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 SAINT BENEDICT

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SAINT BENEDICT

out of gratitude to God for the timelj' discovery of the conspiracy. It is not surprising, therefore, that, on 22 September, Gregory XIII should have written to Charles IX: "Sire, I thank God that He was pleased to preserve and defend Your Majesty, Her Majesty, the Queen-mother and Your Majesty's royal brothers from the horrible conspiracy. I do not think that in all history there is mention of such cruel malevolence." Xor again is it astonishing that the pope should have despatched Cardinal Orsini to Charles IX with congratulations on his escape. From Rome again Cardinal do Pelleve WTote to Catherine de' Medici: " Madame, the joy of all honest people in this citj- is comj)lete, and never was there more glad- some news than that of Your Majesty being free from danger." The discourse delivered 3 December by Muret, the Humanist, was a veritable hymn of thanks- giving for the discovery of the plot contrived against the king and almost all the royal family.

The Huguenot party having plotted regicide had to be punished, and its punishment seemed once more to put France in condition to combat the Turks; such was the twofold aspect under which Rome con- sidered the massacre. Besides, the pope's joy did not last long. A rather involved account by Brantome leads us to think that, becoming bettor informed, he grew angry at the news of such barbarity, and it is certain that when, in October, 1572, the Cardinal of Lorraine wished to present Maurevel, who had fired on Coligny on 22 August, Gregory XIII refused to receive him, saying: "He is an assassin." Doubtless by this time the vague despatches sent by Salviati during the weeks preceding the massacre had, in the hght of events, become more comprehensible and rendered it clearer that the origin of these tragic events was the assault of 22 August; without ceasing to rejoice that Charles IX had eventually escaped the conspiracy then commonly a.sserted in France and abroad, Gregory XIII judged the criminal, Maurevel, according to his deserts. The condemnation by Pius V of the "intrigues" against Coligny and the refusal of Gregory XIII to receive Maurevel "the as.sassin" establish the unbending rectitude of the papacy, which, eager as it was for the re-establishment of rehgious unity, never admitted the pagan theories of a certain raison d'etal according to which the end justifie<l the means. As to the congratulations and the manifestations of joy which the news of the massacre elicited from Gregory XIII, they can only be fairly judged by as.suming that the Holy See, hke all Europe and indeed many Frenchmen, beheved in the existence of a Huguenot conspiracy of whose overthrow the Court boasted and whose punishment an obsequious parliament had completed.

EarliiT authorities: Mi-moiTux de. Maryuerite de Valoin (coll. Petitot, XXXVII); DUrours du Roi Henri III (coll. Petitot, XLIV); Memoiren de Tavanne (coll. du Panth6on littferaire); CarreHjwn/tnnce de la Molhe-Finelon, VII (Paris, 1840); ed. La Kerkieke, Lettres de Catherine de Medicis, IV (Paris, 1891); Neo'jciatirjne dipUjmatiqueg de la France avec la Toscane, III; Thein-er, Anruiles ecelesiagtici, I (Itome, 18.56); Martin, Relalionii des ambantadeurg tinilienn Giovanni Michieli et iSigis- numd Cavalli (Paris, 1872); Archives curieusea de Ihistoire de France (series I, VII, 1835).

Modern works: Soldan, /^ France et la St. Barlhilemy, tr. Schmidt (Paris, XHhh) ; White, The Massacre of Saint BaHholomew, ■precMfl by a HisU/ry of the ReliyiouH Wars in the Reign of Charles IX (]x)D<\rm. 1808); Bordier, La St. Barthilemy et la critique moderne (Geneva, 1871); Loihelecr, Trrris inigmes historiques (Paris, 188.3): La pEHRifcRE, La Saint Barthilemy, la teille, le jour. If. len/lem/nn U'ariH, 1802): Vacandard, Eludes de critique et d'hinloire relioieune (.3rd ed., Parin, 1906).

Georges Goyau.

Saint Benedict, Mkdal of, a medal, originally a croHS, dfdicatfd to the devotion in honour of St. Benedict. One sidf; of the medal bearH an image of St. Benedict, holding a cross in the right hand and the Holy Rule in the loft. On the one Hide of the image is a cup, on th«; other a raven, and alx)ve the cup and the raven are inscribed the words: "Crux Sancti Patria Benedict!" (Cross of the Holy Father Benedict).

Round the margin of the medal stands the legend "Ejus in obitu nro pra?sentia muniamur" (May we at our death be fortified by his presence). The reverse of the medal bears a cross with the initial letters of the words: "Crux Sacra Sit Mihi Lux" (The Holy Cross be my light), written downward on the perpen- dicular bar; the initial letters of the words, " Non Draco Sit Mihi Dux" (Let not the dragon be my guide), on the horizontal bar; and the initial letters of "Crux Sancti Patris Benedicti" in the angles of the cross. Round the margin stand the initial letters of the dis- tich: "Vade Retro Satana, Nunquam Suade Mihi Vana — Sunt Mala Qua' Libas, Ipse Venena Bibas" (Begone, Satan, do not suggest to me thy vanities — evil are the things thou profferest, drink thou thy own poison). At the top of the cross usually stands the word Pax (peace) or the monogram I H S (Jesus). The medal just described is the so-called jubilee medal, which was struck first in 1880, to commemorate the fourteenth centenary of St. Benedict's birth. The

Medal of Saint Benedict

Archabbey of Monte Cassino has the exclusive right to strike this medal. The ordinary modal of St. Benedict usually differs from the preceding in the omission of the words "Ejus in obitu etc.", and in a few minor details. (For the indulgences connected with it see Beringer, "Die Ablasse", Paderborn, 1906, p. 404-6.) The habitual wearer of the jubilee medal can gain all the indulgences connected with the ordinary medal and, in addition: (1) all the indulgences that could be gained by visiting the basilica, crypt, and tower of St. Benedict at Monte Cassino (Pius IX, 31 Dec, 1877); (2) a plenary indulgence on the feast of All Souls (from about two o'clock in the afternoon of 1 Nov. to sunset of 2 Nov.), as often as [tolies quo- tics), after confes.sion and Holy Communion, he visits any church or public oratory, praying there according to the intention of the iwpe, provided that ho is hin- dered from visiting a church or public oratory of the Benedictines bv sickness, monastic enclosure or a dis- tance of at least 1000 steps. (Deer. 27 Feb., 1907, in Acta S. Sedis, LX, 24.) Any priest may receive the faculties to bless those iiio<l;Us.

It is doubtful whoii llio Modal of St. Benedict origi- nated. During :i trial for witchcraft .at Natternberg near the Abbey of Mt^tton in Bavaria in the year 1647, the accused women testified that they had no power over Metten, which was under the protection of the cross. Upon investigation, a number of painted crosses, surrounded by the letters which are now found on Benedictine medals, were found on the walls of the abbey, but their meaning had been forgotten. Finally, in an old manuscript, written in 141.5, was found a picture roprosenting St. Benedict holding in one hand a staff which ends in a cross, and a scroll in the other. On the staff and scroll were written in full the words of which tlio niystorious lot tors wore the initials. Mod;ils bc;iriiig tho imago of St. B<'IH diet, a cross, and tlioso lot tors began now to bo struck in Germany, and soon s|)road over Europe. They were first approved bv lionodict XIV in his briefs of 23 Dec, 1741, and 12 March, 1742.

GtriRANOER, Essai sur Vorigine, la signification et les priviliget de la midaille ou croix de S. BenoU (Poitiere, 1862; 11th cd.. Paris,