Prosper

CONCERNING SAINT PROSPER BISHOP OF REGGIO EMILIA IN EMILIA.

PERHAPS IN THE FIFTH CENTURY.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Prosper, Bishop of Reggio Emilia in Emilia (S.)

BY G. H.

§. I. The memory in the Calendars. The Life written by various. Prosper of Aquitaine the writer was not a Bishop, nor was any S. Prosper of that name, of Riez in Gaul.

Reggio Emilia, a city of Togated Gaul, in the midst of the Aemilian way, on the left bank of the river Crostolo, between Parma and Modena situated, The Church of S. Prosper with this is subject to the Princes of Este. Among the Bishops of this city is reckoned S. Prosper, whom Ferdinand Ughelli in tome 2 of Sacred Italy, column 299, asserts was buried in the church, which he himself had dedicated to S. Apollinaris; and that he remained there until the times of Luitprand King of the Lombards, and thence afterward was translated into a church consecrated to his name, where at this time he rests. Which church afterward, and a monastery: the Countess Matilda augmented, and wonderfully endowed, into a noble Abbey of the Order of S. Benedict erected. So Ughelli. The Countess Matilda died in the year 1115, and afterward in the following centuries the honor and cult of S. Prosper was advanced to posterity. the memory in the Martyrologies: Bellinus, in the Martyrology according to the custom of the Roman Curia under the note of the year 1498 at Venice printed, on this June 25 toward the end has these things only: Likewise of S. Prosper the Bishop. Which same bare words Molanus repeats, in his Appendix to Usuard. We have some Ms. Martyrologies augmented under the name of Usuard, not very ancient, but written in the 14th or 15th century: in which these things are read: Likewise of S. Prosper the Bishop, a chief Doctor: to which these are added as read in the Ms. Florarium: Who was of the Aquitanian region and Notary of B. Leo the Pope. He died in the year of salvation 470. Afterward Greven the Carthusian, in his additions to Usuard published at Cologne in the year 1515 and 1521, added the place of the See in these words: Of Prosper Bishop of Reggio and Confessor, a chief Doctor, in the year of the Lord 465. Which as to the place more clearly set forth afterward Maurolycus, using this phrase, At Reggio of Cisalpine Gaul of Prosper the Bishop: but while he added, of the Chronographer and most renowned Poet, he heaped upon him more titles, than can with truth subsist: yet in this error he had several more recent followers, among whom Galesinius and Canisius, with the present Roman Martyrology, and Philip Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy.

[2] His Life published on this same day, June 25, Lawrence Surius, by the author John Antony Flaminio; who among other Lives of the Saints, The Life written by Flaminio in the sixteenth century, in the year 1516, dedicated the Life of B. Albert the Great to Leander Alberti of Bologna. He in the Description of Italy, in Romanula on page 493, asserts that Flaminio yielded to fate at Bologna, where for a long time he had kept a school, in the year 1535, and was buried in the portico of S. Dominic. He used the Life of S. Prosper, printed by Bonninus Mombritius in tome 2 of the work folio 221 and following, about two hundred years before, by others somewhat earlier, and composed by a certain alumnus of that very church, in which the Body was kept, for the use of the feast and in the manner of a homily. This Life our Antonius Beatillus sent us from Naples, perhaps from a Ms. codex of the Olivetan monastery, in which we being at Naples found the same, as also at Rome in a Ms. parchment Legendary of the most Eminent Cardinal Barberini, in which was present a Prologue neglected by Mombritius, because besides the bare invocation of the Holy Spirit it contains nothing pertaining to the History or to knowing the Author. Another Life taken and received as a marrow from the ancient deeds of S. Prosper, in a compendium, in which the Reggio Prosper is wrongly held as of Aquitaine; our John Scholtz sent us from Prague, to which is subjoined a relation of the Translation of the Body of S. Prosper, from the first to the second tomb, in which it is faithfully venerated, as the title declares: things similar to which exist in Surius. For the rest, just as the Martyrologies making mention of S. Prosper, we have already indicated above scarcely attain the age of three hundred years; so we seem able concerning the aforesaid Mss. to judge, that their first source does not exceed the fourth century; and so without great scruple to call into doubt the things which, to be understood of Prosper of Aquitaine the writer, were rashly added to the memory of the Reggio Bishop, on account of the identity of the name: which also of others similarly called Prosper before us by others has been said.

[3] The first of these to be set down is S. Prosper Bishop of Orleans, successor of S. Anianus who died in the year 453, as also S. Prosper Bishop of Orleans. who therefore lived with Prosper of Aquitaine; and on July 29, toward the end, is found inscribed in the most ancient Epternach copy of the Hieronymian Martyrology, and indeed as on the proper day of his Deposition, in these words; In the city of Orleans, the deposition of Blessed Prosper. He in the Martyrology of Rabanus is called a most learned and most holy man: who (as is added in Notker) wrote many things for the profit of the Church, and especially the grace of God against the pride of the heretics took care to defend. But elogia of this kind so befit Prosper of Aquitaine the writer, that from him to the one of Orleans they were rashly transferred, cannot be doubted. To the one of Orleans Apollinaris Sidonius wrote the epistle 15 of book 8, in which he calls him the successor of Anianus: and on that epistle these things in the Notes learnedly observes James Sirmond: To this one nearer in age, Sirmond demonstrates that Prosper of Aquitaine was not a Bishop, and plainly nearly equal, was Prosper of Aquitaine, whom some make Bishop of Riez in Gaul, others of Reggio in Italy. But he, in my opinion, was never a Bishop … and what makes me think so is the authority of all the ancients, of Victorius on the Paschal Cycle to Hilarus, of Gennadius's Ecclesiastical Writers chapter 84, of Pope Gelasius on the apocryphal books, of Fulgentius to Monimus book 1 chapter 30, of Marcellinus Comes in his genuine and uncorrupted Chronicle and of others; who, when concerning Prosper they narrate all other things, of his Episcopal honor make no mention. Wherefore Prosper, who is numbered among the Bishops of Reggio Emilia, I would believe was another than the one of Aquitaine; and that they err who with Trithemius and Flaminio confound both. These things Sirmond.

[4] Philip Labbe, in his Historical dissertation on Ecclesiastical Writers tome 2 page 247, and Labbe resumes the argument of Sirmond. Because, he says, some even in this time not unlearned men I see assert episcopal infulae to Prosper, and the recent editors of Christian Gaul after Claude Robert dashed against the same rock; it pleases to show by approved testimonies of the ancient Writers, that he was never even to the sacred Orders, by the authority of Victorius of Aquitaine, at least the major, promoted. Let him go first, who lived with him many years, Victorius of Aquitaine in the epistle to Hilarus Archdeacon of the City of Rome, which he prefixed to the Canon of the Paschal feast. The faithful Histories of the ancients being reviewed, namely of the blessed Eusebius of Caesarea in Palestine Bishop, a man especially most learned and most knowing, his Chronicles and prologue; and likewise these things which by Jerome the Priest of holy memory to the same Chronicles were added, by whom into Latin also they are proved to have been translated; and these too which by the holy and venerable man Prosper, until the Consulship of Valentinian Augustus the 8th and of Anthemius, it is established were supplemented; I found etc. And a little after: Whose tenor the venerable man Prosper following, to the same Chronicles these same things with excellent brevity composed, that their beginning might be begun from the very start of the world. Victorius was writing in the year of Christ 457, in the consulship of Constantine and Ruffus, the year after Prosper had departed from the living (whom on that account he always seemed to me to call Saint and Venerable) yet not a Priest or Bishop; which titles to Eusebius and Jerome he did not envy, nor would he have denied them (I think) to a friend, if with them he had ever been distinguished. Which is the palmary and incontrovertible, unconquerable argument.

[5] Let Gelasius the Pope follow Victorius, in the Canon "holy Roman," distinction 15. of Pope Gelasius, [Likewise the works of B. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo; the works of B. Jerome, the Priest; likewise the works of B. Prosper, a most religious man]. In the third place let there approach Gennadius the Priest of Marseilles, of Gennadius, who assigns him no title of Ecclesiastical dignity, in praising the rest according to his merit by no means sparing. The fourth let it be S. Fulgentius, of Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe in Africa, book 1 to Monimus chapter 30. [Whose, that is Augustine's, sayings, because he himself was prevented by a swift death, Prosper a learned and holy man defended with right faith and copious speech etc.] The fifth Marcellinus Comes in his Chronicle on the year 463. of Marcellinus Comes, (Whom however Prosper does not seem to have reached) using the same words as Gennadius, (A man of the Aquitanian region, Scholastic in speech, and sinewy in assertions] only calls him. of Ado of Vienne. Ado Archbishop of Vienne in the sixth age, [But also Prosper of the Aquitanian region, Notary of B. Leo, by whom are believed to have been dictated the Epistles against Eutyches who thought ill of the true Incarnation of Christ]. To pass over the younger, and the contemporaries Hincmar, Florus, Prudentius, Rabanus etc.

[6] Honorius of Autun alone, or some smatterer and half-learned corrector or editor of his, in chapter 83 of the 2nd little book, Wrongly therefore he was confounded with the holy Bishop of Reggio in Italy; changed "Man" (written by others) into "Bishop of the Aquitanian region," which no sane man even in a dream had thought. Sixtus of Siena, Baronius, Possevino, and other writers of this or the previous century I pass over, who only copied Honorius of Autun, or by John Antony Flaminio, who composed his deeds at pleasure from mere conjectures, published by Surius, being led into error, judged that he was Bishop of Reggio Emilia. These things Philip Labbe. With Flaminio are to be joined the other writers of the Life of S. Prosper Bishop of Reggio Emilia related above by us. But because in Honorius, in Labbe's judgment unskillfully interpolated, he is called Bishop of the Aquitanian region, from the Italian Bishopric of Reggio Emilia some transferred the same to the Bishopric of Riez, which also they call Regiensis, under Aix in the Provincial Metropolis, and, just as they make the same the learned writer, so between SS. Maximus and Faustus they place him. But the above-praised Sirmond adds these things there: also wrongly called of Riez in Gaul, He certainly could not preside over the Church of Riez, since it is certain, even on Sidonius's authority, that in that Cathedra after Maximus sat Faustus: of whom the former in the times of Hilary of Arles (as from the Council of Riez, and of Orange, and from the Life of Hilary himself is established) was already Bishop, and therefore Prosper still surviving, who beyond Hilary's age, that is until the City being captured by the Vandals, continued his Chronicle. But Faustus, the successor of Maximus, as from Sidonius's epistles is clear, outlived the years of Prosper, whom all agree did not reach the times of Anthemius Augustus. Whence it follows that Prosper of Aquitaine could neither before Maximus, nor after Faustus, rule the Cathedra of Riez. These things Sirmond. The words of the cited Sidonius Apollinaris in the Eucharistic Poem to Faustus are these.

---Who is that Maximus, of whom thou as Bishop and Abbot of the City and the Monks twice the successor actest?

For Faustus had been, both in the Lerins Abbey, and in the Cathedra of Riez, the immediate Successor of S. Maximus. Cardinal Bellarmine on Ecclesiastical Writers, supposing that Prosper of Aquitaine was a Bishop, suspects rather that in the province of Provence he was Bishop of Reggio, as if he had subscribed in the Provincial Council of Vaison and of Carpentras. Which is an argument, he says, that he was a Bishop in the Province of Gaul. But carried away by the same error was Bellarmine, and to have subscribed to Councils held in the following century: by which Baronius had inserted the said Councils in his Annals on the year 463; wherefore also Charles Saussay in the Annals of the Church of Orleans page 9 judged that the above-related S. Prosper Bishop of Orleans, subscribed to the said Councils. But Sirmond, in tome 1 of the Councils of Gaul, shows that the Council of Carpentras was held, Mavortius the most distinguished man being Consul, in the year 527, and that of Vaison, Decius the younger the most distinguished man being Consul, in the year 529; therefore neither is he to be reckoned to have been present, S. Prosper Bishop of Orleans, substituted for S. Anianus who died in the year 453; who also nor another of Riez, who with Prosper of Aquitaine, though different from him, could have lived. There must therefore be set down for those Councils another much younger Prosper, whose Episcopal see is hitherto unknown.

[7] Led by these solid arguments of Sirmond and Labbe, he is wrongly venerated as a Saint. we say; that Prosper of Aquitaine was a venerable man, learned, most religious, and even called Saint; yet not a Bishop, nor separately as such inscribed in any sacred Calendars, or found by us: of whose writings can be read after others the said Labbe. Secondly according to the same Authors with Claude Robert, it does not seem, until from elsewhere it be proved, that there was any Prosper Bishop of Riez in Provence, nor that he is to be numbered among the proper Saints of that Church; which on this June 25 did Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, and on the 27th of the same did Louis Doni d'Attichy Bishop of Riez or Reggio in the proper Offices of his Church, printed at Aix in the year 1635: in which are prescribed the Lessons of the second Nocturn to be recited at Matins, both on the very day June 27, and on July 6 in the Octave, just as they are taken from the Office of the Church of Reggio Emilia in Italy, in which the translation of the body too made by Thomas Bishop of Reggio Emilia, is also mentioned: all which would be better omitted.

§. II. The Acts done by S. Prosper Bishop of Reggio Emilia in his Bishopric, from the Lessons of the Collegiate Church, and concerning the monastery of S. Prosper.

