ON SAINT GUINOCHUS,
BISHOP IN SCOTLAND.
ABOUT THE YEAR 875.
CommentaryGuinochus, Bishop in Scotland (Saint)
BY G. H.
That Guinochus long ago had some sacred veneration in Scotland is indicated as certain by the Breviary of the Church of Aberdeen, in which these words are read: "Of Saint Guinochus, Bishop and Confessor in Scotland, under King Etho, Sacred cult. in the year 875, of April." We have another Catalogue of the Saints of Scotland, in which the following is held: "April 13, Saint Guinochus Bishop and Confessor, in the year 875." Thomas Dempster in the Scottish Menology has this also on this day: "In Rossia, of Guinoch the Bishop," with the letter K added, indicating the Kalendar of Adam Regius. The same is read in Ferrari's General Catalogue, who in the Notes cites book VII of Scriptores Scotici, which is of the same Dempster, in which he says in chapter 570: "Saint Guinochus the Bishop, whether he flourished under Kings Etho and Gregory, confessor of King Etho, whose perverse morals he could not bear, withdrew from the court: but when that King had been killed in prison, he was recalled by King Gregory, and was his confessor. He wrote a Mirror of Human Life, in 1 book. Fordan praises it, but it is not extant." Thus Dempster, who is held by others as a patcher of all fables for the sake of his country. John Major, in book 3 On the Deeds of the Scots, chapter 2, asserts that after Constantine there reigned Eth, son of the great Kenneth, and that against him Gregory son of Dungal rose, pretending right to the kingdom, and that Eth perished in the battle joined, and that after him Gregory was solemnly crowned in the year 875. David Camerarius, in his Scottish Menology on this April 13, writes that Saint Guinochus flourished under Kenneth his father, and adorns him with this elogium: "On the same day, Saint Guinochus, Confessor and Bishop, was councillor to Kenneth, second of this name King of the Scots: or under Kenneth? to whom his dignity conciliated reverence, and the sanctity of his life obedience: and the King very often used him, both for conciliating the hearts of the Princes (for the Picts, with whom there was a very grave war, had tried to turn the hearts of the Princes of the Scots from the King), and for seeking counsel, and for commending the affairs of the kingdom to God with pious and assiduous prayer: in which offices the approaches of the Princes of the Scots were always ready to Guinochus, meeting him with affability and prompt benevolence, and, what is the chief, with happy outcome, God blessing and promoting the efforts of King Kenneth by the prayers of Saint Guinochus: by which it was brought about that Kenneth, joining hands in one day seven times with different troops of the Picts, not without a miracle, always came off victor. By this slaughter the forces of the Picts were wholly broken and diminished: whence later they were almost destroyed to extermination, their remnants being expelled from the kingdom by the just judgment of God, because for the Roman foreigners in Britain under the tyrant Maximus they had often waged war against the Scots (from whom they had received the Gospel and the kingdom); and because they had often moved camp together with the idolatrous Saxons against the Scots and Christian Britons: lastly because they had not revered ecclesiastical men with the reverence due them, but had held them with themselves like servants, their privileges being violated. Holy Guinochus, famous for his fame of miracles, for his reputation of sanctity, the province of Buchan added to the Heavenly in the year of Christ 838, which was the fourth to King Kenneth and the kingdom he had begun. King treats of Guinochus." These things in long windings Camerarius, but the one whom he cites, King, is to others Adam Regius previously cited by Dempster, whose Kalendar we have not seen. For the rest, neither Camerarius nor Dempster, so often convicted of errors, have sufficient authority for us to judge Guinoch should be placed among the Saints. Only the Breviary of Aberdeen moved us, with which we rather believe him to have lived under King Etho. in what provinces he lived. But whether the Episcopal See of Saint Guinoch was in the province of Rossia, on the Western Sea; or rather in the province of Buchan, on the German Sea; we do not know from the divination of Dempster and Camerarius to judge.
ON BLESSED IDA THE WIDOW, COUNTESS OF BOULOGNE IN GALLO-BELGICA,
IN THE YEAR 1113, APRIL 13.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Ida the Widow, Countess of Boulogne, in Gallo-Belgica (Blessed)
BY G. H.
§ I. The marriage of Blessed Ida. Her and her husband's royal lineage. The children begotten.
Boulogne, a city of lower Picardy, among the Morini situated on the strait of the Ocean of Britain, the ancients seem to have called "Gessoriacum, the naval station of the Morini," of Boulogne, and the region around it to have called "Gessoriacum pagus." In this was born, and in the monastery built by him died, in the 7th century of Christ, on July 20, Saint Vulmar the Abbot, from whom his monastery is called Saint Vulmar's "in Silva" or "in Silviacum" or "in the Wood." Abbey of Saint Vulmar in the city, Further, the city of Boulogne contains two towns: namely the upper with some castle, and the lower. In the upper, besides the Cathedral Church, which acknowledges the Virgin Mother of God as its patroness, it has other churches and monasteries, among which was the Abbey of Saint Vulmar of the Order of Saint Augustine, in which the Fathers of the Oratory of our Lord Jesus Christ now live. This monastery of Saint Vulmar within the walls others in the territory: Blessed Ida, Countess of Boulogne, widow, once constructed; and the other of Saint Vulmar in the Wood, having fallen, she restored.
[2] André Du Chesne, in his Probationes to the Historia genealogica of the Ghisnes, Ardres, Guînes, and Coucy families, brings forth on page 5 an extract from the ancient Genealogia Comitum Boloniensium, there is a famous County there, written in the time of Saint Louis King of the French: from which we transfer the following: "Guy," he says, "Count of Boulogne, had three sons. The firstborn was called Baldwin, to whom his father gave Boulogne and Lens. The middle was called Hugh, to whom his father gave Saint-Pol, who was the first Count who was ever at Saint-Pol. The third was called William, to whom his father gave Ghisnes, who was the first Count of Ghisnes. But that Count Guy, after these things were done, died, and was buried at Saint Vulmar in the Wood, as afterwards his son Baldwin, Count of Boulogne, whose sons, besides Fulco the Bishop, were Geoffrey, Count of Boulogne, and Eustace, Count of l'Oel; both buried at Saint Vulmar of the Wood." This there, which is held by some as not entirely certain. Now the County of Boulogne is reported to have come to William Count of Ponthieu, from whom his son Ernuculus or Arnulf had the County of Boulogne in the year 972; to him succeeded his son Baldwin, and he handed it over to his son Eustace I, whose heirs were of the family of Charlemagne. father-in-law of Blessed Ida, who was married to Eustace II, son of the said Eustace I and Mathilde, daughter of Lambert Count of Louvain and Gerberga; through whom this family is known to have sprung from Charlemagne—namely through Louis the Pious the Emperor, Charles the Bald, Louis the Stammerer, Charles the Simple, and Louis from Over-Sea, Kings of the Franks, and Charles Duke of Lower Lorraine, whose daughter was the said Gerberga, from these Count Eustace II the husband of Blessed Ida, grandmother of Eustace II, to whom Blessed Ida was married. Orderic Vital, in book 4 of his Ecclesiastical History for the year 1067, has this concerning these spouses: "Eustace was a Count of great nobility, namely of the lineage of Charlemagne, most vigorous King of the Franks; he was also of great power, being a lofty Prince of three Counties, of Boulogne, Ghisnes and Thérouanne, having the noble and religious Itta as wife." Thus Orderic. But he is mistaken in two of the counties attributed to Eustace. There were living at that time the proper Counts of Ghisnes, accurately described by Lambert, priest of Ardres, in the History of the Counts of Ardres, which he completed in the year 1181, whether also Count of Ardres and Saint-Pol, and which we have in manuscript, and whose greatest part in his Probationes previously indicated André Du Chesne edited. The County of Thérouanne too: by Miraeus and others is believed to have been the same as the County of Saint-Pol, which for some time was joined to the County of Boulogne, but afterwards separated and given to Hugh, son either of Guy or William. Whether nevertheless Eustace bore the title of both Counties, we do not wish to divine. It was said above that together with Boulogne the County of Lens was handed over, more certainly of Lens, which afterwards was given to Lambert, brother of Eustace II, who, when that man died without children in the year 1054, obtained the same County with the others; as shall clearly appear below from the foundations made there.
[3] This nobility of her husband Blessed Ida received: to whom she conferred no less, being herself also born from the stock of Charlemagne, through Louis the Pious, Lothar, Blessed Ida from the stock of Charlemagne through her father, and Louis II the Emperors: the last of these Louis, also King of Italy, had a daughter Ermengard, married to Boso King of Provence, who bore Cunegunde, mother of Godfrey of the Ardennes, commonly called "the Captive"; who, Count of Verdun and Ethanensis, begot Godfrey the Childless, and Gothilo the Great, Duke of both Lorraines, and the grandfather of Blessed Ida, who died in the year 1044. Two sons succeeded Gothilo: Gothilo, called the Slothful, not long surviving him; and Godfrey the Bearded, surnamed "Audax" and "the Great": who against the Emperor, because the full succession was denied him, stood in rebellion; and at last, reconciled to him, obtained the Duchy of both Lorraines. He had here two wives: the first Doda, and her mother Doda, mother of Blessed Ida and Godfrey the Hunchback; the second Beatrice, widow of Boniface, Marquis of Tuscany, to whom she had borne the Marchioness Mathilde, well known to writers by her noble character. André Du Chesne, at the beginning of his Preface to the Historia Genealogica of the Droce family, asserts that the first wife of Godfrey had his great paternal grandmother Cunegunde, daughter of Ermengard, whom we have said above was married to Boso King of Provence.
