Ansbert

CONCERNING SAINT ANSBERT, ARCHBISHOP OF ROUEN, AT GHENT IN FLANDERS

In the year of Christ 695.

Preliminary Commentary.

Ansbert, Archbishop of Rouen, at Ghent in Flanders (Saint)

By G. H.

Section I. The memory of Saint Ansbert in the sacred calendars on his feast day.

[1] Three places are recorded as made illustrious by the holier manner of life of Saint Ansbert: Rouen, a market town on the Seine most well known to the world, afterwards the capital of Normandy, venerates Saint Ansbert as its Archbishop with a double office. Saint Ansbert, Archbishop of Rouen. Fontenelle, a monastery of the same diocese, between Rouen and Paris, commonly called Saint-Wandrille after its founder Saint Wandregisel, received the same Saint Ansbert as a monk from being royal Chancellor, Abbot of Fontenelle, and buried there, then had him as its third Abbot, and finally obtained his body on the thirtieth day after his death, and venerates him as its second Patron after Saint Wandregisel with a double office with an octave. Hautmont in Hainaut in Belgium, a monastery a mile distant from the town of Maubeuge, cherished the same Saint in exile, died at Hautmont, saw him dying, buried him dead, and on the seventeenth day after his death elevated him, and allowed him to be translated to Fontenelle. Of Hautmont we have treated often, and especially on 16 January in the Life of Saint Marcellus the Pope, whose Relics are honored there. translated to Ghent: There is added also Blandinium, a monastery at Ghent, to which the Relics of Saint Ansbert were afterwards translated. He is venerated by the monks of Blandinium with a double office, both on 9 February and on other days, made illustrious by translation.

[2] His memory is most celebrated in the sacred Calendars on 9 February; with one or another of the four places ascribed, as though he had died in each. The manuscript Martyrology of Saint-Riquier: "In the city of Rouen, of Saint Ansbert, Bishop and Confessor." The manuscript of the Society of Jesus at Antwerp, bearing the name of Bede: venerated on 9 February. "In the monastery of Fontenelle, the passing of Blessed Ansbert, Bishop." Usuard does not mention him; yet in two manuscript copies of him at Saint-Germain at Paris there is read, written in long ago by the same hand: "At Fontenelle, of Saint Ansbert, Bishop and Confessor." A great many other manuscripts under the name of Usuard have it thus: "On the same day, at the monastery of Fontenelle, the Birthday of Saint Ansbert, Bishop of Rouen and Confessor." The Roman more briefly: "At Fontenelle, of Saint Ansbert, Bishop of Rouen." Galesinius, Maurolycus, and the manuscript Florarium have similar things, in which last the year of salvation 695 is added, of which below. Bellinus calls him Archbishop Amsubertus, some Ausbertus: among whom is Hermann Greven, who reports this in his Auctarium to Usuard: "In the monastery of Fontenelle, of Saint Ausbert, Archbishop of Rouen: to whom when a noble girl, by name Andragisina, had been betrothed, and celibacy pleased both more, she obtained by prayer that she should be made most foul and leprous: but afterwards, having been consecrated to Christ by Blessed Audoenus, Archbishop of Rouen, she was at once restored to her former beauty. Ausbert, however, first a monk at Fontenelle under Saint Wandregisel as Abbot, then made Abbot, at last worthily succeeding Blessed Audoenus in the Episcopate, rested in peace." Canisius has the same in the German Martyrology, and adds that, having been banished as an exile on a false suspicion to a certain high mountain, he rested in peace: which is to be understood of the monastery called Alto-monte. It is added in the same Martyrology that his Relics rest at Beauvais, which are at Blandinium in Ghent. But Saint Angadrisina, who had been his betrothed, is venerated at Beauvais on 14 October, where a church of the Capuchin Fathers is dedicated in her honor.

[3] The manuscript Martyrology of the monastery of Saint Lawrence at Liège: "At Fontenelle, of Saint Ansbert, Bishop of Rouen, who had served in the regular order from boyhood under Blessed Wandregisel as Abbot; His eulogy in a manuscript Martyrology. and who after him had been the third Ruler of that place, namely of Fontenelle, continually dispensing to the flock committed to him the pastures of eternal greenness: there at the last he is buried. Then he succeeded Blessed Audoenus in the Pontificate of Rouen, the glorious King Theoderic promoting him, at the acclamation of the citizens of Rouen. He, afterwards perceiving that his death was imminent, asked of the King through envoys that he might be permitted to be entombed at Fontenelle, where it had befallen him to receive the rudiments of his religious life: which the King gladly granted. Removing thither, he is overtaken by his last sleep and is buried. Yet in the meantime, while the envoys waited for seventeen days, going and returning, to ask the King's permission to bury his body at Fontenelle, he had been buried at Rouen in the six hundred and ninety-fifth year. But when permission had been received to translate his body, his sepulchre is opened, and what was thought to stink because of the interval of so many days, all who were rendering their service at these obsequies marvel to find fragrant with a most sweet odor." Thus that source, not without many a fault. corrected: For first, he was not a monk of Fontenelle from boyhood, but after he had been royal Secretary at court,

and at length Chancellor: then it passes over in silence the exile imposed on him by Prince Pippin, surnamed of Herstal or the Fat; and the embassy to Pippin which Saint Ansbert prepared from the monastery of Hautmont, it writes was made from Rouen to the King, who is implied still to have been Theoderic, whereas, he being dead, as will be said below, the King at that time was his son Clovis III. Finally, it is said with great injustice both that he removed to Fontenelle with the King's assent, and that, overtaken by his last sleep, he was buried at Rouen, and was elevated there after seventeen days when the envoys had returned from the King.

[4] More illustrious eulogies are presented by Molanus in the Feasts of the Saints of Belgium, Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, and Miraeus in the Belgian Calendar: I set down the words of the last: "Saint Ansbert succeeded Saint Audoenus in the Episcopate of Rouen, others more accurate, and, driven into exile by Prince Pippin, at length ceased to live at Hautmont, a Benedictine abbey situated on the river Sambre among the people of Hainaut, in the year 695. After his death, as he had ordered, he was carried back to Fontenelle, which is a monastery of the diocese of Rouen on the river Seine, of which place he had been Abbot before his Episcopate. Whence afterwards, with the bodies of Saints Wandregisel and Wulfram, on account of the Norman persecution, he was carried first to Boulogne on the sea, then to Ghent, to the mount Blandinium, in the year 944." Thus that source. After which times the duly ordered manuscript Martyrologies of Saint Martin of Trier and of Saint Mary of Utrecht have it thus: "At Blandinum, or Blandinium, of Saint Ansbert, Bishop and Confessor." Molanus in the Auctarium to Usuard: "At Ghent, in Blandinium, from the monastery of Fontenelle, of Saint Ansbert, Archbishop of a holy See of the Gauls": which words are taken from the Martyrology of Blandinium. Arnold Wion in the monastic Martyrology: "At Ghent, in Blandinium, from the monastery of Fontenelle, of Saint Ansbert, Archbishop of Rouen, who, kindled with the zeal of Divine love, in the monastic Martyrologies. leaving his betrothed Saint Angadrisma, took up the purpose of the monastic life in the monastery of Fontenelle, from which he was translated to the government of the Church, and afterwards, having been denounced to Prince Pippin through the treachery of the envious, humbly underwent the hardship of exile at Hautmont, a monastery of Hainaut, where also, sleeping in the rest of death, he passed from this world in the year 695." Hugh Menard and Benedict Dorganius have similar things, but more contracted. But Constantine Ghini assigns him to the holy Canons in the Feasts of the holy Canons, with a long eulogy, which we omit.

[5] Saussay again, in the Supplement, reports this of Saint Ausbert: "In the territory of Cahors, at the monastery of Moissac on the river Tarn, the festal remembrance of Saint Ausbert, Bishop of Rouen, enrolled in the Calendars of the Catholic Church on this day on account of his most evident merits, who under Saint Desiderius, Bishop of Cahors, governed this very monastery most holily. Is Saint Ausbert, Abbot of Moissac, another than he? And hence, called by divine advances to the Archiepiscopal throne of the people of Rouen, he filled with the splendors of his holiness not only the whole province entrusted to him, but all Gaul, and at length, dying an exile, obtained the everlasting crown of justice." Thus Saussay: but these things cohere badly. Saint Desiderius, Bishop of Cahors, died in the year of Christ 660, in the 23rd year of his Episcopate, under Sigebert, King of the Austrasians, therefore long before the monastic life of Saint Ansbert. Whether another Saint Ausbert, an Abbot, is to be set up there, conflated with Saint Ansbert, Bishop of Rouen, into one and the same person, we deservedly doubt.

Section II. The Life of Saint Ansbert as written. Mention of him in various authors.

[6] We give the Life of Saint Ansbert from an ancient manuscript codex of ours, which same Life exists in manuscript in the old codices of Rouen, of Fontenelle, and of the monastery of Saint Catherine near Rouen, The Life, by Aigradus the monk and in the codex of Gembloux, which Molanus mentions on 9 February in his Notes to Usuard, indicating the first words of the Prologue, which is wanting in Surius, by whom the style has here and there been slightly emended. The author is a contemporary monk of Fontenelle, Aigradus by name, called Angradus by Surius and Molanus, Ansgardus by Baronius at the Roman Martyrology, and by others also Ausgradus and Ansgradus. dedicated to Abbot Hilbert, the successor of Saint Ansbert, And Abbot Hilbert, to whom the Life is dedicated, succeeded Saint Ansbert in that government when he was taken up to the Archbishopric of Rouen, and survived him, having died, as we shall say below, about the year 700. These Acts (alas, for an unserviceable kindness!) were somewhat embellished and interpolated by later writers, so that what is Angradus's own cannot conveniently be distinguished. somewhat interpolated. Some things have been added in chapter 3, where it treats of the holy men who lived there with Ansbert under Saint Lantbert as Abbot, and things are inserted which happened after the death of Abbot Hildebert. And in chapter 6 a year of Christ has been intruded, not without an enormous fault, the method of affixing which was not yet in use at the time when Aigradus wrote. Finally, in chapter 8 things are attributed to Waratto and Gislemar, Mayors of the Palace, which befell Berthar, as we shall show more conveniently below. In the same manner it will presently be clearly established, from the epoch of the years in which they presided, the one over the monastery, the other over the diocese, that the Life of Saint Wandregisel has been interpolated with intruded years of Christ, and that these have been wrongly arranged in the Acts.

[7] Besides these, the Life of Saint Ansbert was published, but abbreviated from the same, by Franciscus Haraeus, Cornelius Grasius the Carthusian, William Gazet, René Benoist and other more recent writers. Of Saints Ansbert and Angadrisma, from his Acts, treat Vincent of Beauvais, book 23, chapters 99 and 100, who calls the former Ausbert, the latter Angadrisina; Other writers of his deeds: Peter de Natalibus, book 3, chapter 108, who is deluded in many things, calls him the son of Sircauius, and says that he repudiated his wife Andragasina by the dispensation of Saint Audoenus; that he became a monk by the will of King Lothar under Saint Wandregisel, succeeded him in the government, was banished by King Pippin, and now rests at Beauvais: which same things are read almost word for word in Volaterranus, Commentarii Urbani, book 21. Trithemius, On the illustrious Men of the Order of Saint Benedict, book 3, chapter 95, and book 4, chapter 57, calls him Ausbert.

