests and
libraries, burnt and demolished, and wounds inflicted on human
happiness, and human improvement, which ages with difficulty
healed."
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
him his counsellor Humbert, bishop of Helmham, and said to
him, " Oh, Humbert I 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
88 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
will presently destroy thee." But the king absolutely refused to
fly ; for said he, " I will not survive my faithful and beloved
friends ; 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. G-o back to your
master, and tell him, that though you may rob me of the wealth
and of the kingdom which Divine Providence 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 being 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 witli spines." At length, they cut off
his head ; and with him suffered his friend and inseparable
companion. Bishop Humbert.
rNov. 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.
Tse
y/.j/M'f^j^y. z.jy&i^^.
il
ST. SWITHEN. 89
which is his proper attribute, and is sometimes accompanied by
the ".grey wolf" crouching at his side.
Contemporary with this martyred king, we find the preceptor st. neot.
and kinsman of the great Alfred, St. Neot. He was a monk of
Glastonbury, and it is recorded of him that he visited Rome
seven times, was very learned, mild, religious, fond of singing ;
" humble to all, affable in conversation, wise in transacting
business, venerable in aspect, severe in countenance, moderate
even in his walk, sincere, upright, calm, temperate, and chari-
table." This good man is said to have reproved Alfred for his
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 j ourneyings.
St. Swithen shared with St. Neot the glory of educating: st.swithen.
our Alfred. He was chancellor under Egbert and Ethelwolf,
and " to him," says Lord Campbell, " tlie 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 Eome. 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 him 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 this simple act of justice and
charity into a miracle, he restored the broken eggs by making
them whole. He had ordered that his 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
90 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEllS.
July U
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 pastoral
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. Neot, St. Dunstan the skilful artificer, and
St. Ethelwold the munificent scholar.
St. Dunstan.
A. D. 988. May 19.
In the history of our earlier English hierarchy, St. Dunstan
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 im-
pressions. 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 commemorated
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 neighboiuhood of Glastonbury, wliere he afterwards
8T. DUNSTAN. 91
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 books, 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 " with brass pipes, filled with air from
the bellows, and which uttered a grand and most sweet melody." Befie.
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 sacredand
has been already related, was a cunning artificer in metals, u. 358. '
" 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 saxons.
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 presence.
Some time afterwards, as the king was hunting, having out-
stripped 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 re-
commended himself to God in prayer; — recalling, and at the
same time repenting, his injustice to Dunstan. His horse, on
N 2
92 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OBDEES.
reaching the edge of the precipice, instead of tumbling headlong,
stood still, trembling and panting. The king was saved : he
sent for Dunstan, who had retired meantime to his cell at
Glastonbury, 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.^ 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 " 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 liere.
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 religion 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
' One would have thought that fire being the natural element of the demon he
might hare 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. DUNSTAN. 93
Dunstan. His character has of course suffered in the hands of
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 bis 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 sSns.
no other Order in England from the time of St. Augustin 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 Eome, was received
there with great honour by Pope John XII., from whose hands
he received the pallium as. Primate of the Anglo-Saxon nation.
Returning to England, he set himself assiduously to found mo-
nasteries 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.
94
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEES.
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 " St. Dun-
stan on a throne, and a monk kissing his feet :" however out-
rageous the pride of Dunstan, he never would have dared such
an exhibition of presumption. The drawing, of which I give
15
St. Dunstan loieeling at the feet of Christ. (From a pen-drawing by himself, existing
in the Bod. Lib. Oxford, and engraved in Hick's Thesaurus.)
a faithfid (reduced) transcript, represents our Saviour throned,
holding a sceptre, and Dunstan himself prostrate before him.
ST. DUNSTAN. 95
A miniature, in which St. Dunstan is enthroned, and three b. Museum
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 later period.
St. Dunstan seated, writing, is engraved in '' Strutt's Regal b. Museum.
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 " Edwin the Fair," and by
Wordsworth : —
The enthusiast as a dupe
Shall soar, and as a h}^ocrite can stoop,
And turn the instruments of good to ill,
Moulding a credulous people to his will —
Such Dunstan.
In connection with St. Dunstan, 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,
since the Eeformation, has been 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 a time when all tlie
96 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 Grod, which
penetrated through the outward appearance, was alone true and
infallible. " 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." 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.
V. Chronicle As King Edward, the son of Edgar, Avas one day weary with
of William of . -, -, n t •
Maimsbury. hunting and very thirsty, he left his attendants to follow the
dogs, and hearing that his step-mother Elfrida and his brother
corfe-castie. Etholred 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 step-mother 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, he 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. EDWAllD, KING AiND CONFESSOK. 97
horse, he, who before had outstripped the winds and was full of
ardour to bear his royal mistress, now by the will of Grod stood
immovable ; neither whip nor spur could urge him forward ; and
Elfrida, seeing in this the hand of Grod, 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 distin-
guish him, the scene of his assassination is frequently represented
in the background. This incident, from its tragical and pic-
turesque circumstances, has always been a favourite subject with
English artists. I am not sure that the title of martyr properly
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 Confessor.
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 Sculp-
ture."
1. King Ethelred had by his first wife Edmund Ironside; camaens
and by his second wife. Queen Emma, he had Alfred. The 1654,^484.'
queen was near her second confinement, when Etlielred assembled
his council to deliberate on the concerns of his kingdom, and
whom he should appoint to succeed him ; some inclined towards
Edmund on account of his great bodily strength, others towards
Alfred. St. Dunstan, who was present, prophesied the short life
o
98
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Hist, of
Oxfordshire.
of botli these princes, therefore the council decided in favour of
the unborn cliild, afterwards Edward the Confessor; and all the
nobles then present took the oath of fealty to him, dans le sein de
sa mere.
In the bas-relief, Queen Emma, 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 liave 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 Englisli.
2. The second compartment represents the birth of King
Edward the Confessor, which took place at Islip in Oxfordshire.
'^In the chapel, not many years since, there stood the very font
wherein that religious prince St. Edward the Confessor received
tlie sacrament of baptism, wliich 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, exclaiming,
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 tliat 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, whicli 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 his 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 re-
turned 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. " 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 Grodiva), 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 Grodwin the queen's father,
are seated at table. In front is the contest between Harold
and Tosti, two bo3^s, the sons of Grodwin : 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 Earl 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 and
and that while he looked .they turned from the right side, on u. i^s.
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, sacredand
^ ^ r> 7 Legend. Art,
which has been already related. • j- 1^^-
11 represents the king's miraculous power of healing, a gift
o 2
100
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Dec. 28,1005.
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.
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 cluirch of
IG
Richard II, with his three protectors, St. John the Baptist, St. Edmund, and
St. Edward the Confessor. From an ancient diptycli, now at Wilton.
(Sketch from Hollar's print.)
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
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 conception,
and the introduction of our Saxon king iirto foreign devotional
subjects very unusual.
St. Thomas of Canterbury.
St. Thomas a Becket. Lat. Sanctus Thomas Episc. Cantuariensis et Martyr.
Ital. San Tommaso Cantuarieiise. Fr. Saint Thomas de Cantorberi.
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, not of justice and truth, but of religious party. Lord
Campbell, in his recent and admirably written life of Becket, as
chancellor and minister of Henry II., tells us that his 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, their 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-
resque scenes of his various life, the judgment so dazzled by his
Kensington
Pal.
102 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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 reli-
gious 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 Grilbert a Becket was
taken prisoner in the crusade, fell in love with him, delivered
him from captivity, and afterwards follovv^ed him to England,
knowing no words of any western tongue except Gilbert and
Lon don, 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 Rome ; his splendid
embassy to Paris ; his single-handed combat with Engieran de
Trie, the French knight ; the king of England, and the king of
France, at his bedside when he was sick at Eouen ; his conse-
cration as archbishop ; his assumption of the Benedictine habit ;
his 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 P^riatville ; his progress through tlie city of London,
ST. THOMAS A BECKET.
103
when the grateful and enthusiastic people flung themselves in
his path and kissed the hem 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 Armitage.
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 Canterbury,
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.
*' The universal expectation was, that Becket would now play
the part so successfully performed by cardinal Wolsey in a
succeeding age ; that, chancellor and archbishop, he would
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 ;
and 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 betvv^een 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
the king and people of England. It was a contest for power in
V. Lord
Campbell's
Lives of the
Cliaucellors.
104 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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-
tumac;^. Henry, driven desperate at last by the indomitable
zeal and courage of his adversary, was heard to exclaim, " 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, Keginald Fitzurse, William Tracy, Hugh de Mor-
ville, and Eichard 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 rest 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 mm'dered 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 tlie 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 ! " As it was now dusk, the archbishop
miglit have retreated and concealed himself, for a time at least,
among the crypts and secret passages of the building, with
which he was well acvquainted ; but, undismayed, he turned to
ST. THOMAS A EECKET. 105
meet the assassins, followed by liis cross-bearer, the only one of
his attendants who had not fled. A voice 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 ! Reginald, I have
granted thee 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 excommu-
nicated, 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 conspirators, 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 firmness
of purpose, and the most capable of making every sacrifice to a
sense of duty, or for the acquisition of renown." (I think, how-
ever. 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, resolutely,
p
106 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
and in support of what he considered as the righteous 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, chanting
with trembling and fear the Requiem for the dead, the voices of
the angels were heard singing a loud and harmonious Lcetabitur
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 a 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 worsliip : 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 may be seen at this day
worn by the knees of his worshippers.^ 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 VIII., it was solemnly decreed
" that Thomas a 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 festivals held
in his honour should be abolished, and his name and remembrance
' " There, to whose sumptuous shrine the near succeeding ages
So mighty off 'rings 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 hath his right — if no.
Those times were. much to blame that have him reckoned so."
Drayton's Volyolhion. Song 24.
ST. THOMAS A BECKET.
107
erased from all documents, under pain of ro^^al indignation and
imprisonment during- his Grace's pleasure." 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 a Becket remaining in our ecclesiastical edifices : ^
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 representations of St. Thomas of Canterbury
in Roman Catholic countries, where alone they are now to be
found, there are some particulars to be noted wliich 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
(rood, 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 a 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 Ag-
nani, the place of his birth, a cope and mitre richly embroidered.
On the cope we find, worked with most delicate skill, and evi-
dently from excellent original drawings, thirty-six scenes from
sacred story ; and among these is the martyrdom 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 dalmatica in the Vatican, but is
almost as beautiful, and even more elaborate.
• I am informed by an obliging correspondent, that in the very ancient church of
the village of Horton, in Eibblesdale, there exists a head of -St, Thomas a Becket,
still to be seen in the east window over the altar.
p 2
108
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
These examples show how early and how effectually the
Church had exalted the saintly fame of Thomas a Becket. In
the former instance, the appearance of our English sairit in a
Sicilian church, his figure designed and executed by Greek
artists, seems incomprehensible till explained by the recollection
that William the Grood married the Princess Joanna of England,
daughter of Henry II. She arrived in Sicily in the year 1177,
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 fa,ther-in-law had assassinated. Altogether
the circumstances seem to me curiously illustrative of the feelings
and manners of that time.
Brit. Mus.
Verona.
Bologna.
San Sal-
vador.
Venice.
San Sil-
vestro.
In the devotional figures, St. Thomas is represented wearing
the chasuble over the black Benedictine habit, and carrying the
crosier and Gospels in his hand. When represented as martyr,
he is without the mitre, and the blood trickles from a wound in
his 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-eflfigies of
St. 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.
There is a beautiful and very rare little print by Vorstermann,
executed in England, and, from the peculiar character, I suppose
from, some ori^nal document not named.
In his church at Verona, dedicated to him in 1316, is placed
the scene of liis martyrdom. I found him standing by the
throned Virgin in a picture by Girolamo da Treviso ; and again
in a picture by Girolamo da Santa Croce, where he is seated on
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. Thomas, used to
ST. THOMAS A BECKET.
109
17
Thomas a Becket. (After a print by Vorstermann.)
hang over the tomb of King Henry IV. at Canterbury, and is
engraved in Carter's " Specimens."
I remember to have seen a very old representation of the
murder of St. Thomas a Eecket, in which the faithful cross-
bearer is standing by the altar, with outstretched arm, as if de-
fending 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, there is a complete series Eng. in
of PToups from the life of Thomas a Becket, beginning: with the gaiandEcci.
-, . r ^ & & Antiq.,Supp.
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 Fretfy fleurs-de-lis ;
110
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Tracy, or, two bars or handlets gales ; Erito, tJtree hears' heads
"muzzled ; Fitzurse, three hears passant, in allusion to his name.
18
JV'uaiKv of Henry 11, (From old stained glass.)
I have seen also a French print of the martyrdom of St. Thomas,
in which the fierce Norman assassins are habited in the full
court costume of Louis XV. ^
With St. Thomas a Becket I conclude this sketch of the most
popular and distinguished of our Anglo-Saxon saints ; those who,
' There is at Cliatsworth a picture by Johan Van Eyck, styled the " Consecration
of Thomas a Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury," an important and beautiful
composition 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 Eastlake, which used to be styled " Tlie Burial of St. Thomas a Becket,"
is, I am persuaded, the burial of St. Hubert.
ST. THOMAS A BECKET. Ill
as subjects of art, have represented, or might properly represent,
in a characteristic manner, the early religions tendencies 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 archangeh Matilda of Scotland, the wife of Henry I.,
popularised St. G-iles. The French princes and nobles connected
with our Norman kings brought over their French patrons, St.
JMartin, St. Maur, St. Maurice, St. Eadegonde, and that
" Sainte Demoiselle Pecheresse," Mary Magdalene. The Cru-
saders 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 pass-word at the siege of Calais, it
was, " Ha, St. Edward ! Ha, St. George ! " 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 in 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
became 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 super-
seded 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.
19
THE REFOKMED BENEDICTINES.
113
St. Benedict. St. Komiialdu.
(From a picture in the National Gallerj\)
CI)t aRefonneir JSenrtictimsi.
For about three centuries after the death of St. Benedict we
find his Order extending in every direction throughout Cliris-
tendom ; so that when Charlemagne inquired whether any otlier
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. Guizot, in his view of the reign of Charlemagne,
gives us a " tableau " of the celebrated men who were in liis
Q
Ages.'
114 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OHDEES.
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 states-
men, 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 Bene-
dictines, and their moral influence over the people, declined.
Dark As far as I can judge, Mr. Maitland has triumphantly 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 had 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 wood-
land 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
imder Romualdo and Gualberto, two very remarkable characters,
who occur very frequently in the early Florentine works of art,
but rarely in any other.
ST. IIOMUALDO. 115
St. Romualdo, FouiNder of the Order of Camaldoli.
Feb. 7, 1027.
The liabit entirely white — white hood and girdle.
EoMUALDO, descended from one of the noblest families of
Kavenna, 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 Eavenna,
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 ApoUinare 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 SQven years in the convent, but was
scandalised by the irregularity of the monks, and the impunity
with which tlie 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 of about thirty
Q 2
116 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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 Eomualdo, in a solitary
glen among the Apennines, near Arezzo ; called, from the family
name of its original owners, the Campo Maldoll; 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 devoted to the perpetual service of G-od, 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 pro-
bable accounts, at the age of seventy. Dante lias placed him in
c. 22. his Paradiso " among the spirits of men contemplative."
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
Graddi, either for the convent at Camaldoli, or, which is more
probable, for that of the " 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. 113. the Order most conspicuously placed. With St. Benedict,
beginning at the top, w^e have St. Ambrose with his music-book,
St. Francis, St. Stephen, St. Paul, St. Catherine, as patroness of
theologians and schoolmen, St. John the Baptist, St. Mark
(liolding his Gospel open at the text ch. xvi. v. 16); and in
company with St. Romualdo we find St. Gregory, St. Philip,
ST. ROMUALDO. 117
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. Eomualdo " is the only subject 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 Dante
that which the patriarch Jacob beheld in his vision, resting on purg. c. v.
the earth, and the top of it reaching to heaven ; and he saw the
brethren of his Order ascending by twos and by tlirees 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 Engr.Musee.
of his monks, is pointing to the vision represented in the back-
ground. It has been a question whether Andrea has not com-
mitted 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 importance in his
time — Lorenzo, called from his profession Don Lorenzo Monaco ;
and another painter named Giovanni, who belonged to the same
convent, "Degii Angeli," already mentioned. Several pictures
from this su.ppressed convent are in the Florence Academy, and
one in which Don Giovanni Monaco assisted Frate Angelico.
In the. Gallery of the Uffizi, is a beautiful Adoration of the
Magi by Don Lorenzo.
Napoleon.
Sacred and
Legend. Art,
i. 80.
Fl. Acad.
No. 15.
118 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
St. John Gtualberto, Founder of the Order of
Vallombrosa.
Ital. San Giovanni Giialberto. Fr. S. Jean Gualbert, or Calbert.
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 GtUALberto appears only in the Florentine pictures,
and I have never seen his beautiful legend represented in a
manner worthy of its picturesque and poetical associations 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
took 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, G^ualberto 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
liim by the remembrance of Christ, who liad suffered on that
ST. JOHN GUALBERTO. 119
day, to spare his life. Gualberto, struck with a sudden com-
punction, 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 feeling, and thinking on
the crime he had been on the point of committing, arrived at
the church of San Miniato, and, entering, 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, lie fancied, that, in gracious reply to his prayer, the
figure bowed its head.^ 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 Bene-
dictine 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 Vallom-
brosa, renowned for its poetical, as well as its religious associa-
tions.
Here he 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 necessary to
introduce some order into his community. He therefore gave
to his disciples the rule of St. Benedict, renewing those strict
' This crucifix is preserved in the Church of the Trinita at Florence, which
belongs to the Vallombrosan Order,
120
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDEKS.
observances wliicli 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 Camaldolesi.
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 Vallombrosa, 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 Sarto's Last
Supper, to which many a pilgrim-
age is still made. The Church of
the Trinita at Florence, so familiar
to those who have dwelt there, also
belongs to the monks of Vallom-
brosa.
St. John Grualberto died in 1073.
The devotional figures of this saint,
which are to be found only in the
pictures painted for the convents of
his Order, exliibit him in the light-
grey habit, and in general holding
a cross in his hand, sometimes also
a crutch. He is generally beardless.
21 St. John Gualberto. (F. Angelico.)
With regard to the subjects from his life, some of them are of
extreme interest in the history of Florentine art. I have always
resTetted that the most beautiful and most affectino- 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 memory by a small
ST. JOHN GUALBERTO. ' 121
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 Vallombrosa, several miserably
bad pictures of this incident, where Gualberto is generally an
armed cavalier on horseback, and the murderer kneels at his fi. santa
Triuita.
stirrup entreating mercy. There may possibly exist better
examples, but I have not met with them. As the Order in-
creased 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 connected with it. The following are the
most important : —
1 . John Grualberto, amongst 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 or Mosceia.
which he had placed, as Superior, one of his disciples named
Rudolfo, he found that this man had expended in the embellish- v.southey's
Poems,
ment of his convent a lar^J^e portion of the sums entrusted to him ; Baiiad of
1 1 • • 1 1 1 . S. Gualberto.
having enriched it with marbles, columns, and other decorations.
Gualberto sternly reproved this vainglory, and prophesied the
impending destruction of the convent, 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 such 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 between two fires in the midst
R
122 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDERS.
Fi. Acad. of a crowd of spectators, St. John Gualberto standing by : — as
in a small picture by Andrea del Sarto.
3. It is related of Grualberto, 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 his sick-bed, Grualberto came to his assistance, and,
holding up the cross which he usually carried in his hand, he
exorcised the tormentor.
Fi. 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 degii Uberti, a celebrated
abbot of Vallombrosa. The same cardinal is introduced into a
Fi. Acad. group of saiuts, " St. Michael, St, John the Baptist, St. John
Grualberto, and the Cardinal St. Bernard ; " — one of the grandest
pictures ever painted by Andrea del Sarto.
A.D. 1514, The most beautiful monument relating to the history of
Grualberto is the series of bas-reliefs by Rovezzano, now in the
Florence Grallery. 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 reckoned among the
ST. JOHN GUALBERTO. 123
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 fi, Gai.
Florence.
It is interesting to find these Vallombrosan hermits not only
in possession of one of the finest libraries in all Italy, until
despoiled by the French of its rarest books and manuscripts ;
but, from a very early period, among the most munificent
patrons of art.^
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. Acad,
the history of the revival of art, and for a long time preserved
in the Trinita 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. saivi.
and the " Quattro Santi." In the groups of saints painted for fi. Aca// y f/ ('//'7A/^f/hr/yJ ///■ Y /7Aj ?//// / f/ .
ST. NOEBERT. 211
The four-cornered cap or beret, worn by the Augustine 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 1 ,200
members of his community ; was created Archbishop of Magde-
burg by the Emperor Loth aire ; and, after a most active and
laborious ministry, died in 1 1 34.
In the Grerman 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 tlie 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,
1 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. Norbert 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 Gai.
head is preaching to a large assemblage of people ; before him Eng. in the
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 expression
V. E 2
212 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
of the beautiful face. The costume and style of this picture are
thoroughly Grerman, and I suppose it was painted before Bernard
V. Orlay had studied in the school of Eaphael.
" St. Norbert 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. 1236, St. Herman was the son of very poor parents, dwelling in
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, "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.
Vienna Gal. The visiou of St. Herman- Josoph 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 the child offering the apple I
do not remember to have seen.
THE SERYI, OR SERVITI. 213
The Servi, or Seryiti.
Every 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 Govtile^
where Andrea del Sarto put forth all his power, — where the
Madonna del Sctcco and the Birth of the Virgin attest what he
could doO and he as a painter, — will feel interested 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 Annunciation 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 mutual 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 brotherhood
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.
214
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDERS.
San Filippo
Beniti, or
Benizzi.
August 23,
1285.
A.D. 1239. These seven Santi Fondcutori del Servi were Buonfiglioli
Monaldi, Griovanni Manetti, Benedetto Antellesi, Grherardo
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 became
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 Flo-
rentine saints are seen as walking in procession, led by John the
Baptist and Santa Eeparata, the patron saints of the city. The
Padri Serviti, in their black habits, form part of this religious
company. At their head walks St. Philip Benozzi, 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
mind for 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 per-
petual sight of bodily suffering, and yet subdued at once and
elevated by such spectacles, have turned to the Church, and
become " 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 tender 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 Annunziata, he was
Acts viii. 29. startled by the words in the epistle of the day, " Draw near,
and join thyself to the cliariot." Aiid going home full of medi-
tation, 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 wlien they found they had among
ST. PHILIP BENOZZI. 215
them a wise and learned Doctor of the University of Padua !
He soon became distinguished as a preacher, and yet more as a
reconciler of differences, having set himself to allay the deadly
liereditary factions which, at that time, distracted all the cities
of Tuscany. He prevailed on the Pope, Alexander IV., to confirm
the Eule of the Order, preached through the chief provinces of
Italy, and at Avignon, Toulouse, Lyons, Paris, gaining every-
where converts to his peculiar adoration for the Virgin, and at
length died General of his Order, in 1285.
His memory has from that time been held in gceat 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 canonisation 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. Vasari gives a most
amusing account of the contrivances of 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, but
in great part what he desired. Andrea painted on one side of
the Cortile 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 Benozzi. 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 Marriage of the Virgin. Of the six frescoes
from the life of San Filippo, Cosimo Koselli painted the first,
where he takes the habit of the Serviti. The five others are by
Florence.
I
216 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEES.
Andrea. 2. S. Filippo, on his way to the court, of the Pope at
Viterbo^ gives 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 brethren 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 original
founders of the Order, of which the best (by Pocetti) represents
the recovery of a child drowned in the Arno, by the prayers of
Amadio. This fresco is celebrated imder the name of the
Anegato or Affogato, " 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. Out of
Florence, St. Philip Benozzi and Ins companions are not con-
spicuous as subjects of art, though the Order became popular
and widely extended In 1484 the Serviti were added to the
Mendicant Orders, and from that time are styled Frati. Father
Paul Sarpi, the Venetian, so famous in the political and literary
history of Italy, was of this Order, and would be properly styled
Fra Paolo.
