Leo IX

ON SAINT LEO IX.

ROMAN PONTIFF,

A.D. 1054.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY

Leo IX, Roman Pontiff (St.)

BY G. H.

§ I. Various written Acts: Sacred Veneration: Relics.

The eleventh century of Christ was illustrated by the doctrine and sanctity of Pope Leo IX, before the Roman Pontificate Bishop of Toul under the Metropolitan See of Trier in Belgica Prima, St. Leo IX called Bruno, sprung from the most noble Dapsburg family in Alsace. His deeds, distinguished into two books, were written by Wibert, Life written by Wibert his Archdeacon, his Archdeacon among the people of Toul, who in the Prologue prefaces that he transcribes concerning so great a Prelate not things heard so much as seen, for the edification of very many; inasmuch as his benignity deigned to assist him more familiarly and continuously. Which the author wants to be understood concerning things done by him before the Roman Pontificate in his youth and the Episcopate of Toul, and indicated in the prior book; which he wrote while he himself was still living in the Roman Pontificate, wishing then to leave to the Romans things that were to be written, which afterwards the Roman Pope did. But with his counsel changed, afterwards he set them forth in the second book. This Life Jacques Sirmond first published from Mss. in the Paris press in the year 1615. published by Sirmond, We give it augmented and emended in several places from a double Ms. codex, one received from the Imperial monastery of St. Maximinus near Trier, another transmitted from elsewhere, and here collated with a Ms. and perhaps from the library of the monastery of St. Hubert in the Ardennes: where we know it is extant. Molanus in his Notes to Usuard's Martyrology indicates, at Geraardsbergen at St. Adrian there is a Life of his, by a contemporary in two books.

[2] Another, and indeed an eyewitness, accurately described, how St. Leo prepared himself for a happy death in the last triduum: History of disposition toward death, and of miracles, and adds illustrious and plainly wonderful miracles, which within six weeks from his passage more than seventy were performed at his sepulcher at Rome. We give these things described by us at Florence in the year 1661 from the codex of the most illustrious Senator Carlo Strozzi, marked num. 690. fol. 201: given from Mss. and in the title it was added that these were taken from a Collection of Ms. Offices. But more miracles were in the Ms. of St. Hubert, once transmitted to us by Dom Romuald Hancart Prior of the said monastery, which we publish thence, and toward the end we supply some from the aforesaid Ms. Ferdinando Ughelli in tome VIII of Italia Sacra, among the Archbishops of Benevento page 129, from a Beneventan Codex, written in Lombard letters, published the same things about deeds in the triduum before death, and some miracles, and Ughelli's Italia sacra: but more contracted, and here and there amplified with another phrase, which the benevolent Reader will be able to find there. Yet from the said tome of Ughelli we give, the things which are contained there about the church of St. Leo at Benevento, erected after his death, and some miracles performed there: several of which we append from the said Strozzi codex. We took care to have a certain compendium extracted from these described at Rome, made by Peter Calo, which we omit.

[3] Among his familiars and faithful friends St. Leo had Hildebrand, afterwards Supreme Pontiff, and called Gregory VII, Another Life written by St. Bruno Bishop of Segni. who presided over the Church from the year 1073 until the year 1085, in which he died on May 25, inscribed on the said day in the Roman Martyrology. From this holy Pontiff he received some things, which Desiderius Abbot of Cassino, afterwards Pope Victor III, published in book 3 of Dialogues. Likewise St. Bruno of Asti, Bishop of Segni, wrote a certain Life of St. Leo IX, printed at Venice in the year 1651 among his other works: which lest the mass swell up, we here omit, since only a few things are indicated as taken from the Acts, or received from St. Gregory VII, of which we make mention in the Notes. Anselm monk of Rheims (as Sigebert indicates De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis chapter 153) wrote an itinerary of the ninth Pope Leo from Rome into Gaul, and the Itinerary by Anselm of Rheims for this chiefly that he might notify, with how much authority he celebrated a Synod at Rheims or in other cities: with what justice and subtlety he examined ecclesiastical causes: with what discretion he corrected those sinning: how the virtue of God cooperated with him. These are all published in the tomes of the Councils under the title of the Council of Rheims held in the year 1049, from which we insert some things, the rest being omitted since they can be read there. We do not review other things, and commonly known chronicles, or other treatises, which mentioned him. We make mention of some in their own places.

[4] Sacred veneration began with the pious death of St. Leo, on account of the multiplied miracles which soon happened: sacred veneration begun from death, among which is reviewed the lamp at his tomb on the sixth day after his death kindled by divine fire, and in the following month a wax candle taken from his tomb twice spontaneously lit. And not only at Rome but at Benevento he was soon in veneration, where a church was begun to be built in his honor, and his annual feast to be publicly promulgated, and he is devoutly venerated. That his feast was celebrated in the Church of Segni, St. Bruno Bishop of Segni testifies. His memory is also inscribed in ancient Martyrologies; of which one of Usuard, inscribed in Mss. Martyrologies, but augmented at Rheims, whence Molanus published his own, in which toward the end in ancient character these things were added on April 19: On the same day at the Church of St. Peter at Rome, the deposition of Lord Pope Leo the ninth, who dedicated the Church of Bl. Remigius. The earlier part of which eulogy is attached to the Ms. Martyrology of Ado of the monastery of St. Lawrence at Liège. In the Brussels Ms. of St. Gudila these things are had: On the same day of St. Leo the ninth Pope and Confessor: who first Bishop of Toul promoted to the Papacy by Emperor Henry, having a conscience from this resigned: and again duly elected, after a laudable life is buried in the church of St. Peter, and printed, shining with miracles. His memory is celebrated in the Roman Ms. of Duke Altemps, and the Ms. Florarium of the Saints, likewise in Bellinus printed at Paris in the year 1521, Maurolycus, Galesinius, Molanus, Saussay, Canisius, and with these in today's Roman Martyrology in these words: At Rome St. Pope Leo the ninth, distinguished by the praise of virtues and miracles. The same is reported in the Natalia of the Canonical Saints by Constantine Ghini: He is enumerated among the Benedictine monks by Wion, Dorganius, Bucelinus, Menardus. But the latter marvels in book 1 of Observations that no mention of the monasticism of this St. Leo is made in his Life, also to the Benedictines: and excuses that this could have been passed over, like many other things; which pertain to the life of this Pontiff, which however can be found in other historians: But he does not indicate which. Arnold Wion alleges Trithemius in the Chronicle of Hirsau, and Brother Francis Yvanez, a Spanish Benedictine monk, in the Epitome of Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict. But the authority of these wavers: because the Acts before the Episcopate, accurately indicated by Wibert, suggest otherwise. Meanwhile we wish him to the Benedictine Order, inserted in Breviaries. that at least they should venerate him as a singular benefactor, as the monks of Rheims of St. Remigius rightly venerate him and indeed with an office of twelve Lessons. The people of Toul celebrate his feast throughout the whole diocese with a solemn office under a double rite: whose Breviary we have printed in the year 1535. The Romans in the Vatican Basilica of St. Peter also perform his feast on this day with a double office, with the Gloria and Credo prescribed in the Mass, because they still possess his sacred body.

[5] He was once buried, as he himself had disposed, near the altar of the blessed Pontiff Gregory before the doors of the church, Body in the Vatican basilica as Wibert hands down at the end of the Life. But a Roman Canon of the same basilica, who lived in the preceding century, in the description of the Vatican basilica asserts these things: Pope Leo the ninth rests within the church of Bl. Peter, in a marble column near the Ravennate gate: concerning whom there are among us many and great miracles. This man established the privilege of the Canons of Bl. Peter for the confirmation of their Churches. Lucius Saccus in the historical description of the city of Sessa (which is situated between Capua and Gaeta in Campania) reports in chapter 7 that the Body of St. Pope Leo the ninth was found under Paul V in the year 1608 without one arm, arm at Sessa: which is preserved at Sessa, and then was shown in the Congregation of Cardinals a letter, by which it was established by ancient and indubitable tradition that the said arm was preserved at Sinuessa. That there are also some relics of this Leo at Bologna in the church of St. Stephen, Masini hands down in Bologna perlustrata. particles at Bologna That the sacred bodies of four Pope Leos of Rome were shown on the Kalends of August in the year 1580, and again on May 25 of the year 1608, was said on April 11, in the Life of St. Leo the Great page 21.

§ II. Reckoning of time, Acts in the first year in the Roman Pontificate. Some controversies decided.

[6] St. Leo was born on June 21 in the year 1002; at five years old to be instructed he was handed over to Berthold Bishop of Toul, and then to his successor Herimann. Born in the year 1002, Thence translated to the court of Emperor Conrad, and made a Deacon, in the year 1025 he led the soldiery of Toul into Lombardy. In the following year 1026, absent, he was elected Bishop of Toul, returning from Italy he came to Toul on the day of Christ's Ascension, he becomes Bishop in the year 1026, consecrated on the 9th day of September. And these things are certain and indubitable from the Acts themselves. But with him holily directing the Episcopate of Toul, the Roman Pontiffs were John XIX, then Benedict IX: with whom driven from the Apostolic See, and the schism of Sylvester III composed, Gregory VI was made Pope in the year 1044. But with these three deposed, Clement II, before Bishop of Bamberg, was elected in the year 1046: in which year with the following year 1047 having died, Benedict IX sat again: against whom was elected Damasus II, before Bishop of Brixen, consecrated in the year 1048, on July 17: but when he had sat for 23 days, was extinguished, as is believed, by poison. designated Pope at Worms in the year 1048, After him in the same year our Bishop of Toul, then called Bruno, was designated in the Council of Worms, who when he had celebrated the Nativity of Christ at Toul, on December 27 undertook the journey through Germany, when at Augsburg of the Vindelici he heard the harmonic modulation resound with an Angelic voice. Thence hastening the journey, on account of the flooding of waters, he was compelled to halt with his retinue for seven days: and yet in that winter time he arrived at Rome, perhaps toward the end of January or the beginning of February of the year 1049, At Rome he is elected in the year 1049, February 2. if (as is said by Anselm in the Itinerary) he was distinguished with the infulae of Pontifical dignity at the Hypapante of the Lord, or the feast of the Purification of the Mother of God, then with solemn rite enthroned on February 12 the first Sunday of Lent, as Wibert hands down in his Acts. he is crowned February 12.

[7] Here some controversy arises with Otto of Freising

and others who have followed him, he was not then at Cluny. as though St. Leo, destined for the See of Bl. Peter, having assumed the Pontifical purple, had made his journey through Gaul, and at Cluny having been rebuked by Hildebrand, having laid aside the purple, had assumed the habit of a pilgrim, and leading Hildebrand with him, had come to Rome. Otto of Freising was a whole century younger, having died in the year 1158. Therefore Wibert, an eyewitness, is more to be believed, who asserts that at Toul, having taken the pilgrim habit, he undertook the Roman journey, and at the city of Augsburg was refreshed with angelic modulation: nor was there intermediate time which could be attributed to a Cluniac journey. St. Bruno Bishop of Segni writes that Hildebrand was present at Worms, at the very designation of St. Leo to the Supreme Pontificate: In those days, he says, there was there a certain Roman monk, He took Hildebrand as companion at Worms named Hildebrand, a youth of noble character, of clear genius, and of holy religion. Therefore the blessed Bishop called him to himself, and asked him that he should together return to Rome … And then the Bishop coming to Rome, brought with him the aforesaid monk, much in this very thing serving Bl. Peter, that he was leading back with him that man, by whose counsel and wisdom the Roman Church was sometime to be ruled and governed. For this is Pope Gregory the Seventh, etc. The Life of this holy Pontiff was written by Paul of Bernried, a contemporary author, and in it he hands down that he made some delay of time at the court of Emperor Henry: he adds then that Pope Leo IX, venerating the prudence and sanctity of this laudable man from the heart, and embracing his counsels in all things: and that this concord of theirs bore much fruit in the Lord's field by eradicating thorns: meanwhile that the same was ordained Subdeacon by the same Pope, he creates him Subdeacon at Rome. and was appointed over the monastery of St. Paul, miserably desolated. Afterwards the spiritual farmer, namely the Holy Pope Leo, then Archdeacon: considering and admiring the much fruit of this branch, because it itself remained in Christ and Christ in it; dilated in him the mansion of Christ, through the imposition of the Levitical Order; and that it might bear more fruit for the Roman Church, he instituted him Archdeacon. So he there. From all which we gather that St. Leo was not at Cluny on the said journey, nor had led Hildebrand from there, but from the court of the Emperor; nor that by his admonition, having laid aside the purple at Cluny, he had assumed the habit of a pilgrim, which he had received from the beginning of the journey. Hildebrand was at first reluctant to the invitation, objecting that not according to Canonical institution, but through secular and royal power he was seizing the Roman Church. But Leo, as he was by nature simple and most mild, patiently satisfied him, with reason given about all things as he had wished. Thus Bruno.

[8] The second controversy is taken from the Chronicle of Cassino of Leo Marsicanus Bishop of Ostia, he did not in this year go to Mount Gargano: who died in the year 1115, who writes book 2 chapter 81 that St. Leo the Pontiff, in the same year in which he was ordained, for the sake of prayer sought Mount Gargano. But that this happened in the following year will appear below. The author here seems to have begun the years from Easter, and thus to have begun also the first year of St. Leo, and this supposed, consequently accurately attributed individual things to their years, as we shall show below. But, as Anselm in his Itinerary teaches, he completed at Rome the fasts of Lenten time, and celebrated the following solemnities of the Lord's resurrection. Besides Hermann Contractus, who was a monk of Reichenau in the same year in which St. Leo died, namely 1054, writes these things: Ordained in Lent, he received the name of Leo the ninth. Who at the next Easter consecrated with the blessing of Abbot Udalric, he consecrates the Abbot of Reichenau: Provisor of the Reichenau monastery, coming to Rome; and by his authority confirmed and renewed the privileges of the same monastery, anciently handed down by the Apostolic See, Indiction II, on the 7th day before the Kalends of April, that is the day before Palm Sunday; therefore he did not celebrate this Palm festivity in the said year at Monte Cassino, which was assumed from Leo Marsicanus: but, as will be said below, in the following year.

[9] The same Pope, says Hermann Contractus, in the week after the White, that is after the Sunday in White, celebrated a Synod with the Bishops of Italy at Rome. he celebrates Councils at Rome, Namely, as Wibert explains below, against the Simoniacs, and he deposed such Bishops; likewise he prescribed the use of tithes, and dissolved incestuous marriages. Bl. Peter Damian also hands down various things about this Synod in a letter to Henry Bishop of Ravenna, which is alleged in Baronius and in the tomes of the Councils. Then according to the same Hermann, the same Pope in the week of Pentecost congregated another Synod at Pavia, and thence through Mount Jupiter with many of the Romans came into Transalpine parts: and at Vercelli, and first, as Anselm writes in the Itinerary, he approached the Emperor, remaining in the Saxon region: who both came to Cologne on the Rhine on the birthday of the Apostles Peter and Paul: he approaches the Emperor in Saxony, is at Cologne June 29, and there St. Leo granted various privileges to Archbishop Herimann; and to Abbot Herimar of the Rheims monastery of St. Remigius, there met by him, he promised that he would come to Rheims on the solemnity of St. Michael the Archangel, and celebrate the sacred of Masses in the church of Bl. Mary. But the feast of the glorious Father Remigius he assigns to the elevation of his precious body; and the subsequent day to the consecration of the basilica, the other three following to the celebration of the Synod. Moreover the Pope departing from Cologne, came to Toul on the Exaltation of the holy Cross: at Toul September 14, thence he ordered the Bishops and Abbots of the surrounding regions with letters of his authority to be commanded, that on the fixed day they should come to meet him for celebrating a Synod in the basilica of the aforesaid Apostle of the Franks…

[10] At last the Lord Pope, having departed from the city of the Leuci, undertook the journey leading to the city of Rheims; on the vigil of St. Michael he came to the Curmolensian villa: but on the following day he reached Saint Remigius, accompanied by three Archbishops, at Rheims September 29. namely of Trier, Lyons, Besançon, and other honorable men: among whom was John Bishop of Portus, and Peter Deacon of the Roman Church and Prefect of the same City. In the courtyard of the basilica a most decent procession is disposed, with three Bishops, namely of Senlis, Angers, Nevers, going before the orders long arranged, and bearing the text of the Gospel with holy water and the odor of spices. September 30 he celebrates in the church of St. Mary: Thus they receive the Pope coming with worthy modulation: who, having completed the prayer, gladdened those standing by with the Apostolic benediction, and thence is led to the walls of the city. There the Rheims Clergy, with their Archbishop and other Bishops going to meet him, accompanies him as far as the church of St. Mary. There, girded with Sacerdotal insignia, he proceeded to celebrate the solemnities of Masses. On the following day he returned to St. Remigius, about to celebrate the imminent solemnity of so great a Father on the morrow. On which day about the third hour, girded with Sacerdotal infulae, October 1 he raises the body of St. Remigius: he proceeds to the sepulcher of the glorious Father Remigius, with censers and crosses, with four Archbishops joined to him, namely of Rheims, Trier, Lyons, Besançon with certain others, but also the Abbot of the very place, and Lord Hugh venerable Father of the Cluny monastery, and many of that Order. With whom, a litany having been made … he moved the bier of the Saint a little from its place: and when it had been fittingly disposed, with the aforesaid Archbishops and Abbots, with shoulders placed under, he devoutly weeping lifted it up … With him placed in the church of the holy Mother of God above the altar of the holy Cross, the Archbishop of Besançon celebrated the solemnities of Masses from the festivity of the same glorious Father.

[11] With the course of the day meanwhile elapsed, night follows: but in the morning the Lord Pope, having convoked the Bishops, within the secluded part of the monastery to be dedicated, delegated individual altars to each to be consecrated, October 2 he dedicates the church: and the same Pontiff celebrated the solemnities of Masses from the festivity of dedication. The Gospel having been read, ascending the pulpit he made a sermon of exhortation to the surrounding people, discoursing many useful things from the sanctification of that temple: he ordered that day to be famous through the confines of the Bishopric of Rheims… He also established that at the altar, which he had consecrated in honor of the Apostles Peter and Paul and Clement and Christopher the Martyrs and the glorious Confessor Remigius, the sacrosanct mysteries should not be performed indiscriminately by any, as hitherto: but according to the custom of the Roman church only seven more worthy Priests should be deputed to this office. Then, the divine Offices having been explained, with the Apostolic benediction sanctifying the people he dismissed them. But on the other day, which is the fifth day before the Nones of October, October 3 he celebrates the Council, twenty Bishops gathered in the aforementioned basilica, with almost fifty Abbots and many others of the Ecclesiastical order… With whom seated, Peter, Deacon of the holy Roman Church, arose, setting forth about what things a sermon was to be had in the Synod: namely about many illicit things, that is, about the Simoniac heresy; about ecclesiastical ministries and altars, which were held by laymen; about the wicked customs, which by them in the courtyards of churches were received; about incestuous marriages, and those who leaving legitimate wives became again entangled in adulterine marriages; about monks and Clerics, withdrawing from the holy proposal and habit: likewise about Clerics, pursuing worldly military service; about robberies and unjust seizures of the poor; about the Sodomitical vice and certain heresies, which had sprouted up in the same parts. Thus far excerpted from the Itinerary written by Anselm, or the Council of Rheims; the rest can be read there, and what pertains to the elevation of the body of St. Remigius and the dedication of the Church, will be elucidated on the Kalends of October. About the Simoniacs then deposed Wibert treats below. and approaches Mainz:

[12] That from Rheims he set out for Metz, consecrated the basilica of St. Arnulph, and composed responsories on St. Gorgonius the Martyr, and then celebrated a Council at Mainz, Wibert hands down in his Acts. Adam of Bremen in book 3 of Ecclesiastical History chapter 31 calls it a general Synod, held with the Lord Apostolic presiding, and Emperor Henry, he celebrates another Council: with Bishops Bardo of Mainz, Eberhard of Trier, Herman of Cologne, Adalbert of Hamburg, Engelhard of Magdeburg and other Priests of the Provinces. In that Council a certain Bishop of Speyer, named Sibico, upon whom the crime of adultery was imposed, was purged by the examination of the Sacrifice. Besides many things there were sanctioned for the utility of the Church: above which the Simoniac heresy, and the nefarious marriages of Priests were perpetually condemned by the holograph hand of the Synod. Hermann Contractus asserts that the Synod was of forty Bishops. At Reichenau he dedicates a Church. Thence that St. Leo went to Alemannia, and at Reichenau kept the feast of St. Clement and the Sunday before Advent on the 6th day before the Kalends of December. Wibert adds that there he dedicated a Church in honor of the life-giving Cross, he is at Verona December 25, and during the solemnities of Masses freed a demoniac. Thence, according to Hermann, passing through Augsburg and Bavaria, he celebrated the birthday of the Lord at Verona.

§ III. Deeds in the year 1050 and 1051.

[13] In the year 1050 In the year of Christ 1050 having returned to Rome, he restored a broken cup; he celebrates the Council of Siponto, sought Apulia, and at Benevento healed a sick woman; and in the Council of Siponto near Mount Gargano deposed two Archbishops: which Wibert sets forth in the Acts. Here above we said should be referred, what Leo of Ostia

writes in book 2 of the Cassino Chronicle chapter 81, he seeks Mount Gargano, and they are these. The holy Pontiff Leo, in the same year in which he was ordained, for the sake of prayer sought Mount Gargano in the Siponto diocese. Thence returning, on the very feast of Palms, to this monastery very devoutly he came; he stays at Cassino April 8, and most reverently received by the Brethren, on the same day he solemnly celebrated Mass: and eating in the refectory with the Brethren, after dinner he came into the Chapter: where giving the greatest thanks to the Brethren for so honorific a reception, and promising always to exalt that monastery according to his strength, he dedicates churches April 9. he descended. On the next day solemnly dedicating the church of St. Maurice at the island which is called Limara, built by the same Abbot, and of St. Salvator in the territory of Atina, he returned to Rome. To whom the Abbot, having set out, took honorably a privilege from him, according to the custom of his predecessors: in which the same holy Pontiff granted by Apostolic authority the use of sandals and of the Dalmatic and gloves in the principal festivities, he grants privileges to the Cassino monks, both to him and to all who should be promoted in this monastery regularly, for the honorableness of this holy place. At which time also the same Apostolic handed over to the already named Abbot with all his rights the monastery of holy Jerusalem, which is called Sessorian, situated within the Roman city: and making a privilege for him thence, reserved for himself only the consecration of the Abbot (whom however the Cassino Abbot should elect). This Cassino Abbot was Richerius, Bavarian by nation, whom they hand down to have formerly been Abbot among the people of Liège, dear to Emperor Conrad, to have come to Cassino in his company, and in his presence to have been elected Abbot in the year 1038, to have died in the year 1055, on the 3rd day before the Ides of December. in the Council held at Rome after Easter,

[14] Therefore the Lord Pope Leo returning to Rome, says Hermann Contractus, after Easter likewise gathered a Synod at Rome, where, according to Wibert's testimony, he determined that Gerard, formerly Prelate of his own See, namely of the Leuci or of Toul, he enrolls Gerard Bishop of Toul among the Saints: should be counted in the number of Saints. Secondly, as Bl. Lanfranc, who was present at the said Council, writes, in the Commentary against Berengarius on the Body and Blood of the Lord chapter 5, when Leo was presiding over the Synod, and there sat with him a not small multitude of Bishops, Abbots, and of diverse Order from diverse regions of religious persons … the sentence of damnation was pronounced against Berengarius, he condemns Berengarius, depriving him of the communion of the holy Church, whom he was striving to deprive of the holy communion of the Lord's body. Then when Bl. Lanfranc had expounded his faith, it pleased all, displeased none. Third, as Baronius observes from the written Chronicle of Andrew Dandulus at this year num. 3, he grants privileges to the Patriarch of Grado, Pope Leo decreed the Pallium to Dominicus Patriarch of Venice (rather, of Grado) and granted him the privilege, that he might carry the Cross before him, and approved the Patriarchal See, and wrote to the Bishops of the province of Venice and Istria, that they should obey him as their Primate, and reverence him. But Ughelli in tome 5 of Italia Sacra writes that all these things were accomplished in the Council of Vercelli, held still in this year, in which he says that the said Patriarch Dominicus was present.

[15] he also seems to have set out for Venice and other places: In the Strozzi Ms. indicated above, St. Leo Pope, pious and gentle, is said to have come for the sake of prayer to Venice to St. Mark Apostle and Evangelist. For according to Hermann Contractus, after the Council held at Rome, proceeding beyond Rome, he subjected some Princes of the places and cities both to himself and to the Emperor by oath, and excommunicated the Beneventans still rebelling … But in the autumn the Lord Pope gathered a Synod at Vercelli, and suspended from his office Hansrid the Archbishop, on account of a certain contention between the Ravenna and Roman Churches. Leo himself, September 1 he holds a Council at Vercelli: in a letter to the Princes of Britain, writes that that Council would be on the Kalends of September: and indicates that in the month of September the Synod was celebrated at Vercelli with the Pontiff presiding, the Lanfranc before mentioned being present; and the same confirms Guitmund, Archbishop of Aversa in book 1 On the Truth of the Eucharist. Soon, he says, with these things being heard, about Berengarius and those adhering to him, the Catholic men gravely moved and bearing it intolerably, with the Lord Pope Leo of most blessed memory presiding by himself in person, hold a Council at Vercelli. There (the words are Lanfranc's) in the hearing of all, he condemns the book of John Scotus, and the doctrine of Berengarius: who had come together there from various parts of this world, the book of John Scotus on the Eucharist was read and damned: the sentence of Berengarius was exposed and damned: the faith of the holy Church was heard, and with the concordant sense of all confirmed. From this sentence St. Leo never departed in all his Councils, either those at which he himself exhibited his presence, or which through his Legates he instituted to be congregated in diverse provinces.

[16] At Toul he raises the body of St. Gerard Bishop. With these things done, says Hermann Contractus, he visited Gaul and his own Episcopate, the city of the Leuci: and what Wibert indicates, with the highest reverence he translated the holy limbs of Gerard Bishop of Toul. We shall illustrate the Life of this holy Bishop on April 23. Then St. Leo led with him from the monastery of St. Mansuetus among the people of Toul Humbert, a man, says Lanfranc chapter 2, religious, he leads Humbert with him: most perseveringly decorated with Christian faith and most holy works, most learned in the science of divine and secular letters, and ordained him Archbishop to preach the word of God to the Sicilians, but afterwards the holy Roman Church established him for itself as Prelate, Cardinal. There is in the diocese of Toul Mount Romaric in Vogesum, not far from the bank of the Moselle, where St. Romaric built a monastery of Nuns under the rule of St. Columbanus: there, says the same Lanfranc epistle 13, he dedicates the church of Remiremont, St. Leo, Supreme Pontiff of the Roman See, in his own presence dedicated the church of Remiremont, and completed all those things which the order had required to be done before Mass, without a chasuble. John Ruerus in the first part of the Vogesine Antiquities book 4 chapter 12 asserts, He canonizes SS. Romaric with Amatus and Adelphus: that Pope Leo the ninth, when he had created Odo as Primicerius of the Toul Church, with all honor, solemnity, and reverence inscribed to the Catalog of the holy Confessors Romaric, Amatus, and Adelphus. Their bodies had formerly under Louis the Pious been raised and translated to the altar, and afterwards deposited in a place indicated by St. Romaric appearing: which will be more broadly discussed on their natal days, on which they are venerated, St. Adelphus on September 11, St. Amatus on the 13th of the same month, and St. Romaric on December 8. At the same time also he dedicated the church of St. Arnulph at Metz, as the Senonian Chronicle has book 2 chapter 18.

[17] But since St. Leo remained in Transalpine and German regions until the month of February of the following year, many of those things seem to have been accomplished, which John Trithemius in the Hirsau Chronicle at this year 1050 touches in these words: he consecrates various churches in Germany; This most sacred Pope Leo the ninth did many good things in Germany, consecrated churches and chapels and altars in diverse places beyond number in his own person; and what many little Pontiffs today blush to do, to which however they are bound by reason of office, the Supreme Pontiff, not bound, did not despise to do. Thus Trithemius, who at the said year 1050 broadly describes the approach of St. Leo to Count Adalbert of Calw, At Hirsau he raises the body of St. Aurelius the Bishop: Advocate of the Hirsau monastery, when the body of St. Aurelius the Bishop of Armenia, which had formerly been carried from Rome, when the monastery was being built, and had been hidden under the earth in the Norman persecution, was sought by the command of the said Pope, and was found in a subterranean chamber. Besides since the Hirsau Abbey had been vacant from the year 1002, he orders goods restored, St. Leo ordered the Count to restore the monks, and return all things taken from the monastery. Which may be more broadly discussed at the Life of St. Aurelius, either on May 25, the day on which he ended his life, or August 25 on which his body had formerly been deposited there, or on another day assigned to his cult: after whom St. Leo IX, for such illustrious benefits bestowed, is venerated as the other Patron of the said monastery.

[18] Then a certain council was held at Augsburg of the Vindelici, to which the above-mentioned Hunfrid Archbishop having been summoned, in the presence of the Emperor and other Pontiffs, by Pope Leo who had suspended him from his office, was absolved: he is at Augsburg February 2 of the year 1051. which Hermann Contractus indicates was done on the fourth day before the Nones of February, on the very feast of the Purification: adding that they departed from each other charitably, and the Pope returned to Rome: where during the sacred solemnities of Masses on the day of Easter he freed a woman possessed. After Easter at Rome in a Synod he excommunicates the Bishop of Vercelli. After Easter he gathered a Synod at Rome: where among other things he excommunicated Gregory Bishop of Vercelli, absent and unknowing, on account of adultery committed with a certain widow the bride of his uncle, and perpetual perjuries: whom however not much afterwards coming to Rome, and promising satisfaction, he restored to his former office. Thus Hermann. It is believed to have been then established, what Peter Damian in the letter to Cunibert Bishop of Turin, inserted in opusculum 18 dissertation 2 chapter 7, he expels prostitutes, thus alleges: in plainly a full Synod Pope Leo of holy memory established, that whatever damnable women should be found within the Roman walls prostituted to Priests, from then on should be adjudged as maidservants of the Lateran palace. Placed at Rome also he elected Primicerius Odo as his own successor to the Holy See of the Leuci, as Wibert writes in the Acts.

[19] He is at Cassino June 29 To this year pertain the things which Leo of Ostia in book 2 of the Cassino Chronicle chapter 84 reports in these words: In the following year the aforesaid Pontiff again came to the monastery, and on the morrow and on the other day of the Apostles Peter and Paul solemnly celebrated Masses. And since that day was a Sabbath, entering in at the command of the Brethren, he washed the feet of twelve monks: and he himself in turn washed by them, entered also into the refectory with them to drink together. Behold the feast of SS. Peter and Paul on the Sabbath day, which happened in this year 1051, with Dominical letter F. which confirms the things said above by us. Thence he proceeded to Benevento, then at Benevento, and benignly absolved the city from the excommunication of his predecessor. Rather in the very preceding year he is narrated by Hermann Contractus to have excommunicated the Beneventans still rebelling. He seems in the same journey to have set out for the monastery of Subiaco, and the monastery being found without a Rector, and at Subiaco: he was saddened: and with a Council held in the same monastery he ordained Humbert, brought from France. He called to himself the people of Subiaco, whose monuments of charters requiring, he noted as most false, and a great part of them before himself caused to be burned with fire. Therefore by Pontifical precept he confirmed the monastery of Subiaco and the whole Abbey. Which things from the ancient Chronicle of the same monastery Baronius reports at this year num. 6. At Rome July 22. The same Pope with Apostolic letters, signed on the 11th day before the Kalends of August

in the third year of his Pontificate, Indiction IV, and sent to John Archbishop of Salerno, confirmed the Metropolitan rights of the same church.

[20] In this same year St. Edward King of England, peace having been made with Count Godwin, about to set out for Rome from his vow, on account of the Nobles of the kingdom resisting him, consulted St. Leo the Pontiff; he dispenses in the vow of St. Edward King of England, who dispensed in the vow, and enjoined other pious works in these words: We command you under the name of holy obedience and penance, that the expenses, which you had prepared for that journey, you give out to the poor, and that you either establish a new monastery of monks in honor of St. Peter Prince of the Apostles, or emend and enlarge an old one, and establish sufficient victuals for the Brethren from your revenues: so that while they assiduously praise God there, both to the Saints glory may be increased, and to you indulgence. The rest can be read in what we published on the Life of St. Edward January 5, chapters 2 and 3.

§ IV. Deeds in the year 1052 and 1053. Happy death in the year 1054.

[21] In the year 1052 he approaches Capua, Benevento, and Salerno, In the year of Christ 1052, the fourth of his Pontificate, St. Leo again undertook various journeys, and first Leo of Ostia seems to indicate in the cited chapter 84: In the next year likewise coming to Capua, he again proceeded to Benevento, thence to Salerno: thence that he might drive out the Normans, he approached the Emperor about to ask for the aid of soldiers. Another reason of his journey afterwards undertaken toward Germany is suggested by Wibert in the Acts, namely that he might reconcile Emperor Henry and Andrew King of Hungary who were dissenting. set out into Germany, for Hungarian peace, Sigebert in his Chronicle at this year has these things: The King of the Hungarians dissents from the Emperor: for reconciling whom Pope Leo came to the Emperor, but with friends of discord disturbing, it was in vain. Meanwhile many things were performed in this journey by St. Leo. [At Regensburg October 7 he issues a diploma about the body of St. Dionysius the Areopagite,] For at Regensburg on the Nones of October in the fourth year of his Pontificate, he published a diploma about the Body of St. Dionysius the Areopagite existing there, inscribed to the King of the Franks and other Prelates and subjects of the same kingdom. This is an arduous controversy agitated by many, especially by those, who wish this same Dionysius to be the Areopagite, who made Apostle of the Parisians, there with SS. Eleutherius and Rusticus was crowned with martyrdom. Others assert this Dionysius the Areopagite was at Athens crowned with martyrdom on October 3; and Dionysius Bishop of the Parisians, almost two hundred years later, killed at Paris on October 9 with SS. Eleutherius and Rusticus; and his body to be there in the monastery of St. Denis: to which also Pope Innocent III in the year 1215 sent the body of St. Dionysius Bishop of the Corinthians, as we said at his Life on April 13. The rest can be had from the letter of St. Leo, and will be further examined on October 3 and 11.

[22] Only from Wiguleus Hund in book 1 of the Salzburg Metropolis, in Gebhard III Bishop of Regensburg, we report these things: Under him Pope Leo the ninth, summoned by Andrew King of Hungary for constructing peace with Emperor Henry III, came to Regensburg, and reported St. Wolfgang into the number of the Divines, He enrolls among the Saints Wolfgang and Erhard Bishops: similarly also St. Erhard, and also the bones of Bl. Dionysius (about which for a long time it was doubted, whether they were held in the church of St. Emmeram) he saw, handled, and confirmed by Apostolic diploma, which is there preserved, with Emperor Henry present, Gebhard Bishop of Regensburg, and many other Bishops and Cardinals, nay even with the Legates of the Parisians present approved and confirmed. Likewise the church of St. Emmeram, he consecrates the church of St. Emmeram, recently devastated by fire, with the western crypt he consecrated: he ordered the paneling at the top of the same church to be made at his own expense; but also the chapel of Simon and Jude Thaddaeus, above the vault contiguous to the Chapter, in the same city he consecrated. Conrad of Montpellier, in the Life of St. Erhard published by us chapter 2, confirms that Leo IX translated the body of Bl. Erhard, in the times of Emperor Henry III, in the year of the Lord 1052. St. Emmeram is venerated September 22, and St. Wolfgang October 31, both Bishops of Regensburg. But Hund proceeds. But when Pope Leo set out from Regensburg to Nuremberg, the Counts of Schwarzenburg meeting him ask him, and from afar the chapel of the Holy Cross of Prugdorff: that a certain chapel in honor of the holy Cross, which today is called Prugdorff, he might dedicate. The holy Father consecrates the chapel seen from afar. But when the grumbling interpellators thought themselves to be mocked by this distant consecration; and urged that he should consecrate the chapel in person; Go, says the most blessed Father, and unless you find all the signs of a consecrated Church, I will come, and will consecrate your little chapel in person. But when they had found all things complete, praising God they acquiesced. The monuments of its occurrence are still extant to this day. Thus far Wiguleus Hund, all which things Andreas Brunner in part 2 of the Bavarian Annals adorned in his more elegant style.

[23] Then between the Apostolic himself and the Emperor an exchange was made concerning Benevento and the Bamberg Episcopate, Leo of Ostia asserts in the cited place, [December 25 he receives Benevento in exchange for Bamberg, Fulda, and other places in Germany:] and Hermann Contractus more broadly pursues, in these words: The Emperor with the Lord Pope and many Bishops and Princes kept the Nativity of the Lord at Worms; where when the Pope, as he had long begun, had demanded back from the Emperor the Abbey of Fulda, and several other places and monasteries, which are reported to have been anciently given to St. Peter: at last the Emperor handed over to him through exchange several places pertaining to his own right in Transalpine parts, for Cisalpine ones. He adds what we reported above from Leo of Ostia, and they are these: And when the same Pope had much complained about the violences and injuries of the Normans, who against his will by force held the possessions of St. Peter, he leads out an enlisted soldiery in the year 1053 to drive these from there also, the Emperor gave him auxiliaries … For eliminating their nefarious and inextricable crimes from those parts, and freeing the natives from them, the Lord Pope intending, with the highest charity departs from the Emperor, about to return to Rome. The year 1053 had then begun. But many Teutons followed him, partly at the command of their Lords, partly induced by the hope of gain: many also wicked and insolent, and for various misdeeds driven from their country. All whom he both from the excessive compassion of his accustomed mercy, and also because their work seemed needed for the imminent war, clemently and gratefully received. February 2 he is at Augsburg, Therefore passing through Alemannia he kept the Purification of St. Mary at Augsburg, and the Quinquagesima at Mantua, and with a tumult arisen there some of his own killed, February 21 at Mantua, within the days of Lent he came to Rome. Thus there: Quinquagesima Sunday in the said year 1053 fell on February 21: when he had decided to hold a Council at Mantua, but it was disturbed by the faction of certain ones, Wibert writes in the Acts. Hippolytus Donesmundi in book 3 of the History of Mantua page 203 describes this approach of Pope Leo, as though about to adore in person the sacred blood of Christ, which is there preserved, and having tried in vain to obtain it to be taken to Rome, the people having turned to sedition for retaining it praised their zeal; and dedicated the new church of St. Andrew, he dedicates the church of St. Andrew although not fully completed, and with a small particle of the precious treasure taken (which he brought to Rome to the church of St. John Lateran) deposited the rest with the body of St. Longinus the Martyr in a place prepared for it. he deposits the body of St. Longinus and the Blood of Christ: About the body of St. Longinus, found with the sacred gore of Christ at Mantua, we treated on March 15 on the Acts of both Longinus §3.

[24] That at Rome after Easter a Synod was again held Hermann Contractus affirms: but concerning what matter he does not indicate. after Easter he holds a Synod at Rome: Certainly not, as in the tomes of the Councils is printed, concerning the Canonization of St. Gerard Bishop of Toul, which was done in the year 1050, nor again concerning the Primacy of the Patriarch of Grado, which in the same year 1050 either at Rome or Vercelli was done we showed above from Baronius and Ughelli. perhaps because of the heresy of the Fermentaceans. We should rather think it was gathered on account of the Heresy of the Fermentaceans, which then had arisen Wibert writes, and asserts a most illustrious booklet was written against that heresy by St. Leo: which is in the tomes of Councils the first letter, distinguished into 41 chapters. He also directed to Constantinople as Apocrisiaries of the holy Roman See, Humbert then Bishop of Silva Candida, Frederic afterwards Cardinal of the S.R.E. then Chancellor, he approaches Cassino: and Peter Bishop of the Amalfitans. Then from Rome he came to Cassino, and there caused the monastery of St. Stephen, situated above Terracina, to be restored, as Leo of Ostia hands down more broadly chapter 87.

