Bertulph of Renty and Ghent in Belgium

CONCERNING ST. BERTULPH OF RENTY AND GHENT IN BELGIUM

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY

Preliminary Commentary.

Bertulph, Abbot, of Renty in Belgium (Saint)

By J. B.

Section I. The era, feast, and image of St. Bertulph.

[1] Renty, or Rentiacum, or, as a certain modern writer calls it, Renteium, was formerly a town among the Morini (a writer who lived a hundred years ago calls it a "villa," in the parlance of that age), situated roughly midway between the once-famous cities, now scarcely well enough known even by name, at Renty in Artois Thérouanne and Quentovic; closer to the former; adorned with a monastery and three other churches: it is now a castle of Artois, with a rather large village attached, formerly strong and well-fortified, but in recent years captured by the French and stripped of its defenses. Its lordship, with the title of Marquisate, belongs to the Croy family: it is watered by a small stream which, rising in the nearby hamlet of Rumilly, passes through other places celebrated in fame — Fauquembergues, Arques, and the city of Saint-Omer. The old writer below calls it the Enneno or Euneno; others call it the Agnion and Ennona.

[2] That place, in the seventh century of the Christian Era and perhaps into the beginning of the eighth, was illuminated by the splendor of virtues and beneficent deeds of St. Bertulph, an Alemannian by race, but led to those shores by divine providence. He is said to have been born under Sigebert, St. Bertulph lived the holy King of Austrasia, whose Life we have given on February 1. Nor will anyone, I think, suspect that this Sigebert was the son of Clothar I, who administered the same kingdom of Austrasia from the year of Christ 562 to nearly the end of 575. For it was not under this ruler, but under the younger Sigebert, as the writer asserts in chapter 1, number 2, that the Church of Christ merited peace and glory together in Gaul. in the seventh century. St. Sigebert reigned, moreover, from the year of Christ 638 to 663, so that, even if Bertulph had been born at the very beginning of his reign, he could nevertheless have survived to the year 700 and beyond. And from this you may refute Wion and Ferrarius, who write that he flourished around the year 600. Miraeus conjectures that he died around the year 680. Malbrancq writes that he seems to have come to Renty from his homeland in the year 668, and to have spent forty years there, for so long a span is required for his lengthy service and the foundation and governance of the monastery.

[3] Molanus, however, calls into question whether he was the head of a monastery or not. For he writes thus, admonished, as he notes in the margin, by Peter Simons, Archpriest of Ghent and later Bishop of Ypres: "Nowhere is he called Abbot, nor is he so depicted; but in the habit of a simple monk, leaning on a pilgrim's staff with his right hand, because he left his own land and kindred, which was pagan, like a new Abraham, for a land not his own, for the sake of Christ." What persuades us to think the contrary is the writer of the Life, chapter 4, number 19. Made Abbot, "Whence," he says, "like a wise architect he laid a foundation in the hearts of his disciples; over whom he presided with such pastoral authority that in teaching he was a master, in serving he was a servant, prompt and ready in both, because he knew that both befit a Prelate... Thus he taught all his subjects that there should be humility in the heart: thus he served those same subjects, that in correcting there should be a pious severity." Unless we wish to raise a question about the name, what else is this than to be an Abbot, or, as he expressly says, a Prelate, or by whatever name a governor and president of a religious congregation? Nor did Surius, and those who prepared the third edition of his works, hesitate to inscribe this title over the history of St. Bertulph: "Concerning St. Bertulph, Abbot."

[4] And indeed Ferreolus Locrius in his Belgian Chronicle and our Malbrancq in his notes on chapter 39 of book 4 on the Morini, as the people of Renty and their neighbors attest: affirm that he is called Abbot by the people of Renty and their neighbors, especially the people of Fruges, to whom a church is dedicated, and that this has been handed down from their ancestors. They cite in support of this certain verses from a manuscript antiphonary of the Church of Renty, which, before the Roman Office was introduced into the diocese of the Morini, they used to chant on the feast day of St. Bertulph: Rosweyde had received the same verses from the Pastor of Fruges, and many others besides. Those that are relevant here are these:

Bertulph, approved by praise of every virtue, Receives the churches to govern, at Wambert's prayer, Which by firm right the same Duke bestowed on him. Made Prelate, indeed, by so great a lord with reverence, He sought not to be feared, but rather to be loved, And with watchful care presided over the flock of God.

Malbrancq, moreover, makes him not only an Abbot but also a Priest. On this point we have no certain knowledge. The same author says he is depicted in servile garb, girded with a large purse. Locrius says that in the Church of St. Vedast at Renty (which alone survives of those three ancient churches, but is wooden; the monastery of St. Denis having been entirely destroyed, and then restored in timber, but reduced to a small Priory) St. Bertulph is depicted how he is depicted? standing on a lofty platform, his left hand holding a book, his right hand reaching toward a purse hanging from his belt, distributing generous alms to the poor: an eagle covering his head with outstretched wings.

[5] In that Church of St. Vedast at Renty which we have mentioned, one thousand loaves of bread are customarily distributed each year on the day of St. Bertulph, namely on the Nones of February. His name is inscribed for that day in the Martyrologies, an annual charity on his feast, February 5, not only the more recent ones of Boëtius, Willot, Ferrarius, Menard, Dorgany, Saussay, Galesinius, Canisius, Felicius, Wion, and Ghinius; but also the older ones of St. Riquier and St. Lawrence of Liège, of which the former bears the name of Bede, the latter of Usuard, though, as we have noted elsewhere, it is in fact Ado's; but both are interpolated, as is evident from this. For the Liège Martyrology reads thus: "At Ghent, of St. Bertulph, Confessor." But the one of Saint-Riquier: "In the territory of the Morini, the passing of St. Bertulph, Confessor and Monk, whose bones rest at Ghent." The manuscript Martyrology of the Church of St. Gudula at Brussels, which Molanus in his additions to Usuard and others follow: "At Blandin, of St. Bertulph, Confessor." Certain of the authors already cited assign him to Renty, others to Blandin, with respect, of course, either to his place of habitation or of his relics: some adorn him with an elegant eulogy; not a few call him Abbot, and among these Saussay. Hermann Greven, whether by a lapse of memory or of the pen, wrote thus: "At Laon, of Bertulph, Confessor."

Section II. The various translations of St. Bertulph, the prodigious knocking, and his Life.

[6] For two hundred years the body of St. Bertulph was preserved at Renty: then it was translated to Boulogne by Erkenger, Count of Boulogne and lord of Renty, lest it be exposed to the fury of the Normans, the body was translated to Boulogne after the year 898, who were ravaging everything far and wide; and so that, as the writer says, he might be honored with greater dignity in his members. This was done while Charles the Simple, King of France, still held power: after the year of Christ 898, when Charles was placed in charge; before 923, when Count Heribert of Vermandois, having captured him by treachery, placed him in custody at Péronne.

[7] The body of St. Bertulph, stolen secretly from Boulogne, a certain man named Electus,

a native of Brittany (Armorica, I believe, which alone retained the name of Brittany in that age and thereafter), concealed at Odinghem, now Audinghem, a village of the district of Boulogne near Cape Itius, thence secretly removed, then recovered, after the year 935, intending to sell it to Athelstan, King of the English. But through the sagacity of Arnulf the Great, Marquis of Flanders, the sacrilegious thief was both detected and confessed his crime, and that heavenly treasure was recovered, together with what had been joined to it — the body of St. Gudwal the Bishop, stolen from Montreuil by the same Breton. Since, moreover, it is established that Athelstan, or Aethelstan, to whom that sacrilegious man intended to transport the treasure, reigned from the year 924 to 940; and that Arnulf did not enter into possession of Boulogne until the year of Christ 933, when Adalolf, his brother (or Adulf, or Adolf), died without children; it follows that those relics were both stolen and recovered after the year 933 and before 940: especially since Wicfred, Bishop of Thérouanne, who was first ordained by Artald of Rheims in the year 935, was sent to recover them.

[8] That sacred treasure was then returned to Boulogne: but some years later it was brought to Harelbeke, a property of the same Arnulf on the Lys, to Harelbeke, or Legia, river, about one league distant from Courtrai. Finally to Ghent, to the monastery of Blandin, which is now called St. Peter's, thence brought to Ghent formerly Saints Peter and Paul, both bodies were translated. A booklet was written concerning their arrival, says the Blandinian monk below at number 30. We have not yet seen it. It is established that this took place, as the Life of St. Gudwal states in book 3, chapter 6, on the third day before the Nones of December, while Lothair indeed held the royal authority in the scepters of the kingdom of the Franks. Lothair, the son of Louis d'Outremer and the grandson of Charles the Simple, took up the kingdom in the year 955, December 3, on the day before the Ides of November of the year 954; he died in the year 986. If, as translations of this kind are usually performed, it was carried out on a Sunday for a more celebrated concourse of the people, it must have occurred in the year 955, when the third of December fell on a Sunday, in the second year of King Lothair. Meyer places it at the year 959; but since he admits that in that year Abbot St. Gerard closed his last day on the third of October (which others refer to the preceding year), how could he have been present at, and indeed presided over, the Translation on the third day before the Nones of December? This indeed both the Blandinian monk below in chapter 7, number 33, attests, and the writer of the Life of St. Gudwal in these words: "The venerable Abbot (Gerard), rendering thanks to God, received by St. Gerard the Abbot, faithfully undertook the faithful task, and more faithfully carried it out: and having received, with faith and great trembling, the treasure of the precious body, together with the treasures of the members beyond all price of the distinguished Confessor of the Lord, Bertulph, accompanied by a great company of clergy and monks, he brought them into the monastery of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, which is situated on the bright hill called Blandin by name. And a people of both sexes gathered, innumerable, clapping their hands and blessing God with a voice of exultation, who had sent these twin pearls of two gems from the inestimable treasure of His love, and placed them in the adornment of His Church with such splendor."

[9] The memory of this translation has been recorded in the Martyrologies. Thus the manuscript of the Church of St. Gudula at Brussels: "At Blandin, the arrival of the bodies of Saints Bertulph and Gudwal." The annual memorial of the Translation. When the shrine of St. Gudwal was being carried back in Ghent after the procession, an image of the Crucifix, bowing its face, venerated it and remained motionless, and did not bend back. More briefly Molanus in his additions to Usuard, from, as he notes, his own Martyrology — a Blandinian one, I believe: "In the monastery of Blandin of the castle of Ghent, the arrival of the bodies of Saints Gudwal and Bertulph." The same is reported by Canisius, Wion, Dorgany, and Menard, Saussay. Of Gudwal alone, the manuscript Florarium thus makes mention on that day: "Likewise the Translation of St. Gudwal, Bishop and Confessor, in the year of salvation 1100." But either the author erred in the date, or he is speaking of a third translation of the same Saint unknown to us.

[10] A third translation of St. Bertulph was made (to pass over the particles of his relics given to the Church of Harelbeke, afterward snatched from the flames by angelic ministry and brought to Ghent shortly before the year 1100, but without great ceremony) — a solemn Translation, however, in the year 1073, on the 19th and 20th of May; when from the eastern apse, in the year 1073, May 19, solemnly translated to another altar, or sanctuary of the Blandinian basilica, to a new altar erected in the middle of the church, dedicated to the honor of the Incarnation, Nativity, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ, which was called the Memorial of the Faithful Departed, they were carried: as is narrated more fully below in chapters 8, 9, and 10. But no mention of St. Gudwal is made here, though of St. Amalberga the Virgin. And in the manuscript Martyrology of Saint-Riquier, on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of June, that is May 19, the day on which the Translation was performed, on the very solemnity of Pentecost, this is found: "At the monastery of Blandin, the feast of St. Bertulph, Confessor and Monk." The next day, however, in the Blandinian Calendar, the Translation of Saints Gudwal and Bertulph is recorded, to be celebrated with the minor double rite, as they call it; nor is any mention made of St. Amalberga. Molanus in his additions to Usuard, under May 20 (for the day before, the body of St. Bertulph had been brought to the altar we mentioned, shown to the people, and on that day placed in a new reliquary together with the relics of St. Amalberga and certain other Saints, May 20, placed in a new reliquary: as the Blandinian monk who was present writes) — to that day, then, Molanus writes: "At Blandin, the Translation of the bodies of Saints Gudwal, Bertulph, with relics of the holy Virgin Amelberga." The same is found in Canisius, Wion, Dorgany, and Menard.

