The Purgatory of St. PatrickCalderón de la Barca, Pedro
Religion
The Purgatory of St. Patrick
Calderón de la Barca, Pedro
Patrick, Saint, 373?-463? -- Drama
"Whatever then you shall find written under the letter A, until you
come to the next letter, is taken from the Right Reverend Father
David Roth, Lord Bishop of Ossory, and Vice Primate of all Ireland, a
Man excellently well read in all parts of literature, an eloquent
Rhetorician, a subtle Philosopher, a profound Divine, a celebrated
Historian, a zealous chastizer of Vice, a steady Defender of
Ecclesiastical Liberty, a constant Assertor of the Privileges of his
Country, most devoutly compassionate upon the calamities of his
Nation, a diligent Promoter of Peace and Unity among the Clergy, and,
for that end, instituted the Congregation commonly called Pacifick,
in the year 1620, which has, with no little fruit and advantage to
the Clergy, spread itself over all the Kingdom, -- a Man, in fine,
who has left to Posterity many rare Monuments of his excellent
talents, the Catalogue of which I shall not here, for good reasons,
insert, but hope for more soon from him."
"Belarmino," "Beda." Cardinal Bellarmin and Venerable Bede are too
well known to require any observations.
"Serpi, Fray Dimas," cut into two lines, with the names transposed,
mean 'Fr. Dimas Serpi', one of whose works ('Aprodixis Sanctitatis,
etc', Romae, M.DC. IX.), though not the one referred to by
Messingham, is in the British Museum. In Montalvan the marginal note
gives, "Lib. de Purgatorio, cap. 26," as the reference. The German
translator of this drama (Brunn, 1824), misled by the punctuation of
the original, treats Dimas Serpi as two persons.
"Jacob Solino," the next authority for the legend, is perhaps the
most perplexing in the list. Like twin stars that seem one to the
naked eye, but resolve themselves into two beneath the telescope, so
the single author of the printed text of Calderon appears distinct
persons in the pages of Montalvan. He gives them thus: -- "Jacobo,"
"Solino," with a separate reference to each. Thus to "Jacobo," the
marginal reference is, "In sua historia Orientale;" and to "Solino,"
"cap. 35," without the name of the work.
From Messingham we at once learn who the former writer was. He calls
him in one place "Jacobus de Vitriaco," and in another more briefly,
"Vitriacus." The passage referred to in the marginal note of
Montalvan is given thus:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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