[25] Afterwards Pope Leo moved an army against the Normans (the words are those of Hermann Contractus). And when those asking for peace promised subjection and service to him; and said that those things which they, unjustly usurping to themselves, had previously invaded, by his grace and favor they wished to retain; and the Pope denying this, that he might both demand back the possessions of St. Peter seized by injury, and order them to yield the place wrongfully pervaded; they, because they far exceeded in number, as though refusing an unjust thing proposed to them, declared that they would rather go to meet war, his army defeated by the Normans June 18, and defend with arms the fatherland acquired with arms, or meet it with death. And thus on the 14th day before the Kalends of July engaging in a strong battle, in the first line they were almost conquered by the Teutons: but with reinforcing troops from ambushes surrounding ours, with the Italians quickly turning their backs, with the Teutons for the most part, but not without vengeance falling, by the hidden judgment of God; whether because to so great a Priest rather a spiritual, than a carnal battle for fleeting things became him; or because he was leading with him against likewise wicked men to be attacked many nefarious men, flowing to him for impunity of crimes or greedy gain, or with divine justice for other causes which it itself knows punishing ours, although too bloody a victory the enemies obtained, and the Lord Pope himself he is led by the enemies to Benevento, besieged by them in a certain fortress, when from the already attacked fortification, compelled by necessity, he had restored the communion to them previously forbidden, received by them, was led back to Benevento with honor: and there was detained for some time, and not permitted to return, namely by the people of Benevento. For according to Leo of Ostia, Humfred Count of the Normans approached the Pontiff, and receiving him in his faith with all his men led him to Benevento, promising that whenever he should dispose to go to Rome, he himself would lead him as far as Capua. The same Pope entered Benevento in the month of June, on the vigil of St. John the Baptist: June 23, thence he departs in the year 1054 March 12. and remained there until the twelfth day of the month of March: and there having become infirm, the aforesaid Count being called, by him he was led as far as Capua. There delayed for twelve days, at last the Abbot of Cassino, his companion on his journey, having been summoned,

he returned to Rome: he dies at Rome: shines with miracles: and there after a few days rested. At whose tomb God at that time performed many signs. Thus Leo of Ostia. Hermann Contractus, who survived St. Leo by only a few months, in the end of his Chronicle adds: that he is remembered to have shone with miracles.

[26] Desiderius Abbot of Cassino, Cardinal by title of S. Croce, then created Supreme Pontiff in the year 1086 and called Victor III, offers this testimony about him: Leo a man through all things Apostolic, sprung from royal stock, endowed with wisdom, conspicuous in religion, and most learned in all Ecclesiastical doctrine, and who (as it is written) began to invoke the name of the Lord, whom a Pontiff perfect in all things, I also saw, and merited to have his familiarity: often also, while he was celebrating Masses in the church, I stood with him at the divine altar clothed in sacred vestments, and read the Gospel to him: by whom all ecclesiastical studies were renewed and restored, and a new light seemed to rise over the world. Gen. 4:26 He, often calling a Sacerdotal Council, removed Priests, Deacons, and the other Clerics not regularly ordained, and in their places appointed those who could worthily minister to the worship of the true and highest God. Daily also through himself and through his disciples sent everywhere preaching to the peoples in letters and words, showed the way of the Lord: who always walking by the Apostolic way, imitated also the Apostolic men in miracles. Thus Desiderius, from whom we shall report some miracles below. But we conclude this preliminary Commentary with these words of Leo of Ostia: This holy Pontiff, among the innumerable marks of his goodness, at night he visits the basilica of St. Peter. as long as he remained at Rome, every day three days a week from the Lateran church to St. Peter, in private habit and with bare feet, with two or three Clerics, at night proceeded singing psalms and praying.

LIFE

By Wibert his Archdeacon.

From Mss. codices of St. Maximinus and St. Hubert collated with the edition of Jacques Sirmond.

Leo IX, Roman Pontiff (St.)

BHL Number: 4818

BY WIBERT.

PROLOGUE.

[1] With Pontiff Herimann having entered the way of all flesh, there succeeded the venerable Bruno, a man marvelously decorated by the Lord with the prerogative of such merits and elegance of morals: who although now appears almost the last in the catalog of Pontifical departure, Concerning St. Leo yet first shone out from the privilege of the supreme Pontificate; and like the morning star the last in the station of heaven, but nearer to the sun came forth, while after a long series of predecessors, with his Priesthood he illustrated the city of Toul, rather the whole world of Christians, and showed the true sun near to himself, by driving away the fog of errors, with the vivacity of his brilliance. Nor does he incur prejudice from posterity, who before the ages is divinely destined in a fixed time: for the immutable Divinity, to which all things done and to be done are present at once, so disposes the alternations of mutable things, that it feels nothing late or out of order in the order of things. For, let the rest meanwhile be kept silent, the redemption most necessary for the human race is proved to have been exhibited at the end of the ages; and he who labored more than all, Paul, after all the Apostles is called by the Lord from heaven, whence also he is found to have called himself an abortive. But lest we delay here longer, let the pen be returned to the undertaken business, that concerning so great a Prelate not things heard, so much as things seen may be transcribed for the edification of many. the author writes things seen by himself. Since his kindness deigned to have my littleness continually assisting him with his familiars, whence my zeal effected, that I could through myself recognize many things worthy of imitation about him: also some things by the relation of truthful and weighty persons, of which some I barely touch upon on the surface, some also knowingly I pass over, while he still lives, lest either I be longer than just, or be marked with the eulogy of a flatterer; or, because he still lives, be attacked by that proverb of Solomon: Praise not a man in his life. Eccl. 11:30 But since we have proposed to praise in him the gifts of God, which are praiseworthy even in a pagan; we do not praise the man, but him from whom and through whom every man coming into this world is illuminated, that either he may think, say, or work good things. But do we testify so great a Prelate to have ever lived or to live without sin in this wretched life, which is indeed the whole a temptation, which cannot happen to an infant of one day? But those whose zeal is to proclaim the divine virtues impressed on some man for the utility of others, are unwilling to uncover the sins of the man, which already have been covered by God, to his reproach. Hence it is that the Israelites by the command of God carried off from Egypt gold and silver formed into vessels, but what had been shaped into idols they left entirely. Whence from his very beginning let our speech now begin, in which we shall believe ourselves to have succeeded very much, if we shall transmit to posterity in some part in whatever style those things only which he laudably did in the Pontificate of the Leuci. But it will be for the wise and especially the Romans, if what the same Roman Pope himself did, they shall not ungratefully transmit to the faithful page of the Catholic Church.

BOOK ONE

CHAPTER I. The lineage, birth, literary studies of St. Leo.

[2] Therefore the reverend Bruno so retained the noble line of both parents, that from his very forefathers and above, whoever could come to our knowledge, either held the reins of Kingdom or Empire, or bore the infulae next to Kings and Emperors. He was born in the sweet borders of ^a Alsace, with Hugh as father, Heilewide as mother: His father Hugh. whose religiousness was accustomed to open the mouths of many to the praise of God. And his father, Teutonic by nation, cousin of Emperor ^b Conrad, most eloquent in his native tongue and in Latin; his mother also Latin, equally skilled in both languages: whose ^c fathers and grandfathers from their first character with arms and spirits beyond measure strongly crushed the battle lines resisting them, their ancestors renowned in war, defending themselves and their own parts; and toward old age, having cast off all pride of lineage and luxury of the world, put on the humility and poverty of Christ, giving their patrimonies to Churches, building monasteries in their own and from their own estates: and so at last perfectly having followed Christ, they took the monastic habit: they also denied themselves; and the foolish wisdom of the world entirely set aside, with every contrition of heart submitted themselves to the wise foolishness of God and the monastic habit, and passed away with a laudable end through all things. For among many things, which they distributed scattered to the divine temples, ^d two monasteries they instituted from their estates, namely Hesse in honor of Bl. Martin the Pontiff, they built 2 monasteries, and also another monastery ^e for the veneration of St. Cyriacus the Martyr: nay also they greatly enlarged ^f the Lutensian monastery with their patrimonies. Whose devotion having imitated Count Hugh the chief one, and his most devoted wife, the parents indeed of the aforesaid Lord Bruno, constructed a monastery most fit for a remote life, ^g Woffenheim, near their noble castle called ^h Engesheim, Hugh another of nuns, from the tithes of their estates: in which at present a congregation of nuns exists, for the veneration and glory of the kindly and most victorious Cross.

[3] These two at last exhibited such and so honest a conversation to all, that also Ecclesiastical persons and those functioning in diverse grades, from Bishops to laymen, perceived something in them imitable to themselves. For that we may now be silent about their manifold watchfulness toward God, whether they had integrally rendered the tithing of their things, ⁱ under the judgment of cold water, they were scrutinizing. Through whom when omnipotent God had decreed to destine a Prelate for His Church, to the pregnant mother what kind and how great an offspring she bore in her womb, He deigned to show beforehand. For on a certain night a man in a religious habit appeared to her through a vision, St. Leo, the mother being instructed through a vision, and taught her that she had conceived a male offspring and one great before God, and ordered him to be named Bruno. he is born June 21 in the year 1002, Who on the eleventh day before the Kalends of July, namely in the year from the humanized Word of God one thousand two, Indiction fifteen, when he was brought forth into this light, wonderful to say, his whole little body was found ^k marked as with the stigmata of little crosses. By the novelty of which thing the mother being stirred, and made more certain by the promise of the prior vision, beyond her custom permitted him to be nourished with no other milk than her own. Whom weaned at the fitting time, she handed over to ^l Berthold Bishop of the holy Toul Church, five years old, he is handed over to Berthold Bishop of Toul to be instructed: to be freely brought up and imbued with the studies of letters. Who indeed Berthold, a follower of genuine honesty more admirable than his predecessors, ennobled the city of Toul with the sons of nobles, greatly enlarged its treasures and honor in various ways, decorated it with many buildings, filled it with persons of literary exercise, restored the rule of monasteries internally and externally.

[4] Therefore such a fit man having gratefully received the aforesaid little child, both caused him to be instructed in letters and in all honesty befitting free-born boys. he thrives freely: In whom with the daily increments of the little body, there grew the excellent character of the mind, which commended him before his other companions to all. For as the most learned father Jerome testifies, soft wax and easy to be formed, by a certain natural tractability it was divinely formed, even if the hand of the external artisan had ceased. Whence with heavenly grace going before and following, he was provoking the benevolence of all to himself, because they perceived nothing of loftiness in him, from the excellence of royal stock and riches, as well as of form and wit, by which the carnal are wont to swell beyond measure, and soon to subside. For he was affable to all, even the lowest, cheerful in aspect and address; most obedient, not only to those greater and equals, but also to those lesser to him.

[5] His colleagues indeed, although older than he, were two Adalberos his kinsmen: of whom the former was snatched from here by an immature death, namely the son of Duke ^m Theodoric, but the other the brother of Duke ⁿ Hezilo, and the son of Frederic the eminent Prince, under the master of the schools, established as master of his little nephew Bruno, with Adalbero, because at that time he was held as knowledgeable: who afterwards to the Bishopric of the city of Metz, taken up by the vow of Clergy and people rather than his own, shone as a man especially to be proclaimed in this time of ours. For from the beginning desirous of pleasing God alone, beyond his age and health, he began to crucify his flesh with its vices and concupiscences; so fervent with the fire of divinity, that from the very rudiments of Christian tirocinium he was thought most perfect. an excellent youth, Finally that in the presence we be silent about his great celibacy, about his dove-like innocence, about serpentine prudence, about discreet severity, and about mature gravity, in his tender character; he so affected himself with fasts and vigils, that the saying of Bl. Job can even historically be said: My bone has cleaved to my skin, with my flesh consumed. Job 19:20

[6] Therefore bound to such a colleague with indivisibly twin affection, the distinguished boy Bruno was pursuing

the literary gymnasium, he progresses in studies and morals. and they were mutually rejoicing with each other about their liberality. To whom although crowds of noble boys adhered, these two themselves nevertheless stood out before all their companions, both in the capacity of liberal studies and in the excellence of honest morals. For as first befits the untrained, having gone through the trivium of the arts, they shone not only in prose and meter; but also forensic controversies, grasped with the sharp and lively eye of the mind, they diligently expedited or removed: finally by natural genius tracing through the quadrivium they tasted it, and were not at all of little worth in it also, as the following things shall in part indicate. Therefore when those boys were being educated together in the same place, the mother of Lord Bruno is taught by a dream of this kind about the future promotion of her son. For she was seeing, as it were, herself entering from the Pontifical chamber the venerable basilica of the most blessed Protomartyr of Christ Stephen, and ^o Prelate Gerard of holy memory, glorified in life and after death by miracles, divinely coming to meet her, and loosing from his own neck the orarium, which is commonly called stole, and placing it on her sleeve. Which heavenly event was predestining her son as successor not so much to his See, as to his good zeal. For when reverend Bruno is counted the fifth from Lord Gerard, he seems to have been preelected by him alone, and not by any of his followers, since by God's assent he imitated him before them. But because the pious dispensation of omnipotent God is accustomed to mix with his gifts scourges and tribulations (as we know happened to blessed Job, and the Apostle Paul, and to almost all the elect), it seems worth saying, how in the entry of his puberty he was imperiled, and soon with heavenly remedy approaching was saved.

ANNOTATIONS

CHAPTER II. Health divinely conferred from a dangerous illness: Court life with the Emperor, military life in the Lombard expedition.

[7] When he had already obtained a neck more free than usual from the scholarly yoke, he was many times visiting the dwelling of his parents, delighted not so much by natural affection, as by their religious conversation, and the most free disposition of his house in soldiers and household. Therefore at a certain summer time, while he was staying with them according to custom at their noble castle called Eginisheim, with a certain Sabbath night coming, he was sleeping in the most pleasant bedroom. On his right cheek that venomous frog, which is called a toad or bufo, climbed up, and fixing one from its forefeet on his cheek, Sleeping he is wounded by a toad: the other under his lip, and from its hind feet the first behind his ear, the second under his chin, it began to suck and bind him fiercely. Awakened by which pain, he perceived the noxious weight of a horrible animal pressing on his face. Therefore astonished by so great and so new a peril, he quickly snatched himself from the bed, and not enduring the immoderate torture, with a blow of the palm balanced behind his ear knocked that venomous creature onto his own bed, fearing lest if he tried to take out the middle grasped with his hand, it would creep more sharply. Then that wicked one, although in its fall upon the bed it made the sound of being crushed, yet to climb again on the head-cushion, as he himself watched, did not delay: for the lunar rays then illuminated the whole interior of the bedroom. Nor delay, the throng of servants, aroused by the sudden cry of their beloved Lord, ran up, brought a lamp with them, but that pestiferous animal at their entrance appeared nowhere. It is sought here and there with the most diligent investigation of the domestics, but with all the furniture of the bedroom overturned and searched, it was by no means found. But whether that had been true or imaginary, it left nevertheless true wounds and true pains: by which having swollen his whole face, throat, and chest, he was afflicted to a certain degree to the despair of recovering health. Both his parents and all his own were miserably distressed about this for two full months, he labors with a grave illness, suspecting that a funeral was already to be carried out, and with continuous sighs and tears awaited that lugubrious pomp of obsequies.

[8] But benign Jesus, accustomed to succor desperate affairs, suddenly consoled his parents with his more than full health; and mindful of his Church to be relieved through him according to his purpose. For when he had already for two months not been able to rise from the bed by himself; and now with the excess of illness growing, had remained for eight days without speech; at last on a certain day, with eyes opened, lying on his back, as he was reclining, awake, he gazed as though a luminous ladder was raised from his very cot by itself, and passing through the window at his feet was extended as far as heaven, from St. Benedict appearing, and through it a certain old man of exceedingly great brightness and venerable grey hair descended in monastic habit, whose right hand bore a conspicuous cross on a long pole. Who when he came to the sick one, held the ladder with his left hand, but with his right he first placed that cross on his mouth, then signed the very places of swelling, and drew out the uncooked rottenness of all the poison behind his ear; and immediately returning the way he had come, he is healed: dismissed the sick one, finding himself better. And then without delay he addressed his Cleric Adalbero, then only sitting by his little bed, and through him with the desired news restrained his whole paternal house from long lamentations. But after some days with all poison cast out behind his right ear, the skin of that pustule broken, healthy and unhurt he escaped, under the greatest miracle and joy of all. Who, as even now among admonitory conversations is accustomed to recount such an evident mercy of God recognized over himself to his most familiar ones; professes that in the aforesaid ecstasy he instantly recognized the most blessed Father of monks Benedict more clearly than light, from the quality of countenance and habit; of whose body he so far commemorates the accidental recognition, as though he still has it before the eyes of the flesh. Moreover those who shall read what follows, will indeed cease to marvel, that he was restored to health rather through St. Benedict, afterwards much devoted to the monastic order, than through any other of the Saints: where with the wheel of speech rolling, they shall be able to consider from a few things, with how great zeal of pious love he burned toward the institution and correction of Monks. a

[9] He obeys Herimann Bishop of Toul: Hence therefore, with Lord Berthold his foster-father departing, he did not refuse equally to obey his successor Herimann: as if he seemed always to have before the eyes of the mind that saying of blessed Pope Gregory: Let him not dare to preside, who has not learned to be subject; nor let him command obedience to his subjects, which he has not known to show to Prelates. He indeed was at that time compassionate to those suffering adversity, especially to the venerable cenobites of the venerable man ^b Aper, he suffers with afflicted monks: against whom the most insolent tongues of flatterers and envious ones were instigating beyond measure the mind of the aforesaid Prelate. Now he was opposing himself as a wall for them, as much as he could: now, which alone he could, he was weeping with those weeping. Also by his striving authority and industry, in the state, which he had received from the fit and earlier Prelates, he helps the Canons of St. Stephen: the canonical institution and prebend most integrally remained under Herimann, within the cloisters of the most blessed Levite and ^c Protomartyr Stephen.

[10] But since all things have a time, according as the Establisher of time disposes, yet without time, who through certain alien things leads his own to his own; he lives with Emperor Conrad. it happened that the excellent youth was assigned by his parents and kinsmen to the glorious Emperor Conrad, his cousin, to be educated in his court, and to serve in the basilica. Where with not many days having passed, he obtained perfectly the benevolence of all the courtiers; inasmuch as the herald of his conversation and prudence, the honor of stock and form, showed him gracious: dear to the courtiers whence when many Brunos were equally called there by them, this one however was called Bonus (Good)

Bruno by way of distinction. Which prerogative daily augmenting, without envy of his companions, he claimed for himself, that both he fitted himself to lesser ones by a certain reasonable condescension, and agreed with greater ones in all things by liberal dignity.

[11] Besides by unique and ^d fatherly affection he was so beloved by the Augustus and Augusta, and by the Augusti themselves. that also in their most secret counsels he was gratefully admitted, and his sentence was reverently and sweetly awaited, and pronounced was received without hesitation. Whom when daily they deliberated, and unceasingly strove to raise him with the greatest honor, and, that I may say openly, to present with a Bishopric beyond measure enriched with temporal abundance; he already forewarned by the irreprehensible and golden pen of Lord Gregory, began to hold this altogether suspect, before the most ample Church lest it be imputed to him divinely, as though a gift for service: from which neither fatigue of body nor annulment of household things could recall some of his associates because of the hope of some advancement. Whence since he was neither allowed to depart from the Imperial side, nor did it please him to serve in such a way; in his mind with only God conscious and witness he proposed, that if with his good pleasure he should be invited to the rule of even the poorest Church, he would more eagerly approach it, he prefers to preside over a most poor one. than if royal Majesty should impel him by some carnal affection to the dignity of supreme power and enrichment. Which indeed is to be held so much the more admirable in youthful levity; as it is more rarely apprehended even in senile gravity. But now it seems worth saying, how this one, desirous of being humbled for God, was little by little wonderfully exalted by him: as in the book of Kings through the Prophet it is testified, Those that glorify me I will glorify, but those who despise me shall be ignoble. 1 Kings 2:30

[12] Therefore in the twenty-third year of his age, when he had already entered the second week of adolescence, and the one thousand twenty-fifth year from the Word of God the Father Incarnate was running out; In the year 1025 into Lombardy in place of his Pontiff Herimann, in the expedition of the aforesaid Emperor Conrad, against Lombardy and chiefly against Milan then rebelling, the illustrious Bruno set out, distinguished by the Levitical office. For with that Prelate of his weighed down by years and illnesses, he leads the soldiery of Toul: he himself undertook to lead the auxiliary troops of soldiers coming from Toul to the Emperor, with the pleasure of the same Bishop and of the Augustus: yet with the oath of his own rank in all things preserved. In that arrangement of secular military service, he so suddenly appeared sagacious and provident, as if he had hitherto been exercised only in matters of this kind. He was measuring camps for his men, disposing stations with watches, sagacious in all things, administered expenses and stipends in suitable places and hours, with sober sufficiency distributed prepared meals to individuals of his men: whom he was thus caring to order through assignments and offices suitable to each, that only for themselves each noble and private should need to be solicitous. Whose solicitude certainly was both protection for his own, and dejection for the enemies, and worthy praise for himself: thus ruling his men by counsel and urging them by precept, through the same he was prosperously accomplishing, what was expedient in common for himself and for the public expedition. Whence it came to pass, that by rendering what are Caesar's to Caesar, and to God what are God's, through his Apostle commanding, that every soul be subject to the higher powers, since there is no power except from himself, through another matter he merited as quickly as possible to reach his own. Rom. 13:1 And because he faithfully and prudently served external things, he was fully remunerated with interior things, so that set over many things, both he might cling more loftily to his Founder, and sympathize more deeply with his neighbor.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III. Election as Bishop of Toul. Assent of the Emperor at last obtained.

[13] Then with the year one thousand twenty-six from the Humanity of the Son of God pressing on, In the year 1026 with the Bishop of Toul dead, he is elected by concordant vote: Herimann Prelate of the Leuci was withdrawn from the hospice of the flesh, when in Lenten time he died at Cologne on some estate of his. Immediately the Clergy and people, bereft of a provider, united with concordant vow and the same sentence, ask for Bruno, long desired by them and continually loved, with consonant and continuous voices.

[14] Hence impatient of all postponement, deprecatory and contestatory letters about their so unanimous election they direct to the Emperor. Of whose, to speak compendiously, this was the cause. After the premised reverence of due salutation, they set forth the very contrite tragedy of their calamity, and he is sought by the Emperor: saying that they were being attacked and disturbed on every side by almost daily depredations or contentions, inasmuch as established in the borders of three kingdoms, namely in the borders of his empire, in which they were laboring so much more sharply from enemies, as the spaces of lands further away kept them away from his presence. Besides that their city was continually being demanded back by the Kings of the Franks, by various and many machinations: to which loss of the commonwealth, and to his own, and to the vexation of his own, if he should deign to obstruct, let him destine to them a Pastor noble and wise as much as possible, whose strenuousness and industry could drive back from them the hostile fury of enemies. For whose investigation indeed he would not have to labor much, since by the unanimity of Clergy and people as elect, near his Imperial majesty was held kinsman Bruno, beloved by God and good men: because this one most known to himself, inasmuch as his own pupil, and among them and by them learned in the science of liberal letters, conversed without complaint, and through individual grades of the Church regularly advanced to the Levitical order; this one not only the urban with their suburbans, but also all surrounding neighboring peoples demanded, and the fellow-provincial Bishops. Therefore let him concede to them, with the good pleasure of God and himself, this one or none: since they had at hand that decree of blessed Pope Celestine: Let each one have the fruit of his military service in the Church, in which through all offices he has transacted his age: let him by no means creep into another's stipends, nor dare to claim for himself the reward owed to another. Let there be to Clerics the faculty of resisting, if they see themselves to be burdened, and what they know is brought in against them crosswise, let them not fear to refuse: who if not the owed reward, at least should have free judgment about him, who is to rule them. And that of Lord Leo the illustrious Doctor. Let no one be ordained to those unwilling and not asking, lest the city either contemn or hate a Bishop not desired, and become less religious than is fitting, to which it was not allowed to have whom it wished. Against so evident and Canonical authority if earthly power could inflict violence on them; yet it would not be able at any time to turn their benevolence from this their elect. At last therefore by their unanimous and heartfelt prayer let his Imperial Serenity be moved, and in this part let the utility of the Church of God be attended to more, than that which according to the world his consanguinity was treating of to raise him more loftily.

[15] Meanwhile special letters were directed to Lord Bruno, and he is invited by letter, which were striving to plead the desire or business of all the Clergy, Abbots, and all the congregations and the whole people of the diocese of Toul in such a way; that having been widowed of a Pastor they had concordantly chosen him alone for themselves, and were demanding from the Emperor; for the fear of the Omnipotent equally and love, that he in no way disturb them from this. And that he should not abhor their poverty, of which hitherto he had been well conscious; they were beseeching him through him, who though he was rich, was made poor for us: nor that because they, vile and abject, preferred the person of so great proclamation and so great nobility, and envied the greater cities worthy of their merit, should he count to injury to himself because of any arrogance, which they had not yet perceived in him, on account of him who humbled himself for us even unto death. Let it be allowed for them to enjoy the fruit of their own labor, and in turn to be nourished by their foster-son: because according to the Apostle, the laboring husbandman must first partake of the fruits. 1 Cor. 9:7 For it would be consequent, that the Church, which had merited to educate such a one, should also merit such a Pastor for itself when bereft: who also according to the modicum divinely granted to mortals, could say that special thing of the good and supreme Pastor: I know mine own, and mine own know me. John 10:14 But let it not escape them, that the piety of the earthly Prince was deliberating, by reason of consanguinity and of his pleasing conversation, to lead him to greater things: and so if he should judge them to be heard crying after him, with continuous prayers henceforth let them knock at the bounty of the heavenly Emperor, that he may heap up for him heavenly and earthly honor: but if he thought them to be despised, because secularly he was panting for the peak of more eminent dignity; divine equity, the avenger of their contempt, would so come upon him, that neither to that which he was intending, nor to any other honor, should he ever ascend.

[16] With these syllables therefore received by Lord Notbert, then a monk of laudable life, but formerly Canon of the holy Protomartyr Stephen, and Liethard still indeed a Canon, who before their companions of the journey had been designated as eager and unwearied executors of so great and such a cause by the Clergy and people; with much and varied heat of cares both were affected, namely the Emperor and Lord Bruno dearest to him. And the Emperor indeed, although he rejoiced that the love, various attempts and obstacles of the Emperor, which toward the same venerable Bruno he possessed pure and genuine, by the due consideration of affinity and of his strenuousness, was commended and approved by the praises or testimony of many; yet was not mediocrely saddened, because his desire, by which he was seeking a more lofty temporal dignity for him, he perceived to be impeded. He feared lest he offend God, if he should oppose so unanimous a vow of his Church: he grieved, if to so great a person he should not respond according to merits. What do I here stick in many words? Caught in such fluctuation of mind, through Legates, directed from his side, he tried with all devices thence to recall the intention of the already often-mentioned Lord Bruno; now by commemorating the very frequent conflicts and depopulations of that Church, and now by exaggerating its poverty beyond measure; now because that city placed in the extreme borders of his Empire, either never or most rarely was estimated worthy of the Emperor's diversorium; now because he could not bear with even mind that the same his nephew, most dear to him in all things, should be separated from himself by so great a space of lands. Therefore let him spare himself, and consult both his own utility and quiet, and the will and perturbation of the Emperor loving him from the marrow: rather with deaf ear let him pass by those, who weighed their own necessity or consolation more than his salvation and honor; especially to whom he himself was urgently foreseeing a dignity worthy of his race and merit. But because there are many counsels in the heart of a man, but the will of the Lord shall be done, as Solomon says, the syllables destined for him were affecting the mind of Lord Bruno, he rejects them, subject to God, far otherwise.

the peoples of the Church: by whose unanimous and humble invitation, he perceived himself to be invited to humble things by the very Master of humility, who refused to become King of men, and voluntarily came to the cross: nor unmindful of that earlier resolution of his, by which he preferred always, content with all humility, vileness, and extremity, to serve Christ, than to be temporally exalted with any corruption of entire conscience, that is with any venality, which triple form he had learned from the sayings of Bl. Gregory, namely by the hand, by service, by favor. Prov. 19:21

[17] Perceiving therefore that by these three followers of ambitious venality Ecclesiastical dignities were too much confounded and undermined, nor could anyone easily be found immune from any of these, he believed nothing safer for himself, than to assent to a popular election, drawing him to humble or adverse things; and to resist the Imperial suggestion, content with election to a lowlier Bishopric: inciting to great or prosperous ones. Finally it is praiseworthy for anyone to decline prosperous things for God: but it is established to be much more laudable to offer oneself spontaneously to adverse things. Hence it is that Moses called divinely to the principate makes excuse, and with himself put aside asks for another, saying, I beseech thee, Lord, send him whom thou wilt send; and Isaiah, to the ignominy of nakedness and manifold suffering, not by name designated, voluntarily offers himself by crying out: Behold me, send me. Ex. 4:13 Kindled therefore by these and other incitements of virtues, and filled with the oil of divine grace, he was scattering the flame of right intention so much the more eagerly, as he was impelled more sharply by the blasts of carnal affections: and it came about that that dissuading breeze coming from Caesar and his court, rather augmented and fostered, than put to sleep or extinguished the fire of divine sacrifice of a devoted mind on the altar.

[18] Therefore gratefully embracing that sentence of blessed Peter, by which he says, Be humbled under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in the time of visitation, with the bonds of all delay broken, he obtains the assent of the Emperor. to the Emperor still dissuading he offered the syllables sent to him from the Clergy and peoples, yet with mouth suffused with ingenuous (so to speak) virginal modesty. 1 Pet. 3:6 But the most illustrious Prince taught by the tenor of the letters, was moved to tears, and with most copious tears bearing witness externally, made openly known how much he held him internally. At last with some silence interposed, he loosed his tongue to speech in this: My sentence about your honor, my sweetest nephew, already long deliberated, I see assaulted by supernal sentence, indeed overcome: to which I am compelled by giving my hands, as I owe, to give suffrage; since not without ruin of both of us and of many can I longer resist. Let the piety of the Omnipotent now be with you in this, who knows better what is expedient for both of us and all. To me therefore it now pleases, what it is not permitted to avoid. Yet you content with the grace of God, by which alone you are believed pre-elected to the regimen of that Church, by no manner of venality, neither of my wife, nor of any mortals, procure affections to your party, lest hence from you through all the sheep to be entrusted to you creep the mark of this simoniacal heresy. For without doubt he who began the good work in you will complete it as quickly as possible. Ps. 54:23 On his gratuitous piety cast your thought; and he himself will nourish you, according to the truthful promise of his divinity's sentence. But concerning the solace of our counsel and help, however much that may be, do not become in any way doubtful: because above all of your order, I shall always be solicitous for the prospering of your affair, whom both the unwearied labor of your faithful service commends to us, and the mutual kinship affection of ancestral proximity. Only endeavor to serve the Omnipotent faithfully, and strive to augment the character of good morals, which in you is praised from the cradles. With these and other words strengthened from the royal sweetness the venerable Bruno spontaneously submitted himself to the laborious burden, trusting in the Lord alone: inasmuch as he knew himself to be called not to the joys of prosperity, but to the perils of grave labors to be endured.

CHAPTER IV. Sudden perils in departing from Italy. Enthronement and Ordination as Bishop.

[19] Therefore having obtained the gift of Pontifical elevation, he left in no small sorrow the kinsmen of court power, who always relied on his salutary counsels, and whose causes he was diligently procuring by strenuous interventions: and although they were congratulating him on the height of honor attributed; yet they were grieving for themselves, because they lacked the very sweet solace of his mess-mate familiarity and speech. But having accepted from the Imperial majesty the leave of departing, new tidings of adversity are brought to him in the very preparation of the journey, namely that unless he precaution himself he would suffer snares from the Lombard natives, who through that very time were still rebelling with proud hearts against the Augustus. For on those days by chance the royal army was attacking ^a Orba, a town of the Milanese, warned of the snares of the Lombards, because there the apostates of infidelity, denying subjection to the Emperor, were lurking. Therefore he is admonished by his familiars to take care to avert the snares of these, asserting that it would be more useful to seek another way however longer, than incautiously for the shortness of the way to fall into their hands. But he, free from fear according to that Solomonic saying, The just man is like a confident lion, without terror, fortified with the shield of faith, adorned with the breastplate of justice and the helmet of the hope of salvation, thus speaks to those dissuading him from the right way. Prov. 28:1 Let us commit all the care of our salvation to the hands of the Omnipotent, because no one can harm him, he nobly responds, whom divine protection has wished to defend. But if he shall have destined me to purify me from the dross of sins by the fire of tribulation, I do not refuse to commit myself to the will of the pious artisan for being formed, since the figment ought not to say crying out to him who has formed him, Why hast thou made me thus? Let us walk the royal way without diverting, and whatever the supernal arbiter shall have foreseen for us, let us suffer with willing mind.

[20] Having therefore sagaciously exhorted his own with such admonishment, he was continuing the begun journey, already secure of heavenly help. But he who was a vessel of humility dedicated to God, lest he be marked with the cautery of pride, if he entirely refused to use the counsel of his familiars; partly obeys their will, namely that from the flock of companions with a few separated he should go before them on the journey by one day. Meanwhile in almost all the hidden parts of the mansions of the Lombards snares were hidden, he happily escapes. where there was hope that he for the cause of refreshing his body would have to stay overnight, and especially at the city of ^b Ivrea the fraudulences of snares of this kind are prepared. But he, as has been said, with a few, that is, not more than five companions, with the heat of the sun already fervent from the axis of the sky, entering through the middle of the same city, so securely, by God's assenting grace, passed through all the populous frequency of that city, that no one inconvenienced his way even in addressing, nor did the necessity of addressing another befall him. But now with the sphere of the sun irradiating the waves of the Ocean, with the companions of Ivrea having been captured, his following companions left behind enter the city, and soon from all the hiding places of snares there is a running up, and as a prey long sought by dogs they are violently snatched; in the faces of all only Bruno is sought, but whom the virtue of Christ had rescued, among all only Bruno by no means is found. For the whole space of night there is inquiry about him, whether he has passed or is coming, but no reason of truth publishes his deed. Suspicion arises, that he had already passed on: to pursue whom swift riders are directed. But the beloved Prelate, had already come to the outermost borders of Italy, and had entered the place which is called ad ^c Camera, where by wonderful counsel divine providence frees him. For his few companions, weary from the long journey, had decided to sit there to recover: But he presaging in mind, alone content with one, passes through the gates of Camera, about to wait for his companions refreshed by a little rest. But when he had been drawn from them within the space of two bowshots, suddenly the aforesaid pursuers come with panting course, find his weary companions now reclining, and snatched they quickly lead back to Ivrea by the backward journey, hoping that they had found the long sought prey, whom God by a jocose miracle wished in a certain manner to deceive. Therefore by such counsel divine virtue defrauded the wickedness of the evil of their own hope; whom he all receives back, and freed his faithful one from their rage, to whom also soon all his things untouched he restored safe, through the assistance of his kinswoman, the niece of ^d Rodulph King of the Jurensians, wife of his own brother named Gerard, a most strenuous and elegant soldier.

[21] Therefore with an auspicious course he pursues the begun journey, in all the cities to be passed through he is applaudingly received on the way: by his own citizens gapingly astonished at desire for him he is favorably awaited. he comes to Toul, And at length on the Lord's day of the Ascension ^e on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of June received with inexplicable joy of all, with all the primates of Belgic Gaul being present elected and praised, by his cousin Lord ^f Theodoric Prelate of the Metz people, he is Pontifically enthroned. he is enthroned. And he, knowing himself to have to be in the house of God a lamp, not under the concealing bushel, but placed upon the resplendent candelabrum; with solicitous vigilance soon strove to bring forth the fire of divine religion, with which he had always glowed, and he was ardently kindling his subjects in the zeal of supernal virtue with words and examples. And as is said in the secular example, The more the fire is covered with covers the more it burns, so the fervor of heavenly love long shut up in him began to blaze, as one who from the good character of infancy was accustomed to grow hot by the inspiration of Christ. Therefore his sagacious study he turned above all things to propagating the monastic religion, which besides the monastery of the holy Confessor of Christ Aper in all his diocese, already (alas!) had for a long time grown cold: he restores monastic discipline: for the Prelates of the Medianensian ^g and of the monastery of St. ^h Mansuetus, who, laying aside zeal for the souls committed to them, thought themselves established in the sole dominion of externals, he deposed at the very beginning of his election, and committed them to Lord venerable Widric, then at that time Provost of the aforesaid monastery of Bl. Aper; by whose provision and skillful industry the monastic order, as is still in the open, in the same places grew hot again fervently.

[22] But the victorious King Conrad, having heard by spreading fame of his laudable deeds, daily burned more and more toward him with affections of full love, presaging him to be a faithful vessel for reforming the norm of sacred religion, and for augmenting the already failing Roman Commonwealth. And since by pressing causes until the following Easter he had deferred the Imperial benediction to be given to him by the Lord Apostolic at Rome; in the same way also bound to him with the bonds of perfect love he had ordered the Episcopal ordination of him to be deferred, [he does not wish, at the coronation of the Emperor, to be ordained Bishop by the Pope,] that at the same time and together in the basilica both might receive from the same Vicar of the key-bearer of heaven the consecration of the predestined office. But that aforenamed Bruno dear to God, guardian of true humility and most observant of the precepts of Divine authority, knowing that this earthly honor conferred on him from the Augustus was gnawing at some with an envious tooth, because the Archbishop of Trier by the production of a certain privilege of his was desiring to resist this Royal will; this our one soon approached the King with earnest entreaty, that he should desist from such an attempt; asserting that he would more willingly

lack the honor of this blessing, than remain in the future in the disagreement of any contradiction against anyone.

[23] Scarcely therefore and with the greatest and most difficult labor compelling the Lord Augustus to come to his senses from that will, but from the Archbishop of Trier, and returning to Belgic Gaul by his sweet permission, from Lord Archbishop of Trier ⁱ Poppo, he humbly sought the Pontifical blessing; and among themselves they fixed the time for this holy ordination to be performed. Therefore they come to Trier, the accustomed order of consecration is inquired after: where a harsh scruple of a question longer intricates the whole affair to be accomplished, so that with all labor imperfect the already said sweet Father frustrated returns home. For by the aforementioned Archbishop a certain privilege is promulgated, he refuses to utter a difficult vow. in which this superfluous and impossible law by no one to be kept was contained, namely that each of his Suffragans to be ordained by him, should first under the testimony of divine presence promise, that in all things to be done he would have him as counsel, and with every exception removed, nothing outside his precept either to wish, as a certain servant, or to presume to do. Therefore mindful of divine Scripture the faithful Bruno: Because unfaithful and foolish promise displeases God, in every way refuses to be the sponsor of this incongruous reason, lest through the effect of impossibility he incur the offense of lying. Eccl. 5:3 But for a long space this kind of litigation alternately persisted: and it happened that our often-mentioned Father with the matter unfinished returned from Trier. which being mitigated through the Emperor, Which being known, Conrad Augustus of divine memory quickly summoned both to his palace at Worms, and by his authority insisting, at last the demonstration of just reason conquered the Archbishop, and he ceded from the superfluous vow of profession which he unjustly was exacting, he only required to be promised to him by him, that in conducting Ecclesiastical matters, he would use the authority of his counsel. Therefore with this promise accepted, on the fifth day before the Ides of September, he is ordained September 9. with the highest congratulation of all, the holy ordination takes place, and at last both inviolably continued in the solidity of perfect friendship. But we have touched upon this so expressly for this reason, that we might clearly lay open what kind of humility this man was of, and for avoiding the blemish of lying, as far as is possible for a man, how cautious he was.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER V. Various deeds and things endured in the Episcopate. Virtues and death of his mother.

[23] Therefore returning to his own See, he is received with the joyful dance of all: and soon since his devotion toward the holy and glorious Aper was greater, he placed the Lord Widric already mentioned, a man of religious life and conversation, under the name of Abbot over the same monastery, he appoints Widric as Abbot: by the will and request of ^a Lord William at those times the venerable Father of that place himself: whose holy fame is memorable this side of the sea through all the borders of the world. By the solace of this Prelate the aforesaid father Widric sweated not a little in augmenting the decor of his monastery: which already almost falling he began to rebuild from the foundations, to whom the same Pontiff by his largesse contributed a supplement of thirty pounds. he donates 30 pounds to him: The same also he chose as Abbot over the aforenamed Abbeys of Mediano and of Saint Mansuetus, to which, for augmenting in them the state of holy religion, he assigned some churches. Nay also in the monastery of Portus suavis, begun by his predecessor from Pontifical stipends, but by him with zealous labor adorned with buildings and expenses to a nicety, he builds dwellings for nuns: he established a devoted congregation of nuns, and appointed a certain one of noble stock and laudable life, by name Berzenna, as Mother of that company: by whose pressing solicitude the fervor of divine service there grew by flourishing, and by the help of divine grace, in long generations afterward by growing it will flourish.

