THURSDAY, JULY 23, 1903 ST. MALACHY AND THE POPES

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 30, 23 July 1903, Page 17

THURSDAY, JULY 23, 1903 ST. MALACHY AND THE POPES

&f^cfr^j^- HO nas n °t licaid of the ' prophecies ' of xf\ln\llf? lJ' e mythical or hall-mythical Mothci a r Slupton '' A few halting and tcntatne 'say<yj|s> I!lt^ s ' attributed to her were first issued 4£^&K?]&* enterprising publishers in 1611— nearly a tommy alter hei supposed death They Siyi y*' found fa\or v.ith the British public of the tune Fresh editions were therefore brought out, garni shed by cdilois or authors v.'ith such additions as to them seemed good and at !a L t the doubtful old lady s post mm Km ' {iicdu lions ' culinmated in the production and publication, in the name of this antiquated ' Aiis lUimis,' ni the wutched doggerel which ha\ c le< <.me unions thniiigli their dc^-ci lption 01 sundry modci ;i iTw'ntions and disco\enes and then declaration that ' the Vviu'd to an end mil tome in I SS I ' This strantie \ohn.ie of uiuoulh and >-play-f<.ot lhjines appeared m IMi2 and at li acted meat attention It \\a-> at first alU ir id to h.uc been taken lioin a certain ' old book,' and aiici w Mils lioin ' an old manusci ipt,' in (he British Jliis'!.iii I . i I . i ,i i \ Uul niilhei the book nor the manusci ipi ic r uud to (ould be found tlieie Kle\en years latei, i ■ i ' \ itis and (Queues ' of April 26, 187.*, one Charles Hend'.ev owned the i oit linpeachincnt ol being the autli(M ot those slianirc ilnnicd ' f rc-pl ecics ' Yet, desj)iie tins di'-daiinei of their genumei ess, tors of thousands of peisnp.s expected monientai lly to hear the blast oi Gabriels tiumpel m INMI, and felt a sense of strong iclut when >, e\\ \ eai <- Day of ISB2 saw the world spinning <>s gaih through space as it had done on the pre\ ions day.

Theie weir hones hcfoie Anainemnon, and theiewcre literary practnal 'iMer^ he. me diailes Hend'ey Cia~coni appeals t<< h,,\e Ik on one (,i (lio.se lie lned, nio\ed, and had his Lc.ne; in Ilio sixteenth coiitmy and in all probability cuused t! c stiaiu'Oly ci\ptic 'prophecies' which profess to fk tail the succession of the crack o'rioom St AKJul^ the g>eal tv.el ili-ccntury archbisho;) oi \miaa,b and incnd of SI Bernard, was, m his daj , blessed ln r God with piophclic w^ion Ciarconi made the sainted pi date's name the \ehiele foi 'lie diffusion of his sorry jest — turned Ih.^ ' c laiuin el \ eiioiahile nomen ' into an eaihei Motlici Sh.pton The lice inwardness of Ciaceoni's 'pi edit 1 ions ' is sullm lcntly well known to Catholic historians In IS'JG, foi instance, the ' lush

Ecclesiastical Record ' threw grave doubts upon the authenticity of the alleged prophecies. The Abbe Maistre wrote a book- on the subject in 1901 ; Father Thurston, S.J., has dealt learnedly and exhaustively with it during the past few years ; and the last illness and lamented death of the great Pontiff Leo XIII. has once more brought it into the arena of speculation and discussion, e\en in the columns of the New Zealand secular press

Si.. lUaUchy died at Clairvaux, in France, in the arms of his illustrious friend, St. Bernard, on November 2, 1148. An account of his life was written by St. Bernard. But neither in that nor in any other original account of the great Irish saint was any mention made of these papal predictions, nor is any extract given from them. They first appear in a volume entitled ' Lignum Vitae,' which saw the light in Venice in 1595, 447 years after the death of St. Malachy. The compiler of this book was a Benedictine named Arnold Wion. He is described as ' a man of extreme simplicity, who gathered into his disorderly pages any sort of historical gossip ' which suited the purpose of his compilation. The prophecies which he attributes to St. Malachy consist of one hundred and eleven mottoes, with the names of the conesponding Popes down to his day, including Clement VIII , who was then reigning. All these were • interpreted ' by Ciacconi, and the whole series arei, in the opinion of Father Thurston, a mere jeu d'esprit — a joke played off upon the simple-minded Wion by his friend. The ' predictions ' regarding the Popes that followed the then reigning Pontiff, Clement VIII., are, significantly enough, left without any names or interpretations. The fount of Ciaceoni's inspiration gave out at this point. ' If,' says Father Thurston, 'we count on in due order, we find that the 101 st motto—" Crux de ('nice " ("A Cross from a Cros-s ")— corresponds with ihc pontificate of Pius IX ; the next—" Lumen in Coelo" (" A Light in the Sky ")— belongs to Leo XIII. ; the li.'.-hd— " Ignis Ardcns "(" A Burning Fire ")— is supposed to dc-ignate his successor ; while after this come only eight moie mottoes, beginning with 104— "Religio Depojvilata " ("Religion laid waste ")— and ending with 111— "De Glona Oinae" ("From the Glory of the Olive' ) The list concludes with an announcement of a final peisouition in which another Peter shall be Bishop of Rome, after whose time the seven-hilled city (Rome) shall be destioyed and the son of Man shall come to I'idge the world ' By a manifest mistranslation the iK.nie of ( aidinal S\ampa has been made to fit the ci>ptic designation 'Ignis Ardens.' And it wa-s, indeed. a da' 1112,, not to say irreverent flight of fancy that preMitno.l to fix the tune of ' the day of wrath, that dreadful day,' uhich ' shall the whole world in ashes lay.' God made man ' a little less than the angels.' But the author of this strange jumble of meaningless mottoes ('amis, an tlm matter, a knowledge of the divine counsels fai superior to that of the spirits who are for ever before the gicat White Throne For does not the Savior hi the Scriptures (Matt xxiv , 3(5) say : 'Of that day and hour, no one knoweth ; no, not the angels of heaven, but the Father alone ' ?

