ON ST. SCHETZELO, CONFESSOR,
IN THE TERRITORY OF LUXEMBOURG IN BELGIUM.
About the year 1138 or 1139.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The cult; the Blessed one confounded with another; whether he was of the Cistercian Order; his age; the year of his death; the translation of his body; whether it was found; the Acts, and their author.
Schetzelo, in the territory of Luxembourg in Belgium (B.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. P.
Luxembourg, a large and fortified city of Belgium, head of the Duchy of the same name, on the river Alzette, situated at a distance of some leagues from Thionville, Trier, and the borders of Lorraine, Sacred cult in the territory of Luxembourg, can with just right glory in Blessed Schetzelo, whose name is inflected in various ways, as will be plain in the course of what follows: for he inhabited alive the neighboring territory of that same city; but dead he made it illustrious with his sacred remains, certainly to be celebrated on both titles. Besides those things which the writer of his Life left noted concerning his ancient cult, I add these from the hagiologists. In the Calendar prefixed to the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium in Molanus, on this day there is marked the name of Scetzelo or Gisislenus, at Luxembourg. Chrysostom Henriquez in the Cistercian Menology has these things: In the country of Luxembourg, blessed Iezelinus the hermit, of the Cistercian Order, to whom the divine Bernard sent his own habit: a man truly great in his days, who, half naked, and using the food of brutes, for fourteen years wandered alone among the mountains and snows, and at last, the Lord's body being received, with angels rejoicing, no one being present, fell asleep in the Lord, and after his death was famous for many miracles. The Cistercian Calendar we assigned on this day among the things which have been said concerning Blessed Gizzelinus of Slebusrode: where the confusion of Molanus, Wion, and Ferrari was treated. Into a like error Chalemot also fell, when in his Series of the Saints, etc., of the Cistercian Order, he announced the Blessed one in Luxembourg and in the Duchy of Berg, welding two into one. But the error of Molanus, committed in the additions, I find rightly corrected in his Birthdays of the Saints at this day, where to Blessed Gizzelinus of Slebusrode these things are subjoined: But there was another Gisislenus, whom they named Scetzelo: whose day of deposition is unknown, yet his memory among the people of Luxembourg, numbered among the Belgians, will never cease. Saussay, after he had rightly announced our Blessed one in the district of Luxembourg, and indeed with the title of Saint, presently pursues him with a notable eulogy; concerning which let the reader consult the Life to be reprinted by us below.
[2] but not in that of Cologne. Henriquez in his notes at this day, on the occasion of the announcement of Wion, whose confusion I just mentioned, deservedly chastising that lapse, says, This author is to be corrected, because instead of "in the Duchy of Luxembourg" he wrote "In the Duchy of Berg," following Molanus, who in the additions to Usuard says: Likewise of Gezelinus of blessed memory, confessor, who rests in the Duchy of Berg; misled by the likeness of the German word: for "bergh" means a mountain; but "burg," a borough or town: whence they, reading "Lutzenberg" for "Lutzenburg," called that province the Duchy of Berg or of the Mountain. But that reason is by no means probable to me: Molanus, a citizen and doctor of theology of Louvain, certainly knew that distinction; the Belgians know it: they know that the Duchy of Berg, or of the Mountain, if you will, is distinguished from the city of Luxembourg by the whole heaven, so to speak. The reason, therefore, of the confusion which Molanus committed in the additions had to be traced by Henriquez not from a confusion of those places, but from a confusion of one Blessed one with another; so that, while he rightly corrected Molanus in the fact, yet in the cause of the fact the corrector himself deservedly is to be corrected.
