Gregory the Confessor

ON ST. GREGORY THE CONFESSOR, RECTOR OF THE CHURCH OF UTRECHT, AT UTRECHT IN BELGIUM,

In the year DCCLXXVI.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Gregory, rector of the church of Utrecht, at Utrecht in Belgium (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. S.

§ I. The Saint's worship; his Acts, stock, fatherland; whether a monk?

St. Gregory, governor of the church of Utrecht on the Rhine, illustrious in the splendor of his birth, St. Gregory's worship: more illustrious in virtues and merits, various Fasti of the Saints record at the XXV day of August. And not only his birthday, or day of death, but also the translation of his body is read inscribed in the Martyrologies at the III day of June, as our elders observed among those passed over at the said day. But since no doubt can arise concerning the Saint's legitimate worship, I shall not here heap up various announcements from the Martyrologies. I therefore pass over the various additions to Usuard, partly to be adduced afterwards on another occasion, in which in six different places his memory recurs, as may be seen in our Usuard published by Sollier at the said day: and I bring forward one, the Roman Martyrology, in which the Saint's birthday is thus briefly announced: At Utrecht, of St. Gregory the bishop.

[2] St. Gregory obtained as the writer of his Life a learned, holy, contemporary man, and in many things an eyewitness, namely holy Lugder or Liudger, bishop of Mimigardeford (they now call it Münster) in Westphalia, once his disciple. the writer of the Acts, Alifrid, likewise bishop of Münster, teaches this in the Life of St. Ludger published by our elders in tome III of March, page 649, in these words: St. Liudger was not moderately learned in the sacred Scriptures: as is openly proved in the book composed by him on the Life of his venerable teachers, namely Gregory and Albric: but he himself also wrote in beautiful speech the beginnings of St. Boniface's coming and ordination, which had been passed over in another little Work. Molanus likewise at the XXV day of August in the enlarged Usuard thus runs concerning Gregory: Who was the instructor of holy Ludger, bishop of Münster (adding) the first, who wrote the Life of that same Gregory. Ludger himself makes this manifest in the Life which we are to give, in which he often calls Gregory his preceptor, and at length at number 28 indicates himself as the writer of the Life in these words: And to me, little Ludger, (Gregory) handed over a book of St. Augustine, which he himself named the Enchiridion, that is, the Manual.

[3] This Life Christopher Brower of our Society first published from a manuscript of the church of Fulda, which has already been published; but is to be published again from manuscripts. and illustrated with notes: from whom Surius put it under the press again at the XXV of August, and Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, 3rd Benedictine century, part 2, from page 319; and Henschen published the first part, pertaining chiefly to St. Boniface, in the Acts of St. Boniface at the V day of June; so that it might seem almost superfluous to reprint it here, did not the plan of our Work altogether require it, and did not certain things occur to be added from elsewhere conducing to the illustration of the Saint's memory. We shall therefore give it after our custom, divided into chapters, and illustrated with marginal additions and observations, from that same manuscript communicated to us, and collated with another manuscript parchment copy of the monastery of Böddeken of the Order of the Regulars of St. Augustine in the diocese of Paderborn — which copy is indeed mutilated at the beginning, and often abridged in its context, yet sometimes fuller and not seldom more elegant than the Fulda one.

[4] Another Life of St. Gregory we have in two manuscript codices, Other Acts not to be published. agreeing beautifully with one another, which seems abridged from the former one written by St. Ludger; for it contains most of the things which the former does, but more briefly, and adds almost nothing. Wherefore I have judged it useless to publish it; yet if it states anything more clearly than the former Life, that can be indicated in the notes. Concerning St. Gregory various authors treat besides, of whom not a few will have to be cited in this Commentary. These things being noted beforehand, we come to illustrating certain matters pertaining to the Saint which the author of the Life either passed over or indicated more obscurely.

[5] St. Gregory was born of the royal stock of the Franks, as has been proved in various places by our elders. The Saint's royal race, Henschen in tome 1 of February, page 231, in the Acts of St. Sigebert, king of the Austrasian Franks, who was the son of Dagobert the first and the father of Dagobert the second, draws it down from that same St. Sigebert to Gregory in this manner. St. Sigebert had a son, Dagobert the second. He, besides his other offspring, had as daughters St. Irmina the virgin, first abbess of the monastery of Horreum near Trier, and Adela or Addula, St. Gregory's grandmother, who after her husband's death presided as Abbess over the monastery of Pfalzel, of which in the Life. But this Addula had previously borne a son Albric; who, being joined in matrimony to St. Vastrada, begot the Saint of whom we treat, Gregory, and several others, as will be plain from the Life below. Further, some one of these seems to have procreated Albric, Gregory's successor in the see of Utrecht; for he in the Life of St. Ludger is called Gregory's nephew by Altfrid. Concerning holy Vastrada, Gregory's mother, there was treatment in tome V of July, page 180. The rest as proved by Henschen may be seen in the place assigned above, or in the Diatriba on the three Dagoberts, book 2, §14, likewise in the Preliminary Exegesis before tome III of March, chapter 4, page 20. The same genealogy Le Cointe hands down in tome 5 of the Annals of the Franks, page 517, and Mabillon in the notes on the Life of Gregory, page 321. These things therefore I forbear to establish at greater length, lest I do what has been done. For the rest, John George von Eckhart in tome 1 On the Affairs of Eastern Francia, book 15, number 11, writes that Gregory was first named Albric, and that this is gathered from his Life written by St. Ludger; but I confess that in Gregory's Life I find nothing of the kind.

[6] Some write that St. Gregory was a German by fatherland, and fatherland. others a Frank: neither seems to stray from the truth, provided it be rightly understood. In the manuscript Life indicated a little before these things are read to our purpose: A lector was sought (while Boniface was reclining at table in the monastery of Pfalzel) and, according to God's providence, there was found the chosen boy Gregory, procreated of the high blood of that same country. Which John Gerbrand of Leiden seems to have had before his eyes when in book 4 of the Belgian Chronicle, chapter 1, he wrote these things: A lector being sought, there was found an excellent boy of fifteen years, procreated of the high blood of that same country, by name Gregory. Hence in chapter 2 he says: Blessed Gregory therefore, a German by race, of the diocese of Trier. William Heda in the History of the Bishops of Utrecht, in Gregory, page 38, has these things: Gregory succeeded, a Frank by nation, of the race of Trier, procreated of high blood. These things scarcely allow me to doubt that Gregory was born either at Trier or certainly in those parts, especially since both his grandmother Adela and her sister St. Irmina were abbesses in the same district. Further, the learned know that Trier once pertained to Belgic Gaul; but at the time in which Gregory was born it was part of the kingdom of the Austrasian Franks, whereas now it is joined to Germany. If therefore we speak according to the usage of those times, we must say that a Frank was born in Belgic Gaul; but if according as the provinces are now distributed, he can be called an Alaman or a German. From what has been said you may easily perceive the error of those who thought that he was called from England by Boniface, which Baronius too judged at the year of Christ 725, number 11. But this opinion is also refuted from the third Life of St. Boniface published by Henschen in tome 1 of June, in which, page 482, number 4, among Boniface's companions gathered from various provinces there is numbered blessed Gregory of the noble stock of the Franks. Let these things said concerning the Saint's fatherland suffice.

[7] Mabillon tries to prove that he was a monk; Now a certain doubt about his institute of life must be examined, before we weave together the chronology of his deeds. Mabillon, praised above, in the observations preliminary to the Acts of St. Gregory, number 2, tries to prove that St. Gregory was a monk and is to be ascribed to his own Order. I do not begrudge a most holy man to an illustrious Order, nor do I deny that there are reasons which urge this; yet since others dissent, it must, according to our plan, be examined whether they altogether persuade it. While I do this, I shall follow Mabillon's own footsteps. That Gregory, he says, was a monk and a father of monks or abbot, not a few arguments persuade, although in his Acts subjoined no mention is made of monastic profession. That argument indeed is no light one against Mabillon, since biographers are not wont to keep silent about a monastic profession. But he thus proves his opinion: For he as a youth, untrained and without letters, attached himself to St. Boniface, and seems to have been instructed in monastic matters, either in the company of Boniface and his monk companions, or in the monastery of Ohrdruf, which St. Boniface is said to have first built; or in that of Fritzlar. For that boys were educated in the monasteries founded by him is plain from epistle 17, in which he orders that after the death of Wigbert, abbot of Fritzlar, Wigbert the presbyter and Megingord the deacon be masters of the children. This is Mabillon's first argument, at which I shall pause for a while.

[8] to whose first argument answer is made: That Gregory as a youth attached himself to Boniface is plain from the Life, chapter 1. But he does not seem to have followed Boniface with this mind, that, being separated from him, he should be shut up in a monastery; for Addula the abbess, Gregory's grandmother, gave him boys and horses, and let him go with his holy master into the work which they accomplished together, until his holy martyrdom. What need was there of boys and horses, if Gregory was to be shut up in a novitiate? That Gregory was instructed in Boniface's company is certain — namely in the virtues necessary to a herald of the Gospel. It is not equally certain that he was instructed for the monastic life: for no trace of that instruction appears in the Life; not to say that it is unusual to train anyone for the monastic life through apostolic labors. As for the fact that he is said perhaps to have been instructed in a monastery, this not only lacks foundation in the Life but plainly seems contrary to the Life; for everywhere he is exhibited as Boniface's helper in the apostolic work, everywhere his companion, even on the Roman journey itself. These things therefore do not seem to me to establish Gregory's monkhood. But let us hear what follows.

[9] Certainly, he says, Gregory was abbot in the church of Utrecht, and father of the monks another argument of Mabillon, whom he himself instructed and formed. For thus the author of the book on the Life of St. Liudger in Brower, chapter 6: Gregory is reported to have instructed Liudger with fatherly solicitude in the monastery of monks. Mabillon is mistaken, for in the same place it is Alcuin, not Gregory, who is said thus to have instructed Ludger. But to Gregory pertains what he adds from Altfrid in the Life of St. Ludger in our Acts, tome III of March, page 644, chapter 2: They (namely Liudger's parents) commended him to the venerable man Gregory, disciple and successor of St. Boniface the martyr, to be nurtured for the Lord: who gladly received him; and, the boy's sagacity being discovered, instructed him zealously. And so Ludger grew, advancing in the fear of the Lord, and, the secular habit being laid aside (these words, he says, are to be noted) in the monastery of Utrecht he betook himself wholly to the study of the spiritual art. That we may understand what kind of monastery that was, I subjoin the following: There were, says the author, in that school of Gregory other fellow disciples too, noble and prudent. Were Benedictine monks called fellow disciples at that time? Was their monastery a school? Very many things of this kind occur, but I would not be more prolix here. Mabillon adds: Whence he was so much the worthier and more acceptable to father Gregory and to the rest, as he was also the more illustrious in monastic learning. It must be noted that these words are not read subjoined in the Life of Ludger after Altfrid's words just adduced: but that they are said of Ludger returned from England after Alcuin's teaching. Hear the said Life at number 10: Then Alcuin, compelled by necessity, sent Ludger away … And so Ludger, being sent away, came with prosperous course to his own country, well instructed, having with him a store of books: and he was then so much the worthier and more acceptable to father Gregory and to the rest, as he was also the more illustrious in monastic learning. I could wish that Mabillon had given each thing in its own place, and had not twisted to Gregory the things which were to be referred to Alcuin. For thus he would not have inferred that Ludger learned these things in the monastery of Utrecht, but rather under Alcuin's teaching. One reason therefore remains here, that Gregory is called abbot, and that his school is a monastery: another, that Ludger under his teaching laid aside the secular habit, of which I shall presently treat.

[10] Mabillon's last argument is that in the diplomas of Pippin and Charlemagne and a third; by which the privileges of the church of Utrecht are confirmed, mention is made of Monks as well as of Canons: which is altogether true, but does not prove Gregory's monkhood; nor does it establish that the monastery of Utrecht was a Benedictine house. There were in the church of Utrecht Benedictine monks appointed for the conversion of the Frisians; there were also not a few clerics and canons girded for the same work: over all Gregory presided as administrator of the church, instructed all, and sent each here and there to apostolic works, as he judged it more expedient for God's glory: all this I shall readily admit; but from it I cannot with sufficient certainty infer that Gregory was enrolled in the Order of St. Benedict.

[11] by which it is not sufficiently shown Gregory indeed is called abbot, and presided over the monastery of Utrecht: nor yet does it thence become certain that he was a monk, or a Benedictine. For the provosts of canons at that time were also called abbots, and the places where canons lived in common were called monasteries. Which, lest I be longer, I show by one example only, although several are not lacking. Canon XXIV of the Third Council of Tours (tome 2 of Sirmond's edition, page 300) is marked with this title: Concerning CANONS who live under an ABBOT in MONASTERIES. And it runs thus: In like manner also let the ABBOTS OF MONASTERIES, in which canonical life anciently was, or now is seen to be, solicitously provide for their CANONS &c. This council was celebrated under the reign of Charlemagne in the year of Christ DCCCXIII, as Sirmond notes. That Gregory therefore presided over a monastery as abbot does not establish that he was a monk.

[12] that he was a monk. The monastery of Utrecht seems to me to have been like that of Mimigardeford, concerning which the anonymous Monk of Werden in Bolland, tome III of March, page 625, thus sang: And (St.

Ludger) founded a bishopric, called a monastery, for clerics at the Ford of Mimigardis. This monastery was of clerics, not of monks: St. Gregory's disciple Ludger founded it: why therefore is it necessary to conclude that the monastery over which Gregory presided as abbot was of monks? But that Ludger laid aside the secular habit under Gregory is no argument: for any clerics also lay aside the secular habit. Since therefore, by Mabillon's own admission, no mention of a monastic profession is made in Gregory's Acts; since he was always content with one and the same garment and food, equal with the rest, as is read in the Life at number 24, I cannot from the reasons brought forward deduce that Gregory was a monk; nor are others at hand by which I might prove it. Let religious men meanwhile honor Gregory as the disciple of their Boniface; as their own too, if they wish, I shall not gainsay. Nay, I shall gladly admit that the Saint's monastic profession is certain, when I shall have seen it proved by sure documents.

§ II. Whether St. Boniface preached in Frisia for 13 years before he obtained Gregory as a disciple? Where also it is examined in what year Gregory followed Boniface; and his age.

In the Life of St. Gregory, number 3, it is thus written: When Boniface himself, the elect martyr of God, after thirteen years of preaching accomplished in Frisia, during which, in the southern part of Lake Almere, as an evangelical poor man and almost a solitary, he had completed his holy sojourn in three places St. Boniface is written to have preached in Frisia for thirteen years, whose names of places are these: the first is called Wyrda, on the bank of the river Rhine, where he dwelt seven years. The second is called Attingohem beside the river Vecht, where he dwelt three years: in which place he first began to have a disciple by name Gembert. The third place is called Felisa, which was nearer to the heathen and pagans, where he likewise stayed three years. After these thirteen years, I say, when, being admonished by God, he had begun to make his way to the Hessians and Thuringians, the Eastern regions of the Franks &c. To these words he subjoins Gregory's conversion in the monastery of Pfalzel near Trier.

[14] This passage has tormented not a few learned men, because they judge that it cannot be reconciled with the Life of Boniface written by Willibald and Othlo. which many think fights with his Acts: Our Nicholas Serarius perceived the difficulty in Moguntiaca, book 3, note 54, which nevertheless he learnedly tried to remove, and to assert these thirteen years of Frisian preaching for St. Boniface. Aubert Le Mire did this more briefly in the Belgian Fasti at the V day of June, and Alford in the Anglo-Saxon Annals at the year 697, number 11. But Charles le Cointe in tome 4 of the Annals of the Franks at the year 715, from number 64, tries by a laborious disputation to refute Serarius and to overthrow these thirteen years of Bonifacian preaching in Frisia, bringing the matter at last to this, that he judges this whole passage to have been corrupted by some interpolator and to be cut away, and that for thirteen three years are to be restored. Pagi at the year 716, number 16, pronounces that Serarius was solidly refuted by Le Cointe. Mabillon in the Acts of St. Boniface, 3rd Benedictine century, part 2, page 14, notes the same. Although in other places he has hesitated in doubt. Henschen too, in tome 1 of June in the Chronology of Boniface's life, page 454, does not admit these thirteen years. I make much indeed of the judgment of such men; yet I could not be induced to subscribe to their opinion without diligent examination, and at once to pronounce that for thirteen, three years are to be substituted, although Pagi confidently says: Which emendation seems certain, because Liudger, a coeval author, could scarcely err in this matter. The reader will therefore give pardon if I am somewhat more prolix; for the matter treated is one which may not be passed by, namely whether the Acts which I am to publish are interpolated or sincere.