[24] There was also in him a wonderful and honest elegance of morals, he excels in marvelous courtesy of manners, so that with the splendid beauty of body (which the munificence of the Omnipotent conferred on him above all of that time) whatever he did pleased the minds of all, whatever he said delighted the hearts of all with the intimate effect of love. With serpentine shrewdness dove-like simplicity was so powerful in him, that by the prudent of this world he seemed superior to all in prudence, and by the divinely wise was wonderfully cultivated for the innocence of a pure mind. He abounded with such charity of largesse, in piety toward the poor, that distributing almost all things indiscreetly, in the wealth of others he often happened to be in need. On the virtue of alms above all things and beyond all things he sweated, nor for any secular impediment did he omit any day, that every morning he himself in person did not serve the throng of the poor, and by the example of Christ washing their feet gave them sufficient food. in contrition of heart, He overflowed wonderfully with the devotion of a contrite heart, and the compunction of tearful groans; so that nothing of secret prayer, no sacrifice of divine office did he present to the supernal countenance, without immediately irrigating face and breast with a river of tears. With such a holocaust he was assiduously sacrificing himself to the sight of Divine majesty, knowing most certainly, that a contrite spirit is a sacrifice pleasing to God. in skill of arts and Music, The wisdom of divine and human arts shone most amply in him, and he especially delighted in the skill of the art of music, in which he could not only be equaled to ancient authors, but even surpassed some of them in melody-making sweetness. For composing Responsories in veneration of the glorious Martyr Cyriacus and ^b of Holy Hidulph Archbishop of Trier, and also of Bl. Odilia the Virgin, and of the venerable Apostle of the English Gregory the Doctor, with wonderful beauty he amplified the praises of divine service. in humility and patience. The gift of humility also and patience so shone in him, that if perhaps he rebuked one of his subjects for the harm of his fault, and as is wont to happen, that one moved by the gall of impatience hurled many insults of reproaches at the rebuking Prelate; this one for the injuries of words repaid not blows, but tears in condolence.

[25] Therefore perceiving him shining by these and other good acts, the adversary of the human race strives to oppose his pious religion in every way. And although he cannot deviate him from the straight path in any respect, yet through his satellites he strives to deter him from his holy purpose by the darts of temptations and adversities. He endures envious men For some chiefs of this land, seeing him to shine with the light of wisdom, and envying him prevailing above all in disposing the counsels of the kingdom with the Imperial majesty; while with the courtiers, whom all he had bound to himself with excessive love, they cannot contrive snares against him; with foreigners against him they handle the artful machinations of cunning. Thus they stir up Odo, Count of the neighboring Frankish Commarchy, against the blessed Prelate, and Count Odo as adversary, and with manifold effort of adversities they labor to cast him down from the stability of Imperial faith. You would see faith in Bruno alone contending manfully against the frauds of many, with marvelous patience bearing equably the darts of many enemies, with heartfelt compassion grieving for the losses of his subjects, with affectionate charity most easily forgiving the enemies themselves. But it is not necessary to review what motions of wars, what devastations of the Church committed to him, plunders, fires he endured; while the grace of the Omnipotent deigned to impose a quick end to all his rivals, rooted in wickedness, and wished to relieve his faithful servant with pious consolation through a vision. For when he was still constricted with the anguishes of adversities, on a certain night wearied with labors of manifold solicitudes, turning over the misery of the people subject to him, and tearfully imputing it to his own crimes, he falls asleep; and sees in a dream someone of angelic face presenting to him a sphere, shining above the splendor of the sun, he is refreshed by a nocturnal vision: which seemed to retain in itself the machine of the whole world, in which also specially two men of illustrious form were shown to him. Whose names when he desired to learn, a voice of this kind came to his ears: You should know these to be Mary Magdalene, and Bishop Galienus, in whose fellowship you shall rejoice to enjoy in the future. And when joyfully receiving the same sphere with his hands, he wished to place it in his bosom; he was awakened from sleep prescient of future things. Nor is it wonderful that this man was foretold to be a companion of Blessed Mary, since equal affection of love toward God, and continuous flowing of tears as of fountain waters, rendered him a participant in her merits. But although it is still unknown to us, who that Galienus was, yet there is no doubt that he is of great merit, whom the divine voice equaled to a man of so great praise.

[26] Odo having been killed Which vision was followed by the effective consolation of divine grace, with the aforesaid Count Odo, through the warlike Duke of our fatherland ^c Gozilo, basely handed over to death; and with peace restored through this blessed Prelate, he reconciles peace for Lorraine: not only to the kingdom of Lorraine, but also to adjacent provinces, with Christ's assenting vote. For with his wisdom, embassy and counsel intervening, the kingdom of Austrasia was joined and corroborated to the Roman Empire, he joins the kingdom of Austrasia to the Empire: which for a long time from the origin had been held by Rodulph King of the Jurensian Burgundy: and the same already said Pontiff was directed as Legate, for peace concord between the aforementioned Conrad Prince of the Romans and Robert ^d King of France. How honestly he completed which legation, France is witness: which even now reports as though new, he confirms peace between the Emperor and the King of the Franks. how much wisdom shone in him, what humility, what finally efficacy in all things begun; how becoming he was in the habit of mind and body, how suitable in presenting the words of the legation: whom all received as a father with excessive love, whom all cultivated as a Saint with highest veneration. Thus with such firmness he established peace and concord between both kingdoms, that as long as the aforementioned Princes lived with their sons succeeding them, ^e both Henrys, no one, by however fraudulent art, could sow discord between the two kingdoms.

[27] But the envious enemy of the human race, weighing that he could not through his satellites weaken his pious devotion

to turn him aside from the right path, rising up against him by himself by divine permission, burdens him with excessive languor of body, long sick with a difficult illness, continuously for the space of a year. The whole mournful multitude of the people was present, despairing of his health: also a band of physicians was present, augmenting the pain with despairing words: tears were wetting the faces of all, to him himself also hope of life had now failed. Then admonished by divine instinct, he orders himself to be carried at the nocturnal hour before the altar of St. Blase, before the altar of St. Blase he is healed. confident that by his worthy merits he would most quickly be freed from the present distress. Therefore there rapt in ecstasy, I do not say through sleep, which had altogether fled from him, he sees as it were St. Blase, stepping forth from the altar, visiting him, and compassionately inquiring the mode of his languor; and with all his languishing inward parts open, as though he himself were gazing upon them, washing them with merciful hand, and refreshing them with medicine; and with all things restored to their place, returning by the way he had come. Having returned from which ecstasy, safe rising from his bed, he calls those standing around, joyfully opens up the vision which he had seen, and as the aforementioned Martyr had ordered, the responsory: Who is the great God as our God? he sings along with those present in the voice of jubilation, and with the nocturnal offices completed, eager on his own feet returned home.

[28] But since the pen hurries to engrave greater things, it seems fitting that it briefly relate something worthy of memory about his mother. For how great was her sincerity of devotion, how great to the last quadrans her largesse of alms, how long her persistence in divine prayers, vigils, and fasts, his mother holy, how long-suffering her repentance in the maceration of flesh, it is not easy to express in words, since the end itself, in which every praise is safely sung, has manifestly shown. For the quantity of her body had grown in such corpulence from the abundance of superfluous humor, that scarcely could she be borne in a carriage, where the opportunity reminded her. Which weight of gravity since it seemed to her intolerable, many times with poured out tears she implored the grace of Christ, that just as the womb of one mother brought her forth into the world; so by the arms of one woman she might be able to be committed to the earthly sepulcher. Whose voice the East from on high heard: for with long maceration of languor she was so at last attenuated, attenuated from languor, that with almost all the humor of flesh dried up, only bones holding themselves together with skin and sinews seemed alone to cohere. she distributes her things to the poor, Therefore coming to the extreme goal of life, with all things distributed which she herself by herself, apart from her husband's revenues, from her own funds by expending for the uses of the poor had daily gathered, with sacred Unction and the participation of life-giving Communion fortified, she is fortified with the last Sacraments, she lay for a long time without life-breath and without any vital breath, with the whole household wailing, with the throngs of the poor, widows, and orphans. Who suddenly having taken up her spirit returning, and ordering the confused clamor of those weeping to be settled, orders all to be expelled from the house, and only ^f Regelwide Abbess of the monastery of the holy Cross with her own husband she retains. Who with weeping wondering, what she meant, she says: Mourn me not as though about to die, since now the most pious Mother of God Mary was with me, she is visited by St. Mary, who consoling me with sweetest affability, promised that I would live with her eternally; and in everlasting glory would happily co-reign. One thing therefore, O most loving husband, I supplicantly ask of you, that you not bear with troubled mind the words of my petition, which I am about to say. And when he, ignorant of the future, joyfully promised that he would fulfill whatever she might command of ready will, she says: I pray, that just as naked I came forth from my mother's womb; so naked the womb of the earth in the tomb may receive me, and whatever of ornament you had prepared for my being co-buried, she asks to be buried without ornament. strive faithfully to distribute to the uses of the poor. To which petition; although unwilling, the aforesaid husband agreed: and with the highest eagerness of mind having put off the man, he delivered her to burial in the manner she had determined. But I have so zealously reported these things, that it may be clear to present and future, of how great faith and devotion this woman was, and how fervent in the largesse of alms. But it seems fitting here to fix the anchor of our ship, that breathing a little, with armaments repaired, we may be able effectively to cross the begun sea.

ANNOTATIONS.

BOOK TWO

CHAPTER I.

Preliminary disposition to the Roman Pontificate: denomination at Worms.

[1] About to pursue the burden of the work undertaken, with Christ's favor assenting, and about to show how the blessed man came to the Apostolic dignity, and what things there befell him, indeed what things the Lord wished to effect through him and in his times, it seems opportune to show the preceding causes pertaining to this, and to notify how the supernal grace revealed to him things to come. There was in him the highest devotion to visit the Supreme Pontiff and the first key-bearer of heaven with an annual return, Every year he visits the thresholds of the Apostles, and for the sheep entrusted to him by God to implore his aid with suppliant prayer. Therefore at a certain time having undertaken the accustomed journey, with a company of Clerics accompanying him, as well as laymen surpassing the number of five hundred, who for the dignity of his merits, affability, sanctity, were following his retinue undivided; a dire plague rose up against all, from the corruption of the Italian air, so that there was no hope to any infected with this corruption of deferring death to the morrow. But the man of the Lord, he heals his companions infected by the pestilent plague. immoderately sorrowing over the affliction of the crowd accompanying him, found a quick remedy with divine grace preceding. For of the Saints, whose relics he was carrying with him with his own hand dipped in wine, and especially of the joints of St. Aper, to whom he more devoutly commended himself; whoever had tasted a draught of this kind in however small a quantity, soon he was recovering, however great a languor had invaded him, if only he had been able to taste the flavor of that liquor. He himself also almost daily on the whole journey by offering the victim of the divine Sacrament; and among the solemnities of Masses admonishing the peoples standing by to the correction of morals and penance, animated all with pious exhortations to grasp the supreme things, and freed them from the article of imminent death by holy prayers. Therefore through the whole interval of the night the crowd of companions and natives, whose necessity it concerned, were celebrating vigils with lamps at his lodging, and in the morning through the merits of the Saints, with his assenting vote, were bearing back complete health. Therefore with these causes most quickly spread through all parts of the Roman province, the man of the Lord was cultivated with highest veneration, and love for him was thoroughly impressed on the hearts of all: which he seeing was not extolled by human air, but unceasingly was proclaiming the magnificence of Christ.

[2] About to sleep he commends himself to the Saints, But this was his assiduous custom, that about to commit his limbs to nocturnal rest, he would more attentively commend himself to the relics of the Saints; and absolved from secular cares, in holy contemplation he relaxed his mind; and in that very meditation, received the sleep necessary to the body. Therefore in this pious intention on a certain night having fallen asleep, through a vision he was led to the principal Church of the Wangions: where he gazes as though an infinite multitude of white-clad ones was standing, the greater part of whom seemed to be of Priests, among whom he recognized one formerly familiar to him, he seems to give communion to those dead in the service of St. Peter, Bezelinus the Archdeacon, who his companion on the Roman journey had put off the man. Whom asking what that great multitude was, he heard that all these had ended worldly life in the service of the prince of the Apostles. About this marveling within himself, as though Bl. Peter the key-bearer of the heavens came up, and said that that multitude was to participate in holy Communion by his hands. Whom clothed as a bishop the same Bl. Peter with the Protomartyr Stephen led to the altar of the aforesaid church, with ineffable melody of song, and with the sacred offices performed, all from his hands were receiving the life-giving gift. and from him to receive 5 golden chalices; It had also seemed to him, that after the holy communion St. Peter himself would confer ^a five golden chalices on him: but to another following him three, but to a third he would give one chalice. These things therefore relating to his familiars, wondered what they might portend, but what their outcome was, in what follows in its place will be said.

[3] At another time also likewise to him through the rest of sleep it seemed, that the person of a certain deformed old woman was importunately pressing him and as a familiar, at another time a deformed old woman, but yet was asking to be joined to him with sincere colloquy. Who was seen of such horrid face, torn clothes, shaggy and foully erect hair, that scarcely anything of human form was recognized in her. By the horror of whose deformity very much struck, he wished greatly to avoid her: but she so much the more strove to press upon him. By which importunity moved the man of the Lord, imprinted on her face the sign of the Cross: [by the sign of the Cross he seemed to render her beautiful, and restore her to life] and she falling down to the earth as though dead, rose up again into admirable beauty. Awakened from the terror of which vision, he rose to the nocturnal vigils: and again in the admiration of this matter committed his limbs to sleep. To whom it seemed in dreams to be present the venerable Abbot ^b Odilo, whom he as though asked to portend to him what the signification of this vision was. Who most joyful answered him with such an oracle: Blessed are you, and you have freed her soul from death. That these are not feigned the suitable testimony of men and venerable ones proves; namely of Lord Walter Dean of the cloister of the Leuci, and also of his intimate co-secretary Warnehar, who assert that they heard such things related by him with tears, and what they might signify they greatly wondered. Nor does it seem incredible, that such things were shown to him from the highest divinity: when frequent nocturnal sighs in bed, and frequent beatings of the breast, and his bed often found by truthful chamberlains wet with tears, show him to have been worthy of divine vision. To no one is it doubtful, what the vision of the aforementioned woman signifies, he is admonished to restore beauty to the Church; whoever reads the almost similar dream of Constantine the Great for restoring the city of Byzantium. For it is certain that the Ecclesiastical beauty, indeed the Christian religion, had horribly ^c wasted away through various parts of the world; and through him, with Christ's assisting aid, had been led back to its pristine honor.

[4] Meanwhile at the city of the Wangions, before the presence of the glorious Henry the second Augustus of the Romans, In the council of Worms, there is a not small gathering of Pontiffs and the other Chiefs. Among whom this one worthy of Christ

Prelate is called: inasmuch as without his counsel nothing great was disposed within the Imperial court. And suddenly, he is elected Pope: with him suspecting nothing of the sort, he is elected by all for taking on the burden of the Apostolic honor. Which office with humility advising for a very long time refusing, while more and more he is compelled, he begged for a three-day space of consulting: in which, devoting himself to fasts and prayers, he remained entirely without food and drink. And when again he was goaded to the fulfillment of obedience, spontaneously before all he made his confession; trying as it were by a certain enormity of his crimes; to change the common election. But who could recount his flood of tears, which he emitted in public confession, which stirred even the affections of all to excessive tears? Whence with one mouth of all this pious voice resounded, God forbid, frustrated in his resistance he admits the burden that the son of such great tears should perish. Therefore seeing that in no way could he escape the Imperial precept, and the common desire of all; compelled he undertook the enjoined office, in the presence of the Legates of the Romans, on this condition, ^d if he should hear that there was the common consent of all the Clergy and Roman people without dissent. under the consent of the Clergy and people of Rome, And thus returning to his own See, namely of the Leuci, with the highest devotion he celebrated the Lord's Nativity there, with the co-essence of four Pontiffs, ^e namely of Hugh of the city of the Italians Pisa, Legate of the Romans, and ^f Everard Archbishop of Trier, and also of Adalbero of Metz, and ^g of Theodoric Prelate of Verdun.

[5] ^h Thence, with humility as mistress, against the custom of all Apostolics, in the habit of a pilgrim he goes to Rome, having taken the pilgrim habit, he undertook the Roman journey, untiringly devoting himself to sacred prayers and divine contemplation, intent not so much on the cure of the things committed to him, as on the care of souls with excessive solicitude. In which meditation near the city of Augsburg ⁱ suspended, he merited divine consolation, when in a revelation he heard resounding with angelic voice a harmonic modulation, most sweetly consonant, in meditation he hears angelic melody, Saith the Lord, I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction: ye shall call upon me and I shall hear you, and I shall bring back your captivity from all places. Encouraged by which pious consolation, and now more certain of supernal help, he undertakes to complete the begun journey: and as befitted a person of such merit, he is accompanied with an infinite multitude coming up from every direction. Among whom a certain handmaid of God of religious life adheres to him, who admonishes him with such words from divine precept: he is admonished about what to say at the entrance of the Church of St. Peter As soon as you shall have placed the first footsteps within the doors of the Church of the Prince of the Apostles, do not be unmindful to use these divine words: Peace to this house, and to all dwelling in it: which Lord's command he both humbly received, and devoutly fulfilled. Therefore he came with such a retinue upon the river ^k Teronem, which by growing had so exceeded its own bed, that for seven days he was compelled to make all the people delay there. But the man of the Lord sad over the affliction of the people long waiting with him, invokes heavenly aid, he halts the overflowing river, and begins the benediction of the church of St. John constructed nearby. But before the divine office of the begun consecration was finished, the river was so mitigated with its waves sent down, that soon it provided a safe passage for all passing through: which the whole multitude present affirmed to have happened through the merits of this blessed man.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

Election and coronation as Pontiff.

[6] He enters Rome with bare feet: Therefore strengthened by the breath of the Omnipotent he approaches Rome, to whom the whole city prepares to go to meet him with a hymn-singing concert: but he himself a pedestrian from the long journey walks with bare feet, and inclines his mind more to devotion of mind and flood of tears, than to the delight of praises. But who could recount his affection of contrite heart in devoted prayer? Who the sighs and groans? Who finally could recount the continuous flowing of tears as of streams, since to no one's thought is it penetrable, much less effable in words? Therefore after he had for a very long time so sacrificed himself to Christ at the altar of his heart, a living, holy victim, pleasing to God; he begins also to bring forth to the Clergy and people standing by the divine exhortation, with which he was most abundantly flowing. The Imperial election about himself for so laborious an office with a brief little speech he promulgates; he indicates the Imperial election: he demands that they disclose their will (whatever it may be toward him): he says that the election of Clergy and people by Canonical authority goes before the disposition of others: he asks for a Canonical one: he affirms that he will return with grateful mind to his homeland, unless his election is made with the common praise of all: he shows that he has come compelled to undertake so great a burden. And when he saw the unanimous acclamation of all; to the correction of life, he repeats the begun exhortation, he suppliantly asks for the prayer and absolution of all. Therefore with divine grace favoring, with all applauding he is consecrated; and on the Lord's Day of the beginning of Lent, the day before the Ides of February, is enthroned in the Apostolic Chair. he is enthroned February 12.

[7] But what a fervor of devotion toward the service of the Omnipotent grew in him, with what vigor of diligence he shone in disposing Ecclesiastical affairs, who could briefly explain, since almost not the whole world suffices for narrating these things? But I think it is not to be hidden under the key of silence, how great indulgence, by his worthy prayers, divine mercy conferred on Hugh his own brother. For already long before his election to the Apostolate he had put off the man, and this blessed one going to Rome for the cause of the aforesaid ordination had come to Populeium. Where the aforementioned brother of the same appeared through a vision to a certain Cleric of good testimony, and begged his support from the Lord Apostolic with suppliant prayer. Since it seemed to the memorable Cleric that the aforementioned Hugh, in a place filled with ineffable pleasantness, was sitting with many rejoicing together with him on a chariot-seat, but without a footstool kept his feet hanging down to the bottom. Whom when the aforesaid Cleric inquired about the quality of his state, he was answering that things were well with him in all, except that he laboriously hung down with not firm feet. He also asked that the same Cleric entreat his brother this blessed one, going to the Apostolic consecration, that at the entrance of the doors of the Church of the Prince of the Apostles he should remember him, saying that by his prayers divine piety would grant him indulgence. Which vision the aforesaid Cleric reported to the holy Pontiff, and animated him to implore the grace of Christ for the salvation of his brother. by his prayers he transcribes him to heaven: Who afterwards appearing through a vision to the same Lord Apostolic joyful, rendered innumerable thanks; because by his merits the supernal clemency had absolved him from all labors.

[8] Therefore this man most devoted to God, having imitated the morals and life of Leo the Great, by whose name also he had been distinguished, nay more having followed the Lion of the Tribe of Judah according to his ability, became an example of living well to all; he assumes the name of Leo, a burning and shining lamp, not under the bushel, but upon the candelabrum stood forth; and as true salt of the earth, poured into the minds of all the seasoning of supernal wisdom. But although with the gems of all virtues he adorned the diadem of Christ, yet these shone more splendidly in him, mercy and patience; quick in giving indulgence toward the delinquent; with wonderful compassion weeping over those confessing their own crimes; he excels in patience and mercy, in the largesse of alms even to his own need, imprudently bestowing all things. But since there is wont to come to all those pressing on with divine service a goad of adversity, namely divine testing, which shows of what fervor toward God is the affection of each mind; this venerable Father, while in the beginning of his coming he lingers at Rome, is gripped with some pain of distress and grief. For coming there, he had found nothing of the Pontifical supplies: for already all that he had brought with him were consumed in domestic uses, indeed in the bestowal of alms, distributed. The full purses carried by all his companions had failed: he consoles the need of his own, there was no hope of any help, unless they should sell their own clothes at the lowest price, and by some secret art flee the most benign Father and return to their homeland. Whose counsel the blessed man resisted, sagaciously admonishing them to trust in divine solace: but yet from the innermost things he was sympathizing with their affliction with merciful affection. But with the day pressing, on which all his companions had disposed secretly to withdraw, behold legates of the nobles of the province of Benevento are present; he receives gifts from the people of Benevento, bearing gifts suitable to the Apostolic dignity, suppliantly demanding to merit his benediction and consolation. Whom the Prelate worthy of God: received as befitted his honor, he strengthened with sacred benediction, not so much joyful over the offering of gifts, as giving thanks to God for the devotion of the faithful. Then turning to those present, formerly from excessive anxiety not trusting; he at once inveighs against them with charitable rebuke, and exhorts them never more to despair or distrust of God's mercy.

[9] ^b From then on the fame of the blessed man is spread through peoples, and to the ends of the world and all nations his rumor traverses, he is praised by all, the glory of Christ is everywhere proclaimed in

his admirable servant, the name of Pope Leo resounds everywhere in the world with consonant mouth. Nor is it to be wondered that rational creature resounds in his praise, when even irrational animals (wonderful to say) by proclaiming his name formed human voice. For as it is told by truthful reporters, not without prodigies. at Benevento a cock with frequent voice was repeating his name, and about to emit its natural sound, with all wondering, was sounding out "Pope Leo". ^c It is also said that in those times in the borders of Apulia there was a dog, who by barking was accustomed to cry out in human words, "My God". Nor is it incredible, that a brute animal in that region invoked God's mercy in whatever way, when it is certain that the Christian religion had there almost entirely perished, and the inhabitants of that homeland were subject to alien power, so that to the invocation of supernal aid they might at least be roused by the voice of an irrational beast.

[10] He consoles those coming to the thresholds of the Apostles: Therefore with the fame of his eminent praise everywhere spread, beyond custom it was animating many to visit the thresholds of the highest Prince of the Apostles: who all were refreshed by his consolation, and strengthened by his blessing. But if to any the impossibility of enjoying his presence was opposed, with faith they were directing their own gifts to him, about to receive from him the largesse of the Apostolic benediction. He also had as customary with other good acts; that if anything was offered to his feet in the Apostolic manner, he suffered nothing to be spent for his own uses or those of his men, he spends what is offered on the uses of the poor: but lavished all on the needs of the poor. Therefore among the many who were seeking to visit his presence, the King ^d of Denmark sent him a parrot bird as a gift, in which a certain divine grace appeared, with admirable virtue. For although some birds learn to form human words with hunger as mistress; this one however (as is told) with no one compelling it, for the whole journey, while it was being brought to the Lord Prelate, was crying back, "I go to the Pope". ^e And as soon as it was presented to him, with no one teaching, with sweet-sounding voice, it cried out "Pope Leo". he is refreshed by the parrot saying Pope Leo, If at any time also this venerable Pastor, wearied by external disposition, withdrew to a secret chamber, or perchance some sadness constricted his mind afflicted with excessive cares; this bird was frequently at hand as a relief of his sickness, and harmoniously and concisely, sounding out "Pope Leo", excited the strength of his mind. Nor should it seem reprehensible to anyone, that this just man in his own consolation used the modulation of this bird, since we read that blessed Augustine, inconsolably lamenting over the death of his mother, employed for himself a musical melody for the relief of grief; and that Holy Antony granted to the monastic rigor some small relaxation at a certain time.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

Various Councils held: and other deeds done in the year 1049.

[11] But how great diligence in preserving Catholic law he employed, he gathers a Council at Rome, in the first ^a Roman Council, which with many Bishops sitting together he held, he demonstrated: where he corroborated by living voice the statutes of the four principal Synods, and confirmed the decrees of all his predecessor Pontiffs to be held: He also damned the Simoniacal heresy, which had already invaded some parts of the world; against the Simoniacs, and in the same Council he deposed certain Bishops, whom the aforesaid heresy had stained with the mark of its wickedness. In which Council what happened is not fitting to be silent about, where Christ deigned by his grace to strengthen his authority. For the Bishop of ^b Sutri, accused guilty of the same fault, wished unjustly to excuse himself, with false witnesses produced: with one of them being punished by sudden death: but about to take the oath, he was suddenly struck by God; and carried out among their hands, not long after was taken from human affairs. With all hearing this, excessive fear was struck upon them, lest anyone in his presence should be impelled by human shame to false judgment. He also restored to the Churches the tithes to be given by all Christians, of which there was not even mention in Apulia and through certain ends of the world. he prescribes the use of tithes: The sales of altars under anathema he prohibited; but he established that the parts of tithes, pertaining to the Bishop, each Prelate should either retain for himself, or should give to whomever he wished: but he should grant the part pertaining to the altar freely to the proper Pastor of the Church. The incestuous marriages of consanguineous persons, he dissolves incestuous marriages: in many parts of the world indiscriminately held, he dissolved; and separated many nobles, bound by this base knot. Many other chapters of the canons he also strove to renew, which, lest they beget fastidiousness, we here refrain from reciting.

[12] Sweating in these holy studies, he seeks again the ancient ^c homeland, and is received at Cologne by the most noble and most reverend Archbishop of the whole nation, Herimann: seeking his homeland, at whose request Lord Pope granted this privilege to the see of the Church of Cologne, he grants privileges to Herimann Archbishop of Cologne: that at the altar of St. Peter ^d seven Cardinal Priests should daily celebrate the divine office in sandals. He also gave him the office ^e of Chancellor of the holy Roman See, and to his successors, granting him the Church of St. John before the Latin gate. Hence he is invited by Herimar, Abbot of the venerable monastery of St. Remigius Pontiff of the people of Rheims, to consecrate the Church rebuilt in his honor: at Rheims he consecrates the church: where it is not easy to say, how great a multitude from the ends of the earth, of Spaniards, Britons, Franks, ^f English, came to visit his presence.

[13] In which frequency, there was also present a not small company of Pontiffs, he is visited by many, with whom came the venerable Archbishop ^g of the Chrysopolitans ^h Hugh, lovable to God and men, before all of pleasant eloquence and affability: to whom in restoring the things of his Church no one of his predecessors or successors is comparable, in the Council he deposes Simoniacs: in whom the virtue of Christ then appeared admirable. For the glorious Apostolic there, with a Council of Bishops held, deposed certain ones infected with simoniacal heresy from the office unjustly taken up. ⁱ Among whom Hugh Bishop of Langres, infamous with many and horrible accusations, was called to render an account: who sought the aforesaid Archbishop of the Chrysopolitans, as most eloquent, with the patron of one of these being punished, as his advocate and spokesman. He therefore compelled by the Lord Apostolic, undertook to speak his cause: but he suddenly became dumb before the presence of all: so that truly it might be clear, that God did not wish the tongue of so great a Pontiff to be defiled by false excuses of true crimes. Therefore Hugh of Langres, terrified by this miracle, at night, fearing the judgment of the Council, fled. But with all afflicted and weeping over the misfortune of the Archbishop present, the Lord Apostolic with highest contrition of heart turned to Christ, by his holy prayers loosed his impeded tongue. But on the morrow in the synod the same Bishop being asked for, and not being found to be present, with the sentence read, he was called a third time. Then the Bishop of Besançon rose, and how the same guilty one, trying to defend him, had become dumb, he made known before all. Which hearing, the Lord Pope ascribed this miracle to the merits of Bl. Remigius: and rising with all who were present, he gave thanks to God, then to Lord Saint Remigius with great psalmody. and with both doing penance, Afterwards however the aforesaid Bishop of Langres, compelled by divine instinct, returned to the Lord Pope, and with huge tears publicly confessing his crimes, undertook voluntary penance; and going to Rome on bare feet, from the same our pious Pastor merited absolution: and in returning afflicted with excessive fastings, and maceration of body, in good perseverance he left the present life. he consecrates the altar of St. Arnulph at Metz:

[14] Thence returning through the city of the Metz people, at the request of the venerable Abbot ^k Warin he there consecrated the basilica of the holy Pontiff Arnulph; having been asked by Lord Sigifrid ^l Abbot of Gorze, he composed in veneration of the glorious Martyr ^m Gorgonius the sweet-sounding melody of nocturnal responsories. he composes Responsories on St. Gorgonius, Hence he held a general Council at Mainz; in which the Prelate of Speyer Sibicho accused of criminal guilt, he celebrates a Council at Mainz, wished to purge himself by the terrific sacrament of the Lord's Body: but as is told his jaw remained twisted with paralysis, as long as he led the space of the present life. with the sacrilegious man divinely punished: Which I have therefore wished here briefly to note, that it may become known to the hearers, how horrible it is even with secure conscience to approach a judgment of this kind, with sacred Scripture saying, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Heb. 10:31

[15] At Reichenau he dedicates a church, At last Lord Pope at Reichenau in honor of the life-giving Cross dedicated a Church, where divine piety in his own servant showed his grace wonderfully. For among the sacred solemnities of Masses there is brought a demoniac bound with chains, who could scarcely be restrained by the multitude; and possessed by alien violence, he frees a demoniac. emitting horrid screeches, shouts and howls, was overcoming the hymn-singing harmony of all the Clergy with his dire voices. Therefore the servant of Christ, about to begin the sacred Canon, not able to bear such disquiet, as about to direct his whole mind to God, from a distance having made the sign of the Cross, commanded silence with his hand; and faster than said the demon was silent; and the man released from chains, safe, with all wondering, returned to his own home.

ANNOTATIONS

Apostolic See Librarian and Chancellor, and of Lord Hermann Archbishop and Archchancellor of Cologne, in the third year of Lord Pope Leo IX, Indiction IV. He presided from the year 1037 until 1055. Concerning the office and dignity of Chancellor Angelus de Nuce treats in his Notes to chapter 87 of book 2 of the Cassino Chronicle.

CHAPTER IV.

Deeds done in the year 1050 and the following. Various journeys undertaken.

[16] Therefore returning to Rome, he gladdened the people sorrowful over his long absence: returning to Rome, where supernal grace publicized his wonderful merit to all. For the aforesaid Herimar, Abbot of the Monastery of St. Remigius Pontiff of the people of Rheims, had offered him a certain cup of precious ^a marble as a memorial, which the holy man for the charity of the giver had established to be kept for his own uses: he restores a broken cup to integrity, but at a certain time a minister about to give him drink, had found it by chance broken into many parts. Whose particles the elect of the Lord ordered to be brought to him in whatever number they were, and suspecting nothing of the sort about to happen, he placed them in their place as though delighting, and said joyfully to those standing by: The majesty of the Omnipotent is able to restore these fractures to their former integrity. Which having been said, immediately the parts were consolidated, so that in memory of the deed the sign of the fracture, like the subtlest hair, appeared everywhere around: but what was more marvelous, nothing of the liquid placed within was flowing out. There is present a suitable witness ^b of this matter, the venerable Hugh already named Archbishop of Chrysopolis, who with tears testifies that he was present, and rejoices that with devoted theft he took that vessel from the holy man.

[17] About to procure peace and the augmentation of religion he seeks Apulia: But always mindful of the office committed to him by God, as a faithful and prudent servant, dispensing the measure of wheat in time, he took the journey about to traverse the borders of Apulia, that he might repair the Christian religion, which there seemed almost to have perished: and especially being eager to compose concord between the inhabitants of the region and the Normans, whom long before the Princes of the kingdom had received as helpers against foreign nations, but now unwillingly endured as most savage tyrants and devastators of the homeland. Therefore solicitously intent on this holy work he came to Benevento, ^c where delaying for some time, to a certain sick woman with divine grace going before he offered vital aid. he heals a sick woman For for nearly fifteen years worn out with long languor, from her own bed, unless carried by the hands of others, she could not go out: so all her limbs were dissolved with the illness of paralysis. To whom it was shown through revelation, that from the water with which the blessed Pastor had washed his sacred hands after the celebration of Masses she should drink, and without delay she would recover health. Which having been obtained and with faithful hope drunk, on the morrow safe she approached the sacred solemnities of Masses, about to give thanks to God and the holy Pontiff. Therefore the venerable Prelate fervent with the zeal of holy religion, with a Council held at ^d Siponto, deposed two from the office of Archbishopric, in the Council of Siponto he deposes 2 Archbishops: who had taken on the holy ministry with price, by vice of elation one seeking to excel the other. Thence ^e with step retraced he returned to Rome, where admonished by supernal revelation he determined that Bl. Gerard, formerly Prelate of his See, namely of the Leuci, At Rome he enrolls Gerard Bishop of Toul among the Saints: was to be counted in the number of Saints. ^f And in the same year returning to his homeland, he translated his holy limbs with the highest glory. All of which things are clearly set forth in his life and miracles. ^g

[18] But there was in this man of God no small struggle against the invaders of the things of the holy Roman See; and especially against the Bishop of Ravenna, filled with the spirit of contumacy and rebellion: to whom some of the Palatines favored, [those contumacious against St. Leo are divinely punished, with the death of the Bishop of Freising,] envying the glory of the Lord Apostolic. Whose head in the fostering of discord was ^h Nizo Bishop ⁱ of Freising, upon whom divine virtue deigned to show this horrid vengeance. For sent to Italy for the Imperial responses he came to Ravenna, and in favor of the Ravennate began to bring forth detractory words against this Blessed one: among which, with his finger drawn under his throat, he burst out into these blasphemies: Let this throat be cut off with a sword, unless I shall have him deposed from the honor of the Apostolate. Which having been said, in the same moment intolerable pain of the throat invaded him, and impenitent on the third day he met death. and of the Archbishop of the Ravennates, But the Archbishop of the Ravennates on account of his incorrigible presumption was anathematized by the holy Pope. And therefore called to Augsburg by Imperial command, with justice having returned what he had perversely invaded, he was compelled to seek absolution. Who although with contumacious heart prostrate before the feet of the Saint, and the whole company of present Pontiffs asking absolution for him, the blessed man said: According to his devotion may the Omnipotent grant him absolution of all crimes. But he rising, when still swollen with pride he was smiling derisively; the venerable Pastor dissolved in tears, said secretly to those standing around, Alas! dead is that wretched one. Nor delay: he is seized with languor, and scarcely carried back to his homeland, of life and the honor with which he was swollen, is quickly ^k deprived.

[19] At Rome he frees a possessed woman, But the magnificent Pastor revisiting the Roman See, while he was about to celebrate the oblation of the divine Sacrament in Paschal solemnities at St. Lawrence; amid the sacred solemnities of Masses they offered him a certain woman, who full of a demon had lost her sound mind. Whom seeing unceasingly raging, and not bearing the roaring of those around, and her being dragged bound, on the contrary with the standard of the Cross raised, he ordered all to stand at a distance; but the unclean invader soon left her, and with sound mind safe she returned to her own things. But solicitous about the salvation of souls, first specially committed to him, placed at Rome he chose the venerable Primicerius ^l Odo as successor to himself of the holy See of the Leuci, he elects Odo Bishop of Toul, and to substitute him for himself to the Imperial Majesty he directed his own Legate. For on account of the honesty of good morals, and the fervor of holy religion, and the devotion of pious devotion and intention, he judged him worthy of this office; and embracing him with fatherly affection, called him his own son. He also hoped, that by his prudence, with which he abundantly prevailed in divine and human things, whatever might be less fully accomplished in the augmentation of his earliest See could be completed. Which also now for the most part is done, with Christ's assenting vote, and as we truly believe daily his holy devotion toward God will grow. But now we think we should desist from his praises, lest we be marked with the mark of elation: at the end, more securely will it be sung.

[20] There was also in him no small fervor in augmenting the Commonwealth. Therefore the Princes of Hungary, lately dissenting from the Roman Empire, he had approached with manifold legates, that they should not refuse with accustomed subjection to pay the ancient tributes to the Emperor: that he might reconcile the dissenting Hungarians to the Empire, which they had also consented to, if indulgence were granted to them for past offenses. Wherefore admonished by holy piety he was compelled a third time to seek again the ancient homeland, and for the pity of the guilty, he seeks Germany, who had moved war against the Empire, to seek the Imperial ears with persuasive prayers. But because by the faction of certain Courtiers, who were envying the happy acts of the holy man, the ears of the Augustus were closed to the prayers of the Lord Apostolic; therefore the Roman Commonwealth lost the subjection of the kingdom of Hungary, and still grieves that the borderlands are devastated by plunders and fires.

[21] In a vision he recognizes adverse things impending, But while solicitously laboring for the peace of the kingdom he delayed there for some time, divine predestination wished to reveal to him in dreams, what was portended to him to come. For it seemed to him that standing on high he was receiving his familiars fleeing to him from peril, and having enclosed them in his pluvial garment, which is called a Cappa, he saw his garments stained with their blood. Made certain by which vision, with sorrow to come for him and his men, as wheat to be stored in the Lord's granary, he prepares to sustain the temptation. Therefore returning into Italy, in the Council of Mantua he is impeded by a stirred up tumult, he determined to hold a Council at Mantua: which the faction of certain Pontiffs, fearing the severity of his just judgment, disturbed. For their familiars, fosterers of crimes, moved a sudden tumult against the familiars of the Lord Apostolic, standing securely before the basilica in which the public Council was being held; so that the holy man was compelled to rise from the middle of the session, and to proceed before the gate to quiet the noise. Whose presence not revering, hateful to God, the more and more pertinacious in wickedness, they strove to stab to death before his very eyes those unarmed fleeing to him, and to repel them from the doors of the Church that there they might be safe, so that the impetus of arrows and stones flew around the ears and mouth of the same Saint, and wounded some desiring to be defended by his garment. Which tumult being with difficulty calmed, compelled the begun rigor of the Council to be left imperfect. he absolves the author of the sedition. But on the morrow all the instigators of this sedition to be condemned by severe examination, by the most pious Father were absolved with merciful indulgence, lest he seem for the cause of vengeance to exercise asperity of judgment on them.

[22] It also seems unworthy to shut away under late oblivion, what is reported to have happened memorably in his times for divine praise at ⁿ Narni: of which matter all from the least to the greatest of that city are said to have been eyewitnesses. For two years before the venerable Pope here celebrated the Lord's Nativity, it happened on a certain day many were seen passing near the walls of Narni, in summer time that an infinite multitude had passage near those same walls: by the terror of which all the people astonished ascended the walls, as if for the defense of the city about to be taken. Which multitude filled an infinite space of land, as much as human sight could comprehend, and with swift step was running toward the East. But all were seen of wonderful whiteness of habit, and venerable in face and in the grayness of head,

almost of like quality of form in beauty. Which miracle rendered all watching from the walls of the city stupefied, and did not cease to run by from the first morning until the ninth hour. But with the sun declining, that admirable multitude began little by little to grow rare. And one of those watching from the wall, more confident than the rest, dared to go out, and standing near with trembling, was watching, if he could recognize any of them. Then among the last he sees a certain one, formerly familiar to him, a citizen of the same city, a man of good testimony and devoted mind, he understands the dead to circle the holy places. who had not long before run out the end of the present life: whom calling with divine adjuration by name, he called to himself, and demanded that what that great multitude was be made manifest to him. To whom he says: Although you are unworthy to know divine mysteries, yet you should know us sinful souls, still unworthy to possess the joys of the heavenly kingdom, in place of penitence continually to circuit the holy places, and now coming from the greater monastery of St. Martin, to journey to the monastery of the blessed Mother of God Mary at ^o Farfa. Which having been said he disappeared, and left him exhausted with excessive terror, for indeed he languished in bed for a whole year, and reported these same things to the Lord Apostolic with his own mouth.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER V.

The Heresy of the Fermentaceans repressed.