[11] The relics of St. Bertulph and other Saints seem to have been translated again from this altar to the choir. For Marcus Warnewicius in book 4, chapter 48, of his Belgian Antiquities writes thus: "In the choir of the Church of St. Peter there is seen behind the high altar an iron lattice, afterward placed on an iron platform, so skillfully fashioned that it seems almost to grow from the pavement: so bent, curved, and interlaced to every proportion and symmetry of the moderns, that the iron could seem to have been as ductile as wax. On this the precious caskets are preserved in which the bodies of the Saints are contained; namely of St. Bertulph, who, as is reported, is accustomed to emit a noise whenever war or some other calamity threatens; of St. Gudwal, St. Ansbert, St. Wandregisilus, St. Wulframn, St. Amelberga, and four others. This lattice was made by Peter Pauli of Ghent, when John Cauwerburg was Abbot of the monastery of Blandin."

[12] Concerning that noise customarily raised from the bier of St. Bertulph, Molanus writes thus: "He is accustomed, as is reported by constant tradition at Ghent, the knocking as a presage of public calamity, to produce a pounding, as if by hands, around his bier, whenever some grave divine punishment is threatening; and thus, as it were, to admonish the faithful to appease the kindled wrath of God by prayers and the fruits of penance." So he writes. Malbrancq in book 6, chapter 38, of his work on the Morini, surmises that the castle of Renty, which could for a time sustain the assaults even of the most powerful enemies, yielded to the Normans who were ravaging that province because the garrison had fled, warned by the presage from Bertulph's tomb. For whenever some graver calamity threatened, no other presage or monitor was needed: at the tomb there was heard a sound as of hands clapping, and of such a kind that anyone could look after himself with deliberation. I think, however, that before the coming of the Danes it had been unusual. I have nothing to declare on this matter, except that the clapping of hands is not what is meant: for I seem once to have understood that the noise was as of a hand knocking on the bier from within. Of this prognostic of public calamity there is also mention by Antonius Sanderus in his Hagiology of Flanders, and by William Gazaeus in his Ecclesiastical History of Belgium. We have learned that similar knocking from certain other Saints customarily foretold deaths within the household. Everywhere is celebrated the famous story that, from the tomb of the great Cid Ruy Diaz, the clashing of arms was heard, and that the bell of Villela, ringing without anyone's impulse, portended calamity for Spain and the Church. Which in our own memory has been proved by truly illustrious misfortunes.

[13] Antonius Sanderus in book 4, chapter 2, of his Ghent Affairs, after having enumerated the bodies of Saints Gudwal, Bertulph, Amelberga, Ansbert, Florbert, the sacred body together with other relics of Saints Wulframn, Wandregisilus, Winwaloe, and two Virgins from the company of St. Ursula, and the relics of many other Saints preserved in the monastery of Blandin, adds this: "These and other relics besides, together with the entire bodies of eight Saints, covered with gold, gems, and silver, together also with sacred vessels and much other sumptuous furnishing,

the impiety of the Calvinists, who lusted after their value, recently scattered in the year 1578. in the year 1578 scattered by heretics. The same was copied by Sanderus into the first volume of his Flanders Illustrated, except that instead of the impiety of the Calvinists, he writes that the rebels scattered them: but those rebels were Calvinists, that is, Geuzen.

[14] The Life of St. Bertulph was formerly written in an old style. This was more elegantly polished, with the additions of the Translations, by an anonymous monk of the monastery of Blandin, at the command of his Abbot Folcard, the Life written around the year 1073, as he himself testifies in the Prologue, and in chapter 5, number 21: "Who still lives for us on earth in his members, though departed from life, whom God makes venerable to men by the glory of miracles. Him indeed whom we have present in his members in this world," etc. The writer himself, moreover, witnessed some of the things he relates. Thus in chapter 8, number 34: "Whence, just as we have committed to writing the things we learned from our predecessors concerning our most holy Father Bertulph, so also we endeavor to commit to writing those things which we ourselves have seen with our own eyes." He confesses, however, in the Prologue, that he will record but a few of the many deeds of the holy man: "because the antiquity of the times has given more to oblivion, little to memory."

[15] Arnold Wion is mistaken when he writes that this Life, composed in the old style at the command of Abbot Folcard of Ghent, was rendered more elegantly and that Surius included it in his first volume on the Saints. and thus published by Surius; Nowhere does Surius — who freely professes this in other cases — here indicate that he did so. I found among Rosweyde's papers a portion of the Life copied from an old codex of the Church of Fruges in the diocese of Boulogne, which I compared with the Surian edition and found it differing slightly here and there, as manuscript copies are wont to vary somewhat. reviewed by us. That copy lacked the Prologue, the posthumous miracles, and the Translations. There existed in a manuscript codex of the Church of St. Martin at Utrecht a shorter Life of St. Bertulph. We have divided the Surian Life into somewhat longer chapters than it had been divided into by the author, or certainly in Surius. For the author himself attests that he made some division, in chapter 7, number 30.

THE LIFE FROM SURIUS AND MANUSCRIPTS.

By a Blandinian Monk.

Bertulph, Abbot, of Renty in Belgium (Saint)

BHL Number: 1316

By a monk of Blandin.

PROLOGUE OF THE AUTHOR.

[1] Since indeed everyone who honors the members of anyone thereby honors the whole of which those members are part; and all the Saints are members of Christ; therefore those who honor the Saints are proven to praise and honor Christ. Yet Christ does not need to be praised in His Saints, nor do the Saints need to be praised in Christ: but those who praise them here The author is a Blandinian monk, do indeed need to offer that praise. Behold, from among the other members of Christ I take up the Blessed Bertulph, an illustrious member of the body of Christ: whom I am the less able to praise the more I am wanting in both talent and life. But what I lack, the intercession of this Saint will supply: and He who gave the will, will grant (I trust) also the ability. at the command of his Abbot Folcard, His Life, formerly described in an old style, the command of our Lord Abbot Folcard prevailed upon me to traverse with a new effort of writing: to whose request it was not right to refuse anything, because he embraces this Saint with such special devotion that, together with all the Saints, he holds this one as a special intercessor for all the faithful departed, whom he has caused to be present both in body and in intercession for the memorial of the same faithful departed. But this alone surprises me: that he chose humbly to require from me, an ignorant man, what he himself could have effectively rendered to the holy man: especially since I am uncircumcised in heart and lips, while he is not inconsiderably instructed in ecclesiastical learning. His distinguished devotion to the Saint, because it was adorned with humility, did not shrink from humbly and devoutly asking another, though a mere learned men, dabbler, what he could have devotedly and humbly rendered to the holy man himself. What then? To him who commands by authority and asks with humility, I offer to the Father not as much as I owe, but as much as I have, saving the dignity of illustrious men who far surpass me in talent and learning for this task. But if my mind in dictating, or my hand in writing, shall have erred in anything, it will be his part to make excuse before the most holy Bertulph, who did not fear to apply me to this endeavor of writing. he writes this Life, excusing his inexperience. And let it be noted that I shall record but a few of the many deeds of the holy man: because the antiquity of the times has given more to oblivion, little to memory. But for the faithful, a little suffices as much: for the faithless, however, not even much is enough. Let the prudent reader therefore weigh the matter rather than the style; the reasoning rather than the writer: because wine drawn through a pipe of lead often pleases: and of a good messenger who brings tidings, not who he is, but what he brings, is the question.

a Sanderus in book 4, chapter 2, of his Ghent Affairs says that this man was the nineteenth Abbot of Blandin, from the year 1070 to 1088.

b Concerning this altar the author treats more fully below, chapter 8, number 34.

c A "sciolus" commonly means one who flaunts knowledge of which he has scarcely a light tincture. Here the Author used it to mean "not sufficiently skilled"; since he himself confesses this, he ought not to have called himself a dabbler.

CHAPTER I

The birth, arrival in Belgium, and conversion of St. Bertulph.

[2] When under the glorious King Sigebert the Church of Christ merited peace and glory together, St. Bertulph, an Alemannian by race, the most blessed Confessor Bertulph had his birth in the fatherland of Alemannia; of parents indeed of honest middling rank, but pagans. For the faith of Christ had not yet looked upon Alemannia, although this future son of the Church then had progenitors of the flesh there.

Whose parents both, bristling with pagan rites, As a thorn produces a rose, so brought forth this Saint.

parents were pagans Nor would I say that it will be a small glory for this holy man that he shared a similar origin with that most holy Martin. For as the latter, so the former proceeded from pagan parents; the one from Pannonia, the other from the borders of Alemannia.

[3] And when, having entered upon the path of adolescence, he passed beyond the years of earliest youth, taught only by the natural law, he began to walk in the way of the Lord's commandments and among those who know nothing but to gnash in barbarous fashion, he strove to seize upon the right path of justice. But because he did not easily attain what he attempted (for among the wicked it was arduous, indeed difficult, to maintain the rights of equity, especially since neither reason and leaving his fatherland, nor persuasion could entice those natives to the faith of Christ), he preferred to be deprived of fatherland and parents rather than to be polluted by the company of the depraved and the filth of the pagans. And so this new Abraham went out from his land and kindred, and came to a land and kindred not his own. For having undertaken a journey toward the West, he at last arrived in the regions of Gaul, and at the place where came to Belgium, where Count Wambert was living piously with his wife, the Ocean bounds the territory of the people of Thérouanne, he took up his dwelling.

[4] There was at that time in the aforesaid region a certain Wambert, not the least among the Counts, whose merit equaled his wealth. To him a wife of equal rank was joined, whose noble birth was adorned by holy and undefiled religion, by name Homburga. For both of them, noble birth was joined with holy religion, and religion with an irreproachable display of works. Nor were there lacking, as evidence of their religion, many works of virtue, among which this shone forth pre-eminently: the construction by them of many churches. For from their own resources, on their own estate, they built a monastery, wrought by industrious hands, no less flourishing than the great monasteries, which they named and dedicated in honor of Denis the Martyr. with various churches built: They added also the founding of three more churches, and dedicated them with no small devotion to Saints: one to the Prince of the Apostles, another to the most blessed

Martin, the third to St. Vedast. These churches, built, as has been said, both from their own resources and on their own estate called Renty, are venerated and honored by all, especially those who drink from the river Enneno, along whose banks the aforesaid estate is situated.

[5] In this very region which I have described, the faith of Christ was so in harmony with religion that it was easy for those who seek Christ here he is baptized: to find Him there. When the Blessed Bertulph arrived there, he believed that same place of his pilgrimage to be his fatherland: because there he found the faith of Christ, than which he never held anything more delightful, and according to that saying of the Psalmist, then he becomes a Cleric: the ordinances of the Lord were his songs in the place of his pilgrimage: and so that he might be joined to the choirs of the faithful, he humbly asked to be marked with the sacrament of baptism. Psalm 118:54. And having obtained the sacrament of baptism, he was made a temple of the Holy Spirit, and among the natives of that land he began to be no longer a stranger and sojourner, but a fellow citizen of the Saints and a member of the household of God. Nor was it enough for one now sworn to the sacraments of Christ to have received the grace of baptism, but so that he might be more closely joined to the Church by the seal of the clerical state, he both desired it in his prayers and besought it with entreaties: and what he devoutly sought, he effectively obtained. And thus, joined to the choirs of the faithful, he went from strength to strength, to behold the God of gods in Zion.