[15] Before I answer Le Cointe's reasons, I shall gather those things certain things to be noted beforehand for examining the matter. which seem to persuade that these thirteen years are to be admitted without scruple: yet I should wish a few things noted beforehand, whereby the matter may be more clearly elucidated. First, that Willibald the writer of St. Boniface's Life — whether he was bishop of Eichstätt, as Le Cointe will have it, or a presbyter at Mainz under archbishop Lull, as Henschen — wrote the Life of St. Boniface as he had learned it from his disciples, who had long dwelt with him, or from those very men to whom he was writing, as he testifies in the prologue; things like which he records often in the course of the work, as is plain from Henschen's Commentary on the Acts of St. Boniface at the V day of June. Secondly, that Willibald does not seem ever to have been in Frisia, as you will perceive concerning Willibald the bishop from his Acts in tome 11 of July from page 485, and thus, being less informed especially about Boniface's first preaching in Frisia, he ran over it rather than recounted it. Thirdly, that St. Ludger, having long dwelt at Utrecht, could be ignorant of nothing of the things which were done in those parts by Boniface, as the adversaries will readily admit. Hence I gather that, if we must depart either from Willibald or from Ludger, in matters pertaining to Frisia we must rather adhere to Ludger than to Willibald; especially since Henschen notes two lapses of memory in Willibald. Fourthly, that Frisia, in which at that time was Utrecht, where Boniface came to Radbod, is altogether to be distinguished from Francia. These things being set forth, I undertake to prove this preaching of thirteen years, following Serarius.

[16] These thirteen years are clearly asserted by the authors, These thirteen years Ludger, adduced above, asserts so distinctly that Le Cointe found nothing to reply, except that this whole passage was added to Ludger by a bold interpolator; nor indeed can anything else be replied: for he is a witness beyond every exception, nor could a fault have crept in, as is plain to one inspecting the text. But truly that all these things were added to Ludger's little work, and that in different copies indeed, does not become probable: for who in Germany, whence the manuscript Life was produced, would gratuitously intrude anything like it into the Life of Gregory, in order to feign a longer stay of Boniface in Frisia? This, I say, is not credible, even if all other arguments were lacking. Much less does that corruption appear probable, since these thirteen years are asserted also in the Life of Boniface published in the third place by Henschen from three manuscript codices in tome 1 of June from page 481. Shall we say that these three codices too are corrupted, because at number 2, after Boniface's coming from England to Willibrord has been narrated, these words are read in them: By whose (Willibrord's) salutary counsel and by the precept of his now fatherly admonition the holy man devoutly obeys at once, and, governing with him for THIRTEEN YEARS UNINTERRUPTEDLY the direction of the church of Tricht (Utrecht) committed to him, he roots out the filth of idols wherever he could? Pseudo-Marcellinus in the Life of St. Swibert, John de Beka, and William Heda, likewise asserting thirteen years, I do not allege; the latter, because they are more recent; the former, because he is spurious.

[17] agreeing with the second Life of Boniface; From these authors the Life of Boniface given in the second place by Henschen from page 477 does not dissent. It was written by a presbyter of Utrecht not long after Boniface's times, as he says in the prologue at number 4: But truly not long before our times there was sent by God a certain most wise architect, both in fact and in name Boniface. But in chapter 1, number 7, he recounts Boniface's first labors in Frisia in these words: When therefore he had abounded in such riches of good things, he began to consider with himself that he should go out from the land of his birth and hasten to the place in which he might be able to be immolated to the Lord. And at length, having obtained an occasion, he crossed the sea, was carried to the islands of the Frisians, and landed at the town of Utrecht; where he evangelized the kingdom of God to the nations, and converted many given to idolatry to Christ. But when most of them insolently resisted, the athlete of God, perceiving that the time of his passion was not yet at hand for him, returned into his own country, that he might meanwhile bear the care of his own, until the Holy Spirit should reveal to him where and when he should receive the crown of martyrdom from the Lord. Thirteen years indeed are not expressed in this place; but a time is suggested much longer than Le Cointe will have it, who contends that he returned to his own country in the following year; and than Pagi, who contends that he returned in the same year in which he had come. For neither is it probable that in so short a time he converted many; nor that he would presently forsake his station, sought at such compass, in which he had labored fruitfully.

[18] Let us now hear Willibald himself, on whose authority the adversaries chiefly rest. nor denied by Willibald but passed over, He in Henschen, page 463, chapter 2, number 17, thus writes: With a prosperous blowing of winds he came to Dorstat (at that time reckoned to Frisia), and, having tarried there for some time, he paid to the Lord God his due proclamation day and night. But since, a grave onset of the pagans pressing in, a hostile dissension had arisen between Charles the prince and glorious duke of the Franks and Radbod king of the Frisians, and was disturbing the peoples on both sides; and the greatest part of the churches of Christ, which had before been subject to the Franks' rule in Frisia, had, with Radbod's persecution pressing on and the servants of God being expelled, been laid waste and destroyed; and the worship of idols too, the shrines of the temples being built up, had been mournfully renewed; then the man of God, the wickedness of the perversity being perceived, came to Tricht (Utrecht), and there, some days being awaited, addressed king Radbod when he came, that, many parts of those lands being encompassed and beheld, he might inquire whether any place of preaching would in the future open for him. After a few words he thus recounts his return to England: The holy man, when he had dwelt for some while in the barren land of the Frisians, and some little time of summer and autumn had passed, had already left the fields dry from the dew of heavenly fruitfulness; and he migrated to his native … soil: and, seeking the secret places of his monastery, there too, being received with the love of the brethren rejoicing, he passed the winter of the second year in wintering.

[19] These things, I confess, in Willibald's account seem little consonant with a stay of thirteen years: because he had things done in Frisia less ascertained: but it must be remembered, as I warned before, that Willibald wished rather to touch these things lightly than to recount them. What therefore Willibald passed over must be supplied from the authors just related; for not only this, but also many other deeds of Boniface, have been wrapped in silence by Willibald, as one who has unrolled all the Acts of Boniface given by Henschen will easily perceive. Further, the adversaries take chiefly to their purpose these words: But since, a grave onset of the pagans pressing in &c. For Pagi in the place assigned contends that this war and persecution arose immediately after Boniface's coming into Frisia; from which he deduces that Boniface came into Frisia not before the year of Christ 716, which is contrary even to Willibald himself, since thus Boniface would not have completed the 40 years of pilgrimage which Willibald has, having died namely in the year 754 or 755. Le Cointe, that he may find these 40 years, contends that he landed in Frisia in the year 715, and consequently must place at least an incomplete year between his coming and the outbreak of the persecution. But

I do not perceive why several years cannot equally be interposed, since the account of other authors requires it. I judge therefore that the whole passage should be set forth thus. Willibald records Boniface's coming, and brings him to Dorestad, a place at that time sufficiently celebrated, concerning which in the notes. What he did in Frisia, and how long a time he stayed there, since he had it not sufficiently ascertained, he altogether leaps over. Finally the occasion of his return, and the return itself, which he could learn from Boniface himself or from his disciples, he describes exactly. This habit of Historiographers, of leaping over certain things less ascertained, all the learned know. But if we thus understand Willibald, he does not dissent from the others: and if he did dissent, we have proved before that in this matter we must stand rather by the others than by Willibald. Now we shall try to prove our opinion from Boniface's age, or at least shall show that his age is not against us.

[20] they agree likewise with Boniface's age. In the year 722, after labors in converting Frisia had been resumed with St. Willibrord, when Boniface was asked by that same Willibrord to accept the episcopate, he was not far from the fiftieth year of his age, if he had not begun it, as I gather from Willibald, chapter 2, number 26, thus writing: Who (Boniface) also, humbly refusing, replied that he was by no means worthy of the degree of the episcopate; and prayed that he would not impose upon him the summit of so great a dignity, while he was still set in the years of youth: and since, according to the norm of canonical rectitude, he had not yet FULLY received the age of the fiftieth year, he testified this, that by every shift of excuse he might altogether decline from the loftiness of this degree. He calls youth all the age before fifty years, as the sense requires: for that he was not a youth Mabillon confesses in the notes, who attributes to him at this time 42 years, which I cannot square with these words. For why does he say that he has not yet fully received the age of the fiftieth year, and not rather that he is far distant from the said age? Why, I say, that fully, unless after a short time he was about to enter the fiftieth year, or had already then entered it? Serarius confirms this from the fact that in the next following year, being ordained bishop by Gregory II the Roman Pontiff, he is read to have brought forward no excuse of age — the fiftieth year, namely, being then completed, or at least begun. If therefore he came into Frisia in the year 704, he began his pilgrimage about the 31st or 32nd year of his age, one or two years after he had been ordained presbyter. Against these things there seems indeed to stand a certain embassy to Berctwald, archbishop of Canterbury, which Willibald narrates as undertaken by Boniface in chapter 2. But I answer that this embassy, which Willibald narrates from the account of others, as he confesses, must, along with the things done in England, be more rightly placed after his return from Frisia to England: for it is less probable that so great a matter was laid upon one scarcely yet a presbyter, than that it was laid upon him when he had already proved his industry in preaching the Gospel. From which answer there falls the argument which Mabillon in the notes, page 10, hurls against our opinion, from the fact that Berwald, with others the mover of this embassy's being committed to Boniface, was made abbot of Glastonbury only in the year 705. Rightly therefore does our opinion agree with Boniface's age; not so that of the adversaries, since he would have spoken ineptly in saying that he had not yet fully attained the fiftieth year, if he had been as far from that age as they will have it.

[21] Gregory lived The last argument, which compelled me to examine this matter more deeply, is drawn from the year in which Gregory followed Boniface, to be proposed the more accurately, the more it is necessary for establishing the chronology of St. Gregory's life. Gregory lived 73 years, but incomplete ones. Various more recent writers indeed oppose this, but the matter seems to me by no means doubtful. Receive St. Ludger's words from the Life at number 28: By such successes, he says, and merits of life my blessed abbot and preceptor Gregory, while he ever advanced by growing toward the better, and had now nearly reached the age of seventy years … there came the day on which the Lord willed to raise his soldier, still improving him, to loftier things; namely through a three years' disease, which he immediately subjoins. Mabillon on this passage in the notes at first understood that he was seized by disease in the seventieth year of his age, as also Bolland in the Acts of St. Ludger, tome III of March, page 631. Yet Mabillon drew back in the additions to the 4th century, part 2, page 599, and thought that he died a septuagenarian.

[22] But that he was seized with disease in the seventieth year of his age, 73 years; and survived three others, another Life which I have in two manuscript codices does not allow me to doubt, when it thus recounts the matter: By such successes and merits of life blessed Gregory, while he ever advanced by growing toward the better, and had already come to the age of LXX years, and was held in all things as dear to God as to all just men, there came the day on which the Lord willed to raise his soldier to the lofty rewards of recompense which were owed to his merits. Being therefore touched with a trouble of the body which the physicians call paralysis &c. So clearly do these things signify that in the seventieth year of his age he was touched with paralysis that they need no explanation, the particle nearly being removed, which, being added in Ludger, left the matter somewhat doubtful. But after a few words there is added: For three years before his death he was held by that infirmity. He died therefore in the seventy-third year of his age. Nor is William Heda to be understood otherwise, writing these things in the History of the Bishops of Utrecht, in Gregory: At length, in the LXX year of his age, being burdened with paralysis, and for a continuous three years exhausted by it with the utmost patience, his dissolution being now at hand, he foretold his death three days before, and, being led to the altar, the Eucharist being received, he straightway expired on the VIII of the Kalends of September. This age of Gregory will also be confirmed from elsewhere in what follows.

[23] But that Gregory died in the year 776 we shall prove in §4, he followed Boniface in the year of Christ 719, and the adversaries admit it. From which we deduce that he was born in the year 704; for that he died in his seventy-third year only begun, and not completed, that word nearly added in Ludger establishes, from which it is plain that the other biographer is to be understood of 70 years begun, when he says that he was seized with a three years' paralysis when he had already come to the age of LXX years. But Gregory began to attach himself to Boniface in the fifteenth year of his age, as the said Life in the manuscript codex of Utrecht more clearly sets forth again in these words: Who at that same time, lately returned from school and palace, still in lay habit, being as it were in the fifteenth year of his age, came by God's prompting &c. And upon this year of his age at the time of his conversion the learned agree. Hence therefore I deduce that Gregory attached himself to Boniface in the year of Christ 719, by plainly the same reasoning by which those who thought Gregory died in the seventieth year of his age will have him joined to him in the year 722. Wherefore whatever can be brought from elsewhere to prove that he attached himself to Boniface in this year confirms also the age of 73 years.

[24] Now from Gregory's Life I show that he was made St. Boniface's disciple in the year of Christ 719. when he first went to Thuringia; At number 3 St. Ludger thus runs: After these thirteen years, I say (of the preaching in Frisia related before), when, being admonished by God, he had begun to make his way to the Hessians and Thuringians, the Eastern regions of the Franks, for the sake of gaining peoples for God, he came to the monastery of virgins of Pfalzel near the city of Trier, where he acquired the disciple Gregory, as is related in the same place. The author does not record whence Boniface came, inasmuch as he is not writing his Life: this therefore we must gather from elsewhere. But he designates the time when he says that he had begun to make his way to the Hessians and Thuringians: by which words he not obscurely suggests a first journey to those provinces. Which is confirmed from number 6: Then, he says, the elect of God, accomplishing the desired journey, came to Thuringia. Further, for the increase of their good and for the proving of the constancy and long-suffering of their mind, they FOUND that people in such poverty that scarcely anyone there had whence to live. From the word they found you may sufficiently gather that Boniface was still a stranger there: for if he had preached there before, he would doubtless have had some supports already, some acquaintances, as it is established that he in fact had on the second journey of the year 722, when a little after he built the monastery of Amöneburg, as Willibald narrates in his Life, chapter 3: it therefore seems altogether to be admitted that on the first journey to the Thuringians Gregory delivered himself under Boniface's teaching.

[25] nor for that reason had he to turn much aside from the road. And yet that Boniface's first journey into Thuringia took place in the year 719 is established from Boniface's Life, and all commonly admit it: for in that year, being sent from Rome into Germany by Gregory II in the month of May, through Lombardy, the ridges of the Alps, and the unknown (as Willibald says, chapter 2) borders of the Bavarians and the bounds bordering Germany … he went on into Thuringia. Le Cointe at number 79 hurls a dart from these words, but a blunt one, where from the reckoning of the roads he strives to prove that the passage is to be understood of a second journey to the Hessians: From the city of Trier, he says, and from the monastery of Pfalzel, Rome, Lombardy, the Alps, and Bavaria are very far distant. So it is; but Trier and the said monastery are not so far from Hesse and from Thuringia, nearest to Hesse, and at that time much more widely extended than today, that he could not have come there before he arrived in Hesse and Thuringia. For, the borders of Bavaria being crossed, he could turn aside to the Rhine, and by it go down as far as Speyer or Mainz; and thence make an excursion to the said monastery of his Order, or come thither through Alsace and modern Lorraine; nay, the convenience of the journey urges that he did this. Then, on the second journey to the Thuringians undertaken from Frisia, he would have had no less to turn aside from the road: for in chapter 3 Willibald thus describes that journey: Who, setting out at once, came to the place whose name is written Amanaburch. If therefore, as Le Cointe will have it, he had then made an excursion to the monastery of Pfalzel, he had to turn aside from the direct journey no less than in the preceding one. Nothing therefore is concluded by this argument for either opinion. Besides, at number 31 we shall prove that Gregory in the year 723 set out for Rome with Boniface, and there did certain things which do not agree with the age of 16 years, which was then his age, if in 722 he joined himself as a companion to Boniface. From all which I conclude that in the year 719 Gregory was made Boniface's disciple. This epoch therefore being established, it becomes manifest that for the thirteen years of preaching in Frisia those three are not to be substituted in which he preached in Frisia a second time, but are altogether to be added, since these are distinct from those.

