receive the Sacrament by appointment of their Confessor he advised all Confessors to take Confessions publickly in the Church every Holy day Wednesday and Friday on other dayes he would still have one of them there for that purpose For matters of the house he desired his should chuse a mean doing nothing that was singular At times of refection besides the usual reading which lasted somewhat above half the meal the rest of the spare time was spent in propounding a couple of Questions by turns morning and evening either pertaining to Morality or taken out of Sacred Writ or the heads of Positive Divinity which were modestly and briefly answered to by them at table according to every ones sense These are the main of those Orders Philip made in the Congregation an Institution since planted in many Cities of Italy and other Provinces The H. man was absolutely of opinion that each House that was erected should resembling his give Laws to it self and be obedient to the Ordinaries of the place independent on the Roman Congregation Of which two Bulls are extant of Paul V. and Gregory XV. Yet ambitious he never was of augmenting his number For when the finest wits and hopefullest youths daily flocked to him he would perswade them either to go into some of the Regular Societies or live as they were thereafter as he thought best for them but never would he entice any to his own Order either by intreaties or commendations of it Yea if all should have forsaken the Congregation it had not a whit discouraged him who used to say God hath no need of men for of stones he raiseth up Children unto Abraham If any attempted the like to his designe of the Oratory it troubled not him when one told him how some Regulars had taken up the custome in their Churches to make familiar discourses and that they were to be opposed he wisely answered And whose gift is it that any prophecy In other things he governed his Body with much prudence and caution and so demeaned himself that he cemented his own fast together in indissoluble bands of love and concord affirming it was harder then men imagined to preserve long unity among such as were otherwise at liberty and out of subjection which nothing doth more facilitate or sweeten than gentle conduct and moderate commands Yet did he never when there was need of it slacken or remit the reins of government having some of his so at command that with a look or beck he could rule them as he pleased and it was usual with him whensoever he would reprove any of them but to look sternly and 't was enough The detestable vice of disobedience he so perfectly hated ever that if any of his were found guilty therein they were straight discarded the House To which purpose he left in writing these words under his own hand If any think he cannot hold out by reason of the meanness of dyet the services to be performed at Church or the like but will disturb his fellows let him freely and speedily quit the place if not after a first or second offence let him be expelled for I am resolved ô ye Fathers they shall not continue amongst us who refuse to observe these so few Orders Thus Philip. And that all his might learn to deny their own understanding he sent them forth on business at such unseasonable times and hours as seemed against all reason and if they demurred never so little he redoubled his commands that so taming and mastering their own wills they might the sooner arrive at the height of true humility But what progress in piety he expected from his and what an enemy he was to the refractory and perverse the Letter which Cardinal Baronius sent from Ferrara while he tarried there with Clement VIII to Consolinus then Master of the Novices at Rome sufficiently testifies where he writes I must accuse my self indeed for writing nothing to you all this while were it but to thank you for your prayers to God for me I now defray that debt and as effectually as I can both thank and entteat you together with your Scholars my dearest dear Children to whom I dayly wish greater increase in vertue hereafter to do the same still Cherish Good Father cherish those young and tender plants dressing them to the likeness of their fair Precedent the Tree of which they are Branches the same way and course You steer conduct them and be assured Our B. Parent still lives sees and orders his holding a scourge in his hand to chastise the unruly For my self I beg of you R. Father to rank me among your Novices punishing my faults without favour or delay I would to God I could thus grow young again verifying that of the Prophet in me Renovabitur ut aquilae juventus tua Thy youth shall be renewed like the Eagles For this I take it is the meaning of Abishags cherishing David spent with travail namely when the heat of the spirit meets with old age Certainly Abishag as you well know lay with our H. Father who in his very last years felt such heats as he thought himsef in a manner burnt up therewith Not furrs nor purple can warm the aged but Abishag alone O let me obtain this favour of God let me procure this by prayer to enjoy her embraces in this last cold season of my life since this alone hath induced me to write So God bless and sanctifie you Ferrara August 14. 