Benedict

ON SAINT BENEDICT, FOUNDER OF THE BRIDGE OF AVIGNON.

YEAR 1184.

Benedict, founder of the bridge over the Rhone at Avignon in Gaul (St.)

BY D. P.

[1] "I have taken thee from following the flocks at the pastures: and I have been with thee in all things wheresoever thou hast walked: and I have made thee a great name," said God to David in 2 Kings 7. The same could have been said to Benedict, founder of the Bridge of Avignon over the Rhone, His cultus at Avignon, whom, on account of the brevity of his age and stature, the common people of Cossetan call Benezet, that is, little Benedict. He had his cultus at Avignon, first indeed in the place of his burial above the bridge and in a Hospital instituted for his use more conveniently: then in the church of St. Agricola, after the said Hospital, by the authority of Pope John XXII in the year 1321, was united to the same church, erected into a Collegiate: in which his feast was celebrated with a proper office, whose copy has been transmitted to us. and at a place near Nîmes: Moreover in the neighboring diocese of Nîmes, four leagues from that city, a little town is found, commonly San Benezet del queiron, that is, his name inscribed in the Martyrology, said to be of Little Benedict of the rock: and that he himself is the Patron of the place is proved by a panel painted above the altar, depicting a youth in pastoral habit, who carries a great rock on his neck, in the manner in which this our one is ordinarily painted, for a reason to be disclosed shortly. Finally for the use of some Avignonese church the Martyrology of Usuard must have been transcribed, which the more recent authors of his Life cite, with these words added on the 18th day before the Kalends of May: "Of Benedict the Confessor, Shepherd, at Avignon": whom Ferrari following in the General Catalogue, not without error transformed the shepherd of sheep into a Bishop, then in the Annotations to that place he accumulated errors upon errors, and in more recent calendars: not without faults. writing thus: "The body is enclosed in the Cathedral church. He is surnamed from the Bridge, because he drew his origin thence: rather because he was the author of making it and was buried upon it." No less cautious, Saussay, compiler of the Gallican Martyrology, adorned Ferrari's hallucination with a new phrase: "At Avignon, of Saint Benedict the Bishop, there celebrated for the memory of his sanctity, whose body reverently rests in the Cathedral Church." He would not have erred thus, if he had preferred to ask the Avignonese themselves, rather than to believe a foreign writer.

[2] Whether canonized by Innocent IV? William Paradin in the History of Lyon book 2 chapter 43, alleges the Bull of Innocent IV, in the 2nd year of his Pontificate, given from the Council of Lyon, without the expression of month and day, to all Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Deans and other Rectors of the holy mother Church, and all faithful Christians. Now explaining this Bull in French, he makes the Pontiff narrate a wondrous thing done in his time, and proved by the testimony of more than a thousand men, from whom as eyewitnesses he himself had received it. But how false it is that the Bridge of Avignon was constructed in the time of Innocent IV, so is the credit of Paradin suspect, otherwise not the best, concerning the whole bull; whose diligently sought original or at least the Latin exemplar could nowhere be found; and whose context differs not a little from the testimonies of those truly contemporary to be produced below. Hence on too weak a foundation those rely, who wish to presume from the end which such a Bull could have had, that it was published to promulgate the canonization of Little Blessed Benedict, made by the same Pontiff in the Council, with no other memory of such canonization surviving. Nor yet can the holiness of B. Benedict or his public cult in any way be called into doubt: since so many Pontiffs have honored him with the title of Saint and Blessed, by various diplomas (of which mention will be made below) and of the same Pontiffs many, who sat at Avignon after Little St. Benedict departed this life, when they saw heavenly honors being bestowed on him, and ecclesiastical Office with Mass being celebrated about him with solemn rite every year in the sacred shrine, in which his blessed relics lie buried; so far from objecting that rather with sacred stipends, numbered from the treasury of the Church, they zealously promoted that cult and religion.

[3] Thus far our Theophile Raynaud, in the little book which he published about this Saint under this title, From the little book of Theophile Raynaud on this Saint "John Benedict the Shepherd and Bridge-builder at Avignon." Which title

when his rivals had blackened him as suspect of heresy, he found it necessary in a treatise on his own books to refute the idle quibble; which was as easy for him, as to build in the said little book an Outer Wall against the battering-rams of strong wits, shaking the truth of the history of St. Benedict. But what need was there of an Outer Wall against arguments wholly of straw, and so unworthy to be called Battering-rams? Indeed the archive of the City of Avignon represents this history in many ways: having been taught that his authentic Acts exist, but specifically in a very old parchment first in the vernacular idiom, that is Cossetan, which at that time was in use in the city, then in Latin, rather indeed coarse, but to which simplicity devoid of artifice rather claims credit. And when in the year 1500 between Pope Alexander VI the Supreme Pontiff and the King of the French a lawsuit had arisen concerning the disputed right of the Bridge; and the Papal Advocates brought forward the parchment I mentioned, filled with the narration of the things of St. Benedict, to the Royal Patrons, as the chief support of their case; the judges chosen from both sides held the parchment, secured with seals and all things duly to make certain credit, although opposing the Royal right, as ratified, and pronounced it sincere and foreign from all suspicion. To the same place is subjoined the inquiry, instituted juridically after the Saint's death into his deeds and miracles, with fifteen faithful and suitable witnesses employed, whose testimony is there summarily represented.

[4] we ourselves received the extracts from the public Archive Reading such things in Theophile, we considered nothing more important, than to ask that that very ancient parchment be transcribed from Avignon; which when it had been for a long time sought in vain, the Avignonese judged that it ought to suffice us, that they should transmit its tenor, from the second volume of the Process of Extraction of some rights and documents consigned by the noble Procurator of Our Most Holy Lord the Pope and Actor of the city of Avignon, from diverse archives and chests of the aforesaid city. For at the end of that volume it thus reads: "In testimony indeed that in the present volume (which in its first line begins, 'Process of extraction of some &c,' and in the last line, on the last folio of it, lastly ends, 'to Lord Peter de Petra &c,' which contains in itself six hundred and sixty-eight written folios, the present excluded) is the second part of the process conducted before the Reverend and spiritual Lords Papal and Royal Commissaries, and legally consigned. between the Procurator of Our Most Holy Lord the Pope and Actor of the Community of the city of Avignon on one side, and the Royal General Procurator in the country of Occitania on the other, on the occasion of the river Rhone and the islands born in it and the bridge existing above it; I Peter of Amiens, Cleric of Amiens, citizen of Avignon, public Notary by Apostolic authority everywhere and Royal authority in the kingdom of France, scribe of the same case before the same Lord Commissaries, together with the honest man Master Francis Sorbier, Notary subsigned with the same authorities, here have subscribed myself, together with the seals and subscriptions of the aforesaid Lord Commissaries, and the subscription and sign of the said Master Francis."