[4] Blessed Ida seems to have been born about the year of Christ 1040, and so could have been given in marriage in the year 1057, as James Malbrancq writes in book 8 De Morinis, chapter 49, or at least in the year 1059, which some assign. That she bore three sons to her husband is certain, whom the ancient Acts place in this order, that the firstborn is Eustace III, so called by the name of his father and grandfather, she bore three sons, in what order of birth: and after them created Count of Boulogne. The second is set Godfrey, afterwards called "of Bouillon," by which name his maternal uncle and grandfather were called. The third is said to be Baldwin, representing by his name his paternal great-grandfather: and these two latter died as Kings of Jerusalem. In the same order Blessed Ida herself enumerates them, in the charter of donation made in the year 1098 for the monastery of Saint Bertin. But in the diploma for the monastery of Afflighem signed in the year 1096, Saint Ida
first names Godfrey, then Eustace and Baldwin; in which order also they are enumerated in the second Life, to be referred below from a manuscript Hagiology of Rouge-Cloître, in the Chronicle of Albericus at the year 1096, and in the Great Belgian Chronicle, and by other later historians. Orderic Vital mentioned above enumerates in this order: Godfrey, Baldwin, and Eustace. Lambert of Ardres, chapter 18, calls Blessed Ida "the mother of Godfrey and Baldwin Kings of Jerusalem, and of Eustace the most noble Count," with regard to royal dignity. But in the most ancient Life of Blessed Ida, Eustace is placed in first place, and in the ancient genealogy, written before the two others were elected as Kings. This genealogy we have in an illustrious codex, communicated to us from the library of the Bruges College of the Society of Jesus, in which it was contained after the Chronicle of Hugh of Fleury, then edited by Mirauds in book 1 Donationum Belgicarum, chapter 30, and thus we give it: "Mathilde, daughter of Gerberga, as we said above, Count Eustace of Boulogne took as his wife, and begot from her two sons, Eustace and Lambert. Eustace took the daughter of Duke Godfrey, named Ida, noble by lineage and morals; and begot from her three sons: Eustace; Godfrey, now Duke of Lorraine; from these is Godfrey of Bouillon, and Baldwin." This, with the word "Now" omitted, was transcribed in the Nivelles manuscript Codex. But this Godfrey, made heir of his patrimony by his maternal uncle Godfrey the Hunchback, who died without children in the year 1076, and in particular of the dominion of Bouillon, was called "of Bouillon": to whom Henry III the Emperor and IV King of Germany in the year 1076 conferred the March of Antwerp, and in the year 1089 added the Duchy of Lower Lorraine, as indicated in the said Genealogy.
[5] Some scruple is raised here, whether Blessed Ida, besides the three sons mentioned, bore her husband more children, namely a son perhaps a 4th, son William? called William, and one or two daughters. William of Tyre the Archbishop, in book 9 of the Sacred Expedition, written about the year 1174, says of Godfrey of Bouillon: "Further, he had three brothers of both parents, whom both the dignity of morals and the eminence of virtues made to be brothers of so great a Prince: namely the Lord Baldwin, Count of Edessa, who afterwards succeeded him in the kingdom. The Lord Eustace also, Count of Boulogne, who succeeding in the paternal goods obtained the County after his father. The third was the Lord William, an illustrious man, not degenerate from the nobility and vigor of his father and brothers together. The first two followed their Lord and brother in the expedition, the third remaining at home." Thus Tyre, whom in the 15th century Saint Antoninus followed, and others later. But because none of the ancient writers, who then flourished in Europe in learning, have made mention of him, nor does Ida herself in her diplomas enumerate him among her sons, Tyre does not obtain sufficient credit with Ludovico Chantereau Lefebvre in book 2 De Considerationibus historicis Genealogiae Lotharingicae, and others, who judge that Tyre included the brother of another Prince who set out to the Holy Land, among the brothers of Godfrey of Bouillon. Orderic Vital in book 4, p. 509, with no mention of William made, after the other three sons of Blessed Ida are related, adds a daughter who married Henry IV Emperor of the Germans. Aubert Mirauds, in his Belgian Chronicle, p. 263, and one or another daughter? says she was called Agnes or Adelheid, married to Henry IV King of the Romans, but repudiated a little after. The same Orderic, in book 9, p. 755, among the illustrious men who set out to the Holy Land, reports that there was Conon, a German Count, an upright and wise Councillor, who had the sister of Duke Godfrey as his wife. Miraeus indicates that there was Conon Count of Mountaigu, and that from these Lambert was born. In the manuscript History of the monastery of Brogne, in the County of Namur, it is said that Godfrey Duke of Bouillon, and King Baldwin, and Count Eustace had a sister, whose son Manasseh possessed a certain castle and town called Hirgia, villas and rather scanty revenues, as for a man of such eminence. Whether all these should be attributed to one sister or to several, is not equally clear. Miraeus thinks they had two sisters. The said Hirgia, to others Herca, is a town of the territory of Liège, neighboring Brabant, situated in ancient Hasbania.
[6] When William, Duke of Normandy, about to receive the kingdom of England, had sailed to that island in the year 1066 with a copious army, he was compelled to engage with the English army. Among those who took part in this battle, Eustace the husband fighting as soldier in England. and produced the victory for William, first named by Orderic Vital in book 3 is Eustace, Count of Boulogne. But afterwards, as Orderic says in book 4 for the year 1067, "The English, provoked to rebellion by the many oppressions of the Normans, sent legates to Boulogne, and commanded Count Eustace that, with a fleet diligently equipped with soldiers and arms, he should hasten to take up Dover." When this expedition did not succeed, not long after Count Eustace was reconciled to King William, and enjoyed his friendship for a long time thereafter. How long afterwards he lived is not established. Concerning the church of Lens restored, and with privileges established in the year 1070, we shall treat below. There is extant a charter of Baldwin Count of Guines in the Chronicle of the monastery of Andres for the foundation of the said monastery, related by André Du Chesne, Blessed Ida was a widow in the year 1084. in the Probationes to the Historia Genealogica of the said Guines family, p. 25, in which among the witnesses, after Geoffrey Bishop of Paris, Ida Countess of Boulogne is employed first. This charter was made in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1084. How long she had then been a widow is not established. That she lived until the year 1106, will be made manifest from various diplomas to be brought forth below.
§ II. The death of Blessed Ida. Various written Acts. The title of "Saint" and "Blessed."
[7] That Blessed Ida died on the Lord's Day, the Ides of April, the Acts relate. Lambert, Bishop of Arras, in a diploma for the Church of Lens and the college of Canons signed in this year on the 7th day before the Ides of June, testifies below that she survived to the year 1106. Blessed Ida seems to have died in the year 1113. After the year already mentioned, the Lord's Day fell on the Ides of April in the year 1113, cycle of the Moon 12, of the Sun 2, Dominical letter E, when Easter was celebrated on April 6, and the following Sunday in Albis fell on the Ides of April. At that time Blessed Ida was some years more than 70 years old: so that she does not seem to have prolonged her life to a greater age, of which the Acts do not mention.
[8] Her Acts we have threefold: the more ancient of these we give from an ancient manuscript codex of the Bruges College of the Society of Jesus, composed (as far as we can gather) by a monk of the monastery of Wast, founded by her in the district of Boulogne, Life written by a contemporary monk of Wast, in which she was also buried. That her body was found whole with her garments after many days, the author himself, an eyewitness, attests. Then some miracles are added, strengthened by the testimonies of others: among which is almost the last, performed to her own granddaughter through her son Eustace, in whose lifetime the said Acts seem to have been written, after the year 1130, in which Blessed Jean, Bishop of Thérouanne, died, whom the author honors with the title of "pious memory." These Acts, as they are held in the said copy, are distributed into various Lessons, and there is added at the end the familiar conclusion of the Lessons: "But Thou, O Lord, have mercy on us. Thanks be to God": and the title is prefixed: "The Life of Blessed Ida, Countess of Boulogne, widow," and in the text she is called "Saint, Most Holy, Blessed, Most Blessed, Most Venerated, Venerable," and many are said after her death to run to her veneration.
[9] A second Life is given from a manuscript codex of the monastery of Canons Regular of Rouge-Cloître near Brussels, from the first part of the Hagiologium Brabantinorum, another written by Jean Gillemans, collected and written by Jean Gillemans, who two hundred years ago, with great industry and labor, collected several Lives of Saints, and placed before this Life, before his own Preface, this title: "The Life of Saint Ida, widow and Countess of Boulogne, of the stock of the Carolingians." And he adds some things done in Brabant, omitted in the earlier Life. Another epitome we have from a manuscript codex of Utrecht of Saint Saviour, with this title: "The Life of Saint Ida Countess of Boulogne," the rest we omit, as drawn from the first Life. In both these Lives, as in the title, so also in the very body of the history, she is called "Saint Ida" and "Blessed Ida." In the same way Gerbrandus of Leyden and the author of the Belgian Chronicle call her "Saint Ida." The author of the manuscript Florarium Sanctorum adorns her with this elogium on this April 13: elogium in the manuscript Florarium "The deposition of Saint Ida, widow, Countess of Boulogne, mother of Godfrey and Baldwin, brothers of Boulogne, afterwards Kings of Jerusalem, of the stock of the Carolingians." and in other Calendars. The same Molanus celebrates in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii, Miraeus in the Fasti Belgici et Burgundici, Ferrari in the General Catalogue, and many later. Malbrancq in his history De Morinis often calls her "Blessed," and in book 9, chapter 35, asserts that he was in the place of her burial, that he saw an image of her in white stone, five feet high, in the church of Saint Michael; A mausoleum once erected. and that the inhabitants wish that she received there a magnificent tomb from her son Eustace, and still show the upper marble with that image or statue; which since the destruction of that temple lie neglected.
