ON ST. MAURUS AND HIS FIFTY COMPANIONS, MARTYRS,
AT REIMS IN CHAMPAGNE IN GAUL,
ABOUT THE END OF THE THIRD CENTURY.
COLLECTION.
Maurus, martyr, at Reims in Champagne in Gaul (S.)
Fifty companions, martyrs, at Reims in Champagne in Gaul (SS.)
BY J. P.
§ I. Their cult, the number of the martyrs, their sacred relics.
The supplements to Usuard, published by our Sollier, announce this band of holy martyrs from various codices. The memory of these martyrs For the Brussels one there records these words: In the city of Reims, the birthday of fifty Martyrs. The Reims one: At Reims, the passion of the holy Maurus the priest, and with him of fifty Martyrs. The Lübeck-Cologne edition: In the city of Xonae in Gaul, of the fifty holy Martyrs. Greven: Of Maurus the priest and martyr, and of forty others: but upon this announcement our Sollier observes that the earlier edition has SIXTY. And presently from the same Greven follows this announcement: In the city of Xonae in Gaul, of the fifty holy Martyrs. And a little afterwards this is subjoined from Molanus: At Reims, a city of Gaul, of blessed Maurus, and with him of fifty Martyrs. Maurolycus omits the place of the contest, but expresses the kind of death, saying thus: Likewise of fifty Martyrs beheaded. But in our manuscript Florarium, besides the place of martyrdom, the emperor is marked under whom they suffered, and the year, in these words: In the city of Reims, the birthday of fifty Martyrs, who suffered under Nero in the year of salvation LVII. Finally in the Paris Martyrology, which was printed in the year 1727, they have obtained an annual memory: for it is there read thus: At Reims, of the holy martyrs Maurus the priest and his fifty companions. But a note of time is added far different from the former, namely before the end of the third century.
[2] Marlot in book 1 of the History of the Metropolis of Reims, chapter 16, page 58, in the sacred calendars: reciting these words from the Martyrology of that same metropolis on this day, increases the number of the martyrs: At Reims, the passion of St. Maurus the priest, and with him of fifty Martyrs, and of very many other holy Martyrs. But if you say that these last "very many" do not belong to the former, but are different from them, yet the praised Marlot in volume 2, book 1, chapter 37, page 126, affirms that in some manuscript codices the number of the former is multiplied to ninety. But the Roman Martyrology does not determine their number, saying thus: At Reims, of the holy martyrs Maurus and his companions. The concordant testimony therefore of so many sacred records most clearly proves the ancient cult of the champions of Reims; and before we illustrate it more fully from other sources, it seems here that we must answer some questions which may be raised upon the announcements already recited.
[3] You will ask therefore, first, what is more probably to be said concerning the number of the martyrs. their number: I answer: whoever should set fewer than fifty, or should add more above fifty, would disagree with the above announcements, which agree in this. We have seen that by some there are added to St. Maurus fifty athletes: which is also done by Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology on this day. Flodoard, priest and canon of the church of Reims, who flourished in the tenth century, in the History of that same church, book 1, chapter 4, folio 10 of the Sirmondian edition, does not sufficiently clearly indicate in the Acts of these martyrs which he brings forward whether those fifty whom he expressly marks ought to be joined together with St. Maurus, or whether without him they make up the number of fifty. Let us hear the text of the Acts: A certain priest coming, Maurus by name, baptized a multitude of men. And, some things being interposed, these follow: But the governor … ordered them each to be beheaded … Now all who were beheaded were fifty men, on the eleventh day before the Kalends of September. Where you see that the "each" and the "fifty men" refer to that multitude of men whom Maurus baptized: but whether Maurus ought to be added to them, he does not express; but, having related the martyrdom of Sts. Timothy and Apollinaris, which he writes to have happened on the X of the Kalends of September, and their burial on the ninth of the Kalends of September, and having added some things about the building of their basilica, the adorned sepulchre, and the altar which, as he adds, is said to have been dedicated to the relics and honor of St. Maurus, he presently joins these words: Who, being beheaded for Christ at the same time as the aforesaid, merited to shine in their fellowship. Where he determines nothing to our purpose. But since on this XXII day of August Flodoard expressly marks those fifty as crowned with martyrdom, and since the notation of some calendars is concordant in setting St. Maurus by name before them, we too, following the example of those calendars, have marked above both him by name and the other fifty in a round number.
