ON SAINT GILBERT, FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF SEMPRINGHAM IN ENGLAND,
In the year 1189.
Preliminary Commentary.
Gilbert, Founder of the Order of Sempringham in England (Saint)
By the author G. H.
Section 1. The noble lineage of Saint Gilbert. The Order of Sempringham established.
[1] That eastern region of Greater Britain which the Coritani inhabited under the Romans, afterward assigned to the province of Flavia Caesariensis in honor of the Emperor Theodosius, Among the Coritani and which the Middelengli, later annexed to the kingdom of the Mercians, possessed under the first Anglo-Saxons -- in that region the celebrated county of Lincoln is found, in the County of Lincoln subdivided into Lindsey, Kesteven, and Holland. Concerning Lindsey, or the province of the Lindisfarenses, the Middelengli, and the Mercians, we shall treat more fully on February 13 in the Life of Saint Ermenild, Queen of the Mercians. and the district of Kesteven In Kesteven, where it borders Holland, there is the hundred of Aveland, or, as they say in that place, the Wapentake -- because the magistrates, as is found in the Laws of Saint Edward the Confessor, formerly inaugurated their prefectures with the touching of arms. various Gilberts from the Flemish family of Ghent There the town of Folkingham is preeminent, distinguished by the ancient lordship of the Barons of Ghent: the first of whom, Gilbert of Ghent, nephew of Baldwin Count of Flanders, is recorded by William Camden in his account of the Coritani, who reports that great revenues had fallen to him by the munificence of William the Conqueror, King of England, according to an ancient manuscript; according to which this Gilbert's son Walter begot Gilbert II and Robert, from whom heirs continue in three Gilberts -- son, grandson, and great-grandson -- some of whom Andrew Du Chesne also observes to have been Earls of Lincoln, in his Genealogy of Guines and Ghent, Book 4, chapters 1 and 14. Barons of Folkingham The first of all, Gilbert, is there recorded as the son of Ralph of Ghent, Lord of Aalst, and of Gisla, whom Du Chesne supposes to have been the daughter of Baldwin the Bearded and sister of Baldwin of Lille, Counts of Flanders.
[2] Now the daughter of this Baldwin of Lille, Matilda, married to William the Conqueror, bore William II, called Rufus, and Henry I, Kings of England: from whose daughter Matilda and Geoffrey, Count of Anjou and Le Mans, was born Henry II, King of England. Under these Kings Saint Gilbert flourished, born of his father Jocelin, a most noble man, Norman by lineage -- such as the other Barons of Folkingham, kinsmen of the Kings, were held to be, though sprung from Flanders. Whether Saint Gilbert was also Lord of Sempringham? That Saint Gilbert was descended from the same stock as those Barons, although it is not established by certain documents, is suggested by the same name Gilbert, the same most noble origin from overseas, and the same, so to speak, domicile of both. For Sempringham, very near to Folkingham and almost, to speak with the ancient manuscript cited above, included in its manor or appurtenances, is the lordship of Jocelin and of Saint Gilbert. But these matters are left for the curious investigators of genealogical affairs to examine; it suffices to have proposed them for the praise of Saint Gilbert. The Catalogue of Nobles who held estates directly from the Conqueror King may also be consulted in Du Chesne's Norman work at the end of the book, where "Gislebertus de Gandt" is read.
[3] Saint Gilbert was born around the year of Christ 1083, while William the Conqueror was still reigning: he grew up and matured into a distinguished man under his sons William Rufus born around the year 1083 and Henry I, the former of whom was consecrated King in the year 1087 on Sunday, September 26; but he was carelessly struck by an arrow while hunting and died in the year 1100, on August 2, a Thursday. His brother Henry succeeded him and survived until the year 1135. he lives in the household of the Bishops of Lincoln Under these Kings, Robert Bloet, who from Chancellor of the realm was made Bishop of Lincoln in the year 1093 and died in the year 1123, became renowned; Saint Gilbert is reported by Harpsfield in his Ecclesiastical History of England, century 12, chapter 37, to have spent some time in his household. After the death of Robert, Alexander, a Norman by birth, was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln on Sunday, July 22, of the said year 1123, promoted by his uncle Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, who held the highest authority in the conduct of affairs under King Henry. Both are discussed by the Wigorniensis and his continuator, Malmesbury, Huntingdon (who dedicated his history to this Alexander), Paris, Westminster, and Newburgh, Book 1 of English Affairs, chapter 6.
[4] He inaugurates the Order of Sempringham By this Alexander, Saint Gilbert was initiated into the priesthood and made his Penitentiary, and he established the Order of Sempringham, the beginning of which Angel Manrique records in the Cistercian Annals at the year of Christ 1135, as he relates in chapter 8, number 81. Before the end of this year, upon the death of King Henry on the second of December, Stephen succeeded and was crowned on the twenty-second of the same month, a Sunday. Under Stephen, the good fortune of both Roger and Alexander was changed to a most wretched state; but when Roger died of grief in the year 1139, Alexander recovered his dignity in the following years, and having traveled twice to Rome, he gained great favor both with the King and with Popes Lucius II and Eugenius III, the latter having been elected on February 25, 1145, while in Rome. Returning to England, Alexander renovated his church which had been damaged by fire, and, as Newburgh relates, in order to remove the odium of two castles previously built, he receives the monastery of Haverholme and as though to expiate the stain, he constructed an equal number of monasteries and filled them with religious communities. Of these monasteries, Godwin in his account of the Bishops of Lincoln reports that one was built at Haverholme for both Regular Canons and nuns; and indeed, John Speed records in his Catalogue of religious houses destroyed under that King that it was given to the Gilbertines under the title of Saint Mary in the County of Lincoln, and that it survived together with the original monastery of Sempringham until the times of Henry VIII.