[8] It remains, that we treat of S. Prosper Bishop of Reggio Emilia, omitting those things which are true of Prosper of Aquitaine, and were falsely attributed to him. Since therefore his Acts, written by Flaminio and others published by Mombritius, please less, and can be read in them by the curious reader; we give from the Lessons only those things, which by him in the Bishopric are related as done, and which concern the ancient translation of the body. The age uncertain. Meanwhile of his age and the time of his See it pleases to preface, that there is nothing from which a conjecture could be formed; whether the things which are reported of Prosper's Acts with S. Leo the Pope (whose, created in the year 440, he is said to have been Secretary) either pertain to Prosper of Aquitaine, or are gratuitously feigned. They certainly have no foundation in the Epistles or Acts of Leo, and in the whole fourth and fifth century no Synod of Bishops is found celebrated in Italy, to which are distinctly inscribed the names of those present and their Sees, before Symmachus the Pope; in whose Councils however no one of Reggio Emilia or of Reggio was present. But neither afterward anyone in any Italian Synod until Mauritius, who in the year 680 subscribed to the Synodical letter of Pope Agatho. So that until this Mauritius all the Bishops of Reggio are reckoned by name only, whose order therefore being uncertain and times can teach nothing of the age of S. Prosper. For he who is said to have subscribed to the Council of Milan of the year 450, Faventius, is not recognized, as neither the Council itself; and he who for the year 458 is given him as successor, Elpidius, lacks a witness of such age: so that even if it were known, which however is not known, that S. Prosper immediately succeeded those, his age would not yet be known. It pleases however by mere conjecture to ascribe him to the Saints of the fifth century. But of him the Lessons report thus.

[9] Prosper, by heavenly command made Bishop of Reggio, although unwilling and resisting was created. In which office he bore himself so excellently, that to all by word and example he gave light: Care for the salvation of his subjects: for frequently the people committed to him into the Church he called, and instructed with salutary precepts; but he proposed nothing to be done by them, which he himself had not fulfilled in deed. To him the needy were a great care, with great piety he prosecuted the orphans and widows. Over his flock unceasingly watching, of the salvation of all continually solicitous he was, lest any from the bosom of the holy Church by the fraud of the ancient enemy through his fault a sheep should perish. The older Priests of his Church, imitating Saint Paul, as fathers reverently he admonished, the younger he taught as brothers, the old women as mothers, the girls as sisters or daughters, and so all into the way of the Lord he directed. Nay even with a great impulse of charity, the Bishops of the neighboring cities frequently by epistles he exhorted, that of their dignity, of the burden imposed on them they should not be forgetful; and that not when he had preached to others, he himself should be made reprobate. After the example of the same Apostle to vigils and prayers perpetually he gave himself, and with manifold maceration taming his body, he forced it to obey the spirit. Finally the day coming on which of his virtues and merits the reward prepared for him by God he was to receive, with eyes and hands extended to heaven, when to those standing by him not only the Clerics, a pious death, but also very many of the people, who had come in crowds, he had given a blessing; he rendered his soul to God, with great grief of all the city of Reggio; and leaving such a desire of himself, that not otherwise than if a domestic mourning were to each, all grieved and lamented. He was buried outside the boundary of the city, in the church, burial, miracles, which in honor of B. Apollinaris he himself had consecrated: where with many and great miracles for a long time he shone: for no one to God through his help, with whatever sickness held, in vain fled. To the lame walking, to the blind sight, to the paralytics too the use of their limbs was restored, and demons were driven out of possessed bodies.

[10] But when the honor and veneration, paid to S. Prosper at his tomb, gradually by the lapse and injury of times had grown old; lest that cult utterly should fall into disuse; the divine benignity provided in a certain wonderful way, an apparition made to Bishop Thomas, which in his Saints does not cease to shine. There sat at that time in the Cathedra of Reggio a Bishop remarkable for the integrity of his life and manners, named Thomas. He while according to custom he prayed in the church, a sudden sleep invaded him. To him resting B. Prosper appeared, of august appearance, clad in a white stole, and conspicuous with venerable grey hair: by whom when he had been admonished, that the sacred little shrine or chapel, in which his body lay not very decently, he should enlarge; the Bishop being awakened, having called to him the Clergy and people, opened to them the heavenly command, and immediately put it into execution. The sacred building therefore being constructed, and a magnificent place being prepared, into which the sacred Relics might be brought, the old sepulcher, translation to the new church in which until that time they had rested, was opened: from which so great a fragrance of divine odor was poured forth, that no aromatics could be compared to it; and various other miracles thereafter, not unlike the past, by God most good and great in this solemn and famous translation were wrought. Thus far those lessons, taken, as appears, from the Chronicle of the monastery, whose context, somewhat more prolix in words, the same in substance, is to be seen in Ferdinand Ughelli tome 5 of Sacred Italy column 15 from a Ms. in the Appendix to tome 2, where he had treated of the Bishops of Reggio. There moreover is said the matter done on the Kalends of December, at which time how many and how great miracles, Christ cooperating and by the merits of the Saint himself, were wrought, the History of that translation most fully narrates. But that now seems to be sought in vain, doubtless to Ughelli himself, if it had survived, would have been sent by those, who, to supply the sterility of the second tome concerning the Bishops of Reggio, with their monuments so diligently instructed him. From the same meanwhile tome 2 we have, that the nineteenth was set the aforementioned Thomas, who, illustrious for the holiness of his life, was living in the year 701. He began to build the church of S. Prosper, where afterward he is narrated to have translated his body: and he died in the year 714.

[11] In the Prague Ms. that translation is said to have been made on the 8th before the Kalends of December, December 1 or November 24 perhaps in the year 698. in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 703: but somewhat earlier it was done assert the senior Monks, who compiled the Chronicle of the monastery, to be alleged below; and they wrote, in the year 1144. That about 444 years had elapsed from the time in which Thomas the Bishop of blessed memory the holy body of B. Prosper laid in the altar; for these lead us to the beginning of the 8th century; and since the word "about" admits some latitude, and the year 698 had the day the 8th before the Kalends of December, and the Kalends themselves composed with Sunday; I would easily believe, that rather in it the aforesaid translation was made. But Flaminio in Surius, wishes it made, under Luitprand King of the Lombards. But he succeeded his Father Aprandus first in the year 712, nor could see such a coincidence before the 9th year of his reign, of Christ 720. In this opinion of Flaminio however, the title placed on the body of Thomas afterward translated into the city recites Ughelli, The Epitaph of Bishop Thomas. in the Appendix to tome 2 added after tome 5, in these words; Of blessed Thomas, Bishop of Reggio, who in the time of Luitprand King of the Lombards the Abbatial Basilica of S. Prosper, built outside the city, dedicated to the Patron of the people of Reggio, his mortal remains, here within the city, by the Benedictines of Monte Cassino, inhabitants of the said Abbey from its foundation, the more ancient one having been magnificently replaced on account of wars, his members, heaven preserving the spirit, rest unto eternity.

[12] If these things are true, it must be that the foundation of the Benedictines of Reggio, the very Cassinate monastery, destroyed by the Lombards and for 130 years desolate, the restoration, Whether he is the founder of the monastery, is uncertain; by S. Petronax first begun in the year 720, by some years preceded; and that the first Colonists, not from Cassino, but from Rome from their Lateran monastery to Reggio were led. I would rather say, that the author of the monastery, built onto the Church founded by Thomas, is held unknown, together with the series of Abbots, if any there were before Teuzo, in the year, as Ughelli counts, 993 made Bishop. Of him with the same, in the said Appendix, there exists an instrument, of the fortresses which are called Randenaria and Pratiosolum, to the service of almighty God, and of S. Prosper and S. Venerius the Confessors, and also of S. Jucunda the Virgin given: or whether Teuzo is the same who had the urban church of S. Prosper dedicated, but because he says, hitherto shaken by the whirlwind of secular storms, and beyond measure harassed and wearied, the monastery, which we began, to perfection we could not bring … the aforesaid places wholly to the prescribed monastery, namely at last completed, to the Abbot and his successors and Brothers … through this page we have confirmed. No indication here mayest thou see of any preexisting monastery, so that either it was never any, or had long since destroyed lain, only the church surviving there. The same Teuzo is said to have died in the year 1030, and the second Abbot Mannon assumed in the year 1025. It could therefore happen, that the foundation or restoration of the monastery, and the institution of the first Abbot Landulf, and the giving of the afore-cited charter, fall in about the year 1016 or 18; and so there elapsed 20 years or more, since the same Teuzo in the city itself had built the Collegiate church of S. Prosper, a Provost and eight Canons being instituted there, and the bodies of SS. Prosper and Venerius being translated into it at least for a time; until he should complete the construction of the new monastery; lest meanwhile without due cult such Holy pledges should remain, among the ruins of the place then (as it seems) deserted.

[13] As witnesses of this kind of translation are alleged verses, placed on the wall in the urban church, of this tenor:

Teuzo the Bishop founded the present building, And to the honor of S. Prosper instituted it: Whose ever-venerable bones to this he translated, With the Pope by name Gregory the Fifth, consecrated by Pope Gregory V Who perhaps then was going to the city of Pavia, About to hold there the cause of a sacred Council. The Pontiff the Clergy and a great crowd followed, Whom father Teuzo received in hospitality. There had come also the younger Bishop himself, John, Of the See of Ravenna about to go thence the right hand: With whom by the said first Teuzo being asked, This temple he himself rendered sacred. To so many and so great Patrons the house being consecrated, the bodies of the Saints being translated thither The body here, O kindly Prosper, was placed, thine: With whom the bones of blessed Venerius likewise raised, Were laid up in the side of this church. These things, God granting, while Otto the Third reigns, And on the ninth made of the Kalends of February.

That the Council of Pavia was held in the year 997, and in it Crescentius the Antipope was struck with anathema, in the year 997 on January 24. is read in the Chronicle of Hildesheim: but Pope Gregory V, a German by nation, before called Bruno, kinsman of the Emperor Otto, was consecrated in the year 96 of the tenth century, and died in the year 99. But in the aforenoted year 97, having the Dominical letter C, the day January 24 fell on a Sunday, opportune for the dedications of churches; and so it becomes probable, that the Council of Pavia, to which the Pontiff was going, was appointed in the month of February, which month otherwise would be unknown.

[13] As regards the beginning of the Abbey, Ughelli without doubt recognized, The Abbey founded by the same was afterward enriched by Countess Matilda, having seen the aforesaid instrument, that its founder, whether first or second, was Teuzo; not however (as he had before said in tome 2 column 299) the Countess Matilda, who died in the year 1115, almost a whole century after Teuzo. But that the aforesaid verses are held suspect of falsehood by some, or altogether convicted by Ughelli in the Appendix, nothing of what shall presently be deduced forces us. Matilda could however, Pacificus or John, in the seventh and eighth place holding the Abbey (according to the order of the Prelates by Ughelli in the Appendix enumerated up to Philip de Zobolis, after whom in the 15th century about the half the Abbey, united to the Cassinate Congregation, ceased to have perpetual Prelates and those for a time Commendatories.) Matilda could, I say, have been so beneficent to the monastery long since founded, that she might deserve to be reckoned another founderess of it; and she exercised that liberality, where again the Saints were believed to rest. in regard of the Saints believed to rest there, no one then doubting, perhaps not even recalling further, that by Teuzo they had been for a while moved from the place, while, the new monastery he was planning being founded there, they should be carried back. Undisturbed certainly possession the Monks enjoyed until the year 1144, when a controversy arising from above, was the cause of a new elevation and translation, as from a most ancient Chronicle, and perhaps not a hundred years after written, Ughelli has.

* perhaps? about to have the right hand.

THE HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATIONS.

From the year 1144 to 1380. From the Chronicle of the Monastery published by Ughelli.

Prosper, Bishop of Reggio Emilia in Emilia (S.)

BHL Number: 0000

FROM THE CHRONICLE OF THE PLACE

[1] In the year one thousand one hundred forty- four, [In the year 1144 Bishop Alberus, having found under the altar of S. Prosper some body,] there having elapsed then about four hundred forty-four years, from the time in which the aforesaid Thomas Bishop of blessed memory, the holy body of B. Prosper laid in the afore-named greater altar of the church of the monastery of S. Prosper; Alberus, Bishop of Reggio, by the persuasion and counsel of certain of his men, lying in wait for the aforesaid monastery at the devil's prompting, the very body of B. Prosper through ambiguous places began to seek. And on a certain night, which for the festivity of S. Clement was held famous, digging the greater altar of S. Prosper of the Castle, he found certain bones, marked with the title of no one; and having called together his aforesaid men, he began to assert, that that was the body of S. Prosper: which he proclaimed to be his. and the bells of that church being rung, he tried to persuade this very thing to the peoples flocking from here and there, saying: Behold the body of the most glorious Confessor of Christ Prosper, our Lord and great Patron. But the very peoples, hearing what had been done, by God's will gave no credence to his words; crying with open voices, at once all both men and women, that this was not the body of S. Prosper, but of some deceased there laid.

[2] Then Amizo, Abbot of the said monastery, perceiving himself and his monastery from this very thing burdened, in vain he tries to draw the Abbot into the same opinion, the following morning went to the Bishop himself Alberus, asking, that coming to his monastery, he would deign to open the greater altar, about to find without doubt there the most true body of B. Prosper: which through many courses of years always by the peoples of Italy there famous and illustrious had been held, and even now at present was held. He refusing, and several times, both by the Abbot himself, and by various Nobles of the city of Reggio about this earnestly asked, scorning to come; and his counsel into the long tried to protract, and through messengers and through himself the Abbot and Monks to consent to his said error, that he might use a peaceful and tranquil will, to impel; promising, that if to his counsel and will they obeyed, and about this content and silent they would be, he himself to them of that fictitious body the half would grant, and before Clergy and people both churches to the name and honor of him would dedicate; and two festivities throughout the whole Bishopric to be celebrated he would appoint, one to the monastery, and the other to the Castle.

