CONCERNING ST. ETHELWOLD,
FROM ABBOT OF ABINGDON,
BISHOP OF WINCHESTER IN ENGLAND.
Year 984.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester in England (S.)
§ I. The writers of the Life, the cult from the Martyrologies, & from a deprecatory hymn.
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Although this our St. Ethelwold be by far the most illustrious, yet he is not the first of that name among the English prelates to merit the honors of the Saints; for our Elders gave [us] his namesake, the bishop of Lindisfarne, at the day 12 February. The illustrious restorer of the Church Further, he of whom we are to treat, the most celebrated prelate of Winchester, is illustrious especially by that character, title or prerogative, that he strove to restore the ancient ecclesiastical & monastic discipline, in his own age (namely the 10th, most corrupt) not without glorious success, two no less illustrious holy bishops laboring with equal piety & zeal, namely Oswald & Dunstan, whose most illustrious deeds have already long ago been illustrated on 29 February & 19 May. These, namely, the strongest vindicators of the collapsed regular discipline, with king Edgar cooperating chiefly (as Mabillon also observed), removed the abuses introduced into the Church, & recalled after the fact the monks of a stricter life into their former seats, whence they had been expelled, so that, these three men acting (witness William of Malmesbury book 2 On the Kings chapter 8), as by a triform light serenading the Church, the dense darknesses of vices vanished. We follow here Mabillon enumerating the writers who pursued the deeds of St. Ethelwold.
[2] First he himself, whose work is unknown to us, names Alfric of Abingdon, all the English writers praise; afterward abbot of Winchester, & later bishop, who twenty years after the Saint's death, he says, reported in a brief compendium the deeds performed by him, whose lucubration he found in the Ms. codex of Fécamp, but which he thought should be neglected, since a writer contemporary with him, anonymous—at least whose name was not prefixed to the Life—performed the same more luminously, whose Legend we report as received from the praised Mabillon, certainly to be preferred to those which from it Capgrave equally as Surius had either here & there contracted, or not a little altered. He then proves its age, & doubts not that the author of the whole said Legend was Wolstan, a monk of Winchester, the testimony of the same Malmesbury being adduced, as one who writes: His (namely St. Ethelwold's) Life a certain Vulstan, cantor of Winchester, namely his disciple & foster-son, composed in a middling style. All which he there shows at length to square most aptly with the Life, to be given by us below, even from the poetic genius of the author, as one who inserted some verses into the Life itself. He likewise cites others who treated of St. Ethelwold, whom you will find more distinctly recounted in him: few English at least, Catholic, I know, who did not make a most honorific mention of the marvelous Saint. We come to the sacred Fasti.
[3] but in the Martyrologies a more recent memory. With these we have formed the name, as it is commonly wont to be uttered, although the author of the Life to be given below calls him everywhere not Ethelwold, but Adelwold, others Athelwold & Ethelwald, others otherwise, according to the genius of the English tongue. But the Saint's memory is known among only the middle-age Martyrologists, & those few, so that the first who is known to have spoken of him is the author of the Usuard printed at Lübeck & Cologne, in these words: In England, of holy Edelwold bishop & confessor: for which Grevenus: In Britain, of Ethelwald bishop & confessor: Molanus further added; in the city of Winchester; whose acts Vultan cantor of Winchester wrote. The rest are monastic, as Wion, Dorganius & Menard, whose phrase is almost this: At Winchester in England, of holy Ethelwold bishop & confessor, most illustrious for sanctity & miracles. In the most ample recent collection of Martène tome 6 there exists an English Calendar in which on this day is marked St. Ethelwold. But in the place of all shall be for us the Roman Martyrology, announcing the Saint in this manner: At Winchester in England, of holy Ethelwold the bishop. But in the notes Baronius sufficiently intimates that he had only Molanus before his eyes to imitate, for the rest wrongly marking the year of the Saint's death 904, which in the Annals he rightly corrected, substituting the year 984, in which, as below we shall say, the most holy Bishop is judged truly to have died.
[4] The elogium of Wilson With a somewhat longer oration Wilson praises St. Ethelwold in his English Martyrology on this day, whose words sound thus in Latin: At Winchester in Hampshire, the deposition of St. Ethelwold bishop & confessor, who was first a monk in the monastery of Glastonbury, but afterward abbot of Abingdon, & at last was promoted to the episcopate of Winchester, which church, when he had governed it 21 years, illustrious for great sanctity of life & for miracles, he fell asleep in the Lord in the year of Christ 984, & was buried in the cathedral church of Winchester. This holy Man, in a time of famine, converted all the silver vessels pertaining to his church to the sustenance of the poor, saying: That the Church could be provided for again at an opportune time, but that the poor, who perished of famine, could not be recovered. Thus far the English Martyrologist, touching only in passing those things which, concerning the time of famine, the Legend at more length commemorates in its place, & other writers from it, marvelously proclaiming the Saint's surpassing charity in those extreme straits. With Wilson's words can be compared those which Edward Maihew expressed neatly enough in his English Trophies of the Order of St. Benedict, on the first day of August thus writing:
[5] At Winchester, of holy Ethelwold bishop & confessor, as also of Maihew: who was one of those most holy bishops who excellently restored the ecclesiastical & monastic discipline collapsed in England through the madness of the Danes, & the monstrous wars & persecutions, nay the monastic order almost extinguished. He at last, distinguished for sanctity, miracles, & many illustrious deeds, on this day migrated to the Lord. His Life first of all Wolstan a monk of Winchester wrote, his disciple & foster-son, as Malmesbury testifies, & those who composed treatises on ecclesiastical writers; whose epitome, as Molanus judges, in the annotations to the Martyrology of Usuard, exists in Surius tome 8 on the first day of August. A much longer elogium, or a compendium of the whole Life, Bucelinus composed; but lest more orations of this kind be here to be collected, what pertains more nearly to the cult, & will therefore be in the place of all, is the very elegant hymn which for us from his Uticensis or St. Évroul codex Mabillon described & published at the end of the Life under this title: Here begins a hymn published in honor of St. Adelwold the prelate, composed in elegiac & parenetic verse through the alphabet.
[6] The kindly lamp shines, & ministers light to the people, Prelate Adewold, the kindly lamp shines. & the hymn This warrior of God waged the victorious wars, Keen he rushes into arms, this warrior of God. From whose sacred mouth flowed the doctrines of life, We have drawn every good from whose sacred mouth. Sweet canticles let us resound to the Father with a pious heart, Let us sing sweet songs with a pious heart. Lo, the pontifical summit flashes for thee abundantly, Hence & thence, lo, thy summit flashes. The fount & origin of good ran forth, thou sowing the words, In thee flowed the fount & origin of good. Perpetual glory shall be thine now & therefore forever, Which thou deservedly retainest, perpetual glory shall be. For the love of this flock thou didst spurn the darts of death, Driving hence the strong, for the love of this flock.
Illustrious & powerful, king Edgar loved thee dearly, Thriving by thy admonition, illustrious & powerful.
[7] The camps of God resound, thou appointing the marching-chant, And the Davidic melody the camps of God resound. With innumerable praises the monastic throng applauds thee, in his praise And jubilates to thee with innumerable praises. The lofty walls of this house thy care had raised up, And, rejoicing, dedicated these lofty walls of the house. By night & day thou didst celebrate the sacred hymn of the heart, Discharging the sacred office by night & day. And in all places thou didst scatter the seeds of light, Thou hadst driven out the darknesses in all places. Be ever-watchful for thy foster-children, we ask, their defender, A protector for thy servants, be ever-watchful for thine. Cut away the things which harm, & furnish the things which are advantageous, Recall the things which are good, & cut away the things which harm. Happy ruler & doorkeeper of the apostolic hall, And ruler of this apostolic church,
[8] deprecatory. Loose thy servants, in Peter's stead, loose the bound, Loose us thy servants from our sins. Under thy leading, may we ascend the halls of star-bearing heaven, Partakers of the kingdom, under thy leading, of the star-bearing realm. In hymn-singing verses we compose these songs, & thee We cultivate as patron in hymn-singing verses. Since thou wast wont to multiply the Christ-worshiping souls, Recalling to the heavens the Christ-worshiping souls. Let the harmful hydra flee, lest it mock us through byways, Let thy right hand cover us, let the harmful hydra flee. Envy cannot harm, Christ overcoming the malignant one; Christ is present, victor, envy cannot harm. Look, holy Father, on the adversities which weary us, On the evils which rend us, look, holy Father. Be gently present to thy foster-children who serve thee, Who praise thee together, be gently present to thine. Rescue, Shepherd, the sheep which thou didst ever love in [thy] soul, And which thou hadst nourished, rescue, shepherd, the sheep. That Christ may note our names in the citadel of the heavens, And with his Saints may note our names. Amen.
§ II. The elevation of the sacred body, the Office & Mass.
Elevated not many years after his death, Mabillon, praised above more than once, in number 4 of his observations, thus pronounces roundly enough: The English church celebrated the memory of Ethelwold in sacred rites from the very time of his death, as, before others, the Mass here published makes attested, such as is had in the very ancient Ms. codex of Utica St. Évroul. That Mass, & some part of an Office of whatever kind, I gladly admit, but that they were celebrated from the very time of his death is not so probable, unless those words be understood suitably, so that not many years after his death his cult began to be observed, which was first begun from the elevation of the sacred body, through those centuries wont to be held in the place of canonization, as is demonstrated in almost innumerable places of our work. But the elevation itself various signs had preceded, moved by which the Saint's successor in the episcopate, Elfeah, honorably translated the relics of the holy prelate Adelwold on the 4th day before the Ides of September, as you have in the Life itself number 43. From that time, namely, the English—at least the Winchester—church celebrated the memory of St. Ethelwold, where the sacred remains, witness the same author of the Life Wolstan, are held in great veneration even to the present day: where also, we ourselves looking on, heavenly miracles have been wrought.
[10] & he began to be solemnly venerated. But at what time, & on what occasion, that celebrated elevation was made, the same author of the Life Wolstan number 42 records: In the twelfth year, he says, after the death of the glorious pontiff Adelwold, it pleased the supernal dispensation that he be revealed through heavenly signs, & his bones be lifted from the safeguard of the sepulcher: that the lamp, which for a time lay hid under the bushel, might be set upon the candlestick, so that it might shine for all who are in the house. He subjoins the marvelous apparition of the Saint himself, & the things which followed upon it. Here now, to the evidence of the most ancient cult, pertains that Mass of which we were just speaking, hymns & a prayer being premised, which seem proper to the Office itself, doubtless according to the received practice of the Winchester church, concerning which Mabillon had nothing to suggest; nor does anything else supply itself to us from elsewhere, we freely confess. And indeed, to prove that which here we chiefly intend, it will be enough to produce those things which in the Benedictine Acts are said to have been received from the above-said Utica codex. This title, I suppose, is prefixed to the Vespers of the Office: A vespertinal hymn published in Sapphic hendecasyllabic meter, containing the Adonic in the fourth place.
[11] Illustrious pastor & ruler of the people, Whose distinguished triumph we celebrate; Now Adelwold, joyful without end, Reigns among the stars.
Who was our father & master, Showing the documents of the sacred life, And ever striving to please God With a benign heart.
O holy, celebrated, glittering day, Which the loving-kindness of God consecrated for us, That we might deserve to bring forth for so great a father A kindly song.
Now with all effort let us beseech him, That he may piously wash away our guilt, And by his holy prayer lead us To lofty Olympus.
To God alone be honor & power, Praise in the highest, & perennial honor, Who, moderating all, governs The world by his laws. Amen.
Illustrious senator of heaven, holy father of the church, Adelwold, hear thy suppliant little servants. Now a star among the stars, thou shinest above the ether; benignly obtain for us the graces of the Paraclete. With prone minds we ask, here before thy limbs, be present to our prayers, serene & propitious. That, protected by thy needful patronages, we may come to the perpetual joys of the heavens, may the Unbegotten grant us this, & the Only-begotten, the Holy Spirit of both, three & one Lord. Amen.
Let us pray.
[12] O God, who by the illustration of the bright star, the holy pontiff Adelwold, hast granted a new light to shine forth for the peoples of the English on this present day: we suppliantly implore thy clemency, that we may be both informed by the examples & aided by the patronages of him by whose teaching we have known the documents of all religion. Through.
At Mass.
O God, who hast dedicated this present day, made honorable for us by the passing of thy blessed confessor Adelwold the bishop; grant propitiously, that by his intercession we may attain the joys of heavenly life, [we] who by his erudition are suffused with the light of thy truth. Through.
Secret.
May the annual solemnity of holy Adelwold our father the bishop, we beseech, O Lord, commend to thee as accepted the offered gifts of our servitude: that, fortified by his pious supplication, we may deserve to obtain the remission of all our sins, & the fellowship of everlasting blessedness. Through.
Preface.
It is truly worthy. Eternal God, since there is present to us the joyous & votive gladness of the present day, which thou hast consecrated—sublime by the honor of the apostolic summit, & solemn by the rosy blood of martyrdom—by the modern celebrity of the glorious pontiff Adelwold, & hast conferred on us the hope of so great confidence, that by his fatherly suffrages thou both loose us from the bonds of our sins & lead us to the heavenly kingdoms. Through Christ.
Postcommunion.
[13] Us, refreshed, O Lord, with the sacraments of vital nourishment, protect by the glorious intercession of thy holy confessor Adelwold, & grant [us] to come to the eternal banquet of the heavenly table. Through.
Another.
Govern thy flock, eternal Shepherd, by the defense of thy pious intercessor Adelwold our father, we beseech, O Lord; that we who, provoked by his benevolence, are fed with the sweetness of supernal love, may, by his intervening patronage, both be rescued from the disturbances of temporal life, & be inserted into the abiding joys of the citizens above. Through.
On the 4th day before the Ides of September. On the translation of holy Adelwold.
O God, who hast granted us thy holy pontiff Adelwold as a teacher of eternal salvation, grant propitiously, that we who observe the solemnities of his annual translation may ever be aided by his merits & prayers. Through.
Over the offering.
May the prayer of our holy father Adelwold the bishop commend our sacrifice to thee, O Lord, we beseech: that to us, he interceding, there may be a propitiation of thy holy majesty, & the longed-for remission of our sins. Through.
Preface.
Celebrating with pious veneration the votive translation of the blessed pontiff Adelwold, & entreating thee with bowed devotion, that we may feel that we have him as patron before thy clemency, whom, thy grace bestowing, we deserved to receive as master of eternal salvation. Through Christ.
Postcommunion.
That this communion may make us, O Lord, worthy of thee, may our blessed father Adelwold obtain by the suffrage, we beseech, of his pious intercession. Through.
On the peculiar Hours.
[14] Moreover the blessed father Adelwold instituted regular & peculiar Hours for himself for a singular service, which he arranged in three courses: with most humble diligence admonishing all his subjects, that by this secret service they should vigilantly resist the fiery temptations of Satan, & by resisting overcome them through the grace of God, & that the faith which through the incarnation of our Creator & most loving Redeemer shone forth clearer than light might, at the pressing time of the future persecution, which now in the neighboring times of Antichrist breaks in, in no way (which be far off) waver by tottering, but, strengthened by these divine proclamations, remain ever whole & inviolate. For the melody of the first psalmody is procured to the praise of the blessed Mother of God & ever-virgin Mary. But the second to the honor of the blessed Apostles Peter & Paul & of all serving presentially the humanity of our Savior. But the third for the asking of the suffrages of all the Saints, that, protected by their pious intercession, we may overcome the manifold deceit of the shape-shifting Antichrist & of his members &, Christ rewarding, deserve to receive the palm of the heavenly rewards: which Hours, namely, are had ascribed in very many places, & therefore are passed over in this little codex.
Tropes.
