WADDING
523
WADDING
the promise of two other volumes which, however,
never saw the hght. In 1624 he issued in one volume
the "Concordance of St. Antony of Padua" and the
" Promptuarium morale" of an anonymous Irish
Franciscan, probably Thomas Hibcrnicus, adding
ample marginal notes of his own. In this same year
(1624) there appeared at Vienna, but under another
name, Wadding's account of the martyrdom at
Prague of fourteen Friars Minor, put to death for
the Faith by the Bohemian heretics. Hieronymus
Strasser, to whom the author sent his MS. with a
view to certain corrections, published the whole
under his own name: Wadding himself, who gives
Strasser a place among the "Scriptores", gives us at
the same time the true genesis of the German friar's
work. It was also in this year (1624) that he pub-
Ushed his "Legatio Philippi III et IV".
In 1625 he is.sued at NIadrid his "Apologeticum de pnetenso monachatu augustiniano S. Francisi", in refutation of the theory that the founder of the Friars Minor had been an Augustinian. The third edition (Lyons, 1641) contains the author's response to "Thomas Herera, a learned Augustinian. The singu- lar theory has not since been broached. At the desire of Urban VIII, Wadding undertook m 163() to correct and edit, in collaboration with Victorelli and Ughelli, the "Lives of the Popes and Cardinals" by .Alphonsus Ciacconius. Other minor publications were: a "Life of Bl. Peter Thomas, Patriarch of Con- stantinople " (Lyons, 1637) ; a corrected and annotated edition of the metrical "Life of St. James della Marchia" by John Petrucci, Archbishop of Tarentum (Lyons, 1641); an edition of the "Oculus moralis" of Joannes Guallensis, O.F.M. (which had been hitherto attributed to Raymundus Jordanus, Canon Regular of St. .-Vugustine); and an edition of the "Collection of sayings and deeds of celebrated Philosophers" and of the treatise "De sapientia sanctorum", by the same writer (Rome, 16.5.5); a "Life of St. Anselm", Bishop of Lucca, from materials which the author had come across in his studies on the pontificate of Gregory VII (Rome, 1657); an edition, on a new plan, of the "Summa casuum" of Emanual Rodericus, brought out at Salam.anra when the editor had just completed his theological studies (1616); "Epigrammata pia", a collection of L.atin verses and inscriptions composed by Wadding when professor at Salamanca, and published by Francis a Susa, ex- general of the order, in his "Sanctorale seraphicum" (Salamanca, 1623). Marraccio (ap. Joan, a S. Antonio) refers to the pubhcation by Wadding of a tractate, "De scandalis in controversia Immaculatte Conceptionis", and Sbaralea (Supp.) mentions a posthumous work on the Jansenists, published in 1696. Finally, the author himself in his "Scriptores" mentions among his pubhshed writings "OfEcia plurima, pra?sertim lectiones II Xoot., Sanctorum Ecclesiarum tum in Hispania, Germanica, Bohemia, Hungaria", etc. — liturgical offices written in his capacity of consultor to the S. Congregation of Rites.
But Wadding's fame as a writer and a critic rests chiefly on his monumental edition of Scotus, on the "Scriptores", and, above all, on the "Annales ord. minorum". In 1639 he publi.'ilied at Lyons a com- plete edition of the writings of the Subtle Doctor, in 16 volumes, having devoted four years to the proxi- mate preparation. He corrected the text throughout according to the best MSS. and earliest impressions, inserted ever\'where critical notes and learned scholia, and enriched the edition with (he commen- taries of MacCaughwell, Hickey, Lyrhetus, Ponce, and others. It wa.s a colossal undertaking, and would alone have immortalized his name. His life of John Duns Scotus, which is prefixed to the fir.st volume, appeared separately in 1644. The "Scriptores ord. minorum" he published in 16.50 in one folio volume. It is an alphabetical list of the writers of the Seraphic
Order with a syllabus of their works. It still holds
its place, along with the "Supplementum" of Sbara-
lea, as the standard work on the subject. A new
edition by Dr. Nardecchia of Rome is now nearing
completion. But Wadding's greatest hterary achieve-
ment was the "Annales ord. minorum", a history
of the Franciscan Order from its foundation. Eight
volumes appeared between 1625 and 1654, bringing
the work down to 1540. Two other volumes were to
appear, but death intervened. He closed the eighth
tome with the words: "suspenso calamo illud unum
agam quod potissimum necessarium est: aniniiB
scilicet procuranda; totus incumbam". This great
work, which critics, worthy of the name, have never
ceased to extol, has placed its author in the foremost
rank of ecclesiastical historians. To say that the
work is free from defects would be to demand for
it more than is given to man to accomplish. Con-
sidering the m.agnitude of the undertaking and that
the author's work was, largely, the work of a pioneer,
it must bo acknowledged to be a compilation of excep-
tional accuracy. The strictures of those critics who
find "serious chronological errors" and a "want of
accuracy and .scientific method" in the Annals are
hardly borne out b}' a close study of the work it.self.
"Only those who have consulted the .Annals hundreds
and thou.s.ands of times", writes Holzapfel (Osch-
ichte des Franzi.skanerordens, 582), "can appreciate
Wadding at his true worth." Wadding has had
several official continuators of the "Annales", but
all of them vastly inferior to himself, the autlior of
Vol. XIX being perhaps an exception.
Besides the works he succeeded in publishing. Wadding had projected various others, for which he left a considerable amount of material. Among them were the following: history of Popes Clement VllI, Leo XI, Paul V, Gregor\- XV, and Urban VIII, and of the cardinals created by them; an edition of the rarer works of famous Franciscan WTiters; the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland (from which proj- ect he withdrew owing to the impossibihty at the time of obtaining necessary documents from Ireland) ; a volume of his own letters; the Acts of all the Chap- ters General of the order (in which work he was anticipated by Michael Angelo of Naples, who be- gan the publication of the "Chronologia historico- legalis" in 16.50); a history of all the bishoprics of the Universal Church ; and an exposition of the Rule of St. Francis. Our admiration at the activity displayed in so many works increases as we recall the circumstances under which he wrote. His daily occupations, says his biographer, were so munerous that most of his literary work was done in the quiet hours between sundown and midnight. lie himself, in his preface to Vol. VI of the "Annales", WTites: "In solo noctig decursu licuit opus compingere, die universo per molestas curas distracto." Moreover, though his energy was prodigious, his physical constitution often proved unequal to the .strain. From the age of twenty-two he suffered from headaches of the most violent kind, once and often twice in each month.
IV. Work for Ireland. — When he arrived at Rome in 161S he found the name of Ireland partly ig- nominiously ignored, partly (owing to the wiles of her traditional enemies') disp.araged and reviled. But he lost no opportunity of rectifying matters, and soon succeeded in making Ireland known and respected. Two flourishing institutions founded by him now spoke in her favour — the Iri.sh Franciscan College of St. Isidore and the Ludovisian College for lri.sh secular priests. St. Isidore's he founded in 1625, being authorized thereto by letters patent of the general (13 June) and a special Cull of Urban VIII (20 Oct.). Such men as Antony Hickey, Patrick Fleming, John Ponce, .and Martin Walsh were the first professors. Wadding proceeded to extend the existing buildings (a suppressed Spanish convent),