[8] Of the various Saints who lived at that time with Saint Ansbert, treatment is made in his Life, which we illustrate from their Acts, chiefly those of Saint Audoenus, his predecessor; and presently we set the times in order to a correct chronology, from the times of Saint Wandregisel to the translation made under Saint Bainus as Abbot, which Aigradus could not have mentioned. By the same author Saints Sidonius and Leufred, Abbots, have been passed over, of whom the former was at Rouen, the latter in the monastery which was formerly called the Cross of Saint Audoenus, now the Cross of Saint Leufred, situated in the diocese of Évreux. Saints Sidonius and Leufred, Abbots, were his familiars. In the Life of the latter, published by Jacques du Breul, these words are read in chapter 9: "In those days the Lord Ansbert was holding the pontificate in the city of Rouen. He, frequently inviting the excellent man Sidonius and Saint Leufred to familiar conversation, treated with them of winning souls for God. It came about meanwhile, at the exhortation of the Prelate and of Blessed Sidonius, that the man of the Lord Leufred returned to his native soil, so that in his homeland he might lead back to the light of truth the men walking in the way of error; for which task he was more sufficient than any other." Saint Leufred, as is said in chapter 1, was conspicuous for nobility of blood, born in the district of Évreux. He is venerated on 21 June, and Saint Sidonius on 14 November, in whose Life the same things are reported.

[9] The author of the Chronicle of Fontenelle, in the Deeds of Saint Bainus, has these things which pertain to the Life of Saint Ansbert: "In the time of this Saint Bainus, the most glorious Duke Pippin, the little monastery of Fleury built by Prince Pippin, together with his noble wife Plectrude, builds the monastery of Fleury, which is situated in the district of the Vexin, and set Bainus himself over it as Ruler, and gathered there a very great company of monks: and he handed over that monastery to this monastery of Fontenelle. And the occasion of the building of the aforesaid monastery was this: because the same Prince, through the counsels of the envious, had expelled the admirable Ansbert from the See of the Church of Rouen, in expiation of the exile of Saint Ansbert. and had sent him into exile, in which the same divine champion had passed to eternal rest. And when the aforesaid Prince heard that many mighty works of healing were done by him, remembering his faults, for fear and reverence of the same soldier of Christ, and at the same time that he might merit to receive indulgence, he built this monastery, and together with all its possessions handed it over to this monastery of Fontenelle to be possessed in perpetuity." Thus that source. And Saint Ansbert was a native of that same Vexin in which Fleury was founded, which is there called the little monastery, distinct from the celebrated Fleury in the diocese of Orléans on the river Loire, whose monks contend that they have there the relics of Saint Benedict translated from the monastery of Cassino. Molanus mentions the said monastery founded by Pippin in the Feasts of the Saints of Belgium.

[10] Saint Wulfram, Archbishop of Sens, as Jonas reports in the preface of his Life addressed to the same Saint Bainus, "in the time of the government of Saint Ansbert, Abbot of the monastery of Fontenelle, the future Prelate of the Church of Rouen, Saint Wulfram, formerly Archbishop of Sens, a monk under him. coming to this monastery, broke the snares of the world and undertook the warfare of Christ with a determination to persevere, and, taking up the work of the Gospel ministry, turned his mind to preaching to the nation of the Frisians, which until then sat in the blindness of ignorance. This work he carried out untiringly for five years, often returning to the monastery of Fontenelle, where he had also taken the monastic habit; he who had previously handed over by the tenor of a testament his own possession, which is called Mauriliacus, situated in the territory of the Gâtinais, to the aforesaid place and to the holy Father himself."

Section III. The chronology of the foundation of Fontenelle, and of its Abbots, Saints Wandregisel, Lantbert and Ansbert, explained.

[11] The chronological foundations of Frankish affairs in the seventh century were laid down on the first and sixth of February in the Lives of Saint Sigebert, King of the Austrasian Franks, and of Saint Amandus, Bishop of Maastricht: The computation of his years must be begun from Saint Wandregisel: where we showed that only the years of the Kings are customarily observed by Frankish historians, while the years of Christ, of the Popes, of the Emperors, and of the Ecclesiastical Indictions are neglected -- which, interpolated into subsequent centuries with great chronological error, provided learned men with the occasion of straying from the truth. Having noted this in passing, we begin from Saint Wandregisel. His Life exists, inscribed to Saint Lambert, Archbishop of Lyon, his successor in the governance of Fontenelle, in which the Author relates either what he himself saw or what was asserted with the truest testimony by venerable monks who adhered to him for extended periods, as the preface in various manuscript codices reads -- to be given on the twenty-second of July.

[12] This Saint Wandregisel, therefore, when he was flourishing in the reputation of holiness under King Dagobert he flourishes under Dagobert, (who succeeded his father Chlothar II, who died in the year 628), built a monastery in the territory of Elisgaugium; then setting out for Italy, he visited the monastery of Saint Columban at Bobbio, and going to Rome, he venerated the thresholds of the Apostles. On his return toward Gaul, having crossed the Alps, in a certain monastery called Roman, situated beyond the Jura forest, he embraced obedience and for the course of nearly ten years served the Lord in blessed devotion under regular discipline, as the author of the Life relates at greater length. Meanwhile, King Dagobert had departed this life on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of February, in the fourteenth year of his reign, the year of Christ 644, and Chlodoveus, leaving as his successor in Neustria Chlodoveus II, in the third year of whose reign, the year of Christ 646, Saint Audoenus was consecrated Archbishop of Rouen, the predecessor of Saint Ansbert, and indeed, made Archbishop of Rouen in the year 646, as he himself writes in the Life of Saint Eligius, both were then consecrated as Bishops together -- the former of Noyon -- on the fourteenth of May, a Sunday, before the Litanies, or Rogation Days. Thereafter, roused by the fame of Audoenus's sanctity and admonished also in a vision, Saint Wandregisel left the monastery at the Jura forest, came to Rouen, and having spent some time with Saint Audoenus, was ordained by him Subdeacon, and in course of time Deacon, promoted to sacred Orders, and not long after, at his command, was consecrated Priest by Saint Audomarus, Bishop of Therouanne.

[13] At that time the Mayor of the Palace of Chlodoveus was Erchinoald, a kinsman of Saint Wandregisel on his mother's side. With him donating the estate of Fontenelle, he builds the monastery of Fontenelle in the eleventh year of Chlodoveus, the latter began to build the monastery on the day of the Kalends of March, in the eleventh year of the aforesaid King Chlodoveus, and indeed, as the interpolator added, "in the year of the Lord's Incarnation six hundred and forty-five, in the third Indiction, when the most blessed Pope Martin presided over the See of the Roman Church" -- the manuscripts adding "in the seventh year." The year of the Pope was omitted by Surius, as if it did not agree with the year of Christ 645 -- in which year Martin was not yet Pope, having been elected in the year 647 -- and accordingly on these Kalends of March in the eleventh year of Chlodoveus, the year of Christ 654. the year of Christ according to our chronology being 654, he was in the seventh year of his pontificate, though in exile. Moreover, in the said year 645, Saint Audoenus was not yet Bishop, having been consecrated only the following year; and it was after that event that Saint Wandregisel came from his monastery at the Jura forest to him, and was gradually promoted to the priesthood, and at last built the monastery of Fontenelle in the year, as we have said, of Chlodoveus XI, the year of Christ 654 -- which chronology the following events confirm in an accurate series. Thus in the fifteenth year of Chlodoveus, the fourth of Saint Wandregisel, a certain Betto, who had wronged him, was seized by a demon and healed by his prayers, demonstrating the agreement between the years of Chlodoveus's reign and Saint Wandregisel's governance.

[14] When King Chlodoveus died after completing eighteen years of his reign, his son Chlothar III succeeded in the year of Christ 662, Under Chlothar III, the beginning of whose reign the same Acts splendidly confirm. For just as the first year of Saint Wandregisel is matched with the eleventh year of Chlodoveus, and the fourth with the fifteenth, which were the years of Christ 654 and 657, so the fifteenth year of the same Wandregisel agrees with the seventh year of Chlothar, which is the year of Christ 668, in which he approached the King and received the privilege of royal confirmation over the area of his monastery by a most generous grant, he admits Saint Ansbert, who became a monk after being Chancellor: with the assistance of Saint Ansbert, who held the highest offices in the court of Chlothar -- at first a learned secretary, then a drafter of Royal privileges, and finally the bearer of the Royal ring, by which office is indicated what later generations called the Chancellorship. But having left the palace, he went to Saint Wandregisel and became a monk under him, and predicted the kingdom for Theuderic, the King's brother, confirming it by a notable miracle. Wandregisel held, as is said below in the Acts, number 13, he dies in the twentieth year of his governance, this monastery in governance from the first day of its building through a space of nearly twenty years. This is expressed more precisely in the Life of Wandregisel himself: namely that he completed in his sacred governance nineteen years, four months, and also twenty-one days -- which months and days intervene from the Kalends of March (on which day we said above the monastery of Fontenelle began to be built) to the eleventh day before the Kalends of August, the year of Christ 673, that is, the twenty-second of July, on which he died. That year is the year of Christ 673, the twelfth of Chlothar, as a manuscript codex of the monastery of Saint Catherine near Rouen indicates. He who amplified the Acts with certain additions judged that Saint Wandregisel died "in the year from the Lord's Incarnation 665, not the year 665. Indiction VIII." But according to this supplement, if both years -- that of the foundation of the monastery and that of the death of Saint Wandregisel -- are compared, Wandregisel would have governed it for a full twenty years, four months, and twenty-one days; so that even from this it is established that that writer was not sufficiently circumspect in interpolating the years of Christ. Indeed, since in the year of Christ 665 the third year of King Chlothar was counted, the fifteenth year of Wandregisel is erroneously matched in the same Acts with the seventh year of the same King, in which we said the privilege was granted; and at the death of Saint Wandregisel his twentieth year is matched with the twelfth year of Chlothar, or at least the eleventh, as printed. Let the mark of the death of Saint Wandregisel therefore remain undoubted: that he departed from the living in the twelfth year of Chlothar, the year of Christ 673; which year is demanded by the correctly ordered year of the building of the monastery of Fontenelle and is confirmed by the years of the succeeding Abbots.

[15] Jacques Severt, Claude Robert, Jean Chenu on the Bishops of Lyon, Rainaud in his Index of the Saints of Lyon, Saint Genesius, afterward Archbishop of Lyon, did not succeed him, Saussay in his Gallic Martyrology at the Kalends of November, and others, believe that Saint Genesius succeeded him; whom the reckoning of time amply refutes. For when Saint Annemundus, Archbishop of Lyon, was killed in the time of Chlothar reigning with his mother Saint Bathild, "the servant of Christ, the Lord Genesius, at Christ's command, was ordained Bishop of Lyon in Gaul; he had previously been constant in the Frankish palace, through whom the Lady Bathild, together with the rule of King Chlodoveus, distributed generous alms to all the poor in many places" -- as the Acts of Saint Bathild on January 26 state. At which time Saint Wandregisel was either building the monastery of Fontenelle or, having built it, was forming it by monastic rules. In the same Life Genesius is called an Abbot, but of which monastery is not stated -- perhaps he was so styled as a courtesy title at the palace; and because his successor, Saint Lambert, went from being Abbot of Fontenelle to becoming Archbishop of Lyon, this was attributed to Genesius as well.

[16] Upon the death of Saint Wandregisel, therefore, Saint Lambert was elected as the second Abbot of Fontenelle, but Saint Lambert. as both the Life of Saint Wandregisel and the Acts of Saint Ansbert, number 13, testify. Under his governance, when Chlothar had reigned fourteen years, Theuderic succeeded in the year 676, and when he was expelled, his brother Childeric, previously King of the Austrasians, succeeded him; when Childeric was killed in the fourth year of his reign, Theuderic recovered the kingdom in the year 680. Aigradus says below in number 16 that he once committed to memory for posterity the deeds of Saint Condedus the Priest, worthy of imitation, from manuscripts to be given on the twenty-first of October; in which it is said that "the very rich and noble Schiwaldus conveyed certain small properties as a perpetual gift to Saint Condedus on the sixth day before the Ides of October, in the third year of the aforesaid King Theuderic," which was the ninth year of Abbot Lambert, therefore the year of Christ 682 -- a notable confirmation of the chronology established by us. When Saint Genesius died on the fourth day before the Kalends of November in the year 680, and in the year 684, Saint Ansbert succeeded him, Saint Lambert was ordained Archbishop of Lyon, and in the monastery of Fontenelle Saint Ansbert succeeded him as the third Abbot. This epoch is splendidly corroborated by the same Aigradus in the Life of Saint Condedus in these words: "The aforesaid noble Schiwaldus gave another charter of donation concerning the monastery of the island of Belcinnaca and the properties pertaining to it, which was executed in the monastery of Fontenelle, in the seventh year of King Theuderic, with Saint Ansbert governing the monastery of Fontenelle in his second year, since the man of the Lord, Lambert, had already assumed the episcopate of the Church of Lyon." That year was the year of Christ 686, and confirms the aforesaid calculation.

