Gobert

ON BL. GOBERT, CONFESSOR, OF THE CISTERCIAN ORDER,

IN THE ABBEY OF VILLERS IN BRABANT,

in the year 1263.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Gobert, of the Cistercian Order, in the abbey of Villers in Brabant (Bl.)

BY FATHER P. D.

§ I. The cult of the Blessed, his Acts, the age and trustworthiness of one biographer.

That Blessed Gobert, whom the abbey of Villers — described in volume V of June, page 606 — bore for heaven, Bl. Gobert obtained public veneration from a very long time ago, various indications persuade us; if not each taken singly and separately, at least when joined and gathered into one. Henriquez in the Cistercian Menology, published in print in the year 1639, at the 20th day of August, writes thus in his notes: In an ancient manuscript book, which was renewed three hundred years ago, the following antiphon with a prayer is read. Antiphon: O Gobert, partaker with the Saints, loving one of monks, join us by thy prayer to the grace of Christ, that, the course of life being accomplished, we may be made companions of glory. Verse: Pray for us, renowned soldier. Response: That we may be made worthy of the promise of Christ. Let us pray: O God, rewarder of all good things, be present to our invocations, and grant that, as we rejoice on earth in the glorious virtues of thy venerable confessor the loving Gobert, so by his merits and prayers we may deserve to attain the glory of eternal life in heaven, through Christ our Lord. Amen. I suspect that the alleged antiphon took its beginning in the monastery of Aulne, from what Claude Chalemot writes in the Series of the Saints and Blessed of the Cistercian Order at the 21st day of August, page 275: Bl. Gobert … has … a proper antiphon borrowed from the monastery of Aulne. But since he says borrowed, he hints that the same was in use in other monasteries also, and that the Blessed one's cult was propagated.

[2] There occurs also a trace of more than private invocation in Bl. Gobert's epitaph, from a long time ago which, if not earlier, was at least engraved in the fourteenth century, and to this present day, says Henriquez at the 20th day of August, hangs at that holy Man's tomb, comprising the following little verses:

Renowned Confessor of the Lord, mirror of monks, Be thou now an intercessor for the guilt of the peoples.

And a little below are placed these little verses:

Through thee may we be saved, Confessor, in the hour of death: That we be not condemned, pray for us all. Amen.

[3] In later centuries too the veneration of Bl. Gobert so flourished that, since it is not found to have been begun more recently, it is deservedly judged to have been transmitted from earlier men to those who came after. a public cult Raissius in the Gazophylacium Belgicum, page 531, among the religious conspicuous for sanctity in the monastery of Villers, having numbered Cobert (so our Blessed one is there called), count of Aspremont, subjoins: Whose name is invoked in the public litanies. Gazet in the Sacred Tables of Gallo-Belgic country, page 71, reckons him among the Saints who are honored in the diocese of Namur. The Religious, when about to pass the tomb and the likeness of the Blessed one set upon the tomb, show it that reverence, with body bowed, which the Catholic religion imparts to sacred images, as John d'Assignies in his French book On the Illustrious Men of the Cistercian Order, folio 140 verso, testifies.

[4] Finally a French poet, called des Hayons, in a little book printed at Liège in the year 1657 under this title Les visions de Melinte, after page 78, testifies that there is fixed to Bl. Gobert's marble monument this inscription, engraved on a silver plate: he obtained, In the year of restored salvation 1648, at Eastertide, the lords Ferdinand, count of Aspremont, Lynden, and Rekem, together with the most illustrious lady Elizabeth, countess of Fürstenberg, Werdenberg, Heiligenberg, Landgravine of Baar, piously visiting in the abbey of Villers the relics of Bl. Gobert, sprung of the counts of Aspremont, obtained by his intercession in that same year from the Lord God Almighty the son they had desired after five daughters, upon whom they also laid the name of Gobert.

A chronogram of the year of the benefit received.

bY gobert's praYers, a brother after fIVe sIsters Is born the MIDDLe one; there was none after or before.

In the year therefore 1651, on the last day of the month of June, the aforesaid most illustrious spouses, having set out thither together with their son, in thanksgiving and in perpetual memory of the matter, set up this monument to blessed Gobert. Then, a few things being interposed which do not belong here, this is subjoined:

A chronogram

Man praYs, and the heaVenLY ones gIVe.

These things are read, to be inspected by the eyes of all, which from the very year 1651, in which they were engraved, ought rather to have been erased, if it had not been established for the ascetics of Villers that there was an immemorial cult — such as Urban VIII in the year 1625 had required, in order that anyone should be publicly distinguished either with the title of Blessed or honored with some other sacred veneration.

[5] and he is deservedly adorned with the title of Blessed. To these add, if you please, those who have celebrated his memory in their books as of a blessed Man. To pass over Manrique in the Cistercian Annals at the year of Christ 1229, chapter 1, and very many other writers of that same Order, Canisius, Fisen, and Rosweyde inserted him in their Calendars with the title of Blessed; to whom are added Raissius and Gazet, cited at number 3; and Molanus too in the Additions to Usuard — although he seems afterwards to have changed his opinion; for in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii, out of the information which he had received from Villers, he writes thus: At Villers the death of Gobert (the title of Blessed is omitted) count of Aspremont; then he subjoins in smaller type: who, nobility being despised, professed the monastic religion at Villers, where he both has an honorable burial and a history of his life written in three books; but he has not been enrolled among the Saints by the church, as neither some others who shone with sanctity in the same monastery, whose venerable bones are laid together; yet Gobert lies apart in a tomb. But although the information received from Villers taught Molanus that Gobert had not been enrolled among the Saints by that solemn rite which is today in use, it did not equally teach that he had not obtained a lawful cult, nor that he ought not to be adorned with the title of Blessed.

[6] We have obtained a twofold Life of Bl. Gobert, the one prolix, The life of Bl. Gobert is twofold: the other more compressed. The former, written in fairly ancient letters upon parchment and divided into three books, the reverend ascetics of the abbey of Villers with the greatest courtesy lent us in the year 1736 to be transcribed. Entire, so far as I know, it has not yet been published in print. Yet many writers cite it — Miraeus, Fisen, Molanus, Henriquez, Manrique, and others. Sander in the Bibliotheca Belgica manuscripta, enumerating the records kept at Villers, says at page 272: There is kept upon parchment the Life of Bl. Gobert, once Count of Aspremont in Lorraine, afterwards a humble monk of Villers, of the Cistercian Order in Brabant, divided into three books. Translated into the French idiom it appeared, but not entire, by the labor of the reverend Lord John d'Assignies, in his book On the Illustrious Men of the Cistercian Order.

[7] At what time it was composed cannot be exactly determined. the more prolix one, from suitable witnesses That it was written before the year 1355 we plainly gather from number 7, where the author says: In the year … 1237, in the first time of that most mighty prince Henry the second, most robust duke of Lorraine and Brabant — namely of him who, at his own first bidding, when he was paying nature's irrevocable debt, chose at his death to be entombed in the monastery of Villers of the Cistercian Order; and although it had before been unheard of that a duke of Brabant should be buried outside Louvain, nor do we readily hope that A LIKE CASE will come afterwards either, yet this Henry desired to be reduced to ashes in the said monastery … and he was in fact buried in the year 1247.

For the author to write these things after the year 1355 there was no room, since by then a like case had occurred, John, Duke of Lorraine and Brabant, having been buried in the church of Villers also.

[8] Nay, the Acts hint that they are older than the year 1312, and from contemporaries while they suppose, as it seems, that it scarcely happens that a Duke of Brabant is committed to the earth outside Louvain; for in the year 1312 that case was not infrequent, when John I and II, each Duke of Brabant, obtained a tomb at Brussels, the one buried among the Reverend Fathers Franciscan, the other in the choir of St. Gudula. There is added this: that the biographer wrote at a time when there were living, at least many, with whom Bl. Gobert, translated to the heavenly ones in the year 1263, had lived; for he says at number 7 that the religious to whom he wrote had been loved by the Blessed ascetic until his death — supposing, assuredly, that these same men had both been known to Bl. Gobert in the time before his death, and had been held in his love.

[9] As to the author's trustworthiness, it is commended, first, was drawn in good faith, by the easy knowledge of the facts; for he was both near to Bl. Gobert in time, and lived among those who had known the Blessed man living upon earth. It is commended, secondly, by the sanctity of the ascetics of Villers to whom he wrote, which utterly abhorred fables and lies: of which the chronicler of Villers (of whom more presently) is witness, saying in the preface of book 2: When these religious fathers came to a common conference, and reported the deeds of the holy fathers, they were exceedingly scrupulous lest they should exceed by saying more or less; whence, the conference being ended, drawing the prior into the auditorium, they confessed the past fault, being made more cautious for the rest. But before such men how could a biographer have forged lies, especially since he would presently be convicted of falsity by those who had lived with Bl. Gobert? Thirdly, his trustworthiness is commended by that same chronicler of Villers, who, although skilled from other sources in the deeds done by Bl. Gobert, yet chose to weave an epitome of the more prolix life, judging assuredly that a clearer fountain was not to be found. Finally his trustworthiness is commended by the epitaph fixed to the tomb, which is a succinct epitome of those things which the biographer pursues at length.

[10] [yet it does not now stand entire, some things likewise being wrongly omitted by a certain modern.] Moreover he seems to have professed the cenobitic life among the ascetics of Villers, for he frequently calls them brothers. Whether he was received among them while Bl. Gobert was alive, or after his death, is uncertain; for no argument occurs for either side. That he set his hand to the work at a less advanced age he hints at number 1, when he says that his own age had not yet filled up its time. He adorns his matter with frequent amplifications, using a practice which is common to younger men. Not all that he had resolved to commit to writing has been transmitted to posterity; for there are not found written the miracles which after his death the Lord wrought by his merits; but that these were announced by him in the third little book, he himself testifies in the Acts at number 4. Besides, that closing formula, Here ends the book, is lacking at the end of the third part, whereas it closes not only the remaining books but even the prologues themselves and the proem. Therefore the third book either was not brought to an end, or certainly does not now stand entire. From what has been said you will incidentally gather that John d'Assignies, praised above, when he published Bl. Gobert's Life in French out of this biographer of ours, omitted not prudently enough the prologues which are prefixed to the books; for from them we learn of what age the biographer was, of what trustworthiness and profession. We learn likewise that our Blessed one shone with miracles, although an adverse chance has begrudged us a distinct knowledge of them.

* We believe it is so read in the said little book, which, while these things are being given to the press, is not at hand.

§ II. The age of the other biographer is investigated.

The shorter Life of Bl. Gobert is contained in the Chronicle of Villers, The more compressed Life of Bl. Gobert is comprised in our manuscript Chronicle of the monastery of Villers, from a manuscript of Rouge-Cloître on a parchment folio from the first part of the Novale Sanctorum. That Chronicle is divided into three books. The first comprises the series and life of thirty abbots; the second, monks illustrious in virtue; the third, the brothers (as they call them) conversi, whom a singular piety commended. This same record Martène published in print, volume 3 of the Anecdota, from column 1270; but in its first part, in which it comprises forty-one abbots, fuller, and in the rest also sometimes different from ours. There is no doubt that that Chronicle, as it was published by Martène, had several authors. The Life of Franco, who in the year 1459 was elected the forty-first prelate, and who died in the year 1485, an anonymous author composed. Franco himself had woven the series of his predecessors, beginning from the year 1334 up to the year 1459, in which the fortieth abbot departed from life. All these things meet the eye of one reading the edition procured by Martène in the cited volume, columns [ ] and 1308. But they make little to our purpose, since it is by no means probable that Bl. Gobert's life was composed by Franco; for he set himself only this: that some memory should be had of those things which followed the death of John, elected abbot in the year 1333; and accordingly he did not comprise the life of Bl. Gobert, who passed to the heavenly ones in the year 1263. Martène's edition just cited may be seen.

[12] Labor therefore must be spent solely upon a more accurate knowledge of him whose author who carried the Chronicle down to the year 1333; and first of all it must be asked whether he began the history of Villers from the beginning, or continued one begun by another; for it concerns the reader to know this, that he may thence gather whether Bl. Gobert had this biographer as an equal in age, or only as one nearly contemporary. Martène, in the cited volume, column 1267, besides that chronicler who lived in the year 1333, posits another, and judges that he lived in the time of abbot William, who in the year 1221 took up the pastoral staff and bore it at Villers until the year 1236, in which he was elected abbot of Clairvaux. Thus he gathers from these words of his concerning abbot Conrad: Of this most excellent man I HAVE LEARNED from William, abbot of Villers, this thing wondrous to tell: that the fingers of his hands, which he stretched out at the consecration of the body of Christ, shone by night in the darkness like candles for the studying and inspecting of books. But this reasoning is nothing; for the chronicler narrates not what he himself had learned, but what Thomas of Cantimpré had learned, whom he brings in as speaking, alleging his words from book 1 On the Bees, chapter 9, number 3.

[13] Not otherwise does Martène err when he concludes that our historian was contemporary with abbot Robert, to have flourished about the year 1236 who was governing the monastery of Vaucelles in the year 1236, because in the life of Walter, tenth abbot of Villers, the following are read: Concerning him the venerable Robert, abbot of Vaucelles, IN MY PRESENCE, reported that he had heard from his own mouth that he was frequently, for half or nearly a whole day, while he meditated or prayed, in such sincerity and tranquility of mind that his soul was not assailed even by one most slight thought. Those words in my presence Martène wrongly takes as though they had been uttered in the presence of the chronicler of Villers, whereas they were uttered in the presence of Thomas of Cantimpré, whose words, excerpted from book 2 On the Bees, chapter 26, number 6, are reported. What more? When in the acts of abbot William, mentioned above, it is written that WE SAW him most especially given to tears, this the chronicler is not recorded to have seen, as Martène supposes, but the same Thomas of Cantimpré, whose text here, as above, transcribed from book 2 On the Bees, chapter 25, number 6, is adopted.

[14] Martène seizes the matter of another and more specious argument from what the historian thus declares of abbot William, already often praised: Martène does not rightly conclude He, being afterwards made abbot of Clairvaux, BY OUR PERMISSION visited the abbey of La Chambre. Where, says Martène, these words BY OUR PERMISSION seem to indicate that the author was not a simple monk but an abbot, whose office it is to grant a permission of this kind. Perhaps it is that Arnulf who is read to have been made abbot of Villers from subprior in the year 1240. But to one who reckons the times more attentively this new error appears, which I thus show. William, transferred in the year 1236 from the presidency of Villers to that of Clairvaux, died in the year 1243 or the next following, as is recorded in volume 4 of the new Gallia Christiana, page 805. To William at his departure there succeeded in the governance of the abbey of Villers Nicholas, who died in the year 1240; to Nicholas, Arnulf, taken from among the living in the year 1250. But the chronographer who wrote of William, by our permission he visited the abbey of La Chambre, was alive, if not later, at least in the year 1260; for he cites Cantimpré's book On the Bees, which Échard in the Library of the Dominicans and Colvenerius in the Life of Cantimpré show to have been brought to light after the year 1260. From which flows this argument: William obtained the faculty of inspecting the monastery of La Chambre either from Nicholas or from Arnulf; but the chronicler is distinguished from both; therefore from those words by our permission he is shown neither to be contemporary with William, nor to be an abbot.

[15] Martène concludes. What then will be the sense of those words by our permission? I answer that they sound nothing else than by the permission of the community of Villers. Indeed it is not unusual in this history of Villers that the writer says that those things befell himself and his own which befell his monastery even at a time when he was not yet a part of it. An example offers itself in the Life of John, the twenty-fifth abbot, in which these things are read: John … was abbot in the year of the Lord 1315 … At that time we have judged it worthy to commend to writing the founders of our chapels … Let the coming generation therefore know that … the lord Henry, bishop of Liège, having compassion on OUR want, gave US the tithe of Diepenbeek. Here the words our, us, designate the community of Villers, but do not include the person of the writer; for when Henry granted those tithes, that historian had not yet beheld the first light: for that prelate of Liège died in the year 1164 according to the Chronicle of Lambert the Little, or 1165, as Alberic has it at the same year; but the historiographer was living and surviving in the fourteenth century, as is plain from the words just cited, where he mentions an abbot created in the year 1315. So deceptive a signification of the word us makes it that I dare determine nothing about the age of the chronographer of Villers from what he writes thus in Martène, column [ ]: The lord Almeric, monk of Foigny, eighteenth abbot of Villers, given TO US by the lord of Clairvaux, was abbot in the year 1268. I pass over other things like these, which occur in Martène, column [ ], and elsewhere.

[16] An indication of his age being passed over Yet I should believe that, when in book 2 of the Chronicle, chapter 3, he described the Life of Franco in verse, he hints that he lived contemporary with that same Franco. For treating of his last illness, he speaks thus:

For IN OUR PRESENCE he was wont to say That he greatly loved the statutes of the Order And preferred them to all the delights of the world.

And a little below:

While Franco was lying upon his little bed, And refused to take the food offered him, WE SAID at one time that he should raise himself, And hasten to go at the sound of the Mass.