[4] the place of their contest: You will ask, secondly, what is meant by In the city of Xonae in Gaul, to which today's martyrs are attributed in the two supplements cited above. I answer that we must write Reims, and from all the other announcements which I have given it seems to be established that that error was committed by some unskilled writer. For indeed of a city Xonae in Gaul I have hitherto found no trace marked in any of the geographers I have consulted. Whence I also suspect that Greven, who after the announcement of Maurus the priest and martyr, etc., given above from him, presently subjoined another of Xonae, as may be seen there, erred through the placing which he had somewhere read of that place, and marked today's martyrs of Reims twice; whereas among all the other hagiologists alleged above there occur only once the fifty martyrs, or fifty-one when they add St. Maurus to them. Moreover, that in the announcement of St. Maurus he erroneously expresses the number of the others as forty, or, as his earlier edition has, sixty, is gathered from our answer to the first question. But enough of these things.
[5] Now it has seemed good to gather some things concerning the public veneration by which our holy champions, the cult of St. Maurus among the people of Reims and of Florennes, and especially St. Maurus, have become renowned. A commemoration of St. Maurus and his companions is found in the Breviary of Reims, which on the back is marked as published in the year 1543: which is also prescribed in the Breviary of the same metropolitan church of the year 1630. The public cult of St. Maurus was spread among the monks of Florennes when his sacred relics were translated thither from Reims. Marlot, cited above, in volume 2, book 1, chapter 18, page 61, relates the matter in these words: Gerard of Cambrai, his father having died at Florennes, out of reverence for the place in which he had been born, brought to completion the monastery of St. Gengulph, left unfinished by his father. Another also, of St. John, he founded out of his own goods; the latter of clerics, the former of monks; and both he consecrated with the assent of Baldric, bishop of Liège, in whose parish they are. But the abbey of St. John itself being committed to the lord Richard the abbot, that same Gerard began to consider with himself how he might enrich it with the relics of the Saints.
[6] And since a certain close friendship existed between him and Arnulf, archbishop of Reims, from those translated to the latter he asked of him a certain part of the venerable bones of the holy martyrs Maurus and Timothy, which he had once kissed when he was at Reims: which he also obtained, as the letters of the aforesaid Arnulf and of the chapter of Reims bear witness, which Molanus reported in his Martyrology, that is, in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii on the XXII day of August: from which Marlot has culled the things which he subjoins to the foregoing; but I transcribe them from Molanus himself: We have done for our neighbor Gerard, son of Arnulf, what charity urges, and, being overcome by his prayers, we have conferred, according to the desire of his petition, a talent of most precious weight — the body of the lord and most worthy of God, the priest and martyr Maurus, who, coming from the Apostles, was a pillar of the newly founded church of Reims. And we have decreed that this be done the more willingly in proportion as we know the good will of your predecessor Notger of holy memory toward a matter of this kind: and because thereby the place of Florennes, by God's gift, will be the more increased, as we have proved with our own eyes. By your counsel and help therefore let him be honorably received in your bishopric: and may you have him as patron and defender before the just judge. But lest the episcopal see be deprived of the patronage of so great a patron, we have kept the head of the aforesaid martyr laid up in an ivory casket, in place of which we have judged it fitting to send another of those who suffered with him, namely Timothy: for there is express mention of him in the Office of the monastery of Florennes, as Molanus adds. But of that matter, and of that Saint, we shall treat tomorrow. Gerard I was made bishop of Cambrai in the year of Christ 1013, according to the Gallia Christiana, volume 3 of the most recent edition, column 19. Baldric II in the same volume 3, column 848, is said to have succeeded Notger in the year 1008; but in the History of Liège, published at Liège in the year 1735 and in the two years next following, volume 1, part 2, book 4, page 208, the beginning of his episcopate is fixed in the year 1007. Hence it can in some way be gathered about what time the above donation and translation of the relics of St. Maurus took place: of which donation Mabillon also makes mention in the Annals of his Order at the year 1012, number 74. Of Arnulf, archbishop of Reims, Marlot treats in volume 2, book 1, chapter 14 and following.
