Arnulf

ON ST. ARNULF, CONFESSOR, BISHOP OF SOISSONS,

AT OUDENBURG IN FLANDERS,

IN THE YEAR MLXXXVII.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Arnulf, bishop of Soissons, confessor, at Oudenburg in Flanders (S.)

BHL Number: 0703

BY G. C.

§ I. The chief cult of this Saint at Oudenburg in Flanders, his memory in the Martyrologies, and one or two ancient eulogies of him.

Concerning the etymology of Oudenburg, where the Saint set forth in the title perhaps rests even today, The etymology is disputed and where he is chiefly honored, there is a diversity of opinion among Belgian writers: for some hold that Aldenburgum, in the vernacular Oudenburg, that is "old castle," was so called from its antiquity. But others will have it that Aldenburgum drew its name from Aldo or Aldon, who was lord of that place. These are favored by the ancient Acts of St. Ursmar, which our Henschen illustrated on the XVIII day of April, and in which, in volume 2 of that month, page 562, we read the following: The lord of the province himself also, Aldo by name, being converted to the faith of Christ by the preaching of blessed Ursmar, gave the village of Aldeburch, NAMED FROM HIS OWN NAME, and a thousand paces round about on every side, in which he built and consecrated a church in honor of the Apostle Peter; with which he afterwards endowed the church of Lobbes, that the blessed Apostle himself, upon whom was conferred by the Lord the power of binding and loosing, might be patron to the Flemings and Menapians, who, being recalled from the various worships of idols, had been made one church of Christ.

[2] Those writers also disagree concerning the ancient state of the same place; and the antiquity of the place in Flanders, which some adorn with great splendor, among whom Aubert le Mire, in the Origins of the Benedictine Convents in Belgium, chapter 39, writes thus: It is established that Aldeburgum was once a town of the first rank among the Flemings. But when Attila, king of the Huns, was laying Gaul waste, it was destroyed along with other towns; and they still show today the place of Attila's camp, a mile from Aldeburgum, which they call in the vernacular Attilaghem. Moreover they relate that by Baldwin the Bald, Count of Flanders, about the year of Christ eight hundred and sixty-five, the burg of Bruges — since it had been begun to be fortified by his father — was walled with the rubble of Aldeburgum brought thither. Meyer, Marchantius, Buzelin, and others reported in Antony Sanderus, volume 1 of Flandria illustrata, page 316 and following, relate like things of Oudenburg, and contend that before the times of Attila it was the metropolis of Flanders and a most opulent city.

[3] which is called Aldenburg, But Olivier Vredius, jurisconsult of Bruges, in his Flanders Ancient or Heathen, chapter 9, page 87 and the following, thus explodes this opinion of his countrymen: At these times our native chronicles will have it that Aldenburgum, an old town three miles from the city of Bruges, was overthrown by the Huns — so called, as they say, from its antiquity, as being an old burg, because ALT among the Germans, OUDT among the Flemings, means old, ancient. But that this is not true appears both from Attila's route demonstrated above, and from this, that Aldenburgum is situated in the first Francia, where men dwelt not in cities but in villages. And let no one believe that Aldenburgum was so ancient a city: for the Life of St. Ursmar testifies otherwise, where Aldenburgum is said to have been the village of a certain local chief whose name was Aldo or Aldus. Here Vredius cites the words which we have related at number one from the Acts of St. Ursmar, and then pursues his reasoning thus: The origin of this fable seems to have flowed from the name of a neighboring village, which, since it is called Ettelghem, seems to sound "Attila's house or temple." But in truth that Attila settled in that place, or had a house or temple there, is no more true than that Ulysses, wandering, was carried to these parts also, and gave their names to our villages Vlisseghen and Lisseweghe and to the town of Flushing; and that Circe gave to the Zeeland town of Zierikzee its name, as though of the Circaean sea. Finally the praised writer, in chapter 24, or page 493 of the same Work,

confirms by various testimonies and arguments that Oudenburg was in ancient times called only a village.

[4] Whatever may be the case in this controversy, it is enough for us that St. Arnulf rendered his soul to his Creator at Oudenburg, where St. Arnulf has been honored from time immemorial and enriched this place with his sacred relics. Whence in that place this Saint has obtained a singular veneration, as our Acts and the Benedictine Menologies everywhere testify. Certainly from time immemorial the monks of Oudenburg have celebrated his feast with a proper Office, and in his honor have chanted a hymn, which Arnold Wion, a learned man who once dwelt in the same monastery, sets forth in book 3 of the Lignum Vitæ, or part 2, page 269, in these words:

Sing, O tongue, the glorious       joys of the confessors,       among whom Arnulf blooms as a rose       in glory,       possessing the fruitful       rewards of his merits.

The arms of a soldier       this youth bore;       then, leaving the care of the world,       St. Medard's is sought;       bearing Christ with a pure mind       he is made a monk.

Desiring to serve Christ,       prompt in obedience,       and to obey his abbot,       keeping silence;       he strives to keep pure       the dwellings of his mind.

Given to the brethren as abbot,       he corrects their perils;       to the pious he is mild and gracious,       to the sorrowful he gives comfort:       thus devoutly is he adorned       with the mitre of a prelate.

Fulfilling the commands laid on him,       being admonished through dreams,       giving peace to those at discord,       he preaches in Flanders,       abundantly sowing       the seeds of piety.

To the prelate are joined       the tokens of virtues;       the blind see, the dumb speak,       he heals all sicknesses:       and demons are put to flight       by his intercessions.

He is visited by Peter       on the border of death;       a plentiful legion of angels       consoles him:       with Mary there is presented       a company of virgins.

Let us adore Christ the king,       who governs all things,       that he may preserve his flock       through the merits of Arnulf:       who, by keeping his law here,       merited the things of heaven.

Praising him together let us celebrate       the solemnities of Arnulf:       let us give him the services       of our heart and of our mouth,       that we may reign with him       in the glory of heaven.

Glory and honor be to God       the Most High for ever,       to the Father and to the Son       and to the renowned Paraclete,       whose is praise and power       through eternal ages. Amen.

This hymn, which contains summarily the chief deeds of St. Arnulf, will be more clearly understood from his fuller Acts, to be published after this preliminary Commentary.

[5] The lawful cult of this Saint is confirmed by the Martyrologies, who is also recorded in the Martyrologies, among which the modern Roman one thus briefly mentions him on the XV day of August: At Soissons in Gaul, of St. Arnulf, bishop and confessor. The Roman Martyrology doubtless announces him here at Soissons because he administered the bishopric of Soissons, or passed a great part of his life in that city. Our manuscript Florarium on the following day expresses no place, but has these words concerning the same holy prelate: The birthday of blessed Arnulf, bishop of Soissons and confessor. He, a Brabanter by nation, coming forth also from the stock of the Carolingians, noble by birth but nobler by religion, was made first abbot of St. Medard's; thereafter, as his merits increased, he is appointed prelate of Soissons, shining with miracles and foreknowing the day of his death. The Centula codex, among our Usuardine supplements, announces the same Saint on the XVI day of August, at the last wrestling-ground of his labors and of his death, in these words: Likewise in Flanders, the deposition of St. Arnulf, bishop of Soissons, who among the other proclamations of his miracles both obtained by prayer and prophesied with foreknowledge the birth of Louis, king of the Franks. I pass over here Menard, Saussay, and other more recent Martyrologists, who have more distinctly placed this Saint at Oudenburg in Flanders: for from these announcements and from the Acts to be given below it is abundantly established that this holy prelate is honored with an ancient and lawful cult.

[6] and is twice greatly praised by a contemporary author. To these I subjoin the honorable testimony which a contemporary writer bore concerning the sanctity of the same prelate. This is Sigebert, monk of Gembloux, who in his Chronicle, in Pistorius's edition, at the year 1080 adorns him with the following eulogy: At this time also there flourished with signs and virtues in the convent of St. Medard the most blessed man Arnulf, who, out of a wondrous fervor of holiness, choosing the purpose of a recluse and afflicting himself with an exceedingly strict abstinence, received divinely the grace of prophecy; and from a recluse being made abbot of this monastery, he afterwards returned to that same reclusion out of contempt of the world and desire of inward quiet. But when the bishop of Soissons had died, he was elected to the bishopric, and by command of Pope Gregory was consecrated prelate by Hugh, archbishop of Lyons, legate of the Apostolic See. Then the said chronographer at the year of Christ 1087 has these words concerning the same wonderful man: St. Arnulf, from abbot of St. Medard's afterwards also promoted to the pontificate of the city of Soissons, came into Flanders for the restoration of peace among the Flemings, and in a village named Aldenburch made the church of St. Peter, already illustrious with divine miracles, a convent of monks, established the order of regular life, and at length in the same monastery received both the end of his life and his burial, according as he himself had foretold. Like things are read in Sigebert's Chronicle which Laurence de la Barre took care to have printed at Paris among other ancient records in the year 1583. Although in the same Chronicle of Sigebert which Aubert le Mire published at Antwerp in the year 1608 all these things are not found, yet at the year 1086 there is read in it, in other characters, this brief eulogy of the same holy man: Arnulf, of the bishopric of the city of Soissons, shone venerable by the spirit of prophecy, by purity of life, and by miracles, and is buried at Aldenbort in the church of St. Peter by the will of God.* I omit here Trithemius and other more recent authors who have extolled the same holy bishop with deserved praises, and proceed to trace out his sacred relics.

* read Aldenborch or Aldenburch

§ II. The bones of this holy prelate repeatedly recognized, and prudently withdrawn from the fury of the Calvinists.

The Saint's body, a great multitude of the people being invited, After it had been decreed in the synod of Beauvais that the bones of St. Arnulf should be solemnly raised from the earth, Lambert, bishop of Tournai, to whose diocese Oudenburg then belonged, invited by encyclical letters the faithful subject to him to this honorable elevation of the sacred relics, as will be related more fully in the Acts to be published below, book 3, chapter 2. But there the authentic instrument of this invitation or convocation is wanting, which nevertheless we lately received by the favor of the most reverend and most illustrious lord Henry Joseph Van Susteren, bishop of Bruges. Wherefore it has seemed good to us to insert here a lawful copy of this authentic instrument, which, juridically extracted from a parchment sheet, runs thus: Lambert, by the grace of God bishop of Tournai and of Noyon, to all the deans and priests of our diocese, greeting and blessing. With the cooperating grace of the Holy Spirit, we have decreed to raise from the earth the sacred body of St. Arnulf the bishop; and for the fulfilling of this sacred office on the first day of the month of May, with Christ leading, we bid that the people committed to you be admonished by your charity in each several church, that they may devoutly assemble and obtain the Lord's blessing at Oudenburg in the church of St. Peter the Apostle. Given in the year of the Lord one thousand one hundred and twenty, in the XIII Indiction.

[8] In the following year that solemn elevation of the sacred bones was made on the Kalends of May, in the year 1121 he is solemnly raised from the earth, as is evident from another instrument, in which these things are read: In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand one hundred and twenty-one, in the XIV Indiction, in the XIV year of Louis king of the Franks, in the second year of Pope Calixtus holding the Roman see, in the second year also of Charles Count of the Flemings, when abbot Hariulf had labored over the convent of Oudenburg now fifteen years and six months save nine days, the sacred body of blessed Arnulf the bishop was raised and translated on the Kalends of May by Lambert, bishop of Tournai, at the time when the Roman Cardinal priest Peter de Leone was lodging at St. Bertin's on a visitation of these regions. These chronological marks nearly agree with those which we shall report below in the Acts, book 3, chapter 2, number 136, or at least can easily be reconciled with them.

[9] Moreover, on the back of the same parchment sheet these things had been noted concerning certain relics of St. Arnulf: as is established from lawful instruments, The alb, which lies apart in a linen bag, belonged to the Saint himself, in which he was consecrated bishop, and in which he sang Masses until the end of his life. Then in the same place the following are read: The leg bone placed in the alb was of his sacred body; but out of love we had thought to keep it outside, until, compelled by excessive importunity, we were obliged to lay it away in the coffer. We do not know at what time these two annotations were written; but we know from another testimony of the translation, which we shall presently set forth below, that the same alb of the Saint was found in the old shrine in the year 1457. Further, the authentic credit of this and of the other instruments is juridically proved by this subscription: This copy agrees with the original parchment sheet, gnawed by age but legible; the collation having been made with it in the presence and with the help of the most reverend and most noble lord, Sir Charles Philip de Rodoan, bishop of Bruges, and also of the reverend lord John Bourier, abbot of St. Peter's of Oudenburg. Which I attest, John Baptist Van Belle, Doctor of both Laws, clerk of the city of Bruges, this XXVII of May MDCXIII.*

[10] and in the year 1457 is enclosed in a more precious shrine, From this first elevation of the sacred bones no mention of the relics of St. Arnulf occurs to us until the year of Christ 1457, in which Anianus, abbot of Oudenburg, took care to have them enclosed in a more precious casket, as we gather from an authentic instrument which is preserved in the reliquary, and of which the copy runs thus: In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Here rests the glorious body of our most holy Father and defender Arnulf, bishop and confessor, translated by the most reverend father and lord in Christ William, bishop of Sarepta, suffragan of the most reverend father and lord in Christ, Sir John, bishop of Tournai, in the fifth Indiction, Calixtus the third holding the Roman see, John governing the metropolitan see of Reims, Charles king of the Franks reigning, Louis the most noble Dauphin of France sojourning at Bruges, and Philip Count of Flanders ruling in the XXXVIII year of his government, and Anianus, by God's authority, administering the care of the convent of Oudenburg; many besides, both abbots and provosts and other faithful of Christ, standing by with joy and devotion. Solemnly enacted in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand four hundred and fifty-seven, on the Kalends of May, on a Sunday. That it may be believed without doubt by our posterity, diligently honored, and celebrated for ever, it is a holy thing to note down the names and seals of those who were present at this translation.

[11] as in an authentic testimony To this instrument there are still attached seals bearing each man's own name, except two, which doubtless have fallen off: for in the original itself all the seals or marks are designated by the letter

capital S, in this manner: Seal of the lord William, bishop of Sarepta. Seal of Anianus, abbot of St. Peter's of Oudenburg. Seal of James, abbot of St. Andrew's near Bruges. Seal of Nicasius, abbot of St. Adrian the martyr. Seal of Everard, abbot of Ter Duinen. Seal of James, abbot of Ter Doest. Seal of Peter, abbot of the Blessed Mary of Middelburg. Seal of Limannus, abbot of St. Nicholas of Furnes. Seal of Hector, provost of Loo. Seal of Peter, provost of Eversam. Seal of James, abbot of the Blessed Mary of Zonnebeke. Seal of Anthony, abbot of St. Bartholomew of Eeckhout. Seal of Walter, provost of the churches of the Blessed Mary of Bruges and of St. Peter of Cassel. Concerning the alb of St. Arnulf, of which I made mention above, there was written in another hand on the back of this instrument thus: Note that in the same year (namely 1457, in which this happened) a certain alb, in which he was consecrated bishop, was found in the ancient casket, from which it was drawn out and set aside for the increase of greater reverence.

[12] and is related in Sanderus's Work. Sanderus, in volume 1 of Flandria illustrata, page 320, relates the same translation more distinctly from the Annals of the convent of Oudenburg, in these words: Moreover the said abbot (namely Anianus, of whom he had treated above), seeing that the body of our glorious father Arnulf rested in a certain old wooden casket which by reason of exceeding age was of so mean an appearance and of so small furnishing that on this account the veneration of the same Saint was neglected, caused a certain new shrine to be made at Bruges, adorned with gold and silver, as is plain to the eyes of beholders, into which he caused the most holy body of our father Arnulf to be translated in the year MCDLVII, on the first day of May, which was then a Sunday, in the presence of many abbots, provosts, doctors, curates, and chaplains, and of nobles, and of the rest of both sexes in the greatest multitude, namely men of Ghent, Bruges, Oudenburg, Dixmude, Nieuwpoort, Furnes, Ostend, Bergues, Ghistelles, Ettelghem, and Leffinge, who all wondrously adorned this place by going before the clergy in procession with countless torches and well-sounding trumpets in great number, with devotion, joy, and gladness. These things I saw. By the diligence and zeal of the said Anianus all these things have remained in memory. Thus he, from an eyewitness who probably wrote the history of his monastery of Oudenburg.

[13] I scarcely doubt that at that time certain relics of St. Arnulf were shared with other churches. A few relics having been translated elsewhere, At least Sanderus, just praised, in volume 1 of Flandria illustrata, page 317, writes thus to our purpose: The body of this Saint is now kept at Bruges, save that some small portion was given by abbot Anianus in the year MCDLVIII to the church of Tidegem in Brabant, where he had been born. In the following paragraph we shall investigate this birthplace of the Saint, and on that occasion shall try to explain there how the village of Tidegem can be placed in Brabant. But as to the other relics of the same Saint, our Baldwin Willot in his Belgian Martyrology or Hagiology on this day asserts that an arm of this St. Arnulf is honored at Mons in Hainaut in the church of St. Waltrude. But I greatly wonder that notice of this arm did not come to Arnold Raisse, that most diligent investigator of Belgian relics, who nevertheless in his Belgian Hierogazophylacium, page 544 and following, enumerates lesser relics of that same church of Mons. Wherefore those whom it concerns will easily be able to supply that silence of Raisse, if they still possess this sacred treasure. Now let us pass to another inspection of the same sacred body.

[14] A hundred years after the above-mentioned change of shrine the bones of St. Arnulf were again visited, most of this Saint's bones are again recognized at Oudenburg in the year 1557, as is established from the following instrument, which is of this tenor: On the twenty-eighth day of the month of June in the year of the Lord MDLVII, in the third year of the Pontificate of the most holy father in Christ, the lord Paul IV by divine providence Pope, in the XV Indiction, in the lifetime of Charles, emperor of the Romans, king of the Spains, the fifth of that name, in the reign of Philip his son, king of the Spains, of England, France, Sicily, Naples, etc., count of Flanders, under the episcopate of the most reverend lord Charles de Croy, bishop of Tournai, the reverend father in Christ the lord Oliver Vander Hulst, abbot of the monastery of St. Peter of Oudenburg, desiring to lighten the very heavy weight of the shrine containing the sacred body or relics of St. Arnulf, bishop and confessor, caused the said shrine to be opened, in which he found letters written on parchment, sealed with thirteen seals, of the date of the year of the Lord MCDLVII, on the Kalends of May, on a Sunday, and again laid back in the same. Likewise he found the bones and relics of the aforesaid St. Arnulf wrapped in a decayed waxed cloth and covered with an entire silken cloth: and enclosing these testimonial letters, he caused it to be solemnly shut up again, in the presence of the reverend lords in Christ, the lord William, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See bishop of Sarepta; the lord John Vander Weerde, abbot of the monastery of St. Andrew near Bruges; John de Muer, monk of the same monastery of St. Andrew and Prior of the monastery of St. Peter of Oudenburg; the lord Peter Westbusch, the lord Adrian de Grutere, the lord Christopher de Boukere, Giles Sawyne, Laurence Bertenchon, religious priests; James Cromelync, deacon; John Hoye, subdeacon, professed monks, and the whole convent; and also the honorable lords and masters Arnold Dierkens, Hugh Coens, curate, Canons of the collegiate church of St. Saviour of the town of Bruges; master Leo de Voocht, curate of the parish church of the town of Oudenburg: likewise the upright and honorable men James Lucas, receiver of the fabric and of the whole community of St. Saviour of the aforesaid town of Bruges, Daniel Miels, John Sanders, Arnold Bertelz, Josse Valentin, and very many others. In testimony of which thing the aforesaid lord abbot caused these letters to be strengthened with his own seal and with the seal of the aforewritten most reverend lord William, bishop, suffragan of Tournai and dean of the aforesaid St. Saviour's of Bruges, in the year, day, and month as above. On the fold above these words were read: By the mandate of the aforesaid lord of Sarepta; and it was signed Christian Grave, admitted Apostolic Notary. And the two seals mentioned hung there, impressed in red wax.

[15] and afterwards were withdrawn from the fury of the Calvinists, At these times various seditions were stirred up in Belgium against the ancestral Catholic religion, and impious violators of sacred things partly despoiled and partly destroyed many churches and convents of Belgium. In this ruin the monastery of Oudenburg also was involved, as Mabillon relates in his preliminary observations to the Life of St. Arnulf, number 7, in these words: At the same time there flourished in that convent (namely Oudenburg, of which he is there speaking) two illustrious men well deserving of the Benedictine Order, namely James Byns and Arnold Wion, who in the year MDLXXVIII, when the monastery of Oudenburg had been utterly destroyed by the Calvinist heretics, were compelled to depart into other provinces. James crossed into Spain, where at Seville he built a hospice for receiving and cherishing his fellow countrymen; but Arnold, withdrawing into Italy, there wrote a book on the beginnings, progress, and other matters pertaining to our Order, under the name of the Lignum Vitæ, and, having long dwelt among our Cassinese brethren, died in that same region. These things occurred under Melchior Everaert as abbot, under whom the monks were scattered here and there into various places; but the sacred relics and other things withdrawn from the fury of the heretics were meanwhile kept at Bruges by a very few monks, who afterwards, when the tumults were quieted, returned to the monastery. Sanderus in the Hagiology of Flanders on the XV day of August thus briefly mentions these relics of St. Arnulf which were then kept at Bruges: That his body is even now kept at Bruges, carefully guarded through these troubles by the daughter of Josse Damhouder the royal counsellor, Aubert le Mire lately informed us.

[16] as is evident from the testimony of the bishop of Bruges, That these venerable bones of St. Arnulf were prudently withdrawn from the fury of the iconoclasts and escaped their sacrilegious hands in good time is evident from the testimony of the most illustrious prelate of Bruges, who in the year of Christ 1613 examined the old shrine and translated the same bones of the Saint into another, as the following juridical instrument teaches, of which this is the tenor: James Philip de Rodoan of Berleghem, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See bishop of Bruges, perpetual and hereditary chancellor of Flanders, etc. To all and singular who shall see, read, and likewise hear these our letters, greeting in the Lord. After, the ancestral religion being restored and the fury of the image-fighters ceasing, there had been brought back among other sacred pledges the greater part of the skull with various notable bones of the body of St. Arnulf, bishop of Soissons and confessor, and also ancient letters, confirmed with the seals of very many prelates, bearing witness to it, we, according to the decree of the sacred council of Trent, having examined the things to be examined on that account, have enclosed the same, with such reverence as is fitting, cleansed from the former reliquary in which they had been laid up, in this new one.

[17] And that no one may have any doubt concerning the certainty of this sacred treasure, we have thought it right to append this testimony, confirmed by the appending of the greater seal and by the subscription of our secretary, [who in the year 1613 inspected the shrine of the same Saint before many witnesses,] in the presence of the reverend, venerable, and noble men John Bouvier, prelate of St. Andrew's; John Montanus, abbot of St. Bartholomew's, commonly called Eeckhout; Arnold Van Mechelen, archdeacon; Remigius Druitius, official; John Baptist Blotagrius, Canons of our cathedral church; Peter de Cueninck, dean and chief pastor of the collegiate and parish church of St. Saviour; James Stratius, rector of the college of the Society of Jesus; James de Noyelles, viscount of Nielles; Louis Lopez Gallo, Baron of Male; Adolph de Maldeghem, burgomaster of the aldermen of Bruges; Charles de Boonem of the Franc; Charles Christian de Rodoan, lord of Berleghem; Nicholas de Schieter; Peter Snucx; and an unnumbered multitude of both sexes; copies being appended of two other attestations, corroded by age and almost consumed, namely of the year one thousand one hundred and twenty, of the thirteenth Indiction, in the reigns of Pope Calixtus, Louis king of the Franks, and Charles Count of the Flemings. Given and enacted at Bruges in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand six hundred and thirteen, on the twenty-eighth of the month of May, in the eleventh Indiction, in the ninth year of the Pontificate of our most holy lord Pope Paul V, in the reign of our most serene princes Albert and Isabella Eugenia, infanta of the Spains, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Burgundy, Counts of Flanders, etc. On the fold these words were found: By the mandate of his most reverend grace, P. De Meulenaere, secretary. Moreover the seal of the most illustrious James Philip de Rodoan hung there in red wax.

[18] I had determined to describe more distinctly in this place the present state of the sacred relics and the particular veneration paid them, and they are still preserved today in Flanders. if my request had been satisfied: for now almost for a year I have asked the Father Procurator of our College of Bruges that, when occasion offered, he would deliver to the most worshipful lord Abbot of Oudenburg a certain memorandum which I had written to this end, that I might be instructed concerning their present situation and adornment. But no notice of this matter has reached me, since perhaps that Procurator forgot the business committed to him, or no

answer was received. My colleague Sollier some years ago saw these sacred remains of St. Arnulf, which were then kept privately at Bruges. I readily believe, however, that they were afterwards translated to the abbey of Oudenburg, since that monastery, which of old had been almost exhausted by wars and other misfortunes, now begins so to flourish again that there is no small hope that it will little by little be brought back to its former splendor. Since therefore the Acts of St. Arnulf are now to be given to the press, the fair reader will pardon me, I hope, that I have not been able to indicate anything certain concerning the present state of those relics.

* that is, into the shrine

§ III. The Saint's name, native land, nobility, and two examples of his bodily strength which are not recorded in our manuscript Acts.

The Saint had two names, From the Acts to be published below the reader will understand that this our Saint was by a heavenly prophecy called Christopher; but that his kinsman Arnulf of Oudenaarde imposed upon him his own name of Arnulf. By this latter name he is everywhere called by the authors, and Molanus in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii on the XVI day of August discusses him thus: It is customary for barren and pregnant matrons to invoke this holy prelate for a happy delivery. Now Arnulphus is in Flemish Arnout; but the people of Oudenaarde say in Latin ARNOLDUS, and in Flemish, with the aspiration pleasing to them, Harent. The latter Latin name Trithemius refers to the German usage. If you prefer with some to call this Saint Arnold, you may do so for all we care: but beware lest on account of this similarity of name you confuse him with St. Arnold the harper, to whom the Carthusians of Brussels in their manuscript additions to the Usuardine supplements wrongly assigned a tomb at Oudenburg, as we showed in volume IV of July in the preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Arnold the harper, page 448. For the rest, we in the title of this Commentary have called today's holy prelate by the name of Arnulf alone, which is generally used by the old biographer and by other writers. Let these things said concerning our Saint's name suffice.