But this WE SAID to him deceitfully: For WE WISHED that he himself should take food, Because WE SAW him exceedingly weak, With whose sickness WE GRIEVED.

[17] not certainly enough, Here very many expressions, unless open violence be done them, show this biographer to be contemporary with Franco. But Franco was not surviving after the year 1270, if credit be given to Bartholomew Fisen, who in the Flores Leodienses, page 381, records that about the year 1190 he defended the Christian cause in many battles in Palestine, aided by his two sons. For he who about the year 1190 had two sons fit for waging wars had probably by then reached about the fortieth year of his age, and accordingly was not likely to survive until the year 1270. Yet I could wish to have a more ancient testimony from which it might be established that the expedition which Franco undertook against the Saracens was made about the year 1190; and since this has thus far not been possible to find, another indication of the time in which this biographer of Bl. Gobert flourished remains to be sought.

[18] The Chronicle of Villers, when in book 2, chapter 2, it has narrated the life of Bl. Gobert, from a more certain one it is gathered that this writer presently sets forth the deeds of Franco, Godfrey, Caesarius, and Gilla; and here he betrays that he lived in the thirteenth century, at chapter 5, saying: A certain nun of Brussels, Gilla by name, under the rule of St. Benedict of the black habit … out of desire of a stricter life aspired in every way to rise to the Cistercian order, having no helper of her desire save the lord Charles, AT THAT TIME abbot of Villers … I HEARD FROM HER that at the touch of that garment which had been Godfrey's, the health they desired was restored to many sick and languishing persons. Charles, who helped Gilla at the time when he was abbot of Villers, asked and obtained in the year 1209 to be stripped of the presidency; accordingly Gilla was of mature age before that same year, inasmuch as she had professed the religious state; nor accordingly did she survive the thirteenth century when it had elapsed. Therefore the chronographer of Villers too, who had converse with Gilla, if he did not set the end of his life in that century, must certainly be said to have lived in it.

[19] More effectually to this purpose are the things which are subjoined to the words just related: lived in the thirteenth century, Gilla therefore advanced in her desire, and by the help of the lord Charles of excellent memory she founded and built the house of Bernebeke near Brussels, which is now called La Chambre — its foundations having been laid already from the year 1201, as is clear in a charter published in that same year in Gilla's favor, in which, in Miraeus's Notitia ecclesiarum Belgii, page 512, Henry, duke of Lorraine, thus speaks: I have conferred upon the religious sister Gisla a place near Brussels which is called Pennebeke, for the building of … a monastery of nuns. Accordingly Gilla, of whom the writer says, I heard from her, was in the year of Christ 1201 of an age so advanced that she was fit for founding a monastery, nor accordingly did she reach the end of the thirteenth century. Moreover the place which here is called Pennebeke, above Bernebeke, elsewhere Bunnebeke, is in a more recent charter of the Henry just mentioned, in the cited Miraeus, page 570, with changed name called La Chambre.

[20] This biographer of Bl. Gobert lived, then, in the thirteenth century; [whether he outlived it, and by how much, is uncertain: who, though he was acquainted with the deeds,] but in what part of that age, it is not possible to determine, since I have in no way been able to ascertain in what year Gilla departed from life. That too remains uncertain, whether one and the same author carried the history of Villers, begun from the beginning, down to the year 1333; or whether one continued what another had begun. Whatever be the case, Bl. Gobert had this biographer, if not an equal in age, at least nearly contemporary. He had one too exceedingly skilled in the deeds; for in book 2, chapter 2, being about to write the Life of Bl. Gobert, on the threshold of the book he prefaces this: First of all we wish the reader to know that we asked our fathers several times how great the religion once was at Villers, and they told us; we inquired of our elders, and they told us. And below: When these religious fathers came to a common conference … they were exceedingly scrupulous lest they should exceed by saying more or less. Whence, the conference being ended, drawing the prior into the auditorium, they confessed the past fault, being made more cautious for the rest.

[21] yet borrowed the life of Bl. Gobert from the more prolix Acts. Moreover, although the chronicler in the words just brought forward openly professes that he writes what he had drawn from others' speech, yet this is so to be taken that he committed to writing most things learned from others' conversation, not all: for our Blessed one's life he without doubt borrowed from the more prolix Acts; of which the almost perpetual agreement of order, of words, and of frequent sentences affords a manifest indication. And hence the authority of the more prolix Life greatly increases: for why should the chronicler have undertaken to abridge it, being abundantly instructed from other sources about the deeds, if he had believed it sprinkled with fables or lies?

[22] The epitaph of Bl. Gobert comprises much in few words. It remains that we say a few things concerning the epitaph of Bl. Gobert. It is a brief epitome of his deeds, a witness of his miracles, and an indication of his cult, probably affixed to the tomb at that time when the marble tomb first stood erected for Bl. Gobert. It was certainly composed before the biographer who inserted it in his Chronicle set an end to his work, and accordingly at least before the year 1333.

§ III. The genealogy of Bl. Gobert, and his military expeditions.

Of a most noble family Sprung of a most noble family, Gaufrid or Godfrey, count of Aspremont, was the father of Bl. Gobert. So the Acts testify, and other writers everywhere. Imhoff in the Notitia Imperii Romani explains that most illustrious genealogy at greater length. In book 9, chapter 8, he writes nearly thus: Gobert, first lord of Aspremont of this name, by Hedwig of Luxembourg was the father of Gobert II; of whom, and of Ida, daughter of Albert, count of Chiny, was born, besides others, Godfrey the first; who by Isabella, of the counts of Dampierre and Flanders, begot John and Gobert III: of whom the former was bishop of Verdun and of Metz; but the latter, returning from a military expedition under the kings of France, yielded the rule to his uncle, and entered the monastery of Villers, where, with a reputation for holiness, he died in the year 1263. Although a manifest error does not occur in this genealogical series, yet for it to be approved as genuine there is required a more laborious examination than the end we intend permits; for whom it suffices that the house of Aspremont is illustrious with so great a nobility that (on the testimony of Calmet, volume 1 of the History of Lorraine, column 217) it deservedly contends about it with many and most illustrious families of Europe. In passing I note that it is wrongly supposed by Imhoff that Bl. Gobert undertook the expedition into Palestine under the kings of France, since he joined himself as companion to the emperor Frederick II alone.

[24] Bl. Gobert was born after the year 1187: In what year precisely our Blessed one was brought into the light I find nowhere expressly stated. That he was born after the year 1187 follows from the Chronicle of the bishops of Metz, according to which his brother John, who was to be elected bishop of Verdun in the year 1217, was set in the flower of youth, short of the thirty years which are required in the elections of bishops. Accordingly Bl. Gobert too, younger in age than the bishop of Verdun, was in the year 1217 less than thirty years old, nor accordingly born before the year 1187 had elapsed. In the cited Calmet, column 220, our Blessed one's age is bounded by the twelfth century. But less rightly, since it is agreed that his death fell in the year 1263. More gravely errs Mussey, alleged by Calmet at column 218, when he records that Gobert, brother of John, bishop of Verdun and Metz, celebrated nuptials with Juliana de Rosey; for it is most fully ascertained that this brother of the bishop of Metz led a celibate life, marriage never being entered upon.

[25] Bl. Gobert, in his early age defending religion, fatherland, in the year 1228 he set out for the holy war, and friends by arms, gave various indications of warlike fortitude. The authors of the Life narrate some specimens, whose circumstances must be more fully explained. I take my beginning from the expedition into Palestine undertaken against the Saracens. This happened in the year 1228. Setting out on his journey in the spring, he came into the Holy Land in that same year, in the month of August or a little after. So it is gathered from the Chronicles of Mutius, abbot of Ursperg, and of Matthew Paris, who mark these circumstances of the journey instituted by the emperor Frederick II, whom our Blessed one accompanied as a comrade. The same epoch of the expedition undertaken by Frederick can be so clearly confirmed from various letters printed in Raynaldus in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the years 1228 and 1229, that both Nangis in his Chronicle and the historiographers presently to be cited went astray when they deferred his journey to later years.

[26] But was Gobert's mind then less reverent toward the Supreme Pontiff, in no way contrary to the Pontiff's command. following Frederick as his leader — to whom (as Marino Sanudo writes, book 3 On the secrets of the faithful of the cross, part 11, chapter 11) Pope Gregory … by solemn envoys commands that he should not cross the sea as one signed with the cross until he should be absolved from the sentence which he had incurred, and until full satisfaction should be made by him for the perjury which he incurs by deferring the war against the Saracens beyond the promised term … but the emperor, giving little heed to the things announced, takes up his journey. I answer that this command of Christ's Vicar either was not known to all, or was by a colored interpretation wrested to an alien sense; for various historiographers write that the emperor set out with the Pontiff's will. The Paduan monk, contemporary with Frederick, in volume 8 of the Writers of Italian Affairs, column 672, says: Lest he should seem wholly to spurn the Apostolic command … he sailed into Syria. The abbot of Ursperg records that he gave himself to the journey because he wished to render the Pope appeased toward him; Platina, because he was wearied by the Pontiff's threats. Which are indications of a Pontifical good pleasure concerning the Syrian expedition, not sufficiently published, or adulterated by a false exposition.

[27] When the Blessed one came to the Holy Land, because, on the testimony of the Life from number 18, The heroic deed of Bl. Gobert Frederick was hastening to war down the Templars, and Gobert's coming had become known to them, the master of the Hospital of Jerusalem and the preceptor of the Templars … began to ask Gobert with the Latins … that … he would deign to defend them against the profane emperor … The Man of God … suffused with zeal for God, having made alliance with his own soldiers and with whomsoever he could, is separated from Frederick's army, and hastened to the help of the Templars … he ordered his banners and standards to be raised on high above the barriers and fixed there … But Frederick, sailing in the deep of the sea, seeing the dread banners and standards raised above the height of the wall, marveling, asked what this was. To whom a certain man answering said … "These are the banners … of that most mighty soldier Gobert … of Aspremont." Which being heard, Frederick … began to say: "Let us turn our sails then … that … we may be able to take flight."

[28] in defending the Templars Concerning which Manrique in the Cistercian Annals at the year of Christ 1229, chapter 1, number 10, writes thus: This huge exploit of count Gobert, because it is singular, because it has been published by no one hitherto, because it will illustrate the ecclesiastical Annals and the history of this time, it was not permitted to pass over. Nor is it so much a wonder that this exploit of Bl. Gobert has been published by no one hitherto, because the historiographers in narrating this expedition of Frederick's are for the most part very brief, and pass over many things everywhere in silence. This perhaps someone will marvel at: that no trace of this injury inflicted by Frederick upon the Templars is extant in the letters of Gerold, patriarch of Jerusalem, in which, both with Pope Gregory IX and with all the faithful, he laid down very frequent complaints concerning that same emperor, as may be seen in Raynaldus in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 1229, and in Matthew Paris in the Historia major at the same year. But let the reader observe that from Gerold's own testimony it is established that many things which Frederick did ill were omitted by him. These things and many others, he says in the letters printed in the cited Matthew, which we leave to others to be narrated, which the world knows, the emperor committed to the detriment of the Holy Land and of his own soul.

[29] against the emperor Frederick Among those things which Gerold left to others to be narrated is deservedly reckoned the assault upon the Templars related by our biographer, confirmed also by the testimony of other writers especially: for St. Antoninus in part 3 of the Summa historialis, title 19, chapter 4, §1, writes thus: After these things, in the year 1234, the aforesaid Frederick, great forces being prepared, undertook the journey by himself to the Holy Land without requiring the Pope or his leave, and rather, as is believed, to seize the kingdom of Jerusalem promised him by the Sultan than out of zeal for the faith or the profit of the Christians; of which thing the sign was that, after he had landed at Acre, he sent ahead his seneschal with part of his army, who gave no heed to fighting against the Saracens, but against the Christians … and in the city of Acre he wished to destroy the temple for the Templars, and caused several castles to be taken from them.

[30] is confirmed by several. But lest the lesser authority of St. Antoninus in this respect should perhaps raise a scruple in anyone, writing of deeds more remote from his own age, it must be observed that this holy historian borrowed this whole narration either from Malaspina, contemporary with Frederick, or from Villani, who transcribed Malaspina's whole text. So he will discover who shall compare the writers just cited either with St. Antoninus or with one another, whose books have been published in print in Italian in volumes 8 and 15 among the writers of Italian affairs. But, you will say, why did the chronicler of Villers pass over so illustrious an exploit in the shorter Life, recording only this: that Bl. Gobert, having learned Frederick's perfidy, avoided him? I answer, not because he believed it feigned, but because he was studying brevity; for what he omitted in the Life he tacitly confirmed when he subjoined to the Life the epitaph, in which it is said, Caesar feared him; for no other occasion on which Caesar feared Bl. Gobert can be assigned save that which the more prolix Life has indicated. Moreover the place in which Frederick assaulted the Templars was the city of Acre, at which (as Matthew Paris has it) he arrived in the year 1228 in the month of September. That city is indeed called Acra by St. Antoninus and others; but this took its origin from the fact that, on Baudrand's testimony, it is called in Italian Acri, in French Acre. The situation of Acre in volume 3 of the Anecdota, column 283, in Martène is described thus: The city of Acre upon the shore of the sea, which anciently was called Ptolemais, and is shut in by the sea itself both on the south and on the west; from the east and the north it lies wholly open.

§ IV. Other specimens of his warlike fortitude; the beginning of his cenobitic life; his exercises; his death; his Acts.

His own subjects too Frederick's fury being checked, Bl. Gobert (as the Acts at number 24 and following record) visited the holy places, and presently, having returned into Europe, went off to Compostela to venerate the relics of St. James. Returned to his fatherland, he vindicated his subjects from the injury of the duke of Bar, and forced him to a composing of peace, probably in the year 1230, when (as Alberic has it at the same year) the count of Bar burned seventy villages against his nephew Matthew, duke of Lorraine … but the duke, with the count of Champagne and Simon de Joinville AND MANY OTHERS, wrought either as much evil or more against the count of Bar.

[32] With the same fortitude of mind with which the blessed Knight protected his subjects, and he defended his brother he also delivered his own brother, the bishop of Metz; who (as the Life at number 29 has it) was so harassed by the count of Bar and many other princes that by them the city of Metz had been besieged on one side. This happened in the year 1231, as may be conjectured from the Chronicle of Metz printed in Labbe, volume 1 of the Library of Manuscripts, in which at the cited year these things are read of the count of Bar and the other princes: The suburb of Metz was besieged by the count of Champagne, and the count of Bar, and the count of Luxembourg with all their power, and they withdrew confounded.

[33] And not only from the biographer, but from others too, may one learn The Blessed Man most skilled in warfare. how strong Bl. Gobert was in arms. For in the Chronicle of the bishops of Metz printed in d'Achery, volume 6 of the Spicilegium, among the adverse chances which befell John, bishop of Metz, oppressed on every side by his own citizens in the year 1234, this is narrated first of all: that he did not have with him his brother — namely blessed Gobert, besides whom he had no other; and who accordingly was a man from whom, because of his warlike nature and skill in soldiering, no small support was to be looked for. But the cause why our Blessed one was then absent is there given thus: He had betaken himself into France, that, returning with a force of armed men, he might succor his brother. From which you may incidentally gather too that Bl. Gobert was joined to the bishop of Metz by a bond of friendship no less than of blood; of whose probity, to omit all else, his brief epitaph comprises an ample testimony:

For his was that which these times have rarely: A gentle life, a clean hand, a chaste flesh.

[34] Richard de Wassebourg in book 5 of the Antiquities of Gallo-Belgic country, folio 360 verso, sings another triumph of our Blessed one: The error of Wassebourg for, about to render the reason why he did not bring help to his brother, now nearly overwhelmed by his enemies, he speaks nearly thus in the French idiom: The bishop of Metz's brother, the Lord of Aspremont, had by command of St. Louis the king at that time gone off into France, that with John, lord of Beaumont, he might lead an army against the Albigensian and Toulousan heretics, who had more recently risen up against the Catholic inhabitants of the country. Moreover by the work and industry of these leaders the rebels were routed and were compelled to implore the king's clemency and to subject Mont-Réal to his command.

[35] is shown. But the falsity of this narration the overturned reckoning of the times discloses: for the mentioned expedition of the count of Beaumont falls in the year 1239, as Nangis has it in his Chronicle, or in the year 1240, as in d'Achery, volume 2 of the Spicilegium, the Chronicle of Soissons hints, compared with the histories printed in Du Chesne, volume 5, pages 696 and 779. But the war in which Bl. Gobert could not succor his brother was already concluded in the year 1234. The men of Metz with the count of Bar, says Alberic, enumerating the deeds done in the year 1234, were reconciled with the bishop … Roger, bishop of Toul, mediating. But the war which the industry of the bishop of Toul terminated is no other than that in which Bl. Gobert's presence was wanted, even on Wassebourg's own testimony. Besides, John, prelate of Metz, before this war against the Albigensians was stirred up, had already departed from among the living, having died in the year 1238, as at that same year Alberic notes, and the Chronicle of Metz in Labbe, volume 1 of the Library of Manuscripts, and Meurisse in his book On the bishops of Metz, page 456.

