Saints of his holy Catholique Church to the wonder of the whole world euen in despiâ—ht of all sensuality and impiety Since so man glorious Kings Queenes delicate Virgins valiant Captains profound Doctours haue giâ—en ouer in seuerall ages all the whole world at once and cast the care of greatnes of pleasure of liberty of humane knowledge behind their backes for euer that they might only attend to the all-sufficient contemplation of Châ—ist Iesus nayled vpon a Crosse Whome how and with what hart can the eye of any ChristiaÌ„s consideration behould â—o shamefully naked and so mercilesly scourged so dolorously crowned and so impiously blasphemed for him and me and all mankind without a iust indignation against ourselues and implacable hatred of sinne and a most ardent loue towardes so deere a Sauiour wâ—th a most tender compassion of his vâ—speakable torments At least Catholikes that find not such holy affections in themselus as thâ—se wil neuer flatter themselues with a conceit of 〈◊〉 indeed true Christians whereas the aduâ—â—â—aâ—yes of the doctrine of Pennance thinke themselues bound to no other painefull acts but of the mind But when I name compassion I meane not a meere and only affection of the mind whereby we vse to greeue for the misery of another man but I meane by it a kind of joint-tenancy as it were in suffering as he suffered and as his Saints haue suffered through hiâ— assistance and by his example by fasting praying and retyring and mortifying and submitting our selues to affronts and corporal paynes for the satisfaction of Gods iustice due to former sinnes and that afterwardes neither sensuality nor ambition nor any other passion may dishonour and defloure our soules Now if these things be as they haue beene heere deliuered and as indeed they are in what glory I say shall we beleeue this holy and admirable Suor Maria Maddalena de Patsi to remain whose whole Pilgrimage in this world may be accoumpted to haue beene but one continued act of doing Pennance as by the readiâ—g of her life will appeare wherof as she tooke the example from the best examples of antiquity so she hath deliuered ouer her owne to all posterity And in what obscurity true misery do they remayne who being wholy blinded by their passions and euen pressed almost to death by daÌ„gerous obiects procure to make the very reasonable part of their soules beleeue that the liberty of the Ghospell of Christ doth free Christians from the â—ye of keeping his commandements and that because Christ hath suffered for vs all therfore he hath suffered all for vs and that we haue no corporall pennance lâ—ft vs by obligation to vndergo either with him or for our selues When any speach is vsed to them by vs concerning fasting they tell vs out of the Scripture that those things defile not the man that enter in but those others that issue out of man when we speake to them of other pennances they aske vs still out of Scripture Who commaunded these thinges at our hands And when we yet come further to such particulers as carry with them any extraordinary maceration of the body by hayre-cloathes or the drawing of a little bloud by disciplines or the taming of a mans selfe by long watches and the like they stuffe our eares they would stop our mouthes with speach concerning those false Prophets who are sayd in holy Scripture to haue launced and wouÌ„ded themselues with kniues and others that sacrificed their sonnes daughters to the Diuell It were well if once they would begin to thinke of what they sayd and finding that it is not to the purpose they might giue ouer sucâ— impertinencies as these For coÌ„cerning the firsâ— of these three places our B. Sauiour himselfe who gaue vs the example and who by telling vs how we were to carry our selues in fasting did imply a Precept of the thing it self he himselfe I say it was who tould the Iewes how man was not defiled by eating meate with vnwashed hands for which they taxed him but by wicked cogitations brought forth by the tongue and so powred into the eares of other men for which he reproued them By this doctrine he discouered their Hypocrisy and confounded their presumption but he did nothing lesse then disallow either of those fasts to which his Church should haue power to oblige our consciences or of those others which euery man in his own priuate deuotion should thinke fit to make either in contemplation of his loue or in vnion with his paynes and pennance As impertinently do they aske vs who commanded these thinges at our handes For that was sayd by the Prophet to the people which glorifyed themselus for the punctuality wherewith they performed certaine exteriour and ceremoniall thinges when in the meane â—â—me they persecuted the Prophets they opâ—essed the people they dishonoured God by â—ayly and hourely and grieuous sinnes withâ—ut any meaning to reforme their liues perâ—ading themselues absurdly that they had liâ—erty to be as wicked as they would so that â—ithall they carryed any appearance of piety â—n the exteriour Now what hath this obiection to do with vs who are taught by the Catholique Church that our principall endeaâ—our is to be placed in the performing of the will of God the rooting out of ill habits and â—he planting of solid vertue in their place and â—et that exteriour mortifications and pennances ought in all