[17] The Mayors of the Palace under King Theoderic were Pippin of Herstal in the kingdom of the Austrasians, appointed when Wulfoald died in the year 687; and among the western Franks, after Ebroin was killed in the year 688, Warado or Waratto. "Him his own son Gislemar" (the words are taken from the Chronicle of Fredegar as continued by order of Count Childebrand) "supplanted from his honor: whom Saint Audoenus the Bishop often rebuked for this, that he should return to peace or to his father's indulgence: but he refused to hear, and persisting in hardness of heart, struck by God, he poured out his most wicked spirit: and his father Warado received again his former honor of Mayor of the Palace." So there, in chapter 98; and it is added in chapter 99: "At the same time," in the year of Christ 689, "Blessed Audoenus the Bishop, full of virtues, passed to the Lord": Saint Audoenus having died in the year 689, and indeed at ninety years of age, as is read in his Life; having governed the Church of Rouen forty-three years, three months, ten days: namely from 14 May of the year 646 to 24 August of the year 689: so that nothing more accurate, it seems, can be said. Again the year from the Incarnation of Christ 677 has been intruded, in which he is said to have departed from life on the ninth before the Kalends of September, a Sunday. But many σφάλματα occur in the words interposed: first, Audoenus would then have governed the Church only thirty-one years, not the forty-three clearly expressed. Then, in the intruded year 677, with solar cycle 14 and Dominical letter D, 24 August falls on a Monday, not a Sunday: so that these things must have been interpolated by a man of little accuracy. We have shown in the Life of Saint Sigebert the King, section 12, number 96, that the tenth year of Theoderic is to be put back in its place. The affairs of the palace of Theoderic, as is added in the same Life of Saint Audoenus, were administered by Waratto, Subregulus, or Mayor of the Palace, restored after the death of Gislemar in this same year 689, under whose government Saint Ansbert was given as successor to Saint Audoenus: ordained Archbishop of Rouen: and in his place among the monks of Fontenelle Hilbert was substituted as fourth Abbot, to whom we have said that the Life of Saint Ansbert was inscribed by Aigradus the monk. "At that same time," as is reported in the enlarged Chronicle of Fredegar after the death of Saint Audoenus has been related, "Warado the aforesaid Mayor of the Palace died, and Berthar received the honor of Mayor of the palace." These things are referred to the year 689 in the Annals of Metz, in which, further on, the death of King Theoderic is anticipated by a whole year; which perhaps was done in these things too, and the year 690 should be given to the death of Warado and the succession of Berthar.

[18] The episcopate of Saint Ansbert is made celebrated by the Synod of Rouen held by him and set out below in chapter 6. Of the year of King Theoderic attached to it (which Vincent of Beauvais, book 23 of the Speculum Historiale, chapter 100, He celebrates a Synod at Rouen in the year 693: and Sirmond in volume 1 of the Councils of Gaul, from the manuscript codex of Saint-Michel-in-peril-of-the-sea, report to have been the 16th of his reign, while the other Codices, with the Acts below, give the 13th) we have treated in the Life of Saint Sigebert, section 12, number 98, and we said that, since Theoderic did not reign 16 years, this 13th year is to be retained, and that the Synod was held in the year of Christ 693. Again, the year from the Lord's Incarnation six hundred and eighty-two has been foolishly intruded, in which, while the holy Archbishops Genesius of Lyon and Audoenus of Rouen, and Saint Lantbert, Abbot of Fontenelle, were still living, Saint Ansbert was living as a private person in the monastery. The Bishops who subscribed to this Synod are reported below in the Acts.

[19] The year of the death of Saint Ansbert is given at the end of the Life as 695, which all writers everywhere embrace. he dies in the year 693: The Chronicle of Fontenelle agrees, in which it is said that the body of Saint Ansbert was translated from the basilica of Saint Paul into the church of Saint Peter on 31 March in the year 704, after it had rested in the former building nine years.

Section IV. On the various Translations of the Relics of Saint Ansbert.

[10] The Acts below, at number 35, report that, seventeen days having elapsed from his death, the body of Saint Ansbert was elevated, to be translated to Fontenelle. The body of Saint Ansbert translated to Fontenelle That day, which was 26 February, or the following, the Ecclesiastical tablets did not observe separately. But on 10 March the manuscript Martyrology of Brussels records that Translation thus: "In the monastery of Fontenelle, the bringing back of the body of Saint Ausbert, Archbishop of the Church of Rouen: who had been banished in exile to the monastery of Hautmont. And when he felt that the end of his life was at hand, he asked that his body be buried at Fontenelle, where he had professed religion." 11 March. But on the following day, or on the fifth before the Ides of March, as the Acts testify toward the end, the translated body was laid in the sepulchre; on which day the manuscript Florarium reports him in these words: "The Translation of Saint Ausbert, Bishop of Rouen, in the year of salvation 700"; rather 695, as was said above. But that

that day was celebrated with the highest religion at Paldriacum, or Pavilliacum, four miles from Fontenelle, soon after his death, a church having been built in his honor, the Acts report at numbers 42 and 43.

[21] Then, when Hilbert, the fourth Abbot of Fontenelle, had died, to whom Aigradus inscribed the Life of Saint Ansbert, and under whom his body was translated to Fontenelle, [The bodies of Saints Wandregisel, Ansbert and Wulfram translated to the church of Saint Peter,] there succeeded Saint Bainus, from Bishop of Thérouanne a monk, and then the fifth Abbot of Fontenelle, whose first year what follows persuades us falls in the year of Christ 700. "For this Bishop Bainus" (the words are those of the Chronicle of Fontenelle), "among the innumerable works of his goodness which he performed, also translated the bodies of Saints Wandregisel, Ansbert and Wulfram into the church of Peter, Prince of the Apostles, from the basilica of Saint Paul the Apostle, and placed that of the blessed Father Wandregisel in the middle, that of the great Prelate Ansbert on the left, and that of the glorious Pontiff Wulfram on the right side, in the apse of the same basilica toward the eastern quarter. And this holy Translation was made in the seven hundred and fourth year of the Lord's Incarnation, in the year 704, 31 March: in the second Indiction, on the day before the Kalends of April, the second weekday. For the solemnity of holy Easter then fell on the third before the Kalends of April, which was … the fifth year of the aforesaid Father Bainus since he had taken up the care of the government of this monastery … Blessed Wandregisel therefore rested in the same basilica of Saint Paul about forty years" (rather only thirty), "the renowned Prelate Ansbert nine years, and the holy Archbishop Wulfram eleven years. And they were found thus with their vestments unharmed by corruption, as though they had been committed to burial on that same day. For as they had been accustomed to minister at the holy altars, so also they had been entombed."

[22] Thus that source; and the chronological characters of the second weekday of Easter and of 31 March agree with the assigned year 704, with lunar cycle 2, solar cycle 13, Dominical letters F E. But the Chronicle of Fontenelle itself must be corrected, in which the 10th year of Childebert was read, faults in the Chronicle of Fontenelle, which was the 7th, and the first year of Pope John had been intruded, which was the third. For John V sat from 29 October of the year 701 to 10 January 705. And from the death of Saint Wandregisel, which we said above occurred on 22 July in the year 673, there had elapsed thirty years, seven months, nine days. Then, according to the same Chronicle of Fontenelle, from the year 665, in which his death is recorded together with the interpolated Acts, there are said to have intervened forty years, whereas there were only 38 years, 7 months and 9 days; so that the author, not sufficiently mindful of himself, seems to have rashly tacked on many things placed elsewhere incongruously. Greater confusion is in the Acts of Saint Wulfram, which were inscribed by Jonas the monk to Saint Bainus the Abbot, in the Life of Saint Wulfram, but, enlarged by later writers, teem with Chronological faults: since they state that Saint Wulfram died in the year 720, was buried in the Church of Blessed Paul the Apostle, which refers that Translation to the year 729 and lay there for nine years, Wandregisel for forty, Ansbert for eleven; and that then they were translated into the basilica of the holy Apostle by Saint Bainus in the fifth year of his government, of Christ 729. These and other faults of those Acts appear of themselves, and need no refutation. Saint Bainus is said in the Chronicle to have presided over the monastery of Fontenelle nine years, so that he seems to have died in the year 709. Claude Robert assigns as his successor Saint Benignus from the year of Christ 707. The remaining faults of those Acts we shall correct on 20 March in the Life of Saint Wulfram, and on 20 June in the Life of Saint Bainus, on which day Molanus in the Feasts of the Saints of Belgium, and Miraeus in the Belgian Calendar, report that this Translation was made in that year 729, which the same Miraeus confirmed in the Belgian Chronicle. and in Peter de Natalibus. Peter de Natalibus, book 3, chapter 212, says that Saint Wulfram died in the year 740, and in book 7, chapter 127, adds that he rested nine years, and was translated in the year 682, namely 58 years before he died, on the Kalends of April. Which faults I would rather believe to be faults of a sluggish copyist than of the author himself, although otherwise not very accurate.

[23] Molanus in the same Feasts of the Saints of Belgium on 9 February writes thus: The memory of the Translation in the Martyrologies. "Besides the feast day, the following are read annually in the monastery of Blandinium: On the second before the Kalends of April, the Elevation and Translation of Saints Wandregisel the Abbot, and Ansbert and Wulfram, Archbishops." The same Molanus in the Additions to Usuard has the same, the words "At Blandinium" being placed in front in the later editions, not because that elevation took place there, but because it is celebrated with a double office, as is established from the proper manuscript offices of the Saints of Blandinium. Wion, Menard and Ferrarius have the same as Molanus. But Galesinius this: "At Rouen, the Translation of Saints Andomenus, Ausbert and Wulfram, Bishops." But it was neither made at Rouen, nor is it even celebrated there. Ferrarius in his Notes indicates that for Andomenus here Audoenus is read in Galesinius: in whose place Wandregisel must be restored, who however was not a Bishop. But Saussay reports both Audoenus and the rest: "On the same day at Rouen, the translation of Saint Audoenus, Archbishop of the same city and Confessor; whose deposition is honored with a sacred anniversary on the ninth before the Kalends of September. Likewise at Blandinium, the elevation and replacing of the bodies of Saints Ansbert, Archbishop of the same city, Wulfram, Archbishop of Sens, and also Wandregisel, Abbot of Fontenelle, disciple of the aforesaid Saint Audoenus, which, translated from Boulogne (where for fear of the Normans they were first laid) to Ghent in the year 944, on the third before the Nones of September, were at length placed with the highest honor in the sanctuary of the aforesaid monastery." But did he believe that placing, which he calls an elevation and replacing, to have been done on this day? And whether, from the sole testimony of Galesinius, and that (as has been shown) confused, he rightly set down the Translation of Saint Audoenus, we shall examine on 24 August. In the German Martyrology it is added that these three Saints shone with many miracles at Chartres: which pertains to the later Translations. In the manuscript Florarium Saints Wandregisel and Wulfram are treated without any mention of Saint Ansbert.

