Trudpert the Martyr

ON SAINT TRUDPERT THE MARTYR,

HERMIT IN THE BREISGAU.

AFTER THE YEAR 642.

Trudpert, Hermit in the Breisgau, a province of Germany (St.)

BHL Number: 8334

By G. H.

[1] Among the illustrious regions of greater Germany, adjacent to the Rhine on the right side, extending to the Hercynian or Black Forest, is the Breisgau, in the Acts below called Brisgaiogia, the ancient possession of the Austrians, bordering on upper Alsace, Slain in the Breisgau, to which also it is customarily reckoned. In this territory lived St. Trudpert the Hermit, slain by nefarious men, and therefore attained ecclesiastical veneration with the Martyrs. Among the ancient writers of German affairs published by John Pistorius, there is extant the Chronicle of the Bishopric of Constance, begun by James Manlius; to which the fourth Appendix is subjoined, displaying the Catalogue of the Saints of the diocese of Constance, in which is the Breisgau; and among other Saints these things are read: Held among the Saints of the Diocese of Constance: "St. Trudpert, Hermit, Martyr, from the parts of the Scots into the monastery of Numaga: which monastery is now called by its own name, of St. Trudpert, in the Breisgau." The first name, Numaga, is taken from the little river to which it is adjacent, and in Maps is inscribed "St. Hubrecht" in place of "St. Trubrecht," between the villages of Oberthal and Underthal, that is, upper and lower valley, at the foot of the Hercynian mountain. The closer towns are mentioned in the Acts: Staffena, commonly Staufen, on the said Numaga river, and Sultsberga. Gabriel Bucelinus, who testifies that in this monastery in the year 1624 he was Master of Novices, where the monastery of St. Trudpert is, asserts in the Germania Sacra, that it was founded immediately after the death of St. Trudpert by Otbert, Count of Habsburg, a thousand years ago; and that he, from its most ancient monuments, has traced the origins and descent of the Agilolfingian race and of the Counts of Habsburg with much and great labor, yet most distinctly and clearly: which others will be able further to examine, and compare with the Austrian or Habsburg stemma elucidated by Jerome Vignier and John James Chiflet. In the Acts below it is said that "from the magnificent stock of Othpert, the noble offspring of the Counts of Habsburg drew its origin." The rest of this monastery's history is illustrated below in the Acts.

[2] The Martyrology of Usuard, enlarged for the use of the Churches of Alsace, April 26, cult in the manuscript Martyrology, and written on parchment by the hand of Widon Krentzelin under the Emperor Sigismund, with the Roman See vacant, that is, in the year 1416, which formerly belonged to M. Nicholas Scheichius of Hagenau, on the 6th day before the Kalends of May, or April 26, has this: "In the Black Forest, St. Trudpert the Martyr." We have a Breviary written on parchment and transmitted to us from Speyer: and Breviaries, in which the ecclesiastical cult of St. Trudpert on this April 26 is prescribed with this Prayer: "O God, who grant us to enjoy the birthday into heaven of Blessed Trudpert your Martyr, grant that we may be aided by his merits and prayers." In the Breviary of the Church of Strasbourg printed in the year 1478, this Prayer is prescribed: "Let the votive birthday into heaven of St. Trudpert your Martyr, we beseech you, O Lord, make us glad, and by the intercession of his benefit raise us up." There is added in the same place an epitome of the Life, distributed into three Lessons to be recited at Matins, which we shall report below. In the Proper of the Saints of the Archdiocese of Salzburg, printed about the year 1647, the Office is made according to the prescription of the Roman Breviary of SS. Cletus and Marcellinus the Pontiffs, with Commemoration of St. Trudpert the Martyr. But in the Church of Constance, on account of the aforesaid holy Pontiffs Cletus and Marcellinus, the office of St. Trudpert the Martyr is recited on the following day, April 27, April 27, and the Lessons of the second Nocturn, fuller, are drawn from the Life. Gabriel Bucelinus, in the Benedictine Sacrarium, printed after his Menology, May 1, on the Kalends of May, has these things: "The birth into heaven of St. Trudpert the Martyr, sprung from royal blood, whose sacred body is kept in the monastery of St. Trudpert in the Hercynian Forest." But it seems to us that this rather should be called the Elevation of the body, of which the Acts below make mention. We note below that the feast of the Translation is celebrated on October 29. October 29.

[3] The Acts of the life, death, and miracles of St. Trudpert were transmitted to us from Aschaffenburg by our John Gamansius, from the rich treasury he had collected on German affairs. Acts from a manuscript of the monastery of St. Trudpert, These are finely written and with various colors, and collated by the same Gamansius with the Blaubeuren manuscript: in the frontispiece of the booklet these words are inscribed: "This book, on the Life of St. Trudpert the Martyr, belongs to the library of the monastery of the said holy man, from whom the very ancient monastery drew its origin." That this history was written, or, as the author states in the preface, renewed in a more decent style, composed in the year 1279, and the miracles added which had not yet departed from the memory of those then living, in the year 1279, is indicated at the end in these verses:

"If you ask the time in which we wrote these things, thus know: To a thousand tens of years, seven, thrice three, and two hundred You will add years of God coming in the flesh: Abbot Wernher then ruled the Martyr's shrine, A true servant of God, who may grant him a seat in heaven."

The author makes mention of miracles which happened in his time under the predecessor of the said Wernher, also called Wernher: but the later Wernher, Bucelinus says, died in the year 1302; he must be corrected for the earlier, whom he writes to have flourished in the year 1288, by reading 1268, as we shall note below. There followed an Idyllion, as it is called, on the life and passion of St. Trudpert the Martyr according to the Alphabet: which we subjoin, and it is of this kind.

[4] "Under the auspices of Christ, whose pious signs you bore, Warrior, in this state you receive the nurturing palm, Trudpert. and a metrical epitome of the Life, Gold-haired Rome, on a foreign border, When you leave your native seats and ancestral halls, you choose, And the Princes of heaven to honor with faithful worship. Fixed, that you lie down at their tombs weeping, With steps set before their doors, that prone you may adore. Clinging to their thresholds with all your vows, The Lord visits graciously with his wonted piety, And teaches you the catalogue of the way and the places of philosophy, Where, bright, you may contemplate the ethereal theory. Soon, longing, you seek the haunts of the quiet shown to you, You choose the valley of Nimaga, and the path warm with the wheel. Obsequious service is rendered by Otpert, sure of merits, Truly a worthy man, memorable and benign. Snatched away by the unfaithful, meeker than a sheep, from these murderers, You climb, triumphant, the modulated palaces of the ruddy heaven. The roofs know how to wrap themselves, the flesh knows not to dissolve when buried, Witnessing by your corpse the highest cleanliness of life. The gifts of virtue, the offerings of many a salvation, Your glory brings with hymn-bearing signs worthy, Far above the high course of the Zodiac."

And after some empty space intervening, this distich is added, with a note of the year. written down in the year 1570,

"He who wrote me, had the name Siffidus. Blessed be the right hand of the writer at all hours. In the year of our Lord 1570."

And indeed all these things are so written by the very hand of the aforenamed Siffidus, that even if the mark of the year were absent, by the sole judgment of the eyes you would recognize the writing to be precisely of a hundred years, not much more or less.

[5] Greater material for a more useful question is provided by the beginning of an epitaph or encomium, written indeed by a most recent hand, Erganbaldus the Abbot first wrote the life. but reporting most ancient verses, on the outermost margin of book 1 in this manner:

"These halls of the nurturing Martyr Trudpert, Erganbaldus, The Prelate, after the ashes, had renewed and rebuilt,

Touched with the love of God: to write the venerable Acts of the Saint did not irk him, but this too he did as best he could," etc.

Of this Ergenbaldus neither the name nor a trace did Bucelinus find, who, having premised after Walderic the Abbot (under whom, in the year 3 of King Ludwig, and thus 902 of Christ, the tables he produces in volume 1, part 3, page 29, testify that the monastery was restored), states that after Walderic, no names of Abbots exist up to the year of Christ 1030; but neither before him did he find any, as his very silence confirms. But although the same Bucelinus says that from this time up to the year 1430, some Abbots are wanting, whose names perhaps may be found in necrologies, before the year 900, but not the time they presided; yet it is certain that Erganbaldus is not among the last missing, much less is to be regarded as the author of this Life of which we are speaking: for both the fire whose losses he repaired is touched upon here at no. 26 as an ancient thing; and the pre-noted verses have nothing of the rhythmic poetry (which almost alone, around the year 1000 and thereafter for several centuries, was wont to dictate such epigrams), and thus persuade us that Erganbaldus was even older than Walderic; who therefore may be believed, after the restoration of the church which had burned down, to have undertaken to describe the life of the Saint one or two centuries after his death.

[6] Would that that Life were extant today: for in this which we give, composed in the 13th century, there are many prolix digressions: afterwards the fable of his homeland and brother came in, but above all, what displeases is the first chapter, whose argument, concocted by some Hibernian fabulist, and received by the too-credulous author, whoever reads what was said before concerning St. Rudpert, will acknowledge; of whom and of St. Erentrudis this St. Trudpertus is feigned to have been the brother, born with them in Hibernia: although the very names, all Teutonic, compel us to judge otherwise about their homeland altogether. We gave on March 27 double Acts of that St. Rudpert, who was first Bishop of Worms, then of Salzburg and its Apostle; one from the Florentine manuscript of the Convent of St. Mark of the Order of the Fathers Preachers, collated with those which Henry Canisius published from a Ratisbon manuscript; another from the manuscript of Rouge-Cloître: in which St. Rupert is said to have sprung from the noble royal stock of the Franks, so that St. Trudpert too may seem to be said to be born of the same royal stock of the Franks, if it were certain that he was the brother of St. Rupert. But because in other epitomes, which we therefore place first, who was not St. Rupert no mention is made of this brotherhood, as neither in the aforementioned Acts of St. Rupert, we think these things to have been rashly assumed from the similarity of the names Trudpert and Rupert: especially because the times in which they lived do not permit the deeds to be joined. St. Rupert was made Bishop of Worms in the year 577, and died in the year 622 or 628; while St. Trudpert came to the Breisgau around the year 640, in whose company St. Rupert could not have been, who seventy years before had been Bishop of Worms and, before the said year of pilgrimage, was already long dead. We have other manuscript epitomes, but abridged from the aforementioned Acts, Other epitomes of the Life omitted. one from the manuscript of the Reichenau monastery, another from the manuscript Chronicle of Jacob Kerslithus transmitted from Constance by Daniel Feldner of our Society, but we omit these.

EPITOME OF THE LIFE

From the ancient Strasbourg Breviary.

Trudpert, Hermit in the Breisgau, a province of Germany (St.)

BHL Number: 0000

[7] The most blessed Martyr Trudpert, whose birthday into heaven we celebrate today, returning from Rome … when he had passed the borders of Italy, following the course of the river Rhine, and having passed through the greatest part of the province of Alamannia, in the district of Brisichowe not far from the river Rhine, with great effort began to inquire after a certain valley in a nearby forest, assigned to him by God. But when St. Trudpert had come to the place destined for him by God, he lives in the Breisgau, near the river which is called Nuwemage, which flows down from the same valley, he prostrated himself in prayer on the bank, and for a long time with poured-out tears asked the Lord that he would govern his life amid the adversities of this world. Now when blessed Trudpert had already remained for three years in the wilderness in that place, on a certain day, wearied by the noonday labor, he is slain, when lying on his right side on a bench, and holding up his head with his right hand, he had given his limbs to sleep; one of the servants, who had been sent by Otbert to clear the forest, seized an axe and drove it into the brain of the man of God, and so, leaving the embedded axe, fled. Held a Martyr. But St. Trudpert, joining his most happy soul to the company of the Saints, was crowned with the glory of martyrdom.

ANOTHER EPITOME OF THE LIFE

From the Constance Breviary.

Trudpert, Hermit in the Breisgau, a province of Germany (St.)