The votive day of the father is present, let us sing rejoicing. He established for him. The pontiff whom he consecrated for himself in this temple. And the prince. Among the apostolic hierarchs, with shining stole. That there may be to him. Adelwold, by pious prayer defend us wretched ones. Forever. Because the prelate Adelwold shone great in [his] order. He established for him. Constituting him today above the heights of the heavens. And the prince. Glory, splendor, honor, beauty & perpetual veneration. Forever.
§ III. Some chronological series of the chief deeds.
Concerning the age of St. Ethelwold Mabillon had nothing to arrange in chronological order; nor indeed is the matter obvious enough, Born about the year 908, Wolstan the author of the Life noting very few things, from which the rest are to be conjectured rather than determined. He records that the Saint was born in the times of Edward the elder, king of the English, who, since he reigned from the year 901 to 923, within that span the year is to be found in which he was more probably brought into the light: but since he is called aged 7, when, having reached the age of flourishing adolescence, he was summoned by king Æthelstan, son of the aforesaid king Edward, & spent much time in the palace, before he was consecrated to the grade of the sacerdotal order: further, since Æthelstan reigned up to the year 939, not incongruously can the Saint's nativity be referred to about the year 908, so that he attained the competent age for receiving the priesthood about the year 936 or 937; for king Æthelstan does not seem to have long survived the consecration, whom Edmund succeeded in 940, & him Eadred in 946, who began to have a great love toward the servant of God, & it pleased him, his mother persuading, to give the holy Man a place by the name of Abingdon, which certainly could not have happened before the already-said year 946, nor after the year 948, in which the Saint, now abbot, most certainly subscribed the Croyland privilege, in Ingulf page 874.
[16] This epoch, therefore, seems defined enough, namely that St. Ethelwold was promoted to the abbatial insignia in the year 947, whence Mabillon's notation page 612 is to be restored, Abbot of Abingdon 947: where, correcting the Monasticon Anglicanum, he says that he himself was ordained abbot of Abingdon, not in the year 954, which he rightly denies, but 944, in which it is certain that Eadred, or Edred, was not yet king, nor so could give Abingdon to the holy Man. From these things it is easily gathered how long St. Ethelwold tarried under the discipline of St. Dunstan in the monastery of Glastonbury, if you suppose that after the death of king Æthelstan he embraced the monastic life, & in that same monastery discharged the office of dean for some years. But what things were afterward done by him at Abingdon with the aforesaid king Eadred & later with Edgar, you have in the Life from number 11, until Edgar chose him for the episcopate of the church of Winchester, in the year of the Lord's incarnation 963, in which he was also consecrated by St. Dunstan, as there according to all the details the author of the Legend, Wolstan, describes it, immediately subjoining the expulsion from the Old monastery of the nefarious canons, for whom he substituted monks from Abingdon, just as the same writer pursues at more length from number 16: at last also the expulsion from the New monastery, number 20.
[17] 963 bishop of Winchester These were the first contests of the most holy Man, both of ecclesiastical & of monastic discipline, which I would not dare to assert happened in that very year 963, although in the Life itself they seem to be connected all but with the episcopal ordination; for that those disorderly concubinary or even wived canons & clerics could not so easily be expelled, the councils held for that reason sufficiently teach, & the Life itself, or the historical Collection on St. Edgar, published at 8 July tome 11, from which it is abundantly clear with how great efforts there was need before those tumultuous ones could be reduced to order. Here our Alford brings in, refuting the ineptitudes of Parker, what Huntingdon hands down concerning St. Ethelwold folio 356: In the fifth year of Edgar the peaceful, he says, Edelwald the venerable happily received the episcopate of Winchester. He, in the second year of his episcopate, ejected certain canons dwelling in the Old monastery of Winchester, & observing their order slothfully & negligently, & imposed monks. And a little below: Adelwald the excellent prelate was a builder of hedges, turning aside the paths of iniquity, & planting the roots of charity. For he himself was a sower of the best counsel. By whose admonitions king Edgar instituted new plantings, & shrubs of tenderness most pleasing to God. Let those things be seen which the praised Alford narrates more fully at the years 967, 968 & 969, where [is] Edgar's oration, of which there was treatment also on his natal day 8 July.
[18] he undertakes to purge his church. Further, how much that holy King contributed, how energetically & bravely he aided both St. Ethelwold & the other bishops to lead back into its former shape the English church, at that time depraved, there is no need here to repeat at length. This is established from number 18, that he himself sent a certain one of his ministers, who by royal authority should command the canons to choose one of two things: either without delay to give place to the monks, or to receive the habit of the monastic order. Aided, namely, by that powerful patronage, St. Ethelwold first, in his own episcopal city, plucked out the inveterate tares, then so kindled to other most illustrious works, that through the whole course of his life he seems to have had this chiefly at heart, to restore the churches overthrown by the Danish incursions, then especially the monasteries, & to lead them back to the norm of regular life. This the monastery of Abingdon, of which we have already treated, most luminously attests, then the Winchester Old & New, then indeed others which are enumerated in the Life itself; as number 23 that of Ely; number 24 that of Peterborough & of Thorney, & so many others which were established by his sedulous cooperation, the Servant of Christ going about the several monasteries, instituting morals, admonishing the obedient with words that they might advance in good; & sharply correcting the foolish with stripes, that they might depart from evil.
[19] Concerning the celebrated monastery of Ely there was treatment long ago by us in the Life of St. Etheldreda at 23 June: thence the monasteries of Ely & Thorney, but with how great effort, with how great expenses St. Ethelwold restored [it], destroyed & overthrown, besides those things which are said there & in the Acts, you have in Alford at the year 969 number 19. Concerning Thorney, Malmesbury is to be heard, On the Pontiffs book 4 folio 294: Thorney, he says, farther in writing, & more contracted in space, but prior in the title of praises, a semblance of paradise, which by its pleasantness may now image the heavens themselves: in the very marshes fertile of trees, which strive to the stars with knotless height: level plains, expanses, call the eyes with the greening tresses of the herbs; to those running through the field, no place is given to stumbling. Nowhere there, even a small portion of land, is idle. Here the earth subdues itself into fruit-bearing trees: here the field is bordered with vines; which either creep along the ground, or rise on high by carrying stakes. A mutual contest of nature & of cultivation; so that what the one forgets, the other produces. What shall be said of the beauty of the buildings, which the marvelous ground, it is marvelous how much, among those marshes sustains firm on unshaken foundations? A vast solitude given to the monks for quiet, that they may cling the more tenaciously to the things above, the more chastely they behold mortal things. A woman, if seen there, is held for a monster: to arriving males there is applause as if to angels. Truly I would say that that island is a lodging of chastity, a company of honesty, a gymnasium of the divine philosophers; Thorney called on account of the density of the thorn-bushes. Let the rest be seen there; but a charter for that monastery exists at the year 974 number 8.
[20] At the year 970 is produced a charter of king Edgar for Burch or Burg, but then he restores Peterborough 970. called Peterborough from the title of the holy Patron Apostle given to it, concerning which Ingulf also speaks folio 883: This holy bishop Ethelwold restored the monastery then devastated by the Danes, which was called Medeshamstede, & rebuilt, he named [it] Burg. And concerning the possessions acquired for that place from the fisc, he obtained from the aforesaid most pious king a charter of this kind, setting over that monastery as abbot a certain one of the monks, Adulph by name. Malmesbury praises the industry of St. Ethelwold, On the Pontiffs folio 291, when he says: That this most blessed Ethelwold constructed the monastery of Burch, with such elaborated expenses, & enlarged possessions, that almost the whole region lies subject to it. They venerate & cherish in [it] the relics of the bodies of two eminent virgins, Kineswitha & Kineswida, daughters of king Penda. Both from infancy dedicated to God, held to a noble purpose in intent. Better would he have named Kineburga, & abstained from the appellation of virgin. Do thou see, please, the things which concerning these Saints & concerning the Peterborough monastery itself were disputed fully enough at the day 6 March, tome 1, from page 441. Here pertains more what, from the opinion of writers, Alford subjoins: That St. Ethelwold, further, in his progress, either constructed monasteries anew in various places, or restored old ones, everywhere urging the worship of God & the institute of religious life.
[21] Further, what he obtained from the munificent successor of St. Edgar too—after king Edward the martyr—Ethelred, in favor of his New Winchester monastery, in the years 982 & 983, you will find more fully explained in Alford. He dies in the year 984. The rest of his most illustrious deeds, even in the time of the dire famine, the author of the Life confesses at number 37 cannot be narrated, although he himself enumerates very many, which, since they are recounted there, here there is no need to repeat. We proceed to the Saint's death, which Wolstan rightly recorded at number 41, not on the third day before the Kalends, as some erred, but on the very Kalends of August in the year 984, concerning which Cardinal Baronius treats of him at more length: let a brief elogium of him suffice for us, in Malmesbury On the Kings book 2 folio 56, where he praises the Saint almost hyperbolically. Thus it has: Athelwold, from a monk of Glastonbury, abbot of Abingdon, & likewise afterward bishop of Winchester, made so many & so great monasteries, that it now scarcely seems credible that a Bishop of one city should have done such things as the king of all England could scarcely [do]. I am mistaken, & sin by a headlong sentence, if what I say be not plain. How small are the monasteries of Ely, Burch, Thorney, which he raised up from the foundations, & perfected by his industry? Which, although the wickedness of exactors ever carps at them, are nonetheless sufficient for their inhabitants.
[22] His elogia, Here also Mabillon adduces Orderic Vitalis, of his History book 4 page 517, where thus he speaks: Then the monastery of Medeshamstede, which long before, in the time of Wulfhere king of the Mercians, Sexwulf the pontiff constructed, the prelate Adelwold, under king Edgar, restored, in the village which is called Burg; & the basilica published in honor of St. Peter, prince of the Apostles, he enriched with great wealth. Then the monasteries of Thorney, Ely & many others were built in many places: & convents of monks, or clerics, or even nuns, were skillfully placed in them. An abundance of revenues was largely imparted to the several monasteries, whence sufficient food & clothing might be administered to the contemplatives; lest, for the penury of necessary things, wavering somewhat in the divine worship, they should be broken. Thus in England the monastic order was renewed, &c. And these things, be it said once for all, are St. Ethelwold's glory altogether singular, proved by us thus far here, & through the whole course of the Acts. But whether he is to be numbered among the Writers, as Pits commended the Saint also under that name, I do not see whence I should dare to assert it safely enough. The praised Mabillon thinks that one or another little work can be ascribed to him; whether certainly enough, there is nothing whence it can be explored. Let him himself be seen in the preliminary observation number 5.
[23] What Acts are here given. Here now I shall subjoin the Acts themselves, having first warned that I had to follow Mabillon's edition, because I could not obtain the sincere & original ones from elsewhere; for those which exist in Capgrave & Surius, although it is clear enough that Wolstan went before them, yet in various places, as I said above, are either contracted, or extended, or changed. In the already-said edition the whole series is divided into 46 chapters, the list of which is subjoined after the preface, which we too have prefixed to the Life itself in the same order. But since that ordered distinction of chapters could not be divided conveniently enough into new numbers, after our manner, hence it came about that the several chapters, however unequal, correspond to just so many numbers; illustrated with marginal notes, & other observations, where they seemed necessary. To the Life itself Mabillon subjoined a poem of the same author Wolstan, or an epistle to Elfeah bishop of Winchester, prefixed to two metrical books on the Life & miracles of St. Swithun, with which, since those things are neatly enough adorned which in the Winchester monasteries, Old & New, were excellently performed through St. Ethelwold, we did not think that epistle should be passed over, whatever some things thence be described in the Life itself. But neglected is the epistle
—another, general, to the brethren who bear there the sweet yoke of the Lord; since scarcely a word occurs which can or ought to be referred to St. Ethelwold. Lo Wolstan's oration:
LIFE
by the author Wolstan, monk of Winchester, From the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, 5th Century, from page 608.
Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester in England (S.)
BHL Number: 2647
By Wolstan the monk.
PREFACE.
After Christ the Savior of the world appeared incarnate to the human race through the hall of the virginal womb, &, the ineffable dispensation of his loving-kindness & of our salvation being fulfilled, returned with the triumph of glory to the seat of the paternal majesty, he diffused throughout the whole world many luminaries of apostolic Doctors, who, suffused with the illustration of the evangelical faith, might drive away the blind darknesses of ignorance from human hearts, & might inflame the minds of believers with the fire of supernal love, &, the long hunger of enduring beggary being removed, might satiate the crowds of peoples with the banquets of eternal life. From whose college the blessed father & elect pontiff of God Adelwold, flashing like the morning star among the stars, appeared in his own times, & a founder of many monasteries & an instituter of ecclesiastical doctrines, among all the pontiffs of the English alone a singularly shone forth. Concerning whose birth, deeds & death, to those desiring to know we have judged it worthy to narrate some things, & lest the memory of so great a Father be utterly delivered to oblivion, those things which we ourselves, being present, saw, & which we learned by the faithful relation of the elders, we have summarily touched in these little sheets, trusting in his holy suffrages, that this will profit both us who have written, & those who are to read or hear.
NOTES.
ORDER OF THE CHAPTERS
in Mabillon's edition.
I. On the birth & times of the blessed Adelwold the bishop. II. On the vision of his mother's dreams. III. On the interpretation of those same dreams. IV. How the mother felt that the soul of the boy to be born had come, & had entered into him. V. How the boy, born & reborn in Christ, was on a certain day suddenly found in the church with his nurse. VI. How studiously & diligently, in his very boyhood, he gave his mind to the sacred studies of letters. VII. How, as a youth made known to king Æthelstan, he came to the clericate & priesthood. VIII. On the prophecy which the holy Ælfeah bishop of Winchester foretold concerning three priests. IX. How Adelwold came to Glastonbury, &, made a monk, how he there lived. X. On the death of king Æthelstan, & on the succession of his brothers to the kingdom of the English nation. XI. How, king Eadred favoring, the holy Man took up the care of the monastery of Abingdon, & was ordained abbot of that place. XII. That king Eadred came to the monastery, & the guests feasting the whole day, the liquor could not be exhausted. XIII. That, Edgar reigning, the temple of the aforesaid monastery was constructed & dedicated. XIV. On the ordination of Dunstan, & that abbot Adelwold directed Osgar the monk across the sea; & concerning a certain brother Ælstan, a simple man & of great obedience. XV. How the ancient enemy attempted to destroy the holy Man by the fall of a certain post. XVI. That king Edgar chose the holy Man for the episcopate of the church of Winchester. XVII. On the communion which the clerics sang, when the monks coming from Abingdon stood at the entrance of the church. XVIII. On the expulsion of the clerics from the Old monastery. XIX. How the holy Man drank poison, &, kindled with the ardor of faith, extinguished the draught of death. XX. On the expulsion of the clerics from the New monastery. XXI. That at Abingdon he appointed Osgar abbot. XXII. That in the monasteries of nuns he ordained nuns. XXIII. How in the province of the East Angles he regularly instituted the monastery of Ely with monks. XXIV. That in the province of the Gyrwas too he assigned in like manner to monks two monasteries, called Burgh & Thorney. XXV. On the familiarity of the holy Man with king Edgar. XXVI. On the revelation of the holy prelate Swithun, whom the holy father Adelwold on the day of the Ides of July translated with all glory, & thence placed in the church. XXVII. That also many other monasteries of monks & nuns were constructed & established through Dunstan & Adelwold in the English nation. XXVIII. How the holy Adelwold tempered the severity of discipline with the softening of gentleness. XXIX. How in a time of famine he rescued a multitude of the poor from the very jaws of death. XXX. That among these things the holy Man often endured infirmities of the bowels & a swelling of the legs. XXXI. That he ever held it sweet to teach the young. XXXII. On the flask of Chrism nearly empty, & found on a journey full of oil. XXXIII. On a monk who committed a theft, & what he suffered by the mere word of the Man of God. XXXIV. On a monk who fell from the highest summit of the temple, &, suffering nothing of harm, rose unharmed. XXXV. On a monk who presumed to liken himself to the Man of God in reading, what he suffered. XXXVI. On a candle which, the Bishop sleeping, lay burning upon the leaf of a book, & yet in no way injured the page. XXXVII. That not all the works of the virtues of the holy Man can be explained. XXXVIII. On a certain great tree laden with innumerable cowls, & on its interpretation, which had once been shown in dreams to holy Dunstan. XXXIX. On a vision of the Man of God in which there appeared to him a certain very great ship full of fishes & eels from the bottom to the top, which, being roused, were made men, & restored to their former reason. XL. On the new dedication of the Old church, which was made on the day of the 13th before the Kalends of November. XLI. On the death of the holy Father on the Kalends of August, & on his burial on the third day of the Nones of the same month. XLII. How the holy Man, before he was raised from the tomb, manifested himself to a certain townsman, named Elthelm [*], afflicted with great blindness. XLIII. On the translation of the holy Man, which was made on the day of the fourth of the Ides of September, & on the miracles performed at his sepulcher. XLIV. On the sick girl who there received health. XLV. On the blind boy who also there was given light. XLVI. On a certain bound thief, stretched in the stocks, who was loosed by the mere word of the Man of God.