LIFE, By a contemporary monk of Wast,
From a Bruges manuscript of the Society of Jesus.
Ida the Widow, Countess of Boulogne, in Gallo-Belgica (Blessed)
BHL Number: 4141
BY A CONTEMPORARY AUTHOR FROM MANUSCRIPT.
PROLOGUE.
[1] With the world growing old by the testimony of the Scriptures, and now almost falling to an end, as its fall indicates, The merits of the Just have been profitable for the world, since it is destitute of the merits of the present, it must be helped by those of the past. For the sin of the first man, at the beginning of the world, appeared with promised death, and then not without sin did death hold it under its foot. With sin multiplied, the Lord saw that the earth was corrupt, and filled with iniquity, and all tending to evil; and He brought the judgment through water first upon the world: yet the merit of those few just men who then existed did not profit the world, lest it wholly perish. But the prayer of Abraham by no means delivered unrepentant Sodom from the peril of the conflagration. Why? Because they would not imitate the faith of Abraham, nor give credence to warnings. But after the law, before and after Christ, as through mists helping the world, the holy Fathers promised coming salvation to the world, and by their merits frequented, sustained the inconvenience of the world. For the salvation preached, coming, manifested to the falling world what various incursions of the devil it endures. But still, as it were declining and hanging, the merits and prayers of the Saints help it. Therefore let us always place beneath the falling world the merits of the past, whom we think effective, faithfully sought. For when the merits of both sexes, now translated to glory, have been celebrated and invoked,
strengthened earnestly and manfully, speaking against the wicked world, we go forth to meet it. For no rank has been omitted, of which there is not a testimony of holiness. nor only virgins but also widows. To some saved by the flood in the ark, to some sanctified through circumcision, to some justified through the law, to some worthily reborn through baptism, it has been granted that they should profit the world by the merits of the kindness which they always had—for example, if those blessed women who did not give birth are said by the testimony of Truth: the mothers indeed of the above-mentioned, in the book of life, by their own and their children's merits, are inscribed. And if virginity is preached as good, chastity after children, without which work is not good, is proved great. For by the precept of the Law fecundity of offspring exults, and a posterity of children not appearing is accursed. "It is better to marry than to burn," whence the fall of the world may be sustained. But now let the proposition begun descend to her, and let it be manifested by true testimony who she is. Let the voice and the hand of the writer agree, that they notify it to be of this kind of truth, that those reading and hearing may from it glorify God without doubting.
CHAPTER I.
The lineage of Blessed Ida, her upbringing, marriage, children, virtue in wedlock.
So then, after the courses of much time, a certain most noble young woman came forth, a maiden distinguished, Blessed Ida nobly born; named Ida. Her father, above the powerful and greater than fame, before the Emperor of the Germans, holding a higher rank and as it were a privilege of dignity and power, was named a Godfrey; her mother, no less excellent, was called b Doda; they had one son, called like his father, c laudable in his military habit and deed, preceding in birth the venerable Ida. While they were indeed dealing with high and low things as reason required, the aforesaid maiden was imbued with letters, up to the appropriate age in her childhood years. Enriched with honest morals, she did not intend the lasciviousness of the present life, but more and more sighed for the love of the heavenly fatherland; through which it is sufficiently known and apparent with how much and what kind of grace she was filled.
[3] For on a certain night, when she had given herself to sleep, thinking on the things above, she saw in a dream through a vision she learns that Kings will come from her: that the whole Sun descended from heaven, and as it were made a moment in her bosom. This dream showed some great thing to come, since from her would come forth those who for a time should possess kingdom and empire. Indeed divine providence arranges some signs, showing future things to some through inspiration, to many through vision, before they come to pass. And since all things have their time, the things signified through the vision of the venerable maiden of whom we now treat, at the fitting and predestined time by God, were made known. But how and by what reason these things were, we try to unfold to the charity and kindness of the faithful present as well as future. For there was in the time of the aforesaid Duke Godfrey a certain hero, most noble by birth, d also closest in kinship to King Charles, most strong in body and soul and secular deed, most famous far and wide in report, Eustace e by name, a man of power. Now he was Count and Lord of Boulogne, Betrothed to Eustace II, Count of Boulogne. which city was then divulged with great dominion and power. It is said, and it is true, that fame joins the followers of probity; whatever rank a man is approved to be, he seeks one like himself. For, by the most true account of many, Count Eustace hearing of the morals and deeds and beauty of the aforesaid virgin Ida, and of the dignity of her family, f sent messengers, instructed in sense and eloquence, to the aforesaid Duke Godfrey, that he should give him his daughter Ida in marriage; through which there might be forever a bond of nobility between them. Counsel having therefore been taken on this request, since heavenly grace was not lacking, the parents handed over the honorable virgin Ida, with some honest persons added, to the men who had come for her. As they drew near the territory of Boulogne, the whole city came out to meet them with great joy. Led to Boulogne, she marries,
[4] For having been received, as was fitting, honorably, she was joined to the Count of Boulogne, namely Eustace, according to the custom of the Catholic Church. The nuptials having therefore been solemnly celebrated, the venerable Ida, who under the consular dignity was eager for the things of God, loved faithfully; but what seemed of the world, she did not pursue tenaciously. 1 Cor. 5:29 (rather 7:29) Keeping her marriage chastely, according to the precept of the Apostle, using her husband duly, as not having a husband, she bore three sons before the clemency of God, as had been foretold, appearing through the foretelling of the above-mentioned vision. The first of her sons was g Eustace, a powerful man and in all the deeds of the world and in lay religion outstanding. and was made mother of three sons He, imitating his father's nobility, as is known, held the inheritance manfully. Indeed the second was Godfrey, called by the name and possession of his grandfather h "Duke," who, with God favoring, the Turks being conquered, under the new grace i was predestined the first King in Jerusalem. Younger in birth than this one, but no less mighty in deed and power, was the third, of good memory Baldwin, Proconsul and Lord of the city of Acre and those lying under it, and at last, after k the death of his brother Godfrey, enriched with royal honor, that he might fill the place of the King. l It happened, moreover, that when the venerable Ida was the mother of such great sons, each nourished with her own milk: while they still lay in their cradles, she did not allow milk to be given from other breasts, but from her own, fearing lest they be contaminated with perverse morals.
[5] When the Count saw her lovable to all, pleasing to all, praiseworthy in all things, he did not bear it grievously; but even admonished her that, persevering, she should tend by every means to better things. devoted to divine service Then the handmaid of God, with the assent and will of her husband, indeed filled with supernal grace and divine piety, frequenting the churches with great and devout humility, prepared useful and fitting things for divine service and its ministers with willing assiduity. These things, while Ida was doing, beloved of God and men, she does good to churches, within the walls of the city hidden under the cloak of her mind, she burned to found churches outside, bringing or sending gifts of large charity. Ps. 55:12 (56:12) For she had heard that to one observing the law it was commanded by the Lord: "You shall not appear empty in my sight, and you shall not delay to pay to God the vows of your heart": which the Psalmist well understanding says: "In me are vows, which I shall pay, praises to Thee, O God." Exod. 24:12 Hearing and observing these things, the most blessed Ida, with supernal grace favoring her, undertook in her placid mind to pay to Him who had given them the grateful vows. There shone forth in her the humility which Queen Esther is said to have had, by which she esteemed royal ornaments before God as menstruous garments. benevolent to all. This imitator therefore of so powerful a Queen, not lightly esteeming her devout humility, despised in all her action the superfluous felicity of the present life. She diligently exercised care of the poor, expecting future retribution; she aided widows and orphans everywhere and the sick, especially those of the household of the faith, with prayers and constant gifts. In chaste familiarity with the powerful, in pious consolation with the aging, in humble words with the innocent, the venerable Lady was eager to have them.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
Her virtues in widowhood: monasteries founded: miracles worked.
[6] While she was endowed with these and similar pursuits, her noble husband Eustace, with inevitable death intervening, a was deprived of the light of this life. Then indeed the most venerated Ida, the law of marriage dissolved, not forsaking the good works that she was doing, but multiplying them, continued: for though she had been desolate of her husband's consolation, she was continually enriched with supernal love, and gladdened by the nobility of her sons. Her husband being dead Building first in her soul, taught by divine inspiration, things which afterwards appeared in threefold number. When therefore she turned these things in her pious breast, that her sanctity might be made manifest, the love of her parents drew her setting out to Germany, to Germany. b It happened, moreover, as she was making the journey, that she came to a certain church built in honor of c Saint Walburga the Virgin: indeed with great grace, a double miracle to be performed met her entering the church. There was there a certain infirm woman, destitute of ability to walk, and also involved in dropsy throughout her whole body: she heals a woman with dropsy by touch: but the sweetest Ida lifted her with her own hands from the ground, and palpated the swollen limbs: and thus being healed of the infirmities by which she was held, rising quickly, she entered the church with her by whose merits she was whole, raising her voice with great praises. Having visited her relatives by blood and affinity, returning she builds the monastery of Saint Vulmar at Boulogne: the distinguished Ida exchanged for money the lands (allodia) which she had there from her paternal family. Which done, about to complete what she had long been thinking, she went back to her own place. Having returned, she constructed the church and place of Vulmar, d with the counsel and help of her son, then Count of Boulogne, within the walls of the city, an honorable monastery still standing: where also she appointed those who would serve God, and means from which they should live.
