Gaugericus

ON ST. GAUGERICUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,

AT CAMBRAI IN BELGIUM,

Between DCXIV and DCXXII.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Gaugericus, Bishop of Cambrai in Belgium (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR P. B.

§ I. His cult.

Among the prelates who from St. Vedastus governed at once the church of Cambrai and that of Arras, St. Gaugericus is numbered the fourth, His cult begun immediately from his death, the successor of Vedulf, who transferred the see from Arras to Cambrai. Some have variously twisted his name, calling him some Gaudericus, others Gangericus, others finally Goëricus, Gauricus, Gauritius, etc.: but both the old copies of the Acts, as many as we have seen, and the usage of the Belgic churches, both ancient and present, constantly call him Gaugericus. The beginning of his cult and public veneration can scarcely be separated from the end of his life. This is gathered from our second Acts, number 69; where his sepulcher is exhibited both as thronged by the influx of suppliants, and as laden and rich with votive offerings, when a certain Launeric by a notable sacrilege vainly attempted to despoil it; that is (as Baldericus, or whoever else has been published under this name, affirms in the Chronicle of Cambrai and Arras, book 1, chapter 15), in the very time of bishop Bertoald, who was substituted immediately upon Gaugericus's death. The same author in book 2, chapter 4, describing the monastery which the Saint erected near Cambrai, and in which he prepared a tomb for himself while alive, and where, as soon as he had departed this life, he narrates that he was laid, adds these things concerning his cult:

[2] Presently therefore kings and princes and all the most powerful, roused by the signs and prodigies with which he had flashed forth in manifold ways before his death, and increased at Cambrai, and astonished by the far greater ones which through his merits the merciful and compassionate Lord deigned unceasingly to work after his death, flocked together from divers parts to the sepulcher of the most holy Man, and, imploring that they might be helped by the patronage of so great a Man, offered most opulent gifts: and straightway from the abundance of goods the monastery is enlarged with all diligence, and a numerous company of Brethren is appointed to serve God and his most holy Confessor in perpetuity. After this, proceeding to the increases of this first fervor, he says: And thereafter the place is enriched with resources of divers kinds, and is so much augmented by many benefits of good men that they gave not only round about in the neighborhood richer and more fertile settlements of farms, but also in far remote regions (as the writings which are in the archive of the church attest) various emoluments, and, so to speak, of every kind. Which place, once preeminent as much for elegance as for all convenience, afforded to the whole province manifold favor and the greatest honor, and greatly distinguished the city by the excellence of its dignity: for it was a venerable and royal abbey, flourishing in all sufficiency, to whose manifold favor you would think nothing could be added. Assuredly all these things flowed from the piety and religion already then spread abroad toward our Thaumaturge buried there.

[3] Long, therefore, and greatly does his cult seem to have flourished at Cambrai, [it became more famous from the 9th century, through the Martyrologists at this his birthday:] before it began to be diffused more widely through the more famous Martyrologies only in the ninth century. We think that Wandelbert went before the rest, and at almost the same time Rabanus: the former in his metrical Martyrology at the III of the Ides of August has it thus:

On the third you too, flower and pious ornament, seek the stars, Tiburtius. These days the kindly confessor Goëricus * also possesses.

Rabanus is fuller, weaving for him at the same day this eulogy: On the same day, the deposition of blessed Gaugericus the bishop, who was born in the fortress of Eposium. He

was straightway in his youth intent upon the meditation of the law of God and upon psalmody. But afterward he was ordained bishop in the city of Cambrai by the blessed bishop of the city of Reims. He was renowned for many wonders, especially in the loosing of prisoners who were kept in the jails. When therefore he could not obtain from the governors that they be released, having poured forth prayer to the Lord he deserved to release them. He also gave light to the blind and cured the sick. And when he had happily completed thirty-three * years in his bishopric, he passed to the Lord; which by many tokens of miracles at his sepulcher was made clear to have so happened. Of Florus, who surpasses both these in age, we say nothing; because it is uncertain whether what is read of St. Gaugericus at this day in our edition is Florus's own, since Ado, who nevertheless amplified the work of Florus, has none of it. As therefore our Rosweyde, denying the present announcement of St. Gaugericus to Ado, relegated it to the appendix of the Adonian Martyrology, so we judge that the same announcement pertains rather to the additions to Florus than to Florus himself. Further, in that same IX century the birthday of this most holy bishop having been noted by Usuard, thereafter it gradually came into all the general Martyrologies (if you except that of Notker), and indeed everywhere on this same day on which he is written in the Acts to have died, the third of the Ides of August, on which also it is now celebrated in the Roman in these words: At Cambrai in Gaul (namely Belgic), of St. Gaugericus, bishop and confessor.

[4] But at Cambrai there was long more than that one feast of the deposition of St. Gaugericus; since, however, I found the rest less distinct, I had recourse to the most erudite lord Henri Denis Mutte, for some years now secretary to the most illustrious archbishop of Cambrai (which indeed I did not know), At Cambrai, however, other feasts of his are also kept; but, as I had known for some time, a most loving and most experienced friend of our studies, and a Canon of St. Gaugericus. The most learned man answered on the VIII of August 1734 in this manner. We celebrate three chief feasts of our most blessed Father Gaugericus, which are expressly and distinctly set forth in all our ritual books: namely of the Deposition, on the XI of August; of the Elevation, on the XVIII of November; of the Translation, on the XXIV of September. The first two are most ancient; the third began to be celebrated in the year MCCXLV, in which year the body of St. Gaugericus was solemnly translated from the old shrine (which we shall give below at letter D) into a new and more precious one (to be exhibited at number 8) by Guido de Laudunum, bishop of Cambrai: which feast turned out more solemn than the other, wont to be celebrated in the month of November. The greater (or cathedral) church of Cambrai, which had until then kept with us the feasts of the Deposition and of the Elevation, also inscribed in its Calendars the memory of the new Translation made by Guido, now under the name of Translation or exaltation; now (which is more frequent, and for several centuries has alone prevailed) under the name of Elevation. In that same church that feast prevailed under the name of Elevation which we have always called of the Translation; the other and more ancient one of the month of November having there been omitted through disuse for some centuries. Since the most diligent writer Jean Molanus did not have these things sufficiently examined, he was little consistent with himself concerning them in his editions of Usuard.

[5] namely the ancient one of the Elevation on the day 18 of November, But lest a like error should henceforth creep upon anyone, let us weigh separately those things which we have set forth as chief heads … And concerning the Deposition indeed there can be no doubt to anyone: for as many ecclesiastical Calendars or ritual books as assign the birthday of St. Gaugericus refer it to the day III of the Ides of August. Concerning the Elevation to be celebrated at the XIV of the Calends of December there is the same consent of all the Cambrai books written before the year of the Lord MCCXLV. Of the Cambrai Martyrology there survive in the library of the greater church two copies of the best character of the twelfth century, one of which, marked CX, otherwise 18, was written before the year MCXLIV; the other toward the end of the same century: likewise two codices of the same Martyrology are extant in the library of the monastery of the Holy Sepulcher; one written not long after the middle of the XII century; the other before the year MCCXLVI: in those four codices it is written in plainly the same words: "III of the Ides of August. At Cambrai the birthday of St. Gaugericus, bishop and confessor, who was both conspicuous for holiness of life, and, renowned for miracles, rested in peace. XIV of the Calends of December, in Gaul, in the city of Cambrai, the Elevation of the body of the most glorious Confessor of Christ, Gaugericus." I pass over the ten manuscript codices of almost the same age which are here cited affirming the same, and six others written later. From the XIV century, however, in the text of the codices of the cathedral church that feast of November is indeed inscribed, but is omitted in the Calendars; and thereafter it was neglected both in the text and in the Calendars; nor accordingly was it thereafter certainly celebrated there.

[6] and of the translation on the day 24 of September, instituted in the year 1245, But the Translation is described by the same man thus: In the year of the Lord MCCXLIV, when our College resolved to translate the body of St. Gaugericus from a certain casket in which it was laid up into a better and more honorable one, in order that this might be done in a more solemn and more numerous assembly, it petitioned the supreme Pontiff Innocent IV, then staying at Lyons, that he would summon the faithful by indulgences proposed. The Pontiff granted their wishes in the second year of his Pontificate, on the IV of the Ides of February, letters being directed to all the faithful of Christ established throughout the province of Reims. That the day XXIV of September in the year MCCXLV was appointed for this solemnity we learn from our books: "There was translated," they say, "the body of the glorious Confessor the most blessed Gaugericus from the old little casket into a more honorable and more precious and more becoming one, in which it now is, by the venerable father Guido de Laudunum, bishop of Cambrai, on the VIII of the Calends of October, in the year of grace MCC forty-five." This was the beginning of the Feast of the Translation at the XXIV of September, which under that same appellation was first received in the greater church: this becomes clear from the Breviary of Ubaldus de Sartis, dean, who died toward the end of the XIII century, and from other manuscripts of that century and the following. The appellation of Elevation on that day prevailed in the latest manuscripts and in several printed books, if you except a very few. Further, the solemnities of the months of August and September the greater church celebrates with us, says Mutte; but the Elevation in the month of November, which ceased in that church, is now proper to us, and is kept with a less solemn rite.

[7] He adds also the following: There is a fourth feast of St. Gaugericus, which we alone celebrate, and the more recent feast of the Confraternity. which is called of the Confraternity. At the beginning of the XIV century only three solemnities of St. Gaugericus are enumerated; that fourth one must be later than that age. In the old Ordinary there is added outside the Order, in a different hand and of the fifteenth century as it seems: "On the solemnity of the most blessed Gaugericus, for the feast called of the Jesters, which is held on the fifth day of the week after the Octave of Easter." For a century and a half it has been celebrated on the II Sunday after Easter, on which Sunday by the Roman rite the Gospel is recited, I am the good Shepherd; hence it comes that the common people call this feast the feast of St. Gaugericus the good shepherd, in French, Saint Géry bon Pasteur. Concerning the Jesters I have nothing certain to bring forward. As regards the confraternity, it is famous; nor do our Archbishops disdain to enroll their names in it. Thus he concerning the Cambrai feasts of St. Gaugericus. But when I had also asked whether no sacred memorial at all was kept of the last translation of the relics under the emperor Charles V, who, the old church of St. Gaugericus on the high place of the city having been destroyed from the foundations, changed it into a citadel, he replied thus: Of that mournful migration from the church situated on the hill to the temple of St. Vedastus, which from that time passed to the Canons — when, namely, on Thursday the XVI of July in the year MDXLV we brought the sacred remains and the tomb of our Father into the parish church of St. Vedastus — we keep no feast: for tears did not well agree with the joy of feasts. There is added that we had there laid up the sacred body as it were in passing, until it should be permitted to translate it solemnly into the new choir which we were building; which was done only in the year MDLXIII on the day X of August, on the eve of the deposition of our holy Father, at the hour of vespers, two solemnities running together into one.

* otherwise: These days Gauricus too

* nay, XXIX

§ II. His relics.

The body of St. Gaugericus, most famous for miracles, rested for a very long time where it had first been buried, In his own church at Cambrai his body is kept, within a stone sepulcher, as we think, enclosed in a silver casket ordered to be made at the end of the X century or the beginning of the following by the archdeacon Ansfrid, Erluin being bishop, as will be said below; as it was in the year MXX, on the testimony of the author both of the Chronicle of Cambrai, book 2, chapter 7, and of our second Life, book 3, number 77: until the bishop placed it outside the sepulcher in a more august and higher, though less long, shrine, concerning which the most erudite Mutte most recently made mention thus: The present bier (of which behold the likeness for you) is that very one into which Guido de Laudunum, bishop of Cambrai, solemnly translated the bones of St. Gaugericus in the year MCCXLV. And it is placed in the apse of the choir in the space between the columns behind the high altar, in an eminent place, that it may be conspicuous to all. Once every year, on the second day of the week after the Sunday of the most holy Trinity, it is let down from this loftier place, the choir singing and employing the other ecclesiastical ceremonies, two Canons from the College of the greater church standing by, and the Regular Canons of St. Autbert, who with the remains of that same Saint come into our church as it were to meet St. Gaugericus. Then in a solemn procession we go on together, the bier of St. Autbert going before, the bier of St. Gaugericus following. But what is still preserved in this bier of the Saint he teaches in the same place thus: Our older Colleagues, once eyewitnesses, still surviving, assert that almost all his larger bones are contained there, becomingly covered in little bags of deerskin.

A. The shrine of gilded silver of the head of St. Gaugericus, removable at the opening a; where a part of the head is seen.

B. The shrine of the lower jaw of St. Gaugericus, of gilded silver.

C. The shrine of the arm of St. Gaugericus, of gilded silver.

D. The old sepulcher of St. Gaugericus, of whitish stone hollowed in the manner of a chest, in the middle of the new crypt of the subterranean chapel having a consecrated altar opposite the tomb.

E. The church destroyed in the year 1545 in the place where the Citadel now is. From a drawing of the year 1543 by Melchior Fallon.

[9] Except, however, those which have long been kept there apart in three most precious shrines, in several shrines, here represented, concerning which Mutte says thus: The first shrine A contains the head of the Saint; the second B the lower jaw; the third C one bone of the arm. To the first he further notes this: For four centuries and more we read that the head of St. Gaugericus was enclosed separately from the other bones in its own vessel, that it might be set forth for the veneration of the faithful. The present shrine, in which it is contained, is octagonal. On one side there stands an image of St. Gaugericus clothed in pontifical vestments and blessing with his hand. This image is movable. When it is lifted, there appears a cavity (a), in the middle of which

a round opening uncovers a part of the skull, so that it lies open to the eyes of the faithful. Then to the third he says: On the feast which we call of the Confraternity, on the second Sunday after Easter, the shrine of the arm of St. Gaugericus is carried down into the great market square; and there, under the portico of the town hall, upon an altar erected for the occasion, it remains exposed for three hours; which custom, certainly ancient, is thought to have been introduced on account of the throng of people about to venerate the relics.

[10] To these I have added, at the letter D, the stone chest or ancient sepulcher of St. Gaugericus, and the old sepulcher. which in the year 1545 the Canons, on their removal, translated together with the rest of his remains from the old church to the new, and there placed in the crypt behind the choir; to which, on Mutte's testimony, a very great throng of people also gathers on the feasts of blessed Gaugericus, to venerate his monument. And it is, as he writes elsewhere, a sarcophagus of whitish stone hollowed in the manner of a chest, set upon a base of more recent work, in the middle of the new crypt, or subterranean chapel, having a consecrated altar opposite the tomb. I have added also, at the letter E, the old church of St. Gaugericus, accurately drawn two years before it was destroyed on the hill by the command of the emperor Charles, with the surrounding dwellings, which I have omitted. Concerning this I give you one warning, says Mutte: when you see the form of a tomb standing before the doors, do not immediately believe that the tomb of St. Gaugericus stood in the open air outside the church: for whatever writings survive concerning our Patron record that his tomb was placed in a subterranean crypt; and certainly in our church there is still extant another and older panel hanging from a certain epitaph, which exhibits the front of the old church without the figure of a tomb at the entrance. And all these things indeed the same most famous Mutte of his own accord sent, most neatly drawn at his own expense in a far larger and most elegant form.

[11] But who could relate in how great esteem the people of Cambrai always held this deposit of the most holy body? The church burned first through the Normans, as the Chronicle asserts, book 1, chapter 59, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation DCCCLXXXI; But the body always kept there in the greatest esteem, and again through the Hungarians in the year .. CMLIII, in the same place, chapter 74; but the relics, as is added, were hidden away in time. But nothing was stronger than what bishop Fulbert of Cambrai is there narrated, in chapter 77, to have done about that time toward the emperor Otto the Great, who had greatly deserved of him: That Otto, he says, a glorious prince, was at that time very attentively engaged about the founding and restoring of churches; and, fourteen sees of pontifical magnificence having already been established, he also built a certain metropolis, by name Magdeburg; for which, when he had obtained from his bishops many pledges of the Saints, he asked bishop Fulbert that the bodies of the saints Gaugericus and Autbert be given him, judging that his metropolis would be most happy if it were supported by the patronage of holy Confessors. But the bishop, fearing to decline his petition, hung in uncertainty; yet, lest he should seem ungrateful for the benefits which he had already conferred on him, as we have said, he promised effect to his petition. Anxious in which matter, the prelate turns his doubtful mind in different directions; and, seeing the difficulty of the business, whether he give or refuse, he perceives that either would be perilous to him: for if he refuse, the emperor's good will would be offended; but if he give, it would be the ruin of his province, as being widowed of the Patrons through whom it both obtained temporal safety and hopes for heavenly beatitude.

[12] and never sent either to Magdeburg in Germany, Amid these things the pontiff at last took counsel for himself by a provident plan; and, a few of his own being called in, to whom he entrusted his secrets, he secretly, the sepulchers being uncovered, took the bodies of two priests, namely of St. Theoderic the bishop, of whom we spoke above, and of another whose name has fallen out (the younger writers think it was Rotrad, who after John had succeeded Theoderic), and, honorably wrapped in biers, granted them to the emperor together with some joints also of St. Autbert. And if anyone desires to know this more at large, let him read what Fulbert, a most famous doctor, wrote on the Life of St. Autbert at the command of the lord bishop of Cambrai, Gerard, the first of that name. But I shall not say that this happened without God's kindly disposal, since also the blessed man of the Lord Theoderic deserved this recompense from the Lord and this veneration from the people; and lest our province should be deprived of its defenders; whom even if he had wished to withdraw, I confess indeed that he could in no way have done so. For what feeling do you think the citizens would have had, if they had seen their advocate Gaugericus snatched from them, through whom the happy city of Cambrai, happily made illustrious, spread its name everywhere among the nations? Nay, I believe they would not have yielded even to the emperor himself while they lived. Thus the author of the Chronicle of Cambrai and Arras.

[13] nor to Elne in Spain: See therefore how worthy — I will not say of credit, but of pardon — you judge Tamayo at this day in the Spanish Martyrology, when from Helleca and other fabulists he dares to affirm these things concerning our St. Gaugericus: Whose sacred remains devotion entombed in the church of St. Medard, built by him on the hill. Of which Witerius, bishop of Elne in Spain, translated the greatest part to his own church; where, wonderfully placed, the throng of the faithful venerated it. And this Witerius, or rather Witericus, or Ibitaricus, he says was present at and subscribed to the tenth Council of Toledo, in the year of Christ 656, that is, nearly four centuries before Fulbert the doctor, in the Life of St. Autbert the bishop, wrote thus against certain Germans, who themselves also gloried in the body of St. Gaugericus, as though it had long ago been sent by Fulbert, prelate of Cambrai, to the emperor Otto for the church of Magdeburg, and thereafter honorably preserved in it: But opinion favored them one way; truth kept another for us: for in our times it happened that a certain archdeacon of that same city (of Cambrai), of venerable life, by name Ansfrid, among the many things which he had distributed through the places of the Saints, had made for blessed Gaugericus a shrine adorned by the craftsman's hand with gold and silver, in which the limbs of the Confessor might be more nobly laid up. When therefore the day came on which the venerable prelate Erluin, who then bore the care of the people of Cambrai not at all idly, should fulfill the ministry of the transfer, having diligently examined the limbs of the precious body, he found the precious body FOR THE GREATEST PART; not indeed at Helena or Elne in Catalonia, but at Cambrai in the Saint's own church; for which, against the Spaniards and the people of Magdeburg, there also make what Baldericus has concerning the same body, book 1, chapter 74; book 2, chapters 5, 6, 7; book 3, chapter 49.