[36] Bl. Gobert seems to have entered the monastery In what year Bl. Gobert was associated to the pious community of Villers the biographers do not expressly state. It happened without doubt when three months had not yet elapsed from the beginning of the year 1239, if the manuscript rightly marks the time which was published in the French idiom by John d'Assignies in his book On the illustrious men of the Cistercian order, page 106, and which records that Abundus, a most pious ascetic of the monastery of Villers, was stripped of mortal life in the year 1239, which was then the day after Palm Sunday: for since Bl. Gobert consulted this most religious man, and presently, at his instance, embraced the cenobitic life, it follows that his entrance into the monastery must be bound to the beginning of the year just named.

[37] about the year 1239. But a scruple is raised by the error by which it is recorded that in the year 1239 the 19th day of March was the day after Palm Sunday; for that Sunday then fell on the 20th of March, and accordingly the 19th day was then the day before it, not the day after. Yet because in such matters, by reason of the kinship of the things, a copyist's error is obvious, and nothing more certain is at hand from elsewhere, we shall not defer the beginning of his religious life beyond the time assigned. Nay, that Bl. Gobert betook himself into the monastery of Villers in the year 1237 someone might suspect from those words of the biographer at number 7: In the year of the Lord 1237, therefore, in the first time of that most mighty prince Henry of Lorraine, etc.; for this note of time, as it can rightly be referred to the novitiate of his religious life, so it can be wrongly referred to anything else, as will become manifest to one who reads the whole context. And hence again it is plain that those things waver which Wassebourg above narrates concerning the war waged against the Albigensians in the year 1239 or the next following, since it follows from the cited manuscript of John d'Assignies that Bl. Gobert had already by then renounced soldiering. Yet I would not deny that at other times he fought against those same heretics; for this is urged not only by his piety and religion joined to a lofty spirit, and by the custom then most usual among noble men, but most of all by the epitaph, in which he is called another Maccabee — assuredly from several wars illustriously waged for the safety of the faith.

[38] Moreover some explanation is needed by those things which Christopher Butkens in the Annals of the family of Lynden, book 1, more obscure words published in French, testifies to be reported by Du Chesne: namely that Gobert, lord of Aspremont, whom he says lived in the year 1223, and went as a companion with St. Louis into the Holy Land in 1249, and whom he asserts to be called a kinsman by John of Joinville, was joined in marriage to Juliana de Rosoy. For these things cannot be understood of our Blessed one, although he himself was lord of Aspremont in the year 1223: for, first, Bl. Gobert led a celibate life, as the Acts at numbers 33 and 46 hint. Secondly, he does not seem to have accompanied St. Louis, both because the biographers are silent about this journey, and because he had probably professed the religious life in the year 1239. But in what sense Du Chesne's words may be rightly understood, the praised Butkens explains:

I believe, he says, that Gobert, who is said to have lived in the year 1229 and to have taken to wife Juliana de Rosoy, is called Lord of Aspremont because he afterwards succeeded his cousin and obtained the county of Aspremont in the year 1247; and, being distinguished with this title, he could go as companion with St. Louis.

[39] Which explanation is confirmed from an ancient manuscript of Du Chesne which in the same Butkens comprises nearly the following: Gobert, Lord of Aspremont, left after him two sons, Godfrey and Gobert; of these the elder, Godfrey, obtained the lordship, lands, and county of Aspremont, and begot two sons also, namely John, who was bishop of Verdun and then of Metz, and Gobert, who afterwards was a monk of Villers. Gobert the younger brother of Godfrey, count of Aspremont, and uncle of Bl. Gobert, obtained the lordship of Dun, and had a son also by the name of Gobert, who afterwards succeeded to the lordship of Aspremont.

[40] The biographer enumerates various virtues exercised in the course of the religious life; and the condition of his religious life are explained: but what rank of dignity he held in it remains to be asked. That he was not marked with the priestly character is gathered from the Acts at number 61, where it is said that he had not a clerical understanding and was ignorant of the Latin idiom. Nor yet was he numbered among those who are appointed to perform domestic and servile works: for, first, the Chronicle of Villers inserted his life in the second book, which, as its title declares, treats of illustrious men, not in the third, which treats of the conversi who see to domestic matters and are as it were the servants of the rest. Secondly, that same Chronicle frequently calls Bl. Gobert nonnus; which name is never attributed to laymen who are to be occupied with servile work, but was due to those who were esteemed worthy of greater reverence, as may be seen in Du Cange in his glossary. Thirdly, Bl. Gobert is called a monk; but a monk the Chronicle of Villers, book 3, chapter 5, distinguishes from the conversi, as they call them; for treating of a certain brother John it says that, judging himself unworthy of the habit of the monks … he was reduced to the rank of a conversus.

[41] The year and day of our Blessed one's death the biographer marks thus: he died in the year 1263: In the year of the Lord 1263, on the day of St. Bernard, which then was on the fourth weekday of the month of August, at the morning hour, namely in the second nocturn of the vigils of that same festival, the loving Gobert … rendered his spirit … to his Creator. The same time the Chronicle of Villers notes in fewer words, thus: In the year of the Lord 1263, on the feast of St. Bernard, which then was the fourth weekday of the month of August, at the morning hour, the loving Gobert … rendered his spirit … to his Creator. In the year 1263, in which the Dominical letter was G, the 20th day of August fell on the second weekday. Accordingly either the feast of St. Bernard was not then, as now, celebrated at Villers on the 20th of August, or it is erroneously written that Bl. Gobert died on the feast of St. Bernard, which then was the fourth weekday, and it should be written, which then was the second weekday.

[42] Things omitted by the biographers The other matters which are narrated in the Acts of Bl. Gobert are either clearer than to need illustration, or, if obscure, will be more conveniently explained in the annotations. Meanwhile I here subjoin a few things which are not found written in the Acts themselves. In book 1 of the Chronicle of Villers, chapter 14, under John the twenty-fifth abbot, these things are read: The wine which we have at the bleedings — that is, at those set times at which it was lawful to lessen the blood or to undergo the cutting of a vein — nonnus Gobert of Aspremont and brother Theobald, formerly a knight and Castellan of Courtrai, procured. But in the third book, chapter 6 of Martène's edition, this specimen of his zeal is narrated:

[43] are supplied; There was in the monastery of Villers a certain conversus, Henry by name, deriving his origin from Brussels. He … when … he was with difficulty unlearning the softness of his former manner of life, and felt exceedingly heavy the harshness of vigils, fasts, and subjection, and of the other institutions, wishing to seek Egypt again, cried out that there was death in the pot of religion — for he had not yet tasted the meal of the true Elisha. Which hearing, nonnus Gobert of Aspremont asked and arranged that he should remain one month in the Order. But that month being past, since he was grieving with sadness, impatient of delay, unable to bear the weight of the Order longer, he disposes to go away; but the man of God, nonnus Gobert, wrung from him a truce of yet one fortnight. Meanwhile prayer was made by the Convent to God for him; and the Lord heard the prayers of those crying to him; and the novice, returning to himself at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, presently chose rather to be subject in the house of God than vainly to glory with this world; and thereafter he shone with such eminence of charisms that his brothers, vehemently moved, rejoiced at the excellence of his life. Then his life and the pious death of that same John are set forth at greater length, for whose salvation our Blessed one had with such zeal taken thought.

[44] and in particular his honorable burial is described. Finally John d'Assignies, already often alleged, sets forth the place of our Blessed one's burial in the French idiom thus: His body was committed to the earth before the steps by which one goes from the monastery to the church, on the right side; where there stands erected a monument of marble, upon which lies an effigy representing Gobert clad in the monastic garb. The cenobites, when about to pass this way, bow the body, showing that veneration which is paid to a sacred image. The likeness of that marble monument, engraved on copper, Christopher Butkens presents in the Annals of the family of Lynden, page 23; whose figure, as it is there represented — yet here reduced to a smaller size — the engraver has striven to imitate in the copy which you see below. This likeness of the indicated mausoleum the French poet too presents, who was cited above at number 4; which nevertheless it has seemed good to transfer hither again, to the glory of blessed Gobert.

[45] It remains that I subjoin the Acts. But before the rest it pleases me to print those The Acts. which I said at number 6 have not yet been published in print, being about to omit the others which I noted at number 11 to be already printed. Moreover I leave untouched the ancient division of the Acts into three prologues, three books, and one proem, and only subdivide the books into chapters, with titles of the matters to be narrated set before them. But lest the reader stick at the participles which will occur through the course of the Life, employed by the biographer in place of verbs, those things which are enclosed in brackets will serve, that the sense, which otherwise would be obscure, may be more clearly understood through the words inserted among them; within which other things too are enclosed, that the manuscript exemplar may be helped. These things being premised, behold now for thee, reader, such as it is, this Life of Bl. Gobert the confessor, which is presented:

LIFE

by an anonymous ascetic of the monastery of Villers,

From a manuscript codex of that same monastery.

Gobert, of the Cistercian Order, in the abbey of Villers in Brabant (Bl.)

BHL Number: 3570

By an anonymous monk of Villers.

FIRST PROLOGUE.

The biographer proclaims his own unfitness If the prophet Jeremiah, who, before he was formed in the womb, was chosen by the Lord, and before he came forth from the belly was sanctified, when the Lord, illuminating him with his own spirit, made him over to the office of the word, complained of the weakness and ignorance of his age, saying, "Ah, ah, ah, Lord God: behold, I know not how to speak, for I am a child" — what shall I, a sinner, do, who was conceived in iniquity and brought forth in offense, and by reason of the filth of my life am uncircumcised in heart and in ears; because, namely, I neither worthily perceive the things to be known, nor devoutly keep the things I have heard? How shall I declare the justices of the Lord and take his covenant in my mouth — whose age time has not yet filled up, nor knowledge commended; whose sayings neither doctrine strengthens nor life confirms? Especially since you bid me write and set in order, most dear brothers ^a, things whose dignity I scarcely conceive with a sluggish mind.

[2] and the necessity of divine help Yet for this cause I find a way of daring such things: namely, because I believe that I shall be upheld by the Lord, and because I trust that I am helped by the intercession of the loving Brother Gobert and by your prayers; for whose veneration and love I have fitted a great burden to my weak shoulders. Now then, for the composing of verbal ornaments for so illustrious a matter, whose endeavor, even among the skilled, will suffice? Yet aided, as has been said, O my lords and brothers, by your prayers, and supported by the patronage of that same venerable and loving brother Gobert the confessor, what is beyond my strength I steadily carry forward in that hope and faith, and, when carried forward, I healthfully expend it, to be judged by your love. The Godhead itself too gives assent to whatever the will of mortals presumes in his praise; for nothing worthy of God is said without him, nor indeed is he himself invoked without himself, whose gifts they assuredly are, if anyone deserves to declare the works of the Almighty. And whereas it is a great thing and very good to proclaim the merits of the Saints and to extol their virtues, yet to seek those very virtues and to acquire them by imitation is truly the best and most excellent. Yet both are given and inspired from heaven.

[3] he proclaims. Let us with the whole intention of our mind praise together the Holy Spirit, the fellow-worker of all virtues; and, being about to treat, unto the highest glory of God, of the praiseworthy life and holy conversion and manner of life of the venerable and loving Gobert, let us invoke the grace of that same Holy Spirit, which must be implored even in the least matters: that he who by his grace went before him and followed him in the contempt of the world and in the denial of himself, may deign to go before us also in this narrative and to follow after, and may make us fit relators of so great a history. For some God beatifies by the suffering of martyrdom, some by the glory of chastity and the integrity of their merits, but some he rewards for faith and works of mercy. Now therefore let us approach those things which pertain to the common edification, and which can profit the devout minds of the hearers unto imitation, concerning the life and miracles of so great a soldier of Christ and so glorious a recruit:

[4] He sets forth the division of the little work. And moreover those things which were of the world — namely brave deeds pertaining to earthly dignity and secular soldiering, which are renowned and worthy to be related in eternal memory — we have resolved not to pass over in silence, but have inserted them in the first little book. But his spiritual deeds, namely those which befell him after he had resolved at the prompting of the Holy Spirit to transfer himself to the Cistercian Order; and how he had been received into the Order; and what befell him after he had taken the monastic habit, up to the infirmity of which he died, we have in part set forth in the second little book. But in the third little book we have announced the infirmity of which he died, and likewise his death, and the miracles ^b which after his death the Lord wrought by his merits, as we believe. And we are beseeching those who shall take this up to be read, that they be not offended at things written in a rustic and unpolished style, but rather grant us pardon. Now therefore, the clemency of heavenly help being invoked, we shall hasten to the excellent acts of the loving Gobert, that with how great gifts of graces in Christ he was endowed may stand openly before the faithful in clear light.

ANNOTATA.

life by profession.

SECOND PROLOGUE.

Similitudes being brought forward I believe that not a few will marvel at my little work, that before so great an abundance of most learned men, who have been variously and diligently instructed in the faculty of divers sciences, I have dared with a rash and almost sacrilegious attempt to treat in a little book of the most arduous deeds of that renowned man, the loving Gobert. But although I know there are most learned men there, and know myself to be useless and unfit for undertaking so great a work, yet in this I think I must be excused: that it is not to be considered who speaks, but what. For in a thicket it is not the sharpness of the thorn that is to be considered, but the loveliness of the rose; and honey is received in a fragile reed, and cheap onycha ^a sweats precious balsams; and flame is struck from a stone. I have not therefore taken up this little work because the wisdom of my heart and the conduct of an honorable life correspond to such a matter as that of which I purpose to treat; but because, if at times the greater are silent, it is no wonder if the lesser stammer; and, if the letter is silent, the stones cry out.

[6] If therefore the divine clemency should deign to distill some drop of the honey of wisdom into the dryness of my breast, he shows that the slenderness of his capacity I would carefully study to work it, after the manner of the honey-making little bee, into a threefold writing concerning the life of the loving Gobert. And I say well "into a threefold writing," because the life of the loving Gobert is divided into three little books. The first little book narrates his secular soldiering; the second his spiritual life up to the infirmity of which he died; the third book speaks of his infirmity of which he died, and of his death, and of the miracles which God wrought through him. You therefore, religious men, brothers of Villers, not regarding the unfitness of my lowly person, I admonish humbly and devoutly in Christ Jesus our Lord, that you receive with one mind and kindly the titles of your brother, the loving Gobert; even as with one mind and kindly he loved you until death ^b in firm charity.

[7] Despise not, I say, the person of me who write, must be excused. nor marvel if honey be found in a fragile reed, and cheap onycha sweat precious balsams; but recall what and how great things Nebuchadnezzar, though unworthy, prophesied concerning Christ ^c; and so, though I be indeed unworthy who have purposed to write of the loving Gobert, deign to receive it kindly: that, the worthy merits of the loving Gobert interceding, that angel who stood beside the altar of the temple, Michael by name, may offer for you from his hand much incense in the sight of the Most High. In the year of the Lord 1237, therefore, in the first time of that most mighty prince Henry, most robust duke of Lorraine ^d and Brabant — namely of him who, at his own first bidding, when he was paying nature's irrevocable debt, chose at his death to be entombed in the monastery of Villers of the Cistercian Order; and although it had before been unheard of that a Duke of Brabant should be buried outside Louvain, nor do we readily hope that a like case will come afterwards either: yet this Henry desired to be reduced to ashes in the said monastery, before all the places of the world, in the natural dissolution of corruption.

ANNOTATA.

PROEM TO THE FOLLOWING BOOK.

The life of the Saints ordained by God Our most loving and supremely good Lord God, who wills all men to be saved and none to perish, but to come to the knowledge of the truth, himself foresaw for himself from eternity vessels of election — namely men after his own heart, and who should one day be kings, who should know how to rule themselves in heart, mouth, and work: in heart, by believing rightly; in mouth, by confessing purely; in work, by making satisfaction and by doing the things that are just; who should know also to live by the knowledge of God, and, by the holy service which they were to render to God, to reign — according to what is said: to know whom is to live, to serve whom is to reign. Whence also blessed John the Apostle says: "This is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Who should know none the less, as blessed Augustine says, that it is the most perfect and fullest justice thus to love God with the whole heart and to cleave to him with the whole will. Of these God himself foresaw the origin, whence they were to proceed; the life by which they were to live; the way by which they were to walk; the end and the death by which they were to depart from this world. Besides, because they were created by the counsel of the holy Trinity and reborn by the work of the divine majesty, therefore not undeservedly at the prompting of the Holy Spirit they understood how much of thanksgiving and love they owed their Maker, and were made holy: for they are worthy of God's beatitude who have kept themselves approved. And so these just men, spurning the world with its acts, who with good will and piety and better hope, acquiescing in the commandments of God, enjoy the delights of paradise, loving Christ alone, preferred him above all corruptible things; and therefore each rejoices in God, is enlightened in Christ, and renewed in the Holy Spirit.