[26] Boniface first came into Francia under Charles Martel, Now the remaining arguments of Le Cointe must be answered: for certain ones have already been resolved in the foregoing. Yet it does not please me to transfer all his words hither, lest the disputation grow immense;

yet I shall not decline their force, as befits one zealous of the truth. At number 82 he draws an argument from Gregory's Life itself, which so pleased Pagi at the year of Christ 716, number 16, that he asserts that, this one thing being brought forward, it seems certain that for thirteen years three are to be substituted. It is of this kind. At number 2 in Gregory's Life Ludger says of Boniface: Who in the days of the most noble prince of the Franks, king Charles (Martel), coming into Francia from Britain and from the race of the Angles as a certain most bright star &c. Therefore, they say, he did not come into Frisia in the year 704, in which Charles Martel was a boy. This passage of Ludger, in Le Cointe's judgment, settles the whole dispute. But in my judgment it makes nothing to the matter which is treated. For he does not deny that he came into Frisia earlier; nay, Ludger openly asserts it at number 3, when he affirms that he had already labored thirteen years in Frisia.

[27] Frisia therefore is to be distinguished from Gaul, inasmuch as it was set outside the bounds of the Gauls, yet he came earlier into Frisia, which must be distinguished from Francia. and was subject to Radbod, then lord there, an enemy of the Franks. If it move anyone that he is said to have come from Britain, this is true: for after his return to England, he went out of it again, while Charles was holding the principate in Gaul; but not even this did Ludger wish to signify. What then, you will say, did he mean by these words? This one thing indeed: that Boniface, a Briton by race, in the time of Charles the prince came to Trier in Gaul, that there Gregory attached himself to him as a disciple, and that from that time Boniface became known to the Franks. To this paralogism I make no further reply, although replies are not lacking; for — which you may wonder at — presently, at number 84, Le Cointe himself refutes himself in these words: Blessed Ludger, where he writes that Wynfrith (his name afterwards being changed to Boniface) came into Francia in the days of Charles, most manifestly testifies that he is speaking of the later coming. This passage therefore does not settle the whole dispute about the first coming into Frisia, as Le Cointe above would have it; nor could Pagi draw from this passage certain knowledge about a correction to be made of three years for thirteen, as he judged at the year 716, number 16; but it makes nothing to our purpose. What the cited Le Cointe further objects at number 78, that there is deep silence among authors about the things done by Boniface in these thirteen years, is plainly false, as is plain from the things brought forward above from the 2nd and 3rd Life of Boniface in Henschen. From the 3rd Life: He roots out the filth of idols wherever he could. From the 2nd Life: He converted many given to idolatry to Christ.

[28] A stronger argument for his own opinion, and one not sufficiently convenient for ours, The argument which the adversaries take from the 40 years of pilgrimage, he proposes at number 66 from Willibald and Othlo, the writers of Boniface's Life. I shall answer Willibald alone, whom Othlo long afterwards faithfully followed, so that he adds nothing of weight to his authority. Willibald narrates that Boniface was crowned with martyrdom in the year 755, the fortieth year of his pilgrimage having run round; thence he deduces that he began his pilgrimage in the year 715. The consequence is legitimate, I do not deny, provided the antecedent be not erroneous, and be necessarily to be understood in the way in which Le Cointe will have it. I answer therefore that Willibald's reckonings are erroneous, both of Boniface's pilgrimage and of his episcopate. Concerning the episcopate I show it thus. Willibald writes, in our tome 1 of June, page 472, chapter 4, number 59: He sat .. in the episcopate XXXVI years, six months, and six days; but he died on the V day of June, in the year 754, or 755, as Willibald and many others will have it, about which it does not please me to dispute, since it is exceedingly ambiguous, the opinions even of ancient authors varying. He is made bishop, from Willibald in our text, chapter 3, number 32, on the XXX day of November, but in the year 723, as is ascertained by all; therefore he sat in the episcopate, besides the months and days rightly assigned by Willibald, 31 years, or, if he died in the year 754, only 30 years.

[29] rests on a corrupt reckoning: for both the years of the episcopate The learned adversaries saw that Boniface's episcopate was shorter than Willibald's reckoning describes. But truly, in order to excuse him from error, they have fled to another course. It pleases me to hear one for all, Pagi, at the year 719, number 3, thus writing about this reckoning of Willibald and Othlo: Both improperly use the episcopate for the office of preaching, and call him bishop whom Gregory II made herald of the faith and legate of the apostolic See throughout Germany, because the preaching of the Gospel is among the chief offices of a bishop, and is sometimes called an apostolate. A subtle interpretation indeed, provided it be conformable to Willibald, and true. But I first of all do not understand why he says he sat in the episcopate if he means to signify an apostolic legation; this manner of speaking is certainly not proper, nor used by anyone, so far as I know. Then, why does he distinguish the years of his pilgrimage from the years of his episcopate, if he reckons the years of the episcopate from the first mission into Germany? The adversaries indeed say that the first journey into Frisia belongs to the years of pilgrimage; but Willibald does not seem to have looked to it, especially in Pagi's opinion, who circumscribes that journey within a few months, since Boniface returned thence to his own monastery and remained there about a year and a half. What too of the fact that not even thus will Pagi find 40 years of pilgrimage run out from the year 716, in which he will have him to have departed, to 755, in which he died, as is plain? Thirdly, Willibald in chapter 3, number 32, relates that he was consecrated bishop on the day before the Kalends of December: therefore it seems not doubtful that he wishes to reckon the years of the episcopate from that time, especially since he rightly reckons the months and days from the last of November to the V of June; this reason alone can suffice for perceiving the author's mind. For what is clearer? In the course of the Life he describes the beginning of the pilgrimage, he describes the beginning of the episcopate; toward the end he reckons the years of the pilgrimage, he reckons also the years of the episcopate; to what therefore shall we look but to the episcopate described before, when he says he sat in the episcopate, just as we look to the pilgrimage indicated before when he says, The fortieth year of his pilgrimage having run round? Add that the apostolate cannot be taken from the year 718, the XXX of November; for the letters by which Gregory II granted Boniface the power of preaching throughout Germany are marked in the year 719, in the month of May: but what Pagi says, that the power was given to Boniface by living voice on the XXX of November 718, is plainly fictitious. The reckoning of the episcopate therefore strays by 5 or 6 years, as Henschen also observes in the notes.

[30] and Boniface's are not rightly reckoned by Willibald. The years of the pilgrimage too are not rightly computed, as we have already said. Yet it can be doubtful which pilgrimage Willibald means. To me, as I have briefly said, he seems to mean that last pilgrimage into Germany which was begun at Rome, both because the other had been interrupted, and because the chronological error committed in computing the years of the pilgrimage is nearly the same as that which crept into the years of the episcopate. For this pilgrimage preceded the episcopate by four years, and is likewise set down as four years longer; yet if you compute the months exactly, the error in the pilgrimage will have been one year less than in the episcopate. However it be, I do not doubt that there was error; but from an erroneous computation so great an authority as we have brought forward for the thirteen years of Boniface's preaching cannot be torn down. From which we deduce that nothing stands in the way of our concluding that these thirteen years are altogether to be adjudged to Boniface, the apostle of Frisia as well as of Germany. Further, that Willibald fell into certain chronological errors in reckoning Boniface's years ought not to seem a wonder, although these errors could also afterwards have crept in through some bold interpolator, since Willibald never in the course of the Life mentioned what was done in any given year, being content to relate the matters themselves without a note of time. A similar chronological lapse Henschen notes on chapter 2, number 27, where he brings in Boniface speaking of Gregory II as of one dead, who survived many years afterwards. These things we have drawn out somewhat at length, both to show that Gregory's Acts are not to be corrected, and to lay the foundation of St. Gregory's chronology, and also to claim for St. Boniface the glorious labor of 13 years, wrongly struck out by many. But in all things there went before us the parent of our Work, Bolland, in the Commentary on the Acts of St. Ludger, tome III of March, page 631, but he only briefly indicated the matter. For the rest, it is useful to warn that this Commentary is not rightly cited by Pagi and others under Henschen's name.

§ III. The chronology of St. Gregory's life up to his administration of the episcopate.

Born in 704, converted in 719, from which time in Apostolic labors Certain foundations of this chronology we have mentioned in the preceding §. We have proved that he lived 73 years, but incomplete ones; that he died in the year 776 we shall further prove here. He was born therefore, as it seems, in the year 704; he followed St. Boniface in 719, being nearly 15 years old, which years he passed partly in his father's house, as is probable, partly in the palace, as the Life has it. In the same year 719, having set out with Boniface into Thuringia, he there bore grievous poverty and very many labors, thus laying the foundations of the apostolic life. In the year 720 Boniface, being about to bring aid to Willibrord, made his way into Frisia, Radbod's death having been heard of, Gregory being his companion, as the Life urges, which everywhere exhibits him as adhering to his master, namely from the beginning of his conversion. Besides, in the Life at number 13 it is said: Blessed Gregory illumined Utrecht, an ancient city, and the famous village Dorstad, together with that part of Frisia which at that time was reckoned by the name of Christendom; which indeed was done afterwards, yet makes it probable that he now set out thither with Boniface. In the year 722 toward the end, or at the beginning of 723, he returned with his master into Thuringia, three years having been accomplished in Frisia, which I think were incomplete on account of the many and great things which Boniface is said to have completed in Thuringia before he set out for Rome.

[32] In the year 723 Gregory accompanied his master Boniface to Rome, to be ordained bishop, he becomes Boniface's companion, even on the Roman journey in the year 723: being in the 19th year of his age. Ludger has it clearly in the Life at number 7: And on that journey too, when the holy Martyr Boniface at Rome, as was said above (he had narrated Boniface's consecration at number 16) was exalted to the sacred degree, blessed Gregory my preceptor remained an untiring companion to his chosen master; entering and going out and proceeding at his command, as he was always wont in every good work. What Gregory did at Rome, being mature beyond his age, the same author thus records: And not only on this same journey did he accomplish the merit of his humility and obedience, as it is fitting that juniors be subject to their elders and to their betters in all things; but he also there acquired, the Lord bestowing it, several volumes of the holy Scriptures; and thence with him

he carried them home, with no small labor, for his own profit and that of his disciples. But also two boys, with his master's consent, he brought thence with him into his own discipleship, namely Marchelm and Marcuwin, of the race of the Angles. Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals, tome 2, page 173, judges that these things must be referred to Boniface's third setting out for the City, not to this second one: At which time, he says, Gregory, not yet fifteen years old, could not have disciples. But, with all respect to so great a man, he contradicts himself in the same number: for a little before he had said that Gregory was converted in the year 722, a youth of nearly fifteen years. How therefore, toward the end of the year 723, when Boniface was ordained, as Mabillon too testifies, was he not yet fifteen years old? Then he rests on a false principle, namely that Gregory did not attach himself to Boniface earlier; and he openly conflicts with Ludger, cited above, as is plain from the words themselves: for it was not on his third approach to Rome that Boniface was exalted to the sacred degree, but on the second. From this so clear a testimony of Ludger, therefore, by which he signifies that Gregory, still younger, set out for Rome with Boniface, our epoch is confirmed, established concerning Gregory's conversion in the year 719: for indeed he who at the 15th year of his age could accompany Boniface on the arduous journey of apostolic labor could after four years already have some younger disciples, and fellow disciples with himself of Boniface.

[33] Having returned from Rome he labors many years in Germany: Toward the end of that same year 723, or the beginning of the following, having returned with Boniface, who was furnished with the Pontiff's letters of commendation to Charles Martel prince of the Franks and to various peoples of Germany, he went with his master to that same prince; whose protection being obtained, Boniface resumed his apostolic labors in Hesse and Thuringia, Gregory being his companion and helper. For to about this time I should think must be referred what Ludger says in the Life at number 7: The chosen youth Gregory too began to advance in his discipleship in age and wisdom: and to become so lovable to his master that he loved him as an only son: now having him as a faithful helper in every good work. These labors held Gregory several years, at least until the death of Charles Martel, which Pagi, from the common reckoning of authors, says took place in the year 741 at that same year. Meanwhile I altogether judge that Gregory was consecrated presbyter by Boniface. But in what year that was done Ludger does not record; yet it is not improbable that he was consecrated about the 30th year of his age, of Christ 734. To which I think must be referred what Ludger says at number 7 at the end: Likewise also his faithful disciple Gregory remained an untiring helper in the work of God with his master in the keeping and rearing of Christ's flock, being made second pastor: to whom Boniface seems to have committed chiefly the care of his flock, when he set out a third time for Rome in the year 738.

[34] After labors continued for very many years in Germany, Then, being sent to Utrecht, he cultivates nearer Frisia: the nearer Frisia was given to Gregory to be cultivated, on the occasion, as it seems, of the death of St. Willibrord, that excellent apostle of that people and first bishop of Utrecht. Concerning whose death-year, disputed among the learned, it does not please me here to dispute, lest I be led too far afield: it will be examined in its own place. Gregory's preaching in those parts Ludger thus recounts at number 13: But in all these things (Boniface) was not moderately helped by his chosen disciples, most illustrious preachers after their master, and columns of the Church of God: each of whom illumined his own city and region, like the morning star rising, by his examples and his doctrine. Blessed Gregory illumined Utrecht, an ancient city, and the famous village Dorstad, together with that part of Frisia which at that time was reckoned by the name of Christendom. That is (others the same) as far as the Western bank of the river which is called Lagbeke, where was the border of the Christian Frisians and of the Pagans, in all the days of king Pippin. The time in which Gregory was sent into Frisia, or Batavia, is somehow suggested by the last words, in all the days of Pippin. But it is not necessary to defer the matter to the coronation made in the year 752, since already before Pippin was called king by many, as his father Charles Martel was. For he seems to have been sent into Frisia not long after Carloman had commended that church to Boniface's care for the appointing of a bishop, about the time in which the same Carloman, about to lead the monastic life, left the principate; since he here names Pippin only, and at number 11 acknowledges the principate of Carloman and Pippin, under which he records the court to have been rather often frequented by Gregory with Boniface. Carloman's retirement Pagi binds to the year 747: wherefore I judge that about the same year 747 this sending of Gregory to the church of Utrecht took place, or perhaps one or two years earlier, which cannot be exactly defined. But here another difficulty arises to be examined.

[35] Boniface in epistle 97 to Pope Stephen thus writes: Whether he was designated bishop by Boniface; But Carloman, prince of the Franks, commended to me that see (of Utrecht) for appointing and ordaining a bishop, which also I did. Who that man was whom Boniface says was appointed by him bishop of Utrecht he does not explain. Henschen suspected that Adulph, whom Papebroch gave on the XVII of July along with Botulph, was ordained by Boniface, because in the Life, tome III of July, page 402, he is said to have been enthroned bishop of the church of Utrecht: but to me this is less probable, both because there is no mention of this Adulph among the bishops of Utrecht, and because whoever he was, unless he was Gregory himself, he does not seem ever to have obtained peaceful possession, the bishop of Cologne, forsooth, contradicting and contending that the church of Utrecht was subject to him, as Boniface narrates in the said epistle. I judge therefore that Gregory himself was designated bishop of Utrecht by St. Boniface, and that St. Eoban was added to him for exercising the episcopal offices, because he thought he ought to abstain from consecrating Gregory, on account of the suit with the bishop of Cologne, who refused to consent to the consecration of a bishop of Utrecht, because he contended that Utrecht and Frisia pertained to his own see. All these things you will understand from Boniface's epistle to Pope Stephen just assigned, from which we shall also deduce the succession of the first bishops of Utrecht. Boniface therefore, after the words just related, thus goes on:

[36] to whom the bishop of Cologne opposed himself, But now the bishop of Cologne usurps to himself that see of the aforesaid bishop Clement (Willibrord, named before, as also now rather often, whom he had said at the beginning of the epistle to have established an episcopal see at Utrecht on the Rhine), ordained by Pope Sergius, and says that it pertains to him, on account of the foundations of a certain little church destroyed by the pagans: which Willibrord found ruined to the ground in the fort of Utrecht, and built it up from the foundation by his own labor, and consecrated it in honor of St. Martin. And he relates that by Dagobert, an ancient king of the Franks, the fort of Utrecht with the destroyed church had been given to the parish of Cologne on this condition, that the bishop of Cologne should convert the nation of the Frisians to the faith of Christ, and be their preacher: which he himself did not do. He did not preach, he did not convert the Frisians to the faith of Christ, but the nation of the Frisians remained pagan, until the venerable Pontiff of the Roman see Sergius sent the aforesaid servant of God Willibrord as bishop to preach to the aforesaid nation. Who converted that nation, as I said before, to the faith of Christ. And now the bishop of Cologne wishes to draw to himself the see of the aforesaid preacher Willibrord, so that there be not an episcopal see subject to the Roman Pontiff, preaching to the nation of the Frisians. To whom I was answering, as I believed, that the precept of the apostolic See ought rather and more to stand, and the ordination of Pope Sergius, and the legation of the venerable preacher Willibrord, so that there be an episcopal see subject to the Roman Pontiff, preaching to the nation of the Frisians, because a great part of them is still pagan, than the ruined foundations of a destroyed little church, trodden down by the pagans and forsaken through the negligence of bishops. But he does not consent. But now deign to make known to me by your paternity's judgment: and if this answer be just, and it please you, which I gave to that bishop of Cologne, to strengthen it by your authority, so that Pope Sergius's precept and that see may remain stable. For thus you can, if it please you, help us, if you order a copy from the archive of your church, and transmit to me whatever holy Sergius commanded and wrote for the aforesaid bishop Willibrord when he was ordained, so that from the authority of your holiness I may be able to convict and overcome those who contradict. But if otherwise it seem more just to your holiness, deign to make known to me your paternity's counsel, that I may follow it. These things Boniface about the year 753 or 754, since he writes to Stephen, made Pontiff in the year 752.