THE TEINITARIANS.
217
The Trinitarians.
The Order of the Most Holy Trinity, for the Redemption of Captives.
Of the many communities, male and female, which emanated
from the Augustine Eule, 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, " captives
in the land of their enemies."
St. John de Matha was born at Faucon in Provence, in st. Joim de
1154, of noble parents. As usual, we find that his mother, Feb. 8,'i2i3.
whose name was Martha, had educated him in habits of piety,
and consecrated him early to the service of G-od.
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, leaving 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 frigidns, and
F F
218
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEES.
St. FelLx de
Valois.
Nov. 20,
in French Cerfroy ; and here, with another holy and benevolent
man, named Felix de Valois, 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), "his holiness did forthwith
ratify the Order, and, by his command, they assumed the white
habit, having on the breast a Grreek 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 Redeemer ; and the red,
the charity of the Holy Spirit : and he appointed that the
Brotherhood should be called The Order of the Holy Trinity,
Dngdaie, 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 Mathurins, and
the name survives in a street of Paris, near which was one of
their first establishments, but the parent monastery was that of
Cerfroy. 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
solitary 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
had ransomed 120 slaves, the infidels, furious at seeing him
ST. JOHN DE HATHA. 219
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 Grod 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 '5^'J,?,^p^J^"'Xrt
distinguish him from St. Leonard, whose beautiful legend has "• 3^^-
been already related.
Mr. Stirling mentions a picture representing the Virgin ^''^jj^"^^
giving San Juan de Mata a purse of money for the redemption p- 1224.
of captives, painted by a certain Fray 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 contemplative
attitude by the side of a fountain, at which a stag or hind
is drinking. There is a series of ten pictures, by Gromez, re-
presenting 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 probably to be found in
S. Maria della Navicella. Ro^^e-
220
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
St. Eade-
gunda,
August 13,
587.
The first founders of the Trinitarians placed themselves es-
pecially 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., king of France, who after-
wards married her. "And this queen was a virtuous lady,
much devoted to prayer and alms-deeds, often fasting, and
chastening herself with haircloth, which she wore under her
royal apparel. And one day, as she walked alone in the gar-
dens 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 Order of Our Lady of Mercy.
St. Peter
Nolasco.
Jan. 13,1258.
Among the converts of St. John Matha, when he preached the
deliverance of captives in Languedoc, was the son of a nobleman
of that country, whose name was Peter Nolasque, or Nolasco.
In his youth he had served in the crusade against the Albigenses,
ST. PETER NOLASCO. 221
and afterwards became the tutor or governor of tlie young king,
James of Arao'on. Struck with the miseries of war, which he '^.^^ Jayme,
had witnessed at an early age, and by the fate of the Christians ^^'^^o^-
who were kept in captivity by the Moors, he founded, in imita-
tion 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 mili-
tary and chivalrous, and consisted of knights
and gentlemen, with only a few religious to
serve in the choir. The king, Jayme el
Badge of the Order Conquistador, uot Only 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 Nolasco 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 Mu-
seum at Madrid : — 1. St. Peter Nolasco 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
222 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OKDERS.
obtained apparently from the same convent (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, Eaymond Nonnatus, called by the
Spaniards San Ramon, who died in 1240 just after being
created a cardinal by Grregory IX. In consequence of the
peculiar circumstances attending his birth, he obtained the sur-
name 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 in-
flicted on him while in his vocation as a Friar of Mercy he was
redeeming Christian captives among the Moors. Several in-
teresting pictures in the Soult Gallery relate to this saint, and
not to St. Raymond de Pefiaforte, who was quite a different
person, and belonged to the Dominican Order.' One of these
pictures (in the Soult Catalogue, 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 Nolasco
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 his
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 tlie 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 Cata-
logue it is called, by some extraordinary mistake, San CarTnelo.
In the legend of St. Peter Nolasco it is related, that when he
was old and infirm, two angels bore liim in their arms to the
' The History of 8t. Raymond de Penaforte is giAen further on.
ST. PETER NOLASCO.
223
St. Peter Nolasco. (Claude de Mellan.)
foot of the altar in order to receive the sacrament, and then
carried him back to his cell. This is one of the commonest
subjects from the 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 th.e Louvre.^ This sketch is from the
masterpiece of Claude Mellan, a famous French engraver. The
]3rint was published in 1628, in the year in which St. Peter was
canonised.
* Since the year 1848, the pictures composing the Standish Gallery and the
Spanish (rallery of the Louvre, all the private property of King Louis Philippe,
have been packed up, and their present destination is unknown to me. The Soult
Gallery was sold and dispersed on the 19th May, 1852.
224
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Grlnada^' San Pedro Nolasco finding the choir of his convent occupied
by the Virgin and a company of angels (in a fine picture by
Boccanegra), and San Pedro Nolasco correcting the novices of
his Order (by Salcedo), are mentioned by Mr. Stirling.*
A favourite subject in these convents is Our Lady of Mercy,
Nuestra 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.
or Birgitta.
Wulpho
FiUco, or
Fonlqiics.
The last of these branches of the Augustine Order which it is
necessary to mention in connection with art is that of the
Brigittines, 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 ;
at the age of sixteen she married Ulpho, prince of Norica in
Sweden, and was the mother of eight children. She was
singularly devout, and inspired her husband and children with
the same sentiments. After the deatli 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 V., 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
publislied. She died in the odour of sanctity in 1373, was
' The first of these pictures must represent, I think, St. Felix de Valois, of whom,
and not of St. Peter Nolasco, the vision is recorded.
ST. BRIDGET OF SWEDEN.
225
canonised by Boniface IX. in 1391, and has since been regarded oct. 8.
as one of the patron saints of Sweden.
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 fore-
head ; this distinguishes the habit from that of the Benedictines.
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 woodcut 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
Fra Bartolomeo. In the Berlin Gallery are two curious pictures
representing this saint at a writinsf-table, and one of her visions : no. nor,.
n 1 r. ^ Lorenzo di
— called there by mistake St. Catherine of Siena. Pieto.
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 Brent-
ford, which at the Reformation was bestowed on the Duke of
Northumberland, and still continues in possession of his de-
scendants. 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.^
In the Madrid Gallery there is a most beautiful picture by
' Among these, a cope of wonderful beauty, embroidered all over with Scriptural
subjects worked in silk and gold, was in the collection of "Works of Mediaeval Art,"
exhibited in the Adelphi (April 1850).
G G
226 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDEKS.
Griorgione, representing a lovely female saint offering a basket
of roses to the Madonna, and behind her a warrior saint with his
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. G^eorge, with their usual
attributes.
To the Augustines belong the two great Military Orders, the
Knights Templars (1118) and the Knights of St. John of Jeru-
salem, 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
Cbe iMentiuant ©rireri^*
The Franciscans. The Dominicans. The Carmelites.
The three great Mendicant Orders arose almost simultaneously
in the beginning of the thirteenth centur}^
The Carmelites, as we shall see, claim for themselves a very
high antiquity and for their founder, no other than the pro-
phet Elijah himself. These claims the Eoman 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 Domi-
nicans 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, tliat 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 communities 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 disci-
pline, and for purposes yet unthought of.
In the year 1216, Dominick the Spaniard, and Francis of
Assisi, met at Rome. They met and embraced,— each re-
G G 2
228 LEGENDS 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 aspir-
ing, 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 complied : it may
be that he thought to find in Francis an instrument as well as
an ally. Francis, perhaps from an intuitive perception of the
unyielding, dogmatic character of his friend, stood aloof. 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 generation, — 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 fundanaental 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-
dicant 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 tlie
fundamental rule of all the stricter Benedictine communities,
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 aris-
tocratic, rather than popular, communities.
The Franciscans and Dominicans were to have a different
destination. They were the spiritual democrats ; they were to
mingle tuith the people, yet without being of the people : they
THE FRANCISCANS ANT) DOMINICANS. 220
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 indivi-
dually ; 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 Padr% fathers, but Frati, Suori, brothers and sisters or Frari,
of all men : and as the Dominicans had taken the title of Frati Friars.'
Predicatori, preaching brothers ; so Francis, in his humility,
had styled his community Frati Minori^ Freres Mineurs, Minor-
ites, or lesser brothers. In England, from the colour of their
habits, they were distinguished as the Black-Friars, and the
Grey-Friars, names which they have bequeathed to ce,rtain dis-
tricts in London, and which familiar are 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
Benedictines.
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 admission into both communi-
ties of a third class of members (besides the professed friars
and nuns), called the Tertiary Order, or Third Order of Peni-
tence. 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 means, and
230 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
4
never to take up weapon except against the enemies of Christ.
Could such a brotherhood have been rendered universal, and
could Christians have agreed on the question, " 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 ; but, 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
distmction between the two Orders is the habit ; we should
therefore be able, at a glance, to tell a Franciscan from a Do-
minican by its form and colour. This is so essential a prelimi-
nary 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
grey in all the ancient pictures. After the first two centuries
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. 231
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. Domini ck 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. The Franciscans are gene-
rally 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 inter-
preter, not the imitator.
Two celebrated passages in Dante give us the key to this Parruiiso,
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 ;
l)ut, as Dante portrays him, Benigno ai suoi ed ai nemici crudo :
The holy wrestler, gentle to his own,
And to liis enemies terrible.
XI.
232 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
In other words, unscrupulous, inaccessible to pity, and " wise as
the serpent " in carrying out his religious views and purposes.
Francis, on the contrary, was a wild and yet gentle enthusiast,
who fled from the world to espouse the " Lady Poverty ; " a
man ignorant and unlettered, but of a poetical nature, passionate
in all its sympathies ; — in Dante's words, Tutto serafico in ar-
dore. " The one like the cherub in wisdom, the other like the
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
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
humility, and a more absolute self-abnegation. They were
most 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.
233
I have taken liere tlie picturesque and poetical aspect of tlie
two Orders which, of course, is that whicli we are to seek for
in sacred art, where a fat jovial Franciscan would be a sole-
cism : 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, thoughtful, heaven-
ward look of the Friars in the early pictures ; and the common-
place 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
Eolognese schools.
Very interesting and very significant to the thoughtful ob-
server are those pictures which represent in companionship the
44
St. Dominick and St. Fi-ancis.
(From a incture formerlj^ in tlie Spanish 'Gallery of the Lonvre.)
H H
234 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDERS.
Florence.
Pitti Pal.
* chief saints of the two Orders : as where St. Francis and St.
Dorninick 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 re-
lative 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 Men-
dicant Orders had attained the height of their power and popu-
larity, we find the Augustines exceedingly anxious to assert
their own superiority as tlie primitive Order, and to represent
St. Augustine as giving the rule to St. Francis and St. Dominick.
Andrea del Sarto painted a picture, by command of the Augus-
tine 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 wortliies 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. Tn looking at the pictures produced by them
or for them, it will be well and wise and just to recollect, not
merely their connection with the progress of art, hut with the
progress of human culture and social amelioration. Equally
THE FRANCISCANS AND DOMINICANS. 235
beautiful and candid is the testimony borne to their deserts by
Sir James Stephen, in his " Ecclesiastical Sketches."
" 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 enthusiasm
which every where welcomed them, or with the immediate and
visible result of their labours. In an age of oligarchal tyranny,
they were the protectors of the weak ; in an age of ignorance,
the instructors of mankind ; and in an age of profligacy, 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 comhiemorated what
they were — what they acted and suff*ered, during the thirteenth
and fourteenth ; and this in spite of their dingy draperies, and
what South ey pleasantly calls their " bread and water " ex-
pression.
236
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEIIS.
4;')
A Franciscan. (Zurbaran.)
The Franciscans.
In pictures painted for the Franciscans, we expect of course to
find, conspicuous in their grey or brown habits, and girded with
the knotted cord, tlie 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, Eecollets, the first glance round the walls
and altars will probably exhibit to us, singly or grouped, or at-
tending on the Madonna, their eight principal saints, called in
Italian I Cardini dell Ordine Serafico ; — " The Chiefs of tlie
Seraphic Order."
In the first and liighest place St. Francis, as tlie Padre Sera-
fico, patriarcli and founder.
THE FRANCLSCANS. 237
St. Clara, as the Madre Serafica, first Franciscan nun and
foundress of the Povere Donne (Poor Clares).
St. Bonaventura, il Dottore Serafico, the great prelate of the
Order, sometimes as a simple Franciscan friar, sometimes as
cardinal ; often grouped with St. Clara, and with St. Louis.
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. Elizabeth
of Hungary, with her crown on her head, and her lap full of
roses, conspicuous in Grerman art.
Following after these, and of less vmiversal popularity, we
find—
St. Margaret of Cortona, in Italian pictures only.
St. Ives of Bretagne.
St. Eleazar of Sabran.
St. Eosa di Viterbo.
(These four belonged to the Third Order of Penitence.)
St. John Capistrano.
St. Peter Kegalato.
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 altar-piece 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 per-
sonages. 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.
orCavazzoia. The lowcr gToup, painted by Paolo Morando, is much superior
A.D. iry22. to the upper part of the picture. 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 uot at their convent's narrow room,
And hermits are contented with their cells/'
I Gouhl 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 glorifi-
cation, and by what characteristic attributes they are to be
recognised and distinguished from each other.
St. Francis of Assisi.
Led. Sanctus Franciscus, Pater Seraphicus. Ital. San Francesco di Assisi.
Fr. Saint Frangois d' Assise. Oct. 4, 1226.
Habit, grey or dark brown, girded with a hempen cord. Attributes : L
The stigmata ; 2. The skull ; 3. The crucifix ; 4. The lily ; 5. The lamb.
The father of this famous saint, Pietro Bernardone of Assisi,
was a rich merchant, who traded in silk and wool. His mother's
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSIST.
239
name was Pica. He was christened Giovanni ; but liis father, a.d. 1182.
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 bo3dsh years, was remarkable only for his
vanity, prodigality, and love of pleasure. He delighted es-
pecmlly in gay and sumptuous apparel ; but he was also com-
passionate, 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
Grod ; 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 contemplation.
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 Grod. 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 mag-
nificent chamber, and all around were piled up riches and
jewels innumerable, and arms of all kinds marked with the sign
240
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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."
And when Francis awoke, he thought that Providence had
intended him for a great captain, for he knew not yet his true
vocation. Soon afterwards 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 ; and 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 unseemly de-
portment. 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 garments, 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 coarsest stuff, being taken from a
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSIST.
241
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 twenty-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 conversion
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 Umbrian
mountains from Assisi to Gubbio, singing with a loud voice
hymns {cdla Francese, as the old legend expresses it, whatever
that may mean), and praising God for all things; — for the sun
which shone above; for the day and for the night; for his
Qnother the earth, and for his sister the moon ; for the winds
which blew in his 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, 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 " Queen of Angels," in
the valley at the foot of the hill on which Assisi stands. 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
I I
" Acqua
casta e
pretiosa."
" Fuoco gio-
cunda,"
S. Maria
degli Angeli.
242 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
threw it from him, and took one of hempen cord, which being
afterwards adopted by his foUowers, they have been thence
styled by the people Cordeliers.
Having thus prepared himself for his mission in the manner
commanded in the Grospel, 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 Grod
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 hj the marvellous,
and melted by the pathetic, in religion ; and the words of
Faucis 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, Ber-
nardo, 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 I^ady Poverty, to which I shall have to
return. Meantime, to pursue the course of his life, he repaired
to Kome to obtain the sanction of the pope for liis 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 morning 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
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSIST. 243
returned to his humble cell in the Porzioncula \ and built other
cells around for his disciples. He gave to his followers the
name of " Fratl Minori,"' to signify the humility and the sub-
mission 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 pre-
scribed that the churches built for them should be low and small,
and all their buildings of wood ; but, some representing 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 Grod, that I am and no more." He was endowed with
what his biographer calls an extraordinary " gift of tears ; " he
^ The term Porzioncula, which occurs so perpetually in reference to the pictures
of St. Francis, is, I believe, sometimes misunderstood. It means, literally, " a small
portion, share, or allotment." The 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 Poi-zioncula." Whether the title by which it has since
become fiimous 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 t'ae birth of St. Francis, does not seem clear : at all events, this chapel
became early sanctified as the scene of the ecstacies 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 telis us that
in Spain the term Forzioncula 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 cliapel 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 measurement : 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^
I I 2
244 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
wept contmually liis own sins and those of otliers ; and, not
satisfied with praying for the conversion of the heathen, he re-
solved 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 Italy.
Ten years after tlie first institution of his Order, St. Francis
held the first Greneral 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 " 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 enthusi-
afterwards^ asm, that the Cardinal Protector Ugolini, and Francis himself,
were obliged to moderate the austerities and mortifications 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 de-
sired 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 liis 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
Gregory IX.
ST. FKANCIS OF ASSLSI. 245
to Damietta, whence he returned to Italy without having the
satisfaction of either gaining a soul to Christ or shedding his
blood for liis sake. As some amends for this disappointment,
he had the joy of hearing that live of his missionaries^ whom he
had sent to Morocco, had there suffered a cruel martyrdom.
Four years after his 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
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.
" 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
six 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 liad 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. Sekaphic has since been given to St. Francis and
to his Order. He wished to have 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 con-
tinual tears. He hailed the approach of death with rapture ;
or Luveri
246 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OliDERS.
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
walls of Assisi, then called the Golle cV Inferno^ and buried with
the bodies of the malefactors. He dictated a last testament 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 com-
manded 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 rviy soul out of 'prison, when he ceased to breathe. His
A.D. 1-22(3. body was carried to the city of Assisi, and those who bore it
paused on the 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 consecrated
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 Grermans
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 Roman 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. FKANCT8 OF ASSIST.
24:
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 creations of
human genius, down to a lialf-penny 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 discriminate 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 wliich must be considered as strictly devotional.
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 Serafico,
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 Griunta
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 cur-
tain drawn before it, rather, as it
seemed, to preserve than to conceal
46 St. Francis. (Giunta Pisano.)
248
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEES.
it. He is standing, — a long meagre figure — long out of all
proportion,— wearing tlie 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 features 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
hide, 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 Margaritone 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 pecu-
liar 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 poeti-
cal enthusiast.
But even where the true
character of head is neglected
or degraded, we distinguish
St. Francis from all other
saints wearing the same habit, ^^
St. Francis. (Simon Memmi.)
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI. • 249
by the stigmata (or wounds of Christ) in his hands and feet ; and
he is often in the act of opening his tunic and disphiying the
wound in his side : tliese 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. The lamb and the lily, as symbols of meekness and
purity, 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 lie 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 Eug. lu
seraphim, his hands extended in the form of a cross: over his "storiadeiiii
^ Pittura,"
head are three angels, with the symbols of poverty, chastity, and pi- s'^-
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 attribute (48).
2. He stands holding a flaming seraph in his hand, to denote Acad.siena.
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 Ago;
to Religion, who distributes them to various persons, popes,
princes, &c. This picture was painted for the Franciscans of
Bologna.
4. He 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 consoler,
of the broken and contrite spirit. He is usually kneeling in a
K K
tino
Caracc-i.
Bologna Oal.
Louvre,
Sp. Gal.
250
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OKDEES.
48
St. Francis in a glory of Seraphim. (Sassetta, 1444.)
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
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI.
2ol
49
St. Francis. (Cigoli.)
eyes raised to heaven, where there is 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 Zurbaran 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 7}iystical. 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.
K K 2
252
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Vienna Gal.
1. " St. Francis receiving the Stigmata" is the most import-
ant 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 mani-
festation 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 common-
place), 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 iiiay betaken 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 out-
spread in devout ecstasy. Above him hovers the mystic seraph,
sometimes far distant, diminutive, 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 his friend and disciple Leo, who is recorded to
have been present.
The earliest example is the fresco, by Griotto, in the upper
church at Assisi ; 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 dis-
cerned 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 master-piece 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
BADALOCCH
G^'c^^^^^^^^^fe/ .^^^i^^^^^-.
Page
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSIST. 253
fatigue and hunger, begged an alms : the painter, struck with
his appearance, desired him to come into his study and wait
while he sketched him ; but before the sketch was completed the
poor wretch swooned from exhaustion : Cigoli seized the moment,
and transferred to his canvas 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 senti-
ment. 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.
254 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Mnsoiun,
Seville.
In general, St. Francis may be recognised by the stigmata ; he
is rather aged, with more or less beard ; while St. Antony is, or
ought to be, 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
religious 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 crucified
Saviour who bends from his cross of agony; and while St.
Francis, witli outstretched arms, and trampling a globe under
his feet, symbol of the world aud its vanities, looks up with the
most passionate expression of adoration and gratitude, the benign
Vision 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 to
represent the vision in San Damiano.
3. " 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 subject
No. 582, refers to the famous vision in the Porzioncula. There is an
loguei example in the Louvre, wherein St. Joseph and St. Dominick
Madrid Gal. staud by as spectators. There is anotlier 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
ST. FEANCIS OF ASSISI. 255
Ecstasy of St. Francis." This is a beautiful subject often
gracefully treated, but never, at least as far as I know, in a truly
poetical and religious spirit. In general St. Francis is in his
cavern, leaning back with eyes half closed, or sustained by an
angel, while another angel sounds the viol above. Or it is a
choir of angels, singing in a glory ; but this is a less orthodox
conception. A singular version of this subject represents 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 Louvre,
No. 1042.
and his book, seems to have paused in his studies to listen.
5. " St. Francis espouses Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience."
Giotto was the first who treated this subject; whether he de-
rived 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. Bonaventura 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 concluded
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 con-
summate lustre in the man of Grod, 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
256
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OllDEES.
50 St. Francis encounters Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience. (School of Giotto.)
out, and it has been supposed with reason that Giotto was in-
debted to his friend Dante for many particulars in the conception.
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSIST. 257
The va^ilt of the choir is divided into four compartments. 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 at-
tended 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," 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 openetli 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 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
L L
Paradiso,
c. xi.
258
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEES.
seated on a throne, wearing the rich embroidered roLe of a
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 liistorical 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.^
About 1308. 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 saint.
A third series I must mention, — the exquisite sculpture
round the pulpit in the church of Santa Croce, executed by
About 1450. Benedetto da Maiano in the style of Ghiberti's Gates 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
^ 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 earliest on
record : it has utterly perished.
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSIST. 259
in Italy had risen over his remains, and their hospitals and
missions had extended to every part of the then known
world. In the next century, these munificent mendicants
seemed to have thought that they could not better employ
their surplus wealth than by doing honour to that '^ glorioso
jpoverel di Dio '' whose name they bore. As on a former oc-
casion they had summoned Cimabue, they now called to their
aid Griotto, 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 not 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 liis 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.^
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 St. Damiano,
receives the miraculous communication.
5. St. Francis and his father, Pietro Bernardone, renounce each other in
' " 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
Christian Art is admirably written, and the most accurate and detailed I have met
with. I have not only borrowed largely from him, but in many places have given
his 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.
L L 2
260 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEES.
the Piazza of Assisi. Francis throws off his garments, and raceives from
the bishop a cloak wherewith to cover him,
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.
stiriings This was one of the subjects painted by Murillo for the Capuchins at
Spain,!), 835. 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, ^' In the name of the omnipotent God, and by command of his
servant Francis, go out hence, every one of you ! " 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 om* 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 mountain
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
successful attempt to express an action taken from common life. It is that
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSIST. 261
of tlie thirsty man, Lending over the fountain to drink ; known as VAssetato Hist, de
(the thirsty man), and deservedly praised by Vasari and by Lanzi. It is Monumensf
engraved in D'Agincoiirt.
