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 C^SARIUS

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CJESARIUS

quest, Pope Symmachus invalidated the marriage of

any professed nun (Malnory, 264). The convent furniture was of the simplest and no paintings were allowed (a provision afterwards distorted in favour of Iconoclasm). Spinning of wool, the manufac- ture of their own garments, the care of the monas- tery, were their chief occupations, apart from prayer and meditation. It is to be noted, however, that the bishop provided for the copying of the Scriptures (inter psalmos et jejunia, vigilias quoque sic leetiones libros divinos pulchre scriptitent virgines Christi) un- der the direction of Csesaria. In the course of the sixth century the rule of the nuns was elsewhere in Gaul adapted to monasteries of men, while numerous monasteries of women adopted it outright, e. g. the famous Abbey of the Holy Cross at Poitiers founded by St. Radegundis. Its extension was also favoured by the fact that not a few of his disciples became bishops and abbots, and as such naturally introduced the ideal of religious life created by their venerated master. When his end drew near, he made his will (Testamentum), with all the formalism of Roman law, in favour of his beloved nuns (P. L., LXVII, 1139-40; Baronius, Ann. Eccl., ad an. 308, no. 2.")), commending them and their rule to the affection of his successor, and leaving to his sister, Csesaria, as a special me- mento, a large cloak she hail made for him (mantum majorem quern de eannabe fecit). The genuinity of this curious and valuable document has been called in question, but without sufficient reason. It is ac- cepted bv Malnory, and has been re-edited by Dom Morin (Revile Benedictine, 1896, XVI, 433-43, 486). Csesarius was a perfect monk in the episcopal chair, and as such his contemporaries revered him (online et officio clericus; humilitate, charitate, obedient ia. cruce monachus permanet — Vita Csesarii, I. .">). He was a pious and B peaceful shepherd amid barbarism and war, generous and charitable to a fault, yet a great benefactor of his Church, mindful of the help- li ss, tactful in dealing with the powerful and rich, in all his life a model of Catholic speech and action.

We may add that he was the first to introduce in his cathedral the Hours of Terce, Sext. and None; he also enriched with hymns the psalmody of every Hour.

Moris in Rome Benedictine (Maredsous, 1891-1908), passim; Lejav. St. Ccsaire a" Aries in Revue du Clergc francais (Paris. 1895\ IV, 97. Is7. and Revue bibligut i Pans. IS95i, IV, 593; Malnory, St. Cesaire Evtque d' Aries (Paris. 1894), bibliogra- phy; Arnold (non-Catholic), Cassarius von Arelate und die gnllische Kirrhe seiner Zeit (Leipzig. 1X94). For the long con- flict concerning the primacy of Gaul, between the churches of Aries and Vienne, see Gundlach. Der StreU der Histhumer Aries und Vienne urn dm Primatue Galliarum in Neuee Archiv (I88S- 90). XIV, 251, XVI, 9, 233; Duchesne, La primalie d Aries, in Mem. de la Soc. des Antiquaires de France (1891-92), II, 155; Schmitz, Der Vikariat ran Aries in Hist. Jahrbuch (1891), XII. 11.245.

For the general history of the Church of Aries at this period. see du Port, Histnire de V Kglisc d'Artes. tirce des meilleurs auteurs (Paris, 1690); Saxius, Pontificium Arelatense (Aix-en- Provence. 1629); Trichaud, Hist, de la sainte eglisc d' Aries nd for the political and social life of the period. FATTJUZL, Hist, de la (iaule meridionals sous les conque- rants germains (Paris, 1856); Damn, Kunige der Germanen (Leipzig, 1885).

Thomas J. Shahan.

Csesarius of Heisterbach, a pious and learned monk of the Cistercian monastery of Heisterbach near Bonn, b. about 1 170 at or near Cologne; d. about 1240 as Prior of Heisterbach. He received his educa- tion at the school of St Andrew in Cologne where he had Ensfried, Dean of St. Andrew, as teacher. He also heard at- the Cathedral School the lectures of the learned Rudolph, who had previously been professor at the University of Paris. Under these two com- petent teachers Csesarius studied the theology of St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and St. Gregory the Great; the philosophy of Boethius, and the liter- ary masterpieces of Virgil, Ovid, Seneca, and Clau- dian. He was a gifted and diligent scholar and upon the completion of his studies was thoroughly conver-

sant with the writings of the Fathers of the- Church and master of a refined and fluent Latin style. Like most German educators of his tune, he was a theologian rather than a philosopher and looked with suspicion upon the rationalistic tendencies of scholastic phil- osophy, as it was taught, in many schools of France. Acting on the advice of Gevard, Abbot of Heister- bach, Csesarius entered that monastery in 1199 and after some time was appointed to the responsible office of master of novices. It was his duty to imbue the candidates with the spirit of austere asceticism which then animated the Cistercian Order, and to in- struct them in the necessary knowledge of theology. His fame as teacher soon spread far beyond the walls of his monastery and. yielding to requests from vari- ous quarters, Abbot Henry, Gevard's successor, asked Csesarius to write an abstract of his teachings. This occasioned the famous "Dialogue". In 1228 Cse- sarius was made prior of his monastery and thence- forth accompanied the abbot on many official visits in Germany and Friesland.

Csesarius was one of the most popular writers of the thirteenth century. The numerous manuscripts, still extant. of many of his works show how highly his writings were esteemed and how greedily they were read by his contemporaries. About the year 1238 he wrote the so-called "Epistola Catalogica", a list, of thirty-six works which he had published up to that date. By far the best known and most important work, however, of Csesarius is his "Dialogue of Vis- ions and Miracles" in twelve books (Dialogus magnus visionum atque miraculorum, Libri XII). It struck the fancy of his thirteenth-century readers to such an extent that it became probably the most, popular book in Germany at that time. The people of that day of the later Crusades, owing greatly to the many fabulous stories brought from the Orient by return- ing crusaders, had an irresistible liking for the strange and marvellous. Like a true child of his times, Csesarius relates in all seriousness the most incredible stories of saints and demons, but scrupulously avoids whatever may endanger the principles of true piety and sane morality. His purpose was not to relate facts of history, but to entertain and edify his readers. He accomplished this purpose most successfully. Though his "Dialogue" is merely a collection of ascetical romances, it has become one of the most important sources lor the history of civilization dur- ing the thirteenth century. It presents to our view a living panorama of all t hat the student of the history of civilization cares to know. Popes and emperors, monks and priests, rich and poor, learned and illit- erate, good and bad, all sorts and conditions of men, pass before our vision as if we were living among them. More than fifty manuscripts of the "Dia- logue" are extant, and seven printed editions are known. The latest, in two volumes, was prepared by Strange (Cologne, 1851); an index to the same (Coblenz, 1857). Another work of Csesarius identical in historical value with the preceding is his "Eight Books of Miracles" (Vohnnen diversarum visionum seu miraculorum, Libri VIII). Of this work only a fragment, of three books is known; it was carefully edited with valuable critical notes by .Meister (Rome, 1901). Though not. in the form of a dialogue, it has the same scope as the preceding work. Because, despite diligent researches, no other fragments of the work could be found. Meister suspects that Csesarius never completed it.

The principal historical work of Csesarius is the life of the murdered St. Engelbert, Archbishop of Cologne (1216-25) entitled "Actus, passio et miracula domini Engelbert i". It is composed ot three books, the first of which is devoted to an im- partial estimate of the character of the great arch- bishop; the second narrates with graphic vividness and tender pathos the circumstances of the sad catas-