and wrote to Salviati, quoting these lines of Martial:
Sed tu nec propera, brevibus nec crede capillis,
Tardaque pro tanto munere barba veni.
Telemacomanie, p. 22.
The author of this learned criticism upon the Telemaque has not explained why the Chapter of Clermont thought proper to persecute their Bishop's beard. If he was proud of its length, and took pleasure, like the Cid, in cherishing it, that at the worst was a venial offence, which should have been settled between him and his Confessor.
There is a female Saint, whom the Jesuit Sautel, in his Annus Sacer Poeticus, has celebrated for her beard,. . a mark of divine favour bestowed upon her for her prayers. Her day in the kalendar is the 20th of July, and the miracle is thus recorded in these Catholic Fasti.
S. Vuilgefortis Virgo, barbæ repente enascentis miraculo castitatem tuetur.