[5] From the volume thus marked, which even today can be seen pierced through all folios by a red silken cord, and secured with six seals in red wax, the desired exemplar transcribing with his own hand the noble man, and most devoted to Little St. Benedict, with the French Life more recently published, Richard Joseph de Cambis, Lord des Fargues, took care to have it signed by the hand of two notaries, attesting it to be extracted from the said original, at such an end by command of the Consuls of the city through their secretary extracted from the archives, and delivered into the hands of the said Lord des Fargues: and lest anything should be lacking to fullest legality, from the power of the same Notaries the Ordinary Judge of the temporal court of St. Peter of Avignon made credit on the 17th of July in the year 1673. The same Lord des Fargues, when in the year 1670, after the recent Translation of the sacred body, he had published the Life and miracles of Little St. Benedict in the French language, together with the history of the Translation itself; and afterwards both in that little work of his (which had come forth not so much under his own name as under the letters of his name R. I. Disambec otherwise arranged) and in the little book of Father Theophile he had caught certain errors, of these most diligently took care to warn us, through R. P. Charles Faber, Priest of our Society at Avignon; by whose zeal I willingly disclose these things received.

[6] In the year 1608, by the care of Nicolas Camuzat, from the MS. of Pontigny, a Chronology came forth, containing the series of times and the history of things done in the world, from its origin to the year from the birth of Christ 1200, by an Anonymous author, who died in the year 1184, but a monk of the cenobium of St. Marian near Auxerre of the Premonstratensian Rule. As the printing proceeded, another copy was found at Paris in the Petavian Library, ending in the year 1211, where the continuator of the aforesaid chronicle for four more years added, "So far Brother Robert has carried on his Chronicle": whose then death in the year 1212 a long elogium is woven, on account of the distinguished virtues which are described, and because being excellently lettered, he was in the knowledge of histories second to none of his time. This so ancient author under the year 1177 wrote words, which Papirius Masso took from him in his Description of Gaul by Rivers page 425: "In the same year there came to Avignon a young man, named Benedict, saying that he was sent by the Lord to build a bridge over the Rhone: who was derided, since he had no expenses, and because on account of the magnitude no one believed he would do this: but the peoples, admonished by him by divine nod, more quickly completed that work." After seven years the same Chronographer thus speaks: "In the same year, namely 1184, Benedict, the author of the bridge of Avignon, a youth of quite holy life, died; and was buried upon that wondrous bridge, already in great part constructed, about seven years having already elapsed from the beginning of the same bridge."

[7] Therefore Benedict did not see his bridge completed (for indeed its fabric occupied the whole of eleven years, as the 15th Feast asserts below) much less did he see to the building of another similar bridge at Lyon, which Paradin attributes to him, or another at the town of Saint-Esprit between Avignon and Valence: of which Theophile Raynaud teaches this one to have been built in the year 1255 from public records: he neither completed his own, nor built other bridges elsewhere: the other to have been founded by Innocent IV, and so not before the year 1243, the old inscription cut on stones proves, which you may read in Papirius Masso, page 400. But there exists in the public archive an instrument below to be produced from the year 1332, into which is inserted word for word another, of the year 1185 in the month of January, where concerning the portage to be received the same thing is decreed, that had been decreed by Lord Pons of good memory Bishop of Avignon (He however had died before the Lateran Council held in the year 1179) and by the Consuls, whom he gathered as Brothers who at that time ruled the Consulate in the city, when Brother Benedict of pious memory began the bridge. Where he is called Brother, because namely for the progress and administration of the work a certain sodality had grown together, of which Benedict himself was head and superior while he lived, in which way also in a contract of the year 1180, which at point 14 Theophile alleges, Bernard la Garde professes himself to sell and by title of sale to hand over, to the work of the bridge of the Rhone and to Brother Benedict the Procurator and the other Brothers of the bridge, all his right in the port or in the tail of the port.

[8] Whether those Brothers were bound by religious vows, Theophile disputes at the place now cited: and the various instruments having been examined, made in the refectory of the Brothers of the Bridge, in one of which of the year 1207 a sale is made to Stephen the Prior and the Brothers of the Bridge and to the monastery; only at his death did they begin to have a Prior. attending also that the interpretation of the things done by St. Benedict, from the Cossetan into the Latin language, is said to have been made at the request of Brother Raymond Ponsere, Brother and Donate of the work of the Bridge of St. Benedict: verisimilarly he judges, that such formulas of speaking signify a religious state. Indeed in the re-examination of the same little work, attentive to the appellation Hospital of the Holy Spirit, common to the Hospital of Montpellier which is the head of the Order of the Holy Spirit, instituted by Guy of Montpellier under Innocent III, and propagated through Italy, Gaul, Germany, Poland; he thinks that the aforenamed Brothers of the Bridge belonged to the same Order. But Innocent III only took up the Pontificate in the year 1198: so that it is uncertain, whether even the first seeds of that order were made with Benedict still living. Now that Order of Hospitallers of the Holy Spirit was of Regular Canons: but at Avignon they were all lay. Who when they were received to religious vows (as it is sufficiently verisimilar that they were received into them at least after St. Benedict's death) in place of the title of Procurator began to be used the title of Prior.