[20] and was born in a village, The praised Molanus in the place just cited reasons thus concerning the stock and native land of St. Arnulf: That he belonged to the family of the Pamele is very well known from his family arms and from other sources. But Lisiard (Molanus supposes that Lisiard committed the Saint's Life to writing, of which matter we shall treat afterwards), a French writer, is thought wrongly to call him a Brabanter: for although the territory of Aalst, which the Scheldt bounds, is wont to be reckoned to Brabant, yet Tidinghem, which is now called Tighem, his native soil, is outside the domain of Aalst on this side of the Scheldt, two miles from Oudenaarde; to which place abbot Anianus in the year one thousand four hundred and fifty-seven conferred some relics of blessed Arnulf, that they might the more ardently honor a prelate sprung from thence. Concerning the Saint's birthplace Sanderus agrees with Molanus, when in volume 2 of Flandria illustrata, page 589, he writes thus of the same village: Tiedeghem is a famous village under the lordship of the Baron of Anglo-Munster, and more so on account of the birth, relics, and miracles of blessed Arnulf, bishop of Soissons and abbot among the people of Oudenburg.

[21] which is now assigned to Flanders, Nevertheless Arnold Wion in book 3 of the Lignum vitæ, or part 2 of that Work, page 270, calls the same Saint a native of Oudenaarde, when he writes thus in that place: Now St. Arnulf was a Fleming by nation, of Oudenaarde by native place, sprung from the illustrious and noble family of the Pamele. Certainly those writers who assert that our Saint was born in the village of Tiedeghem or Tighem are favored by the ancient author of the Life, who below in the Acts at number 3 will speak thus of the father of St. Arnulf: There was a man, Folbert by name, in a village of Brabant near the river Scheldt, who, being enriched not only with a remarkable nobility of family but with an abundance of worldly goods, stood forth among his other countrymen renowned in all things both in mind and in body. Perhaps therefore Wion surnames this holy bishop of Oudenaarde because the village of Tiedeghem or Tighem was situated in the territory of Oudenaarde, or because the Saint drew his origin from the illustrious family of the Pamele, who inhabited the old castle of Oudenaarde and held wide dominion in that tract: for I do not suppose that Oudenaarde itself was designated by the name of village at the time when our biographer wrote these things.

[22] But someone will ask me: Whether that Saint was born at Oudenaarde or in the village of Tiedeghem, although in ancient times it was reckoned to Brabant, how can either of those birthplaces be reckoned to Brabant by the ancient biographer, since it is established that both are situated in Flanders? Molanus, cited above, roundly pronounces that the author of the Life erred in that matter. But I think it more likely that the writer of the Acts followed in this matter the division of his own time, when Brabant extended more widely. Lest I seem to have said this gratuitously, I shall prove this opinion by certain ancient testimonies. Sigebert, monk of Gembloux, in le Mire's edition of the Chronicle at the year 1059 writes thus: In the pagus (pagus is derived from the French word païs, and often signifies a certain tract of a region) of Bracbant near Tournai multitudes of snakes gathered on either side and clashed together in a prodigious battle, etc. Anselm, abbot of the monastery of Gembloux, in le Mire's edition of his Chronicle at the year 1113, relates these things: In the pagus of Bracbant, on the IX of the Kalends of May, so great a snow fell about Tournai that it even broke the forests. Tournai, therefore, was then a city of Bracbant or Brabant, which is now attributed to Flanders.

[23] Nay more, the city of Ghent itself, which is now the metropolis of Flanders, which then extended more widely. was in ancient times placed in Brabant, as is evident from the letters of Louis the Emperor, a fragment of which Valois reports in the Notitia Galliarum, page 93, and in which is named Einhard, abbot of the monastery which is called Ganda, which is situated in the pagus of Bracbant, built in honor of St. Peter, where also St. Bavo rests in body. Whence Valois on the page just cited gives the following warning: Bracbantum, which by more recent Latin writers is called Brabantia, and by ours in part le Brabant, once extended from Aalst and Ghent as far as Tournai, or even as far as Condé, if any credit is to be given to le Mire. Our John Roberti, on the name Bracbante which occurs in the ancient Acts of St. Hubert, briefly observes in his notes at number 76: Brabant stretched far more widely than now, so much so that it took in a great part of Flanders and a great part of Hainaut also. Finally Justus Lipsius in the Description of Louvain, book 1, chapter 13, and our Charles Scribanius in the Origins of the Antwerpians, chapter 2, whom the praised John Roberti cites and follows, confirm this opinion with many examples.

[24] Whatever may be the case concerning the particular place of his birth, which you may assign to Flanders or to Brabant at your pleasure, Now the holy prelate was sprung the Belgian authors unanimously relate that St. Arnulf sprang from the territory of Oudenaarde and from the illustrious line of the Pamele. Among others John Baptist Gramaye in the Description of Oudenaarde proves this origin in these words: Lisiard the abbot (doubtless he meant to say bishop) in the Life of blessed Arnulf says that his mother was of the most noble stock of the Counts of Louvain, Mons, Namur, and Loon; his father he calls Fulbert, whom the family arms of Arnulf still extant among the people of Oudenburg, the same as those which the Pamele now bear, argue to have been of the lords of Oudenaarde; and further, that Arnulf of Oudenaarde, receiving the boy from the laver of holy baptism as witness and sponsor, willed that he should be named after himself, which he would not have done rashly if no kinship had intervened. Other Belgian writers have like things, with whom Mabillon the Frenchman seems to agree, together with the Sainte-Marthes, when in the preliminary observations to the Life of our Saint he speaks thus: Arnulf is said at the beginning of his Life to have been born of parents excelling not only in nobility but in most ample riches; whom all the writers of Belgian affairs, whom the Sainte-Marthes have followed in the Gallia Christiana, assert with unanimous consent to have sprung from the most noble family of the Pamele in Belgium. That he had Arnulf of Oudenaarde as his uncle, the writer of the Life is witness, who in the same place affirms that his mother came forth from the illustrious lineage of the Counts of Louvain, Namur, Loon, and Mons.

[25] from noble parents, Aubert le Mire in the Library of Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 362, thus incidentally indicates his mother's kinship with the Counts of Namur: St. Arnulf, inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on the XV of August, had Folbert as father, Meinsindis as mother, and Goda as grandmother, who was the daughter of Albert the first Count of Namur, as Duchesne teaches in his History of Luxemburg. But that Goda who is here called daughter of Albert the first is called sister of the same Count of Namur in an old manuscript codex of the monastery of Clairmarais, from which the praised Mabillon in the preliminary observations cited above reports a more distinct genealogy of his maternal stock thus: Albert Count of Namur had three own sisters, Lutgard, Goda, and Ermengard; which Albert begot Godfrey, father of Godfrey of Namur; Lutgard bore Emmo and his brother Otto. Emmo begot Arnulf Count of Looz and Sophia of Hungary: that Sophia bore the king of Hungary and the Duchess of Huy. Otto, brother of Emmo, begot Gislebert of Duras. Goda, sister of Count Albert, bore Meinsindis, mother of St. Arnulf, bishop of the city of Soissons in France.* Nearly the same things are found after the Life of St. Arnulf in our Ter Doest transcript, of which we shall give notice in the following paragraph.

[26] whose lineage is indicated by the authors, The compendium of the Life which Mabillon subjoined to the longer Acts of St. Arnulf mentions the paternal family of the same Saint, and in the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine Order, century VI, part 2, page 555, thus begins: Although Brabant was once the nurse and mistress of quarrels and rapines, and it has been said in a truthful verse, "As many vines as France has, so many quarrels has Brabant," yet in the time of Count Baldwin and Countess Adela it deserved to be irradiated with a gift from on high, when it deserved to bring forth from its bosom, for the enlightenment of not a few men, that man of holy memory Arnulf, the future bishop, like a ray illuminated by the Sun of justice. His father Fulbert, cousin of the mother Godeleva (for matris, unless I am mistaken, we must read with our Ter Doest transcript martyris, "the martyr"), shone with illustrious nobility; and his mother, Mainsindis by name, sprung from the stock of the Teutonic nobles, was famous for a remarkable free birth. You see here the father of our Saint joined by kinship with St. Godeleva, martyr of Ghistelles, whose Acts we have illustrated on the VI day of July, in volume 2 of that month from page 359, and whom we said to be sprung from the district of Boulogne in Picardy. But when the author of our manuscript Florarium, which we have above alleged on another occasion, asserts on the XVI day of August that our Saint came forth from the stock of the Carolingians, he probably meant to designate the second line of the kings of the Franks. But we have not leisure to trace laboriously each of those degrees of nobility and to dwell longer here upon a matter which little concerns the chief glory of St. Arnulf.

[27] Nor do they much contribute to the honor

of our Saint those things and he was endowed with great bodily strength, which Surius published concerning his bodily vigor, and which are not read in our transcripts and codices. We do not know whether these were written by the writer of the Acts himself, or added by another and later hand. Since, however, Mabillon transcribed those examples of bodily strength from Surius and inserted them into the Acts of St. Arnulf, we here subjoin to the eyes of the curious reader the same, which are related in the praised Mabillon in these words: To show his bodily strength, although many instances are at hand, we shall nevertheless set forth only two, and that briefly. For since all the works of the Lord are very good, the knowledge also of that strength or power will be matter for the praise of God, who conferred it upon him. At the same time it will also add to the sum of this Saint's glory, who did not abuse it, though he might have done so, for the vanity of the world and for false follies; but, a despiser of it and of the worldly glory that is procured by it, was wholly turned to the Lord. For indeed in the Saints the bodily gifts of God also are proclaimed, their nobility is commended, their wealth is extolled; not that these conferred blessedness upon them, but that by their contempt of the things which they might have powerfully abused to evil, but would not, they have come forth the more glorious and illustrious.

[28] In the emperor's court at Utrecht, then, there was a frequent assembly of seculars swollen with worldly pride, and among them the Count of Flanders foremost among the chief. When he, being free from occupation, met certain persons at an opportune hour, since youthful fervor is wont with wonderful readiness to be moved to the catching of empty favor, a band of soldiers rises up on this side and that, and by hurling lances each strove with all his might to outdo the other, not without the exhausting of their strength. Amid these efforts the spirited and bold break their bows; and, the emperor's soldiers being nearly superior in this contest, while the Flemings accomplish nothing distinguished which should be some proof or evidence of their famed valor, they are little short of reproach and ignominy. There was then in the company of the Flemings the excellent man Arnulf, who, though a youth in age, yet was strong in the prudence and gravity of an old man, and was moved by no such levity as theirs. Certain men therefore, who were conscious of his strength — to which none in the kingdom of the Germans could be compared — approach him, and not so much ask as compel him to lend his hand to the sportive contest. To the entreaties are added the commands of his elders and seniors, by which he, being constrained, and thinking it frivolous obstinately to refuse obedience in a matter which, though of no profit to himself, would yet harm no one, caused to be brought a beam which, placed at the top of a mast, holds the sail. The beam being brought, which was far longer and thicker than the lances, he rises up, all being astonished, and brandishing with much force that mass and weight rather than lance, hurls it far off. Presently there arises the noise and shout of all in praise of the man, and in that game the victory falls to the Flemings without peril: for according to that saying of the poet, For sport begot anxious contest and anger; anger begot fierce enmities and deadly war. Such conflicts took place in the courts of the king, undertaken indeed at the beginning in jest, but very often ending in mourning and manslaughter: which indeed might easily have befallen these too, light men and puffed up with mutual pride, had not Arnulf, that man of valor, broken off this game.*

[29] which are omitted in our transcripts. Setting out on a certain occasion with his elder, Arnulf of Oudenaarde, as he frequently used to do, he came to a very narrow way, where a wagon laden with hay, taking up the narrows of the road, prevented all passage. And so, while his companions betook themselves elsewhere, he alone remained there with his squire; and throwing part of the hay on the ground, and lifting the rest along with the wagon by hand, he moved it a good way over into that place which brambles and thorns beset and which made the way narrow; and thus he removed the obstacles of the road for travelers no less easily than kindly. Doubtless Surius found these things in his codex, even though they do not appear in our transcripts. Besides, in Surius's Acts there occurs a certain fragment more worthy of note, which is wanting in our manuscripts, and which we shall set forth in the following paragraph.

* elsewhere Gizelbertum de Duras.

Perhaps vi*

§ IV. The writer of the Acts and their various copies.

The most learned John Mabillon Among modern authors there is a question who wrote the Acts of St. Arnulf, some attributing this lucubration to Lisiard, bishop of Soissons, others the same to Hariulf, abbot of Oudenburg. Mabillon in the preliminary Observations to the Acts of St. Arnulf, number 1, clearly explains this controversy, and there discourses learnedly upon this matter thus: The famous monastery of St. Medard of Soissons, of which we have elsewhere spoken at length, was in this century made illustrious by the merits and virtues of blessed Arnulf. The Life of this blessed man Surius published under the name of Lisiard, bishop of Soissons, on the XV day of August, at the beginning of which stands a letter of the same Lisiard to Ralph, archbishop of Reims, by which he submits to his censure this Life, written, as he professes, by himself. Various other manuscript codices likewise bear the same letter under the name of Lisiard. Whence it has come about that the same Life has been cited by almost all writers under the name of Lisiard. But if one is pleased to weigh the matter more attentively, we shall discover that this very Life, or the first two books, is the genuine offspring of Hariulf, third abbot of Oudenburg; which it will not be so laborious to prove, both by the authority of manuscript codices and also by certain other arguments borrowed from the very context of the work. And indeed, of the various manuscript codices in which this Life is contained, one exists in the library of the monastery of Ourscamp of the Cistercian Order near Noyon, where this very Life is found with a threefold letter prefixed to it under the name of Hariulf. The first of these is addressed to Lambert, bishop of the people of Tournai; the second to Lisiard himself; the third finally to Ralph, metropolitan of Reims; which last indeed is the same, with very few changes, as that which in certain other codices and in Surius's edition is read as dedicated to the same archbishop under the name of Lisiard.

[31] published three letters, Afterwards the praised Mabillon sets forth those three letters, which he acknowledges to have received from the kindness of the reverend lord Nicholas Peremperti, and of which the first runs thus: To the lord Lambert, by the grace of God bishop of the people of Tournai, the last of his sons, Hariulf, greeting. Royal dishes, although they gleam with gold and silver, although they smell of foreign savors and aromatic odors, unless they be seasoned with the condiment of salt, prove matter rather of contempt than of delight. So the skill of an architect, if in his buildings he shall have exceeded the just bounds, or shall not have kept the courses of his lines in due balance, will too late repent of having labored in vain, when he has both lost the palm of skill and, to his grief, incurred the loss of the structure. These things being thus considered, and fearing the issue of a like peril, to you, O venerable prelate, O most cheerful father Lambert, I offer the gift of the present little work; to you, as to a faithful shepherd, I commit the fruit-bearing little fleece of my slender wit, that your pontifical authority may give strength and confidence to these things, to be read, known, and imitated for the profit of holy Church; lest, on account of the abject unworthiness of the husbandman, dainty citizens should trample down the fruitfulness of the new crop: for such a density of thorns and roughness of briars — that is, the most wicked stupidity of my assailants — has hitherto twisted and fettered me, that nothing else pleased my mind but to plan a sorrowful flight.

[32] But after the heavenly grace advanced your paternity to the pontifical rank in the twin see of Tournai and Noyon, which Hariulf, straightway the thorns and thistles by which I was strongly goaded began to wither and to be cut down. Straightway a new peace arose for me, greatly bruised as I was, and I give immense thanks to Christ and to you: since, as frogs are hushed at the voice of thunder, so those who afflicted me at the beginning of your prelacy were presently lulled and beaten back by the fear of your kindness. Therefore, because through you I have received a certain liberty of living, in the days of peace, in which the yoke of the enemy has rotted away by your authority, I have put together this little book on the life and virtues of the elect man the lord Arnulf, bishop of Soissons, bestowed upon us by the wonderful kindness of God and by a divine coming buried in our place. This at length, fearful though I am, but certainly supported by the whole truth, I first give to you, as is right, to be published, so that by the censure of your authority it may either become known to the holy sons of the Church, or certainly be pressed down within domestic bounds by the weight of silence. If therefore the light of God's grace shall make this little work worthy of being known, let it receive through you and from you the way of going forward: and when in your merciful judgment you shall have deemed it worthy of praise, we beseech that you be not slow to pass it on to our lord, your brother and fellow bishop Lisiard, prelate of Soissons, so that by your office and his it may be extended to the noble gaze of the citadel of Reims. Farewell.

[33] Afterwards the same abbot of Oudenburg in the second letter writes thus to Lisiard: abbot of Oudenburg, To Lisiard, bishop of the holy church of Soissons, shining with flowers of every kind of uprightness, H (this is the initial letter by which the abbot Hariulf expresses his name, and which the ancients often used to indicate their names) under the title of abbot, servant of St. Peter the Apostle, greeting and constant remembrance in the prayer of the Brethren. That we should address your paternity's reverence with these words, a twofold cause of fitting reason has moved us. One indeed, because the knowledge of the present business supports you in no small measure, namely of the life and virtue and merits of our lord, your predecessor, bishop Arnulf; the other, because even if he had never been known to you, yet since God made him wonderful in the worship of justice, whatever holy and authentic thing can be said or written of him ought to be strengthened by your testimony.

[34] And so, desiring to bring forth to the knowledge of holy mother Church a little book on the life and miracles of the beneficent man Arnulf, prelate of that same church over which by God's authority you preside, and endeavoring to bring it by a lawful path, through the hand of the lord Lambert, bishop of Noyon and Tournai, to the hearing of the metropolitan, we have judged it right first to submit the same to your examination, knowing assuredly that whatever shall please you in the balance of truth will in no way displease the judgment of the holy church of Reims also. And so let the truth of these things, not unknown to you, lie more freely open under the shelter of your authority, and let a richer confidence in believing arise in the hearts of those who shall receive this narration, out of regard to your experience: for this little page will sound forth no empty trifles, but works of virtue which belong to God alone, and which, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, may avail to call every faithful soul to the exercise of virtue. This gift therefore, which with pious boldness we commit to the examination of your discretion, faithfully see to it that it be published more widely, so that the knowledge of piety which once shone upon your mind may by your ministry be spread abroad into the hearts of others. Farewell.

[35] and among which the third Finally the third letter, which Hariulf gave to the archbishop of Reims, is of this tenor: To the venerable and most dear father and lord Ralph, by the grace of God archbishop of the holy church of Reims, the offscouring of all abbots

Hariulf, greeting and the fullness of all good things. Frequent practice of seeing and hearing has disclosed to me the immense ocean of your knowledge and the heart of your prudence, discerning in all things, and also your love for the advancement of holy Church and, in those things which need correction, your firmness of discipline. Therefore, strengthened by so many supports of your virtues, I have presumed upon a little work which ought by right to be reserved for skilled writers — not from the swelling of pride (Christ knows), but on the plea of usefulness, that through the service of my littleness the works of God might in some fashion be made plain, which the wise and learned have hitherto neglected to lift up out of the depth of silence. And when I directed the edge of my mind to the writing of these things, my spirit fluttered for fear: but when I reflected that this fear of mine would be an obstacle to the profit of the brethren, I brought back my heart to the lofty regard of your discretion; knowing beyond doubt that easy pardon lies open to a rashness which comes about in the service of genuine charity.

[36] inscribed to the archbishop of Reims Let your paternity therefore grant pardon to one who presumes, who in striving after such things has in all respects studied your honor. Let your authority grant grace and vigor to the publisher of these things, lest for his own worthlessness he lie under shame. Further, let no man's mind be turned to doubt concerning the truth of them, since they have been so carefully sought out from those who were present, and so clearly ascertained, that in all things there is a sure constancy of truth. And since I hold it settled that you above all things pursue the advancement of the churches, whatever in these things has been set forth less elegantly I commit to the wisdom of you and yours, that by the noble keenness of the eloquence of Reims that may be polished which through my dullness sounds unpolished. Being therefore about to relate in some part the holiness of life and the works of virtue which Christ the Lord in recent times conferred upon his soldier Arnulf, I desire that the Holy Spirit, the maker of all good things, be present to me, that for the relating of these things he may kindly fill my mouth with his praise, who, that such things might be wrought, illuminated the heart of that same servant of his with his light. Let those skilled in most eloquent lessons admit this rude speech to the fabric of holy Church, by the law of forest timbers, that in the house of the Lord goats' hair may have its place; and let the various vessels of a great house not be defrauded, as is fitting, of their proper uses. May our God preserve your life and your primacy unharmed in flesh and spirit for long. Amen.

[37] Since this last letter, with a few changes, is read in various manuscript codices under the name of Lisiard, is also found under the name of Lisiard. Surius and others following him have ascribed that whole lucubration to Lisiard. Some weight could be added to this opinion by the words of Lisiard, who in the council of Beauvais, below in our copy at number 130, relates the following: Among the rest there was present also the abbot of Oudenburg himself, bearing in his hand a little book on the life and character and the wrought miracles of St. Arnulf himself; which little book, receiving it from his hands, I opened, and opened offered it to the bishops, saying: Behold, my lords, this little book was written with my knowledge and by my AUTHORSHIP, etc. But I judge that in this place by auctor is to be understood one who urges, just as we say in Latin auctor tibi sum, that is, "I advise you to do this." Hence Aubert le Mire in the Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 362, and Valerius Andreas in the Bibliotheca Belgica of the second edition, page 340, and other more recent bibliographers everywhere assert that this Life of St. Arnulf was not rightly attributed to Lisiard by Surius.

[38] Nay, Surius might have gathered from his own edition that this lucubration is rather to be ascribed to Hariulf than to Lisiard, Further, we think it more probable that this lucubration of Hariulf since at the end of the Acts he adds certain things which are omitted in our transcripts, and which nevertheless he doubtless found in his codex expressed in these words of the author: At the close of my little book my apology must be forged, that it may be plain to all by whose report I learned these things, and at whose urging I dared to undertake the writing of them. The first of these was he whom we have often mentioned, Everolf, who persevered in his service; who, since being present he had more certainly known his affairs, remaining with me at Oudenburg for some days, related to me in order all that he knew, while I wrote it out upon wax. The second, Arnulf, the holy man's nephew by his sister, and first abbot of Oudenburg, was a help to me, that I might write out in ink upon paper the things I had impressed on the wax. The third, finally, his sister Adzela, who was more intimate with him, told us many things concerning him. These things do not seem to suit Lisiard, bishop of Soissons, as Mabillon skillfully observes upon that notice of the biographer, and from which in the aforesaid preliminary observations he argues thus: These things indeed I do not see how they could be attributed to Lisiard, who never dwelt at Oudenburg. Besides, Lisiard would have written not only those things which had been seen by others, but also, and chiefly, those which he had seen in person; since in the preface of the book on the miracles, which we are about to publish, he asserts that he was ordained subdeacon by blessed Arnulf, and calls himself a fellow dweller with that same blessed man; nay, in the same little book he everywhere relates miracles seen by himself.

[39] Then Mabillon in the same place, on account of the words of Lisiard was adopted by Lisiard, which we reported a little above at number 37, does not entirely take that little work away from Lisiard, and from them finally concludes thus: From which words it appears that whether that work be attributed to Hariulf or to Lisiard, nothing is taken from its authority; since Lisiard adopted the book of Hariulf, who was then abbot of Oudenburg, which had been written with his knowledge and by his authorship. Moreover Surius published this Life comprised in one book, whose style, after his manner, he everywhere changed, some verses also being omitted which, according to the custom of those times, were mingled with the narrative in various places. The same is comprised also in a single book divided into forty chapters in the manuscript codex of Ourscamp, with the three letters which we have just praised. But we bring it forth from the manuscript codex of the monastery of Longpont of the Cistercian Order, divided into two books, with a third book on the same Saint's miracles and canonization. All which things are contained in that codex under the name of Lisiard, yet in such a way that a special letter is prefixed to the third book, by which the same Lisiard dedicates his work to Ralph, archbishop of the people of Reims. From all which it is allowable to conjecture that Lisiard, after the canonization of blessed Arnulf, joined together into one Hariulf's work with his own book on the miracles and canonization of the same Saint: whence it may have come about that this Life was afterwards copied by some under the name of Hariulf, and by others under the name of Lisiard. On account of these reasonings of Mabillon we have prefixed the name of Hariulf to the first two books; but the third book we attribute in part to Lisiard, yet in such a way that we judge most of the miracles to have been first written by Hariulf and afterwards revised or perhaps enlarged by Lisiard, as we shall observe in the Annotations to the third book.

[40] which we shall publish from the transcript of the monastery of Ter Doest, It now remains that we briefly enumerate the various copies of the Acts, among which the first occurs in our parchment manuscript codex P 158, where at the end of the third book one leaf or two is wanting. Another transcript we received from the Cistercian monastery of Ourscamp, and Ildephonsus Vragel obligingly copied it for us there, as is noted at the end of the same transcript. Our Papebroch wrote with his own hand upon this copy the following: The same Life is contained in the manuscript of the Charterhouse of Bruges, which Hugh Bollius, professed of the Charterhouse of Lierre, communicated to us in the month of September in the year MDCLXXII, and from the same he promised to transcribe the Office, the Masses, and certain miracles expressed in verse. Among these miracles the first that occurs is of a certain deaf monk, whose beginning or fragment is given in these words: This marvel is thus wrought at Tournai concerning a monk. In vain did we order search to be made among the Carthusians of Bruges for the Office, the Masses, and these miracles which Bollius had promised he would transcribe. Further, these Acts which exist in the monastery of Ourscamp generally agree with our transcript of Ter Doest, concerning which we shall now give some notices.

[41] whose situation and origin are shown, The most learned Master John Francis Foppens, lately Canon of the cathedral church of Bruges, but now of the metropolitan church of Mechlin, in the notes to le Mire's Belgian Diplomas, lately reprinted and enlarged, volume 2, page 905, supplies this notice concerning the monastery of Ter Doest: Within the boundaries of the parish of Lissewege was situated an abbey once flourishing and opulent, called Thosana, commonly Doest, whose beginnings were these. There was there a chapel dependent in sacred matters upon the abbot of St. Riquier of the Order of St. Benedict, distinguished with the title of a Priory from the year MCVI. Everard of Oisy, bishop of Tournai, with the accession of the purchase and donation of Gerembald lord of Lissewege, in this year MCLXXV converted it into an abbey of the Cistercian Order, and gave it to the Religious of Ter Duinen. This convent, devastated by the wars and troubles of the sixteenth century, was in the year MDLXI assigned to the increasing of the endowment of the bishopric of Bruges, and has now ceased to be. But the refuge which it possessed at Bruges was assigned to the Religious of Ter Duinen for the raising of a new monastery from the foundations. Here you have the origin and end of the monastery from which our transcript comes. Further, we suspect that that older Ter Doest codex, from which our Acts were copied, passed to the monks of Ter Duinen: for Papebroch noted in our papers that a similar Life of St. Arnulf exists in the third part of the Passional of the monastery of Ter Duinen.