[24] The third Translation was made in the year of Christ 858, in which, with lunar cycle 4, solar cycle 27, Dominical letter B, the third day of Rogations, or the Vigil of the Ascension, fell on the fifth before the Ides of May, and the 6th day of November on a Sunday. The same bodies translated in the year 858 Of that Translation a monk of Fontenelle, who seems to have been present, treats in his tract On the Miracles of Saint Wandregisel, to be published on 22 July. "In that year, therefore," he says, "the most holy bones and pious ashes of the eminent Confessor of Christ Wandregisel and of the holy Prelate Ansbert, for fear of the trampling of the abominable Gentiles, to the estate of Bladulphus, were dug out of their own sepulchres in the monastery of Fontenelle and carried to the estate of those same Saints which is called the estate of Bladulphus." That village was in the province of Ponthieu, between the rivers Somme and Canche. "Then on the very vigil of the Ascension, the fifth before the Ides of May, they were carried by the monks from the domain of those same Saints with hymns and praises to the church of Saint Peter, near Quentovic, which is near the market town of Quentovic, of which the illustrious man Grippo was then Prefect. From there the venerable bodies were brought into the territory of Boulogne, to the estate of Walbodegem, and to Walbodegem: and placed in the basilica of the holy Martyr Quentin." But in the year 866 they were brought back to the church of Saint Peter near Quentovic, and then again to Walbodegem.

[25] "In the year of the Lord's Incarnation," says the writer of the Miracles of Saint Wandregisel, "eight hundred and ninety-five, in the year 895, to Chartres: on the twelfth day before the Kalends of December, the bodies of Saints Wandregisel and Ansbert, Confessors, came to the city of Chartres, and by the Lord's command were received by the venerable Haimo, Bishop of the aforesaid city, and by the Lord Haimeric, Abbot of the monastery of Saint Carcunus" (rather Caraunus) "the Martyr, and placed in the church in which the same Martyr of Christ rests … Then on the fourteenth before the Kalends of March, for fear of the Gentiles, and with the cooperation of the aforesaid venerable Haimo and other venerators of the Saints, and with the assent also of the venerable Clergy and of the people devoted to God of the same city, with praises and honor, the bodies of the aforesaid Saints were venerably received within the walls of the aforesaid city, and worthily placed in the oratory which the venerable Prelate Gislebert had formerly built." Thus that source. Of Saint Caraunus, commonly Saint Chéron, we shall treat on 28 May. The rest we shall illustrate at 22 July, although the miracles narrated there are to be attributed to both Saints.

[26] The monks of Fontenelle afterwards departed from Chartres with their holy relics, thence about the year 900 to Boulogne, and brought them to Boulogne for fear of the marauding Normans, as Molanus reports in the Index of the Saints of Belgium, perhaps when Rollo, about the year 900, was undertaking the siege of the city of Chartres, or had been driven back from it. And from Boulogne these sacred Relics were brought to Ghent, which is narrated thus in the proper manuscript office of the monastery of Blandinium, in the fifth lesson at Matins, customarily recited on 3 September: afterwards to Ghent in the year 944 "In the year of the incarnate Word nine hundred and forty-four, on the third before the Nones of September, Arnulf the Great, Count and Marquis of Flanders, with the venerable Father Gerard, most holy and most temperate Abbot of the monastery of Blandinium, and also with no small Clergy and people of both sexes, translated from Boulogne the bodies of the aforesaid Saints, with great veneration, harmony and jubilation, and with pious intention of heart, into the church of the Apostles Peter and Paul situated in the territory of Ghent on the summit of the mount Blandinium." Of Saint Gerard, the great restorer of the Benedictine institute in all Belgium, we shall treat on 3 October. Molanus mentions this Translation in the Feasts of the Saints of Belgium, from the Martyrology of Blandinium: 3 September. "On the third before the Nones of September, on the mount Blandinium in the territory of Ghent, the arrival of the holy bodies of Wandregisel the Abbot, and of Ansbert and Wulfram, Archbishops." The same Molanus has the same in the Additions to Usuard, and Wion, Menard, Ferrarius, Canisius and others have the like. In the manuscript Martyrology of Saint Gudula at Brussels, on 9 February, these words are read: "On the same day, the translation of Saint Ausbert, Archbishop of Rouen and Confessor. Who had been banished in exile to the monastery of Hautmont, and buried at Fontenelle, and thence afterwards translated on this day to Blandinium." Molanus in the Feasts of the Saints of Belgium assigns another Translation of Saint Ansbert, from the Martyrology of Blandinium: "On the eighteenth before the Kalends of October, the translation of the body of Saint Ansbert, Archbishop of the Church of Rouen." In the Additions to Usuard he puts in front "At Blandinium." Wion, Menard, Dorganius, Canisius and Ferrarius have the same. But when this Translation was made, we have nowhere read. Among the monks of Fontenelle, on 8 November, a commemoration is made of the Saints of that place, among whom Saint Ansbert is read in the Prayer.

[27] To the eighth lesson in the manuscript Office of Blandinium these words are added: "Whose relics, alas, and the most sacred pledges of their most sacred bodies, which by the favor and grace of God had been granted to us not without great benefit from Him, were, He being not undeservedly angry with us, violently snatched away by the enemies of the faith in the year 1578, snatched away by the heretics in the year 1578. when the Calvinist Prince of Orange was persecuting the Catholic Church in Belgium, not without inestimable loss, since we suffered an exile of more than seven years from this our monastery, which was then horribly defiled with exceedingly foul ruins." We have a manuscript sheet under this title: "How the bodies of Saints Ansbert and Ebrulf were brought to Rebais." But whether it treats of this Ansbert is not established. Saint Ebrulf the Abbot is venerated on 29 December, where that sheet will be examined.

LIFE

By Aigradus the monk, From manuscripts and Surius.

Ansbert, Archbishop of Rouen, at Ghent in Flanders (Saint)

BHL Number: 0520

By Aigradus the monk.

THE AUTHOR'S PROLOGUE.

[1] To the venerable and in every honor to be embraced, the eminent Priest of Christ Hiltbert, Abbot of the monastery of Fontenelle, Aigradus, the least servant of the servants of the Lord. By the bounty of the Divine mercy we undertake to narrate the deeds of the eminent holiness of Ansbert, Pontiff of the Church of Rouen, humbly fulfilling the command of your holy devotion. But I am constrained in so eminent a work for two reasons: on the one side my slenderness of understanding and meanness of speech draw me back; on the other, the command of your delightful paternity, to which we hold it a sin to be disobedient, calls me forward. Yet with the same fidelity with which the deeds of his illustrious manner of life have come down to us, The author writes the Life out of obedience. his intercessions helping us, we shall set them forth in a speech which, though unlearned, is yet faithful. For as the Angel said to Tobias, it is good to keep hidden the secret of the King, but it is established that it is best to reveal the works of God. Tobias 12:7 For to cover the deeds of the Lord's elect with silence, and not to make them public in writing for the profit and edification of the hearers, is believed to be of the utmost sloth and cowardice. For in the deeds of the Saints His praise is recalled, and the edification of innocent desire is kindled in the minds of the faithful peoples. But lest a long preface breed weariness in the readers, and that a short narrative may rather stir up in the hearers the fervor of hearing, obeying your commands, with God's help, let us take up the road of narrating. For if the eloquence of a serene mind were at my side, and my tongue obeyed with fitting service, the praise of his manner of life and holiness, which remains in the memory of your Religion, could not be set forth by my words.

CHAPTER I

The birth, studies, betrothal and office of chancellor of Saint Ansbert.

[2] At that time, therefore, when ^a Chlothar, the son of King Clovis and of Queen ^b Bathild, together with his brothers, namely Childeric and Theoderic, was governing the scepter of the kingdom of the Franks, Saint Ansbert, born of an illustrious family, Ansbert of holy memory, Prelate of the Church of Rouen, renowned for virtues and worthy of the priesthood, was born of a noble family, of a father ^c named Siwinus, in the ^d Velocassian district, and in the patrimony called ^e Calceium. But having repudiated the lineage of his fathers, as soon as he was able he chose to be reckoned only by the fatherhood of the Creator. Finally his aforesaid father served as a soldier under the aforesaid Kings, and paid the debt of the present life common to all mortals. But we do not think it necessary to enumerate in the blessed man this origin of earthly dignity and the glory of his fathers, since all his glory was from the love of truth and the contempt of the world. For already in the age of boyhood, as it were disdaining the nobility of his family, and panting with the desire of Christ alone, he shrank from all superfluous honors.

[3] He is then handed over by his parents to diligent masters to be instructed in letters. He is instructed without any urging from his family: for his infancy had been sweet, he applies himself to the study of letters: his boyhood modest, his youth grave. And when, grown up, he passed beyond the years of puberty, his worldly father, loving him as his only son, wished him to be occupied with hunting and armed with the sweetness of the world. But what delighted the aged

father, the young son disdained in all things.

[4] In these days a certain illustrious man, ^f Robert by name, sprung of a noble stock, had been the bearer of the ring of King Chlothar. His ^g most religious and most noble daughter, ^h Angadrisina by name, the aforesaid illustrious Siwinus sought from the aforesaid renowned Robert, wishing her to be joined to his young son Ansbert. Without delay the aforesaid illustrious Robert, giving assent to his petition, on an appointed day a chaste girl ⁱ is betrothed to a chaste young man. Saint Angadrisina betrothed to him, Then both, desiring to keep chastely the integrity of mind and body, besought the almighty Lord that He would deign to drive the poisons of pleasures from their hearts. Then, when the Blessed Virgin Angadrisina prayed that her beauty might be turned into deformity, the Lord at once heard her prayers. For her face presently appeared so ulcerated and covered with a most unclean leprosy, she obtains leprosy for herself, that whoever saw her at once judged that she must be separated from the company of men. Then a throng of physicians came together at her father's command, so that if they could help his dear offspring with remedies, they might be worthily rewarded, rewards being offered. But the more earnestly they applied themselves to this work, the more deformed and ulcerous the bride of Christ appeared.

[5] Then her father, understanding that this was happening to his offspring by divine agency, inquired of her whether she had chosen to end her life under the vow of virginity. And she said: "I desire, my father, and with all my efforts I implore the mercy of the Most High, the betrothal being dissolved, that I may be made worthy to become the handmaid of continence and chastity, not of unbridled luxury. For Christ, whom I desired as my spouse, Himself inflicts this bodily affliction upon me, so that He may grant radiance to my soul. He will be my perpetual guardian, and will grant me to persevere forever in my resolve of virginity. This present life delights, kind father, but it deceives: because all that is in the world is vanity and the concupiscence of the eyes; and the world passes away, and the concupiscence thereof. But he who does the will of God abides forever, just as the Lord abides forever." Upon hearing this, her father summoned the illustrious Sivinus and clearly revealed what had transpired concerning his aforesaid daughter. To this Sivinus replied: "One must follow the will of the Lord in all things, and having received the sacred veil, and in no way wish to oppose His direction: whose judgments, though hidden, are always just." The Blessed Ansbert was also summoned and was present, where he drew up a document of dissolution, so that the holy virgin Angadrisina might be called the bride not of him, but of Christ the Lord. This done, she was sent to the city of Rouen, to the holy Bishop Audoenus, that having received his blessing and being covered with the sacred veil, she might be worthy to be consecrated in her resolve of virginity. She is healed. When this was accomplished, she was instantly restored to her former beauty and elegant appearance, so that all who heard said that Christ had chosen her as His bride and perpetual handmaid.

[6] In the following period she was also made the holy governess of the monastery of Oratorium, which is situated in the district of Beauvais, near the walls of the city of Beauvais. The father of this holy virgin, the illustrious Robert, and his brother Altbert, were the uncles of the holy father Lambert, the successor in the order of governance to the Blessed Wandregisel, tracing their origin from the territory of Therouanne. Of these, the aforesaid Altbert subsequently became a monk in the monastery of Fontenelle under the said Abbot Lambert. She is made Abbess.