[9] This title certainly Benedict never appears to have held: For the Act of the year 1187 in which Lord G. Provost of Avignon and the convent of the same church on one side, and on the other side John Benedict, of whom the first was John Benedict at that time Prior of the house of the work of the bridge and the Brothers established there, before Lord Rostagnus Bishop of the Church of Avignon, amicably agreed among themselves, that it should be permitted the Brothers of the Bridge to have a church and cemetery and likewise a Chaplain. This Act, I say, from the pre-alleged Act of the year 1185, is proven to be posterior to Benedict's death, and so the John Benedict named there to be different from him. Otherwise indeed it seemed to Father Theophile, who therefore correcting the date of the cited instrument, noted the year 1195, and believed that Benedict did not die except with the bridge completed. But he who had followed him in this, Lord des Fargues, afterwards having inspected the very originals, offering no suspicion of a vitiated year, was the author for us of a changed opinion; nor could he any longer doubt the highest accuracy of the chronographer of Auxerre, contemporary of Benedict.

[10] We reject therefore the forename John, which Theophile first added to St. Benedict: he was distinct from the Saint. and we believe by that name was called his successor in the procuratorship and government of the companions; who, for the sake of reverence, fitted the name of Benedict to the first, just as St. Cyprian did the name of Caecilius the Priest, by whom he had been led to the faith; Eusebius of Caesarea that of his master Pamphilus; St. Peter that of his brother Damian, and some others those of others. As concerns Paradin, whatever he has in his narrative, not only against, but even beyond what the certain authority of ancient monuments can teach, all this we count as fictions; and we marvel that by those who deservedly do not accept the pretended Bull of Innocent IV in him, yet what the same has about Benedict's fatherland and age, and about a journey of three days traversed in a few hours and visiting the thresholds of the Apostles to obtain indulgences, by which beneficent helpers might be conciliated to the begun work, is accepted.

[11] his fatherland is gratuitously feigned said to be Almilat, He names the fatherland Almillat, a town situated in Maurienne and old Burgundy, and distant from Avignon by a journey of three days: but even in Paradin the Acts oppose him, who bringing in Benedict to Avignon, makes him cross the Rhone; which coming from Savoy he would not have done. Other

seeing this, suspect that the nearby name Alvilar, among the Helvii in the Vivarais tract, should be substituted, with the already said interval of three days preserved. But neither does this three-day interval have any foundation outside the brain of Paradin: nor do the Acts offer an argument of a miraculous translation within a few hours, but prefer the common mode of traveling; when he who on the very day of the eclipse, and therefore on the Ides of September, gave himself to the way; having entered the city found the Bishop preaching, certainly on some feast day, and so the day after the Ides on the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. Then whom the contemporary monk calls a young man, and to whom the instruments made in the year 1180 and thereafter persuade is to be attributed a suitable age for celebrating contracts; as also the age of 12 years when he came to Avignon. and the government of his companions and other similar things; Paradin makes him a boy of twelve years. Indeed the Acts also call him a boy, from the use of the common people looking at his small stature and perhaps beardless chin. Why nevertheless do we not understand this in the manner, in which the sacred Scriptures understand it? Thus David, about to be anointed King, is called by his father "little"; and going against Goliath, "boy" by Saul: when he was, from the sense of all Chronologers and interpreters, about 22 years old. Similarly his son Solomon, having begun to reign at nearly the same age at which his father had been anointed, says of himself, "I am a little boy"; and the prophet Daniel, about to judge the case of Susanna, is indicated with the epithet of "a younger boy." But what was extreme about the Indulgences, on account of which Paradin dreamed that Benedict had gone to Rome, Theophile evidently proves that all were granted after his death, who however retains him in life so many more years than we. But leaving these things let us see the Acts themselves.

ACTS

From the Authentic MSS. of the Archive of Avignon.

Benedict, founder of the bridge over the Rhone at Avignon in Gaul (St.)

BHL Number: 1097, 1098

FROM MSS.

[12] In the year of grace one thousand one hundred seventy-seven the boy Benedict began the bridge, as the things written below declare. On the day ^b when the sun suffered eclipse, a certain boy, Benedict by name, was tending the sheep of his ^c mother in the pastures: to whom Jesus Christ openly said three times: Benedict acting in the pastures "Benedict, my son, hear the voice of Jesus Christ." Ben. ^d "Who art thou, Lord, who speakest with me? I hear thy voice: but I cannot see thee." J. C. "Hear therefore, Benedict, and be thou not afraid: I am Jesus Christ, who by a word alone created the heaven and the earth, the sea and all things in them." Ben. "Lord, what wilt thou that I should do?" J. C. "I wish that you leave the sheep of your mother, which you guard: because you are going to make for me a bridge over the river Rhone. he is commanded to make a bridge over the Rhone," Ben. "Lord, I do not know the Rhone, nor do I dare to leave the sheep of my mother." J. C. "Did I not tell you to believe? Come therefore boldly, because I will have ^e your sheep tended for you, and I will give you a companion who will lead you as far as the Rhone." Ben. "Lord, I have nothing except ^f three obols; and how shall I make a bridge over the Rhone?" J. C. "Well, as I shall teach you."

[13] Therefore Benedict departed: he was obedient to the voice of Jesus Christ, which he heard, but whom he could by no means see. And an Angel met him in the form of a pilgrim, and led to the river by an Angel bearing a staff and a bag, who addressed him thus: "Go after me safely, and I will lead you as far as that place, in which you are to make a bridge for Jesus Christ, and I will show you how you should make it." ^g Now they are at the bank of the river. Seeing however Benedict the ^h magnitude of the river, struck with fear he said, that he could by no means make a bridge there. To whom the Angel said: "Fear not, because the Holy Spirit is in you; and see the boat, in which you will cross: and go to the city of Avignon, and show yourself to the Bishop and his people." These having been said to him, the Angel vanished from his eyes.

[14] he himself having crossed over Then the boy Benedict went to the boat, and besought the sailors, that for the love of God and B. Mary they would ferry him to the city, because he had something to deliberate. To whom answered the boatman, who was a Jew: "If you wish to cross, give me three coins, as all others do." Benedict again asked, that for the love of God and B. Mary he would ferry him across. To whom the Jew: "Nothing to me of your Mary, for she has no power either in heaven or on earth: I want the three coins more than the love of your Mary, because there are many Marys." Hearing this, Benedict gave him the three obols which he had. The Jew indeed, seeing that he could extort nothing more, took them and ferried him across.

