§ 99. THE WOESHIP OF SAINTS. 443
their tombs were visited by pilgrims. The metropolitans usually decided on the claims of saintship for their province down to A. D. 1153.1 But to check the increase and to prevent mistakes, the popes, since Alexander III. A. D. 1170, claimed the exclusive right of declaring the fact, and prescribing the worship of a saint throughout the whole (Latin) Catholic church.2 This was done by a solemn act called canonization. From this was afterwards distinguished the act of beatification, which simply declares that a departed Catholic Christian is blessed (beatus) in heaven, and which within certain limits permits (but does not prescribe) his veneration.3
The first known example of a papal canonization is the canonization of Ulrich, bishop of Augsburg (d. 973), by John XV. who, at a Latcran synod composed of nineteen dignitaries, in 993, declared him a saint at the request of Luitolph (Leuthold), his successor in the see of Augsburg, after hearing his report in person on the life and miracles of Ulrich. His chief merit was the deliverance of Southern Germany from the invasion of the barbarous Magyars, and his devotion to the
1 Sometimes also bishops, synods, and, in cases of political importance, kings and emperors. The last case of a metropolitan canonization is ascribed to the archbishop of Rouen, A. D. 1153, in favor of St. Gaudier, or Gaultier, abbot of Pontoise (d. April 9, 1130). But Labbe and Alban Butler state that he wag canonized by Celestine 111. in 1194. It seems that even at a later date some bishops exercised a limited canonization ; hence the prohibition of this prac tice as improper by Urban VIII. in 1625 and 1634.
2 The occasion of the papal decision in 1170 was the fact that the monks of a convent in the diocese of Lisieux worshiped as a saint their prefect, who had been killed in the refectory by two of their number in a state of intoxication.
8 Comp. on this subject Benedict XIV. (Lambertini) : De Servorum Dei Beatifications et Bcatorum Canoni sat tone. Bononire 1734-'38; ed. II. Venet. et Patav. 1743, 4 vols. fol. Ferraris : BibHotheca Canonica, s. v. " Veneratio Sanct orum.'1 Canonization includes seven privileges: 1) recognition as saint by the whole (Roman) church; 2) invocation in public and private prayers; 3) erection of churches and altars to the honor of the saints ; 4) invocation at the celebration of the mass; 5) appointment of special days of commemora tion ; 6) exhibition of their images with a crown on their head ; 7) exhibition of their bones and relics for veneration. The question whether the papal bulls of canonization are infallible and de fide, or only sententia communis et certa, seems to be still disputed among Roman Catholics.
444 FOURTH PEKIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
interests of his large diocese. He used to make tours of visita tion on an ox-cart, surrounded by a crowd of beggars and cripples. He made two pilgrimages to Rome, the second in his eighty-first year, and died as an humble penitent on the bare floor. The bull puts the worship of the saints on the ground that it redounds to the glory of Christ who identifies himself with his saints, but it makes no clear distinction between the different degrees of worship. It threatens all who disregard this decree with the anathema of the apostolic see.1
A mild interpretation of the papal prerogative of canonization reduces it to a mere declaration of a fact preceded by a careful examination of the merits of a case before the Congregation of Rites. But nothing short of a divine revelation can make such a fact known to mortal man. The examination is conducted by a regular process of law in which one acts as Advocatus Diaboli or accuser of the candidate for canonization, and another as Advocatus Dei. Success depends on the proof that the can didate must have possessed the highest sanctity and the power of working miracles either during his life, or through his
1 See Mansi, XIX. f. 169-179. The bull is signed by the pope, five bishops, nine cardinal priests, an archdeacon and four deacons. It decrees that the memory of Saint Udalricus be venerated "affect* piisirno et devolione fidelis* siraa," and be dedicated to divine worship (" divino cultui dicata"). It justifies it by the reason "quoniam sic adoramus (!) et colimus reliquias martyrum et confessorum, ut eum, cuius martyres et confe*sores sunt, adoremus. Honaramus servos, ut honor redundet inDominum, qui dixit: ' Qui vos recipit me recipit' : ac proinde nos, qui fiduciam nostrce justitice non habemus, ilhrum precibus et mentis apud clementissimum Deumjugiter adiuvemur" The bull mentions many miracles of Ulrich, " quoe sive in corpore, sive extra corpus gesta sunt, videlicet ccecos Ulurninasse, dccmones ab obsessis corporibus effugasse, paralyticos curasse, et quam plurima alia signa gessisse." On the life of St. Ulrich see the biography by his friend and companion Gerhard (between 983 and 993), best edition by Wirtz in the Monum. G. Scriptores, IV. 377 sqq. ; Acta Sanct., Bolland. ad 4 Jul. ; Mabillon, Acta Ordinis S. B., V. 415-477 ; Braun, Gesch. der Bischofe von Augsburg (Augsb. 1813), vol. I.; Schrodl, in Wetzer and Welte, vol. XI. 370-38S, and Vogel in Herzog1 vol. XVI. 624-628. Ulrich cannot be the author of a tract against celibacy which was first published under his naiue by Flacius in his Catalogus Testium Veritatis, but dates from the year 1059 when Pope Nicolas II. issued a decree enforcing celibacy. See Vogel, I c. p. 627.