[7] his relics: But now, to relate the rest which followed among the people of Florennes after the deposition of this precious pledge: Molanus in the place indicated by us above relates that the martyr has at Florennes a most celebrated memory, and is honored by a frequent concourse of those who make offerings from France and from other parts of the world. And in the Index of the Saints of Belgium he records these things to our purpose: The body of St. Maurus rests in the abbey of Florennes, of the country and diocese of Namur (of the Order of St. Benedict), where he is honored with such piety that the offerings each year easily amount to four or five hundred Rhenish florins … And the reception of St. Maurus is recalled by the people of Florennes on the third of November. Nor indeed has the public and singular veneration of St. Maurus and his companion martyrs ceased at Reims, as Marlot testifies in various places. For in volume 2, book 1, chapter 37, page 126, he says: The treasury of the collegiate church of St. Timothy of Reims possesses in the first place the bodies of fifty Martyrs (the manuscript codices number ninety), who at the beginning of the infant Church confirmed the faith of Christ with the seal of their blood,
whose leader and head was the most unconquered levite Timothy … Above the high altar five other caskets are seen …, the third of which encloses the pledges of the most blessed martyr Maurus. The praised writer in the same volume, book 3, chapter 9, indicates that a certain church of Reims was once called by his name, on occasion of the church of St. Balsamia, commonly called Holy Nurse, which he affirms to be so called, page 114, because Blessed Balsamia was the nurse of St. Remigius and the mother of St. Celsinus: whence the aforesaid church is sometimes called that of St. Celsinus by Flodoard, because his relics were deposited in it, as also those of Blessed Maurus the martyr; he adds, however, that the constant name of it is that of Balsamia or of the Nurse. Castellanus reports her in his Universal Martyrology on the XIV day of November.
[8] whose relics, and those of his companions, also remained at Reims. In the same place, page 415, Marlot, treating of the sacristy of that same church, asserts that the relics of St. Maurus the martyr and of his companions are kept in a casket: for the greater part of his body was translated to Florennes under archbishop Arnulf. On page 416 he adds the head, or more truly a fragment of the head, of St. Maurus the martyr. For that the whole is kept in the cathedral church beside the altar, Flodoard affirms in book 1, chapter 20 (rather 4). But at the end of the chapter cited he relates these things: There is also seen beside the church a subterranean chapel, not unlike the crypts of the Martyrs: where some will have it that Blessed Maurus lay hid in the time of persecution, and offered to God the immaculate Host. Hence one goes into a little crypt, which the common people call the chamber of Blessed Maurus, and it is piously visited by them especially on the Thursday and Friday of Holy Week: but since Flodoard has been silent concerning this, although it be some monument of antiquity, I do not judge it worth the trouble to relate more. Thus Marlot. The same historian in volume 1, book 1, chapter 19, page 69, had related that the sacred relics of our fifty champions had been carried by the liberality of the people of Reims to various churches, so that the knowledge, esteem, and even the invocation and public veneration of the martyrs might receive no small increase in various places. The relics of the fifty Martyrs, he says, enclosed in chests, still lie hidden in the old crypt; considerable parts of which, lately bestowed liberally by the canons upon various churches, even outside the diocese, will spread the name of the Saints the farther, in proportion as, being carried to the most remote cities, they will receive veneration from the faithful. For thus, they being held as patrons, their cult and memory will grow more and more famous.
[9] To these may be added the things which our Father Bolland noted with his own hand upon the manuscript Martyrdom of St. Maurus the priest, namely: The veneration of St. Maurus in the Duchy of Luxemburg, that in a village of the Duchy of Luxemburg called Alla, of the deanery of Mouzon, distant four leagues from Mouzon, the cult of the same St. Maurus flourishes, and that many pilgrims come thither at certain times; that it appears there were once relics there, which were lost through the wars between Charles V and Francis I. But that at other times the abbot of Mouzon held that village from Reims, within our own memory.
[10] Let these things serve for a conclusion which, after I had written the foregoing, and elsewhere. I read in Castellanus in the Additions to the Universal Martyrology on this day, page 976; where he asserts that from him (he is treating of St. Maurus of Reims) the village of Saint-Moret upon the river Aisne near Vouziers takes its name — in Latin Sanctus Maurulus, that is, "little Saint Maurus." Further, the exact situation of this place is set forth in volume 7 of the Blaeu Geography, in the map of the diocese of Reims and the territory of Rethel, after page 59. And that not only was the name of this holy athlete given to that place, but that he is also honored in it, the same Castellanus observes in the Index of places under the name Vouziers, page 1066: near which place, he says, is the cult of St. Maurus of Reims.
§ II. Copies of the Acts; the time of the martyrdom, and the history of it from Flodoard.
Various copies, Among other transcripts of the Acts we have one from the Utrecht manuscript of St. Saviour, put together by a certain anonymous and unskilled man, as is clear from the following specimen. For against the authority of the ancients he blurts out that against the emperor Nero these punishments were not only decreed but actually inflicted upon him: And when, after long weariness of his evils, by sentence of the senate — because he was intolerable to all — he was led naked through the public streets, a fork being placed on his neck, and was beaten with rods unto death, he was kept through the night to be cast down from a rock on the morrow. But he, fleeing in the middle of the night, since indeed no one had first been found by whom he might be struck, is said to have exclaimed, etc. Further, that fabler thus begins the Passion of St. Maurus with his companions: Of the most blessed Maurus, martyr of Christ, and of his companions, whose most worthy worship we today perform after the solemn manner, etc.