[5] John Picard in his Notes on Newburgh presents manuscript tables of the Bishops of Lincoln, in which it is said that under Alexander, Saint Gilbert the Founder of Sempringham flourished and established a new Order in the year 1146. In which year, in the month of August, Alexander set out for Auxerre, as Huntingdon writes in Book 8, Pope Eugenius approves the Order -- whether in the year 1136? to visit Pope Eugenius, who was then residing there; but from an untimely excess of heat he brought back to England the seed of illness, whence he soon succumbed first to infirmity, then to languor, and finally to death, and was buried at the beginning of Lent in the year 1147. The Order of Sempringham had therefore been established before the preceding year, and was then perhaps confirmed by the authority of Pope Eugenius. For Pits, writing on the illustrious writers of England, century 12, number 258, states that the religious rules of life prescribed to his followers by Gilbert, together with the Order and institute itself, were confirmed by Pope Eugenius III; though he must be corrected in that, having rashly followed Bale (who treats of Saint Gilbert in century 3 of British Writers, section 25), he would have the Order of Sempringham begin in the year 1148, when Bishop Alexander, who had died the preceding year, could have given it no assistance. However, in that year 1148, in the general Chapter at Citeaux, as Geoffrey, who was present, relates in the Life of Saint Bernard, Book 4, whether in the year 1148, when Saint Gilbert traveled to France? chapter 4, Pope Eugenius the Venerable was present among the assembled Abbots according to custom, not so much presiding by Apostolic authority as sitting among them in fraternal charity, as though one of them. Gilbert visited the Pontiff there, and having been commanded to persist in the care of the Order he had undertaken, may be considered to have obtained a renewed confirmation of the religious institute. He then formed a familiar acquaintance with Saints Bernard and Malachy, the latter having died in the monastery of Clairvaux on November 2 of the same year. Manrique, cited above, contends that it was not in this year but in 1135 that Gilbert went to consult Saint Bernard -- a claim contrary to both sets of Acts and to other writers, and requiring no further refutation. The same Pope Eugenius also approved the statutes excerpted from various monastic rules, and then died on July 8 of the year 1153.
Section 2. Calumnies brought against and extinguished concerning the Order of Sempringham. Various monasteries.
[6] There were not lacking detractors who contaminated with foul lies the admirable sanctity of this institute and the singular chastity of both sexes, which they ought rather to have praised and loved; the innocence of this Order is defended to such a degree that Alexander III, the Roman Pontiff, who presided over the universal Church from the year 1159 to 1181, delegated the investigation of the matter to the Bishops of Winchester -- Henry, brother of King Stephen -- and of Norwich, William Turbe, a Norman by origin; the latter (the Bishop of Winchester being prevented by failing health), having carefully examined the case, informed the Pontiff of Gilbert's innocence in a written letter. John Picard published it from a manuscript codex in his notes on Newburgh, and we give it here.
[7] "To the most holy Father, the Supreme Pontiff Alexander, the servant of his Holiness, William of Norwich, a letter sent to Alexander III sends greeting and obedience with the utmost devotion. That the statutes of your Paternity proceed from the fountain of piety and reason, no one doubts; and those things alone are pleasing to our spirit which the Holy Spirit suggests and which are seasoned with the sweetness of truth. Hence it is that I dare to write to your Majesty, though I am but dust and ashes, and to bear witness to the truth which I have experienced by sight and by the evidence of the facts. the sanctity of Gilbert is indicated Gilbert of Sempringham, both by reason of proximity and by the renown of the sanctity in which he is preeminent, cannot be unknown to me. His soul is the seat of wisdom, and his mind draws from the Holy Spirit what he excellently pours into the ears of others. In winning and preserving souls for God he is so zealous and effective that, by comparison with him, I am wearied by my own sloth; and the Prophet reproaches both me and my like, saying: 'Be ashamed, O Sidon, says the sea.' Isaiah 23:4 Among the nuns, of the nuns an innumerable multitude of whom he has won for God, there burns both the love of religion and the most diligent guardianship of chastity, and they glory in being removed from the sight and conversation of men, so that what is written rightly applies to them: 'My beloved is mine and I am his, who feeds among the lilies.' Song of Songs 2:16 Concerning the Canons, whose innocence I hear has been disparaged before your Clemency, of the Canons I call God and my soul to witness that I do not recall having heard a word of infamy -- though by the proximity of the place and the frequency of those coming to us, I could not have been ignorant. Access to the nuns is here utterly forbidden to them, so that not even the Prior among them has leave to see or speak with any of them; and in the reception of the Eucharist, both the one giving and the one receiving are unknown to each other. For they have their own houses, cloister, and oratory, in which they sleep, meditate, and pray. From his lay converts he requires only of the converts that they preserve inviolably the life which they have professed; and they themselves in my presence promised most devoutly to do so. What has been confirmed for them by the authority of our predecessors and by yours, and what they after long experience have vowed in professing -- he himself does not presume to change, lest he be charged with levity and presumption.
[8] The dispute, however, which those who are lukewarm rather than fervent in charity have raised against him a dispute raised by the lukewarm -- would that it might be resolved by the judgment and testimony of such men as have zeal for God according to knowledge; who from the inspection of Apostolic privileges and the evident knowledge of the facts themselves to be prudently resolved would recognize the truth, and who would be neither inexperienced in nor ignorant of regular observance; and who would not be wearied by the religious life they have undertaken, nor, having put their hand to the plow, look back! But a man worn out by old age, and fuller of virtues than of days, must not be frightened lest he abandon his purpose to the ruin of many; rather he must be encouraged and gently treated, that he may persevere to preserve the salvation which God has wrought through him in the midst of our land. The grains on the Lord's threshing floor grow scarcer every day, but the chaff multiplies. May God preserve your Holiness unharmed for His Church. Farewell."
