CAPISTRAN.

Mutual politeness of the Saints,

John Capistran, a monk of the order of St Francis, was born in the village of Capistran, in Italy, in the year 1385. He gained a great reputation by his zeal, eloquence, and manners, and was sent into Bohemia to undertake the conversion of the Hussites. He also preached up the crusade against the Turks in Germany, Hungary, and Poland, and so effectually seconded with his tongue the sword of the great Huimiades, that he had a great share in the victories

obtained by the Christians against Mahomet, especially in the famous battle of Belgrade in the year 1546. He died soon after the battle, and was buried at Willak in Hungary. He was canonized by pope Alexander VIII in 1690, having been previously beatified by Gregory XV.

Surprising things are related of the eloquence of Capistran. He went to Nuremberg in 1452, and was received in great pomp by the whole clergy. He had a pulpit erected in the middle of an open place, where he preached against vice for some days with so much eloquence, that he obliged the inhabitants to throw their cards and dice on a heap, and set fire to them; and afterwards exhorted them to the war against the Turks. The year following he went to Breslau in Silesia, where he afterwards inveighed vehemently against all instruments for gaming, and ordered them to be brought to him and burnt. The power of his eloquence was not confined to these remarkable executions upon inanimate subjects; the Jews felt the effects of it in a terrible manner, of whom he caused a great number to be burnt in Silesia, under pretence that they had been guilty of irreverence towards the consecrated bread. He used to preach two hours in Latin; after which, another was two hours explaining this Latin sermon in the vulgar tongue.

I must not forget to tell you, that his prayers were as efficacious as his sermons. These were so prevalent as to interrupt the miracles which were done at the tomb of one Thomas of Florence, who had been a lay-brother in a monastery of Franciscans. There was reason to fear, that whilst they were endeavouring to get St Bernardin canonized, the miracles of this lay-brother might retard the affair. For this reason Capistran addressed a very fervent prayer to him, to obtain that interruption. He was heard: Thomas of Florence, that he might not divert the

design, or give occasion to any accidents or obstacles, suspended his miraculous virtue, and did not renew it till after the canonization of St Bernardin. This is not the only proof that can be produced of the respect which the saints have for one another. We may venture to say, that St Germain had a complaisance for St Martin, which has all the air of human politeness. “ St Martin’s relics, being carried all over France, were brought to Auxerre, and deposited in the church of St Germain, where they wrought a great many miracles. The religious of Auxerre, looking on St Germain to be as great a saint as St Martin, demanded one half of the offerings, which were very considerable; but St Martin’s priests pretended, that he alone performing all the miracles which they saw, all the alms belonged to him alone. To justify the truth of what they had advanced, they desired that a sick body might be placed between the shrines of St Martin and St Germain, and then they should see which of the two did the miracle. They made trial on a leper, who was healed on that side which was next to St Martin, but not on that next to St Germain after which the side which still remained unaffected, being turned next to St Martin, was also healed. ‘ This was not,’ says cardinal Baronius, Boursault, Lettres Nouvelles, p. 397, 398. Edit. of Holl. 1698. ⁷⁴ ‘ because St Germain was not as great a saint as St Martin, or could not work as many miracles; but because St Martin had done him the favour of a visit, he suspended the power he had with God, in order the better to receive his guest.” So much absurd credulity might be deemed impossible, did we not witness a French king, and a train consisting of his family and some favourite courtiers, traversing the streets of Paris in three muddy processions in the 19th century;—and for what? To obtain the benefit of the plenary indulgence from an old man at Rome, which is to be obtained on those express conditions. A silver image of the Virgin is also making as large as life. Existing fatuity in fact might fully justify a belief in the above alleged or any other similar absurdity, even were the direct testimonies themselves less undeniable.—Ed. ⁷⁵Art,Capistran.