[14] It may nevertheless be that on the occasion mentioned above Otto received some particles from the body of St. Gaugericus; [although he seems at some time to have received some particles of it at Magdeburg;] just as he received some from the body of St. Autbert, lest bishop Fulbert could ever afterward seem to have wholly lied in what he had promised him concerning Gaugericus, and to have set forth for the public veneration of the emperor and of the people of Magdeburg, in place of his true relics, none of his true ones, but those of some other man neither known nor asked for. Fulbert the doctor does not, I confess, mention particles of this kind of the relics of St. Gaugericus, as he mentions joints of St. Autbert; but of course he was then writing the Life of the latter, not of the former; hence he had to attend more minutely to the affairs of Autbert than to those of Gaugericus. Then he hints that something had been taken away from the body of St. Gaugericus before Erluin found it for the greatest part. But no more urgent occasion of taking anything away can be conceived to have existed at any time before the times of Erluin than that which the prelate Fulbert had under Otto. Why then should it not be believed to have been done then? Nor does the silence of Baldericus stand in the way; because he was unwilling to add anything of his own to the text of Fulbert the doctor, which he had before his eyes, lest he should appear little faithful. Concerning the Elne relics of St. Gaugericus, moreover, apart from fabricated chronicles or modern authors following them, I have found nothing anywhere.

[15] Of a better character certainly are those which some assign in Belgium; as also several other churches as Mutte, who says that to the Canons of the church of the blessed Mother of God and ever Virgin Mary at Yvoi, petitioning for the said relics, it was replied thus: We, by the counsel and assent of our father John (de Béthune), bishop of Cambrai … have liberally handed over to them one joint from the hand of that Saint. So it is in the year 1214, on the XI of the Calends of June, in the diploma of Ænelmus, dean and Canon of St. Gaugericus. But when the wretched men, deprived of that joint by the injuries of war, returned in the year 1665, on the day XII of June, we granted a particle of the jaw of St. Gaugericus … and also a part of the sepulcher or stone tomb which while living he had had prepared for himself. Capitular Acts. The greater church of Cambrai, says the same, once received some bone of a finger of St. Gaugericus: for indeed in the authentic descriptions of the vessels of that same church made in the year MCCCLXXI and following, among many other shrines there is reckoned a vessel of gilded silver containing a finger of St. Gaugericus. In the year MDCXXXIV, on the XXI of April, a particle of the arm of St. Gaugericus is assigned to the abbot of Liessies. Acts of the Chapter. In the year MDCLXXII, on the XXV of November, at the instance of the Most Illustrious lord Ladislaus Jonnart, our archbishop, and of the Most Excellent lady, wife of the lord Luis de Zúñiga, Count of Monterey, governor of Belgium and of the County of Burgundy, one vertebra of St. Gaugericus was separated for that great parish which exists at Brussels dedicated in his name. So the Chapter. But in the month of May of the following year, on the day XIX, the Most Illustrious Alphonse de Berghes, archbishop of Mechlin, duly separated that vertebra or spine of the back into two parts; of which one then passed to the same Countess; the other to the aforesaid church of St. Gaugericus, where to this day it is honorably venerated, and on the XI of August is solemnly carried about through the city, as the Reverend and Distinguished lord Ægidius Neerdaels, Pastor there, lately informed me. In the year MDCCXV, on the XXIX of July, we granted to the parish church of St. Gaugericus at Arras a part of the relics of the body of St. Gaugericus taken from his skull. Acts of the Chapter.

[16] in Belgium. The said author adds others also from Raissius's Belgic Hierogazophylacium: page 81, a tooth of the same Saint, at Cambrai in the monastery of Autbert; page 199, in the church of St. Donatian at Bruges, a notable bone of St. Gaugericus; page 415, in the collegiate church of St. Peter at Douai, a notable part of St. Gaugericus the prelate; and relics of the same in the parish church of Raulicuria, page 449. Likewise from the Treasury of the church of Liessies, page 70: Of the garments of St. Gaugericus, bishop of Cambrai; page 137: A part of a bone the length of the little finger, concerning which in the preceding number. Likewise from the Saints of the Saints of Hainaut, page 245: A bone of St. Gaugericus from the arm, from the gift of the same Chapter, in the abbey of St. Ghislain; and page 298: The parish church of St. Gaugericus at Valenciennes has a rib of St. Gaugericus, bishop and its Patron, from the gift of Countess Joanna, which she obtained from the people of Cambrai in the year MCCXXXII: the memory of its reception is kept on the I Sunday of February. There is also added the church of the Beguinage of Valenciennes, but the relics are not described. Concerning the churches consecrated in his name, moreover, it would be long to speak: the Most Distinguished lord Mutte, in the diocese of Cambrai alone, as it now is, reckons rural churches of this kind

asserts that twenty-two survive, among which, he says, that one has most of antiquity which stood at Bussu, a village of Hainaut at the second milestone from Mons, while St. Waldetrude was living, as her Life among us relates, volume 1 of April, page 838, number 5, where also may be seen the notable apparition by which St. Gaugericus once favored that Saint there.

§ III. What his old Acts were; which survive.

Our second Life was written by the same man who wrote the Chronicle of Cambrai; To our Commentary we shall subjoin two sets of Acts of St. Gaugericus; first the shorter, then the fuller. The latter are more recent than the former; but since they alone offer notice of the more ancient copies, it must be seen before all things how great their own age and credit is. We judge therefore, first, that these longer Acts of ours were composed by the same man who under Gerard, bishop of Cambrai, the first of that name, wrote the illustrious Chronicle of Cambrai and Arras, which, with the name of Baldericus, bishop of Noyon and Tournai, prefixed, George Colvener first published in print. This is argued: 1st, by the age of both works: for each is inscribed to the same Gerard; the Life in the prefatory letter, the Chronicle in the preface to book 1: 2nd, by the writer's condition: for in both places he acknowledges Gerard as his lord, and affirms that he composed these things at his command — in the Life in the same place and often, in the Chronicle also at the place assigned: 3rd, by the prefaces of both works: for the sense of both is almost one and the same: The command is arduous to my slenderness; but I prefer to expose myself to the perils of censors of any sort rather than not to obey you, and that with the best faith: 4th, by words little used, yet common to both works; as "bacchania" for madness, in the Life at number 1, in the Chronicle book 2, chapters 5 and XI; "funebritas" for obsequies, in the Life at number 60, in the Chronicle book 1, chapter 28 and elsewhere; "Æolice" for "in Greek," in the Life at number 62, in the Chronicle book 1, chapter 88, etc.: 5th, finally, the author himself; who, as in book 2, chapter 5 of the Chronicle, by narrating in the first person what he had seen earlier when younger, manifestly signifies that he is the same who had written all the preceding matter from the beginning of the Chronicle, so, by weaving the same things in the same words into our Life, likewise in the first person from number 72, most expressly signifies that he is the one who narrated all the things which precede in that same Life; and thus that he is altogether the same who composed both that Chronicle and this Life.

[18] We judge, secondly, that the same man published these longer Acts of ours before his Chronicle. nay, the former before the latter; which is proved, This will be readily granted by anyone who has weighed both lucubrations: for the Chronicle is elaborated far more neatly, briefly, and vigorously, and savors of a style exercised by practice, mature and grave; but the Life, very wordy and adorned with interposed little verses, approaches more nearly to youthful garrulity. And indeed that this Life was the first-fruits of his writings he seems sufficiently to hint in these words to Gerard in the prefatory letter: Nor, if I may dare to say it, was it of your highest prudence to force a fainting servant to the peril of so great a function; that I, WHO HAD NOT YET TOUCHED THE KIND OF WRITING, should now, as a new reprehender of the ancients, impudently burst forth to so great a work, etc. Besides, in the Chronicle, book 2, chapter 4, toward the end, he thus makes mention of the posthumous miracles of St. Gaugericus: Of which the envious breezes rejoice that they have snatched away the greatest part: but the very few which could not be concealed we have succinctly touched upon in our first little book; most fully, however, anyone who pleases will be able to find them in that volume which is entitled Of his Life. Here he certainly cites a codex entitled Of his Life, and published before the Chronicle (as being, while this was being written, available to anyone who wished to read it), in which the posthumous miracles, which he had only succinctly touched upon in his Chronicle, book 1, chapters 13 and 15 (not 74, as Colvener would have it), were found most fully explained. But there was then no codex published and ready to hand for anyone, in which the posthumous miracles of the Saint could be found, except this one alone of which we treat. I prove this from the very text of our author, from which at the same time you will understand how many different copies of the Life of Gaugericus were known in his age.

[19] Thus, then, he has it in the letter prefixed to the Life, to Gerard: also from the author's text, Since formerly, most holy father, you had learned from your elders that concerning the life of our father … Gaugericus there had been a great and miraculous codex, from which this very small one which we now have had been excerpted, composed at length; but that under the madness of the pagans (he denotes the Normans, by whom he says the church or monastery of the Saint burned in the year 881, or the Hungarians, by whom it was again set on fire in the year 953) … in the very burnings of the monasteries it too was burned up together with the rest of the treasure and with a great many volumes; groaning at this indeed, you labored thereafter with long searching; and, in case anywhere you might find a treasure of so great a price, you anxiously inquired not only of neighboring but also of far remote librarians. Nor indeed could you have rested until at last, for the solace of your labor — by the favor, I believe, of the divine will assisting your desires — some stranger from the northern regions brought us a most ancient book to be sold, shorter indeed than the lost one, but fuller than the one we had: which you, piously and eagerly embracing, since indeed it bristled with a rustic and less cultivated speech, straightway commanded me to correct with a better style; and out of the two little books, namely the newly found one and the one previously had, the words being changed but the senses of the matters preserved, to make one body. Which he says was thereupon faithfully done by him.

[20] reviewing all the old Lives of the Saint; Hence we understand, first, that in our biographer's time only four copies of the Life of St. Gaugericus, differing among themselves, were known: the first in that great and miraculous codex (perhaps because into it were wont to be entered the prodigies which of old frequently occurred at the sepulcher); but long since lost, which accordingly our chronographer could neither see nor cite above: the second then indeed surviving and cited more than once by the same chronographer, but very small, and the very one which Surius, with a polished style, published from old manuscripts at the XI day of August, and which we shall produce below without any filing of the original style; but neither could this be the one assigned above, since there the matter treated is of posthumous miracles, of which this copy narrates none in detail: the third in that most ancient book brought from the northern parts, which indeed (as it was fuller than the smaller one and very ancient) without doubt contained some miracles wrought after his death and very ancient too; but who will believe that our author above proposed this to anyone who wished to read it, since it was in the power of the bishop alone; since it never appeared, certainly has never yet appeared among the manuscripts; since finally it bristled with so rustic and uncultivated a speech that this very thing was the reason why it should not so appear, so that our writer was straightway commanded by the bishop to correct it with a better style, the smaller life being also employed as an aid, and thus at last to publish it? It remains, therefore, that readers could be referred, at the place already so often mentioned, to that which was at length thus polished and accordingly changed into a fourth copy, that is, ours; and that this work accordingly appeared in public before the Chronicle was written; which, since the author had already for the greatest part completed it before the death of Gerard I, or the year of Christ 1051 (as Henschen rightly shows against all others, volume IV of June, page 585), it follows that our Life is not a little earlier.

[21] [The Appendix of the third book, however, is later than the Chronicle; but of the same author,] We understand, secondly, that to the first edition of this second Life there cannot belong that part of the third book which we have called the Appendix: because, since the author composed this Life only out of two copies most ancient in his age, reduced into one body, the words only being changed but the senses of the matters preserved, he could not mix in with it new matters, and ones more recent than either prototype, except insofar as they were useful and necessary for more clearly explaining the senses of the old matters there to his modern readers; as was done in book 1, number 8, and book 3, numbers 67 and 68. But the things which are found in the Appendix are more recent and do not serve to explain the sense of what precedes; nay, that which the biographer narrates concerning a fever driven off by him by the help of the Saint at number 77, if you read in the Chronicle book 2, chapter 7 together with the chapter following there, you will see that that miracle happened after that seventh chapter was begun and before it was finished. Therefore they do not pertain to the first edition; but they were afterward transferred by the same author from the Chronicle to the Life long since published, in altogether the same way in which from that same Life, numbers 65, 66, and 69, things were transferred by the same man into the Chronicle at chapter 13 and 15 of the first book. The same shines forth from the original division of our third book preserved in a codex of nearly the 13th century, which we shall give in the Life at number 64, and which reaches only, as they say, exclusively as far as the Appendix. Likewise from this, that in a codex of the 12th century the third book, like both the preceding, is written in a larger and uniform hand as far as the beginning of our Appendix; but from this beginning to the end in smaller and more compressed letters, such as most are wont to use in additions and appendices, that they may be distinguished from the original text.

[22] Someone will now perhaps ask who at last that author was, both of the Chronicle of Cambrai and of our second Life. who does not seem to have been Baldricus, bishop of Noyon. I answer: an intimate of Gerard the first, bishop of Cambrai, and a very great man; a canon of the cathedral church there, and among posterity of the weightiest credit and authority in Belgic antiquities — all which things, when Colvener demonstrates them in the prolegomena to the Chronicle, we willingly grant, and they suffice for us to dig out into the light from the darkness, before it perish, his work, such as it is, namely the hitherto unpublished Life of St. Gaugericus. For the rest, what the same Colvener there contends by documents suspect on more than one head, that this author was that Baldericus who afterward obtained the bishopric of Noyon and Tournai, I cannot be induced to believe; especially since the most skillful Mutte showed me, among the Miscellanea of Baluze, volume 5, page 309, a letter of the dean and church of Noyon to Lambert, bishop of Arras, concerning Baldric, now elected, that he be confirmed as soon as possible. For it has, say the writers concerning their own church and Baldericus, by the common counsel and assent of clergy and people, a pastor not brought in from elsewhere, not another's *; but its own, brought forth from its own womb, whom, received into its bosom, it itself suckled, whom, weaned to itself,

it itself brought up, and from the very beginnings of the cradle through the grades of ages and orders wholly claimed for itself; so that it rejoices to have from a son a father, from a nursling a ruler, from its own canon and archdeacon Baldric a pontiff. Let him who can connect these things with our chronographer's boyhood passed at Cambrai, with his long familiarity and domestic service in the palace of Gerard bishop of Cambrai, with his canonry finally and long residence in the church of Cambrai; and for my part he shall be free to make that Baldric bishop of Noyon. Meanwhile we too here not seldom call him Baldericus, lest we be the very first to depart from the manner now received.

[23] Further, we call this little lucubration the second Acts, or the second Life; because we prefix to it another very small and by far the most widely published one, whose style we have already said was filed down by Surius: for it is much more ancient, as is plain from this, that it is a rivulet drawn from the primary fount — I know not how long — before this perished. There are those who would have it written in the eighth century; perhaps because at the end it mentions the most famous fairs instituted at the Saint's sepulcher, and there says that even to the present day divine benefits are unceasingly bestowed; which certainly do not indicate an age closely joined with the burial of Gaugericus. Modern and rigid censors, while they praise its accuracy and gravity, complain only of this, that Surius did not keep his file from it. Let them cease to complain: for here it will come forth pure from ancient manuscripts; namely from the manuscript of the collegiate church of St. Gaugericus among the people of Cambrai, in which a collation is noted as made with an old Arras manuscript in large quarto; likewise from our most elegant parchment codex P. Ms. 155. Two others which we have — the Utrecht manuscript of St. Saviour's, and the manuscript of St. Maximin of Trier — because they are too much interpolated, we pass over. The first three agree with one another wonderfully through almost every word as far as the beginning of number 14; where the Cambrai manuscript departs from the others, and continues the first Life by the second (yet without any interruption, without any title, without any mention or indication of a new work) from number 56 to the end of the Appendix of the third book: the Arras manuscript, with our codex praised above, continues the first Life to the end of number 14; where with Surius it rightly ends: for the two miracles which are subjoined in codex P. Ms. 155 were manifestly added from the second Life, where they may be read at numbers 65, 66, and 69; and accordingly they will be brought into the first Life, to which they do not belong.

[24] whence the second Life, Copies of the second Life are rarer, and among us indeed only one, once communicated to our Rosweyde from a most ancient manuscript, as he himself noted on our transcript, of lord Preudhomme, canon of Cambrai; but so mutilated that it stops at the preface of the third book. Having long tried in vain to repair this loss from elsewhere, we were now destining for the press in its place the posthumous miracles of the Saint, which we had read in the Cambrai manuscript just praised joined with the first Life in a continuous tenor; when behold, beyond hope, by the help of our Fathers of Cambrai we lit upon a man whose industry in clearing away the rubbish from the ancient monuments of his country, whose readiness with profuse kindness in communicating them, and finally whose erudition in illustrating them, at once most practiced and most modest, none of us could sufficiently admire even from his letters alone. This was he whom we have now twice addressed, the very Reverend lord Henri Denis Mutte, canon at St. Gaugericus in Cambrai, who among other things informed us that there survive in that same city two copies of this second Life different from the mutilated Preudhomme one (which he himself saw not long ago, and says seems to him to have been written in the XI century); one in a codex of the monastery of the Holy Sepulcher, written about the end of the XI century or the beginning of the following; the other in a codex of the basilica of St. Gaugericus, arranged toward the end, as it seems, of the XIII century for the use of the choir in such a way that the things which we have reduced to an Appendix are there found before the rest from folio 37; from folio 41 there follow (without the prolegomena, however, which are doubtless believed to have been cut away with the preceding folio) the first book, the second, and part of the third; where again after these words, But what was done in the neighborhood of the city of Soissons, since it is worthy, the following folio is missing; but the remainder of this fourth chapter, as also the three preceding of the same book, recur below within the Octave of the Saint.

[25] or the second Acts. From these, most diligently collated, we had scarcely received the third book, written out by that most obliging hand, when we wondered that it agreed altogether with the addition to the first Life in our Cambrai manuscript; in which nevertheless we could not previously recognize it, because, as has already been said, without preface, without any sign of difference, it was so fitted to the first Life that it seemed one work amplified by someone. Therefore three copies of that same third book can now be compared; but lest we detain the reader with useless trifles, it has seemed good in these to follow the two manuscripts that agree, the third and discrepant one being neglected; unless the discrepancy be of some moment. The first two books, with the preface of the third, will be given from the Preudhomme manuscript. But nowhere have we made scruple of correcting that manner of writing which was common in the middle age, as in the words "ammonere," "inlimis," for "admonere," "illimis," etc.

* perhaps: not another's

§ IV. Certain points pertaining to the Saint, discussed separately.