[9] Thus far the letter of William, Bishop of Norwich in Norfolk, a province neighboring Kesteven, to Alexander III, to whom various persons wrote concerning the same institute of Gilbert: and among others, as Harpsfield testifies, the Prior of Bridlington and the Prior of Winchester, it is defended by other Bishops and by King Henry II as well as the Archbishops Roger of York and Saint Thomas of Canterbury, concerning which matter Harpsfield reports that a letter exists among those which have not yet been printed. But no one performed this task more carefully than King Henry II himself, who had succeeded Stephen when the latter died in the year 1154. The King took it most gravely amiss that those laymen who (so Harpsfield narrates in the King's own words) "before their profession had been rustics, bound to the soil like serfs, were perfidiously defecting from the discipline which they had knowingly and prudently embraced by religious profession, and were complaining of it as being too rigorous, and demanding another that was lighter and milder; and when they did not obtain it, they dared to move heaven and earth." If the Pontiff should allow them to shake off this discipline, the King declared that he and his nobles would utterly confiscate the possessions which they had bestowed upon them (which, with the previous discipline overturned, he considered he could justly do). These and other arguments moved the Pontiff to decree that the privileges granted by Eugenius and Adrian, and the entire discipline prescribed by Gilbert to his followers, should remain fixed and immovable for all time; and in letters written both to the King, to the Bishops, and to Gilbert himself, he signified his will in this matter and that those obstinate men must be compelled in every way to return to their duty. So Harpsfield reports. Would that those letters still survived for the greater commendation of Saint Gilbert and the Order of Sempringham! They would abundantly refute the obscene stories about the Gilbertines fabricated by certain satirical and licentious poets, which Bale delights in repeating, supposing perhaps that his own apostasy from the monastic life might be adorned by such fictions. Of the above-mentioned Bishops, the last to attain that dignity was Saint Thomas in the year 1162, elected from Chancellor to Archbishop of Canterbury; and two years later he departed from England on account of his dispute with the King. before the year 1164 Before which time, this entire Gilbertine disturbance had been completely settled.
[10] At that time Robert de Chesney was flourishing in the See of Lincoln, having succeeded Alexander who died in the year 1147, Various monasteries of Saint Gilbert and he himself died in the year 1167. It is reported by John Speed that from him a convent of Saint Catherine near Lincoln was built for the Gilbertines,
and by Francis Godwin, in whose work, perhaps by a typographical error, London was printed in place of Lincoln. Besides the three aforementioned monasteries, there existed in the same County of Lincoln the monasteries of Alvingham, Catley, Nun Coton, Sixle, Newstead under the title of Saint Mary, Nun Ormsby, and Sixhills; in the County of Norfolk, Marmont and Shouldham; in Cambridge, Fordham; in Northampton, Catesby; in the diocese of York, Watton, which, having been built during the reign of Stephen, must be numbered among the first. We omit listing more. John Speed calculates the annual revenues of these, since these monasteries under Henry VIII were either destroyed or converted to other uses. We learn from the monastery of Alvingham that some were built after the death of Saint Gilbert, since it acknowledged as its founder the Bishop of Durham, Anthony Beck or Bek, who flourished a hundred years after Saint Gilbert.
[11] John Speed calls the White Canons Gilbertines by the name customarily used by the English, distinguished from other White Canons of the Premonstratensian Order, and Pits reports them as practitioners of the renewed discipline of Canons: to whom, having adopted a certain reformation of that Order, Gilbert prescribed essentially the Rule of Saint Augustine, just as he prescribed that of Saint Benedict for his nuns. Statutes Both Rules, supplemented from other monastic disciplines, are called the Statutes of the Gilbertines. books written Besides these, he is reported to have written one book of Exhortations to the Brethren, one book of Letters to various persons, and certain other works, concerning which, as long as they remain unpublished (if indeed they have not also perished), no certain judgment can be formed. Meanwhile, when Henry II died on the sixth of July 1188, his son Richard I succeeded him, the sixth from William the Conqueror, under whom Saint Gilbert departed for heaven in the one hundred and sixth year of his age, in the year 1189, as the Acts below show. Harpsfield writes that he died in 1190; Wilson, in the English Martyrology, notes, not without error, the year 1160.
Section 3. The Life of Saint Gilbert as written. His enrollment among the Saints.
[12] That Gilbert was renowned for holiness while he yet lived is indicated by the letter of Bishop William to Pope Alexander given above. He is regarded as a Saint in life An illustrious herald of the same holiness is William of Newburgh, who, born in the year of Christ 1135, carried his account of English affairs down to the year 1197. His eulogy of Saint Gilbert, who had died but a few years before, survives as follows in Book 1, chapter 16. praised soon after death by Newburgh "Nor should the venerable Gilbert be passed over in silence," he says, "a truly admirable man and singular in the guardianship of women, from whom also the Order of Sempringham took its beginning, and with rapid progress achieved a rapid establishment. This man, from the years, as it is said, of his adolescence, by no means content with his own salvation, but fired with zeal for winning souls for Christ, began to emulate the weaker sex more eagerly with the emulation of God, taking his bold enterprise from the consciousness of his own chastity and from confidence in heavenly grace. And when divine favor seemed to smile upon his beginnings, fearing lest he might perhaps run or have run in vain if the moderating knowledge did not season his bursting zeal -- especially since, being still less instructed by his elders, he had seized upon so arduous a concern -- he thought he should visit a man renowned for the titles of wisdom and sanctity, namely the venerable Abbot of Clairvaux, Saint Bernard: informed by whose venerable counsels and strengthened in his purpose, he did not cease to pursue his pious undertakings all the more fervently as he did so more confidently. And he prospered in what he was doing, and, as is said of the noble Patriarch, 'he went on, advancing and increasing, until he became exceedingly great' Genesis 26:13 -- both in the copious multitude gathered to the service of almighty God, and in the addition of temporal things for the necessary support of bodies, according to the Lord's word: 'Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.' Matthew 6:33
[13] At length he built two not insignificant monasteries for the servants of God and eight for the handmaids of God, which he both filled with numerous communities and adorned, according to the wisdom given him, with regular institutes. And indeed the grace divinely bestowed upon him abounded in the establishment of servants of God and in the solicitude for women. Assuredly in this respect, in my judgment, he holds the palm among all the monasteries commended whom we have known to have bestowed religious labor upon the establishment and governance of religious women; and indeed, some years earlier, laden with spiritual gains and now decrepit, the groomsman of the heavenly spouse migrated to the Lord. Moreover, the multitude of his sons and daughters endures, and his seed is mighty in the land, and his generation shall be blessed forever."