[12] Another copy of the Acts Father John Gamans of the Society of Jesus sent hither from the notable manuscript parchment Passional of the convent of Böddeken of the Order of Canons Regular of St. Augustine, of the diocese of Paderborn, etc., as is noted in our transcript; which relate of which this is the opening of the narrative: In the times of Nero, when Lampadius held the governorship, there was made in the city of Reims a most violent persecution against the Christians. The title which is prefixed runs thus: Here begins the passion of the holy Timothy and Apollinaris, which is on the X of the Kalends of September. These Acts do not please us, both because they attach the deed to the times of Nero, and because they extend the multitude of our martyrs, whom St. Maurus had washed in baptism, to ninety, which is to strive against the torrent of the Martyrologies, as has been indicated above; and lastly because Lampadius the governor is brought in speaking thus: I hear, Timothy, that you preach a new law to men, namely that a crucified man is God. And so, while you preach it, you are perhaps ignorant of the severity of the laws set forth by the most sacred emperors, by which they have commanded that everyone who shall not adore the gods be subjected to torments and death.
[13] their martyrdom, For I ask, how do these things cohere with Nero, who both reigned alone and was the first of the emperors to persecute the Christians? Nor indeed did Flodoard proceed more cautiously in this matter, who, writing in book 1, chapter 4, of the first martyrs of the city of Reims, among the things which he records of Sts. Timothy and Apollinaris relates that the governor said to them: Most unhappy of men, consent to the precepts of the EMPERORS, and adore those whom they adore; for although I do not read the name of the emperor Nero expressed in the passage cited, yet, after in chapter 3 — in which he had treated of the first bishops of the city of Reims, taking his beginning, as he will have it, from the time of St. Peter, prince of the Apostles — he writes in the same place of the first martyrs of that same city, as I was saying, not obscurely indicating that they belong to the first times of the infant Church, nay even to the persecution of Nero. For thus he concludes the said third chapter: Nor is it established that our church had them only from the city of Rome as fathers or founders; which is proved to be also crowned with Martyrs, and hallowed by their blood, and adorned with their triumphs at the very crisis of the Roman persecution.
[14] are here examined, But here we roll down into the famous controversy concerning the first apostles of Gaul, or the heralds of the Christian faith there; concerning which we shall presently say something. Meanwhile, since we do not thoroughly know either the date or the author of the Böddeken codex, it has seemed good to us to extract from Flodoard those few things which he has transmitted to posterity concerning St. Maurus and his companion martyrs, omitting here and deferring to the day next following, the XXIII of August, what he inserts concerning Sts. Timothy and Apollinaris. I said just now that I do not thoroughly know the date of the Böddeken codex: but that either this very codex, or at least its first source, is ancient, seems in some way to be gathered from this indication, that our copy has made no mention of the translation of those same Sts. Timothy and Apollinaris, which, as will be evident on the XXIII of August, took place about the middle of the ninth century, and is related by Flodoard in book 1, chapter 4. It is nevertheless related in that manuscript that the bodies of these Saints were translated and adorned under Tilpin, prelate of Reims, who lived in the eighth century. But of these things more when we shall illustrate their Acts. But what of the time of their martyrdom, and so of that of St. Maurus and his companions?
[15] and there is sought Since I have no mind here to unweave the web of that very well known controversy, much ventilated among the learned, concerning the first heralds of the Gospel announced in Gaul, on this point, so far as it concerns our martyrs, I shall try to be brief. Theodoric Ruinart, who published and illustrated the Works of St. Gregory, bishop of Tours, upon his first book On the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 55, in which Sts. Timothy and Apollinaris, MM., are treated of, notes at column 785 the following: The Acts of these martyrs record that they suffered together with Maurus the priest and many others, in the reign of Nero, under Lampadius the governor: which opinion does not please those who admit no martyrs in Gaul before the times of M. Aurelius. They seem, however, more ancient than the times of Maximian: for nowhere are they said to have suffered under Rictius Varus the governor, like the other martyrs of Belgic Gaul of those times. Sulpicius Severus in the Sacred History, book 2, page 157 of the Louvain edition of the year 1680, says: Under Aurelius, the son of Antoninus, the fifth persecution was set in motion. And then first were martyrdoms seen within Gaul, the religion of God having been received beyond the Alps rather late. Thus that author, himself a Gaul, beyond all exception, who flourished at the beginning of the fifth century, and of whom it would be strange that he should not have known if before the time marked by him the butchery of martyrs had been practiced in Gaul. The laurel of martyrdom therefore seems more probably to be deferred to another time. But to what?