[6] And when the fame of the most illustrious man Wambert and his wife had spread abroad, and, as is easy for the most illustrious, they had attracted many by the fragrance of their virtues, he devotes himself to the service of Wambert: the Holy Spirit, going before, touched the heart of this servant of God and inflamed him deeply with love for so great a man and his wife. Nor did he allow himself to be cheated of his desire; until he presented himself to their presence, rejoicing with no small exultation that at last, after the long toil of his pilgrimage, he had found worshippers of the one true God, whom to have found he held as dear as it was rare. Whence, just as he thought he could not be separated from them without loss to himself, so he knew that to cling inseparably to them was his gain: gain, I say, of himself, which he wished to amass from spiritual rather than temporal riches. Therefore he was not ashamed to subject himself to the lordship of those whom he saw clinging to the service of Christ, and he was subject to them, serving, like that ancient Joseph, without any guile.

a St. Sigebert ruled the Austrasians from the year 638 to 663, as we stated on February 1 in connection with his Life.

b Alemannia belonged to the kingdom of Austrasia, as we showed there in section 4, number 13.

c The Fruges manuscript reads: "of honest parents."

d Not all of Alemannia had been converted in the age of St. Sigebert: some, however, had received the faith, as is evident elsewhere.

e Concerning St. Martin we shall treat on November 11.

f Taruana, or Teruana, a very ancient city of the Morini in Belgica Secunda, destroyed by the Emperor Charles V in the year 1553.

g Miraeus reads Hombusa. Ghinius and the Utrecht manuscript read Hamburga. Meyer reads Vmburga. The Fruges manuscript reads Hemburgis.

h Surius reads "dedicated."

i The relics of St. Vedast had been translated around that time, and in that Translation St. Audomar received his sight, as will be related on February 6 in connection with his Life, and on September 9 in connection with the latter's.

k So Malbrancq calls it in book 4, chapter 7, of his work on the Morini; and from the Bertinian codices, Agnion. Surius reads Euneno. The Fruges manuscript and Meyer read Ennona.

l The Fruges manuscript reads "openly."

m The manuscript reads "having sworn."

n The manuscript reads: "Nor did he delay the face of his desire."

CHAPTER II

The household of Count Wambert administered by St. Bertulph. Envy suppressed.

[7] he is placed in charge of the administration of the house and goods. Nor was the most illustrious head of the household, Wambert, and his wife unaware of the probity of so great a man and his constant diligence regarding their domestic affairs. Whence it was agreed, upon the deliberation of both, that their entire household, both within and without, should be entrusted to his care. For each of them was secure in their possessions under the guardianship of so faithful a steward. And therefore, having committed to him all that was under their authority, they placed him second to themselves in rank in their entire household. The faithful and prudent steward, having obtained charge of the entire domestic estate, labored with keen diligence lest the substance of his Lords entrusted to him should diminish, but should be increased with daily gains. his diligence Divine piety cooperated with his labor and goodwill; because at the direction of the faithful steward the domestic wealth was augmented on every side. Whence it came to pass that he proved himself worthy of the Lord's promises, by which the diligence of a faithful servant is to be rewarded: "Well done," He says, "good and faithful servant, Matthew 25:21 because you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many." Which promise, since it suited the man of God both morally and spiritually, he merited to be rewarded both temporally here and spiritually in the future.

[8] For so that he might provide his temporal lord with heavenly things in addition to earthly advantages, and with alms he brought about the practice of compassion toward the poor of Christ. For he applied himself secretly to clandestine almsgiving, beseeching God with constant prayers and supplications, that by this most generous compassion toward the members of the household of the faith, He would multiply both the wealth and the favor of his lord. And so it was done.

He gave diligently; but what was given endured forever.

Wealth, while it is distributed, is increased: and it grew by as much as the hand of the giver more generously dispersed it among the poor. In which deed this faithful servant provided not only for himself, but also for his temporal lord: namely, that by these perishable goods he might procure riches enduring forever, and by giving them generously might augment them the more generously. he augments them: Accordingly, not serving merely for appearance, he hung upon the will of his lords with all subjection, for he deemed it an excellent and distinguished thing to be subject to them: joining love to fear and fear to love; and this according to the judgment of the first Pastor, who says: "Servants, be subject in all fear to your lords." 1 Peter 2:18 And so matters progressed to such a point that the faithful servant's devotion conferred a great benefit equally upon his faithful lord, with possessions multiplied not only at home and abroad, but also treasured up in heaven, where thieves do not dig through nor moth destroys.

[9] For on account of these works of justice, wars against the soldier of Christ were not lacking. For the enemy of the human race, through certain satellites of his wickedness, vomited upon the Saint of God the venom of his envy, so that perhaps through these vessels of his iniquity he might restrain the servant of God from his accustomed works of probity. He is accused of prodigality by rivals before his master: And he so inflamed certain envious men with the goads of envy that they approached the illustrious Wambert and branded God's most faithful servant Bertulph with charges of fraud and crime in these words: "Consider," they say, "most prudent of men, what belongs to you: consider how prodigally it is perishing through that foreigner: observe also to whom you have entrusted what, how much you have had, how much you have lost." To these detracting words the venerable Wambert lent only his ears, not his belief: for it did not befit a faithful lord to suspect anything evil of a faithful servant: especially since he had learned by many proofs how thoroughly faithful was that very man who was accused. He is defended by a miracle.

[10] But since the words of detraction were repeated more frequently to the aforesaid Prince, matters progressed to such a point that, with miracles speaking on behalf of the servant of Christ, all the iniquity of his accusers stopped its mouth. How this came about, it will not be tiresome to turn our pen to describing. For on a certain day, when the flame-spewing sun was returning to the shades of the West, it happened that the servant of God Bertulph had taken a path before the doors of his temporal lord, and was carrying in the garment in which he was wrapped bread with cheese, and in a vessel made by the potter's craft, wine, so that he might secretly provide refreshment for the poor through clandestine almsgiving. When they saw this, the envious ones, as if they had seized upon a convenient occasion for accusation, approached the illustrious Wambert, cheese and bread into splinters, who

happened to be standing before the doors, and put forward as it were certain proofs of their accusation against the man of God in these words: "At least now, most illustrious of men, it is possible to prove by the evidence of your own eyes that our speech concerning this foreigner contains more truth and less falsehood: his management is prodigal, not generous, and less careful about the loss of your household substance. For behold, as proof of the word we have spoken to you, we now show you that man carrying your possessions not without fraud." But he, as simple men are easily persuaded, being of a kindly disposition as he was, summoned to himself the faithful and simple Bertulph and said, the wine divinely changed to water: "What are you carrying in your bosom?" And he, lest he be charged with fraud on account of his good deeds, said: "In this earthen vessel I have water, which I am going to heat with the splinters bound up in this garment." To which his master gave this reply: "To your words I indeed lend credence; but since I marvel that you, whom I regard as first among the first in my house, should be carrying such worthless things, I wish to verify with my own eyes what you assert in words." Therefore what he had carried secretly, he laid open to the sight of those present, and according to the word of the man of God, the thing appeared to the eyes of the beholders. And thus the nature of things was miraculously changed: it showed both that the man of God had spoken the truth, and that his rivals had asserted falsehoods about him. Whence the most illustrious Wambert now learned by surer proofs that he was most faithful in all his house, and that they were liars.

a Surius reads: "diligence and probity."

CHAPTER III

The virtue of St. Bertulph declared by miracles, honored by Count Wambert.

[11] He goes on pilgrimage to Rome with Wambert and his wife: The oft-mentioned head of the household and his venerable wife, as they advanced from strength to strength and grew daily by the example of their faithful servant, were also kindled with a desire to undertake a lengthy pilgrimage. And first they conceived in their hearts the desire to visit the greatest city, Rome, ennobled by its Apostolic treasures, and they carried it out effectively in deed. They placed such confidence in their faithful servant Bertulph that they left nothing within or without of their possessions that they did not entrust to his fidelity and prudence. Nor is it easy to say how faithfully and how prudently he watched over all that was entrusted to him at home and abroad. And so they set out upon the road that leads to Rome, and at last arrived at the threshold of the Apostles Peter and Paul. There they gave their bodies to the ground and their minds to heaven; amid tears and kisses they drew forth panting sighs: and opening their treasures, they honored the most sacred places with no small offerings and enriched them with gifts. And being distinguished by the Apostolic blessing, and having completed the purposes for which they had come, they now joyfully hastened their return home.

[12] And when the weariness of the journey already completed had exhausted Wambert of blessed memory and his companions, and no one among them could keep watch over the horses through the dead of night, and no small anxiety held each of his fellow soldiers over this matter; they suggested to their lord that, since they were so exhausted, he should release them from night watches and assign less weary sentinels for the horses. He guards the horses by night in the open, To their concern Bertulph, a son of most holy charity, immediately yielded, and in the ears of the most illustrious man he answered them with these words: "At my lord's command I shall keep vigil and render service through this night, and I shall lead the horses to pasture in their full number until dawn; in equal full number I shall return them in the morning." What more? He gave effect to his promises, drove the animals to pasture, and passed the whole night wakeful under the open sky. And behold, unexpectedly the heavens opened their floodgates and poured forth rain, which the earth could not drink up.

The steeds on every side, drenched by the rains, Receive the dismal downpour in their numbed limbs. They stiffen with fear; a chill dread seizes their joints.

But the soldier of Christ, animated by hope and faith, does not suffer himself to be moved even from his place: because he hoped for a shelter from on high for protection and concealment from the storm and from the rain. Nor did hope deceive the Saint: for not without the glory of miracles was he protected by divine grace.

[13] For, as we have said, the holy man did not suffer himself to yield from his place, whereas his companions who were then with him in the pastures not only yielded their place but returned home as quickly as possible, nor does he become wet in the heaviest rain, driven back by the storm. But when the illustrious Wambert, anxious for his faithful servant, noticed that his companions had returned from the pastures but that Bertulph himself was absent, he dispatched one of his attendants to the same, who was still remaining in the open, and commanded him again and again to return home. The boy ran at his master's command illuminated by a heavenly torch, and reading in a book, and arrived in the presence of his fellow servant. Where there was to be seen, in the glorification of the Saint, the glory of God and a prodigy of miracle unheard-of in the ages. For a fiery torch, shining before him, reached from the summit of the sky to the earth, and put the darkness to flight on every side, and provided no small light to the man of God as he sat and was intent upon reading a certain book. An eagle also of wondrous size was circling around his head, overshadowing it, and with outstretched wings was driving away from him the discomfort of the rain. an eagle covering him; And so by a double miracle a double discomfort was repelled from the Saint of God — that of darkness and of rain — since on the one hand the darkness was dispelled by the light of the burning torch, and on the other the tempest of showers was warded off from him by the circling eagle. Nor was this undeserved. For since a double virtue had armed him — namely that of charity and of obedience; of charity, by which he relieved his companions, deeply exhausted, from labor by his own labor; of obedience, by which even in adversity he obeyed the command of his lord — therefore divine grace also glorified him with a double glory of miracles. Nor is it to be doubted that in that manifestation of light and of the eagle, an angelic presence attended, by whose ministry the annoyance of the storm was averted.

[14] Wambert witnessing the miracle, The aforesaid household boy, therefore, having seen the ministry of the light and the eagle attending the servant of God, hastened his return and reported to his lord what he had seen. Upon hearing this, Wambert was detained by neither delay nor hesitation, until he arrived at the very place where the servant of God was remaining; drawn not only by the novelty of the miracle which he had heard from his boy, but also by compassion for his beloved Bertulph. When, moreover, he beheld with his eyes the miracle which he had previously received with his ears, he was the more astounded the more clearly he himself beheld it face to face: and immediately, setting aside the authority of his lordship, he prostrated himself at the feet of his servant, confessing himself guilty for the nocturnal affliction of the same, with humble attestation of words and groans. Then he redoubled his prayers and begged pardon as one guilty: for if he had not sent him out to watch over the animals at night, he would never have been vexed by the flooding of rain under the open sky. Will whoever reads this not sufficiently marvel at the humble lord, lowered to almost less than his equally humble servant, when the lord prostrates himself before the servant whom he knew to be greater than himself in holiness? Will anyone have adequately praised either the holiness of the one, or the love of the other, or indeed the humility of both? For so great a humility shone forth in both, that the lord rendered to the servant what belonged to a lord, and the servant to the lord what belonged to a lord. Yet here, and casting himself at his feet: because the servant owed his lord what belonged to a lord, by rendering obedience to him even in adversity; while the lord, although he was master, rendered to his servant — because the latter was holier than himself — what had belonged to a lord, by humbly prostrating himself before him.