[3] Hearing which the Abbot; Alas! he said, who ever could hear so frivolous and so wretched a thing, the half of the found body being offered, that the most holy and most illustrious body of Prosper, which for four hundred forty-four years, by Thomas of holy memory the Bishop, in the place which the Saint himself living in the body had chosen for himself, laid up by all Reggio is known, whom we almost from the very cradle have served; now from I know not what or whence coming men, the half or in the greater part divided to receive we are asked. To God praises, to God thanks we render, because the whole body of S. Prosper we have. Far be it that of that your Saint, which he rejecting, whom you say you have found, any portion under the name of S. Prosper we should receive: for we who possess the whole, the half we do not wish to have: but again and again we beseech, that, as it is of your honor and Office, with the Clergy, as we already said, and people to the monastery you may come; and that most holy Body without any scruple to those desiring to see it you may show. And when they had received from the Bishop no answer suitable to their petition, returning home with the greatest grief, having taken counsel among themselves, and the people being admonished first by messengers, on a certain morning, all the bells of the church being rung, before a very great multitude of the people, he opens his own altar and finds the ark; the Abbot with the Brothers in an ordered procession, with great reverence and the supplication of the Litanies, having entered the church, upon the altar itself of the most blessed Prosper, the solemnities of the Masses celebrated. And digging the ark, which behind the altar around the tomb of S. Prosper had once been constructed with a most firm wall; they found the most sacred mausoleum of the most precious body of the most holy Prosper; which both weeping for joy, most devoutly they kissed.

[4] to open which the Bishop is forced to come But again going to the Bishop, often and more often they besought, that at least then, to open the tomb now found, to come he would deign. Which when, as before to do he had refused; at last after many days, by the order and command of the most Reverend Lord Guido, Cardinal Priest of the Holy Roman Church and Apostolic Legate, (since now certain Nobles and Princes of the city with some Monks, by exceeding grief at his so great obstinacy moved, an assault being made, the sacred sarcophagus of B. Prosper had opened; from which so great a force of odor and so great a fragrance had flowed, that, the nostrils and breasts of all who were present being refreshed, not only the basilica, but all the street too with an exceeding odor was filled) with the Clergy and people to the monastery coming, upon the most sacred Relics the solemnities of the Masses he celebrated. And amid the solemnities, the aforesaid most Reverend Cardinal and the other Bishops who with him were present, a most learned and luculent, to the honor of God and of the blessed Confessor Prosper, to the people gave a sermon.

[5] The solemnities of the Masses therefore being performed, the Bishop himself and the Abbot of the same monastery (who by the industry and exhortation of the said most Reverend found the body itself, Cardinal, and of the Bishops and Abbots who were with him, had been reconciled among themselves) opened, with the greatest devotion and reverence, the aforesaid sarcophagus: and the sacred Relics of B. Prosper being seen, and by the aforesaid most Reverend Cardinal, by the Bishops also, the Abbots, and all the Clergy and people who together were present, in truth recognized, with the highest joy and gladness and great rejoicing, each one praising God, returned to their own homes. But a little after these things in space of time the same Bishop, and afterward the bodies of SS. Venerius and Jucunda: at the request of the said Abbot, decreed to return to the monastery with the Clergy and people, to examine likewise the altars of the Saints Venerius the Monk and Jucunda the Virgin; and their bodies, if, as by the report of the ancients spreading it had become common, there they were found, to show to the peoples eagerly and devoutly. When therefore, with the Clergy of the greater church and of the city, reverently to the monastery he had come; the mysteries of the Masses being devoutly celebrated upon the altar of S. Venerius; he began, together with the Archdeacon and the Provost and other Priests, mallets being taken manfully to break the cement, by which the altar with the table most decently had been glued together: and the table being raised immediately appeared a most beautiful coffer, with most white marble covered. Which not without grave labor being opened they found the body of B. Venerius the Monk. Whose most sacred head taking in his hands the same Bishop, most devoutly kissing, showed it to all the people. Then approaching the altar of the most holy Jucunda, the table being raised from above, they found in like order composed a little place, in which her most holy body anciently most devoutly had been laid; and the leaden seal being raised, taking the same Alberus the Bishop the head of the most sacred Virgin in his hands, and it reverently and devoutly kissing, showed it to all openly standing by.

[6] which being kept in the open for four years, And so by the grace of God made certain of their own all with great rejoicing praising God returned to their own homes; the same Relics thus remaining in the open for about four years, on account of the innumerable multitude of those coming daily, to see them or rather to venerate them, both from far-off and from neighboring regions. But the Abbot aforesaid, fearing, lest so great a treasure, to be hidden away by others at his death, which easily could happen, he should reserve; those most precious pearls in proper altars to hide he decreed. The most Reverend Moses therefore, then Archbishop of Ravenna, at the request and most urgent prayers of the aforesaid Abbot, and at the persuasion of the aforesaid a new church is consecrated with 3 Altars. Alberus the Bishop and of Achilles Archdeacon of Reggio, together with the said Alberus Bishop of Reggio, and Lanfranc of Parma, and Gregory of Adria the Bishops, consecrated the aforesaid church of the monastery of S. Prosper, outside and near the walls of Reggio. And hiding with the greatest veneration and reverence, the body of the aforesaid most holy Confessor Prosper, in the same little place in which it had been found, his venerable altar he consecrated, with the above-written Alberus the Bishop, Amizo the Abbot of the said monastery, and Achilles the Archdeacon, and many Monks and Clerics and faithful laymen; a leaden plate being placed there in which were written all things necessary to the said recognition. The body too of the most holy Venerius, Monk and Hermit and Priest, was hidden, with a leaden plate likewise, and his altar consecrated by Lord Gregory Bishop of Adria. The venerable body too of the most holy Virgin Jucunda was placed likewise with a written plate; and her altar consecrated, by Lanfranc the venerable Bishop of Parma. Thus far the words of the Chronicle, where while it is said the church was consecrated, is understood without doubt a new church, by the Monks built in place of the one which Thomas had founded, and which did not correspond to the amplitude of the recent monastery.

[7] Furthermore he who described the aforesaid for Ughelli, of his own thus added: All these things were done by God's grace, in the presence of the above-said Bishops, Abbots and very many Archpriests and Provosts, under whom the bodies are laid up in 1148, June 1, and Clerics of diverse Orders, and innumerable peoples of diverse lands, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand one hundred forty-eight, on the day of the Kalends of June, in the time of the most holy Lord Eugenius Pope the third and Conrad the Roman Emperor: as is plain from the most ancient Chronicle, registered in the most ancient great Legendary of the said monastery, on parchment, folio 52. There was ordained Pope Eugenius III in the year 1145, on the 18th of February, and Conrad died in the year 1152, on the 15th of February, a year and a half before him. But the Chronicle itself was in the year 1369, the plate then uncovered being collated with it, according to the old Chronicle, and was found to agree; which collation would not have had great force, unless also then to the eye it had been plain, that the Chronicle was not recently written but truly ancient, as it was called, and before two hundred or even three hundred years drawn up, which antiquity adds great authority to the aforesaid relation: and being silent about the translation of the bodies made by Teuzo, that translation it could render suspect of falsehood, and at the same time the above-written Verses about it. Certainly the Canons of S. Prosper do not seem to have had great account of such an inscription, who did not care to have it inserted in the process formed under Clement VIII, in which no mention of the prior translation. and presently to be produced; or at least the Apostolic judges did not judge it to be received. Yet the silence of the Chronicle can be excused about that translation into the city, that it was only temporary, and preceded the bringing-in of the Monks. Meanwhile it is notable, that while of the Heads of SS. Venerius and Jucunda special mention is made, nothing is said of the Head of S. Prosper; and therefore that Teuzo could be seen to have retained it in the Urban church, lest that should gratuitously bear the name of the Saint. Meanwhile where it now is I find no one to say. From the supplement of the said Chronicle or from other public writings of the monastery receive the following.

[8] In the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred sixty-nine, On account of the monastery destroyed in 1366 the Monks crossing into the city on the fifteenth of June; when already in the year three hundred fifty- six, on the sixteenth of February, by Lord Feltrino de Gonzaga, had been destroyed the aforesaid monastery; Lord Peter dela Garata, then Abbot of that monastery, and immediate successor of Abbot Zifredinus; fearing lest, on account of the total desolation of that monastery, on account of which neither could the Monks dwell, nor the divine mysteries in it celebrate, the aforesaid bodies of the Saints thence furtively should be taken away, or by sudden violence be robbed, especially on account of the wars which then in the diocese of Reggio and county prevailed; license being obtained from the most holy Pontiff Urban V (as from his leaden Bull, in the same year 1369, about to translate the bodies of the Saints, which is in the same monastery, manifestly appears) wishing to translate them to the church of the Priory of S. Matthew in the city of Reggio, belonging to the same monastery, where both himself and his Monks at that time dwelt; he went to the then most Reverend Laurence Bishop of Reggio, that, according to the tenor of the aforesaid Bull, he would deign to be present at that translation. Who when he had called into doubt for him whether the said venerable Relics were in the church of the said monastery, or in the church of S. Prosper of the Castle; the same Abbot asked him, that for elucidating the truth and removing from the hearts of all the faithful doubt, with that Clergy which should please him, coming to the monastery, the altars of the said Saints to examine most diligently he would deign, collating together with the above-written ancient Chronicles of the monastery.

[9] To whom the same Bishop most kindly assenting, on the fifteenth day of the month of June of the above-written year, they ask the Bishop Laurence to come for this: before dawn coming to the monastery through the gate of S. Nazarius, with his Archdeacon and with the Preceptor of S. John of Jerusalem, the Prior of S. James, and the principal other Canons, Clerics, and Religious of diverse Orders, and also Nobles and citizens of the diocese of the said city; a Mass of the Holy Spirit being first celebrated upon the altar of S. Prosper, and the name of Jesus Christ being invoked, by Master Guido Raza, Bartholomew Sponga, Antonio Cavacini, masons, not without the greatest labor with iron crowbars and mallets, before all the aforesaid and others standing by, he caused to be broken and opened the altar aforesaid and a great ark, beyond common stature, in it placed under a marble slab. Which being opened there came forth from it an excellent odor: and seeing the Relics of B. Prosper, who, the prior consecration of the altars being known, covered with a red silk cloth, with a leaden plate in which was written: In the year from the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ 1148, in the eleventh Indiction, on the day of the Kalends of June, this altar was consecrated, and there was laid the body of S. Prosper Bishop and Confessor, by Lord Moses Archbishop of Ravenna, and by the Bishop of Reggio Alberus, and by the Bishop of Parma Lanfranc, and by the Bishop of Adria Gregory, and by Amizo Abbot of the same Monastery, and many others: and finding it in all things and through all things to agree with the above-written Chronicle; with the highest reverence and devotion, taking one of the aforesaid Relics of S. Prosper, he kissed it, and offered it to be kissed by those standing by.

[10] And declaring that to be the body of S. Prosper, he approached the altar of S. Venerius: the plates declare them to be genuine and that being opened as above, he found his body, with a similar leaden plate, just as in the Chronicles it is contained in a marble chest. And taking in his hands with reverence and devotion the head of him, he kissed it; showing it to those standing round, and offering it to be kissed, and giving an Indulgence of forty days, both to those standing then there, and to all visiting the said church and altars. And when again there occurred there no small concourse of people, the aforesaid Lord Bishop, with the aforesaid Lords accompanying him, returned to his own home: as is plain from the public and authentic Instrument, by the hand of Ubaldus de Sturgidis, by Imperial authority Notary, drawn up, in the time of the above-written supreme Pontiff Urban the Fifth, and so they are carried into the church of S. Matthew; and of Lord Charles Emperor of the Romans, in the year, month, and day written; in which Instrument are described very many witnesses, both ecclesiastical and secular, and among them many noble and powerful men: which Instrument is held in the said Monastery. The above-said bodies therefore of the holy Prosper and Venerius, found, as above in the above-written church, and also of the holy Virgin Jucunda, were carried into the city of Reggio to the church of S. Matthew aforesaid, where then dwelt the Abbot aforesaid and the Monks: and by the Abbot Peter himself and Brother Rolandinus de Bertis, claustral Prior of the said Monastery, they were laid in the altar of S. Matthew aforesaid in secret.

[11] In the year one thousand three hundred eighty was rebuilt the church and monastery of S. Peter aforesaid, whence in the year 1383 by the Lord Abbot Peter; and in the year one thousand three hundred eighty- eight on the nineteenth day of March by the aforesaid Abbot Peter and Brother Rolandinus above-said, who then had been made Abbot of the monastery of Canossa or of Canusia, were taken the said bodies of the Saints, in the presence of many men of the said church of S. Matthew, and carried back to the said Monastery of S. Prosper. And in the same year, in the eleventh Indiction, on the twelfth day of April, was laid in the greater altar of the church of the said Monastery the body of the aforesaid most blessed Prosper; and the altar itself consecrated by the most Reverend Father Lord John of Antivari, and of Caesarea, and several other Bishops, in the presence of the clergy and people of Reggio. they are carried into the new church on April 12. In the altar too of S. Venerius on the same day, year, and month, was hidden the body of S. Venerius: and in the altar of S. Jucunda the body of the same most holy Virgin. And those altars were consecrated by the above-written Lord John Bishop of Antivari and other Bishops and Prelates, who were there. The Empire then being vacant, in the time of Lord Urban aforesaid the Pope, and of Lord Ugolino de Sesso Bishop of Reggio, and the most Illustrious Prince Lord Galeazzo Visconti of Milan ruling in the city of Reggio and in almost all Lombardy, as appears in the leaden plates which are in the said altars.

OBSERVATION OF D. P.

Prosper, Bishop of Reggio Emilia in Emilia (S.)

BY D. P.