[42] Whatever may be the case with this conjecture of ours, in our parchment codex and in the transcripts already mentioned there follows after the longer Acts a certain compendium of the Life, and we shall compare it with the other copies of the Acts. which seems to have been used in the ecclesiastical Office, since it is divided into eight lessons. Elsewhere, however, this title is prefixed to these shorter Acts: A Sermon on the Life of St. Arnulf. Mabillon in the Benedictine century VI, part 2, page 555 and the following, published in print this very synopsis of the Acts under the name of a Compendium of the Life. We have besides another epitome of the Life, which we obtained at Louvain from a manuscript book of the Canons Regular of St. Martin. It does not seem to us worth the trouble to submit these compendia of the Acts to the press, since they are only excerpted from the primitive Acts, and Mabillon has already caused one copy of them to be printed. Wherefore we shall publish only the longer Acts and miracles from the Ter Doest transcript, which we have collated with the Mabillonian edition, and which we shall try to illustrate with variant readings of any moment and with the customary annotations after each chapter.

LIFE

by Hariulf, contemporary abbot of Oudenburg, which Lisiard, bishop of Soissons, likewise a contemporary, adopted.

From the Ter Doest manuscript, which we have collated with other Acts of the same Saint, both manuscript and printed.

Arnulf, bishop of Soissons, confessor, at Oudenburg in Flanders (S.)

BHL Number: 0704

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

BOOK ONE.

PROLOGUE.

To the venerable and most dear father and lord Ralph ^a, The author in the prologue his lucubration by the grace of God archbishop of the holy church of Reims, the lowest of all bishops, Lisiard ^b, greeting, and of all holy obedience

the fullness ^c. Frequent and repeated practice of seeing and hearing you has disclosed to many, among whom to me also, the immense weight of your knowledge and the heart of your prudence, discerning in all things, and also your love for the advancement* of holy Church, and, in things needing correction, your firmness of discipline. Therefore, strengthened by so many zealous exercises of your virtues, informed also by the manifold report of truthful witnesses, and moreover urged on by the greatness of the matters, I have presumed upon a little work which ought by right to be reserved for learned writers — not from the swelling ^d of pride, but on the plea of usefulness, that through the service of my slenderness the great works of God might in some fashion be made plain, which the wise and learned have hitherto neglected to lift up out of the depth of silence.

[2] And when I directed the edge of my mind to the writing of these things, my spirit fluttered for fear; but when I reflected more watchfully that this fear of mine would be an obstacle to my brethren's profit, I brought back to my heart the regard of your discretion, dedicates to the archbishop of Reims. knowing beyond doubt that easy pardon lies open to a rashness which comes about in the service of genuine charity. Let your paternity therefore grant pardon to one who presumes, who in striving after such things has in all respects studied the honor of your church: let your authority grant grace and vigor to the publisher of these things, lest for his own worthlessness he lie under shame. Further, let no man's mind be turned to doubt concerning the truth of them, since they have been so carefully sought out from those who were present, and so clearly ascertained, that in all things there is a sure constancy of truth. But whatever in these things has been set forth less elegantly I commit to the wisdom* of you and yours, that by the noble keenness of the wit of Reims that may be polished which through my dullness is seen to be unpolished. Being therefore about to relate in part the holiness of life and the works of virtue which Christ the Lord conferred almost in our own times upon his soldier Arnulf, I invoke the Holy Spirit, the maker of all good things, that for the relating of these things he may kindly fill our mouths with his praise, who, that such things might be accomplished, illuminated the heart of that same servant of his with his light.

TITLES OF THE ANCIENT CHAPTERS.

I. Of the place and native land of the man of God Arnulf, and of the presages of his birth.

II. Of the name found on a brick, and of the prophecy of the pilgrim.

III. Of his renowned youth and his prowess in arms.

IV. Of his conversion from a soldier into a monk.

V. Of his obedience and the rigor of his life.

VI. Of the recluse monk who after death appeared to Arnulf himself.

VII. Of his silence for forty-two months, that is, three years and six months.

VIII. Of the flight which he undertook by night, lest he should be made abbot.

IX. Of the wolf which by night brought him back unknowing.

X. Of the disabled ass which he restored.

XI. Of the epileptic whom he healed.

XII. Of the sick man who loathed food, whom he healed by a taste of his own bread.

XIII. Of the woman blind for ten years, who was given light by the water of his hands.

XIV. Of the turbot suddenly found at the dedication of the crypt.

XV. Of the expedition of the king of the Franks which he despised.

XVI. Of abbot Girald substituted in his place.

XVII. Of the manifold exercise of his holy life.

XVIII. Of the foreknown death of Israel, once his comrade.

XIX. Of the tainted fish known by the spirit; and of the raven's obedience.

XX. Of the foreknown death of his nephew.

XXI. Of the man dumb for thirteen years, to whom he gave speech.

XXII. Of the man possessed by a legion, whom, as soon as he saw him, he cleansed.

XXIII. Of the alarm of the barbarians' coming, which he repelled by divine power.

XXIV. Of the obtaining of the once glorious Count Simon, whom he at once recognized.

XXV. Of Guy the noble, long sick.

XXVI. Of the wife of that same Guy, in peril in childbirth.

XXVII. Of the infant born blind, to whose eyes he gave sight by his spittle.

XXVIII. Of the sister of the same infant.

XXIX. Of the king and queen of the Franks asking a son from St. Arnulf.

XXX. Of Geric the soldier, whom he healed in body and heart.

XXXI. Of his wife, named Judith, to whom he prophesied a future son.

ANNOTATIONS.

elsewhere provectuum*

that is, sapientiæ*

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's foretold birth, careful upbringing, military service, conversion from the soldier's life to the monastic and solitary.

Book I.

Chapter I.

At that time when the region of Flanders was adorned by the government of Count Baldwin ^a and of his wife Adela, while Henry ^b, son of king Robert, ruled the kingdom of the Franks, and Edward ^c the pious king reigned over the English, there was a man named Folbert in a village of Brabant ^d near the river Scheldt ^e, A noble matron, weeping the death of her son, who, being enriched not only with a remarkable nobility of family but with an abundance of worldly goods, stood forth among his other countrymen ^f renowned in all things both in mind and in body; who, being joined after the manner of nobles in a worthy marriage, begot of his most noble wife Mensindis a comely son, who, being now grown up and most fit to bear arms, was taken from the present light; whose death struck the deepest sorrow into his father and mother and all the household retinue, so much so that for a whole year they wept for him and unceasingly mourned.

[4] And already some months had flowed by in this grief, when, behold, being divinely forewarned, there appeared to the same matron in her sleep a man beautiful and gleaming with a flashing light, saying to her: "Why do you afflict yourself with mourning and weigh yourself down with useless sadness for your son, who has died so profitably? If you knew that he had received the breath of life from you, then indeed you ought not undeservedly to bewail and mourn one made or fashioned by you: but him whom the Creator on high, according to the incomprehensible judgment of his equity, has taken from this life, how have you presumed to mourn? For his death admit henceforth no sorrow into your heart; nay rather rejoice with great joy, since you bear in your womb a boy whom the election from on high has foreordained to be great. When you have brought him forth into the light, you shall desire that he be called Christopher: since in truth this same boy is destined for this, that by his works and word he may bear Christ in his breast. And that you may certainly know that these things are thus divinely appointed, go to the church, and in that place where you are wont to pray cause digging to be made, and when the earth is dug you will find a brick carved with large letters, which letters will disclose to you the name and merit of your offspring."

II.

[5] But the matron, having received an oracle of such praise, waking from sleep with great astonishment and wonderful joy related the vision to her husband. gives birth to this Saint, And at length, in order to test the truth of the heavenly words, she took servants with a mattock ^g, and going to the church she caused digging to be made in that place where she was accustomed to make her supplication, and found a square brick engraved with deep letters thus: Christophorus; and when it was found she was filled with greater gladness, and being now assured of the sanctity of her offspring — since before she had not known that she had conceived — she eagerly awaited so honorable a gift of the divine working. At the proper time therefore she bore the promised son, with great gladness of the father and of the kinsfolk; and, according to custom, they sent him to be received from the sacred font to Arnulf of Oudenaarde, a man then renowned for riches and power.

[6] who, being carefully brought up He, gladly receiving the boy, presently hastened to impart to him the laver of holy regeneration; and out of excessive love of kinship and the pride of boasting he did not permit that he should be named Christopher, but caused him to be named Arnulf after himself; to whom indeed, though the name of Christopher was wanting, yet the power of bearing Christ ever grew from day to day: for while he was being nourished with zeal and sufficient care, there came on a certain day a pilgrim sprinkled with the whiteness of old age, who, blessing the same little child and as it were playing with him in stammering speech, said to the nurse: "Nurse this little one with great diligence and the utmost cleanness: for Christ the Lord, dwelling in his heart, has decreed to announce through him to his people the power of his works." By such and so great auspices, God working,* his merit and future glory were made known; and before he did the works of the Lord, he who was to do them was already anticipated by the praise of divine favor.

III.

[7] At length, being grown up, he began to be gentle in speech, keen in wit, prompt in service, after his boyhood was over eager in work, effective and most strong in the vigor of his limbs; and he was so eminent in excellence of strength and in agility of body that he exceeded the strength of four or five of his coevals, and all called him Arnulf the Strong. His father and mother desired to hand him over to the study of letters; but the rest of his kinsfolk greatly resisted, and above all the aforesaid Arnulf of Oudenaarde, his kinsman on his father's side: for his maternal lineage was derived from the family of Counts,* namely of the duke of Louvain, the Count of Namur, the Count of Looz and Duras, and of Mons.

[8] at the persuasion of his kinsmen Adorned with such great nobility, Arnulf Christopher (for so his mother, mindful of the divine promise, preferred to call him) desired to bring wholly to the Lord's service whatever elegance and pleasantness he displayed in himself. His kinsmen therefore desired rather to have him a recruit in warlike affairs than to have him made a partaker of ecclesiastical degrees. Hence it came about that he received the belt of secular knighthood with great exultation of his dear ones, being afterwards happily to take up spiritual arms. Having therefore received the marks of knighthood according to the wish of his friends and the custom of nobles, he strove to keep the bonds of piety: kind to his subjects, lavish in favor to the needy, mercifully upright in judgment, most earnestly attentive to the hearing of the divine offices, wonderfully agreeable in the love of his companions, grounded in the fear of the Lord, zealous in the honor of his parents, and heartily supported by the love of all who knew him ^h.

IV.

[9] At length he ran through all the pursuits of knighthood, took part in imperial and royal wars, and, coming into the courts of princes on every side, he enrolls in knighthood; shone as an eloquent pleader of causes. The quarrels and seditions of Brabant and Flanders he many times broke off by the barrier of his prudence and repressed by the awe of his incomparable strength, since there was none who would attempt to withstand his powers or his words strong in reason. From the Emperor of the Romans, from the king of the English, and from his kinsmen the counts, he always refused the ample possessions and administrations of affairs and the most illustrious marriages offered him, mindful namely that he had merited to be called Christopher not for the service of the world but for the praise of God's grace. And since so many and so great buddings of virtues, which divine grace had sown in him, could not bear fruit broadly, the mortal warfare hindering, he conceived an excellent resolve, that the labor and care of warfare should be turned to a better use, and that those wages should be sought which should know no end of life and of praise.

[10] And so, calling together his two squires, he bids all the gear of arms be made ready with all speed, but afterwards in the convent of St. Medard at Soissons so that he might be able to go to the court of the king of the Franks with exceptional dignity and becoming pomp. The squires obey his command, prepare the horses, put the arms in order, and take up everything worthy of an active soldier. Then Arnulf, bidding farewell to his mother (for his father had died before), took the road toward France; and, passing by the court of Philip ⁱ, then king, he sought in haste the church of the kindly confessor Medard, situated near the walls of the city of Soissons. There was at that time in that convent a distinguished congregation of monks, whose honorable observance shone forth, offering to God worthy sacrifices of praise under abbot Reinald ^k: and the prudent brethren of this congregation, skilled in the shrewdness both of God and of the world, and providing good things before God and before men (for they could not be uncultivated in manners who were supported by the frequent resort of all France and of the courtliness of Rome and of Reims), receive devoutly, as was fitting, the aforesaid man hastening to Christ with singular devotion; and, when he had cast away the belt of knighthood and had conferred upon the church the arms with the most costly garments which he had brought, they shear him, and, being tonsured, clothe him in the regular habit with the mortification of the cross of Christ. And him, now made a monk and truly crucified to this world, they instruct in letters and inform with the laws and precepts of the Lord and adorn with all holy ordinances; all which he so laid up in the cave of the inner man that his subsequent life declared that the seeds of the word of God had fallen neither by the wayside nor upon stony ground nor among thorns.

[11] And now he had completed a year's course in the path of the rule, and, for a greater proof of devotion and obedience, the care of the almonry and the charge of feeding the poor is laid upon him. he embraces the monastic life, A business plainly worthy, that the care of the poor should be committed to one who both abounded in the bowels of mercy and was held liberal in all things; on which account, when on a certain day he was alone visiting an estate assigned to the agape ^l, all the dogs of the neighboring village suddenly leapt upon him, desiring to tear him with their raging teeth: to whom he made a sign with outstretched hand that they should follow him; and thus, changing their rage into service, they went on in his company with a calm temper, and as long as he stayed there they stayed with him, and at length when he returned they returned with him; nor did they pursue anyone with bite or bark in his presence. Meanwhile he began to bind himself with a strong mortification of the flesh, to give attention to vigils and fasts, and to persevere in prayer with copious tears, and to show himself approved in all things: and, in order utterly to extinguish in himself laughter and every stirring of temporal gladness, he girded his body beneath his garment with a most rough and knotty and thorny branch of a bramble, manfully macerating his limbs and lifting his mind to heavenly things; yet showing to all a cheerful and pleasant countenance.

[12] where, keeping silence long out of simplicity But on a certain day, when he wished to say something in the common assembly of the brethren, he could not express the word exactly after the manner of the French: therefore the abbot told him to be silent for the moment, lest, namely, the profit of the business should be delayed if it were treated of at greater length: which command of silence he observed with a simple heart and the zeal of true obedience for some months, giving a word to none, returning an answer to none, until it was reported to the abbot by the brethren that he was altogether dumb. And the abbot, calling him and inquiring why he kept silent, learned that the cause of his long silence had been the command of silence laid upon him by himself; and he, wondering at the simplicity of Paul ^m renewed in this, and rejoicing with him at his fervor for obedience, commanded that for the sake of edification he should meanwhile render to the brethren the service of conversation.

VI.

[13] In the same monastery there was at that time a certain monk named Gremboldus, he served a certain sick monk, a recluse for the love of God, who, sprung of the Flemish nation, led a hard and austere life, ceaselessly panting after divine contemplation. Upon him Arnulf carefully attended, not because there was any lack of servants, but that he might draw from him closer proofs of holy fervor. And when, after many struggles of continence, he was now nearing the end of his mortal life, he began to be forsaken by his bodily strength and to be pressed by a strong anguish. Then he asked the beloved Arnulf, who was tirelessly ministering to him, to provide him with a little milk, whereby he might refresh his feeble body if but for a moment; which Arnulf hastening to fulfill took one of the loaves which had been assigned to the poor, and with this bread bought milk and offered it to the servant of God. He indeed took it, but profited little by it: for both disease and age weighed heavily upon him; nay rather the heavenly dispensation was fitting him by the divine scourge for the meriting of rest — that dispensation which scourges every son whom it receives.

[14] who after his death appears to him; And so Christ's soldier Arnulf begged him that after his death he would show the state of his recompense and the condition of his soul. And he faithfully promised what had been presumptuously asked out of warmth of faith and love of profiting; and when he had departed from the world he showed himself according to his promise to the oft-mentioned servant of God, Arnulf, in a glorious vision, appearing cheerful and rejoicing and united to the blessed rest of light. To whom Arnulf said: "Father, how do you, or how is it with you? Or have you borne any punishment for any guilt?" And he answered: "On account of that milk ministered to me by you and eaten by me a little, I have suffered something of punishments, because you bought that same milk of the substance of the poor; but both this and all my sins have been forgiven me, and the joys of the blessed granted."

VII.

[15] Indeed, being greatly inflamed by this vision, the venerable Arnulf grew very warm toward the worship of divine service, being roused by which apparition he draws many to Religion, and thereafter did not cease from prayers, beating upon the abbot's will, until he obtained what he desired, namely that he might enter upon that same enclosure of secret converse. Having attained this desire, he became the good odor of Christ in every place, and many, following his example, from far and near eagerly sought the monastic manner of life in emulation. For at that same time Theobald,* a noble youth, secretly fleeing from the fellowship of his companions, served the Lord as an exile and a poor man, and, having straightway obtained the crown of rewards, planted in the minds of many the victory with which he now shines. For who, hearing that Arnulf, the very majesty of soldiers, had spurned the world, would not at once be loosed from love of the world? Who, I say, could easily fail to marvel at a man noble in birth, supported by powerful friends, tall in stature, comely in face, whom the world favored, whom all the glory of the age attended, so suddenly converted that, drawn from the highest riches to the lowest poverty, he cast himself down for the love of Christ? From the region of Flanders also and from Brabant many, both clerics and laymen, sought the sacred monastery of blessed Medard, because the monastic order then flourished in that place, and because the love of their venerable foster son Arnulf, now a recluse, chiefly drew them.

[16] But he, daily advancing from virtue to virtue and counting as nothing what he had been hitherto, esteemed the enclosure of his cell the delights of paradise, and leads a solitary and hard life. and reckoned the continual affliction of the body not grief or misery but glory and pleasure. Whence, going out of his cell and making a trench outside under the open sky, he sat there in such a way that the dripping from the roof of the church fell upon his head and neck: and however often rain or snow came down, he did not change the seat of his trench, shunning neither frost nor cold, but persevering in prayer and psalmody amid every discomfort of the air, groaning and weeping, and sometimes giving himself to reading, he abode there. For three years and six months, therefore, he spoke no word to mortals, being continually bound by silence and delighted in heavenly contemplation and in the constant meditation of the word of God, which alone, reading and lamenting, he drank abundantly from the store of the divine books: by the diligence of which he advanced, and, with the help of God's grace going before, overflowing greatly, he became not moderately wise, prudently understanding and effectually desiring the meanings of the divine discourses — the nearer to God, the further removed from human things; and he took pains to acquire the knowledge of writing, and also gained a not contemptible skill in composition. Of food and drink what shall I say? Since long fasts pleased him more than delicate dishes; bread of half-ground barley was taken rarely and sparingly, other bread never. Foul water was his drink, and it was neither set before him daily nor, when set before him, taken to the full.

ANNOTATIONS.

at what time he began to govern the abbey of St. Medard. Wherefore we shall await more certain evidence on this matter from the editors of the new Gallia Christiana, when they enumerate the abbots of the diocese of Soissons under the archbishopric of Reims.

elsewhere augente*

elsewhere genere*

elsewhere Tedbaldus*

CHAPTER II.

The Saint's flight, lest he should be made abbot; his wonderful bringing back; his election; his careful administration of the abbatial office; and certain miracles.

VIII.

Meanwhile abbot Rainald ^a dies, and, at the instigation of the spirit of ambition, a certain pseudo-monk Pontius, by a comparative degree not according to grammar but according to simony, obtains from Philip, king of the Franks, the name and seat of abbot: which Pontius, acting too loosely and lavishly, had in a short time exhausted the whole substance of the place; the ornaments of the church also, which were exceptional, he had spent upon the uses of the soldiers who attended him, and in his madness had squandered almost everything that pertains to the adornment of the house of God. When the Saint had been elected abbot, What more? With want coming on, the office of divine praise had failed in the church, and that once famous basilica of blessed Medard became for a time a reproach to its neighbors. Then the brethren of sounder counsel, gathered together into one, considered what remedy was needed for so great a ruin. They find that it would be good if, taking with them the bishop of the see of Soissons together with the chief men of the place, they should implore the royal majesty to have merciful pity upon a convent founded in ancient nobility and now destroyed by Pontius, to reverence the bodies of the precious martyrs and confessors resting there, and to command that, Pontius being cast out — not an abbot but a tyrant — a worthy father should be provided for the Lord's fold. And doing thus, and presently bending the king's mind, ready for clemency, they chose as abbot, by the common counsel of the brethren and of the tenants ^b of the church, the clergy and people agreeing, Christ's servant Arnulf.

[18] Then bishop Theobald ^c with a company of the brethren goes to the recluse, he asks time for deliberation, and, a solemn prayer having first been made, the bishop addresses him, asking and beseeching, admonishing and commanding, that he consent to the wishes of the brethren and exercise the care and place of abbot in the name of Christ. But he, who had now been silent three years and six months, being exceedingly terrified, seizes a tablet and writes upon it this answer: "I beg you, most dear Fathers,* spare me, and permit me, weighed down with the mass of my sins, to offer to God some fruit of penance, and do not in any way compel me, foolish as I am, to take up such a burden. But if you will not now fulfill my petition, at least grant me a respite until morning, that I may be able to explore the will of the Lord concerning this."

[19] Receiving such an answer in writing, the bishop with the clergy and the choir of monks perceived that something crafty was turning in his mind. and he secretly flees; Nevertheless, having granted the respite, they station guards round about the cell lest he should flee by night. But he, passing a wakeful night with deep groans and frequent sighs, when he perceived the guards lulled in welcome sleep, mounting a ladder departed over the wall, and, wandering in his flight and not knowing whither he fled, at last came to a certain village at the foot of the hill of Laon ^d, and entering the lodging of a certain poor man he rested. When the supper hour came, water was lacking. Unbidden he seizes the pitcher, goes to the well, draws water, brings it into the house, serves all, ministers to all, yet remains altogether mute.

IX.

[20] Toward evening a man returns from the city of Soissons, and while he supped he began to relate what he had learned from common report, but being brought back to Soissons by a wolf saying: "Much rumor and much stir was being made among the peoples on account of the departure of a certain servant of God, who they say has fled away lest he should be made abbot of St. Medard's; and behold, many messengers are being sent everywhere through the regions to seek the holy man through woods and mountains, an edict having been published that no one take refreshment until the man of God shall be found and brought back." Hearing this report, the reverend hero, and striving with all his might to escape the hands of those who sought him, rises at the first hour of the night from his couch and goes to the church of that village; and there, prostrate outside before the door, he cries to the Lord, with much weeping entreating his majesty that he would in no way permit the burden of rule, of which he felt himself wholly unworthy, to be laid upon him; and when he had prayed thus much and long, and when he believed that his prayers had been heard by the Lord, he was determining to flee to the remoter parts of the desert, and behold, suddenly a huge wolf came and began to go along with him. And he, believing that by the wolf's company he would the better reach out-of-the-way places, lets it go before; he himself tried to follow at its heels. Thus, with the wolf leading — nay rather with God as the author — he returned by night to Soissons ^e, and, sitting upon a slope adjoining the city, when the sun rose he recognized where he was.

[21] and being discovered by husbandmen, Then he was straitened in mind and consumed with grief, and immediately, seeing at a distance a pit in the rock where stones were squared, he goes down into it to hide. But husbandmen and stonecutters coming and seeing a man in humble dress and without speech, reported it in the city. What joy and what a concourse presently arose in the city we believe it impossible for any man to relate. Young men and maidens, old men with the younger, praised the name of the Lord, that he had not deprived them of the finding of the father they desired. The monks go out with the clerics, and the nobles with the townsfolk, and they drag their bound fugitive to the church of blessed Medard, imposing upon him against his will the place and office of abbot; who, at last with difficulty loosing his lips, said: "Truly, did I not fear to resist the divine will, I would altogether refuse what you lay upon me."

[22] he is compelled to accept the dignity. Being therefore thus set over the convent, that rich restorer of the holy Order strove to correct what was crooked, to root out vices utterly, to compose the manners of the brethren assiduously by sweet words and by example going before, and to destroy almost entirely whatever stood against the sacred rule. Wonderful to say with what swiftness of time the state of the whole convent returned to the form of its former honor: the ornaments of the church were recalled, the cloistral order restored, whatever was useful repaired, whatever was amiss dispersed. All the nobility in those parts rejoiced that that famous and royal place had not long lacked the observances of its ancient honor. The region too exulted that that great senator of heaven, the chief martyr Sebastian ^f, resting there with many others, was no longer deprived of the offices of praise befitting him.

[23] But since the order of the narration has come to this, that we should show that he was father of the monastery, When he discharged the office of abbot, it is fitting that we record the labors and toils which he bore in his rule, so that in this also a most excellent profit of imitation may be set before rulers. For Godfrey of Florennes, a powerful and strong man, and the prouder in proportion as he was the more powerful, fearing neither man nor God, had for many years withdrawn from the uses of the brethren of blessed Medard a great estate called Hancenias ^g, situated in the district of the Sambre ^h, and had drawn it into the advantages of his own pride; and since his rigid power was a terror to all, none of the bishops dared to meet him face to face; and seeing his intolerable malice, they dared in no way to deal with him canonically. Therefore the unanimity of those brethren entreated Christ's servant Arnulf, namely their abbot, that for charity's sake he would undertake the labor of meeting that powerful man, and by restraint admonish him to restore the goods taken from the church.

[24] he recovers the possessions torn from his monastery The blessed man, burning with zeal for the house of God, assented to the brethren's wishes, and ordered the necessaries for the journey to be prepared, among them an ass which might carry the blessed man. But although he shunned with every effort the glory of the world, being one who had grounded his whole mind in the charity of Christ, yet the weak mind of certain of his familiars, caring little for the things of God, desired that he should act pompously and go delicately; and after the example of many abbots of France they wished that he should ride ambitiously and live daintily, taking as a reproach the humility which the man of God practiced. At length they secretly disabled the little ass which he had chosen for his seat, that, the ass being removed, he might begin to use the conveyance of a foaming horse; and they suggested to the servant of God that he should order a horse to be sought which should carry him.