[7] Then indeed the most venerated Ida, taught by the grace of God, and ever intent with cheerful mind and devout heart on accomplishing better things, e sought with great and devout prayers a certain place in the territory of Boulogne: whose consent and help the pious mother deserved, and came as it were to resuscitate that place. For that place had been famous in antiquity and in the happiness of temporal things; but by the mass
of sins demanding it, had been reduced almost to nothing. The venerable Ida arriving there, strengthened by the assent and counsel of the most pious f Gerard, Bishop of Thérouanne, redeemed what had been slandered of the same place; repaired the ruined church, adorned it with ornaments and books, so that with the Psalmist she might say to God: "Lord, I have loved the beauty of thy house": she also rebuilt the cloisters and buildings, enriched them with revenues and many resources; moreover she decorated g the place by her own presence, inhabiting it. Ps. 25:8 (26:8) Meanwhile indeed she supplicated Saint Hugh, h the Abbot, to send some brothers of the Cluniac church, to adorn by monastic institution the place called i Wast; another at Wast, monks sought from Cluny: and with many and devout prayers she entreated him to redeem her as a daughter of adoption, and spiritually make her heir among the brothers. But the holy and beloved of God Hugh, hearing these things, and knowing her sanctity and devotion, satisfied the desire and petition of the devout Lady. Then she received the Brothers transmitted with a placid countenance, with a joyful mind; and she was of diligent care and willing heart toward them.
[8] While the most blessed Ida was thus solicitous, k an opportune reason made her cross over to England: where a certain lame man, as they entered a certain church, was asking that alms be given to him. in England she heals a lame man to whom alms had been given. It happened, moreover, that when the poor man had received alms in his hands from her (who denied charity to none), he stood whole and sound, erect on his feet. Those who knew him, marveling and asking how sudden health had happened to him, he answered: "A certain Lady, unknown to me but very venerable and illustrious, gave to me the charity I had sought, and at the same time the health despaired of." She, blessed woman, this miracle having been done, turned aside popular praises, and earnestly denied that she had done this. But to many sick ones, not by feigned charm, but by pious prayer and the imposition of her hand, to many she gives health: she gave back health of various infirmities, which are not recounted.
[9] With religion growing in this place through the institution of the Cluniac Brothers, and also through the perfection of the merits of the most holy Ida, that eminent place, while the most perfect and most pleasing to God widow Ida was living, was held famous far and wide. And although the most blessed Ida seemed widowed of her mortal husband, she was believed to have been married to the immortal Bridegroom, through her chaste and celibate life filled with pious deeds and good works. Yet she did not seek the boast of good opinion nor of human praise, but placed in the sanctuary of her heart the grace given from heaven. For she, wise through holy desires for things that are above, desiring to build for their glory, built a place called by the common name l "Capella": which she, founded in honor of the Mother of God and perpetual Virgin Mary, enlarged with her own wealth and proper revenues, she builds the monastery of Capella, and moreover enriched with the most precious pledges of the Saints. The place, since it seemed apt and suitable for the monastic order, by the counsel and assent of n Jean of pious memory, Pontiff of the Morini, she appointed Abbot m Ravager, and a congregation of Brothers, to keep the institution of Saint Benedict as far as possible. This place indeed she loved with all the strength of her body and spirit, she labored solicitously about the refreshment of the Brothers and the poor, and intent on divine services she chanted psalms humbly and moderately with the Brothers.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
A deaf and mute girl healed repeatedly. The pious death and burial of Blessed Ida.
And because a Saint tries to condescend from virtue to virtue that he may be sanctified, the same is truly known to have been done by Ida. For at the same time when she was often inside the monastery, day and night observing and doing the service of the monks, she came to perform a wondrous prodigy. Now there was there a certain little girl deaf and mute from birth, but also very destitute of the necessary commodities of temporal things: She heals a deaf and mute girl, to whom the venerable Ida had been accustomed to stretch out the hand of charity for her daily food. For God, who is always wonderful in His Saints, had given her that double infirmity, that He might show her healed of both infirmities, to the praise of His name and to declare the merits of the most holy Ida. It happened, moreover, that when on a certain night the Brothers were performing matins praises, the most beloved of God Ida was also present; that same night her mother brought the aforesaid infirm girl to the church to be healed, not without God's nod: for then was the celebration of a great festival. And when the sick girl was oppressed with cold, she trembled in her whole body: which the sweet-flowing Lady perceiving, once beckoned her to come, and kindly received her beneath her cloak. And the girl feeling the fragrance of the garments of the most blessed one, or rather the grace of her merits to be shown, soon used a new hearing which she had not had; and likewise a speech given to her which she had not known, hearing the voices and melodies of the chanting Brothers, she uttered this first word: "Mother, mother." So her mother ran to hear her daughter, whom she had not heard speaking before. When this was known, Abbot Ravager began again the Te Deum laudamus; again and on the morrow a prebend was granted by the Abbot to the healed girl. Many wonderful things happen, that more wonderful things may appear at the fitting time. For this girl, of whom we now treat, not long after her cure, losing her virginity, conceived and gave birth: and she fell miserably back into the previous infirmities from which she had been healed, and through her apparent fall lost her prebend. Now it happened that her mother again on the night of a certain great festival brought her wretched daughter to the church: who on account of the merits of the most holy Ida again obtained mercy. Then for the double miracle the Brothers who had seen gave praises and thanks to God rejoicing. and a third time. Alas! the wretched girl fell again into the same fault and the same infirmities; and lost the prebend which she had from the church. But because God is merciful, who commanded Blessed Peter to forgive not only seven but seventy times seven to the sinner, He restored this sinner to health a third time, through the faith and sanctity of His handmaid Ida; and having been healed, she again had the prebend and preserved her chastity to the end. But the most noble Ida, endowed with great devotion and merit, being solicitous toward those places she had built, cleaving with her whole heart to one, and wholly bearing care for the other, and deserting neither in any way, faithfully ministered to each and both.
[11] Blessed Ida therefore, her bodily strength being exhausted, fell into her last infirmity from fasts and vigils and constant prayers, and from the cares she bore in her mind for the Brothers and the poor, was happily advancing to the end as now already near; not fearing her death, but awaiting perpetual retribution from the Lord: gradually weakening, the sickness growing strong, she came to the bed of a long infirmity. Then according to Paul's saying, inwardly strengthened, with greater devotion, with larger charity, she was working good, especially to the household of the Faith. Gal. 6:10 For stripped of worldly property, with every garment she was using given to widows and orphans and the needy, as the Apostle commands, she sought from the Brothers, fortified with the last Sacraments, with tears and pious affection, the holy Unction and the true and life-giving Communion. Hearing that the most blessed Ida was in her last extremity, the monks of Wast came to be present at her services. The Sacraments having been received Catholically, the holy and venerable Ida, with a spirit of prophecy, said to the Brothers who had come, in a supplicating voice: "Go, knowing for certain that on the next Lord's day, alive or dead, I shall be remaining in the church of Wast." And when inevitable death had come to her, about to receive its due at the predestined hour, in the middle of the night b of the Lord's day, on the Ides of April, the spirit of the most holy Ida put off the prison of the flesh and the present life; she dies on the night of the Lord's day, April 13: and possessing eternal life, she put on the garment of joyfulness.
[12] Then, as was just, worthily and very venerably the body was composed, and brought into the church before the altar, not without tearful groans and unutterable sighs, by the Brothers. The pitiful voices of the widows and orphans, and of those of whom she bore care, grew strong: which were the pledges of many
tears of the hearers. Fame too, most swift, announced everywhere that the most venerated Ida had died, which brought a multitude of both sexes even to her deceased body. For the Abbot and monks of Saint Vulmar, since her husband Eustace c the elder had been buried among them, by a kind of hereditary right sought the body of the wife next to her husband. Likewise also the Canons of the city of Boulogne, out of reverence for her son Count Eustace, and also because she had first built their monastery, asked for the lifeless body of the most holy Ida to be buried; but the Brothers of the Church d where she had died asserted that she should justly be buried there. But the petition of both sides, She is buried in the monastery of Wast: and the reasoning shown for them, did not prevail against the prediction which the blessed woman had said: that alive or dead, on the next Lord's day she would without doubt be remaining at Wast. Her body being taken thence, the prophecy of the Saint fulfilled, was brought to the place where she lies. Some religious persons having assembled there, and a multitude of the people gathered, it is delivered to burial worthily and honorably, after excessive tears and groans and many loud cries shed by the bystanders. So this place the handmaid of God while living loved with heart and mind, and by the means she could, she advanced to its increase. Now also, even after death, by her merits and by the miracles she performs, she protects and fortifies it. For the weak or sick coming for various infirmities to her sepulcher, if they do not hesitate in faith, are healed, she shines with miracles. with our Lord Jesus Christ granting this, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns as God, throughout all ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER IV.