Notes* elsewhere Elfhelm, number 42.
CHAPTER I.
On the Saint's miraculous birth, clericate, priesthood & monastic life at Glastonbury, whence he was made abbot of Abingdon.
The parents, then, of the holy pontiff Adelwold were sprung of the freeborn stock of Christians, townsmen of the city of Winchester, Of the pregnant mother flourishing in the times of Edward the elder a king of the English, faithfully walking without complaint in the commandments & justifications of the Lord. Who, while they abounded in daily increases of good works, were adorned with an eminent gift of God, whereby they deserved to beget such an offspring, by whose erudition & examples not only the peoples of the present age, but also of the future, might come to the knowledge of the true light: that, stripped of the mist of shadowy error, they might enjoy the glory of eternal brightness.
[2] And so his happy mother, when she bore him conceived in the womb, dreams saw at dead of night a dream of this kind, which was a certain presage of the future effect. For it seemed to her that she sat before the doors of her house, & that there was present to her gaze a certain lofty standard, whose summit seemed to touch heaven: which, bowing itself honorably to the earth, surrounded her, pregnant, with the veil of its fringes, &, again erected in tall height, & robust with inflexible stability, sought again the heaven whence it was bowed. But the woman, awakened, is again pressed down by sleep; & lo, suddenly she saw leap forth from her mouth & fly away, as it were, a golden eagle of marvelous size, which, flying, overshadowed all the buildings of the city of Winchester with the gilded oarage of its feathers, &, raising itself into the heights of the heavens, disappeared. And when the woman, waking, marveled with herself, astonished, & turned the vision of the dreams in her silent mind, nor could she by herself conjecture their interpretation; she went to a certain handmaid of Christ, named Edeldrida, mature in morals & age, who in the aforesaid city was a nurse of virgins devoted to God; to whom she narrated in order what had been shown to her in the nocturnal vision. But she, as she was most prudent of a sagacious mind, & sometimes also, the Lord revealing, foreknowing of things to come, foretold many things concerning the infant to be born, which the outcome of events showed to be true.
[3] & their interpretation. We too can be conjecturers of those same dreams, understanding in the lofty standard the holy Man, who was then carried in the womb, one day to be the standard-bearer of the warfare of God, as indeed he was; whom we saw contending with manifold resistance against the ancient enemy for the defense of holy mother Church, &, he warring, nay through him God conquering, we beheld the machinations of the wicked reduced to nothing. And because the eagle is named from the acuteness of its eyes, &, the sacred eloquence attesting, a desirable treasure rests in the mouth of the wise; rightly by the golden eagle, which was seen to overshadow the whole city with the veil of its wings, is expressed the same illustrious Man, adorned with all wisdom, who with a perspicacious & unreverberated edge of heart, meditating on divine things, ever flew to the heavenly things through contemplation, & over the Church, the city of the great King, which the contrary powers strove to assail, spread far & wide the shade of paternal protection, &, the course of the good contest being consummated, came to the vision of God in the company of the Saints, as in the Gospel it is said by the Lord's voice: Wherever the body shall be, thither shall the eagles be gathered together. Because where our Redeemer himself is in body, thither without doubt are now gathered the souls of the elect, & in the glory of the future resurrection thither also shall their bodies be gathered. These things concerning the interpretation of the dreams we have said briefly: now let us return to the order of the narration.
[4] The mother felt the infant animated. For on a certain day, when his mother, surrounded by the citizens, stood in the church, desiring to be present at the celebration of the sacred Mass, she felt that the soul of the boy whom she bore in the womb had come, & had entered into him at the nod of God moderating all things, as afterward the holy child himself who was to be born, now a bishop, rejoicing related to us. From which it is shown that he was chosen by God even before he was born, & that the soul of a procreated man does not, as some estimate, take from the father or from the mother its beginning of existing; but that, as truly & without all doubt it is believed, the vital spirit is vivified by the sole Creator, & given singly to each one. There is born, therefore, the future Pontiff of God, &, reborn in Christ at the font of baptism, was called Adelwold by his parents, & confirmed with the unction of the holy chrism, commended in all things to the grace of God.
[5] For it happened on a certain solemn day, when after the wonted
manner his nurse had determined to go to the church, Now born, he is found in the church with his nurse. & to lie upon prayer, so violent a tempest of overflowing rain burst forth, that beyond the threshold of the place, where holding the same Infant in her lap she had sat, she could not move her foot; who, while she wept most bitterly in grief, for that she could not fulfill the vow of pious devotion, humbly bowed her head, about to ask the almighty Lord, & forthwith deserved to be consoled by the divine compassion. For, feeling no annoyance of the stormy tempest, suddenly she was found sitting with the little Infant in the church which she was arranging to approach, where the priest was celebrating the solemnities of the Masses: & what by no reasoning she could have believed to be done, being done, she vehemently feared; & a stupor of great admiration invaded all who knew this miracle. For as a Prophet once was suddenly carried off from Judea, & set down in Chaldea with a meal; so the blessed boy Adelwold in a moment was presented with his nurse in the temple, that as that one refreshed at the fitting time Daniel the prophet in the lake of lions, so this one might feed thousands of peoples in the Church of the Saints.
[6] Therefore by daily advance the Boy of good disposition grew, Instructed in sacred letters, & soon in his very boyhood was handed over to the sacred studies of letters: that he who was to show others the way of salvation might himself, with Mary, sit humbly at the feet of the Lord, & salubriously hear the word from his mouth. For he was agile of nature & sharp of wit, so that whatever he had learned by the tradition of the elders he did not slothfully deliver to oblivion, but rather commended to tenacious memory. He strove also to conquer the tender years of boyhood by the honesty of morals & the maturity of virtues, ever to devote all his members to the divine services, & to direct the whole intention of his mind to fulfilling the will of God: & so, by living rightly, to render thanks for the gifts of Christ received [*], that he might deserve to be worthy to receive greater things.
[7] And when he reached the age of flourishing adolescence, soon he is ordained cleric & priest. the proclamation of his holy conversation was announced to king Æthelstan, son of the aforesaid king Edward, fame spreading it abroad, & he bade the youth be summoned in haste. Who, when, being led, he stood in the presence of the king, found grace in his sight, & in the eyes of his nobles: & there, spending much time in the palace in inseparable company, he learned from the wise men of the king many useful & profitable things for himself. And at last, the king commanding, by Ælfeah bishop of Winchester, according to the ecclesiastical custom, he was first tonsured to the office of the clericate, & then, a few courses of years slipping by, was consecrated to the sacerdotal grade.
[8] For that same father of blessed memory Ælfeah, among the other gifts of spiritual graces conferred on him, The marvelous prophecy of St. Ælfeah ordaining. was strong in the spirit of prophecy, & it happened that he ordained at that same time together Dunstan & Adelwold, & a certain one, Edelstan by name, who afterward, deserting the monastic habit, remained an apostate to the very end. But the celebration of the Masses being completed, the holy prelate Ælfeah thus addresses those clinging to him: Today before God I have laid hands on three men, & consecrated them into the order of the priesthood: of whom two will attain to the episcopal summit, one indeed first in the city of Worcester, then in Kent, which is the metropolis of the church of the English nation: but the other will one day succeed me in the dignity of the pontificate: but the third, through the slippery blandishments of pleasures, will waste away with a miserable end. Then Edelstan asked the holy prelate his kinsman, saying: Shall it befall me to be one of the two, who are to be exalted to the episcopal chair? To whom the prelate answered: There will be to thee no part nor lot in that order which I have foretold; but neither in that sanctity, which in the sight of men thou didst seem to have begun, art thou to remain. How truly the words of which prophecy were uttered, the outcome of the matter proved. For two (as Scripture says, Let the just be justified still, & the holy be sanctified still) came to the honor of the pontificate; but the third (according to the terrible menace of the former sentence, which says: He who is in filth, let him grow filthy still) ended his life in the stench of luxury.
[9] As a monk at Glastonbury he wondrously advances. But Adelwold the servant of Christ, benevolent in name, mind & deed, walking by the right journey the narrow way which leads to life, studied, God cooperating, to grow up by daily betterment, giving diligent effort to the doctrines & examples of Ælfeah his receiver & ordainer. For with him, the king commanding, that he might be the better imbued, he tarried for some time, & afterward, coming to Glastonbury, delivered himself to the discipleship of the magnificent man Dunstan, abbot of that same monastery: by whose mastery greatly advancing, at last he received from him the habit of the monastic order, & with humble devotion was given over to his governance. For there he learned the liberal skill of the art of grammar, & the honey-flowing sweetness of the metrical art: & after the manner of a most prudent bee, which is wont to seek out, flying about, the trees of good odor, & to lie upon vegetables of pleasant savor, he plucked the flowers of the divine volumes. He also studiously read the Catholic & renowned authors, moreover perseveringly insisting on vigils & prayers, & taming himself by abstinence, & ever exhorting the brethren to arduous things. Who, when for the merit of his sanctity he was loved by all, & was appointed dean of the monastery by his abbot, incurred no peril of elation, but afforded to his subjects an example of such great humility, that by the daily work of his hands he labored in cultivating the garden, & prepared for the brethren at dinner apples & vegetables of divers kinds: that after the spiritual refreshment of souls he might minister also the necessaries of bodies, ever retaining before his eyes that of the Lord: Whosoever will become greater among you, let him be your minister; & whoever will be first among you, shall be your servant, & that: The greater thou art, humble thyself in all things, & before God thou shalt find grace. These & other testimonies of Scripture committing to memory, by discipline he kept his subjects, & by humility guarded himself.
[10] His brothers dead, Eadred succeeding to the kingdom It happened meanwhile that the most victorious king Æthelstan, in the fourth year after he destroyed with the greatest slaughter the hostile army of the pagans, died, & that his brother Edmund took up in his place the helm of the kingdom. To whom, after six years & a half, cruelly slain, succeeded in the kingdom his brother Eadred, who was a special lover & defender of the Old monastery at Winchester, as those ornaments attest which, he commanding, were fabricated, namely a great golden cross, a golden altar, & the rest which with a lavish hand, benign, he directed thither to the honor of the blessed Apostles Peter & Paul, & bade to be preserved there eternally to the praise & glory of God. Who also, if life should be his companion, arranged to adorn the eastern porch of the same church of Winchester with gilded tiles. In the time of whose reign the man of the Lord Adelwold, still desiring to be taught with an ampler knowledge of the Scriptures, & to be more perfectly informed in monastic religion b, determined to go to the lands across the sea. But the venerable queen Eadgifu, mother of the mentioned king, forestalled his attempts, giving counsel to the king that he should not suffer such a man to go forth from his kingdom; moreover asserting that there had been in him so great a wisdom of God, which could suffice both for himself & for others, although for this cause he should by no means go to the borders of a foreign fatherland.
[11] Which heard, the king, delighted, began to have a great love toward the Servant of God, he commits to the Saint the monastery of Abingdon & it pleased him, his mother persuading, to give the holy Man a certain place, by name Abingdon, in which anciently [was] a small monastery; but it was then neglected & destitute, consisting of mean buildings, & possessing only forty hides: but the remaining land of the aforesaid place, which is encircled here & there by the tracts of a hundred hides c, subject to the royal dominion, the king himself possessed. And it came about, Dunstan the abbot consenting according to the king's will, that the man of God Adelwold took up d the care of the aforenoted place, that in it he might ordain monks regularly serving God e. There came, therefore, the Servant of God to the place committed to him: whom straightway followed certain clerics from Glastonbury, namely Osgar, Foldbirht, Friwegar, & Ordbirht of Winchester, & Eadric of London, subjecting themselves to his discipleship. And he gathered to himself in a short space a flock of monks; over whom he himself was ordained abbot, the king commanding. The king also gave the royal possession which he had held in Abingdon, that is, a hundred hides with the best buildings, to the abbot & brethren for the increase of daily sustenance, & from his royal treasury aided them much in moneys: but his mother directed to them more largely the solaces of gifts. And the Lord conferred so great a grace on those serving him, that to the aforesaid monastery, which before was most poor in things, all riches together were thought to flow, & thus all things met with prosperous successes, so that openly the promise of the Lord's sentence seemed to be fulfilled, by which it is said: Seek first the kingdom of God & his justice, & all things shall be added unto you.
NOTES.
* Should it not be "perceptis" (received)?
CHAPTER II.
On his deeds at Abingdon, whence, promoted to the Winchester fillets, he expelled the clerics, from whom he innocently drank the proffered poison.
The king honors Abingdon by his presence. The king came, then, on a certain day to the monastery, that he might himself arrange the structure of the buildings: & having measured all the foundations of the monastery with his own hand, according as he had decreed to raise the walls; the Abbot asked him to dine in the guest-house with his own. The king assented at once, & it happened that there were present to him not a few of his nobles coming from the nation of the Northumbrians, who all went with the king to the banquet. And the king, rejoicing, bade mead [*] a be poured out abundantly to the guests, the doors being diligently closed, lest anyone by fleeing should seem to desert the drinking of the royal banquet. What more? The ministers drew the liquor the whole day to every sufficiency for the feasters: but the liquor itself could not be exhausted from the vessel, save to the measure of a palm, the Northumbrians, in swine-like b drunkenness, withdrawing at evening with gladness.
[13] A temple is there constructed & dedicated. Yet abbot Adelwold did not begin to build the work designed for him in the days of king Eadred, because the same king quickly migrated from this life on the day of the 9th before the Kalends of December c. But, the glorious
king Edgar reigning, distinguished & most clement, most powerful & most invincible son of king Edmund, he constructed & completed in that same place an honorable temple in honor of the holy Mother of God & ever-Virgin Mary, which even to this day is shown better by sight than by speech.