15. St. Francis preaching to the birds. " Drawing nigh to Bevagno, he
came to a certain phice where birds of different kinds were gathered toge-
ther; 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
you with feathers, and giveth you wings to fly with, and a purer air to
breathe, and jn'Iio careth for you, 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 God gave them leave ; when, with his
blessing, and at the sign of the cross, they all flew away. These things saw
his 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, quite similar in treatment, and probably a copy of the
fresco by one of (jiotto's scholars.
And here we muat 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 inter-
esting are those which place him in reLition with the lower
animals. He looked upon all beings as existing by, and through,
God ; and as having a portion of that divine principle by which
he 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
262
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
St. Francis preaching to the Birds,
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 approach
without awe.'' St. Francis, in his gentle and tender enthusiasm,
solved that mystery — at least to himself — by admitting 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. " 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 ! these
ST. FEANCIS OF ASSISI. 263
are the birds to whom the Scripture compares those who are pure
and faithful before God : 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 convent at
Eavacciano, where he 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 ; 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 aspira-
tion. "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 Venetian 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 in-
terrupted them ; therefore St. Francis said to them, ' Be silent
till we also have praised Grod,' and they ceased their song, and
did not resume it till he had given them permission." — " 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, ' 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." — " On another occasion, as
he was sitting with his disciple Leo, he felt himself 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
264
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
reason of his bad voice ; upon wliich Francis himself began to
sing, and when he stopped, the nightingale took up the strain,
and thus they sang alternately, until tlie night was far advanced,
and Francis was obliged to stop, for his voice failed. Then he
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 Thessalian
Shepherd and the Nightingale : but there the nightingale is
vanquished and dies ; here the lesson of humility is given to the
man. Mark the distinction between the classic and the Christian
sentiment !
" A grasshopper was wont to sit and sing on a fig-tree near
the cell of the man of Grod, 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 Grod 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 Grod 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
liis grief, bought the lamb and gave it to him. When he was
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSIST. '265
at Rome, in 1222, lie had with him a pet lamb, which accom-
panied 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 this very lamb, " which
lay in his bosom, and was to him as a daughter."
We now return to Griotto'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 his 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 Gotliic 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 his blood, but instructed them by
his words, ought we not to follow his divine example ? ' And, in his great
humility, he requested not only of his brethren, but also of Clara and her
sisterhood, that they would pray for him 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 theolo-
gians remained silent and astonished in his presence.''
A particular sermon, which he preached at Rome before Honorius III.,
may also be alluded to.
St. Francis, in the rule 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 tlie 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 his
soul into heaven.
M M
266 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Florence.
S, Trinita.
21. The dying friar. Lying at tliat time on liis death-bed, 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.
22. St. Francis being laid upon his bier, the people of Assisi were ad-
mitted to see and kiss the stigmata. One Jerome, sceptical like St. Thomas,
Avould 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, tilled 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 woimded 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 reanimate 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 jailer 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
six subjects 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 him to life.
2. St, Francis renounces the inheritance of his father.
3. He stands before Pope Ilonorius III., to whom he presents the roses
which sprang from his blood.
4. He receives the stigmata.
ST. FRxVNCIS OF ASSIST. 267
5. St, Francis before the Soldan. lie offers to walk tlirougli the fire to
prove the truth of liis mission.
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 his 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 woimded 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 " Early Florentine
Masters."
The series of bas-reliefs by Benedetto da Maiano consists of ^}- santa
five subjects : — •
1. St. Francis receives the stigmata. 2, He receives from Ilonorius 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 veneration 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 reap-
pearance, a sort of avatar of the Spirit of Christ again visiting
this earth ; or as the Second Angel of the Eevelation, to whom
it was given to set a seal on the elect. A memorial of this ex-
travagant enthusiasm still exists in a set of twenty-six small
pictures, painted by Griotto for the friars of the Santa Croce at fi. Acad, and
Florence. It was the custom in the rich convents to have the
presses and chests which contained the sacred vestments and
M M 2
268 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
utensils ornamented with carvings or pictures of religious sub-
jects. These twenty-six pictures adorned the doors of the
presses in the sacristy of the church of Santa Croce, and present
the parallel (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
Louvre. robo to examiuo the traces of the stigmata ; attendants 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 extraordinary and crowded composi-
tion, is engraved in the ^^ Dusseldorf Grallery."^
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, broke his
fetters, opened the doors of his dungeon, and set him free.
Atcagii. There is a picture of this subject by Griovanni Santi, the father
Capellfi . .
Tiranni. of Eapliaol. St. Pctor, the patron saint of prisoners, stands near
with his keys ; an angel, attending on St. Francis, is supposed
to be the portrait of Kaphael when a boy. I saw a drawing from
this fresco at Alton Towers, differing in some respects from the
minute description given by Passavant.
I am far from supposing that we have exhausted the variety
of illustration connected with the pictured life of St. Francis, but
' This is a mere legend. The tomb in the hollow rock was opened Dee. 26, 1818,
by order of Pius VII., when the skeleton was found recumbent and entire ; it was
left untouched, and the tomb reverently closed Jan. 1, 1819.
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSIST. 269
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 mind while writing the foregoing pages, and
which will, I trust, suggest themselves 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 iiner 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 under-
stood 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 OlIDEES.
52
St. Clara. (Perugino.)
St. Clara.
Lat. Sancta Clara. Ital. Santa Chiara. Fr. Sainte Claire.
August 11, 1253.
" Clara claris prseclara meritis magnse in coelo claritate gloriae ac in terra
miraculorimi sublimium clare claret."
St. Clara, from some inevitable association of ideas, always
comes before us as the very ideal of a " Grrey Sister," " sedate
and sweet ; " or of a beautiful saintly abbess, " sober, steadfast,
and demure ; " and her fame and popularity as a patroness has
rendered her musical and significant name popular from one end
ST. CLARA. 271
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 burnt 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 ]ier 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 mth which to join the procession, she alone
remained kneehng 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 Porzioncula, where
St. 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 golden
272 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
tresses, and he threw over her his own penitential habit, and she
became his daughter and disciple. " Dispose of me ! " she said,
kneeling at his feet. " I am yours ; for, having consecrated my
will to Grod, 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 ; but
she clung to the altar, calling on Grod 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 sandaled; 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 hu-
mility 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 Saracens, to
whom he had granted the fortress of Nocera, since called, from
them, Nocera-dei-Mori ; and they sallied from this place of
ST. CLARA. 273
strength, and plundered the towns and villages of the valley of
Spoleto, " 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 convent 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 liawk has stooped upon their dovecot. But
Clara, then suffering from a grievous malady, and long bed-
ridden, 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 sister-
hood, began to sing in a clear voice, '' Thou hast rebuked the
heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou Juist put out their
name for ever and ever I " 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 rule of her Order, and before her death she had
the satisfaction of seeing it received throughout Christendom,
while many princesses and ladies of the noblest houses had
assumed the penitential cord of the Third Order of her com-
munity.
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 "a crown of re-
joicing."
Her sister Agnes, who had been sent to Florence as Superior
of a convent there, came to attend her on her death-bed, and
succeeded her as second Abbess.
After the death of St. Clara, the sisterhood, for greater safety,
removed from San Damiano to San Giorgio, within the walls of
Assisi, and carried with them her sacred remains. This cluu'ch,
now Santa Chiara di Assisi, has become the chief chiu'ch of her
Order.
N N
274 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 mortification,
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 supposing
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
my disciple."
" Madam," said an English traveller to the abbess of a foreign
convent, " you are here, not from the love of virtue, but from
the fear of vice." Is not this principle the basis of all 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 Grod's earth and Grod's heaven are
ST. CLARA.
275
necessarily opposed to each other ? A woman thus timid in
conscience, thus unstable in faith, untaught to reason, with feel-
ings suppressed, rather than controlled and regulated, — whither
shall she carry her perplexed life ? — where lay down the bur-
den of her responsibility ? May she not be forgiven, if, like
Clara, she yield up her responsibility to her Maker into other
hands, and ''- 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.
I
When she bears the palm (as? in this effigy, after the fine
intarsiatura in the choir of San Francesco di Assisi) it is not as
N N "2
276
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEES.
mo,
Vienna Gf
martyr. It is the palm of victory over suffering, persecution,
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 8t.
Francis, which stamp her identity at
once.
In devotional pictures she is gene-
rally young, beautiful, and with a pe-
culiar expression of soft resignation.
She wears the habit of her Order, the
grey tunic, the knotted girdle, and the
black veil. Her 'pro'per attribute is the
Pix containing the Host, in allusion to
the miraculous dispersion of the Sara-
cens ; the figure after Perugino (51),
sketched in the little lonely church
called San Cosimato, 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 Iladre Serafica, foundress and superior of the first
community of Franciscan nuns, she stands with her book and
her 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.
St. Clara.
(Portrait at Assisi.)
ST. CLARA 277
Pictures from her 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. Aguado oai.
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 Lncio
Bologna Grallery, in which the Saracens, terrible bearded bar-
barians, 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 altar; 2. she flies
278 LEGENDS OP THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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 com-
partments : 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 en-
gravings exist of these lovely figures.
The church, as I remember, had a cold, forsaken, melancholy
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, wherever the eye
could penetrate, with groups from sacred story; with endless
variety of ornament — with colour, with life, with beauty !
St. Antony of Padua.
Lot. Sanctiis Antonius Thaumaturgus. Ital. Sant' Antonio di Padova^ II
Santo. Sp. San Antonio de Padua, Sol brillante de la Iglesia, Lustre
de la Religion Serafica, Gloria de Portugal, Honor de Espaiia, 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 ; aflame of fire in his hand, or in his
breast. The infant Christ in his arms, or on his book. A mule kneeling.
Even in the lifetime of St. Francis, arose one who imbibed
his spirit and carried out his views, and whose popularity in
ST. ANTONY OF PADUA. 279
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 Grod had dis-
posed 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 com-
munity, encouraged him to devote himself to his studies. Antony
did so, and taught divinity with great distinction in the uni-
versities of Bologna, Toulouse, Paris, and Padua ; but at length
he forsook 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 he came, preached peace, but, to use his own words,
it '* was the peace of justice, and the peace of liberty." The
280 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
generous boldness with wliicli he rebuked the insane cruelties of
Eccellino, seeking him in his own palace to denounce him as
"intolerable before Grod 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 imagi-
nation, and a tender heart, 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 lie dwelt on often
witli 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 : —
" St. Antony being come to the city of Eimini, 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, ' Hear me, ye fishes, for these
unbelievers 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 miglit 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, " 11 Santo e
morto ! il Santo e rnorto I " whence it has been the custom in
ST. ANTONY OF PADUA. 281
Padua, from that time even to this day, to style St. Antony
II Santo, without adding his name.
Within a year after his death he was canonised by Pope
Grregory IX., and the citizens of Padua decreed that a churcli
should be erected to him at the public expense. Niccola Pisano
planned and commenced this magnificent edifice in 1237, but it
was not brought to its present form for two centuries later.
" The exterior, with its extraordinary spires and its eight v. Murray's
. Handbook.
domes, has somewhat the appearance of a mosque. VV ithm, the
lofty polygonal apsis with its elongated pointed arches, and the
rich Grothic 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 Griovanni 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 de-
votion.
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 his 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 Academy of Siena. A very p.28o.
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 distinguish him from St. Francis.
o o
282
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
S. Pptronio.
Padua.
y. Antonio.
It is related that on one occasion, as
lie was expounding to his hearers the
mystery of tlie 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, generally find a
place in every Franciscan church or con-
vent. 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-rilievos 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 attributed 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 : —
St. Antonj'.
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
particular 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 ; but
^^
ST. ANTONY OF PADUA 283
meeting St. Antony, he was induced to return honie^ where he found his
wife still breathing. The saint restored her by his prayers, which had such
an effect upon the husband, ^^ che di lupo cN egli era, divenisse un agnello.''''
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 public streets, and his body was buried in a
garden belonging to Martin BuUone, 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.
'' 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 pimishment. "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 Lombardi is very dramatic. The fresco is sup-
posed to be by Campagnola, and is also extremely expressive ; the astonished
physician and his assistants are in the act of anatomising the dead usurer.
There is also an elaborate bas-relief in bronze by Donatello.
o o 2
284
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Fi. Acad. There is a little picture by Pesellino of this subject, wbich is far superior
to any of the above examples. It originally formed part of the predella of
an altar-piece 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. Rogers has the original drawing.
A Miracle of £t. Antony of Padua. (Pesellino.)
Dresden Gal.
771.
7. There was a certain youth of Padua named Leonardo, who came to
make confession to the saint, 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 oft"! " 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 limb.
The bas-relief is by Tullio Lombardi. The fresco by Titian. In both
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
ST. ANTONY OF PADUA. 285
i
in my hand be not broken ; " and lie at the same time flung it from the
balcony where he stood, upon the marble pavement below. The slab of
marble was broken by the collision j the glass remained uninjured; — a mi-
racle 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 Saut' Antonio.
The bas-relief is by Gian-Maria di Padova. The fresco by one of Titian's
scholars.
9. A nobleman of Ferrara, the husband of a beautiful and virtuous wife,
had been induced to believe her unfaithful, and treated her with extreme
harshness. The lady brought forth a son, which the husband refused to
consider as his own otlspring, 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, '' Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings/' &c.
The bas-relief is by Antonio Lombardi. The fresco, by far the iDest of
all those in the Scuola, 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 fcnmd 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 Roman Catholic Church. St. Antony, who was about to
carry the Host in procession, encountered the mule of Bovidilla, 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 fidl 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 Dyck for the Recollets at Malines.
11. St. Antony rebukes the tyrant Eccellino, who humbles himself before
him. The fresco is in the Scuola, and this is the only example I have seen
of an incident which is worth all the miracles together.
12. Luca Belludi, after the death of St. Antony, while weeping before the
altar, and deploring the sufferings of Padua under the horrible tyranny of
286
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Legend. Art,
i. 221.
Lord
Lindsay.
Eccellino, is comforted by a vision of the saint; who foretells the death of the
tyrant. This subject is in the Scuola. The chapel in which this revelation
is said to have occurred is the chapel of St. Philip and St. James, called
also the Capella Belludi, and celebrated for the ancient 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 an ancient
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 Cardinal Bonaventura, and Jacopo di
Carrara^ prince of Padua, the tongue of the saint was found entire. This
scene has been painted in fresco by Contarini.
Artists of
Spain, p. 841.
Perhaps tlie finest work ever executed in honour of St.
Antony of Padua is the great picture by Murillo in the
Cathedral at Seville. " Kneeling near a table, the shaven
brown-frocked 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 approach-
ing 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." The figures are larger
than life.
Alton
Towers.
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 possession
of Mr. Munro ; another, very beautiful, in the Berlin Gallery.
In the collection of Lord Shrewsbury there is a remarkable
picture of this subject attributed t(^ that extraordinary man
ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.
287
Alonzo Cano. St. Antony sustains in his arms the Infant
Christ, whom the Virgin, above, appears to have just relin-
quished, and holds her veil extended as if to resume her divine
Child. The head of Antony is rather vulgar, but most ex-
pressive ; 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 considered as a religious
picture.
II
57 St. Antony of Padua with the Infant Christ. (L. Caracci.;
288
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OUDERS.
St. Bonaventura. (Raphael.)
St. Bonaventura.
The Seraphic 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 regarded
as one of the great luminaries of the Eoman 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 wliich his life was 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, " 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 he made in his studies, she taught
him that all his powers, all his acquirements, and all his facul-
ties of head and heart, were absolutely dedicated to the Divine
ST. BONAVENTURA. ' 289
service. In 1243, at the age of twenty-two, he 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 tlie
greatest teachers and writers in the Church. He was remark-
able at the same time for the practice of all the virtues enjoined
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 Greneral 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, Grregory 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 v. woodcnt
hat on the bough of a tree till he could take it in his hands.
Hence, in pictures of him, the cardinal's hat 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 .
Grreek 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 under-
went 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
p p
290
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
age of fifty-three, and was buried at Lyons in the church of the
Franciscans ; but during the wars of the League tlie Huguenots
plundered his shrine and threw his ashes into the river Saone.
He was canonised by Sixtus IV. (himself a Franciscan) in the
year 1462.
In devotional pictures painted for the Franciscans, Bonaven-
tura 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.^ He is sometimes represented
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 pix 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 ia his hand, significant of his great learning. Wlien
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
Coll. of Lord 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.
' The figure of one of the Doctors of the Church in the " Cappella di S. Lorenzo,"
in the Vatican, painted by Angelico for Nicholas V.,— a beautiful, simple, majestic
figure,. with an aged bald head and very long parted beard, 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 decoration
prevalent from the thirteenth to the sixteentli century. The figure is certainly
inscribed St. Bonaventura, 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 places 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 Arundel Society ; and I
suggest these considerations because it seems of some consequence that the proper
iraditional type of a saint so important as Bonaventura should not be liable to
misconception.
Ward.
ST. BEENAIIDTNO OF SIENA. 291
According to a Spanish legend, St. Bonaventura, after his
death, returned to the earth for three days to complete his great
work, the Life of St. Francis. He is thus represented in a very
extraordinary picture attributed to Murillo ; he is seated in a Lou\Te.
chair, wearing his doctor's cap and gown, with a pen in his
hand, and a most ghastly, lifeless expression of countenance.
Mr. Stirling doubts the authenticity of tins 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. Bernaedino of Siena, Founder of the
Observants.
May 20, 1444.
This saint was born at Massa, a little to^vn in the Sienese
territory, in 1380. He was of the noble family of Albizeschi ;
and, after his mother's death, was educated by his aunt, Diana
degii Albizeschi, to whom he appears to have owed the develop-
ment of his talents, as well as that extreme purity of mind
and manners 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 conversation of his companions, — as
the mere appearance of the youthful Cato overawed the profli-
gate Eomans 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 : during this time it
P P 2
292 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDEES.
pleased God to preserve him from the contagion, but his fatignes
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 ;
lie 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 restitution ; 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 ; gamblers 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 tranquillised, at least for a time. Above all, he
set himself to heal, as far as he could, the mutual fury of the
Guelphs and Ghibelines, 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 his
sermons against the oppressions whicli he exercised. , The duke
threatened him ; and, finding this in vain, lie 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 reformed Order of Franciscans,
ST. BERNARDINO OF SIENA.
293
styled in Italy Osservmiti, in France Peres ou Freres de f Obser-
vance, 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 ca-
nonised 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 Sun 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 re-
presented to him that, in consequence of
the reformation of manners, gambling
had gone out of fashion, and he was re-
duced to beggary. The saint desired
him to exercise his ingenuity in carving
tablets of the same kind as that which he
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, who by the manu-
59
St. Bernardino.
294
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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 J. |^. ^. encircled with rays,
in his hand.
Another attribute is the Monte-di-Pieta, 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 Pieta. St.
Bernardino is said to have
be^n the founder of the chari-
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 commencement were
purely disinterested and be-
neficial. In every city which
he visited as a preacher, he
founded a Monte-di-Pleta ;
and before his death, these ~
institutions had spread all
over Italy and through a great
part of France-^ 60
St. Bernardino.
' Altliougli tlie figures holding the Monte-di-Fieta 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 Fcltri," a celebrated preacher at the end of the fifteenth century. Mention
is made of his preaching against the Jews and usurers, on the misei'ies of the poor,
and on the necessity of having a Monte-di-Pieta 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 ; and it appears that the
Franciscan friars, especially the two Bernardinos, and a certain Fra Marco di
Eavenna (commemorated in a very rare and curious print called " The Seven Works
of Mercy," v. Bartsch, xiii. p, 88), were instrumental in remedying these evils.
ST. BERNARDINO OF SIENA.
295
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 Griovanni. He is always beardless ; his Acad, siena.
figure tall, 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 della Eobbia, a
colossal figure in high relief
on the facade of the cha-
pel of the Confratevnita di
San Bernardino at Perugia.
Around him is a glory of
eight angels, who are sound-
ing his praise on various in-
struments of music ; and the
rest of the fapade is covered
with elaborate small bas-
^^^ 11 1 1 /l1lli\\\\\ A^MIIIIIIIII ^C^ reliefs from his life and mi-
^-Z^ H 1 1 l\\n\\^m^mml «I^^ racles.
In the separate subjects
from his life which are to
be met with in the Francis-
'^'"'*-^ ^^\;_( j :^^77^^f^^^^;^^- g^ ^^^^^^ can churches, he is repre-
sented preaching to a nu-
byA.doiiaRobbia.) morous audieuco, 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 Eossini's work.
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.
" StoriadoUa
Pittura."
296
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDERS.
The best series of pictures from his life is in his chapel in the
Ara-Celi at Eome, painted by Bernardino Pinturicchio, who has
put forth his best powers to do honour to his patron saint : —
1. 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 ora-
tor. 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 re-
collect to have seen with interest in the sacristy of San Fran-
cesco at Perugia; but had not time to make a note of the
separate subjects, eight in number.
ModenaGai. There is a picture by Ludovico Caracci, of St. Bernardino,
Feisina' " cJie rtiostva ai Soldati la Citta cli Carpi, chi miracolosariiente
PittricG *'
non la viddero.'^ I have not found this legend in any life of
St. Bernardino to which I have had access.
ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. 297
St. Elizabeth of Hungary,
LANDGRAVINE OF THURINGIA.
Lat. Sancta Elisabetha Mater Pauperum. Itcil. Santa Elisabeta di Un-
glieria. Ir. Madame Saincte Elisabeth. La cliere Sainte Elisabeth.
Sj). Santa Isabel. Gcr. Die Heilige Elizabeth von Ungarn (or, von
Hessen). Die liebe Fran Elizabeth. Nov. 19, 1231.
Ave g-emma speciosa !
Mulierum sydiis, rosa !
Ex regali stirpe nata,
Nunc in coelis coronata j
Mundo licet viro data
Christo tamen desponsata.
Utriusque sponsalia,
Simul servans illibata ;
Saram sequens fide pia,
Et Eebeccam prudentia;
O dilecta ! beata !
Nostra esto advocata,
Elisabeth egregia !
{From an old German Breviary, '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 mar-
tyrs ? — 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 outwardly with striking
contrasts and vicissitudes of fortune, was yet more fidl — filled
Q Q
298 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
even to overflowing — with unseen, untold joys and sorrows ;
with pangs and struggles, such as then haunted the unreasoning-
minds of women, distracted between tlieir earthly duties and
affections, and their heavenward aspirations, — as if this world
were not Grod'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 personification 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-sacri-
fice ; others, with a sad heart-moving pity, as bewildered in her
conscience and mistaken in her faith : — but none, I think, what-
ever be their, opinions, can read the chronicle of her life without
emotion.'
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
' The authorities followed in the life of St. Elizabeth are Count Montalembert's
Histoire de S. Elisabeth de Hongrie, Duchesse de Thuringe, third edition, and the
notes to Mr. Kingsley's beautiful drama, " The Sainfs Tragedy.'' 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. 299
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 Thuringia by the poets
and wise m(3n who visited his court, he was filled with wonder,
and exclaimed, " Would to Grod that this fair child might become
the wife of my son I " and thereupon he resolved to send an em-
bassy to the King of Hungary, to ask the young princess in
marriage for his son. Prince Louis. He selected as his messen-
gers 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, bearing rich presents. They
were hospitably and favourably received by the King of Hun-
gary and his queen Grertrude, 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 workmanship ; and silken robes curiously em-
broidered with gold, and twelve noble maidens to attend upon
lier. 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 Con-
stantinople and the East, the like of whicli had never before been
seen in Western Grermany ; and it is recorded that, whereas the
ambassadors had set off on their mission with two baggage-
wagons, they returned with thirteen.
When the Princess Elizabeth arrived at the castle of the
Wartburg at Eisenach, she was received with infinite rejoicings,
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, kniglits, 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
up together, and every day they loved eacli other more and more.