[25] Hearing this, Christ's servant, and abhorring from the constancy of his fixed humility to ride on horseback, by his humility, went with a few of his disciples to the stable where the ailing ass lay; and laying his hand upon the fracture, he began thus to speak with gentle voice and gentler affection: "The Almighty Lord well knows with what mind I wish to undertake the journey before me; since I seek to enter upon this expedition not out of any swelling of boastfulness, but by desire of the divine office and by zeal for the profit of the brethren. And since, after I laid aside the warfare of the world, I have resolved never to sit upon a horse's back — not out of any vanity, but in imitation of our Lord Jesus Christ — now, if it please him that I should go, may it please him that the shin or foot of this little ass be healed, so that, borne on a humble conveyance, I may joyfully perform his service and the work of the church." Saying this, he made the sign of the holy Cross over against it, and withdrew; but the ass, immediately restored, shaking itself, rose up, and with all the eagerness of soundness both undertook and completed the carrying of God's servant. And when they came into the presence of the aforesaid most puffed-up rich man Godfrey, it is wonderful to tell with what kindness he received him, with what ready humility he obeyed him: for as soon as he had spoken to him, his pride at once subsided, at once that fierce stiff-neckedness fell, and forthwith the church's ancient inheritance was restored, and he who hitherto had been a devastator of churches became from thenceforth a devout preserver of them.

XI.

[26] But after he had spent some days with the same Godfrey, he determined to visit with the brethren the estates recovered; and, visiting the recovered estates, and when he was there, and had greatly gladdened the tenants by his presence, there came to him a certain noble woman named Hesplendis, honorable among her own people in goods and in character, who laid before the man of God a complaint on behalf of a servant, as that centurion of the Gospel had done, saying: "A faithful household steward and servant of mine is grievously tormented by monthly seizures ⁱ, for whom I beg that your prayer may be sent to God, so that by God's mercy he may deserve to be healed." Then he blessed a morsel of the bread of which he himself partook, and bade it be given to the honorable woman, saying: "As soon as you return home, make him eat some of this bread before any other food, and by God's command the affliction with which he is tormented will cease." She did as she had been taught; but the malignant invader did not permit

that he should touch anything of that bread: for he feared to touch that bread as though it were fire, until, driven by long hunger, he ate of it, and immediately received the freedom of perfect health.

XII.

[27] On the aforesaid estate there dwelt a man who, from the exceeding sharpness of his disease, had wholly lost the use of eating bread, he heals the sick, and, leading a wretched life on foul fare, daily wasted away for the worse. His prayers to the aforesaid woman were of this kind: "I beg you, my lady," he said, "that when you go to the man of God you would take care to make known to him what has more than once been brought to me in a certain vision; namely that if I shall be counted worthy to receive of the bread of his food, I shall at once recover the use of eating bread; and beseech his sweetness that he would bestow this kindness upon me, and send the blessing of the bread he desires." When therefore the reverend hero heard such things from the woman's report, presently, compassionating with overflowing mercy, he offered tearful prayers to the divine goodness, and at the hour of his meal blessed at some length a little piece of the bread specially set before him, and assigned it to a monk to be carried to the sick man of the aforesaid woman. And so, as soon as the sick man put some of that bread into his mouth, not only did the power of eating return, but a certain avidity for devouring at once followed, so that day by day the strength of his body was restored, which had seemed worn away by the hunger of a long time.

XIII.

[28] Thereafter it pleased him to visit another estate of the monastery, called Vintiredium* ^k, situated on the river Meuse ^l. And while he stayed there a few days, he gives light to a blind woman, a certain woman dwelling nearby, blind now for ten years, came to the monks who were his companions on the journey and said: "Some days ago, as I was bewailing my affliction, a certain vision appeared to me in sleep, most certainly promising that if this man of God would deign to grant me the water in which he had washed his hands, to bathe my eyes, at once by his merits the Lord would restore the long-lost light of my eyes. Therefore I beg that you would keep for me the water when he washes his hands, that I may be able to be stripped of the darkness of my long blindness." Therefore after this, the first time that the servant of God washed his hands, they gave the water to the blind woman; and to have applied it to her eyes and to have received sight were one and the same moment. But the man of God, learning this, did not bear it with an even mind, but presently hastening his journey departed in haste, guarding namely against popular applause resounding for him on account of a sign of such renown.

XIV.

[29] In the monastery of blessed Medard there was a crypt in the eastern part, and he wonderfully obtains a fish which used to be given on a certain solemnity, whose anniversary day of dedication was solemnly kept every year; for the feast of which day the ancient courtesy of the place, as they said, required the eating of a turbot. But the new abbot was ignorant of this custom, until the festival itself, being at hand, forced as it were a crisis upon the abbot, who was not thinking of this and was occupied with other cares: for when prime of the day had been chanted, the brethren assembled in Chapter, and ask their steward whether the turbot due for the day were ready at hand. When he denied it and rather wondered at their words, they began to be angry and contentiously to affirm that the solemnity of the Masses would not be performed by them unless a turbot were brought into their kitchen. Hearing this, certain of the seniors go to the abbot, who suspected nothing of the kind, and lay open the mind of the brethren.

[30] and afterwards foretells that it will be lacking. Hearing this so childish notion of the brethren, that man, sagacious in all things, and deliberating in a short silence, sent forth the voice of his heart to Christ, and at last answered: "If we had known this custom beforehand, we could have sought that fish at our leisure. But now, since we have learned it suddenly, the omnipotence of God is able to grant this very thing, so that we may take away the scandal from the brethren and the holy solemnity may be cheerfully completed. Let a servant go quickly with money to the bridge of the Aisne ^m, and, finding a turbot, let him quickly buy it and present it to the brethren's kitchen to be prepared." And turning to the seniors he said: "Go, most dear brethren, and tell the brethren that the turbot shall not be wanting; let them keep the solemnities of the Lord with joy. But tell them this also: that whether I live or die, they may know it is determined that from this day for twenty years they shall not have dishes of turbot on this day." When he had said this, a turbot, found unexpectedly according to his word, is bought, and, still gasping, is brought in to be prepared for the brethren's tables. The solemnities of the dedication also are celebrated more cheerfully than usual; and the brethren who were present at this affair have testified, with invocation of the divine name, that from that time for twenty years such a fish could not be found for that same solemnity. Greatly to be wondered at, that the spirit of truth was so present with him that whatever he uttered with his mouth was always wholly grounded in the constancy of truth.

ANNOTATIONS.

elsewhere Fratres*

elsewhere in pœnis*

elsewhere mea*

elsewhere Junciredium*

CHAPTER III.

After the resignation of the abbatial office, his solitary life, and his wonderful knowledge of future and hidden things.

XV.

Indeed, since among mortals it remains a settled thing that nothing is blessed in every part, [When the Saint was unwilling to obey a certain command of the king of the Franks,] there was at that time in that same convent a certain monk named Odo, a usurper of honesty and a feigner of virtue, who greatly envied God's servant Arnulf the abbot and thought himself worthier and more useful for the government of the place; who also incessantly turned over by what device he might remove Christ's servant from the office of rule he had undertaken. He, being employed in external affairs, took pains through go-betweens whom he blinded with frequent gifts to suggest to Philip, king of the Franks, that when he should set out equipped against an enemy in any direction, he should order the abbot of St. Medard's to come with him. The king assented to Odo's counsels, and when he had put his army in motion, sending envoys, he warned the lord Arnulf to go with him on the expedition with armed soldiery. Arnulf was astounded at this, and answered the royal messengers devoutly: "It is certain that I, a sinner, was once defiled with the deeds of warfare, and it is known that for the fear of the Lord I left warfare and sought the fellowship of monks. We read the Lord saying: He who shall persevere unto the end shall be saved. And what am I, wretched man, who for God's sake cast away warfare, to be again attended by soldiers, again to handle arms? A great wickedness. Rightly does the psalm say of me and of such as I: I cast them down while they were being lifted up. For I, who thought I had been taken up for the care of an abbey, behold, I am compelled to stumble into the pit of apostasy. I would certainly have preferred not to have taken this name and place of abbot, than under the pretext of this dignity to serve the world so very ill."

[32] he deserts the office of abbot, Learning this, king Philip sent envoys again, who should say that it was an ancient custom that the soldiers of the abbey, with the abbot going before, should serve in the royal expedition; and that he should either do according to the ancient custom, or give place, so that the king's command might be carried out. Then Arnulf, taking this occasion, obeyed the king's command with ready mind, and gladly withdrew into the corner of his reclusion. He did not reckon the height of so great an honor to be anything, provided that it might be permitted him to hold to the word of the Savior; desiring far better and far more fervently to exercise himself in the service of the divine majesty. But all the monks, greatly dismayed at such an act, come together and as it were besiege Arnulf with exceeding lamentation, and thus scourge him with sorrowful entreaty: "O father to be loved, what have you wished to do — so inconsiderately to forsake the flock committed to you, to expose to wolves the sheep of Christ entrusted to you, and again to hand over to devastators the holy house which you were treating so honorably? If it was grievous to you to go on the king's expedition, you might have sat quietly in your place; we with our soldiers would have obeyed the king's command. Behold, our Pontius, once the devastator, laden with purses, will become again the purchaser of our place, and, having received power, will press on a fiercer squanderer. Have pity, we beseech you, upon your sons; have pity upon your suppliants, and do not cast us off who rejoice to be subject to your words. We admonish you by the martyrdom of Sebastian, by the confession of Medard, by the papacy of Gregory, by the multitude of the Saints whose relics and memorial you know to be in this place."

XVI.

[33] Hearing these words, Arnulf was cut asunder in his feelings, and urges that another be elected, and weeping most abundantly answered them: "O most sweet brethren, do not, I beg, so

impute to me the desolation of your community or of your place; but carefully understand that he dwells among you, and went forth from you, who is striving to bring about all this evil. But now since, thanks be to God, I am stripped of the abbacy — which my soul greatly desired (for it was more a burden to me than an honor) — I exhort your unanimity that you never aim at this, that I be dragged again to preside over you. If you are willing to acquiesce in my counsels, I am ready to give you good and useful counsel. Call to you the bishop and all the prelates of the churches of the city, and quickly elect a father acceptable to God and necessary to our affairs." The monks answered: "This we would most gladly do; but by the oppression of the greedy king our election will at once be annulled. Whence we have judged it better that our election should rest in your hand, and whomsoever we see elected by you, we will faithfully obey him: for whomsoever you shall elect, we believe that the king's madness will not withstand him."

[34] Then, all the prelates of the churches being called together and counsel taken in common, there was elected as abbot a man of great learning and of exceptional religion, named Girald ^a; and when he had not long been substituted, suddenly there flies up that aforesaid Pontius, the adversary of all piety, and to the queen who ejected his successor bringing with him the queen of the Franks named Bertrada ^b, who by royal power should expel Girald and intrude that same Pontius, against right, into the prelacy of the holy place: and when this was known, Christ's servant Arnulf comes out of his cell, and going to the raging queen humbly begged her with gentle address that, although she was held to be queen, yet, mindful of her womanly condition and mindful also of the divine judgments, she would fear to go against the ecclesiastical laws, and would modestly restrain herself from injuring so great a man; and when in the swelling of royal pride she refused to hear these admonitions, the servant of God said to her prophesying: "O queen, if it please you, believe brother Arnulf; nay, believe the Holy Spirit: for if you shall violently expel the lord abbot Girald from this place, God avenging it, you too before the day of your death shall be thrust out from the lordship of the whole kingdom, and shall die in wretchedness and contempt, having no share in the kingdom."

[35] And indeed this prophecy of the man of God was made manifest clearer than light, he foretells the divine vengeance, which the event proved. since it is plain to all that that same queen after some years incurred irremediably the king's displeasure, on account of which, being cast out from fellowship with the whole kingdom, she was removed with disgrace into the district of Ponthieu ^c, and there, held in long calamity, died and was buried after the manner of a commoner. But Girald, being repelled by her, gave place to wrath and withdrew into the parts of Aquitaine, where, being gladly received by the duke of that land, he built an illustrious convent at La Sauve-Majeure, where he served God worthily, and rested in the Lord with a blessed end; whose life and death alike shone with the signs of virtues and the glory of miracles ^d.

XVII.

[36] Arnulf at length, withdrawn into his beloved reclusion, as though he were then beginning for the first time, The Saint, having returned to the solitary life, earnestly macerated himself with daily fasts, afflicted himself with vigils, giving himself assiduously to prayer and pressing with his whole effort upon divine contemplation. Acting thus, and growing daily by such zeal in virtues, he obtained great grace from the Lord, and won in the land of the Franks so glorious a fame that all the nobility of the kingdom rejoiced to use his blessings, and men of every rank ardently sought his conversation, entreating counsel both concerning the peace of the church and concerning the salvation of souls: whoever could hear even a word from his mouth believed himself greatly happy; so that whatever he said seemed to every hearer wholesome and pleasant and seasoned with spiritual salt, so that it plainly appeared that he was inwardly breathed upon by the presence of the Holy Spirit. And the fame of his sanctity spread through all provinces, and called persons of diverse age and rank from every side to his conversation. But now we deem it opportune to begin to relate what signs and gifts of prophecy the Lord conferred upon him.

XVIII.

[37] In those days there came to him the husband of his sister, named Trudbert, he declares the unhappy death of a certain absent man, whom, after conversation held concerning the health of his soul, he asked, saying: "Our former fellow soldier and comrade Israel — what do you think, or how do you believe he fares?" And he answered: "He is safe, and prospers in all things." To whom the man, full of God's prophetic Spirit, said: "It is by no means so as you say; for Israel, whom you report safe and well, is dead in body and spirit; for yesterday he seized much plunder, with which, returning home, he reclined on a bench beside the hearth in the lap of a concubine, where about evening, meeting an unforeseen death, he utterly lost both this life and the eternal. O fearful obsequies! O dreadful exactors, by whom his unhappy soul, attended by the imprecations of so many widows and orphans and tormented with so many pains, has been dragged away to eternal fire!" Hearing this, the aforesaid man was exceedingly terrified; and after he returned home he found that all things concerning Israel had so happened as the man of the Lord, Arnulf, had announced.

XIX.

[38] At another time there came to visit him a certain sister of his, named Adzela; a fish set before him, and while she was sitting with certain others before the window of his little cell and inquiring about the life of the soul, how it could be preserved amid so many storms of the world, at the noon hour a servant came bringing a fish fried in the pan (for it was a very solemn day) and set it before him in the window: for, in order utterly to repel from himself the spirit of vanity and every stirring of ostentation, he was accustomed on Sundays and on the chief festivals to taste a little of the cloistral food, for this reason, that he might not seem to despise the tables of the brethren. He had as his teachers and comforters in this matter men endowed with the highest discretion: the Roman Pope Gregory VII ^e, Hugh ^f, the venerable abbot of Cluny, a leader in divine institution and a skilled teacher, and Girald ^g also, the most holy abbot of La Sauve-Majeure; by whose letters, frequently sent to him, he was instructed not to be more wise than he ought, nor under the appearance of virtues to transgress the measure approved by the fathers.

[39] which he knew to be infected with poison, he bids a raven carry away, When therefore that fish had been brought before him, his sister said: "Now, holy brother, I must withdraw hence, since it is time, and food is set before you, that you may eat something." To whom the man of God said: "No, dear sister; I do not permit you to depart hence on account of this food, since this fish thus brought is not to be taken by me: for it is infected with the plague of poison, which the hostile enemy has prepared for us, that from it there might come to me destruction; but thanks be to God, thanks to the Holy Spirit, who by an inward prompting has opened it to our heart, lest by taking the poison we should make joy for the enemy." Then, raising his voice, he called that a raven should come, which he was accustomed to feed after his manner with the crumbs gathered on his window. Suddenly the raven is there, to whom the servant of God said in command: "In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, take this fish in your beak and cast it in such a place where it may never be found by man." And it, hesitating for a while, at last took it in its beak, lifted it, and departed. When it had thrown it away, it returned and took its accustomed portion from the hand of him who fed it. Then he charged his sister and the others present with terrible warnings that, so long as he himself lived, they should disclose this to no one.

XX.

[40] This same woman, having a young son entrusted to a certain powerful man, that he might obtain arms from him, he reveals hidden things, was asked by the same servant of God: "Where is your son, or how does he fare?" And she said: "I have sent him safe and sound to a certain powerful kinsman of ours, that he may dwell with him until he is made a knight." Then the man of God said: "An empty presage — nay, a wicked sorcery — you practiced concerning him at the beginning of the Lent lately kept, as though he could not die whose shoe, cast up on high, should fly over the beam. The sin has remained with you, and your son's life has departed: for in that place, falling sick on such a day and at such an hour of the day, he died and was buried. Hence I greatly exhort your affection that, doing penance according to the decrees of the Catholic Church, you make satisfaction, lest your last day steal upon you fettered by so great a fault: for those who do such things wholly resist the Holy Spirit and are proved to injure holy Christianity." Then she, marveling beyond what can be believed and greatly afraid, departed; and before she reached home a messenger met her with news of her son's death, announcing that he had died and been buried in that place, on such a day and at such an hour, just as the man of the Lord, Arnulf, had foretold by the revealing of the Spirit.

He had before the doors of his cell a certain space in the manner of a little garden, in which, working the beds with his own hand, he fled idleness and sloth: he had also certain small trees, which, when they had brought forth apples, as often as sick persons at his command had tasted of them, they were presently raised up from their sicknesses. To sick persons placed farther away also he often, on request, sent bread or wine seasoned with his blessing; and when they tasted of it, they were at once better.

XXI.

[41] The solemn martyrdom of the glorious Levite Lawrence was being festively kept, as is fitting, in its annual celebration, he restores speech to a mute, and a multitude of people had filled the fields and open places round about the monastery of blessed Medard on every side, when behold, a certain woman, having a son of thirteen years dumb from birth, burst in to the window of the servant of God's cell, and with heavy grief began to implore that the holy man would have pity on her son, saying: "Servant of God, do not cast away my prayers, do not spurn them; attend to my calamities. Behold, the almighty Lord has taken away my only husband; he has left me an only son, by whose help I might be supported; and behold, he is dumb and deaf, unable to hear a word or to give an answer to anyone." At this Christ's servant, pierced with compassion and moved with most tender pity, bathed in tears from the sweetness of charity, sent up a more intent prayer to the Lord, and called the mute himself by signs and gestures; and receiving him before the window, he signed him with the sign of the holy cross with invocation of the divine name, impressed on his lips the sign of the kindly cross, touched his tongue with his fingers, and thus questioned him: "What name have you?" And he, at once loosed into words, said plainly and clearly: "John." And having said this, thereafter, forming words without stumbling, he enjoyed the full gift of speech.

XXII.

[42] A certain youth, seized with a most savage invasion of demons and bound with fetters and chains, could not be tamed; but he tore with his bites all whom he could touch. At last, being somehow overcome and constrained by many, and he frees a possessed man, he was dragged with great force to the church of St. Medard, and the man of God was told of him; who, grieving deeply for the wretched captive, ordered him to be led to him; and when he had been dragged near, as soon as the servant of God could see him, he made the sign of the cross and said to those who dragged him: "Loose him." They say to him:

"Lord, we dare by no means to loose him, lest perhaps he rise against us and destroy us." And the man of God said: "I have already told you; loose him, fearing nothing." Then, laying their hands upon him with much reluctance, they began to loose him; and he, being loosed, presently fell prostrate on the ground and adored. For now, after he had seen Christ's servant and had been signed by him, all the hostile force in him had been lulled and quieted. And the man of the Lord bade him rise from the ground and approach the window of the cell; and when he stood near, Christ's servant began to inquire, saying: "Tell me, my son, this hostile infestation which has held you — when or how did it come upon you?"

[43] who discloses to him the cause of his demoniac possession. And he related the course of the matter, saying: "My most dear father, I had a certain friend and near kinsman by blood, most beautiful in form and keen in bodily strength, whose feelings the little men of a certain hamlet had grievously offended, so much so that this kinsman of mine, gathering together bands of comrades and friends, attempted to assault that same hamlet, so that, the hamlet being broken into and the inhabitants slaughtered, he might cruelly avenge the injury of his offense: but since that same hamlet was girt about on all sides with wood and encircled by a rising valley, and since those men also who were found there manfully resisted, my aforesaid kinsman obtained nothing of his wishes; nay rather, being wounded with a lance and his bowels laid open, he died there on the spot; whom, being dead, I in my wretchedness took up, and laid his ankles upon both my shoulders, and thus dragging him through the midst of the forest I was leading him away from the place of the slaying. It was then a black night, and behold, there stood about me before and behind innumerable throngs of sinister spirits, howling and hissing and at times laughing loudly. Then fear and dreadful trembling seized me, and the adverse power shook me to the marrow; and not knowing what to do, at last I cast away the dead man whom I was dragging, I know not in what place. Presently therefore, my senses being lost and my mind changed, I became such as your blessedness has seen." Then the servant of the Lord said to him: "Behold, thanks be to God, you have confessed wisely. It remains that you appease God by penance, in that you willed to take part in so great a crime." He said: "For this evil and for all wherein I have offended God, I am willing, holy Father, to offer worthy penance to God, and from henceforth, so far as I can, to cease from all evil." Thus Christ's servant, having enjoined upon him a measure of penance, sent him home whole and sound and vigorous in right mind, cleansed not only of the demoniac legion but of the inborn cruelty of shedding human blood: for if he had not been hindered in such a way, he would have destroyed all those dwellers of the hamlet in vengeance for his slain friend.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

Many predictions of the Saint which the event proved, and certain persons helped in sickness or other misfortunes by his intercession.

XXIII.

At that same time a savage report had defiled the city of Soissons and its suburbs When a false rumor was spread of an inroad of the Danes and the neighboring villages, through certain rumor-mongers, concerning the hostile coming of the barbarians, some saying that the nation of the Danes, issuing from their own land, would in a short time occupy and destroy all France, and would in no way spare old men or infants or churches. This compelled belief, since the histories of various chronicles related that the Danes had many times done such things. Which unhappy rumor so prevailed that Theobald ^a, bishop of Soissons, earnestly consulting the man of God Arnulf upon it, as being a fellow initiate of divinity, demanded of him, and anxiously implored, that he would search out from the Lord's mercy whether it should be so in the near future. But the servant of the Lord, as soon as he heard the rumor, perceived that it was wholly empty and void; yet, lest he should be marked with rash levity, he asks a respite until the morrow, so that through the deep silences of the night he might more abundantly entreat the Majesty on high that some manifest sign of this matter be opened to him. Arnulf, occupying the hours with psalms, covered with ashes, clothed in haircloth, sends forth prayers to Christ, pours out a river of tears upon the ground, and importunes the Majesty to open the truth of this secret. At the next dawn the bishop returns anxious to the modern ark of the spiritual testament, and demands the heavenly oracle upon yesterday's deposit: whom Christ's servant, strengthening with the consolation divinely received, said: "Fear not, reverend prelate; for as long as you or I shall bear a mortal body, the nation of the Danes, or any other barbarism, shall not lay waste the kingdom of France."

      Heard a report flying on the lightness of the crowd,       That the nation of the Danes, laying waste all places,       Would blot out the nobles whom France holds,       That so it might curb the arms of the men of France.       Often heard, and often repeated,       It shook the peoples and made the powerful grow pale.       Driven by the murmur of the people concerning this matter, the prelate       Consults Arnulf, upheld by the divine Breath,       Greatly imploring him to ask Christ to disclose       Whether it would come, or whether the kingdom would fall.       Arnulf, the fellow initiate of God, seeks the leisure of night,       He is stretched upon the ground, he drips rivers of tears,       Praying of this matter: "Almighty God, have mercy,       Spare your own, have mercy on the guilty, sole hope of the world;       Constant, unconquered, fashioned in no man's image,       Beneath whom kings bow down and the heavens wheel,       Who by the death of your Son loose the claims of the pit,       Do not hand over the right of your mercy to unspeakable foes,       Lest vain men say that France serves an empty thing;       Lest they wretchedly mock: 'That God of theirs cannot show mercy.'       Behold, the fierce Danes, as the voice of the people says,       Rise up against your own, who seek to destroy all things.       Protect now the nation that duly reads you as its Lord,       That gives itself to you, or above all serves you.       The nations of the Franks, full of companies of monks,       Nations that are the tenders of holy churches,       Which glorify you, which ever honor the Saints.       Be mindful of these, be the protector of your servants,       That they may not see enemies, and that your people may be spared deaths;       Grant it through the Son almighty together with you       And with the holy Breath, through whom glory belongs to you."       As he is intent on such things, a heavenly messenger stands by.       He shines like the dawn, wreathed in comely raiment,       Saying: "Servant of God, make an end of these weepings:       For God, Christ, being moved by the voice of your tears,       Has determined to grant the wish you have asked.       Wherefore know for certain that a hostile nation       Shall not come to this kingdom so long as you shall live out your span:       And after your end, for long ages       France shall abide secure, overcoming hostile claims.       Peace be to you, servant of God; may the glory of Christ be with you."       Then the servant of the Lord lifts his face from the pavement,       And gives thanks to the Lord for such an assurance.       In the morning the prelate returns, exceedingly anxious, seeking hidden things;       Trembling, he asks what is the sentence of heaven.       Whom the servant of the Lord consoles with sweet speech,       Saying: "Do not fear, father and venerable prelate:       For until we both leave the life of the world,       France shall reign, nor shall a barbarian violate her.       God has taught me this, the sentence of heaven has established it;       May his unconquered kingdom be now blessed."       At this the prelate, rejoicing and applauding with glad heart,       Offered the gifts which he had vowed, and heaped them up.

XXIV.