1598. Caesar Baronius Cardinal Lastly as to domestique affaires He was very cautious not to wast the goods of the Congregation being the Patrimony of Christ and stock of the Poor wherein he was so carefull that he would let nothing be disbursed more than needs must alledging that which Cassian writes of a Cook whom the Fathers sharply reproved for but wasting three grains of Lentils and that of S. Antonine Archbishop of Florence who went into the Church a nights and studied by the light of the Lamp lest as he said he should impair the Poors maintenance And if any judged it too great rigor he replyed Away with that nicety so the goods belong not to the Church do what you will with them CHAP. XX. The Obedience and Reverence given him by his Sons THe Congregation being reduced into this modell the Religious Father in the first place recommended obedience to his a duty which not only those of his House but even strangers most readily payed him nothing being so hard or irksome which upon his commands they would not attempt For this reason Cardinall Taurusius avouched some of them little short of the Egyptian Monks in point of obedience though neither by vow nor oath thereto obliged and that none of the Founders of other Orders that he knew of were more punctuall observed and obeyed than Philip by his Nor was it spoken upon slight grounds for some did so revere him that had he bid them throw themselves down head-long or into
able to forbear sighs and tears So that as at Florence he was sirnamed Pippus bonus so at Rome he gained the title of Philippus bonus Philip the vertuous Chap. 5. Quitting his Studies he devotes himself wholly to Christ AS soon as he had gathered from Sciences and reading Holy Books what he thought might suffice to the promoting his own and others Salvation taking S. Pauls advice Non plus Sapere quam oportet sapere That none presume to understand above what is meet to understand all business set aside he determined to know nothing but Christ and him Crucified Hereupon he sold all the Books he had and bestowed the Money on the Poor which act of Charity performed he betook him to his Prayers with more fervent devotion even to the spending dayes and nights therein and continuing sometimes in it full forty houres And for his better progress he began more severely to afflict his body sleeping on the ground anights beating himself every day with small Iron Chaines declining the Company of men daily frequenting the seven Churches of the Citty especially the Caemitery of Callistus where carrying with him only one loaf for his provision he would many times pass whole nights in supplications which strange course of life he led for ten years together Which Francis Cardonius a Dominican who then in Rome had charge of the Novices in the Monastery of S. Maria supra Minervam observing to encourage others to the practises of stricter holiness would frequently tell them Philâ—p Neri indeed was a right holy person who besides many wonderfull things done by him lived ten whole years in S. Sebastians Grots If he chanced at any time to finde the Church-doors shut when he repaired to those holy places he was wonâ— to stand in the Porch and there imploy himself in meditation on heavenly things oftimes in reading some pious book by Moon-light Here was he enriched with such celestial treasures here was he so ravished with delights that when he could no longer sustain those overcomming pleasures he would cry out It is enough good God it is enough withhold I entreat thee withhold the excesses of thy Grace for I cannot â—ear them and falling flat upon the earth he was faâ—n to roll himself too and fro No wonder therefore if being big with him who fills heaven and earth he did divers times affirme that nothing was more irksome more a burden to him that truely loved God than life oft using that memorable and common saying That Holy Men endured life desired death Yet God not only thus feasted his Champion with Spirituall Dainties but on the other side exercised him with the encounters of divels that assaulted him He went once to the Lateran Church and passing the Amphitheater of Vespasian an evill spirit in the likeness of a naked person comes out and meets him suggesting filthy and impure thoughts to him but the chast youth knowing the wily artifices of that old Serpent betakes him to his wonted artillery of Prayer with which he shamefully worsted the fiend One night also not far from S. Sebastians Church on a suddain three devills with ugly and grim visages the more to fright him met him praying and meditating as he walked but he as one disdaining them discovering no sign of fear went on undauntedly continuing in prayer with great tranquility