[37] From the epistle recited, aids from elsewhere being compared, and about whom Boniface consulted Pope Stephen? the intricate succession of the bishops of Utrecht must be unrolled. For hence it is first manifest that after Willibrord's death the care of that church was committed to Boniface, as Apostolic legate, not that he himself should govern it perpetually as bishop, but that he should appoint and ordain a bishop there. He undertook the matter (in what year precisely is not clear), designated a bishop, but, an obstacle being presently thrown in through the bishop of Cologne, abstaining from ordaining him until the suit should be ended, he himself meanwhile as Apostolic legate went on to administer the church, both by himself and through Gregory, whom we shall prove from elsewhere to have been designated bishop, his Vicar, and to whom was joined St. Eoban, consecrated for exercising the episcopal functions. Secondly it seems clear from the epistle that St. Boniface was never properly bishop of Utrecht, although he was so named by many, but that he administered that church by the authority of an Apostolic legate. For indeed he clearly says in the epistle that a bishop was appointed by him; he thought him rightly established, and appealed to the apostolic See concerning his confirmation: how therefore would he have usurped that church to himself as his own, the Pontiff's answer not being awaited? But the Pontiff's answer came after Boniface's death, either because Boniface's letters were later brought to the Pontiff, who is read to have set out into Gaul in the year 753, or because the Pontiff, before he should answer, wished to hear the bishop of Cologne, or for whatever other cause.

[38] That Stephen's answer came after Boniface's death is gathered from Gregory's Life at number 20, where Ludger thus writes: But this also is by no means to be covered with silence, which I learned from the venerable man Marchelm relating it … that after the martyrdom of my holy master … blessed Gregory too received from Stephen, prelate of the apostolic See, and from the illustrious and religious king Pippin, authority to sow the word of God in Frisia; namely when Stephen, answering Boniface's epistle, assented to Boniface at least so far as to confirm Gregory in the episcopate of Utrecht, a doubt perhaps still being left whether he ought to be ordained by the bishop of Cologne and be subject to him, which at length the man of Cologne carried; for Albric, Gregory's successor, was consecrated by the bishop of Cologne. Pagi at the year 755, number 10, treats the succession of the bishops

of Utrecht thus. After Willibrord he will have the see to have been vacant until the year 753, because St. Boniface, as he says at number 11, after Willibrord's death could not substitute another bishop for him on account of the fierceness of the nation — which reason is openly false, because Gregory published the faith at Utrecht and in the neighboring regions almost that whole time. What the same author writes, that Boniface was made bishop of Utrecht in the year 753, has been refuted. But now it must be proved, as I said I would prove, that Gregory was the man whom Boniface wished to establish as bishop of Utrecht.

[39] In the Acts of St. Boniface, published by Henschen in tome I of June, this is clearly said in the 3rd Life, page 482, number 6: that Gregory was designated is proved from various authors, But St. Boniface, as a prudent steward whom the Lord set over his household, providing for the foresight of the flock committed to him, lest, with no pastor protecting it after his departure, ravening wolves should invade the Lord's sheepfold, set blessed Gregory .. as pastor over the see of that same church of Utrecht. Othlo, in Mabillon, 3rd Benedictine century, part 2, page 52, explains the matter more clearly and more suitably to the time: Then he sent Gregory to Tricht, consecrated in the episcopal order. What he says, consecrated in the episcopal order, will afterwards be corrected. In the supplement to the Life of St. Boniface composed by a presbyter of Mainz, in Henschen, page 476, chapter 3, it is thus written: And straightway at that very time, when the holy man (Boniface) fell asleep in the flesh for the Lord, the clerics of the church of Utrecht with their bishop (Gregory, as Henschen rightly notes) seized the holy body, and wished to retain it altogether with themselves. I do not see how I may rightly understand this, unless he had already been designated bishop before Boniface's death. In the manuscript Life of St. Gregory I read these words: When holy Boniface had foreknown that his last day was at hand, he set blessed Gregory over the church of Utrecht as bishop. To so many witnesses credit seems to be given. To these I add what we related above from Ludger, where the city committed to Gregory is said to be Utrecht, as Mainz to Lull. As therefore he created Lull bishop of Mainz while still living, and one indeed younger in age than Gregory, so he wished also to establish Gregory as bishop; but, an obstacle being thrown in, he was confirmed only after his death.

[40] The matter being already abundantly proved, because it is contrary to the persuasion of many, as also from St. Lull's epistle to Gregory: it pleases me to make it further probable from the epistle of St. Lull, afterwards archbishop of Mainz, to Gregory, which is plainly written while Boniface was still living. Since it is most worthy to be read, and full of Gregory's praise, it will be useful to insert it whole. It is had published among the Bonifacian epistles as the 45th, with this inscription prefixed: To the bright light-bearing lamp of the Church of Christ, and to my most devoted helper in the doctrine of the divine law, Gregory, adorned with the twofold honor of presbyter and abbot, with the preceding suffrage of his own merits, Lull, the least nursling of the orthodox mother Church, salutary greeting in unfading charity, in the corner Stone of both Testaments. From this inscription I gather, first, that Lull was a presbyter while he wrote these things, for otherwise he is wont to write Lull the bishop, as may be seen in the 47th and 62nd. Hence it is certain that it was composed before Boniface's death. Secondly, that the title of abbot and presbyter is attributed to Gregory, such as was attributed to him after Boniface's death, while he governed the church of Utrecht; whence it seems to be proved that he governed it already while Boniface lived, yet by the authority of Boniface, the Apostolic legate and curator of that church. Let us now hear the epistle itself, from which this same thing will become more manifest:

[41] in which, thanks being given for the gifts sent by Gregory, By a faithful carrier bearing them, the gifts of thy bounty came, being brought all the way to me: but the most sweet greetings also of thy kindly charity, surpassing every gift, accompanied them likewise after the accustomed manner; which being heard and received, I first gave abundant thanks to the most pious God, as was fitting; and then rendered due thanks to thy brotherhood, because, knowing thee faithful in a lesser power, I have the more quickly proved thee more faithful in a greater. Having learned therefore of the success of thy prosperity, my sick soul did both: it rejoiced at the advancement of a dear comrade, but was saddened at the separation, because this seems intolerable among men, when he who is loved more than the rest is suddenly withdrawn — although I know for certain that no spaces of lands can divide those whom the true love of Christ binds with an unbroken bond of brotherhood. God is witness, lest I seem by flattering to deceive, that thee, father, so far as the possibility of my mind allows, I love with the love of inward affection. But this I humbly beseech with earnest prayer, that we never let the charity once begun in Christ grow cold in our breast through the sloth of torpor, like a small spark of slender fire choked by the dark ash of cinders, lest we come to be derided by those passing by and considering the begun building of the tower. The scripture says: He who shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved; nor is any craftsman praised for a work begun, but for one finished. But know without any scruple of doubt that my mediocrity, however much younger in age (hence we cannot wonder that Gregory was designated bishop of the church of Utrecht by the living Boniface, since Lull was substituted by him for that of Mainz), lesser in degree and rank (and so Lull was still a presbyter when he wrote these things), inferior in knowledge, both has kept it and will keep it. But concerning the gravity of thy life and the stability of thy mind I doubt nothing.

[42] Let us fortify ourselves with spiritual armor according to the Apostle's precept, he exhorts him praying for one another that we may be saved, because the assiduous entreaty of a just man, as James bears witness, avails much with God; and let us press on with this the more diligently, the more we are not ignorant that we are assailed the more violently with the various darts of temptations. The right hand, namely, being stronger, ceases not to help the weaker left; and the left will not cease to serve the right, as a handmaid her mistress: that is, do thou not cease, by chastising, correcting, admonishing my instability with the examples of thy good life, though absent in body yet present in spirit, as is thy custom, to lead me to the perfection of a better life; and I shall afford thee, with humble devotion, so far as my strength supplies, faithful service in all things. The exhortatory words of my mediocrity, though they seem foolish and superfluous, I beseech that they be not received with annoyance by the fellowship of thy charity (by thee, my colleague), which charity alone required, writing without matter for composition, which conquers all things, as it is written: Love conquers all things, and let us yield to love, all swelling of pride being taken away. The things which follow openly indicate that these are written to a bishop designate and rector of a church: for that by earthly power nothing else is understood than the episcopal will be plain below.

[43] These are the persuasive words which I cannot say without my own peril, to the contempt of temporal goods, and to various virtues, that in this temporal power (of administering the goods of the episcopate) and earthly dominion which, God being author, thou now usest, thou be ever mindful of the Lord's sentence which sounds: My kingdom is not of this world. And that of the Apostle: Do not love the world, nor the things which are in the world. By which words what else is hinted, unless we understand that he plainly said: Fix not the eye of your mind on that which you daily behold falling by its very ruin; but look upon him with the whole intention of your mind, and love him with all your strength, who is before all ages, and through all ages remains unchangeable, who lacks future and past time, but for whom to be is always essentially his own. For what is the fugitive felicity of this world, and its fleeting prosperity, but vapor and smoke? Who of the skilled is ignorant that between temporal prosperity and eternal felicity there is a great distance? Let us learn therefore to use this temporal power apart from eternal felicity, and in comparison with which all things grow cheap for us. Let us spurn precious garments, horses fed on grain, hawks and falcons with curved talons, barking dogs, the revelings of buffoons, the flavors of exquisite sweetness in food and drink, the weights of glittering silver and gold; let there be no resting on a soft cushion, and let soft pillows rather be furnished by men than by flame-clad girls. Above all, let the incautious familiarity of strange women be cut off, because we are often seduced by incautious security worse than by open temptation. Let the secret utterances of the divine Scriptures drive out a tumultuous multitude of attendants, because that pit must be guarded against with all keeping, through which we behold very many to have fallen in pitiable ruin. For often a robust soldier is the more strongly assailed with the most hostile hurling of darts, the more he seems unconquered. Would that all bishops had such free admonishers, and would follow their admonitions as faithfully! Which things were less necessary for Gregory, but given for caution, and he followed them most exactly, as is manifest from his whole Life. Let Lull meanwhile go on:

[44] suggesting in various places that he is writing to the rector of a church, Although I clearly know that thou hast entered upon this business (of administering the episcopate) on the occasion of gaining souls, and out of zeal for serving God more manifoldly, yet remember that a hard hilt tries a soft hand. Wherefore, dear colleague long since, and now pious preceptor (hence it is again clear that Gregory undertook the care of his church before Lull), in all thy works remember thy last things, and thou shalt never sin. But haste in coming to thee has been denied me on every side, on account of the manifold tribulation which, thanks be to God, we continually endure. Look not at the magnitude of this gift, but behold the devout mind of him who sends it. Relying on the confidence of our old familiarity, it pleases me in this little epistle briefly to touch on a certain saying frequently had among us, when together we searched the clear sayings of God; yet by no means pertaining to the person of thy pure religion, which thou well rememberest when it is read, but it pertained to a certain most abominable schismatic who was always wont to swear that he would receive nothing earthly: when suddenly, unforeseen, like a new phantom, he appeared a bishop — this I shall now for the most part fear to be about to happen. (He seems tacitly to dissuade him from receiving episcopal consecration, and not altogether to approve the governance of the church taken up by Gregory, perhaps because they had often declared to each other how much they shrank from the episcopal summit. But as Gregory, so also Lull himself had at length to take this burden upon himself. Further, since he here suggests that to become a bishop is to receive something earthly, he declares that by earthly dominion above he signified episcopal dominion.) Lest the prolixity of a longer discourse beget disgust in the reader (for a wise man uses few words, but a foolish one is wearied with many, as I too am), I beseech thee, wipe away the rust of this epistle by correcting it, and let indulgence be given to my error. May God deign clemently to inspire in thee what pertains to thy salvation: and with the flock committed to thee (here he openly says he was appointed shepherd of the flock, or rector of the episcopate) may the Shepherd of shepherds keep thee unharmed. I have written these things with my own hand. Observe what is commanded, and thou shalt be saved. Thus far St. Lull, piously and likewise freely.

[45] from which it is deduced that Gregory was designated bishop by Boniface. From this rather long monument I now demonstrate that that bishop whom Boniface writes was established by him in the see of Utrecht is no other than St. Gregory. St. Lull was designated archbishop of Mainz before Boniface's death, as all agree, in the year, as it seems, 753. But when he wrote this epistle, he was not yet designated bishop: therefore he wrote it at least not later than the year 753; but he could have written it some years earlier. And yet from the whole epistle it is plain that the flock of Utrecht, and the governance of that church, had for some time already been committed to Gregory when Lull wrote these things. Therefore Boniface, who in the year 753 or 754 wrote to Stephen that a bishop had been established by him at Utrecht, could write this of no other than Gregory, to whom he had committed both the administration of temporal goods and the care of the flock: although Gregory obtained peaceful possession of the episcopate only after Boniface's death, being confirmed in the see by the authority of the Pontiff Stephen; and therefore he seems at this time to have administered it in the name of Boniface, who as papal legate bore the care of the church, as we have already said. These things it was needful to draw out somewhat more prolixly, because hitherto, so far as I know, they have been explained by no one. For the rest, in what year Gregory was designated by Boniface is uncertain. It seems to have been done before the year 753, in which Lull was appointed archbishop of Mainz, from the said epistle of Lull: nor yet does it seem to have taken place much earlier, since other authors suggest that it was not done many years before Boniface's death.

§ IV. His deeds in the episcopal office, the time of his death.

Boniface being dead, he is confirmed in the episcopate, St. Boniface, crowned with glorious martyrdom, passed over to the Lord in the year 755, if we must stand by the writer of his Life; although other likewise weighty writers affirm that this took place in the year 754, about which, since it is exceedingly ambiguous, nor can the matter be certainly defined, I forbear to dispute at greater length. But Boniface being dead, Gregory was at length confirmed in the episcopal jurisdiction; as we have from the Life at number 20: But this also is by no means to be covered with silence … that after the martyrdom of my holy master, by whom, through Christ's grace and the merit of his sanctity, all the neighboring nations were illumined, blessed Gregory too received from Stephen, prelate of the apostolic See, and from the illustrious and religious king Pippin, authority to sow the word of God in Frisia: in which St. Willibrord first, by surname archbishop, in the conversion of that nation began the rudiments of the Christian faith with his disciples: then, as he grew old in the work of God, and the episcopate being established in the place which is named Utrecht, and by another name Wiltaburg, and as he passed over from this light to the Lord, there succeeded St. Boniface, the same archbishop and martyr … (namely bearing the care of the church of Utrecht as apostolic legate:) whom also there succeeded (Gregory), the pious heir, ordained pastor and preacher of the same nation of the Frisians by the Lord and by the aforesaid princes of the Church of God. And with the same charity, as also with the firmness of faith, with which his predecessors, namely holy Willibrord archbishop and confessor, and Boniface martyr and archbishop, with generous and honey-flowing erudition, he illumined the people together with his chorepiscopus and helper Alubert. Concerning Alubert we shall treat in the notes.