Q Q 2
300 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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
Agnes, and he very soon perceived that his Elizabeth was quite
unlike all the other children in the court, and exercised over
them some extraordinary ascendency : 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, disliked 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 on their arms. On
entering the church they knelt down before the crucifix ; Eliza-
beth, on raising her eyes to the image of the dying Saviour, was
struck with an irresistible reverence, and instinctively took off
ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. 301
her golden crowQ, 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. Eliza-
beth, 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 I " Then, cover-
ing her face with her long mantle, she held her peace, and con-
tinued to pray fervently. Her mother and sister, seeing the
eyes of the people fixed on them, were obliged also to take off
their crowns and 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." 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 companions, and in teaching them and
caressing them she found comfort.
All this time, Louis was observing her and watching her de-
portment 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 contumely of
others he would secretly comfort her with kindest words, and
dry up her tears. And wdien he returned home after an absence,
he was accustomed to bring her some little gift which he had
purchased for lier, either a rosary of coral, or a little silver
crucifix, or a chain, or a golden pin, or a purse, or a knife. And
302 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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 him, 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
lier as his own child. A few days afterwards, as he attended
the landgrave to the chase, he took the opportunity to ask him
what were his intentions with regard to the Lady Elizabeth ;
" For," said he, " 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 his feet, and, throwing his hand towards the lofty
Inselberg which rose before them, " Seest thou," he said, " 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 ! and I will have my
Elizabeth ! " (" Ich will mein Elsbeth haben ! ") Then Wal-
ther, right joyful, said, "My sovereign lord, may I tell her
this ? " and Louis answered, '' Yea, 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. " Grive her this,"
he added, " as a pledge of my truth."
ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. 303
WTien they returned, Walther hastened to seek Elizaheth,
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, but
most of all for that He had kept true and tender towards her
the heart of her betrothed husband ; and, having done this, she
put the mirror in her bosom, next to her heart.
About a year afterwards, their marriage was formally solem-
nised 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, " 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 vdth 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 inno-
cent 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 lier ladies to scourge her.
304 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. Meantime
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 Grod certain imposts
which were laid on the people for the express purpose of fur-
nishing 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 distinguish between
the permitted meats and drinks and those interdicted by her
confessor, Elizabeth would sit at her own royal banquets ab-
stinent 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 di^/ine 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 circum-
stances which occurred during their married 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 HUNGAIIY. 305
princes, he desired of Elizabeth that she would appear in the
presence of his guests as became 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 sumptu*ously attired, she was about to cross one of the
courts of the castle which led to the apartment 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, con-
fessed 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," said she, '^ 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 ap-
peared 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. " And who," says
R R
306 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
the legend, " can donbt 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 found a sick child cast out 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 her own bed. Her
husband was then absent, but shortly afterwards 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 ! — 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 features of the new-born in Bethlehem ;
and while they stood amazed, the vision smiled, and vanished
from their sight."
Sacred and (We liavo here the beautiful legendary parable, so often re-
i.;ioy;ii.3ai, peatod lu tlio Hves of the saints; for example, in those of St.
Gregory, St. Martin, St. Julian, and others ; and which doubt-
Matt. XXV. less originated either in the words of our Saviour, — " Inasmuch
as ye have done it to the least of these my brethren, ye have
Heb. xiii. 2. done it unto me ; " or in the text of St. Paul, — " Be not forget-
ful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained
angels unawares.")
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,
ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. 307
her husband, returning from the chase, met her bending under
the weiglit of her charitable burden, " What dost thou here,
my Elizabeth ? " he said ; " let us see what thou 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 tlie
mountain slowly, with his head declined, and pondering these
tilings in his heart. ^
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 Grermany ; but
the country of Thuringia suffered more than any other. Eliza-
beth distributed to the poor all the corn in the royal granaries.
Every day a certain quantity of bread was baked, and she her-
self 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
' There are several different versions of this beautiful and celebrated legend.
.Sometimes the incident occurs before her marriage, and then it is 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 Montalembert, 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 " Be la grande charite de la cherc
Sainte EUsuhcth, d dc son amour 'pour la paiivreic.'^ Third edition, p. 50.
R R 2
308 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Elizabeth 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 complained 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 ex-
hausted 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, repeat-
ing " 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, Wartburg, 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 II., having assumed the
cross, summoned Louis 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
ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. 309
of Hildesheim. Eeturning thence to his castle of 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 playfully un-
buckled 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 recovering her
senses she wept much, and said, " Oh my brother ! if it be not
against God's will, stay with me ! " And he answered with
tears, " 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 embracings ; 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 land-
grave 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.
310 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Louis had two brothers, Henry and Conrad. The eldest of
these, Henry, 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 born 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 her-
self by spinning wool, in which she excelled.
In the mean time the knights returned to Thuringia, bearing
with them the remains of Louis ; and having heard by the way
of the cruelty and injustice with wliich 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 re-
tired 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
were 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
her bread tlirou<>h the world : but this also Conrad refused to
ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGATiY. '^^^
allow. She resolved, therefore, as she might not beg, to labour
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 I 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 friend, Walther de Varila, 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 Varila said no 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 Virgin
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 word " 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, " Regnum mundi contempsV^ 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
♦^12 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
amid miracles and lamentations, and four years after her death
she was canonised by Grregory 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 Grermany.
The church is one of the finest specimens of pure early Grothic,
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 remaias 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
preserve'd, 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 his translation of the Bible ; here,
as he himself relates, he contended bodily with the demons who
came 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 by-path 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 Elizabeth !
Her memory still 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 cemetery
ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. 313
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 Grerman 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 sometimes the habit and cord of a Fran-
ciscan 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 one 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 BasieMu&ee.
crown, long golden hair flowing over her robe of crimson and
ermine.
4. She stands, holding up with both hands the folds of her p. Angeiico.
robe, filled with roses.
5. A most beautiful figure in a Coronation of the Virgin ; s. Botticeiu.
s s
314
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Paolo
Morando.
Verona. S.
Bernardino.
TTolboin.
Mnninh Gal.
BoisKev^e
Gal.
she is looking up with a soft devout expression, lier 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 altar-piece of the
glorified Madonna. I give a
sliglit 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.*
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 figiira, con aria ridente e volto grazioso, e
eon il grembo pieno di rose ; e pare che gioisca veggendo per miracolo di Deo che
il pane, che ella stessa, gran signora, portaA^a ai poveri, fosse convertito in rose, in
segno che era accetta a Dio quelhi sua iimile caritii" — Vasari, i. 659. Fl. edit.
The other saints in this fine picture are St. Francis, St. Antony of Padua, St. Louis
King, St. Louis of Toulouse, St. Bonaventura. St. Ives of Bretagne, and St. Eleazar
of Sabran.
St. Elizabeth. (Paolo Morando.)
ST. ELIZABETH OF IIU.NGxVRY. 315
Cathedral at Marbourg. They are carved in wood, in very high
relief, and in the pnre Grerman 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 atten-
dants surround her bed ; the most conspicuous and authoritative
of these, which I presume to represent her confessor, 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 exal-
tation 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 of
of her hospital. In the centre stands ^ the King's daughter of Hungary,'
arrayed in the dark robe and white head-gear of a nun, surmomited 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 Tihoso. 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 j to her left hand there is
a second boy, likewise a tinoso, removing with great caution, and a wry
face, the plaster 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 colouring,
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
S S 2
Spain, p.862.
316 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
details. But this, while it is justified by the legend, also heightens the
moral effect of the picture. The disgust felt by the spectator is evidently
shared by the attendant ladies ; yet the high-born dame continues her self-
imposed task, her pale and pensive countenance betraying no inward re-
pugnance, 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 architectural taste,"
Among the pictures of this " cliere Sainte 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
Erlinde 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 ! —
gur ^tante !od)en unb fur SSettler fparen/
^irb bort oerlangt.
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 5 —
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 scorn'd 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.
317
The sick and dying when she strove to cheer,
Through the long- room the cry rose — ' Here ! oh, here !
With tender care 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 kiss'd, her name was blest !
Deep 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 jewell'd 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 ! ^
Erlinde," ersten Abtheilung, p. 25.
^ie t)eirge grau oerfpottc ntc^t !
Set) fet)e nod^ {f)r mtlbe§ angeftd)t/
SSenn fie ben ^fah, ber fid) oon SSartburg winbet/
3um v^ofpitale ftieg/ ba^ fie gegrunbet.
SSenn miv ooU Ungebulb bk diode rappten^
SSalb t){eri)in unb haib bortt)in tappten,
(Srf)ien fie beg rau^en SGSegeS tro^ ju fd)n?eben/
Unb it)ie in einem aSienenl)aus/
SSegann eg in fpitat su teben.
S)ie franfen Jl'inber ftolperten heUht i)eraug.
"Km gen|!er geigten fid) bk alten ®d)mad)en.
Sie ^ruppelein/ bk anb're oft heladjen
Sie bloben
318 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
July 8, 1336. St. ELIZABETH OF PORTUGAL, another queenly saint who
wears the Franciscan habit, was the grand-niece of St. Elizabeth
of Hungary, and daughter of Peter III. king of Aragon. She
was married young to Dionysius, king of Portugal, a wise, just,
and fortunate prince as regarded his people ; faithless, 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 canon-
ised 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 Grerman 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
Artists of i)art of the picture. Mr. Stirling mentions " a fine composition
from her exemplary life," by Carreiio de Miranda, but not the
Spain, p. 990.
®te ^ornigen/ mit unnenbaren ^u(b/
@rmat)nte fie gu freunblid)er ©ebulb.
Sag wax. ein ^anb!uffen/ ©egnen/ 2)anfen.
Unb iroUt' aud) etne 5)}lQgb fid) uberwinben/
©od) lief con {()r fein ^ranfen fid) oerbinben.
®g mu^f im Snnern mi^ erfaffen^
Sief fold)e grommigfeit
SOlir woUt' eg feine 9ftui)e laffen/
SBenn fie im groben §,lti\)
SSei ftolg gepu^en grauen ftanb.
£)ft warf x6) ab 'i>a^ ^runf gewanb.
5ur le|ten v^utte bin \6) I)ingeeilt/
SGSenn fie in Sigenad) t)ent)eilt '■,
Sen fleinen @ci)at§ trieb eg mid), t)in5ugeben/
SSie fie/ ben @d)n)ad)en Sroft §u bringen 5
Sod^ nimmer woUt' eg mir gelingen
Sem ^errn mein ganjeg Si)un unb Siz))t\\
©ntfagenb/ alg ein £)pfeu barjubringen.
For the translation of this beautiful and animated picture I am indebted to
the daughter of Barry Cornwall.
ST. LOUIS OF FRANCE. 319
scene or sulyect chosen. Pictures of this sainted queen, so very
rarely met with, ought to excite some interest and attention.
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 peace-maker 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 j:he assertion of her own rights ; this procured her in Spain
the charming title of Sant^ Isabel de Paz ; — last, and not least,
she is the original and historical heroine of Schiller's " Fridolin,'
though in the ballad and in Eetzsch's designs the scene is trans-
ferred to Grermany, and Elizabeth becomes "Die Grafin von
Savern." I have never met with this beautiful well-known
legend with reference to Elizabeth queen of Portugal, to whom
it rightfully belongs. It is mentioned by all her biographers,
not even excepting the " Biographie Universelle.''' ^
St. Louis of France.
Lat. Sanctiis Ludovicus Ilex. Ital. San Luigi, Re 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 histories 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
Franciscans claim St. Louis, and commemorate him in their
' In the French catalogue of the Royal Gallery at Naples, there is a picture with
this title: — " Frangois Albano. — -Miracle de S. Rose. Un homme assiste a I'oflEiee
divin dans une chapelle dediee a S. Rose, pendant que son ennemi court vers
Ten droit ou il avait place ses braves, pour voir si sa vengeance etait accomplie ;
mais ceux-ci s'etant mepris le brulent dans le meme four qu'ils avaient prepare
pour le devot," 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.
320
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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 born at Poissy in 1215. His father, Louis
VIIL, 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 discretion,
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, " Fair youth,
thou hadst a blessed mother ; where did she kiss thee ? " The
youth, blushing, replied by placing his finger on his forehead
between his eyes. Whereupon the queen reverently pressed
her lips to that spot, and, looking up to heaven, breathed a
" Sancta Elisabeth, Patrona nostra dulcissima, orapro nobis /"
This incident appears to me very graceful and picturesque
in itself, and, besides its connection with the history of " la chere
Sainte Elisabeth," it exhibits the character and turn of mind of
her who formed the character of St. Louis.
ST. LOUIS OF FRANCE. 321
I have a great admiration for St. Louis, and never could look
on the effigies which 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 religious 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 wlio
sneered at his fanaticism. Voltaire, not much given to eulo-
gising kings, and still less saints, sums up his character by
saying, " II n'est guere donne a I'homme de pousser la vertu
plus loin ! " G-ibbon 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," whicli 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 vindication 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 Voltaire : " II n'est guere donne a I'homme
de pousser la vertu plus loin ! "
The strongest contrast that coukl 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 tlie other. True, both were superstitious ; but
what a difference l)etween the superstition of Louis XL on liis
T T
322 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
knees before " 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 for several centuries had been
preserved at Constantinople, and had been pledged to the Vene-
tians 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 bareheaded; 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 Sainte
Chapdle, 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, " La Lumiere de I'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 campaign,
ST. LOUIS OF FllANCE. 323
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 " Grreek
lire " fell among his maddened troops, no doubt entered the
mind of Louis that he was right in the sight of Grod. If not
destined to conquer, he believed himself 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 dictating to his son Philip some of the msest
precepts that ever fell from the lips of a sovereign, expired in
his tent, laid on ashes as a penitent, and wearing, as the Fran-
ciscans assert, the liumble habit of their Order.
He was canonised by Boniface VIIL 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 magni-
ficent church of Monreale : the rest was enshrined at St.
Denis. His remains and his shrine were destroyed and dese-
crated in the first French Eevolution.
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 Franciscans in the
grey habit and cord of the Tiers-Ordre, they are careful to place
his diadem on his head. In the French type, of course the
T T 2
324
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OllDERS.
Florence.
S. Croce.
Le Brun.
C. Coello.
JVIadrid Gal,
best authority, he is beardless ; but
the Italian and Spanish painters some-
times give him a long beard, as in a
little figure by Kaphael, in the collec-
tion 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.
"St. Louis praying for the city of
Paris," which is seen below. He is at-
tended 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.
(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.
1. He departs on his first crusade, inscribed, "Louis s'en 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
" Musee des Monumens Frangais."
I have also met with the following historical subjects : —
St. Louis bestows on Bartolomeo of Braganza a piece of the
ST. LOULS OF TOULOUSE. 325
true cross, and a thorn from the crown of thorns. Queen Parma.
^ Church of
Margaret and several attendants are grouped around them. san Luigi.
St. Louis sends missionaries to the East : in a bas-relief. Paris.
He was, as we have seen, a great collector of relics. In the
Trinita at Florence there is a picture which represents him
receiving with great reverence the hand of St. John Grualberto,
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 si.
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 " 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 St.-Paul et
St.-Louis.
St. Louis of Toulouse.
Ital. San Liidovico Vescovo. 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
326 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
self-denial. " It is no hardship," she said, " for a Christian to
practise, for the sake of virtue, that severe sobriety which the
Lacedaemonians 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 instability
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 Tou-
louse. 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 chari-
table 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 XXIL, and his body,
which was first deposited with the Franciscans at Marseilles,
was afterwards carried away by Alphonso of Aragon, and en-
shrined at Valencia.
Louis, bishop of Toulouse, is in general represented as youth-
ful, beardless, and with a mild expression ; wearing his episcopal
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 bisliop,
or he carries it in his hand, or it is borne by an angel.
ST. LOUIS OF TOULOUSE.
327
In the altar-pieces 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 Ber- MUan.
nardino : in another by Cosimo Roselli, a Coronation of the
Virgin, in which he stands with St. Bonaventura. I give a Louvi-e,
sketch of this group. seo i! 2^9.
64
St. Louis and St. Bonaventura. (Cosimo Roselli.)
St. Louis is also conspicuous in a large picture by Carlo Gai. of Lord
Crivelli, formerly in the Brera, and certainly painted as an
Ward.
328 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
altar-piece for one of the great Franciscan clmrches in the north
of Italy. In the centre is the Virgin enthroned : on lier knee
the Infant Christ, from whom St. Peter, kneeling reverently,
receives the mystical keys ; an altogether poetical version of the
Sacred and subjoct, as I liavo already observed. On one side is a martyr-
bishop, no otherwise distinguished than by his palm;^ behind
174.
him St. Bernardino of Siena, with the standard as preacher.
On the other side stands St. Louis 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.
Rossini, I have never met with any pictures from his life. " Tlie
pittnra, ' Death of St. Louis of Toulouse," by B. Bonfigli, is engraved by
Eossini ; the subject appears to me rather doubtful.
Feb. 22,
]2!)7.
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.
St. Margaret, 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
' There is reason to suppose that the picture was painted at Ascoli, in the March
of Ancona (v. VApe Italiana, vol. iv.). In that case the bishop represented is
probably Sant' Emigio {Lat. Emygdius), the first bishop and patron of the city of
Ascoli, and martyred about the year 308.
ST. MARGARET OF CORTONA.
329
liis 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 liis body liidden under
some bushes, covered with wounds, and in a horrible state of
decay. Appalled by the spectacle, and seized with compimction,
she returned a weeping penitent to the house of her father ; but
as she knelt upon the threshold, he, being instigated by the step-
mother, 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 Cortona,
and to the convent of Franciscans there : whicli 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 Tliird Order
of St. Francis in 1272. It is related, that as she knelt one day
before the image of the crucified Redeemer, 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, generally a spaniel,
u u
330 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
is at her feet ; this is her proper attribute. The dog is with
propriety omitted in the finest devotional effigy I can refer to :
pitti Pal. 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 Pal. 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 Roman 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, standing out of the shadowy gloom, cold,
calm, and pale, her dog crouching at her feet. Her shrine, in
wliich 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 compartments 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 raising of
Lazarus, expressing her hopes of resurrection. The whole ex-
ceedingly beautiful, and in the finest taste of the best time of
Gothic art,— about the end of the thirteenth century.
ST. IVES OF BRETAGNE.
331
In the portico of the same cl^urch 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 Groethe
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 *' Faust."
Ttal. Sant'
Ivo.
St. Ives of Bretagne, whose proper style is " Saint Yves-
Helori, Avocat des Pauvres," is claimed by the Franciscans on Mayi9,i303.
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 authorities,
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 wliom it was wickedly said that the
lawyers had chosen him for their patron, but not t\iQ\T 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
u u 2
332
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
not devoted to study were given to religious meditation, and to
the most active cliarity. On his return to his own country his
parents wislied 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 Advo-
cate 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 most moving language, to be reconciled 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 distributed
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, holding a paper in his 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 oai.
lawyer's bonnet, the glory round his head ; before his throne
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 picture Brussels.
by De Klerck, he rejects a bribe. In a picture by Kubens, he
stands as patron saint, attired as *' Docteur en Droit : " a widow Louvam.
and an orphan are kneeling at his feet. In another picture by Louvre.
Empoli he is kneeling, and St. Luke presents 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. Elzeah 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 Griendenes, with whom he lived
in the strictest continence and harmony, and both were equally
remarkable for their entliusiastic piety and devotion. " 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 Eobert of
Anjou, who was the brother of St. Louis of Toulouse), withdrew
to complete seclusion, and died very old about 1369.
334
LEGENDS OF 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 containing 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
sealed papers in his hand.
May 8, 1261.
Florence
Acad.
Artists of
Spain ,
p. 821.
The St. Eosa di Viterbo, who figures in that city, and in
the churches on the road between Monte Pulciano and Eome,
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 con-
spicuous for her charity, her austerity, her eloquence, 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 Bartolomeo), an " Assumption of
the Virgin," in which she figures below with St. Francis and
St. Ursula.
"Santa Eosa di Viterbo haranguing an audience," is the
subject of a picture by Sebastian Gomez.
We must be careful to distinguish St. Eosa di Viterbo, the
Franciscan nun, from St. Eosa di Lima, the Dominican nun.
April 2, 1508. St. Francis de Paula, fouudor of the reformed Franciscan
Order of the Minimes, was born at Paola, a little city in
ST. FRANCIS DE PAULA. 335
Calabria, on the road between Naples and Reggio. 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 Eeggio,
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. P^ancis. They followed the Fran-
ciscan rule with additional austerities, keeping Lent all the 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 otlier, but to all mankind ; and
tliey were to be styled Minimes, as being not only less, but the
least of all in the Church of God.
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 Grod (for so he termed him), promising him great
privileges for his Order, and princely recompense, 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 IV., 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, " comme s'il eut ete le Pape.'^^ On his arriving at the
castle of Plessis, Louis fell prostrate at his feet, and entreated of
liim to obtain from Heaven the prolongation of his life. Tlie
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 Cxod, and that no hope remained for
336
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEIIS.
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 Bon-
homme ; " but the people gave that title to him and to his Order
in a different spirit, and the " Bons-hommes " became very
popular in France.
St. Francis de Paula died at Plessis-le-Tours in 1507. Louise
d'Angouleme, 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 Kevolution
" nous 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. ^'^
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 dis-
tinguishes the Minimes 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
iSt, Irancis de I'anla.
ST. FRANCIS DE PAFLA. 337
BolognaGal.
round hood (not pointed behind like that of the Capucliins), fre-
quently 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'Angouleme, attended by four ladies of honour, kneel-
ing at the feet of St. Francis de Paula, to whom she presents
her infant son, afterwards Francis I. The heads in this picture,
as might be expected from I^avinia 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 Guido.
It is related in the legendary life of this saint, that when lie
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 Uvo companions. There is a fine
picture of this subject in the Louvre, in which the calm trust of sp. Gai.
the saint and his companions, and the astonishment of the
Sicilian peasants, who behold their approach to the shore, are
ver}^ well expressed.
A large and fine picture by Solimene exhibits St. Francis de Dresden gri.
Paula kneeling, and commending to the care of the Madonna
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 I. Klnrjs, not children, figure in the
legend of St. Francis de Paula.
For this saint Charles VIII. founded and endowed the Church
of the Trinita-de'-Monti, at Rome.
No. ».J4.
X X
338 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
March 8, St. Juan de Dios was the founder of the Hospitallers, or
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 tliose
parts, came 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 I., 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 occasion ; and
on another, having been placed as sentinel over some booty
taken from the enemy, which, in one of his reveries, he suf-
fered 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
.D. 1532. 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 i)E mos. 339
village of Monte-Mayor. Here lie learned that, in consequence
of his flight, his mother and his father had both died of grief.
Remorse 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 expiation 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, Doiia 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 sin-
gularly endowed by nature, and perpetually at strife with the
circumstances of his position. He contrasted tlie 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 ministering to the captives amongst the Moors ;
he even aspired to the glory of martyrdom. Being come to
Gribraltar, 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 sup-
ported 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 liimself
meanwhile to the ministry of the wretched and the poor. He
had a vision at this time, in which he fancied he beheld a radiant
child holding in his hand a pomegranate (pumo-de-Graiiada\
X X 2
340
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OKDEllS.
and the child said to him, ''Go, thou shalt bear 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 impression on Juan's already ex-
cited 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 calm-
ness, and he was liberated.
From this time forth, persisting in his vocation, he dedicated
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 towards the night he went forth
for tlie 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
wliom he protected wanted for nothing. He contrived 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 Juan de Dies ever entertained
the idea of founding a religious Order and placing himself at the
liead of it. He formed no plan of conduct. He drew up no
ST. JUAN DE BIOS. 341
rules for himself or others. He did his work of charity with a
singleness of mind and purpose, a passionate, concentrated de-
votion, 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 liimself ; and when he died, exhausted 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
liospital of Juan de Dies been reproduced throughout Christian
Europe, Catholic and Protestant ! Our houses of refuge, our
asylums for the destitute ; the brotherhood of the " Caritad " in
Spain, that of the " Misericordia " in Italy, the " Maisons 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 ! I wonder if those who
go to visit the glories of the Alhambra, and dream of the gran-
deur of the Moors, ever think of himi.