[9] is a joy to the heavenly ones. Unceasingly too the holy Trinity exults over them; the angels and archangels rejoice over them; paradise with its delights rejoices over them. Truly these are praiseworthy and glorious and in all things blessed; for such the Lord had foreseen them as by his grace he knew that they would be. For angels and men call them blessed, because they preferred the love of the Lord to the whole world; and the Lord, holy, just, and true, gave them his kingdom and glory and greater grace, that they might see him with the holy angels ever in joy. To the glorious college of these Saints, then, we hope that this man, beloved of God and of men — namely the loving Gobert — is not undeservedly joined by a special privilege; whose origin, though noble according to the dignity of the world, yet was made nobler in Christ according to the merit and power of faith. Illustrious indeed he was in his parents, but more precious in his virtues. Of what sort therefore his origin was, let us disclose in a compendious discourse.

BOOK I.

The secular life of Bl. Gobert.

CAPUT I.

His birth, his youthful age, his military life, his expedition into Palestine.

Book I.

The reverend and renowned and loving Gobert, then, a man manly in heart and in work, Bl. Gobert, heir of a most noble parent, was in the borders of Lorraine ^a, robed ^c with parents and kinsfolk and grandsires and great-grandsires most noble from most ancient ^b time; begotten also, according to the world's probity and the nobility of manners, from a reverend stock, he was sprung from the most strongly fortified town of Aspremont ^d. For his parents were exceedingly wealthy. And his father, Gaufrid by name, had two sons. The firstborn was called John, and the other Gobert. And both were boys of elegance, fair and robust among all the coevals of their youth. On a certain day therefore the father, looking upon his sons and diligently considering them, weighed that the younger son, namely Gobert, was according to the custom of the world the worthier and more fit for soldiering: he gave him — which nevertheless is contrary to the custom of the world — all his goods to be possessed by hereditary right. But of his brother John, the firstborn, who seemed less fit for secular soldiering, he made a cleric; who first was made bishop of Verdun ^e and afterwards of Metz.

[11] Hence Gobert began, like a stream rivaling its original springs, when in his youthful age to imitate from his tender years in character and work the worldly probity of his own stock; for of what prudence, of what understanding he was, the issue of the matter proved. And there was such and so great a vigor in him that his tender age was astounded at him: exceedingly strong and robust in body, instructed in manners, exalted in boldness of heart, furnished with most noble address, approved in every magnanimous work, most fierce against proud enemies, gentle to the small and lowly, wise and modest in speech, firm in testimony and counsel, skilled in judgment, and prepared in all courtesy. And although at that time in his youthful age he somewhat sought after earthly heights, yet he held the edge of his mind fixed in the fear and likewise the love of the Creator of all.

[12] When in the course of time our Gobert, though young, had been made a knight, in the time of his youth he practiced his own wishes in certain acts of the world: and had turned aside somewhat to the world in the military life, for he was steadfast in waging wars, and inflamed with unseemly bendings of the loins; but, Christ helping, this vice was quickly turned into goodness, for he received the teaching of the Holy Spirit and found wisdom. For it was not expedient for him, for the salvation of his soul, to practice secular soldiering; and because it is written, "No man can receive anything unless it be given him from above" (for all have sinned and need the glory of God; and it is not of him that wills nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy), he received felicity from the Lord, because God was his hope; and he graciously kindled his desires and afterwards strengthened them unto perfection: because, as it cannot be dissolved when it is from God, so, when it is not from God, it cannot long stand — as the Lord himself says: "You are my friends, if you do the things that I command you."

[13] he is converted to holier things, Thus, while the aforesaid knight, namely the loving Gobert, was still giving himself to worldly soldiering, and above all his coevals was claiming a famous name, he began to weigh in his heart that the fame of worldly glory could not endure for ever in heaven. He began therefore to fear God and to venerate ecclesiastical persons, and to embrace the blessed Mother of God, Mary, with great desire; and amid the rust of worldly soldiering to be already so devout that he might in some manner be called perfect, and in the work of all virtues, if it be lawful to say so, be wholly likened to some one of the Saints. From that time therefore he did not contemn the judgments of the law, but began to avoid all matter of crimes. He did no harm to his kinsfolk, but

he even bestowed more widely upon the poor. And there was in him so great a diligence of largess that he afterwards bestowed upon the poor and needy very many things which before ^f he had seized from them. He kept faith in friendship no less than he sought it; nor did he cultivate fortune so much as he imitated the virtues. By mercy he lifted up the oppressed also, constantly recalling, in every observance of piety, that God would above all be favorable to him herein concerning his sins, if he should busy himself that all who were unjustly oppressed should be lifted up by him to whom the prophet says: "When the just man shall fall, he shall not be bruised, for the Lord putteth his hand under him."

[14] and he exercises various virtues. Moreover the loving Gobert, God's soldier, being exalted amid the whirlwind of worldly soldiering, began to make every business of God and of the Church his own, so that, if he could, he would wish to accomplish it alone, and, as a member, willingly to support the head. He began also so to love his neighbors for God's sake that he would wish, if he could, to succor all, nor in any wise to defraud even an enemy; to defend the weak against the powerful when unjustly oppressed by them; to sustain widows and orphans; to keep unharmed the men subject to him, to defend them from all injury with his own hand, and to be content with his own pay; to spare his enemies for God's sake, to succor his neighbors, as has been said; to love and fear God above all and before all: so that he seems now to obey the Lord saying in the Gospel: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with thy whole mind"; and, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

[15] But on a certain day the loving Gobert, man of God, the divine grace working with him, was so inspired that he wished to avenge the outrage ^g which in the holy land of Jerusalem is set against the Lord by the unbelievers, to crush the worship of idols by the unbelievers, to destroy, if he could, the idols ^h made with hands, of wood and stone and cast of every kind of metals, deaf, vain, blind, and dumb, Setting out for the holy war against the Saracens, and there to exalt the divine office. While the man of God was thinking such things in his heart, and confirming this purpose in his mind with discreet deliberation, a certain most abominable emperor of the Romans, Frederick by name, who was secretly unfaithful ⁱ, as afterwards appeared manifest by many proofs, was purposing to go to the holy land of Jerusalem, that by a false pretense of good his iniquity might be veiled. This perverse emperor, then, dwelling with much force upon the shore of the sea ^k, subtly leagued to himself the aforesaid soldier of God, namely the loving Gobert — now with deceitful words, now with promises, now with entreaties, now with gifts — and gained him as his fellow-soldier in the said pilgrimage. And because the faithful knight believed that the said emperor would visit the Holy Land in a faithful pilgrimage, in that pilgrimage he was subject to his command. Having taken up the sign ^l of Christ, in the name of God he crossed the sea peaceably, with grace and prosperity, as far as the Holy Land.

[16] And the soldier of God, thronged with all the most famous favor of the world — which nevertheless he esteemed as nothing — of his own salvation and moreover fenced about with the grace of God, casting away care for worldly glory, was ever given to the service of God, knowing that it is not profitable to serve two masters at once and together; and therefore he chose above all to serve his Creator and blessed Mary the Mother of God in all things, setting aside all worldly service, as if he considered that which the Lord says in the Gospel: "Every man putting his hand to the plough and looking back is not fit for the kingdom of God." Wherefore, wishing to draw near to God the most high and devoutly to serve the blessed Virgin Mary, he learned on the road the course of the Hours of that same glorious Mother of God and Virgin Mary, not taking up dice or counters, lest by vain delights he should dishonor her service. On each day indeed he said the Hours of the blessed Virgin Mary, and daily, out of devotion, had the canonical Hours celebrated in his sight, to the praise and honor of God, with the utmost gladness. So devout was he that he seemed already to imitate the monastic religion.

[17] Moreover the loving Gobert, man of the Lord, began to desire not only his own salvation and he takes care of the soldiers. but also that of his neighbors, according to that word of the Gospel: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." To his fellow-soldiers therefore and to his retainers he preached words of salvation, that by spiritual food and by daily bread their souls might be sustained. He spoke to them also of the vain failing of the world, of the swift witheredness of the flesh, of the devil's most crafty temptation, of God's most gracious goodness, and of the eternity of everlasting glory. On each day therefore he exhorted them to bear gladly for God's sake all things adverse to them, by reason of the vow of the cross; and he exhorts them to recall how, and what, and how great things God will requite to those whom by faith and work he foreknows to be his own — when he will repay true things for vain, manifest for sophistical, useful for useless, sweet for bitter, lovable for hateful, pleasing for loathsome, precious for cheap, fragrant for fetid, things enduring for ever for transitory, heavenly for earthly, things abiding unto ages of ages for momentary. These and like things he urged; nor did he compare earthly punishment to the eternal reward, recalling what the Scripture elsewhere says: "The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, which shall be revealed in us." And he showed by such and many other reasonings that the pains of this life are not to be feared, reminding them how much greater things God endured for his elect — which no mortal could endure for the space of one hour. Which is plain from the word of the prophet speaking in the person of Christ: "O all you that pass by the way, attend and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow." For it is good to serve such a soldier and in a manner a prince, who out of ingrained goodness busies himself to repay his fellow-soldiers with bodily and spiritual food.

ANNOTATA.

* but

* read: to set aside

CAPUT II.

Bl. Gobert protects the Christians against the injury of the emperor Frederick, and visits the sacred places.

Frederick turning his arms against the Christians While the aforesaid Frederick, then, and the loving Gobert were sailing night and day through the trackless sea, and the sailors were keeping the course by knowledge of the stars, they came to the holy land of Jerusalem. And when all had gone up from the sea-shore to the dry land, they set up very many tents and standards, because Frederick was hastening to war down the Templars. Which being done, the report of this thing flew even to the Templars. That Frederick therefore, emperor and most abominable apostate, pressed them from the side of the sea, having many ships fortified with arms and soldiers ^a upon the shore of the sea, so that the Hospitallers, the Templars ^b, and the other Christians of divers houses could not, and did not dare, to appear before Frederick. It was truly then announced to the supreme master of the Hospital of Jerusalem and to the supreme preceptor of the Templars that there had come thither from parts beyond the sea a certain most illustrious knight, who was a most excellent and mighty soldier, Gobert count of Aspremont by name; who shone in fame in the borders of the Franks, and whose name was to be dreaded in all those same regions; who never found his equal at arms in all the parts beyond the sea; and that by his help their want might, God being favorable, be relieved. Which being heard, they began to rejoice and to say: "Blessed be the Lord, who dwells in Sion, who has had mercy on us." Truly the Lord has had mercy, because he has looked upon his people, not forsaking those who hope in him. For who has hoped in him and been forsaken by him?

[19] Then the master of the Hospital of Jerusalem, and the preceptor of the Templars, Bl. Gobert forsakes, and joins himself to the Christians, and the Templars with the Latins began to ask Gobert, soldier of Christ, and to exhort him with many prayers, that he would deign to succor them against the enemies of the Church and to defend them against the profane emperor. They disclosed also his fraud to the man of God. Hearing this, the renowned soldier of Christ, Gobert, marveling, began to inquire whether this could have so come to pass. But the Templars, with many suitable witnesses and religious men, asserted to the loving Gobert that these things were true. And the man of God, spurning the empty glory of the world and the favorable grace of all boasting, not lifting himself up with words, says that he can do little, nay can do nothing, without the Lord; yet, according as God shall give him a good outcome, he desires to trample down the enemies of the Holy Land and to defend the Catholic faith, because he is ready for God's sake to go into labor and into death. But when the man of God saw Frederick preparing such things against the Templars, and saw in his mind, word, and work such signs to appear as bear witness of his unfaithfulness — because it is not safe for Catholic men to dwell with unbelievers (lest he who touches pitch be defiled by it) — being suffused with zeal for God, having leagued with himself his own soldiers and whomsoever he could, he is separated from Frederick's army, and hastened to the help of the Templars.

[20] Coming therefore, a recruit of Christ, into the blessed Land, he began to pray with great affection of heart, and of these, most of all the afflicted, rendering thanks to God most high, because he had rescued him from the waves and perils of the sea and had brought his servant safe into the holy Land. Yet the man of God was suffused with anguish and shame, because he found the holy land of Jerusalem desolate of every office of the divine majesty, and having a poverty of God's ministers, and found worshippers of idols dwelling in it, and found few Christians there; and as many as there were,

they were oppressed with a close fear of death, so that for dread of the pagans they did not dare to go far from the rampart of the camps and cities: for on the side of the wall they were straitened by the pagans; on the side of the Ocean they were most grievously harassed by the apostate Frederick. There he beheld some as it were half dead for fear of death, some as it were lifeless; who for fear of death seemed unfit to wage wars, and who could say with as it were a plaintive groaning of voice and heart: "Spare, Lord, spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed, O Christ, with thy precious blood."

[21] The master of the Hospital and the supreme preceptor of the Templars, raising up their spirits, and the other Christians, receiving the loving Gobert, man of God, into their help, rejoiced with exceeding great joy. Likewise those too who at first had been feeble for fear of death snatched up arms with magnanimous heart. A great tumult arises through the whole province of the Christians: with arms and fervent spirit men run to the ships. But Gobert with his fellow-soldiers and the people cleaving to him ran to the help of the Hospitallers and Templars. But the rest of the Christians guarded their own camps, that, in the firm faith of the Church and the Christian religion, the servants of God, though few, might be able to war down Frederick, the perfidious and apostate emperor — knowing that victory hangs not upon few or upon many, but as the will shall be in heaven; recalling that prophetic word of the Psalmist saying: "He shall not have pleasure in the strength of the horse, nor delight in the legs of a man. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, and in them that hope in his mercy." And elsewhere: "These in chariots and these in horses; but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God."

[22] He compels Frederick to desist from his undertaking. The loving Gobert, man of God, therefore, in the name of the holy Trinity, with his soldiers and retainers (being armed for the help, as was said above, of the brothers Hospitaller and Templar), being kindled , ordered his banners and standards to be raised on high above the barriers ^c and fixed there; that at the sight of them Frederick and the enemies of the Christians might even so be confounded and be turned to flight. But Frederick, sailing in the deep of the sea, seeing the dread banners and standards raised above the height of the wall, marveling, asked what this was. To whom a certain man answering said: "My lord, these are the banners and standards of that most excellent and most mighty soldier Gobert, Lord of Aspremont." Which being heard, Frederick began to be greatly saddened that he had thus forsaken him. And, with confounded mind, groaning, he began to say: "It is not safe for me to set myself against such a man, lest perchance I be unable to escape his hand. Let us turn our sails then with the side slanting, as quickly as may be, that by a crosswise course we may be able to take flight." Thus did God deliver his wretched servants by the hands of his soldier. These and many other works God wrought by the hand of his servant Gobert; whose life, if we should wish to search out in all particulars, the pen would fail the writer before the end of the furrows ^d should be reached; time would fail the student before the whole history should be run through in furrows. But because it is weighty and long to search out each thing, and lest weariness be begotten in the hearer's mind, it befits me to run through all with a brief pen.

[23] About to fulfill the vow which he had conceived Moreover in so straitened a peril the soldier of God, of the aforesaid boldness, had vowed to the Lord that, if God's mercy, favorable to him and to his helpers, should grant this relief, so that safe and sound they might war down Frederick, he would visit the sepulcher of the Lord and the cross in the holy city of Jerusalem. Whence, Frederick being put to flight, the Templars began to chafe in their hearts, saying: "Alas, why has that seducer thus escaped? Why has that persecutor of justice thus vanished? Why has that lover of fraud and iniquity thus secretly flown from us unpunished?" To whom the loving Gobert, soldier of Christ, said: "In so great a miracle you ought to render wondrous praises to the Lord, and to repeat them when rendered, and to redouble them when repeated; because that so most mighty a prince, exceedingly crafty in all warlike soldiering and fortified beforehand with armed soldiers and innumerable squadrons, thus fled feeble from the face of the servants of the Lord, is far more than to have overcome him by force of arms and put him to flight when overcome."

[24] he visits the sacred places, where he suffers in his legs, Frederick therefore being put to flight, the loving Gobert, man of God, went up to Jerusalem to discharge his vow, because it is better not to vow than after a vow not to discharge it; recalling this which the Scripture says: "Vow ye, and pay to the Lord your God." That venerable and faithful servant of God went up therefore, as he had vowed, to Jerusalem, not in linen but in woolen garments, barefoot, not on horseback but on foot, that he might deserve to be a pilgrim for the Lord. For He went up into holy Jerusalem sitting upon the colt of an ass; this man on the proper feet of his own flesh. He gave in an enigma an example of taming the flesh; this man by God's example trod down his own flesh in the power of God. When therefore the man full of God had gone up into the holy city, he began to give thanks to God and to say: "I give thee thanks, thee, Lord God, King of heaven and earth, that thou didst not spare thy only-begotten Son, my Lord Jesus Christ, for my sake, but didst send him into this land to redeem me; and hast deigned to bring me, a pilgrim, into this holy Land." And indeed in this ascent to Jerusalem a strong malady attached itself to the man of God, cleaving to his legs, so that never in his mortal life could he be freed from it. Which malady we know to have been a chief sign of love. For the Scripture says: "Whom I love, I rebuke and chastise." And elsewhere the Scripture says: "They who are excluded from the number of scourgings are excluded from the number of sons." And elsewhere: "God scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."