[3] We have seen above that Blessed Schetzelo is reckoned among the Cistercian monks: It is not sufficiently proved that he was of the Cistercian Order. where Henriquez comes in, saying that the divine Bernard sent his own habit to him. But Saussay in his eulogy of the Blessed one says, He came into such an opinion of sanctity that he was so greatly esteemed by Blessed Bernard, that, without thinking of it, he was chosen for his merits among the stars of his Order. For to him, absent, the blessed Father himself sent his own habit, etc. But that our Confessor truly and properly embraced the Cistercian Order; and that he was taken into it by St. Bernard, is not hitherto sufficiently persuaded to me from ancient documents: not from the Life which the writer of it put together from the report and eyewitness testimony of Achard, monk of Clairvaux and disciple of St. Bernard. For although in it at number 5 these things are said: Blessed Bernard therefore, having heard of the virtue of his manner of life, gave us a command to go to the Man and to greet him in his name, sending him also for a token of charity some little gifts; that is, a tunic and hose, that he might put them on for love of him. And at number 6: Then, the gifts being presented, when he had humbly and with reverence received the greeting of the Father, and had put those garments on himself, presently he laid them aside again, and said, etc. Although, I say, these things are said there; yet by what means you could hammer out thence that HIS OWN habit, that is, of the Cistercian Order, was sent by St. Bernard to Blessed Schetzelo; and that the latter was taken up by the former into the institute of the said Order, I for my part do not see. Nor do I know of another document by which that matter may be established: so that it seems to follow that mention of him is not rightly made among the Benedictine Dwellers in heaven in Bucelinus in the Menology of that Order as of a monk of our most sacred Cistercian Congregation, as he says; much less can there be attributed to him among the Cistercians, in Chalemot cited, a long trial of virtue and of the cloister and of the monastic life.
[4] Concerning the age of the Blessed one these things occur to me to be said. Among our manuscript papers there is one inscribed with this title: The age of the Blessed one, From the Annals of the monastery of St. Mary of Luxembourg, collected by Father Alexandre Wiltheim, S.J. On Blessed Schetzelo. What I shall afterward give from that manuscript, I shall cite under the title of the accounts of Luxembourg. In them, therefore, it is thus written concerning the age of the Blessed one: His life and death being referred to between the year 1139 and 1154; because they seem to pertain to the times of Folmar, first abbot of Münster, he thus concludes, etc. Angel Manrique in the Cistercian Annals at the year 1134, number 9, says, Father Bernard founded the cloister or Himmerod through Achard, his disciple, a most holy man, through whom also he affectionately and devotedly visited holy Ascelinus, at that time living in great sanctity in those parts. Hence we have the age in which the Blessed one lived; but in what year did he cease to live? Let us inquire into the matter.
[5] the year of his death, In the year 1134, according to the author of the Annals just cited, Achard visited him; and that in the last four years, as seems to me more probable, of the Blessed one's life: because the things which the biographer narrates at number 3 that he did nearly four years before his falling asleep seem to me to agree better with the manner of living which he then held, when Achard visited him, than with that which he had observed for a whole decade preceding this visitation, as it appears. For after the biographer had said at number 2, For fourteen years he continued wandering alone, and naked in his whole body, roaming and hiding among the mountains and woods for the love of Christ; having the sky for a roof, the air for a garment; the food of cattle for human food. For he used wild and raw herbs and their roots...; presently connecting these things with the said decade, he says, The rigor of this his purpose... he kept for a whole decade. But concerning the last four years of his life he thus teaches: But afterward, nearly four years before his falling asleep... a most harsh winter raging, when the earth, overwhelmed with snows and bound by a keener frost, neither put forth herbs abroad nor allowed roots to be dug up: then, not being able to endure the face of hunger and of this cold, at last, as a man now almost dead beforehand, and with a swollen body, surrounded with skin alone, he was compelled sometimes to leave the deserts, and to turn aside somehow to men, as their guest, for the sake of food; as is set forth at greater length in the Life. And in this state, in which namely he was sometimes compelled, even unwilling, to turn aside to men in his own way, Achard seems to have met him. Hear the writer of the Life at number 5 reporting these things concerning him: We therefore, having set out for those parts, on one day, while it was still dark, entered the place where he was thought to rest; and not finding him, we inquired of our host where he might be. But he answered: This night... he stayed with us in the courtyard. Do you hear from the host, "he stayed with us"? Hence therefore I gather it as more probable that the Blessed one was met by Achard in the last four years of his life: which if you join with the year 1134, in which the Annalist cited above fastened the deed, it will remain that his death be fixed at about the years 1138 or 1139.