The body uncorrupted. Miracles after death.
The most blessed Ida having been buried in the place which is now called by the common name "Wast," as the divine decree had promised her, some of both sexes began to be healed from diverse sicknesses; whom faith, not hesitating, led to her sepulcher. And the fame of the miracles, not only in the surrounding area, but also far and wide, declared the merits of the most holy Ida. Fame therefore is not silent, but cries out; because the proved truth compels it. In vain her kinsmen try to take away the body, The fragrant attestation of the Saint's miracles therefore flew to her nearest kin in Germany; who, glorifying the Lord on hearing these things, nevertheless meditated in what manner they could transfer the body of Blessed Ida there. So they appointed some, more skilled in such business, to send to the place in which she lay: but they did not at all prevail against the decree of God. When the Brothers of the place knew their fraudulent cunning, they were all the more attentive to guard the treasure. Then at the fitting time, as reason required, counsel having been taken from the prudent, the Brothers of the said place appointed a day for visiting the body. Many of the province being assembled, the sepulcher was opened, and the body of the most holy Ida whole, and her garment most clean, she is found whole with her garments: those present deserved to behold. No stain, no contamination had hitherto been able to mar her, who had now lain dead there for many days. No foul odor came forth to offend the bystanders: but a sufficient sweetness filled them: which, as is fitting, we testify is to be believed by the faithful as a great miracle.
[14] Meanwhile there was the same virtue, conferred on her also after death, a possessed man is freed at her tomb of driving out demons, as the testimonies of some firmly assert. For to a certain youth from the village called Vertum, the evil spirit appeared in the likeness of an ox; and taking away his sense, entered into him: the demon indeed made the face of the miserable youth very ferocious, and produced a hollow and terrible voice, as is its way: it made him to look around with fierce and terrible eyes, to emit foul spittle from his jaws, to produce sobs, and to gnash his teeth, the evil one made him. When his parents had taken him to several relics of Saints, and had profited nothing, at last they brought him to the sepulcher of Blessed Ida. Whom the Lord, looking down from on high through the merits of the Saint, after three days he returned whole and sound, and in the faith which the enemy had taken from him, in no way failing.
[15] Another miracle not unlike this, accomplished through the merits of the same beloved of God, is asserted by many, and, as is fitting, is commemorated as a great thing. likewise another A certain village by the name … is situated not far from the monastery, in which Blessed Ida even now gives many benefits of healing to the sick; before whose tomb a certain demoniac from the aforesaid village is brought bound. His parents and friends with tears earnestly besought the suffrage of the most Blessed one for him. Whose devotion and faith the merciful and compassionate Lord, receiving through the merits and intercessions of the venerable Ida; just as He had healed the paralytic let down through the tiles before Him, so He freed this man from the oppression of the demon, and reconciling him to Himself, sent him back to his home with those who had brought him rejoicing.
[16] Another miracle worthy of wonder and memory must be manifested to the faithful, which to the praise of His name and to the veneration of the most holy Ida a demoniac woman is healed at her sepulcher. the divine clemency performed, through her merits, equal to the aforesaid miracles. The same enemy of the human race, who always like a roaring lion goes about seeking whom he may devour, invaded a certain little woman from the territory of Boulogne, and drove out her good spirit, and prepared for himself a seat in her. Having indeed wandered with her through many places of the Saints, her parents, not profiting, returned to their own. The wretched woman was tormented more sharply than before by the demon, and having lost the strengths of soul and body, tearing and rending herself she lay bound. But her mother, remembering the sanctity and power of the most holy Ida, over such an infirmity, brought her daughter together with several parents of the sick one, who were about to rejoice at the liberation and healing of the girl together, to the church of Saint Michael, in which the most holy Ida was working salvation for many. When, before the presence of a certain altar with the sick girl, they had kept watch for three days, with great devotion they asked that the monks of the church should allow the sick girl to be carried before the sepulcher of Saint Ida: which was done. It was then the vigil of Blessed John the Baptist: and the evening offices being performed, through the merits of Saint Ida, the girl, having obtained both health, began to call her mother, and professed herself whole and sound. For thus through this handmaid of God the grace of accustomed piety shone forth, at the intervention of the blessed and venerable Ida: as it is said of another through the Gospel: "The deaf hears, the mute speaks, the one possessed by a demon is freed." When morning came, for the miracle heard, not only the parents, but many of the neighboring kindred, with offerings offered praise and thanks rejoicing to God and Saint Ida, and gladly departed. Matt. 11:5
[17] Therefore blessed Ida, the love of God, which is the first, begets also the love of the neighbor, which while living she is known to have had; and after death too she did not forsake. With this love therefore she is proved to have healed from various sicknesses her relatives, and also some distant by nation. her granddaughter freed from fever. It happened that the wicked and miserable sickness of fevers sharply seized her son's daughter, Countess of Boulogne, named a Mathilde: this one, worn down for no small time by excessive pains, at last, confident and presuming of the sanctity of the most blessed Ida, and also of the kinship from which she had descended, presented herself to the venerable sepulcher with many, to be healed: who when with devout and manifold prayers she had asked the merits of the Most Blessed one, after a little while departed whole and sound. Thus indeed the venerable handmaid of God, Ida, fulfilled the commandment which in the Law prescribes to love a friend. Lev. 19:18 But that saying of Wisdom, in which it is said: "I love those who love me," she fulfills by bestowing the grace of healings on those serving her, and even on strangers, if they supplicate with their heart. Prov. 8:17
[18] and a certain monk For to a certain Hugh, a Monk, most devoutly serving her night and day, greatly afflicted by the passion of fevers, she showed the grace of health not hoped for, because of the familiarity and service which he had bestowed on her both living and dead. "But Thou, O Lord, have mercy on us. Thanks be to God."
ANNOTATIONS.
ANOTHER LIFE
By John Gillemans, Canon Regular. From a manuscript codex of Rouge-Cloître.
Ida the Widow, Countess of Boulogne, in Gallo-Belgica (Blessed)
BHL Number: 4142
BY JOHN GILLEMANS FROM MANUSCRIPT.
PROLOGUE.
[1] It is useful to celebrate the feasts of the Saints, When we turn over in the courses through the seasons of the year the feasts of the holy widows, we refer immeasurable praises of divine virtues to God alone: nevertheless by their examples we try to hasten to the love of the heavenly homeland, so that to the dwelling of perpetual beauty, where shines the light of supreme brightness, and by imitating them to earn heaven, with the most High Author helping, through the narrow path which leads to life, through and with them to gain the sixtyfold fruit, we may be able to advance with perpetual efforts, and to hear that delightful voice of the Lord, saying: "Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world, for the labors in which you have zealously striven: and there you shall receive unfading crowns from Him who says: 'Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I shall refresh you, for my yoke is sweet and my burden light.'" Matt. 25:34, 11:28, Rom. 8:35 And the Apostle says: and bravely "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or hunger? or cold? or death? or life? or danger? or the sword?" And again the Lord Himself says in the Gospel: "I came to send fire upon the earth, which I will that it burn." Consoled with these sacred helps, let us tread down the snares of the ancient enemy, to overcome all adversity. that with Blessed Ida, a most noble matron (whose deeds we shall take care to insert here briefly, both because they are virtuous, and because they fit our purpose—since she of whom here mention is made came forth from the stock of the Carolingians), to the seat
flower-bearing we may come, about to reign with her perpetually in the heavens. Luke 12:49 Amen.
HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE.
[2] There was a certain virgin sprung from a most noble lineage, a distinguished young woman, named Ida: whose father, named Godfrey, was first before the Emperor, Born of illustrious family and shone as Count of the Ardennes: her mother, no less noble, was called Doda. Now there was at that time the illustrious Count of Boulogne, named Eustace; son of Eustace and Mathilde, Countess of Brussels, and of this second Eustace Saint Ida was made wife, and bore him three sons, namely Godfrey, and married to Eustace, Count of Boulogne, Baldwin, and Eustace. She brought these sons up in all discipline and fear of God, and taught them to do what is worthy of a princedom, and formed them to holy and good morals. Of these, Godfrey, after the death of his uncle Godfrey the Hunchback, possessed the greater part of Brabant, and afterwards was elected King and prince in Jerusalem, she piously educated her sons, after the Holy Land had been recovered by the Christians: and after him his brother Baldwin: who shone with many victories against the faithless nation of the Saracens. And it came to pass that when Blessed Ida was mother of such great sons, she did not allow them to be nursed with the milk of others, but with her own.
[3] And when Count Eustace her husband saw her lovable to all, pleasant to all, and praiseworthy in everything, loved by her husband. he in no way took it grievously; but also admonished her that, persevering in good things, she should strive to advance to better things. The holy Ida, as she knew the good will of her husband Eustace, Count of Boulogne, toward her, she builds churches and helps the poor: began to build churches, to refresh and enrich the poor, and to be perfect in every work of charity and mercy. With these devout pursuits while she elegantly abounded, he dying her husband Count Eustace died in the Lord: and after these things, he being buried, she returned to her parents. This Blessed Ida lived most holily after the death of her husband: both in life and after her death she was famed for miracles. indeed both in her life and after her death she was famed for miracles. First she came to a certain church, dedicated in honor of Saint Walburga the Virgin, setting out to her homeland, for the sake of prayer; and seeing from afar a woman oppressed with dropsy throughout her whole body, she heals a woman with dropsy: she lifted her with her own hands from the ground; and praying and healing her, allowed her to return to her own.