[16] Flodoard in book 1, chapter 4, folio 11 verso of the Sirmondian edition, records these things after the martyrdom of Sts. Timothy and Apollinaris: the time, A certain Eusebius, a man of rank, who himself also believed through their word, built them a church. Hence Tillemont in volume 4 of the Ecclesiastical Memoirs, under St. Dionysius, first bishop of Paris and martyr, article 21, page 495, affirms that it can be believed that they did not suffer before Diocletian. Besides, in the notes which are in the same volume, page 734, upon the Acts of St. Timothy of Reims, he says that it may be that he suffered under M. Aurelius; but that he does not see on what foundation this rests: and therefore he prefers to place that Saint, and Apollinaris his companion, among those whose veneration is most certain but whose date and deeds are unknown. If, however, it be admitted from their Acts and from Flodoard that Eusebius ordered a church to be built for them, which, he says, can hardly be presumed to have happened before the time of Constantine — thus they will not have suffered before Diocletian. Thus he, leaving the reader almost as uncertain about the time which we here inquire into as he was before. Our Father James Longueval in the History of the Gallican Church
volume 1, book 1, at the year 257, pronounces rather doubtfully or timidly in fixing the time of the martyrs of Reims, saying that they might have suffered under the persecution of Valerian. But Castellanus sufficiently indicates that the time was unknown to him, because in his Universal Martyrology, when he announces today's champions in French from the Latin text of the Roman Martyrology, he assigns them no time. The new Paris Martyrology notes in the margin of their announcement, set forth above at number 1, before the end of the third century.
[17] Since these things are so, the reader perceives that writers go off into various opinions in which it happened. in assigning some time to the laureled contest of our athletes. But that opinion does not displease us which refers them as crowned with martyrdom either under Valerian, or at least about the end of the third century. For thus we meet, and it seems that satisfaction is given to, the two difficulties which occur if that time be much anticipated; one of which consists in that church built by order of a certain Eusebius in honor of Sts. Timothy and Apollinaris, as has been said above from Flodoard. For what forbids that Eusebius believed through their word, and after fifteen years, or after more if you will, took care that a basilica be built for them, since Flodoard does not define the time at which this happened, even though he subjoins the deed immediately to their martyrdom? Why therefore should it not be allowed to expound it with such extension and breadth of time that it was done when through Constantine the Great peace had been given to the Church, and liberty granted for founding churches and altars? Then in this way too the difficulty raised above from the famous passage of Severus Sulpicius will vanish, as will be plain to one who considers it. Since, however, the things which pertain to the present controversy are so obscure that nothing historically certain seems able to be determined concerning it, therefore I have attached the death of Sts. Maurus and his companions to about the end of the third century; which limitation of time I wish to be taken, as I have given it, by way of a probable conjecture.
[18] The history of the passion is given Here now, reader, are the Acts from Flodoard, book 1, chapter 4: But on that same night a certain priest coming, Maurus by name, baptized a multitude of men in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: and Apollinaris, while he was being baptized, saw the heavens opened and heard an angel saying to him: "Blessed are you, Apollinaris, who have believed. Blessed are all who have been dipped in the water in which you have been purified. Whoever shall be baptized here this night shall on the morrow be received into paradise." And all who were present there heard this saying, and, bending their knees, said: "Spare us, O Lord our God, and show your mercy to those who love your name." But on the next day the governor ordered them to be brought before his tribunal. And when they stood there, the governor said: "Foolish men, what has come over you that you believe in a crucified man, who under Pontius Pilate suffered many things, and at last is asserted to have been crucified?"
[19] from Flodoard. Then they answered, saying: "We have seen this night an angel of God speaking with the Saints whom you hold in prison: and those angels told us that we should go today into paradise, and should receive crowns which your eyes shall not be worthy to see." But the governor, full of wrath, ordered them each to be beheaded. And when the Saints were led outside the city, they signed themselves with the sign of Christ, and so were martyred, confessing the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Now all who were beheaded were fifty men, on the eleventh day before the Kalends of September. After these things, some matters being interposed concerning the martyrdom of Sts. Timothy and Apollinaris, their burial, their basilica, and their bodies removed from the old tomb by archbishop Tilpin, and their sepulchre adorned, Flodoard thus goes on: The altar, finally, which stands midway before their tomb, is said to be dedicated to the relics and honor of St. Maurus, who, being beheaded for Christ at the same time as the aforesaid, merited to shine in their fellowship. Whose bones are kept laid up in the church of blessed Celsinus. But his head is venerated, laid up in a chest beside the altar within the city, inside the basilica of the blessed Mother of God, Mary.