[23] In that time the heresy of the Fermentaceans arose, Against the heretical writings of the Fermentaceans, which calumniates the holy Roman See, indeed the whole Latin and Western Church, for offering life-giving sacrifice to God from unleavened bread. Which calumny also Bishops Michael of Constantinople and Leo ^b of Achrida published in writing, ^a perseveringly breathing out pestiferous ^c mephitic vapors against the holy and Apostolic faith. This calumny indeed, published in Greek speech, and directed to John ^d Bishop of Trani for the beating of all the Latins, when it had been shown at Trani to Brother ^e Humbert Bishop of the holy Church of Silva Candida, was translated into Latin by his zeal, and brought to Lord Pope Leo the ninth. he writes a booklet: Therefore the glorious Apostolic composed a most illustrious booklet, against the already said presumptions and excessive vanities of theirs, trying to lead them to the way of truth: but afterwards he condemned them uncorrected with Ecclesiastical anathema. The aforesaid Brother Humbert also published against their putrid writings a response in the manner of a ^f Dialogue, he condemns the uncorrected: written by him in Latin at the time of his Apocrisariate at Constantinople: and by the command of the religious and orthodox Emperor ^g Constantine Monomachus published in Greek, under the names of the Constantinopolitan and the Roman, in the year of the Lord one thousand fifty-four.

[24] Lord Frederic also, then Chancellor, afterwards elected by God as Apostolic of the Roman See, invectively responded to certain objections, through his Apocrisaries sent to Constantinople, which Niceta a monk of Constantinople, also called Pectoratus, had published against the Latin Church: which booklet he had titled On Unleavened Bread, on the Sabbath, and on the marriages of Priests. Which invective translated from Latin was publicly recited before the aforesaid Emperor, and the same Niceta was compelled to damn and ⁱ burn his writings: Niceta damning his writings with a disputation held in the monastery of Studius in the city of Constantinople. For the glorious Apostolic had directed to Constantinople the Apocrisaries of the holy Roman See, namely the aforesaid Humbert and ^k Peter Archbishop of the Amalfitans, also Frederic then Deacon and Chancellor. ^l From whom Niceta, receiving a perfect solution of his propositions, again spontaneously anathematized all things said and done or attempted against the first and Apostolic see, and he receives him into communion. and so received by them into communion, became their familiar friend. But with Michael the Constantinopolitan Bishop avoiding their presence and colloquy, and persevering in his folly, the aforesaid messengers of the Lord Apostolic approached the Church of holy Sophia; he excommunicates Michael the obstinate Patriarch: and having complained about his obstinacy, with the Clergy customarily prepared for Masses, at ^m the third hour of the day of ⁿ Sabbath they placed the charter of excommunication under the principal altar, under the eyes of the present Clergy and people. Thence soon going out they also shook off the dust of their feet in witness against them, according to the saying of the Gospel, proclaiming, Let God see and judge. Hence with Churches of the Latins ordained within Constantinople itself, and with all anathematized who henceforth should communicate from the hand of a Greek, reviling the Roman sacrifice; having received the permission of the orthodox Emperor, in the kiss of peace with Imperial gifts conferred on St. Peter and themselves, they eagerly returned. Therefore the Emperor being moved against Michael, because he had refused to come to the Council in his presence and that of the messengers of the Lord Apostolic, indeed had incited the sedition of the populace against him; friends and relations of his, deprived of honors, he expelled from the palace, and against him to the end retained grave wrath.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VI.

Disaster inflicted on the companions of St. Leo: they held as Martyrs, his penance and miracles.

[25] He seeks Apulia: Meanwhile the most pious Pastor, solicitous for the sheep entrusted to him by God, and compassionating with clement affection the unheard affliction of the Apulian nation; with some retinue gathered, again moved the journey toward Benevento, striving in every way to mitigate the most savage impetus of the Normans. It is not for us to expend with tearful words, what happened to him on this journey: while he himself in a brief writing to the Constantinopolitan Emperor intimated all things. For he says among other things.

[26] With that solicitude, by which I owe to watch over all Churches, seeing the undisciplined and alien nation of the Normans, he deplores the savagery of the Normans, with cruel and unheard rage and with more than pagan impiety rise up against the Churches of God, to slaughter Christians everywhere, and some to afflict with new and horrible tortures to the fainting of the soul: to spare neither infant, nor feminine fragility with any respect of humanity; nor to have any distinction between sacred and profane; to despoil the basilicas of the Saints, burn them, and destroy them even to the ground; very often I rebuked, admonished, implored, preached, insisted opportunely and importunely, announced the terror of divine and human vengeance of his perversity. But since, as a certain Wise man says, No one can correct, whom God has despised, and, A fool is not corrected with words; his malice so remained obstinate and hardened, that from day to day he added worse to worst. Whence not only wishing to expend exterior goods for the liberation of the sheep of Christ, but preferring himself to be expended, it seemed to me in testimony of their wickedness nothing so expedient for the repression of contumacy, as that human defense should be drawn from every side: hearing from the Apostle, That Princes do not bear the sword without cause, but are ministers of God, avengers in wrath on every one doing evil; and because Princes are not a terror to the good work but to the evil, and Kings and Princes sent by God for the vengeance of evildoers. Rom. 13:4 Supported therefore by a retinue, such as the brevity of time, and his retinue and imminent necessity allowed, with the glorious Duke and Master Argyrius,

your most faithful man, I thought colloquy and counsel should be sought; not that I wished the destruction of any of the Normans or of any men or treated of death, but that at least by human terror they should come to their senses, who do not in the least fear divine judgments. Meanwhile with us trying to break their pertinacity by salutary admonition, oppressed by them: and with them on the contrary promising all subjection feignedly, with sudden impetus they attacked our retinue, but even now they grieve rather than rejoice over their own victory. For as your piety took care to write to our consolation; for that presumption of theirs they expect for themselves greater indignation to come shortly, after that which they experienced, the diminution of their company. We also trusting that divine help will be with us, and that human will not be lacking, shall not fail from this our intention of freeing Christendom; nor shall we give rest to our times, except with the rest of the holy Church in peril. And these things indeed the Lord Apostolic.

[27] Therefore the worst nation of the Normans, with the slaughter of the household of the gentlest Pope accomplished, not without great detriment to their own, attacks the town called Civitatula, where the same Blessed one, ignorant of what had been done, was awaiting his delaying retinue. Who when he saw the imminent enemies, and understood what had happened to his own; he passes through the midst of the enemies: with that company of Clerics which remained to him, seized the begun journey toward Benevento, and with all the enemies astonished, as a confident Lion without terror he passed through the midst of them. ^b Therefore pondering such admirable confidence, with minds changed, they were converted to his compliance, whose footprints kissing, they were demanding for themselves unmerited indulgence. To whom the holy man speaking a few words for the time, with them serving, took care to procure the funerals of the slain honorably, burying them in a neighboring church, ruined from ancient time. And because ^c for the love of Christ and the liberation of the afflicted nation they had wished to undergo devoted death, he has the slain honorably buried, with manifold revelations he showed them by divine grace to rejoice perpetually in the heavenly kingdom: for they themselves in diverse ways showed themselves to the faithful of Christ, saying that they were not to be mourned with funeral exequies, as Martyrs held, indeed in supernal glory joined to the holy Martyrs. From the same also their killers over them rebuilt a basilica with beautiful work, and with an assembly of those serving God there gathered, and shining with miracles, the most omnipotent virtue of God works through them many marks of miracles. But the most ferocious nation of the Normans terrified by these deeds, with cruelty laid aside, thenceforth treated more amicably as fellow-countrymen the peoples with whom it cohabited, and to the venerable Pope as long as he lived faithfully served in all subjection.

[28] But the eminent Pastor coming to ^d Benevento, with those very Normans even unbidden accompanying him serviceably through the whole journey, he comes to Benevento, delayed there for no small space of a year, exercising himself in holy virtues, in patience, vigils, fasts and prayers. For he shunned all softness of bed: but with hair shirt taken to his flesh, he sleeps hard, and reclining on a rug of the earth as a bed, with a stone placed at his head, in nocturnal hours he took a little sleep, he reads the Psalter by night and day, and the remaining space of the night with the singing of the whole Psalter, and with innumerable bending of knees he ran through: also going through the same Psalter on individual days, with the offering of the divine Sacrifice, he untiringly passed through the course of manifold prayers. in his fifties he learns Greek: That also was admirable in him, that being beyond fifty he served with such zeal, that for reading divine Scriptures he was learning the Greek language. And because with the bowels of piety and mercy, he feeds the poor: beyond what can be believed, he was overflowing, an innumerable multitude of the poor were untiringly running to his largesse, to whom without discretion he was ministering necessary things.

[29] Thus persisting in these pious acts, while one evening all his household had withdrawn for nocturnal sleep, he himself with a lamp going before with a boy was walking through the empty space of his Palace, and he saw lying in a corner a leper, the leper lifted onto his own shoulders, with torn rags and covered with ulcers, wasting with lurid rottenness: who pressed with excessive illness was not able to move his step, and scarcely was able to bring forth words from his exhausted body. To whom the venerable Father on bent knees for a long time familiarly spoke, and wrapped in his own clothes, on his own shoulders he brought him to the bed, which had been prepared for himself in the Pontifical manner: he places in his own bed: and with the doors barred within, and the servant sleeping, he himself insisted on the accustomed psalmody in the neighboring oratory. At last after a long hour, according to his usual custom about to lie on the ground he returned, whom sought he does not find: the leper whom he had placed on the raised couch he did not find in the least, he asks the awakened boy whither the poor man had gone. He astonished goes around all the corners of the house, solicitously tries the approaches of the doors, but finding all barred, returns with highest astonishment. Therefore the Lord Apostolic stupefied by this deed gives his weary limbs to soporific rest, he wishes the miracle concealed: and seeing something divine in dreams, in the morning with terrifying adjuration orders the boy, that to no one as long as he lived should he in any way open what had happened. I believe that Christ appeared to him in dreams, as to Bl. Martin the Pontiff, clothed in his garments; or, like ^e Martyrius the Monk, he saw the leper leaping up from his arms ascending to heaven: and for the cause of humility, lest the virtue of pride creep upon him from human praise, he wished this miracle to lie hidden: yet not without reason he ordered such a deed to be concealed under such great threatening.

[30] Again on a certain day there alone with one Cleric he was insisting on the exercise of holy psalmody: when behold a certain peasant, leading with him his insane daughter had come: whom he was exclaiming with sighs was often tortured by a very bad demon, and with tears and groans was demanding that by his merits she be freed. To whose prayers the pious Father for a longer time striving to contradict, ordered him to implore the suffrages of the Saints, he frees a possessed woman, of whom innumerable relics were contained there, with suppliant vow. But the peasant obstinate in his purpose, indeed established in the stability of solid faith, said he would not depart from there, until he should merit divine help by his benediction. Therefore the holy man, conquered by his importunity, blessed a grain of salt found nearby, and cast it into the girl's mouth with the invocation of the divine name; and soon with the demon expelled with purulent blood, the joyful father returned home with his safe daughter. Many admirable things could be reported about this Saint, but it must yield to the studious reader; or the incredulous hearer, and therefore briefly commemorating his passage, let us impose an end to the begun work.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VII.

Illness, death, burial.

[31] Therefore with the course of the good contest consummated, he was burning daily with more abundant desire of supernal beatitude, and as though with Paul he were saying, he celebrates Mass for the dead more often: the world is crucified to me, and I to the world, so thoroughly he was caring to renounce the cares of this life, that still placed in the body he seemed to exercise the blessed life of Angelic conversation. Gal. 6:14 For the rest of the dead also to the celebration of the incorrupt Sacraments he was watching more frequently than usual: and although this labor had been principal to him during the whole time of his dwelling, yet with more fervent zeal and with a more copious number of vows he was insisting on such a glorious work around the day of his death. And since the providence of divinity, both by indulging and by scourging, works the salvation of those obeying, he falls into illness: to the heaping up of virtue he so scourged him with saving affliction, that with the desire for all food lost, the pain of the creeping disease compelled him to continue, what he once used to exercise spontaneously, the fasts, with only a cup of water providing sustenance to his withered body.

[32] Meanwhile with the cycle of the year run out the ^a anniversary day of his ordination was at hand, on which accustomed more devoutly every year he was insisting on pious prayers to Christ. On the anniversary of his ordination Therefore although the growing distress of languor had already weakened the inward parts of the body wearied by divine works; yet strengthened by the Holy Spirit, by whom the whole course of his life was being directed, he celebrates his last at Benevento, performing the solemnities of Masses on that day with the honor of Apostolic dignity, he gladdened the Beneventans, with whom he then was staying, with joy of gracious affability. And this was the last service in divine Sacraments, in which he had always shown himself worthy. But being certified about the term of his calling, he had himself ^b carried to Rome by a litter vehicle. In which journey divinity so reconciled him not only his own, he is carried back to Rome, but also those who lately had been enemies; that an abundant band of Normans, whom we above reported long to have had discord with this man, he is led by the Normans: with the most sincere devotion of whole mind anticipated one another in his service. And it befitted indeed the strongest defender of the Christian religion, that about to approach the Palaces of his King Christ he should be led with a noble triumph of victory, namely with the tamed multitude of enemies now subjugated going before. Therefore delaying a little in the Lateran Palace, from the Lateran Palace, he was awaiting what the most clement disposition of the internal judge might decide about him.

[33] But blessed Peter, not unmindful of the long sweat, by which this memorable man had been helper to him in ruling the sheepfold of the Church, decided to join him to himself more closely; inasmuch as about to be a participant in the magnificent honor and glory, which by the preceding grace of the supreme Pastor he imparted to the Roman Church. Therefore he was taught by divine revelation, taught by revelation, that the dissolution of flesh would not otherwise remain for him, except in the places near the Oratory of Bl. Peter. And without delay, rejoicing over such a vision, and understanding himself to be visited by the mercy of divine regard, carried by litter again he entered the Oratory of Bl. Peter. he is carried to the Oratory of St. Peter, ^c There from the innermost bottom of his heart with tears flowing, stretching out to God a pure mind with his hands, for a very long time he invoked the clemency of the Lord with secret prayers. Then carried to the neighboring house of the Episcopate, he was visited by a frequency of faithful ones, flowing to him by the grace of highest love. Whose pious consideration, weighing that he was not to be retained longer in the prison of the body, decreed that since more throngs of Bishops, Abbots, and of the other faithful had flowed together, with them present he should be anointed with the liquor of sacred oil. he is fortified with the last Sacraments:

[34] By which deed made cheerful everywhere and fortified with the communion of the Lord's body and blood, in the Teutonic language, as those who were present have testified, he spoke with God in such a prayer: he commits himself to God, Merciful Lord, Redeemer of all, only salvation, if you judge it expedient to the eyes of your majesty, that I may still serve the common utility of your peoples; may I merit (I pray) by the swift medicine of your visitation to escape the trouble of the present illness: but if your divinity's providence deliberates anything else, I pray, Lord, that as quickly as possible it be granted me to go out of the dwelling-places of this body. Having finished his prayers, looking at those standing by,

he gave thanks to each for the service shown to him: and composing his weary limbs for rest, he reported himself to feel the pain more tolerably than usual. The multitude of surrounding faithful believed, and he dies at the hour predicted by himself: that soon he would lay down the spoils of the flesh: and with sighing sobs they were loosing fitting obsequies for the departing soul. Whose voices the blessed man suppressing said, This, which is now being done, defer to the third hour of the morrow's day, awaiting what may please the omnipotence of God about me. Therefore with more watchful affection on the next day at the third hour there was present a copious crowd of the faithful, and around the ninth hour his spirit loosed from the flesh, seeking the heavens, they conduct with most devoted commendation.

[35] But with the multitude of all the Roman people overflowing, his exequies were celebrated with the highest honor: and as he himself had disposed, he was buried near the altar of the blessed Pontiff Gregory, he is buried near the altar of St. Gregory. before the doors of the church. And rightly in the beauty of burial he stands joined to him, whom in divine religion and the restoration of the holy Church he faithfully imitated: whose life and sanctity someone in a short distich thus pursued:

Victorious Rome grieves, widowed of the ninth Leo: Scarcely from many will she have such a Father.

But this magnificent man was taken from the labors of this life, fifty years old, in the year of the Lord's incarnation one thousand fifty-four ^d, the twenty-eighth ^e of his Episcopate of Toul, but the sixth of his Apostolate: died in the year 1054, 6 of his See, for indeed he sat at Rome five years, with two months and nine days added, the vision fulfilled which we above reported concerning the revelation of the chalices. For the five chalices conferred on him by blessed Peter, signified the quinquennial space of his life: the remaining three, the triennium of his successor Victor: the one following, the course of one year in the Apostolate of Frederic of blessed memory. But since there still remain very many things to say, the miracles which by divine piety are done at his tomb, we leave to the Romans to engrave, he shines with miracles: in whose presence they are daily shown. It is ours to entreat his merits with devoted prayers, that the bowels of piety and mercy, with which in the present life he abounded, he is invoked by the writer, now placed in the supernal glory he may deign to open to us: so that by his holy intercession with the bonds of our crimes broken, we may merit to be participants of the supernal glory, with him assenting who in his Saints works wonders, from whom also is sung praise to himself and the giving of thanks in the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS

HISTORY OF THE DEATH AND MIRACLES

Collected from the Strozzi, Hubertine, and Beneventan Mss.

Leo IX, Roman Pontiff (St.)

BHL Number: 4819, 4820, 4821

FROM MSS.

PROLOGUE.

[1] In the year one thousand fifty-four of our Lord Jesus Christ, Indiction VII, on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of May, let us exult in the deposition of our Blessed Father Pope Leo IX, with Henry the Emperor son of Emperor Conrad reigning at Rome. ^a To the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the memory of Bl. Pope Leo, let us strive to make known this labor of the contest, which we saw with our eyes, all the Priests and Deacons and all the Catholics of the Holy Roman Church. Often we saw in his life great largesse, The Author writes things seen by himself. or distribution of alms to poor citizens and pilgrims, so that all the treasures of the Church and all that he could have, he distributed for the greatest part to widows, orphans and those fearing God. Therefore the perfidy of the Romans stirred up murmur and wars against him: for as an unconquerable wall of his Church the Lord raised him against the demented heretics, many had been catechized by this man in literary studies. This beneficent Prelate Leo smoothly flattered the humble, this one constricting the necks of the proud, this one to detractors of his life providing necessary sustenance, preaching virginity, defending chaste marriages, extolling the glorious contests of virtues, accusing the lapse to Clerics, and depravity to monks, also where the matter required with the sweetest variety mixed in examples of the Gentiles: but yet this was not of his will, but, so to speak, of the gravest necessity, so that he might prove those things which by the holy Prophets before the ages were predicted, as much in the tongues or letters of Greeks as of Latins, and of other nations; truly unfolding all, adorning all, and through the kinds of disputation always going equally. When truly we shall have said the Catholic knowledge of that man; sound doctrine, wherever he converses in place, remains firm with the stability of faith. ^b For we have excerpted these few things from his life, but more let us leave to the skill of the masters; and about his wonders, which we saw, let us faithfully teach.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER I.

The last acts and admonitions of St. Leo: most pious death.

[2] On April 17 sick he exhorts the Bishops and others: On the fifteenth day before the Kalends of May, when he was long wasting in body from a grave illness, on the same Lord's Day ^a the fifteenth after Easter, he called all the Bishops and Clerics to himself, and thus spoke to them, saying: Hear, my Brothers and Coepiscopi, for the Lord has called me from this life. ^b But be mindful of the Evangelical word saying: Watch because you do not know at what hour your Lord shall come. Matt. 25:13 For I ask you, most dear ones, that you look upon me, and consider how the flowers of this world quickly wither. in a vision he is invited by his slain companions For unhappy I, who unworthy have taken on the honor of the Apostle Peter, now as to the parts of the body am almost reduced to nothing. For so to me is obscured this present world, as though I already dwelt in a most obscure house: because in this night in a vision I saw that world to which I am about to go; and I seem as though I no longer dwell in this age, but rather in that which in a vision I foresaw; for which I am fearing and exceedingly afraid. For I saw many things which I was afraid to see. Yet I rejoiced in our Brothers, who fighting in Apulia for God were slain. For I saw them ^c in the number of the Martyrs, and their garments shining like gold; all holding palm branches in their hands, full of unfading flowers, and with loud voice calling me saying: Come, stay with us, because through you we possess this glory. Hence from another part responding to one another I heard another voice: By no means, but on the third day he will be in our fellowship: he foreknows himself to die on the third day: because this is his place, and his seat happily prepared stands among us. But if you do not believe my vision, test what I said. If I shall remain more than three days in this age, let this vision be deemed empty and vain: and if on the announced day I shall pass, whatever I say is to be kept by you. Now let each one go to his own place, and at dawn breaking come to me. With many withdrawing to their own houses according to his precept, certain ones stood with him through the whole night: from whom it is said and wonderfully testified, that the whole of that night, placed in such a burden of illness, he led wakeful, and prostrate on the ground for the flock committed to him remained in prayer.

[3] April 18 carried to the church, With morning made, with all the Clergy coming and all the Roman people, he ordered them to lead him to his marble tomb in the church: which done, he ordered the bed, on which he was lying, to be sent into the church. But the Romans seeing his tomb to be carried to the church, rushed in with one accord going to the Lateran palace that they might despoil it, as was their custom: but such was the merit and virtue of the most blessed Leo, that not one could proceed, nor enter within the palace. Seeing these things, all confused and terrified with fear, with great shame they returned. Meanwhile the most blessed Pontiff, when he had ordered his couch to be carried into the church of St. Peter, having convoked all the faithful who were present, ordered them to sit and with attentive ears to hear his precepts. Who sitting with utmost silence, he said ^d: Brothers and fellow-servants of our Lord Jesus Christ, he gives salutary admonitions to those present, be mindful of the precepts of God, and walk in good acts, while you still have light. For I command that no one presume to buy a villa or vineyard or land, or any thing pertaining to the rule of the holy Church for the purpose of holding by possession to his own use: he who shall presume to do this, without doubt will incur the wrath of the eternal judge. Likewise I command that the use of swearing be blotted out from your heart: for you are known to have incurred many perjuries, which I for God's sake have released to you, although you again fell into the same. Besides I charge you all, that you do not mingle with your consanguineous women. Likewise I command that to men coming from almost all parts to pray to God and his Apostle, for their own and all Christians' salvation, no one show hindrance: I also command that of all the fruits of the earth which God shall have given you, and of the animals, you give the first-fruits to him; unless you shall do such things, you cannot be saved.

[4] Saying these and similar things to the people, he called near himself all the Bishops and Clerics, with whom making a true confession and having turned thence toward the East, lying on his little bed he gazed at the holy Cross, he pours forth various prayers, and drenched with tears prayed for a very long time; and remitting the sins of those, who canonically had been bound by him, he absolved them: rather also all the others; If you shall keep, he said, what I have commanded you, let indulgence be given you for past evils. And saying these things again he looked to heaven, and thus prayed: Lord Jesus Christ, good Pastor, who through your Gospel ^e yesterday deigned to say: I am the good shepherd, who for my sheep lay down my life,

You pious Shepherd descended from heaven, and overshadowed Bl. Mary with the Holy Spirit, and him whom the whole world cannot contain wonderfully dwelt in her womb alone, and put on the servile form for us sinners, and chose twelve Apostles, to whom you granted the proper license of binding and loosing, and made Peter the Apostle the foundation of the Church, saying to him: Whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. Matt. 16:19 You, Lord, said: Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you; therefore I beseech your clemency and ask, that to me, whom you wished unworthy to reside on his most holy chair, chiefly for the state of the Church, you may deign to grant my petition with accustomed piety. Matt. 7:7 For I ask that you keep your Holy Catholic Church, spread through the whole world; grant her peace; from visible and invisible enemies protect her and defend her, and drive away all the depravity of heretics and perfidy from her. I also entreat your clemency, that to your faithful ones our brothers, who for defending the holy Catholic and Apostolic Church have poured out their blood, you grant absolution of all sins, and order them to be associated in the number of those, who for your name have laid down their souls; that all the faithful may know, that you are the faithful remunerator of all good things. I also implore, conversion of heretics and the excommunicated: immense God, your clemency, that all depravity of infidels or heretics you break, that they may know you to be the true God Jesus Christ. I also beseech your piety, that of all, who have been anathematized or excommunicated, the bonds and sins you may deign to absolve, and make them to be truly converted to your truth, that they may know that I acted not conquered by envy, but to confirm the truth of faith, and let your most pious blessing be shown upon them. Lord Jesus Christ, who said to your Apostles: Into whatever house or city you shall enter, say, Peace be to this house; I ask your piety, peace to the regions in which he was, that to whatever city or province I have walked, you grant peace and concord to those who for your peace and blessing received me, and in your name did obedience to me. Luke 9:4 For you said: Who receives you receives me, and who receives me, receives him who sent me. Matt. 10:40 Lord, who not by my merits, but by your piety, made me Vicar of your Apostle Peter, and gave the power of binding and loosing; deign to bless the servants and handmaidens of the whole province, through which I have walked: and those whom I have seen with my eyes and bodily blessed, let them be spiritually filled and you may deign to absolve them from all sins, and make fruitful in them the preaching which I preached to them: and command the perfidy of the Jews or heretics to come to their senses, and deign to convert them through the whole world to you and to fulfill your will: and to all provinces and cities, through which your servant has walked, give fullness of wheat, wine, and oil, that they may know that I walked in your name, as you commanded the Apostles: Go into all the world, preach the Gospel to every creature. Mark 16:14 I indeed walked in your command, taught, besought, rebuked. You know; all were done faithfully: but because you are a pious father, deign to convert all your adversaries to your piety, that they may know you to be the true God, who are blessed through the ages of ages. Then all who were there responded, Amen.

[5] In that hour such a great odor proceeding from the altar of St. Peter the Apostle filled the whole church, that no one of men thought it was other than the pleasant odor of Paradise. This done he ordered a golden cup to be brought to him, ^f full of bread and wine. Which having been brought, he ate of it as much as he could take in his mouth, and ordered it to be given to the Bishops present, who similarly eating from it gave it to all standing by; and for the conversion of Simoniacs: This thus performed he raised his eyes to heaven, and prayed secretly for as long as the space of one hour: and after raising his voice, mildly he said: Great God, Redeemer of the human race, who through your Apostles Peter and Paul commanded the perfidy of Simon to fall from on high with your name invoked: as you deigned to hear them, so deign to hear me your servant, and convert to yourself Theophylact and Gregory and Peter who in almost the whole world have solidified the Simoniac heresy: and so make them know the way of truth, that they may leave behind their error, and to you, most gentle Lord, approaching the tomb, return. For you promised saying: I do not wish the death of the sinner but that he be converted and live: recall them from error, you who converted Paul the persecutor; convert them, that they may know you the true God Father, Son and Holy Spirit: and all standing around responded, Amen. And again he said to those standing by: Go sons each to your own home, and at the first hour of tomorrow's day return to me. And soon he rose from the little bed, on which he was lying: and went to the tomb prepared for him; and leaning over it with tears said: See, Brothers, from such great riches and honors, how small and vile a little dwelling we await: for I so far filled with such great riches, and decorated with dignities, of all these I await only this marble, which you see. he professes the future resurrection, And raising his hand with the sign of the holy Cross he signed it: Blessed are you among stones, who not by my dignity but by the mercy of God, have been worthy to be associated with me: receive me with joy, and at the time of retribution present me on the couch of resurrection. For I believe that my Redeemer lives, and on the last day from the earth I am to rise, and in my flesh I shall see God my Savior. And this he said weeping.

[6] He passes the night in prayer: ^g And returning to his little bed, he blessed all who were there: of whom some returned to their own homes, some persevering with him afterwards reported to us, that they had heard him persevering through the whole night in great prayers, and had publicly heard him praying: Lord God of hosts, look upon me your servant, and hear my prayer, and deign through your grace to hear all praying to you in truth: grant that your preaching may not be empty to all hearing it, but show your truth in us; and where your name has been invoked through me your servant, deign to hear those who invoke from whatever tribulation they shall have cried: and if there shall be any of the faithful who wish to note my anniversary memory, either through churches or through the distribution of alms, deign, Lord, to restore to them a hundredfold, and after this age grant them eternal life. Not for my dignity, but for your goodness I ask this; for you said: Ask and you shall receive. Matt. 7:7 I ask unceasingly that I may be heard by you, so that to you may you give grace to the faithful. I knock that you may open your doors to me. I do not seek according to my merit, but according to your piety: I do not knock according to my justice, but according to your great mercy. I do not ask that my name be exalted, who have not merited such gifts: but that you may deign to exalt the Apostolic See, for your name Lord, who are blessed through the ages of ages. Amen.

[7] He is visited by SS. Peter and Paul: But on the following night certain religious men saw a not dissimilar vision, two men clad in most white garments standing before the little bed of the aforementioned Pontiff, holding a charter in their hands, speaking with him and writing, whom ^h they truly recognized to be the Apostles of Christ Peter and Paul. Seeing this they rose from sleep: and the bells began to be struck at the morning time. And when the day had shone, with all the Bishops, Priests and Deacons gathered, April 19 and all the Clergy and Roman people in the church of Bl. Peter; he rose from the little bed, governed here and there by his two ministers, to the sacred altar of Bl. Peter himself: before which when weeping he had prostrated himself to the ground, he prayed as for the space of one hour: and returning to the little bed ordered silence to be made, admonishing the people in a brief sermon. Hence he fortified his body with the sign of the most glorious Cross of Christ, and with the Bishops called made confession, and having taken the sacred Eucharist and ordered Mass to be sung for him by one of the Bishops: from whom receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, he said: Hear for the Lord's sake, keep silence, perhaps I could on account of weariness take a little sleep: and when he had inclined his head into the bed, for about half an hour he rested: in which quietude he fell asleep in peace. Then one of the Bishops rose and touched him, thinking he was alive: whom when he had known to be deceased, he announced to the other Coepiscopi who were present, that all should pray to the Lord. I am about to say wonderful things, he piously dies, which the Lord has deigned in his own doings. At the hour in which the excellent Prelate commended his soul to Christ, with none of the ministers striking it, the bell sounding of its own accord: by itself the bell of St. Peter began to sound. At which hour namely a certain one named Albert, and five others from the city of Todi attested that they had seen as it were a street adorned with shining palls and shining with innumerable lamps, the soul seen by an Angel, to be led among lamps to heaven, in which his soul was being led by Angels ⁱ to heaven. So great therefore was the quiet at his death through the whole Roman city, that not even the leaves of trees did the air slightly stir. But the most blessed Pope Leo died on the 13th day before the Kalends of May, feria IV, and was buried in peace. For truly God by his piety made pious Leo. But lest the slowness of time seize me, let me approach those things which I am about to say: for these few things we have wiped from his life from many; but about the miracles, which the Lord has deigned through him to show after his passage, let us faithfully teach.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

Miracles after death up to the vigil of the Ascension.

[8] On the day April 20 But on another day after his death, a certain woman from the parts of Tuscany came to the Church of the Blessed Apostle: and when she had begun to ascend through the steps, the demon began to vex her and to cry through her mouth, and to say, O St. Leo, why do you draw me bound with fiery chains? I never harmed you. And when she had been led to his tomb, those standing by began to rebuke the demon and say: Tell, cursed one, how you came here, [the demon confesses from the mouth of a possessed woman how he secretly invades men] or whence have you taken such strength against Christians for vexing. The demon responded: I and those who are with me, are sent to subvert the soul of man, and so long to tempt until we accomplish the fulfillment of our mandates. And when obeying us he consents to serve, his body as our own house we enter, which indeed for much time we dwell secretly. Then some of the Priests said: Tell, wicked one, and when you dwell secretly in man's body, how do you then first harm him. The demon responded: First we begin to put in him sleepiness, laziness and hunger: and while sleeping and being lazy he rests, we acquire the greatest gain. And when we have subjected his whole body to our power, it happens that he goes to church, and mingles with good and Catholic men: whose spiritual eloquence not being able to bear, and openly, excited with wrath we begin to tear his body, because we cannot be hidden any longer. Then said one of the Bishops standing by: I adjure you by him who lives in the ages of ages, that you tell us, if Leo the servant of God and Pope enjoys any power among the Saints. But he with groaning and sighing said: O wicked one, why did you name that adversary of ours and seducer of the whole province, through whom so great a nation has been subverted, and separated from our fellowship; he also daily expels us and constrains us with the bonds of chains, and casts us out of our dwellings: whence wandering and unstable and venal, walking through deserts and unfruitful places, we never find rest in anything. she being dismissed, And the Bishop said: You do not respond to what I asked: but you seem to note other things. And the demon responded. Leo, your Pope and Lord, is truly among the Saints, among whom he obtains a great triumph: who does not cease daily to pursue us, that he may be able to empty our name: through whom today I am to be cast out of this house. With him saying such things, a certain woman responded, among the others of perfidious mind, saying: In the hour in which Pope Leo shall have put demons to flight, I shall be Queen; and all whom he caused to be destroyed by the sword, I shall at once resuscitate. Scarcely had she completed such words, suddenly by the demon she began to be cruelly vexed; but that woman, he invades another blasphemer against St. Leo, who had come from the parts of Tuscany, at the same hour was freed from the demon. Then all the people who were present began to be terrified with fear, crying out with one accord, Holy Leo, spare us because we have acted unjustly.

[9] In that hour two contracted men came to his tomb, having knotted and twisted knees, 2 contracted are healed, whose heels adhered to their buttocks: who coming, returned healed, having no sign of their former infirmity. On the same day at the vesper hour, came a certain man mute and deaf, a mute and deaf man, and having his left side dried, and wholly stained with a certain phantasm; who when he had been carried to the sacred tomb, was loosed from the bonds by which his body was held. Then all began to honor God the author of salvation with continuous praises, who works such wonders through his Holy Pontiff Leo. The Romans therefore seeing such virtues, ran in rivalry with candles and offerings, rejoicing and exulting.

[10] But on another day came a certain man from France, who had his body constricted with an iron girdle, April 21 one constricted with an iron girdle is freed: so that around the body much pus was running down to the ground: which those present seeing stopped up their nostrils for excessive fear and stench, entreating the Lord, that through the merits of St. Leo he would deign to succor that wretched man. Wonderful thing! At once the iron cracked, and with much pus poured out the man was restored utterly to health: at which all rejoicing, began to praise God and his servant St. Pontiff.

[11] In that hour the demon through the mouth of that woman who above had said, In the hour in which Pope Leo shall have put demons to flight, I shall be Queen; and those whom he caused to be destroyed by the sword, I shall resuscitate; began to cry saying: Alas alas! why do we enter and are forced to go out with torments? We did no harm to you Leo, why do you not permit us to rest even for one hour? possessed the day before by a demon, Then the Bishops who were present said: Cursed one, return whence you came here, and go out from her. Who responded: I cannot return whence I went out, because it is sealed: for yesterday I went out from my house, and this one in exchange I received. And the Bishop said: And why do you go out voluntarily from this one? He responded: Because Leo gave her to me to possess yesterday, because of the blasphemies which she spoke against him: but yet he is unstable, and his speeches are not true: yesterday he gave us, and today he will cast us out of this dwelling. Then said the Bishop: And whence do you know that today he will cast out? The demon responded: You saw yesterday, when he loosed a mute tongue, at that hour he proceeded with ^b Mark Bishop of Apulia and with Marcian Bishop ^c of the Frequentine Church to Benevento. The Bishop said: For what cause did they proceed. The demon responded: I do not know, many things about St. Leo but I know that they are in Apulia, where the Normans committed battle against the Saints. The Bishop said: Truly are the Germans holy, who are there killed? The demon says: Thirty and five are sanctified of them, through whom signs and wonders happen in that place, and about those killed in Apulia he spoke, because they came willingly and with fidelity preferred to fight for justice. The others who died there are all in paradise, but because they came unwillingly, they are by no means counted among those. Those thirty-five also came by their own will, and rejoicing gave themselves to death, for the God whom they worshiped: and through them many evils grow against us. The Bishop said: Did those Saints come to Rome? The demon responded: Truly, he said, today they will come with Pope Leo. Some of the Priests said, who were present: And whence shall we know when they come here? Or when shall we be able to know? The demon responded: Quickly now they are near Rome: and when they come I shall no longer be able to stand here. For here are also other brothers of mine; when they come, all with me will seize flight. But you look at the lamp before his image, and you will know the sign of their coming. Then truly according to the demon's word, at about the fourth hour, a great odor was made through the whole church; and those looking at the lamp, saw it ascend near the roof of the church, with which also three lamps seemed to burn. In the very hour the demon began to howl like a wolf, and vexing the woman a little went out from her. she is freed. Then those standing around began to praise God and Bl. Leo his servant. d

[12] On the third day after the burial of Bl. Pope Leo the Ninth, On April 22 two contracted men are healed, two miracles were done at his tomb, namely two men, who had long lain before the doors of the Prince of the Apostles: contracted, through the merit of Bl. Pope Leo they went away erect, and almost the whole city knew this, which had before seen them contracted. A certain woman, and another contracted for 16 years: languishing and contracted for the space of sixteen years, lying on a bed, was carried to his tomb: and because she faithfully believed, she returned thence healed and erect: and this likewise is known to the citizens. But another woman from the Lateran, Stephana by name, wife of a certain Peter, a possessed woman is freed: having a demon, came to his tomb: where vomiting blood and rolling herself, she brought forth three black coals from her mouth: with which also the demon departed, and she with sense received praising God returned.

[13] In the Greater Litany, at his tomb a lamp was lit by divine fire. Nor was this done once, but twice and thrice, April 23 a lamp is lit of its own accord: and all the Roman multitude which on that day flowed to the Church of Bl. Peter saw this. In the Merculana ^e region a certain woman, Rogata by name, having a demon from her infancy, having heard of the miracles came to the tomb: a woman possessed from infancy is freed, where lying she brought forth unclean spirits, namely first a mouse with three heads, second a little frog, third a lizard, fourth a frog, fifth a ^f hornet: and after much effusion of blood, was restored to health, with many witnesses proving it not only by hearing but also by sight. A certain woman, by name Stephania, dwelling across the Tiber, another possessed for a long time: vexed by a demon for a long time, hearing the fame of the blessed Body came, and vomited two coals together with much blood. Which done she was restored to health, and with mind recovered she was seen by all standing by to return free. In the region of ^g Arenula, a certain man dwelt named John, a withered hand is cured: who with nerves contracted, had a withered hand from his mother's womb. He coming to the tomb of the blessed man, brought it back extended and strong.

[14] Two penitents bound with iron are freed: A certain man, coming from distant regions, in penitence bound with iron, stood before the tomb: and while for a long time lying in prayer he was weeping for his committed things, by the gift of Divine piety, the iron, where it had been more solid, cracked. A certain Nun, similarly bound with iron, approached the little place; and in the same way loosed from the iron, blessing the Lord who is wonderful in his Saints, a contracted man is healed, returned safe to her own things. In one day two young men were restored to health, of whom one having his mouth twisted to his right ear, and a withered hand with the whole side: whom his mother by name Mary, wife of John of Orbitanum, weeping carried on her shoulders; but with a double happy miracle, rejoicing she returned with her son, and this one is known to all dwelling at St. Angelo. But the other from infancy deprived of the office of both hands, restored to health, lives by the labors of his hands.

[15] With many standing by a certain mute man received speech, named Guido, born from Casamala. A mute man and 3 contracted A certain boy, Peter by name, received the office of the right hand. A certain boy from the region of the Colosseum, had a withered right hand, with the whole side and foot: whom his mother, Stephania by name, weeping carried to the tomb itself; and he was restored to health with many standing by and seeing. A certain man, Benedict by name, ^h a Phlebotomist, dwelling in the region Septemviis, full of ulcers, full of ulcers, having heard of the miracles came to the tomb; and there through the merit of the blessed Pontiff, was made whole, so that not even a sign of the scar appeared in his flesh. A certain man, Majus by name, from ⁱ Palliano, dwelling across the Tiber, vexed by a demon for fifteen years, possessed for 15 years having heard the fame of the blessed man, came to his tomb, and vomited two ^k blattulae, with much blood, with which also the demon departed. A certain youth, a blind man, a mute man, Franco by name, who had been blind, received the light, nephew of the doorkeeper of St. Mary de Monte acuto. A certain youth from the City of Tivoli, John by name, son of John, mute from his mother's womb, with many standing by received speech.

[16] A certain man Benedict by name, dwelling in the Campus Martius, had a son named Gratian, one contracted in foot, who had a withered left foot. He through the merit of Bl. Leo being restored to health, rejoicing returned with his father. A certain man named Peter, a mute, son of Nuccius the phlebotomist, inhabitant of the same region, mute from his mother's womb, with many standing by received speech. A certain woman from Fallari, vexed by a demon, possessed came to the tomb, and there was freed. ^l A certain woman from Aquapendente, having a withered hand, contracted in hand, having heard of the miracles came to the place, and received the office of her hand. A certain man, born from the Tuscan parts, having a withered hand, through the merit of Bl. Leo was restored. A certain woman, Mary by name, dwelling in the castle of Cornazano, having a withered left hand, came to the tomb: and there was healed. Another woman, Beatrix by name, from the Apulian parts, having a withered right hand, likewise was restored to health. A certain Youth there received sight through the merits of Bl. Leo. A certain woman, Ermengard by name, a blind man, widow of Peter the weaver from Castro vico ^m, having a withered left hand, through the merit of Bl. Pope Leo, with many seeing, 2 women contracted in hand. received the office of her hand.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

Miracles performed from the Vigil of the Ascension to beyond the Octave of Pentecost.