[4] a But the venerable Blessed Ida, coming to the Brothers of the Cluniac church, earnestly and devoutly supplicated Saint Hugh, the most reverend Abbot of the same Church, to send some of his disciples, whom he had gravely educated in regular discipline, after having obtained monks from Saint Hugh of Cluny she builds Wast: to the place called Wast; and entreated him with earnest prayers to make her heir among the Brothers. But the holy and beloved of God Hugh, hearing these things, satisfied her petition, destining Brothers to construct a monastery anew.
[5] After these things it happened that the most blessed Ida sailed to England: who, while entering a certain church, met a certain lame pauper, asking alms from her; in England she heals a lame man: who not only gave him the gift of money, but also, reaching out her hand to him, raised him up and healed him. Returning thence from England, she made a dwelling at Brussels, the most noble city of Brabant, or around it, for a great part of her life: she dwells in Brabant. and b near Gempe, in most honorable conversation with her sons, she dwelt. There is still shown to this day a fountain of sacred baptism: in which her firstborn Godfrey is said to have been initiated.
[6] But it happened after these things, when on a certain night the most holy Ida was present at Matins lauds with the Brothers, she heals a deaf and mute girl, there came to her suppliant a certain woman, having with her her daughter deaf and mute, whom the blessed matron restored to pristine health, and obtained that on the morrow a prebend should be granted by the Abbot of that place to the healed girl. Which girl not long after, at the instigation of the enemy of the human race, conceived by a certain man and gave birth, and on account of sins having fallen once and again: and therefore fell back into the former infirmities, and lost the prebend obtained for her. But at last on account of the merits of the venerable Ida she again obtained mercy, and then the Brothers gave thanks to God Most High for the double miracle. A little after, the said girl, relapsing again, conceived and gave birth; and because of this a third time she fell into the former infirmities, whom Blessed Ida a third time had pity upon, and with prayer made restored her to pristine health.
[7] At last the venerable Ida, when she had continually chastised her weak and tender body with vigils, fasts and prayers, sick, began to be infirm and from day to day to fail exceedingly; and so was advancing to the end as already near. But the monks of Wast, hearing that their most holy spiritual mother was in her last extremity, began to be greatly saddened at her death. In the middle of the Lord's night, on the Ides of April, the spirit of the most sacred Ida left the prison of the flesh, she piously dies on April 13, and underwent the spoils of the present life, and, possessing eternal life, deserved to put on the garment of joyfulness.
7 bis At last, as was right, the body of the glorious Matron was brought before the altar, not without tearful groans, by the Brothers, and there honorably buried. For this place the handmaid of God living loved, she shines with miracles: and now even dead, by revealing miracles fortifies and protects. For the weak or sick beset by various languors, coming to her sepulcher, if they do not hesitate in faith, carry back health. But the body of the most blessed Ida after many ages was found unharmed, her body found uninjured: and free from every corruption; at whose sepulcher a certain possessed man was freed from a demon: possessed persons are healed likewise also a certain possessed woman. To a certain man also, named Hugh, most devoutly serving the same matron, and very afflicted by the passion of fevers, on account of the familiarity and service which she had most often bestowed on him in life and after death, she showed the grace of health; and a feverish man. our Lord Jesus Christ granting this, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God three and one, forever and ever. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
CONCERNING THE DEEDS OF BLESSED IDA
Collections from various authors.
Ida the Widow, Countess of Boulogne, in Gallo-Belgica (Blessed)
BY G. H.
CHAPTER I.
Benefits bestowed on the Church of Lens and the College of Canons.
[1] Lens or Lens, which Baldric in the Chronicle of Cambrai, book 2, chapter 22, called "Lens Castle," The church of Lens had a college of Canons is a town of modern Artois, four leagues from Douai and five from Arras, with an ample territory and an ancient County, which once pertained to the jurisdiction of the Counts of Boulogne, and was given by Count Eustace I to Lambert, his second-born son; whom dying without children in the year 1055, that County came into the power of Eustace II and Blessed Ida his wife, who endowed the College of the Canons of Lens with estates and privileges; whether they also erected it, seems to be disputed. Jacob Meyer, established in the year 1028, in book 2 of the Annals of Flanders, for the year 1028 writes these words: "The church of Lens began to have priests as Canons, whence you may read this memorial there:
In the year one thousand, three times ten, twice minus one, A flock of Canons began to enter this choir."
George Colvenerius follows Meyer in his Notes on the Chronicle of Baldric, and adds that it is still a collegiate and at the same time parish Church, in which there is a Dean and twelve Canons. Baldric only writes that there is held "a monastery of Canons, where Saint Vulganius rests," of whom we shall treat on November 2. That Baldric wrote books I and II of his Chronicle near the end of the life of Gerard I, Bishop of Cambrai, about the year 1040, Colvenerius proves by many arguments. Malbrancq did not direct his mind to these things, when in book 8 De Morinis, chapter 49, he writes that the temple was built by Blessed Ida for the Virgin Mother of God and at the same time for Vulganius, and the college of Canons instituted. It is pleasing to transcribe his words.
[2] By Malbrancq it is said that the church was first erected by Blessed Ida. "Ida, wife of Count Eustace, noticed that the town of Lens was graced with a very meager shrine: wherefore, having sweetly complained to her husband Eustace, she said it was in her mind to build there a magnificent temple to the honor of the Mother of God. Eustace not unwillingly assented, and indeed testified that the mind of his foreign wife was most pleasing to him, with which she was borne to increase by such pious monuments the proper dominions of her husband. What more Christian marriage could be thought than when a wife, having left her own country, adorns the towns and dominion of her husband with temples and priesthoods. The Marian basilica therefore rises, to the honor of the Mother of God and of Saint Vulganius resting there: and when it was finished, as Saint Liethbert, Bishop of Arras and Cambrai, came to consecrate it, it pleased Ida and Eustace the Counts to join Saint Vulganius, whose body they possessed, as another patron of the temple. There was also another not small inducement to this, that that great man, once Archbishop of Canterbury of England, having left his overseas lands, had crossed at an Angelic warning into the Morini, and had for the space of seven years excellently cultivated the Boulognese; nor afterwards had deserted them, unless fear of vainglory, rising through the too great light of miracles, had driven him to seek another hermitage. Hence it is no wonder if from the Arras men his sacred body passed to the town of Lens, as to the County of the Prince of Boulogne. Indeed perhaps by divine providence it happened that the dominion of Lens passed to the Boulognese." Thus Malbrancq with a fertile pen concerning the basilica erected to the honor of the Virgin Mother of God and Saint Vulganius the Archprelate, whom others rather call Confessor. If however he had been a Bishop, he would have to be reckoned among those who, while the Anglo-Saxons still idolaters held Britain, had fled to Cambria or Wales, and thence passed into these parts, as we said more fully on February 4 in the Life of Saint Liephardus, also Bishop of Canterbury among the said Cambri, and thence having set out to Belgium, and crowned with martyrdom. But let us return to the institution of the Canons, which Malbrancq thus continues.
[3] and the college of Canons added, "The outstanding splendor of the church invited Ida to further and better things: to adorn it, namely, with an illustrious college of Canons. Charters having been drawn, she assigned estates and rich revenues, by instituting many Priesthoods, over whom a Dean should preside, to be chosen by the Canons themselves on account of probity of life and the gifts necessary for that office. At Lens there were two smaller shrines, which looked up to Saints Laurence and Leger the Martyrs as their patrons: Bishop Liethbert turned their Episcopal revenues to the uses and disposition of the Canons. For the rest, the verses which were once read in the church of Lens, indicators of the founder of these institutions, should be punctuated as follows:
"In the year one thousand, three times ten twice, minus one, A flock of Canons began to enter this choir." in the year 1059.
"For I find that in the printed books this is referred to the year 1028, by so transcribing 'three times ten, twice minus one'; and wrongly: since it is sufficiently apparent that in that year Ida had not yet drawn this use of life, and necessarily twice three-times-ten years above a thousand must be taken, which numbering minus one you will find to be the year 1059: namely Ida, by entering her marriage in 1057, and by her honorable entry adorning Lens, ordered that basilica to be built, and two years after introduced the college of Canons." Thus Malbrancq, quite subtly twisting those old verses. We rather think that the church was founded long before, and the college of Canons was instituted by Eustace, the first Count of Boulogne and Lens, and his wife Mathilde, in the year 1028. We are moved to this opinion by the charter of donation of Eustace II and Blessed Ida, printed by Miraeus in book 1 Diplomatum Belgicorum, chapter 38, and more briefly in the Notitia Ecclesiarum Belgii, chapter 101, whence we give here the things that pertain to the purpose, which are as follows.