[14] The praise of St. Dunstan, & of simple obedience. About these times abbot Dunstan is chosen for the episcopate of the church of Worcester, according to the prophecy of the holy bishop Ælfeah, as we touched above. And after some courses of years, made archbishop, he remained in Kent thirty-seven years, like an immovable column, chief in doctrine & action, comely with an angelic countenance, prevailing in almsgiving & prophecy: at whose tomb we have heard that heavenly miracles are often wrought. But Adelwold sent Osgar the monk across the sea to the monastery of the holy father Benedict at Fleury, that he might there learn the customs of regular observance, & at home show them to the brethren by teaching; so that he himself, following the norm of monastic religion, & together with those subject to him avoiding all deviations, might lead the flock committed to him to the promised fatherland of the heavenly kingdom. In which congregation was a certain brother, Elfstan by name, a simple man & of great obedience, whom the abbot bade to provide the victuals of the workmen of the monastery, to which service subjecting himself most devoutly, he cooked flesh daily, & sedulously ministered to the workmen, kindling the fire & carrying water, & of his own accord cleansing the vessels anew, the abbot supposing that he performed this with the solace & help of another minister. For it happened on a certain day, while the abbot after his wonted manner went through the monastery, that he beheld that brother beside a boiling cauldron, in which he was preparing victuals for the workmen; & entering, he saw all the vessels most clean, & the pavement swept; & he said to him with a cheerful countenance: O my brother Elfstan, this obedience thou hast stolen from me, which, I not knowing, thou exercisest. But if thou art such a soldier of Christ as thou showest thyself, put thy hand into the boiling water, & draw out for me energetically one morsel from the bottom. Who straightway without delay, putting his hand to the bottom of the caldron, drew out the boiling morsel, not feeling the heat of the boiling water; which seen, the abbot bade the morsel be laid down, & this to be indicated to no living person. But that brother we afterward saw ordained abbot, who also then, exalted with pontifical honor, was set over the church of Wilton, & with a blessed end was consummated in the Lord.
[15] For the holy Adelwold was a great builder of churches & of divers works, Escaped from great peril both while he was abbot, & while he was bishop. Whence the common adversary stretched out for him the wonted ambushes of his malignity, that he might, if by any means he could, destroy him. For on a certain day, while the man of God labored in the structure, a huge post fell upon him, & cast [him] into a certain pit, & broke almost all his ribs on one side; so that, unless the pit received him, he would have been wholly shattered.
[16] Yet the holy Man recovered from this trouble, by the aid of the grace of almighty God, He is ordained bishop of Winchester in the year 963. & Edgar, the most fortunate basileus of the English, chose him for the episcopate of the church of Winchester, before the church of the aforesaid monastery was dedicated. And, the king commanding, Dunstan archbishop of the church of Canterbury consecrated it, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation nine hundred sixty-three, on the day of the third before the Kalends of December, on the vigil of St. Andrew the Apostle, which was then held on the first Sunday of the Advent of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ. But there were then in the Old monastery, where the pontifical chair is held, canons implicated in the nefarious morals of crimes, forestalled by elation & insolence & luxury, so much that some of them disdained to celebrate Masses in their order, repudiating the wives whom they had unlawfully married, & taking others, continually given to gluttony & drunkenness. Which the holy man Adelwold by no means enduring, license being given by king Edgar, most swiftly expelled the detestable blasphemers of God from the monastery; & bringing monks from Abingdon, placed them there, of whom he himself was both abbot & bishop.
[17] But it happened on the Saturday at the head d of Lent, while the monks coming from Abingdon stood at the entrance of the church, The monks summoned from Abingdon [as] the clerics were finishing Mass, singing the Communion: Serve the Lord in fear, & exult unto him with trembling: lay hold of discipline lest you perish from the just way: as if they should say: We were unwilling to serve God, nor to keep his discipline; do you at least do it, lest, like us, you perish from the way, which to those keeping justice makes the heavenly kingdoms be opened. Which heard, the brethren rejoiced, understanding that their journey was prospered by the Lord, & that by the nod of God this psalm had been chanted on account of their presence, & soon they drew to themselves the Davidic command, Osgar exhorting them & saying: Why do we tarry outside? Let us do as the canons exhort us, let us enter, &, walking by the way of justice, let us serve the Lord our God with fear & exultation, that when in a little his wrath shall have blazed, we may deserve to be partakers of those concerning whom it is subjoined: blessed are all who trust in him.
[18] the clerics being dissolved, he substitutes [them.] The king also sent thither to the Bishop a certain one of his ministers, most famous, whose name was Vulfstan Ætdelham e, who by royal authority commanded the canons to choose one of two things, either without delay to give place to the monks, or to receive the habit of the monastic Order. But they, terrified with excessive dread, & execrating the monastic life, the monks entering, straightway went out: yet nevertheless afterward three of them came to conversion, namely Eadsin, Vulsin, & Wilstan the presbyter, who, seeking again with a humble heart the monastery which, expelled, they had left, subjected their necks to the yoke of Christ. For hitherto in that tempest there were no monks f in the English nation, except only those who tarried at Glastonbury & Abingdon.
[19] He innocently drinks the proffered poison, Then, when the aforesaid Brethren in the Old monastery had begun to keep the norm of regular life, & thither many, converted to the service of God, flocked—old men converted, young men brought in, & little ones offered—out of the envy of the clerics poison was given to the Bishop to drink, dining in his hall with guests, & showing them all humanity; so that, he being destroyed, they might expel the servants of God, &, again gathered into one, might freely enjoy their former disgraceful deeds. For it was his custom, straightway after three or four morsels, to drink a little something: & he drank, unknowing, the poison brought to him, all that was in the cup, & straightway his face was changed into pallor, & his bowels were exceedingly tormented by the force of the invading poison. But he rose, scarcely going out from the table to his little bed, & the poison crept through all his members, now menacing him with impending death. But he at last, reconsidering, began to reproach himself, & said to his soul: Where is now thy faith? Where are the thoughts of thy sense? Are not the words of Christ true & faithful, by which in the Gospel he promises, saying: And if believers shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them? Is not he himself who speaks these things present in divinity, though absent in body? He himself without doubt, he himself can evacuate this venom of the poison in thee, who always can do all things. By these & such words the faith being kindled in him, he extinguished all the death-bearing draught which he had drunk, &, the pain of the raging poison being put to flight, he rose, going to the hall with a cheerful countenance, showing to those beholding him no signs at all of pallor, nor rendering anything of evil to his poisoner, but pardoning him what he had transgressed. And so by the power of God the malignant counsel of the clerics was dissipated, who, seeing their wickedness to prevail nothing, were for so long a time dispersed hither & thither through the divers provinces of the English nation, until they ended their life.
[20] & he expels the clerics also from the New monastery. Thereupon the eagle of Christ, the prelate Adelwold, spread his golden wings, &, king Edgar assenting, expelled the canons from the New monastery, & introduced thither monks regularly living. And Edelgar his disciple he ordained abbot over them, who afterward was bishop of the province of the South Saxons, & then, St. Dunstan being translated to the heavenly kingdoms, was made archbishop of Canterbury.
NOTES.
* elsewhere "medonem."
CHAPTER III.
Other illustrious deeds, especially in erecting & restoring various monasteries; on the translation of St. Swithun, & on his surpassing charity in the time of famine.
But at Abingdon he appointed Osgar in his stead as abbot, He substitutes an abbot at Abingdon, & that place was enriched with six hundred & more hides, moreover propped with privileges of eternal liberty, drawn up by divine & royal authority together: which, sealed with golden plates, are preserved there to this day.
[22] In the third Winchester monastery too, which in English is called Nunnaminster, & he reduces the nuns to order. consecrated to God in honor of the ever-Virgin Mary, he ordained folds a of nuns, over whom he set the mother of whom above we touched a little, Etheldrida, where the norm of regular life is observed to this day.
[23] And not only in the borders of the West Saxons, but also in the remote parts of Britain, He regularly institutes the monastery of Ely the holy prelate Adelwold took care to gather monks to the service of almighty God. For there is a certain famous region situated in the province of the East Angles, surrounded with marshes & waters in the manner of an island, whence also from the abundance of eels which are caught in those same marshes, it received the name Ely, in which region a place is held worthy of all veneration, magnified indeed by the relics & miracles of St. Etheldrida b the queen & perpetual virgin & of her sisters: but at that time it was destitute & given over to the royal fisc. This place, then, the servant of Christ, for the love of so great virgins, began greatly to venerate, &, a price of no small money being given, bought it from king Edgar, establishing in it a flock of monks not the least. Over whom he ordained as abbot Brithnoth his provost, & renewed the site of that place most decently with monastic buildings, & most abundantly endowed it with possessions of lands
enriched, & confirmed with a privilege of eternal liberty, he commended to the almighty Lord.
[24] Another place too in the region of the Gyrwas he obtained by a price from the king & the nobles of the land, situated on the bank of the river Nene, on which the tongue of the English once imposed the name Medeshamstede c, but now it is commonly called Burh, of which place the basilica, adorned with fitting structures of buildings, then Burg & Thorney too he assigns to monks, & copiously enriched with adjacent lands, he consecrated in honor of blessed Peter prince of the Apostles, & there in like manner gathered together a troop of monks. And Ealdulf his monk he set over them as abbot; who, after the departure of the lord Oswald the pontiff, took up the archbishopric of the church of York. A third place likewise he acquired by a price, situated beside the brink of the aforesaid river, which, on account of the thorn-thickets growing up round about, is by the wonted English word called Thorney d, which by like condition he assigned to monks as most fit. And as governor & abbot he set over them Godeman, & the monastery being constructed, he dedicated [it] in honor of the Mother of God & Virgin Mary, & joyfully enriched [it] with the possession of all goods.
[25] everywhere powerful in work & word. But the man of God Adelwold, mightily prevailing in word & work in the secrets of the illustrious king Edgar, dedicating churches in very many places, & everywhere preaching the Gospel of Christ, according to the admonition of the prophet Isaiah saying: Cry, cease not; like a trumpet lift up thy voice, & announce to my people their crimes, & to the house of Jacob their sins.
[26] He translates the relics of St. Swithun, Whose preaching the holy prelate Swithun especially aided, at that same time declared by heavenly signs, & most gloriously translated within the royal precinct of the temple, & most decently placed e. And therefore twin luminaries shone together in the house of God, set upon golden candlesticks: because what Adelwold preached by the salutary exhortation of words, this Swithun, by the glorious exhibition of miracles, to the praise of the name of Christ, marvelously adorned.
[27] & with St. Dunstan he constructs various monasteries. And so it came about, the king consenting, that partly by the counsel & action of Dunstan, partly by the sedulous cooperation of Adelwold, monasteries were everywhere in the English nation established, some for monks, some for nuns, under abbots & abbesses regularly living. And the servant of Christ Adelwold went about the several monasteries, instituting morals, admonishing the obedient with words that they might advance in good, & sharply correcting the foolish with stripes, that they might depart from evil.
[28] The Saint's severity seasoned with gentleness, For he was terrible as a lion to the disorderly & perverse; but to the humble & obedient he showed himself as a most gentle lamb, so tempering the severity of serpentine prudence, that he did not lose the gentleness of dove-like simplicity. Whom, if ever the zeal of rectitude compelled to impose the laws of discipline on his subjects; that very fury proceeded not from cruelty, but from love; & within he loved with fatherly affection those whom without, as if pursuing, he chastised. He was father & shepherd of monks, ever-watchful procurator of nuns, & protector of virgins; consoler of widows, receiver of pilgrims, defender of churches, corrector of the erring, refresher of the poor, helper of orphans & of the fatherless; which he fulfilled more by work than our littleness could unfold in speech.
[29] but his surpassing charity toward the wretched in the time of famine. For it happened at a certain time that a bitter famine vehemently pressed the whole region of Britain, & the magnitude of want destroyed very many with dire slaughter. But the man of the Lord, pitying the crowd of those perishing by strong famine, expended every portion of money which he had for the uses of the poor. And when money failed, he bade all ornaments & very many silver vessels be taken from the treasuries of the church, & ordered them to be broken up piecemeal, & reduced into moneys. With an inmost sigh of the heart he thus protested that he could not equanimously bear that mute metals should remain whole, but that a man, created to the image of God, & redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, should perish by beggary & hunger. Food therefore being bought, he sustained an innumerable multitude of the needy, who, desiring to escape the peril of famine, had fled to him from every side: & those who lay half-dead in the streets & crossroads destitute of all solace, he relieved by refreshing, snatching the wretched from the very jaws of death, offering also daily victuals to each: until the mercy of God from heaven looked upon the earth, &, succoring the human race with its wonted loving-kindness, tempered the evil of want. In which work of piety he followed the imitable example of blessed Lawrence the levite & martyr, who, the time of persecution impending, dispersed the treasures & goods of the Church & gave to the poor, that his justice might remain unto the age of the age, & his horn be exalted in glory.
NOTES.
CHAPTER IV.
Amid continual infirmities he grows illustrious by various marvelous signs, even by prophecies & visions.
But because the Lord, as Scripture says, whom he loves, he chastens, & scourges every son whom he receives; Even amid his infirmities the Man of God was frequently infirm in the bowels, & endured a disease of swelling in the legs. For the most part he passed the nights sleepless from pain; & in the day, though pallid, yet he walked as if healthy & feeling nothing of trouble, mindful of the apostolic consolation, by which it is said: For virtue is perfected in infirmity, & again: For when I am infirm, then am I stronger & powerful, & again: Gladly will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. And although he was struck with sharp trouble, yet he by no means used the eating of the flesh of quadrupeds or birds, except once, the greatest infirmity compelling, for three months (which he also did at the command of Dunstan the archbishop;) & again in the infirmity in which he died.
[31] For it was sweet to him ever to teach adolescents & young men, & to construe Latin books for them in English, & to hand down the rules of the art of grammar & of the metrical art, he continues to teach. & by pleasant discourses to exhort to better things. Whence it came about that very many of his disciples became priests, & abbots, & honorable bishops [*], some even archbishops in the English nation.
[32] The flask of chrism marvelously refilled. It pleased among these things almighty God, that it should be shown also by a heavenly sign that it was well-pleasing to him to dwell in his Saint. For when the sacred Prelate made a certain journey, that in the Lord's field he might scatter the seed of the word of God; it happened that his cleric, to whom the holy chrism had been assigned a, had received less oil than necessity demanded, & had lost on the very journey this little which he had received. And when the Servant of Christ had come to the destined place, after the celebration of Mass, & after the sweet discourses of holy preaching, he bade oil according to custom be presented to him for confirming the boys. But the cleric, who supposed that he was carrying the flask with him, suddenly recognized that he had lost it. Troubled, therefore, most swiftly he retraced the way whence he had come, & diligently looking about here & there, he found the flask of chrism lying in the way full of oil, half of which a little before had had any liquor at all. Which taken up, with fear & great joy he returned, satisfying the holy Prelate, & disclosing by a truthful relation the miracle of the heavenly dripping. Which is proved to have been done at the nod of God, that he who was suffused with the grace of the Holy Spirit, & by whose unction the hearts & faces of many were gladdened, should himself be remunerated not only inwardly, but also outwardly with the oil of supernal gladness.
[33] The stupendous punishment of the thieving monk, A certain monk lived under his mastery, who by demonic instinct perpetrated the guilt of theft. Whence also a great sadness of grief invaded the whole congregation, while each subject thought it was done by another brother, which he without doubt knew that he himself had by no means done. For which matter the holy Prelate in the assembly of the brethren commanded a modest correction, that if anyone were conscious to himself of that theft, he should as quickly as possible restore, with God's blessing, the thing which he had taken away, or should throw it in such a place where it could be found. But that brother hardened himself with obstinate heart, & neglected to keep the command of the Man of God. So, three days & three nights being passed, when the stolen thing was by no means found, the holy man spoke in chapter before the whole multitude of the brethren, with terrible indignation & menace saying: That sacrilegious one was unwilling to restore the money which he stole with a blessing as we commanded; let him now restore it with the malediction of almighty God, & let him himself be bound not only in soul, but also in body by our authority. What more? The brethren said, Amen; & lo, that monk, sitting, was invisibly bound, his arms clinging to each other under his cowl, & he remained stupefied, thinking what he ought to do. Yet he had all his other members movable & apt for use, except the arms, which the holy man, by the authority conferred on him by God, bound, & rendered useless. At last, the chapter finished, that wretch, so bound, rose, &, going out after the holy Bishop, confessed to him secretly that he had been guilty, & had perpetrated the guilt of robbery; yet indicating to him nothing of the binding by which he was held fast. But the Bishop, seeing him seized with excessive terror, as it was his custom clemently to pardon the penitent & weeping, & to condole with bowels of mercy, answered with a bland discourse: Now at least thou hast done well, though late, in confessing thy sin: have now our blessing. And straightway his arms were loosed, the Bishop not knowing. But he, going out thence, greatly rejoiced, & narrated in order concerning his binding & loosing to a certain brother, named Vulfgar [*], who admonished that this should rather be concealed in silence, & disclosed afterward at a fitting time. From which matter it is given to be understood of what merit that Man was before the Lord, who by mere word showed so great power, though not knowing. For because he faithfully & morally guarded the pastoral care of holy governance, assuredly he obtained the office of blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, in binding & loosing.