at which they fled frustrate of their expectations And with many other combats in this kinde did those wicked spirits assail him over whom notwithstanding this valliant Souldier of Christ victoriously triumphed Of which in their proper places Chap. 6. The miraculous Palpitation of his Heart HAving lived thus a long time and now 29 years of age among other priviledges wherewith God honoured him the miraculous beating of his heart the fracture of two of his ribs so that they stuck out were not the meanest which befell him after this manner A little before Witsuntide a festivity dedicated to the Holy Ghost to whom Philip having long since piously surrendred up himself now more intensely pray'd Lo on an instant he perceived himself seized with such a passionate fervour of Divine Love that flinging himself on the earth like one in a swoon gasping for air he was forced immediately to bare his brest when the extream heat somewhat allayed he rose and transported with extraordinary joy putting his right hand to his left side found a kind of rising where the heart is seated swollen to the bigness of ones fist What the cause of this tumor was plainly appeared when he was dead in the view of divers for as the Surgeon opened his Corpse before skilful Anatomists that were by they found two of the five lesser which they call the short ribs broken clean asunder and sticking forth like a bow which for fifty years afterward that he lived at no time ever closed again and yet which seems incredible he never found from it either then or afterward the least pain or trouble At the same time though he were in very good temper of body and perfectly free from any grief or passion yet was he suddenly taken with a palpitation of the heart that held him from that moment to his last breath Yet it used to seize on him only when he was conversant in matters of Religion as when he said Mass gave Absolution ministred the Body of Christ prayed or performed the like offices at which his heart would so leap within him as though it would have broke its prison and have forced its way through him Then should you have seen the stools bed and the chamber it self shaken and tossed as with an earth-quake so once at the Cathedral of S. Peter when kneeling down upon a great and heavy board his whole body did so quake and tremble that the board he rested on moved up and down like a thing of no weight at all From that time was Philip so devoted unto the Holy Ghost that after he was Priest he would every day except the rites of the Church were against it use that prayer in the Sacrifice of the Mass Deus cui omne cor patet Hence it was likewise that if any Penitent coming to Confession chanced to lean against his breast he should even to admiration feel that throbbing of his heart and if his head touched him sometimes perceive it recoil as if struck with a hammer and he in the mean while freed of all Temptations So that Tiberius Ricciardellus Canon of the forenamed Church of S. Peter who voluntarily served the H. Man four years together left this upon record What time I served the B. man saith he I was surprized with a lewd and foul imagination which so soon as I had disclosed unto him he bade me come neerer and joyn my breast to his I approached did so and was instantly rid of it never after being molested with like impurities Thus Tiberius The same do Marcellus Vitellescus Canon of S. Maria Major one very gracious with Philip and sundry
God have mercy upon mee Kindle in mee the fire of thy love As yet I know thee not because I seek thee not O my Jesu What might I do to be pleasing to thee O my Jesu What might I do to perform thy will O my Jesu Give me grace to serve thee not for fear but love O my Jesu O my Jesu I would fain love thee I am distrustfull of my self and trust in the O my Jesu I cannot do well except thou help me O my Jesu I will do nothing but thy most holy will O my Jesu I never have loved thee yet would I fain love thee O my Jesu I shall never love thee if thou help mee not O my Jesu I would fain love the but find not the way O my Jesu I seek thee and do not finde thee O my Jesu If I knew thee I should also know my self O my Jesu If I should have done all the good in the world what great matter had I done O my Jesu If thou help me not I shall fall O my Jesu Cut away all impediments If thou wilt have mee O my Jesu Do with mee O Lord as thou knowest and as thou pleasest That shall become of mee which shall please the Lord I put my trust in God O Blessed Lady Obtain for mee the grace to be alwaves mindefull of thee Maria Mater Gratiae mater misericordiae tu nos ab hoste protege horâ mortis suscipe But Philip not herewith content inroduced a custom in most families in the City of having a private Oratory in every house where the whole number both of men and women might assemble to Prayers Nay some had not only Oratories but followed the same orders and courses observed in the Congregation The Instructions given