[15] Perceiving, therefore, that in the Saint not only the grace of virtues but also the glory of signs had shone forth, the more Wambert found in him what he could admire, the more also he began to love him. And since he both loved him in admiring and admired him in loving, he gently inquired why he had left his fatherland and parents. [to whom, upon his asking, he confesses that he left his fatherland out of hatred for idolatry:] Then he proceeded to investigate why Bertulph had subjected himself to his lordship, when he should rather have been served than have served; asserting that he himself, rather than Bertulph, ought to serve,

whom he perceived to surpass himself in holiness and justice. To the head of the household asking these and similar questions, the Blessed Bertulph replied: "The cause of my pilgrimage was the reasoning of a just occasion. For my fatherland, where I was born, because it was defiled by the worship of idols, my mind held it in such horror that, spurning my fatherland together with my parents, I did not fear to seek another, lying under another sun. And when the labor of my pilgrimage was finished, rejoicing at last in the longed-for rest among you, I attained the fulfillment of my desires — my desires, I say, by which I long and greatly yearned to behold worshippers of the true God. Finding and experiencing these in this land, and among them you, supremely devoted to God and kind to men, I bound myself by vows henceforth to remain with you and to depend upon your command by wishing well and serving well." Upon hearing this, the venerable Wambert, beloved of both God and men, exulted with no small joy, and loved him by honoring him more and more, and honored him by loving him. he is regarded by him as a son: And when he had fully learned that Bertulph wished to serve God with all the marrow of his soul, he himself also began, by the will of the Holy Spirit, to embrace him henceforth not as a lord would a servant, but as a most beloved son. Not he alone, but also his venerable wife, whom we mentioned before, cherished him with no less love and honor.

[16] And when the most illustrious Wambert perceived in the servant of God both what he could admire and what he could love, Renty with its four churches lawfully given to him, he began both to love him in admiring and to venerate him in loving; to such a degree that he whom he had formerly set over the things he had at home, he now set also over the things he had abroad. Nor did he merely place him in charge of his possessions within and without, but he made him the temporal heir of certain of his temporal goods. For the estate in his own right, commonly called Renty, together with the churches built upon it and its appurtenances, he handed over to him, and having solemnly made the donation, he installed him as heir. This donation he confirmed both by the testimony of distinguished men and by charters, and he delegated from his own right to the right of the man of God the possession thereof for the future. The man of God therefore accepted the estate, not for himself, but for God and the poor of God: he accepted it, I say, not captured by greed, but led by charity toward God and neighbor. Nor let anyone object that the man of God left his own property in his fatherland and accepted possessions in a fatherland not his own, since in the giving and receiving of gifts one should weigh not what is given, but with what fruit it is both given and received. In this man, therefore, a true Israelite in whom there was no guile, one should weigh not what he received, but with what purpose: because, as was afterwards made evident by clear proofs, he accepted what was given for this very end — that he might thereby procure the glory of God and the benefit of his neighbor.

a The manuscript reads: "with a covering."

b The same manuscript reads: "of the priorate."

c The manuscript reads: "with fruit."

CHAPTER IV

The death of Wambert and his wife. A monastery erected at Renty by St. Bertulph.

[17] Meanwhile the illustrious Wambert, together with his equally illustrious wife, having set out abroad, undertook a second time the journey that leads to Rome, and after traversing long stretches of land, at last arrived at the Apostolic patrons. There both he and his venerable wife, with great devotion of mind and body, gave their bodies to the ground and their souls to heaven, and by prayers, sighs, and tears, commended themselves to the intercession of the Saints. Wambert and his wife, having set out again for Rome, died on the return journey, Nor should this be passed over in silence: that before they entered upon the way of their pilgrimage, they suggested to the most faithful Bertulph that wherever he should learn they had closed their last day, he should hasten thither to convey their bodies: thirsting for this with all their desires — that not even after death should they be deprived of the service of so faithful a servant, nor cheated of his assistance. It happened, therefore, that after they had venerated the relics of the Saints in the great City, they turned homeward and on the way fell ill with fever. At last they received lodging in a village on their own estate called Fauquembergues, and as their sickness grew heavier day by day, they were taken from human affairs.

[18] When the Blessed Bertulph learned of their death by spreading report, he lamented with great weeping that he had lost persons so great and so dear, upon whose life his own depended, and than whom in this life he held nothing more precious or more dear. Nor did the grief in the servant of God over their loss easily subside, although he believed that they had made the passage from death to life. But while on the one hand he grieved over their loss, and on the other rejoiced over their blessed rest, he believed that what he joyfully knew in a salutary way should temper what he sorrowfully mourned. He conveys them honorably to Renty and buries them: And forthwith, having joined to himself bands of the faithful together with ministers of the Church, he set out on the journey to convey their bodies, as he had received in his instructions. When he had faithfully translated them with accompanying crowds of both sexes preceding and following, and had arrived at the estate in his own right, Renty, in the oratory formerly built by them he committed their bodies to tombs, and their souls to heaven.

[19] Things being thus, the reader will now clearly see what was the sum of virtues in the man of God. The holy Confessor of the Lord, Bertulph, having received from the venerable Wambert, as we mentioned above, the aforesaid possession, labored with every effort he embraces the religious life, to ascribe to the glory of God and the benefit of his neighbors whatever he had in temporal goods. He strove indeed to possess what he had as though he possessed it not; to despise what he did not have as though he possessed all things, so that he might be numbered among those of whom it is said: "Having nothing, and possessing all things." 2 Corinthians 6:10 Whence, that he might devote himself to God more secretly, stripped of worldly things, he resolved to withdraw to a place where he might seize upon the path of contemplation. For there were on the aforesaid estate four churches, built, as has been said, by the most illustrious Wambert: of which one was greater in size than the rest and more outstanding in splendor. In this the man of God, having gathered together with himself having joined companions to himself; eleven religious men, had withdrawn and had seized upon the path of a more austere life. And it is a thing worthy but difficult to relate, how piously there, though still placed upon earth, he lived with the Angels of God before God, by praying well, fasting well, keeping vigil well, and most excellently pouring himself out in charity toward God and neighbor. By his example, very many were stirred to a similar work of holiness, and entering upon the way of justice with him in the same place, they advanced to greater heights by steps of pious conduct. And so it came about that the man of God through temporal goods gained spiritual ones; through passing things he procured those that endure forever. For he believed that he could not suffice for himself alone to run the way of the Lord's commandments, unless he also strove to join others with himself in good works, fulfilling both by words and examples what is written: "Let him who hears say: Come." whom he governs prudently and humbly. Whence, like a wise architect, he laid a foundation in the hearts of his disciples, over whom he so presided with pastoral authority Revelation 22:17 that in teaching he was a master, in serving he was a servant, prompt and ready in both, because he knew that both befit Prelates, especially since the Lord of lords came not to be served but to serve. Matthew 20 Thus he taught all his subjects that there should be humility in the heart: thus he served those same subjects, that in correcting there should be a pious severity.

a Or Falcoberga, formerly Falkenberg according to Malbrancq; it is a village not far from Renty, on the same small stream, distinguished with the title of a County.

b The Fruges manuscript reads: "they bade a last farewell to vain things."

c So the Fruges manuscript. Surius has "from everywhere."

CHAPTER V

The death of St. Bertulph. Miracles at his tomb.

[20] Not without reason was this Saint beloved of God and men, because in life and conduct he was seen to have surpassed praiseworthy men in every virtue, and to have had nothing less than apostolic men in all holiness. For even apart from the glory of his miracles — of which many out of many have perished through the negligence of writers — leaving but a few out of many, those benefactions of his certainly ought not to be passed over which in the elect not only manifest but also produce holiness. For in each individual virtue he attained such perfection that in none of them can he seem second to any of the elect. And to depict briefly a man consummate in every virtue, He flourishes in virtues, let the reader receive this in few words. He cheerfully provided refreshment for the poor; he clothed the naked; he offered shelter to wanderers and pilgrims, and aid to the needy of every sort. He came to the aid of the oppressed in judgment with his counsel: he showed compassion to the afflicted, visitation to the sick, burial to the dead. Abounding also in charity toward God and neighbor, he loved God with his whole heart and his neighbor as himself: rendering what belongs to his neighbor, to his neighbor; and what belongs to God, and works of mercy: to God. He was indeed fair in mind as in body, comely in countenance, devout in mind, chaste in body, sober in spirit, gentle in speech, venerable in humility, firm in faith, long-suffering in hope, cheerful in charity. In temporal things he was sparing for himself, generous to the needy: in spiritual things, however, he provided both for himself and for the needy. Intent upon prayer, constant in sacred vigils, he awaited from the Lord the crown which He promised to those who watch and pray. He did not live before God and men otherwise than he taught men for the sake of God. Just and pious things indeed he taught; for he lived justly and piously. In the assembly of the brothers, he showed himself first in the beginning of the divine praises, and last in their completion. O a man praiseworthy in every virtue, worthy of imitation even by the most perfect men! Would that the high Priests of our time in the Church would imitate this man, inferior in rank but superior in holiness: who in that rank in which he appeared less than the Priests in the Church, had nothing less than they in every virtue. But let these matters go their way, and let what remains to be said about the man of God follow.

[21] The venerable Father, therefore, consummate in every virtue, having now fought the good fight, finished the course, and kept the faith, hoped by his desires for the crown of justice laid up for him hereafter. The heavenly Judge, wishing to satisfy his prayers, after his well-earned service in this life, disposed to call him to heavenly glory. he falls ill with fever: Having therefore summoned the company of his disciples, as the signs of fever grew clear, he declared that he was now about to be released, and that by the coming deposition of his body, he was hastening to enter into the joy of his Lord. Having received the Eucharist, And having received the most holy viaticum of the Lord's body and blood, with his disciples standing by not without sorrow, he bade a last farewell, and commending both them and himself to the Lord, he breathed forth his spirit into the hands of the Angels. Christ, calling him, ripe in merits and years, to the heavenly realms, united his spirit with the angelic spirits. For to his sacred body the earth is opened, and to his spirit, heaven; and he for whom death closed the last day on earth, eternal life opened an eternal day in heaven. He died indeed on the Nones of February: he dies a holy death, February 5, whose departure it is more fitting to call a birthday than a death: because dying here, he was born to the heavens and translated among the intelligible beings: where not through a glass and in an enigma, but face to face he beholds God: and the more readily does he intercede for his venerators, the more closely he stands near the Divine Majesty: the more merciful here toward men, the more present there before God. But we shall be accused of no small negligence if we do not join ourselves to him at least in our prayers in heaven, who still lives for us on earth in his members, though departed from life, whom God makes venerable to men by the glory of signs. Indeed, Him whom we have present in the world in His members, we shall find, unless we have greatly cast ourselves away, merciful in spirit and intercession in heaven.

[22] Accordingly, the disciples of the blessed man attended his funeral rites — he whom they had always loved with sincere charity — for whom grief indeed over their loss begot confusion, but faith in his reward begot exultation. His body they followed with hymns to the place of burial, He is buried at Renty: and they attended the most sacred funeral, sorrowful but devout. And thus by them, on the estate formerly in his own right, Renty, in the oratory of the Blessed Denis, he received his tomb: and having died, he wished to rest in that place where, having already completed his earthly business, he had presided over his flock with pastoral care. And though the tomb enclosed his body, it did not enclose his virtues: for with miracles speaking at his sepulchre, his virtues display in the servant of Christ a great spectacle to the people.