[6] the place of the translation: Molanus in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium suggests
accounts by which the place of the translation is illustrated; concerning which the writer of the Life hands down these things: But afterward his body was translated thence (the discourse had been of the new church built over the body of the Blessed one) to a certain noble castle which is named Luceleburgum, and was honorably entombed in the church of blessed Mary. Further, at his very tomb miracles are frequently wrought to this day, and those who ask faithfully receive healings and many benefits by his intercession. Molanus, I say, from a letter of Jean Bertels of Louvain, Prelate of the monastery of Luxembourg, given to him, records thus: Our monastery, in which the Man of God rests, has been destroyed, nay levelled with the ground, for thirty-three years. Meanwhile I have often heard from those who inhabited the monastery, and who often bent their knees before the sepulcher of the Hermit, that he was by his proper name called Gisislenus, and dwelt in a very great wood near Luxembourg, which in the German idiom is called Grünenwald, in which a most beautiful spring leaps forth from a rock, which is called Schetzelborn; and because he dwelt beside this, he is named by the common people Schetzel-bruder, by the Latins brother Schetzelo... Whose body still rests in the place of the desolate church. For the rest, concerning that Jean Bertels, Valerius Andreas instructs the reader in the Belgian Library; whence I sample these things for our purpose: He embraced the institute of St. Benedict in the monastery of Münster within the walls of the city of Luxembourg; and, consecrated abbot in the year of the Lord 1576, on the eighth of the Ides of August, he presided nineteen years. Thence being advanced to the government of the monastery of Echternach of the same Order, etc.; where he departed from the living... in the year of the Lord 1607. Of the abbey of Münster, and its destruction and its abbots, the praised Bertels treats in the History of Luxembourg, page 123 and following; but of his own affairs on page 144.
[7] But, that our discourse may return to the sepulcher of our Blessed one, whence it has for a while digressed, that the body was found, the accounts of Trier testify that it continued to lie hidden after the destruction of the said monastery. For I read these things in them: In the year 1544 Luxembourg was recovered by the emperor Charles V by the work of Fürstenberg: whom men more provident than was right persuaded that the house of Münster must be levelled with the ground. Which matter being briefly touched upon, Then indeed, as follows, the sepulcher of Master Schetzelo, which we have received was in our grandfathers' memory honored with tapers and gifts by a great throng of men, wrapped in the rubble of the collapsed building, lies hidden even to this day. There was indeed a report that the body of the Blessed one had been found, according to the things which I shall presently report, in the year 1620; but it was false. Understand the matter from the same accounts of Luxembourg, in which I find these things: In the year 1620, at the report of the finding of the body of Master Schetzelo, the whole city poured out with incredible eagerness to behold the disinterred corpse. They said that it had been handed down from their elders that Master Schetzelo had been buried before the high altar of the building of the Holy Virgin, which we have said was built by Count William. And so by the Venerable man Hubert Bisten... sacred preacher among the monks of Münster, it had been noticed for several years that in the open space which remained behind the building removed in the French war, in that spot where Master Schetzelo had to be placed, herbs and grasses grew up densely; but outside that place were sparse and dry. Since the surrounding rocks are elsewhere scarcely covered with earth to the height of a palm.
[8] It came into his mind that this did not happen from nothing; and it pleased him that digging be done in that place. there was a report, but a false one. At first a good deal of earth was dug out (which namely had made the grasses more luxuriant); presently it was noticed that the earth had been cut out in the shape of a sarcophagus. At length the bones also of a man were uncovered: from which, when the ground had been carefully removed, they were seen to retain their frame and their order and arrangement. Not one of the teeth had fallen out: it appeared that he had been of a large body. It was believed that he was Master Schetzelo. And so men from the city were present in the greatest throng; touching with the hand the relics found out of veneration: applying prayer-beads and coins, religiously taking away a clod: to very few indeed were small fragments of the bones granted. Most lamented one thing, that, since no marvels occurred at that finding, nothing was found which would be a proof that those relics must be those of Master Schetzelo. Spurs also which were found, of ancient appearance and with great rowels, and an iron guard of a scabbard-tip, indicated a soldier rather than a hermit; and not a few were of the opinion that those bones were of one of the ancient Counts of Luxembourg: perhaps of that William who had founded the building. Wherefore they were carried honorably indeed, yet not as those of a Saint, into the building of the new monastery, abbot Peter himself following in a dark garment. William was the son of that Conrad who was the first author of founding the monastery, in penalty for the archbishop of Trier Everhard having been violently captured in the year 1059. The deed is narrated in the Sainte-Marthe brothers in Christian Gaul, volume 1, among the archbishops of Trier, from an old codex of those prelates; and these things are subjoined: But meanwhile the bishop returned from captivity, hostages being given; nor long after he received the penitent Count: on whom for a penance he enjoined a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; in which he also died.
