CONCERNING SAINT ULGISUS, OR WLGISUS, BISHOP AND ABBOT OF LOBBES IN BELGIUM,
In the Eighth Century.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Ulgisus, or Wlgisus, Bishop and Abbot of Lobbes in Belgium (Saint)
By the author I. B.
[1] The monastery of Lobbes is situated in Belgium, on the river Sambre, on the very borders of the province of Liege and Hainaut — an ancient and celebrated house. Its site and the etymology of its name are explained by Fulcuin, its Abbot (who died in the year 990), The site of the monastery of Lobbes, at the beginning of his Chronicle as follows: "There is a place where, within the boundaries of the district which the ancients — from the place where a superstitious paganism had consecrated a shrine to Mars — called Fanum Martinse, and which more recent people named Hainaut from the name of the flowing river; and from the district of the Sambre, the Sambre flows along a gentle and pleasant bank — which place, with hills rising on either side, a certain plain and the shade of groves and the convenience of the location render most agreeable. In this place a small stream flows down into the Sambre, which they call the Laubach; and they think it gave the name to the place — although there are some who believe, on account of the opportunity for catching wild beasts (for it is surrounded on every side by forest, and the nearby royal estate of Liptines, still called by its ancient name the Forest), that because the King, going hunting, its name, ordered a shelter to be made for himself there to temper the heat of the sun — which they call a 'Lobia' — the place was thence called by the enduring name, and the stream took its name from the place, not the place from the stream: which seems more likely. The Germans appear to support this, for that place is called Lobach in their language. And LO indeed they call a shelter, and BACH a stream — which two, if compounded, make 'the stream of the shelter.'"
[2] More briefly, Blessed Anso, the eighth Abbot of Lobbes, in the Life of Saint Erminus, Bishop and Abbot — which we shall give on April 25 — says of the monastery: expressed in various forms; "which is called Laubacus, derived from the name of the small river running through the monastery into the river which is properly named Sambra." For others, Laubacum is of neuter gender; in the Life of Saint Ursmar, in volume 1 of the Frankish Writers of Chesne, Laubias is indeclinable. "That Church of Christ," it says, "which is at Laubias." But Fulcuin in his Chronicle says that Saint Landelinus departed from Lobbes, and shortly after: "to whom the Lord had assigned Lobbias as a place for his apostolate." The same Life of Saint Ursmar: "Since Lobbia is not an episcopal See." The same author, in his history of miracles, miracle 23, calls the Bishop of Lobbes "Pontifex of Lobia." Hariger, in his metrical Life, calls the monastery Laubia and Laubacum, and the stream Lobia.
[3] In this place Landelinus was accustomed to commit his robberies, until, by the long lamentation and unceasing prayer of Saint Autbert, Bishop of Cambrai, once his teacher, as described in book 2 of the Chronicle of Cambrai—
chapter 37, was converted from his wicked life. He withdrew to the same place and, as Fulcuin relates, consecrated it to sacred pursuits, so that the place he had defiled with vices he might dedicate to virtues; that where sin had abounded, grace might also superabound, foundation by Saint Landelinus the penitent, as the Apostle says. In this place, building a church for himself for the time being, he wept over those things in which he had formerly delighted, seeking sustenance by the work of his hands, and subduing the wantonness of the flesh by fasts and vigils; and he was exercised with the utmost effort of his mind in the things that are of God, so that all marveled, seeing the change wrought by the right hand of the Most High. In such exercises, therefore, with many flocking together for that purpose, he became a mirror; and thus he stands as the first founder of the monastery of Lobbes. So writes Fulcuin. Thence Landelinus migrated to Crespin. For, as Balderic writes in the cited passage, when the place of the holy man had begun to flourish through his pious manner of life, and from the munificence of kings enrichment: or of whatever powerful persons, it abounded as much in external possessions as it did internally in the number of monks; soon, having withdrawn from there, he determined to seek a more secluded place so that he might be more strictly devoted to God. But these matters will be treated more fully in the Life of Saint Landelinus on June 15.
[4] The reason for his migration from Lobbes was perhaps also Liptines, the palace of Pippin, Mayor of the Palace, distant thence by an hour's journey, now commonly called Lestines — a place that under Pippin's son and grandsons became so celebrated that a synod was held there in the year 742. The holy man may have fled either the occasion of distractions arising from the throng of courtiers converging on Lobbes, Landelinus migrating thence to Crespin, or the praises with which some perhaps burdened him. How far Liptines had already declined from its former splendor five hundred years ago is evident from Miracle 19 of Saint Ursmar, where these words are found: "Liptines is the name of an estate in the district of Hainaut, formerly a royal seat, when peace and justice still met one another in the land; now distributed as a benefice to many, it scarcely suffices in annual revenues for one person."