[8] Trudpert … a for the sake of religion, in the year six hundred and forty after the birth of Christ, b Theodore, the fourth Supreme Pontiff of this name after John, Having visited the sacred places of Rome, kindled with divine love, betook himself to Rome, where, going around all the places of the city notable for sanctity, he venerated them with such ardor of affection that it can scarcely be said. Thence returning to his homeland, he began to think on his way about his life, by what rule it should henceforth be ordered by him. Therefore, resolving to follow the examples of that great Patriarch Abraham, he chooses a solitary life: leaving all the riches of this age, his kinsmen, and his native soil, for the love of Christ, he withdrew into solitude, into a place situated in the Breisgau, which he had judged c most apt for contemplation (where to this very day a monastery equipped with his name is visited), having first obtained permission to dwell from Otbert, of the Habsburg family, Lord of the place. To Otbert, from whom he had received the aforesaid place as a gift, on account of his singular virtues he became wonderfully dear; moreover, helped by his aid and means, he built a monastery there. He is said to have been endowed with such humility that he did not blush to serve those who gave their labor in building the edifice. He was intently devoted to prayer, he observed chastity perpetually, and the church having been built, he did not cease to mortify his body with fasts and vigils, he assiduously exercised his mind in divine contemplations. Besides other things, he had this, that he most vehemently thirsted to be filled with the love of God. Moreover, having undertaken to build a church with his own hands and great labors, he perfected it with notable work and form, which, in the name of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, d Martin Bishop of Constance consecrated with solemn rite. When, therefore, Trudpert had come forth as a distinguished soldier of Christ, the enemy of the human race attacked the most blessed man with various temptations: which he overcame by fasting and prayer. But the Father of lies, fearing lest, if he should live long, he should daily bring back greater triumphs over him, sent into the hearts of certain iniquitous men that they should take his life from him. Who, obeying the devil, of whom it is read that he was a murderer from the beginning, killed the most innocent man by an ambush on the sixth day before the Kalends of May, he is slain in the year 643, in the year six hundred and forty-three after the birth of Christ. Otbert saw to it that his body was honorably (as befitted a holy Martyr) buried. But in the year seven hundred and seventy, when Stephen e the third Pontiff had diligently learned of his most holy life and the miracles which, with the Lord cooperating, he had worked both before and after his martyrdom, he is canonized in the year 770. by solemn rite he enrolled him in the number of the blessed Martyrs.

NOTES.

ACTS

Collected in the 13th century under Wernher II the Abbot, by a monk of the Trudpertine monastery.

From an old MS of the monastery itself.

Trudpert, Hermit in the Breisgau, a province of Germany (St.)

BHL Number: 8333

FROM A MS.

PROLOGUE.

Just as to travelers set out on a journey, it is of no small help to keep always in sight the footprints of those who have gone before; clinging to which more carefully they do not wander astray in twisting turnings, nor decline from the way onto a by-path: so likewise to us, dwelling in the vast wilderness of this exile, where, having no abiding city (according to the word of the Apostle), we seek the heavenly and future one, the life and conversation of the Saints is fruitfully set before us: who, having left the circuit By the example of the Saints they draw us to heaven. in which the impious walk, have directed their steps according to the speech of the Lord, He himself leading them to Himself, who says of Himself: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Heb. 13:14, John 14:6 The way, namely, leading by example; the truth, not deceiving in the promise; the life, perpetuating those who follow it in the reward. By following this life, the Saints did not err; aspiring to this life from their very marrow, they utterly despised this temporal and corruptible one; and dying intrepidly if need be, (after the manner of sagacious merchants), by a happy exchange, through death precious in the sight of the Lord, Ps. 115:15 they most prudently purchased unending life. As often therefore as we behold their examples, what else do we pay attention to than certain footpaths of those going before us: who, going before us to our homeland, though not with voice, yet with life and deed speak to us who follow, what one of them said to his disciples: "Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ." 1 Cor. 11:1 For that leader and shepherd of the Saints, lest there should be no return to the sheepfold for his little flock, in the place of horror and vast solitude of this world, on account of the ambiguous ways of wandering crossroads, provided indeed at different times different rams for his sheep: who, while they unwaveringly follow the paths of the heavenly shepherd, may draw us, the sheep of his pasture, after them by a sure track, to the folds and pastures of paradise. Among whom the distinguished recruit of Christ, Trudpert, among whom was St. Trudpert, (whose praiseworthy triumph, though unworthy, we have undertaken to pursue in writing), following by imitation with unturned track the footsteps of his King, came to the ethereal hall, by the purple ascent of passion, now resting in the golden couch of heaven. Who, that he may lead us by his prayers and merits to that place to which he went before us by examples of all holiness: not trusting in our own strengths, which are none, but in Him who gives virtue to the weary, through which even the weak are girded with strength, we have taken up a great burden to be borne on weak shoulders, placing our confidence in the help of Him who both to will and to accomplish on behalf of the good will in us, according to

the opinion of Paul, works; by whose aid, strengthened, we direct the course of our pen to the magnificent deeds of his elect soldier Trudpert: that both the Lord may be praised in the virtues of his servant, and the affection of readers may be excited to better things; and to us, as the reward of our labor, by the obtaining of so great an intercessor, may be granted the remission of sins. Phil. 2:13 Let those who will read these things know, whose Acts, written in too simple a style, are embellished: that we have added nothing of our own, or mendaciously shaded with a coloring of words what faithful antiquity has not delivered before: but those things only which we have found written with a ruder pen, we have taken care to renew in a more decent style; lest the fastidious reader, after his manner, should wrinkle his nose at the simplicity of the eloquence, but by the very polish of speech should be drawn to the fruit of the meaning; nor should the sweetness of Falernian, on account of the cheapness of the vessel, become contemptible and despised. Moreover, the miracles by which also in these most recent days the Lord glorified his Saint, which we have learned by the sure report of men worthy of credit, and miracles are added. eager for the edification of the pious, we have decreed should be appended: thinking it most dangerous to cover by silence those things by which the honor of the Lord is promoted and his glory, and the merit of his illustrious athlete shines forth, and the pious devotion of readers is increased.

BOOK I.

On the life and passion of St. Trudpert,

from that which Abbot Erganbaldus had written with a ruder pen, renewed after several centuries in a more decent style.

TABLE OF CHAPTERS.

1. Of the situation of the kingdom of Hibernia, and how Blessed Patrick converted it to the faith of Christ. 2. On the Roman Pontiffs and Emperors. 3. Where blessed Trudpert with his brother and sister go on pilgrimage for Christ. 4. Where, leaving all the riches of the world, they set out from Hibernia. 5. How they came to Rome to visit the thresholds. 6. How, returning from Rome, they were divinely commanded to separate. 7. How Blessed Rupert with his sister came to Worms. 8. How, called through Duke Theodore, he proceeded with his sister into Bavaria, and there rested in peace. 9. How blessed Trudpert came into the Breisgau, seeking the valley foretold to him divinely. 10. How Otpert commanded his hunters to lead him to the desired valley. 11. How the hunters themselves wished to lead him by another way. 12. How blessed Trudpert, the valley having been found, sent back his guides to Otpert. 13. How Otpert himself personally came to him in the valley. 14. How Otpert handed over the valley itself to him and his successors to be freely possessed. 15. How, the valley having been received, he began to cultivate it. 16. How Otpert handed over to him six servants to clear the forest. 17. How blessed Trudpert made an oratory in honor of the Apostles. 18. How the servants handed over began to become contrary to him. 19. How two of them, brothers according to the flesh, plotted his death. 20. How they killed him as he was sleeping. 21. On his reception into eternal glory. 22. On the commendation and approval of his martyrdom. 23. How Otpert, having learned of his death, came to him. 24. The first miracle concerning his murderers. 25. How those two lictors perished by the same death as Judas and Pilate. 26. On the deposition of Blessed Trudpert. 27. On the vision made to a certain servant of God. 28. On the second deposition of Blessed Trudpert. 29. On Rampert the nephew of Otpert, the second founder. 30. On the canonization of Blessed Trudpert. 31. On the third deposition of him. 32. On Count Ludfrid, the third founder. 33. On the translation of blessed Trudpert, and a certain paralyzed man cured.

This is the original division of book one into chapters, which, so that we may to some extent preserve it, we shall also retain the same numbers, but shall bind several chapters into one Chapter in our own way. And since we cut off from this work the first eight chapters, which could have constituted for us the first chapter, as not pertaining to St. Trudpert, as one who was neither a Hibernian nor the brother of St. Rudpert; therefore we begin from Chapter and number 9. Let it then be

CHAPTER I.

The life of St. Trudpert in the Breisgau. The oratory constructed.

[9] At the time when Phocas, having attained the summit of the Empire, slew the Caesar Mauricius; and when Pope Boniface consecrated the temple built at Rome in honor of all the Gods, or rather of demons, Having left his country, which until that time was called the Pantheon, obtained from Prince Phocas, under the title of the Mother of God and of all Martyrs; Blessed Trudpert, born of a noble father the Duke, and illustrious by the stemma of royal dignity, left his homeland and parents; and for the hope of the heavenly kingdom made a pilgrim and exile, having traversed the borders of Italy, directed his journey as far as the river Rhine; and passing through some parts of Alamannia, came into the Breisgau to Otpert, began to inquire diligently after a certain valley in the district of the Breisgau, not far from the Rhine, as a dwelling assigned to him by the Lord: and at length he was informed that this valley, by right of inheritance, belonged to a certain noble Lord of Alsace, who was called b Otpert, from whose magnificent stock the noble offspring of the Counts of Habsburg drew their origin. The holy man therefore, suppliantly approaching the aforesaid Otpert, most devoutly besought him that, for the sake of divine love, he would give him guides on the way, who might lead him to the valley long sought and foretold to him by God, and would moreover add his favor and consent, that the valley having been found, by his concession, it might be permitted to him to serve God perpetually in it.

[10] Otpert therefore, noble in blood, not degenerate in virtue, sagacious in mind, and sufficiently intelligent, began prudently to perceive that this was not being done without divine will: namely that a man, an exile and stranger, is most humanely received: not seeking out the throngs of cities, nor the company of men, should be so burning with desire only for the wilderness and a forest altogether before unknown. He perceived therefore that the man of God had been directed there divinely for his own salvation and that of his people: and, not unlike Zacchaeus, as if in the servant he heard the voice of Christ saying, "Make haste and come down" (that is, "condescend to the prayers of my servant"), "because in your valley I must abide" (namely, in him who, truly abiding in love, abides in God, and God in him), with cheerful and peaceful consent, not from a sycamore, but from difficulty and all delay, he hastily came down, and received him rejoicing and glad, feeling that he had received Christ in a true Christ-worshipper: for in him the Lord dwelt to the end. And to be led to the desired valley, He therefore diligently enjoined on his hunters (of whom, as the noble are wont, he had many) that they should lead the man of God to the desired valley, and finally report to him what should be done. They obey the commands: and having taken up the servant of God Trudpert, they soon set out on the enjoined journey.

[11] And so they went into an ancient forest, which various boughs of groves shade, he perceives the deceit of his guides: and greater shadows from the high mountains. Moreover, the guides of the way, a part of the forest having been traversed, as if already weary of their labors, were trying to lead the servant of God elsewhere than he had asked for: namely not knowing that it is not a light thing to deceive c Getha, nay the Spirit of the Lord, the guide of his servant Trudpert: who truly, as is read of Christ his head, whose distinguished member he himself was, was led by the spirit into the desert; not only that he might be tempted by the devil, but that he might be killed by a member of the devil, and, crowned with the laurel of martyrdom, by his help might triumph over the satellite of the tyrant, who by himself, as an example and strength to his own, had already first triumphed over the tyrant. For the rest, the man of God, perceiving the frauds of his guides, in a wonderful way began to direct his way through the ridges of a steep mountain: and because the Lord led the just man by right ways, as it is written, the follower began to go before, the successor to precede his predecessors, the one to be led to lead: that this change of the right hand of the Most High might be most manifestly approved. Wisdom 10:10 he himself finds the desired valley. More quickly therefore he found the place which he was seeking: namely a valley encompassed by the river called Numago, and running from a certain mountain from a high d bank; green with grasses and herbs, covered by the rocky summits of mountains, and likewise enclosed by shrubs and bushes.

[12] When Trudpert the man of God came here (as though he already foreknew the place of his future passion), so that he might put on the armor of God, according to Paul's counsel, as if made in agony, he prayed at length, Thanks having been rendered to Otpert through the guides, casting himself on the ground; and with the inmost affection of his heart he commended his combat to the Lord. Eph. 6:11 And at length rising, his prayer being completed, he besought not so much his guides of the way as his companions more earnestly that they would deign to return many and various thanks to their lord (who had sent them, now returning), first for the most benign humanity exhibited to him as a pilgrim: and finally that they should add with their own mouth, that God (whose providence is not deceived in its disposition, nor deceives those who trust in Him) had led him to the place which he had sought with all his affections: which he would in no way propose to change in the days of the present life, being about to continue in it, as far as his strength allowed, the service of Christ the Lord. Job 39:5 Behold the wild ass of Job, praised by the voice of the Lord, whom he had dismissed altogether free, every servitude of corruption shaken off, and from whom he had loosed the bonds of earthly desires: who already had despised the multitude of the city, that is, the noise of the world, He desires to serve God in solitude. that he might have his house in solitude; so that that most holy soul, altogether deprived of all the consolations of the world, might deserve to hear the Lord saying through the Prophet: "I will allure her, and will bring her into the wilderness: and will speak to her heart." Hosea 2:14 For he who truly with Moses despised the Egyptian milk of the world, why should he not be nourished at divine breasts, and taste and see equally how sweet the Lord is? And he who disdained to confabulate with those whose mouth has spoken vanity, why should not the Lord speak to his heart, so that he might say with the Prophet: "I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me: for he will speak peace unto his people and unto those that are converted unto the heart"? Ps. 84:9 He chose therefore solitude, knowing that there God was seen in the bush, the law was written by the finger of God, manna descended, the promised land is attained through forty mystic mansions. He remembered that holy Elijah in the wilderness merited to have an Angel as dapifer and cupbearer, he remembered that the sons of the Prophets dwelt in the wilderness, he remembered finally that the Baptist dwelt in the desert; to say nothing of the Pauls, Anthonys, and Macarii and their followers, to whom this holy man of desires, in no way unlike them, chose a similar dwelling. Whence what Balaam wished but did not obtain, as unworthy, this holy man both merited and most worthily received; and because he was zealous to live with the life and conversation of the just, therefore his soul died the death of the just, and his last ends were made similar to theirs. Num. 23:10 Not so the impious, not so: who, although they desire to die well, do not cease to live ill. But let us return to our purpose.