[4] "I, Eustace, Count of the Boulognese, and my wife Ida, especially desire to exalt the church in this place, which is called Lens, but the church was once built, honorably established by our predecessors. In the beginning of its Foundation, it was endowed with lands and books and liberal condition: but the presumption of rashness and the envy of the devil, burning the church with the books and the privilege with the seals, thought to annul everything. But what he destroyed through envy, with God favoring and with our Lord Bishop Liethbert, we wish to amend through good will. We therefore grant free power to the Canons to take whomever they wish as an Advocate, who shall preside over their affairs or their cases only so long as it pleases them. We show that the altars of Saint Mary and Saint Laurence are also free from all servitude. And so that our church might be equal to others which enjoy the dowry of liberty, and in the year 1070 restored by Eustace and Blessed Ida, namely Saint Mary of Arras and Saint Gaugericus of Cambrai, we have labored much, and, thanks to God, with Bishop Liethbert commending, we have brought it to an end. …In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1070, in the 8th Indiction, in the basilica of Saint Mary, we accomplished these things." Thus there, from which it is clear that the church was established by the predecessors, but burnt by the envy of the malevolent, and amended and restored by Eustace and Blessed Ida, and again dedicated: as Saint Liethbert indicates in the subjoined diploma in these words: "I, Liethbert, by the grace of God Bishop of Cambrai, at the just petitions of Count Eustace and his wife Countess Ida, the Church which at Lens in honor of the Holy Mother of God, with the mercy of God cooperating, we have consecrated, and consecrated by Saint Liethbert the Bishop. and the sustenance or governance of the Canons of the same place, we permit henceforth to be free from every exaction of the Bishop and his ministers, namely from levy or rent. And if the Church of Saint Gaugericus of Cambrai, or rather the Church of Saint Mary of Arras, are known to have any further liberty, let the Canons of Lens possess it likewise with their peace. Done at Lens in the basilica of Saint Mary in the year 1070, Indiction 8." The rest with the signatures may be read in Miraeus, chiefly the confirmation of the revenues and possessions which pertain to the said Church.
CHAPTER II.
Monasteries erected and restored in the County of Boulogne. The Monastery of Capella founded.
[5] Of the monastery of Saint Vulmar, erected within the walls of Boulogne by Blessed Ida when already a widow; Monasteries erected or restored by Blessed Ida, and the other monastery of Saint Vulmar in the Wood, restored, we have treated above. To these a third is added, the monastery of Wast, built by her, and consecrated to Saint Michael, where also she was given to burial. Malbrancq in book 9 De Morinis, chapter 35, asserts that he was there, and that it is two leagues from Boulogne towards Wissant, and was once called Wasconvillare; but he errs when he writes that it was a college of Canons. It was a Benedictine monastery, according to the Cluniac reform, with monks sent from Cluny itself by Saint Hugh the Abbot; as the author of the Life, who seems to us to have been of Wast, explains at length.
[6] The fourth monastery built by the same widow is the monastery called Saint Mary of Capella, in which she put off this mortal life, about to pass to a better one. John Iperius, in the Chronicle of Bertin, chapter 39, part 2, attributes this foundation to Eustace and Blessed Ida, as if he had still been alive in the year 1090. His words are these: "In the year of the Lord 1090, Eustace Count of Boulogne and his wife Ida, parents and progenitors of that most illustrious and most illustrious Godfrey of Bouillon, the monastery of Blessed Mary of Capella is wrongly attributed to Eustace, and of Baldwin, afterwards Kings of Jerusalem, founded the monastery of Blessed Mary of Capella, in the land of Merck, next to Calais, in the place which was before called Brocham, and appointed it for the monks of Ham: where also Ida the Countess herself offered eleven hairs of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which she had obtained by many prayers from Hastulph, King of the Iberians, with other relics of the Saints." Thus John Iperius, made Abbot of Saint Bertin in 1369, died in 1380: whom by two hundred years older Lambert of Ardres attributes that foundation to Blessed Ida the widow in his hitherto unedited Chronicle of Guines, chapter 31, which has this title prefixed: "How Ida Countess of Boulogne founded the monastery of Blessed Mary of Capella": and when in chapter 30 the matter was treated of the monastery of Andres, restored by Baldwin Count of Guines, these things are related in the said chapter 31.
[7] "Whence to the imitation of so pious a work, the daughter once of Godfrey Duke of Lorraine, since it was founded by Blessed Ida the widow, then widow of Eustace Count of Boulogne, mother of Godfrey and Baldwin (in the kingdom of Judaea, the holy city of Jerusalem, from the Arabs and Saracens and other foreign and unbelieving nations, with a strong hand and outstretched arm, together with Antioch manfully stormed, utterly liberated, Kings of Jerusalem) and of Eustace most noble Count of Boulogne, venerable in name and in the sanctity of her life, Ida Countess of Boulogne, on the border of Merck, in the village once called Brucham, under the honor of the blessed and glorious and ever Virgin Mary founded a church, and instituted a notable monastery of religion: and in that same church she deposited eleven most precious hairs of the same blessed Virgin Mary (which she had sought out and obtained from Anstulph the Iberian King, not without greatest labor and diligent zeal), above gold and precious stone, and placed them; and together with other innumerable Relics of the Saints, to the honor of Blessed Mary, there famous with miracles, she ordered that they, offered in the holy place, be honored before all: and at the same time she instituted a holy convent of monks taken from the monastery of Ham, recently constructed by Engelram, Lord of Lillers, with the venerable man Ravenger the Abbot, and other Brothers of honorable and religious life, in memory of the holy Mother of God and ever Virgin Mary and her veneration to be exalted forever, to serve the eternal God eternally and continually, and brought them into the prepared dwelling place of God. This place of Saint Mary indeed, while the infancy of the holy religion was still fresh and tender, there was growing up, distinguished in virtues, glorious in the frequency of miracles, most holy in charity and religion, much enriched in abundance of things, most abundant in persons of composed morals and of liberal arts, no less than in the formation of Theological Scripture, worthy of every honor's elevation and prelacy, most renowned (let all envy and envious discoloration be absent) in the proclamation of fame, stood out in all adjacent places: as one whom God unceasingly illustrated by His presence, and whom He visited with that heavenly grace with which the blessed Virgin was once bathed, and to those piously praying there bestowed innumerable benefits.
[8] "That place is believed to have been of such name and veneration that certain nobles of the adjacent land, and other faithful Christian peoples, and increased with various possessions, whatever little churches they had, or any other ecclesiastical benefices, or even small estates, were eager either wholly to confer them on the same place, or by some title of subjection to bind and subject them; thinking and considering, indeed firmly believing and acknowledging that their little churches were standing and serving with a freer revenue if they were subjected by some bond of subjection to so holy and venerable a place, than if they remained and persisted in their own whatever liberty, as they were constituted: for so they, judging this, would serve under a better name, and shine under a greater title of authority. For that place is known to be most free from every reproach of turpitude and of exaction and of undue custom. Whence also it is called Capella, I say, the Capella of the Supreme Pontiff, and called Capella of the Supreme Pontiff, namely of the Lord Pope, constructed in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the authority and memory of which liberty, the church of that free place every year owes to the Roman Church twelve denarii; which gathered together for a five-year period or a decade, the Abbot of that most holy place sends to Rome, for the recognition, as we said, of its liberty. Now the Abbot of that place has in the Roman Church such dignity that, if it happens that the same Abbot is present at the Mass of the Lord Pope in the Roman Church, he is to hold the book of the Subdeacon, while the same Subdeacon pronounces the epistle. But lest we prolong our words to waste, with our soldiers murmuring, concerning this Most Holy place and the religious monks inhabiting it, let this little suffice, until with greater and more fervent zeal, in place and time, we turn our writing pen to insert some other things concerning them." Thus there: and soon in chapter 32 it is treated of the construction of the church of Ardres, and for imitation is put forth the monastery of Blessed Mary of Capella built by Ida Countess of Boulogne, where at the end it is said: "The church of Blessed Mary of Capella founded, in the year 1091."
[9] There is a most ancient and noble monastery of the Order of Blessed Benedict, situated in the March of the Pictonian district, of Saint Savior of Charroux, whence the aforesaid Engelram, founded in the year 1091 Lord of Lillers, brought monks, and placed them in the monastery of Ham, built around the year 1084 between Lillers and Aire. Thence Ravenger was taken with some monks, and was made the first Abbot of Saint Mary of Capella, Abbots Ravanger, and subscribed to the donation of Manasseh, Count of Guines, made to the monastery of Andres, in the year 1097, in Du Chesne cited above, p. 38, from the relation of William the Abbot in the Historia Andrensis. Theoderic, Among his successors was Theoderic, who from Baldwin Lord of Ardres received the church of Ardres with the college of Canons in the year 1144, such that when any of the said church's Canons or Clerics died, a monk was substituted: then also from the same Lord Baldwin he bought the mill of Brames with adjoining lands, in which he established a Cell of monks, and appointed Caradoc as their first Prior, Caradoc, afterwards Abbot in the Church of Saint Mary of Capella.