Juan de Dios died at G-ranada in 1550. He was beatified by
Urban VIIL, and canonised by Alexander VIII. in 1690. In
France he was honoured as " le bien-heureux Jean de Dieu,
Pere des Pauvres."
There are few good pictures of this saint, but many hundreds
of bad ones. Formerly, every hospital " 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 [pomo-
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 a hospital, with rows of beds.
The only representation of this good saint which can rank
liigh as a work of art is a famous picture by Murillo, painted
for the chiu'ch of the " Caritad " at Seville. In a dark stormy
342 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Spaiii,p. 8G0.
night, Juan is seen staggering — almost sinking — under tlie
weight of a poor dying wretch, whom he is carrying to his hospital.
Ariists of An angel sustains him on his way. " The dark form of the bur-
den, and the sober grey frock of the bearer, are dimly seen in
the darkness, through which the glorious countenance of the
seraph, and his rich yellow drapery, tell like a burst of sunshine."
Mr. Ford says of this picture, " equal to Eembrandt 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 with
pictures — unless, p'erhaps, ostentatious portraits of Lord Mayors,
donors, and titled governors ; otherwise I would recommend as
a subject, "Dr. Johnson carrying home, in his arms, the
wretched woman he had found senseless in the street : " — even
though it might not equal in power Murillo or Eembrandt, the
sentiment and the purpose would be sufficient to consecrate it.
May 8,1587,
St. Felix de Cantalicio 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 Kome ; here he passed forty-five years
of his life in the daily mission of begging for his convent. It
was his task to provide the bread and the wine, and it was
I
F 4'r2
c/f J^/nsy'oc^ay ^^^z//(^/i^ yciy .m?u/.4 ^/iy/iM4^a/(>hy .
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 Eome,
He died in the year 1587. The Capuchins were extremely
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 himselfbeen a Capuchin, consented
to give him a place in the Calendar of Saints.
At this time the Italian schools of painting were on the decline,
and the Spanish schools rising into pre-eminence. The Superior
66
St. Felix de Cantalicio.
344 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
S. Didacuf
Jacques,
Nov. l:^.
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 ]iis 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 frequently
met with in the pictures of the Spanish school.
St. Diego d'Alcala was another Capuchin saint canon-
oi-FrSr' ised, as it seems to me, from very unworthy motives, in times
when the title of Saint was bestowed with a shocking and pre-
sumptuous 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 " for a consideration."
Of this Diego d'Alcala there is not much to be said. Pie 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, Ae, poor man I 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 canonisation or apotheosis) had l)een
cured of a grievous wound through the intercession of this Diego,
whom the friars at Alcala had exalted as a mirror of sanctity ;
ST. DIEGO d'alcala. 345
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 Giacomo degli Spa-
gnuoli, a chapel to his honour, and engaged Annibal Caracci to
adorn it witli the history of the saint.
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 Quattro Fontane, and had resolved to undertake 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 drawings and sketches for the
work. Albano nursed him with the tenderness and solicitude
of a son ; aided him, cheered him ; ran backwards and forwards
from the Quattro Fontane to the Chapel of San Giacomo ; 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 tlie
work begun by his affectionate 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 con-
sented to pay the 1,600 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 1,200 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 (mweri (lisacfni) not worth \he money. Albano, not
Y Y
346
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
to be outdone in generosity, absolutely refused to take anything ;
saying, tliat lie 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 arbitration of Herrera, who
decided that the 1,600 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 teraersene e vevgognarserie.
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 tlie 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
aofo, 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 uninjured. 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 his 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, but I do not well remember what
they were. The whole series was engraved at the time by
Guilain.
I will mention one or two other pictures of this saint.
ST. VINCENT DE PAULE. 347
By Murillo. 1 . San Diego, bearing a cross upon his shoulders,
holds up his tunic full of roses. 2. He kneels, in the act of
blessing a copper pot of broth. 3. San Diego, wliile cooking for sow from
the brotherhood, is rapt in ecstasy, and raised above the earth, oaL May 20,
while angels are performing his task of boiling and frying below.
Three ecclesiastics entering on the left, regard this miracle with
devout admiration. 4. San Diego stands fixed in devotion be- Aguado Gai.
fore a cross. Behind Diego, and observing him, is seen the
Cardinal Archbishop of Pampeluna with several friars ; the con-
summate 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 d'Alcala.
16G0.
We must be careful not to confound St. Francis de Paula
with St. Vincent de Paule, who wears the habit of a Cor- J^^|y^».
delier, and not of a Minime. He also was very popular in
France. Those who have been at Paris will remember the
familiar effigies 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 1576
at Puy, in Grascony, not far from the foot of the Pyrenees. His
parents were small farmers, and he began life as his father's
shepherd. The contemplative sweetness and piety of his dis-
position, 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, re-
turning by sea, the small bark was attacked midway in the
Gulf of Lyons by some African pirates ; and Vincent de Paule,
Y Y 2
'^48 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OKDEllS.
with otliers 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 " By the waters of
Babylon lue sat down and wept,''^ and then, as if taking heart,
he ended with the triumphant strain of the " Salve Regina.^'
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 Aiguesmortes. 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 1 609. From this period may be 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 and friendless. 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 pauvrete, et entierement
negliges pour le corps et pour I'ame." 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 Grood did not lose courage ; he preached
to them, comforted them, begged for their maintenance. His
ST, VINCEf^T DE PAULE. 3'i 9
next efforts were for the wretched girls abandoned in the streets
of Paris, many of wliom he reclaimed, and established the hospital
of " La Madeleine " to receive them. A few years afterwards
he instituted the Order of the Sisters of Charity, an order of
nuns '' qui n'ont point de monasteres que les maisons des malades,
pour cellules qu'une chambre de louage, pour chapelle que I'eglise
de leur paroisse, pour cloitre que les rues de la ville et les salles
des hopitaux, pour cloture que I'obeissance, pour grille que la
crainte de Dieu, et pour voile qu'une sainte et exacte modestie,
et cependant elles se preservent 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
1 642. The following year he was called from the bed-sides of the
galley-slaves, and the sick in the hospital, to attend Louis XIII.
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 " la Maison des Enfans
trouves," which he placed under the superintendence of the
Sisters of Charity.
When the wars of the "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 Eichelieu to send
troops into that country, offering to raise a hundred thousand
350 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDEES.
In 18i4.
crowns towards their pay. Eiclielieu contented himself with
smiling at the request ; perhaps also gave him a hint to be con-
tent 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
" rintendant de la Providence, et Pere des Pauvres." He died
at St. Lazare, in 1660, in his eighty-fourth year, and was canon-
ised by Pope Clement XIL in 1747.
The effigies of St. Vincent de Paule which meet us in the
churches of Paris, and more particularly in the magnificent
church lately dedicated to him, represent him in his Franciscan
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 bene-
volent features, the bright clear eye, the broad forehead, and the
silver liair 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.
Oct. 19. St. Peter of Alcantara, 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 G^od.
About the time he was canonised, Claudio Coello painted an
Munich Gal. 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 admirably
fine — dramatic, without exaggeration. I give a sketch from
ST. JOHN CAPISTRANO.
351
St. i'c'tei- of Alcantara walking on the Sea.
it. Another beautiful picture of this saint, by Murillo, was in
the Aguado Gallery ; it represents him kneeling at his devotions,
and the Holy Dove hovering over his head.
St. John Capistrano is only met with in late pictures. At
the time that all Europe was thrown into consternation by the
capture of Constantinople by the Turks, the popes, Eugenius 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, tlie Franciscan
preacher was everywhere seen with his crucifix in his hand,
encouraging the troops, and even leading them on against tlie
Oct. 23.
352
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
infidels. He died the same year, and was canonised by Alex-
ander 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 statue 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 30. St. Peter Regalato of Valladolld 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 " 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 n, Bcforc coucludiug these notices of the Franciscan worthies
connected with art, I must mention St. Catherine of Bo-
logna, called also Santa Caterina de' Vigri ; for, although one
of the latest who were formally canonised, she had been vene-
rated previously in her own 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.'
After the marriage of the princess, from motives and feelings
' 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 name, who
married, in 1427, G-aleotti Eoberto Malatesta, Lord of Kimini, " e colla sua am-
hizionc, fcce csercitar tanta paziniza al marito che diventh santo." Who knows but
that this lady, who converted her husband into a saint by trying his patience, may
by a similar process, have assisted in the beatification of her maid of honour?
ST. CATHERINE OF BOLOONA.
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
St. Ursula, which has been inserted in the first series of this
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' Vigri, dressed out sumptuously in brocade,
gold, and jewels. And in the Academy is a picture by Morina,
in which she stands with St. Stephen and St. Lawrence, wearing
her Franciscan habit and veiled. Her proper attributes would
be, perhaps, her palette and pencils ; but I have never seen her
so represented.
V. Legend of
St. Ursula.
Bologn.a
Acad.
68 Angel, from the Chapel of San Bernardino. (Agostino della Robbia.)
Z Z
354
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
69
St. Dominick.
The Dominicans.
St. Dominick and the worthies of his 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 ; nor to their greater riches
THE DOMINICANS. 355
and munificence as patrons ; — but to tlieir 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 Bartolomeo 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 cha-
racterised more or less all the religious communities, and most
especially the Dominicans : but had they worked with no higher
aim, from no purer inspiration, tlieir 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 with the sanctity of his
vocation ; and did in heart and soul, and in devout faith and
earnestness, dedicate himself to the service of God and the
teaching of men : and as it was said of Angelico that every picture
he painted was " an act of prayer," 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 picture 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
Z Z 2
356
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEKS.
Florence.
S. Maria
Novella.
Handbook
of Painting
in Italy.
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, Kome, and elsewhere.
The habit I have already described. We find in reference to
it the usual legend, that the form and colour were dictated by
the Blessed Virgin herself in a vision to one of the brethren, a
monk of Orleans. It is white and black ; the white denoting-
purity of life ; the black, mortification and penance. Hence,
when the Dominicans are figured as dogs {Doraini Canes), a
common allegory, they are always white with patches of black.
In the famous and otherwise very remarkable fresco of the
" Church Militant," painted by Simone Memmi in the chapel
" degii Spagnuoli," we see five or six of " these dogs of the
Lord " 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
parts of this elaborate composition may be found in Kugier.
There are four principal saints who are of universal celebrity,
and are to be found in all the Dominican edifices : —
St. Dominick, a-s 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
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. Eaymond.
St. Vincent Ferraris.
And, confined almost wholly to Spanish art, —
St. Peter Gonsalez.
St. Eosa de Lima.
St. Louis Beltran.
Pope Pius v., a Dominican, was canonised in 1712 by Cle-
ment XL I have never met with him in pictures as Saint Pius,
thougli such may exist ; and probably, as the canonisation 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-con-
vincing 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 unneces-
sary to give any specimens of their oratory. The most admired
sermons of St. Vincent, into which I have looked cursorily, re-
minded 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 ingenious, 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 Logemia
fur his morals or his manners, found himself once (it might have been in a ^"^'^''^•
dream) in a ceitain meadow not far from the city, and there came on a
358 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
terrible storm 5 and lie 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 j
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 liouse is
mine -, and if thou wouldst escape from this fearful tempest, repair quickly
to the dwelling of the brethren of St. Dominick ; 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 Rome, 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, ' O my Son, have pity upon mankind ! ' and he replied,
' Seest thou not to what a pitch they have carried their iniquity F ' and she
said, ^ 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 ! ' Then the Virgin
placed before him St. Dominick and St. Francis; and our Lord, looking
upon them, relented from his wrath,"
There are many old prints, perhaps also pictures, wliicli
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 I) appears above as the stern avenger, armed to punish
or destroy, with the Virgin-mother interceding at his feet.
Il
ST. DOMINICK.
359
Eubens has 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
whom we are now to speak.
70
St. Dominick.
St. Dominick.
Ldt. Sanctus Dominicus, Pater Ordinis Prasdicatorum. Ital. San Domenico.
San Domenico Calaroga. Fr. Saint Dominique, Fondateur des Freres
Precheiirs. Sp. San Domingo. Augusts, 1221.
In the days when Alexander III. was pope, and Frederic Bar-
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
A.D. 1160.
360 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
of noble birth. His appearance in the world was attended by
the usual miracles. Before he was born, his mother 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 wonderful splendour
descend from heaven and settle on his brow. Both these por-
tents 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 related 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, — he 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 was
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 after-
wards made a second journey to France with liis bishop, accom-
ST. DOMINICK. 361
panying 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 sudden 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 preferment, to
which his noble birth, his learning, his already high reputation
appeared to open the way, such promptings of an ambitious
and energetic spirit were from this time extingLushed, 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 Albigenses.
At that time the whole of the south of France was distracted by
the feuds between the Catholics and the heretics. As yet, how-
ever, 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 up 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 arguments, 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 ex-
traordinary 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 de-
fenders 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 argu-
ment 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 Simon de Montfort, Dominick
3 A
^^2 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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 Dominick, however mistaken, was as per-
fectly 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 rosary. 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 entertained 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 " mysteries of the rosary : "
meantime, with reference to St. Dominick, it will be sufficient
to observe that the rosary was received with the utmost enthu-
siasm, 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 orthodoxy, learning,
arguments, and eloquence.
In 1218, St. Dominick having been charged by the pope with
the care of reforming the female convents at Kome, persuaded
them to accept of a new Rule which he drew up for them : and
thus was instituted the Order of the Dominican Nuns, The
ST. DOMINICK. 363
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 Grreat Britain.
From Paris he returned to Italy, and took up his residence
in the principal convent of his Order at Bologna, making oc-
casional 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 Gfregory 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 Boiogna.
wonderful tomb is styled in Italy — was begun as early as 1225,
when Niccolo 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 Niccolo
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.
364 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 Eoman
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 red, and in general he kept his
beard close shaven. His eyes were blue, brilliant, and pene-
trating ; 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." 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 pos-
sible 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 his 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. D.OMINICK.
365
71
St. Dominick. (Lucas v. Leyden.)
The liead 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
altar-piece 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 pigture that I have seen is the expression
given to St. Dominick severe, or even ascetic. In the Spanish
366 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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," by Francesco Traini. The character of the head
agrees exactly with the portrait drawn by Suor Cecilia. " II
volto tra 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 " Venitefilii, audite
me, timoreya 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. Catlierine 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
Kome. fresco iu the S. Maria-sopra-Minerva ; or where the Infant
Christ delivers to him the keys in presence of other saints, as
Florence. in the altar-pioco of Orcagna in the Strozzi chapel : and in the
innumerable pictures which relate to the institution of the ro-
sary; which, as a subject of art, first became popular after the
victory of Lepanto in 1571. Grregory XIII. instituted the
Festival of the Eosary to be held in everlasting commemoration
of that triumph over the infidels. From this period we find
perpetual Madonnas " del Rosario ; " and St. Dominick receiv-
ing the rosary from the hand of the Virgin, or distributing
rosaries, became a common subject in the Dominican churches.
Bologna Tlic 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 tlie other he points to the Virgin, indicating by
Acad
ST. DOMINICK. 367
what means she is to be propitiated. Angels holding -the symbols
of the "Mysteries of the Eosary" (the joys and sorrows of the
Virgin) surround the celestial personages. On the earth, below,
are various groups, expressing the ages, conditions, calamities,
and necessities of human life : — lovely children playing with a Maivasia,
crown ; virgins attacked by a fierce warrior, representing op- Pittrice.
pressed maidenhood ; a man and his consort, representing the
pains and cares of marriage, &c. And all these with rosaries in
their hands are supposed to obtain aid, ''per intercessione delV
sacratissimo Rosario.^'' I confess that tliis interpretation appeared
to me quite unsatisfactory when I looked at the picture, which,
however, is one blaze of beauty in form, expression, and tran-
scendent colouring. — " Mai si videro puttini e pii). cari e amo- Maivasia.
rosi ; mai verginelle piu vaghe e spiritose ; mai uomini piii
fieri, piii gravi, piii 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 imaginable; 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, by Boiogna.
Niccolo Pisano and Alfonso Lombardi.
2. The set of six small and most beautiful compositions by Louvre.
Angelico, on the predella of the " Coronation of the Virgin."
3. The set of eight subjects round the figure by Traini, Pisa-
already mentioned.
I shall here enumerate, in their order, all the scenes and inci-
dents I have found represented, either as a series or separately : —
1. The dream of the mother of St. Dominick. Giovanna d'Aza is asleep
on her couch, and before her appears the dog holding the torch. In front,
two women are occupied washing and swaddling the infant saint.
368
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 Rome, praying in the church of St. Peter
that the grace of God might be upon his newly-founded Order, he beheld in
a vision the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul. Peter presented to hira a
staff, and Paul a volume of the Gospfel, and they said to him, '^ Go, preach
the Word of God, for He hath chosen thee for that ministry." Of this sub-
ject, the bas-relief by Niccolo Pisano is as fine as possible. I give a sketch
of the principal group.
St. Dominick receives from St. Peter and St. Panl the commission to preach
(Niccold Pisano.)
4. The burning of the heretical bookB. The book of St. Dominick is seen
leaping from the fire. In the picture by Angelico, the Albigense^ are
dressed as Turks ; the good painter could form no other idea of heretic*
and infidels. The grand dramatic fresco by Lionello Spada, in the chapel
at Bologna, should be compared, or rather contrasted, with the simple
elegance of Angelico.
ill
ST. DOMINICK. 369
5. On Ash Wednesday in 1218, the abbess and some of her nuns went to
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
Fossa-Nova, 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 his horse and killed on the spot. The cardinal fell speechless
into the arms of St. Dominick, and the women and others who were present
were filled with grief and horror. They brought the body of the youth into
the chapter-house, and laid it before the altar j and Dominick, having
prayed, tm-ned to the body of the young man, saying, " O adolescens
Napoleo ! in nomine Domini nostri J. C. tihi 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 Niccolo, 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 the furibondo cavallo which makes us start.
6. The supper of St. Dominick. " It happened that when he was residing
with forty of his friars in the convent of St. Sabina at Rome, 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 white and shining garments appeared amongst
them 5 one carried a basket of bread, and the other a pitcher of wine, which
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 his 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 Angelico 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 " bread from paradise."
7. The English pilgrims. When Simon de Montfort besieged Toulouse,
forty pilgrims on their way from England to Compostella, 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.
This subject is often mistaken ; I have seen it called, in Italian, " la JBur-
rasca del^Iare^ 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.
3 B
370 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
8. lie restores to life a dead child. The gre it fresco of this subject in
the chapel " dell' Area " at Bologna is by Tiarini, and a perfect masterpiece
in the scenic and dramatic style ; so admirably [/ot up, that we feel as if
assistimj, 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 his own sins ; once for the sins of others ; and once for the
benefit of souls in purgatory. There is a small, but veiy striking, picture
of this subject by Carlo Dolce. Dominick, with bared shoulders, kneels in
P. Pitti. a cavern j 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, " Caritatem habete j 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 efiect on the dome of the chapel at
Bologna.
We must now turn from St. Dominick to his far more stern
disciple —
ST. PETEll MAllTYR. 371
St. Peter Martye.
St. Peter tlie Dominican. Ital. San Pietro (or San Pier) Martire. Fr, Saint
Pierre le Dominicain, Martyr. April 28, 1252.
Tins saint, with wliom the title of Martyr has passed by general
consent into a surname, is, next 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 CatJtari, 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 Catholic form, and for repeating it 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 whicli he pursued those heretics
with whom he had formerly been connected. For these services
to the Church he was appointed Inquisitor-Greneral 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 INIilan,
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 rushed 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 tlie 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,; andliis
3 B 2
372
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 contemplate.
It appears that in his lifetime he was not beloved by his own bro-
therhood, 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 Eomagna, Tuscany,
Bologna, or the Milanese, which
does not contain effigies of him ;
and, in general, pictiu-es 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
sword, which is less usual.
I will now mention a few examples : —
1. By Guercino: — St. Peter M., kneelin
his feot.
St rctci Maitvr.
(Cima da Conegliano.)
witli the sabre at
ST. PETER MARTYR. 373
2. By Bevilacqua : — He presents a votary to the Madonna : Milan Gai.
on the other side is Job, the patriarch of patience, holding a
scroll on which is inscribed, ^' Eruet Te de Morte et Bello de
Manu Gladii."
3. By Angelico : — He stands on one side of the throne of the fi. oai.
Madonna pierced through with a sword ; with a keen, ascetic,
rather than stern and resolute, expression.
The finest, the most characteristic, head of St. Peter Martyr p. Pitti.
I have ever seen is in a group by Andrea del Sarto, where he
stands opposite to St. Augustine, " in aria e in atto fiercmiente
terrihilef^ as Vasari most truly describes him ; and never, cer-
tainly, were fervour, energy, indomitable resolution, more per-
fectly expressed. I have mentioned in another place the signi- p- 234.
ficant grouping of the personages in this wonderful picture.
The assassination — or, as it is styled, the " martyrdom " — of
St. 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 renowned
of all, and among the most celebrated pictures in the world, is
the *' San Pietro Martire " of Titian ; painted as an altar-piece
for the chapel of the saint, in the church of SS. Giovanni e
Paolo (which the Venetians abbreviate and harmonise into San Venice.
Zanipolo), 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.
It is a mistake to represent St. Peter Martyr assassinated on
374
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEES.
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 repre-
sented 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 hor-
rible fate of Savonarola,
strangled and then burned
in the great square at
Florence, in 1498, Barto-
lomeo, who had been his
disciple, shut himself up
in his cell in San Marco,
and did not for four years
resume his pencil. He
afterwards painted this
head of his friend, in the
character of Peter Martyr,
with a deep gash in his
skull, and the blood trick-
ling from it, — probably to
indicate 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 influence, who knows but that
we may have this resolute adversary of the popes and princes
of liis time canonised as another " St. Jerome " ?
Jerome Savonarola
in the character of St. Peter Martyi
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. 375
St. Thomas Aquinas.
ltd. San Tomaso di Aquino^ Dottore Ang-elico. Marcli 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 I. : he was, conse-
quently, grand-nephew of that prince, and kinsman to the
emperors Henry VI. 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 pole-
mical disputes in which he was afterwards engaged, never for-
sook 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 warnings 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 seventeen 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 waylaid near Acquapendente, by his two
brothers Landolfo and Rinaldo, 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 Rocca-Secca. There his
376
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
mother came to him, and in v^ain supplicated him to change his
resolution. She ordered him to be confined and guarded from
all communication with others ; no one was suffered to see him
but his two sisters, who were directed to use their utmost per-
suasions 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
pronounced his final vows.
Notwithstanding his profound learning, the humility with
which he concealed his acquirements, and the stolid tranquillity
of his deportment, procured him the surname of Bos, or the Ox.
One instance of his humility is at once amusing and edifying.
On a certain day, when it was his turn to read aloud in the
refectory, the superior, through inadvertence or ignorance, cor-
rected 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, "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 reputa-
tion 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 them
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. 377
bear a general resemblance, showing tliem to have been derived
from a common original. The face is broad and rather heavy ;
the brow fine and ample ; the expression mild and thoughtful.
His attributes are, 1. a book, or several books; 2. the pen or
inkhorn ; 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. Pie 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 his Ethics; Moses, St. Paul, and the four Evan-
gelists, are seen above, each with his book ; and over all, Christ
appears in a glory : from him 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 VI., inscribed Urhamis Sex
Pisanus, who was living when the picture was painted, about
1380. It is still preserved with great care in the Church of
Sa. Caterina, 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. Florence.
St. Thomas is seated on a magnificent throne, over which hover
seven angels carrying the symbols of the theological virtues.