[7] After this, the man of God, Ansbert, was brought to the King's court by his father, though unwilling; and since he was distinguished by the sharpness of his intellect, Saint Ansbert, Chancellor of the Kingdom, he began to be a learned court scribe and a drafter of royal privileges, and the bearer of the royal ring, by which those same privileges were sealed. While stationed there, turning himself to the Lord by the examples of pious teaching and humility, he took care to leave the world and to frequent monasteries. And so, while still constituted in the lay habit, by holy preaching and the teaching of wisdom he exhorted many, inviting them to the rewards of eternal felicity; and thus daily advancing and growing in the Lord, he took care to augment the grace bestowed upon him by Christ. But when, before the King and the Princes, he heard in the customary manner various instruments of the musical art resounding with strings and pipes, he would say to himself: Upon hearing music, "O good Creator, what sort of unfailing song will it be to hear the Angels in the heavens for those who love You, and how sweet and delightful it will be as the choirs of the Saints sing together and ceaselessly sound forth praises to You, their Creator -- he is carried away in love of God if You bestow upon mortals such skill, that by the mastery of art and the sweetness of song they may stir the hearts of their hearers to devoutly praise You, God the Creator of all!" And he would add: "Praise the Lord, all you faithful, with timbrel and dance; praise Him with strings and organ," and so on to the end of the Psalm. Psalm 150.

p. Therouanne, a city of the Morini on the river Liane, destroyed by Charles V in the year 1553.

q. Named for the abundance of springs flowing in that place, as is related in the Life of Saint Wandregisel its founder.

r. This office belonged to the Chancellor. Feron claims it was held by him under Dagobert, but Jean Dadre says under Theuderic; both are refuted from this passage.

s. Surius: "the mastery of art and the sweetness."

CHAPTER II

The monastic life of Saint Ansbert under Saint Wandregisel as Abbot.

[8] At length, while remaining in the court of the King, not unmindful of the Gospel where it says, "Unless one renounces all things, he cannot be my disciple," by God's providence and His inspiration, having secretly left the court, he chose to leave earthly military service and to serve the heavenly King. Luke 14:33. Then, kindled by the fire of divine love and suffused with the light of the Holy Spirit, he departed from the palace, and wishing to confide his intention to none of his companions or servants, he took the road that leads to the province of Rouen, and arrived at the monastery of Fontenelle, situated in the territory of Rouen upon the great river Seine, where the illustrious Priest of the Lord, Wandregisel, had built a monastery, Ansbert comes to Fontenelle: and with a great company of monks was leading a praiseworthy life under the yoke of the holy Rule. When he had been received in the guesthouse of the same monastery according to the monastic order at the holy man's command, he humbly began to implore the attendant that he might be deemed worthy to see the Father of the holy monastery. And when the attendants had reported the request to the pious Father, he at length ordered the aforesaid elegant youth to be brought into his presence. Then, prostrate on the ground, humbly adoring Christ dwelling in so great a Father, he begged of him to be made a monk. For he declared that he would renounce the world in body and mind, and humbly entreated that the hair of his head be ordered shorn for the love of Christ. He obtains the clerical habit from Saint Wandregisel: But when the venerable Father heard his holy and God-worthy petition, he said that he wished to have a period of deliberation on the matter, so that, as the Apostolic and monastic rule teaches, he might know to what end the man had come. When this was completed, the illustrious Father, receiving the counsel of the spiritual brethren, fulfilled his pious wishes just as he had requested, and returned him adorned with the habit of the clericature.

[9] And so from that time the same man of God began to burn with the love of the sacred Scriptures by reading them, and to pluck assiduously by understanding the sweetest fruits thereof. And when the blessed Father Wandregisel perceived that sharpness of intellect flourished in the aforesaid youth, he devotes himself to sacred reading: he quickly ordered that an abundance of diverse volumes be given to him. While diligently reading through these, he found a saying written by a certain holy Father, Jerome, Epistle 4 to Rusticus, Chapter 6, containing this instruction: "A monk should live in a monastery under the discipline of one Father and in the company of many, so that from one he may learn humility, from another patience." Reading through this and the rest, he strives for humility and other virtues: and bathing his eyes with a shower of tears, he began to consider most attentively how he might fulfill these things by putting them into practice. First indeed he strove to lay the foundation of humility, the guardian of all virtues, in his heart, imitating Him who says: "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart." Matthew 11:29. And thus submitting his devout neck to the sweet yoke of Christ and His light burden, he became in the assembly of monks more humble than all, and obedient to everyone, frequent in vigils, assiduous in prayers, fervent in spirit, rejoicing in hope, serving the Lord without ceasing. To him was also given, from the compunction of heart through the infusion of the Holy Spirit, an outpouring of tears.

[10] And when, rising before the hours of the vigils, he would grow weary while devoting himself to earnest prayers, when the bell was struck to rouse the brethren swift in rising, that they might chant the praises of the Lord, he would present himself in the assembly of prayer before all others -- in this also, as in all other activities, showing the monks a path worthy of imitation, so that the man of God who presided over the governance of that place would chide and rebuke many, reproving their faintheartedness, because the aforesaid youth, recently converted, surpassed them in the work of God and in the observance of the Rule. And he began to love him more dearly, as the monastic norm teaches, he is exercised in manual labor: as one who was deservedly to be loved by all for his devout radiance in religion. For on a certain day, in the assembly of all the monks, he humbly entreated the illustrious Priest of the Lord, Wandregisel, that it might be permitted him in the daily work of the hands to labor beyond the customary work of the brethren, with the Father's permission, so that he might mortify those members of his that were opposing him upon the earth. When he implored these things, the brethren, giving thanks to almighty God, marveled at his God-worthy devotion. And when he rejoiced that what he had asked was granted by the spiritual Father, he began to fulfill what he had requested with great devotion.

[11] For at a certain time, on the southern side, at a distance of approximately five hundred paces from the aforesaid monastery, at the encouragement of the same man of God, Blessed Wandregisel, he began to plant and cultivate a vineyard. In that place, when the aforesaid man of the Lord, Ansbert, was working together with the brethren, the Priest cultivates a vineyard: Theuderic, a young man who would become King, engaged in hunting as was his ancestral custom, approached the said man of God, because he knew him to be prudent in teaching, humble in manner, and most holy in example. For he had already been consecrated a Priest by the holy Bishop Audoenus of the Church of Rouen. The same man of Christ both fortified him with a holy blessing he predicts the kingdom for Theuderic, and instructed him with many exhortations of holy teaching by priestly authority, and moreover predicted that he would become King. When the latter denied that this would come to pass, the man of God answered: "Know that you will be elevated to the honor of kingship; but know also that you will suffer many adversities in your reign, and will thus most laboriously achieve triumph over your enemies." This the outcome of events afterward proved. To this the young Theuderic replied: "If the pious ordinance of almighty God establishes me ruling on the summit of kingship, I desire you to be made a Bishop worthy of God, that the Church of the faithful may grow through perpetual and holy teaching." And as a sign thereof. When the Priest of the Lord said that he was unworthy to bear so great a burden, and suggested that the other, by right of hereditary succession, ought rather to ascend to the heights of kingship, and the latter still remained doubting, the holy man added: "In this you shall know that credence must be given to my words: if today, in the winter season, the place where this tent stands, which now appears worn from the footsteps of those who tread upon it, produces green grass, and thus around the traces of the same tent remains greener than the other parts of the field for all time." That this came to pass according to the word of the man of God is an indication to all who come there, the place turning green in winter: so that to this day that place appears greener than the rest of the field, in the shape of a tent once fixed there, whether in winter or in summer. O great and illustrious glory of this Saint, whose praiseworthy merit almighty God willed to demonstrate by such a sign: that he who, like a palm, was flourishing in the house of Christ, might by such a presage of virtue be made manifest to the peoples.

[12] And when the aforesaid man of God had rested briefly from manual labor, refreshed by the slightest sleep, he seasons his labor with meditation: he was again intent with all effort upon divine meditation. And since he shone with such great light of humility, obedience, and devotion, the fervor of true charity had inflamed the hearts of all around him, so that he was venerated by all with wonderful affection. He himself, however, always burning with desire for future glory, was unfailing in the work of the Lord.

CHAPTER III

The monastic life of Saint Ansbert under Saint Lambert as Abbot.

[13] It now seems worthwhile, therefore, to narrate how the holy man was promoted and established in the place of governance. From the two by Saint Wandregisel on his deathbed. When the illustrious Priest of the Lord, Wandregisel, had held this monastery in governance from the first day of its building through a space of nearly^a twenty years, and was now placed in^b decrepit old age, before the day of his departure from this life he was seized with illness and came to his last moments. And he asked with a tearful voice the entire company of monks whom from among themselves they would choose as their Rector. To whom he is said to have given this reply: "^c Two are before us, dearest sons; appoint them as your Rectors, and protect my frail departure with your prayers, and always remember my admonitions. Deemed worthy. To Christ, the supreme Shepherd, I commit the care of you this day, that He may preserve you to the end with perpetual protection." When he had been received into the fellowship of the heavenly kingdom by the angelic choirs, Saint Lambert is elected: the entire company of monks implored the mercy of Christ the Lord, celebrating a three-day fast. When this was completed, by God's command they chose the servant of the Lord, Lambert, distinguished in religion and noble in birth, born from the territory of Therouanne; whose father was named Erlebert, and who bestowed very many estates upon the aforesaid monastery of Fontenelle in that same region of Therouanne by a generous gift.

[14] The same venerable Father Lambert was full of charity, preeminent in chastity, firm in faith, prudent in counsel, By the counsel of Saint Ansbert he holily governs the monastery: praiseworthy in goodness, affable in conversation, handsome in face and stature, venerable to all, and fervent in the religion of Christ. And by the grace of divine charity inspiring him, the same venerable Father venerated the blessed servant of Christ, Ansbert, as a father, and loved him as a son. And they had in the Lord one heart and one soul. He who had undertaken the care of governance, at the counsels of the holy Father Ansbert, conducted all things strenuously and irreproachably in tending the flock of Christ according to the norm of the holy Fathers. By their examples of pious action and by the diligent exhortations of their words, very many were stirred and took up the paths of holy conversion.

[15] To this venerable Father Lambert, King Theuderic, He receives Dusera in Provence from the King, the son of King Chlodoveus and Queen Bathild, bestowed a certain patrimony called^d Dusera, which was situated beyond the river Rhone in the region properly called^e Provence, in such a manner that this estate would furnish lights for the church of the monks dwelling in the monastery of Fontenelle, in oil and other necessities for this purpose. In that place the aforesaid Father built an outstanding monastery of monks, having sent monks from the monastery of Fontenelle, who diligently executed that praiseworthy work. And from a small estate there exists to this day a great monastery of monks, and there he builds a monastery, and one that is preeminent above others in that region. ^f This passage was inserted by later hands: for the division of the kingdom occurred under Charles Martel, when that monastery, along with other venerable places, having been somewhat devastated over a considerable period, ceased its subjection to the said monastery of Fontenelle.

[16] Also under his governance, the Blessed^g Hermeland, another through Saint Hermeland: from the aforesaid monastery of Fontenelle, at the request of the venerable Bishop^h Pascharius of the city ofⁱ Nantes, was sent by the same Father Lambert into that same region of Nantes, and on a certain island of the channel of the Loire, which was called^k Antrum, he built a venerable monastery of monks, appropriate to its name. In the charter of endowment, the aforesaid Bishop Pascharius established that after the death of the same venerable Father Hermeland, all the inhabitants of the aforesaid place should appoint Rectors for themselves from the monastery of Fontenelle through all succeeding times, as the endowment charters of that same place, which are still preserved in the aforesaid monastery of Fontenelle, most clearly declare.