[34] Therefore, when the Man of God had with great effort determined to renew the old church, & the safety of another fallen from on high, he bade the brethren frequently insist on the labors together with the craftsmen & workmen; while these labored in rivalry, the work of the building gradually grew up on high, propped here & there with very many oratories, in which the suffrages of the Saints are venerated, to profit all faithfully approaching. But it happened on a certain day, while the brethren stood at the highest summit of the temple with the masons, that one of them, Godus by name,
fell from the heights even to the ground. Who, as soon as he touched the earth, rising unharmed stood, suffering nothing of harm from so great a fall: & he blessed himself with the sign of the cross, marveling what he was doing there, or how he had come thither. And, all who were present looking on, he ascended to the place where before he had stood; & taking the trowel, he insisted more diligently on the work which he had begun. To whom, then, is this miracle to be ascribed, save to him by whose command he went out to the work of obedience? who therefore could not be hurt, because in his fall he carried the merit of the Man of God, & [it] protected him unharmed from the peril of the fall.
[35] At a certain wintry time, when the brethren, according to the edict of the rule, rose earlier to the vigils, & the rashness of a third deservedly chastised. & during the nocturnal interval attended to psalmody & reading; a certain monk, Teodric by name, went to the Man of God, wishing to indicate to him by signs concerning a certain need, & found him holding the candlestick of the light in his hand & reading, & with sedulous agility of the eyelids sharpening his aged gaze: & there he stood a good while, attending how studiously he fixed his eyes on the page. At last the holy Man rose from reading, & that brother, sitting down, took the candle, & began to read, testing whether he too could sharpen his sound eyes to reading as diligently as he had seen the Bishop sharpen his dimming ones. But that rashness did not befall him unpunished. For the following night, when he had given his members to sleep, there appeared to him a certain one, of unknown countenance, with terrible menace saying to him: By what rashness didst thou presume to reproach the Bishop in reading last night! And when, trembling, he denied that he had done this, that one, gazing on him with grim eyes, said: Thou canst not deceive me by feigning, as thou supposest: but have this sign of thy presumption. And saying these things, he violently struck a blow at his eyes with his finger, & straightway a strong pain of the eyes followed, which for many days vehemently afflicted him, until by satisfaction he blotted out the fault which he incautiously committed against the holy Man.
[36] Likewise it happened, when the Servant of Christ at a nocturnal time gave attention to reading, The book unharmed by a burning candle. that from too great watchfulness he fell asleep, & the burning candle fell from the candlestick upon the book in which he had read, which lay burning upon the leaf so long, until one brother, named Leofred, came; who hastily took the candle, still flaming, from the book, & gazing beheld the sparks of that candle lying along many lines, & blowing them off, he found the page unharmed. In which matter the merit of the holy Man appeared, because the flame consumed the burning candle, & lost so much of the force of its power that it should not injure the page.
[37] All the deeds of the Saint cannot be explained. These things, Christ bestowing, we have briefly reported, that we might incite both present & future faithful to the love & reverence of so great a Father with humble devotion. For the rest, it does not easily occur to us to explain how great or of what kind were the perils which the holy Adelwold sustained for the defense of the monks, or with how benign an affection he loved the studious & obedient brethren, or how much he elaborated in the structure of the monastery in repairing the church, & building other houses; or how ever-watchful he was in prayers, & how devoutly he exhorted the brethren to the remedy of Confession, or how many thousands of souls he withdrew from the devil, &, rendered to God, brought them into heaven. But from these few things more can be known, which cannot be narrated by us b.
[38] A tree of cowls having been seen For it behooved that dream to be fulfilled which that sacred Dunstan, the glorious & angelic archbishop of the English nation, once reported that he had seen concerning him. For when he was abbot of the monastery of Glastonbury, & under his governance the servant of almighty God Adelwold served, as we narrated above, he saw in dreams, placed outside the dormitory, as it were a certain tree of marvelous height, which was seen to spread its branches to the east & west, north & south, over the whole region of Britain, extended in vast length & breadth, whose tree's branches were laden with innumerable cowls, greater & lesser, but the tree itself on the highest peak bore one very great cowl, which, overtopping the rest with the covering of its sleeves, protected the others, &, surpassing all with huge height, touched heaven itself. But the man of the Lord Dunstan, vehemently astonished at such a vision, asked the presbyter, adorned with angelic locks, who showed these things to him, saying: I ask, venerable elder, what is this robust & sublime tree, whose branches, spread far & wide, are seen to sustain so innumerable cowls? To whom he answered: This tree which thou seest, abbot Dunstan, designates the site of this island: but the great cowl, which is erected on the top of this tree, is that of thy monk Adelwold, who in this monastery devoutly serves Christ; but the remaining cowls, with which these branches are seen laden, designate the multitude of monks, who are to be instructed by his erudition, & to be gathered from every side in this region to the service of almighty God; & by his leadership they are to come to the glory of the kingdom of the heavens, & to the fellowship of the blessed spirits reigning with Christ. Which answer received, the holy man awakes, considering the vision silently with himself, & afterward indicating it to the faithful by a faithful relation. Which, in succeeding time, fame spreading it abroad, became known to many, & at last came also to the notice of our littleness.
[39] & a ship laden with fishes, turned back into the form of men. Nor less did another dream behove to be fulfilled, which the man of God himself, holy Adelwold, on a certain occasion reported to us concerning himself, saying: I thought I stood beside the shore of the sea, where there seemed to me to be present a certain very great ship, in which a copious multitude of fishes, & especially of eels, was held enclosed, from the bottom to the top. And when I silently thought with myself what this dream which I saw might mean; suddenly I heard a voice calling me by my name, & saying to me: Adelwold, Adelwold, this command has been sent to thee from heaven by God. Rouse these fishes, with which this ship which thou seest is filled, & by thy prayers bring it about that they be men, as before they were. To whose command soon obeying, I stood for them at prayer, &, suffused with a shower of tears, groaning I said: Lord Jesus, to whom nothing is impossible, look propitiously on the souls deceived by diabolical fraud, which are alienated from the sense of human reason, & in a bestial manner are miserably involved in the slippery mire of this age. Permit not, I beseech, good Jesus, that the enemy of the human race, triumphing, glory over them; but through the omnipotence of thy holy name let them be raised again to life, that, escaping the sleep of eternal death, they may know thee the true & only Savior of the world, & thereafter, ever fleeing to the tranquil port of thy salvation, may exist immune from all the disturbances of the world, & remain secure under thy governance. For it is thine, O Christ, to vivify the dead, & to reform thy image, which thou hast created, into its former beauty, thou who camest into this world to save sinners; &, having suffered the dire punishments of death on the cross, didst deign to pour out thy precious blood for the salvation of us all. When these & like words of prayer, with compunct heart & spirit of humility, I poured out, lo, those whom before I had seen as fishes involved in the mud of dregs & in the lake of misery, I suddenly see made men & raised from death: & there rose from the ship & went in haste to the land a copious multitude of men, of whom I specially recognized many: among whom one, falling backward, was again turned into an eel, namely that Adelstan who once had been ordained presbyter with me, whom thereafter in no way could I rouse, nor make that he should become a man. But all the rest unanimously lifted their voice to heaven, clapping their hands, & rendering thanks to almighty God, because through his ineffable clemency, & through the coming of my littleness, they deserved to be recalled from death to life, & restored to the human reason which they had lost. But I, rejoicing in the Lord, & congratulating them, awake; & this vision I therefore report to you, O my little sons, that you also, with the cultivation of good works, may persevere in the holy purpose, whereby, through the grace of God, you may be able to be reckoned in the number of those who are committed to me, though unworthy, that they may be freed from the miry gulf of this age & saved without end in eternal blessedness. These things which we have noted were indeed then seen as dreams: but from that time to this day they cease not to be fulfilled, while all, fervent with divine love, hasten to leave the world, & to lead the monastic life; & while all the common people are busy to turn aside from evil, & to do good, & humbly to subject their necks to Christ the King of kings: so that both monks & laymen together, following the footsteps of the holy father Adelwold, may deserve to obtain the everlasting joys of the heavenly kingdom.
NOTES.
* read "episcopi" (bishops). * elsewhere "Vulfaro."
CHAPTER V.
On the dedication of the church of the Old monastery, the Saint's death, & the many miracles that followed thereupon & after the elevation of the sacred body.
In the year 980 the church of the Old monastery is dedicated In the year of the Lord's Incarnation nine hundred eighty, the church of the Old monastery was renewed & constructed, nine Pontiffs solemnly & with great glory dedicating it a, of whom the first & chief held the citadel: Dunstan the archbishop, & the holy Adelwold the bishop himself, on the day of the 13th before the Kalends of November, in the presence of king Ethelred, & in an assembly of almost all the dukes, abbots, counts, & chief nobles of the whole English nation, who celebrated the same dedication for two days with all joy; concerning which we too, congratulating in the Lord, sang this poem:
Prelate Adelwold, full of the sacred breath, rejoicing made many works pleasing to God. He repaired also the halls of this ancient temple, with lofty walls & new summits, strengthening it on the parts of the South & the parts of the North, with solid porticoes & various arches. He added also more chapels to the sacred altars, which keep a doubtful entrance of the threshold. So that whoever walks these halls with unknowing feet knows not whence he goes, or whither he brings back his foot. Because on every side the doors are seen open, nor does any sure path of the way lie plain to him. Standing, he leads his wandering eyes hither & thither, & marvels at the Attic roofs of the Daedalian floor. Until a surer guide comes to him, & leads him to the threshold of the outermost vestibule. Here, marveling with himself, he signs himself with the cross, & whence to go out, with astonished breast he cannot know. So the structure, thus built, glitters, thus varied it flashes, which sustains the old church.
Which that pious Father, filled with the highest piety, to the praise of the name of the high-thundering Lord, propped, roofed, endowed, & consecrated it, & deserved to discharge the vows of his temple, the face of the modest king Ethelred being present, who today survives on the throne of the kingdom. There nine Pontiffs (thrice three) were present, rejoicing, duly completing the holy ministry. Of whom the first was, mature in countenance & act, snowy with hoariness, Dunstan, & angelic. Rejoicing, the morning-star of the English stands accompanying him, lord Adelwold, benevolent of heart. After [him] the other seven, whose names are here written in versified song with dactylic foot. Elfstan, Edelgar, & again Elfstan & Æswig, Æfeh, Edelsin, & here was Athulp. And at last the tenth bishop Poca came thither, doing no labor, drinking many cups. After these were present many others, both nobles & dukes, & the greatest part of the counts of the English nation, whom he had gathered together from that council which had been held in the king's village at Andover, the same rejoicing shepherd, & ever to be sung, Adelwold, as the grace of the Lord had conferred on him. And all celebrate the greatest solemnities of the temple, applauding the Lord with praise-flowing breast. And they rejoice over all the good things which that benign Prelate appointed to be given, rich, to all. Courses are mingled with the banquets, all food abounds, none is present sad, everyone present is cheerful. No hunger, where there are full viands for all, & the table remains heaped with varied food. And the wandering cup-bearers often frequent the cellars, & ask the guests to begin to drink. They set out mixing-bowls, & crown the sweet wines, mingling draughts with innumerable draughts. And so day & another day proceeded in hymns, & all hearts blessed God. All the hymns being at last solemnly fulfilled, which the voice of the people sounded in honor of God, each one eagerly returned to his own shores, rejoicing in the Lord, singing with breast & mouth. Never was there so great & such a dedication of a temple accomplished in the whole English nation, I think, as was mightily celebrated in the city of Winchester in the Old monastery of St. Peter. Which may almighty God so protect immaculate, that it may be a continual lodging worthy of him. And whoever, humble, enter this refuge, let them exult, partakers of full pardon.
These things, published concerning the renovation & dedication of the Old church, we have thought it opportune to insert here. Thereupon the supernal loving-kindness conferred on the holy Pontiff so great a grace, that those sublime princes of the secular powers, dukes, tyrants, & judges, & all who hitherto seemed contrary to him & to resist in the life of God, were suddenly made as it were sheep out of wolves, & venerated him with wondrous affection; & submitting their necks to his knees, humbly kissing his right hand, commended themselves in all things to the prayers of the Man of God.
[41] But at that same time in which the holy prelate Adelwold was to go forth from this mortal life, The Saint's death in the year 984. & to receive from God the rewards of his labors, he came to the village which by its wonted name is called Beaddington, distant sixty miles from the city of Winchester. There, then, while he tarried some time, he began to be weighed down by a sharp infirmity; &, anointed with the liquor of consecrated oil, he fortified his departure with the reception of the Lord's body & blood. And so, bidding farewell, & giving peace to his sons, amid the words of prayer, he rendered his spirit to heaven on the Kalends of August b, in the year of the Lord's incarnation nine hundred eighty-four, but in the twenty-second of his episcopate, Ethelred king of the English governing the reins of the kingdom. And those who were there present testified to us that the lifeless body of the holy Man was renewed by a sudden change, suffused with a milky whiteness, & made comely with a rosy ruddiness, so that in a certain manner it seemed to present the face of a seven-year-old boy: in which a certain glory of the resurrection already appeared through the showing of the changed flesh. But now it cannot be told how great a multitude of men assembled at his obsequies. From every side, in rivalry, from the neighboring towns & castles together, rich & poor at once, had flowed together to say the last farewell to their Shepherd. All with grief & bitter soul followed the bier, precious with an incomparable treasure, armed with the most sacred Gospels & crosses, adorned with the coverings of palls, surrounded here & there with kindled lights & heavenly hymns & the concords of psalms, to which, entering Winchester the following day, the whole city together unanimously ran to meet the body. Here you might behold the wailing throngs of monks, there the pallid ranks of virgins; here you might hear on high the voices of chanting clerics; there the groaning of weeping poor, & the howling of the crying needy, who, not enduring to be deprived of the presence of their Shepherd, gave forth infinite clamors of tears to heaven. The Man of God, then, was led with heavenly obsequies into the church of the blessed Apostles Peter & Paul, to his episcopal see, &, the solemnities of vigils & Masses being fulfilled, he was buried in the crypt on the southern side of the holy altar, where that he ought to rest, as he himself related to you, had once been shown to him from heaven.