[13] By Otpert, greatly rejoicing, Otpert the illustrious man, through those hunters of whom we spoke, having learned the will of the man of God, not ungrateful to the grace of God, praised from all his heart

the Lord, who had deigned to visit his house and territory in Trudpert: most surely knowing that the Lord had blessed him at his entrance (as of old is read of Joseph), since at his entrance truly salvation was made for this house, nay for the valley; in that he himself deserved to be made a son of Abraham, who received the servant of the Lord for the Lord's sake, and through this the Lord himself in his servant, with such pious affection; so that not undeservedly he may be believed truly received in heaven by the same, now a Martyr. Matt. 10:41 For "he who receives a just man in the name of a just man shall receive the reward of the just" according to the promise of Truth. From that day therefore and thereafter, the said Otpert was in many ways and by many means intent and diligent to show every humanity and benevolence that he could to the man of God; and the affection of pious favor he also proved by the effect of work. he visits him. Indeed, not content with the reports of intervening messengers, although the valley still lay dreadful and uncultivated, overshadowed both by mountains and trees, and, enclosed by the densest mountains, was scarcely regarded as accessible, he himself nevertheless set out personally into that wilderness to visit the man of God: to use the words of the Poet:

"Through rocks and crags, and where there was no way, he followed."

Therefore, after having most diligently inquired into the purpose of the holy man, lest he should think he had seen a reed shaken by the wind in the desert, he found in the servant of God nothing wavering, nothing fluctuating or fickle or different; but he found this to be the immovable opinion of his heart, that in the place which he had attained with such great labors, he purposed to serve the Lord, as long as God Almighty should prolong his dwelling in the present life.

Such things he presented, remembering, and remained fixed; asserting that, as long as he lived, he would never leave the valley, sought by the will and nod of God. For "he has set ascensions in his heart" now in the valley of present tears; which there, alternating both nocturnal and diurnal prayers, pouring forth, he roared from the groaning of his heart; and being about to reap in joy, he sowed the little furrows of his valley in tears: for he knew "the valley of Achor" to be for the working of hope promised to the faithful soul.

[14] Otpert therefore, pondering in mind the so immovable purpose of the holy man, decreed that he should be wanting to him in nothing; the place and the valley sought, with the mountains and hills, forests, valleys, waters and the courses of the waters flowing into the Numago river, from Mount Samba, where the aforesaid river arises, as far as e Mezzenbach, on both sides of the mountains entirely and wholly, he is endowed with possession of the valley and its neighborhood: he conferred to the man of the Lord as a perpetual possession, and to those who would succeed him in the same place in the service of God: and he strengthened the very donation with the firm strength of his letters, with the favor and consent of his heirs, as is more fully contained in the instruments drawn up concerning this very matter.

The holy man received these things, not for himself, but for posterity, and for those who were to serve God in the place (which he set and disposed to establish), where he provided not a few to serve the eternal King under the leadership of the blessed and venerable Benedict (by which Spirit, with whom he was full, it was revealed to him, by the Holy Spirit); afterwards to benefit the monks, nor could he, who had received the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, be deceived by the spirit of falsity. Finally, Truth itself foretold to Trudpert, the disciple of truth, not indeed by the sound of words or the din of an external voice, but by an inward whisper, predicting things to come, and insinuated to the same, as we more truly think, all the later events. Indeed what he said, he also did: for the succession of his servant, planted by sweat, watered by blood, preserved by prayer, for almost six hundred years f like a tree planted by the running waters, sending forth its roots to the moisture of God's grace, endures in the greenness of holy religion; nor even in the time of this dryness, withering, does it cease to bear fruits of sanctity. These things without doubt the Saint foreseeing, with the finger of God teaching, consented to receive what was offered: that he might both not impede the merit of Otpert's pious devotion, and that necessary sustenance might be prepared for the succeeding family of God.

Would Otpert otherwise either offer these things, or Trudpert accept them? of whom the one did not lack heirs, for whom fatherhood is intent on providing; the other had disdained to be heir of an illustrious Duke and rich Prince, lest in the straits of this valley he should be believed to wish to grow rich? Clearly therefore it is given to understand, that neither would the one have been so quickly ready in giving such great things, nor the other been induced to accept; unless the man then of the age had more fully recognized the holiness of the man of God: "I know," he might say with the Apostle, "in whom I have believed, and I am certain that I shall not lose the deposit"; and unless, likewise, the man of God had foreseen the piety of the secular man to be profitable to himself as a remedy for sin, and to not a few worshippers of God, by the course of days, as a solace of life. 1 Tim. 1:12 With this regard, therefore, Otpert gave, Trudpert received: the one, that God might love him as a cheerful giver, not sparingly but in blessing already sowing, in blessing indeed about to reap; but the other, with the affection of a faithful parent, treasuring up not for himself but for his succeeding sons, which also he showed by the effect of his works.

[15] For having received from Otpert the things we have already said, so that it might be shown how much he had shaken his own hand from every gift for himself, he cultivates the valley with continual labor: he abused none of them for pleasure, was not dissolved into softness, was not given to sleep or rest. For he began to cultivate with his own hands the valley, wholly uncultivated, to uproot shrubs, to clear thickets, to level the swellings to the ground, to fit a plain; and as though not the son of a prince, but of a farmer born for labors, forgetting altogether his people and his father's house, indulging himself no leisure, no rest; at night sitting at the feet of the Lord with Mary, he bathed them with the sobs of weepings and tears; but by day with Martha, he was busy about frequent service. You would see him, nourished and educated in silks in courts, and who once fed on saffron, now in a rustic habit living on legumes or beans, gnawing bran-bread, exercising himself with axe and adze, carrying hoes or mattocks, having hands hardened and calloused by works; whom also, if Magdalene had seen, she would have believed a gardener.

[16] Seeing therefore the illustrious Otpert the constancy and fervor of the holy man in such faithful labor, lest he should fail from too great fatigue of works, but should suffice for what he had begun, six workmen sent by Otpert. he assigned to his service six men experienced in work, strong and vigorous, fit for labors and for cultivating new lands; strictly and diligently enjoining them to cooperate more earnestly with the man of God, and to show themselves ready and benevolent for whatever he would direct to be begun. Consider, reader, the sincerity of Otpert: he gives the valley and shows it first requested, offers estates without being asked, finally adds ministers. Do not believe him deceived, do not suspect him fascinated by magical illusions, do not reckon him delirious. He has tasted and seen that "his merchandise is good": for he has found a precious pearl; a treasure in the field of a despicable little body, he pays attention to the most ample merits. Here truly, here is that "blessed one who understands concerning the needy and poor": he knows that Trudpert, contemptible to the world, like a wineskin made in the frost, is indeed drawn together on the outside, but within abounds with the wine of heaven. Under the coarseness therefore of the sack, he contemplates the money of virtues: this guest and stranger he does not doubt to be truly a citizen of the Saints and a household member of God. "I know therefore," he says, "I know what I shall do: that when I shall have been removed from the stewardship of the present life, about to render an account of my own deeds, he may receive me into the ethereal house, which his parents left behind, his homeland, house, sweetest brother with his sister, testify to be his."

[17] The man of the Lord therefore, when co-workers had been assigned by Otpert, lest he should seem to impose a heavy burden upon their shoulders, which he himself would not move with a finger, by the example of Paul, labored more than all: first to the works, last to rest; frugal to himself, abundant to them; He constructs an oratory to SS. Peter and Paul, and adorns it with their Relics. often and generously refreshing them, he himself content with one and that a very scant little meal. 1 Cor. 15:10 First therefore of all, a part of the said grove having been cleared, in honor of the blessed Peter and Paul he prepared an g oratory: in which he also placed their most precious relics, obtained in the city of Rome; which up to now are kept in the very little case in which the servant of God carried them: and for his memory, the pious devotion of posterity decreed that the same case should not be changed, believing it more adorned by the touch of Blessed Trudpert than by a scheme of gems or gold superimposed.

NOTES.

CHAPTER II.

The slaying of St. Trudpert. The title of martyrdom.

[18] When therefore the servant of God Trudpert was pressing on his pious labor day and night, those six men (whom we said had been handed over to him by Otpert), at first indeed mindful of his commands, were quite benevolent in doing what Trudpert did: but they soon failed, forgot his works, and did not endure his counsel, as they had been commanded. For although he assiduously exhorted them, both by example and by words and with every benevolence, not to desist from their undertaking, yet because iniquity and justice, virtue and vice, light and darkness, do not agree well, nor dwell in one seat; the true Israelite began to stink to the Egyptians; and the good fragrance of Christ, He is held in hatred by the workmen which was fragrant from the branch abiding in the true Vine, which had been for the pious an odor of life unto life, was made for them an odor of death unto death: for they were, as it is written, true "offspring of vipers," which naturally shrink from the odor of the flowering vine. Luke 3:7 The prince of darkness therefore, who reigned in them, unable to bear the brightness of holiness and innocence which shone in the arms-bearer of Christ, turned their heart to hate his servant, whom, on account of the servant, he knew and grieved that he had been crucified. The more therefore the soldier of Christ followed his King more urgently on the paths of holiness, the more ardently did that jealous one of all good things persecute him through his ministers. He began to be grievous to them even to see: for a burning and shining lamp was piercing the sons of darkness: who, like owls,

and like screech-owls, loved darkness more than light. Gen. 37:4 Gradually therefore they kicked back at the man of God (for as is written, "they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him," seeing and envying that God the Father had clothed him in the many-colored tunic of persevering justice); now the Saint's virtue began to burden them more than his work; they were pressed more by his devotion than by their burden; they were wearied far more by the holiness and justice of the servant of God than by their labors. But among others, two especially, brothers in the flesh, and "vessels of iniquity waging war," rightly to be named, whom the ancient enemy had more fully possessed; when, through the fervor of Blessed Trudpert, and he is destined for death: they had conceived the fury of a greater madness; with the devil goading, they were burned with the torches of a sharper envy; and, no longer able to repress the ardor of malice, at length with fixed mind they sought after the soul of the just, and with deliberate purpose of killing condemned innocent blood. The lamb therefore among wolves, the innocent among the guilty, dwelling gently unpolluted among the sordid, strove to overcome malice with kindness. For, gentle in speech, mild in address, bountiful in largesse, he restrained himself even from necessaries, as far as human frailty allowed, so that, subtracting from himself, he might minister more abundantly to them. And when he saw them turning aside to unfitting things, not imperiously or rigidly provoking them, but correcting them in the spirit of mildness, he used beseeching rather than quarrels.

[19] But those two men of whom we have spoken, after the manner of frenzied men, the more gently they were cherished as though by the hand of a physician, the more madly did they rage against the one healing them. especially by 2 malicious ones: For cursed truly was their fury and pertinacious, and their indignation too hard, which no plaster of however gentle words could soften; but they were cut to their hearts, and gnashed their teeth at the innocent one. These indeed were certain preludes of the recruit of Christ's fight, these certain presages of the approaching passion, namely to dwell daily among those who, as is read of Lot, with nefarious works daily afflicted the soul of the just. 2 Pet. 2:9 But he, although he felt their madness in many ways and by many means, not deserting the justice which he had begun to hold, as a man "simple and upright and fearing God, and still holding fast his innocence," did not withdraw from the purpose of his good work: which also ministered to them the fuel of crueler envy and greater hatred.