[25] But Gobert with cheerful mind received God's rod, and returns to his fatherland. as though rejoicing he looked upon that saying: "As gold is purged in the furnace, so the anguish of tribulations tries the strong." Rejoice, Gobert, that thou hast received such a token of malady in so holy a pilgrimage, which in the eternal recompense before the supreme judge will be to thee a great testimony of thy pilgrimage. And indeed the man of God, the vow of the cross being fulfilled with the greatest devotion in the Holy Land, returned home through the paths of the sea and the trackless ways of the land safe and sound (excepting the infirmity of his legs, as has been said) with great prosperity.

ANNOTATA.

* perhaps: being kindled

* these being seen

* are excepted

CAPUT III.

Bl. Gobert, returning from Palestine, undertakes a pilgrimage to St. James; then he brings help to his subjects and to his brother, oppressed by enemies.

He is present at the divine offices even at the greatest peril. Gobert, God's loving servant, having returned home, as he had practiced on the way of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land to hear the Hours of the Blessed Virgin and Mother of God Mary and the canonical Hours, so, not departing from good but firmly cleaving to a holy life, he busied himself to serve God and the Blessed Virgin Mary with the greatest devotion, that he might not be reckoned among those of whom the Scripture says: "For a time they believe, and in the time of temptation they fall away." Even while he heard the divine Office, and while he said the Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he was always intent in heart toward God, so that there might not be said of him what the Lord says of the negligent: "This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." It often happened to the man of God that, while he went before daylight to the morning Hours, for fear of enemies he did not dare to go unarmed ^a; and yet he loved more to go with great fear to the worship of God than without fear to rest wantonly at that hour in his own bed, as though beholding that word of the Gospel: "He who loves his soul" — namely in this world — "shall lose it; and he who hates his soul in this world keeps it unto life eternal." Often before daylight he went with arms to the divine Office. Before daylight, I say, on account of that which is sung in holy Church: "Let it not be vain for you to rise in the morning before the light." Against a twofold enemy indeed, namely the visible and the invisible, he snatched up arms, as though considering that which the Lord says in the Gospel: "When the strong man armed keeps his court, all that he possesses is in peace."

[27] He undertakes a pious pilgrimage to St. James, Moreover the loving Gobert, soldier of Christ, wishing to turn all the fruit of his soldiering to good, setting out on pilgrimage to St. James the Apostle, did not set aside the service of the Blessed Virgin Mary; but being always ready to serve her, he daily at the first hour of the day sought a church where he might see and hear the divine Office of the holy Eucharist celebrated, that his soul might daily be sustained by the divine body. In such works the soldier of God daily first of all set forth the strength of his soldiering, according to that word of the Gospel: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all things shall be added unto you." Thus was he perfect in going and returning, and ever wrought from good to better, so that in him what the Scripture says seems to be fulfilled: "They shall go from virtue to virtue, until they see the God of gods in Sion."

[28] whence returning he protects his subjects with arms. Moreover, while the loving Gobert, soldier of God, had returned to the land which belonged to him by hereditary right, the count of Bar began fiercely to harass his land and his people ^b, so that the inhabitants of the land, for fear of death, did not dare to dwell in their accustomed places or houses. Then there came to Gobert the knights, husbandmen, and retainers of his country, complaining with great groaning and saying: "Lord, what art thou doing? Who ever, justly or unjustly, molested thy land and thy people while thou wast present? Why dost thou suffer us to be molested by so great a count? Take up again thy warlike arms, and suffer us no longer to be so fiercely harassed, nor thy heirs to be disinherited." Indeed the man of God had already purposed in his heart

that he would no longer follow the barren soldiering of the world; but it seemed to him in his heart that it would not be acceptable to God and men if he should suffer his poor little people to perish for want of a prince. Kindled with most fervent wrath, he snatched up arms, and gathered together his knights and retainers and husbandmen. He hastened to war against the said count, and entered with arms into the land of his adversary, burning everything with fire; whom his adversaries could not and did not dare to resist: for God fought for him, and had set his name above every name of soldiering. Seeing this, the count of Bar did not dare to come out to meet him, but promised that he would ratify * whatever was the said Gobert's will, and for the good of peace made terms with him. Thus did the man of God free his country and people from so grievous a harassing.

[29] To this most noble man, namely the loving Gobert, in heart, having changed his garb, he enters Metz, mind, word, and work, John, bishop of Metz, was brother according to the flesh; who at a certain time was so harassed by the count of Bar and by many other princes ^c that by them the city of Metz had been besieged on one side, so that the people of Metz could scarcely seek their swords with their strength. This adversity the bishop of Metz announced to his brother, the loving Gobert, entreating with many prayers that he would not delay to succor him in so straitened a peril. Which being heard, the loving Gobert did not dare to lead his people to Metz, lest his own land, being widowed of its people, should have its castles overthrown. Indeed the man of God began to propose marvelous things, which afterwards he accomplished in deed; and yet it would not be easy for anyone to devise such things. Dissembling himself, he purposes to go to Metz, knowing that the fame of his name could deter his brother's adversaries. Taking therefore for himself the garb of a wagoner, unfitting for the nobility of knighthood — namely a tattered smock *, having various stains from mud and earth, and a horrible tunic which seemed woven of the coarse hairs of an ass and a camel rather than of the fine wool of England; and hard leggings, dried out for so long a time that, for want of greasing, wide-gaping little cracks appeared stretched along the side of them; to which leggings spurs were stitched after the manner of wagoners. And he mounted a horse which was so lean that it seemed rather of boards than of flesh. On both its sides the hair had fallen away from the constant chafing of the shaft. Thus did the loving Gobert fit himself out, that he might dissemble that he was the Lord of Aspremont. Having taken with him two rustics in like garb, he met many on the way, but was recognized by none, and with his rustics in like garb came peaceably as far as Metz, and was received in that city with great joy.

[30] Then, as fame flew most swiftly through the whole country and city of Metz, he frees the city from siege. it terrified the arms-bearing strangers, because it flew swiftly through the camps and tents of the army; and at his coming the bishop and citizens of Metz began to be lifted up and to rejoice, and their adversaries to be cast down and to fear — as though recalling how the Philistines, as it were terrified, said of the children of Israel: "God is come into the camp: woe to us." So did those men fear at Metz at the coming of the loving Gobert, as though they should say: "No one against them; for God fights for them. Because a fair consolation and the greatest fortitude has come into their camp, let us flee from their face, or make peace with them." And so the adversaries of the men of Metz were, by the coming of the most robust man of God, Gobert, so terrified with astonishment that they made peace with the bishop of Metz on terms freely granted. Which peace being made, the loving Gobert, leave being received from his brother, namely the bishop of Metz, returned home, praising and glorifying for the victory obtained our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns through the immortal ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATA.

* he would ratify

* that is, a smock or something similar

PROLOGUE TO THE FOLLOWING BOOK.

The writer does not follow fables, or bedizened and inept words; The history, then, of the secular soldiering of the loving Gobert, man of God, having been traversed in brief lines, and the record having been made of those things which befell him in the holy land of Jerusalem, we shall set forth in a compendium many examples of his most holy conversion and manner of life. For we purpose plainly to unfold in brief and bare words the most celebrated life of that same loving Gobert, and his firm manner of life, acceptable to God and men; not preferring the favorable grace of the crowd (on account of that which the Scripture says: "He who wishes to be a friend of this world is made an enemy of God"), not cleaving to the little tales of the Muses, not following metaphors or paintings of words, not walking with the sophistical feet of elegy, tragedy, comedy, or satire; we exclude scurrilous words and such as move laughter, and childish ones, and the melodies of rhythms and the consonances of meters.

[32] but he intends the profit of his readers. Scurrilous words and such as move laughter, we say, on account of what blessed Peter the Apostle says: "If any man speak, let him speak as the words of God." Childish words we say on account of that saying of Solomon: "Woe to the land whose king is a child." The melodies of rhythms and the consonances of meters we exclude, because we know that they bestow not spiritual food upon souls, but deadly pastures of flattery upon the ears. And because a prolix heap of words, as it were a stepmother of favor, turns away not only the ears but also the hearts of hearers, we have compacted the present history into a succinct frame. We do not pursue the sports of the poets, delighting as with a pipe; but because, if perchance little ones ask for bread, they may not complain that they have not found those who would break for them the bread of Scripture, it pleases us to sweat over the acts of the loving Gobert, that his examples may be to little ones the bread of the soul. Moreover it is pious piously to give oneself to the pious examples of the loving Gobert, since it has been commanded by the Lord to gather up the fragments, lest they perish — that is, to bring back the examples of the Saints to the memory of the heart, and, lest they perish, that is, be given over to oblivion, to make them endure through the memory of writing. With which fragments if the baskets — that is, the hearts of little ones — be filled, they will not be able to complain of us that, when they asked for bread, there was none to break it for them. Especially since he who compelled Nebuchadnezzar ^a and Caiaphas ^b to prophesy of the Son of God has compelled us to bring back the examples of the loving Gobert to the memory of little ones through the handwriting of Scripture. And if any profit has been found in it, the clay affords the ministry, but the divine loving-kindness supplies the increase.

ANNOTATA.

* understand: specimens, or something similar

* perhaps: little tales

* comedy

BOOK II.

CAPUT I.

Bl. Gobert's celibate life; his contempt of worldly things; his entrance into the monastery of Villers.

Book II.

The loving Gobert, although he stood forth exceedingly powerful in all temporal goods, Bl. Gobert, a cultivator of chastity, yet left all for God's sake, according to what the Lord says: "He who shall not leave father and mother and wife and children and fields, and all that he possesses, cannot be my disciple." And when the man of God left all for God's sake, he did not thereafter look back with the eye of mind or of flesh, on account of what the Lord says: "Every man putting his hand to the plough and looking back is not fit for the kingdom of God." God promised his servant that, because he had withdrawn him from carnal commerce on earth, he would join him in an everlasting wedlock with the angels in heaven. Let them therefore blush who, released from the marriage bond, defile themselves with unhappy minglings, not protected by matrimony — since the man of God, mighty in every virtue, not merely a simple knight but a most noble man of ancient stock, robust in body, dread in aspect, terrible in word, exceedingly powerful in body, as a count mighty in most famous strength, withdrew himself from unlawful embraces.

[34] Setting aside the many riches which he used, of riches, not merely making light of them as of nothing and empty, but contemning them as vile dung for God's sake, as though there were graven upon his heart that word of the Gospel of the Lord saying: "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." Recalling too that saying of Jerome: "Every rich man is either unjust or the heir of an unjust man." And lest he should persist in carnal wantonness *, he recalled that saying of the prophet Joel: "The beasts have rotted in their own dung" — that is, that carnal men end their life in the stench of luxury. And so the man of God with the oil of penance, the oil of almsgiving, the oil of mercy, and the threefold oil of charity extinguished the fire of secular desires; and thus, God's mercy going before, he deserved the triumphal crown of eternal recompense.

[35] From the beginning therefore of the conversion of the venerable and beloved of God, the loving Gobert, a contemner of nobility and of the world, the enlightener of all nations so enlightened his heart with his most kindly mercy and filled it with the grace of the Holy Spirit, that he held in such vileness the line of his most illustrious nobility, which * blood had transfused into him from all his grandsires and great-grandsires before, that, all loftiness being spurned, he flew as a poor man himself to the camps of the poor of Christ at Villers, in this manner. The chosen man of God was once thinking in his heart and weighing by reason that worldly soldiering and all the glory of the world is as dust before the face of the wind; despising the things that are of the world and of the flesh, and hence he escaped, as though there were written in his heart that which Augustine says: "The world says, I shall fail; the flesh cries, I shall betray; the devil cries, I shall destroy; the Lord cries, I shall restore. Whom dost thou follow, man, whom dost thou follow?"

[36] he conceives the purpose of a holier life. But Gobert, wishing to imitate God, resolved firmly to embrace, even as he had practiced secular soldiering, so also a clerical and spiritual soldiering; that, as with delight he had served the world as a soldier, so with delight he might serve God also as a soldier, according to the Apostle's saying: "As you have yielded your members to serve iniquity unto iniquity, so now yield them to serve God unto sanctification." If therefore the soldier's victory is the commander's praise, he in a manner does damage to the Creator's praise who keeps silence about that wherein he may be praised in his elect. Nor yet does either the Creator need to be praised, or the elect to be celebrated by a human mouth; but we greatly need to praise: for since he alone needs nothing (as it is written: "For thou hast no need of my goods"), it must be that all need him. Beholding this our great need in praising God, the Prophet says: "Praise the Lord in his Saints."

[37] Desiring to be joined to the Cistercian Order, Almighty God exercised a threefold soldiering in his most valiant athlete, that by his soldiering he might overcome three enemies, namely the world, the flesh, and the devil, … and that this threefold soldiering of his in one soldier might serve the holy Trinity, existing in one substance. Whence the soldier of Christ, that he might be able to give himself more firmly and more devoutly to the clerical and spiritual soldiering, desired to be placed in the fellowship of the monks of the Cistercian Order, seeking a monastery suitable for himself. And so, having traversed many a province and many monasteries, he went as far as Nivelles ^a, because he had heard good report of the religious women, namely the Beguines ^b, dwelling there. Among the rest he found there a certain virgin who by the manner of her honorable life was acceptable to God; whose name was Emmeloth — which name may etymologically be derived from e (which is "outside") and melos (which is "song"), as it were "outside the song of the world."

[38] by the counsel of a virgin of Nivelles he goes to To this virgin the loving and most devout Gobert revealed the secrets of his heart concerning conversion. He confessed to her also how, many places having been traversed, he was seeking a place where he might be placed as a monk with holy men. The most desirous young recruit was therefore asking her to pray to God for his business, because, no fitting monastery having been found for him, he purposed to return to his own country. To whom the venerable virgin Emmeloth, suffused with the divine breath, answered: "I ask thee, my lord, and with awesome prayers entreat, that thou go as far as Villers before thou turn back: there without doubt thou wilt find a man, a most perfect monk, Abundus by name. He will tell thee in all things what thou oughtest to do."

[39] Abundus, an ascetic of Villers, Hearing this, that most kindly man, the loving Gobert, rejoiced with exceeding great joy. The Man full of God went on therefore and passed as far as Villers, and there found the humble Abundus. To whom, when found, he disclosed all his secrets, and handed over to him all his business to be transacted. Abundus therefore, a religious and loving monk, having undertaken with much devotion the business of the venerable and devout knight, the loving Gobert, adoring the blessed and glorious Virgin and Mother of God Mary — whom by a singular privilege and prerogative of love he loved after God — consulted her upon the said business.

[40] Which business being deliberated upon by Abundus, servant of God, at whose urging he chooses the monastery of Villers, and an answer received, by divine permission, from the Blessed Virgin Mary, his only friend ^c, he said: "Here God and the Blessed Virgin Mary wish thee to remain, because this is as it were the land of thy promise, through which thou shalt be able to come to the fatherland of recompense." Gobert therefore, being presently kindled within with divine fire, relied wholly upon the counsel of the venerable Abundus. Let us rejoice, then, because what Ananias was to the Apostle Paul, that the venerable Abundus was to the loving Gobert. He established Paul, fiercely raging against the Christians, in the Catholic faith; this man taught Gobert — against his enemies an unjust soldier, a proud lover of the world — to despise the world, to break pride by humility, to love an enemy for God's sake, and to keep all the monastic religion. Let the sheepfold therefore rejoice, whose lamb has been made the teacher of a raging wolf. Let the fold of Villers none the less rejoice, which calls her elect and gathers them from far regions into one, like a hen which gathers her chicks under her wings; whence the Church sings: "Christ has gathered us to glorify himself"; likewise, "The love of Christ has gathered us into one. Let us fear and love Christ our God. Where charity and love are, there is God."

[41] And so Gobert, using the counsel of the venerable Abundus, wherefore rejoicing is deservedly due. by the providence of God chose Villers in Brabant of the Cistercian Order, as though there were written in his heart that prophetic word of the Psalmist saying: "This is my rest for ever and ever; here will I dwell, for I have chosen it." And there, not abruptly, not impetuously, but with most holy deliberation, he chose to become a monk, as though recalling in his heart what the Lord says through the Psalmist saying: "With the holy thou shalt be holy, and with the innocent man thou shalt be innocent." But because it seemed to him that he had found there much innocence and religion ^d, he chose there to become a monk; which also was done. Let the choir of the monks of Villers therefore rejoice, in whose fellowship a mighty and rigid knight was made a poor and humble monk. The rigid was made bending, and the mighty a humble brother even to the least, like a violet breathing forth the best odor. For there his life gave on every side examples of an outstanding manner of life. And as a flower is pleasing in its flowering, so the loving Gobert was made pleasing in his loving manner of life, especially since fervor and religion flourished in him when he had been joined to such a college.

ANNOTATA.

* he withdrew.

* he should persist

* from

CAPUT II.