[42] Appearing to a blind man, he bids his body be raised, In the twelfth year c after the death of the glorious pontiff Adelwold, it pleased the supernal dispensation that he be revealed through heavenly signs, & his bones be raised from the safeguard of the sepulcher: that the lamp, which for a time lay hid under the bushel, might be set upon the candlestick, so that it might shine for all who are in the house. For there is a certain small city, abundantly filled with commerce, which is by wont called Wallingford, in which a certain strenuous man tarried, whose name was Elfhelm, who, by chance losing the light of his eyes, endured blindness for many years. To him, in dreams, at the time of cockcrow, the holy prelate Adelwold stood by, & admonished him that he should go earlier to Winchester, & approach his tomb for the sake of receiving sight, saying: I therefore visit thee reclining on thy bed, & foretell to thee the things that are to come upon thee, that by the sign of thy healing it may be manifested that I ought to be raised from the tomb in which I lie. Who, hearing these things, & recognizing the voice of the one speaking with him, gave thanks to the holy Father that he deigned to visit him; & because he was utterly ignorant where he was buried, he diligently inquired how he could know & approach his sepulcher: to whom straightway the Man of God made known the name of his foster-son & monk, of which that man had hitherto been ignorant, & said to him: When thou shalt have come in haste to Winchester, & entered the church of the Old monastery, cause to be summoned to thee a certain monk Wlfstan, surnamed the Cantor. When he shall have heard from thy mouth the words of my message, he will soon undoubtingly lead thee to my tomb, & there thou shalt receive the light of thine eyes. What more? That man, believing the words & promises of the sacred Pontiff, went the sooner to Winchester, entered the church, summoned the aforesaid brother, &, [him] summoned, requested that he fulfill the message of the blessed Father, narrating to him & to all the bystanders the order of the vision. For it was the eve on which the Nativity of the most sacred Mother of God & perpetual virgin Mary is solemnly & most worthily celebrated through the whole world. But that brother, marveling, placed himself midway between hope & fear, &, with a near foot of obedience, humbly obeying the commands of the holy Pontiff, led the blind man to the recess of the sarcophagus, who remained there all night in prayer; & morning being come, now no longer needing a guide, he returned to his own home with joy, seeing, blessing the Lord with heart & mind.
[43] which is solemnly translated. This revelation was divulged far & wide, which had been proved by so evident a miracle. Thereupon the Servant of Christ appeared manifest through a nocturnal vision to the aforesaid brother Wlfstan, & to very many others, & opened to them by these & these signs that it was pleasing to the supernal will that he be translated from the tomb, & worthily placed in the church. The venerable pontiff Elfeah, therefore, his successor, revolving such things with himself with a sagacious mind, rendered most humble thanks with alert heart to almighty Christ, for that in his own time he deigned to magnify his Saint with heavenly signs. And without delay, a multitude of brethren, clergy, & people being gathered, he honorably translated the relics of the holy prelate Adelwold on the day of the fourth of the Ides of September, & placed them in the choir of the church: where they are held in great veneration to the present day: where also, we ourselves looking on, heavenly miracles have been wrought, of which two we have briefly touched for a proof of confirmation.
[44] There was at that time in the city of Winchester a certain little girl, A miracle in a healed girl, daughter of a certain Adelward, a household servant, who was exceedingly infirm, & was almost tormented to death. She, led by her mother to the tomb of the Man of God, slept a little. Straightway waking, she rose most healthy, &, rejoicing with her mother, returned home unharmed.
[45] A certain little boy too, son of a certain Ælffin, a gentle & modest man, in a blind boy, in his very infancy was deprived of light, & brought in his mother's arms to the sepulcher of the venerable father Adelwold. Wonderful to say, soon the mist of blindness departed, & the coming splendor of light opened the eyes of the boy, all the people rejoicing together, & with all devotion faithfully rendering thanks to Christ, who can do all things.
[46] Nor is it to be passed over in silence, that the aforesaid successor of the holy Man, the prelate Elfeah, & in a thief loosed from chains. bade a certain thief, beaten with scourges for manifold guilt, be put in the stocks, to be tormented with sharper punishments. And when he had long lain thus condemned in his pains, on a certain night there came to him, in a vision, the holy pontiff of God Adelwold, & said to him: Wretch, why for so long a time dost thou lie thus stretched in the block? But he, recognizing the holy Man, whom he had often seen in mortal life, answered: Worthy penalties, my lord, I sustain, & by the just judgment of the bishop I am thus tormented, because I have frequently been caught in thefts, & have not ceased from them, but the evils which I did I sought again & again. Then the Saint: Cease, he said, even now, wretch, from thefts; cease, & be loosed from the bond of this fetter. Straightway that wretch rose loosed, &, going out thence, came & fell before the feet of Elfeah the bishop, & narrated to him in order the matter done concerning him; & he, for the honor of so great a Father, suffered him to depart unharmed. It is established, therefore, that this Saint, joined to eternal life, by the power of his merits can loose us from the bonds of our sins, & lead us to the heavenly kingdoms—he to whom, while yet living in the flesh, the power of binding & loosing was granted from heaven, our Lord Jesus Christ bestowing [it], who with the co-eternal Father & the Holy Spirit lives & reigns God through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.
NOTES.
we subjoin, the rest being passed over which in no way pertain here.
WOLSTAN THE MONK OF WINCHESTER'S
BOOK ON THE LIFE OF ST. SWITHUN.
Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester in England (S.)
BHL Number: 7947
By Wolstan the monk.
Here begins a special epistle to the lord father Elfeah, who as prelate resides in the city of Winchester. On the insignia of the holy father Swithun, & on the basilica of Peter, who unlocks the threshold of heaven.
To the lord Pontiff, who, Christ being Prince, rules The poet commends himself to Elfeah. the church of Winchester, I shall sing all prosperous things. May He confer on Ælfheah the honor of the heavenly kingdom, who gave this pontiff to all the people. May He himself grant thee peace perennial without end, He who is the glory, peace & honor of the Saints. This he desires with pious mouth, this with benign mind, the least little servant of the English, a hymn-singer. [*] Though my speech be sickly, without the fire of doctrine, nor am I able to write things worthy of so great a man: yet this scanty gift of love which I bring, I have striven to commend to thee, great Father: in which I have touched the heavenly signs which the Ruler of heaven wrought by the merits of father Swithun: through whom he afforded great miracles to his English, making whole the bodies of thousands of the sick. For these mighty works I have sung in a poor song, presuming on the goodness of the good God, who is wont to weigh great things from the least, gladly receiving the widow's two mites, in which not poverty, but the will was weighed, which spurned its sustenance & gave all its own. These little gifts, therefore, I commend to thee, Father, which I vowed to render to the Lord with pious heart: that thy power may deign to strengthen these, & to protect these from hostile ambushes: worthy, thou who as prelate residest in the apostolic hall, & instructest the people, catholic, with doctrine, and adornest this monastery with various ornaments, raising it everywhere within & without. Which the rejoicing prelate Adelwold once renewed, He praises Ethelwold as restorer of the Old monastery. whose care by night & day was to increase the Christ-worshiping flocks, & with fatherly mouth to nourish these with the milk of the soil, with the milk of heaven: who built all these dwellings with firm walls, he also roofed them with new roofs, and rejoicing adorned it with all honors, & hither drew the sweet streams of fish-filled water: and the recesses of the pool penetrate the secret places of the houses, cleansing with their murmur the whole monastery: he repaired also the halls of this ancient temple He describes the church. with lofty walls & new summits, strengthening it on the parts of the South & the parts of the North with solid porticoes & various arches: he added also more chapels to the sacred altars, which keep a doubtful entrance of the threshold. So that whoever walks the halls with unknowing feet knows not whence he goes, or whither he brings back his foot. Because on every side the doors are seen open, nor does any sure path of the way lie plain to him. Standing, he leads his wandering eyes hither & thither, & marvels at the Attic roofs of the Daedalian floor: until a surer guide comes to him, & leads him to the threshold of the outermost vestibule. Here, marveling with himself, he signs himself with the cross; & whence to go out, with astonished breast he cannot know. So the structure, thus built, glitters, thus varied it flashes, which sustains this mother church, which that pious Father, filled with the highest piety, to the praise of the name of the high-thundering Lord founded, built, endowed, & thence consecrated, whose dedication was made before king Ethelred, & deserved to discharge the vows of his temple, the modest king Ethelred beholding with his sight, who today survives on the throne of the kingdom. Many Pontiffs followed him in order, duly completing the holy ministry. Of whom the chief was, mature in countenance & act, snowy with hoariness, Dunstan, & angelic. by eight bishops. Him followed, rejoicing, that same morning-star of the English, prelate Adelwold, benevolent of heart. After [him] the other seven, whom now it is ready to add, in versified song with dactylic foot, Ælfstan, Æthelgar, & again Ælfstan & Æscwig, Ælfheah, Æthilsin, & here was Adulf. After these were present many others, both nobles & dukes, & the greatest part of the counts of the English nation: whom he had gathered together from that council which had been held in the king's village at Andover, the same rejoicing shepherd, & ever to be noted, Adelwold, as the grace of the Lord had conferred on him. And all celebrate the greatest solemnities of the temple, applauding the Lord with praise-flowing breast. And they rejoice over all the good things which that benign Prelate appointed to be given, rich, to all. Courses are mingled with the banquets, all food abounds. None is present sad, everyone present is cheerful. No hunger, where there are full viands for all, & the table remains heaped with varied food; and the wandering cup-bearers often frequent the cellars, & ask the guests to begin to drink. They set out great mixing-bowls, & crown the wines, mingling draughts with innumerable draughts. Fruitful cups, where the energetic rustic drained the foaming bowl, honey-flowing with its whirl: and at last with the full gold [cup] he drenched himself wholly, shaking his bristly chin. And so day & another day proceeded in hymns, & all hearts blessed God. All the hymns being at last solemnly fulfilled, which the voice of the people sounded in honor of God: each returned to his own shores, rejoicing in the Lord, singing with breast & mouth. Never was there so great & such a dedication of a temple accomplished in the whole English nation, I think: as was mightily celebrated in the city of Winchester, in the Old monastery of St. Peter. Which may almighty God so protect immaculate, that he himself may deign to dwell continually in it: and whoever, humble, enter this refuge, Ethelwold begins the New monastery, let them exult, partakers of full pardon. Besides these, the Prelate, full of the sacred breath, offered very many vows to his Lord. For rejoicing he cast the foundation of them from the base, that a portico built to God might stand. And he erected a new temple, the foundation being laid: he does not complete it; yet, lest he should complete it, he was snatched from the world, for his merits worthily translated to the hall above, whose manifold riches are not numbered, with which he gladdened the High-throned One from his first age, until he himself should render his soul to Christ. To whom straightway your power succeeded in the citadel, but Elfeah [as successor.] & with vigilant breast built the begun work: moreover you strove to add hidden crypts, which the Daedalian ingenuity had so built: so that whoever, unknowing, coming shall have entered them, Description of the crypts. knows not whence he goes, or whither he brings back his foot. There are in them hidden recesses which lurk here & there, whose roofs lie open, & within the caverns lie hidden, whose entrance stands open, & the exit of them: which a man who is ignorant thinks to lack light. Which under dark night seem to stand, & shadows, but yet have the lights of the hidden sun. At whose rising, when the first rays rebound, the entering morning-star scatters its radiance everywhere: and penetrates all the caverns with the splendor of light, until the sun rushes into the Hesperian Ocean; the structure of which stands, & supports the sacred altar, The upper altar. & the pious relics of the Saints in order: and in manifold manner their summit remains useful, bearing the outer things, ruling the inner. And such organs you increased here, such as nowhere The musical organs. are seen, established on a twin base. Twelve bellows above are joined in order, & below lie fourteen. With alternate blasts they render the greatest breaths, which seventy strong men work; turning their arms & dripping with much sweat, & each in rivalry urges on his companions: that with all their strength they may drive the winds upward, & the chest, filled, may roar with full bosom: which alone sustains four hundred pipes in order, which the hand of the organ-maker's skill tempers. It opens these closed, & again closes these opened; as the fixed song of the varied sound demands. And two brothers sit with concordant breast, & each governor rules his own Alphabet. And there are hidden holes for forty tongues, & each keeps its ten in its own order. Hither some run, thither others run back; keeping the several points to their own measures. And the seven distinctions of voices strike up the jubilation, with the lyric song of the semitone intermixed: and in the manner of thunder the iron voice beats the ears, so that it catches no sound except this alone. The sound resounds so greatly, rebounding hence & thence, that each covers his open ears with his hand, by no means able, drawing near, to endure the roar which the varied sounds render by their crashing: and the melody of the pipes is heard everywhere through the city, St. Peter patron. & flying fame traverses the whole fatherland. This ornament of the church thy care vowed to the Thunderer, & built in honor of the sacred key-bearer Peter. Moreover you caused a lofty temple to be added, Description of the temple. in which, without night, continuous day remains. A tower gleams from the axis where the sun, rising, flashes, & scatters the first rays of its light. It holds five eyed segments with open windows, & through the four quarters spreads ways everywhere. The beaked summits of the tower stand lofty with domes, & curved they gleam with various vaults. Which the sought ingenuity thus taught to curve: that which is wont to add beautiful things in beautiful places. Above stands the workmanship of a rod with gilded bosses; & a golden splendor adorns the whole work. As often as the moon shall have shone with crowned rising, another radiance rises from the sacred edifice to the stars: if a traveler by night, passing by, look on it, he believes the earth too to have its own stars. It is added for a spectacle, that on its top stands a cock, The cock on the tower. golden, great in adornment & in aspect. It looks down on all the ground, overtops all fields, seeing the beautiful stars of the Zodiac & of the North. That one holds the scepter of empire with proud feet, & stands above the whole people of Winchester. And the cock, raised into the air, commands all, & noble rules the western empire. The energetic one who receives the rain-bearing winds from every side, & by turning offers them his face. And manfully endures the dread-sounding blows of the whirlwind, standing intrepid; bearing the blasts, the snows. He alone saw the sun rushing into the Ocean: & he here first perceives the ray of dawn. Coming from afar he clings near to the eye, & fixes the gaze, though the place separates. By which the wearied traveler is caught with wondering sight, &, separated by foot, is present, joined by light. Why should I add more to these? With all thy power thou laborest, to adorn the whole monastery on every side. Whose dedication was lately duly performed, Dedication by eight bishops. & celebrated enough in marvelous order: because eight excellent hierarchs consecrated it to the Lord, whom the piety of God made to be present here together. Of whom the first was Sigeric, of fair name,
a victor powerful in honor, a victor shining in the citadel, gleaming before & behind, held venerable also in act, from whose eloquence sweet honey flows; whom may God from the supernal heavens everywhere protect, & keep unharmed for the peoples of the English. Him, rejoicing, Ælfstan accompanies, & another Elfstan: both Pontiffs, each full of God. Ælfheah is present, Ordbirht is present, Wilfsin & Ælfric. All shining by the right of the priesthood. And all begin, singing with modulated voice: Peace be to this house, & peace be here to the faith; peace be to him that enters, & peace to him that goes out: & ever in this place, be praise & honor to God. So in the praise of God the new walls of the temple resound, & every tongue rebounds, rejoicing in the Lord. Here stand the nobles, here boys, & young men, & old, & they celebrate the joys of the holy monastery. So the day long desired, now given, to be remembered forever, full of pious vows, shone in the city; on which the shepherd deserved to behold his joys, & with sacred office to render vows to God. Here the pontiffs surround thee, there the ministers; honor here, favor there, girded thee wholly. And at once, the hymn-sounding crown of the brethren gathering, each sings thy vow, by what art he can. Cymbal voices are mingled with the sharp reeds, & with unequal modes the song sounds sweet. Moreover all the people of the clergy & the child jubilate: & the triple engine thunders the help of the Deity: since an increase of gladness is heaped in every The banquet. part of this ancient monastery. And all rejoice, refreshed with foods & banquets, & with drinks various, all & good. So the celebration of this holy temple shone, sanctified to God by the apostolic name. This is the hall gleaming in the name of pious Peter, SS. Peter & Paul patrons. who is wont to bind the lofty heavens with his key: who, God bestowing, both looses the bonds for the world, & unlocks the heavenly kingdoms for all the pious. This hall too, Paul, is committed to thee to be guarded, who with thy mouth subduest all the peoples of the world. That you both may be here special patrons: to whom is one summit, & equal glory in heaven. May you entreat God almighty to hear, that he deign to grant the vows & prayers of his people; so that whoever seeks to ask benefits of this temple, may obtain full joys from the pious Lord. Where the kindly apostolic Man lies, & that Birinus who washed these western nations in the laver. The sign-mighty Swithun too rests in it in body, [*] The Saints whose relics are there. who by his prayers relieves this whole people. In the midst of the temple shine Byrnstan & Ælfheah, each a worshiper of God by the right of the priesthood; and the highest prelate, glory of the fatherland, nourisher of the needy, hope of pilgrims, splendor & honor of the fathers, our Adelwold, shepherd, father & master, Elogium of St. Adelwold. whose summit flashes in eternal light. Whose name gleams on every threshold of the English, & in monasteries, & in many places, which, vowing to the Lord, he constructed, & consecrated to him, heaping up hundredfold flocks in them; who among Pontiffs is by no means the least, whose radiance of doctrine shines everywhere: but he shines on high among the apostolic hierarchs; through whom God now works manifest signs, illuminating eyes sunk in foul mist, & recalling the languid members to their sinews; to whose sacred sepulcher whoever come, with prayers they receive full pardon; and those who, full of faith, seek the benefits of Christ, find from heaven the gifts which they desire. A certain noble man Ælselm lately learned this, in a dream bidden to approach the sacred tomb; whose eyes were closed with excessive glaucoma, nor could he discern the sun nor its ray. Who soon coming hither, as the Saint had commanded, received the clear sight of light, and with none leading he returns, & marvels in himself what he was in coming, & what in going back hence. So too a certain exceedingly infirm girl is led to the sacred tomb, her mother groaning: straightway she sleeps, waking she rises most healthy, & unharmed returns home with her mother. What wonder that such signs glow red through him, & that after death he shines bright in the ether? Whose life was full of virtues on every side: who ever strove with his heart to please God: and afforded clear examples to his own times & to future ones, ever loving the High-throned God, happily rejoicing with manifold jubilation: whence the noble Church of Christ exults. Since the Lord is wonderful & to be feared, who works stupendous signs in his Saints. There are also many others placed here & there, concerning whom is written what the Church sings: The bodies of the Saints are here buried in peace, & their names live forever. Following whose deeds & faithfully fulfilling their words, sedulous thou perfectest the enjoined office. Thy tongue ministers the apostolic light to the peoples, & the word of the Lord, thou unlocking, lies open. To the poor sustenance, to the naked clothing thou bestowest, & pious dividest large gifts to the wretched: that, bringing back the talents committed to thee doubled, thou mayest enter the true joys of thy Lord. Receive, I pray, the gifts which I bring to thee, father, & those which, due, I pay to thy merits. May this life long, I ask, minister all prosperous things to thee, & may the future light bear thee more prosperous things. Here mayest thou discharge pious vows to the Lord for many years, that the sheep committed to thee may be multiplied. And mayest thou enter the supernal kingdom, thy flock accompanying thee, ever glad with the Saints in the citadel of heaven. Which may He grant thee who governs all the elements, one God everywhere powerful in the Trinity. Amen.