[20] But now whither this zeal tends, whither envy leaps forth, whither jealousy is borne, the pen shrinks from expressing, the trembling hand refuses, the stammering tongue demurs, the bowels tremble, the speech stammers, the heart is terrified. For those two most wretched men, whom unbridled bitterness was now arming for the crime, unable to be at rest, like a seething sea, having first tested the will of their companions, and not finding consent, because their heart brought forth injustice and conceived sorrow, by whom, in the third year of his coming, that they might give birth to the iniquity of so cruel a homicide; when Trudpert humbly continued at his holy works, and in these had completed nearly three years after his coming, when they ate their bread with him daily (for truly after the morsel Satan entered into them), from thenceforth they always sought opportunity to betray, destroy, and slay him. And because God Almighty had now completed his labors, and his hour had come that he might pass from this world to the Father, when he had loved his own who were to serve the Lord in that place after him, that he might show he had loved them unto the end, he was sweating at the unremitting works begun. sleeping, he is slain, Wearied therefore by the noonday labor, having borne the weight of the day and the heat, about to receive the denarius of eternal reward from the true father of the family, he reclined on a certain bench for a little while, that he might be refreshed by sleep, from his too great weariness; as though he said to his slayer, "What you do, do quickly." When therefore the cursed lictors had sensed that he had fallen asleep, one of them, unworthy of the name, seizing the axe which he bore in his hand, with rash daring broke through the temple of the man of God; and, leaving the axe in the head a of the Martyr, departed and withdrew, the crime perpetrated; hoping to escape by flight with his brother, companion in crime and guilt. But now the blood of Abel was crying from the earth, now the cry of the sacred blood had entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, now the Lord God of vengeance had brandished his sword for vengeance; now the conscience of the guilty, being disturbed, as is written, presuming savage things, as an inner accuser, demanded to punishment those whom envy had impelled to fault. Wisdom 17:10 Blind b Erynnis was driving them on: and because they had been contrary to God, they became heavy to themselves, and could no longer bear themselves; and more hateful to themselves than to others, the wretches tried to flee others, who could not avoid themselves. Certainly, seeing what they themselves had done, they were troubled, they were shaken, trembling and fear took hold of them: for they were troubled with horrible fear, and the sound of a flying leaf terrified them, and at every hiss of a gentle breeze they trembled. For such is always the nature of sin, that after the deed it makes those fearful whom it had made bold to the deed. But about these later: now let us return to our purpose.

[21] St. Trudpert of God therefore, although he had been overtaken by the wicked in death, yet being placed in eternal refreshment, because "he had fought the good fight, had completed his course, had kept the faith," he is crowned in heaven: now he possesses the crown of justice, clad in purple among the armies of Martyrs. For he merited this singular prerogative, that the church being now at peace, and the torturers and tyrants having been taken away, by a certain new kind of struggle, it was granted him to contend against the satellites of the ancient enemy. Finally, after the enemies of the faith had been conquered, the Lord had strengthened the bars of the gates of his Jerusalem, and had blessed his children in her, and had set peace for her borders; our adversary the devil, like a roaring lion to devour, when he had no more Kings and Governors through whom he might rage against the soldiers of Christ, through plebeian and vile persons proclaimed a new contest against the servant of the Lord, Trudpert: and when, the tumult of persecutors being lulled, the fight had now come into disuse, because the Church, to use the poet's words, "has now declined into old age as the years decline, and, more tranquil by the long use of the toga, has unlearned to wage war"; the cunning of the ancient enemy, desiring to find the recruit of Christ, Trudpert, unprepared and unwarlike, attacks him in a war of sudden Mars: that he might cast him down in an easier struggle, inasmuch as, as has been said, peace having been granted to the faithful, the militia of the eternal King, disarmed, had unlearned to wrestle. But as one of the number of the brave ones of the true David, this Saint never laid down his arms, never was he deprived of spirit, never could he be stripped of the helmet of hope or the breastplate of faith, and of the corselet of charity or the shield of good will. Clothed therefore with this armor of God, he constantly received the blows of the ancient enemy; with this he quenched the fiery darts of the most wicked, with which he strove to wound his innocence through the ministers of his malice.

[22] Lest therefore anyone, of those "wiser than is fitting," rightly held a Martyr: should contend that he ought not to be called a Martyr, because he was not slain for the confession of the faith; although the sole authority of the holy Roman See should suffice to restrain that calumny, which, not without the mature examination of discussion, reckons, writes, and professes him a glorious Martyr; and the very now ancient custom of the faithful, whose authority is not vile nor to be spurned: nevertheless, we also answer even superfluously the Pharisaic pride of such presumption. Tell me, proud calumniator; tell me, wise man, but with your stains, what is greater, to profess the faith of Christ with the lips, or to demonstrate it with life and works? Certainly, whether you will or not, "faith without works is dead," unless the brother of the Lord is lying. James 2:26 Moreover, according to the same, works are the proofs and arguments of living faith. But what were Kings and Governors striving to extinguish in the Martyrs? Faith, as I reckon, you will answer. But also that, say, dead or living? Living, I suppose, you answer. Say whence it is known to live? I believe, through works: for James defined this. But the slayers of this holy Martyr had faith indeed, but dead, but polluted, but no different from the faith of demons: for "they also believe and tremble." As therefore the former tyrants strove to force the Saints, that, denying their faith, they should sacrifice to idols; so indeed these satellites of Satan were attempting to induce the servant of God, even if not by voice, yet by evil and iniquitous morals, that, conforming himself to their perversity, casting off innocence, sanctity, justice, and the other virtues, he might extinguish the life of faith by sins; and that he should consent to sacrifice, not incense or bulls or such things to images in which demons dwell, but himself to the demons, whom the murderers worshipped with iniquitous acts and affections. And just as the other Martyrs would have escaped the punishments of tyrants, had they been willing to deny the name of Christ by voice, to bend their heads, to bow their knees, to incline their necks to idols; so the soldier of Christ Trudpert would have avoided the envy and hatreds of the impious slayers, being slain on this account, that he did not consent to vices: if, abandoning the footsteps of Christ, conforming to their iniquity, given over to avarice, pleasure, pride, and the other precipices of vices, he had consented to exhibit worship to the devil. For this they were exacting from him by daily perversities; this the invincible soldier of Christ refused daily, in no way deserting innocence, piety, sanctity, or justice. Daily was their questioning, daily the iniquity of their life and morals, daily the answer of the man of God, the fixed tenor and unshaken rectitude of virtues. So, running daily in the way of the commands of God, he contended for the law of his God even unto death, indeed much more manfully than if, having professed the faith with his mouth and lips, he had denied it in life and morals: unless perhaps Truth itself is lying, complaining of some: "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." Matt. 15:8 Paul also, in whom certainly Christ was speaking, says: "They confess that they know God, but in works deny him." Titus 1:16 The tyrants killed the faithful because they would not deny Christ; these men killed Blessed c Trudpert because he did not consent to leave the footsteps of Christ: those conquered Kings and Governors by intrepidly professing the truth of the faith; this one conquered the accomplices of Satan by following the works of faith and virtue with unwavering piety. His testimonies therefore "were made exceedingly credible": by which he is most evidently shown to be an inexpugnable wrestler, an undaunted fighter, a victorious arms-bearer of Christ, and a Martyr. Otherwise, good Rabbi, if you deign to grant martyrdom to none unless he has Julian or Decius or Nero; in Trudpert's time, give us Laurence, give back Lucy, nay restore Peter and Paul; they will certainly wish for tyrants, they will desire that the world be stained by idols, defiled by images, that the name of Christ be blasphemed by all, that they themselves, by your license, may attain the crown of martyrdom—those whose faith and constancy, according to you, Christ would be ignorant of, and would leave unrewarded, unless He were taught by the insult of Diocletian: and, to use Jerome's exclamation against the pseudo-philosophers of our time, who, as Persius says:

"They only weigh words with protruded lip."

Hear, O rival, listen, detractor, open, I beseech, your asinine ears, which, according to the fable of Midas, you have closed;

Does not the Church cry out even concerning Martin, the Bishop of Christ, whom indeed no axe bloodied, on account of his unquestionable love for God, as truly and intrepidly, that his most holy soul, even though the sword of the persecutor did not take him away, yet did not lose the palm of martyrdom, because she does not doubt that he would have endured death for Christ, had the inflictor not been lacking? And will you detract the triumphal laurel from Blessed Trudpert, whose affection of ardor, through its effect, Christ himself declaring, willed that he be empurpled with the gore of rosy blood? For the rest, lest you believe yourself alone to be a Pythagoras for the reason of singular knowledge, we too know and confess that, for obtaining the honor and name of Martyr, being slain alone is not enough: unless the patience of the mind and the cause of justice also concur. For we read that voice of all the Martyrs saying to Christ through the Psalmist: "For thy sake we are put to death all the day long." Rom. 8:36 "For thy sake," they say, so that the cause of death may be evident; and to show patience they add, "We are counted as sheep for the slaughter." You will confess therefore a Martyr to be one who both for Christ and patiently is slain. For the tyrants were persecuting in the Martyrs only Christ, nay rather the devil in the tyrants. All therefore were slain, because they confessed the name of Christ with heart and mouth: and Trudpert was slain, because he spoke the faith and name of Christ which he held in his pious breast, more by life than by lips. For who could reckon how often the soul, burning with such charity, to him for whom the whole day she had already crucified herself to the world and the world to her, and had crucified the flesh with its vices: the flesh with its vices and concupiscences being slain by assiduous crucifixion, spoke with the most ardent cry of desire: "Lord Jesus Christ, for whom I have cast away all the delights of the world, all parental affections, and life itself dearer to me, King of virtues, beloved; who will grant me to die for you? for I truly desire to be dissolved and be with Christ." And saying these things, even if not by voice, yet by assiduous and frequent vow, with a strong cry and tears, he was heard by Him who said, "Ask and you shall receive." Luke 11:9 For what he asked, he received: for "he was offered because he himself willed it," the Lord saying to the persecutors by his very permission, "Loose this temple, which I always dwelt in, which I consecrated by the unction of my Spirit; and I will raise it up in the resurrection of the just." John 2:19 Do we not therefore see said to that most holy soul, by the very effect, by the Lord: "Your native land, your own, your things, and you yourself also, by leaving them, you have long since shown, because great is your faith; be it done to you as you have asked: for I have heard you in the hidden time of storm," namely in the secret of the hidden passion. Moreover, "nothing is hidden that shall not be revealed." The wicked man secretly slew you: but "the hour comes, and now is," when the heavens will reveal his iniquities, and the earth, denying him a place to hide, will rise up against him. That this was truly fulfilled we shall fully show: but since "it is good for us to be here," let us linger a little longer in the proof of the Martyrdom. Finally, Trudpert the soldier of Christ, "the alabaster of his body being broken, poured out the ointment of precious blood"; and is honored as a Martyr in the Church. and "the whole house of the holy Church was filled from the odor of the ointment," from the fame, namely, of the passion, with whose fragrance touched and drawn, the multitude of the faithful rightly celebrates and frequents him as a true Martyr: by whose aroma delighted and certified, the first See of the blessed Apostle Peter freely professes him a true Martyr. Therefore why do we still need witnesses? If you do not believe the whole Church, and still after so many years, not "after eight days," you are playing the Thomas; at least still put forth your hand, and recognize the temple broken by the axe, and see the drops of blood running down to the earth, and be not unbelieving but believing. But if you still perhaps do not receive so great a cloud of witnesses interposed, receive, I beseech, the Pope at least: and behold "a greater than the Pope is here." For "if we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater," who has testified of his Martyr Trudpert, nay of his son by grace, into whom He has sent the Spirit of his Son crying "Abba, Father," who if a son, also an heir through God. For God has set him among his sons, granting him an illustrious inheritance, out of love of which he despised the father of the flesh and the inheritance, that he might merit to become indeed an heir of God, but a co-heir of Christ. When therefore he gave his beloved the sleep of the most victorious passion, showing him the land of promise, "Behold," he says, "the inheritance of the Lord is sons, the reward, the fruit of the womb" of the unspotted mother. So, as we said before, if you believe neither the multitude of the faithful, nor the Roman See, nor the blood poured out, believe at least Christ: for "this man came for a testimony, that he might bear witness" concerning the Martyr. And this is the testimony which he bore, not John, but the Lord and Master of John, that, crowning him in heaven with glory and honor, he did not leave his soul in hell, nor did he give his Holy One to see corruption; nor did putrefaction enter into his bones, nor did foulness and worms swarm beneath him, though very many years had passed.

NOTES.

CHAPTER III.

The burial, Translations of the body, and Miracles.