[23] The holy Bertulph of the Lord, after the manifold labors of this age in which he conducted himself most excellently before God and men, was translated from the present life to eternal glory, and crowned before God by the Angels. When, therefore, as has been said, at his sepulchre many miracles are wrought, he had received his sepulchre on the estate in his own right, Renty, because he had chosen that place after completing his earthly business, miracles were not wanting at his tomb, which bore distinguished testimony to his holiness. For to the blind sight is restored, to the deaf hearing, to the mute the use of the tongue, and the efficacy of so great a physician is at hand for each particular disease: and it is possible to behold in the glory of the Saint the glory of God, and to admire the invisible God in visible miracles. Moreover, as the miracles increased, the spectacle grew for the people, and the frequency of signs invited also a frequency of people. For they hastened from every quarter, not only from the novelty of the thing, but also from the hope of recovering health: nor was any devout and faithful person deceived in his hope, since the sick rejoiced that they had escaped the severity of their disease, and the healthy no less rejoiced that they had seen such great healing among the sick. And so the sepulchre of the Saint soon became so glorious and celebrated that it was no less precious to the rich than to the poor, and just as the glory of miracles grew, so did the abundance of offerings.

a Here the Fruges manuscript ended.

b For he had already been translated to Ghent, to the monastery of Blandin.

CHAPTER VI

The body of St. Bertulph conveyed to Boulogne. Thence sacrilegiously stolen, recovered by the industry of Arnulf the Great, Marquis of Flanders.

[24] Meanwhile a sad evil befell the land which can scarcely be spoken of without horror. For the most savage pirates, men of the utmost rapacity, invaded the coastal areas of Gaul and reduced them everywhere to vast wastelands, devastating everything with fire, plunder, and sword. With the Normans ravaging Gaul, While this pestilence raged all around at times and at other times subsided, those who remained in the places left after so many evils, led by suspicion of hostile incursion, migrated one by one from their several places together with the relics of the Saints, and withdrew to safer locations. It was a pitiable sight indeed. For since those pirates whom we mentioned often now ravaged the lands and now lurked at sea, and then again, when opportunity presented itself, launched themselves upon the devastation of the lands, their fury proceeded to such a degree that they did not abstain even from the destruction of the Churches of God. Burning them with fire, they left nothing in them that they did not consume and raging against sacred things, by fire, sword, or plunder:

so that according to that saying of the Prophet, the stones of the sanctuary were seen scattered at the head of every street. Whence it came about that both the monastic and the canonical order, leaving the seats in which they dwelt, gave themselves to flight and migrated to other seats, having dug up and carried away with them, as we said, the bodies of the Saints; few or no monasteries being left on this side of the sea the bodies of Saints are carried elsewhere; that were not deprived as much of their own honor as of the patronage of their Saints. Lamentations 4.

[25] Charles the King gave laws to the kingdom of the Western Franks, whom later Heribert, Count of Vermandois, having captured by treachery, placed in custody at Péronne. While he still held power, the Count of Boulogne was Erkenger, a man no little distinguished in lineage and power. In whose dominion Renty also was, the estate on which the body of the Blessed Bertulph had been entombed. He, beholding the virtues at the sepulchre of the Saint, the more he admired him on account of the miracles, the more dearly he embraced him. But because he saw that the entire surrounding region was exposed to the incursions of the pirates we have mentioned, he feared for the loss of so great a Patron of his and his people. Whence, having taken counsel, he translated him to a place where both he himself would be secure regarding such great relics, and the Saint would be honored with greater dignity in his members. Having at last convened an assembly of the ecclesiastical order, he fortified the desire of his mind with the counsels of religious men, of St. Bertulph to Boulogne, and carried it out with effectual aid. And having admitted priests to the most sacred tomb, together with ministers of the Church, he attended the handling of the most holy members with great devotion of mind. And so, having carefully placed the members of the Saint in a casket, he ordered them to be translated from Renty to Boulogne, where he knew they would be kept more safely and more devoutly. For Boulogne was in his own right, a fortified city at that time, close to the sea of the Morini, and distinguished for maritime trade, moreover consecrated by an episcopal See and blessing. In which place those relics were preserved until the times of Arnulf the Great: or rather, then a fortified city: to speak more truly, they preserved the place rather than were preserved. They preserved it, I say, because through the intercession of the Saint himself, whose members they were, they kept that place free from all infestation.

[26] Since the occasion has presented itself to make mention of the times of Arnulf the Great, it is not beside the point to write a few things also about him, which may bring no small praise to so great a man, and an example of living to others who wish to imitate him: that Arnulf, the third Count of Flanders, especially since, apart from his other virtues, he proved especially glorious in this — that he was found worthy to translate this Saint and many relics of Saints to Blandin. He descended, then, from the blood of great Kings, born to Baldwin the Bald by Elstrude, daughter of King Edgar of the English; of no less noble blood from his father than from his mother; because from his father he traced as great-grandfather Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, and from his mother, as has been said, King Edgar of the English as grandfather. He — which is the most illustrious thing in the most illustrious men — of the noblest lineage, adorned so great a nobility of birth with the industry of his integrity. By hereditary succession, then, he obtained the sovereignty of the Flemish, which he governed with so great a faculty of speech and action that, for the great virtue of mind and body, called the Great, he obtained the name of "the Great." He, embracing Blandin — formerly built by the Blessed Amand in the castle of Ghent — with more intimate affection than the other monasteries of his realm, advanced it with the greatest zeal he could, to such a degree that he fortified it with his own and with Apostolic and royal privileges, and enriched it besides with many relics of Saints gathered from all quarters. How he restored it with even greater elegance, the reader will be able to learn more clearly than day from the archives of that same monastery: let it suffice here to have briefly inserted just this much, which may satisfy the reader concerning the translation of this Saint of whom we speak. Which translation indeed was carried out by the powerful zeal of this Marquis and consummated by his prudent industry.

[27] In the course of time, meanwhile, Boulogne came under the dominion of the same Marquis, which he undertook to govern no less honorably than the other maritime cities. At which time there occurred in that same city the loss of the body of the Blessed Bertulph, but the same was soon repaired with gain. For a certain man born in Brittany, by the name of Electus, sacrilegious in his deed, stolen by Electus the Breton was watching for the place and time to steal away the most holy members of Bertulph. At last, having achieved his wicked desire, he obtained them by a certain cunning. For having found an opportune time for the sacrilege he had already conceived in his mind, he recklessly approached the place where the members of the holy Confessor had been deposited, and breaking the seal and opening the casket, secretly snatching away the most sacred body, more precious than all treasure, he departed in secret. Nor was it enough for him to have stolen the members of the Blessed Bertulph, but having likewise stolen the relics of many Saints, he proceeded to such a degree of madness that he placed the relics he had stolen away in a casket and concealed them in the village of Oditigem, intending to sell them for a price, as he supposed and wished, to Athelstan, King of the English. He had resolved to make his gain from the loss of those and hidden with others, who had lost them: but by the disposition of God the intention of the sacrilegious man had no effect. For the power of God through this Saint made a fool of him, together with the industry of the oft-mentioned Marquis, to be carried off to England, who, coming to Boulogne at the time of the sacrilege, held a solemn assembly with his men concerning public affairs.

[28] Since, then, as has been said, the aforesaid Marquis was taking counsel for the commonwealth, he was especially concerned to provide above all for ecclesiastical affairs as well. For just as he was a prudent orator for the commonwealth, so also was he a most valiant champion of the Church of God. Whence, having summoned the Bishop of the aforementioned city, by name Wigfred, after the evening assembly had already been dismissed, eagerly wishing to see the relics of Boulogne, among other matters concerning ecclesiastical affairs which he greatly cared for, he said these things to the Bishop: "I have great fear, my Lord, concerning the most sacred relics of the Saints, and I have no small anxiety as to whether they are safe in their places. Since I wish both myself to be better informed and you to be more diligent about them, it is fitting that you should approach the Holy of Holies with fear and faith, and inquire in each case whether the seals are intact. For the times are dangerous, and because men are lovers of self, scarcely anything is safe from the hand of thieves." To which the Bishop replied: "It is not a matter for the present hour to carry out your command. For you see the day declining toward evening: nor is it right at this hour to handle the Holy of Holies: the morning time will rather admit us to them: nothing prevents deferring until tomorrow what you command." But on the contrary the Marquis, moved by the Holy Spirit, said: "It is not profitable to defer what we desire to do from devotion rather than from rashness: especially since we fear that we ourselves may be endangered if it is deferred." And while the Bishop strove with excuses and the Marquis pressed with insistence, the illustrious Marquis obtained the effect of his desire, which, as was afterward made clear, he had continued to urge under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. What more? The Bishop approached the Holy of Holies understanding it was stolen, and uncovered the casket in which he hoped the members of the Blessed Bertulph were contained: and behold, on account of the loss of the most precious body, his soul was clothed with great confusion. The heart of the beholder was struck with terror; his face was bathed in tears: and at the loss of the precious treasure, the Marquis too and the others standing by were afflicted with similar lamentation, which was soon after stilled by a greater consolation.

[29] Just as the mind of the glorious Marquis was prescient of the sacrilege, so, with the Holy Spirit teaching, it was not ignorant of the sacrilegious man. Whence, when the loss of the most sacred body became known and was grievously felt, he said: "Know that this detestable Breton has caused this loss and secretly stolen the body of the Saint." Upon hearing this, all the religious men standing around seized the Breton and confronted him concerning the loss that had occurred. They charged him with sacrilege: he on the contrary repelled what was charged. And since he could not be inclined to confess the theft either by persuasions or by threats, he was brought before the presence of the Marquis for examination.

The Count addressed him, caught in his gentle — indeed cunning — circumvention, with these words: "You did well," he cunningly induces the author of the sacrilege to confess, he said, "in that you translated the body of the Saint to a place where it would be more fittingly honored." By this cunning speech of the Marquis, great shame was cast upon the sacrilegious man, and immediately he prostrated himself at the Count's feet, confessing that he had taken the body of the Saint, but with that intention which the Count had stated — namely, that it might be translated to a place where it could be treated with greater reverence by the faithful. To which the Count, smiling, said: "We give thanks to God, because we have discovered what we sought. But reveal where you placed what you stole. For although you have painted your sacrilege with the color of virtue, it is nevertheless not a virtue to have committed sacrilege; nor is it sufficiently credible that you placed it elsewhere out of reverence for the Saint." And the Breton, suffused with shame and cast down with fear, indicated the village of Oditigem, close to the sea: to which, as we said before, he had carried the members of the Saint, and that he should reveal where it was placed: deluded indeed by the hope by which he had persuaded himself that he would cross the sea and sell them for a price to the King of Britain, as has been said.

a These were the Normans, who most cruelly ravaged all of Gaul in the ninth and the beginning of the tenth century.

b Charles, surnamed the Simple, assumed the kingdom of France in the year 898, and in 912 also the kingdom of Lorraine, and concluded a peace with the Normans, to whom he also gave seats in Gaul: in the year 922 he was stripped of the kingdom by a faction of the Princes; and having dared to reclaim it by arms, he was then captured through the treachery of Heribert, Count of Vermandois, and at last died in custody at Péronne in the year 929.

c Jacques Malbrancq, in book 6, chapter 37 and 38, of his work on the Morini, calls this man Hennekinus and makes him the brother of Baldwin the Iron, and says he obtained the County of Boulogne through his wife Bertha, daughter of Helgot, Count of Boulogne; then in the year 881 he was defeated by the Normans in battle, and died from the wounds he received, and his wife likewise from grief: but Boulogne had already been captured and devastated before; yet the relics of St. Bertulph were hidden and preserved. On what authorities he proves this, it is not our leisure to examine: but neither is it our intention to detract from the credibility of the Blandinian writer, who refers this Translation to the times of Charles the Simple and asserts that Boulogne was preserved thereafter by the protection of the Saint, and who is accurate in other matters.

d If, as Meyer writes, Boulogne was destroyed by the Normans in the year 880, it must have been rebuilt afterward and more strongly fortified.

