Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/620

 604r INTELLECT AND FAITH. The alternative was a cruel one, but they had no choice. They could only hope to secure the neutrality of the papacy and to pro- long the hopeless fight against the growing strength of the new doctrine, which their banded enemies propagated with all the en- thusiasm of approaching victory. The perplexity of the position was all the more keenlv felt, as they claimed the Virgin as the peculiar patroness of their Order; the devotion of the Rosary, in her special honor, was a purely Dominican institution. They who had always worshipped her with the most extravagant devotion were forced to become her apparent detractors, and were every- where stigmatized as " maculistce." Would she not condescend to save her devotees from the cruel dilemma into which they had fallen ? Suddenly, in 1507, the rumor spread that in Berne the Virgin had interposed to save her servants. In a convent of Observantine Dominicans she had repeatedly appeared to a holy friar and re- vealed to him her vexation at the guilt of the Franciscans in teach- ing the Immaculate Conception. After conception she had been three hours in original sin before sanctification ; the teaching of St. Thomas was true and divinely inspired ; Alexander Hales, Duns Scotus, and many other Franciscans were in purgatory for assert- ing the contrary. Julius II. would settle the question and would institute in honor of the truth a greater feast than that of Decem- ber 8. To help towards this consummation the Virgin gave the friar a cross tinged with her son's blood, three of the tears which he had shed over Jerusalem, the cloths in which he was wrapped in the flight to Egypt, and a vial of the blood which he had shed for man, together with a letter to Julius II. in which he was prom- ised glory equal to that of St. Thomas Aquinas in return for what was expected of him, and this letter, duly authenticated by the seals of the Dominican priors of Berne, Basle, and Xiirnberg, was sent to the pope. The reports of these divine appearances pro- duced an immense sensation ; countless multitudes assembled in the Dominican Church to look upon the friar thus favored, and he performed feats of fasting, prayer, and scourging, which increased the reputation for sanctity acquired by the visitations. After a trance he appeared with the stigmata of Christ; the church was arranged to enable him in his devotions to represent the various acts of the Passion, and an immense crowd looked on with awe-