[14] Thus far Newburgh. In the same period as Newburgh there lived the Author of the Life of Saint Gilbert which we give here, previously published in volume 2 of the Legenda Sanctorum, the Life was written or the New History of the Saints, printed at Cologne in 1483 and at Louvain two years later. Francis Haraeus published an abridgment of it, preserving nearly the Author's words, among the Lives of the Saints at February 4, prefacing it with the remark that it was drawn from a manuscript codex by a contemporary of Gilbert; as John Gerard Vossius also notes after Haraeus, Book 2, On the Latin Historians, chapter 54. The same Life, but much contracted, is found in John Mauburnus of Brussels, in the Venatorium Sanctorum of the Order of Regular Canons, chapter 133 according to our manuscript codex, or Book 2, chapter 90 according to the copy cited by Picard on Newburgh. In this Life there is no mention of public veneration granted by the Roman Pontiff, or of the body having been elevated from the ground. These are reported in other Acts, another contracted into a summary which we present from a manuscript codex of the monastery of Rougevallee near Brussels, previously printed by John Capgrave in the New Legend of the Saints of England, London, in the year 1516.
[15] These are reduced to a summary from a longer Life, in which Harpsfield reports that miracles are treated at length, miracles especially those wrought at the sepulchre of the pious man. He says that the benefits received there were publicly and with great joy proclaimed by the blind, the lame, the mute, the deaf, the paralyzed, those with fevers, dropsical patients, madmen, the possessed, and others oppressed by various illnesses to the despair of all their friends and physicians. And, lest anything fictitious or feigned should be involved, everything was subjected to the most diligent and most careful inquiry and examination, based not only on the testimony of those who had been healed but on that of the most upright witnesses. Not only many others distinguished for learning, piety, and religion, but also Hubert, Bishop of Canterbury, attended or rather presided over this inquiry. Since these things were everywhere so manifest and illustrious, they were reported to the Roman Pontiff by the Priors of Chicksand and Catley, canonization obtained by the Prior and convent of Thame, of Kirkham, the Abbots of Barlings, Revesby, Kirkstall, Saint Albans, Swineshead, Bourne, Croxton, by William Earl of Essex, by the Bishops of Bangor, Rochester, Ely, Norwich, Coventry, London, and by Hubert of Canterbury; and Innocent III delegated to him and to certain others the task of carefully investigating these matters. When the Pontiff had been amply informed of the magnitude and variety of the deeds performed through Blessed Gilbert, he arranged for his body to be translated to a more elevated and distinguished place, done in the year 1202 and for his memory to be celebrated henceforth among the other heavenly citizens. And these things fell in the year of the Lord 1202, on the third day before the Ides of October, and in the time of King John, who also himself wrote to the Pontiff concerning these matters. So Harpsfield and others report, perhaps drawing from the Acts written at length, which we have hitherto been unable to obtain. King John, who succeeded his brother Richard I (the latter having died of a wound in the year of Christ 1199), lived until the year 1216. Innocent III presided over the Church from the year 1198 to the same year 1216. Hubert, finally, having been made Archbishop of Canterbury from Bishop of Salisbury in the year 1194, died in the year 1205.
Section 4. The celebrated cult of Saint Gilbert.
[16] The name of Saint Gilbert was from that time inscribed in various Martyrologies. Thus the manuscripts of Leiden, of the monastery of Saint Cecilia, of Utrecht of the Clerks of Saint Jerome, of Albergen of the Regular Canons, of Bruges of the Williamites, and indeed in the first place, and the Cologne edition of 1490: "The feast of Saint Gilbert the Confessor," His name in the sacred calendars who (as Molanus adds to Usuard) "rests at Sempringham, in the monastery which he himself had founded." Hermann Greven adds to Usuard: "In England, of Gilbert, Abbot and Confessor, who taught many to live according to the rule." The manuscript Florarium Sanctorum: "In England, of Gilbert, Priest and Confessor, of the Order of Regular Canons, in the year of salvation 1189." Here "Priest" is better than the designation "Abbot" used by others. With greater error, Bellinus writes: "On the same day, of Saint Gilbert, Bishop and Confessor" -- which title of Bishop is more correctly absent from the Roman Martyrology, in whose Notes Baronius confused him with Saint Guibert, Abbot of Gembloux in Brabant, confused with Saint Guibert of Gembloux writing that the founder of this noble monastery departed this life in the year of the Lord 962, that his feast is recorded by Molanus in the Index and in the Feasts of the Saints of Belgium, and that his Life, written by Sigebert, a monk of the same monastery, is given in Surius on May 23. So also Maurolycus: "On the same day," he says, "of Saint Gilbert the Confessor, who built the monastery of Gembloux in the time of Otto I, Emperor." Otto, having obtained the kingdom of Germany in the year 937 and having traveled to Rome, was acclaimed Emperor in the aforesaid year 962 and crowned by Pope John XII, and he survived to the year 973 of that century. In the same error are found Peter de Natalibus in the Catalogue, Book 3, chapter 83, Galesinius in the Roman Martyrology, Canisius in the German Martyrology, Constantinus Felicius, and others; indeed Ghinius ascribes that Abbot of Gembloux, who was of the Benedictine Order, to the Canons: "The feast," he says, "of Saint Gilbert the Confessor, who was the Founder of the noble monastery of Gembloux, in which, waging war for Christ the King through a stricter form of religious life, he lived; and at last, about to receive his reward, he departed from this world in the year of salvation 962."
[17] The same Saint Gilbert, through a confusion of places, is attributed to France by Saussay in his Gallic Martyrology, in these words: "Likewise on the same day, of Saint Gilbert, another Confessor, and Sempringham erroneously attributed to France who, having attained a great perfection of life, founded the monastery of Sempringham in Honecourt and, having been made Abbot of that place, gathering his disciples and giving them precepts and examples of religious life, migrated to the heavenly fatherland." Now Honecourt is a village with a Benedictine monastery in Belgic Gaul on the river Scheldt, between its source and the city of Cambrai, far from Sempringham among the English in the County of Lincoln. We have treated of Honecourt above in the Life of Saint Lietphardus the Bishop, who is especially venerated there. He is honored with a better eulogy in the English Martyrology: situated in England "At Sempringham in the County of Lincoln, the deposition of Saint Gilbert the Confessor, sprung from the noble blood of the Normans, and Founder of the Religious in England called Gilbertines, where he built thirteen monasteries of this Order, eight for the use of women and four for men; and after a life piously and holily led, a full and venerable old man in years, he departed to our Lord in the year of Christ 1150, and was buried at Sempringham, where his holy body was preserved with great veneration until the times of Henry VIII. On account of the many miracles which were performed there, he was inscribed in the roll of the Saints by Pope Innocent III." Jerome Porter, in his Flowers of the Saints of England, describes his Life mostly from Nicholas Harpsfield. Gabriel Pennottus also treats of him in the History of the Order of Regular Canons, Book 2, chapter 70, number 2.