[12] The aforesaid plates are registered below at the end of the Process, numbers 24, 25, and 26, and are, besides the primary one described word for word in the preceding number, That last translation made by the Archbishop of Antivari, five others, of seven witnesses present, for greater certification added from superabundance to the body of S. Prosper. But from that which I called primary, there more accurately transcribed, was recognized and corrected the error which here in Ughelli had crept in, and had caused to creep in the Bishop of Arras John in Belgium (who then was not called John, but Peter, nor is he known ever to have set foot in Italy) for the one of Antivari, who in another prior plate number 23 is better named Archbishop. For Antivari was in Dalmatia an Archiepiscopal See, commonly Antivari on the shore of the Adriatic sea, between Ragusa and Dyrrhachium midway. He moreover then probably had fled into Italy, to implore in the name of Sigismund King of Hungary aid, a fugitive from his See out of Dalmatia, against Stephen King of Rascia and Bosnia: who, having got possession of Clissa and Cattaro, threatened the rest of Dalmatia, and it, the Hungarians and Turks being at last conquered, in great part obtained; whence in the letters, which he gave to his friends of Trau in the year 1389, is written, Stephen Tvrtko by the grace of God King of Rascia, Bosnia, and the Maritime etc., of whom see John Lucius book 5 on the kingdom of Dalmatia chapter 3.

[13] But how the same John is called of Antivari and of Caesarea, I would not dare by conjecture to define; that the writing is legitimate I do not doubt. Meanwhile it appears that he alone among several Bishops present is named expressly, as being of greater rank by the Archiepiscopal title. in place of Bishop Ugolino only fifteen years old: Perhaps too not of his own will he had come into Italy, but driven from his see by Stephen. Opportunely certainly he was present at Reggio, where, Seraphinus the Bishop being translated about the year 1377 into Sardinia to the church of S. Justus, or more truly driven thither by Galeazzo, the Bishopric was held by a fifteen-year-old boy Ugolino (as is in Ughelli tome 5) and so the Bishopric of a suitable Administrator had need; and perhaps too while he grew up, for the sake of studies to Paris had crossed, whence also it came about that he died at Antwerp in Belgium, in the year 22 of his age, not yet initiated into the Priesthood. These things all it has helped to have weighed, which so extraordinary circumstances greatly confirm the matter, lest anyone should be able to doubt of the truth of these plates, which he who would have feigned after eighty years, when there was revived, the contention of the Canons against the Monks begun under Bishop Alberus, would never have thought of composing matters, in appearance so disparate; though in reality most closely conjoined. To this is added the public celebrity, with which was made the placing of the holy Bodies and the consecration of the Altars, the day chosen for the greater convenience of the people the 12th of April, which in the year 1388 was a Sunday.

[14] On the contrary, those who for the contention at last revived in the year 1451 prepared arms, and they raise the faith of the contrary relation, perhaps at a time not long after these things so notoriously done in the Monastery, seem to have had no concern what they wrote, provided they wrote something, which many years after found might be opposed to the documents to be produced on the part of the Monks. For since against them did not seem to suffice the little plates which to the bodies in S. Prosper of the Castle were once appended by Bishop Alberus, The Body and Relics of S. Prosper Bishop of Reggio, and; This is the Body of S. Venerius, [as if the same Laurence had not caused the bodies first found by Alberus to be removed from the altars as doubtful,] as below in the Process numbers 21 and 22 are read; another greater plate they drew up thus containing. For the perpetual memory of the matter.

Be it known to all the faithful of Christ, devout of the most blessed Prosper the Confessor, that in the year of the Lord 1369 on the 15th of June, in the time of Lord Laurence de Pinotti the Bishop, with the consent of the Clergy and people of Reggio, his body was translated from the church of S. Prosper of the Castle, and laid at the sacristy of the greater church of Reggio. Note, I beseech, the same day and year, on which the same Bishop so solemnly in the church of the monastery, from under the altars of the now deserted place, had brought out the bodies of the Saints, the brought-out ones had approved, the approved ones to the church of S. Matthew had translated. But these things being done, to remove the danger of scandal that would arise from it, if under the same names should continue to be held in the church of S. Prosper, the other bodies there laid by Alberus; he prudently ordered them to be removed thence; and (as is the custom in those, of whose holiness nothing certainly is established) to be carried to the sacristy, not of the same church where they would be in the power of the Canons, but of his Cathedral, whence without the knowledge of the Bishop and of the principal College they could not be taken away.

[15] Thus beginning from the true deed of Bishop Laurence, but otherwise than was fitting taken; which being dissembled, his successor laid them up indeed in the year 1387, and as if he himself had approved those bodies, under the names which they bore; the authors of their plate proceed to write, and add: But afterward, on the 15th of April (this was the second day after the Sunday in albis, unless it should be read as below the 25th of April and our copyist here wrote 15 for 25, but then was the feast of S. Mark and the greater Litany) Afterward I say the Reverend Seraphinus, Bishop of Reggio and Prince, together with the Clergy and Chapter, openly with bells and processions, honorably at last the blessed Body caused to the church of S. Prosper happily to be carried, and in its own ark most devoutly to be enclosed. And the altars of BB. Prosper and Venerius were consecrated in the said year and on the 25th of April by the said Lord Seraphinus. Namely when it appeared to be near, that the church of the Monks, brought to its summit, should be dedicated, and to it should be carried back the bodies of the Saints from the church of S. Matthew; a dissension swelling between the Bishop and Galeazzo of Milan, since he affected the dominion of the city of Reggio, the other after the example of his predecessor Laurence Bishop of Reggio and Prince called himself. [but notwithstanding that, the aforesaid translation was effected in the year 1348,] But they easily persuaded him, that he should win over the urban Clergy, to be more closely bound to his party, by rescinding his predecessor's sentence given in favor of the Monks; and the translation which I mentioned being obtained, the series of the deed, just as it is set down, on the leaden plate they inscribed. But they did not long rejoice in the success of such counsel: for Seraphinus being soon ejected, as it appears, Galeazzo powerful in the city, caused a fifteen-year-old boy to be consecrated Bishop, Gregory XI perhaps dissembling, that he might keep Galeazzo, separated from the Florentine enemies, in obedience; and meanwhile ordering, the Archbishop of Antivari to look after the necessities of that diocese, and exercise the Episcopal functions. And so indeed to the Monks and the truth justice was restored, but not on that account were the Canons compelled to remove from the altars the bodies already there laid up.

[16] In the year 1451 the controversy was renewed under Baptista Pallavicino the Bishop, who was persuaded (as below in number 21 thou wilt read) to recognize and approve the bodies kept in the church of S. Prosper: and again in the year 1453 but of the right of the Monks afterward better instructed, the suit being protracted for two years, at last he yielded; and the recognition asked of them, of the bodies to be transferred into new chests, he undertook in the year 1453, as below in numbers 26 and 31 it will appear. But whether to the Canons then was enjoined silence about that matter, is not clear: it does not appear certainly that anything moved them, when in the year 1518 a new translation was celebrated by the Abbot Lord Paul Borella. in 1518 and 1551, But when in the year 1551 on account of war the suburban monastery was leveled to the ground, and the bodies to another in its place in the city built were to be translated, the suit was renewed, and without the presence of Bishop John Baptist Grossi, attending the Council of Trent, with the intervention of the Clergy, by the Abbot and Monks alone the translation was made on the 21st of December, on the feast of S. Thomas the Apostle, with scanty (as is credible) pomp: and thence the controversy was continued for fifty years, with great passions on both sides agitated, and at last devolved to the judgment of the Apostolic See. Presiding over this See Clement VIII, the controversy renewed in the year 1451 pending until 1601. how in the year 10 of his Pontificate, of Christ 1601, the knot not so much loosed as cut, and silence being enjoined on both Parties, to the Canons indeed of S. Prosper the Relics both those which really were, and those which were said to be, he attributed; to the Monks likewise those which under the name of S. Venerius were held on both sides, the following History will teach.

[17] But first to the beginning of the controversy I return, and to Bishop Alberus or Alberius (as Ughelli orders to be written in tome 5, by others also Adalbert and Albericus, Its first author Bishop Albert. but by Pope Lucius III Alberon, from a Regular Canon and Prior of S. Maria del Reno of the diocese of Bologna assumed to the Infulae of Reggio. Him I, as a religious man, and of his church most deserving, and being a sincere head in acting (as proved the so public retraction of his prior sentence) cannot believe to have done anything by evil fraud, bodies being substituted received from wherever: it can be believed he acted in good faith; but persuaded by a sufficiently constant, and through a publicly extant title proved report, of the deed of Teuzo the Bishop, to have altogether believed, since he had not yet made an examination in the monastery, that the same bodies in the Collegiate church had remained. in seeking the bodies of the Saints But since the aforesaid title only said, that they had been laid up in the side of the church, nor was there a monument in that church of the same being taken away thence; a good man could without fault be led, to think they could still there be found, and the bodies found of two Anonymous ones, though without a title, to believe to be of the same who were sought.

[18] For although the church of S. Prosper in the Castle Teuzo the Bishop was said to have built; in that place where in the fifth century the Cathedral is thought to have been; yet in that place of building there seems no other cause to have been, than that there, before the city was overthrown by the Goths, the Cathedral church once was reported to have been. But this, as is most probable, being posited; it would be no wonder if to the same Teuzo, working the ground to lay the foundations of the new church, and more curiously observing all things, there occurred without a title of name the body of some Saint, before or after Prosper a Bishop, the relics of a ring or Pastoral staff, buried with the deceased, making indication of the Episcopal order; likewise another lacking such indications, yet composed in such a way, that it appeared to be a holier corpse, which thus buried was found; which he without scruple placed under the greater altar, there where Amizo found them; about to do more prudently, if those he found anonymous placed by Teuzo, he had left also anonymous, nor defined whose those were: for under such caution there would have remained to them their honor undisturbed, and their rest to the Monks. The city of Reggio knew then and now knows no ancient Saints of its own, except Prosper, Venerius, and Jucunda, composed in the suburban church by Thomas the Bishop in the eighth century; and Teuzo could have found some anonymous Saints to be placed under the altar; yet I can scarcely doubt, that, just as the other Italian cities, it held several of its first Bishops for Saints, and venerated also some others of inferior Order, and carried their bodies into the sacred building from the suburban cemetery (where to bury even Bishops was the custom of the Romans) whose memory utterly perished with the city itself. But this when under the Lombards it had begun to be restored, the beginning was made around the ruins of the old Cathedral; which on account of security being surrounded with a defensive work being fortified, was given the name of Castle; which to this day persists in the name of the Gate, which is called of the Castle, no other indication of any fortification now appearing there; but from the almost opposite side built at the old gate of S. Nazarius a fortress by Louis Gonzaga, about the year 1339, as Leander Alberti teaches.

[19] If the Acts of the pretended Finding for the year 1144 on the 23rd of November, in naming which Alberus being deceived deserves pardon, Bishop Alberus had caused to be written, or written perhaps had not ordered to be abolished; we would know by what indications and how not rashly he judged, of the two bodies found by him, one to be of some holy Bishop, the other of a Saint not a Pontiff; and to one knowing no others except SS. Prosper and Venerius, who also there were said to be at some time placed by Teuzo, it would easily be pardoned, that he believed those bodies to be of them: and that, having already advanced to the public Translation, for a whole three years he hesitated to hear the prayers of the Monks, urging the contrary. after he retracted the error: But these things now their cause being known and proved, it was of prudence to take care to abolish all public monuments of the prior error, if any were extant; whence it came about, that none of them the Canons produced for their cause, but enough they had to allege the Acts of Bishop Laurence, in a sense contrary to what they ought, for the proof of their pretended possession.

[20] But the emptiness of this possession being proved, it only remains now to be wished, which it has been allowed us to discuss that God may deign to manifest, of what Saints those Relics are, which with the Relics among the Monks, and certain ones among the Canons found outside the altars, now obtain the honor of at least a common name. But he is not wont, who in the simple devotion of the faithful is delighted more, even after the suit composed by Clement VIII. than in the curious investigation of his own secrets, to comply with vows of this kind: and the Roman Pontiffs think it to be only of their office, to remove from the churches committed to them scandals, breaking forth into dissensions of minds; the rest they commit to God and time, nor forbid them to be moderately discussed by the learned; unless that very discussion, of whatever sort, brings danger to faith and morals; which in the present case we judge there is none. Now therefore at last to the very sentence of Clement VIII let us come, and to its execution through the Apostolic Commissioners; of whom meanwhile one Francis Gonzaga, a man of noted integrity and holiness, in the very inspection of the Relics resting among the Monks, is said in Ughelli column 1584 to have been compelled openly by exclaiming to assert, that this is truly the body of S. Prosper.

THE HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION

By order of Pope Clement VIII, made in the year 1601.

Prosper, Bishop of Reggio Emilia in Emilia (S.)

THE PROCESS FROM THE MSS., BY D. P.

CHAPTER I.

The Canons asking to proceed to the execution of the Apostolic Brief, it and other things relating to it are produced.

[1] In the name of Christ. Amen. In the year of his Incarnation one thousand six hundred first, In the year 1601 before the Executors of the Apostolic Brief, in the fourteenth Indiction, on the thirteenth day of November, in the time of the Pontificate of the most Holy Father in Christ and our Lord, the Lord Clement, by Divine providence Pope VIII in the tenth year; before the most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord Gaspar Silingardi, Bishop of Modena, and Lord Brother Francis de Gonzaga, Bishop of Mantua, Executors of the Apostolic Brief on Parchment, under the Ring of the Fisherman, existing in the Episcopal Palace of the city of Reggio, and in the Rangoni Chamber; there appeared the undersigned Illustrious and very Reverend Lords, Antonius Nuschius, Provost of the distinguished Collegiate Church of S. Prosper of the Castle of the city of Reggio; the Canons of S. Prosper appearing, and also Lord Andreas Aliatus, Prior; Peter Antonius Cassolius, Jerome Baiscus, Achilles Grudellus, Horatius Majolius, and Ludovicus Codurus; all Canons of the said Collegiate Church, having a voice in the Chapter, and exhibiting the Brief etc., and all the Chapter of the said Church making and representing, conjointly and severally, in every better manner; and adhering to the presentation of the Apostolic Brief, and of the Letters of which below; and also of the sentence, or vote of the sacred Congregation of Rites and Ceremonies, formerly separately presented and produced, before the above-written most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord Bishops, namely of Modena, they ask to proceed to its execution: at the request of Lord Alexander Boschetti public Notary of Modena, and of Mantua, at the request of Lord Charles Righelli Notary of Mantua; whom they exhibited and presented both with letters of legality in form; again and anew they produced, capitularly gathered as above, exhibited and presented the said Brief, given at Rome under the Ring of the Fisherman, on the eleventh day of February of the year 1595; together with the sentence or vote of the said sacred Congregation, upon the execution of the said Brief, made under the date of the second day of October in the year 1601, with the subscription and seal of the most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord Cardinal of Florence, together with letters written to You most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord Bishops by the said Lord Cardinal of Florence, on the second day of October of the present year, and the aforesaid all sound, and in proving form apparent; instantly and earnestly asking that by your most Illustrious and most Reverend Lordships there be come to the execution and consummation of all and singular, of which in the said Brief, sentence or vote, and letters aforesaid, in all things and through all, according to the form and content of them, all things being observed of which in them, to the end that at last the just and honest desire of the same appearing parties may be fulfilled, and given over to execution; offering themselves ready to obey all commands and orders of your most Illustrious and most Reverend Lordships; and protesting that it does not stand by them, that not in every better manner etc.

