Frederick William Faber

An Essay on Beatification, Canonization and the Processes of the Congregation of Rites Frederick William Faber

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1848. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... their substance divine, and yet in their circumstances conformed to species naturally perceived: and it is on this principle we must explain the circumstantial discrepancies we find in visions and ecstasies following on fervent meditations of the Passion, and the seeming contradictions between such books, for example, as those of St. Bridget and Sister Emmerich. Even reported sayings and sermons of a servant of God are scrutinized when his cause comes before the Congregation. For instance: the Dominicans affirmed that the blood which our Lord shed during the triduo of His Passion remained hypostatically united to His divinity;t the Franciscans denied it. During the Easter of 1462 St. James de la Marche, preaching at Brescia, asserted the Franciscan doctrine, and said that the Blood shed in the Passion could not rightly receive the cultus latrise. The next day a Dominican preached, and branded St. James's proposition as heretical. James of Brescia, the Dominican inquisitor, requested St. James by private letters to retract his assertion, as having been formally declared heretical in the cathedral of Barcellona by command of Clement VI. The next Tuesday however St. James publicly repeated his doctrine in a sermon, whereupon the inquisitor summoned him to answer for his faith under pain of an anathema. The bishop of Brescia interposed to bring about a reconciliation, and Pius II. refused to solve the doubt, but by a brief freed St. James from the charge of heresy, and forbid either Dominicans or Franciscans to moot the question again, but to expect the decision of the Holy See. No express definition came out, but the Council of Trent having defined the Blood to be part of Christ, Cardinal de Lugo declares that the Franciscan doctrine can no longer be maintained wit...