[23] At the very time of the passion, when the illustrious Otpert, having learned of the Saint's death, moved with pious affection, ardently panting, anxiously hastened to his exequies, twins were fighting in the womb of his devotion, conceived from one love. For he was very compassionate, and most sorrowful at the loss of his most holy guest; but most glad at the triumph. Hence weeping, hence a hymn, namely uterine brothers, of one son of charity, piously contended among themselves. For it was pious to rejoice with Trudpert, Otpert sad at the slaying, glad at the glory bestowed, who most certainly possessed the glory of heaven; and it was pious to weep for Trudpert, now taken from sight and cruelly slain by the iniquitous. Lamentation and jubilation therefore alternated in Otpert: this one strong and that one; either great; vehement the one and the other. But jubilation and joy prevailed, and the greater over the lesser; that is, the greater lament in the first place was forced to serve and yield to the lesser jubilation, and to say by effect of itself: "I must decrease, but he must increase." Which also was done evidently, with God cooperating and confirming the word by signs following. For gradually sadness began to fail in Otpert, and exultation and joy began to increase: while, revolving in his mind the indubitable piety, sanctity, and innocence of Trudpert, already most known to him, he was compelled by faith to believe that he had now carried victorious signs into heaven, and had been granted by Christ the crown of his combat; nor did he consider that he ought to be mourned as dead, who it was established had attained eternal life, but rather that one should rejoice with him in his triumph. He finds the body incorrupt after 4 days. The faith of the believing Otpert was confirmed by the testimony also of a present miracle. For after four days now from the completed martyrdom, the body of the holy man, still unburied, appeared so entirely incorrupt, that you would then first have believed him to be sweetly sleeping. His face was not discolored by horrid pallor, no livid gore or putrefaction, no foul stench or worm; but the blood redder than purple, a lovely and benign countenance, his limbs lively with vital tractability, were bringing forth already a certain pledge and certainty of the future resurrection.

[24] There was added also another so remarkable prodigy, that it allowed no one to doubt of the unfading glory of the Martyr. For the wretched slayers of the glorious soldier of Christ, of whom we have already spoken above, doing late penance within themselves (as is written), as soon as the crime was perpetrated, with their own guilt striking them, tried to save themselves by the protection of flight, and labored to go toward Alemannia: The slayers, trying to flee, but, fleeing on the first day of the perpetrated infamy, when they went all that day and the following night through forests, thickets, and mountains, with their clothes torn and rent in the grove, they were now being wearied by their very strength. Wisdom 5:3 But on the following day, when they now thought themselves to have escaped, with divine vengeance urging them, which is wont to avenge the blood of its servants, of their own accord they return to the place of St. Trudpert, at the very hour of the perpetrated fault, both unwilling and unwitting, they returned to the place where they had slain the soldier of Christ. They were seen therefore by certain men, by whose shouting they were terrified, and they take to flight again. On the third day similarly, with more men now gathered to the body of the man of God, at the very hour, struck with a fitting blindness of mind, they return unknowing to the same place; and, astonished by the cry of many, they try to flee a third time. When this had been made more certain to Otpert through very many persons, he, as he was a man discreet in mind, sensing that this was done by divine judgment, appointed guards for the place. But the wicked lictors, to whom the earth rightly denied, on account of their crime, mountains and rocks denied, leaves and forests denied a hiding place, at the predicted hour again whirl back to the place of their damnation, and, easily detained (being squalid with leanness and hunger, caught, they are led to Bobo: and wearied by the tearing of clothes and the windings of ways, they were now in no way able to flee), they are presented to the sight of Otpert. Who, since he was occupied with the exequies of the man of God, that he might carry out the deposition of the sacred and precious body with purer devotion, commanded the guilty men themselves to be presented to a Bobo, then provincial Count, to be punished by his examination. And while they were being led to judgment by the satellites of Otpert with their hands bound behind their backs: one of those leading them, when they were crossing the cross-beam b of a certain bank, leaned on his spear, that he might the more carefully advance. But the wretched homicide, who was following him at his heels, suddenly threw himself headlong upon the point of that spear, of whom one kills himself, and, transfixing himself, ended by his own slaying the life of which he had long been unworthy. Moreover, the unhappy brother of the same, the other is hanged: with Bobo pronouncing a fitting sentence, was hanged on a gallows without delay, the Lord rendering to him what he had deserved.

[25] Behold, how much the Leader Christ esteemed his Martyr, he shows by the destruction of his slayers; of whom one inflicted on himself the penalty of death, the other deserved to perish by hanging: so that he equaled the example of Judas the traitor, the one indeed as the author, the other by the kind of torment, slain between heaven and earth, unworthy of heaven namely, and unworthy of earth. In which it is shown the more openly to the attentive observer, how distinguished a member of Christ Trudpert is, whose executioners, contaminated by his slaying, are struck with that penalty of death with which the invaders of his head

perished. made like Pilate and Judas Iscariot. For also Pilate the Governor, who, although he at first refused, afterwards however dared to pronounce a sentence of death against the Lord, is read to have transfixed himself with his own sword; moreover, he who had betrayed the Lamb of God with a wolfish kiss, as the founders of the Gospel witness, going away, hanged himself with a noose. But of the slayers of the soldier of Christ, one killed himself like Pilate, the other is hanged like Judas the traitor.

[26] Hitherto indeed, until the evening of the death of the man of God, weeping has lingered: now, so that his gladness may linger, as to the morning of the beatitude then rising but never about to set, let us resume the order of our interrupted narration. A sarcophagus therefore having been prepared of stones, St. Trudpert is buried in the oratory of SS. Peter and Paul, the distinguished Martyr of Christ, with the worthy devotion both of Priests and of an innumerable people, is laid down in the oratory which, in memory of the Apostles Peter and Paul, as we said above, he had begun, the praise of the Lord being celebrated in many ways. Here therefore, like a triumphal palm, he flourished with such a frequency of miracles and signs, that he is not at all doubted to be a cedar of the heavenly Lebanon, multiplied by the abundance of his merits. In the same place also, where the said fighter of Christ rests, so many benefits were bestowed, through his intercession, upon the blind, deaf, lame, and leprous, and other weak persons, that the number of them goes beyond the measure of the pen. he shines with miracles, Many of which nevertheless, the inertia of certain ancients neglected to commit to writing; but some, through a c fire, passed from memory.

[27] But afterwards, several years having passed, Blessed Trudpert appeared in a vision to a certain holy man, indicating that the lower part of his body was soaked with pouring water, a vision being made, and enjoined him to give diligent care that the body itself might be placed higher. When he had made this known to several religious and Priests, at this word a multitude assembled, and with devoted mind considered what should be done about these things. And at length, in the council and assembly of the just, it was pleasing to open the sarcophagus and to explore the matter more diligently. With Otpert therefore still living and present, very many Priests were gathered, they met as one: they, seeing, so marveled, that for joy tears even were poured forth. the body is found whole: For the tomb having been laid open, which contained the precious treasure of the sacred body, the body of the arms-bearer of Christ appeared so whole and sound and on every side entirely incorrupt, that it seemed just laid down for the first time, and it shone clearly how that holy soul had always remained untouched by all vices, whose flesh given to the sepulcher for so many years no spring of putrefaction had yet touched. But now what affection would not exult there, whose devotion would not burn, whose tongue would not pour forth praises of Christ and glory: when it was shown in the flesh of the Martyr that how, extinguished, with unfading and eternal glory his blessed soul enjoyed in heaven; whose slain limbs no decay had wasted away in the sepulcher for so long a time.

[28] Finally, for the greater glory of Christ, the clod of the sacred little body, after the manner of those newly deceased, brought forth from the sarcophagus, is raised up with pious diligence: he is elevated: and wrapped in the purest linens, in the place where it had lain before, by the ministry of the Priests it is reverently laid down, with the praise of Christ being sung with jubilation. For what else did the beloved athlete of Christ, by the very sign of his incorruption, say to those who noticed the matter, than, "My heart has hoped in God, because I left my house, I dismissed my inheritance, by hoping and seeking a house not made with hands, and an incorruptible and unfading inheritance, reserved in the heavens; and I was brought to the triumph of martyrdom, when I gave my beloved soul into the hands of his enemies, cruelly to be taken away: wherefore also my flesh has flourished again, retaining its vigor unconsumed, which ought rather to have withered after so many years." Truly that soul "was exalted like a cedar" in the Lebanon of eternal whitening, whose flesh for so long was blooming "like the plant of the rose in Jericho" of this valley and sepulcher. Since therefore the patriarchal bones of our Joseph, son of the true Jacob, son namely increasing and blessed, of Blessed Trudpert, from his place were budding forth with so many virtues and miracles, that by the fragrance of his ointments, which after him and to him Christ himself had already drawn, very many faithful, as young maidens loving his merits, were invited to the course; and he shines with new miracles. the place of the venerable tomb began to be more and fully frequented by devoted men, and to receive the benefits of many healings; the Lord declaring the triumph of his Martyr by the manifold showing of helps and signs.

[29] But after the decease of the illustrious Otpert, when now, as is truly believed, he had been gathered into the heavens by him whom he, on earth, had gathered in his beloved Trudpert; and he was received by the friend into the eternal dwellings, who through him in the aforesaid valley had found a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. After several years had rolled by, the discord of the heirs of the same Otpert causing it, because of the discord of the heirs the place is neglected, the place of Blessed Trudpert was reduced almost to solitude: and with their kingdom divided against itself, house was compelled to fall upon house. For the rest, the Lord being unwilling that the spiritual seed and holy succession of his Martyr should fail, to whom he had before sworn the truth, not about to frustrate him entirely, "His seed shall remain forever." After the passing of some time, a rod came forth from the root of Otpert, and from his root a distinguished flower arose; namely a Nephew, possessor and heir both of his resources and of his devotion, named Rampert: d who, as a successor of ancestral piety, striving to restore the memory of Blessed Trudpert more carefully, to repair what was ruined, to recover what was torn down, and to raise what was already fallen, then it is repaired by Rampert: was diligent with all attention. He moreover constructed a basilica, at a sumptuous expense, with copious preparations of gold and sculptures, in memory of the blessed Peter and Paul, to whom the holy Martyr himself had dedicated the place.

[30] At his time also, the then holy Pope Stephen, Trudpert is said to have been enrolled among the Saints by Pope Stephen. the marks of holiness, both the form and manner of the passion, and also the variety and truth of the miracles, having been proved before him through suitable and most trustworthy witnesses, reverently inscribed Blessed Trudpert in the Catalogue of the holy Martyrs, and decreed that he be honored in their company; the Lord declaring this through innumerable virtues.

[31] Not long after, the holy Martyr appeared again to certain Brothers and other religious, intimating that his body had been buried in a place too moist, and that he wished to be buried more highly and more decently. Then at last, the diocesan Bishop of the place f being called, and an innumerable multitude of peoples flowing together from every nation which dwells on both sides of the Rhine far and wide, by a very great gathering of the Clergy and religious, the body of the Martyr of Christ is again brought forth from the tomb, the body is elevated, and again is washed by the hands of religious men, as was fitting. Then he is reverently clothed in a new pallium, and in the presence of the most pious and illustrious Rampert, he is laid down in a higher part of the basilica recently built by the same, with "Glory in the highest to God" being sung with the great voices of the peoples. Now for the third time Jesus manifested before his faithful that he had crowned his soldier with heavenly glory and honor among the renowned purples of Martyrs; nor was he to be harmed by the second death, who had already conquered the first with triumph. This third deposition of the holy man was accomplished in the year of the Lord's Incarnation eight hundred and g thirteenth, Louis the son of the divine Charles ruling, in the second year of his coronation, on the sixth day before the Kalends of May, at the same time and place, namely, where the invincible fighter of Christ, completing the contest of his struggle, the warrior bore ample trophies to the heavens.

[32] h But after these things, no small passage of time intervening, Rampert now long since gathered to his fathers, Ludfrid the illustrious Count, and created from the same origin, by Count Ludfrid the monastery is renewed, in no way degenerating from the devotion of his great-grandfathers, showing the pious morals of his fathers in himself, even excelled them. For he both renewed the monastery in honor of the blessed Peter and Paul and Blessed Trudpert and improved it, near the memory of the aforesaid Martyr: where, serving as soldiers under the rule of the blessed and venerable Benedict, they would not be silent day and night from praising the name of the Lord. Who also, that the congregation of the same monastery might be able to remain in the praise of the King of heaven and in the ceremonies, generously bestowing estates, and to the same place adding new pious and devoted donations of his great-grandfathers, enlarging and extending, and endowed. provided copiously enough and abundantly for the Brothers about to serve the Lord there in those things in which this present life is necessarily sustained. For God raised up a just seed to the most pious Otpert, so that what he as a devoted man had begun, Rampert might extend and foster more devotedly, and Lutfrid most devotedly might consummate: that both the sap of the root might be weighed in the shoot, and the flavor of both in the fruit.