All which Lambert, son of the said Lord of Ardres, and Priest of the Church of Ardres, describes at length in his Historia Ghisnensis, chapter 137 and three following, and from him Du Chesne, p. 1609 and following. These things were to be brought forth more accurately against Iperius, whose errors Meyer, Miraeus, Malbrancq and others described: and the authority of the Writer was to be confirmed, who in the Life above asserts the monastery of Blessed Mary of Capella to have been constructed by Blessed Ida the widow. The gift of eleven hairs of the Mother of God, Virgin, given by Blessed Ida to the church of Capella, was received from Anseulph the Iberian King, to Iperius Hastulphus, to Malbrancq in book 8, chapter 80, "Haistulphus King of the Hibernians." Further, there were then still several kings ruling in Ireland, Site of the monastery, afterwards subjugated by the English about the year 1172: yet the name is so clearly Gothic that it seems far more prudent to understand some kinglet of that nation in Iberia or Spain. That the monastery of Capella was situated, Malbrancq reports, between Merck and the Sluices (in the following century called Calais), in an estate of Boulognese law called Broucham, of the territory of Merck: but in Lambert of Ardres it is placed on the confines of Mercuritium. collations of benefices, In the general register of benefices of the Gallican Dioceses, in the diocese of Boulogne there are mentioned on p. 10 the collations or presentations of eleven Curates, and of nine Chaplaincies dependent on the Abbot of Capella: among which are chaplaincies of the churches of Ardres, Oye, and Merck, from which it is well gathered that the ancient site of this monastery was changed by continuous wars between English and French.
CHAPTER III.
Various benefits bestowed on monasteries, Bouillon, Afflighem, Saint Bertin, and Lens. Jerusalem captured seen in ecstasy.
[10] Godfrey the Bearded, Duke of Lorraine and father of Blessed Ida, had once founded a Priory of Saint Peter in his town of Bouillon, with monks taken from the monastery of Saint Hubert. Godfrey of Bouillon added some dowry, [Blessed Ida consents to the dowry made by her son to the monastery of Bouillon in the year 1094,] the charter of donation signed at Bouillon in 1094, published by Miraeus in the Codex Donationum, chapter 67, and Notitia Ecclesiarum Belgicarum, chapter 11: in which Godfrey has these words: "When I had referred this my intention to my mother Ida, daughter of the aforesaid Duke, and to my brothers Baldwin and Eustace; then with their counsel and willing consent, we destined and gave our church, of our own proper and hereditary right, of Baseium, to the increase of the aforesaid alms of my grandfather Godfrey, to be given perpetually to Blessed Peter and Blessed Hubert. That this gift might be firm and fixed, I brought the same mother and my brothers with me to Bouillon, and in the presence of my Optimates, we together laid down the investiture of the aforesaid church in Baseium, without any slander or contradiction, upon the altar of Blessed Peter." The said Baseium is a village of Gallo-Brabant, toward the County of Namur, commonly Basy, in the territory of Genappe on the river Thyle; in which village we have said above that Godfrey of Bouillon is believed by the inhabitants to have been born and educated. But Genappe itself, or Genapum, between Nivelles and Gembloux, is an illustrious enough town with an old fortress, where there is a court or tribunal, which is commonly called the "summa Curia Lotharingiae," in which justice is accustomed to be administered in civil and capital as well as in feudal cases, and still represents some image of Lower Lorraine. The tithes of this place Blessed Ida conceded to the monastery of Afflighem, in the same Brabant between Brussels and Aalst: of which donation Miraeus edited the charter in the Codex Donationum, chapter 68, and in the Notitia Ecclesiarum Belgii, chapter 119: from which we extract these things.
[11] "I, Ida, Countess of Boulogne, humble handmaid of Christ, desire it to be made known as well to present as to future persons, she endows the monastery of Afflighem in the year 1096. this sign of my love toward my Lords and Brothers, namely the monks of Novimonasterium, to which the name Afflighem was given by the ancients. Because indeed their manner of life and religious affection has pleased me and many of them, I have deemed it worthy to commend myself to such men's prayers, and not to hope in the uncertain things of riches, but rather to share these with them. Therefore in my allodium and the village which is called Genappe, for the salvation of my soul, also of my father Duke Godfrey, and of Count Eustace my Lord, I have given the church with the tithes and all its revenues to be held by perpetual right by the aforesaid Brothers, with my sons Godfrey, Eustace, and Baldwin cooperating with me in this same thing. My son Duke Godfrey also in the same village of Genappe gave five mansi of land to the same Brothers, to which I afterwards in augment conceded certain adjacent parts, plainly containing a sixth mansus, free and exempt from all county and taxed rent. Moreover, whatever they were claiming, because they had possessed it from the time of the earlier gift, whether in woods, or in pastures, or in sown fields, I granted them with the same liberty as I held: but also all participation in the wood and other common usages, in this with my sons no less consenting with me. This was done at Maastricht in the church of Saint Servatius the Confessor, with the relics of Saint Gertrude also present, brought there then for a similar business; …in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1096, the year of the departure of the Christians against the Pagans to Jerusalem."
[12] and the monastery of Saint Bertin in 1098. As Blessed Ida was gradually burdened with greater age, she did not cease to insist on pious works, but to increase her merits, endowed the monastery of Saint Bertin: of which oblation Miraeus edited the charter in the Codex Donationum, chapter 70, and more briefly in the Notitia Ecclesiarum Belgii, chapter 121. From the former we insert here what follows. "Since it is certain to each that death is uncertain and imminent, and how necessary it is for us to look to our salvation by insisting on good works and the bestowing of alms, the daily failure of worldly things shows sufficiently. Wherefore I, Ida, by the grace of God Countess of the Boulognese, notify as well future as present whatever persons, that for the salvation of my soul, as well as for the soul of my Lord Count Eustace, and for the safety of my sons Eustace, Godfrey, and Baldwin (who against the attacks of the Pagans at the Apostolic precept have set out to Jerusalem), all customs and county rights, and whatever pertained to me of the land which Ondigir and Berewoldus handed over to God and Saint Bertin for the alms of the poor, I have granted to Lord Lambert the Abbot of the monastery of the same Christ's Confessor Bertin and to the Brothers serving God there to be perpetually possessed, on this condition: that none of the heirs of the aforesaid men should dare to usurp anything more from that land, nor the Count of Boulogne, nor anyone on his part, to exact anything of customs or county rights from it; but let it remain free and quiet for the uses of the poor forever. Done in the village of Merck, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1098. Sign of Ida the glorious Countess…"
[13] The arms of the sons prevailed in the Holy Land, with their parent Blessed Ida commending their warlike business with most ardent prayers, and watching from among the Morini, as from the tables of the monastery of Saint Vulmar Malbrancq in book 9 De Morinis, chapter 6, explains in his own words: She builds Saulmerium in the year 1099, "What was hinted about the most holy mother Ida must be more plainly set forth. When she had built a little Saulmerium, as they call it—that is, a little monastery, as an appendage from the greater Saint Vulmar—and had assigned to it monks taken from that place with an outstanding dowry, she took care that it should be consecrated to the Lamenting or Sorrowful Blessed Virgin in the previous months of this year 1099 by Gerard Bishop of Thérouanne. …Therefore in that peculiar sacristy of the Sorrowful Virgin, Blessed Ida drew out her days in prayers; she is said to have seen Jerusalem taken in ecstasy and before the Divine Mother and Saint Vulmar, the patrons of the place, she most ardently conducted the warlike affair of her son Godfrey. Who indeed did not disappoint the good mind of the woman; but brought it about that while praying she was caught up in ecstasy, and in some way she saw her son Godfrey from a wooden castle encouraging his own, hurling the most frequent darts against the enemies, with heroic onset climbing first of all the walls: finally it could be said that images of all the things there done pertaining to her offspring were heavenly set before her, at so great an interval of lands. For when I had already been for several years at Boulogne, I found in that sanctuary of the Virgin Blessed and Saint Vulmar written on a tablet: 'Here Ida, while she was attending the sacred mysteries, saw her son Godfrey by an outstanding stratagem and heroic strength invading Jerusalem; and also crowned King of Jerusalem.'" Since these things were done at different times, it seems that the middle and adjoined things also fell before the eyes of her mind. Then in chapter 8 he treats of Godfrey crowned King, and adds these things concerning Blessed Ida: "Although this was done within the enclosure of the Jerusalem temple, and her son crowned King: that Royal appearance and the pious spurning of the Royal diadem were conveyed even to the outermost Morini, to the eyes of Ida the most holy mother, who was attending to the sacred rites of the Mass in that new monastery of the Vulmarian ascetics, who served the Lamenting Virgin."
[14] With King Godfrey having died in the year 1100, Baldwin, the other son of Blessed Ida, was subrogated in his place: [in the year 1106 she asks from her son Eustace that the benefits of the Church of Lens be confirmed] then the third, Eustace, returned to Blessed Ida his mother and to the County of Boulogne: who saw to it that the college of Canons of Lens was confirmed by Lambert Bishop of Arras, with Blessed Ida his mother seconding. The diploma of the Bishop from the manuscript monuments of Lens Malbrancq printed in the scholia on chapter 16 of book 9, with this beginning: "I, Lambert, by the mercy of God Bishop of Arras, acquiescing in the just and honorable petitions of the honorable Count Eustace and his noble wife Maria the Countess, and also of the Mother of the aforesaid Count, Ida the religious Countess, in what they ask from our ministry, we wish to be known to both our present and future sons, in the liberty of spirit, to have confirmed for the Church of Lens and the Canons of the same Church, at the petition of the aforesaid persons, firmly and stably for perpetual time, by the privilege of our authority. …Given at Arras, in the year of Christ God 1106, Indiction 14, on the 7th day before the Ides of June, in the 12th year of the Pontificate of Lord Lambert Bishop of Arras, with King Philip reigning in France, Robert the Younger Count of Flanders, Eustace Count of the Boulognese and Lens."