[9] The Acts published and in manuscript; their author The Acts of our Blessed one were published in print at Douai in the year 1626, with this title: The Life of blessed Schetzelo the hermit, who was in the bishopric of Trier for fourteen years without a roof, and without a garment, content also with the food of cattle; namely herbs, roots, acorns, and the like. By the author Achard, a monk of the Cistercian Order: but now published from darkness into light by the work of Arnold de Raisse, Canon at St. Peter's of Douai. It is inscribed To the most worthy Lord Master Pierre Roberti, prelate of the abbey of blessed Virgin of Münster. Besides, we have three manuscript copies of the same Life; but nowhere in them do I find who it was, and where, that committed it to writing from the report of Achard. It must therefore be learned from elsewhere. Both matters I dispatch thus. Father Pierre François Chifflet, S.J., in the year of Christ 1660 made public a book to which he gave the name: The illustrious lineage of St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, asserted, together with some little works of Writers pertaining to the history of the twelfth century after Christ: among which are the three books of Herbert, archbishop of Torres in Sardinia, on Miracles. Some of the things which their editor prefaces concerning that author I transfer hither. That Herbert was a Spaniard by nation, of León by fatherland, seems to be gathered from his second book on Miracles, chapter 1; as may be seen in the same place. At Clairvaux, the monastic habit being taken up, he was brought up among the disciples of St. Bernard. Afterward the government of the abbey of Mores was conferred on him (in the diocese of Langres in Champagne of Gaul, from Jongelinus in the Accounts of the abbeys of the Cistercian Order, book 1, page 68): whence afterward returning to Clairvaux... he wrote three books on Miracles in the year of Christ 1178, twenty-five years after the death of St. Bernard, as is gathered from book 1, chapter 31; and book 2, chapter 13.
[10] who he was Wherefore, as the author of the Chronicle of Clairvaux advises, from this one year the rest must be investigated, whenever he records that this or that happened three years before, or seven or more before. He was promoted not long after to be archbishop of Torres in Sardinia: and presently John the hermit offered him certain things concerning the life and deeds of St. Bernard, omitted by his elders, which, received from the mouth of some of his disciples, he had published at his urging. In Chrysostom Henriquez in the Menology, and in the Bundle of the Saints of Cîteaux; and likewise in Angel Manrique in the Cistercian Annals, very many things occur cited from the book of the Beginning of the Cistercian Order, and its Appendix, or from the book on the Illustrious Men of the Cistercian Order, or from John the hermit in the Life of St. Bernard, which were copied from these books of Herbert. Whence it is that you will find far more chapters of the Life of St. Bernard by John the hermit quoted by these authors than those which we have brought forward hither from an old original: because namely the untitled work of Herbert, which was placed immediately after the lucubration of John the hermit, was attributed by the incautious to John himself, and held for a certain continuation of the Life of St. Bernard. We give the fountain itself, which the reader will marvel lay hidden so long in the parchments of Clairvaux, etc.
[11] So he there: from which we learn that the true author of the praised little work is that Herbert. is indicated. He in book 1, chapters 5 and 6, reports the things which Achard, a monk of Clairvaux and builder of many monasteries, related to him, then still a novice, as an eyewitness. Among which in the same place, chapter 6, there stands the history of our Schetzelo, or, as he is there called, Schocelinus. Further, its authentic credit is persuaded both by what has already been said, and by these things which are said in it concerning the Blessed one at number 10: There are reported also other almost innumerable great deeds concerning that Man, which, since they have not been more diligently investigated by us as being far removed, we close in silence, bringing forward only those which we have received by eyewitness faith. Of which kind are not the things which I find noted by someone among our papers: His death... was made manifest by all the bells round about sounding together, no one moving or pulling them. The body could not be moved from the place, as often as some strove to carry it off and to convey it to certain churches: until, placed on a wagon, it was carried by oxen, no one driving them, to the monastery of Blessed Mary in the castle of Luxembourg. For the things which are said here concerning the funeral do not cohere with the Life at number 10. But since the editor Chifflet testifies that the fountain itself is given by him; I shall not pursue the streamlets, and, keeping other copies from the press, I shall have those which he printed reprinted, and illustrate them with notes.