by him upon this subject were these First he said The best Preparative to Prayer was for a man to think himself unworthy of so high a Service Next the frequent using to master our affections being wont to say He that went to pray and could not bridle and subdue his Passions was like a Bird not fledged yet offering to fly Being entreated by one of his Penitents to teach him to pray Be humble and obedient saith he and the Unction of the H. Spirit will teach thee He advised men to follow those inspirations God gave them at times of Prayer as if he incited them to contemplate on the Passion of Christ it were not fit to fly from it to the Mistery of the Resurrection no nor to desist from prayer if their desires were not presently granted but courageously to persevere till they obtained their suits He affirmed that if in Prayer any one found his minde quiet and at ease it signified either that what was asked was already bestowed or without fail would be very speedily He wished his Sons to be ambitious of performing the greatest services for the love of Christ not contenting themselves with any mean degrees of Piety but outvying in Charity for example if it were possible the Apostles Peter and Paul that so what they could not attain to in in the work they might in some sort arive at in their intentions Further he warned them who gave themselves much to Prayer not too earnestly or too long to gaze on holy pictures both because it did offend the brain and brought on illusions To such as lay under any spirituall aridity he prescribed this remedy that they should prostrate themselves before God and his Saints like beggars craveing with equall importunity and desires their sacred Alms as the ordinary sort of Poor do corporal food and therefore they should resort sometimes to one Church sometimes another as it were to beg mens Charity from door to door He counselled young Persons to meditate especially on the four last things saying that Those who went not to Hell in their life time were in great danger of going thither at their deaths He willed his humbly to recommend themselves to the prayers of others and at no hand to omit Evening Prayer and the Whippings used in the Oratory A man without the use of Prayer he said was to be ranked among the Beasts When the Physitian once enjoyned him to forbear his Meditation a while for his health after a few dayes Wretchâ—d I said he who am already me thinks degenerated into a Brute beast Lastly he averred that the devil dreaded nothing so much as Prayer and therefore laboured to his uttermost to disturbed it CHAP. VI. His Zeal for the saving Souls AS this H. man was thus enflamed with fervent Love to God so he burned with vehement desires of assisting his Neighbour addicting himself wholly to the converting Souls Therefore he sought to endear every one to him by offices of amity and affection and he that once came to him could hardly afterward be kept from him Lewd and debauched Persons he like a pious Father first wan to leave Mortall sins so by insensible degrees to bring them to that Mark of perfection he aimed at One came to him once intending to disburden himself of the Load of his sins though so ensnared in old habits of evil that scarce a day passed wherein he fell not into some offence him Philip enioined no other Penance but to come and confesse his faults to him as soon as ever he committed them He did so and still as he came the Father imposed no other punishment and so in a few moneths the Penitent took courage and so manfully resisted aspiring unto Christian perfection that Philip himself testified of him that he came neer unto the purity of the H. Angels themselves With the same spirit of meekness he reclaimed a most dissolute youth bidding him only to salute the B. Virgin a dayes with the Antheme that begins Salve Regina and kissing the ground say to himself By to morrow I may be dead Which he performing accordingly in short space attained to a vertuous course of life 14. years after dying by all likelihood in a happy condition Another of a very bad life came to confession to Philip and after Absolution according to the custom of his countrey would have given him mony but having none about him Pardon me Father saith he I want mony He smiling said Alas Son it shall serve me insteed of Mony that you come again to me next Saturday The Penitent did so and won by the Sweetness of the H. man soon proved a good Convert John Thomas Arena one steelled with impudence went sometimes to S. Hieroms Oratory not to receive benefit by the excellent Sermons there but to deride the Preachers which they of the Society not endureing complain to Philip who told them Sons let him alone and ye shall shortly see what God will do Well the young continued thus shamelesly affronting them till on a sudden reflecting on his villanous course and relenting he resigned up himself absolutely to the B. Fathers commands soon after in a holy Zeal entring a house of the Dominicans where he