[5] But Landelinus, about to withdraw from Lobbes, as Balderic writes, placed over that place the blessed man of God Ursmar, endowed with pious character, consecrated as Bishop in a missionary capacity only. 1st Abbot: Saint Ursmar, This is said to have been done by the will of Pippin in the Life of Saint Ursmar in volume 1 of the Frankish Writers of Chesne: "After the departure from Laubacus of Saint Landelinus, whom the Spirit of the Lord had persuaded to withdraw from that place for the purpose of illuminating Crespin, where he now rests, Blessed Ursmar (to whom the Lord had assigned Laubias as a place for his apostolate and holy work), illustrious for the word of preaching and the merits of his virtues, was summoned by the elder Pippin... and received the same monastery to govern, through the intervention of Hidulphus, who was one of the chief among the King's magnates. Where also, enthroned in the pastoral chair, he displayed such great..." etc. Fulcuin writes nearly the same, and Sigebert more briefly in his Chronicle.
[6] Whether Ursmar had previously been, as some thought, Bishop of Soissons; or whether, bound to no fixed See, he had nevertheless been ordained so that with greater grace and dignity he might devote himself to the conversion of the nations; or finally whether at the same time a Bishop, it was so that he might be Chaplain of the Court of Pippin (who was by then ruling in place of the kings) and might wield greater authority — just as we have noted elsewhere that Drogo, Bishop of Metz, was adorned by the Pontiff with the title of Archbishop for that reason — will need to be discussed in his Life on April 18. Fulcuin himself is uncertain; and since his words also pertain to Ulgisus, it has seemed good to recite them here. "Why, however," he says, "we say that he was a Bishop has often been asked of us. For the text of the written Life teaches that he was a Bishop; but it is entirely silent concerning the place or time of his ordination, or by whom he was ordained. But in the charters made in his time and in very ancient parchment scraps preserved in our church, we find him inscribed under the title of Bishop and Pontiff. The report of our elders on this matter varies; whether of a fixed See is doubtful: some saying that he was ordained Bishop for the purpose of preaching, as was fitting at that time for the rudiments of a new faith, in order to suppress the superfluous rites of the barbarian nation — which we read was also done in the case of Saint Amandus; others assigning this dignity to the place and defending their opinion with a certain reason — namely, that a royal place, built by royal munificence, adjacent to a royal palace (as has been said) — that is, Liptines — would be entrusted to no one unless he had first been ordained a Bishop. This dignity, they say, also endured in most of his successors, as we shall relate in what follows. Which of these is more true, we leave to the judgment of readers; nor do we detract from the holy man in either direction, since, whichever of these is the case, we do not deny that he was a Bishop."
[7] Thus Fulcuin, who then writes of Saint Erminus, his successor: "Before Ursmar departed, broken by long illness, he had, while still alive, substituted Saint Erminus as his successor, into whom he had poured himself entirely through a certain special intimacy, 2nd: Saint Erminus, Bishop, as into a beloved heir and most welcome successor." Blessed Anso writes somewhat differently in the Life of Saint Erminus: "When Saint Ursmar was growing old and gravely ill, his spiritual sons permitted him the liberty of laying down the summit of governance. Having been deposed, he began to urge them to place this same yoke upon Saint Erminus the Bishop. At once the voice of all the clergy and laity became one, so that no one among them all was found who did not acclaim his election." Saint Ursmar afterward died, as Fulcuin has it, "in the year 713 of the Lord's Incarnation, with the Lord God reigning for us in perpetuity, and Pippin wielding the scepter" — namely Pippin of Herstal, or the Fat, of whom we have been speaking, the father of Charles Martel. Saint Erminus, however, as Anso writes, "advanced in age and full of days, in a good old age, in the seven hundred and thirty-seventh year from the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, died in the year 737 on the seventh day before the Kalends of May, went to the Lord."