[18] Because, however, he prescribed essentially the Rule of Saint Benedict for his nuns, he is also recorded in monastic Martyrologies. Wion: veneration among the Benedictines "On the same day, in England, of Saint Gilbert the Confessor, who rests at Sempringham, in the monastery which he had founded." He then endeavors to confirm that the Order was established by Saint Gilbert under the Rule of Saint Benedict, because this is read in Jerome Paul of Barcelona's Provincial of Churches printed at Rome in 1493. Picard attacked Wion in his Notes on Newburgh, but Menard defended him in Book 1 of the Observations on his Benedictine Martyrology, in which he had inscribed Saint Gilbert, contending that he should not be expunged from the roll of Benedictine Saints, since he had been a monk and had composed his life after the manner of the Cistercian monks. and the Cistercians For this reason Chrysostom Henriquez celebrates him thus in the Cistercian Menology: "In England, Saint Gilbert, a disciple of the honey-tongued Bernard, a man of Apostolic zeal, of the most austere and rigorous life, of extraordinary purity, distinguished by the prophetic gift, and a wondrous worker of astonishing miracles."
[19] Henriquez adds in his Notes, from Nicholas Brabo, a modern author, that Saint Gilbert learned the rudiments of monastic life in the monastery of Clairvaux under the instruction of Saint Bernard, whether he was of their Order before he laid the foundations of his own Order. We would prefer this to be established by ancient documents. For first, since Saint Bernard was born in the year 1091, Gilbert was then a boy growing up of about eight years of age. Second, Gilbert did indeed contract, according to the Acts, an acquaintance and familiarity with Saint Bernard, and was, as Newburgh testifies, informed by his venerable counsels and strengthened in his purpose -- but in the year of Christ 1148, when he was over sixty years old and had long since established the Order, principally aided by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, who had by then died. Third, the Cistercian Abbots together with Pope Eugenius refused him the assistance he sought from their Order, saying that it was not permitted for their monks to preside over the religious life of others, and especially of nuns, as is stated below in the Acts -- so that it is surprising that Montalbus, Book 2, chapter 23, should have produced these words, which are cited by Henriquez at the Menology: "The Gilbertines in habit and all other things are Cistercians; for Pope Eugenius III, being himself a Cistercian, when he approved their Order, commanded that they observe the Rule of Saint Benedict according to the Cistercian institute; and so they observe it, and they solemnly celebrate the feast of Saint our Father Bernard after Gilbert, and Saint Benedict as the legislator of both Orders." Each of these points requires more certain proof. Following these authorities, Charles de Visch in the Library of Cistercian Writers had also numbered Saint Gilbert among his Order; but on account of our arguments he changed his opinion at the end of his book. John Bromton, who flourished among the English in the fourteenth century as Abbot of Jervaulx of the Cistercian Order, writes thus of Saint Gilbert: "At this time, namely in the year of the Lord 1188, died Saint Gilbert, the Founder of the white monks of the Order of Sempringham" -- making no mention of his own Order.
[20] Ecclesiastical office That Saint Gilbert was formerly honored with an Ecclesiastical Office in the Roman Church, we gather from the Calendars prefixed to the Breviaries printed at Venice in 1479 and 1490, and the Missals published at Nuremberg in 1484 and at Venice in 1508: in which the office of Saint Gilbert the Confessor is prescribed on the day before the Nones of February, but entirely to be recited from the Common, as they call it. Masini in his Bologna Illustrated, at February 4, reports that the feast of Saint Gilbert is celebrated on this day in Bologna at the church of Saint John on the Mount, and that some of his relics are preserved in the church of Saint James Major, and this appears to refer to our Saint.
LIFE
by a contemporary author, from the ancient History of the Saints.
Gilbert, Founder of the Order of Sempringham in England (Saint)
BHL Number: 3538
By a Contemporary Author.
[1] Blessed Gilbert, in England, born in the place called Sempringham, had as his father a Knight Saint Gilbert, an Englishman named Jocelin, vigorous in strength, wealthy in means, and conspicuous in character. Now the mother of Gilbert, before he was born, saw in a dream that the moon descended from on high into her bosom. Having previously studied slothfully, he studies in France out of shame or fear he left his own country and went to the regions of France, acquiring the name and degree of Master. He always lived so chastely that no one ever heard that he had touched a woman. chaste Returning therefore to the lands of his birth, he instructed boys and girls in both knowledge and morals, he teaches boys and while still a layman he compelled them to live according to a rule, and they were the first plants of his Order.
[2] Afterward his father, the Patron of the churches of Sempringham and Tirington, which were then vacant, presented him to the same, as he says, against his will. a Cleric devoted to almsgiving But whatever he could obtain from the revenues, or by any other means, beyond the bare necessities of life, he reserved for the use of the poor. Meanwhile Gilbert invited one of his fellow Clerics to prayer, and whenever during the chanting the name of God or of the Lord or anything similar occurred, to genuflection he would kneel; whence that Cleric was so wearied that he swore he would never pray with him again.
[3] Afterward he attached himself to Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, while never neglecting the office of pastoral care. Gilbert, having been ordained to all sacred Orders, Priest conducted himself so holily that in the way of virtues he made a bridge for the Bishop, Penitentiary whose life he had come to imitate; and having received from him the keys of binding and loosing, he was made his Penitentiary, though reluctantly. When someone offered him an Archdeaconate, he refused to accept it, saying that he knew another quicker path to perdition. The Saint, proposing to give away his possessions to the poor, placed certain maidens in Sempringham who had been previously instructed by the Bishop, under the wall of the church of Saint Andrew, he establishes various monasteries and provided them with necessities. Afterward he received lay men, whom he placed in charge of external and more burdensome affairs, and to both groups he gave a certain habit signifying humility. After this, many powerful men offering estates and lands to them began to build many monasteries in many provinces under his governance, with the Bishop of Lincoln, Alexander, taking the lead, together with Henry the Second, King of England.