[17] On May 11 a deaf woman, a blind woman, a possessed woman are healed, On the vigil of the Lord's Ascension, through the intercession of the most blessed Pope Leo, three women were healed: one received her hand, another hearing, another sight. On the vigil of the night of the Lord's Ascension, a certain woman, Berta by name, servant of Peter the artisan, who is called "de Udo," dwelling in the region ^a of Campitello, having a demon, there was freed. On the same night vigil, a woman contracted in both hands: a certain woman whose name we do not know, received healed her both hands, which she bore contracted. Which done a certain miracle happened there wonderfully. A certain John of Civitate, dwelling in the region of Campus Martius, took in his hand a candle lit from the tomb of the same most blessed Pope Leo and extinguished it. Which done, while he was holding it securely extinguished, he suddenly saw it lit. Whom he, believing it had not been well extinguished, again extinguished. And who can investigate the miracles of God? Again it lit itself in his hand. This candle also has been preserved in testimony.

[18] On the day of the Lord's Ascension was healed a girl ^b Amata by name: May 12 a girl contracted in feet, blind for 15 years begotten by father Engelbert. They were from the parts of Campania from Rocca de Risa: but she was so contracted that she never walked on her feet. Another girl, Mary by name, daughter of Cica, who dwelt in the region of Arenula, received light, who for fifteen years had not seen. A certain boy born of a rustic father, contracted in side, from the city of Orta, was so contracted, that he did not have one side in his power: but the Lord through the merit of the most holy Pontiff healed him, 2 blind, and with his side received, with his rejoicing father he vowed a vow to him, and returned safe. And it was almost the middle hour of the night; when he wonderfully healed two blind men: one was called Pipo, but the other Adalbert: These were from the city of ^c Lama. And a certain one, Randifius by name, wounded in foot, son of Berard Count of Marsica, who was struck with a lance, and so drawn up, that he could not place one foot on the ground; but with God commanding, contracted in hands and feet, through the merit of the blessed Pontiff he returned whole. A certain girl entirely with hands and feet, was so contracted that she was never able to walk, nor to bring her hand to her mouth; and through the merit of Bl. Leo, received the office of her limbs, and returned whole.

[19] On the day next after the Lord's Ascension, two women who were vexed by an unclean spirit, May 13 2 possessed: through the merit of the holy man, were restored to their pristine health. The Investment of the Pillow, which is a great and unheard miracle, a certain servant of Amantius the Deacon went to wash, which was properly from the bed of the most blessed Pope Leo. From which while she was wringing the water, she held it between her legs, a woman paralytic and full of ulcers, and so the middle part of her body was stupefied, as if she had paralysis. But to this evil another supervened: for she was seen full of ulcers in the same part of the body, and she came to the tomb of Bl. Leo, and returned whole.

[20] May 14 a woman with contracted arm, A certain girl, Rogata by name, daughter of Mary, on the seventh feria with the month of May beginning, on the fourteenth day of the same month, came to his venerable sepulcher, bearing her left arm contracted; and by his holy suffrage obtained the benefit of health, and she was from the castle which is called ^d Stabla. A certain one from the city of Florence, with his servants, came to the tomb of the same most blessed Leo blind; and with divine grace accompanying received light, a blind man, and for great joy which he had thence, he gave those servants their liberty. A certain Roman, Adalbert by name, a blasphemer against St. Leo is freed from a demon, while he was cutting his vineyard with iron, it happened that he did not fear to speak basely of the Lord Apostolic Leo. But that crime did not escape without fault: because the malignant spirit suddenly invaded his body, and began to vex him gravely. But this was done while he was living. But with divine grace favoring, when after his death he came to his sepulcher, through his merit he was healed.

[21] On May 22 a mute, A certain Grimoald by name, from St. Benedict, from Monte Cassino, on the Sunday which is called Pascha ^e Rosata, came to the tomb of the Blessed Pontiff so mute with illness that no one could understand his speech: but with God's grace favoring through the merit of Bl. Leo he received right speech. A certain boy, who was from Verona contracted in both feet, contracted in feet, with God's grace accompanying, through the merit of the blessed man there was healed and returned with his parents. a possessed woman, A certain woman from Aquapendente was snatched from a demon, on the same night which is called of Pascha Rosata. A certain boy, Petrunculus by name, from Siena, contracted in hands and feet, came with his parents to the tomb: for he was contracted in feet and hands. Whom I, when at the request of the Sienese who for his ^f soul had brought him, I had raised at the tomb of the Blessed Pontiff; suddenly with me seeing, before all the people, he received the office of his limbs. A certain Priest Franco by name, from the town of Cora ^g, was vexed for five years, and when on the Lord's Day which is called Pascha Rosata, a possessed man he had been led to the tomb of the same most holy man, at once vomited the demon with blood, falling to the earth dead. And when all the people wished to carry him off, because they saw him lifeless, with divine grace favoring, through the merit of Bl. Leo he returned to life whole, with all the people who were present giving thanks to the Lord and the Saint.

[22] a girl contracted in hands, A certain man Benedict by name, brought his daughter, Bona by name, for the cause of receiving health, to the tomb of the blessed Pontiff, who was contracted in both hands: but with divine grace favoring through the merit of the Blessed Pontiff she received the joys of health. ^h There was in the Marsican villa of Monte, a certain woman from the city of Spoleto long blind: a blind woman, who while she was seeking the sepulcher of the blessed man for the sake of prayer; in the Sabine Bishopric, before she came to the place where his body rests, through the merit of the holy Pontiff received light, and completed the journey she had begun rejoicing. A certain boy from the aforesaid city, having five years, a mute and lame, and from birth lacking walking and speech, led with the help of his parents to the sepulcher of the Saint, through his merit received walking and speech together. another lame man. Likewise another of the same

territory, seven years old, for three years lacked walking of the feet: but when he approached the sepulcher of the Bishop, through his merit he was suddenly raised up. 2 lame men, A certain ⁱ boy, Leo by name, from Monte Cassino, on the same Sunday came so lame that he could by no means walk without two sustaining staffs: but through the merit of the Bl. Pontiff without a leader, with the staffs cast aside, carried back with him health of his limbs. A certain boy, who was drawn up in both feet, with the people watching was wonderfully stretched out: soon he who never walked, began to go running to the chest of St. Peter; and the innumerable multitude who were present, rendered immense praises to the Lord God and St. Leo.

[23] On the thirty-second ^k day of the deposition of the same Pontiff, May 21 a mute; a certain mute from the Bishopric of Castellanum, from a certain parish of the same Bishopric, which is called Graciolum, came to the sepulcher of the already said Pontiff: where in the presence of ^l his Bishop and many who recognized him, he received speech, of which thing witness is the Ordaining Bishop who well recognized him. A certain little monk from Monte Cassino, mute, deaf, blind, and contracted in hand for 9 years named John, was mute and deaf and blind and drawn up in his right hand: and these sufferings he bore in his body for nine years. But when he had heard that the miracles of our most holy Confessor Pope Leo were daily divulged, he vowed a vow to him in his heart, that if the blessed Pope saved him by his prayers, he would come to his tomb with candles. When he had said these things, suddenly with divine grace regarding him, he received the pristine health of his body; and so he appeared healthy as if he had never had these infirmities. But when he saw himself healthy, the vow which he had vowed to the Lord and the most holy Confessor, he fulfilled, and came to his tomb, and gave him praises, and with all the people who were present there rejoicing announced, how God through his Confessor had deigned to give him back his pristine health. A certain Peter by name, from the city of Gaeta, came with his little son John, who had his left side with a withered hand for seven years, at the fame of the most holy Leo with the same son for the cause of receiving health. contracted in hand and side. And when the son was kissing the tomb, and the father was weeping, with divine grace regarding him the boy received pristine health, and rejoicing with his father returned to his own things.

[24] A certain old woman, Mary Marsicana by name, from the castle of Alvus, May 23 2 possessed, was vexed by a demon for thirty years: but on the second feria, which is next to Pentecost, at the ninth hour of the day, she vomited the demon in the manner of a fly. But another woman, Berta by name, from the land of St. Benedict, on the same day and hour vomited the demon with a fetid vomiting: thanks be to God and the most holy Pontiff, who restored her to health.

[25] May 29 a blind man, A certain little one, who for a long time had been blind at the ninth hour on the octave of Pentecost received light: his father was called Arnulf, and he was indeed from the land of St. Benedict. A certain man, Lodoicus by name, from the land of Forcone, drawn up in the knees, with his son who was drawn up in the knees, came to the tomb of the most blessed Confessor: and while they were sitting beside the tomb, with the father praying and weeping, suddenly our most holy Pope conferred on him the gifts of health. Thus he, who was never able to walk without staves, casting them aside, before all the people who were present, from the altar of Bl. Peter began firmly to go running; and he with his father rendered praises to him, who through the merits of Bl. Leo had healed him. On the same day a certain woman, who for a long time had been gravely vexed by a demon, a possessed woman came: who when she kissed the tomb, immediately through the vomiting of blood the ancient enemy deserted the dwelling of her body, and she received health. But she was from the land, which is called ^m Camerino. A certain girl, Laeta by name, who was drawn up in her left hand, with her mother, with God's grace accompanying, came to the tomb: and when she had touched the Saint, suddenly her hand, with hand drawn up, which she had lost through paralysis, she received healed.

[26] There was a certain woman in the city of Rome, who was buying and selling pepper and thyme: a woman on account of a buyer deceived by witchcraft, when a certain simple man had come from the parts of Croatia, he bought from the same woman thyme, which he would bring to the tomb of Bl. Pope Leo. Who being poisoned by the malefices of the woman, gave a denarius, and it seemed to him that he received much: but he received nothing. And when he had gone to the tomb, prostrate in prayer he rose, and sending into his sack his hand to bring out the thyme, he found it having nothing. Then he began to proclaim with great voices saying: O holy Leo, among the Roman heretics you have wished to stay: I if I go into my own home, will speak very much blasphemy about you, unless I be avenged from that evil-doing and wicked woman. On the same day, while that woman was in her porch doing evil business, sending her hand into her sack that she might sell pepper, she found it full of little serpents, by which she brought out her wounded hand. with hand wounded by serpents, Recognizing therefore her guilt, she ran to the tomb of Bl. Leo, before all the people manifesting her misdeeds. Then all who were present, seeing the hand of the woman wholly wounded by serpents, were stupefied, terrified with great fear. But the woman not enduring the pains, cried with great voices: St. Leo most blessed Pope, forgive me wicked, and free me from the torments of these serpents with which I am cruelly crucified. Then he who had bought from her that thyme, seeing this, began to say: You are worthy, most blessed Leo, of great honors, you who protect those coming to you, and constrain the deeds of the wicked: I rejoice indeed in the virtue of your triumph: be not angry, I pray, with me unworthy because I shall have spoken wicked things against you: have mercy on me. But the woman did not cease to cry: St. Leo succor me, have mercy, and free me from these torments which I suffer: for I promise at no time to exercise the worst businesses which I have done. As she was saying these things with tears, and the others who were present together with that simple man praying for her; divine clemency was present, and freed that woman from the plague; who receiving full health, gave that man triple what she had before taken from him: and all who saw and heard this, blessed God and St. Leo his servant.

ANNOTATIONS.

MIRACLES PERFORMED AT BENEVENTO.

Partly from a Beneventan Ms. published by Ferdinand Ughelli in the Beneventan Bishops, partly received from the Strozzi Ms.

Leo IX, Roman Pontiff (St.)

BHL Number: 4822, 4823, 0000

FROM MSS.

UGHELLI'S PREMONITION.

[27] It is not to be passed over, that from Prelate ^a Walderic Leo IX Supreme Pontiff flew to heaven: to whom after his death, when he had shone with many miracles, This History drawn out from a Beneventan Ms.: the Beneventan people built within the walls of the city a church in his name, to the most holy man, and well-deserving of his ^b city, and each year with solemn rite and display they began to celebrate it: on whose account also his miracles, performed in the Beneventan region through his merits, they caused to be consigned to letters. Which when our Celestinus had found written in letters of Lombard in a most ancient codex in the Beneventan library, he faithfully transcribed, and transmitted to me: that for augmenting piety in this place we might present it to readers. Which we gladly did, since in these things some things are contained, which by others, who committed the life of the most holy Pontiff to letters, were omitted. The author is anonymous and a contemporary of Leo.

ANNOTATIONS.

HISTORY OF THE MIRACLES.

[28] With the fame of the miracles of the most blessed Leo long divulged, at Benevento began to be built in his honor a church: so that, whom the Beneventan citizens had seen alive held in prison by the Normans, now dead and enjoying the heavenly spaces, They are healed they might venerate. Meanwhile it happened ^a that a certain Nicholas from the Castle of Molliniana and Berard from the place of Carrara, of whom one with his right arm lost, with his hamstrings and sinews drawn up; but the other having suffered cold and fever even to dysentery; one contracted and one dysenteric when both had caused themselves to be carried to the aforesaid church, which was being constructed at Benevento, immediately by the judgment of all they recovered their health despaired of.

[29] A certain peasant from the town of ^b Ordonum when he was annually devotedly celebrating the feast of Bl. Leo it happened that because of excessive oppression of labors, which in the field

he was bearing, on the Lord's Day, when the feasts are announced to the people, he had not in the least approached the church. But the feast day of St. Leo was on the following ^c fifth feria; which was unknown to the aforesaid peasant. a little boy snatched by a wolf He therefore rising very early in the morning, took with him a little boy, whom he had as his only son, and an axe and digging rake. As soon as he arrived at his field, he set down the aforesaid little boy to the bundle: but he began anxiously to dig. From another part a wolf with open mouth took his little boy, and seized flight. Which the father seeing from afar, began to run after the wolf, shouting these things: with St. Leo invoked he is preserved unharmed O Holy Leo, my Patron, help me now in the present, and return to me my only son. Which he had scarcely spoken, when behold the wolf let go of the boy so unharmed, that in his garments not even a trace of the wolf's teeth appeared, in that part in which the wolf had snatched him. Therefore the peasant returning to the town, told all these things: and sensing that the same day was the anniversary in memory of Bl. Leo, he bound himself by a new vow, solemnly to keep it each year. And thus not only at Benevento, but through the whole shore of Apulia, the name of Leo escaped as most famous: with God so disposing, that he in the same places, in which a few years before with his and the Church's army routed, he himself had been held a captive; afterwards with the fame of his miracles increasing, the same who had stood against him in battle, suppliants and reverent venerated his memory, and more and more showed themselves faithful toward the holy Church, to the praise and glory of the omnipotent God, whose name through all ages be blessed. Amen. ^d

[30] These are the miracles which God wished to be done through the most blessed Leo his servant in Benevento. A certain John by name, from the castle with the name ^e Serra, contracted with headache from a certain occasion, a blind man is healed, namely while he was beating grains of barley in the area, by the flight of one grain of the same fruit into his eye covered with darkness he could not see the light; whom the virtue of God and of St. Pope Leo first at Benevento cured, with the light restored to him. ^f Likewise a certain little boy, contracted in arm, having his arm at the shoulder with nerves stupefied for the space of seven years, coming to the aforesaid church, which was being constructed at Benevento in honor of Bl. Pope Leo, by the mercy of God and his prayers, received his pristine health. But another John from the region of a certain city, with the name ^g Vicus, when he had suffered paralysis, lost the office of his tongue and arms and other limbs, a paralytic, for three years, so that he could not walk, except creeping with stools on the ground: but in the same church he received pristine health. Again another John, from the castle with the name ^h Celone, when against God's law he struck his mother, by divine vengeance losing four toes and two fingers of his hands from the bite of a cancer; wounded in toes and fingers, with the sinews also of his legs contracted (so that not well erect, but with bent knees he walked to Benevento) on the way he was healed.

[31] Likewise a certain woman, with the name Uzancia from Benevento, of a certain Balzanus the Cleric, by chance fell from her bed: but by the ruinous fall her leg was so stupefied, that by no means walking, she lay in bed for three years with illness: bedridden for three years from an injury to her leg who at last when she invoked the help of Bl. Leo, was at once restored, and immediately to the aforesaid place, where the church was being constructed in his honor, she went, and gave thanks to God and Bl. Leo. Also the daughter of a noble woman, for one year lying infirm in bed, so that she could not in any way enter or leave, unless supported by the arms of her own: who, when ⁱ her blood was found and brought with hymns and praises into the Church of the Bishopric, another sick for a whole year: led there and prostrated before the altar of the holy Mother of God, was immediately raised up and walked. A certain boy, Dominic by name, from the castle ^k of Vicari, seized by a demon, came to Benevento led by his mother; a possessed mute, whom so taken from the office of his tongue that he would in no way speak unless he were excessively beaten, and this two or three words no more, the merit of Bl. Leo rendered so healed, that he spoke rightly and expeditely.

[32] From the territory of the city with the name St. Agatha, ^l which is neighboring Benevento, it is narrated that a youth, Nicholas by name, a mute and paralytic, while he inhabited the vineyards with his father and brother after the month of May had passed, suddenly fell to the ground with the office of his tongue lost and all other limbs: which happening the father and brother greatly grieving began to weep: then finding an ass they placed him there and took him home. But on another day using better counsel, again placing him on a bed, they led him to Benevento to the aforenamed church, where by the merits of Bl. Leo he was restored to perfect health, to such a degree that he who had come mute and borne on others' shoulders, speaking the magnificent things of God, healthy and happy with swift step on his own feet returned to his own things, namely the castle whence he had come, ^m with the name Torre-licosi. A certain woman from the region of Murrone ⁿ of the city, vexed by many demons, hearing the rumor of the miracles of Bl. Leo, took up hope (which was not frustrated) that if she came to the already aforesaid basilica, a possessed woman from that demon she would be cured: which also she did: who while she was standing before the altar the demon, which was wont to deceive her, in the shape of a crow flew from her shoulders, and nowhere anymore vexed her: thus with God's grace favoring and the intercession of Bl. Leo she was cured from the demon.

[33] A certain one sprung from the city ^o, Confinia by name, having heard the fame of his signs came with others of the same place to Benevento; a sick man, and through the intercession of Bl. Pope Leo obtained the health which he had lost. A certain one contracted in arm, contracted in arm: when for six days he stayed in the aforesaid church, he was oppressed by sleep: but by the crowd of men he was compelled to flee and to watch. Who well watching rose, and felt divine help attributed to him: for he began to extend his arm, which with contracted nerves he had bound to his neck, and to turn it this way and that; and to do expeditely with it, what he was accustomed. Which when those present saw, they blessed omnipotent God and St. Leo. Again one youth and two girls on the festivity of Bl. Augustine obtained health there: of whom one girl was from the city of Monopoli, [p] the other from the Frequentine city: but the youth from the borders of Apulia, both he and the girl who had been born at Frequentum, for five years had lost the lights of their eyes: but with God's mercy being generous and the intercession of Bl. Leo, both on the same day began to see so as never better: but she who was from Monopoli, having one whole side lost, similarly obtained health through the merits of Bl. Pope Leo. To which spectacle the whole city of Benevento flowed together, having a lost side: and was witness of these three miracles, while in praise of God it resounded hymns and thanksgivings with loud voices.

[34] A certain woman, from the borders of Benevento, having an only daughter, who from infancy lacking the office of hands and feet, could by no means walk with all her nerves contracted or work with her hands. When she had heard the fame of miracles which in the aforesaid church Christ through his servant most holy Leo deigned to work, contracted in hands and feet. placed by her mother on a little ass, was brought there. And when for six days she persevered lying there, and with very many restored to health she obtained no good, she said to her mother: Mother, since our sins surpass the merits of the Saint, let us quickly go from here: for we are unworthy to obtain health from him: whom soon her mother placed on the little ass, and they began to go to their own home. Truly the pious Lord never repels those asking him, and glorifies his Saints in all ways. For when she had prolonged from the church about five stadia, with her mother delaying a little, when she wished the little ass on which she was sitting to pause, the vehicle, which sustained her arm with her hand, fell to the ground: and immediately forgetful of her infirmity, as a healthy man, she gave herself down to the earth after the staff, that she might take it again and sit on the little ass. But when her feet touched the earth, she felt the virtue of Christ to have come upon her to such a degree, that her mother coming found her wholly most healthy, standing beside the little ass on expedited feet and whole body, and with clear voice praising the heavenly physician. Who soon returning to the church of St. Pope Leo, from which they had gone out, openly announced the virtue of the Lord to those meeting them, and there gave thanks and praises to Christ and St. Leo; with the people wondering and praising the very grace and glory and virtue of Christ who as he wishes, so glorifies his Saints everywhere, that they may always merit to obtain the praises of men, and with him without end in heaven among the Angels they may glory. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

than those two, distant from Benevento, yet scarcely less than 40 miles.

p Concerning Frequentina we treated above at num. 11 letter c. Monopoli is also an Episcopal city between Bari and Brindisi at the Adriatic sea.

TWO MIRACLES.

Described by Desiderius Abbot of Cassino, then Pope Victor III.

[35] After the death of the most blessed Pontiff Leo many and great miracles shone at his tomb, and in other places through him, with the Lord granting. Of which, with the rest omitted, I shall subjoin only two, for the sake of edification, as they were related to us by truthful men. ^a Pope Victor, who had succeeded him in the Sacerdotal rule, having heard the fame of his miracles, that through him the Lord worked such things, did not accommodate faith. But because, as the Apostle says, Tongues are for a sign not to the faithful but to the infidels, omnipotent Lord wished to teach him by experience what heard from many he by no means was willing to believe. 1 Cor. 14

[36] A certain Bishop of Chur ^b, whose name has escaped memory, with the above-mentioned Pope Victor coming from Germany, was staying at Rome in his service. He had a boy mute from his mother's womb, a mute born without a tongue, whom for the reward of his soul feeding and clothing, wherever he went, he was accustomed to lead with him, in whose empty mouth not even the trace of a tongue seemed to be. Which Bishop also, from the wonders at the tomb of Bl. Leo, similarly as the Pope, bore an incredulous mind. Therefore when on a certain day to the See of his Bishopric, with permission already received, he had decided to return; entering the church of Bl. Peter the Apostle for the sake of prayer, after he had more intently commended himself to Bl. Peter with his clients, with horses mounted, with the boy forgotten in the same church, to the tomb of St. Leo hastening he was walking along the way, which led him to his homeland, having gone out of the City. And when he was now some distance away from the City, suddenly it came to his memory, that he had left the mute boy in the church of Bl. Peter. Who at once stopped, and sent back some of his servants, by whom the boy was to be brought back. he speaks. Therefore when they had gone out of the basilica of the Prince of the Apostles, they see the boy standing before the tomb of Bl. Leo, and speaking with those standing around. To them therefore wondering, and asking how this had happened to him, the boy says: After my Lord, leaving me in this church, departed, I came here to the sepulcher of Bl. Leo; if perhaps the omnipotent Lord would deign to restore to me by his merits the office of voice, which I lacked. Nor was I defrauded of my vow, which I was seeking with heart: with the tongue growing: but as soon as I lay prostrate a little weeping before his venerable memorial, immediately with voice received speaking, as you yourselves see, I rose. From that day indeed, what is more wonderful, in his mouth the tongue, which had been lacking, began little by little to grow, so that within a few days with full mouth he perfectly received a tongue, and pronounced words without impediment. ^c Finally those who had been sent, took care to lead the boy to the Bishop, and whom he had left silent, with the intercession of Bl. Leo's merits they lead to him speaking. Therefore the Bishop having returned, approached the Roman Pontiff: and showed what the omnipotent Lord had deigned to work through Bl. Leo. From then they themselves began to proclaim his venerable merits to all, who before when others related them did not suffer to hear.

[2] The illustrious man Maximus, citizen of the Roman city, recently related to me about the same venerable Prelate, which I narrate. A certain Bernard of very wicked mind was a soldier, who to the Apostolic See showed himself contrary in all things, in whatever ways he could. But in a war, which was committed by neighbors staying near the City, conspiring with Cadalus Bishop of Parma ^d, who was then trying to invade the Apostolic See, with the soldiers, who were defending the Roman Church, pierced through, by the just judgment of God he died. This man therefore, having heard the fame of the miracles, a soldier blaspheming against St. Leo is punished, which omnipotent God was exhibiting through the merits of Bl. Leo to the faithful peoples; not only did not believe, but even with sacrilegious mouth derided and blasphemed. When at last on a certain day he appeared in the assembly of the people; and discourse about the signs and virtues of Bl. Leo had arisen among them, he began to laugh saying: If he is a Saint, as you say, let him contract my finger. And when he was restrained by those who stood by, that he should not say such things about a holy man; with the assembly dismissed he departed. When behold a dog by chance, which was following him, attacked a sow found in the street. But he, that the pig might not be torn apart, quickly ran, and with his hand thrust in wished to hold the dog: but soon the pig with open mouth bit his finger, and thus from that day all the time he lived having his finger contracted, he could by no means extend it. Whence it came about, that he who had presumed to mock the servant of God, himself with contracted finger was held as a mockery to all. These things said about so great a Father Bl. Leo suffice, because we hasten to narrate the deeds of others.

ANNOTATIONS.

ON BL. BERNARD THE PENITENT

AT SAINT-OMER IN BELGIUM.

A.D. 1182

Bernard the Penitent, at Saint-Omer in Belgium (Bl.)

G. H.

The ancient peoples of the Belgae, the Morini, inhabited their chief city Therouanne, under Christians an Episcopal one: which having been destroyed three Sees were erected, of Boulogne, Ypres and Saint-Omer. To this last St. Audomar Bishop of Therouanne gave the name, when before it was called Sithieu: which name long adhered to the monastery, In the Bertinian monastery there begun by St. Bertin, until that name being abolished it was called from its founder the Bertinian monastery, certainly one of the chief monasteries, which in Belgium excel for their antiquity and splendor. In this monastery flourished Abbot John, John the Abbot, fifth of this name, born from Ypres, who wrote the book of the Abbots of St. Bertin in the year, as he prefaces, 1434; and in chapter 45 treats of Lord Simon, second of this name and 45th Abbot, hands down these things about Bl. Bernard and among other things in the fourth part places this title: Of Lord holy Bernard the penitent, and his death: and then subjoins these things: Pope Alexander having died, Pope Lucius III succeeded, in whose second year, with Frederic II reigning, Philip II King of the Franks, Philip Count of Flanders, Desiderius Bishop of the Morini, and also in the 7th year of our Abbot Lord Simon, that is in the year of the Lord 1183, the sepulcher and example of holiness Lord Bernard, truly the penitent, from the borders of Montpellier, citizen of Maguelonne; after the worthy fruits of penitence, which he had done both publicly and privately; after pilgrimages and journeys, which seeking the patronages of the Saints he had made; finally having long conversed in this monastery, at last here under our Lord Abbot Simon taken on as a monk; snatched from this wicked world, migrated to the heavenly seats: and in this monastery, from the left side of the church, near the altar of St. Lawrence, where he himself living in body was accustomed to lie down in prayers, with much reverence is buried: whom on account of many miracles, which both in life and at his tomb came to pass, and his Life and miracles written. Ecclesiastical piety believes to have been added to the college of the Saints. Whose acts and miracles, in the booklet which is written about these and is with us, are contained in order. Thus there.

[2] This booklet is written partly by the command of the said Abbot Simon, partly at the request of other monks; and soon from the death of Bernard, which happened in the year 1182, not the following as above related. The author writes either things seen by him or faithfully known; but he himself was a Bertinian monk and called John, by John the monk, perhaps Simon's successor, Abbot 46, who presided over the already named monastery from the year 1187 until the year 1230. He himself almost always calls Bernard the penitent a Saint: an eyewitness: as is clear from the Acts, which we give described from the said Bertinian copy. There were at the heads of the Life rather long titles, which we omit, and in their place we give a marginal synopsis. Perhaps toward the end some miracles have been added by others, as also a double homily about him, which we also pass over, with only one miracle thence excerpted. Last there was an office, which formerly used to be sung in the church of St. Bertin, on the deposition of St. Bernard the penitent. That was, not of the most holy Trinity, such as now would be made for anyone not solemnly canonized; but from the ancient custom of Belgium, formerly accustomed to be kept in such cases for all the faithful departed in general, at the end of the Mass a Responsory was sung: Ecclesiastical office on the said April 19. The souls of the just are in the hand of God, And the torment of malice shall not touch them. They seemed in the eyes of the foolish to die, but they are in peace, Glory be to the Father, etc. The Responsory finished, the Priest said: The Saints shall exult in glory, etc. The Lord be with you. Let us pray: Be propitious, we beseech you, Lord, to us your servants, through the glorious merits of your Saints, whose relics are contained in the present church; that by their pious intercession we may always be fortified from all adverse things. Through our Lord, etc.

[3] The memory of Bernard the penitent on this April 19 with the title of Blessed is contained, memory in Martyrologies. in Molanus in the Natalia of the Saints of Belgium, Miraeus in the Belgian Fasti, Menard and Bucelinus in the Benedictine Martyrologies, Rosweyde in the Legend of the Saints of Belgium, published, Ferrari in the Catalog of the Saints, Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, who only attributes the title of blessed memory: but Simon Martin in the sacred Relics of the desert with the author of the life calls him Saint. Arnold Rays in the Belgian Hierogazophylacium page 100, asserts that Bl. Bernard the penitent rests in the chapel of St. Catherine. We here prefix the letters of the Bishop of Maguelonne, of which soon mention is made, and explication is made in the first chapter of the Life: but they are of this kind. John by the grace of God

Bishop of Maguelonne, Letters of the Bishop about the penitence enjoined to all the Rectors of the Catholic Church, to his subjects, eternal salvation in the Lord. Be it known to all of you, that to Bernard, bearer of the present letters, we have enjoined such penance for his horrible sins, that for up to seven years he walk with bare feet, not wear a shirt all the days of his life, fast forty days before the Nativity of the Lord on Lenten foods, on the fourth feria abstain from meat and lard, on the sixth feria eat nothing but bread and wine, on every sixth feria of Lent, and of the Ember-days drink nothing but water; on every Sabbath, except on solemn days and unless illness intervene, abstain from meat and lard. Wherefore we suppliantly beseech your clemency in Christ, that for the redemption of your souls the aforementioned penitent, because he is very poor, in victuals and clothes you may mercifully sustain, relieve with prayers, and from the penance enjoined on him benignly relax according as reason demands. Given at Maguelonne, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1170, in the month of October. For up to seven years only let it be valid. By the name "sagimen" in Caesarius and other writers of the Middle Ages is understood lard and all fleshy fat, for the condiment of foods, even of garden ones, sometimes accustomed to be used by others who otherwise abstain from meats. See Vossius De Vitiis sermonis book 3.

LIFE

By John Bertinian monk, From the Ms. Bertinian codex.

Bernard the Penitent, at Saint-Omer in Belgium (Bl.)

BHL Number: 1203

BY JOHN FROM THE MS.

PROLOGUE.

The Author by command of the Abbot noted the miracles: When St. Bernard had now entered into the joy of his Lord; and what he had received from the Lord, by open miracles he was showing: lest the divine works be hidden from the knowledge of posterity by our negligence, compelled by the command of Lord Simon the Abbot, I undertook to note down the miracles of the Saint. Whence some of my companions, having taken the occasion, for the devotion which they had toward the Saint, that about his penance or conversation I should write something, began instantly to demand. and by the request of others he wrote the Life: But because I thought these things could perhaps be displeasing to some, I gave assent unwillingly: but because again I did not dare to contradict fraternal charity, if I could, I wished to serve the services of St. Bernard; with the innocent Jonah I allowed myself to be thrown by my brothers into the sea; having swum out from which, by the help of God's grace, concerning the conversation of the Ninevites may I be able to rejoice.

[2] But considering in myself both my youthful age and the tenuity of my knowledge, he invokes God and Bl. Bernard: I invoke the help of God and the Saint, especially asking this, that from my labor I may both acquire the grace of the Lord, and may profit for the edification of the simple. But lest anyone accuse me of presumption or like stammerers, who always desire to speak what they cannot, believe that I have thrust myself into this; I testify to the Lord and the miracles of the Saint, that I would rather learn another's things even with shame, than shamelessly thrust forward my own. he permits his things to be emended by others, Therefore whoever intends either to correct what is vicious, or to add what has been omitted, or even to unfold what is superfluous; with my conscience as witness, I am not ready to be indignant with him, but to entreat that he receive a worthy remuneration from the Lord. For I willingly grant, that with my work entirely abolished, whoever shall wish, or to be abolished: may compose something more beautiful to the honor of the Saint; especially since I do not intend to seek my glory in this, but I fear lest the miracles because of their multitude be able to withdraw themselves from our memory.

[3] Therefore intending first to write about his penance and conversation, I invoke God as witness, he writes either things seen or faithfully known: upon my soul, that I will write nothing, except what it shall be established was known by the report of the faithful, or was seen by me. And lest I seem to abuse poetic license, not only do I resolve to exterminate my own figments, but also to temper many things, which have been related to me, for removing the suspicion of incredulity. But because concerning the cause of his penance and his earlier conversation I profess to know little, if any distinguished orator after these, knowing the order of truth better, shall wish to treat of the life of the Saint, he ought not to be indignant with me for this short compilation. For, just as the translation of the Seventy interpreters, so that from it by another an excellent work may be composed. did not obscure the translation of Bl. Jerome, but was as it were a preparation that it might become clearer; so, though from the lesser to the greater this comparison is made, this my brief compilation will not be able to take away any praise from rhetorical treatises: but it shall augment old praise, if anyone not for the dignity of the author, but for the devotion which he had toward the Saint, shall deign to read these things: and if he shall perceive me to have declined somewhere from the rule of art, let him wish to indulge me, I pray, at least by the example of him who granted to St. Bernard the indulgence of all his sins. For with the tenuity of knowledge this also was an impediment to me, that those who incited me to write this, because of excessive devotion, knew not to bear delays, whence to my work both in order and in ornament they took away not a little.

BOOK ONE

On the Life and death of Bl. Bernard.

CHAPTER I.

Birth of Bernard, pilgrimages, pious conversation of penance at Saint-Omer.

[4] The beginning of the evangelical doctrine, where the Herald of truth and Truth herself salubriously cry, Miracles indicate his holy life. Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, how efficaciously the praiseworthy man Bernard heard; the praise of miracles, which is sung at his end, shows. Matt. 3:2 Yet concerning his conversation, what it was in his homeland in earlier years, or about his conversion, namely, by which for the sake of manifestation he bound himself to such rigor of penance, because very few things are known to us, are to be touched with a brief style. Therefore the venerable Bernard, born of father Thomas, indeed drew a clear origin from his progenitors, Born of honest parents. which he himself more clear by advances in morals, adorned with the titles of virtues. But in the region which is called Provence we do not doubt was the place of his birth, and that he was a son of the Church of Maguelonne, we have as probable from his penitential letters.

[5] Yet why he went into exile or for what offense he did penance with so much austerity, I do not dare rashly to define: especially since he himself hid all his works, as much as he could, in the Penitential letters it is handed down that he committed horrible sins, and in the penitential letters (which he bore with him sealed with the seal of the Bishop of Maguelonne, namely his own, and of Narbonne his own Archbishop), nothing else was written about his guilt, except that for his horrible sins he did penance. Yet let no one hearing that the Saint committed horrible sins, more audaciously turn to illicit things; especially since it is perhaps truer, that he committed nothing enormous, nothing inhumane, nothing which would seem horrible to the sinners of our time; but Saints, because they are panting for heavenly desires, think all that are of the world to be horrible. Whence, as I think, this man, because in the manner of penitents he believed he could be better exiled for God's love, wished his sins in general to be called horrible by comprehending them all. For as I could better investigate the truth of the matter, and as I received from those who asserted they knew his father and mother, never defamed by any crime, that he had lived legitimately in his homeland, he was never defamed by any criminal sin. Yet this is said to have been especially the cause of exile, that he made a conspiracy with the nobles of the city against the death of his Lord, who was oppressing his fellow-citizens with unjust exactions, he took part in the killing of the Lord of the dominion, and was present at his killing. But since from the knowledge or consideration of another's sin even the just are often tempted, and on the contrary from the knowledge of another's justice the unjust are amended; we should not labor much to investigate the sins of this man; but what by doing penance he merited, for our amendment more zealously reflect.

[6] For his penance for seven years he had to be unshod, and clothed in wool, When now the Lord with his fire, which he had come to send on earth, had kindled the heart of Bernard; the servant of God going to his Bishop, and truly confessing what he was reprehending in himself (as in the letters which he brought with him is read), received this from his Bishop: that for seven years unshod and clothed in wool he should have to do penance. But because a truly penitent man never thinks himself to have made satisfaction, with the permission of his Metropolitan he chastises himself with still stricter penance, for he privileges the seven-year penance with Archiepiscopal authority, and augmenting it in some observances, decides that it should so remain for all the days of his life.

[7] he binds himself with seven chains. Besides, which indeed we do not find written in the penitential mandate, but yet do not doubt to be true, he caused himself to be bound with seven iron chains: and as though about to engage with the ancient enemy in a wrestling contest, fortified on every side from the right and from the left with the arms of justice, he went forth. For indeed the breast, loins and neck, arms and legs with the disciplinary strap he chastised; striving with prudent diligence, that while he constricted all the instruments of sin with iron, he might enervate every effect of sin in himself. For he knew the beginning of sin, namely evil thoughts, to be turned over in the breast, in breast, loins, neck, arms, and legs: the concupiscence of original sin to have dominion in the loins; from the neck idle and sometimes criminal words to proceed; through the hands, which are joined to the arms, illicit things to be perpetrated; through the feet also, which the legs sustain, to serve in going for illicit works. By this consideration, as I believe, the servant of God, according to the Evangelical edict, having left all things following Christ, and as a strong athlete about to contend with the devil, casting off all the bonds of the world, beyond what had been enjoined upon him, binding himself with iron chains as has been said, chose voluntary exile: and for the sake of communicating with fraternal prayers, he makes pilgrimage to Jerusalem a third time, and obtaining the patronages of the Saints, he traveled round almost the whole world. Luke 5:11 For Jerusalem, where he who is our peace, who made both one, was corporally seen, he strove to see and approach a third time: India also and what miracles St. Thomas the Apostle did there, he saw: and that I may generally comprehend particulars, into India he wandered through every accessible land, where Christians dwell, as is said: so that he not only committed to memory the names of regions, and through the whole Christian world, but also the Episcopal and Archiepiscopal cities, as many as are in Christendom, he named by memory. How great inconveniences meanwhile he endured in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, who can worthily estimate?

[8] When at length he came to the castle, which is called of St. Audomar; Dwelling at Saint-Omer he instituted a stricter life. choosing a place to dwell near the monastery of St. Bertin, and there making in his interior man a valley of tears, he disposed ascensions in his heart, and seized the proposal of a still stricter life. For received into hospitality near the temple by a certain religious man, William by name, at all hours in which he could have permission to enter the temple, he did not neglect to be present. The first

came there, always the last to depart, assiduous in the temple and when the time demanded that the doors be closed, he many times outside was intent on prayer. Rarely or never in the temple did anyone see him sit, but in summer in the warmer, in winter in the colder places, he was accustomed to make his station. Yet while he was reading his psalms, he sometimes omitted the continuous use of standing, and in order to be more attentive to his reading, he sometimes used to sit.

[9] Besides, as I have learned by the testimony of religious men and women, often when in a most harsh winter with bare feet he stood for a long time immovable on the bare and frigid ground: the skin of his feet is bound to the earth by the cold: when he wished to depart, he would leave the skin of his soles frozen to the earth. When also from excess of cold he had horrible fissures in his feet, with a marvelous kind of medicine, he applied a cure, or, to say more truly, a burning to the gaping cracks. For at night when the order of time called him to bed, in the more secret part of his bedroom with a burning torch ^b and the infusion of liquid wax, he used to burn those fissures and injuries of his feet; whence to his harassed flesh (which is doubtful to no one) came more of pain than remedy.

[10] Assiduous in the divine office, And so when he had indulged a little in sleep, at the first touch of the bell or earlier, he would come to the church; and having heard our Matins in order, he was not content with these, but watchful awaiting the Matins of the Clerics of St. Audomar, and these also he did not neglect to be present at. Above all he awaited those of his parish Priest, who sang Matins of light, and heard all the office of the day; nor yet for this reason did he wish sometimes to absent himself from our hours. But how diligent he was about honesty or religion, from these things which I here wish to annex, can easily be noticed. For the altars of the holy Cross and of St. James, which are in the exterior part of the church, he swept: and all unclean things he cast away from the holy places and from the temple nearby; he keeps sacred places clean: and moreover if he looked around and saw something disorderly being done in the temple or in the courtyard, these things with great constancy he reprehended. Also when he went to Matins or anywhere, if he had seen stones lying disorderly in the street; he did not proceed until he had arranged them with bare feet in a suitable and necessary place. he arranges stones in the street: In which thing not only the pious work is commendable, but also the mode of the work; namely because with bare and ulcerated feet he walked, nor ever did he indulge his injuries with the washing of water or anything other than the fomenting I have said.