There was only one St. Gaugericus, bishop of Cambrai: In the Commentary on the Acts of St. Vedastus at the day VI of February, numbers 6 and 7, we adduced not a few writers, though not ancient, who maintained that a certain holy Gaugericus, Gangericus, or Sagericus was bishop of Cambrai and brother of St. Taurinus bishop of Évreux, concerning whom we have recorded a good deal on this very day. It can therefore seem doubtful to someone whether that one is ours, or another prelate of the same name and see. But I answer that he can neither be ours, nor does he seem other than fictitious. The first is plain from the epitaph of St. Taurinus, which, found toward the beginning of the VII century together with his body, we exhibited above: for since in it he is written to have been the first bishop of the church of Évreux, he must have died long before Maurusio succeeded him after St. Gaudus, who is read as having subscribed in the year 511 to the first council of Orléans; St. Taurinus therefore must necessarily have been made bishop at least a whole century before our Gaugericus began at Cambrai his very long episcopate: this man, therefore, is not his brother. But why we think that Gaugericus fictitious — besides the deep and ancient silence concerning him in the church of Cambrai — is made chiefly by the Life of St. Taurinus, which on this day we have shown to be worthy of no credit at all; and then by the recentness of those who seem to rely on the authority of this same Life alone, when they proclaim Gaugericus the brother of Taurinus as bishop of Cambrai. More cautious than these was (yet I do not know whether nearer the truth) that amplifier of our Martyrology of Bede at this day; where he indeed joins to our Gaugericus a holy brother Taurinus; but does not say that he was a bishop, much less of Évreux; perhaps because this error of the Life of Taurinus appeared to him too gross. We, besides Lando reported in the second Life at number 57, have thus far known no brother of St. Gaugericus.

[27] Concerning the beginning of his episcopate, authors plainly notable have written very disparate things. how long he sat there. Massæus, in the Chronicles of the World, book 13, page 181, says he was ordained in the year 595: on the contrary Colvener, whom for a long time all everywhere in the past century followed without any discussion, in the year 555. Both opinions err greatly: for since from his first Life, number 6, and from the second, number 28, he was certainly ordained bishop by Ægidius archbishop of Reims, this could not have been done before the year 569, in which Ægidius succeeded Mapinius at Reims; nor after the year 590, in which the same man, lawfully condemned and deposed, withdrew from the city and from his pontificate. Nay, as is established from the same Lives, this was done by Ægidius at the request of king Childebert; so it must be certain that it did not happen before the year 575, in which Childebert II received the kingdom of Austrasia by the death of his father Sigebert. But neither do the XXXIX years, during which both our Lives and the Chronicle of Cambrai and other monuments agree that he presided, allow that ordination to be deferred in any way beyond the year 584 or the following; although one could show that the Saint lived until the year in which Bertoald, the successor of him now dead, subscribed to the council of Reims, which was of Christ 624, as Pagi proves in his Criticism, or 625. Add that in neither Life is any mention made of Dagobert; but of Chlothar, who in the year 622 made his son Dagobert king of Austrasia, to which the church of Cambrai belonged: St. Gaugericus had therefore already died by then. Further, nothing sufficiently solid occurs beyond this whereby we may mark his beginning and end more closely, than that we assert the former is to be placed between the year of Christ 575 and 583, the latter between the year 614 and 622. So Sigebert truly wrote in his Chronicle at the year of Christ 594: Gaugericus, bishop of Cambrai, is renowned. "Is renowned," he says; not "was ordained," as Massæus, nor "died," as Colvener wrongly interpret.

[28] Whether from the see of Cambrai and Arras Golscher, or whoever he was who composed the Deeds of the Treverans, now three times published, in the twelfth century, after he had made mention of St. Magnericus prelate of Trier in chapter 37, thus continues: To whom succeeded Gaugericus his disciple, who had been brought up in the fortress of Evosium of the Treverans. That this assertion concerning our St. Gaugericus, as though raised from the church of Cambrai and Arras to the higher one of Trier, cannot be true, our Brower sufficiently demonstrated in the Annals of Trier at the year of Christ 596, or book 6, number 92; so that his arguments need not be repeated here; since no one, so far as I know, now fails to acknowledge the error of Golscher and his followers; which seems to have arisen from a certain corrupted catalogue of the bishops of Trier, exhibiting Gandericus or Gaugericus for Gundericus, whom the same Annalist found in an old catalogue, yet not as a Saint, nor as a disciple of his predecessor, brought up in the fortress of Evosium; but without any other notice at all than that he succeeded St. Magnericus. Whence then did the author of our manuscript Florarium of the Saints, who two centuries and more ago read Gaugericus and yet judged him different from ours — whence, I say, did he learn this man's sanctity and birthday, when he noted at this day: At Trier, the deposition of St. Gaugericus, bishop and confessor, uncle of St. Gaugericus bishop of Cambrai? Let him see to it: I certainly do not know.

[29] he ascended to that of Trier. In the same mire, I think, Ferrarius was sunk in his general Catalogue when at the day XXV of July

he wrote: At Romandissa, of St. Gangricus, bishop of Trier, disciple of St. Magnericus: for the Additions of Molanus which he there cites in his notes are either supposititious, or at least unpublished. Who is this Gangricus? Is he not the same as the Gundericus mentioned above? But whence is this man known to have been a Saint; whence to have died on that day? Saussay, I believe, did not understand it, in the Supplement to his Gallican Martyrology at the same day, page 1152; and therefore he seems to have attempted to emend it thus: At Trier, the Translation not of the body, but of the chair of St. Gaugericus, when, St. Magnericus metropolitan of Trier being dead, he was transferred by higher command from the see of Cambrai, then a simple diocesan one, to the ruling church of the Treverans. But at Romandissa, after he had in every way discharged his sacred prefecture to the glory of God, he breathed out his last breath. Doubtless he thought that the unknown Gangricus must be changed into that most well-known disciple of St. Magnericus, St. Gaugericus; whom, since he knew there was only one, and knew that he died on the day XI of August, he judged that here only some memory of a translation should be noted. But of what translation, especially on that day on which the birthday of St. Magnericus is celebrated? He may perhaps have found none more suitable than that of the chair of his successor. However that be, I for my part should prefer to pass over Ferrarius's most obscure announcement than to admit Saussay's, which prescribes a yearly memory of a thing which never happened, much less ever was or is celebrated at Trier.

[30] False also, and altogether invented, must those things be seen to be from what has just been said, What he did with king Chlothar. which are narrated as said, written, and done between our holy Prelate and king Chlothar in the unfortunate Jean le Carpentier in his History of Cambrai, part 2, chapter 2, page 321 and following: for all things manifestly pertain to Chlothar I; whom, as having died in the year 561, bishop Gaugericus never saw. Of Chlothar II Massæus treats in the Chronicles of the World, book 13, page 181, where, weaving a catalogue of the bishops of Cambrai, he says: The fifth, the aforesaid Gangericus (whom a little above he had said was ordained in the year 595), converted the people. He converted also king Chlothar, who gave him a copious treasure, with which he built the monastery on the hill where he now rests. But what is "He converted Chlothar"? To the faith? It is not so. To a holier life? Be it so. But the phrase is obscure. That a treasure was given him by Chlothar no one doubts: but that with this treasure that monastery was built I should prefer to read in either Life than in a more recent chronographer. And yet the contrary seems to be read in the second Life at number 57. If therefore Chlothar ever contributed anything to this place, he contributed it after the Saint's death. But why do we delay the Acts?

THE ACTS

By an anonymous author, from our notable parchment codex Ms. P. 155, collated with other manuscripts.

Gaugericus, Bishop of Cambrai in Belgium (S.)

BHL Number: 3287

FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS.

CHAPTER I.

The birth of St. Gaugericus, his studies joined with exceptional sanctity, his advancement to sacred orders and to the episcopate.

The Saint's fatherland, parents, first studies; Blessed Gaugericus, then, sprung from Evosium ^a, a town of the Gauls which lies under the church of Trier, was born a boy of the father Gaudentius and the mother Austadiola ^b, parents indeed neither of the highest nor of the lowest rank according to the pride of exalted blood, yet Christian and freeborn and orthodox. And when with advancing time and age, that he might grow from boyhood in the things of God, he was handed over to the studies of the sacred letters; so that the future pontiff might wear the thresholds of the wise, and, sitting with Mary at the feet of the Lord, might hear words from his mouth. Meanwhile it happened that the bishop of Trier, Magnericus ^c by merit and by name, obeying the canonical sanctions, made the circuit of his diocese, and came as usual to the church of that same fortress; where, performing the sacred mystery after the custom, he began to inquire of the priest of that place whether the ecclesiastical order gathered there in small numbers; and what and what sort of helpers he had in the service of God. And he said: We have these and those as ministers of the altar in the service of Christ; among whom a certain one flourishes, Gaugericus by name, a youth indeed in age, but he surpasses the rest in sacred studies and in sanctity.

[2] his fervent piety and daily abstinence; Handed over also to the learning of the sacred letters, he is still being imbued with his first letters. But the time of his apprenticeship he has already, by the probity of his manners, poured over into a veteran age. For when the signal is heard by which we are admonished to the praises of God at the canonical hours, he, a layman in habit, devout in mind, leaving all things unfinished even that are in his hands, hastening to the church, comes betimes before the others. But remaining in the lecture room, he is continent among the wanton, honorable in modesty and shame among the shameless, sweet in speech, sparing in food, given to vigils, generous in almsgiving, persevering in prayer, and, bearing a manly spirit and mind, he strives already to surpass his years by good works. For while his other coevals take food (as such an age requires), he, like a second Daniel in the Babylonian court, serving abstinence, exchanges dinner for supper; and what he withdraws from his little body he strives to give out to the poor: but as night draws near, worn with fasting and maceration, taking a scant and chaste meal, his little body being sustained rather than fed, he rises restored for like work.

[3] his clerical tonsure by St. Magnericus the bishop, Hearing which, the venerable pontiff said: Let the reverend Youth be presently presented to our sight. And when, being brought, he stood in his presence, the venerable pontiff began to address him gently and mildly, and with sweet speech to strengthen the mind of that excellent character. And, having ascertained his holiness, the chief pontiff tonsured him with his own sacred hands, a blessing being poured out upon him, and marked him with the royal and priestly crown to serve the Lord by perpetual right. But in the course of the act the bishop asked him what lesson he had most recently received from his master to be recited. And he gave an answer worthy of remembrance, saying thus: The beginning of my lesson is this: Ask of me, and I will give to you. At which the venerable bishop, rejoicing, said: When I return to this place, my son, be ready to recite to me the whole Psalter; wishing, namely — as the event afterward proved — to raise him to sacred orders.

[4] his promotion as far as the diaconate, after committing the Psalter to memory. Instructed therefore by that most salutary precept, the man of the Lord Gaugericus, watchful and sober, began urgently to give labor to study and to spiritual exercises, and to nourish a fine understanding with a lean belly ^d. And what others scarcely accomplish in a long time under cracking rods, he, by one little admonition given once, within a few days committed the whole Davidic Psalter to sacred memory. And not long after, the blessed pontiff, returning to that same fortress, mindful of his own command, orders the servant of Christ Gaugericus to be presented to his sight. When he was produced, the prelate began to admonish him to render his payment as soon as possible. And he, promptly obeying his father's commands, recited the whole Psalter entire from memory before his eyes. Whom the bishop, presently embracing with kindly mind, lest so great a lamp should remain under a bushel, but, set upon a candlestick, should give light to all who are engaged in the house of God, giving thanks to God, ordained him a deacon. But raised to the office of a Levite, he surpassed all in favor among the clergy.

[5] These things being so, while the man of the Lord Gaugericus was always daily bearing fruit in good works, on a certain day, going after his wonted manner to the places of prayer, He heals a heathen leper by Baptism: he met a leper of a twofold lot; namely outwardly livid on the surface of his skin, and inwardly foul with the filth of heathenism. But the man of the Lord Gaugericus, understanding that the stain of the body flowed from the rust of sins, approaching, and speaking nothing mortal, began to preach the word of God to the leper: so that, being converted to the Lord, he might deserve both to be stripped of his sins and to be cleansed of the foulness of leprosy. And he, straightway visited by the Lord, believed through the admonition of the Man of God, and, renouncing the devil and all the filth of idols, promised that he would become a Christian. Which said, he presently led him to the priest to be washed by baptism, like Naaman to the Jordan. And being poured over with the wave of baptism, his outer skin showed that he was free from sins: for he appeared so clean as though he had never been touched by the contagion of leprosy. Whom the servant of Christ Gaugericus received from the font with his own sacred hands, and, when he had afterward been imbued with sacred letters, associated with the crown of religious Brethren. But afterward, having been made bishop, he advanced him through the several grades even to the summit of the priesthood. And the work which he began from the least, he brought when completed to the heights.

[6] And when the frequent fame of blessed Gaugericus was now being spread abroad, he succeeds Vedulf as bishop of Cambrai, and the odor of his holy reputation breathed forth its fragrance more sweetly far and wide, his name began to be held great even by those placed far off; because, as the Lord says, A city set on a mountain cannot be hid. Meanwhile it happened that Vedulf ^e, bishop of the see of Cambrai, met his day and, taken from human affairs, passed to better things: then the flock, deprived of its shepherd, began to seek that a spiritual father be given it for the government of the holy church. But, the divine clemency inspiring, the fame of the holy man being learned, all with one mind and the same will, the clergy and people of that church, asked of Childebert ^f, king of the Franks, that St. Gaugericus be ordained bishop for them. Nor was it difficult. Nay, straightway, letters being sent to Ægidius, bishop of the city of Reims, he decreed that the wishes of the people should be satisfied, so that Gaugericus, the levite of Christ of good repute, should be ordained bishop of the church of Cambrai. Which being received, the blessed Pontiff, all acclaiming that blessed Gaugericus would be most worthy of the pontifical honor, without delay presently rendered him raised to the episcopal throne ^g. O happy people, happy clergy, which deserved to have such and so great a patron from the King on high!

[7] Having therefore received the sacred ordination, when the kindly Shepherd went to visit the sheep committed to him by the Lord, and presently by one miracle frees twelve prisoners. and had been most courteously received by the clergy and people leading choirs to meet him, he had to pass before the door of the prison, where twelve guilty men were held bound with iron fetters. Hearing which, the man of the Lord, bishop Gaugericus, moved by his wonted compassion, began to press and to sweat in prayers with Waddo ^h, the count of that city, that he would not disdain to grant those wretched men to his petition. But that man, puffed up with worldly pomp and the pride of earthly power, did not fear to despise the prayers of the holy Man, and to refuse what he had been asked. But he, spurned by man, and human help failing, giving himself wholly to the Lord in prayers, asked the divine clemency that, snatched from the filth of the prison, they might be found manifest to all the people in the church which he was seeking. Which said, presently, the divine clemency working, the manacles being broken, the chain shattered, the fetters loosed, by angelic aid they entered as quickly as possible the church to which the holy Pontiff was being conducted. And as the chief Pontiff was entering the church, the clergy and people looking on, there appeared those who a little before had been in chains, saying to the Bishop on bended knees: We are, most holy Father, those who have just now been restored by your prayers from the inner dungeon to holy mother Church. Hearing which, the venerable Man, filled with joy, giving thanks to God,

addressing the count, who together with the rest was gazing and marveling, said this: Behold, noble man, learn by experience how much greater is the mercy of the Lord loosing the fettered than your severity willing to destroy these men weighed down with chains. And, offering them counsels of salvation, that they might live more amended, he granted them free, each to return to his own.

ANNOTATIONS.

* otherwise: fragrant

CHAPTER II.

Other miracles during his life, his happy death, and the most famous place of his sepulcher.

Again by another miracle he frees three others: But confirmed in the pontifical see, the man of the Lord was zealous to give labor to preaching, to rain down words, to flash forth with miracles. But while, according to the Gallic custom, the Litanies, that is, the Rogations ^a, were being held, and the kindly Shepherd in this sacrosanct exercise, relying on the standard of the holy cross, was going before his flock and affording it leadership, he had to pass before a prison in which three men were held in chains by the order of the judge Walacharius. Perceiving which, the holy Man, moved by his wonted piety, besought that same judge (for he was present) that he would grant those wretched men to himself to be amended. But when he refused, blessed Gaugericus applied himself for a while to prayer before the doors of the prison, that the clemency of almighty God might grant what the puffed-up power of the world and a judge drunk with anger denied. And as the holy Man rose from prayer, straightway those prisoners, by the nod of the divine power, were loosed from their chains. To whom the venerable Pontiff, applying the healing of souls, and they being loosed in mind and body, sent them back to their own homes, that they might thenceforth live better.

[9] But at a certain time ^b, when he had hastened to meet king Chlothar ^c in the villa which is called Cala ^d, in the same manner he again frees two captives: he was received with the highest veneration by the prince and by the nobles of the palace. Where, while after his manner he was taking care for the safety of the wretched, he heard that two young men had been cast into chains by the illustrious man Landric, who excelled in the insignia of a greater dominion in the royal court ^e, and were being held for death. Approaching whom, the kindly Shepherd, descending to every kind of entreaty, began to ask that those young men be loosed, and be given to his prayers for the love of the Lord, to be amended. Which that man, in vexation with obstinate heart, refused with an oath, and spurned the most salutary prayers; but the man of the Lord, not forgetful of himself, went to the protection which he was wont to use. For, giving over himself and his people to fasting and prayer with vigils and hymns for the deliverance of those whom he desired to free, since human aid was denied he demanded divine. For, persevering in prayer on the following night, he awaited the regard from above upon those wretched men. But when morning came, those who were held in chains, loosed by an angelic ministry [*] as we believe, presented themselves to his sight in that same basilica in which the holy Man was engaged. Meanwhile the aforesaid man Landric, hastening to the church betimes to pray, found in the presence of St. Gaugericus, awaiting the medicine of the soul, those whom he thought were still held in dire manacles, condemned to death. To whom the man of the Lord, affording the medicines of salvation, permitted them, being amended, to go away free to their own homes.

[10] When therefore the lofty repute of the holy Man, running here and there among individuals privately and publicly, had reached even to the royal court, Distributing the alms of king Chlothar, king Chlothar, having learned of his sanctity, meditating in his mind on the house of eternity, conceived the salutary plan that a distribution to the poor of Christ should be made through the hands of so great a Man. And straightway he ordered blessed Gaugericus to be present to his sight. Hearing which, the man of the Lord, since he knew that he ought to be subject to the higher powers, went in haste at the king's command, and received to be distributed with a liberal hand what had been given over for the uses of the poor. And having received them, he considered within himself how they might better be turned to the solace of the needy, according to what is written: Let your alms sweat in your hand, until you find a just man to whom you may deliver it. In which deliberation the thought came to him that he should hasten to the threshold of blessed Martin, and there, praying the Lord for his own errors and those of his people by the merits of so great a man, should also give to the uses of the holy poor as should seem worthy.

[11] For having undertaken his journey, when he was pursuing the course begun, he heals a blind man by the sign of the cross: there was in the neighborhood of Tours a certain blind man, now for thirty years deprived of the light of the sun: who, when he had heard that blessed Gaugericus was passing by, began to cry out that through the prayer of his holiness he might deserve from the sun of justice, Christ the Lord, the enlightening of his eyes. And he, trusting in the clemency of the Lord, with his right hand impressed the sign of the holy cross upon eyes long pressed with blind night; and with his holy hand wiped away the darkness of blindness. Indeed, his light being received, he who had been blind, giving thanks to the Lord the bestower for the benefit conferred on him, returning home, afterward passed many years seeing and in health.