[15] Benedict entering the city of Avignon, found the Bishop ⁱ preaching ^k to his people: to whom with a loud voice he said: "Hear and understand me: he announces his mission to the Bishop, because Jesus Christ has sent me to you for this cause, that I may make a bridge over the Rhone." The Bishop hearing his voice and looking at his person, for the sake of derision sent him to the Provost ^l of the town, that he might flay him, or cut off his hands and feet: because he was ^m a most wicked man, and a swordsman. Coming however to him, Benedict peacefully speaks: "My Lord Jesus Christ has sent me into this city, by whom sent to the Provost that I may make a bridge over the Rhone." To whom the Provost said: "You, being a worthless person and having nothing, say you will make a bridge, where God, nor Peter, nor Paul ⁿ, nor even Charles, nor another could make? Nor is it a wonder. Yet because I know a bridge is made from stones and lime, I will give you one stone, which I have ^o in my palace: and if you can truly move and carry it, I believe that you can make a bridge."

[16] Benedict trusting in the Lord returned to the Bishop, saying what had been done for him. he carries alone a huge rock given for the work: To whom the Bishop: "Let us go therefore, and let us see the marvels which you say." Going therefore the Bishop and the people together with Benedict, he took his stone, which [p] thirty men could not move from its place, bearing it as easily as if it were a pebble in the hand: and placed it in the place where the bridge has its foot. Seeing which, and soon he obtains much money they marveled, that great is the Lord and mighty in his works. And then the Provost first called St. Benedict, and offered him three hundred solidi, kissing his hands and feet: and in that same place he gained five thousand solidi. "You have heard, Brothers [q … how this bridge was built: and shines with miracles. whence you all ought to be partakers of this greatest benefit.]" And God did many miracles on that day, because through him he illumined the blind, and made the deaf hear, and made the lame walk, namely eighteen. [r]

[17] veneration of the sepulcher Many other miracles also the Lord deigned to show through his Confessor, during his life as well as after his death. [s] His holy body honorably entombed, rests in his chapel above the aforesaid bridge: and great Indulgences have been granted by the Supreme Pontiffs [t] to those visiting the said chapel, and devoutly venerating the body of the most holy Confessor.

NOTES.

DEPOSITIONS OF WITNESSES.

From the same authentic MSS. of the Archive.

Benedict, founder of the bridge over the Rhone at Avignon in Gaul (St.)

BHL Number: 1099

BY D. P.

[18] In the name of Jesus Christ, begins the note of B. Benedict. These are the witnesses who saw him. First ^a William Chautart, as if sworn, saw ^b Blessed Benedict; and saw him make ^c the bridge by the power of God and B. Benedict: and saw him place the first stone. First Witness of the begun bridge And there was present the Bishop of Avignon, and there said his ^d Office: and thence the bridge was made within eleven years. Likewise the aforesaid William Chautart said, that B. Benedict restored to many sight, and hearing, and health; placing the Cross over them; saying to each, "Thy faith hath made thee whole": and he kissed them, and before the end and after the end of the life of B. Benedict ^e many were healed by him: and after the end they left their ^f crutches at the church, and departed upright: and all these things he saw. of miracles Likewise he saw B. Benedict who was saying to the workmen, when they did not have stones, "Go there and dig, and you will find": and by the power of God they thus found. And William saw Blessed Benedict alive and dead: and there were there vows ^g as at the Puy ^h of B. Mary: and the fame was great concerning the virtues.

[19] Likewise Bertrand Pelar saw a certain woman, who did not see; a blind woman illumined; to whom B. Benedict restored sight above the bridge. And when she wished to depart from the bridge, she lost her sight, and it often happened to her: and she served on the bridge for a year and more: afterwards she departed joyful, seeing. Likewise he saw a certain man, a penitent freed, and he held in his hand a certain ⁱ sickle, with which he was reaping on the feast of St. Peter. It happened that he could not release the sickle from his hand, nor the ^k grain: and he came to the sepulcher of Benedict, begging God and B. Benedict to free him: and he was freed: and there he left the sickle and grain upon the sepulcher. and of the prophetic spirit in Benedict. Likewise he heard it said, that B. Benedict was in Burgundy ^l in a certain church, praying God: and the enemy ^m hurled a large stone from above, thinking by it to kill holy Benedict: but the stone did not touch him, and fell upon his clothes. Then the devil angered, because he had not done what he believed, came at night to the bridge, ⁿ and destroyed one pile of the bridge: and this aforesaid Bertrand saw it. At daybreak in the morning B. Benedict in Burgundy knew this deed, and said to his companions: "Let us return, because the enemy has destroyed a pile of the bridge, and this happened by the power of God, and in one night it all happened." other three co-witnesses. Likewise he saw and heard of the sick and blind and crippled and deaf, as did G. Chautard. R. Martin says similarly as Bertrand Pelar. Hugo Croucha saw and says as R. Martin.

[20] Likewise Lautardus saw B. Benedict going through the city, Fifth Witness about the expense gathered for the bridge, saying, "God will make a bridge over the Rhone." And people were deriding him, and held him as a fool. ^o Yet Knights in the plaza of St. Peter and very many others heard him, and said among themselves: "This one seems to be good, let us go with him." And they went through the city with him asking alms: and they found from four pounds up to six [p]: from which B. Benedict bought stones. Of the sick and others as did R. Martin and B. Pilar. co-witnesses four, Peter Vasso said similarly as Lautardus. Likewise Lady Martibula saw similarly as Lautardus. Likewise [q] G. Niger saw a woman, who did not see, by name Davidia, etc. as the aforesaid. Likewise Imbert Daura saw similarly as G. Niger.