[17] He receives Saints Erembert and Condedus at Fontenelle: Also while the aforesaid Father Lambert held the governance of the place, the blessed Bishop of Christ,^l Erembert of the city of Toulouse, and the holy Priest and anchorite^m Condedus, born on the island of Britain, assumed both the name and the habit worthy of God as monks in the aforesaid monastery of Fontenelle. For many things worthy of God and useful to the place, accomplished by him and under his governance, could be said concerning so great a Father -- were we not hastening to other matters -- which we have formerly committed more fully to memory in his Acts, to be conveyed to posterity.

[18] In what order he was appointed Bishop in Lyon, that most celebrated city of Gaul, we shall narrate briefly. When Saintⁿ Genesius, Bishop of that city, Upon the death of Saint Genesius, whose God-worthy life his praiseworthy Acts commend, had died, immediately the pious King Theuderic and the illustrious Prince^o Pippin, son of Ansegisel, a kinsman of the blessed Father Wandregisel, he is made Bishop of Lyon, together with the magnates of the palace, taking salutary counsel -- by God's providing command indeed -- established him as Bishop of that same city, with the unanimous vote of the people of that region. But when he long resisted through excessive humility and was unwilling to accept, compelled by royal command and priestly election, he was ordained Bishop of the aforesaid metropolitan city. And so, dispatched to that same province with the honor befitting his priestly office, he governed the flock of Christ with irreproachable diligence, by examples of humility, holy preaching, and pious action. And there, summoned by the Lord and freed from the bonds of earthly corruption, he happily departed to the joys of the celestial city.

p. The sons of Saint Arnulf were Ansegisel, Waltchis, and Flodulf. The son of Waltchis was Saint Wandregisel; Cousins used for paternal cousins, the son of Ansegisel was Pippin; and the son of Flodulf was Martin, who with him was Mayor of the Palace. These three were paternal cousins, who are here called "kinsmen," just as in that age "uncle" is generally taken for "paternal uncle."

CHAPTER IV

The governance of the monastery of Fontenelle conferred upon Saint Ansbert.

[19] Saint Ansbert is made Abbot: In the aforesaid monastery of Fontenelle, after the departure of the same holy Bishop Lambert, with divine aid favoring them, the unanimous monks of that same congregation chose the Blessed Ansbert to preside over them as their Rector. He, after undertaking the care of governance, assiduously meditated on what manner of burden he had received -- namely, to rule the souls of the flock committed to him by the Lord, and to serve the characters of many. And because he was exceedingly imbued with the knowledge of the sacred Scriptures, he unceasingly dispensed to the flock committed to him the food of eternal verdure, showing by words and deeds the paths of holy conversion. For just as he was set above the rest, in virtue he surpasses his subjects: so he was more humble than all. Vile in clothing, moderate in food, given over to the yoke of abstinence, most adorned in chastity, distinguished in cheerfulness of heart and body, most abundantly endowed with the virtue of patience, the service of charity, and the distribution of alms. Adorned with these works of holy virtues, he shone in the midst of the brethren like a lamp set ablaze. For on a certain day, when according to custom he was reciting the precepts of the divine law in the assembly of all, from the abundance of his words, the hearts of the hearers were rendered so inflamed by the great ardor of charity that very many of them, moved to tears, gave immense thanks to almighty God, saying: "Blessed be almighty God, who not by our merit, he prefers to be loved rather than feared: but by the regard of His own mercy, has given us such a Rector." For he was loved by all as a true father, and they by him as devout sons. He himself always strove to be loved rather than feared, and with wakeful care to fix his mind on the salvation of souls.

[20] He gives counsel of salvation to outsiders: Since therefore the preeminence of the merits of this blessed man was becoming known ever more widely, many flocked to him from all sides, seeking the salutary counsels of their salvation. And because he shone with the dignity of the priesthood, he received the confessions of those who came to him, imparting to them counsels of salvation -- how they might be saved, and how they might immovably hold the ways of justice without any weariness of failure. He receives various gifts: Strengthened and fortified by his teaching and exhortations, very many, hastening to the grace of conversion, brought many gifts in various kinds of precious metals, as well as some estates of possessions situated in diverse territories -- all of which the curious reader, having inspected the^a testaments or endowment charters of those same faithful, will easily discover. These also, as is evident to many, produced a manifold sum of a thousand-fold number. For he was adorned in every way with the holiness of religion according to God; in secular argumentation also he was prudent and astute; and the reputation of his goodness and religion was praiseworthy far and wide -- indeed, worthy of imitation everywhere.

[21] In the aforesaid venerable monastery of Fontenelle, he builds a hospice and two dwellings for the poor, among the happy deeds of his goodness, he also established a^b hospice for the sick and decrepit poor, after the pattern of the apostolic number of twelve, assigning to them resources that would sufficiently provide sustenance. He also established in the same monastery two other dwellings for the weak poor of Christ, in which, in the sacred number of eight, he caused eight to dwell individually. For them he decreed that daily sustenance be provided generously in perpetuity. Their sole occupation was none other than, at the appointed hours of day and night, to abide in the house of the Lord, devoutly to engage in prayer and divine contemplation, and at the time of the holy sacrifice to offer the saving victim for the salvation and deliverance of the Christian people and of the Catholic Church spread throughout the world. O great and illustrious works of this holy Father, which do not merely fly about in words but stand firm in virtues!

CHAPTER V

The Archbishopric of Rouen of Saint Ansbert. His generosity toward the poor.

[22] But leaving these things aside for the present, I now undertake, with the help of the grace of heavenly mercy, to narrate how this same venerable man ascended to the rank of the pontificate. Upon the death of Saint Audoenus, In those days it happened that the Blessed Audoenus, Bishop of the city of Rouen, full of virtues and holy deeds, was called by the Lord and happily departed^a from the world. At his^b funeral rites the blessed Father Ansbert, together with some of his monks and a very large company of clerics and priests of Christ, was present. Solemnly celebrating the vigils of his sacred deposition, they honored him with due obsequies befitting the service of the funeral. After his sacred passing, lest the Church suffer loss from its lost Shepherd, all the citizens of the city of Rouen, having sent a petition to the glorious King Theuderic, with his permission and authority, chose the Blessed Ansbert to be consecrated as their Bishop. The^c King rejoiced at their election, he is chosen Bishop of Rouen, since he had recognized that wisdom abundantly overflowed and religion flourished in the same holy Father; immediately assenting to the election of their petition, he at once dispatched envoys to bring the same servant of Christ to the royal court. The King's Confessor. Without delay the envoys arrived at the blessed Father Ansbert and revealed the King's orders, compelling him to go to the royal court. For the aforesaid King was residing in the villa of^d Clichy, which is situated in the territory of Paris, where, holding a great assembly of peoples, he was deliberating on the welfare and protection of the kingdom, so that at his consultation -- as he was accustomed to do (for Ansbert was his Confessor) -- he might deliberate on the affairs of the kingdom. But when the aforesaid man of God heard this, he immediately recognized that nothing else was being done by this summons than that the King wished to give his assent to the election of the citizens of Rouen in his person. He is even said to have replied to the King's envoys, out of extraordinary humility, that he was unworthy of the office of pastoral care. They quickly reported to the King, announcing what response they had received. The King, sending to him a second time, shrewdly suggested that in no way, once they had spoken together, would he wish to proceed concerning the order of the pontificate against his will. But he, being full of the wisdom of holy simplicity, resolved to go to the same King. Then, with the citizens of the aforesaid metropolitan city choosing, with the unanimous vote of the holy priests, of the King and the Princes, he was chosen, drawn forth, and in that same palace was consecrated Bishop of the Church of Rouen he is consecrated, by Saint Lambert, Archbishop of the See of Lyon, and other holy Bishops who had gathered for this general council -- truly by God's providing ordinance -- so that he who had been faithful in small things might, having been set by the Lord over many things, give an abundant measure of grain to his household in due season.

[23] Then, elevated in the honor and burden of the pontificate, he began to shine more brightly in the work of holiness, to radiate everywhere with the light of preaching, and, like a lamp set ablaze -- no longer under a bushel but placed upon a lampstand -- with the darkness of errors dispelled, to show the way of truth to all; merciful toward the afflicted, to give the service of piety and mercy to all, to care unceasingly for the poor, to defend the causes of widows and orphans, to study greatly the reception of pilgrims and guests, and to administer the distribution of alms generously and cheerfully to all. These and similar examples he unceasingly hastened to show to the people subject to him. For under him the Church of Christ flourished, just as the monastery had flourished before. It grew in graces; it diminished in treasure. For sometimes, entering the place where the treasures of the Church were stored, he ordered them to be presented to him and some to be distributed, reserving a good deal so that the pious generosity of almsgiving might proceed benignly from the^e bosom of holy mother Church with the fruit of mercy. For generous in giving alms, what had long been accumulated in idleness, he at last assigned to the worthy uses of the needy, to suppress the distress of the severe famine that was then pressing the peoples everywhere grievously; and to the long dead he sent his treasures. He made the offerings of a former time his own stewardship. For it happened then that a crowd of the poor cried out before the doors, begging for alms. When he heard them and, remembering the divine sentence that says, "He who stops his ears at the cry of the poor shall himself cry out and not be heard," he generously gave them alms and sent them all home rejoicing. Proverbs 21:13.

[24] And so afterward, when he was solemnly celebrating the solemnities of the Mass at the See of his city, the peoples of his diocese flocked to him from all directions -- a very great multitude of men and women. When the reading of the holy Gospel had been read, he turned to the people and began to predict to them many things to come, cautioning them that adversities and prosperities alike were to be guarded against, and that, lest the one break them nor the other exalt them, the rewards of eternal felicity were to be sought with eager intention. He predicts things to come. And when he foretold many things present and future to them through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, from so excellent a grace of preaching given to him, all were moved to compunction and kindled with the fire of divine love, fervent in preaching: stirred to the practice of penance and the exercise of other good works, giving thanks in every way to the supreme Bestower of all good things, who, not by their merit but by His own mercy, had granted them such a Teacher, to comfort their manifold grief over the Shepherd whom they had recently lost from bodily sight. And because the whole Church rejoiced over her pious Shepherd, the city congratulated itself on its outstanding Preacher, and the whole country exulted magnificently in so wise and prudent a Counselor. When the solemnities of the Mass were completed, he ordered all the citizens -- nobles and common folk alike -- to be brought in to the prepared banquets. There, when he had caused all to recline in an orderly and well-arranged manner, he himself sat down at the table of the poor, at the banquet he sits among the poor: imitating Him who, though He was rich, for our sakes became poor -- who also promised that in the retribution of the just He would say: "Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me." 2 Corinthians 8:9. O what a distinguished Pontiff, who daily gave a double sustenance to his household, since he both filled bodies with earthly food and refreshed souls with the divine Word! Matthew 25:45.

[25] Since he watched most attentively over the salvation of souls, he also summoned his Archdeacons and diligently admonished them to take the greatest care concerning the preaching to the peoples and the restoration and honor of the churches. He sees to the restoration of churches. Even the revenues which were customarily paid from the public villages in canonical order to the portion of the Bishop, he, by gratuitous kindness, most generously granted to the priests of those same houses of God for the restoration of churches. He also strove to govern by love rather than to dominate by terror. From the moment he first attained the pontifical rank, his first care was for concord, and his chief labor that brotherly love be kept inviolable. As for that overflowing charity of his toward all, no tongue can ever express it in full.

CHAPTER VI

The privileges of the monastery of Fontenelle confirmed in Synod.