youths that for want of subsistence were forced to quit their studies not only to find them food and rayment but buy them books too such as were necssary for attaining liberall Arts and Sciences Of these two so acquitted them in the profession of Learning that for their deserts they were advanced to the dignity of Cardinals And Antony Gallonius affirms no indigent Person ever came to him that went a way empty-handed yea some were of opinion that He was many times furnished with money from above some extraordinary way This so prodigious bounty or profuseness rather God was pleased to approve by most evident miracles For going one night to carry bread to an honourable but poor man whilest yet among the Laity for hast to avoid a Coach that was in full speed he fell head-long into a deep pit when an Angel catching him by the hair of the head miraculously preserved him About the same time an Angel met him in the likeness of a poor man desiring an alms to whom He offered willingly all the money he had when the Angel seeing his good will refusing the money told him I came but to try what you would do and straight vanished out of fight For this his Charity to the poor and care of saving souls he was generally termed The Father of souls and Bodies And many after his death recounting with themselves the charitable Acts done by him in his life their hearts melting in them at the remembrance thereof could not but weep and divers did frequently and openly affirm Posterity would never have his equall for liberality and munificence Therfore Cardinal Robert Bellarmin a man renowned as well for Learning as vertue and holiness whom the H. Congregation of Rites commissioned to see him entred in the Calender of Saints perusing the evidence of publique Testimonies and seeing such a Catologue of Charities did not stick honourably to entitle him a Second Iohn The Almoner A woman named Mary going to S. Peters Church that day the B. S. Francisca of Rome was Registred among the Saints and calling to mind the Alms she had received of the H. man in his life time the tears running down And when saith she shall my Father Philip be reckoned among the Saints too for if S. Francis carried faggots on her head about the streets to warm the Poor and needy nigh frozen with cold my Father Philip hath come to me a hundred times laden with bread and other kind of victuals to keep me from famishing This woman the Good man instructed in Mentall Prayer by teaching her to meditate largely and dilate on the first words of the Lords Prayer Pater Noster Nor was He only mercifull and compassionate but exceeding thankfull and free So Cardinal Hieron Pamphilius reports The H. Father when he lived was even in the smallest matters most gratefull to all sorts of men and so mindfull of any good turn done him that he ever returned more than he received Marcus Antonius Maffa saith thus Philip was so civil a Person that you could scarce ever fasten any kindness upon him which by mutuall offices he requited not more than double It was once my lot saith he to present him with a thing of small worth for which he sent me a brazen Crucflix of a great value which I keep by me as a most precious Relique coming to me thorow his B. Hands Thus Maffa Yet although He shewed such exemplary charity to the Poor he could not endure to have them go begging about the Church therefore sometimes would he rise from his Chair where he took Confessions and make them wait at the Church-doors as likewise he was very carefull there should be no noise to hinder the worship of God or disturb that silence that ought to be in the Church CHAP. XII His Tender-heartedness and Compassion PIty grew up with him so naturally from his Infancy that if he saw one in any misery or adversity it not only grieved him but out of tenderness of Spirit he could hardly look him in the face therefore though he loved not to carry money about with him yet did he not utterly prohibit himself that conveniency because he mâ—ght relieve the daily necessities of the poor He once heard of a woman who for want of clothes could not go to Church and presently taking off his cloak bad it should be carried her If he at any time saw Boys or Girles in torne or ragged apparrel he forthwith took order for decently clothing them Again if he knew of any one unjustly imprisoned he never left mediating for him till he were released He so stoutly defended a Roman Nobleman unto the Pope being wrongfully accused of Murder that he got him cleared of the Calumny A Priest falsly impeached of heinous crimes whereof he knew him innocent was through his means also delivered from the malice of his enemies In like manner he in commiseration to certain Vagrants or Gypsies called by the Italians Cingari freed them when they were condemned to the Gallies He also protected a Roman Lord from the wickedness of his Subjects that came to Rome to implead him before Sixtus V. and accommodated the differences