The various virtues of Bl. Gobert.

In Bl. Gobert's religious life various virtues are conspicuous, Hence, as time went on, when the religion of his holy and new soldiering flourished in the loving Gobert with the years, as one who had obtained something more of liberty, with the whole onset of his spirit he ran the way of sanctity. Whence, when he had been made a monk, he began to love all the brothers in God and for God's sake simply and firmly, and humbly to venerate them and to obey them, and to pay welcome honor, so far as he could, to young, old, and middling. Knowing the commandments of God and of the Order, he did not transgress them; he did not contemn his inferiors, he did not set himself before his equals, nor did he strive to make himself equal to his superiors. These four things he did not do, as though he knew them to be the roots of pride; which that he might escape, he was made meek and humble of heart, so that there might be found in him what the Lord says to his disciples: "Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart." The loving Gobert was therefore multiplied and grew, advancing from virtue to virtue in the house of the Lord (as the palm and the cedar of Lebanon, in whose branches the orphan found a refuge, and the widow, when she was afflicted, the shade of protection); into which house he often entered, and, prostrate with his whole poor body in the sight of the Lord of hosts, offered that which he chiefly had for a sacrifice — namely a contrite and humbled heart.

[43] toward God, Moreover, a wise dissembler, whatever of virtue was daily born in him he studied above all to conceal, fearing as it were to be plundered if he did not hide the treasure of his pious action. From the year of his probation he gave outstanding tokens of future sanctity: namely to loathe present things, to desire nothing in the world, to prefer nothing to the love of his Maker, to seek only those things which bring forth the fruit of true virtue. And — what is profitable to all — from the first prompting of the Holy Spirit, though in the novitiate of his youthful age, yet he so burned with love of his Maker that he despised all those things by which the life of mortals is cherished, and sweated in the desire of immortal life. For by all the virtues by which the heavenly kingdom is obtained was the loving man's spiritual soldiering nourished: for he despised the world, because he was sure that the world would fail; and he was made poor for Christ, that he might become rich in Christ. This rigid man piety bent; humility bowed the proud; from a lion he was made a lamb, because he bore the acts of peace through the virtue of faith, hope, and charity. Therefore he who seemed a lion is now in a manner joined to God by this threefold cord of virtues.

[44] Hence too he was saddened among the sad, he consoled the desolate, and his neighbor, he exhorted the good to good things; and because he was gentle in heart, he bore loving bowels, and gave to the needy the breasts of piety. He did not grow wanton in prosperity, but he smiled in adversity; and though full of plague, yet punishment tasted to him as sweet things — knowing that tribulation suffered for the Lord is not vain in the servants of Christ, because strength is made perfect in weakness. In this he imitated the Apostle, and, as has been said, he consoled the desolate; to all too he did good, but he inclined more to those of the household of the faith and to pilgrims, bestowing upon them solace and greater help. This Gobert for penance macerated his own flesh; who also walked in the light which is Christ; and at all times, as much by work and truth as by the prayer of words, he called upon God; because he did not vow penance in vain, therefore his good shepherd recognized his sheep. Him therefore God heard, whom he clothed with a clean garment, namely of charity. He too entered Jerusalem ^a, spurning, as has been said, the world; he desired God with a strong heart. And because by following Christ in heart he was joined to Christ, therefore he did not trust in this world.

[45] This just man too acquiesced in the just counsels of God, and grew in good works: and most of all the afflicted: because as long as he lived, purging here his mortal guilt, he rendered himself pleasing to God. For the loving Gobert gave offense to no one, smiling at tribulations, standing by the necessities of his neighbor, rejoicing in straits and labors, careful in prayers, exulting in vigils, cheerful in fasts, fervent in the divine offices, welcome in chastity, gentle in sweetness, full of the charity of God and of his neighbor; and therefore he did not catch at earthly gain. He also often visited the sick, comforted the wretched, sustained the needy as he could, put an end to schisms, made peace among the discordant with all the zeal he could, reproved the disgraces of his neighbors, loved God in his members, clothed the naked, stood joyful at the praises of God, and nourished the teachings of right, and thereby prepared for himself a seat with Christ; nor did he slacken his steps with the foolish virgins,

but with the taught and prudent virgins he hastened to the nuptials. He bore the oil of mercy in the lamp of example; with the cloak of example he fitted his whole body; he wisely avoided the outer darkness, and awaited the bridegroom at the gate of the nuptials, whom the bridegroom also placed at the nuptials. And thus he passed over to eternal joys, and therefore now lives gloriously in the everlasting tabernacles with all the Saints.

[46] The monks, observing by these and such tokens and by his outstanding virtues that the new soldier of Christ was illumined by a heavenly visitation, he draws others to admire and imitate him: plainly judge that this was done not without divine counsel and help; in which deed he showed himself to all with an example of such great humility that all venerated him with an affection of charity. For truly he was a lover of chastity, a most indulgent cultivator of hospitality, burning with a nectar-sweet fire toward God and his neighbor. With the oil of penance he trod down secular desires. When he was made a monk, he began in mind, word, and work not only to imitate the teachers of right, of religion, and of honorableness — namely the monks of Villers, his fellow brothers — in all goodness, but even to surpass them in good virtues, like a carbuncle among pebbles and the sun among the stars. Meanwhile the man of God in a short time, his manners being changed for the better, surpassed his teachers in every good work; so that, stretching out his rays, he seemed to becloud the neighboring stars; so that he might be called a light shining in darkness, because in comparison with him his fellow brothers, though good, might yet in a manner be called darkness, since they could not comprehend the brightness of his goodness. By these holy virtues and acts, then, that celibate man being strong, while in the aforesaid church of the monastery he shone above his coevals and elders like an excellent star, many of the brothers, animated by his example, chose to live more blessedly.

[47] he applies himself to mortification Nothing too was more displeasing to the man of God, the loving Gobert, than not to punish sin by penance; as though recalling that saying of the Apostle: "I chastise my body and bring it into subjection." Scanty sleep, a rough garment, scanty food, a hard bed, bore witness to the man of God's manner of life. A wondrous thing! He who had been in all the wantonness of worldly delight thus grew accustomed to subdue his wanton body with harsh penance. Moreover the loving Gobert, man of God, began to subject his wanton flesh to the divine servitude; and in these torments of penance, if his weary tongue sometimes kept silence, yet the mind of his heart sang psalms to Christ with its wonted devotion, as though recalling that Apostolic word: "Pray without ceasing"; and that of blessed Andrew hanging on the cross: "Pray without cessation, that the devil, who goes about seeking someone to devour, may be crushed and laid low and overcome by the servants of the Lord."

[48] and to humility: When therefore the man of God had been adorned with so many and such great patterns of virtues, he was honored by all, and contemned himself; he was loved by all, and he alone hated himself. This, O Christ, is thy glorification in thy servants. This is their casting down of themselves for the love of thy name: for the mind which is filled with the divine spirit has its own most evident signs — namely virtues and humility; which two, if they perfectly agree in one mind, it is clear that they bear witness of the presence of the Holy Spirit; for they are in God's great keeping who have known how to despise themselves in this life. And as the gift of the Holy Spirit is not bound by law, so the true esteem of a life is in the virtue of works, not in the display of signs; for the work is from the gift, not the gift from the work. The loving Gobert therefore received the gift of the Holy Spirit, and wrought good. For God had enriched him with the grace of the Holy Spirit in the inward and outward man — namely with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety; nor was the spirit of the fear of the Lord lacking to him either.

[49] he is filled with heavenly gifts: To the loving Gobert, most beloved of the Lord, this seems to be suited which is said by Solomon in the person of the Church: "His left hand" — that is, Christ's — "is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me." To the bride's left hand belong temporal and earthly goods; but to the right, spiritual and heavenly goods. Bodily goods are nobility of stock and of manners, health of body, and beauty. The goods of the right hand are the holy virtues, by which the soul is enlightened in the present, and eternal life, which is merited by the virtues. Both goods, namely of the right hand and of the left, Solomon expounds elsewhere when he says: "Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and glory." As long as the loving Gobert lived in the secular habit, glory and riches were in his house, whose justice, which he afterwards merited by a holy manner of life, remains for ever and ever.

[50] Which justice was such in him, that he rendered to each what was his own; for he studied to honor religious, nay Christ in religious. he reveres priests, and greatly loves the Blessed Virgin Mother of God: Priests too, both of the Order and secular, although they were poor and seemed contemptible, he honored so far that, when they were to come together to table, he never wished to wash his own hands before they had washed theirs; and he studied to prefer them to illustrious persons who were nevertheless secular. And because the fear of the Lord without love pleases less, he loved God before all and above all, and reverently feared him. The blessed and blessed and glorious Virgin Mary too, who is the mother of fair love — that is, of Christ, who is the fount and origin and author of all holy love — he loved above all things after God.

[51] Whence the most blessed Apostle Paul, who is a vessel of election, he had the effects of the divine predestination. understanding the glory of the elect and the divine dispensation concerning them, says thus: "And whom he predestined, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also magnified." Four things the glorious Apostle here enumerates: predestination, calling, justification, magnification. The first is eternal, and is the cause of the three following. But whom God predestines from eternity, these he calls in time, justifies, and magnifies. The loving Gobert, predestined from eternity, the grace of him who predestined called to the place of a holy manner of life at the time and on the occasion which he willed, as has been said before; the called he justified by contrition, confession, satisfaction, and renunciation of property; but the justified he magnified after death by signs and miracles. But of his heavenly magnification we are not able to speak, because of what sort or how great it is, we know not.

ANNOTATION.

CAPUT III.

Blessed Gobert gravely chastises a slight fault; his lowliness of mind, and his attention in prayers.

Bl. Gobert, seeming to himself with a companion Nothing was more pleasing to the man of God, the loving Gobert, than that his limbs should be cherished not with delicious food but with rough and scanty. Whence on a certain day, setting out on some business into a foreign region * with a certain fellow brother and monk, Peter — called not by a feigned but by a true name — when they had gone on their way for a journey of some days, in a certain town they took lodging one evening, where they had to pass the night. Being wearied with a long and heavy journey, and tired with the heat and labor of the day, they gladly accepted rest (although he was always ready for labor), lest the weak flesh should perish. Now that same monk, Peter by name, had bags in which he carried provisions for the journey, and he had many dishes served at table and cups ministered; for they greatly needed these — since after labor rest becomes most welcome, and after wormwood has been tasted good food and cups seem honey-sweet. They ate and drank so far as to take the necessaries for their weak flesh. But it seemed to the loving Gobert that they had not taken these things unto sobriety, but that they had beyond moderation consumed both food and cups. Conscience silently accused him for these things in the chamber of his heart. And though they were refreshed with those very foods and drink, he did not dare to disclose to his brother what was hidden in his mind, until on the morrow he should see the fasting of the heart return. For he knew that Bacchus, coming into the breast, knows not how to bear patiently words of correction.

[53] to have exceeded the bounds of temperance; But in the morning on the following day, while the loving Gobert, man of God, had gone on along a certain road with the said Peter his fellow brother, he began privately, humbly and kindly, to disclose to the said brother what he had conceived in his heart concerning the said expenses; and began to declare to him how his conscience accused him for these things, breaking out into these words: "O my brother, lord Peter, concerning the expenses which we made last evening my conscience greatly troubles me; for we did not spend unto sobriety, but beyond the necessaries of life we consumed temporal goods unto superfluity, making little of that saying of the Wise Man: 'Give me only the necessaries for my living'; and of the Apostle: 'We brought nothing into this world, and certainly we can carry nothing out; but having food and clothing, with these let us be content.' Nor is it lawful for us to spend the patrimony of the Crucified unto superfluity; but from it we may take necessaries for ourselves and for our chief household, but the remainder we ought to render to the poor. Therefore I say 'render,' because the patrimonies of Christ are properly the poor's."

[54] he accuses himself and him. These and like things the works of the loving Gobert asserted more than his words, as though there were written in his heart that saying: Beneficed clerics are dispensers in the church, not true lords, because only the dispensing has been entrusted to them. And he was as if considering that saying of Ambrose: "When we succor the poor, we bestow upon them not our own goods but theirs"; and as if considering Jerome saying at the end upon Hezekiah: "The things that have been sanctified to the Lord are not properly of those to whom they are given, but of him in whose name they are possessed." Therefore ecclesiastical goods are not properly the clerics', but Christ's and the poor's. And so the man of God, as it were beholding what has been set forth, knowing that ecclesiastical goods are not to be given to actors, lest they be sacrificed to demons; nor to be spent on superfluous uses, lest what is theirs be stolen from the poor of Christ. The man of God seems also to consider what an authority says elsewhere: "He is convicted of seizing another's goods who is proved to keep back for himself beyond what is necessary." Keeping back nothing indeed beyond necessaries — nay, not even necessaries — he bestowed upon the poor whatever he could. He kept back nothing for the morrow's uses, but became utterly an emulator of blessed Martin, who took no thought for the morrow. Reproving himself and his brother by these and many other things, the loving Gobert lamented within the guest-house of his heart that he had been wanton with Christ's patrimony, so that you might think he was considering that saying of Augustine: "Under a thorn-crowned head it is not fitting that a member be delicate."

[55] Now brother Peter, this rebuke

of the loving Gobert did not receive with reverent mind; He tries to soothe his companion, offended by the reproof, nor did he peaceably acquiesce in the man of God's words; but on the contrary, fixing his gaze sharply upon the man of God and suffused with wrath, he began to fume, so that, seething through all his bowels from excessive intemperance of anger, he could not answer him a word; but, as a wild beast of the forest disdains to bear an unaccustomed yoke, so likewise he kicked against the word of loving correction. Thus they went on for nearly three hours' journey of that day; nor did Peter give the loving Gobert any answers. Whom the loving Gobert, seeing that by his just rebukes he had without cause moved him to anger, began to be saddened and to grieve at this; and, that he might be able to appease the aforesaid brother toward him, he often addressed and soothed him with sweet words, as though considering that saying of Solomon: "A sweet word multiplies friends and mitigates enemies."

[56] But the loving Gobert, seeing that the aforesaid monk could in no way be bent, and prostrate upon the ground nor his mind pacified, said to him: "My brother, let us discharge the service of the Hours to our Creator." To which admonition he assented, but by keeping silence. And because it is the custom in the Cistercian Order ^a to bend the knees at the beginning of the Hours on ordinary days, in order to obey the Order they dismounted from their horses, bending their knees upon the ground. When therefore the loving Gobert had seen brother Peter prostrate on the ground, with hands joined, elbows and knees set upon the ground, and as if breaking a little into tears, he humbly and kindly asked pardon, because it seemed to him that by his correction he had provoked the said brother to anger. But the man of God's prayers did not touch him at all; for the heart of Pharaoh was hardened. Yet the man of God with humble words and constant entreaties pressed more and more, and steadfastly affirmed that he would never rise up until he had obtained pardon in the aforesaid matter. Seeing this, brother Peter raised him up with forgiveness, laying aside his wrath.

[57] A wondrous thing! Who ever heard or saw such things? with lowly mind O exceeding and wondrous humility! that a man beloved of God and men, foreordained in life and manners, most excellent in comeliness, most comely in manners and in birth from a most ancient stock — where he needed no pardon, because he was without fault — should so ask pardon, and should so bend his knees before the feet of a cruel brute. This working of sincere charity and of wondrous humility ought to be made everlasting by an epigraph in stone, lest it be burned up by the smoky heat of envy, and that the baskets may be filled — that is, that the hearts of readers and hearers may be strengthened and edified by this example, lest the fragments perish, that is, lest the memory of the fathers be given over to oblivion; since it plainly appears that this was a work of mercy: for if the man of God had not loved the Lord his God, he would in no wise have thus fallen down before his brother's feet.

[58] Indeed this working too may be called the greatest virtue, he asks pardon. and one of wondrous and moreover unheard-of humility: that before the feet of a poor monk so great and such a man, laying aside the insignia of his nobility, with joined hands should bend his knees, asking pardon in a matter where no fault had merited punishment. For by how much the glory of worldly delight amid the very exercises of the world had smiled more upon the loving Gobert, by so much the more, in the monastic habit, making little of the world's preludes, did he humble himself, bowing to the ground before all and in all things within. Therefore this virtue of humility was perfect in him, since he is called humilis, as it were bowed to the ground (humi acclivus). And so the man of God seemed to regard that of which the Scripture says: "It profits not to heap up virtues, unless one study to keep humility"; because, as blessed Gregory says, "he who gathers virtues without humility carries as it were dust in the wind."

[59] Since the Scripture says, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," it is plainly discerned that in this venerable man, the loving Gobert, the Spirit of the Lord was; Ignorant of letters, for he was endowed with such liberty of soul and spirit that not only out of good will and out of voluntary goodness did he serve the Lord God, and scorn to do evil, but also whatever was said to him or done, he made light of it all for God's sake out of liberty of soul. And thus he truly used liberty of soul, in which his will of living well remained, and persevered with him unto the end of his life; so that the grace of God increased his will of living well and of never sinning. Whence on a certain day it happened that the holy man, namely the loving Gobert, had to set out on a certain arduous business, and with him a certain monk, Ralph by name, cantor of Villers. And it came to pass, when they were on the way and the time had come for discharging the Hours, that the devout man said to the monk, namely his companion: "Most dear brother, it is time, and the hour has now drawn near, that we discharge to the Lord God our Creator the debts of our Hours." Now Ralph alone, as long as he was with him, was wont to sing the Hours before him.

