Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/814

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730

GRATIAN


730


GRATIAKOPOLIS


some Teresian nuns, he took the habit of the Discalced Carmelites at Pastrana, 25 March, 1572, under the name of Jerome of the Mother of God. Even during his novitiate he was employed in the direction of souls and the administration of the convent, and, almost immediately after his profession (28 March, 1573), was nominated pro-vicar apostolic of the Calced Car- melites of the Province of Andalusia. This province, which for many years had given trouble, resented the nomination of one who had only just entered the order, and offered a stubborn resistance to his regulations, even after his faculties had been confirmed and ex- tended by the Nuncio Hormaneto. In virtue of these same faculties Gratian founded a convent of Discalced Carmelites at Seville, of which he became prior, and approved of the establishment of several other con- vents of friars as well as of nuns.

The chapter of 1575, listening to the complaints of the Andalusians, decided to dissolve the reformed convents, but the nuncio gave Gratian fresh powers, and for a while the reform continued to spread. Hor- maneto was succeeded by Sega (June, 1577), who, prejudiced by false rumours, turned against the follow- ers of St. Teresa. Gratian was censured and relegated to the convent of Alcald, and the other leading mem- bers of the reform suffered similar punishments, until at length Philip II intervened. The next chapter general (1580) granted the Discalced Carmelites ca- nonical approbation, and Gratian became their supe- rior. Ever since he had first met St. Teresa (1575), he had remained her director, to whom, at the command of Our Lord, she made a personal vow of obedience, while Gratian in all his works guided himself by the lights of the saint. In her books and in numerous letters she bears testimony to their agreement in spir- itual as well as administrative matters; they were also at one in favouring the active life, the care of souls, and missionary work. After St. Teresa's death a party, calling themselves zelanti, came into promi- nence, with Nicholas Doria at their head, whose ideal of religious life consisted in a rigid observance of the rule to the exclusion of exterior activity. Although St. John of the Cross and other prominent men were on Gratian's side, the opposite party came into office in 1585, and Gratian was charged with having intro- duced mitigations and novelties. In order to give effect to his views Doria introduced a new kind of gov- ernment which concentrated all power, even in details, in the hands of a committee under his own presidency.

Great was the consternation among the moderate party, greater still that of the nuns, who resented any interference in their affairs. Through the instrumen- tality of St. John of the Cross and Father Gratian, the nuns obtained from Rome approval of St. Teresa's constitutions, whereupon Doria resolved to exclude the nuns from the order. He also understood that so long as tlie opposition was being led by Gratian (St. John of the Cross having meanwhile died) the new government could never come into force. On pretext, therefore, that his writings reflected unfavourably on the superiors, Gratian was summoned to Madrid, and, the informations taken against him having been mate- rially altered by a personal enemy, he — the director and right hand of St. Teresa, the soul of her reform, and for ten years its superior — was expelled from the order on 17 February, 1.592. This sentence, based on falsified evidence, was confirmed by the king, the nun- cio, and even by the authorities at Rome, who com- manded Gratian to enter some other order.

The Carthusians, Capuchins, and the Dominicans would not receive him, but the Augustinians con- sented to employ him in the foundation of some reformed convents. The .ship, however, which was to carry him from Gaeta to Rome, was taken by pirates and he was made prisoner. Working among the (Christian slaves in the bagnio at Tunis, he strength- ened those who were wavering, reconciled apostates at


the risk of his life, and liberated many with the alms he succeeded in collecting. After eighteen months' cap- tivity he obtained his freedom and returned to Rome. Clement VIII, to whom on a former occasion he had revealed secrets made known to him in prayer, hearing of his works and sufferings, exclaimed: " This man is a saint", and caused the process of expulsion to be re- examined and the sentence to be rescinded (G March, 1596). But, as his return to the Discalced Carmelites would have revived the former dissensions, Gra,tian was affiliated to the Calced Friars with all the honours and privileges, and the riglit to practise the Rule of the Reform. He was sent to Ceuta and Tetuan to preach the Jubilee (1600-1005), proceeded afterwards to Valladolid to assist his dving mother, and was finally called to Brussels by his friend and protector, Archduke Albers (1606). There he continued a life of self-abnegation and apostolic zeal. Buried in the chapter-house of the Calced Carmelites at Brussels, his remains were repeatedly transferred, but finally lost during the Revolution.

The list of Gratian's writings in Latin, Spanish, and Italian fills eighteen columns in Antonio, Bibliotheca Hispana nova {Madrid, 1783), 576 sqq.; the works printed during his lifetime and immediately after his death have become exceedingly rare. Within the last years there appeared for the first time his auto- biography iPeregrinaciones de Anastasio, Burgos, 190.5), and his Memoirs of St. Teresa {Didlogos de Santa Teresa, Burgos, 1909), while some other important manuscripts are ready for publica- tion. Besides these sources see St. Teresa, Book of Foundations (chapter xxiii), which should be compared with other por- tions of her writings and the annotations by various editors; Biblioth. Carmelil., I, 645; Gregoire de St. Jo.seph, Le P. Gralien et ses Juges (Rome, 1904; also in Italian and Spanish).

B. Zimmerman.

Gratian (Gratianus), Johannes. — The little that is known concerning the author of the " Concordantia discordantium canonum", more generally called the " Decretum Gratiani ", is furnished by that work itself, its earliest copies, and its twelfth-century "summa>" or abridgments. Gratian was born in Italy, perhaps at Chiusi, in Tuscany. He became a Camaldolese monk (some say a Benedictine), and taught at Bologna in the monastery of SS. Feli.x and Nabor. Later, it was said that he was a brother of Peter Lombard, author of the "Liber Sententiarum", and of Peter Comestor, author of the " Historia Scholastica". Mediaeval scholars united in this way, by a fictive kinship, the three great contemporaries who seemed as the fathers of canon law, theology, and Biblical history. It is no less false to assert that he was a bishop. Nor is it certain at what time he compiled the " Decretum". It did not exist previous to 1139; for it contains decrees of the Second Lateran Council, held in that year. A common opinion places its com- pletion in 1151. Recent research, however, points to 1140, or to a date nearer thereto than to 1151. The "Decretum" was certainly known to Peter Lombard, for he makes use of it in his " Liber Sententiarum". Gratian died before the Third Lateran Council (1179), some say as early as 1160. It is not certain that he died at Bologna, though in that city a monument was erected to him in the church of St. Petronius. He is the true founder of the science of canon law. See CoKPus Juris Canonici; Decretals, Papal.

Sahti and Fattorini, De claris archigymnasii Bononiensis profe&Horibus, I (Bologna, 1896): Schulte, Geschichte der Quel' ten und Literatur des canonischen Rechts (Stuttgart, 1875-80), I, 46 sqq.; IjAuhin, Introductio in corpus juris canonici (Freiburg im Br., 1889), 10 sqq.; Fouhnier, Deux controverses sur les origines du Decret de Gratien in Revue d'histoire et de litterature religieuses. III (Paris, 1898), 97 sqq., 253 sqq.; Mocci, A'ota slorico giuridica sul Decreto di Graziano (Sassari, 1904); Gao- denzi, L'etii del Decreto di Graziano e Vantichissimo Ms, Cassi- nese di esso in Studi e memorie per la storia dell' Universilh di Bologna, I (Bologna, 1907); Brandileone, Notizie su Graziano e su Niccoto de Tudeschis, ibid,

A. Van Hove.

Oratianopolis, a titular see in Csesarea Maure- tania, Africa. This city does not figure in a list of the bishoprics of the province preserved in a docu- ment of tlie sixth and seventh centuries, unless it be