betwixt them He was exceeding charitable to poor Priests and especially if they were forreigners In the year 1551 there being a great dearth at Rome Philip had six loaves brought him which he immediately carried to a Priest that was a stranger living himself on a few Olives and being demanded why he kept never a loaf for himself replyed Because I am better known here than he and can shift better then a forreigner He found out divers wayes of helping Mechanicks and Artizans such as earned their living by manuall trades and could neither put of their work nor get employment There were two Brothers Frenchmen very expert Watch-makers but grown old and having a great charge of Daughters that were marriagable for whom they could not provide Husbands the Good man perswades some friends of his who were well-money'd men to buy those Watches by which means the Maids had fair Portions raised This a certain man one wise for himself had observed and seeing a wealthy person buy such store of Watches upon Philips perswasions muttered privately what means this waste but finding afterward that by these sleights Philip as it were beguiled the Rich to maintaine the Poor he was no more Offended but thence-forward highly reverenced the B. man One time one of those that cry Succory about the City came to S. Hierom's to the Service of the Oratory and being very wet weather so that it growing now toward night the poor man could not go about the streets to sell his hearbs the Father out of pity that he might not go home sad bought some of his Succory wishing them that stood by to do the like and so sent away the man joyfull and glad with his money in his purse This his tender-heartedness and compassion appeared not only to reasonable creatures but even brute
peculiarly of the Foundation of the Oratory being much displeased when any adventured but to step into the Courts of Princes except only in cases of necessity so that he oftimes severely reprehended Germanicus Fidelius for frequenting so much company of Courtiers saying to him Vnless you quit the Court you will be made a Courtier and yet shall you never attain unto the dignity of a Prelate and he spake true For Clement VIII committed his Nephew Silvester Aldobrandinus for his instruction in manners to Germanicus and confered on him a Canons place in the Vatican which he at last resigning died as Philip had told him without any degree of eminency Besides the Servant of Christ would not willingly suffer any of his to hold above one Ecclesiasticall Benefice and on no terms would take the Confessions of such Prelates as contemning the Refidence due unto their Sees without colour of Canonicall excuse lived in the City a thing wherein he would not dispence with Cardinalls themselves In his discourse he would so sharply reprove the counterfeit Pageantry of the world that he was often repeating such sayings as these Vanitas Vanitatum omnia vanitas Vanity of vanities all is vanity There is nothing at all in this world good The contempt of Riches and honours is in all places necessary but at Rome most of all I find nothing in this world that pleaseth me but this pleaseth me most that nothing pleaseth me and the like At which divers being awakened and rowsed made after heaven with all their might CHAP. XVII His Humility THis so matchless Contempt of wealth and honours had its rise from his profound Humility which being deeply rooted in his Soul made him with S. Francis heartily and without hypocrisy profess himself the greatest of sinners which he spake with such powerfulnes of expression as witnessed that he really meant what he said Therefore if he had heard of any horrid crime done he used to say Pray God I have not committed worse And for this cause he read the Life of S. Mary the Egyptian much whose austerities he practised with great rigour though not guilty of heinous offences He every day complained in this manner to God Lord do thou beware of me for except thou assist me with thy help I shall this very day undoubtedly betray thee Somtimes he would say The wound of Christs side is wide enough already but unles God prevent me I shall make it wider When he received the Body of Christ in the Eucharist he said I confess Lord I confess I am inclined to nothing but evill he prepared himself in this wise to say Mass I offer up my self to thee O Lord of my self prone to all manner of evill When he was a young man if at any time he were sick he used to say Lord if I recover I will lead a better life but bethinking himself better in his latter time he used this saying If I should chance to grow well I shall as far as in me lies be but the worse for I have so often failed in performing what I have purposed that I dare not trust my self hereafter any more He had so firmly imprinted it on his Spirit that he had never done any good that when he saw young men thinking on the time they had for their progresse and advance in Gods way he would say O Blessed ô happy