[46] Christ was making his Church fruitful with the gifts of graces, the death of Bl. Simon the monk, kindled by which very many noble and renowned men were leaving the vain prosperity of the world and, by mortifying themselves, striving to acquire the divine nobility; among whom, like a golden star, the glorious and most beautiful Simon ^b, Count of Amiens and of the Vermandois, son of Count Ralph, being inflamed with divine love, cast away the honor and power of his county; he left cities and most opulent castles, he left a most adorned bride, and, burning to follow Christ, came forth naked from such great riches; and, forsaking the whole nation of the Franks, in which he held lordship among thousands of servants, he betook himself to the parts of Italy, chiefly for this reason, that he might find opportunity of visiting and adoring the most sacred presence of the most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul; and while, divinely inspired, he frequently visited their sacred memorials with pious devotion, the devotion of so great a man became known to the lord Pope Gregory VII. At length, after serving God a few years, and manfully extending himself in simplicity and humility of heart and in continual contrition of body and in the exercise of holy virtues, by God's favor he was in a short time made perfect; and since his soul was pleasing to God, it was led out of the prison of the world that it might shine among the living stones in the diadem of heaven.

[47] But at that very hour at which, loosed from the flesh, he merited to pass to the blessed rest, which he had learned by divine revelation, he foretells to the abbot, the holy man Arnulf, enclosed in his cell, was lifted up in an ecstasy of mind. And by God's gift he saw all the things which were being done concerning the honorable man Simon, once Count, now monk. And when after the vision he had returned to himself, he hastened to call the brethren, that he might make known to them the grace of so great a vision. The brethren come, to whom he announced, saying: "Go, brethren, in haste; tell the abbot and the brethren that the lord Simon, once Count of the Vermandois, has this day departed from this life; and let the abbot order the office to be quickly celebrated for the passing of so great a man." The astounded monks began to hesitate, greatly doubting such a message: yet they go to the abbot and announce what they had heard. He, being astounded, wonders the more

and, rising, hastens to the recluse: he inquires, testing him, what he had commanded him. Then the man of God said: "If I had ever brought you anything false or uncertain, it would be just that you should believe us with more difficulty. But now, since you have not yet found falsehood of words in me, why are you of such hardness in believing that in uncertain matters you think me as it were out of my mind? Note the day, note the hour, and you will find that it is or has been so as has been made manifest to me." Then the abbot in haste and the assembly of the brethren enter the church; the bells are rung, psalms are sung, and in due order the office of the dead is celebrated. Meanwhile their minds were in suspense, thinking that they would be laughed at as deluded; when behold, before a month of days a messenger flies up, saying that the lord Simon had died on that day and at that same hour at which it had been shown beforehand concerning him to the man of God, Arnulf.

XXV.

[48] Not far from the city of Soissons there dwelt a noble man engaged in the deeds of knighthood, to the wife of a certain Guy named Guy ^c, having a wife who was a cultivator of piety, named Ermengard. These two both flourished in the bloom of riches and abounded greatly in works of piety. This Guy, then, at a certain time lay languishing, oppressed by a violent sickness, and, having lost the power of sleeping or eating, was despaired of by his people, and was bewailed by his friends as already dead. At about those same days his wife was in anguish from the pain and distress of childbirth now near at hand, and, worn by a twofold fear, dreaded on the one side her own death, on the other her husband's. Entangled in such torments, she believed there was one remedy for her, if she should commend her own and her husband's misfortunes to the prayers of St. Arnulf; and sending as a trusty messenger a household cleric, she tearfully laid before his ears both her own and her husband's danger.

[49] But Christ's servant, being by God's gift greatly foreknowing of things to come, he bids various future things be foretold, having first made his prayer, sent back word to that woman, saying: "Go, brother, and carry back these things carefully and with haste to our most sweet sister. Two grave distresses hang over her, which, God being propitious, she will overcome with a good issue; but a third distress presses on, of which she is ignorant, which will be the graver because the less recoverable: for her husband indeed, although he now languishes, will afterwards recover and will be given lasting soundness. She too will without doubt be saved from the danger of bearing, and in the course of this night, before the signal for the night Office is heard, she will bear a son, in whom she shall rejoice; but the third anxiety, of which she now takes no thought, and which will torment her longer, stands thus: Alberic her brother, lord of Coucy, has by the counsel of his wife Aveline been so betrayed that tomorrow he will be taken in his bed by his enemies, and being seized will be dragged away, and being dragged away will be bound, and being bound will be driven with hard torments, and will be constrained to ransom himself: and ransoming his dying life he will spend his treasures; moreover he will neither see nor recover his castle. But let our sister send quickly and give warning both of his wife's malice and of the enemy's snares now pressing on." So the messenger, departing from him, returns swiftly to his lady and relates the messages of the holy man; and the matron's mind conceives joy mixed with fear. And sending a hurried messenger to her brother, she expressly informed him what his wife had contrived, and what his enemies, with his wife as their leader, were plotting. Now Alberic believed his sister; but, giving more credit to his wife, who denied these things, he did not take precaution; he did not fortify his tower and castle or town; and therefore at dawn, while still resting, he is attacked, taken, dragged, bound, led out, and stripped for ever of the dwelling and lordship of Coucy.

XXVI.

[50] Then on that same night Guy's wife, Alberic's sister, laboring in childbirth, before the bell that announces the night synaxis was rung in the church of blessed Medard, and to his son, blind from birth, brought forth a son. But behold, on the following day, while they handle the boy more carefully, they discover that he had been born without eyes; and the places of the eyes were overgrown with flesh and skin, like the forehead or the cheek. What then were the midwives to do? Dismayed with exceeding terror, they weep more secretly, they grieve together murmuring, and strive by every means that the dying mother should not learn of her son's blindness. Thus six days passed without the mother knowing her son's blindness, until it came to this, that the boy must be carried to the church to be baptized. Then indeed a greater trepidation seized the attendants, and with all their efforts they contrive that the blindness so long concealed should not be published to the knowledge of the common people. They go to the mother, still sick from her recent childbirth, and persuade her to send her son first to Arnulf, the holy man of God, before he is carried to baptism. The mother assented to the words of her handmaids, and sending an envoy to the man of God, she begs that he would deign to touch and bless the little one with his hands. To which the holy man answered: "Truly it is necessary that we see the little infant; therefore let him be presented quickly: as the mother has been preserved by God's great gift from the distress and pain of bearing, so the merciful Lord will deign to make whole the imperfect son unto completeness." By which words it is shown that the infant's infirmity had already become known to the servant of God.

XXVII.

[51] And so Christ's servant took in the infant that was brought through the window, laid him upon his bed of ashes, he obtains sight, and himself, prostrate on the pavement, gave himself to prayer. The prayer being finished, he gathered the little infant into his lap, anointed the places of the eyes with the spittle of his mouth, and immediately by the divine gift the eyes opened, and new light penetrated the new little eyes. When the boy was carried back to his mother there was great exultation; and then first the mother knew that she had borne a blind child, when she learned that her son had received new eyes through Christ's servant ^d.

XXVIII.

[52] It seems fitting to set forth this also, whereby it may be known how subtle a prerogative of foreknowledge the holy man of the Lord, Arnulf, is found to have had. and he foretells to the parents the marriage they desired for their daughter. The aforesaid nobles had long since begotten a daughter comely of face, who at that time, being now of marriageable years, had been betrothed by her parents to a certain knight not unequal in goods and in birth. But she, as girlish inconstancy will have it, loving more a certain other man inferior in goods and family, refused the bridegroom chosen for her by her parents, affirming with many oaths that she would be slain by her own hand unless she obtained the embraces she desired. Afflicted by the misfortune of this affair, the parents of the girl consult the man of God Arnulf, whether perhaps the Lord would deign to make known to his mind what they ought rather to do in such a conflict. Then the man of the Lord, having heard in a brief account the complaints of the parents, gave them a fitting and wholesome reply: "It is," he said, "the authority of the canons that a girl never be joined to one whom she does not wish; therefore I lay this command upon you: give the girl to the man she loves, lest you drive her to some unfitting act. But it is known to God, and shown to us for the merit of your piety, that after a little time you shall see your daughter eagerly desiring that bridegroom from whose wedlock she now so gladly wishes to remove herself; grant her now her own will, and so it will come about that she shall return to your honor." Then they, greatly believing his words, gave their daughter the nuptials she desired, and permitted her to enjoy the wedlock of the man she loved. And that man wedded to the girl, since he labored to appear a famous knight, while he bears himself too far in arms in order to win himself a name, is suddenly slain by armed men, and very quickly makes his new wife a new widow. So according to the word of the man of God the girl returned to the love of that bridegroom whom her parents had first chosen, and, being joined to him, bore with an even mind the loss of the first. This, although it seems foreign to the order of our narrative, ought nevertheless to be heard, because it declares in St. Arnulf a certain special presage of the power of prophecy.

XXIX.

[53] Philip, king of the Franks, having been for some years joined in nuptial union, when he saw that his queen ^e remained barren, he obtains fruitfulness for the queen of the Franks by his prayers, very frequently entreated God's servant St. Arnulf, both by himself and by other most distinguished men, that he would obtain the Lord's mercy, that he might deign to grant him a son to succeed him for the protection of the kingdom and the defense of holy Church. At first the Lord's faithful servant shrank from doing this, guarding himself against the favor of men and fearing to relax the strictness of his mind. At length, when he had learned from Theobald, the venerable bishop of Soissons, and from many other religious men that this would be good and acceptable before God — according as the blessed Apostle teaches that supplication is to be made for kings and all who are set in high place, and that this be done first of all — being drawn both by the suggestion of such good men and by the Apostolic admonition, he promised that he would pray. And the queen, learning of this promise of his, rejoiced greatly, and, as though now assured, sends fit envoys to the servant of God, asking with much entreaty that he would deign to foretell to her when it should come to pass. But he, perceiving in the queen's heart the constancy of faith, sent back word to her that she should carefully have care of the poor, intimating that their voice would offer violence to the divine ears, so that the Lord would grant her the offspring she desired. The queen obeyed, and established fixed daily banquets for the poor, so that the prayer of God's servant could not be made void.

XXX.

[54] When the man of the Lord, St. Arnulf, was still engaged in temporal warfare, and his former fellow soldier, he had a certain knightly comrade dearer to him than the rest, named Geric, who, after Arnulf withdrew from the life of the world, sweated the more earnestly at robberies and plunderings, and, fearing neither God nor man, continually oppressed widows and orphans. Learning of this blameworthy life of his from the report of those who came to him, the servant of God very often entreated the goodness and omnipotence of Christ the Lord that he would send upon that Geric an occasion and compunction of penance, whereby he might begin to forsake his most evil ways and to consider the fear of the eternal judgment: and by faithful men and women returning home from him he also sent him admonitions of salvation, which he, hearing with the ear of the body, did not keep in faith and work. Meanwhile Geric, having enjoyed the prosperity of the world, took a wife named Judith, of equal nobility; he begets several children, and for very many years is upheld with his whole household in cheerful felicity.

[55] who by his wife's counsel Afterwards his children began to die, and within a few years not one of his sons was left surviving. He himself also fell into a grave sickness, and lay in his bed forty-two months, that is three years and a half, despairing of life and beholding the moment of death before his eyes. Already his nephews, born of his brothers or sisters, were claiming his lands and all his possessions as their desire; already they were striving to leave his wife Judith without dowry and to alienate her from all her husband's inheritance. But what was she to do? No protector, no comfort offered itself to her. Then, turning to the Lord, she prayed tearfully that he would deign to afford divine help where human help failed; and, calling to mind God's servant Arnulf, she approached her dying husband with many complaints: "My most dear husband," she said, "behold, your children are dead; behold, your nephews

longing for your death are busy claiming all your goods for their own right: behold, they have prepared for themselves a malignant plea, that when you are buried they may shamefully cast me out and not acknowledge that I was your wife. But why does your entire good faith not consent to the counsels of your wife, who loves your life and welfare above all things? Speak in your heart and make a vow to Jesus Christ our Lord, that, carried in a litter, you will visit his servant Arnulf, once your comrade and friend, and will submit yourself and all that is yours to his counsel; and the Father of mercies will look upon your sorrows and my griefs." And he, reflecting a little, as though weighing with himself the weight of her words, answered, saying: "You have dealt wisely; you have found the best counsel, which I gladly accept; and that it may be so the sooner, I both will it and vow it."

[56] had ordered himself, sick, to be carried in a litter to the Saint, And so, the litter being borne by horses, he is carried to Soissons, and was brought to the man of God as he sweated at his exercises; who, rejoicing that a man once joined to him in faithful friendship had come, asked — nay rather bade — that he be brought to him. On the following day, being led before the window, he heard from that same man of God a friendly rebuke: "Brother Geric," he said, "you are a most excellent soldier for your own people, a most evil one for yourself; how long have you provoked the Lord God, bent upon works of rapine? Believe me, destruction was near you; you fell little short of the jaws of the dragon; but I give thanks to Christ the Lord: he has not, as I see, despised my tears, who has hindered you by sending sickness, lest, fattened everywhere with plunder, you should become food for the enemy's teeth. Know therefore without doubt that the infirmity which has held you was asked of the Lord by my long prayers, so that even against your will you might cease from the oppression of widows and the greed of rapine. Consider how great a benefit of his immense mercy God has bestowed upon you, that you may know that you acted wickedly, who, inflamed with such malice, could yet escape the lion's bite. But you will ask, of what lion. Hear blessed Peter saying with divine voice: Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour. The jaws of this lion you have escaped by God's mercy alone. Now therefore give heed that you may be wholly stripped of his will." And Geric said: "Most holy and most loving Father, with such a vow and such a resolve have I hastened to your counsel, that according to the tenor of the Lord's will and according to the command of your holiness my life may henceforth be ordered, and that I may do nothing more than what the sentence of your counsel shall dictate. Only offer prayers to our God for my recovery, and I assert and confirm by a perpetual covenant that hereafter I will do nothing that I know to be contrary to the divine laws."

XXXI.

[57] But when these words were ending, the wife of that same Geric, the birth of a son being foretold, named Judith, broke into speech, saying tearfully: "Holy servant of God, attend, I pray, to my misfortunes also, and bring help to a wretched and destitute woman." The man of God answered her: "As I hear your voice I presently know your condition and your need, and I promise you in the name of God that your coming and your husband's shall not be fruitless for you. Wherefore know for certain that joy shall be given you for sorrow, because you have faithfully ministered to your husband in his infirmity: for this husband of yours, because he has cast off iniquity, shall be perfectly healed; and of him you shall receive a son to be named Lambert, who by God's command shall be born on this very day when a year is completed. He shall succeed his father, he shall nourish your old age; nor shall you die until you rejoice in lawful offspring of your son Lambert."

[58] "Wherefore I will and exhort you, most sweet brother Geric, he frees him from sickness of body and soul. that you walk henceforth by the way of justice, that you honor the Church of God and the sacred clergy, that you take nothing from the poor, nay that you restore what has been taken, and that you give alms continually and abundantly: for so the holy Apostle admonishes that command be laid upon the rich. Never keep back your tithes, nor give them to anyone save to whom Christ shall have commanded. Till your fields, and strive to live by the fruit of your husbandry and by just gain; deal mercifully with your tenants; what they cannot pay, remit either wholly or in part; show faith and truth from the heart to your prince and to your peers; give thanks to Almighty God for the benefits conferred, and strive to be present more frequently at those celebrating the divine offices. If you do thus, the grace of God will be with you, and will give peace to your affairs, and you shall meet a good end. And you, who have been carried hither sick, shall depart hence sound, riding on horseback." O how great the clemency of the goodness on high, which adorned its blessed servant Arnulf with so many gifts of virtues, that his converse might be continually in heaven and the merit of his life might profit others upon earth: for according to what may be understood from his own words, that soldier Geric would by the merit of his perversity have been dead before God, had not Arnulf's prayer continually accompanied him. At length, God being propitious, he departed from the man of God sound, and abiding at home presently begot a son, who, as had been foretold, came forth to birth on the appointed day: who both was successor to his father when he died and remained the dutiful supporter of his mother. And the mother Judith herself lived in the body so long until her son Lambert, being lawfully married, begot sons.

ANNOTATIONS.

elsewhere amodo*

elsewhere episcopus*

BOOK TWO.

TITLES OF THE ANCIENT CHAPTERS.

I. Of his election as bishop of the people of Soissons.

II. Of the injurious brother removed by him for an insulting word.

III. Of the prophecy of the future king Louis.

IV. Of his consecration by Hugh, the Roman legate.

V. Of the lord Hugh, abbot of Cluny, receiving him with festivity.

VI. Of the constancy of the lord Arnulf and his love of martyrdom.

VII. Of his pontifical acts.

VIII. Of the sick monk whom he healed.

IX. Of the showing of his burial place, which was to be elsewhere.

X. Of the plank carried off, upon which he sees the devil borne.

XI. Of the bread and wine multiplied.

XII. Of the woman blind fifteen years, whom he healed at Chaumont.

XIII. Of the cause of his coming, and of his coming into Flanders.

XIV. Of the peace composed among the Flemings.

XV. Of the possessed man at Thorout, invaded and cured by him.

XVI. Of William the Tall.

XVII. Of five sick brothers whom he restored all together.

XVIII. Of Folcard of Gistel cured through St. Arnulf.

XIX. Of a malevolent and rebellious woman destroyed by divine vengeance.

XX. Of the church of St. Peter the Apostle conferred upon him.

XXI. Of the antiquity and miracles of the same place.

XXII. Of the sick woman whom he healed at Oudenburg.

XXIII. Of his sister who died in holiness.

XXIV. Of his coming to Arningahem and the bounty of the nobles.

XXV. Of the heavenly light shining in the courtyard.

XXVI. Of his return into France, and his seeking again of his cell.

XXVII. Of his last coming into Flanders.

XXVIII. Of the foreknowledge of his death, and of his burial place again given him.

XXIX. Of his sickness before death.

XXX. Of the threefold shaking of the cell in which he lay.

XXXI. Of his pious and holy passing.

XXXII. Of the showing of his tomb.

XXXIII. Of the extending of his right hand after death.

XXXIV. Of his burial, with the epitaph.

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's elevation to the see of Soissons, the revelation of hidden and future things, his episcopal consecration, and a given proof of his knowledge.

Book II.

Chapter I.

Meanwhile the divine command took from this life Tetbald, prelate of the city of Augusta Suessonum, whose see and place a certain man of noble birth named Gervase, The Saint is compelled to administer the bishopric of Soissons, in recompense for palace service, obtained to be given to his own brother by blood named Ursio, a monk indeed in habit and instructed in letters from infancy, but by no means fit in character and disposition for the episcopal office: whose sloth of life and uncanonical entry soon sounded in the ears of the Roman pontiff, Gregory ^a by name, who presently, having sent letters to Hugh ^b, bishop of Die and then legate of the Gauls, admonished that the life and promotion of Ursio should be canonically examined, and that whatever in these things had gone against the sacred laws should be corrected by synodal judgment. Hence it came about that the aforesaid Hugh held a council ^e in the city of Meaux ^c upon the river Marne ^d, with Count Theobald as his patron; where, according to the decree of the lord Pope, opportunity of clearing himself having been granted to Ursio, after he, being lawfully summoned and canonically cited, scorned to present himself, he underwent condemnation by the judgment of the bishops, and accordingly, being condemned, opened the way of election to the clergy of Soissons, who were waiting there.

[60] Then therefore by advice of counsel the sounder part of the clergy and the tenants of the church of Soissons chose as their bishop the lord Arnulf, a cultivator of holy religion, at that time a recluse, and urgently demanded that he be quickly given them. The concordant election being thus made and put in writing, Hugh the legate immediately sent reverend persons from the council to the convent of St. Medard, charging and admonishing by letters, and even commanding by the authority of the Roman Church, that the lord Arnulf should leave his cell and come with all speed to the council of Meaux, otherwise as disobedient he should incur anathema. Terrified at the thunder of so great a command, Arnulf, truly a son of the Catholic Church, though with reluctance obeyed the legate's orders and came to the council; and when he had taken his seat, suddenly the petition of the clergy and nobles of the people of Soissons was read out again, choosing the lord Arnulf as their bishop. Thereupon arises the voice of the bishops, demanding that Arnulf, adorned with all holiness, be made their colleague. Thus presently he is drawn forward and mitred, and, not being permitted even for a moment to excuse himself, is at once placed in the assembly of the pontiffs; to whom, afflicted and mourning, Hugh the legate, in virtue of holy obedience,

enjoined by sacred command that henceforth he should strive to minister to the Church of Christ in the pontifical office. Being now thus constrained, he yielded to the edicts; and, the day and place of his consecration being appointed, he returned to the monastery of St. Medard, that he might prepare what was necessary for the coming journey: and these being abundantly prepared, not by his own pride but by the wish of the faithful, he set out with four monks and men chosen from the clergy, and came into Champagne, to the castle of Count Theobald which they call Vertus ^f.

II.

[61] But Count Theobald, learning of his coming, received him with joy with a great company of counts and nobles, and knowing by divine revelation the insulting word of an absent monk, and, attending him, brings him under his roof. Now at the hour of vespers the man of the Lord was sitting rather privately in a somewhat remote dining chamber, and the aforesaid Count sat by with a very few of the nobles, and was inquiring about spiritual salvation, when suddenly, changed in countenance, "Let those two brethren Everolf and Ostermar be called to us," he said; "for I have something to say to them." Without delay they are called; they come; and while they stood before him, he said to Ostermar: "Since by God's mercy I forsook the haughtiness of secular knighthood, I have striven with all my strength never to inflict any injury or insult upon any of the brethren; and what I have carefully observed I have anxiously endeavored to have observed by all who clung to me. For I know the punishment decreed by the divine mouth to him who shall scandalize one of these little ones. Since these things are in the highest degree true, how have you, brother Ostermar, presumed to speak so unhappy an insult to this our fellow brother Everolf, and have spared nothing either for the fear of God or for our own honor? Go and prepare your journey, returning to the monastery, since after the pouring out of such folly I do not suffer your company on this road. For I wish our companions on the journey to be pleasing, mild, benevolent, serving one another, circumspect in speech, not rebellious or unsubmissive."

[62] he sharply rebukes the guilty man, But he, dismayed beyond measure, answered with trembling voice: "My lord father, where, I pray, was I rebellious, or to whom did I do insult? Nowhere at all." Christ's servant answered him: "Were not my ears at your mouth when you said to brother Everolf that you would rather his head were plunged in a latrine than that your horse should not have larger fodder than usual? Believe us, you would have shuddered to say such a thing had you had any care for our favor." Then Count Theobald hearing this, and all who were present, were exceedingly astounded how he could so exactly have known a matter secret and uttered as it were furtively: since the chamber in which the man of the Lord was sitting was far distant from the horses' stable where in the distribution of the fodder that foolish speech had been made. At last the man guilty of the saying rolls himself at the holy man's feet; the other brethren roll themselves down too, suppliantly imploring pardon; to whom the servant of God said: "May the Lord forgive you; nevertheless on this road you shall henceforth not be our companion." Then he, weeping and exceedingly sad, said: "Alas, holy man of God, how shall I depart from you alone, or how shall I bear so great a reproach of this rejection? All will think that I have committed some abominable crime, and that therefore I have been cast out by you. Spare, I beg, my shame; grant pardon, lest I be subjected to perpetual grief." At this Count Theobald rises up, and with him all the nobility present, and they become suppliants for the monk, asking for him some remedy of the case, lest he be driven to greater ruin.

III.

[63] Then the man of God, compassionating his grief and that of the brethren interceding for him, and sends him penitent to the queen of France, and condescending also to the wishes of the Count and of the nobles, took him aside and said: "You indeed on account of your excessive stupidity must altogether return; but we by God's grace will lay upon you so honorable an errand that from this parting you shall never suffer any disgrace; but keep secret the charge which I commit to you, nor tell it to anyone save to her to whom we wish it announced. And so, departing from us, you shall come to the city of Paris ^g, and shall visit queen Bertrada* in our stead, and shall announce to her a desirable joy: that she truly bears in her womb a son, whom at the sacred font she shall call Louis, and who after his father's departure shall hold the kingdom of the Franks. She will scarcely believe you, because the infant has not yet vital motion: but tell her confidently to believe, since after a little time she will feel what she carries." So the monk, greatly gladdened, takes the road toward the city of Paris and discloses to the queen the welcome message, saying:

[64] "Our king, the Lord, is now your husband, O queen;       You, queen, with like mind desiring to have offspring, that he may foretell to her the coming birth,       Have often asked Arnulf, then a recluse,       To entreat God to grant you a son.       Through the highest nobles and through the great bishops       You have more earnestly desired what through yourselves you could not have,       That the Founder of the world might give splendor to the churches.       Persons of the Catholic faith gave counsel       That he should seek from the Lord of heaven, with prayers and faithful vow,       That an heir to the lot of reigning be granted       To you and to the kingdom by heavenly right.       What you together desired, I announce to you is accomplished:       For the Lord of heaven, moved by a faithful mind,       Has granted you this, that the grace of offspring be given.       You bear a boy in your womb, which you must believe to be true.       That boy shall be great; while he lives, mild as a lamb,       He shall reign over the Franks, he shall not tremble before his enemies.       He shall blot out the worst of things; his name shall be Louis.       Yet he does not yet live, nor has a living spirit animated him,       But by the Lord's gift it shall presently flow into him:       May that son be created by the prayers of Arnulf."

[65] She grows pale with astonishment, and, sending messengers in haste, which prophecy the birth of Louis called king Philip, who was intent on hunting; and he, coming at a run and eagerly receiving so welcome an embassy, and learning that the offspring long desired was granted him by the Lord, began to rejoice and to fear, and to waver much between dread and gladness. He would plainly have rejoiced if he had been wholly certain; he feared lest such a promise should remain void. At last the presumption of faith prevailed in the royal breast, and he prudently determined that what had been prophesied by such a servant of God was not superfluous. He knew certainly by manifold experience of what holiness and truthfulness he was through whom such a presage had come forth.

      After twice five days the infant begins to be held       Alive, and the heaviness grows in the mother's womb.       Yet he so ordered the gladness of the infant's being had       That no pain or fear should burden the queen.       At the fitting time is born this king Louis       The Peaceful, who, bearing the sceptre, governs the laws well.

[66] In the granted — nay rather obtained — birth of this prince, proved true. the industry of the devotion of Christ's servant Arnulf is to be praised and admired, who both merited by the prerogative of his merits to obtain the secret of so great a mystery, and by profound humility dissembled it: for he was never importunate with the king or queen, so as to demand anything for himself from those upon whom he had conferred the benefit of so great a joy. And though the king and queen longed to bestow something magnificent upon him, yet he never asked anything from them, save that they should give heed to the care of the poor and the defense of the churches, so that peace and truth might prevail in their days, and the tranquillity of the churches remain undisturbed. Now in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand and eighty-one, in the fourth Indiction, was born the future king Louis, obtained by the prayers and merits of this holy Arnulf; who — would that, so as to attain a good end, he may be helped by the suffrage of the same Saint ^h.