reason to be imbracâ—d as meanes whereby the mind may be brought back to God and to make some poore kind of amends for the vnlawfull pleasure which we take in Creatures to the great offence of the Creatour and especially for the loue of God in Câ—rist Iesus our Sauiour who suffered so grieuous things for vs. We shall therefore not only be wicked but extremly base if we dispose not our selues to pay the gold of his paynes with the drosse of our pennance And therfore when they aske vs Who commanded these things at our hands We answere with oâ—â— who sayd most worthily That the law of Gâ— commandeth vs but a litle but the loue of Gâ— a great deale Yet besides all this there are â—mong other examples in holy Scripture bothâ— the old and new Testament which are pregnant proofes of what we ought to doe in thâ— particuler and in either of them I will giue oâ— instance I meane not heere to presse the exampâ— of the glorious Precursour Baptist of our 〈◊〉 Sauiour S. Iohn for he was sanctifyed in hiâ— Mothers wombe the life which he lead iâ— the wildernesse with a perpetuity of solitude haire-cloaths extreme fasts and prayers is rather to be accounted of austerity then property of pennance because we do not know that he euer sinned voluntarily Besides that the admirable sanctity of his life in this kind is so notorious to the world as that I may forbeare alâ— speach therof though Melancthon and some others of that miserable crew would needes transforme his Camells-haire into Chamlet and
watching not only in the tyme of her Probation but euen in the whole course of her life whilest she had any health she obtayned that the Office should be euer hers of calling the Religious to Mattins Many tymes also in the very dead of the night she was heard to sigh and weep bitterly and sometimes to punish her body with sharp and seuere disciplines but she being assisted by diuine grace found her selfe in the midst of these mortifications to gather strength When the fiue yeares of her Probation were ended she had particuler light from our Lord how his diuine will was that she should according to the custom of the Monastery returne to the vse of single soaled shooes and slippers which she did readily fullfill but as for hose in her life she neuer put any on againe except for a time of two yeares wherein she was still recouering out of a dangerous sicknes After her Probation ended she began also being so aduised from aboue to take vpon Sundayes not the food of Lent but such as was common to the Monastery and on thursdayes to drinke a litle wine but vpon other dayes she continued to fast with bread and water for twenty months afterwardes But her Superiours then seeing that her forscedayly diminished by her leading so rigorous a life and fearing that so they might loose the mirrour of so admirable â—n example they commanded her by hoâ—y Obedience that she earnestly should desire grace of our Lord that she might be able to liue according to the common vse She therefore being vrged by holy Obedience powred forth feruent prayers to the Eternall God and obteyned to know his diuine will to be this that she wholy should resigne her selfe to the Obedience of her Superiours Wherupon they ordeyned that she should feed vpon commoÌ„ meats wherin after her manner she obeyed readily And verily she was in this an admirable spectacle to all the Monastery for still she fed her selfe most sparingly and chose for her food the meanest poorest meats Note making shew with a holy kind of craft that she liked them best But she neuer gaue ouer the vse of cloathing her selfe with one only Coat and that the poorest in the Monastery except in the two yeares of her great infirmity and recouery from the same nor did she euer giue ouer to sleep vpon a hard sacke of straw in the whole tyme of her life Only when she began to be sick of that disease which brought her afterwards to her end she was commaunded by holy Obedience to vse matteresse and when her sicknes afterwards so farre increased as that she was tyed to her bed of her selfe she demanded that her Superiours would permit her to rest vpon a fetherbed and to serue her self of linnen sheets not for the ease of her body as she priuatly acquainted some of the Religious but to the end that she might not be accounted singular but as the rest And heerein did euidently appeare the diuine prouidence for that body of hers came by little and little to so extreme extenuation that without faile she could not haue long eÌ„dured either vpon a sacke or yet vpon a mattresse So as in this manner this good Mother came by so prayse-worthy a life vnto her death thereby she being top full of merits and of holy operations passed on as we may piously beleeue to life eternall She recouereth one of the Religious who was neere to death of an incurrable sore and freeth another from Leprosy CHAP. 48. ON the 31. of December 1591. being rapt in making her prayer when she should haue gone to be communicated with the rest the tyme was past and all the Religious were communicated without reflecting that she had beene wanting a thing that neuer happened to her before But our Lord who guides his seruants with a superiour kind of prouidence ordeyned that when she returned from the Rapt she might be communicated with Suor Cherubina of Rabatta a Religious woman who was