[26] Meanwhile, as I recall his manifold grace toward all, the authority of his privilege also testifies to what constant solicitude and wakeful care he unceasingly had over the holy monastic congregation of the monastery of Fontenelle, Privileges given to the Fontenelle monks, among the other notable deeds of his prerogative. For when he had been consecrated as Bishop by the election of the holy Priests and of all the citizens of Rouen and by the consent of the glorious King Theuderic, with the exceeding fervor of love which he had always maintained toward the aforesaid venerable monastery, he issued for it the authority of his privilege, so that for succeeding times, according to the Rule of the holy Father^a Benedict, and as the authorities of the privileges of the preceding Kings -- namely Chlodoveus, Chlothar, Childeric, of choosing an Abbot from their own number, and also Theuderic -- teach, they might choose an Abbot from among themselves for all time. In which privilege, by the word of just obligation, he also bound those present and future who would serve the Lord there, that, just as under his governance, so also thereafter, both they and their successors would faithfully serve Christ according to the Rule of the holy Father Benedict. Of observing the Rule of Saint Benedict. But if at some time, through sins demanding it or through pastoral negligence, they should attempt or be compelled to deviate from the path of rectitude and the observance of the Rule of Saint Benedict, then a convocation of the holy Priests and other soldiers of Christ should be unanimously assembled, and by their counsel they should be restored to their former state. But if, having set aside this pontifical authority, they should by any quibbling choose to hold a sinister life and manner of conversion, let them know that they would be eternally damned under the bond of anathema.

[27] This authority of privilege was made in the^b year of the Lord's Incarnation six hundred and eighty-two, in the tenth Indiction, confirmed in the Synod of Rouen, which was the thirteenth year of the aforesaid glorious King Theuderic, and the fifth of the pontificate of the aforesaid venerable Bishop, in a general Synod held in the city of Rouen, where many things pleasing to God and profitable for the welfare of the holy Church were discussed. There were also present holy Bishops and other venerable men, summoned by the same preeminent Bishop, whose names are recorded below: Ansbert, Archbishop of the city of Rouen, presided at this council and subscribed. Radbert, Bishop. Regulus, Bishop. Airad, Bishop of the city of Chartres. ^g Ansoald, Bishop of the city of Poitiers. ^h Aquilinus, Bishop of the city of Evreux. ⁱ Cadoenus, Bishop. ^k Arnonius, Bishop. ^l Salvius, Bishop. ^m Desiderius, Bishop. ⁿ Fulcrannus, Bishop. ^o John, Bishop. Willebert, Bishop. Gerebald, Bishop of the city of Bayeux. Taurinus, Bishop. Aunobert, Bishop of the city of Seez. Celsus, Abbot. Audomarus,

Abbot. Scladio, Abbot. Bosochindus, Abbot. Genard, illustrious Vice-dominus of the aforesaid great Bishop. Ermentrannus, Ferrocinctus, and Fortianus, venerable Archdeacons. There was also present a great number of attending Priests and Deacons standing around. Ragnomirus the Lector recognized and subscribed to the acts of this holy Council and this authority of privilege, at the command of the same holy Bishop.

p. Perhaps Saint Hildebert, Bishop of Meaux, sufficiently nearby, under the Archbishop of Sens? He is venerated on the 26th of May.

q. Saint Gerebald, Bishop of Bayeux in Normandy, is venerated on the 7th of December.

r. This Taurinus appears to be the Bishop of Nantes, the successor of Saint Pascharius, of whom we treated above.

s. Saint Annobert, or Alnobert, Bishop of Seez in Normandy, is venerated on the 16th of May.

t. These Abbots Saint Ansbert may have brought from his city or diocese.

u. Malebranc, Book 4 on the Morini, Chapter 20, claims that Saint Audomarus, Bishop of Therouanne, subscribed here as Abbot. Was Saint Audomarus an Abbot in old age? But he had already long since died, as his Acts on the 9th of September indicate, and as we said on the 6th of February in the Life of Saint Vedast.

x. In Sirmond, Secladio.

y. In Sirmond, Gerard.

CHAPTER VII

The solemn translation of Saint Audoenus arranged.

[28] Saint Ansbert instills the best counsels: When the authorities flocked to him, the same venerable Bishop always exhorted them to observe with a devout mind the burning commandments of Christ, and admonished them always to give and to continue giving great thanks to Christ, who by His own death and resurrection animated our death with the hope of resurrection, offering eternal life once the eternal horror of death had been dispelled. And thus he urged that life be so lived that its final moments need not be feared.

[29] Among the other works of his goodness which he performed in the Episcopate, we now undertake to narrate how he also translated the venerable body of the holy Bishop^a Audoenus, with Christ's favor, to a more prominent place in the church of Saint Peter, which is situated in the suburb of the city of Rouen. He translates the body of Saint Audoenus: When he had gathered many craftsmen from diverse provinces, he built over his tomb a^b reredos of wondrous size, decorated with precious metals of gold and silver and adorned with precious gems, as it appears to human sight even to the present day. On the appointed day, therefore, on the solemnity of the^c Ascension of the Lord Christ, with a^d multitude of Priests, monks, and other Clergy assembled, he caused that sacred body to be raised with great reverence, and with the Clergy singing forth hymns and praises, he felicitously placed it in the apse of the aforesaid church of Saint Peter the Apostle, with joy and great honor. ^e There was present at this holy assembly, among other venerable men, also the most illustrious Genard, Vice-dominus, who had caused great banquets to be prepared, he leaves the nobles at the banquet, because an innumerable crowd had gathered from all sides for the holy Translation of so venerable a Bishop. When the solemnities of the Mass were completed, the aforesaid Genard, together with the noble men, sat down to dine at the command of the holy Bishop. But the illustrious Bishop Ansbert, reclining as was his custom with the pilgrims and the poor, he serves the poor, rejoiced to feast with them. For on that day, performing the office of servant, he humbly rendered service to the poor and needy in their meal. For he was of cheerful face and happy countenance, because he had merited to be the minister of the poor -- indeed, of Christ the Lord, who promised eternal rewards to those who act kindly toward the poor.

[30] Great was his care amid all this for strangers and guests. Moreover, his generous spirit was matched by a corresponding substance, dispensed with equal fidelity. And not only did he provide sustenance sufficiently for the needy, but he also generously distributed coverings for their bodies and^f coins. Henceforth from diverse regions a frequent throng of various persons had come to him, he helps everyone: whom he enriched, both personally and through trustworthy men, with the gift of exhortation and with a God-worthy pontifical blessing, and cheerfully and without fail provided the subsidies of bodily necessity. For many marveled from where so overflowing a substance of the pious steward proceeded. For even if it sometimes happened that the substance of the dispensation was exhausted, his faith nevertheless always remained solid. In the aforesaid venerable translation of the holy Bishop Audoenus, all the citizens of the city of Rouen itself, as well as the inhabitants of the surrounding monasteries -- Clergy as well as consecrated women -- when the venerable body of the same Bishop had been brought, merited to be abundantly refreshed. And henceforth, through succeeding ages, this^g day was solemnly celebrated by the citizens of that city in commemoration of the blessed Bishop Audoenus.

[31] The same Bishop, of outstanding manner of life, he visits his diocese, always mindful of the flock committed to him by the Lord, frequently went around his own parishes according to the ministry[h] assigned to him, unceasingly showering upon theirⁱ minds the dew of holy preaching and the sweetness of pious way of life. He also always kept with him men of proven manner of life for this work of the divine ministry, supported by whose aid he might lead the people entrusted to him to the kingdom of the eternal vision. Thus by the grace of one man's preaching he had many dispensers.

h. Surius: "committed."

CHAPTER VIII

The exile of Saint Ansbert at Hautmont. Permission for return granted.

[32] But the enemy of the human race, always jealous of good things, by whose envy death was brought to man, acted with most cunning art so that a man splendid in the world and more splendid in Christ might be deprived of his own pontifical See, He is accused before Pippin by his enemies, and the loss of so great a Shepherd would be the detriment of the people. For when a savage discord had arisen among the Princes of the Franks on account of the manifold^a division of the kingdom, the crafty enemy of the human race caused the envy of malicious men to rage against the servant of God, who fraudulently suggested to Prince Pippin that the aforesaid holy man had plotted hostile counsels against him. For when^b Waratton the illustrious had departed from the office of the principate, and his wicked son and supplanter Ghislemar had too, Pippin obtained the administration of the prefecture by the Lord's gift. At which time the aforesaid holy Bishop was accused before the same Prince, and by his order was deported into exile at the monastery of^c Hautmont, which is situated in the territory of^d Hainaut upon the river Sambre. The venerable Abbot^e Halidulf presided over it at that time. With no crime standing against him, he humbly submitted to the hardships of exile. He is sent into exile.

[33] Arriving at the aforesaid monastery, he began, by the accustomed works of holy manner of life and pious religion, to show examples of light to all the inhabitants of that place. In Hautmont he leads the monks by example. Whom indeed he found fervent in divine religion, but within the space of a short time he made them more fervent by his example and teaching. For he afflicted himself unceasingly with the rigor of fasts and the extended night-long vigils of watches, and was assiduously watered by the shower of prayers and tears. The Almighty bestowed upon him this grace: that all the inhabitants of the place, beholding his imitable devotion in Christ, immediately loved him with singular affection, and at no interval of time wished to be absent from his timely conversation. For within the precinct of that very monastery he dictated many works for the benefit of the inhabitants, which remain useful to their needs to this day. But at the instigation of the cunning of the ancient enemy, the envy of the malicious was kindled against the same man of God, who again contrived to suggest to the aforesaid Prince that he should inflict greater hardships of exile upon him. Wherefore the aforesaid venerable Father Halidulf, summoned by the same illustrious Shepherd, was sent to the aforesaid most excellent Prince together with other venerable men, humbly making satisfaction for the disposition of his will, adding also that he had not of his own accord taken up the rank of the Episcopate, but had humbly accepted that ministry by the command of the Princes and the election of the citizens. Wherefore the aforesaid Father of the monastery, proceeding to the same illustrious Prince, aided by heavenly support, quickly merited to obtain what he had asked. The same Prince, also remembering his kinsman, the holy Father Wandregisel, he is permitted to return to his See, under whose holy discipline the aforesaid holy Bishop Ansbert had once been nourished in regular order, mercifully pardoned whatever had been wrongly done, and moreover granted him leave to return to the See of his own city. But lest this should come to pass, he was prevented by a divine summons, as we shall say in what follows.

[34] When the aforesaid venerable Abbot Halidulf returned and disclosed the Prince's orders, the same holy Bishop said: "Thanks be to You, good Jesus, who have broken the bonds of Your servant, and have placed words of favor in the sight of the Prince, and have freed me from the hand of those rising up against me, and have cast upon me even in this affliction of exile the bonds of Your love." Therefore, remembering what he had read somewhere, that great men suffer much, he exults in humility, and are born as an example in order to teach others to suffer, he did not cease to afflict himself unceasingly in a humbled spirit and contrite heart, offering to the Most High the most worthy holocausts of daily praise. For if he had been present in the time of the Neronian or Decian persecution, there is no doubt that for the confession of Christ the Lord he would have feared neither the violence of fire, nor the tearing of wild beasts, nor the suspension of the rack, nor finally the sword of the persecutors.

CHAPTER IX

The death and burial of Saint Ansbert.

[35] Sensing from divine revelation that the day of his summons was approaching (for he had also merited an angelic visitation on this matter), he sent again to the aforesaid devout Prince Pippin a humble petition, He foreknows the time of his death: that it might be permitted for his bodily remains to be carried back to the monastery of Fontenelle, where he had long served the Lord in regular order. The Prince, assenting to his petition, immediately granted that this might freely be done. And although few of his own people were with him, they were nevertheless greatly strengthened by the Lord, because that same Father had far less need of human solace, since he enjoyed the ministry of Angels. On the fifth day before the Ides of February, as the hour of his summons drew near, he called together the company of the brethren and caused the sacred solemnities of the Mass to be celebrated for him. Then, fortifying himself with the reception of the Body and Blood of the Lord, he dies piously on February 9, and signing himself and all the bystanders with the banner of the holy Cross, received in his final sleep and resting in the quiet of death, he happily passed from the world; and by the angelic choirs his soul -- holy, noble, sincere, and untainted by any contact with the world -- was received to be placed forever in the fellowship of the Saints and of perpetual felicity.