IV.

[67] Having finished his journey therefore, he came to Hugh of Die, and at his unexpected coming that same Hugh was at once glad and troubled: glad, that he had received so praiseworthy a person; troubled, that he had invited none of the bishops to his consecration. But committing all to God, he is gladdened by a sudden message, and all his anxiety is taken away. He is consecrated bishop of Soissons, For on the following day three bishops present themselves to him, who had gone out from their own places at that time under no necessity, but openly declared that they had been moved by a silent prompting to visit the legate then. There was made plain therefore to all the manifest secret of the divine counsel, and that it had truly been fixed by heavenly judgment that this man should be consecrated bishop. And all things which seemed needful for the work of his consecration turned out so prepared and unconfused as though they were fitted by divine ordering. When the sacred body of the Gospels had been placed upon his head, as the bishops looked, they found this saying of the Savior according to Matthew: Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings you have perfected praise. On the Sunday ⁱ before the Lord's nativity, which fell on the XIV of the Kalends of January, he was consecrated bishop with the great favor of all, and with all the prosperity of divine favor was happily sent to the see of Soissons. Nor was his illustrious fame hidden from the people of Vienne; nay rather, gathering together, they exhorted one another to seize him by force and enthrone him as archbishop of their city. For at that time the city of Vienne ^k lacked the administration of a bishop; and as this ferment spread more widely, the man of God hastened to leave their borders, hurrying to work out the salvation of the souls specially committed to him, and to till the vineyard for which he had been ordained cultivator and keeper.

[68] But when, passing by as it were secretly, he was arranging to turn aside from Cluny ^l, glorious with its host of monks, and he visits the monastery of Cluny, fame, the companion of virtues, did not permit him to lie hid: for learning of his journey and its cause, abbot Hugh, of eminent religion, sent his monks with all speed to meet him, and charged him, adjuring him by the charity of holy brotherhood, that he should by no means turn aside from the way to the sacred convent of Cluny, but that, with the monks sent to meet him as his companions, he should prepare to see his brethren rejoicing at his coming and eagerly desiring to enjoy his blessings; which fulfillment of so great a humility the man of the Lord shrank from refusing, and, obeying the charge, directed his way to the venerable convent of Cluny. Then, gathering a host of monks adorned with great splendor, he went out to meet him, and received the blessed pontiff with exceptional veneration, not so much for the bishopric as for the merit of his former life, known to him and pleasing to God. For before this the same holy man Arnulf had continually used the teaching and guidance of that same lord abbot of Cluny.

[69] where he gives a proof of his learning. Whence also a report had gone abroad that at his election the church of Soissons had been strengthened by the counsel of that same abbot; whom, having received him honorably and treated him kindly, he besieged as a diligent examiner, not from the pride of curiosity but from the fervor of holy charity, proposing questions from the Scriptures and drawing their solution from his mouth, so that by such probing he might learn again whether he had it ready to bring forth things new and old, lest the church committed to him should be less than justly nourished with spiritual teaching. In the end it so happened that him whom the lord Hugh, the pious abbot, had in the zeal of charity feared to be unlearned and rustic, he gladly found to overflow with streams of doctrine and to be not moderately vigorous in eloquence of speech. But my mind thirsts to see here at least a brief memorial of the aforesaid Hugh: he was namely most chaste in body and heart, the sower of monastic institution and the perfect keeper of the regular life, the unceasing nourisher of approved monks and of most honorable persons, and the fervent promoter and defender of holy Church.

ANNOTATIONS.

* read Bertha

CHAPTER II.

The Saint's constancy in adversity, his administration of the episcopal office, the prediction of his death and burial, and various prodigies wrought by his prayers.

VI.

The see of Soissons was held, not by the right of the church but by the favor of the palace, by bishop Ursio, the brother of Gervase the royal steward; and therefore he used the goods of the bishopric, since the royal favor attended him for the sake of his brother. When therefore the lord bishop Arnulf came and was arranging to enter the city of Soissons, The Saint, being violently shut out of the city of Soissons, that same Gervase meets him with a troop of armed men, and strongly warned him not to enter the city if he wished to live at all. To whom the man of God with steadfast mind replied: "It is written, the Apostle saying, Perfect charity casts out fear. And since for me to live is Christ and to die is gain, I shall try to fulfill obedience to the Apostolic command laid upon me, lest by disobeying I deserve to be disapproved. It befits me to hear what the Pope has bidden me undergo: the shepherd of Christ is not broken by a grim troop. Let the Lord my God have me either as a martyr, if I am slain, or as a confessor, if I escape. For the charity of Christ presses us." Saying thus, he urged with spurs the beast on which he sat, that he might quickly enter the city. But Gervase, laying his hand upon it, seized the beast's bridle and, turning it back, compelled both the animal and its rider to go elsewhere. But the man of the Lord immediately yielded to him who withstood him, mindful of the Lord saying: Friend, wherefore have you come? He attended also to this: that the Lord saves neither by spear nor by sword. Thus, so far as it was permitted him, he fulfilled the command of obedience, and for the time with a tranquil mind left the see which he had not desired, but cherished with piety that which he seemed to have deserted in body.

VII.

[71] But since it is not the see that makes the bishop, but the bishop that makes the see, he governs his diocese from a neighboring place, and since the power of majesty is not divided by places, in a certain castle of the same diocese, called Oulchy ^a, with the help of Count Theobald he established for himself a dwelling and a substitute for his see, where, the prelates of the churches and the elders of the clergy assembling, and mixed gatherings of peoples also flocking together, he strenuously and faithfully provided penance for those who confessed and restoration for those who had fallen.

      The whole flock of the peoples cherishes the pontiff's zeal,       The clergy of the churches thirst for the prelate's office;       He consecrates churches, he teaches the clergy, he strengthens the throngs,       He preaches, absolves, baptizes, touches with chrism,       To gatherings not foolish he pours out words of salvation:       To the fallen he gives pardon, to the contrite of heart a remedy,       He gave himself to be a bridegroom to widows, a father to the little ones,       And to virgins likewise he strove to bring help.       He showed himself dear to all, he spurned bitterness.       He cherished the worship of the Church above all things greatly,       Praying with vigil and weeping for the world's crimes.       Nor did he count it unworthy to bear himself kindly to servants,       A man pious and glad, upheld by most sweet speech,       Being all things to all, greatly resisting the wicked.       Giving life, he did not bear himself as a bringer of death.       Thus he showed himself pleasing to the Lord, thus blessed in mind,       That praise and glory might be to Christ, by being free from defilement.

VIII.

[72] But while the man of God stayed in that same place, it happened that a monk and priest, Everolf, devoted to that prelate in all things, where he wonderfully heals a sick monk, fell gravely sick, whom for his usefulness he loved very much; and now for the sharpness of his burning sickness he believed that he would die, and therefore asked the bishop to anoint him with the sacred oil and to fortify his passing with his suffrages. To whom the bishop, illuminated with the light of prophecy, said: "The things you demand are unseasonable; and I do not consent to them because I know that they are contrary to the divine disposition: for it is not I who am to anoint or to bury you, but you who at another time and in another place shall attend me when I die, anointing and burying me with the sacred offices." And he said: "How can I, so small a person, come to the service of your passing, when bishops or abbots ought to celebrate it?" To whom the prelate said: "Know most certainly that to the obsequies of my anointing or entombment no bishop or abbot shall come, but by the service of your affection all things shall be fulfilled concerning me. But now rise, go to the church, and, saying Mass, give thanks to our Savior God." But he said: "My lord father, for twenty-one days I have not eaten, and how do you command me to rise or to go to the church, when I have no strength of body?" Then the pontiff, treating him kindly, took his hand and said: "Behold, I say to you in the name of Christ, rise quickly, and cheerfully accomplish what I have commanded you." And he rose and went to the church stronger than himself, made his prayer, and celebrated Mass. And when he returned from the church, the man of God himself set food before him, served him drink, and thus, he being made perfectly whole, had him that same day as a companion in the company of his journey.

IX.

[73] The same holy man, being once asked by the same brother when and how and where his passing should be, answered: and he foretells to him the place of his death and burial, "Not much time had passed since by the counsel of the divine will I was ordained bishop, though unworthy, when I perceived that the monks of St. Medard and the clerics of the holy church of Gervase ^b wished to quarrel with one another over the future remains of my body; and I implored with all my heart the King, to whom all things live, that he would deign to open to me when and where my passing from the mortal body had been fixed, and the place assigned to my entombment. And on a certain night, while I was pressing these prayers, there stood by me a vision of blessed Peter the Apostle, instructing and comforting me with such words: 'In the region of Flanders there is a place consecrated to our Lord Jesus Christ under the title of my name, where many signs have been wrought at Christ's will; for the renewing of whose honor and advancement I have obtained from the Lord that you should be buried in that same place; so that, Christ glorifying you, that place may be made illustrious by the splendor of your merits, and, by your beginning it, be brought back to the light of holy religion.' To whom I said: 'Lord, since that place is wholly unknown to me and foreign to the diocese committed to me, by what means shall I be able to come there to be buried?' He answered: 'You have often heard that no word shall be impossible with God; therefore be not anxious about this, since as soon as the time comes, the Lord's work is ready. The Roman Pontiff will lay a charge upon you, through which the cause of your coming into Flanders shall arise. The peace of Christ be with you; may our peace accompany you together for ever.' Comforted by such admonitions, I believe that what the first of the Apostles deigned to promise will not be void. But you, most dear friend, carefully take heed that you dare not confess such things to anyone so long as I breathe."

[74] As a multitude of people hastened to him from every side, at cleansing whose diseases he sweated more earnestly, he learns of a hidden theft, on a certain day, standing in a gallery and looking out through the window, he saw in the open place a man walking panting and carrying a plank upon his neck; and presently he said to the clergy and knights standing about: "That plank which is carried yonder is plunder." The bystanders answered: "And whence, my lord, could you know this?" The servant of God answered them: "I hold it most certain that it is plunder, since at this very hour the devil, the author of plunder, sits upon and presses the neck of that man." They say to him: "And may we inquire whether it be so?" The Saint says: "Do as you will." Presently one of them for all the rest quickly betook himself to a swift run, and thus addresses the bearer of the plank: "Ho, there, my man, this plank which you carry so out of breath — whence, I ask, did it come to you?" He answered: "I was present at a certain assault at the village of Nanteuil, and seizing this plank there I got it." Hearing this, the inquirer returned swiftly to those who had sent him and announced to them, astonished, that the testimony of the man of God had been wholly truthful. And in this there is a certain likeness to the power of blessed Martin, who once, coming to the proud Count Avitianus, beheld a devil sitting upon his neck.

XI.

[75] he multiplies bread and wine, At a certain time, when he was about to dedicate the parish church of a certain village, he said to his attendants and to those who were to be his companions on the way: "Lead us, I beg, to that church by such a path that the people flocking together may not know by what road we ought to arrive there; and carry with you some food, so that after the labor of the journey we may be able at least a little to refresh our bodies." And so a more remote and out-of-the-way path is taken, nor yet is the ardor of the thirsting people quieted by this device; but with all speed a great multitude is gathered before and behind him. Seeing this, the servant of God burst out into praise of the Creator, and said to those serving him: "Whatever food you have here, bring forth, that after the labors of the journey we may be able to repair the strength of our bodies." Without delay five cloistral loaves are brought forth; five little vessels of wine also are poured out according to the measure of cloistral moderation; and, carpets being spread upon the grass,

the man of the Lord sat down, the streaming throng surrounding him in companies. Then, blessing the loaves, few indeed in number, but many in the mystery of the number, he ordered that of that same bread there be distributed to all who were sitting round about, and that wine also be poured out for them to the full. And so the thing then done seemed in this to be worthy of a great miracle; for that bread and that wine sufficed for all so abundantly that they said they had been well refreshed and abundantly satisfied. Some of them also, in trustful hope, carried away certain fragments of that bread, which, being afterwards set before the sick, afforded by their taste a wholesome remedy. And the company of those who ate and rejoiced, besides the bishop's retinue, exceeded the number of seven hundred.

XII.

[76] Roger ^c, Count of Porcien, built a church in the castle which is called Chaumont ^d in the province of Reims, and he gives light to a woman long blind. to whose dedication he invited St. Arnulf, bishop of Soissons, with great entreaties. It came to this point, that, the basilica being consecrated, the altar should be consecrated. And then, while the bishop sat and rested a little, the Countess came, leading in her hand a woman blind for fifteen years, and, kneeling before him, said: "Pious lord, have mercy on this poor woman, and by your holy prayer and by the laying on of your hand mercifully restore to her the light of her eyes." But when he refused, and cried out that he was rather unworthy, the blind woman said: "Bishop of God, do not delay, since it has been promised me from heaven that by the touch of your hand I shall receive the light of my eyes." And he immediately, bathed in tears, prayed, laid his right hand with the sign of the cross upon the woman's eyes, and at once that woman received clear sight. Witnesses of this miracle were Angelrann ^e, an eloquent man, then the blessed man's archdeacon and afterwards bishop of Laon; Ralph ^f the Green, afterwards archbishop of Reims — namely he to whom the preface of this work is addressed; abbots summoned and many superiors of churches; Count Roger himself and his Countess; a great body of clergy and a countless people, by whose voice the praise of our God was celebrated with lofty voice, all crying aloud for the honor of the deed done, Te Deum laudamus.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

Tumults and enmities composed by the Saint in Flanders, where he confirms his preaching with various miracles.

XIII.

Now how he sought the region of the Flemings, and what cause drew him back to those parts, A quarrel having arisen between the Count of Flanders and his subjects, the fitting order of the account now requires to be related. Robert ^a therefore, then Count of the Flemings, had been hostile to certain nobles and richer men of his nation, who had entertained this design: that, the fierce Count Robert being cast down, they should provide themselves with a milder prince, as they thought, namely Baldwin, Count of Mont-Cassel ^b. After this design of theirs became known to Count Robert, he intercepted his betrayers with every effort, slaying some, proscribing others, and even compelling some, stripped of their honors and goods, to live in exile out of the country; among whom Arnulf, archdeacon of the Morini and provost of the church of blessed Omer, being driven from all his property and from the exercise of his office, endured for many days as a fugitive an intolerable slander: who, coming late to himself, sought the Roman Pope, Gregory by name, and tearfully proclaimed with what great slander he had lost the honor of his rank and the possession of his goods. Compassionating so great a calamity of him and of those like him, the lord Pope determined by his letters to call the turbulent and fierce spirit of Count Robert to gentleness, so that he should either fully pardon those he suspected, or at least grant them the opportunity of clearing themselves. But since no one could be found who would presume to carry the Apostolic letters into the presence of a Count so offended, the matter was long deferred.

[78] At length there came to mind the constancy of holiness and the fervor of charity of this holy man Arnulf, bishop of Soissons, The Saint is sent into Flanders by Pope Gregory VII, and it became commonly known in the palace of the lord Pope that this was beyond doubt the man who would without hesitation be able to present the Apostolic commands to Count Robert. Encouraged at length by such counsel, the lord Pope Gregory sends written and sealed letters to the most reverend bishop Arnulf, charging and commanding that he should present the mediating letters and the persons concerned to the presence of Count Robert under his own conduct, and should obtain for them pardon or opportunity of clearing themselves, for the honor of the Apostolic See. Bound therefore by this twofold obligation of justice, that is of obedience to his chief and of fraternal correction, the man strong in piety, not unmindful of the Apostolic promise shown him before, came with certain of them to the town called Lille ^c, where, having found Count Robert, he presented the sacred letters of the Apostolic See. And while they were being read, meanwhile the accused, secretly bowing themselves, held his feet. O the fury, O the rage, O the bitter stirring of gall which then boiled in the brow and eyes and whole countenance of the Count when he perceived that those he hated had touched his feet! But what could that ferocity do before a just man? He was present who looks upon the earth and makes it tremble; and both by the shelter of his sanctity and out of reverence for the Apostolic See, safety and life and possession of goods were granted them. Behold how true and how wonderful are the counsels of God. Who could have thought from this that the wickedness of traitors would be turned into an occasion for the saving of peoples? Who could have known or devised that the great fury of an angry Count should turn to the great honor of a famous prelate? But meanwhile let all flesh be silent, that it may appear what the Lord Jesus decreed to work in his servant.

XIV.

[79] For since at that time in certain — nay in all — places of Flanders daily homicides and insatiable sheddings of human blood had disturbed the peace and quiet of the whole region, that he might extinguish the bloody hatreds of the Flemings; a very great multitude of the nobles obtained by great entreaties that the Lord's prelate should visit the places in which the most atrocious cruelty raged, and should in some measure admonish the untaught and bloody minds of the Flemings concerning peace and the good of concord. And he, feeling in his spirit that this was acceptable before God, and, as has been written above, knowing that by divine command and by the intervention of blessed Peter the Apostle he must come hither, acquiesced in their prayers the more speedily in proportion as he saw more certainly that all these things were being brought about by divine agency. Attended therefore by a throng of nobles and magnates he came to the town of Bruges and into inner Flanders to the village of Oudenburg; in which places there was so great a madness of killing and so great a fury of avenging that they held it a pleasure to be stained with continual human blood, and reckoned it slothful and base to cease from slaughter even for a single day. Scarcely did the father spare the son, scarcely the son the father; the brother his own brother, the nephew his uncle on either side; nay, the uncle handed over his nephew to death for a trifling cause. But the diabolical madness of these, and the insane destruction alike of the men of Bruges and of Furnes and of Oudenburg, the man of the Lord Arnulf, by the word of his sweetly flowing preaching and by the example of his exceptional holiness, tamed in a wonderful manner, and, though with very great labor, brought the hearts of the cruel to the tenor of concord. For as he pressed on, preaching in season and out of season, and very often casting himself at their feet, at last all enmity was laid to rest, and from most hostile enemies they were bound together more closely into steadfast friends.

XV.

[80] Laboring the more earnestly in this matter, he came to a village which is called Thorout ^d: but as he diligently performed this task for there also the ancient enemy had breathed the fire of quarrels and the flames of strife. And when he was addressing the near kinsmen of those whose blood had been shed, that they should enter into covenants of peace and quench the diabolical fires, there was there a certain man named Heradius, son of Heradius the priest, who chose rather to spurn with deaf ear the admonitions of peace than to instruct himself or his kinsmen in the zeal for peace. And so he was seen to leave the churchyard in which the bishop stood, that being absent he might straightway avoid the admonitions of justice; and it was said to the bishop: "Behold, one is withdrawing in whom above all the case consists." At once the bishop, following at his heels, came after him even to the Count's station, and, prostrate on the ground before his feet, humbly begged that he ought to return to the concord of peace.

[81] But he, puffed up with the pride of youthful arrogance, would not stop; some obstinate men resist, but, fearing to be held by others, gave himself swiftly to a course of flight; and as he fled a malignant spirit leapt upon him, and, being turned to madness, he was compelled to tear himself with his teeth and nails: and when this was known, his friends and kinsmen came and bound the madman full of a demon, and dragged him, gnashing and struggling with his movements, into his father's house. Then they go to the holy bishop, beseeching him greatly that he would pardon the proud and foolish man, and would not remember the injury inflicted; to whom the Lord's servant said: "The injury inflicted for the sake of truth I embrace; but I am more affected by the stupidity of his heart. Wherefore if you wish that I entreat the Lord for his deliverance, make us certain that you all (whether he will or not) will keep firm peace, and that if he stirs up quarrel or sedition, none of you will give him comfort." With one voice they all said: "Let him be anathema among us, whoever shall give him help, save for the keeping of your words." Thus the bishop, as though appeased by their promises, made holy water mingled with exorcism, with which the young man being sprinkled, he at once escaped the invasion of the devil, and, soberly enjoying his senses, kept peace and concord with special devotion.

XVI.

[82] In the same village of Thorout another thing was done no less wonderful. A certain knight, a native of Oudenburg, whom he terrifies with divine vengeance, named William, in stature and by surname the Tall, had a son now grown up and made over to knighthood, but more given to thefts and robberies: which son, while at a certain time he was trying to plunder in broad daylight in the house of a certain Siger, being struck with a sword by that Siger, quickly died; and Siger, seeing that he had sinned in the death of the young knight, though justly slain, went to the venerable and holy man Arnulf the bishop

asking that he would apply the remedy of his words to heal the sore of so great a crime. And the holy man, who had offered himself in the preparation of the gospel of peace, went forth untiring into the field of the world to undergo single combat against the powers of the devil, and, armed with the shield of faith, contended manfully to snatch away the vessels of the malignant strong man. And when the kinsmen of the slain young man had been gathered together with his slayer, he sowed the word of justice, the word of truth and peace, and by God's authority made peace between Siger and William the Tall, namely the father of the slain man.

[83] Afterwards William, being taunted by certain malignant men why he had so lightly pardoned his son's death, and by various miracles began to repent of his good deed and again began to seek an opportunity of taking vengeance upon Siger; nor did an occasion of vengeance yield itself to him, until, in the course of time, about the feast of St. John, at the fair of Thorout, when Siger came by chance to buy a garment, William struck him with a very sharp sword upon the neck, and, when he was made bloodless yet not dead, cast him into a hamper ^e in which garments lay. Immediately the whole fair was thrown into confusion. There arises an outcry and indignation among the people, why anyone should have presumed to violate the Count's peace. Men run to the Count, who was present in his house at Thorout. It is reported to him reproachfully that he is now worth nothing who could not defend his own famous fair. Count Robert leaps up in a savage temper, and orders that the man struck and the striker be at once set before him. Meanwhile he hears from his knights that William the Tall was the doer of this audacity, and had disturbed the fair in vengeance for his slain son.

[84] he brings to concord, The Count, now somewhat mollified, answered: "William the Tall, being a strenuous knight, I love as a son; but I blame this, that the death of his son, pardoned* and made peace over by the holy bishop Arnulf, he has again sought to avenge." Meanwhile the wounded man is led before him, trembling indeed but unhurt, and his neck appears not struck with a sword but as though girt with a red thread. Then the Count said to William: "I marvel at your rashness, but I shrink more from your so great feebleness: for since you were unwilling to spare, why were you not ashamed to strike so childishly, so that a woman's hand and not a man's right arm appears upon that neck? Know therefore that the cause was neither the sword nor the right hand, but that this was done by the command of God most high, who did not permit that neck to be wounded which by the teaching of so holy a man had of its own accord received peace." Thus the Count, thus the Count's nobles and knights proclaimed that whatever St. Arnulf had made peace over remained fixed and inviolable by God's will.

XVII.

[85] Within the bounds of the parish of Gistel ^f, which lies in the diocese of Tournai, and there five sick sons of a widow there is a certain vein of black and, as it were, reddish earth, which, being set among frequent marshes, cannot easily be crossed. And in these places dwells a race of men always exulting in savagery, like the common sort of Scythians. The man of the Lord, drawn to these places that he might sow the word of peace among such men, was met by a certain old woman crying out thus with tearful lamentations: "Holy servant of God, have mercy on me, and deign to enter into the hovel of my poverty, and so you will see the manifold and long-lasting punishment of my affliction." And he, meek and humble, ever mindful of the name Christopher given him from heaven, entered the poor widow's roof, that he might see the causes of the calamity she proclaimed. For there lay in a bed five sons of hers, held by one and the same sickness, of whom not one could help another or support him in anything.

[86] he at once restores to health. Then the woman said: "See, servant of God, how great is my misery, how great the grief that torments me, how great the sadness that afflicts me. I alone serve five men; I run and hasten from that one to this, from this one to that, and by my service I please them not at all." Then the man of the Lord, groaning with exceeding compassion, was silent. Then, making holy water, he sprinkled the whole house and the sick, and thus commanded them: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ let this sickness depart from you, that you may forthwith grow strong and may not need to weary by your service your mother, who is bound to so many sorrows." At once the power of the Lord was there, and immediately they rose up and eagerly took the food they had long loathed. On the following day they took baths, and thereafter flourished in all soundness.

ANNOTATIONS.

* that is, forgiven

CHAPTER IV.

The divine chastisement of certain Flemings who despised the Saint's admonitions; the foundation of the monastery of Oudenburg; St. Arnulf's return into France and his second journey into Flanders.

XVIII.

A certain Folcard, an inhabitant of Gistel, brisk and robust, Certain persons who obstinately opposed the persuasions of the holy man and not so useful as rash, thought that the blessed prelate, when speaking of the grace of peace, was to be despised; who, while he fled the face of the man of God, was suddenly given over to a malignant spirit, by whom being torn and miserably rent, he could scarcely be restrained by his friends and kinsmen; and he, being cleansed of the demon through the blessed pontiff not by his own faith but by the prayer of others, learned from his suffering how much love and reverence he ought to have bestowed upon the blessed man.

XIX.

[88] In the neighborhood of the castle of Furnes ^a there dwelt a certain widow supported by nobility and wealth, are divinely punished, named Evergerda, whose husband and son together fierce enemies had slain, and for whose destruction heavy enmities pressed upon the slayers on every side: for over the death of these two the whole region had been disturbed, while some sought vengeance and others contrived the defense of the homicides. To check this evil, the Lord's prelate, holy Arnulf, being summoned, hastened readily and promptly, wherever there was need to treat of peace and concord. He came therefore, borne upon an ass, to the house of that rich widow, against whom the Apostle's voice sounds, saying: The widow who lives in delights is dead while living. Such being she, she was altogether unwilling that the blessed man should enter, but ordered the drawbridge ^b to be raised before her gate, lest entrance should lie open, or effect be given to the wishes of the man of God.

[89] He nevertheless did not cease to preach, to reprove, to beseech, that for the refreshment of their souls she would forgive the slayers of her son and husband, and would consent that those whom she cruelly hated should be made her confederated friends. But she would receive neither his prayers nor his admonitions, but, persisting in her swelling of mind, mocked and derided Christ's servant for riding upon an ass and for the humility of his dress, and drove him from her; but not unpunished: for after the prelate had departed from her with groaning, a heavy vengeance of divine chastisement smote her. For after a little time, while the sky remained clear, a certain light whirlwind, rising up, shook and crushed her house, and, being caught in that ruin, she perished, smitten with sudden death. And here a very wonderful thing happened: that although in that same house there were many menservants and maidservants, swine and dogs, hens, geese, doves, and swallows, nothing there perished then save the fierce woman, nor was any animal or anything whatever harmed.