grieuously sicke of an incurable sore Vpon this occasion the patient found her selfe euen possest with a liuely fayth that she was by the others meanes to receaue her health as indeed it proued for she was no sooner communicated but the Mother Suor Maria Maddalena becamâ— abstracted from her senses and drawing neere to the bed of the sicke person looking stedfastly vpon her sayd thus Ioynâ— with me O my Sister in the d sire of your health She hearing these words who already prepared her selfe towards the last passage resigned her selfe to the will of God reposing in him all her confidence In the meane tyme the good seruant of God Note signing the sore of the sicke person thrice with the signe of the Crosse and making a short prayer by her went away An admirable thing it was how her excessiue payns ceased in the instant and the feuer in great part was diminished and she found such amendment as when the Phisitian and Surgeon came being all astonished at the accident they affirmed ioyntly that the health of that sicke woman which had beene despaired of proceeded from no other cause then the power of God by the merits of his beloued Spouse In the same yeare Suor Maria Benigna Orlandini a Religious Profest was in great danger of life by a contagious sicknes which by Phisitians was held a â—eprosy and it possessing the eares and the head and other parts of her person did beyond measure afflict her Being in â—o dangerous state she recommended her selfe often to the prayers of this blessed â—oule Whereupon she being one morning rapt in Extasis after hauing receaued the B. Sacrament she went towards â—he sicke woman and hauing taken off â—he veyles from her head with her very â—ongue she licked the eares Note and the head of the Patient in those places where the â—oare was greatest And this she did with â—o great charity that it pleased our Lord â—o restore the others health thereby in very short tyme. She is yet aliue an clearely testifyeth this miracle She foretells many thinges CHAP. 31. IN the same yeare when the Right Reuerend man Francesco Benuenuti the Penitentiero and a Chanon of the Church of Florence was giuen by the Lord Cardinall Archbishop of Florence to be the Gouernour of that Monastery this seruant of God vnderstood that he was to hold the place iust halfe as long as the former Confessarius had done which were 28. yeares And so it fell out for hauing exercised that place with great prudeÌ„ce charity for the space of 14. yeares he passed to a better life in the yeare 1605. with great example of good life And for the much deuotion he had to this Monastery he desired to be there buryed the rather that he might participate of the feruent prayers of those Mothers Within a short tyme after she foretold that our Lord had chosen a young Mayd to be a Religious in that Monastery that if she hearkned not to the
his Locusts into Lobsters But I passe ouer those blind and bold blasphemies and the only vse that I will make of S. Iohns example in â—is place is that men shall not doe amisse thus 〈◊〉 paralell themselues by him as to say That â—one sanctified in his Mothers wombe a â—rophet an Angell a second Elias an Erâ—ite a Virgin a Precursor Baptist of â—hrist our Lord and one who by his sacred teâ—timony was pronounced to be the greatest which then had risen among the sonnes â—f men did passe his dayes and yeares euen â—rom his tender infancy in such a holy excesse of â—ufferance and such a generall restraint of himselfe euen from those contentments and â—leasures of this life which yet in themselues are not vnlawfull and all this before the Sauiour of the world had manifested his owne â—aynefull life the bitter passion of his neuer â—nough lamented death what will it become vs to do to suffer for his sake for our sins which we know if we will consider them to be infinite But in particuler I desire that the Royall Prophet Dauid be looked vpon with an attentiue eye He pretended no such priuiledge as these Carpet-Caualliers of Christ do sometymes assume whilest they excuse themselues either vpon the tendernes of their complexion or the contrariety of their custome or the variety of their imployments and vocation 〈◊〉 nature he was faire and of deliâ—ate constitâ—tion bâ— custome he was after his first remoâ— from priuate fortune a Coâ—rtier a sâ—uldiâ— by condition he grew afterwardes to be Kiâ— of extraordinary power and command aâ— withaâ— oâ— infinite affaires It is true that hâ— came by the ill custoâ—y of his senses to be hâ— a certaine beauty with too much appetite anâ— the resolution to comit adultery made heâ— designe and execute a murder and that withsâ—od ouâ— circumstances as did extremely aggrauate the fact it selfe Such waâ— his sinnâ— now looke a little vpon his pennance Iâ—mediatly after he waâ— brought baâ—ke to himselfe by the Prophet Nathan he confessed and renounceâ— his fault and fled at full speed to the mercy of Almighty God imploring it in most tender deere termes Which though it might go for much with others yeâ— was it nothing with him for he soone left wordes and be toâ—ke himselfe to deeds by bringing sorâ—h fruits worthe of pennance For one thing it is as sayth the great Saint Gâ—ey to bring forth fruits worthy of Innocâ—â—cy and anotâ—er to bring them forth worthy of Pennance He bringes them forth worthy of Innocency