[2] But the tenor of the writings of the Brief, of the vote, and of the letters, of which above, here follows: each of the aforesaid requests of the aforementioned Notaries being omitted.

CLEMENT POPE VIII.

Venerable Brothers, health and Apostolic Benediction.

The duty of the Apostolic office enjoined on us demands, that not only those things which peace and concord nourish, as Clement VIII, the controversy being understood with pure intention we should seek out; but also those things from Ecclesiastical persons solicitously we should study to extirpate, which introduce sedition and scandal. Some time ago indeed a controversy having arisen between the beloved Sons, the Chapter and Canons of the Collegiate Church of S. Prosper of the city of Reggio, claiming, between the Canons themselves that already more than seven hundred years ago the Bodies of SS. Prosper the Bishop, and Venerius the Monk, Patrons of the said city, from that Church, in which they were then laid up, to the aforesaid Collegiate, which under the invocation of the same S. Prosper in the city aforesaid then by Teuzonius the Bishop of Reggio of good memory was built, and afterward … by the Community of Reggio at magnificent cost several times restored and augmented was, had been translated; and the Monks of S. Peter, as from most ancient tradition and public documents they assert it is established, on the one part; and the beloved Sons also, the Abbot and Monks of the monastery of S. Peter, also of Reggio, over the possession of the Bodies of SS. Prosper and Venerius of the Order of S. Benedict, claiming that the Bodies of the said Saints Prosper and Venerius are laid up in their Church of S. Peter; on the other parts, a suit upon this for very many years having been moved, it came to this, that, although the Bishops for the time being, and the Community and men of the city of Reggio, who with the aforesaid Chapter and Canons firmly believe, the Bodies of the aforesaid Saints to be in the aforesaid Collegiate Church, to which always for that reason all the Clergy and people of the same city bore and bear a special affection of devotion, opposed themselves, and that the Abbot and monks from this their pretension they tried to reject: nevertheless because that Abbot and Monks always in their opinion persisted, not only the greatest perplexity thereafter of the faithful people, but also no mediocre scandal with the diminution of devotion, began to arise.

[3] But we as soon as these things to our ears were brought, desiring to enter on an opportune plan, and the cause being proposed to the Congregation of Rites, by which a controversy of this kind might altogether be cut off and all doubt from the minds of the faithful might be taken away from the midst, a cause of this kind to our venerable Brothers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, of the Congregation of sacred Rites and Ceremonies, by them maturely to be examined and discussed, and to us to be reported we committed. And when most recently through our venerable Brother, Alphonsus Bishop of Este the Cardinal Gesualdo, the sentence of the aforesaid Congregation was reported to us; We according to it, to terminate a cause of this kind deliberated.

[4] By our own motion therefore, not at the instance of any of the aforesaid parties or of others, for them to us upon this offered petition, from his sentence he ordered that, those to be convoked being convoked, but from certain knowledge and our mature deliberation, and by the counsel of the Cardinals of the same Congregation, the cause or causes and suits and controversies, upon this kind of matter hitherto excited, moved, introduced, and undecided pending, from any or whatsoever judges ordinary or delegated, in the same state and terms, in which they are found, to us by the tenor of these calling away, and them utterly extinguishing and perpetual silence on both parties thereupon imposing, to you by these present letters we commit and command, that you conjointly if it can be done, but if not, the one of you to the aforesaid city of Reggio go or goest; and, the Bishop of Reggio being called and three holding a Dignity, and three Canons partly of the Cathedral, let the Commissioners go to each place; partly of the said Collegiate Church, on the part of the Chapter and Canons aforesaid, and the Abbot and six Monks of the seniors more qualified on the part of the said Monastery; and also five or four witnesses being taken, grave men and worthy of faith, with all these to the places both of the Collegiate Church, and of the monastery aforesaid, in which the Bodies of SS. Prosper and Venerius are said to be laid up; you confer or the one of you confers; and the places aforesaid in the presence of two by the authority of the Apostolic See Notaries, and of the said five or four witnesses, all being inspected, and the aforesaid Parties assisting, and by our authority, every and whatsoever appeal, reclamation and recourse being utterly removed, to be opened ye command and cause, or the one of you commands and causes, and into the places themselves about the Relics of the said Saints diligently ye inquire and inspect, or the one of you inquires and inspects.

[5] And just as in any of the said places shall be found the bodies of the said Saints, the Relics of S. Prosper to the Canons, the Body of S. Prosper the Bishop into the Collegiate Church aforesaid to be translated, and in it reverently to be placed, and perpetually kept; but the Body of S. Venerius into the aforesaid Church of the Monastery of S. Peter both to be translated, and in it religiously to be placed, and perpetually kept. For the rest to the Chapter and Canons of the Church of S. Prosper an entire member, not however the Head, of S. Venerius; but to the Church and Abbot and Monks of the said Monastery, an entire member, to the Monks of S. Venerius let them consign, not however the Head of S. Prosper, in the same respective Churches perpetually to be kept, to be granted and handed over by the same authority of ours ye take care and cause, or takest care and causest; and upon these all a public instrument by the said Notaries, jointly to be requested, relying on the Apostolic authority, in the presence of the said witnesses to be made, and of that instrument an authentic copy to each of the parties to be consigned ye command or commandest. For we to you or the one of you of doing all and singular the aforesaid, and both the Chapter and Canons of the Collegiate Church, and the Abbot and Monks of the Monastery aforesaid by our authority, and under censures and Ecclesiastical penalties, at your discretion or of either of you to be imposed and aggravated, of constraining and compelling, and the aid of the secular arm, if need be, of invoking, and other things upon these necessary, opportune, of ordaining, conducting and executing full and free by the same Apostolic authority by the tenor of these present letters we grant the faculty.

[6] Notwithstanding the Apostolic and in universal Provincial and Synodal Councils published, notwithstanding whatsoever; general or special Constitutions and Ordinations and of the Collegiate Church and Monastery, and of that Order aforesaid even by oath, by Apostolic confirmation, or by any other firmness, strengthened statutes and customs, Privileges too, Indults and Apostolic Letters, in the contrary of the premises in any way granted, confirmed, approved and innovated, and the rest contrary whatsoever. Given at Rome at S. Peter's, under the Ring of the Fisherman, on the 11th of February 1595, in the year VI of our Pontificate.

M. Vestrius Barbianus.

I skip over the vote of the Congregation of Rites, conformable to this Brief, and the letters of Cardinal of Florence, written in Italian, by which to the execution of that Brief are urged the Bishops of Mantua and Modena.

CHAPTER II.

The Parties being duly summoned, the Relics of each contending Church are inspected.

[7] The most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord Bishops, sitting as above with the reverence that was fitting, the Bishop Commissioners, the said Brief together with the vote and letters accepted, and these being seen and read through, and of their tenor being made certain, offered themselves, and each of them offered for the execution of all the aforesaid; asserting that they had come to this city for this cause, ready to fulfill and execute the Apostolic Commands, and for the execution to be made in its place and time, according to the form and content of all the said produced and exhibited things; so also the Lords Provost and Canons instantly asking and petitioning, the Notaries of the cause being constituted, and they chose and deputed us, Peregrinus Vellanus, and Stephen Ghisonus, Notaries by Apostolic authority, jointly as Notaries of the present Cause, and as the Tribunal the Rangoni Chamber in the Episcopal Palace; in the presence of the most distinguished Lord Pompilius Raymundus; the very Reverend Lord James his son, the Lord Captain Balthasar Vigaranus, Noble of Reggio, witnesses for the aforesaid employed, called and asked, on the fourteenth day of November, in the year and Indiction which above. The most Illustrious and most Reverend Lords being therefore present, Gaspar de Silingardi Bishop of Modena, and Lord Brother Francis de Gonzaga Bishop of Mantua, in the Church Collegiate distinguished of S. Prosper of the Castle of the city of Reggio, into which they betook themselves to the end of executing the Apostolic Brief. The vote of the sacred Congregation of Rites and Ceremonies of the City, and again, the Chapter instancing through its Procurator, together with the letters transmitted to them, and of which above, and just as it was instanced and petitioned … and again on the part of the Lord Chapter it is petitioned, and in the state, by the most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord John Baptist Busaneus Syndic and Procurator of the said Chapter specially and expressly for this constituted, by the mandate of his Syndicate, which he produces authentic, for the legitimation of his person: here indeed in the Ms. expressed, but to us by no means necessary.

[8] Furthermore wishing and intending the aforesaid Bishop Commissioners, as sons of holy obedience, to obey the Apostolic orders, of which they are the mere and pure executors and Ministers, they summon for each one's own part, that same Brief in their hands and before their eyes holding and having, in which they are commanded for its execution to call on the Part of the said Chapter the most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord Bishop of Reggio, and in his place (since he is absent, and the office of legation of Apostolic Nuncio with the most Serene King of Poland he discharges) the Illustrious and very Reverend Lord his Vicar … and also three men, in a dignity constituted, and three Canons partly of the Cathedral Church, and partly of the said distinguished Collegiate; and on the part of the very Reverend Abbot, and of the opposing Monks, the same Lord Reverend Abbot of the Monastery of S. Peter with six other Monks of the seniors and more qualified of the said Monastery; and further with himself take, four or five witnesses, grave men and worthy of faith with the presence of two Notaries, the Bishop's Vicar, by Apostolic authority constituted. They called therefore the Illustrious and very Reverend Lord Innocentius Juscherius, Noble of Modena, Vicar of the said Lord Bishop of Reggio, and the Illustrious and very Reverend Lords Bartholomew Tuschius the Archdeacon, Lord James Antony Cappellinus, Archpriest of the Cathedral Church of Reggio; Lord Antony Tuschius Provost of the said Collegiate of S. Prosper, in Ecclesiastical dignity constituted, and Lord Jerome Corradinus, Canon of the Cathedral; Lord Andrew Alcatus, and Lord Peter Antony Cassolius, Canons of the said Collegiate, and the Reverend Father Lord Jerome of Potenza, and the Abbot of S. Peter, Abbot of S. Peter of Reggio, the Reverend Father Lord Zachary, Abbot of S. Peter of Modena; the Reverend Father Lord Androsius of Brescia, Abbot of S. John the Evangelist of Parma; Lord Gregory of Poreto, Claustral Prior of S. Peter of Reggio; the Reverend Lord Matthias of Pavia, Dean and Confessor of the Monastery of S. Mary Magdalene of Reggio; the Reverend Lord Andrew of Moverbio, Dean and Cellarer; the Reverend Lord Placidus of Naples, Dean of the monastery of S. Peter of Reggio, on the part of the said Abbot and monastery.

[9] And for witnesses, grave men and worthy of faith, Witnesses likewise the Illustrious and Excellent Lord Paul Bugerius, Prior of the Illustrious Community of Reggio, Lord Joseph Batalius, Syndic of the same Community, Lord Horatius Sacratus Doctors of both Laws; Lord Charles Parisettus, and Lord Tuscius Fontanolius, Nobles of Reggio; of whose faith, probity and integrity they said they had been and were informed. And they employed for Apostolic Notaries, us Peregrinus Velanus, and the Notaries, and Stephen Ghisonus; all there present personally constituted, hearing and understanding: to whom all and singular by Apostolic authority, which they exercise in this part, and in virtue of holy Obedience, they enjoined and enjoin, that they should assist, before whom the Brief is published. and respectively be present at the opening of the arks, both of the distinguished Collegiate, and of the said monastery, in which the Bodies of SS. Prosper and Venerius are said to be laid up; and at all and singular by the same most Illustrious and most Reverend Lords, to be performed; and under silence to retain what they shall have seen and heard, and these by no means to anyone to divulge, under the penalty of disobedience, until all things shall have been executed. And immediately they ordered to be published the Brief aforesaid, which with a loud voice was by me Stephen aforesaid and undersigned published, in the presence of Master Nicholas Sampolius, and Master Peter de Pezzis, masons of Reggio, witnesses for the aforesaid employed.

[10] After which immediately, at about the twenty- fourth hour, with that devotion and reverence which is fitting, the same Lord Bishops approached, The Ark of S. Prosper is exposed, together with all the above-said, as above called, and Us the Notaries, to the ark of the said Collegiate, in which are said to be laid up the Bones of the Body of S. Prosper Bishop of Reggio, existing in the Choir of the same Church, drawn out by the mandate of the said most Illustrious Lords, from under the Greater Altar of the Church, under which it lay by Master Nicholas de Sampolio and Master Peter de Pezzis, masons of Reggio: which there reverently was and is seen and inspected, in the Choir of the said Church toward the Eastern and Southern Part, and it was commanded to us the Notaries, to describe the Ark aforesaid with its iron bindings on every side packed, which description was made and is as below. The Ark aforesaid is cut in living Stone and closed with a slab of the same Stone; and lies upon a great rock of living Stone, it is described, and by four iron bindings bound, three namely across, and another along the length, of the said Ark with others nailed, and the heads of the said bindings are with great artifice ironed and leaded, in the said massive rock, it is inspected, from all parts of the said ark, with many seals on each head of the said bindings, under the inscription, and arms of the city of Reggio, and once of the Lord Bishop Pallavicino.