      Utterly destroyed, she taught that they were no feigned doctrines       Which so great a Saint had urged, by the weight of vengeance.       A woman so strong is justly made the daughter of death.

Certainly the flying fame of this vengeance terrified the hearts of the hard-hearted Flemings, so that none dared to resist the man of God, or to disobey his holy admonitions.

[90] and others are brought back to good fruit. There were at that time in the village of Oudenburg two adversaries of frenzied animosity, the one Cono, the other Robalin; of whom Robalin had treacherously slain Cono's father, named Hido; each slaughtered the other's friends and household; each inflicted upon the other privately and publicly whatever evils he could. The minds of these also, full of demons, he called to the grace of peace by the teachings of his preachings and by the terror of his frequent signs. Count Robert, rejoicing at such things, and all the nobility of the nation, glowed with great joy that Christ the Lord had granted to their times such a minister, who bore the care of all with fatherly affection, and declared the way of life to all by the examples of his own deeds. And by the Count's command Erembold the reeve, taking with him prudent men in the palace of Bruges, having reckoned by name those slain of the colony of Bruges or of other places, so far as they could gather knowledge of the persons, found and set down in writing that the expenditure of two thousand marks of pure silver could not have paid for what the grace of God through this minister of truth deigned to settle. Hence it came about that every man, powerful and powerless alike, loved the holy man from the heart, and eagerly preferred to have him dwell among them. Thereupon they began with all their efforts to inquire in what place the sacred prelate might usefully and honorably abide.

XX.

[91] There was in the town of Oudenburg a church founded in ancient times in honor of St. Peter the Apostle and of All Saints, The Saint builds a monastery at Oudenburg, frequented and famous for divine miracles, which a certain noble and very wealthy man, named Cono, brother of Everard of Tournai, held as a benefice from the Count of Flanders; but the Count held this same from the bishop of Tournai. The fear of God, at the suggestion of his most faithful wife, named Hazecca,* kindled this Cono to make the church of St. Peter the Apostle, which divine miracles had made awe-inspiring, free and exempt from his own right, and to establish there an abbey of monks to the praise of God: for it behooved that there should be fulfilled the promise of blessed Peter written above, which we have related as made to the prelate himself, both concerning the building of the place and concerning that holy man's own death and burial. And by God's ordinance it was brought about that, Cono restoring to the Count the church which he held, the Count restored this same to the bishop of Tournai, Radbod ^c by name; and bishop Radbod also, with Walter the archdeacon, the clergy approving and the people rejoicing, made it free and unencumbered to bishop Arnulf, and gave him canonical investiture of it.

XXI.

[92] Now this church the tradition of the elders

records to have been built by blessed Ursmar ^d in the times of Dagobert ^e, king of the Franks, the old church of St. Peter having been received, which the majesty of the Lord many times magnified by various revelations and showings of signs: the blind received sight, the deaf hearing, the dumb speech, the paralytic and the crippled were restored, and every disease and sickness there receive the health desired. Now in the year MXCI ^f, on the sacred night of the Lord's Nativity, there arose a violent and mighty wind, which shook, broke, and cast down the towers of cities and the roofs of houses and very many buildings of churches. On that same night, by the whirlwind of the same wind, the bell tower of the church of St. Peter was torn from its hinges and hurled upon the roof of the tower on which it stood, toward the east, so that for six days and nights it was seen hanging as though it would ever be about to fall. The inhabitants of the place, gathering in the morning, with all speed call together builders, to be rewarded with fixed prizes if they should bring it back; and they promise much, prepare ropes, set up cranes, arrange bindings, and put together manifold devices of art. And while the people waited for the machines devised by the craftsmen, by which it was hoped that the bell tower might be restored, before midnight on the day before the Kalends of January there came a power from heaven in the appearance of fire, and both replaced the bell tower most firmly in its seat and clothed the church within and without with a flaming light. I should be ashamed thus to relate these things, had not a thousand witnesses borne testimony that they saw them ^g.

XXII.

[93] The keeper of the Catholic faith had this practice: that if ever a sick person came to him for the sake of healing, and by many miracles he would presently, having first made the sign of the Cross, lay his hand upon him and chant the words of the Gospel, saying three times: They shall lay hands upon the sick, and they shall be well. And when these had been thrice said, the sicknesses departed and health followed. Learning of such things, a certain woman, a native of the town of Oudenburg, came to him where he was then staying, at St. Peter's, and prayed, saying: "I beseech you, holy bishop, touch and bless my head, that I may be healed from the affliction of such great pains." To whom the prelate said: "Declare, sister, what trouble you suffer, or on what account you have come to us." And she added: "A long time have I passed in the sharpest pains of the head, which so torment me that men believe me to suffer frenzy, and neither by day nor by night has any rest a place in me. I can never sleep or eat or do any work. To me, oppressed by so many evils, there appeared a certain divine monitor, saying: 'Go to bishop Arnulf and ask him to touch and bless your head, and you shall at once be healed.' Compelled by these causes I come and ask the promised health." To whom the bishop presently said: "According to your faith be it done to you." And at the same time, touching her, he blessed her, and forthwith the pain of the head with its immoderate heat was blotted out.

XXIII.

[94] While the holy man was still abiding in that same place, a certain pilgrim came from Jerusalem and announced to him, saying: and being made more illustrious among the Flemings by the spirit of prophecy, "My lord, your sister the lady Oda, speaking with me at Jerusalem, greatly urged that I should tell you that with all her power she labors and hastens that before your passing she may see you in the flesh, may speak with you, and being present may ask and receive from you the remission of her sins and a rule and counsel for the leading of the rest of her life. And the sum of her petitions is this, that your prayer to God may prevail so that you may not depart until she comes, and that she may not die until she sees your face, so dear to her." Then the just man said: "Oda our sister, and a sister in the Lord, though she hastens, though she eagerly presses on, strives in vain, labors in vain, in vain contends to obtain what the Lord has otherwise ordained. Let her see and contemplate our deeds and our zeal in fearing the Lord. For the rest, she shall never see our bodily face." And so this most chaste woman, hurrying and hastening, and allowing herself no rest, swiftly entered Oudenburg, and found her brother buried, having been eight days in the tomb.

XXIV.

[95] But to return to our order: the blessed and holy soldier of Christ, Arnulf, at the beginning of the month of June began carefully to inquire whether anywhere there was a memorial of St. Medard, he receives tithes from them desiring to celebrate his solemnity, which is on the VI of the Ides of June ^h, in a church dedicated under the same name. As he was thus anxious, it was made known to him that on an estate called Ervingahem ⁱ there stood a church distinguished by the name of blessed Medard, not far from Oudenburg on the southern side, to which the holy prelate of God came, that he might there perform the due offices for the honor of so great a confessor. And the people of that estate saw the holy celebration, and, being pricked in heart, gave to the church of St. Peter at Oudenburg two parts of the tithes of all their allodial lands, tilled and to be tilled, marshy or dry, woods or meadows, and whatever free land they were seen to have: of this they conferred with ready mind two parts of the tithe of all the crop of flax and of reed ^k. And the chief of this bounty, the nobles and freeborn men of that place — Bertulf son of Ermenar with his wife Vigelborch, Erembold and Malger sons of Almar, Leggiva widow of another Ermenar with her sons Angrann, Fredebold, and Lambert, and the whole kindred of these — demanded of the holy man that they or their posterity should be condemned with eternal anathema if ever they should contrive to withdraw or diminish anything of the aforesaid tithe, or in any way to inflict any loss upon it.

XXV.

[96] The place therefore having been assigned to him by canonical grant, as has been said, and lawfully set free, he appointed there some of his own men who should clear the place and prepare dwellings suitable for those serving God. for the monastery of Oudenburg The neighboring people also, and those set far around about, eagerly gave help by giving money and animals and various supports. And they rejoiced that God's lamp had begun to shine among them: for in the courtyard of the church of blessed Peter at Oudenburg — in that place, namely, where this blessed man had stood or sat while he labored for peace and concord — there was seen a column of fire standing forth on high, which from the beginning of the night until about the dawn changed the darkness of night into light with a very great brightness, and lit up all the spaces round about with a splendor-flowing light.

XXVI.

[97] Afterwards, returning to the see of Soissons, he is courted with the wishes of all, he is honored with the joys of all. and returning into France, But there came to him news of king Philip's conduct, blameworthy in very many things, and of his continual conniving at things needing restraint, and also of his indiscriminate imposing of bishops and abbots; and therefore he began to be wearied at the evils which were everywhere committed, no ruler governing the commonwealth. His soul therefore grew drowsy from weariness of the evils which increased daily: since even that noble governance of the church of Reims had so cooled, the right of the metropolitan dignity being cast down, that neither councils of bishops nor judgments of churches were held there.

[98] he resumes the solitary life, Therefore he took up again that path of his first reclusion, that nurse of compunction, that keeper of silence, that partner of psalms and vigils, that friend also of divine contemplation, choosing rather to be abject in the house of the Lord than to go away, to stand, or to sit in any transgression of the divine law. For he knew that the powerful shall suffer torments powerfully; therefore he turned aside from evils, that with all his strength he might do good, desiring to be prepared and wakeful, so that whenever the Lord should knock he might at once open: which path of reclusion he kept upon a steep track and adorned with sacred virtues, living in hunger and thirst and in many fastings, in cold and nakedness, ever stretching out his mind in the knowledge of God, in charity unfeigned, in longsuffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Spirit.

XXVII.

[99] But more pressing matters arose concerning that place and the neighboring region, [and being about to return again into Flanders on account of tumults that had arisen,] on account of which the nobler men of the colony of Oudenburg, gathered together with Everolf the monk, determined that they should come to the man of God and with all their efforts compel him to return into Flanders and set measure and end to those more pressing matters. But he, conscious of things to come, as one who was very frequently taught by divine revelations, gladly assented to the wishes of those who sought him; as one who indeed knew that he could not be dissolved so as to be with Christ save in the place of Oudenburg. And coming with them he often admonished them in words, saying: "That I now go into Flanders, my little sons, know to be not so much of your will as of the divine disposition."

[100] And while they traverse the fields of the region, he came to Arras, he is warned from heaven on the journey of his approaching death       Where, in the space of an open plain bearing thickets,       Wishing to sleep, he dismounts from his beast,       And uses words, praying amid the springing grasses       That he may take a little sleep; with all zeal he bears himself.       This is that happy rest which calls the hosts to heaven;       And then, as the weary man was pressed by sleep for a time,       A vision is shown, by which presently he himself is made blessed.       A messenger applauds, and the prelate hears the more gladly:       "Coming to Oudenburg, and living not a long time,       You shall pass from the world, you shall enter the happy realms       Which lack an end, which are strong with perpetual light.       The house of Peter shall receive you brought in and entombed,       Nor shall you suffer your flesh to lie buried for long times;       You shall be lifted from the earth, you shall enjoy the praise of your merits."

XXVIII.

[101] The man of the Lord, rising and urging on his companions of the way, which he makes known to his companions on the journey.       Says thus to his servants: "Rise now; it is enough       That we have slept here and have seen welcome dreams;       Dreams not false, which lay open lofty rewards.       Now keep well hidden what you shall know from my telling.       I foretell to you what remains sad for the enemy:       Know that I shall ascend the heavens and be a citizen       With the angelic throngs, which I ask for in my daily prayers.       Hence rejoice, keep your hearts most glad,       And so deal with Christ, so love him in your affairs,       That he may receive you when this flesh becomes ashes."       He showed this also, which the mind seeks to know:       "In Peter's temple shall I too be entombed in the sepulchre.       But now let us go on, let us now tread the road to our country.       When the time is fulfilled, these things shall come with a glad gift."

Here astonishment and grief tore the hearts of his servants. Nevertheless in his company none was allowed either to be affected with more than just sorrow or to break out into unsuitable gladness. So great was the authority and grace in him, and so great the vigor of discipline about him, that to see and hear him was pleasing to every soul; and yet they guarded against giving offense to his countenance as against a great crime.

ANNOTATIONS.

may be read in Baluze's Miscellanea, volume 5, page 298, and in these Acts he is expressly named bishop of Tournai. The same, however, is reported by the Sainte-Marthes among the prelates of Noyon under the title of Ratbod II.

* elsewhere Husecca and Zazecca

* elsewhere Arningahem

CHAPTER V.

The Saint's sickness after his return into Flanders, signs of his approaching death, his pious death, his honorable burial, and his epitaph.

XXIX.

In the month of July, on the eighteenth day of the month, with prosperous journey and with the happy fame of his virtues, he entered Oudenburg, and there, preaching the kingdom of God, he remained in health seven days; but on the day of St. James the Apostle, The Saint, having returned into Flanders, falls sick, when the solemnities of the Masses were finished, he began to grow ill, and labored under sickness for twenty-one days. And when he was thought to be at the last, the brethren suggested to him that he should have himself fortified with the sacred offices, lest perhaps he should depart from this life without them; to whom he answered in a most gentle voice: "Most dear sons, be not anxious about this, since by God's mercy I well perceive both what and when it is expedient for me. I know the time, I know the hour, and I shall admonish you of these things when the opportunity comes."

XXX.

[103] On the twentieth day after he took to his bed, it being a Friday, before midnight and by a threefold crash the cell in which he lay was thrice shaken with a marvelous trembling and a fearful crash, and almost collapsed from its foundations, to such a degree that the monks and servants keeping watch before him were shaken with intolerable fear, and, dreading the fall of the cell, longed to flee outside; whom the man of God soothed with words of consolation, and exhorted that they should lay themselves down, promising that nothing untoward would follow. Then Everolf the priest and monk said to him tearfully: "Lord, the ground trembles, the cell is shaken, the door which I have now carefully bolted three times stands open again, the murmur of crowds resounds here and there; and how can we sleep amid so many terrors?" To whom the man of God said: "Dear brother, do not be afraid, and let none of you fear, since all these things are signs of the majesty on high; and afterwards it will be made plain to you what power has wrought this earthquake and this shaking of the cell." On the following Saturday, when the man of the Lord perceived that the moment of death was at hand, the morning hymns being performed as usual, he said to the brethren: "Now prepare for us what is needful for a funeral, since about the beginning of the night I shall pass from this life: for so the Lord, whom I have labored to serve with all my strength, made known to me last night; although I had long known this before, when with the earthquake and the shaking of the air the crash of the cell struck terror. And at the first shaking indeed blessed Peter the Apostle came, saying that all my sins were forgiven and that the gate of life lay open to me. There accompanied him a multitude of the Blessed, singing the divine praises with lofty voice."

[104]       That the throngs then chanted lofty praises       The doors perceived, which opened with such force. he is admonished of his approaching death,       Such was the first spiritual procession.

"At the second shaking there came the holy archangel Michael with the college of the blessed angels, and promised that under his conduct I should enter the happy life at the hour now at hand.

      He had said earnestly: 'You shall suddenly take the heavenly realms       Under my leading; you shall become a dweller in paradise.'       At these words they rejoice, they shape heavenly songs.       The hearts of the pious scarcely grasp the force of these words.       At such things the mind was afraid, although heavenly things laid it low.

"At the third stirring there was present our Lady, the true Mother of mercy, with a company of holy virgins, who with most kindly voice promised that my soul would be taken up under the joy of her Assumption. But I charge you all, O brethren, by the mercy of God, that while I still live you tell these things to no one."

[105]       On the Ides of August, while the funeral rites of the just man hasten,       On the sixth feria woven of the blood of Christ,* on account of which those present are terrified,       Toward midnight there come presages to the learned:       A cry, a chant, a fragrance, a noise, and voices of men.       The voice of peoples resounded hymns and psalms,       And the doors of the cell are unbarred as by a storm:       From these a solemn chant; rightly is the tumult felt;       They praise by singing, they rejoice by crying aloud.       With the servants the monks are shaken by the truthful voice:       They believe they are dying, submitting their hearts to fear;       Praises break in, as though everywhere they cried "applaud";       The songs of the psalms are loosed by the voice of men,       And lest anything be lacking, women give the response.       By these the monk is shaken, the crowd of servants is stupefied;       Here the strong man falls, believing the perils of death.       This flesh has no strength while it serves the greedy world,       And lacks these gifts because of the weight of its condition.       This choir from heaven, sounding with divine praise,       Resounds here and there; the people of heaven bestow their songs.       The monk too quivers, fears, burns, and, panting, is straitened.       That house echoes with praises and with tuneful choirs;       A fragrance fills the cell, marking that a maiden has entered       To visit the servant — she who merited to bear the Stag       That bears horns and sanctifies by leaping;       She, the Mother of God, through whom black Behemoth ^a falls,       She, the Bearer of God, ever the lover of the just,       Duly cherished the pious, whose names she already knows.       She herself, speaking to Arnulf thus with her own voice,       Uttered gracefully and with much power: "Blessed one,       When my Son lifted me from the valley,       Then, taking you up, he shall lift you to the realms of heaven.       Giving pious utterance, you shall lead my solemnities,       And for your feasts I shall lead a song of love with choirs;       A virginal company shall rejoice, glad under my leading;       Joys joined together shall lead on all the hosts."

[106]       Afterwards the monk Everolf, rising trembling, and therefore to the monk who asks       Pale and shaking, on our* behalf faltering in speech,       Approaches the Saint, giving lament with all his breast:       "Thus, father and prelate, for whose sake I am an exile far away,       Tell me and hide not, reveal what was done by night.       With sorrowful affection I admonish you in the name of Christ       That you tell me all, while you tarry* in the body.       Alas, too unhappy, all your praise is covered with so many veils,       And the world, sunk deep in dark death, knows not       Who or what you are, how bright and how special."       As he said very much, and repeated such things,       The prelate with gentle address bids these things be let go,       And himself charges rather that a matter like the truth be kept silent.       "If I am a father to you, if, most dear brother,       You love me as a father, beware of betraying me as a seer.       Keep silence about your partner in life, until you know       That death has passed over me; then afterwards you may       Lay open the hidden causes, or set them forth with true signs.       More strongly I adjure you, brother, with Christ as judge,       That you be silent about what I entrust to you while I depart from the light.

[107]       First there came with Peter, the prelate of heaven,       An assembly declaring that he was loosing my crimes. he discloses the cause of that crash,       The pious Peter himself thus spoke these words:       'The things committed to me stand wholly open to you:       Fear no loss; through me the gate of the kingdom lies open.'       I have ever enjoyed friendly angelic countenances.       Comforting me concerning my holy end that tarried,       They made joys and sang a hymn to God.       The third order was the company of the kindly Mother,       Who visited us, who sent joys to the world,       Full of the grace of God, which abides with this Mother;       She hides nothing from us, but reveals all things to come.       This the Mother of the Lord has done, most sweet brother.       Then the cell underwent its known accustomed crash,       The doors are thrown open, thus pressed by power.       Hence so great a chant echoes with heavenly song.       Thus your mind sank down, because it could not bear the weight.       That greater day rising, which the Author hallows,       Is exceedingly festal, because on it God rises from the depths;       The Virgin Mary too, taken up to heaven, blesses it.       A third cause is given, that the feast is multiplied.       Therefore I beseech you, keep what I tell you.       Receive the Lord's commands: that on the hallowed day       The rites of burial be not performed — let this be your care.       Let a clean grave be built* for me on the second day.       Let these my commands be prepared in your heart."       The brother answered: "What you command, O pious father,       I shall keep all, I shall be ready to let go nothing;       But I pray, O father, make these festivals plain to us.       What place is worthy in which we can now lay       So great a pledge, when the heavenly hymn shall take you       Upward, and a heavier grief shall burn us?"       The prelate answered and checked these anxious men:       "Do not stretch out your care before the burial:       A messenger shall come, showing where for me shall be made       The trench of a pious tomb and the whole order of the sepulchre."

XXXI.

[108] And so on the twenty-first day of his sickness, it being a Saturday and the vigil of the Assumption of our glorious Lady the Mother of God and ever Virgin Mary, and foreknowing the day of his death, then, having called his disciples and also summoned the clerics of the neighboring church, with psalms and litanies he had himself anointed with the sacred oil, and made his confession before all, and humbly asked the prayer of all.

And thus he made confession as one weighed down with crime:

      "I have utterly erred, I have multiplied the tally of my sins;       As monk and as soldier I have dealt in youthful things.       Bearing a foolish heart, I have not lived as befits custom.       A great sinner, I am burdened by my own sinning;       I have offended the King who gives the law above all,       Through whom whoever reveres God is saved.       Behold, dying, I confess my guilt unavenged,       Which, I beg, loose by your dear prayers."

[109] And he instructed those same brethren, saying: "Tomorrow there will be joy in heaven for the resurrection of the Lord, he dies piously, and by the coming of the Queen of heaven the joy will be doubled for the holy angels. By Christ's bounty a third cause shall be added, for which the joys shall be tripled. Therefore I forbid that tomorrow you open the earth for the work of my burial; but keep it for the second feria: for so it has been fixed from heaven, that on the day of St. Arnulf, bishop of Metz ^b, the poor body of this sinner Arnulf be restored to the earth." And he foretold many things, both concerning the state of the kingdom and of that place, and concerning the coming fortunes of princes and pontiffs, all which came to pass just as he prophesied. And now, the hour of evening pressing on, he received the Body and blood of the Redeemer with the utmost devotion; blessing all, he demanded to be blessed by all, and thus, panting for rest, he signed himself wholly with the sign of the holy Cross, which he then adored with especial earnestness. Then laying himself upon the pavement strewn with ashes and haircloth, and praying and blessing the name of the Lord, he received a happy falling asleep, and entered the land of the living, to be joined to the Lord. And he died on the XIII ^c of the Kalends of September, in the year of the Lord MLXXXVII.

XXXII.

[110] But when his death became known to the peoples, it is wonderful to tell with what eagerness and with what devotion the whole populace, flocking together from every side, filled the space round about. and with a great concourse of people The clerics pressed on with psalms; some of the laity provided the refreshment of the poor who came running; a very great multitude also of nobles and knights pressed on greatly, that the obsequies of the holy pontiff might be celebrated with exceptional splendor. And so great a multitude of clerics and of common people rushed in that not the basilica only, but the courtyard itself and the borders of the courtyard could not hold so copious a throng, some heaping up lights, very many rejoicing at this, that they had merited to be present at such obsequies. And when the blessed man's body, laid out in due order and adorned with the pontifical insignia, had been carried into the church, brother Everolf, fearing lest anyone's rapacity, coveting the ring from his hand amid so many mixed crowds, should snatch it away, took it and laid it aside.

[111] by Everolf the monk But when the hour of burial came, and he wished to put that same ring on his finger, the cold hand and the bent fingers were so hardened and stiff that they could by no means be extended. Then at this difficulty the love of the faithful present grieved, and with groaning they besought that the Lord would grant means that that holy body should not lack its proper honors. There were present at these obsequies Bernold ^d, provost of Watten, with Ricoard ^e the dean, with a very great throng of priests and clerics, at whose exhortation and with whose leading voice psalms were sung, a litany following and the assembly of the laity weeping, when suddenly the wonderful God magnified his Saint in the eyes of all present. For indeed — wonderful to tell! — while they lamented, the right hand raised itself from the breast of the dead man, and, lifting the fingers, separated them, and gave place for the inserting of the ring; and when it was inserted the same hand drew itself back to its former posture, and bent the fingers, as before, within the palm.

      The voice of the people is raised; presently all things are given to praises,       And they weep for him the more, because they ever honor a Saint.       The rewards of virtues he keeps who was their seeker;       The prelate being translated, his seat set from the earth,       The lordly body is brought to the church of Peter.       The flock of the people and of the monks prepares the service;       The priests come, the clergy goes, and hosts run,       The common folk of every kind, bearing lights for the saints;       Meals are given to the poor, and gifts to the clergy,       And the duties of Masses are here celebrated abundantly and more,       And the famous day in the name of Christ and of his Mother       Is led on in loftiness, awaiting the second feria.

XXXIII.

[112]       And now the bright morning of the second feria had come;       An angel descending from heaven shows with open he is honorably buried,       Speech the place where they should duly make the sepulchre;       He shows it to the brethren, then seeks to climb the heavens.       And they make the tomb, leading on the second feria,       A table shown from heaven by a heavenly gift:       For the house of Peter becomes the coffin of the kindly body,       And beside the cloisters, which are on the left side,       A trench is prepared where the holy man may be laid.       In the month of August the kindly man gave his funeral to the tomb.       He is laid in the tomb, giving pledges of his limbs to the world.       O how many laments and groans and sighs of the heart from within       Are sent forth, and how often then repeated!       The love of the heart cries out, the ardor of love bellows and wails;       To him is given the staff for a sign of the pontificate.       A pewter chalice becomes the witness of the sacrificer.       Leaden tablets are written, which afterwards may be read as written,       And a tablet of small size stands placed in the hollow of his breast.       The mitre of the pontiff is displayed with fitting vestments;       Golden sandals are given to the Saint's feet.       Such adornments that Blessed one bore with him,       By which it might be plain with how worthy a flower there shone       His spirit, living happy in the heavens through the ages.

XXXIV.

[113] Now therefore it must be considered and held with faithful mind by what great labors and by what kinds of afflictions this servant of Christ merited so great an efficacy of power that even the limbs of the dead man abound in the renown of miracles: no abbot being present, as the Saint had long since foretold, for he did not receive such a gift from Christ by serving gluttony and Venus and gaping after human desires, but by mortifying the body, by watching over God's commandments, by clinging to true charity, and by growing and persevering in the way of justice with daily increases. And since the chamber of his heart, his body being subdued, had been duly purified, therefore it pleased the Holy Spirit to glorify him who glorified himself, and to show him who purely served him lovable and praiseworthy in the sight of all men. Let those therefore who read these things look upon them with due regard, and gather with prudent memory the prophecy of this man which many days before, while he dwelt at the castle of Oulchy in the district of Soissons, he had foretold: that none of the pontiffs or abbots would come to celebrate the obsequies of his funeral, but that through his own monk and priest all things would be supplied concerning him. For such and so great an occupation hindered the two neighboring abbots of Ghent and the one of Bergues, so that, though carefully invited and though willing gladly to come, they were in no way able.