e Molanus does not prove on solid enough grounds from this passage, in the preface to his Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium, that Boulogne anciently had its own Bishop: for when these events took place, and when this Blandinian author wrote the Life of St. Bertulph, Boulogne was under the Bishop of the Morini, Boulogne, a city of Belgium, formerly episcopal, that is, of Thérouanne. It is evident, however, from the ancient List of Churches that both those cities were formerly distinguished with an episcopal throne. Hincmar of Rheims, who died in the year 885, testifies concerning Boulogne in his Work of Fifty-five Chapters, near the end of the first chapter, writing thus: "For Arras, Vermand, and Boulogne — from whose territory you are a native — had Sees with their own Bishops in the province of Rheims more anciently than the castle of Laon was counted among the Sees, in which you were ordained Bishop: but because for a long time, for certain causes arising from events and necessities, just as we read concerning many cities in certain provinces, those cities, subjected to other cities, lost their privilege." Boulogne recovered its own Bishop as it has now, after Thérouanne was destroyed a hundred years ago.

f Arnulf the Great, son of Baldwin the Bald, grandson of Baldwin the Iron by the renowned daughter of the Emperor Charles the Bald. In the year 918 he assumed the governance of Flanders, his father having died on the fourth day before the Ides of September: in the year 933, his brother Adalolf having died without children, he obtained possession of Boulogne and Thérouanne.

g Concerning this most noble monastery, we shall speak again on February 6 in the Life of St. Amand, who founded it.

h Elstrude, called by the English Aelstryth, Aelfthrythe, and by William of Malmesbury Ethelswida, was the daughter not of Edgar, as is here written perhaps by a copyist's error, but of Alfred, or Aelfred, who succeeded his brother Aethelred (who died on the ninth day before the Kalends of May) to the kingdom of the West Saxons in the year 872, and afterward, having obtained the monarchy of all England, died in the year 901, on the fifth day before the Kalends of November, on a Wednesday, Indiction 4, as is evident from Hoveden, Malmesbury, Westminster, and others. Edgar, indeed, or as it is here written, Edger, was the great-grandson of Alfred, the son of Edmund, the grandson of Edward, who was the son of Alfred, and the brother of Elstrude.

i Malbrancq says he was from the court of King Athelstan. On what authority?

k Molanus reads Orideghem. Meyer reads Odingahem. Malbrancq reads Otidinghem, and adds that it is now called Audinghem, situated between Ambleteuse and Wissant.

l Athelstan was the cousin of Count Arnulf, the son of Edward, the brother of Elstrude: who reigned from the year 924 to 940.

m Meyer writes that this man was seated as early as the year 900 and died in the year 959. He did not notice that Stephen, Bishop of the Morini, subscribed to the council at Trosly in the district of Soissons in the year 909. Malbrancq in book 7, chapter 31, shows that on the tenth day before the Kalends of July of the year 935, at Boulogne in the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin, where Stephen had until then fixed his See, Wigfred was ordained by Artald, Archbishop of Rheims. He is called Wifredus in Flodoard, book 4, chapter 36, in Sirmond's edition; Winefredus and Wicfredus in Colvenerius' edition; and Vmfridus, Vifridus, Vinfridus in Claude Robert. He had previously been Provost of the monastery of Saint-Bertin. He died August 19, 959.

n Molanus does not correctly interpret: "In the village of Otideghem, close to the sea, Arnulf the Great intercepted him (Electus the Breton)... and with redoubled joy found with him the body of St. Gudwal."

CHAPTER VII

The body of St. Bertulph translated to Harelbeke, thence to Ghent.

[30] Since a rather lengthy history presents itself for writing, it is proper to distinguish them by chapters, so that the writer may have relief in writing and the reader a pause in reading: especially since a lengthy subject matter often begets weariness, while a concise one sometimes begets the desire both to write and to read. Having premised these things in the meantime, let us pursue the rest of the history. When, therefore, the sacrilege was detected by the cunning industry of the Marquis, as has been said, and the place was also discovered where the body of the Saint had been secretly deposited, the same Count resolved to send certain religious and faithful men thither and to bring back the sacred body to the place from which it had been taken. And although he afterward changed this plan of his mind for a better one, and did not return the holy relics to Boulogne, as will clearly appear in what follows; yet having summoned, together with certain religious men, the Bishop of the aforementioned city, Wigfred, he sent them to the village found at Oditigem, where the sacrilegious man had confessed he had deposited the sacred members, ordering that they should bring them back to Boulogne. And because he feared being deprived of so great a treasure by some chance, he ordered them to carry out promptly the task he had enjoined. They executed the commands of their lord and, quickly conveyed to the village of Oditigem, they approached the place that held knowledge of the sacred body, and found greater material for repairing the loss than they had hoped. For together with the body of the Blessed Bertulph they also found the body of St. Gudwal, and in the search for one, they exulted in the discovery of two. For the Blessed Gudwal was both a Confessor and a Bishop, together with the body of St. Gudwal, born of a noble line of the Bretons, noble indeed by the title of his lineage, but far more noble by his life and character. How, having spurned the eminence of his parents and the extent of his hereditary right, he served God either in a monastery or in the episcopate, and after very many and unheard-of miracles passed from this world to God — the book which has been most fully written about his life and virtues clearly reveals. For what reason, however, his body was carried from the castle of Montreuil, or how it was secretly stolen thence by the aforesaid Breton, joined to the body of St. Bertulph, and translated with it to Blandin — the reader will be able to learn from the booklet that was written about their arrival. But now let us commemorate with our pen only those things which seem more particularly to indicate the privilege of the Blessed Bertulph.

[31] he arranges for both to be deposited at Harelbeke, The glorious Marquis, therefore, although, as was written above, he had ordered the body of the Blessed Bertulph to be returned to Boulogne, nevertheless changed this decision of his mind for a better one and judged that it should be transferred elsewhere. And having convened the Provosts of Saints Audomar and Bertin, and also having taken counsel with distinguished persons, he commanded that they should translate it to the Church of Harelbeke. Now Harelbeke was one of the many estates in his own right, situated by the river Legia: to which he ordered St. Bertulph to be transferred, intending soon to translate him to Blandin, which had merited the special privilege of his love, and which in the castle

of Ghent, as we said before, was formerly founded by the Blessed Amand and dedicated under the titles of the Apostles Peter and Paul. Whoever wishes to know the foundation of this place will be able to learn it from the most ancient archives of that same monastery. When, therefore, the body of the Saint had been translated to the Church of Harelbeke to be later transferred to Ghent: and honorably received by the venerable Theodrad, Priest of that same Church, not long after Arnulf the Great presented himself with a great retinue on the day before the Kalends of December, about to fulfill the effect of his desire.

[32] Theodrad, whom I have already named, then presided over the aforementioned Church, a portion of the relics of St. Bertulph left at Harelbeke, and had no small confidence with the Marquis in obtaining what he wished. When he understood that it was the Marquis's will that the relics of the Saint be transferred from there, he offered prayers to obtain some of them, and what he faithfully requested, he effectually obtained. For the Count gave his assent to the petitioner, and devoutly taking relics from the body of the Saint, he gave them to him; admonishing him again and again that he should show such honor to the Saint as if he truly believed him to be present in his relics. This Theodrad carried out not sluggishly, and in the same Church where he was both a minister of God and a master to his subjects, he cherished the most sacred members with the greatest reverence. These were honorably preserved there for a long time, until that church was burned by fire, and they were divinely extracted from the conflagration and restored to the rest of his members at Blandin. How this came about, as we have learned from the report of the faithful, is to be told in what follows. Now in the meantime we undertake to say how the same holy Confessor of the Lord deigned to visit Blandin with his most sacred members.

[33] At that time in the monastery of Blandin, Gerard, Abbot in merit and office, was residing, upon whose counsels the glorious Marquis gladly relied. Since he adorned the titles of his nobility still more nobly with the character of his integrity, he was found worthy to preside over and benefit almost all the monasteries of Gaul. Having summoned him, the aforesaid Marquis discussed the transfer of the relics of the Saint, having shared his counsels with him. both bodies are transferred to Ghent, Then it seemed good to both that the relics of the aforementioned Saint should be transferred to Blandin. This decision also pleased the chief men, that the Church of Blandin should be enriched with the relics of so great a Confessor. And when it had been so resolved by both the ecclesiastical and civil orders, the members of the most holy Confessor Bertulph were raised up, to be transferred to the place we have already mentioned, not without great rejoicing of both those who preceded and those who followed. Nor did this Saint alone then wish to be translated, but the bones of the Blessed Gudwal were joined in the company of his Translation; and also one member of the Blessed Audomar with a tooth of his, and relics of the most holy Bertin, to enhance his glory. with some relics of Saints Audomar and Bertin, in solemn procession, O what a joyful spectacle it was for the people, streaming together from every quarter on that day, when before the most holy relics, on one side the ecclesiastical procession advanced with crosses and lamps, and on the other the courtly senate of the Marquis proceeded with fasces. And although the honor bestowed from each side was less than the merits of the Saint deserved, it nevertheless equaled all the glory of princes. This Translation was made on the third day before the Nones of December, when the Church celebrates Advent of the Lord according to custom; and at the advent of the Saint it also exulted that Christ had come to it, especially since no one doubts that Christ dwells in His Saints and Elect. The Abbot Gerard, whom we have mentioned, was the especially suitable minister of this Translation together with his religious flock of monks, to whose prudent arrangement the glorious Marquis entrusted whatever seemed needful to be done in that Translation. He translated the most sacred members all things ordered by St. Gerard the Abbot. to the monastery of Blandin, over which he then presided, and deposited them in the eastern apse with a great melody of chanters. Where the most holy body remained even to our times, until in the middle of that same church a Memorial of the Faithful Departed was built by the industry of the living faithful, and dedicated in honor of the Incarnation, Nativity, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ. How this most holy Confessor Bertulph was translated to that memorial worthy of remembrance, we defer to its proper place to be told shortly.

a We shall give his Life on June 6, written, as is evident from this, before the year 1073, but nevertheless after his relics were translated to Ghent, since he mentions that Translation.

b Montreuil, commonly Monstreuil, is a town under French dominion on the river Canche, named from the monastery Montreuil, or Monstreuil, which St. Salvius, Bishop of Amiens, built there, as is stated in his Life, chapter 1, number 2: his relics are preserved there, and that monastery is now called Saint-Sauve of Montreuil, and in canon law "Ad haec," concerning donations, 15 on tithes, "of St. Salvius of Monstrali." Arnulf the Great, Count of Flanders, wrested that castle from Count Herluin, as narrated by William of Jumièges in his History of the Normans, book 3, chapter 10, and others. The author of the Life of St. Gudwal, book 3, chapter 6, making no mention of this sacrilegious Breton, writes concerning the relics brought to Montreuil and thence carried away by Arnulf thus: "At last they came to the castle of Montreuil, for some time raised to the level of heaven by the presence and grace of so great a Patron: where, because fitting reverence was not shown to him, the grace of the Holy Spirit touched the heart of the Great and illustrious Marquis Arnulf, destined for the salvation of many, by which he understood that it had been divinely disposed from eternity that the human remains of His Saint ought not to be preserved there any longer."

c We have not yet seen that booklet.

d Malbrancq calls this Provost of Saint-Bertin Regenold.

e Antonius Sanderus treats of Harelbeke at length and elegantly in volume 2 of his Flanders Illustrated, page 418, where he teaches that in ancient writings it is called Hallebeca, from a stream which, flowing from the village of Halle, Harelbeke, is there mingled with the Legia, or Lys.

f Meyer and Malbrancq call him Theodard, at the year 959. There were not yet Canons at Harelbeke; they were established there afterward by Baldwin the Pious, or of Lille, the seventh Count of Flanders.

g We shall give the Life of St. Gerard on October 3, where we shall also treat of the many monasteries restored by him throughout Belgium.

h St. Audomar the Bishop is venerated on September 9.

i We shall give the Life of St. Bertin the Abbot on September 5.

CHAPTER VIII

The relics of St. Bertulph to be transferred to a new altar, first examined.