[47] From these things it is plain that Gregory was truly bishop of Utrecht, namely in episcopal office and jurisdiction; in jurisdiction and office he was bishop, not by consecration: otherwise he could not have taken to himself a chorepiscopus for exercising the episcopal offices. Yet he is never called bishop by Ludger, because he abstained from episcopal consecration. That Gregory abstained from receiving consecration Altfrid teaches in the Life of St. Ludger, chapter 2, in these words: For that same Gregory had not been ordained to the episcopal degree, but persevered in the degree of the presbyterate. And in the manuscript Life of St. Lebuin it is said: Blessed Lebuin came to Gregory the priest; who at that time governed the fort of Utrecht … as a presbyter in a bishop's stead. Nearly the same is asserted in another manuscript Life of Lebuin. I heap up no more, since the matter is clear from Ludger himself, who therefore never calls him bishop. The reason why he never wished to be consecrated seems to have been the said suit with the bishop of Cologne, to whom in Willibrord's time the church of Utrecht had not been subject, and who contended that it ought to be subject to him, as we have narrated before.

[48] St. Lebuin and Marchelm How excellently St. Gregory, being confirmed in the episcopal jurisdiction after Boniface's death, exercised his office, both by himself and through his disciples and helpers, laboring strenuously for the further conversion of the Frisians, is handed down in the Life. In the first place the province of the Frisians beyond the Ijssel, which is now called Transisalania, commonly Overijssel, and has Deventer as its metropolis, was under Gregory's pontificate illumined with the light of the Gospel through St. Lebuin or Liafwin, and Marchelm, by another name Marcellinus, sent thither by Gregory. The whole matter is narrated in the manuscript Life of St. Lebuin, which we received from the library of the monastery of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine near the town of Segeberg, and which Hucbald also narrates in the Life of that same Saint. What pertains to St. Lebuin I shall touch on briefly, to be set forth more fully in his Acts. He is said, being admonished by God by a threefold vision, to have come to Utrecht to St. Gregory, and to have been received by him with joy, a revelation likewise going before; and to have been sent to those nations. But let us hear at greater length from the author of the Life what pertains to Gregory: Therefore (Lebuin) came with prosperous course to the city of Utrecht, his coming having been revealed by the Lord the preceding night in this manner to St. Gregory, who for the time, the see being vacant, presided as vicar over the church of Utrecht (he so speaks because Gregory was not consecrated, although the see was not properly vacant, as we have said before): for it seemed to blessed Gregory that a certain man of great age, comely in habit and placid in countenance, laid a certain heavy burden to be borne upon blessed Marcellinus, once a disciple of St. Willibrord, a man indeed of no contemptible authority, and bade him proceed with so great a mass: which, when Marcellinus had tried to do, his feet stumbling this way and that under the burden, he was ready for a fall. Gregory therefore saw a certain youth of most beautiful form come at hastened course, offer his back to the burden, and busy himself lest so great a man should fall under the mass; whereby it came about that with united strength they carried the imposed mass whithersoever they pleased, under which a little before blessed Marcellinus's strength was hastening to give way.

[49] he sends to preach the faith into Transisalania, When on the next day St. Gregory narrated his vision to blessed Marcellinus, and both were doubtful what new thing a vision of this kind might suggest, blessed Lebuin, a man indeed still young, tall in form, comely in aspect, illustrious in eloquence, and exceedingly pleasing, entered. And when he had made known to those holy and apostolic men the cause and order of his mission, blessed Gregory, wholly dissolved in tears for gladness of mind, rushed into his embraces, and, turning his moist eyes upon Marcellinus, said: This is that comely youth who raised thee up as thou wast about to fall under the burden of converting the Saxon nation! This is he who will be able by his sanctity, eloquence, uprightness to do what thou, relying on thine own strength, couldst not! This is he who by his examples will afford a passable way to exiles, who, happy, will carry back to the eternal camps a people despoiled of the fatherland of paradise. And, kissing St. Lebuin, he said: Blessed be God through the ages, who through so many vastest spaces of lands and seas has destined thee for the salvation of his people. And thus, St. Marcellinus being given him as comrade and helper, he sent him to the appointed place, exhorting him to act bravely, and not to fear the boldness of the pagan nation, but rather, the anchor of his hope being transferred to God, to trust that he would be helped by him, and to await the reward of his labor for eternity.

[50] This vision of Gregory I have not read in other authors, who accomplished it excellently. and it seems somewhat to savor of the orator, from which indeed it can seem less certain; yet you will not rightly conclude that it is false. Further, the nation to which Lebuin was sent, with Marcellinus as companion, is called Saxon; for the Westphalians, a part of the Saxons, even now bordering on the men of Overijssel, seem then to have inhabited that province. How excellently Lebuin bore himself in his mission, and how he built the church of Deventer and rebuilt it when burned, will be said more fully in his Acts at the XII day of November, and is related briefly in the Life of St. Ludger, Lebuin's successor in that mission, tome III of March, page 645. Bolland on the said Acts of St. Ludger, page 631, number 15, thinks that this mission of Lebuin took place about the year 765, which I do not gainsay. Gregory had besides other helpers illustrious in sanctity, such as were St. Willehad, afterwards first bishop of Bremen, who at the time when Gregory presided over the church of Utrecht is read to have preached in Frisia; St. Ludger his disciple; St. Albric his disciple and successor in the episcopate; and others, concerning whom there has been or will be treatment in their places.

[51] How many years Gregory governed the church of Utrecht St. Ludger does not explain in the Life. He governed the church of Utrecht 22 years, William Heda in the History of the Bishops of Utrecht, in Gregory, attributes to him 22 years; which must have been complete, if Boniface's death took place in the year 754; but if we hold Boniface to have died in the year 755, incomplete, as we gather from the time of Gregory's death, of which we must now treat.

[52] The death of St. Gregory Bolland bound to the year 776 in the often-mentioned Acts of St. Ludger, page 631, he died in the year 776. whom in the whole chronology of this Life we have followed as our guide, as safer, we judge, than the rest. Bolland (whom they thought to be Henschen) Le Cointe followed in this part at the said year, number 30, and Mabillon in the notes on the Acts of St. Ludger, 4th Benedictine century, part 1, page 23, although these had at first entered upon another way. Pagi at the same year, number 13, hangs doubtful between the year 776 and 777. But (to say nothing of an inference altogether inverted, for if 22 complete years be taken, he infers that he died in the year 776; if incomplete, in 777, whereas the contrary ought to be inferred) the foundation for the year 777 is slight; for he contends that the day of death is uncertain, whereas it is altogether probable that he died on the XXV of August, because his memory is celebrated on that day. But let us grant that the day of death is uncertain: whence will Pagi establish that Gregory died before the V day of the month of June, Boniface's death-day, on which Gregory's episcopate is held to have begun — which had necessarily to be proved, that some foundation might be had for the year 777? But not even this would make the matter certain, since it is doubtful whether Boniface was crowned with martyrdom in the year 754 or in 755. Le Cointe, praised above, brings forward two reasons why Gregory's death seems to be fixed to the year 776, and led by which

he changed his former opinion. The first is taken from Charlemagne's privilege given to the church of Utrecht on the VII of the Ides of June, in the ninth year of his reign, that is, of Christ 777, in which it is said: Where the venerable man Albric, presbyter and elected rector, is seen to preside: therefore Gregory seems to have died from the preceding year, since Albric had already succeeded in his place, which is certain if he died on the XXV of August. The other reason is that which moved Mabillon also, that St. Ludger is written to have labored nearly seven years in Ostergo, a part of Frisia. These are terminated in the year 784, as Bolland hands down in his Acts, page 632; nor does he seem to have set out thither except one year after Gregory's death, since he had previously set out for Deventer, rebuilt the church there, and accomplished other things which could not be accomplished in a short time. So nearly Le Cointe, rightly indeed, yet not so as to satisfy Pagi.

[53] as against the doubting Pagi Wherefore I deduce the matter from Pagi's own principles. At the year 784, number 6, he thus writes: This is the seventh year from that in which Ludger was sent into Ostergo by Albric. Rightly. At the year 777, number 2, he consequently admits that through the autumn of that same year Ludger was consecrated presbyter at Cologne and sent into Ostergo. In the same number 2 he writes from the Life of Ludger that he, still a deacon, was sent to Deventer by Albric, Gregory's successor. Now let us hear how much Ludger accomplished before his ordination in the year 777, made so, even according to Pagi himself. Altfrid in the Life of St. Ludger, tome III of March, page 645, chapter 2, from number 16, hands down these things: But the abbot Gregory also passed over to the Lord, and Albric his nephew undertook the pastoral care, who loved the venerable Liudger with great affection, and addressed him thus, saying: Now, since thou art my most beloved brother, I ask that thou fulfill my desire: for the place in which St. Liafwin the presbyter, whom thou knewest, labored, persisting in the Lord's work unto death, where his sacred body is covered by burial, has been reduced to a solitude. For which reason I ask that thou take pains to restore it, and rebuild a church over the Saint's body.

[54] it is shown from principles admitted by him. God's servant Liudger therefore, obeying his master's commands, sought the saint's body in the aforenamed place, and did not find it: but nevertheless, within the space of the place where he thought it to be, he began to construct a church. And when he had laid the bases, and was trying to raise the walls, Liafwin, the priest of the Lord, appeared to him in sleep, saying: Most beloved brother Liudger, thou hast done well in restoring God's temple long since destroyed by the heathen. But also my body, which thou hast sought, is buried under the southern wall which thou hast raised. Liudger therefore in the morning, the praises of the Lord being completed, found the Saint's body in the place foretold to him in the vision: and, a multitude being gathered, he had the bases of that same building carried over to the southern part; and thus he enclosed the man of God's sepulchre within the church: and so that church was completed and consecrated. After a few words, these things follow in chapter 3: After these things Albric sent Ludger, and with him other servants of God, to destroy the shrines of the gods and the various cults of idols among the nation of the Frisians. And they, fulfilling the commands, brought him a great treasure which they had found in the temples: of which the emperor Charles had taken two parts, but the third part he ordered Albric to receive for his own uses. That these things were accomplished before Ludger's ordination, which is immediately subjoined in the same place, Pagi admits. Neither credible things therefore, nor things consonant with his own principles, does he write at the year 776, number XIII, when he says: Since it is more probable that Gregory lived until the beginning of the month of June of the following year of Christ (777), and that Albric succeeded him in the same month &c. For thus all the things which we have mentioned would have had to be accomplished from the month of June to the autumn of the same year, which will be plain to a reader could not have been done. If anyone say — as can probably be said — that Ludger's ordination could have been performed in the month of December, or even at the beginning of the following year, since the seven years in which Ludger was in Ostergo were not complete: not even thus will it become probable that all these things were accomplished in the intervening time. Wherefore there is no reason why we should depart from the chronology established by the learned, and remove Gregory's death from the year 776, and seek another death-day than the XXV of August. But that he lived 73 years, at least incomplete, we proved in §2.

§ V. Whether the Saint's body was translated from Utrecht to the monastery of Susteren: relics in other places: an apparition after his death.

[Some will have the sacred body translated to the monastery of virgins of Susteren;] Ludger at number 30 writes that Gregory was carried at the end of his life to the church of St. Salvator, and there died. That he was buried in the same church John de Beka, already mentioned, writes; William Heda in Gregory agrees; but he adds: Yet in the Annals of the church of Liège it is had that he was buried in the church of Susteren, dedicated to the sacred virgins of that same diocese: where also St. Wastrad, mother of that same Gregory, rests. Bartholomew Fisen in the Flowers of the Church of Liège at the XXV of August records these things concerning Gregory's body: The sacred body was carried away to the convent of Susteren. That place, although in the diocese of Liège, he had loved while he lived, and had been often there, on account of the excellent dignity of sanctity already then shining forth in that monastery. The same author in the History of the Church of Liège, book 6, at the year 900: In the same house of Susteren, he says, the holy prelates of Utrecht Gregory and Albric, laid in the earth, are honored .. and work many miracles. This too Arnold Hertsworm affirms in §4 in a manuscript Work praised several times in our Acts, which he composed concerning the relics preserved there. Nor do certain men of Susteren and of Roermond speak much otherwise in their letters, consulted on that matter by our elders, who seem to hold for certain that St. Gregory's body is preserved in the said monastery, and even show the coffer in which they think it was deposited. They add that his arm was translated to our church of Roermond: but they honor the Saint as patron with a special Office on the XXV of August, and again with St. Albric on the XXII of September. Receive what Father Cornelius de Moor of our Society wrote on that matter, then dwelling at Roermond, from which the small town of Susteren is distant only four Belgic leagues: As to the relics of SS. Gregory and Albric, we have of both the one and the other an entire bone or tibia, though I could not distinguish it from a shank or a thigh. We received them once from the monastery of noble virgins of Susteren, where at one time there were shown me, on a small platform behind the high altar in the choir, two wooden chests, rough and unadorned, like common burial biers, in which the relics of those Saints are preserved.

[56] Yet the men of Utrecht claim Gregory's sacred bones for themselves, both in Sacred Batavia and in Confederated Belgium, whether the author of both be one or different; certainly both hand down the same about Gregory's relics. The author of Confederated Belgium, page 5, in Gregory, others write that his Bones are preserved at Utrecht: asserts that his bones are laid in the church of St. Salvator, at one time also called of St. Mary, and more commonly of St. Boniface, commonly Oud-munster, as he says at page 58. But he confirms the matter with these reasons: St. Gregory's bones were elevated at Utrecht in the year MCDXXI, and honorably laid in a wooden casket. They were inspected in the year MDXCVII, on the IV of June, by Folcard Montzima, dean of the church; for so the memorial of that same church runs. Which from him I subjoin: In the year MCDXXI, on the XVII day of the month of April, at the hour of compline, there were found and drawn out by the venerable lords Houberg the dean, Laurence, William, Andrew Veer, Gerard Zelinghen, canons of the church of St. Salvator of Utrecht, the relics or bones of the holy father Gregory, bishop of Utrecht, third from St. Willibrord, from and out of a stone tomb beneath the northern steps of the choir of that same church, and then on the fourth day of the month of June, which was for the feast of St. Boniface, at the hour of vespers, they were becomingly laid in a wooden chest by the reverend father D. Matthias, bishop of Bidua, there being present the lords Henry the dean, Laurence, Andrew, and Gerard aforesaid, Henry de Compostelle, and Walter Grauwert, canons of the aforesaid church. Which reverend father D. Matthias the bishop, for the greater reverence of the said relics, mercifully in the Lord relaxed XL days of indulgences from enjoined penances for all truly penitent, confessed, and contrite persons venerating them with three Our Fathers and as many Hail Marys, as often as they should do so. The same things are had in Sacred Batavia, page 90.

[57] a part of the body seems to be preserved in each place. These things indeed seem to fight with the preceding. Nevertheless I do not see why I should accuse the men of Utrecht, or those of Susteren, of falsehood, or even think them deceived. For the men of Utrecht do not say that the whole body of Gregory is preserved there, but the author speaks of St. Gregory's bones in the same manner in which he had spoken before of the relics of St. Boniface at page 58. But it is established that St. Boniface's body was translated to Fulda and there honorably deposited, so that the men of Utrecht can possess only certain bones, certainly the lesser part of the body. So therefore they can also have certain sacred bones of St. Gregory, the chief part of the venerable body having been translated to the said monastery of virgins. This is urged by Gregory's singular worship in that monastery, which seems to have arisen from nothing else than from relics translated thither. Yet I cannot give more certain documents, because those, heresy holding sway in those parts, were lost. Wherefore I judge that the matter must be left in doubt. Piazza in the Hemerology of Christian Rome at the XXV of August writes that St. Gregory's jaw is exposed to public veneration in the Pauline chapel of the church of St. Mary Major. Gelenius, On the greatness of Cologne Agrippina, page 616, in the sacred treasury of the chapel of SS. Willibrord and Boniface, reviews relics from the arm of St. Gregory, bishop of Utrecht. That Gregory likewise gleams with miracles Heda and Fisen write in the places assigned; but they make mention of none in particular; nor has any come to my knowledge.

[58] Gregory appears after his death to St. Ludger. I append finally an apparition of Gregory related in the Life of St. Ludger, chapter 3, number 15, in these words: Liudger therefore, in the order of his turn (namely while by turns he had the care of the monastery of Utrecht), in the night seasons, after psalmody and the special prayers which he had always loved, was wont to give his limbs to rest in the upper chamber of the church of holy Salvator which St. Willibrord had built: where on a certain night the venerable abbot Gregory appeared to him through a vision, saying: Brother Liudger, follow me. And while he followed him, he himself went up into a higher place; and cast down before him, piece by piece, as it were parts of parchment and of garments, and said: Gather

heaps out of them. And when he had gathered three piles out of them, he said to him: Distribute these well in the Lord's work, and I will give thee enough. And he signed him with the little sign of the cross, and departed. And when in the morning he had related the dream to the provost of the monastery, Haddo by name, and to Marchelm, keeper of the church, renowned for sanctity … Marchelm straightway upon these things began to say that which the outcome of the matter afterwards proved, saying: The three piles which thou hast gathered are the governments of three peoples, over which thou must yet preside with pastoral rule. But he said: Would that in the place entrusted to me I may make some fruit for the Lord. In what year this apparition took place cannot be determinately said; yet it took place after the presbyterate received by Ludger, whom we said was raised to that dignity toward the end of the year 777, or the beginning of the following.

