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 MIRiEUS

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MIRANDOLA

could we not cast him out?" Christ replied, "this Idud is not cast out Init. l)y prayer and fasting" (Matt., xvii, IS si|ii.). Elisous could not raise to life the son of the .Suiianiitcss with his staff.

The grace of miracles is therefore only a transient gift by which God moves a person to do something which issues in a wonderful work. Sometimes God makes use instrumentally of contact with the relies of the saints, or visits to sacred shrines for this pur- pose. The miraculous work is always the effect of Omnipotence; nevertheless, men and angels may be said to work miracles in a threefold way (1) by their prayers invoking a miraculous effect; (2) by disposing or accommodating the materials, as it is said of the angels that they will in the resurrection collect the dust of the dead bodies that these may be re-animated by the Divine power; (3) by performing some other act in co-operation with the Divine agency, as in the case of the application of relics, or of visits to holy places which God has marked out for special and ex- traordinary favours of this kind. To Christ even as man, or to His humanity, was granted a perpetual and constant power of miracles. He was able of His free will to work them as often as He judged it ex- peilient. For this He had the ever-ready concur- rence of His Divinity, although there was in His Humanity no permanent quality which could be the physical cause of miracles.

Benedict XIV tells us sufficient with regard to miracles in their relation to sanctity of life when ex- plaining their estimate in the cause of the beatifica- tion and canonization of the .saints. He says: "It is the common opinion of theologians that the grace of miracles is a grace gratis data, and therefore that it is given, not only to the just but also to sinners (though only rarely). Christ says that He knows not those who have done evil, though they may have prophesied in His name, cast out devils in His name, and done many wonderful works. And the Apostle said that without charity he was nothing, though he might have faith to remove mountains. On this passage of the Apostle, Estius remarks: 'For as it oners no contradiction to the Apostle that a man should have the gift of tongues or prophecy, or knowledge of mysteries, and excel in knowledge, which are first spoken of; or be liberal to the poor, or give his body to be burned for the name of Christ, which are after- wards spoken of and jet not have charity; so also there' is no contradiction in a man having faith to remove mountains, and being without charity' " (Treatise on Heroic Virtue, III, 130).

These graces manifest themselves in two ways: one way as dwelling in the Church, teaching and sanctifying her, as, for e.xample, when even a sinner in whom the Holy Ghost does not abide works miracles to show that the faith of the Church which he preaches is true. Hence the Apostle writes: "God also bearing them witness by sigtis, and wonders, and divers miracles, and distributions of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will " (Heb.,ii,4). Inanotherway, the manifestation is made by the graces of the Holy Ghost as belonging to him who performs the works. Hence in Acts it is said that St. Stephen, "full of grace and fortitude, did great wonders and signs among the people" (Acts, vi, 8). Here we have a distinction clearly drawn out as to the manner in which gratice gratis datte may be to the advantage of the person receiving them as well as to the utility of others, and how it is that by these graces persons without sanctifying grace may perform signs and wonders for the good of others. But these are 1-are and exceptional cases, and real miracles can never be performed by a sinner in proof of his own personal sanctity or in proof of error, because that would be a deception and derogatory to the sanctity of God Who alone can perform iniracles.

Henewct XIV. Heroic Virtue (Londuu Ontiiriim Series,

18.51); Devine, Manual of Mystical Theology (London. 1903); Doyle, Principles of Religious Life (London, — ); Ribet, La Mystique Divine (Paris, 1893); Schram, Theolooia Mystica; SiLvins, In II-IID. Thomac, clxxviii, a. 1.

A. Devine.

Miraeus (Le Mire), Aubert, ecclesiastical histo- rian, b. at Brussels, 30 Nov., 1573; d. at Antwerp, 19 Oct., 1640. After studying at Douai and Louvain he was made canon of the cathedral of Antwerp in 1608 and secretary to his uncle, John Miraeus, who was then Bishop of Antwerp. In 1011 he was appointed al- moner and librarian to Archdu&e Albert of Austria, then viceroy of tlia Netherlands, and in 1624 he be- came dean of the cathedral of Antwerp and vicar- general of the diocese. He was an indefatigable his- torical Writer, as is attested by the thirty-nine Works on profane, ecclesiastical, and monastic history which he has given to the world. On the whole he is a relia- ble historian, though some of his Works are wanting in thoroughness and accuracy.

His chief literary productions are: (1) " Rerum toto orbe gestarum chronica a Christo nato ad hs'C usque tempora ", Antwerp, 160S (containing the chronicles of Eusebius, St. Jerome, Sigebert of Gemblours, Ans§lm of Gemblours, and others up to the year 1200, and a continuation of these chronicles by Miraeus up to 1608) ; (2) " Notitia episcopatuum orl^is universi ", Antwerp, 1611, 1613; (3) " Politia ecclesiastica, sivede statu religionis Christianae per totum orbem", Cologne, 1609, Lyons. 1620; (4) "Geographica Ec- clesiastica", Lyons, 1620; (5) "Notitia ecclesiarum Belgii ", Antwerp, 1(530 (this work, together with other Works of Mira>us on the ecclesiastical hi.story of the Netherlands, was re-edited by Foppens, under the title of ''Miriti opera diplomatica et Ilistorica", 4 vols., Brussels, 1723—48); (6) " Bil)Iiotheca ecclesias- tica", 2 vols., Antwerp, 1639-49 (a compilation of short sketches on ecclesiastical writers Written by St. Jerome, Gennadius, St. Isidore, St. Ildephonsus, Honorius Augustodunensis, Sigebert of Gemblours, and Henry of Ghent, and is furnished with notes by Miraeus); (7) "Vita Justi Lipsii", Antwerp, 1609 (Miraeus had Justus Lipsius as teacher at Louvain); (8) " Originum monasticarum libri I V ", Cologne, 162.

He had previously published in separate volumes the beginnings of the Benedictines (Antwerp, 1608), of the Carthusians (Cologne, 1609), of the Military Orders (.\ntwerp, 1609), of the Carmelites (Antwerp, 1610), of the Augustinians, in French (Antwerp, 1611), of the Canons Regular (Cologne, 1614), of the Sisters of the Annunciation (Antwerp, 16 IS). Some of his letters were published by Burbure in " Messager des Sciences Historiques de Belgique" (1859).

De Riuder, a uhert Le Mire, sa vie, ses ecrits, memoire hiaio- rique et critique (Paria, 1865); Wadters in Biographic Nationale de Belgique (Brussels, 1866-91), XIV, 882-95.

Michael Ott.

Miranda, B.^rtolome de. See Carkanza, Bar- to lomk.

Mirandola, Giovanni Francesco Pico della, Italian pliilosopher, nephew of Mirandola, Giovanni Pico dflhi (see ne.xt article), b. about 1469; d. 1533. Though very gentle and pious he was drawn into the bitter feuds of his family and fell at the foot of the crucifix with his son Albert, killed by his nephew Galeotto II. who had just seized the Castle of Mirandola. His wife and the children of his other son were shut up in dreadful dungeons. At Rome he de- fended the eclectic Latin .style against the Ciceronian Bembo. Like his uncle he devoted himself chiefly to philosophy, but made it subject to the Bibli-, though in his treatises, " De studio diviuae et liuinana" .sa- pientiae" and particularly in the six books entitled " Examen tloctrina' unitatis gentium", he depreciates the authority of the philo,sophers, above all of Aris- totle. He wrote a detailed biography of his uncle and another of Savonarola. Having observed the dangers