[34] Although the things that are reported in the speech of faithful men are not difficult to be believed by equally faithful hearers, yet with much surer faith are those things known which it is possible to behold with one's own eyes. Whence, just as we endeavor to commit to writing the things we learned from our predecessors concerning our most holy Father Bertulph, so also those things which we ourselves have seen with our own eyes. Your charity knows that the worthy memory of the Faithful Departed flourishes in the Church to this day, with the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed instituted in the Church, as we read in the deeds of the Blessed Odilo, it first grew up in the Church from a divine revelation, and not long after was propagated through all the Churches of Christ now well established, by the authority of the venerable Pope Leo. And when this was being carried out more devoutly in most places, and the religious observance of this matter was increasing more and more, the matter progressed to such a point that in Churches, for the memory of the faithful departed and the honor of the Lord, altars were erected and obsequies were celebrated generally and solemnly, especially on that day which follows the solemnity of All Saints from the head of the Kalends of November: by no incongruous reasoning, namely, that through the intercession of all the Saints, whose feast preceded on the day before, there might be a most merciful release for all the faithful departed. But these matters in their proper place: we now undertake only to say how that day was made solemn by the Translation of the body of the Blessed Bertulph and the relics of the holy Virgin of Christ, Amelberga. For in the Church of Blandin, the industry of the living faithful built a Memorial of the Faithful Departed, an altar erected in the middle of the Blandinian church, called which was honorably completed on the very day of the deposition of the most holy Bertulph, and was consecrated in honor of the Incarnation, Nativity, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ, by Radbod, Bishop of Noyon,

in the year of the Word Incarnate one thousand and seventy-two, the Memorial of the Faithful Departed; on the second day of Easter week, in the presence of the glorious Marquis of the Flemish, Robert, with a great throng of nobles and of both sexes.

[35] Not long after, it pleased the Brothers of the monastery of Blandin to translate the body of the Blessed Bertulph and the relics of the most holy Virgin of Christ Amalberga to that same memorial, so that greater devotion might thereby accrue to the people flocking thither, and consolation for the faithful departed through such great intercessors. to this the relics of St. Bertulph were translated, And when it had pleased the Brothers of the holy Church of Blandin, as has been said, to translate the body of St. Bertulph, and they judged that this should not be done rashly, having consulted those who at that time seemed to be of sounder counsel, it was determined that certain priests should be admitted secretly to the casket of the sacred body, that they might examine with their own eyes the entire truth of the most sacred treasure deposited therein, so that by these witnesses the remaining Brothers might be made more certain for carrying out what they had resolved. For there was no small doubt concerning the most sacred members. Indeed, popular opinion held that a great portion of the sacred body was held by the people of Harelbeke; to such a degree that their church was commonly said to be that of St. Bertulph. But neither did the Brothers of Ghent grudge that name or those relics to the holy Church of Harelbeke: since in the ancient manuscripts written concerning the Saint they read that Arnulf the Great had given them to Theodrad the Priest: which we also have described more fully in this new work. But, as we have already said and shall say yet more explicitly, those very relics which had belonged to the people of Harelbeke were after some time joined again to the body resting at Blandin. That this may be ascertained by evident proofs, let the prudent reader take note. Shortly before the Translation of the most holy Bertulph, the priests, as has been said, vested in white, barefoot, and admitted to the casket of the sacred body in a devout rather than rash manner, first having made confession in turn, approached with faith and trembling, and opened it, though with difficulty. Then they found the most sacred body wrapped in a pall, marked with a seal, and that the greater portion of the members was indeed present, but that no small portion was also missing. There also they found an inscription of this kind, having first reverently examined the opened casket: placed upon the sacred body: "Here rest the members of the most holy body of Bertulph the Confessor, whose passing is celebrated on the Nones of February, which Arnulf the Great translated to Blandin on the third day before the Nones of December."

[36] They then turned their eyes to a part of the casket, and perceived another small casket enclosed within it, sealed with a signet. Filled with joy, they breathed again, since they hoped to find no ordinary relics there. They peered more carefully, and examined an inscription of this kind placed below: "This casket contains what was left over from the fire of the body of the most holy Confessor of Christ, Bertulph." Reading this, they could neither fully understand nor adequately marvel at it. Yet when the casket was opened, there was something to be seen of divine awe: or rather, not so much of awe as of honor. For bones lay scattered about, almost burned on all sides. [at the same time those were found which had previously been given to the people of Harelbeke:] When they inspected them more diligently on all sides, they found and opened a certain document, folded and wrapped up, inscribed in rough letters, such that it readily gave confidence to readers concerning the members of St. Bertulph concealed there. It was moreover of this kind: "Here have been deposited the bones of that distinguished Confessor of Christ, Bertulph, which the Angel of the Lord carried out from the midst of the fire when Harelbeke was burned; which the Lady Rozala translated to Blandin with her little son Baldwin, and attached to the remaining portion of the body of that same Saint." These relics, therefore, of our holy Father, which until this time we did not know were in our possession — when or how God through His Angel snatched them from the midst of the fire, as we were able to investigate more faithfully from the report of the faithful, we have taken care to insert here.

a We treated of this matter on January 1 in the Life of St. Odilo by the Blessed Peter Damian, chapter 10, number 22.

b This is St. Leo IX, who governed the Church from February 12, 1049, to April 19, 1054, during the lifetime of this author.

c There are three St. Amelbergas celebrated in our Belgium: the first, the mother of Saints Gudula and Reineldis, is venerated on July 10; the second, a Virgin, of whom it is here a question, is venerated on the same day; the third, likewise a Virgin, called by others Amalberta, the Mistress of Saints Benedicta and Caecilia, Virgins, Abbesses of Susteren, daughters of King Zwentibold, is venerated on November 21.

d This is Radbod II, Bishop of Noyon and Tournai, whom John Cousin in book 3, chapter 24, of his History of the Bishops of Tournai writes was ordained in the year 1068, and in chapter 33 was struck down by apoplexy in the year 1098.

e Baldwin VI, Count of Flanders, from Richilde, heiress and daughter of Rainer IV, Count of Hainaut, begot Arnulf and Baldwin: dying in the year 1070, he left Hainaut to the latter, Flanders to the elder Arnulf: he committed the guardianship of Baldwin to Richilde, and that of Arnulf to his brother Robert, called the Frisian, because having married Gertrude, the widow of Florent, Count of Holland, he had conquered the Frisians in war. Richilde opposed Robert being guardian: irritated by this injury and, as they say, by the loss of his goods, and at the same time driven by ambition, he seized Flanders, drove out his sister-in-law with her sons, and in the year 1071 defeated King Philip of France, who was leading them back with immense forces, in a memorable battle in which Arnulf also fell: then in the year 1072 he defeated Baldwin and the Princes striving to support him, so that the latter was henceforth compelled to confine himself within Hainaut; the line of Robert ruling the Flemish.

CHAPTER IX

Relics of St. Bertulph, snatched from the flames at Harelbeke, also translated to Ghent.

[37] After the untimely death of the younger Marquis Arnulf, whose grandfather was Arnulf the Great, his son Baldwin was left as a small child with his mother Rozala. For this is he who was afterward called Baldwin of the Long Beard, whose mother Rozala was the daughter of Berengar, King of Italy, who after the death of Prince Arnulf married Robert, King of the Franks, and, having changed her name, reigned as Queen under the name Susanna. for at the time of the civil war, While she was still a widow and her son Baldwin was a small boy, so great a disturbance arose among those dwelling in our region that the dissension was drawn not so much to external as to civil war. For many in this disturbance were usurping as their own what they held in benefice from this boy's father. At which time a certain man of noble lineage, Eilbodo, presided over the territory of Courtrai, whose wife, of equally noble lineage, was called Immacin. After Eilbodo himself died, the young Baldwin, Harelbeke burned by the people of Courtrai, and the church consumed, who by hereditary succession had now, by the grace of God, grown strong in the principate of the sovereignty of Flanders, was planning to subject the County of Courtrai to his dominion, as he also later did. But the people of Courtrai, having rebelled for some time, frequently attacked with seditions and enmities the people of Harelbeke, who dwelt nearby and were subject to the dominion of Marquis Baldwin. When these resisted bravely, the people of Courtrai sent fifteen men of their faction, sworn to this purpose, by night, and enjoined them by oaths taken to set fire to the village of Harelbeke. These men, arriving at the first watch of the night, set fire to the village on every side, as they had sworn. The flames, driven by the force of the winds, consumed houses joined to houses, and so suddenly invaded the Church of St. Bertulph that nothing, or scarcely anything, of the church furnishings could be removed from it. Now in that same church there was a not inconsiderable portion of the bones of that same holy Confessor, which the venerable Theodrad, Priest of that Church, had long ago obtained from Arnulf the Great, as was described above, at the very time when the most holy body of the Saint was being transferred to Blandin by that same glorious Marquis. These sacred relics, which for many days had been venerated with great diligence by the inhabitants of that place, then seemed about to be consumed by fire, not without the greatest

sorrow of all. The Priest of that Church was standing by, Bugecinus by name, cast down with the utmost sadness of spirit. And when, on account of the immensity of the flames, the entire roof of the church was falling, and the casket in which the relics of the Saint were contained was consumed by the flames, and a wretched despair of rescuing the sacred relics now seized everyone, and therefore a tearful invocation to God and to St. Bertulph was made by all; miraculously extracted from the flames, behold, amid the very flames a certain crackling and an immense crash began to be heard, and there seemed to be, as it were, a heap of ants gathered together, gradually being borne out, which gently emerging from the very flames was suddenly raised up on high, and straightway, to the wonder of all, was deposited upon the outstretched garment of the Priest in which he was wrapped. Looking carefully at what it might be, he saw human bones, blackened indeed on the surface by the touch of fire, and not cohering together as they had been brought out, but separated one from another so that they might be more easily recognized. Then those standing by, unhesitatingly understanding that these were the relics of St. Bertulph, raised from the very flames of the fire by divine power and angelic assistance, counted the losses of their own possessions consumed by the fire as almost nothing in comparison with so great a treasure, and with their whole heart gave praises and thanks to God, who so gloriously glorified His Saint.

[38] Therefore the citizens of the Church of Harelbeke, having placed those very relics of St. Bertulph on a boat — since their own church had been burned and the fear of hostile incursion was threatening — carried them along the river Legia to the castle of Vivium, carried to Vivium, at that time most strongly fortified. After some time, however, it pleased them to bring back the relics, and having placed them again on a boat, they were arranging to carry them back to their own parish. But on the way a doubt occurred to some whether what was being carried by them were truly the relics of St. Bertulph. When the aforementioned Priest Bugecinus, who was present, understood this, he prayed to God with all the intention of his heart that He would deign in His mercy to show an evident sign of this matter. and by a new miracle proven genuine, Then behold, a flock of birds appeared flying above, at the end of whose column a certain bird of white color, which seemed to be more excellent than the rest, appeared. The Priest, looking at it more carefully, said: "In the name of God I command you, if these are truly the relics of St. Bertulph, to descend upon them without delay." Upon his saying this, that bird, leaving the preceding flock, descended and settled in the lap of the Priest, who was holding the holy relics. And he touched it gently with his hand, while all marveled, for as long as he pleased; and thus, having wiped away from their hearts every scruple of doubt, he permitted it to depart freely.

[39] When these things became known, Rozala, also called Susanna, the Lady of blessed memory, came with her adolescent son Baldwin the Marquis, and having held counsel with her people, she carried away the holy relics from there and placed them in the Church of Blandin alongside the remaining part of the body of that same Saint, a certain portion of them having been returned to the recently burned Church. While many relate that this is so from the mouths of their forebears, they had been carried to the monastery of Blandin at Ghent. a certain faithful woman nevertheless still survives who recalls with an oath that she was present at these events, and testifies with her living voice that what we have already described is true. And this is sufficiently evident from both hearing and seeing: whoever has examined those same members of the Saint has been able to ascertain that the sacred relics were snatched from the very flames of the fire by nothing other than the power of God, because, as is apparent in them, with the entire church and the casket in which they were contained having been burned, they were so seized by the fire that no ingenuity of human skill could have extracted them, and unless they had been carried away by angelic power, they would necessarily have been reduced to ashes or cinders. But let us now return to recording the order of the holy Translation.

a Arnulf II, or the Younger: upon the death of his father Baldwin III in the year 961, he was under the guardianship of his grandfather Arnulf the Great for three years; for the latter died only in the year 964: the Younger died on March 30, 989, or as Malbrancq prefers, March 10, 988.

b Called by others Rosula, by Meyer Rosala, by Miraeus Rosella; she was the daughter of Berengar II, who assumed the title of King of Italy in the year 950, and reigned for twelve years; being stripped of it by the Emperor Otto I and carried off to Germany, he died at Bamberg in the year 966.

c This Robert was the son of Hugh Capet; he reigned with his father from the year 988 to 997, and thereafter alone until the thirteenth day before the Kalends of August, 1033. If Rozala married him, the Sainte-Marthe brothers judge that she was later repudiated. Meyer writes that she died at Compiègne on the seventh day before the Kalends of February, 1003, and was buried at Ghent.

d Baldwin the Bearded, or of the Long (as it is said here) or Beautiful Beard, died on May 30, 1036, having ruled 37 years and 2 months.

e The Harelbeke manuscript, with which this chapter was compared, reads Imma.

f Meyer reads Vivum. It is a twin village on both banks of the Legia between Harelbeke and Deinze; that on the right bank is called Saint-Eligius Vivium, and that on the left, Saint-Bavo Vivium.