[11] And the said description being made, they ordered by the said Workmen, there for this effect convoked, and it is carried into the Archive. to be opened the said ark: which being opened, within it they found two little wooden boxes, and a certain silk cloth; in one of which are present Relics of bones and scrapings, but in the other fragments of an old little box: and in the said cloth are present many Bones, namely of the Body and of the Head under the title and inscription of the Body of S. Prosper; just as attest three leaden plates likewise found in the said ark; two namely great; one under the inscription of the year 1351, beginning; For the perpetual memory of the matter; the other of the year 1451 beginning, To all the faithful of Christ; and another small in spherical form, beginning, The Body and Relics of S. Prosper, whose tenors below will be registered. All which after by the most Illustrious and most Reverend Lords, and the other aforesaid all, as above called, and by Us the Notaries were seen; the same most Illustrious Lords ordered, for now to be laid up and kept in the Archive of the said Church, under the custody of keys, with the said most Illustrious Lords until their new deliberation; just as immediately by the aforesaid Lord Provost, with torches lit, they were carried into the said Archive, and laid up. And the Archive being well closed, the keys were consigned, and handed over by the Reverend Lord Provost to the aforesaid most Illustrious Lord Bishops.

[12] And these things performed the most Illustrious Lords, together with the above-said betook themselves to the Altar of S. Venerius, likewise the ark of S. Venerius. existing in the said Church, toward the North; which from beneath being opened by the said smiths, there was found together a little stone chest, and thence drawn out with two iron bands in a cross bound, with eight leaden seals, two namely for each head of the binding, under the inscription and arms of the city, and once of the Lord Bishop Pallavicino, which likewise they ordered to be opened: and it being opened, there were found within it several bones, covered with a silk cloth of red color; and two leaden plates, one of which begins, To all the faithful of Christ; but the other, This is the body of S. Venerius; whose tenors below will be registered. And all things reverently being seen and inspected, they ordered the aforesaid most Illustrious Lords the bones aforesaid for now, until their new deliberation, to be kept in the said Archive: which immediately by the Lord Provost, with torches lit, were carried into the said Archive, and in it with three keys well closed, of which two were by the said Lord Provost consigned to the said most Illustrious Lords, and the other to the said Reverend Lord Abbot of S. Peter.

[13] And afterward immediately from the said Church they withdrew, and betook themselves with the aforesaid all above-called, and Us the Notaries to the chapel, existing in the Monastery of the Monks of S. Peter, They go to the monastery of S. Peter, to the end of diligently searching about the Bones and Relics of the Bodies of the aforesaid SS. Prosper and Venerius. And it being reached they ordered to be broken by the said smiths the Altar, there existing on the eastern side; and it being broken there was drawn out a walnut chest fortified with two iron locks, which the Monks said, had formerly been laid under the said Altar, the ark is unlocked, in which the Relics of the same Saints were said to be, and in it to exist the Bones of the Bodies, namely of SS. Prosper and Venerius, as from the public request of the public Notaries of Reggio, made in the year 1588, on the 16th of February. Which chest was by the aforesaid smiths by the mandate of the aforesaid most Illustrious Lords opened, and within it they found, all the above-said standing by and seeing, two little boxes covered with silk cloth: in one of which are laid up the bones of the Body under the inscription of S. Prosper covered, with a white silk veil with silvered borders, with eleven leaden plates round about it existing, and it is inspected, seven namely great, and four small, whose tenors below will be registered: but in the other little box are laid up the bones of the Body, under the inscription of S. Venerius: and round about the said little box exist four leaden plates; two namely great, and two others small, copies of which below will be registered. And all the aforesaid devoutly and reverently being seen, the same most Illustrious Lords ordered the Bones aforesaid under the inscription of S. Prosper for now in some safe place to be laid up, which immediately by the Reverend Brothers of the monastery reverently were carried into the sacristy, and those which bore the name of S. Prosper are placed in the sacristy. in the said little box, and closed in a certain great chest, there existing with two keys; and the keys were handed over to the aforesaid most Illustrious Lords; who ordered, the Monks being present and hearing, that under the penalty of Excommunication they should not dare to remove the said little box, nor the bones in it existing until a new determination to move. And these things performed, all withdrew, commanding Us the Notaries, that of the aforesaid a public document we make.

[14] On the fifteenth day of November of the same year, at about the second hour of night, the above-said Lord Bishops being present in the sacristy of the Monastery On November 15 the Bishops returning to the monastery, of S. Peter, of the city of Reggio, for the execution of the Apostolic Brief; the Reverend Father Lord Jerome of Potenza, Abbot of the same Monastery, exhibited and presented a certain writing, subscribed by his hand, and sealed with his own seal, of which writing the tenor is such. Lord Jerome of Potenza, humble Abbot, and the Monks of S. Prosper, and of the Monastery of S. Peter, of the city of Reggio; the Abbot protests who from five hundred years back and always have guarded the venerable Body of the holy Prosper and his blessed Bones; nay it and them always devoutly and piously have venerated and honored, and reverently worshipped, and all to their power his good works have imitated; now hearing the proper motion of our holy Lord hitherto to them unknown; and that the mind of the same Holiness is this, that they and their will hand over the Body of S. Prosper that the most Illustrious and most Reverend Lords, the same Executors, may translate that Body to the Church of S. Prosper of the Castle, to them in the manner and form, of which in the presented Brief; to which although they are, as they always were, ready to obey, namely even to the simple vow of his Holiness, mindful of the sentence of that Canon saying, That sometimes good is to be omitted for the sake of the merit of obedience, and always in doubts too obedience is to be given; yet for the declaration of their actions, both past and present, they make known to all, that they have never committed any negligence, nor under any sought color omitted any of those things which to divine worship for the honor and adornment of the holy Prosper pertained; nor from themselves anything proceeded, induced solely by the motive of obedience. by which they have impeded or in any way could impede the honor, dignity, holiness, and worship of him; just as at present, and always they will be of the same will, whether present or absent he be, so that no refusal of the said venerable Body to them ever can be imputed. Whence all that is now prepared to be executed, all proceeds from the mere will of our holy Lord, to whom willingly even by intermitting good, and not under their own name of assent or consent, but under the true name of Obedience, they show themselves about to obey; asking however the most Illustrious and most Reverend Lordships, that the limits to them set and prefixed they will not wish to exceed, just as otherwise of recourse to be had, and of other things expressly they protest. Lord Jerome of Potenza, Abbot of S. Peter of Reggio.

CHAPTER III.

The Controversy is settled, the Relics of each Saint being joined; and those which were believed to be of S. Prosper, to his collegiate Church; those of S. Venerius, to the monastic one of S. Peter being solemnly translated.

[15] On the sixteenth day of November in the morning, when a public feast had been appointed, On November 16 after a public Procession, from the proclamation of the Illustrious Lord Hercules Bosius, Judge of Victuals, by the Illustrious and very Reverend Lord Vicar was intimated by public order, a solemn procession, of all the Clergy and of all the Religious, and the Confraternities of the City. But after the celebration of a solemn and ceremonious Mass, a sermon being performed in the said Collegiate Church, by the Reverend Lord Brother NN. Capuchin, of the Order of S. Francis of the Observance, to the praise and glory of Almighty God, and of SS. Prosper and Venerius; the same most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord Bishops, wishing to come to the execution of the said Brief, they return to the Church of S. Peter, and the consummation of those things, which in the said Brief are contained, of which they are the pure and mere executors, from the said Collegiate Church withdrawing, together with all the Clergy, and all the Religious, and the Confraternities of this City, in the presence also of the Illustrious Lord Count Hercules Bondinellus, Noble of Ferrara, and citizen of Reggio, Governor of this city, for the most Serene Lord Caesar of Este, Duke of Reggio and Modena the Sixth, and in the presence also of the aforesaid Illustrious and very Reverend Vicar; and the most Illustrious and Excellent Lords Balthasar Attolinus of Carpignano, Praetor of Reggio; it having been carried the day before from the Collegiate Lord Peter Paul of Sassuolo, Judge of Appeals, and Counselor of the said Lord Governor, the Illustrious Lords, the Prior and Syndic, with the Lords Elders, and all the General Council; the Illustrious College of the Lord Doctors, and all the people of the city of Reggio; The Bones of S. Prosper betook themselves to the Church of S. Prosper, and into the sacristy of the same Church; into which the prior night at the second hour, secretly had been carried the Bones of the Body, which had been found under the inscription of S. Prosper, in the said Collegiate Church.

[16] But because in both Churches were found Bones, under the title and inscriptions of the Body of S. Prosper with their leaden plates; they are placed with those found there, attending to the pious and holy mind of his Beatitude, both from the Brief, and from the letters of the most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord Cardinal of Florence, made plain to them, and that, as much as can be done, every occasion of doubt and perplexity may be removed in making the translation and placing of the Body of S. Prosper in the Collegiate Church aforesaid that in it perpetually it may be kept and venerated; the Bones of the Body, under the inscription of S. Prosper found and discovered in the said Collegiate Church they carried; and there a union they made of them, with those found the night before in the same Church of S. Peter. And those bones all, in the same sacristy, in one and the same iron chest there for this effect prepared (in which however separately they were distinguished) they laid up. There existing the very Reverend Father Lord Jerome of Potenza the Abbot, at the petition and instance of Lord John Baptist Busaneus, Syndic of the Chapter of the said Collegiate, in the presence of the Lords Dionysius Zobolus, Torquatus Branceus, and after the handing over to the Abbot of one Bone of the Leg, and Jerome Starufius, Nobles of Reggio, witnesses for these employed; said and publicly attested that to him in the name of the said Monastery by the Illustrious Lords in the Execution of the said Brief, was given and handed over an entire member of the Body of S. Prosper, which is of the leg, and there publicly he showed it; asserting also in virtue of holy Obedience, it being placed together on one bier, that there do not exist in the said Monastery other Relics of the said Body, except a fragment in the Reliquary, and a little piece of the Arm to him by the consent of the Lord Canons of the said Collegiate handed over.

[17] But afterward they opened the chest aforesaid, and from it drew out two little wooden boxes, they are carried processionally to the Church of him, in which are laid up the Bones of the Body of S. Prosper aforesaid, them with the bones in them enclosed they laid upon a bier there prepared, and with silk cloths wonderfully adorned. Which bones in the said little boxes upon the said bier placed existing, by the mandate of the said most Illustrious Lords, in the execution of the said Brief, under a Baldachin, in the said Church for this effect existing, by two of the Lord Canons of the said Collegiate Church, clad in the habit of Deacons, processionally in wonderful order, with much devotion, and great joy of the whole city, with Hymns and Canticles, and the sound of trumpets, and with torches lit in the hands of the aforesaid all, to the said Church, at great cost wonderfully adorned, were carried. To which having come the said most Illustrious Lords, the bier aforesaid with the said little boxes and Bones, upon it existing devoutly they carried through the said Church, even to the greater Altar of the same, and is consigned to the Canons. and upon it the said little boxes with the bones in them laid up, reverently they placed; and the due ceremonies and Orations being premised, the Bones aforesaid in the said little boxes existing, they consigned to the Lords and to the Provost, the Canons of the same Collegiate being present, and devoutly receiving, to the end, that in the said Church the Body of S. Prosper perpetually may be placed and venerated, according to the form of the said Brief, present at the said consignation the very Illustrious Lord Knight Charles Zobolus, Lord Count Horatius Sessius and Lord Julius Jaculus, Nobles of Reggio, witnesses employed and asked.

[18] After these things immediately the same Bishops betook themselves into the Archive of the same Collegiate Church, in which, the night likewise present, Likewise the Bones of S. Venerius composed into one chest, and at the fourth hour of night (because in both Churches were found Bones under the inscription of S. Venerius) to remove every occasion of doubt and perplexity, as above, the Bones found in the Church of S. Peter under the inscription of the Body of S. Venerius, they carried secretly; found in both places, and the same they united with the bones in the said Collegiate found, and into one and the same walnut chest, there by the Reverend Monks carried, placed, in which however separately they were distinguished; and these in the said Archive they laid up. And there existing the Reverend Lord Provost of the said Collegiate Church, at the petition and instance of the Reverend Lord Abbot, before the most Illustrious Lords, and in the presence of the above-said Lord Knight Charles Zobolus, Lord Count Horatius Sessius, Lord Julius Jaculus and Lord Marcellus Lanceus Nobles of Reggio, witnesses for these employed, said and attested, that to him in the name of the Collegiate, in the execution of the said Brief, by the said most Illustrious Lords was consigned, after the handing over to the Canons of his Arm, and handed over an entire member of the Body of S. Venerius, that is the Arm; and that there do not exist in the said Collegiate other Relics of the same S. Venerius, except a little piece of the Arm, which yesterday he showed to the said most Illustrious Lords and two Monks of the said Monastery.

[19] But afterward the same most Illustrious Lords opened the Archive, they are processionally translated to the church of S. Peter, and the little box with the bones in it laid up, devoutly upon the said bier they placed. Which immediately two of the said Reverend Monks, clad in the habit of Deacons, under the said Baldachin in the same Procession, and with torches lit, Hymns and Canticles, and the sound of trumpets, devoutly and reverently by the mandate of the said most Illustrious Lords in the execution of the said Brief carried to the Church of S. Peter. And it being reached the said most Illustrious Lords, the bier carried even to the greater Altar of the same Church, and they are consigned to the Monks. and upon the said Altar with the reverence that was fitting they placed the said Bones in the said little box existing: and the due Orations being made they handed over and consigned to the Reverend Lord Abbot and Monks of the same Church being present, and devoutly receiving, to the end that in the said Church they be placed, and perpetually venerated, according to the form of the said Brief. And all these things performed all withdrew, praising God and giving thanks, commanding us the Notaries above-named and undersigned, that of the aforesaid we make a public instrument, present at the said Consignation the aforesaid Knight Charles Zobolus, Count Horatius Sessius, Julius Jaculus, and the Magnificent Lord Hippolytus Pratonerius citizen of Reggio, witnesses.