[36] When, after the washing of the body, they came to clothe it, they found on the backs of the knees and the bends of the arms hardened skin from the prolonged intensity of his prayers. And so what the living man had done in mortifying his members, the dead flesh now revealed. Thus that holy body was clothed with great zeal of faith dressed in the sacred vestments of the Mass, and covered over with waxed linens -- because he himself had predicted that this had been obtained for him from the Lord: that his bones would be carried for burial to the aforesaid monastery of Fontenelle. For just as he had been accustomed to stand at the holy altars of Christ,^a so the brethren took care to clothe him. But when they wished to place a waxed sudarium upon his head, he seemed to open his eyes, bearing the appearance of one living, so that some said he had come back to life. For the aspect of his face was greatly suffused with a rosy color. Some said he seemed to be indignant at the wax-impregnated sudarium. For they saw, not without their own glory, the glory of God triumphing in His Saint. For that funeral rite was itself an act of devout faith. And it was as joyful to have had such a Patron as it was grievous to have lost him. He is honorably buried: Afterward they buried him with fitting adornment and the highest honor.

[37] When a lamp, full of oil, had been lit by the faithful before his tomb and unceasingly not only burned day and night a lamp burns unceasingly at the tomb and overflows, but also overflowed, and the brethren marveled at this and attributed it to divine glory, they placed another vessel in which the divinely given oil that dripped down might be collected. O great and illustrious, most excellent shepherd Ansbert, and happy is your glory! For your merit did not need to be proved by signs, since the admirable and glorious working of your manner of life, full of virtues, provided a perpetual sign of holy virtues. But what more? Many miracles of signs the Lord deigned to work through him in that same place.

CHAPTER X

The translation of the body toward Fontenelle. Miracles.

[38] When the cycle of seventeen days was completed, After 17 days he emits a most sweet odor: the envoys who had been sent to the aforesaid Prince returned, having received permission from him that they might freely translate him to where his own will had determined, with no one resisting his holy ordinance. And when they had opened his tomb and expected that his venerable body, after so prolonged an interval of time, would now reek, so great a fragrance of the sweetest odor flowed forth that the whole church seemed to be filled as if with diverse blossoms of spices and drops of balsam. And when the brethren who had come to see him from their own province, together with those whom he had had with him in exile, wished to remove the garments with which he had been placed in the tomb and change them, wishing to clothe him in new vestments -- as indeed they did -- they found on his arms the sign of the Lord's Cross, he has the sign of the Lord's Cross on his arms, bearing the likeness of a rosy color, so that it was clearly given to all to understand that the one whose arms he had carried in his heart while living now displayed His stigmata on the body of the deceased.

[39] Then, clothed in pontifical vestments and placed on a bier, with aromatics and incense carried before him, the citizens of Rouen who had come and the monks of the monastery of Fontenelle received that venerable body, and thus, carrying the precious burden, exulting and weeping they set out on their journey. The aforesaid venerable Abbot Halidulf also accompanied them, together with a very great throng of his monks he is solemnly translated and an innumerable people of both sexes, with diverse banners of the holy Cross, and with candles and lamps, singing nonetheless the songs of hymns and divine canticles in his praise with sweet melody, and in the discordant choirs of diverse tongues having a harmonious love -- for as it was a great joy to have had such a Shepherd, so was it sweet to have received back such a Patron. And the holy bones that they bore reverently on earth, to Fontenelle: in heaven they trusted that his patronage was present for them. Escorted by these throngs of faithful peoples, the venerable body of the precious Confessor was carried to the monastery of Fontenelle. The venerable Abbot Halidulf, however, together with the companions of the holy journey who had served him, accompanied it with great reverence as far as the royal villa of^a Venitta, which is situated in the district of Beauvais beside the river Oise.

[40] When, pursuing their journey begun, they had turned aside for lodging at the village called^b Solemn, which is located on the river^c Selle in the territory of Hainaut, on account of the fatigue and need for refreshment from the long journey, on the way there ran up a certain man carrying his own daughter, whose limbs were dissolved with paralytic disease, who was unable to walk on her feet, but appeared as if dead, crying out and with great prayers weeping and imploring the merits of the holy Bishop Ansbert, that he might heal his only daughter. A paralytic is healed: When she was allowed by the attendants and guardians of the most holy body to remain beside his bier that night, and they kept vigil the whole night with watches and divine hymns, when morning came her father found her well. And so rejoicing, and giving all possible thanks to God and to the holy Bishop Ansbert, he returned home with his daughter, exulting. How wondrous is God in His Saints, who through the glorious merits of His servant Ansbert wrought a miracle of this kind!

[41] When therefore they did^d not have designated places to which they should turn aside for the purpose of lodging, they approached a certain village, The body suddenly becomes immovable, wishing to spend the coming night there in rest. But when they wished to turn aside to it, the venerable body of the most holy Bishop remained as if an enormous weight, immovable in the hands of those carrying it. Then, adding more men to help, it moves when the route is changed, it was nonetheless immovable as before. When they understood that this was being brought about divinely and turned themselves to another direction of the route, immediately with swift motion, accompanied by divine power, they arrived at a suitable place and -- as is believed -- one worthy of God and the holy Bishop for lodging. And so thereafter, through all the stages of the pious journey, the Almighty provided fitting assistance to His servants for carrying the remains of His servant.

[42] Coming to the aforesaid villa of Venitta, there met the body of the holy Bishop the fellow-provincials from the city of Rouen -- Bishops and Fathers of holy monasteries with the venerable Clergy of the Lord, and kinsfolk of the same holy Bishop, the people of Rouen come to meet them, and an innumerable crowd of both sexes with great devotion; and they began to go before it chanting psalms. Thence the venerable Abbot Halidulf, with his traveling companions, returned to the habitations of his own monastery.

[43] It has pleased us also to commit to the pen of writing that miracle which was performed through the same servant of Christ in the village of^e Fraxundum, which is situated in the district of Beauvais. When his holy body had been brought to that same village, a certain woman was brought there in chains by her relatives -- one who was tormented by an unclean spirit. And the unclean spirit cried out through the possessed woman: "Why have you brought Ansbert, the servant of Jesus Christ the Lord, into this province, who drives me out from my own dwellings?" A demoniac is freed: When that same woman approached and touched the pall that covered the bier, crying out with a loud voice, by the merits of Saint Ansbert the Bishop she immediately vomited forth the enemy of the human race with a flow of blood. And a great miracle took place there. And she, giving thanks to almighty God and to Saint Ansbert, through whom she had been healed from the pestilent spirit, returned to her home. Blessed be Christ the Lord, King of all ages, Creator and Preserver of all the Saints, who on account of the merits of His servant deigned to perform such miracles. In the same village a church was built in honor of Saint Ansbert the Bishop by the faithful, and his portable bed remained in that same church for a long time, a church is built in his honor, and divine signs of virtues were performed there on account of the merits of the same Saint.

CHAPTER XI

Other miracles on the journey. The deposition of the body at Fontenelle.

[44] When they had already passed a course of twenty and more days, they came into the territory of Rouen, to the place called Paldriacus. There the Almighty Lord, through the merits of the same holy Bishop, deigned to display a miracle similar to the one above. For a certain woman seized by a demon, bound in chains by her own parents, Another demoniac is healed: was brought to seek the Saint's patronage. When she had reached the portable bed where the Saint's body was kept and had touched the linen that covered it, crying out in a loud voice, by the grace of God and the merits of Saint Ansbert she was immediately freed from the demon and, made perfectly sound, returned unharmed to the habitations of her own domain. Glory and honor and power be to our God, who thus triumphs with signs of miracles in the merits of the holy Bishop.

[45] This place, where the Almighty performed this miracle, was the patrimony of certain illustrious men -- namely Bertholdus and Radamastus -- at a distance of four miles from the monastery of Fontenelle. The body again remains immovable: It is said that when they attempted to raise the most holy body from there, it remained so immovable, as if it were held by iron nails and fastenings upon a great rock. And when it could not be moved, Radamastus, the possessor of the place, is said to have spoken thus: "Well done, Ansbert, faithful servant of Christ, placed among the ranks of Christ's followers: remember us, whom you loved in life, and whom the pleasures of the world assail. Here now Christ leads you back to us: therefore I offer this estate to almighty God, and I yield it to you, most holy Bishop, for all ages to come." The possessors of the place offer themselves and their goods to him: And Radamastus himself, an honored man, and his brother Bertholdus, immediately abandoned all that they possessed in estates and servants, and entrusted them to the blessed Bishop Ansbert, committing themselves at the same time to the monastery of Fontenelle. And so they cast off the yoke of liberty and immediately took upon their bowed necks the yoke of the Lord's service, assuming alike the monastic name and habit.

[46] In the aforesaid possession of those same men -- that is, on the public and^a dilapidated road that lies beside it and leads to the city of Rouen, where the venerable body of the most holy Bishop Ansbert had rested -- A wooden Cross is erected: a wooden cross was placed by the faithful in his honor and memory, where the sick received from various illnesses, by the Lord's gift, many benefits of healings through the merits of Saint Ansbert. Around the day of his resting or arrival at that same place, which is the fifth day before the Ides of March, innumerable peoples solemnly offer their pious vows to the Lord in his honor and intercession -- namely vigils and divine hymns and diverse gifts, with the utmost devotion. And there, through his merits, many signs of miracles miracles occur: are continually performed, which by their^b enormity transcend the knowledge of the narrator. For there, the loss of bodily sight recovers vision; withering recovers the power of walking; the restraints of the tongue recover the flow of words; and the office long denied to the ears recovers hearing; and the frequent expulsion of demons from human bodies takes place.

[47] When time had come around again, on the sixth day before the Ides of April, at the same place where the banner of the holy Cross had been erected, a certain woman who had been crippled for many years, a crippled woman is healed: going to the same place with upright faith, was restored to her former health; and the ground, which for a long time her feeble steps had not pressed, was astonished to be so suddenly touched by footsteps that had once been unable to walk. Let us give innumerable thanks to our God, who on account of the merits of His aforesaid servant deigns to display such miracles. In the following period a church was also built at the aforesaid place in honor of Saint Ansbert the Bishop, a church is built: of noble and polished workmanship, by the venerable Abbot Hilbert, his successor in the order of governance.

[48] But leaving these things aside, let us pursue with the pen of writing the order of the translation of the aforesaid servant of Christ. Arriving with his body at the monastery of Fontenelle, those who were translating him brought it into the church of the holy Apostle Paul. The body is brought to Fontenelle. The old and the young wept; the boys and the infants wept, and the whole choir of monks. Afterward the venerable Abbot Hilbert approached the venerable body, having taken with him brethren of proven life and adorned with the merit of holiness, expecting that body, after so prolonged an interval of time (for the thirtieth day was at hand), to suddenly reek. And when they uncovered the holy head, which was covered with a veil, so great a fragrance of sweetness flowed from it that the whole church seemed to be filled as if with the scents of diverse aromatics and incenses. For his face had so turned to ruddiness, as if he were asleep, bearing the appearance of one living. Many holy Bishops and venerable Fathers and the rest of the crowd gazed upon it, for it was permitted to all who were present to behold this sign of astonishing miracle. Then, with all diligence and reverence, his venerable body, wrapped in a clean shroud and a pall, was placed in the tomb which they had prepared for him in the same church of Saint Paul the Apostle, with praises, beside the tomb of the most holy Father Wandregisel, at his left, on the fifth day before the Ides of March, in the year six hundred and ninety-five of the Incarnation of our Lord God Jesus Christ, he is buried, to whom is honor and power, glory and dominion through infinite ages of ages, Amen.

b. Surius: "magnitude."