[4] After this he went to the Cistercian Chapter, where Pope Eugenius happened then to be present, he visits Pope Eugenius in order to divest himself of the care of his flock and commit it to the Cistercian monks. But the Lord Pope and the Abbots, asserting that this was not permitted to him, commanded him by Apostolic authority to persist in his office. It is also reported that the Pope would have wished to elevate him to the Archbishopric of York, if the fame of his merits, which then appeared in him, had become known to him earlier.
[5] The lay brethren, however, whom Gilbert had placed in charge of the care of all his houses, acted against him, defaming him and objecting that he was a destroyer of the sacred Order and of the institutions of the Churches. against rebellious subjects For when he reproved their insolence, at the devil's suggestion they rose up against him. But Gilbert declared that his throat would sooner be cut than that he would change their original profession and the institution of the Order. Some of them, however, asking pardon, returned to peace and concord; but those who had been the principal authors of the schism died an unseemly death. When the malice of the adversaries was discovered, he obtains the favor of the King, the Bishops, and the Pope King Henry the Second himself and nearly all the Bishops and Prelates declared the truth of the matter to the Supreme Pontiff. Who, writing back, granted to Master Gilbert and his successors that no one should dare to change those things which belonged to his Religious Order, or add to them, without the consent of the greater and sounder part; conceding to them full authority to correct whatever should henceforth arise in the Order. Running about to the palaces of Kings and Pontiffs on this side and beyond the sea for the necessities of his churches, he was sometimes assailed not only with words but also with blows.
[6] He loved all his monasteries equally. He healed a certain nun burning with the fire of lust by reproving her sharply. he corrects vices And a certain Brother, agitated by anger to the point of deserting the monastery, he converted to the greatest meekness with a light blow. he heals a dying woman A certain nun who was Prioress, brought to the point of death, recovered when Gilbert, through the virtue of obedience, forbade the illness to advance. At the time when all the Nobles of the Western regions took the Cross, Father Gilbert, hearing that King Henry had taken the Cross, groaned and said as though prophesying: "It has pleased God to put an end to things." he foretells the outcome for the Crusaders The outcome of events proved this saying true. For King Henry died, though not on that journey. The Emperor Frederick died on his way toward Jerusalem, and innumerable other powerful men perished in that expedition. Moreover, he sometimes denied the prayers and manifold gifts of magnates, but gladly assented to the simple petition of the Brethren, or of any single just person.
[7] He once complained after a meal that he had sinned through excess, what food he used while his companions marveled that human life could be sustained in such a way. Abstaining from meat at all times, he passed the season of Lent and the Advent of the Lord without fish. The dish for the poor, which he called the dish of our Lord, placed beneath his table, he always enriched with the first and choicest portions of his food. He used wooden and earthen vessels and spoons of horn. He sometimes wept at meals, because it was thus necessary each day to refresh his failing nature. He had garments neither more nor fewer what clothing he wore in winter than in summer. The form of his habit was a tunic and a cloak sewn together at the place of clasps, with an inseparable hood. After completing the seventh hour, he did not lie upon his bed the whole night, but sat without removing his daytime garments; and his manner of sleeping and because there was nothing behind him to support his hanging head, he pressed his head forward and downward, so as thereby to drive away sleep. He was of such compassion that, when he saw a certain man sinning to the point of despair and afterward truly repenting, he wept before all out of joy and urged everyone to rejoice with him.
[8] After this, he appointed Roger of Sempringham, who had been his disciple, as his Superior, he obeys Roger the Provost and duly made his profession to the Order and to the house of Sempringham; and thus he received the canonical habit at Bullington. Saint Gilbert professed obedience to Roger, now Provost, in all things as to a father. Meanwhile, when the King of England was persecuting the glorious Martyr Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, even to the point of exile, he aids Saint Thomas of Canterbury Gilbert received him in his monasteries and moreover gave him some of his Brethren as companions of his journey, who would direct his travels with sufficient circumspection. When the same Saint, deprived of sight from natural decline or from the flooding of tears, though blind, he sees the tears of another was delivering a word of exhortation in the Chapter of the nuns, he testified that he had seen tears flowing from the cheeks of a nun.
[9] Thereupon, compelled by illness and old age to depart, he announced to his churches that his dissolution was at hand. On the night of the Nativity of our Lord, therefore, fortified with the last Sacraments he was fortified with the Sacraments of the Body of the Lord and of Extreme Unction. In the time granted him by God, many Prelates and others came to him, that they might be consoled by his blessing and his conversation. he dies The holy Father Gilbert therefore died, with all sobbing, on the day before the Nones of February, in the year of the Lord one thousand one hundred and eighty-nine; he is buried and he was buried in the monastery of Sempringham, between the greater altars, where, enclosed by a wall on either side, he could be adored by men on one side and by women on the other. Not long after the death of the holy man, a certain Canon of that Order saw in a dream a Brother who had recently died before him; and when he asked him among other things about Master Gilbert, he answered: "He is not with us; he is believed to have been raised among the Virgins in heaven a higher place holds him; for since he departed, he has been translated to the choir of Virgins." Now the Lord wrought many other deeds and wonders through him both in his life and after his death, which for the sake of brevity are not here recorded.