THE LIFE
By the author Herbert, monk of Clairvaux and archbishop of Torres in Sardinia.
From the edition of Father Pierre François Chifflet of the Society of Jesus.
Schetzelo, in the territory of Luxembourg in Belgium (B.)
BHL Number: 0000
a
By Herbert.
The author narrates from the report of Achard, monk of Clairvaux In the (Clairvaux) monastery b there was a certain Religious monk, by name Acardus c, a man indeed noble by birth; but nobler by his manner of life. But he, by the bidding and sending of blessed Bernard his abbot, was the initiator and builder of very many monasteries. This kindly man, then, and of great comfort, used to narrate many examples to us when we were novices: whence he often kindled us in the love of the virtues. Of which we too have determined to commit at least one to the pen, because we feel that it clings more ardently to our affection.
[2] I, he said, while I was once staying in the bishopric of Trier for the building of a monastery which is named Claustrum d, the sanctity of Blessed Schetzelo, by the bounty of grace from above, deserved to see and to know a holy man, a man truly rich, and truly blessed, by name Schocelinus e. Who indeed was the richer and the more blessed, the more truly he despised and the further he cast away the deceitful riches of the world, as vanities and false madnesses. For truly he is rich, not who has more, but who desires less. For with so great fervor did this most blessed Hermit forsake the world, with so great ardor did he love Christ, that
we think that in our times and regions there has been no one who could be compared with him in contempt of visible things and in mortification of the flesh. For all of us can admire his life, many also emulate it; but no one imitate it: whence it is also necessary the more to venerate it. For he, dying daily for Christ, endured not one only, but innumerable crosses and deaths: because as many days as he lived in the desert, so many martyrdoms he as it were passed through. For what man in this mortal life, however much he has advanced, could live long either without human food, or without a roof, or without a garment, or without all of these? Further, that manly Man, a man of true virtue, having gone beyond human nature, when he lacked all these things, God strengthening him, did not fail for a long time. For fourteen years he continued wandering alone, and naked in his whole body, roaming and hiding among the mountains and woods for the love of Christ, having the sky for a roof, the air for a garment; the food of cattle for human food. For he used wild and raw herbs and their roots, and sometimes also mast f and acorns as great delicacies, which indeed is proved to be rather the pasture of brute animals than the food of men.
[3] the harshness of his life, The rigor of this his purpose, then, he kept with inexorable severity for a whole decade. But afterward, nearly four years before his falling asleep, in the heart of winter, a most harsh cold season raging, when the earth, overwhelmed with snows and bound by a keener frost, neither put forth herbs abroad nor allowed roots to be dug up, then, not being able to endure the face of hunger and of this cold; at last, as a man now almost dead beforehand, and with a swollen body, surrounded with skin alone, he was compelled sometimes to leave the deserts, and willy-nilly g to come down to the nearest farms. But coming to the outlying h cottages of that same hamlet, if he knew that some poor little man there, and of honest manner of life, was dwelling, he turned aside to him more willingly. Yet he refused to enter his lodging: but with head laid back he rested by the hearth i of the outbuildings k, or rather in the middle of the courtyard l. But he chiefly m took care of this, that he should come when the night was already deep, and withdraw at the hour before dawn. Further, those men who were held worthy to be ennobled by so great a guest paid him great reverence, so that no one of the inhabitants dared to approach him, or to be troublesome in conversation: unless perhaps permitted by him, or even called, fearing indeed lest he should no longer turn aside to them, if anyone should there unseasonably disturb his rest. Sometimes, however, they laid for him before the doors a little straw, or an old sack: in case he might perhaps consent to rest on it. They offered him nonetheless some fragment of barley or bran bread, knowing indeed that he would accept nothing else. Of which bread namely he sometimes chewed a small crust, but the remaining part he carried with him to the desert for the refreshment of many days.
