she calls him son at the end of the letter, we may presume that it was he to whom the foregoing instructions were addressed.

CHAPTER IV.

FRIENDSHIP OF BATTISTA WITH JOHN OF FANO.— BEGINNING OF THE CONGREGATION OF CAPUCHINS. -DEATH OF BATTISTA AND VENERATION OF HER BODY.

AMONG other letters which Battista wrote to this holy man is one in Latin, which we will give entire, as it is not without interest in her own history.

"JESUS.-Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept: when we remembered Sion. These words, dictated to the Psalmist by the Holy Spirit for the consolation of the afflicted, suit well, it seems to me, the state of persecution and tribulation in which your reverence finds yourself. The elect seat themselves and repose upon the rivers of Babylon, while the impious and sinful sink and disappear under their waves. You, therefore, who are of the number of the elect, are seated on the banks of the rivers of Babylon, that is, by the waters of affliction, in the hope of the resurrection of your virtue and innocence. You have rested in God your Saviour, Who is the defender of the innocence of His elect. You see your defamers carried away by the waves of their loquacity, losing themselves in the depths of shame and confusion. You know, my beloved father, that the darkness of night precedes the dawn, and the richest countries are hidden behind mountains. The heavenly Physician,

in

Who has come to die on the cross for the salvation of the human race, after having permitted the waves of persecution and tribulation to cover His elect, gives them joy and consolation; and they learn the smile of angels in the school of the crucified Humanity of Christ. Although the sick man knits his brows at the taste of a bitter medicine, he soon rejoices over his returning health. This loving and compassionate Master sheds bitterness over all that surrounds us, order that He alone may seem sweet and worthy of love. O most sweet Jesus! O unspeakable love! how sweet and delightful are Thy works to the soul which seeks Thee, to the soul which loves Thee without fraud or dissimulation, to the soul which affectionately reposes in the Heart of Thy crucified Humanity, 'where the fulness of Thy Godhead corporally dwells' (Col. ii. 9).

66

'Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Sion, O soul loving and beloved of God! Thy detractors, unknown to themselves, have placed a crown of precious stones on thy head. They thought to despoil thee of thy honour, and, on the contrary, they have woven for thee in this life a robe of immortality; for gold, tried in the fire, comes out purer than before. You, my reverend father, before this trial, were a precious, but a closed lily, but now you are a full-blown lily, whose delicious perfume embalms all the houses of the province you have governed for three years with so much wisdom and prudence. While you were seated upon the rivers of Babylon, we, your daughters, wept at the remembrance of your sweetness and goodness. Now we exult, and render eternal thanks to Almighty God, who has saved John, the son of His handmaid. He has shown me a token for good, that those who hate

me may see and be confounded, because Thou, O Lord, hast helped him, and comforted me. I have written these foolish words in feminine fashion, to engage your fatherly prayers, to which I humbly and devoutly recommend myself, begging your blessing for her who will always be your servant and your daughter. Farewell in Him who is the salvation of all those who hope in Him.

"From the Monastery of S. Maria Nuova, of Camerino, this 20th of April, 1521."

It was this same John of Fano who, when elected anew vicar provincial of La Marca in 1525, treated so harshly Brother Matthew of Bassio, the first Capuchin, who, after having been chamberlain to Julius Cæsar, the father of Battista, entered the order of Friars Minor of the Observance, where he became an able and zealous preacher. This friar sought to introduce a change in the shape of the cowl of his order, and went to Rome for this purpose. On his return the provincial rebuked him in the provincial chapter at Matelica, treated him as an apostate, and threw him into prison. The Duchess of Camerino, who had a great devotion to Brother Matthew, having heard of this, was very angry. She first wrote a threatening letter to the provincial; she next summoned him to the palace with the father guardian, and spoke with such force that he was obliged to release Brother Matthew, who immediately on leaving prison, set out for Rome, where he obtained leave from Pope Clement VII. to live as a hermit in the habit he had adopted.

In the following year Brothers Louis and Raphael, led by the same spirit as Matthew, took the same habit, without, however, associating themselves with him, and obtained from the Pope a similar approba

tion. Having afterwards gone to Camerino, the duke and duchess received them provisionally into their palace, until a fitting place was prepared for them and others who joined them.

The provincial looked with an evil eye on the protection given by a prince of such prudence to what he called a new order, and he wrote the duke a pressing letter to urge him to send away these contumacious brothers, and to compel them to return to their obedience. He wrote a similar letter to the duchess, and a third to the Blessed Battista, begging her to aid him with her relations. The replies to these three letters not being satisfactory, he came in person to Camerino, hoping to gain by his eloquence that which his letters had failed to obtain ; but the wisdom of man and all his counsels can do nothing against the Lord. The event showed the wisdom of the advice of Gamaliel :- "If this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought; but if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it."* Such was the reply of Battista to the father provincial; for at that time she knew not whether to approve or disapprove of this novelty, and grant or refuse her protection to Matthew and his brothers. But at last she and the provincial acknowledged that it was God who had inclined the hearts of the people of Camerino to protect the Capuchins. Then the provincial not only ceased to persecute them, but contemplated embracing their reform himself; and Battista, whom he consulted, as he usually did in cases of importance, gave him every encouragement to do so, assuring him that the thought came from God.

It is believed that Battista died on the Feast of

*Acts v. 38, 39.

Corpus Christi, the 31st of May, 1527, when she had entered upon the sixty-ninth year of her age. There can be no doubt her death was holy as her life, but no particulars of it have been preserved.

The nuns buried her in their choir, in order to have a memorial ever present of their foundress, and a pledge of the protection they hoped from her in heaven. Thirty years later the nuns would not allow the precious body to continue hidden in the earth, and disinterred it with the greatest respect. Great was their joy when they saw it in a state of perfect preservation, the eyes bright as in life, and the countenance lit up rather than pale, as if she were saluting them. They wished to preserve the holy body in a better place, where it would be more honoured, but their confessor was opposed to this, and insisted that it should be buried again; he even, with great indiscretion, caused the sacred body to be placed between two boards, and, when a quantity of earth had been shovelled in, and water poured over it, he made his companion tread it down.

The strict obedience which these holy women observed hindered them from opposing the strange zeal of this religious, and still more from withdrawing the holy body from the grave in which he had placed it. It rested there until the year 1593, when the necessity of making a new vault obliged the nuns to reopen the grave. The elder nuns, who knew the place exactly, told the workmen to dig with all possible precaution, which they did. When they reached a certain depth they found a board, on removing which a delicious odour made it evident at once that it was the one which covered the holy body. Immediately all the nuns came running fogether, and shed abundance of