CHAPTER IV.

The inscriptions and plates, by which each party tried to prove its possession: the last translation of the Venerable Thomas, Bishop.

[20] The plates found in the arks of SS. Prosper and Venerius, in the Collegiate Church of S. Prosper, of which above, here follow. For the perpetual memory of the matter. Be it known to all the faithful of Christ, devout of the most Blessed Prosper the Confessor, [Notice of the Body of S. Prosper translated in the year 1369 from the Collegiate into the Cathedral,] that in the year of the Lord 1369, on the 15th of June, in the time of Lord Laurence de Pinotti the Bishop, with the consent of the Clergy and people of Reggio; his Body was translated from the Church of S. Prosper of the Castle, and laid at the sacristy of the Greater Church of Reggio. But afterward in the year of the Lord 1387, on the 15th of April the most Reverend Seraphinus, Bishop of Reggio and Prince, and carried back in the year 1387. together with the Clergy and Chapter, openly with bells and processions honorably at last the Blessed Body caused to the Church of S. Prosper of the Castle happily to be carried back, and in its own ark most devoutly to be enclosed. And the Altars of the Blessed Prosper and Venerius were consecrated in the said year, and on the day 25th of April by the said Lord Seraphinus.

[21] Another plate. To all the faithful of Christ and the devout of S. Prosper the Confessor, The Recognition of the Body there in the year 1451 be it known and manifest, that in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1451, in the 16th Indiction on the 21st of the month of November, a certain contention having arisen, between the Lord Abbot of the Monastery of S. Prosper the Lower outside the walls of Reggio, and the Lord Provost of the Church of S. Prosper of the Castle; the Abbot indeed affirming, that the body of S. Prosper himself was at his monastery; but the Provost on the contrary that the same body in the greater Altar of his Church was laid up likewise affirming. The Reverend in Christ Father Lord Baptista Marquis Pallavicino, Bishop of Reggio and Prince, for the truth to be understood opened this present marble ark, and in it found the relics of the body of S. Prosper himself, wrapped in a silk cloth; and a leaden tablet, which begins, For the perpetual memory of the matter; and it attests that the body of S. Prosper himself was thither translated and laid up, with two wooden little boxes, and the approval, in one of which are the scrapings of the chest, in which he was buried at the time of his death; but in the other the dust of his flesh with minute bones. But on the 28th day of the same month and thousand, the same Lord Baptista Bishop of Reggio, this same Altar anew consecrated, and the same Relics in the same Altar just as he found them with the little boxes most devoutly laid up and enclosed. Another plate. The Body and Relics of S. Prosper Bishop of the city of Reggio.

[22] To all the faithful of Christ and the devout of S. Venerius the Confessor, be it known and manifest, that in this year of the Lord 1451, when there also was recognized the Body of S. Venerius. on the day 21st of the month of November, the Reverend Father and Lord Baptista Marquis, Bishop of Reggio and Prince, the Altar under the name of S. Venerius, in the Northern part placed in the Church of S. Prosper of the Castle, opened, and in the same Altar a marble ark, in which were placed the Relics of the Body of the same S. Venerius he found; and in it a small leaden plate, in which was written and is: This is the body of S. Venerius, he found. But on the 28th day of the same month and of the same thousand the said Altar anew he consecrated, and the same Relics, in the same Altar most devoutly enclosed. Another plate. This is the Body of S. Venerius.

[23] The plates under the inscriptions of the said SS. Prosper and Venerius found in the walnut chest, drawn out under the Altar, placed in the chapel of the Monastery of S. Prosper, here are appended, and are such. In the year from the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1148, in the 11th Indiction on the day of the Kalends of June, Notices of the Bodies in the year 1148 placed among the Monks under the Altars, this Altar was consecrated, and there was laid the Body of S. Prosper Bishop and Confessor, by Lord Moses Archbishop of Ravenna; and by Alberus Bishop of Reggio, and by the Bishop of Parma Lanfranc, and by the Bishop of Adria Gregory, and by Amizo Abbot of the same Monastery, and many others. Another plate. and thence taken away with the Body of S. Jucunda in the year 1369 On the 16th of February, by the mandate of Feltrino de Gonzaga, utterly destroyed was the Monastery of S. Prosper of Reggio, in the time of Abbot Gufredinus. 1363, on the 17th of April, was created Abbot, Father Peter de Gazata. 1369, on the 15th of June, by license of the Lord Pope, in the presence of Lord Laurence Bishop of Reggio, on account of the wars, were opened the Altars of SS. Prosper and Venerius, and of Jucunda the Virgin; and there were found in them the Bodies of the aforesaid Saints, which were carried into the city to the Church of S. Matthew, where stood the Abbot and Monks: and by the said Abbot Peter, and Brother Rolandinus de Rerciis claustral Prior of the said Monastery, they were laid up in the Altar of S. Matthew in secret. 1380 was rebuilt the aforesaid Church and Monastery by the said Abbot. 1388 on the 19th of March, by the said Abbot Peter and Brother Rolandinus, and carried back in the year 1388, who then had been made Abbot of the Monastery of Canossa, were taken the said Bodies in the presence of many men, from the said Church of S. Matthew, and carried to the said Monastery: and in that year, on the day 12th of April, here was laid the Body of S. Prosper Bishop and Confessor; and the Altar consecrated by Lord John Archbishop of Antivari, and other Bishops and Prelates.

[24] Another plate. 1388, in the 11th Indiction, on the 12th day of the month of April, the Empire being vacant, in the time of the most holy Father in Christ and Lord, the Lord Urban by Divine providence Pope the sixth, in the time of the Reverend in Christ Father and Lord, the Lord Hugolinus, and laid up under the Altar proper to each, by the grace of God Bishop of Reggio; and in the time of the Reverend Father Brother Peter de Gazata, by the grace of God Abbot of the Monastery of S. Prosper the Lower of Reggio; and ruling the Illustrious Prince, Lord Galeazzo Visconti of Milan in Reggio, and almost in all Lombardy; was consecrated this Altar by the most Reverend in Christ Father and Lord, the Lord John, by the grace of God Bishop of Antivari, and of Caesarea, and several other Bishops, in the presence of the Clergy and People of Reggio: and was laid up the body of S. Prosper, Bishop and Confessor, and excellent Doctor: and in the Altar of S. Venerius on that day, year and month was laid up the body of the same S. Venerius; and in the Altar of S. Jucunda, the Body of her, and the Altars consecrated. But at the end are found the insignia of the said Brother Peter the Abbot, with the letters undersigned, John de Relenzonibus made this work.

[25] Another plate. 1388 and William de Ardizzonibus was present, the Reverend Lord James de Ardizzonibus, as the plates attest; Prior of S. James was present. Another plate. 1388 on the 12th of April was consecrated and laid up the body of S. Prosper. I Nicholas de Piscina, Rector of the church of Masenzo, saw this and was present. Amen. From the other side of the said plate. I Lord Francis de Costa, Archpriest of Campiola, saw all things. Another plate. 1338 and I Brother Benedict de Raronzono, claustral Prior of this monastery; was present, when on account of the wars was carried this body to the Church of S. Matthew, and when hither was carried back this body, and in this altar laid up, and honorably consecrated. From the other side of the same plate. I Brother Venerius de Lothregis, Prior of the Galzata, here present at all things. Another plate. 1388 here present was I, I Peter son of the late Lord Matthew de Albinca, student in civil law. Another plate. 1388, on the 12th day of the month of April was consecrated for the second time this Altar of S. Venerius, and was laid up the body of the same, by Lord John Archbishop of Antivari, and other Bishops and Prelates, in the time of Lord Father Peter Galzata, Abbot of the same monastery. From the other side. The insignia of Brother the said Peter the Abbot. Another plate. 1551, in the 9th Indiction, December 5, were translated the bones of the Body of the most Blessed Venerius the Hermit, from the Church of S. Prosper near the walls of Reggio, to the sacristy of S. Peter of Reggio, by the Reverend Lord Vitalis of Modena, Abbot of the Monastery of S. Prosper, on the 21st of the same month of December, the same Bones by the same Lord Abbot were laid up in the Altar of S. Maximus of the same Church of S. Peter, as more at length in the plate, in the Ark of S. Prosper laid up, is contained. Dominicus Canossa, Goldsmith of Reggio carved it. Another plate. The Body of S. Venerius laid up by Lord Brother Zobolus Abbot of this monastery in the year 1352 on the 1st Sunday of October, as is plain in the plate which begins, Let them know, placed in the sepulcher of S. Prosper.

[26] Another plate. We John de Benedictis, Abbot of Maraula, Christopher de Augustonibus, Archpriest of the greater Church; and again in the presence of very many James della Fossa, Master of the school, Gabriel della Fossa, John de Meliis, Gaspar de Jaculis, James de Malvitiis, Christopher de Cortiolo, Francis de Jaculis, all Canons of the greater Church; Bartholomew de Corradis, Grisantus de Grimaldis, both Canons of S. Prosper of the Castle; Marquis Bartholus de Lanciis; John de Furlivio, Mansionaries; Genesius Galeottus; Peter de Lanceis; John de Burgonovo; Dominicus de Monte, all Chaplains, and almost all the Clergy of Reggio; Paschalis, the Archdeacon; Autrianus Doctor of Decrees, Vicar of the Reverend Lord Bishop of Modena, and for the most Illustrious Lord our Duke, Judge of Appeals of Modena; Baptista Manzolus, Canon of Bologna; Francis de Foliano, Provost of Modena; Rainaldus de Mezaurebus, Steward; exalted in the year 1453, with almost all the People of this whole city, we were present at the consecration of the Altars and the exalting of the bodies of the holy Prosper, Venerius, and Jucunda, in the year of the Lord 1453, on the first Sunday of October, as appears in the leaden plate, which begins: Let the pious faithful of Christ to come know. And on this same day was found the Body of B. Thomas, with a leaden plate attesting this, and it was laid up in a marble Ark, with the body of B. Thomas, in which previously was the Body of S. Prosper, opposite the sepulcher, where also now is the Body of S. Prosper.

[27] From the other side of the same plate. We Brother Bartholomew of Reggio, Master of sacred Theology, Prior of the Convent of S. Dominic, to whom also several other witnesses are added. Inquisitor of heretical depravity; Francis de Calali, of the Order of Minors, Master of sacred Theology, Christopher of Pisa, of the Order of the Hermits, Master of sacred Theology, John de Complano, of the Order of Carmelites; with all the Brothers of our Convents, who were in number eighty; Opizo de Gaciolis, Prior of S. Anthony; Jerome, Prior of this Monastery; Prosper de Zobolis; Bartholomew de Futiis, Nicholas de Scandafavis, Benedict Vianini, all Monks of this Monastery; at all things we were present, as is contained in this superior plate, to this joined. At all these things took part, the worshipful man Lord Federicus Marquis Pallavicino, and the Knight Pinus de Vercaciis; Doctor of Laws Prosper de Donellis, Doctor of Laws James de Zobolis, Doctor of Laws John Andrew de Bogiaciis, Notaries of Reggio; Master Abraham de Carbonibus, and Lord Francis de Fiesso.

[28] Another plate. Know, posterity of Reggio in Christ Jesus, Another notice of the same S. Prosper devout of S. Prosper our Patron glorious, that this suburban church, was half-broken and ruined from the ruin of a tower, great and most secure adjoined to it, already long since leveled to the ground by the force and command of Alphonsus Duke of Este, fearing lest it harm the fortress; and that very ruin falling upon the eastern part of the said church, and the vault with the wall of the great chapel of the same, from the old ark, above the Altar there. And the marble sepulcher, lofty to that Altar, and above it inserted, in which the holy Body of the aforesaid our Patron was once placed, with many documents building certain faith, sufficiently and abundantly it is established, with very many fissures cracked, and stood open. Thence with faithful diligence the Reverend Father, Lord Paul Boriella of Genoa, Abbot of this Monastery of S. Prosper, of the Order of S. Benedict, together with the prior notices, of the Cassinate Congregation otherwise of S. Justina, that part of the said church surviving, this Altar being restored, another new marble sepulcher he added; in which the said holy Body, laid up in a wooden box covered with red silk, from the said old broken sepulcher, together with all the leaden plates inscribed found in it (just as in the Acts and the public Instrument thereupon appearing, of John de Ronzagnis and his fellow Notaries) the said Father Abbot after the holy celebration of a solemn pious and ceremonious Mass Office, translated into the new one in 1518, with wonderful fervor of devotion, and the adoration of all, translated and laid up in the year of the Lord 1518, on the 23rd of December, in the Pontificate of our holy Lord Leo X in the sixth year. At all these things were present the Reverend Father Lord Ruffinus Garbonetta, Protonotary, and Canon of Mantua; Brother Cyprian Baldicellus, in the presence of the inscribed witnesses, Provost of the Monastery of S. Mark of Reggio; Brother Stephen de Paterno, Prior of the Monastery of S. Dominic; Brother Benvenutus de Vitelliana, Prior of the Monastery of S. Augustine; Anastasius Fontanesius, Chaplain of the Church of S. Peter; Peter Marius Suarius, Doctor of Arts and Medicine of Reggio, with others of the Clergy and sacred Orders of the city: and a public note thereupon published, Thomas Cambiator, Secretary of the Republic of its Exchange, who once was one of the aforesaid Associates, the son; Jerome de Favalibus; Thomas Maro, citizens and Notaries of Reggio.