Here ends the special epistle to the lord father Ælfeah, who rules the church of Winchester.
Notes* that is, of the Cantors. * read "corpore" (in body).
CONCERNING THE TEN BLESSED OF VALLOMBROSA,
RODULPH, RUSTICUS, ERICIUS, ALBERT, JEROME, MELIOR, BENIGNUS, ORLANDO, THESAURUS AND MICHAEL,
whose feast of translation is kept on this day.
CommentaryRodulph of Florence, monk of Vallombrosa in Etruria (B.) Rusticus of Florence, monk of Vallombrosa in Etruria (B.) Erizzo or Ericius of Florence, monk of Vallombrosa in Etruria (B.) Albert, monk of Vallombrosa in Etruria (B.) Jerome, monk of Vallombrosa in Etruria (B.) Melior of Valiana, monk of Vallombrosa in Etruria (B.) Benignus Benizzi of Florence, monk of Vallombrosa in Etruria (B.) Orlando, monk of Vallombrosa in Etruria (B.) Thesaurus Beccheria, monk of Vallombrosa in Etruria (B.) Michael Flammini, monk of Vallombrosa in Etruria (B.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
It will seem unusual to those skilled in this our work, that a feast of the translation of Saints be commemorated, where it is wont to be inquired chiefly concerning their natal day. Freely & gladly I confess it; but I am here compelled to discharge the pledge given by my master Papebroch in tome V of May at the day 20 page 253 (where Orlando is treated separately, & then B. Albert, Here is given the translation whether the same or another, is not certain enough), & renewed again in tome III of July page 384, on the occasion of the exorcisms once wont to be performed at their sacred relics; as there from the miracles of St. John Gualbert is manifest. But under that title they are here forewarned to be joined, because, since the certain days of death of some are not found marked, it seemed good to bring that whole series to this day, on which their memory is performed with a peculiar solemnity, after their sacred relics were, by legitimate authority, recognized & approved; as from the instrument itself will more fully appear below. But for a clearer understanding of the whole matter, the very words of Papebroch are here to be reported, at the page already cited, number 2.
[2] He there premises a brief narration of an excursion undertaken from Florence by himself & Henschen to the archmonastery of Vallombrosa on 15 January in the year 1662; promised of old where those best Religious received them on foot & exceedingly weary with plainly surpassing benevolence, & in the morning, returning from the sacrifice of Mass, which they had performed at the distinguished & beautifully adorned chapel of the sacred relics, the most reverend abbot with the chief of the monks received them, & led them back there, to behold the sacred relics themselves above the altar, under which, between the twin columns supporting it, a title of this kind was read:
Here long lay hid the bodies of many Brethren, Who in Vallombrosa led a blessed life. These, piously buried in the time of Father Valerianus, Here Alfonso Porraqua fitly laid up again. In the year 1604, on the 1st day of August.
[3] Namely, he says, in the year 1600, in the time of abbot Valerianus, they had been uncovered by Alexander Marzio Medici bishop of Fiesole, by Papebroch & after a process formed thereupon, approved as truly the bones of Blessed ones & of those anciently venerated as such & honorably buried; ten bodies, namely, nine heads: for the head of one (I believe of B. John the hermit [*]) remains in the oratory of the Cells. But the same, four years after, abbot Alfonso, on a stage raised above the altar, divided into several compartments, had so distributed, that fifteen chests appeared, behind as many crystals, in most beautiful order, as it was permitted to see, that being removed which otherwise remains drawn over the sacred relics, a distinguished panel, bearing the image of St. John Gualbert the Founder. That process, & such notice of each as there is, we shall give on the aforesaid day 1 August, as the common feast of all, on account of the memory of the common translation, for that to most there is now no proper day on which they may be singularly venerated.
[4] from the process itself. Whither that process afterward slipped away, I have nothing whence to conjecture: certainly, however studiously sought among our papers, it could not be found hitherto; so that consequently it was necessary to recur to the source itself: in which I got an amicable helper, as always in other things, so here too plainly strenuous, our Father Ignatius Pinius, so often & deservedly praised in this work, who, living at Rome, by the labor of the Lords of Vallombrosa dwelling at St. Praxedis, procured a new apograph from the said archmonastery, written by the hand of Don Alamanno Allegri, at the dictation of the very Reverend Father Don Orazio Novelli, each a monk of the same congregation: but to bring it into Belgium the Reverend Father Franciscus Beeckman of the Society of Jesus, Rector of our college of Douai, deputed to the general Congregation at Rome, deigned: of all whom I wished a grateful memory here expressed, about to use the instrument itself, as below you will find explained.
[5] They are known from the Acts of St. Gualbert; It will not be out of place here to repeat also what, in part 1 of the miracles of St. John Gualbert, concerning these Blessed ones, at the place cited above, number 6, is commemorated. Where, after explaining the power of the cross of St. John, in exploring whether anyone is seized by a demon, & then in expelling it, the writer thus proceeds: But if it happens that, by the aforesaid cross, he who is tormented by a demon has not come off unharmed; he is led to the sepulcher of the Blessed; namely of Orlando, a most holy man & monk, & of Melior the hermit,
most glorious, & of the abbots of this monastery Benignus & Michael, & of some Fathers who also were venerable, whose Lives & excellent deeds, because elsewhere both at length & briefly we have taken care to commit to letters, it was not our purpose at present to write otherwise concerning these; to whose sepulcher innumerable, both men & women, held by various infirmities, by the most ample mercy of Christ Jesus, gradually relieved of their disease, were at last restored to health. And these things from the very instrument will receive the desired light.
[6] Here also pertains a Vallombrosan sheet published in print & found among our papers, likewise from a sheet, where the cult in which is expressed:
PRAYER
To be said before the relics of the Blessed of the Order of Vallombrosa.
℣. Rejoice in the Lord & exult, ye just: ℞. And glory, all ye upright of heart.
LET US PRAY.
Grant, we beseech, almighty God, that the examples of the holy monks may provoke us to a better life, so that we may imitate the acts also of those whose commemoration we make. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
7] Immediately subjoined in that same sheet [is aCATALOGUE
OF SOME BLESSED OF THE ORDER OF VALLOMBROSA
whose relics are venerated in the altar of the chapel dedicated to them. & the names are expressed,
B. Rodulph of Florence, 2nd General of Vallombrosa. B. Rusticus of Florence, 3rd General. B. Erizzo of Florence, 4th General. B. Albert. B. Jerome, hermit of the Cells of Vallombrosa. B. Melior of Valiana, in the Casentino, a Converse hermit of the Cells. B. Benignus Benizzi of Florence, 15th General. B. Orlando, claustral Converse. B. Thesaurus Beccheria of Pavia, 16th General, Cardinal Priest & martyr. B. Michael Flammini of Arezzo in Tuscany, hermit of the Cells, then 24th General.
[8] The elogia of all these & of other illustrious men of the most celebrated Order, What elogia are here given. after Jerome of Raggiolo, Eudoxio Locatelli, Diego Franchi, of the Gualbertine Life page 119, & others, Don Venantius Simius, theologian Consultor of the sacred Congregation of the Index at Rome, collected & published in print in the year 1693, in the time of the most reverend & most worthy General Lorenzo Poltri of Florence. But it was not necessary to describe them here, since in the very instrument all these Blessed ones are so praised, that I have judged a longer panegyric altogether to be forborne; since indeed in the praised Simius nothing but the same things are commemorated in more words which here, supported by somewhat greater authority, will seem sufficient to all the skilled. The whole matter consists of full four & twenty large folio pages, from which I have culled only those things which pertain chiefly to the approbation of the cult, lest, by the repeated depositions of almost innumerable witnesses, I create weariness rather than pleasure. Let it suffice that all things were legitimately proved, from which I exhibit the substance of the whole matter faithfully brought forward.
Notes* Should it not be Michael's?
ACTS
Of the recognition & approbation of the relics of the Blessed of the Congregation, found in the monastery of Vallombrosa, with the sentence pronounced by the lord bishop of Fiesole.
In the name of the most holy & undivided Trinity of the Father & Son & Holy Spirit. Amen.
by the author J. B. S.
PART ONE
In which the preliminaries are set forth.
The bishop of Fiesole being requested To the perpetual memory of the matter, let it be evidently plain & known to all & singular who shall inspect, see, read & likewise hear the present public process, or document of record, in what manner in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ, from his salutary Incarnation 1600, Indiction 13, but on the 11th day of the month of August, in the pontificate of the most holy in Christ Father & our Lord the lord Clement, by divine providence Pope VIII, in the 10th year, & the most serene Ferdinand de' Medici, by the grace of God grand duke of Etruria III, happily reigning: before the very illustrious & most reverend in Christ Father & lord, the lord Alexander Marzio de' Medici, by the grace of God & of the holy Apostolic See bishop of Fiesole & count of Turicum, in his episcopal palace, situated at Florence beside the church of B. Mary in Campo, of the diocese of Fiesole, there appeared & personally constituted himself R.P.D. Valerianus of Florence, at present abbot of the abbey of St. Mary of Vallombrosa, of the diocese of Fiesole, briefly narrating & setting forth, in what manner from most ancient time it was always held & kept, & is held & kept, both from the traditions of the ancient regular monks of the aforesaid monastery, & from writings & legitimate documents, that the bodies of the Blessed monks who flourished in the same congregation & order of St. Mary of Vallombrosa were given to burial in the tower of the bell-tower of the aforesaid abbey, so that the said place acquired the name of the sepulcher of the Blessed.
[10] in the year 1600 That in the present year 1600 in the month of May, when the Father himself had gone to the place & dwelling of the aforesaid church of the abbey, near the said bell-tower, where those who are vexed by unclean spirits are adjured & exorcized: at which time such a dwelling was being restored & enlarged by building, for the conveniences of the women flocking to the abbey to hear Masses & divine offices, in demolishing on some part the wall of the aforesaid bell-tower, there was opened a certain oblong little window (which is commonly called balestriera), long one quarter of a braccio, & high about one quarter of a braccio, through which, when a light had been sent, he saw a certain little chamber painted ornately in the vault, five braccia high, four braccia wide, & about four braccia long, in which were two closed chests; which seen & heard, he certified of all things the most reverend lord Tiberio de Corsellinis, president general of the whole aforesaid order & congregation. And although from what has already been said it seems clear that in the aforesaid chests are the bodies of the said Blessed monks, nevertheless, since by the form of the sacred canons & of the Council of Trent new relics are not to be received unless they be recognized & approved by the ordinary bishop of the place, who, as soon as he has ascertained anything concerning them, theologians & other pious men being taken into counsel, should do those things which he shall judge consonant with truth & piety; therefore the same petitioner appearing asked & asks, & humbly supplicated & supplicates the most reverend lord bishop of Fiesole, that he himself deign as soon as possible, with some theologians & other pious men, to go to the same abbey of St. Mary of Vallombrosa, there to see & open the said chests, & at last to determine & do what he shall judge consonant with truth & piety, & to do other things in the premises & any of them in any way useful, necessary & opportune, concerning which in every better manner.
[11] Which most illustrious & most reverend lord the lord Alexander, prelate of Fiesole, having heard the Abbot's supplication, all things being heard which were set forth to him as above, & that in the churches the divine worship may flourish & be increased, & the faithful of Christ may piously & devoutly venerate the bodies of the Blessed, thus received & admitted the petition, in so far as by law & by the form of the sacred canons & of the sanctions of the sacred Council of Trent he is bound & ought to receive & admit it, in every better manner, & that he might himself be able to have a true & certain knowledge of the things set forth, offered himself ready to go to the same abbey of Vallombrosa & the places above designated, & to do & fulfill all & singular things necessary, required & opportune in the premises & about them, even as he himself is bound by the duty of his pastoral office; & therefore he determined & appointed the visit to the abbey itself for the 21st day of this month of August 1600.
[12] But afterward, on the 21st day of the same month of August 1600, the same most illustrious & most reverend Alexander bishop of Fiesole at Terce went & came to the monastery of the abbey of B. Mary of Vallombrosa, he comes to Vallombrosa, with some theologians & other pious men & especially with the very Reverend Father Virgilio Ceparo of Perugia, doctor of the Society of Jesus of Florence, the very Reverend Father Michele Girolamo Siviliano, preacher of the said Society of Jesus, the very Reverend lord Stefano de Nutis, plebanus of the plebania of St. Mary a Santo, of the diocese of Fiesole, the very Reverend Pietro Muret, provost of the church of Albenga, of Gallia Narbonensis, the very Reverend lord Antonio de Ubuas, presbyter priest of the collegiate church of St. Salvius of the city of Albenga of Gallia Narbonensis, the very Reverend lord Paolo, presbyter & curate of the pastoral church of St. Giles de Ristouchi, the very Reverend lord Domenico de Bonechi, canon of the cathedral church of Fiesole, the very Reverend lord Giovanni Simone de Fornaboni, presbyter of Florence.