Tt uould be about as impossible to marshal within the limits of a buef editorial aiticie the many and iivei wheiming reasons which tell against the genuineness '>t the alleged St Mai achy piophecics as it would be to nianoeime an aimy-corps within thq four walls of a •hill-ioom The chief icasons against them may, howc\ov, be briefly summed up vas follows • (1) Even the oidei (nties ot iliese pseudo-piophecies noted the extiomeh suspicious cucumstances under which the document was hrst published— ll7 years after the death of it*, icp'iied authoi, and then in the gossipy collection or sciap-book of a credulous and simple-minded man, and without the slightest indication of the manuscript in which it was found or of the source from which it was taken Moreover, (2) it was and is rightly deemed ab-

surd that ' a prophet, believing himself to be divinely inspired, should include in his visions of the future not only the lawful Popes, but the anti-Popes as well, and that he should designate by preposterous names, such as ' bellua insatiabilis ' (' insatiable monster '), or 'animal rurale ' ('the beast of the field ') some of the gentlest and holiest of the Pontiffs.' (3) More curious still is the method of ' interpretation ' of the mottoes of the Popes that preceded, and of those that followed, the publication of the supposed prophecies. Down to the then reigning Pontiff (Urban VII , who was elected in 1590, five years before Wion's work saw the light) the ' interpretation ' of the mottoes was supplied by facts which preceded the election of each Cardinal in question to the Papal chair. ' But,' says Father Thurston, 'when we proceed to try to interpret the mottoes of the Popes subsequent to 1595, we find that the vast majority are uncertain, vague, extravagantly far-fetched, hardly any two commentators agreeing as to how the particular motto is to be brought into connection with the Popeiit ought to fit. True it is that there seem to be just a few happy hits, but these hits are obtained in efvery case by applying the motto, not to the antecedents of the Pope in question, but to the events of his pontificate. 11 Peregrinus Apostolicus " (" the apostolic pilgrim ") seems, no doubt, a suitable device for the exiled Pius VI., as Pope, not to Pius VI. as Cardinal. " Aquila rapax " (•' the rapacious eagle ") does not seem a pretty name for a Pontiff like Pius VII., and the commentators refer it to the Imperial eagle of his oppressor, Napoleon ; but it has obviously nothing to do with the gentle Cardinal Chiaramonte before his election.' The mottoes applied to Pius IX. (" Crux de cruce "— " the cross from the cross ") and the lately deceased Pope, Leo XIII. (" Lumen de coelo "— " The light in heaven ") are, says the same learned Jesuit Father, mere coincicidences ' which will have little to astonish those who consider the five hundred salient features which even the most uneventful pontificate supplies, as well as the protean mutability of application of all such mystic utterances.'

(4) But the most decisive proof which Catholic w liters advance against St. Malachy's authorship of the supposed prophetic mottoes that have been made to bear his name, is this : that they are based entirely upon the incorrect and blundering printed list of Popes published by Panvimo in 1575. Panvinio gnes equal prominence to Popes and anti-Popes. So do the mottoes Furthermore, the order of succession as given by Panvinio is to be found in no other writer— except m the alleged prophecies of St. Malachy. Panvinio omits the anti-Pope who called himself Innocent 111. ,So docs the pseudo-Mal-achy. Pan\inio transp^es the names of the two antiPopes who were styled Pascal 111. and Cahxtus 111 So does the pseudo-Malachy. Panvinio gives the family name, Christian name, birth-place, titles, and engraved coats-of-artns of the various Popes on his list. The pretended prophecies follow Panvinio even down to the blunders which he makes regarding the family name and occupation of Pope John XXII. and the coats-of-arms of several Popes such as Clement IV , Gregory X , and Martin IV. Learned Catholic writers have over and over again demonstrated the non-genuineness of the alleged Malachy prophecies, and the notice into which they have sprung in some New Zealand dailies in consequence of the recent illness and death of the late illustrious Pontiff, has induced us to lay these facts before our readers and thus incidentally to vindicate the memory of one of the greatest of the long line of Catholic Archbishops of Armagh.