who abstains â—om things that are vnlawfull but they are â—t fruits worthy of pennance which suppoâ—th that a man hath sinned vnles as he hath â—ne somethings vnlawfull so in contemplatioÌ„â—hereof he be content to abstaine afterwardes â—en from things which in theÌ„selus are lawful But in the Prophet Dauid let vs conâ—der first that without al doubt he did much â—flict himselfe many wayes which we were neâ—er acquainted withall For a lesse perfect man â—en the Prophet Dauid was would not speak â—f all that past betweene God and him in that â—nd Next let vs duly ponder that whatsoâ—er is recompted of him by himself is as true 〈◊〉 God for the Holy Ghost did not only make â—he pen but guide the hand that wrote it so 〈◊〉 to make the least doubt of the certain truth â—hereof is to be without doubt no Christian By his eyes he had offended and behold â—hose eyes of his are now become euen sluses â—ud-gates of teares which when he was in his â—d did serue him for a Bath and when he was 〈◊〉 table did water the wine as he was drinking 〈◊〉 Exitus aquarum deduxerunt oculi mâ—â— â—uia non custodierunt legem tuam Lachrymis meis stratum meum rigabo Pâ— tum meum cum sletu miscebam Turbâ— tus est à furore oculus meus inueteraâ— inter omnes inimicos meos His very eyâ— sight grew dimme through his consideratiâ— of the wrath of God and it wasted him in suâ— sort that euen in the sight of all his enemyeâ— it decayed him and made him ould He was 〈◊〉 continually in lamentation as that it broughâ— him to be nothing but skin and bones A voâ— gemitus mei ad haesit os meum carnimeâ— He was not only mortified in his drinke 〈◊〉 his lodging but as much at least in his meate and cloathing for he fed vpon ashes as if iâ— had beene bread Quia cinerem tamquam panem manducabam yea he was not sâ— much a Protestant but that he thought it 〈◊〉 good way to work vpon the interiour by meanâ— of the exteriour for he humbled his soule by fasting Humiliaui ieiunio animam meaÌ„ and not only with fasting but with haircloatâ— or sackecloath also induebam me cilicioâ— Nor yet was all this all the trouble thaâ— he put his body vnto for he sayth Quoniam ego in flagella paratus sum and certainly if he were prepared for the whip it is not to be doubted but that the whip was sometymes prepared for him He had offended God by the vnlawfull vse of Bersabees company but now he would be leauing both hers and all other company and lamenting himselfe all alone like a Pelican in the wildernes like a solitary sparrow vpon the house top and like a night-Rauen in that sad habitation which she chocseth Similis factus sum Pellicano solitudinis factus sum sicut Nicticorax in domicilio Vigilaui factus sum sicut passer solitarius in tecto He had certainly byn of scandall and induced others by his example to sinne and for this cause it became him to be so zealous afterward of the good of others which affected him so far as by the excese therof to be grown euen into a consumptioÌ„ Tabescere me fecit zelus meus yea and he would faynt swoone through the anguish he conceaued for the sinnes that were committed by others against God Defectio tenuit me pro peccatoribus derelinquentibus legem tuam His prayers in the meane tyme were far from being intermitted for in that kind he called vpon God seauen tymes in day and night whereof midnight was one and early in the morning was another Septies in die laudeâ— dixi tibi Media nocte surgebam In matutinis meditabor in te Such a penitent was this and far more then such a one as I haue heere expressed for I may not enlarge my selfe as I would and yet he was assured by Nathan that God had forgiuen his sinne nay himself was made Prophet of God and a type of Christ and a secretary of the holy Ghost and moreouer he was a King and he neuer had but one fitt of that burning feauer of sensuality and when once he had byn reproued by the Prophet he instantly reformeâ— himselfe and neuer would nor neuer did serue vp the second course of sinne How much theâ— may this example confound vs Catholiks whâ— offending God so much and which
many Doctors and Fathers as hauâ— had occasion to speake heerof but euen of very reason and common sense it selfe Least of all doth that other instance oâ— the false Prophets idolaters make againsâ— the vse of such Pennance as is imbraced by Catholikes in honour of Christ our Sauiour anâ— in chastisement of themselues for hauing offended his diuine Maiesty by the transgression oâ— his lawes For as God and Belial haue nothing common to one another so neither haâ— their sonnes and seruants Those other by their barbarous ostentations of cruelty did buâ— offer sacrifice to the Diuell and thereby theâ— endeauoured to giue reputation both to themselues and to their Idolatrous worship of falsâ— Gods whereas we on the other side by the moderate and secret punishment which we inflict vpon our selues do acknowledge our frailtyes in the only true and euer liuing God and do obtaine through his mercy who will reward that openly which he seeth in secret so much grace as may futurely make vs lesse offensiue to him wherein we are iustifyed as hath byn seene by the example of the greatest Saints of the Church of God who haue traced out this way vnto vs. And our present Aduersaryes do not consider in the meane tyme that they study not to fasten any thing vpon vs in this