[11] clothed in a hair shirt, a chain mail, But to speak briefly about the habit of his garments, around the neck and body he was bound with iron, and to his flesh he was clothed with a most rough hair shirt and then a chain mail: over which also, that he might hide the instruments of penance, or that he might keep the other garments unharmed from the touch of iron, he had put on over a tunic of skin: but over this he had two woolen tunics of white color and somewhat thick: and a cowl: over all which he had put on a certain garment, which indeed was shaped in every way in the likeness of our cowl, but in color and thickness agreed with the tunics. But about the bonds already mentioned and always to be mentioned I still wish this to be known; that the severity of the tight binding in many places adhered to his flesh, and from the putrescence of corruption thence worms were swarming forth. Yet never for this reason did he wish his bonds to be withdrawn or relaxed, some of his chains are loosed divinely. until from God, what reward of his patience he awaited, at length he merited to be loosed. For at Cologne in the church of Bl. Peter the pectoral band leaped apart: but the rest of all the bands, except that which he wore on the neck, are said to have been broken in this villa by the report of many, which has come to my knowledge. But the lumbar bond, with the others omitted, he caused to be repaired: whose repair when it was delayed a little beyond his will, he put on the chain mail, yet neither permitted the aforesaid band nor the hair shirt to be taken from him.

[12] He learns the Psalter: He was entirely ignorant of letters, but from the alms, which he received from the faithful, he had acquired a Psalter: and for love of learning frequenting the schools, subjecting himself to the teaching of Clerics, daily he did not omit to learn something small. And since, as is written, no delay is in speaking, where the Holy Spirit the Teacher is present, what the man of God devotedly began, he quite strenuously fulfilled: and in a short time learned to read the whole Psalter by himself.

[13] The poor and sick with highest diligence he visited, and whatever he could acquire by begging, he distributes to the poor what he received by begging: he charitably distributed to beggars. Whatever good he did, he always wished to be hidden, nor as the hypocrites did he enlarge his fringes, but that he might better deceive the world, with proud bearing of limbs and cheerfulness of countenance he showed himself more as a secular than a penitent. In the secret of his bedroom according to the Lord's command he loved to pray: and there (which was known to no one while he was living and to God alone) he had strewn for himself a wonderful couch from the sharpest stones, so that after his death with the matting perforated, he strews his bed with little stones: with which they had been covered, in many places the stones appeared. Matt. 6:6

[14] The recluses also and religious men he frequently visited: he visits the recluses, with whom now learning now teaching he communicated the words of salvation, but that Recluse who stayed near the church of St. Michael situated outside the town of St. Audomar, he more often and more affectionately visited: to whom also of the better foods, which he could find, he sometimes brought a charitable gift. But in the time of snow when on a certain day he was going to visit him, he allows snow to melt within his garments, it is said that he fell into a hollow of snow, and the snow received within his garments he did not permit to be cast out, but caused the icy liquid to strain through his trembling limbs. In his mouth Christ was always, peace was always: if anyone spoke to him, or if he himself spoke to anyone, this was always next in his mouth, that God would grant us to be consummated in good, or to use his own words, would give a good end.

[15] And because innumerable are his good works; often unknown to me, that I may briefly conclude about him, whatever he knew to please God, he unceasingly fulfilled by work. How sparing he was in food or drink, who will be fit to write? he fasts strictly: On days on which seculars ate meat, in the house of our alms-giver he took very little food: on other days compelled by religious men he ate with them or abstained entirely. But indeed following the institution of the old law observing the fast of the first, fourth, seventh and tenth month, he fasted four Lents in a year: he keeps 4 Lents in a year: in which, on three days in the week, he took only bread and water at refection. Also on every sixth feria and Vigils of the Apostles with similar parsimony he abstained, or, as has been said, remained entirely fasting. And wonderfully when both by Clerics and laymen and by some monks also, he was treated much more diligently than by us, and was more affectionately exhorted to leave our monastery and dwell with them; never assenting to them, he preferred this place to all: and that he might be able to die here he sought with all desire. he desires to remain at St. Bertin. Nor do I believe this to have been done without the great mercy of God, and the prayers of St. Bertin ^c and the other Saints ^d, whose bodies or relics are venerated with us: who wished this place to be distinguished with the privilege of so great a Colleague of theirs and of an intercessor of ours.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

Various miracles performed in life.

[16] But if he performed any miracles while living, not much is known to us: inasmuch as he himself, if he had done anything such, would have wished it to be hidden in every way. Yet if anyone shall diligently look at what I am about to write, that he did not complete this toilsome life entirely without miracles, he will easily be able to notice. At a certain time, with a house burning, in which stayed a certain servant, who with the Saint, while he was visiting the sick, was wont to go as a companion; the Saint came there, as if for the love of the servant, and with marvelous speed calmed all the fire. For while the household goods were being carried out, and the house, that it might be defended against the fire, was beginning now to be uncovered; the Saint ordered all who were doing these things, to desist from the begun work, and passing through the house, He extinguishes a fire with the sign of the Cross: and expressing the sign of the Cross over the fire, he made all imminent peril to rest. These are your works, Christ, who at all times through your Saints, when you wish and how you wish, work your miracles. For you who once from your persecutor made your preacher; you now, Lord, from a sinner make a performer of miracles: who kept the three boys in the Babylonian fire unhurt from burning; now also for the glorification of your Saint you have wonderfully extinguished this fire.

[17] Also at another time a certain one of our veiled Sisters, Gertrude by name, when she was laboring with intolerable suffering of her leg; saw through a dream her leg signed by the Saint, and health to her restored. Therefore on the following day, when the woman had found the Saint, she related what she had seen about him: and that he would bless her leg, she brought humble prayers. he heals a nun contracted in leg, But with him forbidding these things to be said about him, and on the contrary her persisting in prayers; at length the Saint raised his hand, signed the sick one, and while signing prayed that God would deign to heal her. With efficacy therefore accompanying the vision, the woman recovered from the trouble of all inconvenience.

[18] In a similar way also a certain man, Elbodo by name, when from pain of his leg he had almost been made contracted; saw in a vision, that if the Saint had confirmed his leg with the touch of his hand and the sign of the Cross; health ought to be returned to him. Wonderfully soon with sleep finished, the man felt himself alleviated in all his limbs: whence also as though safer about recovering health he came to the Saint, likewise another contracted, and devoutly asked that he deign to do to him according to his vision. To these things the Saint,

because he was most modest, at first contradicting when he saw him persevering in the petition, led him apart into a secret place: and handling the bare leg with bare hand, at individual places where the sufferer felt pain more sharply, he impressed the sign of the Cross; and subjoining that God might do to the man according to his faith, he permitted him to depart. Therefore with the merits of the Saint working with the faith of the man, the sick man in a short time received the use of walking rightly: and to do all his works, he recovered his pristine strength.

[19] Likewise at another time a certain woman was enduring a cephalic suffering, who neither dared to approach waters nor bridges: for if she had stood a little immovable, by the impelling vertigo of the head she necessarily fell. She also was admonished in a vision, that she should cause her head to be signed by the Saint, and thereby receive health. Therefore the woman came to the Saint, because she did not know his speech, speaking through a woman interpreter, and a woman laboring with vertigo of the head she opened what she had seen, and prayed that her head should be bound and signed with his hands. To these things the man of God, as he was most cheerful, burst into the most vehement laughter, and said he was not a physician, although he was thought to be. On the contrary when she did not desist from her prayers, as if in jest he snatched the girl between his arms, and with the embrace of one arm bound the dizzy head somewhat more firmly. In which thing what else is to be noted: by jestingly embracing her he heals her: because this man avoided the fuel of vain glory, namely popular favor, as much as he could; who heard great things said about himself and blushed. Yet lest again while avoiding vain glory, he should abandon charity; he so prudently fulfilled what was asked, that by the gesture of joking he declined hypocrisy, and by the effect of benediction he restored health. Therefore the woman, what she faithfully asked, with all unquiet vertigo driven away, efficaciously merited to obtain.

[20] Likewise one injured from a fall: At another time also one of the servants of our Chamberlain, Bricius by name, having fallen from a story, and gravely injured, was lying in bed, almost despaired of life. Whom when the man of God had visited, and amid words of consolation as he was departing had signed; soon the sick one felt the effect of the signing, and with illness gradually yielding, in a short time perfectly recovered.

[21] Truly this man I shall be able to compare to the Apostles, whom I weigh to be like them in miracles. The matter, indeed, which I relate, perpetrated in the assembly of the church, by the testimony of many has been brought to our knowledge. When at a certain time, on the Lord's Day, the man of God was intent on prayer in his place of standing, he resuscitates a girl suffocated in waters: a little girl suffocated in the waters, with great wailing of the pursuing people, is brought into the temple: whom he, when she had been brought to his station, snatched between his arms, and with the knee bent three times and three times the sign of the Cross expressed over the dead one, she began to yawn. Quickly therefore he placed her reviving on the altar of the holy Cross, where his station was near: and as secretly as he could, lest he be tempted by vain glory, he withdrew from the sight of the people: and in the same moment, she who a little before had been dead, appeared alive. Behold I see another Elisha, whom I weigh to have done similar things in a similar matter as the Prophet. For as Elisha, while he lay upon the limbs of the dead boy, returned him alive to his mother; so this man, while he held the dead one between his arms, and with the sign of the Cross prayed over her, called her back to life.

[22] From the performance of another miracle also, I see the virtue of the aforesaid Prophet shine in this blessed man. A certain woman sufficiently known, Gerlindis by name, stricken with the disease of elephantiasis, by all who saw her, was said to be a leper. For already in her face and some parts of her body the plague of leprosy, breaking out through deformed ulcers, was manifesting itself: and so her whole body within and without was infected with the disease, a leprous and contracted woman visiting him that she could scarcely bear any light touch of a hand. Also one arm, in which the leprosy more appeared, was deformedly twisted, and with her hand continually closed through contraction the nails of her fingers were adhering to her palm. What shall I say that she could not rise from bed, who in bed without the ministry of another did not turn herself? But when the necessity of nature, that she be taken down from the bed, demanded: a miserable cry and wailing indicated the incomparable sickness. Yet with all these things when she bore more grievously that she was called a leper; because she had heard many things said about the virtues of the man of God, she sent to him, and asked through a messenger that he deign to come to her. But he, for the cause of avoiding boasting, at that time did not wish to come to her: but because he was occupied in learning the Psalter he sent back word. Yet on the third day when the man of God was passing before her house, and again was asked to visit her; because he then had no occasion of declining, he acquiesced to the petition of those asking. Therefore with the man of God entering the house, she was showing him the ulcerous scars and the contracted hand and foot: and was asking that by the hand of that Saint she might merit to be signed. To these things the man of God, as he was most compassionate, kindly consoled her, and wherever the hand of the patient led him, he cleanses her with the sign of the Cross, he impressed the sign of the Cross. These things being thus done (as I have learned by her own report, who bore these things), soon all the stains of the body vanishing, were quickly reduced to nothing. Behold with the similitude of comparison not much differing, as if another Elisha he cures Naaman from his disease, while God through the merit of this man frees the woman from imminent leprosy. Yet concerning the contraction of the hand and foot the woman did not then recover; whom God in the beginning of the miracles of his Saint, as will appear in what follows, reserved to be healed under the bier of the dead man. She only obtained this meanwhile for the cause of remedy, that she could separate from her palm and move the fingers, which were fixed in the flesh: which, as I think, was a presage of future raising up.

[23] He procures increase for the crop. On a certain day when he was going to visit the sick, it happened that he made his journey through a field, in which a certain peasant was sowing his wheat. And when the man of God asked the peasant what he was doing, and he responded that he was sowing; the Saint raising his hand making the sign of the Cross, blessed the seed: where afterwards, as those who more diligently considered the matter assert, such abundance of crops grew, as scarcely ever before could have grown there. These things about the miracles of the Saint which he did while alive we have briefly touched, omitting many which we could say on account of the incredulous; and abbreviating some which we have said, on account of the fastidious. For if I were to write all, which could be written about him; the membranes would fail me sooner than the words about his pious acts.

If I should wholly be turned into tongues, or if it were given to me, An iron voice, I shall be unequal to his praises. Not Maro, not Socrates, not the learned hand of Cicero, Could worthily write the odes of Bernard.

CHAPTER III.

Illness: pious death: miracles.

[24] When now beyond the appointed term ^a the Saint was completing the fourth year in penance, a certain religious man saw through a dream, him clothed in Sacerdotal garments, From a vision made to another entering the church of St. Bertin, and such a multitude of those singing and praising following, that within the circuit of the temple they all could in no way be received. What sign this portended, after his death he himself by his miracles, better than I by my writings, will be able to declare. This vision being known to the man of God about himself, he is said to have smiled: yet more solicitously examining the matter, and from this or from another secret inspiration not doubting about his quick calling, he foresees himself to die soon. more strictly than he had done thus far, he decided to macerate himself.

[25] For with the sacred day ^b of Easter coming, indeed for the reverence of such a festivity with a very modest cake, on Easter he tastes a small cake, or to speak commonly, by the tasting of a ^c Flato he is said to have broken his Lenten abstinence, and never afterward besides bread and water to have eaten anything. On the second feria when he had now begun to be sick, he kept his diet in bread and water: on feria 2 he begins to sicken: but for the four following days until the Sabbath it is believed without doubt that he had either abstained entirely, or if perhaps he had used any foods, on feria 5 he says farewell to the recluse: no others than the aforesaid. On the fifth feria, as though about to say farewell to a familiar friend, the aforesaid Recluse, whom we said stayed near the church of St. Michael, he approached: and as he was accustomed brought him a charitable gift: and there among his last words, while he bade farewell to his friend, what he had never before done, he wept; and foretold that he would never see him again. Whence it is clear that this man, among other marks of his virtues, also had the spirit of prophecy, since it appears that all he foretold came about irrefragably. For during speaking, more gravely sick, while he was still with the Recluse, he began to feel sudden and sharper than usual assaults of infirmity, and so to tremble all over that he could scarcely return to his lodging. Therefore with infirmity prevailing, the man of God placing himself in his noble little bed, which instead of feathers, as we have said, had been strewn with the sharpest stones, compelled his failing limbs to serve the spirit.

[26] On the Sabbath he tastes bread and water for the last time: Two days after these, namely on the ^d Sabbath of the Paschal week, he tasted a little of his familiar foods, bread and water, and took absolutely no corporal food afterwards; and thus, what is wonderful to say, remaining fasting until the seventeenth day, when he was sick even unto death, we solemnly exhibited to him all the Ecclesiastical Sacraments. And first indeed, as is the custom, fortifying him with the Body and Blood of him extremis Sacramentis munitur, of whom he was a member; and as a strong athlete about to fight against aerial troops, anointing him with sanctified Oil, at last we put around him the long-desired monastic habit: but if there was any fault in him, that it had been entirely purged by the austerity of this kind of illness, he is clothed with the monastic habit. when already he was breathing out his last spirit, he showed by clear proof of miracle.

[27] Dying he heals a sick person by the touch of his hand A certain faithful woman bringing her boy, perforated in the neck by pestiferous worms, to the man of God, and touching the places of infirmity with the hand of him now almost dead, as soon as she returned home, made the boy sleep: whom after sleep more diligently looking at, with the worms extirpated, with the swellings calmed, found nothing of stain in him but certain red ^e marks on his neck, which as testimony of the healed disease had remained, he could easily notice.

[28] He dies in the year 1182, April 19. St. Bernard meanwhile, now made a monk, in the year of the Incarnate Word one thousand, one hundred, eighty-second, on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of May, rendered his soul to God: and as afterwards he more openly showed, entered to the heavenly banquet with his Brothers to feast. For clothed in our manner, under the bier a contracted woman in hands and feet is healed: and placed on the bier

because he was a penitent, he was left in the exterior part of the church: that there free approach of coming to him might be given to seculars. And without delay, when many sick were lying under the bier of such a dead man to be healed, one boy curved with hands and feet contracted for one year or more, with evident miracle was raised up.

[29] Soon with the bells resounding in praise of God, and the Brothers devoutly singing Te Deum laudamus, the novelty of the matter is spread through villages and countryside, and with an innumerable multitude of both Clerics and laymen running up, by all is shouted in God's praise. The body which in the outer part of the church had been left a little more negligently, his garments are carried off from devotion: those running up who were present, adored with devoted services; and wishing to have something of him as relics, they tore almost all his garments. Whence on account of the violence of either Clerics or townsmen, introducing the holy body into the choir, not even there were we safe; until with all expelled by force, whom we thought to be lying in wait in deceit, alone we could celebrate our vigils.

[30] On the following day, when we had to perform the customary exequies for him, because such a multitude of both sexes had come, at the exequies the greatest multitude is present, that not only within the church, but scarcely within all the offices of the monastery could they be received; that which the faithful man, as we have said, had seen about him, now could openly be shown to have been fulfilled. Who would worthily write, with what devotion all were striving to kiss the bier of the dead? With what faith they rejoiced to have placed straps or whatever of their own garments upon him? Who, I pray, King or Emperor could lead so many most devoted clients to his own exequies, as you would see to be for serving even in excess, to this poor man and in all the time of his life reputed among the lowest? The clemency of God is to be glorified in all these things, who as though lifting up the poor man from dung, shows by open miracles the poor man to sit with the princes of his people. For the woman mentioned above, Gerlindis by name, a contracted woman is healed. well enough known, and by him in her life cured of leprosy, and contracted for many years, before all was raised up there. At length with the office of the Mass scarcely finished, fearing lest because of the violence of such a multitude something of offense should happen, we prolonged the day of burial as though to be in the morrow by pretending: and thus with the people partly diminished, with fitting honor we buried the body.

[31] The body of the buried man dug up is found sweet-smelling: But because we could show nothing worthy of his relics to those seeing as they came, with more secret counsel held, we drew the buried one back from the tomb: and with the chain mail and hair shirt and iron bonds, which were still around his neck and body, with great fear of reverence stripping him; and washing the body in the purest water, we procured these things as a remedy for illnesses; and in a wonderful manner the body, which on the previous day from the squalor of long infirmity was felt to be somewhat corrupted, now was smelling more sweetly than all aromatics, was shining brighter than snow. How many sick by tasting of that water, or by kissing the relics or by sleeping beside the sepulcher recovered, who could remember all, number, very many miracles are done: or write? Truly, with every hyperbolic estimation removed, if all the miracles, which we ourselves saw, or which we knew to have been done by the relation of faithful men, we wished to write perfectly; we would incur a defect of words before of miracles. Here therefore, because we have heard that St. Bernard finished the present life, let us close the first part of our work with an end asking this of the Lord, who is the end and consummation of all his elect, that on the last day, he himself become the reward of this labor and of our devotion. Amen.

Which smells as nard. You are rightly called the spring, in verse you are also called nard, For you always breathe a new aroma for us. Sweet was the odor of your life, death augments the odor, And your praise grows in the good odor. from example he gives, In life you gave us documents of life, But a Teacher of life now you are present as of a better one. For that life must needs be ended by death; But that by which you now live, is remaining without end. Wonderful things indeed you did while living, but now by much More wonderful things you do and more stupendous. from miracles. You give step to the lame, you give light to the blind, you cure The sick, you make the mute pour forth words. You restore hearing to the deaf, to those extinguished in the river life; You cherish whatever sick limbs. Hence let the heart, tongue, hand praise you, let it think on it, Let it proclaim your praises, let it note them.

EPITAPH.

Here he well repented, whom Christ justified: Hence he now has merited what shall remain for him without end. He was an exemplar of faith and an image of virtue, Now the heir of Christ rejoices over the perpetual kingdom, And the thirteenth day of May in the Kalends of April They saw, with this man receiving the prepared seats. He gives the debts of death, receives the rewards of the heavenly lot, Joined to the eminent friends of Christ.

HYMN.

Let us commend ourselves to Bernard, pious father, sweet nard: Who fragrant with virtues, May he advance us by his prayers: That his intercession, may become our promise: And God through him continually may hear us salubriously. Through this Father and Son, let us praise and the Paraclete: That he who is triple in persons, as one God may free us.

VOW OF THE AUTHOR.

He who made this modest work, asks that there be given to him, The divine grace, interpreter of his name. This in exchange of reward from you, pious Saint, he requires, The end of that name ^f and the head of S. and I.

ANNOTATIONS.

BOOK II.

On the miracles of Bl. Bernard.

CHAPTER I.

Thirty miracles done immediately after burial.

[1] Miracles are done daily. Since with the Lord favoring about the penance and miracles of St. Bernard, which he did while alive or lying in the bier, we have treated according to the measure of our knowledge; now let us turn our pen to those miracles, which we know to have been done by him after his burial. But since the daily perpetration of miracles does not yet permit me to breathe a little, I think it suffices for the present, if I shall be able to give titles in sum to the kinds of infirmities and the modes of cures; where sometimes, that the miracles may be better distinguished, I decide to insert the words of the persons in whom the cure was made. And because I see the weight of the matter far exceeds my powers, I ask help to be administered to me by the Lord through your merits, St. Bernard.

[2] A certain woman in the onset of fever raging, with the disease put to flight obtained tranquility of mind. For although many have been freed from quartans or tertians, a raging woman is healed: yet about this one by name I wished to write, because incomparable was the infestation of her trouble. Another woman also in the castle of St. Audomar, well enough known in face and illness, who twice ^a had gone to St. James blind, came to the sepulcher of the Saint; likewise the blind, and caused the aforesaid spoils of the Saint to be applied to her blind eyes; and what she could nowhere obtain through any patronages of the Saints, with the darkness of her eyes put to flight there she received light. The jester ^b of our Hospitarius, deprived of one eye for four years, blind in one eye asked and obtained that the spoils of the Saint be placed over the place of his trouble. And without delay, feeling certain twistings and prickings of itching in his eye, he placed his hand over his sound eye; and opening the blinded one, asserted he saw: the white film, which had covered the eye, divided in the manner of a little skin yielded, and slipped down into the lower part of the eye, lay hidden without any heaviness. a paralytic woman, On the same day also a certain woman, paralytic in one side, with the dissolution of limbs consolidated, was healed.

[3] Not long after a certain one from the castle, which is called Mont-falcon ^c, terribly swollen with watery humor, when he had gone to St. Thomas in England ^d, and had not recovered, a dropsical man, and had found nothing useful in the precepts of the physicians; as soon as he drank from the aforesaid water, and slept beside the sepulcher, he appeared wonderfully thin before all. Two Scots also, disparate in sex and kind of infirmity, contracted people, were restored to health. A woman contracted is raised up: a man vexed for a long time with chronic suffering, experiences himself better. But in the cure of both we ought to commend the merits of the Saint very much, if the multitude of other miracles did not compel us to strive for brevity. For the woman while she was sleeping at the sepulcher, saw white-clad men bearing the body of the Saint in the bier: who tried to snatch something from the clothes, with which the bier was covered, and in the very attempt woken up, leaping on her paralytic feet was raised up. But the man was afflicted with that disease, which the physicians call a fistula, another bedridden from a fistula, and, as has been said, was lying in bed with chronic infirmity: who against both troubles, by the merits of the Saint rejoiced to have received remedy.

[4] Meanwhile the Lord Abbot, returning home from his affairs, and rejoicing above what can be said about the things which had been done; when he had decided to make an honorific sarcophagus for the Saint, The Abbot in sleep sees verses inscribed on the sepulcher: on the following night he saw through a dream that he was standing at the sepulcher of the Saint, and a stone of wonderful beauty lying above; in which with letters beyond measure radiating two verses were written, which he says he read so many times, until he committed them to memory in this manner.

This stone covers the form of virtue and of salvation, The virtue of Bernard smells fragrant to all in place of nard.

But that this was not so much a dream as a miracle, he who does not doubt about the vision, can easily have a conjecture. A wonderful thing is followed by no less wondrous things. For the stonemason sent to seek stones, from which he might make the sarcophagus of the Saint, sufficiently suitable for the work and more choice, than in any place in this land he believed could be found, at the first opening of the earth found. But while a greater of the stones, which scarcely fifteen men could lift, was being conveyed here, a huge burial stone is easily moved: on the way it had almost fallen from the wagon: which to place back in its place was not difficult for the two servants, who were ruling the wagon, through the merits of the Saint. For with one of them wishing to run to the villas for helpers, the other,

because he was conducting the Saint's stone, presuming upon his aid, prohibited this being done, and taking the huge mass with a companion restored it to its place.

[5] A certain man from the town of Bergues, ^e bringing here his little son, oppressed with some infirmity I know not what, they are healed, the sick boy, although he felt him to be improved, nevertheless distrustful of complete health and returning home, when the boy was growing better from day to day, the father for the son whom he received whole, sent back an iron boy to the Saint. A certain woman, so paralyzed on one side a paralytic, that she had had herself conveyed hither partly by cart, partly by ship; as soon as she drank from the often-mentioned water, as I myself heard from her mouth, it seemed to her that that drink went round all her side, and as if making a certain itching, restored sense to insensible members; and so when she had slept a little beside the tomb, she arose so healed that she returned home on her own feet, she who had been conveyed on others'. Another woman also, a dropsical one, badly afflicted with dropsical humor, cured by drinking of the salutary water, attained her natural slenderness.

[6] The daughter of a certain man from a village near ^f Cassel had been blinded for nearly seven days by some misfortune I know not what: who as soon as she promised her journey to Saint Bernard, immediately began to improve. When therefore on the journey the guides of her still seeing almost nothing, a blind one, said they saw the church of Saint Bertin and invoked the aid of the Saints resting there, the blind woman opening her eyes, saw the temple whose name she had heard, and stretching her hand toward it, asked whether it was the one. All who were present, marveling and bursting forth into weeping for joy, completed the journey they had begun: and paying due acts of thanks to Saint Bernard and also to Saint Bertin, they related these things to us in such order. And because I recollect that this was done on the day ^g of the elevation of Saint Bertin, considering the order of things, yet saving the honor of Saint Bernard, I do not doubt that Saint Bertin was here a cooperator. And that the truth of the miracle might better be shown, it is said that a third time after these things she was blinded, and was always re-illumined at the tomb. Again a certain woman coming secretly to the Saint, willing to confess to no one who she was or what she suffered, because by the merits of the Saint she obtained what she sought, the following day sent wax sandals to the Saint.

[7] From ^h Arques likewise a woman, bedridden from long time with contracted legs, saw in dream the Saint standing by her bed, a bedridden woman, and promising hope of recovering health; and the effect following upon the vision, the next day we saw the woman, to render thanks to the Saint, joyful and sound coming hither. Two women, of whom one had hands horribly swollen, the other labored with a certain constant infirmity, were healed at the tomb of the Saint. This one, for the curing of her hands, because she was poor and her infirmity was manifest, offered nothing except thanks; the other, in testimony of her health, left her staff with the Saint. A certain man, from a village called ⁱ Frutine, sick for two years, had lain in bed for two years: who, when he had been so much improved that, supported by two staves, he could walk somehow, seized upon a journey to Saint Thomas ^d; and though laboriously, yet came thither. But because the sick man could obtain no improvement there, what is written, "preferring one another in honor," I think the Saints also observe; a dropsical boy, since Saint Thomas did not wish to heal his pilgrim, whom he foreknew was to be healed by his colleague Saint Bernard. Rom. 12:10 The sick man therefore, as though already despairing, returning home, when the name of Saint Bernard like "ointment poured out" began to spread its fragrance widely, turned aside to the Saint, he who needed to be healed: and with wonderful swiftness, when he had shown due reverence to the Saint according to custom, perceiving divine virtue operating in him, casting aside his staves he began to walk. A boy marvelously swollen with watery humor came to the Saint: who by his slenderness showed that he had been marvelously visited by the Saint.

[8] a blind woman in one eye, having suffered great pains in it. A woman from the castle which, as I said above, is called Mount of the Falcon, ^c had seen nothing in one eye for nearly four years. She, recently delivered in childbirth, was lying in bed, as is custom. Meanwhile, pain of the eye pressing her more grievously than usual, she was hearing the miracles of Saint Bernard being more gloriously preached from day to day. Therefore lifting her hands from the bed, where she lay as if pagan, to heaven, she promised that she would soon approach the Saint, when after the manner of women giving birth she had been sanctified; and that her prayers might be admitted by God, she most affectionately committed herself to the Saint's patronage. Meanwhile persisting in prayer, when not much later she began to see a little; immediately, when she had performed the rite of her purification, she came to the Saint together with her husband, as she had vowed; who when she had shown her reverence to the Saint, said she saw as clearly as she had ever seen before. Another woman also, from ^k Bourbourg, had long labored with incurable pain of the ears, another with a worm having entered her ear. to such a degree that by turns and especially at the time of a new moon she was almost beside herself. The cause of this pain was a sheep louse, which the Grammarians ^l call "usia" as if from "burning," which by chance had entered the ear of her sleeping, and could in no way be extracted either by any device or by medicine. But that it might be proved that nothing is impossible to God, marvelously she is freed. when she placed some of the often-mentioned water on her sick ear; the following night when she was sleeping beside the tomb, the worm, by some divine virtue expelled from the ear, went out: and descending along the arm, entered the hand of the sleeping woman. And wonderfully, the worm did not have liberty of walking, until the woman, awakened, found her enemy, and having found, killed it. And thus when she felt no more pain, she could easily recognize, that she had killed the worm which had unceasingly vexed her.

[9] A servant from a certain country place, which is called ^m Energhem, laboring with hernia. ruptured around his privities; the matter of the rupture breaking out, when on account of excessive swelling he could not bring his thighs together for walking properly, bound himself with this vow: that if by the merits of the Saint he should recover, henceforth he would never wear a garment which after the manner of secular pomp was cut below, and that as long as he lived, once a year he would seek out the Saint for the sake of prayer. Therefore to the Saint as he had vowed he came, poured forth humble prayers, and what he constantly begged he effectually obtained. For when he had prayed a little at the tomb, he put his hand to his groin, to feel his pain as he was accustomed: and what is marvelous to hear, he could find no trace of swelling. He who had sustained the inconvenience related the matter done in this order, with all hearing. Let all, therefore, who shall read these things know that I write nothing at all, which I have not either heard from those who were cured, or learned from the relation of those who asserted that they knew the matter best. At that time came a man offering two wax legs, contracted in his knees, who affirmed that he had for nearly two weeks labored with a certain passion irremissibly, so that he believed the joints of his knees either to be dissolved or utterly withered. But scarcely had he vowed to seek the Saint, when immediately he began to improve. And because I have heard him who had sustained the pain relate that he received entire health, I have thought it just to commend this to writing.

[10] miserably broken in his legs, At the same time a certain man from Cassel, Gerard by name, came to the Saint: through whose leg, nearly two years before, a cart had passed, which had so withered with demolished bones, that he preferred the leg to be utterly cut off, than to have spent so uselessly upon physicians. Propped up on two supports, he could scarcely reach to the tomb: but there, with several present hearing, with his leg rendering a certain crashing sound, which was as it were an indication of the consolidation of sinews and bones, the sick man, casting aside the supports, arose: and by divine virtue showed himself healed by walking rightly. A certain man from ⁿ Bethune had recently lost the use of seeing: blind, who when he had been to Saint Thomas for his illumination, having heard the miracles of Saint Bernard, turned aside to him; and by God's merciful clemency, on the very day on which the first miracle occurred, he received his pristine function of the eyes. After these things, on the second day, two men, of whom one was from ^o Drincham, the other from [p] Tardinghem, both able to walk only with [q] crutches, lame, came to the Saint. These, while they sat at the tomb, said they had felt the aid of amendment: and leaving their staves there as a sign, they proved it to be true. The following day a woman, mute and contracted on one side, for three years and more impotent of her speech and of one side, while she was returning somewhat amended from Saint Thomas; tried whether anything could be added by the merits of Saint Bernard to her imperfect amendment: and running hither, according to her faith she obtained what she sought. For I myself heard her speaking quite distinctly: and that she might satisfy the unbelieving, I saw her moving her hand, which had been paralyzed, quite flexibly and placing it upon her head.

[11] blind in one eye, A certain man doing something I know not what in a wood, struck in the eye by the blow of a branch, had for nearly the space of a month been deprived of the function of that eye. Coming to the Saint, when he had many times kissed the tomb with his mouth and eyes, and rubbed the places of injury with dust of the tomb; immediately going out, having found merchants before the doors of the temple, he bought gloves; and there looking more diligently at what he had bought, he understood that he had received his lost sight. About the same time there came to the Saint a mute man, who with wonderful devotion, now embracing the tomb, now eating the earth of the tomb, a mute, sometimes also drinking from the often-mentioned water; when for one day he had awaited God's mercy there, through the presence of divine virtue obtained in such manner his lost speech. Sitting at the tomb, while he directed his hands and eyes to the Saint, with health returning, not bearing the power of divine virtue, pale and trembling he fell upon the tomb; and while falling, the bond of his tongue being loosed, he cried three times: "Saint Bernard, help!" And thus gradually beginning to speak better, whence he was, and what he had suffered, and what he had now obtained by the merits of the Saint, he related before all the people. For he said that he was from the castle which is called [r] Lucheu: where when seven years before he was guarding a certain mill; on a certain night in sleep, struck with sudden horripilation, he had been destitute of the function of all members: quickly however that passion, leaving the members, gathered itself to his throat and upper parts, and so precipitously dulled the instruments of speaking, that hardly with a month gone by he became utterly mute. With several standing by, who had known him to have been mute, he further added, that it might better be recognized, that during all the time in which he had been mute, he had followed the court of the Count [s] of Saint-Pol, and there had somehow supported his unhappy life: but he said that he had done this more by necessity

than will, partly because he could not live by labor, partly because he had lost the instrument of begging.

[12] The following day there came from a village called [t] Cappella a certain man and his wife, a drowned girl comes back to life. bringing their little daughter to the Saint, whom they said had been drowned but had revived by the merits of the Saint. For on the preceding [u] Sunday, as they said, meanwhile while they had come to the Saint, it happened that their daughter, left by the maidservant at home and neglected, played alone beside water and fell in; and with no one present who could bring aid, she was suffocated and expired. Meanwhile on the return of the parents, a question arose about their little daughter: and when she was not found, order was given to seek her outside. Therefore the maid having gone out to seek the little girl, first when she saw her drowned in the water, thinking her a dog or some piece of carrion, cursed whoever had made the water unclean; and to extract that unclean thing, she leapt into the water: and coming nearer, she saw the foot of the girl appearing above: drawing it toward her, she recognized that it was the little girl she was seeking: and the maid calling out with great wailing, the father and mother ran up, and having learned of the sad event, through immoderate grief they broke out into calumny against the Saint, saying, "O Saint Bernard, do your pilgrims receive such a reward from you? If you can do anything, give back our daughter whom you have taken: otherwise we shall not only declare you unworthy of all reverence, but we shall withdraw all, as far as lies in our power, from your veneration." The piety of the Saint did not turn itself away from the petitions of the sorrowful: whom although through grief it befell to have spoken indiscreetly, yet the Saint knew that they had calumniated nothing deceitfully. Finally, around the middle of the night, while the parents were rubbing the lifeless little body that it might be warmed, and unexpectedly feeling a light pulse of some vein in the neck, when they were invoking the aid of the Saint as if already more presumptuously, the soul returning, the dead one began to breathe, and about cockcrow appeared alive. For the sake of this thing, let us together with the parents, who brought their child to the Saint, render thanks to God and to his Saint, and let us entreat that He may always enlarge His mercy toward us.

NOTES.

p Tardinghem in the County of Boulogne toward the County of Guines: there is also another Tardinghem near Cassel.

q Thus the Flemings and the other Teutons commonly call crutches placed under the arms.

r Leucheu in Picardy, near the town of Dourlens.

s The town of Saint-Pol is in Artois, nearly midway between Saint-Omer and Amiens: who then held that County I have not taken leisure to investigate more laboriously.

t Capella in Thiérache at the borders of Hainault, between Vervins and Avesnes; vulgarly la Chapelle: but because it is called a village, we may suspect with reason that a place closer to Saint-Omer is meant; of which the chorographical tables of the territory of Cassel exhibit many, but mostly with an addition, besides one nearest of two leagues from Saint-Omer, where the road divides coming from here, and one part leads to Cassel, the other to Bailleul, which is called Cappel.

u The first Sunday after Bernard's burial was 25 April and the feast of Saint Mark: on which it is probable this miracle happened, the more so that it is credible that the first festal day was seized upon by the parents for honoring the new Saint.

CHAPTER II.

Another 20 miracles. The malevolent and blasphemers against Blessed Bernard punished.

[13] A man in the castle of Saint-Omer, for five years vexed with constant pain of his leg, at that time when merchants were wont to go to ^a Provins; since he needed to seek his livelihood from the same trade and in the same place, but was prevented by infirmity and could not; fleeing to the help of Saint Bernard, Healed, one vexed with great pain of the leg, bound himself with this vow, that if by the Saint's clemency assisting him he could continue his trading, he would thenceforth be the servant of his helper. Moreover also, when he returned, he would bring to the Saint an iron leg. In a marvelous manner, the following day, the man who was lying bedridden, arose, and went to his market whole and returned; and as he had promised, brought an iron leg to the Saint. 2 paralytics, Also two paralytics were cured on the same day; of whom, to speak briefly, one was weakened in the feet, the other trembling in his whole body. A certain man from Bourbourg had for three years sustained an image as it were of perpetual night: another nearly blind, for he could see nothing but the sun and rather bright things. This man, when for his illumination he had approached many places of the Saints, and had not obtained the effect of his prayers; at length came to Saint Bernard, and received his almost lost light in its pristine brightness.

[14] A certain young man from the city called ^b Ulterius-Trajectum (Maastricht), contracted in his members, had come into these parts in the service of a certain man: who because he had recently been made contracted, cast off by his lord, was living somehow in a certain village near the sea. He came to the Saint walking on his knees with a staff, and miserably bent; and was freed from the passion which he had sustained for six weeks. A certain woman from ^c Blaringhem had been quite contracted for three years: contracted in her legs and weak in her loins, for in her loins and legs she was so weak, that sometimes she could not rise from bed except by the aid of her husband or her children; sometimes, the infirmity somewhat subsided, she would walk on her knees leaning forward and stooping with a staff. This woman, brought hither by the service of her husband, restored to health by the merits of the Saint, returned home on her own feet. On the same day the piety of the Saint restored to health a man from ^d Wissant, who for sixteen years vexed with infirmity of the loins, vexed by pain of the loins for 26 years. could hardly walk at all. This man, having returned home without our leave, after some days began to be sick more grievously than before: who imputing this to his sins, that he had not made the Lord to be praised concerning his cure, by counsel of his priest returned, and recovered more perfectly than before.

[15] A little boy of a certain man from Bourbourg, while his mother was baking loaves at the oven, sent out in play, as is wont to happen, to ask for a little cake, a drowned boy is resuscitated, fell into water, and with no one present to bring aid, was suffocated and expired. When therefore after nearly two hours the boy had been found in the water, and with all things being applied to him which are wont to be done for drowned persons, nothing of life appearing in him, the parents invoking the Saint, bound themselves with this promise; that if their boy should rise up, they would offer him to the Saint, and redeem the one resuscitated by the Saint at a reasonable estimation according to the measure of their riches. The dead one, therefore, after a little while they perceived to breathe: and that Saint Bernard, and offered to Blessed Bernard is redeemed. whom they had invoked, had come to their aid, they openly perceived. The boy therefore, when he had recovered from the injury of the water, the parents brought him to the Saint, and as they had vowed they redeemed him for themselves. A priest from ^e Surkes, for nearly nine months past, struck with paralysis, had been destitute of the function of all members; and, what he sustained still more grievously, he had almost entirely lost his speech. A priest is freed from paralysis, and nearly mute receives his speech, He came to the Saint once, and began to improve. He came a second time, and again felt an increase of health. He came a third time, and recovered most fully. The truth of this matter many Clerics as well as laymen acknowledge, who know that the Priest had been almost mute and trembling in every way, whom now they are amazed at speaking well and being quite strong.

[16] That matron who deserved to have the Saint as a guest, named Ogina, had reserved for herself from the Saint's Relics a cap and stockings and many other things, in which she believed there to be something of sanctity, for the memory of so great a guest. We have heard that many miracles were done from these relics, and that the diligent reader may understand more from a few, we here note one of them. A certain woman having a leg swollen and ulcerous, and translucent in the manner of ^f a lantern: because she was ashamed to reveal her infirmity to men at the tomb, came to the matron; A swollen leg is cured by the touch of a stocking, and devoutly prayed that something from the aforesaid relics might be placed on her leg. Therefore the matron, taking the Saint's stocking, wrapped the woman's ulcerous leg with it: which immediately being drawn back, all the swelling disappeared, and the skin, which had been translucent from the defect of the disease, was restored to the likeness of the rest of the flesh. Whoever, feverish, shall deserve to have the Saint's cap upon his head once, immediately recovers from the fever. Moreover many miracles, we are absent, have been done in distant parts upon unknown persons, concerning which no faithful person ought to doubt. For a certain Cleric from Cassel related to us, a paralytic woman is healed, that a certain woman, his neighbor, whom he had long known to be paralytic, now persevered whole by the merits of the Saint. She had come to the Saint, but before she was perfectly healed, had returned; yet gradually, her infirmity falling away, as the Cleric asserts, now she rejoices in perfect health.