[4] his nakedness, That most wealthy Man had also bound about his loins a cheap and very short apron n, with which he could scarcely cover only the modest parts of his body, when so unavoidable a cause compelled him to appear to men. He possessed nonetheless also a very small little sack hung from his neck or loins, in which he carried the aforesaid nourishment. Behold the whole property of that rich Man; behold the glorious inheritance and noble patrimony of the servant of Christ, to whom, truly faithful, the whole world was of riches. For he, as having nothing and possessing all things, obtained the whole in such a nothing, since he who enclosed the whole world in a cheap apron chose, out of the whole and for the whole world, an apron alone. Finally, what else does an abundance of treasures and an infinite possession of things confer on any man, except that he may lead the present life and prolong it for some while: for the passing of which, namely, one strip of an old rag sufficed for this Poor man of ours?
[5] Blessed Bernard therefore, having heard of the virtue of his manner of life, the little gifts sent to him by St. Bernard. gave us a command to go to the Man and to greet him in his name, sending him also for a token of charity some little gifts; that is, a tunic and hose, that he might put them on for love of him. We therefore, having set out for those parts, on one day, while it was still dark, entered the place where he was thought to rest: and not finding him, we inquired of our host where he might be. But he answered: This night, he said, he stayed with us in the courtyard o, and to him, withdrawing and bidding farewell earlier than usual, we said: Why, lord Father, do you go out so soon, when scarcely half an hour of the night has yet passed? And he: Presently, he said, certain Religious men are about to come here on my account: by whom I do not wish to be found at present. But this he often did also on account of others, whom he nonetheless foretold would come to him. Which having heard, we marveled more than enough that we had so quickly been caught out by him in our cunning. For we thought we had acted cleverly enough, and had anticipated him unawares before he should rise. In which deed indeed it plainly became known that he was not lacking even in the prophetic spirit. We therefore, knowing that he could not be found without his own good pleasure, took care to send word to him through the aforesaid host, earnestly asking that for the sake of him who had sent us to him he would grant us his presence.
[6] To which at length assenting kindly, we came and saw him, Achard is brought to the Blessed one, and dealing with him, not as an earthly man, but as a heavenly angel: whose whole manner of life was in the heavens and from the heavens. Then, the gifts [p] being presented, when he had humbly and with reverence received the greeting of the father, and had put those garments on himself, presently he laid them aside again, and said: Blessed be God, who has given it into the heart of an apostolic man that he should deign to have remembrance of a sinful and wretched man. And now for love of him I have obediently received the garments sent and put them on: yet I am not able to wear them longer, because there is no need of them for me, nor did he himself command it. But I say to you, my most dear friends, that nothing is more troublesome to me than that I should be compelled to lay again upon my wearied and aching shoulders the hateful burden of carnal care, laid aside with so great difficulty. And so we, seeing a man kindly and affable, when we were now speaking to him with confidence, inquired of him, yet with reverence, whether he still endured any trouble from the enticements of the flesh, or the provocations of demons.
[7] Then he, as he was a merry man and of good comfort, wonderful when he had smiled a little, thus began to speak: It is now a long time, most loving brethren, since by the grace of God I have felt myself not moderately relieved from the passions of the vices. But since the life of man upon earth is a temptation, who may glory that he has a chaste heart? For if we shall say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. For walking in the midst of snares, and lying open on every side to hostile swords, unless we be assiduously fortified with the shield of divine protection, we shall never be able to be on guard against those who shoot in the dark even at the upright in heart. Yet we trust in the Lord, because He is faithful, and will not suffer us to be tempted above that which we can bear. And now I relate to you something for the sake of an example, in which you will be able to notice by what kind of temptations I am at times disquieted. On a certain day, then, when the harshness of winter was stiffening with a frost more intense than usual, and copious snow was flowing from the clouds, then with numbed limbs I was lying on the ground: but nevertheless the almighty Sower of things, who gives snow like wool, and scatters mist like ashes; He Himself had given me, in place of the woolen cloak which was lacking, a snowy covering, great indeed and ample, and packed to nearly the measure of one cubit, with which, spread more widely round about, I was so covered that of my body nothing at all appeared: only around my face the rod of my smoking breath, going forth from my mouth, gradually melted away the snow cast over it on every side, and had made a small opening.
