Note 598 — Chapter VIII · THE HUSSITES. (continued 2)

Wadding. ann. 1456, No. 16-67, 83-4.--Æn. Sylv. Hist. Bohem. cap. lxv. Six several attempts were made, at various times, to canonize Capistrano, but the fates were against it. The earlier efforts were neutralized by the opposition of the legate, Nicholas of Cusa, and the jealousy of the rival orders of Dominicans and Conventual Franciscans. Repeated requests came from Germany, but they remained unheeded. In 1462 urgent letters were written by Frederic III., the Margrave of Brandenburg, and innumerable bishops and magistrates of cities from Cracow to Ratisbon; these were intrusted to a Franciscan friar to take to Rome, but he died on the road, and confided them to a knight of Assisi. The latter brought them to his home, and then departed for Germany, where he died. The trunk containing them was piously preserved by his descendants until, towards the middle of the seventeenth century, Wadding chanced to see it, and took the letters to Rome, in the hopes of their still accomplishing their object. At the inquest held by Leo X. a classified record of the miracles wrought by the thaumaturge shows, of dead brought to life, more than thirty; of deaf made to hear, three hundred and seventy; of blind restored to sight, one hundred and twenty-three; of cripples and gouty persons cured, nine hundred and twenty, and miscellaneous cases innumerable. This resulted in his admission to the inferior order of the Blessed, to be worshipped by the Franciscans of the diocese of Capistrano. In 1622 Gregory XV. enlarged his cult to the whole Franciscan Order; and in 1690 Alexander VIII. enrolled him in the calendar of saints.--Wadding, ann. 1456, No. 114-22; ann. 1462, No. 29-78.--Weizfäcker, ap. Herzog’s Real Encyklop. s. v.