particuler to which they also incidently entitle not the Prophets and Apostles and all the holy Eremits Martyrs Doctours Confessours and Virgins of the holy Catholike Church And indeed if we meane to inherit the promises of Christ Iesus our Lord and Maister we must consider and accept of the Legacye which he gaue to his chosen followers euen when he was going out of this life which was no better then a bundle of myrrh for he sayd we should grieue weep and the world and worldly men should be well at ease and full of ioy And though his word be as as good as his Oath yet to the end that with vs it might haue the better credit he affirmed it with great asseueration only he tould vs withall that a tyme would come when our sorrow should be turned to ioy in like maÌ„ner there is no doubt but that their dissolute and vicious ioy will end in lamentable affliction and desolation Amen amen dico vobis quia plorabitis flebitis vos mundus autem gaudebit sed tristitia vestra vertetur in gaudium Wicked men at that day will be strangely at their wits end and so extremely out of couÌ„tenance as that they would be glad to bribe hideous montaynes to ouerwhelme and hide them from the wrath of God But such wishes or offers will not serue their turnes for there they must appeare in the eye of the whole world and that with such a cry of lamentation as none but the vtterers of it are able to comprehend There shall they haue an inflexible Iudg aboue them the Conscience of deserued death within them the Memory of an vgly and naughty life behind them an Eternity of vnquenchable fire and an irreparable losse of God before them huge squadrons of deuouring spirits round about them and hell it selfe with a swallowing and insatiable mouth vnder them Being thus on all sides besieged the Holy Ghost himself hath beene pleased by way of preuention to let vs know how these men who would needs haue the world at will and who placed their felicity in the commodityes and pleasures of their own and the affliction of other folkes are to expresse themselues to their owne greater confusion when they shall behould the Elect of God Stabunt iusti in magna constantia aduersus eos Sap. 8â— qui se angustiauerunt qui abstulerunt labores eorum Videntes turbabuntur timore horribli mirabuntur in subitatione insperatae salutis dicentes intra se poenitentiam agentes prae angustia spiritus gementes Hi sunt quos aliquando habuimus in derisum in similitudinem improperij Nos insensati vitam illorum aestimabamus insaniam finem illorum sine honore Ecce quomodo computati sunt inter filios Dei inter Sanctos sors illorum est Which signifyeth to this effect The iust shall stand with great constancy against those who oppressed them and haue taken their labours from them When the wicked see them they shall be shaken wiâ—h a horrible feare and they shall wonder to see how suddainely they are come into a despaire of all saluation saying thus within themselues being all wounded with griefe and sighing deeply through the affliction of their spirit These are the men whoÌ„ formerly we had in scorn held to be fit for nothing but reproach We senseles persons esteemed their life to be a madnes and their end to be without honour but now behold how they are numbred among the sonnes of God and their lot is fallen among the Saints And heere I will beseech both all Protestants who laugh at the Catholike Church when it is subiect to persecution and when it speakes of Pennance and therefore in their translation of the Bible they do expresse poenitentiam agite by the wordes of Repentance only and not of doing pennance as if all consisted in the bare affection of the mind without putting the body to any paine at all and all sensuall Catholiks also who allow of the name but care not for the thing which by it is signifyed I beseech them both I say euen by the sacred bowells of our B. Sauiour and if interest weigh more with them then loue by the desires they haue of declining that â—ake of torment to ponder well this place of Scripture last alledged and to see who they be that must perforce take those words into their mouth at the day of iudgment that is whether they are to be good Catholikes who are persecuted and who haue lead an austere life of pennance according to the Counsailes of Christ our Sauiour and the practise of our holy Mother the Church or whether they be not Protestants and such as will be Libertines of any other Religion It is euident that Catholikes neuer let it passe their thoughts that the life of a Protestant or Libertine was to be accompted a kind of madnes according to the state of this only world and the discourse of flesh and bloud wherof that place of Scripture speaketh for if we square things by this only rule and that we thinke not of the other better life there is noe question but they are the only wise well iudging men and in conformity of this doth the holy Apostle expresse himselfe when he sayth that sinnes are Prudentia carnis The wisedome of the flesh But Protestants and other Libertines are without all manner of contradiction the men that count all otherâ— fooles who vndergo any penaltyes for their conscience and take paines and inflict punishment vpon themselues that so by the infinite goodnes of God they may one day arriue to heauen For how often do they make themselus merry with the