[12] [While he prays, the staff he has let go, lest by falling it disturb his prayer, stands of itself.] But the blessed Pontiff, pursuing the journey he had undertaken, came to the sepulcher of blessed Martin; where, being received by the brethren with great joy, and performing the work for which he had come, he was disposing to return to his own province; but amid these arrangements it pleased him to go and see the possessions of his bishopric which he had in the territory of Périgueux ^f. And as he was going to them, what the Lord deigned to show for the heaping up of his renown must not be suppressed in silence. For on that same journey, approaching the sepulcher of blessed Fronto to pray to the Lord, he handed to his attendants the staff on which he was supported, to be held behind him. And they being intent elsewhere, there was none of them who served the compliance of so great a Pontiff in holding the staff. But the merciful and compassionate Lord, unwilling that the prayer of his Servant should be darkened even a little by anyone's negligence or by the noise of a falling staff ^g — nay rather, that it should be made manifest to men of what merit he was — by angelic hands, as I believe, that staff stood unmoved, as though it were fixed by the root in the ground. And having prayed to his Lord, rising from prayer, blessed Gaugericus found the staff which he had let go standing, as though a thing endowed with sense, ready to serve his needs. Wherefore, giving thanks to God, who always and everywhere deigns to be present to those who serve him, he returned to his country with honor and prosperity.

[13] Again by a prodigy he frees slaves from chains: I judge it worth the pains that it should not be passed over in silence what almighty God deigned to work through his Servant, to his own praise and glory, at the shrine of Martensis in the territory of his diocese ^h. For while the man of the Lord Gaugericus was staying there for the solicitude of ecclesiastical ordinance, it happened that a certain trader was leading through that same place captive youths weighed down with chains, to be sold. Which being learned, the blessed Bishop began to press that same trader, earnestly asking that for the absolution of his own crimes he would release those whom he was leading bound, and should look for a perpetual reward on the dread day of the Lord. Hearing which, that dealer, with obstinate heart, as a slave of avarice, with what excuse he could, refused what he was asked by the holy Bishop. But he, relying on the help of the Lord, praying besought that the power on high might grant what that greedy merchant, gaping after gains, had utterly denied. But as he sought his lodging, by the divine nod he was oppressed by a most heavy sleep. And without delay those whom the chain held bound, their fetters being loosed, betook themselves into the presence of the Pontiff. But the trader, awaking, learned that his men, whom he had held in chains, being loosed, had taken to flight; and he considered within himself, what was true, that they had been withdrawn from their chains by the prayers of blessed Gaugericus. Whence, running in haste to the church in which the man of God Gaugericus was, he found those whom he sought rejoicing at their release, who a little before had been lamenting with bitter weeping and sorrow; and he who before had been unwilling of his own accord to hear the holy Pontiff, yielded under compulsion to the divine power ⁱ.

[14] He sat 39 years: buried, he shines with miracles: The venerable Prelate therefore ruled the aforesaid church of the people of Cambrai about XXXIX years ^k, distinguished by virtues and flashing with miracles, entire in faith, unwearied in works; and although he kept his mind always as it were a bent bow, yet, being destitute of bodily strength, advanced in age, in a good old age full of days, he rested in the peace of God's holy Church on the third of the Ides of August, and was gathered to his fathers. And he was buried in the basilica which is on the summit of the hill, built by that same holy Man in honor of blessed Medard ^l; and that place is not far from the city of Cambrai, dedicated in ancient times by idolaters to the rites of demons for the overthrow of souls; whence the man of the Lord Gaugericus, joyfully to be remembered, drove out the idols, cut down the grove, and made the place given over to filth a house of prayer and of sacrifice: for it is both a place venerable for the memory of the Man of God, and made known far and wide by the mouth of traders for its most famous fairs: where also even to the present day divine benefits are unceasingly bestowed, to the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, through all the ages of ages ^m. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

b. Note,

that this whole number is omitted by Surius, although it is read in all our manuscripts, and in the second Life from number 41 the same matter is narrated.

* otherwise: ministry

* otherwise: he passed

* for: the Lord being unwilling

THE OTHER ACTS

By an anonymous author; yet by that same man who composed the published Chronicle of Cambrai and Arras. From the most ancient manuscript of lord Preudhomme, Canon of Cambrai, as far as the third book; thence from other manuscript codices of no inferior character.

Gaugericus, Bishop of Cambrai in Belgium (S.)

BHL Numbers: 3289, 3290

FROM AN OLD MANUSCRIPT.

BOOK ONE.

The argument of the prefatory letter.

The letter sets forth the exceedingly arduous commands of the kindly Prelate Gerard, And a cause too great for its style.

The author's prefatory letter to Gerard, bishop of Cambrai. ^a

The author, commanded to compose this Life out of two more ancient ones, Since formerly, most holy father, you had learned from your elders that concerning the life of our father and glorious pontiff Gaugericus there had been a great and miraculous codex, from which this very small one which we now have had been excerpted, composed at length; but that under the madness ^b of the pagans, who, the sins of the Christians rising up , laid waste Gaul, in the very burnings of the monasteries it too was burned up together with the rest of the treasure and with a great many volumes; grievously groaning at this indeed, you labored thereafter with long searching; and, in case anywhere you might find a treasure of so great a price, you anxiously inquired not only of neighboring but also of far remote librarians. Nor indeed could you have rested until at last, for the solace of your labor — by the favor, I believe, of the divine will assisting your desires — some stranger from the northern regions brought us a most ancient book to be sold; shorter indeed than the lost one, but fuller than the one we had; which you, piously and eagerly embracing, since indeed it bristled with a rustic and less cultivated speech, straightway commanded me to correct with a better style, and out of the two little books, namely the newly found one and the one previously had, the words being changed but the senses of the matters preserved, to make one body.

[2] But what you enjoin, my Lord, is not within my strength; although he greatly distrusts his own slenderness; nor, if I may dare to say it, was it of your highest prudence to force a fainting servant to the peril of so great a function; that I, who had not yet touched the kind of writing, should now, as a new reprehender of the ancients, impudently burst forth to so great a work. But how inconsiderately you do this is clear enough, if you weigh in an even balance of judgment what the disparity is between so great a matter and myself. For the matter is arduous and far greater than my strength, and, raising itself up, demands a most eloquent expounder ^c of ready wit — one, indeed, for whom Tullian eloquence would worthily suffice, if either nearness of place or of time allowed it. Since therefore on this side the urgency of your command presses, and on that the magnitude of the work terrifies me from despair of ability, so great a hesitation possesses my wavering mind that I am wholly ignorant whether I should begin or not: for it is a most grievous burden of peril rashly to attempt it; and it is a matter of no small offense not to obey your command, to which certainly, so far as I can and know, I am bound to make no delay, even at the cost of my modesty. Wherefore if I flee the peril, I incur the charge of disobedience; but if I comply — nay, because I comply — that very compliance will bring forth the hazard of a ridiculous mark; because I shall have darkened the excellence of the matters with humble speech. I myself, who am commanded to chastise a rustic, shall perhaps be laughed at as more rustic still.

[3] Struggling out therefore from these shoals of ambiguity, I shall anchor my counsel on your nods; yet he resolves to obey. preferring, namely, to carry out your judgment with peril, as indeed I ought, rather than, keeping the seal of my modesty safe, to lie under disobedience; especially since you are wont to impute this more to one who despises than to one who distrusts. Trusting therefore in you more than in myself, nay, presuming also on the bounty of him who says, Open your mouth and I will fill it, I shall apply my zeal to the labor enjoined, and shall not delay to satisfy your will, if not as is fitting, yet in what manner I shall be able. But let it be your part, my patron, to admonish the scholarly reader not to expect in this little work the pomps of words and the trappings of speeches; but rather — what is far better — faithfully to admire the tokens of the deeds set forth simply and without paint.

The preface of the same to the readers.

Such a prologue succeeds the epistolary alpha.

[4] The Lord granting it, being about to run through the little work of the labor commanded, This work will be divided into three books; I shall divide the sum of the whole body into the dimension of three little books, so that at the boundary of each the silence of a welcome breathing-space may refresh the reader wearied not so much by the abundance of the matters as by the ungainly rusticity of the speech: for nothing is more burdensome to learned ears than corrupted discourse; but most of all when it proceeds at length with an ambitious circuit. In which matter I think I take no slight counsel for my own weakness if, forbearing at times as much matters not much necessary as words, I cut long things short; so that if the lack of charm should repel the hearer, at least brevity itself may please. It will seem convenient, therefore, that the first little book should run swiftly up from the infancy of the holy Man to the summit of the episcopal grace: that the second should briefly unfold how greatly he shone in the episcopate, and how he finished the course of this life: but that the third should touch upon the miracles which the divine clemency bestowed by his holy merits after his glorious passing — if not all of them, yet at least a few. Those therefore who are to read I humbly ask that, if they are offended by the more uncultivated words, they may nevertheless be teachably drawn on by the uncorrupted truth of the wonderful matters; especially since they know that the glory of the kingdom of God is placed not in the splendor of eloquence but in the sincerity of faith, and that life was preached to the world not by orators but by fishermen. But that they should grant pardon to my unskillfulness needs no plea of entreaty; since they will see that I did not burst forth to this of my own accord, but was compelled by another's command.

The prologue having made those eager to read teachable, The chapter-headings of the first little book begin.

THE OLD DIVISION OF THE FIRST BOOK INTO TWELVE CHAPTERS.

[5] The old order of the chapters; I. The parents of the holy Man are set forth at the beginning, and the place of his birth is shown with a most famous description.

II. Of the rearing of the infant, and that afterward, being lent to the Lord by his parents, he is handed over to be instructed in letters.

III. To Magnericus, archbishop of the Treverans, inquiring concerning the life of the clerics of the church of Euusium, wonderful tidings of the holy Boy are reported.

IV. Where the archbishop ordered the sacred Boy to be presented to him, and, having ascertained his sanctity, marked him clerically with the royal and priestly crown, his hair being shorn, and admonished him to learn the Psalter thoroughly.

V. Of the zeal and capacity of his wit, in that within very few days he grasped the whole Psalter.

VI. Where, the archbishop having shortly returned to the church of Euusium, he recited the whole Psalter without any hesitation before his eyes, and finally, being made over to the counsels of that archbishop, occupied his tender age with greater disciplines.

VII. That by that same archbishop he is straightway solemnly ordained a Deacon.

VIII. Where the most holy Levite of God, catechizing a heathen leper with evangelical instructions, both converted him from error and cleansed him from leprosy.

IX. Where, Vedulf bishop of the church of Cambrai being dead, all the clergy and people asked of king Childebert that blessed Gaugericus be substituted.

X. That the king, willingly consenting, dispatched a letter to archbishop Magnericus that he should send him his Deacon, and, the Bishopric being conferred, although he long resisted, by the acclamation of all he granted it. Thereafter, moreover, he caused him to be honorably ordained in the metropolitan church of Reims.

XI. Sacred ordination being received, the venerable Prelate purposes to visit the city committed to him; where, solemn choirs being led out to meet him by the clergy and people, he was received with great joy.

XII. That at his very entrance into the city he loosed XII guilty men consigned to prison, when he could not obtain them from the proud Count, by a pious prayer poured out to the Lord before the people.

ANOTHER PREFACE.

[6] Behold, the most illustrious Life of the great Prelate our patron Begins; whom the heroic verse cannot rightly name Except as Gauge-, the name being divided, -ricus. ^d

And it is comprised in two brief little books; to which is subjoined another little metrical preface. And the third adds a few out of many things after his death. Weeping, a man unequal to it undertakes a work too great for his measure. Therefore If he do anything faulty that jars upon a keen ear, Let the admonisher be softened, and the author deserve pardon. ^e

ANNOTATIONS.

was written, Colvener teaches; but we have shown in the Commentary that these Acts were written and published before the Chronicle was written. But how excellently this prelate was affected toward St. Gaugericus is signified partly by this letter, partly in the praised Chronicle, book 3, chapter 49.

* perhaps: requiring

* that is, Northern

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's fatherland, parents, holy upbringing, happy memory and wit, clerical tonsure.

Chapter I.

The blessed Man of the Lord Gaugericus, enriched namely by the obtaining of heavenly joy ^a, begotten in Gaul of a noble stock of parents according to the pride of the world, Evusium, the Saint's fatherland and sanctuary, by God's providence consecrated by the favor of his birth the fortress of Evusium ^b, which lies under the church of the Treverans. His father was called Gaudentius; his mother Stadiola; both certainly holy, both orthodox in the Catholic faith. Who, although they had descended from the great and proud race of the Romans ^c, nevertheless served the Lord in fear and humility. And the place, exceedingly distinguished for the fertility of the soil, and very convenient for the use of mortal life, excels indeed in a delightful situation and in the opulence of divers things, and evidently makes the inheritance of its name equal to the favor of its productions: for Euusium ^d to those speaking Greek sounds "the substance of joy"; and deservedly: since indeed it not unfittingly exults that along with the varied abundance of its fruits it has also brought forth true joy: for the land, shining with divers kinds of cultivation, nurse of cattle, fruitful in seeds, adorns its fields with grassy greenness, and supplies fruit-bearing trees of any kind at the husbandman's pleasure; so soft indeed is it for cultivation, and of such fertility for use, that it easily entices even the man who shuns labor and is slothful to till it.

[8] Its manifold praises the river flowing past, by name the Chiers, not a little increases, which, according to the honor of its name, is dear to the inhabitants, unmuddied, silvery to the sight, rich in fish, savory to the draught, it has its name from its fertility. enriches the lands round about, and, supplying nourishment to plants and seeds of every kind, makes fruitful by natural irrigation the pleasant meadows spread far and wide. Furthermore the inviting abundance of foods there has sometimes been wont to summon thither from either kingdom the kings of Gaul and of Germany, with their many thousands, when conferring on great matters ^e; because nowhere can a refreshment be found kinder both to horses and to men. It was therefore worthy and very fitting that he who had obtained the richness of true joy (so far indeed as concerns the rustic tongue) ^f should also be born in a rich and joyful town — he by the sweetness of whose life and doctrine the sons of Israel, one day to be guided, should from the hardships of Egypt obtain the promised joys of the fatherland above. But what can be reckoned of greater favor, from that time indeed faithful antiquity dedicated a basilica in his honor and memory in the very place in which he had been born, and reserved for posterity a sign of perpetual testimony ^g.

II.

[9] Reared therefore illustrious and innocent by the utmost care and diligence of his parents, There Gaugericus, dedicated to God by his parents, and reborn in Christ at the font of holy Baptism, he gradually put off the wailings of infancy, and, advancing from day to day with larger increases, he showed forth by certain evident signs of his entering little age the tokens of grace and virtue; comely indeed in form and cheerful in his whole little body. But when, with the progress of days, being now somewhat bigger, and having passed beyond the half-words of stammering infancy, he obtained the full use of his tongue, he surpassed all his foster-brothers in sweetness of words as in form. Therefore his parents, rejoicing in the happiness of their Offspring, continually rendered praises and thanks to the clemency on high for the benefit conferred; and, animated from heaven by a still deeper counsel, they vowed him to serve the Lord by perpetual right.

[10] excels in the ecclesiastical school in study and in manners; Nor was there delay; they hasten to fulfill their vow; and they commend him to a man there trained no less in disciplines than in manners, to be formed not only by the ordinances of letters, but also of morals. Behold a second Samuel is weaned from holy parents, is led to the temple, and is commended to keep watch there and serve the Lord for ever. For behold, the new Disciple, having entered the Lord's school, is taught first, as is the custom, the marks of the elements; so that, the grace of the Holy Spirit being his mistress, he may be raised step by step from the oldness of the letter to the newness of the spirit and to grace. But upon the Psalter he rightly laid the foundation of his labor; because indeed one day in the house of the Lord, with the holy singers, he too, a fit psalmist, was to obtain no last place in the office of singing. But now of his diligence in learning, of the wonderful ornament of his manners, and how greatly he trampled the glory of the world, there is no need of any account, since it appears evidently in what follows: for, occupied always beyond the measure of his little age in the exercise of pious labor, he either wearied himself with prayers or was schooled in sacred readings ^h. He came to his bed later ⁱ and left it earlier; and if he perceived anything right with his ear, he laid it up in the little cabinet of his heart.

III.

[11] Meanwhile the man of the Lord Magnericus the archbishop, magnificent namely in name and in the endowment of his merits, the office of pastoral care requiring it, whence to St. Magnericus the archbishop visiting the place went round the churches of his diocese *, and, according to the institutes of the canonical ordinance, ministered the grace of doctrine and of edification. And when in the zeal of this business he came also to the fortress mentioned above, being about to treat of the state of the church and of the advancement of souls, he straightway first summoned him of the brethren who by dignity and charge presided over that church; and inquired with all diligence who they were, and how they conducted themselves in the divine worship. To whose interrogation the truthful priest framed a fitting answer, as it seemed good; and among other things he faithfully impressed also the wonderful first-fruits of the sacred little Boy in this manner: We have, he said, these and those as fellow ministers in the service of God: those indeed young men modest in conversation; these advanced as much in virtue as in age; among whom there flourishes singularly a certain young recruit of God, by name Gaugericus, the son of the lord Gaudentius; who, although he is still small in age ^k, nevertheless surpasses the rest by the grace of his conversation and the uprightness of his manners as much as the Morning Star surpasses the lesser stars in brightness.

[12] For lately handed over to instruction, he is scarcely yet occupied with his first letters; he is commended above the rest, and yet already by his sound manners he imitates a certain privilege of mastery and of knowledge: for when the signal is received by which we are canonically admonished to the praises of God, he straightway, solicitous, leaving unfinished whatever things * are in his hand, a layman in habit, devout in mind, coming before all, approaches the church first, and, pious prayers having been unrolled to the Lord, departs last. But in the lecture room, continent among the wanton, given to silence among the loud-mouthed and garrulous, he measures his earliest years by the discharge of a full-grown maturity, and most evidently promises a perfect man by his examples and manners. Moreover, while his coevals relieve the labor of letters with rest, and, as the tenderness of their age demands, take food, he indeed, sitting unwearied at his reading, protracts his little meal, to his parents' displeasure, until evening; and, like holy Daniel, abstaining from more delicate foods, content with little, has accustomed himself to sustain rather than to feed his little body; but what he withdraws from himself he strives to give out to the poor.

IV.

[13] Hearing this, the archbishop, filled indeed with joy, and being questioned by him face to face, straightway ordered the little Boy of so great praise to be present to his sight; wishing, namely, to sift more purely whether the matter were so. And when he had come into his presence, he began to catch the mind of that excellent character by the sweetness of words and by kindly addresses, and gradually, in his sound answers, beyond hope, to behold a mystery of sanctity. But in the very course of the conversation he added also to inquire with what Psalm and what little lesson he was occupied at present. My lesson, he said, my father, which I received today to be recited, will take its beginning from this little verse of the second Psalm: "Ask of me, and I will give to you." At which the bishop, rejoicing, said: You have given an answer fit enough for your blessedness, my son, and worthy of remembrance: for God wills that you ask, and he will give you the petitions of your heart.