3 c
378
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEKS.
75
St. Thomas Aqiiinas. (Benozzo Gozzoli.)
Rome.
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, Arius, Averrhoes, and Sabellius. In a
row beneath, and enthroned under beautiful Grothic 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 teaching, and
profited by his words.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. 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 aliam nisi te, Domine ! " (Thyself only,
Lord !) " A companion of St. Thomas, bearing the crucifix thus vaHari.
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 " 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 somewliat 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 companj^ ; lower down, 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 V.,
attended by a train of ecclesiastics. The head of St. Thomas is said to be a
portrait of Don Agustin 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 altar-pieces. Tlie colouring
throughout is rich and eflPective, and worthy of the school of Roelas ; 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 Rome to Paris, " a violent storm terrified the crew and the
3 € '2
380 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
passengers ; the saint only was without fear, and continued 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, Avas the master of St. Thomas. He is sometimes called
in Italy Sanf Alberto Magno, and is painted as the pendant to
St. Thomas Aquinas in two pictures, by Angelico da Fiesole,
now in the Academy at Florence (Nos. 14 and 20).
Of Duns Scotus, 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 Ribera, 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 Immaculate 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 : —
" Questi clie m' e a destra piii vicino
Frate e maestro fummi ; 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 inkhorn. It is in the
manner of Grhirlandajo.
ST. CATHERIISE OF SIENA. 381
St. Catherine of Siena.
Lat. Sancta Catharina 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 great volcanic sea, consolidated even while the waves were
lieaving. The Campagna of Kome, in its melancholy yet
glorious solitude, is all poetry and beauty compared to tlie
dreary monotony of the hilly waste which surrounds Siena.
But the city itself, rising with its ample walls and towers, is
382 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, limpid, abundant.
This ancient fountain was famous for the coldness and afflu-
inferno, c. ouco of its waters in the days of Dante. Adam of Brescia,
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 non 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, congregate 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 oratory, once the dwelling
•M.
ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA. 383
of St. Catherine of Siena. From it we look 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
Griacomo Benincasa, who was a dyer by trade, and for his
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 Lapa 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, 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
th.e 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 name-
sake, Catherine of Alexandria ; and she prayed to the Virgin
384
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Mary that she would be pleased to bestow her divine Son upon
her also, and that He should be her chosen bridegroom. 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.
76
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 ha(f 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 dis-
obedience ; she was no longer their well-beloved child ; they
dismissed the woman servant, and laid all the household duties.
ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA. 385
even the meanest and most toilsome, on Catherine. Moreover,
they treated lier 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 sub-
missively 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 t® the convent of St. Dominick, 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.
But in her vocation Catherine did not find that peace whicli
3 D
386 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OHDEES.
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 his
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 G-od towards her :- -" If these
mysterious graces vouchsafed to her should be after all but
delusions, but snares, of the enemy ! " 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, slie 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 her, and
nursed her, and in consequence was herself infected by leprosy
in her hands. Now this woman also proved ill-conditioned and
ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA. 387
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 dis-
gusting 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? So 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. Palmerina afterwards repented,
and, falling at the feet of Catherine, begged her forgiveness,
which was immediately granted.
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
3 u 2
388 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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, notwithstanding her
endeavour to conceal it, was attested by many who knew her,
both in her lifetime and after her death. ^
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, Grregory XI.
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 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
* The crucifix commemorated in this legend is a painting on panel by Griunta
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
1847.
I
ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA. 389
too, believed that much of the misery and misrule which then
afflicted Italy arose from the absence of the Eoman pontiffs from
their own capital. She used all her influence with the pope to
induce him to return to Eome, 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 Eome ; 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 " Grreat
Schism of the West " followed ; and Christendom beheld two
infallible popes, supported 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 bio-
graphers ever discovered in the character and conduct of that vio-
lent 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 vainglory ! —
not vainglory ! — but the glory of Grod ! " — as if she were
answering some accuser within; — as if to the half-alarmed
conscience there had been a revelation of some merely human
390 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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 lifetime
was the painter Andrea Vanni. He belonged to a family of
artists, the first of whom, his grandfather, flourished in the
beginning of the fourteenth century ; the last, Eaffaello Vanni,
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 am-
bassador from the republic of Siena to the pope, and afterwards
to Naples, where, during his embassy, he painted several pictures ;
hence he has been styled by Lanzi the Kubens of his age. St.
Catherine appears to have regarded him with maternal tender-
ness. 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,
^^ A Maestro Andrea di Vanni, Dipintore;^^ and begin, " Ca-
rissimo 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 it modo che noipotessimo hen
reggere altrui se prima non regghiamo noi medesimi.^^ (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. Equal, however, in importance and interest is
the authentic effigy of his sainted friend and patroness which
Vanni has 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
ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA.
391
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
presented to a kneeling nun,
who seems about to press it
reverentially to her lips ;
this figure has been called
a votary, but I think it may represent the repentance and pardon
of her enemy Palmerina.
St. Catherine of Siena.
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 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
392
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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 de-
fender, 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 Domi-
nicans at Perugia.^
3. She stands with Mary Magdalene "rapt in spirit," and
looking up at a vision of the Virgin and Saviour : by Fra Bar-
tolomeo, in the church of San Eomano at Lucca, — as fine as
vasari. possible. Vasari says, " e una figura, delta quale, in quel
grado., non si pud far meglio.^''
4. She stands holding a cross and a book. A beautiful figure
by Grhirlandajo.
5. She stands holding her book and lily. Statue in white
marble by Attichiati.
6. She kneels with St. Dominick before the throne of the
' This elegant figure, which is engraved in Kossini's Storia della Pittura (vol. i.),
is not by Bufalmacco, to whom it is attributed, nor in his style. Bufalmacco
painted about 1350-60; Catherine died in 1380, and wns not canonised till a
century afterwards.
ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA.
393
Madonna ; the lily at lier 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 altar-piece was painted by Sasso Ferrate for the
Santa-Sabina, on the Aventine, the first church of the Domi-
I.A. WILLIAMS. Sc
78 St. Dominick and St. Catherine of Siena. (Sasso Ferrato.)
nicans at Rome. I give a slight sketch of the composition of
this picture — the masterpiece of the painter, with all his usual
elegance, and without his usual insipidity.
3 E
394
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEBEES.
Venice Acad .
Siena.
S. Dome-
nico.
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. Kaphael 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 Razzi, is justly celebrated, and
i V St. Catherine of Siena, fainting. (Razzi.)
I give a sketch merely to show the arrangement. Here St.
Catherine and her companions wear the white tunic and scapu-
lary, without the black mantle — an omission favourable to tlie
general effect of the colour, wJiich is at once most delicate, rich,
and harmonious : and the beauty of the faces, the expression of
i
I
ST. CATHEEINE OF SIENA. 395
tender anxiety and reverence in the nuns, the divine languor
on the pallid features of St. Catherine, render this fresco one of
tlie marvels of art.
As a subject, St. 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 Eatfaello 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 distin-
guish her from St. Catherine of Alexandria, except by the habit
and the veil.
The earliest and finest example is perhaps the beautiful altar-
piece by Fra Eartolomeo, painted for his Convent of St. Mark
at Florence, but, since the time of Francis I., one of the orna-
ments 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. Bartliolomew, and St. Vincent Ferraris ; on the
other, St. Francis and St. Dominick are embracing each other.
This was one of the pictures seen and admired by Eaphael 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 her native city ; all those of which I have preserved
memoranda exist in the churches and oratories at Siena.
In her chapel in the San Domenico, besides the beautifid
fresco by Eazzi, 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
harano'ues the revolted Florentines. St, Catherine before Gre-
gory XI. at Avignon, pleading the cause of the Florentines, —
3 E 2
396
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Baillet, Vies
des Saints.
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 iugreat veneration by the
people of the south of Tuscany, she was not formally canonised
till 1 604 ; 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 who, 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 mag-
nificent, and contains heads which for depth and beauty of
expression have been compared to Kaphael.
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 last of 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 hand ; several cardinals,
and a crowd of assistants bearing tapers, stand around.
In the year 1 648 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 ! That
noble house, greatly scandalised by such an imputation, made a
formal complaint to the papal court : — " c'etait injurieusement
faire passer leur maison pour roturiere et plebeienne, et laisser
egalement a leurs descendants un affront eternel dans toute la
Chretiente ; " — 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.
II
ST. ANTONINO OF PXORENCE. 397
Gregory XL, the friend of St. Catherine, lies buried in the Rome.
Church of S. Francesca Eomana. Over his tomb is a very fine
bas-relief representing his solemn entry into Eome, on the occa-
sion 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 enthusiasm
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 him as one set Florence.
apart for the service of Grod. 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 under-
take 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. " 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 liave thy wish,"' — and so with good words
dismissed him, not thinking, perhaps, to see him again. Anto-
nino, though not gifted with any extraordinary talents, had an
indomitable will, and was not to be frighted by tasks or tests
of any kmd from a resolution over which he had ])rooded from
398 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEBS.
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 : — " Eeverend 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 Grod that it
should be so, he admitted him into the brotherhood, and sent
him to Cortona to study during the year of his noviciate. 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 irre-
sistible 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 simplicity of his pure
unworldly 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 sur-
passing genius. He was a painter : early in life he had dedicated
himself and his beautiful art to the service of Grod and of His
most blessed saints ; and, that he might be worthy of his high
and holy vocation, he sought to keep himself unspotted from the
world, for he was accustomed to say that " 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;" {cosl 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 imaging those visions of beatitude which descended
on liis fancy, sent indeed by no fabled Muse, but e^^en by that
ST. ANTONINO OF FLORENCE. 399
Spirit " that doth prefer 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
seem to want power, not the less do we feel that they need it not,
— that before those ethereal beingspower itself would be power-
less : 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 II Beato 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 contemplative and
studious mind of Antonino nourished with spiritual learning the
genius of the painter, while the realisation 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, Cortona, 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 vocation,
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 St. Laurence, whose remains repose together
without the walls of Rome ; and while Angelico was at his work,
the pope took pleasure in looking on and conversing with him.
400 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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
with his simplicity, his wisdom, and his goodness, he offered him
the dignity of archbishop ; and great was the surprise of the
Holy P^ather 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 archbishop 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 distin-
guished 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 cha-
racter 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 figure tlie size of life, by
ST. AIS'TONINO OF FLOllENCE.
401
Domenico G^hirlandajo. Here he wears the
pallium as archbishop over his Dominican
habit. In his splendid chapel in the San
Marco at Florence, dedicated by the Sal-
viati, is his statue in white marble, by John
of Bologna. The frescoes on each side re-
present the ceremonies which took place on
his canonisation. In the first, he is lying in
state in the churcli, surrounded by five car-
dinals and nineteen bishops ; in the second,
he is borne to his resting-place in the chapel,
in a procession of prelates, princes, and ma-
gistrates. As these frescoes contain portraits
from the life of the most distinguished Flo-
rentines tl)en living, they have become in-
valuable as documents, and are, besides,
admirably painted by Passignano 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
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.
80 St. Antonino of Floronco
(Ghirlandajo.)
One among the legendary stories of St. Antonino is frequently
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 tlieir
vocation many hundred crowns ; 3^et, in this season of affliction,
they not only withheld their hoards, but presented 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 tlie hospital, and, though he maintained them
3 F
402 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEKS.
1 -275
generously during the rest of their lives, he made them perform
strict penance for their former sinful and unfeeling avarice.
Jan. 23, St. Raymond de Penaforte, wlio figures chiefly in Spanish
art, was of an illustrious family of Barcelona, nearly allied to
the kings of Aragon. He was born at his father's castle at
Peiiaforte 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
eidogy, that being comroissioned 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 Barcelona in the year 1275, in the hun-
dredth 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 accom-
plished 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 Ma-
jorca, 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 angry ; Raymond
i!!T. RAYMOND DE PENAFOHTE. 403
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. Eaymond, full of confidence 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 jnight 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 an humble penitent than one in whose
favour Heaven had so wonderfully wrought. It is pleasant to
Icnow 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 Domini-
can churches and convents, and are in general productions of
the Spanish and Bologna schools about the period of his canon-
isation (1601). He wears the habit of his Order; in the back-
ground, the sea, over which he is gliding on his black mantle.
The representation of the miracle as an historical subject is fre-
quent : the best is that of Ludovico Caracci 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 cliosen.
It appears to me that there is some confusion here, and also
in Mr. Stirling's '^ Artists of Spain" (p. 318), between this
3 F 2
404 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
St. Raymond of Peilaforte, the Dominican, and St. Raymond
Nonnatus of the Order of Mercy, who died in 1240, after
having been created a cardinal by Grregory IX.
April 5, 1419. Another Spanish Dominican who figures in art is St. Vincent
Ferraris. He was born at Valencia in Spain, in 1357, of
virtuous and religious parents, who stinted themselves of ne-
cessary things to provide for his education and that of his
brother Boniface. He took the habit of the Order of St. Domi-
nick 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 Ood, 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 tliunder ; his hearers often fainted away, and he was
obliged to pause till the tears, sobs, and sighs of his congregation
had a little subsided ; he 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 ; Grreeks,
Grermans, Sardinians, Hungarians, and others, declared that
they understood 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 canon-
ised by Calixtus III. in 1455.
ST. HYACINTH. 405
The proper attribute of this saint is the crucifix, lield aloft in
his hand as preacher and missionary. In allusion to the fervour
and inspiration which characterised his discourses, he is some-
times represented with wings to his shoulders ; likening him, in
his character of a preacher of the Grospel, 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 emblematical wings,
in conjunction with the Dominican habit, have a strange uncouth
effect.
The finest existing picture of him is that of Fra Bartolomeo,
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 countenance and n. Acaa.
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
wliere this picture now is.
St. Hyacinth, though an early saint, is found only in very sancia-
cinto.
late pictures. August 15,
At the time that St. Dominick was at Eome, in 1218, Ivo,
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 lialf-barbarous
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 whom we
are now to speak. He was born of the noble family of the
406 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Aldrovanski, one of the most illustrious in Silesia, had recently
completed his studies at Bologna, and was distinguished by his
virtue, talents, piety, and modesty, and by the prudence and
capacity with wliich 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 Eome in 1218.
The event showed that it was in no transient fit of enthusiasm
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 Grospel 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 life 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 Lewis XIII.,
carried into France her hereditary veneration for St. Hyacinth.
At her request, Ladislaus, king of Poland, sent her some relics
of the saint, wliich she placed in the Dominican convent at
ST. HYACINTH. 407
Paris, and he became an object of the 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 pix
containing the Host (Le Saint Ciboire). It is related of him
that when his convent at Kiev in Russia was sacked by the
Tartars he escaped, carrying with him the pix 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 miraculously 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. Raymond.
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 Louvre.
with the Ciborio and the image of the Virgin.
By L. Caracci : the apparition of the Virgin and Child to
St. Hyacinth. An angel holds a tablet, on which are inscribed Feisina
the words which the Virgin addresses to him — " Be at peace, vol. i. p.' 292,
Hyacinth ! for thy prayers are agreeable to my Son, and all
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 that " it was enough to make a
edit. 1841.
408 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEBS.
Oct. 9, 1581.
painter despair and throw away his pencils ! " How different
from the modest Correggio's " ancli' io sono pittore I " The sight
of excellence makes the vain man — not the great m-an —
despair.
By Malosso of Cremona : St. Hyacinth preaches to a multi-
tude, and converts the heathen by curing the bite of a scorpion
which lies at his feet. Painted for the Church of the Domi-
nicans at Cremona.
By Brizzio : St. Hyacinth restores a drowned youth (^rAnne-
gato). A very fine dramatic picture, in the Church of St.
Dominick at Bologna.
In the modern decorations of "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.
St. Louis Beltran, or Berteand, a native of Valencia,
and a celebrated Dominican preacher and missionary in the
sixteenth century. He believed himself called by Grod to spread
the light of the Grospel 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 en-
countered 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 back-
ground would fix the identity.
I
SANTA EOSA DI LIMA. 409
In the year 1647 (the year in which he was declared a Beato )
tlie plague broke out at Valencia, and the painter Espinosa
placed himself and his family under the guardianship of San
Louis Beltran, who preserved, by his intercession, 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 onlv canonised female Aug. .so,
i()i:
saint of the New World, was born at Lima in Peru, in 1586.
" This iiower of sanctity, whose fragrance has filled the whole Stirling's
Christian world, is the patroness of America, the St. Theresa of Spain,
Transatlantic Spain." She was distinguished, in the first place,
by her austerities. " 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, exclaiming " Indict y santa ! asi como llueven
rosas ; " (India and saint I 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 painters.
410
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEES.
One by Murillo, wliicli has been engraved, represents 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. Eosa 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. 411
The Caemelites.
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 Elijah,
" who dwelt solitary in the midst of Carmel ; " he gave example Dugdaie.
to many devout anchorites, of whom an uninterrupted succession
from the days of Elijah inhabited Mount Carmel, and early
embraced the Christian faith ; and tliis community of the Her-
mits 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 " La Ma-
•^ donna del
Mount Carmel : but, as yet, they had no written rule ; where- carmine."
fore, by the advice of one of their number, Berthold by name,
they desired of Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem, that he would
give them a rule of discipline. He prescribed 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 miracle-working mantle of Elijah Dugdaie.
the prophet, the mantle 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 general 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
412
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
hanging down to the feet, of the same colour as the tunic : this,
in pictures, distinguislies the Carmelites from the Premonstra-
tensians, 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 " Madonna del Carmine,^^ holds such a conspicuous place.
She is frequently exhibited standing with her white mantle out-
spread, while her '' 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 pic-
tures, St. Theresa of Spain, are generally distinguished above
the rest.
The rosary, liaving 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 Carmelite
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 Carmel before 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 which 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 b}^ 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 liis Life, that being summoned fromPalestine
by Innocent III. to attend a council in the Lateran, as he was
ST. ANGELUS. 413
preparing to embark he was assassinated at Acre by a wretch
whom he had reproved for his crimes.'
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, according to
tradition, St. Albert kneaded bread for the poor.
St. Angelus the Carmelite, bearing the palm as martyr, is May 5, 1220.
found in late pictures only. According to the apocryphal le- saint Ange,
gend, this St. Angelus came from the East about the year 1217, Angioiino.
landed 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 un-
hallowed union with his own sister. St. Angelo rebuked him
severely, as John the Baptist had formerly rebuked Herod, and
found the same recompense. By command of Berenger he was
hung upon a tree and shot with arrows : at least his martyr-
dom 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 Donienico, cite
coni'plmientano affettuosamente con Sant' Angelo Garmelitano.^^
Both these pictures were painted for the Carmelites at Bologna,
and are in the Academy there.^
' We must not confound St. Albert the Carmelite with St. Albert Cardial and
Bishop of Liege. It is this last St. Albert who, as patron saint of the Archduke
Albert, figures in Eubens's 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.
^ 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.
414 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OIIDERS.
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 sup-
posed origin and high antiquity of the Carmelites as an Order.
Thereupon arose a most bitter contest. The Carmelites 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 Carmelites
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 pa-
triarch ; of St. Albert, as their lawgiver ; of St. Angelo, as their
martyr ; of St. Simon Stock, receiving the scapulary from the
hands of the Virgin ; and, particularly, of their great saint, the
" Sevafica Madre Teresa^'' of whom we are now to speak.
I
ST. THERESA.
415
St. Theresa.
St. Theresa.
Ital. Santa Teresa, Fondatrice dei Scalzi. Fr. Sainte Therese de .Testis des
Carmes-Dt5chaiisses. Sp. La Nuestra Serafica Madre Santa Teresa de
Gesii. Patroue.ss of Spain. Oct. 17, 1582.
" Scarce has she learnt to lisp the name
Of martyr, yet she thinks it shame
Life slioiild so long play with that breath
Which, spent, could buy so brave a death.
She never undertook to show
What death with love should have to doe ;
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 Crashawe' s Hymn " in memory of the yirtuoiis and learned
ladye Madre de Teresa, that sought an early martyrdom.")
St. Theresa, 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 ORDERS.
perhaps, is not saying much, as that country was Spain, and she
lived in the sixteenth century. But she would have been a
remarkable woman in any age and country. Under no cir-
cumstances could her path through life have been the highway
of common-place 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 elo-
quence, 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, wliat working-
sphere existed for such a spirit lodged in a woman's form ? Mr.
Handbook of Ford calls her *a love-sick nun;' in some 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
the mother was the character of Theresa formed in her childhood,
and tliese early impressions influenced her through life. Amongst
lier brothers was one whom she distinguished by particular
affection : she tells us that they read together the lives of tlie
saints and the holy martyrs, until they were filled with the most
passionate desire of obtaining for themselves the crown of
martyrdom ; and wlien they were cliildren of eight or nine years
ST. THERESA. 417
old, they 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, looking
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 wdth 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 prin-
ciple 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. Something
whispered to her that she could be safe nowhere but within the
walls of a cloister : she abhorred the idea of a marriage which
3 H
418
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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 lit of illness, she took to reading^ the
epistles of St. Jerome, and this decided her vocation. She
obtained the permission of her father to take the vowj ; 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 pro-
nounced 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
Grod, 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 ; 1 had neither the calm
satisfaction of a soul reconciled with Grod, 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 Grod 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 re-
proach and penance, she sought and found relief and a fresh
excitement to piety in the practice of works of charity : she
laboured with her hands ; she tried to fix her thoughts upon
ST. THERESA. 419
others ; and nothing is more striking in the history of this re-
markable 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 flat-
tered 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 influence,
assisted her with money. In 1562 she laid the foundation 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 contend 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 what-
ever, 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
lier death she had already founded 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 continually 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
opposition and persecution from the friars ; and a schism took
3 H 2
420 • LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
place which obliged Grregory XV. to interfere and to divide the
Carmelites into two different congregations, placing Theresa at
the head of that styled the "Barefooted Carmelites: " in Italy,
Scalzi, the unshod ; and sometimes Padri Teresiani.
Besides compiling exhortations and treatises for the use 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 —
" 'tis not Spanish, but 'tis Heaven she speaks ! "
Sometimes, indeed, the language has the orientalism of the
Canticles ; and in this instance, as in others, may it not be
possible that fervour of temperament was mistaken for spiritual
aspiration ? Theresa, in the midst of all her terrors of sin, could
find nothing w^orse to say of Satan himself than •' Poor wretch !
he loves not ! " 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 Jose. She died a few
days afterwards, repeating the verse of the Miserere, " A broken
and a contrite heart, Lord, Thou ivilt not despise I " She
was canonised in 1621 by Grregory 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.
Her shrine is at Avila, in the church of her convent. " Her
ST. TIIEIIESA. 421
statue sanctifies the portal. The chapel is a very holy place. Handbook of
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 eminently
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 the 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 kneeling 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 conception. 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 Eome. 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, — en-
hance 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.
" An excellent work of Eibalta adorns the saloon of the Artists of
Spain.
Valencian Academy of San Carlos. It represents St. Theresa
422
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
82
St. Theresa. (From a Spaiiisli picture formerly in the Louvre.)
seated at table and writing from tlie dictation 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,
.ST. THEllESA.
423
painted for the '* Petits Carmes "
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 pur-
gatory. In the Euhens-religious
style, in colour, and character, and
life, this picture is as fine as possi-
ble ; and it must accomjjlish its pur-
pose 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. Eubens,
who had been in Spain, has here
given a real and characteristic por-
trait 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 apparition
of the Saviour ; an angel behind
83 St. Theresa. (Italian.) ^^^ ^^^^^,^ ^^^ fire-tippcd arrOW of
Divine love. This, I believe, is one of the few pictures of
Rubens never engraved.
By Massarotti : — St. Theresa intercedes for the city of Cre-
mona when besieged by the French.
By Guercino : — 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
rosary. Another, in which St. Theresa receives the habit from MUauGai.
the hand of the Blessed Virgin, in presence of her patron St.