Annotationsa Mauburnus writes "Sompligena." Others write "Sempingham" and "Sempringham." The location has been discussed above.
b Others read "Iocelinum."
c Others read "Tiringtonis" or "Tyringtonis." Turrington is a village of Lindsey, in the hundred or wapentake of Wraggoe, near the source of the stream that flows thence into the Witham below Lincoln.
d From the death of Bishop Alexander in the year 1147 to the beginning of the reign of Henry II in 1154, there intervene seven years, so that the passage indicates that the work was splendidly begun by the Bishop and then promoted by the King.
e In the year 1148.
f When Saint William, rejected on account of primarily false accusations, Henry Murdac, formerly Abbot of Fountains of the Cistercian Order, was appointed by Pope Eugenius in the year 1145, as Paris and Westminster report -- not 1142, as Gaspar Jongelinus writes, following Godwin, in the Purple of Saint Bernard, concerning the Archbishops of the Cistercian Order in England, since in that year Innocent II was still alive; between whom and Eugenius there were Celestine II and Lucius II. But these matters are to be carefully discussed on June 8, in the Life of Saint William, Archbishop of York, who was restored after the death of Henry. On these Archbishops, Newburgh should be consulted, Book 1, chapters 17 and 26.
g Mauburnus says that he fled lest he be made Archbishop of York -- which is refuted here.
h Mauburnus adds the reason: that he observed the discipline so strictly that no one was allowed to deviate from the Rule.
i That King Henry received the sign of the Cross in January 1188 from the hands of the Archbishop of Rheims and William of Tyre is recorded by Ralph de Diceto, Gervase of Canterbury, Paris, and Westminster, and at greater length by Newburgh, Book 3, chapter 23, and Roger of Howden. He received, moreover, white crosses together with his people.
k In the year 1189, on Thursday, July 6, at the castle of Chinon in the territory of Le Mans in France, entangled in the war with France and the defection of his sons to the side of the enemy -- which is to be read in Newburgh, Book 3, chapter 25, and others.
l In the year 1190, drowned in a river in the region of Lesser Armenia.
m Mauburnus writes "Briglichtona." Bullington is in the above-mentioned wapentake of Wraggoe, where this area is less distant from the city of Lincoln.
n In the year 1165.
o At that time Saint Thomas, having changed both his habit and his name, came to Lincoln, and thence, recognized by few, hastened by unknown roads and paths to the sea, riding by night and hiding by day among friends and acquaintances, as Roger relates at greater length for that year; he assigns, however, as companions of the journey two Brethren of the Cistercian Order and one sole attendant, so that these Gilbertines may have been assumed as directors of the daytime journey, not as permanent companions.
p Mauburnus writes "the second" i.e. 1182; which is excellently refuted from the time of King Henry taking the Cross. Bromton writes "the eighth" i.e. 1188, but perhaps led astray by the reckoning of those who begin the year from Easter.
ANOTHER LIFE
From the Manuscript of Rougevallee and Capgrave.
Gilbert, Founder of the Order of Sempringham in England (Saint)
BHL Number: 3537
By an Anonymous Author, from the Manuscript and Capgrave.
[1] Saint Gilbert, born at the place called Sempringham, was of noble lineage. Saint Gilbert His father Jocelin was a valiant Knight, Norman by race; his mother was English by birth. Before he was born, she seemed to see in a dream that she received the moon descending from on high into her bosom. a boy despised Now the holy boy, born in his father's house, remained so despised that not even the servants of the household deigned to take food with him, for he was ungainly and unkempt in bodily appearance. he studies in France Entrusted, however, to letters and making little progress, he left his country and, devoted to the liberal studies in France, merited the name and degree of Master. At length returning to England, he instructed boys and girls, who were the first in whom the Order of Sempringham took its beginning, whom while he was himself still a layman he trained he teaches boys virtue together with letters not only in scholastic rudiments but also in moral and monastic disciplines. He taught them to be silent in church, to sleep together as though in a dormitory, and to speak and read only in appointed places. For from his earliest age he strove to win souls for God and to benefit whomever he could by word, deed, and example. Using precious and fine garments in accordance with the dignity of his birth, he was a lover of justice and truth; he won the favor and goodwill of all.
[2] His father, delighted by his praiseworthy manner of life, presented him, much against his will, to the churches of Sempringham and Tirington. a Cleric Having therefore been taken up to the governance of souls, he was lodged together with his Chaplain in the house of one of his parishioners; and when the beauty of the host's daughter, who served him diligently, chaste caused a secret contagion to steal upon them both, it seemed to Gilbert in a dream that he had thrust his hand into the bosom of the aforesaid maiden and could not withdraw it. The most chaste man, therefore, greatly alarmed, quickly removed himself from that place. For this maiden was afterward among the first seven in whom the holy man began his Order. When a certain parishioner had committed fraud in the tithes of his crops, Gilbert compelled that rustic to cast the grain out of the granary and to count it before him, sheaf by sheaf; he burns tithes stolen by theft and gathering the tenth part into a heap, he caused it to be consumed in a pyre kindled in the middle of the street, in detestation of so great a crime and as a terror to others. For whatever he had beyond the necessary provisions of life, he took care to distribute to the poor and needy.
[3] Having at length attained the degree of the priesthood, and devoting himself to the generosity of almsgiving, he chose poor persons a Priest, he establishes a religious Order whose poverty was made honorable by the fear and love of God alike. He enclosed seven Virgins from the tumult of the world and the sight of men, giving them precepts of life and discipline; he built the necessary buildings of a monastery, establishing one open window through which necessities could be passed. When the number of Brethren and Sisters had grown, he went to Citeaux to Pope Eugenius: he resolved to place monks of that Order, as being of a stricter rule, in charge of the work he had begun. But the Lord Pope and the Cistercian Abbots said that it was not permitted for monks of their Order to preside over the religious life of others, he deals with Pope Eugenius, Saints Malachy and Bernard and especially of nuns. The custody of his flock was, however, given and enjoined upon Blessed Gilbert by Pope Eugenius; and during that journey he became so familiar with Blessed Malachy, Archbishop of Ireland, and Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, that in his sole presence, through their prayer, health is reported to have been conferred upon a certain sick person. He also received tokens of their affection -- namely, the staff of both the Bishop and the Abbot, in which sacred virtues reside; and the Abbot gave him his stole with the maniple as a memorial of himself. Returning to England, he establishes monasteries for the use of men and women he appointed discreet men who might open the way of salvation for both men and women and exercise the pastoral office. He placed the dwellings of the Clerics far from the houses of the nuns, so that the Canons, being more distantly removed from them, should have no access to them except for the administration of some divine Sacrament in the presence of many witnesses. He absolutely forbade the nuns to be seen with face uncovered. Whatever must be done or communicated either within or without, two proven elderly men are assigned on the outside and two mature Sisters on the inside, through whom alone, hearing but not seeing one another, whatever is necessary is announced. For the nuns he prescribed the Rule of Blessed Benedict, he prescribes a Rule and for the Clerics the Rule of Saint Augustine; and those things which he found less fully treated in those Rules, he excerpted statutes from many monasteries, collected them, sent them to Pope Eugenius, and received them back confirmed.