[14] The prelate therefore, being taught by such evident signs, he is enrolled among the clergy; and is bidden to learn the Psalter by memory; when he perceived that this was of the divine will, with the consent of his parents resolved to make over the Nazarite to the Lord; and according to the ecclesiastical rite, a blessing being applied, shearing with his own sacred hands the hair of his shining head, he solemnly made him a cleric; that he might be gathered into the number of those of whom it is said by the arch-apostle *: You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. And thereafter, adopting him as a son with the most ardent affection of love ^l, he wisely instructed him with fatherly counsels and salutary precepts of life; and admonished him that he should not desist from what he had begun, but rather, advancing from day to day, should busy himself with all devotion in the clerical life ^m. But since he himself had to withdraw elsewhere, he exhorted him also, amid embraces and kisses, that, learning the Psalms as quickly as possible, he should aim at a higher discipline, and that when he should shortly return to the same fortress, he should recite to him from a surer habit the whole Psalter.

[15] Therefore the Boy of the Lord, being salutarily stirred by the admonition of his Catechist, which he shortly performed. and faithfully prepared in readiness for obedience, began to apply himself more watchfully to labor, and, unceasingly rousing himself to spiritual studies, to nourish a fine understanding by the leanness of his belly; and to make the mass of his purpose equal by worthy manners, to feed his virtues, and, the fire being kindled, to supply both fuel for pious actions and an unfailing material for a worthy manner of life. Nay rather, made drunk * with the grace of the Holy Spirit, in the fewness of days (wonderful to say!) he accomplished the work of years; because indeed within very few days he committed to memory the whole Psalter, which within a year or more others can scarcely do, even under the cracking rods of their masters: for there could be no delay in learning where the Holy Spirit had taken upon himself the part of teaching. And now the sacred Scholar of Christ, solicitous concerning the honor of clerical rank which he had taken up, learned to define, as was fitting, the very word of that honor; and, desiring that the very magnificence of the name which is spoken should rather be than seem or be called, he strove to bend it to manners and to the observance of God's commandments: for that he might deserve, according to the favor of its interpretation, to become the portion of the Lord and the cord of his inheritance ⁿ, he wholly despised the little glories of the world and the deceitful riches of the age, and, content with simple food and clothing, took care to possess nothing outside the Lord.

ANNOTATIONS.

followed his own most ancient codex brought from the northern parts.

* that is, savory

* that is, enticing

* that is, of his diocese

* for: whatsoever

* that is, St. Peter

* that is, made drunk

CHAPTER II.

His promotion as far as the diaconate; the conversion and healing of a heathen leper.

VI.

And not long after, the aforesaid pontiff, not unmindful of his deposit, St. Magnericus was astonished at this, returned again to the church of Euusium, wishing namely to know how his dearest Son was serving in obedience to his instructions, and whether he was making the rule of clerical life equal to the practices of a worthy manner of living. For, having summoned him, he presently received him with fatherly embraces and kindly love; and, having explored how much he bound himself to the dignity he had received, commanded him to render the payment enjoined a little before. Nor was there delay: he folded up the book and, running through the whole Psalter from beginning to end, finished his recital to the great admiration of those who had heard. From which it cannot be estimated with how great joy the lord archbishop rejoiced, since indeed he approved in his Son both the outpouring of wit and the grace of a more divine nature.

[17] Desiring therefore to ordain him to sacred orders, he admonished him to sweat also at higher disciplines; and destines and encourages him to higher things. so that, while he shone with dovelike simplicity, he might also, according to the Lord's precept, not lack the cunning of the serpent; lest, namely, he should not know how to discern vices and virtues, what to flee * or what to love; nay rather, wisely understanding what pleases the Lord and what displeases, he should, according to the Apostle, render the Lord a reasonable service, and order the whole course of his life according to his judgment: for as it is greater to do the will of God than to know it, so it is prior to know than to do. Strengthened therefore by this counsel of his father, he poured himself wholly into the exercise of reading, and, striving from great things to greater, he daily occupied the years of adolescence with mature works. Further, being quickened by the successes of a good manner of life and by the benefits of long practice, he leaned with insatiable love upon the founts of heavenly wisdom to draw the salutary precepts of life, and, like a flower-gathering bee, plucking the meadows of the divine sayings, fitted within the hive of his heart the jewel-bearing combs of faith and of the virtues.

VII.

[18] But as time went on, the archbishop, seeing the Lord's Nursling becomingly adorned both in age and in manners, and now ripe for receiving the honors of a greater grace, lest the lamp should lie hidden any longer under a bushel, but, set upon a candlestick, should minister the benefit of light to those engaged in the house of God, Then, promoted by him as far as the diaconate, using indeed prudent counsel, resolved to bring him forward to the divine worship and to the ministry of the altar, and by God's providence, through the several grades as was fitting, solemnly promoted him even to the office of the Diaconate. But now it can scarcely be related how great and of what sort he shone in the administration of the dignity he had assumed; and with how great governance both of manners and of works he bore the yoke imposed, yet with a neck not unequal to it. He knew, as he had read, the sacrament of the sevenfold Church, and what the sevenfold number of pillars standing about the altar requires: for he was not ignorant of the mystery of the seven angels sounding the trumpet in the Apocalypse, nor of as many candlesticks ^a; and since indeed he had come to that office by God's sufficiently provident disposal, it is incredible how greatly he showed himself in the observance of God's commandments, lest namely he should seem to usurp the name of so great a grace. Further, according to the "entole" * of the law, he learned to keep watch in God's tabernacle day and night, and, handling the vessels and the offerings most purely, to serve the Lord's table blamelessly: wholly, namely, without wrinkle, wholly without spot, illustrious in the working of virtues, worthy of the ministry received, and, that I may pass over nothing, wholly perfect according to the apostolic description ^b.

[19] [he shines with every virtue, especially humility and charity toward his neighbor:] For indeed he labored unweariedly; and yet with his labor he employed all industry, so that, setting aside his life from present things to future, he might subject the earth to the spirit, and might offer to the Lord the royal image lifted out of the mire of this world. But shunning far the companionship of the great, he always joined himself * to the poor and to little ones; and, descending far lower than those little ones to whom he could make himself equal or extend himself, he balanced himself as an equal to those beneath him, and as one beneath them to his equals. But that he might live more perfectly and more freely, counting honors and riches as nothing, he gave out his patrimony to the poor, and, poor, strove to imitate the poor Christ. But lest perchance the sacrament either of the candlestick or of the angel should be made void in him, he always instructed with salutary counsels those whom he could, and also enlightened them with most illustrious exemplifications of his life. And it was his special practice to frequent the huts of the poor with an ever-bountiful hand, to visit the little cells of those lying sick with consoling compassion, and most humanely to succor all who suffered.

VIII.

[20] But a little afterward, at an interval of days, the divine goodness willed it to become manifest to men of how great grace and merit the Deacon was held: this shone forth then in the case of a heathen leper, for on a certain day, when after his custom he was seeking the church to pray, there met him a wretched man, pitiable for the spectacle of a double disease, whom namely the error of heathen madness made impious * within, and outwardly the contagion of leprosy so foully bespattered that the crowds of passers-by avoided looking at him from afar, lest at the sight of so great uncleanness they should defile the modesty of their eyes. But the servant of the Lord, as he was inclined with incredible compassion, as soon as he perceived it, mercifully and without any delay looked upon him, and, drawing nearer, having ascertained the cause of each sickness, sighed nevertheless more for the injury of the soul than of the body. Perceiving indeed that the pitiable itch had crept upon the body from the stock of a languishing mind, he judged that the evangelical draught should first be applied to the more desperate cause; so that, the Lord healing, the inward health recovered might break forth to outward things, and might raise the horror of a corpse into a mirror of human beauty.

[21] If you wish, he said, to be cured of this foulness of leprosy, first, whom, converting him from idolatry to Christ, wretched man, you must suffer the vessel to be cleansed inwardly from the rites of idolatry and from superstitious errors: for before all things it is first necessary that, fleeing the worships of demons, you put off folly, and, seeking through fear the first approaches into the hall of wisdom, the barriers of errors being gradually loosed, stretch out the gaze of a pure mind to the living and true God; namely, with how kindly and how provident a disposal he restored fallen man, and how great a glory he has promised, if he persevere. Therefore if you wish care for the body, do not put off the medicine of the soul; because if, the first being neglected, you tend the lower, you corrupt both; but if the soul, which is first, shall have received the medicine by my counsel, I promise that soundness will shortly be at hand for the body also, which is second. Awake therefore, I beseech you, and, the poison of heathenism with which you are soaked being cast far away, drink the antidote of the Savior himself which I bring. Unless, he says, you be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, you will not be able to enter the kingdom of God. Come therefore to the laver of holy regeneration; hasten to undergo the sacrament of baptism: where certainly you have to put off the skin garment of the old man ^c, and to put on the Evangelical robe of newness. Why say more? The idolater consented, and, not being ashamed of his error, cast himself down to the prostrations of penitence and confession ^d; because indeed, the grace of the Holy Spirit working, the thundering trumpet of the angelic Preacher prevailed.

[22] Rejoicing at which, the man of the Lord hastened straightway to bring him to the priest, [he received from the sacred font and at the same time healed; then cherished as a son;] whose sacred business it was to prepare the baptistery. And while he was arranging it after the custom, meanwhile the sacred Deacon with tears and prayers besought the mercy of the Lord that, as he was about to cleanse in this font of baptism the smoke-stain ^e of heathenism, so he would also deign to wipe away the stains of leprosy, to his own praise and glory. The font therefore being sanctified, when at the priest's interrogation he had suitably answered concerning the renunciation of Satan and of all his pomps, and also concerning the symbol of the orthodox faith, behold, the priest plunged him in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and the Deacon, being present, receiving him baptized, straightway with joy purified him by the gifts of the divine working: for indeed between his hands, in the sight also of the strangers who were present, he shone so whole and clean, and — that I may truly confess it — wholly made another out of the other, that no trace at all of the old leprosy could be found. If therefore his crimes were loosed in the font, the outer skin discharged the office of a present testimony. Whence the man of the Lord Gaugericus heaped up thanksgivings, as many as he could, to the Lord the bestower for so great a benefit; and afterward, feeding and clothing his own Naaman, adopted as a son, made him a cleric, his head being shorn; and, when he had been trained in letters, associated him with the religious brethren in a monastery. Whom indeed he himself, having thereafter by the grace of God become bishop, advanced through the several grades even to the summit of the priesthood; and the work which he began in the least things, most becomingly completed, he brought to the heights.

IX.

[23] And so, when from the proclamation of his sanctity

a most sweet odor breathed forth on every side, by which his fame became wonderfully renowned among all. and when indeed also from the display of the present miracle a more celebrated report, spread here and there, grew frequent, his distinguished name began to grow great far and wide, and his presence, though absent, to be present in the breasts of those far off; because, as the Lord says, a city set on a mountain cannot be hid. Further, to all, both to those far removed and to those near, he was no more a matter of admiration than of love; especially since, not yet seen or known, he was so greatly loved by very many that they thought nothing sweeter than by turns to hear or to speak of his fame with the most sacred praises.

ANNOTATIONS.

* for: was to be fled, etc.

* from ἐντολή, a commandment

* that is, he joined

* that is, made impious

CHAPTER III.

His advancement to the bishopric of Cambrai; the prodigious freeing of twelve prisoners.

And so by the people of Cambrai But at that time it happened that Vedulf, prelate of the church of Cambrai, the course of this life being faithfully completed, met his day, and, taken from human affairs, at the Lord's call passed to better things. And his flock, widowed of governance and guardianship, when it grieved that the Lord's folds lay open to the ravages of wolves and the snares of divers enemies, presently indeed turned its mind in divers directions to providing another. Wherefore by common decree both clergy and people, celebrating together a three days' fast, asked the omnipotence of God that he would deign to furnish them a fit patron who, endowed with strength of soul, might both deserve to stand familiarly before God and might know how to form by words and works the church to be ruled. Nor certainly could a prayer be fruitless or idle, the effect of whose need depended on the judgment of the divine will.

[25] [Vedulf the bishop being dead, a successor is sought, king Childebert favoring it,] For, kindled by the manifold proclaiming of the aforesaid fame, nay, most vehemently stirred also by divine inspiration, all with one mind, the same will, and equal judgment, alike acclaimed blessed Gaugericus; and that this might be done, all with one murmur and one mouth besought the Lord; all certainly so unanimously applauded his praises (by the Lord's prompting, we believe); all so harmoniously chose him with equal desire to be given them by the Lord as pontiff, as though he had bound them to himself by some grace of companionship and of household intercourse, or as if perchance he had tied them by certain offices of benefits. But neither can we esteem this a small matter, that the whole city, though removed by a great interval of lands, should show so present and so favorable a grace toward a Man far absent and unseen: for there was one voice of all, one acclamation of the various: An angelic Man, holy in works, admirable in virtues, most worthy of the bishopric: blessed indeed and thrice and four times happy the church to which the divine kindness should grant so great and such a priest. Then indeed, by the counsel of the fathers, nay, of God, straightway persons noble both in speech and in knowledge are chosen from among all the chief men of the city, and, provisions being prepared, are dispatched to the presence of king Childebert to obtain the business.

[26] But the king, as soon as he had heard the cause, not only did not defer his assent, by whom, being summoned through St. Magnericus, but even, favoring with all affection those who favored, invoked the omnipotent Lord that he would consent; because indeed the more illustrious fame of the holy Man had long since become known to him by frequent report. Straightway therefore, using his own counsel and that of his men, he dispatched an embassy to archbishop Magnericus, and by letter bound him to send him his Deacon, namely blessed Gaugericus, one indeed who, the people acclaiming, should be about to guide the reins of the church of Cambrai, and should take up the Lord's sheep to be governed. But the bishop, having learned the royal will, hanging a little in uncertainty between unwillingness and willingness, silently weighed the matter, and out of a truly divine regard feared, although he had prepared his dearest Helper for himself and for his own church, to begrudge him to a widowed and clamoring church. Concealing therefore the secret, cautiously indeed, as a wise man, he called his Son; and admonished him to hasten with the present messengers to the court of the inviting king: for that it was just that he ought to be subject to the higher powers, and, so far as pertains to the Lord, humbly to serve them.

[27] And he, presently obeying without delay, carries out his father's command, and, ignorant of the business, approached the royal majesty. and almost compelled, Seeing whom, the king, made more cheerful, after the return of greeting and kisses, and after mutual conversations, perceived a man of surpassing grace, and from the mildness of his speech and his most serene countenance detected the holiness of his life: for he was honey-flowing in words, angelic in form, so plainly that from the appearance of the outer man the inner was clearly known. And at length the king disclosed the cause why he had been summoned, and, all who were present favoring, he offered him the gift of the church of Cambrai. But he, straightway terrified, grew wholly pale with dread, and, alleging against it the weakness of his age and of his knowledge, refused in whatever way he could; especially since not even the lord archbishop, who had reared him, perhaps favored it, to whose judgment indeed the ordering of his life ought to look. But why say more? For after a long resistance the man of the Lord Gaugericus, both overcome by the insistent acclamation of the courtiers and strengthened by the counsel of the bishops standing by, since there was neither abundance of time for deferring nor place for fleeing, at length yielded to the king's prayers; and thus, compelled rather than willing, he received the pontifical gift.

[28] Then the king ordered him to be honorably conducted, companions being given him, with a formal letter to Ægidius, he is ordered to be ordained priest and bishop at Reims; metropolitan archbishop of the see of Reims, and enjoined that by him, according to the institutes of the holy canons, he should be most becomingly ordained both priest and pontiff. The archbishop therefore, according to the mandate, received the venerable Deacon with the highest veneration, and, the provincial bishops being convoked, a day appointed, the clergy and people solemnly assembled, as had been fitting, he consecrated him first indeed a presbyter, then a bishop, in most orderly fashion, the people, who stood thronging round, unanimously favoring and crying out that he was a holy Man, an illustrious pontiff, a worthy prelate of souls; and that blessed indeed and very happy was the church to which the divine goodness had afforded so great and such a helper.

XI.

[29] Raised therefore by the ordinance of the divine clemency to the pastoral dignity, the man of the Lord Gaugericus whence, returning to Cambrai, he is received with the greatest rejoicing, straightway disposes to direct the course of his journey to the church committed to him, and with kindly affection to visit the Lord's flock, as his care demanded; lest namely the wolf, watching for the shepherd's absence, should creep unawares into the open fold, and inflict some damage, perhaps of death or of wounds, upon the less wary. And how, when his coming became known to the awaiting citizens, it is now indeed a matter of the greatest delight both to hear and to tell what a show of joys, what exultation stirred the whole city to meet him: for the whole city rushed out to meet him, and strove to render the glad service of devotion to the most longed-for Father: certainly then you might have seen all, putting aside their serious affairs and displaying the grace of a festal day with most crowded observances, their houses left empty, leaping forth in haste and running out in troops with all eagerness. In short, the breadth of the fields was covered by the multitude of those flocking together; nor was the noise of those exulting less or unequal to it. Further, it was reckoned the highest thing for each in this festal contest to outstrip the others and to seize with the first glances the face of the Pontiff. Every sex and disparity of age dances with exultation; every condition of dignity and order keeps that day as a solemnity, each with his own works suspended. Besides, the cloaked companies of clerics, with golden crosses and much furniture of other notable things, arrange choirs to meet him with glorious festivity, and, chanting high-sounding antiphons and together praising the Lord, they receive their Patron with the highest and due veneration.

XII.

[30] But amid these favoring voices of those chanting psalms, when the glorious Bishop had come to the entrance of the city, which he increases by a miracle, whereby twelve prisoners, presently the divine goodness, to increase the noise of the people's gladness, nay, to declare the greatness of the new Shepherd's merits, consecrated his entrance with the grace of a notable miracle: for when, having passed a little beyond the walls, he was making toward the church nearby to pray, he had in the course of his journey to pass before the house of the Count of that city: where twelve guilty men, imprisoned in iron bonds by his command, were being kept for hanging on account of their crime. To this Count's judicial nods indeed the city was subject, and upon his sentence hung the sum of the whole commonwealth. But when the wretched men had learned from the prison that the Bishop was passing by, suddenly, all together wailing, they redouble their prayers, and, a cry being raised to heaven, calling the Pontiff by name, they implore him to be present to their help. Hearing which from over against him, the Prelate straightway fixed his step; and inquires of those crowding round whence so great a cry had burst forth; and, having learned it, he is shaken with his wonted compassion, and, approaching Vado himself (for he was present) with all humility, he beseeches him to grant him the wretched men.

[31] the Count of the city resisting in vain, But he, puffed up with worldly pomp and the pride of earthly power, did not fear to despise the prayers of the holy Man, and to refuse what he had been asked, alleging indeed many crimes of theirs. Which repulse the blessed Pontiff, as he was most patient, did not take as an insult; but nevertheless, procuring from another quarter the means of escape for the prisoners, he baffled the tyranny of that lover of pomp ^a by the working of divine power: for he thought it better to cry out to almighty God, who knows how to loose the fettered, and piously and tearfully poured forth a prayer of this kind: God, consoler of the humble, hope of the wretched, deliverance of captives, who desire not the death but the life of sinners, succor, I beseech, these sinners cast into chains; and for the glory of your name absolve them from those torments which they justly deserve. For nothing, Lord, is impossible to you, nothing ever difficult; since for you to will has always been to have done. Since therefore, Father, I believe that you can do all things, that all things serve your commands, bid, I pray, Christ Son of God the most high Father, bid these chains be loosed with omnipotence, and the little sheep snatched away to be restored to their shepherd; if indeed you have willed that I become truly the shepherd and master of your flock.