[21] Likewise Isnard of St. Peter in [r] Cucodoletz and Hugo Bermund, in his house, when they wished to go to bed at night, looking through a certain window, they saw over the Rhone the bridge made, two others about the showing of the bridge by vision, and rejoicing they said, "Let us go to see." And they did not find it, because it was a showing of God: and this he heard from Isnard of St. Peter in Cucodoletz. Likewise [s] William Gaillard similarly, saying that he saw one man crippled, who could not rise from his bed: another about a crippled man healed. and he asked B. Benedict to come to him. Thus he entering, the sick man immediately said, "I have been made whole": and immediately he was made whole. And the fame was great and known to the people.

[22] another about the frequency of pilgrims; Likewise Pons Pajez said, that he had seen several sick persons, crippled, blind, and lame, who came to him, before the end and after the end, and recovered health: and he saw at the church of the bridge well two or three [t] ass-loads of crutches: and it was known throughout the city. And he saw, many [u] Rome-pilgrims coming to the church of B. Benedict, who were praising God and B. Benedict, giving thanks because they had been healed by him. and the place of burial: And when B. Benedict migrated from this world, the Bishop and Canons, on account of the virtues which he had worked, believed they should take him, and carry him into the church of the Blessed Virgin above. But B. Benedict before had taken and said and chosen his burial in the third pile of the bridge, where it is still. co-witnesses two. Likewise Bertrand Avenionensis saw and heard similarly as Pons Pajez. Likewise P. Tinellus saw him similarly and heard as Bertrand Avenionensis: and he was Pontiff of Margarides by name [x] Rostagnus. And he saw crippled men and women, going with crutches, and afterwards returning without crutches, crying out thanks to God. And of other sick persons it was known as others have said.

[23] Last Witness about a striker punished and healed, Likewise [y] Raymond of Margarides saw and heard, that a certain citizen in the plaza of the gate [z] of Ferruza was playing, and swearing against God. And then came B. Benedict, and with his staff he ended [aa] their play: and it was for them for evil. And then one of the players gave him a blow on the cheek. Quickly was seen his mouth turned to the side: and thus it happened in his presence, saying, [bb] "May God spare you." Then B. Benedict sparing him, prayed God for him, and immediately it was restored

his face to the right way. Likewise he saw that B. Benedict was going through the town and after him came crying, and about the cure of the sick "Lord, come see these sick ones": and he touched them, and they were healed. And he saw and heard as the aforesaid: and the fame was among the people: and in the land there was a vow to him [as] of B. Mary of the Puy. And of the crutches and other things he saw in the church of B. Benedict well two ass-loads. Likewise he heard from many, that at [cc] Mazano God made for him from water wine three times, and water turned into wine, because he himself did not wish to drink of wine: and he, seeing this miracle, said: "God wishes that I drink of this water": and many of those present diligently tested the wine made from water through the power of God. [dd] Let us unanimously give thanks to our God and to B. Benedict: to whom be honor and glory.

NOTES.

RIGHTS OF THE BRIDGE

Contained in two principal instruments.

Benedict, founder of the bridge over the Rhone at Avignon in Gaul (St.)

BY D. P.

The following instrument contains the donation made by the ^a Count of Forcalquier to the Brothers of the bridge, to whom he donated and remitted all rights which he had on the transit of the bridge. Signed with the letter C.

[24] In the year 1332 before the Judge of Avignon Be it known to all, that in the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred thirty-second, on the twenty-fourth day of the month of January, with the Most Serene Prince our Lord, Lord Robert, existing as Lord of the city of Avignon, ^b by the grace of God King of Jerusalem and Sicily, and also Count of the Counties of Provence and Forcalquier; there being constituted at Avignon in the royal curia, where justice is rendered, the discreet man John Guifredi, burgher of Avignon and Rector of the work of the bridge of St. Benedict of the aforesaid city; in the presence of the noble and circumspect man Lord James of Gap, Judge of the same curia, sitting as a tribunal; he exhibited and presented to the same, through me the undersigned Notary, and caused to be read and published, a certain public instrument, written and signed by the hand of Peter, Notary once of Lord William, of remembered memory Count of Forcalquier, and strengthened with the seal of the same Lord Count hanging at the end, not canceled, not vitiated, nor in any of its parts obliterated or vitiated, but lacking all suspicion, whose tenor is written below. But because there is fear ^c of the loss of this instrument, on account of the inundations of waters, and the fires of fire, and other dangers, the privilege is renewed which in the aforesaid city frequently happen; he asked that the reading and publication of this kind, by the authority of the said Lord Judge, be interposed likewise also the decree; and that of the whole tenor of the said instrument, and of the reading and publication of it, and of all the aforesaid and below written, a public instrument be made for him. And the said Lord Judge, with the aforesaid instrument first read by his command and published, to such a reading and publication, sitting as a tribunal, interposed his Judicial authority and decree; commanding me John Gauterii the undersigned Notary, to make for the same John a public instrument of all the aforesaid and of the whole tenor of the said instrument. But the tenor of the said instrument is known to be as follows.

[25] in which William Count of Forcalquier "In the tips of letters memory is commended, lest a thing be wholly handed over to oblivion. Therefore let it be made known to all present and future by this present writing, that I William, ^d by the grace of God, Count of Forcalquier, having heard of the miracles and virtues which the Lord Jesus Christ works in the holy House of the bridge of Avignon, desiring to be a participant of the good things of the same House, and for the redemption of my sins; if I have any rights or ^e usatica on the transit of the said bridge, or ought to have in any way; the whole to God and to the holy House, remits to the work of the bridge his rights concerning those crossing, and in increase of the blessed work which B. Benedict began by the admonition and will of God, with good mind and good heart I give and remit, in the present and in the future. Moreover in the same manner I concede, and if through our meadows or through our land wood or wheat or any things necessary for the sacred work of the said bridge shall pass; whatever in these things proper to the said bridge, through ^f toll or any usaticum, I could demand, to God, that my faults may be handed over to oblivion, and he declared all things pertaining to this exempt from taxes and to the aforesaid holy House for eternal times I remit. Then indeed to all my aforesaid ^g Bailiffs I make known, that if any through my castles and through villages hold the ^h ban of wheat, the wheats, which shall be proper of the aforesaid House and work, they should not disturb for that ban, but freely permit to go. That House indeed, and all things of the House, and all things pertaining to its service, through our land and that of our friends, going and returning we receive into our duchy and custody. Given at ⁱ Manosque, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1202, in the month of November." Afterwards, in the year 1202. with all that time passed, the said Lord G. Count of Forcalquier, being at Forcalquier, and 1207. recognized and confirmed the donation of this benefit and alms, and commanded Peter his Notary with this leaden seal to approve this charter, on the eighth day before the Kalends of September Indiction X, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1207.

