be no unnatural check
to those emotions, which it is so great and yet so painful a consolation
to indulge. They will flow no less freely, and far more profitably, when
the calls of religion have first been satisfied. Was St. Bernard a
violator of the sentiments of humanity, when he followed with tearless
eyes and calm countenance the body of his brother to the grave,
assisting at all the offices of religion, and officiating thereat
himself? Was that great heart insensible, when its uncontrollable grief
burst out in the midst of a discourse on other topics, into an
impassioned address to his departed brother, and a magnificent tribute
to the virtues of this partner of his soul and affections? Or does not
such an instance of Christian fortitude and magnanimity favorably
contrast with the pusillanimous and almost heathen despondency and
desolation which overwhelm many at the sight or news of death, even as
the Catholic faith--warm, generous, and confident--cheers beyond that
cold and gloomy creed, that bids farewell to hope at the brink of the
grave?

In the provincial chapter of 1690, he was appointed to the office of
definitor, in addition to that which he already held. The difficulties
of these two functions, requiring a union of the virtues of the active
and contemplative life, our saint marvellously and happily surmounted.
But now an event happened which well-nigh extinguished the institute to
which he belonged, in Italy, and which gave occasion to an illustrious
evidence of his exceeding utility to the order. The Spanish
Alcantarines, having some differences with the Italian, procured from
the apostolic see their dismemberment from the latter, who, being thus
abandoned, recurred to our saint for succor. Suffering himself to be
overcome by their entreaties, he undertook the advocacy of their cause
with the pontiff, and succeeded, in a congregation held in 1702, in
changing the sentiments of the cardinals and bishops, previously
disposed to their suppression; so that on the day after the feast of St.
Thomas the Apostle, a decree was issued by which the order was
established in Italy under the form of a province. A chapter was
convoked, in which the arduous task of government was, by the unanimous
voice of {515} all, forced upon the humility of our saint, who,
surmounting incredible hardships and obstacles, had at length the
satisfaction of seeing the necessary means provided, and the order
firmly established. Before t