LIFE

by the author St. Ludger the bishop.

From the Fulda manuscript and Brower's edition, collated with the Böddeken manuscript.

Gregory, rector of the church of Utrecht, at Utrecht in Belgium (St.)

BHL Number: 3680

by the author St. Ludger the bishop.

PROLOGUE.

Spiritual fathers are to be honored. By the precepts of the sacred Scriptures we are admonished to love the Lord with our whole heart, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to judge those truly our neighbors who are more intent on spiritual than on carnal things, and who cease not to prepare themselves by pious works for their promises unto the last day. Whom carnal generation does not vainly exalt, but spiritual regeneration makes to bear fruit and to advance. This charity, although to be shown to all the household of the Catholic faith which works through love, is nevertheless to be shown most of all to our holy fathers and superiors, as the holy Apostle exhorts, saying: I ask you, brethren, that you know those who labor among you, and preside over you in the Lord, and admonish you, that you hold them more abundantly in charity for their work's sake; have peace with them. What is that knowledge by which we are bidden to know our superiors more than the rest, unless it be that we pay them, while living, due honor and obedience with sincere intention; and that their pious and profitable examples, after their death, not only never depart from our memory, but that we cease not also to repeat and to spread them unceasingly in discourse for the edification of others? So far as that may truly be done which the same Apostle in another place exhorts and says concerning those same spiritual fathers of ours: Beholding the end of whose converse, imitate their faith; that we who in the present mortality retain their footsteps and examples both in mind and in act may in the future immortality, according to the saying of the Gospel, deserve to enter together with them into the joy of our Lord. Attaining to that, when by the gratuitous grace of Christ bestowing it we shall have entered upon perennial felicity, no one shall take it from us for ever: since for that we were in the beginning founded by the pious purpose of our Creator, and after the fall of the first man into death were, by the merciful visitation of our Redeemer, called back to that same thing — to which we shall attain on the day of the last necessity, if with most certain hope in the days of this mortality we both follow the exhortations of spiritual fathers, and God himself be always to us the greatest cause of rejoicing. Therefore, since, as I have said, by the clear testimonies of holy Scripture honor is deservedly to be paid to spiritual fathers, and after the Lord's precepts nothing is to be preferred to their commands, I shall now take care to disclose in a few words for whose reverence and worthy memory I have set forth this little preface, beginning, by the grace of Christ granting it and his own merits interceding, to write a few of his countless good deeds.

CHAPTER I.

Gregory's conversion; his Apostolic labors with St. Boniface in Thuringia and Hesse.

Gregory to Boniface For this discourse of mine is about lord Gregory the abbot, and my preceptor from infancy: who, begotten of the noble stock ^a of the Franks, adorned ^b in all things and surpassed the nobility of the world by nobility of manners and by the proofs of his wisdom. Which spiritual nobility and prudence indeed he obtained from St. Boniface the martyr, archbishop and his master; who in the days of the most noble prince of the Franks, king ^c Charles, coming into Francia from Britain and from the race of the Angles as a certain most bright star, under the kings Carloman ^d and Pippin, the most glorious sons of that same king Charles, like a sun glowing red in sanctity ^e, spread abroad the rays of his power and of his preaching, and, refreshing almost all the kingdoms while living in the body with the most bountiful feasts of his doctrine, bettered them both in faith and in life. And after his passing from this world through holy martyrdom, he made those same kingdoms of the Franks bear fruit and advance through the chosen grains of his disciples, after the example of the Lord's seed, unto the present day. Among whom blessed Gregory was found a column of the Church of God: who in the days of the most religious king Pippin of the Franks ^f, succeeding his master, was sent as a preacher to the nation of the Frisians ^g; to which master, and Boniface the martyr, blessed Gregory began in this manner to attach himself and to undergo his discipleship ^h.

[3] after his preaching in Frisia, to the monastery When Boniface himself, the elect martyr of God, after thirteen years ⁱ of preaching accomplished in Frisia, during which, in the southern part of Lake Almere ^k, as an evangelical poor man and almost a solitary, he had completed his holy sojourn in three places, whose names of places are these: the first is called Wyrda ^l, on the bank of the river Rhine, where he dwelt seven years. The second is called Attingohem beside the river Vecht ^m, where he dwelt three years: in which place he first began to have a disciple by name Gembert. The third place is called Felisa ⁿ, which was nearer to the heathen and pagans, where he likewise stayed three years. After these thirteen years, I say, when, being admonished by God ^o, he had begun to make his way to the Hessians [p] and Thuringians, the Eastern regions of the Franks, for the sake of gaining peoples for God, he came to Pfalzel [q], a monastery of virgins near the city of Trier, on the bank of the river Moselle, over which there then presided an abbess by name Addula, exceedingly religious and fearing God. Who, when she had seen the athlete of God a pilgrim and needy, gladly received him into her lodging, fulfilling the Lord's exhortation: I was a stranger and you gathered me in. And when that holy and sacred traveler Boniface had performed the mysteries of the Masses after his accustomed manner, as he was wont to do almost every day, they sat down at table, namely he and the handmaid of God Addula the abbess with her household. But they began at that holy banquet to seek, more than the viands, the solace of holy Scripture, whereby the faith of the hearers might be kindled, and hope and charity be renewed toward God, who wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

[4] Then a lector was sought: and according to God's will [r] coming to Pfalzel, reading aloud at table, there was found the chosen boy Gregory, who at that same time, lately returned from school and palace, still under lay habit, being as it were in the fourteenth or fifteenth year of his age, came by God's prompting to his grandmother, that is, to the mother of his father Albric [s], the aforesaid God-fearing abbess Addula; and a book was given him, who, a blessing being received, began to read, and, according to the measure of his age, to read through well. But the master, understanding the boy's sagacious mind and good character, when the reading was completed, began moderately to praise him with these words and to say: Thou readest well, son, if thou understandest what thou readest. But he, at that time yet being wise as a little one and speaking as a little one, professed that he knew what he was reading. Tell me, he said, how dost thou understand what thou readest? But he began his reading again from the beginning, wishing to read as before. But the holy Preceptor put him off a little, and said: Not so, son: I ask that thou tell me thy reading, but according to the propriety of thine own tongue, and according to the natural speech of thy parents, expound to me what thou readest. Being convicted by this reasoning, he confessed that he could not do it. But holy Boniface said: Wilt thou, son, that I tell it thee? I will, he said. Then blessed Boniface said: Repeat thy reading from the beginning, and read distinctly. And while he did this, the holy master began, and with clear voice began to preach, both to the mother and to the whole household. From what fount that preaching proceeded is clear in the conversion of Gregory, a gifted and sagacious boy, because not from human eloquence, which frequently deludes for a time, but from the grace of the Holy Spirit, according to the Gospel's promise, it flowed from the teacher's belly after the manner of a river of living water: and it penetrated the prudent and docile heart of the boy Gregory with such power and swiftness that at one exhortation and preaching of a master hitherto unknown he forgot both parents and fatherland, and in that very hour, when the holy master had completed his preaching, unwilling to be separated from him further, he went to his grandmother, the aforesaid venerable abbess Addula, saying that he wished to go with the man, and to undergo his discipleship for learning the divine books. But she, being constrained by carnal affection, at once repulsed him, and refused that this could be done in any way, because indeed she did not know the man, nor whither he was going. But, as it is written: Many waters could not extinguish charity; the boy Gregory remained in his purpose and said to Addula his grandmother: If thou wilt not give me a horse, that I may be able to ride with him, without doubt I will go with him walking on foot. Thus therefore, disputing about the unknown journey, they argued with one another a long while: but at length the charity of the chosen boy Gregory prevailed, and, as was fitting, spiritual love conquered carnal affection. Seeing therefore, since she was a prudent woman, the boy's unbending mind, God's handmaid Addula gave him boys and horses, and let him go with his holy master into the work which they accomplished together [t], until his holy martyrdom.

[5] he becomes his disciple: Thou understandest, pious and prudent reader, whom the chosen boy Gregory followed in this deed, that, his parents and all his kinsfolk being unconsulted, and his grandmother, who was present, resisting, he should so suddenly be changed. For the same Spirit seems to me then to have worked in this boy who inflamed the Apostles of Christ and the dispensers of God's mysteries to this, that at one voice of the Lord, their nets and their father being left, they should follow the Redeemer. Parents and fatherland therefore being despised, and all things being left behind which could carnally allure the mind of a youth, according to the Psalmist's saying the Blessed boy Gregory, for the words of God's lips, followed hard ways. For it was hard, and exceedingly harsh, that he who in his very rich father's house had been nurtured in jests and delights should follow one pilgrim and poor man, not knowing whither he was going; and should obey him so far that all other men and the powerful of the world, and his own parents, as though deaf he should not

hear, provided he obeyed his precepts in all things. For how great an authority already then shone in the future martyr Boniface, who can estimate, which stirred a boy's heart with so sudden a change? Or what ardor of charity inflamed the mind of a youth to obey an unknown master, so that, suddenly forgetting himself, he followed a poor man of Christ, destitute of all worldly substance? Love of gold and silver did not do this, nor greed for estates and proud boasting, of which none was in the case; but this the highest Artificer did, one and the same Spirit of God, who works all things in all, dividing to each as he wills.

[6] the labors of both Then the elect of God, accomplishing the desired journey, came to Thuringia. Further, for the increase of their good, and for the proving of the constancy and long-suffering of their mind, they found that people in such poverty that scarcely anyone there had whence to live, unless he gathered some little from afar, so as to sustain his want for a short time. For that whole region, set on the border of the rebellious pagans, had at that time been burned and laid waste by a hostile hand; which poverty nevertheless could in no wise terrify the ministers of Christ, so that on that account they should shrink from announcing to them all the counsel of God: but, after the apostolic example, they began to labor with their hands for the things which were needful for themselves and for those who were with them; and to remain firmly with that people in their temptations; and, by preaching round about, to invite them to the heavenly kingdoms. Persevering therefore in these pursuits after the pattern of the primitive Church, they had one heart and one soul; and God daily increased with a manifold number those who should be saved unto that same thing.

[7] Then the fame of the holy master and future martyr Boniface began to be spread abroad through all the Eastern kingdoms of the Franks. The chosen youth Gregory too began to advance in his discipleship in age and wisdom; Apostolic in Thuringia, and to become so lovable to his master that he loved him as an only son, now having him as a faithful helper in every good work. But this so great advancement of God's elect was not begun through wealth and worldly delights, nor through the security and prosperity of mortal life, but in hunger and nakedness, and in many labors. In all which they were compelled to live also by the work of their hands; and not seldom, for fear of death, to flee together with the people into the city from the neighboring persecution of the pagans; and there [u] to dwell on black bread and in straits for several days, until, their multitude being gathered, the citizens with a stronger hand should drive them off again. This struggle therefore, since it was waged through countless villages between Pagans and Christians, for that reason a great part of those regions on this side and that had been reduced to a solitude.

[8] But in so strong and perilous a contest in those days, and their constancy in these: in so great a fight and disturbance of the fighting [x] peoples, the chosen shepherd Boniface could never cease from the keeping and instruction of his flock: but he was so much the more constant and readier to lay down his life for his sheep, the more frequently and the more fiercely he saw the rage of the wolves threatening. Likewise also his faithful disciple Gregory remained an untiring helper in the work of God with his master in the keeping and rearing of Christ's flock, being made second pastor. But these things were so carried on until, by the grace of Christ, the Christian force should triumph; and God's full peace be restored to the churches. And they were more and more growing and advancing in the Lord's work, as is now beheld by those who consider those regions. But what shall we wretched, sluggish, and inert men say in the peace of God's Church, who, ever seeking not the gains of the flock but our own conveniences, scarcely ever in the keeping of the sheep against the rage of the wolves send forth even one bark of the least discourse? — who, as I said, are sluggish in the Church's peace, and drowsy in the keeping of the flock, but exceedingly strenuous and wakeful in carnal gains? But those of whom we speak, in so great a disturbance and struggle of wars, not only remained with clean hearts in their own inward and chaste keeping, but also in the gain of the flock and in the training of disciples were enlarged with so great a blessing of God, and multiplied by their own vigilance through God's help.

[9] Then the chief and more prudent of the Franks, who could know and understand God's elect martyr Boniface, being called to Charles Martel, and using his favor, and his disciples the venerable Gregory and his companions, in so great a power of works and strength of constancy, began the more diligently from day to day to offer them their own goods, and not to conceal the praise of so great blessedness and unity before the king of the Franks, namely Charles the elder [y]. And the king himself too began to wish to see the man of God Boniface; and ordered him to come to him. Who, when he had come, was not at once at the beginning received by the king with honor worthy of him, but was thus for a fitting time put off; because there had been certain false teachers and flatterers who tried to darken and to hinder before the king the fame of the holy man and of his disciples. Nevertheless from that day the love and honor of the man of God [z] and of his disciples grew among all who desired to know and to search out inwardly their faith and life: and, according to the saying of the Gospel, Wisdom is justified by her children [aa].

[10] they return to their labors in Thuringia and Hesse with great fruit. The elect of God returned again to their own, and, remaining without any hesitation in the work begun, among the Thuringians and among the Hessians, where at that time their teaching was most of all needed, on account of the nearness of the pagans and the untaught populace. And there they began, from those who offered them for the love of God and for the salvation of their souls, to receive small places and territories, and in them to build churches, and in this work too, as also in their preaching, to advance much with God's blessing. Of which places one is in Thuringia, by name Erpesford [bb], and another among the Hessians, Fritzlar, with certain others which the elect of God began and cultivated with divine worship. Then the places grew in riches, and the number of disciples grew, and advanced in power of works. The blessed youth Gregory too grew with his master in all power of works and in the comeliness of divine wisdom, according to the pattern of the master from whom he had learned. And so in all these things, according to the Psalmist's saying, he who gave to God's elect a law in power of works gave also a blessing in the multiplication and advancement of disciples; and so they went from virtue to virtue, daily advancing toward the better, and growing in every good work.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Hesse is a sufficiently known province of Germany. But Thuringia was once much more widely extended than today; and it had kings who caused no little trouble to the first kings of the Franks. The Christian religion had already been published in those provinces; but many had lapsed into heresy, or had relapsed into idolatry.

q. Pfalzel, a pleasant place, about three thousand paces from the city of Trier to the North, once a monastery of Benedictine virgins, now a town and a college of secular canons, whom Poppo

the archbishop brought in about the year MXXXVII, Brower testifying. So Mabillon, 3rd Benedictine century, part 1, page 531; where more concerning this pious abbess may be seen.

r. The manuscript, providentiam.

s. Concerning Albric and Gregory's royal stock consult the Commentary, §1.

t. This is not so to be understood as though they had always been joined; for Gregory was afterwards sent to Utrecht, Boniface not remaining there; and the latter, having set out into modern Frisia without Gregory, was there crowned with Martyrdom, to omit the rest. He means therefore that they labored with joined mind for the conversion of the infidels, even if at times separated in place. Yet at the beginning of his conversion Gregory seems always to have adhered to Boniface.

u. The Böddeken manuscript: and there they were compelled to dwell for several days in some narrow place.

x. The Fulda manuscript, dimicatione pugnantium.

y. Namely had been omitted in the printed editions, but is read in the manuscript. Further, this Charles is Martel, named king by many, as we have said.

z. The Böddeken manuscript here interposes the following: In the king's court, because there were several there who desired to know their faith &c. But these things were done after Boniface was ordained bishop at Rome in the year 723: but Ludger did not relate all things in order of time.

aa. Again the Böddeken manuscript interposes: After therefore they had been made known in the king's sight, they returned.

bb. He then founded the monastery of Ohrdruf of the Order of St. Benedict, which Willibald in chapter 3 writes was built in the place which is called Ordorp. On which Mabillon thus in the notes: The monastery of Ordorpum, or Ordorffum, of the Order of St. Benedict in Thuringia on the river Ohra or Ora, not far from the town of Erfurt (which is here called Erpesford), on what occasion it was dedicated by St. Boniface in honor of St. Michael, we learn from Othlo, book 1, chapter 23. Namely on account of the apparition of Michael the archangel made to Boniface; as is related in the same place. That this monastery was built in the year 724 is narrated in Mabillon's Benedictine Annals. Likewise at Fritzlar in Hesse he founded a monastery of the same Order, which Mabillon refers to the year 732 in the said Annals; others elsewhere, but we are not now illustrating the Acts of Boniface: enough therefore of these things.

