[318] Paulo Segneri, S.J. was one of the most illustrious men that the Jesuit order has produced. He was a native of Nettuno, Italy, being born March 22, 1624, and entered the Society December 2, 1637. He early became deaf through his excessive study. After teaching the humanities and rhetoric, he became a preacher and missionary, traversing Italy on his missionary journeys during the years 1665-1692. In 1692 he was called to Rome by Innocent XII, to take the place of his preacher-in-ordinary. His death occurred at Rome, December 9, 1694. His influence on Italy is ranked by some only second to that of Savonarola. His style in writing is regarded as of chief rank in purity and accuracy for his century. His writings were numerous, and have been translated into many languages, some of them into Greek and Arabian. The book mentioned in the text is Il parroco instruito: opera in cui si dimostra a qualsisia curato novello il debito che lo strigne, e la via da tenerse nell' adempirlo (Firenze, 1692). See Sommervogel's Bibliothèque; and Hoefer (ut supra), xliii, cols. 685, 686. [319] The dignity of patriarch in the Catholic church (leaving aside the papal rank) is the highest grade in the hierarchy of jurisdiction. Antioch early occupied a high place among the patriarchates, although with the lapse of time it lost its high position; and finally, after the schism between the eastern and western churches, the appointee to that dignity did not actually assume the office. See Addis and Arnold's Catholic Dictionary, pp. 35, 36, and 640. The patriarch mentioned in the text was the famous Cardinal Charles Thomas Millard de Tournon. See Vol. XXVIII, p. 118, and note 56; Concepción, ix, pp. 1-123; and Crétineau-Joly, v, pp. 38-54. [320] These last two sentences are missing in M. [321] At this point the letter proper in M. ends with the words: "May God preserve you for many years," and no signature follows. This is followed by the questions for men and women of Murillo Velarde. [322] In the text, legitimos; probably a transcriber's error for ilegitimos ("of illegitimate birth"). Other papal letters give leave to dispense with the above classes, who could not, otherwise, be promoted to holy orders. Both classes could, also, be raised to church dignities, but only to minor dignities, and not to high ones as bishoprics, etc. The distinction between espurios and [i]legitimos seems merely to have been a legal one, as both terms mean the same in effect.--Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A. [323] i.e., "It was lately related to us." [324] In the copy of this letter conserved in the collection of Fray Eduardo Navarro of the Colegio de Filipinas, Valladolid, Spain (of which we have the transcription of a few pages at the end), this word reads divina.