[17] From the town of Bergues a boy was brought to the Saint: whom, when his age was already strengthening him to walk rightly, a paralytic boy. a paralytic infirmity had contracted: and what was still more disgraceful in him, his neck hung twisted backward above his shoulders. and laboring with a twisted neck, The parents, compelled by this necessity,

betook themselves to the help of Saint Bernard; and promised that they would still bring their child. Therefore, that it might be shown that the power of so great an advocate was not local, the piety of the Saint anticipated those devoutly invoking him: and before the child was brought here, what the disease had corrupted in him, divine healing restored. Hence what I have learned by the report of many, appears to be true: namely that whoever in any distress or infirmity have invoked the Saint, even if because of some necessity impeding them they cannot come here, nevertheless the Saint has not withdrawn himself from their aid.

[18] Wine customarily given to pilgrims is divinely increased. Moreover, with how great mercy and compassion the Saint assists those coming to him, he once demonstrated by the following miracle. When many sick people were lying at his tomb, and a number of honorable men, having cast off the pride of riches and mingled with the poor, were there awaiting the mercy of God with equal devotion; a Brother wine-steward, serving the guests with wine, directed almost the last pouring of his jar to the needy: which he received back in the Saint with manifold and wondrous interest. For as that Brother asserts, when a little afterwards he wished to bring other wine from the same jar, he found the vessel, which he thought almost empty, full up to overflowing. In this miracle I think this Saint is rightly to be compared to Blessed Elisha: because as he, mercifully freeing a widow who was to be dragged away with her sons by her creditor, by divine power filled as many vessels as the woman had; so this Saint manifoldly returned the wine which had been distributed to his sick ones.

A woman from g Helchy, greatly disfigured by three h humps on her loins and by an unnatural swelling of her belly, while she was coming to the Saint, various swellings of bodies are cured, her infirmity increased by the fatigue of the journey, two bladders, little unlike the humps in size, grew upon her groin. But God, who is accustomed to reward those laboring for his sake with manifold recompense, rewarded the labor and devotion of his handmaid quite liberally: in whom, by the merits of his Saint, he not only calmed the humps of the loins and the swelling of the belly, but also reduced to nothing the newly arisen bladders.

[19] But not yet has the ancient rage of Jewish unfaithfulness rested, and the old leaven of the Pharisees does not cease to corrupt many still into slander of Christ. For there have been not a few who have not feared to interpret divine miracles in a malign sense, and showing no reverence to the Saint, said that these things were done not in Christ but in Beelzebub. three drunken youths inflict injury upon Bernard while living: What happened to one of the slanderers of the Saint, for the terror of evildoers, the praise of the good, it seems to me not useless to insert here: and because we know that the kindling of this slander had its beginning while the Saint was still living, let us relate the matter in order, as we have learned it from the report of faithful living men. When on a certain night the Saint, while still living, was going alone through the town, three youths, giving themselves to curiosity and arrogance, found him, and having found him, because they were drunk, grievously reviling him, wished to strip him of his garments. At this the man of God throws himself at their feet, and most humbly begs that he might be able to depart without insult. two of these are extinguished by sudden death: But they being unwilling to be bent by prayers and not desisting from the harassment of the innocent, the man of God, bringing forth three pennies which he happened to have, and giving them to them, pacified the madness of the gluttons for a cheap enough price, what he could not obtain by prayers and humility. But divine vengeance not accounting the injury of his servant of little weight, two of them not long afterwards, as is said, died by unforeseen death. But the third, William by name, of whom is our discourse here, persevering in his wickedness, did not fear to increase the works of malignity. For after this, on a certain day, while that fool wished to throw a boy from a certain bridge into the water, the man of God who happened to be there, cast himself as mediator between the disputants, and humbly asked that fool that for the love of God and of himself he would desist from the injury of the boy. At this he, as being always drunk, the third who had again mocked the saint full of indignation and pride, cast the man of God from him quite irreverently, and, as he had determined, threw the innocent boy into the water. Nor could this suffice for that malignant one, but, opposed to the Holy Trinity, he wished to fulfill a third work of his malignity. For on another occasion, when that fool was sitting drunk in a tavern, and had compelled him to drink wine, it happened that the man of God passed by there; whom he forcibly drawing in, compelled him to drink wine, from which he had altogether determined to abstain: and what was more to be feared by the fool, he did not hesitate to make mockery of the man of God. Not yet however could the stubbornness of the fool be pricked with compunction, but he whom he held in mockery as mortal, he believed that he could now also with impunity mock him as immortal. For when the Saint, now shining with miracles, still lay unburied on the bier; because almost the whole city was gathered for the funeral rites of so great a dead Saint, that fool also with certain of his companions, while in the funeral rites of the Blessed he blasphemes the same, had come thither more out of curiosity than out of veneration. But while all were showing due reverence to the Saint and casting their laces or any of their garments on the bier in hope of health; that wretch alone, established in filth, and still wishing to be befouled, giving birth to injustice, conceived pain for himself and brought forth iniquity. For when in silent thought he blasphemed the Saint, and said in his malign heart that he himself could bestow more upon the dead than the dead upon him; struck by a certain heavenly vengeance, he trembles and is covered with sweat, suddenly he began to tremble all over; and from anguish, with sweat flowing in waves from all his members, he could scarcely stand on his feet. And although that wretch now knew his sin to be manifest, and feared that as vengeance for his crime he must die or be suddenly contracted; nevertheless he did not ask pardon for his guilt: but full of confusion and shame, he quickly took to flight.

[22] These things being so done, when on a certain occasion some companions of the oft-mentioned wretch came to the Saint, and asked that he would come with them; he is divinely kept from entering the temple; he, that he might not be exposed and confounded on account of his fault, assented to their persuasions: but because he was not yet truly repentant, when he came to that inner door of the temple, through which access to the Saint is open to seculars, he did not have permission to enter. Feigning therefore a private necessity before the door, confused indeed and sad he departed: but pricked for a little while, without repentance he still remained in sin. In a similar manner also a second time he wished to come to the Saint, and then too he could not have permission to enter the aforesaid door. A third time also, while he wished to come to the Saint, he could not even approach the church of Blessed Bertin: but while in our courtyard, between the temple of Saint Martin and the house in which the Saint while still established in this life had dwelt, that wretch was passing: suddenly he trembled so much, that he feared he would immediately there be contracted. And thus it happened by a just enough judgment, that he who thrice had treated the mortal dishonorably, should as often also be dishonored by the immortal. But a fourth time, while that wretch was thinking evil things near the bier, by so much the more quickly and severely did the Saint avenge his injury, by so much as he could now show that he was immortal: and because by the example of this man, he wished to strike terror into the malicious. When therefore the Saint had sufficiently avenged his injury, and that wretch saw the hand of God stretched out over him in evil; at last led by penitence, until coming to his senses and repenting in the following manner he was reconciled to the Saint. First, confession having been made of his excess, on the following night he abstained from the bed of his wife; and reflecting with himself on his couch what he had ill done, dissolved in tears, before his bed naked upon the naked ground in the form of a cross he prostrated himself: and tearfully begged pardon from God and his Saint. Here spending almost the whole night without sleep; he obtained admission to the tomb. when he had risen in the morning, having taken his offering he went to the temple: and because he was now compunct, he obtained permission to enter to the Saint. But how much meanwhile he had feared the wrath of the Saint, he openly showed by his trembling and uncomposed step. When at length he had come to the tomb, offering first made, in the form of a cross he there prostrated himself: and for what he had proudly committed he humbly asked pardon. Hence let the malevolent be confounded and blush, let the benevolent exult and rejoice, and that God may always multiply the works of his mercy toward us, let the piety of the Saint reconcile his unworthy servants to his Lord.

[21] A man of Callais i, at the town of Saint Omer caught with false coins, was thrust into prison; and there he had almost entirely lost the little light of his eyes, by whose defect he had fallen into this error of coins, by weeping and watching. But when he, accused of fraud, asserted that he was a baker and that he had received those coins for his bread, and that he had known no fraud in the money, wishing to swear with many satisfactions; [A man growing blind, by invoking Bernard, washes away the slander by the judgment of hot iron] the judge compelling, one of two was proposed to him to choose, namely that he should either purge himself by judgment, or succumb to the sentence of the guilty. Moved therefore by the harsh threat of the sentence, placing all his hope in the Lord, he promised Saint Bernard that if in this article of necessity he would defend his innocence, he himself would thenceforth be his servant. What more? That blind man, by the prudence of the Saint teaching him, as I think, and receives his sight: prudently enough fulfilled all the things which those adjudged to the hot iron are accustomed to do, and free from all crime was absolved and departed. Coming therefore to the Saint, as if about to render thanks for his liberation, he received the light which he had lost, and for both benefits glorifying God and his Saint more than can be told, joyful he returned home.

[22] A certain man and his wife, from the above-mentioned village of Blarighem, husband and wife are freed from vehement agitation of their bodies were languishing from the same infirmity: who, agitating their hands and feet and all the members of their body as if mad, because they were sustaining an unspeakable passion, were showing themselves by their doings in a wonderful and unspeakable manner. These, as if soon to die, when they had been laid upon the ground, directed all their intention to Saint Bernard, and with the voice with which they were able and with simplicity of heart, they supplicated that they might be rescued from so unforeseen and imminent a death. Soon they began to improve, and they felt that the presence of the Saint was present to them, their discomfort somewhat tempered: but on the following night, the Saint visiting them through a vision, and making the sign of the Cross over them, every passion being put to flight, not long afterwards they received perfect health. And because these came to the Saint, and many giving testimony to them, they said without doubt that these things were true, in

the cause of this writing.

[23] Those vexed with the falling sickness are healed, A small boy, vexed with the falling sickness, brought from Bourbourg to the Saint, in the days of holy Pentecost k obtained full health. Him his mother without our permission brought back home, whom afterwards she reported to have fully recovered. A man from the village which is called Saint Wulmer's l, nearly nine months having passed, while on a certain day he was laboring in the cultivation of his field, struck his foot upon a stump, and lying down from the injury and swelling of his foot, and not slightly injured fell into a grave infirmity. For soon, his foot beginning to swell, he contracted the defect of limping: and as time went on the infirmity so progressed that, both legs being weakened, the capacity of walking upright was entirely taken from him: and so it came about that sometimes he lay continually in bed, sometimes, his languor somewhat mitigated, he walked with two staves. He had himself brought hither on horseback, and not wishing to enter any house, in the vestibule of our temple he spent the night in prayer. But in the morning, the doors being unbarred, coming with his staves to the Saint, carried to the tomb, while he was sitting intent on prayer beside the tomb, and one of the Brethren was singing Mass there at the altar of Saint Nicholas, he felt the help of divine propitiation: and leaving his staves rising, he obtained the possibility of walking upright. These things being so done in the sight of the people, he reported to us the order of his infirmity, as has been said: and because he had several witnesses, he wiped every cloud of doubt from our heart. Whence it can be shown by the eyesight of truth, what I profess to have often thought, that those whom the greatness of devotion brings hither from remote parts, the piety of the Saint assists them so much the more quickly and efficaciously, as it is established that they have come hither with no feigned devotion.

[24] The matter which I wish to write has been spread by celebrated report, and solemnly recited in the assembly of the church. That it may be the better proved, that feigned devotion offends the Saint more than it pleases, let the true and faithful account of a certain religious Presbyter whose name is Simon be brought forth. likewise a girl sick with fever On a certain day when the aforesaid Presbyter was preaching in the church, taking the beginning of his sermon from Saint Bernard, he rebuked their incredulity and hardness of heart, because they were little devout toward the Saint: and convicting them of feigned devotion, he related what had happened to his maidservant, as an example of terror. My maidservant, he said, while she was vexed with fever, promised Saint Bernard a penny and a candle, and immediately recovering remained well for fifteen days. But while she long retained the penny, which she had promised from necessity more than from devotion, having relapsed on account of the neglect of the vow, as was just, she incurred the wrath of the Saint: and immediately received back the fever which had been taken away. Therefore the penny ill retained she promised a second time: and then too she merited to be freed from the fever. Coming therefore to the Saint, as if about to render thanks for the benefit, freed indeed from the fever but not from the disease of avarice, not even then did she wish to render what she had promised: but with presumptuous rashness believing to justify herself, she did not fear to drink of the water of the Saint. Soon celestial vengeance follows the liar, and the fever which had a second time been taken away, is rendered as it were with interest more grievously. Now therefore that rash woman, knowing that she had transgressed against the Saint, nor daring to act falsely any further: offered to the Saint the penny and the candle as she had vowed, and immediately escaped all the disquiet of the fever, and thus in one and the same matter, together with the pretense, the Saint chastised with severity, wished to strike terror into pretenders; and while he received the penitent, to the penitent he in some manner suggested the hope of pardon.

ANNOTATIONS.

April 13, in the Life of Blessed Ida widow mother of Godfrey of Bouillon, who

restored it, in which several Counts of Boulogne are

buried.

CHAPTER III.

Other 20 miracles. The body of Blessed Bernard translated,

[5] A boy from the village which is called the church of Saint Omer, having a withered hand came to the Saint: A withered hand is cured who holding his hand almost the whole day under the stone of the tomb, felt it somewhat strengthened; and to the Convers who was guarding the tomb, he told it with joy. But because from long infirmity the hand was still too cold, the Convers was unwilling to indicate this to us: but permitting the boy to depart, if the improvement were stable, he commanded him to return. Therefore the boy returning home, quickly fully recovered, and the pious devotion which he had toward the Saint impelling him, for giving thanks, as he had been bidden, returned: and moving his hand nimbly before us, demonstrated the skill of his physician. On the same day a man from the town which is called de Bella; pain of chest recovered at the tomb from a certain grave infirmity: for he, as he said, felt so great a pain inside his body, and especially around the chest, that he scarcely even with great labor had the capacity of breathing. Him we heard speaking openly enough without panting, and because he asserted that he felt no pain in his chest, he furnished me matter for writing.

[26] On the following day a man from the castle of Saint Omer came to the Saint: who at another time had been healed at the tomb, but because then he had not indicated this to us, now to supply what he had less done, anguish of a swollen foot, devoutly had returned. Concerning whose infirmity or manner of cure, lest I leave the reader in suspense, shall I unfold in order the things which I have learned to have been related from his mouth? He for half a year or more, had sustained such pain in his foot, as if he truly had his foot transfixed with an iron nail: nor however did the foot appear injured by any scar, except that by a slight swelling he had alienated from the likeness of the other foot. If at any time he wished to go on foot, he could touch the ground only with his heel: and this very thing he did with great labor. Whence because he was a merchant, and in many places it was necessary for him to seek the necessities of life, he had procured a horse for himself: which however he could not mount unless someone helped him up. When therefore he had shown his foot to a most skilled physician, and because it was incurable, with danger of cutting it off, the physician had been unwilling to apply any cure to him, but had advised that the foot be cut off; at length the sick man fled to Saint Bernard; and carrying with him a waxen slipper, with great labor (which was apparent from the sweat flowing from all his members) arriving at the tomb, offered what he had vowed. Withdrawing into a secret place, while he was intent on prayer, he happened to place his foot on the ground, and felt no pain, as he was accustomed: which he did a second and third time, and always found the foot stronger. Feeling himself therefore healed, he departed joyfully, and to his market, which a little before he could scarcely reach on horseback, he went on his own feet. But because he was unwilling to indicate this to us, and did not make the Lord to be praised in his cure; what he ought to have done voluntarily, afterwards he was compelled to fulfill. For when on a certain night he felt revived torments in his foot, and on account of the concealed miracle is renewed, fearing the Lord angry with him, in the morning he returned to the Saint; and what he had foolishly concealed, before all he confessed. It is to be noted therefore how much the intercession of the Saint confers on us for the increase of good works, who, while he was unwilling that the glorification of his miracles be concealed, in this has made us in some way participants of his glory. Wherefore our devotion ought always to grow toward him, whom we daily experience praying incessantly for us.

[27] A woman from b Aire, was incomparably laboring with a cephalic affliction, Grave pain of head is cured since with the swelling of her face she had her head so stupefied, that she could scarcely feel any touch or even the pricking of iron. This woman on a certain day, more grievously agitated than usual by the trouble of her infirmity, while she was wandering through the town as if raving, a certain neighbor of hers meeting her, who was returning cured from the Saint; by her counsel she promised a journey to the Saint: and soon after the words of the promise, she felt her pain mitigated. After therefore she had discharged the promised journey by coming hither, she so perfectly recovered, that she not only showed the swelling of her head to have disappeared; but also under oath asserted that she felt no pain anywhere. On the same day a boy from the district of Boulogne, from the village which is called Helchy, obtains health. a double hump and troublesome contraction, He was disfigured by two humps before and behind, and for about two years contracted, if ever he wished to walk, with one hand placed on his knee, with the other with the support of a staff he guided his feeble gait. His patience having been proved by the expectation of two weeks, at length the Saint granted what was asked: and the humps calmed, made the contracted boy sound and upright. On the morrow moreover a girl from c the Hesdin district, from the falling sickness, increased the due heralding of our praises. For seven years wearied by this discomfort, she bore the cause of the disease in her hand, the falling sickness, which she held closed as if it were contracted; but the infirmity coming on, it was opened with a sudden motion: and soon the girl, driven by the assault of her disease, falling was tormented: and thus it happened to her almost at every time, and within a day and a night fourteen or more times she sustained that miserable passion. When this girl had vowed herself to go to the Saint, she sustained no further trouble of falling: and because at the tomb for three days she remained well, and the hand which had been contracted as it were for the cause of the infirmity, she showed sound and erect, of her perfect cure any faithful person ought not to doubt.

[28] A woman also from d Renynuiescure, for five years swollen with dropsical humor, had once come to the Saint, dropsy, and then having obtained no health, had returned home. To her not long after the Saint appeared through a vision, and admonished her to return again to the tomb: and dictated that she should go to sleep in another place than she had before lain, on the other side of the tomb. Therefore the woman, now secure of recovering health, began a second time to come to the Saint. But because from the long languor she was beyond measure weak

and not only in her body, but also in her legs had horribly swollen up; scarcely on the third day, having completed a journey of one and a half miles, she was able to arrive at the tomb of the Saint. There therefore, as she had been taught by the Saint, choosing a place to sleep, immediately as she rose from sleep, she felt vigor in all her members: and casting away the staff with which, supported, she had come, leaping and exulting, she showed us her body and legs naturally quite slender. And because I have often heard our elders relate that many bodies of Saints rest there, I think that Saint Bernard made his sick woman sleep upon the tomb of some Saint, whom in this cure he wished to honor and to be a partaker of his glory.

[29] On the same day also a certain Scot, contraction, contracted by weakness of the loins, came to the Saint with two staves: who taking a stone, which was one of those stones with which the Saint had strewn his bed, marked the places of his infirmity, and immediately fell asleep. When, however, he had been aroused from sleep, he understood that the pain had departed from his loins: and laying aside his staves rising, he indicated these things through an interpreter monk, who knew his language. At these three miracles Malachias Abbot of Holy Trinity of the Scots was present, whom we have therefore placed here as a witness, that if these things must sometime be brought to the Apostolic See, by the testimony of this Abbot we may be able to confirm our truth. But if we have need of the testimony of the Abbots of this land, we shall be able truly to bring forth all the neighboring Abbots as assertors of this matter, especially since we know from their relation that two Abbots have been healed here. For the Abbot of e Saint John of Terouanne, pain of head, while Saint Bernard had just been entombed, came to our dedication: to whom, when our Abbot wished to enjoin the sermon of Chapter and the office of the Mass, he refused both, and said that because of a pain in his head he could do neither. But because Saint Bernard was already then shining with miracles, that Abbot with great veneration went to him, and had his cuirass placed upon his head; and as he afterwards related to us, he felt no pain from that infirmity any further. Moreover the Abbot of f the Chapel of Blessed Mary at the same time had come into the town of Saint Omer so infirm, troublesome infirmity, that he had not dared to enter the Abbey, but in the town had chosen lodging suitable to his person and infirmity. Sending therefore through his servant two pennies to the Saint, he poured forth humble prayers: and promised that a third, if he were restored to health, he himself would bring to him. Meanwhile, when the household of the Abbot returned from the Saint, the Abbot his pain being mitigated, obtained the possibility of riding; and daily recovering better, after a few days came to the Saint to render his vows: and as he himself asserted, there while he was still at the tomb, he felt the help of divine healing.

[30] A certain young man in the town of g Furnes, in one side and in the tongue struck by paralysis, when for several days he had persevered at the tomb of the Saint; at length he merited to receive the reward of his perseverance. For when the time now extended beyond the fifteenth day, a paralytic, and he still was unwilling to depart; the rewarder of his patience the Lord looked upon the devotion of the humble, and with the vivification of the dead side repaired his tongue almost failing in its office unto right speaking. And since twice, as we are accustomed to do concerning the rest of the sick, once at the tomb, and in our choir before suitable witnesses, we tested him; we took care to wipe away every darkness of doubt from the hearts of unbelievers. At the same time a certain man from the Terouanne territory, madness of mind brought to the Saint his daughter, whom he said to have been mad, but through the Saint's patronage to have returned to a sound mind. For while the girl was mad, the father promised that he would bring her to the Saint: and immediately through the intervention of the powerful Advocate, he received his mad one sound, and according to the tenor of his vow brought her hither. Whence it appears how much that Saint can avail with the uncircumscribed majesty of the Lord, who in remote places more efficaciously aids those invoking him.

[31] For a certain Monk of Guasto, a Cluniac Priory, saw through a dream that he had come to our temple: who while he was before the altar of Saint Dionysius, A Monk roused by a double vision, where guests are accustomed to make their prayers, and wished to go to the Saint, nor knew the way, and had no one to lead him thither; he saw suddenly in that part of the church where the Saint lies entombed, an unspeakable brightness shining forth; to which when he had bent his step, it happened that he was shaken from sleep, and so did not contemplate the summit of the vision. But on the following night another vision of the Saint appeared to him: in which he said that with palms outstretched for a certain private necessity he had poured forth devout prayers to the Saint, and had had so great confidence in the same vision, that soon he did not delay to promise his journey hither: and punished for his negligence in fulfilling the vow, but while in the rendering of his vow he was a little negligent, a few days elapsing he fell into a grave infirmity. Believing therefore this to have happened to him for his neglect, and quickly taking tow, he was twisting a string for the work of a candle which he might bring to the Saint: which when he had measured to his neck, he is healed: as he related to us under testimony of truth, immediately all assault of the disease began to quiet down: and thus in a short time restored to entire soundness, he brought his candle to the Saint; and made open the work of mercy which had been shown to him.

[32] At the same time two women from the town which is called h Messines, coming to the Saint, with gifts with great devotion honored his tomb, and did not neglect to indicate the cause of their journey: A seven-year infirmity is cured, for one of them said that she had been freed from an infirmity which she had sustained for seven years through the merits of the Saint. But the other related that she had been infirm with an acute fever, and thence had fallen into a desperate languor, acute fever, and thus, as is wont to happen to the sick, had entirely lost her speech; after five days however, the ecstasy being calmed, she began to speak a little, and with her whole mind turning herself to Saint Bernard, she made a vow that she would seek him. In that same moment therefore, having experienced the Saint's patronage, she quickly returned to health: and coming hither she brought to the Saint a capital candle and an iron chain.

[33] Not long after, a man from the city of Arras coming to the Saint, A withered hand: said that for two years he had had a withered hand: which when he had promised his journey to the Saint, he received healed. Him in the presence of i Desiderius Bishop of Terouanne before his Clerics we proved to say true things, inasmuch as we knew him by the testimony of many to have been infirm. There was brought to the Saint a small boy in the cradle, of whose wonderful cure, with manifold praise, we ought to extol the magnificence of the Saint. For the mother of the boy, who brought him hither, relating the order of the matter to us, said: that her boy had had a broken arm. But whether this had happened to him in the womb or afterwards in the cradle, she did not know: for recently freed from childbirth, when she saw one little arm of her boy deformedly hanging below his side; a broken arm, frequently raising it, because raised up it always enormously fell away; at length the mother understood the defect of the member, and by touching proved that it was broken. And because she had already heard many things said of Saint Bernard's virtues, she promised that she and her husband, clothed in woolen and barefoot, bringing their boy with them, would seek the Saint, if the weakened member in the boy should receive its natural vigor. And so by the vows of the suppliants, the patronage of the Saint aspiring, by heavenly surgery the injury of the broken little arm is consolidated. For lest any doubt of divine works should creep in, when the parents had brought their boy hither, a certain knot could still be touched in the little arm, where they said the fracture had been.

[34] In the year of the Lord 1182, in the thirteenth week after the first burial, The body on July 29 transferred to a new Mausoleum, the body of Saint Bernard was again drawn back from the earth, and in an honorific mausoleum, which Lord Simon the Abbot had ordered to be made, on the fourth day before the Kalends of August was re-interred. After this on the second day, namely the sixth feria, toward evening when now the structure of the mausoleum had been erected, a new miracle there occurred, through which, as I think, the Saint demonstrated his favor and good pleasure in this matter. For a man from Bethune, on the morrow an infirmity of loins and feet is cured: who for almost seven weeks had been wearied by an infirmity of the loins, and the vigor of one leg and foot being entirely lost, scarcely could place his other foot upon the earth; that day while the mausoleum was being built, came thither: and immediately after having made prayer, being better, he received hope of health. Therefore that night he persevered in prayer, and in the morning when he understood himself to be healed, he offered his staff to the Saint; and about to depart, indicated to us the work of mercy which had been shown to him.

[35] After a few days a woman, coming from the Arras city to the Saint, There are healed a woman jaundiced, and abounding in vicious flesh, was demonstrating with a pale and jaundiced face the infirmity which she said she was suffering in her body, and especially around her heart: the name of which infirmity, if anyone wishes to know, the Physicians, as I think, call that disease by the Greek name sarcoma, that is, a vicious superabundance of flesh: which if you wish vulgarly according to the idiom of the Teutonic tongue to interpret, I shall be able to say that that woman was k "lardy." When this woman had been signed with the relics of the Saint, taking a stone (which we have said to have been one of those stones from which the bed of the Saint was strewn) the stone of Blessed Bernard placed under her head, she placed it under her head, and so fell asleep. When after a little while she had been awakened, she said that this sleep had profited her much: and as argument of this matter, she showed that the swelling of her hands and of certain of her members had subsided. and afterwards passing the night at the tomb, Therefore on the following night, because she had now begun to improve, being permitted to remain at the tomb; she perceived a most sweet odor, surpassing, as it seemed to her, all aromatics, to issue three times from the tomb: which sweetness removed every pain from her heart. The day now returned, when she said that she was relieved in her whole body, and, as she believed, healed, that place from which the sweet odor had come forth, she was still showing with her finger on the stone.

[36] A certain Brother, named Simon, vexed by long languor, had already so failed from excessive infirmity, that he could neither rise from bed, nor proceed to the necessities of his nature except with two staves and the help of an attendant. and a monk unable to walk because of weakness, He according to his custom with staves went to the tomb on a certain night: and there sleeping, when he was being mocked with innumerable visions, and saw nothing perfectly; about the middle of the night from the terror of some vision he leaped up from sleep; and casting away his staves,

upon which he strengthened his weakened feet, before the tomb he stood; and making a staff from the tomb, he was learning to walk like a little child, and bore himself to walking. There therefore taking proof of the virtue restored to him, he went to the nearest altars and through the whole church without a prop. And when he had prayed a little at the tomb; about to seek his bed again, he seized his staves between his arms; and changing place, carried those who a little before had brought him. A few days elapsing, likewise a dysenteric, a man from the maritime parts near Wit-Sandt came to the Saint, who as he asserted, for twenty weeks had labored with the disease of dysentery: but when he promised his journey to the Saint, he felt the remedy of divine propitiation: and coming hence hither with an oblation, he said that he was entirely healed.

ANNOTATIONS.

f This

Abbey is by the above-mentioned Blessed Ida, as we expound at length in her Life,

founded in the year 1091: there the Virgin Mother of God is famous for miracles; there Blessed Ida

died.

CHAPTER IV.

Other XIII miracles. The wonderful conversion of a sinner: and the liberation of those in peril at sea.

[37] Also an English woman, who had gone to the holy Martyrs Thomas and a Edmund for the sake of remedy, and had not recovered; crossing over to these parts, came to our region: and from an almost unheard-of infirmity, by the compassion of God's clemency, merited to be freed. By what name I should call her infirmity, I know not: A certain woman is healed of a grievous languor, which I know her to have been incomparably infirm, since indeed, as if she were mad, she incessantly whirled her head about. When therefore she had come to the Saint, and near the tomb was more sharply than usual afflicted by her passion; the pain, gathered into pus, burst forth through her ear: and as several who were present testified, with a pair of worms coming out from her ears; two worms large and deformed came forth together with the pus from her ear: and so freed from the passion which she had sustained every day for nine weeks, through the mercy of God, to prove the truth of the perfect cure, for seven days she remained with us unharmed and well.

[38] A certain citizen from the castle of Saint Omer had lost his hawk, another recovers a lost hawk: which seeking for one day, when he had not found it lost, he promised to bring a waxen bird to Saint Bernard, if he might be able to recover the lost bird. And so it came about that after about one hour, while the man was invoking the Saint, the lost hawk flew before the feet of its Lord, and brought a captive little bird between its talons. This narration perhaps will be esteemed as sport: but no falsity will here be detected. For by the relation of the servants, who brought hither the waxen bird sent by their Lord, this matter became known: and known by many, through the whole city it was celebrated. And lest any should wonder and say, that the Lord does not care about birds, let him know from the testimony of divine Scripture, that the Lord hates nothing of the things which he has made: especially since we read that the hermits in solitude exercised many virtues around the beasts, and daily we see in the smallest things the divine works more gloriously shining. Wisdom 11, 23 For although in this bird pride may be noted, still it is not for us to judge of secret things: rather if this is the work of the Lord, we ought to render to him, for his ineffable piety, what thanks we can.

[39] A man from Ponthieu, from the castle which is called b Rue, had a boy laboring with the falling sickness; who immediately, A boy laboring with the falling sickness is healed, when his father promised that he would bring him to the Saint; the boy lost every assault of his disease. And because the father, coming hither with his son, asserted on the word of the Lord, that for three months he had felt no mark of his infirmity, hence we conjecture that he entirely recovered. likewise a girl; A thing similar to this was proved to have happened to a certain other man of Bethune with his little daughter, he himself before us all narrating it. For his aforesaid daughter by the assault of the same disease so for several months was laboring, that always at the new moon for about eight days, many times a day falling, she lay on the ground as if dead: whom afterwards the father having brought to the tomb of Saint Bernard thought to have recovered there, and brought home. But after a month, fully confirmed of her health, he returned hither with his daughter, about to render due thanks to God and Saint Bernard. When now the odor of the virtues of the blessed man being spread, then a deaf woman, on all sides peoples like eagles flew together to his most holy body; a certain woman of Aire, deprived of the office of her ears, approached among others to his memory: who, prayer being made, with her own hands threw dust from the tomb of the Saint into her deaf ears; and soon with water sanctified by his relics, these being washed, immediately the ancient use of hearing was renewed.

[40] A boy in the castle of Saint Omer, a boy grievously wounded in the brain: when he had been wounded in the brain, on a certain day eating hot bread, struck by a sudden passion, was brought almost lifeless to the Saint. When therefore all day he lay there almost dead, and toward evening the Brother who was guarding the tomb ordered the impurities around it to be swept away; the mother of the boy, seeing there a scarcity of straw, and the pilgrims arriving while they bent their knees, seating themselves in the dust: O Saint Bernard, she said, if you would give me back my son, I would not delay to spread a rush mat before your tomb. But as those grieving sometimes are wont to speak to the dead, so the mother, after the aforesaid words, turning to the almost lifeless boy, asked whether he agreed to her promise. And the boy, lifting his head, answered "Yes." Even taking his mother's breast in his hand, and bringing it to his mouth, he was nursing, was speaking and was eating; and was strong enough for all the things which he had done on the previous day. O wonderful virtue of the Saint, who held the mat of the poor woman so acceptable, that for her promise he deigned to restore health to the dying boy. The same hilarity, as seems to me, still shines out in the miracles, which once shone in him while he was a penitent.

[41] a girl near death: The daughter of a certain woman, from the castle which is called Bella, vexed by long languor, at length succumbing to the disease, was thought to be knocking at the gate of natural death. Her mother, seeing so great a crisis of life, at length turned to the asylum of the blessed man's patronage, whose fame of miracles she had recently received, with prayers of this sort. O, she said, Saint Bernard, with whose odor of miracles the world is filled, succor my daughter, succor her, I pray, with heavenly medicine; to whom, as can be seen, neither human arts nor means can avail: I promise that she will be your handmaid: you will gain me as a most devoted servant to yourself: only be present to the wretched, set in the nearness of death. Soon after the end of the prayer follows the sense of improvement: for thence health increasing from day to day, when she had recovered, she came hither with her mother, relating the order of the truth to us, and paying due thanks to her healer.

[42] We are relating a matter, which we have faithfully received from one to whom it was narrated by the very one to whom it happened. We could indeed speak with his own person (since neither his name nor his acquaintance is hidden from us), of the matter itself, to hear; but we have considered it safer for us to bring in witnesses of second rank, than by raising question upon his sin to the young man, to whom the matter happened, now converted and penitent, to produce blushing and offense; for we remember it is written, Woe to him through whom scandal comes. Matt. 18, 7 The aforesaid young man therefore, although he had been lawfully joined to a wife, An adulterous young man, wandering however far beyond the granted coupling, serving the miry empress of lust, let loose with his hands all the reins to lust. For besides the simple choruses of unmarried women, married as he was he violated the seats of the married, so much that other men's wives conceived by him, and bore infants of so great a crime. Thus therefore, as we have said, wholly given over to impurity, he lived like a horse and a mule, in which there is no understanding. But as thou hast multiplied thy mercy, O God, thou savest man and beast, O Lord. confession of sin being made, The North wind therefore rising, the Holy Spirit coming breathed upon his heart: soon he went to his Presbyter, bared his wounds: upon which the Presbyter prudently pouring wine and oil, both enjoined penance on the chastised for the deeds committed, and with very many persuasions soothed him, that he might persevere in the same mind. But forgetting the penance afterwards, he turned aside from his purpose. What then? The fault of the master is indeed chided, but it is not in the physician always that the sick man be cured. He pilgrimages to Jerusalem: Moreover he undertakes a very long journey, enjoined for penance: therefore he walked through lands, crossed seas, came to Jerusalem, prayed and returned home. What then? What is done? You have indeed set out abroad, you have borne the Cross, but would that in your heart! returning he repeats the same sins: Thus, thus indeed you would have followed the Lord. But you have done a good work, but is it not rather from lands to lands, from regions to regions, and not rather from virtue to virtue that one should walk, that the God of Gods may be seen?

"They change sky, not soul, who run across the sea."

You have crossed seas, but from death to life you have not yet crossed: you have washed your feet, how have you defiled them? You have returned to your vomit: you have been diminished in vices, but you have not put them to flight. Meanwhile while adulteries are repeated, and panderings are renewed, he came to the memorial of Saint Bernard to pray. Where while he is praying, it seemed to him that his garments from the lower parts, by a creeping flame, were being consumed all around. He looks, he wonders, remembers his sins, coming to the tomb he feels his clothes burning: fears the matter may be seen by the bystanders, fears the Lord very angry with him for his crimes. Therefore for a double confusion and blush, turning aside into a neighboring corner, he strips off his clothes, and from a friend accompanying him he received one with which to cover himself. And so confused he at once went out of the oratory. O Saint Bernard! O praiseworthy man! O man instructed in the knowledge of doing penance! Consult the knight about knighthood, the physician about medicine, but our Bernard about penance: he is practiced in this school: he knows the kinds of wounds, he knows

diverse and suitable aids. Behold the young man whom that North wind had entirely chilled in his lowest parts, while fire visibly kindled his garments on the outside, the flame of the Holy Spirit, by the merits of the blessed man, invisibly kindled him within.

[43] These things being so, the often-mentioned young man immediately sought a certain recluse dwelling not far outside the borough of Saint Omer, he goes again penitent to a recluse; formerly a familiar of Saint Bernard, and poured out his heart like water before the sight of the Lord. He sets forth the whole order both of the matter and of the event. The man praised the Lord, merciful in sinners, and wonderful in his Saints. He therefore rebuked the young man for the things committed, besought him for the virtues to be acquired. The doctrine of the man is heard, is heard and embraced in all patience: therefore penance is renewed, is renewed and increased; he is changed into another: the body is chastised and reduced to servitude; vices are destroyed, virtues are built up. This is the change of the right hand of the Most High. Therefore, a few days having elapsed, it came into his mind to return to the holy tomb; and he returns. thence returning to the tomb, Where he long humbly prayed, long bent his knees, and gave thanks to the Saint for so pious a reproof, and for the correction begun most devoutly asked that it might be preserved to the end by his merits. Therefore, the prayer being poured forth, he tried to depart, but could not: he was able indeed to pray, to bend his knees, but by no means could he withdraw. where he is kept for a while secretly, Cold fear therefore seizes his limbs: yet he prays, as we have said: he bends his knees and adores, so that you would think the young man was addressed by the Saint with words of this kind in a friendly manner: Wait a little, wait, friend, and hear me, whom you know to have been an intercessor for you. You have indeed merited the wrath of the Lord for the enormity of your crimes, and with those descending into the pit you were reckoned: but, thanks to God, with my intervening, you escaped: you escaped, I say, if you adorn the good beginning with a better increase unto the end of life. Consider me, I pray, once a sinner, consider me afterwards a penitent: as if to be admonished to the constancy of penance by the example of Bernard. but see me now for temporary penance eternally crowned and exulting. Here I wished to detain you a little in prayer, so that against him who does not sleep, but is always awake, going about and seeking whom to devour, who has war, you may learn to be vigilant and to pray. I have learned by experience what I say: believe one experienced. Therefore giving thanks to the Lord, go in peace; and that nothing worse may happen to you, sin no more. Soon therefore healed according to the soul that man departed, and rendering thanks to the Lord and to his holy intercessor Bernard, lives religiously until this day.

[44] Precious in the sight of the Lord the merits of this holy man, with how great devotion in the straits of perils of necessities they are to be sought by the faithful, not only at his tomb or in the remote places of lands, but also among the swelling waves of the raging sea, has the omnipotent Lord wonderfully deigned to show by his piety. Merchants of Saint Omer For certain Merchants, inhabiting the town of Saint Omer together with their wives and families, for the sake of trade with manifold merchandise having set out abroad, and traversing various places of lands, at length came to ancient Britain, which is now called England: and there exposing their wares for sale, and comparing or exchanging others from the natives of that country, they make for England, some returned to Flanders, others sought foreign regions with their wares. Of whom two, mutually bound by fellowship, attempting by ship to reach Scotland, in the British sea shaken by an immense storm, and two of these sailing thence to Scotland, by inestimable arrangement and unusual miracle, toward themselves and all who were with them, wonderfully knew the grace of the omnipotent God through the patronage of this Saint. For when, for their death, the waves raised by stormy winds were raging, the mast of the ship together with the sails being cast into the waves, the whole vessel shaken by the great waves, are tossed by the storm: was dissolved from all its framework. And so, with the waves bursting in, the whole vessel is filled up to the upper parts: so that not so much the ship seemed to be within the waves, as the waves within the ship. Why do I linger on many things? Utterly destitute of the solace of their strength, soon they betook themselves to the aids of divine piety. While therefore some suppliantly implore the omnipotent Lord, the creator and ruler of that very element; others beg the suffrages of the undefiled Mother of God and Virgin; and others invoke the diverse patronages of the Saints, as the affection of devotion was leading them; the two aforesaid companions salubriously implore the omnipotent Lord to be propitious to them through the merits of Saint Bernard with most urgent prayer. What then? while they invoke Blessed Bernard: Immediately at the invocation of so great a man, the omnipotent Lord, who wonderfully terrified their minds, also more wonderfully reformed their life through the merits of his Saint. For the ship is snatched from the waves by a certain violent gust of strong blowing, and aloft as if for the casting of one arrow or more carried through the high air, over the swelling whirlpools of the ocean, the ship being carried up through the air, in a certain most tranquil sea, but less deep, with the greatest stupefaction of all is borne: who there fearing that they would be dashed upon the rocks and perish, supported the ship with oars and ropes, until they were led to the port of their desire. they are borne to the desired port: While therefore they are stricken with so great an awareness of divine terror, their wives, dwelling in Flanders, solicitous about the prosperity of their men, on a certain day when a most savage storm had arisen, making a waxen ship, the wives then offering a waxen ship. presented it to the Lord and Saint Bernard for their salvation. A few days afterwards elapsing, the aforesaid men returning home, while they conferred with one another about the miracle of so great a matter, and their wives indicated what they had done for them; carefully asking about the day and hour, they found it to be that very one on which, rescued from shipwreck, their wives had offered prayers and gifts to the Lord and Saint Bernard for their safety. O wonderful man, wonderfully to be followed with all praise of virtues, whom the Lord has made wonderful, distinguished with so great signs of miracles: whose merits he has equaled to the merits of the ancient Fathers c Nicholas and Giles, whom through this by a similar miracle he has wonderfully manifested to be similar to them.