CHAPTER II.

Boniface's archiepiscopate: the labors of him and of Gregory and of his other disciples: Boniface's ordination at Rome, whither Gregory accompanied him.

Boniface, in favor with the princes of the Franks, Meanwhile, while these things are so carried on by God's elect Boniface and his disciples, there succeeded in the kingdom to their father Charles his religious sons Carloman and Pippin, their father paying the debt of all flesh and passing from this world. Then the pious sons, succeeding their father in the kingdom, since a greater quiet from wars had been granted them on every side by the grace of Christ than had been to their father, began in their kingdom, God inspiring it, more intently to seek out and to better the offices of religion. Blessed Boniface the future martyr and his disciples began also to hear this; and they began to approach the palace more frequently than they had done, and to speak with the kings, and to preach to the people of God in that very palace according to the grace given them by God ^b. And they came into such favor with the aforesaid kings and with all the people of the Franks that all with one voice said and agreed that Blessed Boniface was most worthy of the episcopate ^c and of every honor — except those false teachers and flatterers of whom I spoke above; who also at one time plotted to kill him; but the Lord his protector did not let him come into their malevolent hands, until he should announce, according to the Psalmist's saying, the arm and power of God to the generation that was to come.

[12] his rivals resisting in vain, he is designated archbishop: They alone therefore began to contradict and to blaspheme him as much as they could, and to affirm that he was not worthy of the episcopate because ^d he was a stranger. To such a degree were the laity then of sounder counsel than the clerics, seeing that the wisdom and grace of God was in that man, that the more those most perverse men — I do not say bishops, to whom that name was undeservedly given — tried to disparage him, so much the more was he loved by all and extolled with praises, until they came to a contest before the kings and before the whole senate of the people of the Franks. But what need is there to tell of that disputation which they then had with one another — namely those most perverse men on one side, and holy Boniface on the other, with his disciples Gregory and his companions — since the adversaries, being confounded and refuted by the whole senate and by the kings themselves, departed thence; and St. Boniface the future martyr came to this, that, without anyone's contradiction, by the one voice of all he was chosen to the most lofty degree of the episcopate, and the metropolitan church, the see ^e of Mainz, was given him by the kings to be provided for and governed. From that day, how greatly his wisdom shone in all the kingdom of the Franks, and how many synods he afterwards instituted with the religious kings for the correction of the people, is not now to be told in this Little Work, since he shone like the sun in the temple of God; and by his preaching and examples put to flight all the clouds of unbelief and of heretical depravity, since all these things too are fully and clearly made manifest in the little book written on his passion.

[13] But in all these things he was not moderately helped by his chosen disciples, Gregory's labors in Frisia, and those of the others most illustrious preachers after their master, and columns of the Church of God: each of whom illumined his own city and region, like the morning star rising, by his examples and his doctrine. Blessed Gregory illumined Utrecht, an ancient city, and the famous village Dorstad ^f, together with that part of Frisia which at that time was reckoned by the name of Christendom; ^g that is, as far as the Western bank of the river which is called Lagbeki ^h, where was the border of the Christian Frisians and of the Pagans, in all the days of king Pippin. Lull ⁱ dwelt at Mainz, the metropolitan city, with the greatest part of the Eastern Franks who were established in the parish of that city. Megingod ^k, the venerable father and pastor of the flock committed to him, seasoned and guarded in his own lot the city of Würzburg with its adjacencies with the salt of the wisdom of his doctrine. Willibald ^l, God's chosen bishop, the bishopric which is named at Hehstedi in the part of the Bavarians nearest to us; that is ^m, in Nordgau, in like manner, as a pious father raising it from the foundations, bettered and guarded it. And also the brother of the aforesaid Willibald, by name Winnibald ⁿ, a presbyter, very dear to my master Blessed Gregory, he too made his own place and region illustrious holily and happily, who after his death showed the more by miracles what he had done while living.

[14] But Sturm ^o, the venerable abbot, one of that number of God's elect, of Boniface's disciples in various places: how much he advanced in his desert after the martyrdom of the Holy Master, the Buchonian [p] forest is in witness: which before was in every way uncultivated and a desert [q], but now from the East to the West, from the north to the South, is filled with churches of God and with the chosen shoots of monks. Which abbot Sturm also earned this privilege from God and from the Holy master before his fellow disciples, that he should deserve to possess and to begin that place which the holy master chose for the burial of his body, and to receive his holy body, made a martyr, in the same: and so to advance and glorify that same place, that before his own departure from this world he was father and preceptor of about four hundred monks, besides bell-ringers and other lesser persons, whose number was very manifold in that same monastery, set beside the river Fulda. But two of those elect [r] of God, Wigbert [s] and Burchard, passed from the world before their master. But they are not without the palm of their election, since they deserved to go before their master to the heavenly kingdoms, and in their own regions are held as saints of God, and are honored by all who could know their life and virtue with God. Thou seest, O understanding and diligent reader, how great gifts were in one man; and what that poor man, who had long been a solitary in the parts of Frisia, did in the time of his manifestation for the fruit of the Church of God. But he could not do these things of himself, but, according to the Apostle, the grace of God with him did and established all these things. Therefore, since for a little while, for the common praise of the disciples of the Holy master Boniface, I have slipped from the proposed path of my narration, let me now return again to that from which I digressed.

[15] Boniface is ordained archbishop at Rome, Then Blessed Boniface, the future martyr [t], with the willing consent of the religious kings, with the consent of all the senate and [u] people of the Franks, was sent to Rome to be ordained to the degree of the episcopate, to Pope Gregory the third [x] from the first; and there his name, now known and published to all, together with the blessing and degree of the episcopate, on account of the fluency of his tongue and the grace of his lips given him by God, was bestowed by the apostolic Pontiff — Boniface, who before was reckoned by the appellation of Wynfrith [y]. And thus the holy man, adorned both in degree and in name, before all the clergy and household of blessed Peter the prince of the apostles, and before Pope Gregory himself, prostrated himself and prayed that, for God's sake and for the love of St. Peter, there and then in that very church all the clergy who were present should bend their knees for him with suppliant devotion, and all with one mind should pray the Lord, and should invite blessed Peter as intercessor and helper of their prayer, that he might deserve to end and to conclude his days with a good end and pleasing to God. Who all also, God inspiring it, with one mind and with the utmost devotion, bowing themselves before the relics of Blessed Peter the prince of the apostles, fulfilled his petition, a sacred prayer both of shepherd and of flock being poured out to God. Which prayer, agreeing with his holy merits, how much it availed with almighty God, his holy martyrdom testifies, accomplished in the days of his old age, even then in the exceeding weakness of his body, when, being set in a decrepit age, he could no longer live in this world.

[16] whose whole hope was in God and in the intercession of the Saints: Behold how the wise architect and God's chosen bishop Boniface built his house not upon the flowing sand of human counsel and of proud contumacy, but upon the safest rock of divine counsel and apostolic humility. And therefore, when the floods of human adversity and disturbance came, and the winds of diabolical temptation and craft blew, and struck against his house, they could not move it; because, according to the Lord's saying, it was founded upon the firm rock, which rock was Christ. Our intercessor now, and most certain patron with God, considered, weighing,

in how great peril and misery human infirmity is set, and did not place his confidence in himself, after the manner of the proud men of the opposite party, but ran back to apostolic humility, and to that of the sons of God, in the bounty [z] of the divine mercy, and by the devout supplication of the church of God made his hope solid. For thus also the Apostles of Christ and their successors and coheirs in the kingdom of God, in all their labor and tribulation, being helped without intermission by the prayer of the church of God, were able to fulfill all things which had been commanded them by the Lord. Come then, prelates and preachers of the people of God, adorned in this world with the same honor and equal degree, look, and understand, and take up the example of this just [aa] man; that when, being called by God and chosen by the Church of God, not blinded by gifts, you shall have come to the degree of the episcopate and to the holy governance, you may be able to form yourselves after his pattern, and to bring forth fruit that shall abide unto eternal life.

[17] And on that journey too, when the holy martyr Boniface at Rome, his companion Gregory joins to himself some disciples at Rome. as was said above, was exalted to the sacred degree, blessed Gregory my preceptor remained an untiring [bb] companion to his chosen master; entering and going out and proceeding at his command, as he was always wont in every good work. And not only on this same journey did he accomplish the merit of his humility and obedience, as it is fitting that juniors be subject to their elders and to their betters in all things; but he also there acquired, the Lord bestowing it, several volumes of the holy Scriptures; and thence with him, for his own profit and that of his disciples, he carried them home with no small labor. But also two boys, with his master's consent, he brought thence with him [ee] into his own discipleship, namely Marchelm [cc] and Marcuwin, brothers [dd], of the race of the Angles. Of whom concerning the elder, Marchelm, a most religious and holy man, as is fitting, God granting it, I shall say something more fully in its own place. Then the happy company — namely the holy master and his chosen disciples — being commended to God and to his saints by their own merits and by the intercession of all the clergy and household of St. Peter, returned home, growing and advancing from that day in every good work; and, teaching and instructing in the way of God by which they themselves went, they seasoned not moderately with the salt of divine wisdom not only the people and nobles of the Franks, but also the religious kings themselves. And thus, in the consent and unanimity of the kings and of all the people, throughout the whole kingdom of the Franks [ff] there began daily more and more to be losses for the devil, and increases for the Church of God; heretical depravities not to appear, and the Catholic faith to glow red in all things, and clean and unspotted religion to become illustrious far and wide.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. The Böddeken manuscript, Buchonia, more rightly: for so that forest is called in which the monastery of Fulda was founded on the bank of the river Fulda.

q. The Böddeken manuscript, deserta.

r. electi, so the manuscript. In the printed editions it is had electis.

s. St. Wigbert, at one time abbot of Fritzlar, then of Ohrdruf, died in private life. See the Acts illustrated by Sollier, tome 3 of August, from page 132. His Acts, as also those of St. Burchard bishop of Herbipolis or Würzburg, whom we said Megingod succeeded, Mabillon also gives, 3rd century, part 1. St. Burchard is honored on the 14th day of October, to which his Acts with us have been deferred.

t. The Böddeken manuscript, jubentibus.

u. Of the senate and people our Fulda manuscript has, and yet it is omitted in the editions which we have.

x. The author has slipped in memory; for Boniface was ordained by Gregory II.

y. Mabillon in the notes thinks this faulty; because Boniface is read to have been so called already before; namely in the Pontifical letters given him in the year 719, and inscribed to Boniface, a religious presbyter. So the praised author in the Benedictine Annals at the year 719, where he thinks the name of Wynfrith was changed from that year. This is confirmed from the inscription of the epistle numbered 35 among the Bonifacian ones, where is read: To the venerable servant of God … Boniface or Wynfrith .. presbyter. Already therefore from his first mission into Germany the name of Boniface was given him. Yet it can be said that the Pontiff ordered at this time that he should everywhere use the name of Boniface alone, and that this was signified by the author. The matter is of no great moment.

z. In largitate … & supplicatione. So the manuscript; the editions have in largitatem &c.

aa. Of this, omitted by others, our manuscript has.

bb. Baillet at the 25th of August, in Gregory, number 3, writes that Gregory set out twice for Rome with Boniface, and refers the things which are here subjoined as done to the second journey. On what author's authority he does not indicate, nor can I divine, since the old biographers have nothing on that matter. He followed, I think, a conjecture, because on the first journey Gregory would seem too young to be able to join disciples to himself. But Ludger manifestly signifies that all things were done on this same journey, when .. Boniface at Rome … was exalted to the sacred degree, that is, was consecrated bishop in the year 723 on the 30th day of November. We showed also in the Commentary that Gregory had been already more than four years under Boniface's teaching when these things were done. I could wish therefore that he had proposed this twofold Roman journey as a conjecture not improbable on his own view of Gregory's age; not that he had recounted it as a certain thing without the authority of the ancients.

cc. Marchelm. By another name he is called Marcellinus, and to him an apocryphal Life of St. Swibert was falsely attributed. Sollier treated of him, tome 3 of July, from page 702. He is the same man whom we narrated to have been sent with St. Lebuin into modern Overijssel in §4, and that about the year 765, or perhaps a little later, wrongly distinguished from the same in the passed-over items of the 3rd Benedictine century, part 2, in Mabillon. The praised Sollier, following Bolland in the Acts of St. Swibert, tome 1 of March,

thought that Marchelm was made St. Gregory's disciple in the year 738, when St. Boniface set out for Rome the third time, and that Ludger confounded two journeys of St. Boniface; that opinion is favored by the fact that Gregory III is here named as Pontiff; nor yet do I think it should be followed. I shall explain the matter in few words. In the often-mentioned Life of St. Ludger, chapter 2, number 11, it is said: (Gregory) sent with him (Lebuin) also Marchelm, a servant of God, sprung from the race of the Angles, and instructed from boyhood in holy manners by the holy bishop Willibrord, that he might set him over the people. Hence we say on both sides that he was Willibrord's disciple. But Bolland in the said Acts of St. Swibert, page 70, number 12, is of the opinion that he was instructed by St. Willibrord at Utrecht until about the 15th year of his age, then sent to Rome, and there attached himself to Gregory in the year 738. But I judge that he came from England to Rome, and there was joined to Gregory in the year 723, and was sent by him to the school of Utrecht, where he was instructed by St. Willibrord from about the year 724 in good manners from boyhood, that is, in the 15th or 16th year of his age: but that, St. Willibrord being dead, he remained there under Gregory's teaching, and was employed by him in apostolic labors, is not doubtful. The reasons why I so judge are various, which I shall briefly explain. First, thus it is rightly understood why he is said to have been instructed rather by Willibrord than by Gregory, because he was sent by the latter at once to Willibrord. Then St. Willibrord does not seem to have been about to send to Rome a youth, or boy, as he is called, whom, as is said above, he was instructing that he might set him over the people. Thirdly, thus all things agree beautifully with one another and with Ludger's statements, nor is it necessary to say that Ludger confounded two journeys of Boniface. Fourthly, Marchelm's age seems to require this very thing. For indeed, as we said in §4, about the year 765 Marchelm was sent by Gregory beyond the Ijssel; and yet there at number 47 it is suggested that Marcellinus was then of great age: but he would not have been of great age in the year 765, or even a few years later, if in the year 738 he had attached himself to Gregory as a boy of about 15 years; for he would still have been far from the fiftieth year of his age, as is plain to one who computes the numbers. But if we say that he was made Gregory's disciple in the year 723, in the fifteenth year of his age, then in the year 765, if he was not sent beyond the Ijssel later, he was in his fifty-seventh year, of which age it can be said that it is great. You have the reasons why I think Marchelm attached himself to Gregory in the year 723, and was afterwards made Willibrord's disciple. To which it can be added that a bishop stretched with so many cares and labors, as Willibrord was, does not seem to have been about to instruct him himself before the 14th or 15th year of his age, since before that age scarcely can solid foundations of virtue be laid.

dd. Brothers, so the manuscript: this had been omitted by the editors.

ee. The Böddeken manuscript, And he took them with him there.

ff. In the Böddeken manuscript there is added while they preached.

CHAPTER III.

Gregory's notable mildness in forgiving injuries: the bishopric of Utrecht given him: his various disciples: their excellent training: his other virtues.

Gregory's brothers: of whom two uterine brothers were slain by robbers, But since hitherto in common and mingled fashion I have taken care to commend to letters, now of the Holy master and martyr Boniface, now of blessed Gregory his chosen disciple, the small things which I could out of great ones concerning their holy converse, for the profit of hearers and as an example for those to come, henceforth I shall not neglect to disclose in a few words specially blessed Gregory's deeds and virtues, and the proofs of his salutary preaching, by which, though unworthy, I deserved to be instructed and to be present from infancy. And first I judge that a worthy and memorable work, accomplished by him in evangelical fashion, must be made known, which he fulfilled concerning the remission and pardon of enemies ^a, with wondrous charity, and with an example profitable to posterity. He had brothers, noble and excellent, begotten of his father, and other brothers born of his mother, lesser both in time and in strength according to worldly dignity; who had need to be in the service of their elders. But it came about that some of the elder brothers, being honored by the king, were sent into the more distant kingdoms of the Gauls; thither the younger had to follow and to cleave. But when after a space of time completed it pleased them to visit their parents and fatherland, license being received from their elders, two uterine brothers of my preceptor Gregory began to go, and to take the proposed way, that they might be able to come to Francia, that is, to their native soil. Who, while they went on the way, being more secure with youthful boldness than was fitting, in a certain wood were surrounded by the cruel hand of robbers and slain. Which so mournful news could not straightway be hidden from their lords, who in those days held no small principate in those very places.