[26] All the aforesaid were read and published at Avignon, with these witnesses present: Brother Bertrand Rostagni, Brother James Isnardi, Donates of the said bridge, Cabessonius Damian. And I John Gaucherii, public Notary of the city of Avignon and royal everywhere in the Counties of Provence and Forcalquier, at the command of the said Lord Judge and at the request of the said John Guiffredi, read and published all the aforesaid, and reduced them to this public form and signed and sealed them with my own proper and customary sign. In a wholly similar manner, in a similar way the agreement is renewed at the request, command, and hand of the same, and in the same year and day, an instrument was reduced to public form containing the tenor of another similarly older instrument; wherefore, with the words of publication in all things omitted being the same (except that to the titles of King Robert expressed there is added the County of Piedmont) we have enough to exhibit the said tenor separately.

[27] "It is expedient that we impose a due end on the frequent and assiduous proclamations of those concerning the tolls to be paid on the crossing of the bridge who cross the bridge of the Rhone, made to us concerning the usaticum or toll, which is exacted from them; so that according to old custom and ancient usage, Gerald Amici and Elisiardus and other Lords of the port, may have and receive their toll and usaticum without contradiction; but from those crossing the bridge, by oppression or extortion, nothing more be exacted, than the old ancient custom

of toll or usaticum has approved. Therefore we who at that time in the city of Avignon held the office of Consulate, namely Rostagnus de Prato, Humbert Raymundi, Bertrand de Fos, Raymond of St. Michael, Bertrand, Lambert, Multonus, Dauphin, with the counsel of Lord Rostagnus Bishop of Avignon sought, and of Rostagnus Raymundi who at that time was sworn Judge of the Consulate; we approved and granted, that of each ^k riding two denarii, of an ass one denarius, of an ox one denarius, of a ^l bacon one denarius, of a ^m little cart four denarii, of each foot-passenger single obols, of each pig single obols, and of all together the caudelarii, ⁿ present and future, who dwell in the city of Avignon or beyond the Rhone or wherever else they live, shall have the old and customary caudelum without contradiction. But about fruits and woods and fishes, which pass through the bridge, similarly the ancient custom shall be preserved in caudelo. All of which as aforesaid, by Lord Pons of good memory Bishop of Avignon and the Consuls, (as was established at the beginning of the begun work) who at that time ruled the Consulate in the city, when Brother Benedict of pious memory began the bridge, with the counsel of many in the same manner is manifest that it had been decreed and approved. But that all these things may be kept firm and unviolated for perennial memory, we commanded a memorial instrument to be made and signed with our seals. These things were done, as above said, recognized and confirmed, in the chamber of the Bishop, before Lord R. Bishop and the aforementioned Consuls and many others. I Stephen Notary of the Consuls of Avignon composed this instrument: and by command of the Lord Bishop and the Consuls I wrote and sealed it, written after the Saint's death in the year 1185. in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand one hundred and eighty-fifth, in the month of January."

[28] Thus is read in full the note of the year, both in the original book which is entitled "Rights of the Bridge of Avignon" (where this Act and many others was legitimately described, in the year 1332, at the instance of the Rectors of the bridge) and in the second book of the process, pending between Pope Alexander VI and the King of France, at the end of the 15th century. And this so indubitable form of signing the time, subject to no exception or suspicion, convinced Lord des Fargues, that he should withdraw from the opinion of Father Theophile, who thought the death of St. Benedict should be deferred to after the completion of the bridge; which, as also most of his other opinions, he had followed in the Gallic Life, published under the anagram of his own proper name. not in the year 1195. Theophile seems not to have been able to conceive, how tolls could be exacted from those crossing the bridge, not yet completed; and therefore for the year 1185 he ordered the year 1195 to be printed, thinking there was an error of his transcriber. But the aforenamed Lord warns us, that just as today they are exacted, when (as we shall see shortly) one part of the bridge lies collapsed, yet the remaining part serves as before up to a certain little island whence one crosses in prepared boats; so was it also then done. For indeed there where the bridge is built the Rhone forms various small islands, which offered the convenience of founding piles; whence it came about that the bridge itself is by no means straight, but curved. Nothing absurd therefore is said, while the Saint is asserted to have completed only one part of the bridge; especially since all ancient monuments attribute to him the praise only of the begun work, not also of the completed, using always the word "began": and since the contemporary author, writing about the same, distinctly asserts, that in the seventh year of the begun construction Benedict died.

[29] Another privilege of R. Count of Toulouse. The aforesaid Theophile at point 17, with the privilege of William Count of Forcalquier related, adds another, wholly similar in substance, given at Mount-Favum ^o in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1203 in the month of September in the presence of Lord G. [p] Bishop of Vence, Rostagnus of Sabran Constable, Stephen Prior of the Bridge, by which Raymond [q] by the grace of God Duke of Narbonne, Count of Toulouse, Marquis of Provence, son of Queen [r] Constance, confirms the privilege given by his father Raymond of St. Gilles, that in all the land of his power the Brothers of the bridge crossing by land or by water, of animals or any other of their things, for the use of the work and House of the bridge, shall not be held to give toll, [s] seizure, [t] tax, or any other usaticum: but remain free and immune from every exaction. Which instrument in the cited place can be read in full, as it was renewed, transcribed and confirmed in the year 1237 by Raymond the younger, by the grace of God Count of Toulouse and Marquis of Provence, when Hugolanus Persona, Preceptor [u] of the House of the bridge of the Rhone of Avignon of St. Benedict, and Peter Trinsacius and Peter Garetis, Brothers of the same bridge, had asked that this be done … because the said instrument was ancient, and also certain threads, in which the bull was hanging, were cut, and almost as if all corrupted with age.