[60] the reading of the canonical Hours And when they had said through the canonical Hour, and after the canonical Hour had begun the Hour of the Blessed Mary, it happened that they had to enter a certain village. And behold, the dogs of that same village came and gave great barkings against them; whom, when the man of God wished to drive off from himself and from his companion with the sleeve of his cowl, the more he drove them off while riding, the less he prevailed, because they followed the more and barked the more. When therefore the devout man perceived this, that the barking of the dogs hindered him from listening to the divine Hours, he said to the monk his companion: "Leave off saying this Hour now, until we have passed through the village, because the tumult of these barking dogs does not permit me to receive the sound of the holy words."

[61] he diligently strives to hear attentively: In these words clerics are struck and reproved, who, while they ought to have their heart upon those things which they sing and read so as to understand them, wander from themselves through their own negligence and lose their heart, and therefore do not understand what they sing or what they read; but this holy Man, because he was a layman and did not understand what was said in singing or reading, therefore said: "The tumult of these barking dogs does not permit me to receive the sound of the holy words." Woe shall it be to us, who have the knowledge of understanding what we sing or read, if we do not attend or apply our heart, when that man, who had not a clerical understanding, felt so great a sweetness of heart from the sound of the holy words. And therefore he wished in this to honor God, because he knew that God is to be honored by men so much the more worthily, by how much he remembered that he had undergone unworthy things for men. But now let us return to our order.

[62] he teaches that detractions are not to be regarded: When therefore they had passed through the village, the loving Gobert said to the monk: "Let us now discharge the Hour of the blessed Virgin, which because of the barking of the dogs we left off discharging." Which being discharged, the holy man again said to the monk: "Brother Ralph, say me some word of consolation, most dear one." Who answered: "What word shall I be able to say to you, who have not at present in memory what I should say?" To whom the loving Man said: "Tell me what the barking of the dogs signifies, and what it hints to us." Ralph answered: "What else should that barking of dogs portend, save that they do this which they have received from nature?" To whom the holy man said: "Hear me then, I will teach thee." And he said: "As we care not for the barking of these dogs, so neither ought we to care for the detractions of chattering men." Here we may note in the man of God nobility of heart and stability of mind: for in a manner the state of that gentle man stood inflexible; and because detraction did not provoke him to anger, therefore it may consequently be said that no favor inclined him to the slackening of useless trifling *.

ANNOTATION.

* when he was setting out

* he knew

* to have considered

* that he would rise

* the "and" is superfluous

* that is, of useless trifles or nonsense.

CAPUT IV.

Bl. Gobert's abstinence and works of mercy.

The flesh which he desired when sick, On a certain day the loving Gobert, man of God, was fiercely vexed by a certain bodily infirmity, so that, willing or unwilling, out of straitened necessity he had to lie down upon his little bed. But when he was thus harassed by the sting of a severe infirmity, as natural and accidental weakness supplied, he began ardently to thirst for the flesh of chickens; but the season did not afford an abundance of such flesh. And since the man of God did not have the aforesaid flesh — lest his human frailty should be more and more weakened by reason of exceeding infirmity, God willed, because the Lord in the time of necessity and straitness did not forsake those who hope in him, that, to fulfill his servant's desire, two chickens should be sent to the man of God as it were by divine provision.

[64] Which being brought, and prepared for the use of eating, and presented to the loving Gobert, he refuses, that he might eat what his infirmity craved, lest the weak flesh should fail on the way ^a, as it were speaking against the greediness of his infirmity, he began to murmur and to say: "O pestilent and intolerable greed, which, like a raven at carcasses, ever gapest, that thou mayest devour * each thing — thou who by thy barren voracity strivest fraudulently to war me down, who for so long a time hast beaten me back with the dart of the gullet: but thy defilements of wanton desire shall not prevail against me. Depart from me: I obey thee not; I will not, I say, appease the craving of my flesh with food so longed for by me with burning desire; thou devouring gullet shalt not eat of these chickens; but abundance shall make thee needy; that the iniquity of the gullet may not lord it over me, and that the Lord may favor me in what David asked, saying: 'Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth.'" Then he began to inquire which among the brothers were the weaker, wishing the chickens to be presented to them to be eaten, that they might make some little relief for their infirmity, saying and asserting that he would never be refreshed by them. O thing to be marveled at! Who ever saw a lay knight, who had been accustomed to nothing but worldly things, so instructed? Who so knew how by all means of the virtues to subdue the rebel she-ass of the flesh — as though considering that the human race had fallen through the craving of greed, and that, the belly being fattened by the appetite of the gullet, the human body (an earthen vessel formed of a mean shape) had bent itself prone to all carnal and enticing delights.

[65] His superiors prescribe a measure for his alms, which he obeys. Because, as has been said before, the loving Gobert had so great a care for the poor that temporal goods could scarcely suffice him for this, therefore a measure of giving and a portion was appointed beforehand for him, so that he could not give more to the poor than had been established for him. Nor indeed did he wish to exceed the measure of giving established for him by his superiors. For although a fervent and ordered will of giving alms to the poor for God's sake is a very great thing, yet he consented rather to obey the commands of his prelates and of the Order, as though recalling what the Scripture says: "Obedience is better than sacrifice"; and as an emulator of Christ the Lord, of whom it is said: "He was made obedient unto death." As the loving Gobert, while he used worldly things, had a care to give himself to pride and vainglory, so, while he was engaged in the monastic office, he had a care to be intent upon the holy virtues of the soul, according to that saying of the Apostle: "As you have yielded your members to serve iniquity unto iniquity, so now yield them to serve justice unto sanctification." The loving Gobert, man of God, setting aside the desires of the world and of the flesh, began to love good things, according to that saying of the Prophet: "Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it." He turned himself away from evil, as though knowing that sin which is not abolished by penance draws by its weight to other sins. Whatever good he could, he did, so that of him might be said that word of Scripture: "The Saints shall go from virtue to virtue."

[66] The works of bodily mercy, Among the other virtues, then, with which the Lord Jesus Christ had armed his soldier, namely the loving Gobert, he had chiefly adorned him with a twofold mercy, namely bodily and spiritual. That he had bodily mercy is plain, as appears manifestly from his works; for works bear firm testimony concerning a man: for he gave food to the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, received guests, visited the sick, and bestowed upon the poor of Christ, so far as he could, the other like works of piety. When he could not give an alms with his hand, he showed himself compassionate to the poor, according to what the Lord says in the Gospel: "Give to everyone that asketh thee" — "thee," he says, that no one may be excused; because anyone can show himself compassionate to a poor man for God's sake; whence blessed Augustine says: "The just man never lacks what to give." Every kind of alms, namely of mind, of voice, and of hand, shines in him. So it is plain that he had bodily mercy, since the aforesaid works are known to pertain to it.

[67] and of spiritual mercy, he practices. And spiritual mercy too he bestowed as he could: for he consoled the grieving, exhorted those who did well, reproved the negligent, provoked to amendment and satisfaction those who were proud in whatever crime, and admonished the faithful of Christ to persevere in every good work; he recalled sinners from the error of their way, and by word and by the example of his work incited them to do well. But since these things pertain to spiritual mercy, that he had it is manifest from what has been said. And because humbly and kindly, in perfect charity of God and of himself and of his neighbor, he faithfully bestowed both mercies, as he could, upon his neighbors, as plainly appears from what has gone before, he seems to me without doubt to be a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ. As often as it was lawful for him and he could succor the poor, with such fervent desire for God's sake he succored them by whatever means he could; nor was he ashamed to succor or minister to them; but he busied himself so carefully to minister to his Creator in his members that by his frequent ministry he might be compared to Martha. Likewise when he heard the saving words of theology proclaimed by some wise man, he listened so ardently that he might be called Mary sitting at the Lord's feet, who heard his word; with whom he chose the best part, which shall not be taken away from her.

[68] On a certain day the loving Gobert found before the gate of Villers a certain Beguine ^b utterly diminished in worldly riches; for a poor Beguine but for the love of her Creator she bore patiently the burden of poverty, and confessed that she had confidence in the loving Gobert. Among the other poverties indeed which the said poor woman had, she laid a complaint before the man of God upon this: that she had had no shoes for so long a time that from the hurt of stones and the striking back of hard roads, and the goading of thistles and thorns, she had her feet sorely burdened. Which being heard, the loving Gobert began to grieve and to be saddened, and began to run about to many offices ^c, inquiring whether he could obtain shoes from anyone whereby he might relieve the want of the said poor woman; but because he could not obtain new shoes for her, yet he obtained old shoes, which he bestowed upon the said Beguine as an alms. And because they were old and exceedingly hard, of whose * hardness the Beguine complains, because she could not endure in them, since their hardness would flay her feet — which being heard, the man of God began to inquire of her how their hardness might be softened, which he then wholly did not know, because he had never learned such things before he entered the Order; although he had often greased his own shoes for himself after he had taken the monastic habit. To whom she answered: "My lord, by anointing with grease or oil their hardness might be tempered."

[69] Presently therefore the man of God ran to the place he carefully procures footwear. where such things were used, that there he might obtain an anointing of this kind from one of the servants, carrying with him a little pot ^d of earthenware which the oft-mentioned Beguine had brought with her; into which little pot liquid oil is given him. Returning to the gate where he had left the poor little woman sitting, upon whom he desired to bestow as an alms the oil which he carried in his hand — when therefore he had drawn near to the place of the gate where it was lawful for women to sit, he saw a certain man coming to meet him, whom the vain flattery of human favor asserted to be noble. But such nobility is reckoned as nothing, since this, according to the philosopher, is nothing else than riches grown old; and since the Lord is no respecter of persons, whom to serve is to reign. When he had seen this man, whom the world's deceitful flattery supposed to be noble, he hid in his bosom the little pot in which the liquid liquor of oil lay concealed: not that the service of God or of the poor should be a burden to him, or be turned into shame or ridicule for him, but lest Pharaoh's heart should be hardened through human indignation.

[70] When therefore they embraced one another, namely the loving Gobert and that noble, He patiently bears mockery. the oil, being spilled in his bosom, running through the garments and the whole body of the loving Gobert, flowed down even to the ground; so that some said that he was so weighed down by some infirmity that he could not hold his water; others said that he was bleeding. The servants of the world, beholding this, laughed loudly to his reproach; and the man of God, thus mocked by men, could say with Christ: "I am become a reproach of men and the outcast of the people." But because he cared not for the withering flowers of the world, he could say with Paul the Apostle: "The world is crucified to me, and I to the world." He gave himself here not to a precious garment, not to hair twisted with gold and pearls, but to a mean garment, after the example of blessed John the Baptist, whom the Evangelist praised for the roughness of his mean garment; and that he might in something be likened to the first-formed man, for whom the Lord made a tunic of skins.

[71] The loving Gobert, man of God, was journeying at a certain time from place to place [He strips off his garments, to suffer cold with a poor man whom he could not succor.] where he had business to transact; and because no treasure sufficed him for distributing to the poor — for by his prelates, as has been said above, a certain portion had been appointed for him, beyond which nothing was lawful or granted him to impart to the poor. But through that whole region a mighty storm was running; because with snow, hail, and ice so terrible a winter was raging that the force of cold and the sharpness of frost nearly pierced the bowels of travelers. And so, the portion of alms lawful to him being almost wholly distributed to the uses of the poor, he met a certain poor man wrapped in few and mean garments, whose bowels the sharpness of the cold had cut through, who begged the loving Gobert that he would give him an alms. Which being given, he asked also for some garment to cover the nakedness of his body and to drive away the sharpness of the cold. And because Gobert had not wherewith he might succor that poor man and cover his nakedness (for it was not lawful for him to give the garments with which he was clothed), he stripped off from himself, when he had gone forward a little from the poor man, nearly all his own garments, that out of compassion he might share cold and want with the said poor man; to whom his servants and fellow brothers said: "What art thou doing, my lord? In so great a cold thou couldst easily perish." And he said: "I cannot bear to see the members of my Father the Crucified endure such wants; but because it is not lawful for me to bestow upon him any garment of mine, it befits me likewise to suffer with him, that in his members I may serve my Creator." Thus the loving Gobert, though unlettered, yet inspired by divine grace, wrought according to the holy Scriptures, so that he could say with Paul: "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire?"

ANNOTATA.

* devour

* that is, shoes

* that is, the striking back

* that is, their

* the "because" is superfluous

CAPUT V.

He brings back a monk who had fled from the monastery.

A monk who had fled from the monastery, Besides all these things, there was a certain monk, James by name, in a certain abbey which is called Val-Saint-Lambert; who was brother according to the flesh of the venerable Abundus ^b, monk of Villers. This brother James too was sent by his superiors to Villers, his faults requiring it, that there he might perform penance for a certain excess at an appointed time. Who, when he had for a certain time made the aforesaid stay in the abbey of Villers, began to be weary, so that he had nearly fallen into sloth; and, the devil tempting him, he was thinking that he wished to withdraw from the monastic religion. And when, fixing these things in his heart, he thought them very often, and his weak flesh had given way to the diabolical temptation, being as it were obstinate and almost wholly desperate, separated from the holy flock of the monks of Villers,

he went back to secular uses. Which being heard, the loving Gobert was saddened at these reports, and, going after the aforesaid monk, running through byways, carefully sought out whither he had gone back.

[73] And when the loving Gobert had sought the aforesaid monk in many places through the byways of fields and woods, he exhorts to return: and had at length found him fleeing beside a certain village which is called Meleni Rivus ^c, he admonished him, entreating with constant prayers and saying: "Do not this, most dear brother; do not so perverse a thing; set not fearful things before secure, cheap things before precious, worldly before heavenly, temporal before eternal, carnal before spiritual; drive not from thee the grace offered thee, consent not to temptation; but recall that saying of the Wise Man: 'In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin.' Remember, most dear brother, that prophetic saying too: 'Let the wicked man forsake his way, and the unjust man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he is bountiful to forgive.'"

[74] To whom brother James answered: "Hold, most dear father; leave off now to admonish such things, because the words of thy admonition bear in me no fruit of salvation, since I will no longer live in the monastic habit." To whom the loving Gobert said: "Yet return with me as far as the abbey, that I may know thou hast yielded to my prayers." Answering, brother James said: "In vain thou laborest, most gentle father; for if I should return with thee today, tomorrow I should return with swift journey to secular uses." When the loving Gobert had heard this, seeing that the hardened heart of the monk could not be bent by prayers or admonitions, being kindled with most fervent charity, so that he could not even restrain his tears, suffused with sincere love of God and of his neighbor, he seized the aforesaid monk by both sides and lifted him upon his own shoulders, and, whether he would or not, carried him back as far as the abbey of Villers.

[75] But neither was so great a labor a burden to the man of God, nor did the harshness of so great a labor change his good desire. A eulogy of charity For what the man of God could not obtain by admonitions or prayers, he at length accomplished by his most ardent strength. Thus the soldier of Christ recalled his neighbor from the error of his way, as though recalling that word of Scripture: "He who shall cause his neighbor to be converted from the error of his way shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins." A wondrous thing! Who ever heard such things? Who ever saw a knight fenced about with such fortitude of charity, moved with such compassion of mercy, thronged with such sweetness of humility? Assuredly such a knight, thus sweating and spending his life for his neighbor's salvation, thus carrying back the lost sheep to the flock upon his own shoulders, was an emulator of the good shepherd, who gave his soul for his sheep. Since this knight strongly embraced bodily and spiritual mercy, he could be called a perfect disciple. Moreover this brother James, separated from the fellowship of the monks of Villers, could be compared to that man who journeyed from Jerusalem to Jericho. For he was going far from the vision of peace when he was separated from so sweet a fellowship; he hastened to Jericho when as a fugitive he went back to worldly vices; he fell among robbers when he applied the affection of his heart to worldly delights; and because there was none to help, since neither priest nor Levite succored him, it was needful that a true Samaritan should come, who should lay him half dead upon the yoke of his own body and bring him into the inn of penance. What more? To whom save to a true Samaritan can the loving Gobert be compared, who so mercifully had mercy upon his neighbor that he carried him back upon his own shoulders to the fellowship of the servants of Christ? And since "Samaritan" is interpreted "keeper," this man may well be called a Samaritan, who so kept his neighbor. This loving Gobert spoke as a trusting athlete of Christ, not as Cain: for Cain questioned the Lord, not properly as questioning, but as it were ironically denying by the contrary, saying: "Lord, am I my brother's keeper?" But this knight's works bear testimony of himself, who can as it were say by his works: "Lord, I am the keeper of my brother James."