[4] Besides the hospices for the poor, the sick, the leprous, the widows, and the orphans which he built, in 13 monasteries he established thirteen conventual churches with great labor and industry during his lifetime, he governs 2,200 in which he left a number of two thousand two hundred at the time of his death. He loved the churches of all equally and was equally solicitous about the affairs of all. He decreed that greater faults should be reserved for his own examination, while he left lesser ones to be dealt with by others. He wrote many books; his words sounded nothing other than wisdom and knowledge. He healed a nun inflamed with the fire of lust by severe chastisement, he corrects vices and converted a Brother agitated by the stings of anger to the greatest meekness with a light blow of his staff. His means of riding was simple and his retinue respectable; he appeared generous enough to others, sparing to himself. He abstained from meat at all times, unless in the gravest illness; sparing in food he refrained from eating fish during Lent and Advent; he more willingly took vegetables, legumes, and such humble fare. The first portion of fish he gave to God, and nearly all the rest he shared with his table companions. For there was a vessel placed on the table before him, which he was accustomed to call the Dish of the Lord Jesus, in which not only the remnants of food but also the choicest portions were set aside for the use of the poor. He often shed tears while sitting at table; using wooden and earthen vessels and spoons of horn, he excluded all worldly vanity and superfluity of metals. After meals he devoted himself to reading, prayer, and sacred meditation, and throughout the entire cycle of the year, using the same garments, clothing he sought neither more in winter nor fewer in summer. He appointed a certain Roger as his Father from having been his son, and as his Master from having been his disciple, and making obedience to him, he received the canonical habit.
[5] When Saint Thomas was dwelling in exile in France, it is noted that Gilbert sent much money across the sea to the holy Bishop against the command of the King, through royal ministers. that he had not sent money to Saint Thomas of Canterbury Both he himself and all the Provosts and procurators of his monasteries were compelled to appear before the judges of the King; and on account of his sanctity it was offered to him that he might, by taking an oath, give assurance that what had been alleged was false. But he, though it was true, he refuses to swear because this would redound to the injury of the Church, refused -- preferring to undergo exile rather than to take such an oath. The sentence being therefore long suspended, since the judges feared to condemn him, letters of the King arrived permitting him to return with his people to his monastery.
[6] When the holy man was once afflicted with a violent fever, a certain person came to him in sympathy. The Saint said to him, he drives away fevers "Have you ever experienced how great the anguish of fevers is?" And he said, "No." When the Saint asked whether he would be willing to take those fevers upon himself in his place, so that he might be freed, and the man consented, the following morning that man was seized by fever, while the holy Father was entirely freed. A certain person wearing the holy Father's socks on his feet he heals gout was entirely freed from the gout by which he was held; and another, suffering from fever, was cured by drinking from the Saint's cup. When the flame of a fire, growing stronger, approached the lodging of Saint Gilbert, and he, sitting at the window, was praying a fire and chanting the Psalms, the flame, devouring the other part of the house and as though recoiling from his presence, flew past the part where he was seated, and seizing the nearby places all around, left the other buildings of the host untouched.
[7] In the year of the Lord one thousand one hundred and eighty-nine and the one hundred and sixth of his life, he dies the holy servant of God, Gilbert, full of good works and examples, penetrating the heavens, was buried with honor on the day before the Nones of February in the monastery of Sempringham founded by him. He was canonized and inscribed in the catalogue of the Saints by Pope Innocent, in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and two; He is enrolled among the Saints; he is translated and in the same year, on the third day before the Ides of October, his body was translated from the ground and honorably placed in a shrine. On the night preceding the day of his death, many saw an immense globe of fire, and as it were many candles lit together, descend from heaven three times and again ascend above the roof of the basilica opposite his sepulchre; and three times it seemed to penetrate the summit of the church and fall within. On the day he departed this world, he left about seven hundred religious men and fifteen hundred religious sisters serving God.
Annotationsa Harpsfield adds: "He administered the office he had received with such diligence, care, and assiduity that by his frequency in preaching and his shining example of all virtues he greatly inflamed his parishioners to the imitation of his piety, so that they seemed not far removed from the discipline of monks; and wherever they went they gave an illustrious proof by their piety of whose flock they were."
b "Grangia" means a barn, estate, or farm. Hence in Caesarius, Book 5, chapter 17, and others, "grangiarius" means a steward Grangia or one put in charge of barns. The author of the Life of Blessed Roger, Abbot of Ellant, January 4, chapter 5, uses the word "grangia."
c "Bladus" and "bladum" mean grain, seed, or crop -- a word commonly used by writers of the Middle Ages; Bladum as also "imbladare," "imbladatio," and "imbladata" -- to sow, the sowing of crops, places planted with them. The author of the Life of Blessed Roger, in the said chapter 5: "the land can bear wheat rather than other grain." Blessed Odoric, January 14, in his pilgrimage or Life: "a land abounding in grain," etc.
d "Gerba" signifies a sheaf or bundle of ears of grain. Gerba
e We have said on January 10, in the Life of Saint Agatho the Pope, letter Cc, that "orarium" is used for a rochet, or a linen episcopal vestment, Orarium and sometimes for a cloth held to the mouth. In the Fourth Council of Toledo, chapter 25, the "orarium" is also given to Presbyters and Deacons, but not to subdeacons, so that it appears to be a Stole. So Peter of Blois, Sermon 41: "The orarium, which is also called a Stole" -- which here was given together with the maniple.
f Harpsfield calls him a Canon of the Church of Malton.
g The same author adds: "Now free and about to depart, he publicly declared before the judges that he was entirely innocent of the alleged crime. All greatly marveled that he would now voluntarily confess what, when placed in such great danger previously, he had been unwilling to declare, though he could have done so with his honor and the truth intact. But he, using a higher counsel, thought it would be neither consistent with his dignity or that of the Church, nor without bad example for the future, if -- having in fact not sent assistance to his Bishop -- he had nevertheless declared by so solemn a protestation before the tribunals that he had sent none, while believing that he ought to have sent it."
h "Pedules" appear to be used for woolen socks or foot-coverings. Pedules