Joseph, St. Albert, and St. Juan de la Cruz : painted for the
Carmelite nuns at Messina.
Attributed to Alonzo Cano : — A St. Theresa, crowned with sp.cai. of
thorns and holding in her hands the instruments of the Passion, piiiuppe.
424 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEBS.
Another, in wliicli 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 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 descending from the
skies. On a prie-dieu behind are the words, " Misericordiam
Domini ceteriiam cantahoy
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 con-
vent 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 j 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 is as remarkable to the in-
dividuah 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 reformatrix 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 not good enough for her ; it would have been the mere gratifi-
cation of a selfish craving for spiritual safety. She did much more for God
and man by living to the age of sixty-seven, and bringing back the true spirit
into the corrupted body of lier Order. There she is, — the w^onian of genius
ST. ANDREA CORSINI. 425
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.
In companionship with St. Theresa we find her friend San December
Juan de la Cruz, a Spanish Carmelite, whom she had united '
with herself as coadjutor in her plans of reform. He was the
first barefooted Carmelite, and famous for his terrible penances
and mortifications. He is often represented in pictures with St.
Theresa, kneeling before the throne of the 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, "a holy man who was frequently favoured with
interviews with our Saviour, and who on one of these occasions
made an uncouth sketch of the Divine apparition, which was
long reserved 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. Andrea Corsini, though he lived in the fourteenth Feb. 4, 1373.
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 his 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 my dream ! "
The youth, startled by this apostrophe, looked at her, and she
continued, fixing her eyes upon him — " Before 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 behold he was changed into
a lamb ! " He heard her in silence. The next day, passing by
3 I
^'^^ LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OHDEES.
the churcli of the 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 mind 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 Niccolo Picinino, in the battle of Anghiari in 1440. He
was canonised by Urban VIII. in 1629.
Soon after his canonisation, Gruido painted for the Corsini
family the beautiful picture which is now at Bologna. It re-
presents 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, he holds the Scriptures. Another picture, painted for
the Corsini family at Eome, represents St. 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 preparations made by his
family to solemnise the occasion, and withdrew to a little chapel
at some distance from the city, where, instead of the usual cor-
tege of prelates, priests, and singers, the Virgin herself and a
choir of ano^els assisted in the celebration. 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. Gruercino painted him for the Carmini at
Brescia; and in general 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.
May 25, Santa Makta Maddalena de' Pazzi was another Floren-
tine saint of this Order, one of the noble family of the Pazzi, of
SCEUR LOUISE DE LA MISEIUCOIIDE. 427
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 these, by Luca Griordano, represents 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 connection
with Art, without mentioning one of their Order, conspicuous as
a favourite theme for painters and poets ; — the Sceur Louise
DE LA MiSERicoRDE, 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 her story, — could be re-
garded 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 command as an altar-piece 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 Grallery, a head in profile,
is more likely to be the portrait of La Valliere so often alluded
to by writers on her life and that of Le Brun. Pictures and
prints of the " Soeur Louise de la Misericorde," in her Carmelite
habit, were once very popular : there is a very good one in the
British Museum.
3 I 2
428 LEGE^'DS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
C6e SesJuitsf*
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, a
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 embellishment of their sumptu-
ous 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.^
If the Jesuits were not wholly insensible to the ancient in-
fluences of art as a vehicle of instruction, they yet showed them-
^ 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 sagacioxis 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 direc-
tion and at the expense of the Jesuits. They were also the chief patrons — crowned
heads excepted — of Kubens and Vandyck.
THE JESUITS. 429
selves incapable of arresting — tliey 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 enlightened men, — men of
science, classical scholars, antiquarians, astronomers, mathema-
ticians, — 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 sucli
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 Gresu and the Sant' Ignazio at Rome ; 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 Grod I
Certainly it cannot be said ofthe 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 extraordinary, 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
wear the black frock buttoned up to the throat ; but the painters
430 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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 regulations, the
Jesuits were permitted to assume the dress in use in the
country they inhabited, whenever they deemed it expedient.
July 31, St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, was born
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 reopened
and a protruding bone sawed off, at the hazard of his life ; 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 he made a pilgrimage
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 witha nother
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 grammar
— 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 com-
panions, 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 themselves 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 without condition or remune-
ration to do his pleasure, and go to any part of the world to
which he should see fit to send them.
?
432 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEES.
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 commu-
nity the ideas and habits of a soldier, so the first virtue incul-
cated was the soldier's virtue, absolute unhesitating 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 Greneral of his Order in 1556, and was canonised
by Grregory 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 Eome.
Impressions in wax were taken from his features after death ;
and from these, assisted by the directions of Father Ribadeneira,
Artists of Sanchez Coello painted a head which afterwards served as a
239. ' * model. In its general character, this head is familiar to us in
art : a square, high, powerful brow ; a melancholy and deter-
mined, rather than stern, countenance ; short black hair, bald
on the temples, very little beard, and a slight black moustache.
Essays in " So majcstic," says his biographer, "was the aspect of Loyola,
^cc es. log. ^1^^^^ 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 sfold.
ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA.
433
St. Ignatius Loyola. (Rubens.)
In general, Ignatius is distinguished by the I H S, 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 Sacre Goeur, is also an attribute ; it is the crest
or device of the Order.
The subjects taken from his life have 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 up his lance before her altar, and dedicating
liimself to her service ; — nor the solemn vows in the chapel at
3 K
434 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
Montmartre; — nor the prayer at Jerusalem; — nor 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 Gal. by Rubcus for liis sploudid 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 Fa])er,
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 diver-
sified, and have so much the air of portraits, that I think it
probable Rubens had authority for each of them — (I speak, of
course, of the picture, and not of the print, which, thougli 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, disappear-
ing in the distance. All the figures are life-size, and the
execution, in the manner of Rubens, is as fine as possible.
" The Vision of St. Ignatius " represents the miraculous com-
fort afforded to him when on his way to Rome. 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 vohis Romce pi^opitius ero."" There is another
vision of St. Ignatius, which I have seen represented, in which
i
ST. FRANCIS XAVIER. 435
our Saviour commands liim to give to his new community the
divine name. An angel generally holds a tablet, on which are
the words " In hoc vocabiturtibinomen.'^ Both these subjects
I have seen in the Jesuit churches.
" Loyola haunted by demons in his sleep," is a fine sketch by
Kubens.
" 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
Gresii 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. Francis Xavier, the Patron Saint and Apostle of the Dec. 3, 1552.
Indies, was born in 1505. He, also, was of a most illustrious
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 mission 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 Groa : and, adds his biogra-
pher, 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, he had often groaned beneath the
3 K 2
436 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
incumbent weiglit of a wild Indian, of ebon hue, and gigantic
stature, seated on his shoulders. In those dreams he had often
traversed tempestuous seas, enduring shipwreck, famine, and
persecution in their most ghastly forms ; and, as each peril was
encountered, his panting soid invoked yet more abundant oppor-
tunity of making such glorious sacrifices for the conversion of
mankind. And now, when the clearer sense and the approach-
ing accomplishment of those dark intimations were disclosed to
him, passionate sobs attested the rapture which his tongue was
unable to speak. He fell oii his knees before Ignatius, kissed
the feet of the holy father, repaired his tattered cassock, and,
with no other provision than his breviary, left Eome on the
15th of March, 1540, for Lisbon, his destined port of embarka-
tion for the east." ^
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 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 Por-
tugal, 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 ! He never quailed under
obstacles ; never hesitated when called upon : his cheerfulDess
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 anticipations. Near Cape Comorin he appointed
' Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography. My brief sketch of the Jesuit saints is
taken principally from these volumes ; from Baillet ; and from Kibadeneira, himself
one of the early Jesuits, and for some time confessor to St. Francis Borgia.
ST. FRANCIS XAVIER. 437
thirty different 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
consecration 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 night-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 his last breath, regretting, it is said, that he Baiiiet.
should die a natural death, instead of suffering a glorious mar-
tyrdom ; 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 disin-
terred, and carried first to Malacca and then to Groa, where,
soon after his beatification by Paul III., a magnificent church
438 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
was built iu his honour. He was formally canonised by
Grregory XV. in 1622, in the same year with St. Ignatius, and
the bull was published by Urban VIII. 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 he 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, counterfeited the miracles of Moses
and Aaron.
The extreme puerility of some of these legends of St. Francis
Xavier contrasts very painfully with the truly Christian 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 represented.
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 de-
scribed.
Here St. Francis Xavier is standing on a kind of raised
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. 439
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 com-
plete armour, looks up at the resuscitated man with amazement.
A blind man is groping his way to the feet of the saint. A lame
man and several others complete the assemblage in the fore-
ground. In the background is a temple of classical (not Indian)
arcliitecture, 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 down-
wards in a stream of light. There are altogether more than
thirty figures ; and, in vigour and harmony of colour, in cha-
racter, in dramatic movement, this is even a more wonderful
picture than its companion. Eubens painted the two with his
own hand. He received from the Jesuit fathers one hundred
florins a day while he worl^ed upon them, and they were sus-
pended in their great cliurch 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 2,000?. They have since adorned
the gallery of the Belvedere at Vienna.
We have the '' Miracles of St. Francis Xavier " by Poussin,
treated in his usual classical style, which, in tliis 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 the wretched, and awakening
the most depraved and evil-minded to better hopes and feelings.
But the legend spoils this beautiful and faithful picture of a true
devotedness. It tells us that one 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 Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge,
which represents a vision of St. 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
s. Andrea- Gresu ; and another, remarkable for the pathos and the beauty
cavaiio.^ of the treatment, by Grianbattista Grauli, in the church of the
Jesuit Novices at Eome.
A picture by Seghers, which I only know from the engraving
of Bolswert, represents St. Francis Xavier, in his sleepless nights,
comforted by a vision of the B. Virgin, surrounded by a glory
of angels.
I have seen a picture entitled " St. Francis Xavier baptizing
a Queen of India," which probably refers to the baptism of the
queen of Saxuma 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 faithful historian, *' her conver-
sion was merely superficial." The Japanese queen contemplating
with reverence and admiration the image of the V^irgin-motlier
would be a most picturesque subject.
ST. FRANCIS EORGIA. 441
On tlie wliole, 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.^
The third great saint of the Jesuit community is St. Francis oct. n
Borgia. His family was at once most illustrious and most
infamous. On one side he was nearly allied to the Emperor
Charles V. ; on the other, he was of the same race' as Alexander
VI. and Csesar Borgia. Hereditary Duke of Grandia, 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, contem-
plative, 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 liis 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-thedtre, 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 Oarcilasso de la Vega, his dear and inti-
mate 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 by his sovereign, had filled
that life full of affections and duties. He was in his twenty-
* For an account of the miracles of St. Francis Xavier performed in Japan, see
the Life of the saint by the Pere Bouhoiirs, transhited by Dryden, 1688.
3 L
1572.
442 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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 G-ranada, where Isabella was to be laid in the Capilla
de los Keyes. The court ceremonial also required that, at the
moment Avhen 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 mean time the emperor ap-
pointed him viceroy of Catalonia. He repaired to his govern-
ment ; gave himself up to active duties ; attended to the admi-
nistration 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
liis earthly ties ; but his long-considered resolve to quit the
ST. FRANCIS BOEGIxV.
443
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 Eome to place himself and every faculty of his
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, meta-
morphosed 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 !
In 1555, Father Francis was elected the third General of his
Society, and filled the office for seven years. Eeturning to
Italy after an absence, he was taken ill at Ferrara, and just lived
to reach Eome, where he died, spent with fatigues. He was at
first buried in the Gresii at Eome, near his predecessors, 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 he took rank as a canon-
ised saint ; and it is in his saintly character only, — as the Jesuit
preacher, not as the cavalier, — that he is generally represented.
With regard to the proper character of head, we must remember
that no authentic portrait remains of St. Francis Borgia. He
absolutely refused, when General of the Order, to allow any
3 L 2
444 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
picture to be painted of liim. 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 his 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 Velasquez, in the
Buke 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 dismounted 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 probably 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 subject in expression, form, and colour, I confess it dis-
appointed 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.
Groya painted a series of pictures from the life of St. Francis
Borgia, which are now in the cathedral at Valencia. They
raust 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 baptizing 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 da3^s, — thus justifying
his nickname of Luca-Fa-Presto. There are many other pictures
of St. Francis Borgia, unhappily not worth mentioning, being
generally common-place ; with the exception, however, of a very
striking Spanish print, which I remember to have seen I know
not where ; — Borgia in his Jesuit habity with a fine melancholy
ST. LOUIS GONZAGA. 445
fiice, holds in his hand a skull crowned with a diadem, in allusion
to the Empress Isabella.
St. Stanislas Kotzka, the son of a Polish nobleman and Nov. u,
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 Rome 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 j oint 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 is the St. Stanislas,
over one of the altars in the Sant'-Andrea-in-Monte-Cavallo. i^ome.
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 GtONZaga, eldest son and heir of Ferdinand Gon- orst. Aioy-
zaga, Marchese di Castiglione, was born in 1568. His mother, June 21,
who watched over his education in his infant years, had instilled
446 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS.
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 difficulty 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 talents and his enthusiastic piety, and died in conse-
quence of a fever caught in attending the sick during the ravages
of an epidemic at Eome in the summer of 1591. He was in
his twenty-third year. He was beatified by Gregory XV. in
1621, and canonised by Benedict XIII. in 1726. He is repre-
sented 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 Grros, over
the altar of the chapel of St. Louis in the " Sant' Ignazio " at
Eome, 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, representing
all the Jesuit saints combined into a Sagra Conversazione. 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 stand the two young saints, St. Louis
and St. Stanislas; and behind St. Francis Xavier, the mis-
Eng. Tvirk- siouary-martyrs of Japan, holding their palms. There is a good
print after this composition in the British Museum.
The Jesuits have no female saint.
all, 1724.
ST. FRANCIS DE SALE?. 447
The Order of the Visitation of St. Mart.
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. Francis
DE Sales, Bishop of Greneva, and St. Jeanne-Franqoise de
Chantal, two saints of great and general interest for their
personal character and influence, but popular rather than
important as subjects of art.
St. Francis 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 Grod, and it is recorded that
the first words he uttered distinctly were, ^' Dieu et ma mere
7)%^ airaent bien I " and to the last moment of his life, love, in
its scriptiu-al sense of a tender all-embracing charity, was the
element in which he existed.
He was Bishop of Greneva 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 Greneva." The distinction here drawn, and the feeling ex-
pressed, seem to me alike 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 strict dis-
l(J:i
448
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC OEDERS.
cipline ; — 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 despair ! " To
those who remonstrated against this excess of mercy, he con-
tented himself with replying, "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 Flechier
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 extreme
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 bare-headed ; and in prints the usual
attribute is a heart pierced and crowned with thorns, and sur-
mounted by a cross placed within a glory of light.
The finest devotional figure of him I have ever seen is in tlie
large picture, by Carlo Maratta, in the church of the Filippini
(Oratorians) at Forli.
August 21, Ste. jEANNE-FKANgoiSE DE Chantal, the latest of the canon-
^^'^^* ised saints who is of any general interest, was the grandmother
of Madame de Sevigne ; and some people will probably regard
her as more interesting in that relationship, than even as a
canonised saint.
STE. .TEANNE-FEANCOISE DE CIIANTAL. 449
Mademoiselle de Fremiot, for that was her maiden and secular
name, was even as a child remarkable for her religious enthu-
siasm. One day a Calvinist gentleman, who visited her parents,
presented her with some bons-bons. She immediately flung them
into the fire, saying, as she fixed her eyes upon him, " Voila,
Monsieur, comment les heretiques bruleront dans I'enfer ! "
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 employed in
the care and education of her four children; still preparing her-
self 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 advantage-
ously to Mademoiselle de Coulanges, she prepared to renounce
all intercourse with the world, and to assume the direction
of the new Order, as " let Mere Chantal.'' Her children, 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 Sevigne, 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 " Soeurs de Sainte Marie.''
La Mere Franpoise died in 1641, and was canonised by
Clement XIV. (Granganelli) in 1769. Madame de Sevigne did
not live to see her " sainte Grande-Manum " receive the honours
3 M
450
LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDEES.
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 ^' une espece de fraternite hereditaire avec
les Soeurs de Ste. Marie, qu'elle ne manquait point de visiter
partout on elle allait."
Long before her canonisation, pictures and prints of La Mere
de Chantal, as foundress of her community, were commonly met
with : the only subject from her life represents her receiving
from the hands of St. Francis de Sales the Kule of the Order of
the Visitation.
85 A ]\Ionk recei\ecl into Paradise. (From tlie l\t)adigo of F. Angelico da Fiesole.)
INDEX,
Abelard and Heloise, allusion to, 16.
7iote.
A Becket, 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 England,
106. " Uncanonised" in the reign of
Henry VIIL, 106, Greatly honoured
by the Eoman Church, 107, 108.
Description of devotional and other
paintings of him, 107 — 110.
Adelbert, 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. 7iote. Pictures at, 268. 287.
Angelus, St., 413.
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury,
picturesque legend respecting him,
84.
Antony of Padua, St., 278. His salutary
influence as a missionary, 279. Mi-
racles, 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, Era 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) : —
Albano, 345.
Albertinelli, 81.
Angelico, 290. 313. 364. 367. 369.
373. 380. 399.
Aretino, Spinello, 18.
Arezzo, Margaritone di, 248.
Armitage, 103.
Arteaga, 189.
Attichiati, 392.
Avanzi, Simone, 17. 117.
Baldovinetti, 215.
Bartolome, Fray, 219.
Bartolomeo, Era, 145. 225. 356. 365.
374. 392. 395. 405.
Bassano, Leandro, 407.
Beham, Hans Sebald, 82.
Bellini, Gentil, 207.
Bernini, 152. 421.
Bevilacqua, 373.
Bissolo, E, 394.
Boccanegra, 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.
3 M 2
452
INDEX.
Artists — contin tied.
Campagna, 283,
Campagnola, 282, 283. 285.
Campi, Giulio, 174.
Cano, Alonzo, 287. 423.
Canuti, D., 18.
Caracci, Agostino, 137. 249. 252.
, Anniba], 158. 345.
, Ludovico, 19. 21. 158. 296.
403. 407. 413.
Carducho, Vineenzio, 132.
Caroselli, Angiolo, 178.
Carpaccio, Vittore, 207.
Castiglione, 199.
Cataiieo, 283.
Champagne, Philippe de, 19. 158.
165. 325.
Cignaroli, 81.
Cigoli, 251, 252.
Cimabue, 123.
Coello, C, 324.
, 8., 432.
Conegliano, Cima de, 74. )ioti'.
Contarini, 286.
Gorton a, Pietro da, 446.
Cosmata, Giovanni, 219.
Cranach, Lucas, 84. 185, 186.
Crespi, Giuseppe, 205.
Crivelli, 290. 327.
De Klerck, 333.
Dolce, Carlo, 190. 364. 370.
Domeniehino, 36—38. 366.
Donatello, 283. 285.
Diirer, Albert, 82. 134. note, 185,
186.
Eastlake, Sir Charles, 110.
Edelinck, 159.
Empoli, 333.
Espinosa, 409.
Ferrara, Mazzolino da, 198.
Ferrato, Sasso, 393.
Fiamingo, 18.
Folli, Sebastian, 396.
Fontana, Lavinia, 337.
Franciabigio, 215.
Gaddi, Taddeo, 116. 377-
Garbieri, 158.
Garofalo, 198.
Gaidi. Gianbattista, 440.
Ghirlandajo, 258. 266. 380. 392.
401.
Giordano, Luca, 23. 427. 444.
Giorgione, 32. 226, 373.
Giottino, 144. 277.
Giotto, 252. 259—261. 265—267.
Giovanni, Pietro di, 295.
Gomez, Sebastian, 334.
Artists — continued.
Goya, 444.
Gozzoli, Benozzo, 377.
Gruner, 290.
Guercino, 32. 152. 158. 372. 423.
Guido, 20. 158. 370. 426.
Guilain, 346.
Hemskirk, Martin, 76.
Hess, 74. 79.
Holbein, 186, 314.
Houdon, 128.
Huge, G., 27.
II Prete GenoA'-ese, 207.
Jordaens, 27.
Juanes, Vincent de, 201.
Kirkall, 446.
Lahire, 268.
Lanfranco, 32. 158. 330.
Lasinio, 280, 281.
Le Brun, 159. 324. 427.
Le Sueur, 18. 128—131.
Lippi, Filippino, 145. 378.
Lombardi, Alfonso, 363. 367.
, Antonio, 285.
, liillio, 284.
Maiano, Benedetto da, 258. 267.
Malosso of Cremona, 408.
Maratta, Carlo, 440. 445. 448.
Marratti, Carlo, 158.
Masaccio, 146.
Mascagni, 216.
Massari, Lucio, 24. 277.
Massarotti, 423.
MasteUetta, 369.
Matham, J., 27.
Max, Emanuel, 179.
Mazzolino da Ferrara, 198.
Mellan, Claude, 223.
Memmi, Simone, 356.
Methodius, 175, 176.
Miranda, Carreno di, 318.
Monaco, Don Lorenzo, 117.
Montagna, Benedetto, 16. 146.
Morando, 238. 314. 334.
Morone, Francesco, 238.
Moretto, 276. 327.
Morina, 353.
Murillo, 25. 30. 145. 199. 202. 254.
277. 286. 291. 315. 336. 341. 347.
351. 405. 410. 425.
Mutina, Tomaso di, 175. 178.
Novelli, 17. 208.
Orcagna, 366.
Orlay, Bernard v., 211.
Pacchiarotti, 395.
Pacheco, 403.
Padova, Gian-Maria di, 285.
INDEX.
453
Artists — con tin ucd.
Pamfilo, 149.
Passignano, 401.
Pereyra, Manuel, 128.
Perugino, 16. 122. 145.
Pesellino, 283. 295, 296.
Pierre le Gros, 445, 446.
Pietro, Lorenzo, 225.
, Sano di, 249.
Pinturicchio, Bernardino, 296. 396.
Pisa no, Giunta, 247.
^ Niccolo, 363. 367. 369.
Pistoia, Fra Paolino da, 334.
Pocetti, Bernardino, 216.
Pomerancia, 445.
Pontius, P., 209.
Pordenone, 207.
Poussin, Niceolo, 152. 212. 439.
Procaccino, C, 158.
Kaphael, 123. note, 198. 324. 352.
Kazzi, 394.
Ketzsch, 319.
Ribalta, F. de, 199. 202. 421.
Ribera, 380.
RoLbia, Agostino della, 295.
Roselli, Cosimo, 145. 215. 327.
Rovezzano, 122.
Rubens, 25. 77. 79. 333. 359. 422,
423. 432—434. 438, 439.
Sacclii, Andrea, 117.
Salcedo, 224.
Salimbeni, 216. 395.
Salviati, 149.
Sansovino, 198. 283.
Santa Croce, Girolamo de, 108.
Santi, Giovanni, 268.
Saraceni, Carlo, 83.
8arto, Andrea del, 122, 123. 213. 215,
216. 234. 330. 373.
Sassetta, 249.'
SchefFer, 380.
Seghers, 440.
Signorelli, 123.
Skreta, Karl. See " Zaworzie."
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.
377.
Trevisani, 284.
Treviso, Girolamo da, 108.
Artists— continued.
VakUs, 190.
Vandyck, 208. 212. 285. 29k
Van Eyck, Johan, 112.
Vanni, Andrea, 390.
, Francesco, 379. 395.
, Raflfkello, 395.
Velasquez, 443.
Veronese, Paul, 16.
Vischer, Peter, 81, 82.
Vorstermann, 108. 209.
Wierx, 443.
Zaworzie, Karl Skreta Ritter Ssot-
nowsky 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.
B.
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., 83.