[76] is woven by the biographer. He seems most prudently to have considered this which the Apostle says: "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so you shall fulfill the law of Christ." He bore not only another's burden in his heart, but even bore his neighbor's whole body upon his own body. Amen, amen I say to you, most dear brothers, I have not found in my times a son in Israel who loved his neighbor as himself more than the loving Gobert loved, who upon the she-ass of his own body carried back to the place of penance his neighbor, not half dead but almost wholly extinguished by depraved thoughts, and that against his will. This is he of whom the Scripture says: "There was not found the like to him, who kept the law of the Most High." Not the grammar of Abraham the patriarch, not of Chatinus, not of Carmentis ^d, conferred upon him the wayfaring provisions of learning; but the Holy Spirit taught him the wisdom of life and of understanding — that wisdom, I say, which is called knowledge seasoned with the savor of the virtues. What more shall I be able to relate? From the time when the loving Gobert was made a member of the household of the servants of the Lord, he began to despise worldly delights as a certain deadly pest, and to love his Creator above all things, and to serve him in his creatures — knowing that to serve the Lord is to reign.

ANNOTATA.

CAPUT VI.

Bl. Gobert's devout prayer; his blindness; his mercy.

The Blessed one drives away stealing sleep by chewing pepper: After the loving Gobert had been stitched * into the monastic fellowship, he began not only to make light of, but even to detest, the empty soldiering of the world, which brings forth nothing profitable to eternal life; but the monastic soldiering he so embraced that in whatever he could he imitated the religion of his brothers. He applied himself to fasts; he kept watch in nightly vigils and morning prayers, according to that saying of the Evangelist: "Watch, because at what hour you think not the Son of man will come"; and that other: "If the householder knew at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch and would not suffer his house to be broken open." Likewise the Church sings: "Let it not be vain for you to rise in the morning before the light." He did not therefore reckon it vain to render the morning service to his Creator before the light; but his weak flesh, which wantonness had long nourished, often fell into sleep; nor is it a wonder if the flesh sought again what by the wicked nature of custom it had been wont to embrace. The man of God therefore constantly carried pepper with him, whereby he roused his flesh when it gave way to sleep; and as often as his flesh sought sleep at the morning office, he chewed pepper between his teeth, by whose burning his whole body awoke. Thus the man of God tamed his flesh, and by such means impressed upon his flesh the worship of his Creator.

[78] In the Lenten season, namely on the day of the Parasceve — the lost use of his eyes that is, of the Lord's passion, on which Christ redeemed the elect ^a whom he foreknew would be his by faith and work — on which day the convent of Villers was in most devout prayer, and all Christian people ought more than usual to give itself to religion, it happened that on that most holy day a certain most abominable knight came to a certain grange belonging to the monastery of Villers. The knight's name indeed is ill called Godfrey de Winze ^b; but the name of the grange, since it bears two things to the abbey of Villers, namely bread and fish, is therefore etymologically called Gérondin of Villers ^c. This grange therefore the said knight of Satan with his accomplices fiercely plundered on that very same day; and those whom he had found there he led off with the other brute animals, and he violently seized and carried away with his accomplices many movables and also the ornaments of the altar. The brothers too whom he found there he afflicted with cruel beatings. Thus did that tyrant violate the said grange. Which being heard in the abbey of Villers, a great tumult arises among the brothers, who with many prayers, along with the abbot, asked the loving Gobert to go to the aforesaid place to see what this was. And when the loving Gobert had obeyed the devout prayers of the abbot and of the convent of his brothers, and had to hasten to the oft-mentioned grange because a knight of Satan had on this most holy day done so great a violence, he began so wondrously to be saddened that, when he had to go out of the abbey, by reason of the exceeding anxiety and astonishment of his heart he was deprived of his carnal or bodily sight.

[79] on the third day he recovers: Indeed, because the loving Gobert could not behold, in the most holy time of the Lord's passion, the enormous ignominy of a tyrannical plundering, by divine provision he is deprived of bodily light for three days, as the Lord's body lay hidden for three days in the sepulcher. Therefore this — that the loving Gobert lost the light of his carnal eyes at the sight of so great an enormity, and that the worldly light was extinguished in him — signifies the three times of the persecutors of the Church, namely present, past, and future, in which they are deprived of the true light, because they spend all their times in the uses of malice. Nor did the malevolent wish on that most holy day of the redemption of the elect to restrain their malice for one hour. And as the blessed Godhead raised the Lord's body to life on the third day, so also in the loving Gobert it restored bodily light on the third day.

[80] he gives a specimen of mercy toward the poor, At a certain time it happened that the loving Gobert, man of the Lord, on some business, and with him a certain monk of Villers, Ralph by name, namely the cantor of that same house, were setting out into the parts of Namur ^d. Who, coming to a certain place of that same province, Gembloux ^e by name, were speaking with one another of many edifying matters; and while they thus went on together and, walking along the way, conversed with one another, among the other things which they spoke, the man of the Lord too, moved with piety toward the poor, began to ask the monk, saying: "Brother Ralph, hast thou any alms to be bestowed upon the poor?" To whom the monk Ralph answered: "I have indeed, but I will not give them to all, because I shall study to impart them to the more needy." As they thus talked and went forward, they came to a certain place where they met a certain poor woman carrying cheeses upon her head in a basket; seeing whom, the merciful man, moved with mercy, and striking his horse with the spurs, went ahead of the monk, that the monk might not hear what he wished to say to the woman.

[81] he gives a specimen, And when he had gone far from the monk and had come to the woman, he greeted her humbly,

and said to her: "O good woman, dost thou need an alms?" And the woman was marveling why he had proposed such things; for she was such that she would not have asked an alms from anyone, unless the loving Gobert, man of the Lord, had first incited her to it. The woman therefore, having set down from her head the basket with the cheeses, began humbly to ask an alms, saying to them: "Truly, my lords, I greatly need a good alms, or some good thing." Therefore the loving Gobert said to her: "Ask then quickly, because this monk following will give thee an alms." All these things were said before that same monk drew nearer. The loving Gobert, seeing the monk coming, said to the woman: "Now ask an alms in the presence of this monk." Which being asked, the loving Gobert said to the monk: "Brother Ralph, dost thou not hear that this poor little woman greatly needs an alms? Give her then." To whom the monk answered: "Dost thou not observe in this woman that she is rich and needs no alms? See that she carries cheeses and eggs upon her head in a basket; who, if she were poor, would perhaps have asked an alms of us before thou hadst incited her to ask." To whom the renowned man answered: "No, no, most dear one; but give her an alms and let her go." To whom the monk Ralph said: "Lord, I wish to bestow my alms better than upon this woman." To whom the loving Gobert said: "Come, most dear one, hast thou not just now heard what she said: 'Truly I am a poor little woman, and I well need an alms'? Give her then, delay no longer." What more? Willing or unwilling, the monk had to give her; which being given, the woman departed, and they went forward to their business.

[82] Truly, loving Gobert, thou mayest be called the father of the poor and the raiser-up of orphans and of widows. truly the father of the needy. Thou didst speak with a poor little woman upon the road, having compassion on her want and misery. Thou imitatest Christ, who spoke with a woman at the well. He asked a drink of her; thou didst command the woman to ask some help of thee and of thy companions. Ask therefore thou too for us of the Lord, that by thy merits he may grant us pardon of all our sins, and that we may deserve to come to the kingdoms of heaven, he rewarding us who lives and reigns God for ever and ever.

Here ends the second book of the Life of the loving Gobert the knight.

ANNOTATA.

* planted or associated.

* that is, pertaining to virtue

BOOK III.

The death of Blessed Gobert.

Book III.

As the time of the victory of the loving Gobert, man of God, drew near, He undertakes a journey in defense of the monastery of Gembloux; in which he should hold the triumphal palm against all worldly vices; in which the Lord Jesus himself should call his servant to the life of eternal recompense and press upon his head the laurel of perpetual beatitude — by a subtle and moreover exceedingly wondrous occasion the Lord God, like a most loving father, freed his most beloved son, the loving Gobert, from every Charybdis and temptation of the sea of this world, and led him out of the prison of the carnal workhouse with triumphal songs and angelic hymns, in this order. For when the time was at hand in which the loving Gobert, being called to the nuptials of the heavenly king, all excuse being spurned — neither buying yokes of oxen ^a nor farms — should fly, without fold ^b or scruple, simple and upright, to the supper of the paschal lamb, at that same time it happened that the duchess of Brabant, Aleyde ^c by name, widowed of her husband's protection ^d, oppressed the church of blessed Peter ^e of Gembloux ^f, and, by the counsel of certain malevolent men, cut down its rights, appropriated to herself the rights of the monks of the aforesaid place ^g, and so molested the said church that the report of so great a persecution struck the ears of the loving Gobert. Seeing this, the abbot ^h and convent of Gembloux began to be saddened because the duchess was cruelly cutting down their rights; and because they could not escape so great a pest, with very many prayers they with one mind besought the loving Gobert that he should himself entreat the duchess with prayers, so that she, being softened by the prayers of the loving Gobert, might suffer the said abbot of Gembloux and his convent to rejoice in their right. The loving Gobert therefore, seeing that their complaints were just, was troubled by their straits and complaints, so that he scarcely restrained his tears; and he undertook to transact their business as best he could.

[84] in which, being gravely wounded, They went on therefore, leading with them the loving Gobert, man of God, to the duchess, that they might pluck out the thorns and thistles from her heart with salutary admonitions. And when they had gone on, the loving Gobert's horse, which by excessive wantonness of feeding and idleness had become untractable and unbridled, kicked against the spurs; and coming to a place where the passage was not free, rushing forward with a plunge, it overthrew both itself and its rider upon the ground, so that the loving Gobert fell upon his face beneath the horse, so that he seemed almost to have been killed. His companions seeing and being astounded, they raised him up with the sign of Christ and said to him: "Return to the house of Villers, most loving father, because the blood does not cease to flow from thy face; thou canst not come with us to the place proposed." But the loving Gobert, desiring to further the said business with piety, answering said: "I will not return with the business unfinished which I undertook to carry through with fervent desire, from which no labor will be able to turn me aside; for on the Church's business I am ready to go into labor and into death; nor will the harshness of any thing be able to change my fervent desire."

[85] He moves Aleyde, duchess of Brabant, Thus the most loving Gobert, bloody through every member of his whole body, went on to the duchess; seeing whom, the duchess began to be saddened and grieved, and, marveling, asked what this was, and who had brought so great a hurt upon the man of God. Who, answering, said: "My lady duchess, thou hast made me these wounds, nor did any other but thou pour out my blood from my body." To whom the duchess: "What sayest thou, most loving father? For all the money of the whole world I would not have done such things to thee." To whom the loving Gobert said: "If thou hadst not oppressed the rights of blessed Peter of Gembloux, this would not have befallen me." To whom the duchess said: "How these things befell thee I desire to hear." To whom the loving Gobert said: "Having heard in a clouded rumor with what and how great oppressions thou wast molesting the rights of the oft-mentioned church, that I might pour out humble prayers to thee upon the said business, coming to thee with exceeding haste — as the philosopher says: 'Every onset often has difficult approaches' — hence it is that suddenly, unforeseen by me, I fell beneath my horse, and my horse beneath me and moreover utterly and violently upon me. And I indeed, falling upon my face, so that from the exceeding hurt so much blood flowed, that my garments and each of my members are stained with rosy gore."

[86] When the duchess had learned that these and many other things had befallen the man of God, to leave the rights of the men of Gembloux untouched. she grieved sharply that such things had happened to the man of God on her account, and began to be roused by the loving Gobert to ask whether he could grow well by any medicine. To whom the loving Gobert answered: "If thou wilt, my Lady, thou canst cleanse me of this hurt of the body." To this the duchess, answering with hastening voice, cried out: "If I shall be able in any way to cure thee, pain, labor, and expense shall not be able to draw me back from thy soundness." To whom the loving Gobert, answering, said: "If thou wilt leave to good Peter of Gembloux his rights peaceable and quiet, so that thou cut them down no more, thou wilt seem to me to have cured my whole body and to have left my mind to gladness. For I tell thee: it is not safe to scatter the rights of the heavenly gatekeeper. Since, as the Apostle says, the works of each, whether they be good or evil, follow them." At these words the duchess, goaded by the sting of right and reason, answering before many men worthy of credit, broke out into these words: "From this time now for ever I leave the rights of blessed Peter of Gembloux in firm liberty, and release them from all harassment."

[87] Thus the loving Gobert restored the said church to ecclesiastical liberty, Returning home he falls sick of his wound. and for the bride of Christ poured out his blood and underwent the workhouse of death, and thus was made an imitator of Christ, as is plain from what has gone before. This business therefore being accomplished, the loving Gobert, afflicted with most grievous and heavy hurts, returned to the place of his manner of life. And when the brothers of Villers had seen him afflicted with such hurts, through all the offices of the abbey there arises a tumult of the brothers lamenting; and seeing him oppressed with pains they said: "It befits thee, most loving brother, it befits thee to rest in the infirmary until thou canst recover health." Who, answering, said: "It pleases me thus to dwell with my brothers, because it seems to me so pleasant that in my life I ever desire to be joined to them, and in death I would not wish to be separated from them." They said therefore to him: "Thou couldst not, most loving brother, hurt and feeble, endure the labor of the cloister." The loving man Gobert, at length broken by the salutary admonitions of the brothers, gave assent to their prayers. Therefore a loving procession of monks led the loving Gobert to the infirmary.

[88] There the loving man, lying upon a pallet, and his body swollen from the exceeding torment of the hurt, The holy Eucharist is a solace to his mind grew sicker from day to day; and because strength is made perfect in weakness, as gold is proved in the furnace, and as rough iron is smoothed and adorned by the biting file, so the man of God, the more he was outwardly scourged by infirmity of body, the more, upheld by faith and confession and the other virtues, was he more firmly joined to his Creator

and knit to him. In a wondrous manner, being wholly sewn into the service of God, he was solicitous about the affairs of the poor; and, ever meditating for his Creator, he gave himself, in the agony of his bodily infirmity, to the faith of the Catholic religion and the mysteries of the altar. Seeing this, his brothers set up an altar to the Lord in his sight, wishing therein to fulfill the desires of the loving Gobert, that he might there daily see the divine confecting of the Eucharist. Thither several monks coming daily, consecrating through faith with the offering priest the welcome and immaculate and acceptable host of the Lord's Body, consoled the spirit of the loving Gobert; which Eucharist the man of God embraced with faithful mind, so that he gave the infirmity of his body over to oblivion, nor did he wish to be rescued from it, knowing that whom God loves he rebukes and chastises; and that saying, "They who are snatched from the number of scourgings are snatched from the number of sons."

[89] enlightened by a true and humble faith. Indeed the man of God did not waver with heretical rashness, but established in his heart the faith founded upon Apostolic truth. But if the Catholic faith contained certain things which human reason cannot comprehend, yet the loving Gobert believed this faithfully and devoutly, according to that saying of Scripture ^k: "A divine work, if it be comprehended by reason, is not admirable; nor has that faith merit for which human reason affords a foundation." And because he had happily been readily loosed from the glory of worldly soldiering, all the vain superstition of worldly soldiering envied his happy acts. To his brothers he ministered in whatever he could; to his elders and equals he ministered with sincere mind, simple piety, robust charity of word, of mind, and of work; to his inferiors he so obeyed for God's sake that he did not set them on a level with himself, but, if it were permitted, would draw off their shoes and wipe them; because with wondrous affection he venerated those of the household of the faith, whom he also instructed in their last extremity, lest that crafty ambusher should deceive them, who ceases not to lie in wait for the unwise, that he may deceive the unwary and devour the deceived — yet devouring he cannot be filled.

[90] Acquiescing in the divine will For love of his neighbors the loving Gobert, man of the Lord, loved the present life; hope and the consolation of eternal life compelled him to spurn the present life. Thus his mind was shaken with divers desires, because he desired to dwell among the brothers, and chose rather to be raised on high to Christ; yet he established nothing in his heart save the will of Christ, and his desire burned at the command of his Creator; and when infirmity and a hurt near to death now pressed him, yet he never withdrew from the worship of his Creator, whose spirit … with many … of penance … *

[91] he piously dies, Therefore the loving Gobert, man of God, purified by the hurt of his body and by the boiling down of carnal languor, in true faith and sincere religion left to his neighbors a salutary example: in the year of the Lord 1263, on the day of St. Bernard, which then was on the fourth weekday ^l of the month of August, at the morning hour, namely in the second nocturn of the vigils of that same festival, the loving Gobert trembled through his whole body, and in the sight of the convent of monks and of the other brothers lamenting and singing, rendered his spirit to his Creator in the utmost peace; whose blessed soul not one choir of angels alone bears away, but a multitude of innumerable legions, and the tribes and hierarchy of the blessed spirits, rejoicing, bear it away to be crowned for ever. It is borne away too by a choir of angels singing and speaking praise to God. The lifeless body is attended by a procession of monks and of the other brothers lamenting.

ANNOTATA.

* that is, he should entreat

* that is, to rejoice

* that is, so that

* that is, thou hadst oppressed

* that is, I came

* that is, I fell

* these could not be read