CHAPTER X

The relics of St. Bertulph, and others, placed in a new reliquary and upon a new altar.

[40] In the translation of the relics of St. Bertulph, Christ added this glory to his glory, that just as he is a sharer in the joy of the Saints in heaven, so also he might become a sharer on earth in the relics of those same Saints to be translated together with him. For this special honor attended him as he was about to be translated, [Relics of St. Amelberga the Virgin simultaneously translated to the Memorial of the Faithful Departed;] that he merited to have the most sacred Virgin of Christ Amalberga as his companion in this Translation. How this was accomplished, it will not be tiresome to indicate to the reader in a few words. There was in the eastern apse of the holy Church of Blandin a shrine of immense age, deposited in a hidden place, which was opened by certain Brothers devoutly admitted thereto, and in it something of divine awe was found. For in it there was to be seen almost all the dust of the virginal body of the Virgin of Christ Amalberga, and many particles of her most chaste bones together with her garments and veil, her wallet and staff, a hair shirt, and a sacred veil of precious workmanship and color: a veil, I say, with which she is read to have been divinely veiled and consecrated to God through the Blessed Willibrord and Saint Gertrude. The Brothers, more secretly admitted to so holy a spectacle, and these too examined, rejoiced not a little at finding so precious a treasure, and deemed it fitting to place it together with the body of St. Bertulph. And so it was done.

[41] Indeed, in the season which preceded the sacred Translation of St. Bertulph and the relics of the Virgin of Christ Amalberga, the entire region was suffering from the miseries of flooding, to such a degree that from the sign of Aries all the way to Gemini, neither the sky lacked rain clouds nor the earth lacked showers. The sun was leaving Aquarius and looking toward the sign of Cancer, and yet Aquarius did not cease to pour forth showers more than was usual. by this Translation the prolonged and harmful rain was checked. One could see the flooding raging all around without ceasing, and all hope of future harvest being taken from the laboring farmers. And behold, before the day of the Translation, when the Brothers we have mentioned had gone to examine the casket of the holy Confessor and had opened it with faith and trembling, with the rain suspended, serenity soon returned, so that it was one and the same thing — the Brothers opening the casket and the floodgates of heaven drawing back the rains. For in the opening of the casket of His Saint, the Lord had mercy on His people, opening to them the bosom of His mercy and bidding the tempest to depart. Here in the Saint of God the ancient miracles are renewed, which were no less familiar to him when dead than formerly when alive. For he who long ago, standing in the open, did not feel the discomfort of rain, here also at the touching of his members suspended the flooding of the rains; now so much the more excellent in miracles and virtues, the more present he is before the Divine countenance. Nor is it alien to faith that God disposed the Translation of this Saint to take place soon, He whom we believe checked the violence of the storm in order to arrange for it. Go forward

now, good Jesus, with us, and for the carrying out of the Translation of the sacred relics of Your Confessor and Your Virgin, grant us a pure devotion.

[42] The most sacred day of Pentecost was dawning on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of June, when the Church was celebrating the generally renowned coming of the Holy Spirit. On which day it pleased the Brothers to carry the most sacred body of the Blessed Bertulph together with the relics of St. Amalberga to the memorial, May 19, the day of Pentecost, which we mentioned before, of the faithful departed, and on the following day to transfer them from the old casket to a new one. This indeed was defined by them upon deliberation, namely that the souls of the faithful departed, at the coming of the Holy Spirit, might also be gladdened by the coming of the holy body. For on this solemn day also the Church received a greater concourse of people than usual, who were about to celebrate there the sacred solemnities of the Masses. with a great concourse of people, The matter of the conveyance of the most sacred body also became known to the people. Whence a good many were invited as much by the pious novelty of this event as by the sacred solemnity of the Paraclete, flocking the more freely as they rejoiced the more at the long-desired and now, through his merits, finally granted serenity. And at the third hour of the day, at which the Holy Spirit formerly poured Himself into the hearts of the disciples, before the solemnities of the Masses, the Brothers approached the Holy of Holies with censers and hymns, the relics placed upon the altar, took down the casket in which the most sacred body was contained, and with the choir of chanters following, went to the memorial of the faithful departed which we mentioned, and placed him upon the new altar, about to keep nocturnal vigils there in honor of God and of this Saint, and to await the following day for the transfer of his relics and those of the holy Virgin, which were brought together, from one reliquary to another.

[43] The next day, moreover, most eagerly desired by the people, dawned, which had invited them from every quarter to that divine spectacle. Great and splendid joy on this day, and equally great solemnity, the Almighty bestowed upon His Saint. All the clergy from the adjacent churches, the choir of monks from the monasteries, the urban populace from the cities, and the common crowd from the countryside hastened together, so that at the approaching Translation of the most holy body they might enjoy the longed-for sight. Nor did it displease the bodies of the surrounding Saints, out of reverence for the most holy body and the relics of the Virgin Amelberga, May 20, with relics of other Saints brought for the solemnity, to present themselves. For they brought forth to meet the procession St. Livinus the Martyr, and the Blessed Pharaildis, Virgin of Christ, and also St. Gerulph, likewise a Martyr, each from their own places, and in the great throng of the people who followed, they wished to be partakers of our joy. Besides, many other relics went forth in procession along that long route of the Translation of our most holy Father Bertulph and the holy Virgin Amelberga. For a new and glorious kind of spectacle invited this gathering of the people: which ran together so great in number that neither the precincts nor the courtyard of the church sufficed to contain them.

[44] Meanwhile, as the people waited in the church, priests proceeded to the memorial of the faithful departed with their vestments, and the lower ranks of the Church with crosses and censers. The people also, who had come together in such great numbers, pushed their way in to watch as best they could, incited by religion, or by the novelty of the event, or also by the hope of obtaining something by way of a blessing from the body of the Saint. And after the Litany had been said, after the Litany was said, together with praises appropriate to so divine a work, and the priests who were present for this most holy business approaching the altar, the casket of the most precious treasure was opened. The most holy body, wrapped in a cloth, was placed upon the altar; the seal having been broken, the inscription bearing witness to the precious treasure was read, and it was openly displayed to all who had freer opportunity to approach or to see. the body of St. Bertulph is set forth for viewing: At the sight of these things, an equally pious joy drew pious tears from the eyes of those beholding, and filled those who beheld with the hope of beholding even greater things. Then the smaller casket was displayed publicly, and the inscription with the seal which we previously described was read aloud for all to hear. And when on the one hand the most holy body, and on the other what had been missing from the body, slightly touched by fire, was beheld, the evidence of the inscriptions together with the seals, written by an ancient hand, easily gave the people faith in what they saw — that the members of the most holy Confessor of Christ, Bertulph, were preserved there deposited in nearly their full number.

[45] From the consequences that followed, it is evident that this Translation of the most holy Father was the occasion for greater honor to him through Christ. Because his relics had been kept somewhat more negligently up to that time, they thereafter received greater reverence than usual. For it was not fitting that this lamp of Christ should be placed under a bushel, (portions of which given to some) but upon a lampstand, so that it might display to those entering the Church of God its most dear presence in a prominent place. And so that the fragrance of his holiness might be more widely diffused, he suffered a certain distribution of his relics to be made through the Churches of God. This was merited by devotion, not by rashness; not by pride, but by humility. For the Holy Spirit, inspiring the hearts of the faithful who devoutly flocked together for his Translation, persuaded them to seek some portion of his relics by way of a blessing, so that in even a small portion of his relics they might individually honor the Saint as though wholly present, and by whose help and intercession they might no less confidently trust to be aided. Nor did the benign charity of the Brothers disappoint those who asked, nor was the devout humility of those who piously asked put to shame: since the former conceded without loss what was asked from the relics of the Saint, and the latter received even a small portion of the relics of that same Father as their great gain. Whence he is held in such esteem by each to this day, as though he were wholly present to each in bodily presence, who is indeed wholly present to each with faithful benevolence and love.

[46] Moreover, to his glory was added the great glory of other Saints, which God, the Wisdom of God, procured on earth through men. For He willed that together with the glorification of His Saint, a Translation of many relics together with him should take place, although less fittingly administered by us humble persons; yet consummated with such devotion as we could. Indeed, when the body of our most blessed Father Bertulph, wrapped in clean linen, sealed, placed in a new reliquary, was carefully sealed and translated from one reliquary to another, the Brothers approached both studiously and devoutly to transfer into the same reliquary in which this Saint had been deposited the relics of other Saints, and these, with their inscriptions attesting them, were displayed before those who were present, and having seals affixed, they were carefully deposited together with the body of the Saint. This Translation was carried out in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand and seventy-three, Indiction eleven, with Pope Alexander presiding over the Apostolic See, and Bishop Radbod over the Church of Noyon, Philip reigning as King of the Franks, and Robert holding the sovereignty of Flanders. This holy Father, moreover, and precious Confessor of Christ, Bertulph, was translated together with the above-mentioned relics of the admirable Virgin Amalberga and of many Saints from the eastern part of the holy Church of Blandin to the altar which was built and consecrated in the middle of that same basilica in memory of the holy Incarnation, Nativity, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and in commemoration of all the faithful departed; and by the Lord Abbot Folcard, together with the relics of St. Amelberga and other Saints, was placed in a new casket, while he himself with the Brothers of the congregation entrusted to him administered this same Translation, together with relics of other Saints, in the third year of his governance, on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of June, in the presence of a copious multitude of monks, clergy, and persons of both sexes. Furthermore, since the Bishop of this diocese could not be present at this holy Translation, though long awaited and otherwise occupied, upon his next visit to us he established this day as a festive celebration both for those present in person and for those absent by letter,

to the praise of Christ and of His Saints, in whom with God the Father and the Holy Spirit He lives and reigns forever and ever, Amen.

a This veil was placed upon her by Saints Willibrord and Gertrude appearing to her and announcing that she would die within three years, as is stated in her Life on July 10; and therefore it is added here that she is read to have been divinely veiled through them. Had our Fisen in his Flowers of the Church of Liège considered this, he would not have reproved this author, writing thus: "Here (at Belisia) Amalberga received the veil of virginity from the hand of Willibrord and Gertrude; as indeed the writer of the Life of St. Bertulph maintains. But since Gertrude had died nearly thirty years before, and therefore could never have seen Willibrord, I would prefer to attribute this to Landrada." This is certainly not necessary. The living Amalberga did not see the living Gertrude, but in dreams, and seemed to see the veil taken from her head by Gertrude, blessed by St. Willibrord, and placed upon her head again. Moreover, we shall give the Life of St. Gertrude on March 17, and that of St. Willibrord on November 7.

b St. Livinus the Bishop and Martyr is venerated on November 12.

c St. Pharaildis on January 4.

d St. Gerulph on September 21.

e Pope Alexander II had in fact already died that very year on the tenth day before the Kalends of May; but perhaps this was not yet known at Ghent on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of June.

f Philip I, King of France, was crowned on May 23, 1059, while his father Henry was still alive and consenting; the latter died the following year, August 4: Philip died on July 29, 1108.