[32] But scarcely were the prayers of the holy and most kindly Pontiff ended, he obtains divinely to be freed from prison, chains, and death. when behold, straightway, while he was betaking himself to the church, the divine clemency favoring, the effect served most readily. For to the glory of Christ, and for the great proclaiming of the faith of the holy Man, immediately, the bars and bolts being loosed, the prison is opened from heaven with a huge creaking, the fetters are struck off, the wretched men are released: who through the merits of the holy Pontiff

perceiving the presence of the divine power, emerged from the dungeon warily and full of fear, and, the jailer's interference being removed ^b, creeping with fugitive haste through the crowded press of those walking, straightway presented themselves to the Bishop as he was entering the church, the clergy and people looking on, with these words: Behold, they say, by your merits, most holy Prelate, we are restored to liberty, we who just now cried to you from the prison, dreadfully confined: for by the hammer of your prayer the snare has been broken, and we are set free. Rejoicing at which, the Bishop gave thanks to the Lord the bestower, and, to confirm the credit of the thing displayed, he rebuked with a speech of this kind the Count himself, who with the people was greatly marveling and repenting that he had not heard the holy prayers: Perceive, he said, most illustrious governor, and know by the present experiment that all things are possible to God, and that those whom he redeemed by his own death he prefers to save rather than to destroy. Then, turning to those men, he chastised them with salutary words, and, having admonished them to live more amended, dismissed them in peace.

ANNOTATIONS.

Here the first little book is closed with the end granted. And thereafter there follows likewise this prologue of the second.

BOOK TWO.

THE AUTHOR'S PROLOGUE.

This book will set forth the remaining deeds of the Saint down to his burial. Since now, the Lord assisting, we have discharged some little portion of the task promised, the first little book has demanded an end; so that what remains a second may pursue, the office of the labor being divided. For it is fitting that, since in the first, culling the very fewest things out of many from the very sacred infancy of our Father, we ascended to the pontifical summit, in the second also we should unfold how great and of what sort he was in the possession of that dignity, and, proceeding with the decline of his age, should come down even to the end of his life. And so, the lord Bishop having been received into his own city with due veneration, we have set a close to the first, so that readers, breathing a little, may embrace the more attentively that which follows; where indeed, though few things, yet deeds of greater grace and weight are narrated. Whom meanwhile we wish to admonish that, whereas in the former the flowers of a budding adolescence could allure their good will, in this too they may be pleased to taste what savor a senile maturity has, or what fruits they have brought forth.

The prologue being finished, its own portion of headings follows.

THE OLD DIVISION OF THE SECOND BOOK INTO TWELVE CHAPTERS. ^a

II. That in that same city of Cambrai, when the solemnities of the Litanies were being held, he loosed three wretched men from the bonds of prison before the clergy and people by a pious prayer.

III. Also in the villa of Gaul which is called Cala, while he was staying in attendance on king Chlothar, he likewise freed by his wonted compassion two guilty men bound by the chief man Landric for the punishment of death.

IV. Of his zeal in preaching, of his pastoral care, of the edification of souls.

V. Of alms put out at interest, and how by words and works he stirred his people to works of mercy; giving out namely his own goods to the poor, and retaining nothing beyond the necessities of demanding nature.

VI. Where king Chlothar, suffused with the almsgiving fragrance of the holy Man, bound him by letter to come to him; and, having heard him, entrusted the packs of his treasures to his dispensing, to be divided for the uses of the poor.

VII. That, having set out for the sepulcher of St. Martin, in the neighborhood of Tours he restored sight to a blind man deprived of the light of the sun for XXX years.

VIII. That, visiting his estates in the parts of Périgueux, while he hastens to the sepulcher to pray, the staff which he had handed to his attendants to be held behind him, they being intent elsewhere, an angel of the Lord, suddenly standing by, upheld by a substitute service.

IX. When he was staying in the fortress of Fanum Martis for the sake of ecclesiastical ordinance, he broke the chains of a merchant with the hammer of his wonted prayer, and joined those whom he was holding captive to the sons of the church.

X. Where he chose for his burial the place which the ancients called Bublemons, near the walls of the city; and, the grove being cut down and the shrine destroyed, he built a church on the summit, beneath which, a sepulcher being prepared, he gave notice that he should be entombed after his death.

XI. Of his sickness, and of his holy passing to Christ.

XII. With what solemn lamentation and how singularly the whole church celebrated his obsequies, and, having translated him from the city, honorably buried him with spices, according to his request, in the basilica which he built above on the hill.

The headings finished, the second book begins and sets forth.

ANNOTATIONS.

* for: decline

CHAPTER I.

His episcopal virtues; the twofold liberation of captives divinely obtained.

Chapter I.

The holy and venerable Prelate Gaugericus, therefore, having been apostolically confirmed in the Pontifical see, The Saint's exceptional virtues in the episcopate, and first of all humility, how greatly and in what manner he poured himself out in the administration of the dignity assumed is certainly not for pen nor for time to unfold; since indeed the magnificence of the matters overcomes the poverty of speech, and the smallness of my wit succumbs to the greatness of the subject: for although his outward works, which could not be hidden, may somehow be comprehended, nevertheless the secrets of his inner life, and the distinguished marks of his daily conversation, cannot easily be estimated, since they abound far greater than can either be conceived in mind or set forth in speech: for as he adorned his preceding age with modesty and wit, so also he busied himself to compose the honor of the prelacy with authority and grace; that together with the name he might possess also the merit: since indeed, remaining most constantly the same that he had been before, he did not decline from his purpose of holy humility (as we see very many do) on the occasion of honor.

[36] But indeed how solicitous he was in the guarding of his flock, care of the flock, example of life, learning, prudence, how assiduous in preaching, benevolent in correction, outstanding in charity, excellent in piety, long in prayer, how ready in tears, powerful in fastings, constant in vigils, generous in alms; how grave in discourses, how mature in manners, how effective in persuasions, how perspicacious in resolving questions of Scripture, no faculty of a rhetorician worthily suffices to relate; especially since, though he conversed among men in body only, he knew nevertheless in mind to rise above heaven. Who indeed, weighing among his subjects rather the compliance of love than the lordship of terror, always preferred to be loved than to be feared. But yet according to the quality of those who fell, as he knew the various manners of different men, he for the most part changed the face * of his chastisement: this man openly, that man in secret; the one he corrected gently, the other harshly; at home indeed a father, in public a prelate. Who also, turning words into works, that he might do more than he taught, animated the people not so much by words as by works; because the imitation of him whose action set forth an example of virtue and of life was the mistress of public discipline.

[37] For it was his continual work to restrain insolence, peacemaking, mercy toward all, and especially toward captives, to check quarrels, to repair broken friendship, to cultivate justice, to succor the poor, to visit the sick, to invite wanderers and the needy to hospitality, to redeem captives, to rejoice with those who rejoice, to weep with those who weep. Besides, he was the eye of the blind, the step of the lame, the staff of the feeble, the food of the hungry, the hope of the wretched, the solace of the needy, the diligent father of orphans, the most faithful guardian of widows, and, that I may so conclude, the workshop of all virtues; so shining certainly with the grace of each single one as if he lacked the privilege of the rest. And although he was efficaciously engaged at the summit of these, nevertheless with unwearied efforts he always strove to climb to higher and more perfect things; and, rejoicing in daily advances, he meditated this way of living not from what was past but from what remained. But because virtue always lies open to envy, this indeed he strove to overcome with such humility that, although he went before all in work, he yet labored to seem lowest of all in place and rank. But among the rest this one thing can suffice for the praises of the blessed Pontiff, that, with him present or knowing of it, never could prison or chains hold wretched men; and that the credit of this may be more surely established, behold, the miracles themselves bear witness.

II.

[38] For at that same time, when, according to the Gallic custom, the solemnities of the Litanies, three of whom that is, of the Rogations, were being held, it happened that the kindly Pontiff himself took part in the popular exercises for the sake of religion, and in the very array of the procession, after the pastoral custom, went before the sheep as their leader. When therefore the clergy and people were proceeding in troops through the street of the city, it fell to them to pass by an adjacent prison, in which three men were held bound for their exacting faults by the order of the judge Malacharius *. When the holy Man had heard this, straightway, moved with his wonted compassion, he ordered the crowds as they walked to halt, and meanwhile humbly besought the judge himself, because he was present, that the wretched men be released.

[39] he freed by one miracle; But when he was unwilling and stubbornly resisted, straightway the most kindly Prelate, kneeling for a while before the doors of the prison, applied himself to prayer, and obtained that the divine goodness should give what the anger of the judge denied: for he had not yet finished his prayers when, behold (wonderful to say!), the bars of the prison being wrenched apart, the doors standing open, the fetters loosed, it rendered free before the clergy and people the wretched men whom they held. At the outcome of which it cannot be believed what exultation presently arose in the marveling people, what shouting in praise of the Pontiff, nay, what detestation of the unmerciful judge, who did not blush not to hear the holy Bishop, whom in the present miracle the heavenly powers seemed to obey. But the blessed Pontiff, shunning boasting far off, wisely ascribed this not to his own merits but to the divine goodness, and, giving thanks to the Lord, joined the wretched men, rebuked with a kindly discourse, to the rest of the flock of the faithful.

III.

[40] Nor indeed was that unlike which the clemency on high likewise granted by his merits in the villa of Gaul which is called Cala: by another, when he was with king Chlothar, for when the business of royal service had summoned the blessed Pontiff thither, he is received with the highest veneration by king Chlothar himself, who was there, and by the chief men of the Palace, and he to whom he had come to minister is honorably ministered to: for, kindled by his most famous repute, he cherished him with much love, and, although raised to empire, nevertheless rejoiced to submit himself to the discourse of his kindly edification, desiring namely both to be instructed by his salutary precepts and to be cherished by his sacred blessings. And not the king only, but the highest princes too loved him, and, receiving counsels of life, always hung upon his mouth: for all his speech was of the contempt of the world, of the fear of judgment, of the glory of the Saints, of the eternity of the just. Nothing was ever in his mouth but of Christ, nothing in his heart but the affection of peace and of inborn piety: than whose mind indeed nothing was held more merciful, nothing more gentle toward the humble.

[41] and had vainly entreated his minister to release two others, For the rest, he honored old men as Fathers or lords; he instructed young men as sons; whatever poor met him, he sustained; the rich he admonished to do good. When therefore he was staying there some time for the king's sake, he learned by the suggestion of certain persons that two men were being tormented in chains by the chief man Landric, and were, by a judicial sentence, being kept for hanging on the following day. Of these indeed

being pricked at heart by the wretched lot, he did not delay to approach that chief man himself, and, laying aside his episcopal authority, humbly besought that he would release the fettered and grant them to him for the love of the Lord to be chastised. But he, since he excelled the rest in the insignia of office in the royal court, and under the king's dominion handled the mass and burdens of the kingdom at his own will, did not fear insolently to withstand the prayers of the holy Man, and to refuse with an oath pardon to men guilty of grave crimes — since indeed neither did the enormity of their offenses deserve it, nor would the censure of the judges in any way permit it. Thus therefore the blessed Pontiff, despised by man, yet in nothing moved, thought it better to approach the Prince on high, who does the will of those who fear him and hears their prayer: for he made over both himself and his disciples to fasting and prayer with watching for the deliverance of the prisoners, and, that he might obtain impunity for the wretched men, he himself with his own passed the night in the church in psalms and prayers, where with sure hope he awaited both the effect of his prayer and the outcome of the divine mercy.

[42] And why say more? Since indeed the eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and his ears unto their prayers, he claimed the same men into the liberty divinely obtained. the kindly prayer of the Priest broke the fetters, loosed the wretched, led them away; it certainly rendered them free to him who prayed: for when morning came, being divinely released, they sought as quickly as they could that very basilica where the holy Man was engaged; and, presented to his sight and cast at his feet, they rendered him immense thanks for their release. Rejoicing at which, the man of the Lord, but shrinking from their unwelcome thanks ^a, heaped up the Lord the bestower with the greatest possible praises for so great a gift, and thereafter cherished with sweet consolation the wretched men, still trembling with recent dread. But how holily and how kindly did he admonish them that, repenting, they should correct their errors, and should wash away the marks contracted from their former life by the laver of future amendment; and at length, shunning the bubble of ostentation, he bound them with much adjuration never to reckon the grace of their redemption to him, but to the divine mercy. Scarcely had he spoken these things when, the matter not yet being heard, Landric, making for the church according to his custom of prayer, marvels to see those drawing the nourishment of life from the mouth of the Pontiff whom he thought to be awaiting in chains the certain peril of death. And he presently, confounded by conscience and shame, and forgetful of his Prefectorial power, bent his knees before the holy Pontiff, and, confessing his fault, because he asked with humility, obtained pardon. But afterward the Bishop, entering to the king, ministered to him words of life and salutary counsels, and thereafter, having saluted him as was fitting, returned to his own church; since indeed he could not be long absent from those over whose keeping he especially presided ^b.

ANNOTATIONS.

* perhaps: appearance

* otherwise: Walacharius

* perhaps: they rendered

CHAPTER II.

The ordinary matter of his sermons; his very great mercy toward the poor; the healing of a blind man.

IV.

Having returned, then, he bestowed all the labor of preaching upon his subjects with great diligence, and, according to the unequal understanding of different persons, refreshing some with milk, others with solid food, His sermons and counsels adapted to persons, he desired nevertheless to gain all for the Lord: for as a wise physician varies the furniture of his medicine according to the diversity of diseases, so he too formed the words of his teaching for each according to the regard of age and sex, ministering with wise dispensation plain and common things to the untaught, hard things to the advanced, spiritual things to the spiritual. Who indeed, as a learned scribe, bringing forth from his treasure new things and old, so agreeably set forth the precepts of the virtues, and so reasonably laid open the mysteries of the Scriptures, that he easily drew to himself the faith and good will of his hearers, and roused in all the affection of holy desire in Christ Jesus: for he was of such authority and grace, of such sweetness and wisdom, that all most gladly endured him even when silent, and looked upon him with all attention when speaking; certainly because he both magnificently discussed * the sacraments of the Christian faith, and displayed all the distinctions of his discourse by the imitations of his own life; profiting his subjects, namely, more by his conversation than by his examples ^a, and extending a greater grace of fruit and of edification by his life than by his word.

[44] the chief subjects of the same; But his frequent exhortation was of the love of the Lord and of the neighbor, of the observance of God's commandments, of the rule of right living, of instancy in prayer, of the ceremonies of the Christian faith, of the cultivation of justice, of the sum of religion, of peace, of long-suffering, of bearing with enemies, of sustaining the poor, of nourishing the virtues, of crushing the vices, of meditating on the last things, of putting temporal things behind, of acquiring heavenly things. But sometimes, treating the history typically, he shaped it to a moral issue ^b; and among the other problems of his counsels he most holily urged that men should abhor the exile of Egypt, shake off far the yoke of Pharaoh, hasten continually to their fatherland, yet walk by the royal road, and beware of the ambushes of the Amorites and Canaanites in the byways. For the rest, cultivating the people of Christ with evangelical as well as apostolic teachings, he certainly made of the savage the meek, of the proud the humble, of the married * the continent, of the hostile brothers, of the greedy the munificent, of the tenacious the generous, of the spendthrift the frugal, of the intemperate the sober, and — that I may truly affirm it — of stones not a few sons of Abraham.

[45] his force and constancy in warding wolves from the flock: But if at any time the raving madness of wolves raged about the folds of the sheep, he indeed, not as a hireling but as a most faithful shepherd, burned with the zeal of charity to cry out against the threats of adversaries, and with living and free voice to withstand assailants, and to free the Lord's flock from hostile enemies, lest perchance it should be said to him too with the reprobate shepherds: You have not gone up against the enemy, nor set up a wall for the house of Israel, that you might stand in battle in the day of the Lord. But he rejoiced not at all to preside, but to profit; because he weighed not the power of his order, but the equality of his condition; not indeed gaping after the gains of temporal things, but solicitous for the keeping of his souls, that he might snatch them from the Egyptian servitude and be able to lead them with himself to the heavenly promises of the heavenly fatherland.

[46] But amid these banquets of souls the Bishop took care also to provide suitable supports for the quickening of bodies; his ardor in commending mercy toward the poor lest perchance under the want of outward things the inner treasure should suffer some losses; since indeed human weakness, oppressed by the heavy weight of poverty, is often wont to faint, and, falling through many stumbling-blocks, to run into the abyss of despair. Gathering therefore from the divine Pages many arguments of mercy, he disputed especially of alms put out at interest, and, kindling all whom he could with the zeal of piety, he admonished them to make themselves friends of the mammon of iniquity, plainly asserting that virtues and riches cannot be possessed together, nor can those laden with wealth imitate the poor Christ: for it is easier, according to the Gospel, for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. He exhorted those who had, therefore, to succor those who had not, and from the abundance of the former to relieve the want of the latter: for, according to the Apostle, the poor ought not to perish for food, for whom Christ deigned to die, and in whom he himself does not refuse to be fed, clothed, or even ministered to in any other uses whatsoever: What you did, he says, to one of the least of mine, you did to me. But lest anyone should plead poverty as an excuse for being unable to bestow even a small portion of compassion, he brought into the midst the two coins of the poor widow; which indeed, he declared from the Gospel, were more pleasing to the Lord than the gifts of the rich; for they were weighed not by weight but by will. He also recited the example of the noble woman of Sarepta; to whom, because (namely, preferring Elijah's hunger to her own safety and that of her sons) she chose rather to lose life than to pass by an alms, both the handful of meal grew into the hope of a harvest and the cruse of oil did not fail.

[47] But that he might commend the office of his preaching with a more devout grace, not by words only; and might more readily stir the minds of his hearers to works of mercy, turning words into works, he began to appear now more lavish than usual in bounty, and more abundant in the long consolation of the wretched: for what he had formerly done in secret to avoid boasting, this he now wrought in public to invite the hearts of the faithful; namely, that seeing his good works they might both praise their Father who is in heaven, and profit by his holy imitation: for men of holy purpose, whom a very slender income and a livelihood too straitened for fairness pressed, these indeed, even when they did not ask, he mercifully comforted of his own accord from his own resources; and exhorted them not to fail in the way of the Lord. He denied alms to none of those who asked, he suffered none to return from him empty; yet not imprudently pouring out his Lord's money upon flatterers, but distributing it by measure to the poor of Christ; lest, if an undiscriminating dispensation were carried on, undeserving dogs should be fed with the children's bread.

[48] Swarms of beggars daily besieged his doors, but most of all by example, and all carried away from him, as from a common fount of goods, the things necessary for them. But why say more? Further, the Evangelical Steward, because he had heard the precept, If you wish to be perfect, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and follow me, strove to give out all things, and reserved nothing for himself except clothing and simple food, being indeed richer in poverty, loftier in humility, more adorned in contempt of the world. Others indeed sweat at building * in dead stones; he labored above all in the living, of which the city of the great King is built up in the Apocalypse. Further, others build cells ^c, renew monasteries, bring columns from elsewhere, skillfully carve out cut architraves with their bases, clothe walls with crusts of marble, adorn altars with gems and gold; but his purpose was always to feed Christ in the poor, to clothe him in the naked, and to put out money at interest in other like things. But if his resources sometimes failed, being exhausted, nevertheless his will, wealthy and a gushing fount of life, overflowed with no less merit.