[8] Concerning the successors of Saint Erminus — that we may at last come to Saint Ulgisus — the same Fulcuin writes: then Saint Ulgisus, Bishop, and others, "He had also co-workers and co-abbots: namely, the holy Abel, a Scot by birth, and Saint Wlgisus the Bishop, and the Lord Amulwinus, likewise a Bishop. Whether they succeeded one another, uncertain whether simultaneously, or, while Saint Erminus was occupied with spiritual affairs, administered the place in common, antiquity has left nothing certain. It has not, however, been silent about their having both held and governed the place of Lobbes, and also about their having improved the place as the circumstances of the times permitted." Otherwise, "after Saint Erminus," says the same writer, "Theoduinus was Abbot; under whom, with Carloman the Mayor of the Palace granting it, our church deserved to hold the estate of Fontaines, which the Sambre waters"; Theoduinus was Abbot in 744 in the charter of whose concession it is subscribed thus: "Done at Liptines, a public estate, on the day when February makes six days, in the second year of the reign of Childeric." And in this stipulation, he says, "the sign of Carloman, Mayor of the Palace, who made and confirmed this donation." Our Bucherius records this donation under the year 743: "Theodeuinus, Abbot of Lobbes, obtains the estate of Fontaines on the Sambre from Carloman, Mayor of the Palace, at Liptines on February 6, in the second year of the reign of Childeric. Fulcuin." The Council of Liptines, or Listines, in Hainaut, on the Kalends of March. But the Council of Liptines was held during the interregnum, in the year 742, as is clear from its preface: "I, Carloman, Duke and Prince of the Franks, in the year 742 from the Incarnation of the Lord, namely on the eleventh day before the Kalends of May, with the counsel of the servants of God and of my magnates, gathered the Bishops who are in my kingdom together with the Priests to a council and synod for the fear of Christ." But the second year of Childeric was 744, as is clear from the preface of the Council of Soissons: in the 2nd year of Childeric III "In the name of God and the Trinity. In the year 744 from the Incarnation of Christ, and on the 14th moon, in the second year of Childeric, King of the Franks, I, Pippin, Duke and Prince of the Franks." Therefore, that donation of Fontaines was not made on February 6, but in the year when February makes twice six — although in the manuscript copy of Fulcuin it is written "six days," as we have reported.
[8] That Saint Theodulph succeeded Saint Erminus, and that Saint Ulgisus succeeded Theodulph, is written by Aegidius Waldaeus in the French history of the Saints of Lobbes, Miraeus in the Belgian Fasti, and others generally, with no mention made of Theoduinus — incorrectly, as is clear from what has been said. But to Abbot Theoduinus, as Fulcuin writes, "succeeded Saint Theodulph the Bishop in the administration of the aforesaid place, partly under the aforesaid Prince Pippin, who was afterward made King; and for nine years under King Charles, who was afterward made Emperor... He died, moreover, in the year 776 of the Lord's Incarnation, then Saint Theodulph: on the feast day of Saint John the Baptist." Anso follows him in governance. Our Bartholomew Fisen writes that Saint Ulgisus immediately succeeded Saint Erminus in the year 737. This seems entirely to be asserted, if indeed Ulgisus himself, Amolwinus, and Abel presided over the place successively and not simultaneously with Saint Erminus — as the latter had previously served simultaneously with Saint Ursmar. And indeed, unless they were transferred elsewhere to cultivate the vineyard of Christ, they did not hold that dignity for long, since by the year 742, as we have said, Theoduinus was already Abbot.
[10] Saint Ulgisus was, as was written above, at once Abbot and Bishop. For Trithemius conjectures in his usual manner when in book 3, On Illustrious Men of the Order of Saint Benedict, chapter 256, he writes thus: "Vulgisus, from being Abbot of the monastery of Lobbes, became Bishop there, a man of holy and most devout life, of whose many notable deeds there is report, and he was an outstanding ruler and inspirer of monks." The Acts of Saint Ulgisus, contrary to what Trithemius writes, And in book 4, chapter 192: "Willegisus, monk and Abbot of the monastery of Lobbes, and afterward Bishop of the same city, a man of excellent talent and great erudition, left many monuments of his sanctity, both in the monastery and in the episcopate." But Lobbes was neither a city in the age of Saint Ulgisus nor that of Trithemius, nor is it now — though it is called a "town" or "oppidum" in a diploma of William, Count of Hainaut, given on August 24, 1409, in Waldaeus. Furthermore, Saint Wlgisus was simultaneously both Abbot and Bishop. That many things were done nobly by him we by no means doubt; but where did Trithemius find mention of them? Where of his erudition? And what monuments of his sanctity did he read? Certainly Fulcuin, senior to Trithemius by more than five hundred years unknown, and Abbot of the same monastery, writes thus: "But concerning Saint Wlgisus the Bishop, nothing has come down to us except very little." Molanus judges that his Life was destroyed by the Normans, with Fisen concurring. But Fulcuin writes that when the Normans were ravaging Belgium, the bodies of the Saints of Lobbes were transported to Thuin, a nearby and very strongly fortified castle. Why not also the writings? But the reason why the deeds of Ulgisus and certain others are unknown seems to be the one that Fulcuin indicates for what reason? when speaking of the elevation of Saint Ursmar made in the year 823: "From this time, therefore," he says, "the celebrated fame of the blessed man began to increase, and, with crowds of the sick flocking to various kinds of healings, to shine forth with miracles. Many of these, through either the indolence or the ignorance of our predecessors, lay hidden for a time, and literary pursuits were neglected."