you who have time before you for the doing good in somtimes he brake out into this speech I despair so that meeting once two Dominicans and making his way on purpose betweene them he said Sirs let a despairing man pass quietly by you they supposing him to be indeed hopeless concerning salvation laboured to repair his confidence but he smiling told them I despaire of my self but I trust in the Lord and so went on his journey Yea he had so fixed his mind on the sense of his own baseness and unworthyness that on a time a woman requesting of him a piece of his garment as reverencing him for a Saint he in great wrath bid her Away I am no Saint but indeed a Devill Another time being asked by the Embassadress for Spain How many years since he had renounced the world his answer was Truely I know not that ever I renounced it Being once sick and desired by some holy persons to repeat those words of S. Martin Lord if I may be usefull to thy people I refuse not the Labour he made this â—t art reply Alas I am no Saint Martin nor ever thought my self such a one and should I esteem my self usefull I should account that I were undone Another time being sick and requested by a Noble man to pray for the continuance of his life that he might not leave his so soon without providing for them he angrily replyed He never judged himself worthy to provide for any A Person of quality seriously reflecting on the daily wonders done by him said Father Saints do very strange things speak not so replied he but say rather with the Prophet Mirabilis Deus in Sanctis suis God is wonderfull in his Saints Another telling him I am tempted to be beleive you are not the man the world takes you for saith he Know that is no temptation but a truth for I am nothing more than other men In this Humility of Spirit he used to commend himself to the Prayers of all and was wont to send to divers Houses of the Regulars to desire the Religious the Novices especially to remember him in their Prayers to God he likewise requested such as were Priests to afford him a share in their Suffrages when they said Mass in their Churches and chiefly on their prime Festivalls In like manner he intreated that he might beare a part of the Penances injoyned Penitâ—nts in Confession the Humble man hoping by this means through the prayers of others to obtain what he least expected from his own He also took it ill that any accounted him a vertuous or holy man and if he heard himself called Saint he would say wretched I how many rude Clowns how many silly wenches shall go to heaven before me One of his telling how he was held a Saint by all he cried out Alas Alas He was alwayes averse to estimation among men for when being young the Armes of his Ancestors were brought him as a memoriall of his family he presently tore them A little before he died he caused all his papers to be burnt He would suffer none were they of never so mean quality to stand bare to him Nor would he ordinarily let any kiss his hands although he permitted some that they might not go away sad He never used to discourse with Spirituall men about Spirituall matters He could not endure that any of the Congregation should call him Superiour or Regent but took much delight in the title of Father that name importing rather Affection than Authority Hereupon being afterwards Superiour of the Congregation he was by his still
you his place So Dottius got rid of that malady but died a few years after of another without conferring his Office on his Nephew Olympia de Nigris the wife of Marcus Antonius Vitelleschius fell dangerously ill being taking with a successive triple Fever Hieron Cordelius who attended her in her sickness told her husband none ever recovered of such a disease But Philip going to see her said he would by no means Olympia should dy for that her death would turne to the great detriment of that Family adding that he would so effectually solicit God that she should be perfectly restored No sooner was Philip gone but Olympia found her disease gone too and her self in a short space well beyond the opinion of the Physicians and those about her Hierom. Pamphilio not yet Cardinall lay sick unto death whom the H. Father visited twice aday but the violence of his disease growing upon him moved thereunto by the H. Spirit holding the sick mans head in his hands He prayed over him trembling every joint When he had done praying Now quoth he be of good courage for you shall not dy having said so the patient soon after re-attained his former strength The same Cardinall also hath left in writing that the like befell his Nephew Alexander Faustina Cencia Wife to Car. Gabrielius having bin long sick lay a drawing on Philip coming to see her layes his hand on her head saying Doubt not for you will not dy of this sickness She replying O Father I am even dead already he answers Be of good chear I warrant you you shall not dy of this disease And his promise was not in vain for the fury of her