[33] But not many days after these, when the glory of miracles around the tomb of Blessed Trudpert was becoming more and more frequent, and "the sound of them was going forth into all the land" of Germany; the Prelate of Constance i of holy memory, to whose diocese the place itself belongs, aroused by the herald of such great fame, joining two Bishops to himself, most devoutly hastened to transfer the body of the blessed Martyr; rejoicing together with the glory of Christ, who, that always "the memory of the just with praises, according to the testimony of Scripture, may be celebrated," and his name sought unto the age, The body is transferred by the Bishop of Constance, renewing signs, does not cease to alter wonders. Ps. 111:7 Therefore, a multitude of the faithful is gathered from every side, and when a great crowd had assembled and from cities they were hastening to the Martyr's burial, the peoples rushed so tumultuously in company, that concerning the weak and infirm, lest any of them should happen to be crushed, there was great fear: because among these lay a great multitude of the sick, the blind, the lame, and the withered, awaiting the translation of the Saint and the benefits of his piety. And although they were so many, the Lord provided for the honor of his beloved soldier, not without great astonishment of all who were present, that no one was found who complained of being crushed or even injured. Which without doubt Christ brought about, lest his beloved Trudpert should be a cause of danger to any who had flowed together for the sake of obtaining salvation; and that it might evidently be clear that to the faithful and devout God had created him for life, not for death. Therefore the Bishops, Religious, Canons, and Priests who had gathered, lest they should seem to give the holy thing to the dogs, or to cast pearls before swine, the common people being excluded before the doors, as was fitting, clothed in their priestly garments, reverently approached to transfer the sacred body of the Martyr. Meanwhile one of the plebeians, from the instigation of curiosity more than of devotion, secretly lay hidden; presuming to gaze with profane eyes, even the ministers not knowing, upon what was being done. Whom divine vengeance soon followed: a certain man, for his curiosity, punished with paralysis, for immediately, deprived of the office of his limbs, like a certain trunk, he could neither raise himself up, nor move his hands in any direction or his steps. You would suppose this man had looked upon the Medusa's head of the fables. But He who speaks with the mouth of Moses, "I will strike and I will heal," the rashness of the presumptuous having been struck, deigned to heal the humility of the penitent. Deut. 32:39 For as soon as he recognized his guilt, corrected by the indication of the blow, trembling and stupefied, he is healed.

and giving glory to God, he confessed before all what he had done: and straightway his bases and soles were made firm, and "leaping up, he walked, and praised God," everywhere preaching and testifying both the virtue of Christ and the dignity of his soldier. Let these things about the more ancient deeds committed to writing l suffice, however said: now let our discourse be directed to those things which have not yet departed from the memory of those still living, and have been done with their knowing, or have been learned by the sure reports of those recently deceased and worthy of credit.

NOTES.

BOOK II.

On the miracles done in the author's time.

TABLE OF CHAPTERS.

CHAPTER I.

Those who injured St. Trudpert are punished.

[1] The monastery of Blessed Trudpert had, not a long time ago, an Abbot named a Eberhard, of laudable and tested conversation: who loved, venerated, and worshipped the Martyr of Christ, among other things in which he served God, with a special affection. In his time silver mines were found abundant in a certain nearby mountain, Abbot Eberhard, from beneath whose foot the aforesaid Abbot frequently had to pass, in order to arrange the necessities of his church, with a fitting retinue of his Brothers and household. Moreover, the diggers of silver of that mountain, silver-miners, when they began to grow rich from the increasing metal, also began to grow insolent; and, as this kind of men is wont, entangled in many errors, they believed their fortune to be hindered and diminished by the passing of the religious. These things they thought, and erred: for their malice, as is written, blinded them: for, as men serving the Lord, they ought rather to have augured prosperous things than adverse. Wisdom 2:21 But not so the impious, not so did they reckon: whence, whenever they saw the aforesaid Abbot or his men passing by, they often mock, imitating boys mocking the baldness of the Prophet, they did not fear to shout at them with many jests and insults; and the voices grew strong with which they very frequently troubled the man of God. 4 Kings 2:23 Therefore on one day, when on the occasion of necessity he himself personally passed by, having in his company a converse Brother, who had, as is the custom, a rather long beard; the sons of Belial, seeing the servants of God, with infinite mockeries premised, cried out insolently, insulting the aforesaid Brother, that he had devoured a mare: and not content with this, they turned to greater injuries. Finally, some of them, presuming something indeed shameful to tell but more shameful in act, even with their breeches drawn down, thrust their bared buttocks into the sight of the servants of God. At which reproaches, the aforesaid Abbot, as he was a man naturally modest, blushed vehemently, and was moved both with shame and grief; and returning home, he enters the basilica of Blessed Trudpert about to seek benefits: benefits, I say, but St. Trudpert being invoked, of escape from such mockeries, with which both he himself and all the family of the holy Martyr were daily burdened; and perhaps in prayer he said, "Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants." A wonderful and most terrible thing! For hardly had he risen from prayer, and behold, they come, not lying in their report, that their corpses lay dreadful, overwhelmed by their own mass. And so it happened: for the silver-bearing mountain itself, suddenly collapsing upon itself, a part of the mountain falling, they are overwhelmed, crushed and overwhelmed altogether an innumerable multitude of those very mockers. For the Lord, according to the words of the Psalmist, then truly "judged in the nations, he filled ruins, he crushed the heads in the land of many fools" entirely, and crushed them so completely that to this day no traces of them can be found, although in the mountain itself there is still constant digging, now that more than a hundred years have passed since the same thing occurred. Ps. 109:6

[2] But the second is similar to this, which we shall tell. Several years having intervened, the Abbot of the same monastery, called b Hugo, noble indeed by birth but nobler in the virtue of his morals, Abbot Hugo, seeing that the place itself was subject to the burdens of the Avowers, and too heavily burdened, with prudent counsel procured the citizenship c of the men of Breisach, that (as their oaths have it) they, as fellow-citizens, should defend the monastery itself. At which the Avowers, grieving, attacked by the plots of the Avowers, and thinking this to have been done in contempt of them, pursuing the Abbot with manifest hostilities, compelled him to be absent from the monastery for some time, so as to avoid the danger of death which, if they had been able, they had prepared to inflict on him; and when perhaps necessity of any kind demanded him to come to the church, he had to go around and seek safe ways, that he might escape the intended death. For "they thought iniquities in heart, all day they set snares for every passer-by." It happened therefore that he had to visit the monastery in haste. The men who accompanied him therefore persuaded him to strive to avoid the hostile hands as was his custom. But he, placing his hope in God, and committing himself to Christ and Blessed Trudpert, lest what was urgent should be omitted from delay, undauntedly enters upon the direct road, where indeed he was not ignorant that there were enemies. When his coming was known, immediately ambushers were sent and placed in the valley thick with shrubs, because by that way he would undoubtedly pass, where no other way lay open either on the left or on the right. The lictors therefore stood, equipped with their lances and spears, which thrusting from one side and the other, they stood leaning by the road, he escapes, invisible to them. that the man of God, suddenly passing and unable to turn aside anywhere, they might transfix unforeseen. But protected by the hand of God and his Martyr, not by shield or helmet, the executioners having been struck at the same time with blindness and confusion, the Abbot went passing through the midst of them; nor was he seen by them though placed in front of them, until he came to the place of the monastery, singing the praises due to God and his soldier Trudpert.

[3] But since mention has begun to be made of the Avowers, let us consequently indicate how greatly some of them troubled the aforesaid monastery, and how frequently the Martyr of Christ inflicted vengeance on them. For after the Avowership of this monastery had passed from the offspring of Otpert to outsiders, a certain Avower, called Otto of Staufen, under the venerable Abbot Henry d of the same monastery, "stretched forth his hands as King Herod," under Abbot Henry, to afflict some of the Church of Blessed Trudpert. For besides the vexations, angarias, and takings of goods, by which he incessantly oppressed the family of the monastery and the colonists, he began also to be violent against the Brothers of the Church themselves: so that on a certain day, supper being taken, when the devil had now put it into his heart to presume worse things, when the Brothers, after the hymn said, went out into the oratory, The Avower Otho trying to seize a monk: as is the custom of religious after refreshment, chanting the fiftieth Psalm, the said Otto was not afraid, with his knife drawn, to drive out one of the Priests from the very procession, also intending to capture him. Who, fleeing to the church, was compelled to save himself by the bar of the door. When certain religious steadfastly reproached Otto concerning these things, threatening him with divine vengeance, in all these things his fury was not turned away, but still his hand remained stretched out to cruelty. It happened at that time that a Court of princes was being held at Frankfurt: to which when the Duke of Zähringen then prepared to go, he summoned the aforesaid Otto, because he was his ministerial and was quite loved by him, and, violently abducting those of the monastery, to accompany him. He, set in marching order, took away from the monastery two horses, which would carry his baggage and that of his men. And when he was both requested and admonished by the Brothers that he would be more at peace with the place of Blessed Trudpert, with the manner and fury of Nicanor, and threatening worse, stretching his hands toward the monastery itself, he proudly swore that he would not leave there one stone upon another when he returned. And this said, he immediately set out with the aforesaid Duke, taking with him the horses taken away. He therefore departed, confirming his mind in this malice: but prayer was being made without intermission from the church to God and Blessed Trudpert his Martyr, that they might restrain the savagery of Otto. The Court of Princes therefore is dissolved, and the Duke returning with Otto came to a certain river bound by nocturnal frost. Otto therefore (since he sat on a stronger horse), about to make way for the Duke and his men, and to break the ice, enters as a forerunner. Moreover by the shaking of his horse he was so crushed inwardly, crushed by the shaking of his horse, he expires. that having been carried to a certain wretched hut, as the pain grew heavier, after no long time he expired, compelled to end with his life the malignity he had conceived in his heart against the monastery of the Martyr. For the yoke of his burden

God so surpassed, that he himself was brought back dead on those same horses which, alive, he had violently taken away from the Church: so that by the very deed it became clear that, as is written, by whatever things a man sins, by these also he shall be punished.

[4] Another Otho, the Avower Otto having thus died, another Avower, of the same ferocity and name and cousin of the deceased, not correcting himself by the blow of the former, troubled the said monastery in many ways. Finally, after many injuries which he inflicted on the church of the holy Martyr, when the harvest was at hand, he violently took away from the Brothers the measure of three hundred modii heaped up and pressed together, taking away the goods of the monastery, by which they were to be sustained for that year. They, pursuing sufficient civil and canonical judgments often, were looking for the help of men, and there was none. Seeing therefore the Convent that it was profiting nothing, but rather the tumult of lawsuits was being made without fruit, it turned to the suffrages of prayers, more earnestly invoking God and blessed Trudpert, about the oppressions of the Avower. A brief space of time intervened, and while the Brothers persevered in prayer, the aforesaid Otto began to build in his castle of Staufen, e which he could not complete, with guilt forbidding. For when he was pressing upon his wondering workmen, struck by the sudden fall of a certain twisted rope, which pertained to the instrument of building, but, struck and wasting away, he wasted away; and, with his nerves torn, he began suddenly to be destitute of bodily strength: and, having summoned the Minorite Brothers and his germane brother whom he then had as elder, he disposed of his house, about to die. Confessing therefore to the Minorite Brothers, being admonished by them, Having commanded restitution, he dies, in their presence and that of the Prior of Blessed Trudpert and many others, he committed to his aforesaid brother by testamentary ordinance, that from the goods left to him he should entirely satisfy the aforesaid church, paying all that he had unjustly taken from the same: upon which also, having received the oath of the surviving Brother, he died: and the shock of his vexation ceased. But the surviving Brother, which his brothers neglecting, not heeding the vengeance of the right hand of God, which had prostrated his Brother, became a violator of both the promise and the oath; and, hardening his neck, he did not care to give effect to any of those things which he had vowed: and what the earlier violent one had taken away, this deceitful and perjured one retained. But, because "it is hard to kick against the heavenly goad," scarcely fourteen days having passed, he who, at the voice of the Psalmist saying, "Vow and render to the Lord," had willingly become deaf inwardly, unwillingly was struck with outer deafness. Ps. 75:12 For to this day, deprived of hearing, he hears no noises or ringings, however high-sounding and clamorous, he is punished with deafness. and, having lost those things which he had rashly presumed to retain, held as if a jest, he carries on a wretched and despised life among his acquaintances and kinsmen. Very many physicians too, even f of Montpellier, being able to find no cause of this deafness in him, most truly protest that it is divine vengeance.