[19] When they heard this, they sent their retainers round about whom, when captured and handed over to his will, he lets go unharmed: to search out and seize those same robbers and butchers. Who, being both found and seized and bound, were straightway brought: and although they were held worthy of every punishment, and to be slain presently ^b by a most cruel death; yet out of reverence and love for their brother lord Gregory, they considered that they might console him somewhat in this after the death of his dear ones, if they should cause those very homicides and slayers of them to come into his dominion and presence, so that, for the satisfaction and mitigation of his grief, he himself might order them to be slain by whatever death he wished. Which also they did, ordering two of them ^c to be presented to him, thinking indeed only carnally, according to the foolish wisdom of this world, which knows not piously to spare enemies. But he, as he was a spiritual man, taught by the Lord Jesus Christ and by his holy Gospel, in which he had learned it written: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, received them spiritually and gladly; considering on both sides both his own everlasting salvation and the absolution ^d of his slain brothers, and an example profitable to posterity: and he ordered them to be released, and to be bathed, and to be clothed with clean garments, and to be refreshed with food. Then, when they had been brought to him, he charged them, saying: Go in peace; and take heed that you perpetrate no such evil further, lest something worse befall you. And he ordered them to be led away in peace, admonishing them with fatherly charity to guard themselves carefully from his other kinsmen. What shall we, small and weak men, say to these things, who cannot bear the hurt of even the least word without vengeance, where opportunity is at hand? While we learn such things of the perfect, let us weigh where our own weakness lies prostrate, which never even conceived any such thing in mind: so that it is more pleasing to weep than to say anything. Perhaps tears will obtain us pardon with God the pious judge, we who cannot have confidence in our merits.

[20] he is designated bishop of Utrecht; But this also is by no means to be covered with silence, which I learned from the venerable man Marchelm relating it, of whom I made mention above. That after the martyrdom of my holy master, by whom, through Christ's grace and the merit of his sanctity, all the neighboring nations were illumined, blessed Gregory too received from Stephen, prelate of the apostolic See, and from the illustrious and religious king Pippin, authority to sow the word of God in Frisia: in which St. Willibrord first, by surname archbishop ^e, in the conversion of that nation began the rudiments of the Christian faith with his disciples; then, as he grew old in the work of God, and the episcopate being established in the place which is named Utrecht, and by another name Wiltaburg ^f, and as he passed over from this light to the Lord, there succeeded St. Boniface ^g, the same archbishop and martyr, whom I myself saw with my own eyes, white with hoary hair and decrepit with old age, full of virtues and merits of life. At which time in his discipleship, as I recorded above, blessed Gregory my preceptor had been nurtured from his early years; whom also there succeeded the pious heir, ordained pastor and preacher of the same nation of the Frisians by the Lord and by the aforesaid princes of the Church of God. And with the same charity, as also with the firmness of faith, with which his predecessors, namely holy Willibrord archbishop ^h and confessor, and Boniface martyr and archbishop, with generous and honey-flowing erudition he illumined the people together with his chorepiscopus and helper Alubert ⁱ, who came from Britain and from the race of the Angles, strong in great merits of life, and with the same benevolence he strove according to his strength to acquire gains of souls for the Lord.

[21] Gregory's various disciples, That blessed Gregory was also enriched in the manifold blessing of disciples, no one doubts was given him by God, who shall be willing to weigh that same chosen Man's merit of life, and to search out the most precious treasure of his wisdom. Therefore this too seems worthy of memory: how he brought up and loved his disciples as a father his sons, living together with them in a common life; and was joined to each with such glue of charity that that holy and illustrious apostolic testimony he not only brought forth from his mouth for the edification of hearers, but showed to all in work and in truth for imitation — which is established to have been said by blessed Peter the apostle concerning the calling and election of all nations: How in every nation he who fears God and works justice is acceptable to him. For his disciples were not gathered from any one nation; but united from the flowers of all the neighboring nations; and they were illumined with such familiarity and meekness and spiritual gladness that it was given to be recognized clearer than light that they were begotten and united of one spiritual father, and of the mother of all, charity ^k. For some of them were of the noble stock of the Franks; some also of the religious race of the Angles; some indeed of God's new plantation begun in our days, of the Frisians and Saxons; but some also of the Bavarians and Swabians ^l, or from whatever nation and race God had sent them; of whom I am the least, a small and weak nursling.

[22] For all these, gathered as it were from every side into one sheepfold, and his care for these: the pious father and shepherd Gregory procured and gave, with the same devotion, both the spiritual nourishments of teachings and of the utterances of God, and bodily food: and so, being inspired by God, he burned in love and in the instruction of his disciples that scarcely a day passed on which he did not, early in the morning, sitting with fatherly solicitude, hold out the cup of life to each and every one who came, according as each sought it, and water him with the utterance of God. Very many too of his disciples were so noble, and with so great

a wit and with such teaching of God endowed, that they were deservedly both called to the citadel of the episcopate and came to it; but very many of them, being equally taught and disciplined, even if they were not exalted to so great a degree, were nevertheless not slight in merits, but excellent in knowledge and in the charity of God. It seems worth the labor and fitting that, in whatever way I can, I should not hide the testimonies of each in their own places, and the signs of their charity ^m. Meanwhile, however, concerning blessed Gregory I shall endeavor to bring forth the few things out of many which I had begun, for the profit of hearers; since I greatly fear to be guilty of sin if I do not begin to narrate at least some last things of the known and so profitable good deeds of so great a man ⁿ.

[23] For that venerable man was, according to the saying of Wisdom, his contempt of riches, his care for the poor, He who went not after gold, nor hoped in treasures of money. Therefore his goods have been established in God, and the church of the saints publishes his alms. He knew indeed that it is written, and he knew it in work and in truth, not in empty speech: That the root of all evils is covetousness: and therefore he shuddered at it as at a monstrous precipice and the pit of hell, and guarded against it in all things. For as those greedy of money, and the avaricious, who hold their soul for sale, fear lest they betray and lose earthly gains, so that holy Man feared lest by hiding and keeping them he should lose heavenly things. And therefore, as often as anything of gold or ^o of silver came into his power, he at once took care to spend it and to distribute it to the poor; that as an evangelical Man he might act according to the Gospel's command, and might treasure up for himself treasures in heaven, where neither rust nor moth destroys, and thieves do not dig through nor steal. And since he placed his whole hope so firmly and readily in heavenly things, nothing could harm or ensnare him which of earthly and fleeting things seemed delightful in the world. O venerable and chosen man, meek and pious, ever intent upon heavenly things, and caring less for fleeting and earthly ones — which he showed both by habit and by act.

[24] Superfluity of garments [p] and of foods found no place in him; his temperance of garment, speech, and drink: no boasting and detraction, no idleness of words; but he was always content with one and the same garment and food, equal with the rest: and from this cleanness of tongue and of life it became known outwardly with how great a love of purity his heart was inwardly full. But from his simple use of garments and of foods he showed by example to his hearers what he taught by discourse from the precepts of God and of his Saints. For he had read it written, blessed Peter the apostle admonishing, Not in precious garment: and he had learned from the exhortation of his fellow apostle Paul that Food and drink is not the kingdom of God; but justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. But what shall I say of his drink? in which he had such temperance that scarcely ever, according to the Apostle's saying, did he use a little wine which was not mixed with water. And not only in himself did he fulfill this apostolic saying; but he also always vehemently admonished all subject to him never to incur the evil of drunkenness, but to guard against and avoid it as the pit of hell.

[25] certain of his admonitions. And concerning the destruction of all vices and the building up of virtues he was wont frequently in his preaching to bring forth that word of the prophet: I have set thee, that thou mayest pluck up and destroy and scatter and dissipate, and build and plant; wishing all his hearers to understand this saying, that never does the comeliness of virtues and the building of good works rise unless the stain and uncleanness of vices be destroyed. But also that glorious apostolic testimony, worthy of all praise, on account of the incitement of the charity of God and of neighbor, and the desire of the heavenly kingdom, he was most frequently wont to fit into the conclusion of his preaching: That which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it ascended into the heart of man, what God hath prepared for those who love him. The pious preacher therefore, knowing that by these two testimonies, namely the prophetic and the apostolic, much was conferred upon attentive hearers, through the hidden gift of the Holy Spirit which filled both the Prophet and the Apostle, therefore in his heavenly preaching so diligently used this oracle and exhortation of virtues.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. I have given this passage from the Böddeken manuscript, whose sense is more elegant and fuller. Others with the Fulda manuscript have superstition of garments, and omit no idleness of words.

CHAPTER IV.

His other virtues: a three years' paralysis; things to come foretold: his death.

The Saint's excellent mildness toward detractors: And since above, by one testimony of a work which the man of God Gregory so religiously fulfilled according to the Lord's prayer concerning remission, many tokens of good works are shown, it pleases me to relate also this, how he acted in his daily converse toward all his detractors, who at times disparaged him, being instigated by their own vices: how he did not shudder at them and hate them as detractors, but always loved them and approached them as friends and helpers; and, according to the Psalmist's saying, As one deaf, not hearing them, and as one dumb, not opening his mouth, he lived kindly with them; and denied them nothing which he ought to bestow on friends. Whence could this come to him, unless the grace from above bestowing it, from the eminent cleanness of his mind, that like a little child he could become so forgetful of injuries, so tenacious of virtues? For the arrow of the Lord's discourse touched not only the ears of his body, but truly penetrated and illumined the ears of his heart: where in the Gospel, a little child being called to him, he admonished his still untrained Apostles, and together with them the whole race of men, how they ought to enter the way of the kingdom of heaven, saying: Amen I say to you, unless you shall be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. This therefore he practiced with those of his household and with strangers, not once but assiduously, except where the strictness of discipline and of correction among his subjects required otherwise. But while this Man, so humble and patient, both wished and was able to bear with even mind, for the divine love, things so contemptible and unworthy of his person, there came about that which in his days was unknown to almost none who had known him: that almost all those who were unwilling to pay due honor to so great a man were struck by divine vengeance, and were brought back to knowledge ^a of themselves, though compelled and unwilling: so that it was openly given to be understood by those willing to know, that he was strongly protected inwardly under divine keeping, although meanwhile before the eyes of proud men he seemed to bear unworthy reproaches. But whoever shall be willing to mark and to imitate this will profit not moderately toward the entrance of the heavenly kingdom; since all who have gone before on that same way suffered such things, according to the saying and pattern of the Apostles, who went scourged from the sight of the council rejoicing and saying that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God ^b.

[27] his alms: But since among the greatest virtues the work of almsgiving was ordained by our Lord and redeemer himself, and all the holy Scriptures of the new Testament and of the old praise and glorify this salutary work, a few things must be brought forward concerning blessed Gregory's bountiful giving of alms, for the memory of posterity and as an example for imitation ^c. For that Man flourished in many other virtues, but was always most of all intent upon the sacred purification of almsgiving, so much so that he never wished anything of gold, nothing of silver, to be kept for himself besides the necessary furnishings of the church. But also of his other substance he was held generous and open-handed with the same kindliness; and always profitable and pious to the poor of Christ: and nothing of it for himself, except daily food and

simple clothing, did he wish to keep back, placing his whole hope rather in the examination of the dreadful judgment than in the present enriching with treasures and riches of the world. And therefore he could so easily bestow for Christ's love all that he had, from whose mouth and example he had learned the same things which he did. For he says ^d: What is left over to you, give as alms; and, behold, all things are clean unto you. He considered that the holy Fathers in the old Testament, endowed by God with the same faith and charity, in the same hope of everlasting recompense, were always solicitous about the fruitful works of almsgiving: whence also in the Psalm the holy Prophet set the devotion of this work for a testimony of blessedness, saying: Blessed is he who understands concerning the needy and the poor: in the evil day the Lord will free him. But another Prophet too sings praiseworthily of the same holy work and says: As water quenches fire, so alms quenches sin. The Lord himself also, for this work, on the dreadful day, bears up and extols his Saints with his grace and everlasting blessing, saying: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world: because I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was naked, and you covered me &c. Such precepts blessed Gregory, understanding and penetrating them from both Testaments, in which he was most learned, reading ^e the divine Scripture, turned into works: and, not being made a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, he was ever in the law of God. Come then, soldiers of Christ, hear and understand, and take up this Father's most right and illustrious examples, that for us ^f too, still living in the body, and beholding and loving them, God's grace may thence increase, bestowing remedies for our wounds, whence there grew for him the ornaments of such great virtues.

[28] By such successes and merits of life my blessed abbot and preceptor Gregory, nearly a septuagenarian, he is seized with paralysis; while he ever advanced by growing toward the better, and had now nearly reached the age of seventy years ^g, as dear to God as to all men, there came the day on which the Lord willed to raise his soldier, still improving him, to loftier things, and to bestow on him the rewards of recompense which were owed to his merits and to his fruitful works. And so he was touched with that bodily trouble in the left side which the physicians ^h call paralysis; and, as the same trouble grew and grew heavier day by day, according to the Scripture's testimony God scourged his son in this pilgrimage, whom from near at hand he was about to receive into the fatherland of the heavenly mansions: for three years before his death he was seized by that infirmity. But the weakness was such that at first ⁱ he could walk, or be led by the hand for his own profit and that of his subjects; and could speak the things which pertained to edification. Which indeed he did not forget to do; but, as he was always wont, he did not cease to hand over to his hearers the books of the divine law, and the admonitions of eternal salvation. For to my fellow disciples too, and my betters, he handed over several books in that same trouble; and to me, little Ludger ^k, he handed over a book of St. Augustine, which he himself named the Enchiridion, that is, the Manual.

[29] Doing these things thus, the Blessed man Gregory, and never ceasing from the advancement of spiritual successions in his very sickness, the sick man's limbs grow white: Albric's return foretold, increased day by day, with the wisdom of a sound mind, though of a weak body, that which might profit for himself and for his own toward the entrance and the everlasting joy of the heavenly kingdom. At length in the third year of his sickness begun, being purged by the weariness of the body after the manner of gold which has passed through fire, he came to this, that wherever there was need he had to be carried in his disciples' hands. And not even then indeed did the venerable Man ever cease from God's work, but caused either the divine books to be read before him, or, for that same exercise of his mind toward heavenly things, psalms to be sung assiduously: and thus, when he had been brought to his last moments, the weak limbs of his body, which already then always had to be supported by his bed, became white and shining, after the likeness of milk or of white wool, so that it became known to those who saw it in how great cleanness the spirit was held within before God's eyes. Then those necessary friends of both sexes who were present there began to complain and to be saddened, as much about his passing, now more swiftly at hand, as about the delay of his chosen son Albric ^l, on whom the great hope of the whole ^m house rested; who at that time was in Italy, occupied in royal service, and it was known to none when he would come. Hearing these things, the father Gregory, beloved of God, began to grieve with those mourning, being secure about himself and solicitous about his son; and, having consoled them, he began, as he had frequently before been wont when sound in body, amid common conversations to bring forth something prophetic ⁿ and to say: Fear not; I shall not pass over, he said, before he comes. How truly he foreknew this in spirit, the outcome of the matter proved. For three or four days before his passing, his long-desired and chosen son Albric came unexpectedly, all being unaware except his spiritual Father, who long before foretold his coming.

[30] his pious death, the Body of the Lord being received beforehand. Then, while for those three or four continuous days they passed the time in common profit and in the salutary business of the whole household ^o, conferring with one another with sound sense whatever they desired, there came to him the last day of this mortality, predestined for the entrance of the kingdom and for perpetual salvation. His disciples stood about him, desiring still to have their Father, though infirm, longer with them, and, wishing it for him, to say to one another: He does not die today; he does not die today. But he, gathering his strength as best he could, said: Today I wish to have leave. And these things being said, he ordered himself to be carried by his disciples before the oratory of holy Salvator, and the door to be opened, and there, a prayer being made, and the communion of the sacred Body and Blood of the Lord being received, looking to the altar, with mind intent on heavenly things, he went on to the Lord, whom for so long a time he served with sincere mind: the same our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God, through all ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.