[13] Afterward & on the same day before the hour of Vespers the said most reverend lord bishop, solemnly associated with the above-named professors of the sacred Page & priests, & there with many learned men arrayed in pontificals, processionally with cross & with lights, together also with the most reverend lord Tiberio de Corsellinis, president general of the whole congregation of Vallombrosa, with the very Reverend lord Valeriano of Florence, abbot of the said abbey of St. Mary of Vallombrosa, with the very Reverend lord Vittorio de Brunaccini, one of the visitors of the said congregation of Vallombrosa, with the very Reverend lord Alfonso de Vercellis also visitor of the said congregation, with the very Reverend lord Ilario de Santa Sofia, abbot of the abbey of Castrofranco, with the very Reverend lord Maurizio de Rottini of Florence, prior of St. Mary de Ughi, with the very Reverend lord Salvatore de Laudis, parishioner of the SS. Trinità of Florence, with the very Reverend lord Pancrazio of Florence, master of novices, with twelve novices, with the very Reverend lord Serafino, master of the monks, & with other monks & converses of the said monastery & congregation; & proceeding processionally, the aforesaid sang: Veni creator &c. & Te Deum laudamus &c.
[14] he visits the place, And when they had come to the place of the said church, where the said chests were, the said most reverend lord bishop began to say the versicle: Confirm this, O God, &c. with the prayer of the Saints; & meanwhile the wall was opened on one side for entering into the chamber & place where the said chests were; which chamber, when he had entered, the said most reverend lord bishop considered the said place & chamber, which is like a common room near the bell-tower, & painted, high from the ground a space of five braccia, wide four braccia, & long about four braccia; & there were the said two chests, which the said most reverend lord bishop ordered to be moved & drawn out of the said place, which he afterward opened, & found them
[15] & recognizes the sacred relics. full of the bones of the dead, which were divided into many parts, wrapped in silken golden cloths, consumed by age; among which bones were nine heads of the dead, each of which was wrapped in two cloths, one silken & the other golden, which heads & bones with the greatest devotion & gladness were venerated & kissed by the aforesaid most reverend lord bishop & the aforesaid theologians, monks, presbyters & pious men. At last the same most reverend lord bishop with the aforesaid theologians, presbyters & pious men replaced the said heads & bones in certain white cloths, which were processionally carried into the sacristy of the aforesaid abbey of St. Mary of Vallombrosa, & laid up in a certain chest existing there, & to the custody of the said venerable lord Valeriano abbot of the said abbey, until otherwise it be deliberated & determined concerning them by the said most reverend lord bishop or by another superior. Which all & singular things above written being thus performed, afterward immediately before the same very illustrious prelate of Fiesole appeared the venerable lord Valeriano, monk, abbot of the abbey of St. Mary of Vallombrosa, & for the clearer & greater justification that the heads & bones of the dead found in the said abbey of Vallombrosa are of the Blessed monks who were in the said congregation, gives & makes the underwritten chapters, which he asked & asks to be received & admitted in the parts in every better manner.
PART TWO.
The depositions of abbot Valerianus.
From ancient traditions First he capitulates, in what manner from most ancient time, whose memory exists not to the contrary, it was always & indistinctly & publicly held & kept, & is held & kept, by all the monks of the said congregation, & especially those dwelling in the said abbey of St. Mary of Vallombrosa, from the traditions of the ancient monks, that the bodies of the monks who for illustrious deeds & many holy works were held & called Blessed, were given to burial in a separate place, in the tower of the bell-tower of the said abbey; & so it was & is true, public & notorious.
[17] II. He capitulates, in what manner it is read in many books, & various books both printed & manuscript, on the Life of St. John Gualbert, founder of the said congregation, & of other Saints & Blessed who were in the said congregation, & especially in those printed in the year 1508 under the name of R.D. Thaddeus abbot Marruchius, & those printed at Florence by Giorgio de Maretostis in the year 1583, under the name of the venerable lord Guidolfus, monk of the said congregation, & in a Ms. on parchment written by the venerable lord Jerome de Regitulo, also a monk of the said congregation, to lord Lorenzo de' Medici, that the bodies of the said Blessed monks were buried in the said tower of the bell-tower separately.
[18] III. He capitulates, in what manner among other things in the said books it is read of many Blessed monks of the said congregation & especially of B. Rodulph, second general of the said congregation & disciple of St. John Gualbert, he testifies that Rodulph was held as a Saint, who for illustrious deeds acquired the name of Blessed, & was the one who by St. John Gualbert was sent to preach the word of God into many provinces & places, & at last was elected to proceed to Rome, to declare & denounce, as simoniac & heretic, Peter bishop of Florence, before all the Fathers of the council which was then being celebrated, Pope Alexander II reigning: & beyond the laws & reasons adduced, offered, in testimony of the truth, to be willing to pass through fire; & at last in the year 1076, on the 12th day of the month of November, passed to another life, & was buried in the said abbey of St. Mary of Vallombrosa, in the said tower named of the sepulcher of the Blessed: & St. John Gualbert laid to his care & left him abbot of the whole religion.
[19] Likewise of B. Rusticus, third General of the said congregation, likewise Rusticus, & disciple of the said St. John Gualbert, who, when he was sick & about to pass from this life to the heavenly, chose the same B. Rusticus into his custody. Afterward B. Rusticus, after many pious & holy works, died, in the year 1092, on the 12th day of the month of March, & his body was buried in the said abbey, among the other Blessed in the said tower.
[20] Likewise of B. Erizzo, fourth General of the said congregation, then Ericius & first disciple of St. John Gualbert, who appointed the said Blessed dean of the said abbey, which is the first dignity after the abbot; & he bore himself illustriously & most excellently & holily, & for the space of thirty-six years always remained in the said abbey & monastery, not departing to the villas & places thereabout nearby, & at last in the year 1094 on the 9th day of the month of February, passed to another life, & was buried in the said abbey, in the said place among the other Blessed.
[21] Likewise of B. Albert, who was a disciple of the said St. John Gualbert, Albert, & in the time of the said B. Erizzo gave up the spirit, & was buried in the said place among the other Blessed.
[22] Likewise of B. Jerome, called the hermit, when for the space of thirty-five years he had lived harshly & rigidly with the greatest fastings & examples of sanctity in the hermitage near the said abbey of St. Mary of Vallombrosa, Jerome, & in the time of B. Atto General of the said congregation & bishop of Pistoia. In the said hermitage he finished his life & was buried among the other Blessed in the place already said.
[23] Melior, Likewise of B. Melior, who flourished in the time of lord Ambrose General of the said congregation, which Blessed, unshod & wrapped in mean & light cloths, lived among the other Blessed in the hermitage of the said congregation, leading his life so harshly in a certain cavern of the said hermitage, that by fastings & abstinences his face had lost its color, presenting that of an Ethiopian. Often he put to flight with the sign of the cross the demon appearing to him in the form of beasts. When he departed from this life, which was in the year 1158 on the 26th day of the month of March, the bells of the said abbey of Vallombrosa of themselves gave forth a sound, which being heard by the abbot & monks of the said abbey, straightway they went out of the monastery, & looking toward the said hermitage, saw a certain most bright circular light through the air above the cavern where the blessed Melior lived, & straightway with the cross processionally betook themselves to the said cavern, where they saw B. Melior to be dead, though standing on bended knees, with hands joined toward heaven, as if praying, whom with the greatest reverence they carried to the said abbey, burying [him] in the said place among the other Blessed, & the said bells always of themselves sounded until he was given to burial.
[24] Benignus, Likewise of B. Benignus, 15th General, who wrought many holy & pious works, & for his clearly & holily performed deeds was greatly beloved by St. Louis king of the French, to whom, urgently asking, B. Benignus gave the bones of the right hand of St. John Gualbert. He composed many holy works, & especially the work On the cloister of the soul & body. He himself & the said congregation were distinguished with the greatest honors by the said St. Louis, Pope Honorius II, & the emperor Frederick II, & he died in the year 1236 on the 17th of July, & was buried in the said abbey among the other Blessed; & it is read that, many years since elapsed, when his bones were wrapped in certain silken cloths, the tongue of the said B. Benignus was found whole without any corruption, which was laid up in the sacristy of the said abbey among the other relics.
[25] Orlando, Likewise of B. Orlando, who lived piously & holily & with the greatest fastings, so that often for two & three days he took no bodily food: & when he was given to burial near the bell-tower, where are laid up some Blessed monks of the said congregation, a certain demoniac being there, led by his parents & kinsmen to pray to the relics of St. John Gualbert for his deliverance, straightway by the diabolical spirit began to say: "Was the master not enough against our force, that anew the power of that one has been revived, in the disciple who fiercely torments us?" And the demoniac, prostrated toward the body of the said B. Orlando, cried out: Disciple of God, have mercy on me: which followed, the demons & spirits departed, leaving the said demoniac free, making a very great noise through the air, whence it prevailed—which even today is observed—that demoniacs first be exorcized by the monks of the said abbey over the sepulcher of the said blessed Orlando, afterward at the relics of St. John Gualbert.
[26] Michael Likewise of B. Michael, 24th General of the said congregation, who for many years lived in the said hermitage with the greatest penance of fastings & abstinences. Afterward he was assumed to the grade of the generalate, though compelled by the prayers of the monks, in which he bore himself holily & blessedly & died in the year 1370; from whose corpse a most sweet odor emanated, a most clear testimony of his sanctity, &, associated by many most reverend Bishops, prelates & monks, he was buried in the said abbey among the other Blessed, whose head is preserved for special devotion in the said hermitage.
[27] Likewise of B. Thesaurus Beccheria of Pavia, & Thesaurus. 17th General of the said congregation, elected Cardinal by Alexander IV, & sent as legate to Florence to quell schisms, where by the Florentine Guelfs, by a certain suspicion, he was beheaded, as may be seen in the historians Raphael Volaterranus, Leander Urbanus book 22, Giovanni Villani book 2 chapter 66; & this followed in the year 1258, on the 12th of September; & his body was buried in the said abbey of Vallombrosa; & as a Blessed he was painted in the church of the SS. Trinità of Florence, in the chapel of the family de Spinis, with this subscription: S. Tesauro abbot of Vallombrosa and martyr.
PART THREE.
Their prosecution & the bishop's approbation.
IV. He capitulates, in what manner from most ancient time, whose memory exists not to the contrary, there existed & exist in the said monastery of the said abbey several burials & sepulchers, He distinguishes the burials, in which are buried & are being buried the abbots, monks, converses & laymen of the said monastery who have died & die for the time, & appear under the ambulatory, &, as it is commonly called, la loggia, before the door of the church of the said monastery, & in the cloister before the gate which leads to the said church. And so it was & is true, public & notorious.
[29] V. He capitulates, in what manner, up to the year 1530, in the siege & Florentine war, the said abbey
was in the greatest parts demolished & burned, he asserts the writings lost, & especially the library, & consequently the books, & almost all the writings had been burned & set on fire; so that the writings, documents & records of the Blessed of the said congregation, which were there preserved & guarded, were lost. And so it was, & is true, public & notorious.
[30] VI. He capitulates, in what manner the said chamber & place, where the said chests filled with the said bones & heads were found & discovered, but that the cult persevered, is both under the tower & bell-tower of the said abbey, & there is not in the said abbey another tower & bell-tower except the aforesaid; so that it was & is the same place & tower of which the said books & histories, of which above, make mention. Notwithstanding whatsoever. And so it was, & is true, public & notorious.
[31] VII. Likewise he capitulates, in what manner from most ancient time it was always observed & is observed, as also the exorcisms. that those vexed by unclean spirits were exorcized near the said bell-tower, where there was a certain pit, in which those vexed who were exorcized were placed. And so it was, & is true, public & notorious; & public voice & fame.
[32] Likewise he capitulates, in what manner of all & singular the aforesaid there was & is public voice & fame, He alleges many witnesses & it is public & notorious, & to prove & verify all & singular things in the aforeinserted petition & chapters to have been & to be true, before the aforesaid most illustrious & most reverend lord bishop of Fiesole, he named the witnesses below described, worthy of faith, whom, & any of them, he asked to be received by the aforesaid most reverend lord bishop, admonished, oaths to be administered to them, & ordered; & because the witnesses themselves are old & valetudinary, he asked that access of this kind be committed to a notary, to the places in which the aforesaid witnesses live & dwell, to administer oaths to the witnesses themselves, & to receive their oaths; & after the witnesses themselves have sworn, also to be examined by the same notary, & ordered & their attestations described, & reduced into public & authentic form, & other things to be done necessary, required & opportune in the premises in every better manner.
[33] to be interrogated by the bishop. Which most illustrious & most reverend lord Alexander bishop of Fiesole, all the premises being seen & heard, which, since they tend to the increasing of the devotion of Christ's faithful & the increment of divine worship, the similar relation of the aforenamed witnesses being attended to, committed to a notary the access of this kind of business to the places in which the below-named witnesses dwell, to administer & to receive from the witnesses themselves below-named, religious & lay, men worthy of faith, & from any of them, the oaths; & after they have sworn, committed them & any of them to be diligently interrogated & examined upon the aforesaid aforeinserted chapters & the contents in them, & their depositions & attestations to be described, & reduced into public form by the scribe & notary already said; & he committed, willed & ordered [it], not only in the manner & form premised, but in every other more valid & efficacious manner. And of which witnesses to be examined the names are these, namely &c.
[34] At last, by a solemn decree There follow the witnesses in a very long order, examined in various places & days up to the 8th of the month of November of the year 1602. Then indeed: There appeared before the aforesaid most illustrious & most reverend lord Alexander bishop of Fiesole, residing in his episcopal palace of Fiesole, & sitting in it for tribunal, the said lord Giorgio de Georgiis, procurator of the same congregation of Vallombrosa, & instantly, with all due instance, requested that by the same most illustrious & most reverend lord Alexander bishop of Fiesole the cause & business of this kind be dispatched, & a sentence pronounced & promulgated, & declared, that the heads & bones found, as above appears in the acts of this business, were & are the bones of the Blessed monks of the same religion, & that those be & are to be recognized & approved as Blessed. Which very illustrious & most reverend lord Alexander Marzio de' Medici, bishop of Fiesole, pronounced & promulgated a decree of this kind: namely:
[35] the Bishop declares We, Alexander Marzio de' Medici, by the grace of God & of the holy Apostolic See bishop of Fiesole & count of Turicum: in the first place, the petition being seen, otherwise made before us, on the part of R.D. Valeriano of Florence, abbot of the abbey of St. Mary of Vallombrosa; the access otherwise made by us to the said abbey with theologians & other pious men being seen: the chapters exhibited on the part of the said lord abbot being seen, & at last upon them the examination of witnesses performed: the production made by the procurator of the said congregation being seen: the letters written to us by the most illustrious & most reverend lord Cardinal Justinian, exhibited in the process, being seen: & the last instance & petition on the part of the said procurator being seen, together with the whole process hitherto by us & before us framed, & at last the things to be seen being seen, & the things to be considered considered, & a mature colloquy being had with theologians & other pious men, & the form of the sacred canons, of the Council of Trent, & of the Bulls of the supreme Pontiffs, & of the other ordinances being seen,
Sentence of the recognition & approbation of the relics of the Blessed of the congregation found in the monastery of Vallombrosa.
[36] We say, pronounce, sentence, decree & declare, that they can & ought to be venerated as Blessed. that the heads & bones which were found under the bell-tower of the abbey of Vallombrosa, & of which there is question, were & are the heads & bones of the Blessed monks who flourished in the said congregation, & that those are to be recognized & approved as Blessed, as by this our present sentence we recognize & approve; & that the same heads & bones could & can be kept in a decent place in the church, & that to them publicly by the faithful of Christ due cult & veneration be imparted, & the other things befitting the Blessed be done, we command & order, & this not only in the aforesaid manner, but in every other better manner &c. Thus I pronounced, Alexander bishop of Fiesole. Pronounced at Florence in the episcopal palace of Fiesole, beside the church of St. Mary in Campo, of the diocese of Fiesole, there being present the Reverend lords Domenico Michaelis de Bonechi, canon of Fiesole, & Sebastiano Giuliani de Bigozzi, presbyter of Florence, witnesses &c.