[5] A certain Avower of the aforesaid Church so walked in the counsel of the impious that, induced by a certain one grown old in evil days, he did indeed evil things to the place of Blessed Trudpert, threatened worse, and thought the worst: and so from day to day began to be more troublesome to the monastery, so that the little boat of the Martyr was being covered by the waves of injuries. But Jesus slept with the Brothers: but, awakened by the intervention of his soldier, rising, he commanded the winds and the sea. For on a certain day, Another Avower, striving to rage, when the most savage tempest was continuing in the mind of the Avower, when he was still breathing threats and slaughter against the Brothers, the day of the major Litany, which is celebrated on the Vigil of St. Trudpert the Martyr, came; and the relics of the Saints and the standards of the Cross were carried in customary manner, with the Convent following. And when the Brothers passed through the monastery in procession, the Avower, of whom just now it was said, stood in the oratory, looking at them brashly and impudently with terrible eyes, meditating to rage against them with a cruel blow. But He to whom it is said by the Psalmist, "Thou rulest the power of the sea, and the motion of its waves thou mitigatest," quickly calmed this tempest into serenity. Ps. 88:10 Finally, the Brothers had scarcely entered the chapel of Blessed g Oswald, when suddenly in the midst of the people the Avower collapsing is carried to his house, he collapses ill, which, to the injury of the church, he had now begun to have in the village of the monastery; and with pustules breaking out over his whole body, he was vexed with marvelous pain. He, immediately summoning the Prior of the place, asked to be visited and blessed with the relics of the Saints. And this being done, coming to himself from the savagery of his mind, he faithfully promised to Blessed Trudpert that, having received health, and, healed, he remained faithful: he would never thereafter burden his church: and, immediately cured, what he said, he also did. For afterwards he kindly fostered the monastery of the said Martyr, and always loved and venerated it with affection, as though he had said to himself in his heart: "Prophesy, who is he who has struck you?" And, "From now on do not strive to do evil." Many other signs indeed Jesus did in honor of his recruit, which are not written in this book; lest either tedium be generated for the reader, or lest the truth offend some, whose consciences shrink from having their wounds touched: for

"Wounded limbs dread even a gentle touch."

[6] A certain soldier of Alsace, wounded by a dog-bite, most severely wounded by the bite of a rabid dog, when he was profiting nothing by the help of the physicians, because "vain is the safety of man," experiencing it, promised to Blessed Trudpert, that he might be saved by his intercession, at the persuasion of certain men, that in his honor he would abstain from arms for a whole year. The pain having soon been mitigated, the wound hardened, health was restored. Not long after, the Bishop h of Strasbourg collected an army, he is healed, and entreated the aforesaid soldier to be armed with the rest. He refused, and offered his vow: the Bishop mocked the vow, and, calling the soldier vainly timid, induces him to arm himself. Having become a transgressor of his promise, but, having transgressed his vow, he immediately experienced how great a danger it is to despise the Saints: for his scars putrefied and were corrupted, because of the foolishness which he had presumed; from his wound he dies: and, his pain renewed, he paid the penalty of his violated promise with death.

[7] When the holy birthday into heaven of the holy Martyr was at hand, and all who belonged to the family of the Martyr were keeping the day festive, and were resting from their works as was fitting, working on the feast of St. Trudpert, a certain colonist of Blessed Trudpert, named Judas, not Judas who begot Pharez and Zarah of Thamar, nor he who, a collection having been made, sent drachmas of silver to Jerusalem; but the seed of Canaan, and not of Judah, despised the feast of the Martyr, not with impunity. For while he was pressing a certain poor workman, similarly belonging to the church, to build a certain door for him, and the man refused on account of the feast, Judas Anti-Maccabeus compelled him by force to work, unwilling and resisting. He therefore took the axe and began the work to which he was being forced, with Judas standing by and urging. he loses his eye: The worker therefore, about to fit the material, strikes a blow on the wood: and behold, soon a small splinter, springing from the wood cut off, struck the eye of the compeller, and broke it, and deprived him of sight. Did not the holy Martyr say to Judas by that very punishment: "Your eye is evil, because I am good whom you despise: since therefore your eye scandalizes you, pluck it out, as you have deserved."

[8] A certain spring on the mount of the monastery is commonly called "the fount of Blessed Trudpert," the reason not well known: which many of the faithful, drinking with pious faith for the memory of the Saint, obtained hoped-for benefits of healings, by the merit of their devotion: and they often frequented the very spring on account of the name of the Martyr. Seeing this, a certain jester mocked it; and, premising blasphemous words, to the contempt of Blessed Trudpert, presumed to stain the midst of the spring itself with the most filthy dung. defiling the fount of St. Trudpert, Immediately stupid rashness is punished: having poured out his intestines, he dies. for he had hardly withdrawn from the spring, and soon he was entirely loosened by a relaxation of his foul belly, and immediately all his bowels were poured out, and he cast forth his most filthy spirit with the filth of his intestines; by a wretched death showing how incautious it is to dishonor on earth him whom the Lord has honored in heaven.

[9] A woman still lives, dwelling in Freiburg i: who, wearied by too great pain of the eyes, Suffering in her eyes, having made a vow, she is healed: promised to Blessed Trudpert that every year she would personally visit his church with some offering. Having received health, after some years, neglecting to fulfill what she had vowed, she is again seized with pain. She therefore renews her promise, and again is cured. A third time she neglects, not corrected; even twice relapsing because her vow was neglected. a third time nevertheless, both to her and to all who dwelt with her in the same house, most grievous pain of the eyes crept around, creeping like a cancer, until, by the repetition of the promise, they might receive health often now demerited. What is here given to understand, other than what the Apostle evidently cries out: "Do not err: God is not mocked"? Gal. 6:7

NOTES.

CHAPTER II.

Various healings obtained. Other miracles.

[10] A lame boy. Another woman also, still living and rather devout, had a son almost five years old, who, struck by the sudden weakness of his knees and feet, remaining lame for a long time, was by no means able to walk anywhere, being completely deprived of the use of his feet and legs. The mother came to the monastery of Blessed Trudpert to ask help for her son, on a the feast of his Translation; and took him up in her arms, that she might place him before the sight of the Martyr of Christ. On the feast of the Translation he recovers his step: And when she had placed the weak boy before the altar, she proceeded to the tomb of the Saint, about to ask the salvation of her son. And behold, during her praying, the boy, with no one helping him, stood up; and came healthy to his mother, and to this day by the benefit of the soldier of Christ perseveres sound.

[11] A certain Priest of the Order of Preachers, called Brother Conrad of Corvey b, of the royal cloister

of Westphalia, a man of holy conversation, A Priest of the Order of Preachers healed of a hidden illness of 20 years, was troubled with a certain hidden illness for more than twenty years: which also he blushed to indicate to his own. Whatever day the same illness afflicted him, he scarcely hoped to be able to live that same day, as he afterwards most truly confessed. Therefore, before the entry into the Order in which he now was, he consumed much on physicians, for he had a good abundance of resources, and profited nothing. For the rest, this infirmity was not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the soldier of God might be glorified in him, by whose help he was preserved for so many years: he also came for a testimony, that he might bear witness of the Martyr. c For being sent, according to the custom of his Order, into Freiburg on the feast of the major Litany, he went out to sow his seed, namely the Word of God, not far from the monastery of Blessed Trudpert, in a place called Sulzberg, where then there was a market day and a concourse of people. The day ended, when all who had come to hear him grew drowsy and slept, and night encompassed the earth with dusky wings; he himself, Brother Conrad, gave himself similarly to rest: and having received answer in sleep, admonished in sleep, that he should visit the nearby memorial of Blessed Trudpert, about to be freed from the burden of his illness; he himself believed the oracle with his heart unto justice, as afterwards with his mouth he confessed unto salvation. He came therefore devoutly: and Compline having been finished, to visit the sepulcher: when the others withdrew from the sepulcher of the Saint, he did not withdraw, passing that night sleepless, and asking the hoped-for salvation for himself. Morning come, because he had persevered knocking, the Lord dismissed his servant according to his word in peace, entirely freed from the burden of his so long-standing illness, by the intervention of his Martyr. He, with joy, confessing these things to the venerable Lord Wernher, d then Abbot of St. Trudpert, promised that at each of the Hours of the day he would have a commemoration with Antiphon and Collect, as long as he lived.

[12] A certain man from a Swabian town called Mengen e a bed-ridden man, visited by St. Trudpert appearing, came devoutly with his son with an offering to the tomb of the Saint; with exultation and giving of thanks testifying that for more than the space of a year, bed-ridden, he could not raise himself up at all. And when very many pilgrims passed by his house, about to visit St. Nicholas in Freiburg, he conceived a similar vow in mind, if he should be cured through the blessed Bishop. As he was thinking these things, night came upon him. And before he had entirely fallen asleep, behold, to him still half-awake a certain venerable man appeared, in countenance and habit of a pilgrim, his head sprinkled with venerable grey hair, asking him if he desired to be cured in any way. He answering that he desired it with all his affection, ordered to visit his tomb. "Go," said the one who appeared, "and beyond Freiburg seek a certain castle which is called Staufen: having passed which, you will find a valley, and in the valley a monastery called of Blessed Trudpert: approach devoutly his tomb, through him full health shall be conferred on you, and it has now been conferred." The sick man therefore asking who he was who spoke such things to him, he said he himself was Trudpert the Martyr of Christ. He rises at dawn altogether sound, and immediately visited the memorial of Blessed Trudpert, as he had been commanded; glorifying the Lord in his servant, and publicly attesting the benefits of the recruit of Christ, which, as we said, he had experienced in himself.

[13] Many are still living in the flesh who very well remember that a certain one of the Avowers, named Wernher, being conquered and captured in a certain public conflict, when he had redeemed himself with a certain pact sum of money, being about to pay his debts, despoiled the men and colonists of Blessed Trudpert by a quite great exaction. Nor did this suffice him, taking a Cross as a pledge of payment, but he turned his burden upon the monastery itself; asking, or to speak more truly, extorting from the Brothers that they should grant him some pledge to be pledged for twenty marks, namely, promising to restore it at the first time. What therefore were the Brothers to do? It was hard to kick against the goad, denying the Avower what he asked; harder to grant, when no return was hoped for. But the command of him who asked was pressing. And so, counsel having been taken, they decreed that a certain Cross, which is still seen in the church, in which that particle of the true Cross is enclosed which one of the sweet nails pierced, should be destined for a pledge, hoping that this would more certainly and quickly have to be redeemed. Through the Brother who then was performing the Office of Cantor, therefore, this saving wood is transmitted to him who asked, or rather compelled them, by the unwilling; with those now weeping truly, both those sending and the one bearing. They come to the village which is called f Crozzingen, where a certain Ottricus by name, procurator of the same one whom we said to be Avower, was awaiting the pledge sought from the Brothers. about to take it away, Here therefore, with the multitude of the people standing around, the Cross is reverently laid down by the Brother in a decent place, until, namely, the procurator about to receive it might mount his horse. And so, a very strong g pack-horse having been mounted, the Brother presents the Cross to him, nearly with tears, and says: "O good Cross, may Trudpert the Martyr of Christ grant that you may be quickly brought back to us with joy." with St. Trudpert invoked, it remains immovable, Which said, he received the Cross to be carried away. But wonderfully the horse on which he sat, immovable and as if fixed with nails, could not go out from the places in which he had impressed his feet, however much he was urged with spurs. He was therefore seized with great stupefaction, and marveling beyond what can be believed, said: "Return, holy Cross, return, that your Brothers may behold you: I shall in no way attempt to carry you farther." The Brother therefore returned with the Cross joyful who had gone out sad: and is received with all rejoicing, He who said, "Your sorrow shall be turned into joy," fulfilling his word at the prayer of his Martyr, whom the Brother had invoked. John 16:20

[14] To a certain youth from Freiburg, whose relatives had obtained a prebend in the monastery of Blessed Trudpert, A cleric seized by heresy, a certain Recluse, a hypocrite, had secretly corrupted with a detestable heresy, along with not a few others. He entered the monastery with fox-like simulation, under a certain species of sanctity, long deluding the simplicity of the Brothers, so that he was believed most religious: for his eyes anticipated the vigils, and not content with the prayer of the Brothers, he exercised certain singular superstitions, truly a singular beast, that he might spread the venom of his perversity, under the pretext of feigned piety, by a wider contagion. And when, as a youth, he should have been kept back from specialties of this kind by men truly religious and elders, who, now that he was already seduced and beguiled, feared that he would be beguiled by Satan, whose wiles according to the Apostle they did not ignore, and when he should have been taught to observe common practice, the deceived youth himself fled away to his deceiver, as far as Freiburg; with his friends, who argued with him about this, pretending to himself that he desired a stricter life. Eph. 4:14 Then, having been brought back to the monastery by his relatives, he did not forsake the frauds of his wickedness; but as much as was allowed him by the permission of the Prelates, he exercised, as was said, certain special hypocrisies, and a lambskin hid a ravening wolf among the lambs. But the Martyr of Christ Trudpert, lest the sheepfold of his monastery should be stained by that man's purulent scab, and lest the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth, which his right hand had planted and his blood had watered, should be harmed by the deadly fang of a perverse fox, which in holy religion had fructified as a vine the sweetness of odor, kindly took thought for his own, and marvelously disclosed the viperous depravity. For when the most wretched dissembler stood among other juniors in the choir, he is seized by a demon: and the creed of Blessed Athanasius was being sung, in which the orthodox profession of the Catholic religion is contained, the impure enemy of faith, not able to bear the purity of so great a faith, moved the vessel of his perfidy, showing himself to be tortured in the body subject to sins. For suddenly the youth trembled and began to look around, to turn pale, and to tremble vehemently; to turn his face and eyes at once flashing; so that all who saw him were disturbed, and every man who was present feared. The pious Brothers were troubled for the impious: and greatly saddened, each began to say, "Manhu! What is this?" They exhort the vexed man to invoke God, and to purify his conscience by confession: and, having brought him into the chapel of Blessed John the Evangelist, they strive to hold him, and to bring him back to a healthier sense. Then, as they held him, he began to resist, to turn his head in circles, to gnash his teeth, constrained by St. Trudpert, and to emit horrid cries, saying that he was being compelled by Blessed Trudpert to reveal iniquities long hidden. And when it was now believed that he was about to say something; "Demons," he said, "forbid me to speak, threateningly aiming their darts at me if I say anything." And again he cried: "Behold I will now speak, behold I will now speak: I am compelled by Blessed Trudpert." And so, for a long and long time frenzied, at length with the command of the Martyr prevailing, he discloses the heresy, he was compelled to point out the most filthy author of his perversity, and the companions of his heresy in both sexes, not a few. Which having been produced and found, the master of error and wickedness is burned in an avenging flame at Freiburg. But what certain religious did with the accomplices of this sect and heresy, let them see themselves: we however testify what we saw, namely that the Martyr of Christ Trudpert purged the garden of his planting from the nettle of nefarious wickedness; lest a root bringing forth bitterness should choke the roses and lilies of Christ, and a little leaven should be allowed to corrupt the whole mass of his college. Finally, the son of darkness having been cast out, the sons of light, as they had begun, walked in the light of our God.

