Volume 1
Life of Blessed Albert the Great, Continuation
ageret, invisit, et qua erat apud eum seu ob natales, seu ob ingentem eruditionis famam existimatione ¹¹ ab eodem visitatus est. Eumdem ¹² Cæsarem Ultrajectum petentem comitatus est, et ab eo cœnobium Ordinis in illa civitate erigendum obtinuit. ¹³ Anno MCCLIV in comitiis Teutoniæ provincialibus Wormatii habitis priorem provincialem electum ferunt. ¹⁴ Anno sequenti Romam a Summo Pontifice vocatus qui Wilielmo de Sancto-amore magistrisque Parisiensibus ejus asseclis, nostros a consortio Universitatis ut et Minoritas excludere satagentibus responderet, se contulit, eorum objecta singula solidissime resolvit, ¹⁵ tumque publice S. Joannis evangelium exposuit petente pontifice cum universo cardinalium cœtu, qua ratione ¹⁶ Magistrum sacri palatii saltem per annum egisse quidam et ut mihi quidem videtur verissimillime asserunt. Contendentibus tamen obstinatius toto fere anno MCCLVI magistris Parisiensibus, Albertus relicto pro causa defendenda nostro Aquinate, qui Romam eo anno advenerat, videtur in Teutoniam muneris sui exercendi causa rediisse. ¹⁷ Anno MCCLIX comitiis Ordinis quæ Valencenis habita sunt adfuit, et cum quatuor nostris sacræ facultatis Parisiensis magistris ad id a capitulo delegatis, F. F. Bonohomine Britone, Florentio Gallico, Thoma de Aquino et Petro de Tarentasia, leges in studiis generalibus servandas tulit ac edixit. In eodem capitulo missionem ab onere provincialatus obtinuit, suamque Coloniam repetens, antiquum regentis ac primi lectoris munus resumpsit. Eo tranquillus, nec majora affectans fungebatur, cum ¹⁸ anno MCCLX oblata est ei ab Alexandro IV infula Ratisbonensis. ¹⁹ Hanc non solum suasu magistri Ordinis F. Humberti, sed et ex innata humilitate quantum in ipso fuit detrectabat, at quantumvis renitens jubente pontifice induere coactus est: quam tamen Ecclesiam ubi duobus circiter annis integerrime sanctissimeque rexisset, tumultuum bellicorum quibus episcopi Germani involvuntur pertæsus, suavissimique sui quondam musei memor, pedum pastorale inter manus Urbani IV resignavit, suamque Coloniensem in cellam secessit, scholæ nostræ regendæ scribendisque libris totus deinceps deditus. Cum hoc voluit archiepiscopus Coloniensis apud quem summo in honore habebatur, ut in sua diœcesi ubicumque rogatus esset, ²⁰ in pontificalibus celebraret, et spiritualia pontificis munia exerceret, quod et idem quandoque ab eo petierunt Argentinensis et Basileensis episcopi: hinc tot templa et altaria in his diœcesibus memorantur ab eo consecrata, tot ordines celebrati, tot reliquiæ Sanctorum recognitæ et venerationi fidelium solemni ritu expositæ. ²¹ Concilio Lugdunensi II affuisse quidam narrant anno MCCLXXIV, quod nec incredibile, licet octogesimum ætatis jam superasset, cum et ferant ²² anno circiter MCCLXXVII iter Gallicum et Parisios usque suscepisse, quo SS. sui discipuli Thomæ de Aquino doctrinam a quibusdam impugnatam in concessu sacræ facultatis sartam tectam tueretur. ²³ Tribus circiter ante mortem annis memoriæ lapsum incurrisse dicitur quoad scientias, ita tamen ut quoad divina ac regularia sui semper compos, et sodalium exemplum ad ultimum usque spiritum extiterit. Obiit xv nov. MCCLXXX ætatis LXXXVII, fuitque in Odeo sepultus ad majus altare. Hæc nunc ad incudem revocanda, et fabulis explosis quæ certa sunt ex antiquis documentis statuenda et illustranda ¹.
he should celebrate it, he visited him, and, by reason of the esteem in which he was held by him either on account of his birth or on account of the great fame of his learning, ¹¹ he was visited by the same man. ¹² He accompanied the same Caesar as he was seeking Utrecht, and obtained from him that a monastery of the Order should be erected in that city. ¹³ In the year 1254, in the provincial assemblies of Teutonia held at Worms, they report that he was elected provincial prior. ¹⁴ In the following year, called to Rome by the Supreme Pontiff so that he might answer William of Saint-Amour and the Parisian masters, his followers, who were striving to exclude our men, as also the Minorites, from fellowship in the University, he betook himself there, resolved each of their objections most solidly, ¹⁵ and then publicly expounded the Gospel of St. John at the pontiff's request with the whole company of cardinals, for which reason ¹⁶ some assert, and as it indeed seems to me most true, that he acted as Master of the Sacred Palace for at least a year. Yet when the Parisian masters were contending rather obstinately through almost the whole year 1256, Albert, having left our Aquinas behind for defending the cause, who had come to Rome in that year, seems to have returned into Teutonia for the sake of exercising his office. ¹⁷ In the year 1259 he was present at the assemblies of the Order which were held at Valenciennes, and with four masters of our Parisian sacred faculty delegated for this by the chapter, Brothers Bonhomme the Breton, Florent the Gaul, Thomas of Aquino, and Peter of Tarentaise, he carried and published laws to be observed in the general studies. In the same chapter he obtained release from the burden of the provincialate, and, returning again to his Cologne, resumed the old office of regent and first lector. He was performing that office peacefully, and not seeking greater things, when ¹⁸ in the year 1260 the mitre of Ratisbon was offered to him by Alexander IV. ¹⁹ Not only at the persuasion of the master of the Order, Brother Humbert, but also from innate humility, insofar as it lay in him, he refused it; yet, though resisting as much as he could, he was compelled by the pontiff's command to put it on. But when he had ruled that Church for about two years most blamelessly and most holily, weary of the tumults of wars in which German bishops are entangled, and mindful of his former, most pleasant study, he resigned the pastoral staff into the hands of Urban IV, and withdrew to his Cologne cell, wholly devoted thereafter to governing our school and writing books. Along with this the Archbishop of Cologne, with whom he was held in the highest honor, wished that in his diocese, wherever he was asked, ²⁰ he should celebrate in pontificals and exercise the spiritual duties of a pontiff; and the bishops of Strasbourg and Basel sometimes asked the same thing from him. Hence so many churches and altars in these dioceses are remembered as consecrated by him, so many ordinations celebrated, so many relics of the Saints recognized and exposed by solemn rite to the veneration of the faithful. ²¹ Some narrate that he was present at the Second Council of Lyons in the year 1274, which is not incredible, although he had now passed the eightieth year of his age, since they also report that ²² around the year 1277 he undertook a journey to Gaul and as far as Paris, by which, in the assembly of the sacred faculty, he might defend safe and sound the doctrine of St. Thomas of Aquino, his disciple, attacked by certain men. ²³ About three years before his death he is said to have incurred a lapse of memory as regards the sciences, yet in such a way that as regards divine and regular matters he was always self-possessed and stood forth as an example to his companions even to his final breath. He died on 15 November 1280 at the age of 87, and was buried in the choir near the high altar. These things must now be recalled to the anvil, and, after the fables have been driven out, the things that are certain must be established and illustrated from ancient documents. ¹
If a page does not appear, its photograph has not been uploaded yet.