[45] A certain knight from the land of d Guines had lost his bird, which they call a falcon, A lost falcon is recovered. about four days: which while on a certain day he took pains to seek here and there; it happened that he saw some pilgrims immediately coming from Saint Bernard. After mutual salutations therefore and brief exchanges of words, the aforementioned knight said that he had recently lost an exceedingly good falcon, and that for this cause he was running about thus. To whose solicitude one of the pilgrims hearing this at once giving counsel, Behold, he said, from Saint Bernard, whose fame of miracles we cannot believe has not reached your ears, all of us, as you see here, have come together: there among the signs of manifold miracles, hanging by the tomb in honor of God and in praise of the blessed man, we saw even a hawk hanging made of wax: take therefore, if it please you, my counsel, and if Saint Bernard shall have returned your falcon to you, promise that you will recompense him with another made of wax. At this the knight, I agree, said, if only the outcome should follow what you mention. So therefore it was said and they departed from one another. But it came to pass that while the aforesaid knight not long after was sitting before his doors according to his custom, where he saw his falcon which he had lost coming, calling him with the accustomed nods of signs, he stretched out his arm: and the bird flying up sat upon it. Joyful therefore he received back his falcon, and marveling at the order of the event, went to Saint Bernard as he had promised, and the bird made of wax, not unmindful of his promise, there offering in memory of the miracle, left it.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER V.

Other XXX miracles: three dead raised.

[46] A certain man from the city which is called a Utrecht, Because of a son submerged with his wares, named Adam, a merchant by office, while with his wares and money he was sending his son across to parts beyond the sea, a storm arising on the sea, he lost his son absorbed by the waves with all his substance. While therefore the aforesaid man more than was fitting took hard the things lost outside, deprived of sense from excessive grief, the father fallen into madness, he was bound within to a graver loss. When at length with the hope of being better, he came to the tomb of the Saint, having kissed it, and signed his head with the relics of the Saint; is restored to a sound mind: he was restored to pristine health, as he had hoped. Another certain man, Robert by name, from the village called Bouelinges, while on a certain day taking food he gaped too greedily, and, so to speak, gulped down meat very inhumanly; the bone of the flesh taken stuck in his throat; and thus seduced by gluttony he suffered the ambushes near to greediness. A little bone closing the throat for 15 days He therefore for about fifteen days, neither able to speak, nor to pass food or drink, the bone obstructing the passage; at length came to the memorial of Saint Bernard: and there to him praying, when he tasted water sanctified by the relics of the Saint, when waters of the relics being tasted is removed: the bone being sent down by the force of the drink, the lost faculty of speaking is restored; and soon releasing the praises of God from his mouth, to the Saint also he rendered due thanks for his cure.

[47] From the town of Bergues a certain mother of a family her son, A foot inflamed and to be cut off is cured. whose foot the fires of an infernal fire were now almost consuming, had brought around through various places of Saints: who having obtained nowhere any remedy or cure, finally approached the borough of Saint Omer, not for the sake of prayer or of the merits of Saint Bernard, but rather that his foot might be cut off. While therefore b the surgeons were awaited in the house of the parents and friends; the mother approached the memorial of Saint Bernard together with the boy, suppliantly praying that in the sight of the divinity he be a pious intercessor for the boy, and that at no time his foot be cut off, she by her prayer might mercifully obtain from the Lord. She is not frustrated in hope of mercy, but the desire of the pious petition is followed by the effect of cure. For with the boy put to sleep before the tomb, the fire is put to sleep: the burned flesh also, with pieces of cloth wrapped around adhering, is separated from the sound flesh: and immediately the pain being put to flight, restored to pristine health, he departed with his mother. Truly our Lord and Redeemer not forgetful of his promise, by which he says, The works that I do you also shall do; the things which he promised his Saints would do in future ages, through this his Saint in the sight of the sons of men he does not cease wonderfully to work: who, adhering to the footsteps of his Savior, walking through the ways of life and the paths of justice, the seductive

blandishments of the world avoiding, swam across the shipwreck of the present life so much the more freely, as the more strictly he tamed the pleasures of the alluring flesh. John 5, 36 Whence not undeservedly enriched in that heavenly blessedness with the gift of perpetual felicity, how happy, how gloriously he assists the Author of glory, is made plainly manifest from the things which the Lord works through him.

[48] In the castle of Saint Omer a certain woman, Christiana by name, was laboring with a swelling of the whole body: who had received counsel from many wise men, and yet had remained frustrated of all hope of health. She had been a maidservant under the hostess of the blessed man, and by dwelling with her had merited to obtain his familiarity. To her on a certain night the Saint appeared, and asked whether she were sleeping. And when she asked who was speaking to her; There are healed a woman swollen in her whole body, he answered that he was Brother Bernard: and bade her come to him. At this the sick woman answering that she could not rise from bed, and that she wholly knew not where she should seek him; the Saint's precept urged, that either led or carried she should come to Saint Bertin, where he himself rests in body, if she wished to receive health. Therefore the woman, not incredulous of the vision, had herself carried to the Saint. Who while she, lying down upon the tomb, was praying, a certain sound of belching was heard from her belly, and thus all the disordered swelling was reduced to nothing. A wonderful deed no less to be wondered at accompanies it. a man deaf for 4 years, For while, for the novelty of the miracle, all the people were lifting up their voices in praise of God; a certain man, who for four years and more had been deaf, was sleeping lying there: but roused by so great a clamor, he was astonished, and with his hearing restored asked what had happened. And so the miracle doubled, the joy also of the clamoring people is doubled, and through all things the merit of the Saint is declared.

[49] A certain woman, Hedwig by name, from the village called Carbeke, with two other women, whom she had brought as if for testimony, brought her five-year-old son to the Saint: concerning whom she related that the virtue of the Saint had gloriously shone forth, with many standing by. For before the Lord Richard c Archbishop of Canterbury and Master d Waleran Elect of Rochester, and Master e Peter of Blois, and very many other Clerics of great fame, the boy was brought, and the mother relating it the order of truth was brought forth. For the mother, while on a certain day sitting at home she was complaining that her son was absent, a boy suffocated in the waters revives. his brother goes out to seek him: and finding him suffocated in the water, stupefied in the manner of the terrified, he ran back home: and with great wailing announced the sad event to the pitiable mother. Hearing this, the mother trembling and almost lifeless hastened to the pond: and pulled out the body of her son, which still lay in the water with head turned downward: but could find no signs of life in him. All who were present indeed said that he was dead, and proving the arguments of death, asserted that the blood which was flowing from his mouth and nostrils was flowing from the rupture of the heart and the innards. The mother however, not distrusting the clemency of God and the patronage of the Saint, was imploring the help of the faithful advocate: and promised that she would bring her son to the Saint with gifts, such as she could have; with whom she would assign herself also to the service of the Saint thenceforth. I am about to say wonderful things. Scarcely had the woman completed her words, when the boy, the spirit returning, began to sob, and by the heavenly medicament of comfort, quickly received his soundness. In this order, in which the rusticity of our style has proceeded, the mother bringing her son before the aforementioned witnesses, made known the event of the matter. Blessed be God through all things, who does not cease so to glorify his Saint.

[50] When sometime our Hospitarius had gone into England for his revenues, the nephew of a Presbyter, who holds one of the maritime parishes, was despairingly languishing; A certain man receives the use of his tongue. especially when he was swollen beyond measure both in his mouth and in his tongue, and had lost not only the faculty of speaking, but almost also of breathing. When therefore from the relation of the Presbyter the languor of his nephew had been known to the Hospitarius, he beginning to narrate the great deeds of Saint Bernard, was persuading them to invoke the Saint faithfully, presumptuously promising, that the sick man would receive health. At this when the Presbyter with words, the sick man with a nod as he could, invoked the Saint; the monk dipped the relics of the Saint, which he had with him, namely his hairs, into water; and opening with a little knife the teeth of the sick man, from the same water he instilled a little into his mouth. Soon, the effect of the medicament following, the sick man entirely received his lost speech, and the traces of the swelling and ulceration vanishing, on the third day he perfectly recovered.

[51] We have heard that a certain young man, English by nation, limping on one leg and supporting himself with a staff, came to the Saint, whose order of cure we have resolved to transcribe. While before the tomb of the Saint he lay down crying out and trembling; the monk who was sitting there to give response, asked the cause of the crying out. a young man is healed of grievous torment in one leg: To whom he said, Lord, I am enduring unspeakable pain in my leg, and now more sharply than usual the assault of my disease vexes me; and as it seems to me, as if some living animal lurking within, is devouring the bones and marrow. The monk therefore compuncted over the miserable trouble, signed the leg of the man with the stone of the Saint, and exhorting him to prayer ordered him to sleep. A little while afterwards the young man, saying that he was better, rose, and sitting uncovered his thigh; and removing a certain bandage there, drew out tow red with blood from his flesh. You might see in a wonderful manner the tow red with blood, and yet in the hole from which it had been drawn out, no blood appeared. Asked however the name of his infirmity, he said that he had been struck by a horse, and fallen among rocks, had been wounded both by the blow of the horse and by the rebound of the rocks in many places; yet for two years having been healed, recently his wounds had begun to flow with pus, so much that by some he was thought to have a fistula, by others indeed a worm. For the sake of this matter he had gone on pilgrimage to Saint Mary of f Rocamadour and to Saint Leonard g: but nowhere having obtained health, at length he came to Saint Bernard: and in such manner, as has been prescribed, he showed that he had been healed there. But because he was a stranger, publicly and privately we studied to test him: who because he could not be turned from his first assertion, and called upon his own soul as witness over the truth of it, he compelled us without doubt to give faith to his sayings.

[52] We also heard that a certain man from Falconberg had come to the Saint, a dying and scabrous man, who said that he had been despairingly sick, and now a second time for the peril of death had received the saving sacraments. He also said that his whole body had been covered with a universal scab, as if he were a leper, but through the suffrage of Saint Bernard, whom he had invoked in his aid, he had escaped both the leprosy and the crisis of death. For before the people he tore his garment, showed his flesh: where indeed the scars of the old disease still appeared, but few or no traces of the scab remained. A certain boy had his hand vehemently swollen: for which his mother promised a waxen hand to the Saint: a swollen hand is cured, and the boy, with every swelling and pain removed, obtained health. Many and other miracles we heard had been done by the Saint, but since by the negligence of those healed he did not publish them; lest we incur the mark of verbosity, neither did we wish to write what we could not openly prove.

[53] There was in the castle of Saint Omer a certain woman, who for a year or more had had both hands contracted, likewise a contracted hand: but healed at the tomb of the Saint, while she was being tested about the manner of her healing, had several witnesses of the past contraction, and manifested what had happened to her in this order. For she said that on a certain night which preceded the sixth feria, a certain image of a reverend man appeared to her, and giving counsel about recovering her health, bade her go to Brother Bernard, who rests in the church of Saint Bertin. But when morning came, while she was reflecting on her vision, she was in some way secure about her health; yet she put off her journey for her bodily weakness until the morrow, and on Saturday indeed went to the Saint, and arriving there placed her head and arms within the openings of his Mausoleum, and so fell down to prayer. While therefore she was so lying a little while, she felt her hands relax and her fingers extend: and agitated by the impulse of feminine lightness, crying out and exulting she burst forth from the openings; and showed her hands, contracted a little before, sound and erect. a boy tormented with stone, In the Furnes territory a boy was distressed by the trouble of the stone: for whose health his parents offering their vows, were praying to Saint Bernard: and promised that for the stone, if he were freed from it, they would offer an equal quantity of silver. And so their pledge, or to speak more truly, their faith, by the Saint's intervention following, the boy immediately passed out the stone, and the parents' truthfulness brought the promised quantity of silver to the faithful Patron.

[54] and a dropsical girl are healed: A girl native of the Saint Omer castle, deformedly swollen, appeared broader than long: to whom many skilled men and physicians were summoned, who were giving a unanimous sentence of never recovering health, and affirmed that she was infected with natural dropsy. For the cause of this matter the parents brought their daughter to Saint Bernard, and had the swelling of the belly signed with the Saint's chains. After this returning home, calling a physician who was expert in discerning infirmities, when they wished to test the cause of the swelling by phlebotomy; the girl came forward, and, casting off her clothes, showed the swelling of the belly to have subsided. The matter so done and so brought to our notice, has been approved by the testimony of many who knew the parents and the girl.

[55] O venerable merits of the Saint! O reverend holy place, where the hidden pledge of so holy a body is held! For among the other miracles we have seen a wonderful thing to have happened, of which if true faith of the people shall have been established, we affirm without scruple of falsity, that through this Saint we have seen the ancient miracles of the Apostles restored. For a boy who was believed to be dead, brought to the tomb, was brought to the Saint, when he had been placed upon his tomb, the vital spirit returned into him. Wherefore the monk, who was there present for giving response, when from these things which had happened he was stupefied, and did not know whether he had been brought there alive, or had revived there; turned to the wailing women who had brought the boy, and saying that he was living, rebuking them, commanded them to cease from tears. The mother therefore, who for the cause of this matter had run up, hearing her son to live, for joy, a boy revives, as is believed, fell lifeless to the ground, so much that to some of the bystanders the swooning of the mother inspired more terror than the death of the boy. Yet after some hours, the mother having returned to herself, when we asked more carefully about the event of the matter, the summary of the deed from their

assertion, who had been present at the matter, we briefly learned. For they were saying that the boy had long lain in the water, who had been submerged: and no signs of life had appeared in him when he had been drawn out: whom nonetheless brought hither they had believed to be dead. Probably therefore the faith of the people believes this to have been done by the merits of him, at whose tomb the boy first appeared alive.

[56] There was a woman in the city of Arras, who while she was sleeping, struck by a sudden passion, with distorted mouth, deformed by distorted mouth and blinded eyes, with blinded eyes, had been foully deformed. When therefore she had uselessly spent much upon physicians, after ten weeks, the infirmity still lasting, she turned all her hope to the Lord, and calling on the faithful intercessors Thomas and Bernard, vowed that clothed in woolen and barefoot she would seek them: and in almost the same hour recovering, first a vow being made; quickly received complete health. But when through negligence she was a little delaying to render it, the pain revived and returned: which justly imputing to her neglect, then, it being deferred, she took up the promised journey: and yet was not free from the assault of her disease, until she came to the tomb of our Saint. Whence although we believe both Saints, namely Thomas and Bernard, to have worked in the cure of their pilgrim, yet greater veneration seems shown to our Saint, again she is healed at the tomb. at whose memorial the health of the sick woman was restored.

[57] A boy, from the village called h Stenfort, blinded in one eye for several days, came to the Saint: who because for a whole week he showed devotion according to his ability, A blindness of one eye is cured, received the brightness of his lost light. A young man also, a native of this place, Philip by name, paralysis of one side, struck by paralysis in one side, was showing a certain image of death in himself: whose members of the side indeed all seemed rather to hinder than to render service: since he was compelled not to govern them as his own, but as it were foreign to drag them after him. He being brought to the tomb of the Saint, with wonderful speed the function of the lost members being restored, was restored to soundness. From the same infirmity too and similarly vexed in the side a girl and moreover almost mute, was brought to the Saint; and was freed from every trouble which she was suffering. A man also from the town of Bergues brought a three-year-old boy, burning of face. concerning whom how wonderful the piety of the Saint was, he was unwilling to be concealed from us. For he said that the boy had fallen into a vehemently burning fire, and so deformed had his face become; that neither one eye nor nose appeared in it, and it resembled the appearance rather of half-burnt flesh than of a face. When therefore, said that man, I was lamenting my misfortune, to Saint Bernard, whom I have often heard to be a faithful Patron to his venerators, with my whole mind I turned myself, and promised that I would seek him together with my boy. So therefore timid about the event of the matter, I laid the boy, as best I knew, in his bed: but on the next day when I looked more diligently, I found him such as you now see. For the face was slightly red from the past burning, but nose and eyes appeared whole and sound.

[58] Moreover I heard many assertions of simple folk concerning the miracles of the Saint: but as to unfold all in order would seem superfluous and too tedious; so to touch upon some summarily, A woman lying ill of disease is cured, proved by the testimony of truth, will perhaps not be useless. A certain servant of ours, Lambert by name, had a wife lying long in bed, for whom a quite humble gift, a waxen leg, he offered to the Saint, and immediately the woman obtained health. A boy also vexed by grave passion, a sick boy, recovered at the tomb of the Saint. Likewise a young man long impotent in one arm, while he was sleeping near the tomb, having an arm almost dead, it seemed to him that a worm in the place of the upper pain was descending through his arm into his fingers, and wishing to shake it from himself, he sprang from sleep: and still terrified from the vision, raising the arm which had been almost dead, he signed himself. In such order the man recovered, and to all who heard the matter, a lost ship is recovered: left material for wonder. Another man likewise had lost his ship, for seven weeks: who when he had promised a waxen one to our Saint, found the lost one; and judged this, not undeservedly, to be ascribed to the Saint's praises.

[59] A boy also diseasedly swollen around his genitals, when he was believed to be ruptured, a boy is freed from troublesome swelling: his parents brought a physician to him, and the cause of the swelling had to be inquired into. Meanwhile the mother, more solicitous by natural affection, was addressing Saint Bernard with assiduous prayers; and making a waxen candle according to her son's length, this she was promising him with great devotion. But on the next day, when the cause of the infirmity was to be inquired into, the boy was entirely sound, so that no signs of the past swelling remained in him. Many miracles of the same kind persuade me to be serviceable to brevity, because not only by the fastidious but even by well-disposed readers I shall be reprehensible, if in many similar matters everywhere I shall wish to make long treatises. Concluding therefore a great matter with a brief discourse, I shall briefly explain what happened on this our island. A small boy fell into the water, a submerged boy revives: and there from the third to the sixth hour lay. After this, search being made, in the bottom of the pool, face down clinging to the mud, he was found, and then drawn out. Thence when earth together with water was being shaken from his mouth, and nothing of life was found in him; the mother amid plaintive laments frequently invoked the Saint: and about the ninth hour the dead revived, and was to all who were present matter of praise and wonder.

[60] pain of the shins in a woman is cured, From the castle of Saint Omer a certain woman was returning from Saint James, who, suddenly suffering difficulty of return from pain of the leg, while she had to remain behind her companions; in this crisis of necessity invoked Saint Bernard in her aid: whom she soon experienced as a helper, on the next day free from all pain, was not hindered from completing the journey begun. At a certain time when a merchant from the aforesaid castle had come to England; he found there a Frisian man of his profession: with whom when he was having mutual conversation about the commerce of his art, that Frisian began to ask about the virtues of Saint Bernard, and two Frisian spouses and what had happened to him through that Saint, he showed with arguments still appearing. He related indeed that he and his wife, at one time both by swelling and infirmity of the shins were lying in bed: to whom when the merits of our Saint had become known, and they themselves had invoked him in this distress; there appeared to them through sleep a man of reverend form, who commanded that they either bring or send waxen shins to the new Confessor Bernard in the parts of Flanders, and that afterwards they would receive health. From then therefore they were not distrustful of salvation, but with daily devotion were profiting in invoking the Saint who had been shown through the vision, and through devotion in health. These things our merchant related to us, and in sign of this matter brought four shins made of wax, which the Frisian, now sound, had given him, to our Saint.

[61] I knew a certain monk in our monastery, of whom I have learned by the relation of faithful men, a difficult hernia of a Bertin monk is healed, that through the patronage of the Saint he merited to be healed of a great infirmity. But because the infirmity unknown to any of us, had invaded the private parts; suppressing the Brother's name that he not blush, I am writing only the order of the cure. From his boyhood years indeed he had been ruptured: who when among the first miracles he had seen a certain young man healed from the same infirmity; he came to the tomb of the Saint, and for the familiarity which he had had with the young man, more boldly reasoning with him, thus prayed. O Bernard, succor me a suppliant, because I loved you still while you were established in this mortality, and though I knew nothing of your miracles I venerated you. For the reason of justice (as it seems to me) demands, that you cure me rather than strangers: because although the breadth of charity extends even to enemies; yet more affectionately it gathers friends into its bosom. Thus when he had prayed, he went to sleep: who rising in the morning, when he wished to soothe the places of his infirmity with the accustomed touch, recognized what the Saint's intercession had bestowed on him, having obtained complete health.

[62] In the Bourbourg district, in a village called Loon i, a certain man, Walter by name, had been struck by an arrow, so that the iron passing through the middle of the face, from the other side reached almost to the ear. an arrow fixed in his head for six years is removed by a miracle, And so for six years laboring with this trouble, when he could be cured by no art of physicians; he came to Saint Bernard: and promised him, that if at any time the iron, which he was bearing in his head, had been drawn out; he would be ready to offer a likeness of it made of silver. Bound therefore by such a promise toward the Saint, he returned home: and after some days the arrow to the upper scar indeed against nature had returned: and so much of the shaft, with the iron still clinging, appeared outside, that it was not difficult to grasp it with tongs. That however we may consider this to have happened not by chance, but by a miracle, the iron and its shaft together could be drawn out; but soon after having been drawn out, from excessive rottenness, in the hand of the extractor they fell apart dissolved. The man therefore being made sound, according to the tenor of his vow, brought to the Saint a likeness of the iron made of silver; by whose relation this matter came to our notice.

[63] A certain woman from Arras sought the Saint from afar: who placed three candles at his tomb, and at each of the altars around one each: and besought the Brother guardian of the tomb, that as long as they could burn, he should not extinguish them; saying that this had been commanded by Saint Bernard, A woman is healed from blindness from swelling of the face. whom she asserted to have truly appeared to her, but whether she had slept or been awake she did not know for certain. For she had been blinded for six weeks because of the great swelling of her face, when a reverend man, who named himself Bernard, as has been said, appeared and giving counsel about recovering her health, commanded her to go to his tomb in the church of Saint Bertin. Because therefore, as by the woman affirming we knew, the vision was accompanied by health, rightly is this matter to be numbered among the miracles.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VI.

Other XII miracles: of which some were added by later writers.

[64] From the Furnes territory a man, Lambert by name, returning from Saint James, on a certain night, while he wished to rise for the necessities of nature, Knee and foot bruised are cured: fell upon his leg and vehemently bruised his foot and knee, so that he did not doubt either that his leg was broken, or that some joint had sprung from its frame. While therefore on one hand for his injury, on the other (because he feared to remain behind his companions) he was afflicted with grave pain; he asked Saint Bernard to suffrage him in this distress, to whom also he bound himself by vow, that he would bring a foot and knee of iron. And so it came about that when the man amid plaintive prayers had fallen asleep, all pain at the same time was put to sleep; and morning returned, for completing his daily long journey, in no way was he hindered by any injury. To this truth bears witness the iron foot, with the knee depending at the Saint's tomb.

[65] There was in the Tornehem district a certain man, originating thence, named Nicholas, industrious and skilled in the carpenter's art: who while on one day he was exercising the office of his art, and was building a house for his Lord, namely the Count de Ghisnes; a disease flying upon him, he was in a moment deprived of the strength of one of his legs. But the arrow a of the disease not yet ceasing, it did not linger long, because of a sudden paralysis, deprived of all motion, when, all present who were standing by marveling, he was left destitute not only of the strength of his leg, but also of all his strength from the extremity of his joints to the groin on one side of himself. Perceiving therefore so great a rage of disease raging in himself, to his own house and wife, both by the aid of companions and by the support of a staff, he turned aside in whatever way he could. In this manner with most grievous and insupportable pain he passed that whole day. But on the following night, the disease more and more assaulting him, he became so incapable of himself on both sides, that he could move or bend neither of his legs nor any of the joints of any of his limbs. after he had remained a whole week at the tomb of Blessed Bernard, With these and similar troubles and torments oppressed for some time, he was brought to Saint Bernard: clinging to whose tomb, he did not relax his eyes from vigils, his mouth from most devout prayers, his breast from sighs extended to the stars, for a whole week, nor did he obtain anything of his vow. Over this some monks condoling and also marveling, feared, that either he was mocking them, or that dissembling himself he was gaping for the snares of some crime. For this cause a certain Brother, wishing to extort the truth of the matter, began to palpate his legs, to handle them, to draw them here and there, saying: Man, awake, support your legs, try whether the vigor of them has revived. Who when he had tried, could not support them without the help of the monk, but, empty, as if they lacked bones, they collapsed together. Then because he had kept vigil with long prayers, and in vain; by the order and admonition of the Brethren he was carried back to his house, feeling no benefits of the Saint. Which being heard, the Count of Ghisnes compassionating him, had him carried back to the Saint Omer castle, and there entrusted him for curing to a faithful and skilled physician. in vain he tries the skill of the physicians: And when the physician had labored over him for an innumerable time, he brought to him nothing of health, and could bring nothing. Likewise also other very many physicians uselessly worked on him. Then the sick man already named from the beginning, despised the physicians, despised the powers of herbs, despised even incantations, remembering that no man is a physician like God. And immediately he began to invoke God's mercy upon himself: and that he might the more easily obtain it from the Lord, at length binding himself with a vow to Blessed Bernard, he chose as his co-helper and intermediary Saint Bernard: and vowed that he would thenceforth commit himself to none of the physicians, have no b workman except that Saint, whom he had already chosen. Namely Saint Bernard, resting at the Sithiu monastery. From that day therefore, and under the very day, he receives health, on which he had vowed to the Saint, the Lord being merciful and the Saint aiding, he began to be cured, and to be so much improved, that within a few days and as it were momentarily he was entirely restored to his pristine health. The wound of the disease being driven away, he neither dared nor wished to conceal such great miracles under a bushel. Whence praising the Lord and magnifying the Saint, he did not delay to come to us; and disclosing the series of his event, before all our congregation and a multitude of secular people, in such manner as we have written, he himself taught this truth.

[66] With how great splendor of virtue therefore, and with how great fragrance of beatitude, our glorious Bernard breathes forth to the whole company of the Blessed; that is, for example, for instruction, for correction; for all the children of the Church it is better perceived by taste than by hearing. Whence that: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet. Ps. 35, 9 He is therefore magnified in the sight of principality, and victory is given to him over the powers of darkness, because this is the son beloved to the Lord, in whom he is well pleased. For while he still fed on the air, how sincere, how excellent a holocaust he consumed on the altar of his heart, he was concealing: but after he paid the debt of nature, with how many signs, prodigies, virtues he was shining, The glory of Blessed Bernard becomes known from the multitude of miracles. who can enclose in the ark of his mind, who can elaborate in the testimony of letters, or with one voice be able to explain. For a city placed on a mountain was never hidden. And so this blessed one might suitably say: Do with me, Lord, a sign for good, that they may see who have known me: for thou, Lord, hast helped me and hast comforted me. This Bernard, poor and small and exhausted with many labors of hardships, became for the Lord a living and true sacrifice, and a temple most worthy of divine inhabitation: for he willingly received with Lazarus evils in his life, but now is comforted. Many things indeed the Lord worked through him not to be damned to perpetual silence: but also this little bit, touching upon with brief succinctness, we shall apply to memory.

[67] There was a certain woman, whose name was Agatha, in the village called Thetinghem, c not far removed from Bergues: who when she had produced a miscarriage in childbirth, had herself placed in baths, which with the highest desire both before and after childbirth she is said to have affected. And when the matter is thus carried on, a graver and more burning infirmity came upon her: so that it compelled her without intermission to persist in the baths, and prohibited her from being able and willing to be without them: for when once or more often she tried to cease from the baths, a delirious woman, affecting continually to remain in baths she cried out that she would immediately be snatched from the midst, unless straightway she were received back into the same. O wonderful thing and unknown unto the extreme hinges of the orb! If ever her friends, dragging the wretch from that hateful dwelling of waters, strove to detain her, she then fled away secretly, and leaped into a little ditch which she perchance found, and that she might there more freely indulge her insatiable affection, lay hidden. And while more attentively sought for, after three days she is found there; she is drawn out, brought home, and not without continuous help from friends and the service of charitable humanity (because she was needy) for about twenty-two and a half years she is permitted to persevere in misery of this kind. Finally under the image of a dream it was shown to her, for 22 years that she should be presented at the tomb of the above-mentioned Saint, and there by his merits ought to be restored to her pristine health. Which she did not delay to narrate to her own, knowing that the fame of Bernard flies on certain wings, because the virtue of God went out from him, at length carried to the tomb of Blessed Bernard, and was healing very many. Without delay, she is more swiftly carried, in no way separated from the accustomed liquor; she is exposed at the tomb of the often-mentioned Saint: at length, with no small constancy of faith and the rule of confession strengthened, she is drawn out of the baths; and immediately wringing out sighful breaths, and as if with broken thread hastening to fate, with a voice so plaintive, so clamorous she execrates that evil from her soul, not lying, until by the sacrosanct Sacrament of the Eucharist she is fortified by the grace of divine mercy: and so it came about, and the cruse of oil did not fail the poor little woman for the increase of health; until from the pitiable dungeon of the aquatic pest, by the merits of Blessed Bernard, she is entirely freed, and is taught no further to abuse such continuous baths. Come, look, she is freed. Brethren, I beg look, how the divine powers gain support for our faith. See therefore that they profit very much for our infirmity. Recall to your minds the prosperities of the world, the multitude of times, the pomps of sublime men, the glory of matrons, the abundance of riches. Consider and weigh, that all these things are as nothing, because he who loves them, is as one seeing a dream while waking. This recollection therefore ought to be great instruction. Those things therefore are to be sought, those above all to be loved, which when found do not pass away, nor when attained fail. But because no one can pant for the desire of these things without the mercy of divine grace, let us pray the Omnipotent Lord, that he grant us both to will to demand them, and to be able to obtain them: that here he may grant us to live in his fear and after these things in the fellowship of our blessed and glorious Bernard and the Saints with joy he may deign to receive us as worthy.

[68] Nor less is that to be passed over in silence which at another time also was done by the same Saint, whom the Lord appointed the redemption of his people. having the other foot withered he is healed. A certain young man in Burgundy there was, whose remaining foot, not mindful of its due vigor, had entirely withered, so that he was dragging it with himself in laborious withdrawal, and for the rest supported himself by the solace of two staves. It happened therefore that he came into the place which is called d Viscamp, but to whom that place, so celebrated enough, became known, by the common breezes a thousand entries where the pilgrim people gives service of fame. Nor was the all-embracing rumor of Bernard hidden from the inhabitant of Viscamp, namely that the Sithiu monastery was shining not a little with miraculous prodigies through the same Saint, and flowering with the long service of benediction. Hearing which, that one made cheerful, that at least he might acquire a small portion of divine grace by the tenor of faith, arranged to come to Sithiu, and cast away one of his two staves, the affection of devotion animating him: but content with the other, he had scarcely left the place, when he had already begun to feel the offense of his foot, before dead and following with impotent effort and sweeping the ground. He came therefore, and lay down at the monument of the Saint for the obtaining of divine liberation. But also you, O man, who are you to answer God? You have indeed solicited the Saint with voice and vow; but he obtained, whom in the sight of the Prince

of the most high you had as guarantor, because the Lord has raised up for us a horn of salvation, in the house of Bertin his servant. Further, that young man, by the gratuitous preparation of heavenly medicine, in the temple of Blessed Bertin is restored, and the office of his foot being received back, the supporting staff, which alone, as has been said, having spurned the other he had retained, in testimony of the outcome of the matter to the popular spectacle he left there.

[69] That also is to be noted and committed to writing; that a certain boy had here died and revived. A certain woman therefore, whose name was Anna, came from Bergues to the castle which is called Saint Omer's, where she was dwelling many days, having as it happened a son, named John, who now having grown some number of years, began to run daily to the tomb of Blessed Bernard with his coevals with desirous and frequent zeal, a little boy is freed from disease by a waxen candle being offered: to sit and to play, as the lightness of the boyish mind draws out actions. But his mother, seeing him clinging so frequently, so diligently to the memorable tomb, vowed a candle of the length of his stature to the Saint; because she knew him to be grievously tormented by a certain sickness, and from this to be daily more worsely entangled: she however, because there was no or slight substance for her, put off the purpose of the vow. After this, the boy urging, importuning, and for the most part persevering for the wax candle, the mother at length assented. But he paid the debt of his vow, and thenceforth every trouble of his body to be put to sleep, he asserted to his mother. Afterwards however about the sixth hour of the day it happened that I know not by what chance he was thrown from a bridge, and was swallowed by the injurious gape of a torrent: and while hither and thither by the water with impetus he was longer troubled, certain persons supervening find him, draw him out and carry him, already rigid with fatal cold, and livid in the whole body, and submerged, and find nothing of life remaining in him. To whom, that if they could, by some experiment they might rouse the vital spirit, the head being let down, that the waters might flow out, they firmly apply their hands to the groin parts. And while they expend various skills on him, nor profit; to the tomb of the Saint the body is carried by the mother, and to the divine disposition is better committed. But she wailing about her son's death and raving, at the tomb he revives: a concourse of people of both sexes is made, awaiting the blessed hope and the coming of heavenly glory. Why more? The Lord looked into the prayer of the humble, and a certain man signing the boy with the relics of the Saint, and placing a knife between his teeth, and his finger following, the boy began with a slight motion to hold the finger with his teeth. But he seeing the boy's face now reddened, testifies that the succor of health is hastening, and that there is now no vestige of death. Without delay, the boy is lifted, and all marveling and joyously rejoicing at the gracious exercises of virtues, he is restored sound and alive through the merits of the Confessor. O ineffable Man! O if anyone rich in Virgilian or Tullian eloquence were to come, and give his labor to writing of such and so great a man. For our smallness does not suffice nor will any ever be able to suffice from every nation which is under heaven. Indeed that woman, before the venerable phalanx of monks and the gathering of seculars, with grief entirely in exile, with her son with joyful face came forth into the midst: who asked about the circumstances of the matter, indicated herself to be a native of Bruges, and which island surrounding our monastery is the neighbor, she affirmed that for many spaces of times she had dwelt, and that at no other time would she dwell for the cause of the Saint: concerning her son however the whole event of the matter with certain assertions she set forth, and so every cloudlet of ambiguity by the ocular notice of faith she more clearly wiped away.

[70] Moreover a certain woman in the village which, by the common name Brelum we call, bordering on the Saint Omer castle, as they relate, a native, when on a certain occasion, feeling nothing evil in her members and nothing of trouble, after daily labors had given herself to rest, and afterwards in nocturnal silence, as happens, was tossing herself here and there in bed; she was astonished that her left arm together with the leg of the same side could not be moved at all. a woman contracted in arm and leg is healed And when she was shaken with plaintive hesitation over the unforeseen evil of misfortune, and those two members, entirely forgetful of accustomed vigor, so suddenly to have become dry, she stupidly remembered, Bernard came to memory: and she began with panting spirit to beg the succor of divine mercy on account of the merits of the Saint. But on the following day brought to the tomb of the Saint, with the aim of highest devotion she is exposed; prayer is made; nor thus the first, nor the second, nor the third time is she improved. And while, the space of the day being run through, nothing was done about the progress of faith, and she was barred from the tomb because of the incompetency of the hour; yet on the following day she returns, and insists with imploring prayers, and with diligent intention upon the memory of the Saint spiritually she leans. What more? She was offered to the gaze of the faithful, because she received the former solace in the aforesaid members previously withered. I remember a certain little woman came to the Saint, who related that she had wondrously experienced the virtue of the Saint: and that the better faith might be given to her words, she recalled in order, and a woman laboring with the falling sickness, whence she was, what she had suffered, and what by the Saint's merits she had obtained. For of the castle which is called e Abbeville, according to her relation, she was a citizen, and with the falling sickness for a long time now she was laboring. The trouble of her disease she had sustained thrice every day: and in the waters and in the fire she had frequently incurred the peril of death. When therefore by her incessant infirmity and peril of death she was anguished, she betook herself to the patronage of Saint Bernard: and took up the journey of pilgrimage devoutly. Wonderfully from that day, in which she began to be a pilgrim, until she came to the Saint, she felt no trouble at all of the daily disease. And relating these things to us, because she believed that she had received complete health; to all who were present she brought an occasion of believing and praising the Lord.

[71] A certain merchant, for the cause of his merchandise coming into the castle of Saint Omer, when he had been seized by a grave fever, by the counsel of his host vowed a candle to Blessed Bernard: but the care of secular things drawing him elsewhere, he paid not at all the vow. seized with a fever, Therefore on the following day, the fever being mitigated, forgetful of his pledge, he went to the sea, and relapsing because the vow was deferred. and crossing over to England, came as far as Canterbury. Where when by the revived assaults of his disease he was most bitterly urged, he ran to Saint Thomas for the sake of help: but in no way persevering in prayer, and through this perhaps not being able to obtain salvation, having learned of the presence of a physician, he had him summoned. What more? Meanwhile when the physician had been summoned, our Saint in a vision appeared to the feverish man, and rebuked him for the transgression of his vow, and afterwards with sweet consolation so gladdened the sick man with the hope of health: If you wish, he said, to be saved, seek no medicine from man: but placing your hope in the Lord, go to my tomb, knowing that when you have paid the vow you will be freed from your infirmity. Meanwhile the man being awakened from sweet sleep, already believed himself to have recovered: and immediately deserting the physician and England, he returned to Flanders; and coming with his vow to the Saint, and showing himself healed, lame in one foot, he faithfully recounted these things about the miracles of the Lord and of the Saint. A man, Michael by name, one foot entirely dead miserably dragging after himself, on a certain day near the tomb of the Saint placed himself in hope of help: whom his hope in no way deceived. For lying there, he felt new twistings in the dead members; and through the Saint beseeching divine help, he arose, stood, and walked. In the Bergues territory also a woman weakened in both legs, a woman contracted in both legs of which one was contracted, the other paralytic, by the merits of the Saint obtained soundness, and in sign of the health obtained, the staves, on which in place of feet she was leaning, to her Curator devoutly offered. f

[72] A boy from the castle of Saint Omer, submerged in a bath, by sufficiently evident indications was shown to be dead: since the vital breath had left him, pallor and blackness had deformed his countenance, and rigor had occupied the whole body. A boy submerged in a bath revives: The parents therefore weeping who saw their offspring lifeless, a great concourse of people is made; and the life which only God could give back, men were desiring to recall with the cleverness of their zeal. For some, that they might cast forth the water received inside the body, hung the boy by the feet, head downwards; others now made the rigid body, now the cold one warmed. But when they saw that all the cleverness of their zeal availed nothing, and those who were believed wiser ordered the body to be buried; a certain woman, taking it between her arms, ran to the tomb of the Saint, saying that Saint Bernard was of such sanctity, that God by his prayers ought to raise the dead. And since the woman did not hesitate through distrust, neither did her faith and hope toward the Saint fail her. For soon when the lifeless body was placed upon the tomb of the Saint, blood sprang forth through the mouth and nostrils of the dead, and the spirit returning, the boy began to yawn. Joyful rumor is scattered among the people, and some who previously had run up at the cry of mourning, at the voice of joy running together stood by; who said: that they would by no means impute that Blessed Peter would have been able to obtain this from the Lord, whence they said they confided more in the sanctity of Bernard than of Peter. Foolish indeed was this confidence: but because it proceeded from pious affection toward the Saint rather than from malice, it is piously to be excused; and the virtue of the Saint for these and other miracles is rightly to be proclaimed. erysipelas is cured, To our notice also it came, that a certain man, inflamed, as is said, with infernal fire, there through the Saint's merits was extinguished. Many other miracles we have heard to have occurred in the same place and believe: which because through our negligence have been neglected, and about the order of the deed and manner of the healings we are not sufficiently taught, we choose rather to be silent, than to incur in anything the mark of falsity.

ANNOTATIONS.

word, having professed that part of medicine which teaches the applying of hand to the work

prescribed by Theorists: but the force of this word the French and the Flemings their neighbors express, by calling them operators, which the author here judged to be more Latinly called opifices (workmen).

f What

follows as a miracle is extracted from one of the two Homilies, which we indicated at the beginning

to be found equally transcribed in the Bertinian codex:

where the author, after some commendation of the praiseworthy penance performed by Bernard, thus passes to what is in hand. But leaving those wishing to know these things, that they should have recourse to the series of his life: and

what we recently heard happened at his tomb, let us joyfully recount.