[114] And so, the solemnities of the Masses having been celebrated by many priests who had flocked together from every side, whose epitaph is set down. and most ample stipends having been distributed for the use of the poor, on the day on which the sacred birthday of St. Arnulf, bishop of Metz, is recalled, on that same day in the basilica of blessed Peter the Apostle at Oudenburg the body of this holy man was buried, and inscribed with the epitaph subjoined.

      A soldier in this world, now dust in this monument,          He spurned the world's warfare for the love of God.       Under whose protection, by which one lives without complaint,          He was first a devout monk of Soissons.       And presently a more devout dweller in a narrow cell,          By poverty, by cold and hunger,       And by sleepless nights in weeping and prayer,          He exalted himself by the pursuits and merits of virtues.       Then made abbot and bishop, compelled in both,          What he worthily undertook he more worthily cultivated.       Coming hither at last, by the Lord's gift closing          His final day in death, he passed to rest.       His passing came to him at the end of the day          Which is followed by the day famous in the worship of the world,       On which the heavenly host brought Mary, Lady of heaven,          From the valley of the world to the choirs of the star-dwellers.       On the day on which the feast of bishop Arnulf is kept,          The body of bishop Arnulf is covered with earth.

This little work is completed in the twenty-eighth year after his passing, in the seventh Indiction, which we believe to be the one thousand one hundred and fourteenth from the Incarnation of the Lord, Louis, son of king Philip — foretold before his birth by this man of God — holding the kingdom of the Franks, in the seventh year of his reign, blessed Pope Paschal II presiding over the Roman Church, the lord Ralph the archbishop governing the metropolitan see of Reims, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ reigning, to whom with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory and dominion through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

Mabillon: tincta*

Mabillon: tantis*

Mabillon: tritas*

Mabillon: statuatur*

BOOK THREE,

In which Lisiard, bishop of Soissons, relates the miracles, the elevation of the relics, and other things, perhaps first described by Hariulf, abbot of Oudenburg, which occurred after the Saint's death.

PROLOGUE.

The author, being about to relate the miracles wrought after the Saint's death, To the lord, rightly to be loved and deservedly to be venerated, Ralph, by the grace of God archbishop of the holy church of Reims, Lisiard his son, would that he were a fit minister of the holy church of Soissons, greeting and the victorious palm of the pious. While the dignity of your paternity was sitting in that great council of an unheard-of multitude of bishops, which was celebrated at Reims ^b by the authority of the present lord Pope Calixtus ^a, when I too, humble as I am, was clinging to your side, our brother and fellow bishop Lambert ^c, prelate of Noyon and Tournai, complained to us in common that it seemed unjust and unwelcome to himself — and not to him alone but to many — that the holy prelate Arnulf, my predecessor, who led a holy life and pleasing to God, and whose sanctity has been approved by the Lord with very many miracles, should still lie in the bosom of the damp earth, and should not until now have been raised from the mire of the dregs. There was present as a witness of his miracles the royal majesty itself, obtained by the tears of that same holy Arnulf and granted to his prayers ^d; there was present Peter, archdeacon of Soissons, who confessed with the testimony of many that he had been born blind and had received his eyes through the spittle of the mouth of the man of God, Arnulf. I too was present, though less fit, who rejoiced greatly that I had been consecrated by him in the order of subdeacon, and who, having formerly dwelt with him, had known more fully his abstinence and the rigor of his life, had heard many presages, and being present had beheld not a few miracles ^e.

[116] addresses the archbishop of Reims. And when these and many like things were related on the testimony of very many, it pleased your paternity to put in, saying: "Why do you affect me with reports"

"of yours, when I myself have known the works of his sanctity better than you? I saw him make a dedication at Chaumont, where a woman from a village which they call Cauvigny, endowed with loss of her eyes for thrice five years, cast herself before the face of the Saint with beseeching voice; and presently there was no delay after the prelate blessed her: her eyelid parted, the light broke in, the woman saw. But be it so; let him have done wonders, let him have lived justly — I do not say he is to be raised up, unless the grace of God shall have given testimony from heaven by clear signs. The Roman Church is here, the lord Pope himself is here; let this matter be brought to their knowledge, and let us thereafter follow their examination." It was done, and all with one accord came round to our opinion. And so, what and how great miracles our Lord and Savior deigned to display about his lifeless bones after he was buried, we have determined to make known to you and to mother Church in this present page, so that your foreknowledge may serve as authority for the rest to read them the more securely.

ANNOTATIONS.

TITLES OF THE ANCIENT CHAPTERS.

CHAPTER I.

Various prodigies which occurred at the Saint's tomb and by his invocation in Flanders.

Book III.

Chapter I.

After this blessed servant of God was happily taken from human affairs, various miracles were wrought by the Lord beside his remains, The tomb of St. Arnulf is made illustrious with splendor, and very many recoveries were granted to the sick. Not far from his tomb stood an altar with a great cross set above it, bearing the image of the crucified Lord, from the face and breast of which image two spiritual brethren saw a fiery globe or flash burst forth and leap swiftly upon his tomb about his breast; by which sign it is given to be understood that he who bore our sins in his body upon the tree had conferred upon this his servant the joys of the true light. In the time following, but in the same year, that tomb was split from head to beyond the feet, and divided in a straight line, as though it had been cut by a rule. And that division or cleaving intimated to the minds of all a foregoing presage of his approaching elevation.

II.

[118] From the first time also of his burial so great an ardor of faith and devotion shone forth about him the dust collected there heals the sick, that whatever sick persons came, by themselves or by their messengers, to the sepulchre of St. Arnulf and, gathering up the dust that flew about, carried it back to themselves as a sure medicine: and putting that dust into their food or drink, or licking and swallowing the dry dust, they escaped from all infirmities and very swiftly obtained a most certain remedy; and it is very well known that this has happened not four or seven or eight times, but a thousand. We have seen a possessed man most grievously vexed, into whose mouth, when that dust was thrown against his will, he presently escaped the enemy and recovered his mind. This famous dust carried the great renown of its usefulness not to our Flanders* ^a alone, but to all the neighboring regions. England, France, Scotland, Frisia so held it; foreign nations and those of our own country alike snatched up the ashes.

III.

[119] After these and many like things were more widely known thus to happen, and monks attempting to carry away his body and this praiseworthy rumor penetrated into France, while also a pleasant fragrance flowed continually from his tomb, the monks of St. Medard, grieving heavily that they lacked the remains of so great a man, took counsel with their abbot Odo ^b that, as though for the sake of a visit, they should go to the place of Oudenburg and secretly open his tomb, so that, the bones being drawn out, they might carry them with all speed to their convent at Soissons. It came to this; and, the instruments for this business being prepared, by night they began to open his tomb on the right side. Presently a mighty crash thundered from heaven, shaking the diggers, and, greatly dismaying them, deterred them from what they had begun. They, a little afterwards recovering, and judging that this had happened from some hidden disturbance of the air, returned to the sepulchre to complete what they had begun.

[120] a threefold crash deterred from the attempt, But as soon as they began to dig, a repeated crash rang out terribly; and they, made lifeless, fell to the ground, and at last, recovering their breath, fled with exceeding fear. And when they stood far off, murmuring with suppressed voice, the thought came upon them to repeat their repeated rashness a third time, and to attempt again whether any result should follow. They come trembling, they lay their hands on quaking; but at once for the third time they are struck with an intolerable terror. They are dashed upon the pavement; they quiver lifeless and almost dead, and know not what has happened to them. And when the space of three hours had passed, they came back to their senses, and, greatly straitened, made a vow that they would never again attempt to violate his sacred body or his sepulchre. Arnulf, the nephew of that holy prelate and first abbot of Oudenburg ^c, attempted to accomplish these things, with two monks, Godebert, a native of Oudenburg, and Boldrad of Bruges, by whose report also these same things thus done became known.

IV.

[121] In the time following there was brought thither a certain woman hideously distorted by a most wretched contraction, and at the sepulchre of the same Saint so that her knees were fastened to her breast, and the palms of her hands bound beneath her hams, and these likewise clung to her buttocks flesh to flesh. She, by the zeal of a pitying people, being cast down at the tomb of St. Arnulf, where she seemed to rest a little while, was by the divine gift healed and set upright, to the honor of God's servant; and walking with straight step through the church and through the courtyard of the church she showed the places of her limbs raw with blood, where one had before been folded and joined to another.

[122] It often happened that lights were seen to be kindled there from heaven. various miracles are wrought. But lest we should seem to relate chance events or things colored by any trickery, what we relate is defended by a thousand witnesses. A chief solemnity was being kept on the first day of the month of May, and a multitude of people had filled the place on every side; and behold, at the third hour of the day, when the solemn procession was being made, two tapers which were carried were put out at the door of the church by a blast of wind. But when they came to the sepulchre of St. Arnulf, at once those same tapers were kindled, and so kindled that they could not be put out by the blast of the wind.

VI.

VII.

[123] Also in the one thousand one hundred and fifteenth year of the Lord's humanity there was throughout the whole neighboring region a plague of raging diseases among men of both sexes and of every age, Many experience the help of St. Arnulf in diseases and then the bearers of the sick, hastening in companies, busied themselves to lay down their sick about the tomb of Arnulf, Christ's servant; and so great a grace was poured out in the restoring of the sick that from the middle of April until the middle of the month of August, when his passing is celebrated, sixty of those known were cured, besides those who were so healed that they did not come to our knowledge. In like manner it happened in the following year, so that from the month of May until the month of August the restoring of fifty persons of either sex and of various age was granted there. Indeed, among them had come a certain dropsical man, greatly swollen with the distension of his belly and veins, who, taking dust from the low turf adjoining the tomb, sprinkled it into water, and drinking that same water presently obtained health.

VIII.

[124] At the same time fishermen going out from this Flanders surrounded a very great whale, and in other misfortunes, while they invoke him, wounding it with lances and javelins so that they might bring it to land subdued, and gather riches for themselves from the beast's death. But the huge beast, although it had been strongly wounded with javelins and lances, could by no means be taken or quieted; but raging the more from pain, now it vomited waters to the sky, now plunged itself into the deep; now, rising again from the deep, it broke the tackle of the ships with the force of its tail and fins. In such difficulty one said to his companions: "Let us invoke St. Arnulf of Oudenburg, and let us vow to him a part of the fish; and I trust that by his help we shall speedily overcome this beast." They did so, and immediately the whale ceased to rage and gave a most quiet opportunity for its capture and binding with ropes.

IX.

XI.

XII.

[125] On the Vigil of the Lord's Ascension, at the chanting of the holy Gospel ^d during the evening synaxis, a certain paralytic woman was healed. or visit his relics

On the nativity of St. John the Baptist, while we were keeping vigils by night ^e, a certain man was healed there.

Certain men also of advanced age, two old men, greatly and alike smitten with the same anguish, grieved that they lived: for in both their bowels, having slipped down into the genitals, brought upon them exceeding suffering and difficulty of living. These, having heard the fame of the graces of blessed Arnulf, came with great labor to the sepulchre, and their striving was turned by a divine sign into wholesome joy: for by the merits and prayers of St. Arnulf their bowels were drawn back upward and recalled to their natural place; and they who had come hither with the greatest difficulty returned with the joy of health, relieved and brisk.

On the sixth feria of the week of Pentecost a certain young man, grieving that he had a withered hand, came and cast himself at the coffin of the tomb of St. Arnulf, beating upon the Saint's mercy with many laments; and while the Gospel lesson was being recited, his hand was healed and perfectly restored.

XIII.

[126] Before the bones of St. Arnulf were raised from the earth, which are wonderfully preserved from a fire, the church of St. Peter had relics of the same Saint, that is, all the furniture of his own chapel. And of these relics the brethren gave a certain portion to certain men of the island of Schouwen ^f, that they might build a church in the name of Christ under the title of St. Arnulf. That church being built, and the altar erected, they placed the little chest of those relics in the altar; and it happened through carelessness that that church, caught by fire, burned to the ground; but the little chest of the relics of St. Arnulf sat upon the altar untouched by the flames and wholly unharmed; and the altar cloth itself, so far as it touched the chest or lay beneath it, remained unburnt.

XIV.

[127] In the island which is called Beveland, that is, "trembling land" ^g, and before which Guy, pledging peace and not keeping it, certain nobles whose head was Alvis, son of Landrada, and Ellic his brother, were carrying on a contention and quarrel against

their peers, men equally noble. Whence it happened that a certain man named Guy, being wounded in the hand before the gate of Ellic, lost two fingers, the middle and the leech-finger ^h, and remained crippled and maimed of two fingers. On account of this matter there flourished great enmity between Guy and his allies against Alvis and Ellic and against their friends and accomplices, until the sanctuary of St. Arnulf was carried into those parts to make peace among peoples that knew not God. But that Guy, disfigured by the loss of two fingers, being caught in the church by monks and clerics prostrate before him, while also the relics of St. Arnulf lay before him upon the ground, was constrained to pledge that he would make peace with Alvis and Ellic, once his enemies; and they compelled him to lay the pledge of that promise upon the litter of the relics, or upon the glove of his hand; and indeed for reverence of the Saints present he obeyed for the moment; but returning home and being shamefully upbraided by his kinsmen and retainers, he turned away from the good and forbore to fulfill what he had promised to St. Arnulf. Immediately a strong sickness seized him, held by which he lay for twenty-one days, in which, taking neither sleep nor food but wasting away worse from day to day, he was reduced to this, that, a priest being summoned, he thought upon his funeral.

[128] is oppressed with sickness, and, repenting of his sin, is at once healed. Then the priest said to him: "All this infirmity which you so hardly suffer is justly laid upon you for the lie which you lied to St. Arnulf; but if you will believe me, and will not refuse with a good heart to grant the peace you promised and to forgive the guilt of your maimed fingers, I hope in the living God that you shall recover and shall find your life prosper." And he, without deliberating at all, said: "Bring me that holy cross"; and when it was offered into his hands he said: "Behold, I know most certainly that on account of my falsehood I incurred this infirmity; but if St. Arnulf will now pray for me that I may live, I vow and swear upon this cross that whatever I long since promised concerning peace and the forgiving of my fingers, I will fulfill it all." Saying thus, and performing a new vow with a new gift upon the cross, he immediately added: "If I have any friend or any faithful man, let him provide for me that I may quickly eat: for the fear of death departs from me, and the whole hope of life succeeds in me." What more? At once, refreshed with food and drink, he recovered. After the third day, mounting horses, he entered Flanders, sought Oudenburg, and did penance before the brethren. And returning to his own place, he fully accomplished all things as he had been asked and as he himself had first vowed, and remained steadfastly in the peace which he had promised.

ANNOTATIONS.

elsewhere Franciæ*

CHAPTER II.

The elevation of his sacred bones, which heavenly signs and miracles followed.

XV.

After these and other proofs of the grace from on high had come more widely to the ears of the lord bishop Lambert and to the knowledge of the faithful people, The prelates in the synod of Beauvais, that same bishop took counsel in the council of Beauvais on the XV of the Kalends of November ^a with certain of his fellow bishops, what needed to be done in the face of so great a greatness of God. There were present there the bishops of the Franks: William of Châlons, the pillar of the learned ^b; Geoffrey, bishop of Chartres; Delbert, archbishop of Sens; the bishop of Orléans; the bishop of Paris; Clarembald, bishop of Senlis; Peter, bishop of Beauvais; Angelrann, bishop of Amiens; Robert, bishop of Arras; John, bishop of the Morini; Lambert, bishop of Tournai; Burchard, bishop of Cambrai; Bartholomew, bishop of Laon; I, Lisiard, the unworthy bishop of Soissons; and a copious multitude of abbots, archdeacons, provosts, and clergy.

[130] having heard of St. Arnulf's miracles, Among the rest there was present also the abbot of Oudenburg himself, bearing in his hand a little book on the Life and character and wrought miracles of that same St. Arnulf; which little book, receiving it from his hands, I opened, and opened offered it to the bishops, saying: "Behold, my lords, this little book was written concerning his Life with my knowledge and by my authorship ^c; to which I bear testimony in faith that all things it relates are true, and of whose miracles I bring forward some witnesses here and at home very many most truthful ones. I ask therefore that this little book be carefully considered by you, so that from the knowledge of it you may be better informed what should be done concerning him. But let your holiness hear my judgment: that if he rested in the diocese committed to me, it is long since that he would not be lying in the earth." Then William, bishop of Châlons, took the little book, and looking at it from the beginning saw the multitude of the chapters, and said to the bishop of Tournai: "My lord, what more do you seek? Apart from this little book, the testimony of the lord bishop of Soissons and of his clerics suffices us: such an abbot as this ought to give you great confidence, whose age is to be respected and whose prudence is well pleasing; but as for that little book, since we are occupied with synodal business, there is no leisure to run through it."

[131] determine that his sacred relics must be raised, Geoffrey, bishop of Chartres, said: "Lord of Tournai, I tell you in truth: if the Lord had done such things even once about any one of my predecessors, I would consult neither Pope nor legate nor even archbishop; but with all constancy I would exalt God's Saint as he deserves ^d." Meanwhile, while these things were being determined by the bishops, certain noble masters of the schools had taken the little book and had read hastily through some chapters of the deeds. Certain of them therefore, running back to where the bishops were, declared with great constancy: "Truly he is not of God who is opposed to the exaltation of this Saint." Then William, bishop of Châlons, said: "By God, it is shameful that we doubt about a matter so plain. Wherefore do you, lord of Tournai, with the Lord's grace, all ambiguity being removed, appoint a day on which you may assemble at the place, and, raising the holy servant of the Lord from the earth, may honorably lay him up." Lambert, bishop of Tournai, said: "Behold, the legate is sitting a little way off in this very basilica with our archbishop of Reims and with him of Tours; I ask you, may it please you to come before them and to confirm your opinion by their judgment." The bishops said: "In the name of the Lord let it be done." When they had come, Lambert said to the lord of Châlons: "I pray you, plead my cause." And when he had with brief eloquence set forth the case before the legate and the archbishops, both Cono the legate and the archbishop of Reims answered with one voice: "We fully accept the judgment of your authority, and we corroborate the decree of your consent."

[132] And so bishop Lambert, calling the abbot, appointed a day on which he should assemble at Oudenburg, which by the bishop of Tournai that is, the Kalends of May, and should raise from the ground the holy body of the man of God and lay it up according to the custom of the Gallican church as truly holy. He also gave letters with his seal, by which he should summon the whole people of the diocese of Tournai to so holy an office ^e. Flying fame, running with a swift course, made diverse peoples visit these seats. Let us pass over Flanders: the men of Walcheren, of Schouwen, of Beveland, of Antwerp, of Texandria, of Waes, of Brabant, the Menapians, the Morini, the men of Boulogne, and the common people of the other regions ^f were abundantly present. And so at the appointed time the bishop came with Robert, the honorable archdeacon of Tournai, and a great body of clergy; and the trophy of the Cross being borne before, and the sacred body of the Gospel being brought with tapers and perfumes, and the clergy chanting together, the tomb of the holy man is opened; the blessed bones are picked out from the deposit of dust. There stood a chalice buried with him upon his breast, and there lay also a leaden tablet under the chalice before his breast; which tablet held written his name, his native land, his family, his warfare, his conversion, his promotion to abbot, the day of his ordination as bishop, and the day of his passing from this world to Christ. This tablet, raised from the Saint's breast and read again in the bishop's presence, gave him great joy, since he had feared lest, misled by some error, the brethren should raise not St. Arnulf but someone unworthy under the Saint's name. Likewise, when they had shown the pastoral plate ^g to the bishop, he rejoiced greatly. Lastly, when he had seen the sandals fashioned interwoven with gold, he was dissolved in tears. For taking up the bones and raising them from the sepulchre there were chosen three men who exercised the priesthood: abbot Hariulf, Godwin the monk, and Hagaming the monk.

[133] And when the abbot had raised the skull of the head from the earth not without miracles and had placed it in a chest prepared for that purpose, behold, his hands were found greasy and steeped in liquid oil, as though he had dipped his hands in

a vessel full of oil. Behold, before God, that it is true, and that what is said was true. A fragrance also of great sweetness was diffused there, and not undeservedly: for since he who in his mortal life strove to be the good odor of Christ in every place, it is no wonder if, now crowned by God's own bounty, whom he served, he merited to be honored with heavenly honor. Meanwhile the bosom of the church echoes with the praises of the kindly Trinity; and until the blessed bones, wrapped with worthy care, were laid up in the shrine, both bishop and clergy gave attention to the divine words. And when they had been brought into the shrine, presently the bishop intoned the hymn Te Deum laudamus, Te Dominum confitemur. And when this hymn had been sung in jubilee even to the clouds, the Saint is carried out of the holy church to the appointed station, and that indeed by the hand of soldiers: for so great a multitude of men rushed upon the Saint that they trod upon one another exceedingly, pushed and bruised one another, and no man for love of the Saint spared either himself or another. So had devotion and desire for the Saint cast off the bounds of reason, that abbot and monks could by no means draw near the Saint.

XVI.

[134] Assuredly divine miracles were not lacking; but the true God, one in Trinity, whom Arnulf had purely served, and by the healing of many sick persons displayed there a threefold miracle: for a certain young man, possessed by a hostile power and thereby long since grown into madness, was there freed from the enemy and given both soundness of body and freedom of his senses. Two women also, smitten with paralysis and utterly deprived of the use of their limbs, were restored to full health. But these three signs, wrought within the church, did not come clearly enough to the knowledge of the people spread through the open places and the fields, because the dense multitude of the common folk had so packed and filled the basilica that no one could there speak openly, no one could there turn himself anywhere, no one could there hear anything but the roar of the tumultuous people.

XVII.

[135] God from heaven, being well pleased in his holy Arnulf, then gave a sign also from heaven. and by heavenly signs For from the first hour until the full sixth there was seen in the sky a burning sphere, like a flame of fire, which lay above the holy body of the blessed man; and across that same sphere there shone, like the purest gold tried in the furnace, the sign of the holy Cross; which cross by its splendor overcame all the beauty of the sun, and by its length also surpassed the breadth of the aforesaid sphere, stretching beyond it by its four arms, and glowing red like gold with exceeding brightness. This sign, certainly, seen in the sky, seems to signify a heavenly mystery. For what does the sphere figure but the breadth of the round world? And what does the vision of the cross designate but the earthly mortification of the body? And what does gold or the splendor of gold indicate but the brightness of eternal wisdom and the inward contemplation of the divine light? And in the sphere there appeared a flame, since throughout the world it is known — nay, shall be known — that the charity of God was poured out in the heart of Arnulf through the Holy Spirit who was given to him. If he was given, he was given by the God of heaven. Rightly therefore did a sign glorifying Arnulf appear in the sky. And let no one say, "Who has known Arnulf?" We say that he is very well known, who by the right of heaven is worthy to be known: for the prophet does not deceive who says, The just man shall be in everlasting remembrance. The sphere, therefore, which appeared in the sky, figured the breadth of his good fame. The flaming aspect, the ardor of his inward charity. The cross signifies martyrdom. The golden splendor, the mystical understanding of divine charity. The length of the cross surpassing the sphere intimates the holy perseverance of blessed mortification. The blessed and holy Arnulf could say: My conversation is in heaven. He could say: All the lovable and delightful things of the world which I have left, I count as dung. And such a man ought to be declared by such things.

XVIII.

[136] Now this translation of St. Arnulf took place on the first day of the month of May, was done at the beginning of May in the year 1121, in the fourteenth Indiction, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand one hundred and twenty-one, Louis, son of Philip, holding the sceptre of the Franks for thirteen years, Charles ^h, son of the king of the Danes, whose mother had been the daughter of Count Robert, administering the county of Flanders, and abbot Hariulf governing the convent of Oudenburg now for sixteen years. And it was observed that with the elevation of the blessed man there came to the region of the Flemings fruitfulness of crops, health of bodies, and wholesomeness of the air, which before for seven years had grievously languished under the flooding of rains and the barrenness of the fields, and also under the plague of animals and the frequent mortality of men.

XIX.

[137] at which time Flanders On the third Sunday after the Octave of Easter, when the Introit of the Masses is sung, Jubilate Deo omnis terra, Alleluia, the bodily elevation of the blessed St. Arnulf was performed by us; and from that Sunday, on the eighteenth day thereafter, came the illustrious solemnity of the Lord's Ascension, which is the fortieth day from the holy day of the Resurrection. And this solemnity of the Ascension is more frequented in the town of Oudenburg than the other solemnities, because on that day a solemn fair is held in that same place, and therefore the people, being free from their work, flock together more than usual. And on this occasion, as mixed crowds rushed in from every side, it happened that there came together from one neighborhood three knights, brothers by blood, and two other knights apart from them who were at enmity with those three, because those three had lately slain the brother of those two. And those three, slayers of the other men's brother, had approached the abbot and the monks of that place, and had asked, most suppliantly, that they would bring help by laboring for their reconciliation; to which the abbot and monks were sufficiently willing, and, inquiring where those two bereaved of their brother might be, took with them the litter of blessed Arnulf and came unexpectedly where they were sitting and had begun to dine.

[138] The elder brother, when he saw the monks and the holy litter, felt the patronage of the same Saint. understood that they were coming to constrain him. Immediately, throwing away food and cups, he wished to rise and flee; but by the power of the Lord and the merits of St. Arnulf his buttocks stuck fast to the bench, his feet stuck fast to the footstool, and thus fettered and bound he sat down again against his will. Being asked by the monks for pardon, he answered words of folly. Why should we delay with many words? His insolent tongue, his savage eyes, and the disordered motions of his whole body betrayed him as mad, and his friends bewailed him as already given over to death. Then the younger brother made a vow, saying: "Holy Arnulf, have mercy on me, and give me back my brother's life; and behold, I vow and promise that if my brother escapes, both I for love of you will become a friend to these enemies, and I will drag him, willing or unwilling, to make with them a covenant of perpetual peace." The monks present, hearing this, rejoiced; and taking water they moistened the feet of the litter, and, taking up that same water, poured it into his mouth and over his whole* face. Then he, as though waking from a heavy sleep, composed himself; then, calling his brother who was loudly wailing, he said: "Rejoice, brother, for I have come back to life: by the prayers of St. Arnulf God has permitted me to live." And rising he adored with great devotion; then he received the slayers of his brother as friends with great affection, and under the confirmation of an oath promised to keep steadfast peace with them ⁱ. Thus Christ our God granted that favor should come to the hated, benevolence to those who hated, reverence of honor to blessed Arnulf, and praise and glory to his own name for ever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

read toti*