[8] of his life Meanwhile a certain little hare, fleeing before the face of the snow and cold, and seeking hiding-places in which to rest, came by chance to that very opening. Which, enticed by the sweetness of the warmth, at once stopped, and there lay down upon my head. Then the very novelty of the thing compelled me to smile, and, levity creeping over me, my mind was cast down from its state of accustomed gravity, and slipped into a joy of vanity. And not only so; but a desire also came upon me to seize that same little hare with my hand thrust out, as I easily could, not that I might kill or keep it; but because it is an innocent and most gentle animal, that I might for some while be delighted by handling and seeing it, and might not fear meanwhile to consume with this foolish gladness the time dedicated to penance; but struggling longer against the suggester, I overcame the vain desire, by God's gift: and remaining with my body quiet, I made the timid little beast rest safely: until at last of its own will it withdrew.
[9] the innocence Behold, this is one of the greater temptations which I remember having borne for many days back, which indeed, although jestingly, and as though perhaps for the sake of cheering you, I may seem to you to have related more merrily than I ought; yet I blush and grieve that my thoughts are at times disquieted by these vanities, like flitting flies, even without consent to vanity. When that wonderful Man was relating these and like things to us for the sake of edifying and consoling us, then he most humbly returned the greeting of the blessed father Bernard through our embassy, and most devoutly commended himself to his prayers. And presently blessing us and bidding us farewell, like a stag sent forth by God, he ran back with free leaps to the shady parts of the woodland glades, and, like a bird escaped from the hand of one holding it, its wings loosed into the air, he flew back singing to the pathless places of the groves.
[10] he understands and looks up to. His death, burial, miracles. We therefore, seeing this, and having no further spirit for speaking, in comparison with such and so great perfection likened our towers [q] to ash and cinders, and, we who before thought that we were something when we were nothing, then esteemed all our righteousness as the cloth of a menstruous woman: and so, striking our breasts, humbled and exceedingly compunct, we returned to our own place. There are reported also other almost innumerable great deeds concerning that Man, which, since they have not been more diligently investigated by us as being far removed, we close in silence, bringing forward only those which we have received by eyewitness faith. This thrice-Blessed one therefore, when, God revealing it, he saw that the day of his falling asleep was already at hand, went to one of the nearer farms, and there, the viaticum of the Lord's Sacrament being received, with angels rejoicing, he rendered up his soul of angelic purity. To whose venerable funeral rites Religious men and innumerable peoples flocking together in troops from every quarter buried his body honorably, and built a new church over it. But afterward it was translated
thence, his body, to a certain noble castle which is named Luceleburgum [r], and was honorably entombed in the church of blessed Mary [s]. Further, at his very tomb miracles are frequently wrought to this day, and those who ask faithfully receive healings and many benefits by his intercession.
[11] These and like examples dom Acardus often related to us neophytes, The writer's epilogue. by which he magnificently strengthened the rudiments of our apprenticeship, and kindled us not moderately in the love of the virtues. But at last, himself also failing, in a good old age he departed to the Lord, and was buried in the sepulcher of his brethren.
ANNOTATIONS.
p. "Eulogiis," that is, little gifts; according to what was said at number 5. More in the same author.
q. "Turres" towers; in Raisse "vires" strength, two of our manuscripts agreeing: in another it is "vices."
r. Otherwise Luxembourg; concerning which I spoke at the beginning of the Preliminary Commentary.
s. The monastery is of the Order of St. Benedict; concerning which the Preliminary Commentary at number 6. Mabillon in the Annals of the said Order at the year 1083, in which it is established that it was founded, from letters reported by Le Mire in the Account of the churches of Belgium, page 213, speaking of its ancient structure, writes that it was once built not far from the walls of Luciliburgum or Luxembourg, on the ridge of the mountain, between the ruins of the old castle and the Mansfeld palace, under the title of St. Peter; but in the process of time consecrated under the patronage and name of St. Mary: which on account of its excellence above the other monasteries of that district is commonly called Munster.
* perhaps "creeping over"