VI.

[49] Meanwhile the king whom we named above, suffused with the odor of the holy Man's most famous repute, which breathed forth here and there, thirsted with wonderful desire to see him, moved by whose fame king Chlothar himself, and longed to draw from him the precepts of life and to receive the counsel of edification; because his words were sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, and seasoned with the salt of heavenly wisdom. To him therefore he dispatched an embassy by letter, and earnestly asked that he would not delay to come. Hearing which, the holy Bishop, obediently fulfilling the mandate, went to the king's presence, and, having stayed with him some days as he had asked, roused him with pious exhortations to the desire of the life above. For to him consulting concerning the salvation of his soul, and inquiring concerning the beatitude of the heavenly fatherland, he set forth in turn the Evangelical and also the Apostolic precepts, and admonished him to turn the affluence of riches and the glory of royal power into the material of virtues; so that, namely, he might purchase eternal things with transitory, abiding with perishable, divine with present.

[50] committed to him royal alms to be distributed. But that he might make him more attentive, he set forth these divine examples: Blessed are the merciful, for

they shall obtain mercy; and: As water quenches fire, so alms quench sin; likewise: Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity, that they may receive you into eternal tabernacles: thereafter he added also the counsel of Daniel by which he admonished king Nebuchadnezzar to redeem his sins by alms. And so, as the lord Bishop set forth these and like things, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, who breathes where he wills, was working, straightway the king, kindled with divine love, burned to make himself friends of the mammon of iniquity, and, laying up treasure in heaven, committed the packs of his riches to the liberality of the Pontiff, to be spent upon the uses of the poor.

VII.

[51] Having received these, the faithful and prudent Servant straightway began to consider within himself with pious meditation Going to the sepulcher of St. Martin, in what manner he could better put out at interest the money entrusted to him, according to what is written: Let your alms sweat in your hand until you find a just man to whom you may deliver it. And while he was turning this over with sagacious mind, it seemed good to him to hasten to the threshold of St. Martin for the sake of prayer, and on the very journey to celebrate the office of liberality; so that, namely, he might spend the greater outlay where a more numerous throng of poor would gather. When therefore he was pursuing his journey, and came to the neighborhood of Tours, by chance among the troops of beggars he met a blind man who, deprived of the sun, had for thirty years passed his life in darkness. And he, since he had long before learned of the Pontiff's sanctity by the spreading of report, presently, a guide being taken, ran to meet him as he passed, and cast himself down to kiss his feet, and with pitiable cries implored that by the support of his kindliness he might obtain for him the benefit of light from the Sun of justice. But the Bishop, as he was always devoted to compassion, grieved that the comeliness of the divine image was extinguished, and, confidently entreating the omnipotent Lord for him, the sign of the cross being made over him, poured forth this prayer: Illuminator of the world, almighty Jesus Christ, who once by the omnipotence of your medicine deigned to open the eyes of one born blind, do you also drive blindness from this your servant, and graciously pour in the light which he desires; that from this Christians may render you glory, rejoicing; not, like the Jews, take scandal from it, envying.

[52] he heals by prayer a blind man he meets. O wonderful and infinite mercy of God! O immense and inestimable munificence of the Savior, who does not for a moment delay the prayers of his faithful, nay, who even anticipates the voices of those who ask justly. For the Prelate had not yet finished his prayer when suddenly, night being put to flight, unlooked-for day burst into windows long condemned, and he began now to perceive with most certain sight the shapes of things which he had learned by ear. And he straightway, giving thanks to God and to his Servant for so great a gift, his guide being no longer needed, returned home cheerfully, and, prolonging his life thereafter whole for a long time, even in silence proclaimed the praises of the Pontiff. But the blessed Pontiff, the journey which he had begun being completed, came with all devotion to the sepulcher of blessed Martin, where indeed he was received by the brethren themselves with great joy, and, as had been fitting, ministered to with most becoming attendance: for since the most sweet odor of Christ spread its fragrance everywhere, and the fame of his sanctity, faith, and virtues flew abroad famously in every place, all therefore, both strangers and neighbors, venerated him as a prelate; all honored him as an Apostolic priest, nay, even loved him as sons a most dear father.

ANNOTATIONS.

* perhaps: dispensed

* that is, the incontinent

* perhaps: in building

CHAPTER III.

Angelic ministry; the freeing of slaves; the preparation of his sepulcher; his sickness, death, and obsequies.

VIII.

But after the blessed supports of Martin had been implored, and after many alms bestowed on the poor, While he prays, an angel upholds the staff he has set aside. in that same array of his journey the free-spending Pontiff resolved to pass by to visit the estates which by proper right his church then possessed in the parts of Périgueux: whither, as he was going, what the divine goodness showed also for the heaping up of his renown must not be suppressed in silence, but must be reserved to the praise and glory of the Lord and of his Confessor for ages of perpetual memory. For at that very stage of his journey, when he approached the church of blessed Fronto to pray, and handed the staff to the attendants following, to be held behind him, it happened by the divine will that none of his people was at hand whose business it was to receive that sacred staff from the hand of the holy Father. But his mind is not deceived by faith; for a heavenly staff-bearer is suddenly furnished him by God's providence, who indeed, while he lies prostrate in prayer before the Lord, having received that staff, discharged the office of human service. But the disciples following marvel at the staff standing of itself in the air, and, not doubting that it was an angel, were held with astonished minds by the wonderful spectacle. And so the holy Priest, rising from prayer, recognized the gift of the divine goodness; and, not lifted up into human glory, humbly heaped with due praises the Lord Jesus Christ, the bestower of so great a benefit. O Man of ineffable grace! O Priest to be proclaimed through all ages, for whom, to heap up the glory of his rewards, the perfection of his life brought forth an angelic attendance! Which, though wonderful, seems nevertheless most worthy and just; because his manner of life was peculiarly that of the angels. But after these things, from his possessions, which he had gone to visit, he betook himself back to his own country with honor and prosperity.

IX.

[54] It is worth the pains that there be joined to the foregoing also that which the Lord willed to work again through him to the praise of his name. Slaves being refused him by a greedy slave-dealer, For at a certain time, when he was going round the churches of his diocese in his pastoral office, and, announcing the way of salvation, was rousing his parishioners to the desire of the fatherland above, for the sake of that love he had come down according to solemn custom into a fortress which, distant nearly fourteen miles from the city, still keeps from the antiquity of the heathen the name "of the Shrine of Mars": where, when he was staying some time for the transacting of the affairs of the church, he happened to hear that a certain trader was leading captive youths in chains through that same place to be sold: by whose wretched condition being smitten, he presently ordered the trader himself to be present before him, and, thinking to soften him with pious and persuasive entreaties, humbly besought that, for the love of the Lord the redeemer of all, he would release the wretched men, and should await with sure hope the reward of his gain at the dread judgment. But the wretched man, void of compassion, a slave of avarice, by no means blushed to wrinkle his nose against the Bishop, and shamelessly to refuse what was asked. What then should the Prelate do at this? By what way should he succor the wretched men? He could not struggle against the obstinacy and stubbornness of the merchant, so teeming, namely, with the contagion of vices as of wealth. Moreover, no hope of money was at hand to him at present whence he could redeem them, since the free-spending giver held it wholly exhausted and consumed in these and other uses of this kind.

[55] he obtains their liberty divinely. But trusting in the divine goodness, he sought the oratory after his custom, and, prostrate on the ground, implored God's omnipotence that those whom the cruel greed of the seller was confining in chains, the greatness of his mercy might loose. Nor certainly could the prayer of the holy Pontiff be idle, which flowed from the full little fount of charity: for by the divine nod the merchant, affected with various surgings of cares, went into his lodging to sleep; and scarcely had he relaxed his wearied limbs in a little rest, when by a wonderful outcome of the matter the youths, divinely released, escaped, and, hastening swiftly to the church, presented themselves to the sight of their Redeemer. But when, awaking, he saw that those were absent whom a little before he had consigned to the keeping of prison, straightway crying out to himself *, he sighed that his property was cut short in part and his hope of gain was receding; nay (what was the truth), complaining that they had been released by the merits of St. Gaugericus, he kept shouting it. Whence, running quickly to the church with the greatest weight of complaints, he found those exulting in their release in the sight of the Prelate whom a little before he had held weeping in chains. But the wretched man, what he was unwilling to grant of his own accord, nevertheless, the clemency of God working, granted even unwilling. And this, besides many counsels of edification, the greedy man heard singularly from the holy Bishop, but perhaps did not believe: that to give is to have; but to hold is now not even to have.

[56] But meanwhile the blessed Pontiff, growing old in age, and foreknowing that the setting of the present life was at hand, Drawing near to death, he buys and prepares a place of burial, took care to provide himself a sepulcher with the utmost diligence; and while he still lived whole in health, he marked with a worthy and fitting building the sacred mausoleum of his falling asleep; because indeed, as the maxim of the philosophers would have it, the whole life of the wise is a meditation on death. For near the walls of the city, namely toward the rising of the sun, a certain hill rises on high, at that time wooded on every side; but of old, according to the report of the ancients, given over to the nefarious worships of demons: for the very appearance of things, and certain traces of errors which were even then still seen, gave no small credit to the testimony of the tale-tellers, who assert that it was called by the compound name Bublemons, either from oxen indeed, or also from the other animals which were immolated in the sacrifices of the idols. Foreseeing this place as convenient for his burial, the Prelate fell in love with it, and, money being counted out, purchased it from a certain Burgarius ^a of his own who had possessed it — imitating namely the patriarch who had bought from Ephron the double cave as a burial possession ^b.

[57] Resolving also to renew and improve it, workmen being hired, a basilica being founded there with a monastery, over which he sets his brother. he cut down the grove, overturned the lairs of wild beasts and the shrines of demons, and, all filth and impiety being trodden down, built a basilica on the brow; which finally, endowed from his own resources ^c as opportunity allowed, he consecrated in the honor and memory of the holy Confessors Medard and Lupus, whose relics he always carried with him in a special manner; and, brethren being appointed to serve there in perpetuity, he set his brother Lando over them as abbot ^d. In which basilica indeed, as he had long before disposed by provident meditation, he had a monument hewn out for himself of new and most choice stone; and, as it still appears to beholders, he placed it in a subterranean little crypt beautifully and skillfully arranged ^e, recalling indeed that word of David: This is my rest for ever and ever; here will I dwell, for I have chosen it. But afterward he constrained his people not so much by command as asked them with most gentle prayer and brotherly admonition that, when the bond of nature was dissolved and he should pass from the labor of this life to the sabbath *, they would not be reluctant to bury his little body in this as it were little lap of mother earth, there to sleep corruptibly until, at the Lord's call, it rise incorruptible to the sabbath of sabbaths.

XI.

[58] While thus far we have set forth, the Lord granting it, the illustrious deeds of our Father and the sacred miracles of his virtues, At length failing through old age and sickness, our discourse has indeed sailed well and prosperously with a peace of winds, and, running upon nothing rocky, has now almost reached harbor without peril. But now, since we have come to the point where we are compelled to narrate his failing or his death, the south wind rising, a storm springs up, and the surge of a harborless shore threatens shipwreck; since I can scarcely without tears set forth that broken and wonderful pearl which shone with the grace and light of the Holy Spirit, and adorned the whole Church of Christ with its honor. O truly inescapable necessity of death! O cruel and unavoidable condition for all! The south wind blew, and the lily gradually passed into pallor; because indeed all flesh is grass, and all its glory as the flower of grass. Our Father indeed, worn out as much by old age as by sickness, awaited the last day of his calling, and, as the hart to the founts of waters, so always panting thirstily toward the Lord, said among the other affections of divine ardor: Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged! I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Cedar; much has my soul been a sojourner. And again: When shall I come and appear before the face of God? Who indeed, lying upon his bed, though melting away with the broken strength of his body, yet overcoming diseases and years by strength of mind, unweariedly invited the bystanders with rousing addresses to the inheritance of the heavenly fatherland, and even to the last moment of his expiring did not cease from holy exhortations.

[59] angels singing together, he expires. The happy Bishop therefore happily governed his church for the course of XXXIX years, and, the world being trampled underfoot, an old man honorably discharged, an old sojourner, full of days, giving peace to his sons and saying a last farewell, loosed from the bonds of the flesh, breathed his last on the third of the Ides of August amid the hands of those lamenting — carried by angels indeed to the great householder Jesus Christ, and gathered into the treasures of the heavenly city Jerusalem with the companies of the Saints: a consort namely of the angels, an equal of the Patriarchs, a fellow citizen of the Prophets, an associate of the Apostles; a co-heir of the Martyrs, a peer of the Confessors, a companion not discordant of the white-robed Virgins. And at his passing the religious men who were present heard voices in heaven of those singing psalms and rejoicing; because indeed, while on earth men grieved over the lifeless body, in heaven certainly the angels exulted at the return of the triumphant soul. Moreover it cannot easily be estimated what a multitude of men and women flowed together from divers parts to the service of the funeral, and with what zeal of devotion the common piety of all celebrated the solemnities of the obsequies.

XII.

[60] Then, with the greatest mourning and concourse of all, But concerning the decision of the burial a murmur of controversy sputtered up for a while among the people: for some said that it could seem quite unworthy if the church should be deprived of the tomb of her own sacred Priest, by the distinguished marks of whose life and conversation she shone with his examples, was fortified with his protections, was enlightened with his teachings. But some on the contrary, whose mind was sounder, feared the offense of God and of the Prelate, if what the holy Man had disposed were held void. Which opinion prevailing, the whole church is gathered into one; and, carrying the body to the aforesaid basilica upon the hill, with great but pious service of the funeral rites, chanting psalms and weeping, they alike follow after. Further, how dear he had been was shown by the very grief of the funeral, since it was greatly esteemed by all either to put their necks beneath the bier, or to fix kisses upon it, or even to lay their hands nearer. All wept piously, and amid the trickling of tears they broke the psalmody * with frequent sobs: for although they knew that he had withdrawn from exile to his own country, and would certainly receive an everlasting reward for the doubling of his talent, nevertheless they could not contain themselves from weeping; because indeed the battering-ram of grief shook the wall of faith; and the tears which the hope of resurrection restrained the affection of household charity and the calamity of sudden bereavement wrung forth; and although this kind of lamentation ought to be interpreted as religion, nevertheless I fear to set it forth, lest, if by mentioning it I should exulcerate the scar of a wound which was healed in the fathers before, I should now also disturb the minds of the sons with renewed grief.

[61] [he is honorably buried in the place which he had prepared beforehand, and which he afterward adorned with miracles.] But in that sarcophagus which the blessed Pontiff himself had hewn out of the rock for himself in his own days, they laid him with fragrances of spices, and beneath that little crypt of which we spoke above, as he himself had directed, honorably entombed him. Which place afterward, called the Hill of St. Gaugericus, its ancient name being changed, began to be greatly loved by the faithful of Christ, to be inhabited, to be increased with manifold goods, to be enriched with religion, and more and more to be exalted by the munificences of kings: at length, being dedicated in perpetual memory of the holy Father with solemn fairs ^f, and made known far and wide by the frequenting of merchants, it becomes known even to the farthest lands, its name being spread abroad; and it extended far among all nations the city of Cambrai, to which it adheres as a neighbor, before ignoble and shrunk in obscurity, sharing thereafter in the proclamation of its holy nobility; to which it is unspeakable how much of natural grace and of comeliness it confers; since, besides many marks of beauty, it so stands out with a commanding summit that to those looking round on every side beyond many miles nothing is in the way, nor can the turreted height of that holy church * itself, which rises up toward the west in the city, hinder the free and far-ranging view: where indeed, the merits of the holy Man favoring, frequent miracles are wrought, and divine benefits are afforded to all who ask rightly and piously, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, to whom is praise, honor, and power, and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

The Life and the second book alike are closed with an end. Finally the third adds the very fewest out of many Wonders Note: that is, miracles after his death, premising this prologue.

* for: Fronto's

* perhaps: to him

* perhaps: blindly

* that is, rest

* perhaps: the Ides

* namely the cathedral

* perhaps: the psalmody

* namely the cathedral

BOOK THREE.

THE AUTHOR'S PROLOGUE.

The writer, bishop Gerard recovering beyond hope, The two little books being unrolled in which we have touched upon the Life of the great and blessed Pontiff, it remains that, as we premised, we compose a third concerning the miracles which the divine goodness has bestowed by his merits after his death. And since a manifold abundance and a rich series of them grows up, and against my little wit, spent in the preceding labor, it swells utterly beyond measure , I rightly judge it consulted for my littleness to pass over very many, and briefly to note down a few even of those which are more pleasing: that in this way, namely, I may both refresh the good will of the reader by the discharge of the task promised, and may prove obliging to the lord who impelled me to these things. At whose recent infirmity indeed I so wholly wasted away with grief and stiffened with fear that in these nearly two months, almost forgetful even of myself, I shrank from both pen and tablets, and gave myself to no pursuit except mourning and tears. For what serious thing could I think amid frequent sighs, or what could I command to my pen or my mind, when a most dear lord of mine, after long burnings of fevers, was seized also by an intolerable disease — in Latin indeed a carbuncle or boil, but called in Greek "anthrax" — and so great a chill and burning invaded his inflamed foot that the physicians, despairing, could not meet the growing danger; and, deceived amid the indications of prognosis , while we consulted them concerning his life, whispered of death close at hand. But now, since the swollen erysipelas ^a, contrary to hope, being gradually dissolved, discharges its matter at the point of the ulcer ^b, and our Hezekiah, having his days prolonged, to life,

the mercy of God alone prolonging it, returns *, sorrow being driven far off, our mouth is filled with joy and our tongue with exultation.

[62] And so now our former strength must be called back, the pen must be sharpened, and the mind, which has long been numb, must be roused; that we may make good the losses of delay which fear has brought in. For hope is repaired of daring anything beyond one's strength ^c, [and of taking up the office which weakness lacks; since my helper (thanks be to God), restored from grave sickness, lives for me, at whose prompting I do not refuse to run through the labor undertaken. Further, whose good will I desire to please, I find what he commands so ready and, so to speak, so pleasant even in the most difficult matters, that in the swiftness of obeying neither does difficulty interrupt my thought, nor does delay retard my running pen. But to this there is added that whatever faulty thing my unskillfulness pours out, his proved prudence renders acceptable, cutting away the superfluous, supplying the gaps, correcting the errors. And with him thoroughly examining and, as he is wont, subtly filing it, there is nothing indeed that I ought to fear even from the nail of an adverse judge: for not only does he hold the first place among the princes of divine philosophy by the excellent merits of his life, but he also possesses among the most erudite of our time the palm of worldly letters; he indeed who, both by assiduity in reading and by long study in meditating, has stored up in the ample storehouse of his breast a library of both kinds by memory. Leaning therefore on so great a support, let us return to our purpose, and, lest in digression the Prologue seem to exceed measure, let us pursue the path of the work undertaken.

Let this third little book set forth its headings … *]

THE ANCIENT DIVISION OF THE THIRD BOOK INTO FOUR CHAPTERS.

[64] I. Where bishop Bertoald his successor, admonished by blessed Gaugericus by night in a vision, the old chapters. left his bed; and, an altar being erected there in his memory, consecrated an oratory to the Lord.