Benoit d'Aniane, St., sketch of his life,
and notices of illustrative paintings
and prints, 31, 32.
454
INDEX,
Benozzi, St. Philip, chief of the Order
of the Servi, 214. Abandons the
practi^je of medicine, retires to a con-
vent, and dies General of his Order,
215. Works of art in connecrion
with him, 215, 216.
Berlin, references to works of art at,
158. 225, 267.
Bernard of Clairvaiix, St., 139. His
studies and rigorous self-denial, 140,
He and his followers build the Abbey
of Clairvaux, and renovate the sur-
rounding country, 141. He 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 him, 142—148.
Bernard degli Uberti, St., 148.
Bernardo dei Tolomei, San, 148. Founds
the Congregation of Monte Oliveto,
149. Pictures of, 149.
Bernardino of Siena, St., 291. Becomes
at the age of twenty-three one of
the most celebrated and eloquent
preachers among 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
him, 293—296.
Bible, the, its several parts formerly
regarded as independent books, 126.
7iote.
Black Friars, 229.
Blanche of Castile, Queen, interesting
anecdote of, 320.
Bodleian Library, Csedmon'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. 249.
337. 353. 363. 366, 367.
Bollandists, the, their quarrel with the
Carmelites, 414.
Boleslaus and his mother Drahomira,
their conspiracy to assassinate St.
Ludmilla, 176.
Bonaventura, 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 result of fii-
tiguing labours, 289. Pictorial re-
presentations of him, 290, 291.
Boniface, St., Martyr, 70. An admirable
subject for Christian art, 71. Quo-
tation from Sir James Stephen's
sketch of his history and mission, 7 1
— 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 witli music, as patron of
Palestrina, 160.
Bridget of Ireland, St., 195—197.
Bridget of Sweden, St., founder of the
Order of the Brigittines, 224.
Brigittines, Order of the, 224.
British Museum, incidental references
to engravings, &c., in the, 25. 32. 95.
108. 199. 392.
Bruno,- St., founder and patriarch of the
Carthusians, 124. His life, as illus-
trated by a series of pictures in the
Louvre, 128 — 131. Description of
other paintings in connection with
him and his Order, 131 — 135.
Brussels, joictures in the Gallery and
Musee at, 19. 77. 212. 333.
Csedmon 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.
INDEX.
Carmelites, Order of the, 411 — 427.
Pretended antiquity of the Order, and
its introduction into England under
the nameof" White Friars," 411. The
Virgin Mary protectress of the Order,
414.
Carthusians, Order of the, 124. Poeti-
cal nature of their traditional origin,
125. Their picturesque but gentle-
manly aspect, their skill in horticul-
ture, and sumptuous patronage of art,
125. Severity of their rule, 125, 125.
Nature 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 sub-
sequently appointed ambassadress to
the court of Naples, 389. Her last
moments, 389. Her letters to Andrea
Vanni, the painter, and legend re-
garding his head of Christ, 390, 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 Eoyal Saints, 169, 170.
Chartreux monastery (La Grand Char-
treuse), 124, 125.
Chaucer, 148.
Christianity, its low condition imme-
diately preceding the rise of the Bene-
dictines, 2.
Cistercians, Order of the, 138. The
most popular of all the Benedictine
branches, 138. (See "Bernard of
Clairvaux, St.")
Clara di Monte-Falco, or "Beata 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.
Constantine, St., 169, 170.
Corsini, St. Andi*ea, 425.
Crashaw, quotation from him in illus-
tration of the life of St. Theresa, 415.
420.
Cremona, picture of San Bernardo dei
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.
D.
Dale Abbey, its legend as illustrated in
painted glass, 85.
Dante, quotations from, or references to,
148. 232. 257. 380. 382.
Darmstadt, pictures in the Gallery at, 17.
Delphine, St., 333, 334.
Diego d'Alcala, St., 344. Canonised
from very unworthy motives, 344.
Interesting anecdote of Annibal Ca-
racci, who was engaged to paint the
history of the saint in a chapel de-
dicated to him, 345, 346. Description
of these and other paintings in honour
of St. Diego, 346.
Dominicans, Order of the, 354. Famed
for producing two of the most eminent
of religious painters, Angelico da
Fiesole and Bartolomeo deUa Porta,
355. Legend as to the habit adopted
by tlie Order, 356. List of the prin-
cipal saints, 356, 357. Specimens of
the ingenious apologues introduced by
the Dominicans into their sermons,
357, 358.
Dominick, 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," 361.
He institutes the rosary, 362. ; and
the Order of Dominican Nuns, 362.
456
INDEX.
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 a
Becket, 106. note.
Dresden Gallery, references to pictures
in the, 143. 337.
Dugdale, quotations from, 45. 58, 218.
220. 411.
Duns Scotus, 380.
Duke of Devonshire, references to pic-
tures in the collection of, 68.
Dunstan, 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. Eeaches the height of
his power during tlie ]-eign of Edgar,
93. 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 Kugier's Handbook, 52.
268. 356.
Edith of Wilton, St., 95, 96.
Edmund, St., King and Martyr, 86.
His picturesque legend, 86. His ef-
figies, 88.
Edward the Martyr, St., 96. His le-
gend, 96. His tragical death a favour-
ite 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, 311. Present state of
the castle of the Wartburg, once the
home of Elizabeth, 312. Description
of the chief statues and paintings of
her, 313—316. Poetical picture,
from the Grerman, with translation,
316—318.
Elizabeth of Portugal, St., 318. Her life
a very remarkable one, thougli pic-
tures of her seldom met with, 319.
Ely Cathedral, interesting carved groups
in the lantern of, 66-68.
Elzear or Eleazai-, St., Count 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.
F.
Fitzwilliam Museum, reference to, 440.
Felix de Cantalicio, St., 342.
Felix de Valois, the " Wilberforce " of
the twelfth century, 218.
Ferdinand of Castile, St., 187. His
fanatic but conscientious chai'acter,
188. Notice of pictures relating to
him, 189, 190.
Florence, notice of paintings in the
Academy, Gallery, and Church(\s
at, 18. 117. 120—124. 144. 209. 215.
252. 258. 266, 267. 283. 324. 333.
366 373. 377. 405. In the Pitti Pa-
lace, 16. 190. 234. 330. 370. 373.
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 Or-
ders, 29.
Francesca Romana, St., 149. Early in-
dications of charity and humility,
149. Legends connected with her
subsequent life, as illustrated in art,
150—152.
Francis of Assisi, St., 238. Prodigality
of his youth, dangerous illness, and
subsequent renunciation of the world.
INDEX.
457
239, 240. Passes his life in prayer,
penance, and charity, 241. Keceives
from the Pope a confirmation of
the Order of "Fratri Minori," 242.
Seeks martyrdom in the East, 244.
His extraordinary vision, and legend
of the stigmata, 244. His death and
canonisation, 246. Description of the
chief devotional, mystical, and histo-
rical works of art appertaining to him,
with legendary elucidations, 246 —
.269.
Francis Borgia, St., 441. His royal li-
neage, 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 Portugal, 442. Fills
the office of Greneral of the Society
for seven years, and returns to Fer-
rara, where he dies, 443. His con-
sistent opposition to the establishment
of the Inquisition, 443. Pictures il-
lustrative of his life, 443, 444.
Francis de Paula, St., 334. Turns
hermit at the age of fifteen, and,
being joined by others, forms the
Order of the Minimes, 335. Ho-
noured and courted by kings, 335,
336. His tomb rifled, and his re-
mains burned, by the Huguenots, 336.
Notice of paintings of him, 336, 337.
Francis de Sales, St., one of thefounders
of the Order of the Visitation of St.
Mary, 446.
Francis Xavier, St., 435. Becomes as-
sociated with Loyola, who sends him
as a missionary to India, 435, 436.
Dies, after great suffering, in an at-
tempt to reach China, 437. AccoiTut
of some pictures of him, with their
explanatory legends, 438 — 440.
Franciscans, Order of the, 236 — 353.
List of their chief saints, and remarks
on their great interest as subjects of
art, 236.
G.
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 picture
of St. Margaret of Cortona found in,
331.
Gonzaga, St. Louis, 445.
Gregory the Great, notice of traditions
relating to, 44 — 47;
Grenoble, St. Hugh of, 134.
Grey-Friars, 229.
Grotta-Ferrata, pictorial adornments of
the Chapel at, 35.
Gualberto, St. John, 118. His beautiful
legend, 1 18— 120. Founds the Order
of Vallombrosa, 119. Description of
the chief works of art illustrative of
his life, 120 — 124. Some particvdars
of the Vallombrosan nuns, 124.
Guizot, M., quoted from or referred to,
4. 27. 31. 113. 171. an^^iote.
Guthlac, St., his legend and pictorial
attributes, 63, 64.
H.
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 Constantine), 40.
Notice of the disputes concerning her
birth-place and lineage, 40. Legends
and pictm'es, 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. Eebuilds
the cathedral of that city, 135.
Memorials of him in the stained-
glass windows, 135.
Hugh Martyr, St., 136. His legends,
136. How represented in art, 137.
Humbeliue, St., sister of St. Bernard of
Clairvaux, 147.
Humility, St., foundress of the Vallom-
brosan nuns, 124.
Hyacinth, St., 405. Joins the Domi-
3 N
458
INDEX.
nicans, and becomes a laborious mis-
sionary in barbarian lands, 406. Pic-
tures of him, 407, 408.
Ignatius Loyola, St., 430. Enters the
army and is severely wounded, 430.
Eeads, during his illness, the Lives
of the Saints, and becomes a changed
man, 430. His pilgrimages and pe-
nances, 43 L Submits to four years'
hard study in order to obtain the
privilege of teaching, 43 L Meets
with five other zealous men, and in-
stitutes the " Company of Jesus,"
43 L Description of paintings and
statues of him, 432—435.
Ildefonso, St., 24. Description of two
legendary paintings illustrative of his
life, 25.
Isabella of France, St., 325.
Ives of Bretagne, St., 331. Said to be
chosen by the lawyers for their
patron, not Wwivpattern, 331. Studies
jurisprudence in early life, but de-
votes a great portion of his time to
religious meditation and active cha-
rity, 331, 332. Becomes Judge-
Aclvocate of Treguier, pleads gra-
tuitously the cause of widows and
orphans, and exhorts all parties to be
reconciled as Christians, 332. Pic-
tures of this saint, 332, 333.
J.
Jeanne-Fran9oise de Chantal, Ste., one
of the founders of the Order of the
Visitation of St. Mary, 448. '
Jesuits, Order of the, 428—446. Their
rise coeval with the decline of art — a
decline which they assisted in hasten-
ing, 428, 429.
Jews, fanatic hatred evinced towards
them in the eleventh and tweKth
centuries, and their imputed horrible
reprisals, 136, 137.
John Capistrano, St., 351.
John de Matha, St., founder of the
Order of the Trinitarians, 217. May
be regarded as the Clarkson of his
time in reference to prisoners and
captives, 218, 219. How represented
in art, 219.
Juan de la Cruz, San, 425.
Juan de Dios, St., 338. His early ad-
ventures, and grief on hearing of the
death of his parents, 338, 339. Goes
to Spain, is powerfully affected by a
sermon, and dedicates himself to the
service of the sick and poor, 340, 341.
The first Hospital of the Order of
Charity formed mainly through his
exertions, 340. His merits as the
originator of similar institutions
throughout Europe not sufficiently
recognised, 341. Pictures of him,
341.
K.
Kotzka, St. Stanislas, 444.
" Legenda Aurea," quotation from, 357.
Leopold of Austria, St.. 184. His le-
gend, 184, 185. Works of art in
connection with him, 185, 186.
Leuchtenberg Gallery, 198.
Lichfield, origin of the see and cathe-
dral of, 62, 63. Interesting stained
glass in the cathedral choir, 146.
Lieven, St., 77. His horrible martyr-
dom, 77.
Lima, Santa Eosa di, 409.
Lindsay, Lord, references to his work
on " Christian Art," 259. note, 285.
Lioba, St., a learned poetess, and com-
panion of St. Walburga, 79.
Lodbrog, Kagnar, ecclesiastical legend
respecting him, 86 — 88.
Lorenzo Giustiniani, St., 206. His
pious and humane character, 206.
Pictures of him, 207.
Louis Beltran (or Bertrand), St., 409.
Louis of Bavaria, King, 74.
Louis of France, St., 319. Claimed by
the Franciscans, 319. Anecdote of
his mother, Blanche of Castile, 320.
Excellence of his character admitted
even by Voltaire and Gibbon, 321.
The two predominant characteristics
of the thirteenth century, — the
passion for relics, and the passion for
crusading, 322. Louis sails for
Egypt, and is taken prisoner, 323.
Is ransomed, and returns to France,
323. After reigning sixteen years.
INDEX.
459
sets forth on his second crusade, and
expires in his tent in Africa, 323.
Devotional and other paintings of
him, 323, 324.
Lonis of Toulouse, St., 325. Becomes
hostage for ' his father when fourteen
years of age, and spends several
years in captivity, 326. On regaining
his liberty, he abjures his right to the
throne, joins the Franciscans, and is
made Bishop of Toulouse, 326. Pic-
torial representations of him, 326 —
328.
Louis-Philippe, his private collection,
reference to, 223. 423.
Louise de la Misericorde, Soeur, (Du-
chesse de la Valliere,) 427.
Louvre, notices of pictures in the, 17.
18. 128-131. 145. 222, 223. 249.
255. 268. 291. 327. 333. 337. 367.
407.
Loyola, St. Ignatius, 430.
Ludmilla, St., 175.
Luther, incidents in the life of, 84. 92.
Portraits of, and of his wife Cathe-
rine, 92.
M.
Malvasia, quotations from, 346. 367.
Mabillon, quotation from, 12.
Madrid, pictures in the Gallery, &c., at,
25. 134. 190. 225, 254. 324.
Maitland, Mr., quotations from his
work on the Dark Ages, 4. 126. note.
Margaret of Cortona, St., 328. Her
evil conduct in early life, repentance,
and refuge in a convent, 328, 329.
Pictures and statues of her, 329 —
331.
Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi, Santa, 426.
Martineau, Miss, quotation from her
" Eastern Life," 424.
Matha, St. John de, 217.
Mediaeval Art, remarks on the present
passion for, xviii.
Mendicant Orders, The, 227. Their
intimate connection with the fine arts,
227. Narrative of their rise and
progress, with remarks on the gene-
ral distinctions and peculiarities of the
several orders in reference to art,
227—235. (See "The Franciscans,"
"The Dominicans," and "The Car-
melites," under their respective head-
ings.)
Milan, pictures in the Brera, &c., at,
17. 158. 373. 423.
Minimes, Order of the, 334. 448.
Minorites, 229.
Modwena, St., 69.
Monica, St., 193.
Monts-de-Piete, origin of the charitable
institutions still bearing this name,
294.
Munich, notices of paintings in the
Gallery, &c., at, 76, 77. 81. and note,
145. 211. 314. 350.
Murray's Handbooks, incidentally re-
ferred to and quoted from, 157. 237.
281.
N.
National Gallery, references to works of
art in the, 27. 116. 198.
Neot, St., the preceptor of King Alfred,
89.
Nepomuck, St. John, 203. His firm
religious character, 203. Violent
death, 204. His statues in Bohemia,
&e., 205, 206.
Neri, St. Philip, 161. His superior in-
tellect, and useful and religious life,
162. Forms a community under the
name of Oratorians, 162. Legendary
incidents, with notice of works of art
founded on them, 163.
Nicholas of Tolentino, St., 198.
Nilus (of Grotta-Ferrata), St., 32„ Ee-
markable circumstances of his life, 33.
His death, 35. Description of the
legendary paintings of Domenichino,
36.
Nolasco, St. Peter, founder of the Order
of Our Lady of Mercy, 220.
Nonnatus, Raymond, or San Ramond,
222. Patron saint of midvvives, 222,
Inhuman treatment of by the Moors,
222. Various pictures of, 222.
Norbert, St., founder of the Premon-
stratensians, 210. His legend, 210,
211. Pictures from his life, 211.
Niu'emberg, its popular legends in re-
ference to St. Sebald, 81.
Nutsall Abbey, St. Boniface teaches
history, theology, &c., to his fellow-
monks in, 71.
0.
Observants, Order of the, 292, 293.
Oliveto, Monte, Congregation of, 148.
3 N 2
460
INDEX.
Oswald, St., his history as related by
Bede, 56—58. Devotional effigies,
58.
Ottilia, St., 80. Her filial piety, de-
votional spirit, and extreme austeri-
ties, 80. Sculptural and other repre-
sentations of her, 80.
Ottley's " History of Engraving," re-
ferences to, 225. 259.
Our Lady of Mercy, Order of, 220.
P.
Pascal, Jaqueline (sister of the great
Pascal), 165.
Patrick, St., 194. His early captivity,
and subsequent missionary efforts
among the Irish pagans, 194, 195.
How represented in art, 196.
Paulinus of York, St., picturesque in-
cidents in his life, 50.
Peter of Alcantara, St., 350.
Peter Martyr, St., 371. His intolerant
zeal, and violent death, 371. Notice
of various pictures of him, 372 — 374.
Peter Kegalato, St., 352.
Peter the Venerable, abbot of Clugni,
16. note.
Petrarch, 148.
Pier Toma, San, 413. note.
Port-Eoyalists, brief account of the,
164—167.
Porzioncula, meaning of the term, 243.
note.
Premonstratensians, the, 210 — 212.
Puritans, their fanaticism productive of
sad consequences to art, 39.
E.
Eadegunda, St., legend of, 220.
Eanke, references to his "Lives of the
Popes," 153. 160. 162.
Eaymond de Peiiaforte, St., 402. As-
sumes the Dominican habit, performs
numerous miracles, and di©« in the
hundredth year of his age, 402, 403.
Devotional effigies of him, 403.
Eeformed Benedictines, 113.
Eome, references to works of art at, 83.
117. 128. 158. 171. 219. 276. 290.
366. 378. 397. 440. 445.
Eomualdo, St., 115. Eetires in his
youth to a monastery, 115. Is scan-
dalised by the irregularity of the
monks, and becomes the founder of a
reformed body called " Camaldolesi,"
115, 116. Pictures relating to the
saint and his Order, 116, 117.
Eosa di Lima, Santa, 409.
Eosa di Viterbo, Santa, 334.
EosaHa of Palermo, St., 208.
Eosary, origin of the, 362.
Eossini's "Storia della Pittura," refer-
ences to, 295. 328. 392.
Eoyal Saints, early, 168—190.
Sacchi, Caterina de', notice of her votive
picture, 237, 238.
" Sacred and Legendary Art," quotations
from, or references to, 2. 11. 26. 35.
44. 46. 73. 91. 99. 117. 124. 170.
173, 174. 177. 179. 183. 186. 193.
202. 219. 285. 306. 328.
Savonarola, Jerome, 374.
Scholastica, St., sister of St. Benedict,
11. 23.
Sebald, St., 81. Legends respecting his
lineage, 81. How represented in art,
81—83.
Servi, or Serviti, the, 213—216. (See
"Benozzi, St. Philip.")
Sevigne, Madame de, her relationship to
Sainte Jeanne-Fran9oise de Chantal,
448, 449.
Seymour, derivation of the name, 13.
note.
Sigismond of Burgundy, St., 173. His
early crimes, repentance, and prayers
for temporal punishment, 173. De-
scription of the works of art in his
magnificent church at Cremona, 174,
175.
Sisters of Charity, when and by whom
instituted, 349.
Society of Jesus, Order of the, 428 —
446.
Soult G-allery, 222. 347.
Standish Gallery, reference to, 223.
Stanislas Kotzka, St., 444.
Stephen, Sir James, quotations from,
or references to, his "Ecclesiastical
Biography," 4. 164. 235. 432. 435.
Stephen of Hungary, St., 183.
Stirling, Mr., quotations from, or re-
ferences to, his "Spanish Painters,"
INDEX.
461
25. 30. 128. 131. 134. 145. 189. 201.
219. 222. 224. 260. 286. 315. 318.
334. 342. 379. 403. 409. 441. 451.
Swidbert, St., 76.
Swithen, St., instructor and companion
of King Alfred, 89. His legend, 89.
Possesses claims to reverence of a
graver kind than those assigned to
him by popular tradition, 90.
Theresa, St., 415. ' Extract from Cra-
shawe's "Hymn in Memory of Madre
de Teresa," 415. Her great natural
gifts, and energy of cliaracter, 416.
Early impressions from reading the
Lives of the Saints, 417. She Mis
ill, and, on her recovery, resolves on
entering a Carmelite convent, 418.
Determines on reforming the Order,
and lays the foundation of a new
monasteryat Avila,419. Encouraged
by success, she becomes the founder of
thirty -two convents, 419. Writes a
history of her life, besides several
mystical but eloquent compositions,
420. Increasing infirmities and death,
420. Devotional paintings in com-
memoration of her, 421 — 425. Miss
Martineau's account of her portrait
in the convent on Mount Carmel,
424.
Thomas Aquinas, St., 375. Lineage,
amiable characteristics of his child-
hood, and early adoption of the
Dominican habit, 375. Opposition
of his family and subsequent con-
version of his two sisters, 375, 376.
Striking anecdote of his humility, 376.
Is taken ill on a missionary journey,
and dies on a floor strewn with ashes,
376. Pictures of him described, 376
—380.
Thomas of Canterbury, St. See "A
Becket, St. Thomas."
Thomas de Villanueva, St., 199. Early
development of his charitable dis-
position, 199. Subsequently distin-
guislied both as an ecclesiastic and
a patron of art, 199, 200. Notice of
pictures illustrative of his life, 202.
Totila, king of tlie Goths, Benedictine
legend relative to, 22.
Trappistes, brief notice of the, 167.
Trinitarians, the, 217—220. (See
"Matha, St. John de.")
Turin Grallery, references to pictures
in the, 152. 205.
Turner's "Anglo-Saxons," quotations
from, 84. 91. 93.
U.
Uliveto, Monte, or Mount of Olives
congregation of the, 148.
Ubich, St., 134.
V.
Valliere, Duchesse de la, 427.
Vallombrosa, the Order of, 118—124.
Valois, St. Felix de, 218. 224. note.
•Vasari, quotations from, 258. 314. 373.
379. 392. 398.
Venice, references to pictures at, 73, and
note, 108. 207. 394.
Verona, references to pictures at, 108.
237.
Vienna, pictures in the Imperial Grallery
at, 25. 81. 178. 184. 209. 212. 252.
276. 434.
Villanueva, St. Thomas de. See " Thomas
de Villanueva."
Vincent Ferraris, St., 404. Enters the
Dominican Order in his eighteenth
year, and becomes remarkable for
power and energy as a preacher, 404.
Pictures of him, 405.
Vincent de Paule, St., founder of hos-
pitals for deserted children, and also
of the Sisters of Charity, 347. Par-
ticulars of his eventful and benevo-
lent life, 347—350.
Visitation of St. Mary, Order of the,
446—449.
W.
"Walburga, St., 77. Her various names,
77. Studies medicine, and performs
wonderful cures, 78. Enshrined on
"Walpurgis Nacht," 78. Pictorial
representations of her, 79.
Ward, Lord, his collection of pictures,
324. 352.
Wenceslaus, St., 175. Venerated
462
INDEX.
throughout IST. Germany and Den-
mark as St. Wenzel, 176. His mild
character as a prince, and death
by the hand of his brother, 177.
Notice of paintings ilkistrating his
life and martyrdom, 177.
Werburga, St. (niece of St. Ethelreda),
68—70.
White-Friars (or Carmelites), 411.
Women, incidental remarks on their
monastic influence among the Bene-
dictines, 79.
Wordsworth, quotations from, or refer-
ences to, 50. 95. 137. 238.
X.
Xavier, St. Francis, 435.
z.
Zanipolo, San, 373.
Zoccolanti, origin of the name, 231.
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