[11] When Saint Ulgisus died, as we have already said, is not established. What is established is that he was buried — as were Saint Ursmar and others — in the church situated on the summit of the hill (as Blessed Anso writes in the Life of Saint Ursmar), at whose base the monastery is situated. His burial, For Saint Ursmar, as Fulcuin has it, by no means suffered the church of the monastery itself to be polluted by the corpses of the dead; he built another church in honor of Saint Mary on the summit of the hill, beneath which the aforesaid monastery lies, where he established the cemetery of the faithful and to which the people would gather. For access of women was not permitted — as is still the case — except at a fixed time, at the other church. Miraeus testifies in his Origins of Benedictine Monasteries in Belgium, and our Fisen, that no one has ever been buried in the monastery of Lobbes.
[12] Concerning the veneration of Saint Wlgisus, there is the testimony of Fulcuin: "There is found," he says, "in our most ancient Martyrologies the day of his death noted thus: 'On the day before the Nones of February, annual celebration on February 4, at the monastery of Laubacus, the deposition of Saint Wlgisus the Bishop.' Moreover, his mausoleum, in which he lies entombed, is ready to be seen." His feast is celebrated at Binche and at Lobbes, as Molanus attests, with a greater double feast, as they call it. His name is found not only in the Lobbes Martyrology (which is that of Ado, but interpolated from time to time) inscribed in the words already cited from Fulcuin, but also in most of the more recent ones — those of Molanus, Canisius, Ghinius, Saussay, Ferrarius, Boey, Baldwin Willot, Wion, and Dorganius. In the ancient documents of the monastery of Lobbes, Aegidius Waldaeus writes that he discovered that the relics of Saints Ulgisus and Amolwinus had been elevated before the year of Christ 900; and that Ulgisus was indeed held in great veneration at that time, elevation before the year 900, with many flocking to his tomb — which was afterward blocked up when the old church was enlarged.
[13] When subsequently, in the war that was stirred up in the year 1406 against John of Bavaria, Bishop of Liege, by the rebels who were called Heydrosii — as if "haters of the law" — the town of Lobbes was overthrown and for the most part consumed by flames, the relics were transferred to Binche in 1409 the college of Canons was transferred to the town of Binche, with the approval of Bishop John and his brother William, Count of Hainaut and Holland, together with the relics of the Saints, on June 20 of the year 1409; and that Translation is recalled with an annual commemoration at Binche on the second Sunday after the feast of Saint John. Concerning this we shall treat more fully in the Life of Saint Ursmar, and concerning the new silver shrines in which those relics were enclosed. The empty tombs may be seen at Lobbes in the upper church, in the crypt beneath the choir. The other Saints whose bodies are now at Binche are also venerated: enclosed in a silver shrine: Saint Ursmar, Bishop, on April 18; Saint Erminus, Bishop, on April 25; Saint Amolwinus, Bishop, on February 7; Saint Abel, Bishop, on August 5; Saint Theodulph, Bishop, on June 24; Saint Hidulph the Duke on June 23; Saint Amelberga, mother of Saint Gudula, on July 10.
[14] Molanus, in the first edition of his Additions to Usuard, under April 4, has the following: "On the same day, the Translation of the holy Confessors Ulgisus, Amulguinus, Theodulph, Abel, and Hildulph." Although he omitted this in the second edition, the same Translation is nevertheless recorded by Canisius, were they transferred a second time? Wion, Menard, Dorganius, and Ferrarius. What this Translation is, we do not know — although Wion seems to have understood it as the one that was made on June 20, for he writes: "At Binche, from the monastery of Lobbes, the translation of seven Abbots and Bishops of Lobbes." Perhaps the sacred bodies were brought to Binche on that day as if to a refuge, and afterward solemnly translated.
Annotation* Read: "twice."