II. Where the site of this oratory then was, is impressed upon the reader.

III. Where also St. Gaugericus, appearing to his sacristan in a vision, disclosed a thief who had entered the church; but admonished him to permit him to go away unharmed.

IV. Of Fulbod, the invader of the estates of St. Gaugericus, how he was compelled by divine power to restore them.]

ANNOTATIONS.

* that is, it fails

* otherwise: to the lord bishop Gerard

* that is, lord

* that is, prognostic signs

* that is, returns

Perhaps "these" is missing

The third little book sets forth a few things out of many.

SINGLE CHAPTER.

Miracles wrought after the Saint's death.

FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS.

Gaugericus, our most holy Father, being buried ^a, there succeeded him in the pastoral office a bishop by name Bertoald, The Saint, appearing to his successor, magnificent indeed in the endowment of virtues and altogether an apostolic man, illustrious in the nobility of the race of the Franks. He indeed judged that he could make his sleeping place of his predecessor's chamber, where he had breathed out his holy soul; not, however, through the error of slippery presumption, but with a pious regard of devotion and favor; being certain, namely, that the ancient mocker could not vex with nightly illusions the place which the death of so great and so venerable a Man had consecrated. The bed of blessed Gaugericus therefore being removed, he placed his own there; but, not being permitted to rest long, he atoned for his ill-considered offense.

[66] bids his own bed be restored to his cell; which at the same time is consecrated. For on a certain night, when he had given himself to sleep, the holy man of the Lord Gaugericus appeared to him in a vision, and, as though gently complaining of an injury, uttered an address of this kind: Was this, most beloved son, was this what you ought to have done to me, to thrust our little bed out of its familiar chamber, and to hasten straightway to bring in your own? Change, I pray, my son, your resolve, and show me this charity and favor, that, seeking a chamber for yourself elsewhere, you withdraw from this little cell, and permit the dwelling place of our manner of life to remain in memory of our name. He, terrified, casting himself at his feet and begging pardon for his presumption, awaking amid these prayers, straightway acknowledged his fault; and, as he had been admonished, corrected it as quickly as he could with worthy satisfaction. For, the bed which he had spread for himself being thrust out, he cleansed the most holy couch as from filth, and, as had been fitting, an altar being erected and pledges of the Saints placed there, consecrated it in perpetuity to the memory of our holy Father; where to this day the sacrosanct Mysteries are celebrated, and daily the vows of the faithful Christians are paid to Christ.

II.

[67] But where at that time the cell of this oratory stood, and by whom afterward, or why, it is related to have been overthrown, The former site of this cell or oratory, we have judged it necessary ^b to impress upon those who wish to know; lest perchance they should go astray through the error of a false opinion. For we know that many still survive who declare that they saw it down to the time of Rothard ^c, who succeeded him as the twenty-fifth, adjoining namely the temple of blessed Mary, leaning against the north wall, with a small and low roof indeed, but lofty in the frequent resort of clergy and people. Further, the man of the Lord Gaugericus dwelt not far from the mother church ^d in no proud buildings (as we see very many now), but was always engaged either in the church or beside the church; imitating namely blessed Vedastus, whom he had succeeded as the fourth; who likewise used a like lodging beside the church of Arras toward the south, from which a column of light was seen reaching even to heaven, which marked the holy father's departure ^e.

[68] and its subsequent change. But because that pontiff Rothard was resolving to make a crypt in that same church ^f, and saw that this could by no means be done without the demolition of the aforesaid building, with much dread indeed and slow counsel he broke down the little cell, and thereafter, the work being completed, he preserved the altar which was within the walled ^g circuit of the crypt: nevertheless, lest it should be in the way of those entering, he moved it somewhat further to the east. But afterward the lord bishop Gerard, who succeeded him as the third, Christ granting it ^h, since he judged the building small and unequal to the chief cathedral, remodeling the head of that same church ⁱ together with the crypt ^k, as appears today to beholders, nobly renewed it, and restored the altar itself of our most holy father Gaugericus to the right side of the altar of St. Mary, where he had learned from the elders that it first was.

III.

[69] Also in a preceding time, since the memory of the holy Man spread a sweet fragrance far and wide, The Saint, again appearing, betrays a thief of his sepulcher. an innumerable multitude of the faithful from divers regions, bringing divers gifts, flowed together to his sacred tomb, and many gave with solemn liberality farms and estates, many slaves of both sexes, nay, and others other things, for the remedies of their souls. But whence the good are wont to profit, thence we often see the wicked, by blindness of mind, to fail *. For on a certain night, all being at rest, a thief by name Launeric, entering that church by diabolical prompting, longed to steal something from those things which had been bestowed by the faithful; when the man of the Lord Gaugericus roused from sleep Baudegisil, the guardian of the church. Awake, he said; and the thief whom you shall find violating our memorial, rebuke mercifully; and, having recovered what he is trying to carry off, permit him to go away unpunished. At this the sacristan ⁿ, rising in haste, found the thief laden, according to the word of the Man of God; but, having snatched away what he was carrying, as he had been admonished, let him slip away unpunished.

IV.

[70] But what was done in the neighborhood of the city of Soissons *, The violent invader of that church's estates since it is worthy of a miracle, we do not wish to pass over, as it will be an example of divine correction to all whose unbridled ambition burns in taking away the goods of the Church. For there was living in the city just mentioned a tyrant by name Fulbod, powerful as much in riches as in birth; but degenerate in mind and coveting what was another's; who by wretched greed presumed to join to his own possessions three estates of blessed Gaugericus, Clamentiacum, Guneum, and Banniolum ^o, because in that territory they adjoined his own lands. And if any of the brethren were at times sent to him to complain of the injury, straightway he either ordered them to be kept from his doors, or, unless they fled, threatened them with punishment. Whence the brethren alike, awaiting the divine protection, at length decreed the resolution of this counsel: that they should carry thither the little body of their holy Father, and thus, being perhaps about to cry out more boldly, should temper his savagery.

[71] As soon as the wretched man learned that this had been done, and caught sight from afar of the crowd coming, is compelled divinely to restore them. he began to rave more than usual, to gnash with fierce words, to grow in threats; when suddenly, amid these very revilings, by the manifest judgment of God, struck as if by an epileptic * disease, he fell to the ground, and, turning up his eyes in the fashion of the dying, failed altogether in voice and sense. To whom his wife, dismayed, straightway running with the servants, since she perceived the vengeance of divine anger, bearing it impatiently, uttered querulous wailings, and, accusing her husband's presumption, alleged that the requital of a just vengeance had come, in that, not only not content with his own, he coveted what was another's, but also (what is more grievous) threatened blows to the servants of God and of St. Gaugericus. But, the Lord having mercy, a little after, rising from his grievous convulsion, as soon as he could open his eyes and move his tongue to words, led by incredible repentance, he ordered himself to be carried to the bier of the Saint whom he had offended, and, the estates being restored, asked pardon for his guilt. Thus, having obtained the medicine of life by the merits of our Father, he afterward lived many years; but because he had not been made whole entirely, he bore witness to the mark of his crime by his own disgrace [p].

ANNOTATIONS.

p. That the original narrative of this Life reached only thus far, but that the rest which will follow here were afterward added by the same author from his Chronicle to this Life, we have shown in the Preliminary Commentary, number 13 and following.

* that is, to fail

* commonly Soissons

* read: epileptic

APPENDIX TO THE THIRD BOOK

added afterward in the ancient copies of this Life from the same author's Chronicle of Cambrai and Arras.

Miracles more recent than the preceding.

A demoniac freed at his tomb resolves to serve there; I have judged it fitting to append certain things which I myself, as a young man, saw at the present time in that same church of blessed Gaugericus ^a. For besides very many frenzied persons of both sexes whom I had seen made whole there, I shall speak of one apart, to whom I judge none comparable for excess of madness: for he, foaming at the mouth, gnashing with his teeth, although his hands were bound behind his back and he was wretchedly beaten by his own people, could scarcely be held from giving himself with all his strength, undaunted, to every kind of raving *, the devil suggesting violence; for he always spoke unlawful things, and, suddenly leaping upon incautious men, he very often bit them. But being brought with great difficulty to the church of the blessed Confessor, he seemed to rage no less for some days; so that no one dared to put himself in his way. Yet not for long: the kindly Patron interceding, being mercifully visited by the physician on high, he received the help of a sound and entire mind; and, his people returning home with joy, he himself, Gerard (for this was his name), judged that he should remain in the church to serve God and his most holy Confessor.

[73] And when he had long served there familiarly with the utmost devotion, afterward, when he wishes to depart, the Saint appearing frightens him; it happened that on a certain day the desire of visiting his father's farm invited him: toward which, as he was going, and while still not far distant, he met, as he himself used to relate, a priest comely with white hair, gracious in countenance and habit; who, addressing him with words of this kind, said: Whither are you going? And he: It is now long, my lord, that I have served the most holy father Gaugericus for the benefits conferred on me; but now I am eager to return to my country to visit my parents and see how they do. It is better, said he, that you remain, lest perchance you seem ungrateful for the benefit conferred.

[74] But he, despising * the affections of that fatherly favor, but he, persisting in his purpose, is more dreadfully seized by the demon, and putting behind him the counsels given, when he had gone forward a little, is presently seized by the demon much worse than before; so maddened, namely, that he wholly purposed to stone all whom he met. But being with no ease seized by many, bound with thongs, he is dragged back again to the church; and because, the devil teaching him, he uttered revilings against the Catholic faith, now he is poured upon with threats, now shaken with scourges; yet none could restrain the lying garrulity of his rabid mouth; until, amid scourges and bonds, sleep crept over him as he lay prostrate from weariness before the sepulcher of the holy Man.

[75] until again at the Saint's sepulcher he is freed. And when after a little he had awakened and risen, presently, his mind being divinely restored, all marveling and weeping for joy, with great confusion of shame he prostrates himself before the sepulcher and, confessing his fault, begs pardon for his error. At length, being made wholly master of his mind, he faithfully bound himself to monastic services, not daring to withdraw anywhere further; until after much time, leave being obtained from the brethren, he got permission to go to Rome. But it is to be noted that beyond doubt it was blessed Gaugericus who was that priest whom we said a little before met him.

[76] At the same tomb a paralytic is healed. There is still a man serving in the church, Hildebert by name, whom we know to have been made whole after a long sickness by the merits of the holy Man. He indeed for a whole year's round was so afflicted by I know not what kind of disease that, the greatest part of his body being as it were dead, he discharged no office in the pursuits of human uses. His father grieved that for the restoring of his health he had spent, in frequent hirings of physicians, a portion of his little substance without any profit; nor was he able to find what to aim at. In this disturbance of grief, then, a sound and salutary counsel at length occurred to the anxious man: namely, that he should seek the medicinal help of blessed Gaugericus, where indeed the sick were very often wont to obtain health, and demoniacs or lunatics were freed. Straightway therefore, the resolution being made, he brought the sick man, placed on a vehicle, to the church, and, setting him before the sepulcher, vowed him, if he were restored to health, to be bound in perpetuity to the services of blessed Gaugericus. Why should I draw out my little discourse? He lay a little while; he obtained the grace of the divine healing; and, in return for so great a benefit, serving in the monastic uses, he afterward lives in the church.

[77] A fire extinguished; a fever driven away. In the year of the Lord's Incarnation seven hundred, on the seventh of the Ides of July [b], there arose in that city a vast plague of fire, which, a great part of the city being already burned, the flames raging indeed and the winds driving them, growing strong, had come even to the houses situated near the church of the holy Man, and had unavoidably wrapped in devouring destruction those that stretched along. And now a cause of greater fear arises from the suspected conflagration of the temple: for it was perhaps not doubtful that if the nearest dwellings were burned, the church itself too would be seized by the fire. But as the flames grew strong, a greater fear pressed, and, balls of fire flying, both the whole people and the clergy, a cry being raised to heaven, roared aloud; and presently two of the clerics, by the judgment of the rest, swiftly approaching the holy sepulcher, with a boldness indeed born of fear, draw out the silver case of the most holy body, and, taking it up in haste, bear it to meet the raging flames. Straightway therefore, the divine clemency working and the merits of the holy Man supporting, the whole fire, its fury being abated, so grew torpid that you would have thought it sprinkled from above with a dewy shower. Many things too occur that should be related; but the narrow brevity of this little book does not allow it. But what shall I say of the multitude of divers sick persons who, flocking thither daily, receive health? Why should I tell these things, since they always appear more by sight than by telling? Lately indeed he restored to health (thanks be to God) even myself, laboring intolerably under fevers ^c.

[78] Berengar, bishop of Cambrai, I have judged it fitting also to append, although in an inverted order ^d, what the most blessed father Gaugericus did with Berengar, bishop of this city of Cambrai ^e. This Berengar was sprung from a noble kindred of Germany, and also a near blood relation of the emperor Otto; who, since he was entangled rather in secular than in ecclesiastical affairs, and through the loftiness of his excellent stock raised his mind with a certain impulse of boastfulness, went counter to the office he had taken up by the assaults of his manners and life. He is also said to have been of such fierceness that not only in tongue and nation, but also in manners, he seemed a barbarian to his people: for the more the authority of his royal race inspired him, the more fiercely he vexed the people. Often therefore, partly on account of the immoderate levity of his mind, and partly on account of the fierceness and disobedience of the resisting citizens, a difficult sedition arose between them; and sometimes there came an implacable conflict. But that he provoked such great harassments, that he inflicted such great disquiets, this indeed we can impute not so much to the bishop as to the insolences of his citizens, whom we have always heard to be, through their fierceness, disobedient and rebellious to all their bishops.

[79] But at a certain time, when, having set out into Germany for attendance on the emperor, he was staying some while, the sedition raised against him by the citizens meanwhile the citizens, gathered with one and the same will, a conspiracy being unanimously made, were so bound together among themselves that they shut the Pontiff out from the city on his return, entrance being denied him. And when, his affairs being finished, he was making for his pontifical see, on the very return the conspiracy of the citizens became known to him. Straightway therefore, because he saw his own men inferior both in strength and in number against the throng of so great a people, retracing the journey he had made, with the reproach of great ignominy, he approaches Bruno ^f, who at that time held the monarchy of the kingdom under his brother, and, his cause being set forth by declamation, earnestly beseeches that, supported namely by his help, he might be able forcibly to break into his closed see, and to exert due vengeance on the rebelling people for the injury received. Nor was it difficult; and, an abundant army being obtained, he went also to Arnulf, Count of Flanders, and, having promised him the estate of Lambras, made him his associate, nay, his helper. But the citizens, learning that he was returning with so great an aid, thought to take counsel for themselves, and, dissembling far the movements of rebellion, sent messengers that he should come without suspicion. And so with his own men only, the rest indeed having returned, he entered the city without any difficulty.

[80] And not long after, through the levity of his insolence, so savagely avenged, he extorted back the estate of Lambras, by which he had hired him, from the aforesaid Count Arnulf, whose help he had used to regain the city — threatening indeed that if he presumed to claim it, he would burn all Flanders for him. Besides, he tore two estates, Coureng and Ferroræ, from the church of the holy Mother of God, and granted them in benefice to a certain knight. But after some interval of time had passed, recalling the dishonor done him by the people, he called out allied troops, and invaded the unwary citizens with a sudden incursion, and, striking them as they scattered, pursued them as far as the church of St. Gaugericus. A new kind of spectacle: for straightway the armed men, bursting through the threshold of the most holy building without any measure of reverence, killed some, dismembered others by cutting off hands and feet; but of some they dug out the eyes, of some they branded the foreheads with hot iron. And then their lances

taken from the slain and from others, as he was furious, he ordered to be heaped upon a wagon, and, to display the pomp of his vengeance and victory, hastened to send them to his own estate, namely to the village whose name is Betendorth ^g, to his household.

[81] Nor do I cease to wonder at the deed of this pontiff, who did not fear to violate the temple of the most blessed Confessor, whom Walter ^h the castellan, a most inhuman soldier ⁱ, in a like business in our own days did not fail to reverence. For on a certain day, coming with his men from somewhere, he happened to meet two brothers, namely Aldo and Baldwin, his bitterest enemies, and presently, digging his spurs into the horse on which he sat, flying at them, and with his lance almost touching their backs, now at every moment threatening, now at every moment menacing, he pursues them as they fled to the foot of the hill, being indeed distant from the church about nine paces; but seeing them drawing near for refuge to the most holy temple, and redoubling their calls upon the holy Confessor for help, he was afraid to follow further; and at length, bursting forth, he said in these words: Know that you have this day been snatched from me by the support of blessed Gaugericus. If therefore a man of great savagery, for the love of God and the veneration of his Confessor, sparing his enemies, learned to have forbearance, how much more ought a pontiff to have done so, even out of regard for the priestly office which he discharged?

[82] struck by the staff of the Saint appearing to him, he perished. Nevertheless, because he sought neither escape nor hiding place for so great a crime, nor any measure of penitence, he paid a worthy requital of punishment not long after. For, having set out for Cologne, when on a certain night he was resting in his bed, blessed Gaugericus appeared to him as he was half awake; being seen indeed to rebuke him for what he had committed, and afterward to strike him heavily with the staff which he carried in his hand. And he, presently awaking, groaned with grievous lamentation, and, his chamberlains being called, unfolding the vision in order, declared the misfortune of his peril. Suffering for some time from that blow (it is a certain thing), not long after he died, being buried indeed in the basilica of St. Gereon ^k.

[83] A series of some prelates of Cambrai. Since therefore we have made mention of this Berengar, bishop of Cambrai, we have judged it fitting on this occasion to append the rest by name after St. Vedastus. To blessed Vedastus succeeded Dominic; to Dominic succeeded Vedulf; to Vedulf succeeded our most holy father Gaugericus, joyfully to be named; to blessed Gaugericus succeeded Bertoald; to Bertoald, Ablebert; to Ablebert succeeded blessed Autbert; to blessed Autbert succeeded St. Vindician; to St. Vindician succeeded Hildebert; to Hildebert succeeded Hunold; to Hunold succeeded Hadulf; to Hadulf succeeded Traward; to Traward succeeded Guntfrid; to Guntfrid succeeded Alberic; to Alberic succeeded Hildoward; to Hildoward succeeded Halitcharius; to Halitcharius, Theoderic. After him the church was vacant of a shepherd for three years, three Clerics being sent by the emperor against the canons, namely Guntbert, Tetbold, Hilduin. These being expelled, St. John was substituted; to St. John succeeded Rotrad; to Rotrad succeeded Dodilo; to Dodilo succeeded Stephen; to Stephen, Fulbert; to Fulbert, Berengar, of whom we made mention above; to Berengar, Engrannus; to Engrannus, Ansbert; to Ansbert, Wibold; to Wibold, Tetdo; to Tetdo, Rothard; to Rothard, Erluin; to Erluin, Gerard; to Gerard, Leitbert; to Lietbert succeeded Gerard; to Gerard, Manasses; to Manasses, Walcher; to Walcher, Odo; to Odo succeeded Burgard ^l; to Burgard, Liettard; to Liettard succeeded Nicholas; to Nicholas, Peter; to Peter, Robert; to Robert, Alard; to Alard succeeded Roger ^m.

ANNOTATIONS.

* read: bacchaniæ

* Baldericus: conceptis