[15] A certain blind man, not long before this time, coming to the monastery of the blessed Martyr, the blind man enlightened, asked with devout faith to be led to his sepulcher. Drawing him by the hands, they brought him to the tomb: beside which, when he prayed devoutly, Blessed Trudpert by the very effect said to him, "Look up, your faith has saved you," and he received his sight immediately, and to this day remains seeing and praising God.

[16] There was a certain man not far from the monastery in the village of Tegrinowe h, who voluntarily promised that every year he would pay six coins to the Martyr for his body. When he had done this for some time, having forgotten his vow, at length, forgetting his obligation, he omitted it for three years. The days of rogation came, on which it is the custom that the relics and images of the Saints are carried around; and there is had in the monastery a certain small old image of the Martyr, containing the relics of some Saints. The violator of the debt came, already forgetful of his vow, and by chance receives the aforesaid image to be carried. And when he now tried to lift it, a certain hidden weight fixed it with such heaviness, that scarcely allowed the man, depressed by his burden, to stand on his feet, and compelled him to lay down what he had lifted. He marvels and is astonished, he cannot bear the image of St. Trudpert: and attempts the image again, and again is weighed down, now sweating from the weight of the heaviness: and all marveled. The parish priest therefore who was present, compassionating his godfather, as he was, warned him more attentively that, if he were conscious of any hidden fault, he should strive to abolish it by the remedy of confession. He stood astonished, and thought within himself what could be the cause. And at length recalling his obligation, "Nothing," he said, "am I conscious of to myself, except that I have for three years now, six pennies,

which I had each year promised to Blessed Trudpert, before he paid his vow: that I have not paid." He therefore borrows eighteen denarii from the parish priest himself, and offers them to Blessed Trudpert: and so again he tries the image as before. A wonderful thing! He who before had sweated like Atlas under the axis of heaven, now began to bear the image more easily than Samson once bore the gates of Gaza.

[17] There is a certain spring on the side of the monastery, next to which the soldier of Christ consummated the contest of martyrdom, which a multitude of the faithful, with pious devotion, frequents on account of that very thing. a leper washing in the fount of St. Trudpert is cleansed, A certain leper, therefore, accustomed to receive the alms of the monastery, when one day he was more severely vexed than usual, approached the aforesaid spring to refresh himself and wash his hands, when he saw that no one was present. When therefore he began to wash his hands, wherever that salutary liquor of water flowed, the flesh of the leper was wonderfully cured. He stood astonished at the novelty of the miracle, and poured it on his arms, and straightway his arms were cleansed. Sensing therefore that the benefit of the Martyr was offered to him, looking around everywhere lest any hinderer were present, and considering that none was, swiftly casting off his garments, naked he leaped into the water, invoking the help of the soldier of Christ. And when this second Naaman was immersed in the waters of the spring, the Martyr of Christ with a gentle touch drove away the livid leprosy from the whole body of the sick man, showing himself not unequal to Elisha.

[18] A woman still lives, about whom happened what we relate. Laboring in the pain of childbirth, she lost the use of reason, falling into an exceedingly grievous madness. Fallen into madness, For, as if frenzied, when by chance she saw her own son, she took him and would dash her little one against the stone, if she were not more carefully guarded. And her neighbors and kinsmen heard, that the devil had magnified his madness in her, and had pity on her. She is therefore brought to a certain demoniac, who, being asked about the woman's health, said: "If you desire her to be cured, go and diligently inquire in the monastery of Blessed Trudpert where the relics of Blessed Helena are contained in an altar: at the relics of Blessed Helena she is healed: there she will receive health." She is therefore brought: but no one of the Brothers knew the relics of Blessed Helena i. At length they were found in a certain altar: to which when the sick woman had come, and had vowed a pound of wax there, fully healed, she remains healthy to this day, Blessed Trudpert honoring the Saints who are with him.

[19] Another demoniac woman, when she was being led before the altar of the blessed Virgin, and prayer was being made for her, the energumen is freed, the demon cried out: "I cannot remain: I am compelled to depart, by the blessed Mary, and the soldier of her son, Trudpert." And this said, the vexer departs, the vexed woman is immediately freed.

[20] The Martyr of Christ Trudpert by manifold signs has shown how especially he is a persecutor of thieves and of those who steal others' property. a thief simulating blindness, Of which we shall set down only two, for the sake of example. A certain hypocrite, named Otto, pretending to be blind in body—which he was rather in mind—reaching even to Rome in his very pretense, deceived the officers of the court, and obtained from the deceived a prebend in the monastery of Blessed Trudpert. Letters are therefore stamped, and according to the Papal mandate, the prebend is given, not as to a blind man, but as to a blind man. He, not forgetful of his fraud, with foxlike cunning, while he is thought to be blind, steals and purloins very many things from those not expecting. The feast of Blessed Trudpert drawing near, he is caught: the Martyr no longer bearing, but marvelously betraying the cunning of the deceiver, he is found fornicating with a certain woman, with many things which he had purloined by theft. And so by the Lord Wernher, then Abbot, he was expelled; and the mocker being cast out, according to the counsel of Solomon, quarrels also went out with him, which, while he was thought to be blind, had been generated among the innocent as a cause of suspicion. Prov. 22:10

[21] A certain other one, concerning whom, because of his simulated simplicity, it was by no means believed, was stealing assiduously. And when many had lost many things, and the purloiner was not known; certain foreign Abbots came to a certain Chapter, which was being convoked for urgent causes, another thief simulating simplicity, about to go on to k Erfurt. He was present to the servants preparing the beds, and carefully noted where the things of the guests and the saddlebags should be put; and when it came to going to bed, approaching the cases considered beforehand, he purloined not a few coins of larger and rougher money. And so when there was a murmuring among the guests about the lost things, the complaint of the guests came to the venerable Lord Wernher the Abbot. But he, as he was a man quite modest, blushing more at the losses of strangers than his own, was wholly grieved. But those departing, he committed it diligently to his own for the inquiry of the thief. But his heart had confidence in the Lord, that the Martyr, caught he is driven away and afterwards hanged: whose birthday was at hand the next day, would in no way allow the thief of such things to lie hidden. As he hoped, it came to pass: for by the help of Blessed Trudpert, the thief was wonderfully enough found, and driven from the valley: and being found a second time with thefts, is again driven away: and elsewhere he perished by hanging, not desisting from his wretched habit: and the things which the aforesaid guests had lost are returned to them.

[22] A certain Parish priest, dwelling in the village of Wendelingen l, sent six of his parishioners, successively vexed by the heat of fevers, to the sepulcher of Blessed Trudpert, and received them healed. he is healed with six of his subjects, vexed by fever, For first one being cured through the Martyr, a second is seized with fever: the second escapes, and a third falls into fever after the second: and so gradually the same affliction passes down to the sixth; and by the counsel of the priest, visiting the memorial of the Saint, in the same order in which they had languished, they are freed. But last of all, fevers come likewise to the priest, The Parish priest of Wendelingen: and the vexation of limbs gradually ascends to his head; so that he who had already perceived the benefits of the soldier of Christ in his subjects, might also sense them in himself. For he, the seventh, fell into the sickness, and the seventh is cured by the Martyr, because, as the very number of those healed manifests (which, as a rod from the root of Jesse, that is, of fire, of burning love, and finally empurpled with rosy blood, as a flower from his root arose), the spirit of the Lord rested upon him, filling and adorning him at once with the sevenfold gift. We have briefly touched on a few of the miracles of the Saint: for if we should attempt to set forth with our pen and various sick persons: how many paralytics, epileptics, energumens, and others laboring under afflictions God by his merits has absolved, and still frequently absolves, we would, as was said, generate tedium for every reader, and would strive to enclose in number things innumerable. Let then all mother Church venerate King Christ in his soldier, and his soldier in turn in his King; but especially the inhabitants of this valley, which the Lord assigned to him as his dwelling while he lived: in which he consummated the contest of martyrdom, to which he committed the deposit of his precious body to be raised again, which awaits to be in the future brighter than the sun, swifter than the winds, and more subtle than the corporeal air. Let them not be sluggish in his honoring, nor sluggish in his worship: for the Saints do not need our honor, being crowned with perpetual glory and honor: but we rather need their honors; and so they who forget themselves forget; they who despise themselves despise them; but those who worship them, they protect and defend. Which, that it may more evidently be declared, we shall set down a certain example: which, though it was done by other Saints, yet men are taught by a similar example with similar attention the Saints require to be honored by us for our profit.

[23] There is, by the river Main m, a certain city called Aschaffenburg, in the jurisdiction and likewise diocese of Mainz, On account of 2 heads of the Ursuline Martyrs received, and a Convent of Canons in it. Some of them, going down to Cologne for the sake of pilgrimage, lest they should return with empty hands, bring home two heads of two of the eleven thousand Virgins slain there, obtained there from the Nuns of the same Virgins with many prayers. And so when the people and Clergy of Aschaffenburg had heard that the Relics of the Holy Virgins were being brought to them, the people of Aschaffenburg celebrated their feast: little ones with greater, gathered, they went out to meet the comers with melodious jubilation, as was fitting, receiving the skulls of the Martyrs reverently. Which having been received with exultation, and placed with cases upon the altar, they determine by common consent that the day of the Coming of such Relics should be venerated each year among the chief feasts, and God should be praised in concert with equal voices in their honor: which was also done for some time. But because the sons who are born and rise up seldom glow with that devotion with which their fathers did, the pious custom gradually began to fail, and the feast which for some years had been celebrated in the highest, came to be only on nine lessons, and soon after only three, and at length only to a single Antiphon; and with the fervor of devotion gradually extinguished, there was now no mention made of the Virgins. With whom now wholly brought into oblivion, the round of the year brought back the feast day on which the virginal relics had come, of whom now no one cared to have any memory whatsoever. The hour came: which being neglected and the Clergy entered the choir about to say Matins. When now the ferial Invitatory (as is usual on non-feast days) was being sung, with no mention of the Virgins, wonderful to say, behold two most beautiful Virgins come forth from behind the altar, 2 Virgins seen going out of the Choir, and standing in the middle of the clergy in the midst of the oratory, they bow, one toward the right Choir, the other toward the left, in the manner of one bidding farewell; then joined together, they go out the doors of the Choir, appearing no more to anyone. All who were present stand astonished: and for a long time no one considered who these virgins were or whence they had come. And there was a great silence in the choir: they look at each other with astonishment. Some at length of the elders, mindful of the feast day, and the relics are not found. perceiving the matter more prudently, with all who were present, approach the cases of the Relics: which being found empty, attested by the indication of the removal that the ungrateful possessors of such great a treasure would never receive the same back. n Holy therefore and salubrious is the thought of paying honor to the Saints on earth: who are protectors in heaven of those who honor them. Cultivate then, O inhabitants of this Valley and place, cultivate and love what you have, lest you be deprived of so great a Patron, but by him merit to be defended and protected before Him for whom he faithfully served as a soldier on earth, from whom he merited in heaven to receive a triumphal crown, who is blessed forever and ever. Amen.

NOTES.