[29] The last recent plate. Let posterity know, that in the year from the birth of Christ 1551, in the ninth Indiction, and how in the year 1551 the suburban Church being ruined, on the fifth of November, in the Pontificate of Julius the Third in the second year, Charles V reigning, by the mandate of Hercules II of Este, the 4th Duke of Ferrara and Reggio, the Relics of the monastery, and of the Church of the holy Prosper Bishop of Reggio, near the walls of the city were utterly taken away and leveled to the ground, for the city itself to be fortified, from the warlike perils impending; and lest the bones of BB. Prosper, Venerius the Hermit, and Jucunda the Virgin, in the three Altars of the said church laid up, the Bodies were translated to S. Peter's, should lie unbecomingly; the Reverend Father Lord Vitalis of Modena, Abbot of the same monastery, in the presence of the Reverend Lord Peregrinus of Modena, Abbot of the Abbey of S. John the Evangelist of Parma, and of many others, both Laymen and Religious, from the said Altars and arks, set upon them, the bones themselves of the blessed Bodies, took care to be translated to the Church of S. Peter of Reggio, and laid in the same Church's sacristy. But on the 21st day of the same month of December, the said Lord Vitalis the Abbot, in the presence of many men, the Bones themselves from the said sacristy laid in the three Altars of the same Church of S. Peter: that is the Bones of the Body of S. Prosper in the great Altar, with their plates eleven leaden inscribed; the Bones of S. Venerius in the Altar of S. Martin, on the northern side of the said greater Altar, with their plates four; the Bones of S. Jucunda in the Altar of S. Giles, on the southern side, with their plates four, in their old wooden boxes, covered with old red silk cloth. At all these things took part Lord James Suavius, Doctor of Laws; Lord Cambius Cambiator; Thomas de Maro, Prosper Gialdinus, Lord de Costa, Notaries, asked of the aforesaid to make public instruments. Dominicus de Canossa, Goldsmith of Reggio carved it.

[30] Jesus. Let those to come know, the pious faithful of Christ Jesus, and devout of SS. Prosper the Bishop, Venerius the Hermit, and Jucunda the Virgin, the Canons being admonished about this matter, that in the same year 1351, on November 18, the Reverend Father Lord Philip Zobolus the Abbot, taught by many reasons, that the sacred Bodies in this suburban church are laid up; the Provost and Canons of S. Prosper of the Castle, the same bodies in their Church to have asserting, to remove the ambiguity, having convoked the Reverend in Christ Father, Lord Baptista Pallavicino, Bishop of Reggio, and almost all the Clergy and people, their sepulchers, openly to be opened caused, and the bodies of the aforesaid Saints found marked, eleven leaden plates attesting this.

[31] At last in the year 1453, on the first Sunday of October, with the concession of Pope Nicholas V, the same Abbot of this Monastery, the Bodies themselves, and in the year 1453 transferred into new chests. having called the said Reverend Father Lord Baptista Bishop of Reggio, the Reverend Father Lord James Bishop of Sebaste, the Reverend Lord John Abbot of Maraula, the Rectors of the city, and all the Clergy and People; after the consecration of those Altars, from the prior tombs taken away, in these loftier ones, where now they are he laid up: on which day the said supreme Pontiff, every year, to all visiting this Church, granted seven years and as many Lents of Indulgence. Of these things it is fully established through the Acts of most approved men, John de Ronzaquis, Antony de Pictoribus, Andrew de Peregrinis, Cambius de Cambiatoribus, John Francis de Scarlatinis, John Francis de Rabinis, Notaries of Reggio, that the Bodies of SS. Venerius and Jucunda, on the right and on the left, in diverse tombs are placed. On this day the Body of B. Thomas was found. A distinguished excellent man, Lord Gerard Gisilerus of Bologna, skilled in Canon Law, was present at all things.

[32] I Peregrinus Villanus, Notary by Imperial and Apostolic Authorities of Reggio, Notarial subscriptions. at all and singular the aforesaid, just as above, done was present with the undersigned Magnificent Lord Stephen Ghisonus, and these things I saw and heard; and of these with the same jointly I was asked though written by another hand. I Stephen Ghisonus, formerly of the Magnificent Lord Blasius, citizen, approved by Apostolic and Imperial Authorities Notary of Reggio, of the aforesaid jointly, with the above-written Magnificent Lord Peregrinus Villanus, also Notary, was asked: in faith of which here I subscribe, and in the customary manner I signed being required. There is added public faith by the Prior and Consuls of the kindly College of Notaries of Reggio signed in the year 1618, on the 13th day of the month of April. The same Stephen Ghisonus in the year 1628 is found subscribed to the Instruments of the new Translation of SS. Venerius and Jucunda and of the Ven. Thomas. Of the former on their own respective days it will be treated; of Thomas, who hitherto has no public cult, because otherwise there will be no occasion of treating, from the book of the Authentic records of the monastery, marked with the letter F page 133 I exhibit, the instrument which I received.

ANNOTATIONS OF D. P.

CHAPTER V.

The new translation of the Venerable Thomas the Bishop, and the Relics of one bone from the body of S. Prosper; and his public exposition.

[33] In the name of Christ. Amen. In the year of his Circumcision one thousand six hundred twenty-seven, In the year 1627 in the tenth Indiction, on the twenty- third day of November, Urban VIII Supreme Pontiff sitting, and the most Serene Lord Caesar of Este 5th Duke our Lord ruling. When among the other holy Relics, which in the monastery of S. Peter of the city of Reggio are venerated, the Relics or bones of the Bodies of S. Jucunda the Virgin, and of B. Thomas the Bishop, in the same monastery are venerated, and in little boxes, laid up in a walnut chest, are asserted to be kept etc. … The Lord Abbot drew out from the said walnut chest, a wooden little box in which are laid up the bones or relics of the body of B. Thomas the Bishop, a larger ark being built, the bones of the Ven. Thomas the Bishop, covered with a white silk veil, as is plain from the plates of a tenor below to be registered; and the aforesaid bones being venerated and incensed by the said Abbot devoutly he took with his own hands the head of the same B. Thomas, and it to all standing by demonstrated, who humbly his intercession implored: and three teeth from the jaws of the same Blessed one he plucked, and gave them. One namely to the Lord Bishop, another to the Lord Governor, and the third to the Lord Prior of the Elders: who gladly received, and for so great a gift gave thanks: and the Relics aforesaid all of the said B. Thomas devoutly he placed in another wooden new little box, they are put into a new little box, with a silk veil of red color woven with gold within adorned, placed in another stone ark in the said place for this effect prepared, retaining for himself from the said Relics a little piece, to the effect of placing it, as he said, in the Cross of the cupola of the church aforesaid.

[34] And the said bones thus were placed, set above a round leaden plate, and are enclosed in a stone ark, with these leaden letters engraved, namely. The Body of blessed Thomas Bishop of Reggio, in the year of salvation 1627 the Lord Abbot veiled with two silk veils of turquoise color. But the other two leaden plates found in the little box aforesaid of the said Relics, whose tenor below will be registered, he placed in the ark aforesaid outside the said little box, which fortified with two locks he closed, and both keys he handed over, one namely to the Lord Bishop, the other to the Lord Governor. And the said little box being fortified by the Lord Prior with two seals of the most Illustrious Community in Spanish wax, Master Nicholas Sampolius, by order of the said Lord Abbot, with indications of the prior translations in the year 1110, the stone ark aforesaid closed with living stone with its iron bands, at each head of the same with lead melted secured, and with the impression of the seal of the said Community in the said lead fortified. The Plate of the Body of B. Thomas. In the name of the Lord. In the year one thousand two hundred ten, in the time of the Lord Pope Innocent III, were translated the bones of the Venerable Thomas Bishop of Reggio, from under the cloister here into the church: in the first year of the Empire of Otto (for he had in the year preceding, the twelfth from his election as King, been crowned at Rome on the 4th of October), the Venerable Abbot Prosper presiding. On another plate. The Body of B. Thomas found from the day namely the first Sunday of October, and of another made in the fifteenth century. placed in this sepulcher by P. Zob. Ab. But this is Philip de Zobolis, the last perpetual and Commendatory Abbot in Ughelli tome 5, who in the fifteenth century already declining presided, the Abbots of the Cassinate Congregation triennial succeeding thereafter, whose to this day succession lasts.

[35] Clement had ordered, as above in number 5 said, to the Monks, In the same year 1617 from the same larger ark because they were to be deprived of the body of S. Prosper which they believed they had, that an entire member, not however the head, in their church perpetually to be conserved should be granted and handed over. And this afterward done is narrated in number 16, and it is said to be the bone of the leg. When therefore in the year 1627 the Abbot, as has been said, had translated the bodies of SS. Venerius, Jucunda, and also of B. Thomas; the walnut chest aforesaid being again opened he drew out another little box shorter: which there being opened, he found within to be one entire bone, the bone of the leg of S. Prosper drawn out is placed in the Sacristy, which is said to be of the Leg of the body of S. Prosper Bishop of Reggio, wrapped in a little paper written with these letters, A Relic of S. Prosper Bishop of Reggio. Which being seen the said little box he closed, and ordered to be laid up in the sacristy. So the book of Authentic records afore-cited. These things when he had read in the year 1690 Lord Adeodatus Bonzagnius the Abbot, and that sacred pledge on the day 15th of November had inspected, there where with the other Relics of his church it was kept for 65 years; he decreed that very sacred bone to the public veneration to expose.

[36] Using therefore the opportunity of those present in his church, where in the year 1691 recognized for the feast of S. Jucunda on November 25 to be celebrated, of the most Illustrious Lord Prosper Scarulfius the Vicar General and of the most Illustrious Elders, he asked them that they would deign to recognize the seals each their own, impressed on the said little box. Which done, the Lord Vicar ordered it to be opened: and it was soon opened in the presence of much Nobility of the city, the Monks and their Prelate continually assisting. But the most Illustrious one himself with his hand drew out thence the paper, in which in old and larger letters was read, A Relic of S. Prosper Bishop of Reggio, conformably to the Instruments of the Acts of the year 1601 and 27 to that end brought. Drawn out afterward from there was an old veil of varied color, within which they found the aforenamed Bone which the most Excellent Lord Prosper Marmiroli physician, and Lord Andrew Pozzi surgeon defined to be the bone of the left hip. Then it upon a leaf of clean paper unfolded the Abbot, on which its circumference with a pen described Lord Jerome Mastarini the painter, to be inserted in a new reliquary: that to that measure might be formed the reliquary designed. These things done again with its veil was wrapped the holy bone, and the little box being closed as before was laid up in the sacristy, until the work commanded to him being completed the silversmith should render: of all which being asked an instrument gave the Lords Bernardinus Bonaretti, Alexander Rossi, and John Baptist Vespolati.

[37] But in this year 1692, after from this State withdrew the German soldiery, and your most Illustrious Lordships (the Author addresses the Senate of Reggio) from that more urgent care being free, to whose exposition in the year 1692, June 22 it is permitted to attend to our supplications; they are asked that their presence they would deign to exhibit on the Sunday morning the 22nd of June, at the public exposition of so holy a Relic, which our most Reverend Father Abbot Lord Adeodatus Bonzagni, there intervening the most Serene Lord Prince Louis of Este, Governor of the city, and the most Illustrious Lord Vicar and all of us Monks. So he in the name of the whole monastery, at the end of a compendious relation of the things, done concerning the aforesaid Relic, from the very beginning of the suit above mentioned, the Senate is invited. which Relation common to the three Saints until its decision, came forth expanded in Italian on one leaf of paper, with the representation of the silver reliquary, made to that end, and about four feet high.

[38] But what the College of the Canons of S. Prosper? They are in number eight, The College of S. Prosper in the city, besides the Mansionaries or Chaplains twenty-six, with one Provost, already long since picked from the College of the Cathedral church of S. Mary: which when it had been instituted under the number of twenty-four, with three Dignities, was restricted to sixteen, and the Provost being lost retained the Archdeacon and Archpriest; whence it comes about that in public Processions the Provost of S. Prosper holds the first place after the Archdeacon and Archpriest of S. Mary, before all the Canons of both Chapters, under two Crosses as under one advancing, as if one sole College they constituted. equal to the College of the Cathedral church, But when in the year 1681 the Capitulars of the Cathedral church had obtained the faculty of using violet cappae, in winter stuffed with ermine fur, in summer with red ormesine; the Canons of S. Prosper insisted, that the same too might be allowed them; and the cause to the Congregation of Rites being brought, and at the instance of others once and again rejected, at last a definitive they obtained sentence under the date of the year 1685, on February 17, with the clause, without prejudice to the rights of the Cathedral; to which otherwise it seemed sufficiently provided by the difference of the Almuce, by which the one from the others notably are distinguished, lest they seem utterly the same among themselves.

[39] These therefore claim to themselves properly the care of the honor of S. Prosper: the honor of the Saint they variously promote, and who already from the decision of the suit by Pope Clement, had his Head enclosed in a silver bust, in the manner of a natural statue fashioned, took care to adorn the greater altar, under which the rest of the body rests, with a silver frontal at Rome to be fabricated at the price of two thousand crowns; and persuaded the Senate to make a Decree, by which were ordered to be held as feasts three days preceding the feast, with four following it, which to this day is observed. But that to that octave solemnity splendor might accrue from some excellent Orator; there began to that end in the year 1687 to run a revenue of a hundred crowns, from the legacy of the Lord Doctor Basil, dispatched by the death of the Lady Hippolyta Rugeria, his relict the usufructuary. Finally the Senate all wishing to show how much it has at heart the honor and dignity of its holy Protector, as also the Senate of the City. yearly four it chooses from its body, who make a Congregation upon the affairs of S. Prosper. And these are the things relating to S. Prosper of Reggio which most recently I received in the year 1692, by the effort of our then Rector of the College the Reverend Father Ignatius Seniga.