NOTES.

TRANSLATION OF THE BODY,

From the French of Lord des Fargues.

Benedict, founder of the bridge over the Rhone at Avignon in Gaul (St.)

FROM THE FRENCH RELATION.

[30] "What misfortune!" says at the end of his little work Father Theophile Raynaud, With the cult of the Avignonese toward the Saint growing cold, "is this misfortune of ours, that by the solemn vice of all human things, piety also toward the Saints gradually wears away, and at length fades, and falls into nothing? So indeed it happened concerning St. Benedict and the religious cultus bestowed on him for long times among the people of Avignon. For where formerly all things burned and glowed, now a sharp winter flourishes, and torpor and rigor grips and holds all. Scarcely is there anyone who is touched by a yearly thought of the thresholds by which one approaches the holy tomb to be religiously approached: rare are those who pray for the holy man's help, or call upon him to come to their aid in necessities. miracles cease This is a drying up of those divine benefits, which from these fountains once flowed most abundantly, and now also would flow no less copiously, if there were one who would move the channels and conduits.

Certainly it ought to be attributed to that laziness, and to minds torpid and cold in the zeal of piety, that many just ass-loads, from the crutches of the sick who have been thoroughly healed, have not for a long time been gathered: that the blind, deaf, and dumb do not come forth from the holy man's shrine, and the bridge suffers damage: blessing God for the inconveniences removed by his merits, with which burdened they had approached: that the work of the bridge, so distinguished, with not one arch diminished, totters in the rest, and, as it were, cries out for the full ruin of its excellent fabric, with frequent and most open cracks."

[31] These things Theophile in point 22 of his little work, which is an Exhortation to the Avignonese, first in the year 1602. about shaking off the torpor in the cult of St. Benedict. The 43rd year of the present century was being run, when these things were first printed at Avignon, with the types of Jacob Bramereau: but in the 2nd year of this same century that admirable bridge had begun, which had stood unshaken for four hundred and five years, to suffer damage from the ruin of one arch. When no work was applied for its repair, damage was successively heaped up with the ruins of three other arches; as if God were doing this, that the calamity brought in parts might subdue the minds of the citizens with a more effective grief, to avert the graver evils threatening the city, and with it not restored again and again; and at last to rouse them from sleep for renewing the cult of St. Benedict: as at length from the vow of Theophile and other pious men was done in these most recent years, when under our hands was this our labor on the Acts of Saints to fill up April. The manner of the discovery and translation of the body a public actuary recounted in tables in the very place of the event: which, described in that rude notarial style, if Lord des Fargues had believed they would be of use to us, would without doubt have transmitted them to us with the same promptness, with which he transmitted the more ancient Acts: and we from the vernacular French would have made them Latin, with equal candor of simple truth and sufficient to please by itself. But with the presses hurrying so, that these very things could scarcely be had ready at the appointed day, we shall be content with that narration with which the Gallic Life ends, shortly after described and printed by the same noble man, differing only in the elegance of words, as we believe, from the aforesaid tables.

[32] The harshness of winter, at the end of the year 1669, raged so inclemently throughout all France, that from the rivers bound by much frost huge masses of ice torn off, in the year 1669 thus finally weakened, while they are carried most rapidly through the Rhone from the nature of the river, with such immense impetus struck against the piles of the bridge of Avignon still standing, that with them prostrated two arches at once fell headlong into the waves: but others closer to the ruin were severely weakened, and namely that on which was built the chapel once dedicated to St. Nicholas, but then, from him whose body it was honoring, accustomed to be called of St. Benedict: and therefore it seemed good to take the body of the Saint away from there, for indeed the pile now disjoined from its foundations was letting water through. Therefore the Rectors of the Hospital called from the bridge, in whose keeping is the care of the shrine and of the revenues pertaining to it, fearing for the body itself of the Saint, lest sometime it should be wrapped in the ruins of the same pile and overhanging arches, considered it advisable, with the See of Avignon then vacant, to approach the Archiepiscopal Vicar, and to ask that he would allow that precious deposit to be translated to the church of the Hospital itself. When to their prayers the solicitous commendation of the Fiscal Promoter of the Archbishopric of Avignon in Aquitaine was added, the same admonishing by letters, it was decreed that that translation should be carried out as secretly as possible, the day chosen for it being March 18 of the year 1670.

[33] Therefore on the said day, about the tenth hour in the morning, which in the year 1670 on March 18, the great Vicar enters the chapel of St. Benedict, together with the Lords Rectors, Treasurer and other officials of the aforesaid Hospital, and also with the Fiscal Advocate and one Archiepiscopal Graphiarius, and the necessary witnesses and workmen. There with the customary prayer first said, the Vicar commanded, that the Graphiarius should describe the things being done, and the workmen should begin to open the tomb. The sepulcher was covered by a great stone, upon which was engraved lengthwise a cross and around it three iron circles, connecting it with the stone sarcophagus: but the part where the Saint's name had been engraved, that the stone-cutters had negligently leveled, to make the gilding of the sepulcher more convenient. The middle of the three said bonds was cut below and bent upward: with the sepulcher broken there appeared uncorrupted, then the front face began to be broken: and soon appeared a white sudarium, with which the sacred body was covered. This being taken away, the body was seen free from all corruption and sweetly fragrant. Therefore with now more solicitous care, that whole side of the holy tomb was opened; and the body closely inspected, was seen clothed in a linen shirt wrinkled around the neck, and in no way adhering to the flesh: and the sudarium indeed was stretched over the body from head to feet, and the head however was veiled with a thin linen cloth bound to the neck: in which cloth, soon taken away, there appeared the most perfect form of the whole face expressed, so that even the chestnut color of the pupils could be discerned.

