The Life and Legends of Saint Francis of Assisi | Page 6

is rash, and, what is more, it is dangerous.
Whoever denies what the Fathers of the Church attest as having seen,
or having been authentically informed of, must conclude that they were
either very credulous, or deceived the people. To refuse to believe the
marvels which have reached us by an uniform and universal tradition,
is to call in question all tradition; to render all its channels suspicious,
and to cause it to be looked upon as a questionable proposition. What
can be thought of the saints, if the miraculous graces, which they
certify that they have received from God, are to be treated as chimeras;
if the accomplishment of what they have foretold, is to be attributed to
chance? What even can be thought of their most heroic victims? What
opinion will be formed of their acts? Will they be deemed more
trustworthy in other matters? When it is asserted that there have been
no miracles since the days of the apostles, it must be said, by a
necessary consequence, that the Church, which grounds canonization
on miracles, makes use of falsehood in that most solemn and religious
act, and that the public worship which the Church directs is uncertain.
Now this very much resembles heresy; for the great principles of
religion teach us that on these occasions the Church receives peculiar
enlightenment from the Holy Ghost, by which she can neither be

deceived herself, nor can she deceive others.
These miracles, it is said, are not articles of faith, and the Church does
not oblige us to believe them. As if nothing was believed in the world
but such things as are of faith; as if it was not dangerous obstinately to
reject those things which are sanctioned by the authority of the Holy
Fathers, by reason and by piety, by tradition and by the Church, and
which cannot be rejected without fatal consequences!
This incredulity attacks, moreover, one of the proofs of the divinity of
Jesus Christ, which the fathers adduced against the pagans. St.
Chrysostom having asserted, on the subject of the miracles of the
martyr, St. Babylas, that our Saviour, on the night of His Passion, had
promised to those who should believe in Him, the power of working
these miracles, adds: "It had been antecedently seen that many had
taken upon themselves the character of masters, who had disciples, and
who boast of performing wonders; nevertheless, we do not hear of any
who had ventured to promise their disciples the same power. The
insolence of their impostures did not go so far, because they knew that
no one would believe them; all the world being convinced that it is only
given to God to make a similar promise, and to fulfil it." On this
principle the holy doctor proves that Jesus Christ is God, since He has
given to those who believe in Him the power of working miracles,
which His disciples actually did, and which His servants now do. St.
Augustine makes use of the same proofs, in his book of the City of God.
Thus the miracles of the saints have in all ages been adduced as proofs
of the Divinity of our Saviour; and this is what those endeavor to do
away with, who, without reflection, consider them as fables.
Another danger is, that they speak of these marvels according to their
own prejudices. They openly say that they do not believe them, and that
persons ought not to have the weakness to believe them; they speak
contemptuously of the books in which they are recorded; they cannot
endure that they should form part of panegyrics of the saints. They
make use of impious derisions, and turn into ridicule the faithful who
credit them, and they censure the conduct of the Church which
consecrates them. Such discourse sanctions heresy and licentiousness;
worldlings and the indevout applaud it, the tepid seem to consent to it,
and the falsely devout approve it; it is a scandal to the weak, and a
dishonor to religion.

It is also to be feared that prejudices against what is wonderful in the
Lives of the Saints may spread to other subjects, if we only judge from
the principles which are the cause of them. For, in what do these
principles consist? They are not grounded on reason or religion; they
must, therefore, have a basis of incredulity for everything which they
do not understand: the foolish vanity of being thought singular;
ignorance, which boldly repudiates what it knows nothing of; keeping
company with libertines; a conformity of feeling with heretics, and the
spirit of the world, which is the enemy of all piety. Such calamitous
causes give room to fear the most fatal effects.
In general, the liberty only to believe those things which we choose, on
points in