malady having spent it self and being asswaged she grew as well in health as ever Constantia Draco as it were breathing out her last saith Philip to her Doubt not for ere long you shall grow Of this are two sworn ey-witnesses besides Constantia herself strong and lively again and come to S Hierome's She finding it so indeed thereupon chose him for her Confessor The like hapned to the wife of Joh. Franc. Bucchius who being at the last gasp the Brothers of the Confrateruity of the Florentines being sent to about burying the Corps Philip bad her Husband Chear up your Wife will not dy of this disease He believing him was not disappointed of his expectations for to the astonishment of all she that lay nigh dead was restored to longer life Joh. Anton. Luccius oft mentioned already aged about threescore going to Rome his Horse flung him and with the fall put his shoulder out of jont leaving him for dead to all mens thinking upon which followed a Fever He straight sends for Philip both to give him Absolution for his sins and to pray for him withall that he might not dy intestate his malady growing so fast upon him Philip lovingly embracing him saith Doubt not you will have leisure enough to make your will in and dispose of your estate to your owne wish So when he had made an end of his Confession he began to mend and in a few dayes was very well who surviving the H. Father distributed well nigh his whole means upon the Poor Upon his pronouncing the same words Doubt not Joh. Franc. de Bernardis Priest of the Congregation presently revived This the same Francis and Alexander Alluminatus who attended him in his sickness witnessed upon oath beyond the apprehension of all when he had been anoined with the Sacred Oile as he lay a dying Agnesina Columna one of the most eminent Matrons in Rome both for Nobility and Piety recovered of a disease in which the Physicians judged her past all hopes upon his meer saying Doubt not as he used to do So likewise did Joh. Babtista Cribellius in a Fever and divers others in the very pangs of death recovered whom he had foretold should live As is attested by the experience of Montes Zazzara and many others CHAP. V. Sever all other Predictions of His. SUndry other Predictions there are of Philips Sulpitia Sirleta the Wife of Pet. Focilis had a Daughter of some four years old which was very sick the Mother sends for Philip beseeching him again and again with tears to procure her Daughters recovery Forbear your weeping saith he now God calls her 't is sufficient for you that you have nursed her up for Christ Sulpitia paused at this as loth to assent to him to whom Philip are you not contented you shall have a Son but shall be unhappy in him he will so vexe you Two years and a half after she was brought a bed of a Boy who when he was grown up never left disquieting and grieving his Parents till he came to an ill end Helena Ciba being in violent throws of Child-birth sent for the B. man to confess to and after Confession desired him to be God-father to her child when it was born it will not need quoth he any God-father and so departed That night Helen was delivered of a still-born Child A Brother of the Congregation was earnestly importuned by his Father to leave the Oratory for that he had got four or five thousand Crowns by wagers and Bets a thing then in use and he hoped to procure some fat Benefice for his Son being a Scholar He to avoid his Fathers solicitations desires Philip to let him retire to Naples for a time who assented to it So packing up for his journey and hiring a horse when he was ready to go Philip better considering of it denies him leave bidding him Doubt not And some three moneths after his Father having lost all the money he had won at play left troubling his son Olympia de Nigris having had seven Daughters desired a Son so coming to the H. man confident of speeding she said Father I have seven Daughters Doubt not quoth he you shall have no more Daughters And within three years she had three Sons who thinking her Charge too great comes again and tels him Now Father I have three Boys Go saith he hereafter you shall neither have Sons nor Daughters and it fell out just as he spake He went one time to the Religious House Turris Speculorum and out of Devotion visited the old Church seated in the innermost part of it four of the Nuns attending him As he went he bids one of them Go to Prayer who answered she had no leisure by reason of her many employments One of the four Maria Magdalena Anguillaria then in her Prime asked him Father what say you to me who neither follow my Prayers nor do any thing else You quoth Philip indeed do nothing now but yet you shall be an Abbess at which the rest burst out in laughing The Good man merrily asked What do you laugh one of these dayes you will say Philip long ago told us as much and turning to Magdalen who laughed lowder then the rest he said frowning And do you laugh Remember Philip told it you So it fell