[34] The same head lay moderately bent to the side: the face was so seen whole, and almost similar to a living man, that it would give to view almost each single lineament of the living: but all were shaven, so that neither a hair on the crown, nor a hair on the chin remained. The right eye closed was covered by the eyelid: the left was noted semi-open. The nose from the compression of the little sudarium was twisted a little to one side: the mouth moderately open and the lips drawn back, like one smiling, exposed the outer edge of the upper and lower teeth; and between them was seen the tongue, of nearly the same thickness and color as that of a living man, such as is a dried rose. Under the same head a certain heap was found, and was believed to have been left from a crown of flowers, with the head and full belly. because in the same tomb were also found remains of myrtle leaves: but others thought they were pieces of parchment, on which something had been inscribed: which could be difficultly discerned, because all had returned to dust. The skull and body had been neither emptied nor buried in balsams: and therefore the belly, equally full as that of a living man, yielded to the touch, and returned again to its first state; as also all the flesh of the venerable body.

[35] The hands were open and most whole, under whose skin the sinews could be distinguished, with hands most aptly composed, and in the fingers the nails sufficiently long, yet not projecting beyond the end of the same fingers: with which the left hand rested on the right nipple, so that the arm without any other support hung in the free air: but the right extended covered the navel. The legs and feet were separate from each other: but the toes of the feet, in no way contracted, were turned to the right side. The color of the whole body did not much differ from the natural; the measure did not exceed six palms. and even with the garments themselves whole. The shirt and sudarium, woven from nearly equally rough cloth, were there where they most closely touched the limbs, better preserved: and their weaving there was so firm, that it could not be torn more than if it were fresh; but it would be necessary to cut it with scissors. All of which seemed the more admirable, the longer they had lain in a place, always humid from the vapors rising from the Rhone: so that the iron circles, with which we said the tomb was surrounded, were overlaid with rust and somewhat corroded.

[36] Toward noon the sacred body was extracted from the tomb, by two men, which from the stone tomb was placed in a box prepared for it, one taking hold of it by the head, the other by the feet, which however was not bent around the middle. Then a box suitable for translation was prepared, within which it was placed wrapped in a silken cloth. The height proportionate to the width of the tomb was measured at two palms, but the place of the neck and head was excavated within the stone, where at the right side within the same stone was cut a shell for holy water; and above it there projected a small space, suitable for holding a little lamp. These things having been accurately noted, some particles of the sudarium and shirt and other relics were distributed among those standing by: it is deposited in the sacristy of the Hospital, but about the tenth hour late in the evening four Priests carried the box with the body of St. Benedict, using for this sacrificial girdles, accompanied by the aforementioned Officials, part of whom were bearing wax torches. At the entrance of the gate the Lords Consuls met them; and they followed within the church of the aforementioned convent: where when an end was put to the writing of the account, and the box sealed, all withdrew to their own.

[37] On the next day the Lord Vice-Legate and many others, among whom I too was one, and with a fitting shrine shortly prepared, betook themselves to see the sacred body: which shortly afterwards was enclosed within the sanctuary of the church itself, with bricks and lime closing up the door of that place; until within the church a shrine worthy of so holy a pledge should be prepared: which also soon began to be done. For within the wall at the horn of the Epistle, opposite the shrine within which one of the thorns of the Lord's Crown is reverently kept, another was excavated, eight palms long, and two high, fortified with boards and drawn around with blue and flowered satin: which could hold a cypress box of equal measure, on May 10 it is transferred into the church, similarly clothed with silk inside, and less high in front than behind. Of similar silk also a mattress was made, and a pillow of gold cloth, drawn around with a border of the same material. Here was placed the body of St. Benedict on the tenth day of the month of May, so that the head of the one lying might face the altar, and the feet be extended toward the door. The shrine is closed with an iron grate, fitted with several locks; before which is drawn a curtain, and a door of walnut wood, to be secured with a lock. On the twelfth day of the month the body began to be exposed to be seen by the multitude gathering daily in great numbers: on the 12th it is exhibited to be seen, so that nothing might be disturbed in it, it seemed good to apply the Swiss guard, from those who are accustomed to attend the Lord Vice-Legate.

[38] Thus far the French little book, given into the light on the 23rd day of the following April, under the name of R. I. Disambec otherwise Richard Joseph de Cambis, Lord des Fargues; who adds, that there had already been very many from those coming from every side, who left monuments of received grace in the aforementioned church: with miracles following, but in the MS. observations, recently sent, he says, that the blind were illumined, the crippled given an upright state, and many sick were restored to health at the time, in which the body remained within the city: and among others a cured infant who had now finished the third week from his birth, without the use of his mother's milk because he could not suck it. The surgeon judging him incurable, because the tongue was shorter than right, ordered him to be held as desperate: but when the parents had gone to the church of the Hospital, to see to the Mass to be said there in honor of St. Benedict, and had returned thence; they found the infant's tongue longer, and fit for drawing milk: about which matter after a few days they gave public thanks. Nor

is this to be omitted, which Father Charles Faber taught us, about that noble man's distinguished devotion to St. Benedict, and the zeal for honoring him joined to it, arisen from the fact that he thought he owed his life to him, as having been born of his parents, after a vow for obtaining offspring dedicated to the Saint; which Saint in return showed his affection grateful, by giving him after the printing of the little book a little son, to whom was given the name Benezet or Little Benedict.

[39] After these things in the year 1672 the Most Christian King, as the same Lord writes to us, in the year 1672 it is brought back to the former place commanded by letters the Archbishop of Avignon, that he should see to the holy body being deposited in the church of the Celestines of Avignon. Who responded, that by his command the bridge and the chapel of the Saint had been inspected, which he judged should be brought back thither, alleging reasons for this counsel. To which when the King had agreed, for the second translation to be made the Archbishop chose the first day of May: but with the rains not relenting throughout that whole day, the procession was deferred to the third day, and the Archbishop, for then Vice-Legate, led it with all the secular Clergy; but the citizens were weeping, that so quickly they saw themselves deprived of that sacred pledge, before received within the city with such great congratulations. The Saint was replaced within his first chest, surrounded by iron circles: on the 3rd day of May. over which, where the part had been broken, an iron grating was stretched, with a wooden door to be secured with three keys. There were not lacking those who disapproved of this action, and charged the Archbishop with envy, by which he did not wish the Celestines, to whom he was not benignly affected, to be enriched with so great a pledge. However it may be, the Archbishop died in the same year, in the sixth month after the body was taken away, on the 17th day of November.